STUFFED SHELLS

"Ooooo! That smells so good! What are you making?"

There's something wonderful about filling the home with delicious smells! The fragrance fills the air, whets the appetite and the anticipation builds. Are you hungry yet?

How about now?

This recipe is a family favorite from a dear neighbor who not only shared the recipe, but she also shared delicious pans of this treat! Joni Rogers is a treasure! And friends are angles on Earth!

The path between friend's houses is never very long. And neither was the path between our hearts!

As you can see, this recipe has been used many times!

Here's a clearer version for you to use.

This recipe takes a little pre-planning and preparation. The spinach must be thawed and drained well, unless you chop up fresh spinach. Then it's just a matter of boiling the pasta shells according to the package directions,...

Italian sausage, hamburger and sauce

...cooking up the meat, and simmering with your favorite sauce,...

Spinach, ricotta, eggs, spices

...mixing together the spinach, cheese and egg mixture, then filling the shells.

I used fresh farm eggs from the Farm Wife's Table. I'm so thankful I can buy fresh eggs from Angie Viebrock!

Spooning sauce on top of stuffed shells 

Then, comes the fun part of taking a scoop of cheese and filling each cooked shell. Place them in pans (notice I made four (4) pans! There is plenty to share and/or freeze for future meals. Once all the shells are placed, cover with the meat sauce and bake or wrap the pans tightly to refrigerate or freeze. I've found that it takes longer to cook once the pans have been chilled, so the baking time is approximate.

If I were a tall dog...
 (sung to the tune from Fiddle on the Roof)

Special note: make sure you don't have a tall dog, or these may get tasted before you serve them! Tara was really hoping I'd spill some so she could clean it up for me!

Please let me know what you think if you try this recipe. I love to hear your thoughts!

P.S. If you see Joni, tell her that her recipes are famous! (I've lost track of her, but I think she's in Arizona). Another one of her recipes is for the salsa that I make every summer!

Enjoy!

CREAM FILLED CUPCAKES

One of Joel's requests for his birthday is almost always cream-filled cupcakes. I stumbled across this recipe years ago and have made them often.  It turns a yummy cupcake into something WOW!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I've always made chocolate cupcakes at Joel's request, but I imagine you can fill any of your favorite flavors. You might try substituting mint flavor for the vanilla in chocolate cupcakes. Or maybe some tongue-tempting lemon in lemon cupcakes...or? Let me know if  you try this recipe in some interesting combinations. I always love to hear what you think!

Cupcake cream filling

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup Crisco
1/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbl. Water
1 tsp. vanilla (or flavor of your choice)
2 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Combine all but powdered sugar on low in mixer. Add powdered sugar gradually. Mix on high for 7 (seven) minutes. Using a decorator's tube, fill 24 cooled cupcakes squirting the filling from the top down. Frost with your choice of frosting.

YUMMY!

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR!

We can hardly wait for the first tomatoes and peppers to ripen so we can make salsa! A couple of my friends have requested this recipe, so that must mean it is that time of year NOW!

Dayna and I made salsa today and it is so delicious with a little smokey kick!

We followed the recipe exactly, except she wanted smoked tomato salsa. So we experimented by adding 3 ½ tablespoons of liquid smoke because today was not conducive to staying outside smoking tomatoes and then making salsa. 

We always follow the recipe EXACTLY - NOT!

Using the food processor makes our chopping chore easy.

First onions, then jalapenos to make our eyes water!

 

"Are you finished with those jalapenos yet?"

If you want to make some, here is the original post with the recipe for my salsa. 

Enjoy!

Banana Cake

I tried a new recipe for our community dinner at church last night. There were so many bananas left over from the food pantry the week before, that I took some home and froze the bananas. I peeled two bananas and dropped them in a small zip-lock bag so all I had to do was pull out the bag and let it thaw a bit to use in this recipe.  I also didn't have any orange juice, but had oranges so I used fresh squeezed juice in the recipe. It was tasty and the orange peel in the frosting was pretty. FYI, you can try it yourself or I can make this for you upon request! :-)  Also, I doubled the recipe and baked it in a 9x13 pan.
 2 med. ripe bananas mashed 1 cup flour 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (opt.) (I used pecans)2/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/3 cup veg. oil 1 egg, slightly beaten 1 Tbsp. orange juice 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 tsp. salt Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry ingredients. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into greased and floured 8 x 8 baking pan. Bake for 30 min. until toothpick comes out clean when poked into cake's center. Cool. Icing: 1/3 cup soft butter 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1 Tbsp. orange juice 1 Tbsp. grated orange peel (opt.)
BANANA CAKE