I found this recipe in the October 2012 edition of Midwest Living.  I tweaked it a little bit, as the original recipe called for sunflower seeds in it.  But I braved the 90 degree heat today and turned on my oven to make this awesome bread!  So yummy and smells great too.  Definitely puts me into the fall mood!  Enjoy.

Apple Pumpkin Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup apple cider

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin

1 1/2 cups chopped and peeled granny smith apples

Grease bottom and sides of 2 9x5x3 inch loaf pans.  In a large bowl, mix flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.  In an extra-large mixing bowl, beat sugars and oil with mixer.  Add eggs, beat well  Alternately add flour mix and cider on low speed until just combined.  Beat in pumpkin.  Fold in apples.  Spread batter into prepared pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Remove and cool on racks.  Wrap in foil and store overnight before slicing.

I made this dish a few weeks ago and it was a huge hit!  It is very spicy, but I think it’s because I put on a ton of Montreal seasoning.  If you used less, it might not be so spicy.  It is very easy to throw together with very few ingredients.  And I use the store bought Montreal seasoning, so very quick.  Enjoy!

Montreal Spicy Chicken Pasta Bake:

1 box bow tie pasta, cooked al dente and drained

1 can chicken broth

1 can mushrooms

1 can artichokes

1 jar Alfredo sauce

3 large chicken breasts, cut into chunks

Montreal seasoning

olive oil

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Heat olive oil in large skillet.  Heat over medium high heat and pour chicken pieces in.  Sprinkle with Montreal seasoning to taste.  It has quite a kick.  While chicken is cooking, bring large bowl of water to boil and cook pasta until al dente.  Drain pasta.  Cook chicken until cooked through.  In a large mixing bowl, mix chicken stock, Alfredo sauce, mushrooms and artichoke pieces.  Stir well.  Take drained pasta and add to sauce mix.  Pour into a large casserole dish.  Take cooked chicken pieces and pour over pasta mix.  Take a spoon and press into the pasta.  Mix cheese and panko bread crumbs and sprinkle on top.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes.  Enjoy!

So…I’ve been reading up on this gluten-free craze going on in our country and it seems there are so many people that experience negative health effects when they eat gluten.  I’ve been pulling out every gluten-free recipe I see in all my cooking magazines, vowing to try them.  The first recipe I found was this brownie recipe.  It is from Martha Stewart Everyday Food.  The original recipe called for pecans, but my kids don’t like nuts in their brownies, so I omitted them.  They are in the oven right now.  They were very easy to put together and I can’t wait to try them!

Fudgy Brownies ~ Gluten Free

6 T. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/3 c. cornstarch (spooned and leveled)

1/4 c. cocoa powder

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. salt

12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla extract

3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray an 8-inch baking pan.  Whisk together cornstarch, cocoa, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, melt butter and chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring each time until melted and smooth.  Stir in sugar and vanilla.  Stir in eggs, one at a time until combined.  Add cornstarch mixture and stir vigorously until mix is smooth and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Pour batter into pan.  Bake about 35 minutes until toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.  Let cool completely in pan.  Cut into 16 squares.  Enjoy!

By the way, the above 2 brownies on the plate were my lunch.  They turned out great!  Very fudgy and very chocolaty.  Yummy!

I finally bought my fresh Michigan strawberries this morning and was able to make the new freezer jam recipe I found for strawberry rhubarb jam.  I found this recipe in Midwest Living magazine and couldn’t wait to try it.  I tripled the recipe below and ended up with ten large freezer containers full to last us through the winter and to share with friends.  And yes, that means I used 15 cups of sugar!  I did have a small issue trying to get the sugar to dissolve completely.  The recipe says to stir for 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar, but I stirred for 20 minutes and there was still a slight graininess to the jam.  We’ll see how it comes out when I eat some today.  Hope you enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb Freezer Jam

3 cups strawberries

1 cup finely chopped rhubarb

5 cups sugar

1/2 t. finely shredded lemon peel

3/4 cup water

1 (1.75 once) package regular powdered fruit pectin

In a large bowl, use a potato masher to crush berries.  You’ll have about 1 1/2 cups.  Stir in rhubarb.  Stir in sugar and lemon peel. Let stand for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  In a small saucepan, mix water and pectin.  Bring to a boil over high heat, boil 1 minute stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add to berry mixture.  Stir for 3 minutes or until sugar dissolves and mixture is not grainy.  Ladle into pint-size freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Seal.  Let stand at room temperature for 24 hours.  Store 3 weeks in refrigerator or up to 1 year in freezer.

This is a great old recipe from my Grandma Schreurs in Wisconsin.  It seems like she always has these made when we come out any time in the spring.  Easy to make and they taste great with your morning coffee!  Enjoy!

