Chewy Pretzel Bites- (ht)

Note: if using active dry yeast, increase the yeast to 1 tablespoon. Proof the yeast in the warm water and sugar (let it bubble and foam – maybe about 5 minutes) before adding it to the flour and salt. *Makes about 2 dozen pretzel bites Dough: 2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast 1 cup (8 ounces) very warm water Topping: 1/2 cup (4 ounces) warm water 2 tablespoons baking soda Coarse salt (optional) 3 tablespoons butter, melted In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast. Mix to just combine. Add the water and mix well, adding more flour, as needed, a bit at a time to form a soft, smooth dough that clears the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead the dough, by hand or machine, for about 5 minutes, until it is soft, smooth and quite slack. The goal is to get a really soft dough that isn’t overly sticky. Lightly flour the dough and place it in a plastic bag; close the bag, leaving room for the dough to expand, and let it rest for 30 minutes or up to 60 minutes. Preheat your oven to 500°F. Don’t be afraid of the high heat! This is what will help those pretzels to brown up perfectly and stay soft on the inside. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper or lightly greasing them. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and divide it into about four strips of equal length. Allow the pieces to rest, uncovered, for 5 minutes. While the dough is resting, combine the 1/2 cup warm water and the baking soda in a liquid measuring cup (deep enough to dip the pretzel bites into). Make sure the baking soda is thoroughly dissolved. Sometimes I have a hard time getting the baking soda completely dissolved, so I just lightly stir up the mixture right before adding each pretzel. Cut each strip of dough into about 6-8 pieces, about 1 to 1 ½ inches in width. You don’t have to be completely exact, just eyeball it. Dip each pretzel bite in the baking soda solution (this will give the pretzels a nice, golden-brown color), and place them on the baking sheets. Sprinkle them lightly with coarse, kosher, or pretzel salt. Allow them to rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Bake the pretzels for 7-8 minutes or until they’re golden brown. Bake one sheet at a time – it won’t hurt the other pretzels to chill out for a little longer. Remove the pretzels from the oven, and brush them thoroughly with the melted butter. Keep brushing the butter on until you’ve used it all up; it may seem like a lot, but that’s what gives these pretzels their ethereal taste. Eat the pretzels warm, or reheat them in an oven or microwave on low heat. Recipe From mel's kitchen cafe

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars with Streusel Topping-(ht)

Base:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

Cream Cheese Layer:

2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel Topping:

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1 cup caramel sauce (homemade recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, two tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine all the streusel topping ingredients and mix until crumbly. Set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two forks until mixture is crumbly but combined. Press evenly into a 9X13-inch baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. While the crust is baking, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Then add eggs, one at a time and then the vanilla. Mix well. Pour over the warm crust. Spoon the apple mixture evenly over the cheesecake layer. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the apples. Bake for 30 minutes until the filling is set. Cool the bars to room temperature. Drizzle with the caramel topping (or plate individual slices and drizzle with topping one by one).

Caramel Sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cups half-and-half or cream

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix butter, brown sugar, half-and-half or cream, and salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until thickened slightly. Add the vanilla and cook another minute to thicken further. Turn off the heat and pour the sauce into a jar. Refrigerate until cold. If the caramel sauce has cooled in the fridge long enough to harden, warm slightly before drizzling on bars.

Recipe From mel's kitchen cafe

Delightful Deviled Eggs Recipe- (ht)

6 hard-cooked eggs

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1-1/2 teaspoons grated onion

1-1/2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish

1/2 teaspoon spicy brown mustard

1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Slice eggs in half lengthwise. Remove yolks; set whites aside. In a small bowl, mash yolks. Stir in the mayonnaise, onion, relish, mustard, salt, pepper flakes and pepper. Pipe or spoon into egg whites. Refrigerate until serving. Yield: 1 dozen.

