I’m leaving on a jet plane in a Ford Focus don’t know when I’ll be back again I’ll be home Sunday.  I decided to leave you with some delicious bible study recipes for your reading pleasure while I am traveling over the mountains and thru the woods. 

I posted the recipes from the 1st week here.  If you haven’t tried them, you should!

The 2nd week’s theme was picnic … Donna and crew prepared a yummy spread.

We had chicken salad, tuna salad and egg salad with these cool little round bread things.  I think they are called thins, I had the honey oat variety, it was tasty.  I’m not going to post the recipes for the different salad concoctions, if you want them, please just let me know. 

For dessert that week, we had the following: (which were both mmm mmm good)

Becky’s Chocolate Cake:  you will need the following ingredients …

3 cups  flour

2 cups sugar

6 Tbls cocoa

1/2 cup veg. oil

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp vinegar

2 cups water

combine all ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer.  Pour in a 9 x 13 greased baking pan or dish.  Bake at 350 deg. for 1/2 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Just as a side note here … this was my Poppi’s favorite cake, my grandmommie called it her quick chocolate cake recipe and he kissed her on the mouth when she made it.  Actually, he kissed her for any reason under the sun.  Try it, maybe your love will kiss you on the mouth too! 

Next up are some … Buttermilk Cinnamon Bars (this taste so much better than it sounds)

You will need …

2 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just add a Tbps of vinegar or lemon juice per cup of milk to make homemade buttermilk, it will work fine for most recipes, be sure to use real buttermilk if baking anything with yeast)

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

combine flour, sugar, brown sugar and butter, blend well.  press 2 cups into bottom of 9 x 13 greased baking pan or dish.  add remaining ingredients to the rest of crumb mixture and mix well.  pour over top of crumb mixture in the bottom of your pan.  bake at 350 deg. for 20 – 25 minutes.  let cool and then add icing.

icing:

2 cups of powdered sugar sifted

4 Tbls milk

1/4 tsp vanilla

beat until smooth.

I actually thought this was some type of carrott cake bar, that’s what it tasted like, but there were no carrotts.  I had never had this before, but I plan to make it soon.  I will be keeping this one close at hand in the recipe book.  It would make a great dish to take anywhere.

Enjoy … I will catch up with you tomorrow, when we are safely on the other side of that big ole mountain range. 

me.

menu:

Quiche Lorraine                                                                               Crossaints

Overnight breakfast casserole                                                    Fresh fruit

Homemade blueberry muffins                                                    Juice, coffee and tea

Recipes:

Quiche Lorraine:

9 inch pastry (pie) shell or crust

12 slices of bacon, crisply fried and crumbled

1 cup shredded swiss cheese (4 oz) I think you could use any shredded cheese for this one.

1/3 cu finely chopped onion (Donna used scallions, the green added a nice color contrast plus they aren’t as strong)

4 eggs

2 cups whipping cream

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp ground red pepper

Heat oven to 425 deg.  Put the pie shell in a pie pan.  Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion into pie shell.  Beat eggs slightly, beat in remaining ingredients & pour into pie shell.  Bake uncovered for 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temp. to 300 deg and bake for another 30 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Overnight Breakfast Casserole:

1 lb lean sausage

6 slices white bread cut into cubes

2 tbs butter, melted

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese

5 eggs, beaten

2 cups half & half or milk

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

Brown sausage & drain.  Toss bread cubes with melted butter and arrange in greased 9 x 13 pan.  Top w/ sausage and cheese.  Combine remaining ingredients, mix well and pur over casserole.  Chill overnight.  Bake at 350 deg. for 45 – 50 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins:

1/2 cup shortening (crisco)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

milk (just enough to make the batter creamy)

1 cup blue berries (you can use apples or any other berry you may like)

cream shortening and sugar, add egg.  Mix in flour & baking powder.  Gradually add milk as needed.  Fold in blueberries, gently.  Fill greased muffin tins 1/2 full & bake at 450 deg. for 30 minutes.

happy cooking!

me.

Here is what you’ll need:

1 box of cornflakes

1 bag miniature marshmellows (10 ounces)

1 stick of butter (Thad says land o lakes is best)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp food coloring

red hots or sprinkles

wax paper

two or more willing individuals to whoop them up …

I started with an aunt Peggy and a Chrisi

In a big pot, melt marshmellows & butter over medium heat.  As it melts, add in vanilla and food coloring.

When it is melted to a smooth texture, pour in your cornflakes.

Fold the cornflakes in with a big spoon or spatula (you may want to spray your spoon with cooking spray) until all cornflakes are coated in marshmellow mixture.

Spread out your wax paper and dump clumps of the cornflake/marshmellow mixture on the wax paper.  Get some rubber gloves or spray your hands with cooking oil and shape the mixture in to wreaths or snowflakes.  No one will look alike!  Either place your red hots on your wreath or sprinkle your snowflakes with sparkly sprinkles.

