Strawberry Coconut Bars

1 Strawberry cake mix
1 stick of butter, softened
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix and butter. Press into a 9 x 13" baking dish. In a medium size bowl beat eggs, milk, and condensed milk until well mixed (about 1 minute). Pour over cake mix. Sprinkle with coconut. Bake 40-45 minutes or until center has set. Chill and slice into bars. Refrigerate.

You can make some tasty changes with this one. All you have to do is change the flavor of the cake mix. You can leave the coconut out if you want. You can scatter a layer of chocolate chips over your dish during the last 5 minutes of baking. You can also add nuts instead or along with the coconut.

Spinach Dip Chicken

2-3 large, cooked chicken breasts
1 jar (15 oz.) Creamy Spinach Dip
1 cup uncooked rice
shredded cheese
French fried onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook rice according to package (you can use instant, you want about 2 cups of cooked rice). Cut chicken into bite size pieces. In a large bowl mix chicken, spinach dip and rice. Pour into a baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle cheese over top. Sprinkle French fried onions over cheese. Cover with a loose fitting piece of foil and bake 10-15 minutes or until hot and cheese has melted. Uncover and bake another 4-5 minutes to slightly brown onions.

Changes - Use Panko instead of French fried onions. Use about about a pound of shrimp (cooked, peeled and cleaned) instead of the chicken. Use Imitation crab meat cut into bite size pieces instead of the chicken. Think With Your Taste Buds!

Pecan Fudge Pie

1/2 cup butter
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs
3 Tbsp. white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
9" pie crust

Melt butter and chocolate in top of double boiler or over low heat. Meanwhile, beat eggs until light. Beat syrup, sugar, salt and vanilla into eggs. Add the nuts. Now add slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Mix thoroughly and pour into an unbaked 9" pie crust. Bake at 350º for 25-35 minutes or until top is crusty and filling is set but soft inside. Do not over bake. Pie should shake like custard so it will not be too stiff when cool.
Serve plain or with ice cream or whipped cream.

This is another wonderful dish from my Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts Co-Author, Lillian.

Lillian - The center of this may sink in a little and that is ok. It is also, very rich and so you can serve smaller pieces. You can substitute the home pastry with the pie crust found in the frozen foods section or those in the dairy section of your store. You can do so much with this, as you did. I usually serve it with ice cream or whipped cream. The whipped cream can contain a bit of shaved chocolate or flavorings that will work well with the chocolate. You can just use pecans or almonds to top the whipped cream.

Martha - I made 2 of these pies but made a change in both. By thinking with my taste buds I decided to use up a couple of ingredients that needed to be used. One was some large flake coconut, the other was a partial jar of dried peanuts. I also had some chocolate chips that needed to be used but not enough for 2 pies. This is what I did. The recipe calls for 3 squares of chocolate, I used 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a cup of peanuts one pie. I had about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips left so I made up the difference using white chocolate chips and added a cup of coconut instead of the nuts. I'm not a chocolate lover but I have to say that both of these pies came out making even me want more. I did find that this makes just a bit more than 1 pie filling so I poured the leftover in a small baking dish that I lined with vanilla wafers and baked it along with the full size pie, checking it after about 20 minutes.

The pie on the top is peanut, the one on the bottom is coconut.

Apple Walnut Squares

4 cups coarsely chopped and peeled apples
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup black walnut pieces

Combine apples and sugar and let stand until sugar is absorbed and moist, about 45 minutes. Beat eggs and vegetable oil together by hand. Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together; stir in alternately with apple-sugar mixture. Stir in black walnut pieces. Grease and flour a 13x9x2 inch pan. Bake in a 350º oven for one hour.

This recipe was sent to me by Lillian, who will be co-authoring my next book Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts. She has some great suggestions for this dish.

Lillian - This was given to me by a friend from a 1976 cookbook that she had. This looks as though it would be very moist and is so simple to put together. Changes may be to use English walnuts or pecans instead of black walnuts, add a bit of coconut, use apple pie spices instead of just the cinnamon.

Martha - I made this dish and it is wonderfully moist! I did make a couple of changes. I found myself running short of flour so I used Cake Flour instead of all-purpose. I also used pecans instead of the black walnuts. For the apples, it takes about 5 small or 4 medium size and I used Granny Smith. This is one great dish to make.

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