Deviled Eggs

Being that my husband loves them and I make them all the time, deviled eggs are more often than not my addition to pot-luck dinners.  I dont think my recipe is that special, but people rave about them.

12 Hard Boiled eggs, cooled and peeled

2 tbsp mayonaise

1 tsp creamy horseradish

1 tbsp salad dressing (like Miracle Whip)*

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tsp dill relish

1 tsp sweet relish

sesoning salt or paprika for topping**

Half the boiled eggs and reserving the yolks to a bowl. Mash the yolks until smooth and mix in remaining ingredients into the yolks. Scoop “filling” into a ziplock bag and snip the bottom corner. Using the bag like a piping bag pipe the mixture into the hollows of the egg whites. Sprinkle tops with seasoning for garnish and flavor.

* If you dont have miracle whip increase the mayo by 1 tsp and add 1/2 tsp suagr. It really does make a difference.

** It has been suggested by friends who live in Maryland that Old Bay seasoning would be delicious instead of the seasoned salt. I may try it.

 

Mama’s Baked Beans

My mom is a really good cook. (although in adulthood I have discovered that she doenst really ENJOY cooking! who knew?)  She has some things that she has just mastered and no one can make them like she does.. I guess we all feel that way about our Mama’s though. There’s a few dishes that just dont taste just like hers no matter how carefully you follow her recipe. My Nana’s meatloaf was like that. mmm so moist and tasted so darn good. I have tried and tried to no avail. Mine is ok (better than ok.. its really good). Just cant make it like Nana’s My mom’s dishes are potato salad and Baked beans. mmm I cant remember a summertime bbq memory or very many family get togethers where we didnt bring a big ornage tupperware bowl of potato salad and a pan of baked beans. All nestled in a bath towell in the trunk yummy and ready to accompany grilled burgers, or salmon and halibut on the grill. (im drooling here.)

I bet you cant make ‘em as good as my Mama.. but here is her recipe for you to try

Mama’s Baked Beans

2 large cans of Van Camps pork and Beans.

1 cup of  Grandma’s dark molasses

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 large onion diced

3 tbsp Frenchs yellow mustard

1 lb bacon fried crisp and crumbled

In an oven safe dish pour the cans of beans. I like my beans a little on the goey side.. not runny. Mama likes em runny, so I like them best the second day when they get thicker.. but to each his own. For thicker beans drain one of the cans before you pour it in. Add the remaining ingredients and fold until well mixed.

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes-1 hour. Serve hot, or cold, room temperature is also nice.

Pasta Salad

I love Pasta salad. Yum. It reminds me of summer. This Greek salad is a great one that to make when its hot out. You can add chicken or shrimp to it to make it a whole meal, or use it as a side dish. Since it doesnt have a mayo- based dressing you can take it BBQ’s just fine!

Greak Pasta Salad

1 lb box of rotini pasta

1 can of sliced black olives drained

1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts drained

1 pint of cherry tomatos halved

1 small container of crumbled feta cheese

1 bottle of italian dressing*

2 tbsp fresh basil chopped (its ok to omit this if you dont have it. I just happen to grow it on my porch so its always handy)

1 small red onion diced fine

1-3 roasted red peppers diced **

1 cucumber peeled, seeded and diced

In salted water cook pasta to al dente’. Its pretty important to season your pasta water. It really makes for a more flavorful pasta salad. Also be careful with your pasta. If you overcook it, you’ll get soggy salad. ew. Drain and rinse with cool water. Mix together remaining ingredients, cover and chill. I try to make this the night before an event. It only gets better with age!

* There are a lot of italian dressings out there. I find that you really get what you pay for with this stuff. I go for a higher priced dressing. OR I make one from scratch.. there are only a gajillion recipes out there for good ones.

** You can use raw red peppers too.. I just happen to think that the roasted ones add a depth of flavor that you just cant get anywhere else. Roasting them is easy

Preheat oven to Broil

Wash peppers and drizzle with olive oil and salt to taste. Place in pan with edges as juices can run (I use an old pie pan) allow to slightly blacken and turn gently until all sides are slightly blackened, and peppers are soft (about 15 minutes) While peppers are still blazing hot place in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. The steam will loosen the skins allowing them to be easily removed.

Chicken Salad

You will find that my chicken salad isnt all that different that a lot of them out there. But you might be looking for the recipe for a good one. This is a quick go-to dinner that can be made ahead.

Chicken Salad

4 split chicken breasts  ***

1/2 to 1 cup mayo depending on how wet you like it

1 large fuji apple cored and diced with skin on

1 cup celery diced very small

4 oz chopped pecans

1 cup halved red and green grapes

salt,pepper and OLD BAY to taste.

