Peach Dessert

Mix in a saucepan:
3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
1 Cup Sugar
Add: 2 Cups of COLD water, stir and boil.
Then add: 1 Package of Orange Jello (3 oz) and set until chilled.
After that add: 4-5 Cups of FRESH peeled square-shaped-sliced peaches and chill in fridge.

Crust
Mix well (drys first and then the butter) and put 1/2 of mixture on bottom of a 9x13 and save the rest for the top layer:
2 1/2 Cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
6 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar
1 Stick of Softened Butter

Cream Mixture
Cream together:
1 Package of Cream Cheese (8 oz)
1/2 Cup of Powdered Sugar
Then add: 8oz Tub of Cool Whip

Put down later of crumbs, all fruit mixture, then cream mixture, and rest of the crumbs on top. Great dessert for peach season!

Ham and Cheese Braids

I really liked this recipe a lot! It's easy and something that picky eaters will eat. My picky eater ate a lot of it! I just served it with vegetables and homemade ranch. I used the Ranch recipe in Deceptively Delicious even though the one below is great too.

2 3/4 cups flour
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 pkg yeast
3/4 cup warm water
4 T. butter, melted
1 egg
Diced ham
Shredded Cheese

You can use rapid rise or just active dry yeast. Combine water, yeast and sugar and let it stand for a few minutes. Then add the salt, butter and egg and mix. Add one cup of the flour and stir it up good. Then add the rest of the flour while you stir/knead. It will make a very workable and moderatly stiff dough (not sticky). I knead it until I like the feel of the dough (10 minutes or so?). Then roll out the dough on a floured surface into a rectangle (not too thin, not too thick), cut the rectangle into three equal strips, fill the strips with much ham and cheese clear to the ends and pinch each one shut being careful to leave no holes where all the good stuff will leak out. Then gently braid the three pieces and tuck the ends tight. Brush it with melted butter or egg white wash and sprinkle it with whatever you want. Let it raise in a warm spot until larger and fluffy looking (time varies). Bake at 375 for approx 30 minutes. You want it to be pretty brown on the outside so as to ensure the inside will not be doughy. Let it cool a bit before cutting into it. Enjoy! It is yummy dipped in ranch.

For home made ranch just mix some sour cream and mayo along with garlic salt, Mrs. Dash seasoning, dill and lemon pepper. Delish!

Chocolate Drop Marshmallow Cookies

These cookies didn't last long enough for me to take a picture, and they are Jacob's favorite. The picture and recipe are from Taste of Home.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
16 to 22 large marshmallows

Icing:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1/4 cup milk
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pecan halves (I don't have these lying around so I usually ignore it)

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; beat into creamed mixture.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, cut marshmallows in half. Press a marshmallow half, cut side down, onto each cookie. Return to the oven for 2 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.

For icing, in a small saucepan, combine butter, cocoa and milk. Bring to a boil; boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Cool slightly; transfer to a small bowl. beat in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread over the cooled cookies. (Unlike the pictured cookies, I usually ice the whole top of the cookie and do not have any marshmallow showing) Optional: Top each with a pecan half. Yield: about 3 dozen.

Peanut butter brownie bites

These are really easy and really good!

Ingredients:

1 box brownie mix prepared
appx 40 peanut butter cups

Make brownie mix according to package directions. Spray a mini muffin tin. Fill cups 1/2-2/3 full of brownie mix. Bake at 350 for ten minutes. Unwrap peanut butter cups while brownies are baking. Remove from oven and press a peanut butter cup inside each brownie until flush with brownie top (use caution-the middle of the brownie is still liquid, and very hot if it spills through). Bake 5-7 minutes more until done. Let cool slightly in pan before removing (peanut butter cup is very hot and totally melted). Remove from pan and cool completely (if you need them quickly, can cool in the fridge). Makes appx. 40.

Japanese Gyoza

My cousin's recipe, sooo good:

1 lb ground pork
½ head cabbage-minced
2 long green onions
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp sesame oil
3-4 Small Mushrooms
Minced Carrots
½ tsp salt
A pinch of pepper
Gyoza wraps- (found in refrigerated produce section)
Chicken Broth

Filling:
Wash the cabbage leaf by leaf, and cut the hard center part out of each leaf. Squeeze all liquid out.
Mince the garlic, green onions, carrots, mushrooms and cabbage.
Place the pork in a bowl. Then add the following ingredients and mix well: sesame oil, green onion, ginger, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, salt and pepper.
Finally, add the cut cabbage and mix well.

Put a spoonful of the filling into each gyoza wrap and then seal the edges with a finger dip of water or egg yolk.
Pour some oil in the bottom of a frying pan and brown both sides of each gyoza on medium or medium-high heat. After they have been browned, pour in a small measure of chicken broth into the pan, cover and simmer. (The vapor will steam the gyoza and cook the pork). Add more broth as needed to make sure the insides are cooked through.
Remove from the pan and serve.

Dipping Sauce:
Mostly Soy Sauce, cap full of rice vinegar, few droplets of chili oil (depending on how spicy you want it.)

