Pineapple Marinade

Submitted by Casey Van Camp via Derrick Riches on www.about.com

This sweet, fruity marinade works great on any cut of pork or chicken or steak.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup crushed pineapple
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup honey (Casey says to double the honey)
  
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
• 1/4 teaspoon powdered cloves

Preparation:

• Mix all ingredients together and use immediately (only good for up to 7 days).
• Soak the meat in the marinade for at least 20 min. prior to cooking
  

Notes: This is so yummy! For best results, use a grill. Avoid hamburgers because the marinade will make the meat fall apart from too much awesomeness. True story.

Garlic Lime Chicken Fajitas

Submitted by Marcia Brisson via McCormick
This recipe is not on their website. I even called about it! I have copied it down lovingly for you :0)



http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Herbs-and-Spices/Recipe%20Inspirations/Garlic-Lime-Fajitas.aspx

Ingredients:
1 tsp. Minced Garlic (dry)
1 tsp. Minced Onions (dry)
¾ tsp. Ground Cumin
¾ tsp. Oregano Leaves (dry)
½ tsp. Cilantro Leaves (dry)
½ tsp. Coarse Ground Black Pepper
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup lime juice
¼ cup orange juice
2 tbl olive oil
1 ½ lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips
1 medium green or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
8 flour tortillas (8-inch)

Directions:
1. Mix juices, oil, and all spices & salt into a small bowl
2. Reserve 1/4 of marinade
3. Place chicken into a large resealable bag or dish and add the 3/4 of the marinade. Make sure pieces are well coated
4. Refrigerate 30 minutes or longer for extra flavor
5. Cook and stir chicken in a large heated skillet on medium-high heat until lightly browned
6. Remove from skillet
7. Add bell pepper and onions with the reserve 1/4 marinade
8. Stir about 5 minutes or until tender
9. Return chicken to skillet
10. Cook 2 to 3 minutes until all is well heated and well mixed with the marinade
11. Serve in warm tortillas and enjoy!

Notes: I love peppers so I added probably double what was called for and sprinkled in extra spices. Also, it is really good if you have some shredded cheese, sour cream, rice, beans, cut limes etc. for sides

Cranberry and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash Recipe

Submitted by Marcia Brisson via Elana's Pantry
http://www.elanaspantry.com/acorn-squash-with-cranberry-apple-stuffing/



Serves 4 Portions Cranberry Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Ingredients:
•2 acorn squash
•boiling water, or apple juice
•2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
•1/2 cup dried cranberries
•1 teaspoon cinnamon
•2 tablespoons melted butter or oil
•salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, optional

Preparation:
Cut squash in half and with a spoon, remove pulp and seeds. In a large baking dish place squash cut-side down. Pour 1/4-inch boiling water into dish (or use 1/4 inch room temperature apple juice for extra sweetness). Place dish in oven and bake squash for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine apples, cranberries, cinnamon, butter, salt, and fresh ground black pepper to taste to make stuffing. Remove squash from the oven after the 30 minutes. Turn halves over and stuff center of each squash half with apple mixture. Return to oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (or longer) until squash and apples are tender

Slow Cooked Apple Butter

Submitted by Marcia Brisson
This is from a recipe book I received at church but no author is cited.

Ingredients:
5 to 6 large cooking apples (7 cups) chopped
1 cup apple juice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Directions:
1. Core, peel, and chop apples
2. Combine with sugar and juice in crock pot
3. Cover and cook either on low for 6-8 hrs or on high for 2-3 hrs (both work great)
4. Remove mixture from crock pot and blend on high until smooth (try to use a blender because otherwise it will splatter all over)
5. Return apples to crock pot and add spices
6. Cook on low for 1/2 to 1 hr until mixture reaches desired consistency (I like mine really thick)
7. Taste it and if you want to add more spices go right ahead :0)

Notes: I have used all kinds of apples from tart to sweet and they all turn out really well.

Hawaiian Haystacks!

Hawaiian Haystacks
Serves...6 people?

Recipe by Linda Peterson

Just to be fair, I will say I looked at melskitchencafe.com to get a basic idea. But then I did what I wanted to do!

Ingredients

Chickeny Saucy Goodness:
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
4 heaping tbls brown sugar
1 1/2-2 lb chicken (3-4 chicken breasts), chopped in big cubes or shredded
1/4 cup freshly chopped onion OR 1 1/2 tbls dried chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp Chinese five spice*
crushed red pepper
5 tbl soy sauce (more if desired)**
1 1/2 tsp Worstchershierisreisire sauce (i have no idea how to spell it...)
1/3 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 tbls sour cream

Other Possible Haystack components
Rice (required)
chow mein noodles
pineapple
mandarin oranges
coconut
chopped bell peppers
green onions
celery
shredded carrots

*Chinese five spice is made up of cinnamon, anise, fennel, ginger, and clove (in that order of quantity). If you don't have it in your cupboard but you have some of the constituent spices, just shake in some of those in whatever seems like a good ratio to you!

**You may especially want to dash in more soy sauce if the pan seems dry or the mixture seems too clumpy as you're adding the flour. You can probably add up to a 1/4-1/3 cup and it would be great!

Directions:

1) In a large pan (I used a 14-inch roasting pan with deep sides), put the butter, brown sugar, chicken, onion, garlic, five spice, soy sauce, and worsterchireshrires sauce. Shake as much crushed red pepper as desired across the surface (1 to 1 1/2 tsp is a pretty safe amount, more if you want a kick).
2) Cook over medium heat until chicken is done
3) Gradually shake in flour, stirring thoroughly so it gets incorporated well. It will start to clump up a little bit around the chicken. (Add more soy sauce if desired)
4) Gradually pour in milk, stirring thoroughly to incorporate the flour/sauce mixture. Sauce should thicken a bit as mixed and heated.
5) Stir and heat till mixture starts to bubble a bit (NOT a full boil). Continue to stir and heat for about 40 seconds.
6) Add sour cream. Stir and heat till steamy--it's ready to eat!
7) Hawaiian Haystacks are a self-assembled meal. You put out the chicken mixture, the rice, and any desired stackers (mandarin oranges, peppers, etc) and people put whatever they want in their stack! Yum!

Storming of Normandy

Once upon a time...Linda and Marcia decided to pay homage to those great heroes at Omaha Beach.



Here are some closer shots:

c

The finished product!


Very surprised Dad & Keith :0)


And...we won 1st Prize!

Dead Bunny Cake

Submitted by Momma Crumb & Marcia Brisson

**This is basically a yellow cake mix with shredded bunny. I will get more specific directions later but I really wanted to add these photos :0)

First...save your chocolate Easter Bunnies or buy them when they go on sale! We keep them in the freezer so we can use them all year long. Chocolate is very expensive so this is a great way to save money!



Next...cut that yummy bunny up, shred it, chop it, however you want!


Then...make a yellow cake and sprinkle the chocolate on top. If the cake is warm it will melt pretty easy but you could put it back in the oven for a few minutes just to be sure.


Then...serve it up when cooled. I mean, look how delicious that is!



To add insult to injury, I even ate it on a bunny shaped plate. Mwa ha ha!


Viola! Try that on for size Bunnicula!