Debbie's Breakfast Casserole

 Debbie's Breakfast Casserole

1 lb. pork sausage (I like Jimmy Dean's regular breakfast sausage uncooked)

30 oz bag frozen shredded hash brown potatoes or 5 C. 

1 small onion diced

3 C. shredded cheddar cheese (or your favorite cheese or whats in your fridge at the moment!)

10 eggs

2 C. milk

1 t. salt 

black pepper to taste 

Optional

Clean out your veggie drawer! Toss in anything that you like with your eggs and hash browns. Jut make sure to cook it with your sausage (or just cook if going vegetarian) to reduce the water content.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 (if baking immediately)

Coat 9x13 pan with cooking spray

Brown sausage with onions (add any additional veggies now )

In a large mixing bowl mix Hash browns with 2 C.  cheese then add the cooked sausage and veggies

mix well and spoon evenly in baking dish. Add the remaining cheese evenly over the top.

Beat eggs, milk and salt.

Pour egg mixture over potato mixture in baking dish.

Cover with foil and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Bake at 350 covered for 45 minutes, uncover and continue to bake until set in center (20-30 min or more if needed)

Peach Cobbler

Peach Cobbler

From my old Better Homes cookbook
I'm adding this for myself, It's my favorite!!

Preheat oven to 400

In a medium saucepan combine:

1/2 C. packed brown sugar
4 t. cornstarch
1/4 t. ground nutmeg (fresh grated is better)
1/2 C. water

Cook and stir until thickened then add:

4 C. sliced fresh peaches
1 T. Lemon Juice
1 T. Butter

Heat through and add to a greased casserole dish

Biscuit  topper

Mix in bowl:
1 C. flour
2 T. Granulated sugar
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Cut in:
1/4 C. butter till it resembles coarse crumbs

In a separate bowl whisk together:
1 egg
1/4 C. milk

Add the egg/milk mixture to the dry ingredients all at once
stirring just to moisten.
Drop in Tablespoon fulls onto the top of the peach filling. (about 8 mounds)
Optional-sprinkle a small amount of sugar on each mound

Bake 20 min

Serve warm with Vanilla ice cream!

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles,

Everybody loves them.....so why are they not in the new verson of the Better Homes cookbook????!!!!

I am keeping my very old cook book because of things like this, Sigh

Here it is from my old 80s beat up and dirty Better Homes cookbook!

Heat oven to 375..

In Mixer with paddle attachment
Beat together:

1 C. Butter
2 C. Sugar

Add:
2 eggs
1/4 C. milk
1 t. vanilla

When well mixed add:

3 3/4 C. Flour
1/2 t. Baking Soda
1/2 t. Cream of Tartar

Mix Well then using a cookie scoop make balls and roll them in:

3 T. sugar mixed with 1 t. cinnamon

Place on a parchment or silicone lined cookie sheet (or spray Pam on plain cookie sheet)

Bake for 8 min or until very lightly golden

Holiday Sugar Cookies and Mega-Batch Royal Icing

Holiday Sugar Cookies:

We love this recipe in our family. I love it most because it does not require refrigerating before rolling out! Oh, and they taste divine! Thanks to my good friends for the recipe!

Preheat oven to 350

Beat together:
2 cubes of butter (1 C.)
1 1/2 C. Granulated Sugar
3 large eggs

Add:
2 t. Vanilla
1/2 t. Salt
1 t. Baking Soda
4 C. Unbleached flour

When rolling out use a good amount of flour to avoid the dough sticking to the rolling surface.

Roll out to desired thickness and cut into shapes.

Bake 6-7 Min depending on oven temp, altitude and thickness of cookies. You may need to experiment with a few to get it down.


Royal Icing mega-batch!

We use this to make decorator cookies or when doing gingerbread houses.

In your blender with whisk attachment add:
8 C. Powdered Sugar
1 t. Cream of Tartar
6 T. meringue Powder (they sell this at hobby stores in the cake section)

whisk together then add up to
1 C. very cold water SLOWLY while blending
and: 1/2 t. clear flavoring  (Optional)

when frosting is a good consistency whip on med/high for exactly 9 minutes.
Store in airtight containers till ready to use.

When using: put the amount  you think you need for each color in a bowl and add food coloring (I prefer the gel colors) and water to get to the color and consistency you need to use on the cookies.
If you need to store leftover icing cover bowl with lid or plastic wrap and it can be used again.

