Southwestern Egg Rolls

An assortment of traditional Southwestern-style ingredients are wrapped inside small flour tortillas and deep fried.

Needed:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast half
2 tablespoons minced green onion
2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
1/3 cup frozen corn kernels
1/4 cup black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 tablespoons diced jalapeno peppers
1/2 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
5 (6 inch) flour tortillas
1 quart oil for deep frying

Make them! Eat Them!

1.Rub 1 tablespoon vegetable oil over chicken breast. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook chicken approximately 5 minutes per side, until meat is no longer pink and juices run clear. Remove from heat and set aside.
2.Heat remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in green onion and red pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until tender.
3.Dice chicken and mix into the pan with onion and red pepper. Mix in corn, black beans, spinach, jalapeno peppers, parsley, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat and stir in Monterey Jack cheese so that it melts.
4.Wrap tortillas with a clean, lightly moist cloth. Microwave on high approximately 1 minute, or until hot and pliable.
5.Spoon even amounts of the mixture into each tortilla. Fold ends of tortillas, then roll tightly around mixture. Secure with toothpicks. Arrange in a medium dish, cover with plastic, and place in the freezer. Freeze at least 4 hours.
6.In a large, deep skillet, heat oil for deep frying to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Deep fry frozen, stuffed tortillas 10 minutes each, or until dark golden brown. Drain on paper towels before serving.

Mango Salsa

This is my favorite summer time treat! Tastes great over icecream or served warm over chicken or fish!

NEEDED:

1 Cup strawberries, hulled and finely diced
1 Cup orange or baby oranges, diced
1 ripe mango, peeled and finely diced (if you can not find mango, you can use peach instead)
1 Kiwi, peeled and finely diced
1 lime

to make
Zest 1 tsp of lime. Sqeeze 1 TB of lime juice. Combine lime zest, juice, strawberries, oranges, mangos, and kiwi; stir gently.

Jack Daniels Grill Glaze

Tastes just like TGIFridays Jack Daniels Grill Glaze, only mine is a tiny bit better. *L*

Needed
1 tsp. onion powder
1 Tbsp. Tabasco sauce
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 C. Jack Daniel’s Ole No. & Tennessee Whiskey
2 C. packed brown sugar
1/4 C. water
2 beef bouillon cubes
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce


To Make
Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Let cool. Use as a glaze on meat, poultry, and seafood just before removing from grill.
To prepare chicken breasts using Jack Daniel’s grill glaze: Use 2 (4oz.) breasts for each serving. Marinate chicken in your choice of marinade for 5 to 10 minutes. Place chicken on the grill or in a sauté pan. While cooking, baste often with marinade. When cooked to your satisfaction, brush liberally with glaze. Remove immediately to serving dish. Glaze burns quickly and can be difficult to remove from grill or pans if left to burn onto surface.

Mandarin Orange Sesame Dressing and Salad

Want a salad that is fresh and light? look no farther!

NEEDED
1/3 Cup orange marmalade
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 Cup white vinegar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. sesame oil
2 Tbsp. honey
1/4 Cup mandarin orange sections, chopped
Mixed greens
Grilled chicken breasts

TO MAKE
Measure marmalade, cayenne pepper, ginger, garlic powder, vinegar, oil, soy sauce, sesame oil and honey into a blender container. Cover and blend on medium speed for 30 to 45 seconds.
Transfer to a small bowl and add the chopped orange sections. Stir to mix, cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Serve over a bed of mixed greens, topped by sliced grilled chicken breasts.

Copy-CAT! Applebee’s Grilled Chicken Oriental Salad

I love Applebee’s Grilled Chicken Oriental Salad! it has to be my most favorite salad in the whole wide world! yum!

NEEDED!


6-8 cups romaine lettuce
2 chicken breasts
1/2 cup crispy rice noodles
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons shredded carrots
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper


to make

Grill chicken breasts, by first placing into plastic wrap, and gently pounding them to about 3/8 of an inch thick. If you have a grill you can use a grill to cook your chicken breasts. You can also cook the chicken breasts in a skillet, add olive oil to a skillet and heat on medium heat. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and cook for approximately 5 to 7 minutes on each side. Place fully cooked chicken breasts onto a plate, and allow to rest for 4 to 5 minutes before slicing.

Toast almonds by placing in a small skillet over medium heat, watch almonds carefully, there is a fine line between toasted almonds and burnt almonds. Shake pan gently and when you begin to smell the almonds they are toasting, allow them to toast for a few seconds more and immediately place almonds onto a paper towel and allow them to cool for a moment or two.

Assemble salads by first putting down the lettuce, I use about 3 to 4 cups of lettuce, add the shredded carrot, 1/4 cup crispy rice noodles, 1/4 cup toasted almonds, and then place on sliced chicken. Serve with plenty of the Applebee’s Oriental Salad Dressing.



DRESSING:

Yield: approximately 3/4 cup.
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
4 tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

In a medium sized bowl combine sugar, and rice wine vinegar, and mix until sugar is completely dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and stir until well blended. Refrigerate salad dressing in a covered container for up to one week.

