Cell Phone Saturday #13

Key Lime Cake

1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix

1 1/3 cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 (3 ounce) package lime flavored gelatin mix

3/4 cup orange juice

1/2 cup butter

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Combine cake mix, gelatin mix, oil, eggs and orange juice. Pour into three 8 inch cake pans. Bake according to instructions on box. Allow to cool, then frost.

2. To make the frosting: In a large bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add lime juice and confectioners sugar. Mix well.

This was our familes St. Patrick Day dessert.
Yum!
I LOVE CAKE!

Tasty Tuesday

These really are good and easy!

7 Up Biscuits

2 c Bisquick mix

1/2 c sour cream

1/2 c 7up

1/4 c melted butter

Preheat oven to 450º 
 

Cut sour cream into biscuit mix, add 7-Up and melted butter.

 

Makes a very soft dough.

Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on board or table and pat dough out. 

 

Butter a 9 inch square pan.

 

  Place biscuits in pan and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.       

October

Nothing says October like Pumpkin!

I saw the recipe on Cherie's blog and needed some right then.

I had everything in the house to make it

and I did

Can I say Y.U.M!!!

Paula Dean's Oooey Gooey Butter Cake

Crust:

1 Yellow Cake Mix

1 Egg

1 stick of butter, melted

(to give this an even better kick add a cup of chopped pecans to the crust)
Mix with fork, and press in bottom of 9x13 pan.

Top:

1 pound powdered sugar (4 cups)

1 package cream cheese, softened (8 oz)

1 stick of butter, very soft or melted

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Mix and pour over base.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until set. The center should still be slightly gooey.

Cool and serve topped with powdered sugar. Delicious! But not diet friendly. :)

To make the pumpkin version, add one 15 ounce can of pureed pumpkin (plain pumpkin, not canned pumpkin pie), 1 tsp cinnamon, and 1 tsp nutmeg.

Tasty Tuesday

Alright Anna, here's the recipe.
You can also cut the oil to 3/4 cup
and that has turned out good. I want to cut it even more
to just a half a cup of oil but when I have baked
it it has been for others and not had time to
really experiment with their recipe.
*Also I have made it with Splenda granulated sugar
 and Splenda brown sugar. It's more dense and not as moist.
It's edible.

Zucchini Bread

2 eggs beaten

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups of grated zucchini

Mix Wet ingredients together.

Mix together dry ingredients.

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon bk. powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoons nutmeg

Add to wet ingredients. a little bit at a time.

Bake in bunt pan or two loaf pans and bake for an hour or a little longer if necessary.

Tasty Tuesday

Midwest BBQ Pasta Salad

1lb (or 6 cups) dry Garden Rotini pasta

1 cup ranch dressing

3/4 cup barbecue sauce

2 cups chopped chicken

1/2 cup bacon cooked and chopped in large pieces

1/2 cup bell pepper

i1/2 cup scallions minced

1/2 cup red onion chopped

1/2 cup peeled, seeded and diced cucumber

salt and pepper to taste

Cook Garden Rotini according to package directions. When pasta is "al dente" drain and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. Drain off excess water thoroughly. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss well Season to taste. Serves 6-8

I took this pasta salad to the Ward Social last Friday night.

First time I had ever made it.

Pretty good and great for summer BBQ's.

Tasty Tuesday

 

This oldest child of mine turned 32 the 28th of March.

He had his favorite meal.

 

 

And I made his favorite birthday cake again this year!

Pecan Praline Cheese Cake

Crust: • 1/2 stick of melted butter

•1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

•1/4 cup granulated sugar

•Filling:

•4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

•1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk

•4 eggs

•1/3 cup all-purpose flour

•1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°.

Combine crust ingredients and press into bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in condensed milk; beat until smooth. Add flour, eggs, and vanilla; beat until well blended. Pour into prepared crust. Wrap the bottom of the spring form pan in heavy duty foil; place the pan in a shallow baking pan, such as a jelly roll pan. Put the pans in the oven and add about 2 cups of hot water to the shallow baking pan, or to a depth of about 1/2-inch. Bake for 1 hour, or until lightly browned. The cheesecake will be slightly jiggly in the center.