Potato and Sweet Potato Enchiladas/Tamales/Quesadillas

A Great Veggie option for Enchiladas!
Recipe for the FILLING only. Can also be used in Tamales and Quesadillas.

2 lg. sweet potatoes baked
4 sm or 2 lg. potatoes baked
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can diced green chili's (or 2 anaheim chili's roasted and peeled and diced)
2t. taco seasoning
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Bake the Potatoes and sweet potatoes, cool, peel and dice. Add to bowl

Rinse black beans add to bowl
Drain Corn and add to bowl
Add Chili's (can add some spicy chili's to your own taste!)

Add seasonings and mix.

Taste and add more seasoning to your liking.

Use as filling in:

Enchiladas (in place of Chicken)(can add Cheese if wanted)
http://janeybsrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/08/chicken-enchiladas.html

Tamales as filling (can add Cheese if wanted)

Quesadillas with cheese fried in pan!

Serve on Naan bread add tomatoes or salsa!!

Or, just eat it as a side dish!! It's sweet with some spice and very filling.

Belgian Waffles

Belgian Waffles

4 C. Flour

1/2 C. Sugar

2 t. baking powder

pinch of salt

4 C. Milk

3 eggs divided (Yolks added to milk, whites in separate bowl)

1/2 C. vegetable Oil or melted butter

1/2 t. Vanilla (Optional)

Heat up waffle iron

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients and make a well in center.

In a large measuring pitcher measure milk and add egg yolks and oil and vanilla 

in a small bowl place egg whites

Whip egg whites till stiff peaks form

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix till pancake batter consistency adding more milk if needed.

Fold in egg whites carefully with spatula.

This makes a large batch! Reduce by half if you want less. Waffles can be frozen and re-heated in a toaster later if desired.

Cornbread muffins

Cornbread

Recipe From: http://www.food.com/recipe/cornbread-loaf-47189

I usually make this recipe into mini muffins and cook for 15-20 min. You will have to adjust for your oven. I also tend to use a small can of corn drained instead of the frozen. It's also good with the addition of diced mild green chili's from a can.

INGREDIENTS

YIELD1 loaf
US



 

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1⁄4cups yellow cornmeal
• 3⁄4cup sugar
• 1⁄2teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2teaspoon salt
• 2eggs
• 1⁄2cup melted margarine or 1⁄2 cup corn oil
• 1cup buttermilk or 1 cup sour milk
• 1cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

• DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees F.
  2. Spray 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and dust with corn meal.
  3. Mix first six ingredients (flour- salt) in large bowl.
  4. Mix eggs, melted margarine/oil, milk in small bowl.
  5. Add egg mixture and corn to dry ingredients.
  6. Stir until combined.
  7. Pour batter into pan.
  8. Bake for 1 hour.

Bean and Hambone Soup

This all started with a grocery store smoked half ham....$10....because we were too late to go to the honey ham store... you know the one!

I don't think we will be going back to that ham store after this one! We used a recipe on Pinterest and glazed our own ham and baked it up all beautiful and yummy! It was so much more juicy than that other kind!

When dinner was done and we were cutting up the leftovers we bagged up the bone with a bunch of meat still attached. Come Thursday....I decided it was time to make soup. I soaked a variety of beans...(It was a gag gift bottle of cowboy bubble bath ie. a collection of dried beans about 1 C. worth) They soaked for about 8 hours. I then rinsed and tossed them into a crock pot with 4 C. water and 1 can of tomato soup and about half a box of leftover chicken stock.
I added in the bone with all the meat and:
5 celery ribs diced
5 carrots diced
1/2 onion diced
2 bay leaves
1 t. herbs de provance (or to taste)
Salt and pepper
I cooked it 4 hours on high....the beans were still too hard for me so I dropped it to low for 8 hours and that did the trick!
YUMMMMM!
Don't forget to fish out the bay leaves and bones!

Craft: Elf Clothes Line

I saw a cute embroidery pattern for an elf clothes line. I really wanted to make a real one!! It just so happens that I have some green/white cording that was leftover from an activity a few years ago that would be perfect!

I found some cute clothes pins at Marshall's

I worked off of a drawn gingerbread man  to come up with patterns.

All of the "clothes" items were cut out of felt and glued together with a hot glue gun.

