Category Archives: Recipes

One of My favorite Salsa Recipes

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wanted to share one of my favorite salsa recipes.  We found it when we had the ceramic studio. We made it for our girls’ night and it quickly became one of the most requested dishes. So I thought I would share it we you guys. It is a great picnic dish and with summer coming to a end soon I think you should try it today!!

Avocado Salsa

1 (16 ounce) package frozen corn kernels, thawed

2 (2.25 ounce) cans sliced ripe olives, drained

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

5 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 avocados – peeled, pitted and diced

Directions

In a large bowl, mix corn, olives, red bell pepper and onion.

In a small bowl, mix garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, cider vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour into the corn mixture and toss to coat. Cover and chill in the refrigerator 8 hours, or overnight.

Stir avocados into the mixture before serving.

It has a little kick to it due to the garlic, but other than that it is simple that best (non tomato) salsa on the planet, in my opinion. I hope you try it and tell me what you thought of it. Maybe even share your favorite salsa tomato base or not.

Clone of a Cinnabon

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Yesterday I had to make a dish to take to MOPS in the morning. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com called Clone of a Cinnabon and had to try it. It was amazing. Now, I haven’t had a Cinnabon in a long time so I don’t know if it tastes exactly like it or not but let me tell you…it was awesome. I forgot to take a picture of it so this is the picture off the website. I didn’t have bread machine yeast so I just used regular yeast and I didn’t have bread flour and used all-purpose instead and they still turned out perfect. I made double the frosting.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup margarine, melted
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select dough cycle; press Start.
After the dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll dough into a 16×21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Enjoy!
~Merriann

Soap Anyone!!!

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Yesterday a friend and I made our own laundry soap! I don’t have a picture yet but it’s coming. I got the idea and recipe from my friend Hilary. It was super easy and extremely inexpensive (ok, I think we can say it’s CHEAP) and only took 3 ingredients (well 4 if you include water). Here’s the recipe:
Liquid Laundry Detergent

6 cups of water
1/3 bar of Fels Naptha Soap, grated
1/2 cup washing soda (Arm & Hammer)
1/2 cup Borax
enough hot water to fill a 2 gallon bucket
[optional: you can add 1/2 to 1 oz of essential or fragrance oil.]
Mix grated soap in a saucepan with 6 cups of water. Heat on low until dissolved. Add washing soda and Borax. Stir until thickened and remove from heat. Add 4 cups of water to a 2 gallon bucket. Add the soap mixture and mix well. Fill the bucket with hot water (at least another gallon ( or 16 cups) and then some) and stir well. Set aside for 24 hours or until mixture thickens somewhat. Stir (or shake if you transfer it to a bottle.) before each use. *Use 1/2 cup per load*

I didn’t add a fragrance to it. I really like the smell just as it is. Very clean. So today I did my first loads with it and love it.

I haven’t tried the laundry rinse yet but I know vinegar works wonders in the washer. (along with many other uses)

Laundry Rinse (instead of fabric softener)
1 gal white vinegar 25-30 drops essential oil – optional (Straight vinegar works just fine though.) Use 1/4 c in the rinse cycle. I promise your clothes won’t smell like vinegar. The vinegar clears the last bit of soap remaining on all your clothes and reduces static.

I am lovin' this book!

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I love cookbooks. Over the years I started to collect too many and I have had to limit the number of cookbooks I purchase. The thing is I don’t always use them, I just like to look through them over and over again. So, when I heard this one was coming out and heard all the rave reviews I really wanted to try it. I have never batch cooked before but loved the idea. All that work in the kitchen for just one meal and have to do it all over again the next day was never really appealing to me. So, I checked this out form the library (…brand spankin’ new!) and I love it. And get this (for those that know me) there are no pictures. None at all and I still love it! The information is great, easy to understand and the recipes look, well sound (no pictures), tasty.

So far I have made Granola, Curry Chicken, Honey-Glazed Chicken Thighs and Breakfast Burritos. Oh, and the basic red sauce. I have two recipes left on my list to make, Feta & Spinach Lasagna rolls and PB&J Breakfast Cookies. One of the things I love is I can package the meals in whatever size I want. Some of them I have put into single portions so Greg can grab a bag and just take it to work (they have a little kitchen). It’s much better than taking a sandwich every day.

~ Merriann