Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
2 cups Vanilla Wafers
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 Tbsp. flour
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
TOPPING:
1 cup pecan pieces
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
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Combine cookie crumbs and butter; press into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish. Bake at 325° for 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack.

in a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, cream, flour, spices, salt and vanilla. Add the eggs and yolks; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour over prepared crust. Bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until chilled.

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream until it begins to thicken. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla; beat until stiff peaks form. Spread over chilled cheesecake. Sprinkle with pecans. Cut into bars. Refrigerate leftovers.

Cheese Filled Eyeballs

Cheese Filled Eyeballs
2 lbs. ground beef
1 cup Italian style bread crumbs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 eggs, slightly beaten
8 sticks (1 oz each) string cheese
1 can (2/14 oz) sliced ripe olives, drained
1 jar (24 oz) marinara sauce, heated
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Heat oven to 375°. Spray pans with cooking spray. In a large bowl, mix beef, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and eggs. Shape into 48 (1-inch) balls. Place on pans.

Cut each cheese stick into 6 pieces. Gently press a piece of cheese into each meatball.

Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until meatballs are thoroughly cooked and no longer pink in center. Place olive slices over cheese on each meatball. Serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Gummy Worm Punch

I was able to try several punches out of my Halloween magazines and they were all so delish. But this was defianetly the funnest one to do for Halloween with the frozen ring of gummy worms.

Gummy Worm Punch
4 cups unsweetened apple juice

4 cups orange juice
2/3 cup thawed lemonade concentrate
2 cups water
20 gummy worms
4 cups lemon-lime soda, chilled
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In a punch bowl, combine the apple juice, orange juice and lemonade concentrate. Pour water and 1 cup juice mixture into a 5-cup ring mold; add gummy worms. Freeze until solid. Meanwhile, refrigerate juice mixture until chilled.

Just before serving, add soda to juice mixture. Unmold ice ring by wrapping the bottom of the mold in a damp hot dishcloth; invert onto a baking sheet. Place worm side up in punch bowl. Yield: 3 quarts.

Frankenstien Jello Salad

Frankenstein Jello Salad
2 packages (6 ounces each) lime gelatin

2-1/2 cups boiling water
1 cup shredded coconut
12 orange jelly beans
6 red jelly beans
3 tablespoons frosting
12 miniature marshmallows
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In a bowl, dissolve gelatin in water. Pour into an 8-in. square pan that has been coated with cooking spray. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm. Cut into six rectangles; place each on a plate. Decorate with coconut for hair, orange jelly beans for eyes an a red jelly bean for nose. Fill a small plastic bag with frosting; cut a small hole in the corner of the bag. Pipe a jagged smile on face. Place marshmallows on side of head for bolts.

The Great Pumpkin Brownie

 

The Great Pumpkin Brownie
1 package fudge brownie mix (13-inch x 9-inch pan size)

1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
Orange paste food coloring
16 green milk chocolate M&M's
22 yellow milk chocolate M&M's
13 orange milk chocolate M&M's
8 dark brown milk chocolate M&M's
20 pieces candy corn
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Prepare brownie batter according to package directions for fudge-like brownies. Spread on a greased 12-in. pizza pan to within 1 in. of edges.

Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Tint frosting orange; frost entire top of brownie. For stem, arrange green M&M's in a square pattern at top of pumpkin. For each eye, arrange 11 yellow M&M's in a triangle. For nose, arrange orange M&M's in a triangle. For mouth, place brown M&M's in a horizontal line; surround with candy corn, tips pointing out. Cut into squares to serve

Creepy Crawly Bugs

Creepy Crawly bugs
1 tube (11 ounces) refrigerated breadsticks

8 smoked sausage links or hot dogs
1/2 to 3/4 cup potato sticks
Ketchup and/or mustard
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Separate dough into strips. Unroll and cut eight strips in half widthwise; set remaining strips aside. Cut sausages in half widthwise. Wrap one piece of dough around each sausage, leaving the rounded end showing. Place seam side down on an ungreased baking sheet. Place reserved breadsticks on baking sheet.

Bake at 350° for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Remove bugs to a serving plate and cool for 2 minutes.

Insert potato sticks into baked dough to resemble legs and antennae. Decorate with ketchup and/or mustard. Serve warm. Save remaining breadsticks for another use.

