Witches Fingers

What would October be without posting my favorite

Halloween cookies.... beware... witches ahead!!

Heat oven to 325

1 cup butter softened

1 cup icing sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup whole blanched almonds

1 tube red decorater gel or Raspberry jam

In a bowl beat together butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and almond extract; beat in flour, baking powder and salt.

Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes

Working with 1/4 of the dough at a time and keeping remaining dough refigerated, roll heaping tablespoons into finger shapes. Press almond firmly into 1 end for nail. Press in center to create knuckle shape and using a paring knife make slashes in several places over knuckles.

Bake on lightly greased baking sheet in 325 F for 20- 25 minutes or until pale golden.

Let cool for 3 minutes.

Lift up almond nail and place jam underneath. Replace nail.

Remove from baking sheet let cool on racks... be afraid, be very afraid!

Fettuccine Alfredo

Ok, I know this isn't the greatest food for the calorie counters out there, but it one of the greatest foods!!! I tried all kinds of low fat- la de da recipes but for taste I always came back to this one, so now it is the official recipe, and I won't try to fix it anymore if it ain't broke. So try it out and let me know what you think!

Fettuccine noodles

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 minced garlic clove ( large one ) 

1 cup whipping cream (or Half and Half)

3/4 cup shredded ( grated ) Parmesan cheese, you can also use a mix of Parmesan and  Romano ( don't try the Kraft kind in the green container.. that stuff doesn't melt??

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash pepper

2 teaspoons basil ( or parsley, choose your fave )


Cook noodles as directed on package ( this is also great over tortellini or cheese ravioli! )
Heat butter, 

Once fully melted add the garlic, saute for a minute or two until the garlic is fragrant but not browned.  Slowly add cream and bring to a simmer NOT BOILING as soon as you see the first bubble reduce the heat 

Stir in cheese, salt and pepper and basil
pour sauce over hot noodles, stirring until noodles are well coated
sprinkle a bit of basil on top

and as they say in Italy, mange' :-)

It's All About The Cheese French Onion Soup

Do you like mozzarella cheese so much you would build a monument to it if you could? No? Okay, maybe it's just me then. Here is my Tribute to Mozzarella cheese.






1 White Onion

1L of Beef stock.

A 1/2 pound (or more) of grated mozza cheese


1) Take a small, medium or large onion (depending on how much you like onions) and dice it.

2) In a frying pan, put a tablespoon of butter and begin to saute the onions on medium heat.

3) Take some beef stock (I use campbells) and add 500ml of water to 500ml of beef stock and beat on medium heat.

4) Stir and toss the onions repeatedly and make sure they don't burn. Sautee the onions until they are nearly translucent.

5) Add the onions to the beef stock and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

6) Add a pinch or two of cheese to your french onion soup bowls. Then add the onion soup to the bowls.

7) Put a slice of bread on top of the soup. Then add the cheese. Lots of cheese.

8) Bake in the oven at 350 for about 10 -12 minutes.

Enjoy your monument to mozzarella cheese!

Crunchy Vegetable Wraps

When Maddie was little she used to call Vegetables, VENGtables. Who knew that she would turn out to BE a VENGetarian!! She found a few recipes that are really good! So this is the Vegan part of the Blog... for Maddie :-)

1/4 cup cream cheese

4 10 inch tortillas

1 cup shredded spinach

1/4 cup alfalfa sprouts

1/2 cup shredded red cabbage

1/2 cup sliced avocado

1/4 cup chopped tomatoes

1/2 cup diced cucumbers

2 tablespoons diced red onion

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a big bowl

Spread 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese on each tortilla. Spread ingredients over tortilla and roll up.

Great on the side instead of salad, or as Nana Weber did, she cut the wrap into bite size slices and served as an appetizer!

Cheese Dip

My friend from Winnipeg came to visit in May, and she made a dip that was awesome. Easy and yummy, my favorite thing! Thank you Katieface :-)




2 garlic cloves chopped

1 block cream cheese

250 g feta ( broken into small pieces )

3/4 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons parsley

dash of salt

sprinkle of pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Mix together as creamy as you can get it.
Let sit at least 4 hours, for the flavors to blend. Dip away...
Recipe from Katie Rydzkowski AKA: Katieface

Pita Chips

These tasty morsels go hand in hand ( Hand to mouth ) with the Cheese dip from Katieface. We made 2 different kinds but you can be as creative as you want!

Take as many pitas as you can get!! These are eaten fast!

Preheat oven to 350

Brush pitas with any dressing. ( one side ) We used Italian for one stack, and garlic butter for the other.

Cut into wedges, and place on a tray and pop them into the oven for about 9 minutes or until crispy.

Now I dare you not to eat any til you serve them!

Recipe from Katie Rydzkowski AKA: Katieface

Pork Roast

One of my favorite dishes that my mom made was her pork roast. She would make it in a cast iron pan in the BBQ, with veggies all around it.... it was soooo good. I am NOT a BBQ'r... kinda frightened of the thing to tell you the truth.... but Dean is a BBQ master so... I dug out my mom's recipe and we tried it. It was gooood!


Weigh your pork roast and calculate 45 minutes per pound. The method is the same for BBQ and oven so you have your pick as to how you wanna cook it.

Preheat to 325 F
Score the top of the roast and brush with butter
Sprinkle, salt, pepper and paprika on top.

Place roast in Oven (bbq)

Boil potatoes, onions and carrots 15 minutes
During the LAST 45 minutes of time left to cook the roast place the potatoes around the roast.
10 minutes later add the carrots and onions and turn the potatoes.

Take the roast out and let it sit for 10 minutes after it's cooked.
Turn the heat up to 425 F, add some butter to the veggies, stir them around and cook the 10 minutes that the roast is sitting.
Voila!
Recipe from Linda Beaton ( My Mommy )