Month: July 2014

Hey ya’ll… I know it’s not Sunday but my internet was out on Sunday and I’ve been quite the busy realtor bee this week; so, I’m just getting the chance to sit down and write this blog! Ya’ll are gonna be reading with mouths watering as I tell you about the yummy roast, fried potatoes, and fried vegetable medley I made for my family this Sunday! I had them all begging for seconds and my sweet little nephew who NEVER wants to eat, much less have seconds, ate THIRD helpings of this fried vegetable medley. When I say fried vegetable medley, I mean fried okra, squash, green tomatoes, and onions that will absolutely make you weak in the knees!

Speaking of weak in the knees, the handsome fella pictured below was my sweet little kitchen helper this week! His name is Judd and he’s the sweetest 10 year old boy in the world! This sweet little boy is a hunting fool, a music lover, and a total sweetheart. He gets on my very last nerve a lot of times, most days; but at the end of the day when everyone is winding down, it’s so nice to have him curl up in my lap and give me a hug and tell me I’m the best aunt ever! And really, days like this Sunday, when we were in the kitchen, dancing like fools, singing along to the radio, and cooking a big family meal remind me of my childhood and cooking with my family. Days like that are what made me love cooking so much in the first place. Plus, I love getting compliments on the food. 😉

Please excuse the mess in the background of this picture… we were cleaning the dishwasher out and hand washing some dishes! Well, it’s that time again. Confession time, time for me to face it. Folks, I HATE washing dishes. My sweet little Juddy buddy washed the dishes for me! So he stacked the clean ones up so I could help him put them away; therefore, there’s a bunch of stuff on the countertops!

This roast is amazing and simple. You need to know three things about making roast. First, there are a bunch of ways to do it, we mainly stick to putting it in a crockpot low and slow for about 8 hours; however, we didn’t have the stuff when I started out to make the roast so I did this one in the oven. I use a ceramic coated, cast iron, Dutch oven. You can use anything that is safe to put in the oven as long as it has a top! The top is important because it holds in the moisture and prevents the roast from getting dry and tough. Second, it all depends on the cut of meat you get. For anyone that has ever spent any amount of time in the meat department, you know that there are about 20 different cuts of roast. Much like picking a ribeye, which you can find info on in a previous post of mine by clicking here, the fat content is important. You want a roast that has thin lines of marbling, fat, running through it; however, you don’t want large chunks of fat because it will result in a greasy, almost gunky texture to the meat. The most popular are chuck roast cuts and round roast cuts. Chuck roast will have a little more fat. Round roasts are going to be more lean because they’re cut from the leg. The most common types of round roasts are top round, bottom round, bottom rump round, eye round and round tip roasts. I like to use bottom round, bottom rump round, or eye round. You can also get a sirloin roast which is super good and very tender but it’s not as big and a little more expensive. The third and final thing you should know about picking a roast is the most simple and obvious. You need to make sure you don’t get a cut of meat that is too big for your cooking method. Sometimes, I’ll buy a small sirloin roast and add a medium sized eye of round roast, and cook them together. The problem for me is getting one that will feed everyone, but one that isn’t too wide to fit in the crock pot. So, now that you know how to pick the perfect roast, I’ll tell you how to cook it!

Perfect Pot Roast:

1 3-4 lb roast of your choice,

2 cans cream of mushroom soup,

1 bag of baby carrots,

4-5 medium sized red potatoes, washed and quartered,

1 small onion, peeled and quartered,

2 beef bouillon cubes,

8 oz. water,

Garlic powder, lemon pepper, and McCormick cowboy seasoning to taste.

