Author: Jamie Hancock

Key West Chicken

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I <3 (heart) Lime

A little limey marinade, a little heat on the grill…it’s just like you’re in Key West!  And who doesn’t want to be there this time of year?!  
Ingredients:  
3T Soy Sauce
1T Honey
1T Vegetable Oil
1tsp (or more…I like more) Lime Juice
1tsp Chopped Garlic (bottled minced is ok too)
4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts halves
1.  Preheat your grill for high heat. If you’re using thicker whole chicken breasts, use medium or low heat– says the love of my life glaring over my shoulder.  =)  
2.  In a shallow container, blend together the soy sauce, honey, oil, lime juice and garlic.  Slap that chicken in there, flip it a few times like your drenching it in suntan oil, and marinate refrigerated for at least 30 minutes.  The longer you marinate it, the stronger the flavor.  We usually go for about 4-5 hours.  
3.  Lightly oil the grill grate, and grill the chicken for 6-8 minutes (longer for thicker breasts) on each side, until juices run clear.  
4.  Where’s my piña colada? 

Almond Joy* Brownie Bites

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Going, going, gone!
Found these little gems on a cute blog called Flour Me With Love.  If you like Almond Joy candy bars, these gooey little guys will crack your coconut!  And to those of you who don’t, I say: C’mon, give coconut a chance. 😉
Ingredients:
1 box of family size Chocolate Fudge brownie mix 
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (14 oz.) bag coconut

1/4 C milk
1 C chocolate chips, melted
1/4 C almonds, crushed (or I thought whole almonds might work too*)

  1. Preheat your oven to 350* and line mini muffin tins with paper liners
  2. Prepare brownie mix according to the directions, and fill muffin cups only half way. 
You know we licked that bowl clean!
3.  Bake brownies for 12 minutes. 
4.  While the brownies are baking, mix together the coconut, milk and sweetened  
     condensed milk 
5.  Remove brownies from the oven and spoon “mounds” (get it, Mounds??…Almond 
     Joy??…Ok..never mind.) of coconut on top of the brownies, being careful not to let the
     gooey mess spill over the edges.  
6.  Bake another 14-16 minutes. The coconut will get nice and toasty. =)
7.  Melt the chocolate chips in microwave or over a double boiler. You can add a little 
     Crisco to thin it out, if you’d like, for easier drizzling. (you can lick that bowl too)
8.  Obviously, the next step is to drizzle the chocolate over the coconut and sprinkle the
     nuts on top.  OR* you could press a whole almond into the brownie before loading on
     the coconut.  Just an idea.  
9.  Cool completely before removing from paper liners.  Enjoy!

*Almond Joy is a trademark of the Hershey Company
*P.S. I just found out that this was originally made in regular sized muffin tins. Even  
 Better!! Interesting that the baking time still worked out nicely.  


Creamy Ham and Cheese Pasta

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WARNING:  This delicious high-carb, high-fat pasta dish will probably go straight to your hind end.  But your taste buds will thank you.  =)

Ingredients:
2T Butter
1 C diced ham
1 C heavy cream
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 C shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 C grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp or more garlic herb seasoning
milk for thinning, if necessary
3 C Cooked Penne Rigate’

First of all: let me introduce you to my new best friend:  

McCormick Perfect Pinch Garlic and Herb Seasoning.  It’s salt free, calorie free, and MSG free.  I’ve added this to just about everything lately…mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, scrambled eggs…the list goes on…and includes this tasty dish:

  1. Melt butter in a sauce pan and saute’ diced ham until lightly browned.  (You can skip this step if you’re using leftover ham that has already been baked) 
  2. Add cream.  Bring to a boil, remove from heat.
  3. Add egg yolks, stir until well blended. 
  4. Add mozzarella and parmesan, stir until completely melted and creamy.  
  5. Sprinkle the garlic herb seasoning freely, to taste, of course.  Incorporate well.  
  6. If you find your sauce too thick, return to low/med heat and add some milk, a little at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.  
  7. Serve over pasta or stir in pasta until sauce is evenly distributed. 
So you may see in the introduction photo that I served this with broccoli.  Well…that’s how it started.  THEN…I kind of did this number while I was eating:  (Mmmmmm)
And THIS is what I did with the left-overs:  (Yummmm)
So…Moral of the story is:  If you like broccoli, chop it up and add it in at the beginning with the ham. =)
Enjoy! 

