Old Bay Hot Crab Dip Recipe

McCormick's Old Bay Hot Crab Dip

I'm a Maryland girl, so, of course, I love crabs and Old Bay seasoning.

I found this amazing recipe online when searching for a crab dip recipe for the Super Bowl last weekend. It comes directly from the McCormick.com website here.

It was super easy to make and delicious!!!

Serves: Makes 3 1/2 cups or 28 (2-tablespoon) servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 cup mayonnaise 2 teaspoons OLD BAY® Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Mustard, Ground
• 1 pound crab meat
• 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Mix cream cheese, mayonnaise, Old Bay Seasoning and ground mustard in medium bowl until well blended. Add crab meat; toss gently.

Spread in shallow 1 1/2-quart baking dish. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese and additional Old Bay Seasoning, if desired.

Bake 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve with assorted crackers or sliced French bread

Skinny Taco Dip

The Super Bowl is a few weeks away and there are sure to be lots of get togethers. This is an absolutely delicious dip that goes great with tortilla chips. It's also quick and easy to make.

I found this recipe a while back on SkinnyTaste.com website. My family and friends love this dip and ask for it often. Besides it tasting delicious it's not bad for you.

Skinny Taco Dip

8 oz  low fat cream cheese (not the whipped version)
8 oz  reduced fat sour cream
16 oz  jar mild salsa
1  packet of taco seasoning
2  cups iceberg lettuce, shredded
2  tomatoes, diced
1  cup reduced fat shredded cheddar cheese
2.25 oz  black olives (optional)

In a bowl combine cream cheese, sour cream, salsa and taco seasoning. Mix well. Spread mixture onto bottom of a 8X8" or larger glass dish.  Next layer shredded lettuce, cheese and olives on top.  Serve cool/cold.

Delicious Cheese Sauce

My family loves broccoli. So today I wanted to share this delicious cheese sauce that we pour over the cooked broccoli.

First, prepare your broccoli as you normally would. We boil ours in a medium saucepan until slightly tender.

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons butter/margarine
2 1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups Velvetta or similar cheese (also can use shredded cheddar cheese)

Directions
In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.

Add flour and whisk until smooth. Though mine is usually clumpy.

Slowly add milk and stir with spoon until desired thickness.

Add cheese and stir until cheese is completely melted.

Add salt and pepper if you wish.

Pour over cooked broccoli and serve.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Roll Swirl Cake

I found this wonderful recipe in a Weis Markets coupon book. I make a few alterations to the recipe. I use margarine instead of butter and I cut the glaze recipe in half - the full recipe made way too much.

This is the second time I've made this recipe. The first time was at a family Christmas party and it turned out great.

Enjoy!

Batter

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted (we use margarine)

Topping

1 cup butter or margarine, softened not melted

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 Tbsp. flour

2 Tbsp. cinnamon

Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar

5 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

In a large bowl, mix all batter ingredients together except for butter/margarine. Once mixed slowly pour in the butter. Stir into the batter.  Pour batter into a greased 9 X 13 pan.

For topping, mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Drop evenly over the batter and swirl with a knife. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Mix together the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the cake while it's still warm.

Friendship Fairy Bread

My kids and I love, love, love these. My youngest brought home "Fairies Cookbook", written by Barbara Beery, from her school library one day last year and we've been making these delicious treats ever since.

Our favorite recipe from the book are the treats called Friendship Fairy Bread. However, my son isn't too keen on the name. What boy really wants to go around talking about fairies? LOL

Ingredients
1 pkg of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits (8-10 biscuits)
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoon butter, melted

Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
tiny pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk (recipe calls for 1 teaspoon, but I've found it needs almost 1 tablespoon to get the consistency right)
assorted food coloring - optional
candy sprinkles - optional

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut each biscuit into 4 pieces. I like to roll them into little balls.

Mix together the sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon in a ziploc bag. Drop a couple biscuit balls into the bag, close and shake.

Fill a muffin/cupcake tin with 6-8 paper or silicone liners. I find smaller biscuits only make about 6 good sized Friendship Fairy Bread treats.

