Jello Salad!

This is a delicious treat I only got at Easter time... SOMETIMES at a 4th of July picnic or other special holiday but it was never really make any other time. I associate it most often with Easter though, and I hope you try it out this year for yourselves and enjoy it!!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz pack of Jell-O (any flavor you choose. I used cherry)
• Mini Marshmallows
• Cool Whip

First your'e going to make your Jell-o and let it sit for the directed time. When the Jell-O is ready, open a bag of marshmallows and dump it into a large bowl.

Then with a spatula or spoon dump the jell-o into the bowl as well.

Add in an entire small container of cool whip (or half a large one if that's what you bought)

And mix it all up! A rubber spatula works best for getting the marshmallows from the bottom in the center of the bowl. It should look like this when finished....

So good! You can use any flavor you want. You can also ass in things like mixed fruit cups or pineapple or apple chunks. adding in fruit really changes it up texture wise since it's so soft. Experiment with flavors of Jell-O and different add in foods!

When you're all done refrigerate until ready to serve!

Tip: If you making for more people simply add in another half bag or even an additional full bag of marshmallows. That's all you really need to do for a big family gathering!

That's all for now! Happy Easter!!!

Strawberry Shortcake

I know it's been just over a month since the last entry, I apologize. A lot has happened in the last five weeks but to make it up to you all I am going to post my dad's Strawberry Shortcake. This is for those who are always asking for dessert, and its probably the one I remember the most from my childhood. It was always a really special treat when my dad made this, and even now when I buy the things for it, I get really excited and just can't wait for it, haha. I hope you all love and enjoy it as much as I do.

Ingredients:

• Two packages strawberries
• Sugar
• A package of mini angel food cakes
• One pint of heavy whipping cream
• Whipped Cream (optional)

First you're going to wash your strawberries and cut the tops off. Slice them in half and place them in a blender. Don't cut them all up, save a few to garnish your finished product!

Next pour in about a third of your heavy whipping cream.

Then sprinkle in about a quarter cup of sugar.

Place the top on your blender and turn it on. The blend or the whip setting are what I prefer to use but whatever floats you boat as long as it mixes it well. When done it should be nice and thick and creamy.

Give it a taste, if you find it to be a little bland, add more strawberries to counter out the whipping cream. They also balance it out if there is too much sugar.

Next place a cake round in a bowl, and pour the strawberry sauce over it, to drown it.

Place another cake on top of the first and add more sauce. Top it all with whipped cream and the left over strawberries for a delicious treat!

Who will like this: Everyone! Kids love it because it's a rare and special treat, parents love it because it's easy to make, and really not that messy.

LEFTOVERS! Yes that's right! Depending one how many you are serving there is usually some sauce left over. I like to place it in the refrigerator and save it for a delicious treat later, when I'll simply sip it out of a glass. I think this was my favorite part grown up, drinking the leftover strawberry goodness!

There you go guys one more insanely super Simple Cooking gone right! I hope you all enjoy it, leave comments let me know what you think of if you have questions!

Remember you are all amazing and wonderful! I love you all!

~Alex~

Cinnamon Candy

My big sister, over at Burnt Toast likes to give me challenges for Simple Cooking. The other day she challenged me to make a Cinnamon Candy recipe she found. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I love candy, particularly cinnamon candy. This was a really great and fun recipe. And like the goal of the blog says, simple! You can find the original recipe here.

So lets get started!

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar

1 cup of water

1/2 cup of light corn syrup

1/2 a tsp cinnamon extract

1/2 a tsp red food coloring

You will also need a candy thermometor. You can get one at Walmart for just under four dollars. :)

Alright! So lets get started. In a pot start cooking the water, sugar, and corn syrup on a medium heat.

Let it cook to a boil on the medium heat, we wanna heat this up slowly. As it rises to boiling be sure to stir it occasionally. Once boiling, place a lid over it and let it cook for three minuets. Go a head and take the lip off then and turn the heat to a medium/high heat. From here on out let it boil, and do not stir. The mixture will thicken severely as it boils. Use your candy thermometer to check the temperature. You want it to be at 310 Fahrenheit, also known as the Hard Crack Point. It will take about 15-20 minuets for it to reach that point, just keep an eye on the thermometer.

Once it's reached the hard crack point, remove the pot from heat and add in your cinnamon extract and red food coloring. Mix well and fast, and be sure it's all well away from your face as the fumes will be strong.

