At Home My Way

I love to cook and bake all types of things, even the most detailed recipes for pastry, but I DO NOT LIKE TO MAKE FROSTED SUGAR COOKIES!  Something about all that rolling, cutting, baking, cooling, frosting, and decorating, takes the fun out of it for me.  Of course, I do love eating them, just not all that other stuff.  I ran across the best idea on one of my favorite cooking blogs (Mommy's Kitchen)  here .  Why didn't I think of this sooner?  Duh!  I took the basic idea of baking sugar cookies as sugar cookie bars, frosted them, and decorated with colorful sprinkles!  I used my own sugar cookie recipe because its super easy and I had everything on hand. WAH-LAH!  They were beautiful, delicious, cheap, and would be a great dish to share if you have to take something for goody day or potluck.  I stirred up some homemade vanilla frosting, tinted it with food color to frost the cooled cookie bars.  Easy peasy!  I didn't even use ...

HOMEMADE ENGLISH MUFFINS I make up a big bowl of dough (the folks from MOTHER EARTH magazine and this blog showed me how) and from that bowl of dough I make a variety of dishes.  I can make round loaves of crusty bread - bakery quality - to serve with soups and salads.  I can make this delicious Homemade Pizza .  I also make rolls, bread sticks, and one of our favorites, Homemade English Muffins.  Yes.... all from the same bowl of dough, which can be kept in the fridge for my spontaneous cooking delight for about two weeks.  I posted the recipe for the dough when I posted instructions for the Homemade Pizza, but I will post it again simply because it is so good and easy.  Who doesn't have one minute to stir up homemade bread before you run off  to work?  You might think you don't have one extra minute in the morning, but after you taste recipes made with this dough, you will know that you have the time! No-Knead Dough 3 cups very warm wa...

I made dinner the other day for my mother-in-law and her two sisters as well as my niece and her boyfriend! Good food and family always makes for a good time.  I made my daughters' favorite HAMBURGER SOUP (I will post the recipe soon).  Also I made a loaf of french bread and a loaf of pizza bread !  For sweets, I made an oatmeal pie (which was a flop and I threw that recipe away) and a batch of these Quick and Easy Sugar Cookies . They used basic ingredients I already had in my pantry and were fairly speedy since they made a small batch.  I rolled some in colored sugar and some in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.  The soup was perfect (I only had one small bowl leftover) but the cookies stole the show!  If you need a quick, easy dish to share, this would be a good thing to take! (I got this recipe from a favorite blog - www.hillbillyhousewife.com.)  Quick and Easy Sugar Cookies 1/2 cup soft margarine or shortening (I used margarine.) 1 cup ...

MONDAY:  Breakfast:  Leftover HM biscuits, cereal, chocolate chip pumpkin bread (gift) Lunch:  PB sandwich, banana Supper:  BBQ Boneless chicken on the grill (from the freezer), baked shoestring fries & onion , leftover greenbeans and corn (from Sunday nights supper of Smoked Turkey (from the freezer) with HM rub seasoning, baked potatoes , crusty french bread , seasoned green beans and corn ) TUESDAY: Breakfast:  Leftover HM biscuits, cereal, chocolate chip pumpkin bread (gift) Lunch:  Smoked Turkey Sandwich (leftover turkey from Sunday), strawberries, Supper:  Taking daughter #2 prom dress shopping so we're eating at Culvers.  Leftovers for Dad Next day prep:  Mix up apple/oatmeal muffins using plain muffin recipe from http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ (subbing 1 cup oatmeal for 1 cup flour and adding in one grated apple) for baking Wednesday morning. WEDNESDAY (make up some 5-minute a day bread d...

Do you see in this picture that I'm having two pieces of Peanut Butter Sheetcake?  Yes! I! AM!  This cake is so delicious!  And... OF COURSE... I could not just sit there eating one piece when its that good.  My excuse is that if I was eating a layer cake, I would be getting two layers, so I just made two layers out of my sheetcake.  OK?  And, no I did not feel worse for the wear!  I could have eaten three!  Seriously, this is one of the BEST CAKES I HAVE EVER EATEN!  Definitely a keeper! Make this Peanut Butter Sheetcake and you will see... This recipes was linked to The Grocery Cart Challenge Friday Recipe Swap Peanut Butter Sheetcake 2 cups sugar 2 cups flour 2 eggs 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sour cream (I used 1 cup of homemade plain yogurt.) 2/3 cup creamy peanut butter 1 cup butter (I used margarine - and remember 1 cup = 2 sticks) 1 cup water Frosting: 1/2 cup butter (I used margarine - 1 stick = 1/2 cu...

