Wagon Wheel Cookies

1/2 cup oil
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup powdered sugar

With a double broiler, melt chocolate and cool to room temperature. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix together oil, chocolate and sugar; mix well to fully incorporate ingredients. Blend in eggs, in fourths, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients. Place covered in fridge and chill several hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 350. Shape dough into balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cinnamon Jumbles

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Cream shortening, egg, and sugar until fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, soda, and salt. Drop in cookie sheet. Sprinkle tops with sugar and cinnamon.  Bake at 350 for about 9-10 minutes.

Ice Cream Cake

1 package oreo's
1/4 cup butter (melted)
1/2 can evaporated milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 square baking unsweetened chocolate
ice cream
whip cream

Make crust out of crushed oreo's and butter. Flatten on bottom of pan and refrigerate 30 minutes. In saucepan combine milk, sugar, butter, chocolate and cook on medium heat about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely. Cut ice cream into even chunks and lay on top of crust layer. Then layer with chocolate sauce. Freeze for 45 minutes. Add whip cream and garnish with chocolate savings.

Caramel Corn

1 cube butter
1 cup karo syrup
2 cups brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 bags popcorn

Begin popping popcorn in the microwave. Once bags have cooled slightly, slowly empty into a large bowl while sifting out any unpopped kernels.

Add butter, syrup and sugar in medium saucepan over med/high heat and boil two minutes.  Add condensed milk and bring back to a boil. Once boiling again, add the vanilla.  Pour carmel sauce over popcorn and quickly stir until evenly coated.

Beware, this makes a GIANT batch but you just might want it all because it is so delicious.

Chantell's Christmas Salad

1 head lettuce
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 head red leaf lettuce
8 oz sliced almonds, lightly browned
1 lb bacon fried crisp and crumbled
8 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

Wash, dry and tear lettuce into bite-size pieces. Combine other ingredients and lay on top. Mix right before serving.

Dressing:
1/2 cup chopped red onion
4 tsp dried mustard
1 cup red wine vinegar
2 cups sugar
3 tsp salt
2 cups oil

Place all ingredients, except oil, in blender.  While blender is mixing, slowly add the oil.

Seriously this salad is sooo delicious.  Obviously it makes a ton with three heads of lettuce so if you are making it for a smaller family size, I would quarter the recipe.  No matter what, you have to try the dressing...it is AMAZING!!!

Jamaican Jerk Pork

2 1/2 lbs pork

Seasoning:
1/2 onion
1/2 cup green onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2-1 habanero pepper

Jerk marinade:
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground pimento
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp pepper

Rub in seasoning on pork. Leave for 1/2 an hour.  Rub on jerk marinade and leave to marinate for at least 5 hours (overnight is best). Prepare grill and barbeque pork until cooked or put in hot oven at 400* for about 20 minutes. Lower temperature and allow to cook slowly until done.

We normally chop our PORK into small pieces before we season and marinate.  The next day we skewer the meat with veggies and grill it up for kabobs.  Very yummy and authentic!

World's Best Lasagna

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
3/4 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 oz) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 T white sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 T salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
4 T chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a Dutch oven, cook sausage, ground beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 T salt, pepper, and 2 T pasley. Simmer, covered for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Bring a large pot of lighly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water. In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 tsp salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups (I did 2 cups each time because I had plenty of sauce) of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over meat sauce. Spread with on half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with a third of mozzarela cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups (or 2) meat sauce over mozzarella, and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Now, I understand that this recipe looks like a lot of work and it kind of is.  I sort of cheated because I didn't have quite enough time to simmer the sauce so I just made the sauce and let it simmer while my noodles cooked and then I put it all together and baked it.  It tasted just fine so unless you have time, I wouldn't worry about simmering for an hour and a half.  Also I didn't have fennel or Parmesan so I skipped it. Next time I definitely want to try it with the parmesan cheese. For the mozzarella I just used shredded because that is what I had. This lasagna really is the world's best!  Unlike some lasagna's that are kind of sloppy and soupy, this one set up really good which made it easy to serve.  I can still smell the aroma...Delicious!

This recipe came from allrecipes.com