January Comfort Food

December's Cookie Quest resulted in the No-Bake Fudge as most popular that I made. I made two kinds, one with oatmeal and peanut butter and one with Andes mints. They are easy to make, too. I made mine in an electric skillet. My favorite was the one without the mints. After so much cookie and candy tasting throughout the holidays, I was past the holiday cravings before January arrived.

January brought five to seven inches of snow the first week with my birthday right behind it on the 8th. After all those December goodies, I ate Ramen noodles and oatmeal for a week - simple hot meals for 20 degree weather. Then an old-fashioned craving of Chicken and Dumplings hit me. That's all I could think about. The old recipe I've used for years, however, is a bit time consuming so I changed it to a quick recipe. Like my Grandmother Beatrice used to tell me, use a little bit of this and that. That's what I did. I used a couple of cans of Cream of Chicken soup, a can of chicken broth, a tad of butter, a little milk, and a WHOLE lot of chicken already cooked from the supermarket. So easy! Then I made my dumplings by scratch with a couple cups of flour and some salt and some hot water, mixed and rolled it out real thin and cut it in squares and dropped those into the boiling chicken and broth mixture. It was yum and hit the comfort food spot.

Happy January!

Cookie Quest Fudge Hit

The Cookie Quest continues...

Thursday I brought my No-Bake Fudge to my day job. It was a hit! These melt as you're eating them. They literally fall apart - I think because I made the last batch with evaporated milk instead of the regular milk. Oh, YUM! They're so good I had to share them for fear of sitting down to a fudge banquet alone and devouring all! Today I'm making more to fill up the Teddy Bear again! Come back soon to see the other no-bake cookies added along with the fudge today and Sunday.

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Creamy Tacos

Cold, wintry days bring cravings for soup, chili, and other delicious foodies to warm us up and feel cozy. Do you like cheese? Try this easy wintry day recipe for the family.

2 lb lean ground beef (or ground turkey)

Velveeta cheese

Evaporated milk (1 can)

Red kidney beans (1 can)

Rotel tomatoes with green chilies (2 cans)

tortilla chips

Season and brown the beef. In separate pot melt Velveeta cheese with the evaporated milk on medium low. When cheese is melted, mix with the beef. Add other ingredients except chips. Crunch chips and put in serving bowls. Pour beef/cheese mixture over the chips, and you've got Creamy Tacos!

For a different dessert, try peppermint bark/candy recipe and cashew bark. For the cashew bark (called bark because you use almond bark), you just use cashew pieces instead of the peppermint. My friend made the peppermint and cashew bark and brought me some this morning. YUM GOOD!

Picture of my friend's peppermint and cashew almond bark I tasted today.

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No-Bake Fudge and Peppermint Characters

Today a vendor gave me a Santa container filled with white chocolate peppermint candy. His wife makes the candy. Last year they gave me the peppermint/white chocolate candy in a teddy bear container. Mr. Santa and Mr. Teddy Bear are both adorable. 

This evening I made the no-bake fudge and put it in the empty teddy bear container. The fudge is delicious (it even matches the teddy bear!). Next I planned to make peppermint candy*, but I think I'll hold off on that since Mr. Santa has plenty for us to munch on. 

 
Peppermint Candy
1 large/long peppermint stick
1 package almond bark
Melt almond bark on low on the stove, or melt in a small crockpot. Break peppermint candy in pieces. Mix peppermint pieces in melted almond bark and drop spoonfuls on wax paper. 
Yummy snack and can't stop eating it!
HAPPY NO-BAKING!
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I'm joining Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple. 
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Christmas No Bake Cookie Quest

I'm  on a quest for No Bake Cookies! If you have a Christmas No Bake Cookie recipe, you are invited to add it to my No Bake Cookie list.
Currently, I'm in a transition of a fixer-upper cabin major remodeling. Most of the walls are about to come down, and a Mediterranean home has been custom designed to fill the little cabin's place. In the meantime, I'm celebrating Christmas in my little cement-floor kitchen with no frig and no stove. Ah, but that's where microwaves, electric skillets, toasters, and the like come in perfectly handy. Oh, yes, and I do have a frig in our RV on the property while we're renovating. Baking in the Christmas season is one of my favorite things to do. RV baking works, but I decided to go on a quest for No Bake Cookies. My first choice is a recipe from my friend, Pattie, No Bake Fudge Cookies. This recipe is printed in one of my favorite new cookbooks, Favorites from our Table:
Prepare ingredients ahead.
2 c. sugar            
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. butter
Dash of salt
1 T. vanilla
3 c. quick-cooking oatmeal, uncooked (place in lg. bows)
1/2 c. peanut butter
Wax paper, available

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a hard boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add 1 tablespoon of vanilla. Pour into bowl of oatmeal and add peanut butter. Mix well and drop quickly by tablespoon onto wax paper.

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS! MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

FUN COOKIE BAKING! 

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Skillet Cheesy Chicken

For the little and big kids who love macaroni and cheese, try this recipe out:

1 whole chicken cooked and deboned
evaporated milk (1/2 of a 12 oz. can)
Cream of Chicken (1 can)
Rotel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies (mild or regular)
Macaroni & Cheese (1 box, prepared)

Cook macaroni and cheese as directed on box. Buy lemon pepper or other herb-cooked chicken already cooked and purchased from the grocery store. Add deboned chicken and add to cooked macaroni and cheese. Then add evaporated milk, cream of chicken soup, and Rotel tomatoes and chilies. Serve with flour tortillas or over a bowl of tortilla chips. So Good!

Cranberry Fruit Dip

Try this cranberry dip recipe for your favorite tart fruits.

Cranberry Fruit Dip

14 oz. sweet condensed milk
1 can whole cranberries
1 box cream cheese

Blend milk and cream cheese. Mix in the cranberries. Serve with tart fruit and/or crackers.

This weekend I made this sweet dip for fruit. I even dipped fresh very tart fresh cranberries in the dip. I tried dipping apples, too. They were good, but the best fruit to use are green grapes, strawberries, and any other tart fruit. My husband and I dipped the little twist crackers that you find in the grocery store aisle near pretzels. These little crackers have a bit of a sweet taste. Mr. Kitchen Hospitality said he liked the crackers dipped in the fruit dip better than the fruit.

Happy dipping!
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