Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe makes some of my favorite cookies. I found it when I was in middle school under the lid of a Quaker Oats container, however, the recipe is for oatmeal raisin cookies so I used mini chocolate chips instead and no salt. These cookies are soft and mouthwatering (I’ve been eating them non-stop since I made them yesterday!) I’ve been making these cookies for years and they never get old with me nor my friends! Perfect for a last minute party since they cool quickly and seem to please everybody.

• ½ pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups quick or old fashioned oats (uncooked)
• 1/3 to ½ bag of mini chocolate chips

1.    Heat oven to 350 degrees
2.    In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, baking soda, and cinnamon; mix well. Finally, stir in uncooked oats and mini chocolate chips.
3.    Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets.
4.    Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 3-4 minutes on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely (about a half hour or so). Store tightly covered.

Dinner Rolls

This recipe was given to me by a friend who works for the school district. She told me that every few weeks an elderly lady brings them in cinnamon rolls that are to die for and got the recipe from her. She insisted that I try making the cinnamon rolls since I’m the baker out of our friends. Turns out, the recipe is for potato bread that the lady used to make cinnamon rolls. I tried using the bread for cinnamon rolls, however in my opinion, the dough is hard to manipulate into cinnamon rolls. On the brighter side of things, the dough makes excellent rolls! This recipe makes a very large amount of dough and can make about 48 rolls.
Ingredients
•    3 packs dry yeast
•    1/3 cup warm water (110 degrees)
•    1 cup shortening
•    1 cup sugar
•    1 ½ T salt
•    1 cup instant potatoes
•    2 cups milk
•    2 cups water
•    3 eggs
•    A lot of flour
Directions
•    Dissolve the 3 packs of dry yeast into the warm water (110 degrees) in a small bowl
•    In a large bowl cut in the shortening and add sugar, salt, and instant potatoes
•    Heat the milk and water to 130 degrees and add to the potato mixture, mix well
•    Let stand 1 minute
•    Add the 3 eggs and mix with an electric mixer
•    Add enough flour to make soft dough and mix for 3 minutes (hard to determine how much flour)
•    Add enough flour to make stiff dough and spread out onto a floured surface and knead 5-8 minutes adding more flour as needed
•    Place in large bowl and let stand until the dough rises to double
•    Pour out onto floured surface knead to get all of the bubbles out
•    Separate into 4 even pieces – each piece will make 12 rolls
•    Let rise 20-30 minutes than bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until tops turn golden brown
•    Enjoy!

Apple Dumplings

I bought organic apples on sale for $.78 a pound before I knew what I was going to do with them since it was such a great deal! I was searching around for an apple recipe on http://www.bettycrocker.com/ (one of my favorite sites) and found this recipe! I did however tweak it a little to make the recipe more of my own.

servings: 6

Ingredients

•    2 cups flour
•    1 teaspoon salt
•    2/3 cup & 2 tablespoons butter
•    4 tablespoons water
•    6 jonagold apples
•    4 tablespoons raisins
•    4 tablespoons chopped peanuts
•    2 ½ cups packed brown sugar
•    1 1/3 cups water
•    Cinnamon

Directions

•    Heat oven to 425 degrees
•    Core the apples (I used a melon baler by scooping through the core)
•    In a small bowl, mix together raisins and nuts
•    In a medium bowl mix flour and salt.
•    Slightly melt the butter and mix in with flour mixture.
•    Add water and mix until there are no more clumps of the flour mixture
•    Split dough up evenly into 6 balls
•    Flour a cutting board and rolling pin and roll out a ball until about roughly 12 inches by 8 inches
•    Place a cored apple in the center and fill with raisin/nut mixture
•    Fold the edges over the apple and rub together to seal the edges together
•    Place in large greased baking dish
•    In a sauce pan mix sugar and water over high heat until the sugar is fully dissolved
•    Pour all of the mixture over apples  than sprinkle each with some cinnamon
•    Bake for 40 minutes. 
•    After removing the apples from the oven, sprinkle a little more cinnamon on top and enjoy!

I’ve been wanting to embrace the flavors and scents that remind me of fall, hence all of the apple and cinnamon recipes!

Rice Pudding

I discovered this recipe in the November issue of Family Circle. In my opinion, it is one of the easier recipe’s I’ve tried! I’m not usually a fan of rice pudding, but this recipe looked, and sounded delicious I had to try it! When it was cooking on the stove, it was hard not to try a bite because the smell filled my entire apartment with a sweet cinnamon and sugar scent.