A couple of notes about the ingredients, the rice wine vinegar is carried in most grocery stores, be careful not to purchase the seasoned rice wine vinegar, as it is sweetened, and a salad dressing made with that makes the dressing way too sweet. The sesame oil can be found in the regular section of the oils in a grocery store. Now the toasted sesame oil look in the Oriental section of your grocery store.

Red, White and Blue Potato Salad

I found this particular dish to be unique because you dont expect the richness of the blue cheese and the red potatoes taste simply divine. Think of this as potato salad for adults.

NEEDED

1 1/2 pounds of small red potatoes (use the new potatos if you can find them, they are smaller than a golf ball)
1/4 cup chopped white onion
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise

TO make

Wash potatoes, and cut them in half, you want to cut the into bite sized pieces, place into a pot, add enough water to cover the potatoes and places over medium high heat to boil. When the potatoes have cooked fully, you can pierce them with a fork, and the fork goes through the potato. Place potatoes in the refrigerator to cool. Once the potatoes have cooled combine them the chopped white onions, crumbled blue cheese, and mayonnaise, stir well. Season to taste.

Some additions that I would suggest to make to this recipe would be to add a little crisped cooked bacon. If you had some fresh herbs those would be fantastic to sprinkle in. Also a little sharp cheese can give it even more of a kick

Cheese Ball

So before I begin, let me make a little confession, I love cream cheese. I personally think that cream cheese can be used in any meal, because it can be transformed into an appetizer, side dish, main dish, or even a dessert. When I am stuck for a recipe idea, cream cheese comes to mind because it has the ability to transform into whatever I want. During the holidays, I am often transported back to growing up, and the wonderful foods we had during the holidays. We had a lot of cheese balls, while cheese balls may not seem too glamorous, I think they are a wonderful appetizer to make. They are easy, and can be made days in advance.

Needed

8 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup Danish Blue Cheese
1/2 cup sliced almonds or chopped walnuts

To make

Allow cream cheese to soften by reaching room temperature. In a medium sized bowl combine cream cheese and 1/3 cup Danish Blue Cheese. Mix together well. Refrigerate overnight, the cream cheese will become solid again. Roll into a ball, and then place nuts into a bowl, and press the cheese ball firmly into the nuts.

Now, let me say some options I would like to try is to use a stronger flavored blue cheese.

Scalloped Corn

A yummy and tasty side dish our whole family loves! With it's creamy goodness, you will find leftovers to be a thing of the past!

Needed:1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn
1 (15.25 ounce) can whole kernel corn
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 (8.5 ounce) package corn muffin mix

To Make:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Grease a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
2.Mix together corn, sour cream, eggs, melted butter or margarine, and sugar. Mix in muffin mix. Pour into prepared baking dish.
3.Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted midway into pan comes out clean.

Peanutty Carrots

Even people who think they don't like carrots will eat and enjoy this dish!

Needed:
2 cups julienned carrots
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped salted peanuts
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 teaspoons sugar
pepper to taste

To make:
In a saucepan, bring carrots, water and salt to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10 minutes or until carrots are crisp-tender. Drain. Add the peanuts, butter, sugar and pepper; toss to coat

Garlic Carrots

These tasty carrots go great with almost everything! We love them with pork chops or even a big juciey steak dinner!

Needed:1 pound baby carrots
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Dash pepper

Directions
In a skillet, saute carrots and garlic in oil for 5 minutes. Add water, salt, thyme and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 8-12 minutes or until carrots are tender.

Beer Spuds!

Want something to go with your favorite grilled dinner? You have to try these beer spuds! These potatoes are total 'man-food' and I've never met a person that didn't like them. They must be cooked over a grill, oven roasting just doesn't turn out the same


Needed

1 cup butter, sliced
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/4 cup lemon pepper
1/4 cup salt-free spicy seasoning blend
5 pounds potatoes, cubed
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 (12 fluid ounce) cans beer
16 ounces shredded Mexican-style cheese blend or your favorite shredded cheese


To make

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat.

Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch foil roasting pan with half of the butter, garlic, lemon pepper, and salt-free spicy seasoning blend. Place half of the potatoes, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, orange bell pepper and onion in the roasting pan and cover with the remaining butter, garlic, lemon pepper, and seasoning blend. Mix in the remaining potatoes, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, orange bell pepper and onion. Pour in the beer until it reaches just below the top layer of vegetables.

Cover pan with foil, place pan on the grill grate, and cook 1 1/2 hours, or until the potatoes are tender. Remove pan from the grill, cover with the shredded cheese, and let stand until the cheese has melted.

Devil's Steak Sauce

A brilliant steak sauce that really brings out the flavor of any type of grilled steak. It's best with eye fillet or Scotch steaks. Raspberry jam is the wildly inventive twist that really makes this sauce unique and extra tastey! :)


2 tablespoons raspberry jam
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons malt vinegar
5 drops hot pepper sauce
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

In a saucepan over high heat, blend raspberry jam, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, malt vinegar, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low, and simmer 10 minutes, or until thickened.

Easy Bacon and Tomato Cups

These are one of my husbands favorite sides. He loves bacon so I sometimes add a little extra so he can get his bacon fill! these are the best biscuits for cold fall days!

