Zucchini Fritters

These were supposed to be more like hush puppies, but I didn't feel like busting out the deep fryer.  So, I just dropped them in hot oil in a skillet and now they are more like zucchini pancakes.  They were really good, but made way too many for our little family.  I decided to put them in the freezer to see if we could eat them later.  Of course, fried foods are always better freshly fried but they still tasted good after being reheated in the microwave.

Zucchini Fritters

Vegetable oil
1/2 c. milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 c. all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 (1 oz.) pkg. of ranch-style dip mix
2 c. shredded zucchini

Fill a deep-fat fryer or skillet with oil to a 2-inch depth.  Heat to 375.  Meanwhile, combine milk and egg in a mixing bowl.  Stir together dry ingredients and add to egg mixture; blend well.  Fold in zucchini.  Drop batter by rounded teaspoonful into hot oil.  Fry until deep golden brown, turning once.  Drain thoroughly on paper towels.  Yields 1-1/2 to 2 dozen.

Three Bean Salad

This is a salad that I absolutely love that The Dish Washer's mother makes.  It is so addictive, but again I love all things sweet and sour.  I decided to make this for the past weekend's family get-together too.  It's pictured above from several Thanksgivings ago, but it has me in the mood for fall just looking at the picture.  Too bad we are still expecting 100 degrees this week!  Doesn't seem right for the first week of college football to be 100 degrees!  It's usually hot, but not that hot.  My Dad loved this salad and said it is the best Three Bean Salad he has ever had.  I'm not sure there is much difference between this recipe and other recipes, but he wanted this recipe none the less.  So, here it is:

Three Bean Salad

1 can cut green beans
1 can cut wax beans
1 can red beans
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. vinegar


Drain beans and rinse.  Set aside.  In a saucepan, combine oil, vinegar, sugar and onion.  Heat until sugar dissolves.  Allow to cool completely.  Place beans in a refrigerator bowl and pour cooled sugar/vinegar mixture over beans.  Allow to marinate overnight.  Serve chilled.

Nutella Chess Bars

You may know these bars from the one and only Paula Deen.  She calls the base recipe Gooey Butter Bars, but growing up we always called these Chess Bars and Chess Bars they will always be to me.  Paula is also well known for changing up the base recipe to make several different flavors like German Chocolate.  I saw this recipe using Nutella over at Plain Chicken and this was the original recipe I told you about when I ended up making Nutella Cookies.  I took these to a family get-together this weekend (again, so good to take these where there are a lot of people to help you eat them) and everyone thought they were just brownies.  And honestly, they did taste like frosted brownies.  They had more of a chocolate flavor and I couldn't taste much Nutella, but they were still amazing!  Very rich!

Nutella Chess Bars

1 box Devil's food cake mix
1 stick butter, melted
1 egg

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 c. Nutella
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
1 (1 lb.) box powdered sugar

In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, 1 stick butter and 1 egg with electric mixer.  Once mixture is formed, press into greased 9x13 baking dish.  In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese and Nutella until creamy.  Add eggs, vanilla, butter.  Next mix in powdered sugar until smooth.   Pour and spread on top of unbaked crust.  Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes.  Be careful not to overbake.  You want it to have a gooey texture.

Cake Batter Ice Cream

Loosen those buttons on the pants because the cooking here has been rich this weekend and I have been dying to share the recipes with you!  I mentioned the last time I made Vanilla Ice Cream that I wanted to find a recipe that was creamier and more like fresh from the carton ice cream!  I HAVE FOUND IT!!!  Tonight we had an ice cream social at church and I knew it would be the perfect time to make it and try it out.  It was a hit and it is super easy to make.  And thankfully, it is all gone so I didn't have to come home and worry about eating too much.  I will never make another homemade ice cream recipe again.  The great thing about this recipe is you can use whichever cake batter you like the best to make the different flavors. (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, etc)  Tonight I used yellow cake mix.  I wonder if the cake mix helps to make it creamy?  Regardless, this is the creamiest homemade ice cream (instead of frozen milk) I have ever had.  YUM!

Cake Batter Ice Cream

1 c. milk
2 c. heavy cream
3/4 c. sugar
2/3 c. cake mix
1 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl, combine milk, sugar and cake mix.  Whisk together being sure to eliminate clumps until sugar dissolves.  Add in cream and vanilla.  (I allow the cream mixture to sit in the fridge for a few hours to make sure the sugar dissolves.)  Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to your  maker's directions.  Once frozen, place in a separate container and place in freezer until ready to serve.

Broccoli, Grape and Pasta Salad

YUM-O!!  This was the recipe that jumped off the pages of Southern Living this month and it is DELICIOUS!!  I had to make it right away to get it off of my mind.  Check out the recipe if you haven't seen it:

Broccoli, Grape and Pasta Salad

Hasselback Potatoes

Last night, I made Taco Meatloaf and I used a peach salsa I had in the pantry to change it up a bit.  It was really good and inspired by PW's peach bbq chicken (although that was a heck of a lot of whiskey!) she had posted that morning.  I'd love to make that soon.  But in the meantime, the peach salsa held me over.  I had some baking potatoes that I really wanted to use up and have always wanted to try this recipe, but just never did until now!  It was so easy and is pretty to serve.  It is a cross between a baked potato and roasted potatoes.  Is it crazy that I always think of Elizabeth Hasselback when I think of this recipe!

