Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Ariel told me that the other day Richard asked her to make macaroni and cheese like your mom, to help get rid of the milk; he told her “you know the recipe”. She told me that she looked at him and thought are you mad.  And then told him I can’t make it, I don’t even think there is a recipe.
 She even posted this story on Facebook, and she was asked if she ever found out the recipe to let them know. She replied; it’s in her head. She never makes it the same way twice. I don't think I'll ever know it.

Well today is your lucky day Ariel here is my recipe for Baked Macaroni and Cheese. Well today’s version anyway.
She is right I never make it the same way twice. It all depends on what cheese that I have on hand. Sometimes I top it with more cheese, or crushed potato chips. Today I used Crushed Cheez-it this happens to be Richard’s favorite topping.

 

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

8oz. elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
4oz. cream cheese
1 cup of crunched Cheez-its

Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray: set aside.

Cook pasta according to the instruction on package, drain.
In a medium size sauce pan melt butter, blend in flour, salt and pepper. Cook until bubbly for about a minute. Gradually add milk and cook stirring constantly until mixture thickens.
Remove from heat add cheddar cheese and cream cheese stir until melted; stir in cooked pasta. Pour into baking dish and top with crushed Cheez-its.
Bake for 30 minutes.Pin It

Italian Salmon

My family loves it when I cook salmon. Ariel likes it when I use my Bake Salmon recipe. But I wanted to come up with an easier way to prepare it. I had this salad dressing mix in the pantry, and I was thinking how would it taste if I used this instead of the other ingredients.
Now Ariel says that this her favorite recipe for salmon and now she wants me to make it every week.

This is the salad dressing that I used

Italian Salmon

2 to 4 salmon filets
1 envelope Good Season Salad Dressing mix
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400⁰F.

Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray, place salmon filets in baking dish set aside.

In a small bowl combine salad dressing mix, water and lemon juice, mixing well.

Pour over salmon filets in dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until done.

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Chili

Chili! There are so many different ways to make chili! In my house it becomes a big debate on beans and heat. Richard like pinto beans and I like kidney beans, I like some heat and Richard like it hot, hot, and hot! Tonight I won the big bean debate, and put kidney beans and the chili!

Let’s be fair here the only reason I won was because the only kind of beans I had in the pantry were kidney beans. As for the heat he does what he always done he adds hot sauce to his chili.

Chili

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (15 oz.) can kidney beans or pinto beans
1 (14 ½oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 (15 oz.) tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 to 2 tablespoons chili powder (your choice)

In a large skillet cook ground beef, onion and garlic until meat is brown and onions are tender; drain.

Stir in remaining ingredients; bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.Pin It

Chocolate Cake

I have had a lot of chocolate cake in my life time but this one out shines them all! This cake should be called the disappearing chocolate cake, because that is what it kept doing. I would want a piece and it would be gone. What happen to the cake I would ask and know body seemed to know! So I would make another one and that one would disappear also!

How did this wonderful disappearing chocolate cake come into my life? A few years ago my friend Susan asked me and my daughter Ariel to a charity luncheon and they handed out programs and in the back of the program there was recipes and this was one of them. I held on to this one because it sounded yummy and I just love chocolate cake and the frosting reminds me of my fudge recipe.
When I stared making it I noticed that the cake recipe seemed familiar; that was because it is the same cake recipe on the back of the Hersey's cocoa powder can; and I have made it before and loved it! But the frosting is the main reason I wanted to try this cake. and boy am I glad that I did!
Now if I can just keep it from disappearing!

Chocolate Cake

2 cups sugar
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup Hershey’s cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Frosting

1 can sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup butter
1 (16oz) bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease and flour two 9 inch baking pans.

In a large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients; add eggs, milk and vanilla; beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be very thin). Pour into prepared pans.
Bake for 30 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans and let cool completely before frosting.

For Frosting:

Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe bowl; microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until all chocolate is melted and ingredients are incorporated. Let cool. Then frost cake.Pin It

Banana Split Dessert

My daughter Ariel is having a baby! My first grandchild! Her name is Marley Kay, what a cute name! I can’t wait to meet her!

I bet you can’t tell that I am a little excited. Ariel’s due date is May 26. She has been dealing with contraction since the being of April; I think that Marley can’t wait to meet me just as much as I can’t wait to meet her!

On Saturday Brandy and I threw Ariel a baby shower. It was so much fun!

 

 Our guest sign in table.

I found the idea for these cute little monkeys on Pinterest!

We played alot of games!

We had so much fun with our family and friends!

 

I decided not to serve cake for dessert, I wanted something different. If you can’t tell already we had a monkey theme. I want a dessert to match that theme. I remember my Aunt Roda making this dessert when I was younger but I never got the recipe. So I Goggled it and this was the first site that popped up. The Brown Eyed Baker so I decided to use her recipe because the others used eggs in a way I just couldn’t handle. You can always goggle it yourself if your curiosity gets the best of you.

I did changed one thing on the recipe I added 2 tablespoon of sugar to the crust, other than that I left it the same, oh and I changed the name.
It was a big hit and everyone wanted the recipe!

 

Banana Split Dessert

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup butter, melted

Filling:

12oz cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
1 (8 oz) container Cool Whip Whipped Topping

Toppings:

3 to 4 bananas, sliced
1 (20oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups of sliced fresh strawberries
1 (8oz) container Cool Whip Whipped Topping
½ cup chopped walnuts
Chocolate syrup
Maraschino cherries

Directions:
In a medium size bowl combine the graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9x13 inch greased baking dish and press evenly into the bottom of dish, set aside.
In a mixing bowl mix together the cream cheese and ½ cup; on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Fold in whipped topping until combined. Carefully spread mixture over graham cracker crust.
Top the cream cheese filling with a layer of sliced bananas, and then add a layer of crushed pineapple, and then add a layer of sliced strawberries.
Cover the strawberries with the last container of cool whip, sprinkle with the chopped walnuts, and then drizzle with as much as the chocolate syrup as your heart desires; last but not least top with cherries.
Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

 

 

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Bubble Sloppy Joe Bake

Simple is always the best way to go, when it comes to cooking. This was not my first time making a bubble bake; I used to make a pizza bake for the girls when they were younger. But this was my first time making a Sloppy Joe Bake.

It came to me yesterday when I was looking in my pantry. I was teasing Richard; I asked him “What do you see when you look in here?” He said “He said a lot of cans.” I then replied “I see all the different dishes that I can come up with. You better hope that nothing happen to me because you will have a lot of cans to get rid of. Take this can of sloppy joe mix I could make sloppy joes, but we don’t have any buns. I am going to make a bubble bake with it because I also have a couple of cans of biscuits that are about to expire.”

That is what I did and this was my end results!

Richard tells me tonight while eating dinner that this is a keeper!

 

Bubble Sloppy Joe Bake

1 pound ground beef
1 (14oz.) can Sloppy Joe mix
2 small tubes of can biscuits
2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400⁰F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish, set aside.

In a large skillet brown ground beef; drain. Add Sloppy Joe mix; set aside.
Cut biscuits into quarters; careful fold cut biscuits into the mixture in skillet. Pour mixture into baking dish.
Bake for 15 minutes; sprinkle cheese on top and bake for another 5 minutes.
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