Pasta with sausage, basil and mustard

My sister-in-law made this tonight and it was divine!!

1 pound penne pasta

1 Tbsp olive oil

1-1/2 lb italian sausage

3/4 cup white wine

3/4 cup heavy cream

3 T grainy mustard

pinch of crushed red pepper

1 cup thinly sliced basil

Cook the pasta as directed on the package.

Heat the oil, add the sausage and brown, breaking apart into small bits. Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add the cream, mustard and red pepper and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in the pasta and basil and serve.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

I didn't have much luck recently with the recipe I thought my Mom used, from Joy of Cooking. So I decided to Google for a different one. What can I say - I had a "hankerin'"!

This turned out very well. It does not keep well and is best served warm. We didn't try to re-warm it, but the part that sat out till room temp was not nearly as good. Ice cream is great with this!

Ingredients

1/2 cup plain flour

1 pinch of salt

1/2 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

4 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup milk

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping

1 cup soft brown sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons boiling water

Method

Preheat the oven to 350 F

Grease a 8 or 9-inch square cake pan with butter or non-stick spray.

Place the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and cocoa powder into a bowl.

Add the milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract to the bowl and mix until well combined.

Pour into the greased dish. Set aside.

Boil the water then stir in the brown sugar and cocoa powder.

Pour carefully over the pudding over the back of a large spoon. DO NOT STIR. Get as even as possible.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Yum!

Individual Mini King Cakes

This is a cute snack for kids of all ages, especially now at Mardi Gras! I was looking for something to do with my Brownie Troop and they've been wanting to cook. I found this online and, as usual, tweaked it a little bit. They were fun to make and taste great, too! Enjoy!

Individual Mini King Cakes

One package of canned cinnamon rolls (8 rolls) with icing.

Green sugar sprinkles

Purple sugar sprinkles

Yellow sugar sprinkles

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Open canned cinnamon rolls and separate into individual rolls.

Take one individual roll and unroll it in to full length. Fold in half. Twist together. Form into a circle and pinch the ends closed.

NOTE: the Pillsbury cinnamon rolls do not unroll, they are like biscuits, so don't buy those! The package faked us out. They look right in the picture but it's really biscuits with indentations that make it look right when baked. We made it with the Winn-Dixie store brand and those worked great. I don't know what other kinds unroll, so you may have to try more than one. You can do this with the biscuit kind but it won't be the same effect.

Place rings on the cookie sheet, far enough apart so that they do not touch. We placed a pecan half inside each one, as they used to do before the invention of the "plastic baby". You can also use a bean, or of course a real plastic baby!

Bake according to the directions on the can.

Get everything else ready while the cakes are in the oven:

Put the icing that came with the rolls into a bowl. Add milk, a few drops at a time, and stir in until it forms a thick glaze. You want it to be thin enough to drip from a spoon, but not as thin as a traditional glaze. Stir well.

If you prefer homemade icing, add milk to powdered sugar until it's the desired amount and consistency.

While the rolls are still warm, spoon the glaze over each. Let it drip down the sides. Immediately sprinkle with colored sugar. Cool if desired, or eat them warm!

We didn't have time to make our own colored sugar in the Brownie meeting, but they would like to try it sometime. Here's how:

Put granulated sugar in a bowl or ziploc bag. Add a drop or two of the desired food coloring(s). Stir or shake thoroughly, adding more color if needed to get the shade you want. be careful, though, you don't want the sugar to dissolve!

Hawaiian Rice Salad

I found this recipe a few years ago when I was invited to a Luau potluck. It was so enjoyed by all that I sent out the recipe by request. I forgot all about it until recently when someone brought it to another party and said she'd gotten the recipe from me! I lost mine in a computer crash so she sent it back to me. It's delicious!

• 3 cups cooked brown rice
• 2 cups drained pineapple chunks, reserve liquid
• 2 cups sliced celery
• 2 cups cooked chicken, cut in bite-sized pieces
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper to taste

Combine rice, pineapple, celery and chicken. Blend 1/2 cup pineapple juice with mayonnaise. Add to rice and chicken mixture. Toss lightly. Serves 6.
Garnish with sesame and/or celery seeds (optional)

CREAMY TACO SOUP

I really have nothing to say about this soup, other than YUMYUMYUM.

It is a low carb recipe. If you don't care about carbs, you can add corn, and you could also use regular black beans. The black soybeans are low in carbs and taste just like regular black beans. But they are expensive and hard to find.

CREAMY TACO SOUP

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 recipe taco seasoning
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 10-ounce cans Ro-tel tomatoes, undrained (tomatoes with green chilies)
2 cans beef broth

1 can black soybeans

2 cups finely chopped cabbage

1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

In a large soup pot, brown the ground beef with the onion and garlic; drain. Add the spices and cook a couple minutes. Drop the cream cheese in bits into the meat. With the back of a big spoon, smash it into the meat until no bits of white remain. Stir in remaining ingredients and heat through.

Makes 8 cups or 6-8 servings
Freezing not recommended

Creamed Spinach

We love creamed spinach and have tried several recipes. One of our main requirements when searching was that it had to be able to use frozen spinach.

My sister-in-law made this at Thanksgiving and I had to bug her for the recipe! It's now my favorite. I normally double it because we really, really love it. It's low carb too!

2 tbsp butter

1/2 c chopped onion

2 tbsp flour (see note at the bottom)

3/4 c half and half

10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

1 c shredded swiss or mozzarella

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

1/4 t gr nutmeg

Melt butter in skillet, add onion and cook till tender. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly for 2 min. Stir in 1/4 c half and half till smooth. Stir in spinach, cheese, salt, pepper, nutmeg and remaining half and half. Spoon into baking dish and broil 5 inches from heat until hot and bubbly.

This serves 2 in large ramekins. Carrie doubled and cooked in shallow pyrex.

Notes:

Substituting flour for low carb diet: I have used soy flour (same amount) and it turned out great. I also left the flour out entirely once when I had no soy flour. It just wasn't as thick. You could use cream instead of half and half to make it thicker, or maybe just half the amount of half and half. Replacing with sour cream will also leave it thicker in the end.

Additions (we have tried all of these and they are delicious!):

2 pieces of bacon, crumbled
1 can artichoke hearts, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

Top with sprinkled parmesan cheese before broiling.

It's also great if you don't broil it at all!

Sugar Cookie Icing

I found this while making Christmas cookies with the kids and it was the best one I've found yet. It takes color really well and the touch of lemon tastes great. Play around with other flavors if you like!

NOTE: This doesn't make much. We went through 4 batches before we were done with the sugar cookies. it does get hard fast and it was easy to whip up more as needed.

Ingredients

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
• assorted food coloring

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
2. Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each till desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.