Chocolate Sauce

This is great for ice cream.

In a small saucepan over low to medium heat.

Melt 1/4 cup butter.
Add 1/4 cup cocoa and 1/2 cup sugar, whisk until combined.
slowly add 1/4 cup or less of water until the consistency you want, simmer 1 minute or so untiled thickened.

Cream Puffs

This is super easy and nice presentation:

1 Cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 eggs

Heat oven to 400*.

-Heat water and butter to a rolling boil in a small 1quart saucepan. 

-Stir in flour.  Stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball, about 1 minute.
-Remove from heat; cool 10 minutes.
-Beat in eggs, all at once;continue beating until smooth.

-Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls about 3 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake until puffed 35-40 minutes.  Cool away from draft.  Cut off tops; pull out any filaments of soft dough.  Fill puff with ice cream; replace tops and drizzle with chocolate sauce.

Butter Dips

Pre-heat oven 450*

Makes enough to bake in a 9x13, cut recipe in half to 2 people

2 1/4 c flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 c. milk

-Mix the dry ingredients then add the milk.
-Melt in oven a 1/2 stick of butter and minced garlic in the baking dish, use a 9x9 or pie pan if you cut it in half.
-Meanwhile roll dough out on a floured surface 1/2 inch thick.
-Cut into 1 inch wide, 3 inch long bread sticks.
-Pull the dish out of the oven once buttered is melted.
-Roll each bread stick in the melted butter then arrange in pan.
-Bake about 15 minutes until lightly golden.

Easy Taco Soup

Hi! I'm a friend of Maria's and Kerry's! Here is a recipe for Taco Soup. I found it from Spark People Recipes and it's been modified a little bit. It's really good and if you buy lean meat, it's pretty healthy.

Taco Soup

1 lb of lean ground beef

1 small onion*

1 can pinto beans, drained

1 can black bean beans, drained

1 can corn, undrained

2 cups of chicken broth or water-you can add more if you need to

1 packet of taco seasoning

Cilantro, chopped

Sour Cream

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Tortilla chips

Salsa

1) Ground beef and onion together. Drain excess grease.

2) In a large pot, add beef mixture, beans, corn, broth and taco seasoning. Simmer for 30 minutes.

3) Top with cilantro, sour cream, cheese and serve with chips and salsa. Enjoy!

*We sometimes omit the onion and instead use chopped red onion to top the soup.

Looking forward to making some of these always delicious Gautraud recipes!

Andrea Domec

White Chicken Chili -from Kerry

White Chicken Chili

Makes about 6 servings

2 tbl. Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 cups chicken (I just do 3 or 4 breast cut in cubes and I put in pot raw, but you can also put in cooked chicken)
3 cups chicken broth
2 tbl. chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp. chopped fresh basil or 1 tbl. dried
1 tbl. ground Ancho chili seasoning (if you don't have this, I will just bring mine)
1 tsp. chili powder (more or less depending on how hot you like it)
1 tbl. ground cumin (more or less depeding on how you like it)
3 15oz cans white Nothern bean (undrained 2 and then I drain 1 to make soup more hearty)
1 can of corn (if you like)

Directions:
In a large pot over medium heat, add olive oil. Add onion and garlic and saute 5 min. or until onion is tender. Stir in broth, chicken, cilantro, basil, ancho chile, chili powder, cumin, and bean. Heat to boil, reduce heat & simmer for 15 min., stirring occasionally.
Serve in bowls and top with goodies you prefer (cheese, sour cream, jalapenos, tomatoes, tortilla chips, more cilantro, etc.).

EAT! ENJOY AND THEN ENJOY AGAIN, CAUSE THIS MAKES AWESOME LEFTOVERS!

Black bean and corn quesadillas

This recipe is adapted from Cooks magazine

Fills 8 small tortillas, plus some extra to dip tortilla chips in.

8 small flour tortillas
1 bag or Cheddar cheese or a Colby jack
3/4 cup frozen (defrosted) or fresh corn
1 can of black beans* rinsed
2 tsp. canola or vegetable oil, plus some for outside of tortillas
1 small onion
3 gloves of garlic pressed or minced
2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 lime wedge
salt

In a medium skillet cook corn over medium heat, until it pops and browns. Remove corn, put in a medium bowl. Add the oil to the skillet let warm for a minute over medium heat, add onion and garlic cloves cook until soft. Add the chili powder, garlic powder and black beans to skillet until warmed, then add the corn and salt to taste. When heated through, remove and put back in the medium bowl, squeeze a lime wedge over and stir.

