It’s always a good time when you can invite friends and family over for a party or a game night, but it can get expensive if you order take-out for everyone to eat. In this 2006 episode, Arlene shares some quick and easy snack recipes that everyone will enjoy. With help from Linda Wilson, they cook up hot cheese tortillas, zesty con queso dip, zippy snack mix, crispy snack bars, and pineapple boats.
Pineapple Boats
These are so easy and look really fun at a party.
Ingredients
- 1 ripe fresh pineapple
- 1 small box strawberry or cherry Jell-O
- Maraschino cherries
- Toothpicks
Instructions
- Cut top off pineapple and cut pineapple in quarters (north to south). Carefully cut core out of center of each quarter and discard core. Cut outside skin off in one piece, and place pineapple back onto skin. Cut pineapple into 1/2 inch slices, keeping slices lined up in the skin. They should look boat- shaped. Place 4 boats on serving dish.
- Sprinkle dry Jell-O over pineapple slices. Place one maraschino cherry on top of each slice and secure with a toothpick. Keep refrigerated until served. Makes lots. Enjoy!
Zippy Snack Mix
One handful, and you'll be coming back for more of this!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 5 cups oyster crackers
- 3 cups miniature pretzels
- 2 1/2 cups salted peanuts
- 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, combine butter, chili powder, cumin and garlic powder. Cover and microwave on HIGH for 45 to 60 seconds or until butter is melted.
- In a 3 quart microwave-safe dish, combine crackers, pretzels and peanuts. Add butter mixture and mix lightly. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and toss to coat.
- Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH for 7 to 8 minutes or until mixture begins to toast, carefully stirring every 2 minutes. Cool. Store in an airtight container. Makes 10 servings. Enjoy!
Zesty Con Queso Dip
Most people think of cheese dips that have ground beef, but this one features sausage.
Ingredients
- 1 lb hot sausage
- 1 lb Velveeta cheese
- 1 jar salsa (16 oz)
- 1 pkg tortilla chips
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, over medium high heat, crumble and cook sausage until browned. Drain and return to saucepan. Cube Velveeta cheese and add to sausage. Cook, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.
- Remove from heat and stir in salsa. Serve warm with tortilla chips. Enjoy!
Cripsy Snack Bars
These sweet marshmallow treats are similar to the recipe we all know, except with a lot of extra flavor!
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 1 bag mini marshmallows (16 oz)
- 1 cup peanut butter morsels
- 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
- 6 cups cocoa crisp rice cereal
Instructions
- Grease a 13×9 baking dish. Melt butter in a non-stick pot over low heat. Add mini marshmallows and stir until melted and smooth.
- Add peanut butter morsels, chopped peanuts, and cocoa cereal, stirring until evenly combined. Dump mixture into greased baking dish, and spread out with a greased spatula or spoon. Allow to cool at least one hour before cutting into squares. Makes lots. Enjoy!
