Enchiladas

This recipe is one that is very similar to the enchiladas Big Chubb's Mom makes. I figured it would be easy enough since we had Velveeta and I accidentally bought corn tortillas instead of flour.

2-8 ounce cans tomato sauce
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 cup flour
2 c. water
2-3 tsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. vinegar
Salt
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
2 lg. onions, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 lb. American cheese
1 pkg. corn tortillas

Mix tomato sauce, shortening, and flour together in a saucepan; slowly add water. Make a paste of the chili powder with a little water; add to sauce. Add vinegar, allspice, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Simmer for 1 hour or longer. Sauce will thicken. Fry beef until almost done; add onions. Add chili powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a pinch of allspice. Grate 1/4 pound of cheese into meat and cook until melted. Dip each tortilla in the warm sauce. Place large spoonful of meat in center. Roll tortilla and fasten with toothpick. Place in greased baking dish. Pour any remaining sauce over rolled tortillas. Sprinkle remaining grated cheese over all. Heat in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 6-8 servings.

Well, Big Chubb was thoroughly reminded of growing up when we ate these. I very much prefer the good old black bean enchiladas we usually have. They had a much better taste, in my opinion. The Chubb kids agreed with me.

Blueberry Muffins

 I made these for breakfast when the other day when I was craving a good carb heavy breakfast.

 The batter was sweet when I tried it, but then the muffins themselves were not overly sweet.


And, in case you want to microwave them:

The kids were only slightly interested in them. None of them would eat them when they wanted a snack later on that afternoon.

I thought they were just your basic blueberry muffin.

Graham Cracker House

I have lots of Christmasy recipes that I was going to try and work through them all, but it didn't happen. Things got pretty hectic, and I had to just try and make it through some of the days with the little girl I watch. These I figured would make a good activity to do with the kids.

I made icing #2. It didn't dry super fast, but was really strong once it did finally dry.

Little Chubb loved it! He really go into decorating, but still needed help putting the frosting on the house. Baby Chubb kind of wanted to sprinkle the sugar snow on, but really she just wanted to eat it once all the candy was on. The girl I watch didn't even want anything to do with decorating and just went straight to eating, so I did most of her decorating.

Secret Kiss Cookies

I made these to go on the goody plate we took around to our visiting teaching and home teaching families.

The white balls are the cookies.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup fine chopped walnuts
1 6 ounce package of chocolate kisses
confectioner's sugar

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl. Gradually add flour & nuts; beat on low speed until well blended. Chill dough about 1 hour. or until firm enough to handle.

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mold approximately 1 T of dough around an unwrapped chocolate kiss and make a ball. Be sure to cover kiss completely. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 12 minutes or until cookies are set, but not brown. Cool slightly; remove to wire rack. While still warm, roll in confectioners sugar. Cool. Store.

Approximately 36 cookies.

These were also delicious, and wouldn't have lasted long had I not stored them like the directions said. They were fairly easy to make, except I needed to chop the nuts up more. They were still a little too big to get a good coverage on the cookies, but I made it work. If you keep them in the fridge, just remember that the chocolate kiss will get a hard, so take them out a little before you want to eat them.

Buckeyes

I have at least five recipes for Buckeyes/chocolate peanut butter balls in various shapes and varying the ingredients just slightly. I opted to make the recipe I got in Home Ec. in 7th grade.

2 T butter
1/2 C peanut butter
1/2 C Rice Krispies
3/4 C sifted powdered sugar
3 cubes of chocolate bark

1. Put rice krispies on a tray or cutting board and crush fine using a rolling pin (or throw them in a ziplock bag and let your kid go to town on them).
2. Stir together the krispies crumbs, peanut butter, butter and powdered sugar.
3. Blend using your hands until mixture is smooth and creamy.
4. Roll into 1/2" size balls and put on tray. Refrigerate or freeze to cool.
5. Melt chocolate bark in a 1 C liquid measuring cup. Do this in a microwave oven for about 1 1/2 min. Stir bark for complete melting.
6. Using cold buckeye balls, insert a tooth pick into a ball and dip the ball into the melted chocolate. Let excess drip into the cup and put buckeye onto a waxed paper covered surface to set up (about 3-5 minutes).


This variation is my favorite!!! I think the rice krispies break up the really rich and smooth peanut butter centers. Most don't call for the krispies. Other recipes say to use chocolate chips to cover, or to use a little less butter, etc.

Little Chubb probably would have eaten all of them if I let him, but I wanted to eat them all, so I had to hide them away in the fridge. If you want a super easy, super yummy Christmas candy, these are the ones for you!

