Chocolate Crackle Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks butter)
• 2 tablespoons water
• 12 oz. package semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• Rolos (if you so choose)
• Confectioners sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a medium sauce pan combine brown sugar, butter and water. Heat on med until butter has melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat and let stand at least 5 minutes. Beat eggs into the chocolate mixture. Gradually add in dry ingredients. Let the the dough stand for 10 minutes or until cool. Roll into 48 one-inch balls. Place 1 ball in each indentation of a mini-muffin pan. Bake 8 minutes. Remove from oven. Immediately press an un-wrapped Rolos candy, top side down, into each cookie. When cooled, sprinkle with Confectioners sugar and carefully remove each cookie from the pan. Enjoy!

Variation: use mini Reese's Peanut Butter Cups rather than Rolos

Layered Doritos Casserole

Ingredients

• 1 (10 oz.) bag Doritos, Nacho Cheese flavor
• 2 T. dried chopped onion
• 1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 can beans of your choice (black, kidney, or pinto), drained
• 1 package low sodium taco seasoning
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
• 2 cups shredded cheese (cheddar or Tex-Mex blend)

Optional toppings

• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Olives
• Sour Cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place salsa in a strainer to drain while preparing beef.
2. Cook ground beef with onion and garlic until no pink remains. Drain any fat, if necessary. Add drained beans, taco seasoning, and water. Stir until thickened and remove from heat.
3. In a large bowl, combine drained salsa, sour cream, soup, and 1 cup of cheese. Add in beef and stir well.
4. Slightly crush Doritos (not completely, you don't want crumbs). Layer Doritos in the bottom of a 2 quart casserole dish . Top with ½ of the beef mixture. Repeat layers. Finally top with an additional layer of Doritos and remaining cheese.
5. Spray a piece of foil with cooking spray and cover casserole. Bake 30 minutes covered, remove foil and bake uncovered for an additional 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Top with lettuce, tomatoes and olives if desired.

Note: I used Valerie's Refried Beans Without the Refry (but not smashed) instead of canned beans. I also tripled the recipe and placed it in a huge foil pan from Sam's Club (one of those chafing dish pans). It will be perfect for our neighborhood party tonight!

Butternut Squash, Sausage, and Wild Rice Soup

This soup is sooo yummy! We've had it the way it is listed and it is delish, but today we made it without the half and half (cuz we didn't have any and forgot that ingredient) and substituted brown rice for the wild rice and it was still very good.

Courtesy of http://emerils.com/123438/butternut-squash-sausage-and-wild-rice-soup

INGREDIENTS

• One 1 1/2- to 2-pound butternut squash, cut in half, seeds and strings removed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 quarts Chicken Stock or
• canned low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
• 1 cup wild rice
• 3/4 pound kielbasa or other smoked sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 2 cups fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels (about 2 large fresh ears of corn)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 400?F.
• Rub the cut sides of the squash halves with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Place on a baking sheet flesh side down and roast until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
• Let the squash cool until easy to handle, then scoop the flesh from the skin with a large spoon. PurÈe the butternut flesh with 2 cups of the stock in a food processor or blender.
• Bring 4 cups of the stock and 1/2 cup of the chopped onions to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the wild rice. Return to the simmer, cover, and cook until the rice is tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Set aside.
• Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the sausage and cook just until browned, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups onions, the corn, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are softened, about 4 minutes. Add the remaining 6 cups stock and the squash purÈe and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and skimming any fat that rises to the surface.
• Stir in the rice and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the half-and-half and parsley.
• Serve hot ladled into bowls.

J-Dawg's Homemade BBQ Sauce

J-Dawg's Homemade BBQ Sauce
J-Dawg's is a restaurant in Utah Valley (created by a BYU business student). Jesse has been there several times and likes their "dawgs." I found this recipe on the Internet, so Jaret made the sauce and served it on a bun with grilled Hillshire Farm Beef Smoked Sausage which he grilled on his George Foreman Grill. We learned that the sausage is too big for his grill, and we should have cut it in half (lengthwise). One package of sausage made 4 servings how we did it, but if we had cut it in half, it would have made 8 servings. This meal was served with corn on the cob and watermelon.

3/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp. cider vinegar
1 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. onion powder

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and heat until almost boiling. Remove from heat, cool, and serve on grilled hot dogs with good quality buns. If you add criss cross X's all down the dog before grilling, you have more surface area for the sauce.

We used dill pickles and banana peppers as condiments. The restaurant also offers jalapenos, sauerkraut, and yellow mustard. On request, they also have ketchup, celery salt, mayo, relish, and spice brown mustard.

Best-Ever BBQ Ribs

Best-Ever Barbecued Ribs
(We ALL agree with this title! The ribs really were the best-ever! It's the first time we've had baby back ribs at our house. I think you could easily substitute boneless spare ribs which are typically a lot less expensive than the baby back ribs. I think the DRY RUB is the key to making ribs "best-ever." I've never used a dry-rub before on the spare ribs we've cooked, but this recipe has changed my way of thinking about ribs!)

DRY RUB:
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper

3 - 3 1/2 lbs well-trimmed pork baby back ribs, cut into 4-rib pieces

BBQ SAUCE of your choice (we used Sweet Baby Ray's), or:
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T. packed dark brown sugar
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. soy sauce

Combine dry rub ingredients. Sprinkle over meaty sides of ribs and rub mixture into meat. Place ribs in crock pot. Cover; cook on LOW 7-8 hours or HIGH 3-4 hours or until ribs are tender.

Combine sauce ingredients, or use favorite BBQ sauce of your choice. Remove ribs from crock pot; discard cooking liquid. Coat ribs with sauce; return ribs to crock pot and cook on HIGH 30 minutes, or until ribs are glazed. We served the ribs with French fries and corn on the cob.

Chunky Chili

Chunky Chili
1 lb 90% lean ground beef
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) diced tomatoes, undrained (we used a quart of tomatoes, blended)
2 can (15 oz each) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup prepared salsa
2 T. chili powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. each salt and black pepper
Toppings: shredded cheese, diced onions, black olives

Cook and stir beef and onion in large skillet at medium-high heat until beef is browned and onion is tender. Drain and discard fat. Place beef mixture, tomatoes with juice, beans, salsa, and seasonings in crock pot; stir. Cover; cook on LOW 5-6 hours or until flavors are blended. Serve with toppings, if desired. We had this with scones made from Rhodes rolls.

Chinese Cashew Chicken

Chinese Cashew Chicken
1 can (16 oz) bean sprouts, drained (we used a package of fresh sprouts)
2 cups sliced cooked chicken (we used 2 cooked chicken breasts)
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 cup sliced celery (we sliced diagonally)
1/2 cup chopped green onions with tops (we used 2 green onions)
1 can (4 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (we used 6 fresh mushrooms, sliced)
3 T. butter
1 T. soy sauce
1 cup whole cashews (we used pieces because they're a lot less expensive)
Hot cooked rice

Combine bean sprouts, chicken, soup, celery, onions, mushrooms, butter and soy sauce in crock pot; mix well. Cover; cook on LOW 4-6 hours or on HIGH 2-3 hours. (Note: if using fresh sprouts and mushrooms, saute them in the butter before adding them to the crock pot.)

Serve over rice. Sprinkle each serving with desired amount of cashews.