Eggy Potato Salad

Hmmm... Hmmm good! This is the best recipe for potato salad. Nice and easy and simple. Unadorned with all the other possiblilities that people put in their potato salad. WE like ours plain!

5 lbs potatoes cut and peeled
Helmans or Best Food Mayonaisse, (no other substitution will do)
we are snobby that way
salt
pepper
dozen eggs

Boil potatoes until done in salted water. Drain and let sit.
Boil eggs until done, salt your water or add vinegar to water. Your eggs will peel easily and cleanly. You can tell if your egg is cooked all the way through by using a slotted spoon and removing one of the eggs from the boiling water. If the egg dries or evaporates quickly your egg is done. If it takes a moment for the water to evaporate you have a soft boiled egg.

Put potatoes in large mixing bowl. Use an egg slicer or mash each egg with a fork in your palm over the bowl. Once eggs are completely cooked, remove from water and peel. Lastly, add mayonaisse to your bowl, approx 2 xtra large spoonfuls. Stir and combine adding more mayo if necessary. Add as little mayo or as much mayo to your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Sunday BBQ baby back Ribs

These are so simple but so delish! Our family loves BBQ ribs.
In the summer when we fire up the grill for ribs human and k-9 mouths begin to drool.
Purchase a slab of ribs or 2 or 3.

QUICK AND EASY SUNDAY WAY
I boil and cook the ribs in a large pot of lightly salted water.
Once the ribs are completely cooked pull out, rinse and drain in collander.

Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Cut or seperate ribs in 2 to 3 rib segments. Brush Sonny's BBQ sauce over each rib front and back.

Broil in oven until bubbly and re-coat ribs again with sauce. Turn ribs over and coat and broil again until bubbly. Remove from oven. Place on large serving pan and let the good times roll! These are soooo DELISH!

If you have plenty of time to SLOW cook your ribs the proper way.

Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 slab pork ribs, 3 pounds
1 1/2 cups white vinegar

Rub the contents onto the front and back of your ribs. Place in baking pan in refridge and let marinate. Pour the vinegar over the ribs and cover. Be sure to turn your ribs twice. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drain the vinegar from the baking dish and roast the ribs for 1 1/2 hours. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Remove ribs from oven and brush with some barbecue sauce. Return ribs to oven and roast for another 30 minutes til tender. Serve ribs with extra barbecue sauce.

Chicken Cream of Mushroom Sauce

This is my go to meal when we have very little in the freezer and not a lot meat. It is our budget meal and is very quick to prepare as well. It is so good!


Ingredients

Boil chicken

RICE COOKER

THE SECRET to perfect rice. Measure to the first line on your middle finger.
Your finger should just barely touch the top of the rice and add water to your
first line, of the middle finger.

Perfect rice, every time.


shred or cube rice or plate as an entire chicken breast.



Directions:

3 to 4 chicken breasts, rinsed. I boil the chicken breasts in a skillet on the stove. If you have white wine available, after your chicken is near done. You can shred the chicken to make your dish stretch or you can cube the breasts or serve one breast per person. If you have white wine, add 1 cup. Continue boiling chicken, until the liquid is reduced.adding 2/3 cup white wine again. Add 1 large can of cream of chicken soup. Add 2 cups milk or if you have whipping cream. Add 2 cups whipping cream. Allow to simmer. If you have fresh mushrooms, slice and add to mixture. Or add a small can of mushrooms to the sauce. Allow this to simmer, stirring occassionally for 15 to 20 minutes. Do not burn.

cook rice and serve this over rice. If you choose to serve as individual chicken breasts. Pour some sauce on bottom of plate, add chicken breast and spoon additional sauce on top. Serve with rolls and a vegetable.

I didnt have any cooking wine available. I cooked using only water. You could use fat free campbells soup, and skim milk for reduced calories. This is really good and lends to such a creamy texture. It is comfort food for our family.

TEXAS SHEET CAKE

Well, in Texas they do everything big and this little baby packs a big punch of chocolate! If you like chocolate you will LOVE this recipe! This is a definite crowd pleaser and "Da Man's" favorite cake
TEXAS SHEET CAKE is made in 3 easy steps! Oven 350 degrees 25 minutes, til done.


Main Ingredients:

I.
1 cup water
2 sticks margarine
4 TBL. spoons COCOA (I add 4 1/2 TBLsp.)
Bring water and margarine to a boil. Add cocoa, bring to boil.
Remove from heat.


II.
In large mixing bowl combine
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream ( I use the entire container of a small container of sour cream)
Pour boiling cocoa into mixing bowl. Mix til blended.


III.
Pour into greased pan 9x13 or jelly roll pan, on 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

IV.
Prepare icing 5 minutes before cake is done. Frost while cake is still warm.
Icing:

6 TBL. spoons milk
1 stick butter
Bring to a boil and add 4 TBLsp. cocoa
Add remaining ingredients:
1 lb powder sugar, or one box.
1 tsp. vanilla
If icing is too thick add additional milk. Frost while cake is still warm.


VOILA

Sausage Dip

This dip is very easy and very good to make. "The Man" made it on Sunday. Hence, there are no prep pictures or after pictures. I was lucky to snap a picture of it before the wolf pack devoured it.

INGREDIENTS:
Hot jimmy dean sausage, brown in skillet
One or two 8 oz. bars of cream cheese.
1 can of hot rotel.
Once sausage is brown,drain fat and pour rotel onto meat. Stir cream cheese into mixture and dissolve. When ready serve with tortilla chips.

