The blog post perfectly describes these Lemon Squares.  They are super fast, super easy, and super delicious to boot.   These would be great on a cookie/candy tray delivered to your neighbors doorstep on Christmas Eve.  They’d be great to take to a cookie exchange.  They’d also be good for leaving out for Santa.  Heck…these little suckers would be good anywhere, anytime!  Let me show you how easy peasy these are.

First, you need to spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper.

Now grab a big bowl and dump in 1 cup oatmeal, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 1/3 cups coconut, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt.

Give it a good stir to get the dry ingredients combined.

Now, pop 3/4 cup of butter into the microwave until melted.  Pour into the dry ingredients.

Stir together until mixed well and press half the mixture into the prepared pan.

Now, in a seperate bowl (sorry…I know, I hate washing dishes too!) empty one can of sweetened condensed milk.  Add to that 1/2 cup of lemon juice.  I just used the bottled stuff…I was too lazy to juice that many lemons. Plus I was out.

Stir well and pour over mixture in pan.

Crumble the reamining half of the dry mixture over the top.

Bake this in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Let cool and cut into bars.

It doesn’t get much simpler than that.  And like I said.  Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. 

If you love Caramel Corn half as much as me, you’re probably giddy right now. Caramel Corn that is quick?  Easy?  And you can make it in the MICROWAVE?  Yes.  Yes.  And Yes!  I could eat my weight in Caramel Corn.  (And that is part of the reason that my weight is what it is.  Which isn’t small.)   But who wants to labor over the hot stove for days cooking the caramel?  Not me.  When I discovered that I could make it in the microwave, I did a quadruple somersault.  And that’s quite a feat for a girl who has eaten her non-small weight in caramel corn.  You don’t believe that caramel corn can be quick, easy AND made in the microwave?  Let me prove it to ya.

First, pop 2 bags of microwave popcorn. (I was doing a double batch, so ignore the fact that there are more than 2 bags in this photo.)

Pour the popped popcorn into a new, clean brown paper grocery bag.

Now, grab a large microwave safe glass bowl or measuring cup.  Place one cup of brown sugar in the cup.

 Add 1 stick of butter, cut up, into the cup.

Then pour in 1/4 cup corn syrup, either light or dark.  I used dark this day.

**Here’s a tip for measuring corn syrup or anything sticky like that – spray the measuring cup with non-stick spray before pouring in your syrup.  This helps the syrup to slide right out of the cup without a sticky mess!

Add 1/2 tsp salt.

Now, pop this into the microwave for 3 minutes.  Carefully remove it from the microwave (the cup could be pretty hot!) and give it a good stir.

Stick it back in the  microwave for another 1-1/2 minutes.    Remove from the microwave and stir in 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Give it a good stir.  It will bubble up and get all foamy looking.  This is good.

Now, pour this mixture over the popcorn in the paper bag.

Roll the top of the bag down to close the bag, and give it a shake, shake, shake. 

Shake, shake, shake.  Shake your booty.  Oh.  Sorry.  Back to the caramel corn.  Stick the bag into the microwave for one minute and ten seconds.  Remove, and shake, shake, sh…  Sorry.  Shake the bag good and put it back into the microwave for another one minute and ten seconds.  Remove from the microwave shake one more time.  Now, dump the caramel corn onto some waxed paper.

Let it cool, break it up and eat it up!  You could also package it up in clear bags with a pretty ribbon on top as give it as gifts to your neighbors, mailman, hairdresser, etc.  That is, of course, if you can keep from eating it all yourself!

With the holidays too fast aproaching, I am going to post recipes over the next few weeks that would be great for toting along to the family gatherings.  Some will be appetizer/finger food type dealies, some will be side dishes, and some will be desserts.  I may throw in a few meat dishes as well, who knows. 

Today I’m going to share an easy peasy dip recipe.  This is one of those recipes that isn’t really a recipe at all…you just use what you have and what you like.    So, feel free to branch out from what I’ve done to suit your tastes.

The first thing you need to do is spread some refried beans in the bottom of a dish.  You need something with sides, as we’re gonna build this dip up in layers (hence the name “Layered” Taco Dip!).  I used a pie plate this time.

Now, dump some sour cream into a bowl and mix in some taco seasoning.  For 16 oz of sour cream you’ll need a whole packet of taco seasoning, if you use the packaged kind.  I make my own, so I just add it in till it looks good.  You really can’t go wrong here.  Adjust the amounts according to how much dip you’re making. 

Now, spread this mixture over the refried bean layer.

Then, chop up some tomatoes and add those over the sour cream layer.

