Chicken Noodle Soup

For my very first entry, I thought that I would do one of our favorite recipes. It is really easy, but also really good. I love soup, but Drew doesn't, so I was very excited to find a soup recipe that he actually likes, and will eat. And, I usually just eyeball the recipe, and add as much as I like of everything. Drew likes lots of chicken and pasta, so I put lots in. I really like the leeks, so I sneak lots in.

In a large pot, saute 2 leeks, the white part sliced, in olive oil. You want to saute them slowly over medium heat because according to my sister Karen (who makes really yummy creamed leeks), they release gas, and you want to release it now instead of...well...later. Add 2 cartons of chicken stock, 3 bay leaves, and 2-3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft, but still a bit hard, because they will soften up. Remove the bay leaves. Take out about 3 cups of the potatoes, leeks, and broth, and blend until smooth in a blender. Add back to the soup. Add in half a package of cooked pasta. We use the egg noodles, but you can use any type that you want. Add about 3 cups cooked chicken, and a cup of cooked carrots. Season with salt and pepper.

Babyback Ribs

This recipe came from the Our Best Bites Blog. Mom, Nicki, Mandy and myself have all made them and they are soooo good. I had never tried to make ribs before, they always seemed like so much work. The best thing about these is how EASY they are. I seriously think they would be impossible to mess up. They are fall off the bone tender!

Here is what you will need:

1-2 racks babyback ribs (You can use side ribs as well, I have made both and they both turned out great! Side Ribs are generally a lot cheaper. I recommend buying the ribs at Costco, I'm pretty sure it is the best deal.
Your favorite BBQ Sauce (I use Tony Roma's Hickory flavor and I found it went really well with the ribs)

Marinade
3 c. pineapple juice
1 ½ c. brown sugar
1 ½ tsp. mustard powder
1/3 c. ketchup
1/3 c. red wine vinegar
1 ½ Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
½ tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. ground ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp. cayenne pepper

Cut each rack into 3-4 rib portions and put in crock pot.


Mix marinade in separate bowl and then pour over ribs. (You can do this the night before)


Cook on LOW for 6 hours. You can poke them around occasionally to get them all covered by the liquid.

Remove the ribs from the liquid and heat your grill to medium.
Carefully place the ribs on the grill and baste one side with BBQ sauce and close lid for about 3 minutes, turn over and do the same for the other side. You are done!

Blueberry Sauce

Blueberry Sauce

I made this at work and it was fabulous. One of my clients had two servings, licked the spoon and the pan.

This is great for pancakes, waffles, cheesecake, yogurt,or ice cream. Fresh or frozen work equally as well.

Ingredients:

2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup water

1 cup orange Juice

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 c cold water

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a saucepan over Medium heat, combine the blueberries, 1/4 c water, orange juice and sugar. Stir gently and bring to a boil.

In a cup or small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and 1/4 c cold water. Gently stir the cornstarch mixture into the blueberries so as not to mash the berries. Simmer gently until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon about 3 -4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the amond extract and cinnamon Thin sauce with water if it is too thick for your liking.

Enjoy!! I may post a picture when I make it at home or maybe not. I usually don't remember to take a pciture until we have eaten what I have cooked.

Cookie Lolliepop's

My mom told me about these fun cookies on allrecipes.com and I thought I would give them a try. They were alot of fun! The kids and I did them when we got all that rain last week. They are sooo yummy and very easy. The cookies are very tender and you don't even miss the icing. I think I will do these for Kaiya's birthday coming up.

This is how I wrapped the ones I gave away to make them look more like the real thing.

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
assorted colors of paste food coloring
24 lollipop sticks

DIRECTIONS
In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms. Divide dough into fourths. Tint each with a different food color. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Working with half of each color, shape dough into 3/4 inch balls and for each cookie place 1 pink, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 orange ball together to make 1 large ball. Shape into a 12 inch long roll (like a snake), starting at one end, coil roll to make a 2 3/4 inch round cookie. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Carefully insert lollipop sticks into bottoms of cookies.
Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Boiled Raisin Cookies

BOILED RAISIN COOKIES (GRANDPA WOLSEY'S COOKIES)
(pre heat oven to 350. degrees)

2 C raisins
1 C water
1 tsp Baking soda
(boil 5 minutes and let cool )

2 C brown sugar
1 C margarine or butter
3 eggs
3 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp allspice

Directions: Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Add vanilla. In separate bowl combined all dry ingredients. Then mix the dry ingredients with the wet. Fold in the raisins and drop on to cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes at 350.
yields 2 dozen



OK so the name my not be that appealing but if you like raisins than you will loves these cookies I promise!