On Sunday I used a ceramic coated cast iron Dutch Oven like this:

  

I love to use a Dutch oven for pretty much everything. I use them for soups, stews, macaroni, roast, boiling chicken, everything. They’re easy to clean and cook everything really well. Plus you can use them on the stovetop or in the oven. Anyway, whatever you use, put the roast in it. Now, add the carrots, potatoes, and onions. Pour on the soup and fill the empty can with water. Pour that in and add your seasonings. If you’re baking it in the oven, you’ll need to put it in, with the top on at 350 degrees for 3 hours. You can bring that temp up to about 425 and do it for 2 and a half hours but the meat will be a little tougher if you do that. Now, you can also use a crockpot. Put everything in the crock just like in the Dutch oven and turn it on for 8 to 10 hours. This is my favorite way to make roast. Simply because I can throw everything in there in the morning and go about my business for the rest of the day. Now, with this roast, you don’t have to serve anything with it. You can dish up the potatoes, carrots, and roast, pour a little gravy on top and let that be it. But I usually serve rice or a green vegetable with it. Sunday, I made peas, cornbread, fried potatoes (instead of the potatoes in the roast like I normally do), and fried veggies. I’ve already given ya’ll the recipe for the peas and cornbread, but ya’ll can go back and see it here.

The fried potatoes are something that my dad loves. They’re basically skillet potatoes, nothing super special, you can use them for supper or make them into a breakfast dish. All you do is buy a bunch of large sized red potatoes and slice them up. My mom told me that my dad loved them a while back. She said it was one of the few things her mom ever made, but that it was my dad’s favorite. She said that she had tried to make them several times but they had never turned out just right. So I figured I would get out my skillet and try it myself. I’ve made similar potatoes before so I didn’t think it would be that difficult. Now, I bought my potatoes from the Farmer’s Market, because they’re bigger. I only bought 4 but if you buy them from the grocery store, it’s cheaper to buy a small bag of small to medium sized red potatoes.

Skillet Fried Potatoes:

Red potatoes,

1 small onion,

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil,

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Wash and scrub the potatoes, making sure any bad spots are cut off, you can peel them if you would like but you don’t have to. Plus, the peeling is supposed to be the most nutritious part of the potato! After they’re scrubbed, cut them into really thin slices. About 1/8″ thick. Slice the onions, I just did slivers but you can dice into small pieces. Pour the oil into the skillet first, then add the potatoes and onions.

Turn the heat on medium and season the potatoes. You don’t have to baby sit these but you do need to keep an eye on them. Make sure you stir them up and if you want you can put a top on them to keep some moisture in there. If the ones on the bottom start getting too brown, you can put them on a baking sheet or in a bowl. I lined a baking sheet with a paper towel and put them over onto it.

They were delicious, if I do say so myself! They’re great for a side dish and they’re also great if you add a little cheese and maybe leftover steak or eggs and sausage. You can also cut them into squares and cook them in a hash-brown style!

The vegetable medley is amazing, but it’s very time consuming. Now, you’ll notice in this next recipe that I don’t have any measurements. This is because it is 100% up to you and how much you want to cook. I had a lot of people to cook for so I needed a lot of veggies; however, if you’re only cooking for a few people, you’ll only need a little. Now, you can also only use squash or only use okra but I like all of it mixed together. My mom started doing this and it kind of became something that we expect every time we ask for fried okra. So much so, that when someone asks for it, it’s a given and if we don’t mix it in, they say, “where’s the other stuff?” I’ll try to put the measurements for enough for a family of four, but I can’t promise that it will be enough or that it won’t be too much! This is what you’ll need:

Fried Vegetable Medley:

10 small to medium sized okra,

1 medium Vidalia onion,

4 medium yellow squash,

2 small green tomatoes,

2 cups of white corn meal,

salt and pepper.

When you’re picking out the okra, you want to get the soft ones. The hard ones are real slimy and haven’t gotten ripe enough yet. Once you pick them out and get them home, you’ll need to wash them well. Start slicing them, it’s going to be kind of nasty and kind of slimy. Just be prepared. Slice them into a bowl, sprinkle cornmeal over it. Wash and slice the squash. Wash a cut the green tomatoes into rings or chunks. Cut the onion into chunks… you can also cut it into rings if you want. Now sprinkle on more cornmeal, season judiciously with salt and pepper.

