Candy Corn Quesadillas

2- 10" white or wheat flour tortillas

1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 C. shredded mozzarella cheese

4 slices American cheese

1 large microwave-safe plate

pizza cutter

**ingredients for dipping sauce (optional)

Start by laying 1 tortilla onto the plate. Sprinkle 1/4 C. cheddar and 1/4 C. mozzarella all over the tortilla. Stick the tortilla into the microwave and cook for 20 seconds on high power. Immediately top this tortilla with a second tortilla. The cheese will act as "glue" to hold the two tortillas together. You are going to form 3 rings of cheese on the tortilla to create the candy corn colors. Starting in the middle of the tortilla, use the remaining mozzarella cheese to form a small circle. With the remaining cheddar cheese, create a ring around the outside of the mozzarella. Finally, tear the American cheese into strips and piece it together on the tortilla to form the outside ring. It doesn't matter if the American cheese fits perfectly onto the tortilla or not because it will be melt together when it is heated. Place the tortilla back into the microwave and heat at 30-second intervals until all of the cheese has melted. ** Be very careful when removing the plate, as it might be hot! Always use oven mitts when removing dishes from the microwave. Cool for 2 minutes before cutting. Using a pizza cutter, slice the tortilla into 8 wedges. Makes 8 "candy corn" pieces. Enjoy!

Breakfast Pizza

1 Boboli pizza crust
olive oil
5 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
3 cooked sausage patties cut into small pieces or 1/2 lb. bulk breakfast sausage, fried and drained well
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella or provolone cheese
1 small can of sliced mushrooms, drained well
garlic powder
onion powder
black pepper (optional if sausage has lots of seasonings in it)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Beat the eggs and milk until mixed. Scramble and set aside until cool enough to handle. Place pizza crust on pizza pan and lightly brush all over the top with olive oil. First layerArrange the scrambled eggs on top of the crust. Second layerSprinkle the sausage pieces overtop of the eggs Third layerArrange the mushrooms on top of the sausage and eggs.

Fourth layerSeason with garlic powder, onion powder & black pepper. Fifth layerTop everything with the 2 cheeses. Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheeses have melted and the pizza crust is light brown Serve warm straight from the oven. Any leftovers can be reheated in the microwave.

Pepperoni Roll ups

You need:

2 tubes of refrigerated French Bread

1 package of sliced pepperoni or turkey pepperoni

6 mozzarella cheese sticks, each cut in 1/2, making 12 sticks

Preheat oven according to package directions for the bread. Lightly grease a large baking sheeet and set aside.Remove bread from tubes but do not unroll. Cut each loaf into six equal pieces. Roll or flatten each piece of dough into a small rectangle. Working from one of the long ends of each rectangle, lay 6 pieces of pepperoni on top of the dough. Slice one cheese stick in 1/2, then lay end to end on top of the pepperoni. Fold dough up and over the cheese and pepperoni, pressing the ends together tightly to seal.Lay the pepperoni rolls, seam side down, onto the baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Reindeer Cookies

What You Need

1 roll of pre-made sugar cookie dough
small pretzel rings
M & Ms
1 bell shaped cookie cutter
flour
baking sheet
What You DoPreheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Open cookie dough and mix in about 1/4 cup of flour to make the dough a stiffer consistency. Lightly flour the table, then roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness.
Using the bell cookie cutter, cut out 12 bell cookies - this will vary depending on how thick you roll out the cookies. Lay the cookies, all the same way with bell facing you, onto the cookie sheet. Now, turn the cookie sheet around so that the bells are upside down. This is your reindeer face! Place a red M&M in his nose and one pretzel on each side of his head for the ears. (See photo)
Bake for 10 minutes or until very lightly browned around edges. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
These make great Christmas party favors!

Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

½ c. sour milk ( ½ c milk with 1 & ½ tsp vinegar)
2 c. shortening
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. Vanilla
½ tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Baking soda
2 c. raisins
4 c. flour
5 c rolled oats
Cover raisins with boiling water and let sit to soften ; drain well.
Blend shortening and sugar ; add eggs, one at a time; add vanilla & salt, mix thoroughly. Add raisins to dry mix. Dissolve soda in milk. Add flour alternately with milk. Add rolled oats
Bake at 375 degrees 12-15 minutes or until light brown

Soft Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1/2c. shortening(part butter or margarine)
1c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 sour cream
Heat oven to 425 degrees
Mix shortening, sugar, egg, & vanilla thoroughly.
Blend dry ingredients.
Add to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream.
Divide dough, roll out on a well-floured board. Cut with cookie cutters (metal cookie cutters w/ open tops are the easiest). You can make these as thick as you want...the thicker, the chewier.
Place cookies on greased baking sheets. Sprinkle with sugar unless you are going to ice them. Bake 7-8 min or until very lightly browned.

Pumpkin Cake Balls

1 box white cake mix
2 container vanilla frosting
1 package of orange candy melts
1 package of green candy melts
black paste food coloring
mini pretzel sticks

Gather ingredients for the cake according to box directions
Bake cake according to package. Remove cake from oven and immediately dump into a large bowl. Use a fork to break up the cake into crumbs. Add one entire container of frosting to the bowl and stir until completely mixed. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Scoop the cake mixture into the palm of your hand - about the size of a large walnut-- roll into balls and place on cookie sheet. Place cake balls into refrigerator for 1 hour to chill.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt 1/3 of the orange chocolate. Remove the cake balls from the refrigerator. Using a fork or a skewer add a ball to the melted orange chocolate and turn to completely coat. Lay on wax paper to dry. Continue melting the orange chocolate and dipping them until all of the cake balls have been coated in chocolate. If you are having difficulty with the consistency of the chocolate being too thick, thus making it hard to dip the cake balls, you can "frost" each cake ball with the chocolate using a butter knife or small cake spatula. Break some mini pretzel sticks in half. Create stems for the pumpkin balls by sticking one of the 1/2-pretzel pieces down into the top of each pumpkin.

Melt the green chocolate. Using a plastic baggie or an icing bag, decorate around the stem of the pumpkin with the green chocolate. Again, using the green chocolate, draw small leaves on waxed paper. Pop into freezer to harden quickly. Gently peel the leaves from the paper. Apply to pumpkins using more chocolate as "glue". To make jack o' lantern faces simply tint 1/4 C. of vanilla frosting with black food coloring. Again, using a plastic baggie for an icing bag, draw faces on your pumpkins. ** Note: You may choose to use black decorator gel instead of the frosting but please be aware that the gel might not dry completely, making it difficult to pack the pumpkins into storage containers. It would be best to eat immediately if choosing to use the gel.

Halloween Peanut Butter balls

2 C. peanut butter
1/2 C. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
3 C. powdered sugar, sifted
milk or dark chocolate almond bark
orange candy melts

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. In a large bowl, mix together peanut butter, butter, vanilla and powered sugar until smooth. If mixture seems to be too sticky to roll into balls, add 2 TBSP of powered sugar at a time to the mix until it is a soft dough consistency. Shape dough into walnut-sized balls and line up on the cookie sheet. Melt chocolate almond bark in the microwave. Using a skewer or a fork to hold each ball, dip it into the chocolate, turning it to completely cover with the chocolate. Gently tap the fork on the side of the bowl to allow the excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl. Lay the balls on the waxed paper to dry. Melt the orange chocolate in the microwave. Spoon the chocolate into a plastic baggie. Snip the corner off one end of the bag, then drizzle the chocolate across the tops of the chocolate peanut butter balls. Store the peanut butter balls in a sealed container in the refrigerator.