The line was about 36 inches and the tallest item (pants and suspenders) was 6 inches tall.

I Love how it turned out!! I'll try to post the patterns later!

Carribean Pork Chops
Prep time:  10 mins Cook time:  15 mins Total time:  30 mins
Serves: 4 servings

Ingredients
4 pork chops, fat trimmed (1" thick chops, if thicker adjust cook time )
1 tbsp EVOO

Rub: 1/2 C. Dark Brown Sugar, 1 T kosher Salt, 1/2 t. red pepper flakes (less if you don't like spicy) 1/4 t. garlic powder, 1/4 t. paprika, 1/8 t. allspice, 1/4 t. cumin
(NOTE: for more flavor add more of each spice or of the ones you prefer, I kept it very mild because I was experimenting and hubby bought expensive chops!!)

1½ cups fresh tomatoes, diced (include liquid if cutting tomatoes produces a lot of liquid)
1 fresh mango peeled and diced medium
1 Med red onion, sliced

Instructions:

Coat each chop with rub on each side and set aside
Heat a large, heavy pan on high until warm.
Add oil and heat until shimmery (but NOT burning/smoking) about 20 seconds.
Brown pork chops on each side, about 1 minute each.
Reduce heat to medium, add onions.
Stir onions and flip pork chops after 2 minutes on each side.
Add tomatoes and mangoes.
Simmer until tomatoes are soft and sauce has set up- about 5-8 minutes.
Serve on a bed of rice or rice pilaf or brown rice or pasta.

Serving size: 1 pork chop + sauce

Adapted from another Favorite: Tuscan One pan Pork Chops!!
http://sweetcsdesigns.com/one-pan-tuscan-pork-chops/

Napa Cabbage Oriental Salad

I've  been trying to come up with a salad that will compliment our Kung Pao Chicken dinner. I had in mind the basics of the salad but needed some inspiration for putting it together. I found two outstanding recipes that I tweaked and made my own and LOVED the results!

For the DRESSINGS I have included both recipes. The first one is light and tasty, the second is peanutty and yummy and we preferred it! BUT....wait....After sitting for a while the peanut dressing got a little gloopy....so, I mixed the two dressings together and WHAM! Perfection! I do need to shake it before using now, but I think it's just what I was looking for as far as taste and texture.

Here are the two salad links:
http://www.dinner-mom.com/chinese-napa-cabbage-salad/

http://momspark.net/pantry-recipe-chinese-cabbage-salad/

Salad Base that I made:

Thin Sliced Napa Cabbage (I quartered one head of napa cabbage and put it through the cuisinart on a thin slice)
Thin Sliced Celery Heart (I used one celery heart and the same setting on the food processor as above-Probably about 4-6 large pieces of celery or 6-8 small. I wanted a good amount of celery in there for crunch and cause I like it!)
1 Grated Carrot
4 green onions sliced thin

Gently mix all together with clean hands
Set in Fridge with paper towel over top-I found the napa cabbage to contain a lot of water and this worked to help keep it from being soggy.

Crispy Topping:
In a non stick fry pan on Med/High add:
1 T. EVOO
1 T. Salted Butter
Melt and add in:
1 crushed pkg of Ramen Noodles (No Sauce Packet)
1/2 C. slivered almonds (or 1 C. if you like them a lot!)
1-2 T. Sesame Seeds

Fry till all are light brown and smell like heaven!
Set aside to cool

Dressings: (Below are the recipes from the above web sites adjusted to reflect what I did)
Recipe 1:

Dressing- Shake in a jar or plastic container

• ½ cup canola oil
• 3 Tablespoons Sugar
• ⅓ cup seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Dressing 2:
 3 T peanut butter + canola oil to equal 3/4 C
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 C. rice vinegar
2 T soy sauce

3. Prepare the dressing: Combine the dressing ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat. Once combined, bring heat up to medium high and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for one minute and remove from heat. Let cool.

To Serve Salad
Top Salad with the cooled crunchy topping, add the dressing and enjoy!

Birthday Scrappy Quilt

Birthday Quilt!

I had grand ideas of doing an amazing Princess quilt using fabric princesses and applique techniques! 

Time got away from me! 

Time almost always gets away from me!

Between spending hours in the car picking up and dropping off kids and working on Church jobs and helping girls make prom dresses more modest and reading books, I ran out of time.....