Add a layer of shredded cheese – I like Colby-Jack cheese.

Now, open up a can of black beans and rinse them very well.  Scatter those over the cheese.

Now, chop up some fresh cilantro.  If you don’t like cilantro, just use some fresh parsley.  Sprinkle that over the beans.

Add any other ingredients you like in a Mexican dish.  Like onions?  Mince up an onion, or slice up a few green onions and throw those on.  Like a lot of heat?  Mince up a jalepeno and toss it on.  Like red or green bell peppers?  Dice those and add them.  Avocado?  Sure!  Salsa?  Why not!  (I planned on adding come diced avocado, but when I cut open my avocado, it was bad.  Oh well…it’s not the end of the world.)

Serve with tortilla chips and you’re good to go!

Aside from being a super simple dish to throw together, it makes a great party recipe because you can put it all together ahead of time (the day before even) and just let it hang out in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.  And any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a day or two as well.  Although, I doubt there’d be many leftovers…this stuff is killer.

Chicken?  Check.

Ham?  Check.

Swiss Cheese?  Check.

Creamy Sauce?  Check.

Oh yeah, babe.  This dish is all that and a box of crackers.  I could eat Chicken Cordon Bleu every day I think.  Love it!  But I was always afraid to try cooking it.  Why?  The first time I tried it…several years ago…the chicken inside was raw when everything else was perfectly cooked.  Since then I’ve cowered at the thought of making Chicken Cordon Bleu at home.  That is, until a friend made it for a luncheon she was catering.  She was kind enough to tell me how she makes it.   I decided to try it One.  More.  Time.  Let’s see how it turned out…

First you need to lay your boneless, skinless chicken breasts out on some plastic wrap.  Cover with another piece of plastic wrap and pound with a meat mallet until very thin.

Lay a couple slices of ham on top of each chicken breast.

Then top it with some swiss cheese.  You can just slap a slice of cheese on there, but the cheese I had was very ’stiff’, so I kinda chopped it up.  You could shred it too.

Now, just roll up the chicken and place it in a baking dish.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and paprika.

Now, heat a saute pan over medium heat.  Melt about two tablespoons of butter in pan and half an onion, chopped.  Saute until the onions are translucent.

Add in a couple tablespoons of flour and stir together.

Cook for a minute or so and add in some milk.  I just eyeball it, but I’d say I added about 3/4 to one cup here.

Cook just until it starts to thicken.  Pour over chicken in baking dish and spirnkle on some chopped parsley (fresh or dried…either is fine).

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Want to know what it looks like inside when you cut into it? 

I love the way it looks with the layers of meat and cheese! 
Give this one a try soon…it’s simple…but looks like you made a fuss!

And I’m SO, SO sorry!  This cookbook has taken up a lot of my time lately!  Plus I’m working some extra hours at work too.  BUT, I will be posting regularly again starting today!  Well, after work today anyway.  I’ll have a new recipe up this afternoon, so please check back!  I hope I’ve not run all my reader off since I’ve not posted anything in almost a week!!!

Have a sweet day!

Broccoli is one of those veggies that you either love or hate.  I actually used to hate it.  But, just after having my little sugar lump of a daughter, I was at a catered dinner where we were served a very miniscule sized main dish.  And it really didn’t even taste that good.  But that’s not what we’re talking about here…so back to broccoli.  So in addition to the teeny tiny main dish we were served some rice and broccoli.  Well, like I said, I had a newborn baby girl, and, well, without getting to personal here, let’s just say I was still eating for two…if you catch my drift.    Think mama cow and baby cow.  Okay, let’s continue with the story.  I knew I needed to eat a substantial dinner because my baby needed nutrients…and I was hungry!  So, after eating the three bites of the main dish (sorry, I said I wouldn’t talk about that any more!) I ate the rice.  I was still hungry.  Bbut I didn’t like broccoli.  What’s a broccoli-hating girl to do?  Well, when that girl is also one that has a sweet little bundle of joy to sustain, she must suck it up and eat the broccoli.  So, I hesitantly stabbed a piece of steamed broccoli and slowly raised the fork to my mouth.  I chewed once.  I chewed twice.  Wait.  This isn’t so bad!  No, this is actually GOOD!  From that day on, I’ve loved broccoli.  And I’m blessed with two kids who like broccoli (maybe it has something to do with mama cow eating broccoli when she was feeding baby cow??).  We eat steamed broccoli all the time.  And I mean All. The. Time.  So much, that we are getting tired of eating plain ol’ steamed broccoli.  So when I came across a recipe(don’t remember where I first saw it)  for Roasted Broccoli I thought I’d give it a whirl.  It was pretty darned good.  I tweaked it just a bit and it was even darneder gooder.  