Transcript
- Hi, I’m so happy to see you, family. It’s so good to have you with us today. We’re gonna do some snacks. You know, we’re always, we’re doing, you know, this kind of a meal, that kind of a meal, that kind of dessert, that kind of this. And I just thought, what do you put together for your family in the evening? Or like, if you have some friends gonna drop over maybe you’re gonna watch a video or you’re gonna watch a movie or you’re gonna play some games or have family night. I have a friend who at least once a month, the whole family, kids, grandparents, everybody, put it aside and they called family night. And they all congregate at somebody’s house. Either the grandparents or the fam, the mother of the children, wherever, they congregate and they play games that whole night. That’s all they do, is play games. And the kids look so forward to it. And it’s a great time to keep your family strong. One of the ways too, anyway. And so I thought, well, this will give you some ideas of what you can do just for a night like that. Or if you’re just having some friends in, you’re gonna play cards or play games or whatever, these are some ideas. They’re easy to do and they’re variety. And we’re gonna get them started in just a minute but wanna talk to you about people who are hurting. I had a friend call me this morning before I came to the studio and she said, “Arlene, the Lord has just been saying over and over, over to me that there are so many people who are hurting.” And I might be talking to you, I could be talking to a lot of us who are hurting for one reason or another. Maybe somebody’s wronged us. Maybe somebody at work got the promotion that you should’ve had. Maybe somebody has had the biggest disappointment. Maybe a loved one has passed away and you just think I can’t get over it. Maybe you’re feeling sad and lonely. Maybe you’ve been disappointed by a dear friend. Maybe you’ve been in deception and you didn’t even realize it. I want you today to make a decision to let it go. When you’re hurting, it’s usually ’cause something happened to you and your whole holding on to that hurt, like you just can’t get over it. You have to come to a place where you make a choice and you say, “Today, I’m gonna let it go.” Because if you don’t let it go, you’ll keep hurting. And if you’re hurting financially, you’re hurting spiritually, emotionally, there’s so many kinds of hurt, but I want you to know, the one that can heal the hurt, His name is Jesus. And you know what? You don’t have to make an appointment. He’s as close as the mention of His name. When you say Jesus, you’re in His presence. He already knows what’s going on inside. All you have to do is say, “Will you please help me get over the hurt.” And be willing to release it to Him, and you’ll begin to heal. And the one that’s hurt you or you feel alienated by, by your saying, “Okay, I give it up.” Doesn’t make them right, it just sets you free. It allows you to proceed on in life. So if you’re hurting today, I would just ask you to ask the Lord to help you and release it to Him, okay. I trust that’s a good word. Good for me. Okay, we’re gonna get on with our snacks in just a minute, but first, here’s today’s At Home Hint. Here’s today’s At Home Hint. “Capsaisin in hot peppers can be neutralized with almost any dairy product, which is why sour cream is sometimes used on extra spicy Mexican dishes. Drink milk if you bite into something too hot.” If you’ve got a helpful hint, we’d really like to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone TeleVision, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. Well, we’re here in the kitchen and I’ve got Linda. I’ve, ’cause we’re doing a lot of snacks. She’s gonna make a really neat one. What’s this called?
- Zippy snack mix.
- Zippy snack mix, what do we got in it?
- I’m gonna take a stick of butter.
- Okay.
- Then I’m gonna add chili powder.
- Okay.
- And ground cumin.
- [Arlene] Cumin, okay.
- [Linda] Cumin and garlic powder.
- [Arlene] All right.
- And then I’m just gonna cover it and microwave it.
- So this is all done in the microwave?
- All done in the microwave.
- How long is that going into microwave?
- For about 45 minutes covered. 45 seconds, seconds.
- It’ll be really done.
- Covered and after it melts, then what I’m gonna do is combine the oyster crackers, the peanuts and the pretzels.
- Cool.
- [Linda] And parmesan cheese in all this.
- [Arlene] And then what do you do?
- Then I put it back in here for seven minutes.
- So you cook the whole thing after you put the, okay.
- But every two minutes you stir it.
- Okay.
- In the mic, that’s it.
- All right, you start that. I’m gonna come over here to the stove. And while she’s doing hers, I’m gonna show you how to make a con queso dip. And this is a little different, but it’s good. We have a pound of zesty, hot sausage here. So we have right here, and I’ve already crumbled it and I’ve drained the grease off of it. You know how to do that? Put this in a colander, and then take a paper towel and wipe it all out so it’s real nice and clean. And get all the, you don’t want the grease in there, okay. And you want this in like small pieces. Just like that. Okay, then what we’re gonna do, we’re going to take one pound of Velveeta cheese. Now, we bought the shreds but you can certainly take the block and just shred it down or cut it in cubes. We’re just gonna add the whole pound of cheese. Now this is gonna make a lot. You could do this by half, do it just a half a pound or of the… Half a pound of cheese and a half a pound of the sausage if you wanted to. But I thought these shreds, they’re going to melt quicker which is a good thing. And the Velveeta is the best for this. I don’t know why when you combine this… Must be because the way they pasteurize it. It just melts more evenly than the Cheddars and the Monterey Jack and all of that. Now, we’re not done ’cause the cheese is gonna melt but we’re doing salsa. Now if that’s hot sausage, unless your guys really like it hot, you don’t wanna put hot, so we’re gonna go for the mild, okay. We’re just doing the mild sauce here and salsa picante, whatever. And all we’re gonna do there is just let that cook. And once it gets started, like this has ’cause the pan’s already pretty warm, we’re gonna put this on a low temperature ’cause we certainly don’t want it to burn. And if you have the non-stick pan, that’s the one you wanna use because then it won’t stick and burn. How we doing Lin?
