Orange Julius

6 oz frozen orange juice

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

10-12 ice cubes

2 scoops vanilla ice cream

Blend all ingredients together for about 15-30 seconds until smooth.

Jello Salad

3 c water
1 pkg small vanilla pudding
1 pkg small tapioca
1 pkg small jello (your choice)
1 tub of Cool Whip
Fruit to cordinate with jello flavor

Boil 3 cups water. Stir in pudding, tapioca, and jello. Remove from heat and stir until dissolved. Pour into a small to medium size bowl. You will now cover with a plastic wrap, but the plastic wrap needs to rest right ontop of the jello mixture so as it stiffens it doesnt get crusty on the top. Place in fridge until hard. Take out of fridge. Fold in thawed Cool Whip and fruit. Place in serving bowl (or serve from bowl that you mixed in. It just won't look as pretty).

When I make it I use orange jello with mandarin oranges, peach with fresh peaches, strawberries with fresh strawberries. I'm sure raspberry would be good too.

Banana Bread

recipe from allrecipes.com

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Banana Caramel Cupcakes

1 box white or yellow cake mix (and ingredients that go with it)
1 cup mashed banana
1 bag of caramels, unwrapped


FROSTING
1/2 c butter
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c milk or cream
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla


Mix cake as directed. Add banana and mix until smoothed. Scoop batter into lined cupcake tins so it's about 2/3 full. Place caramel on top in the middle. Bake at 350 for 18-21 minutes. Cool completely before frosting.

FROSTING
Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add sugar and stir for 2 minutes. Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and pour into a small/medium bowl. Let it sit until room temperature. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Frost cooled cupcakes.

Baked Peach Pie

Courtesy Brides Edition Betty Crocker Cook Book 2/3 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
6 c sliced peaches (about 6-8), skinless
1 tsp lemon juice
1 TBSP butter

Heat oven to 425. Make pie shell.

Mix sugar, flour, and cinnamon in larg bowl. Stir in peaches and lemon juice. Turn into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; spinkle over peaches. Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal and flute (push edges together to make it pretty). Cover edge with a strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning. Remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking.

Bake about 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust. Cool for at least 2 hours.

Two-Crust Pie Shell
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 c plus 2 TBSP shortening
4-5 TBSP cold water

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender or crisscrossing 2 knives, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water 1 TBSP at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened.

Gather pastry into two equal balls. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface. If you want to wrap it up in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 30 minutes to firm up the shortening slightly-which also helps make the baked pastry more flaky and lets the water absorb evenly.

Roll pastry on lightly floured surface, using floured rolling pin, into a circle 2 inches larger than the pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths and place in pie plate; or roll pastry loosely around rolling pin and transfer to pie plate. Ease pastry into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side and being careful not to stretch pastry-which will cause it to shrik when baked.

Once fruit is in bottom pie shell cover with second shell. Rim 1/2 inch from rim of plate. Cut slits in top shell to let stem escape. Fold and roll top edge under lower edge, pressing on rim to seal; flute and bake!

What not to do:

Don't place beautiful pie on a stove burner to cool. You might turn on an adjacent burner but accidentally turn the burner on that you are letting your pie cool. In a hurry to save the pie you place it on the sink divider and BAM!! Peach Pie Glass Pan grenade. Yeah. Just save yourself some time and tears, place the pie to cool on a hot pad on the counter.

Strawberry Jello Salad

*Strawberries are not mixed together because my 2yr old threw a fit when I tried to combine them. But it sure looks pretty with the strawberries sprinkled on top.

1 16 oz carton Cottage Cheese
1 8 oz Cool Whip
1small pkg Strawberry Jell-o, dry mix
1 1/2 c mini marshmallows
Fresh Strawberries, sliced

Combine all ingredients together and fold until blended.

It's a great summer dish! Especially with BBQ meat and veggies! I try and sneek anything healthy in my kids dishes, and this pleases the sweet tooth and the nutritionist.

Easy Strawberry Pie

The only bad thing about this pie is that left-overs are NOT good. So eat it all or throw it away.

1 pkg of Strawberry Flavored Danish Dessert

Strawberries, enough to fill pie shell

.

