Spinach Dip

Hi everybody! My name is April and I am going to be sharing a quick and easy Spinach Dip recipe with you today. This is a dish that I made for the office baby shower I helped throw for Jennifer and she must have liked it because she invited me here today. :) I immediately accepted her invitation and am thrilled that I can help out during this busy time and allow her more time to just snuggle up with baby Charlotte.

So on to the good stuff! I got this recipe from a friend of mine and it is a favorite snack around my house. The good news is… it only requires three ingredients, three steps and no actual cooking. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

You will need the following:

16 oz. container of sour cream

Knorr’s dry vegetable soup mix

Chopped spinach -- I generally use a 14 oz. package

The first step is to thaw and drain your spinach. Then put all three ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly and serve! I usually pair mine with Wheat Thins but you can use whatever you like.

Honey Bun Cake

No pictures with this one because I haven't made this cake in a while but it is truly heavenly and since I haven't shared a dessert with you in a while and because I'm rarely feeling up to cooking much less trying new recipes these days, I thought I'd share an oldie but goodie . Our first experience with this cake was right after we had bought our house. We had closed and spent the first weekend mooching off of our parents good natures by having them help us paint, pretty much the entire inside of the house. What troopers they were! :) And one day while we were there Jason's grandparents brought us lunch and with it this fantastic cake. It's super easy and oh so yummy! So enjoy!

Honey Bun Cake

Cake:
1 box Yellow Cake Mix (the kind with pudding in it)
4 eggs
2/3 c Vegetable Oil
1/3 c Water
1 8 oz carton Sour Cream
1/2 c Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 t Ground Cinnamon
2/3 c Chopped Pecans (optional, I don't use them because I'm not a huge fan of nuts in my sweets)

Glaze:
1 c Sifted Powdered Sugar
2 T Milk
1/2 t Vanilla Extract

1. Combine first five ingredients in a mixing bowl; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Set aside.
2. Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans; set aside. Pour half of batter in a greased and floured 9x13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle half of the sugar mixture over batter. Repeat procedure. Gently swirl batter with knife.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven.
   
4. Combine all ingredients for the glaze. Beat at a medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
   
5. Drizzle glaze over cake, and cool. Cut in to squares.
   

Yields 15 to 18 servings

As most of you know we are planning on having Charlotte via a c-section on Friday. Therefore, I will be taking a few weeks off of Recipe Wednesday as I adjust to life as a new mother. A few friends have offered to pitch in and help and I have plans to set some posts up that will link you to some of my favorite recipes on the blogs that I read, but we probably won't have any recipes that I'm just trying for the first time for a while. :)

Cheesy Pork Chop Casserole

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and it is so good.  I would guess that this would be just as good with chicken as it is with pork.  It's a very easy recipe!  Enjoy!

Cheesy Pork Chop Casserole

Serves 4

4 potatoes, peeled and sliced

4 thick cut boneless pork chops

1 10.75 oz can condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1 10.5 can condensed French Onion soup

1 8 oz package shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan with sliced potatoes.  Arrange the pork chops on top of the potatoes.
3. In a bowl, stir together the cheddar cheese and French Onion soups. Pour the soup over the pork chops. 
4. Cover and bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes or until the internal temperature of the pork reaches 160 degrees.
5. Sprinkle pork chops with Monterrey Jack cheese and serve.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Sausage

I had never really thought of this as a recipe until I was thinking this week about some new things I could try or talk about in the weeks leading up to Charlotte's birth.  It was then that I realized that just because I kind of throw it together doesn't necessarily mean that y'all wouldn't enjoy my haphazard attempt at cooking!  So, here goes!  This is super easy and is something that is different every time I make it.  It is really good and you can make as much or as little as you want since you're controlling what you put into the sauce and how much pasta to make.  You can also control how spicy or seasoned to make the sauce.  This is something that you need to just experiment with to see how you like it best but I'll give you a general recipe.  

So you start by finding your favorite type of sausage.  Lately we've been using the packs of four sausage links that are "natural".  With this recipe I used the Sweet Italian Sausage but you can use the Sun Dried Tomato sausage or Spicy sausage or whatever you prefer.  Before I found these packs of sausage links I would use the Hillshire Farms sausage.  Just find whatever kind of pre-cooked sausage you prefer and cut it up into slices.  Like I said, it's precooked so you just have to make sure and get it warm enough but you don't have to worry about truly cooking cooking it.  

While you're cutting up the sausage go ahead and put the pasta on to cook.  Again, whatever you favorite type of noodles are will be fine.  This time we used bowties.  And cook it to whatever texture you prefer.

As the pasta starts to boil put the cut up sausage pieces into a skillet with some olive oil and start to cook them.  At that point add at least one 14 1/2 oz can of tomatoes.  You can get the diced tomatoes, crushed, whole....again, this is all about what you want!  If you like your sauce chunkier then get bigger tomato pieces.  Pour the whole can (juice and all) in with the sausage.  Then add about 1 1/2 cans of Tomato Paste.  This is going to make the sauce thicker.  So if you like it thicker add both full cans.  If you like it thinner either add the tomato paste and then add water or just don't add as much tomato paste.  Stir around and bring the sauce to a simmer.

Now this is the fun part.  When I'm buying tomatoes just to make this pasta I buy them with some spices already built in.  Same with the tomato paste.  But sometimes I make this spur of the moment and in those cases the tomatoes and tomato paste don't have anything in them.  Regardless, the sauce is going to need more seasoning.  And that's where your imagination comes in!  Here's what I added tonight: garlic powder, onion powder, basil, oregano, and ground black pepper.  Probably 1/2 teaspoon each of the garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper and 1 teaspoon each of the basil and oregano.  Rosemary is also really good in the sauce as is anything else you want to throw in!  Add some spices, stir it up and then taste the sauce and see what you think.  The sauce is pretty thick so you aren't really going to overseason unless you dump in tablespoons at a time of the seasoning.

Once the pasta gets done you drain it.  Make sure the sauce has had at least a minute or two to simmer with your final spice combination.  And then serve up the sauce over the pasta!  Like I said, VERY simple and something that you can make up your own recipe to the sauce.  It's a pretty straightforward recipe but here are some highlights.

Pasta with Tomatoes and Sausage

Your favorite type of pasta (amount depends on number of servings you want)

Your favorite type of fully cooked sausage (Sweet Italian, Sun Dried Tomato, Hickory Smoked...)

14 1/2 oz can of Diced Tomatoes

2 small cans of Tomato Paste

1/2 t Garlic Powder

1/2 t Onion Powder

1 t Basil

1 t Oregano

1/2 t Ground Black Pepper

Water to bring sauce to your preferred consistency

1. Boil pasta.

2. Cut up sausage into small pieces.  Saute shortly in olive oil.

3. Add tomatoes and tomato paste to sausage and olive oil.  Bring to a simmer.

4. Add spices as desired and water if needed to bring about desired consistency.  Simmer.

5. Serve pasta with sauce on top.