Cooking

I have been trying several new recipes lately. At a yard sale I got a stack of old TASTE OF HOME magazines, and even though I have a complete set of them (that will end when my subscription runs out in a month, but that's another story. . .) will get them when available at yard sales to go through them and cut them up.

I made this when some friends of Andrew and Mary Lee were over here last Saturday night. It's called a Chocolate Chip Pizza. The base is a peanut butter cookie mix, baked; there's a layer of whipped cream cheese on top of that; then a layer of chocolate pudding; then a layer of cool whip; then chocolate chips.

It looked just like the picture in the magazine, and they loved it. If I ever made that recipe again, however, I've learned a few things. You can't really keep it as a leftover because all those toppings make the cookie crust soggy after just an overnight in the refrigerator. Also, I think it would be better with something like Heath toffee bars crumbled on the top instead of chocolate chips. But that is all wishful thinking because I have no plans to make it again any time soon.

Over Thanksgiving holidays I made a casserole with leftover cornbread and cooked chicken and celery. It was basically a casserole version of chicken and dressing. They liked it fine. I also made a baked bean recipe that tasted good but was very unappetizing to look at, so probably won't do that one again.

I also made some Lil' Smokies rollups (in crescent rolls) to take to Thanksgiving day as an hor d'oeurve. You bake them on top of a brown sugar, margarine, and nuts mixture (which I cut WAY down and it was still too much - Why do recipes sometimes overdo it so dramatically?) which was OK. I may make those for the teachers' snacks days at school, but if so will just make a little bit of the sauce and brush it on the top instead of putting it in the bottom of the pan.

Today I just made a cream of broccoli soup (no recipe needed--actually that's the best kind) and am getting ready to go out to the kitchen to make porcupine meatballs for Mike's birthday. His mother always made those for his birthday.

And, also last week I tried this with some leftover apples that needed to be used up. All-day apple butter, cooked in the crockpot. I've never made apple butter before, and only made a couple of jars, but it's pretty good - especially over cottage cheese, which some people think is really weird. I like it that way.