Seashell Pasta, Basil, Tomato, and Garlic Salad

I was looking for a recipe to take to a monthly girl's dinner and ran across this one on Big Sis Lil Sis Blog. I love basil and garlic and who doesn't like Parmesan cheese? So I gave it a go and the results were really good.

This recipe is indeed a keeper. It would be great to take out in the boat this summer because it doesn't have any mayonnaise. Oh, and my girlfriends loved it too!

Here's what I did!

Gather ingredients.

Combine the oil, garlic, pepper flakes and salt and simmer on very low heat for about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the rest of the tomatoes. Let set for about 30 minutes.

Cook pasta and toss with tomato mixture. Add cheese and basil. Enjoy! Next time I think I will add more cheese....mumm

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped or minced
• 3/4 t. salt (I recommend sea salt)
• 1/2 t. red pepper flakes
• 1 pt. small cherry or teardrop tomatoes
• 1 lb medium seashell pasta
• 1/2 c. Parmesan cheese, shaved
• 1/2 c. thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Combine oil, garlic, pepper flakes and salt and simmer on very low heat for 5 minutes or so; being careful not to burn the garlic.  Slice half of the tomatoes and stir the tomatoes into the mixture and simmer another 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and place in a large bowl. Place the other half of the sliced tomatoes into the mixture and stir. Let stand for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  (Raw tomatoes get juicy as they stand, which helps create the sauce.)

Meanwhile, cook pasta as package directs for al dente  in a large pot of salted water. When done, drain and toss pasta with tomato mixture, then with the cheese and all but 1 tbsp. basil. Sprinkle remaining basil on top and season with a little salt, to taste.

Click here to print recipe!

Apple Pie Bites

Here is another amazing easy to do recipe that I first saw on Facebook. I Googled it and found many web sites with this recipe with little variation. So I'm figuring they must be popular which means they must be good! My husband's favorite pie is apple but making a whole apple pie for just the two of us just seems absurd so I decided to give this a try.

Result? They were really good! Be careful to not use apple slices that are too thick as they may not cook completely. I'm also thinking that brushing with melted butter before sprinkling with cinnamon sugar and baking would be an improvement, but not a necessity. I think we have a winner!

Here is how I did it!

Assemble ingredients. Some recipes called for white sugar and some used a cinnamon sugar premix. I decided to go with the brown sugar and cinnamon.

Mix sugar and cinnamon together. Roll the crescent rolls out on a baking sheet and coat with butter then with the sugar mixture. Save a little of the sugar mixture to sprinkle on top later.

Cut your apple into wedges. If the apple is very large you may need to cut into 12 wedges instead of 8. That is what I did and just ate the remaining wedges. BTW, no peeling needed!

Roll an apple slice up in each roll and sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar. Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy! These would be great with vanilla ice cream.


Ingredients

• 1 Apple Sliced (a tart variety works best)
• 3 Tablespoons Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons Softend Butter
• 1 Package Crescent Rolls

Instructions

• Mix together sugar and cinnamon
• Roll crescent rolls out on baking sheet
• Spread with butter
• Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar
• Core and cut apple into wedges
• Roll one apple wedge up with crescent roll
• Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top
• Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Roll-Ups

I saw these fabulous roll-ups by Incredible Recipes on Facebook recently. They looked so good I had to give them a try.

So this morning I made them. They were a bit more work than I usually spend on something like this but boy are they good!

The instructions are fairly simple but it does take a little time to make and requires several bowls to clean up. But I do think they would be a hit with your whole family, even the picky ones. I think my step-daughter would love them and intend to make them again next time she visits. :)

So here is what you do...

Assemble your ingredients. As you can see I am a big fan of most store band products.

Mix softened cream cheese with egg yolk and powdered sugar. Mix well.

Melt the butter and set aside.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon and set aside.

Trim crusts from bread and flatten with rolling pin.

Coat both sides of each bread slice with the cream cheese mixture and roll up.  I didn't get any pictures of this part as my hands got real messy, real quick.

Dip each roll in the melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar.

Place on ungreased cookie sheets.

Okay, hands washed so back to pictures. Here they are ready for the oven.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until a bit brown.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 loaf sliced bread, crusts removed
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg yolk
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 cup melted butter

I halved this recipe. The egg yolk was even easy to half once it was stirred a little. I used 10 slices of bread, 4 oz cream cheese, 1/2 egg yolk, 6 Tablespoons powdered sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 6 Tablespoons butter. 