Over night Waffles

1/2 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast
2 cups milk, warmed
1/2 cup butter (1 cube), melted
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. granulated sugar
2 cups flour
2 eggs
1/4 tsp. baking soda
Use a big mixing bowl (the batter will rise to double its original volume.) Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand to dissolve for 5 minutes. Warm the milk on the stove (I just add in the butter so it is melting as the milk warms) Be careful not to let the milk boil or get too hot. You don’t want it to kill the yeast when you add it into the yeast mixture.
Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar and flour to the yeast mixture and stir until smooth and blended (can use a hand beater to get rid of the lumps if needed, I usually don’t need to.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature. Just before cooking the waffles, beat in the eggs, add the baking soda, and stir until well mixed. The batter will be very thin. Pour about 1/2 to 3/4 cup batter into a very hot waffle iron. Bake the waffles until they are golden and crisp. This batter will keep well for several days in the refrigerator. Depending on the size of your waffle iron this makes about 6-8 waffles.

Monster Cookies

1/2 c butter
1 3/4 C peanut butter
1 1/3 C brown sugar
1 C sugar
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
1/2 C chocolate chips
4 1/2 C rolled oats
4 oz. M & M’s
Mix all together and then bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes Be careful not to over bake. As the cookies come out of oven, press M & M’s into cookies.

Easy Sugar cookies

2 3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 cup butter, SOFTENED
1 1/2 C white sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract

1. Preheat to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.3. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet tow minutes before removing to cool on wire racks. (I think it made around 2-3 dozen)

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Adapted from Baking BitesMakes 12 standard muffins (Taken from 17 and Baking)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup brown sugar

6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used natural, smooth pb)

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

3/4 cup chocolate chunks *

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line 12 standard muffin tins.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and brown sugar in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix the butter, peanut butter, eggs, and milk until smooth. Pour the peanut butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chunks.
Fill each muffin tin to the top to ensure a rounded dome top. Bake 20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly tapped. (I just slightly underbaked mine because that’s how I like them.) Cool on a wire rack.

* To make chocolate chunks instead of using chocolate chips, use a serrated knife to chop up a bar of chocolate.

Nutella Potstickers

Nutella Potstickers
adapted from original recipe at La Fuji Mama

2 ripe bananas (sliced in 1/4-inch slice) - optional or your choice of fruit
24-30 wonton wrappers
1 jar nutellaegg wash
(1 egg + 1 Tbsp water beaten)
canola or peanut oil
Topping:
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside.Take a a wonton wrapper, lay it on a flat surface. Take 1/2 tsp of nutella and place a dollop on one side of the wrapper. Leave some room on the edge.Then take a slice of banana, place it on top of the nutella.Use the egg wash to wet one side of the wonton edge and fold over into a rectangle.Do this same process for the rest of the potstickers.In a large pan, Coat the pan with at least 1/4 to 1/2-inch of canola or peanut oil. Heat it on medium to high heat. You want it to be really hot.Cook the potstickers for roughly 10-20 secs each side until lightly browned.Place on some paper towel to drain off any excess oil, then sprinkle some of the cinnamon-sugar on top. Serve hot/warm.

Crockpot Chicken Noodle Soup

1 12oz can chicken stock
2 c water1 large chicken breast
1 chayote - peeled and sliced
1 medium onion - sliced
3 carrots - chopped into chunks
1 tbsp fresh ginger
1 tbsp dry thyme
1 tbsp dry parsley
2-3 c uncooked elbow pasta
salt
pepper
note: to avoid the sticky reside while peeling the chayote, wear rubber gloves or use a plastic bag to cover your hand. Then wash off with cold water.Place all ingredients in the slow cooker and set it on low it will be ready in 5-6 hours.Just before serving, remove the chicken and cut to chunks or shred into pieces. Then replace back into the pot.

Bisuits and Gravy

Sausage Gravy
1 12 ounce tube sausage
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 C milk
freshly ground black pepper
favorite biscuits (you can find a really good recipe here)

In a large skillet brown sausage. Once browned, remove with a slotted spoon and keep drippings in the pan.Add flour and whisk for about 1 minute. While whisking add milk and bring gravy to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Add thes ausage back to the pan along with the pepper.Split biscuits in half and divide them among the plates. Top each biscuit with gravy and serve immediately. Serve with Cheesy Scrambled eggs if you want.