And you have a yummy snack!

Happy holiday cooking!

me.

I’ve been at it again.  Wondering around in my kitchen trying to figure out something good to cook.  I often find myself in a funk, fixing the same things over and over again.  It bores me and I don’t much like it.  I mean, seriously, how many times can fish sticks really pass for a meal? 

Last week I ventured out to Aldi again to buy a years a week or so worth of groceries.  I am begining to like Aldi pretty good.  It didn’t take me 3 hours to shop this time, I was a bit more familiar with where things were.  I didn’t have a near nervous breakdown while checking out and I remembered to take my bags with me … all in all it was a productive grocery shopping trip. 

One of the things I purchased was a pack of pork chops on the bone.  They were a good price and I have been pleased with the meats I have gotten there.  Richard loves pork chops.  He is a meat eatin’ kind of guy.  Here in lies my dillema … just how many ways can you cook a pork chop?  Sometimes I bread them and fry um up, sometimes I shake & bake um, but that about covers my prior pork chop cooking skills.  That is no longer the case … welcome to my new world of pork chop cooking my friends.  I have a new recipe that I carefully created threw together Friday night.  I didn’t use to cook on Friday nights but since our budget has been in drastic over haul mode, our eating out has now been limited to the 99 cents menu at Wendy’s on Wednesday nights.  Please feel free to shout an amen if you needed to know you aren’t the only person in the world rowing the we are really broke right now boat.  I could often use some reassurance that we aren’t the only folks in the world trying to find our way thru tough economical times. 

Were we talking about pork chops at some point in this post?   Ahh, yes we were.  Let me get back to that.  I cooked pork chops and this is the why and how of that.  I was out of A1 steak sauce, which for some reason my husband eats on all things meat, I knew I was not going to the store, thus I needed something to flavor the pork chops in lieu of steak sauce.  I look around and see a bag of granny smith apples laying quietly in their little fruit basket.  Instantly I think of the roasted pork tenderloin with apple glaze I once ate at Poogan’s Porch in Charleston SC.  If you’re ever in Charleston, I highly recommend eating there.  I have no clue how they make their apple glaze or pork tenderloin, but I do know I had apples and pork. 

This is what I did.  It is was so easy it wasn’t even very challenging.  And … the best part, I could walk away and check the blog while it cooked all by its little self. 

I used 3 pretty large pork chops on the bone.  If I had been using a tenderloin I would’ve had done this differently but that’s another post for another day.  Today, it was pork chops with the bone in.

In my electric skillet, I poured a couple tbls of olive oil and let it get warm.  Not sizzling hot, just warm.  I put the necked pork chops in, sprinkled with salt and pepper to taste and browned each side a bit.  I had my skillet set on 300 deg.  You don’t have to use an electric skillet any old frying pan would work, just make sure it has a lid. 

While the pork chops are browning, mix the following in a bowl:

1/2 cup of apple juice or apple cider

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbl spoon of lemon juice (this is optional, I just happened to have some handy)

1/2 stick butter

stick that in the microwave for about a minute so it all melts and blends together, set to the side.

do not forget to turn your pork chops.

peel 3 apples, I used the granny smith ones, but I think any apple would be fine.  cut into thin slices.

Now, toss the apple slices in with the pork chops and pour your liquid mixture over the top.  I used a spoon and just kind of mixed it all up together.

Reduce the heat on your skillet or frying pan down to simmer, cover with a lid and cook for around 30 – 35 minutes.  Turn them often so both sides soak up the apple flavor and they don’t burn on either side.  If the apple glaze start to get to thick, add a little water or some more apple juice/cider to the mix. 

I served them with some home made mac & cheese and a salad.  Richard was not missing his A1.  He never even mentioned it.  He did however mention how good the pork chops were and wondered why I had not fixed them at any point in the last 11 or so years.  Try them … it may be a new favorite at your house too.

Happy cooking!

me.

I have no clue what got in to my lazy fanny this past Saturday.  I think an alien over took me.  I woke up early, rolled my normally lazy self out of bed full of energy and zest to get something accomplished.  Did you see that, I just used the words energy and zest in correlation to myself.  The world must be off kilter.  The end is near. 

Not only did I willingly grocery shop, I cleaned, mowed and cooked … all in one day!  I should be good for like a year at least.  In my moment of insanity, I decided to fix Sunday lunch and invite some family and friends over.  I fixed lots of stuff but the thing I want to share with you is this easy as pie (oh, I crack myself up) apple pie recipe.  It was delicious if I do say so myself.