Instructions:

• Flatten bread with a rolling pin.
• Mix cream cheese, egg yolk, and powdered sugar.
• Combine sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
• Spread 1 T cheese mixture on each slice bread.
• Roll up.
• Dip in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar.
• Place on ungreased baking sheet.
• Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes, or until golden.

This picture by Incredible Recipes

Pineapple Angel Food Cake

I really like simple recipes.  I also really like recipes that don't require a lot of work or clean up. But of course the end result has to be good too!

I found this recipe posted on several pages. I love to give credit to original posters but there were just  too many to really give credit to any one of them. The only real difference I found in them was that some preferred to bake this in a bunt pan and some in a 13 X 9 inch pan. And some liked to add whipped topping before serving.

Right down my alley, this cake has two ingredients, requires no measuring, and only uses one bowl to mix in and one pan to bake it in.

So simple I had to give it a try, right?  It turned out really good! I think next time I'll bake it in the bunt pan and serve whipped topping on the side. 

Here's what I did...

Just two ingredients!

Mix gently with a large spoon. No mixer! See how frothy it got?

Pour into greased pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Let cool and cut into squares. Top with whipped topping if desired.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 box Angel Food Cake Mix
• 20 oz can crushed pineapple

Instructions:

• Combine cake mix and pineapple in large bowl and stir gently till mixed. Do not use a beater and do not over mix.  The mixture will become foamy and bubbly.
• Pour into a 9 X 13 inch greased pan or greased bunt pan (I used butter). Cooking spray can also be used.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 - 35 minutes.
• Let cool in the pan.
• Cut into squares and top with whipped topping if desired.

Serves 12

166 calories per serving (without whipped topping)

Jody's Waldorf Salad

I normally think of Waldorf Salad as a fall dish. But, I needed to take a dish to a girl's dinner and needed something that went well with pork. BTW, the hostess made the BEST pork tenderloin I have ever had! I have to find out how she cooked it because mine never turns out that good.

But on to the salad...

It seems Waldorf Salads come in two basic forms, without whipped cream and with whipped cream. Some have halved seedless grapes or raisins which I think would be a great addition. Some have added ingredients like cranberries or even chicken.

So play around with this. This is a very basic, with whipped cream, recipe. The peeling and chopping is a bit of work but it is a very easy and simple dish overall.

So lets get started!

Assemble your ingredients. This picture does not show the sugar....ooops

Peel, core, and chop the apples. I used Gala and Red Delicious but tart apples, like Granny Smith, work well too. Mix apples with lemon juice being sure to mix very well. This will keep the apple chucks from turning brown. Mix as soon as you have the apples chopped.

Add the chopped celery and nuts. I used walnuts but couldn't find any that were coarsely chopped so I got walnut haves and chopped them myself. The store had walnut "chips" but they were chopped way to fine for this dish.

In a separate bowl mix mayonnaise, sugar, and cinnamon.

Beat the Whipping Cream with electric mixer until soft peaks form.

Fold the Whipped Cream into the mayonnaise mixture.

Add the chopped apple mixture and refrigerate for about an hour.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 6 cups chopped apples
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

.
Directions:

• Peel, core, and chop apples.
• Toss chopped apples very well with lemon juice.
• Add chopped celery and nuts
• Mix mayonnaise, sugar, and cinnamon in a separate bowl
• Whip cream until soft peaks form
• Fold whipped cream into mayonnaise mixture
• Add chopped apple mixture
• Refrigerate for about an hour

DIY Recover Your Dining Room Chairs for under $15.00

We acquired a dining room suit almost 20 years ago that had ivory fabric on the seats. The ivory was pretty but I knew I would have to recover them eventually because a light solid color just shows everything. I tried to get out a few stains as the years went by but they were looking worse all the time. So I figured it was time...

I found two fabrics I liked. Both from WalMart and $6.97 a yard. These were my choices.

I loved the blue but went with the one on the left and boy am I glad I did. Now I needed to know how much fabric to buy.

I measured my chair seats and added 4" all around. Using this measurement I found I could get 2 chair covers from the width of the fabric so I needed enough fabric to cut 3 squares down the length. (I have 6 chairs) The length of each square needed to be 24" so I needed 2 yards of fabric.  This came to $13.94 but like I said I purchased some extra so I spent a little more than this. If you choose a fabric that has a pattern that needs to be centered on the chair you will need more fabric. How much more depends on the design.

