Chicken Pasta Salad

Next time I make this I'll have to try and remember to take a photo.  It's seriously SO GOOD and perfect for a baby shower or family gathering of some sort.

12oz Corkscrew Multicolored Pasta - Cooked & Drained
4 Cups Chicken - Cooked and Cubed
1/4 Cup Green Onion Chopped
2 Cups Apples Chopped
2 Cups Grapes Chopped
2 Cups Celery Chopped
1 Cup Crushed Pineapple (Drained from can)
1 Cup Mayo
1/2 Bottle premade Coleslaw Dressing (Kraft works great)
1/2-1 Cup Cashews

Serves 20

Grandma Jensen's Homemade Bread

1/2 cup *warm water
2 packets of yeast (1 envelope of yeast = 2 1/4 tsp. of yeast)

Combine the two ingredients above and set aside. (*The temp of the water has to be PERFECT. Too cold and the yeast won't activate, too hot and it will kill it. Good rule of thumb is to turn on the water until it is warm then quickly pass your finger or hand under the water adjusting accordingly until you can no longer feel a temperature difference between your hand and the water. DO NOT hold your hand in the water to adjust the temperature or your hand will increase or decrease in temperature with the water.. Hope that makes sense. lol)

2 cups hot water
3 TBS. sugar
1 TBS. salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
6 cups flour

Beat with mixer water, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and all but 3 cups of flour. Add yeast and left over flour until the dough pulls away cleanly from the side of the mixer. (Depending on humidity in the air I have sometimes had to add more flour or less to get it to pull away from the sides of the mixer.) Set aside dough in mixer bowl in a warm place, cover and let rise for 1 hour. Knead it and divide the dough into loaves or rolls (whichever you want to make) and let rise an additional 30 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees.
Bread for 30 mins.
Rolls for 15 mins.
Brush tops of rolls with butter or margarine and serve. :)

Santa's Favorite Cookies

These have been updated to a larger size cookie with a Levain Bakery style method of baking. So damn good.

Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies

1 cup cold Butter straight from the fridge
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, cold
2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 Cups sifted flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups chocolate chips
1 Large Box Junior Mints
8 large candy canes, crushed

Directions -

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set aside. (NOTE- Wax paper is NOT parchment paper. HAHA)

2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl or kitchen aid fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the sugars. Take your cold butter out of the fridge and cut into tablespoon sized pieces and throw them into the sugar. Beat on medium for 4-6 minutes. The pieces of butter will fly around for the first few minutes but eventually they will start molding with the sugar. When finished it should be a thick pasty consistency.

4. Beat in cold eggs and vanilla until well combined about 2 minutes. 

5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  Pulsing for a few times. If your dough is a little too sticky add a little more flour. You don’t want your flour too dry. Fold in the chocolate chips.

6. Tuck  2 Junior Mints into about 3 tablespoons of cookie dough. I use 3 level scoops of a cookie dough scoop, it’s about 3oz of dough if you weigh it.  Form into a ball and roll into crushed candy cane pieces. (I usually only roll the top half of the cookie.) Place cookies on parchment covered baking sheet. I bake 8 per sheet. 

4. Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes. Do not over bake. They will not look done. Cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Makes 16 large cookies.

If you want to make smaller cookies, use one cookie scoop, 1 junior mint, and bake for 8 minutes. Will make about 3 dozen cookies.

Gingerbread Dough & Frosting

This recipe is awesome for making a gingerbread house.  It's not THAT yummy to eat, but it's still pretty soft like a cookie if you want to eat it!

(this dough makes enough for 2 pretty decent sized houses.  Half the recipe if only making 1)

DOUGH
2 Cups Molasses
1 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Milk
Bring Molasses and Butter  to boil, and then let completely cool.  When cool add Milk

Sift together
6 Cups Flour
3 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon

Add molasses mixture to dry ingredients.
Let cool in refrigerator at least 1 hour.

Roll out dough 1/8inch thick ONTO TIN FOIL (this is so it doesn't lose it's shape when you transfer it to your pan).  Cut the shape of your house, using a pizza cutter.  Remove extra pieces.  Do this for all your house pieces.
Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes.

FOR WINDOWS- We like to use Jolly Ranchers or Life Savers for windows because when they melt they're see through.  You can use any hard candy.  Little circle peppermints are fun too because they're holiday ish.  To put windows in, before you bake your pieces, cut out the windows.  You can use cookie cutters or whatever you have.  After you bake it once, let it cool for a few minutes, then add your candy into the window spots.  Put it back in the over for another 5 minutes until it's all melted.  It will peel off of the foil just fine.

After you remove it from the oven let cool about a minute.  Then remove the piece from the pan, leaving it on the foil.  Let it cool on a cooling rack.  Remove from the foil when you are ready to put the house together.  I like to bake mine and let them sit out all night so they harden and are completely cool.

ICING FOR PASTING
1-2 Cups of Granulated Sugar

This is a trick my mother taught me, but it's a little harder than using royal icing.
Place the sugar in a large skillet over the stove on low heat.  Let it melt.  Don't let it burn.  Just keep it hot.  If it starts to smoke, turn the heat down.  Place the edge of your first piece of house in the melted sugar and very quickly attach it to the other piece.  Do this to all sides.

Attaching the roof can be very tricky.  Using a spoon, spoon the melted sugar onto the edges and carefully place your roof pieces on.

OR if you're not going to eat your house or enter it in a contest, just hot glue it together like we do! HAHAH

ROYAL ICING FOR DECORATING
2 Pounds Powdered sugar
6 Egg Whites
1/2 tsp Cream of Tarter

Beat sugar, egg whites, and cream of tarter until thick and fluffy.  If your frosting seems super runny, just add a little more powdered sugar until you get a thicker consistency that will work better.  Keep covered with a damp towel at room temperature.  Be sure to keep it covered and air tight so that it doesn't harden.
 Use for decorating, either with spoons or frosting bags.  I like to put mine in a frosting bag.

Zucchini Bread

Zucchini Bread

3 Eggs
1 1/2 C Sugar
1 C Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
3 C flour
2 Cups peeled/seeded/grated Zucchini
1 Cup Chocolate Chips (optional)

Cream eggs and sugar.  Add oil, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Sift other dry ingredients together and add to mixture.  Add Zucchini and chocolate chips.   Grease and Flour 2 Bread Loaf pans.  Split into 2 pans.  Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.  Check and pull out when knife inserted comes out clean.

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
5 whole bell peppers
1 lb ground meat (I used ground chicken which was not so great)
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 small onion, chopped (I always use dried chopped onion)
1 cup cooked potatoes, diced (I used leftover french fries, you could use frozen hash browns or cooked rice)
Salt and pepper to taste
Minced garlic to taste
Cheese (optional)

Cut tops off peppers; remove seeds and membranes. Chop edible part of tops and set aside (I omitted this step). Rinse peppers under cold water. Place peppers in a large pot; cover with salted water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain peppers and set aside.

In a skillet begin to cook the meat, add salt and pepper. When the meat is practically done, add the remaining ingredients (save some cheese for the top). Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Cook on medium heat (mix when needed) until potatoes are tender.

Spoon filling into peppers; place in casserole dish. Place extra filling, if any, around stuffed peppers. Top with cheese. Bake stuffed peppers at 350° for 20 minutes.

I am going to try using this chimichanga filling next time.

Recipe adapted from this and this.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

2 cups pumpkin
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
4 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes.