Ceasar Salad Dressing

Laura's Aunt Rhonda can cook. Every time we go to their house it's such a treat because the food is always good. One year she made a huge bowl of Cesar Salad and we begged for the recipe of the dressing. We were surprised how easy it is to make this dressing.

Easy Ceasar Salad Dressing

1 egg
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup of canola oil (we've tried olive oil, which is traditional, but we liked the canola oil taste better, go figure)

Blend all ingredients, except the oil, in a blender at low speed. Once combined, slowly add the oil while blending to emulsify. Refrigerate for a few hours, overnight would be best. Makes about 1-1 1/2 cups of dressing. This usually holds pretty well in the fridge for a week or so in a tight container.

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Leila's Homemade Brownies

If you can't tell, a lot of these recipes come from our friends and family and we try to figure out ways to make them better. However, this brownie recipe we received from our sister-in-law, Leila, does not to be improved. It's perfect. This recipe create a yummy cake-like brownie that will make you eat the whole pan before your brain tells you to stop.

Leila's Homemade Brownies

1 Cup butter
2 Cups sugar
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup powder cocoa
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 Cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Powder Sugar to dust after baking

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add all other wet ingedients and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Bake in a well greased 9x13 pan in a 350F degree oven for 30-35 minutes. Dust with powder sugar. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Waffle Cookies

Here is another great recipe from Laura's Mom. These are a hit for parties or just on a Friday night with the kids.

Chocolate Waffle Cookies

1/2 Cup margarine
2 eggs
1 Cup flour
3/4 Cup sugar
3-4 tablespoons of powder cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powder sugar to sprinkle on after cooked

Melt the margarine until fully melted. Mix the cocoa until filly mixed. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until incorporated. Cook on a Belgian waffle iron until slightly hard. Split waffle into four sections and sprinkle powder sugar over the cookies. Other things we have done is dipped them halfway into chocolate or drizzles chocolate over the cookies and let them cool.

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Turkey Sloppy Joes

I was raised on Manwhich. For 12 year-old me, it was great. So that is how I always though Sloppy Joes were supposed to be made, a bunch of hamburger and this mysterious sauce that came from a can. Fast forward to a few years ago when I begged Laura to let us make some good ol' Manwhich Sloppy Joes. She refused, but said let's try to make our own so we know what is actually going into the sauce. So we started researching recipes and found one that we love. Also at that time, we were on a ground turkey kick, so we used ground turkey for this recipe and it was awesome. Since then, we have tried to make it with beef, but we like it beset with the ground turkey.

Turkey Sloppy Joe Sandwiches

1 1/4 pound ground turkey

1 Tbsp oil

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons yellow mustard

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1-2 carrots, finely grated

Grated zucchini (optional)

Over medium heat, heat up 1 Tbsp of oil and cook the turkey until fully cooked. Drain any excess liquid and oil. stir in the rest of the ingredients until incorporated. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and cover. Let simmer for about 25-30 minutes. Serve on your favorite hamburger buns. 

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Our Not-So-Secret-Anymore Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay, so we have decided that we are tired of having a ton of ripped and food stained pieces of paper hanging all over our kitchen with all of our favorite recipes listed on them.  So for Christmas this year, we have decided to upload all of these recipes online so we have them here and not all over our kitchen. unfortunately, this means that we will have to reveal our secret recipes that we love. But why not share what we love with our friends and the world.

So here is our absolute favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. We have tried a lot of different chocolate chip recipes out there and keep coming back to this one because it is simply the best. Laura loves making small dime like cookies from this recipe while I love making huge bistro like cookies. both come out great with this recipe. These make a lot of cookies so you may want to cut the recipe in half.

Stapley Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup soften butter
1 cup soften margarine
1 1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
6 Cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3-4 cups of chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 375F degrees. Cream together the butter, margarine, and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix until a good dough forms. Add chocolate chips and mix until incorporated

Cooking time depend on the size of the cookie you want to make, if you make the normal size cookies, it seems to be about 11 or 12 minutes. The secret is to pull them out just before the sides begin to brown. They may not look cooked all the way, but the carryover heat will cook it enough to make an awesomely soft cookie.

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Amazing Homemade Caramel

Every holiday season I get excited for two things, Christmas Music and this caramel recipe. It is so versatile we use it in a lot of different applications. To put on popcorn for caramel popcorn, to dip with apples, or to create our salted caramel chocolate pretzels. It's pretty straight forward, but you need to be careful about when yo pull the caramel off the stove as just a bit too long will make it impossible to chew.

Mom's Amazing Caramel

1 Cup white sugar
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup butter
1 Cup corn syrup
1 Cup heavy whipping cream
Dash of salt
1 t. vanilla

In a large sauce pan (we like to use our non-stick one for easy cleanup), add both the sugars, butter, corn syrup, and salt to the pan. Heat at medium high and mix until all the ingredients are melted and incorporated. keep mixing until the mixture begins to boil. Add the whipping cream and vanilla. Keep stirring and letting the caramel boil. You want the caramel to get up to just under soft ball stage, so about 230F-ish. You can use a candy thermometer, which we have had bad luck with, so we use this method:

We pull the caramel just a bit before it gets as hard as it is in the video because we like to pour the caramel into a pyrex mixing bowl, which will make the caramel continue to cook from the carryover.
Let the caramel cool (unless you want to pour it over popcorn or dip apple slices in it while it's warm, Yum!). The butter make it easy to handle and form into whatever little treat you want to make.

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Mama Broadhead's Hot Fudge Sauce

Here is an incredible Hot Fudge sauce recipe. I would put this on everything! Share from Laura's mother, it's become a classic for the holidays.

Mama Broadhead's Hot Fudge Sauce

2 Cups white sugar
1/2 Cup powder cocoa
1/2 Cup butter
1 13 oz. can of evaporated milk
1 t. vanilla


Cook the sugar, butter, and cocoa over medium high heat until melted. Add evaporated milk gradually. Stir well and let come to a boil. Stir constantly until thick, pull off heat. Add vanilla.

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