Banana muffins

3-4 ripe bananas
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of crisco
2 eggs
3/4 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/4 cup of flour

Put sugar, crisco, sugar, and eggs and cream it. Add salt, baking soda, and flour. Add bananas last if you want it to be chunky, otherwise mix all ingredients at once. Put in paper cups in muffin pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls

4 tbsp of yeast
3 cups of warm water
1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
4 tsp of salt
6 eggs
9-10 cups of flour

If you have a kitchen aid, dissolve yeast in warm water and add all remaining ingredients except and mix. Let rise and roll out.
If you don't, follow this direction. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add remaining ingredients, except 1/2 of flour to make a soft dough. Add the rest of flour and stir in to make a stickly dough. Let rise until double.
Divide dough and roll out with lots of flour. Roll out white dough in rectangle. Spread with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Let rise again. Bake, frost while warm.
Frosting: powdered sugar, some butter, hot tap water.

French crepes

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs and milk together with an electric mixer. Beat in flour mixture until smooth; stir in melted butter.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 2 tablespoons for each crepe. Tip and rotate pan to spread batter as thinly as possible. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Chocolate Chip Raisin Oatmeal Cookies

• 3/4 cup crisco
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup oats
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1/2 cup raisins                                                               Bake at 350 for 10 minutes

Daddy's Sunday Pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups wheat flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt

4 cups milk
2 eggs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla


Directions

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg, melted butter and vanilla; mix until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Refrigerator Rolls (Not any regular recipe)

At the Stevens' house we bake this at least once a week, sometimes twice. It is that good and so easy. Especially with a kitchen aid!

2 packages of yeast (or 1 Tblsp instant yeast)
1/4 cup of warm water
1 cup of milk
1 cup warm water
7 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup sugar

Mix yeast and 1/4 cup water. Let stand until dissolved. Scald milk and cool to luke warm. Add 1 cup water, salt, eggs, oil, and sugar and beat together. Add yeast mixture. Add flour to mixture until able to knead. Use leftover flour for bread board. Knead five minutes, rest five minutes. Knead again and put into oiled bowl. Let rise in warm place until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours), or put in refrigerator overnight. If refrigerated, set out at room temperature for 1 hour before using, Divide into 32 pieces, shape and let rise until double (about 45 minutes). Bake 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees. Key note: Rolling and shaping the rolls have a huge effect on the look of the rolls. Start from top and with both hands pull top edges downward and wrap in a ball. This traps moisture inside.

If you let it rise twice as long and cook on the top rack it looks more like this!

A few favorite foods I made

Soft fluffy breadsticks
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups of warm water
1 tsp salt
4 cups of flour
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp milk
Brush with melted butter
Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and parmesan cheese!

Cook at 400 degrees for 15 minutes




Pull apart pork sandwiches
2 lbs of pork
1 can of coke
1/4 cup of sugar
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
Cook in crockpot on low over night














Skillet Eggs and pork
2 lbs of pork
6-7 boiled eggs
1 tsp of curry powder
1/4 cup of soy sauce or fish sauce
1 tsp of paprika
1 onion sliced up
1 bag of baby carrots
1 tbsp of oil

Peanut Butter Chocolate Dessert

 

To me a really good and rich dessert always involves peanut butter and chocolate. If you're allergic to peanut butter, I'm sorry. But if you aren't, this recipe is so close to home made ice cream. I sometimes freeze this and eat it throughout several weeks. Like the name says, it's rich so it forces you to have to break it up and eat it over the course of a while, usually only lasts about a week around here but, you get the idea. My husband requests it at every birthday of his, if that says something. Here it is. Enjoy and I'd love to hear your feedback when you've tried it.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup confectioner sugar (if using cream cheese)
1 carton (13 ounces) frozen whipped topping
15 miniature peanut butter cups chopped (or any candy bars you like)
1 cup cold milk
1 package of cream cheese, softened (or replace with a package of vanilla pudding mix for less fat)
1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate fudge pudding mix ( In the recipe for the picture above I used a chocolate fudge cake and added 1 package of chocolate fudge pudding mix in the cake)
20 chocolate cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies, divided (or you could use cake cubes for less calories)
2 tbsp butter melted

Crush 16 cookies, toss with the butter (or if you're using cake, cut up cake into bite size cubes)
Place on the bottom of a glass trifle dish or glass 9-in. square dish.
Beat cream cheese (or vanilla pudding according to package instruction), peanut butter and 1 cup confectioner's sugar (leave out if substituting with vanilla pudding) until smooth. Fold in half of the whipped topping. Spread over cookies or cake cubes. Sprinkle with peanut butter cups or your favorite candy bar. Repeat if you only want 2 layers. Continue onto the next step if you want more layers.
In another mixing bowl, beat the milk, pudding mix, whipped topping and remaining confectioner's sugar. Spread over peanut butter cups. Crush remaining cookies or cake crumbs and sprinkle over the top. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours. Serve cold or frozen.

 

Pump Cake (Pumpkin Pancakes) A hit at the Steven's house.

Did you know, pumpkins are very rich in carotenoids, which are known for keeping the immune system of an individual strong and healthy. Beta-carotene, found in pumpkin, is a powerful antioxidant as well as an anti-inflammatory agent. It helps prevent build up of cholesterol on the arterial walls, thus reducing chances of stroke. One more, and this may be my favorite and why I eat pumpkins and take the time to can and also freeze them each year. Being rich in alpha-carotene, pumpkin is believed to slow the process of aging!

• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoons Ginger
• 2 cups Milk
• 1 cup Fresh Pumpkin or 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  
• 1 whole Egg
• 1-½ Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. In a small bowl whisk together the milk, pumpkin, eggs and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined, being careful not to over-mix. The batter will be thick, if you like your pancakes ! Ladle batter in desired portions over a hot nonstick pan or griddle and flip when bubbles begin to break on the tops. Cook another few couple of minutes and remove from griddle.

Brazillian Lemonade

A friend of mine worked for Tucanos and let me in on their secret awesome juice, the Brazillian lemonade. Getting the juice out of the lime is the key. If you overdo it, you won't like this recipe at all. So when you put it in your blender, be sure to stand right next to your blender and just give it a few pushes. Maybe 5 or 6 pushes is all you need. Don't over blend or it will be bitter. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 limes, quartered
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
• 4-5 cups cold water, depending on the sweetness you want
  

Preparation

To get ready, set out your strainer (fine mesh) and place it over a pitcher. Place all the ingredients in a blender. Add 2 cups cold water and blend on high speed until limes are slightly chopped, then add the other remaining 2 cups of water. Stir well with spoon and strain into a pitcher using a small hole strainer. The smaller hole the strainer the better. If you like, add soda water or sprite!