From the kitchen of Carol Berlin
This is a quick, easy, delicious crock pot chicken recipe that is sure to please your family. And I'd like to thank my sister, Carol, for introducing me to it. Thanks!
Ingredients:
8 chicken breasts or 10 thighs and legs chicken pieces
Lemon pepper
Your favorite barbecue sauce
Cover the bottom of your crock pot with a layer of chicken. Sprinkle liberally with lemon pepper.
Cover with barbecue sauce.
Repeat until crock pot is full, but not too full.
Cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours.
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Most Sundays, we try to cook as little as possible. It's supposed to be a day of rest, and that means this cook, too. So, as an after-church snack or lunch, we frequently like to make up a quick plate of nachos to share.
Ingredients:
One microwave-save plate
Liberal amounts of corn chips
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 C shredded Cheddar cheese
3/4 C (or there abouts) of your favorite salsa or Picante sauce
Spread chips on the plate.
Sprinkle cheese over chips.
Sprinkle tomatoes over cheese.
Pour salsa over everything.
Microwave on high for 1:42 seconds (the timing has been researched and perfected by my husband).
Eat.
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This year, we had a bumper tomato crop. I'm not complaining. I love fresh tomatoes for cooking and just eating. So we've had bowls of tomatoes sitting on the kitchen counters for a week, making me feel guilty about not thinking of something to make with them. Until last night.
Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast strips
5-6 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/4 C shredded Parmesan cheese (the good stuff)
1/4 C butter
3 cloves minced garlic
3 Tbs dried, minced onions
4 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
Your favorite pasta, cooked
In a large skillet, saute garlic in oil. Add chicken, onions, and tomatoes. Add seasoning, salt, and pepper. Add butter and cook on medium heat until chicken is done. Sprinkle in cheese and stir until melted.
Serve over your favorite pasta.
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Happy Halloween, everyone! I'm really excited for this post for two reasons:
- I finally got a holiday-themed post in before the holiday was over!
- This is just so cute!
I saw a pumpkin-shaped cake on facebook and thought "Hey, I could do that!" So I bought a basic (aka cheap) bunt pan, and, yay! Here it is!
Ingredients:
2 Devil's Food bunt cakes (I recommend Duncan Hines -- oh so moist!)
2 Devil's Food cupcakes
Frosting ( I used the Raspberry Coconut Dream frosting with orange extract instead of raspberry) divided into 2/3 orange, 1/6 green, and 1/6 black colors
Make the bunt cakes following the box directions. Make one cupcake from each of the mixes.
A trick I learned from my mother is to fill any empty slots in your muffin pan with water to help it bake evenly and not ruin your pan.
Cool the cakes completely. Cut the bottom of both bunts so that they are flat.
Place one cake on your cake plate cut side up. Frost it. Place the other cake cut side down on top and line up the ridges from the bunt pan.
Starting at the top of the cake, carefully draw the orange frosting down the sides. This helps to avoid any crumbs getting in your frosting. You can also do a crumb coat on your cake, if you have time.
Lightly frost one of the cupcakes and put it in the bunt hole top-up to "plug" the hole. Fill the hole with some of the cake cut off the bottom of the bunts.
Carefully frost across the plugged-up hole. Frost the second cupcake green, and place it top-down in the center of the cake.
Add finishing touches such as leaves, curly vines, and Jack-O-Lantern face with remaining green and black frosting.
Place the remaining crumbs around the bottom for a dirt effect.
This makes a very, very large cake. It served 30 people, and we still had some left over.
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I've wanted to make pink lemonade cupcakes for a while now. I've Googled many a recipe, but never really had any excuse to make them. Then I signed up to bring a dozen cupcakes to a baby shower for a girl in our congregation (ward, for all my LDS readers), and suddenly I had a great excuse to make them! Next up, I'll take them to the Young Women for reaching a very important goal they set. Woot! Woot!
Cupcakes ingredients:
2-1/2 C all-purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1-1/4 C granulated sugar
3/4 C frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1/2 C vegetable oil
4 egg whites
1/2 C buttermilk
Frosting ingredients:
8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
Red food coloring, as needed
2 C confectioners' sugar
3 Tbs frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 Tbs lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Red food coloring, as needed
Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 24 standard muffin cups with paper liners and set aside.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the sugar, pink lemonade concentrate, oil, and egg whites until well blended. Add half the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Then add the buttermilk and mix again, followed finally by the remaining dry ingredients. Do not over mix. Add red food coloring one drop at a time to achieve desired pink color. The color will fade slightly when baked.
Fill each liner 3/4 full with batter.
Bake the cupcakes for about 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cupcakes completely.
To make the frosting, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter until nice and fluffy. Pause the mixer occasionally to add the confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup at a time and beat until combined and fluffy.
Add the pink lemonade concentrate, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add red food coloring one drop at a time to achieve desired pink color. Frost cupcakes.
Frosted cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 2 days in airtight containers. Bring to room temperature before serving.
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