No Bake Chocolate Cookies

Yes, those. They look like pig droppings but they are not.

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter or shortening or a mix of both
1/4 cup powdered cocoa

Mix and bring to a boil in saucepan. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add:
1 tsp vanilla

then stir in:
3 cups oatmeal

Stir well. Then quickly drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool.

After you've scraped out the pan as much as you can, then let the pan soak with hot water for a bit. Rinse, soak with hot water again. Then it should be easy to clean.

Wiki Wiki Ono Ono Chicken

Hawaiian recipe for a quick potluck dish or dinner. Got the recipe from the star bulletin but it's super easy and simple. Foodland always sold chicken thighs in these large 5 lb boxes which were great for potluck nights. Eat this with rice if there's any left for you.

5 lb box of chicken thighs

1 12 oz can of orange juice concentrate

1/2 cup sweet Thai chili sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

2 cloves garlic

Throw all in pot and simmer for 45 minutes. Can add a little water as the liquid cooks down. 

Chess Pie or "Just Pie"

The origins of the name of this pie varies. It's a simple pie filling and depending on what part of the US you are in it's the pronunciation that makes the name. Chess pie,chest pie, jest pie, just pie. See? Anyways, here's a simple and great dessert pie. 

Chess Pie

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

salt

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all well. Pour into raw pie crust. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Lucys Lemon Squares

From the Peanuts Cook Book. A very simple Lemon Square recipe. 

350 Degrees oven

1 cup flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter

Mix flour and sugar together. Cut in butter until well mixed. Press into bottom of 8x8 baking pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Mix well:

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 TBS lemon juice

dash of salt

Pour over baked crust. Bake again for 20-25 minutes. Let cool before cutting. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Chicken and Dumplings

I earlier posted the recipe for dumplings. I made chicken and dumplings the other day and it took practically no time to make. I used the bisquik recipe for the dumplings because nobody complains about them. 

(I just pulled a carcass from the freezer and boiled it in pot for a few hours with some italian seasoning and let the water cook down. Pulled the meat from carcass, then strained the broth a few times to make sure to get the bones out.)

So here we go:

1-2 cups cooked chicken 

8 cups chicken broth 

Bring to a boil. 

Add a 1/2 cup of frozen peas, 1/2 cup of frozen corn, a few chopped carrots. 

Let boil or simmer until tender. Add some seasoning and salt. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add a little more water or broth if needed and heat. 

Add dumplings. Cover and let them cook for 10 minutes or so. Eat. 

Macaroni and CHEEEZZZEE

Macaroni and Cheese. It's not hard. It's super easy. Today I made it while on the phone with one hand. Give it a try, use some of your own ideas to make it what you want. You don't have to bake it but baking it does give it some crunch in the right places and makes it "set". You'll see. This makes enough for 4 people. Lately we have been cutting down on portions because I only know how to make a ton and we don't eat as much anymore. Plus our household is small.

Use cheese of your choice. Remember, each cheese has different properties, melting temperatures and tastes. Use what you like and experiment later after you get used to making this. You can also add tomatoes, ham, cooked bacon and other seasonings if you'd like.

Here's todays recipe.

3 TBS Butter
2 TBS flour
3/4 cup milk
3 cups shredded cheese (Mexican blend was today)
salt, pepper

1/2 package of macaroni (today was rotini)

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain.

Melt butter, add flour and whisk until smooth. Add milk and whisk until smooth again. Add cheese, salt, pepper. Whip well. While hot, add pasta, mix well.

For baking: bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes in greased casserole dish.

 Can add panko or breadcrumbs on top before baking. If doing so, spray with vegetable spray to toast them without burning.

Tagliatelle Contadina or That Sausage Stuff with Peas

Got this off of an episode of Martha Stewart one day. It looked good. I made it. You all loved it. End of story. But we never called it by the right name. So it's just that Sausage Stuff with Peas. Here it is in the simplified un-Marthafied version.

3 TBS olive oil
3/4 cup cream or half n half
3 tomatos diced (Or 1 can diced tomatoes)
1/2 cup defrosted frozen peas
2 TBS butter
3/4 cup parmesan cheese (or more if you want more)
1 lb tagliatelle pasta or some other pasta cooked and hot

3 hot Italian Sausages
3 mild Italian Sausages

Cut the meat out of the skins. Mix all the meat together. Or do the next best thing and buy the meat uncased and mix well. Sprouts usually has the meat uncased.

Cook the meat in a skillet with some olive oil. Break it up while cooking. As it's getting brown, add a sprinkle of sage and rosemary, 3/4 cup of cream (or half n half) and tomatoes. Stir and cook a couple of minutes. Add the peas and cook another minute. Add the butter, a few shakes of salt and pepper. Stir in the cheese with 2 more TBS cream. Cook another minute or two. Eat over pasta.

Crisp Cocoa Cookies

Cousin Jeremys favorite. Grandma Z always made these when I was a kid. They are simple, use hardly anything and are wonderful. Zoa made her first batch of these last night and they turned out FABULOUS.

Crisp Cocoa Cookies
dry:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt

wet:
2/3 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp real vanilla
3 TBS milk or 1/2 n 1/2

Whip wet ingredients together in one bowl until fluffy. Mix dry into another. Slowly mix the dry into the wet. Do not overmix.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls, place on greased cookie sheet. Take a flat bottomed glass and butter it. Dip glass into sugar and flatten dough ball once. Glass into sugar and flatten dough ball a 2nd time. 2 flattens per cookie.

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and take off cookie sheet after cooling for a few minutes. Enjoy.