Crepes, Crepes, Crepes!

I love crepes, and they are SO EASY! The hardest part, is having the patience to stand there and cook them all! teehee!

Crepes

1 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
½ cup water
2 large eggs (or 3 small)
Pinch of salt
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
3 TBLS melted butter

Mix everything with a whisk in a bowl. Heat skillet with a tiny bit of oil. Use ½ cup measure for each crepe. Once you get it in the pan, swirl pan around to spread the batter as thin as possible. Cook for a couple minutes, until you can flip it easily. Loosen sides with a heat proof rubber spatula, and then carefully flip the crepe and cook one or two minutes on other side..


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Sweet 'N Sour Chicken

I DID IT!! ! !!! I conquered making homemade Sweet and Sour chicken! And you know what, ?? It turned out very scrumptious!! YUM YUM! This recipe will EASILY feel 4-5 people, so you may want to cut it in half-- or invite friend over!! lol. Can I just add, this batter is THE BOMB!! Its very light, like tempura. Would make Excellent onion rings!!


Sweet 'N Sour Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Oil for frying
2 green peppers - cut into 1" pieces
1 onion cut into 1" pieces
1 can pineapple chunks - drained, save juice
salt & pepper

Frying Batter:
1 cup water
4 oz. flour
2 oz. corn starch
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
salt
1 TBLS cooking oil


Sauce:
1 cup pineapple juice 1/3 cup water
2 TBLS vinegar
2 TBLS soy sauce
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 TBLS corn starch
1/2 cup ketchup
**combine all ingredients with whisk in saucepan. stir and heat until thick. Set aside.

Prepare batter. Drop all chicken into batter (I salted and peppered my chicken before adding to batter).


Heat oil in large pan, drop battered chicken into hot oil, and cook until golden brown. You may need to separate the pieces after you drop them into the oil so they don't clump. Also, you may need to do them in batches like I did.





Once all chicken is cooked, set aside. Add onions and peppers to pan, and stir fry them until just tender. Add chicken back to pan. Add sauce, and pineapple and stir fry a few minutes until thick and Serve!!

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Brutzel Bars (English Toffee)

ohhhhh YAH! These babies turned out SO DAMN GOOD! The recipe is SUPER EASY, and quick! I actually had to bake it 13 minutes, the recipe says 10, but your oven may vary. YOU GOTTA TRY THESE!!



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Brutzel Bars

1 sleeve Keebler butter crackers CLUB Crackers)
1 cup butter (no margarine)
1 cup granulated sugar
12 ounces milk chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 10-by-15-inch pan with foil and
spray with Pam. Arrange crackers in single layer over foil. In
medium saucepan, combine butter and sugar and bring to a boil. Boil
1 minute and gently pour over crackers. Spread out with rubber spatula until all crackers are evenly covered.

Bake 10 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately
sprinkle morsels over top. Wait 2 to 3 minutes, until morsels begin
to melt, and carefully spread melted chocolate over top. (I thought this would be hard to do, and maybe it would mix with the sugar mixture..., but they spread really easy, and the sugar mix hardens pretty fast. )

Cool and refrigerate for few hours. Remove from fridge and break
into bars following cracker lines as a guide. YUMMMMMMM

dark chocolate cherry mocha??????

Oh my heavens!! I just heard Starbucks has a new dark cherry mocha????? Oh lord, I need to try this!!!

Easy Baked Mac 'N Cheese

I just created this earlier this week, and my hunny LOVED IT!! I didn't take pics, but I will be making it again soon - teehee! Like I said, I like EASY. So, I skipped making a roux and all that nonsense! And found an EASY way to get that rich cheesy flavor in baked Mac 'N cheese! this is nothing like the BLUE BOX!!


Easy Baked Mac N’Cheese
1 package large shell pasta - or any pasta you like!
1 jar 4-cheese Alfredo Sauce (I use Classico)
1-1/2 cups shredded Colby-Jack cheese
Italian bread crumbs
1-2 TLBS butter
Salt and pepper

Cook pasta until tender. Drain. Add pasta to buttered baking dish (I use Pam). Pour in Alfredo sauce and add shredded cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well. Top with bread crumbs, and then put small pats of butter around the top. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Lori's Cheesy Meatloaf

This is such a tasty way to make meatloaf.

I know there are thousands of recipe's for meatloaf, and so far -- this is my FAVORITE!





CHEESY MEATLOAF

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 sleeve Ritz crackers (you wont use them all)
2 cups shredded cheddar or Colby cheese
Salt and pepper
Onion powder
Season salt
2 eggs
Plain bread crumbs
Ketchup
Worcestershire sauce

Mix hamburger with eggs, Worcestershire sauce, onion, seasonings and add enough bread crumbs to make it firm. Lay out wax paper and put meat mix on top. Spread meat mixture out so it’s in a long rectangle shape the same width as the bread pan. Sprinkle Salt and pepper on it. Next, crush Ritz crackers over the entire rolled out meat loaf, leaving about 2” on each edge. Then, cover the same area with the shredded cheese. Next, roll the meatloaf like a jelly roll, with the waxed paper as your guide, keeping the ends folded in so the filling doesn’t fall out. It should end up a perfect size and fit for a bread pan, with the seam side down. Once you get the loaf into the pan, tuck in the sides. Cover generously with ketchup. Bake 350 about an hour or until clear juices appear and loaf pulls away from the sides.

