Mom M's Macaroni Salad

I posted a picture on Angie's Ad Lib last week of a container of macaroni salad. I got lots of positive feedback about how yummy that salad looked, so although I've already posted about this recipe LAST April (we must get in the mood for it every spring!), I thought I would post again for some of my newer followers.

Mom M’s Macaroni Salad

Ingredients:

1 1/3 C pasta shells, cooked & rinsed in cold water
5 eggs (2 sliced on top)
1 dill pickle (dice very small)
¼ C plus, mayonnaise
ketchup to light pink
1 T. pickle juice
1 red onion (3 thin slices)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix together all ingredients ½ hour before serving.

Hint: Can get dry the next day, add mayo.

Recipe Given By: Mom Martens

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Got a recipe you just won't trade in? No matter how good someone claims theirs to be. Yep, Nestle has me too. I love their chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I've tried a couple of other recipes, but then given up. This is the best of the best, my friends. You may "psh" me or agree; it doesn't really matter. I'm a believer.

So how can a perfect recipe turn out so differently when 3 women from the same family bake them?

My grandmother used real butter in this recipe. He cookies turned stale within a day or two (could it have been the container?) and tasted like sugar. My mom blamed it on the butter.

My mother uses Crisco shortening instead of butter or margarine. He cookies are fluffy and HARD. She does freeze them and have them on hand, but they are a crunchy cookie most of the time.

I use Imperial margarine only. I LOVE my cookies. My family LOVES my cookies. I wouldn't use anything else. They never last long enough to get stale.

Did I mention there was a stubborn streak that runs in my family? :)

No matter HOW you bake 'em, may all your cookies be to your liking and may you be able to eat them guilt-free!

Oh, yum!

Russian Chicken

I participate in Project 365 where you take a picture every day for one year and share it with other bloggers. I post my project pictures every Sunday on my adlib blog.

I also go and check out other Project 365'ers and Rebecca Jo put up a recipe for Russian Chicken right as winter began to dig it's little icicles into the frozen ground (no bitterness, really.)

I made the recipe in February with Catalina dressing instead of RUSSIAN and it turned out well. However, I felt that I was doing the recipe/Rebecca Jo a disservice if I didn't give it a try with the correct ingredients so last week I made it with Russian dressing.

Oh my. So rich. So yummy. So easy!

This is now one of my husband's favorites; he can't seem to stay out of the leftovers.

Russian Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts
Russian Salad Dressing (or Catalina)
Envelope of Onion Soup Mix
Can of Cranberries or Cranberry Sauce

Place chicken in crockpot. Combine salad dressing, onion soup packet and cranberry sauce. Pour over chicken. Cook for 4 hours.

Serve over white rice.
Recipe Given By: Blogger: Rebecca Jo at Knit By God’s Hand

Hint: Rebecca Jo used a little more than half the bottle of dressing and the whole can of cranberry sauce. I don’t know how many breasts she cooked. I cooked 6 breasts with a whole bottle of dressing, 1 soup pkt, 1 can of cranberry sauce. Next time I will reduce the dressing or add another cranberry sauce. The sauce was a little thin, but tasty.

Thanks, Rebecca!

Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie)

I spent my early Saturday morning helping my son make two 9x13 pans of Spanakopita for a Greek Festival that was a part of his Ancient Greece class. We had fun working together making this somewhat time-consuming dish. It was worth it though; he got lots of compliments and came home with just a couple of pieces to spare.

I made some notes as I wrote this one out for you. I thought it was heavy on the dill and the next time I make it I will cut the dill in half. Also, I researched online how much phyllo dough most recipes call for. The recipe given below by the dairy said to use the rest of the phyllo on the top. If you used a full pound it wouldn't make any sense. I think they meant to use the rest of the 1/2 lb. pkg, which is what we did and it turned out perfectly. It also took longer to bake in my oven. Just so you know...

Spanakopita
(Greek Spinach Pie)

Ingredients:

1 stick plus 1 T. butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
20 oz. (approx.) fresh spinach, chopped
16 oz. Cottage Cheese (reg or lowfat)
12 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ t. each salt & pepper
2 T. fresh dill, chopped (for me 1 T.)
Pinch of nutmeg
1 lb. phyllo dough (use ½ pkg!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In skillet, melt 1 T. butter over medium heat. Add onion & cook until softened; transfer to large bowl.

