Sweet Potato Casserole

Ingredients:

bottom layer:

3 sweet potatoes and 1 butternut squash or 6-9 sweet potatoes (cooked pealed and diced)
1/4 stick butter
1/4 c. evaporated milk or cream
1/4 c. brown sugar

Topping:

1 c. crushed pecans
1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 stick melted butter


Directions:

1. combine all the bottom layer ingredients in a bowl.
2. Mash together just like you are making regular mashed potatoes.
3. Add the potato mixture to a small casserole baking dish.
4. Add all the ingredients for the topping in a separate bowl.
5. Mix together with fork.
6. Add to the top of sweet potato dish.
7. Bake @ 350* for 30 to 44 minutes.

Jo's tips: If you have a big group then double the recipe. you can substitute any winter squash for the sweet potatoes. I have used acorn squash it was equally delicious!

My favorite cookie recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Upside-Down Pizza

I have been wanting to post this recipe for a while because it is so good and I don't want to lose it. I made it a while ago and took a picture because it looked delicious. It was and is now going to become a staple at my house. You will not want to order pizza from take out again after you have this pizza!

Recipe adapted from allrecipies.com

Ingredients

Sauce
1 (26oz) jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce (I like the chunky Ragu or Prego for this)
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound Italian sausage

Dough
1 1/2 cups water
4 1/4 white bread flour
1/1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp yeast

Topping
1/2 stick butter
1 clove garlic

Directions

1. Put all ingredients for the dough in your bread machine.
2. Start on dough cycle and come back when dough is done.
3. When you are ready to make the pizza preheat oven to 375*.
4. Brown ground beef and sausage in a skillet.
5. Add spaghetti sauce.
6. In a 2 quart baking dish add the spaghetti sauce mixture.
7. Top with cheese.
8. On a flat lightly floured surface roll dough out to the size a little bigger then the baking dish.
9. Put dough over the top of the sauce.
10. Roll dough edges under to seal the sauce in and make it look nice.
11. Melt butter and add crushed garlic.
12. Brush butter mixture on top of dough.
13. Bake 20 minutes.
14. Let stand 10 Minutes.

Jo's Tips:
You can buy refrigerated pizza dough instead of making bread. It won't be as good though, just easier. You can add whatever toppings you want. Sometimes I like to add only veggies.
You can buy a used bread machine at DI for less then $15. And if you do get a bread machine or already own one I would suggest buying, The Cooks Encyclopedia of Bread Machine Baking by Jennie Shapter because you will love what you can do with it!

New Years Resolutions

It has been a crazy month.....At the beginning of the year I started thinking about the year ahead. I told myself that it was going to be a good year. I had so many plans. I had a monthly budget all planned out. We were going to get out of credit card debt, I was going to declutter my house, I was going to plant a garden in three of my friends back yards (my back yard was so small and had little usable sunlight space), I was going to go to Bass Lake California, and we were going to go to Disneyland! Now I'm not saying I have given up hope on doing these things, but let me tell you what started happening....January our new old car broke. It cost $900.00 to fix!!! Now I am ok with having to fix the car. It is just the price you pay for not having a car payment. The problem lies in the fact that in December, November, and October the car also had to be fixed. $400 here $500 there starts to get to you after a while. Humm my budget was toast.
I started to declutter the house (see Monday motivation), but something happened while in the middle of the decluttering process....(this one's my fault) I was just on the internet looking at houses (I kinda do this as my hobby) I found the cutest little 100 year old Victorian house on 1.7 acres of land in the heart of Grantsville! I had to go see it. (every once in a while I drag Mike and the kids out on a "drive" to go look at a house I found) We took a picnic and went to Grantsville. It was, and is the cutest house I have ever seen. I fell in love with it and Mike did to(or so I thought). He told me we could look into selling our house. I prayed about it first to see if it was right for us to move, I couldn't believe I got a good feeling about it, that had never happened. I have prayed several times once for Roy, for Eagle mountain, and for Logan. All NO! I was surprised that I got the go ahead for Grantsville.
We did our research on Realtors, and house prices, started shoving things in boxes to get the house "show ready", painted, and basically wore myself out. The house went up on the market and the next day. We had two or three showings. This continued all week and by the end of it we had our first offer! No go. He didn't want to budge and neither did we. The next day or so we got our second offer. We accepted. It took them a week to back out, so up it went again! Another week, more showings and another offer! We took it! All went well. We packed up, moved and now......we are homeless with no garden! Two of the neighbors were not happy because they were two of my garden helpers! (I felt bad because this was so not in my plans for the year and I felt like I backed out of a promise to them).
Back to the cute little Victorian! Well we went back to look at it and my husband noticed the foundation had a crack in it and the chimney was about to fall off. (I don't get the problem but whatever) He told me he had the feeling we should build a new house! It took me a while to warm up to this idea, but after much internal turmoil and finally taking it to the lord again, I got the distinct feeling to listen to my husband. That out of the way we picked a lot and the house and we are now on our way to getting a new house!
I'm sorry to have messed up Monday motivation, and well, We'll get out of debt sometime right?
One more thing...we are definitely going to Disneyland because I need a vacation!

