MABON APPLE CARAMEL CAKE

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter, softened
2 cups flour, sifted
Pecans

Beat sugar and butter until creamed
Add eggs, one a time, beating afterward
Add soda, salt and vanilla
Add flour
Blend in apples and pecans.
Bake in buttered 9 x 13 at 325° for 45 minutes
or until golden and toothpick comes out clean.

Topping:
1 stick butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk
Cook until it comes to a boil
Take off of heat and
Then stir in 2 tsp vanilla

Poke holes in cake and pour topping all over.
Spread over cake with spatula, so topping drips into poked holes.

PERUVIAN CHICKEN MARINADE

1/3 cup soy sauce

 2 tablespoons fresh or bottled lime juice

Tsp garlic powder

1 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 

Black pepper to taste

 5 TB olive oil
Chopped onion

Whisk all ingredients (but onions) well.

Pour over three chicken breasts or 4 to 5 boneless chicken thighs. 
Top with chopped onion. 

Marinate 4 hours if cooking in oven or on grill. 

Marinate 1 hour if cooking in slow cooker. 

350° for 1/2 hour in the oven. 

4 hours on high in the slow cooker. 

You can use fresh garlic, but it tends to over power the marinade, so use sparingly. 

BACON STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

Sliced white bread (like Wonder) or thinly sliced french bread

Cooked bacon

Cream cheese, softened

Brown sugar

Eggs

Vanilla

Prepare as much bacon as you will need. Two rashers for regular bread, 

one for smaller slices of French bread. 

Lay your slices of bread out to dry a little. It will absorb the egg mixture

better that way. 

Mix one ounce of cream cheese and one and 1/2 teaspoon of brown sugar for each

sandwich you are making. 1 and 1 1/2 for 1 sandwich, 2 and 2 1/2 for two sandwiches, 

etc. 

Spread cream cheese mixture on the inside of two slices of bread. Add bacon

and make a sandwich. 

Mix eggs and vanilla. About a drop of vanilla for each egg used. You can

add milk to this mixture, but it is richer if you don't. 

Dip the sandwiches lightly in the egg mixture and fry in butter until golden

brown. 

Serve with maple syrup. 

PECAN PIE COOKIES

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup softened butter

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling:

1 cup chopped pecans

½ cups brown sugar

¼ cup heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°. 

Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder.

Beat until creamy. 

Add flour and baking powder, mix until well blended. 

Shape dough into 1 ¼ inch balls. 

Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. 

Make indentation in each ball with thumb, rotate thumb to hollow out slightly. 

Combine all filling ingredients in a bowl. 

Fill each cookie with a 1/2 tsp of filling. 

Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. 

Makes three dozen.

**Note: This recipe is weird. In order to get the dough to filling ratio to work out you need two batches of the dough and 1 1/2 batches of the filling. 

PUMPKIN PANCAKES

1 1/4 cup flour
2 TB sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp each cinnamon, ground ginger, salt
1/8 tsp nutmeg

1 cup milk or buttermilk (if buttermilk, 1 1/2 cups)
3 TB canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
2 TB melted butter or oil (I use oil)
1 egg

Whisk dry ingredients together.
In another bowl, combine milk, pumpkin puree,
butter or oil (mix these first) and egg. Mix well.
Fold wet mixture into dry mixture.
If batter is too thick, add small amounts of buttermilk until
desired consistency is reached.
You will want to cook these pancakes at
a lower temperature and a bit longer than
regular pancakes, due to the extra moisture of the pumpkin.
Serve with maple syrup & pecans.

VARIATIONS: Apple: Use applesauce instead of pumpkin.
                         Spice/Pecan: Leave out the pumpkin and put the pecans in the batter.

MOST EXCELLENT BAKED BEANS

Let me start out by saying that this is what the Sweet Potato Queens would call a "trailer trash" recipe. I have attempted and failed making baked beans from scratch. They never seemed to come out as good as these do. So I decided to go back to the tried and true "adding stuff to Campbell's pork and beans" method.
This recipe will make about three average servings.
You can double or triple it as needed.

1 can Campbell's Pork and Beans - 19 oz (or two 10 oz)
Black pepper (no salt, there is plenty in the canned beans)
A bunch of chopped up onion
2 TB brown sugar
A big splat of ketchup
A big splat of mustard
2 slices of bacon, crumbled

Mix all this stuff together, cover and let sit in the fridge for a few hours. It makes the flavors combine.
Then heat at 400° until bubbly.

KATHY'S FLUFFY EGGS

2 eggs
2 slices of bread
Butter
Parmesan cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Chives

Preheat oven to 350°
Toast two slices of bread, butter lightly and put on a cookie sheet
Separate two eggs, leaving the yolks whole in a separate bowl
Beat egg whites until stiff
Using 3/4 of the egg whites, pile them on top of each slice of toast, then make a deep well
in the middle of each pile of egg whites
Carefully place a whole yolk inside of each well and add salt and pepper
Use the remaining egg whites to cover and seal yolks
Sprinkle the top of each with Parmesan cheese and shredded cheddar
Bake for 12-13 minutes, then sprinkle with chives

Note from Molly: I think two slices of cooked bacon on each piece of toast before you start piling and adding eggs and cheese would be a delicious addition to this. Mmm, bacon.