Oriental Pasta Salad

My mom's good friend Donna from Massachusetts gave my mom this recipe and then I got it from my mom. I don't make it very often because it makes a ton of salad, but I decided to make it for last night's potluck dinner at church. I figured it would get eaten up since there is no food left over at the church potluck. Turns out we got there late and most people had eaten, so we ended up with a lot of it back home! That's ok, it's good and Joshua and I both like it! A friend said last night that it looked like worms. I can assure you(even though I haven't eaten worms, it's better than worms). And it's easy, which is always a plus for me!

4 packs Oriental flavor ramon noodles
2 cups frozen peas
2-3 bunches scallions chopped
1/4 head shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts

Dressing:
1/2 cup veggie oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
3 of the oriental flavor seasoning packets
dash of soy sauce

Boil the noodles for about 30 seconds. Drain and mix all the ingredients together. Add the dressing and mix. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Serve this salad with teriyaki chicken!!

Dad's Blueberry Crisp

When we lived in Utah my parents were friends with Bill and Sarah Robertson. I have a distinct memory of a time we went over to their apartment, they were like second parents to my brother and me--I recall they watched us when my parents would go out of town. Anyway, I remember this time when we went over to their apartment because my dad created on accident the most amazing blueberry crisp I have ever had! The way I remember it was that he was starting to make cookies--Sand Tarts--which are a Pennsylvania traditional cookie(I'll have to put that recipe on here sometime!) Well he forgot to put the eggs in until it was too late to mix them in, so he decided to use it as a topper for blueberries and bake it. WOW!!! Taste bud delight!! So here is the accidental dessert. Note that it's super easy!

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup flour
4-5 cups frozen or fresh blueberries

Cream the sugar and butter together. Mix in the flour. You want it to be crumbly. Put the blueberries into a baking dish, spread the covering over it and bake at 350 degrees until the crust starts to get golden brown. It's really good warm or cold. Ice cream is a great addition but not necessary!

Here's a picture to wet your appetite!

Things to do in the fall

Last Friday, Joshua and I had planned on going to Huber's, which is a local farm, where you can pick your own apples, pumpkins, etc. Well it rained and rained all day so we went and registered for baby things instead. (No complaints from me...I was excited to do both!). Well we thought that we would go to Huber's this coming Saturday, but then were advised that there would be tons of people there...so we went this past Monday! And we were the only ones there going out in the fields picking apples and pumpkins. It was SOOooooooo cold! Picking the apples we were a little bit shielded by the trees, but out in the pumpkin patch, this is how Joshua felt!

We had the choice to pick Golden Delicious or Gold Rush apples. Since I don't really like the Golden Declicious we went with the Gold Rush. I haven't tried them yet, but Joshua has and he said they were really good.

We treked back to the main part of the farm, where they had a bake shop and got warm while we picked up some apple cider and some Jonathan apples. I had the inspiration from our friends Brian and Kami to make some applesauce. We got a half bushel of Jonathan apples and called up Kami to see if we could use thier food mill. I was quite surprised at how easy it was to make and it is very scrumptious.

First wash and quarter the apples. Dump into a pot with 1 cup of water per 9 apples. Bring that water to a boil then cover and simmer until the apples are mushy.
Mushy apples....wish you had a scratch and sniff screen...it smelled really good at this point!
Next you put the mushy apples and water into the food mill and turn and turn(thanks Joshua and lending a helping hand) until all the apple mush has turned into applesauce. So good-no sugar needed!
Ready to eat and freeze for later!

What else can you do with apples? APPLE PIE!!!!!!

I am so thankful that God made apples!

Here are a few more fall pictures for you viewing enjoyment. God is so creative!

Spiffy Granola

I am a big fan of granola. In fact my all time fav granola is Strawberries'n'Cream. But it is super expensive and a treat if I get to eat it! So I decided to try my hand at making granola(because you get more bang for your buck). I found a recipe on AllRecipes but I changed it around a little bit and here's the mucho good homemade granola.

