The Cookbook

Raspberry Oat Bars

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 (10 ounce) jar raspberry preserves


DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Combine the oats, flour, salt and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the preserves over the crust. Crumble the remaining crust mixture over the raspberry layer.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

crackertoes

Reindeer Snack Mix

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 1 Hour
Ready In: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Yields: 9 servings

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups Bugles®
2 cups square-shaped cheese flavored crackers
2 cups pretzel sticks
1 cup Corn Chex® cereal
1 cup bite-size shredded wheat
1 cup pecan halves

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper


DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine the butter, syrup, Worcestershire sauce, Cajun seasoning and cayenne; pour over cereal mixture and toss to coat.

2. Transfer to an ungreased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 250 degrees F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Scarlett~NC

Mom's Roast

Good basic recipe – we always preferred Campbell’s canned French Onion soup to the powdered mix. Low and slow always best for Roast (and Chuck Roast works best). Mom tried putting some of the standard veggies in with her roast but we all decided we liked them cooked separately.

Place chuck roast in roaster. Dump 2-3 cans Campbell’s French Onion Soup on top (depends on size of roast). Salt. Pepper liberally.

Cook 350-375 degrees – 3 – 3 ½ hours.

Just add a bit of flour and water to pan drippings/onion soup after roast is cooked for a terrific gravy.

klh6656

Refrieds
Jude

I don't make my own. What I like to do is get the BLACK refries... kinda hard to find, but they are there. The regular frijoles will do if you can't find the black bean ones, but they aren't as good. Place a can or however much you want into a baking dish, add a 1/4 cup or so of beef boullion and mix it together. Top it with minced green onions and a splash of hot sauce. I use Louisiane. Bake til bubbly at about 350, cover it if it starts to dry out. You can also add a bit of shredded cheese under the green onion if you like.

Just me

Spanish Rice, again

1 Cup Rice
Tablespoon or so of Olive Oil
smashed garlic clove
1/4 cup or so of chopped onion

1 3/4 cup of Chicken Stock
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/2 can Rotel Tomatoes


In cooking pot, add olive oil and rice. Cook over low for about 3 minutes or so stirring constantly. Add garlic and onion. Keep cooking this way about 2-3 more minutes til rice turns opaque and sort of starts to brown just a hint.. not much at all and not all over, just a tinge on some of the grains.

Meanwhile, in separate sauce pan bring to simmer chicken stock , oregano and cumin. Add in about 1/2 a can of Rotel Tomatoes.

Add chicken stock mixture to rice/olive oil mixture. Bring back to a good boil, cover tightly, turn heat down to lowest temp possible and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and keep covered 15 minutes or so more.

No big tricks and very easy. Just watch out that you don't put too much liquid in. I usually would use 1 1/2 cups liquid, but some of it evaporates while simmering together in this recipe. You can also use fresh tomato and a little red chili pepper... it's just easier to use Rotel. A smidge of cilantro is a nice touch, too, but one of my kids doesn't care for cilantro.

That's it!

jude

Ric’s Cucumber and Onion Salad

Cucumbers
Onions
(and/or) Tomatos
1/3 C sugar
1 1/3 C vinegar
1 t sea salt
1/3 t pepper
2 C water

Marinate overnight.

Toast sesame seeds to desired taste (crunch) to sprinkle over the salad mixture when ready to dine.

Ric

Ninja Kat's Pot Roast

Preheat oven to 325*.

In a cast iron skillet, I put 1 T oil and then the roast (3 lbs) and sear. Take meat out and put in 1/4 onion, 1/4 bell pepper (coarsely chopped), and 2-3 stalks of celery just broken up. Let get translucent and then add 1/4 C carrots and 1/2 can diced tomatos. Simmer for just a minute or two, then add spices.

I usually use a combo of salt, pepper, 1/4 t cumin, 1/2 t Cecheres, and parsley. I would normally season the roast, but the spices may burn. I also season the roast now for good measure. ;-)

Put the skillet mixture in the bottom of an oven bag and place the seasoned roast on top. Deglaze the pan with either 1/4 C red wine or water. Pour onto roast.

I also get several potatos and cut them up and put them in the bag as well, along with more carrots.

3 hours and yum!

You can make a gravy with the leftover juices.

Ninja Kat

Raspberry Trifle with Rum Sauce

This is by far the best dessert there is in my opinion.(and I love chees cake and blackberry cobler with ice cream as well) BUT THIS IS BETTER! I promise. there is no alcohol but it does require rum extract so here goes.

3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup raspberry jam or jelly
3/4 teaspoon imitation rum extract
1 frozen 12 oz. pound cake (like Sara Lee) thawed and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 containers (4 oz. each) refrigerated vanilla pudding
fresh raspberries -- for garnish

Heat butter in a large microwavable glass bowl on high heat until melted. Whisk in confectioners sugar, rum extract and water, stirring until it becomes a smooth sauce. Heat jam/jelly in a smaller glass bowl in microwave on high heat just until melted. In another microwaveable bowl, heat vanilla pudding just until it gets thinner. Pudding needs to be thin enough to spread easily but do not get hot enough to cook it around the edges of the bowl. Evenly distribute the pound cake cubes into the bottom of a clear glass serving container-my wife uses a big glass bowl like thingy that kinda looks like a wine glass, it has a pedastal like thing on the bottom. you want the container to be clear so you can see the stuff after it gets fixed. Pack down the cake cubes slightly. Drizzle rum sauce over cake cubes. Next drizzle jam/jelly over the rum sauce. Spread the pudding next. Continue layering until everything is all gone or until your container gets full. If you have enough pudding left you can make the top layer of pudding a little thicker. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Right before serving, garnish the top with the fresh raspberries. Do this at the very last minute because if they sit on top for a long time they will sometimes leave little juice puddles.

Some folks will say this stuff will make you slap your grandmaw....it will make you beat the crap out of her! ENJOY!!!!! (The dessert that is,not beating your grandmaw)

travlinman