Frosted Pineapple Squares

This is another one of those family recipes that I have never had or heard of but was given the recipe by my mom and aunt and told it was yummy.  I have been intrigued by this recipe for a long time because it does indeed sound good but kept putting if off because it involves using yeast and yeast and I don't always get along.  Whenever I use yeast I can only get it to work about half the time.  This time it about 3/4 worked.  I got a little rise out of the dough but I feel that it probably should have rose a bit more, maybe my house is to cold.  It was still yummy but I'm betting it could have been a bit more light and flaky.  This turns out like a huge pineapple toaster strudel!

Ingredients:

Pineapple filling

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg yolk - lightly beaten

1 14 oz can Crushed Pineapple - undrained

Dough

2/3 cup milk

1 tsp sugar

1 package active dry yeast

4 egg yolks - lightly beaten

4 cups sifted flour

1 cup butter

Mix sugar, salt and cornstarch together in a sauce pan

Separate your egg yolk

stir yolk and pineapple into pan with sugar, salt and cornstarch

cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and smooth about 7 minutes

let cool while making dough

scald milk

add sugar  and let cool to lukewarm

cut up butter so it is easier to mix in with flour

Measure and sift flour

use a pastry blender to cut the butter and flour together

keep blending until butter and flour are a pea sized consistency

dissolve yeast in warm water to activate

add yolks and yeast to lukewarm milk

add milk mixture to flour

kneed together until dough forms

divide dough into two pieces and put one on a floured surface

roll out into a big rectangle

put on a parchment paper lined pan

pour pineapple filling over the top and spread out, leave some room around the edges to seal it with the top piece of dough

roll out the second piece of dough to be roughly the same size

place it on top of the pineapple filling

pinch the edges together

I decided after pinching the edges together to roll them up and make it a litter prettier

cut some slits in the top for steam to escape

let the dough rise for about an hour

*it rose a little but I'm sure it could have rose more*

Bake at 

mix together some powdered sugar and a little milk to make a glaze, drizzle it over the top

cut squares and serve warm

Enjoy!

Grandma's squash and onion casserole

This is one of my favorite side dishes.  Grandma always made this dish in the summer when the garden was going crazy and we were swimming in squash.  This particular recipe caused me a bit of trouble there are at least 2 different version floating around and sadly I couldn't call up Grandma to ask her how she made it.  I had to tweak it as I went along.  It called for you to bake it uncovered for 20 minutes but that didn't work.  Everything was still hard the only thing that happened was that the cheese was melted.  I decided to cover it and bake it for another 20 minutes then checked it and baked it another 10 minutes.  I'm now saying that you need to bake it covered for about 30-40 minutes.  The one good thing is that it does taste correct!

Ingredients:

6-8 crookneck squash (I am using 1 big one) - sliced med/thin

1 large onion - sliced thin

2 Tbsp butter

2 cups cheddar cheese - shredded

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I didn't have cayenne so I used paprika)

1 sleeve of Ritz crackers - crushed

Chop up squash and onions

because I used a big squash I peeled mine otherwise you don't need to 

mix everything together put into a 9x13 pan

cut up the butter into little pats and top the casserole with them

Cover with tin foil and bake for 30-40 mins at 350

after baking I stirred it up after baking to make sure everything was mixed together

Enjoy!

Diane's Chicken Tortilla Soup

This recipe always makes me laugh, my Mom has asked and received this recipe from my Aunt about 20 times.  I'm not sure what my Mom does with the recipe once she gets it but she loses it about an hour after she gets it.  Luckily my Aunt is always there to rescue her when she needs it again.  Fall is starting and for some reason I love the crock pot in the fall and I thought this would be perfect dish to make for dinner, and of course it was.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

2 15oz cans black beans - undrained

2 15oz cans petite diced tomatoes - undrained

1 cup salsa

1 4oz can chopped green chilies - undrained

1 15oz can corn - undrained (oops I guess I forgot that)

1 15oz can tomato sauce

1 bag of tortilla chips

Lay the chicken breasts on the bottom of the crock pot

dump in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce

dump in black beans and green chilies

dump in the salsa (and corn if you remember it luckily my salsa has corn)

Seriously it is that easily

put the crock pot on low and cook for 8 hours

take out the chicken

use 2 forks to shred the chicken

put the chicken back in to the crock pot

mix it up

serve it with tortilla chips and you can top it with sour cream and cheese if you want

Enjoy!