Sweet Chicken

I had a friend on Facebook put this recipe as her status and so I decided to try making it. It turned out really good.

6 pieces of Chicken

Catalina Dressing

Apricot Preserve

Pineapple Preserve

1 pkg onion soup mix

What I did was put the chicken in a pan and mix about half a cup of the Preserves with the onion soup mix and pour Catalina dressing on top of the chicken. Then spread the Preserve mix on top of the chicken. I cooked it on 350 for about an hour and a half because my chicken was frozen. If it is not cook it about an hour or until the chicken is cooked all the way through.

I put this over rice and my family really loved it. Sorry I don't have a picture of this. I made it for dinner last night and forgot to take a picture of it.

Choco-Holic Cake

Cake:

1 pkg chocolate cake mix

1 pkg chocolate instant pudding

1 c. milk

1/2 c. sour cream

4 eggs

1 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together and place in a bunt cake pan. Make sure it is really greased so that it doesn't stick.

Cook on 350 for 45-55 min. Make sure that when you poke it it comes out clean.
Let cool about 15 min and put on a cooling rack to set.

Glaze:

1 bar unsweetened chocolate baking bar or 2 oz.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbls water

1 tsp vanilla

melt the chocolate bar and butter in a sauce pan over low heat. Stir until smooth remove from the heat and add in the powder sugar, water and vanilla. Pour glaze over the cake. It will look like this. Mine didn't work out the best cause mine stuck in the pan a little bit.

Bread

Well I got my cool mixer the other day. I have not been feeling good and so I have not been able to use it until today. Now that I have a great mixer I can make bread. The hand mixer was not so great with making bread so I had to wait. This bread can be made into rolls. I made them into two loafs of bread because with my two girls gone this is a better way for us to eat it then to have a huge pan of rolls. Here is what it looks like in a couple of steps.

6 c. flour (you may need to add another cup if it is really sticky or runny)

1 tsp salt

1/2 c. sugar

2 packets or 2 tbls. yeast

2 c. milk or buttermilk

4 tsp baking soda

1/2 c. shortening

1 c. warm water

1/2 c. honey

This is what it looks like with all the dry ingredients. Put the water in a bowl before you add the dry ingredients and add the yeast to that. Let it sit till you are done adding all the ingredients.
After everything is mixed you need to let it sit in the bowl to rise for about 45 min. It will look like this in the bowl. It is going to be a little bit sticky and that is ok.

What I do is cut the dough in half and then roll it out. It helps get all the air out of the dough. I roll it up like a cinnamon roll and then put it in the pan.
Let it rise for about 30 min or till your desired height. I like to just have it sit for 30 to 45 min. Preheat your oven to 350 and cook it for 25 min. It will be brown on the top of the bread.

Let it sit in the pan for about 10 min to cool.

If you don't want your bread to be so sweet you can fix that by not adding the honey to the dough. My family likes the bread kinda sweet so I add honey to my bread.

Pound Cake

3 c. sugar

3 c. flour

6 eggs

3 sticks of butter

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

1 8oz. cream cheese

I am going to complain for a min cause I had to use a hand mixer to mix all of this up with. I miss having a mixer. I am getting a new one but it is not coming for a couple more days. I keep checking with fedex to make sure that it is coming and coming faster, but it is not. I am very sad about this, but there is nothing I can do. Ok back to our cake. Mix all the ingredients together with either a hand mixer or a mixer. It will look like this when it is all mixed up.

You can either put it in a bunt pan and fill 3/4 of the way high. Cook it on 350 for 50 min. Poke a knife into it and make sure it comes out clean. You will have enough to make one bread pan also. If you don't want to put it in a bunt pan then you can make 3 bread pans with the cake.

This is what it will look like when it is done. You can add strawberries and cool whip to it and it makes a very good dessert. I also have friends that have it for breakfast. No matter how you eat it it is wonderful.

Chicken Enchilada's

Tonight I made a Chicken Enchilada with white sauce. I love the white sauce.

