A twist on a sandwich

Chicken Alfredo Stromboli

1 French baguette (5 ounces), halved lengthwise

6 ounces boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

1 teaspoon olive oil

4 teaspoons butter, softened

¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup sour cream

¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated

½ - ¾ cup mozzarella cheese

Place bread, cut side up, on an ungreased baking sheet. Broil 4-6 inches from the heat for 2-3 minutes or until lightly toasted, set aside. In a small skillet, sauté chicken in oil and 1 teaspoon of butter until the chicken juices run clear; drain. Add salt, garlic powder, and pepper; cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer. In a small bowl combine the sour cream, Parmesan and remaining butter; spread over the bread halves. Top each with 2/3 of a cup of the chicken mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Broil for 1 to 2 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Yield: 2 servings

This is a fast and easy Stromboli to make. It has a wonderful flavor and goes great with potato chips, but French fries or potato wedges would go well too. My mom and I made this together this summer and we both liked it very much. Make sure you use all of the sour cream and Parmesan cheese mixture or it may seem dry. The recipe calls for ½ cup of mozzarella on top, but we really like cheese, so put as much on as you like, it also helps keep the Stromboli moist. If you have leftover, wrap them in tin foil and put them in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them. You can eat it cold, or you can put the sandwich, still wrapped in tin foil in the oven and about 400 degrees and warm it up that way. Doing this will keep it from getting chewy. I hope you enjoy this Stromboli.

The Best Cake Ever!

Strawberry Preserve Cake

2 ½ cups cake flour

1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup butter, softened

1 ½ cup sugar

¾ cup strawberry preserves

4 large eggs

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk

Red food coloring paste

1 recipe Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing-follows

Line the bottoms of 2 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper. Lightly coated with cooking spray, set aside. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed for 4 minutes. Add preserves and then eggs. Add vanilla and red food coloring. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture, alternately with buttermilk. Divide batter evenly between two pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely on wire rack. Spread icin between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Strawberry Cream-Cheese Icing

1 (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup strawberry preserves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups powdered sugar

1 pinch of salt

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter at medium high speed for  2 to 3 minutes. Add preserves and vanilla mix until incorporated. Add powdered sugar and salt, mix until smooth.

This is one of the best cakes I have ever made, it is very rich, so a little piece goes a long way. Make sure you don’t store the cake in the refrigerator or it will get very hard. Just cover it so it is air tight. I hope you enjoy this wonderful recipe as much as I have.

Pumkin Bread

As I mentioned earlier, I have won many awards at both the county and state fair level, so with Fall on its way I thought I would share with you the recipe that got me a best of class ribbon at the county level and a superior ribbon at the state level, and that is the pumpkin bread recipe I always use. I originally got it out of a Kraft Cookbook.

Pumpkin Bread

1 16 ounce can pumpkin

1 cup butter

4 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup water

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 cups granulated sugar

4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Combine pumpkin, buter, eggs, and water in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt. Add to wet ingredients and mix well. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9x5 inch loaf pans. Bake 1 hour. Cool 5 minutes then remove from pans onto a cooling rack.

*If you don't have pumpkin pie spice you can use a teaspoon of each of the following:

cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice

This is another family favorite, it is always super moist. It is best shortly after it is out of the oven, so it is cool enough to cut and handle, but warm enough to melt butter. The butter gives it a wonderful flavor. If you can’t eat it right out of the oven, put some butter on it and stick it in the microwave until the butter melts. I hope you enjoy this recipe, my family sure has!

Family Favorites

My husband always asks for two different recipes that I make, they are very easy, so I never complain. One is tater tot casserole, I have come across many tater tot casserole recipes, but we like the one I grew up on the most.

32 ounce package tater tots, frozen
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pound hamburger
1 can french style green beans

In a 2 1/2 quart casserole dish crumble half of the raw hamburger, to cover the bottom, then spread half of the cream of mushroom soup on top of the hamburger, then half of the green beans on top of that, and finally arrange the tater tots on top. Repeat layers. Cook, uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy.

The second recipe that my husband always asks for is Salisbury Steak. With this, I always serve a vegetable and homemade mashed potatoes.

