Sweet and Sour Chicken

This is a fairly frequent meal at the Humes household. It never seems to disappoint!

3 chicken breast, cooked and cut into bite size pieces

1 can pineapple tidbits or chunks

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp. soy sauce

2 tbsp corn starch

1/2 sliced pepper (green, red, or yellow)

2 cups cooked rice

Drain pineapple juice into large skillet. Add brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and whisk together. Add corn starch and whisk over med/low heat until thick and bubbly. Add peppers, chicken and pineapple. Serve over warm rice.

Also good with broccoli and/or asian noodles on top.

Chicken Rice Casserole

One of my comfort foods. I got this one back in the single days when Chirsty and I were roomies. One of our other roommates boyfriend cooked this for all us girls and lucky for me he left his "notes" and it's turned into a staple for us!

3 cups cooked rice

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 pkg Ritz crackers

4 chicken breasts

1 8oz. sour cream

1/2 cube butter

1) Put chicken breast on pan oiled and seasoned heavily with season salt. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 mins. Flip chicken cover with foil and bake additional 20 min.

2) Cook rice and pack rice into a 9x13 pan

3) Mix cream of chicken soup with sour cream in separate bowl.

4) Cut up cooked chicken add to soup mixture, spread over rice.

5) Melt butter, crush Ritz crackers. Add crushed crackers to butter. Sprinkle cracker mixture over casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 min.s

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Georgia's)

This is the cookie I grew up on. It's a huge recipe and makes several dozen cookies. I usually freeze the dough in small balls, unless it's holiday baking time ;)

1 lb. butter (softened)

2 cups packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 tblsp. vanilla

3 eggs

6 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 baking soda

4 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together. Scoop out golf ball size of dough. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cookies should still look doughy on top but be golden brown on the bottom. Give cookies a minute our two to cool on cookie sheet before moving to cooling rack.

ummm, perfect with a glass of cold milk!

Pumpkin Bread

This is my mom's (Georgia's) recipe. She will substitute canned pumpkin with squash when it's in season.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Dry mix together:

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 tbl. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. mace

Wet mix together:

2 eggs

1/3 cup water

1/2 oil

1 cup pumpkin

1 tbsp. vanilla

Pour we mix into dry mix. Mix until no longer lumpy.

Separate into 2 loaves pans (fill pans 1/2 way full).

*Bake shorter time if you using small loaves.*

Breakfast Pizza

I made this one conference morning and it's turn into a Humes tradition to make it for every conference.

4 eggs, lighty beaten

2 tblsp. butter

2 (8-in) pizza crusts {recommend Boboli}

1 tblsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups shredded jack cheese blend (Colby)

4 fully cooked sausage patties, crumbled {recommend Jimmy Dean regular}

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1 medium tomatoes, diced

1 teasp. Italian seasoning

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

In medium pan over medium heat, scramble eggs in butter, set aside.

lay out pizza crusts and brush each with oil. Top with eggs, cheese, crumbled sausage, parmesan, tomato, and Italian seasoning.

Place in oven, remove when cheese has melted and begins to bubble.

Serve hot, cut into wedges.

Easy Potato Rolls

My mom has a potato roll recipe very similar to this. These are super soft and delicious! Plus I think home made rolls always make any meal better!!!

2/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1 cup mashed potatoes (I will usually make a batch of potato pearls unless I have leftovers)

2 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs

2 packages active dry yeast (1 Tbsp)

1 1/3 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees), divided

6 to 6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (if I have it on hand I like to use bread flour)

In large mixing bowl, cream sugar and shortening. Add potatoes, salt and eggs. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in 2/3 cup warm water, add to creamed mixture. Beat in 2 cups flour and remaining water. Add enough flour to form a soft dough. Shape into a ball; do not knead. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down; divide into thirds (I roll into a log and divide into 3 equal parts). Shape each portion into 15 balls and arrange in three greased 9-in round baking pans (I roll each third into a log and using a pizza cuter, cut the log into 15 equally portions).

Cover and let rise until doubled. about 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes (check on them a 15, darker pans cook in less time). Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

*45 servings*

Our family will usually only eat 1 pan per meal, so after they've cooled I place the other two in two 1 gallon ziplock bags, fits perfect!

Pumpkin Cake Roll

I got this recipe from a friend in high school. Her mom used to make them I and I thought they were heaven on earth!!

3 eggs

1 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ginger

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 flour

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup pumpkin

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 tsp. cinnamon

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese (softened)

4 Tbsp. butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Beat eggs for 5 min.s; gradually add sugar, pumpkin, and lemon juice. Combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Spread in foil-lined 10x15 inch pan. Top with nuts and bake at 375 degrees for 15 min.s. Turn out on kitchen towel which has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. When cool spread top with filling, roll, chill and slice. Freezes well.

Taco Ring

I think of Christy when it comes to this recipe. When her and Ben were newlyweds, I remember Ben raving about the taco ring she made...he was super impressed. If only we could all keep ahold of "being impressed by your spouse" attitude. I think that's one of the top 5 things about being a newlywed!

(Photo totally swiped of the internet)

1 2/3 cup ground beef

1 package taco seasoning

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons water

2 packages crescent roll

*to dress it up*

1 med. green pepper

1 cup salsa

3 cups lettuce, shredded

1 med. tomato

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1/2 cup pitted ripe olives

Sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown beef in skillet, add taco seasoning and water mix well over medium heat.

Meanwhile unroll crescent dough; separate it into triangles. Arrange triangles in a circle on baking stone with wide ends overlapping in center and points toward outside.

Mix cheddar cheese with meat. Scoop meat mixture evenly onto widest end of each triangle. Bring points of triangles up over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough at center of ring.

Bake 20 to 25 mins. or until golden brown.

Garnish with dress up ingredients.