Stir it up until everything is coated. Pour some oil into the bottom of the pan. You’ll want about an inch of oil in the pan and let it get hot. If it doesn’t get hot enough before you put the okra in, the cornmeal will wash off in the oil and gather at the bottom. You’ll want to make sure its piping hot, if you have a frying thermometer, it needs to be around 350 degrees. If not, you can drop a piece of the okra into the oil, if it gets nice and brown within about 30 seconds, it’s hot enough. When the oil is ready, drop in a large handful of veggies.

You may have to turn the veggies once or twice in order to make sure they’re evenly cooked. Then, using a slotted spoon, remove them from the hot grease, allowing the excess to drain from the spoon, and place it on a tray or in a bowl lined with paper towels. This allows the excess grease to drain off and prevents the vegetables from becoming too soggy and greasy. Once all the veggies are done, sprinkle with a little more salt, serve them to your adoring crowd, and accept all compliments.

This meal, while delicious, is very rich and heavy, starchy and carb-y, so you’ll need to eat salads for a week to make up for it. These are the recipes of my childhood. My mom made roast so much when I was a kid that it’s kind of hard to get my brother to eat it now, unless he’s feeling really nostalgic or unless I tell him he can eat it or starve. 😉 He does like it, he just got a little burnt out on it during our childhood and he’s also a meat snob. He thinks roast is too cheap! Anyway, I hope ya’ll enjoy this meal as much as we did. And I hope you have a little kitchen helper as cute as this one!

Ya’ll enjoy and I’ll be back to writing more frequently soon!! Have a good one!

 

 

Hey ya’ll! Wow has it been a long week! And it’s only Wednesday! I got two new clients and I have two closings at the beginning of next week that I’m gearing up for! I know everyone thinks being in real estate is just easy, fast money; but, it’s a lot of work and a lot of stress! I love being my own boss though and I absolutely LOVE my Front Gate Realty team. Another reason that it’s been a busy week is because my poor, sweet mama has been sick! She’s been having severe pain in her abdomen and had to be taken to the ER for testing on Monday night. We didn’t get in until 2:30 a.m. and then I was up early the next morning for a vet’s appointment and an office meeting. Tuesday was also the day that my family and I got to share big BIG news with the world! Our big, crazy, Southern family will be growing! My brother and sister-in-law will be having baby number 3 in February! They sure do make some gorgeous little ones and I for one could not be more excited for a new little niece or nephew to spoil! Aren’t they gorgeous?!?!

So! Since my mama has been sick and poor Lauren has been sick from her pregnancy, I decided that big pot of my famous Chicken Noodle Soup was in order! And since I’ve been so busy and needing some serious down home comfort time this week, I decided to make a family favorite, Mama’s Goulash! Here’s the downside… I was in such a big hurry, running off to my next appointment, that while I was cooking, I forgot to take process pictures! I only have the finished product! Sorry folks! Buuuuttttttt, they’re super duper easy and you can make each one in about 30 minutes so, no process pictures are really needed!

When I was a kid, I didn’t know that goulash wasn’t something my mom just made up. I didn’t realize that goulash was an actual thing… I thought my mom was just a genius 😉 Now, I realize that many people have a similar recipe for this. However, most recipes for goulash are soupy. Since my mom is super weird and the only person I know that likes burnt steak and dry chicken, she likes dry food in general, she makes it more like a casserole. You can make it either way and I’ll explain how later in the post; but, this is my family’s favorite way to make it. It’s easy, fast, cheap, and most of all delicious. You can make it ahead and freeze it for later, make a big batch and freeze half or take half to a friend, you can also easily cut the recipe in half and make a smaller dish! This recipe does make a large baking dish and will feed a family of 4 to 6.

Goulash:

2 lbs. hamburger meat,

1 small onion,

1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes,

1 can golden sweet corn,

1 can black olives,

1 pkg. macaroni or egg noodles,

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese,

Garlic powder, salt, and black pepper to taste.