PECAN PRALINE SAUCE

1/2 stick butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. pecan halves

1/4 c. light Karo syrup

1/2 c. sour cream

Melt butter over low heat; add pecans. Stir until light brown; add sugar and syrup. Continue to stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and blend in sour cream. Pour over Cheese Cake.

I am way behind on blog posts that I may or may not ever catch up on.

Sugar Cookie Bars

For all of you who love Sugar Cookies but hate the rolling

 out the dough and cutting all those little bunny's or pumpkins

 or candy canes, just go with these Sugar Cookie Bars!

I am in love with these!

They are very moist and oh so yummy!

Just cut and ice with cute colored icing and you have a very delicious treat!

Sugar Cookie Bars

1 1/2 C sugar

1 C butter, softened

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg

1/2 t almond extract

1 t vanilla

1/2 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

2 1/2 C flour

FROSTING:

1/2 C butter softened

4 oz cream cheese, softened

3 1/2 C powdered sugar

3-5 T milk

1 t vanilla

food coloring

1. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until nice and frothy. About 4 minutes.

2. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more.

3. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them around so that all ingredients are well incorporated.

4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes.

5. Press the dough into a large jelly roll (cookie sheet) pan.

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

7. Let the pan cool completely.

8. Time to make the frosting! In a medium sized bowl (or your stand mixer) combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat for about 2 minutes.

9. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth.

10. Frost your pan of cookies. Cut the cookies into bars and serve!

As a fun decorative option, you could pipe a bit of white frosting onto the bars. Just take about 1/4 of the frosting out of the mixer before you add the food coloring. Put the white frosting into to sandwich sized zip loc bag. Carefully snip the tip and pipe some fun decorations onto the bars.

I found this little gem of a recipe here! Thanks

Moon Rocks

Tasty Tuesday
A new recipe from the Ultimate Cake Mix Book.
These cookies were really interesting with the pretzels and oatmeal both in them.
They had a moist but crunchy texture.

Moon Rocks

1 pkg. devils' food cake mix

3 eggs

1/2 (1 stick) melted butter

2 cups slightly crushed (2 1/2 inch) pretzel sticks

1 1/2 cups old fashion oats

1 cup white or swirl chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350*

Blend cake mix, eggs and butter in large bowl. Stir in pretzels, oats and chips. Dough will be stiff. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 7 to 9 minutes until set. Cool cookies on sheet at least one minute before removing to wire racks.

Recipe from Ultimate Cake Mix recipe book.

Tasty Tuesday

I won this great little book from a giveaway on Connie's blog.

I also got a way cute apron and a few other GREAT goodies.

This book is so cute.

It has a colored picture for nearly every recipe.

I've looked at every page at least 5 times. So fun.

The first recipe I decide to fix was these coconut cookies.

I made them to pass out to the sisters after my R/S lesson a few weeks ago.

The were received with lots of Yums!

Coconut Clouds

2 2/3 cups flaked coconut, divided

1 pkg. Yellow cake mix (I used a white cake mix in the above picture)

1 egg

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon almond flavoring

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Reserve 1 1/3 cups coconut in medium bowl

2. Combine cake mix, egg, oil, water and almond extract in large bowl.

Beat at low speed with electric mixer. Stir in remaining 1 1/3 cups coconut.

I used the small cookie scoop and scooped cookie dough balls into

the remaining coconut. Roll to cover lightly.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

3. Bake at 350* for 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to cooling racks.

Cool completely.

Store in airtight container.

Makes 3 dozen.

What I will do different next time I make them is this:

They reminded me of the Girl Scout Cookie, Samoas.

So I think that I would dip the bottoms in chocolate and then put chocolate stripes on them.

Can you say double Yum!

Tasty Tuesday

And YES I know it's Wednesday.

