Shirley Temples

Shirley Temple

This drink works best when served in a tall glass. Fill half way with orange juice. The more flavorful variety it is, the better it would taste. These were made with a orange/passion fruit/guava frozen juice mix. Also add a little less water when mixing it up so the flavor is a little stronger. Then fill the remainder of the glass with lemon-lime sode or gingerale, whatever you have on hand. Finish it off with a tablespoon or two of grenadine (easy found in most grocery stores). The grenadine sinks to the bottom, making a multicolor drink. Pop a maraschino cherry in the glass or put an orange slice on the edge of the glass. To get the crystalized effect on the top, just put the glass, upside down, in a shallow bowl of water, then dip into some white sugar. Obviously you would do this before putting anything in your cup! Voila - an easy and very pretty drink. The perfect thing to serve at girls night. :)

Catalina Cranberry Chicken

This sounds like an odd combination of ingredients, but put together they're actually quite delicious. The end result is flavorful, tender chicken. Great with dirty rice. This recipe/photo is from the Kraft website.

Catalina Cranberry Chicken

• 4 lbs skinless chicken pieces (breasts or thighs)
• 1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup catalina dressing
• 1 envelope onion soup mix

Heat oven to 350. Place chicken in two 9x13 baking dishes. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Bake 50 minutes or until chicken is done.

*Mix and match chicken pieces you have on hand or that are on sale. Use all breasts, thighs or a combination of both. Each breast half is one serving while two thighs are one serving.

Buttery Corn Bread

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened.
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups milk
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter adn sugar. Add the eggs and milk, mix again. Add flour, cornmean, baking powder and salt. Mix.
2. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Bake at 400'F for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cut into squares; serve warm.

This is the easiest recipe ever. We love love love it. We pull it out of the oven, and serve it up immediately with butter.

Hearty Beef Stew

Serve with thick bread slices or crusty rolls. Equally good over egg noodles.

1 tbsp cooking oil
1.5 pounds Beef stew meat

28 oz Can of diced tomatoes (with juice)
1.5 cups Chopped onion
1.5 cups Chopped carrot
1 cup Chopped parsnip
3/4 cup Dry red (or alcohol free) wine
1/2 cup Chopped celery
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Garlic and herb no-salt seasoning (such as Mrs. Dash. I used epicure!)
2 Bay leaves
1/2 tsp pepper

3 tbsp Water
3 tbsp All-purpose flour



Heat cooking oil in large frying pan on medium-high. Brown beef for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to greased 3 quart (3L) casserole.

Add next 10 ingredients. Stir. cover. Cook in 325'F (160'C) oven for about 1.5 hours until vegetables are softened and beef is almost tender.

Stir water into flour in small cup until smooth. Slowly add to beef mixture, stirring constantly. Return to oven. Cook, uncovered, for about 300 minutes, stirring once, until beef is tender and sauce is boiling and thickened. Serves 6.

1 Serving: 322 Calories; 12.1 g Total Fat; 59 mg Cholesterol; 22 g Carbohydrate; 4 g Fibre; 26 g Protein; 355 mg Sodium

Banana Pudding Cake

2 ripe Banana's mashed

3 eggs

1/4 cup oil

1 cup water

1 pkg. instant vanilla or banana cream pudding

1 yellow or white cake mix (name brands work best)

Mash banana's, add eggs, oil & water, mix till smooth with mixer, add cake mix & pudding, mix together for two min or so till smooth and pour into an ungreased angel food pan or if you have a bundt pan that would work great as well. Bake 350 for an hr. or when toothpick comes out perfectly clean and top is all golden. Cool and then take sharp knife cut around edges and take out of pan, cover to store. I like to eat mine plain, hubby spreads his with lots of butter

Gallo Pinto

pronounced: Guy-yo pin-toe
- a signature Costa Rican dish... It's quite fantastic!

Ingredients:
3 tbs oil
1 clove garlic (minced)
1/4 cup onion (chopped)
1/4 red pepper (chopped)
1 stalk celery (chopped)
3 tbs Lizano salsa
1/2 bullion cube/packet (chicken flavor)
handful of cilantro (chopped)

Cooked rice (about 3-4 cups)
Cooked black beans (about 3-4 cups)

Directions:
Saute garlic, onion, red pepper, and celery in oil. Add cooked black beans (along with the thick 'juice' that accompanies cooked beans. ie - do not drain). Stir in Lazano Salsa (this may be a problem to find in Canada in regular grocery stores, maybe in the ethnic section??? I heard worcestershire sauce can work as a replacement) and bullion seasoning. Let simmer for a few minutes, but stir often (beans have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the pan). Add rice and heat through. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.

Serve with: poached egg, chicken, or sausage.

This dish is most often served at breakfast, but can also be found at the afternoon and/or evening meal.

Pumpkin Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

I enjoyed this dessert at my sister-in-law's this last weekend and promptly asked for the recipe. So delicious!! The guys were sneaking extra pieces while she was out of the room. :)

Pumpkin Cake Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

Cake:

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves*
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup pure pumpkin

Preheat oven to 375. Grease 15 x 10 pan, line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle clean tea towel with icing sugar. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, salt. Beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Bake 13-15 minutes or until it springs back when touched lightly. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting at the narrow end.

Filling:

• 1 pkg cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 6 tbsp margarine
• 1 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese, icing sugar, margarine and vanilla until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with icing sugar before serving.

*I didn't include the ground cloves. If you want an extra tasty dessert, try adding a tsp or so of Epicure's pumpkin spice. Divine!!