At Home My Way

Coconut Pecan Baked Oatmeal

2012-02-15T07:21:00.000-08:00

Coconut Pecan Baked Oatmeal

Here is another version of Baked Oatmeal. I've tried adding apples, blueberries, chocolate chips, pineapple, and now coconut. So far I haven't met a baked oatmeal that I don't love! The coconut pecan was a terrific combination. Its also great leftover. I can bake a big pan and eat on it all week and is a great way to avoid poptarts, frozen waffles and boxed cereal.

Here's how I made Coconut Pecan Baked Oatmeal AT HOME MY WAY:

COCONUT PECAN BAKED OATMEAL

3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs (slightly beaten) (just whites works fine or egg beaters)
½ cup margarine/butter or oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups shredded coconut (I used sweetened coconut)
1 cup pecans, chopped or lay on top before baking.

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In separate dish, mix together milk, egg(s), melted butter/margarine/oil and vanilla. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in the coconut and the pecans (or lay the pecans on top before baking). Spread into a 9 x 13 dish (sprayed or lightly oiled). Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Serve warm.

COCONUT PECAN BAKED OATMEAL - HALF BATCH - for baking in a pie plate, 8x8 square pan, or a loaf pan (the loaf pan makes a deeper dish of baked oatmeal which I prefer).

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (dark or light)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (slightly beaten)
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup shredded coconut (I used sweetened)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped or use halves and lay them on top before baking

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a small mixing bowl. In a separate dish (I used my 2-cup measurer), measure the milk to 1/2 cup. Add 1/4 cup of oil. Mix in the blended egg. Stir well to mix. Then add the liquid ingredients to the dry in the bowl. Stir well. Stir in the coconut and nuts (or lay the nuts on top before baking). Pour into lightly oiled or sprayed pie pan, 8x8 square pan, or loaf pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until lightly browned.

To avoid rushing and help me to get this ready before I leave for work, I mix up the dry ingredients before bed, get my measuring cup and oil out as well as the cooking spray and the pan I'm going to use for baking it. That way, in the morning before my shower I just have to measure the milk in the measuring cup, then measure in the oil, add the egg, vanilla, blend and add to the dry ingredients. Then spray my pan, pour in the recipe, and stick it in the oven. While I'm in the shower my breakfast is baking and creating a delicious smell in my kitchen!

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

2012-02-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

I used to make this recipe at Thanksgiving. I worked hours on various types of rolls and yes they were delicious! But we have so much food at our Thanksgiving feast! Everyone brings lots of dishes and its just really good. But in having that much variety (tables covered with desserts, sides, casseroles and salads), the rolls don't really get the focus that they deserve. So I have since decided to make these very special rolls for small family dinners. They really are a stunning star at any meal. They are lightly sweetened (kind of like those Hawaiian rolls you get at the store). They are so light and pillowy. Not just fluffy but like little pillows. They are the kind of rolls that when you try to pick one up they give in your hand. Definitely perfection on a plate!

I make these rolls exactly like the recipe says. I don't usually buy shortening (Crisco) but for this recipe I haven't experimented with substituting butter although I'm sure that would work fine. These are just so perfect that I don't want to change a single thing. But I'm sure one of these days I'll try butter to see if that works since I don't usually have shortening on hand. I also use canned sweet potatoes in this recipe. I know you could cook your own and I'm guessing there's approximately one cup of sweet potatoes in a drained can of sweet potatoes.

I originally found this recipe in a Taste of Home magazine.

Here's how I make Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls AT HOME MY WAY:

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

Ingredients:

2 packets of yeast (I used 4 teaspoons because I buy in bulk)
1 cup warm water (hot but no hurt) (110° to 115°)
1 can (15-3/4 ounces) cut sweet potatoes, drained and mashed
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup butter, melted

Instructions:

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in very warm water (hot but no hurt). Let stand for 5 minutes. Beat in the mashed sweet potatoes with a mixer. Add the sugar, shortening, egg, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat smooth. Switch to a spoon. Add remaining flour (I leave the last 1/2 cup for kneading).

Using floured hands in the large bowl or on a floured surface, knead until smooth. (I just knead in my bowl.) (Set a timer for 6 minutes and knead/squish/ and fold the entire six minutes). Place the kneaded dough in a greased bowl (I just spray the bowl I'm kneading in with flour and put the dough back in there... I'm not much on using lots of dishes that I have to wash), turning once to grease the top of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (app. 1 hour).

After the dough has risen, gently press dough down. Divide into thirds. Form each portion into a disc for rolling. On a floured surface, roll each portion into a 12-inch circle. Spread the circle with melted butter/margarine. Cut (using a pizza cutter if you have one) into 12 wedges (like spokes on a wheel). Roll up each wedge starting with the wide side of the triangle, ending with the pointed tip. Place the rolls pointed tip underneath 2 inches apart on a greased/sprayed baking sheet. Proceed with the remaining two discs of dough as before. Cover the pan of unbaked rolls and let rise until doubled (app. 40 minutes).

Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until golden. Gently remove from pan.

(NOTE: Since this recipe makes a lot, I usually make one pan for dinner, and I place the other pan of rolls (before the second rise) into my freezer. I bag the frozen unbaked rolls for baking another day. To bake, remove from the freezer, place on a greased/sprayed cookie sheet, let thaw, and rise, and bake accordingly.)

I didn't melt my butter, just spread some on. Worked fine and dandy!

I know my lighting is bad. But can you SEE the little pillows of perfection here? YUM!

Brown bagging it - Homemade Frozen Burritos

2012-02-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs is Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. On Lynn's blog she has a post and recipe for Brown Bag Burritos which she got from another blog called "The Finer Things in Life". Amy's Brown Bag Burritos looked really yummy. But, being the cheapo that I am, instead of cooking the ingredients for these burritos, I prefer to save my leftovers and then assemble them when I have the stuff to make them. I regularly keep cooked pinto beans in my freezer in small containers and this weekend I had some leftover taco meat (which I just season with salsa and chili powder instead of using the little packets). I combine those two things for my burrito filling. But, you could omit the meat and use leftover fajita veges for a meat free burrito.

I love having something for lunch that I can just grab and go. I also have a long love affair with those cheap little burritos you get in the freezer section. But, I know those things have to be bad for you. Anything that cheap is usually always bad for you. It had never occurred to me to make my own until I was led to Amy's post from Lynn's post.

The first time I made these I bagged each burrito in little sandwich baggies, sacking all the bagged burritos in a container or large gallon ziploc bag for keeping in the freezer. I don't usually ever buy paper towels but I figure the burrito will warm up better in the microwave if its not in plastic. Plus the baggies are then tossed in the trash and I would rather throw a paper towel away than a baggy so I decided on wrapping them in paper towels and then sacking the wrapped burritos in the original bag that the tortillas came in. Also the paper towels work great for ... well.... for using as a napkin for lunches on the go. Sometimes I do make homemade tortillas. I just did not today. I had a bunch left from making special holiday food and this made a speedy assembly.

Here's how I made Homemade Freezer Burritos AT HOME MY WAY:

HOMEMADE FREEZER BURRITOS

Leftover taco meat
Leftover pinto beans or black beans, even a can of refried beans will work (with some juice - my beans are cooked until thick because I like them that way)
Flour tortillas
Paper Towels
Large bag/container to keep the burritos inside in your freezer

Re-heat the meat and beans. Stir together. Place a scoop down the center of a heated/soft tortilla. Roll as for a burrito. Roll in the paper towel the same way. Bag them up. Place them in the freezer.

To reheat, just heat in the microwave for a minute until hot.

These would also be good in a casserole dish topped with salsa and cheese for a speedy weeknight supper. (Heated in the oven until hot and melty, of course).

Getting the assembly line ready.

Folding the burritos.

Ready to fold with the paper towel and bag it up.

Superbowl food - Oreo Balls!

2012-02-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

My older daughter had a couple of football parties to go to over the weekend, one on Saturday night, and a superbowl party on Sunday. Her Dad and I were going to the same superbowl party so Rebecca and I decided to make a double batch of oreo balls. Rebecca had made these for us at Christmas. But, with so many sweets I didn't really get to enjoy them so I was super happy that we made them again. I say "we" loosely because really all I was ALLOWED to do was put the oreo cookies and cream cheese in the food processor and push the button. Probably for good reason though because the food I cook might be delicious but I'm not always so great with the presentation! Rebecca on the other hand is a perfectionist with making it "look" beautiful! So she twisted my arm and I "let" her have all the fun!

Here's how we made Oreo Balls AT HOME MY WAY:

Oreo Balls

Ingredients:

One package Oreos (generic is fine)
1 8 oz package of cream cheese (we used low fat - not that it helped any LOL)
1 package of while chocolate (we call it almond bark - it comes like an ice cube tray of chocolate)

Directions:

Place the oreos in a food processor and crush or place the cookies in a big gallon sealed bag and bang with a rolling pin. Add the cream cheese to the food processor and process until the cookies/cream cheese form together into a ball. If you don't have a food processor, dump the cookies into a ball and stir in some warmed /room temp/ softened cream cheese until all combined.

Form into balls the size of a ping pong ball (or a little smaller, these are RICH!)

Place the balls on a cookie sheet and put in the freezer until cold (30 minutes).

Meanwhile place your chocolate in a mini crockpot (this works SO MUCH BETTER than the microwave because the chocolate will melt evenly and not burn).

Prepare a place for the dipped balls (We used foil. You can butter it a little or spray lightly with Pam). Using a fork to hold the ball (not puncture the ball though), dip the ball in the melted chocolate. Tap the fork on the side of the crockpot to "sheet" the chocolate". Place the coated ball on the buttered foil. Sprinkle with sprinkles if desired.

When the chocolate is hardened, move the candy to a serving dish.

These are super yummy! They really taste like more than oreo cookies. They are creamy and just really delicious. We just store ours on the counter in a covered dish for a week or two, if they make it that long!

Mom's Sugar Cookies

2012-01-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

These are the sugar cookies my mom made most often. We had them EVERY Christmas and just in general when we wanted cookies. I love these. They are easy! They use simple ingredients that I most generally always have in my pantry. They use oil instead of butter or margarine. The dough doesn't have to be chilled and they are dropped with a spoon. Couldn't be any easier! They can be sprinkled with whatever colored sugar celebrates a certain holiday or birthday and they pretty much taste fantabulous! They are puffy little crunchy yet moist cookies and I think they're perfect.

Here's how we make Mom's Sugar Cookies AT HOME MY WAY:

Mom's Sugar Cookies

2 eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup oil (I use canola or vegetable)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all purpose flour
Colored sugar for sprinkling

In a med mixing bowl, slightly beat the eggs. Add in the sugar and oil. Stir until well combined. Add the vanilla. Stir again. Add the baking powder and salt. Blend well. Lastly, add the flour and stir well.

Drop onto sprayed or lightly oiled cookie sheet. Using a sprayed/oil glass press the cookies down or I just usually flatten a little bit with my hands. Don't flatten too thin. Just flatten like fat little cookies. Sprinkle with colored sugar.

Bake @ 350 ° for 12 minutes. Cool, then remove to cooling racks.

Here's a closeup. I was running out of red sugar and there is some stray green sugar here and there but you should taste them! YUM!

Hamburger Soup

2012-01-26T08:35:00.000-08:00

I think I posted this recipe one cool rainy day this past summer, but since I promised to post this recipe which I used in Last Night's Leftovers to create Super Soup & Noodles, I figured it couldn't hurt to post this again. HANDS DOWN, this is our favorite vegetable soup recipe. Over the weekend I made it without the macaroni. I just used more potatoes. If you do serve with pasta, keep the pasta separate as the pasta breaks down and becomes mushy when you eat this leftover. This recipe is very garlic-y. This was the first vegetable soup my kids would eat since it was similar to spaghetti and they could eat the broth/meat & pasta, until they got used to the vegetables. Sometimes I either buy or make bread bowls to ladle this soup into. Its really, really good!

Don't forget that this soup is great for leftovers - ladled over wide egg noodles or rice!

This is how I make Hamburger Soup AT HOME MY WAY:
(NOTE: remove the bay leaves BEFORE serving!) (DO NOT EAT BAY LEAVES)

1 to 2 pounds hamburger (we use a little more than 1 pound)
1 can crushed tomatoes + 1-8oz can tomato sauce (plus each empty cans filled with water) (OR if you don't have crushed tomatoes, which we did not last night, THEN USE 2 -8oz cans of tomato sauce + 2 cans of water)
1 can carrots (undrained)
3-5 med. potatoes (peeled and chopped)
1 can green beans (undrained)
1 small can mushrooms (stems & pieces) undrained (optional)
1 Tablespoon onion powder
1 Tablespoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon basil or oregano
2 bay leaves (large ones so you can find them)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cup additional water
EXTRA INGREDIENT: Cook 2 cups macaroni and serve with the soup. (If you put it in the pot, it gets mushy so we keep it separate and just add to each of our bowls.)

Brown hamburger in a soup pot with the onion powder, or if using real onion, brown with the meat until all clear. Drain. Add all remaining ingredients, including the cans of water and extra water. Crack the lid and simmer, stirring occasionally at least 45 minutes or longer or until potatoes are soft.

REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES and serve.

Serve with cooked elbow macaroni and/or in bread bowls! Yummy!

Last Night's Leftovers - Super Soup & Noodles

2012-01-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite bloggers at The Tasty Cheapskate (she had me at the title of her blog), did a post on re-using leftovers to create dinner. She comments about a show the Food Network did on large scale wasting of food. Jeanie noted that she would like to see a show on the Food Network where the chefs take everyday leftovers and create something wonderful. I agree! I actually love the Food Network. But, definitely a show featuring down to earth solutions to every day problems (feeding the family with food in the fridge) would be a great for people like us.

Jeanie posted on Leftover Tuesday how she took some spaghetti sauce, bacon, cream, and spaghetti pasta to created supper (Baked Spaghetti) for her family. It looked super yummy! I think our mothers and grandmothers have always recreated with what they had to put food on the table. I remember my mom making many a "rice pie" with leftover rice in the fridge, which was a baked rice pudding that we ate for dessert. However, I do think this could become a lost art with our generation's reliance on processed, premade foods.

I decided to join in and see what I could come up with to create supper with some leftovers I had in my fridge. Now, my pictures are not wonderful. The lighting was bad in my kitchen last night. Its so dark when I get home, but if I turn on all the lights, the pictures are worse. But, you can at least see that it looks yummy and it WAS!

My inspiration was found in one of those ads for Chunky canned soup. You know the ones where the guy dumps his soup over noodles or rice to create a meal? Well, I had some soup (my favorite garlic-y hamburger soup, which I will post the recipe for tomorrow) and I had some wide egg noodles. So, dinner was served! It tasted like a combination of pepper steak / vegetable soup. This meal was very satisfying and I will certainly serve this again. Leftover noodles will never again go to waste in my fridge. And, since I grew up in the south and biscuits were every day fare, one of my favorite "sides" is toasted leftover biscuits. They are just so crunchy and buttery. Yum! I had alot on my plate already, but who could resist those little crunchy babies! Mmmmmm mmmm good!

Here's how I made Last Night's Leftovers (Super Soup & Noodles) AT HOME MY WAY:

Here are the has-beens:

Note that I've already taken leftovers out of this dish. Just a little bit was left. It might have gone to waste if I hadn't seen post at The Tasty Cheapskate!

A little bit of wide egg noodles were left from Monday night's David Letterman's Chicken.

I usually always have some leftover biscuits. These were from Monday night. The recipe is here.

Ta-da! The feast!

One more pic to show the toasty biscuits. I just split them, butter them, and place in the broiler until toasty!

David Letterman Chicken (Crockpot Recipe)

2012-01-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Last night I made a meal in the crockpot that I hadn't made for years! I think I had forgotten about it. It was delicious and I need to remember this one. It would also be great to serve to company. It was easy to throw in the crockpot before work and everyone loved it! I remember that this recipe was originally called "David Letterman chicken". Supposedly, David Letterman's Mom used to make this for him. I have no idea if that is true or not, but I made it for my family and we all liked it. That's all I need to know LOL.

This is how I made "David Letterman Chicken" AT HOME MY WAY:

David Letterman Chicken (crockpot)

4-8 boneless, thawed skinless chicken breasts (or whatever you like to use as far as chicken goes, bone-in, dark meat, whatever..)
Bacon (a piece of bacon for each piece of chicken)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
Salt/Pepper
Egg noodles, mashed potatoes or rice (I prefer wide egg noodles)

Directions:

Wrap each piece of chicken with a piece of bacon. Lay the pieces of wrapped chicken in your crockpot. In a small bowl, combine the cream of mushroom soup with the sour cream, stirring well to combine. Pour over the chicken in the crockpot. Salt & pepper a little bit to your liking. Cover with the lid.

Turn on low and cook 8-10 hours. Serve over wide egg noodles, mashed potatoes or rice.

Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal

2012-01-23T09:20:00.000-08:00

Does Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal sound like a strange combination to you? I'm sure the title sounds a little odd. But this version of Baked Oatmeal is really luscious. "Luscious?" "Oatmeal?" you might ask. Yep! It was warm and gooey and tasted just like a hot oatmeal/chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven! This breakfast would be a great way to introduce oatmeal to your children. If they like chocolate chip granola bars (specifically the chewy ones) or oatmeal cookies, they are going to love this! This recipe is also very cheap to make and uses ingredients found in your pantry! I love that about it. I also love that I usually have a handful of chocolate chips that didn't make it into cookies and I can throw this together for a hot, delicious, and pretty healthy breakfast. This really tastes nothing like the kind of oatmeal you get in the packets. This is more like a warm, gooey granola bar. YUM!

This is how I make Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal AT HOME MY WAY:

Chocolate Chip Baked Oatmeal (I halved this recipe, which I baked in a pie plate as below.)

CHOCOLATE CHIP BAKED OATMEAL

3 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs (slightly beaten) (just whites works fine or egg beaters)
½ cup margarine/butter or oil
2 teaspoons vanilla (optional)
1/2 cup (or up to 1 cup) chocolate chips (semi sweet or dark)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In separate dish, mix together milk, egg(s), melted butter/margarine/oil and vanilla. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread into a 9 x 13 dish (sprayed or lightly oiled). Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. Serve warm. Also terrific leftover.

