Tasty tuesday::peanut butter texas sheet cake

I found this recipe in the Gooseberry Patch Our Best Quick & Easy Recipes Magazine. "Texas Sheet Cake" is usually chocolaty, fudgy goodness. this is obviously a different twist. and since i am a firm believer that peanut butter is the next best thing to chocolate, i thought i'd give it a try. and i'm glad i did. give it a try!! you won't be sorry!

Peanut Butter Texas Sheet Cake
2 c all purpose flour

1/4 c creamy peanut butter
2 c white sugar

2 eggs beater
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda

1/2 c buttermilk
1 c butter
1 c water

peanut butter icing (see below)

chopped peanuts for garnish

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside. Combine butter, water and peanut butter and a saucepan over medium heat: bring to a boil. Add to flour mixture and mix well and set aside. Combine eggs, vanilla and buttermilk. Add to flour mixture. Spread batter into a 15x10 jelly roll pan. Bake @ 350 for 25-28 minutes or until cake springs back when gently touched. spread peanut butter icing over warm cake and garnish.

Peanut Butter Icing
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 c + 1 T milk
16 oz powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Combine first 3 ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until spreading consistency. (careful, it will drip a little over the side of the cake so keep bringing it back to the center.)

tasty tuesday and tubes

this precious angel right here...she is FINALLY getting tubes tomorrow. just say a little prayer that all goes well and that we have NO problem with her 5-10 minutes of anesthesia...and that she'll forgive me for handing her off to a stranger. she's a little attached to mama these days. i honestly know it will be a breeze of a surgery, but still. you know how it is. don't tell me you could resist that face. cause i know you can't. and yes, she wears those necklaces alll the time. i think i'll get her some pink and purple ones for being a big girl tomorrow. i can find those at the DG right? i'm still kind of a newcomer to the "pink aisle".

With the cooler temps in north alabama brings all things comfort. At our house this week that means homemade granola and chicken stew...but not together. I am kind of a granola snob. I got this recipe from Micah's mom and it is completely delish! And that also means it has been tested by picky eaters and approved (sorry Micah and Laura, but some things are just the truth.) You can add anything you like to this basic recipe...dried fruit, chocolate chips. I asked Micah if it was the same as he remembered since it was my first time to make it. He said (while it was still baking and making our house smell about 900 kinds of good) "well, it smells the same. so far it looks the same. i know it made a bunch, although mom usually ruined half of it by adding raisins." you people see what i have to work with?? all those things said were true, but it DID get a rave review the next morning.

Granola
1 one lb box of old fashioned oats
4 cups (1 jar) wheat germ
1 bag coconut
1 lb brown sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup water
1 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp vanilla
3 cups sunflower seeds

Mix all dry ingredients (I used a 1.5 gallon tupperware bowl that has a lid and just shook it all together.) Mix wet ingredients together and pour over dry. Mix all together until well coated. Bake at 225 (yes...two hundred twenty five) for 1.5 hours until good and dry. (this fills 4 cookie sheets and will require you to make it in 2 batches--unless you have more than one oven...or have a huge one...i guess) rotate your pans 1/2 way through. pour out on to wax paper when done and crumble. store in air tight container. thank me later.

next week...chicken stew.

What's for Supper Wednesday?

sorry i didn't get this out yesterday. i had every intent to get you a recipe on tuesday. but alas, tuesday got away from me. i have added a list on the right side of all of my upcoming projects. so if i go missing for a while, i'm probably weilding a paintbrush and continuing my quest to make our house a home (i mean, we've only lived here 7 years!) and so...

Broccoli Chicken Casserole
(your hubby that doesn't like broccoli, will have 2 helpings. i PROMISE!!)

you need about 2 cups of chopped cooked chicken

and about 2 cups of chopped fresh broccoli (i don't prefer stems...so this is about 2 heads of broc)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of celery soup

3/4 cup of sour cream

8 oz. velveeta

mix soups, sour cream and velveeta and heat in the microwave until the velveeta is almost all melted. in the mean time, sautee broccoli with a little butter until it becomes tender. then mix broccoli and chicken into soup mixture and pour it all into a 13x9x2 pyrex dish sprayed with pam. bake at 350 until bubbly.

when bubbly, add a sleeve of crushed ritz crackers and some french fried onions pieces. spray that with butter spray (or you can melt some of the real thing and pour it over!) bake until topping is slightly browned.

dish it up and yummmm!! serve it with some sister schubert's.

Tasty Tuesday::back by popular demand

popular as in i think only 1 or 2 said "yes...please bring it back!" the good news is that i took pictures. well, some. i am TERRIBLE at tutorials. i always forget a step or picture. this post is no exception. i got this basic recipe in college. only it included english peas. and harriette has a similar recipe that adds cream of chicken and ranch dressing mix, but no peas. and i also added corn. so is it mine b/c it is tweaked? ah, who cares. it it delish. try it. you can't go wrong. so without further adieu:

Southwest Chicken Spaghetti

What You'll Need:
2 cups boiled/chopped chicken
2/3 box spaghetti noodles boiled in the leftover chicken broth
1 can Rotel
1 can cream of chicken
1 8 oz pkg velveeta
1 small can of corn (oops...not pictured!)
1 pkg dry ranch dressing mix
handful or 2 of shredded cheese

mix together chicken and noodles.

in a saucepan, mix together rotel, cream of chicken, velveeta, corn and dressing mix until everything is melted together.

pour over chicken and noodles and mix thoroughly. spray an 8x8 pyrex dish (warning...it will be FULL!! you can also just do your regular 9x13x2 dish also.) pour in casserole dish.
sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese. cover and bake until bubbly.
serve with salad

and your my favorite dressing that you can get at sam's.

tasty tuesday-santa cookies

this one is a two-fer girls. the first one i saw in a magazine and haven't tried, but they are darn cute. the second is the recipe we use to make cookies for santa every year. the good thing is that you can change the M&Ms accordingly and then they can become easter bunny cookies. enjoy!!


Nutter Butter Santa Cookies


Tucker Family Santa Cookies (M&M cookies)
1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup regular sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups M&Ms divided


Cream together shortening and sugars. beat in eggs and vanilla. sift together dry ingredients until combined. add in 3/4-1 cup of M&Ms. roll into tsp or Tbsp size balls onto a cookie sheet (i use a stone baking pan). slightly press the top and add 2-3 M&Ms on top. bake at 350 for around 10 minutes or until lightly golden. yields 2 1/2 dozen Tbsp size or 4 dozen tsp size.

Luke & Seth 2007

Luke 2006

I just noticed that neither one of these pictures depict the M&M cookies in their entirety (is that a word?? oh well, you get the gist.)
do yall remember going to albertson's when we were little and going to the cookie section? well, they had the BEST cookies, in my little opinion, and these taste a LOT like those!!