*** Ina Garten  on her show Barefoot Contessa on Food Network suggests that roasted chicken with the bone and skin on is more flavorful. In the past I have always poached my chicken, as is traditional. But after trying it I have to agree with Ina. It’s WAY better roasted. Just place your chicken breasts on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at 400 degrees for about an hour. Easy Peasy. Discard the skin when you shred it for the salad. SO much better than the poached chicken.

I served this chicken salad on sourdough rolls with a chopped fruit salad. It was tasty and great for a hot summer evening.

Nacho Dip

This week was our church’s annual Vacation Bible School. A great time was had by all, and as dinner was served nightly I was relieved of having to cook each night. However late night munchies hit often and one night I created some Nacho dip that everyone loved

Nacho Dip

1 large can Con Queso cheese dip MEDIUM

1 lb ground beef browned and drained

black olives

chopped tomato

onion

salsa

shredded lettuce

sour cream

Brown your hamburger together in skillet with onion until onion is translucent, In a large bowl mix together the cheese dip and the browned, drained ground beef. Microwave on medium until cheese is hot. Serve with olives,tomato,lettuce and sour cream to your taste. Each person can personalize their own bowl. Serve with chips.

**note. I realize this isnt an illustrious start.. but its a quick idea that went over really well.

Menu Week of June 12-19 *updated*

As promised, here is my first weeks menu. As you can see my menu will go from thursday to wednesday. As I usually plan and grocery shop for the week on thursdays. This week is a little off as I am not cooking as much as I normally will. Being that its 7 times hotter than the surface of the sun, and I dont like to eat/cook much when its this hot. You will also notice that on weekends that my step daughter is with her biological mother that I dont do much cooking since my other daughter generally goes to my parents house on those weekends. If the kids are gone? Its every (wo)man for himself! If I plan to post the recipe for the item I will place it in BOLD print. If the recipe isnt mine, I will post a link to where-ever I found it. I hate when food bloggers claim a recipe as thier own when it isnt. UGH! I also plan to post pictures starting later in the week. IF I remember to take them. bear with me I will get better at this

Menu

Thursday- Dinner served at VBS.  Late snack Nacho Dip

Friday- Chicken Salad sandwiches on sourdough rolls, Watermelon slices, grapes, cherries, pasta salad

Saturday- Race night.. Its looking like Subway or Zaxbys at the racetrack

Sunday- Happy Father’s Day! Grilled Rib-eye, Mama’s baked beans, deviled eggs, steamed shrimp, Jello no bake cheesecake.

Monday- Braised Cube Steak, garlic mashed potatoes, corn, Squash Casserole, Green Salad with Balsalmic Vinegrette

Tuesday- Chicken Parmessan with spaghetti, cheese sticks, green salad with Ranch dressing.

Wednesday- Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, Bacon, Eggs, OJ

Summer Lovin’

School is out for the summer.. and to me it means thinking of even more stuff that I can feed my kids that,

1. my kids will eat without whining

2. I can afford

3. doesn’t take me all day to create 

It’s a constant battle really. My kids aren’t extraordinarily picky. And neither am I. Im not a health nut, but I do try to keep things on the nutritional side They are pretty active, so they can eat a small amount of junk food. Luckily for them (and for me!) they will chose nutritious things almost as often as they would chose junk.

So in making my shopping list this week it hit me that I would need to be planning THREE meals a day for the next few weeks. Ugh. That task is enormous! I am so spoiled during the school year. My kids eat school lunches (we are blessed to have an above average school food program, that provides them with both breakfast and lunch that are both nutritious, and edible. lucky us huh?!) so I rarely give their nutrition much thought.

Soooo. I am setting myself the task of coming up with 10 fun lunches. I mean stuff the munchkins can eat at home this summer without breaking the bank or requiring me to get the kitchen all messed up. I only do that at dinner. 

1. b-o-l-o-g-n-a. yeah yeah. blah. But they like it. And I can buy Oscar Mayer turkey bologna, some low-fat cheese, and  whole wheat bread and its not TOO bad for them. Some baked Lays chips(they even have cheetos!) and some afternoon watermelon and I didnt do to badly.

2. nachos. corn chips with shredded cheese broiled in the oven and a big bowl of salsa. Salsa is a fat free food. Use real whole fat chips though. The baked ones get soggy.

3.chicken noodle. ramen, mac and cheese, ravioli and other canned pasta creations. hot dogs or whatever yeah. ick. But it’ll do in a pinch. and ramen is $.16 a pop, some days healthy is a state of mind.