CHOCOLATE CHIP BAKED OATMEAL - HALF BATCH - for baking in a pie plate or 8x8 square pan

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup brown sugar (dark or light)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg (slightly beaten)
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional) (could also add pecans/walnuts/almonds)
1/4 cup (or up to 1/2 cup) chocolate chips (I use semi sweet or dark)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a small mixing bowl. In a separate dish (I used my 2-cup measurer), measure the milk to 1/2 cup. Add 1/4 cup of oil. Mix in the blended egg. Stir well to mix. Then add the liquid ingredients to the dry in the bowl. Stir well and add 1/4 cup chocolate chips. Pour into lightly oiled or sprayed pie pan or 8x8 square pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until lightly browned.

Thankful Thursdays

2012-01-20T07:18:00.000-08:00

This little blogging hobby that I started has really evolved into something wonderful. I started following blogs mostly to get good housekeeping and recipe ideas. But, boy did I find a whole new world of wonderful people! Sometimes I feel like I'm the odd person in my world. I think you could suffice it to say that most of the people I know don't cook from scratch. They don't make stuff! I'm sure even my own children think I'm a little bit "out there" for making some of the homemade stuff I make (like homemade sandwich bread, chocolate syrup, chocolate pudding, homemade pancakes, homemade cornbread, and even homemade glass cleaner). Like I say, I like doing things "At Home - My Way!" But, the best thing about blogging so far has been that I have "met" some wonderful folks. Folks just like me! I love that I can read about someone who made a beautiful scratch birthday cake or even made homemade chocolate chips. I love that stuff! I was always the little kid trying to make sandals out of a paper bag and some yarn. Ha-ha. But now, there's Pinterest! Woah Nellie. Hold me back LOL! Apparently there's lots of people just like ME!

One of those wonderful people, Veronica, asked me to write a guest post on her blog, Veronica's Cornucopia. Its a Thankful Thursday post. I very much enjoyed writing this post. My mom doesn't "do" computers. So, I even printed this one out for her. Sometimes you write something that really nails the way you feel. And this one did!

Veronica's blog is wonderful. The girl can flat out bake some serious cakes! Plus she has all kinds of other recipes and they all look really, really yummy! Her pictures are beautiful and I love to read everything she writes. She's funny, warm, and speaks from the heart.

Join me on Veronica's Cornucopia here! I know you will be as happy as I was to discover and explore her delightful blog.

Gina

Tator Tot Casserole

2012-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

I realize this picture is sideways - can't seem to get it rotated! Shucks!

I'm sure everyone and their brother (well... maybe their sister) have made this recipe. Everyone but me, I guess. I had heard of it but really hadn't even ever eaten it before. Crazy!

My pickier daughter came home from her new corporate job and told me ALL ABOUT this delicious dish she had eaten at a carry-in lunch. As she was describing it to me, I said "Rebecca! That's just tator tot casserole. Like the Duggars make." The dish Rebecca had at work was everything this dish is except it had mashed potatoes and cheese on top instead of tator tots and cheese. She thought it was the best thing she'd eaten lately so I had to try it at home.

I don't usually use a lot of convenience foods (canned soup), but cooking at home always trumps eating out - even if it does include a can of soup and frozen tator tots.

Keeping up with my pantry cooking, I had everything I needed to make this dish. Its really great. I can't believe I had never made it. It was also delicious leftover. I scraped the pan clean.

This is how I make Tator Tot Casserole AT HOME MY WAY:

Tator Tot Casserole

1 pound hamburger (I'm cheap, I use the little tubes from Aldi)
1 can cream of mushroom soup + ½ of the soup can of milk
Vegetables, optional (drained peas, corn, green beans, mixed vegetables)
Tator Tots (probably not the entire bag) (or mashed potatoes would work also)
Grated cheddar cheese

Brown hamburger, drain. Add cream of mushroom soup plus ½ the can of milk. Stir well.
Add any vegetables and stir. Or for picky eaters like I have, leave the vegetables out. Dump in a casserole dish (sprayed with cooking spray). Top with tator tots (or regular/instant mashed potatoes). Bake @ 350̊ for 20-30 minutes or until tator tots are browning. Top with cheese. Place back in the oven until the cheese melts.

Dig in!

Pinto Bean Pizza (Mexican Pizza)

2012-01-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

Last night was bowling night at my house. Remember when that meant Girls Night? When we used to make fun things like Homemade Stirfry or Kinda Empanadas? Well, since the girls have left the nest, I was home alone for bowling night. But, I had a plan! I wanted to get some laundry done, build a fire in the woodstove and kick back with a little TV. But, what to have for supper? For one person? Hmmmm... Since I've been really trying to eat out of the pantry and not go to the store OR eat out, I knew I wanted to find something to make that I already had the ingredients for. And, since I was the only one eating it could be a recipe that I wanted to try but wasn't sure how safe it would be.

I found a great recipe over at Lynn's Kitchen Adventures. Lynn ALWAYS makes good stuff! I can always depend on her recipes to be sure fire!

A side note here, I have discovered that I tend to be a "recipe free" cook. I really have a hard time giving recipes away for the stuff I cook everyday. Another blogger mentioned that and I had an "a-ha moment!" That's me! No wonder my recipes seem rambling. Usually I'm just telling you how I do it.

But, I'll give you Lynn's actual recipe and also how I tweaked it for a small pizza with what I had in my pantry and my preferences.

Here's Lynn's recipe:

Black Bean Pizza (Lynn's Kitchen Adventures)

pizza crust, unbaked
1 can green chilies
2 cups black beans
1 14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes, partially drained (drain off 1/2 juice)
black olives
1 Tablespoon taco seasoning
2-3 cups mexican cheese, cheddar, or a mix of cheddar and jack (whatever you like.

Mix taco seasoning and tomatoes. Spread on the crust. Sprinkle with green chilies, black beans, olives, and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes or until done.

Now, of course, I had to change it. Here's what I used.

pizza crust, unbaked (this recipe is what I used - I had this dough in the fridge).
1/4 cup salsa (instead of the green chilies because I didn't have green chilies)
2 cups pinto beans (I prefer pintos to black beans and keep small servings of homemade cooked dried pinto beans in my freezer in small containers) (I just scooped some up with a slotted spoon and spread them on.)
1 teaspoon taco seasoning (I thought 1 Tablespoon would be too much / a little chili powder would also work here)
1 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese (since I was making a SMALL pizza)

I pulled off a hunk of my dough, sprayed my cookie sheet with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal. I rolled / pressed my crust to a decent shape. Then, I mixed the tomatoes and taco seasoning in a little bowl, & spread that on the unbaked crust. (I had tomatoes leftover since I was only making a small pizza. I'm saving those for using in some chili.) I topped with a few spoons of salsa. Then the pinto beans and then sprinkled with cheese.

Baked and then PIGGED OUT! I served this with some leftover green lettuce salad I had in my fridge along with some Hidden Valley Ranch (the mix, mixed with sour cream/buttermilk (I used lemon juice / milk there). I know I should make homemade ranch dressing from scratch but I just haven't gotten those spices yet.

This is a terrific recipe! If you had some leftover taco meat to spread on first it would be also great, but even without any meat, I really loved it. Very satisfying and great for lunch as leftovers! I believe this was a super FRUGAL meal. I figure the crust cost me about $.25 (the whole batch only costs me about $.70), used less than one-half of the can of tomatoes, so say $.50 even on the high side. The beans I had in the freezer and were made from dry beans, probably only $.25 and used 1/4 of a small block of cheddar cheese - $.25 which I grated for my pizza. I figure this meal only cost me about $1.25. We canned the salsa from our garden. I actually only ate 1/2 of my pizza and took the leftovers for lunch at work. What a miser I'm becoming LOL!

I won! "Don't Throw It, Grow It"

2012-01-11T06:47:00.000-08:00

I won! I won!

I never win anything! But, I have to say, I never play games much either. Probably that is why I never win anything, BUT.... I WON SOMETHING! One of my favorite blogs "Little Homestead in the City" (actually the Freedom Gardens blog by the Dervaes family in Pasadena, California) had a giveway. I was actually interested enough in the prize for this giveaway that I was going to buy the little book if I didn't win it, but now I don't have to do that because I WON and I cannot believe it really!

This is the book:

Its a great book about planting roots, spices (seeds), tubers, that you have in your kitchen. You know, FREE seeds! My mom has always planted sweet potatoes in glasses of water with toothpicks (we all did that, right?), avocado seeds, the tops of pineapples, etc. and my husband's grandma actually planted a peach tree with a seed (WOW, did she have the touch or what!). This book really goes into depth about all the different kinds of things you can plant, from beans to mustard seeds, with descriptions of what the flowers might look like and how easy/hard they are to have success with. The author says that most things will always produce a beautiful house plant even if your climate won't let you plant outside. This stuff is right up my alley!

I'm so anxious to get started planting and growing. January in Missouri can be a little or a LOT depressing and a little growth in some area other than my waist or my rear end might be a good thing LOL.

Thank you Dervaes family for this great prize! I love it and promise to really use it and grow good stuff with it. I also hope to share this with some of my teacher friends who can include this information in their classrooms. What a valuable little book! Kids are going to love this stuff! THANKS AGAIN!

Chicken & Dumplings (as good as from Cracker Barrell)

2012-01-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

As strange as it may seem, one of the first comfort meals I learned to cook was Homemade Chicken & Dumplings. (Although this is not how my mom makes chicken & dumplings. Hers are dropped and are fluffy like a biscuit.) As a young married couple we spent lots of time with another young couple. We laughed, cruised many a country road, and had little structure to our lives (those were the days LOL). A few times we ate dinner with them and one of my friend's specialties was this recipe for Chicken & Dumplings. My very picky husband must have felt pressure to be nice and taste her dish (he would never have tasted it for me), but he instantly fell in love this creamy comfort dish. Since learning to make this I have enjoyed many a plate of chicken & dumplings at Cracker Barrel restaurant knowing the entire time that mine is every bit as good as what you get in this restaurant.

For years I have cooked chicken breasts (bone-in and with skin) (which develops a richer broth for my chicken & dumplings than just using boneless skinless chicken), but I have since discovered a very frugal way to make this dish. A few weeks ago I cooked a whole chicken in my crockpot. We ate dinner with it and then deboned the rest of the meat. We placed the meat in a freezer container and the bones, skin and remaining bits of meat in a separate freezer container (for making broth at a later date). I've been trying to stay with a meal plan and cook rather than eat out, and the other morning I quickly put the bones, skin, bits of meat portion in my crockpot and placed about 4 cups of water in the crockpot. I turned it on low and it cooked all day (probably 8-10 hours). I put the container that had the meat we had deboned in the fridge to thaw. When we got home from work, I strained the broth in the crockpot through a small strainer into a large pot, added in the meat I had, and mixed up a batch of dumplings. (My crockpot doesn't develop a full rolling boil which is needed in order to cook the dumplings.)

This was truly a feast! Man, it was delicious! And FOR THE RECORD, we loved it even better warmed up the next day.

Here's how I made Homemade Chicken & Dumplings AT HOME MY WAY:

Homemade Chicken & Dumplings

Large pot of meat / chicken broth (as above instructions or however you choose)

Then mix up the dumplings:

2 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 rounded Tablespoon shortening or 1 1/2 Tablespoon Margarine/butter
2/3 plus 2 Tablespoons milk

Instructions:

Mix the dry ingredients. Cut in the shortening/margarine/butter until crumbled very small. Stir in the milk. Using floured hands, form into a ball.

Divide the dough in half. On a floured surface, roll out the 1/2 section of dough using a floured rolling pin. Roll to about 1/4" like a thick pie crust. Cut in squares (I use a pizza cutter). (This recipe would not be good for dropping - it needs to be rolled and cut.)

Bring the broth/chicken in the pot to a rolling boil. Drop the dumplings in the boiling broth. Stir lightly.

Roll the remaining half the same way and add to the pot.

Thicken by mixing 1/2 cup COLD water with 2 Tablespoons flour, stirred until smooth. Add that mixture to the pot. You may have to do this again to thicken the broth to your liking since your pot of broth may be a different amount than mine.

HINT: My family likes the illusion of buttery chicken and dumplings. I add 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring to the thickened mixture and stir to give it a hint of a buttery look without adding extra butter. But that is entirely optional.

HINT #2: If you were really being prepared, you could make the dumplings ahead, freeze them uncooked on a cookie sheet (flash freeze) and store in gallon bags for dropping in. I have done this and it works great.

HINT #3: This recipe (for the dumplings) also works great for using in beef broth with beef / roast, etc. I usually cut the dumplings smaller for beef broth but that's just because that's how we're use to seeing it on the plate.

Remember not to stir a whole lot. You don't want to destroy the dumplings as they cook.

I serve this with my favorite (breaded stewed tomatoes) (recipe coming soon) and easy cornbread. In the picture, I took day old cornbread, sliced them, buttered them and browned them in the broiler. That freshened them right up and they were mighty tasty!

Rolled and cut a one-half section of the dough.

Meat and broth cooking.

See how they puff up when cooking?\

This post linked up here:

Homemade Puff Pastry

2012-01-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

Over New Year's weekend I did lots of cooking. In addition to Homemade Lambert's Throwed Rolls, I tried a recipe for Homemade Puff Pastry. I love anything made with puff pastry from brie with raspberry sauce to guava turnovers (a Florida favorite) but puff pastry can be a little hard to come by in our small town. I ran across this recipe on the King Arthur Flour blog (which always has wonderful recipes). It worked like a charm. I have to confess that it was a little "buttery" for my tastes. I may try to trade out some of the butter for shortening next time, but it worked beautifully and I will definitely be making this again. I had some guava paste in the fridge (which my mom brings back from Florida) and also some frozen blackberries and blueberries, so I tucked some of each into these turnovers and they were really something special!

Here's how I made Homemade Puff Pastry AT HOME MY WAY:

Homemade Puff Pastry

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold butter, cut into pats
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:

1. Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

2. Add the pats of butter (slices), working it in with fingers to form a coarse/crumbly mixture. Leave most of the butter in large pea-sized pieces.

3. Stir in the sour cream (the dough will be crumbly). Turn onto a lightly floured surface and work to form a blob.

4. Pat the dough into a rough log and roll into a 8 x 10 rectangle.

5. Dust both sides with flour and starting with a shorter end, fold like a business letter (in thirds).

6. Flip the dough over. Turn 90 degrees. Roll into an 8 x 10 rectangle. Fold into thirds again.

7. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes.

8. I divided mine in half. Rolled like pie crust, but a rectangle. Cut into squares and filled with guava paste or berries. Sealed. Brushed with water, sprinkled with sugar, and baked.

9. The directions say to freeze dough for up to two months. Thaw in the fridge.

** I didn't read my instructions completely. I only formed into a blob, wrapped in plastic, and refrigerated for a couple of hours. After a couple of hours, rolled and formed the turnovers. I'm sure if I had double rolled/folded the dough, I would have had more layers. Next time! There's always next time! They were completely delicious anyway!

Here are some more pictures (as pitiful as they are).

Making Throwed Rolls (Lambert's) At Home My Way

2012-01-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed a much appreciated few days off for New Years. Let's suffice it to say that I like to cook A LOT and boy did I ever cook a bunch. I needed to come back to work to stay away from the kitchen LOL. I'll blog the recipes for some of the other recipes I tried over the next couple of days. But, the first is a recipe I had in my "to make" file for hot rolls. They are supposed to taste like Lambert's famous Throwed Rolls. Well... I haven't ever been to that restaurant. I live in Missouri, however I have never been to Sikeston. But, they have rave reviews and I figured they had to be yummy!

They were light, fluffy, yeasty, and a tad sweet. Really GOOD! We served them along with BBQ'ed pork chops since we were enjoying super nice weather for New Year's Day. I had mine with some homemade Baked Apple Butter (recipe to come). Mmmm - it was a feast! I especially loved the pull-apart way the rolls are formed in the muffin tins. They just come apart right where the good stuff needs to go!

Here's how I made "Throwed Rolls (Lambert's)" At Home My Way:

Throwed Rolls (Lambert's)

Yield:

12 large dinner rolls

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 pkg.) active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 cup warm milk (110-115 degrees F)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:

(See additional notes for bread machine directions. That's how I made my dough.)

In a small bowl, combine the teaspoon of sugar and the yeast with the warm water and allow to foam (5-10 minutes). In a large mixing bowl, mix the warm milk, melted butter, sugar, egg and salt. Add the yeast mixture and stir. Stir in 3 cups of flour. Stir or knead in another cup of flour (or more, if needed) and knead for 5-10 minutes to make a smooth, elastic dough.Scrape the large mixing bowl clean (or as clean as possible) and place dough in the bowl. Grease the top of the dough with butter or oil and cover with a clean cloth. Place in a warm location (I turn the oven on for 1-2 minutes, then turn OFF and place covered bowl in the warm oven to rise) and let rise until doubled in size, about 60-90 minutes.

Liberally butter a 12-cup muffin pan. With buttery hands, deflate the dough and divide into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball. Place two balls in each muffin cup. Gently grease the tops and cover with a clean towel.

Let rolls rise in a warm place until nearly doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake rolls for 20-25 minutes, until tops are browned and rolls are done. (Check rolls after 15 minutes, and cover loosely with foil to prevent excess browning, if needed.)

Brush with melted butter hot out of the oven.

I made my dough in the bread machine like this:

I mixed the yeast + 1/4 cup warm water. I added the sugar, then warm milk, lightly beaten egg. Blended well. Added to my bread pan. Then topped with the flour and salt. When the dough setting was finished, I proceded with forming my rolls in the muffin pan.

I realize my pictures are terrible. My skill is in the kitchen, NOT behind the lense LOL.

I placed them for safe keeping (from nibblers) in the microwave before supper ;)

My attempt at posing food is really pitiful..

Hawaiian Chicken

2011-12-30T07:11:00.000-08:00

I'm sure I have told you many times that my husband is a seriously picky eater. I know you are NOT going to believe this, but this is one of his favorite meals! I do not remember how I got him to try it. But, we love it. I realize there are no VEGETABLES on this plate. This is my husband's ideal - white plate food (carbs). (My mother would croak. She liked a colorful plate of food. LOL.) But, I didn't have any broccoli, peppers, etc. and definitely I wasn't going to the store when I got home. Also, we had leftover corn in the fridge from Christmas dinner so that was a re-heat.