Use a large skillet or griddle heat over medium heat. Warm the tortillas on the skillet, just until soft, remove and stack. Take a tortilla, spread cheese on half of one then a couple of spoonfuls of the bean and corn mixture and a little more cheese on top, fold flap over. Repeat with all 8 tortillas. When assembled brush one side with oil, sprinkle with salt, lay oil side down in hot skillet, brush the other side with oil, sprinkle with salt. Brown on both sides then cut into wedges on cutting board.

We like to dip ours in sour cream, gauc, queso or salsa. These can stand alone as a meal or compliment a tortilla soup. We like to use the extra mixture with tortilla chips.

*Pinto beans can be used also.

Submitted by Maria

Baked potato soup

(all recipes.com)
Serves 4 , after potatoes are baked 30 minute meal

3 strips of bacon, diced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 large baked potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
shredded cheddar cheese
minced parsley or consider chives
extra bacon crumbles

Directions
1. In a large saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, cream and hot pepper sauce; heat through but do not boil. Garnish with bacon, cheese, parsley or chives.

Simple frozen Yogurt

Use your food processor for this.

Put 1 handful of frozen strawberries and a handful of frozen blueberries in a food processor. Then add a few spoonfuls of yogurt of choice, not to much. You want more fruit than yogurt, blend until smooth. You may need to add a little more yogurt as needed to make it run smoothly. Fun snack alternative to ice cream!

Mushroom Pizza

FROM MARIA:

I get terrible heartburn with pregnancy that is often sparked by red sauce, and pizza happens to be one of my favorite things. So I decided to create a white sauce pizza that would be equally delicious, and it happened to be a winner even with my 4 year old. My pizza dough recipe came from my mother-in-law Connie and the sauce for the mushrooms came from part of a Rachael Ray's recipe.

Pizza dough:

This makes 1 1/2 pizza so I like to double it.

2 tsp. Instant Dry Yeast*

2 1/2 to 3 cups flour

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup warm milk

2 Tablespoons canola oil

Mix 2 cups of flour, yeast, sugar and salt together either by hand or in a standing mixer that is able to knead dough. Add milk and oil to bowl mix till combined, slowly add flour until it pulls away from bowl and makes a non-sticky dough. I may use more or less flour than the recipe calls for.

-If using a standing mixer use a dough hook and turn on medium speed knead for 5 or so minutes, if sticking to sides of bowl add a little flour.

-If you are kneading by hand sprinkle flour on your counter, put dough on counter and knead about 5 minutes. You may have to add a little flour if it gets to sticky.

Oil a mixing bowl, put dough in and cover with saran wrap. Let rise about a hour.

Turn on oven to 425*

Once oven is pre-heated spread 2 tablespoons of oil on rimmed pizza pans, heat in oven 2 minutes.

Take dough out of bowl and divide into the number of pizzas you are baking. You can use a sharp knife to divide dough.

Pull pans out of oven. For a thinner crust roll out dough and then put on pan. For a thicker dough I just shape dough right on pan, don't worry too much about shape.

Bake till lightly brown on bottom, less than 5 minutes. Pull out pans and put sauce, cheese and toppings on. Put back in oven till done.

*Fleischmann's Yeast from Sam's, comes in two 1 lb. packs for under $5.00. This must be refrigerated after opening, I put in a Tupperware and one pack lasts me over 6 months. This yeast is something that makes all yeast recipes super easy.

Mushroom Pizza

You can use the pizza dough recipe above or a store bought crust.

Mushroom mixture:

4-6 oz. of a darker mushroom I used Crimimi

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 crushed bay leaf

4 cloves of minced garlic

1/3 cup white wine

1/2 tsp dry thyme

White sauce:

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup or less of milk or cream

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Rinse mushrooms and slice. Heat olive oil and butter in skillet over medium heat. When butter melts add mushrooms, bay leaves and garlic. Cook until the mushrooms are dark and tender about 7-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add wine and thyme, stirring the skillet with wooden spoon to deglaze. Set skillet aside.

In small sauce pan melt 1 tablespoon of butter, whisk in 1 tablespoon flour add a little salt and pepper. Add cream or milk to the sauce to create the consistency you want. Add 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese to sauce, remove from heat.

Spread white sauce on pizza crust, spread the mushrooms on and top with remaining Parmesan cheese. Bake until golden brown.