white chicken chili!

I love this soup! yum, my favorite part is the hominy, every time I make this I wonder why I don't make it more often! delicious!

2 chicken breaths

2 cans great northern beans

2 cans chicken broth

1 lg can hominy

1/2 can green chile's

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 oregeno

1/4 tsp cayanne pepper

1 clove garlic minced

Drain and rinse beans and hominy. put all ingredients in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours. just before serving shred chicken breasts and mix into soup. top with sour cream, pepper jack or cheddar cheese (this is optional because it's really good plain)

**my sidenotes** james thought that maybe we could have put in 1/2 tsp cumin instead of a whole tsp. he said it was hot, so you can choose, i don't think it would take away from the flavor.  also i added a whole can of green chile's. 

Breakfast Frittata

this recipe is great if you are needing to feed a lot of people. And luckily a lot of people ended up loving it when we made it...

8-10 cups hash browns frozen (or 2lb frozen bag from grocer)
8-10 eggs, scrambled (we used 9, but who's counting)
1 carton small mushrooms sliced
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 pound ham
1-2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cups or more cheddar cheese grated

Cook hash browns in skillet until golden brown, season with sale and pepper.  Place in bottome of a large, greased casserole dish and set aside. In a small saucepan saute mushrooms and onions, set aside.  Scramble eggs and place on top of the hash browns.  Layer with Ham, mushrooms and onions, and tomato's. top with cheese and bake until heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbly.

finish product, minus tomato's*

now for my own little notes. we did not use ham, i think the stuff is nasty so we went with turkey sausage, and used 1 1/4 cup.  I have been told this recipe would be delightful with any meat replacement though, such as bacon. or as my grandma suggested you can leave it out all together.  We ended up using only 2 cups of cheese, but this recipe is really based on your taste, so if you think you need a bit more or less of something, change it up.  it turned out really good though. we made four 9x13 pans to feed 45 people and we had the perfect amount!

*I also left out the tomato's because i'm allergic, but we had fresh salsa for people to add to their dish and they loved it even more!

Caramel Apple Sticky Buns

When my parents came to visit last weekend I decided to make this scrumptious treat.  Thank you Pioneer Woman, these were SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!

Caramel-Apple-Sticky-Buns Recipe

No-Bake Macaroni & Cheese

This is a super easy, fast recipe and we had everything in our house so it was a perfect after work meal.

• 8 ounces elbow noodles (2 cups)
• 2 cups frozen chopped broccoli
• 1 3/4 cups milk, divided
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
• 3/4 cup shredded extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

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Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta for 4 minutes. Add frozen broccoli and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the pasta and broccoli are just tender, 4 to 5 minutes more.
2. Meanwhile, heat 1 1/2 cups milk in another large pot over medium-high heat until just simmering. Whisk the remaining 1/4 cup milk, flour, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl until combined. Add the flour mixture to the simmering milk; return to a simmer and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in Cheddar, Parmesan and mustard until the cheese is melted.
3. Drain the pasta and broccoli and add to the cheese sauce. Return to the heat and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat, until heated through, about 1 minute.

We topped ours with classic Tony Chachere's seasoning and Dane pointed out that it would be good to sprinkle more cheese on top and bake 

Delicious Chocolate Cake and Frosting

This recipe comes courtesy of my friend Erin. She made this cake for a BBQ this summer and it is amazing! I love it! (It might have something to do with the 2 sticks of butter....) It is even easy to make, it is the first cake I have made that did not begin with getting a Betty Crocker box out of the pantry and it turned out pretty well :)

Cake

2 c flour
2 c sugar
1/4 salt
1 stick butter
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 c cocoa powder
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 c buttermilk with 1/2 tsp baking soda dissolved

Mix together flour, sugar and salt in large mixing bowl. In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, oil, water, vanilla and cocoa. Cook until it comes to a full boil. Add to dry ingredients and stir to incorporate. Add the buttermilk/soda mixture and the eggs, stirring vigorously to avoid scrambled eggs :) Pour into a greased sheet cake pan. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes. (I think this would work in a regular cake pan also, it would just need to bake longer and it would be thicker.)

Frosting

1 stick butter
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c cocoa powder

Right after cake comes out of the oven, cook the above ingredients until they come to a boil. Then remove from heat and add 2 cups powdered sugar. Stir until all lumps of powdered sugar are melted into the frosting. Pour over the hot cake and spread evenly.

Homemade Mac n Cheese

This is a favorite at our house....

2 cups elbow macaroni
1/4 c butter
1/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 ground mustard
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 c milk
2 c shredded sharp Cheddar cheese (I use whatever we have, usually mild Cheddar...the recipe suggests mixing half cheddar and half spicy cheese for some adventure)

Cook macaroni. Melt butter over low heat. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth and bubbly. Add milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute, remove from heat. Stir in cheese until melted. Add macaroni to sauce. Pour into 9x9 casserole dish. Bake uncovered at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

My Dad's Pizza

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything! I am not the biggest blogging fan, I just try and keep up with my blog for our parents. But here it is at last...a post! I know you are all dying in anticipation
So I may be biased, but I think my dad is the greatest cook ever! And I know it is those fabulous Wilcox cooking genes. But this is one our fav's! His pizza recipe. I will not take credit for it at all because he 100% made it up. The dough, sauce and all!

Dough:
1 package,or 1 tablespoon yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
3 1/2-4 cups flour

Put yeast, warm water and honey in a bowl and let the yeast proof. After proofed, put in mixing bowl with and add salt, olive oil and flour. Knead for a few minutes. Let rise for 1 hour and punch down. Let rise again for 30 minutes and punch down. Split it in half and roll out one of those halves in a cookie sheet, its super hard to transfer. (this recipe makes 2 pizzas). And be liberal with flour while rolling out because it is sticky dough. (we just roll it out on a cookie sheet because we don't have a circle pan. My dad tosses it, but we aren't that tricky).

Sauce:
28 oz. can of tomatoes, Italian style
3 cloves garlic,crushed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. pepper
3 Tbsp. olive oil

Blend the tomatoes so they aren't chunky ( if you bought diced or whole tomatoes). Lightly brown the crushedd garlic in 3 Tbsp olive oil. Add blended tomatoes and cook over med/ high heat. Add the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer for a half hour.

To put it together you have you dough rolled out. Put the sauce on, then mozzarella cheese. Then top with your favorite toppings!

Cook for about 10-15ish minutes at 450 degrees. It may be a little shorter then 10 or longer then 15, I can't remember. Just check that the crust is golden and the cheese is all melty.

This is our FAV pizza!

(here is one we made when Bryan's brother came to visit)