The Hawaiian Chicken is a recipe I got from my sister-in-law. Its really yummy! This is how I do Hawaiian Chicken AT HOME MY WAY:

Hawaiian Chicken

Ingredients You Need to Make This:

(6-8) Boneless, Skinless Breast Chicken Tenders (or breasts)
1 to 1 1/2 cup (app) Pancake mix, flour, biscuit mix (I had some waffle mix I was needing to get rid of so I used that)
2-3 T. Oil (just a little to keep the meat from sticking in the skillet)
3 cans or 3 cups Pineapple Juice (I keep juice from cans of pineapple in my freezer and thaw, or buy the small cans)
9 T. Teriyaki sauce or Soy Sauce (we like Teriyaki the best) (My guide is 3 T per can/ 1 cup juice)
9 T. Honey (I love it when I have some from the girls in the hives outside, but we got no honey from them this year... sad) (again, my guide is 3 Tablespoons per can / 1 cup of pineapple juice)

Instructions

Put about 1 cup of pancake mix/biscuick/waffle mix/flour on a plate. Dredge the chicken in it, making sure all sides are coated.

Put about 3 Tablespoons oil (brush around to coat) in a skillet. Bring to medium heat. Add coated chicken pieces. Brown on both sides (chicken does not need to cook all the way - just brown both sides of the chicken).

In a separate bowl (small/med) combine:

Pineapple juice, Honey, and Teriyaki Sauce. To each can or one cup of pineapple juice I add 3 Tablespoons honey (spray spoon with cooking spray for easy release) plus 3 Tablespoons teriyaki / soy sauce. Stir well to blend the honey completely (I heat my honey a little in the microwave to make it thinner). Pour over the browned pieces of chicken in the skillet. We like lots of sauce so I used 3 little cans (6 oz?) of pineapple juice, plus 9 Tablespoons honey and 9 Tablespoons Teriyaki (crazy... I know, that's just the way I do it).

Cook 20-30 minutes, occasionally turning the chicken pieces until the sauce is thick and rich.

Serve with cooked rice and vegetables (normally peppers, broccoli & carrots) / egg rolls.

I made my favorite baked egg rolls. I used a very easy method this time. Pictures of cooking the Hawaiian Chicken and of making the Egg Rolls below:

Ingredients for making Hawaiian Chicken

Browning the chicken in a little bit of oil.

Mixing the pineapple juice/teriyaki/honey,

The juice cooking looks thin, but gets thick and rich!

I serve with rice. Hubby likes EVERYTHING with mashed potatoes (eek!).

Below is how I made the easy Baked Egg Rolls:

Easy Baked Egg Rolls

Cabbage
Onion or Green Onion
Soy Sauce or Teriyaki Sauce
Stir Fry Sauce (optional)

I thinly sliced and chopped one-half head of green cabbage.

I chopped one green onion and grated about 3 carrots.

I added this to a skillet with 1 teaspoon soy sauce plus 1 teaspoon stir fry sauce.

As this was cooking, it got very dry on the bottom so I added about 1/8 cup of water to deglaze the pan before spooning into the eggroll wrappers.

Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Lay an eggroll wrapper on the cookie sheet. Spoon on some filling. With the wrapper shaped like a diamond fold over one corner. Fold in the two sides and roll like for a burrito. Place the egg roll on the cookie sheet seam side down. Do the remaining egg rolls the same way.

Spray them with cooking spray.

Bake in preheated 375 oven until golden brown (app. 15 minutes).

These keep well in the freezer for reheating. They won't be crunchy but I love them for lunch or breakfast on the go.

Here they are:

Countdown - Main Dish Favorites

2011-12-29T10:05:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite blogs (Finding Joy in My Kitchen) is having a Countdown to 2012 - Main Dish Favorites. I'm just catching the tail end of this countdown but I do have a few main dish favorites for 2011.

I made a terrific discovery in 2011. I discovered that I can BAKE spaghetti sauce. Yep! It can be done. It bakes in the oven like roast & potatoes. Turns out thick and rich, and the best part? No toiling at the stove.

#1 Baked Spaghetti & Meatballs

#2 Nachos for a Crowd (recipe from Homemaking on the Homestead)

I tried a new recipe which would be a great addition to any potluck. To us, it is very similar to Nachos Bell Grande at Taco Bell. Very yummy! I use my own precooked pinto beans (frozen) but it could be made with canned refried beans or any canned bean you prefer.

#3 Best Homemade Pizza Crust Ever! Homemade Pizza Rocks!

I make my pizza crust using the 5 Minute a Day Bread recipe. I learned of this recipe from an article in Mother Earth News. But, the authors have several terrific books. I make everything from hot pockets to crusty bread, and even english muffins with this easy, simple recipe for dough that I can keep in the fridge up to two weeks! Supper is never far away with pizza dough in the fridge.

I have made lots of other yummy meals in 2011. Actually, it was quite fun seeing them all. I made new and old recipes like:

Girls Night - Homemade Empanadas while enjoying the new season of American Idol!
Juicy Burgers - an old favorite from the early days of our marriage.
Baked Fried Chicken and Baked Fried Fish
3 Ingredient Chili

Many thanks to Finding Joy in My Kitchen for leading me in this journey! Definitely my cooking has improved! Lots of good meals were eaten at my house this year and I shall keep on cookin'!

Another Way to Make Baked "Fried" Fish

2011-12-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

I tried a new way to make Baked "Fried" Fish last night and it turned out REALLY, REALLY good! I told my husband, "I don't know why we don't have this more often, because its just delicious!" In this post, I posted how to make Baked "Fried" Fish by baking fish with fish coating (a packet of "Fish Fry") on it, which turns out really good also, ANDOn this post, I posted how to make Baked "Fried" Chicken.Well, last night my husband had the BRILLIANT idea to bake the fish using the same coating/method that I had used on the chicken. The results were "fabulous" (as spoken by Fabio LOL).

I'm not going to repost the entire recipe. Just use the Baked "Fried" Chicken Recipe BUT replace the chicken with thawed tilapia filets (I get the bag of frozen filets from Aldi) .

One note: you have to be very careful when flipping the fish because fish is so flaky. I used a big flat spatula to do this.

To round out our supper, we had baked french fries, pinto beans (I cook a big batch of beans and then freeze in smaller batches so I just had to warm those up), also our favorite Homemade Sweetened Cornbread. I would have loved to have made THIS SUPER EASY COLE SLAW but didn't have any cabbage and certainly didn't want to make a stop by the store on my way home.

I love this recipe for three reasons:

1. ITS SUPER YUMMY;
2. BIG DADDY LIKES IT AS MUCH AS I DO; and
3. I DIDN'T HAVE TO BUY A SPECIAL "MIX" FOR MAKING BAKED FISH (saving moolah!)

Try it! You will be as thrilled as we were with your supper!

Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

2011-12-15T11:17:00.000-08:00

Our younger daughter is coming home from college for Christmas tomorrow and last night I was feeling particularly guilty that I don't have anything yummy waiting for her so while I was cooking supper, I whipped up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies.

I'm REALLY picky about chocolate chip cookies. I love the butter flavor by using real butter BUT I prefer thick and chewy cookies and not thin crispy ones. I haven't figured out how to get thick/chewy with the real thing. I don't usually buy Crisco but for chocolate chip cookies, I just haven't found another recipe I like as well. This recipe came from the little cardboard labels in the butter flavor Crisco sticks AND they don't print this recipe anymore in the packags.

I love to smash tiny M&M's on top of these cookies for a "special" look but last night I just used Aldi chocolate chips, which was actually perfect because they are a cross between minis and regulars and I loved that about them.

OK, confession: Last night I only had a portion of the shortening I needed for these cookies so I added in some real butter to fill up the gap. The first batch was FLAT, THIN, and ALL WRONG (but I still ate some LOL)! So, in the rest of the batter (yes, all mixed with the chocolate chips and everything, I dumped about 1/8 cup of flour and stirred really well). The result wasn't as perfect as this recipe usually is, but it helped the thin/flat factor and still left me with a chewy (not cakey) cookie. Good enough! I used dark brown sugar in my cookies last night because that's what I had and they turned out a deep rich color.

I think my daughter will be thrilled to see them when she walks in the door (if there's any left) ;)

Here's how I make my favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies AT HOME MYWAY:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup Butter Flavor Crisco (plain works fine too) (= to 3/4 stick if using the Crisco sticks)
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup AP flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional) (if nuts are omitted, add 1/2 cup additional chocolate chips)

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. Combine Crisco, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat until well combined. Beat egg in.
3. Add salt, baking soda. Stir well. Add flour. Stir well.
4. Drop by rounded scoops onto sprayed cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees (fully preheated) 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes and remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Baked "Fried" Chicken

2011-12-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

I posted that last Sunday I made baked "fried" chicken strips and wanted to make a quick post about how I did this. It is super easy and the only downside would be the wait time (for the chicken to bake). But, definitely it beats slaving over a skillet of hot grease, right?

This chicken is terrific! My husband thought it was the best "fried" chicken I had ever made. It will be crispy and the meat will be juicy! Amazing that it works so well!

You could use chicken pieces (with the bone) (I remove the skin from mine) or boneless skinless breasts/tenders, whichever you prefer.

Here's how I made Baked "Fried" Chicken AT HOME MY WAY:

Baked "Fried" Chicken

6-8 Boneless Skinless Breast Tenders or small-ish pieces of chicken (fully thawed)

1 1/2 cup AP flour

1 teaspoon season salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika (these seasonings are entirely optional, just season as you like.)

1/2 to 1 stick margarine (I only used 1/2 stick but more chicken obviously would require more.) (Remember 1/2 stick is only 1/4 cup which is considerably less than the large VAT OF FAT that you usually fry chicken in.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour and seasonings in a shallow wide bowl or pie plate. Dredge the moist but drained completely thawed chicken in the flour and lay each piece not touching on a sprayed cookie sheet. (I use tongs and a fork to bury each piece of chicken and flip it to cover both sides so that each piece is thickly coated with the flour mixture... and I don't like to touch the chicken LOL.) Melt the margarine and pour in a stream over the chicken pieces (down the length of the strip). Use it all. If there are "margarine puddles" on the chicken, feel free to sprinkle a little flour over the chicken (the margarine will absorb it). Place in preheated 350 degree oven and bake 15-20 minutes (depending on whether you used bone in or boneless chicken). The bottom of the chicken should be browning (the side laying on the cookie sheet.) If it is, gently, using a fork to scoop the chicken (including the crispy goodness underneath to keep it from sticking to the pan) and turn the chicken. Bake another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

ITS READY! Now, gobble it down and remind yourself that you will never fry chicken over a spattering skillet again!

This would also be a great solution for making lots of "fried" chicken for big families or gatherings. You could easily have two cookie sheets of chicken in the oven instead of frying several batches of chicken. Plus, its all ready and hot at the same time - when you take it out of the oven!

Busy Day Cake (Snack Size Yellow Cake)

2011-12-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

(my camera has died - maybe Santa will bring me one - HINT)

Last night I made a terrific supper. We've been eating lots of leftovers and trying to eat up what's in our freezer but we wanted some real comfort food for our Sunday Supper so I kind of went "all out." I made baked "fried" chicken strips (this is our favorite way to make fried chicken - will post this soon), mashed potatoes, homemade sweet cornbread, and veges. I had some sweetened strawberries from my friend's garden in my freezer so I also made a little cake (the Busy Day Cake) to go with the berries.

At first I was going to make garlic cheddar biscuits and sugar cookies instead of cornbread and the cake. But, after seeing that my flour supply had taken a serious hit when I made Homemade Sandwich Bread , I figured I could instead make the cornbread (it uses only 1 cup of flour) and this terrific Busy Day Cake recipe that my mom used to make for us all the time. This cake recipe only uses 1 1/3 cup of flour! That method pretty much encompasses my AT HOME MY WAY style in the kitchen! Not having enough of something usually never stops me from cooking (oh NO!) I just find something else to make with what I have. This recipe has a topping that is very delicious. I just didn't need it for strawberry short cake so I left it off.

Here's how I made Busy Day Cake AT HOME MY WAY with the optional broiled coconut topping.

BUSY DAY CAKE

1 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup butter or margarine (soft)
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Topping (optional) Broiled Coconut Topping (I made it without a topping since we were having strawberry shortcake.)

Instructions: Spray an 8 x 8 or round cake pan (or grease). In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, sugar. Add milk, butter, egg and vanilla. Beat on low speed until combined (app 1 minute) (I just beat it with a spoon til smooth about 1 minute). Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated 350 oven for 25-30 minutes.

Optional: BROILED COCONUT TOPPING: Blend 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 2 Tablespoons softened butter/margarine. Stir in 1 Tablespoon milk. Stir in ½ cup flaked coconut and 1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional). Place this topping over warm cake. Broil about 3-4 minutes or until golden.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

2011-12-06T07:40:00.001-08:00

Surely there is something wrong with a person who gets so EXCITED over a loaf of bread! Ha-ha. .... I made this loaf of sweet bread over the weekend. It was beautiful AND delicious! I will have to take some pics of the process, but for now here is the recipe and some written instructions for how I made Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread AT HOME MY WAY.

I used my recipe for Schoolhouse rolls found here as the "basis" for my recipe. The only addition in the dough itself was a beaten egg. Most of my favorite recipes are used as a basis for something and then I create a variation to make something else. That's what I did with this bread. Ok, here's how I did it:

In a 2-cup measuring cup (warmed with hot/warm water first), mix (hint: hot but no hurt):

1 1/3 cup very warm water
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup white sugar

Mix well. Set a timer for 10 minutes for this mixture to "proof".
Add:

1/4 cup oil to the measuring cup of this "proofed" mixture. Then, after proofed, add:
1 beaten egg to this mixture (scramble it first in a small dish, then pour in to the yeast mixture). Give it a gently stir to incorporate the egg in the yeast/water/sugar/oil mixture.

In a large bowl, measure:

4 cups flour (more flour may need to be added. See instructions below in bold.)
1 teaspoon salt

Stir with wooden spoon to mix well.

Dump the liquids (proofed yeast/water/sugar/oil & egg) on top of the flour/salt in the bowl. Stir well with the wooden spoon. When its too stiff to stir, start kneading in the bowl, twisting and pushing until the dough forms a ball. Since you added an egg to this mixture, you might need to knead in an additional 1/2 to 1 cup flour to get this kneadable.

Set a timer and knead it for 5 minutes.

(This is a ONE RISE RECIPE. I do not raise this dough before forming the loaf, rolls, cinnamon rolls, etc. The only rise time is after the loaf is formed.)The dough will be smooth and "spankable".

Roll out on floured surface into a large rectangle. Spread with softened margarine/butter. (I used probably 1/2 stick).

Sprinkle with brown sugar, spread around. Sprinkle with cinnamon... just shake some on like you are salting something heavy.

Cut long strips in the dough about 5 inches wide. I used a pizza cutter. Then cut across to equal the depth of your loaf pan to make rectangles.

Spray loaf pan with cooking spray. Stack some rectangles and "file" the dough rectangles in the loafpan (like a drawer with files). I didn't use a small section of my rectangles because I was afraid my loaf would be too dense. You want them to stand up but not to be all squished together. They do need to rise so allow some room for that. I cut my extra squares even smaller and put them in a muffin tin for some monkey bread.

Spray the loaf of dough with cooking spray or cover with a warm, damp cloth. Place in oven with light on to rise for 1 hour (or in another warm place).

After it has risen at least one hour, PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30-32 minutes or until brown.

Rest only a couple of minutes after it comes out because the carmelized sugar will keep the loaf in the pan. Gently remove from pan (loosen with a knife along the edges). After it is out, cool on a rack using the pan to wedge the layers together until they cool (they tend to fall out when hot). Two mugs sitting at both ends or something like that will also work.

Am I making any sense here? Anyway, this loaf tastes like monkey bread and it was a huge success. I'm going to give a few loaves as gifts this Christmas. It was terrific leftover and so PRETTY.

Meatloaf Seasoned Round Steak

2011-12-02T13:16:00.001-08:00

Our Thanksgiving leftovers were divine, but I craved something a little different and yet still was in the mood for comfort food last weekend. I ran across a terrific site called "Deep South Dish." Every single one of her recipes looks like something I want on my dinner table! When I copied this recipe down, I thought it would taste like BBQ round steak. She has it named "Barbeque Round Steak", but really, this dish tasted like round steak turned into meatloaf (if you can imagine that). This was a wonderful solution for me because my husband has never tried meatloaf (imagine that?) and never will. He claims he doesn't want stuff all mixed together and that he likes his meat to taste like meat. He's a little finicky to say the least. So, I made this recipe (a version of it anyway) and told him (because I believed it to be so) that it was like homemade BBQ sauce on round steak. It didn't taste like BBQ to me. But it did taste like delicious meatloaf - just not with hamburger, bread crumbs, egg, etc. My husband loved this dish and he said he will look forward to eating this again! I was thrilled because I love me some meatloaf and this will fit the bill as far as I'm concerned!

This is how I made Meatloaf Seasoned Round Steak AT HOME MY WAY:

MEATLOAF SEASONED ROUND STEAK

2-3 pounds Bottom Round Steak
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon season salt (like Lowrey's)
2 Tablespoons bacon fat
1 Tablespoon onion powder
2/3 cup Ketchup
1 cup Water
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons Worchestershire
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1/2 Tablespoon yellow Prepared Mustard
Splash Hot Sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put bacon grease in skillet to heat. Combine flour & season salt. Dredge meat in flour mixture. Fry on each side until brown (not cooked all the way, you will be baking the meat in the oven). Combine remaining ingredients in bowl. Place meat in baking dish, cover with sauce mixture. Bake 1 1/2 hour covered. Check periodically to see if it is "cooking out". If so, just pour in a little (like 1/2 cup) water.

We ate this with baked potatoes and a vege. It was a feast! I will be making this again FOR SURE!

