Home Made Tortilla Chips

   

Well after I picked the kids up from school today I asked them what they wanted for dinner and surprisingly they both said tacos, I was a little unsure at first because our taco night has gotten kind of bland so I thought of what else I could make with it to make it a little more interesting! I figured home made tortilla chips and salsa would be wonderful!

I found this recipe on about.com so I figure I would share! Cheap, easy, and delicious!

Crunchy and crispy these are excellent companions for your favorite salsa or guacamole.

               

Prep Time: 1 minute

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 6 minutes

Ingredients:

• 12 corn tortillas cut into 6-8 wedges
• oil for frying
• salt to taste

Preparation:

This recipe is a great reason to get out your deep fryer, but if you don’t have one, use about 3/4 cup of oil in a medium frying pan. If you use a deep fryer, follow the manufacturers instructions.For pan frying- 
Heat oil over medium-high heat for about a minute. Drop a crumb of tortilla into the oil, if it sinks, it’s not hot enough. If it bubbles and comes to the top, it’s perfect.

Slide pieces into oil using a slotted spoon or spatula just a few at a time. Let pieces fry until golden brown and crispy, less than one minute. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt. Serve immediately or store in a tightly covered container.

Great Loaded Potato Skins!

• 6 small to medium sized russet potatoes, rinsed clean
• 8 oz of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 8 slices of smoked, thick cut bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter
• 6 tbsp sour cream, optional
• 2 tbsp of chopped chives, optional
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

Begin by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Poke the top of each potato with a fork and place on a baking sheet. Cook in the oven for 1 hour. Once cooked, remove from the baking sheet, and place on a plate to let cool for about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, if you are a fan of sour cream, which I am, add the sour cream to a small bowl, toss in half of the chives, mix, and let this sit in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Cook your bacon, low and slow on the stove, for about 15-20 minutes. The low and slow process, in my opinion, is the only way to cook bacon as it really yields perfect bacon every time. Remove the bacon and let any additional fat drain on some paper towel, before you crumble it down.

Once your potatoes are cooled, use a sharp bread knife and you will cut lengthwise, into three segments of one potato, long slices. So each potato will yield two skins, right? Discard the middle slice and reuse for breakfast the following morning, or heck for that matter, add some butter, salt, and cream, and make some rustic mashed potatoes.

Continue this cutting process with the rest of the potatoes. You should then have 12 skins. With a small spoon, being careful, scoop out about 70 percent of the potato, as you still want some potato in your boat.

Next, melt your butter in the microwave. Get your broiler heated to high. Brush the butter on the inside and outside of each potato skin and place them back onto the baking sheet. Season the inside of each skin with salt and pepper.

Place them under the broiler for 8-10 minutes until the insides get a bit crispy from the melted butter. Remove, and place generous amounts of cheddar cheese into each skin, topping with bacon pieces. Place these back under the broiler for about 3-4 minutes until the cheese is nice and bubbly. Carefully remove from the oven, and get ready.

Easy Peanut Butter Pie.

By Far this is my favorite thing to make during the holidays, easy, delicious, and fun to make with the kids.

Easy Peanut Butter Pie.

1 c. creamy peanut butter

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese

2 c. confectionery sugar

1 lg. (12 oz.) Cool Whip

1 graham cracker pie shell

Mix peanut butter, confectionery sugar, cream cheese until smooth. Mix in Cool Whip and blend. Pour in pie shell and drizzle with chocolate syrup. Refrigerate until cool.

You can see this picture larger and save it to your computer and make a digital cookbook!

You can also find this on Renee’s Recipe Exchange page on Facebook (Link Below.)

Renee’s Recipe Exchange.

 

Easy Peasy Doughnuts! Fun For all!

To make 10 donuts and doughnut holes, you’ll need:

* 1 can buttermilk biscuits
* 1/2 – 1 cup vegetable oil
* cinnamon / sugar mix
* powdered sugar
* chocolate frosting & sprinkles (optional)

Pour the oil in a pan and place over medium heat. Arrange all of the biscuits on a plate or cutting board. Use a small circle-shaped cutter to press firmly while rotating to carefully remove the centers from the dough. The center of the wreath from my Christmas cookie cutter collection was just the right size.

