Gelatin Dessert: Sugar Foot Stomp

So gelatin desserts get a bad rap sometimes.  In Utah, the infamous green gelatin dessert with carrots lives on at potlucks.  But gelatin desserts aren't all bad and they can be quite refreshing.

Instead of getting fancy, this is just a simple dessert.  No time-consuming waiting periods between layers of gelatin for this dessert.  Just prep, pour, refrigerate, and serve it up!

Even though this is a sugar-free recipe, I couldn't help myself from selecting "Sugar Foot Stomp" played by Louis Armstrong as today's song!  This gelatin dessert tastes as though it is very sweet like sugar!

SUGAR-FREE GELATIN DESSERT

2 packages of flavored sugar-free gelatin dessert

2 cups boiling water

1 cup icy cold water

1. Place flavored gelatin powder in a medium bowl. 
2. Boil 2 cups of water.
3. Pour boiling water over flavored gelatin and stir until dissolved.
4. Stir in 1 cup of icy cold water.  Pour into a rectangular quart container.  Cover.
5. Refrigerate until set.
6. Cut into cubes to serve.

Frozen Fruit Salad: Cold Shot

Frozen Fruit Salad is a refreshing dish that is so easy to make!

Who knew cold fruit could be so tasty?  On that note, here's "Cold Shot" by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble!

FROZEN FRUIT SALAD
29-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained
29-ounce can sliced pears in light syrup, drained and cubed
29-ounce can sliced peaches in heavy syrup, drained and cubed
20-ounce can pineapple tidbits
1 cup 100% pink grapefruit juice

1. Combine all fruit and juice in a freezable plastic bowl or put servings in individual freezable plastic bowls.  
2. Freeze.  Remove from freezer an hour before serving.

Rice Krispies Redux: You're the Top

Rice Krispies® Treats are great the Chaston way (click here for the recipe).  I've never tried putting anything on top of them before, but thought I'd try Nestle® Toll House® Mini Morsels Chocolate Chips.  Very tasty!

Since I put chocolate chips on top of the Rice Krispies® Treats, here's Ella Fitzgerald singing the Broadway classic "You're the Top."

Chocolate Chip Cookies: Wonderful

Chocolate Chip Cookies are simply wonderful, aren't they?  What could possibly be better than the classic chewy chocolate chip cookie?

This recipe is from Our Best Bites and is truly the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever made.  So try it out for yourself!

These cookies are indeed so wonderful that they made me think of "Mr. Wonderful" sung by Peggy Lee.

Ham and Noodles: Keep Me Warm

My favorite comfort dish is ham and noodles.  Pasta is a favorite food in the family and I love white sauces of all kinds.  So just add a little ham and voila!  You have the best dish ever invented!

I needed a little "comfort" after my second day of law school.  I'm in for quite a learning curve, but it is exciting!

When I think "comfort," I immediately think of warmth--which leads me to Ella Fitzgerald singing "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm!"


HAM AND NOODLES
12 ounces wide noodles
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
2 cups ham, diced
2 cups skim milk

1. Cook noodles a minute less than the directions call for, drain and return to pan.
2. Melt butter in a sauce pan, add flour just as it melts and remove from burner.
3. Put diced ham in the sauce pan and stir to coat with butter and flour.
4. In microwavable container, warm milk for 2 minutes on high.
5. Put ham mixture on noodles and stir gently.
6. Add milk, stir over medium heat for 5 minutes.
7. Remove from burner, cover.  Let sit for 5 minutes.  Serve.

First Day of Law School!

Today was my first day of law school at BYU.  Let me just say that I think I've got a lot of reading ahead of me for the next three years!

So I thought of the song "It's a Good Day" sung by Peggy Lee.  It's definitely a good day!

Cornmeal Honey Biscuits: Wee Hours of the Morning

Again, I've got another recipe for biscuits!  This time is my own recipe of Cornmeal Honey Biscuits.  I love to try out new combinations to make the humble biscuit somewhat sensational.

Since biscuits make my mornings better, I'm thinking they could make anyone's morning brighter...even the sad soul in the lyrics of "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning."  I love this song, particularly when it's sung by the incomparable Frank Sinatra.

CORNMEAL HONEY BISCUITS

½ cup cornmeal

½ cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk or clabbered milk

2 teaspoons honey

1 cup flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

6 tablespoons butter, chilled

1. In a small bowl, combine cornmeal, buttermilk, and honey for 10 minutes. 
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
3. In a food processor, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  Pulse twice.  Then add chilled butter, cut into small chunks.
4. Process the butter with the flour mixture until small crumbles form.  Pour into a large bowl.  Add liquid mixture and stir with a fork until moistened.
5. Pour out onto lightly floured surface.  Knead 6-8 times.
6. Shape into a square that is about an inch thick.  Cut into nine squares.
7. Place on Silpat® lined baking sheet.
8. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until golden on top and cooked in the middle.

Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies: Water to Drink

Whenever I think of molasses, the word "comfort" immediately springs to my mind.  Usually molasses is in recipes made during the fall and winter months, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Well, today is a day in August and sometimes it is nice to have a little advance comfort before the Holiday season!

Since water is an unusual ingredient in these cookies, here's "Agua De Beber (Water to Drink)" sung by Astrud Gilberto.

OLD FASHIONED MOLASSES COOKIES

1 ¼ cups molasses

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon pineapple juice

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon water

¼ teaspoon salt

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Pinch ground cloves

8 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup crystallized ginger, chopped into ¼-inch pieces

1 ½ cups Sugar in the Raw®

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Put molasses in a medium bowl.  Stir in baking soda.  Set the bowl aside for 10 minutes while molasses gets foamy and doubles in size.
3. In a small bowl, combine pineapple juice, almond extract, water, and salt.  Stir until salt dissolves.
4. In a large bowl, combine flour, wheat flour, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves.  Stir until mixed.
5. In a second large bowl, whip butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamed.
6. Add molasses mixture and pineapple mixture to butter mixture.  Beat until consistently mixed.  Add flour.  Beat until flour is incorporated—for about 90 seconds.  Stir crystallized ginger pieces into mixture with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
7. Put raw sugar on a large, flat plate.  Drop dough that has a few pieces of the crystallized ginger in each spoonful onto the sugar on the plate.  Coat each dough ball in the sugar.  Place on baking sheet lined with a Silpat®.
8. Put cookies in oven and turn it temperature down to 350 degrees.  Bake for 9-11 minutes.
9. Remove cookies to a cooling rack.  Cookies will be crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.