Last night was Wednesday night.  That means "bowling night" for Big Daddy and Girls Night for us girls.  Well.. daughter #1 likes to hang with the big dogs so she went to the bowling alley with her Dad.  Daughter #2 and I decided to make some "ultra" fun food since the two pickiest eaters would be at the bowling alley and to eat while we were watching American Idol.  It was tremendous.  We have so many favorites we just don't know who is likely to win! We made a recipe I had written down in my cabinet called "KINDA" EMPANADAS.  I have to confess that I have never eaten an authentic empanada so I had no point of reference in it being "kind of" an empanada.  All I know is that we LOVED them!  Basically they are a buttery pastry crust (like a meat pie) filled with seasoned hamburger, onion, and cheese),  They were a teensy bit of work but very much worth the effort.  The crust that these little babies are made with was a prize in it...

March, 2011 Supper/Main Pork Chops browned and baked in the oven Ham in Crockpot #1 with Hashbrown Casserole in Crockpot #2 Birthday Feast (Best Hot Wing Dip Ever, Becca's Taco Dip, BBQ Little Smokies in little crock, BBQ Hamburgers and Hotdogs, Sweet & Sour Pasta Salad, Baked Beans, Peanut Butter Sheetcake) and more... Homemade Chinese with Baked Egg Rolls "Kinda" Empanadas with Homemade Mexican Rice Spaghetti, pineapple lettuce salad (recipe to come), 5 minute a day bread rolls , and homemade chocolate pudding Hamburger soup, french bread and pizza bread , Quick and Easy Sugar Cookies

My husband and I commute to work together and we usually roll in the driveway at about 5:35 pm.  But, last night we had supper on the table at 6:15pm.  And it was not take out or frozen pizza.  By using two crockpots and mixing up some homemade cornbread, we had a Sunday-type supper on the table in 45 minutes.  Wow, we loved it!  And combine that with the fact that we are in the car driving to work at 7:15am each morning, we discovered a wonderful way to put dinner on the table. This is what we had: Ham (we bought a small bone-in ham at Aldi for $8.00, which will also feed us sandwiches for lunch and I will be freezing the ham bone for making beans on another day) Hashbrown Casserole Homemade Cornbread Muffins Corn (storebought, canned) Large Lima Beans (from my freezer) Directions for the Ham : I took the ham out of the freezer that night before bed.  I ran some water on it, removed the wrapping and put it in the empty, unplugged crockpot (...

I know this picture is terrible!  But the biscuit was SO DELICIOUS! This weekend it was our older daughter's 23rd birthday!  I had lots of cooking to do but since we weren't eating until 3:00, I wanted to have something "decent" for breakfast to ward off "the hungries".  I decided to try a new recipe I had lying around.  I love the cinnamon-raisin biscuits you get at Hardees.  And true to form, I just HAVE to be able to recreate this stuff at home so I don't have to leave the house to get my favorites.  These are PERFECT!  I decided they would also be good with grated apple added in instead of raisins, or omitting the cinnamon and adding a Tablespoon of blueberry pie filling to the middle of each biscuit before baking.  These are the perfect "starter" for lots of good ideas for biscuits.  These are so delicious!  Instead of wopping open that tube of cinnamon rolls you find in the grocery store, try these!  ...

Last night we had a "girls night" at our house.  Hubby had bowling night and usually daughter #1 has girls night with her girlfriends but she was a little tired and so she joined her sister and I for American Idol.  Let me first say, I'm not a TV person really except I have to confess I can continually watch documentary type crime stories, the food channel, or the 24/7 news channels (I'm such a bore).  But, this season I tuned in for the first time (its Season 10) to American Idol.  I'm hooked.  My girls and I had a great time commenting about our favorites and,... of course, texting our votes in.  The girls cracked up at me as I said I would be "blowing up their phone" with my texts.  This comment made me LAUGH OUT LOUD and the girls thought I was completely ready for the nursing home because I thought this was so funny!  I guess "blowing up someone's phone" sounded so funny coming from this old 40's mouth.  And talking in their ling...

I now work at the same law firm I started working at when I was 18 years old and a newlywed (I've worked a few places "in between" but now I'm back with them making a full circle.)  We had a wonderful lady who worked with "our" attorneys since they were law clerks. She was really something and oh how I miss her!  She came to the office several times a week until after she celebrated her 86th birthday.  What a woman!  Her name was "Jamilee" and in addition to her impeccable dress, always perfectly painted nails, professional business suits,  panty hose and heels, complete with White Linen perfume until the day she retired, she also made the very best pies I had ever had!  I cannot believe I have kept up with her precious recipes for 25 years years!  My how time flies. I probably make Jamilee's chocolate pie the most because more people tend to like chocolate pie at our house, but I also love to make her recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie.  (I will...