I modified a recipe I found online because … yes, you guessed it … I used stuff I already had in my cubbards.  Here is what I used:

5 peeled, deseeded and cut up apples that I still had from the Apple festival.  You will be relieved to know I used the last of um in the pie.

1 cup of regular sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbls spoon lemon juice

2 tbls spoons of self rising flour

1 box (it had 2 crust in the box) of roll out pie shells.  I used the walmart brand and it was good.

This is so easy a man anybody could make it.  Peel and cut up your apples into slices. Put them in a bowl of water with a little lemon juice and set them to the side to soak.  Let them soak for about 20 minutes or so.  While they soak, text a couple people, go pee, wash your hands with soap, check your face book, fold a load of towelsand then come back and do the following:  in a bowl add the sugar, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, flour and lemon juice.  Stir it up.  Getcha a pie pan, do not injure yourself digging in your cabinet, spray it with some non stick spray and put one crust in the bottom.  With your hands, take the apples out of the water, shake them off good, they will be a little mushy but not bad.  Get as much water off as you can and put them in the mixture you just made.  When all of your apple slices are in the mixture, stick your hands in there and coat the apples really good.  Put the apples in to your pie pan on top of the bottom crust (duh).  Take a few dabs of butter and plop on top of the apples, bout 2 tsps should do ya.  Take the other pie crust, place it on top of the apples and squish the sides together all the way around.  Make sure you pre heat your oven to 425 deg.  I put tin foil around the edges of my crust cause I don’t like burnt crust but you don’t have to if you like burnt stuff.  Cut 4 little slits in the top of your crust, it just looks prettier if you do this.  Stick your pie in the oven and sit your behind down for 40 minutes.  When your timer goes off, take the tin foil off the crust edges and bake at 300 for another 10 minutes.  Take out and cool.  Serve warm with some vanilla ice cream.  Your husband will ask you to marry him all over again.  Your kids will eat this one.  Your friends will tell you it was really good and you will feel warm and cozy all over. 

me.

How bout them apples?  Have y’all enjoyed any of the apple post this week?  I really hope so.  I got one more for you to round out the week.  One of my daughter’s favorite things to eat is baked apples.  Richard is pretty fond of them too.  And I aim to please the ones I love sometimes.  This recipe is actually my mom’s recipe.  It’s simple and easy … my kind of recipe. 

So here is what you’ll need:

4 – 5 apples peeled and sliced thin

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 stick of butter cut up

2 tbl. spoons of syrup

1/2 tsp cinnaman

mix it all together in a microwave safe bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and microwave on high for about 8 to 10 minutes.  be careful taking the plastic wrap off, it will be very hot.  cool for a few minutes and eat up.

an apple a day … this picture was taken after 3 of the 4 of us had eaten. 

me.

I did something I have never done before!  First of all, I have a whole big ole bag of apples sitting on my kitchen cabinet.  I bought them at our town’s Apple Festival on Saturday.  They are grown locally and they are so yummy.  The only problem I have now is … 3 of us will never eat that many apples before they spoil.  Thus, I need to figure out what to do with them.  So this week on the blog, I am going to be posting several apple related idea’s.  Some you eat, some you don’t.  But what I’m not going to do is waste half a bag of perfectly good apples.  Now, back to what I did Sunday … I made up a recipe.  Yep, I did.  I walked right in to my kitchen, dug out a mixing bowl and went to town.  I did pretty cotton pickin’ good if I do say so myself.

Since my new concoction didn’t turn out tasting like cardboard, I thought I would share it with you.  Maybe you have a whole bag of apples you need to do something with too.

What I came up with was this … apple almond bread.  In truth, I was going for more of a pound cake type thing but it turned out to be more of a bread or muffin thing a ma bob.  But it taste good and that is all I need to know. 

here is what I did and what you will need:

self rising flour – 3 cups

sugar – 1 cup

brown sugar – 1/2 cup

cinnaman – t tsp.

vanilla flavoring – 1 tsp.

nuts (I used almonds but walnuts or pecans would work too) – 1 cup chopped

stick butter – 1 & 1/2 sticks softened

eggs – 4

milk – 1 cup

apples – 3 peeled & chopped fine

pour flour, sugar (both kinds) in to a mixing bowl.  add butter and mix well.  add eggs one at a time, alternating with the milk, mix between each egg, add vanilla & cinnaman.  mix all of that together until the batter is smooth.  with a spatula fold in your chopped nuts and apples.  grease and flour a loaf pan, bundt pan or muffin pan.  pour mixture into pan and bake at 350 (pre heat your oven) for approximately 50 minutes.  I checked mine at 40 minutes and covered the top with aluminum foil to keep it from getting too brown but allowing the middle to finish baking.  take out of the oven, cool for a few minutes but slice while it’s still warm … slather some butter over the top and eat your heart out!  try it and let me know what you think.  I’m going to get me another piece right now!

me.