Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Cast Iron Skillet GIve a Way
Homestead Blessings DVD Giveway
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Zucchini Cake
The recipe is from The Family Homestead by Crystal Miller
Zucchini Cake
2 cups Sucanat (i used white sugar)
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil (i used melted vegetable shortening -was out of any kind of oil)
2 cups peeled and grated zucchini
1 T vanilla
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour (i used regular white unbleached)
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
½ t baking powder
1 T cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with non-stick spray. With a mixer beat eggs until foamy. Add oil and Sucanat, zucchini and vanilla. Blend well. Add flour, soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Pour into pan and bake for 1 hour.
While still warm spread a powdered sugar glaze over the top.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
End of Season Soccer Tournament - HOT!!!
Though here it looks as though are they are thoroughly bored by the sixth hour at being at the soccer fields in the 90+ heat.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I am going to try to start blogging again :)
So, i can't say with certainly how often i will blog, but i am gonna try to make more of an effort :)
Vision Forum
Speaking of Vision Forum, a website i frequent is having a give away www.teambettendorf.com and so i am heading over there to leave my comment to enter her give away :)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
sadly
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms
INGREDIENTS:
4 skinless, boneless chicken
breasts
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 pound fresh mushrooms,
sliced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon butter
DIRECTIONS:
1.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Rinse the mushrooms and pat dry. Season the flour with salt and pepper and dredge the chicken breasts in the flour mixture. Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat and saute the chicken until it is nicely browned on one side (about 3 minutes).
2.
Add the garlic. Turn the chicken breasts and scatter the mushrooms over them. Continue frying, shaking the skillet and stirring the mushrooms. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add the vinegar, broth, bay leaf and thyme. Cover tightly and simmer over medium low heat for 10 minutes, turning occasionally.
3.
Transfer the chicken to a warm serving platter and cover with foil. Set aside. Continue simmering the sauce, uncovered, over medium high heat for about 7 minutes. Swirl in the butter or margarine and discard the bay leaf. Pour this mushroom sauce mixture over the chicken and serve.
My changes:
1. I didn't dredge the chicken in flour, i don't like the slimy texture to chicken that has been floured and then cooked in a sauce. To still get the same effect (thickening) of the flour, i mixed the 2 tbl of flour into the chicken stock and balsamic vinegar, along with the ground thyme. i made a slurry of sorts. Then i poured the whole thing in when it said to add to the stock. it worked wonderful.
2. I was a bit leary of the vinegar taste, so i only used 1/8 of a cup of the Balsamic vinegar and filled in the rest with chicken stock. it was perfect this way, imo.
3. I used an aged balsamic vinegar.
4. I didn't have fresh mushrooms, so i used two small cans of sliced mushrooms. Worked wonderfully.
My family really enjoyed this. I think it would go great with alfredo pasta.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Popovers
That one end got a bit too brown for my taste and they do fall once they are out of the oven for a few minutes, because the insides are hollow! they create the perfect spot to stuff all the butter and honey into :)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk3 eggs
2 T sugar
½ tsp vanilla
In a blender, beat all ingredients until smooth. Pour into WELL-greased and floured muffin tins, filling cups 3/4 full.Bake at 425* for 10-12 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Serve with butter and honey (When you turn the popover upside down, there will be a small hole --most of the time-- I stuff the butter and honey through this hole so it gets all warm and melted inside). These are so light and fluffy, you can literally eat half a dozen of them in one sitting!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
No Bake Peanut Butter Balls
in a sauce pan, mix together:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light Karo syrup
Bring to a boil until sugar dissolves and then boil for one minute longer.
Add to mixture:
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups rice krispies
Mix well and drop by spoonfuls on to wax paper.
You can add 1 cup of butterscotch chips or you can dribble chocolate or almond bark (melted, of course) on the tops.
Cream Cheese Icing
1/2 cup butter
1 box powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
pecans
Cream this all together and add the pecans last. Yummy!!!
White Icing
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter (can use Crisco, but i hate that BLECK feeling on my tongue!)
2-3 Tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla
cream together to desired consistency.