1 pound hamburger
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 egg
1/4 water

Mix the hamburger, half of one can of soup and the egg in a small bowl, you need to use your hands. Form into 4 patties and place in a hot electric skillet, or large over the stove skillet. Brown both sides. Meanwhile mix the remaining soup and water in the same bowl and pour over the patties. Cook until the meat is done, about 25 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes and a vegetable.

I hope you enjoy my husbands favorite recipes! And maybe someday you will have these recipes memorized like I do

Turkey Piccata

Turkey Piccata

¼ cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 package (17.6 ounce) turkey cutlets

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup chicken broth

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley

1 tablespoon capers, drained

In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper. Add turkey slices, one at a time and turn to coat. In a large skillet, cook turkey in oil in batches for 2 to 5 minutes on each side. Remove to a serving platter and keep warm. In the same skillet, add broth. Bring to a boil; cook until liquid is reduced by half. Stir in butter and lemon juice; cook and stir for 30 seconds or until butter is melted. Add parsley and capers; pour over turkey.

For this recipe you can substitute boneless skinless chicken breasts for the turkey cutlets, just make sure you pound them to about ½ inch thickness. The cooking time is the same. I love piccata, the “gravy” is wonderful, because the chicken broth cooks long enough to reduce by half and because of the remaining flour in the skillet from the meat, it thickens a little, but not too much, it is a very light gravy with a wonderful taste. This meal is good with mashed or baked potatoes or rice and any type of vegetable you like. You can adjust the heartiness of the meal with the type of side you choose. The meat itself if pretty light, but if you add mashed potatoes it will make the meal a little heavier, but rice will keep it on the light side. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family has.

Makeover Toffee Cruch Dessert

I thought I would share with you another one of my favorite recipes. This one is a family faviorite, and whenever I take it anywhere, everyone is always asking for the recipe. It is out of the New Taste of Home Comfort Food Diet Cookbook.

1 1/2 cups cold fat-free milk
1 package (1 ounce) sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
2 cartons (8 ounces each) frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed
1 prepared angel food cake (8 to 10 ounces), cut into 1 inch cubes *I make my own cake, because I like the taste better
4 Butterfinger candy bars (2.1 ounces each), crushed

In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Stir in 2 cups whippind topping. Fold in the remaining whipped topping. In a 13-in x 9-in dish coated with cooking spray, layer half of the cake cubes, pudding mixture and crushed candy bars. Repeat layers. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Nutrition Facts: 3/4 cup equals 177 calories, 3 g fat, 255 mg sodium, 33 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 3 g protein

This is a dessert that is relatively healthy for you, but you can't tell, because it still tastes wonderful. When I tell people that it is pretty good for you, for a dessert, they always laugh, but then I tell them that I use all fat free and sugar free ingredient, except for the candy bars, and they say they had no idea.

I hope you enjoy this dessert as much as my family and I do.

10 Most Useful Cooking Websites

 1. Food Network – www.foodnetwork.com

2. Betty Crocker – www.bettycrocker.com/recipes

3. Taste of Home – www.tasteofhome.com/recipes

4. Kraft – www.kraftrecipes.com

5. Cooking Light – www.cookinglight.com

6. Weight Watchers – www.weightwatchers.com

7. Better Homes and Garden - www.bhg.com/recipes/

8. Cooks.com

9. allrecipes.com

10. food.com

I have used all of these websites at one point or another. If you know what you want to make, but don’t have the recipe memorized, and don’t want to take the time to look through all of your cookbooks, these cooking websites make it very simple.  All you have to do in type in the  recipe you are looking for in the search box and you should get multiple recipes so you can be picky and choose the one that sounds best to you. If the website doesn’t give you any results, try simplifying your search by typing in the main ingredient. The two websites I use the most are cooks.com and foodnetwork.com. Cooks.com gives you a wide variety of recipes, but most are simple and easy to make. Foodnetwork.com has more complex recipes, but they normally have a complexity rating on the recipe itself, so you can tell if it is something you are capable of making. Cooks.com, allrecipes.com, and food.com all are a dictionary of websites. Once you type something into the search box it will give you links to other websites and a list of possible recipes. These websites really help you see what type of recipes and cooking advice are available to you on the internet, and the more you use them the easier it will be.