Hot Artichoke Dip

1 lb. cream cheese
10 oz. grated Parmesean cheese
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. Mayonaisse
1 1/3 oz. chopped jalapeno peppers ( you can turn down the heat by using less peppers)
1T. garlic powder or 3 cloves fresh garlic, pressed
1 lb. water packed artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together cream cheese, Parmesean cheese, sour cream, mayo, peppers and garlic powder. Fold in artichoke hearts. Spread into 10 inch baking dish. Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Serve hot with tortilla chips, baguette slices, or sourdough bread.

I have to give credit to Brooke Kane for this recipe and it came from her R.S. cookbook when they lived in Chicago. It's lots of calories and kinda' pricey, but great for special occasions.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 C. white sugar
2 1/2 C. cake flour*(I used whole wheat flour)
2 Tbs. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 C. canola oil
1 C. buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. vinegar

*homemade cake flour: 2 Tbs. cornstarch 1/2 tsp. baking powder fill the rest of 1 cup up with flour and sift

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz. red. fat cream cheese
1 C. butter, room temp.
2 C. confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with wrappers. Mix dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients together. Pour wet mixture into dry and mix until combined. Fill tins 2/3 full with batter. Bake about 20 minutes. Cool completely. For frosting, mix butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly mix in confectioner's sugar. Add vanilla. Frost cupcakes using a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped tip. Or frost with a small spatula. Makes 24.

I like these just because of the frosting. It's fantastic!

This is Bryanna posting.

Lemon Bars

LEMON BARS

Ingredients:

* 2 sticks (1 cup) butter -softened

* 2 cups flour (for crust)

* 1/2 cup powdered sugar

* 4 beaten eggs

* 2 cups sugar

* 4 tablespoons flour (for topping)

* 1/4 cup lemon juice (juice from about 3 lemons)

* 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon peel (from 3 lemons)

* sifted powdered sugar

Preparation:

Heat oven to 325°. Blend butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Pat into ungreased 13x9-inch pan. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. For filling, blend together eggs, sugar, 4 tablespoons flour, lemon juice, and lemon peel. Pour over first layer. Return to oven and bake at 325° for 20 minutes. Loosen around edges, cut into bars and sift confectioners' sugar over.

I made this tonight and I thought it was a little tart, but B was in Lemon Bar heaven. The ladies I shared it with liked it as well, so it can't be THAT bad. This recipe won a ton of awards on some site, so I gave it a shot. It was yum-deliciouso, but I puckered a few times. *** This is coming from a person who puts extra sugar in her Hot chocolate, apple cider, Kool-aid, veggies (I know. sad.) , cereal, and candy bars. Just kidding about the last one, but still! So just take B's word for it. It was so easy to make too!

psst... I put a LOT of extra powdered sugar on my 2nd piece and it helped, just don't suck in or laugh when taking a bite with a lot of Powdered sugar bc you might get powdered sugar at the back of your throat and up your nose and that's not much fun. :)

Chocolate Rollo Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder

Cream sugars, butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking pwder, cocoa. This will make a slightly sticky dough. You can chill it a bit, or lightly dust your fingers with flour to work with it. Take a small amount of dough and wrap it around a rolo candy. Roll the ball in granulated sugar. Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. Don't over bake!!

Dawn thinks the peanut butter version is better, but I like these! Maybe it's the chocoholic in me.

Whole wheat waffles

—I made a mistake and there is now the right amount of salt. My apologies if anyone made them with too much salt before I fixed it.—
I played around with waffle recipes until I got them to be about like Grandma Washburn's. Bryanna likes to use whole wheat, so that's what this calls for, but I assume it would work fine with white, too.

Whole wheat waffles

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder

2 T butter
2 T oil

2 eggs
1 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter and oil with a fork until it's well mixed with the flour (it will have small lumps). In a separate bowl, beat eggs well. Add them to the dry ingredients along with the milk and mix for about 1 minute. The batter will be lumpy and runny. Cook on your favorite waffle maker.