Ed's Chocolate Cake

Ed is my co worker and brought me a piece of this chocolate cake because he felt bad for stealing the opportunity to go home early one day from work. We were over staffed one day so they asked for a volunteer to take a day of vacation. I volunteered and was on my out the door when Ed stepped in and because he has more seniority than me he was granted the opportunity. I wasn't really that mad but he felt bad and I probably wouldn't have gotten to taste this cake otherwise. This is the best chocolate cake I've ever had. Its AWESOME!!!!

1 (18.25 ounce) pkg. devils food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups semi sweet mini chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2.In a large bowl, mix together cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased and floured bundt pan.
3.Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Cool completely in pan and then invert and turn onto a plate. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or glaze with a chocolate glaze.

Satiny Chocolate Glaze

3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Microwave first 3 ingredients for 45 seconds. Repeat if needed until melted. stir in vanilla. Pour over cake and let run down the sides.

Kathi's Cookie Salad

This salad is a family favorite.

2 cups buttermilk
2 (3 oz. ) pkg. vanilla instant pudding
1 (16 oz.) pkg. Cool Whip
1 (15 oz.) can mandarin oranges, drained
1 (11 oz.) pkg. Keebler fudge striped cookies

Beat together buttermilk and pudding. Stir in Cool Whip and oranges. Break cookies into bite-size pieces and add to mixture. chill 1 hour.

Sister's Macaroni Salad

I don't know which one of my sisters first made this salad but they all make it now so I don't know who to give the credit to. We have this salad for almost every family dinner and we all love it.

1 lb. macaroni, cooked
1 cup celery,diced
1 cup ham, cubed
1 cup cheddar cheese, cubed
1/2 cup onions, diced ( any onion we prefer red or green)

Dressing: 2 cups Miracle Whip (1/2 qt.)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
salt and pepper to taste

Mix dressing ingredients together and pour over above ingredients and mix. Chill.

Kathi's Sweet Potato Souffle'

My sister Kathi makes this every year for Thanksgiving. I don't really like sweet potatoes or yams but this dish is really delicious.

3 cups yams, baked or canned
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

Beat all together with mixer, put in a casserole dish.

Top with:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. flour
3 Tbsp. butter

Mix together, sprinkle on top of yams, then sprinkle with 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes.

Abby's Corn Dip

I got this recipe from my old roommate Abby Franklin. She and I were roommates in Florida when we were working at Walt Disney World back in 1991. She is from Louisiana. I've had ALOT!!! of roommates from all over the country and even a few foreign who I have exchanged recipes with. This dip is really good eaten with crackers. I like mine spicy with alot of cayenne pepper.

Corn Dip

1 can of corn/drained
6 green onions, chopped
1 cup of shredded sharp cheese
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup of mayonaise
1 cup of sour cream
cayenne pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and season with the cayenne pepper to your taste.

Jon's Peanut Butter Cookies

I got this recipe from my co-worker Jon Mendenhall. I love to make cookies but don't like to have them around the house for me to eat them all. So, I have a couple and then take them to work for the guys. They are very well received! These are Jon's favorite cookies so he got the recipe from his family and asked me to make them. They're pretty good. They are different from your normal peanut butter cookies that have the fork prints (which are my favorite) as these have oatmeal and chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1-1/2 c. butter
1-1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. sugar
1-1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
3 eggs (beat first)
1 T Karo light corn syrup
2 t. baking soda
3-1/2 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. flour
1 pkg. milk choc. chips

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.

Corn Chowder

I got this recipe from my former co-worker Julie Heaton. I love this chowder!! It's sooooo good! Julie made other suggestions on using this basic white sauce to create other soups such as leaving out the bacon and adding broccoli and cheese to make cream of broccoli soup. I haven't tryed that yet but I will some day.

Corn Chowder

1/2 lb. thick sliced bacon, fried crisp and cut into chunks
2-3 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1-2 cans of creamed corn
1 Qt. half & half
1 sq. margarine or 1/2 bacon drippings or a combination of the two to equal 1/2 cup.
1/2 c. flour
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, boil potatoes and onion in slightly salted water. (Just barely enough water to cover the veggies). Cook until tender but firm.

While vegetables are cooking, make a white sauce of the margarine and half and half. Melt margarine or bacon drippings in a large fry pan over medium heat. Add the flour, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Add half & half, stirring constantly until very thick. Add salt and pepper.

Add the white sauce, bacon, and creamed corn to the potatoes (do not drain the potatoes). Stir constantly as you bring the chowder to a gentle boil. Remove from heat and serve.

*You can add more milk to make it thinner.

Carmel-Krispie Balls

***Attention Anna!****this is the recipe you like! Lol!

I got this recipe from my mom along time ago and I know its not sophisticated or anything but these little treats are so good you can't stop eating them. I made these one time for my roommates and I came home one day from work and found them all gathered around the treats enjoying them and they told me they couldn't stop thinking about them at school and hurried home. Anna is my coworker and requested these for her birthday.

Carmel-Krispie Balls

1 pkg Rice Krispies

1 pkg large marshmallows

1 can sweetened condensed milk

14 oz. pkg of Kraft carmels

1/2 c butter

Melt carmels and butter in top of a double boiler (I've used the microwave before and it works just as well). Add, condensed milk and mix well. Dip marshmallows into carmel mixture and roll in rice krispies.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I just got this recipe a few days ago from my mom who raved about it. She had gotten it from my Aunt Linda who got it while serving her mission in South America. It seems weird that it came from South America cause I would associate sweet and sour with Asian cooking. I always assumed that South America would have the same cuisine as Mexico. But you know what happens when you assume, it makes an ASS out of U and ME ( A guy at work told me that). Lol!!! Also, my really good friend Maggie is from Brazil and we have a couple of Brazilian restuarants here and their cuisine isn't like Mexican either. In fact, Maggie doesn't like spicy food and she has alot of Italian influence in her cooking. One of my favorite things she makes is Gnocchi which is little balls of mashed potato with marinara sauce and cheese over it like spaghetti. I'll get the recipe from her and post it. Its really good as is this sweet and sour chicken recipe which I will definitely make again except next time I think I will cut it up in smaller pieces or use chicken tenders.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

2 large chicken breasts
garlic salt
1 c corn starch
1 egg
1 T. water
vegetable oil for frying

Sprinkle chicken breasts with garlic salt ( I just use a little cause I don't like alot of garlic) let sit for 1 hour in the fridge to marinate. Then, dip chicken in cornstarch and then in the mixture of egg and water. Heat the oil in a frying pan, brown the chicken 2-3 min. on each side and then place in a baking dish. While the chicken is frying, make the sauce.

Sauce:

1 c. sugar
1/3 c. white vinegar
1/3 c. ketchup
1/4 c. chicken broth
1 t. season salt
2 T. soy sauce

Mix all ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl and microwave 5 minutes, stirring once half way through. Pour sauce over chicken and bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes uncovered. Every 10 minutes Baste the chicken with the sauce.

Serves 2

Excellent recipe! I served it over rice with a vegetable on the side.

Buttermilk Syrup

I got this recipe at Macey's after work today. They were having their big case lot food storage sale and had alot of sample tables set up with ways to use your food storage. When I saw this syrup with buttermilk in it, I thought that seemed weird and then I tasted it. It's really good. Super sweet and caramely if thats a word. I happened to have some buttermilk at home that was about to expire so I made some tonight. Excellent!

Buttermilk Syrup

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. Buttermilk
1/2 c. real butter
1 t. light corn syrup
1/2 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla

Bring the first four ingredients to a boil and then add the baking soda and vanilla.

Serves 4-6 people