Josie's Oatmeal Carmelita Bars

From Josie: I made these for a co-workers birthday and they really are delicious.  And easy!  Ingredients 

• 2 cups All Purpose or Unbleached Flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 ½ cups brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups butter, melted (4 sticks)
• 1 jar caramel ice cream topping (Smucker’s or Hershey)
• ¼ cup Flour
• 1 pkg. semisweet chocolate chips (I use dark chocolate chips)

Instructions 1.    Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9-inch pan. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off. In large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and melted butter; mix until crumbly. Reserve 1/3 of crumb mixture for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture in bottom of greased pan.

2.    Meanwhile, in small bowl, combine caramel topping and ¼ cup flour; blend well.

3.    Sprinkle crust with chocolate chips. Drizzle evenly with caramel mixture; sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.

4.    Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown (I had to bake it for 30 min.) Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours or until filling is set. Cut into bars.

Amazing Caramel Sauce

This entry is from Grams:

I thought this worthy of passing along to Schrock's Shack and comes from Jack's sister Anita from the Champaign, IL area.
 

• 1 cup packed brown sugar (I use light brown)
•  1/2 Cup heavy cream
•  4 tbsp butter
•   pinch/ salt
•   1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. Melt butter in pot, mix in brown sugar, cream, salt.
2. Cook over medium low heat and whisk gently for about 7 minutes or longer if you doubled.
3. I remove the pot from the heat, add vanilla and return to cook for another minute or so to thicken a bit more. 
4. Take it off the stove and store as you want.

 
 
Comments: SO many calories, I know,  but just a little on ice cream, apple slice dip, etc.

Janelle's Taco Salad

Ingredients:

1 lb. Ground beef 

1 onion

1 pkg. taco seasoning (we only use McCormick's)

Diced tomatoes

Kidney beans

Lettuce

Cheese

Doritos

Robust Italian Salad Dressing

Sour cream

Avocados

Fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Brown one pound ground beef and diced onions.  

2. Add one pkg. taco seasoning.  Cool.

3. When cool, add:

    Diced tomatoes or halved grape tomatoes

    One can red kidney beans

    Head lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces

    1-2 c. Shredded cheese

    Combine and cool until ready to serve.

4. Right before serving, add lg. amount of crushed nacho-flavored Doritos chips and Robust Italian salad dressing.   The quantities are "to taste".  Can serve with sour cream, avocados and/or fresh cilantro.

Chicken Poppyseed

Mom requested I post this recipe, as this is a dish our family likes.

Ingredients: 

6-8 chicken breasts

2 can cream of chicken-mushroom soup OR 1 can chicken-mushroom soup and 1 cream of celery

16 oz. sour cream

2 Tb. Poppyseeds

2 cups Ritz crackers

½ cup melted butter

Directions:

1. Simmer chicken (Or bake it with olive oil, salt and pepper). 

2. Cool, break into bite sized pieces. 

3. Place in greased 9x13  pan. 

4. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. 

4. Combine Ritz Crackers and melted butter. Sprinkle over top and bake at  350° for 1 hour. 

Brianne's Citrus Cilantro Chicken

I have been browsing Pinterest for chicken ideas and combined two recipes that looked good. This was amazing and I think the entire family would love it!!! I surprised Adam and got a rave review! Serve in a quesadilla, as nachos, or on a salad.  I served mine with salsa, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips.

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts (I used two)

1/4c. Olive oil

1 lime, juiced

zest from 1/4 of the lime

3-4 cloves crushed garlic

1/4 onion or 1 shallot, chopped

Cilantro, chopped  (I used roughly 1/8-1/4 cup)

1-2 tb. Honey (can be left out or substitute orange juice)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients except chicken in a bowl. Wisk.

2. Add to ziplock bag with chicken.

3. Marinate 2-20hrs.

4. Grill.

Schrock Women's Chili

This recipe has brought me great comfort over the years. I learned to love it from Mom & Grandma. Each lady varies their recipe slightly and I also do the same. That's the beauty of this recipe, it can be easily tweaked to fit your tastes. You can add different types of beans, vary the type of meat, and/or add green pepper.  However, I feel that the base is there to provide a yummy chili recipe. If you're feeling like an Hoosier for a day, add pasta. I don't personally enjoy this, but it's an Indiana thing!