Quickly pour onto a greased baking sheet and using a spatula spread it out so it cover the whole surface.

Using a sharp knife, or a pizza cutter, start to score the sheet of liquid candy into roughly one inch squares. You can cut them as big or as small as you like, however. The gel will trying to form back together, you just have to keep repeating the scoring lines until it's cooled enough for the lines to stay in place. I had some issues with it pushing around on the sheet so mine are all deformed, but the over all shape really doesn't matter.

Let it sit at room temperature till it's completely cooled and hardened. This only takes about ten minuets or so, not too long at all. The pieces break apart easily into their squares, like sugar glass, and that is all there is to it!

The texture is the same you would get in say, jolly ranchers, and things, so just by changing the flavore of the extract this recipe opens up a lot of candies to you, if you want to make others.

Note about the cinnamon, I felt the flavor wasn't enough for me, next time I'll probably add a full teaspoon instead of just half, but it's still very good.

LEFTOVERS! This makes a lot candy.

Who will like this: Children will love this! It's homemade candy, I don't think any kid wouldn't like it! Also, anyone who enjoys cinnamon flavored candy!

That's all there is to it my loves! Go out and enjoy the cinnamon goodness that is this candy!

Alyce Sheahen's Banana Bread

An Introduction to This Recipe:

This recipe started belongs to Cassie's great Grandmother. She never wrote down her recipes. So if a family member wanted it, they had to follow along with her and write it down as she went. Cassie shared this with us on the Simple Cooking Group .

This is actually my third attempt at this recipe, which is why it's taken so long to post a new blog. I have been hell bent on this recipe being the next entry. The first time I attempted it, I cooked it exactly as instructed. The very middle didn't cook at all and the top caved in because of it. The second time I cooked it for longer and on a higher temperature, and it turned into a Banana Brick.

I knew it wasn't my oven, because it cooks everything else just fine. And I was following the recipe exactly. It had to be the pan. Well a few days ago I bought some 9" round pans, and decided to use those instead of the traditional loaf pan. Today I gave it my third try and SUCCESS! I now have banana bread in the shape of round cakes! Enjoy!!!

First, oreheat oven to 350 degrees. Next....

Cream Together:

1/2 cup shortening (See note at bottom of entry on Shortening)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 bananas

Sift Together:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Little by little add the dry mixture to the wet mixture, mix well, and repeat till all is mixed together well. Don't worry if it is a bit chunky, it doesn't have to be smooth.

Now add in a tsp of vanilla. This is also where you add in nuts if you choose to do so.

Pure dough into pan. If you use a bread loaf pan, as tradition dictates, I suggest splitting it into two pans or cooking half now and half after the first, as the center tends to not cook for me if I place it all in a bread pan at once. Alternately you can use round pans or small casserole/cake pans, they work just as well, and in my experience, the 9" rounds take about half the time to cook.

Whatever your choice in baking dish is, place the dough into it after spraying it with non stick cooking spray.

Place in the hot oven and cook for 40 minuets. If using a more sallow pan like a round pan, keep a close eye on it, it should be ready after about 20 minuets.

When is is all done it make appear slightly under-cooked. This is alright as long as it's ONLY slightly and not drastically under-cooked. You can keep it in the oven for longer, but be careful, because if it gets over cooked it will be dry and not as good. Let it cool for a few minuets then go a head and cut right into it! It's delicious! Especially when its still warm and has butter on it. Hope you enjoy it!

Note on shortening: Shortening and butter were used to replace the use of lard in recipes. The shortening and butter, when melt in the oven, create the little air like pockets we see in cakes, breads, and other baked goods. The most common shortening is Crisco, but you can replace shortening with butter if you like. The ratio for that is..

1 cup shortening + 2 tbs water = 1 cup butter

Roughly a cup for a cup then. It is recommended, however, that if you choose to replace shortening with butter, you chill the batter before cooking it. Butter melts at a lower temperature than shortening does, and in baking, timing is everything. If the butter melts too soon, it can create a problem with the turnout, but chilling the dough and subsequently the butter will help it last a little longer, to melt at a more opportune time.

Who will enjoy this: EVERYBODY! I honestly don't know a single person who doesn't like banana bread unless they have an allergy, in which case, shame on you for eating noms in front of somebody who can't have it!

