Black Bean and Corn Salad

After all my holiday feasting, it's high-time for a good salad! Here's one of my fav's. The cilantro in this dish really makes it, so don't even think of leaving it out! Ok, you can think about it but you'll be sorry ;-) Crisp and fresh and oh so good!
Happy New Year friends!

Black Bean Corn Salad


Ingredients:

2- 15oz. cans Black beans, drained and rinsed
2- Tomatoes, diced
½- Onion, chopped (or 4-5 green onions sliced)
2- Jalapeno peppers, diced and seeded
4- Tbspn- Red wine vinegar
2-tsp. Olive oil
3- Garlic cloves, minced
1- tsp. Cumin
1-tsp. salt
1-tsp. sugar
1 - bunch Cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 Lime

(The above mixture alone makes a delicious Bean Salsa to serve with corn chips. If you’d like to make it a salad, however, just add the following :)

1- Red or Orange Pepper, diced
1-16oz. bag frozen Corn, thawed
1- 6oz. can Olives, sliced
2- Avocados, peeled and chopped

Directions:
Toss all veggies and cilantro together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl whisk together, vinegar, oil, garlic, cumin, salt, sugar, and lime juice. Pour over veggies. Allow to sit for at least a half hour and serve. Enjoy!

Note: If you need to make it a little bigger just toss in some more corn or various vegies.Can't hurt it!

Quick and Spicy Black Bean Soup

Sometimes a hearty, home-cooked meal that’s been carefully prepared and simmered all day is just what one needs....but then other times you just need to eat! Here’s a quick bean soup that can go from pot to table in about 15 minutes. Last week, I doubled the recipe and threw it into a slow cooker (on Low) and came home 5 hours later to dinner.


Here’s to surviving the season, Friends!

Quick and Spicy Black Bean Soup

Ingredients:

2- 15oz. cans Black Beans

1- 16 oz. container medium Salsa (or hotter, if you like)

4- cups chicken broth

Optional Garnishes: cilantro, sour cream, corn chips, cheese.

Directions:

Rinse and drain beans and put all ingredients into a pot. Heat through. Remove ½ of soup to a blender and blend thoroughly. Add back to pot and stir. Serve with a garnish of sour cream and cilantro. Serves 4

Notes: This is a super easy and versatile recipe. I’ve added chopped chicken before. I’ve also skipped the blending and just served it chunkier. My husband spooned his over a bowl of brown rice. My kids ate theirs with plenty of chips and cheese. (oh, and in the picture above, I was short one can of black beans so I substituted some great northern...whatever works!)

Coconut-Cherry Kiss Cookies

I love all things chocolate and cherry, add coconut to it and I'm on it like a stink on fish! Here's a favorite Christmas cookie of mine that incorporates all three of these loves. (And it looks pretty cute, too!)
Happy Holidays, Friends!

Coconut-Cherry Kiss Cookie

Ingredients:

1-3oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/3- cup butter, softened

2/3- cup white sugar

1 tsp.- vanilla

1 -egg yolk

1&1/4- cup flour

¼ tsp.- salt

2 tsp.- baking powder

½- cup maraschino cherries, drained and chopped

1-14oz.- pkg. sweetened, flaked coconut

1-9oz pkg. Chocolate Kisses

Directions:

Cream butter, cream cheese, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk and vanilla; beat well. Stir in mixture of flour, baking powder and salt. Gently mix in 3 cups of coconut and cherries. Chill, tightly covered for 1 hour. Shape into 1-inch balls and roll in remaining coconut. Place onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Cool on cookies sheet for 1 minute. Remove to wire rack to cool completely. Yield: 4 dozen

Note: Sometimes I stir in a handful or two of chocolate chips into the dough instead of putting the kisses on top. This way I get uber chocolate satisfaction in every bite!

Easy Lasagna

Ok, Erin, I know you've got some cheesy pasta love goin' on. This one's for you. You could make it even easier by purchasing the no-cook lasgna noodles. Just make sure you add some extra water to your sauce, maybe about 3/4 cup. The package may tell you exactly. Good luck!

Easy Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 lb. Italian sausage
1- 32oz. jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. pepper
1 Tbsp. dried oregano (or italian seasoning)
1- 8oz. pkg. lasagna noodles
1- 16oz. container cottage cheese
1 egg
1-16oz. pkg. shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large skillet, cook meat over medium heat until browned. Drain off fat. Stir in sauce, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano. cover and simmer on Low about 15 minutes.

-Meanwhile, cook noodles according to pkg. directions. Drain in colander and lay noodles flat on a sheet of foil.

-Mix egg into container of cottage cheese.

-In your 9x13inch pan layer 3 times: Noodles, cottage cheese, sauce and mozzarella. Noodles, cottage cheese, sauce and mozzarella, Noddles, cottage cheese, sauce, and mozzarella.

-Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes or until bubbly and heated thru. Let stand about 10-15 minutes before serving.

(Note: I like to sprinkle on a handful of Parmesan cheese before baking. Adds to the cheesy goodness.)