So this is how to do it yourself and for less than $15.00!

You will need:

• Fabric
• scissors
• Staple gun with staples
• Something to mark fabric with (I just used a pencil)
• Ruler or tape measure
• Small pliers, flat head screwdriver, small hammer (for removing old staples)

These directions are for chairs that do not need cushion padding replaced.

Start by turning your chair over and locating the screws that remove the seat

Remove these screws. My chairs only had 4 screws that I had to remove for each chair.

Now you have just the seat.

Remove the thin lining. On some chairs this may be just a piece of paper like material or thin cardboard. I'm afraid there will be a lot of staples and they can be difficult to remove. I used a screwdriver and hammer to remove them but there are tools made especially for this job that may make it easier for you.

You can see that there are even more staples under the lining (sigh). You now have a choice, you can leave the old cover on and put your new fabric over it or remove it. If your padding is in good shape (and mine was) and the old fabric is not going to show through I would say to definitely leave it which is exactly what I did.

Cut a square of fabric that will be large enough to wrap and staple to the underside. I allowed 4" all around. Some printed fabrics will look better if the design is centered on the chair seat. The pattern I chose is a random pattern that did not have to be centered. One less thing...  Mark where you need to cut with a pencil and then cut it out.

Start with the back edge and staple down the new fabric

Now pull the fabric snug and staple the front. You don't want it too tight but you do want it snug. Trim the fabric as needed as you go. I suggest trimming after you staple each side and never trim before stapling a side. You don't want to chance removing too much fabric.

Now staple the sides and corners. The corners are tricky, you want to sort of gather the fabric into small folds so there are no pleats showing from the sides.

The back corners will be easier to staple than the front corners because part of the back corners will be hidden by the chair back.

Once the new fabric is secure you need to staple the lining back on.

Now just screw the cushions back onto the chairs and you're all done!

Have extra fabric?  Consider making matching placemats or maybe curtain tiebacks or valance. Maybe even modpodge to something in the room like a pretty storage box???  Oh, the possibilities. :)

Gooey Orange Glaze Chicken Thighs

These Gooey Orange Glaze Chicken Thighs are a crowd pleaser for sure. The sauce is sweet and tangy and is also great on wings!

I was able to get a large package of chicken thighs on sale for a little over $5.00. The package had 10 good size thighs. I was thinking I would cook all of them but didn't think I would have enough sauce to coat them all. I was wrong...I had plenty of sauce to coat all 10 thighs and a bit left over.


So lets get started by assembling the ingredients.

My brown sugar was really lumpy, but it dissolved into the sauce just fine.You will also need some salt and pepper.







Salt and pepper both sides of the chicken and place skin side down on rimmed baking sheets.  Oh please...don't look at my baking sheets. No, I don't have shiny new bakeware, these must be as old as I am but they cook just fine. Bake these at 450 degrees for about 15-20 minutes then flip them over for another 15-20 minutes. Important note here...My pans almost ran over with chicken grease and I had to drain shortly after they began cooking so please be careful and keep an eye on those pans.

While the chicken is baking you can get the sauce going. Combine the rest of the ingredients and simmer till thickened.

Place the cooked chicken in a large bowl and pour sauce on top. Toss the chicken pieces around until each piece is evenly coated. Put pieces back on the baking pans (drain off grease first) and place under broiler for about 2 minutes till nice and brown.

Ingredients:

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

• Coarse salt and ground pepper

• 1 cup thawed orange juice concentrate

• 1 cup ketchup

• 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar

• 4 teaspoons white-wine vinegar

• 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

• 2 teaspoons hot sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees, with rack in upper third. Season chicken with salt and pepper and arrange, skin side down, on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until deep golden brown and cooked through, 45 to 50 minutes, flipping halfway through.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, combine 1 teaspoon salt, juice concentrate, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Bring to a simmer and cook until mixture has thickened, 18 to 20 minutes.
3. Heat broiler. Transfer chicken to a large bowl, add glaze, and toss to coat. Drain off fat from sheet. Return chicken to sheet and broil until sauce is bubbling and chicken is dark brown in spots, 1 to 2 minutes.