4. cut fruit and yogurt. Easy peasy. Very healthy. Cut up the fruit. and dip in fun yogurt flavors. My kids like to use chopsticks. Its messy sometimes. But its fun.

5. chicken nuggies. tyson makes a good one. the cheaper  Wal-brand ones are nasty. dont. go. there.  We make our own honey mustard and eat em with tots. Tots are a food group. You saw Napoleon Dino mite didnt you?

Honey Mustard

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp mayo

6. lunchables. A friend of mine thinks that “crack” must be included in the ingredients of these.. cause kids eat em up. She’s right.. about the kids eating them. Add a fruit cup and youve got easy lunch gold. Environmentally? Save the plastic-y containers they come in and re-use them for painting! They make great sauce holders for nuggies too!

7. Frozen burrittos. Dont groan. They have a lot of low fat protien and they are microwavable.. that way when I am on my float in the pool I can wave my hand and say. “nuke some burritos” when the lunch holler goes out. “bring me an iced tea” can follow the nuke direction.

8. Turkey roll ups. I get turkey sliced thin, from the deli and cut long strips of cheddar cheese. Put the cheese in the middle and roll it up. Red Grapes and goldfish crackers round out the plate.

9. tomato soup and grilled cheese. classic and quick.  If you insist on being healthy with this use whole wheat bread, and low fat cheese.  and make your own soup with pureed canned diced tomatoes…Im a puritst though. Wonder bread, velveeta, and cambells tomato made with milk. mmmmm

10. Frozen pizza. Yeah. they make some really good ones. They have veggies and the sauce has anti-oxidants.. We like Freshetta. It comes pre cut and on an oven ready pan in the box. YES!

Only The Best

Chocolate chip cookies. Classic and delicious.. and until very recently I couldnt find a recipe that worked for me to save my life. I have tried tollhouse, Martha Stewart, every other food network chef and person to ever put out a cookie. I have other cookie recipes. Magical recipes that make magical cookies. Complicated 80 step, 50 ingredient cookies that require three days to complete them.But I could not master the most basic and perfect cookie. It was maddening. Recently I needed to make something quick to take to a church dinner, and since brownies are everyone’s favorite, I grabbed a bag of generic chips and was planning to add them to a boxed mix. But then I didnt have a mix like I thought I did… my husband who did NOT want to make a trip to the store suggested just make chocolate chip cookies. ugh. I can not make chocolate chip cookies.

until now.

its here.

and it came from the back of a generic brand of chocolate chips.

take THAT Neiman Marcus cookie recipe peddlers

Only The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER

makes about 3-4 dozen cookies

1 cup of butter softened

3/4 cup brown sugar packed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

1 bag SAM’S CHOICE MILK CHOCOLATE CHIPS

nuts to taste.

In a large bowl cream together butter, and sugars. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix until well incorporated. Sift together salt, soda, and flour. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in chips and nuts.

Here are the keys to making them perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside.

1. preheat the oven to 375.

2. use a tbsp measure to drop the cookies onto a COOLED cookie sheet.

3. refrigerate dough between batches.

They really are amazing. YUMMY. I havent tried making them with a higher priced chip… but when you find perfection in the cheapest bag on the shelf? Why mess with it?

hi. welcome to my kitchen

I have been reading a lot of food blogs lately. A LOT. There are TONS of them out there. From vegetarian veterans to Mediteranean Alaskans. If there is a type of food you want? There is generally a blog out there about it. What I haven’t found is a real honest look at what real people eat. The stuff you feed your kids and how to make it interesting.. or not so interesting. (Which can be a struggle for someone who has a child like mine who is PLAIN JANE to the max when it comes to food)

SO, I decided to write one. My aim is not to become a famous food blogger… although if it were to happen, I wouldnt ignore calls from the Food Network! But to just talk about normal food. The recipes that I feed my family, the good, the bad, and the stuff that got snuck under the table to the dog.

The format I plan to use is pretty simple. On Thursday or Friday I will post the following weeks menu. I will also include a shopping list.. hey! Just like another normal type food person we know’s website. Then day to day I will post the recipe of that evening’s offering. It might be something healthy and nurtitious… it might be hamburger helper. But, either way it might help you decide whats going on at your table tonight.

I might also talk about something food related I saw on television, in a magazine, or on another blog I like. Or I might include a recipe that belongs to someone I know… or I might just link you someplace delicious. Never can tell what I might come up with.  You wont want to miss a single day!