Easy Chicken Parmigiana

1 Tablespoon of Garlic Salt
Dash of Pepper
2 Eggs
2 Cups of Italian Bread Crumbs
1/4 Cup of Parmesan Cheese
6 Chicken Tenders
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 Jar Spaghetti Sauce
1 Cup (or more to your liking of) Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and pepper. Beat Eggs and dip chicken. Mix the Italian Bread Crumbs with 1/8 Cup of Parmesan Cheese and coat egged chicken with mixture. Pour olive oil on baking sheet and spread evenly. Place chicken on baking sheet and put in preheated oven of 350 degrees for 25 minutes. In a separate 7x11 shallow pan, pour 1/2 spaghetti sauce on bottom and when chicken is done place over the sauce with oiled side facing up. Use the rest (I didn't use the whole can) of the spaghetti sauce on top of chicken. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese and all of the mozzarella cheese on top of coated chicken. Put the pan into the oven for another 20 minutes. Serve over noodles of your choice.

Avacado Mango Salsa and others

These recipes are so good! I got the first two from Kashann Casper. The last one is my mom's recipe, which I love.

Avocado Mango Salsa:

Dice one avocado, 1-2 roma tomatoes, and one mango

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 c. onion, diced

Juice of one lime (or lemon juice if that's what you have)

Several dashes Frank's Red Hot sauce (all the rage around here)

salt and garlic salt to taste

Coconut Rice

1 1/2 cups rice (Jasmine is best)

1 3/4 cup water

1 can Coconut Milk

1 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. sugar

more chopped cilantro leaves

Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

Teriyaki Marinade
1 C sugar
1/2 c soy sauce
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp ginger

Mix together until sugar id dissolved. Marinate chicken 2 to 6 hours.
I used this recipe and marinated the chicken in strips for 2 hours. I then put them on skewers with pineapple and grilled them. Delicious!

Raspberry Chocolate Torte

For those of you who want something fancy that is really easy to make, here you go. I made this for our anniverary this year and have had some requests for the recipe. I will add a picture soon.

1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. baking cocoa

Glaze:
1/4 c. boiling water
4 tsp raspberry gelatin (jell-o)
2 Tbsp seedless rasberry jam

Topping:
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips
2 cartons (8 oz each) frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 c. fresh raspberries

Line a greased 15 x 10 x 1 in cookie sheet with waxed paper, grease paper. In a lare bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and cocoa, gradually beat into creamed mixture. Spread onto prepared pan.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 min. or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool 5 min before inverting on to wire rack to cool completely. Carefully remove waxed paper. (I had to leave it to cool the entire way in the pan and it still turned out fine, but it is up to you)

For glaze stir water and gelatin until disolved. Stir in jam. Brush evenly over bottom of cake. Trim edges (I used a pizza cutter) and cut cake widthwise into thirds.

For topping, in a microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips (30 seconds at a time) and stir until smooth. (In my microwave it took 1 min 10 secs) Fold in half of the whipped topping until blended then add the remaining.
**Just a note, it would work better if your whipped topping doesn't come straight from the fridge. It makes the chocolate solidify a little and harder to mix in. Try to get it closer to room temp before mixing with the chocolate but never microwave it. You don't want soup.
Place one cake layer on serving platter. Top with 3/4 c. topping. Repeat with layers. Frost and decorate with raspberries and remaining topping.

Roasted Veggie Platter

So I made this worried that no one would eat it but me. Wow, my family loved it.

1 med sweet red pepper, cut into 1 1/2 in pieces
1 med red onion, cut into wedges
1 med yellow summer squash, cut into 1/2 in slices
1/2 lb whole fresh mushrooms
1/4 lb fresh green beans, trimmed
(In all reality, I didn't measure these last two, I just used a container of mushrooms and guessed with the green beans)
1/4 c. italian dressing
1/4 tsp each dried basil, thyme, and rosemary, crushed
(personally I would either reduce or eliminate the rosemary because I don't really like it because it is up to you.)

Preheat oven to 425. Grease a large cookie sheet. Put all prepared veggies in a bowl. Toss with Italian dressing and herbs. Pour onto pan.
Cook for 15-20 min or until veggies are crisp tender. You don't want them mushy. Stir occasionally.

Ginger Chicken

1 egg white, beaten
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp white pepper (I don't have this so I just use black pepper, I mean, why be racist.)
1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 in pieces

Sauce:
1/2 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

Stir Fry:
1 Tbsp + 2 tsp peanut oil, divided (I have no idea why you can't use veg or canola oil, you can if you want)
1 med green pepper, julienned
3 green onions cut into 1 in lengths (I used regular onion because my green onion had gone bad. I just used one small onion cut into thin wedges.)
1/2 c. bamboo shoots, finely chopped
2-3 tsp minced fresh gingerroot
1/4 c. slivered almonds (optional, I didn't because I forgot, still delicious)

In a large resealable bag combine the first five ingredients. Seal bag and turn to coat. Refrigerate for 30 min.
For sauce combine ingredients until smooth and set aside.
Drain chicken and discard marinade (I just dumped the whole thing in the frying pan). In large skillet or wok stir fry chicken in 1 Tbsp oil until cooked. Remove and keep warm.
With remaining oil stir fry green pepper and onion for 2 minutes. Add bamboo and ginger and stir fry 3-4 min or until veggies are crisp tender.
Stir sauce mixture and add to pan. Bring to boil and cook and stir for 2 min. or until thickened. Add chicken and het through. Sprinkle with almonds and serve over rice.