Ingredients:
6 Cups whole, rolled oats
1 cup chopped alomnds(or nut you prefer)
1 cup chopped dried cherries(or fruit you prefer)
1 cup unpacked brown sugar
2-3 TBSP honey
3 TBSP butter
Dash of cinnamon(optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On the stovetop, melt the butter in a pan large enough to hold all of the oats. Add the sugar and honey once the butter is melted. Cook, stirring until the mixture is bubbly. Add all of the oats and stir until all coated. Spread the oats on a cookie sheet(might take two cookie sheets). Sprinkle cinnamon on oats. Turn off the oven and put the cookie sheets on oven racks. Close oven door. Check on mixture about 30 minutes later and turn if needed to get the granola all crunchy. Once oven has completely cooled pour oats, nuts, and dried fruit into a large ziplock bag. Shake it up to mix all the contents. Eat and enjoy!

Yummy Chicken Pot Pie

Mmmm. The other day I tried out a recipe that I got from my friend Jessica. This recipe can be made with chicken or turkey and it's splendid both ways. At the end of the recipe I'll put some comments about some changes that I made to it (I hardly ever make a recipe just the way it says to!)

Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken breast (enough for 4-6 cups cooked, cubed)
5 cups chicken stock
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 1/2 sticks butter
2 yellow onions, chopped
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 cups diced carrots, blanched for 2 minutes
1 (10 oz.) package frozen peas
Bisquick Mix (use recipe on back of box for pastry top-must have milk and eggs)

Directions:
Either cook chicken on baking sheet or in a skillet on stove. Use olive oil, salt and pepper to season. Set aside until cool enough to handle, and then cut chicken into large dice. You will have 4-6 cups of cubed chicken.

In a small saucepan, heat the chicken stock and dissolve the bouillon cubes in the stock. In a large pan, melt butter and sauté the onions over med-low heat for 10-15 minutes, until onions are translucent. Add the flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the hot chicken stock. Simmer on low heat for 1 more minute, stirring, until thick. Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoons pepper, and heavy cream. Add the cubed chicken, carrots, and peas. Mix well.

Follow the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box to make the pastry top. Pour the filling for the pot pie into individual oven-safe bowls, or into one large oven safe dish. Then pour Bisquick mixture over the tops until filling is covered. Bake at 400 degrees until tops are golden brown.

Eat it and enjoy!!!

Now for my recommendations:
Because boneless chicken is more expensive, we always buy bone-in chicken. If you don't mind a tad more work...Instead of baking the chicken, I boiled it in water, then let it cool, and it practically falls off the bone and then I just cut it up into small pieces. What I wish I would have thought of before I bought chicken stock was that if you boil the chicken in about 6 cups of water, you will be basically making your own chicken stock and that way you don't have to buy chicken stock!

Instead of using butter I used margarine, and it works fine. You could do either. When I added the flour, it got thick really fast, so I didn't cook it for the full 2 minutes before adding the hot chicken stock. And when I added the chicken stock, it was pretty lumpy at first. But just be persistent in stirring and the lumps will go away. I did have to "mush" the lumps up against the side of the pan and that got rid of them more quickly as I was stirring.

My last issue was when I was looking for the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box...I had looked on the back of the box at the store and didn't see a recipe for pastry topping. And to save money I bought the store brand...so with a quick call to Jessica I got the recipe. She recommended tripling this recipe for the topping:

1 cup Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
1 egg

Well I got a little carried away and multiplied it by 5!!! What I didn't realize about Bisquick was that it puffs up ALOT! So if you make this just stick with tripling or maybe quadrupling it! Anyway it takes about 30 minutes for it to bake....that's in a large baking dish...I don't have any personal size baking dishes. It makes a ton so invite some people over and enjoy the best chicken pot pie that you have ever tasted and be proud that you made it! (If you have ever had any of those 50 cent chicken pot pies, your mouth will thank you for making this pot pie! Although Joshua would say there is nothing wrong with those frozen pot pies, but his taste buds are not very discriminating!)

Cinnamon Rolls

I was making bread today and it made me think of the last time I used my bread machine. For Christmas we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and I used a recipe that my friend Jenna gave me. It is so yummy and if you like making cinnamon rolls or want to give it a shot, these are great. They are the Clone of a Cinnabon and they are some of the best cinnaomn rolls I've made in a long time! And they are much cheaper than buying the real thing!