At Home My Way

It's that time of year again!  'Tis the season for treat days, goody days, parties, carry-ins and guests in general.  Sometimes I have lots of time to prepare snacks and treats but there are other times, that I don't have much time at all.   It's nice this time of year to reassess the things you might make that are inexpensive, if you don't have a lot of money to spare, and a few things that are super quick, if you don't have much time.  Yesterday, my daughter, Rebecca texted me and asked what she could make for her office carry-in meal the next day.  Her department had been assigned desserts.  I suggested a few things like Pumpkin Crunch Dessert, Sugar Cookie Bars   (because they are delicious but cheap to make - and most generally you have everything on hand): I also suggested making brownies, Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake with Easy Chocolate Frosting (again, a very frugal, pantry ingredient, dessert) (someone was already making brownies):...

We have a great little cookie bakery in the town where I work called "Hot Box Cookies".  The cookies are heavy, moist, and fantastic!  We only get Hot Box Cookies on super special occasions and one of the guys at work had a birthday complete with some Hot Box Cookies not too long ago.  One of my favorites is the Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip cookies that they have so I set out recently to come up with a recipe that I could make at home. Wouldn't you know it, I had everything I needed except butter.  Typical in my kitchen!  I did have some coconut oil which I sometimes use as a replacement for the fat in my recipes and/or in my soap making.  I decided to just use coconut oil instead of butter in my cookie recipe.  It was amazing!  I liked them so much that I decided to only make this recipe with coconut oil.  The cookies turned out nice and fat, crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.  So good!  I am definitely going to...

Last night was pizza night at our house.  We were actually craving take out pizza on Tuesday (our favorite is Casey's) but - trying to be diligent about saving money, I quickly made our favorite pizza dough before leaving for work (Wednesday morning) and stuck the bowl of dough in the fridge.  I use the 5-Minute-A-Day dough which I blogged about here . Making pizza at our house involves dough, a can of plain tomato sauce spread over the dough and sprinkled with salt/pepper/garlic powder/oregano, and then topped with cheese and usually pepperoni. Tuesday we had crockpot BBQ chicken for supper so I had one lone piece of BBQ chicken in my fridge.  I have often seen BBQ chicken pizzas on menus and on Pinterest but had never really checked out what was on it.  BBQ chicken on pizza sauce never sounded very good to me.  Well... to my surprise most people don't use PIZZA SAUCE on a pizza with BBQ chicken on it.  Duh!!!  The recipes I found just involv...

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM How do you turn frozen hamburger patties into a cozy, meat & potatoes sit-down supper?    Here's how I make EASY CROCKPOT SALISBURY STEAK at home my way: Easy Crockpot Salisbury Steak Hand pattied, FROZEN hamburger patties (I just pat some decent (80/20) ground beef into patties, and store individually in my freezer in baggies.  You could also freeze them and stack with wax paper in between - you do need to be able to get them apart.) 1 package cheap brown gravy mix (mine came from Aldi) 2 cups water  Salt/pepper/onion powder Optional:  Sliced/peeled potatoes (lengthwise), carrots, whatever vegetables you like.  This would be great with some mushrooms as well! Gravy Thickener (for after you get home, but before you eat): 3/4 cup COLD water 3 heaping Tablespoons flour INSTRUCTIONS: Place frozen hamburger patties in your crockpot (however many you want).   Salt & pepper ...

This weekend we had surprise overnight guests.  Our friends live in Florida so it was super nice to see them.  We wanted to make a really nice meal since they had been living out of a suitcase for many days.   For supper on Sunday, my hubby smoked a pork loin and some chicken. I was looking to make a side that wasn't our typical, boring baked potatoes and decided to make my husband's family's recipe for Broccoli Cheese Casserole (which has actually has rice in it so I added that to the title). T his is always one of the first dishes to be emptied at our family dinners.  It's yummy and cheesy and is always a family favorite.  It goes as well with baked ham and turkey for winter meals as it does with summer BBQ; a year round dish!! I called my sister-in-law on my cell while I was at Walmart to see if she remembered the recipe.  She was at a ball tournament out of town but this recipe is so easy, she remembered it right off.   My sister-in-law's...