Ribbon Pumpkin Bread

Ribbon Pumpkin Bread
6 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 egg whites
BATTER:
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2 egg whites
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
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For filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour and egg whites in a bowl; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat the pumpkin, applesauce, egg, egg whites and oil. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, slat, cinnamon and cloves; add to pumpkin mixture. Stir in walnuts.

Divide half of the batter between two 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pans coated with nonstick cooking spray. Spread each with filling; top with remaining batter. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate leftovers.

Pretzel Pumpkin Grahams

I'm not a fan of pretzels, but these were so cute I HAD to make them. I hate our small town grocery stores, I couldn't find chocolate graham crackers, so I went with regular instead. It was just as good, but in the magazine, they look so much cuter on the darker colored graham crackers. I prefered the pumpkins filled in, but I ran out of candy coating.

Pretzel Pumpkin Grahams
12 whole chocolate graham crackers
1/2 pound white candy coating, chopped
24 miniature pretzels
Orange colored sugar or sprinkles
6 green gumdrops, cut into four lengthwise slices
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Cut graham crackers in half, making square. In a microwave, melt white candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip one pretzel in candy coating; let excess drip off.

Place on a graham cracker square. If desired, fill pretzel holes with candy coating. Decorate with orange sugar or sprinkles. For stem, dip the back of one gumdrop piece into candy coating; place above the pumpkin. Repeat. Let stand until set, about 30 mins.

Spooky Citrus Punch

I served this drink at my Pampered Chef party. By the end of the event, there wasn't a drop left. It was so good! It says the sugar is optional, so I made it without. After a quick taste test, I decided it was too tart and added the sugar. That made it much better.

Spooky Citrus Punch
1 can (12 oz.) frozen limeade concentrate, thawed
3/4 cup lemonade concentrate
2 cups water
1/4 cup sugar, optional
2 liters ginger ale, chilled
Food coloring of your choice, optional
ice cubes
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In a large punch bowl, combine the limeade and lemonade concentrates. Stir in water and sugar if desired. Stir in the ginger ale and food coloring if desired. Serve immediately over ice.

Chocolate Ice Cream Roll

One of the ladies I work with brought this to work one day. It was so GOOD! I got a copy of the recipe from her, but then buried it in my drawer. I think its been in there for well over 2 years now. Seems like its time to finally get around to trying out this recipe myself.

Chocolate Ice Cream Roll
5 eggs
5 Tbsp. water
2 tsp. vanilla
1-1/4 cup sugar
1-3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
3-4 Tsp. cocoa
1/3 cup oil
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Beat the eggs, water, vanilla and sugar until foamy. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder well. Then add to egg mixture. Combine the cocoa and oil and then mix into the egg mixture.

Flour and grease pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350°. Turn out on towel sprinkle with powdered sugar. Roll up in towel. Let cool. Slice ice cream and lay on unrolled cake. Re-roll. Cover with foil and freeze.

Cornbread Stuffing

Each year work has their own Thanksgiving dinner. Its required that you either bring a dish to go with the meal or pay some money to eat. Either way, its worth it because there is always enough food to last for at least 2 days. Most of the men just pay the money and of course most of the women bring a dish. There are a select few in the office who have no choice. Before the sign up list even gets to the break room, their names are already on it with their specialty dish. Carrot Supreme is one of those dishes (made by one of the men in my department). This stuffing is another one of those "you have no choice" dishes. I guess one year the lady did not bring this dish and there was almost a riot. Ok, maybe I exaggerate a little. But ever since then she has none she has no choice on what she brings. She has to bring this dressing or not come at all. Or I'm pretty sure the cry would be, "even if you can't come, you are still required to provide this stuffing for our enjoyment."

Cornbread Stuffing
3 boxes Jiffy cornbread muffin mix
2 cups chopped green onions
1 cup chopped green pepper
3/4 cup chopped celery
3 cans chicken broth
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp. red pepper (depending on how hot you want it)
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Make cornbread according to package directions. Best to do it the day before, but can be done the day of. Break cornbread up in large bowl. Add rest of the ingredients. Put in cake pan and bake at 325° for 1-1/2 hours or until golden brown on top.

