Limeade

I haven't had Limeade in years. This recipe is in the July 2014 issue of All You magazine. It sounds so easy I made have to make a pitcher to go with these hot days we've been having.

Limeade

1 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
water

Bring 1 cup water to a boil. Remove from heat and add sugar. Stir until sugar has completely dissolved. In a large pitcher, combine 6 cups cold water and lime juice. Add the sugar-water mixture and stir well.

Serve over ice, or cover and chill to serve later.

Tip: If you'd like a green tint, add a few drops of food coloring.

Salted Peanut Butterscotch Bars

Once every quarter or so, the Coffee County Extension Office hosts a Crafting on a Shoestring Budget event. It costs $10 per person and we go home with some wonderful items we've assembled, painted, etc. And they feed us a snack. Like a mini-meal type snack. Super good. Really. This recipe is one of those snack items. I went back for seconds. It wasn't my fault. The pieces were just too small. LOL

We also had hotdogs on skewers. They'd taken crescent rolls, cut them into strips, and wrapped the dough around the hot dogs. Then they baked them. They didn't stop there. A triangle piece of cheese went on the top and upside-down cupcake holders went on the bottom. They were stuck upright in Styrofoam covered in bright red paper. The result? Rockets. My youngest nephews would LOVE this! Super good to eat too! As were the strawberries, blueberries, and marshmallows. Yes. In case you doubted at all, I've already got my reservation in for the next craft event.

Salted-Peanut Butterscotch Bars

15 whole graham crackers, broken up
3 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
One 11-oz. package butterscotch morsels (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup chopped salted roasted peanuts

Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil, allowing ends to overhang by 2 inches.

Process graham crackers with sugar and salt in a food processor until finely ground. Pulse in butter until moistened. Transfer to lined pan and press crumbs down evenly and firmly.

Place butterscotch morsels in a large bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute. Remove and stir until smooth and creamy. (Continue to microwave in 10-second intervals if morsels have not melted. Do not overheat or mixture will seize up and turn into a stiff mass.) Stir in peanut butter and peanuts. Blend well and spread evenly over graham-cracker crust. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour 30 minutes or until firm.

Lift bars out and remove foil. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut into squares.

Makes about 36 1 1/2-inch squares

Brownie Ice Cream Sundae Cake

Some recipes have you wanting to rush right out, gather all the ingredients and prepare the recipe. This is one of them. Of course, it helps that it is a hot, humid Sunday afternoon in the Deep South. This recipe is in the June 2014 issue of Coastal Living. The only change I plan to make is to substitute pecans for the walnuts. Those of you who know me, also know I'll melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave. It's so much easier and takes way less time. Just be careful to check every 30 seconds, stirring each time, to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn.

Brownie Ice Cream Sundae Cake

6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Simple Butterscotch Sauce (recipe follows)
1 half-gallon container (8 cups) vanilla ice cream, softened
Simple Hot Fudge Sauce (recipe follows)
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease one 9-inch round cake pan AND one 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

Combine chocolate and butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until melted. Let cool to room temperature.

Stir sugar, eggs and vanilla into chocolate mixture. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir into chocolate mixture.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Bake 14 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center emerges with moist crumbs clinging. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Pour half of Simple Butterscotch Sauce over cake baked in springform pan. Spoon 4 cups ice cream evenly over butterscotch sauce. Remove cake from round cake pan, and place on top of ice cream, pressing gently. Pour over remaining butterscotch sauce; top evenly with remaining ice cream. Freeze about 3 hours or until firm.

Run a knife around edge of springform pan, and release cake. Place on a serving plate. Pour Simple Hot Fudge Sauce on top of cake. Sprinkle with huts.

Makes 8 servings.

Simple Butterscotch Sauce

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Heat butter and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in cream; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes or until well-blended. Cool completely.

Makes 1 1/3 cups.

Simple Hot Fudge Sauce

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup sugar
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate,  chopped

Combine whipping cream, corn syrup and sugar in a small, heavy saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, 7 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate until smooth. Let cool.
'Makes 1 1/3 cups.

I love pasta. I love cheese. This has both. Enough said. The recipe comes from the wonderful folks at Pillsbury.

