Beth's grandma's crescent rolls

 
What I had:

• ¾ cup warm water
• 2 packages/ 0.5 ounce yeast
• 4 cup flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup Crisco

What I did:

• Dissolved yeast in water. Add all ingredients, saving half the flour.
• Stir, then add rest of the flour, mix until smooth
• Cover and let rise for 1.5 hrs
• Divide in half, roll each half out in a circle and cut into 8 sections like pizza
• Roll into crescents, brush with melted butter, sprinkle salt/sesame seeds/everything bagel seasoning
• Cover and let rise for half an hour
• Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes
• Try not to eat them all in 15 minutes or less!

Cranberry Chutney

What I had:

• 1 ½ cup mango cubes, thawed if frozen
• 1 ½ cup fresh cranberries (half the amount if using dried cranberries)
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cinnamon stick, about 2 inches
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

What I did:

• In a saucepan on a medium low flame, cook all the ingredients for the chutney for 7-10 minutes.
• Once it reaches a jelly-like chutney consistency, turn off the flame. Keep in mind that chutney thickens further upon cooling.
• Discard the cinnamon stick prior to serving.

 

Cheesy bacon potatoes

What you need:

• Some number of red potatoes, sliced about a quarter inch thick
• Your favorite cheese, shredded, enough to cover all the potato slices
• Crumbled bacon, as much as you want
• Your favorite butter or butter like product

What to do:

• Brush the butter on both sides of the potato slices, I used Country Crock.
• Lay them on an untreated pan, bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Turn them over, bake for another 10 minutes.
• Cover each slice with shredded cheese and then some bacon.
• Bake for another 10 minutes.
• Let cool or burn your mouth and enjoy.

Pardon my dirty baking sheet but they were going way to fast to wait for a plate. And they were a perfect accompaniment to our steak tonight.

Vegetable Tian

What I had:

• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 yellow squash, sliced thin
• 1 zucchini. sliced thin
• 2 medium white potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 large tomato, sliced thin
• variety of spices, I used salt, paprika, garlic, parsley
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• olive oil

What I did:

• Cooked garlic and onions in olive oil till soft
• Sprayed an 8X8 glass baking pan
• Layered garlic and onions on the bottom
• Created rows of sliced vegetables, alternating them for beauty
• Sprinkled spices over the vegetables
• Covered with aluminum foil and cooked at 400 degrees for 30 minutes
• Removed the foil, sprinkled cheese over everything and cooked for another 15 minutes

It was delicious! One note, for next time, I would put spices on all vegetables before lining them up in the pan to more evenly distribute the flavor.

Garlic knots

What I had:

• a can of refrigerated biscuits
• 1/4 cup meted butter
• powdered garlic
• dried oregano
• parmesan cheese

What I did:

• take biscuits out of the can and cut each in half
• roll each half into long strings
• knot each string
• mix rest of ingredients and brush over each knot 
• bake at 450 for 9-12 minutes keeping an eye on the bread till it's brown
• brush some more of the butter mixture as soon as you take the knots out of the oven
•  eat them all within 15 minutes enjoy as a side with your favorite meal

Pasta salad

What you need:

• a box of any colorful pasta. I've used Wacky Mac, tri-colored rotini, plain shells (though the colorful pasta looks prettier)
• a pint of grape tomatoes, cut in halves
• a pint of olives, any pitted ones you like, cut in halves
• 8 oz feta cheese or goat cheese
• a bag of mini pepperoni
• some hard salami slices, chopped smaller
• some Genoa salami slices, chopped smaller
• a red or orange bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch thin slices
• a red onion, cut into 1/2 inch thin slices
• 2 tsp oregano
• salt & pepper to taste
• garlic powder to your taste
• olive oil
• balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

Boil pasta according to directions. Rinse with cold water pretty well so it's not hot. Throw it into a big glass bowl. Add all the dry ingredients. Mix well. Add about 2 tbsp of olive oil and 2 tbsp of vinegar to start with. Mix it well. You want all the ingredients coated, not swimming in the sauce. Add more if needed. Put it in the fridge for a couple hours, it lets the sauce actually infuse the ingredients and it tastes so much better cold.

Variations I've done: used fat free Italian dressing or any vinaigrette dressing instead of oil & vinegar

Cornbread recipe

I need to type this out because I have made this a gazillion times but never recorded it and I forgot some items today as I was telling a friend what to do.

Ingredients:

• 2 packages corn muffin mix
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cans creamed corn
• 2 cans any other kinda corn
• 2 cups shredded cheese
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 4 chopped jalapeno peppers

Melt butter slightly in microwave. Add everything else and mix well. Pour into a greased 9X13 pan. Bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes. Keep an eye on the top so it doesn't burn. The middle will be slightly wobbly, let it sit for 10ish minutes to let it set.

Enjoy!