Chicken Noodle Soup

This might get a little confusing, so I am sorry ahead of time. I don't really have a recipe for this one, I just add as much of everything as I want. Good Luck!

Boil 3 pieces Chicken in water with boyon. When chicken is fully cooked remove the chicken and add enough water to the broth to boil 1 package egg noodles. Mean while, shred chicken. When noodles are cooked add 1 cube butter, salt, Mrs. Dash, parsley and shredded chicken. Cool for a little bit and add 1 pint sour cream. It might curdle the sour cream if you add it to boiling hot broth.

We serve this with rolls or homemade bread! It is so YUMMY! Hope you enjoy it!

Carrot Cake

Here is the carrot cake recipe that some of you wanted. I made it over the 24th weekend and it was REALLY good! I absolutely love this cake!

2 c. flour 2 tsps salt
2 c. sugar 2 tsps cinnamon
1 1/2 c. oil 2 tsps baking soda
3 cups grated carrots 4 eggs
1/4 c. pecans 1 c. crushed pineapple

Blend sugar, oil, and eggs. Mix dry ingredients and then add to sugar mixture. Add carrots, nuts and pineapple. Blend well. Bake at 375 Degrees for 1 hour.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese 1 box powdered sugar
1 cube butter 2 tsps. vanilla

Mix all ingredients until smooth.
I cut the frosting recipe in half when I mak a 9x13 cake and it is still more then enough.

Little Red Hen

I finally attempted to make bread! I've been putting it off with the excuse that I dont have a big electric mixer of some sort, not to mention that I left my bread pans in storage in AZ. I recently purchased a hand wheat grinder so that I could actually use my wheat. Here's our story of
"The Little Red Hen".

Sunday morning I decided to make bread for my family. Dayson was so excited to use the wheat grinder and I was more than happy to let him help! I had to take a break after about 3 cups, so Dayson dove in. He did pretty good. Between him and James, they ground about 5 cups. My muscles might be a tad bigger next time you see me.

It took about 30 min to get the 12 cups necessary to bake bread. (that wasn't including the breaks I had to take. Not bad, right? I wanted to try the recipe Kristine posted a few months ago, but realized that I didn't have evaporated milk. So I did another recipe that I had made before using someones Bosch. I bought some Vital Wheat Gluten, but forgot to put it in! Oops. The mixing wasn't bad, just sticky. It took more flour than I ground up, good thing I had whole wheat flour from the store on hand. I got it all mixed in, where it actually looked like dough! The yeast even foamed this time! I was feeling pretty Betty Crocker! I got the dough into loaves and into the pans (I checked at Walmart and they were $4 each, the dollar store had them for $1 each, sometimes I can really score there.) I dont know if this is a great idea or not, but I put the pans on the hood of my car outside to rise. When I went to put them in the oven I had to rearrange things to get them all in there. I forget how small the kitchen is until I get into the middle of something. Easter dinner was chaotic, but turned out nicely. Anyway, the bread:

was delicious. We ate almost a whole loaf as soon as it was done. Luckily I had canned some strawberry jam a few weeks back. It went perfectly with it. I now have the confidence to bake bread without a Bosch! Oh, and my family members helped me make it and eat it, unlike the other Little Red Hen!

Cinco de Mayo Recipe

I got this recipe from a friend of mine that is a caterer, so you know it's good. ;) She calls it "Texas Caviar" but I will give 10 points to whoever can think of a better name for it.  It's like a black bean and corn salsa or salad that is an entire meal (with chips) on its own.  Oh, and you definitely need to make it at least half a day ahead if you can't do it the day ahead.  It gets better with age.  So, here goes.

Texas Caviar (Corn and Black Bean Salad)

2 Cans Corn – rinsed and drained

2 Cans Black Beans – rinsed and drained

1 Can White Hominy – rinsed and drained

2 Bunches Green Onions – chopped

1 Bunch Cilantro – chopped

1 (6 oz) Can Diced Green Chiles (or 2 (4 oz) cans)

12 Roma Tomatoes – chopped (or 2-3 cans Rotel or similar)

2 Teaspoons (heaping) Jalepeños (or more, to taste)

Sprinkle of Crushed Red Pepper

Garlic Salt – to taste

Onion Salt – to taste

Pepper – to taste

2 Pkgs. Italian Dressing

        Sprinkle 1 mixture in dry

        Prepare 1 mixture according to directions and pour in 

MARINATE OVERNIGHT

3-6 Avocados – diced and mixed in just before serving (depending on your avocado preference)

SERVE WITH TORTILLA CHIPS

This stuff is delicious.  My whole family ate it.  It makes like 3 quarts, so Matt and I ate it for lunch for several days, and I was able to share a couple of servings with people.  Another great thing is that you can alter it to your preferences or what you have on hand, but I think it's best how it is.