So, I decided to make my granddaughter a scrappy princess quilt instead!

I bought a packet of  Colorfast Fabric sheets for ink jet printers and printed out many princesses and/or loved characters for the quilt. I followed the instructions and I hope and pray that these pictures are colorfast!!

My center was a picture of my granddaughter in a "Princess and the Pea"  Photo.

Each picture was framed in fabric that either contrasted the photo or went with the princess.

I found adorable snow white and dwarf fabric so I used them for her frame.

Then I outlined each of these with this VERY COOL wood grain flannel!!

Scrappy quilts work really well with Flannel. So, for most of the fabrics on the backs of each picture we used Flannel fabrics that went with our princess, or we used some of the cotton Princess fabric.
The backs were sewn on around the picture and then around the inside of the frame.

In addition to Disney Princesses and characters I added some pictures of her sister and  aunties dressed as princesses!

Somehow this simple Lap Quilt ended up LOTS bigger than I had imagined it would!
I used up quite a bit of fabric (YAY!) now I have room for more...Just Kidding!! (Kind-of)

I imagined this quilt looking like framed pictures and I think I got that look down! Unfortunately, that meant trying to figure out how to arrange them with the middle fabrics that I had and make them look balanced while having them be all different sizes!

This took me hours and I had Melannie help me re-arrange them a few times before I figured out how to manage the balance issue! I had to sleep on it and come at it from a different angle.
I ran out of the bright pink fabric, so I had to add a second color.

The finished quilt turned out so cute and way better than I could have imagined it!

The coolest part of a scrappy quilt is how fun the BACK can turn out!!

I love it!! I know she loves it too!!
Below are the other squares:

Michael Symon's Turkey Gravy

Go here:

http://abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/turkey-gravy-michael-symon


I have a really great turkey neck gravy recipe that cooks for hours and is yummy! This one takes only about an hour and is just as amazing, well, it's even better!!! Plus...you can make it a day or two ahead by going to step 4 and stopping then reheating and adding the pan drippings the day of Thanksgiving.

NOTE: go get some turkey stock to make it!

Sweet Potato Praline Casserole

This recipe is NOT MINE Here is the link to where I got it.

http://www.southyourmouth.com/2013/03/southern-style-easter-menu.html?m=1

We made this a few months ago and it is what the family wants now!

I didn't find it needed any more sugar than the recipe called for.

Sweet Potato Praline Casserole

Sweet Potatoes:
4 lbs. sweet potatoes
3/4 – 1 cup sugar* (I used 3/4 C)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Praline Topping: (I found this to be more than it needed! I am going to try half this time)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 heaping cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup butter, melted
Pinch of salt

Arrange sweet potatoes on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil then pierce each with a fork a few times to vent. Bake at 400 degrees until tender (usually about an hour for large sweet potatoes). Check tenderness by inserting a knife into the thickest potato – knife should slide in easily with no resistance. Do not boil the potatoes or use canned ones. I mean it!

Allow sweet potatoes to cool to room temperature then remove the skins. Add sweet potatoes, sugar, vanilla, salt, eggs and butter to a medium bowl or stand mixer.  Mix on medium speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or until fluffy. Spoon sweet potato mixture into a 9x9 casserole dish and spread evenly.

To make praline topping, combine flour, brown sugar, pecans, butter and salt in a small bowl and mix until combined.  Mixture will be crumbly.  Sprinkle praline crumbles evenly over sweet potato mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

*Start with 3/4 cup of sugar and add more if desired.  Some sweet potatoes are much sweeter than others so the amount of sugar that you need can vary.  Mix everything up to the eggs and taste it for sweetness.  Make it as sweet as you like.

Carrot Cake

I LOVE estate sales....I find all sorts of fun things there, like old cook books! This recipe comes from one of those finds. It was found in the "Centennial 1888-1988 Recipe Book" From the First Presbyterian Church Florence, Arizona.

I made it sans raisins to see how it would be with substitutions for the raisins. I used half of the batter  and added diced apples, the other half I added shredded zucchini! I liked BOTH very much! So, here it is:

2 C. Sugar
1 C. Oil
3 eggs
2 C. Flour plus 2 Tbsp.
1/2 t. Salt
1 level t. soda
1 t. Cinnamon
1 C. Chopped nuts
1 C. or one small can of Crushed Pineapple (I didn't drain it...but it doesn't specify)

Beat all together thoroughly.
Fold in 2 C. Shredded Carrots
1 C. Raisins (or shredded zucchini or diced apples)

Bake at 350 for 1 hour in Loaf pan-9x12 (I don't think they meant a bread loaf pan but a 9x13 pan)
I made mine into muffins, so that I could keep the two varieties separate. I cooked 20 min to start and I think I had to add a few more minutes.