- [Linda] I’m just pouring the melted.
- [Arlene] Wonderful.
- Over all that. Smells wonderful.
- Boy, does that smell good. Boy, that didn’t take long. That’s great, okay. Now that’s going in for how much longer?
- Well, it says seven to eight minutes on high, uncovered.
- [Arlene] Uncovered, okay.
- [Linda] ‘Bout every about every two minutes you’re supposed to stir it.
- Check it, okay. All right, great, now when this zesty con queso dip is done, it’s ready to serve. Now you can make it ahead, warm it up in the microwave, warm it up in your skillet, but we’re just gonna keep an eye on it, and like I said, we turned it to low. We’re gonna keep an eye on that. Now we’re gonna start another one. And this one is like a dessert thing. We have a dip, we have a nibble. This is our dessert thing, okay. I’ve got some butter. Let me make sure I tell you how much butter, about a fourth of a cup of butter in here. And then we’re going to add marshmallows, a whole bag of the mini marshmallows. Okay, make sure this is on a low heat. Let me see here, that doesn’t look like that’s too low. Let’s go down a little bit with that. And you’re just gonna stir and stir until the marshmallows melt. And that doesn’t take too long, that’s why you get the little ones. The big ones, that takes longer, but you want this to go quickly so that butter gets absorbed by the marshmallows. Oh this stuff smells so incredible. If you have a really pretty chip dip set, you know, with the nice big round bowl and then the ones, that’s the time to use it for something like this because this is awesome when you use those sturdier chips, you have to ’cause you wanna scoop it in there. That’s incredible, that’s like nacho’s special. Ha-ha. Okay, this is melting. Look how nice this melts. See that Larry? That looks so good doesn’t it? Nothing like marshmallows… And when they get totally melted, and they’re getting there. See that, oh man. I tell you… It’s gonna be good. I love it on evenings when you can have your family together, just friends in. Paul and I, we have some friends that we get together and we have, we have such a good time because we’re like a bunch of kids when we all get together, we’re adults, but we we fight at games that we play and then we’re arguing. But it’s all in good fun. And we’ve had some of the most precious relationships and friendships that have bloomed and blossomed out of nights like that. And it’s always like, you can go to this person’s house that we usually meet at and he’ll say, Bring anybody you want, bring so and so, invite such and such. We’ll invite some people from church or whatever.” And we do, we have a wonderful time and it’s just, it’s a great time to be together with friends. Just a great time. Sounds like the microwave is beeping. Okay.
- [Linda] I’m gonna stir it.
- I’m gonna turn this off, and I’m going to add one cup of peanut buttered chips to my pan. One half cup chopped peanuts to the pan. And six cups, this is the cocoa flavored crispy rice cereal. I had no clue what that was. I had to ask some lady. I said, “Lady, do you have kids?” She said, “Yeah.” I said, ‘Could you help me with this? I have no clue what cereal that is.” ‘Cause Paul and I don’t eat this kind of cereal. But she showed me and she helped me and I appreciate it. Now we have a 13×9 pan that is greased, well-greased, buttered. You wanna work fast to make sure that this gets completely covered. While we’re doing that, we’re gonna take a short break. When we come back, we’ve got some more snack ideas just for you. Stay with us. Well, if you just joined us, we are, just made our crispy snack bars with the peanut butter chips and the peanuts. And there’s already a rumble going on with the crew because they’re not gonna last. They’re supposed to cool. Don’t even think about it. These are awesome. And all you do is pour it into your grease pan and just, you have to work quickly to make sure that melts together very well and then just press it in the pan and then let it cool. And the important thing, tell your kids to stay away from it or maybe just hide it. Either way, okay. You can see our con queso is still coming together beautifully. Okay, Linda, are you done over there with yours?
