1 cup white sugar
1 ¼ cup karo syrup
1 ½ cup crunchy peanut butter (not natural-style)
5 cups rice krispies cereal
Optional : whole or chopped roasted peanuts or other nuts
Optional: Dried cranberries or coconut

Heat sugar and corn syrup over medium low heat until boiling. Remove from heat and add peanut butter. Mix well until all peanut butter is melted.
Pour over peanut butter mixture rice krispies in a large bowl.
Stir until all cereal is coated with peanut butter.
(optional- at this point you can add 1 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries. Or add ½ cup additional chopped, toasted salted peanuts. Or add ½ cup shredded coconut.)

While still warm, coat 2 spoons in oil and drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper or parchment paper. As soon as as they are just cool enough to handle, coat hands in oil and use hands to form into balls.

Leave at room temp until set. Do not refrigerate.


Options: Pour mixture into a well greased 9x13 pan and flatten out with a greased spoon. Scatter chocolate chips over the top and once they melt, spread over the top. Cut into squares with a greased knife while still warm. (these are known as Scotcheroos in you add butterscotch chips

1 onion diced
1-2 cloves garlic smashed
1-2 tablespoon oil
spices- use what you like, but I always include: chili powder, cumin, ground oregano, thyme, coriander, black pepper – no salt, canned ingredients have a lot of salt.
1-3 cups chicken broth – if canned -low sodium
1-2 cups cooked chicken, leftovers or from a rotisserie chicken
1 can cream soup- low sodium cream of chicken, or mushroom, but also a can of Cheddar Cheese or Fiesta Cheese soup works
1 can crushed tomatoes- low sodium if possible
1 can black beans- drained and rinsed (don’t forget to rinse or soup will be gray)
1 can Ranch Style beans- do not drain (make sure it’s either Ranch style or chili beans, not plain pinto beans

1 packet velvetta cheese sauce or 1 inch chunk or velvetta or ½ -1 cup of melting cheese, shredded
handful of cilantro leaves chopped
chopped chives or scallions if you have them.

optional vegetables you can add or leave out:
handful frozen corn
handful shredded carrots
1-5 chopped green onions
handful of riced cauliflower if trying to sneak in more vegetables
1 chopped tomato


Soften onion in oil. Add spices to oil to bloom for just a few seconds, add garlic. Add broth and crushed tomato. If using optional veggies, add carrots, white parts of green onion and/or cauliflower now.
Simmer about 10-15 minutes on low to meld the flavors until veggies are soft.
Add cooked chicken, cream soup, drained black beans, ranch beans with the juice. Simmer on low until just combined. If using, add frozen corn and tomato and green parts of green onions.
Simmer until all veggies are softened and cream soup has mixed in.
Off heat, add cheese sauce or shredded cheese and stir to combine until melted. Add cilantro and/or chives on top.


I serve this with crumbled tortilla chips on top.

Great Grandmother’s Texas Sheet cake

This starts in a cold oven, do not preheat oven

2 C flour
2 c sugar
3 T Dutched Cocoa Powder
1 cup water
2 eggs
½ c buttermilk
1 t soda
1 t cinnamon
1 T vanilla

Melt butter with water and Cocoa  in a large saucepan, bring to boil, then remove from heat and cool slightly.  Add flour and sugar to mixture and mix well.
Add eggs, buttermilk, soda, cinnamon and vanilla

Pour into a greased and floured (or can use cocoa powder to “flour” the pan if you are unmolding to prevent white residue)

Bake at 400 degrees F until toothpick in center comes out clean, about 20-30 minutes

Boiled chocolate Icing

1 stick butter
3 T dutched cocoa 
6 T milk (or coffee for mocha)

Bring to boil in large sauce pan, let cool slightly 
Add 1 T vanilla
1 c chopped nuts (pecans are traditional)
 Mix well.  Beat in 3 ½ to 4 ½ powdered sugar

Frost cooled cake with icing while it’s still warm.

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Oatmeal Cranberry cookies with chocolate chips and walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. FYI- Dough must be chilled at least an hour and butter needs to cool after browning. Cook time is 10-12 minutes per batch. Makes 4-5 dozen.

