My grandma always made this, so I was really happy to find a recipe that tastes just like hers. Easy-peasy, but very time consuming.

* 1 3/4 cups sugar
* 1/2 cup water
* 4 egg whites, room temperature
* 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes or until a candy thermometer reads 242 degrees F (firm-ball stage).

Meanwhile, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl until foamy.

Slowly pour in hot sugar mixture; continue to beat on high for 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla. Continue beating until frosting reaches desired consistency, about 2 minutes.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mixture will be thick. Set aside.

½ cup Sesame Ginger Marinade (I use Lawry’s brand)
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken

Cut chicken into bite sized chunks, then cover with marinade and set aside for at least 20 minutes

Assorted vegetables, cut into chunks. You can use anything cut into bite sized pieces. I use red bell pepper, thinly sliced carrots, green onions, pineapple, and sugar snap peas

Heat a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Pour a little vegetable oil in the pan, then add the chicken. Brown chicken on all sides, then add all the vegetables. Cook the whole mixture for about 10 minutes, stirring often, then add in the peanut sauce. It will thin out and coat everything. Continue cooking until chicken is done.

Serve over white rice. Garnish with chopped cilantro and chow mein noodles.

1 eggplant, chopped with skin on
1 or 2 yellow squash, peeled and chopped
1 or 2 red bell peppers, chopped
a few baby carrots or grownup carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped

Throw all your veggies in a baking pan, coat with olive oil and salt and pepper them. Bake at 375F about 40 minutes, or until they are looking roasted.

1 package boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces

Throw the chicken breasts into a baking dish with salt, pepper and olive oil. Bake them in a 375F about 20 minutes.

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 T lemon juice
3 T olive oil
1/2 t dried thyme
1 t dried tarragon

Mix the sauce ingredients together.

1 box pasta (I use whole wheat penne), boiled and drained

1/2 container feta cheese

When the vegetables and chicken come out of the oven, dump them into the drained pasta. Stir around. Add the balsamic vinegar mixture and the feta cheese. Stir around some more.

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Put in baking dish, sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Bake at 350F until done (about 20 minutes).

*I have also used shredded rotisserie chicken and it works well.

Sauce:

1 large can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup water
1 T. graham marsala (on the spice aisle)
1 T. minced garlic
1 T. butter
1 t. ginger
1 small dash cayenne pepper (more if you like it spicy)
2-3 T. honey
1 cup cream

Melt the butter in a big pot. Add in the graham marsala and garlic and brown it. Add in the rest of the ingredients except the cream. Put in the chicken, boil it up for a while, then remove from heat and stir in the cream.

*I’ve also made this in the crockpot and it has worked well.

I like to serve it with Jasmine rice and naan bread from Giant. I also serve it with sour cream because I am too lazy to make the proper Indian sauce.

18 corn tortillas
½ can refried beans
½ cup salsa
Lots of grated cheddar and Colby jack
1 pound ground turkey
1 diced onion
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1 package Old El Paso 40% less sodium taco seasoning
1 can black beans
1 can enchilada sauce

Stick the diced onion, ground turkey and frozen spinach in a really big pan and cook it all until the meat is browned and the spinach is all unfrozen. Add in the black beans and taco seasoning and let it all simmer a little while.

Take a 9×13” pan and spray it with Pam. Layer six corn tortillas to cover the bottom of it. Spread refried beans over the tortillas, then spread salsa over that. Then add a layer of grated cheese.

Cover with another six corn tortillas, then cover that with your meat mixture. You’ll probably have some left over for burritos another day. You can freeze it.

Pour half the can of enchilada sauce over the meat mixture, cover with six more corn tortillas, then pour over the rest of the enchilada sauce. Cover with grated cheese.

Cover with foil, and bake at 350 until cheese is bubbly (about 40 minutes).

Serve with sour cream and chips, or maybe guacamole and salsa.

Good luck!

Nancy Wagoner’s Sourdough Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup butter [I use butter flavor Crisco]
1 cup sourdough starter at room temperature, but not necessarily freshly fed
½ cup buttermilk at room temperature
Melted butter (for brushing the tops of the unbaked biscuits)

Sift or stir together the flour, salt, soda, and baking powder to mix well. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingers until the mixture resembles cornmeal.

