Vittles Divine

I learned this "recipe" while I was teaching English in Russia 15 years ago. I was thinking about it recently and decided to make it again so that I could see if it was as delicious as I remembered. It was, and then some! In fact, I was hard-pressed to convince my neighbor's husband that I really and truly only used one ingredient. Ingredient: 1 can of sweetened condensed milk Directions: Take the wrapper off the can. Boil the UNOPENED can in a pot of water for *3 hours. Keep adding water as it evaporates. Keeping a lid on the pot really helps with that problem. Stir the can once in a while. Tip it over, roll it around, whatever. Remove it from the pot after 3 hours. Set aside until cool. When I made it, I set it aside for about an hour, but the can still felt hot. At that point I dropped it in a bowl of ice water for about 4 minutes and then it was all ready. Open the can, scoop out the yummy, decadent deliciousness, and serve as a sweet, carmel-like dip! It i...

Let me describe them this way: "Muffins so good even Crew will eat them." Many of you know that I am not a baker. At all . Nevertheless, after sampling a few dozen of these mini-muffins on a recent visit to my friend Kerrin's house, I rallied my courage and bought ingredients for the proffered recipe. Only 48 cents for baking soda? Who knew? I am pleased (and a little shocked) to report that they turned out just as good as Kerrin's . Ingredients: Wet Mix: 1 cup pumpkin (or 1 cup pureed canned yams!) 2 eggs 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/4 apple sauce Dry Mix: 2.5 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups sugar 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt Final Add-in 2 cups peeled and chopped apples Streusel Topping: 2 tsp flour 1/4 cup sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon Cut in 4 Tbs cold butter (I grated it with a cheese grater!) Directions: Mix dry mixture and wet mixture separately. Mix together just until wet. Stir in apples. Spoon batter into greased mini-muffin cups, fill 3...

This recipe came from the Top Family Recipe Collections of two of my friends. Knowing what talented cooks they both are, I took a leap of faith, despite my reservations on the whole concept. Peanut butter? With my pasta ? That seemed rather sacrilegious to this little Italian. Especially when I don't really love peanut butter all that much in the first place. Consider me converted. Thank you , Wendy and Allison! Kinley's response: "Wow... Wow.... WOW . This is good. SO good. If you ever go on The Next Food Network Star, you need to make this for sure to win the whole thing!" I made the recipe exactly as written and it was perfect just the way it was. I wasn't familiar enough with some of the ingredients to mess around anyway. I have never used sesame oil, ginger, rice vinegar, or chili-garlic sauce before. 12 ounces linguine ( NOT 16 ounces!) 2-3 breasts of cooked and chopped or shredded chicken. (I used 2 somewhat large ones) Sauce: 1 ...

I made this dressing for our weekend getaway. Mmmmm..... I made it with low-fat buttermilk and it was still delicious. The original recipe came from my friend Bethany. It's been a while since I've had Cafe Rio, but it tasted just like I remembered it, for whatever that's worth. Ingredients 1 pkg. Ranch dressing mix 2-3 tomatillos (remove papery skin), rough chop 1 cup mayo 1 cup buttermilk ½ bunch cilantro 2 cloves garlic juice from 1 lime ½ - 1 jalapeno pepper depending on the size ( remove seeds for less fire... I removed the seeds; 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper without the seeds was plenty for our uber-gringo weak-sauce palates ) Directions Dump everything in a blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate in air-tight container.

I found this recipe on my friend Allie's recipe blog . It's delicious, fast, and simple. Ingredients 1 tablespoon butter 3/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered 1 pound spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces 1 cup dried cranberries 1/2 cup feta cheese 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds 1 tablespoon poppy seeds 1/2 cup white sugar 2 teaspoons minced onion 1/4 teaspoon paprika 1/4 cup white wine vinegar 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1/2 cup vegetable oil In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook and stir almonds in butter until lightly toasted. Remove from heat, and let cool. In a large bowl, combine the spinach with the toasted almonds, cranberries, and feta cheese. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, onion, paprika, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, and vegetable oil. Toss with spinach just before serving. This makes a lot and does not keep well overnight--it gets wilty and gross. This tasty salad is a definite crowd-pleaser,...

I made these enchiladas on Saturday and they were de lectable. Justin told me 9 times throughout the night how delicious dinner had been, more delicious than Los Hermanos or Cafe Rio (I don't know about that , but high praise, indeed!) Kinley and Tanner clamored for seconds (and thirds for Kinley), which almost never happens. Kinley actually ate as much as Justin did, oink oink, claiming that these enchiladas are officially her new favorite food. I ran a sample of the meat over to our neighbor to see if it was really as delicious as I thought and she was in wide-eyed agreement. If you try nothing else , make the beef for the best taco salad meat of your life. I modified a recipe that I found on Allrecipes.com. It may look complicated at first glance; it's not. Ingredients: 2-3 pounds beef roast (my roast was 2.5 pounds) 1 can beef broth (2 cups) 1/3 cup water 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 2 tablespoons chili powder 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 medium onion, chopped or dic...

This recipe is also good with strips of chicken. And a little easier too.