Sock-It-To-Me-Cake

Ingredients

Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces sour cream
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil

Topping:
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions
Beat all the cake ingredients. In the bottom of a well greased Bundt pan, put a layer of the topping. Then put a layer of the batter. Continue layering, ending with topping. Bake for one hour at 325 degrees. Leave in the pan for 25 - 30minutes.

Ever since I was a little girl I remember having this brunch cake with our Christmas breakfast. My mom would always make it with a sausage-egg casserole. We make this cake as a dessert by it self a lot of times though. It always reminds me of Christmas though, and there isn't much better than that. Hope you enjoy!

Southwestern Egg Rolls

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com
and they taste pretty good!!
(I added my two cents in bold)

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion
• 2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
• 1/3 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 2 tablespoons diced jalapeno peppers (they come in a can too)
  
• 1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley (I used oregano instead)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
• 3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 5 (6 inch) flour tortillas (I used egg roll wrappers, and think that these would come out a lot better than the torillas...less soggy, thinner, and more crunchy...they tasted great)
  
• 1 quart oil for deep frying

DIRECTIONS

1. Rub 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over chicken breast. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook chicken approximately 5 minutes per side, until meat is no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from heat and set aside. (Obviously cut chicken open, if you're unsure...mine took a lot longer than that)
2. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in green onion and red pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until tender.
3. Dice chicken and mix into the pan with onion and red pepper. Mix in corn, black beans, spinach, jalapeno peppers, parsley, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat and stir in Monterey Jack cheese so that it melts.
4. Wrap tortillas with a clean, lightly moist cloth. Microwave on high approximately 1 minute, or until hot and pliable.
5. Spoon even amounts of the mixture into each tortilla. Fold ends of tortillas, then roll tightly around mixture. Secure with toothpicks. Arrange in a medium dish, cover with plastic, and place in the freezer. Freeze at least 4 hours.
6. In a large, deep skillet, heat oil for deep frying to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Deep fry frozen, stuffed tortillas 10 minutes each, or until dark golden brown. Drain on paper towels before serving.

SERVINGS: 5

(If you're using egg roll wrappers, you can forget about Direction #4. And as far as Direction #5, we just spooned the mixture in, folded in the bottom, then sides, put water on the remaining wrapper, and rolled it up. We didn't need toothpicks, as it stuck just fine with water, and we didn't freeze them before frying. (Though, maybe the freezing would help with the reheating. I don't know why they ask you to freeze them beforehand. Anybody know?)

They're pretty big so quadrupling the 5 serving recipe was a bad idea because I can only eat one for a meal. (What was I thinking?!?) If you feel like making the recipe bigger than what the original recipe makes, I wouldn't cook them all in one night. If you decide to make a bunch at once, just store them in the fridge or freezer until you're ready to fry them because they don't taste as good reheated. At least not in the microwave...maybe they will in the oven.
Oh and you have to have them with the sauce! I think it makes the dish. The sauce I used was some chili lime ranch sauce I had from Arby's, but I'm going to find a recipe to make a similar sauce in the next few days, so I'll let you know what I find...
Anybody have a good kinda spicy ranch sauce recipe?

Easy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 Box of Spice Cake Mix
1 Egg
1 Bag of Chocolate Chips
1 Small Can of Pumpkin

*Thoroughly mix Pumpkin, Cake Mix, and Egg together
*Add Chocolate Chips and mix together

350 degrees for 10-12 minutes

*Side note* They come out in the same basic shape you set them in before baking, so you'll want to make sure you roll them into balls before.
I made that mistake. I don't know what I was thinking, but I was in my church clothes and didn't want to touch the dough so I just flicked them on the cookie sheet with a spatula. Haha, they didn't look so pretty, but still tasted just fine.

What's Yours?

What's your favorite Thanksgiving tradition, food, or recipe (or all)??
Please feel free to reply with a comment or new post.

My favorite Thanksgiving foods that I drool over a few days prior have got to be String Bean Casserole, The Pink Stuff, and pies, pies, pies. MMMMMM!!

I absolutely love string bean casserole and make it many times a year. I always double the recipe and that fits nicely into your normal casserole dish. You can find the recipe on the back of the Fried Onion Cans, or I just can tell you (cause I've got it memorized!)

