Au Gratin Potatoes

 Potatoes and cheese- does it get a lot better than that? In my opinion? No. It's especially great to warm you up on a really cold day.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/ 190 Celsius
You will need a 2 quart baking dish with a lid.

4-5 medium-large potatoes

Cheese Sauce-
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon diced onion OR 1 teaspoon onion powder, optional
1 Tablespoon flour
dash salt
dash pepper
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese or a cheddar cheese blend

Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Peel and slice the potatoes fairly thin. About 1/8" or a little thicker is good.
Put the slices in the baking dish.
Make your cheese sauce-
Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat.
Add the diced onion and cook til soft, if using. This will take a few minutes.
Next add the salt, pepper, and flour.
If you didn't use the onion, but are using the powder, add the powder with the salt, pepper, and flour.
Raise heat slightly, continuously stirring until the flour/butter mixture is bubbly.
Add the milk and keep stirring until the sauce is bubbly and thickened.
Turn the heat off and stir in the cheese until melted.
Pour the cheese sauce over the potatoes.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top of the sauce.
Cover with a lid and put in the preheated oven.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
After 45 minutes, check the potatoes, by poking with a fork.
If they are tender, the dish is done. If they seem a little solid, cook for another 15 minutes and test again.

Remove from oven and serve.
Serves 4-6.

The thicker the potatoes are sliced, the longer they take to cook.

Enjoy!

Chicken Fajita Pizza

 This is a great pizza. It's a favorite in my house. Instead of the traditional tomato sauce, you use salsa.

You will need an 11"x15" jelly roll pan, greased.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit/220 Celsius.

Ingredients:

Pizza crust
2 Tablespoons cooking oil
2-3 cups chopped skinless, boneless chicken meat
2 cups sliced yellow or white onions
1 cup sliced green peppers
1 cup sliced red peppers- If you don't have red, just use an additional cup of green.
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup salsa- Use whatever heat you prefer.
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack, mozzarella, or cheddar-jack cheese


Make the pizza crust dough
Bake the crust for 6-8 minutes.
Saute the chicken in the cooking oil until no longer pink.
Add the onions and peppers.
Sprinkle with the chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, and salt.
Stir and let cook until the onions and peppers are tender. This will take about 5 minutes.
Spoon the chicken and vegetable mixture over the hot pizza crust.
Top with the salsa.
Add the cheese.
Bake in the preheated oven for another 15 minutes or until the crust is golden and the cheese is melted.

Serve. This is enough for 4-6 people.

If you want, you can make 2- 12" round pizzas using the same amount of crust and dividing the toppings between the two crusts.

Enjoy!

It's a Tip About Dishes

Do you have any baking pans or dishes that are stoneware and say microwave safe?

Well, they are, but they aren't.

If they have unglazed feet-or a section that is plain pottery- you could have problems with them cracking.

The reason is because water absorbs into the unglazed stoneware and when you put it in the microwave, the moisture heats up and pops and possibly causes cracks or breaking.

The best way to solve this problem is to make sure you don't soak the pan or dishes in water.

If it needs soaked, pour water into it.
Don't set the whole dish into the water.

Gingerbread Cookies

Making gingerbread cookies is a tradition in my house. Usually my nieces and sister come down and if they can't, it is just me and my daughter.
We have a lot of fun.

I usually mix the dough up a day or two before baking and stick in the fridge, but you can just make it a couple hours before and it still works out.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon  cloves
3/4 cup brown sugar
12 Tablespoons butter
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg

Soften the butter in a large mixing bowl.
Add the brown sugar and cream.
Add the molasses and egg and beat until well blended.
Add the baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and mix in.
Gradually add the flour and mix on low speed until well blended.
Take the dough out the the bowl and pat into a disk. This makes it easier to roll without cracking.
Cover with plastic wrap or put into a covered container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

To bake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/175 Celsius.
Take the dough out of the fridge and let rest for ten minutes. You might want to just roll out half the dough at a time.
Flour your counter and roll out the dough. If you want thinner, crisper cookies you need 1/8 inch thick. If you want thicker, softer cookies you want to roll out to 1/4 inch.
Cut into whatever shapes you want.
Bake for about 10 minutes. A little less for smaller cookies, a little more for larger cookies.
If you want them crip, the cookies need to be firm to the touch.
If you are wanting softer cookies, take them out a little before that and they will finish cooking after removing from oven and they will still be soft. 
Let cool and decorate as you want.

Depending on size and thickness, you may get up to 19 dozen.
If you make them larger and thicker you will get about 3-4 dozen.

If you roll them too fat, they have a tendency to poof out and lose some of their shape.
Use unsalted butter. If you use salted, don't use the salt.

Baked French Fries

Who doesn't love french fries?

Sometimes they can seem a little greasy so this is a great alternative. They taste great and are really simple to make.

You will need a large baking sheet.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit/230 Celsius.

You will also need a large bowl.

Ingredients:

4 medium size potatoes

2-3 Tablespoons olive oil

salt to sprinkle

pepper to sprinkle

Peel your potatoes and cut them into fries between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.

Add the sliced potatoes to the big bowl and add the olive oil.

Mix the fries and oil to make sure all the pieces are coated well.

You don't need lots of oil, just a light coating is good.

Lay the fries out in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Put in oven and bake for 15 minutes.

Turn the fries over, sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and bake another 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and serve.

Serves 4-6 people.

1-2-3-4 Peanut Butter Cookies

These peanut butter cookies are a breeze to make. They have no flour in them and you won't miss it. They are called 1-2-3-4 peanut butter cookies because they only have 4 ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/190 Celsius
You will need 2 or 3 cookie sheets, ungreased.

Ingredients:

1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda

In a mixing bowl, stir everything together until smooth.
Drop by teaspoon or small size cookie scoop onto the cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until set.
After taking out of oven, let stand on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing.

As soon as they appear set, take them out. If they are in the oven too long they will end up dry and get very crunchy/crumbly after they cool.

I made these with the peanut butter I made.
It will work with creamy or chunky peanut butter.

Makes between 3 and 4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Homemade Peanut Butter

Making your own peanut butter is super simple. It takes almost no time to do.

You will need a food processor.

Ingredients:

16 oz. dry roasted unsalted peanuts
1/2 teaspoon salt- optional. Use up to 1 teaspoon if you like a saltier peanut butter

Add the peanuts to the bowl of a food processor. Sprinkle with the salt.
Put the cover on and turn the processor on.
In just a couple minutes the peanuts will go from chopped to butter.
When it is starting to turn to butter, it will ball up.
At this point, you may need to put your hand over the shoot cover because the ball could start to push it up.
After it has turned to butter, remove the cover and test to see if it is as smooth as you like.
You also may need to scrape the sides to get all the nutty crumbs into the bowl.
Turn on again if needed and check it after another couple minutes.

Scrape into a bowl and refrigerate. This will make 16 oz. of peanut butter.

For variety, you could use honey roasted peanuts or any variety of seasoned nuts.
If you use seasoned of any kind, you will not need the salt.

Enjoy!