Lasagna

Lasagna intimidates me. But every now and then I work up the courage to make it. About two months ago I joined Pinterest. Since then I have pinned about a million things. Pinned them and then forgot them. But then after a few weeks, I decided I should actually TRY some of the things I was pinning. Oh My Goodness, every recipe I've tried so far has been out of this work DELISH.

Last night I decide to try these Lasagna Cups. But when it came time to assemble them, I noticed the recipe called for JUMBO sized muffin tins; all I had were regular sized cupcake pans. I know I could have made them smaller, but I also knew it would be twice as many to make and really, I just wanted to hang on the couch with a good movie. So instead I decided to put it together the traditional lasagna way in a pan. I also changed up the recipe a bit because I was worried my cheese layer would be too small.

I really didn't think I'd like this recipe since it calls for Ricotta cheese (I think that stuff is nasty), but since it was my first time trying the recipe, I decided to try it that way. I was amazed at how much I LOVED this lasagna. It was about as close to perfection as I have ever done with lasagna. This will probably be my go to recipe for lasagna from now on.

LASAGNA
Ingredients:
for the sauce-
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds lean ground beef cooked and drained
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-6 oz. can tomato paste
1-8 oz. can tomato sauce
1-14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (I buy the kind that has sweet onion mixed in.)
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
2 tablespoons diced onions
1 teaspoon sugar (Next time I might skip the sugar, the sauce was almost too sweet.)
salt & pepper to taste

for the cheese filling-
1-10 oz. tub Philadelphia Italian Herb & Cheese Cooking Cream
2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
3 cups mozzarella cheese, grated & divided
1 small container ricotta cheese
2 eggs

1 box Lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
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Directions:


For the sauce- heat olive oil over medium heat and pepper and garlic until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in cooked ground beef and tomato paste until well incorporated. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook 30 minutes or so. {The longer it cooks, the better it will taste!} This will be very thick.

For the cheese filling- stir all ingredients together using 1-1/2 cups of the Parmesan cheese and 2 cups of the mozzarella cheese.

Cover the base of your cooking dish with about 1 cup of the meat sauce. Layer with noodles then a third of the meat sauce and half of the cheese mixture. Top with some of the extra mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers. Top with remaining meat sauce and cheeses.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes covered in tinfoil. Remove tinfoil and bake 10-15 minutes longer, until bubbly.

Belgium Waffles

Belgium Waffles
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3-1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs, separated
1-1/2 cups milk
1 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
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In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, and baking powder. In another bowl, lightly beat egg yolks. Add milk, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Stir into dry ingredients. Beat egg yolks until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter. Bake on a waffle iron.

Ham Cheese Rollups

Growing up, these seemed to be a family dinner staple when we got together with my dad's family. I haven't had these in years, but was craving them last night, so I rolled some up for my lunch. The problem was, I would eat 2 for every one I set aside.

Ham Cheese Rollups
Thinly sliced deli ham
Whole pickles, sliced into spears
 Cream cheese, softened
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Cut slices of ham in half. Add a small portion of cream cheese (about 1/2 tsp.). Top with pickle spear. Roll up all together.

Lemon Cider

Lemon Cider
1 gallon apple cider
1 can (12 oz.) frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 lemon, thinly sliced or cinnamon sticks
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In a punch bowl, combine cider and lemonade; mix well. Float lemon slices on top. Or, serve warm, heat cider and lemonade; garnish individual servings with a cinnamon stick.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
3 cups all-purpose flour
 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin
1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
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In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pans.

Bake at 350° for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Frosted Pumpkin Cranberry Bars

Frosted Pumpkin Cranberry Bars
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3 eggs
1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup chopped dried cranberries
BROWN BUTTER FROSTING:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 to 6 Tbsp. milk
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In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin and butter; stir into dry ingredients until well combined. Stir in the chopped cranberries. Spread into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

For frosting, heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat; cool for 5 minutes. Stir in confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough milk to achieve spreading consistency. Spread over bars before cutting.

German Chocolate Bars

German Chocolate Bars
1 package (18-1/4 oz.) German chocolate cake mix
2/3 cup cold butter, cubed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 can (15 oz.) coconut-pecan frosting
1/4 cup milk
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Place cake mix in a bowl; cut in butter until crumbly. Press 2-1/2 cups into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes; immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips. Drop frosting by tablespoonfuls over the chips. Stir milk into the remaining crumb mixture; drop by teaspoonfuls over top.

