Shrimp Butter

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• One half cup butter, softened

Whip these together until smooth and creamy

Add:

• One clove of fresh garlic, finely chopped
• Two tablespoons finely minced onion
• One and a half tablespoons lemon juice

Stir again.

Fold in one can of crab meat (drained) and one can of tiny cooked shrimp (drained).

Refrigerate 2 hours or longer. Let stand to soften before serving.

Delicious served on crackers as an appetizer. For low carb eaters, put a dollop on top of a grilled steak or hamburger, or melt over cooked green beans.

Norwegian Coffee Cake

LAYER ONE

• One half cup margarine
• One cup flour
• 3 Tablespoons water

Mix above like pie crust – press in bottom of cookie sheet.

This will be very thick. If mixture sticks to hands, wash your hands with very warm water prior to pressing it into pan. Mixture sticks less with warm hands

LAYER TWO

Heat to boiling: One half cup margarine and one cup water

Add one cup flour and stir well. Add three eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Spread over first layer with spatula and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. It will puff up very unevenly as it bakes (this is expected). It will also collapse as it cools. This is also expected.

LAYER THREE

Frost after cooled with thin butter frosting

Ingredients for frosting:

• One half cup butter
• Powdered sugar
• Milk (scant amount)
• One half teaspoon vanilla

Mix to desired consistency (May add almond or lemon extract if desired)

Bacon Garlic Chicken

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 clove garlic minced (I use a big one!)
• 8 slices bacon
• 8 small sprigs fresh thyme or one-fourth teaspoon powdered thyme
• 1 cup heavy cream (whipping cream)
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly salt and pepper the chicken breasts. Lay two pieces of bacon to form an X and place a chicken breast on them. Wrap the bacon around the chicken. Heat the oil in a pan over medium high heat. (Use a pan that can be placed in the oven). Place the chicken breasts in the pan and cook until the chicken and bacon are browned. Turn and brown the other side. Remove the chicken from the pan. Drain off the oil. In the pan pour the cream, bouillon, thyme and garlic. Bring to a boil, add the chicken and place the pan in the oven. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes until the cream has thickened. Remove and let rest a few minutes before serving.

You really need to use a fresh garlic clove, not powdered or pre-chopped in a jar – it makes such a difference in the flavor! And if I weren’t on Atkins I would serve this dish with a big serving of mashed potatoes. As it is, I serve it with broccoli and a salad, and I have to content myself with dipping the chicken in the delicious, cream sauce.

Frozen Citrus Pie

• 6 ounces frozen concentrate (lemonade, orange juice or orange pineapple)
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
• 8 ounces Cool Whip

In large mixing bowl, use mixer to beat the concentrate for 30 seconds.

Working quickly so it doesn’t melt too much, beat in softened ice cream until mixed. Fold in Cool Whip.

Spoon mixture into a ready-made graham cracker pie crust. Freeze.

Chocolate Mousse Angel Pie

Meringue Shell:

• 3 egg whites, room temperature
• One-fourth teaspoon cream of tartar
• Dash salt
• Three-fourths cup sugar
• One-half teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

• One cup (6 ounce package) semisweet chocolate chips
• One-fourth cup water
• One-fourth teaspoon almond extract
• One and one-half cups whipping cream, whipped
• Sliced almonds, toasted

Heat oven to 275 degrees. Generously butter nine inch pie pan. In small bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar and salt. Beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff peaks form. Add vanilla, beat well.

With metal spatula, spread meringue in bottom and up sides of buttered pan, building up sides as high as possible. Bake at 275 degrees for one hour. Turn oven off and let stand in oven with door ajar for one hour. Remove meringue shell from oven.

In small saucepan, combine chocolate chips and water. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in almond extract. Cool 30 minutes.

Fold chocolate mixture into two cups of the whipped cream. Spread filling in cooled meringue shell. Store in refrigerator. When ready to serve, garnish with remaining whipped cream and toasted sliced almonds.

To toast almonds, spread on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 to 7 minutes or until light golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Pie serves 8

Chicken Tetrazzini

Saute in 3 tablespoons butter:

• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 4 to 8 ounces mushrooms

Cook and drain 8 ounces spaghetti

• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1 small can chopped pimento
• 2 cups diced, cooked chicken
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Combine all ingredients and bake in a 9" x 13" pan at 350 degrees for 30-60 minutes or until bubbly. Serves 5-6.

If you need to serve more people, one and a half recipes will completely fill a 9" x 13" pan. You can also make this ahead of time and freeze it. Then just bake it the day you are serving it – but remember, if it is frozen it will take a lot longer to bake. More than once I’ve been surprised how long it takes to bake a frozen dish (you know the routine…keep turning the oven hotter, keep feeding the guests appetizers!).

Grilled Jerk Flank Steak

• Three tablespoons teriyaki marinade and sauce
• One tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
• Two teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• One-half teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• One-half teaspoon salt
• One-half teaspoon pepper
• Two cloves garlic, finely chopped
• One and one-half pounds beef flank steak

1. Place all ingredients except beef in heavy duty re-sealable plastic food storage bag. Add beef steak; seal bag and turn to coat beef. Refrigerate at least 4 hours but not longer than 24 hours.

2. Heat coals or gas grill for direct heat (can also be broiled). Remove beef from marinade; discard marinade.

3. Cover and grill beef 4 to 5 inches from high heat about 10 minutes, turning once, until slightly pink when cut in center. Let stand 5 minutes. To serve, cut across grain into thin slices.

4-6 servings

Lemon Graham Freeze

• 1 can evaporated milk (12 oz.)
• 1 cup sugar
• One-fourth cup lemon juice
• Graham crackers

Line bottom of 9" x 13" cake pan with whole graham crackers.

Pour evaporated milk into a glass or metal bowl. Add the beaters from your mixer. Put the bowl with milk and beaters into your freezer. Leave in freezer for one-half hour, or until ice crystals form around the edges of the milk. Beat milk until stiff peaks form. Gradually add in the sugar and the lemon juice. Spoon whipped mixture on top of graham crackers. Sprinkle additional graham cracker crumbs on top.

Freeze. Serve frozen.

Grandma Meier’s German Potato Salad

• 5 pounds potatoes. Peel, cook, and cool.
• Fry 12 oz. cut up bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from the pan. Set aside.
• Add one-fourth cup flour to the bacon drippings. Stir.
• Mix in a separate bowl until the sugar is dissolved:
• 2 cups white vinegar
• One half cup water
• One and a half cups sugar
• One teaspoon salt
• One eighth teaspoon pepper
• Add the vinegar mixture to the pan with the bacon fat and flour. Boil until it thickens. It should be the consistency of gravy. If it doesn’t seem thick enough, thicken with a mixture of cornstarch and water.
• To the cooled, sliced potatoes stir in:
  • 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
  • Crumbled bacon.
• Pour the warm sauce over the potato mixture and stir.

Serve warm. If it needs to be refrigerated overnight, rewarm before serving.
(you can microwave it to rewarm – or some people like it cold, too)

Serves 10-14