Gooey Bar

Last night I ate one of the best desserts I've ever had... called, simply, "The Gooey Bar". Here's the recipe:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 stick butter -melted
1 egg

Mix these ingredients and spread into pan, pressing into corners. Then combine the following in a separate bowl:

1 pkg cream cheese
1 stick butter
2 eggs
1 box (2 cups) powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Mix these ingredients, spreading over bottom layer. Bake 30-40 minutes @ 350 degrees. (Top will be soft set.) Trust me, this is delicious!

Dutch Puff (GREAT for big families)

Here's a great recipe for families of any size. Called a dutch puff, it's kind of like a puffy eggy creation. Similar in taste to french toast, but totally its own entity, we like it with syrup.

The original recipe is as follows:
Melt 1/3 cup of butter in a glass dish in a 425 degree oven.

Meanwhile, blend/mix the following:
4 eggs
1 cup flour (bread flour works even better, but whatever you can find should work- trust me... I've made this in China when I didn't even know the word for flour, much less bread flour! :) )
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp + cinnamon (if you like more, use more)
(SERVES FOUR-- for larger families, look below)

Once blended, pull the dish out of the oven (once all the butter has melted), and pour the liquid mixture into the dish. It's OK if butter mixes in a bit, stays around the edges, or gets on top.

Put the dish back in the oven for 20-25 minutes... until it puffs up and the tops of the peaks are brown. That's right... I said "puffs" and "peaks". It will puff up into what might look like a mountain range, with each corner reaching up toward the top of the oven, or with random peaks throughout the pan.

Serve hot, cut up into squares and it will thrill your family. Not only does it taste good, but it's inexpensive & easy to make, AND-- because it's got the eggs in it-- it's full of protein and so it sticks. They're not hungry 20 minutes later like sometimes happens with cereal.


FOR SIX:
1 & 1/2 cups milk
1 & 1/2 cups flour
6 eggs
3 tsp vanilla
1 & 1/2 tsp + of cinnamon


FOR EIGHT:
2 cups milk
2 cups flour
8 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
2 tsp + of cinnamon,

ETC...

Hope you and your family enjoy this delicious recipe!

Chorizo Cod

This is a recipe I saw on Martha Stewart one day in January. I've made it several times, and it has a delicious mix of flavors. NOTE: WHEN BUYING FISH, buy it transluscent & without any smell. That means it's fresh and unspoiled.

INGREDIENTS:
1 tube Chorizo or Andouille (sp?) sausage
sliced mushrooms
sliced roma tomatoes
Cod fish (or other basic white fish)
spices: sea salt, white pepper, rosemary, thyme, garlic
scallions if desired
lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Oil/grease the metal or glass pan to prepare for baking.
3. Lay out the whole cod filets in the baking dish and cover generously with sea salt & white pepper.
4. Begin layering, on top of the fish in generous rows: chorizo, mushrooms, tomatoes, scallions or garlic, chorizo, mushrooms, etc... (It will look like stripes, and you should see the top of each item. These layers should completely cover the fish.)
5. After the layers are complete, sprinkle the spices over the top as desired (chopped rosemary & thyme, and minced garlic)
6. Pour a generous amount of olive oil (approximately 1/4 cup for every 2 large filets) over the fish
7. Cook for 10 minutes in a 425 degree oven.
8. After removed from the oven, sprinkle fish with lemon juice
9. Serve over rice and use cooking juices to pour back over fish & rice upon serving.

Believe me when I tell you- this is a unique and flavorful dish!

Mountain Dew Dumplings

Lemme give a little shout out to my sister, Jill (OK, I only have a brother- but she's his wife!), and her mom Donna! They're the ones from whom this most excellent recipe was borrowed! This is like a scrum-diddly-umptious version of apple pie.


2 cans of Crescent Rolls
2 or 3 peeled and sliced apples(6-8 slices per apple)
2 sticks of butter (not Marg.)
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 1/2 cup of sugar
12 oz can of Mountain Dew

Preheat oven to 350. Peel and slice apple. Roll up one apple slice into each of the crescent rolls. Place them in an nongreased pan. In a small saucepan combine the butter, cinnamon, and sugar. Once the butter is melted and the mixture is nice and smooth, spoon over the top of each of the crescent rolls. Pour entire Mountain Dew can in the cracks. (Be sure not to wash off the sugar/cinnamon from the tops of the crescents when pouring the Mountain Dew. This makes for a prettier presentation when baked) Bake for 45 min. Serve while hot with ice cream or whipped cream!

Make-Ahead Burritos

The other day after making an enchilada dinner, I had a lot of beans and tortillas left over and ended up making up bean and cheese and egg and cheese burritos ahead of time. For the next week, I had additional options for breakfast foods and quick dinners. And whether you use eggs or beans, this is a filling meal that will keep kids hungry through the next meal.

This is something that I'm going to try to have on hand all the time while I'm here in the states. It is SO much simpler to make up a bunch all at once rather than one here or there... cutting down on all the steps and just doing them all once. Here's all I did:

REFRIED BEANS (or eggs, if you are making breakfast burritos)
SHREDDED CHEDDAR CHEESE
FLOUR TORTILLAS

Take the tortillas, put a stripe of cheese down the center, and then do a layer of beans (or eggs). Fold like a burrito, and then you can fit 3-4 of these per ziplock bag. Label them if needed, and then they'll keep for the rest of the week. You can freeze them as well, just make sure you pack them nicely to where they won't stick together. Heat them up as you need them, and you're all set.


(And yes, for all you gourmet chefs out there, I know this is an extremely simple idea, but I like to share the simple things- they help out moms like me when we're in a pinch!)

Holiday Ritz Cookies

Here's an easy and delicious holiday cookie recipe:

You'll need:
Ritz crackers
Peanut Butter
White Chocolate (also called Almond Bark)

Melt the white chocolate to a creamy state in a pot. (Or you can microwave it, even easier).

Take the Ritz crackers and make little PB sandwiches with them. Sandwich a layer of PB between 2 Ritz crackers. Once you have as many of those as you want made, then dip each cookie entirely into the white chocolate. Let them dry and harden on a sheet of wax paper.

These are easy to make and SINFULLY delicious! Everyone always loves these- they're a huge hit for holiday parties! ENJOY!

Moist Banana Bread (w/ a GREAT crust!)

This banana bread comes out with a nice hard crust (sweet and delicious) and the inside stays moist for days. It's delicious and the ingredients are easy to find (even overseas, except for the vanilla which I brought with me). In fact, I just buy a bunch of bananas and wait for them to brown/soften and then everything else is already in our home, so I can make it whenever I find a free moment. Hope you enjoy it as much as our family does!


PREHEAT OVEN to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
INGREDIENTS:
A - 1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar

B- 2 eggs
1 Cup of mashed bananas

C - 2 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

D- 3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

E- (THESE ARE OPTIONAL, I don't use any of these, but thought some of you might like to try it with these)
1/2- 1 cup walnuts
1/2 - 1 cup choc. chips or raisins



First combine A ingredients , then add B ingredients. In separate bowl, mix the C ingredients, then add them to oil and egg mixture. Add D and E and mix together.

Bake in greased loaf pans @ 180*C (350*F) for 1 hr. (1&1/2 hour in small ovens like we have overseas--toaster oven-size). Test for doneness w/ toothpick.