Green Cake

It took me a couple of years to weasel this secret family recipe out of a friend... you simply MUST try it... immediately!

Green Cake

Courtesy of: Angela F.

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease 11x13 cake pan & sprinkle 1 tbsp cake mix to "dust" pan

Cake:

1 box white cake mix

1 jello pistachio pudding mix

1/2 cup oil

3/4 cup water + 1 tbsp

4 eggs

1-2 cups pecans, finely chopped (or your favorite nut)

Mix ingredients until smooth, and pour mixture into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle 1-2 cups finely chopped pecan pieces evenly over cake. (If you don't like pecans, I would expect that any nuts would work beautifully here.) Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Frosting:

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup water

2 cups packed powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients while cake is in the oven. When cake is done, remove it from oven. With a fork, puncture the cake several times until surface is evenly "poked". Gently spoon frosting mixture evenly over entire cake (pouring on frosting makes it pool & doesn't coat evenly). Bake the cake for an additional 5 minutes so the frosting becomes flakey. Cool to room temp and enjoy!

** I considered warming the frosting ingredients before putting them on the cake and to make sure they mix evenly... we didn't do it, but I wonder if it might work better than ours did. 

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Lasagna Roll-Ups

Lasagna Roll-Ups
Courtesy of ME!

Package of Lasagna Noodles
1 container of ricotta cheese
1 egg
1 medium zucchini, grated
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (I used Classico Spinach)
1-2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

This recipe makes about 9-10 rolls - which for our family is plenty because currently John and I only eat about 1 roll per meal. For larger families, or if you think your family will eat more - you might want to double up on the ingredients in the filling mixture. I had quite a few lasagna noodles left over - so you should be fine with one package. 

Boil your lasagna noodles. Drain and rinse with cold water. Separate the noodles and lay them out on a towel lined cookie sheet. We had more than one layer - so I just covered each layer with a separate towel and kept stacking.

In a skillet, brown your ground beef with salt, pepper, the Italian seasoning, and onion. Once browned, allow the mixture to cool. In a medium bowl, mix the ricotta cheese, egg, Parmesan, 1/4 cup of the spaghetti sauce, and beef mixture.

In the bottom of a baking dish, spread a few tablespoons of the spaghetti sauce. You want to make sure that the bottom of the dish is covered lightly so that the noodles don't dry out.

Lay out 1 lasagna noodle on a cutting board, spoon some of the ricotta mixture on the noodle to cover it.

Then roll up the noodle.

Ideally, the rolls would stand up in the pan. Mine wasn't deep enough - so I had to lay them side by side. You will want to pack the rolls in tightly so that they can keep their moisture. If they stand up in the pan, you will be able to fit them all in one dish - I had to use two in order to bake mine.

Once you get all the rolls made up, cover them with the remaining sauce - a little bit on each roll so that the noodles continue to have plenty of moisture so they don't dry out. Top them with mozzarella cheese and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the mozzarella cheese is melted and the rolls are warm. Pin It Now!

Margarita Pie

Margarita Pie
Courtesy of: A grocery store cookbook (my son ripped off the cover and I'm not sure who's it was)

1 1/4 cups crushed pretzels
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice
1 envelope KOOL-AID Lemon Lime Unsweetened drink mix
1 tub (8 oz) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

For the crust:
Mix pretzel crumbs, sugar and butter together. Press into bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie crust. For best results - use a glass or metal pie plate instead of a disposable one. Refrigerate until ready to fill.

For the filling:
Mix the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and KOOL-AID drink mix together in a large bowl. Whisk in COOL WHIP. Pour the contents into the pie crust, and freeze for 6 hours.

Remove the pie from the freezer 10-15 minutes before serving, let stand at room temperature until slightly softened. Use a large knife dipped in warm water to cut the pie into slices. I dipped the knife in the water after each cut. You can top the pie with more COOL WHIP if desired.

My crust came apart a bit - so I sprinkled the pretzel crumbs on the top so no one missed any of their salty bite with the sweetness of the filling.Pin It Now!

Feaux Mimosa

Feaux Mimosa
Courtesy of John

Orange Juice (we used orange pineapple)
Sparkling Grape Juice (white or red... we used red)
Ice

Mix 2 parts orange juice with 1 part of the sparkling grape juice... pour over ice into your favorite glass and enjoy! It was a special treat as a part of our first Christmas breakfast as a family.Pin It Now!

Amish Friendship Bread

Amish Friendship Bread

Starter:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups white sugar, divided
3 cups milk

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.

On days 2 thru 4; stir starter with a spoon. Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Days 6 thru 9; stir only.

Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).

To make bread on Day 10:
To the balance (a little over one cup) of the batter, add the following ingredients and mix well.
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon (we left this out of ours)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup nuts

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

** We made banana nut bread by using banana pudding mix instead of the vanilla... and we made the chocolate chocolate chip bread by adding chocolate pudding and chocolate chips to the batter. You can make this in any combination you can think of - use any flavor pudding... and add all sorts of mix-ins! 

Next time we might just add chocolate chips to the version with the vanilla pudding - that would be YUMMY too!Pin It Now!

Snickerdoodle Muffins

Snickerdoodle Muffins
Adapted from a recipe on Tasty Kitchen.com
Yield - 24 muffins (for me)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 whole eggs
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon ground or grated nutmeg (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Topping
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tins or use paper liners.

Cream the butter, sugar, and cinnamon until soft about 3 to 5 minutes. Add in the vanilla. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice in my case).

Add about 1/2 cup of the flour mixture to the butter & sugar - mix to incorporate... then add in 1/4 cup of the sour cream - mix to incorporate. Alternate these into the mixture until all are combined - start with the flour and end with the flour... scrape the bowl occasionally.

In one final bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Pour the muffin batter into your muffin pans - I used a cookie scoop to make sure that all of my muffins were roughly the same size. Sprinkle the tops with the sugar topping. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until golden brown.Pin It Now!

Coconut Chocolate Delights

Coconut Chocolate Delights
Courtesy of Pillsbury.com
Yield: 20 cookies

3/4	cup Fisher® Roasted and Salted Almonds
1 1/2	cups coconut
1/2	cup Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk (from 14-oz can)
1	package (16 oz) Pillsbury® Ready to Bake!™ refrigerated sugar cookies (24 cookies)
1/3	cup Hershey’s® baking cocoa
1/3	cup Hershey's® milk chocolate baking chips

Reserve 20 almonds; set aside. Chop remaining almonds. In medium bowl, stir chopped almonds, coconut and milk until well blended. Refrigerate mixture 25 minutes for easier handling. Let cookie dough stand at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften.

Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, knead cookie dough and cocoa with hands until well blended. Cover with plastic wrap; set aside.

For each cookie, press 1 rounded tablespoon dough into 3-inch round. Place 1 tablespoon coconut mixture on center of each round. Wrap dough around filling, pressing edges to seal; shape into a ball. Place balls 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Press each ball with fingers into 2 1/2-inch round. Press 1 whole almond on each cookie.

Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until puffed and edges are set. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips uncovered on High 10 to 20 second, stirring every 10 seconds, until smooth. Place in resealable food-storage plastic bag; cut small tip from corner of bag. Drizzle chocolate over cookies. Before storing, let cookies stand at room temperature until chocolate is set. Store in airtight container.Pin It Now!