Ingredients:
3/4-1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 lg. can tomato juice
3-4 cans beans, drained (I normally use kidney, but  lately Adam has had me use 2 Kidney, 1 black bean)
chili powder
salt
pepper
Optional:
1 can petite diced tomatoes (include juice)
diced green pepper, added during the meat browning.

Directions:

1. In a large pan, brown the meat. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Add tomato juice, beans, tomatoes and chili powder (about 10 shakes).
3. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. Taste along the way and adjust seasoning to taste. 

Chad's Summer Salad

Jennie asked me to make dinner tonight so I made this one up on the fly.  It actually turned out really well so I thought I'd share the "recipe" with you all.  I was shooting for a salad to fit the weather here (80+ degrees and Cooper and Jen hit up the pool today).  As always, tweak to taste.


Ingredients

Salad
* Head of Romaine Lettuce
* Two chicken breasts
* 1/2 Granny Apple
* 1/4 Red Onion
* 3-4 Plum Tomatoes
* 1 small package of Honey Goat Cheese (we purchased ours from Publix)
* Salt
* Pepper
* Olive Oil
* White Wine Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette
* 1/3 cup Olive Oil
* 1/3 cup White Wine (we used a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc)
* 1 Tb White Sugar
* 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
* 2 Cloves of Garlic (minced)
* Ground black pepper (pinch or to taste)

Directions

1) Prepare the vinaigrette by combining all of the ingredients in a sealable jar and shaking well.  The vinaigrette can be used immediately or kept for 2 weeks in the fridge.
2) Cook the chicken.  I rubbed down the chicken breasts in olive oil, salt, pepper and a couple of splashes of the vinaigrette.
3) Chunk the chicken, toss in a bit more of the vinaigrette and set aside (or in the fridge) to cool.
4) Clean the lettuce, rip apart and dry.
5) Chop up the apple and the onion.
6) Dice the tomatoes.
7) Dice, to the extent possible, the cheese.
8) In a large bowl, add the lettuce, then the chicken, then everything else.
9) Toss and enjoy.

Janelle's Strawberry Pretzel Salad

It's been a bit since either of us have had the time to attend to this blog, so I thought I'd ask Mom to contribute the recipe from a dish she brought out yesterday for Mother's Day.  We had a very enjoyable time with Mom, Dad, Jennie, Cooper and I being joined by the Walski's, friends who - like my parents and though we met down here in the middle of last year -  also transplanted from Chicago.  The corn on the cob/grilled steak and chicken/pasta salad/etc./etc. was all very good, but this dish garnered the most attention, including stopping Dad mid-sentence to ask where I had procured my second batch (he had missed it in his first-go at the table).  The layered dish works as a sweet side or as a dessert.

From Mom: My version is a little less sweet than the original...
(Brianne and Konnie's favorite salad)

STRAWBERRY PRETZEL SALAD

LAYER ONE:
2 c. crushed pretzels
1 1/2 T. sugar
     Mix together, then add:
3/4 c. melted butter
      Press into 13x9 baking dish. (Can use a slightly smaller dish - can also cut in half for an 8x8 or a 9x9 dish.)  Bake for about 8 min. at 400.  Cool.

SECOND LAYER:
8 oz. pkg. lower-fat cream cheese, softened
3/4 c. sugar
Sm. carton Cool Whip (8oz.)
      Mix or beat cr. cheese and sugar well.  Mix in Cool Whip, then spread over pretzel base.  Refrigerate until firm.

THIRD LAYER:
One lg. or two small boxes strawberry jello, dissolving in 2 c. boiling water.  Add 16-20 oz. frozen strawberries.  Refrigerate until slightly set.  Poor over cr. cheese layer.  Refrigerate.

I personally like it better if I don't use all the jello.  I pour the extra into another dish to eat later.