Margo's Chicken Squares

My friend, Margo, introduced me to these. They're fab. The original recipe calls for using those crescent rolls that come in a can in the refrigerated section, but I prefer pastry crust, so I've adapted it a little to fit what I like.

Margo's Chicken Squares

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
5 Tbsp melted butter
3 cups cooked chicken, cut up
1 tsp. Krazy Mixed-Up Salt
2 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp chopped pimentos
2 pkg. croissant rolls, OR pie crust dough, enough for two crusts
3/4 cups seasoned croutons, crushed

Mix all ingredients except rolls and croutons. Roll out two crescent rolls together to make a rectangle. Pinch seams together and roll into a 6 inch square. (If you're using pie crust dough, just cut six inch squares into rolled-out dough.) Put 1/8 of chicken mixture into center. Fold up and seal. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with additional melted butter and sprinkle with croutons. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins for the crescent dough, 375 degrees for 45 minutes for pie crust dough.

Cherry Pie Jello

The best image I could find. And it's not much. I'll get a good one on here soon.

Cherry Pie Jello

6 oz cherry jello
3 cups boiling water
1 can cherry pie filling

Dissolve jello in water. Add pie filling. Let it set in fridge.

Topping:
1 sm jar marshmallow cream
1/3 cup milk
6 oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup cool whip

Mix the topping ingredients together and spoon on top of the set jello.

Judy Rose's Green Salad

Dang it, I made this Tuesday night and forgot to take a pic. Which is a shame, because I cannot find one picture on the internet that seems to represent what's in it. This is as close as I could get. And it's not that close. I'll get a new picture on here soon, I promise.

Who's Judy Rose? No clue! This is one of my mom's oldest recipes. It is one of my utmost favorite salads.

Judy Rose's Green Salad

1 head lettuce, torn
1/3 red onion, diced
1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 can sliced water chestnuts (I don't put these in. Water chestnuts make me yak. Just sayin'.)
3-4 avocados, cubed
1 small can sliced olives
8 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 lb swiss cheese, shredded

dressing
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp celery seed
3/4 tsp. wet mustard
3/4 tsp. grated red onion
3/4 tsp. salt

Cream Pie Filling

This is the greatest thing I've ever come across in my Pie Life. My mom found this recipe for making regular pudding-mix cream pies SPECTACULAR. So you can do this for chocolate cream pie, pistachio, banana cream, coconut cream, etc. I've tried them all and they are amazing.

Oh, and if you need a recipe for a pie shell, go here.

Cream Pie Filling

1 pkg instant pudding mix (3.75 oz. size)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp almond flavoring
2 or more cups cool whip

Combine above except for the cool whip with an electric beater or wire whip. Fold 1 cup cool whip in and pour into precooked pie shell. Let stand 10 minutes, and then top with remaining cool whip. When using coconut cream, add a little more coconut, and when using banana cream, add ripe bananas on the bottom of the pie shell before adding filling.

Cranberry Beets

This is a fabulous, different way to eat the beets you grew in your garden and canned and now don't know what to do with them. :) If you have canned beets on hand, you're good to go. If you don't, boil yourself some beets, peel 'em, and slice 'em. And then you're ready for this stuff:

Cranberry Beets

Mix the following in a saucepan and boil for three minutes:

1 cup cranberry juice
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp corn starch

Then drain your canned beets, dump them into your sauce, and toss to coat. This recipe is good for 1 pint of canned beets.

Buttermilk Pancakes

Oh, baby. These are sooooo good.

Buttermilk Pancakes

1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp oil

Just mix it together and pour those puppies on your griddle!

No-Bake Cookies

Oh, bestill my little heart. I love these so much. Making them is dangerous for me, because I usually can't stop once I've started eating them. So. Addicting. Once, I made them for my Sunday School class that I taught in college. I made enough for each person to eat, like, three, which everyone did. And then I caught, out of the corner of my eye, one of the guys in my ward actually tilting up the cookie jar to his mouth and pouring the crumbs in. They are just that good.

