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.