Rhubarb Dream Bars

Crust:

2 cups flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup melted butter

Mix together.  Press into a 9×13 pan.  Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Filling:

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 t. salt

1 T nutmeg

4 eggs

4 cups rhubarb, diced

Blend sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg and eggs.  Fold in rhubarb and spread over hot crust.  Bake 40-45 minutes.  Enjoy!

I found this recipe and cut it out of a food magazine recently, but did not write down which one.  But they looked great to me and thought I would give them a try this cool, grey morning.  Enjoy!

White Chocolate Toffee Blond Brownies

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 t. salt

1 bag white chocolate chips

1 cup toffee bits

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars at medium speed until fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla.  Slowly add flour and salt, beating at low speed until blended.  Beat in white chocolate chips and toffee bits.  Press batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out slightly sticky.  Cool completely in pan.  Enjoy!

I found this recipe in this month’s Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine.  I love very dry, crumbly scones but have never dared to try them.  This recipe sounded easy and looked good.  The only thing I would do different next time would be to press the circle out a little flatter.  But otherwise they turned out great and taste good.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Scones

3/4 cup cold heavy cream

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 t. vanilla

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

6 T. cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces

1 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Whisk together heavy cream, egg and vanilla.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  With a pastry blender or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal, with a few pieces of butter remaining.  Stir in blueberries.  With a fork, stir in cream mix until just combined.  The dough should be crumbly, do not overwork.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a 6 inch circle.  Cut into 6 wedges and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake until golden, about 16-18 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.  (I actually cooked mine almost double because I made a double batch and had two circles to cook.  Enjoy!

So tonight I wanted to make a homemade Caesar salad.  Unfortunately, I forgot to purchase canned anchovies.  And I don’t think you can make an honest Caesar dressing without them.  So I took the ingredients I had on hand and threw this salad together.  Turned out great.  Easy to throw together and even the hubby enjoyed it.  Enjoy!

Roasted Romaine with Crusted Chicken Breast

1 head of romaine lettuce

boneless chicken breasts

sliced parmesan cheese

cherry tomatoes

dried cranberries

oil, salt, pepper

Take the romaine lettuce head and slice in half the long way.  Place on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Roast in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

The crusted chicken can be any type of crusting you like.  I actually used Kraft’s chipolte lime crusting package found in the packaged cheese isle.  I used the crusting crumbs and added  a bit of regular grated parmesan cheese.  I crusted the chicken breasts and fried them in olive oil until crispy.  Then I transferred them into the oven to finish baking with the romaine for about 15 minutes.  Once the chicken is done, slice and lay over salad.  Drizzle with your favorite dressing.  I used a great poppy seed dressing.  My hubby prefers the plain, old fashioned French.  Enjoy!

And FYI, I also roasted up some extra asperagus I had on hand, we love to eat this with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Yummy!

This recipe is an old one, my mom would make these all the time when I was growing up.  I have no idea who she got the recipe from, but the name of the recipe is “Bushel of Cookies”.  This is a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, but it supposedly makes 96 cookies!  I must make them too big, because I never get that many out of a batch, but it is a big batch with 5 cups of flour in it!  And out of all the chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve ever made, this is by far the best dough to eat raw.  Yummy!  Of course, there are raw eggs in it, so eat at your own risk.  Me, I risk it all every time I make these and eat half the dough before it even makes it to the pan.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1 c. butter, room temp

1 c. Crisco (I used butter flavor)

1 1/2 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. white sugar

4 eggs

2 t. vanilla

5 c. flour

1 t. salt

2 t. soda

1 bag chocolate chps

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream together butter, Crisco, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Stir til light and fluffy,  (I used my stand up mixer).  Add flour, salt and soda into the creamed mixture.  Add chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoon full onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes or until lightly brown.  Enjoy!

I got this recipe from a close family friend a few years ago.  Our mom’s have known each other for over 30 years and we grew up as neighbors, also becoming the best of friends.  Andrea made these awesome banana bars at one of our little get-togethers and I just had to have the recipe.  She so kindly gave it to me, hopefully it’s not a family secret recipe because I am going to share it with you all!  The recipe calls for a 10×15 pan, but I used a 9×13.  Still tasted great, just a little thicker.  I was also excited to use some beautiful and tasty brown sugar brought all the way from Guyana from my special friend Kristin.  Enjoy!

Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

2 c. flour

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

1 t. salt

1 t. vanilla

1/2 c. shortening

2 eggs

1/2 c. buttermilk

2 ripe bananas

Combine all and beat for 2 minutes.  Turn into a greased 10×15 jelly roll pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 oz. cream cheese, room temp

1 1/3 c. butter, room temp

1 T. milk

1 t. vanilla

2 c. powdered sugar

Beat all but sugar till creamy.  Stir in sugar until smooth.  Spread over bars.  Enjoy!