Pumpkin Crunch Recipe

15 oz. can pumpkin

3 large eggs

12 oz. evaporated milk

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 t. salt

4 t. pumpkin spice

2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. ginger

1/4 t. cloves

1/2 t. nutmeg

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

1 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 x 13 pan. Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl. Mix. Pour into pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture. Top with pecans. Drizzle with melted butter. Bake 50 - 55 min. or until golden and firm. Cool completely. Serve with whip cream. Refrigerate leftovers. Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Orange Chicken Recipe

The Ingredients.

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken, cut in 2-inch chunks
1/2 cup flour (I used Pamela's Baking Mix)
olive oil, for browning the chicken
1 tablespoon kosher salt
6 ounces (1/2 can) frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (I'd opt for little-to-no pulp. The pulp can taste a bit bitter when cooked)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons ketchup

updated 9/20/09: I've heard from a few readers that 1 tablespoon of salt is too much. If you are using iodized or table salt, this will be the case. Kosher salt doesn't taste as "salty" as regular salt, and since the granules are larger, you don't get as much in the tablespoon as you would with regular salt. Adjust accordingly. xoxo steph

The Directions.

Use a 4 quart slow cooker for best results. Dredge the chicken pieces with the flour, and shake off the excess. Go ahead and throw away any remaining flour, we won't need it. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on the stove and brown the chicken on all sides. There is no need to fully cook it, just sear it enough for the flour to stick and get a nice coating.

Plop the chicken pieces into your slow cooker. In a small mixing bowl, combine the orange juice concentrate, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt, and ketchup. Taste. If you'd like the chicken to be a bit sweeter, add a touch more sugar. Pour sauce mixture evenly over the chicken, and toss gingerly to coat.

Cover and cook on low for 6 hours, or on high for 3 to 4. Serve over white or brown rice.

Homemade Crayons

Have you ever wondered what to do with all the little broken pieces of crayon? The paper has come off and they are so small they are hard to color with. Well, wonder no more. Here is a fantastic (and easy) thing to do with all of those left over pieces.

* Make sure all the paper is removed

* You can use any kind of baking pan. I chose the silicone ones because I have shapes in them. But the metal pans would work great too.

* Add like colors. As you can see we added some whites to them and mixed them up a little. It makes for a cool effect!


* Bake in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The bigger the pieces the longer the cooking time.

* Remove from the oven and let them cool completely!

* Once cool, pop them out of the pans and start coloring!


They make great gifts too!

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter
2 T shortening
1 cup caking cocoa
8 ounce cream cheese
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter and shortening. Whisk in cocoa and stir until smooth. Let cool until it is cool enough to touch. Add cream cheese and mix thoroughly. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix well

will cover a 9x13 cake

Yummy with Devils Food cake!

Southwest Chicken with Black Beans

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 small can diced green chilies
1 clove crushed garlic
3 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp. lime peel
1 medium tomato, chopped
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 lb. chicken, cup into strips (to add a little zing and save a little time, I use the Tyson Southwest already cooked chicken strips.)

Cook chicken (if using raw chicken), onion, chilies and garlic in oil until chicken is cooked. Add beans, lime juice & peel and tomatoes. heat until hot. Serve with all the side stuff (sour cream, cheese, tortillas) or by itself.

Soft Pretzel Recipe

Ingredients:
1-1/2 teas yeast
1/2 teas brown sugar
1 dash salt
1-1/2 Cup 110 degree water - (I always just guess on the actual temp, it needs to be warm for the yeast)

Combine the above ingredients and let rest for about 5 minutes until the yeast is ready. It will be foamy.

Add in:

4 Cups flour

Mix together and then knead approx. 5 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover with damp towel and let rise 1 hour.

in flat dish ( I use an 8x8 glass casserole) mix the following:

1 TBLS Baking Soda
1/4 cup warm water

Pinching off a golf ball sized (or slightly bigger) piece of dough, roll in hands to make long snake-like shape and then shape into pretzel form. (I do both traditional pretzel shapes and also pretzel twists - with twists I use slightly less dough so it makes more) Dip shaped form in above soda/water mixture. Make sure both sides of dough have been dipped. Then place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for about 8 minutes. (You want them slightly browned on top but not over-cooked)

This recipe makes about 8 to 9 pretzels

Once they are out of the oven brush them with melted butter and sprinkle course Kosher salt on top. (just a note, the first time I made them I over did the salt - a little goes a long way) You can also top them with cinnamon-sugar, Parmesan cheese or other toppings.

And just as an FYI, I personally only like these fresh. So for best results eat them right away.



Amy C. Williams

Homemade Flour Tortillas

Ingredients
2 - cups all purpose flour
1 - teaspoon baking powder
1/2 - teaspoon salt
5 - tablespoons lard (recommended) or vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
3/4 - cup hot water




Directions:
In a large bowl add the flour, salt, baking powder and shortening. Using your fingers cut in the shortening (or lard) until the mixture resembles pea size pieces (or use a pastry cutter). Add the hot water and mix together using your hands or a wooden spoon until the mixtures starts to form. Knead on a floured surface for 5 - 10 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball. Place the dough into a covered bowl and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Pinch off the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece into golf ball size balls. Preheat your griddle or cast iron pan on medium high heat. Flatten each dough ball a bit and then roll out on a floured surface forming a circle.
To make a round shape roll out the dough and then make a 1/4 of a turn of the circle and then roll and make another 1/4 of a turn. Keep doing this until the dough is rolled out to 1/8 inch thick. You really want these to be very thin, almost like tissue paper because they do puff up while cooking. Place onto the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly. Flip and continue cooking the other side. Each side should cook about 30 seconds. Keep the cooked tortillas warm while you continue rolling and cooking the remaining tortillas