Yam Balls

This is a recipe Marianne made for Thanksgiving years ago. Very good.

Yam Balls

2 pounds sweet potatoes (yams)

Brown Sugar topping:
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
3 T margarine
3 T water

Prepare and cook sweet potatoes: Heat enough salted water to cover sweet potatoes (1/2 t. salt to 1 c. water) to boiling. Add potatoes. Cover and heat to boiling; reduce heat. Boil until tender, 30-35 minutes. drain. Slip off skins.
Mash potatoes. Scoop up a handful of potatoes (please wash your hands first, you slob) and put a large marshmallow in the middle of it. Roll the ball in crushed Raisin Bran or corn flakes. Place ball in a 9 x 13 pan. Continue until all the potatoes are used up. Pour brown sugar mixture over all the balls. Bake at 350 until the potatoes are heated through.

Note: Marianne said she was guessing at the amount of yams, so you may need to make more of the brown sugar topping. I think you should just make more anyway. How could you ever possibly have enough brown sugar topping?

Slow Cooker Creamy Corn Chowder

Some of my best recipes have come to me during the "What am I going to make for dinner?" moments. I look in the fridge, pantry, freezer, and just throw a bunch of ingredients together. This is also how my very worst concoctions have come to pass, but that's another topic for another day. Here is the chowder I came up with on a Sunday afternoon when it was almost time to leave for church & I realized I hadn't started anything for dinner. I liked it because it came out creamy in the end, but this was achieved through patience instead of through using heavy cream or something else I shouldn't be eating.

Slow Cooker Creamy Corn Chowder

1 bag frozen corn
1/2 cube margarine or butter (you can use light & you can also use less)
Baby carrots (as much as you want to add)
Milk (I used fat free; you just use enough to cover all the ingredients)
1/2 package ranch dressing mix (or more, according to your deepest desires)
Freshly ground black pepper
Dill weed to taste
1 tsp. or so paprika (I believe in precise measurements, as you can tell)
1 tsp. or so seasoned salt
Bacon (just add as much as your little heart desires)(sorry, I don't mean to suggest you have a little heart; your hearts are all very big, but not in an unhealthy way)

Dump everything except the bacon into the crock pot. Stir a little. Put the lid on & let 'er cook while you go to church (or, if you're a heathen--no offense to heathens-- let 'er cook from about lunch time to about dinner time). When you get home from church, add crumbled bacon & serve.

Quiche

In a former life I hated quiche. I thought the texture was weird. I finally gave it another try a while back and decided I do in fact like it. But I never make it, mostly because all the recipes seemed to call for heavy cream, which just is not an ingredient that I tend to have on hand (plus, who really needs the calories?). In my search for an easy and semi-healthy quiche recipe, I was glad to find this one, which calls for milk (I usually only have 1% on hand, and this worked out pretty well, although I had to bake it for a little longer to get it to firm up).

Instead of bacon I used breakfast sausage, and I used cheddar cheese instead of swiss. I also added some sauteed green bell pepper. In short, you can make this recipe your own--it's a great base.

Quiche Lorraine

Wicked Good Spice Apple Cake

They served this cake, topped with freshly whipped cream, at a stake leadership training I attended last week & it is singlehandedly responsible for me falling off the sugar wagon. It's that good. Be careful.

Spice Apple Cake (from Deanne Lamont)

1 spice cake mix – I used Duncan Hines brand
3 eggs
1 can apple pie filling
3 T. water
½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

* * *

½ cup sugar
½ cup flour
1 t. cinnamon
¼ cup margarine or butter - ½ stick

Mix cake mix, eggs, and water well. Add pie filling (and nuts if desired) last so some of the apples stay in small chunks. Pour in a 9 X 13 inch pan (sprayed with cooking spray). Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon and margarine (or butter) together with a pastry blender in a small bowl. Sprinkle mixture on top of cake evenly to cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or cool with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.