Completely Not a New Recipe. :)

I know... this a blog about recipes and food but...  I wanted to share a link to another blog instead.  This is an interview with my favorite author, Wanda Brunstetter.  And if I share the link, I have a chance to win an autographed book.  If I win the book, I will have motivation to whip up a tasty meal for you all. :)  Anyway, head on over here for the interview and check out the other blog entries while you're there.   As far as a recipe for today, I hear KFC is having some great deals. lol  Happy Eating!

http://austenitis.blogspot.com/2011/11/birthday-party-interview-and-giveaway.html

Banana Pudding Supreme

Last weekend we found ourselves with so many plans for Saturday I wasn't sure how we'd squeeze them all in!  Sadie had stayed at Uncle Darrin and Aunt Cara's.  So she had to be picked up, at a pot luck at 11:30, parade started at 2, then home to drop off empty dishes, pick up fresh ones and to a fish fry by 5:30.  I had no idea what food I would make that would be yummy, travel well and things that could be made and left at home all day and picked up to take for dinner.  I figured it out and we made it to every event in time. :) 


 Along the way I ran across this recipe that was amazing!   This is a twist on the classic Banana pudding.  (As always, I tweaked it to suit me so this is my version:

Banana Pudding Supreme

8 oz light cream cheese

14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

2 small packages of sugar free instant vanilla pudding

3 C cold milk

1 tsp vanilla 

8 oz light Cool Whip

Bananas

Nilla Wafers

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk and vanilla until smooth. Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.

Slice bananas (to save time, slice them lengthwise) and place in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Top with pudding.  Spread the rest of the Cool whip on top.  Place Nilla Wafers on last. 

Chill.

If there are leftovers, remove the wafers and replace before serving.  No one likes soggy wafers! :)

Happy Desserting!

Chicken and Dumplings and Tumbling

It's Tuesday so we're off to tumbling and Gerald will still need to eat even if I'm not here...  


I found an interesting recipe for Chicken and Dumplings for the crock pot and thought tonight would be a perfect night to try it out.  I tasted it a bit ago and although it's not as good as grandma's it's pretty tasty.   


{Gerald went to Walmart and 'grocery shopped' alone the other night.  I use this term loosely because it basically means he wandered the aisles tossing in various items that looked appealing and did not use a single coupon.  He came home with a box mix for Chicken and Dumplings and I rest assured he will like this version much better.}

Chicken and Dumplings Crock Pot Style

4-6 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless of course)

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can chicken broth

salt, pepper, parsley, poultry seasoning

biscuits from the refrigerator section of your favorite grocer

Cut chicken in half and lay in the crock pot.  Sprinkle salt, pepper, parsley and poultry seasoning to your liking.  Add both cans of soup and chicken broth.  Cook on high for 5-6 hours or low for 8-10 hours.  About  90 minutes before serving (if using High setting) tear biscuits into pieces and gently push into the liquid with spoon.  When the biscuits are cooked, you're ready to dish up and enjoy!

I bought the small biscuits and actually used 2 cans adding one, letting it cook for a while and then adding the other.  I stirred it a couple of times to keep the 'dumpings' from clumping into one huge dumping.

Well, It's BS... Chicken! (Formerly known as Balsamic Vinegar Chicken)

I knew better than to tell Gerald we were having "Balsamic Vinegar Chicken."  I know him well enough to know he would get that look on his face that translates into "Great, this is going to taste awful.  I wonder if I can sneak out of the house long enough to get some Chinese?"  :)  So I shortened it to BS Chicken and he seemed interested.  It was very yummy and I'll be making it again!  I tweaked a recipe I found online and I'll probably make other adjustments next time too.

BS Chicken

4-6 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts

28 oz can of diced tomatoes

1 onion, thinly sliced

4 garlic cloves

1/2 C balsamic vinegar dressing (I used Light)

2 T olive oil

sprinkle of Italian seasoning

salt and pepper

Pour olive oil in bottom of crock pot.

Place in chicken breasts, salt and pepper each breast.

Put sliced onion on top of chicken and sprinkle Italian seasoning using as much or as little as you prefer.  Add garlic, pour in dressing and top with tomatoes.  

Cook in crock pot on high for 4 hours or on low 6-8 hours.  Serve over angel hair pasta.

Yum Yum Enjoy! 

Peanut Butter Chiffon Pie-Sorry there's no photos, it didn't last very long!

