Marsala Lasagna

Ingredients:
Sauce:
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup onion, diced
1 tablespoon garlic, chopped
½ pound mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup Marsala wine
1 cup beef stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Cheese Mixture:

16 oz Ricotta cheese
½ cup Parmesan, grated
2 cups shredded Mozzarella
1 egg

Other:

1 lb Italian sausage (mild or spicy- you pick), cut and browned
Box of lasagna noodles

Directions:

Sauce:
Add olive oil to heavy hot saucepan.  Add onions, garlic, mushrooms, saute until mushrooms are tender.  Add flour and cook about 1 minute then deglaze pan with Marsala wine.  Add beef stock and cook until thick and flavors are blended.

Cheese Mixture: Whisk egg and then add cheeses and mix all together.

Assembly: Lightly cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer of sauce.  Then do noodles, cheese, meat, sauce. Repeat three times.  Cover with foil.  Cook at 375 for 40 minutes.  Remove tin foil and cook for another 10.

Zuppa Toscana

Zuppa Toscana (better than Olive Garden!)

1 lb. Italian sausages (use spicy to get that signature Olive Garden flavor)
4-6 russet potatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/4 c. REAL bacon pieces (optional)
2 Tbsp minced garlic (about 3-4 cloves)
32 oz. chicken broth
1 c. kale or Swiss chard, chopped
1 c. heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp flour

1. Brown sausage links in a sauté pan.
2. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut slices.
3. Place sausage, chicken broth, garlic, potatoes and onion in slow cooker. Add just enough water to cover the vegetables and meat.
4. Cook on high 3-4 hours (low 5-6 hours) until potatoes are soft.

30 minutes before serving:
5. Mix flour into cream removing lumps.
6. Add cream, kale, and bacon to the crock pot, stir.
7. Cook on high 30 minutes or until broth thickens slightly.
8. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

BEST. SOUP. EVER!!!!

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

I made the tortillas from scratch using Masa or Maseca and followed the directions for about 12 tortillas, then I split the dough in half and rolled them both out (one in the casserole dish I wanted to use) and one on a cookie sheet to about the same size.  Then I baked them for about 5-10 minutes at 350.  If you want to use pre-made tortillas, then skip this step.

Ingredients:
Masa or corn tortillas (enough to cover the bottom of the pan twice). 
One large can of enchilada sauce
One can of tomatoes with green chiles in it
About 1/2 lb block of cheddar cheese (shredded)
Chicken (breasts or thighs, or whatever you like)- I do 6-10 pieces depending on how many people I'm feeding and how filling I want it to be.
Cumin
Cilantro (I've used dried and a frozen cube of cilantro before, but whatever you have)

Directions:
1. Clean chicken and cut into pieces.  Throw in a saucepan and start to cook on med-low.
2. Add cilantro and cumin- sprinkle over the whole pan.  Then add tomatoes to saucepan. and about half the cheese and stir.
3. Lay half the tortillas in the bottom of the casserole dish you want to use (9x13?).  Then pour in the chicken, tomato and cheese mixture. (NOTE: chicken should not be completely cooked, that was just to give it a head start to ensure that it is fully cooked when the cheese melts in the oven.)  And then pour in most of the enchilada sauce.
4. Layer the remaining tortillas on top and pour remaining enchilada sauce on and remaining cheese on top.
5. Bake at 350 for 20-35 minutes (til the cheese is melted and a little brown)

Wassel

Makes 1 gallon
1 1/4 cup sugar
4 cups water                            Boil for 10 min.

12 whole cloves

6 cinnamon sticks          Add and leave for hour

4 allspice berries       

3 cups orange juice

2 cups lemonade           Add & let stand over night

2 quarts apple cider

        Remove spices

Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (5 1/2 cups when doubled)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened (1/2 shortening)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups)

-Preheat oven to 300
-In medium bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt.  Mix well with wire whisk.  Set aside.
-In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend sugars at medium speed.  Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl.  Add eggs and vanilla extract, and mix at medium speed until just blended.  Do not overmix.
-Add the flour mixture and chocolate chips, and blend at low speed until just mixed.  Do not overmix.
- Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.  Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Transfer cookies immediately to a cool surface with a spatula.

Garlic Shrimp Alfredo

Ingredients:

Mostaccioli pasta (preferred type- similar to a penne noodle)

Alfredo sauce of your choice

Classico Pesto Sauce

Tony Chachere's seasoning

shrimp scampi mix

Pasta:

Prepare normally, boil water, cook pasta, drain, etc.

Sauce:

1. Cook shrimp scampi mix in a frying pan

2. Add a can of Alfredo sauce

3. Add 2-3 spoonfuls of Pesto sauce

4. Sprinkle Tony's

5. Mix all together

Combine:
1. Pour sauce mixture in pot used to make pasta and mix all together.

