Sweet and Sour Chicken & Outrageous Caramel Fudge Brownies

These recipes comes from a cookbook my sister gave to me a couple of years ago for my birthday. It is called “The Real Ranch Cookbook” From the Elko County Cattle Women. It is a great book and it has a lot of heritage of Nevada’s Northeastern working ranches, their recipes, histories and photographs. I have really enjoyed reading all the history and looking at all the photos….not to mention, a ton of recipes. These are a couple of recipes I have tried and really like…

Sweet and Sour Chicken:
1 to 2 lbs, chicken cut up in bite-size pieces
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup cornstarch
oil for frying

Sauce:
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup catsup
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. soy sauce

Dip chicken in egg and roll in cornstarch. Brown in oil. Put in 9"x13" baking dish. Pour sauce over chicken. I add peppers, onions and pineapple at this point. Bake for 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees. Turn chicken over a couple of times while cooking.

Chinese Style Fried Rice:
1-1/4 cup water
1-1/2 cup Minute Rice
1 slightly beaten egg
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup water
2 to 3 Tbsp. soy sauce

In a small pan bring 1-1/4 cup water to boil. Stir in rice and remove from heat. Cover and let stand 5 minutes. Meanwhile, using a skillet, cook egg in butter; add onion and rice. Saute; stirring over medium heat until mixture is browned. Mix 1/4 cup water with soy sauce and stir into rice.

Outrageous Caramel Fudge Brownies
These are so, so, so good!!!

1 bag (14 oz.) caramels, unwrapped
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1-1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/4 tsp. salt
1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chunks or chips (2 cups)
1-1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 tsp. vegetable oil

Heat oven tto 350 degrees. Grease bottom and sides of a 9"x13" pan with shortening or cooking spray. Heat caramels and milk in 2 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until caramels are melted and smooth.

Melt butter in 3 quart saucepan over low heat; remove from heat. Stir in sugar, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Stir in flour, cocoa and salt. Stir in 1-1/2 cups of chocolate chunks and 1 cup of of the pecans. Spread evenly in pan.

Gently and evenly drizzle melted caramel over batter, preventing caramel from reaching bottom of bars. (Carmel can cover entire surface of batter). Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until set.

Heat remaining 1/2 cup chocolate chunks and the oil in 1 quart saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until smooth. Drizzle over the warm brownies. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup pecans; press in lightly. Cool 20 minutes. Refrigerate about 1 hour 30 minutes or until chocolate is set. If refrigerated longer, let stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes.