Simple Artichoke Dip

My dear friend Lindsay gave me this recipe at our shower and I have been meaning to make it. There is minimal ingredients and prep work and it is so good! It was perfect to bring over to our friends' Katy and Tim's house to hand out candy for Halloween!

Excuse my lack of picture, it was gobbled right up! Trust me, it is a delight!

1 cup mayo

1 1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese (I used shredded and split it evenly between asiago and parmesan)

2 15 oz. cans of artichoke hearts in water

2 cloves fresh garlic.

Preheat oven to 350.

Drain and chop artichoke hearts

Chop up garlic

Combine all ingredients and place into a uncovered casserole dish (I used a smaller size oval Corningware, I think it was around 1 1/2 quarts).

Top with more cheese

Bake for around 20 minutes until it bubbles. Serve with Triscuits or Carrs crackers.

Pumpkin Roll Cake

This roll is one of my favorite things about fall. Now that I had all the right tools at my disposal, I couldn't wait to make this! I looked around some websites until I found a recipe that was simple enough for me to fit into my fall cleaning schedule on Sunday (sorry Paula Dean, I will try yours some day!). This one is courtesy of All Recipes.

I think mine came out OK taste wise, but I need to work on the presentation. I ended up using a jelly roll pan than what was bigger than recommended, so it is a little thin. Also, the filling doesn't go to the edges, so there is some non-filling parts. I think if I would have used the right pan size, it would have been perfect.

3 eggs

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup canned pumpkin

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped walnuts * (see my note below)

6 oz. cream cheese softened

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. In mixing bowl, beat eggs on high for 5 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar until thick and lemon colored. Add pumpkin and lemon juice.
3. In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Fold into pumpkin mixture.
4. Grease a 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour the paper. Spread batter into the pan. Sprinkle with walnuts* (I actually missed this part and added them when I spread out the filling).
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes or until the cake springs cake when lightly touched.
6. Immediately turn out onto a dish towel dusted with confectioners sugar. Peel off paper and roll cake up into towel, starting at the short end. Cool completely.
7. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, 1 cup confectioners' sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.
8. Carefully unroll the cake. Spread the filling over the cake to within 1 inch of the edges. Roll up again. Cover and chill until serving. Dust with additional confectioners' sugar if desired.

BBQ Ranch Chicken

I have been meaning to blog this recipe the last 3 times I have made it and finally remember to take a picture tonight! We love this super simple and tasty recipe courtesy of Molly. This is one of our simple go-to chicken dishes we can make during the week with minimal prep work and dishes! Try it...you will love the simplicity and great flavor!

I made this with just 2 chicken breasts, but here is the original:

4 chicken breasts

3/4 cup BBQ sauce (I used appx. 2/3 cup)

3/4 cup ranch dressing (I used appx. 2/3 cup)

Shredded Cheddar cheese

Chopped green onions (optional)

Bacon bits (optional)

Mix ranch and BBQ sauce together and pour over the chicken in a frying pan. Let simmer on medium to high heat for around 20-30 minutes until cooked.

I usually flip them a few times while cooking. I usually have a lot of sauce left over, so I pour some on top. The chicken never gets dry for me, but if the sauce mixture starts to dry out, you can always add some water.

Sprinkle with shredded cheddar, green onions and bacon bits. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Work has been so insanely busy for me lately, that I have not had enough time to cook and bake as much as I was hoping to this month. So, Friday night, I sat down and looked for some fall recipes to make this weekend since we didn't have a whole lot going on for a change.

Steve and I love to go out to breakfast on the weekend. Last weekend, we went to a place our friends Lisa and Joe recommended in Ferndale (we also call Ferndale the "Breakfast Capital of Michigan"), Club Bart. I was dead set on getting pumpkin pancakes, but decided on an omelette instead. It was delightful. The place looks like a total hole in the wall dive bar, but the breakfast menu was impressive. If you are ever in the neighborhood, go check it out (Elizabeth and Paul...next time you are in town, we will go out to brunch there!). But I digress...

So, I really wanted to make pumpkin pancakes this weekend to make up for not getting them last weekend. I found this recipe on All Recipes and loved it! Full of pumpkin flavor and easy to make.

This made enough for Steve and I to have 4 pancakes each (not overly huge, maybe around 4" across) and we had batter left over for next weekend. I hope it stays good in the fridge!

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground allspice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 egg

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons vinegar

In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. (I used my hand mixer to mix it up well.

Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, all spice, cinnamon, ginger and salt. (as I am typing this, I realized I forgot baking powder...whoops. It still turned out OK for us!)

Stir into the liquid ingredients just enough to combine. (Used the hand mixer again)

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium to high heat. We have one of those fancy electric skillets, so I had the temperature at 375 if you have one of those. Pour or scoop batter onto heated griddle, using appx. 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown both sides and serve hot.

I sprinkled them with a little bit of powdered sugar per Steve's request for "presentation". :)

Apple Cake

I grew up having this often thanks to my mom making it. It is so simple and so good! The hardest part is peeling the apples. Thanks to my Grandma Van for giving me the recipe for our shower!

1 1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs beaten

3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 cups apples, peeled sliced (make them into about 1 inch in size). I used Macintosh

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 300.

Combine oil and sugar, blend in eggs. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to oil and sugar mixture. Add vanilla extract, apples and walnuts. Place in greased 9x13 inch pan and bake for 1 hour, 20 minutes in a 300 degree oven.

Homemade Applesauce

My mom had picked up some Macintosh apples for us last weekend, since I wanted to bake apple cake. I had peeled too many for my cake, so I had to figure out in a hurry what to use them for since they were getting brown before my eyes.

I didn't want to make more sweet goodies to lay around the house and I wanted something simple. I Googled a few applesauce recipes and something similar to this one. Simple and quick. And boy was it a delight warm!

Here is my version:

4 apples, peeled cored and chopped (I used Macintosh)

1/2 cup of water

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Add apples and water to pot. Bring water to a boil. Allow to boil at a medium/high heat for around 20 minutes. Add sugar, allow it to dissolve then add the cinnamon. Stir until well blended.

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

I have made this recipe we got at our shower from Steve's best friend's wife, Dacia. We love it! It is almost like a wet burrito rather than enchiladas and it is so easy. We have made some modifications which I included here. The modifications started because of what we had in the house and we think it came out fabulously!

Sorry...no picture. It really isn't a attractive dish, it is more like a hot, gooey mexican blob of goodness. :)

8 medium size flour tortillas (I think they are considered burrito size), we use 6 and stuff 'em nice and fat.

4 large chicken breasts (we usually use 3 Costco size)

2 cans cream of chicken soup (we use one cream of chicken and one cream of mushroom...again, this started from having one of each in the house and it worked. It gives it a great flavor)

1/2 cup of salsa (we usually use about a cup of enchilada sauce)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 cooking dish and set aside.

Cook chicken and chop or shred into small pieces.

Mix chicken, salsa (or enchilada sauce), 1/2 cup of shredded cheese together and set aside.

In separate bowl, combine soup and sour cream. Place a spoonful of soup mixture and a spoonful of chicken mixture inside each tortilla (I usually use one heaping spoonful of soup mixture and spread it out on the tortilla and at least 2 spoonfuls of chicken since we are only using 6 tortillas).

Roll up and place seam side down in the dish. Pour remainder of soup mixture over the enchiladas and cover with remaining cheese.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Let sit out for about 5 minutes before serving so it will set a bit.