No-Bake Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cube butter
1/2 cup cream or milk

Cream the above ingredients together and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. Then remove from stove and add:

1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 1/2 cups quick rolled oats

Beat until thick and spoon on waxed paper to cool.

Potato Salad

My mom's potato salad is to DIE for. The best I've ever had. I'm pretty sure my sister, Nat, could eat this at every meal and be perfectly happy.  Oh, and it looks..interesting...in this photo because my friend gave me a bag of little russets that had red, yellow, and PURPLE potatoes in it!  It was crazy!  And cool.  Purple potatoes. My three-year-old was thrilled.  Purple is his favorite color.


Potato Salad

1 doz. hard boiled eggs
16 small potatoes or 8 regular-sized potatoes
1 T. minced onion
3/4 cup mayo
3 Tbsp liquid mustard
3 Tbsp sugar

Mix it all together, and voila. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

I really do hate fish, but there are three fish meals I can eat - Hibachi Shrimp at Benihana, Salmon Patties, and Tuna Noodle Casserole. Well, I guess it's four meals - tuna sandwiches, too. I grew up on tuna. So I guess I'm used to it. But we never really had good fish growing up.

My hubby HATES tuna. So I only make Tuna Noodle Casserole when he's not around. It's a great meal for when you're at the end of the month and out of money. :) Nice and inexpensive to make.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

* Note - this recipe is typed doubled and needs two casserole dishes. If you have a smaller family, half it and just use one casserole dish.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:
5 cups egg noodles, cooked and drained
2 cans tuna, drained
10 oz frozen peas
A mixture of two cans cream of mushroom soup and 4 Tbsp. milk
3 cups shredded cheese
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt

Boil noodles until done; drain and rinse. Mix soup and milk together until smooth. Microwave peas until half-cooked (about 3 minutes on high). Mix all ingredients together and pour into two casserole dishes. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Karlene's Prosciutto Tortellini

Yoooooooooo! Rescue Pack, here!!! (If any of you watch Nick Jr. while you do your daughter's hair, you'll know what show that's from.)

My mama is out of town this week, and my dad came over a couple of times for dinner while she was gone. We had a good little exchange of services - I made dinner for him to eat, and after dinner, he watched my kids while I went to spinning class. It was wonderful.

Tonight, I made tortellini, and he adored it and told me to send my mom the recipe. I figured, since I need to type it up anyways, it's going on this here blog. Because it is definitely shimmy-worthy. And not only to me. It's shimmy-worthy to my dad, too.

There is a gal in my ward named Karlene - actually, there are two gals in my ward named Karlene. And I'm Karlenn, and there are two Carolyns. True story. Anyways, Karlene brought this to a Relief Society luncheon once, and I went back for seconds and thirds of this stuff. And then I called her and got this recipe.

And by the way, Karlene is really cool. I figure it's because her name starts with "Kar." Anyone whose name starts with "Kar" is cool. :)

Karlene recommends serving this with red snapper. Since any kind of seafood makes me yak, I served it tonight with Cherry Pie Jello. Which I made wrong, and it didn't set. Sad. But if you like red snapper, then go for it!

Karlene's Prosciutto Tortellini

2 20-oz pkg. refrigerated tortellini (I use Buitoni's)
2 Tbsp flour
2 cups half & half
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
20 thin slices of prosciutto, chopped (or deli ham. Or cubed ham. I used cubed ham tonight - about 16 oz. of it did the trick)
20 oz froz peas, thawed
1/2 tsp white pepper

Cook tortellini according to pkg. directions. In skillet, mix flour and cream until smooth. Stir in cheese. Cook and stir until thick. Reduce heat. Drain tortellini. Put in skillet with the cheese sauce. Add prosciutto, peas, and pepper. Cook until heated through.

* This makes a TON. If you have a smaller family, definitely half it.