First things first, chop that onion. Now, my nephews HATE onion, they know I use it in everything I cook so they’ve learned to just eat around it, but I chop it up into really teeny tiny little pieces in this. I also dump the hamburger meat and onions into a large skillet and brown the meat and the onions together, adding the seasonings to the mixture. Once the meat is fully cooked, drain it, and put it back in the skillet. Now open the tomatoes, the corn, and the black olives and drain the juices off of them and add them to the mixture; allow this to cook in the skillet until the noodles are ready, or about 5 to 7 minutes. You can chop up the olives if you’d like but I leave them whole; you can also buy them sliced. If I slice them myself I usually drain the juice, find a small steak knife, and run the knife around in the can. I go in an “x” shape and a “t” shape a couple times to get most of them cut up. Boil the noodles and drain the water off, I like to put a little dab of butter and a little sprinkle of salt into the water while the noodles are boiling. It gives the noodles flavor and with a dish the simple, it adds an extra layer! Now add the noodles into the skillet and stir. Then pour all of this into a baking dish, cover with cheese, and put into a 360 degree oven for about 15 minutes. That’s it! Simple and easy, quick and delicious! I do think that the next time I make it I will try it with either ground turkey or ground sausage just to change things up a bit though! My nephews absolutely love it and it’s hard to please these growing boys! Plus, since its so cheap and makes so much, it will definitely stick to their bones and feed the bottomless pits they call stomachs! As you can see from my picture below, Judd just couldn’t help himself. He thought he was done, I started cleaning the kitchen and putting up leftovers, and he snuck another bite!

 

You can make this a little more soupy by adding the juice from the cans and keeping some of the water from the noodles, adding a can of tomato sauce, and instead of putting everything into the skillet, then the casserole dish; add everything to the pot that you boiled the noodles in. Of course, you can use cheese as a garnish instead of putting it on top. You can also use green olives, I just LOVE black olives! My mom made this with macaroni noodles my whole life; but, one day I was making it and I didn’t have macaroni noodles, so I substituted egg noodles. My mom LOVED the change and I use them now. But sometimes I still use macaroni. I also like to add a little Velveeta cheese sometimes too. This is kind of a kitchen sink meal! You can add anything you like! We’ve added black beans, garbanzo beans, cream cheese, taco seasoning. It’s really good with taco seasoning on the meat and allowing the cream cheese to melt and mix with the meat. Then add a dollop of sour cream or salsa on the serving plate! Yummy!

Chicken Noodle Soup is the easiest chicken dish in the world to make. Seriously, easiest ever. My mom and sister-in-law absolutely love it and I try to make it every time someone is sick… funny, no one ever makes it for me 🙂 Anyway, Chicken Noodle Soup is so easy and so healthy and it’s a ONE POT MEAL!! AHHHH!! Also, you can freeze it too! I don’t know why anyone ever buys the canned kind. It’s not the same to me anymore… plus this is much better for you and once you add up the cost of everything and divide it by the number of people you feed, the canned kind is actually more expensive and if you freeze the left over’s, it’s super convenient! This is what you’ll need!

Chicken Noodle Soup for the Soul:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts,

12 oz. pkg egg noodles,

1 stick butter,

1 bunch celery,

4 large carrots OR 1 bag sliced carrot chips,

14 oz, low sodium, no MSG, Swanson’s Chicken broth,

2 garlic cloves,

1 small onion,

ground black pepper, garlic salt to taste,

Parsley and Chives.