Jalapeno Bacon Wraps

Call 911 for the fire department when you pull these babies out of the oven. I got this recipe straight from the queen herself Pioneer Woman! As a side note: I have never cooked or worked with fresh japapeno peppers. They didn't smell very hot, so I left the membrane and a few seeds. Our family likes heat but to make these lil treats enjoyable please remove the membrane and seeds. Have plenty of dairy near by because dairy products are what will neutralize the burn. It was so hot I sucked down a full glass of milk and SCRAPED my tongue!! The man chose to go for yogurt. He was smart. At least, you could keep yogurt on your tongue longer. You don't feel the burn until after you swallow and are fooled that "they aren't that hot". FOR WARNING! Please make these, just remove the membrane. They are delish.



The Main Ingredients


Slice jalapenos in half length wise.


Slice bacon strips in thirds and scrape out peppers. Remove seed and membranes.
I had never worked with jalapenos before. I left much of the membrane and many seeds in. REMOVE THE MEMBRANEI like things HOT but this was CUH-RAZY HOT!!


Stuff jalapenos with cream cheese


Wrap with bacon and secure with toothpick


Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes! VOILA' perfection.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

Hmmmmm...Hmmmmmm.... Goood


Ingredients

Whenever one of us is sick I always request or make chicken noodle soup. The children would never eat soup when they were younger so I thought if I threw in some big bow tie noodles they would eat it. It worked! The love it. It is a simple recipe but a great one.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

4- 32 oz. swanson chicken broth
(you can make your own stock or use the bouillon cubes)

1 lb. bow tie noodles

8 stalks celery sliced

6 large carrots sliced

5-6 chicken breasts

Boil chicken breasts and carotts together until cooked and tender.
Pour broth and pasta into stock pot and cook until tender. When noodles are about 5-7 minutes from being done add chopped celery and leaves to pot. Finish cooking. Remove celery leaves and toss. Drain chicken. Let chicken cool slicely. Dice or shred chicken to bite size pieces. Add carrots and chicken to stock pot. Dish is ready to serve. Serve with toasty bread or with soup crackers.
There should be no need to season. Serve with toasty bread or soup crackers.

Twice Baked Rigatoni

Ingredients: Brown sausage, drain fat, stir in seasonings and sauce add whipping cream. Except for cheese When pasta is done. Drain. Pour in mixing bowl. Add sauce mixture and stir in cheese. Bake in oven covered with foil for 25 minutes on 375. Pull out of oven and sprinkle additional mozzerella cheese on top. Bake 20 minutes uncovered. Baked Rigatoni Your family will ask you to make this over and over again! It is so much better than any baked pasta you have ever made. The whipping cream really adds a nice touch. This is my go to recipe! Really quick and really easy! 16 oz Rigatoni 1 lb pkg. Hot Italian Sausage, chop finely (if you use the links remove meat from casings) 1 TB dried Thyme 2 TB Garlic Herb 1 TB parsley 1 TB oregano 1 TB dried onion 1 6.5 oz can of mushroom peices (chopped coarsley) If you use fresh mushrooms use 1/2 cups 2 cups whipping cream 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes pour entire contents in. 1 cup Mozzarella cheese, grated 1 cup 5 cheese shredded (asiago, maozzerella, provolone, romano, parmesan) 3/4 cup parmesan cheese Prepare rigatoni. While noodles are cooking brown sausage, chop finely. Add all seasonings to meat. Sauce and whipping cream. Dash of salt dash of pepper. Add all contents to skillet, except for the cheese. Drain noodles. Mix noodles and sauce mixture in large mixing bowl. Stir in cheese. Pour out into large non stick baking dish or sprayed with vegetable oil. Cover with foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove and sprinkle additional cheese on top and bake for an additional 20 minutes without foil. Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Serve with a mixed green salad.

Chocolate Cake Balls

I wanted to make our family something different for a dessert. These are another lil treat that will adorn our christmas trays next year. Yummy! They were really good and really easy to make. I found the idea here. Hers look so much better than mine. I had a little trouble with my chocolate melting.




The Ingredients





Roll into small balls. Approximately 40 to 45 cake balls.



melt candy



Drop into melted chocolate





Voila'


Bake cake according to directions on box. You may make your cake and frosting from scratch if you choose to do so.

Empty contents of 1 cream cheese frosting into cake mix. Combine, mix or stir. If you choose to use your hand this can be messy.

Roll into balls or use a medium to large melon baller. Place these in refridgerator or freezer to harden slightly before rolling in chocolate.

Chocolate Cake Balls
1 box chocolate cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting.
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50.
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

Tip: melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It's easier to work with when it's hot.

Chicken Lo Mein/ Stir Fry

My family loved this. M was craving chinese food and I found this recipe. It was a hit. Aden even loved it. Kai is allergic to peanuts so we did not add peanuts to hers. The dressing is a bit tangy but adds an awesome flavor to the chicken. I added a bit too much soy sauce and that was easily remedied by adding a pinch of sugar. Be careful not to add too much.



8 oz. angel hair pasta.
2 cups small broccoli florets
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup KRAFT Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
1/4 tsp. each: ground ginger, garlic powder, crushed red pepper
1/3 cup chopped PLANTERS Dry Roasted Peanuts

( I cooked with whole wheat pasta for a healthier dish. I also add seasonings to taste. I did not measure. Add to your preference. If you do not like any of the ingredients just substitute or delete). If I had carrots and zuchini I would have added those sliced on the bias. This can be a very health conscious tasty meal

COOK pasta as directed on package, adding broccoli to the boiling water for the last 3 min. of the pasta cooking time.

Spray large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook until done, stirring occasionally. Stir in dressing, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and crushed red pepper; cook 1 to 3 minutes.

DRAIN pasta mixture; place in large bowl. Add chicken mixture; mix lightly. Spoon evenly into four serving bowls; sprinkle with the peanuts.

Makes: 4 servings, 2 cups each