The Great Pumpkin Dessert

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More Pumpkin, anyone? 
Ingredients:
1-15oz can pumpkin
1 can of evaporated milk (shake well)
3 eggs
1c sugar
4tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 package yellow cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
3/4c butter, melted
1 1/2c chopped walnuts (or make it 2c if you really like nuts…I thought 1 1/2 was enough)
  1. Preheat oven to 350* and grease a 9×13 pan
  2. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well. 
  3. Transfer the pumpkin mixture into the 9×13 pan
  4. Sprinkle the cake mix over the pumpkin, drizzle with butter, then top with walnuts!  
  5. Bake at 350* for an hour*  or until knife comes out clean.
*I think baking it for an hour was a little to long.  I like stuff a little more on the gooey side.  So, if you’re like me…go with 45-50 min.  The fork/knife test should still hold true (for the most part).  =)
*This recipe was one that I copied down at a potluck in in DeKalb, IL.  I thought for SURE I wrote this lovely sister’s name on the card, dag nab it!!  

Homemade Pumpkin Butter

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This is one of my favorite fall flavors!  Pumpkin with all of the spices.  It’s pretty much pumpkin pie that you can spread on toast or pancakes and stir into your oatmeal.  This is for a large batch that will fill about 15 freezer jam jars (which is the recommended jarring method). Check out THIS link for more info.  
Ingredients:  
2- 29oz cans pumpkin puree
4 c apple juice or cider
3 c white sugar
4tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cloves
1tsp ground nutmeg
4tsp cinnamon
  1. Combine all ingredients in a large sauce pan.  Stir well. 
  2. Bring the mixture to a boil. Keep stirring.  Constantly.  Or it will bubble and spit pumpkin at you!
  3. Lower heat and simmer (while stirring) for about 30 min or until it reaches the desired consistency. 
  4. Cool for about 10 minutes before transferring to freezer jam jars.  Then cool another 10-20 minutes before you put the lids on.  
  5. Refrigerate or freeze.  Tie a cute ribbon or something crafty to it and give it as a gift!  
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Mini Pumpkin Spice Cakes

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Let me begin by saying that this recipe was created after I tried THIS recipe by our very own Kara.  Can I say YUM!!!  It turned out we wanted more and the only box of cake mix I had was Spice Cake.  Hmmm…I thought.  And then remembering a cake recipe my sister gave me I decided to give it a shot!

Ingredients:  
1 box of Spice Cake mix (I used Duncan Hines) 
1 15oz can pumpkin

  1. Preheat oven to 350*
  2. Mix together the cake mix and canned pumpkin
  3. Drop by spoonfulls (about 1T) onto a cookie sheet, slightly flatten
  4. Bake 7-10 min, remove from oven and cool completely
Frosting:  
4 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 Stick (1/4 Cup) Butter or Margarine, softened
1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 – 2.5 Cups Powdered Sugar
  1. Mix all the ingredients together until nice and creamy
  2. When the cookies are completely cooled, smother the frosting between 2 cookies and…voila! A fall version of the “oreo”!   

Sausage and Rice Skillet

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Inspired by one of my mother-in-law’s recipes with Sausage and Minnesota grown wild rice…I came up with this little ditty that took me a total of 30 minutes to put together.  We like these throw-it-all-in-the-skillet deals.  Makes clean-up a cinch!  

