Roasted Tomato Sauce

Need something to do with all your tomatoes now that summer's almost over?  Try this!  It's easy and so yummy!

3-4 pounds ripe tomatoes
1 medium onion, halved and sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, smashed and peeled
a large pinch of dried herb, crumbled (marjoram, thyme, basil or oregano) or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 375. Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise, then arrange them cut-side down, in one layer on a large, rimmed baking sheet (mine is 12-by 17-inches), lined with parchment paper, if you like, for easier clean-up. Arrange the onions, garlic and herbs over the top, then drizzle the whole thing evenly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, sugar, and pepper. Bake for an 1-1 1/2 hours or until the tomatoes are browning in spots and have ful1y collapsed. Around an hour in, the tomatoes will be sitting in a flood of juice in their pans, and then this juice will reduce as they cook further.

After cooking, put everything in the blender.  Salt and add more salt or sugar as needed.  Allow it to cool, then freeze.

Pumpkin Dessert Squares

Fall is here and I have several recipes that I can't wait to make--including this one. My fabulous sister Emily got this one from Williams Sonoma where she works. They sell the pumpkin butter that you need for this recipe, though I've seen it elsewhere including the local kitchen specialty store. Just a warning: this pumpkin butter stuff is NOT cheap. Luckily Emily stocked up for me after Thanksgiving last year when it went on clearance in her store. So I have a few jars that I've been itching to use for a while now!

1 box yellow cake mix
1 jar Muirhead Pumpkin Pecan Butter
3 eggs
I tbsp. Flour
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. cinnamon

Reserve 1 cup of the cake mix and set aside.
Mix remaining cake mix with 1/2 cup of melted butter and 1 egg. Press mixture lightly into the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan.
Mix 1 jar of Muirhead Pumpkin Pecan Butter with 2 large eggs and 3 tbsp. of milk and pour over cake mixture in pan.
Mix to a crumble reserved cake mix and 1 tbsp. of flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup soft butter and 1 tsp cinnamon- crumble over the top of the pumpkin layer.
Bake 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden.
Cool and serve! It tastes great with whipped cream!

Snickerdoodles

My Mom was always making cookies when I was a kid. Delicious, yummy cookies. I especially remember how she would often mix up a batch of cookies before school and baking enough that we could take some to school in our lunch! I've gotten most of my cookie recipes from my Mom including this fast and easy one for snickerdoodles.

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Cream sugar and margarine together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add all dry ingredients and mix well. Dough will be quite soft and sticky. Scoop into 1 inch round balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 min. Do not overcook and do not press balls down on cookie sheet!

Sweet Muffins

Another yummy recipe from my great neighbor Lesley! These yummy muffins almost taste like cornbread, but sweeter.

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together. Bake in muffin tins at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Crepes

We had crepes for breakfast one day at girls camp this summer and I've been meaning to make them ever since. I didn't get around to it until today though. I found this recipe online this week and it looked pretty simple. I made them for breakfast this morning- we filled them with various fruit and whipped cream of course, and they were delicious! I did the regular version of the recipe without the dehydrated and powdered stuff. I think I ended up with 8-10 crepes before I ran out of batter- more than enough for our family!

Basic Crepes
4 Eggs (1/4 C. Dehydrated Eggs + 1/2 C. Water)
1 C. Flour (1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour + 1/2 C. All Purpose Flour)
1 C. Milk (3 T. Powdered Milk + 1 C. Water)
2 T. Butter, Melted
2 t. Sugar
1/2 t. Salt

Measure all ingredient into blender (you don’t need to re-constitute your eggs or milk just throw the powder and milk in and let the blender do the work!). Pour scant 1/4 C. batter onto lightly greased 8″ pan. (You’ll know your pan is hot enough when you throw water on the pan and it “dances” around the pan.) Tilt pan to coat bottom evenly with batter. (Basically, move the pan around until the batter is a circle and fills the pan) Cook over medium heat until brown and turn to brown second side. Fill with fruit, jam, syrup, whipped cream, whatever sounds good really!!!

Peach Cobbler

Mmm... I love cobbler. We just returned from the annual Jones Family Campout and I must admit the cobbler I made turned out divine! The recipe isn't really an exact science, but with the right ingredients it's still going to be delicious!

1 boxed yellow cake mix
2 14.5 ounce cans of peaches (fresh peaches are fabulous too!)
1 can of Sprite
1 cube of butter or margarine

Dump the peaches and about 2/3 of the liquid into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the dry cake mix over top of the peaches. Pour the remaining liquid and about 1/3-1/2 cup of the Sprite on top of the dry cake mix. Cut up the butter or margarine and small chunks on the top (you decide how much butter, 1/4 to 1/2 a cup is usually great!). Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on top and bubbly on the edges. Serve with ice cream and or whipped cream.