The Pink Stuff is a family tradition. My Aunt makes it every year, even though none of her kids like it. Basically it's just me and my sister eating the bowl ourselves. No one knows exactly what it's called, so we just call it The Pink Stuff, but here's the recipe (it's super easy and may not sound the greatest, but, oh, it is:

One can of Fruit Cocktail
One tub of Cool Whip
One tub of Cottage Cheese
One box of Jello Powder (usually Strawberry)

**Drain the fruit and mix together!!

And as for Pies, you can pretty much never go wrong with them. I love all sorts....pumpkin, banana cream, chocolate.... the list goes on and on.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been trying to find a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. I did my trusty search on allrecipes.com and found this wonderful recipe. I was a little worried about the vanilla pudding powder, it just seemed so weird, but they were so tasty! The best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made! You need to seriously try these. I only made 1/2 batch since I'm home all day and didn't want them staring at me begging me to eat them. The half batch made more than enough.

Click here for the original recipe.

Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

My changes

Add: 2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons vanilla
Left out nuts, used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. Only because Casey doesn't like semi-sweet
Cooked until barely starting to brown on edges = perfect soft cookies

Jack O' Lantern Strawberries

Who doesn't love chocolate dipped strawberries?

I got this recipe/idea from Sandra Lee. I think it's super cute and pretty easy. For some reason my white chocolate was weird and kinda clumpy so I looked up how to fix it and ended up adding 1 Tablespoon of crisco. Kinda gross huh, but it tasted fine and made it perfectly smooth. Coming up with different faces was alot of fun!

My First What's Cookin Post- Pineapple Sesame Chicken

I love food blogs and decided I should start contributing to this one! Thanks Emily for starting it! This is what we ate for dinner last night. I wish the picture was better. I'm not sure how to take pictures of food. It tasted amazing! Both Casey and I loved it! I got the recipe from my favorite food blog Picky Palate- check it out. She makes lots of yummy food and her pictures are great! Click here for the original recipe.

Pineapple Sesame Chicken

4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons pineapple juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons ginger (grated)*
1 pound chicken (cut into bite sized pieces)*
1 teaspoon peanut oil
4 servings cooked rice
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
green onions to garnish

Directions:
1. Mix the soy sauce, pineapple juice, honey, sugar, ginger and chicken in a ziplock bag and marinate in the fridge for about an hour.
2. Heat the oil in a pan.
3. Add the chicken and marinade to the pan and saute until the chicken is cooked and the sauce begins to thicken.
4. Serve on cooked rice and garnish with the sesame seeds and green onions

* I used 1/4 teaspoon dried, ground ginger
* I used frozen chicken thawed then cut into bite sized pieces. It worked great.

Cheesy Pork Chops with Spicy Apples

I stumbled across this recipe awhile ago on allrecipes.com, and now it is one of my favorite meals to make. The flavor combination of this dish is so good. I especially love the flavor the balsamic vinegar adds.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, sliced
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1 apple, cored and sliced
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 pork chops
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices extra sharp Cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Prepare a grill for high heat.

2. While the grill heats, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until soft. Season with red pepper flakes then add the sliced apple. Stir in the sugar and balsamic vinegar, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until apples are soft and golden.

3. Season the pork chops with salt and pepper. Grill for 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Spoon the onions and apples on top of the chops, and top with a slice of Cheddar cheese. Cover the grill, and cook for about 3 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbling.

New World Chili

This is my favorite chili recipe. I found it in Better Homes and Gardens. It is so easy to make. Just throw everything in the crock pot, and leave it for the day.


Ingredients
1 lb. turkey breast tenderloin, cut into 1-inch pieces, (I use 1 lb. of ground turkey)
1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes
1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 8-oz. can tomato sauce
1 cup peeled, seeded and cubed butternut squash
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 fresh jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups shredded fresh spinach
4 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (1 cup)

Directions
1. In a 5-quart slow cooker combine turkey, undrained tomatoes, beans, tomato sauce, squash, onion, the 1/2 cup chicken broth, corn, cranberries, jalapeño pepper, chili powder, and garlic.
2. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 10 to 12 hours or on high-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours. If desired, stir in additional broth to reach desired consistency. Stir in spinach just before serving. Sprinkle each serving with cheese. Makes 6 servings.

Pot Roast

PREP TIME: 10 minutes
Makes 8 servings
Recipe from McCormick

INGREDIENTS:
1 pkg of McCormick Slow Cooker Savory Pot Roast
2 1/2 to 3 lbs boneless chuck or rump roast, well trimmed
5 cups cut up fresh vegetables, such as carrots, celery, onions and potatoes
1 cup water

DIRECTIONS:
1) Place roast and vegetables in crock pot.

2) Mix seasoning and water until blended. Pour over roast and vegetables. Cover. Do not remove cover during cooking.

3) Cook 8 hours on low OR 4 hours on high. Remove roast and vegetables to serving platter. Stir sauce before serving.