I got to visit one of my favorite little shops last week: The Country Lamb.  I can't leave that store without purchasing something and Gooseberry Patch got me again.  :)  This pie went fast!  

Peanut Butter Chiffon Pie

1 C pretzels, finely crushed

6 T butter, melted

3/4 C plus 3 T sugar, divided

1 env. unflavored gelatin

1/4 tsp salt

1 C milk

2 eggs

1/2 C creamy peanut butter

1 1/2 C cool whip, thawed

Garnish: Chocolate syrup

Combine pretzel crumbs with butter and 3 T sugar.  Press into an ungreased pie plate and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.  Cool completely.  Mix gelatin, 1/2 C sugar and salt in saucepan.  Add milk and egg yolks.  Cook over medium heat until boiling, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter; stir until smooth.  Refrigerate until chilled.  Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy.  Gradually stir in remaining 1/4 C sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Fold in chilled peanut butter mixture into egg whites.  When combined, gently fold in cool whip.  Spread mixture into prepared pretzel crust.  Chill 2-3 hours or until set.  Garnish with chocolate syrup, drizzled in a criss-cross pattern.






Until next time, Happy Cooking!

I'd like to blame the computer crash...

A few weeks ago my laptop went down.  I took it in to be repaired and it is currently having a new hard drive installed.  I'd like to blame my lack of blogging on that but we have other computers so there isn't an excuse... unless you count two small children, a forever messy house and a bottomless laundry hamper.  


I hope to have some new and exciting recipes to share as I am currently compiling a cookbook of recipes my family has contributed.  Since I'm in charge of the project I get the perk of getting access to the recipes months before anyone else and I WILL be using them before the books to go the printer. :)  


Tonight's recipe comes from SugarBelle's blog.  If you get a chance to check her out, please do!  Her cookies are BEAUTIFUL!  Almost too pretty to eat.  Almost!  Here is her link:   http://sweetsugarbelle.blogspot.com/


Ok here's the good stuff:  

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

2 & 1/2 c. all-purpose, unbleached flour
1/2 c. dutch-process cocoa (natural is OK, too)
1 tsp instant espresso powder --I left this out!
1/2 tsp. coarse salt-if you use salted butter, leave this out as well
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour,cocoa, espresso powder and salt; set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light an fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined.

In 3 additions, add the flour mixture at low speed. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl as needed.

Roll the dough on a lightly floured and cocoa-ed surface. (I mixed the 2 of these, then spread on my rolling surface, on my rolling pin, and used it to dip my cookie cutters.)

Cut into small circles.

Freeze cut cookies five minutes.

Bake 8 minutes. Let cool completely.

While cooling make filling:

Peanut Butter Filling

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 tbs milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Mix all ingredients together in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth. Place filling in a disposable pastry bag and pipe it onto cooled cookies.

I couldn't find a cookie cutter that was as small as I wanted so I used the lid to a bottle/sippy cup.  However, after completing the cookies and tasting, they are too big!  I suggest making these no bigger than an Oreo cookie because they are pretty rich.

What are you doing still reading, get to your kitchen and get busy!

I'll Share a Recipe Instead of Doing Laundry!

I've been stalling on housework all day so I was thrilled when a friend asked for a recipe!  An excuse to put off the housework for a while AND a reason to dig out my old friends!  I made these cookies a while back for a fellow at church and I think he ended up sharing and not getting to take any home.  The great thing about these cookies are they can be altered to your taste so easily.  If you don't like coconut don't automatically toss out this recipe.  You really don't taste the coconut, it just makes the cookie extra chewy.

Ranger Cookies

1/2 C butter, softened

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 egg

1tsp vanilla

1 1/4 C flour

1 C quick oats

1C coconut

1 C raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, or mixed dried fruit bits.

Beat butter with mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add both sugars, baking powder, and baking soda.  Beat until combined.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Beat in flour.  Beat in oats, coconut and raisins.  (if your mixer plays out, mix in by hand)

Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8 minutes or until edges are golden.

Happy Baking!

It's Been A While..... But Worth The Wait!!!!

So, I hadn't realized how long it had been since I had blogged until I logged on to share this recipe.  Goodness if you were depending on me for your meal ideas you would either have starved by now or have gotten VERY tired of meatloaf and green beans!  But I can assure you after you try this awesome new cookie recipe you will forgive me. 