Mix the buttermilk and the sourdough starter. I take the starter out of the fridge, measure it into a measuring cup, add the buttermilk to the starter, mix with a spatula, and put the sourdough-buttermilk mixture which is in the measuring cup into a larger container of hot water–changing the water until the starter-buttermilk mixture is room temperature. I feel safe using older starter which has been refrigerated. I am not relying on the yeast in the starter to do all of the work of leavening. The baking powder and soda will do a lot of the leavening for these biscuits. However, there is still some life left in the starter. I wouldn’t warm the mixture in the microwave because the ‘hot spots’ created in a microwave could kill the critters in the starter and we need them to be alive. You could gently warm the buttermilk to no more than 85°, however, and let the starter sit at room temperature for an hour or so and then mix them together.

With a fork, stir the buttermilk-starter mixture into the dry ingredients until a soft dough forms and it comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead gently for 30 seconds. Roll ½ inch thick. Cut biscuits and place on a lightly greased baking sheet with sides touching. Brush tops with melted butter. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes in a warm place. Bake in the center of the oven at 425° for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

I’m calling this my crazy lasagna because I got the base from my friend and she is horrified with what I’ve done with it. It tastes pretty darn awesome, if I do say so myself!

Meat Mixture:
1 lb ground chicken
16 oz box frozen spinach
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (I used Muir Glen Organic Chunky Tomato and Herb)
16 oz container small curd cottage cheese

Extra Sauce:
29 oz can Hunts tomato sauce
1 t. sugar
½ t. black pepper
1 ½ t. oregano
1 T basil

Other:
1 box no boil lasagna noodles
2 ½ bags of shredded Italian cheese (I like the 4 or 5 cheese blend)

I always make my meat mixture the day before because it just seems easier and I like the flavors to mingle. The meat mixture actually makes enough for two lasagnas so I freeze half of it for later.

Get out a big pot. Put the ground chicken in the pot, salt and pepper it and start chunking it up. Pour in the jar of pasta sauce and add in the frozen spinach. I simmer this all together until the spinach all melts and the chicken is cooked. I just walk by every once in a while and scrape the frozen spinach around to reveal the next layer. When it is all cooked, I take it from the heat and stir in the cottage cheese then put it in the fridge for the night.

The next day I put the ingredients for the extra sauce in a bowl and stir well.

Get out a big baking dish and spray with Pam. Pour about ½ cup of the extra sauce in the bottom, then put four pasta sheets in the bottom of the pan. They will need to overlap somewhat. You want to make sure they are nice and saucy since they aren’t boiled. Then I layer on the meat mixture, a thin coating of sauce and some cheese. Then lay down another four pasta sheets, cover them with a thin layer of extra sauce, then meat mixture, then cheese. Then I put down four more noodles, cover them with all my leftover sauce, put more cheese over it and that usually fills the dish.

Cover the pan with foil and bake at 375 for about an hour. Remove the foil and cook an additional 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit about 15 minutes before cutting into it.

Spicy Pumpkin Muffins

INGREDIENTS

1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
(Note: you could just use three cups all purpose flour)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs

Topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 T. flour
2 T butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat together pumpkin puree, vegetable oil and eggs. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour mixture until smooth.

Prepare topping by mixing together brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter, then add chopped nuts.

Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups (really spray them down with cooking spray if you aren’t using liners). Press a spoonful of topping onto each muffin.

Bake in preheated oven (350 degrees) for 20 to 25 minutes for full sized muffins, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. I made mini-muffins and they needed about 18 minutes of cooking time. The recipe was HUGE and made 5 dozen mini muffins, so even though it says it makes 12 regular sized muffins I think it makes more than that. I made a couple of regular sized muffins and thought they tasted better than the little ones.

Soft Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup butter

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (one time I made them with only 3 ¼ cup flour and liked that batch better)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration (I don’t do this step)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, shortening and sugar. Stir in the eggs, almond and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, stir into the creamed mixture until dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and roll the balls in sugar. Place them on an unprepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. (I prefer to use a cookie dough scoop).

Bake cookies 8-10minutes in the preheated oven, until bottom is light brown. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks.

I buttercream icing instead of rolling the balls in sugar

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 cup dry bread crumbs
Mrs. Dash and pepper to taste
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs
1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a bowl, beat eggs and honey together until well blended.
In a separate bowl, toss together pecans, bread crumbs, Mrs. Dash and pepper.
Dip chicken breasts in egg and honey mixture, and then roll in pecan mixture, coating thoroughly. Press pecan mixture onto chicken breast if it falls off.
Arrange chicken side by side in a buttered baking dish.
Drizzle melted butter evenly over chicken.
Bake for 45 minutes, until chicken is no longer pink. (You may want to cover it the first 30 minutes)