Treat your friends to some delicious home-cooked meals

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July is an interesting and attention-getting month for much more reason than just for our fireworks-filled Fourth of July celebrations that started off the month.

This mid-year month’s annual return always makes it startlingly clear to us once again how unbelievably quickly time passes. July, now, is nearly gone again and, along with this month’s so fast passing, yet another year already is now more than half-gone as well.

Time truly does fly!

Optimists might contradict that preceding statement line with “No, there’s another almost-half-year still ahead,” which of course is totally accurate.

We are, however, also halfway around the calendar year already. This year 2015 is passing so fast! Another autumn will be here again very soon now! With the second half of Year 2015 still ahead of us, however, we do have yet another few more months remaining for us to get out and enjoy.

There’s at least that much more time, too, for finally making a start on all our likely by now, nearly forgotten New Year 2015 resolutions, all those grand plans which we made at midnight, half a year ago, on New Year’s Eve.

There is also still time for turning into reality all our long-planned future projects we want to get done before this year is over, including travels to more of all our still yet unexplored destinations, we yearn to go experience and learn from, always bringing back with us great new-to-us ideas for sharing with our own communities back home.

And, there’s no time like the present to get going on whatever culinary planned projects have been cooking away in our minds, maybe something very special, like maybe a spectacularly towering multi-layers cake, if we’ve never yet taken on that interesting and tasty challenge.

For those for whom cooking good meals is always a major project on our minds, Apopka’s tastiest recipes from our abundant community cookbooks collection can be a very handy help for energizing and inspiring us to get started on turning into reality all our culinary ideas and plans.

There’s still plenty time enough left in 2015 for making good things happen for others as well as ourselves by treating good friends to some good home-cooked meals.

Enjoy whatever such culinary projects you’re working on, as well as the recipes below, whenever you can fit a little creative cooking fun into your busy nearly end-of-summer 2015 schedule.

JAN WILLIAMS’ SPINACH DIP

Recipe from Holy Spirit Episcopal Church’s Taste & See

1 package frozen spinach

2 (6-ounce) cans marinated artichokes

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 jar Alfredo Sauce

1 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated

Mix first five ingredients and half of the cheese in an eight-inch square glass pan. Bake 30-45 minutes at 375 to 400 degrees, until top is brown. Top the baked spinach dip with the other half of the cheese. Recipe yields 12 servings.

POLLY SIMS’
PINA COLADA (PINEAPPLE) CAKE

Recipe from Grace United
Methodist Church’s
Treasured Recipes

1 box yellow cake mix, mixed by package directions (don’t overmix)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup coconut

1 cup slightly drained crushed pineapple

1 cup nuts

FROSTING

2 tablespoons butter

4 ounces cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered sugar (amount as needed)

Mix vanilla, coconut, pineapple and nuts. With a spoon, gently fold mixture into cake batter. Bake in a 9- by 13-in. pan for 25 minutes at 350 degrees, then reduce heat to 325 degrees and continue baking for 10 more minutes. Cool cake completely before frosting. Mix and cream together frosting ingredients.

garlic-cheese-biscuitsNEW VISION
COMMUNITY CHURCH’S
CHEESE GARLIC BISCUITS

Recipe from Feeding The Flock

2 cups Bisquick prepared baking mix

2/3 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix together the baking mix, milk and cheese until a soft dough forms and then beat vigorously for 30 seconds.

Drop the dough by spoonsful onto ungreased cooking sheet. Bake for eight to ten minutes or until golden brown. Mix together the butter and garlic powder. Brush the garlic mixture over the warm biscuits before removing from cookie sheet. Serve biscuits warm. Recipe makes 12 biscuits.

LOUISE USTLER’S
SPAGHETTI SALAD

Recipe from Northside Baptist Church’s A Christian Cookbook

2 pounds spaghetti, cooked, drained

Green pepper, cut up in small pieces

Tomato, cut up in small pieces

1 bottle Viva Italian dressing

1 jar McCormick Salad Supreme Seasoning

Run cold water over the cooked and drained spaghetti. Mix all ingredients and refrigerate. (If cooking only one pound of spaghetti, add only half a bottle of the seasoning or adjust it to your taste.)

KATHRYN MORRIS’
ROASTED ROOTS

Recipe from First Baptist
Church of Apopka’s
Taste & See That The Lord Is Good

2 Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and quartered

2 medium carrots, peeled and cut diagonally in two-inch lengths

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in one-and-a-half-inch chunks

1 medium rutabaga, peeled and cut into one and a half-inch chunks

1 large onion, quartered through the root end

2 large beets, peeled and quartered

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

1 garlic clove, crushed

Salt and pepper, amounts to your taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a large shallow pan with oil and set aside. Then mix together in a large bowl 1/4 cup olive oil, two tablespoons pure maple syrup and one crushed garlic clove. Add cut up vegetables and stir to coat evenly. Pour vegetables into the pan, spreading evenly. Bake for 30-45 minutes, stirring several times, until tender and brown on the edges. Add salt and pepper. Recipe serves six to eight.

Note: “Use any root vegetable combination you want, whatever you like and have on hand, but this combination above is delicious and pretty together,” says footnote to this recipe.

GINNY PARADIS’
HAWAIIAN FRUIT SQUARES

Recipe from St. Francis of Assisi’s A Taste of Heaven

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple

1/2 cup coconut, shredded

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Stir in other sifted dry ingredients. Fold in coconut and pineapple. Bake in nine-inch greased pan at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

JO ANN WEST’S
SEVEN-LAYER COOKIES

Recipe from Grace United
Methodist Church’s
Treasured Recipes

1/2 stick margarine

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup coconut

1 (6-ounce) package milk chocolate chips

1 (6-ounce) package butterscotch chips

1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Melt margarine in pan. Add ingredients in layers. Do not mix. Bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Cool for two hours before cutting into squares.