Stacey's Pork Chops

These I learned in Louisiana from a very good friend of mine- Stacey.  He barbecued them, and I must say they do seem to taste better when barbecued, but I don't own a barbecue and so every time I've made them, I've done them in the oven and they work just fine.

Ingredients: 
Pork chops (or another meat- I've done sirloin steaks too)
Bell Peppers (any colors you like, I do red, orange and yellow)
Onions
Pineapple Rings (canned slices that are still round)
Teriyaki Sauce
Tabasco Sauce (or another hot sauce you like)
Bacon
Toothpicks

Prep:
1. Make sure that you will be able to fold over the meat, or cut it in half (do not cut completely in half- keep one side attached).  I usually cut it open.
2. Marinate the meat in Teriyaki Sauce and a little bit of Tabasco Sauce and also the pineapple juice (open the can with the sliced rings in it and drain the juice into the marinade).  If you don't like your meat as dry, marinate it for longer.  For the pork chops I've done anywhere from 2 hours to all day. 
3. Slice the bell peppers and onion(s).

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. For each piece of meat, fill the inside with a selection of your bell peppers, onions and either half or a whole ring of pineapple per piece of meat.
2. Fold over, and wrap in bacon (it usually takes 3-4 slices per piece of meat).  When you wrap the bacon around, this is when you use the toothpicks.  Try to completely wrap your piece of meat, use the toothpicks to keep the ends of the bacon slices where you want them.
4. Place the finished pieces in a pan/casserole dish/cake pan.  Pour the marinade over the finished pieces.  Use the extra pineapple rings and drape over the toothpicks.
5. Throw the extra vegetables in the pan in the marinade to cook them with the meat.
6. Cook for however long the meat takes to cook.  With the pork chops it seems to take about 45 minutes.

Thai Pumpkin Soup

It's not spicy, we loved it, and it's LOW in points, so great for a base for other things.
2 Points Plus on Weight Watchers for 3/4 cup serving
Prep: 6 minutes Cook: 8 minutes

So, what you need:
2 Tablespoons Red Curry Paste
1 (13.5) can light coconut milk (we couldn't find light milk, but we found some without anything added and we figured that was just as good)
1 cup water
1 (15 ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
lime wedges (optional)

The recipe strongly suggests using the cilantro and lime wedges and we loved them also.  We added the cilantro while cooking the rest of the stuff though

1. Place curry paste in a medium saucepan.  Add coconut milk, stirring with a whisk until smooth.  Stir in 1 cup water and pumpkin (we add cilantro here); cook over medium heat 8 minutes or until thoroughly heated.  Remove from heat; stir in fish sauce.
2. Ladle soup into bowls.  Top with chopped cilantro, and serve with lime wedges.  Yields: 6 servings

We had this as soup the other night, but tonight we did it more like a curry base.  We cooked up some beef for some meat, and added more vegetables for the curry mixture (anything from broccoli, carrots, onions, celery... whatever sounds good to you that has no points- or just count for them.  We've also tried an Asian frozen mix of vegetables).  And then we cooked up some white rice (3 points for 1/2 cup or 5 points for 1 cup).  So we served white rice and poured the soup and veggies and beef on top.

Fruit Salad

You will need: Fruit (things I've used before- grapes, strawberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges, apple slices and bananas)
a jar of Marshmallow Creme
a stick of cream cheese
a large bowl

One jar of Marshmallow Creme and one stick of cream cheese can go a long way, so unless you are making enough for 10+, you probably don't need to double it.  Especially if you use strawberries which adds fruit juice to the mixture and allows it to spread thinner and further.

Steps:
1. warm up Marshmallow Creme in the jar.  Take off the lid, stick in the microwave- I usually set it for a minute- but you HAVE to watch it.  What you're looking for is to wait til it starts puffing up over the rim and looks pretty rounded.  If you just forget about it in the microwave it might explode and let me tell you- it's a pain to clean up.
2. Scoop out Marshmallow Creme into a bowl (whatever you want to mix everything together in). And add the cream cheese (make sure it's soft enough that you can mix it).
3. Mix the Marshmallow Creme and cream cheese together.  My roommate used a hand mixer, but I've also done without it, with the aid of a fork- it takes much longer to get it smooth and fully mixed but still works if you don't have a hand mixer available.
4. start adding the fruit.  Make sure it's all sliced, if needed.  (Examples- pineapple needs to be sliced unless you bought them in chunks.  Bananas need to be sliced.  Strawberries I usually slice in half.  Grapes you can slice if you have extra time and want them sliced.  Apples should be sliced).

Raspberry Rice

White rice
Glazed walnuts
Raisins
Raspberry Vinaigrette

Make white rice as directed.  Then fry up with lots of raspberry vinaigrette and glazed walnut and raisins. 

