At Home My Way

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...

Sometimes you just need a quick meal idea - to get some food on the table.  Sure, you can run to your favorite burger or pizza joint, but all of that food you have in your pantry/cabinet is already there, right?  You might as well cook it and be $10+ richer in your pocket?  That was my theory the other night, anyway... I really wanted to go out for supper.  I get home from work 6PM-ish and had managed to force myself to go for a run.  My only problem is that after a supper-time run, I am really famished by the time I get home!  I tend to gravitate to takeout food in times like these, but I took a deep breath and a long look in my refrigerator and this is the meal I came up with. It was DELICIOUS!   It immediately brought me back to the days when my dad was a long distance truck driver and my mom made us quick and easy suppers like these to stretch her budget.  A meal like this can be stretched with more or less hotdogs and more or less c...

I love having recipes that I can rely on when I have limited ingredients.  This is one of those recipes!   I have had other recipes for "Wacky" cakes, but I really like this one because it only makes one small layer cake or an 8" square cake.  I would guess that it would make one pan of 12 cupcakes.   "Wacky" cakes were created by resourceful women during the depression when ingredients weren't as readily available as they are now.  Sometimes we all have limitations on ingredients, whether it be because of money or time.  I thought the recipe for this little cake would be a great one to have in my repertoire just for those days! It is for this reason that I'm sharing it on my blog.  I will definitely be making this recipe A LOT! These days it also seems like there are increasing food allergies so anyone who would be needing a cake that doesn't call for eggs will really love this recipe!   However strange it sounds, it WORKS!  It is ...

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM! Here's how I make the Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies EVER - AT HOME MY WAY: Best Oatmeal Cookies EVER! 3/4 cup butter (use the real thing - I use salted butter), ( softened to room temp ) 1 cup dark brown sugar ( I didn't have brown sugar so used 1 cup regular sugar and added 1 teaspoon molasses to my creamed ingredients.  Light brown sugar works fine also.) 1/2 cup regular granulated white sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon regular table salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups oats (old fashioned oats-uncooked) 1 cup raisins (+water for cooking them) Directions (I use a wooden spoon to mix these up): FIRST - Preheat oven to 375° . NEXT (don't skip this step)-Put the raisins in a little pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and then shut off the heat. Let them sit 15 minutes - just while mixing your cookie dough...

First, a disclaimer... I am NOT a cake baker.  I am a mom, wife, daughter, friend, home cook, but not a pastry chef, cake decorator, or anything like that.  My attempt at baking cakes is purely for fun and for my eating pleasure. This weekend I wanted cake!   I have for you today the mother of all cakes.  This cake even worked out for me, a non cake baker.  I had never baked a two-layer cake that didn't crack in the middle or slide off the plate.  I usually only have success with sheet cakes or those in 9 x 13 pans, or cupcakes.  But this weekend I wanted a two layer cake.  Something pretty that I could be proud of.  I didn't want over the top sweet, so I opted to only frost between the layers and on top.  This also saved a lot of potential anxiety for me because frosting the sides causes me lots of stress!  This cake was a great success - on all levels: Delicious?-yes! Chocolaty?-yes! Moist?-yes! Great crumb like bo...

Do you think I have fallen off of the Earth?  Well, I promise that I haven't.  Just cold days here in Missouri (misery) with little desire to do much other get home from work and stay in my rut.   I haven't been trying many new recipes as winter just makes me want to operate on auto pilot ..... be cozy, comfortable, WARM, and eat things I know I can make. I've done a little cooking - making things like: Hawaiian Chicken (which was DELICIOUS - I should make this more often) Chocolate Pie   (One can never go wrong making this pie!) Homemade Alphabet Soup (for my freezer - for fast lunches - a favorite) I tried a new pattern for crochet slippers.  I absolutely LOVE making these slippers (I've made three pairs so far).  I made some for my mom.  Hers are the orange pair; made some for my sister-in-law, who requested a bright color so her's are aqua, and some for me - which are gray- my favorite color these days - probably bec...