Make Danish Dessert by following the directions on the box. Cool 1-2 minutes. Slice strawberries in 1/2, stir into mixture. Pour in baked pie shell. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Serve with whipping cream.

Strawberry Pretzel Jello

Courtesy of Mary Jean Robinson.

I almost forgot to take a photo...that's why it's almost gone and not very pretty...sorry.

2 c pretzels, crushed in 1/4 inch pieces, roughly

1 1/2 sticks melted butter

3 TBSP sugar

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 c sugar

1 TBSP milk

4 TBSP crushed pineapple, drained (optional)

1 12 oz cool whip

2 c water

1 large pkg strawberry jello

20 oz or so frozen sliced strawberries

.

Add pretzels, butter and sugar together. Stir until pretzels are evenly coated. Press into a 9x13 dish. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Set aside and cool completely.

In a large mixing bowl, combine and mix well: cream cheese, sugar, milk, pineapple (if used) and cool whip. Pour this mixture over cooled pretzel crust. Be sure there are no gaps when spreading this mixure over crust. Any openings will allow strawberry juice to seep through and the crust will become damp and mushy. Set aside dish.

In a medium pot boil water. Add jello package and stir until dissolved. Add frozen strawberries, stir well. Make sure the jello mixture is not hot before pouring it over cool whip mixture. Slowly pour over white, cool whip mixture. Refrigerate until set.

Vanilla Wafer Parfait

Recipe off of Vanilla Wafer box.

Vanilla Pudding or Vanilla Yogurt
Strawberries, washed and cut
Bananas, sliced
Mini Vanilla Wafers

Alternate between vanilla pudding, fruit, and wafers. Enjoy! It's a yummy breakfast that is not only delicious but filling.

Raspberry Bread Pudding-Kneaders

Cream Mix:
1 1/2 loaved aged white bread
1 qt heavy cream
3 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Fruit Filling:
5 c frozen or fresh raspberries
1 c sugar
1/2 c apple juice

Vanilla Sauce:
1 1/3 c butter
5 TBSP flour
3 c heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 c sugar

In a large bowl combine cream, sugar, egg and vanilla. Cut bread into 1 1/2 in cubes and add to cream mixture, coating bread well. Let stand 30 minutes stirring every 5 minutes to allow cream to absorb completely.
For Fruit Filling-combine raspberries, sugar and apple juice, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Layer a 9x13 baking dish 3/4 full with bread mixture, pour fruit filling over bread mixture, spreading evenly, top with remaining bread mixture. Bake 40 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve warm. Top with vanilla sauce.
For Vanilla Sauce-over medium heat melt butter. Add flour. Stir 10 minutes until it has a nutty aroma; do not brown. Add cream and sugar. Boil til mixture is thick. Remove from heat, adding vanilla. Serve this wonderful sauce cold.

Banana Bread

1 cube margarine

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

3 bananas

chocolate chips (optional)

Mix margarine, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Add dry ingredients; mix. Add banans; mix. Add chocolate chips to your desire. Pour into 2 greased bread pans or 1 big bread pan. Cook at 325 for 1 hour (small loaves) 1hr 20 mins (large loaf).

Peach Cobbler

1 yellow cake mix

1 can sprite

1 egg

1 cube of butter

1-2 big cans of peaches, use 1/2 a can of juice

handful of blueberries (optional)

Vanilla Ice Cream

Line Dutch Oven with foil (because no one likes to clean a Dutch Oven). Pour peaches and 1/2 can juice in the bottom. Sprinkle with blueberries. In separate bowl mix remaining ingredients. Pour over fruit. Bake in oven at 350 for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Apple Crisp

8-9 cups sliced apples
3 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP lemon juice

Topping
1 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
½ cup old fashioned oats
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup butter

Heat oven to 375. Generously grease 9x13 casserole dish. Mix sliced apples, sugar and lemon juice. Combine topping; add butter, mix until crumbly. Spread topping over apples evenly. Press topping down gently with palm of hand. Bake 45-50 minutes.
Serve with vanilla custard sauce or vanilla ice cream.