At Home My Way

  Ooey Gooey Butter Cake PRINTABLE VIEW HERE 1 Yellow Cake Mix (standard box -dry mix only) 3 Eggs (one for the crust; two for the cream cheese mix) 8 oz block of Cream Cheese (softened) 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (the real thing), melted 4 cups powdered sugar (+ a little extra powdered sugar for sprinkling after cooled) Instructions: PREHEAT OVEN to 300 degrees F. and spray a 9x13 dish well with cooking spray. MIX cake mix, melted butter and ONE egg to a soft dough. PRESS into the bottom of the sprayed 9x13 pan. MIX powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining TWO eggs until smooth (for about 1-2 minutes).  (I used the same bowl that I used for making the crust.) POUR on top of unbaked crust. BAKE at 300 ° for 40-50 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle). THE CHIT CHAT Potlucks are always tough for me.  I love to cook.  I mean, I really LOVE TO COOK but when I need to take something to a potluck where I have no idea what other ...

 Recipes at the Top!  Chat-chat at the bottom! #1 Surprise Muffins (Cranberry Sauce) 2 cups all purpose flour 1/3 cup sugar 3 teaspoons baking POWDER 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup milk 1 egg 1/2 cup oil (I used vegetable oil) Leftover cranberry sauce (about 1 cup) Colored sugar/sprinkles if you have some 12 cupcake papers or spray the pan well. Instructions: PREHEAT OVEN to 350 degrees and place liners in muffin tin (12) COMBINE:  In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients. COMBINE SEPARATELY:  In a separate dish, add milk, oil and egg.  Blend well. COMBINE:  Wet and dry ingredients and stir well to make a thick batter. MUFFIN TIN:  Spoon one scoop (like 1 heaping Tablespoon) of batter in each cup of a 12-muffin tin.  Spread it around a little to cover the bottom of the cup. ADD CRANBERRY SAUCE:  On top of the batter in each cup, add a Tablespoon of cranberry sauce to each cup. TOP:  Top with another scoop of batter. SPRINKLE:  If you ...

Need a yummy sweet bread (or muffin) to go with your morning coffee, but don't have any eggs?  I have a good one for you today! Last night I tried a recipe for an eggless pumpkin bread that was a complete SUCCESS! My niece makes mostly vegan or vegetarian dishes and I have enjoyed learning from her and making some really good food that doesn't use any animal products.  Am I a vegan?  No.  But, I have discovered that vegan dishes don't make me feel so stuffed and sluggish -and they are usually less expensive  to make!  I also love having a few vegan recipes up my sleeve for when I run out of eggs or need a meal and don't have any meat. This recipe for pumpkin bread turned out fantastic! Seems like pumpkin recipes always have increased amounts of eggs so I wasn't sure how this would turn out since it has no eggs??  But - it's perfect!   The texture is light; the crumb is fine.  It's really amazing!  I am only using this recipe...

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...

I had some leftover ham from our Easter dinner in my fridge.  It made some killer ham salad!  Talk about looking forward to lunch! I haven't made a whole lot of ham salad.  My husband's aunt used to make her version of "ham" salad with bologna, and it is equally as wonderful, but since I did have some ham that was languishing in the refrigerator, I decided to give it a go.  It was easy, used only three ingredients and made just wonderful sandwiches!   Ham is such a great thing to have around the house.  We bake a big, bone-in, ham that we get in the meat department of our local grocery store.  We ask that it be "sliced and tied" so that after we bake it, the ham is pretty much ready to serve.  The butcher slices it in thick slices, leaving it in the shape of the ham, and ties it with twine.  We bake it with the twine on.  Ham is one of our favorite family dinners when the entire crew is home, cousins, aunts, the whole bunch! A...

My mom used to make these cookies for my brother and I when we were growing up.  They continue to be our favorite cookie!  Typically she made them during the Christmas holidays but we love them any time.  They are great for summer treats because you don't have to use the oven.  They aren't super healthy, but with ingredients like oatmeal and peanut butter, I have determined (ha!) that they aren't such a bad choice.  Certainly they are a better choice than boxed cookies, right? I have made another recipe for these cookies.  Recipes for this cookie are all over the place.  The last recipe I made was a flop!  They didn't set up.  That was so disappointing!  I decided that, "Mama knows best" and dug out my mom's recipe for these cookies.  I followed her instructions to a T and they worked like a charm.  Definitely do it exactly like it says.  Who wants a flop recipe?  Not me! The only thing that I chang...

I wanted to share a couple of the food/book combinations that we used at my niece's baby shower.  I bought the baby a new bookshelf and we used books as the theme.  We all had a great time and the new mom welcomed a great assortment of children's books to add to her bookshelf.  My niece is super smart and I credit some of that to the fact that her mom started reading to her as an tiny infant.  I remember Jill perched in her mom's cross-legged lap, staring intently at the pages of the books my sister-in-law read to her.  I think before she could even hold her own bottle, she tried turning the pages of the books.  My sister-in-law set a great example for me.  My girls were born after Jill and I knew immediately I wanted to start off reading lots of books.  My niece, herself, suggested that instead of cards at the shower, we all give her children's books (since they are about the same price these days!) but we also decided to decorate ...