Wacky Cake
Sift together:
3 cups flour
6 Tbs cocoa
1 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
2 tsp soda
Add in:
2 cups cold water
3/4 cup oil
2 Tbs vinegar
2 tsp vanilla
Stir well, it will be on the "runny" side, but that is what you want. You will see bubbles forming from the vinegar mixing with the soda. ( i love that part!)
Pour into a well greased and floured 9 x 13 cake pan (or you can do a layer cake with this)
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you use a glass pan or a dark, nonstick pan, lower the temperature by 25 degrees.
Frost with this frosting.
Chocolate Cake Icing
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/3 cup butter, softened
2-3 Tbl milk (more or less)
Cream this all together until smooth, adding more milk or powdered sugar to get the desired consistency.
Friday, May 23, 2008
First Day of Summer Break - Homemade Ice Cream
We also made our first batch of homemade ice cream of the summer. We all decided we wanted Banana Nut ice cream so that is what it was. I have the makings for some strawberry after we eat all the Banana Nut all gone. Oh My, it was heavenly!
Here is my basic recipe for homemade ice cream. After you get this mixed up, you just add whatever you want to it:
6 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 pint of heavy whipping cream ( can use half and half, but i prefer the heavy whipping cream)
2 tsp vanilla
enough milk to add to the fill line.
Beat the eggs and add in the sugar. add in the sweetened condensed milk, heavy whipping cream and vanilla and mix well.
This is your basic ice cream mix. You pour it into the ice cream container and add enough milk to just come below the fill line.
for other flavors, you just add what you want BEFORE you add in the milk. Tonight, i added in 4 large super ripe bananas sliced up small and about 2 cups of chopped pecans and walnuts. Delicious ice cream!!! unbeatable!!!
This weekend is going to be laid back and relaxed. No traveling, no errands, no nuthin' but hanging out at the house, cooking out in the pool and if the water warms up for us old folk, hanging out in the pool!
We have some ribs with their rub on them waiting to be smoked tomorrow along with a chicken. This will be our first time smoking. i will try to get some pics. i picked up some batteries for my camera today, so i am back in the picture taking mode.
We also got some really good cajun sausage to cook out along with some hamburgers and such. we plan on cooking all suppers this holiday weekend out on the grill and/or the smoker.
For the rest of the week, we will be eating :
italian sausage rolls with marinara dipping sauce
spaghetti and meatballs, bread and salad
skillet chicken breasts, veggie, something else
chicken casserole, salad
ham steaks, veggie and potatoes.
Hope ya'll have a great holiday weekend!!!
Monday, May 5, 2008
Menu for the week of May 5 - 10
Poppy seed chicken (with baggie found with two chicken breasts shredded up in freezer)
broccoli
hawaiian meatballs
baked beans
homemade hot rollscorn
steak
baked potato
cauliflower
chicken quesadillas (from leftover chicken from the Roasted Sticky Chicken)
rice
beans
beans
mexican cornbread
fried potatoes
Italian pinto beans
crusty french bread
Also, while looking in my fridge in the garage, i came upon a frozen turkey breast, so i will incorporate that into next week's menu.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Potatoes in a Tire
I think this might be on the agenda for next year's garden.
I do remember playing in the backyard of my Great-Granny's house when i was a kid and she had a huge tractor tire back there. I wonder if that is what she used it for, back when her health was better?
i started a garden
This year, we are in our new house and we don't have the finances yet to landscape the yard and i have this small patch of dirt in the front, between the front walkway up to the porch and the driveway, it is like a curved triangle. Let me see if i have a picture. Aha, here we go:
It is actually bigger than it looks here, weird camera angle or something. Dh and i both love homegrown tomatoes and i love bell peppers and they have gotten outageous expensive lately. So, we planted both of those here in this garden area along with some basil (good for tomatoes) and italian parsley (love to use this!!) and of course marigold's!
