Egg Drop Soup

I found this recipe in one of my cookbooks (Taste of Home: Simple and Delicious Cookbook). It's great with fried rice and is super easy to make. Now I just wonder where you get those good egg noodle chip things. Do you know what I'm talking about? Chinese restaurants usually offer them with the soup.

3 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons cold water

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 green onion, sliced

In a large saucepan, bring broth to boil over medium heat.

In a separate bowl, combine cornstarch and water until smooth; gradually stir into broth. Bring to boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Reduce heat. Drizzle beaten egg into hot broth, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat; stir in onion.

Yields 4 servings.

Cookies, anyone?

I've searched high and low for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. I prefer my cookies to be really soft and chewy. I was so happy when I came across this one because it was exactly what I wanted!

This is the basis of my recipe, though for whatever reason, I thought one stick of butter was a equal to a cup of butter. I don't know what made me think that because I did know that it was really just half a cup at some point in my life. I think. Well, recently someone corrected my error and that totally shifted my cooking world. I had to rack my brain to figure out if I made my cookies with 1 stick or 2 sticks of butter. I'm pretty sure I only used one stick because I always wondered why my cookie dough was particularly dry and crumbly so I would add a extra egg to moisten it up a bit. Then as I was looking over the original recipe (found in the link), I realized that I always added more flour! I guess I wrote that wrong...whoops. SO long story short, for the original recipe go here (those cookies are good too), but my altered and equally good (if not better!) cookie recipe is below.

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups All-purpose flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 package Instant Vanilla pudding mix

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 package of chocolate chips (if you're going to make chocolate chip cookies, you gotta have lots of chips!)

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

1. Stir baking soda, flour, and salt. Set aside.

2. Combine butter, sugars, and pudding mix and beat until fluffy.

3. Add vanilla extract and eggs and beat until smooth.

4. Add dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

6. Bake at 375* for 8 minutes. (**Very important note: if you want super chewy cookies, you must take them out of the oven as soon as they start to brown. Even if they look mushy and not cooked in the middle, that's ok. That's what makes them chewy! Also, if they don't flatten on their own, I'll smash them down a bit with a spatula after I take them out of the oven.)

What's your favorite cookie?? Post your favorite cookie recipe!

Brownies!

My recipe box is completely full and so I was trying to clean out unused recipes and discovered I have 8 brownies recipes (not to mention I have a brownie cookbook). I set out to bake them all and decide which ones to keep. Dumb idea because I only cook one at a time, so its really difficult to compare. And to be honest, I don't know if there are really any brownies that I don't like.

Here are a few of the recipes I have managed to try and they are all different, but I have liked them all so far.

4 oz unsweetened chocolate (12 TBSP cocoa [approx 1 C] and 4 TBSP butter)
1 1/2 sticks margarine (separate from that substituted for the chocolate)
2 C sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
dash salt
1 C chopped walnuts (opt)

Melt chocolate and butter on low heat. Preheat oven 350. Add sugar to pot. Blend in eggs and vanilla removed from heat. Add flour, soda, salt and nuts. Grease 13x9. Bake 30-35 min.

Rocky Road Brownies
Melt 1/2 c margarine and 1 sq unsweetened chocolate
Remove from heat and add
1 c sugar, 1 c flour, 1/2 chopped nuts, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 eggs

Pour into greased 13x9 pan and set aside.
In a small bowl mix:
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 c sugar
2 TBSP flour
1 egg
1tsp vanilla
1/4 c margarine
Pour over chocolate mixture and spread.
(opt. sprinkle 1/4 c chopped nuts and 6 oz choc chips over top)
Bake at 350 for 25-30 min.
A few minutes before it is done, remove from oven and spread 2 c mini marshmellows on top. Put back in oven for 2 min. (don't overcook mellows or let them melt too much)

Meanwhile mix 3 c powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and milk to thin frosting. Spread on brownies when fresh out of oven. Store in fridge.

Angel Food Cake Dessert

Below is a recipe from a friend who made this at a relief society activity. I'm making this for mother's day because it's so delicious and refreshing. (Plus, strawberries are on sale.) I'm doing my angel food cake from scratch.

1 Angel food cake

1 carton of vanilla ice cream

1 container of cool whip

1 container frozen, sweetened, sliced strawberries (size of container depends on how much you like strawberries!)

Cut the angel food cake in half. Take one half and cut into thumb-length rectangles and lay these out on the bottom of a 13x9 pan as the bottom of the cake, but leave some space between them. Take the other half of the cake bar and tear it into bite size pieces and set aside.If the ice cream has been sitting out this whole time it should be soft enough to scoop and gently mash onto the bottom cake layer. Try to get it into the gaps so when it freezes again it locks them all together. Once the ice cream layer is down, then take the remaining cake shreds and stick them all over the top, pressing them down in the ice cream. Then spread the whipped cream all over the top.** Set the whole pan in the freezer for a few hours to refreeze. Then just thaw the strawberries out when you're ready for cake!

** Also, the original recipe didn't have any whipped cream, I added it because it's delicious, but you can leave it out if it's too much of a sugar overload. Same with the sweetened strawberries, you can always use fresh or unsweetened :)

There it is! It's quick to make and there's not much clean up. Also, a 13x9 pan of this stuff is a TON of cake, but it sure is good!

Phyllo Chicken Pot Pie

Chicken, Chicken, Chicken! We love chicken. The story behind this recipe is- I once dared to make spinach triangles and used phyllo dough for the first time. Truly, it is quite a pain to work with, I think, though the recipe was amazing. HOWEVER, while trying to use up the remaining phyllo dough in my freezer, I found THIS recipe online. It's easier to handle the phyllo here because you just use cooking spray between each sheet and you don't have to manhandle the delicate stuff. I've also done my own editing to this recipe and, as you can tell, the variety of vegetables used are up to you- don't bother too much with measurements (I always go overboard anyway). Nice thing about this recipe is it's low fat and you'd never tell it. (Probably low fat because you don't slather each piece of phyllo with butter.) Enjoy!

(oh, and by the way, I always use chicken bouillon's and water for the chicken broth.)

Creamy Chicken Italiano

This recipe comes straight from my crock-pot cook book. It is fantastic and easy!!! Once it's done, I shred the chicken while still in the crock pot; I like it that way. Seriously guys, you've got to try this sometime!

Chicken Marinade

This is a great homemade recipe from my sister-in-law's mother. Chicken usually doesn't soak in a marinade really well, so I would soak it overnight (or cut up the chicken really well). Make sure the chicken is covered all the way (zip lock bags work best).