Buena Suerte!

Orange Chicken

I found this recipe on www.allrecipes.com. My kids love chinese food and they love this recipe. When I found it, I was kind of turned off because the first review of it says it is horrible, but I read on and found that people didn't think it was to bad IF you changed a couple things. I will add the link but if it doesn't work it is titled "Orange chicken" and it is listed by: sal. The 2 reviews that had the changes that I used were from FELICIOUS and CUTECOOK17. (This is Dallins favorite meal, he even eats it with his chopsticks that he has saved from a restaraunt, and he is really good with them. I think it is a sign of him serving his mission in Asia. :) We will see.) I have been trying to feed my family healthier foods so instead of serving it with just plain white rice, I did 1/2 white and 1/2 brown, I liked it alot better and the kids couldn't even tell! Here is the link: www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orange-Chicken/Detail.aspx

Warning: Do not eat this!

It was brought to my attention that this post looked like spam so I've edited it. Rest assured, the links are safe :)

I've had home furnishings/ decorations on the brain lately so I was really excited when I read Brittanie Kivett West's blog this morning. She and her husband built an awesome twin bed with free plans from Ana-White.com  I clicked on the link and quickly fell in love with her plans. She makes it seem so easy that I want to rush out to buy a saw and wood and get started on something right away!

Another favorite furniture site is betterafter.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Katie

Here is my favorite bread recipe. This isn't a QUICK 1 HR BREAD. It does take some time for rising but it's so worth it! This is still a one rise bread but letting it rise more slowly really improves the flavor of the bread. Make sure you use white wheat and go ahead and buy vital wheat gluten & dough enhancer. They really are keys to light & fluffy bread & rolls. Nancy's Yummy, Easy Whole Wheat Bread

My friend, Nancy, brought us this great bread when we moved in. It was so great that I went over to her house to find out her "secrets". The secret is that it's easy! Yields: 5 Loaves Ingredients 3 1/2 cups Hot tap water (!) (helps offset the cool can of milk) 1 12 oz can Evaporated milk 3 tablespoons Yeast (I like SAF) 2/3 cup Vegetable oil 1 cup Honey (use the same measuring glass as the oil and the honey slides right out) 1 1/2 cups White Bread Flour 3 tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten 2 tablespoons Dough Enhancer 1 1/2 tablespoons Salt of Milled Flax Seed (optional) this adds extra nutrition and nice "specks" in the bread 12 cups Whole Wheat Flour (I used WHITE wheat: approx 8 c. wheat = 12 c. flour)
Instructions Grind your wheat while getting everything else ready. Then, using a Bosch or other heavy duty mixer, combine ingredients Water through white bread flour. Add 6 c. wheat flour. Mix well, then add rest of flour, vital wheat gluten, dough enhancer, salt and flax seed. Mix well til dough pulls away from side of the bowl. It will be sticky but should pull away from the bowl while mixing. This is pretty critical. It's tempting to add too much flour at this point. Wait and watch to see if the dough will pull away. If it's just too wet, then add more flour but let it mix for a minute or 3! Set timer for 8-10 minutes and knead the dough according to your machine's setting. If you have to add more flour, you'll need to knead it longer to develop the new flour's gluten so make sure it's ready for this step before setting timer. To tell if the gluten is developed enough (& you're done kneading),flour hands & pinch off a bouncy ball size ball of dough. Roll in hands to form ball then using your middle fingers of both hands, try to stretch the center of the dough out as far as you can before it breaks. You're trying to form a very thin dough "window". The dough is finished kneading when you can get it really thin and see light through it. Call me if this is too confusing! Dump out dough onto an oiled counter and spread with your hands. Form into a long log and then divide it into 5 loaves. Either roll out wth a rolling pin and roll up cinnamon roll fashion OR simply form a loaf with your hands. Place in bottom of greased loaf pan. Let rise in a warm spot on your kitchen counter until doubled in size. Cover pans with damp cloth. This takes longer than rising dough in a warmed oven, but this slower rise takes away the harsh yeasty flavor quick-rise bread has. You can even rise overnight in the fridge and bake in the am. Bake in preheated 350° for 25-30 minutes, then remove from pans and let cool completely before slicing (if you can wait that long!).
Given to Kristine Hipps by Nancy Whyte Cuisine : Main Ingredient :