Rhubarb Punch

12 cups fresh or frozen rhubarb

3 cups sugar
12 cups water.

Mix and cook in large pot til rhubarb is soft. Strain. 

Add:
2 - 12 ounce cans frozen pink lemonade concentrate
2 liter bottle 7up or ginger ale.

We like to freeze the rhubarb base til it is slushy first. Or thaw it
to this state before adding the lemonade and soda.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

Ingredients
2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts (or you can make your own like I do with this)

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Optional
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

Preparation Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.
Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)
Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.

Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw faces on pies.

Note: The cutter I used was 3 3/4 inches wide, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry. Just use a round cutter around that size or slightly smaller to cut circle shapes out of the dough. Then make stems with the scraps. Press each stem over the edge and down the side of the dough before filling.

Pumpkin pie spice is a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.

P.S. (from Emmy) This recipe was pretty much just copied from here. 

Nutter Butter Balls

Ingredients:

1 package Nutter Butter Cookies

8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.

1 package chocolate candy coating (or semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Preparation Instructions:

Finely crush cookies in a food processor or place them in a Ziploc bag and crush into a fine consistency.

Combine with softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together.

Roll the mixture into 1″ balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.

Melt chocolate candy coating as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate with a spoon. Tap off excess coating and slide balls on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry.

Once dry, refrigerate and enjoy!

Pots de Creme

Ingredients

12 ounces, weight Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

4 whole Eggs, Room Temperature

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (or Cognac, Grand Marnier, Etc.)

1 pinch Salt

8 ounces, fluid Strong Hot Coffee

Preparation Instructions

First thing to do is to take your eggs out of the refrigerator ahead of time and let them come to room temperature before starting.

When eggs are at room temperature you can begin by placing the chocolate chips into a blender. Follow this with the eggs and the vanilla (or liqueur). Add a pinch of salt. Turn on the blender.

While it is blending, remove the circular disk from the blender lid and very slowly pour in 8 ounces of strong, VERY HOT coffee. It is essential that your coffee be extremely hot in order for the final product to be the right consistency and texture.

Blend for a minute or so until mixture is smooth and fairly free of visible bits of chocolate.

Pour the mixture into your serving glasses or little demitasse cups, leaving plenty of room to add a heap of whipped cream later.

Place in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours so the mixture has a chance to set.

Garnish with whipped cream and maybe a chocolate curl or two and you have an easy, delicious and yes, elegant, dessert!

Homemade Taco Seasoning

Ingredients:
4 tbsp. chili powder
3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. paprika
3 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

Directions: 
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and mix well to blend.  Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

To prepare taco meat, use 2 heaping tablespoons in place of a package of taco seasoning (cook approximately 1 lb. of beef or chicken, add 1 cup of water with the seasoning, and simmer until the liquid is almost completely gone.)

Cream Cheese-Bacon Crescents

Ingredients:

1 tub (8 oz) Philadelphia Chive & Onion Cream Cheese Spread

3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

2 cans (8 ox each) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

Shredded cheddar cheese

Preparation Instructions: 

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix cream cheese spread, bacon, and as much cheddar as you want until well blended.

Separate each can of dough into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle lengthwise in half. Spread each dough triangle with 1 generous tsp. cream cheese mixture. Roll up, starting at shortest side of triangle; place, point-sides down, on baking sheet.

Bake 12-15 min. or until golden brown. 

Serve warm. 

Hot Spinach Dip

Ingredients:

3 packages of cream cheese softened

1 frozen chopped spinach cooked and drained

1 package of  knor or lipton dry vegetable soup mix

1 cup of mayo (give or take)

garlic powder according to your taste

1/2 stick of butter

Preparation Instructions: 

Combine and heat through and then add a cup of mozz. cheese and stir throughout.