Chili fajita shrimp alfredo with garlic cheese bread

Chili fajita shrimp Alfredo

Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 box bow tie pasta
Fresh broccoli (frozen will work too)
Fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 jar garlic or roasted garlic alfredo sauce
Raw shrimp, shell and tail removed
Fresh Parmesan cheese
Chili powder
Fajita seasoning
Salt and Pepper
1 Tbsp butter
Olive oil

Drop pasta into salted boiling water. Two or three minutes before pasta is finished, add broccoli.
When it is finished, drain and put back in pan. You can drizzle a little olive oil over the noodles to keep them from sticking if they will be sitting for a few minutes.

In a separate pan melt butter. Add sliced mushrooms. Cook until tender. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. In the same pan, add shrimp. Season with salt, pepper, chili powder and fajita seasoning. Cook only 1-3 minutes or until shrimp turns pink. Do not overcook the shrimp!

Dump jar of sauce over noodles and broccoli. Fill jar about half way with milk, shake and dump over noodles. This will get all the sauce out of the jar and make your sauce stretch a bit further. Add mushrooms and shrimp. Stir everything together until well coated. Top with Parmesan cheese.


Garlic Cheese Bread

Ingredients:
1 loaf french bread, sliced
1/2 - 1 stick room temperature butter (depending on how buttery you want your toast and how many slices you were able to get out of the bread. I can usually get around 13)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh Parmesan cheese

Put sliced bread on cookie sheet. Mix the garlic into the room temperature butter. Spread onto bread slices. Top with fresh grated cheese. Put in oven set to hi-broil. Watch the bread closely so it doesn't burn!! Take out when golden brown and the cheese has melted

Cinnamon Burst Pancakes

Cinnamon Burst Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. flour
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 c. milk
3 Tbs vegetable oil
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. cinnamon bursts

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix oil, milk, vanilla and egg in a separate bowl.
Mix the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add cinnamon bursts and stir together.
Cook over medium heat or on a skillet

Sour cream and chive mashed potatoes

Sour cream and chive mashed potatoes:

Potatoes (whatever kind you would like to use)
Butter
Sour cream
Chives
Tonys
Salt
Pepper

Cube the potatoes and boil until fork tender. I leave the skins on. More nutrients. Drain. (If you don't want watery mashed potatoes, put them back in the hot pan and let the heat absorb some of the water out of the potatoes) Put in mixing bowl (I use my kitchen aide mixer!), add butter, a good amount of sour cream, salt, pepper, Tonys, and a palmful of chives. Whip.

Roasted Root Vegetables

Roasted root vegetables (with a few extras)

Beets
Turnips
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions (I cooked them separately, someone I cooked for doesn't like onions)
Zucchini
Salt and Pepper
Roasted garlic and herb seasoning
Tonys
Olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Put a sheet of tin foil on a cookie sheet (this helps with clean up). Chop all the vegetables and put on cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, tonys and roasted garlic and herb seasoning. Bake until tender, at least 30 minutes.


Before:

After:

Vanilla pudding cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting and caramel sauce

I'm not even joking when I say that these are probably the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had. The pudding in the bread dough makes the bread incredibly soft and so yummy! I hope you love them as much as I do!

Kelsie's incredibly awesome cinnamon rolls!

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1/2 c. warm water
2 Tbs active dry yeast
2 Tbs white sugar
3 1/2 ounce package instant vanilla pudding
1/2 c. butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
6 + c. flour

Filling:
1 c. butter, softened to room temperature
2 c. brown sugar
1 Tbs cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Frosting:
8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 c. butter, softened to room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3 c. powdered sugar
2-3 Tbs milk
Smuckers caramel sauce (or homemade caramel sauce)

In a small bowl combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve. Set aside.
In a large bowl, take pudding mix and prepare according to package directions. Add butter, eggs and salt. Mix well. Then add yeast mixture. Blend. Gradually add flour. Knead until smooth. DO NOT OVERFLOUR THE DOUGH! It should be very soft but not sticky. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled. Then roll out on a floured board to 34 x 21 inches in size. Take 1 cup softened butter and spread over dough. In a small bowl mix 2 cups brown sugar, 1 tablespoon cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg. Sprinkle over the top of the butter. Roll up very tightly. With a knife put a notch every 1 1/2 inches. Cut with thread or a serrated knife. (I found the knife easier). Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Cover and let rise until double again.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. Remove when they start to turn golden. Don't overbake!

While rolls are baking, make frosting so it will be ready when the rolls are ready.
Combine butter and cream cheese and mix well. Add vanilla and sugar and mix again. Add milk for desired consistency. I left mine a bit thick.

Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting and top with a drizzle of caramel sauce! So yummy!!

Makes 24 very large rolls

(Note: I also tried butterscotch sauce because I had it on hand, those are also very good but I liked the caramel better)




Just cut and ready to rise



Fresh out of the oven with caramel sauce


Fresh out of the oven with just frosting

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Mart's Grandparents are from England and his mom was born there. He grew up eating a few different English meals that he just loves. One of them is roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. It was something I was going to have to learn how to make for him. Last time his Nanan (his Grandma) was here, she showed me how to make a couple different English meals, Yorkshire pudding being one of them.

If you don't know what Yorkshire pudding is, (I didn't know what it was when I met Martin) it's a type of bread. The way I make it it looks like a biscuit, but is not dry like a biscuit. It's more similar to German Pancakes with the eggs that puff up in the oven. The traditional way to make it is on a cookie sheet so then they turn out really flat with the edges puffy. It is most commonly served with mashed potatoes, gravy and roast.

Kelsie's Roast

Ingredients:
A roast (whatever size you need for however many people you are serving)
Carrots
1/2 - 1 onion
1 beef bullion cube (more if your roast is large)
Steak seasoning
Tony's
Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper
Water

The night before you want to serve the roast, put roast in a crock pot and season both sides well with all seasonings except the garlic powder. Add veggies. (If I'm making a normal roast instead of one with mashed potatoes, I add cubed potatoes) Season again to make sure the veggies have flavor as well. Sprinkle garlic powder over the entire thing. Add an inch or so of water (more if you want more gravy). Add bullion cube to help flavor the juice. Set crock pot to low and leave until the next day at dinner time. This will make the roast shred and just melt in your mouth. If you don't like it cooked down that much, don't cook it as long.


Before:


After:



Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients:
**Large Batch** (I would suggest cutting this in half unless you are serving 8 or more people)

2 cups cold milk

2 cups cold water

8 eggs

Mix well

4 1/2 cups bread flour (if you have it, if not use all purpose)

Salt to taste (maybe about 2 tsp for this batch)

Beat until just thinner than pancake batter. If you need to add more flour, add more flour.

Chill batter 20 minutes to 2 hours. The longer the better if you can.

Heat oven to 425. Put a small amount of Crisco or oil in the bottom of a muffin tin or on a cookie sheet. Just enough to barely cover the bottom so they won't stick. Heat oil until EXTREMELY hot. (This makes the pudding puff up better, like in German pancakes). Pour chilled batter into hot oil. If you are using a muffin tin, fill each hole about 1/3-1/2 of the way up). If you are using cookie sheets, you will probably need more than one for a large batch. Bake. Do no open the oven, this will make them not puff up.

Baking time:

Cookie sheets: About 40 minutes, or until golden brown

Muffin tins: About 20 minutes, or until golden brown

(Kelsie's Note: If you are going to make gravy to go with mashed potatoes, save about 1/2 cup of the batter and set aside)

Beef Gravy:

Drippings from roast, with everything strained out
1/2 cup or so of left over Yorkshire pudding batter

Heat drippings in a saucepan until warm. Pour in leftover batter and whisk well. Once it heats up it will thicken like a roux or cornstarch, except it will taste better.

Pour over potatoes and roast if desired.

Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle

I found this trifle on another cooking blog and it looked pretty good so I decided to make it for my treat for dart night. I don't have a trifle bowl so I just used a glass batter bowl I had instead. Also, I made three layers instead of two...if you want to be able to see the individual layers a little better maybe just stick with two. It is very delicious, but very VERY sweet!




Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle:

Ingredients:
1 9x13 pan of your favorite brownies
10 ounce bag of peanut butter chips
5 ounce package (the bigger box) of instant vanilla pudding
3 c. milk
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 c. whipping cream, whipped and divided
24 regular sized (2" in diameter) peanut butter cups, chopped and divided (Save 1/4 c. for garnish)

Line 9x13 pan with foil. Extend the foil a couple inches over the side. Grease lightly. Prepare brownies according to recipe (or box) and add peanut butter chips to batter. Bake in pan for required time. Cool completely. Invert on cutting board. Cut into 3/4" pieces.

Combine pudding mix and milk in large bowl. Beat at low speed for 2 minutes or until thick. (I had to refrigerate for a few minutes to get mine to thicken all the way). Add peanut butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gently fold in half of the whipped cream.

Layer in bowl with half the brownies, half the chopped candy and half of the pudding mixture. Repeat. Top with remaining whipped cream and candy.