Sarah's Rolo Cookies

Story:
I have a wonderful, wonderful friend in UT, named Sarah. Love her! We lived across the street and a few houses down from each other in South Ogden; but we've both since moved from that happy little neighborhood. We shared a lot of laughs, babysitting, clothes, tears, phone conversations, and, of course, recipes. I first started getting to know her at our friend Becky's house. Becky and Scott threw great "game nights" and everyone was asked to bring something to share. Sarah brought these Rolo cookies. I knew immediately that I'd love a girl who could make something so yummy! (And little did I know at the time how easy they were!) Hope you love them too!

Ingredients:
Rolos
chocolate cake mix
1/3 C oil
2 eggs
chocolate chips

Directions:
Mix together the cake mix, the oil, and the eggs. Wrap a dab of the batter around a Rolo. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Take out of the oven, put 2 or 3 chocolate chips on each cookie, then put back in the oven for just a few seconds. Pull out again and spread the chocolate with a knife. Refrigerate, if needed, to chill.

Voila!

Note: I can't tell you exactly how many Rolos you need for the cookies because, well, I never know exactly how many of them get eaten before they actually make it into the cookies... if you know what I mean. Just buy a bag, and that will be plenty to make a batch of cookies.

Baked Mushroom Chicken

Story:
At a "Home, Family, & Personal Enrichment" activity in South Ogden, a (wonderful!) woman named Shelly gave us some great cooking tips, as well as a few of her easy, delicious favorite recipes. This is one of those recipes and it is delicious! (Admittedly, Ben and I love it more than the kids, but they like it okay.)

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1/4 C flour
3 T butter, divided
1 C fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 C chicken broth
1/8 t pepper
1/3 C shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 C grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 C green onions, sliced

Directions:
Flatten each chicken breast (I don't do this, but it would probably be better if I did.). Place flour in a resealable bag and add chicken. Seal and shake to coat.

Melt 2 T butter in a skillet and brown chicken on both sides. Transfer the chicken to a greased baking dish.

Saute mushrooms in the remaining butter. Add broth and pepper. Boil for 5 minutes.

Put the mushrooms over the chicken, then top with the cheeses and the green onions. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Ta da!


I like to serve with a green salad and either brown rice or breadsticks. (Shelly recommends rice pilaf and a fruit salad.)

Note: Ben has noticed that it seems to taste even better as leftovers the next day... y'know, when the "flavors mellow," as they say.

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Story:
This recipe is a more recent find, but is one of our family's favorites (as well as one of my most frequently requested recipes). And you know where I found it? You know those inserts in the newspaper that have coupons? And you know how, just sometimes, there will be a recipe to go with the ingredient that those marketers are trying to sell? Well this is one of those recipes--and they sold me on their La Choy products. And it is yum-my!

I first "experienced" lettuce wraps years ago while I was on a church mission in South Korea. (That's where Ben and I met... just in case you didn't know that... we were both missionaries in Seoul.) Lettuce wraps are Dee-Lish! This one isn't a Korean style wrap, but eating it with my fingers and taking big ol' bites that I can't even close my mouth around... well, it takes me right back! The original recipe didn't call for the rice, but since we always ate them with rice in Korea, I just couldn't go without. Besides, I'm all about the whole grains thing, and when you're feeding a husband that eats like mine does, you have to bulk up the meal however possible!

Ingredients:
1/4 C water
1 T cornstarch
1/2 C La Choy Teriyaki Sauce
1 to 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
1 can (8oz) whole water chestnuts, coarsely chopped
2 T vegetable oil
La Choy Rice Noodles
shredded carrots
lettuce leaves
cooked brown rice (click to see my brown rice recipe)

Directions:

• Whisk together the water and the cornstarch in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in teriyaki sauce.
• Add chicken and water chestnuts, stir to coat. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.
• Cook and stir small batches of chicken in hot oil in a wok or a large skillet until no longer pink.
• To serve: Take a lettuce leaf in your hand, pile in some rice, then chicken, then rice noodles, then shredded carrots. Try to wrap it closed and take a big bite...

Notes:

• I used to shred the carrots. I must not have the right equipment, because that was always a pain (and I'm sure it didn't help that I usually only had baby carrots on hand, so I ended up shredding my fingernails half the time... just kidding... if you've eaten my lettuce wraps, I promise there were no fingernails in the carrots). Anyway, just buy the bag of matchstick carrots (already shredded!) in the produce section and save yourself the effort. They are great to throw on green salads anyway. And my toddler loves to eat them as a snack (although I think she thinks it's shredded cheese). Oh well...
• This is a dinner I like to take in to others. It is easy to double and it can be fixed ahead. You can put most of the ingredients in little baggies, and your friends can just either cook the meat (or heat it up), and warm up the rice, whenever they are ready to eat.