I was just out weeding the "garden", and i noticed that one tomato plant has a bud on it, and one of my pepper plants has a bud that has bloomed with about four more almost ready!!! See, this is why i am not the greatest of the gardener...1), i hate to weed when it gets out of control. 2) i don't like to sweat and here in Oklahoma it gets HOT in the summer and 3) i am IMPATIENT! i planted this garden on April 21 and i want my tomatoes and peppers NOW :)
I will take pictures of my "garden" as soon as i get my camera back from my dad...oh wait. it is HIS camera, not mine :)
Also, i got so much great advise from my dh's grandparent's, who live about 2 miles from us. They have had gardens all their lives and are a fountain of knowledge when it comes to this. But, their health is not what it used to be and even though grandpa loves to be outdoors there isn't much he can do. he tries to mow the yard and makes himself very sick. I guess my asking all my questions and wanting advise from them both gave them a hankerin' for a garden of their own again but said the only thing stopping them was the stooping over and bending down; they can't do that any more. So, my hubby got to planning and thinking on this a while.
He went out and looked over the lumbar we have left over from the house. he built them a raised bed, up on cement blocks that hits grandpa at his waist. it has drainage and we lined the bottom with a bunch of rocks and the we used our dirt pile (top soil) to fill in the bed along with 10 backs of store bought top soil an 8 bags of manure. this raised bed is 16 inches deep and is 10 x 4. We didn't tell granpa or grandma what we were doing, we just took it over to them one night and oh my, it was the greatest! dh went and set it up after grandpa picked where he wanted it and then we went to work filling it. it took two pickup loads of our dirt and then we all got in there and mixed in the bags of stuff. I tell you what, it was like watching a little boy in a sand box; grandpa was just like that. his eyes were just gleaming and he was so amazed. words just can't express how wonderful it was for him. he was planning on what he was gonna plant right then and there, while working his hands through the soil.....tomatoes, peppers, okra for sure they decided.
We have decided that we will make some for ourselves next year. I am thinking this will be great for us as it the weeds won't be near as bad as in a garden on the ground where grass and such can get blown into it easier.
we took some pictures with grandma's camera but they aren't developed yet. as soon as they are, i will post some on here.
Monday, April 28, 2008
This week's menus
fetticini alfredo with sliced chicken (using up two miscellanous chicken breasts found in freezer)
garlic toast (homemade)
Poppy seed chicken (with baggie found with two chicken breasts shredded up in freezer)
broccoli
hawaiian meatballs
baked beans
homemade hot rolls
corn
steak
baked potato
cauliflower
roasted sticky chicken
broccoli and cauliflower mix, steamed with garlic butter sauce
baked potato
chicken quesadillas
rice
beans
beans
mexican cornbread
fried potatoes
Italian pinto beans
crusty french bread
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Onion Cheese Bread
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup finely diced onion - can use any type, red, white or yellow. The white or yellow "looks" more appetizing.
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups biscuit mix
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar
1/2 teaspoon onion salt
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives or parsley leaves or italian seasoning
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until tender, about 7 minutes.
In a large bowl, add the milk and egg to the biscuit mix, stirring just until the mix is moistened. Fold in the onions and 1/2 cup of the cheese.
Spoon the dough into a greased 8-inch round cake pan (or cast iron skillet, i always, always use my skillet if i can). Mix the onion salt into the melted butter and drizzle the mixture over the dough. Sprinkle the bread with chives or parsley and bake for 15 minutes.
Top the bread with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese and bake until the bread is cooked through and the cheese top golden, about 5 minutes longer, and you get the bread shown at the top. It is yummy!
Bacon Ranch Potatoes
grease a baking dish and preheat oven to 375
peel and slice as many potatoes as you need for your family. I think i used about 8 or 9 smallish ones. Slice in 1/4 inch slices, or thereabouts.
Dice up as much onion as you like. i used about half of a red onion, but you can use white, yellow also, i have used it all, whatever i have on hand. sprinkle onion over the sliced potatoes.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Pat on lots of butter, for this sized dish, i used a half stick of butter.
Cover with foil and bake until fork tender, usually at least an hour, depending on how "thick" you have it in the pan. So, if you need it to cook faster, use a bigger pan and make the layer thinner.