Juicy Burgers

2011-11-30T07:15:00.001-08:00

My husband and I got married pretty young compared to today's standards. I was 18 and he was 20. We had never lived away from our parents and moving "out" was a terrific experience. We cooked all kinds of things (BBQ for breakfast???) and had a ball making up on our own "rules" like eating in the living room ha-ha. After 26 years of ups and downs, (more ups thankfully LOL), we are back to just the two of us... Our older daughter graduated from college, officially "moved out" and got a terrific job this summer. Our younger daughter is a couple of hours away at college so for the most part, we're back to being "home alone".

The juicy burgers supper I made last night was one of the first things I learned to cook. My mother IS a terrific cook but she wasn't much into sharing her kitchen with a teenager, so I learned this "method" from a co-worker, who was just a couple of years older than me but who had already mastered some terrific cooking skills! Basically you season cooked hamburger like you would baked beans.

Last night as my husband and I tried to decide (at 6PM) WHAT ON EARTH to have for supper, I remembered one of our favorite "newly wed" suppers, JUICY BURGERS! It was cold outside last night and we sat in front of the television with TV trays just like our "good old days" (when we didn't own a table LOL).

Here's how I make Juicy Burgers AT HOME MY WAY:

Juicy Burgers

1 1/2 pound ground beef
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce (not spaghetti sauce)
1/4 cup brown sugar (I don't pack mine)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
Salt/Pepper as you like

Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Drain - if you have any fat in there. Add remaining ingredients and stir, simmer about 15-20 minutes until thick and bubbly. Serve on buns, sandwich bread, or whatever you like. Toast the buns for an extra treat.

*I scoop leftovers on flour tortillas, individually wrap, and place in the freezer in a gallon ziploc bag for terrific lunches on the go.

Birthday Shrimp Boil and Fish Fry

2011-11-21T08:18:00.001-08:00

This weekend we celebrated my Mom's birthday. We decided to have a shrimp boil and fish fry since we would be eating lots of comfort foods this week for Thanksgiving. It was so yummy! We used bags of large frozen uncooked shrimp that we got from Walmart (since we live in the midwest and fresh isn't an option for us), cooked in a big pot on my stove in "shrimp boil" seasonings with new potatoes and little corn cobs.

We started the water with the spices and the potatoes until they boiled (this took MUCH LONGER than we thought it would). Once it started to boil, we let the potatoes boil about 10 minutes, then added the corn (we had to use frozen so I had heated them in the microwave to take the chill off since we were about the starve to death.. LOL.) We let the corn boil for about 3 minutes, then added the shrimp, which need to boil only a minute or two until it was pink and ready to serve!

My sister-in-law even made her own cocktail sauce using ketchup and horseradish (I don't have the recipe for that YET, but I'm getting hold of that one!) We also fried crappie that my dad caught this summer as well as my kids' favorite crinkle cut french fries. We used the fish fryer outside for the grease and boiled the shrimp, etc. in the house. I also served:

Pasta Salad, which is so DELICIOUS! Its sweet and the cucumbers and tomatoes, onions, and peppers, just make it a real treat. The recipe is HERE:

Easy Cole Slaw, and every time I make this I swear I will make it more often. This is super easy, uses few ingredients and turns out perfect. I used one bag of cole slaw mix with about 1/2 onion chopped small. I made the dressing recipe found HERE: The secret is to dump on your dressing, stir well, and then let it "mesh" in the fridge for a few hours so that it gets all moist and juicy. It is even good the next day... I'm having a fish taco for lunch today with a leftover piece of crunchy crappie and some of the slaw.
The grand finale for the birthday dinner was the BIRTHDAY CAKE that my sister-in-law made for my Mom. My sister-in-law has been taking cake decorating classes and I'm convinced she must be the star student! This cake was a scratch cake and it had the perfect crumb, texture, and taste! It was stellar! I don't know who was more excited about the cake, my Mom (the birthday girl) or me, because I just love birthday cake! Here's a picture of the beautiful cake:

No Pecans for Pie? Use Oatmeal!

2011-11-14T07:56:00.000-08:00

I don't know about your area, but here in Mid Missouri, there are no nuts on the trees. I don't know what the poor squirrels are going to do! We live in the midst of a bunch of hickory trees and usually our yard is loaded, and I mean LOADED with hickory nuts! We have to shovel them or else our ground will be a mass of crushed hickory nut shells (the remnants left from the squirrels). Also our area usually has lots of pecans! Missouri pecans are so wonderful! But this year, not a single nut! The trees are strangely bare of pecans.

What is a person to do when she loves pecan pie more than any pie on the earth? Why, there is a solution! Use oatmeal! This recipe produces a wonderful pie which is super similar to pecan pie. And just think, substituting oatmeal makes this ALMOST a healthy dessert (oh yea... except for all that sugar and eggs). OK, its a smidgen healthier! I'll take it any day over paying big bucks for pecans!

Here is how I do a mock pecan pie, an Oatmeal Pie, AT HOME MY WAY:

Oatmeal Pie

2 eggs

2/3 cup white corn syrup (Karo or generic is fine)

2/3 cup white sugar (granulated)

2/3 cup margarine (melted)

2/3 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 unbaked pie crust

In a bowl, slightly beat the eggs. Add the sugar, syrup and vanilla. Add the melted margarine. Blend very well. Add the oats. Mix well again. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

(Optional - you could add in some coconut and/or chocolate chips to make this pie over the top.) I also imagine you could use darker corn syrup for a darker more southern style pie.)

The reason I don't have a picture for this pie is that I made this pie over the weekend using an oil crust recipe. Something really flopped. I don't know if my measuring cup was wrong or I measured wrong (guessing the later) but the crust was too oily and it flopped BIG TIME. Never to waste a good pie filling, my mom and I scraped off the crust and ate two healthy helpings of the filling. It was divine and we both agreed we didn't miss the pecans a single bit!

Baked Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs

2011-10-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday, my college daughter was home and we wanted to do a little shopping. My husband was home piddling around in the yard. My daughter had requested meatball sandwiches for supper but we really wanted to go shopping at some great thrift stores and she was on the lookout for a warm coat at Bass Pro Shop. I didn't really want to eat out, so I came up with the BEST WAY for making spaghetti sauce (this time, with meatballs) without having to stand at the stove stirring and watching the pot simmer. When we got home, we had such a delicious supper waiting for us in the oven.

It occurred to me that when I cook a roast or other things in the oven, that the gravy will be "juice" when I first start baking it, but the finished product is always thick and rich but I never have to stir it or anything. So, I thought, why not BAKE my spaghetti sauce?

It was perfect. I will probably always cook it this way (when its not blasting hot in summer, that is). I think I will probably even cook my chili this way. I used one of those enamel pots with a lid (like Le Creuset, but mine is a generic one from Sam's), but if you don't have one of those, a casserole dish (covered) would work fine as well.

For our meatballs sandwiches, we toasted some hotdog buns, ladled on the meatballs and sauce, and topped with some grated mozerella! It was a feast!

This is how I made BAKED spaghetti sauce with meatballs AT HOME MY WAY!

First, I should say that I don't really have a recipe for meatballs. I just toss some stuff in there, make little balls, place them on a plate, and microwave them until they're cooked. Then I drop them (along with the cooked crumbled hamburger in my pot) for the sauce. (I prefer both meatballs AND meat in my sauce! LOL).

Baked Spaghetti Sauce (with or without Meatballs)

Meatballs:

1 pound uncooked Hamburger

1 egg (blended)

1/2 teaspoon salt & 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/4 cup (or less) parmesan cheese (the canned stuff)

3 Tablespoons milk

Mix all of the ingredients together. Form into little balls the size of ping pong balls. Place them on a micro-safe plate. Cover (I used a PAPER plate), and cook approximately 4-5 minutes or until the meatballs are done.

Recipe for the Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds hamburger (If I make meatballs, I use 1 pound for meatballs, and 1 pound for the sauce)

2 teaspoons onion powder or 1/2 fresh onion chopped

salt & pepper

Other spices you need: garlic powder, dried basil, bay leaves

tomato sauce (one 15-oz can)

tomato paste (two-6-oz cans)

sugar (just 1 Tablespoon)

Directions for the sauce: Brown the hamburger (& real onion if using) in a large skillet or pot, stirring often (until onion is clear) and drain (if using onion powder, add after draining).

Sprinkle the cooked meat with:

1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1 teaspoon of dried basil. Stir.

Then add to the cooked meat in the pot:

1- 15 oz can of tomato sauce + 1 can of water

2- 6oz cans of tomato paste + 3 cans of water for each can (=6 cans water)

On med-high, heat and stir so that the tomato paste blends with the water.

Add spices again: 1 teaspoon salt & 1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon basil

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 bay leaves (DO NOT EAT THESE - REMOVE BEFORE SERVING). Use large ones so you can find them when done.)

Drop in your meatballs (if you made some). Heat until this mixture dissolves well (the paste). Cover, and place in the oven, preheated, to 300 degrees for approximately 2 hours.

If not baking, just simmer this on the stove with a cracked lid for about one hour, stirring occasionally.

Wacky Cake - Pantry Cooking at its BEST!

2011-10-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday as I was reading over some of my favorite blogs I ran across a recipe for WACKY CAKE! Now, how can you read a name like "Wacky Cake" and not be intrigued?

One of the blogs I most like to read is Kim's Jabez Farm blog. I love to read the posts Kim writes about her farm and family. She lives in the Pacific Northwest (where I have never even visited), and is a homeschooling mama who has a wonderful menagerie of farm animals. I work in a law office all day, wishing I was home, and ONLY have one dog and some cats! Reading blogs is definitely a wonderful way to experience a different way of life and at times, it is a delightful reprieve from my sometimes dull existence!

I had heard about Wacky Cakes. My mom tells me she used to make them all the time, but I don't remember. Chocolate cake is CHOCOLATE CAKE when your mom bakes it for you, right? A win-win, whatever kind of recipe!

I believe the history is that this cake was popular during the depression when ingredients were hard to come by. I don't know about you, but it seems like we're sort of in a depression now and definitely sometimes ingredients are hard to come by - at least in my kitchen! I am always on the lookout for recipes that I can make when I am short on ingredients! Well, this recipe is a keeper FOR SURE! In fact, I liked it so well that it might just be my "go to" chocolate cake recipe - for cupcakes and any even layer cakes! It was light and moist. Just perfect really! Don't let the vinegar scare you off. I'm not a scientist. I have no idea really what vinegar does to this cake. There are no eggs, butter or milk. But whatever happens in there works because this is a perfect chocolate cake!

Here's how I made Kim's Wacky Cake AT HOME MY WAY.

(Of course, my camera was saying "lense error" and so I don't have a picture, but trust me when I say that this cake is really wonderful and looks dark and rich and, and, and.....!)

Wacky Cake

3 cups All Purpose flour

2 cups Sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons Baking soda

1/2 cup baking cocoa

1/2 cup oil

2 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 cups hot tap water

1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional) I did not have any so did not use

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease a 9 x 13 pan.

In a large bowl, mix together well the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa. Make 2 wells in the flour mixture. Pour the oil in one well and the vinegar in the other. Pour hot water over the entire mixture. Stir with a spoon until smooth. (This is a BEAUTIFUL batter!) Pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips (if using). Bake for 40 minutes or until springs back to the touch.

I just sprinkled mine with powdered sugar once completely cool and then ate a huge piece!

Baked Cheesy Fries

2011-10-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

My husband and I are recent "empty nesters" and have been enjoying a little bit of new found freedom the last couple of weeks. We haven't ever been big restaurant eaters but we have a new affinity for Outback Steakhouse. It seems like the other restaurants have raised their prices to the point that we can now eat at Outback as cheaply as we can eat at one of our local diners. If we each have the Outback Special for around $10, and drink the ice water, its a pretty cheap date night. A few times we have splurged and bought a half order of the Cheese Fries. They are divine! And OF COURSE, I had to figure a way to make these AT HOME MY WAY! And boy oh boy did I have success! These are really good. My older daughter wants me to make them over and over in the same week. She just can't get enough of them.

I bought a 20 pound bag of potatoes (well... I bought two actually) for $1.98 each so this date-night splurge was really cheap to make at home. We NEVER fry anything any more unless we have the fish frier set up outside. So, these potatoes aren't as bad for you as they look. They are baked in very little oil with however much cheese you are brave enough to sprinkle on. This is how I did it.

Baked Cheesy Fries (Preheat oven to 400 degrees)

6 Washed brown-skinned potatoes (however many you need for feeding your family) (leave the peeling on)

2 cups grated Cheddar cheese / sharp, mild, medium, or colby (really any kind of cheese would be fine)

Seasonings I used: Season salt (generic Lowrys), onion powder, pepper

3 T. Oil (olive, canola, or vegetable oil)

I used this awesome frenchfry cutter my husband got last Christmas (and we had never used) - it works magnificently. My Mom got it at Bass Pro. Its super worth it! We pushed the potatoes through the cutter with the peeling on. Super fast!

Place all the fries in a big bowl. Drizzle with the oil. Stir well to coat the fries in the oil.

Dump on lightly oiled or sprayed cookie sheet (actually I didn't remember to do this step and since my fries were lightly oiled, they didn't stick or anything). Try to get them in one layer with just a little crowding. If you have a bigger family, you may have to use two cookie sheets.

Sprinkle with the seasonings of your choice.

Bake uncovered in 400 degree oven until the fries are browning. I would guess 20-30 minutes. (I didn't remember to time them but you want them completely done before melting the cheese because that doesn't take but a minute).

Remove the pan from the oven and sprinkle with cheese. Return to the oven until the cheese melts (app. 1-2 minutes).

My daughter ate hers as "loaded" potatoes with a little sour cream. My husband and I just ate ours as cheesy fries! They would probably be great with a little leftover chili and cheese as well for a complete pig out dish!

We bought some inexpensive steaks and all three of us ate for less than $10.00. It was fun and delicious and we decided we will be making this often.

Meat and Taters

2011-09-22T07:34:00.001-07:00

My man is like most men. He prefers a "meat and taters" kind of dinner and I made him a terrific meal the other night. My only problem in cooking meals like that is that we don't walk in the door until after 5:35 every weeknight. But I figured a way to make a great meal and I probably had this terrific "home cooking" type meal (known by lots of different names, "chicken fried steak", "breaded cube steak") within about 30 minutes.

How did I do it?

Well.. one of the best things I have discovered is that baking potatoes in the crockpot is the ONLY WAY TO GO! So easy. So, I had potatoes in the crockpot, breaded the meat and fried it in a skillet with a teensy bit of bacon grease (shhhh!), opened a can of vegetables and dinner was served. With this particular meal, I used the leftover flour and milk from breading the meat to make gravy (very frugal) and it was just A FEAST. Even though I'm not a "meat and potatoes man" (woman), I have to agree that this was a very satisfying meal!

My mom shared with me her tips for making "breaded cube steak" (that's what we call it) (because hers is THE BEST as far as I'm concerned) and I had great success with her method. I call it the, "double dip" method.

Here's how I made "meat and taters" AT HOME MY WAY:

Before I left for work:

I washed my potatoes (I actually did this the night before to save the morning rush from becoming too crazy). Before I left for work that morning, I tossed them in the crockpot (peeling on - no foil... just drop them in the crockpot), placed on the lid, switched the crockpot to low and headed out the door. They need to cook 8 hours, but that is no problem for me ha-ha.

Once I got home - potatoes were READY!

To make the breaded cube steak (chicken fried steak):

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour (or more, depending on how much meat you are cooking)

salt & pepper

1 1/2 cup milk

3-4 cube steaks

5 Tablespoons oil or bacon grease (being frugal, I save bacon grease and use that) you want enough to cover the bottom of a skillet, but not a deep puddle or anything ;)

Place flour, salt & pepper in a shallow bowl or pie pan. Stir throughout.

Place milk in a separate shallow bowl or pie pan.

First, open the meat, rinse if you wish to do that. Dredge the meat FIRST in flour. Then dip in milk (flip so both sides go in the milk), and AGAIN dredge in the flour (both sides). This double dipping is the key to my mother's delicious breaded cube steak.

Heat your skillet to medium. Once hot, place meat in the skillet. Let it cook a couple of minutes until brown on the underneath. Once brown, flip over to cook the other side. I continued cooking mine and flipping until the meat was done. You can see the juices running out if its not done yet. But, don't flip too early. You want that breading fully cooked to hold its shape and stay on the meat.

I made gravy. This is how I did it.

After all the meat was cooked, I turned up the skillet to heat the oil to hot. I stirred all the "drippings" to spread it all around good. Then, I dumped in the flour I used from breading the meat (approximately 1/2 cup). I stirred all around to absorb the flour in the grease (sorry... sounds gross, but its REALLY GOOD lol). Then I added the remaining milk that I had used from breading the meat (approximately 1/2 to 1 cup). Stir again to fully incorporate the flour into the liquid. Being the cheapo that I am, I did not want to add more milk and mine was pretty thick - too thick, so I added about 1/4 cup of water to this and kept stirring. I let it cook on medium and it became smooth and thick - GRAVY! YUM!

I remember eating this all the time when I was little. If we didn't have much meat, my mom cut the cube steaks into "steak fingers" and we were satisfied with a strip of meat, some gravy, and the potatoes, or we even sometimes just ate the gravy ladled over a slice of bread. This kind of meal really takes me back!

Nachos for a Crowd - Family Nacho's

2011-09-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

It seems we are all looking for new ideas for supper. One of my favorite blogs is called "Homemaking on the Homestead" and I found this recipe for "Nachos for a Crowd" on Crystal's blog. My pickier daughter decided this SOUNDED GOOD to her so I added it to my meal plan for this week and made it last night. IT WAS WONDERFUL!

I had already cooked some pinto beans (we love those with everything from taco's to rice & cornbread) and put some in the freezer in med-size containers, so I had them ready to go. I imagine you could use canned pinto beans and even a combination of one can of pinto beans and one can of refried beans would be good, because the recipes calls for you to mash half of your cooked pinto beans as you add it to the cooked hamburger. Anything like that would work.

We both LOVED this recipe! We decided it would be great to take for potlucks, to have for a dip when you have friends or family over, and also to freeze ahead for later. My daughter ate her Family Nachos on a warmed tortilla. I had mine over a bed of tortilla chips, and sprinkled with lettuce and fresh tomatoes.

This was REALLY, REALLY good! If you have ever eaten Nachos Belle Grande at Taco Bell, this was a similar dish!

