Turkey dog salad

This is one my recent finds and it is so incredible! My kids even love it!

Ingredients:
enough turkey dogs and buns for your family. ( Oscar Mayer has them nitrate free!)
head of romaine
tomatoes
red onion
dill pickles
mustard
vinegar
honey

mix 1/4 cup yellow mustard, 2 T vinegar, 2 T honey in a huge bowl. (You need enough room to stir) Add torn lettuce, sliced tomatoes, diced onion, & sliced pickles. Toss well. Now, you can either cut up the hot dogs and toss them with the salad, or stuff your bun with salad and put the hot dog on top. So easy and yummy!

By the way, I do heat up the dogs in a skillet before we eat them.

Ultimate Quesedilla

This recipe is the perfect comfort food! I would rather eat these quesedillas than eat out any day!

Here is what you need:

1 stick of butter, room temp.
Flour tortillas
Cheese of your choice
Grilled chicken or fajita meat
avocado
onions
tomatoes
assorted bell peppers
sour cream
salsa

Whether I am using chicken or beef, I slice it VERY thin, usually when the meat is cold. Slice the onions, peppers, and tomato very thin also. Saute the onions and peppers in a skillet with butter until soft and tender. Season with a little bit of salt.

I have to stop a minute and talk about the butter. I LOVE BUTTER! Most of the time I will use evoo, but if I am making something this junky, I want butter! Real butter, not margarine or Crisco or whatever else you might want to use. Trust me, butter!

Ok. Next spread your butter on one side of two tortillas. Place one, butter side down, in the skillet. layer cheese, chicken, onions, peppers, tomatoes, avocado and more cheese. Place other tortilla, butter side up, on top. Cook until bottom tortilla is crispy and then flip. Do the same for other side. Voila! the perfect junk food!

After you get your fill of quesedilla, ( I can usually only eat one) You can throw another tortilla on. Butter both sides! cook until nice and golden. add honey. Yum!

Of course, you can put anything you want in these. This is just the way I do it. Have fun & eat allot!

oops!

I messed this one up good! I have this pan, it makes food in the shape of a bowl. You cook it, take it out, and put stuff inside it and it looks neat. I thought I would get creative with meatloaf since everyone is kind of grossed out by the thought of it. I put it in the bowl pan and cooked it. When I tried to get it out of the pan, I ended up with what looked like dog food. I had to share this one. I know we have all messed up in the kitchen, and I just wanted to show how a mess up can turn out amazing!

So first I'll start with the meatloaf.

2 lbs beef
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1onion
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
red pepper flakes
salt
pepper

Chop up all the veggies. Food process, whatever. Saute them in butter with the red pepper flakes until everything is tender. Combine all ingredients and DO NOT put them in the stupid bowl pan. Cook it in a loaf pan for about 1 1/2 hours @ 350.

thinly slice and onion and caramelize it with butter. ( Just cook it on medium until it turns brown and smells really good!)

I also served green beans. I like the long skinny ones. I boil them for about 1 minute, drain them, and then cook them in the skillet that I used for the onions. Add butter, salt, pepper, & garlic. Cook for another minute.

Mashed sweet potatoes with butter and salt make this a great meal! There were no leftovers!

Back in the saddle.

Believe it or not, I do cook pretty much everyday. If I don't, my kids will start eating the furniture. It seems that every time I made something yummy that I wanted to share, my camera batteries were dead. They are rechargeable batteries that I've had forever. They just quit holding a charge, and I have a thing about recipes with no pictures. So, with new batteries, I am ready to get to it!

School starts Monday! I can't believe that I have a 7th grader and 4th grader! Not to mention miss sassy pants that is desperately waiting her turn to go to big girl school.

So on to cooking.

I made a chocolate cheesecake for our back to school sleepover! It is Cullen's favorite too. He really would rather have no cheesecake at all if it's not chocolate. Funny boy. ( This is the same guy who like pork rinds ) GROSS!

So here is my cheesecake! Once again I get the recipe from Taste of Home. I promise I do have some recipes that I came up with myself, but if it ain't broke!



Crust: 
1  1/2 cup Oreo cookie crumbs. (take the white junk out first)
1/4 cup melted butter

Stir crumbs into melted butter and press in the bottom and up the sides of a 9-in. spring form pan. Cook @ 350 for ten min. Cool on a wire rack. ( or whatever )

Filling:

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3  8oz packages of cream cheese ( softened )
1 cup sugar ( or 3/4 cup honey )
1/3 cup baking cocoa
3 eggs, room temp, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Melt choc chips in a small saucepan over low heat. Whisk in cream until smooth. Remove from heat. In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar or honey until smooth. Add cocoa and beat well. Add eggs. Beat on low just until combined. Stir in vanilla and reserved chocolate mixture just until blended. Pour over crust. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.

Extra tip: You can do a few different things to keep your cheesecake from cracking while it's in the oven. Wrap the pan in foil. Use a baking sheet with a lip on it and pour about 1-in of water around the cheesecake.

When it is done cooking, turn off the oven and leave it in there for about 10 min. Then open the oven door and let the cheesecake cool slowly.

Carefully mix in the eggs. If they are over beaten they will cause the cake to crack.

If none of these things work and your cake still cracks, slap some cool whip on that bad boy! No one will ever know!

A Hint of Thanksgiving!

 About 5 times a year I make something Thanksgiving - ish. I just love holiday food so much, it's not fair to have it only once a year. Today I made turkey tetrazzini. I served it with mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing. Again, I got this recipe from taste of home.com. It has got to be my favorite website for recipes. Every recipe is fantastic. And once again, my changes will be in (parenthesis)

Directions

• Cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and place in a greased 11-in. x 7-in. baking dish. Top with turkey; set aside.
• In a large skillet, saute the mushrooms and onion in butter until tender. Whisk in the soup, milk, poultry seasoning and mustard until blended. Stir in cheddar cheese; cook and stir over medium heat until cheese is melted. ( You really don't need to wait for it to melt.) Pour over turkey.
• Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses (dish will be full). Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted. Sprinkle with parsley. Yield: 4-6 servings.

This casserole makes a great sauce. I like to put it on top of mashed potatoes so that I can have a sort of gravy. Enjoy!

P.S. I can't figure out why the recipe is backwards. I put it on with ingredients first, and then directions. Why does it change once I post it? Who knows. Hopefully you can navigate around the hiccup!

Ingredients

• 1 package (7 ounces) thin spaghetti, broken in half ( Whole weat)
• 2 cups cubed cooked turkey
• 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 can (10-3/4 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1/8 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese ( I only use 1/2 cup of both cheeses.)
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon shredded Parmesan cheese
• Minced fresh parsley

Cheesecake for breakfast !?

One of my favorite breakfast foods is cheesecake. I know that sounds weird. If you substitute honey for the sugar though, you have a healthy, yummy dish that everyone loves! I got this recipe from Taste of Home. I change it around a little. (my changes will be in parenthesis)

12-14 Servings

Prep: 30 min. + cooling Bake: 45 min. + chilling

30 45 75

Directions

• In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press into a greased 10-in. spring form pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 325° for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the pumpkin, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into crust. Return to baking sheet.
• Bake at 325° 45-50 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.
• Remove sides of pan. For glaze, melt chips and shortening in a small heavy saucepan or microwave; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cheesecake. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12-14 servings.

Add some chocolate shavings and it is fantastich!

Ingredients

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons sugar (omit)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 
  FILLING:
• 3 packages ,8 ounces each PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese softened
• 1 cup sugar  (3/4 cup honey)
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (I use fresh pupkin.)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 
  GLAZE: ( I do not make the glaze)
• 1/2 cup vanilla or white chips
• 1 tablespoon shortening

Easy gourmet!

Ok I'm ready! We had a bit of a stressfull afternoon, (nothing a good bottle of wine can't fix!) So dinner was a little off due to the quality of the wine.

I made one of my favorite dishes. Chicken breasts with avocado and pepper jack. It's so easy and tastes incredible! The key to making this dish great is the marinade. I put 4-5 chicken breasts in a Pyrex pan. Add about 1/2 cup olive oil, white and red wine vinegar, lime or lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, and worcesteshire sauce. I let this sit in the fridge for at least 24 hours. You can either grill it or cook it on the stove. I chose the stove this time. With the drought and the ban on public grilling I figured I should just cook inside. I put olive oil in the skillet and cooked the chicken on both sides until it's done. After I flip it, I put very thin sliced avocado and top it with pepper jack so that the cheese can melt while the chicken cooks. This time it was backwards. Still tasted great though! I served it with black beans, fresh tomatoes, sour cream, and more cheese & avocado for whoever wanted it. It's kind of like fajitas without the tortilla, which for my poor husband, is normal around here.

If you try this recipe, please let me know how it turns out! I would love info on how to make it better!

Tomorrow: Cheesecake for breakfast!