My favorite BBQ sauce EVER!

Found this gem off of AllRecipes.com, its called "Kathy's Award-Winning BBQ Sauce." No wonder Kathy's won awards, its freakin' awesome. Just the perfect blend of spicy and sweet, awesome kick with the cayenne. I will bake meat in the oven or the crockpot with 1/2 cup sauce and 1 cup water. I save the rest of the sauce to be served table-side with the meal, that way everyone decide how saucy to make their own plate.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 (5.5 ounce) can tomato juice
2 tablespoons liquid smoke flavoring



DIRECTIONS
In a blender or food processor, combine the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, molasses, brown sugar, onion, garlic powder, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, tomato juice, and liquid smoke flavoring. Puree until smooth, and transfer to a saucepan.
Place saucepan on the stove over medium heat. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 1 hour, or to desired thickness.

A delightful snack, thank you paula deen!

Butterscotch Oatmeal Bars

2 cups all purpose flour

1 ½ cups firmly pack brown sugar

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup butter, melted

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup chopped pecans

1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X13 pan. In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, oats, baking powder, and salt. Stir in melted butter. Press 2/3 of mixture evenly into bottom of prepared 9x13. Bake for 10 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and pecans evenly over baked crust. Pour sweetened condensed milk evenly over pecans. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting.

Baked Ziti

this is for sarah, her girls raved about it when i fixed it the other night. i use newman's own original marinara sauce. and i usually use about 2 cups of mozzarella because more cheese makes everything taste better!

(Italics added by Staci. I make my ziti very similar with just the addition of a few ingredients)

Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage

8 oz dry ziti, cooked and drained

2 tsp olive oil

12 oz mild Italian sausage, casings removed

(6 oz mushrooms, sliced)

(1/4 t. fennel seed)

Large jar spaghetti sauce of your choice

1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella

2 tbsp shredded parmesan or romano cheese

Preheat oven to 400. Grease a 9x13 pan. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan, add sausage and cook till no longer pink. Drain. Add sausage, and spaghetti sauce to the ziti, coat well. Pour into baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with cheeses. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Decadent and more decadent

Triple Layer Cheesecake

Chocolate Crumb Crust, recipe follows

3 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs

1/3 cup sour cream

3 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp vanilla

¼ tsp salt

1 cup butterscotch chips, melted

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1 cup vanilla chips, melted

heat oven to 350. prepare chocolate crumb crust. In a large mixer bowl on medium speed of electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, sour cream, flour, vanilla and salt; beat until blended. Stir 1 and 1/3 cups batter into melted butterscotch chips until smooth; pour into prepared crust. Stir 1 and 1/3 cups batter into melted chocolate chips until smooth; pour over butterscotch layer. Stir remaining batter into melted vanilla chips until smooth; pour over chocolate layer. Bake 55-60 minutes or until almost set in center. Remove from oven to wire rack. With knife, immediately loosen cake from side of pan. Cool completely; remove side of pan. Prepare triple drizzle, if desired. Drizzle, one flavor at a time, over top of cheesecake. Refrigerate about 3 hours. Makes approx 12-14 servings.

Chocolate Crumb Crust

1 ½ cups vanilla wafer crumbs, (about 45 wafers)

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ cup hershey’s cocoa

1/3 cup melted butter or margarine, melted

In a medium bowl, stir together crumbs, powdered sugar and cocoa; stir in butter. Press mixture onto bottom and 11/2 inches up side of 9 inch springform pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Triple Drizzle

1 tbsp EACH butterscotch chips, semi-sweet milk chocolate chips, vanilla chips

1 ½ tsp shortening (do not use butter, margarine or oil) divided. Mix 1/2 tsp with chips and drizzle!

Coconut Bread

This is the recipe for which I called Anne (again). It is delicious. It reminds me of the coconut yogurt (which I ate in mass quantities) on my mission.

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2t. coconut flavoring
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 c. buttermilk
1 cup coconut

Cream together eggs, sugar and oil for several minutes with a handheld mixer on medium speed, scraping down sides of the bowl often. Then add the coconut extract, mix well. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, powder and soda. Add to wet ingredients, mix for one minutes. Lastly, add the buttermilk and coconut at the same time, making sure to mix thoroughly.

Bake in two large, greased bread pans. Bake at 325* for 1 hour or up to 1 hr and 15 minutes. Rely on the toothpick test. My oven cooks hot and I usually do mine for about 1 hr and 10 minutes.

*A note from Anne. There has been some confusion as to how I actually make this bread since some people have tried making it on their own and have not been super successful. Here's the skinny: as with ALL quick bread (read banana bread, pumpkin bread, nut bread etc.) it is much better eaten the next day. Bake the bread, let it cool on a cooling rack, once its room temp, wrap in saran wrap and then aluminum foil. Let it sit overnight and I promise, its gonna be great the next day. I know it goes against the grain as far as the vast majority of baked goods are the best the day of, this bread is better day #2.

Naaaaacho Cheese Dip

mmmmm....good and processed. What could taste better?

Seriously though, this is some awesome nacho dip. Thanks to my MIL for this one!

1 pound Velveeta
1 can Rotel (that is a brand--found in the tomato section) tomatoes
12 ounces (or 16oz--can't remember) Jimmy Dean Sausage

Cut Velveeta in cubes and place in crock pot. Let melt on low (takes at least an hour). Drain tomatoes, but save the juice. Use the juice to thin the cheese to desired dipping consistency. Add the tomatoes. Cook the sausage in a frying pan. Drain and add to cheese. Serve with chips.

Hootenany Pancake

(also known as German Pancake)

J man LOVES this for breakfast. I will half the recipe and it feeds the two of us well.

6 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
dash of salt

Melt 1/4cup butter in a 9x13 pan while preheating oven to 400*. When melted take out and pour egg mixture in. Bake 20 minutes. Serve topped with syrup.

Hopefully the start of a good thing!

After calling my good friend Anne for the third time for the same recipe I had a brainstorm to start a little recipe blog. I would love contributors, so if you want to add to this blog, let me know your gmail address. I will only include tried recipes that are delicious. Hopefully this will be a great resource for everyone and break the monotony of daily cooking.

Staci