I don't have a crowd at my house very often, so I'm calling them "Family Nachos" Here's how I made Family Nacho's AT HOME MY WAY:

Family Nachos (originally "Nachos for a Crowd" by Crystal Miller at the Homemaking on the Homestead)

Cooked Pinto Beans: 3 cups dry pinto beans (soaked overnight) + 12 cups water+1 T salt - OR 3 cups cooked beans in juice (not drained) (OR 2 cans of pinto / refried beans)
1 - 2 lbs. hamburger (I used 2 pounds because we really enjoy the meat.)
1 ½ cups salsa
2 cups sour cream
1 packet taco seasoning (I only used half a packet and it was great.)
cheese, as desired (I used cheddar, and grated it myself, about 1 1/2 cups)
1 can olives. sliced (I did not use) (optional)
lettuce and fresh tomatoes, as desired, chopped ,green onions, sliced (optional)

To cook the beans: Rinse, removing any stones from the beans, soak in a big bowl of water overnight (covered by at least 3 inches). Drain the beans, dump into a big pot, and refill with water (Crystal says to use 12 cups - I just make sure there is about 3 inches of water on top of the beans.) Add the salt. Start the beans in the afternoon or the day before.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours or until beans are soft and cooked. Stir occasionally as they cook to loosen them up and keep them from sticking. Set pot of beans aside.

To make the dish: cook up hamburger in a large frying pan until done, drain any grease if necessary. Add salsa and mix. Now take a slotted spoon and begin scooping out the beans and adding them to the hamburger (I used approximately 3 cups of beans - with some juice). You want to have the beans a little bit soupy when you add them (but not too much). As you add the beans, mix and smash some of them. Dump this bean/hamburger/salsa mixture into an 9 x 13 pan.

In a small bowl mix the sour cream and taco seasoning together. Spread this over the top of the bean/hamburger mixture. I dropped it around and then spread like a frosting.

Sprinkle as much (or as little) grated cheese as you desire over the top of the sour cream.

Now sprinkle the olives, tomatoes and green onions on top of the cheese (I omitted this step as my daughter doesn't like the olives, tomatoes, or green onions. I saved the tomatoes, olives, and green onions to sprinkle on the top of the nachos at serving time.) Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or things are melted and bubbly.

Serve this with or over tortilla chips, on warmed tortillas, taco shells or over a big green salad, topped with the lettuce and tomatoes!

I think this would be a great dish to take to a friend. Most kids would love this!

Menu Plan for the week of 9/19 -

2011-09-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Monday:

Breakfast - Leftover HM pancakes with HM apple butter (will post soon)

Lunch - PB&J & fruit

Supper - Nachos for a Crowd (New recipe from Homemaking on the Homestead), maybe HM Spanish rice

To Do: Mix up dumplings before bed and freeze for dinner Tuesday.

Tuesday:

Breakfast - HM Apple/Oatmeal muffins using Plain Muffin recipe, (use 1/2 cup sugar, sub in 1 cup oatmeal for flour + 1 grated apple)

Lunch - Leftovers from Nachos (as taco salad)

Supper - Chicken & Dumplings (chicken in the crockpot, add dumplings once home)

Wednesday:

Breakfast - Leftover muffins

Lunch - PB&J, fruit

Supper - Leftovers

To do: Bake bread

Thursday:

Breakfast - Smoothies or oatmeal

Lunch - PB&J, fruit

Supper - Baked potatoes in crockpot, cube steak, green beans/corn

To Do: Bake chocolate chip cookies, assemble ingredients for soup

Friday:

Breakfast - Cinnamon toast / chocolate milk using HM chocolate syrup

Lunch - PB&J or steak sandwich from leftovers

Supper - Hamburger soup

Saturday:

Breakfast - Surprise muffins or blueberry muffins

Lunch - Hu Hot with fam!

Supper - Snacks - having a big lunch

Sunday:

Breakfast - Bacon or sausage, biscuits, hashbrowns

Lunch - Making early dinner - spaghetti - so college girl can leave in good time, french bread, make some pocket sandwiches or roll ups with one loaf of dough

Supper - Snacks - late lunch / early dinner

To Do: Mix up muffins or get smoothie ingredients ready for morning.

Best Brownies Ever!

2011-09-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have a friend whose daughter recently was diagnosed with Celiac, which requires her to eat only a gluten free diet. This means she has to avoid all things made of flour! That encompasses quite a large variety of things. In all of my blog reading, I have been noting any GF (gluten free) recipes so that I can share them with my friend. Sometimes I try the recipe out and sometimes I don't, but I knew my friend would NEVER try this recipe unless I could vouch for it being a good one LOL!

I had long read of Black Bean Brownies and Pinto Bean Fudge, but really couldn't see why anyone would want to purposefully eat such a thing! That is... until I realized they were made without any flour. Ah-ha! Gluten free!

I made a recipe that I found at one of my very favorite blogs (Finding Joy in My Kitchen). She posts delicious recipes and she sure cooks up a great variety of stuff! I got the recipe for these cookies (Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies) on her blog and my younger daughter makes these for us ALL THE TIME!

But when I tried the BLACK BEAN BROWNIES? OH MY HEAVENLY DAYS! These brownies are so rich and silky. They have the consistency of Little Debbie brownies (eek - from the box), but they have only great, healthy ingredients. Lots of protein in these little babies. Being the lover of SECRET ingredients (remember my zucchini cobbler ahem'' (apple)?") I left these brownies on my kitchen counter and my daughter, who is 18, gobbled these down! When I had my mom try a bite, my daughter yelled out, "What is in those? What have I been eating?" She had no idea and let me tell you, they are so DELICIOUS that once she knew, that didn't stop her from finishing them off!

I realize that not everyone wants to be so adventurous in the kitchen, but make these black bean brownies. You will be so glad you did! They are dark, rich, and chocolate-y! Yum! And how can you go wrong when they are loaded with good protein and are GF.

Here's how I make Black Bean Brownies AT HOME MY WAY:

(Note that you will need a blender or food processor to make these brownies.)

Black Bean Brownie Recipe (I'll post a picture the next time I make them.)

1 can (15.5) black beans, DRAINED and RINSED (use a collander) (GENERIC IS FINE!)

2 eggs

3 Tablespoons oil (olive oil would be a healthy choice)

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder (not baking soda)

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 x 8 inch pan well with cooking spray.

In a blender, combine beans,eggs and oil. Puree (my blender setting was "liquify") til smooth. Then add the cocoa, sugar, baking powder, pinch of salt and vanilla to the ingredients already in the blender and blend again until smooth. I used my highest setting so that they were be really smooth.

Pour the batter into the sprayed pan.

Sprinkle with chocolate chips over the top of the brownies.

Bake 30 minutes or until they spring back a little bit to the touch. You can slide in a knife or toothpick to see if it comes out clean. If it does, they are done. Cool. Then slice. Refrigerate if leftover beyond two days.

NOTE: If they are for a gluten free friend, be sure to check the ingredients on your beans, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. Somtimes they sneak flour into these ingredients. My generic ingredients, however, did not have any gluten so they were good to go.

3 Ingredients - Super Easy Chili (can be Crockpot)

2011-09-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

One of our daughters is Super Picky! But, I have to compliment her and say that at age 23, she is working hard to increase the variety of foods she likes. She doesn't like that she's so picky.

This is one of the recipes she found that she loves. I am a chili lover! I love all chili - no matter how bland, spicy, thick, thin, chunky, red, or brown. So it didn't matter to me which kind of chili she found that she liked, it was just nice to find a recipe that she did like because there are days that nothing satisfies like a big pot of chili!

A friend had us out for our now annual Christmas gathering and she made this terrific chili. It doesn't have any fancy ingredients, but its so good! If chili can taste silky - this does! My daughter went gaga over it and gobbled down two bowls. I could not believe it! So, definitely I started making this at home.

I cook hamburger and keep portions of about 1 1/2 pounds in my freezer for quick "meal starters" so dumping this in the crockpot before I left for work at 7:15AM took a total of about 5 minutes. And what a feast when I came home, even though it was 100+ degrees outside!

This is how I make Super Easy Chili (3 ingredients) AT HOME MY WAY:

Super Easy Chili - 3 Ingredients

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds browned hamburger (drained)

2 cans "chili beans" (I use generic or name brand. They're all good.) (not drained - dump in the whole can) (not kidney beans or pinto beans but the cans that say "chili beans"- I use ALDI)

2 cans (15 oz each) tomato sauce (generic is fine here as well)

Dump all the ingredients in the pot or crockpot, give it a good stir. (If your meat is precooked and frozen, thaw in the microwave a few minutes so you can stir all the ingredients before it starts cooking.)You can cook this on top of the stove for 30 minutes to an hour, or cook in the crockpot on low however long you want (mine has to cook 8-10 hours) since all of the "ingredients" are already prepared and fully cooked.

*My friend adds a packet of chili mix to hers, but I like my chili a little more tomato-y and it works fine for me without, so I just don't use any. The "chili" beans have plenty of seasoning in them and the chili will still be seasoned and taste strongly of "chili".

**I think you could play with this recipe and add tomatoes, green pepper, salsa, or whatever you like to add to your favorite chili recipe.

(I tried to take a picture last night but had left my SD card at work. I'll get a picture posted once I take one.)

This Recipe Linked To:

Fresh Fruit Cobbler - Peach!

2011-09-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

This summer has flown past me this year and I have gotten little out of my garden or the farmer's market. Thankfully, a good friend stopped by last Sunday on her way home to St. Louis. She brought me some ripe peaches and they made the BEST peach cobbler! They smelled SO GOOD! I found a recipe for Fruit Cobbler in a recipe book created as a fundraiser for our Catholic School and it has some really good recipes in it! I wanted something yummy but wasn't feeling particularly ambitious so I found a recipe for a cobbler that had a "crumble" crust. Its really good and the peach cobbler was so delicious I had to share some with both my parents and my husband's mom! What a treat! Tasted like summer on a plate! I will definitely be using this cobbler recipe in the future for whatever kind of fruit I have on hand!

This is how I made Fresh Peach Cobbler AT HOME MY WAY:

Fresh Peach Cobbler

4 cups any fruit or berries (I used sliced and peeled peaches)
1 cup sugar (probably could cut back on this)
1 Tablespoon flour
Topping/crust:
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup Margarine/Butter (this is equal to 5 Tablespoons) (cold)
Instructions:

In a mixing bowl place the peeled, sliced fruit and toss with the sugar and 1 Tablespoon of flour. Pour this fruit into a 10" baking dish/casserole dish. Using the same bowl that you had the fruit in (no worries about the crumb topping having a little "peach juice" on it - I try to keep my dishes to a minimum when cooking), Mix the flour and sugar. Cut the margarine into slices and using a pastry blender or fork, blend the butter/margarine until small and crumbly. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 - 45 minutes or until slightly browned.

NOTE: Remember that if you have a whole bunch of peaches, you can dip them in boiling water and then ice water similar to how you do tomatoes.

This Recipe Shared at:

Its a Keeper - Thursday

I made Homemade Cranberry Sauce

2011-08-31T07:44:00.000-07:00

I grew up eating canned jellied cranberry sauce. You know the kind that plops out of the can looking like a purple blob? I LOVED it when I was little and I still LOVE it now. I have it with everything from chicken and dumplings to baked chicken and of course a fabulous Thanksgiving Day feast. But, the other day in making "Sunday dinner" , I was baking a chicken and went down to the basement to pull out some chicken broth I had cooked and stashed down in the freezer to make stuffing when I ran across two bags of Ocean Spray cranberries. I think I bought those things a long time ago! I probably intended to make cranberry bread out of them because that's my favorite way to eat whole cranberries, but knowing I had chicken baking and stuffing "in the works", I peaked on the bag to see how difficult making homemade cranberry sauce would be.

The recipe sounded easy and I had everything I needed. In the past, it seems like homemade cranberry sauce had always involved some citrus taste to it that I didn't care for, but the recipe on the bag was easy, simplE and only used three ingredients, berries, sugar and water.

I will definitely NOT be buying anymore of those cans of cranberry sauce. This stuff is divine and I will certainly be stocking up on cranberries once they make their appearance in the grocery store! I'm seeing lots of cranberry sauce in my future! Yea - yea... I know, it has lots of sugar, but those cranberries are REALLY good for you, right? LOL.

This is how I made Homemade Cranberry Sauce AT HOME MY WAY:

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 12-ounce package fresh or frozen cranberries.

Directions: Combine sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add the cranberries, return to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes,stirring occasionally. Cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving.

I'm sure you can "can" this and I'm going to check out how to do this as well. It would be so nice just to dump this out of a jar. Even easier!

Here's my plate of leftovers last night. Not a great picture. But Oh So Good!

Homemade Cranberry Sauce works for me and this post is linked to:

Menu Plan Monday - August 29, 2011

2011-08-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.orgjunkie.com/

Breakfasts:

Toast with butter, jelly or Nutella (ahh! My new favorite!)

Applesauce Bread from Heavenly Homemakers blog (from my freezer and it freezes GREAT!)

Smoothies using frozen bananas, milk, strawberries or HM chocolate syrup

Breakfast Burritos from the freezer (to try)

HM Apple or Blueberry Fritters (to try)

Lunches:

Sloppy Joe or Bean Burritos from the freezer

PB&J on HM Sandwich Bread,

(with yogurt or fruit, and possibly some tomato juice... heard tomato juice lowers blood pressure)

Suppers:

Leftovers (Baked Chicken, Stuffing using leftover HM Sandwich Bread, HM cranberry sauce (will post with pics if I don't eat it all LOL) using cranberries in the freezer from Thanksgiving, and leftover HM cornbread)

Bacon-Tomato Sandwices

HM Chicken & Dumplings (using the same recipe for Dumplings as I used in beef/roast broth in this post) in the Crockpot

Chili in the Crockpot

HM Stirfry and HM egg rolls

Spaghetti, Pineapple Lettuce Salad, and HM french bread;

Snacks:

Black Bean Brownies (to try)

HM Kettlecorn in the microwave

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pumpkin Pie with an Homemade Crust (made with Oil)

2011-08-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

The first day of my "pity party" (when my youngest moved to college), I was in a quandry (gotta love that word LOL) as to what to cook. My daughter was an adventurous eater like I am and if I couldn't make homemade stirfry, kinda empanadas, or frosted sugar cookie bars, I didn't know what to make!

I ~~boo-hooed~~ meditated in my bedroom until I could get myself together and then decided to cook for my man! I put some boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a skillet with a tiny bit of oil and browned them, then added some of our favorite BBQ sauce and cooked them with a lid until they were juicy and saucy! I also made a recipe I had been wanting to try for Easy Macaroni and Cheese, which did not turn out like I hoped, so I'm going to keep working on that recipe to make it a little better before posting. But the BEST thing I made for him was a Homemade Pumpkin Pie. It was delicious! My hubby has RAVED about the pie I made. Several times he told me, "Have I told you how delicious that pie is?" I first accused him of "blowing smoke" to try to make me feel better, but he claims he really liked the "spicey-ness" of the pie! I don't know entirely what his motivation was, but the pie was DELICIOUS!

I didn't have any shortening to make a pie crust and so I dug around until I found a recipe for an oil crust in my old Betty Crocker's Cookbook. It worked fine and turned out flaky and very delicious! Here's how I made a homemade pumpkin pie with an oil pie crust AT HOME MY WAY:

Homemade Pie Crust (uses Oil)

(For 8 or 9 inch one-crust pie)

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 - 4 Tablespoons ice cold water

Mix flour and salt well. Add oil and stir until flour/oil particles are the size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 Tablespoon at a time, mixing until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl. If pastry seems dry, add 1 Tablespoon of OIL (not water). Gather pastry into a small disc shape.

I rolled this dough out on a floured surface using a gallon ziplock bag as a barrier between the dough and my rolling pin. When rolling thin crust, that just seems to work better than having to keep adding flour which makes the crust tough. I moved the square bag around on the dough and rolled until I got a crust big enough for my pie pan. The dough kind of sticks to the bag and that makes it easy to move from the floured surface to the pie plate. You could also roll it between some parchment paper or wax paper, I just didn't have any and as usual was "making do with what I had."

Place the crust in the pie pan, flatten, roll and pinch the edges.

Pumpkin filling:

1 can pumpkin (15 oz) (I used generic pumpkin because I'm cheap like that)
1 can evaporated milk (I used 1 1/2 cups of reg milk + 3 T milk powder because I didn't have any evaporated milk)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Thoroughly blend all "pie" ingredients and pour into the unbakd pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 45 additional minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

This Recipe Linked at:

Around my Family Table

Homemade White Sandwich Bread

2011-08-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

We were running a little low on sandwich bread last night and after a full day of work and the LONG commute home (to me), I was NOT going anywhere! I used my favorite homemade sandwich bread recipe and my handy dandy bread machine to create this loaf. I've used this recipe before! During the Blizzard of 2011 I created this terrific rainbow loaf for a bake sale. I also regularly use this recipe substituting some whole wheat flour for some of the white flour. It always turns out great and my skeptic husband, who prefers something like the Wonder Bread that he grew up eating, even took a PB&J with this soft, perfect bread! I slice mine with an electric knife once the loaf is completely cold. Remember to let it cool completely before enclosing it in a plastic bag (otherwise the steam makes it a little moist). I have found this loaf keeps about 5 days with good results and for toasting, I would say a good week or week and a half. Even though it has no preservatives, I haven't found any of my homemade bread having mold on it. If I'm not making toast or garlic bread with it, I just pop it in the freezer for using to make dressing (stuffing), bread pudding, or croutons! This is how I make homemade sandwich bread AT HOME MY WAY!

Homemade White Sandwich Bread (with picture)

1 cup warm water (hot but no hurt - should feel like hot bath water)
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoon yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup oil (vegetable oil, canola, or olive)
3 cups AP flour or bread flour (I have substituted a cup of the flour with 1 cup whole wheat flour and it makes a delicious light wheat bread)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

• In a 2 cup measuring cup, measure the very warm water (1 cup), stir in yeast and sugar, stirring well to dissolve the yeast (gently). Set a timer for 10 minutes. It will start bubbling and at the end of 10 minutes, will look like a big glass of root beer with a tall soft, frothy foam on top. Add the oil and then dump in the pan of the bread machine.

