At Home My Way

When my brother and I were little, our mom often made canned biscuit donuts.  You know... the ones that you make by frying canned biscuits.  My mom says that when she was younger, they would sometimes get these for lunch.  Gotta love that!   My brother and I  loved when we got to have these.  We each either had the job of pressing out the dough and cutting holes OR shaking them in the bag of powdered sugar.  We loved both jobs.  I never remember having a preference. We always had these with powdered sugar but cinnamon sugar (regular granulated sugar mixed with a little cinnamon) would also be great.  You sometimes find these type of donuts on Chinese buffet restaurants although they aren't shaped like donuts. Not an incredibly healthy choice for breakfast, I know, but frugal and DELICIOUS!  And FUN! I don't particularly like buying canned biscuits.  I'm always a fan of making it at home instead of using some over -processed ...

One of the things I clean the most with at my house is window cleaner.  You know... Windex.  Except I haven't bought actual Windex for years! I used to follow a favorite blog, Grocery Cart Challenge , but life must have gotten busy for Gayle because I don't think she's posted on her blog since April.  Nevertheless, her wisdom is still helping me every single day. I use window cleaner to clean my windows, in my house and in my car.  I clean my countertops with it, my doors, my door knobs, my faucets, my sinks.  I sometimes even wet a mop and just spray window cleaner on my tile floor for mopping.  This recipe SMELLS just like Windex.  It CLEANS just like Windex.  It LOOKS pretty much just like Windex.  The only thing it doesn't do is cost as much as Windex.  Windex costs around $3.50 per bottle.  Mine comes to about $.30.  That's per BOTTLE! This window cleaner will not streak and works just as good as the store boug...

Rebecca made these adorable and delicious Caramel Apple Hand Pies last night.  These are definitely something I've wanted to try for a while although the recipes I have seen for small pies have used a muffin tin for the tiny pies.  These are even more perfect because you don't need anything but a napkin to gobble them down.   They would be perfect for potlucks, lunches, breakfast on the run.  YUM!   The possibilities are endless. You could make them as homemade poptarts using chocolate chips, jam, applesauce, apple butter.  You could make other types of hand pies like blackberry, blueberry, PEACH! Rebecca said that these took no time at all to make since she used a store bought pie crust.   I found it super special that she made these since she doesn't even really eat sweets or desserts very often.  Hey, she even took great step-by-step pictures.  She's a blogger in the making! These were so good that she told me she had to go bac...

The weather has been glorious lately.  Beautiful days and even more perfect nights!  We LOVE to get together with some dear friends and sit around a fire on Friday and Saturday nights.  Our friends have the perfect spot, back behind some trees in a little clearing.  Lots of good laughs, talking, solving the world's (and our own) problems, a little drinking...and lots of EATING goes on there... LOL. My friend and I agreed as we were getting the fire going last Friday night that this was OUR kind of camping!  A fire, some chairs and blankets, fun food like hotdogs and smores, and OUR OWN BED AND A SHOWER at the end of the night!  No tents, bugs, bath houses and dirt! Love that! Our friends really put out a spread for us Friday night.  They had veges and dip, chips and home canned salsa, smores, hotdogs, brownies and this delicious dip.  This "bean dip" is one of our favorite things to eat when we get together.  (Well... we have also be...

Rebecca had us over yesterday for BBQ.  Her house is looking great and we had a nice time.  It was drizzling rain (which NEVER happens) and a nice breeze was blowing through her windows.  Ahhhh!   Doug barbecued the burgers, brats, and hotdogs.  He also got out the fish fryer and made some of Rebecca's favorite fries (which are nothing more than frozen, crinkle-cut fries, but when fried outside seem to be something super special). Rebecca made her famous RANCH DIP (recipe coming soon) and I brought this Chocolate Zucchini Cake. Yea... yea...you can tell in the picture that I kind of like Real Whipped Cream !  LOL.  This is one of my favorite cakes to serve unfrosted.  My mom started making this cake when we moved to Missouri.  We had never had zucchini squash in any form until we moved here.  I'm not sure where she got the recipe but I remember eating this cake often during summers in Missouri.  We only ate yellow summer squ...

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM! Pumpkin Waffles ( Printable Recipe Here ) 2 Large eggs 2/3 cup buttermilk (I used 1 Tablespoon lemon juice in my measuring cup, and added milk to equal 2/3 cup.) 1 Tablespoon molasses (pancake syrup would be fine) 1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree 3 Tablespoons oil 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking SODA 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup flour Cooking spray for the waffle iron Instructions : I used a large measuring cup (6 cups) so that I could pour my waffle batter, but a mixing bowl will be fine. Beat the eggs well.  Add buttermilk (I used the above combination of lemon juice + regular milk), oil, pumpkin, molasses, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.  Stir well until all combined.  Add the flour last.  Stir until smooth. Plug in and heat up the waffle iron.  When fully heated, spray both sides with cooking spray. Pour waffle batter onto the waffle iron...

Last night my daughter came over.  She had some laundry to do (her Dad hasn't gotten her washer/dryer hooked up yet in her house).   We both decided to just warm up some spaghetti that I had in the fridge.  One can never really eat enough spaghetti, right?   Rebecca told me that she has figured out that she really loves Chex Mix, that she likes to eat it for breakfast.  She's never been much of a sweet eater (unlike her mother, the donut queen LOL).  She also said that she really just likes the cereal part of Chex Mix so she decided to make her own.   Making mama proud, she decided to make some AT HOME HER WAY! Rebecca brought with her to my house a box of Rice Chex and a recipe to make Chex Mix in the crockpot.  Hmm...  I have always loved Chex Mix.  For me, it was always one of those things you ate at holidays and like caramel corn, all of that cooking the liquids, pouring over the dry stuff, mixing in a bowl, and baking in the...

There is a very special someone in my life who is sick.  He is very, very sick and we are praying for God to give him hope, strength, AND healing.  What he needs is a miracle and each night I pray and have faith that God does grant miracles.  The special someone in my life is a doctor.  He gives sight to the blind.  He is a father, a husband, a son, a brother, a brother-in-law, son-in-law, friend and mentor.  He is valiantly fighting to live and is teaching us much about strength, perseverance, and love. When someone you care about is sick, you want to help.  You want to help the sick person feel better and also try to provide some comfort and lessen the workload on the person's family.  I love making homemade meals and since cooking is something I can do, I wanted to make a meal for my special someone and his family. To me, first and foremost, I wanted to make something that they all loved.  It's easy to whip up a tuna casserole but...

This is one of five apples that  I grew on my little apple tree this year!  Woo-hoo! This dip and I go WAY BACK.  I cannot remember when I first started making it.  It is delicious  and is the perfect summer BBQ potluck dish or addition to any holiday dinner.  I even make it as a little special something to serve with lunch.  I serve it with almost any fresh fruit, but our favorites are apples, strawberries, and grapes.  One day last week, I even brought the marshmallow fluff and cream cheese to work with me.  By lunch, the cream cheese was soft and I stirred it all together for a treat to go with my apple.  I've kept it in the fridge at work eating a little bit each day.  It would also be perfect for sending to school in a lunchbox! I remember that I helped my aunt prepare food for my cousin's wedding many "moons ago" and we bought big blocks of cream cheese from Sam's (as big as blocks of Velveeta) and made tons of th...