Cider Basting For Turkey

Ingredients

1 cup apple cider or juice (I used raspberry apple juice and it was awesome)
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup butter
Crushed Basil (we used Italian seasoning because that is what we had in the house and it was great)

Directions

Use for a whole turkey or turkey breasts or just to moisten stuffing

Warm butter in a pan. Add cider, orange juice and lemon juice, all flavored with a bit of basil. Cook over low heat until mixed well and baste turkey.

I am sure you are all wondering why the turkey recipe but it was buy one get one free turkeys and you can't pass that up. But this recipe is awesome especially the gravy that you make from the drippings. Nice and Sweet!!!

Easiest Pasta Salad Ever

OK - this one is a summer favorite, even with my kids and is so EASY! Seriously - takes all of 15 minutes to prepare and it's lovely.

1 lb Rotini (I like the multi-colored stuff)
1 bottle Italian Dressing
1 large cucumber
3 tomatoes
1/2 lb mozzerella cheese
1 can jumbo olives

Cook the pasta, drain, add the chunked cucumber and tomato, chunks of cheese and whole olives - pour 1/2-3/4 bottle of dressing over and chill. You might need to add a little more dressing before serving. So yummy, and even good left over :) No-one will know how super easy it is. Perfect for barbeques, picnics and ward parties.

Citrus Cupcakes

The only time this whole year I get to see it, but I saw this recipe this morning on Good Things Utah and I just can't wait to try it out. There is a video of how to do it too on abc4.com

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons unsalted California butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
Grated zest from 1 lime
Grated zest from 1 orange
Grated zest from 1 lemon
1 2/3 cups flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup California milk
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs

3 large egg yolks
3 large eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tablespoons unsalted California butter
Silver cake beads (dragées)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour insides of 12 muffin cups or insert paper liners.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, sugar and citrus zests until smooth.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a small bowl, stir together milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Mixture will curdle slightly.
With an electric mixer on low speed, alternately add dry ingredients and milk to butter mixture in 3 additions, stirring well after each addition. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Beat for 1 minute.
Evenly divide the batter between cupcake molds.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes.
Remove cupcakes from pans.
Cool completely before frosting.

Whisk together egg yolks, eggs and sugar. Whisk in lemon juice.
Cook in a double boiler or on stovetop over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Transfer lemon mixture to a bowl. Cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Stir in butter.
Cover mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold and firm, 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Frost cupcakes. Sprinkle silver cake beads on each cupcake.
Cupcakes Yield: 12 cupcakes
Frosting Frosting Tip Dip the knife or spatula in hot water before frosting for a smoother look.

Classic Quiche

1 (10 oz.) package of frozen chopped spinache, thawed and drained
1 cup cottage cheese
4 eggs
5 oz. of cheese, grated
3 Tbsp. flour
2 cloves garlic, minced

Mix together and pour into partially baked pie shell. Bake for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees. I sometimes put pre-cooked ham in it and I think it makes it more like a meal, but it is tasty without the ham, too, for you vegetarians!

Bacon & Tomato salad

Cook and crumble 1 lb. bacon. Set aside
Chop 4 large tomatoes
1 small bunch green onions - chopped
In a large bowl tear up 1 head romaine lettuce
cook 1 pkg. pasta noodles - rinse in cool water, drain and add to lettuce.
Add tomatoes, onions and bacon. Pour 1-2 cups ranch dressing (Made from scratch) over just before serving.
Yummy!!

Chile Verde

Trudy Joy shared this recipe with me:
Brown pork of some kind that you cube up. When you brown it season with some garlic and onion salt. After it's brown add:
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can chopped green chili's
1 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper
Simmer for atleast 1 hour. Serve over bean burritos. For those warm a large can of refried beans, with 1 cup grated cheese. 1 cup salsa and onion and garlic powder. Let simmer while you make the Verde. On a tortilla spread a light layer of sour cream add a little cheese and some beans. Then smother with the verde sauce. It's yummy!

Caramel Brownies

1 14 oz package caramels
1/3 c. evaporated milk
cook on low - stir until melted. It can also be done in the microwave zapping it one minute at a time and stirring in between.

1 box German chocolate cake mix
1/2 c. melted butter/margarine
1/3 c. evaporated milk

Stir until dough holds together. Form 1/2 of dough to greased 9X13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 6 min. Sprinkle 3/4 cup chocolate chips onto baked dough. Pour melted caramel on top. Crumble remaining dough on top of caramel. (it is hard to crumble the dough, so what I do is take small pieces of dough and flatten them out and place them on top of the caramel) Bake 15-18 min. Cool, then refrigerate for 30 min.

Alfredo Chicken Tortellini

1-1/2 cups frozen cheese tortellini1 boneless, skinless chicken breast (6 oz)-cut into 1" cubes

3 bacon strips chopped (bacon bits)

3 tsp minced garlic

1/8 tsp. adobo seasoning

1/3 cup chopped onions

1/3 cup chopped sweet red pepper

1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted

1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sour cream

2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1 cup frozen chopped broccoli

Cook Tortellini according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, cook and stir the chicken, bacon, garlic and adobo seasoning over medium heat until chicken is fully cooked. Add onion and red pepper and cook

In a medium bowl, combine soup, milk, cour cream and Parmesan cheese; stir into cooked chicken mixture. Bring to a boil; reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 5-7 min.

Drain Tortellini and add to chicken mixture. Stir in broccoli and heat through.

Yeilds: 3-4 servings

Notes:

We didn't use the peppers or the onions and we didn't have adobo seasoning (I don't even know what it is and we couldn't find it in the store) and it still was very yummy. It also looked like there was too much sauce for the noodles, so we added about 1 cup more and it worked perfectly, but it makes a lot, probably for 4 people. We loved this dinner, it was so good, but it filled us up really fast so be careful.

Chocolate Suprise Cookies

1 box devil's food cake mix
1/3 cup oil
2 eggs
reeses cup minis or rolos (I personally like rolos the best)

Mix the cake mix, oil and eggs together (it will seem very dry). Roll into 1 inch balls. Flatten out and place rolo or reeses in the middle. Cover the candy completely with the dough. Place on ungreased baking pan. Bake at 350 for 9-10 min.

it's just a simple cookie recipe but they are soooo good it doesn't matter how bad they are for you :)

Crepes

Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 5 minutes

1 cup milk

3/4 cups flour

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. salad oil (olive oil works too)

4 eggs

salad oil (or pam)

The day before, make batter. Beat all ingredients except eggs with a rotary beater. Add eggs and beat until blended. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.

The next day, heat an 8 inch skillet over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles. Brush with salad oil or spray with pam. Pour a 1/4 cup of batter into the skillet tilting until it covers the pam completely. Cook until the top is dry and the bottom is lightly browned. Turn and brown on the other side. Remove to wire rack; cool completely. Repeat with rest of batter.

Top with whatever you want. Raspberries, strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate, butterscotch, powdered sugar, etc.

Easy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Prep time: 5 minutes Bake time: 45 minutes

1 and 1/3 cups water

1 can cream of chicken soup

3/4 cups rice, uncooked

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. black pepper

Mix together in 13x9x2 pan with a whisk. Place 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts on top of the rice, and put more black pepper over the chicken. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until the chicken is done. Immediately after removing it from the oven, top with 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese. Enjoy!