Rhubarb Cheesecake

This is by far the BEST cheesecake I have ever eaten.  It was rich, creamy and smooth.  Sweet, decadent and a little tangy.  The perfect combo and sweet and sour.  I added extra sugar in the rhubarb, and sour cream topping, but not to the cheesecake.

 Graham cracker crust 

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup sugar 

  
Cheesecake

•   3 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• 1/2 sugar
• 2 eggs 

Topping
 

• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Mix until crumbly and pat into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. In a medium bowl, toss together the chopped rhubarb, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon flour. Pour onto crust. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).  In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Pour over hot rhubarb in the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until filling is set. Cover with sour cream topping while still hot. To make the sour cream topping: In a small bowl, combine 1 cup sour cream, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well and spread on top of cake. I topped this with fresh strawberries and served it the next day when it was chilled. 

Banana Bread Bar with Brown Butter Icing

I pinned these several months ago.  Last Sunday I decided to make them because I had some bananas on hand that were turning.  I was worried, because sometimes pins look good, but really aren't that great.  But, these were very good.  They were very moist and very rich.  The icing was almost over the top, I think I would make it more of a glaze next time.  Anyways, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

• 1 and 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts (optional)

Brown Butter Frosting:

• 1/2 c. butter
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp. milk

Heat oven to 375F.  Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan.  For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy.  Blend in bananas and vanilla extract.  Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute.  Stir in walnuts. Spread batter evenly into pan.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.  Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling.  Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk.  Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting).  Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).

Chicken Curry

• 1 Can cream of chicken soup
• 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup Chicken broth
• 1/4 to 1 tbsp Curry powder (to taste)
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 1/2 Cup cooked chicken chunks
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Mix and heat soup, sugar, and broth. Combine curry powder and ginger in a small bowl, ad about 1/4 cup of soup mixture to it and stir out lumps. Pour into soup. Add chicken and lemon juice. Heat through. Serve over rice and top as desired.

Here are some suggested toppings:
peanuts, cashews, apple chunks, mandarin oranges, coconut, pineapple chuncks, bacon, banana, cucumber, tomatoes, green onions, cheddar cheese and those crispy chow mein noodles. My usual are the pineapple, mandarin oranges, coconut, bacon, apple chunks, cheese, peanuts and noodles. I love it.

Christmas Tree Salad

From the kitchen of Kay Hall. This is on of Casey's favorites.

1 box (6 oz.) lime Jello
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pinnapple
1 C. Cool Whip
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 C. chopped pecans
1 C. boiling water
Marachino cherry halves

Melt jello into boiling water. Stir until Jello dissolves; cool. Add crushed pinneapple, whipped cream cream cheese and nuts. Mix well . Pour jello into a Christmas Tree mold and top with whipped creams and cherry halves.

Pancakes

This is the best recipe I've found for made from scratch pancakes. I can't remember where I found it, but it's really basic and super easy to make and I've included my own alterations.

• 1 1/2 C. Flour
• 3 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 2 Tb. Sugar
• 1 1/4 C. Milk
• 1 Egg
• 3 Tb. Melted Butter
• 2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 2 tsp. Vanilla

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center and add the remaining ingredients. Mix together until smooth. Spoon onto a buttered griddle and cook on one side until bubbles form and pop. Turn over and finish cooking.

Some of my favorite pancake toppings are:

• strawberries
• peaches
• nectarines
• bananas
• maple syrup
• buttermilk syrup
• whipped cream
• butter

Roast Chicken

One of my favorite things to make, also one of the easiest. I learned how to make this while I was working in the service deli at Albertson's. There are so many different flavors! My favorite is Lemon Pepper. Here is what you do:

• 1 whole chicken
• Flavors to taste

First, fold the chicken wings up and back behind the chicken so the chicken lays on it's back on the wings. Then either tie the chicken legs together with some twine or make a hole in the skin of the chicken between the end of the breast and the thigh, take the opposite leg and put it throught the hole and tuck the other leg into the space between the leg and breast. This will keep the chicken in a nice neat package. Put the chicken in a baking dish and roast in an oven at 350 degrees for an hour and a half.

You can flavor you chicken with any spices you choose. Tonight I used seasoning salt, lemon juice and fresh cracked pepper. I've also used salt, pepper and garlic powder. You can also put potatoes, carrots and onions in the dish with the chicken! It's sooo stinkin' EASY!

You can use the juices from the cooked chicken to make gravy and it's delicious!

Rachel's Steak and Shrimp w/ garlic butter sauce

Case and I developed this recipe today for our Christmas lunch! we bought the ingredients for our dinner but, got invited at the last minute to dinner, so it became lunch!

1 Ribeye steak

1 package frozen pre-cooked extra large shrimp

1 stick salted butter (you can probably use less)

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp. black pepper

1 tsp parsley

1/4 c. chopped onions

monterey steak seasoning.

crisco/butter/olive oil, your choice of oil

First, oil a pan with your choice of oil. Get it nice and hot so you can sear your steak to keep all those awesome juices in. Put your steak in the skillet. You should hear a nice sizzle when you put it in. Sprinkle the steak w/ Monterey Steak seaoning. Let it cook on one size until your desired temp (i.e. rare, med. rare, well done....etc.) Then flip it over and finish it off. When it's cooked how you like, take it out of the pan and put it on a plate to cool. Immediately after you take the steak out of the pan, add the entire package of frozen shrimp. I added 2 pats of butter, 2 cloves of pressed garlic, about a teaspoon of parsley and the chopped onion. I let it all saute in those awesome steak leftovers. It took less than 5 minutes to get the shrimp all hot. When they were finished, I took them out of the pan and put them on the plate w/ the steak. After that, i poured the lefty over juices into a bowl for dipping. For the garlic butter sauce I started with a stick of salted butter, then added a clove of pressed garlic and about a teaspoon of parsley. microwaved it for about 20 seconds so it was about half melted then i blended it all together. I mixed the two sauces together and it was AWESOME!!! We had a lobster with it too.