Christmas
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Thanksgiving
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Valentines Day
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Halloween
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Easter
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Patriotic
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Monster Munchies
Ingredients:
1 cup Dry roasted peanuts -- unsalted
1/3 cup Butter or margarine
1 pound Marshmallows
1/2 cup Peanut butter
3 cups Puffed rice cereal
1 cup Apricots -- chopped
1 cup Raisins
Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine cereal, apricots, raisins and
peanuts. In a microwave safe 13"x9" dish, melt butter and
marshmallows on high for 2 minutes. Stir; add peanut butter,
cook on high 2 minutes longer. Stir until well blended, add
cereal mixture to dish and toss until well coated. Working
quickly with greased hand, form into balls, using about 1/2
cup of mixture per ball. If mixture begins to harden, cook
on high for 30 seconds, or until softened. If desired,
mixture may be spread in unbuttered 13"x9" dish and cooled
and cut into bars.
Makes 1 dozen balls or 2 dozen bars
Pumpkin Bisque
Ingredients:
Olive oil or canola oil
1 medium white onion (diced)
1 garlic clove diced
2 cups pumpkin puree
4 cups chicken stock
Bay leaf
Pinch sugar
1/3 tsp curry powder, or to your taste
Pinch nutmeg
2 cups half-and-half
Salt and pepper
Toasted coconut
Instructions:
1. Slowly saute onion and garlic in oil until transparent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add pumpkin puree and chicken stock, bay leaf, sugar, curry, nutmeg and mix well.
3. Bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer. Cook 20 - 30 minutes.
4.Taste for seasoning.
5. Add half-and-half and simmer another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.
6. Blend in batches in blender. Strain through a fine strainer. Reheat gently, and serve with toasted coconut.
Makes 4 Servings
Huge Scary Spiders
Ingredients:
2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
40 cinnamon red hot candies
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheet.
2. In a saucepan melt chocolate over low heat. Let cool.
3. In a small bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a medium bowl beat margarine on low speed until smooth. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Stir in egg, vanilla and chocolate. Add flour mixture and mix well, forming a stiff dough.
5. To make spider, shape a 2 inch flat oval for the body. Make the spider's head by flattening a circle about 1/2 inch wide. Shape dough for legs each about 2 inches long and less than 1/4 inch wide.
6. Attach the head and legs to body. Put two red candies into head for eyes. Bake for 5-8 minutes. Let spiders cool on baking sheet to avoid breaking when moving.
Makes 20 Cookies
Chocolate Mice
Ingredients:
4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup finely crushed chocolate wafer cookies
1/3 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
24 silver dragees decorating candy
1/4 cup sliced almonds
12 long red vine licorice
Instructions:
1. Melt the chocolate, and combine with sour cream. Stir in 1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs. Mix well. Cover and refrigerate until firm.
2. Roll by level tablespoonfuls into balls. Mold to a slight point at one end (the nose).
3. Roll dough in confectioners sugar (for white mice), or in chocolate wafer crumbs (for dark mice). On each mouse, place dragees in appropriate spot for eyes, almond slices for ears, and a licorice string for the tail.
4. Refrigerate for at least two hours until firm.
Makes 12 Mice
Easter Peanut Butter Eggs
2 eggs, well beaten
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 to 2 cups peanut butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Hershey chocolate bar
1 - 6 ounce package chocolate chips
Mix the eggs, salt, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla in order listed.
Form dough into egg shapes. Melt the chocolate bar and the chocolate
chips in a double boiler. Dip egg shapes into chocolate mixture.
Arrange on waxed paper until set
Soft Peanut Butter Peanut Brittle
A softer alternative to a traditional holiday favorite.
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups light corn syrup
2 cups salted peanuts
2 to 2 1/2 cups peanut butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
Instructions:
Combine sugar and water in heavy saucepan. Bring mixture to full rolling boil
over high heat, stirring constantly. Stir in corn syrup. Cook to hard crack
stage, 300 degrees. Meanwhile, mix peanuts, peanut butter and vanilla. Remove
syrup from heat; at once add peanut butter mixture and baking soda; stir.
Working quickly, pour onto buttered cookie sheet; spread with fork. Cool; break
into pieces.
Makes about 3 pounds of creamy peanut brittle.
Pecan Brittle
Ingredients:
1 cup light corn syrup
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups broken pecans
2 teaspoons soda
1/4 stick butter
Instructions:
1. Cook syrup, sugar, and water until soft-ball stage. Add nuts and cook until crack stage (300 degrees)
2. Remove from heat and add soda, salt and butter.
3. Pour on well-greased surface and stretch.
Fall Dinner in a Pumpkin
Ingredients:
Medium sized pumpkin (4 pounds)
1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 4-ounce can mushrooms
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups cooked rice
Black olives
Steamed carrot
Whole cloves
Fresh parsley
Instructions:
Using a sharp knife, cut lid from pumpkin and scoop out
pumpkin seeds and excess membrane with a scraping tool. In
a large skillet, combine ground beef, chopped green pepper,
chopped celery, and chopped onion and cook over medium heat
until ground beef is browned. Add next seven ingredients to
skillet. Mix well and place mixture into pumpkin cavity. Place
lid on pumpkin. Place pumpkin on a foil-lined cookie sheet and
bake at 350 degrees for 1-1/2 hours. Just before serving,
embellish pumpkin by placing (with toothpicks) black olives
to make eyes, a steamed carrot to make a nose, and whole cloves
to make a mouth. Use fresh parsley leaves to make hair around
like opening. To serve, scoop out part of the baked pumpkin,
along with the meat mixture, onto each plate.
Serves 4
The Ultimate Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:
1 medium sugar pumpkin
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 9-inch frozen pastry for single crust pie
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon dark run
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup honey, warmed slightly
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
Cut pumpkin in half, and remove seeds. Lightly oil the cut
surface. Place cut side down on a jelly roll pan lined with
foil and lightly oiled. Bake at 325 degrees until the flesh
is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm.
Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree
in small batches in a blender. In large bowl, blend together
2 cups pumpkin puree, spices, and salt. Beat in eggs, rum,
honey, milk and cream. Pour filling into pie shell. Bake at
400 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted
1 inch from edge of pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack
and store in refrigerator until ready to serve. To serve,
add a large dallop of whipped cream on each slice, then add
a light dusting of cinnamon and a pinch of the pecans over
the whipped cream.
Yield: 9-inch pie
Halloween Fun Popcorn Crunch
INGREDIENTS:
8 c Popcorn
1/2 c Salted pumpkin seeds
1/2 c Dried cranberries or raisins
1/2 c Banana chips;broken into pieces
1 1/2 c Sugar
1/2 c Corn syrup
1/4 c Water
1/4 c Butter
1 ts Vanilla
DIRECTIONS:
In large buttered bowl, combine first 4 ingredients; set aside.
In medium saucepan combine sugar, corn syrup and water; bring
to a boil. Cook, covered 3 minutes. Uncover and cook, without
stirring, until mixture reaches hard-ball stage, 4-5 minutes.
Add butter and vanilla; cook, stirring 1 minute. Pour over
popcorn mixture; toss quickly to coat. Turn mixture out onto
greased baking sheet and spread using buttered hands.
Cool and break into pieces.
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