- I have to put it in for two more minutes, but look.
- Bring ’em over here, let’s take a look where we can see it nice. Wow, does that smell good.
- Oh, I forgot to tell you. I added about two tablespoons of parmesan cheese.
- [Arlene] Oh, the cheese. Oh, when did you put that?
- [Linda] Before I put it in the microwave.
- [Arlene] For the last time.
- [Linda] For the very last time.
- Oh okay.
- But you just stir it all in so…
- You can’t believe how good this smells, wow.
- [Linda] See, the peanuts, it’s-
- [Arlene] It’s all sticking to all of it, huh? So now this’ll be how many minutes then, seven minutes?
- [Linda] Seven minutes.
- [Arlene] Okay, good. So she’s got that to do, we’re gonna keep-
- See, it’s absorbed all the liquid.
- It sure has.
- [Linda] All the butter. Smell good.
- Before you smell it, chocolate and peanut butter. and the cheese and the salsa and stuff. Oh my, okay. Now here’s what we’re gonna do for the next one. This one is a more healthier instead of all the, you know, this stuff isn’t. I mean, but it’s only once in a while. Sorry about that folks. Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’ve taken a pineapple, fresh pineapple. I cut the top… Here we go, I cut the top off and I cut the bottom off. Okay. Now I’m gonna cut this, don’t worry about this right now. We’re cutting it north to south in four, in quarters. Just like that. Okay. Now, what we have in the center of this is the core, which is not tasty. So you’re gonna take your knife and just go down the center. Try not to take any of the good pineapple away ’cause that’s the sweetest part right in there too. But we’re gonna clean them all. You just have to go right down the center ’cause that’s too hard. It’s a very, like sometimes when a pineapple is real tender and real fresh and real ripe, oh it’s so sweet, it’s just juicy and soft in your mouth. But if you get a piece of that center, not pleasant. So we wanna take that out. Now these are called pineapple boats. So what you wanna do is cut that skin, leave it right on there and just cut it. Kinda like you do a cantaloupe. You know what I mean? Be careful now. Go back in and keep cutting. Try to get as close as you can. And these little pieces, little eyes, you just wanna cut them off, okay. Now what you’ll do is go down the center just like that. And you’re gonna cut wedges. Okay. Then… People still plant these? They used to plant these all the time when I was a kid. This and a sweet potato. I’ve been in more houses had a sweet potato grown on a window sill with a little bit of water and a piece of green about this long, trying to wrap it around. I didn’t know if anybody does that anymore or not but I always thought that was kinda cool. Okay, then you take a toothpick and you put on top of each one of those, okay. After, lemme just finish this. They look so pretty. This is great. And I had this on the table, if you remember, Christmas time, although I never had the chance to tell you how to do it. So I thought, well this is a great snack and it’s very pretty, it looks nice. And I wanted to share with you how to do it. My nieces and nephews, they love this. They just love it. If this is on a party, that’s the first thing the kids go for because we’re still not done. After we do this, now you can do it before or after, I’m doing it… Sounds like the mic’s done, Linda.
- [Linda] They’re done.
