Super Bowl Sunday - Chipotle Dip

Super bowl Sunday... it's all about the food! So what's on your menu?

Here is a really good and super easy, chip dip recipe, originally posted on lilbitgabby.com.

Creamy Chopotle Dip
ingredients:
24 oz sour cream
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1 package Ortega chipotle taco seasoning mix (dry)
a dash or two of cayenne pepper (to taste - optional)
directions:
Mix the sour cream and the taco seasoning mix together. Fold in the shredded pepper jack cheese. Now stir in the cayenne to taste. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving.

This is really good served with sweet potato corn tortilla chips. But you can also serve it with any corn tortilla chip, fresh vegies, or serve it as a coctail sauce for spicy shrimp.

I'm figuring out the last minute details of my Super Bowl game menu and grocery list. I'll be posting a few of my favorite appetizer recipes over the next couple days.

Perfect Weather for Warm Memories

All this snow reminds me of when I was a little girl down on the farm. All of us children would come in out of the snow with red noses and frozen hands. Grandma would fix each one of us a delicious cup of spicy Russian tea to wrap our little hands around. It warmed us right up... the hot drink and all that love.

Russian Tea

Ingredients:
2 cups Tang orange drink mix
2 cups Lipton instant tea mix(sweetened)
1 cup Countrytime lemonade mix (pre-sweetened)
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Directions:
Dump ingredients into a blender and give it a good whirl. Store in a
tupperware cannister. To serve, use 1 to 2 teaspoons per cup of
nearly boiling water. This recipe is easily adjusted to your own taste.

Russian tea is still one of my favorite drinks during these cold winter days. And there's a bonus when I make a cup... it's better than a Yankee candle for aromatherapy! Mmmm... sweet and spicy with a pick-me-up citrus aroma that takes me right back to Grandma's kitchen.

Italian Bean Soup

With all this snow, I ended up changing out my menu last night. I made up a quick pot of Italian soup. This hearty, thick soup is quick to fix, but it tastes like it's been simmering all day long.

Italian Bean Soup
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 4 TBS garlic cloves, minced
• Seasoning salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• 1 large can (6lbs 12oz) dark red kidney beans, drained
• 1 can (28oz) crushed tomatoes
• 1 jar (1 lb 10oz aprox) spaghetti sauce
• 3 cups beef stock
• 8oz sliced button mushrooms, drained

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef and chopped onions, drain off the grease and season with seasoned salt.
2. Add the browned beef, onions, garlic, beans, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, beef stock, and mushrooms to a large soup pot. Season as needed with oregano and basil.
3. Bring to a slow boil, then reduce heat and simmer at least 10 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep it from scorching.

**my notes**

1. Fresh mushrooms can be substituted..
2. You can use more or less of any of the ingredients... it's a basic recipe, and it's very easy to make substitutions. Example, stewed tomatoes, instead of crushed tomatoes.
3. I like to use a thick spaghetti sauce with peppers and onions in the sauce.

There's something about a hot mug of soup served with crusty bread... it warms me up and makes me feel cozy.

Old Fashioned Macaroni n Cheese

Now here's a real old fashioned comfort food everyone can relate to; baked macaroni and cheese with toasty bread crumb topping. This recipe is a real hand me down from generations gone by.

Old Fashioned Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package macaroni
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup buttered breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Cook macaroni according to package directions - drain and set aside.
3. In a large saucepan melt butter, add the flour and whisk together.
4. Slowly add the half and half, whisking as you add it, stir until it's smooth.
5. Continue whisking, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium or medium low (it needs to simmer)
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Continue stirring and slow simmer for 10 minutes - this will scorch if you don't stir.
8. Add the shredded cheese, continue simmering and stirring constantly until the cheese melts.
9. Remove from heat.
10. Toss the cheese sauce with the macaroni. Pour into a buttered baking dish.
11. Sprinkle with the buttered bread crumbs.
12. Bake 20 minutes - until the bread crumbs are toasty brown

Old Fashioned Homemade Chicken and Egg Noodles

I love chicken and noodles! It seems that every family has their version from grandma's kitchen. Some serve the noodles up soupy, with short noodles. I have always believed my grandma's recipe, which was passed down from her grandma, is the very best. So here's the way my grandma made homemade noodles:

Boil a chicken in a big soup pot of seasoned water. When the chicken is
cooked, remove from the pan of broth. De-bone the chicken (take all the meat
off the bones) and shred into bite size pieces.

To make the egg noodles you'll need 1 egg, and 1/2 eggshell of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt for each cup of flour. For my pot of broth, I use 4 cups of flour.
Dump your flour into a mixing bowl. Stir the salt into the flour until it's
mixed in. Make a well in the middle of your flour. Dump your eggs and the water
into the well. With a fork, mix up the water and the eggs as best you can, then
start stirring the flour into the eggs. Your dough will be fairly stiff. When
it's all mixed it may be very sticky. Sprinkle flour over your rolling surface.
Put your dough onto the flour, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Roll
the dough out very thin. About 1/8" thick. When it's rolled out, sprinkle
lightly with flour. Roll the dough up as you would cinnamon rolls. Cut into thin
strips. Spread the noodles out into another pile of flour. Let them sit all
spread out in the flour, for about 15 minutes, to dry out a
little.

