Here's what's cooking.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  At my home we enjoyed lunch with my sister, niece and her family, my friend and her family, and my daughter Sarah.  We were able to see Jordan and Kristeen before and after Thanksgiving this year and that was a special treat.  It was the most relaxed Thanksgiving I've ever had.  I had all the  food (except the gravy) ready to be baked or cooked by late Wednesday afternoon.  Juggling oven time is always a little dicey, but it turned out successfully.  Here's what I made with links to the recipes:

Cornbread dressing with sausage
(without mushrooms and apples)

Spiral sliced Ham with brown sugar glaze

Roasted turkey breast
 (did not add pumpkin to the gravy)

Make ahead mashed potatoes  

This my tried and true mashed potato recipe.  I made them on Wednesday and refrigerated before baking.  After they bake, they are light and fluffy. 

Cranberry apple sauce

I served this warm and it goes great with ham, too!

Buttermilk pie

Almond joy pie

Chocolate pie

This has a basic recipe and variations for chocolate, coconut, etc.  PERFECT recipe!!  I always top with meringue instead of whipped topping. 

Other foods on menu brought by friends and family:

Macaroni and cheese

Southern sweet potato casserole

Green bean casserole

Strawberry Fluff Fruit salad

Pineapple Mandarin orange fruit salad

Pecan pie

We had way too much food, but it was oh so yummy!  I love Thanksgiving and the time I get to spend with family and friends.  It's also a wonderful time to reflect on all we have to be thankful for.  My family has been blessed beyond measure and I thank God for this. 

We had leftovers for a couple of days and after all that cooking it was wonderful to just reheat in the microwave.  

Fast forward to today and it's a little chilly outside so here's what is cooking for hubby tonight:

Potato pancakes

Tomato basil soup

I've never made tomato soup before and this is yummy!!

Grilled cheese croutons

I just made regular grilled cheese sandwiches with sharp cheese slices along with some grated sharp and a touch of jalapeno jack slices.  After they are grilled and cooled, I slice them into cubes and bake at 250 degrees until they dry out and crisp up more.

Tossed Salad

I have sampled everything and I'm hoping it will be a hit with hubby. 

Easy Toffee Cookies and I can't eat just one!!!

Well, I made my favorite easy recipe, but I'm warning you these cookies are addictive.  This version uses chocolate and peanut butter chips and saltine crackers.

Easy Toffee Cookies

Melt 1 stick of butter with 1/2 cup of lightly packed brown sugar and cook for 2 minutes after it starts to boil.  On a greased cookie sheet place a sleeve of saltine crackers side by side.  Today instead of greasing the cookie sheet, I lined the cookie sheet with foil---but you must cover the sides or all the yummy deliciousness will run under the foil.   This worked better than greasing the pan and they were much easier to get out.   Pour the hot butter/sugar mixture over the crackers.  Place pan in the oven at 350 for 5 minutes.  As soon as cookie sheet comes out of oven sprinkle 1 cup of peanut butter chips and 3/4 cup of chocolate chips on crackers.  Wait a few minutes (Do NOT put pan back in oven).  Use a knife to spread the melted chips over the crackers.  Let pan cool a little and then place in refrigerator or freezer to harden melted chips.  After it hardens, break into pieces to eat.  Hope you enjoy them as much as my family does!!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

One day last week I received an email from my hubby that linked to The Frugal Girl's Wednesday Baking entry.
That was it.  I went to the blog and thought mmmm good.  I need to make this.  Sometime.  Well, tonight I made it.  I had already had some and told hubby, "I don't know if you are going to like this.  You might want to only get a little to start with."  Judging from this picture, I would definitely say it was a hit for both of us. 

***please note hubby wanted me to add this was a small pan. i totally agree with him.

The best part about this recipe was how easy it was to make.

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake Recipe

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups hot water

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugar, flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Combine milk, melted butter and vanilla; add to dry ingredients. Stir gently to combine, then spread into an ungreased 8×8 inch baking pan.