Pictures coming soon...

(Kate is making this for a lunch appointment tomorrow, so she said I had to get her the recipe ASAP! Hope you like 'em Kate!)

How I Do Brown Rice

Story:

I should probably call this "How Sarah E. Taught Me To Do Brown Rice". Thanks to my friend Sarah in South Ogden, brown rice has become one of my favorite side dishes.

Directions:

The trick she taught me is to add chicken bouillon to the water before adding the rice. In her words, "It keeps it from tasting like dirt."

So in one pot, boil the rice according to the package directions (but add some chicken bouillon to the water--just a couple of teaspoons). While that's boiling, in a separate pan or wok, melt about a tablespoon or two of butter. Then saute lots of chopped onion and chopped celery in butter. Add a little black pepper. Stir occasionally and just let it simmer there for a while. When the rice is done (it usually takes 45 minutes), stir in the celery and onions with the rice. Voila! Now you don't have just boring rice, but you it has a better flavor and a nice texture.

Thanks, Sarah! I miss you!

Taco-Stuffed Pasta Shells

Story:
No fancy story on this one. Just another find from "Very Best Baby." It's more of one of those: "it feeds the family" recipes than it is one of our very very favs. But it is good. Ben took some leftovers in to work for lunch recently, and one of his co-workers said it smelled so delicious that she wanted the recipe. Stacy, this one is dedicated to you!

Ingredients:
Jumbo dried pasta sells, prepared according to package directions, rinsed, and drained
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning mix*
1 cup water
1 can (16 oz) refried beans
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 jar (16 oz) salsa, divided
1/4 cup sliced green onions
sour cream (optional)**

Directions:
(The original directions tell how to put this into two 8x8 dishes, freezing one for later, etc. Forget that. I do the whole thing in one 9x13 and we eat off the leftovers.)

Cook beef in large skillet until brown; drain. Add seasoning mix and water; cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until thickened. Add beans and 3/4 cup cheese; mix well. Spread 1/2 cup salsa over bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Fill pasta shells with beef mixure; placing the filled shells into the baking dish, filled side up. Spoon remaining salsa over shells.

Preheat oven to 350. Cover baking dish with foil. bake for 40-45 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with green onions and remaining cheese. Serve with sour cream.

Notes:
*I buy the taco seasoning in bulk and I use a little less than a 1/4 cup for this recipe. It's just cheaper and that way I always know I have some on hand.
**They say the sour cream is optional... crazy people! It tastes much better with the sour cream.

Think: Great Harvest

Story:

I love the memory I have of my mom making homemade whole wheat bread. I can still picture our old house with the wood pull-out cutting board that was built into the counter. She'd pull that out to put the hot loaves on as they came out of the oven. I used to smother the thick, warm slices with honey. Yum.

I started experimenting with breadmaking a little in... 2005, I guess it was. My sister had one of my mom's old wheat grinders in her basement, as well as my mom's old Bosch. (The blender on the Bosch is long-gone, but it still has the plastic mixing bowl AND the metal bread-making bowl--complete with olive green trim and everything.) Anyway, when my sister received a new Kitchenaid for Mother's Day one year, I got my mom's old stuff. Yeah!!

When I started baking bread, I discovered how EASY it is--especially if you have some of the tools--like a wheat grinder and a Bosch! I went a few months without buying any bread at the store. It was great!

This particular recipe came from my dear friend and South Ogden neighbor, Becky D. It was her mom's whole wheat bread recipe; Becky talked it up pretty good, and I wasn't disappointed! We said that it tasted as good as something from Great Harvest Bread Company (thus the name). The directions are pretty specific; I try to follow them closely because this makes 4 loaves of really good bread.

Today is a rainy day in KY and rainy days remind me of coming home from school to warm bread. I hope my kids enjoy their after-school snack this afternoon...

Ingredients:
water
sugar
yeast
gluten flour
wheat flour, freshly ground
salt
oil

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, add:
5 1/2 C hot water (110 degrees the recipe says... as if I get out the thermometer...)
3/4 C sugar
2 heaping T yeast
1/2 C gluten flour
6 C wheat flour, freshly ground

Mix 5-10 minutes.
Let rise 10 minutes.
Start mixing again. Slowly add:
1 heaping T salt
2 T oil
6 C wheat flour - adding 1 C per minute)

Mix until the consistency of shapeable bread dough.
Shape into loaves.
Put in bread pans.
Let rise 15-20 minutes, covered with a moist towel
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Cool for 15-20 minutes.
Bag while still warm.

Enjoy!

(Please Note: I went to pick up my toddler from a friend's house while the bread was rising, so these loaves rose a little too much. In other words: they aren't quite as pretty as they should be... but they still taste great! Trust me...)