Ingredients:
1 lb regular ground sausage (I used Jimmy Dean…it is the best)
1/4 c chopped onion or 1T dried onion (I’m a HUGE fan of dried onion)
1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 package of Birds Eye Steamfresh Brown and Wild rice with Broccoli and Carrots, prepared
8oz can of water chestnuts, drained and chopped (added for a little optional crunch)
1/2 c beef broth
pepper to taste

  1. Brown the sausage with onion, add soup, steamed rice and water chestnuts.  
  2. Add beef broth a little at a time for a creamier consistency.  
  3. Add pepper to taste
  4. Heat through and serve!  

Sticky Gooey Monster Jaws

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You’d better take a bite before they do!  I adapted this from a cute idea found on Our Best Bites Easy Halloween Party Food, using a few of my kids’ favorite ingredients! But by all means…have fun and make it your own…I DARE you! 
Ingredients:
Apples (1 apples serves 4)
Water with a little lemon juice for dipping 
Peanut Butter
Raisins, chocolate chips, slivered almonds…any of these things could work for teeth
  1. Quarter your apples and remove the seeds.  
  2. Then cut a wedge out of the center of the side with the peel still on it.  
  3. Now, dip the apple quarters in the water/lemon mixture to keep them from browning.
  4. Smother some PB into that monster mouth and give him/her some teeth of your liking.  
  5. Give it some eyes using PB to make ’em stick.  
*The eyes look super cute when they’re buggin’ out on 2 pretzel sticks…too bad I didn’t have any.  =( HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  =)

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

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Simple and good, not to mention a GREAT way to get rid of those blackening bananas that are sitting on the counter. Did I say “Blackening”? I meant, *ahem* “Overly brown” because bananas would NEVER get black on MY counters.
Ingredients:
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Shortening
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Eggs
3 mashed bananas
2 C Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 C Mini Chocolate Chips* (optional). I used regular chips in this recipe and you can see they sink a little. Mini chips don’t sink, but I didn’t have any, ok? sheesh… 🙂
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cream together sugar, shortening, salt and eggs until smooth and creamy.
3. Add Bananas, flour and baking soda. Mix well.
4. Add your chocolate chips (if you so desire) and stir until evenly incorporated.
5. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake for 70 – 80 minutes or until springy to the touch.
6. Cool thoroughly and dump out.
* We also use nuts in addition/place of. You may omit them or use one or the other.
Source: My Aunt, Janae
~Kara

Hashbrown Quiche

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This is one of our favorite breakfast-for-dinner meals.  Also nice for a holiday breakfast or brunch.  Try your own meat and veggie varieties.  It’s yummy! P.S.  I think I found this recipe in a Taste of Home Magazine about 10 years ago. 
Forgive me if I’m mistaken.  

Ingredients:
4c shredded hashbrowns, thawed and squeezed dry with paper towels
5T butter, melted
…………………..
1/2 lb Jimmy Dean (regular) bulk ground sausage, crumbled and cooked
1/2 c diced green pepper
1T dried onion
1 c (or more) shredded cheddar cheese
…………………..
4 eggs
1c milk
1/4 tsp pepper
Salt to taste (I will omit the salt if I use bacon instead of sausage)

  1. Preheat oven to 425* for baking the crust (you’ll change it for the quiche)
  2. Make sure as much of the moisture as possible is soaked out of the hashbrowns to make a nice crispy crust.
  3. Press the hashbrowns into the bottom of a 9×13 pan and drizzle with melted butter and bake at 425* for 25 minutes.
  4. While the crust is baking, prepare the filling.  Mix the meat, peppers, cheese and onions in one bowl.  Mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper in another bowl.  
  5. When the hashbrown crust is done baking, change the oven temperature to 350*.  
  6. Pour the meat mixture into the pan and spread evenly over the crust. Then pour the egg mixture over the top.  
  7. Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes before cutting and serving.  

*We like to serve ours with a side of salsa…but we’re big fans of salsa… =)