No Fail Pie Crust

I got this recipe from Mormon Cooking Authentic Recipes Cookbook I bought a few years back. Love this recipe. It has not failed me yet. I have substituted the vinegar with lemon juice and the shortening with butter at times. I also now make this in my food processor. I put the flour in with the salt and pulse it a few times and avoid the sifting. Then add everything else according to directions and turn it on at the end till it forms into a ball. So Enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 1/2 C sifted flour
1 C shortening
1/4 Cold Water
1 Tbsp Vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 Large egg, beaten


Directions:
Sift together flour and salt, cut in shortening until mixture resembles small peas. In a mixing bowl combine water, vinegar and egg. Pour into flour mixture and mix lightly until all flour is moistened and pastry forms a ball. Divide dough as desired, roll out onto floured surface; line 9 inch pie plate, fill with favorite filling or bake as a pastry shell for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. Makes 3 single pie crusts.

Leftover Veggie Tray Stir Fry

I hosted a MoveOn.org party over the weekend and was left with a sizable veggie tray, and since most of the veggies are too hard for Crystiana to eat (Carrots, Broccoli) I thought it might be good to cook them up with some chicken. The result was wonderful, and I just had to share.

3-4 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 c. Broccoli
1/2 c. Sugar Snap Peas
approx. 10 Baby Carrots sliced
1-2 stalks Celery cut diagonally
2 c. Cooked Chicken Breast (I used rotisserie chicken breast meat from Costco)
1 tbsp. Minced Garlic
2 tbsp. Lemon Juice
dash pepper
season to taste (I used some of the garlic bread seasoning from Costco and Soy Sauce to finish)

Put the EVOO in a skillet and heat, then add veggies, chicken, garlic, seasonings and lemon juice. Stir and cover. Let simmer 10 min on med-high heat. Remove from heat, stir and serve!

So simple, and extremely tasty!

Tangy Chicken

From some random recipe I saw online and now can't find again.

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken (3-4lbs)
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1/2cup soy sauce
1/4cup brown sugar
2 garlic cloves minced

DIRECTIONS:
Combine all ingredients in crock pot and cook on low for 4-5 hour is cubed or 8-10 hour if bone remains in chicken.
Serve over hot rice.

Impressions from me. I LOVED this however when I make it again I'll add something to thicken the sauce a little.

Upside-Down Hot Chocolate

OK as strange as this might sound it was very yummy. I found the recipe online at with the Fox 13 recipes. You know the ones they do during the afternoon news hour. It was very easy and lots of fun. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So I thought that I would share. Well I also just used some white chocolate chips and it still turned out well. On the picture I used a small mason jar simply so that you could see how it looks. Enjoy!

White Hot Chocolate:
1 cup heavy cream
4 cups half and half
1 cup white chocolate, chopped (use a good quality)
1 tsp. vanilla

Combine white chocolate and heavy cream in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat.

Stir continuously until white chocolate has completely melted.

Stir in half and half, and vanilla.

Continue cooking until heated through.

Pour into cups and top with chocolate whipped cream and garnish with chocolate shavings and a Pirouette cookie!

Chocolate Whipped Cream
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of sugar
2 Tbs. or two squirts of chocolate syrup

In a mixing bowl beat cream until it starts to hold its shape, then add sugar and chocolate syrup.

Continue mixing until all ingredients are combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Triple Tasty Fudge Bars

My mother-in-law asked for the recipe since she really like them at a Christmas party we attended. The recipe itself comes from some random cook book I own.


Ingredients:

1 15-ounce package fudge frosting mix
1 18.5 ounce German chocolate cake mix
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1/2 cup sour cream
6 ounces of chocolate chips

Directions:

Prepare frosting mix as directed on package. I personally skipped this and just used the canned frosting.

Combine dry cake mix (I used Fudge rather then German Chocolate), 1/2 cup frosting, water, and egg. Stir by hand until cake mix is moistened (mixture will be stiff).

Pat into 9x13-inch pan, greased on the bottom only.

Beat sour cream into remain frosting. I used equal parts frosting and sour cream.

Spread over base.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake at 375F for 40-50 minutes. Top will be puffy and an inserted toothpick will NOT come out clean (chocolate chips also don't really melt).

Cool and cut into bars

Pumpkin Bread

My mother-in-law gave me a couple of small pumpkins for the boys to decorate for Halloween only they never got to because we didn't have any paint couldn't really afford paint and I didn't really want paint in the house anyway. My boys have painted my couch twice now and I'm not looking to give them another opportunity. Suddenly I had 2 pumpkins that I couldn't just throw away because then I'd of felt bad, so I used this tutorial to make pumpkin puree. I had 12 CUPS of puree and no ideas what to do with it. This is a combination of several recipes and it turned out fabulous!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour SIFTED
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 and 1/3 cups pumpkin puree
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 eggs, beaten
1 and 1/2 cups raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)



Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, pie spice, salt and baking powder. Add pumpkin, oil and eggs; mix well. Fold in raisins and nuts.

Pour into loaf pans and sprinkle the tops with cinnamon and sugar to give it a little crunch, you can also sprinkle more nuts on top.

Bake for 1 hour or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool 15 minutes before removing from pans.

Individual pizzas

I am always on the lookout for quick easy lunch recipes. My boys refuse to eat sandwiches so I have to cook for them and MacNcheese gets old. A friend suggested this to me so I thought I would pass this on.

Ingredients:
Half an English muffin
Spaghetti sauce (or even just tomato sauce).
Cheese
Pepperonis.

Directions:
Spoon about a tablespoon of the spaghetti sauce onto the English. Top with grated cheese and a pepperoni. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
As with all pizzas these can be customized to each individual. My kids had great fun decorating there own pizzas.