When fork tender, here is where the fun starts. You plop in a big scoop of sour cream, at least 1/2 cup, if not 3/4 of a cup. and then squirt all over the top some Ranch dressing, again, at least a half cup. Sprinkle over it all 1 cup of shredded cheese (can use more) and 3/4 of a bottle of Baco's bacon bits. Take a big spoon and stir up the entire thing. The potatoes will break apart into slightly smaller peices, which is what you want, but don't stir so hard that it turns to mashed potatoes, use a light hand when stirring this up. When it is well mixed, taste test it....does it need more Ranch for flavor, more salt, more pepper? now is the time to get it to taste perfect! Smooth out of the top and sprinkle all over the top more cheese, covering the entire top. Sprinking on the remaining bacon bits left in the bottle and for looks you can either sprinkle on some italian seasoning or do like i did, and go out to your italian parsley plant and sprinkle fresh chopped parsley on top.
Stick the pan back in the oven now to melt the cheese and slightly brown.......
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Grandma E's hot rolls
Slowly add in 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups flour (how much flour will depend on how humid the air is).
Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
punch down and shape into rolls. i roll two ball sized peices and put into muffin pan, i like how it looks and breaks apart for buttering.
Okay, so i only got 23 rolls out of this batch, some are bigger than others :)
When you take them out of the oven, immediately brush them with melted butter or a mixture of honey and butter. it is delicious!
Garlic-Herb Crusty French Bread
Recipe:
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1-1/2 Cups warm water, divided
1 Tbl honey
2 tsp salt
1 Tbl olive oil
4 Cups all-purpose flour (can use half whole wheat, yummy)
1 tsp granulated garlic (this is to make it garlic-herb bread)
1 tsp italian seasoning (this is to make it garlic-herb bread)
Cornmeal (optional)
In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup water with 1 tsp sugar, let it proof. Add honey, salt, oil and remaining water; stir until dissolved. Add flour and stir until you can knead it. Knead for 6-10 minutes or until it is elastic and smooth. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise n a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled. Punch down. Divide in half; let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each half into a 10" x 8" rectangle. Roll up from a long side; pinch edge to seal.Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle tips with cornmeal. With a very sharp knife, make 5 diagonal cuts across the top of each loaf, about 1/4" deep. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake at 400* for 20 - 30 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.
You do not need the cornmeal if you use a W pan.
Here is the dough, oiled and ready to rise.
Here it is risen:
Here it is punched down, shaped and ready for second rise:
It has doubled and ready to bake!
Finished results! It was a BIG HIT! The entire family ate every piece of it! Dh i think ate 3/4 of one entire loaf. I put four slices in a baggie to go with his lunch tomorrow. You can see in this picture that after i took it from the oven and ran to get my camera, some little bread thief had been by.......my family loves homemade bread. this is such a great savory bread. You gotta try it! It went great with the Lima Bean soup!
My menus for this week
Sunday - my version of Chicken Tetrazzini with broccoli and mushrooms. I seasoned the chicken with a new seasoning i just got. it was lovely and yummy! If you get the chance, go get some Herbs De Provinc seasoning. I found it at Reasor's. Smells wonderful when cooking and tastes even better!
Monday - Beans, cornbread and hot spanish rice (out of potatoes).
Tuesday (stressed day and no, NOT from taxes, LOL)- Homemade chicken and dumplin's with homemade hot rolls (Grandma E's recipe, will post pics and tutorial for that when camera quits acting wonky), and some strawberry shortcake. (will post recipe tonight - keep forgetting). I can't believe i made 23 rolls and all but 3 were eaten last night!
Wednesday - Lima Bean Soup with homemade crusty french bread. We have made this recipe many times and it is so yummy! Hint, make it up earlier in the day and let it set for a while to thicken up (that is, if you don't like soupy soup :) ) We are using leftover ham from Christmas in this dish.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Strawberry Shortcake with Homemade Shortcake
I made this at the end of March, when the really good strawberries were in the stores. It was SO YUMMY!