Combine brown sugar, white sugar, and cocoa powder; sprinkle over top of batter. Pour hot water over top of cake, and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then serve in bowls with vanilla ice cream.

***Update on baby birdies:  i wondered if there were 4 or 5 babies.  I looked today and discovered 6 beaks!!!  Amazing!

the yummiest apple dumplings

Oh my!! i just made some cause my friend told me to. so i did!!!! cause i love her!! my daughter in law introduced these apple dumplings to me when we visited them after they moved to louisiana last year. i was hooked from the very first bite. would you believe the secret ingredient is a can of mountain dew???!!! she gave me the recipe, and i'm sure it's somewhere in my clutter and maybe even with my not so organized recipes, but i love using allrecipes.com.
You can start your own recipe box and stash all your favorite recipes that you find there or even enter some of your personal recipes. i thought it might be good to have a family recipe box there and your whole family could share recipes in one place. well, enough of my rambling and let's get to the real reason for this post: THE RECIPE

Country Apple Dumplings
by Kristin

Ingredients

• 2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cored
• (i use 4 apples and put 2 slices per crescent)
  
• 2 (10 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle Mountain Dew ™

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew™ over the dumplings.
4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

If you try these or have made them before , let me know what you think. I love 'em too much if you know what that means.

Cookie Balls--a decadent but easy to make dessert

Oh my!! I think I have a new addiction. It's cookie balls and they are oh so easy to make. I have made cake balls also, but I prefer the cookie balls. Here's the recipe:

Cookie Balls
1 package cream filled cookies
1 8 oz. cream cheese (I use apprx. 6 oz. of it)
almond bark

 

Finely crush cookies in food processor. Next add cream cheese a few chunks at a time and blend. Use a small cookie scoop to form balls. Place balls in your freezer until frozen. When ready, melt almond bark according to directions. I recently started adding about a TBS of cooking oil to the melted almond bark. I insert a toothpick into a ball and then dip into almond bark. Let harden and since the balls are frozen this happens quickly. I usually use a combination of white and chocolate almond bark. When balls have hardened, I place a small amount of each type of almond bark in the corner of a sandwich bag, poke a hole with a toothpick and make swirls on top. Keep the cookie balls refrigerated until ready to serve!! ENJOY!!!

So far I have tried these combinations:

mint oreos ---my favorite!! YUMMY YUMMY!!

nutter butters

white with chocolate filling oreos

vanilla cookies

Baked Oatmeal

for all my teacher friends that i see eating oatmeal--

This recipe is da bomb!!!
My Version of Baked Oatmeal

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil ***

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup sugar(I used brown sugar and reduced the amount just a bit!)

2 cups uncooked oats

1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1) preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2) in a mixing bowl mix eggs, oil, vanilla, milk, and sugar.

3) add in oatmeal, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder.

4) pour the mixture in a 8x8 greased pan.

5) bake for 30 minutes.
***When I have the individual servings of applesauce I use one of them and 1/4 cup oil to save some calories and fat!! 

I had it for supper and then reheated it in microwave (i added more milk before reheating). 2nd time I made it with a chopped apple and chopped walnuts.  YUMYUM

After school on Friday, I have gotta go stock up on oatmeal. i told my sweet hubby I was going to buy oatmeal in bulk and buy 500 lbs. maybe i was exaggerating just a tad.

If you try baked oatmeal, let me know if you like it.  

I found this at From our kitchen to yours blog and she said she had found it on Annalee's blog, but I couldn't find the recipe there, but I did find some great recipes. Annalee's blog is a great and I love reading about and seeing pictures of her 2 little cutie pies.