Three-Cheese Rotini Bake

8 oz. (3 cups) uncooked rainbow rotini (spiral pasta)                        

3  tablespoons margarine or butter                        

1  garlic clove, minced                        

1/4  cup all-purpose flour                        

1/4  teaspoon pepper                        

2  cups milk                        

4   oz. (1 cup) shredded American cheese                        

4  oz. (1 cup) shredded mozzarella cheese                        

1 oz. (1/4 cup) crumbled blue cheese 

 

• Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 2-quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Cook rotini as directed on package. Drain.
• Meanwhile, melt margarine in large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook and stir 30 to 60 seconds. Stir in flour and pepper; cook and stir until mixture is bubbly. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat. Reserve 1 tablespoon each American and mozzarella cheese for top. Add remaining cheeses to sauce; stir until melted.
• Add cooked rotini to cheese sauce; stir gently to coat. Pour into sprayed casserole. Sprinkle with reserved cheeses.
• Bake at 350°F. for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly around edges.                    

Expert Tips

This recipe easily adapts to your favorite cheese. Instead of American and mozzarella cheese, try Cheddar, colby, Asiago, fontina, provolone or Swiss.
For kids, omit the blue cheese and add hot dogs. Slice one or two hot dogs and stir them into the cheese sauce with the rotini.
Serve this cheesy rotini dish with a green salad tossed with any vinaigrette. Crusty Italian bread and fresh apple and pear wedges complete the menu.

Pina Colada Salad

The newspaper clipping is old. Yellowed. I have no idea which newspaper it came from. I've kept it for a long, long time just waiting for the moment when I found it at the same time I actually needed it. Know what I mean? So I'm sharing it with everyone so that we all can enjoy it.

 

Pina Colada Salad

1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
One 15 1/2-ounce can unsweetened pineapple chunks, drain and reserve syrup
water
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Two 3-ounce packages cream cheese
1 orange peeled, sectioned and chopped
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup coconut

Soften gelatin in cold water. Let stand 5 minutes.

Add enough water to pineapple syrup to make 1 cup. Heat to boiling, add gelatin and stir. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, lemon juice and cream cheese. Blend, then chill until partially set.

Add pineapple, orange, pecans and coconut. Spoon into lightly greased (use  non-stick spray) 1-quart mold. Chill.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Nita's Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a sweet friend who thinks that all cookies should be crunchy. Well, I'm someone who likes soft cookies and that's usually what I make. Except Nita wanted Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies for her birthday. Seriously. It's all she asked for. Well, that and a card.

So I got busy searching. Do you have any idea how many Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes there are out there in cookie recipe land? The recipe I finally settled on comes from the folks who make Ghirardelli chocolate. It was a winner. She loved the cookies!!!

Here's the recipe. Well, my version of the recipe. I didn't add nuts. And I didn't shift the baking pans around. That's way too much trouble. I baked them like I always do and they turned out fine. If you like crunchy cookies, you'll probably really love it. If you don't, I've got plenty of other recipes you can choose from.

 

Crispy Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 1/3 all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/3 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly greased and flour two making sheets.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the butter, both sugars, corn syrup, milk and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. (Add nuts at this time if you want to.) The dough will be very soft.

Divide the dough in half. Divide one half of the dough into 10 equal pieces (each a scant 1/4 cup). Place 5 pieces of dough at least 3 inches apart on each baking sheet. Use your fingers covered with a piece of plastic wrap to flatten each scoop until it is 3 inches in diameter. (Cookies will spread even more as they bake.)

Bake about 15 minutes, watching closely, until the cookies are evenly dark golden brown all over. (Pale cookies will not be crispy). Let cool on pan for 5 minutes. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Makes about 16 4-inch cookies.

Classic Angel Flake Coconut Cake

 Thank you Kraft for sharing this recipe!!! It's in my stack of magazine recipes to be added to this blog. And you even included a beautiful photo! Simple. Easy. Love me some Coconut Cake!

photo by kraft

 Classic Angel Flake Coconut Cake

   

1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix

2-2/3 cups  BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut (7-oz. pkg.), divided

1-1/4 cups  cold milk, divided

1 pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Coconut Cream Flavor Instant Pudding

1 pkg.  (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding

1/4 cup  powdered sugar

1 tub  (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

 

HEAT oven to 350°F.
PREPARE cake batter and bake as directed on package for 2 (9-inch) round layers, stirring 2/3 cup coconut, 1/4 cup milk and dry coconut pudding mix into batter before pouring into prepared pans. Cool cakes in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely.
MEANWHILE, beat dry vanilla pudding mix, sugar and remaining milk in large bowl with whisk 2 min. (Pudding will be thick.) Stir in COOL WHIP. Refrigerate until ready to assemble cake.
STACK cake layers on plate, filling with layers of 1 cup of the pudding mixture and 3/4 cup of the remaining coconut. Frost top and side of cake with remaining pudding mixture. Press remaining coconut into pudding mixture. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Makes 18 servings.