Jalapeno Popper Obsession

So, ever since Uncle John shared his recipe for jalapeno poppers at the family reunion, we have kind of been obsessed with them at our house.  Everyone except Travis that is, we can't get him to try them.  We have been making them every time we get peppers in our Bountiful Basket and everytime we run to the store, jalapenos are right on our list of staples along with milk, bread and eggs.  We modified the recipe a bit and have also added our own renditions of some other mixtures plus a "dessert" popper that we love even though it sounds gross.  We mixed together cream cheese and coconut, stuffed the pepper and topped with cinnamon carmelized almonds and drizzled with chocolate sauce.  It is oh oh so good.

Lemon Love Notes

This is the recipe for the Lemon Bars I made for Lisa's baby shower that everyone wanted.

1 c. softened butter

1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 c. flour

Mix well and press into a 9 x 13 pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

5-6 T lemon juice
4 beaten eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 c. sugar
7 tsp. flour

Mix together and pour over crust. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Sprinkle top with powdered sugar.
Cut into squares and serve when cooled.


In other news, Trevin started football practice today.  Wade is his coach and Josh and Harrison are on his team.  They are the Raiders this year and he can't wait until games start.

Recipe Project #2

Remember a couple of months ago when I put in my Great Grandma's doughnut recipe? Well, it has been a while since I had a chance to make a page, but I got one done today for my Grandma Richardson. She is my grandma on my mother's side, and I already did a post about her here. I loved this picture my aunt sent me of her on the little trike. The recipe in my other post was for her macaroni and milk but the original recipe I had in the recipe book I made in high school was for chicken and noodles, so I put both on the recipe card. For those of you who are interested in the chicken and noodle recipe, here it is.

Boil three chicken breasts until tender (Iuse the boneless skinless kind, I believe she probably used a whole chicken and then deboned it). Shred chicken and keep broth to make 6 quarts of liquid. Add salt, pepper, and chicken bullion to flavor.

Noodles:

4 eggs

1 tsp. salt

enough flour to make a thick paste

Mix together with a fork and then knead flour in to it until stiff like pie dough. On a heavily floured surface, roll dough until it is paper thin. Cut into 3" wide strips. Place strips on top of each other and cut into 1/2" strips. Separate noodles with fingers. Place on wax paper to dry for 30 minutes. Place in boiling broth, stir as putting noodles in. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add more liquid if it becomes too thick. Serve over mashed potatoes. **Note - I roll out my dough and then just cut into noodles with a pizza cutter, it is much faster. This is one of the meals I requested for my birthday dinner a lot while I was growing up. My kids love it and it is cheap inexpensive and easy to make.

s'Mores the Nielsen Way

Monday for Family Night treats, we had S'Mores the Nielsen way. It has taken us years to perfect our technique. We didn't like the traditional way because the marshmallows squish out the sides and you end up with just unmelted Hershey's bar and dry graham crackers. My cousin's family taught us to make the with Fudge Striped cookies, and that was better. Then we had a friend show us how to make them with the marshmallows squished between two Deluxe Graham cookies. This was good, but you still ended up with chocolate all over your fingers and the marshmallows squished out the sides. So, Sean decided one time to roast his marshmallow (slow roasted so it gets big and brown) and then push the Deluxe Graham cookie up the middle. It is perfect! You hold on to the end of the cookie and eat it all at once. The hot marshmallow melts the chocolate and it is just perfect (according to us anyway!) We also like them with Grasshopper cookies in place of the deluxe grahams.

Grandpa's Birthday

We were so excited to get to go to the new Payson Swimming Pool for Grandpa LaMarr's birthday party. All of the family including the cousins came to play. Trevin loved the Lazy River and Travis and Tyrel loved the slides. I loved all of it and especially that the bottom of the pool is kind of padded and squishy. Sean didn't come because his arm is still recovering but after all of the water fun, everyone came up to our house for a dutch oven cookoff. There was tons of good food and we had a lot of fun. Sean made Hawaiian Chicken and it was so yummy!!! We also had ribs, cheesy potatoes, melons, green salad, corn on the cob (yum), baked beans, and peach cobler and ice cream for dessert. It was fun to get to see everyone and be able to just visit out on the deck all evening.

Here is the recipe for the chicken for those of you who requested it

HAWAIIAN CHICKEN

Boneless/Skinless chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and paprika sprinkled on them

Mr. Yoshida's Teriyaki sauce

Chunked pineapple (drained)

Sear the chicken on the grill and put a layer in the bottom of dutch oven. Top layer with 1/2 can of pineapple. Drizzle with 1/4 of the bottle of teriyaki sauce. Keep repeating layers. We got four layers in the dutch oven. Put lid on dutch oven. Put coals on top and bottom of dutch oven. Let cook with coals for at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

In other news, Sean started his new job today with Plaza Home Mortgage and that's about all the news we have since the last entry.

Oatmeal Disaster, NOT!

Okay, I have to tell a funny story. On Sunday morning I woke up thinking I would be a good wife and mom and make everyone a nice hot breakfast before church. So, I made oatmeal and when I was done I sent Trevin to round everyone up. He came back to the kitchen by himself and said, "Mom, isn't it Fast Sunday?" So, needless to say, I then had 5 cups of leftover cooked oatmeal and I really didn't think it would warm up very good the next morning YUCK! So, I set out to look for recipes that used leftover cooked oatmeal. I had never seen one, all recipes normally call for oatmeal uncooked. Anywho, I found this recipe for bread made with leftover oatmeal, made 5 loaves and it is wonderful, so I thought I would share it.
Oatmeal Bread
1 c. leftover cooked oatmeal
1 c. warm ater
1/8 c. brown sugar
2-4 c. flour
1 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. salt
In mixing bowl, stir oatmeal and water together to break up oatmeal. Sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit for 10 minutes. Add brown sugar, salt and 1 c. flour and mix to combine into wet dough. Add additional flour, mixing well after each addition until he dough comes together into a rough dough. When dough holds together, turn onto awell floured counter. Knead, adding more flour as needed, for 2-3 minutes. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead for another 3-5 minutes adding more flour as needed. Surface should be smooth and not sticky. Place dough in bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. Punch down and shape into loaf. Place in a bread pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Cover and let rise until double again. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 30 minutes. Butter top of loaf. Dump out of pan and let cool an hour before slicing. This makes a really moist loaf of bread. Yummy.
That's all! It wasn't so bad of a disaster after all.