Candy Cane Cake

Ingredients

1	box white cake mix
	Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box
1/2	teaspoon red food color
1/2	teaspoon peppermint extract

	Crushed candy canes or crushed hard peppermint candies, if desired

Directions

Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan. Make cake batter as directed on box. Pour about 2 cups batter into pan. Into small bowl, pour about 3/4 cup batter; stir in food color and peppermint extract. Carefully pour pink batter over white batter in pan. Carefully pour remaining white batter over pink batter.

Bake as directed on box or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack or heatproof serving plate; remove pan. Cool cake completely, about 1 hour.

Frost with vanilla frosting and top with crushed candy canes.

From Betty Crocker

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix

1 15 oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

Chocolate chips

Directions

Mix together, drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet, bake for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees. Now, the secret is to let them cool and store for a few hours in a closed container (hard to do but please, do it for me!). It just does something to it that makes the cookie exactly how I like it. Oh, and I used jumbo semi-sweet chocolate chips because that's what Lee's uses :)

Submitted by Kirsten

German Pancakes

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Blend in blender. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray glass cake pan with cooking spray. Cut 1/2 cube butter into small pieces and put in cake pan while oven is preheating. When butter is melted, pour batter into pan. Bake for 40 minutes or more until golden brown. Will rise substantially.

Voila, you haf zee German Pancakes!

Serve with powdered sugar and lemon or limes. Enjoy

Submitted by Jacqueline

Cream Cheese Cookies

Absolutely the easiest, tastiest cookies ever! They are my fill-in cookies during Christmas when I don't have the time or energy to spend too many hours in the kitchen.

Ingredients

1 cube butter, softened
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 pkg cake mix
Sprinkles (optional)

Directions

Mix ingredients together. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Add sprinkles, if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.

That's it! Too easy!
White and yellow cake mixes are delicious; chocolate is good but not pretty; I've heard lemon is delicious, but I personally haven't tried it.

Submitted by Shelli

Aloo Gobi

Ingredients

1 Cauliflower
4 Potatoes
1/4 cup Oil
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
1 in. stick Ginger
3 cloves Garlic
3/4 teaspoon Turmeric
1 teaspoon Red Chili Powder
3 Tomatoes
1 teaspoon Garam Masala
2 teaspoons Coriander powder

Directions

Cut cauliflower into florets. Cube potatoes. Heat oil and saute cumin seeds for about a minute. Add garlic and ginger, stir and add potatoes. Bhoona*, add turmeric and chili powder, and bhoona again. Add tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add cauliflower and high heat for about a minutes. Lower heat, cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Curry should be damp-dry.

* Bhoona is a technique that is essential to Indian cooking. The bhoona technique means that the mixture is cooked over medium-high heat, with constant stirring to avoid scorching, until all liquids are reduced and the spices coat the meat like a paste. About 1/2 cup of water can then be added, the dish covered, and a gravy created as the dish becomes liquified again.

From CDKitchen

Mango and Jicama

Ingredients

Mango
Jicama
Avocado (optional)
Cilantro
Lime

Directions

Peel and dice mangos into bite size pieces. Peel and cut jicama into bite size pieces. If you like toss in some avocado cut into bite size pieces. Toss in a handful of chopped cilantro. Squeeze lime juice over the whole thing.

Good, low cal, tasty!

Submitted by Lynda

Almond Beef Hawaiian

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/3 cup water
1 pound sirloin steak, cut in 1/4" strips across the grain
Onion powder to taste
Garlic powder to taste
1 cup celery, cut in 1/2" slices on the diagonal
1 cup onion, sliced
2 stalks fresh broccoli, cut into 1/2" long slices
1 cup Chinese pea pods
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
2 cups cooked rice

Directions:

Season steak strips with onion and garlic powders to taste. Mix and set aside ginger, sugar and soy sauce. Mix cornstarch with water in another dish.

Blanch celery, onion and broccoli; set aside. If Chinese pea pods are frozen, thaw, but do not cook. Saute strips of steak, setting aside the slices as they finish browning on each side.

Combine soy sauce mixture with vegetables, almonds and steak slices, and heat - do not allow soy sauce to boil. Add water mixture. When hot, serve with cooked rice.

Reminder: Do not use any salt in this recipe.

From CDKitchen