Divide the coated biscuit balls into the liners. Sprinkle some of the remaining sugar/cinnamon mixture on top. Then pour the melted butter on top.

Place in oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Remove from oven and let them cool.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Stir until blended. You also have the option of adding food coloring to make the icing extra special.

Once the icing is mixed, take a small spoon and drizzle over each piece.

Finally, you can decorate it with sprinkles or jimmies.

We don't use sprinkles or any decorations because it tastes great without all that. We eat them as a breakfast treat on special days because they are really similar to cinnamon rolls with icing on top.

You can find Barbara Berry's book on Amazon.com, your child's school library, or check your local public library.  We highly recommend it :)

Copycat KFC Cole Slaw Recipe

This really does taste like KFC's cole slaw. I can't claim credit for this one. I found it here: http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/KFC-Cole-Slaw-Recipe.html

I've served this a couple times and get lots of rave reviews each time. 

Ingredients
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
8 cups finely chopped cabbage (about 1 head)
1/4 cup shredded carrot (1 medium carrot)
2  tablespoons minced onion

Instructions
1. Be sure cabbage, carrots and onion are chopped into very, very tiny pieces. Put in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix mayonnaise, sugar, milk, buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Mix until well blended and smooth.
3. Pour liquid mixture over cabbage, carrots and onion mix. Stir well.
4. Cover and refrigerate. Best served chilled.

Serves 8-10.

My First Attempt at Canning Pickles

This week I tried my first attempt at canning pickles. I've got a ton of them in my garden. I only planted 3 small plants, but I'm getting lots of small 3-5" pickles. They were specifically for pickling.

Okay don't get all impressed.  I used a packet of seasonings that I bought last year in clearance. It didn't have an expiration date, so I gave it a try.

It's pretty easy. Start with a bunch of cucumbers. Size doesn't really matter. Smaller sized cucumbers are easier to fit into the jars and fill small spaces.

Cut them up into slices (crinkle cut if you can). You can also cut into length-wise strips as well. It's your preference really.

Next start putting the cut up cucumbers into clean, sterilized jars. Any size jar will work. I had pint size jars on hand so that's what I used.

Now it's time to make the liquid that will make the cucumbers taste like pickles. I used the package of seasoning mix, but you can follow any recipe you wish. There are lots available for free on the web. Mostly it spices and lots of white vinegar.

Once your liquid is complete according to your recipe's directions, add the hot liquid to the jars full of cucumber slices. I found it much easier to use a funnel (which can be found in most dollar stores). Leave 1/2" from the top of the jar with no cucumbers or liquid.

After you add the liquid seasoning, be care because the jars will be hot. Wipe the jar with a dry towel, especially around the top rim. Add a dry, clean and sterilized lid and ring and tighten.

Add all the jars to a canning pot. Once the water is boiling, let the jars remain in there for 5-10 minutes or however your recipe calls for.

After the jars were boiled for the designated time remove them to a towel on the counter.  Let the jars remain their for 24 hours to cool thoroughly. You may hear them pop as they cool.

My recipe said they were ready to eat after 24 hours, but we waited 2 days to try them. Let me just say- Yummy!!  Next time I will try sweet pickles, because I still have a ton of cucumbers growing. We will be eating pickles forever! LOL

Feel free to leave a comment with your pickling stories.

Having Fun Exploring Cooks.com

I've gotten lost today. I was searching online for some old fashion recipes. See I'm really big into historical romance novels. Mostly stories from the late 1800 and early 1900 when the middle of the country was being settled.

While searching I came across www.cooks.com. How come I've never noticed this site before?

There are a million really good recipes here!!  I'm don't claim to be a great cook who experiments with spices and stuff, but I can follow a recipe.

Like I said earlier I was looking for historical recipes and found some really cool ones that I plan to try out.  Here are two I can't wait to try:   Old Virginia Angel Biscuits and Old Fashion Corn Bread.

The only thing I don't like about Cooks.com is the fact there there aren't photos of the finished recipe.

There is even a drink mixer manual where you can learn how to make almost any mixed drink.

