Saltine Toffee Cookies

Here is the recipe for the Saltine Toffee Cookies I made for the family dinner after Tommy spoke today. They were easy and we'll be making these again! (Thanks allrecipes.com, I modified the instructions here a little with my notes.)

Ingredients:

4 oz. saltine crackers (about one sleeve)
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups chocolate chips
Optional: chopped nuts, sprinkles, candy pieces, etc.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Then place crackers in a single layer very close together, sides touching, on the cookie sheet.
3. In a saucepan start melting the butter and add in the sugar. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread as needed to cover crackers completely.
4. Baket at 400 degrees for 5-6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate and top with optional topping. Cool completely and break into pieces.

Creamy Fruit Salad

I made this recipe for a family dinner today, and I had requests for the recipe. I can't take all the credit—I got the recipe from AllRecipes.com. Here's the way the recipe appears on that site:

1 (20 ounce) can unsweetened pineapple chunks, drained
1 (15 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained
4 medium tart apples, peeled and diced
1 1/2 cups cold fat-free milk
1/3 cup orange juice concentrate
1 (1 ounce) package sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
3/4 cup fat-free sour cream

In a large bowl, combine the fruit; set aside. In another bowl, whisk milk, orange juice concentrate and pudding mix for 2 minutes or until smooth. Add sour cream; mix well. Fold into fruit. Cover and refrigerate until serving.
--

I made a few changes—I used 1% milk, normal sour cream, and a normal 3 ounce package of vanilla pudding mix. I also used less milk than it calls for—I added just enough to make the sauce a good sauce consistency without being too soupy. You can just kind-of tell. (Yes, you can thank Grandma Turner for that one.)

Resurrection Rolls

We did this for breakfast Easter Sunday, they were so yummy and a great little lesson as well. I just copied the original post here but got the idea from Jill, thanks Jill! I think they are going to become a new tradition for our family. 

Here is what you need...

Frozen dough for dinner rolls - found in the freezer section of your grocer

Marshmallows - regular size

Melted Butter

Sugar and Cinnamon Mixture - I recommend about a 4:1 ratio.  (4 being the sugar...mmmmm)

1.  Thaw rolls - Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Arrange dough balls, leaving about 2 inches between each ball.   I usually plan on 3-4 rolls per person (we snack on them later in the day) so I place about 16 per cookie sheet. Spray some plastic wrap with non-stick spray (so the wrap doesn't stick to your dough) and cover them as they thaw.  This will keep the dough from drying out and getting a hard crust.  My house was fairly warm the day I made these and it took about 1 and 1/2 hours for them to thaw.

2.  Add Marshmallow - Before the dough rises, flatten it to a 3" diameter circle.  Place your marshmallow in the middle and pinch the dough closed around the marshmallow to completely cover it up.  Roll the dough ball in the palm of your hand to smooth out the closure and seal it.

Amendment:  A few have commented with difficulties getting their dough to stick close around the marshmallow.  Before putting the butter on, put marshmallows in ALL the dough balls.  If your fingers get greasy from using the butter it will easily transfer to your dough and prevent it from sticking closed around itself.

3.  Roll dough covered marshmallow in butter. (Or brush it on.)  

4.  Sprinkle on cinnamon & sugar mixture.  Or you can do like my family does and roll it on. We like them super flavorful, sweet and yummy.  (By the way...I typically use raw unbleached sugar which is why mine has a darker color and a more coarse texture.  You can use whatever style sugar you keep on hand.)

5.  Place them on a greased cookie sheet, cover them again with your non-stick coated plastic wrap and let them rise until they double in size.  This takes approximately 30-60 minutes depending on how warm the environment is.  And not to worry...if they don't rise they'll still taste yummy.  I'm not sure why yet...but it isn't often that I actually get my rolls to rise as they should.  This particular time would be one of those times.  They barely rose but left one of the better 'tombs' I've had in my rolls. 

6.  Don't forget to pre-heat your oven during the last 10 minutes of your rising step.  When they are ready to bake, place them in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

7.  When they are done baking, remove them from the pan and cool on a wire rack. 

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup

This is what we had for dinner last night and it was fabulous, if I do say so myself. Try it for yourself!

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup

Easy Taco Soup

A little while ago, I was talking to my family about taco soup recipes, and they were interested in my recipe. It's all just opening up cans and browning hamburger, so it's really fast and easy. So, for any of you who might be interested, here's the recipe:

1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 can mexican-style tomatoes
1 lb. ground beef, browned (I sometimes use just a 1/2 pound)
1 packet dry taco seasoning
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix

Brown the hamburger and mix all ingredients together until warmed through.

Apple Cake

A couple of weeks ago when my in-laws were visiting they brought a bag of apples and I have loved finding recipes to use them. Two Sundays in a row I have made apple cake last week's had cream cheese frosting and this one was a bundt cake. Mauri asked that I share the recipe so here it is. It was a combination of two recipes the cake portion of this one and the glaze portion of this one.