Put the chicken breasts in a large boiler, dutch oven, or stew pot. Cover with water and add butter. You can use bone in chicken if you like, some say it adds more flavor, and that’s all up to you. But you have to pull the skin of the chicken and the chicken off the bone and frankly that’s just too much unnecessary work for my tastes! I got things to do! This is much easier and the flavor is still outta this world! While this chicken is boiling, wash and peel the carrots. Wash the celery and chop the bottom off of it. Now chop all the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, parsley, and chives. I didn’t put amounts on the parsley and chives because I usually just pull a bunch out of what I bought and chop it up. Last year I grew my on and unfortunately I didn’t do a very good job at keeping it alive. But I would say it’s a handful of each. The parsley and the chives are also the last to go in, you don’t want it to cook too much! Once the chicken is done, place the chopped onion, carrots, garlic, and celery in a separate bowl, pull the chicken onto your cutting board and allow it to cool for a minute. While it’s cooling off, look at the broth that you just made! Make sure there are no little pieces of fat floating around in it and skim any foam off the top. Allow it to come to a boil and pour in the package of egg noodles. You don’t have to use the whole package if you like your soup more broth-y. While the noodles are boiling, chop all that chicken, and add it in with the veggies. Once the noodles are done, pour in the Swanson’s broth, add the chicken, and add all the veggies (except the parsley and chives.) Add the garlic salt and black pepper. Allow that to SIMMER long enough for the veggies to get soft and add the parsley and chives. You can put the top on the pot and just let it sit on low or simmer for a while. You don’t want it to BOIL! Just allow it to simmer for about 20 minutes. The noodles will get too starchy and mushy if it boils and that does not make for a good soup. You can also use ramen noodles or thin spaghetti noodles. If you don’t want to use the store bough broth, boil about 16 oz. of water with a few chicken flavored bouillon cubes. You can also use Swanson’s brand chicken stock that comes in the gel form. Whatever you like! You can serve this up into large soup bowls or allow it to cool and put it in small freezer bags, freeze it up and just take it out when you’re sick! It makes a huge pot and everyone will love it. Now, my mom HATES celery in soup and my sister HATES carrots but they both don’t mind them in this. You can also add some frozen peas or green beans, even broccoli! This is just a classic chicken noodle soup that I absolutely adore!

Whatever ails you, I can guarantee that you’ll feel better after a nice big bowl of this yummy-ness! This is comfort food at it’s finest ya’ll!! Easy, cheesy, and cheap!! Ya’ll let me know how you like it and if ya’ll have any ideas or suggestions for recipes, please comment below or email me at calah.notsogourmet@gmail.com! I, for one, am hosting Bunco at my house in a couple of weeks and need some ideas on what to cook! Give me some ideas ya’ll! And have an awesome night!

 

 

 

 

Hey ya’ll! I hope ya’ll had as amazing a weekend as me! I spent a lot of time with my family and my dogs and cooking! The weekend wound down with a fabulous Sunday dinner! It’s been 3 years today since I got my sweet little Yorkie, Whiskey! It’s also my brother-in-law’s birthday, but he doesn’t love Whiskey so we’ll just say we were celebrating Whiskey’s homecoming! 😉

On the left is my sweet boy, the day we picked him up, only a few minutes after we left the breeder. He still didn’t have a name, but I thought he looked like a Jack Daniels bottle; black and white, with amber colored feet. I ended up calling him Whiskey instead of Jack because a lot of whiskey bottles are black label with white writing and amber below the label! On the right is my baby, a few weeks ago, sitting in his bed. He’s brought so much joy to my life… I think I’ll be making him some homemade doggy biscuits this week, to celebrate his three years with me. 🙂

So, on the menu tonight is meatloaf, mashed potatoes, butterbeans, and creamed corn. I know some of you are thinking “Yuck! Meatloaf? You feed him that for his birthday?!? But, in my household it’s something we look forward too! As much as we love Summer fresh veggies, we’re meat eaters! For me, a meal isn’t complete without a meat of some kind! My mom could eat nothing but veggies at every meal and not miss it. Not me though… I have to have some kind of protein! Sooooo… since meatloaf is 98.959876876% meat… we love it! And of course, what’s meatloaf without mashed potatoes? Ya just can’t get much more comfort than Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes, makes me feel like June Cleaver!

