Baked Spagetti Squash

Spagetti squash is one of my favourite veggies and a great alternative to pasta!

1 spagetti squash
1 1/2 cup spagetti sauce
1/2 cup grated cheese

Cut spagetti squash in half and remove seeds. Place on a pan with some water in the bottom and place in oven. Bake for about 20 mintues (until the squash is soft and easily removed from the shell).

Remove squash from the rind with a fork so it forms "spagettis". Place the squash in an oven safe dish. Cover with pasta saucea and cheese.

Broil until the cheese is bubbly and browning.

Remove from oven and serve.

Cookies! - Peanut Butter Kisses, blossoms and cocoa dops

Mmmmmm cookies. I love to bake and when it came time to make come cookies for a baking exchange I went a little overboard and made 3 batches of cookies to see which ones I wanted to send (I ended up sending some of each batch).

Peanut Blossoms
The cute little cookies with a kiss in the middle are delicious, and look great.

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Baking soda
1 Egg
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup smooth peanutbutter
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla

Garnish
1/3 cup granulated sugar
72 kisses or chocolate buds

Mix the first 10 ingredients in a bowl and beat on low until a dough forms. Shape into small (~1inch) balls.

Roll the balls in the granulated sugar for garnishing before placing on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 375F for 10-12 minutes. When they come out immediately press a kiss down on the center of the cookie until the top starts to crack around the edges.

Hubby Rating= 7.5/10

Peanut Kisses
These are yummy, but make a flat very rich cookie.

1 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
18 kisses (unwrapped)

Combine sugar, peanut butter and egg. (you may have to refigerate the dough if it is too sticky to handle)
Shape into small (~1inch) balls and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake 14 minutes at 350, remove from oven and press a kiss into the center of the cookies while they are still warm.
Transfer to a rack to cool.

Hubby rating = 7/10 - he says they are too sweet so he can't eat very many.

Cocoa drops
A delicious chocolate no-bake cookie.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup coconut
1/2 tsp salt


Mix the sugar, butter, milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes (if you don't boil long enough the cookies will not stick together and will be really sticky, but if you boil to long the cookies will become hard).

Pour the liquid over the dry ingrediants and mix until all ingredients are "wet"

Drop cookies onto wax paper and let cool, enjoy.

Hubby rating = 7.5/10
My Rating = 10! I looooove these cookies and have ever since I was little.

Note: These cookies freeze well!

Wings, wings wings!

What goes better with a hockey game and friends but some yummy chicken wings! After searching for a good wings recipes that wouldn't take me ages to make, I made up my own "cheater" wings as well as trying another recipe from allrecipes.

My Cheater Chicken Wings

1/2 to 1 pound chicken wings
1 chicken bbq sauce

In a pan cover the chicken wings with bbq sauce and marinade for 1-2hours. (it also works without marinading them). Cover and place in oven, cook for 30 minutes at 375F. Remove and stir/flip wings, cover and cook for 30 more minutes. Uncover and cook 15 minutes.

"Candied" Garlic Chicken Wings (from allrecipes.com)

1 1/2 cups honey
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
2 pounds chicken wings

Heat the honey, soy sauce and garlic in a pan until they boil to form the sauce.

Place wings in the bottom of a pan (9x13 works well) and pour the sauce from step one over the chicken. Cover (with foil) and marinate in the fridge (hour to overnight).

Bake at 375 covered for 1 hour (turning after 30 minutes).

Remove cover and bake 15 minutes.

Remove wings from sauce and place on a rack. Bake for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.

Hubby Rate: 8/10 for both kinds

Our friends loved the wings and we will definately make these again!

Cheesy Baked Pasta

Fresh stuffed Pasta
Your favourite pasta sauce
Cheese (shredded) - chedder, mozzerela, parmesean (or any other cheese you like)

1. Cook fresh pasta until just tender.
2. Cover with your favourite pasta sause in an oven safe dish. I use plain tomatoe sauce with parsley, basil and oregano to taste. The amount needed will depend on how much pasta is used.
3. Sprinkle cheese ontop of the pasta
4. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes at 350F
5. Broil for 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly.
6. Optional - sprinkle fresh parsley on top before serving.

This is one of our favourites, especially on busy nights when we need something quick!

Note: You can also do this substituting the stuffed pasta for any other kind of pasta you like.

Nutty Butternut Squash

1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 tablespoon butter
1 large onion, chopped
2-2.5 lb butternut squash
3 tbs chopped fesh parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut squash in half and remove seeds. Spray lightly with olive oil and bake for 15-20 minutes at 400F.
2. Remove squash from oven, peel and cube
3. Saute in pan with onion and butter.
4. toast pecans for 5mins at 350F
5. When squash is tender add 1/2 the pecans and parsley
6. Remove from heat.
7. Before serving top with the rest of the parsley and pecans.


This dish was yummy and had a slightly sweed and nutty flavour.