Vanilla Butter Frosting

• 1/3 cup soft butter or margarine (I always use butter)
• 3 cups confectioners’ sugar ( powdered sugar) 
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 
• About 2 tablespoons milk.  (I always end up adding more milk)  

Blend butter, sugar, vanilla and milk. Beat until frosting is smooth and of spreading consistency.

Variations:

Cherry Butter Frosting

Make above recipe. Stir in 2 Tbs drained chopped maraschino cherries and 2 drops red food color.

I usually put about 8 maraschino cherries in a food processor and chop them up that way. Instead of using red food coloring, I add a little bit of maraschino cherry juice. Also, because the cherries have liquid in them I add less milk when I make this frosting. If you don’t use less milk, the frosting will be too runny.

Chocolate Frosting

Make above vanilla butter frosting with this change: Stir in 1/3 cup baking coco into the 3 cups confectioners sugar with a fork before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Peanut Butter Frosting

Substitute peanut butter for the butter; increase milk to 1/4 to 1/3 cup.

These frosting recipes are from my Betty Crocker’s cookbook. These frosting recipes are so easy to make and tastes a lot better than canned frosting. I use this frosting not only to frost cakes, but graham crackers, vanilla wafers, and for decorating sugar cookies. I especially like the chocolate frosting on graham crackers (always Honey Maid brand) and the cherry frosting on vanilla wafers (always Nabisco brand). Frosted graham crackers and vanilla wafers are a quick snack to make up for sack lunches and they are always a big hit the school's lunch room. I usually packed a few extras to be given away or traded with friends. Janelle’s 4th grade class voted her chocolate frosted graham crackers best cookies of the holiday cookie contest when she was in Ms. Mittman’s class.

Here is a chocolate frosting that is dairy free:

Some Items Everyone needs in their Food Storage...

I really like this food storage blog. I like how they think about food storage.



I already have these items in my food storage pantry.






Y'all are invited over to my house after the next earthquake and we'll have some of these....



Click here to see the recipe.

Cake in a Mug

For the cake mix:

1 box cake mix
1 (4-serving) size box instant pudding mix (not sugar-free)

Stir together cake and pudding mixes. Place 1/2 cup portions in zipper-seal sandwich bags: Label each: "Cake Mix". (There should be about 12 sandwich bags)

For the glaze mix:

4 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar is another name for confectioner's sugar)
6 Tbs. dry flavoring (ex: lemonade, coco)

Stir together glaze ingredients. Put 1/3 cup portions in separate bags. Label each: "Glaze Mix".

Tuck 1 bag of each mix in each of 12 mugs with these instructions:

Mist inside of mug with vegetable oil spray. Add cake mix, l egg white, l tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon water. Mix well. Microwave on full power 2 minutes.

Stir 1 teaspoon water into Glaze Mix and pour over baked cake.

Click on picture below to see the instruction 

that you can print up and put in the mug with the mixes. 

Makes 12 gift mugs.

Possible flavor combinations:
Lemon cake mix- lemon pudding.
Yellow cake mix-chocolate pudding.
Devi's food cake mix-chocolate pudding.
Pineapple cake mix-coconut pudding
Butterscotch cake mix- butterscotch pudding

I got this recipe out of the newspaper about 10 years ago. (I'm cleaning out my files and ran across it. I thought, I've got to post this!) I gave these away to the sisters in my ward one year. You can buy the mugs from the thrift store or the Dollar Tree. It was a fun, inexpensive gift to give away.

September 13, 2022

I found this recipe online.  It is a lot simpler yet the same results  If you gave it  away as a gift, you'd have to make up another instruction Happy Birthday sheet:

1-2-3 Cake

You need two boxes of cake mix. One can be any flavor you prefer, but the other MUST be Angel Food cake mix.

Mix them together (shake them into a big bowl).

Then simply store the mixture in an airtight container until you get the urge for dessert.

Then just put three Tbsp. of the dry mixture in a big coffee mug and stir in 2 Tbsp of water.\

Microwave it for one minute and you will have a single serving of cake!

Top with fruit, ice cream, whipped cream or whatever! Awesome for those of us who want something sweet every now without making an entire cake!

*Follow Incredible Yummy Recipes for more delicious recipes!

Meat Loaf

1 1/8 lbs ground beef
1/8 lbs sausage
2 eggs
1 small onion, chopped fine
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix well. Bake at 350 to 375 degrees for about an hour. (You should check it. The altitude makes a difference in the time it takes to bake through.)

Meat Loaf Sauce

1/2 cup ketchup
2 Tbs vinegar
2 heaping tbs brown sugar
1 tsp mustard
1 shot Worhestershire sauce

This is a recipe from my childhood. I copied over the recipe exactly how my mom gave it to me. My mom fixed it often when I was a kid and we loved having meatloaf sandwiches for leftovers. (She would always double the recipe) I was always fascinated to watch my mom mix up the ingredients with her bare hands in a large mixing bowl! Be sure to use the extra lean ground beef. I like to use the Italian Style flavored bread crumbs from Costco (Progresso brand) when it calls for the dry bread crumbs. It gives it added flavor. Also today when I make this recipe for dinner, I'm going to use ground turkey that I bought from Costco. It has no fat and seems to be just as good as any ground round that my mother used. I've never made the meatloaf sauce so I can't comment on it. It was just with my mom's meatloaf recipe, so I thought I'd include it with the post. My mom noted she got this sauce recipe from Marie Redmond.

Mary, Mary quite contrary. How does your garden grow?

This was our Second Street neighborhood watch block party....




This is some of our garden harvest that I used for the table decorations for our get-together. The pictures were taken by my neighbor, Rebecca, from her garden. The pictures were printed up at Costco photo department and mounted on foam board. It make for a nice way to decorate for a party.

Flying Farmers Chicken Salad

Cook chicken breasts; cool, skin and de-bone Cut into bite size pieces. Combine and let stand overnight in refrigerator.

5 cups diced chicken
2 Tbs orange juice
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs salad oil
2 Tbs vinegar

Next day add:

3 cups cooked white rice
1 1/2 cups seedless grapes
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced celery
1 13 oz. can pineapple tidbits, drained
1 11 oz can mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup toasted slivered almonds
1 cup Best Foods Mayonnaise (May need a little more)
Toss together and serve on lettuce leaf.

I got this recipe years ago from an Arcadia Stake Women's conference luncheon. Insted of using cooked chicken breasts, you can use a Costco rotisserie chicken. I made the above picture for dinner last night. I used brown rice, but didn't like is as much as when it is made with white rice. I also threw in a handful of Craisins (dried cranberries).

Almond Cake

1 cube (1/2 cup) butter - melted

Beat by hand:
3/4 cup sugar and 2 eggs

Then add melted butter

Add 3/4 cup flour and 1 tsp almond flavoring

Stir together and pour in greased pan. (I use a Marie Calender pie tin)
Sprinkle slivered almonds on top

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

This doesn't get the beauty award for looks but it makes up for it in taste. (How could it not taste good with 1 cube of butter in it!) I got this recipe from my sister-in-law, Christy. It is an easy recipe. I usually triple the recipe when I make it. I made it for Scott's administrator work breakfast this morning. I buy my almond flavoring from my favorite store, Smart and Final.