• Next add your flour and top with the salt. (I realize your bread machine may say to do this in a different order, but do it this way and you will have a perfect loaf.)

• Set your bread machine to the dough setting.

• And the end of this cycle (when it is "ready"-mine beeps), then dump the loaf into your sprayed / greased loaf pan. Kind of spread it out to fill the pan (gently stretching so that it reaches the width of the loaf pan). Spray my loaf with cooking spray so it doesn't dry out (or you could probably brush with a little melted butter). Let rise 1 hour in a warmish place (I like to use the inside of my microwave) or until it rises up out of the loaf pan by a little bit. Not huge at this point, just out of the top of the pan.

• Preheat your oven completely before putting the loaf in -to 350 degrees.

• Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

• Let it sit in the pan about 5 minutes. Then, carefully (because the loaf is so soft) take it out of the pan and let it cool on a cooling rack. Let it cool completely and then slice using an electric knife or large surrogated knife.
It makes great sandwiches, grilled cheese, peanut butter. Probably would make great hamburger and hotdog buns as well.

I baked my bread last night and sliced it this morning. Here is the finished product! Notice that terrific "crumb". Just like sandwich bread that you buy at the store! I haven't done a cost breakdown on this recipe yet, but I can bet that its a frugal choice for making homemade bread at home! Here it is sliced and ready for peanut butter:

This post is linked to:

Kelly the Kitchen Kop’s Real Food Wednesday blog carnival!

This Chick Cooks

Baked Oatmeal

2011-08-23T07:03:00.000-07:00

This recipe is all over blogland and that is for several reasons. The first reason is that it is DELICIOUS! The second probably is that it's extremely frugal, and the third is that this is a very versatile recipe. You can substitute all kinds of fruit and make this with whatever you have on hand, either seasonally, or from your pantry. We love this Baked Oatmeal recipe! We eat it hot or cold, fresh out of the oven or leftover! If you have any friends or family who claim not to like oatmeal (the cooked kind) but do like apple crisp or oatmeal cookies, try this! Its similar to a coffee cake. I would say this is also gluten free since it doesn't use any flour, but I'm not a specialist in that area. I think you have to check your oats to make sure they are gluten free. This is how I make my favorite recipe for BAKED OATMEAL - At Home My Way!

BAKED OATMEAL

3 cups old fashioned oats - not quick oats
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs (slightly beaten) (just whites works fine or egg beaters)
½ cup melted margarine/butter (1 stick)
2 teaspoons vanilla
Fruit (optional): 2 cups frozen (fresh is fine but not thawed) blueberries; peeled/sliced apples; or 1 can crushed pineapple, partially drained (our favorite is pineapple) ; raisins, craisins, or whatever fruit you want to use). Sometimes I slice a few apples, add a little sugar and put them in the bottom of a baking dish, topping them with the oatmeal mixture, then baking and serving like a thick apple crisp. That works wonderfully and serving it that way is a special treat for breakfast on the first crisp cool autumn day here in Missouri!

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In separate dish, mix together milk, egg(s), melted butter/margarine and vanilla. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in any fruit. Spread into a 9 x 13 dish (sprayed or lightly oiled). Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

We eat this like coffee cake without milk, but my mother-in-law tops hers with milk like regular oatmeal!

I half this recipe and bake it in an 8x8 pan or med pyrex baking casserole dish (without the lid).

I cannot describe to you how wonderful this is. Like a warm oatmeal cookie but not quite as sweet. Even people who don’t like a bowl of oatmeal will like this one! And its even good leftover!

Hint: You can mix this up, cover, and place it in your fridge for baking the next morning. My mornings used to be pretty hectic but I could still pop this in the oven cold without preheating my oven (since the mixture was cold, not using glass, however) and it would be ready after my shower.

The "Last Supper"

2011-08-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

We moved our "baby" to college this week, two hours away from our small town to the big city (Kansas City). It was a very busy week but I wanted to make some sort of special "last supper" for her before she left. She's my partner in crime for trying new recipes, taking blog pictures for me, and eating just about anything I put on the table. Her favorites are Hawaiian Chicken and Parmesan Chicken, but she was starving when I called her on my way home from work and she wanted something faster than those other two dishes. Since I had chicken thawed in the fridge, I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes (instant for my hubby), white long grain rice and leftover pinto beans (she and I ate this instead of the potatoes), fried zucchini, and my all time favorite dessert as a little girl, which my daughter also LOVES - Puddin' and Biscuits!

When I was crying and boo-hooing over my sweet girl being so far away, I told my husband, "but now I don't have anyone to cook for..." and he reminded me "Let's get this straight! You still have someone to cook for!" But, a person can only make SO MUCH meat and potatoes, ya know? Having a pity party at my house, but maybe she'll come home this weekend!

Here's how I made our college freshman's last supper AT HOME MY WAY:

Fried Chicken:

I just used five boneless, skinless breasts (so we would have leftovers), sliced lengthwise to make "tenders" so they would cook faster (since I don't get home from work until after 5:30pm, I wanted the fastest route to the table); rinsed them in cool water (to moisten), dredged them in flour with a little salt & pepper; and fried in bacon grease in my largest cast iron skillet (shhh! The best fried chicken is fried in bacon grease and I keep a jar in my fridge for seasoning green beans, stewed tomatoes, and frying chicken).

Fried Zucchini (from my garden)

Washed and sliced the zucchini in thin slices. I mixed a little milk and one egg and placed that in a shallow bowl. Also, put about 1 1/2 cup flour with some salt & pepper in another wide shallow bowl. Dipped the slices in the milk / egg, dredged in the flour mixture, double dipped in the egg/milk, and again in the flour mixture. I fried them in the hot oil after I got finished frying the chicken. We dipped these in ranch dressing and they were just excellent!

Homemade Biscuits (this recipe makes 8 biscuits)
I used to make these with shortening, but have started using margarine/butter instead because I don't buy Crisco any more. I love them! They are fluffier and softer with the margarine! Easy to mix up and they are terrific leftover!

2 cups flour
2 1/2 Tablespoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 Tablespoons (measured on the stick) margarine or butter (cold)
1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons milk

Instructions: PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 400 DEGREES. In a medium bowl, measure in the flour. Next, add the baking powder and salt. Give it a good stir. Slice the cold measured margarine/ butter onto the dry mixture in the bowl. Using a pastry blender, fork, or two knives, cut in the margarine into pea sized pieces so that it is thoroughly mixed into the dry ingredients. Dump in the milk and stir good. Drop the biscuits onto a greased / sprayed pie pan. Pat just a little with floured fingers to take the pointed tops off the biscuits.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until the biscuits are browning on top! Try to wait until they cool to slather one in butter and pop it in your mouth! Tip: Leftovers are great sliced and toasted in the toaster or even sliced and buttered on the sliced side & grilled like you would a grill cheese sandwich in a skillet.

Homemade chocolate pudding (no eggs)
(I got this TERRIFIC recipe from www.hillbillyhousewife.com.)

When my mom made this, she always used Jello brand cooked pudding. We eat it hot / warm over the biscuits. After I found this recipe at the Hillbilly Housewife, I will never buy boxed pudding again! Its perfect! Same texture and same taste!

3 cups milk (cold)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup sugar
Good dash salt (like 1/8 teaspoon)
3 tablespoons margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla

With the burner off, in a two quart sauce pan combine the cornstarch, cocoa, sugar and salt. Mix it very well (I use a whisk.) Gradually add the cold milk, whisking it in until the mixture is smooth. Now turn on the burner (do NOT walk away, stir the entire time this is cooking... it SCORCHES easily and you don't want that) and heat the pan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring the pudding to a full rolling boil. Boil and stir for one minute (set a timer). Remove from heat. Plop in the margarine, stir in the margarine until it melts and is blended throughout, then add the vanilla. The pudding will thicken as it cools. Pour into a bowl to serve that can be refrigerated. (You can pour the pudding into a pretty serving dish, or small individual cups. I pour it into small individual cups with lids and send it in the children’s lunch boxes.) Store it in the fridge either way. Makes 6 servings. This recipe is what pudding fantasies are made of.

Note: To make 3 cups of milk, combine 3 cups of tap water with 1 cup of instant nonfat dry milk powder. Stir to dissolve the milk powder, and then use as directed above.

To serve this and eat this southern "down home" dessert, split a hot biscuit in a bowl and ladle over some hot chocolate pudding! Eat it with a spoon! This will be like chocolate pie, but with a thick crust. If you like chocolate pie, YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE THIS!

These are the ingredients I use to make my famous biscuits!

I use a pastry blender to blend the sliced cold margarine into the dry ingredients.

They are ready to bake!

Linked up here:

Good Cheap Eats

Using Up Leftovers - Hot Beef Open Faced Sandwich

2011-08-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Last night we had one of my husband's favorite meals for supper. (I did not have to slave in the kitchen all day, thankfully. I just used some leftovers I had in the fridge and he was happier than if I had served him a fancy feast!) What did we have? We had a typical midwest diner favorite, ye ole Hot Beef Sandwich. Here if the midwest, they take white bread, scoop on a big pile of hot, fluffy mashed potatoes, and ladle on some good old roast beef and brown gravy. This is a huge pile of deliciousness and will definitely leave you craving your recliner! But, it was easy, fast, and we both really enjoyed it. In fact, it was so good, that we promptly jumped in the car and took my husband's mom a plate (she was having Cheerios for supper - eek)! She loved it too.

This is how I make an Open Faced Hot Beef Sandwich AT HOME MY WAY:

Open Faced Hot Beef Sandwich (DINER FOOD)

Sliced roast beef from the deli or leftover roast (I used rump roast.)
1-2 packages of brown gravy
sandwich bread
Hot fluffy mashed potatoes (I used our favorite brand of instant -shhhh!)

Mix up the gravy, per the instructions on the packet and cook until thick. Place bite sized pieces of roast beef in the gravy.

Prepare your mashed potatoes.

Ready? Almost!

Place one slice of bread on a plate. Scoop on some mashed potatoes. Ladle on the hot beef gravy.

Dinner's ready!

(I also had some leftover pineapple lettuce salad with mine, but my hubby was happy with just "meat and potatoes" (of course) LOL.)

Subtitution: This is just as delicious to use packet(s) of turkey gravy and either leftover turkey or sliced turkey from the deli.

This recipe was linked to:

http://savingthosedollars.blogspot.com/

Claiming my blog!

2011-08-16T14:09:00.000-07:00

I am claiming my blog on Technorati. My code is V43SFWWGVPUD.

:)

Zucchini Cobbler (Tastes just like Apple Cobbler!) (I promise!)

2011-08-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite blogs mentioned a recipe that I posted in her "comments" section of a post about zucchini fritters. I figured I should at least post this on here so it would be easier to find this recipe, that is... until she posts it on her blog because SHE IS GOING TO LOVE IT and you will too! My 23 year old daughter could not tell she was eating zucchini and she is my pickiest eater!

Kim's blog is here: http://jabezfarm.blogspot.com/

If you like apple cobbler / pie, you're gonna love this:

Any naysayers should see this discussion board where I posted the recipe. They all went "hog wild" LOL!
http://forums.organicgardening.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5541078301/m/5651069627?r=5651069627#5651069627

ZUCCHINI COBBLER recipe AT HOME MY WAY

Ingredients:

8 cups chopped seeded peeled zucchini (about 3 pounds) (peel the zucchini first, then slice lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and slice the zucchini. These little slices, when seeded and peeled this way will look JUST LIKE apple slices for a totally foolproof way to serve this zucchini as "apple" cobbler!)

2/3 cup lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

CRUST:

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1-1/2 cups cold butter, cubed

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15-20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat; set aside.

For crust, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining crust mixture into a greased (I sprayed with cooking spray)15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Spread zucchini over top; crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon (I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar mixture that I keep in a spice container for making cinnamon toast!)

When I made this: I used a 9 x 13 pan. It made a thicker cobbler and was divine!Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

This recipe was shared at:

and

http://eatathomecooks.com/2011/08/ingredient-spotlight-zucchini.html
http://mizhelenscountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Pineapple Lettuce Salad

2011-08-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

This is a salad that my mother-in-law regularly makes at her house. I was probably married to her son 10 years before I got brave enough to try it LOL. Something about pineapple, cheese, and lettuce just DID NOT sound good to me. Boy was I WRONG! This is now my favorite salad and she makes it for me often. I'm wishing I hadn't waited all those years to try it! I wasted some important pineapple salad eating in those 10 years!

Whenever we have spaghetti or lasagna, I always have to have this salad! Also goes terrific with ham dinners LOL! This combination may sound a little strange, but trust me when I tell you, it is delicious! Also, I think this is a great recipe for cooking from the pantry. Give it a try!

"Pineapple Lettuce" (This is what we call it!)

Ingredients for the salad:

1 head rinsed, drained, and chopped lettuce
1 can chunk pineapple
1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese

Dressing:

½ cup mayonnaise
3 Tablespoons sugar
5 Tablespoons juice from draining the can of pineapple

Directions:

Rinse the lettuce, removing the core. Drain for a few minutes on a tea towel. Chop lettuce as you would for salad. Put it in a bowl.
Drain the can of chunk pineapple, reserving the juice for use in the dressing. Place the pineapple on top of the lettuce in the bowl.
Top the lettuce and pineapple in the bowl with grated cheddar cheese.
Mix the dressing ingredients. Stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Wait to add the dressing until just before you are ready to serve the salad. When ready to serve, drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss the entire salad to incorporate the dressing, cheese, pineapple, and lettuce. Its divine!

This salad is not great leftover. Everything kind of wilts, so if you are preparing this for single servings, just keep the lettuce, pineapple, cheese, and dressing in separate containers to make up single servings and to keep the ingredients themselves separate until you make another salad.

Homemade Kettle Corn in the Microwave

2011-08-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

We have a friend who makes kettle corn at craft shows, festivals, and community gatherings. We LOVE when he shares a few extra leftover bags of this delicious stuff with us! Who can get enough of that sweet and salty snack? Its addictive, for sure! I was rummaging around in my recipes the other day and found a recipe for making small amounts of kettle corn in your microwave using a lunch sack. It sounded TOO easy and I had to give it a try! It works great and I will definitely be making it a lot!

Whether or not you are adding the sugar for kettle corn as I did here - or just popping as regular popcorn in a paper bag in your microwave, NOT USING commercial microwave popcorn HAS to be a good thing! Seems like I read somewhere something in the bags of commercial microwave popcorn is terrible for you! But,whether or not that is true, I think making microwave popcorn using recycled lunch sacks (I used recycled fast food paper bags) AT HOME MY WAY is a much more frugal choice. Saving money and eating something that is better for you equals a "win - win" in my book!

This is how I make microwave kettle corn AT HOME MY WAY:

Single Size Microwave Kettle Corn

1 small/medium paper sack (I used a recycled Panera bag)
1/4 cup (heaping a little bit) of regular yellow popcorn
1/8 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon oil
Sprinkles of salt

In a small bowl (like a salad / cereal bowl), dump in 1/4 heaping scoop yellow popcorn. Pour the oil on top. Stir well to coat the popcorn in oil. Add the sugar and salt. Stir well. Dump tis into a small/medium paper bag. Roll the top of the bag down. Place the bag on a microwave safe plate and place all in the microwave. The plate keeps the bag sturdy as the oil seeps into the bag and can weaken in when you lift it out.

Microwave on high for app. 4 minutes (or however long a bag of popcorn takes in your microwave). Once you hear a second or so after a pop, its probably ready.

With potholder (my plate was HOT), remove the plate and bag from the microwave. Carefully unroll the bag (steam!) and pour into a bowl. Sometimes I add a little extra salt, but its ready.

REMEMBER: If you store your leftover popcorn in a glass jar, it will last at least two weeks and not get stale. I use old pickle jars that have been washed and stored with newspaper inside and the lid off. That seems to rid the jar of the dill smell.

NOTE: If you wanted to pop regular popcorn, just omit the sugar from this recipe.

ANOTHER NOTE: I took this as a carry-in for a dinner. It was a great snack to munch on while we were talking before the meal was served.

Reminder: The clean recycled paper bags I used would only have had wrapped, sealed, packaged food inside. Never re-use a bag that has had any meat or animal products stored inside.

Best Dill Pickles EVER! (Just like Clausen) (Easy - no canning!)

2011-07-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

My daughters LOVE dill pickles and I LOVE to grow cucumbers! But, sometimes homemade dill pickles turn out kind of soggy and my girls want them to taste just like they get in the store. My handy-dandy computer helped me find a recipe that was supposed to taste JUST LIKE Clausen (refrigerator) pickles! Those are the best anyway, right? My older daughter (the skeptic, who doesn't "do" all my Susie Homemaker stuff) (wrong!) wanted to try this recipe so I bought some fresh dill, fresh garlic cloves, and we picked the cucumbers from my garden! You don't "can" this recipe. Just fill a jar (we used an old pickle jar) with the ingredients, let it sit on the counter for 3 days, and then refrigerate. They are supposed to keep for one year like that in the fridge, without canning! (We let them sit for the 3 days, then refrigerated them overnight and then opened the jar for the much anticipated first taste!)

Do they taste like Clausen? YOU BET YOUR PRETTY PICKLE THEY DO! We were all SO excited. You would have thought we struck gold! I guess we struck GREEN!

These are SO EASY! Even if you aren't a canner, try these! They are so good!

We made spears but I just bought one of those little cutters that makes waffle fries so we can make fancy thick slices. These are definitely better made AT HOME MY WAY!

Best Dill Pickles EVER (Just like Clausen)
(Easy - No Canning!)

Ingredients:

1 gallon cucumbers

1/3 cup dried minced onion (you get in the spice isle)

6 garlic cloves, peeled, and chopped small

1/2 tablespoon mustard seeds

6 heads fresh dill

1 1/2 quarts water

2 cups cider vinegar

1/2 cup canning salt (do NOT use regular salt - use CANNING SALT)

Directions:

Wash and slice cucumbers lengthwise into spears. Add the dill in the jars first, then put in the sliced cucumbers. (Some of our dill heads were large and we counted them as two.)