This really is a great meatloaf though! It’s very moist, whereas a lot of meatloaf is really dry and I think that that is what makes the difference! Sometimes I break it up into little mini-loaves; it takes less time to cook and they’re single servings, but tonight I had a lot of people to cook for, so I did TWO big loaves! And there isn’t much left! In fact, my brother came up to me after supper and said, “Calah, that was the best meatloaf ever!” Which is a huge compliment from anyone; but, especially from my brother because he usually has to pick on me about something! Even if everything is perfect, he’s usually got something to say about something! So tonight, I knocked him senseless with my meatloaf! If you want to make someone speechless with a meal, this is what you need:

Make ya’ speechless Meatloaf:

2-3 lbs Ground Round or Ground Chuck hamburger meat,

1 egg,

1/2 cup bread crumbs or crushed Ritz crackers,

1 medium Green Bell Pepper,

1 medium onion,

3 cloves garlic,

1 8 oz can crushed tomatoes,

3 tbsp. Worcestershire,

2 tsp. garlic salt,

2 tsp. McCormick cowboy seasoning,

2 tsp. ground black pepper,

1 can Beef broth

IS THAT ALL?!? Haha, I know, you’re like, “Gah, is she ever going to stop listing ingredients? Geez!” But, hey, it’s delicious, you’ll get over it! Now you’ll notice in my pictures that it looks like I used much more than this… I did but that’s because I was making two loaves! So I doubled this recipe, and you can add more or less of anything you want!

SOOO! Now that you’ve got all those ingredients together, put the meat into a bowl. Chop the bell peppers, onions, and garlic. It doesn’t matter how big or how small… it’s up to you, whatever you like! Add the peppers, onions, garlic, egg, tomatoes, Worcestershire, bread crumbs, and seasonings together. I use my hands! I wash them really good and just dig in! It’s so much easier than trying to use a spoon! If you don’t want to touch the meat though (my mom HATES touching raw meat) buy some latex gloves… or steal some next time you’re at the doctor’s office. 😉 You didn’t know I was going to turn you into a thief with this blog did you? See… I’m full of surprises! Now, turn all the meat over onto a pan… I use a broiler pan but you can use a cookie sheet or a casserole dish. I don’t recommend using a meatloaf pan. Here’s why, when I turn the meat over onto the broiler pan, I form it into a loaf and pour the beef broth over the meat, allowing the broth to fall into the bottom of the pan. I then top it with a sauce that I’m about to give you the recipe for; but, allowing the broth to fall into the bottom of the pan means that when it’s in the oven, the meat is being engulfed in that beef broth. The broth will dry up a bit but it’ll also mix with the fat off of the meat and combine giving it a little extra flavor!

Now for the tomato sauce. I’m going to give you two different sauces. The first one is a family favorite! It’s tomato-ey (not sure if that’s a word, but I like it) and sweet. The second one is amazing and tangy and spicy but it’s mustard based and best of all it’s LOW CARB!!

Tomato Sauce:

2 cups ketchup,

1 8 oz tomato paste,

1 tbsp. Worcestershire,

2 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp garlic powder,

1 tsp ground mustard.

Put it all in a bowl and mix it up really well. Make sure any lumps of brown sugar are crushed up. Now take the spoon you used to mix the sauce and spoon about half the sauce onto the meatloaf. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour! Or you can do what my crazy self did today and put it in the oven for 30 minutes before you actually turn the oven on! But that won’t make it look like this!

If you want to make this a low carb recipe, it’s super duper easy! First, when mixing the meatloaf, instead of using bread crumbs or Ritz crackers, use PORK RINDS! Yes, I know, I’m a genius! 🙂 You won’t know the difference! Second, I use Red Gold brand crushed tomatoes, you can use whatever brand you want but on the carb diet, you take away from the carbs for the dietary fiber and protein. This means there are only 2 carbs per 1/4 cup for the crushed tomatoes. You can use a 1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes and 1/2 cup of mayonnaise… this will add to the flavor and keep your moisture content up! Third, the sauce!

Dijon Sauce:

2 cups Dijon mustard,

2 tsp. Worcestershire,

1 tbsp. Splenda brown sugar.