"Make it at Home" shopping list

sooooo, thanksgiving is quickly approaching and i'm trying to get ready. that means major yard work and housecleaning. this year i would also like to have the house decorated for christmas. i've been up for hours. i have meatballs cooking in the crockpot for hubby. i made meatless taco soup for me, substituting Morning Start meal starters for the ground beef, and also some jalapeno cornbread. it's 10 in the morning and i've already eaten soup and cornbread.

i was working on a grocery list cause i really dislike going to the store and wandering aimlessly while looking at a disorganized shopping list or worse than that not having a list at all. so i googled shopping list and i found a great site where you can generate your own list by category and print it. WOW! the site just happens to be walmart, but i promise it's okay and this link takes you directly to make it at home . just scroll to bottom and click on personalized shopping list. it's great cause you can save your lists. since i basically have the same menu each thanksgiving, i now have a shopping list i can use each year. you can also send your shopping list in an email to your hubby or kids so they could shop for you. soon a free application should be available for iphone and ipod touch.

Easy and Delicious Meatballs


1/2 Bag of Costco meatballs

1 or 2 bottles of Heinz chili sauce (in ketchup section)

32 oz. of grape jelly



I usually put the chili sauce and jelly together in a bowl and place in microwave for a couple of minutes to help liquefy the jelly and the mixture covers the meatballs better. Put meatballs in crockpot and pour jelly and chili sauce mixture over meatballs. The meatballs are better if you let them cook all day. (cook on high a few hours, then switch to low) If you want them to cook more quickly, thaw your meatballs the night before in the refrigerator. ENJOY!!! The sauce is great to dip bread/rolls into. This recipe makes me dislike being a vegetarian cause the aroma coming from the kitchen is wonderful.

DipTacular 2009

i'm getting giddy just reading about these dips on Boomama's blog. so yummy. so very yummy. they have made a regular day dipalicious. i want to go to the store right now!!! the only problem is i don't know which ONES to make first!!! Decisions, decisions.

this is a super easy fruit dip that you can make lickety split.
Fluffy Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

1--8 oz. tub of strawberry cream cheese spread



1--7 oz. jar of marshmallow creme


Blend together. That's it. Serve with fresh fruit. This can be made with a regular 8 oz. cream cheese also, but it's easier if you use the softened tub kind. If you want to save a few calories, substitute sugar free cool whip for marshmallow creme, but personally why mess with a good thing??? i love it the original way.

Diet and Exercise

Someone asked me how is it going with the diet and exercise. First, let me say this is hard to do, VERY HARD to do, but I'm committed and I'm making progress. It just isn't happening so quickly. I have lost a total of 6 pounds. Now I have shown my commitment at school also and joined our weight loss club which means I have a little paper shoe posted on the bullentin board and each week I lose weight my little shoe moves forward. I am happy to report my shoe did move forward!! Hip hip hurrah!! Our weigh in is on Thursday. I like my weigh in at home much better for 2 reasons:
1. It's anonymous even though the only person that is supposed to know your weight at school is our nurse.
2. I weigh less on my Wii fit because it deducts 2 pounds for my clothing. This doesn't happen at school.

Exercise is coming along, but it is oh so hard to exercise by yourself. There's no one making me do it. I have walked, done floor exercises, and my wii fit, but I must admit I'm not doing it as consistently as I should.

My yummy indulgence last weekend was very simple and I just made it up.
Apple and Peanut Butter Pizza
*Spread 1 whole grain tortilla with peanut butter (not TOO much!)
*Put heated cinnamon apple slices on top. I made these with peeled Gala apple slices with a little Promise margarine, brown sugar, and cinnamon. You could substitute freshly chopped apple.
*Sprinkle a few chopped walnuts on top.
Place in skillet sprayed with Pam and heat until tortilla is lightly crisp on the bottom. Slice with a pizza cutter into quarters. This was very yummy and satisfied my yearning for something sweet.

This weekend has been good, really low key, but I got lots of work done. I cleaned out the closet in J's room, sewed and FINISHED several projects, worked in the yard and got several cuts and scrapes and a big ugly splinter that hurt!