Hasselback Potatoes

baking potatoes (however many you are serving)
olive oil
fresh garlic cloves, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Slice potatoes 3/4 way through the potato, the whole length of the potato.  Use two wooden spoons as your cutting guide by placing two spoons on each side of the potato.  That keeps the knife from going all the way through the potato.  Place a slice of garlic in between potato slices.  I did every 3 or 4 slices but you can do more or less depending on how much garlic you like.  Toss in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake at 425 for 1 hour.  (I may or may not have dotted some butter on the potatoes half way through cooking!)  :)

Hot Fudge Sauce

I had planned on making John's Apple Dumpling Delight last week for a gentleman who was doing repairs to our home, but learned that he wouldn't have time to lunch with us so I didn't make them.  What to do with the ice cream that I already bought to serve with the warm dumplings?  Hot fudge sauce!  I studied up on my hot fudge sauce over at Tasty Kitchen.  I settled on combining a couple of recipes based on what I had on hand.  It isn't as good as say, Dairy Queen, but it hit the spot.  Once I made it, I just used a recycled glass jar to store it in.  You want to be sure you put it in something that can go from fridge to microwave to reheat it.

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3/4 c. water
1 tsp. vanilla

In a large saucepan, heat condensed milk, chocolate and water to a boil.  Stir constantly.  (Will seem super runny, but it will thicken up).  Continue stirring until mixture is smooth and thickened.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Serve warm.  Store in refrigerator.  (I don't know how long it will be good for??)

Copper Pennies (Marinated Carrots)

I believe I tried a recipe for "Copper Pennies" sometime this year that never made it to the blog because it wasn't good.  It was served warm, though, so I think that is why I didn't care for it.  I really like this cold version, and I am a fan of all things sweet and sour.  This recipe is from my mother in law's community club cookbook and the ingredients are all things you have on hand to whip up a veggie for unexpected company.  Really yummy!  Now that I have had the good stuff, it really reminds me of the Sweet Potato Salad that I make.  This is just more saucy and obviously uses carrots.

Copper Pennies (Marinated Carrots)

2 cans carrots, drained

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 small onions, sliced and "ringed" out (meaning separate into individual rings)

1 can tomato soup

1/2 c. salad oil

1/2 c. sugar

3/4 c. vinegar

1 tsp. mustard

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

salt 

pepper

In a serving bowl, add carrots, bell pepper and onion.  Mix other ingredients really well and pour over carrots.  Cover and refrigerate over night.  Serve.

Quick & Easy Au Jus (for French Dip Sandwich)

I had some leftover Roast from earlier in the week and wanted to use it up by making another meal out of it. I decided on making an au jus and serving it as a French Dip Sandwich.

Quick & Easy Au Jus (For French Dip Sandwich)

2 Tbsp. butter
1 shallot, chopped (I just used onion I had on hand)
1 Tbsp. all purpose flour
2 cans beef consomme
Montreal Steak Seasoning, to taste
pepper, to taste

In a saucepan, melt butter and saute shallot until tender.  Add in flour being careful not to burn.  Whisk in the cans of consomme until smooth.  Season with Montreal Steak Seasoning and pepper to taste.  Simmer while preparing sandwiches.  Serve in a dipping bowl.

Zucchini Perini

I think I have mentioned before that we were gifted with the Perini Ranch Steakhouse Cookbook for Christmas.  It is full of "cowboy" food and when I saw this I knew I wanted to try it out.  It is served as a side at their restaurant but since it has the meat in it, I decided to make it our main dish.  I have made something similar before when I made the Stuffed Zucchini, but this is WAAYYY better!  We adapted the recipe to make it more of a meal and to cook the zucchini to a more tender doneness.  Here is the original recipe and here's what we did:  It makes a huge serving.  Great for a crowd and definitely plenty of leftovers for us this week!

Zucchini Perini

1 lb. ground beef
1 lb. sausage
1 large onion, diced
2 lbs. zucchini, thinly sliced
1 (28 oz.) can whole tomatoes, mashed and drained
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
3 tsp. dried crushed oregano
garlic powder (to taste)
salt and pepper (to taste)
Parmesan cheese

In a large skillet, brown ground beef, sausage and onion.  Drain off excess fat.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and seasonings.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Add zucchini and stir to coat with meat sauce.  Place in a large baking dish.  Cover with Parmesan cheese and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

**The meat sauce alone would make a great spaghetti sauce.  I love the mix of the beef and the sausage.

Cheesy Spinach & Rice Bake

• Cheesy Spinach & Rice Bake
• 
  
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 small onion, chopped
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 pkg. frozen spinach, thawed, drained and chopped
• 1 c. milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 c. cooked rice 
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray casserole dish with non stick spray.  In a large pan over medium-high heat, saute onions with 2 Tbsp. of butter and cayenne until translucent. Add the spinach and cook for 3 minutes. Set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk together milk and eggs.  Add the rice, cheese and spinach mixture and combine well. Season with salt and pepper.
• 
  
• Pour into prepared casserole dish and top with extra shredded cheese. Bake for 30 minutes and serve piping hot.

Tie Dye Cookies

Well, school is around the corner and all of my first babies (nieces and nephews) are officially school age this year!  Let's put it this way, May 2024 will make for a busy graduation season for us!  (2024, what?!?!  So weird.)  In honor of school starting, I knew I wanted to send everyone something special to wish them a happy school year!  I found these awesome Tie Dye Cookies online.  I used two separate sites to come up with my final product.

I used the cookie dough recipe from here.

I used the cookie rolling method from here.  (I thought this look was cuter than the Baked Bree version.)

Then I used free printables from here to send a note to all of my "Smart Cookies" and wrap the cookies up.  I mailed them off yesterday!  I'm happy to report today that everyone has received them and they were a hit!