This is my last week of work for the summer, so I'm breaking out some summertime dessert recipes. I made these bars a week ago for a family dinner. They are creamy and cool, in addition to being delicious! 
CheeseCake Layer Bars
Layer 1- Crust
25 Large Marshmallows
1 TBSP Butter
4 Cups Cornflakes
Spray a 9x13 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl, microwave marshmallows and butter in 30 second increments. When marshmallows have puffed up, stir in cornflakes. Spread out on the bottom of your pan. Let sit for 30 minutes and smash down.
Layer 2- Chocolate
3 Chocolate Bunnies
6 Squares Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
Break up chocolate bunnies into a bowl. Mix in baking chocolate squares. Microwave in 10 second increments, stirring in between. When melted, spread chocolate over cornflake crust. Let sit 10-15 minutes.
Layer 3- Cheesecake Layer
1 Bar Cream Cheese
1 Cup Sour Cream
2 Boxes Pudding, Chocolate or Vanilla
1 Can Evaporated Milk
Soften cream cheese. Mix all ingredients until smooth and creamy. Pour over chocolate layer. Put in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Sometimes my recipes turn out good, sometimes not so good (these don't make it to What's for Leftovers!), and sometimes they turn out GREAT! This recipe is a GREAT one. Yesterday we had a fun, sunny lunch at Trailhead Brewery. It was really fabulous in so many ways: good food and excellent company. Plus, our little ones were relatively well-behaved. Andy and I split a sausage platter that included a lot of dijon mustard, which I brought home with us. The dijon mustard was used in our hamburgers today. They were some of the moistest, most flavorful hamburgers I have ever made. I hope your family enjoys them too!
Dijon Hamburgers
Ingredients:
1 lb Hamburger Meat
1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
1/4 Cup Sour Cream
1 Egg
1/3 Cup Bread Crumbs
1. Mix together hamburger meat, mustard, sour cream, egg and breadcrumbs. Form into 4 to 6 patties and grill.
My friend Kimberly calls these the bottom of the jar recipes. They are brilliant! Saturday night I noticed that there was just a bit of bbq sauce left in our squeeze bottle. It was probably 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup. In the past I have turned the bottle upside down to get all of the liquid out. This usually doesn't work. Sometimes I'll add water to the sauce if a little water will work with the recipe. This time, I made the recipe in the squeeze bottle. It worked great! Every last drop of bbq sauce was gone when I was finished with the marinade. My only caution is that it works best if you have a funnel. Surprisingly enough, I found I do not own a funnel. The next time I visit the dollar store I know what I am investing in.
Hopefully when Kimberly sees this post, she'll share some of her famous bottom of the jar recipes with us!
Pineapple Pork Chops Marinade
Ingredients:
BBQ Sauce Bottle with about 1/4 Cup left
4 TBSP Pineapple Juice
1/4 Cup Red Wine
1/2 TBSP Minced, Refrigerated Garlic
1/4 Cup Balsamic Vinegar Salad Dressing
1 TSP Jelly (use grape or a berry jelly)
1. Pour all ingredients into your bbq sauce bottle and shake.
I used this marinade on pork chops. Let your pork chops sit in the marinade before cooking. Then either grill or fry your pork chops. If you grill your chops, continue basting chops with the marinade while cooking. If you pan fry your chops, after browning both sides, pour marinade on top and let cook covered for another 5 to 10 minutes. Top chops with a cooked pineapple slice for an added touch of flavor. You could also use this marinade with chicken or fish.
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Good Afternoon What's for Leftovers readers! This past weekend, I wasn't feeling well, so my fabulous brother brought my family dinner from Concetta's. Now, if you've ever been to Concetta's, you know how great their Italian food is. He brought salads, lasagna, and bread. Yum! Concetta's house salad dressing is a creamy parmesan dressing. It is delicious and very fresh. There were 2 giant containers of this dressing. It was way more dressing than we could ever use on the salads. Since it was fresh, I knew the dressing would not be good for very long. To use up a whole bunch of it, I made it into a dip last night. The dip was great and it was a perfect addition to chips and carrot sticks I served with our hamburgers at dinner. This recipe makes about a cup of dip. If you're going to serve it at a party, I would double the dip.
Creamy Parmesan Dip
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Creamy Parmesan Salad Dressing (You could also use Creamy Italian or Ranch)
1/3 Cup Cream Cheese or Neufchatel Cheese
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1 TBSP Onion Soup Dip Mix
1 TBSP Taco Seasoning
1. Let cream cheese sit on counter until softened.
2. Mix together salad dressing, cream cheese, and mayonnaise until smooth. Add onion soup mix and taco seasoning. Serve with chips or fresh vegetables.
Happy rainy Monday!
Last weekend we had a really fun engagement party for my sister Jen and her fiance Austin. As with most parties, there was a ton of food leftover. Lucky for us, my mom brought a whole bunch of the leftovers to my house. Jen had made this really fantastic tasting, simple to make, Pesto Dip for the party. I added some half and half to it to turn it into a creamy dressing for a pasta salad. The pasta salad can be served warm or cold, depending upon what your family likes. Here's the dip recipe, plus the Pesto Pasta Salad recipe. This way you can plan your leftover meal in advance! Enjoy!
Jen's Pesto Dip
Ingredients:
Half a Jar of Pesto
1/2 cup (or so) chopped roasted red pepper
1 Bar of Cream Cheese
3/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts
Combine pesto and cream cheese, add peppers and walnuts.
Serve with crackers or french bread
Pesto Pasta Salad
Ingredients:
1 and 1/8 Cup of Pesto Dip
3/8 Cup Half & Half
1 TBSP Dried Minced Onion
4 Cups Cooked Pasta
3 Roma Tomatoes, Chopped
2 oz Mozzarella Cheese (shredded or cubed)
1/2 Cup Turkey or Ham Lunchmeat, Chopped
2 and 1/2 Cups Cooked Cauliflower, Chopped*
1. Mix together pesto dip, half & half and minced onion until creamy.
2. In large bowl, stir together cooked pasta, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, lunchmeat and cauliflower. Pour dressing on top and mix.
*If your family does not like cauliflower, substitute 2 and 1/2 cups of peas and chopped green peppers.
With Summer right around the corner, I decided it was probably time to get rid of the rest of our Easter candy. After the kids get their baskets, I tend to hide a whole bunch of their candy for later and then we forget about it. In our pantry, we had numerous boxes of peeps and chocolate bunnies they either had forgotten about or I had gotten rediculously cheap after Easter. Andy's Granny makes an awesome crockpot fudge that I thought I could recreate with peeps and bunnies. When you're making this candy, make sure you stir FREQUENTLY. I only say this in caps because the first time I tried this recipe, I did not. On Saturday I put all the ingredients into my crockpot and Celia and I went grocery shopping. 2 hours later, we came home to some very burnt candy. We had to rush out to an engagement party, so I didn't get it thrown away until later. Andy cleaned up the crockpot, but when we washed it in the dishwasher, there must've still been some burnt chocolate on it. It proceeded to clog up our dishwasher. I learned so many lessons in a short amout of time. Needless to say, the 2nd time making this, I was much more cautious and they turned out delicious!
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