Cooking and Dancing (not at the same time)

Two of my favorite websites for cooking are allrecipes and food network. On both of these sites you can create your own recipe box and save their recipes and add your own personal/family recipes. If you have ever had your computer crash and lost recipes that you had been collecting, you will appreciate the greatness of making a recipe box on these websites. You could even create a family recipe box by sharing your log in info and password.

I love watching cooking shows. That's where I found garlic hasselback potatoes with herbed sour cream. They are very easy to make and yummy(minus the parsley in the sour cream but add cilantro).



I want to try these two recipes I saw Paula Deen make: apple fried pies

and strawberry gelatin cheesecake I made this on Sunday, Jan. 25--not so great--will not make again.


I will hold off making the fried pies for a while cause they aren't exactly low calorie.

Tonight hubby and I are watching inauguration coverage and we saw President Obama and Michelle dancing for the lst time at the Neighborhood Ball and I think my hubby slow danced better at our son's wedding than he did. Too bad our bodies don't compare to theirs though. I don't think my body ever looked like Michelle's---now if you put me on the ancient torture machine--the rack--for a couple of months and then rolled over me a few times with a steam roller that might help. Great song though and I loved Michelle's dress. It is very evident he loves his wife. We watched him dance at a couple more balls and my hubby said, "I wonder if he has to dance at all the balls, he'll probably be gripey." :)

I wonder if I will remember I was blogging on this history making day while watching it all. Hubby, do you remember we saw Stevie Wonder in concert and were sitting on the 2nd row? (not a totally random comment--Stevie did perform several songs at the ball!!!) It was greatness. Oh, I bet you don't exactly remember that, but do remember that I made you leave after the 1st or 2nd encore and Stevie ended up singing quite a few more songs. I'm thinking we had to get home to the kids....

Biden just said the reason he's talking so much is because he sure can't dance. Then he goes on to say he may not can dance, but he sure does like holding her. OH!! He has captured my heart with that loving comment. MEN SHOULD NOT BE SO NEGATIVE ABOUT DANCING. DON'T THEY KNOW IT'S NOT WHETHER THEY CAN DANCE OR NOT. IT'S ALL ABOUT THEM BEING WILLING TO DO SOMETHING THEIR WOMAN ENJOYS & BE CLOSE TO HER IN PUBLIC WHILE LISTENING TO GREAT SONGS THAT MAKE WONDERFUL MEMORIES.
Hey Hubby-If you're reading this, do you remember how much fun you had dancing at the wedding? You ENJOYED yourself. It was a wonderful evening. Can't we do it again? I think you dance better than the President!!!

***Baby Harper is doing better, but continues to need your prayers.

Weekend Wrap-up

It’s been a good weekend although there were a few moments that almost got me really depressed. First, I went to the movie, Gran Torino, and Clint Eastwood was an amazingly good ole codger. The movie was good, but it was filled with offensive racial slurs, but I guess that's what this movie is about. Clint played Walt Kowalski, an angry Korean War vet. This movie evolves around his personal struggles and the struggles of his Hmong neighbors. It has its flaws, but overall I would say it’s worth seeing. Kleenex warning though which happens to be like the 4th movie in a row where I cried. The first was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2nd Revolutionary Road (which I don’t recommend at all--it's a real downer!!), and 3rd Marley and Me. Biggest tears were at Marley and Me (which included some sobbing) and then Gran Torino.

My sweet baby girl, who is 4 months away from nursing school graduation, had an extremely tough day at work yesterday. One of the pediatric patients on her floor passed away. I can’t imagine being as strong as she is going to be in her job considering that while typing this I’m getting tears in my eyes. She will be an excellent nurse though and I’m crossing my fingers that she gets a job at Children’s Medical Center or Cook’s Children’s Hospital.