Chocolate Brownie Pudding

Chocolate Brownie Pudding

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups chopped walnuts
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 milk
2 Tablespoons melted butter

Topping
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cups cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups boiling water

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder together. Add milk, vanilla and melted butter and mix until smooth.Add chopped nuts and pour into a 8x8 square greased and floured pan.

Topping
Blend together brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Sprinkle over the batter. Pour boiling water over the entire pan of batter and topping. DO NOT STIR. Bake in preheated oven at 350* for 40~45 minutes. This will makes it's on chocolate pudding. Very moist. Be sure to top it with some ice cream or whipped topping.

Yum!!

V.D. Treats For V.T. Sisters

Thank you for the idea Connie.

They turned out so cute!

Best box mix ever!

Both of the above cupcakes were made from this mix:

Ghirardelli Chocolate Triple Chocolate Cupcake Premium Mix

Normally I do not like a box cake mix b u t ...

This cake mix rocks!!!!

I saw these on someones blog this week except

they were dipped in milk chocolate instead of white chocolate.

If it was your blog please leave a comment so I can give you credit.

These are just square pretzel with some peanut butter in the middle

then dipped in chocolate.

Wonderful!

Thanks to Kimmie at "Pink Cookies With Sprinkles."

These just say Happy Valentine's Day don't they?

I had a great time baking and delivering these treats

to the Sisters and to my family.

And, drum roll please .......

It was sunny and 72* today!

Can you say B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!!

Beautiful day and thank you Heavenly Father!

Easy Peasy

I bought several flats of strawberries this past

summer and I saved these little baskets for a craft of some sort.

At the time I didn't know what I'd use them for.

I ran two rows of ribbon.

You could do all three rows.

If you can melt a bag of chips and crush some

candy canes you can make this wonderful Christmas bark in 3 minutes flat!

Really, it's that easy.

Over on Prudence Pennywise blog she had two different

step by step blog posts on how to do this and

just how easy it is to make.

Check it out here and here to see for yourselves!

I'm filling the little baskets with that wonderful bark.

It will make nice little gifts for teachers, neighbors,

Home and Visiting teachers or anyone you

need to remember this Christmas season.

Or just eat it yourself.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Fried Okra

Ingredients
6 cups oil, for frying
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons House Seasoning, recipe follows
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 pounds fresh okra, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1/2 cup buttermilk
Directions
Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet or Dutch oven to 350 degrees F. (You may not need to use this much oil; do not fill the pan more than halfway up the sides with oil.)

In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, House Seasoning, and cayenne pepper. Dip okra in buttermilk and then dredge in cornmeal-flour mixture to coat well. Carefully add okra to the hot oil and cook until golden brown. (It may be necessary to fry the okra in batches.) Remove from oil, drain on paper towels, and then serve immediately.


House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Recipe courtesy of Paula Dean

Sweet Potato Supreme

Sweet Potato Supreme

3 cups mashed sweet potatoes

2 eggs beaten

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all together and spread in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish.

Topping

1 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cups melted butter

1 cup copped pecans

Mix topping ingredients together and

sprinkle over the top of the sweet potato mixture.

Bake at 350* for 30~45 minutes.

Can be made ahead and frozen or refrigerated till ready to bake.

This is a must for us at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Tasty Tuesday

My Daddy makes better Banana Pudding than your Daddy!!

And he enjoys making it and takes great care in making it so perfect.

I finally took the time to take some pictures of him making

it for our Crenshaw Family Reunion this past weekend.

See that cute smile, he was grinning at me for taking his picture.

He's having some health problems and is having some tests run today

could you please keep him in your prayers?

Thanks.

This is an email he sent us a few weeks ago about the said Banana Pudding:
Dear ones,
Last night I went to General Priesthood meeting at the Stake Center. Our Stake President, Gene Patch, was making his way around the chapel greeting and shaking hands with all the brethren, when he got to the Palatka bunch he came down the row shaking hands and when he got to me he said, "Hi Bro.Crenshaw, oh by the way, a few days ago, Elder Gonzales of the Seventy was in our home for dinner and my wife fix your recipe for your banana pudding and it was delicious and Elder Gonzales said so too. He continued and said to tell Bro. Crenshaw it was great. So we gave you the credit for the recipe."