Pumpkin Muffins

1X ______________________ 3X

1 cup brown sugar ___________ 3
2/3 cup oil __________________2
2 eggs_____________________ 6
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour ______ 4 1/2
1 tsp baking soda______________ 3
1 tsp baking powder____________ 3
1 tsp cinnamon _______________ 3
1/2 tsp salt__________________ 1 1/2
1 cup pumpkin________________3

1/2 cup nuts(optional) I like to add unsalted sunflower seeds

Mix wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately and then stir together

I like to sprinkle the tops with brown sugar and cinnamon before baking

Bake @350 20 minutes

Now 1 can of pumpkin is 3 cups so I 3x the recipe now that I make them using canned pumpkin, in Australia I had to cook and mash the pumpkin myself. I have included the measurements for 3X even though I'm sure you could of figured it our yourself.

These make a really moist delicious muffin that will help keep you regular! I know Nicki mentioned she was having trouble with this.

This is the Cookie basket I made for Kaiya to bring to school. I had been promising her that I would make them for her class all year, but have not had the time or energy. Well the school year is almost over and she was devastated when I told her she didn't have anymore snack days. Her teacher was nice enough to let he bring them on cooking day. She had so much fun picking the flowers and handing them out to her friends.

Sugar Cookies:(recipe from my Grandma Wolsey)

3/4 C butter
1 1/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C milk
2 1/2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Vanilla

Cream butter sugar and eggs together. Then add milk and vanilla. In separate bowl combined Flour, baking powder, and salt. Add your dry ingredients in the wet mixture and chill for at least 30 mins. I always have to add more flour than the recipe calls for. Just add enough till the dough isn't too sticky.Roll out and bake the cookies off at 350 for about 8 mins. Yum Yum!

Frosting:

about 1Tbs butter
Milk
Icing sugar
Vanilla

I don't really know the amounts, because it always seem different depending on how many cookies I make. But you get the Idea.

Cooper could be a girls name

REVENGE IS SWEET!!!!

How to make a GIRL

How to make a GIRL

Ingredients:
One Cute little boy
One little girl's dress
One unsuspecting mother

Procedure:
Wait till unsuspecting mother is gone, Undress boy and proceed to put dress on and voila you'll have on cute little girl in no time.

BBQ Beef on a Bun

Well after 3 years of owning a slow cooker, I used it today for the second time. I had been searching the net for a good BBQ Beef recipe, and finally found a couple that I thought sounded good. I took a few ingredients from each and it turned out pretty good!

3-4 pound roast
1 Large chopped onion
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup Ketchup
1/4 cup water
1 tsp beef bouillon
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 bottle Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce

Place Roast and chopped onion in slow cooker. Sprinkle garlic powder over Roast and season with salt and pepper. Mix remainder of ingredients and pour over beef. Cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 6-8. I put mine in a little late in the morning and had to cook on high. I cooked on high for about 5 hours and then shredded the beef. I then turned it to low and cooked for another 1 1/2 hours. All in all I think it was a success...everyone seemed to enjoy it!

HAM AND CHEESE QUICHE
(from the kitchen of Nola Clark)

6 oz. Ham
1 cup grated cheese
green onion
3 Eggs
1 cup of whipping cream (not whipped)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (or Kikkoman's Teriyaki sauce)
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Dice Ham, Grate cheese, and dice onions, put in bottom of unbaked tart shells. Mix in a bowl the rest of the ingredients and pour into shells 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Note: You can really put whatever you want in these quiche eg. mushrooms, tomatoes. Geoff loves these!!

Healthy spin on BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup blueberries
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup splenda(sugar or packed light brown sugar)
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 400 F.Grease a standard 12-muffin pan or line with paper liners. Makes: 12 muffins

whisk together flour, baking powder, salt in large bowl. Whisk together in another bowl, eggs, milk, sugar (splenda), and butter (melted). Add to flour mixture and mix together with a few light strokes just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Dust blueberries with flour to prevent bleeding then fold into batter. Do not over mix; the batter should not be smooth. Divide the batter among the muffin cups.

Bake until a toothpick inserts in 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean, about 15 minutes.(mine took exactly 15 min)Let cool for 2 or 3 minutes before removing from the pan. Now enjoy!!!

Note: Overmixing your batter with produce cone shaped tops.

Robyn made these muffins first with all white flour and loved it. But we thought we would try a healthy version. My family loved them. Well when I say family I mean myself, Kaiya and Jager oh and Robyn and mom. If it's not Chocolate Geoff's just not interested.