April's Oreo Balls

Alright this is a wonderful recipe directly from one of our Simple Cooking group members, and one of my best friend's April. They are Oreo Balls. I don't know where she came across this recipe, but Jay and I took one look at it and decided it was a must try. I took pics in hopes it would be yummie enough to be blog worthy and dear lord it really is! So without further ado, the Oreo Balls!

Ingredients:

1 (16 ounce) package of Oreo Cookies, crushed.

1 (8ounce) package of Cream Cheese, softened.

1 (24 ounce) package of Almond Bark (This can be subsituted for White Chocolate Bark too).

1 (24 ounce) package of Chocolate Bark.

Alright, step one is going to be the hardest thing of the whole process. I'm sorry to be the barer of bad news but you need to crush up the entire package of Oreos into a bowl. It's hard I know but I promise it IS worth it!

Next, make sure your cream cheese is nice and soft, I had to soften mine in the microwave for about 40seconds. Then with a blender or hand mixer, mix the Oreos and cream cheese together well..

Roll the mix into balls, April suggest about the size of a walnut. An ice cream scoop can work wonders for this part, otherwise your hands end up really covered in the stuff. Not that that's a bad thing. You want place the Oreo balls on a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge or freezer for about an hour.

As the hour draws to a close, pull out your double broiler, or whatever you use to melt chocolate, and heat it up. Toss in your almond bark. You want to use at least 3/4 of the package, though I used the entire thing in the end. Melt the bark down and then either with toothpicks in the Oreo balls, or with a tongs, dip the balls into the melted bark and place back on the cookie sheet.

Back into the fridge or freezer for about 20 min. Wash out your pan during this time and rinse well, then go a head and get started on melting your chocolate. When the almond bark is hardened pull the cookie sheet out and drizzle over the Oreo balls with the melted chocolate. Use as much or as little as you like. Chill for another 10 min, and you're ready to eat!!!

These are SO good, delicious, and simple!

Kids will LOVE to make this happy treat. Like the peanut-butter balls, this is a fun messy thing to make, and an easy hand help treat they can march off with the nom on while playing.

ENJOY!!!!

Burnt Toast

No this isn't a recipe, this is a shameless plug for my big sister. She's been such a huge contributor to the Simple Cooking group on Facebook (find the link on the right hand side.) She'd an admin, she keeps the discussions going and now shes taken it a step farther to support the group, and her own interests.

I am proud to introduce to you Burnt Toast! My big sister's new cooking blog. Please check it out. The first recipe is mouth watering and new! That's something great about what she brings to the table, chances are it's always something new! So check it out!!!! Thanks all!

~Alex~

Chocolate Covered Peanut-butter Balls

This is a crazy yummie treat, its great as a special holiday dessert/snack. I was asked to do a blog on deserts, this is one of my favorites! Any time of the year this is a wonderful treat for everyone! Special thanks to my friend Scott for this! He gave it to me about a year ago and it's been a big hit with everyone ever since!

Ingredients:

• 1lb bag of powdered sugar
• 16oz jar of creamy peanut-butter
• 1 stick melted butter
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 2 (13 oz each) bags of chocolate chips (i preferr milk chocolate but it's up to you)

You'll also need a double boiler, but if you don't have one, don't worry because I have a special tip to use instead!

Steps:

Mix the sugar, butter, vanilla, and peanut-butter well, until creamy. The sugar will try to clump up so just do your best.

Next you're going to use your double boiler to melt the chocolate. If you don't have one, use a glass pie plate sitting on to of a pot of boiling water, or some sort of glass or ceramic dish. Just place it on tops and pour in about half a bag of chocolate chips. Don't add all the chips at once because you really do need it later.

Using the drop spoon method or an ice cream scoop or something, make peanutbutter balls and roll into the melted chocolate. Then place on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper.

Melt more chocolate as needed and repeat.

Remember to roll quickly or the heat will melt the peanut-butter.

When you're all down place cookie sheet in the freezer or fridge to cool for about an hour, then.. ENJOY!!!

Who will like this: CHILDREN: Kids will LOVE IT! Its fun and messy to make, and it's small enough to fit into their hands as you give them one and send them one their way happy.

Enchiladas and Salsa

Its been a goodly while I know it. I've been so busy with work that I haven't had time to cook, and then when I got time I haven't had the money for ingredients. That is over and done with though, as I have time AND money again hahahahahah!!! So here for your viewing pleasure is Awesome Sauce Enchiladas with my own home made Salsa. Enjoy it! And please be sure to stop by the Simple Cooking discussion group to talk about this meal and lots of others!