Grandma Krause's Peanut Brittle

My Grandma used to make this every Christmas and was always one of my favorite treats. When I was twenty something I asked her to teach me how to make it. I will never forget that day cooking with my little grandma (literally, she is really a tiny person) as she told me the written directions but adding how she knew when the candy was ready by the smell and the color. I won't forget laughing with her and I will always think of her in her kitchen blessing me with her cooking knowledge and much advice she would always give me as we cooked together in her kitchen.

Recently I taught a lesson on heritage and made up batch of brittle to hand out. I figured I would add the recipe to the blog even though it isn't Christmas time, still it's coming soon and peanut brittle I found is good anytime of year!

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbs. butter

2 1/2 cups raw peanuts

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Mix sugar, corn syrup, water, salt and butter in a large sauce pan. Cover and bring to boiling point. Remove cover and cook to soft ball stage on candy thermometer. Add peanuts. Cook to crack stage stirring frequently (my grandma says the candy will turn the color of a brown paper bag and smell will change). Remove quickly stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour onto prepared buttered baking sheets and spread as thin as possible. Cool completely and enjoy!! Yum Yummy!

Chicken Mango Salad

This recipe came from my friend Marissa Wall when we live on Guam. It is easily one of my favorites!! I have made this recipe for a family food contest and won, it is a perfect summer dish you just can go wrong with! LOVE it, so so yummy!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cucumber peeled and diced

1/2 green pepper peeled and diced

1/2 red pepper peeled and diced

1 can white corn drained

4 chicken breasts cooked and diced (I cook mine in italian dressing marinade)

2 tomatoes diced

1 avacado diced

1 can of black beans drained

1-2 mangos peeled and diced

Directions:

Pour oil and vinegar over chopped ingredients and toss. Serve over Fritos and top with dressing.

Mac and Cheese for Grown Ups!

My kids love Mac and Cheese and honestly I do too. We have this for lunch at least once a week. However, I don't think it's all that exciting sometimes and so to make it more "grown up" so to speak I like to add crumbled bacon and diced tomatoes. Just dresses it up a bit don't you think? Yum!

Carrot Cake

It was Dennis' birthday this week and since I didn't have time to make his #1 favorite (cheesecake) I had to go with #2; Carrot Cake. I think he likes the frosting more than the cake but I love them both. I don't like raisins in cake so my carrot cake is always raisins free. I use my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook as always. . .I did try to make it a bit more fancy adding the nuts around the edges and my filling is always just more FROSTING!

Ingredients:
4 beaten eggs
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 cups shredded carrots
3/4 cups cooking oil
chopped pecans and almonds

Directions:
Grease and flour 2 round pans (or one regular cake pan if you aren't doing layers). Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and baking soda. Set aside. In another bowl combine eggs, carrots and oil. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until combined. Pour into pans.
Bake @ 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

If you are doing layers, the cooling completely is neccessary. I frost a little on my cake plate to hold the cake in place and then add the frosting filling and then stack with 2nd layer and coat completely with frosting.
To get the nuts on, I don't know if there is an easier way, put I just palmed the nuts and pressed around the edges.
I ate about 1/4 of the cake my-self! Yum and more yum!

Cheese Burger Flat Breads

These were soo yummy!! I found the recipe on the site Kevin and Amanda. I rarely eat red meat so instead of ground beef I used 1 package of Morning Star Farms Veggie Meat and I didn't really measure but added 1 package onion soup mix, ketchup, mustard, minced garlic, apple cider vinegar (approx 1/4 cup) and water (approx. 1/4 cup) to the meat and simmered. While that cooked I rolled out Pillsbury pizza dough and cut into six pieces and toasted each side on my pancake pan until golden brown.

Simply top your flat bread with meat and grated cheddar cheese and YUMMY YUM YUM!! This is a definite repeat recipe. Fast, easy and good!



I served it with a Strawberry, Spinach and Almond Salad.



For this I just had spinach leaves, sliced strawberries, and sprinkled with slivered almonds and tossed with sweet dressing. Most use a poppy seed dressing but I didn't have any so I found another dressing recipe online:

Dressing:

From Kayln's Kitchen, I adapted just a little.
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. finely minced fresh garlic
1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper
1-2 tsp. squirt of mustard

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Roasted Veggie Pasta

I got this recipe from my Cooking Light cookbook. I added my recent attempts at roasted veggies. This was sliced zucchini, cherry tomatoes, red onions, yellow squash, and mushrooms but you could do whatever sounded good or was in season.
In a jelly roll pan lay out veggies drizzle olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic or garlic powder and 1/4 cup cooking wine.
Roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
I also added steamed peas after the other veggies were roasted.
Then top over cooked penne pasta (I used a whole wheat pasta).

Dennis said he liked it but would have liked the veggies mixed into a regular red sauce, but I liked it this way just fine. It was light and felt healthy so I enjoyed it. Yum.

Chocolate Banana Muffins

These were another try from another blog I visit and really like. I added 1 Tbs. wheat germ and 1 Tbs. flax which made them very hearty and filling. Yummy, yummy!!

Chocolate Banana Muffins:
Recipe by For the Love of Cooking.net

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 egg
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and coat a muffin pan with cooking spray. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl.
Combine the oil, sugars, egg, and mashed banana and mix until creamy. Slowly add the flour mixture into the egg mixture and stir until just combined.
Spoon the muffin batter into the prepared muffin pan.
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a tester inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.