Bake 25-30 minutes longer or until bubbly around the edges and the top is cracked. Cool on a wire rack.; Refrigerate for 4 hours before cutting.

Parmesan Rolls

Parmesan Rolls
2 packages (1/4 oz. each) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110° to 115°)
1 cup warm milk (110° to 115°)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup butter, melted 3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt 1 cup cornmeal 2 eggs
4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
TOPPING:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
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In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add milk, Parmesan cheese, butter, sugar, salt, cornmeal and eggs; mix well. Add 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Shape into 24 ovals; dip each into melted butter and Parmesan cheese. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to cool on wire rocks.

Festive Cranberry Drink

This drink can be served warm or cold, its delish either way.

Festive Cranberry Drink
4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
3 quarts water, divided
1-3/4 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice
2/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup red-hot candies
12 whole cloves
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In a large kettle, combine cranberries and 1 quart water. Cook over medium heat until the berries pop, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. Strain through a fine strainer, pressing mixture with a spoon; discard skins. Return cranberry pulp and juice to the pan.

Stir in the sugar, juice, red-hots and remaining water. Place cloves in a double thickness of cheesecloth. Bring up corners of cloth and tie with kitchen string to form a bag; add to juice mixture. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until sugar and red-hots are dissolved.

Remove from the heat. Strain through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Discard spice bag. Serve drink warm or cold.

Goblin's Orange Popcorn

This month it was my turn to host book club.; I had chosen the book "Marley & Me" and thought it would be fun to watch the movie. Of course you have to have popcorn to watch a movie. I was browsing through my Taste of Home Halloween magazines and found this popcorn recipe and decided to try it. I colored my purple. It was so good that now I think any time I watch a movie, I should have a bowl of this stuff.
4 quarts popped popcorn

Goblin's Orange Popcorn
1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 cup sugar
6 Tbsp. light corn syrup
Dash of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
12 drops yellow food coloring
4 drops red food coloring
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Place popcorn in a very large bowl. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook 5 minutes longer, stirring occasionally.

Remove from the heat. Stir in  vanilla and the food coloring. Pour over popcorn; toss to coat. Transfer to two 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 250° for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight containers.

Baked Mac 'n Cheese

I LOVE Mac 'n Cheese. Always have and I probably always will.

Baked Mac 'n Cheese
2 cups dried elbow macaroni (4 cups cooked)
1/3 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
1/3 cup grated Swiss Cheese
1/3 cup grated Jack Cheese
1/3 cup grated Colby Cheese
1/3 cup grated Muenster Cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup milk
Nonstick spray

Topping:
1 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
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Preheat oven to 350°.

In a large pot, bring water to boil. Season water with salt and cook macaroni until al dente, about 10 minutes. Drain pasta and place in a large bowl and while pasta is still hot add all the cheese. In a separate medium bowl, using a whisk, combine the sour cream, butter, eggs, salt, pepper, and milk and add to the macaroni mixture. Spray casserole dish with nonstick and pour macaroni mixture into the dish.

For the topping, in a small bowl, mix the bread crumbs with the paprika, butter, and the Parmesan. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the macaroni and bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 30-45 minutes
Top with additional cheese, if desired

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Another recipe I got from a friend at work. Its so nice to work with amazing women who are also amazing cooks. This is one of the very RARE times I make something without exact measurements. 

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Spinach leaves

Strawberries, sliced

Three blend cheese

Toasted almonds

Poppy seed dressing

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Mix all ingredients together and serve. I don't like dressing, so I left it in the bottle to the side of the bowl and let people pour on their own. 

English Muffins

A few years ago a friends husband was watching the news and during their cooking session, they did English Muffins. I believe he talked her into making them that night. She raved about them and I made them soon after and took them to a family breakfast. They are a little bit of work, but they are so good that its worth it.

English Muffins
1-2/3 cups 1% milk
2-1/2 Tbs. butter
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 heaping Tbs. sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 large egg
1 Tbs. cider vinegar
5 cups unbleached flour
Cornmeal
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Scald the milk with the butter and than allow to cool to about 100 degrees. in a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast, water and sugar. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes. Combine the milk mixture with the yeast mixture. Add the egg and cider vinegar, along with half the flour and mix together. Add the salt and remaining flour and mix well. The mixture will be sticky. Cover and allow to raise for about 1 hour.

