Simple Fruit Salad

OK, here is my best attempt at a recipe for the fruit salad. I hope I get it right, haha.

8oz cream cheese (if it's room temperature it's easier to mix)
2 cups sour cream
1-2 cups of powdered sugar (it takes quite a bit of powdered sugar, but use whatever you want for the amount of sweetness you want)
Grapes washed and separated
Granny Smith apples cut into bite size pieces
(I like to add strawberries when they are in season too)
Brown sugar

Directions
Combine cream cheese and sour cream together until smooth. Add powdered sugar until you achieve desired sweetness. Add fruit and chill. Top with brown sugar before serving or serve brown sugar on the side and let your guests put it on themselves.

If you make this and find that the amounts are off PLEASE let me know. I'm not very good at translating my recipes onto paper. haha.

ENJOY!

White Bread

2 Tbs dry active yeast
2 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs salt
2 eggs beaten
1/4 cup oil
6 1/2 cups flour

dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water and let sit until yeast activates. Add eggs, salt, oil and 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth. Stir in remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 6-8 min.) Place in a greased bowl, turn once to coat the top. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down dough. Divide into 2 pieces and form into loaves. Place in greased bread pans and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 375F for 25-30 min or until golden brown. Remove from pans and let cool on racks.

Cornbread Muffins

I got this recipe from the blog My Kitchen Cafe and we tried it last night. They were SO delicious.



Cornbread Muffins
adapted from The New Best Recipe

2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 cup (about 5 ounces) yellow cornmeal (the original recipe calls for fine, stone-ground, but I used the average, everyday Quaker brand and it worked great)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup (5 ¼ ounces) sugar
8 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
¾ cup sour cream (I used reduced fat sour cream)
½ cup milk

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a standard 12-cup muffin tin and set aside (when I made them, it made about 16 muffins).

Whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, soda and salt in a medium bowl to combine; set aside. Whisk the eggs in a second medium bowl until well combined and light-colored, about 20 seconds. Add the sugar to the eggs; whisk vigorously until thick and homogenous, about 30 seconds; add the melted butter in 3 additions, whisking to combine after each addition. Add half the sour cream and half the milk and whisk to combine; whisk in the remaining sour cream and milk until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients; mix gently with a rubber spatula until the batter is just combined and evenly moistened. Do not over mix. Using a large spoon sprayed with cooking spray, divide the batter evenly among tins.

Bake until the muffins are light golden brown and a skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 15-18 minutes, rotating the muffin tin from front to back halfway. Cool the muffins in the tin 5 minutes; invert the muffins on a wire rack, stand the muffins upright and cool 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Lemon Squares

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 c. flour
1 c. butter

Mix above in order listed. Bake in a 9x13 pan for 15 minutes at 350. Remove from oven and spread with the following mixture:

2 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs, slightly beaten
4 T lemon juice and zest
1/4 c flour

Return to oven and bake 20 minutes longer at 350.

When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar or spread with the following glaze:

4 T lemon juice
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 T melted butter.

Suggestions

Hey ladies! 

I was just thinking of some ways to better organize our recipes.  Perhaps we could all put our first name in the label at the end of the post.  I know lots of times I can remember who submitted it but can't find the recipe. 

Also, when you start putting up a label the computer will predict what you are typing and if you click on the popped up word or press enter, assuming that is what you are looking for, it will automatically fill it in for you.  This will cut down on categories  like "drink" and "drinks" and "potatoes" and "potatoes".  or "alton" and "brown".

Another idea we could put the entire recipe name in the label so if you know what you are looking for you can find it immediately. 

Just some thoughts, take them or leave them.

Thanks for sharing your recipes, they have all been wonderful.  We eat the majority of our meals from ideas I get from this site!  

keep them coming!

And Amanda, I would love your pudding recipe!

Cream of Pumpkin Soup

• Cream of Pumpkin Soup
• 3 tablespoons margarine, softened
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 slices whole wheat bread
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F(200 degrees C). Combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Spread butter mixture evenly over one side of each bread slice. Place bread, buttered side up, on a baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until bread is crisp and topping is bubbly. Cut each slice of bread into 8 small triangles or squares.
2. Saute onion in butter in a medium saucepan until tender. Add 1 can chicken broth; stir well. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes.
3. Transfer broth mixture into the container of a blender or processor. Process until smooth.
4. Return mixture to saucepan. Add remaining can of broth, pumpkin, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground pepper; stir well. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally..
5. Stir in whipping cream and heat through. Do not boil. Ladle into individual soup bowls. Top each serving with Cinnamon Croutons.

*I like to add a pinch of cumin and a dash of ground cloves.  For a quick meal, I don't bother with the croutons.

Hope you like it!

Calico Beans: For the Pregnant One

Saute together:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bacon
1/2 c chopped onion

Drain off fat. Add:

1/2 c ketchup (maybe up to 1 c)
1/2 scant c. brown sugar
2 T prepared mustard
3 T vinegar
(I usually make the sauce separately and pour it in.)

Stir well. Then add:

1 lg can pork & beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can lima beans

Simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Stir often. You can also put it into a crockpot and cook it for many hours.

(You can do any type of variation of this by adding corn, mushrooms or whatever else. We don't really like lima beans, so I double one of the other types. This is a fantastic meal to make for a lot of people. My mom makes it very often...maybe too often!)