M&M Christmas Cookies

I made these with after Christmas sale M&Ms to take to our last linger longer of the year.

My new baking mats!

1 c. shortening
1 c. b. sugar
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. soda
1 t. salt
3 c. oatmeal
2 1/2 c. M&Ms


ungreased            350 degrees     10 minutes


Mom just wrote this recipe on some paper and these were all the instructions. We think they needed a little more than 10 minutes. They are just an oatmeal cookie with M&Ms in it. I thought they were really crumbly and needed something more to bind them together.

Potato Broccoli Soup

When our friends came over to watch the Christmas Devotional at the beginning of December, we decided that we would each make a soup and then she would make bread and I would make dessert. It turned out great and we had lots of leftovers from this recipe which is found in the awesome soup packet the corn chowder recipe is in.

1 pk. frozen broccoli cuts
6 cups cubed potatoes
1 medium onion
2 1/2 cups shredded cheese
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 quart milk
salt and pepper

Cut up potatoes and onion and add broccoli. Place in large dutch oven, barely covering with water. Cover and cook over medium heat until potatoes are tender. Meanwhile, place butter in sauce pan. When bubbly, add flour, cook until smooth. Add milk, cook until thick stirring constantly. Pour over simmering vegetables. Add cheese and continue cooking on low until soup thickens. Serve with crackers.  6-8 servings.


This made way more that 6-8 servings, but that just meant leftovers for dinner the next day and Big Chubb had some lunches made for the week. While we were at church, I put it in the crockpot to keep warm. I think it changed the taste a little bit.

Checkerboard Cookies

I feel like Mom really liked these and always included them in packages she sent us at school. Is that right, or am I just imagining it. They hold up well and last a while, so that could have been the allure to sending them across the country.

photo courtesy of cookandbemerry.com

Ingredients
1 lb. unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs
1 egg white
2 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt
5 c. flour,
3 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa

Directions

1. Make the dough: Beat the butter using a mixer set on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar gradually and continue to beat until pale and fluffy. Add the whole eggs one at a time and blend in the vanilla. Combine the salt and flour and stir it into the butter mixture. Remove half of the dough and set aside. Mix the cocoa into the remaining dough on low speed, until fully incorporated. Pat the vanilla and the chocolate doughs each into an 11- by 9-inch rectangle. Wrap each in plastic wrap and chill until firm.
   
2. Make the checkerboards: Brush the vanilla dough with egg white and place the chocolate dough on top. Press gently and cut in half lengthwise. Brush one half with egg white and stack the remaining half on top, making certain the vanilla and chocolate doughs alternate. Cut the resulting stack in half lengthwise and set one stack aside. Slice one stack into thirds lengthwise and flip the middle stack over; lightly brush the sides with egg white and gently press together to form a checkerboard-patterned log. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until firm. Repeat with the remaining stack.
   
3. Bake the cookies: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking pans with parchment paper. Slice a checkerboard log crosswise into 1/4-inch cookies. Place the cookies on the baking pans, 1 inch apart, until firm -- 12 to 15 minutes. Rotate pans once while baking. Cool completely on a rack. Cookies can be stored for up to 1 week in an airtight container.
   

I was surprised at how easy they were to make! The dough rolled out fantastically, and I had no problem getting them to stick together. I didn't take the time to make sure all the ends were nice a squared, but it was just us eating them anyway.

They were good, but not favorites. I like shortbread-like cookies so I ended up eating a lot of them. Little Chubb wanted to eat the dough. The girl I watch did not like them.

Leftover Mashed Potato Soup

We enjoyed this from the leftover mashed potatoes we had for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons bacon drippings
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
14 1/2 ounces chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 cups prepared mashed potatoes ( leftover is great)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
2 scallions, finely chopped
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons cream or 2 tablespoons half-and-half

Directions

1. Cook bacon, and set aside to crumble.
   
2. In a large saucepan, cook onion in butter or dripping until softened.
   
3. Add chopped mushrooms and cook until tender and onion is golden.
   
4. Add chicken broth, salt, pepper, and paprika, stirring to mix.
   
5. Blend in mashed potatoes, stirring until lumps are gone.
   
6. Bring soup to a boil, then lower heat and add cheddar cheese, stirring until it is melted and smooth.
   
7. Mix in scallions, crumbled bacon, sour cream, and cream/half and half, stirring to heated through but not boiling.
   

It was relatively easy to make so that was a big plus. I left the mushrooms out because two people in our family would not have touched it if there were mushrooms in it. It all got eaten up really quick, and was much tastier that how it actually looked. If you've got some leftover mashed potatoes, this is a good way to use them up!