Gingerbread Cheesecake Dessert

Here's a recipe to sort of kick off the holidays! At this time of year, I love gingerbread! I was so excited when I found a Betty Crocker Gingerbread Cookie Mix at the grocery store. I had every intention of using it to make gingerbread cookies with my kids, but I found this recipe on the back and just had to try it out. It was absolutely delicious. My six year old had 2 1/2 servings of it and still wanted more. It was easy to make and ended up being a big hit. You could use any recipe you have for gingerbread cookies or pick up one of these cookies mixes at your grocery store.

Gingerbread Cheesecake Dessert
1 pouch Betty Crocker gingerbread cookie mix
butter, water and egg called for on cookie mix pouch
1 can (14 oz) sweetened & condensed milk
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

Make cookie dough as directed. Shape dough into 5 (1 inch) balls. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Press remaing dough into greased 13 x 9 pan. Bake 8-10 minutes. Mix sweetened & condensed milk, cream cheese and lemon juice until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Spread over cooled cookie base. Crumble 5 baked cookies and sprinkle on top. Cover & refrigerate about 1 hour. (I did have to bake my cookies and cookie base for longer than it called for).

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Hope you are all having a fun October! Here is a picture of the Jack-O-Lantern's we carved this week. My kids are so excited to go Trick or Treating. My boys are dressing up as little cowboys. They are the cutest little cowboys I've ever seen! I will be dressing up as Dolly Parton, my husband is a Gold Miner and our little girl is his Gold Nugget. We went with a Western theme this year. We are all excited for Halloween. Our food menu for the day will be Pumpkin Pancakes for breakfast, Mummy Dogs and Apple Peanut Butter monster mouths for lunch, and Chili and Cornbread for dinner. Halloween is my favorite holiday, and we have been celebrating all month between our sicknesses. Yes, we were victims of the Swine Flu! We had it... it was an awful week... but now we are done with it! Here is a great last minute Halloween treat idea. It is so simple. They are super kid friendly...especially with the sucker stick.


All you have to do is make Rice Krispie treats by following the recipe on the box. Spread into a buttered cookie sheet. To make spreading a lot easier use a fork and dip your fork in cold water as you spread. Sprinkle with Halloween colored sprinkles. Let them cool completely before cutting out with your favorite Halloween cookie cutters. Add mini chocolate chips for eyes if desired. Stick your sucker stick in and you've got a treat! You can wrap them up as party favors, class treats, or just to throw into your kids' lunch box. I don't know a kid who doesn't like rice krispie treats. They are always a big hit!

Enjoy, and have a happy and safe Halloween! We carved this pumpkin today with a stencil I found online. My kids were just tickled to have a Mickey pumpkin. Tomorrow I am going to make some Haunted Gingerbread Houses. I will just use Graham Crackers, chocolate and orange frosting and Halloween candies. If they turnout, I will post them next year.

HAVE A SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN!

Melt in your mouth muffins & Halloween Muddy Buddies

These muffins are my all time favorite! My little boy could hardly wait to get his hands on these. My mom used to make them regularly when I was growing up. I remember we gave this mix out for Christmas one year. We spent hours together as a family making the mix and delivering it to our neighbors. They are so yummy and yes, they do melt in your mouth! This recipe come from a book called: Make-a-Mix Cookery. It is filled with master mixes that you can put together and have ready to pull out for almost anything. Here's the one for this recipe.

Master Mix
8 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking powder
1 Tbsp salt

Mix all ingredients and store in a large airtight container. Us within 10-12 weeks. It's so nice to have this sitting in my cupboard.

Melt in your Mouth Muffins
2 1/3 cups muffin mix (master mix - recipe above)
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
3 Tbsp oil

Combine all ingredients. Stuir until mix is just moistened; batter should be lumpy. Fill greased muffin pan 2/3 full. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.

Melt 1 cube butter. Make a mixture of cinnamon & sugar. Roll muffins in butter and then cinnamon/sugar mixture. Enjoy!

I know that just about everyone LOVES muddy buddies. This is a favorite at my house. We decided to spice up our muddy buddies with candy corn and halloween M&M's. They were a hit. I thought this would make a cute gift for a teacher or friend. I used the recipe found right on the Rice Chex Cereal box. I then added the M&M's & candy corn. I posted this recipe last year at Christmas time with Christmas M&M's. You can search under Christmas for that recipe.

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!

AMAZING Cornbread

Yes, I am still alive! I haven't posted for forever, and I am sorry. I think that we are all at different times and seasons of our lives, and I am in a busy one!!! I do have good intentions for posting, because I take pictures of my food all the time. I just can't hit the next step of actually posting it. Maybe next year! For now, I am just going to do what I can. I am posting this yummy cornbread recipe because it has been so highly requested. I got it from the talented Melanie at http://www.mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/ . She has got an amazing blog and this cornbread is triple amazing! You will want to throw away all of those packaged cornbread mixes. This cornbread will blow you away. I served it at our annual family Halloween party over the weekend and got many compliments. So thank you to Melanie for sharing this recipe. It is moist, sweet, and delicious! You do not want to miss out on this cornbread. I had to make it again yesterday so that we could have some leftovers. LOVE IT!!!