4 cups old fashioned oats, divided- 2 ½ cups add with flour, ½ cup ground fine in blender and added with flour, up to 1 cup additional added after nuts until oatmeal no longer sticks to dough
2 cup flour
1 ½ t salt
1 t baking soda
Optional: ¼ to ½ cup almond meal

blend dry ingredients together in a large bowl

10 Tablespoons (1 stick+ 2 T) browned butter
melt in a large (not nonstick) saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally until it starts to foam. Then stir constantly just until the color starts to turn tan or light brown and the butter smells nutty. Remove from heat immediately and add:
2 t cinnamon
½ t allspice
1 t pumpkin spice
¼ t clove
optional: ¼ t of ground ginger, pinch of cardamom, pinch of nutmeg, pinch of coriander, pinch of ground black pepper

Let butter mixture cool until still liquid but not too warm.

To butter mixture in sauce pan, add and stir well, breaking up clumps of brown sugar:
1 cup neutral flavor oil
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar

To butter and sugar mixture add :

4 eggs
1 egg yolks
3 t vanilla

Mix all liquid ingredients well, making sure the egg is combined.

Add liquid to dry ingredients slowly, mixing well between additions until no streaks of flour remain.



Gently fold into to dough:
1 & ¼ cup roughly chopped walnuts or other nuts
1 cup dried, sweetened cranberries or cherries
1 cup mini chocolate chips (must be mini size chips to stick)

Mix until all are mixed into dough. At this point, you can add between ½ to 1 cup more oats, gently folding into dough, just until the oats stop sticking to the dough.
Cover bowl and refrigerate 3-5 hours or until very cold.

Spoon out onto parchment paper on cookie sheets, about 2-3 Tablespoons per cookie, then mash into a ball with wet hands and smash slightly flat on the sheet. These do not spread much, so just leave a little room between each cookie, about an inch. If dough gets too sticky and chips/nuts start falling out, put dough back in the fridge to chill before finishing or between batches.

Cook at 350 f for 10-12 minutes until golden on edges, but still soft in middle. Leave sitting on the hot pan for 5 minutes. Then move parchment onto a cooling rack for another 10 minutes.

Store at room temp in an airtight container for several days.

Substitution notes- May substitute almond or coconut flour for ground oats. If replacing walnuts with pecans, reduce sugar a bit and add more cardamom to replace the bitterness of walnuts.  If replacing cranberries, raisins are too sweet, currants are better or dried cherries. Could use diced dried apricots also but reduce sugar a bit.
Do not skimp on spices or salt, this is very sweet, so it needs a lot of spice and salt to hold up to the sugar.

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Allergen Information: No Dairy
Pumpkin, Coconut Milk, Gluten, eggs

Recipe: 
My Pumpkin Muffins

1 can pumpkin Puree
4 large eggs
3 cups sugar
1 can full fat coconut milk + 1 tablespoon oil OR 2 Cup oil + ⅔ cup water

3 ½ cup flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie or apple pie spice blend
½ teaspoon allspice
½ teaspoon ginger 
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cardamom
½ teaspoon coriander
¼ teaspoon clove
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees (f).  Prepare muffin or mini loaf pans by spraying with cooking spray.  

In a large bowl or mixer, stir together pumpkin, coconut milk and oil (or oil and water) sugar and eggs.

In a separate bowl, stir together all dry ingredients to mix. 

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet about 1 cup at a time, mixing well between additions.

Once everything is well mixed, scoop into muffin tins or loaf pans. Fill only ⅔ full.

Bake at 325 for 20-30 minutes for muffins or 25-35 minutes for mini loaves.  Test with toothpick should come out dry.  Tops will appear dry and sides touching the pan should be browned.  You can make these with paper muffin liners, but the browned sides are the best part, so it’s not recommended. 

Store in an airtight container or wrap individual loaves in plastic for giving.  The muffins will appear damp after a while, but warm them in a toaster oven or warm oven (not microwave) to dry out a little before serving and they stay very moist and pliable for quite a while. Not sure how long these will store for, they always get eaten first, but if you are going to store them longer than a week, keep them in the fridge.

This recipe is very forgiving if you don’t like certain spices, just don’t reduce the total amounts.  The batter is very sweet, so it stands up to a lot of spice flavor.  Don’t worry about the black pepper-it doesn’t make it hot, just enhances the other spices.  You can also add a dash of hot chili pepper or aleppo pepper.

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