Sarah Allen's Pumpkin Bars

These are the best.  I made them for Relief Society two Sundays ago.  They were such a hit.  Make these.  They are delicious.

Bars
2 C flour
2 C sugar (or about 1 3/4 C honey)
2 t baking powder
1 t cloves
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t salt
1 C oil
2 C pumpkin
4 eggs

Combine.  Mix low until moist.  Grease/flour pan (I use one of those cookie sheets with the inch-high lip) and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Frosting
1 pkg (8 oz) Neufchatel (or cream cheese)
1 t vanilla
2 C powdered sugar (or honey to taste)
1/3 C margarine (or other butter spread)

Spread frosting gently onto cooled bars.

Greasy Cake

Another one from my college recipe cookbook.  I only had this cake once.  A girl in my home ec ("Family Meal Management") class made it, and I remember thinking, "This is UNBELIEVABLE."  At the time, I figured I would never be able to afford the number of extracts needed to make the cake.  But you know what?  Maybe now I can.  Here's to seeing how it tastes to me ten years after.

Cake:
2 cubes butter, softened
1/2 C shortening
3 C sugar
5 eggs, beaten
1/2 t baking powder
3 C flour
1 C milk
1 t vanilla, butter, lemon, rum, and coconut extract

Glaze:
1 C sugar
1/2 C water
1 t vanilla, butter, lemon, rum, and coconut extract

Cream butter, shortening, and sugar till fluffy.  Add beaten eggs.  Combine baking powder and flour.  Add to cream mixture alternately with milk.  Mix in flavorings.  Put in a well-greased and floured bundt pan.  Bake at 350.

Make glaze by adding sugar, water, and flavoring.  Bring to a boil.  Turk cake over on to plate.  Drizzle glaze on top of cake until gone.  Top with whipped cream and fruit of choice.  Serve.

Creamy Elephant Pie

This recipe is included mostly out of nostalgia.  Once I stumbled on this pie in some cookbook I had, I made it very often, especially my sophomore year, as I forayed into self-sustenance.  I named it "Elephant Pie" for some reason no longer clear to me, but back then, I thought it was so clever.  I was also 19.

2 eggs
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 t finely shredded lime peel (note: I guarantee I did not use this in college; I did not buy fancy fresh produce like limes until at least grad school, if not later)
1/3 C lime juice

Beat eggs till slightly thickened.  Stir in condensed milk, peel, and juice.  Spoon into baked pastry shell.  Cover and chill about four hours or till firm.

Krista's Bread Sticks

I am--and was particularly in college--terrible with yeast, but a friend from my freshman floor made what I thought were the most delicious breadsticks.  I couldn't persuade her to make them nearly as often as I wanted her to, but I did successfully get the recipe.  Here 'tis, for posterity.  Thank you, Krista.

2/3 C warm water
1 T yeast
1 T sugar

Mix.  Let sit 10 minutes.

1 t salt
approx. 2 C flour

Preheat oven to 375.

Knead dough.  Melt butter in 9 x 13 pan.  Roll out dough, cut into long, inch-wide, strips.  Put butter, garlic salt, and Parmesan cheese on top.  Let rise 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hour.  Bake 20 minutes.

Yummy Chocolate Lava Cake

A good friend of mine in college brought this over to my house for a dinner party and baked it in the downstairs oven (not the one I typically used, since I lived on the upper floor) during dinner.  It spilled all over, and my friend the baker promised he'd clean it up.  But in the rush of the fun, he didn't, and that charred pool of chocolate stayed in the oven for the rest of the school year--maybe from August through April.  My downstairs roommates often jokingly complained about the hassle of that burnt chocolate pool cramping their baking style--dramatically ruing the day my baker friend came to dinner--but the truth is they didn't need that oven.  They didn't bake.  That wasn't the downstairs style.  Eventually someone cleaned up it, and I forgot all about it until I found this recipe.  Because the truth was, this cake was amazing.

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix in a 9 x 13 pan

2 C flour
1 1/2 C sugar
4 T baking cocoa
4 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Then add

1 C milk
4 T vegetable oil
2 T vanilla

Mix.

Sprinkle over top 2 C brown sugar
1/2 C baking cocoa
3 1/2 C hot water

Swirl water up and down.  Bake 40 minutes.  The bottom cake will rise to the top.  Beneath it will be a fudge sauce you can spoon over as you serve it.

Annie's Special K Bars

Annie was one of my three best friends during my college years.  We lived together sophomore year, and she delighted us perpetually with her charming eating habits (e.g., grapes in milk) and charming personality.  I found this recipe for her Special K bars, which I remember being much more decadent than our impoverished student life usually boasted.

To Annie, the first redhead* I ever loved.

Heat only until melted:

1 C white sugar
1 C white Karo Syrup

Add 1 1/2 C chunky peanut butter
6 C Special K cereal

Stir well and pat into greased 9 x 13 pan.

In a pot, melt
1 package chocolate chips
1 package butterscotch chips

Spread the melted chips over the cereal mixture.  Cool.

* Rebecca--you and Annie tied for first. 

Anne Marie's Banana Bread

I rediscovered a binder of recipes I put together while in a college home ec class, and it turns out, I saved some really good recipes I'd long since thought I'd forgotten.  But I have them!  And I will now be transcribing them to my blog, for greater utility and longer use.  I start with the recipe for what I recall as some seriously amazing banana bread (at least as made by a former neighbor at Moon Apartments, 2000 - 2001, named Anne Marie, who was smiley and sweet and I cannot for the life of me remember her last name).  Here's to 2000 and to Anne Marie.

Anne Marie's Banana Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 1/4 C sugar (or just less, maybe 1 C, of honey)
1/2 C butter, softened (or applesauce)

Mix.

Add 2 eggs.

Beat.

Add 4 mashed medium bananas (1 1/2 C banana mush).
1/2 C milk
1 t vanilla

Mix.

Add 2 1/2 C flour (can substitute in some, but probably not most, whole wheat flour)
1 t baking soda
1 t salt

Mix.

Mix in chocolate chips until batter is just moistened.

Pour batter into two loaf pans with bottoms greased.  Bake bread on low racks until it bounces back to touch.  (1 hour or so.)

Note: Today I used this recipe for the chocolate chips, because I made the bread on a day when I wasn't eating sugar (substituted honey for sweeteners in both the chips and the bread): http://www.traditional-foods.com/recipes/homemade-chocolate-chips/.

Note two: Yes, this was just as I remembered it--moist, silky, and delicious.