Candy Apple Salad

It seems as though all we have posted so far is sweets. I promise we eat many other things! Maybe it's just that these are the things that are easier for Kendra to help with right now, such as this recipe. With a little verbal instruction Kendra can make this one all by her self.

Note: amounts of ingredients vary every time we make this. So just let loose and give your 4 year old the go ahead.

2-4 apples, any kind you would like.
2 reg size snicker bars or 8 fun size.
about a half of a bag of mini marshmallows (or more if you are 4)
one reg size tub of cool whip

Place the Snicker bars in the freezer about 20 minutes before you make this. It really makes it easier!
Clean, core and cut apples into small bite sized pieces.
Remove Snickers from freezer, while still in the wrapper hit with a hammer a few times to break them up into small pieces (SO much easier than trying to cut through all the Carmel and nougat)
In a large bowl combine apples, broken Snickers, half a bag of mini marshmallows and a full tub of cool whip. Stir and serve cold. Enjoy

Ants On a Log

You need:
a knife, a cutting board, paper towels and:
* Celery
* Peanut butter
* Raisins
* Cream cheese
* Seasoning salt

Wash celery and dry with paper towel. Cut celery into 3 inch pieces. Just fill with either peanut butter or cream cheese. Top the peanut butter with raisins. Sprinkle the cream cheese with seasoning salt. You can peal the back side of the celery if you are making it for my little brothers because it's hard for them to chew the strings until the get bigger teeth.

Billie Jean Cake

There is a little story to this cake.... Some of you might know this as a Judy Cake (or just a Texas sheet cake). I got the recipe from my grandmother, who got it from a friend named Judy. Now I have eaten this cake 100 times in my life (mostly at the Sheridan fire dances) but had never made it myself, as it just seemed too complicated. I'm a simple kinda baker girl. Then one day I was craving it and decided to make it, with a twist. Now, because I put my own little twist on it I thought it might be OK to rename it. The day I was making this cake for the first time happened to be the day that Michael Jackson passed away. I was sad about his passing and was listening to some of his music as I was baking. You may know his song Billy Jean, but noticed I spelled the new name of the cake Billie Jean. Some of you might also know my Grandmother, whose fill name happens to be Billie Jeanneane. So, in fallowing with the tradition of naming it after whom you got the recipe from, this cake has been renamed (again) and will forever be in my recipe box as a Billie Jean Cake. Thank you Grandma and thanks you MJ.

Preheat oven to 350*

Cake Ingredients:
2 C Flour
2 C Sugar
1/2 t salt
1 C Butter (2 sticks)
1 C water
3 T DARK Coco (original recipe was regular coco)
2 eggs
1 t Baking soda
1/2 C Butter milk
1 t vanilla

Mix flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
In a small pot combine butter water and coco. Heat and stir till butter is melted and comes to a boil, then remove from heat and add to the flour mixture.
In another bowl mix eggs, soda, vanilla, and milk. Then mix that with everything else in the large bowl.
Pour batter into a large cookie sheet or a 15 X 10 3/8 X 3 1/4 inch pan
Bake for 20 minutes at 350*
Remove from oven and place on a cookie cooling rack with several paper towels under it.

Icing Ingredients:
1/2 C Butter milk
3 T DARK coco (original recipe was regular coco)
6 T milk (not butter milk)
1 box powdered sugar (apx 3 3/4 C)
1 t vanilla
(original recipe has nut, not mine though)

Melt butter and coco in a med size pot on low heat. Remove from heat and add powdered sugar and vanilla.
Ice the cake while it is hot. Let icing run to edges and paper towel will catch any run over.

I always/only make this cake when we have Cafe Rio for dinner, because that is the only time I ever buy butter milk. And a little half pint is the perfect amount for both recipes.
This is a good cake for pot lucks too. My Grandma always made 2 at a time for the Fire House dances, one with nuts and one with out.

Chocolate Chip Pie

This make 2 pies, one for you and one for me! Trust me you will want your own, when you taste this!!

Preheat oven to 350*. Grease 2 9-inch pie pans with butter and set aside.

In a large bowl sift together:

2 3/4 C all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 1/4 t baking powder

In a bowl for an electric mixer cream:

1 C (2 sticks) real butter - softened

1 1/2 C packed brown sugar

1/2 C granulated sugar

Add:
3 eggs -one at a time
1 T vanilla extract

Add flour mixture a little at a time and mix well.