Here is my version all put together with my modifications:

Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/3 cups sugar, plus 1/4 cup for the apples

1 1/2 tsp. ground apple spice blend (1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg)

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. fine salt

4 large apples, cored and roughly chopped (about 5 cups)

3 large eggs

1/2 cups vegetable oil

1/2 cup sour cream

Juice from 1 orange (about 1/3 cup)

1 tbls. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter and flour the bundt pan.

Whisk the flour, 1 1/3 cup of the sugar, 1 tsp. of pie spice, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.

Toss the apples with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp. pie spice and set aside.

Whisk the eggs and oil together in another bowl. Whisk in the sour cream, orange juice, and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon just until combined but still a bit lumpy.

Using a slotted spoon, scatter about 1/2 cup on the apples in the bottom of the bundt pan. Put about 1/3 of the batter on top. Repeat, alternating with the remaining apples and batter, ending with the batter.

Bake the cake until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool 10 minutes and invert onto a rack placed over a baking sheet. Cool.

Glaze:

1 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbls. whole milk

Combine butter, brown sugar and milk in small saucepan. Bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour over cake while sauce is hot.

(I need to get better at putting on a hot glaze, I guess something to practice.)

Robby is in Mexico!!

Hola!

Oh my gosh, where do I begin... Ha so we arrived a week ago today in Mexico. It was so great to talk to you guys on Monday, I loved it so much, I´m excited for the next time! It is so different here. We arrived in Mexico and we were greeted by our President Sauceda, he is a really nice guy. We then drove to his house with the assistant presidents and went to his house in Guadalajara. We had dinner there and met his wife, who is way nice too. Dinner was great ha we had lasagna! But it still hadn´t really hit me yet that EVERYONE speaks Spanish ha. We stayed at the mission home over night, had a big meeting in the morning about our mission and then they told us where we were going and we left! It was so fast! 3 other Elders and myself left Guadalajara so I´m not in the city. 2 went to the same mission and one went to Colima which is way hot. I was told I was going to Ciudad Guzman. I took about an 2 hour bus ride by myself to the city. Movies were playing and it was so hard not to watch ha ha. Don´t worry I repented later for the parts I did watch(on accident). I then arrived in Ciudad Guzman´s bus station and I waited there for about 40 minutes for my companion to get there. I was talking to a guy and gave him some pass along cards when he came up to me. I live with 3 natives, including my companion. It is crazy ha, I have to speak Spanish all the time. Right when they picked me up I dropped my stuff off and went to work visiting investigators, members, and contacting. Every day here we have lunch with a member and it´s a huge lunch ha. I´m grateful for them for giving us their food. It´s so different here. A lot more poverty. I´m not in a nice part of Mexico. The insides of the houses are built out of cement and pretty dirty. But they are all so nice. We have a baptism date in a couple of weeks so that should be great! I´m not gonna lie, it all ready is the hardest thing I have all ready done and I´ve only been here a week. I don´t understand a lot that they say but I´m understanding more. Ï´m getting better. I have a lot of pictures that I want to send you! It stinks we only get like real mail here every 1.5 to 2 months. I don´t really like that but whatever. They just keep it at the mission home until zone conference or something. So email as much as you want. The food is pretty good! Different! Ha Saturday my companion and I went to have lunch and the member brought out this soup with huge pieces of corn, pork, and lettuce. It was so much I couldn´t finish. I felt bad ha. But we are cleaning of our plates and she asks if we want arroz con leche ha. I was like oh, i can´t! And she´s like just a little, so we did. I took one bite and almost lost it ha ha. And she gave us this drink that tasted like weeds blended with water ha ha. But for the most part it´s pretty good so far! The best thing i´ve had was a hamburguesa today ha ha, the closest thing to AMerican. Lots of corn tortillas! Every lunch! My companion is cool, his name is Elder Heronimo. He is great he helps me so much. There is one other American in our district named Elder Newman and he´s black so I´m the only white person in all of this city and around it ha ha. It was good to talk to an American though ha ha we talked a lot last night and it was good. Today I was having a pretty bad day, I just kept thinking that this stupid language is what´s frustrating me so much. If it was English I would be fine! I was pretty down. Then we had lunch, my hamburguesa, and I felt better for some reason ha ha. And I felt even more better when you wrote me that email mom, thank you so much for that, that all ready helped me so much. And same with your story too dad, thank you. I miss everything in America way bad. But I´m here to work and I´m excited! Chrissy don´t worry about not making it, I lost to like one of the biggest geaks in the school!! Ha and what matters for both of you is just that you have a fun time and make as many friends as you can. Well, I gotta head but it was good to talk to you guys and I miss you so much, hasta luego semana...

Elder McKell