Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Posted by Lori:

When I went on a cookie baking frenzy a few weeks ago, this is one of the recipes I chose to make.  They were a special treat for my kiddos, too, since I kept some of the dough frozen in one inch balls and baked them for special after supper treats.  It was also nice to have frozen balls of dough when I needed to take cookies to a church dinner.

Why don't I do that more often????  Why don't I mix up dough and keep it in the freezer for special events or activities? (Maybe because I might be tempted to eat the dough or bake cookies for myself???  Yes.  Quite possibly that is the reason I don't! :)


Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

2 - 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups peanut butter chips (I saw chips that were half peanut butter and half chocolate.  Those would be good, too!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt.  Beat together butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until creamy.  Beat in eggs until will blended.  Gradually add flour mixture, beating well.  Stir in peanut butter chips.  Drop by rounded teaspoons (I used a 1 inch cookie scoop) onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 -10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet onto wire rack.  Cool completely.
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Chicken Stroganoff

Posted by Donna:


I got this recipe from a friend's daughter who posted it on her blog a couple of years ago. It's similar to one that Lori just posted, but decided to share it anyway. The sauce is really good. It reminds me of the Alfredo Sauce at Olive Garden. Larry liked the flavor of the sauce, also. I guess you noticed he commented on the good sauce--again, he had no comment on the chicken!!!!!


Chicken Stroganoff

3-4 chicken breasts, cubed
2 T. butter, diced
7 oz. pkg. Italian Salad Dressing mix (I used the Good Season's brand.)

After cubing the raw chicken, place it in a slow cooker. Put the diced butter and Italian dressing mix on top of the chicken. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. My crock pot cooks fast; so, it only took 4 hours.

Stir in:

1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed

Cook on high for 30 minutes.

Serve over egg noodles.

The chicken with just the butter and Italian mix is good even before adding the soup and cream cheese. I really think I'll do just the cream sauce without the chicken next time--just because that's how I always order my Fettucine Alfredo--minus the chicken. Pin It Now!

Candy Corn Cake in a Jar

Posted by Lori:

Our high school secretary asked me to help her out with a special treat for one of her husband's high school math classes.  It happened to be my daughter's class, so that made it kind of neat, too.  She decided to treat them at all of the holidays throughout the school year.

For the treat, I decided to do Candy Corn Cake in a Jar. I used clean 1/2 pint jars. They are the perfect size for one serving.

Instructions:

Place all of your jars on a baking sheet. (One cake mix will make 12.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix white cake mix per package directions. Divide cake into separate bowls and tint with Wilson gel icing colors.  Pour layers into jars.  I used a cookie scoop.  A small scoop for the yellow layer and a larger scoop for the orange layer.  (This will be about 1/3 cup of cake mix total per jar.)  You could leave some of the cake mix white, but I didn't have enough to do that, so decided the icing would be the white part.

Bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out mostly clean (a few crumbs is what I prefer so it's really moist). Mine took 28 minutes. Take cakes out and allow them to cool. Now either top them with the caps and rings them until ready to use or freeze until ready to use.

Top with white icing and sprinkles. I used homemade butter cream. (Here's my recipe as a guide.) Canned would work, too. I used a 10 M Wilton tip to decorate the top with icing. Note: You could do a small amount of icing before putting the rings and lids on then they would be ready to give to someone. The only thing is that the icing wouldn't be as generous of an amount as I've shown here.

The treats were a big hit with this group of high school juniors.  It's kind of neat how a special treat can make someone feel special and important to others.  The secretary said that all day she had kids coming up to her and thanking her for thinking of them.  She's special to them anyway, because she cares about them and they know it.  She didn't have to give them a treat for them to know that, but, it's kind of neat to hear how they responded to her kindness, isn't it?

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Southwest Creamy Ranch Crock Pot Chicken

Posted by Lori:

I posted a Creamy Ranch Chicken last week, saying I was going to try it the next day.  Well, actually I tried it that day, but when I went to get the cream cheese out, I didn't have any, except for a new product of Philly Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme.  I decided to try it.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  I'm excited to try the regular Ranch recipe, still, but now I have two new chicken recipes!!  If you wanted to, you could leave out some of the ranch seasoning if using the Philly Blend, but the flavors worked well together, as is.

(I'll post a recipe photo here later.  Don't have time right now!)

4 Chicken Breast (can cut into tenders, if desired

2 tablespoon butter
1 Ranch Seasoning Mix Packet
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
5 ounces Philly Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme
1/2 cup chicken broth

Wash and dry chicken and place in crock pot. Drizzle with 2 T butter and sprinkle ranch packet on top of chicken. Cook on low for 3 hours. Add cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, and chicken broth and cook another 1.5 hours. Tastes great served on top of egg noodles, tortilla chips, or corn tortillas.
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Swiss Chicken

Posted by Donna:

Last week we were visiting our daughter in Lubbock. She fixed this for Sunday dinner. It's really good.

Swiss Chicken

Chicken breasts, either split or thinned
Swiss cheese slices, (one for each chicken breast)
1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup milk
1 pkg. Pepperidge stuffing mix
1/2 cup melted butter


Place chicken breasts in a baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. Place one slice of cheese on top of each breast. Mix the soup and milk together and pour over the chicken breasts. Sprinkle the stuffing mix on top. Pour the melted butter over the top. Cover with foil and bake.

Our daughter put hers on about 7:30 at 275 degrees since she wanted it to be ready at 11:00 when we got home from worship services. This is rich, but definitely a great comfort food. It's so simple to make, but oh so good. Pin It Now!

Andes Mint Cookies

Posted by Lori:

I think this is now my two middle boys' favorite cookie of all time.  Just for something different I bought a bag of the Andes mint baking chips, knowing that they liked the chocolate and mint combo.  With a few tweaks in a chocolate cookie recipe I found online, these new cookies were a big hit for them.  And, an added plus is that since I don't like mint/chocolate together, I'm not tempted to eat them!

Andes Mint Cookies
3/4 cup butter
1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
12 ounce bag chocolate chips
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/4 teaspoon soda
1 - 10 ounce bag Andes Crème de Menthe Baking Chips


Melt together butter, brown sugar and water. Add chocolate chips and stir until melted. Let stand 10 minutes to cool. Add remaining ingredients, except baking chips.  Mix well after each addition.  Stir in Andes baking chips.  Drop by teaspoon fulls (or use cookie scoop) onto baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes (my oven takes about 13 minutes).
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Creamy Ranch Chicken

Posted by Lori:

A friend sent me this new recipe that she had just tried and said was delicious.  I can wait to try it!  In fact, I am thinking that tomorrow, since our children will be out of school for Fall Break, it would be a great time to make it!.  Thanks, Renee!!
Creamy Ranch Chicken.

4 Chicken Breast (I used chicken tenders)
2 T Butter
1 Ranch Packet
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
8 oz cubed cream cheese
1/2 cup chicken broth

Wash and dry chicken and place in crock pot. Drizzle with 2 T butter and sprinkle ranch packet on top of chicken. Cook on low for 3 hours. Add cream of chicken soup, cream cheese, and chicken broth and cook another 1.5 hours. Tastes great served on top of egg noodles. 

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