Add spinach, cottage cheese, feta, eggs, salt, pepper, dill and nutmeg to onion and stir. Set aside.

Melt 1 stick of butter. Using pastry brush, lightly coat 9 x 12 (or 9 x 13) baking dish with butter. Unfold phyllo dough & line baking dish with 1 phyllo sheet, gently pressing into place and letting excess hang over sides. Brush sheet with butter. Repeat until there are 8 layers of buttered phyllo in the dish. Cover remaining phyllo sheets with damp cloth to keep from drying out.

Fill the phyllo-lined baking dish with spinach mixture. Fold in overhanging phyllo, sheet by sheet, brushing butter on each sheet. (*I didn’t have much overhang.) Place full phyllo sheet over filling and brush with butter. Repeat with remaining phyllo sheets in the ½ lb. pkg, brushing each layer and top sheet with butter.

Bake until golden brown, about 45-55 min. Let cool 30 min. before slicing. (We cooked ours about 65-70 min.)

Recipe Given By: Friendship Dairies

No-Bake Cookies

There are lots of no-bake cookie recipes out there, but this one is a tried-and-true keeper! I made them as part of the goodies given to my college daughter and her friends. When I made them I ran out of quick-cook oats and threw in 1 1/2 Cups of whole oats. It worked out great! I don't suggest doing a complete swap-out, but a little worked just fine.

I haven't made these for years because, as I said to my husband this weekend, "I don't like them." My memory is failing me because I ate my fair share and they were delicious.

No-Bake Cookies

Ingredients:

4 C sugar
4 T. cocoa
1 C milk
1 ¾ cube butter
½ t. salt

Mix these ingredients and boil one minute.

Stir in:
2 C mini-marshmallows
1 C peanut butter
1 t. vanilla
6 C quick oatmeal

Drop by teaspoonfuls on wax paper.

Recipe Given By: Mom Martens

Chicken Spring Roll

I shared this recipe with you once before here. It was almost a year ago and this recipe is still a favorite at our house. I've taken pictures along the way this time. Enjoy!

Chicken Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

8 oz. cooked chicken, shredded
4 oz. ready mixed coleslaw, the bag kind
2 T. of your favorite spicy Asian stir fry sauce
10 large (7”) egg-roll wrappers
White and black sesame seeds, optional (we don't care for the seeds)
1 T. peanut oil

Heat wok until almost smoking, then add oil. Add coleslaw and chicken, stir-fry about 30 seconds then add 2 T. sauce. Mix through and remove from heat. Let cool slightly.

Place one wrapper on the counter, with a corner pointing at you. Put 1/10th of the filling in the center of the wrapper. Fold the nearest corner of the wrapper up covering the filling. Fold in the two sides and finish by rolling away from you and moisten the very end with a dab of water to help stick. Continue with remaining wrappers. Brush tops very lightly with oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown. Serve with extra sauce for dipping.

Serving: 10
Recipe Given By: Sam, the cooking guy

Your pictorial guide:

Egg Noodle Lasagna

Although this dish below looks yummy our family didn't really care for it. It was a little too dry and we're not big "Velveeta in casserole" fans.

If you think the dish sounds good, please, give it a try. You may want to add another jar of spaghetti sauce. That would make it less lasagna-like, but would also moisten the dish. So far I haven't found a crockpot lasagna that my family likes. If you have a good recipe, please share!

*Ha, you may laugh at me. I didn't measure out the noodles when I made this. I just cooked up a bag-full and put it in. Measuring might have made the difference in dry/moist. Who knows. I'm just a home cook, y'all.

Egg Noodle Lasagna

Ingredients:

6 1/2 C uncooked wide egg noodles
3 T. butter or margarine
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
2 1/4 C spaghetti sauce
6 oz. process cheese (Velveeta), cubed
3 C. (12 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook noodles according to package directions; drain. Add butter and toss to coat. In a skillet, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Spread a fourth of the spaghetti sauce in an ungreased 5-qt. slow cooker. Layer with a third of the noodles, a third of the beef, a third of the remaining sauce and a third of the cheeses. Repeat layers twice.

Cover and cook on low for 4 hours or until cheese is melted and lasagna is heated through.

Serving: 12-16 servings
Recipe Given By: Taste of Home