Results (sorry! I will add pics later!) These were amazing!! They stayed moist for days!!

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 8oz pkg. Cream Cheese room temp
1/4 C. of butter room temp
1/2 Box Powdered Sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
Beat till smooth and spread over cake.

Lila's Pizza Sauce

This recipe is from my mother in law Lila Bates. I made it tonight for the first time and used it with our Calzones. It worked great!!

In a 3 qt. sauce pan heat  2 T. Olive Oil and add:
1 yellow onion Chopped fine
Cook till translucent then add 3-4 lg. cloves of  garlic minced.
Cook for 30 seconds and add:
1 can of tomato puree or diced tomatoes with liquid (15oz)
1 can of tomato sauce (15oz)
1 can of tomato Paste (6oz)
2 t. sugar (can substitute some balsamic vinegar to sweeten if desired)
2 t. salt
2 t. pepper
2 t. Dried Oregano
1/2 t. finely chopped rosemary (or dried)
2 t. dried basil
dash of Cayenne Pepper
1 bay leaf
Simmer uncovered for an hour stirring occasionally, remove bay leaf when done and store in fridge or freezer till needed.

My notes: I forgot the Cayenne, but I will add it next time! I used 2 t.  Balsamic and the sweetness was fine, when I make it again I might use my immersion blender, the diced tomatoes were a little too big for the calzones! The thickness of the sauce was perfect!!!

Salmon foil Pack dinner

 Salmon Foil Pack Dinner:

This is our first time attempting Fish or Rice with our foil packs,
We started with criss cross foil in 4 layers. I added 3/4 C. of minute
rice to the bottom with a sprinkle of salt and a teaspoon of butter.
Then I layered
Asparagus spears
julienned bell peppers and carrots
2 green onions
We added salt and pepper to the veggies and another small amount
of butter.
I then added the salmon with salt, pepper, thyme, herbs de provance
and about 2 teaspoons of butter.
We put lemon slices over the top and sealed up all but one side.
We added 3/4 cup of water to the pouch and sealed up the last side!

Kent cooked it on the coals for 20 Min. he did NOT turn it, the sealing of the pouch was able to steam the fish perfectly!

Best foil pack dinner ever!!

Touchdown Taco Dip

I believe this is a Pampered Chef Recipe! I have to double it ALWAYS!!

1 can (16 oz) refried beans
1 8 oz. pkg cream cheese room temp
1 C. sour Cream
2 Tbsp. Taco Seasoning Mix
2 oz. Cheddar Cheese Shredded (1/2 C.)
1 sm. can sliced black olives
1 med tomato, diced
1/4 C. sliced green onions
2 Tbsp. fresh Cilantro
(I make Guacamole from a package mix with a little lemon juice added to retain color)

Warm beans and spread in bottom of 8x8 or 9x9 dish (or equivalent oval or round ...)
While that is warming up mix together Cream Cheese, Sour Cream and Taco Seasoning

Layers:
Beans (cooled to just warm)
Guacamole
Sour cream mixture
Cheese
Olives
Onions
Tomatoes
Cilantro
Store in refrigerator till party time!!

My Take on Candied Yams

My take on Candied Yams

5 med. yams chopped and boiled 20 min
1 can (20oz) Pineapple chunks
3/4 C. brown sugar
1 T.  cornstarch
mini marshmallows


Prepare yams and place in 9x13 pan
Strain pineapple chunks reserving liquid
Add pineapple chunks to the yams

Whisk together cornstarch and brown sugar and add to reserved pineapple juice.
Microwave or cook on the stove till thickened and add to the pan and stir to combine.
top with marshmallows.
Bake till heated through and marshmallows have a nice color!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Other Costumes for 2012

I had some other fun costumes I was able to be part of this year!
My granddaughters for 2....

 Allison was Rapunzel......pictures inc when I get them!

Amelia was Pasqual

 Then my good friend Diane asked me to Make an Alvin costume for her husband!! So fun!!