Dust work surface with cornmeal and roll dough out to about 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle dough with cornmeal to keep it manageable. Cut into 3-1/2 inch rounds with a cookie cutter.

Place newly formed muffins onto a lightly sprayed baking sheet. Lightly cover with a ling free cloth. Allow muffins to double in size.

Heat a griddle or skillet over medium-low heat. Place the muffins on the griddle and cook for approximately 7 minutes on each side or until golden brown. You may need to adjust skillet heat. Transfer muffins to a cooling rack and allow to cool.

*Notes, in copying the recipe down a few times, I lost the amount of salt. I went with 1/2 tsp. Also, when I made these last night, I skipped the part of cutting them out and letting them raise. Instead I put them right on the skillet as I cut them out and they still doubled in size.

Chocolate No Bake Cookies

These cookies are so easy to make and so delish. I love that when I'm in the mood for cookies, but don't want to take the time to bake them, I can just whip these up real quick.

Chocolate No Bake Cookies
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
5 Tbsp. cocoa
3 cups quick oatmeal
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup nuts
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Melt butter. Add sugar and milk. Bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Then drop cookies out with a big spoon on wax paper.

Sloppy Joes

Why do Manwhich, when you can do homemade instead?

2 lbs. hamburger
3 to 3-1/2 cups ketchup
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. minced onions
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Brown hamburger and drain. Then mix in the remaining ingredients.

Red Velvet Cake Treats

One of the gals at work brought these treats today and according to her they are "OOO LA LA YUMMY"!  So I got the recipe so I can try to make them some day.

Red Velvet Cake Treats
Cook red velvet cake according to package directions. Cool completely. Crumble cake into a large bowl. Add a softened container of cream cheese frosting. Mix frosting & cake together with hands and put in freezer until firm. Form mixture into balls and place on wax paper. Put back into freezer. The longer it is in the freezer, the easier it will be to handle. Dip cake balls into melted chocolate and place on wax paper and place back in freezer until set.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

I haven't made these since we made them in our cake class last summer, but they are so GOOD! 

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

12 tsp. Pink colored sugar

1 pkg white cake mix

water and oil (based on cake mix instructions)

3/4 cup frozen pink lemonade mix thawed (undiluted)

1 Tbsp. lemon peel finely chopped

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Preheat oven to 350°. Spray pan with vegetable pan spray; sprinkle 1 tsp. colored sugar into each cup. Add water to pink lemonade mix to total amount of water called for o cake mix package directions. Follow cake mix package directions to prepare cake, adding chopped lemon peel. Pour into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack; remove and cool completely before decorating. 

Yellow Squash Casserole

This is a recipe I got from a gal at work. We tried it once, but squash isn't my favorite thing. When JoLynn gave me the recipe, it was written on the back of an envelope. It has floated around my kitchen since then. Since March of 2008 according to the postage stamp on the envelope. So in trying to clean my kitchen up I'm posting the recipe here so if I ever want it, I can find the recipe, without looking for that old envelope.

Yellow Squash Casserole
7 cups squash sliced
1/2 cup onion
1 cup shredded carrots
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
Stove Top Stuffing, divided
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Cook squash and onion in microwave until tender. Mix i carrot, soup, sour cream.  Put Stove Top Stuffing in the bottom of a casserole dish. Add squash mixture. Put more Stove Top Stuffing on top. Bake at 350° until bubbly.

Strawberry Fondue

Strawberry Fondue
1 (10 oz) pkg. frozen sweetened sliced strawberries, thawed
1/4 cup half and half cream
1 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. lemon juice
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Combine all in food processor or blender and process until smooth. Pour into saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 mins. or until slightly thickened. Transfer to fondue pot or mini slow cooker. Serve with angel food cake cubes and fresh fruit. 


*When I poured the sauce out of the blender, it fit in a small sauce pan, but then it boiled over so next time I will use a bigger pot.

Parmesan Fondue

Parmesan Fondue
1-1/2 to 2 cups milk
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, cubed
1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
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In a large saucepan cook and stir milk and cream cheese over low heat until cheese is melted. Stir in Parmesan cheese and garlic salt. Cook and stir until heated through. Transfer to fondue pot or mini slow cooker. Serve with French bread cubes and fresh vegetables.