BBQ Chicken Pizza

We had this yesterday night for dinner, and it was a big hit with EVERYBODY (which is a BIG deal at my picky house!)

Sauce Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chili sauce**

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. garlic

1 tsp. ground mustard

Dash of fresh groundblack pepper

**If you don't have chili sauce in the cupboard, here's a substitute recipe--just be sure you only add 1/2 cup of it to the sauce ingredients:

1 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 Tbsp. vinegar

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Dash of ground gloves

Dash of allspice

Spread a thin layer of the sauce over your favorite pizza crust recipe (homemade, store-bought, whatever)

Top with cooked, cubed chicken breast pieces, red onions (I left these out since my kids don't like them),and mozzerella cheese. Bake it oven according to your crust's instructions. When finished baking top with fresh cut cilantro (if you are like me, the more the better!) Enjoy!

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Fire and Ice Salsa

Perfect summer recipe!

3 cups chopped/diced watermelon

1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper (I used one large Anaheim green chili instead)

2 tablespoons lime juice

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

1 tablespoon chopped green onion

1 tablespoon chopped jalepeno pepper (I used one banana pepper I stole from the neighbor's garden)

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

In a large bowl, combine the watermelon, green bell pepper, lime juice, cilantro, green onions, jalepeno, and garlic salt. In other words: mix it ALL together in a large bowl!! Mix well and serve. We chilled ours for a half hour or so.

Serve with your favorite chips. We made our own cinnamon tortilla chips and it was great.

Other amazing fruit salsa recipes HERE (plus a video of my cute wife Janet making them on TV!)

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

You may be a little skeptical about this recipe based on the title, but I promise, it's really very good!

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons honey
5 tablespoons lime juice (1 large lime)
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 pound chicken, cooked and shredded
8-10 flour tortillas
1 pound monterey jack cheese, shredded
16 ounces green enchilada sauce
1 cup heavy cream (you could also used 1 cup sour cream)

Method:
Mix first four ingredients and toss with shredded chicken. Let it marinade for at least 1/2 hour (You could toss it together in a ziploc bag in the morning and leave it in the fridge all day). Pour about 1/2 cup enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan. Fill flour tortillas with chicken and shredded cheese, roll them up and place in bottom of pan, saving about 1 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top of enchiladas. Mix the remaining enchilada sauce with the cream and left over marinade. Pour sauce on top of rolled enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until brown and crispy on top.

Make it a Freezer Meal: Make and freeze this recipe. To bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake covered (without thawing first) for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 30 minutes longer, until brown and crispy on top.

Lip Smacking Good Carrot Cake

I am sitting here at the computer eating this cake as I type. It is soooo good. I must give a nod to the fantastic little blog where I found the recipe, that I have been reading the past few months (I love all it's country charm and beautiful photographs): Meadowbrook Farm .

Here is the recipe. Seriously, try it very, very soon. You won't be disappointed.

Carrot Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups oil (I substituted 1 cup applesauce for 1 cup of the oil)
4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped pecans (I left these out for the picky people who live at my house)
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots

Combine sugar, oil, (and applesauce if you choose to substitute), and eggs. Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt. Add to sugar/egg mixture. Mix well and fold in carrots and pecans.

Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 13 pan (I used a bundt pan). Bake at 300 degrees for one hour.

Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 - 8 oz package softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Cream the cream cheese and butter, then mix in the vanilla and powdered sugar. Spread on the cooled cake and lick the beaters and the bowl clean!

Seriously. It's to die for!

Delicious Dill Pickle Dip

For New Year's Eve we decided to try a new dip. Tons of pickles.....YUM! We are also big Ruffles fans at our house, so this seemed like the perfect companion for that big bag of chips we were taking to the family party:

Ingredients:

1 cup sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise, NOT Miracle Whip (I used "light")
2 tsp. dill
2 cups finely diced dill pickles
Method:

Combine all ingredients together and mix well. Let chill for a couple of hours.

Enjoy with Ruffles, or your favorite chip.

Giant Ginger Cookies

I know it has been forever since I posted a recipe, but hopefully you'll forgive me once you' ve made these babies!

I call them Giant Ginger Cookies (mostly because you can make them as big as you want!)

Here goes:

• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground gloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/12 cups shortening
  
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 3/4 cup coarse sugar (I use Wilton brand White Sparkling Sugar -- in the sprinkles aisle)

Preheat over to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat shortening for 30 seconds. Add the 2 cups granulated sugar; beat until combined. Beat in eggs and molasses until combined. Beat in half of flour mixture. Stir in remaining flour mixture. Using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, shape dough into 2 inch balls; roll in the coarse sugar. Place balls 2 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are light brown and puffed. (Do not overbake or cookies will not be chewy.) Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; cool. Makes 25 (4 inch) cookies.

My husband took these to work, and his co-workers couldn't get enough! Let me know how you like them.