Carmelitos

from Lynne's kitchen:

2 1/4 C oatmeal
2 C flour
1 1/2 C butter/melted
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
12oz bag milk chocolate chips
caramel topping (don't unwrap a million caramels; instead purchase topping & mix it with 6 tbs flour to stiffen a bit)

Melt butter & brown sugar. Add oats, flour, soda & salt. Press 2/3 of dough in bottom of a 9x13 an. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Pour caramel topping over the chocolate chips. Crumble the remaining crust over the top.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.
(I like to put mine in the freezer after they're cooled. You can then switch them to the fridge shortly before serving.)

Bavarian Apple Tort

From Natalie's kitchen:

Crust:

1/2 Cup Parkay margarine
1/3 Cup Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup flour

Filling:

1 8oz package cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1sp vanilla

Topping:

2 cups peeled, thinly sliced Granny Smith apples (really just 1 or 2 apples is fine)
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sliced pecans

Cream margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Blend in flour and vanilla. Spread dough on bottom and 1 inch up sides (lower if bigger pan) of 9" springform pan. Use fingers to mush the dough up the sides of the pan.

No need to rinse beaters or bowl. Combine cream cheese and sugar until well blended. Mix in egg and vanilla and pour into pan. Spread evenly.

Mix cinnamon and sugar and toss with apples. Spoon (or arrange festively) over filling and sprinkle with nuts.

Bake for 10 minutes at 450, reduce heat to 400 and bake 25 minutes. Cool a little and loosen from pan, chill.

Serve chilled or room temperature.

French Bread Pizza

from Natalie's kitchen:

This is an incredibly easy and fast dinner idea that everyone will love. Take a loaf of French Bread and cut it in half long ways. Put spaghetti sauce on top of the bread and start to load up with your favorite pizza toppings. The possibilities are endless really: cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, peppers, onions, pineapple, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, ham, etc. Place in oven at 350 for 13-15 minutes and viola! Pizza! A fun idea if you have kids is to pre-cut the bread into thirds (or whatever size you want) and let the kids build their own personal sized pizza. Great for sleepovers, birthday parties, if you're hosting a game night, or just want to have a more "family together" type dinner.

Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

from Lynne's kitchen:

Cake:

1 1/2 cups oil
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flower
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups pelled /sliced apples*
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Beat oil, sugar and eggs together and then add all the other ingredients.
Bake at 350 for about an hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Frosting:

1 3oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

*tart apples are best because the frosting is pretty sweet.

Frosting:

Chunky Salsa

from Lynne's kitchen:

Red or Yellow (or both!) tomatos (diced)
Green Peppers (diced)
Cilantro (chopped)
Black Beans (canned works fine)
Corn (again canned)
onion (diced)
Jalepino peppers or hot red peppers(finely diced)
Lime Juice (fresh is best)

I honestly just cut up as many tomatos as I want (I can this stuff so it's a ton)and start adding all other ingredients to taste. For a big batch, when canning, I usually use two cans each of the black beans and corn.

Mix everything together in a bowl and serve if you're eating it fresh.

For canning, fill jars with a one inch head space and water bath them (boil) for 30 minutes.

Delicioso!

Apple Pie Cobbler

We've had tons of apples given to us recently and after canning what seemed like a billion of them, I still had a bag or so. Cobler sounded good, but I didn't have a recipe for an apple one, so I thought about how I make apple pies and this is what I came up with. (*no ingredients were measured exactly...just tate test it throughout)

from Lynne's kitchen:

8-10 medium sized apples (whatever kind you have!)skinned and cut
cinnamon (abt 1/4 cup)
sugar (abt 1/2 cup)
butter (abt 1/4 cup)
O.J. (abt 1/4 cup)
Apple Juice (abt 1/4 cup)
Cream Cheese (abt 1/8 cup)
Vanilla (2 or 3 tsp)

Mix all above ingredients in a sauce pan until bubbly. Pour all of it into a 9x13 pan.

Sprikle a white cake mix all over the top

Melt 1 1/2 sticks of butter and pour on top of the cake mix

Bake at 350 for about 45 - 50 minutes.

It is so bad, but tastes so good! (sorry to say that we ate it with guests before I could snap a picture)