Last year when we had Ward Conference and dinner afterwards I fix two pudding so most would have some. Well, the Stake Presidency and wives were there and they got some of my banana pudding and they told me the really liked it. Around the first of the this year President Patch and Sister Patch was here for a Scout Court honor. I spoke to them she ask if I would give her my recipe for my banana pudding and I said if you'll give me your e-mail I'll send it to you. So she did and then I did.

Didn't hear anymore about it until last night when he told me the above information. It tickled me and I laughed and laughed. What a moment, just had to share that with y'all.

Y'all be good.
Keep the Faith,
I love you all,
Papa, Billy

I just thought that was so sweet and wanted to share it with yall along with the recipe again!

Papa's Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

4-6 ripe bananas, mellow, not mushy

1 box of vanilla wafers

small can 8 oz of crushed pineapple

2 cups of cold milk, skimmed

1 large box INSTANT VANILLA pudding mix

1 tub of cool whip topping

Directions:

Make sure cool whip topping is thoroughly thawed. Place cut up bananas and wafers in layers in serving bowl. Save about 12-15 wafers and crumbs to decorate the topping. Mix together the crushed pineapple and its juice, 2 cups of cold milk and slowly stir in the instant vanilla mix, remember the box calls for 3 cups of milk but you are substituting 8 oz of pineapple & juice for one cup of milk. Then shake or beat with electric beater as directed on package, at least one and a half minutes, then pour evenly over the wafers and bananas. When the liquid has settled, spread the topping over the mixture. Add the saved wafers and add them in your own design and sprinkle on the crumbs. Best when chilled a few hours or over night in the fridge. Enjoy the taste and the compliments. Guaranteed!

Try it you'll like it, I promise!

Coconut Cheese Topped Brownies

I think I could rename these brownies,

German Chocolate Brownies,

because that is what they reminded me of when I tasted them.

Very easy to make and very moist.

Just make a box of Milk Chocolate, Fudge, Brownie mix

by the box directions.

Add one cup of milk chocolate chips to the mix.

Pour into greased pan.

Then mix together:

1 8 oz. package cream cheese

1 Tablespoon all purpose flour

3 Tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

Pour over brownie mix and spread to the edges.

Bake as per directions on the box.

Quick and fancy.

1 cup sweet coconut

Tasty Tuesday

MOM’S OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES

Bring to a boil - then simmer gently over low heat, for 15 minutes. Let raisins and liquid cool:

2 cups water

2 cups raisins

Mix together:

1 1/2 Cups of shortening or butter

2 cups white sugar

3 eggs

4 cups Oatmeal

4 Cups all purpose flour

Now add:

The cooled raisin mixture including all the liquid as well.

Mix together well, then add:

1 cups nuts (opt)

3 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 teaspoon of each of these: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice

Mix together until well blended. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until done.

Recipe Thanks to Get Off Your Butt and Bake

Store Bought Icing

The Sweetheart had to provide the refreshments for

Young Men/Young Women's combined activity last week.

Guess who baked and iced 60 cupcakes?

~~

I love to bake but not in mass amounts.

So, I did the Box Cake Mix thing.

I also didn't want to make that much icing, so I opted for store bought icing.

I H.A.T.E. the way it taste and never buy it!

But I had seen Sandra Lee from Simi-Homemade do this one time.

She added one teaspoon of Almond Flavoring to

the store bought icing and stirred it very well.

Believe it or not it tasted a lot better.