If you are looking for a great recipe to take to your next get together or picnic browse their site. You are sure to find something you like.

* None of the links in this post are affiliate links. I am not compensated in any way if you decide to visit the site above or for posting about it. I'm simply sharing my opinions and experiences in hope of helping others. Enjoy!

Easy Banana Nut Bread

Easy Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients
1/2 cup margarine (1 stick) - softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 9" X 5" loaf pan.
Mix margarine, sugar and brown sugar till smooth.
Beat in the eggs, then bananas, vanilla and cinnamon.
Add flour and baking soda just until combined.
Pour into loaf pan and top with some chopped nuts.
Bake for 1 hour (or until a toothpick comes out clean).
Remove the bread from the pan and let cool.

This recipe was adapted from one I found on AllRecipes.com. You can find the link here. I've made a couple changes including adding the chopped nuts on top.

Delicious Macaroni Salad Recipe

With warm weather arriving in parts of the US more and more people will be having cook outs. Memorial Day is right around the corner. 

One of the staples at our family cook outs is this delicious macaroni salad recipe. This came from my wonderful Aunt Patty (hubby's aunt actually). Just be warned it makes a lot of macaroni salad.

2 tomatoes
4 small cucumbers or 2 large
8 radishes
1/2 small onion

1 lb box of macaroni
vegetable oil
Mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper

Peel and cut up all vegetables. Mix together in a bowl.

Cook Macaroni
In a large pan boil water for macaroni on high heat. Add a couple dashes of salt once water reaches a rolling boil.  Add the box of macaroni and 1 tablespoon of vegetable cooking oil.  Once the noodles are tender, drain and put in large bowl.

Cover macaroni with salt and pepper.
Add 3 BIG spoonfuls of mayonnaise
Stir well
Add veggie mix to the macaroni and mix well
Add another spoonful of mayonnaise, if necessary
Stir well
Refrigerate

Enjoy!

Copycat Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix

You may have seen this recipe on Pinterest or Facebook. It's been going around and let me just say - it's really delicious!

Photo and Recipe Source

I love how simple this recipe is to make and it really does taste like the Betty Crocker brand Fudge Brownies.

The only thing is that it only makes a 8X8" or 9X9" pan size not a larger 9X13" pan that the box mix does. It's easy enough to just double the recipe to make a larger amount.

Dry Ingredients (shown in the bag above)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Now you can store all the dry ingredients in a bag or jar till you are ready to make brownies or continue on and add the wet ingredients.

Wet Ingredients
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Mix thoroughly for about 2 minutes on medium speed.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Make a couple extra bags of the dry ingredients and store them in your cupboard or pantry. They also make great gift ideas as well. Fill a pretty jar or glass container with the dry ingredients and attach a nice card with the list of other ingredients needed and baking instructions.

Pot of Gold Rainbow Cupcakes

 
A couple years ago I saw an article in a magazine (sorry can't remember) that made rainbow cupcakes with white icing for St. Patrick's Day. My kids call them pot of gold cupcakes.

Ever since I saw the article I've made these each year for my kiddos.

It's a really simple recipe, but a bit time consuming.

You need:
1 box white cake mix (not yellow)
3 egg whites (or whatever your box calls for - same with oil and water)
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup of water
food coloring
container of white cake icing
gold wrapped chocolate coins (optional)

Make the cake batter according to the box. Once it's well mixed separate the batter equally into 6 separate containers.

Add food coloring to each separate container as follows:
red:        18 red drops
orange:  12 yellow and 4 red drops
yellow:  12 yellow drops
green:    12 green drops
blue:      12 blue drops
purple :  6 blue and 9 red drops

Mix the batter and food coloring up very well. It should create nice, bold colors.

Then bake according to the box. Icing and top with a gold chocolate coin.

Yummy Enchiladas

These are super easy to make and my family LOVES these.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
1 pkg taco seasoning
2/3 cup water
1 can refried beans
1 can enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded cheese (Mexican/taco mix)
8 tortillas



Brown ground beef in large skillet. Drain.

