Buttermilk Syrup

This syrup is fantastic for French toast, German pancakes, waffles, or even ice cream. It has a caramel flavor to it, and is just super delicious.

Buttermilk Syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk + 1/2 TBS vinegar
1/2 cup butter
2 TBS corn syrup
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Measure milk and put vinegar in it, let sit for 5 minutes to create buttermilk (or just use 3/4 cup buttermilk if you have it on hand). The milk mixture will be a bit lumpy. In a saucepan combine milk mixture, sugar, butter, corn syrup and baking soda. Boil for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. It will seem very foamy as it boils, just make sure it doesn't overflow, it's quite messy. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Serve warm, and store the leftover in the fridge. When it's just Scott and I, I usually half the recipe and it's plenty.

German Pancakes

This is a dish that Scott had growing up and I had never heard of until we were married. It's easy and really good. It works for breakfast or dinner and Scott and I can eat a whole pan in one sitting. It is just that good. Also it goes great along with some buttermilk syrup, found here.

German Pancakes
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 TBS butter or margarine

Heat oven to 400 and place butter in 9x13 pan. Put pan in the oven and let the butter melt. Once melted take out of the oven and tilt pan to coat the entire bottom of the pan with the melted butter. Mix eggs, flour, milk, and salt in a bowl with an electric mixer or mix ingredients in a blender until smooth. Place egg mixture in pan over melted butter and cook for 20 minutes. It will come out nice and puffed up but will relax within a couple minutes.

Watermelon Sherbet Cake

Upon Scott's request, Scott's mom would make a watermelon cake for his birthday. This is super easy, looks great and is nice and cool for the summer.

Watermelon Sherbet Cake

Lime sherbet

Pineapple sherbet

Raspberry sherbet

Mini chocolate chips

Line a bowl with plastic wrap. Make a layer of lime sherbet about an inch thick. Add a thinner layer of pineapple sherbet. In a separate bowl mix softened raspberry sherbet with mini chocolate chips. Place mixture in bowl over pineapple layer. Freeze to harden softened sherbet. When ready to serve, turn the bowl upside down on a large plate and use the plastic wrap to get the cake out of the bowl. Slice like a watermelon and serve.

 Make a layer of lime Sherbet

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

One year Scott bought me an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. It might be one of the favorite gifts he's given me. It is so easy to use and makes enough ice cream for the 2 of us. Scott's favorite flavor is mint chocolate chip. This is the recipe that we use and it tastes a lot like Breyer's mint chocolate chip (but better!)

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream 
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. peppermint extract
3 drops green food coloring if you want, we prefer ours white.
1 cup shaved chocolate (or mini chocolate chips made smaller in a food processor)

In large bowl stir milk, cream, sugar, salt vanilla and peppermint extract (and food coloring) with a spoon until sugar is dissolved. Make ice cream according to your ice cream makers directions. If you're cool like me, yours will be done in 20 minutes and your taste buds will be so happy.

Slow Cooker Liner

Have you ever used a slow cooker liner? They are usually by the foil and plastic wrap at the store and they make cleaning so easy. If I am making a meal in the slow cooker that is creamy I won't use it, but if it's more of a clear liquid, it makes the clean-up a cinch. Just put it in your slow cooker and put the ingredients in and slow cook away. No washing necessary. You're welcome.

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Zesty Shredded Chicken

This is a copy-cat recipe I found for Cafe Rio shredded chicken. Honestly I have never had Cafe Rio shredded chicken (because if you don't get the sweet pork you are crazy), so I can't say it's comparable but I really like it, and it's so easy. We will make burritos, soft tacos or quesadillas with the meat.

Zesty Shredded Chicken
3 chicken breasts
4 oz. zesty Italian dressing
1/2 TBS minced garlic
1 pkg. ranch dressing
1/2 cup water
1/2 TBS chili powder
1/2 TBS cumin

Place all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours. Shred chicken and let simmer in juice another 30 minutes. Makes 8-10 servings. 3 WW SP/8 servings

A Favorite Meal

This is not really a recipe but an idea. We love grilled chicken and in the form of chicken tenders is the best. They are a lot healthier than legs, thighs and wings and if you marinate them right, they are oh so good. And they take less time to cook than a chicken breast.  We love the Lawry's Balsamic Herb marinade. We have tried all flavors and that is our favorite, with sun dried tomato being a close runner-up. We will usually marinate the chicken all day.

One of our favorite meals is grilled chicken tenders, some pasta-roni and grilled asparagus , It is simple and so good. We usually have this a couple times a month.