Here’s how it goes down.

You need one or two heads of broccoli…depending on how many you need to feed.  My inlaws were visiting when I took these pics, so I used two heads which was plenty to serve 6 people.  If it was just the four of us, I’d probably just do one.  Give the broccoli a quick wash and cut it into small florets and place them on a baking sheet.

Drizzle it with some olive oil.

Use your hand to toss the broccoli around and get it all coated with the olive oil.  Season it with some salt and pepper.

Now pop it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Give it a stir and stick it back in for another 10 minutes or so.  The edges should be starting to turn brown, but still be mostly green.   Give it the fork test, too and make sure it’s tender enough for your liking.  If not, give it a few more minutes.

Now, zest a lemon and sprinkle that over the broccoli.  Squeeze a little of that lemon’s juice on it too.

Grate some parmesan cheese on the top and you’re ready to go. 

So far, this is my favorite way to eat broccoli.  But, maybe there’s something better?  Do you have a way with broccoli?  Share it with me…and you just might see it featured here on my blog…and who knows…I might include a gift for ya.  Leave me a comment with your broccoli recipe!

I have some pretty exciting news!  I am in the process of working on a cookbook!  Eeeee!  Doing the happy dance, doing the happy dance!  It won’t be anything super duper fancy, but it will be filled with a ton of my favorite recipes.  I hope to have it ready for purchase by the first of December – just in time for Christmas gift giving!  The price will be $15, and there will be well over 150 recipes in the book.  If you are interested in buying one, please leave me a comment here so I can get an idea of how many I need to get printed.  I will be adding a Paypal button to the blog soon so you can purchase it that way, or you can send me a check or money order as well.  All that info will be coming in the next week.  I can’t tell you how freakin’ excited I am about this!  Every time I think about it I just start smiling. 

Today’s recipe is one that will be in the book, and is one that I created in my own little crazy mind.  It was breakfast time and I was in the mood for oatmeal.  But I just didn’t want plain ordinary oatmeal.  No, I wanted something yummy and comforting.  So, I started plundering around the kitchen looking for something to give my oatmeal some oomph.  I opened the fridgyator door and I think I actually saw that little lightbulb come on over my head.  I had some leftover canned pumpkin sittin’ in there.  I’d made a cake with it a few days before and had just about a cup left over.  Okay, I said.  I think I’m going to invent a Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  And I did.  And it was delish.  And I ate it again the next morning.  And the morning after that.  And then I ran out of pumpkin.  Then I cried.  It’s now on my grocery list every week because I don’t ever want to run out of pumpkin again.  

Eating this Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal is like eating dessert for breakfast.  I mean, come on!  Who wouldn’t want to be able to eat dessert for breakfast…and not feel guilty! 

So, let’s do this thing.  Grab some instant oatmeal (cuz I’m lazy AND impatient), brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, milk and of course, some pumpkin.  I also throw in a little flax seed for extra “cleaning properties”, but that’s totally optional.  You’ll also want to grab the jar of pecans for the topping.

Pull a microwave safe bowl thing from the cabinet and toss in 1/2 cup of oatmeal.  I’m making a single serving here.  Add a tbsp of flax seed if you want.  I wanted.

Now, add some brown sugar for sweetness.  I like mine pretty sweet because, well…I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas, so I put in probably 3 or 4 tbsp of brown sugar. Add less if that sounds like way too much to you.   (Just for the record…there’s probably only two tbsp shown in this pic…I added more later when I tasted it!)

Now, toss in about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, a dash of allspice and a dash of nutmeg.

Add a pinch of salt. Some people think it’s wierd to add salt to sweet dishes…but it really does help bring out the flavors.

Now, the first time I made this, I did this next step in a separate bowl.  The next time I did it, I just added it to the oatmeal bowl, and it was just fine.  So, don’t dirty up another dish for this next step…learn from my mistakes, and just throw it in the same bowl with the oatmeal stuff.

Add about 1/3 cup canned pumpkin and 1/2 cup milk.  Throw in a tsp or so of butter for good measure.  Stir it all up.

Now, pour this mixture into the oatmeal mixture.

Stir it all up, and if it looks too thick, add a little more milk. 

**Here’s a tip for ya…I like to add a little less liquid than you’re supposed to when I cook my oatmeal.  That way, when it comes out of the nuker super steamin’ hot, I can add a little milk to it to thin it down and cool it off at the same time. 