Tomato Basil Squares

5-6 roma tomatoes
2/3 c mayonaise
fresh basil
parmesan cheese (triangle)
2 c mozzarella
bridgeford frozen bread (1 1/2 loaves)

Cook 20-25 minutes

Orange Rolls

(if TRIPLE, then just double yeast)

1/4 c water
1 pkg or 1 T yeast
jiggle together, sprinkle sugar on top, set aside.

Scald milk- 1 c (no boil on top- sides and bottom)

1/2 c shortening
1/3 c sugar
1 t salt
Mix together
Add milk and let sit- 5 minutes

4 3/4 c flour (won't use all- dough needs to be sticky)
2 beaten eggs
1/4 c mixed orange juice
Add 2 cups of flour, some of the eggs and some of the yeast to the mix.  Stir.  Add the rest of the flour little by little with more eggs and more yeast- just makes sure it's still sticky.  When you're out of eggs and yeast add in orange juice and more flour.  Just make sure the dough remains sticky.

Let sit and cover (1 hour to 1 1/2 hours depending on temperature- until doubled).  Then punch and let sit for 10 more minutes.

Grease counter
Roll out dough in rectangle.  Use a pizza cutter to cut in 3/4 inch strips.
Butter pan.  Loosely tie strips in knots and set in pan.  Let them rise some more for 30-40 minutes.
Cook at 375 for 9 minutes.

Glaze: Orange juice and powdered sugar.  Spoon over baked rolls

For quick rolls, use a pre-made dinner roll and make orange glaze- not as good, but good replica for the time it saves.

Heart-attack Rolls

Ingredients:

Rolls (preferably Pistolettes if they can be found, if not just a normal dinner roll, or Hawaiian sweet roll- something with a soft "penetrable" outside, not like sourdough or french bread)
Butter- lots of butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. First melt the butter (approx a stick of butter for ever 12 rolls you do)

3. Place the rolls in a pan with a lip

4. Spoon the melted butter over the rolls. I usually try and get at least two spoonfuls per roll (Optional step: sprinkle Parmesan Cheese or a favorite seasoning on top of all or a few of the rolls)

5. Place in the oven. They will cook fast, so in about 2-5 minutes take them out and re-spoon over butter that is in the bottom of the pan. Place back in the oven until the tops start to look golden and the butter starts to crystallize.

Rolls should be soggy and soaked through with butter- therefore making them super delicious and also very fattening.

Banana Bread

2 cup shortening

   1 cup sugar

   2 eggs

   3 ripe bananas (1 cup crushed)

   1 tsp soda

   2 cups flour

   2 tsp salt

   1/4 cup nuts (if desired)

        Mix ingredients in order given and bake a 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1      hour.

Ginger-Caramelized Pineapple

PointsPlus: 3 pts for 2 pineapple spears and 1 teaspoon of syrup
Prep: 2 minutes  Cook: 9 minutes

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
1 (1 1/4 pound) cored fresh pineapple, cut vertically into 12 spears (for a really good pineapple look for a really good golden pineapple- the less green the better. Or see if you can pick out a leaf easily from the top)
2 tablespoons light butter, cut into pieces (I used yogurt butter)
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat a large skillet over high heat..  Coat pan with cooking spray; add pineapple.  Add butter pieces, and quickly tilt pan in all directions so butter covers pan with a thin film.
2. Cook pineapple 8 minutes or until browned, turning once.
3. Add vanilla.  Add honey, ginger, and salt; cook 1 minute, tossing to coat with honey.
YIELD: 6 servings

Sugared Nuts

Preheat oven 300 degrees

Stir: 1 1/2 c sugar
3 t cinnamon
1 1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t (heaping) salt

In another bowl: 3 egg whites and 3 T water

Add 12 c of nuts to egg and water mixture.  MIX until all nuts are wet.  Add sugar mixture.  STIR.

Spread out on a raised cookie sheet. (Can cook 2 cookie sheets at once).  Bake 1 hour.  Stir and loosen with spatula.  Bake an additional 30-45 minutes, rotating cookies sheets if they're cooking unevenly.  Loosen, let cool.

Original Ranch Roasted Potatoes

Serves: 5
Prep Time: 15 min.
Cook Time: 35 min.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
2 pounds small red potatoes, quartered or chopped

Directions:
Place potatoes in a gallon-sized plastic Ziploc bag and add oil; seal bag.  Toss to coat.  Add salad dressing mix and toss again until coated.  Bake in ungreased baking pan at 450 for 30-35 minutes or until potatoes are brown and crisp.

(Michelle and Grandma Patsy)

Kool-Aid Playdough

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 pkgs unsweetened Kool-Aid
3 T oil
2 cups boiling water

Mix together salt, Kool-Aid, oil and boiling water.  Add flour.  Mixture will thicken.  Knead, adding flour as necessary