- Okay, now once you get it to that point… Hey you, stay over there. There we go. You’re gonna want to take… Wipe my hands here. You’re gonna take a package of jello. Now it can be the sugar free or dry jello outta the package. Don’t mix it up or anything like that. And all you’re gonna do is just sprinkle like that. And the juice from that pineapple is gonna come out and make the best tasting pineapple slices. Is that pretty or what? Now I’m asking you, is that pretty? What do you think, Michael, pretty? Very nice. Try to hold down on your enthusiasm over there. Well, you know, men don’t appreciate things like this but women do, okay. And the kids love it, okay. Careful when you’re cutting these. I think I like this one better. Linda, that stuff smells excellent. Wow, you’re gonna wanna try that one. Nice to have a variety. A couple of these would be great for like when you’re having your family or friends or whatever. Can do them all or just do some. Okay, how about giving my… Would you give that a stir for me, Linda, please. ‘Cause I can smell the cheese. Again, you just pierce it. You don’t have to have the fancy toothpicks if you don’t, just use the everyday toothpick, it’ll be fine. I think this is just the prettiest. I just love this. Okay. Easy to do, tasty, and this one’s relatively good for you. I really think it is. And it’s a good way to get your kids to eat their fruit. And this smells like a nice sweet pineapple, doesn’t it? Is that looking?
- [Linda] This smells wonderful.
- [Arlene] Does it, good. We like that. Okay, just a few more here. There we go. And again, each time you’re just gonna do the dry jello. Just on both sides and not a lot, don’t drown it. Just a little bit here, little bit there. And as it sets, I want you to notice, as it sets the color that comes forth from when you first do it till later, ’cause see it’s getting darker because the moisture of the pineapple’s coming out. That is something your kids are gonna love. Keep it in the fridge till it’s time serve and then bring it up. And we’re gonna bring you right back in just a minute because we’re gonna show you everything we’ve made today. And even one that we haven’t made. We’ll be back in just a minute. Well, here we are with our… Oh Linda. This is the one I didn’t get a chance, thank you.
- You’re welcome.
- This is the one I didn’t get a chance to show you. All you take is your chips like that, your tortilla chips and put them on a microwavable safe dish, could be a dinner plate. And then you put hot pepper cheese or Monterey Jack or whatever kind you want. Just a single of these chips. Put your jalapeno on it, in about a minute and a half and then to make it really good. Remember the hint? That it’s a dairy product that will take the fire of the peppers. If it’s too hot with these jalapenos, just do a little sour cream in here and there. I tell you what, this is so quick, so easy and delicious. Everything else we made today, we’re gonna start down here with our zesty con queso. I think I got that right? We have zippy, zesty, and crispy today. So just bear with us. And this is what this looks like. This is awesome, everybody’s going nuts for that. You do that with your tortilla chips. And this one is the one that Linda made, the snack mix. Is this zippy? This is zippy. Okay, I dunno why I come with these names, zippy and zesty. But this is incredible, and you know what? You make this and store this in a container. You’ll wanna wait till cools and store airtight container. This’ll last a while. When you bring it out, pop it in the microwave for a little few seconds just to get the warm, oh, that’s delicious. And then here, oh boy. These are crispy snack bars and they are awesome. Look here. Oh my, still, they’re still just a little bit warm so they’re still gooey. That, these guys are drooling. I can’t tell you. And then there is our pineapple boats. Don’t they look great? I think that on any buffet, if you’re looking for something on any kind of a buffet, whether it’s a snack or it’s a big to do, maybe you’re having a Hawaiian theme, that’s perfect. A lot of people are doing luaus for stuff like that. You know what, whatever you do, that would be great on any. And I tell you, I’ve taken it, eaten on a different buffet, that’s one of the first things to go. It’s so simple and easy to do. You could use cherry, raspberry whatever flavor jello you want, as long as it was a red jello, okay. And we just added some soft drinks, bottled water, and you have a complete snack bar. If you really wanted, make one of them, make two of them or make them all. It’ll be a great day for you. And I hope that you’ll go to church this Sunday. Remember when you go to church on Sunday, it makes the whole week go better because you know why? If we keep God first in all of our thoughts and our thinking, our plans and our doings, then He helps us throughout the week. And we need to put Him first, why? Because He is the God Almighty that we serve. And He’s the one that created the heavens and earth and everything that’s in it. And when we serve Him, we do it gladly. So I hope you go to church this Sunday. And be sure to join us the next time here At Home because it wouldn’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then, bye-bye.
- [Announcer] Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living Collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania.
- [Narrator] Cornerstone TeleVision wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.
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