Greek Tortellini Salad ~ page 67

This is probably one of my favorite salads in our cookbook. The cheese tortellini make it hearty and filling. This salad can almost stand on its own as a light meal. It offers an explosion of great flavors melded together.

The balsamic and lemon dressing can be made up a day in advance if desired. This dressing gives you good reason to own a lemon press and and garlic press! They make the dressing quick and fun to make. (But don't fret--you can certainly do these 2 chores another way, if you don't have these gadgets!)

The dressing is poured over the hot tortellini so that the pasta can soak up all the dressing flavors. I don't use all the dressing--maybe just about 1/2 of it...so start with a smaller amount, and add more at the very end if you feel you need it. (Save any extra in the fridge for another salad.) Wait till the pasta cools to add the rest of your ingredients.

Here is everything except the fresh spinach leaves. After you put them in, just let it all sit around for 30 minutes or so while you get the rest of your dinner or lunch together. The marinating will make all the flavors come together.

I served this Greek Tortellini Salad along side of the Smoky Chicken Salad for a light salad supper last night for my 2 daughter-in-laws that came into town to visit.

Smoky Chicken Salad ~ page 73

Anytime I want to do a light summer lunch with no cooking to heat up the kitchen--this is the meal I go to. It is the easiest chicken salad ever, made with rotisserie chicken, celery, grapes, pecans, and spices. The liquid smoke adds a nice summer flair to the taste.

I didn't have the celery on hand that the recipe calls for, so I substituted red onion. However, I think the celery adds a bigger crunch, which is nice. If your grapes are large, cut them in two or three slices.

Spike is a very nice all purpose seasoning. It contains 37 herbs, spices, and vegetables! I use the salt free version in this recipe, because I want a lot of the Spike flavor--but rotisserie chicken usually needs no extra salt. I like to serve this chunky chicken salad over slivered lettuce.

Molasses Spice Cookies ~ page 212

I made these for Adam's birthday today. He loves anything that has molasses in it, so these are right up there on the list!

I hate surprise "clumps" of baking soda, baking powder or spices in cookies, so I just have a habit of always measuring all spices and such in a sieve, so that there are no chunks.

I always wrap my cookie dough that is going in fridge to chill in saran wrap. Mixing bowls covered with plastic wrap take up too much room and the wrap never stays in place anyway. I have a HUGE box of saran wrap from Costco that is a lifesaver...one box lasts me years! I've been eyeing the huge box of foil that Costco sells also...but I have no more room in the pantry.

Here are the little guys waiting their turn to go into the oven...then below, what they look like baked. Very yummy! Give them a try. I baked mine about 8 minutes, but my oven is a little fast. --Carissa

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookies ~ page 214

If you like the combination of peanut butter and chocolate, you will love this cookie. 

There are a couple blips in this recipe though...ok, mistakes..(it is hard to say that..) Who knows where my mind was when I typed this one up. I was taking the info off of a scrap of paper from a long ago friend, and everything was written as minimally as possible...so I had to fill in the blanks each time I made it for the past 15 years! Anyway, in the cookbook, it says to add 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract. Well, if you have ever made cookies before, you know that is too much! It should read 2 teaspoons. And when the recipe calls for 1 1/4 sticks butter, the recipe says that is 3/4 cup, but that is not right. 1 1/4 sticks equals 10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons).  These corrections will also be on the recipe correction tab at the top of the blog.

Now, back to the business of this wonderful cookie...

I am not one of those people that goes nuts over eating raw cookie dough...I would prefer to wait till my cookie is baked to perfection. However...with this cookie, I can't seem to stop eating the dough! By the time I have them baked, I am sure I eat an equivalent of 4 raw cookies. This dough is just so yummy (and I don't say "yummy" often)!

I like to use these giant dark chocolate chips. They are almost twice the size of regular chips. They cost about 30 cents more than the Hershey's, so it is not a big price jump to enjoy these great chips.

I thought maybe all these luscious pictures might help make up for the corrections you will need to make to your cookbook for this recipe.