I was bound and determined this weekend to prepare a few lunch and breakfast items for the week ahead.  This would hopefully make packing lunches and grabbing breakfasts easier as well as helping me save a little moolah. We have had some seriously cool and rainy weather for the last week or so here in mid Missouri.  Personally, I am ready for warm/hot - summer weather, but it appears I'll be waiting a little longer..... Rainy/cool weather does make for good cooking weather.  I spent the cool, dreary day doing something I enjoy.  Cooking!  I started the day making breakfast.  My husband loves this combination: Bread Machine Bagels Bakin' Bacon   (I didn't make the biscuits-we had bagels.) Later in the day, I decided to make a batch of these homemade pigs in a blanket to stick in the freezer for fast and easy lunch packing.  These are so easy to make since the dough is made in the bread machine.  I figure one batch of br...

I love, love, LOVE cold cereal for breakfast!  Specifically, I love CHOCOLATE cold cereal-cereal like Cocoa Krispies, those yummy little puffs that make my milk chocolatey and my tummy happy.  I also have gone crazy for Cocoa Puffs on occasion.   But, having given up boxed cereal years ago, I haven't had my fix for way too long.  That doesn't mean I haven't dreamed of a big spoonful of that chocolatey goodness.  But who knows what's in that stuff at the store?  I just can't buy it. I recently set out on a mission to find a homemade solution to my chocolately breakfast love.  And,  I have found and successfully made, the best, most delicious, chocolate, stays crunchy in milk, leaves my milk chocolatey, HOMEMADE cereal and it's called "CHOCOLATE GRANOLA"! I've made one other chocolate granola recipe but wasn't sold on it.  It was made by melting chocolate chips and it left my cereal a little to bitter tasting.  I was looking for s...

I've been meaning to put this recipe on for a while.  Since there's been lots of  bad press recently about Listeria and commercial ice cream (even very good, reputable brands), I thought it would be worth post this recipe.  Definitely it is always safer to make things at home.  This becomes more and more clear every single day. My favorite ice cream is usually cherry vanilla.  I love the stuff!  And this recipe is perfectly wonderful.  I sometimes have a hard time getting homemade ice cream to be scoopable but after a few minutes on the counter, this ice cream is just as scoopable as if it were commercial, store bought ice cream.  Except for one thing, it TASTES better!  It is rich, creamy, cold, sweet, and just Mmmmm! I think I will even use the base of this ice cream (the sweetened condensed milk + whipping cream+ half & half) as the basic base for all of my ice creams from now on.  I love it just that much. This ice crea...

I made a delicious loaf of Italian bread the other night to go with supper.  Italian bread is different from French bread in that traditional French bread (baguette) is made from only flour, water, yeast, and salt.  Italian bread adds a little milk, sugar, or fat to soften up the loaf. Sometimes we buy those $1 loaves of "french" bread at Walmart and either make sandwiches with the bread or make garlic bread with it.  They're pretty good stuff if you don't have time to make homemade.  They have few preservatives and are much cheaper than buying sliced white bread for sandwiches.  A few cuts with my electric knife and I have some great sandwich bread with a little more stretch to my dollar.   But I wanted a recipe so that I could make those at home. I've been trying french bread recipes and they're good, but not the texture that my husband prefers when we make garlic bread at home (because he's prefers store bought - ugh!).  I knew the loaves I ...

Even big girls need Easter baskets and this year I made my girls a couple of fun Beach Bags to hold their treats.   I'm not going to include a pattern.  Just a link to this great used 2004 pattern book that I bought at Amazon: You can find it on Amazon HERE ! A friend of my older daughter had one of these bags that her mother made for her to use as a diaper bag.  The body of the bag is quilted and it has pockets galore.  I knew it would make a fun project and a perfect beach bag for summer.  I begged and pleaded for my daughter's friend to ask her mom where she got the pattern.  She sent me a picture of the book and I searched Amazon until I found it.  I don't believe it is in print anymore, but the directions are easy and the book was cheap. You start by cutting all of the pieces out and quilting the main body of the bag.  I had never done any quilting, machine or otherwise, but I figured it out with no problems. On the aq...