Stir in taco seasoning and 2/3 cup water. Bring to a boil and let cook until some water has evaporated.

Stir in refried beans and 1/2 cup shredded cheese until thoroughly mixed and cheese is melted.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Lightly grease 9 x 12 baking dish.

Take one tortilla and spoon in approximately 1/2 cup* of meat/refried bean mixture into tortilla. Wrap up and place in baking dish. Continue until all the meat/refried bean mixture is used.

* Use more or less of the mixture to suit your tastes.

Once all the meat/refried bean mixture is used and tortillas are lined up in baking dish. Cover with remaining shredded cheese and top with enchilada sauce.

Bake until cheese is melted - approximately 20 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

No More Boring Sandwiches for School Lunches

School has been in session here for just about a month and my kids are already getting tired of seeing sandwiches in their lunch boxes each day.

So I started searching online for some ideas and I found lots of cool stuff, but first here's a list of a couple non-sandwich lunches I came up with.

* pizza
* chicken nuggets
* salad - regular or Ceasar
* tuna salad
* quesadilla - chicken or cheese
* tacos
* bagel with cream cheese
* macaroni and cheese
* fish sticks
* soup with crackers or gold fish
* pita with lettuce and chicken salad
* veggies and dip
* apples slices and cheese sticks
* celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins
* English muffin with butter or cheese and mustard  (it's delicious trust me)
* chicken with broccoli or any leftovers for that matter

In my search I found this amazing website. They offer 365 Lunch Ideas - all with pictures of the food. Lots of wonderful ideas for your kids lunches or even for yourself. Plus they are all in cute little bento boxes. Now obviously - no bento boxes required. You can easily use sandwich/snack baggies for almost all of these.
www.laptoplunches.com/bento-menus/

If you are especially creative here is a really cute site showing amazing lunches. Some of the ideas on the site are a bit too labor intensive for me, but for those who have some time it's a neat site. Check it out here : http://www.squidoo.com/build-a-better-lunchbox

Hope this helps you as much as it's helped me. Have a wonderful weekend!

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

This is a really great cake that my family loves. I found in a cookbook from my local library a long time ago. Unfortunately I didn't get the name of the book, however I did find the same recipe listed here on recipes.com:  http://www.recipe.com/one-bowl-chocolate-cake/

This recipe only makes a small 8x8" square or one 9"x 1 1/2" round cake. Plus it's pretty quick and easy to make.

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and light flour one 9 x 1 1/2" round pan or one 8 x 8" square pan.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Add milk, oil and vanilla.  Mix on low speed until combined. Mix on medium for 2 minutes.

Add egg and mix on medium for 2 more minutes.

Pour into pan and cook at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool and top with chocolate icing or powdered sugar.

Food Loving Friday - Homemade Pizzas

Okay so this week I decided to try my hand at making homemade pizzas. Let me just say I've never made bread or dough before.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. It was messier than I thought. Flour everywhere ;-)

 I found the recipe on the back of the Fleischmann's Pizza Crust Yeast package. It's listed below for your info.

Ingredients: 

1 3/4 to 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 envelope of Fleischmann's Pizza Yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup very warm tap water (120F to 130F)

3 tablespoon oil

pizza sauce, toppings and cheese

Preheat oven to 425F

Combine 1 cup flour, yeast, sugar, salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil. Mix together until well blended, about 1 minute.

Add gradually 1/2 cup flour until soft dough ball is formed, will be slightly sticky. Add additional flour if needed to form dough ball.

Knead on a floured surface adding  additional flour if needed, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. With floured hands, press dough out to fill greased pizza pan.

Top as desired with pizza sauce, toppings and cheese.

Bake on bottom oven rack for 12 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is brown.

By the way, it costs us about $13.04 dollars to make 3 pizzas.  Saying you have no ingredients on hand and you will have extra sugar, flour and salt left over. That's less than $5 a pizza and you make them with any way you wish.

