Chicken with wild rice soup

Soup is one of my favorite meals, but Ry doesn't believe soup is a meal but an appetizer, however this soup is one that satisfies us both, giving me the soup and him a filling meal since it is so thick!

This recipe is very forgiving and I change it all the time to add what we have but this is the basic soup I have come up with:

Chicken with Wild Rice Soup
2-3 chicken breasts; cooked and diced
1 small onion; diced
1 pkg wild rice (cooked according to the directions) -I use Rice a roni wild rice
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 c milk
1 can evaporated milk
1 lb shredded cheese (cheddar,colby jack etc)
1 large potato
2-3 small carrots

Dice potato and carrots. Place in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes with a drizzle of oil and salt and pepper or grill seasoning.  Cook until tender. Cook rice and chicken. In stockpot combine chicken, potatoes, carrots and diced onion. Add rice, cream soups, milk and evaporated milk.Heat until warm. If its too thick add chicken broth until desired thickness. Add cheese and heat until melted.

There have been times when I have needed to make this soup quickly and haven't had time (or maybe haven't had potatoes) so instead of roasting the potato I just add a can of cream of potato soup and then add a little grill seasoning to the mixture so a little extra flavor is added. 

White Bread (like Grandma Sycamores)

When we lived in St. George I had a wonderful friend who was an amazing cook. One day as I was at her house I mentioned that I was struggling to find a good white bread recipe...so she gave me this one and I have never looked back! It is wonderful, and of course can be eaten in 2 seconds flat. It's a good thing it makes multiple loaves!

4 cups warm water
2 Tbsp yeast
1/2 c sugar
1/3 c oil
2 Tbsp salt
9 cups flour

Add water and yeast into mixing bowl. Add sugar, oil and salt. Add flour. Mix. Knead and put into a bowl and cover with cloth to rise about 1 hour. Punch down and divide into 4 loaves (Usually I only get 3 and a mini loaf or two out of it since I like large loaves) and knead it and shape into loaves for pans. Put into greased bread pans. Let rise to the top of the bread pan and then cook at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

This is seriously a very easy recipe that turns out every time. Plus it is great because it is stuff that you always have on hand!

Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe is seriously the best wheat bread I have ever had. It is super soft and freezes so well and is still soft after a whole week! Just make sure you don't add too much flour because it doesn't look like dough, more like goo when it is all mixed, but the bread is wonderful. 8 cups hard whead-grind in a mill & make flour (for those of you just using store bought wheat this is equal to 12 cups of flour 6 Cups HOT water 2/3 C oil 2/3 C honey 2 TBS dough enhancer 2 TBS wheat gluten * 2 TBS salt 2 heaping TBS yeast Put the 6 cups HOt water from the tap into the mixer. Add the oil, honey and all but 2 cups of flour and mix unitl soft. Add dough enhancer, wheat gluten, salt, yeast and  mix. Add the 2 cups of flour that were remaining. Add more flour if needed (don't be fooled, more often than not you don't need any) and mix to the correct consistency. Knead in mixer for 11-12 minutes on low Put about 1 TBS oil on counter and spread it around Put dough on counter and roll into ball and cover. Let sit for 10 minutes. Put into 5 greased bread pans and let rise for about 1 hour-until desired loaf size Bake at 350 for 30-32 minutes. This is a super soft and wonderful bread. (* for old wheat add 1 TBS wheat gluten to each cup of flour) Edit:-this last time I made it I only made 4 loaves since I have to do half of the recipe at a time and it made nice large loaves-which I think we will like better.

Brownies

So I have no idea where this recipe came from, all I know is that my mom has had it forever. The reason it became my signature item is because I was supposed to make them for the treats after one of my sister's ballgames. I am pretty sure I was only 10 or 11. Well after I baked them, the recipe said to frost with powdered sugar icing. I should have known better, but I just assumed that meant sprinkle with powdered sugar, so thats what I did, and now that is the only way I will eat them. Frosting just tastes like too much and these are perfect alone or with ice cream on top!

2 eggs
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 c flour
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix eggs and sugar. Add melted butter and cocoa and mix. Then add flour, salt and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Bake at 325 for 25-30 min. Dust with powdered sugar while still warm.

This makes a 9x9 pan
Doubled makes 9x13 add 10min to cooking time
Tripled makes a large cookie sheet pan. - add 20 min to cooking time

Spinach salad with poppy seed dressing

So I first had this salad at a bridal shower I crashed with my MIL Sherri and fell in love with it then. I had to find the recipe and luckily it was in her ward cookbook. I have changed things to fit our tastes, or I guess mostly mine!

1 pkg spinach
1/2 head of lettuce
1 small pkg of mushrooms-sliced
1/2 lb crisp bacon
grated mozzarella cheese

Toss all together

Dressing:

3/4 c oil
1/3 c vinegar
1/3 c sugar
1 Tbsp mustard
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 Tbsp poppy seeds

Mix all together and chill. Tastes best if it is chilled before serving. Typically you pour the dressing on the salad before you serve, but if you aren't going to eat all the salad in one sitting do not do this! The salad gets soggy and no one wants to eat it the next day. Plus then if you have Jayson at your house, then he will still eat some of the salad as long as your provide ranch!

Pizza Hut Pizza Dough

Here is our tried and true pizza dough recipe. After way too many times while I was pregnant with Carter wanting Pizza Hut, and them not delivering to Hyrum, well I just searched for a copycat recipe. I did change it to fit our tastes since it does call for way too much oil, and the flour wasn't mixing in well. We use it for everything from pizza to calzones to breadsticks.

1 1/3 c warm water
1/4 c non-fat dry milk
1/2 tsp salt
3-4 c flour
1 pkg dry yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp oil

Put yeast, sugar, salt and dry milk in a large (2 quart) bowl. Add water and stir to mix well. Allow to sit for 2 min. Add oil and stir again. Add flour and stir until dough forms and flour is absorbed. Knead for about 10 min. Let rise 30-60 min. Roll out to desired thickness and bake at 500 degrees for 10 min. Make sure to cook on a metal pan coated with olive oil. The more oil you add the more like the pan crust at Pizza Hut, but I generally just put a light coating on the pan.

Cresent Rolls

Here is the favored recipe at our house. Carter is constantly asking for rolls, and he loves to help make them and count how many go on the pan. They can be made into any shape, but I love the cresent shape (and I can't make a decent round roll to save my life!) and they look so great! This dough works great for cinn. rolls as well.

1 1/2 c warm water
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c powdered milk
1/4 c oil
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 T yeast or 1 pkg yeast
4 c four

Mix all together in mixing bowl with only half of the flour. Slowly add the remaining flour until the dough no longer clings to the sides of the bowl and is a soft semi-sticky dough.

Knead in the bowl for 5 min.

Let rise until double. This makes 2 doz. cresent rolls, so I divide into 2 balls and then roll into a circle.


I then spread with butter and cut into 12 triangles. Its easier if you use a pizza cutter for this one.

Then roll up into a cresent shape. I like to take them by the large end and flip them. This stretches out the dough a bit more and gives the rolls a nice shape. Place on a pan and bake for 10-12 min until lightly golden at 375.