"Fried Ice Cream"

Thank you to Kamille Cannon for sharing this recipe with my family! By the way, they all loved it!!

1/2 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. coconut
2 c. Rice Krispies cereal

In a small saucepan, melt 1/2 c. butter with 3/4 brown sugar, mix together. Add 1 c. coconut and 2 c. Rice Krispies to mixture and stir to combine. Spoon 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13-inch pan. Press in slices (or spoonfuls) of vanilla ice cream over top of mixture. Smooth over top with the back of a spoon that has been heated under hot tap water. Sprinkle the remaining mix on top. (To cut calories, I halved the butter and brown sugar. Of course, it still tasted amazing!)

Freeze for several hours, or overnight.

Strawberry topping:
    
1 pkg. danish dessert
1 1/2 c. water
2 c. cut-up strawberries

In a small saucepan, mix in 1 pkg. Danish Dessert into 1 1/2 c. cold water. Mix well. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in cup-up strawberries. Serve warm over Fried Ice Cream. My family seriously loved this!

P.S.- Sarah was the one who came up with drizzling dessert with Hershey's chocolate sauce...now it's complete! :)

Chicken Enchiladas

This was a last minute creation but the family loved it so I'll create a recipe for it so I can do it again. Justin texted me from work today and asked for hot dinner when he came home...haha. His request: something Mexican. So, here is what I came up with. :)

1-2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 rotisserie chicken, pulled apart (I used Costco's)
1 packet Taco Bell Fajita seasoning
1 1/2 cans El Paso Enchilada Sauce, medium
8 oz. can tomato sauce (low sodium)
1 small can green chilies
corn tortillas
1 small can sliced black olives
1 c. shredded cheddar/jack cheese
1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
sour cream

In a large fry pan, saute garlic in vegetable oil until tender. Add rotisserie chicken, fajita seasoning mix, 1/3 c. water, tomato sauce, green chilies. Simmer together for about 5 minutes. Heat corn tortillas in microwave so they don't break apart when filling. In a 9x13 rectangle pan, pour about 1/4 can of the enchilada sauce into the bottom and rotate pan to coat it. Dip each tortilla into a bowl with remaining enchilada sauce. Fill with chicken mixture, and sprinkle inside with cheddar/jack cheese, roll up, tucking loose end underneath. Repeat until baking dish is full. (Makes about 14-16 enchiladas) Spoon enchilada sauce over the top of each enchilada, sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese and sliced black olives.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, uncovered, until cheese is melted and looks amazing. ;) If the edges are getting too crispy, use a basting brush to moisten dry spots with water. (It will steam it as it cooks) Cover with foil last few minutes, if necessary. My family actually preferred it with the crispy edges, go figure. If you want it softer, cover it with foil and cook at a lower heat.

Serve with sour cream. Yummy stuff.

Homemade Syrup

In a small pot, combine:

1 c. water
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. brown sugar

Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly; let cool. Stir in 1 tsp. maple extract. My son Justin likes to add 1 tsp. Root Beer extract! If Root Beer syrup on pancakes is too much for you, then try it over vanilla ice cream. :) I used just an imitation maple extract and it still tasted very good.

Mexican Flan (Tastes more like Tres Leches cake to me)

  

I got this recipe from a favorite local Mexican restaurant that my family frequents. Just recently, I went there with my parents and as full as they were after the meal they decided to order the flan for dessert. I have never really liked flan but I told my mom I would just have a bite of hers, knowing that I wouldn't be tempted to have more than that. Well, I was wrong. One bite led to another and soon I had probably eaten a third of it. Yes, I was a little embarrased. :) My parents complimented our waiter on how good the flan was, yeah, the waiter...not the cook. I thought that was funny. Of course, usually the waiter has little interest in that sort of thing, they just bring you the food. Anyway, this waiter was pleased and he proceeded to tell us how easy the flan was to make and tried to explain how to make it in his broken English. It was a little hard to understand and follow him. So, I actually learned to make it using You Tube, I just replaced the ingredients with the ones the waiter told me.

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In a small sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add 3/4 c. granulated sugar (the waiter actually said to use brown sugar...oops, I'll have to try that next time.) As you heat the sugar, stir constantly. In the beginning, it will start to clump together and crystallize a bit. Gradually, it will turn to liquid and when it reaches a light-medium golden color remove from heat. Pour immediately into a 10 inch glass pieplate, and carefully rotate the sugar mixture to coat the bottom (without burning yourself.) ;) Set aside.

Then, mix together:
8 eggs
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk- (low-fat)
1 can Evaporated Milk (low-fat)
1 tsp. vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour egg mixture over the sugar in the bottom of a 10" glass pie plate. Place pie plate on a rimmed jelly-roll pan, put in oven. Add  tap water into the jelly-roll pan (or rimmed cookie sheet) enough to leave a layer of water in the bottom of the pan. The water will help steam the flan as it cooks. Bake for 1 hour or until top is golden brown and middle is set. It will still be a little jiggly. (I ended up baking mine for 1 hour and 20-30 minutes. It looked a bit dark on top but was perfectly cooked inside. I will have to try this a few more times to get it down.) Toward the end of the baking time, you may need to add more water to the pan if it has all evaporated.

Let cool, and then refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Carefully loosen sides of the flan with a spatula. Once all sides are loose, turn over Flan onto a cake plate, preferably one with a little lip to catch the syrup that drips down. Slice into 12-16 pie-shaped wedges. Serve with a little whipped cream on top. Even better, a couple of sliced strawberries! Mmmm...azing! :)

Surprisingly, most of my kids really liked this. It was better than they expected, 2 of them went back for seconds. I'll let you guess which two. ;)

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Waiter's directions: "brown sugar in a bowl, mix everything into the sugar." That doesn't quite work, so I'm guessing he meant to pour the contents over the sugar. ;) Some things must get lost in translation. :)