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 c. sour cream

3 stalks of green onions (diced)

1 can diced green chili's

1/2 onion

1 can black olives (diced)

1 Rotisserie Chicken

Shredded cheese

Flour Tortilla's

salt and pepper to taste

You are going to need to debone the Rotisserie chicken and get all the meat off that you can. Keep that in a separate bowl. Mix together all the other ingredients in another bowl. I didn't put how much cheese because I like a lot of cheese and so does my family. With all the ingredients add as much cheese as you feel comfortable with. Mix all but about 1/4 of the soup mix with the chicken. Put that aside. In a 9x13 pan you can do this two different ways:

First is to take the chicken and soup mix and roll it into the tortilla's and put it in the pan side by side. When your pan is full add the 1/4 of the soup mix on top of the rolled enchilada's and cheese.

Second you can lay the tortilla's flat on the bottom of the pan and the chicken mix on top of it and then lay tortilla's on top of the chicken mix and another layer of chicken mix. You can do as many layers as you have chicken mix. The top layer should be the soup mix with no chicken and add cheese to the top of it.

Cook on 350 for 30 min's. It is great with french bread and a green salad.

Peanut Butter Bar's

Here is the Recipe:

1 c. butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

1 c. peanut butter

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 c. flour

2 c. oats

Mix all of this in a big bowl. Butter should be soft when you mix together. I usually pull out the butter about an half hour to an hour before I make anything just so that it can have some time to soften. I also always use real butter. There are two kind of real butter and that is salted and unsalted. I always get the unsalted just because I don't want more salt in a recipe then what it calls for.

The first picture that you see is with it all cooked. That is what it should look like. You will need to cook it on 350 for about 10 min. You will need a 13x9 pan. That is a big cookie sheet. Once it is all mixed together you will put the dough on the cookie sheet and use your fingers to press it all down so that it fits to the pan. Put it in the oven after it is all pressed and ready on the pan. Check it at 10 min to make sure that it is browning. If it is not brown then you will need to put it in the oven for 2 more min. Do not keep it in the oven for longer then 12 min. It will over cook it.

After you pull it out start making the frosting.

4 1/2 tbls butter

3 tbls cocoa

3 tbls milk

2 1/4 c. powder sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Put this on the bars. It will still be hot and that is ok. Let it cool with the frosting on top of it. It should look like this:

They will be gooey if you cut into them warm, but still good. I hope you enjoy them as much as my family does.

Beginning....

I just wanted to start with who I am and why I am doing this. My name is Sara and I love to cook. I am always trying to try new things to create. I look at recipes and I will try them and adjust them to what tastes I like. I have been cooking different things since I was 12 maybe even before that. I always watched my mom cook for our family growing up and wanted to be just like her. I wanted to be the kind of mom that you wanted to be at their house cause you knew that mom would have something good to eat. I know that budgets have to be considered so I do try to make things that you don't have to spend a fortune on. I hope that this can help others to try new things and if you have questions feel free to ask. I am starting this because a friend of mine asked me to. I am cooking all the time and she wants easy recipes. I love easy recipes they work wonders for me and the busy schedule I have with my kids. I love making treats also so if there are more treats then anything else I am sorry for that. I love making them and then having one or maybe two and then giving the rest of them away! ha ha ha my neighbors love me cause I am always giving them something sweet.

I will try posting pictures of how things are looking when I am making them. For me pictures help me to make sure that I am doing it right. Yesterday I tried making a mint brownie and there was a question to whether the recipe was right. Well I was wrong and the brownie was really dry. Everything that I make doesn't always turn out right, but I keep trying till I get it right or where my husband likes it! I also broke 2 mixers in the last 3 weeks. I just ordered a new on so right now I am using a hand mixer. I won't be doing breads till I am able to get my new mixer. I will be posting things that are easy to do by hand or with a hand mixer. I love using the mixer, but I know that not everyone has one.

Also if anyone has fun recipes please post and share with everyone. I would love to try new things and see how they work and how my family likes them. I love trying new things.

Tomorrow I am going to be making a Peanut Butter Bar. I don't know if anyone els' school had Peanut Butter Bars at lunch, but mine did and they were the best thing ever. I found the recipe and this is what I am going to be sharing with you. I will post the recipe and the steps that I am taking with making them. I hope this is of help to someone or anyone.....