I’ve been eating better this week and I am feeling better. I’ve been loving the taste and texture of all the crunchy vegetables I’ve been eating. The food stand-outs for this week would be my newly discovered love for couscous (with lots of crunchy carrots, broccoli, red peppers, and a little finely chopped onion, lime juice and seasonings), whole grain tortilla roll-ups with cream cheese spread and finely chopped fresh vegetables, and spinach artichoke dip. I also had my 1st attempt at cooking with tofu. I did a stir-fry and it was pretty good. I liked that it was spicy and the veggies were crunchy. Hubby liked it and I really appreciate his support of my vegetarian lifestyle. I did make his favorite meatballs today in the crock pot. They are so easy to make.

Yummy Juicy Meatballs
1 bag of meatballs from Costco
1 32 oz jar grape jelly
2 jars of Heinz chili sauce

Combine grape jelly with 1 bottle of the chili sauce and warm in microwave to semi melt the jelly. Fill crock pot with meatballs and pour jelly mixture and other jar of chili sauce. Stir and cook on high for 3 hours and then reduce heat to low and cook for 4 more hours. It’s actually ready before then, but it gets better when it cooks all day. The big bag of meatballs doesn’t all fit in my crock pot so I keep some in the freezer. If you want them to cook faster, thaw the day before in your refrigerator. The meatballs are a family favorite especially at Christmas. They make the best sauce that it wonderful to dip bread into. Mmmmm! Almost makes me rethink being a vegetarian.

FABULOUS FUDGE

Oh my gosh!! I have made 4 batches of fudge in 4 days. I'm eating too much of it. It's so good. I hadn't really thought of fudge being one of my favorite Christmas candies, but this year it certainly is. The first 2 batches were super fast and easy. While shopping at Sam's Club, I picked up a Carnation fudge making kit. It even came with little pans to pour the fudge in. On Wednesday I made just regular chocolate fudge and took it to the 3rd and 4th grade teachers I work with. Hubby and I managed to eat just a little of that batch not because we had self control but because it was gone. Thursday I decided I would make the other batch but with half I would mix in peanut butter and then layer it over the chocolate. YUM!!! I took that to school also, but we got to eat more of it. There was even some left on Friday evening. Saturday, after an extensive and intensive shopping expedition to Wally World, I was all ready for totally homemade fudge. I went to allrecipes.com and found these two recipes:
Eagle Brand Peanut Butter Fudge and Aunt Teen's Creamy Chocolate Fudge
I layered them, but had extra chocolate so we have a small pan of that. I used crunchy peanut butter and didn't add nuts to the chocolate. It is addictive. I had some last night and several pieces/bits/nibbles this morning. I think it must be okay cause I'm just eating a little each time. That's self control. Maybe I can go on a fudge diet. The only problem is my layers aren't stuck together. I'm not sure why this happened, but it doesn't affect the taste.

My mama's chocolate gravy

My mom was a wonderful person. She was also quite a character. I think I got many of my personality traits from her. She loved life and she also loved to laugh. She was well known in her circle of family and friends as a great cook. Many mornings she would prepare me a hot breakfast and for a special treat she would prepare something she called chocolate gravy. Her chocolate gravy was divine; it was melt in your mouth--stick to your ribs goodness especially when served over homemade buttered biscuits. I think of all the breakfasts she prepared this had to be my all time favorite. I don't have my mom's actual recipe, but I found this at www.allrecipes.com. I have made it several times and it's pretty yummy. I did half the recipe so maybe I wouldn't eat as much. I haven't served it over biscuits yet, just buttered toast. I've also eaten it straight from the pan as a warm pudding. I think it might also be good over waffles. So you can really make chocolate a breakfast food without guilt if you prepare it as chocolate gravy.


Chocolate Gravy II
SUBMITTED BY: MARY ANN PUTMAN

1/2 cup butter
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cups milk
(I also add a sprinkle of cinnamon)

DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add cocoa and flour; stir until a thick paste is formed. Stir in sugar and milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.

As my sweet mama used to say, "You can make this in two shakes of a lamb's tail!"
Enjoy!