Maple Syrup

I make sure I always have a bottle of maple extract in my pantry because if I do I will never be without syrup for pancakes, waffles, and french toast! My family lives for these breakfast items so this is a good thing!

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp maple extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp butter

Directions

1.While I am making my pancakes I put the first four ingredients into a sauce pan and tun on the heat to high. Stir to mix all ingredients.
2. When it starts to boil turn heat to med-med low. making sure it does not boil over, (it smells bad on your burner and is a pain to clean up).
3. When my pancakes are done I take off the heat and add the vanilla and butter. (about 10 minutes)
4. Stir and serve warm.

Jo's tip's: Store extra syrup in the fridge. If you let it sit too long in the fridge it will form sugar crystals, but hot water cleans those up nicely.

Fiesta Lime Chicken

On Friday My good friend Sabrina and I went out for a girls night. (We had been planning it since Christmas and just never got around to it.) For dinner we went to Applebee's. And she ordered the fiesta lime chicken. She said she ordered it every time and she would be very happy if I could recreate it for her. So, in honor of Sabrina I give you wanna be Fiesta Lime Chicken! (We also went to the bead store and made watch bands it was really fun!)

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (grilled all the way through in the bbq)
2 cups ranch dressing (I suggest the homemade ranch packet kind because it doesn't seem to be as strong)
1/2 cup salsa (pureed in a food processor)
1-1 1/2 cup shredded cheese
about 1/4 bag crushed up tortilla chips
1-2 limes

Directions

1. Cook up the chicken on the barbecue and set aside.
2. On four individual plates, put a pile of crushed up tortilla chips.
3. Mix together ranch and salsa puree.
4. Put a spoon full of ranch mixture over each pile of tortilla chips, covering them.
5. Put one chicken breast on each pile of chip and ranch mixture.
6. Add more sauce (optional).
7. Cover with cheese.
8. Put each plate under the broiler in the oven for about a minute each plate.
9. Squeeze some lime juice over each dish (optional)

Jo's tips: Serve with rice. We found this dish to be really strong do it is good to serve with rice and I mixed the chicken with the rice, it toned it down a bit. If you like ranch you will love this dish! It was also REALLY good with the avacado so I would recommend that as well if you like them.

Buttermilk Pancakes
Yesterday while at the grocery store I saw saw something crazy!!!! They had shake and pour pancake batter! Apparently you add milk or whatever liquid it requires and shake. then you pour the batter to make the pancakes! I can not believe someone would pay money for THAT! I don't know maybe it is just me but is is sooooo easy to make your own pancake batter I just don't understand why people buy mixes. This recipe from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook and has been a staple in our family for years. It is so easy my husband even makes it occasionally. I don't know, I make my own syrup too so maybe I'm just weird.

Ingredients

1 c flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs beaten
1 cup Buttermilk
1 Tbsp oil

Directions

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a large batter bowl and mix together.
2. Add remaining wet ingredients and mix with an electric hand mixer. (not for too long)
3. Pour onto a hot skillet and make the pancakes. (we all know how to do this part)


Jo's tips: If you don't have buttermilk you can add a few drops of lemon juice to the milk. Or just use plain milk (they are not buttermilk pancakes though!) I add the real buttermilk on special occasions because I don't always have it on hand, but it is so good when you use the real thing.