Recipe: Country Sausage Gravy

Country Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:
1 lb. regular or hot ground sausage, browned and drained
2 T. flour (or 1 T. per cup milk)
2 beef bouillon cubes (or 1 per cup milk)
2 cups milk

Sausage Gravy Directions:

1. Brown sausage and drain.
2. On medium or medium-low heat, add beef bouillon cubes, and smash them with a wooden spoon as they heat up.
3. Add flour to browned sausage and stir until well coated.
4. Slowly pour in milk and stir until completely mixed. Keep stirring until gravy reaches a boil and thickens in consistency. Remove from heat.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 4-5 servings.

Cook’s Note: You can easily increase yield by adding 1 T. flour, 1 bouillon, and 1 cup milk. If you prefer your gravy with a thinner consistency, stir in a small amount of milk (a little goes a long way).

Recipe: Lemon-Berry Syrup

Lemon-Berry Syrup (for those days you can't have lemon-filled donuts)

Ingredients:
2 T. cornstarch
1/4 c. Real Lemon juice
splash lime juice
1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. water
2 T. strawberry jelly*

Mix cornstarch with lemon juice, lime juice, sugar and water until smooth. Warm using medium heat. Bring to a boil. Stir in jelly and remove from heat. Serve warm. Serves 5-6.

Cook's Note: This goes great on puffy pancakes. Here's a puffy pancake recipe similar to the one I use, although I don't use vanilla or cinnamon in the batter, and I add more melted butter. I'm sure you could fill doughnuts with this syrup as well--you may need to add 1-2 T. more of cornstarch. *I used Smucker's Natural Strawberry jam without High Fructose Corn Syrup so it isn't overly sweet.

What else might this be tasty with?

Recipe: Spicy Buffalo Chicken Dip

16 oz. cooked chicken (shredded) or canned chicken
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 - 1/2 c. ranch dressing (I prefer the lesser amount)
1/3 c. "Frank's Original Hot Sauce"--no substitutions
Bag of your favorite tortilla chips

Crockpot directions:
Combine all ingredients in a crockpot and heat on low, stirring every 10-15 minutes until dip is warm (may take 45 minutes depending on your crockpot). Set temp on "warm" when serving at parties.
 
Microwave directions:
Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, preferably glass. Heat in microwave on high for 3 minutes or until mixture is heated evenly. Stir halfway through heating time.


Serve with tortilla chips.

Recipe: LaLa's Limonade#1

You are going to be so happy sipping your homemade limonade this summer--actually, this lemonade you can enjoy in any weather. It's costs less than half as much as buying frozen lemonade concentrate (which is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, or HFCS, a bad thing for your body), and it is much healthier for you. I've tested and tweaked this recipe a half dozen times to find the right balance of tart and sweet, and here it is....

Lala's Limonade (pronounced "lime-oh-nade")

Ingredients

2/3 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

Boil these ingredients together for one minute and then cool completely.

Then add:

3/4 c. lemon juice

1 T. lime juice

3-3/4 c. water

a few dashes salt (helps take away bitterness)

Mix together and serve chilled.

 

Cook's Note: Do NOT be tempted to add the lemon and lime juice until the sugar water is cold! You can mix a bulk batch of sugar water ahead of time and store it in the fridge to make it more convenient to make. 

Bulk Batch Sugar Water (for 5 batches)

4 c. sugar

3 c. water

Bring to boil; boil one minute. Place pan dish of ice water to cool it down faster. Makes about 5-1/4 c. sugar water, or 5 batches. Store in fridge in a container that holds 3 pints (or even a left over 2-liter bottle or something). 

Recipe: Caramel Apple Dip

If you love the caramel apple dip you buy in the produce section of the grocery store, but can't justify spending the money--here is a recipe to make it for around $1.50--depending where you buy your cream cheese.

Caramel Apple Dip

Ingredients

8 oz. cream cheese, softened in microwave

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 t. real vanilla extract

 - - - - -

1/8 c. water

16 unwrapped caramels or about 1/2 c. kraft caramel bits (what an awesome invention!)

Directions:

Mix softened cream cheese, brown sugar and vanilla in medium size bowl. Mix water and caramels in a small sauce pan and put on med-low heat until the caramels are all melted, stirring frequently. Pour caramel sauce into cream cheese mixture and stir well.

Note: You can omit the caramel and water and it is still a creamy and delicious apple dip!

Recipe: Pizza Sauce

Real Italian Pizza Sauce
by Alana

Great for pizza or just dipping breadsticks. If you don't have all of the spices and herbs, the start up cost for this will be between $10-$20, but you will be thrilled with the result. It is my favorite pizza sauce. When I learn how to can, I'm going to can a few dozen jars of this Italian nectar.

Ingredients:
29 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can tomato paste
1 ½ t. minced onion
1 t. minced garlic
1 bay leaf
¾ t. sea salt (or ½ t. reg salt)
1 ½ t. oregano
½ t. fennel seed
½ t. marjoram
½ t. basil
¼ t. thyme
¼ t. rosemary

Simmer in crock pot for 2-3 hours. Remove bay leaf. (You can also simmer it on the stove for 1-2 hours on low.)

Number Of Servings: This can make at least two large pizzas.