Holiday Pecans

1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 egg white
3 cups of pecan halves
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Heat oven to 300 line a rimmed baking sheet with nonstick foil, set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar, salt and cinnamon; set aside

In a medium size bowl, whisk egg white and 1 Tablespoon water until foamy. Add pecans to bowl and stir until coated. Pour in sugar mixture and melted butter, and stir well to combine.

Spread pecan mixture in an even layer on prepared baking sheet and bake at 300 for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven and cool completely.


I tried this recipe from Family Circle and honestly could NOT quit eating them. Oh my. Love Me.

Have You Ever Wanted To Eat A Cookie Pie?

There is a restaurant in Utah called The Dodoo or something like that, that serves this recipe. Someone told me about it and gave me the recipe. The other day I was making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and noticed that there was a recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House bag that reminded me of that yummy recipe. So, I made it on Friday and instead of using a pie crust I used a graham cracker crust. It still turned out mighty yummy and most of you will have all of the ingredients to make it.

NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Pie

Ingredients:
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell *
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup (6 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts
Sweetened whipped cream or ice cream (optional)

Directions:PREHEAT oven to 325° F. BEAT eggs in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy. Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spoon into pie shell. BAKE for 55 to 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between edge and center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm with whipped cream, if desired.

NOTES: * If using frozen pie shell, use deep-dish style, thawed completely. Bake on baking sheet; increase baking time slightly.

Heavenly Honey Oatmeal Bread

Our favorite bread recipe and it is sooooo very easy.
1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
2 cups boiling wataer
1 pkg. active dry yeast
l/4 cup warm water (105-115)
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon butter or cooking oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 egg
5 l/2 cups all purpose flour
milk and a little more rolled oats.

Placce the 1 cup oats into a large bowl. Pour the boiling water over oats; let stand for 15 minutes or till mixture is lukewarm. Sprinkle the yeast over the l/4 cup warm water in a small bowl, stir to mix let stand 5 minutes to dissolve. Add honey, butter, salt and yeast mixture to the oat mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon. Stir in enough of the flour so the dough can be handled (The oats and honey make this stickier than regular bread dough). Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 2 minutes. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Knead 12 to 15 strokes till dough is elastic, but still rather sticky, adding flour as needed; don't add too much flour at a time. Place dough in a greased bowl and turn to grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place till doubled abaout one hour. Punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface, as the dough should be a little sticky. Divide the dough in half. Shape each piece into a loaf. Place loaves in two greased loaf pans Cover and let rise in a warm place till doubled in size around 30 min. Brush with milk and sprinkle with additional oats.

Bake 350 oven for 45 minutes or till the loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans and cool on wire racks. Now you will gain a pound or two and love it!!!

Classic Butternut Squash Soup

Our Relief Society tries to do a cooking club once a month. We do it by theme. This month it is at my house and the theme is soups. Here is a recipe I tried from Ladies Home Journal and it turned out pretty dang good. If I have enough time I am going to make the croutons as well that came from Southern Living Magazine.

Classic Butternut Squash Soup
Prep: 30 min Start to Finish: 1 hr 45 min
Ingredients
3 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 medium onions, chopped
7 to 8 cups vegetable broth
Snipped fresh chives, for garnish
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large roasting pan, toss together squash, oil, salt and pepper. Roast, stirring once, until tender, about 1 hr.
2. Meanwhile, in an 8-quart stockpot, melt butter. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 20 min.
3. Add squash and 7 cups broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 min. Transfer soup, in batches, to a blender and purée until smooth; return to pot. Add more broth, if needed, until desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chives, if desired. Makes 14 cups.
Nutrition Facts
Calories 130, Total Fat (g) 5, Saturated Fat (g) 1.5, Cholesterol (mg) 4, Sodium (mg) 1140, Carbohydrate (g) 22, Fiber (g) 3, Protein (g) 2

Sweet Croutons
Yield
Makes 3 cups
Ingredients
4 cups French bread cubes
3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preparation
Toss together bread cubes and melted butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon; add to bread cubes, tossing to coat. Spread in a single layer on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Bake at 375°, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Paula Dean's Oooey gooey butter pumpkin cake

I saw this on Rachel Ray last year and I have waited this long to try it! So I made it last night for our gigantic enrichment activity (4 girls showed up, 1 participated!) of carving pumpkins! Anyway, everyone loved the desert and shad ate more for breakfast :( so here it is. and yes, it's not healthy...notice the word "butter" in the name!?! 

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 18.25-ounce box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
For the filling:
1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1-15 ounce can pumpkin pie filling
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 16-ounce box confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter

Yields: 20-24 small squares

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg and butter, and mix well. Pour into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside.
In the mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add pumpkin pie filling, eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioner’s sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well. Pour filling on top of cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake 40-50 minutes (You want the center to be a little gooey; so don’t bake past that point!). Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Aunt Juanita's Chicken or Turkey Casserole

3/4- 1 Cup cooked chicken or turkey

1 C finely diced celery

2 T finely diced onion

1/2 C chopped walnuts

1 1/2 C cooked rice (3/4 cup raw)

1-10 1/2 oz cream of chicken or mushroom soup

1 T lemon juice

1/2 t salt and pepper

1/2 C water

3/4 C mayonnaise

Mix mayonnaise with water and all other ingredients. Put into greased casserole dish. Top with 3 hard boiled eggs and 2 cups crushed potato chips. 

Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. 

PS, this doesn't make a  ton...like shad and I can eat almost the whole thing for dinner. So make sides or something! 

Grandma Maygren's Banana Bread

Grandma always had Banana Bread and cookies fresh from the oven when we went to her house!

This recipe makes 1 large loaf or 2 small ones

1/2 C margarine 

1 C sugar

2 eggs

2 C flour

3 mashed banana's

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 C choppped nuts

Cream butter and sugar together. Add beaten eggs and all other ingredients. 

Cook at 350 for 35-45 minutes*

(whenever I've cooked this the middle doesn't get done by the 45 minutes but the top does. So last time I put some foil on the top and cooked it another 15 or 20 minutes and just kept checking until the middle was cooked)