My 7 recipes

**(Dec. 10th) OK - I lied- it's 8 recipes. Taysa and I made sugar cookies yesterday, and I realized I left those out of this list - so technically it's 9 if you count the recipe for frosting.....

I only use 7 recipes. I don't only cook 7 things. It's just that I don't use recipes. For example, I make spaghetti with meat sauce, chilli, different soups, enchiladas, crock pot stuff, etc.  but I just throw things together and shake in the spices. There is rarely a recipe involved.  

Baking, on the other hand, does require measuring stuff.  During the first few years of our marriage, I tried lots of different recipes, mostly ones that I got from my mom. I tweaked them a bit early on, but now I pretty much use these 7, and that's just what I bake.
All the time.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These win everyone over. Every time. 

Pumpkin Muffins

 

These originated from a recipe for pumpkin bread that I got from a friend, but I changed it quite a bit. These are also pretty healthy, with wheat and pumpkin and very little oil...

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

We recently began adding mini Reese's pieces to these. Kids LOVE 'em.

Fudge Jumbles

I also use the dough from this recipe to make oatmeal cookies, usually with chocolate chips. They're good.  :)

Chocolate Brownies

 Getting these to bake to just the right "doneness" is kind of tricky. Usually, if the middle is done, the edges are a little over-done. But, some family members like the middle and some like the edges, so it works out.

Blonde Brownies

Super fast and super easy. No mixer required.

Frosted Sugar Cookies

If you plan to roll these out and cut them into shapes, go a little easy on the flour, because you will roll more flour into them... Also, it's easier to work with this dough if you chill it first. We usually just make them round.  :)

And here' the frosting recipe. It makes about 1/3 more than you need for this recipe of cookies... but I'm usually baking something else, like the cinnamon twists below, that need frosting so I like to end up with extra. Plus, it's a pain to just have a little bit of powdered sugar left in the bag, so you might as well make enough frosting to use it up.  :)

Bread Dough

The recipe is for basic white bread with optional wheat. But, I use this recipe to make pizza dough, cinnamon twists, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, and calzones.  Love it.  Thanks to Nancy Allison for this recipe years ago!!

Some of the other options with this recipe:

For these rolls, shape the dough into 24 balls, greasing your hands with margarine or Pam.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Butter the tops while still warm.

For calzones, separate the dough into thirds. Roll out one section. Place the rolled dough onto a greased baking sheet. Spread pizza sauce on HALF of the dough. Sprinkle with cheese. Top with your favorite pizza toppings. Top with more cheese. Pull the other half of the dough over the top. Seal the edges by pinching with your fingers.  Bake at 400 for about 12 minutes.

For these cinnamon twists, roll out all the dough. Mix 1 cup sugar with 1 Tbs. cinnamon. Rub the top of the dough with a little water. Sprinkle sugar mixture evenly over the top. Cut the dough into strips with a pizza cutter. Twist 2 sections together. Place each twist on greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes. Drizzle frosting or glaze.

For pizza, divide the dough into thirds. Roll out a section into the shape of your pan. Mine are always rectangles because I don't have a round pan... Spread pizza sauce. I use Prego 4 cheese. Sprinkle cheese. Add toppings. Sprinkle more cheese. Bake at 400 for about 12 minutes.

For these breadsticks, split dough in half. Roll out each section and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with garlic. Sprinkle with parsley. Cut with pizza cutter. Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes. Drizzle with melted butter. (I use a straw to drizzle...)