So try this some time if you need to ice 60 cupcakes.

~~~

I am using the yellow label on the Almond flavoring

as my Mellow Yellow Monday.

Okra and Tomaotes

What to do with fresh okra?

I was given a mess of okra last week, oh what a gift!

I put it with the okra I had from my garden.

Then I sort of came up with this recipe.

~

In my head it started out somewhat like that great

Poppin Squash Recipe I got from

Katherine Mt Smokey Mt. Cafe.

But ended up differently but oh so yummy.

I've made this three times in the last couple of weeks.

Fry up a few pieces of bacon.

Remove bacon from pan, crumble and save for later.

Throw 2 cups chopped Vidalia onions (or sweet onion) and

saute until they start to get translucent.

Add two teaspoons minced garlic and cook a minute more.

Add 4 cups chopped okra and saute about 5 minutes.

If you have fresh tomatoes add 3 - 4 cups.

If not, use two or 3 cans of petite diced cans of tomatoes.

If you want to add little spice, add a can of Rotel tomatoes.

Add one or two tablespoons of sugar.

Add two chicken bullion cubes crumbled.

Stir all together and cook until okra is tender.

In another frying pan saute a pound or more smoked sausage.

Add bacon and sausage to tomatoes and okra.

Serve over a bed or rice!

I've been craving this everyday this week.

Keeping a Secret

This is my friend Ella Keeney.

She has a great recipe and everyone wanted it.

For 20 years I've had that recipe and never

made it because it is her special "thing."

People have been begging her to share that recipe and she wouldn't.

She would tell them, "when I die, you can get it from Gigi."

So I've been the keeper of the prized secret recipe!!

I feel special and I have kept her secret.

This is what we affectionately call "C.R.A.C.K"

It got it's nickname because it's hard to get out of

the pan and it just cracks out in all different shapes and sizes.

It is very addictive just like a drug :)

Now that there is a drug that goes by the name of "crack"

we have to be more careful what we call this recipe.

We are now trying to call it "Cracker Candy."

Well, Mrs. Ella decided that she wanted to finally share the recipe

for her famous Crack!

And now I don't have to keep the secret any more!!

She invited her friends to a party and

didn't tell them why they were coming.

I knew of course because I was her assistant for the evening.

She called it, Her Unveiling!!

Every one screamed with excitement!


They were finally going to get her secret recipe!


So now it is only fair that I share this
wonderful chocolate CRACK recipe with all of you,
My Best Blogging Friends!!


Preheat the oven to 425*
Butter a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with sides.


Line the pan with crackers.
She uses Nabisco unsalted tops.
Because she uses salted butter.
If you use unsalted butter then use salted top crackers.


In a heavy sauce pan put two sticks of good quality butter (1 cup)
and 1 cup of light brown sugar.
On med to high heat stir until butter is melted and comes to a low boil.


Stir with wooden spoon and cook for about
5 minutes or until it comes to a soft ball stage.
(forms soft balls in ice water)

Pour over crackers.

Spread it out carefully over the crackers.

Put in the oven and bake for 3 to 5 minutes

watching carefully until it bubbles all over.

Take out of oven and immediately pour a package of

milk chocolate chips over hot crackers.
( If you are a dark chocolate lover then use dark chocolate, or you can also use semi-sweet)

Spread the melted chocolate all the way to the edges.

Cool.

Then put in refrigerator until hard.

Then hit the pan on the edge of the counter and crack out the pieces.

Enjoy!!

Okay!!

This was the first time I made it and I skipped the "butter the Pan step" and just sprayed it with Pam.

It came right out of the pan in the crackers shaped squares.

I thought that was a good thing but Mrs Ella said that was cheating and that takes half the fun out of making the Crack(er) Candy!

Either way you do this it's the bomb!!

Ella's Cracker Candy
40 saltine crackers
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup light brown sugar
8 ounces milk chocolate chips (about 1¹⁄3 cups)

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a large jellyroll the saltine crackers.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the crackers, covering them evenly. Put the jellyroll pan into the oven and watch closely. Bake for 3 to 5 minutes, or until just bubbly. Remove from the oven and pour the chocolate chips over the crackers. When the chips melt a bit, spread them over the crackers with a knife. Transfer the pan to the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until completely cold. They will form one big sheet. Break up into pieces. Store in an airtight container and I keep it in the frig, just because.