Needed

8 slices bacon
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
3 ounces shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 (16 ounce) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough


To Make

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a mini muffin pan.

In a med. sized skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until evenly brown and slightly crisp (you do not want it too crisp and bacon will continue to cook in oven). Drain on paper towels..and gentley pat to get off grease. Crumble bacon into a medium mixing bowl, and mix with tomato, onion, Swiss cheese, mayonnaise and basil.

Separate biscuits into halves horizontally. Place each half into cups of the prepared mini muffin pan. Fill each biscuit half with the bacon mixture.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven , or until golden brown. Serve warm

California Dip

Perfect dip for fresh veggies

2 cups of cottage cheese
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of skim milk
1 envelope onion soup mix

Mix the cottage cheese and lemon juice in the blender till smooth. Add skim milk. Place into a bowl and stir in the onion soup mix. Chill and serve with your favorite fresh veggies!

7-up biscuits

This is one of my grandmothers recipes. She makes these simple biscuits to go along with almost everything. They are easy to make and only take a few simple items to create and best of all they bake up real nice.



Needed:

1/4 cup of 7-up (sprite will work too)

1/4 cup of buttermilk

2 cups of biscuit mix

2 tablespoons of melted butter



Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl and knead until smooth and elastic. Place on a well floured board and spread dough gently until 1 inch thick. Cut into biscuits and place onto a well greased cookie sheet. Brush the tops of the biscuits with your melted butter. Bake 20 mins at 450 degrees and cool slightly before serving!

Sesame Rice

4 cups of cooked white rice
1/4 cups of green onions chopped fine
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
1/4 cup of soy sauce

While rice is still hot combine all items and place into a serving dish. Stir well before serving!

Twist Sticks

This recipe is great to serve with baked chicken or even steaks on the grill! It is one of my son's favorite side dishes

Needed:
1/2 cup of sour cream
1/2 package of ranch salad dressing powder
1 can of crescent rolls

In a large bowl, mix your sour cream and ranch mix. Spread out crescent rolls into one large long piece of dough. Press the seams of the dough together. Spread your sour cream and ranch mixture onto the dough evenly. Cut the dough into 1 inch strips and twist each strip loosely. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 12 to 15 mins till golden brown.

Mom's Creamy Mac and Cheese

Why buy the powdered version of Mac and cheese when creating it yourself is so easy and tastes so much better.

3 cups macaroni
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
salt and pepper
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheese (I usually use 1 c cubed Velveeta and 1 c shredded cheddar)

Cook macaroni according to package directions.When you drop the macaroni to cook, it's time to start the cheese sauce so that the two are done approximately the same time.
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Do not allow butter to brown. Stir in flour until it forms a paste. Cook and stir for one minute.
Add milk to saucepan, stir to remove lumps, increase heat to medium high heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Stir often (almost continuously, but not quite) until sauce begins to thicken. Add cheese and continue stirring until all the cheese has melted.
Hopefully by this point, your macaroni is cooked. Drain macaroni and return to pot. Pour cheese sauce over macaroni and stir gently to combine.

Grandma's Old Country Kniffles (Dumpling)

My great-grandmother was from Germany and as a child her and my grandmother use to make these amazing little dumplings they called Kniffles. Grandma would make them plain with just butter or she would add them to soups. My favorite is when she would make a huge batch along with her famous chicken gravy!

Now that I am older, I make these for my own kids and my kids love them almost as much as I do!


Needed:
4 eggs--beaten
1/4 cup milk
Flour
1/4 tsp. salt

To make
In a large bowl mix the eggs, milk, and salt. Add enuf flour inside and out so its not too stiff, but then again not too sticky too. You want the dough to be kinda stiff and kinda sticky! Boil some salt water in a LARGE Pot Cut the dough using a knife into small chunks and place into the boiling water. The knifflies will float when done. Test the biggest one you can find to see if it is done. If still doughy in the middle boil a little bit longer.

NOTE:
The Kniffles (Dumplings) taste good plain with butter on them or dripped in gravy! They also are perfect for soups such as tomatto or chicken noodle! or even veggie! My grandma serves them with beef tips dripped over them. They can be used for almost anything you would use noddles with! YUM! one of my all time favorites!

Ranchy Potatoes

Ranchy Potatoes have to be one of my family's favorite side dishes. YES, they are VERY fatting but OMG are they ever too die for good.. and go with about anything you have as a main dish! And they are always a huge hit at potlucks and parties! I have never made a batch that had left overs!

1 lb Red potatos diced (can leave skins on)
1 stick butter
1 cup sour cream
1 package of ranch dressing powder (Hiden Valley)
8 oz of sharp cheese

In a large cake pan.. place the potatos and butter cook on 350 for a good hour to hour and half till potatoes are to your liking (you may have to test after 40 mins). After potatoes are cooked to your liking (we like ours a little tender).. mix in the sour cream and ranch package.. coating all the potatos well. Add cheese to top.. and put back in the oven for another 10 mins till cheese bubbles...TOP with bacon bits if you please..and serve warm! mmm good!