Now, in my family, we just can't stand that yucky spongy mess of grossness that they sell in a package of 4. We have always made this dish with pie crust laid flat on a cookie sheet sprinkled with sugar and baked. It was much better....but this recipe was off the roof good! Real, homemade with love, shortcakes! It was so easy to make and so yummy!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Menu Plan Monday
BBQ pork steak
Mashed potatoes
Rolls
Blackeyed peas
(mashed cauliflower for me)
Monday
Monteray Chicken
Baked potatoes
SB mashed potatoes for me
Broccoli and cheese
Salad
Tuesday
Chili
Wednesday
Chicken Picatta
Asparagus
Broccoli and cauliflower
Salad
Thursday
Ham steaks
Mashed potatoes
SB cauliflower
Ranch beans
Salad
Friday
Taco Salad
Saturday
Keilbasa
Ranch beans
Salad
Broccoli and cheese
Breakfast:
Eggs and broccoli omlet
Sausage and egg
V-8 juice
Canadian bacon
pancakes and cereal and oatmeal for kids.
Lunch:
Lunch meat rollups
SB fajitas
it has been a while since i was able to particate in MPM.
Lettuce BLTs
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Vegetable Quiche Cups to go - SBD recipe
3/4 cup liquid egg substitute ( or eggs)
3/4 cup shredded reduced fat cheese
1/4 cup diced bell peppers
1/4 cup diced onions
3 drops hot sauce, optional.
thaw and drain spinach. line a 12 inch muffin tin with papers, spray with Pam. combine all ingredients and fill cups. Bake 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
These can be frozen and reheated. any combination of veggies and cheese can be used.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Weber's Kick'N Chicken Seasoning
Impossible Cheeseburger Pie
1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup Biscuit Mix
3 medium eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt (need waaaaaaay more in my opinion)
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup shredded cheese
Now, just as i was putting up this post, i had intended for this leftover peice below to be part of dh's lunch...but i decided to reheat up about half of it...........boy, it is BETTER after being in the fridge for a few hours...now it was Really good!
This recipe is what i would call a comfort food, simple, plain, easy and yet pretty tasty. I am thinking of some things i might add to it the next time around, maybe some mushrooms, some swiss cheese.....some spoonfulls of salsa maybe? just to jazz it up a bit.
i say, with just that leftover, the meal was a hit :)
Yummy Leftovers - Monterey Chicken
sorry, no pics of my leftovers, i gobbled them up too soon!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Strawberry Cake (with real strawberries)
Monterey Chicken
Menu Plan Monday
Those with an * beside it is a new recipe and will be critiqued about on this site in the coming days.
Monday - Monterey Chicken*, rice and broccoli and cauliflower
Tuesday - Impossible Cheeseburger Pie*
Wednesday - Dorito Chicken*, rice
Thursday - Top of Stove Casserole
Friday - Steak Quesadillas, rice and beans
Saturday - Creamy Ranch Chicken on noodles, peas
Monday, January 28, 2008
Indian Tacos - Tutorial with Pictures
Ok, lets begin with the ingredients for the first part. You need hamburger, anything from 1/4 of a pound all the way to a full 1 pound, your choice. Two or more cans of Ranch Style Beans, i ended up adding 3 cans, one of which had jalepenos in it. One onion, diced and divided, Chili Powder, Garlic, Pepper and Salt (of which i forgot to put in the picture!). IGNORE the can of diced tomatoes...it does NOT go in this dish, i had a brain shortage at the time of taking pictures.
Dice up your onion and reserve half for taco topping. The remaining half you will scramble up with your meat.
See how good brown it is getting? the onions are getting well cooked.
Now it is time to add the beans. Dump all three cans of beans in along with Two cans full of water to the pot. So, always one less can of water than you have of beans.
Let the beans and meat simmer away for a while, at least 30 minutes or so to get it nice and hot and flavors to blend. This is the time to check for seasoning. You don't was super water broth, but not real thick either, i would say on the thin side but not watery, kwim? you need the broth because it is the best part of the taco. that broth gets soaked up by the fry bread and is heavenly!!!
Now, carefuly drop in a dough patty. Careful, don't get burned! If i use my big cast iron dutch oven, i can usually cook about 3 or 4 of the dough patties, depending on how big i made them. you do not want them to touch. In this small skillet, i only did one, i didn't feel like cleaning up a big grease mess!
When it is done, take it out carefully avoiding to drop grease all over your stove, cause we all know what a pain that is too clean. Have them drain on a paper towel or even coffee filters work great in a pinch to catch up that grease.