I ran across this recipe online quite some time ago and 'bookmarked' it for another day.  Last night my sweet tooth was really giving me fits and I happened to see it again and decided to give it a try.  I haven't been baking many sweets lately.  I've been trying to cut down on the amount of sweets in the house because no one in this house needs them as badly as we think.  But this recipe will definately be going into the 'bake again soon' stack.  Since coconut is a main ingredient I knew Gerald and I would be able to enjoy these babies all by ourselves.  Boy was I wrong!  The girls enjoyed them as much as we did and I think we ate a quarter of the dough before it was even baked.  I didn't snap a photo of mine ( I think I was too busy 'protecting' my stack of cookies lol) so I'm going to share the the photo from the original blog. 

Coconut Cream Cheese Cookies

2 cups plus 3 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
12 TB (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until room temp
5-6 oz. cream cheese softened (I used 8 oz)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 ts vanilla extract
2 cups coconut toasted (I used 2 & 1/2 cups)

Adjust oven racks to upper & lower -middle positions & heat oven to 325. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread coconut evenly on baking sheet.

Once oven is preheated place coconut in oven. Bake for 10-20 minutes stirring every 5minutes for even toasting. Remove from oven when light brown. Do NOT burn. Remove from oven. Allow to cool completely before adding to dough.

Re-line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.

 With electric mixer, or by hand mix butter and cream cheese together with a mixer until smooth. Add sugars and beat until thoroughly combined.

Beat in vanilla until combined.

Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined.

Stir in cooled coconut.
Chill dough overnight.

When ready to bake cookies preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes or until edges are set and bottoms are light brown. Do NOT overbake!

Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

*Note:  I was too anxious to try these puppies so I didn't chill overnight and they turned out just fine.  Also you can crowd them on the pan because they don't spread. 

Grab a mug of milk and enjoy a warm cookie!



Fishing, Meat loaf and Green Bean Bundles

When I made the amazing meatloaf a while back I made 2, one for then one for the freezer.  At 4 I realized I didn't have a plan for dinner so I pulled it out for tonight.  When we had the first one Gerald wasn't overly impressed so I was prepared for him to grumble about eating it again.  So I popped it into the oven, told Gerald I'd finish dinner when we got home and headed to the pond with Sadie to fish.  We caught 10 little fish but she had a blast and thought they were fun to touch.  When I got home a large portion of the meatloaf was gone and the green bean bundles were still sitting, uncooked on the stove.  Gerald was raving about the meatloaf.  (What the heck?  It's the very same one as before, I mixed it, put half in the freezer half in the oven. lol)  Anyway so I guess we're eating in rounds tonight.  The first time I had green bean bundles was at my Aunt Anna's and I said they were so yummy you could almost serve them as dessert and I guess tonight they will be!  So my recipe to share is the green bean bundles.  Get your taste buds ready these rock!

Green Bean Bundles
3-14.5 oz cans whole green beans
8 slices bacon, cut in half crosswise,
6T butter, melted
1/2 C brown sugar, packed
2-3 Cloves garlic, minced

Gather beans in bundles of 10; wrap each bundle with a half slice of bacon.  Arrange in a lightly greased 9x13 pan.  Mix butter, brown sugar, and garlic in a small bowl; spoon over bundles.  Cover and bake 30 minutes at 375 degrees.  Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes. 

Saturday night baking: Ranger Cookies

I completely forgot a friend's birthday a few weeks ago.  I knew it was coming up and bam!  it was over.  I'm blaming my forgetfulness on the kids being sick lately but in truth I am just a scatterbrain most of the time. :)  So I bought a cute little belated birthday card but knew that wouldn't be enough for him to forgive me.  They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach so I'm taking an apology gift of cookies to church tomorrow.  I found an awesome recipe for Coconut Cream Pie cookies but didn't have any cream cheese so that recipe will be coming to you at a later date.  I decided to try Ranger Cookies from my Betty Crocker cookbook because Jess likes coconut, raisins and oats.  Can't go wrong, right?  I baked up a few without raisins and I am thinking tossing in chocolate chips in place would be mighty tasty.  I mean everything is better with chocolate!

Ranger Cookies

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
1 C quick oats
1 C coconut
1 C raisins, dried cherries, Craisins, or mixed dried fruit bits

Beat butter with an electric mixer on high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda.  Beat until combined.  Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.  Add flour slowly and beat until combined.  Stir in oats, raisins and coconut.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes or until edges are golden. 

