Banana bread

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 medium bananas, sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the melted butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the butter mixture until smooth. Finally, fold in the sour cream, walnuts and bananas. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Cool loaf in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Biscuits

(I make a double batch for the 10 of us)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

Sugar cookies

This recipe for sugar cookies is PERFECT for making cookie-cutter cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

ICING:

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• assorted food coloring

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.

Daddy's Amazing Salsa

This is another one of his recipes that isn't exact and he just plays around with it a bit each time.

4 tomatoes
1 green pepper
3 spicy peppers (jalapenos, chilis, etc.)
1-2 c peaches
1/2 onion
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tsp salt (level)
1 Tsp black pepper (heaping)
1/4 Tsp thyme
1 Tsp oregano
1 Tsp parsley flakes
1/4 c brown sugar (packed)

Roast tomatoes and peppers, then add onion & blend in food processor.  Combine all ingredients in large pot and simmer. Once he got enough salsa to make 10-12 quarts (approx. 3 batches) he then adds 1 shot of gold rum and 2 shots of red wine. Continue simmering until desired consistency is obtained.

Daddy's Delicious Pasta Sauce

He's tinkered around with this recipe for awhile and some of the measurements aren't exact (like tomatoes - you have to go by individual size, etc.) but pretty close.  He likes to try different things and measurements, but this basically it.

4 tomatoes (est)
1 green pepper
1/2 onion
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tsp salt (level)
1 Tsp black pepper (heaping)
1/4 Tsp thyme
1 Tsp oregano
1 Tsp parsley flakes
1 Tsp creole seasoning
1/4 c brown sugar (packed)

Blend tomatoes, pepper & onion in a food processor. Combine all ingredients in large pot & simmer.  Once he got enough sauce to make 10-12 quarts (approx. 3 batches) he then adds 1 shot of gold rum and 2 shots of red wine.  Continue simmering until desired consistency is obtained.

Molasses cookies

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups margarine, melted
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 egg
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 cup white sugar

Directions

In a medium bowl, mix together the melted margarine, 2 cups sugar, and egg until smooth. Stir in the molasses. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger; blend into the molasses mixture. Cover, and chill dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Roll dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining white sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until tops are cracked. Cool on wire racks.

Olivia's 9th birthday

Olivia requested our favorite cake (Recipe here) for her birthday, as 'mom's cake is way better than cake from the store!'  Bless her!  However, she had one request...she wanted CHOCOLATE buttercream icing.  So, that's what she gets :)

1/4 cup butter


2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1.Mix together all ingredients. May need to add more milk (slowly) until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.
 
DELICIOUS!!!

Beer bread recipe - courtesy of Miss Brittany

This has quickly become a family favorite!  We bought a couple of loaves from a Relay for Life bake sale.  I found out who made it and lo & behold it was Miss Brittany!  She was kind enough to share the recipe with us and we've made several loaves already :)

I LOVE this recipe!  It's so simple, quick, few ingredients and just delicious!

Ingredients:
- 1 can of room temp. beer
- 3 cups of self rising flour
- 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 stick of butter

Mix the beer, flour and sugar together well. Place in greased pan and bake on 350 for 40-45 minutes. Then take it out and pour the 1 stick of melted butter over the top of it and bake again for another 5-10 minutes! 

Dairy Queen ice cream (homemade!!)

This is another 'knock off' recipe from our newly acquired cookbook.

I'm not a big homemade ice cream fan, so I was a bit skeptical when Kevin received an ice cream maker for his birthday from his Aunt Minnie.

However, as of tonight, I'm a fan.  I was amazed by just how much this ice cream tasted, looked & felt like Dairy Queen's soft serve.  And, imo, the biggest plus was the recipe didn't call for eggs.  BONUS!

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4c cold water
1c milk
1c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2c heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let stand for 5 min

Meanwhile, heat the milk to almost a simmer over medium-low heat.

Remove from the heat.

Stir in the sugar, vanilla, and salt with a wire whisk until the sugar is completely dissolved, at least 2min.

Stir into the gelatin mixture and let cool.

Stir in the cream.  Cover and refrigerate for 6 hrs.

Transfer to an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer's directions for about 20min or until creamy.

We chose to top with hot fudge and caramel, though it certainly did NOT need it!

Boston Market meatloaf

Kev bought a really cool cookbook awhile back titled "America's Most Wanted Recipes"  It has lots of 'rip off' well known recipes from various restaurants.

Tonight he decided to try the Boston Market meatloaf.  He varied from the recipe slightly.  We used ground turkey, instead of beef (which the recipe says you can do) but part of it was italian seasoned - the flavor was pretty good, but a bit spicy for the kids.  The other variation was he used crushed oyster crackers rather than bread crumbs.

1/2 c ketchup
1 1/2 tablespoons hickory barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (you can also use ground turkey instead)
1/3 c all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c italian bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400*F

In a large bowl, stir together the ketchup, bbq sauce, and sugar; set aside 1/4c of the mixture

With your hands, mix in the remaining ingredients.

Form the mixture into a loaf and place in a greased 9X5in loaf pan.

Baked, covered, for 30min

Uncover and drain the fat from the pan, then slice the meat loaf while still in the pan.

Drizzle the reserved tomato mixture evenly over the meat loaf.

Bake, uncovered, for an additional 30min, or until cooked through.

ENJOY!

Sweet Lil Smokies

Sweet Lil Smokies
1 Package of Lil’ Smokies
2 tubes of Croissant dough
1 cup butter
1 cup chopped walnuts
6 tablespoons Brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
Melt butter, and add nuts, sugar, and honey. Pour into a baking dish. Roll the Smokies in the dough (you will have to cut most croissants into 3 pieces, some into only 2) and place on top of butter mixture. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.