Cheese Dressing (or Stuffing)

This is another one of Dena's recipes. She tells me her family are not generally stuffing eating folk, but this cheesy recipe is devoured and she's asked to bring it year after year! I can't wait to try it.

2 boxes Mrs. Cubbins Herbed Dressing (do not use the crumbs at the bottom)
2 cups hot water (use just enough to moisten bread)
5 eggs (stir in bowl to break up yolks)
1 large onion (diced small)
1 1/2 lbs cubed mild cheddar cheese
2 cans evaporated milk
1 lb melted butter

Moisten boxed dressing, fold in the rest of the ingredients until mixed. Bake in a 9x13 baking dish at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. Do not cover so the top will be crunchy.

Poppy Seed Pasta Salad

Dena brought a delicious pasta salad to work a few weeks ago so I made it to take to a family gathering. ( I added grapes to her recipe since the dressing is sweet and I had them on hand) My hubby and kids taste tested in small bowls and asked for more. I told them they'd have to wait for the party. Enjoy!

1 16 oz. Package Bow Tie Pasta
2 cups cooked diced chicken (I used a rotisserie chicken)
1 1/2 cups broccoli cut in bite size pieces
1 cucumber peeled and diced in bite size pieces
1 1/2 cups purple grapes halved
1 jar Briannas Poppy Seed Dressing (with the peach on the front)

Stir all ingredients together and serve. It makes a good sized salad.

Wilted Lettuce

Wilted Lettuce or Swiss Lettuce is a family dish passed down since my ancestors were in Switzerland. Every year at thanksgiving we enjoy this salad. When I asked my mom for the recipe she told me it was one that my Grannie had taught she and my aunt Jonna Lu to make and that as far as she knew there was no formal recipe written down. So here is what we came up with.


1/2 lb bacon sliced into bite size pieces and cooked
1 head iceberg lettuce shredded
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp onion salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup flour

Cut up and fry bacon in a pan. Pour off half of the fat and add flour to make a roux. Add salt, pepper, garlic salt and onion salt. Add apple cider vinegar and water to the bacon/flour mixture slowly and bring to a boil to make the thick sauce. Taste the sauce you want the roux to taste salty because the plain lettuce will need lots of flavor. (The salt measurements above are only estimations. Taste it as you go and add more as needed it is a very tangy sauce that thickens a little upon standing) The sauce is poured over the broken up lettuce and mixed thoroughly. Add sauce to lettuce right before serving.

Sugar Cookies

Friday my kids and their friends decorated turkey cookies. I made the cookies with my Mom's recipie, but I cheated and bought the frosting. I got home with the yellow squeeze tub and had forgotten to buy the tip that goes with it, we improvised with a ziploc baggie.

1 c. margarine
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
4 Tbsp. milk

Cream shortening & sugar. Add eggs & flavorings. Stir in dry ingredients and milk. Chill mixture in fridge at least 1 hour. Roll dough out to 1/4-1/2 inch and cut cookies to desired shape. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Sweet Potatoes

My aunt Lisa has the best recipe ever for Sweet Potatoes, its more like a dessert and I promise you can't resist going back for another spoonful. She gets assigned to bring them to our thanksgiving feast every year because no one can top them, they're divine. When I asked her for the recipe this was her response. "You mean the quadrupled recipe for luscious pecan/buttery topping with the single recipe of sweet potatoes underneath?"

Ingredients for Potatoes:

3 C. Sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (4-6 small sweet potatoes, about 2-2.5 lbs.)

1 C. Sugar

2 Eggs

1/2 C. Butter

1 tsp. Vanilla

1/3 C. Milk

Mix ingredients and pour into shallow (9 x 13-in) pan. (The shallower the pan, the better because then you end up with fewer potatoes and more topping.)

Ingredients for Topping

1/2 C. Butter

1/2 C. Flour

1 C. Light brown sugar

1 C. chopped pecans

(NOTE: You might as well just double the topping ingredients because if you don't, you'll wish you had. In fact, in all honesty, I'd go as far as to triple or quadruple the topping ingredients, although at that point, you could probably just leave the sweet potatoes out altogether. Why bother with a vegetable at all?)

Mix topping ingredients together. Spread on top of potatoes and bake at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes (maybe longer).

Chicken Parmigiano Alfredo

A friend at work told me about one of her families favorite recipes so I adapted it and made it for my hubby and kiddos to try out in the crockpot one night last week while I was at work. They called me at work and told me it was one of their favorites, ever!

1 lb chicken cooked and shredded or cut into bit size pieces

1 package linguine noodles cooked

1 jar marinara

1 jar Alfredo sauce

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup mozzarella

I started by grilling chicken tenders on my george foreman while boiling the noodles. Cut up chicken and drain noodles. Spray crockpot with cooking spray they add half the noodles, chicken and sauces to crockpot and sprinkle with half of the Parmesan cheese on top. Make one more layer with the other half of ingredients and cover with Mozzarella. Cook on low until cheese is melted and pasta is warmed through.