Bring the chicken broth back to a rolling boil. Drop
the noodles into the boiling broth. Stir in some of the flour... at least 1/4
cup. Reduce heat to low or medium low and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring
every few minutes so they don't burn on the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken
to the pot, taste, season as needed, and serve.

I like the thick broth and the long noodles. Of course, you should adjust the recipe to your preferences.

Caramel Apple Pie

My grandparents had a variety of apple trees on the farm, so apple desserts were served fairly often. This dessert reminds me of Grandma's apple crisp, but with a sweet caramely twist that is exceptionally good.

Since I made this the first time, my mom and my aunts ask if I'm baking apple pie anytime soon. I get a kick out of that! They think I'm a good cook... and I learned from them.

Caramel Apple Pie

Pie Filling

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 Tablespoons flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 7 cups peeled and sliced apples - I used granny smith, because that’s what I
  have in the refrigerator

Crumb Topping

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 cup packed brown sugar

Caramely Topping

• 1/2 cup chopped nuts - pecans or walnuts
• 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping - I used Mrs. Richardson’s butterscotch
  caramel topping

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375
2. Prepare the pie crust - fit into a deep dish pie pan.
3. In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the sliced
   apples. Toss to completely coat the apples.
4. Pour the apple mixture into the pie crust.
5. Prepare the crumb topping - mix together the flour, oats, and brown sugar.
   Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or a couple of
   table knives. Continue cutting in, until it resembles course crumbs, about the
   size of peas.
6. Spread the crumb topping over the apples.
7. Protect the edges of the pie crust with foil or they get way too brown.
8. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
9. Remove the foil from the pie crust and bake another 25 minutes.
10. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the pie, then drizzle with the caramel
    topping. Put back into the oven for 5 minutes.

This is best served warm, great with vanilla ice cream and a little more caramel sauce to taste.

Extra Creamy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Here's a recipe for chocolate buttercream frosting, I've been making for nearly 30 years. This is an extra creamy frosting and it's very easy to make. You can make it rich chocolate, or light chocolate by adjusting the amount of cocoa powder. 3/4 cup is for a rich chocolate flavor.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter- softened (not melted)
• 2 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup half and half or heavy whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 cup unsweetened dutch cocoa powder (use less for a lighter chocolate
  flavor)
• 1 and 1/2 cup cool whip whipped topping - thawed

Directions

1. Beat the butter and sugar together, until it is creamy. This may take a
   minute or two. First it will get all crumbly and look like you've messed up,
   just keep beating it and it will all come together to form a creamy
   mixture.
2. Add in the vanilla, mix until it's creamy
3. Slowly add in the half and half, one or two tablespoons at a time.
4. Add the cocoa powder to the bowl and continue beating on low until this is
   very creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula, to make sure it's all
   mixed together.
5. Fold in the cool whip, mix with a spoon until it's all creamed
   together.

This makes enough frosting for one cake mix.

I know, this is an unusual recipe to share in a first post. So let me explain my thinking here. LOL Easier said than done, I assure you. But here goes. I baked a cake yesterday, and when I was making the frosting, I tasted it... Oh you know I had to taste it. It's frosting. It's chocolate! Mmmmmm! Anyway. That's the moment I came up with the idea to create a blog to share my favorite recipes.

In the Kitchen With Grandma

When I was a little girl, I loved spending time in the kitchen with my grandma. Grandma and grandpa lived in an old craftsman style farmhouse. They raised nine children in that big old house on the farm. The kitchen was a big country kitchen, with the family dining table and kitchen all in one room. Nothing too fancy. There was a window over the sink, and huge cupboards. With high ceilings and cupboards soaring to the ceiling, we needed a ladder to reach into the upper cupboards!

There was a china buffet, and a table in front of a big picture window. The window looked out across the valley... our valley. On the back side of the table was a long wooden bench, and a couple of huge tin flour cans with pillow cushions. We used the flour cans as chairs at the table. Of course, us kids were always fighting over who got to sit on the flour cans! The adults all sat on chairs around the table. When dinner time came around, it was squished... and I love thinking back to how squished we all were and all those wonderful family memories around Grandma's table.

I can picture Grandma now... humming one of her favorite hymns, standing next to the stove, wearing her pink cotton house dress. Wooden spoon in hand, she's leaning over the pot, smelling the aromas coming up from the pan. Mmmmm... those sweet aromas!

Grandma passed her favorite old recipes down to my mom and my aunts... Now I'm the grandma. Hopefully I'm creating such sweet, warm memories for my granddaughters.