$1.06 yeast - Walmart

$3.08 sugar - Aldi

$1.98 flour - Aldi

$0.35 salt - Aldi

$1.79 oil - Aldi

$2.99 mozzarella cheese - Aldi

$1.79 pepperoni  - Weis Markets

Enjoy and have a great weekend.

Food Lovin Friday - Pokemon Cake

My little guy is really and I mean REALLY into Pokemon, so when his birthday rolled around this year he asked for a Pokemon cake. Well, I thought for all of 2 seconds about making one of the actual figures like Pikachu, Charmander, or Dialga.  Then I came back to my senses and decided I would just make a Pokeball.

This was make using a large 14" cake pan and colored icing. The black outlining is a little squeeze tube of icing/decorating gel. To make the cake I used a Devil's Food flavor boxed mix that was on sale for $1.

If you're not particularly crafty, want something quick and easy or just don't want to worry about it there are links to a couple really neat Pokemon cake decorations and even a kit below. Enjoy!

Food Lovin' Friday - Sweet Corn Tomalito

Sweet Corn Tomalito Recipe

Each time my family is in the mood for mexican food we visit Chevy's Tex Mex Restaurant which is a couple times a year. Each time we go there I love getting the Sweet Corn Tomalito on the side. It's a little bit like corn bread.

Just a note - I had trouble figuring out what Masa Harina was so I used masa flour from my grocery store's Mexican food section. It turned out great.

Well I found this recipe online for it and it tastes almost identical to the one at Chevy's.

Ingredients:
5 Tbl. margarine, softened
1/4 cup masa harina
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen, thawed, divided
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbl. plus 1 tsp. milk

In a small bowl mix the margarine, masa harina and sugar using an electric mixer for about 1 minute until it is light and fluffy.

In a blender, blend half the corn kernels and the water until smooth.

Combine the corn mixture and the margarine mixture, stirring well. Add the rest of the corn kernels, corn meal, baking powder, salt, and milk and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a 8" square baking pan.

Cover tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. Beware if you use plastic wrap to keep it away from the bottom pan as it will melt.

Steam by placing the square baking pan on top of a medium sauce pan of water on top of the stove.

Bring water to a boil and steam corn mixture for 50 minutes to one hour or until a toothpick comes out dry. Make sure to add water to the saucepan if the pan boils dry.

Makes 9-12 portions.

Enjoy

Food Lovin Friday - Sticking to Your Planned Meals

I'm a big fan of meal planning or planning your meals ahead of time. Normally people plan a week ahead of time. This helps you figure out what to buy at the grocery store and saves you money. AS LONG AS YOU STICK TO THE PLAN.

That's the hard part for our family - sticking to the plan. To help us stick to our plan we usually build in a take-out day. That's a day when we're too tired/too busy/too whatever to cook, so we go out to eat or order delivery. We also mix and match our meals. What I mean by that is we come up with 6 meals and they are fixed on whatever day we want. Let's face it you may not feel like eating spaghetti on Tuesday but you're craving it on Thursday.

Sticking to the menu planned is important because everyone knows what happens when you go to the grocery store to get a week's worth of meals and then order take out or eat out a lot that week. You waste a lot of food and spend more money than you probably planned.

To make our lives a little easier we almost always have pizza on Fridays. That's our Pizza and a movie night. It's a little tradition and it helps to make meal planning and grocery shopping easier. Try to automate as much as you can. Come up with a couple meals that your family really likes and rotate them over the course of a month.

Be flexible when planning the daily meals. Automate as much as you can. Remember, by sticking to the meals you have planned you will save time and money.

Food Lovin Friday - Snickers Pie

This recipe I found on http://www.thatsmyhome.com/healthy/weight-watchers/snickers-pie.htm

Obviously, I didn't make it into a pie - I made 24 mini cupcake size portions. Kind of like my own little bon bons :)

This is a really easy recipe to make and it takes delicious too!

Ingredients:

12 oz frozen fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 small box sugar-free instant chocolate pudding *
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup lite Cool Whip
3 oz Grape Nuts cereal

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and pour into 8" dish and freeze.

* Note do not prepare pudding according to box directions - simply pour the pudding mix in with the other ingredients.