Salmon and Noodle Bowl ~ page 184

This was a great light dinner, not too heavy feeling. My girls even ate most everything on their plate! I think homemade balsamic vinegar dressing would be very tasty in this, maybe just leave any sugar out of the dressing....sweet might taste odd with the spinach.

Adam got home late from work and ate his at room temp, and said it was good that way too.

Above shows me having to cut the skin off...I suggest buying it skinless...this was a big pain!

After the red peppers and spinach were cooked, I chopped them up a bit mainly so my kids would eat it. Large bites of spinach scares them, but if it is in small pieces, they do fine. It is tasty either way. Notice the recipe calls for 10 oz. of pasta, not a whole pound like alot of recipes. I didn't have fettuccine, but regular old spaghetti worked just fine. --Carissa

Saucy Mushroom Porkchops ~ page 186

This was a recipe I got when I was first married (thanks Heather!), maybe that is why I am sentimental about it. The rice is so yummy, I usually look forward to it more than the chops even. I know alot of you aren't into using canned soup. But every once in a while I just have to go for the convenience!

I tried to save some money and use pork chops that were cut thin...I would not recommend that. I thought they cooked too fast and weren't as tender as they usually are. Go for the thicker chops, then you don't have to eat 2 of them like we did! Also, I know in the recipe it says you can use boneless or bone-in...If you have a choice get bone-in. Any meat cooked with the bone in, is gonna be better....more moist, and more flavor.

Below is to show you what the casserole dish looks like coming out of the oven.

New Idea for Vanilla Custard Pudding ~ page 264

My granddaughter, Lillian, was at my house this week, so I decided to make Vanilla Custard Pudding again, partly because Lillian loves to stir, and this pudding takes LOTS of stirring, but also because I had an idea I wanted to try. I have been bothered by the large amount of flour clumps in my cooked pudding that I have to strain out...here is my old picture from the first posting once again:

My theory was that the undissolved flour possibly makes the finished pudding less "stiff." Even though it is no trouble to strain the lumps out, I still don't like the idea of so much unused flour. I recall that when I make other sauces and gravies, I sometimes shake the flour with a small amount of liquid to dissolve it before cooking.

So instead of putting my 1/3 cup flour in the pot and adding the milk, as the recipe says...I put it in a covered container then added about 1/2 cup or so of my measured amount of 4 cups of milk.

I put the lid on and shook the container vigorously and the flour quickly dissolved. Then I poured this into my pot with all the rest of the ingredients to cook, following the recipe from here on. I hardly had to whisk at all to blend things together. Lillian and I took turns stirring (while relaxing, of course...). When the custard thickened, I strained it to see the difference; there was hardly a thing in the strainer...maybe a little bit of undissolved egg white is all. So clearly this is the best way to make creamy vanilla custard!

One last thought...I notice every time I make this, that there comes a point when I decide I am tired of stirring and this is not relaxing or fun any more--that I have other things I need to go do--and every time, just at that point, the custard comes to a boil and thickens and it is all over! So don't get discouraged at all the stirring; there is an end to it just when you have had enough!

Creamy Pimento Cheese Spread ~ page 18

Pimento cheese sandwiches say "summertime" to me. This Pimento Cheese Spread is light and cool and so easy to make from scratch. (Try pairing it with our Pesto Tomato Soup, pg. 52.)

The two unusual ingredients are the small amount of cream cheese, so the spread is creamy without being too "mayonaisey," and the addition of a few green olives which gives a bright twist.

A small amount of the grated cheese is blended with the cream cheese, olives, pimentos, some mayo. and the spices. Then the remaining grated cheese and more mayonnaise is blended in by hand.

Delicious! I love this stuff!

Slow-Roasted Grape Tomatoes ~ page 87

These slow roasted grape tomatoes may not look like much, but let me tell you they are packed with flavor! When I find these on sale, I usually buy a couple boxes of them to make this recipe. When cooled, what I don't eat right away, I put in a covered dish with a tiny bit more olive oil, and they will last in the fridge for several weeks.

Just cut the tomatoes in half and drizzel with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Sometimes I add some fresh herbs.

Spread out with a clove of garlic to slow roast...later you can squeeze out the roasted garlic from its skin and mix the garlic in with the tomatoes. Roast for about 3 hours, or till just barely starting to crisp up a little. They make the house smell wonderful.

