Susan's Hot Cheese Dip

1 lb Velveeta Cheese
2 cans Cheddar Cheese Soup
1 8oz jar Taco Sauce
1 4oz can Green Chilis 

Heat all ingredients slowly in small sauce pan, crock or fondue pot.

Serve with Taco Chips

This recipe can be halved.

Jeanne's Sloppy Joes

Popular for Family Gatherings or Pot Lucks.
Recipe States: Serves 20 Hungry Men!

Brown & Drain
4 lbs Ground Beef
1 C Chopped Onion

Mix in Crock Pot:
4 oz Ketchup
1 C Water
1/2 C Chopped Celery
1/4 C Lemon Juice
2 T Brown Sugar
1 T Worchestershire Sauce
2 T Vinegar
1/2 tsp Dry Mustard
1 tsp Salt

Add Beef Mix to Crock Pot
Simmer

Serve on Hamburger or Slider Buns

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is the recipe my mom and I've always made.

1 c white sugar
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c shortening
1/2 c peanut butter
3 eggs beaten
3 c flour
1 1/2 tsp soda
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cream sugars, shortening and butter.
Add peanut butter and mix thoroughly.
Add beaten eggs.
Add flour, soda, powder and salt. Mix well.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on sprayed cookie sheets.
Flatten in a crisscross pattern with a fork.
Bake at 375ºF for 10-12 minutes.
Makes 5-6 doz

Orange Quick Bread

My Mom cut this out of some publication - Author not listed.
Last time I visited my parents, my mom sent me home with a few slices of this bread/cake.
It really is like a cake - coffee cake. It's delish! I made this last night to mail to my son for his birthday on Tuesday. Hope he likes it as much as I did!

Glaze and Ganache Optional

Orange Quick Bread
2 c flour
3/4 tsp sea salt
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 extra large eggs
1 1/2 T grated orange zest

Ganache (optional)
1/3 c heavy cream
1/2 c bittersweet chocolate chips

Heat cream until small bubbles appear around edge. Remove from heat and add chocolate chips - shake pan to level chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth and set aside.

Glaze (optional)
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
2 tsp orange zest - finely grated
2-3 T fresh orange juice, strained.

Mix ingredients in a small bowl. While bread is still warm poke several holes in it with a skewer and slowly pour on glaze.

Preheat oven to 350ºF and grease two 8-inch loaf pans.

Whisk together flour, salt baking powder and sugar in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, whisk together milk, juice, oil, eggs and zest.
Add to dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Divide batter equally into pans. Bake 35 min. until bread is shrinking away from pan.**
Cool bread completely before removing from pan.
Keeps wrapped in the refrigerator one week and freezes well for 2 months. (I kept mine on the counter).

**For ganache:
Bake 15 minutes, then open the oven, pull out rack without jogging too much, and quickly dribble about 1/4 cup ganache over batter in each pan. (If ganache has become too firm to dribble, set in a bowl of warm water for a few seconds to melt. Stir to smooth again.)
Gently slide rack back in and bake 20 minutes, until quickbread is shrinking away from pan.

Optional: serve with chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

Gramma's Split Pea Soup

2lb Smoked Ham Shank or Pork Hock - Look for dark for more flavour.
2 Bags Split Peas - rinsed and sorted
2 Bay Leaves
2 Tbsp dry Minced Onion - or a large onion, finely chopped.
1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Put all in soup pot - then fill 2/3 to 3/4 full with water.
High until start to boil, then down to medium heat.
Let cook 1.5 hrs
Remove scum.

Cook until meat falls off the bone - break it down, removing bones and add meat back to soup.

Add:
4 Carrots - large, cut up
2 C Potatoes - cubed

Cook until all cooked down - 2-3 hours total.

Enjoy!

Mom's Meatless Stuffing

Family fave!
Not soggy.
Cooked separately from the bird, not inside - way more delish!
Even cold as leftovers to snack on from the fridge!

Serves 6-8 People

8 c Bread cubes

1/4 c Water (if new bread)

1 1/2 c Thin Sliced Celery

1 c Chopped Onion

1/2 c Unsalted Butter (1 stick)

2 Eggs

3 T Parsley Flakes

1 1/2 t Poultry Seasoning

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Cube bread. Scramble eggs together in a bowl.

Saute/Brown onion and celery in butter. 

Mix with all other ingredients.
Add Eggs to the rest, stirring to be careful so eggs don't immediately cook.

Put in foil lined/cooking-sprayed casserole bowl. Cover and Bake 1 hour 325-350º

Double: 1 1/2 Sticks Butter and 3-4 Eggs (Double everything else)

Triple: 2 Sticks Butter and 4-5 Eggs (Triple everything else)

Enjoy!

Turkey Vegetable Soup

Had cooked up a half turkey breast, and with the left over carcass decided to boil it down for some light, but healthy soup. You could use chicken too.

In a big stock pot with strainer inside:
1 turkey carcass - from whatever size turkey or breast you've cooked.
Water to cover the carcass, without overflowing the pot.
Cracked black pepper.

Let it cook on low for about 4-5hrs. (You can probably turn the heat higher and cook it faster, but I wanted to go out and run errands, and not have the broth boil away.)

Pull the strainer/carcass from the pot, removed any good meat and tossed it back into the pot along with:
1 large onion, quartered and cut in half - so kinda chunky/bite-sized
1 small head of bok choy chopped up
1 bunch of baby kale, stems removed (basically rip the small leaves off and toss them in)
2 large jalapenos (stems, seeds and ribs removed) chopped small
3 cloves garlic chopped small
3-4 small carrots - peeled and chopped bite-sized
3-4 ribs of celery sliced bite-sized 1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 packet of Herb-Ox sodium-free chicken bouillon

You can add anything else such as: mushrooms, cabbage, tomatoes, other beans or whatever veggies you like or have on hand. You can also add noodles. Or even put some rice noodles in a bowl then pour the hot soup over. Add some fish sauce, ginger, bean sprouts, lime, chopped peanuts, lemon grass and make it sort of an impromtu PHO-type or Asian-style soup.

Let that cook on low/med til the carrots are tender, but not mushy - was maybe an hour. The broth will be pretty bland, as I don't add salt, so salt at will/to taste. Instead, I put some in my bowl and added a few shakes of my favourite health spice mix of turmeric, cayenne and ginger.

A nice, spicy, light, late-night meal on a rainy summer night. Plus the house smells amazing! Mmmmmuy Bueno!