The recipe says it makes 48 cookies.  Has anyone else ever been able to make as many cookies as the recipe states?  Maybe I just make mine bigger but I always end up with way less than the stated amount.  I ended up with 25 cookies.  Anyway they are very soft and chewy and I will definately be adding those chocolate chips I mentioned before. :)

Happy Baking!

Pot Roast with Buttermilk Gravy

Pot Roast with Buttermilk Gravy sounds like the perfect recipe for this cool day.

3 lb beef chuck roast
3 T oil
1 onion, chopped
3 T flour
1 C buttermilk
1 C water
 4 T beef bouillon granules
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp pepper

Brown roast in oil.  Remove roast to slow cooker and top with onion.  In skillet, add flour to drippings and cook and stir until brown.  Add buttermilk, water, bouillon, thyme and pepper, cook and stir until thickened.  Pour gravy over roast and cook on low setting for 5-7 hours.

Tips:
If you have bouillon cubes like I do, I subsituted one cube per T and it turned out fine.
To make buttermilk, simply add a splash of white vinegar to milk and let sit for a minute or two.

This roast rocks!  Chuck roast is one of my favorite meals and this recipe didn't let me down.  I am saving all the gravy and tonight we'll have roast with mashed potatoes and other sides and tomorrow I'll chop the leftover roast into smaller pieces and we'll have Manhattans.

I hesitate to post a pic because the pic does not do justice for just how yummy this roast is.  Yet I enjoy looking at a picture to help me decide if I want to make the recipe so here it is: 

Before serving remove roast from crockpot and remove meat from fat.  I'm also going to skim off some of the fat floating in the gravy.

Easy Beef Stroganoff

Today was a huge day at our house!  Hannah decided to start walking.  She's been 'cruising' for quite some time and the last few weeks standing up in the middle of the room.  Yesterday she was playing a game with herself dropping a toy, bending down to pick it up and standing again.  I knew it would be soon but I can't say I was ready for her to walk across the room today.  And that is what she did.  There was no step step fall, it was stand up and walk several steps across the room.  It hit me today that our 'baby days' are coming to a close.  It's bittersweet for me.  Having babies in the house is awesome but then I start to think of all the work of babies and think that a preschooler and a toddler might not be so bad! 

Gerald requested tacos for tonight and being the sweet wife I am, I made stroganoff instead. ha!  I figure if I'm the cook I get to veto any votes and have the ulitmate power of meal decisions. :)

On aother note I have to take time to rave about my newest pampered chef purchase!  I have been looking at the salad chopper scissors for a few years but couldn't bring myself to spend the money on them.  I have only had them a little over a week and I already wonder what I did without them.  They are the biggest time saver and my favorite use is to chop noodles, spaghetti, boneless chicken breast, etc for the girls.  Sure you can break spaghetti into smaller pieces before cooking but it's still hard for a 3 year old to get even the smaller pieces on their fork.  With these scissors I put Sadie's spaghetti in her bowl and snip snip snip voila!  Bite sized pieces with no mess and very little work.  It is also awesome for Hannah, who has only 4 teeth.  Yes, I used the scissors for tonight's meal. :) 

Beef Stroganoff

1 lb ground beef
onion, chopped
can of cream of mushroom soup
carton of sour cream
worcestershire sauce
beef bouillon
can of mushrooms
noodles (I use Kluski but No-Yolks are fine too)

Brown beef and onion until cooked through.  Meanwhile start cooking noodles according to package directions.  I add a cube of beef bouillon to the water to give the noodles a little extra flavor.

Drain beef and combine with soup, 8 oz sour cream, splash of worcestershire sauce and a cube of beef bouillon.  Adding a can of mushrooms is optional.  Heat.

Drain noodles and add to beef mixture.

Hot German Potato Salad

Dad was telling me a while ago that he remembers potato salad that wasn't yellow or cold.  I found this recipe online and asked him if it sounded right.  I'm going to give it a whirl tonight along with some burgers on the grill and some of those leftover settlers' beans. 

Btw, I'm not sure the settlers' beans are something I'll make again.  Neither of us were all that crazy about them but you never know about a new recipe until you try. :)

9 potatoes, peeled
6 slices bacon
3/4 C chopped onions
2 T flour
2 T sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery seed
1/8 tsp pepper
3/4 C water
1/3 C distilled white vinegar

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 30 minutes.  Drain, cool and slice thin.