Place 5 of your donuts in the heated oil. Watch very closely, because they only take a few short minutes to fry. Flip them over as soon as they turn a nice golden brown color, and repeat this process with all sides of your donuts. Place them on a paper towel to cool. The little donut holes can be cooked all at the same time, however they finish cooking very quickly so don’t let them burn!

Sprinkle your donuts with a generous coating of cinnamon/sugar or powered sugar. You can also place them into a sandwich bag in each mixture to coat evenly, if you prefer.You can also spread the tops with chocolate frosting and dipping them into candy sprinkles (or nuts)

Like cooking? Like sharing recipes?

Renee’s recipe exchange is a new Facebook page where she and her followers will share recipes, this is great and perfect for the upcoming holiday seasons! Make sure to stop by her page and like it! Post a few of your favorite recipes while you’re there. Link below!

                                                              Renee’s Recipe Exchange

Thanksgiving Is Right Around The Corner.

I love this time of year! Especially the food! Don’t get me wrong I love BBQ in the summer, but I truly enjoy all the food that gets cooked up at this time of year. Growing up we always had stuffing (blah) I never ate it lol I just didn’t like it. When I moved to the south I finally got to taste dressing now I love it I could eat it all through out the year lol. So I decided to post one of my favorite dressing recipes!

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package dry corn bread mix
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 small onion
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1lb chicken
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Prepare the dry corn bread mix according to package directions. Cool and crumble.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease one 9×13 inch baking dish.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and saute the celery and onion until soft.
4. In a large bowl, combine the celery, onions, 3 cups crumbled corn bread, eggs, chicken stock, sage and salt and pepper to taste; mix well.
5. Boil Chicken in pot remove and shred chicken season to taste add the chicken to the mix
6. Place into prepared dish and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

 

Peanut Butter Cookies! Pumpkin Style!

Prep Time:1 hour 

Total Time:1 hour

Servings:28 cookies

 

Ingredients

• 1  roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury® refrigerated peanut butter cookies
• 1  egg yolk
• 1/2  cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3  cup orange decorator sugar crystals
• 14  twisted butter-flavor pretzel sticks, broken in half

Directions

1. 1Heat oven to 350°F. Spray cookie sheets with cooking spray. In medium bowl, stir cookie dough, egg yolk and flour until well mixed.
2. 2Pour sugar crystals into small bowl. Shape dough into 28 (1-inch) balls; roll in sugar crystals. Insert 1 pretzel piece into each ball for pumpkin stem. Using toothpick or tip of teaspoon, make lines around sides for pumpkin ridges. Place balls 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
3. 3Bake 9 to 11 minutes or just until set in center when touched with fingertip. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 10 minutes.

 

Thanks Tablespoon!

Simple Pumpkin Pie (My Fav!)

Prep Time:5 minutes

 

Total Time:3 hours 10 minutes

Servings:8 servings

Ingredients

• 3/4  cup sugar
• 1 1/2  teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• 1  can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/4  cups evaporated milk or half and half
• 2  eggs, beaten
• 1  Pillsbury® Pet-Ritz® frozen deep-dish pie crust

Directions

1. 1Heat oven to 425°F. In large bowl, mix filling ingredients. Pour into pie crust.
2. 2Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F; bake 40 to 50 minutes longer or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool 2 hours. Serve or refrigerate until serving time. Store in refrigerator.

Thanks Pillsbury.

Deeelish and super easy!

Cinnamon toast crunch bars!

 

• Prep Time: 5 min
• Total Time: 10 min
• Serving Size: 16 bars

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 cups miniature marshmallows

• 4 1/2 cups Cinnamon Toast cereal

Directions

1. 1Spray an 11X17 or 9X9 pan with cooking spray.
2. 2In a large pot melt better over low heat. Add marshmallows and cook over medium-low heat until marshmallows are completely melted.
3. 3Once marshmallows are melted, remove pot from heat and add cereal to the pot, stirring to coat.
4. 4Press into prepared pan and cool. Cut into bars and serve.

Thanks Tablespoon.

Yummy Bagel Pizza!

 

BAGEL PIZZA
Ingredients: 
   •1 bagel, split open 
   •2 to 4 teaspoons bottled pizza or spaghetti sauce 
   •2 to 3 tablespoons grated mozzarella cheese 
1. Spread 1 to 2 teaspoons of sauce on each bagel half. Sprinkle with grated cheese. 
2. Microwave, bake or broil until cheese is melted. 
3. Add other items before cheese as desired…