Boil liquids and all seasonings to dissolve the salt then cool. Pour over pickles, COVER WITH LID TO THE JAR (sorry.. didn't have this part in the original post), and let sit on counter for three days turning them occasionally (we just put a towel over the lid - so as not to leak - and turned the jar upside down and did easy shakes, and returned to upright). After 3 days on the counter, refrigerate overnight. Now try one! Crunch! YUM!

Please do not try to use the regular grocery store cucumbers, they have wax on them and they will not turn out. You can use grocery store pickling cucumbers as they are not waxed.

This recipe has been shared at:

http://lifeasmom.com/

http://www.everydaytastes.com/2011/07/28/its-a-keeper-thursday-recipe-project-linky-16/

http://gnowfglins.com/2011/07/28/simple-lives-thursday-54/

http://www.littlehouseliving.com/2011/08/old-fashioned-recipe-exchange-8-16.html

Pics of the Sweet & Sour Pasta Salad

2011-07-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

This is the very best pasta salad EVER! It is not made with mayo so it can stand the heat better than other dishes you might take to a BBQ or picnic. I get the most requests for this recipe! I posted the recipe for this dish here, but wanted to add these pictures because it is so beautiful.

Sweet & Sour Pasta Salad (a/k/a Peggy Jean-ish Pasta Salad)

I mix up the dressing in a quart canning jar and heat to boiling in the microwave, but you can heat it on the stove if you like.

This recipe will be a great one to include all of those fresh garden vegetables coming in hot and heavy now... (tomatoes, red onion, cukes & bell pepper)

Menu for the July

2011-07-14T06:37:00.000-07:00

I'm getting into this kind of late, but I really like to post what we've eaten for the month so that I have a record for next July. Helps to not forget the stuff that worked and the stuff that didn't.

July, 2011

Suppers

BBQ at niece's house - we smoked pork loins, smoked chicken, and briskit to take out to their house (they bought - we just did the smokin!)

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans (Rebecca cooked dinner for us.)

Lasagna, and garlic bread

Hamburger Soup, HM biscuits (Rachel made dinner)

BBQ chicken & hamburgers on the grill, baked potatoes, quarters of cabbage in foil packets on the grill (from Miss Sharon at the Farmer's Market) and 5-minute a day hoecakes made in the skillet with a little butter -YUM, YUM & YUM!

Tacos / Taco salads - make your own

BBQ brats (at 4th of July BBQ) - I took Sweet & Sour Pasta Salad

Spaghetti (always lots of spaghetti! Sometimes once a week LOL!)

Breakfast for Supper (gravy made with local Osage Valley sausage), HM biscuits, tator tots and yellow squash (not a breakfast food but its in season and my younger daughter and I JUST LOVE it)

Smoked ham on the grill - turned out great! Definitely do again!

Lots of leftovers (leftover smoked pork & smoked ham, spaghetti)

BBQ pork steaks

Chicken fajitas using banana peppers & bell peppers from the garden. (Hubby just had chicken & leftover potatoes - he doesn't "do" fajitas; he's missing out); cheese beans using a can of black beans - YUM!

Beanie Weanies & spaghetti & cheese (like mac and cheese; I just like to use spaghetti pasta)

Crockpot Chicken & Biscuits, mashed potatoes, green beans and of course, HM biscuits

Breads:

5 minute a day bread (tried baking outside in the 100+ heat but didn't allow for enough time) (Baked on the grill)

garlic bread (just store bought loaf, sliced in half lengthwise and slathered in butter/garlic powder

HM biscuits

cornbread

Best Ever Cinnamon Rolls for the Garage Sale

HM biscuits made with 1/4 cup additional milk and cooked in a butter skillet; these little "hoe cakes" were terrific with sausage gravy instead of heating up the oven on a HOT day!

Breakfasts (what a bunch of carbs)

HM chocolate chip muffins (Plain muffin recipe from Hillbilly Housewife + choco chips)
HM apple/oat muffins (Plain muffin recipe, subbing in 1 cup oats & grated apple & 1/2 t cinnamon)
HM pancakes
HM 5 minute a day (leftover) hoecakes
HM biscuits (leftover)
HM biscuits with Gerke's Osage Valley Farms sausage gravy - YUM!
Pumpkin chocolate chip bread baked in cans (from the freezer)
HM zucchini bread cooked in fruit cans in my crockpot

Lunches

Peanut butter sandwiches on wheat bread
Hot dogs
Leftovers (green beans from my garden)
Sliced cucumbers from my garden
First tomato sandwich of the summer
Pigs in a blanket. These were great!

Desserts

cherry jello with bananas (I took this as "lunch dessert" :) )
HM chocolate mayonnaise cake with white frosting
HM chocolate icecream
HM Cherry Cobbler (I got this recipe from www.joyinmy kitchen.blogspot.com) in the crockpot using cherries from my freezer that I got from my niece (I loved making my own pie filling. So easy! Why have I not done this sooner? Sweetened the cherries - and thickened with corn starch.) Great recipe!
HM chocolate mint ice cream
HM banana pudding made with HM vanilla pudding (used graham crackers instead of vanilla wafers because that's what I had and it turned out fine!)

Snacks

HM microwave kettle corn (excellent!) (used a lunch sack, reg popcorn, splash of oil, salt & sugar)

Hamburger Soup on cool, rainy SUMMER days in July

2011-07-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Missouri is notorious for extreme weather. We can have REALLY, REALLY cold weather which included a history-making blizzard this past winter, to super, duper HOT weather (once I worked at school and in one of the classrooms it was 107 at 10AM). But, with those extremes comes some nice breaks in the weather and we had a few cool days around the 4th of July. On Thursday, my younger daughter used her personalized recipe book (which I made for her using Shutterfly) to make supper. She made one of her (and her sister's) favorites, Hamburger Soup. It has hamburger, garlic, oregano, bay leaves, tomato sauce (of course), pasta, and veges. Its kind of like spaghetti meets vegetable soup! Its their favorite and we snarfed it down last night! I modified this recipe just a tad from a delicious soup recipe that my former boss makes. He is an attorney and also is a FABULOUS cook. I had never had vegetable soup with garlic in it until I tried his recipe. It always gets rave reviews. Here's the recipe:

SPAGHETTI MEETS VEGETABLE SOUP
(Hamburger Soup)

(remove the bay leaves BEFORE serving!) (DO NOT EAT BAY LEAVES)

1 to 2 pounds hamburger (we use a little more than 1 pound)
1 can crushed tomatoes + 1-8oz can tomato sauce (plus each empty can filled with water) (OR if you don't have crushed tomatoes, which we did not last night, THEN USE 2 -8oz cans of tomato sauce + 2 cans of water)
1 can carrots (undrained)
3-5 med. potatoes (peeled and chopped)
1 can green beans (undrained)
1 small can mushrooms (stems & pieces) undrained
1 Tablespoon onion powder
2 Tablespoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon basil or oregano
2 bay leaves (large ones so you can find them)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cup additional water
EXTRA INGREDIENT: Cook 2 cups macaroni and serve with the soup. (If you put it in the pot, it gets mushy so we keep it separate and just add to each of our bowls.)

Brown hamburger in a soup pot with the onion powder, or if using real onion, brown with the meat until all clear. Drain. Add all remaining ingredients, including the cans of water and extra water. Crack the lid and simmer, stirring occasionally at least 45 minutes or longer or until potatoes are soft.

REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES and serve.

Serve with cooked elbow macaroni and/or in bread bowls! Yummy!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Ice Cream - CUPCAKES !

2011-07-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today was my older daughter's last day to work with the kids at the City Summer Camp. She wanted to do something special for them so she decided to make these Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.

There's not really a recipe. Just use regular cones, and fill not quite full with cake batter. She sat them in my broiler pan or any cake pan. Just sit the pan in the oven with the cones all standing up. Rebecca just used a cake mix but you could use your own homemade cake recipe if you don't want to use a mix. Bake as the box says for cupcakes - maybe 5 minutes longer. I think we baked these 25 minutes. Cool completely, and then frost and sprinkle!

That's it!

They are probably best served the day you make them. She said the cones got a little soft from sitting overnight with cake in them and just weren't quite as crunchy as they were last night. I bet dyeing the cupcake batter like our tye dye cupcakes would be super cute! You could really take this idea and run with it!

What a cheap way to have a special treat for your little ones. (We tried to find the colored cones and no stores in our little town had those. They would be EVEN cuter!)

My Garden

2011-06-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

Last year I was a little discouraged with my garden. Well... not just my garden. I was SO EXCITED about the garden and then my work day increased. I was leaving the house 30 minutes earlier than normal and getting home an hour later than normal (my husband and I started carpooling together) and that really cut into my day. I was just exhausted trying to keep the bare minimums done at home and the garden suffered. Plus, we got completely taken over by squash bugs. Our favorite garden vege of all times is yellow squash and we didn't get a single one. Squash vine borers! Need I say more?

I have lots of stuff crammed into my garden. I planted two rows of greenbeans (bush) from 3 packets of seeds and only 1 packet of seeds grew so I've replanted. I use a cattle panel to make an arbor and I have cucumbers growing on there. They are so much easier to pick that way. I love growing pinto beans and I have them growing on all available fences around the garden. I have tomatoes, onions, peppers, squash, delicata (first time to get them to grow and keeping my fingers crossed), sunflowers, marigolds, a few beets, radishes, a pumpkin vine, and I actually have some cantelope growing on a trellis that is doing pretty good. Here are some pictures. Kind of dark, but I love looking at other people's gardens and so I'm posting mine. Happy gardening!

This is the whole garden. Not very big and cramming it full!

Green beans - only two half rows came up (my luck!).

Cucumbers growing on the cattle panel. Easier to pick that way.

Lots of pinto beans!

Smoked Pork and Homemade Honey-Mustard BBQ Sauce

2011-06-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

We like to smoke meat when we are having very many people over. This way the meat cooks itself and you aren't slaving to the hot grill while trying to visit with your company. Leftovers freeze beautifully and you can cook up a bunch of meat, wrap each hunk in foil, put in freezer bags and have some for later. We use our smoker even on the coldest winter days (in Missouri Brrr!). Most always, I whip up this easy rub and it seems to really season the meat nicely. I use this rub on turkey, chicken, pork, and even briskit. People will think you are a pro when they taste smoked pork loin with this wonderful rub. Often, I make this homemade honey-mustard bbq sauce. I found these two recipes in SOUTHERN LIVING magazine. Enough said, huh? I always find great recipes in that magazine. I have modified the original recipe to suit my tastes. The original recipe had cinnamon (of all things) in the rub, and I'm just not ready to go there...

Enjoy!

BBQ Rub

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup garlic powder
1/4 cup paprika
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/2 Tablespoon ground red pepper (I don't always use this.)
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon lemon pepper
1 Tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons dry mustard (ground)
2 teaspoons ground black pepper.

Mix all ingredients. I use a whisk to fully incorporate and store in a covered container or zip loc bag.

Rub meat with a good amount of this rub and let it sit for an hour or so before putting your meat on the smoker. We just put our loins on a big cookie sheet, rub with the rub, cover and let sit while we are getting the fire ready in the smoker.

(If I'm doing a lot of meat, I double or triple this recipe.)

Honey - Mustard BBQ Sauce

1 bacon slice, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup prepared mustard (plain yellow mustard)
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper.

Cook bacon in a medium saucepan until crisp; remove bacon, and drain on paper towels, reserving drippings in the saucepan. Saute onion in the drippings about 3 minutes or until tender. Stir in the bacon, vinegar, and remaining ingrediens. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and immer, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. I store it in a quart canning jar with a lid.

This Honey-Mustard BBQ Sauce is also EXCELLENT served with chicken!

Easy Butterscotch Bars "Blondies" - ONLY 5 INGREDIENTS

2011-06-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

The other night our friends were coming over for a little after-work relaxation and I wanted to make something yummy to snack on. This recipe is great to make in a pinch because it uses ingredients you most always have in your pantry and since it only uses 5 ingredients, its super fast to stir together! When first looked at this recipe, I could not believe it had no baking powder - leavening ingredient, but it doesn't and it works great! These are terrific leftover. They get more moist and dense the next day. Definitely a good recipe to take to pot lucks! I usually sprinkle some powdered sugar over mine once they are cool for a better presentation!

Easy Butterscotch Bars or "Blondies" - 5 INGREDIENTS

1 cup melted butter (I used margarine - that's 2 sticks)
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups AP flour (whole wheat works great)

Stir melted butter and brown sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing well. Stir in flour and mix until well combined. Pour batter into a sprayed 9×13 inch baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes.

Bridal Party Breakfast

2011-06-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

My daughter was in a wedding over the weekend. She was a bridesmaid! They were going to get ready at the bride's house - doing hair, makeup, etc. and my daughter wanted to take some breakfast over to the wedding party. She had to be at the reception hall decorating until 1AM and so I got up early to give her a good start on breakfast. (I never sleep much anyway). She was going to make muffins (two kinds) and make a fruit tray. She had wanted a breakfast casserole but we didn't have quite the ingredients to make the breakfast casserole and she would have had to have gone to the store after decorating (at the all-night supercenter) and then made it (we had no bread), but that morning I discovered I did have enough ingredients to make a little pie crust and a simple quiche. I made the muffins (chocolate chip and blueberry) using the Plain Muffin recipe from http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ , the quiche from a favorite cookbook in my cabinet. Once my daughter got up she got the fruit tray ready. They had a feast and instead of eating at a drive-thru these girls had a terrific start to their day! They even took the leftover muffins to the church for the flower girls to have as a snack. It was an awesome day!

Here are the recipes for the BRIDAL PARTY BREAKFAST

HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CHIP OR BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder (NOT baking soda)
2 cups all purpose flour (unbleached is best!)
1 to 1 ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or frozen blueberries

In a large bowl combine the oil, egg, milk, sugar and salt. Mix it very well with a fork so that the egg is completely incorporated. Add in the baking powder and the flour. Mix again until all of the dough particles are moistened. Do not over mix. Add in 1 to 1 ½ cup chocolate chips or blueberries. The whole thing should take about 20 to 30 strokes total. Spoon the batter into a dozen well oiled or sprayed muffin cups (just about full) (I do not use cupcake papers). Bake in a preheated 400° oven for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before removing from the pan.

(This is a very versatile recipe. I sometimes substitute 1 cup of the flour with 1 cup oats, and have added 1 grated apple and some cinnamon which makes a terrific muffin!)

SIMPLE HAM & CHEESE QUICHE

1 pie crust placed in pie pan, edges crimped - or 1 unbaked pie shell
3 slices sandwich ham, cut into 1" squares
1 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar)
3 large eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon onion powder (optional)

Sprinkle ham and cheese in pie crust. In separate dish, combine eggs, milk, salt, pepper, & onion powder. Whip well to fully incorporate eggs / milk, etc. Pour into pie shell (over ham & cheese). Bake in preheated 350 degree oven 40 minutes or until top is browning a little bit. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

* You could also add some veges, such as mushrooms, broccoli, spinach, etc. OR even pepperoni, etc. to the cheese and ham layered in the crust before you dump on the egg mixture. I just wasn’t sure how picky the girls were so I used basic ham & cheese.

MENU PLAN MONDAY - June 20, 2011

2011-06-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

I have decided to participate in Menu Plan Monday found at http://www.orgjunkie.com/ and you will find me linked up there. Definitely, knowing ahead of time what you are eating for the week will avoid a little of the crazies I find at my house from time to time and possibly save me a little cashola.

This is my menu for the week starting Monday, June 20, 2011:

Monday:

B Wheat toast with HM raspberry beet jelly

L Peanut butter sandwich on WW bread, banana, and some leftover strawberry cottage cheese jello salad

S Hamburger Helper (not a good choice, I know, but its my older daughter's favorite and we had a big Father's Day meal yesterday so Dad can eat leftovers).

Tuesday:

B Cinnamon swirl Bread - toasted

L Peanut butter sandwich

S Two Crockpot Night - Baked whole chicken in the crockpot, baked potatoes in another crockpot, schoolhouse dinner rolls (make the dough Monday night and stick in the fridge), vege or salad

Wedesday:

B Cinnamon Swirl bread made into toast or smoothie

L  Large limas from the freezer, quesadillas, or PB&J

S Creamy Chicken Penne (made with leftover chicken from Two Crockpot Night), salad, and leftover Schoolhouse rolls

Thursday:

B Oatmeal with apples or banana - strawberry smoothie

L Beans or chicken quesadilla

S Baked "Fried" Fish, baked shoestring fries and onions, Homemade cornbread

Friday:

B Oatmeal, cereal, toast or monkey bread muffins

L Leftover fish as fish tacos (make some Super Easy Slaw)

S Pizza Night (Pizza on the grill poolside!)

Saturday:

B Smoothies, muffins, or toast

L Tacos or BBQ

S Leftovers or "On your Own"

Sunday:

B  HM french toast (made with any leftover cinn-swirl bread), sausage or bacon

L On your own (usually big breakfast holds us over)

S Oven fried chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing or stewed squash, blackberry pie (blackberries in the freezer)

Father's Day - Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

2011-06-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday was Father's Day! We had a BBQ for my Dad, my husband, and my brother. My husband's favorite dessert is mayonnaise cake. I know this sounds gross, but its wonderful. Mayonnaise is made with eggs and oil and the mayo in this cake replaces the eggs and oil in the recipe, so that makes it easy, and simple to make. I frost this cake with a homemade cocoa frosting, but sometimes I also frost it with buttercream. Its delicious and gets better the day after you make it. Its heavy, dense, chocolatey, and roll-your-eyes-back-in-your-head delicious!

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

2 cups flour, all-purpose
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa (not Nestle's brand - its not very dark)
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup water or cold coffee (coffee will make a darker chocolate cake but I just used water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, tossing lightly with a spoon to mix. Combine the mayonnaise, water (or coffee), and vanilla in a smaller bowl; add to the dry ingredients, beating with the mixer on medium for three minutes.

Pour into a sprayed 9 x 13 pan and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 25 minute or until springy and a knife comes out clean.

Frost when slightly warm with cocoa frosting.

Cocoa Frosting

5 Tablespoons room temp / softened margarine
4-5 Tablespoons cocoa (Hershey's is best - NOT Nestle's)
5 Tablespoons cold milk
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well. If too runny, add a little more powdered sugar. If too stiff, add a little more milk. I just make this by guess usually.