Ingredients:
•    4 cups milk
•    1 cup long grain white rice (uncooked)
•    2/3 cup sugar
•    ¼ teaspoon salt
•    ¾ cup raisins
•    ¼ teaspoon allspice

Directions:
•    In a saucepan mix milk, rice, sugar, and salt
•    Bring to a boil on high heat than reduce heat to low
•    Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes
•    Add raisins and allspice
•    Continue to cook covered, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes
•    Top with a sprinkle of allspice
•    Serve warm and enjoy!

One thing I discovered with this recipe is to use a larger sauce pan for cooking the rice pudding because otherwise the milk mixture likes to bubble up and boil over the top!

Spiced Apples

Delicious spiced apples! Soft but firm apple quarters that arnt mushy! Plus this gave me an excuse to use my crock pot again!

 Servings: about 10

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 5 Jonagold apples cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

• in small bowl, combine cinnamon and cloves
• place a layer of apple quarters in a 4-quart crock pot
• sprinkle with cinnamon mixture
• keep placing layers of apples and sprinkle with cinnamon until all apples are used
• pour in apple cider and lemon juice and lightly stir to evenly coat
• cook on low for 3 hours, stirring gently halfway through
• serve warm and enjoy!

Happy Birthday Halee!

 Made this for a friends birthday a few weeks ago. White cake with vanilla frosting but dyed pink and purple. Cake from scratch has much more flavor!

 Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions:

• mix together sugar and butter (i like to stick the butter in the microwave for about 15 seconds to partially melt for easier whipping)
• mix on low speed until well blended and then ingreasespeed to medium for about 3 minutes
• add the vanilla and whipping cream and beat on medium speed for another minute

White Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

• preheat oven to 350 degrees
• sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar
• cut in shortening until fine crumbs are formed
• add eggs, milk, and vanilla
• beat at low speed for 1 minute than high for 2 minutes
• pour batter into greased and floured pan
• bake in oven for 25-30 minutes
• remove cake from pan after cooling for 10 minutes

Apple Bake

This recipe i got out of a magazine and now is one of my favorites involving apples! simple and delicious!! My roommate even ate one for breakfast the next morning.

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

• 1 package rolled refrigerated piecrust
• 3 jonagold apples 
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• cinnamon
• milk
• sugar

Directions:

• you will need 6 custard dishes
• heat oven to 400 degrees
• cut apples into 12 slices and place 6 slices in each dish
• in a small bowl mix together lemon juice, and honey; evenly pour over apples in each dish
• sprinkle cinnamon on top of apples in each dish
• cut pie crust into 12 slices and place two slices across the top of each dish
• brush tops with milk and sprinkle with sugar
• place the 6 dishes on cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes
• serve warm and enjoy!

Meatball recipe i discovered over summer. Went great with spaghetti!! The next day i continued eating them plain I liked them so much!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup Italian-style bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 egg

Directions:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees.
• like 13"x9" pan with foil and spray with cooking spray
• in large bowl, mix all ingredients and shape into 20-24 meatballs
• place 1 inch apart in pan and cook 18-22 minutes or until all pink in center is gone

Baby Reds Potato Salad

All I have to say is DELICIOUS!! Quick and easy potato salad recipe.

servings: about 6

Ingredients:

• 6 or 7 baby red potatoes
• 1/3 cup bacon bits
• 1/2 cup ranch dressing
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

• preheat oven to 350 degrees
• cut potatoes into cubes
• in bowl mix potatoes, bacon bits, ranch dressing, and cheese
• pour into greased 13" by 9" pan and bake for 55 minutes

Yellow Cake with Vanilla Buttercream

4th of July Cupcakes

Chicken and Grape Salad

I made this earlier for a dinner date tonight. Always one of my favorites when i go home and my mom gets chicken from Costco. I would have to say it is one of the simplest things I have made in a while! Delicious and requires no cookingThis recipe is supposed to also have walnuts in it, but since my friend is allergic, I decided to leave them out this time (i also however do not care for them).

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

• 2 packages pre-cooked chicken in strips
• about 5 or 6 stalks of celery
• roughly 1 1/2 cups of red seedless grapes
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup & 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise 
• squeeze of lemon juice

Directions:

• cut strips of chicken into chunks and put in bowl
• thinly cut celery stalks into pieces and mix in with chicken
• toss in red seedless grapes in with chicken and celery and lightly mix
• mix in the mayonnaise, sour cream, and lemon juice with chicken mixture until generously coated