Zesty Pasta Salad

Confession: I never had pasta salad growing up. If I went to a party and it was there I usually didn't take some. When I married Scott he told me that for his birthday he always got to pick what they had for dinner. He always wanted smokies, pasta salad and potato salad. So I made it a point to learn his mom's recipes when we got married so that he could have these things on his birthday. I still haven't perfected the potato salad, but I make the pasta salad several times a year. It's super simple, it just takes time to chop fresh veggies.

Zesty Pasta Salad
Package of penne pasta (prepared as directed on the package)
1 cucumber sliced and quartered
Can of sliced olives
1 8 oz. cube cheese cubed into 1/2 inch squares- we use cheddar or Colby jack
3 Roma tomatoes diced
Pepperoni quartered
Wishbone Italian dressing

Place all items but dressing into the bowl. Mix well and then add dressing. We usually use about 1/2-3/4 bottle and let it cool in the fridge and add more dressing before serving, as the dressing soaks in and the pasta loses the flavor. I love that it's so colorful! 

Ranch Chicken

Well, it's getting hot here in Arizona and I'm trying really hard not to use my oven anymore. Although it's hot outside, I still like a nice warm meal once in a while. This is one of our favorites.

Ranch Chicken
5-6 chicken breasts
3 cans cream of chicken soup
4 T melted butter
2 packets dry ranch mix

Spray slow cooker and place chicken inside. In small bowl combine soup, butter and ranch. Mix up and place over chicken. Cook on high for 7-8 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes, or in our home, we do garlic smashed potatoes with red potatoes. So yummy!

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

These are one of my favorite cookies. Obviously they are great during fall, but these are so good that I don't care what time of year it is, they are just so delicious.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cup butter, softened (NOT melted)
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
15 oz can of pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
2 TBS cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
4 cups flour
1 bag chocolate chips
Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium size bowl combine flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and baking powder, mix with a spoon, set aside. Cream butter and mix in sugar. Add eggs, then vanilla and pumpkin. Slowly mix in dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Scoop the dough by heaping tablespoon onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 13 minutes. Let cool and frost.

Mmmmmm....

Chicken tater tot casserole

This is an easy, tasty recipe given to me by my sister-in-law. It makes a lot and it's great as leftovers.

Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
32 oz. package of frozen tater tots
16 oz. package of frozen mixed vegetables
1 large chicken breast, cooked and shredded
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine soups, water and salt, mix well. In a greased 9x13 pan, layer a third of the soup mixture, half of the tater tots, half the veggies and half of the chicken. Repeat layers. Top with remaining soup mixture and sprinkle with cheese.

Cover with foil and bake 60-70 minutes. Uncover and bake 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

Perfect bacon

I hate frying bacon. It's messy and sometimes it hurts when it pops. So we cook our bacon one way, in the oven. It's easy to do, easy to clean up, and it tastes so very good.

Line a baking sheet with foil. I use the extra wide foil so that the grease doesn't seep under to the baking sheet, remember easy clean-up right?

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 400 degrees. If your oven doesn't cook evenly, you may want to turn the pan 180 degrees half way through cooking, but be careful not to spill the grease in the oven. Depending on the thickness of the bacon you may want to cook longer. We usually set the timer for 12 minutes and check it every couple minutes after that until it looks done.

 Place bacon on a paper towel to dry.

Let the cookie sheet sit until grease solidifies. It usually takes a few hours depending on the temperature in your house. The cooler it is, the faster it will solidify. Then toss the foil. No grease splatters all over your stove and very yummy bacon. It's perfect for BLTs because it doesn't curl in the oven.

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of our favorite meals. We started a tradition that the Saturday before Thanksgiving we invite close friends over for "Pie Night" which is a chance to enjoy the best part of Thanksgiving before the actual day. We eat pie and well... pie. We invite a small group to dinner before the grand event and we service this very chicken pot pie. Then everyone else comes and we eat lots of different dessert pies. Seriously it's the best.

So here is the recipe that we use. I got it from my cousin Trish, but I tweaked it a tiny bit to suit us.

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast cooked and shredded
2 carrots, sliced
3 ribs of celery, sliced
1 cup frozen peas
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp celery seed
Thyme
1/3 cup butter
1 3/4 cup chicken broth (1 can)
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup milk
2- 9 inch unbaked pie crusts

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in a large saucepan and saute celery, carrots, onions and green peas until the veggies are soft and the onion is translucent. Add flour to coat vegetables. Add broth and milk a little at a time. Add salt, pepper, celery seed and thyme. Stir and simmer over low heat until thickened. 

 In a deep dish pie pan, lay out one pie crust, add chicken.

Pour the mixture over chicken.

 Place second pie crust over the pie and seal. Cut slits in the crust to vent.

 Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Mine got a little done but it still tasted amazing!

If you don't want to burn your mouth, be sure to let it cool for a few minutes. :)