The interesting thing about roasting grape tomatoes, is that even if the fresh tomatoes are not very tasty, they suddenly become infused with potent flavor when they are roasted. I put them on a salad today, but I more often use these little wonders in pasta recipes for an extra bright punch of flavor.

Indian Chicken in Tomato Cream Sauce ~ page 117

Well, it was another one of those nights where I needed to go to the grocery store. I was secretly hoping Adam would say we could just go out for fast food so I didn't have to cook...but he didn't, so I pulled out my old faithful cookbook. This recipe has alot of flavor for not much work or time. I always keep rotisserie chicken in my freezer, and I make Indian food often enough that I always have Indian spices around. The ingredient I didn't have were the frozen peas, which probably made Adam very happy since he doesn't really care for them much. After much digging in the freezer I found 1/3 bag of edamame (soy beans), I figured they were close enough and healthier anyway. Oh, one other change, I didn't have cream so I used a can of evaporated milk and all turned out great! Since it was a little spicy for my 2 year old I just made her a little plate of edamame, rice and rotisserie chicken that I held back from the sauce. So it was easy to make it a family friendly meal. There was one little typo...just when we think we have caught everything...something else pops up! In Step 3 it says to add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, but it forgets to tell you to add the tomato paste in at that time also. Sorry about that. --Carissa

Granny's Texas Sheet Cake ~ page 235

I used this recipe for a birthday cake for my sister in law. Since it was a birthday cake I thought it needed to be thick and decadent looking, not thinner like when you make it in a sheet pan like the recipe calls for. So I used my large casserole dish that is 11x15. It was just the thickness I was looking for. I don't think I would recommend using a 9x13 pan, I think it would overflow and not cook evenly. Since my pan was a little smaller than what the recipe called for, I had to cook it an extra 6-7 minutes to make sure the middle was cooked through.

I didn't have enough chocolate chips to make 8 oz., so I dug in my pantry and was delighted to find 4 Hersey's Kiss candies from Valentine's Day! I quickly unwrapped the pink foil from them but was sad to see I was still off a touch on my total weight. So after more digging in the pantry I found some chocolate bars leftover from our Christmas stockings at Adam's grandmother's house ....(thanks Granny, you saved the day...I mean the cake! ) So with my assortment of chocolates, I proceeded.....but as you know nothing ever goes as planned when little kiddos are involved. I turned the burner on to melt my chocolate and then wouldn't you know my 2 year old started yelling from the bathroom that she needed help going potty! Thinking to myself that I would be back in 30 seconds, I left the burner on. Well, 10 minutes later, my smoke detector was going off! (the toddler bathroom trip had taken a bit longer than I had planned! )

Well, the most expensive ingredients in this recipe were in that pan. I wasn't about to start over digging for more leftover holiday candy in the pantry. So, I said a quick prayer over the scorched chocolate and continued with the recipe.

I bet you are wondering what the end result was......it was very yummy! No one could tell I had burnt chocolate in there! :) In fact it was really quite delicious! The whole family gobbled it down.

Here is what the pan looked like after being scrapped!

I am not a great cake maker...if you know me, I do cookies. So if I can make this cake and have it turn out as mouthwatering as it did, then you can too! :) Don't skip the icing...it is the best part! --Carissa

Pulled Pork Quesadillas~ p. 183

My husband rated this a '9' on a scale of 1 to 10 of the best meals I've ever cooked for him. This is saying a lot because my husband and I really love food. You should all try this recipe.
The sweet of the papaya nectar/orange juice combined with spice of the adobo sauce and chipotle peppers, coupled with the intense flavors of the beer and worcestershire sauce (along with the rest of the ingredients) make this sauce for the pork AH-MAZING! Loved the cilantro and avacado on the quesadilla as well. The flavors just work together so well. I can't say enough positive things about this dish!
I took Carissa's advice from the cookbook and served black beans alongside the dish, but I don't know the first thing about making fried plantains, so I passed on that until I can get a tutorial from Carissa. :-)

I also served fresh guacamole and homemade white corn tortilla chips with this meal and it really completed it. The mango I used in the fruit salad just happened to be perfect and I think it was a great compliment to the sweet in the pork from the quesadillas.
This makes A LOT of meat which can save on cooking times later in the week. Taylor added a little BBQ sauce on top of some of the leftovers for a BBQ pulled pork sandwich for lunch a couple of times and I plan on making pork tacos in white corn tortillas with the remainder of the pork this week. We've already made the quesadillas twice with the same batch of meat. It's lasted us a while.

