Girls Turtle Cake

My sweet girl loves turtles, so I bravely started to decorate her cake when I suddenly remembered the cute wooden turtle we picked up at the craft store. 

 I hot glued the turtle to two wooden skewers and cut them to the depth of my cake.  I poked two green straws into the cake and cut to size, so no splinters got in the cake.  Then I poked the wooden skewers into the straws!

The cake was one box of Betty Crocker baked in two pie pans.  I layered the cakes with a coating of white frosting between the layers.

Then I coated the entire cake with pink frosting.  I piped some green tinted frosting (white frosting+green food coloring) along the edges.  Voilà!

I plan on making some of these:

Easy Cheesecake!!!

I'm not even going to take credit for this recipe, but it was easy and decadent! Found at Kraftrecipes.com

Easy Chicken Enchilladas (crock pot)

So easy!!!!  My friend Shelley makes these every Christmas Eve!  :-D

1. Throw frozen chicken breasts and green salsa in the crockpot for 6-8 hours on low. 

2. Add a package of cream cheese.

3. Stir chicken mixture until chicken shreds and cream cheese is mixed in.

4. Roll chicken mixture into corn tortillas and place in baking dish.

5. Cover with cheese and cover dish with foil or oven safe lid.

6. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

This was what was left of it, I will get a better pic of it next time, as I'm sure we will be eating this at least bi-weekly.

Sugar cookies with Icing

These are a holiday tradition since I was a child and now I do it with my children. 

It's an inexpensive way to do something fun together.  

These can be given as gifts, served at parties or simply enjoyed as a family.

The no chill cookie recipe I used is here

(I added an extra egg because my dough was too crumbly):

http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/2011/12/best-sugar-cookie-recipe-and-kitchenaid_28.html

Here is the easy icing recipe:

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-decorate-cookies-with-icing-the-easiest-simplest-method-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-198240

This was pretty simple:  just mix, bake, and decorate!  

Fun memories to last a lifetime :-)

Easy Ham Salad

I bought a spiral sliced ham and it was Soooo much meat!  I've been thinking of ways to use it up!

I'm very glad I remembered to make ham salad.  

The first time I tried it, was at a park play date many years ago...another mom had simply brought a container of ham salad and crackers.  She and her children shared some with me and it was delightful!

You won't believe how simple it is to make.

I used to use a food processor, but I had to use a cutting board and knife this time, which wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be.

Then I put all of the finely chopped ham in a bowl and mixed in enough mayo to moisten the meat and added a few tablespoons of sweet pickle relish to add a bit of crunch, color, and tang to the salad.  Keep chilled.

Serve with crackers or on bread as a sandwich.

Ingredients:

Finely diced ham

Mayo

Pickle relish

Serve on Bread or crackers

Cafeteria Yeast Rolls

Buttery, fluffy goodness!

These take me back to the days when we ate a church dinner before church on Wednesday nights.

I started out by mixing the dough and setting it aside to rise through dinner.  

Then I took half the dough, kneaded it, and rolled it to 1 inch thickness.  

I then cut it into squares with a pizza cutter and put in a buttered dish or parchment paper lined cookie sheet.

I did the same with the other half.

I let these rise for about an hour and then baked at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. 

We ate them HOT out of the oven with butter and honey.

There are plenty leftover to freeze for later...yields 5 dozen.

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water

5 Tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon white sugar

2/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs 

1 tablespoon salt

10 cups all purpose flour

1 cup butter, divided

Instructions:

1. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and the yeast to a large bowl with the warm water. Let stand 10 minutes.

2. In another large bowl, mix flour and 2/3 cups sugar.

3. Dice 1/4 cup butter and mix into the flour mixture with your hands until mixed through.

4. Mix milk, egg, and salt into the yeast.

5.  With a wooden spoon, slowly mix the flour into the yeast mixture until it pulls away from the sides and forms a ball.

6.  Cover bowl with a hot, damp towel that's wrung out until double in size. About 45 minutes.

7. On floured surface, roll out dough to 1 inch thick.

8. Cut into 2 inch squares with a pizza cutter.

9. Place 1inch apart on greased backing dish or parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Let rise again, 45 minutes.

10. Melt remaining butter and drizzle over rolls.

11.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes.

These were excellent the next day! I put spiral sliced ham and cheese in them and popped them in the microwave for a minute and they were wonderful ham and cheese sandwiches!  I added Dijon mustard and sweet pickle relish to mine for a bigger flavor!

Adapted from this recipe:

http://carzycook.com/showthread.php?tid=7068

Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

Beef Stroganoff is one of my husband's favorite meals from his childhood. So, I make this as a special treat just for him!

I've come up with some short cuts to make this easier and cheaper without sacrificing quality or taste.

I used a package of stew meat instead of steak, because once it has cooked on low in the crock pot for 7 hours, it will be tender and falling apart anyway.  I also simplified the ingredient list to just a handful of items...

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs stew meat

1 packet of dry soup mix: beefy onion

1 onion, thinly sliced and coarsely chopped.

6 ounces of cream cheese

1 cup sour cream

Rice or Egg Noodles

Directions:

1. Turn crock pot on high and add 1 cup water and dry soup mix.

2.  Lightly fry stew meat in frying pan in a couple of tablespoons butter or oil until meat is browned.

3.  Add meat to crock pot.

4. Slice onion and add to crock pot.

5. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/8 tsp pepper to crockpot.

6.  Turn crock pot down to low and cook for 7 hours.  

7.  When meat pulls apart when fork is inserted, you are done.  (Prepare rice or noodles.) Turn off crock pot, add cream cheese and stir until blended.

8. Add sour cream and stir until blended.

9. Taste and add salt, if needed.

10. Serve over cooked rice or wide egg noodles.