Homemade Corn Bread or Muffins

2011-06-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

I made HM cornbread to go with my roast dinner last Saturday night. I prefer to bake mine in an iron skillet because I love the crispiness that you get around the edges when you bake it in an iron skillet. I do sometimes bake corn muffins if we are going to someone's house and that just works better for carry-in dinners and potlucks.

This recipe came from http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/. It is the recipe for Plain Muffins using the variation for cornbread. We think this is as good as Jiffy cornbread. Not quite as sweet but I'm sure you could increase the sugar a little bit and make it your own way. I like to make cornbread At Home My Way (OF COURSE! lol).

Homemade Cornbread or Corn Muffins

■1/4 cup oil
■1 egg (I only used the egg white and did not use the yolk.)
■1 cup milk
■1/3 cup sugar
■1/2 teaspoon salt
■1 tablespoon baking powder
■1 cup flour
■1 cup yellow cornmeal (not self rising)

In a large bowl combine the oil, egg, milk, sugar and salt. Mix it very well with a fork or wire whisk. Measure in the baking powder, flour and cornmeal. Mix again until all of the dough particles are moistened. Do not over mix. The whole thing should take about 20 to 30 strokes. Spoon the batter into a sprayed iron skillet or sprayed muffin cups (12). Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before removing from the pan or slice in the skillet for a "rustic" presentation. ha-ha!

This cornbread goes great with a bit pot of pinto beans! Talk about good southern food! MMmmmm - Mmmmmm!

Roast with Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, and DUMPLINGS!

2011-06-13T07:35:00.000-07:00

My family moved to rural Missouri from a suburban area in Florida when I was in the eighth grade. Let's just say it was a culture shock! I remember the first year here around Christmas, possibly Christmas Eve we went to a very small town to visit some of my parents' friends. This little town is located on the Missouri River and had a population of something like 25. Their claim to fame was that one of the residents of the town had built come kind of solar porta pot! Crazy... the things you remember. Anyway, back to my story. I remember that in our town's newspaper was a small section highlighting the news from the very small town we visited and we thought it was hysterical that our visit made the actual newspaper!

The lady made us a very delicious meal and one of the things we loved that she served was dumplings in the roast gravy. She took the gravy from her roast and put it in a little pot, brought it to a boil,and dropped in some small pinches of canned biscuit dough. These dumplings were so yummy and easy! My mom started making these dumplings with her roast and so when my husband and I got married, this soon became one of those things he just could not live without. He CANNOT have roast without those little dumplings.

I made roast / potatoes/ carrots/ and onions on Saturday (it was cool & rainy here in mid-Missouri) and of course, I had to make some dumplings. In my quest to avoid processed foods, I suggested that I use the recipe I use for rolled / square dumplings in my chicken & dumplings) instead of the canned biscuits in this dish. My husband likes the chewiness of the dumplings in my chicken & dumplings, so he was "okay" with this substitution. Definitely it was a good decision. We both agreed that they were perfect!

This is how I make my roast and my dumpling recipe & instructions will follow. But, if you don't want to go to all this work (really its not that bad), but you can pour off your gravy (my husband helps with his chore because its hard to hold the pot, hold the lid cracked, and dump the gravy in the pot without making a huge mess), just use canned biscuits. Either works fine and tastes very yummy!

ROAST WITH POTATOES, CARROTS & ONIONS (baked)

One roast of your choice. My husband prefers rump roast
1 can cream of mushroom soup (or use HM cream of mushroom soup)
1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet (this is a key ingredient to us)
Potatoes, peeled and sliced in thirds lengthwise
Carrots (no need to peel), just cut in short lengths or use baby carrots, or canned carrots (I used some I canned last summer)
1 onion peeled and quartered
Salt & Pepper

Instructions:

Place the roast in a large baking pan. I like to use my heavy enamel dutch ovens but it is a bit heavy! Place the peeled / sliced potatoes (thick slices) and carrots around the roast. Place the onion quarters on top of the meat. Dump the cream of mushroom soup on the roast (just plop it on top; it will dissolve as it bakes). Fill up the soup can with water and add the teaspoon of Kitchen Bouquet - stir to dissolve). Add another can of water. (total=2 cans water) Dump the water/Kitchen Bouquet mixture on top. Cover tightly with foil or the lid to your dutch ven. Place in 350 degree oven for approximately 3 hours.

When your roast is fork tender. Drain the gravy into a medium sized sauce pan.

DUMPLING RECIPE (or use 2 cans of cheapo canned biscuits)

In a bowl stir well:

2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Next add:

1 Tablespoon margarine or butter

Using a pastry blender or fork, cut the butter/margarine into the flour mixture til small crumbs.

Add:

2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons milk

Stir well and then using hands keep kneading and folding all of the flour in the bowl into the ball of dough. No need to knead a lot, just knead until most of the flour is incorporated into the dough. Form into a disc. Let rest, at least for approximately 10 minutes. (I wrapped mine in plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge because I made my dumpling dough up when I put the roast in the oven).

When the roast is done and the gravy is poured off. Remove dough from the fridge. Place on floured surface. Cut dough in half. Using a floured rolling pin on a floured surface, roll each strip (half of the dough) a little thicker than you would a pie crust. Using a pizza cutter wheel, cut into small squares.

Back to the gravy in the pot!

Add 1 cup of water to the gravy you have in your pot. Bring thi gravy & water to a boil and once it is boiling good, drop the dumpling squares in. Stir only a little bit so as not to break up the dough squares. Place a lid on and reduce to simmer about 10 minutes. Gently stir occasionally. Salt & pepper if you like.

All of this warms up great!

I will post the recipe to chicken & dumplings soon since I now have the dumpling recipe already posted and it tastes very much like Cracker Barrel chicken & dumplings.

Homemade Italian Dressing for salads or marinade

2011-06-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

My family LOVES chicken cooked on the grill that has first been marinated in Italian Dressing. I am never one who wants to go to the store to buy ONE INGREDIENT! So, I pulled out my trusty laptop and searched for a homemade Italian Dressing recipe. I found one that I love. It makes a great dressing for salads, lettuce or pasta, and I also use it for marinating chicken, either for cooking on the stovetop or on the grill. Its so much cheaper than buying a bottle of salad dressing and uses ingredients you probably already have in your house:

Homemade Italian Dressing (Zesty)

• ½ cup olive or canola oil
• ½ cup white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Italian spices (I used oregano)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper (just a shake)
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• 3 Tablespoons water
• 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise (I did not use the mayo for my marinade)

Mix well and store in a jar in the fridge. Shake well before using. Sometimes I add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar if I'm after a less sour dressing. (IT SMELLS DIVINE!)

June, 2011 meal log

2011-06-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Trying to get my meal ideas all in one place again. Its JUNE, 2011, and this is our meal log.

June 4, 2011 (Saturday): Poolside, hotdogs and polish sausage on the grill, chips and Dean's Dip, cream cheese covered with red pepper jelly w/ crackers
June 5, 2011 (Sunday): grilled chicken marinated in this Homemade Italian Salad Dressing, cheesy potatoes (hashbrown casserole), seasoned green beans, canned corn, HM french bread;
Snacks: Salted yellow popcorn and Peanut Butter Popcorn (the popcorn was a huge success!)
June 6, 2011: (Monday): Leftovers & Grandma's Homemade Vanilla Icecream and Homemade Strawberry Icecream
June 7, 2011: (Tuesday): McDonalds with Granny and Poppy
June 8, 2011: (Wednesday) HAPPY 26 ANNIVERSARY! We had Outback and loved it!
June 9, 2011: (Thursday) Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with pasta, salad and garlic toast made with leftover HM french bread.
June 10, 2011: (Friday) Leftovers, frozen pizza
June 11, 2011: (Saturday) HM waffles for breakfast with crushed/sweetened strawberries from the Gentry garden along with Gerke's Osage local sausage and also sausage gravy over toast (for hubby). Supper was Roast/Potatoes/Carrots, Onions, HM dumplings, last year's homecanned green beans, corn, HM cornbread
June 12, 2011: (Sunday) Leftover waffles w/ strawberries, Dinner at my brother and his wife's house, we took brownies made with a mix. We had smoked ribs & chicken, hashbrown casserole, asparagus, Mom's baked beans, garlic bread! It was yummy!
June 13, 2011 (Monday) Leftover waffles w/ strawberries, pinto beans in the crockpot with some round steak and baked oven fries.
June 14, 2011 (Tuesday) Hamburgers and tator tots in the oven
June 15, 2011 (Wednesday) Leftovers from the freezer (spaghetti)
June 16, 2011 (Thursday) Leftovers from the freezer
June 17, 2011 (Friday) Our friends bought us pizza and came over to swim. I made these blondies!
June 18, 2011 (Saturday) Wedding of a friend. We made a Bridesmaid Breakfast of quiche, chocolate chip muffins, blueberry muffins, and a fruit tray. No lunch, but had supper at the wedding and it was scrumptious!
June 19, 2011 (Sunday) Breakfast at the Bobber restaurant. $2 subs at Subwy for lunch, and supper was hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats on the grill with Mom's potato salad, baked beans, slaw for the dogs, Orange Pretzel dessert, Nana's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.
June 20, 2011 (Monday) Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger macaroni (cheater)
June 21, 2011 (Tuesday) Baked Chicken in the crockpot, oven fries, garlic toast made with going stale hamburger buns. IT WAS A FEAST! (notes-half a chicken is left!)
June 22, 2011 (Wednesday) Chicken Alfredo, using chicken marinated in HM Italian Dressing, jarred alfredo from the pantry (although I do have easy recipes for this), salad

Tin-Can Banana Bread in my Crock Pot

2011-05-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

Our Missouri weather has been really CRAZY lately! This past week we have gone from highs of low 50's - and using our furnace to mid 90's and using the AC! No complaints yet on the heat, though. It feels wonderful to be hot and feel that warm concrete and some dry grass beneath my toes! I'm sure beach sand and salt water has a certain allure for the sticking of one's toes in, but after a winter of blizzards, drizzle, cold and ice, and a spring of more cold, hail, and tornadoes, this girl's toes felt pretty good just feeling some hot grass and concrete!

Since it was nice and HOT on Monday, and I was spending precious time working in my garden, I chose to bake some banana bread in my crockpot instead of the oven where I had to hover inside watching it and so as not to heat up my south facing kitchen during the heat of the day. I once baked banana bread in a stonewear bowl in my crockpot, but I have since broken that bowl and had to find another "vessel" for baking in the crockpot.

I have a good friend who bakes delicious pumpkin bread in coffee cans for snacks and gifts. Its pretty hard to find actual metal coffee cans these days so I have been saving those 29 ounce cans that sliced peaches come in. They are the same diameter as coffee cans, but are just a little shorter which works best in my crockpot anyway!

My older daughter (the sceptic) and my husband came in as I was putting it all together. My husband's comment was, "I'm not even going to ask...." (laughing) and my daughter, said "Mother, what are you doing now?" I told her the "what" (banana bread in the crockpot) and the "why" (because its too hot in this kitchen to turn on the oven) and she said "well... aren't you resourceful?" (of course she should know this already!)

It turned out terrific and my daughter,the sceptic, ate the entire first loaf before the day was over!

Definitely this recipe is AWESOME, the method works wonderfully, and some part of me really loved that I used recycled cans to bake my bread in! It was a win-win as far as I was concerned. Definitely would be a fun classroom project because you could bake in a crockpot in the classroom over the span of a couple of hours, and the use of vege cans, would make nice little round loaves that any brownie troop or classroom would love!

Here is the recipe for my TIN CAN BANANA BREAD IN THE CROCKPOT

(Also, I am dedicating this recipe to my good friend, who is in the Peace Corp in Guatemala, and who first inspired this recipe! It works, Whitney! I love baking in cans!)

Tin Can Banana Bread in the Crock Pot

(I used two 29-ounce clean fruit cans, sprayed with cooking spray on all sides. If you do not like the idea of using cans, two pint WIDE MOUTH canning jars would work just fine - just remember to spray good with cooking spray or grease/flour..)

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas
2 well-beaten eggs
1/4 cup oil
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional, I did not use)

Instructions: Make sure that the cans nestle in your crockpot (I sat the cans in the insert) and covered with the lid to make sure it fit tightly over the cans. In a mixing bowl, mash banana; stir in eggs, sugar, oil, and all remaining ingredients. Stir well. Pour into the two sprayed cans (each only half-full because the bread will rise in the can to the top). Place in the crockpot (on high) and cook (with the lid on the crockpot) (approximately because all crockpots cook differently) 3 hours; checking here and there to see if the bread is browning and starting to bounce back. I did stick a thin sharp knife down in the middle of the bread to see if it came out clean - to show that it was done.

Remove from the crockpot. Loosen around the sides with a knife and they will plot right out!

Peggy Jean-Ish Pasta Salad

2011-05-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

I am back among the living - blogging! Hurray!

We have had a very, very BUSY (did I say busy?) couple of weeks at our house. My older daughter graduated from college a couple of weeks ago and this past weekend my younger daughter and one of my nieces graduated from high school. To celebrate, we had two separate graduation parties and even though it was a TREMENDOUS amount of work getting our Central Missouri yard presentable for guests, we had a great time! Each party had different foods and we did a pretty good job representing each graduate's favorite dishes.

At my older daugher's graduation celebration we served, this pulled BBQ pork (I baked it in the oven and made six times the recipe of BBQ sauce), and this Super Easy Slaw recipe, and, of course, her favorite deep fried crinkle-cut french fries, some of these Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars (which were a HUGE HIT) and lots of other stuff.

At the most recent graduation celebration for my younger daughter and niece, my husband smoked a briskit, a long pork loin, and a turkey. We had LOTS AND LOTS OF SIDES and I also made this pasta salad recipe which I'm going to share with you today. I ALWAYS get the most compliments on this dish! Everyone begs for the recipe. I even took it to my husband's work picnic and an older lady whom I didn't even know walked up to me and pleaded that I share this recipe with her. Its so EASY that I was able to jot it down from memory for her on a napkin! You cannot go wrong with this recipe!

Some background on this recipe: We used to have a local restaurant owned by two ladies and their specialty was pie of all kinds They also served soup, salads, sandwiches and a pasta salad that I could not get enough of. I searched high and low, scouring all kinds of sources, looking for a recipe that I thought sounded right because the restaurant CLOSED and the ladies retired! I found a recipe in an old QUICK COOKING magazine and I have altered it to create my version of this fantastic pasta salad. It uses no oil and since it has no mayo or anything like that, it will last without you having to worry about how long it has been un-refridgerated.

You will love this! And with garden season fast approaching, this will be a nice recipe to have around because you can include lots of your fresh garden veges in this pasta salad!

PEGGY JEAN-ISH PASTA SALAD

1 package (16 ounces) tricolor spiral pasta (or regular spiral pasta will work JUST FINE)
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (I peel the cucumber, slice lenghwise into fourths, and then slice each 1/4 piece)
1 medium green pepper, chopped (or use red or yellow for pretty color).
1/2 red or white (sweet onion) finely sliced & cut the rings into 1/4ths.

DRESSING:

1 cup granulated (white) sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar (or cider vinegar is also fine)
1 tablespoon ground mustard (do not omit this ingredient - key player!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse with cold water. Place in a large serving bowl. Stir in the onion, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, and onion set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the dressing ingredients. Cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved (watch out because it swells when it boils. Keep an eye on it.). Pour over salad and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours. Serve with a slotted spoon. Yield: 16 servings.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

2011-04-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

I love to take my basic recipes and be able to make something yummy with what I have on hand! I will talk myself out of cooking every single time if I have to make trip to the store. The other night I really wanted something yummy. I didn't have a whole lot of chocolate chips. I had white sugar but I had just made these Sugar Cookie Bars - Frosted the week prior and I wanted to make something a little different. I decided to replace half of the sugar in this recipe with packed brown sugar and added a few chocolate chips. These Chocolate Chip Blondies are definitely a recipe I will make often in the future. Even my husband commented that they were PARTICULARLY good and he's not a big "sweet" person (although he is very sweet :) ).

Chocolate Chip Blondies

(These would be great for potluck - could also double this recipe and bake in a 9 x 13 pan (a longer baking time would apply).

1/2 cup room temp (soft) margarine (melted is fine)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup chocolate chips (or vanilla or peanut butter chips would be YUMMY also)

In a medium sized bowl cream together the margarine, the brown sugar and the white sugar. Stir it until it is smooth and fluffy. Add the egg, milk and vanilla, mixing well. Stir in the salt, baking powder and flour. Blend it all up until it makes a nice smooth dough. Stir in the chocolate / vanilla chips. Spread into a sprayed (prepared) 8 x 8 baking pan. Bake in a completely PREHEATED oven for approximately 15-20 minutes or until the cookie starts to brown at the edges.

Remove from oven to cool completely.

Fresh Breakfast - Homemade Yogurt Parfaits

2011-04-13T06:30:00.000-07:00

Last night we had leftovers for supper (leftover BBQ chicken). So that meant I had a little time to make some granola. I LOVE those yogurt parfaits you get at McDonalds. I especially loved them when they gave you the BIGGER serving! Now, I almost need to order two because one just doesn't do it for me. But, better than buying those things, I have now mastered making them AT HOME MY WAY!

Homemade Yogurt Parfaits

Homemade Perfect Granola
Vanilla Yogurt (sometimes I make homemade yogurt, sweeten with a little sugar and add vanilla) but other times I prefer Yoplait regular (not fat free) vanilla yogurt. Its JUST LIKE the yogurt in the partfaits at McDonalds
Fresh Strawberries
Frozen blueberries (I bought all they had on the clearance rack ($.99 each) in fresh produce and put them in a big bag in my freezer)

Find yourself a pretty bowl. I got these cute bright green bowls at my favorite thrift store (called Savvy Seconds) for $1.00/4. Dump your yogurt in the bowl. Top with some sliced strawberries and a handful of frozen blueberries (or fresh, I just like the blueberries frozen), and then a scoop of that delicious Homemade Perfect Granola.

This is a perfect way to make something at home that you would normally eat "out". Its fresh, its cheap, and it has no hidden ingredients. Oh! And the granola isn't so hard that you risk chipping a tooth! :)

Enjoy!