Asparagus Fettuccine ~ page 89

We had this yummy side dish with crab cakes, and I thought it was a great pairing. The crab cakes and the pasta both tasted really good with fresh lemon squeezed over the top. Almost made me wonder if we should add some lemon juice to the recipe since there is zest in there already. The only thing I changed was I wanted it a little heavier on the asparagus, so I only used 3/4 pound of pasta instead of the one pound that it calls for. My asparagus was pretty thick, so I think a pound of thick stalks doesn't look like the same quantity as 1 pound of the thins stalks even though I know it really is. So depending on your asparagus size, you may want to adjust your pasta amount. I know alot of you complain about recipes that say " salt to taste", saying you don't know how much that means. It is hard to say, because I think I added 1/4 teaspoon to the recipe, then at the table Adam added almost another 1/4 teaspoon just to his serving! So, it is so different for everyone. Just start with a small amount. You can always add more later.

Oh, you know I did change one other thing...I tried it with 3 Tablespoons of butter instead of the 4 it calls for since I knew my crab cakes weren't low fat. The result....no difference, so feel free to "lighten" it up a bit if you want to! I got this recipe from the Williams Sonoma website years ago, I think they originally had the cheese just passed at the table, but I like having it tossed with the really hot pasta and butter & wine sauce. Next time I might try adding in another veggie...not sure what though, any suggestions? Maybe mushrooms? --Carissa

Hummus ~ page 22

This is one of my favorite appetizers, it is quick to make and lasts a while in the fridge. I like the cumin in the recipe, most recipes don't have that spice in there. I am cheap so I always use peanut butter instead of Tahini, and it does add a nuttier flavor to the dip, but I love it that way. For some reason it makes it feel healthier to me, not sure it that is really that true though.

Here is a picture of the mixture getting creamed in the old faithful food processor! I like to dip baby carrots in mine--Carissa

Spicy Hot Turkey Wrap~ p.74

These are sooooo good! Perfect for a quick Sunday lunch right after church because the preparation time is . My two year old took one bite and exhaled a long drawn out, "mmmm. mmm. m. Mommy, this is sooo duh-lish-us!". As she wiped her mouth with her forearm.
The adobo sauce in with the slaw gives it just enough kick to pack a little punch and make it more interesting, but not enough heat to make it intolerable. Loved it!!

Pizza Dough ~ page 285

This crust is so fast in the food processor! I made pesto and spread that on first for the sauce, then one pizza got sliced tomatoes and cheese while the other one got grilled chicken and cheese. Both were wonderful. Get creative with your toppings!

This crust is versatile in that you can roll it thicker for a chewier crust like I usually do, but then tonight I tried rolling it super thin for a crispy crust. I might actually like the thin crust best. I pre-baked each one about 6 minutes, a few minutes less than when I roll the dough thicker.

Above is what the dough looks like coming out of the food processor...just knead it around on the counter a few times and it makes a nice little ball.

There is Lillian working hard on her ball of dough.

Above is a picture of the little guys in their sauna. I turn my empty oven on for 2 minutes or so, then turn it off. Then in the off, but warm oven I set my dough and let it sit in warmth for 1 1/2 hours. They don't grow a ton since each batch has only 1 teaspoon of yeast. This is a double batch, one recipe in each bowl. I wanted to stock my freezer with baked dough, so I made extra.


Below is a picture I took so you can see the size and amount of crust that 1 recipe makes. Normally one recipe makes 2 medium crusts, but because I rolled my super thin, I got one extra crust out of the recipe! These have been baked for 6 minutes each and ready to go in the freezer for a super quick dinner soon! I know the shapes and sizes are pretty rustic and irregular, but it adds charm I think, makes them look homemade! -Carissa