Recipe From Taste of Home

Mandarin Orange Cake- (ht)

1 - 18.25 oz butter recipe cake mix

1/2 - cup vegetable oil

1 - can (15 oz ) mandarin oranges, undrained & separated

3 - eggs

Add the cake mix, oil, eggs and mandarin oranges to a large mixing bowl. Put a few of the mandarin oranges aside for garnish. (about 6-8 segments). Mix together the cake ingredients using an electric mixer. Pour into two greased and floured round cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until golden brown and the cake springs back. Remove from oven and let cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely on a baking rack. Frost when cakes are completely cooled.

Frosting

1 - can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, undrained

1- 3.4 oz box vanilla or french vanilla instant pudding mix

13 - ounces cool whip (thawed) whipped topping

Prepare the frosting by adding the dry pudding mix and un drained pineapple together and mix with a spoon. Fold in cool whip until well blended. Frost both layers and sides of cake. Garnish with remaining mandarin orange segments. Keep refrigerated before serving.

Recipe From Mommy's Kitchen

Honey Wheat Pizza Crust- (ht)

1 t yeast (I use active dry)

1 3/4 C water

2 C white flour

2 C wheat flour

1 t salt

1/3 C olive oil

1 T honey

Pour the yeast over the top of your warm water. Don't stir Pour your wheat flour and your white flour into your stand mixer. Add the salt and stir it around a bit. Pour the oil into the flour. Let your mixer combine it all up, nice and pasty like. Add your honey. Add the water and yeast mixture. Mix it all until it is combined. No need to let it knead for a long period of time. Just get it mixed up well. Cover it with some plastic wrap and let it rise for at least 2 hours. You can also put it in the fridge if you aren't planning on using it until later that day. You can actually leave it in the fridge for several days and it will just get better with age. Divide the dough in half. Pour some olive oil onto a pizza stone, or any other kind of baking sheet. A stone is not required. Let the dough hang out there for about 5 minutes. Then stretch the dough out to the edges of the pan. 7. Cover with sauce and pizza toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutest, or until the cheese is bubbly and the underside of the crust is golden brown. (Yes, this hot temperature is correct. Your crust will love it. You will love it. Your kids will love it.)

Recipe From Jamie Cooks It Up

Simple Creamy Chicken Risotto- (ht)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (about 1 pound), cut into 1-inch pieces

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic Soup

1 can (10 1/2 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Chicken Broth

3/4 cup water

1 small carrot, shredded (about 1/4 cup)

2 green onions, sliced (about 1/4 cup)

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice

Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook until well browned, stirring often.
Stir the soup, broth, water, carrot, green onions and cheese in the skillet and heat to a boil. Stir in the rice. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the rice is tender.

Recipe From Campbells Kitchen

Teriyaki Chicken and Noodle Bowl

***Note: Snap peas, broccoli, zucchini, green peppers, would also work well in this dish. Use what you have! It will turn out great.

4 chicken thighs, boneless and skinless

2 T olive oil salt and pepper

3 large carrots

1 red pepper

8 mushrooms

1/2 a red onion

1 16 oz package angel hair pasta or thin spaghetti noodles

Teriyaki Sauce(recipe found below)

With a good pair of kitchen scissors, cut up your chicken thighs into strips. Heat a large skillet up of medium high heat. Add your oil and toss those thighs right in. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let them cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. You want them to get nice and golden brown on each side. While your chicken is cooking, chop up your veggies. You want to be sure they are chopped pretty small (about 3/4 of an inch.) No big chucks here. Unless you really like big fat chunks of carrot. Then I suppose you and Bugs Bunnie were made for each other. PS...start the water boiling for your noodles, cook them according to package directions. When the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the pan and let it hang out on a plate. Add the other Tablespoon of oil to your hot pan. Add the veggies and cook until they are crisp tender. While your veggies are cooking mix all Teriyaki Sauce ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Once your veggies are cooked, remove them from the pan and let them hang out with the chicken. Pour your Teriyaki Sauce into the hot pan. Whisk it around until it thickens up. This should only take about 3 minutes. Serve it up! Place hot noodles in a bowl or on a plate. Put the chicken and veggies on top, pour the sauce over the whole kit and caboodle and you are ready to eat.

Review: This was a ver yummy meal. I added some broccoli to our dish and we had rice instead of noodles. Everyone ate it up!

Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!