Carefully add:
3 C semisweet chocolate chips
(2 cups of chopped walnuts if you'd like, but we don't)

Divide dough between the 2 pie plates and smooth the tops with a spatula. Bake about 30 minutes or until pies are golden and slightly firm to the touch but still soft. Cover pies with foil the last 10 minutes or so to avoid darkening too much. Let pies cool a bit before serving. Best served warm and with a hugh scoop of chocolate chip ice cream. You'll be glad this make 2 pies!

Recipe adopted from the Deen Brothers and modified to our liking. That means NO nuts!

Veggie Pizza & Dessert Pizza

Kendra likes to make this dough and get her hands all goopy and sloppy. Topping the pizza is easy and fun too. Katy has to do the cooking of the veggies with the hot oil still. Between us both we have eaten an entire med pizza before, because it's SO yummy. We'll make another one for the boys in the house.

(Insert picture to come)

Pizza dough adopted from Scott and Brenda's cook book with a slight variation.

Dough (Makes enough for 2 large thin crusts or 1 med pizza and a small dessert pizza or bread sticks.)

1 T yeast
2 T sugar
1 C warm water
1 egg
1 t salt
2 T oil
2 C whole wheat flour
apx 1 1/2 C white flour (or all whole wheat will work)

Mix yeast, water, and sugar in a large bowl. Let sit for a few minutes. Add egg, salt, oil and 1 C whole wheat flour, mix with a fork or in a large mixer. Add second cup of whole wheat flour, mix. Knead remaining white flour into dough until it's not sticky. Roll out dough, Picasa style is our favorite or traditional round if you like, put on a cookie sheet or a pizza stone and top as you'd like or with the following recipe and bake for 20 minutes in a 350* oven.


Veggie Pizza

1 C broccoli
1 C cauliflower
1 Roma tomato very thinly sliced
2 cloves crushed garlic
2-3 T olive oil
1/4 C chopped fresh basil
3/4 C (or more) crumbled feta cheese (sun dried tomato & basil is best if you can find it!)

Chop broccoli and cauliflower into very small pieces and slice tomato thinly. In a large skillet heat oil and garlic. Add chopped broccoli and cauliflower, cook a few minutes until tinder. Baste uncooked pizza dough with olive oil. Spread broccoli, cauliflower garlic mixture (and juices left in skillet)over dough. Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese, add chopped basil and top with tomato slices. Bake for 20 minutes.


Dessert Pizza

2-3 T melted butter
3-4 T cinnamon sugar mixture
1 C powdered sugar
1-2 t milk
dash of salt

Bake dough at 350* for about for about 15 minutes, do not let it get brown. Baste hot dough with melted butter, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mixture. Put back in oven for about 5 minutes or until dough starts to brown a little but don't let butter burn. While it's cooking make icing. Mix powdered sugar, milk and salt in small bowl, take pizza out of oven, pour on hot pizza let cool a bit and serve. Variation: use icing as a dipping sauce.

A Tall Giraffe

Fill a tall glass with the following ingredients:

*2 scoops of Sherbet (we used lime)

*A splash of ginger ale

*Orange juice to the top

Add a slice of orange to the rim of the glass and enjoy with a "bendy" straw.

~~~

Kook Kendra, April 2009

Banana Cinnamon Surprise

*Banana
*Chocolate chips
*Marshmallows
*Cinnamon
*Tin Foil


Take a banana and cut it length wise down the center. Press Chocolate chips into the banana and sprinkle it with cinnamon. Add marshmallows and wrap in tinfoil. Place on a cookie sheet in a hot oven for 7-10 minutes. Unwrap and enjoy. Makes one serving.

Kook Kendra creation original, Aug 2009

Katy and Kendra's Introduction

We first met on October 21, 2004. That happened to be the first day of Kendra's life.

We have been the very best of friends ever since!! We go everywhere together and do everything together. We enjoy many of the same things, one of which is cooking and baking together.... thus we have here, Kook Kendra & Katy. We hope you enjoy our recipes as much as we enjoy creating them together.

Love, the Jewells of Kook Kendra and Katy