My 2nd day

HOWDY!!

Today is day 2 of my BLOGGING! lol. so far, I love it! I have tons of recipes to post, so I am trying to pace myself.. hee hee. Last night was the Cubscout cake auction. My son's cake sold for $250, which is the highest in history of this pack! There were some others that sold for $180 and $190 or something? Here are some pics of other cakes. The dragon and the boy fishing are the other 2 high sellers...

Swimming Pool Cake

SWIMMING POOL CAKE

Ingredients:
CAKE
BLUE JELL-O (make according to Jiggler recipe)calls for 4 boxes, I used 3.
WHITE FROSTING

**I used white Trident Whitening gum as tiles around the edge of the pool.

DIRECTIONS:

First, bake cake according to directions. I used a disposable foil pan also. Once cake is cooled, gently and carefully carve the shape of the pool - with a very sharp knife. ***I ran into some issues here, the cake was so delicate and fluffy, that it kept tearing. I HIGHLY recommend a firmer cake, such as pound cake or devil's food. I used Betty Crocker Yellow Cake, and since it is so light and moist, it was a nightmare!! Maybe if you make it a day before you carve it, it would set up better? I carved mine as soon as it cooled.
Anyway... Once you carve the shape, you want to take a fork, and start scooping the shape of the pool out. Once its carved out, take a spoon and get as many of the crumbs out as you can. (this is very hard with box cake since its so light and delicate)
I finally got my pool carved out, about 1 or 2 inches deep. UGH! Next, take white frosting and VERY CAREFULLY frost the entire cake, including the inside of the pool. Be careful not to tear around the edge of the pool, and you will encounter lots of crumbs too. Don't worry about the crumbs too much, because the Jell-O will cover it.
Make the Jell-O according to the Jiggler recipe on the box (It was 4 boxes of Jell-o and 2-1/2 cups boiling water.. I used 3 boxes). Then let it cool in fridge until its the consistency of syrup... make sure it doesnt harden!! If it does, nuke it for a few seconds and stir it.
NEXT, I put the gum tiles on and poured the chilled Jell-O into the pool shape. I think it overfilled a tad, and got up on one side. Grrr.

Let it CHILL for however long you can before you embellish it with stuff... We plan to put Teddy Grahams in the water, sitting inside Gummy Savers, and then also have a few Teddy's laying on the sides, on pieces of Fruit by the Foot cut to look like Beach towels. And adding some palm trees or those cute Asian umbrellas!

** this cake turned out SO CUTE!! And sold for $250, the most EVER in the cake auction....

If you are brave enough to try this, please let me know!!

Coconut Macaroons

I made these once, then forgot all about them! Yeek! They were so moist and chewy! MMMM! My son loved them, and he hates most everything!! haha

Coconut Macaroons

1 – 14oz. pkg. sweetened coconut
2/3 cup flour
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla (or 1 tsp. almond & 1 tsp. vanilla)
Melted Chocolate (the kind that hardens) *Optional

Mix coconut and flour. Add milk and vanilla. Mix well.
Scoop tightly onto heavily greased baking sheet.
Bake at 325 for approx. 20-25 min. or until golden.
Drizzle with melted chocolate or dip ½ of cookie into chocolate.

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Lori's Own Famous Chicken Salad

Alright, here is another one of my own wacky creations. In this recipe, I am only putting the INGREDIENTS. You can make as much or as little, and add as much or as little of each thing as you see fit. :) The only thing that you must do is cook the chicken this way, and also use Italian dressing AND mayo for the mix. Otherwise, go crazy!

Lori’s Famous Chicken Salad

4 large skinless boneless chicken breasts
Kojack or cheddar cheese. Cubed into ½ to ¼ inch pieces.
Green pepper – chopped medium fine
Italian Dressing
Real Mayonnaise
Mrs. Dash GARLIC AND HERB
Salt and pepper
Olive Oil


Place chicken on baking sheet. Splash a little olive oil on each breast. Salt and pepper each breast. Sprinkle Mrs. Dash generously over each breast. Bake 400 for 20-30 minutes (depending on thickness of chicken) or until cooked through.
While chicken is cooking, prepare the cheese chunks and green pepper chunks. Add salt and pepper and soak them in Italian Dressing to marinate a little.
Next, SHRED CHICKEN while its hot using 2 forks. It’s much easier to shred while it’s hot. Let chicken COOL. Add shredded chicken to the cheese and peppers. Once you mix them together, add mayo until it’s as creamy as you like it. CHILL well before serving.

Next you can do one of two things… This recipe is the bomb on sandwiches, OR you can make it extra saucy (add a little extra Italian and mayo) and add pasta to it for a delicious pasta chicken salad (chill well before serving).
ENJOY!

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.will post pics soon!
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