Cornbread
From: Melanie at My Kitchen Cafe

½ cup cornmeal
1 ½ cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ cup milk

Add dry ingredients, make a well and add oil, butter, eggs, and milk into the center. Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny - don't be alarmed!). Bake in an 8” square pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This doubles perfectly for a 9X13-inch pan.

***I like to drizzle honey all over the cornbread after baking. You know this is a good cornbread, because the honey seeps right into the bread and doesn't just drizzle off the sides like the packaged cornbread mixes.

I like to make my dry ingredients and store in a ziploc so that I have it on hand and all ready to just add my wet ingredients.

Heavenly Peach Dessert

This peach dessert is to die for. It is so yummy! I found the recipe on the Cooking Divas site. I just moved into the neighborhood that does this blog. I'm not sure if I've met the person whose recipe this is, but I can't wait to thank her for it. I want to run out and get more peaches just so I can make it again. It is delicious. A definite must try. Here's the link to it: http://thecookingdivaideas.blogspot.com/2009/09/shannons-famous-fresh-peach-dessert.html

I did double the crust and saved some to sprinkle on top. Other than that, I followed the recipe. My family gobbled this up. I'm glad that I have just a little bit waiting for me in the refrigerator. Can't wait for my alone time tonight when the kids are in bed.

FYI

Me & a friend are selling these fun corn stalks! I will have more information to come, but if any of you live in the Layton, Bountiful or Salt Lake areas and are interested, leave me a comment and I will keep you posted as to when we will be selling them.

Super easy crowd pleaser...bruschetta

If any of you are like me, you have tomatoes coming out your ears right now. This is one dish that has been a huge hit at my house. I first had Bruschetta while serving a mission in Italy. Aside from the gelato and pizza it was my most favorite dish. When I got home from my mission I made it for almost every get together. It was always one of the first things to disappear from the plate. It is still one of my favorite things and I always order it when I have the chance at my favorite Italian restaraunts. So, with some of your extra tomatoes, try this out.

Bruschetta
6-8 Roma Tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
Fresh Basil, washed and finely chopped
Ciabatta bread
Olive oil
salt, to taste

Slice bread into 3/4 inch slices. Brush with olive oil and broil on high until lightly toasted. Meanwhile, place chopped tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and a little olive oil in a bowl. Top toasted bread with tomatoes. Buon Apettito!

Hopefully I am back to blogging. I am finally feeling better and we're getting settled in our new house. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things very soon. Hopefully we'll have some great ideas for fall and halloween coming up soon.

Bowtie Grilled Chicken Spinich Salad to Feed Your Next Crowd

This here is a favorite! For some reason this is what we always make for bridal showers and baby showers, but rarely for our weeknight dinner. It is so popular, and so many people have asked for the recipe, so here we are posting it to the blog in hopes that we can get more people to our blog when we say...

"you can get the recipe at www.mysisterscucina.blogspot.com!"

So now you can do the same when you whip this up for your next shower, party, dinner, whatever ... lead them to our blog! This salad is so versatile. You can mix and match this with whatever you want. However you dress it, it is delicious! The chicken is so tender and juicy when you marinate it the night before. The noodles are also marinated in a special sauce that makes them so flavorful. The only problem is that you HAVE to have GrillMates Teriyaki Sauce for this. I have had trouble finding it, but I know you can always get it at Target. This recipe takes planning. You want to cook the noodles the night before and have it marinating in the dressing over night. You also need to marinate your chicken over night. It is well worth it! this recipe will feed about 24 people as the main dish served with other sides.

Bowtie Grilled Chicken Spinich Salad

6-7 Chicken Breasts marinated in Italian Dressing the night before & grilled and cut into 1-inch pieces a few hours before serving.

3-4 boxes or bags of bowtie pasta cooked & marinated in the following dressing the night before

Dressing:

1 cup oil

2/3 cup red wine vinegar

2/3 cup GrillMates Teriyaki Sauce

6 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients in blender and combine with pasta in an air-tight container and refridgerate over night.

Mix-In:

2 bags baby spinich leaves

red or green onions

craisins

mandarin oranges

sliced mushrooms

slivered almonds

cherry or grape tomatoes

Directions:

When assembling the salad, always add the spinich at the end, and only make the amount needed as to keep the spinich from going limp. You want to have the same amount of spinich to noodles. Add grilled chicken as needed. Add your mix-ins to your liking and serve!

***My very favorite combo is mandarin oranges, craisins and slivered almonds. Experiment and see what you like! I love the spinich mixed with the noodles. It really is delicious! Enjoy!!!