Pop the oatmeal stuff in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes, until cooked well.

Now, while that’s cooking, let’s make a crumb topping for that oatmeal.  Why?  Well, cuz I like a little crunch in my oatmeal.  Wierd?  Maybe.  Delicious?  For sure.

Put some brown sugar in a bowl.  Add some chopped pecans.  Add in enough melted butter to make it a crumbly mess.

Pour your oatmeal in a bowl and top with this crumble stuff.

And dig in!

Don’t forget to leave me a comment if you’re interested in buying a book (Or two!  Or three!). 

Happy Eating!

I apologize for not having printable recipes up for you on the last few recipes.  I finally got them done, and will post them all here in this post, as well as adding the links in the orginal post.    Enjoy!

Tex Mex Seasoning and Taco Pasta posted here

Smothered Pork Chops  posted here

Cheddar Garlic Biscuits posted here

Cookie Dough Brownies posted here

Scroll on down for today’s recipe…Homemade Ranch Dressing!

So, PW shared a recipe for Homemade Ranch Dressing once.  I never printed it off or tried it because I thought “How in the world can you make delicious ranch dressing at home?  It’s probably nowhere near the same taste as the bottled stuff.”  Well, someone should slap me for that comment.  Why on earth would I think that something in a bottle would taste better than homemade?  I must’ve had a brain fart. 

Fastforward to a few weeks ago.  I wanted salad and was out of the bottled stuff  I wanted to redeem myself, so I went back to PW’s Blog, printed the recipe and tried it myself.  Come along as I try my hand at this homemade Ranch Dressing.  We’ll just see if it really is as good (or better??) than the bottled stuff.  We’ll just see.

Let’s do this thing.

Grab a bowl and dump in a cup of mayo.  Use the REAL stuff people, not the fake junk.  Sacrifice something else in your diet this week if you need to, but we need the real stuff here.

Grab some sour cream and add 1/2 cup to the bowl.

Stir that together real good.  Now, let’s go over to the cutting board.

Grab a clove of garlic.  Chop it up pretty good.

Sprinkle the garlic with some salt, oh, just shy of 1/4 tsp.  Then, mash it all up with a fork until it becomes like a paste.

Now you need to chop up about a 1/4 cup of fresh parsley and a couple tbsp of fresh chives.  I was amazed that I still had some growing in my herb pots this time of year, but if you don’t have any growing in your garden, you can almost always find these in the grocery store produce isle. 

Toss the chopped herbs into the bowl with the mayo/sour cream.

Now, you need to add some milk/buttermilk to get it to the right consistency.  Buttermilk will give it a nice tangy taste, but if you’re like me, you never have buttermilk on hand.  So, I fake it.  I take a little regular milk, add a splash of lemon juice to it,  and let it sit on the counter for a minute or so.  The lemon juice will thicken the milk a bit and give it a nice tangy flavor.  You can use this trick for pretty much any recipe that calls for buttermilk.  But I probably wouldn’t try drinkin’ it.  That’d just be gross I think.  Anyway, back to the dressing.  Pour your buttermilk, or fake buttermilk…maybe we’ll call it futtermilk…into the mayo mixture a little at a time.

Add just enough futtermilk to get it to the consistency you like.  Stir it all together and give it a taste.   I would suggest actually tasting it on a piece of lettuce and not just using a spoon or your finger. 

I know what you’re thinking.  That was too simple, right?  Mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, garlic and herbs.  That’s IT?  Yup.  That’s it.  Of course, you can add other stuff if you want, like vinegar, dill, worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, paprika,  tobasco, other fresh herbs or anything else that tickles your fancy.  But me?  I like it plain and simple. 

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  It will thicken some as it chills, so you might need to add a little more futtermilk to thin it down later.  It’s all good.

 This stuff is awesome people.  I think the heavens opened up and I heard the angels sing when I tasted this stuff.  I’ll never buy that bottled stuff again.  Never in a million years.  This stuff is That. Good.

Printable Recipe:  Homemade Ranch Dressing

Over at Rach’s Cakes, this month’s challenge was “Halloween”.  I made a cake for one of my husband’s coworkers this week, so that’s my submission.  It is a carrot cake with cream cheese decorator’s icing.  Piped pumpkins adorn the top.

And I thought I’d also share another pumpkin cake I’ve made in the past.  This one was actually for a baby shower, but it would be great for a Halloween or Thanksgiving cake too, minus the baby on top!

Rach decided to take a ‘hiatus’ on the challenges until January, but I can’t wait till the next one!