Homemade by Jenny

Apple Cream Pennies Recipe Source: Mrs. Fields Cookie Book, 1992 Ingredients: Cookies: 2 ½ c. all-purpose flour ½ tsp. baking soda ¼ tsp. salt 1 c. dark brown sugar ½ c. white sugar 1 c. salted butter (I used margarine) 2 eggs 2 tsp. vanilla extract Filling: 8 oz. cream cheese, softened ¼ c. white sugar ¼ c. apple butter Directions: In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside. Blend sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add butter and mix to form a grainy paste. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture and blend at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Shape dough into marble sized balls. Place balls on an ungreased cookie sheet, 1 inch apart. Bake 10-11 minutes. Do not brown. Transfer cookies to a cool flat surface. To prepare filling, blend cream cheese and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add apple butter and beat until smooth and thor

Our family enjoyed this delicious Irish dessert on St. Patrick's Day. It resembles a very thick and sweet applesauce, complimented with a fresh whipped topping. Apple Barley Pudding Recipe Source: traditional Irish dessert Ingredients: 4-5 large apples, cored, peeled, and sliced 5 Tbsp. pearl barley 4 cups of water 4 Tbsp. lemon juice 5 Tbsp. sugar 1 cup of whipping cream + 1 spoonful of sugar Directions: In pot, bring to boil the barley and water. Add the apples and cook for about 30 minutes or until barley and apples are soft. Using a straining spoon, transfer the barley and apples into a blender. Puree until it resembles a chunky applesauce. After dumping out the water from the pot, return to pureed barley and apples to the pot and add sugar and lemon juice. Stir and bring to a boil for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Chill in the refrigerator. For whipped topping, it is best to make your own from scratch by using whipping cream, sugar, and an electric mixer. Jus

One of the best things about growing up in Hawaii is the variety of food. One of my favorites is fried rice, and there are so many variations of it. It is probably one of the best dishes to experiment with. Living on the east coast, I don't have access to some of my favorite meats for fried rice (Portuguese sausage, char siu pork, etc.) so it is hard to make exactly the flavor of fried rice I want. However, I think I finally came close! Local Style Fried Rice Recipe Source: Original Creation by Jenny Ingredients: 2-3 cups bacon, chopped 1 Hillshire Farm Polska Kielbasa 3 cups of rice (white or brown) oyster sauce 1 pkg. frozen peas and carrots chopped green onion Directions: Fry bacon until cooked. Add sausage (precooked) towards the end. Leave the bacon grease in the pan (I seldom ever do this... but trust me). Add 3 cups of precooked rice. Mix well in the frying pan. Add oyster sauce (you just need to 'eyeball it' until it looks good). Add frozen peas and carrots. Mix aga

Along with baking my very first turkey, I also decided to make my very own stuffing from scratch. I am so glad I did. It was waaaayyyy better than any box stuffing I've ever had! I got this recipe from Food Network's Ina Garten and the only modification I made was not to add dried cranberries. My husband is not much of a fruit fan as it is and since it already had apples, I didn't want to push my luck and have him not even try it since it had colorful red cranberries. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to box stuffing again. Sausage and Herb Stuffing Recipe Source: Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa , 2008 Ingredients: 16 c. 1-inch bread cubes (1 ½ lb.) (I used French bread) 8 Tbsp. unsalted butter 2 c. diced yellow onion (2 onions) 1 c. diced celery (2 stalks) 2 Granny Smith apples, unpeeled, cored, and large-diced 2 Tbsp. chopped flat leaf parsley 1 Tbsp. salt 1 tsp. ground black pepper ¾ lb. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed 1 c. chicken stock Directions:

This year was my very first year ever baking a turkey. In the past, I bought turkey drumsticks for myself and a ham for my husband because I was told he didn't like turkey. I later came to find that he just didn't like dry turkey. Who does? So with his permission, I opted not to buy a ham at all (because ham isn't supposed to be served for Thanksgiving dinner anyway) and I bought a fairly small 13-pound turkey. I told him that I will do my very best not to dry it out in the cooking process. After purchasing the turkey, my hunt began online for the perfect turkey recipe. I didn't want anything too crazy but I didn't want it seasoned with just salt and pepper either. I stumbled across a few good recipes and finally settled on a Paula Deen Recipe. I did my very best to stay true to the recipe so as not to screw up my first turkey. However, I opted not to make her "House Seasoning" and estimated the amounts of the ingredients included with it, because I did n

Being 28 weeks pregnant, I occasionally get cravings for certain foods. This week, I was craving Mexican food made with corn tortillas. Any other tortilla wasn't going to do. I had never worked with corn tortillas before because I know that they're easy to crumble. But this is what the baby wanted so I gave in. I decided to make chicken enchiladas with what I had in my pantry and freezer. The only thing I had to buy were the tortillas. Shredded Chicken Enchiladas Recipe Source: Original Creation by Jenny Ingredients: 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts 2 (10-oz.) cans of enchilada sauce (mild because I have a 2 y/o) Salt Pepper 1 c. fiesta blend cheese (or Cheddar & Monterrey Jack) 2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro 2 cloves garlic, minced 12 6-inch corn tortillas Directions: Combine enchilada sauce and minced garlic in deep skillet and heat to boiling, then lower heat. Sprinkle thawed chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add the chicken breasts to the sauce. Cover and cook until