Salted Caramel Popcorn

This recipe makes about 16 cups of caramel popcorn.

Ingredients:
1/2 cups unpopped popcorn kernels
1 cup salted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 - 2 tsp. Kosher or sea salt, divided

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 300°
2. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Set aside.
3. Pop popcorn kernels using air popper into a large bowl.
4. In a small saucepan melt butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and 1 tsp salt together over medium heat. Bring to a boil for 4 minutes without stirring.
5. Pour Caramel mixture over popcorn and stir to coat evenly.
6. Pour popcorn into lined pan, sprinkle remaining salt on top (1/2 tsp - 1 tsp depending on your personal taste preference) and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes. Stirring every 10 minutes.
7. Allow popcorn to cool on a parchment lined counter.

* You can add in 2 cups of nuts to the un-coated popcorn if desired! Coat with caramel as States!

Simple Sauce

This sauce came from Family Fun Magazine to be used with Calzones. link here

It's deceptively simple, but so yummy with the calzones. 

2 28 oz cans tomatoes, puréed. 

4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

In a large saucepan, sauté garlic in 3 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat for about 1 minute. 

Add tomatoes and salt to taste. Reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes. Serve with calzones. 

*for Once-A-Month cooking purposes: after simmering remove from heat and let cool 15 minutes. Put 2 C in ziploc baggies, label, and freeze. 

Chicken Cacciatore

2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Vegetable oil
1 green pepper, thin sliced
1 red pepper, thin sliced
1 medium onion, thin sliced
2 cans of tomatoes (any kind, I use the diced Italian style)
1 can tomato sauce
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper, to taste
Pasta (any kind)

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Flour and brown in oil. Take out of skillet, and put in peppers and onion. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add chicken and veggies to Dutch oven. Take the 2 cans of tomatoes and blend in blender until smooth. (this makes the sauce a little more thick then just using tomato sauce.) pour over chicken and veggies and add tomato sauce. Season to your liking with Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer on low for 40 minutes. Stir so it doesn't burn to the bottom on the Dutch oven. Serve over your favorite pasta with parmesan cheese. :)

Stuffed Peppers

4-5 green or red peppers (you can add more, depending on how many people you need to feed)

1 1/2 lbs of hamburger 

1 1/2 cups of rice

1 can tomato sauce

1 medium onion 

Garlic powder 

Italian seasoning 

Salt and Pepper, to taste 

In 3 cups of water add rice. Bring to a boil turn on low, cover and cook about 40 minutes. (or what it says on the back of rice bag) Meanwhile, brown hamburger in skillet. Add minced onion, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning.

When rice is done, add rice to hamburger. Add tomato sauce. Mix together and add salt and pepper.

Cut off tops of peppers and clean them out. Next, spoon mixture into peppers and fill to top. Add a little bit of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil tightly, cook at 375° for about 1 hour or until peppers are somewhat soft.

*sometimes I add mozzarella cheese on top of the peppers before they go into the oven. 

Also, if you are using more than 6 peppers I would double the rice/meat filling.

Yummm. :) enjoy! 

Amazing Buttermilk Syrup

When Curtis worked at the Provo City Cemetery, he often liked to cook breakfast for his co-workers. His specialty was breakfast burritos. But sometimes they ate other things. One day a lady who worked in the office there made this syrup and that was that. From that point on, that was THE syrup. (except for those silly kids who only like fake maple stuff)

1 C buttermilk (you can add 1 Tbsp lemon juice to 1 C milk for same effect)
1 C butter
2 C sugar
2 tsp Karo syrup

Melt the butter and add the remaining ingredients in a LARGE pan.
Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and add:  2 tsp vanilla
                                                               1 tsp baking soda

This will foam and fill the pan.
Extra yummy on waffles, hootenanny and pancakes!

Cheesecake-grandma B's recipe

This is a favorite from my childhood. Creamy and delicious!

1 pkg lemon jello

1 C boiling water

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1 C sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 can evaporated milk, chilled

Graham crackers 

Sugar

Butter, melted

Prepare your crust. Crush graham crackers in a food processor or in a ziploc baggie until you have 1 1/2 C crumbs. Add 1/4 C sugar and 6-7 Tbsp melted butter. Mix together and press firmly into a 9x13" cake pan. Reserve a scant amount to top the cheesecake with. Do not put crust up the sides of the pan.

Mix the lemon jello, boiling water and lemon juice together and put in the refrigerator until set a little bit.
Soften and whip the cream cheese, adding in the 1 C sugar and vanilla.
Add the jello mixture to the cream cheese mixture.
Whip the can of chilled evaporated milk. Add the cheese and jello mixture to the whipped milk and pour into the crust-lined pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the reserved cracker crumbs.
Chill in the refrigerator until set. Serve with pie filling on top or it's great just the way it is.

Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Pecan Froating

When I was a girl, this is the cake I always requested for my birthday cake. I love it's mellow spiciness topped with the yummy coconut pecan frosting. MMMmmmm. I think its been too long since I had it!

Pour 1 1/2 C boiling water on 1 C oatmeal. Let stand 20 minutes.

Cream together:  1/2 C shortening

                            1 C sugar

                            1 C brown sugar        

                            2 eggs

Add oatmeal mixture and beat. 

Add: 1 3/4 C flour

         1 tsp baking soda

         1 tsp baking powder

         1/2 tsp salt

         1 tsp cinnamon

Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 cake pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

Top with coconut pecan frosting. Or I'm sure a cream cheese frosting would be fabulous as well! :)