Valentine's Day Recipe Exchange: Red Velvet Cake

I receive so many compliments about how moist this cake is every time I fix it.  The icing has such a good flavor to it and really compliments the cake!

Ingredients

2 eggs
2 cups Crisco oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 oz red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix oil, sugar, and eggs.  Sift in dry ingredients.  Add rest of ingredients.
3. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.
   

Icing

Ingredients

1 box confectioners sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together.

Knock You Nakeds

This is a recipe that is so good it will "knock you naked."  My mom submitted this for the Valentine's Day Recipe Exchange (she may or may not have had a little prodding from me).

Cook Time:  30 Minutes
Yields:  20 Servings

Ingredients

1 pkg German chocolate cake mix
1 cup nuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup evaporated milk
1 pkg caramel candy
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, nuts, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and butter and mix well.
3. Press half of mixture into bottom of a greased 9" x 13" baking dish.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.
5. Melt caramel candy in top of double boiler* with 1/2 cup evaporated milk.
6. When caramel mixture is well melted and mixed, gently pour over baked mixture.
7. Cover with chocolate chips and take small amounts of reserved chocolate mixture and pat out thin in hands and lay over top of chips.
8. Bake for 18 minutes at 350 degrees.
9. Cool before slicing

*If you are like me and don't have a double boiler, you can make one by placing a bowl over boiling water in pot.  Make sure bowl is not touching water.  Or you can use a heavy pot and cook on medium low heat, stirring constantly until melted and well blended.

From Lynn's Kitchen

Chicken With Bouillon

This is a quick and easy recipe to throw together!

Cook Time:  20 Minutes
Yields:  4 Servings

Ingredients

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
4 Tbsp margerine
2 Tbsp chicken bouillon granules

Directions

1. Melt margerine over medium heat.  Stir in bouillon granules.  When melted together add chicken and brown, turning often.  If necessary add a little more margerine or bouillon.  Cook until juices run clear.

If you need to add more of anything, I would add more margerine and not more bouillon as this dish has a tendency to become a little salty.

From Allrecipes.com

Shelf Life

I received a link to this site in an e-mail and thought it was worth passing along.  This site will let you know what the shelf life of most any product you could imagine is.  It also shows you the difference in shelf life of something that is refrigerated vs something that is kept in a pantry.  I hope you find this site as helpful as I have.  Visit StillTasty to find out what the shelf life of your favorite product is!

Deer Roast

We usually have some deer meat in our freezer and I'm always trying to come up with new ways to fix it.  I found this recipe and decided to try it and everyone loved it.  It had such a wonderful flavor and went great with the Roasted New Potatoes we fixed as a side.

 

Cook Time:  5 Hours

Yields:  4 Servings

Ingredients

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, diced

2 tsp minced garlic

1 lb boneless venison roast

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup chile-garlic sauce*

1/4 tsp liquid smoke

1/3 cup water

2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp pepper

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Stir in onion and cook until softened.  Stir in garlic and cook until softened.
2. Place venison roast into a slow cooker, and sprinkle with onion mixture.
3. Stir together remaining ingredients.  Pour over the venison.
4. Cover and cook on Low until tender and no longer pink, 4 to 5 hours.

* I could not find chile-garlic sauce, so I just used plain chile sauce and it still turned out wonderful.

From AllRecipes.com

Roasted New Potatoes

We made these as a side to a Deer Roast and both dishes were gobbled up.  These potatoes had such a good flavor that wasn't too strong.  Such an easy dish to prepare!

 

Cook Time:  45 Minutes

Yields:  4-6 Servings

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb new potatoes, quartered

2 Tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine all ingredients in a plastic bag; toss to coat.
3. Pour into an ungreased 9 x 13 baking pan.
4. Bake uncovered for 35 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

From AllRecipes.com

Macaroni Casserole

If you've ever had Picadilly's macaroni, this recipe tastes almost identical!  Such a yummy side that almost everyone will eat.

Cook Time:  45 Minutes
Yields:  6 Servings


Ingredients

1 (8 oz) pkg elbow macaroni
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 (8 oz) carton sour cream
1 (8 oz) pkg shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook macaroni in salted water.  Drain.
3. Add soup, sour cream and cheese.  Place in a greased 9" x 13" dish.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I make this up and put it in two smaller dishes (like pictured above) so that I can freeze one and serve one as I am normally only cooking for two.

From Tastes for All Seasons - Department of Human Services Mississippi Association of County & Regional Directors 2004 - pg 78

Tasty Chicken Fingers

This is something my mom threw together one night and the husband and I LOVED it.  We eat chicken way too often, so we're always looking for new ways to fix it.  We finally sat down and made a recipe for this tasty dish so we could share it with you.  This is commonly referred to as "Mom's Chicken" around our house, but I gave it the name "Tasty Chicken Fingers" so I could share it.

 

Doesn't that just look YUMMY!

Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Yields:  2 Servings

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 tsp season salt

1/8 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp pepper

5 Tbsp flour

Vegetable Oil

Directions

1. Cut chicken into strips.
2. Pour milk over chicken.
3. Coat with season salt, garlic powder, and pepper.  Mix well.
4. Pour flour over chicken and mix so that all chicken is coated.  Add more flour if necessary.
5. Heat oil in skillet on medium to medium-high heat and fry until golden brown.  (Can also be done in a deep fryer on 375 degrees).

From Katie's Kitchen

Valentine's Day Recipe Exchange

<a href="http://www.katiessouthernkitchen.blogspot.com"><img border="0" view&current="Valentines-Day-Button.jpg" alt="Photobucket" src="http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae145/Katie21784/Valentines-Day-Button.jpg" target="_blank"/><img href="http://s966.photobucket.com/albums/ae145/Katie21784/?action /></a"/></a>

While I'm sure a lot of us go out to eat for Valentine's Day, there are always some who prefer to stay at home and have a home cooked meal, which is actually what my husband and I have done the past couple of years.  If you are planning to have a romantic candle lit home cooked meal, then you might be looking for some new recipes to try.  In an attempt to help you (and me) attain some new recipes to fix for that Valentine's meal, we're going to be hosting another Recipe Exchange!  The Valentine's Day Recipe Exchange will take place on February 12, 2010!

Here's what you do:

• Grab the button above and post it on your blog to help advertise the Recipe Exchange, after all the more people that know about it the more recipes we all get!
• Type your recipe(s) up into a blog post.
• If you do not have a blog you can e-mail me your recipes and I will host them on my blog and make sure they get linked up for the recipe exchange.  You can e-mail them to katiessouthernkitchen@gmail.com
  
• Come back here on February 12th.  At that time you will find my Recipe and at the bottom of that recipe will be a place for you to enter your Permalink for your recipe.
• This way everyone's recipes will be in linked in one spot so they are easy for everyone else to find!
• If you've never participated in a linky party, they are lots of fun!  You get to check out other peoples blogs and most importantly, you get LOTS of new recipes to try!