Artichoke Dip (Cold)

My mom put me in charge of "a cracker dip" for our Fourth of July celebration. Thought I'd try this since I already had ALL of the ingredients on hand. (LOVE that...because I don't know about you, but if I run to the store to JUST get what I need for a recipe, I end up with 23 other items in my cart.) Anyways...

2 cans artichoke hearts, drained
1 (8oz) sour cream
1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix
1 cup mayonnaise

Crush artichoke hearts in a food processor. Mix with the rest of the ingredients and chill. Serve with your favorite cracker.

How easy was that?

It was a hit! Definitely will make this again.

Pink Lemonade Cookies

I found Pillsbury Pink Lemonade Cake Mix & Frosting We were planning a day at the beach, but thought cupcakes would be a messy hassle. Yet, Pink Lemonade sounded so "beachy"....what was a girl to do? I decided to try cookies instead, using the "Funfetti Cookie" method.

1 box Pink Lemonade Cake Mix
2 eggs
1/3 c oil
Pink Lemonade Frosting

Mix cake mix, eggs & oil until combined. Using cookie scoop, drop uniform dough on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Frost and decorate.

The lemon flavor was definitely there, but not too tart or overpowering. These were easy and had a very nice flavor. Definitely will make again. They were a nice "summery" cookie! Everyone had seconds, (or thirds or sixths).

Rainbow Cupcakes

Last weekend, we went to a birthday party for a neighborhood friend. I was asked to bring cupcakes, so I looked for something "fun" for a five year old. I saw a bunch of recipes for rainbow/tie dyed cupcakes, but all called for a yellow or white box mix which I didn't have on hand and wasn't going to run to the store. So, I started searching for "homemade" batter and found these. YUM! Definitely my new "go to" yellow cake recipe. It only makes 12 which is what I was looking for. However, I may stretch it to 14 next time since they rose a lot.









1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

food coloring

sugar sprinkles in red, orange, yellow, green, blue & purple

I made batter as directed and then separated it into 4 bowls & dyed them red, orange, green & blue. (Next time I'll add yellow & purple). Also, next time I will add more food coloring because when they rose, it seemed like they were too light in color. Layer the batter in your muffin tins. (I went in backwards order by accident).

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

I frosted with my favorite butter cream frosting and added a stripe of each sugar color. Needed to frost & decorate one at a time so that the icing would allow sprinkles to stick. Definitely nice that it only made 12 since the decorating was tedious.

PS-We joked that the cupcakes looked like Marty's clown wig in Madagascar 3. (Everybody now...."Afro Circus, Afro Circus, Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Afro Circus...")

Easy "Homemade" Donuts & Holes

Every now and again we make these for a special weekend treat. SUPER simple, but taste like you slaved over them.

1 tube of refrigerated biscuits or dinner rolls
oil for frying
sugar/cinnamon mixture

separate biscuits/rolls

cut out hole in center (I used my apple corer, but the holes really weren't quite big enough)

fry in oil until done

drain on paper towel

roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture

best served warm

Spicy Sausage Corn Chowder

While clipping coupons the other day, I came across a picture of this delicious chowder with instructions to find the recipe online. Here is where to find the original recipe. Ironically, my sister made note of the exact same recipe this week. Funny!


I changed the recipe a little bit, so here is my version.


19 oz Gold'n Plump® Hot Italian Chicken Sausage(my grocer didn't carry, so I bought "The Turkey Store Hot Italian Sausage")
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion
1 large red pepper (chopped)
1 large carrot (chopped)
2 stalks celery (chopped)
3 medium russet potatoes (cubed, unpeeled)
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1 can (about 15 ounces) cream-style corn
1 cup whole kernel corn (I used frozen corn & I would add more next time)

Directions

I didn't want big sausage "coins" in my soup, so I took the skins off the sausage and browned it so it would be "ground turkey". I will do the same next time as well.

In soup kettle, saute onion, pepper, carrot & celery in olive oil.

Stir in potatoes, Italian seasoning, and broth. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes or until vegetables are very tender.

Stir in evaporated milk, cream-style corn, whole kernel corn, and ground sausage. Simmer 1o minutes over low heat until hot.

Zuppa Toscana

Derek and I enjoy the Olive Garden when we get a chance...especially if it is the Olive Garden sans kids. About a month ago, we went while my kiddos spent the night with grandma and grandpa. Man, without our kids along, I was extra annoyed by other peoples' children. Anyways...Derek ALWAYS gets Zuppa Toscana. I finally decided to also order it to see what the big deal was. It was delicious! I decided to look online for a copycat recipe. I didn't follow one specific recipe that I found, but rather put bits and pieces of different ones together, picking out what I thought would mimic it the most... It was pretty close, but lacked the "punch" (next time I'll try either "hot" Italian sausage or the addition of red pepper flakes). I brought it to work and it got rave reviews. Now all I need is one of those hand cheese grinders so I can ask "Would you like fresh grated cheese on that?"

1 lb ground Italian sausage (next time I'll use "hot")
1 small onion, diced
3 strips of bacon (I cut mine small with scissors to avoid having to crumble)
3 medium to large potatoes unpeeled and cubed
2 tsp minced garlic
2 cups of kale, torn into bite sized pieces
32 oz chicken broth
2.5 cups of water
1 pint heavy cream
salt, pepper, garlic salt (to taste)
red pepper flakes if not using "hot" sausage (not sure on amount)

brown & drain sausage in fry pan, remove
fry bacon with onion until bacon is crisp and onion is tender, drain & remove
add sausage, bacon and onion to soup pot
add garlic, potatoes, kale, chicken broth & water
simmer until potatoes and kale are tender
stir in cream shortly before serving and heat through
season to taste

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

These. Were. Delicious. Wish I would have thought of such a thing...

Out of respect for Lori's blog, I will refer you to her blog for the original recipe. I did NOT add the chocolate drizzle/additional sprinkling of chocolate chips.

To keep up with "keeping it simple", these would be super easy if you simply used a box mix for the brownie portion. Also, my family likes chocolate chip cookie dough without too many chocolate chips, so I only used half the amount in the cookie dough batter.

Enjoy!