Ice Cream Cake Roll

1/3 Cup cake flour
1/3 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tblsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
4 large eggs, separated
3/4 Cup white sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 15 x 10 inch pan with waxed or baking paper. Grease and flour lined pan, tap out excess flour.

In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well. In a separate bowl, using mixer on medium speed, beat egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar until fluffy. This takes several minutes.

In a small mixing bowl, using clean beaters, beat egg whites on high until foamy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar, beating until stiff, but not dry, peaks form. They should hold their shape well. This also takes several minutes.

Fold 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Alternately fold in remaining whites and flour mixture. Pour batter onto pan, it will be thick. Smooth top as level as possible. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Dust a clean cloth very lightly with powdered sugar, or white sugar. Turn cake onto prepared cloth, remove baking paper.

Starting with long side tightly roll up cake with cloth. Transfer cake, seam side down to a wire rack to cool.

Unroll cake, remove cloth. Slice slabs of ice cream and lay them on cake until it is covered to within 1/4 inch of edge. Re-roll cake, place seam side down on large piece of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly and freeze until firm. Slice and enjoy!

Use vanilla or chocolate or whatever flavor you like. Try serving on a chocolate drizzled plate and top with more chocolate sauce or berries. Another variation is to fill the roll with Cool Whip rather than ice cream.

It may not be as good as Farr's but it is very yummy!

Quesadillas

Quesadillas are so yummy!

An easy and fast way to fix them up is to place the tortilla on a baking sheet, chop up veggies, meat, and cheese and layer it thinly on 1/2 the tortilla. Fold the tortilla over in half, and place the sheet in the oven on broil (set the timer for 1-2 minutes or it will BURN) and then voila! you have food ready to eat! My kids like to eat them in 1/4 or 1/8 slices, using two tortillas stacked together with the yummy mixture inside. I really like zucchini and mozarella cheese quesadillas.
Another is chicken, broccoli, and mozarella quesadillas.

This is a super fast, super easy lunch or dinner. There are too many combos to type up, again, creativity is key. Post additional ideas in the comments section, and we can get some great easy meals out of this!

Experiment with salads

Bob and I love to experiment with salads. We usually just start with the plain bagged salad, and then scrounge around the pantry for interesting additions. Yesterday for lunch I made the following:
I started with some bagged romaine salad. Then I added 1/2 chicken breast, a handful of cut up orange, a handful of apple cut up small, some pineapple, crushed pecans, 1 T shredded cheddar cheese, 1 swirl of ranch around the bowl, and a dash of lime juice. Sorry about the un-measured ingredients, but it just was a bit of experimenting. I mixed all together and it was yummy!

One of my favorite recipes.

One of my absolute favorite recipes is so simple and easy.

It involves the following ingredients.

Phone.
Money.
About a 1/2 hour of waiting.

Call Papa Johns and get a Hawaiin pizza!! :)

Just kidding (sort of). Here is really one of my favorite recipes:

Monkey Bread

Heat to warm 1 cube butter and ¾ milk.

Mix 3 eggs, ¾ C sugar and 1 tsp salt.

Add to milk and butter.

Dissolve 1pkg dry yeast in ¼ C lukewarm water and 1tsp sugar.

Add to milk, butter, eggs etc.

Add 2½ C flour and mix well.

Add another 2½ C flour to make soft dough. Knead well. Place in buttered bowl and cover. Let rise 1 hour. Punch down and shape as follows: Roll out the dough to about ¾ inch thickness. Cut in strips about 1 inch width. Cut in pieces about 2 inches long. Dunk in melted butter and then in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place in tube pan and let rise another 45 minutes. Bake at 350. Cool for 10 minutes and invert.

Served best with hot chocolate and it is a very good seasonal gift during the holidays. You can only eat it with your fingers - no slicing the monkey bread allowed!!

Creamy Chicken Pasta Soup

This recipe is from Jeanene Davey, who is a fantastic cook.

3 T butter
4 oz. button mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup celery (Bob thinks these are optional!)
1 cup shredded carrots
3 T flour
6 cups chicken stock
1.5 cups half and half
2 T parsley
1.5 pounds chicken breasts, cooked and cut up
1 cup penne pasta
1/4 cup sugar snap peas, halved (or you can use green peas)
3 T lemon juice

Cook penne pasta according to package directions and set aside (10 minutes or so). Melt butter in pot, add mushrooms, celery, carrots and onion. Cook until tender (5 minutes). Add flour and cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add half & half and parsley. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add chicken, simmer another 5 minutes. Mix in cooked pasta and peas. Mix in lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Total time 25 (provided that you have pre-cooked chicken!)

Alfredo Lasagna

Can you tell we have been having a noodle fest?

Ingredients: Lasagna noodles, 1 stick of butter, 1 pack of cream cheese, milk, Parmesan cheese, cottage cheese, spinach, mushrooms, chicken

Cook noodles according to directions, lay out to cool.

Make sauce: 1 stick of butter, 1 pack of cream cheese, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Melt and boil softly in pan. Add more cheese or milk to make it creamy - you don't want it too buttery or thick. (This should make a nice creamy alfredo sauce - my kids favorite noodle topping! Adding other cheeses is fun and delicious too - we have tried all sorts!)

Layer sauce on bottom of pan, then noodles, cottage cheese, thawed spinach, mushrooms, and bite-size (cooked) chicken. Repeat layers 3 times. Bake in over at 350 for 1/2 hour or until golden brown.

Dresden

Lasagna

Boil noodles according to directions, lay out to cool.
Make Raylene's yummy spaghetti sauce (I'm assuming we all have that essential recipe)...
Make cottage cheese mixture with 1/2 cottage cheese container, 1 T italian seasoning, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. This can be modified also, depending on what you have in the fridge!
Layer in a 9X13 pan:
Sauce on bottom

Noodles
2 spoonfuls of cheese mixture per long noodle
Sauce (enough to barely cover the noodle)
Mozzarella cheese (or other cheese)
Freshly cut tomatoes (this really was the yummy part!)

Repeat 3 times, and end with sauce and mozzarella cheese on top.
Put in fridge for the NEXT day's dinner. This lets all the flavors mix in really well and "solidifies" it so that it is not lasagna soup.

Bake at 350 for about an hour, or until it starts getting golden on top and you can smell it!
Enjoy!
Dresden