Crepes

Crepes--Oh La La!

Okay, I have to tell you that I am not allowed to make these very often, because we don't just have crepes, we have crepes with all the fixings.  Recently we had family up and one told that her mom made these a lot, but later she said that they just eat butter and sprinkled sugar on them.....oh, no, if you are going to eat crepes you must have cream cheese and powdered sugar and fruit, and okay, let me just give a favorite recipes for fillings that I have come up with, after the crepe recipe.

Crepes:
2 eggs

1 cup milk

2/3 cup flour

1 pich salt

1 1/2 tsp veg oil

Mix all in the blender--I usually double this for my family and it still might come up short.  It also said on the allrecipe.com site wher I got this from that you should refrigerate for one hour, but I never have and it is always great.  Cook 1/4 cup at a time in a heated, greased, or oiled, non-stick pan on both sides until golden brown.

Toppings and Fillings

Raspberry Cream:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 jar raspberry jam

blend and stuff!!

Lemon Sauce

(Which is awesome over the raspbery cream-filled crepe):

1 C Water

1/4 C Karo Syrup

(this originally called for honey or maple syrup, but I didn't hink it did the job and switched to Karo which was perfect)

1/4 C Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 tsp lemon peel

Comine all but peel in saucepan over med. heat until clear and slightly thick.  Remove from heat and add peel.

Cream Cheese and your Favorite Jam:

Just take some softened cream cheese, mix in your favorite jam to the consistency that you can spread on a crepe, roll and eat!!

My favorite??  Strawberry Plum Jelly that I made--sweet and tart, yum!

My kids also like their crepes with plain maple syrup and sprinkled with powdered sugar. 

Or, just add jam, peanut butter, or both.

One that I have yet to try is adding chocolate chips and sliced banana after you flip the crepe, so the chocolate melts!

Or just whipped cream and fruit.

I'd LOVE to hear your favorites!!

 

Lemon Cream:

1 8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 Tbsp Lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 small whipped cream

Blend all but whip cream, which you fold in after.

You can add fruit to this, or not.  We love to fill the crepe with the lemon cream and top with a flavored syrup, like chokecherry, blueberry, etc.

Lasagna Stuffed Shells

Okay, I got my hubby on this one.  He was not very excited, but by the time he tried it, he had admit that it was pretty darn wonderful!

I cooked a whole box of jumbo pasta shells, and drained.  In the mean-time I mixed 3 cups cottage cheese with 2 eggs, about a cup and a half of shredded mozzarella, though it called for the 1/2 to be parmesan I didn't have any on hand and didn't miss it too much.   Also add 2 Tbs of dried parsley and a teaspoon of salt and 1/2 tsp of black pepper.  Mix that and fill the shells. 

For the sauce, I used a big can of Hunt's spaghetti sauce, and 1 lb of ground sausgage, though the recipe called for beef and had it's own sauce.  Pour the sauce over the stuffed shells in a 9x13 pan and sprinkle with another 1/2 cup of mozzarella.  Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes!!

My kids all loved it--which was shocking, because there is always one that doesn't.  They normally like lasagna, but with chicken and not with sausage, so I was happily surprised.

1 Box Jumbo Shells

3 cup Cottage Chees

2 eggs

2 cup mozzarella (or 1/2 of it parmesan)

2 Tbsp Dried Parsley

1 tsp Salt

1/2 Tsp pepper

1 Large can Spaghetti Sauce

1 lb ground sausage

Stuffed Chicken and Pasta

This is known as 'Chicken Eileen" on the allrecipes site--1 pkg of stuffing mix prepared and 8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, and 16 slices of mozzarella.

Pound out the chichekn to 1/2 inch thick and place a slice of cheese and scoop of stuffing on each breast before closing with toothpicks.  Top each with the other slices of cheese.  Bake in a greased 9 x 13 --the recipe said 25 minutes at 350, it took me 15 minutes longer and I upped the last 50 minutes to 375.

Then, I needed a side dish, so here is what I came up with, thinking my family would maybe hate it....SURPRISE!!!  THEY LOVED IT!

Tiny pasta shells, I guess a 16 oz bag?  I am so bad at recipes, since I just throw everything in.  Cook according to package.  Then I sprinled a bunch of pramesan cheese--and I only had the dried, in the shaker.  Then, I added a bag of frozen corn (I think when we froze it from the garden last year that I put three cups in each bag).  I used garlic salt and pepper to my liking and tossed it in olive oil over low heat.  Can I say YUM one more time!

Pizza and Breadsticks, Our Favorite--OH YUM!

Okay, this is an at least once a month staplein our home--and a request by family when they come to visit .  I love to make pizza and breadsticks, almost as much as I love to eat it and am pretty prejudice about my pizza versus most other kinds whether from a restaraunt or store.

Here's the breadstick recipe:

Breadsticks

3 C Warm Water

2 Tbsp Yeast

4 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

6 C Flour

　

Mix and rest 10 minutes.

Melt ½ cube of butter. Now you can either pour the butter onto two jelly roll pans, or save it to brush on. Sometimes (this is the quickest method) I divide dough into tow halves and roll each half the size of the pan, put it on the pan in the butter, flip it over, so it gets butter on the top, then sprinkle with garlic salt and parmesan cheese from the shaker. After that I take a pizza cutter and cut down the middle length-wise and in one-two in strips width-wise. When I am ambitious, I cut into strips, twist, put on the pan, brush with butter, and sprinkle with salt and cheese. These kind are better spaced apart from each other. They then rise for 19 minutes in an oven that was warmed to 200 degrees and then shut off. At the end of the 19 minutes turn the oven on to 375 and bake for 20 minutes.

Now, onto the pizza!!  For the pizza I follow the same recipe for the dough as the breadsticks.  I can get two deep dish pizzas on cookie sheets, or one deep dish and a pan of breadsticks and a small (round) thinner crust pizza out of one batch., or two large rounds and one smaller.
Barbeque Chicken Pizza

I fry sliced onion and green pepper on the stove first, then use my favorite BBQ sauce for the pizza sauce.  After that comes the onions and peppers and diced or shredded chicken and mozzarella.

Hawaiian and Sausage Pizza's

Hawaiian is of course done with canadian bacon and tidbit pineapple, so that takes up one half  and our kids love country-style sausage browned and put on their half.

'Cowboy' Pizza

Stealing the name from Papa Murphy's my parents were coming out one time and my mom said that my dad liked the 'cowboy' kind, so I did what I could with what I had and now it is a favorite.  It has pepperoni, sausage, diced olives and canned mushrooms.  Even for people who might not like olives or mushrooms, it is wirth a try!!

 More favorites are:

Chicken Alfredo:

Alfredo as the sauce, shredded chicken and mozzarella, sprinkled with parmesan and diced green onion.

Pepperoni:

Lots of pepperoni, lots of cheese!

Taco:

Refried beans are used instead of sauce, ground beef or chicken, and cheese, you can use onions, tomatos, peppers, whatever floats your boat.  Top with sour cream, salsa and shredded lettuce, too!

Valentine's Day Dinner