Cook bacon, drain, crumble and set aside, reserve drippings.

Saute onions until they are golden brown.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, celery seed, and pepper.  Add to the sauteed onions and cook and stir until bubbly, then remove from heat.  Stir in water and vinegar, return to the stove and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir for one minute.  Carefully stir bacon and sliced potatoes into the vinegar/water mixture, stirring gently until pototoes are heated through.

Rainy Friday night, I'm thinking Settlers' Beans and a Movie

Forecast is looking gloomy tonight and with a sick kiddo our plans for seeing the new movie Rango has been tossed in favor of dinner and a movie in.  Sadie picked out two new movies this week:  Bambi and Snow White so I'm sure it'll be a Disney Movie night.  She's been calling Bambi the "Fumper" movie all week long after seeing the commercial where the cute little bunny says, "They call me Thumper."  Anywho I don't mind watching Disney movies with my babies, one day they will be too big to sit and watch cartoons with mom and dad on Friday night.

So the recipe for tonight is Settlers' Beans.  I think I'll bake a pan of cornbread to go with it.  It's hard to serve beans in this house without having some good ole Jiffy cornbread to go with it.  Now if only Gerald and I could agree on what level of brown-ness for the bread.... But that is a conversation for another time. :)

Setthers' Beans
1/2 lbs bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled, drippings reserved
1 med onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef, browned
15 1/2 oz can kidney beans
15 oz can butter beans
16 1/2 oz can pork and beans
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c bbq sauce
1/4 c ketchup
1 t chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in 3 T reserved bacon drippings.  Combine with bacon and beef, mix in beans.  Add brown sugar, bbq sauce, ketchup, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Spoon into a 2 qt casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for one hour stirring occasionally.  Or pour into crockpot and cook on low for 3-5 hours


This recipe sounds like it'd be great for those days when you forgot to lay something out for dinner.  I buy ground beef in large packages when it's on sale and bring it home and put it into smaller meal sized packages in the freezer.  If I have time I'll brown 3-5 lbs of beef and onion and then freeze it in ziploc bags in meal sized portions.  This makes meal prep quick and cuts down on mess when you're presssed for time.  And it would be perfect for this recipe!

Have a great weekend everyone!

First post-New Recipe!

Ouch, one line from being finished with this first post and I accidentally deleted it.  I hope this isn't an omen. 

My intent is for this blog to be about cooking with recipes and tips but I guess we'll just see where it goes.  Maybe I'm creating this blog as an outlet for my frustration in wanting to make a cookbook with my family and not getting the response I was hoping for. :)  (If you're feeling guilty at this point, maybe it is you I am speaking of. haha)  Friendly reminder:  Eakins family let's get those recipes together!!

Anyway enough of trying to guilt my family into participating in my cookbook project.  Tonight I tried a new recipe called Mom's country fried steak.  In my opinion country fried steak implies a piece of cubed steak floured, fried to a golden brown and smothered in cream gravy.  Wipe the drool off your chin, this is nothing like that.  I also made mashed potatoes, green beans in an iron skillet fried with bacon drippings and beer bread.  I realize there is nothing healthy about this meal but it sure was tasty!

Here's a tip for those of you who don't know.  When making mashed potatoes add some cream cheese to them before mashing.  It improves taste and texture and also makes them super yummy when re-heated.  I never make mashed potatoes without it!  If cream cheese is on sale super cheap buy a few bricks, toss them in the freezer for this use.  (Do not use frozen cream cheese for cold dips, when thawed it has a gritty texture but when mixed into mashed potatoes you can't tell)

Mom's Country Fried Steak
2 lbs round steak
flour
salt and pepper
1 med onion, chopped
1 sm. green pepper, chopped
1 T vegetable oil
1 T browning sauce

Cut steak into medium sized pieces.  Place each piece between two sheets of wax paper and pound lightly using a meat pounder.  Roll in flour and salt and pepper to taste.  Place steak, onion, pepper, and oil in skillet and cook on low to medium heat until steak is cooked through.  Remove steak and add 1 T of flour to drippings and stir until blended.  Slowly add water until desired consistency is reached; stir in browning sauce.  Add steak to gravy and simmer on low heat for 45 minutes to an hour.  Salt and pepper to taste.