My sister made a Halloween cake!

Devil’s food cake witgh orange-dyed vanilla frosting, black decorator icing, a candy pumpkin border, and mini chocolate chip spiderweb.

Tomato Basil Pizza

Ingredients:

• pizza crust
• pizza sauce
• sharp provolone cheese
• fire-roasted tomatoes
• fresh basil
• mozzarella cheese (optional)

I also made a pepperoni pizza for my picky sister, hence the pepperoni.

Directions:

1. Spread out pizza dough and spread with sauce. (I used thin crust that needed to be pre-baked first)
2. Place provolone cheese over the sauce. I added mozzarella in between the slices of provolone.
3. Top with tomatoes and chopped basil.
4. Cook according to directions on dough.

Chicken Pot Pie

Made as a way to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken. I made up the recipe based on what we had at home. Makes 8 individual pot pies (I made 4 and froze the rest of the filling).

Ingredients

• 2 cups diced rotisserie chicken
• 1 large russet potato, diced
• 8 oz. bag baby carrots, diced
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• pepper, garlic salt, and parsley to taste
• butter or oil
• 1 tube refrigerated flaky biscuit dough
• 1 egg yolk
• parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, etc. for topping

Directions

1. Boil carrots and potatoes for about 10 minutes. Remove from water and put in a bowl with the peas to thaw the peas.
2. Strain the liquid from the vegetables and set aside, this will be used as stock.
3. Rinse any veggie bits out of your pot, dump in chicken and cream of chicken soup, place over low heat and stir. Add stock until the filling is the desired consistency.
4. Add pepper, parsley, and garlic salt to taste. Mix in the vegetables.
5. Rub ramekins with butter or oil. Portion filling into ramekins.
6. Spread a biscuit dough over the top of each ramekin. Brush with egg yolk, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning.
7. Cook at 350F for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Pot pie filling in the ramekins before cooking.

Burgers

Made this recipe quite a few times until I finally got it exactly the way I wanted it. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1/2 Tbsp. minced dried onion
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. chili powder
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 3/4 tsp. liquid smoke

Direction

Mix all ingredients together, form into patties, and cook. Grilled to medium is my favorite, with pepperjack cheese.

Szechuan Beef

Served this with garlic rice.  Recipe from Food Network.

Ingredients

• 1 pound flank steak, sliced very thinly
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. cooking wine
• 2 tsp. cornstarch
• 4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. sliced fresh garlic
  
• 1 tsp. sliced jalapeno pepper
• 6 (1-inch) sections green onion

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil

Directions

1. Mix the sliced beef with soy sauce, cooking wine, and cornstarch and set aside.  Heat a wok or large skillet and 4 Tbsp. vegetable oil.
2. Stir-fry the garlic and jalapeno pepper until fragrant, about 1 minute.
   
3. Add the beef and the sauce ingredients and stir-fry over high heat just until the beef is no longer pink on the outside.
4. Add green onions during the last minute of cooking.