At Home My Way

We LOVE lasagna at my house.  I normally make a big pan of it, after MAKING homemade sauce, boiling noodles, and placing ALL OF THAT in a big baking dish.  It's a lot of work but normally we all think that it was worth all of old Mom's work because we all love it (in spite of all of that work and dirty dishes) and we eagerly eat up all of the leftovers. Since I have been on a pinning frenzy lately on Pinterest, I found this terrific idea for Skillet Lasagna.  Boing!  Why hadn't I thought of that?  It only makes sense that you can cook lasagna all in one skillet just like you do when you make  Homemade Cheeseburger Helper .  My family likes a pretty stripped down version of lasagna.  They want meat sauce, pasta, and mozzerella.  That's it. I took the recipe that I originally pinned and tailored it just a little bit for my own family. I found the original recipe for Skillet Lasagna at Cooking with Libby .  Lib...

The other day I pinned a terrific little find, a recipe for  Homemade Angel Food Cake Loaf .  I was so excited about this recipe!  I often gaze lovingly at those little loaves of angel food cake when I'm grocery shopping but the "cheap" in me just cannot fork out over $3 a pop for those little babies. My husband's aunt used to make homemade angel food cake.  I have her recipe.  It seems deliciously exotic and a recipe only reserved for the professionals.  I have an angel food cake pan.  You know.. one of those tube pans with the legs that shoot out (because an angel food cake cools upside down in its pan, hovering in the air so that it doesn't loose is fluffiness.  Whew!  All of that seemed complicated to me. In fact, it was really one of those bucket list recipes that I was going to try, SOME DAY... Well, fast forward to today (yesterday actually) when I read the recipe at a blog called Cooke's Frontier .  It didn...

This Sunday was a pretty relaxed kind of day.  A Sunday Pot Roast kind of day..  Our day started with lots of clouds and cool temperatures.  Our weather people had predicted sun and 70's and I was a little depressed to discovered more clouds and cool temps for all of the morning and into the afternoon.  Thankfully, it warmed up and the sun came out by about 2PM.  Hurray!  I needed some sunshine! This week my menu plan will consist of: Breakfasts :   Homemade Yogurt Parfaits     Blueberry muffins using the recipe here with blueberries instead of chocolate chips     Homemade Bread Machine Bagels   Lunches :     Gator Eyes   Sandwiches/PB&J   Leftover sandwiches w/ Sunday Pot Roast   Suppers :   Skillet Lasagna (new to me) Burgers with Baked Cheesy Fries Crockpot Chicken Parmesan (new to me) Breakfast for supper (ham & Perfect ...

I have already posted this recipe but it is so good!  Since I made a couple of pans of Schoolhouse Rolls for a potluck luncheon this morning for work, and I got a good picture, I am reposting this delicious recipe.  I never know what to make for those things and one of the girls at work requested hot rolls since she knows I love to bake bread. Hot rolls make a perfect potluck dish.  They are frugal, use mostly pantry ingredients, but are much appreciated by folks who don't have someone at home making homemade rolls. I made the dough in the bread machine using this recipe: SCHOOLHOUSE DINNER ROLLS (Bread Machine instructions) 1 1/3 cup very warm water (hot but no hurt) 1 packet of yeast (or 2 teaspoons) 1/4 cup white sugar Instructions:   Measure the water in a 2- cup measuring cup (which will allow for adding additional ingredients without dirtying more dishes), add the sugar and yeast. Mix well/gently and s...

Mondays.  Ugh.... If it's not enough to have to go BACK to work and leave the comfort of home, you have to PLAN stuff, like breakfast, lunch, and supper.  What to have? Usually on Sundays I spend some time brainstorming what "sounds good" for meals for the next week.  Definitely having my blog helps because I can use the key words at the right of my blog to sort some easy ideas for things we have liked in the past. I try to take my lunch every day.  I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I have bought lunch since I started at my new job a year ago.  In fact, the girls at work sometimes laugh at the stuff I bring.   Some of my old standby lunches are: corndog muffins - (oooh baby, I loves those!)       homemade frozen burritos (so quick - much better made at home)     Sometimes I'm so LAZY and all I do is take two pieces of this bread that I keep sliced in my freezer.  I t...

We barbecued burgers again this weekend.  My niece was in from out of state and we all wanted to get together to get a chance to visit with her (and each other!).  I took this delicious salad to the BBQ.  Every single thing was just so delicious!  After a long winter (that refuses to let go of us), BBQ just taste extra special and we can't get enough!  I first found this recipe at a great blog called The Prudent Homemaker.  Check it out HERE! This salad can be used to incorporate your favorite seasonal fruit, like strawberries, apples, pears, oranges etc.  It features your favorite lettuce, green onions, sugared pecans, fruit and feta.  It's a delicious combination! I had mandarin oranges on hand and I particularly like the orange contrast next to the salad greens and feta so that is what I used on Sunday.  My mother-in-law commented that she could make a meal completely out of this salad alo...

Gardening season is fast approaching!  Hurray!  There was a terrible drought in Missouri last summer so my garden was... should we say "pitiful" to say the least.  Of course, I'm always overly eager so I have added a few ideas to help my garden along.  I'm going to try burying 5-gallon buckets or 2/3 liter soda bottles with  my veges for deep root watering.  I'm also going to try adding a few vegetables and fruits in with my landscaping.  I have a few natural weed and bug killers to try since pinning on Pinterest has been my favorite weeknight lounging activity. Along with making a garden plan this spring, I also like to make at least a mental list of the things I want to can from my garden.  I normally can pickles (like this delicious sweet pickle relish : a special salsa recipe (which I will post soon); a favorite raspberry-beet jelly that is completely delicious filled in homemade donuts or topping Homemade Biscuits ; green beans; ...

Yesterday (Sunday), it was such a beautiful spring day!  We put some burgers on the grill and spent lots of time outside. I knew one thing I wanted to make was my new favorite Ditch the Box Cheesecake !  That recipe is my new go-to favorite dessert for potlucks and just for weeknight snacking.  It's just so incredible that I could go on and on! While cleaning out my deep freezer recently, I discovered a treasured bag of frozen cherries that I had been given by a good friend.  My friend grew up on a farm in a small town closeby and she always brings home magnificent treasures when she visits her folks, like pitted cherries, apricots, and even stories like how her mom planted potatoes or onions.  She shares a wealth of information with me which I treasure since I grew up in the Sunshine State. Our childhood stories are very different to say the least! I was especially thrilled to find this bag of cherries so I could try making some homemade...

Yesterday morning I mixed up a batch of 5 Minute a Day dough for my fridge before I left for work - planning to make Homemade Pizza for supper.  When we got home we ran out to my husband's mom's house for a little visit so we got home a little later than we usually do.  We could have grabbed a bite to eat somewhere but just knowing that delicious dough was in the refrigerator spurred me on to stay with the plan and make homemade pizza.  Once you try this dough for crust and make a pizza with it, pizzaria restaurants just don't seem as wonderful as they once have... because this pizza is just THE PIZZA!  Sometimes I use store bought, jarred pizza sauce but unless I have several people to feed I tend to open the jar, make a pizza for me and Doug, and leave the rest languishing in the fridge to mold.  I hate being so wasteful!  I discovered not too long ago when I was making do instead of running to the store , that a cheapy little can of tomato sa...