Drunken Maple Apples

  My friend called me tonight looking for my recipe for German Pancakes, which got me thinking," I should make those for dinner," which got me thinking,"ooh wouldn't glazed apples be good on that," which got me looking at the bottle of booze on my counter (don't judge, it was for another recipe, of course!), which got me thinking, "hmm, what if I put the booze in my apples...?" And, voila!  Drunken Maple Apples was born! See what happens when I think too much and there's a bottle of booze around. Anyway,  I smothered my pancake with these babies and blushed a little when my husband caught me licking my plate. Hope you enjoy these as much as I did, and oh, you might want to  make sure you're really alone before you take a lick.

Drunken Maple Apples

Ingredients:

3 large sweet apples, peeled and sliced

5 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup Bourbon Whiskey

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Directions:

Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in skillet over High heat. Add apples and cook about 5 minutes until slightly softened. Remove from pan and set aside. In same skillet carefully pour in Bourbon and cook about 30 seconds (to cook off some of the alcohol). Reduce heat to Med. and add butter, maple syrup and brown sugar. Stir until butter is melted. Add apples back to skillet. Toss well, and cook over Med. heat about 5 minutes more or until soft and syrup is slightly thickened.

Note: These were great over pancakes, but you could try them over ice cream, with ham or pork. Or just eat them out of the pan like I did.

Arlene Dunning's Pie

  Ssheww! I don't know know about you, but I'm glad to finally be sitting down after a long afternoon in the  kitchen preparing for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast! This year's celebration will be bitter-sweet for my family, as we mourn the loss of my dear grandma who passed away this last week after a months-long battle with cancer. She will be very missed, but we are so thankful for the blessing of having known this courageous, hard-working woman. One of my earliest food memories (because my best memories involve food!) is of standing on a stool between my gramma and my mom learning to can peaches. Gramma let me use this itty bitty knife to take the skin off the peaches and I felt so grown up! Today while working in the kitchen, I was reminded of gramma while struggling with my pie crust (yet again!) My gramma was the best pie maker I've known. For twenty years I've been struggling to duplicate her delicate, flakey crusts, but for the life of me, I just can't get it right! Pie crust making is beginning to be a lost art, and with the plethora of ready-made crusts on the market it's tempting to quit trying, but something inside just won't let me (it's probably my ocd). The recipe I'm posting today (and made today) is a lot like gram's and very good, but I'm still workin' on that tender crust. So anyway, hug your loved ones really tight tomorrow and let them know how much you love them, and from my family to yours, have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for you, friends!

Pastry for Double- Crust Pie

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into cubes
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup ice water (may need more)

Directions:
-In a food processor with blade attachment pulse flour and salt together.

-Add butter and shortening; pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs

-With processor running, pour in water through feed tube. Stop motor and pinch dough. It should be moist enough to hold together. If not, add 1-2 Tblsp. more water.
-Shape dough into two round disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. (If chilling overnight, let dough stand at room temp. at least 30 minutes before rolling out.)

-On a floured surface, roll out dough into 12 inch circle and ease into pie plate. Trim edge, leaving 1-inch overhang.

- Spoon filling into crust. Roll out remaining dough and place on top of filling. Fold overhang under; make decorative edge. Cut 1-2 slits in top to allow steam to escape. Bake as directed.

Peach Pie

Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

pinch of salt
7 cups peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced (I used canned, unsweetened, well drained peaches)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. butter, cut up.

-Preheat oven to 425.

- Stir together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add peaches and lemon juice. Toss gently to combine.
-Spoon filling into prepared pie crust. Dot with butter and place remaining dough on top. Finish edge and cut slits.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 and bake for 40-60 minutes more or until filling bubbles in center. If necessary, cover loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning during the last 20 minutes or so.
-Cool on wire rack 1 hour to serve warm or cool completely.

Ode to Cream o' Mushroom

  I have a confession to make. I love Cream of Mushroom soup. I've recently heard fancy,shmancy chefs, on fancy,shmancy cooking shows making disparaging remarks about this creamy concoction and well, frankly, it hurt my feelings. Why this soup love, you ask? Well, it's creamy goodness, and easy accessibility aside, Cream of Mushroom soup has saved my bacon in more than one "Hi honey, I brought the boss home for dinner" inccidents. It has made me look like I had it all together and really knew what I was doing. And for that alone, I hail thee. Here is a quick,easy recipe that will even impress your husband's boss.

Chicken Breasts with Cream Sauce (wow, that is a boring name)

Ingredients:
5 -6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup melted butter (can use more if needed)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4-1/2 cup of white wine
1/4 cup sour cream or heavy cream (can use more if needed)
pinch of tarragon
two handfuls of Jack or Parmesan cheese

Directions:
Coat chicken breasts in butter. In a large skillet, quickly fry them over med-high heat about one minute on each side. (Just to brown and seal in juices) Lay them in a large 9x13 pan. In the hot skillet, whisk together canned soup, wine, cream and tarragon. Pour over chicken and bake for 20 minutes, sprinkle on the cheese and baste with sauce. Continue to bake for 5-10 minutes more or until chicken is no longer pink. Serve over rice or with a great bread to sop up the good sauce!

Note: As you can see your measurements don't have to be exact because you can't really mess this one up. If I were serving this to adults only I might put more wine in it or saute some fresh mushrooms (with butter, garlic and wine) to spoon over top. With kids, I usually put more cream just to stretch it and make it creamier. It's pretty tasty any way you serve it.