Mix it all together, put pour it over the meatloaf AFTER baking!

Now, in my family, mashed potatoes are a special thing. I like to experiment with potatoes. It’s so easy to make them unique and different. There are a million different ways to make potatoes! I don’t know if ya’ll have ever seen the movie Forrest Gump; but, there is a part where Bubba is talking about all the ways to make shrimp. You could say the same about potatoes! Fried, baked, scalloped, sautéed, boiled, au gratin, mashed, roasted, and much much more! I still experiment from time to time but I found one recipe that my family absolutely loves. Every time someone mentions mashed potatoes, they say, “Hey, Calah, can you make YOUR mashed potatoes?” I never thought they would be this popular! Now, people beg me to make them! So, I don’t experiment with mashed potato recipes quite as often anymore! This is what you’ll need!

1 bag (about 10) fingerling potatoes,

1 small bag (about 10) small red or baby new potatoes,

2 cloves garlic, chopped,

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese,

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream,

4 oz parmesan cheese,

1 pkg. dry ranch dressing mix,

2 tsp. garlic salt,

2 tsp. black pepper,

1 stick butter.

I know it seems like a lot of potatoes but fingerlings aren’t very big… you can also use just red potatoes in this but I think the fingerlings cut some of the sweetness. Also, at Kroger, the fingerling potatoes come in a net bag mixed with a couple of purple fingerling potatoes that not only give it a little extra flavor but they also give them a beautiful color! I don’t like to peel all the potatoes; I only peel half of them. It’s time consuming and boring and irritating, and tedious; besides, my mama always told me that the potato skin makes your skin, hair, and nails pretty! 🙂

Whatever you decide to do, however you decide to peel the potatoes, make sure you wash them really good. Then place them in a boiler, cover them with water, add the chopped garlic, and turn them on high heat. Allow the potatoes to boil until they are fork tender. Drain the water off the potatoes, while they’re still hot, add all of the ingredients. I use a heavy duty metal spoon to roughly mix it and then turn on an electric to finish them off. Now, my family doesn’t like their potatoes 100% smooth… we still like some chunks of potato so I just get the ingredients well incorporated, stir one more time for good measure, and serve ’em up!

I know a lot of people also have a negative outlook on creamed corn. My mom makes this though and it’s always a big hit! We use frozen corn; but, I want to learn to make it with fresh corn. I love fresh corn. 🙂 But for now, we use Pictsweet frozen golden sweet corn. It’s really easy, fast, and simple. It’s one of those side dishes that you can just pour in a bowl, stick it in the microwave, and forget about it until it’s time to serve it!

Creamed Corn:

2 pkg. frozen sweet corn,

1/4 cup milk,

1/4 cup sugar,

1/2 stick butter,

1 tsp. salt,

1 tsp. ground black pepper.

Pour it all in a microwave safe bowl and put it in the microwave for 15 minutes. That’s it! Take it out, stir it well, make sure all the corn has thawed and it’s hot enough, and serve it to your adoring crowd!

  

Now for the butterbeans! My papaw’s favorite vegetable of all time! We used fresh but you can use frozen! Please don’t use canned! It just seems wrong to use canned butterbeans! This is really simple too! You can mix it all together and let it simmer on the stove, stirring occasionally, while you finish the rest of the meal! Or if you’re like my mom and my papaw… mix up a pan of cornbread, mix up the butterbeans, cut up some onion, and go about your business for about 45 minutes till it’s all done!

Papaw’s Butterbeans:

4 cups butterbeans,

2 tbsp. bacon grease,

2 tbsp. salt,

1 tbsp. garlic,

1 tbsp. black pepper,

Wash the beans really well, place in a pot, cover the beans with water. Add the bacon grease, salt, garlic, and black pepper; put it on medium heat and allow them to boil for about 45 minutes or until soft. You will need to stir occasionally and add more water if needed. It will be obvious if you need more water 🙂 There should always be enough water to almost cover the butterbeans. That’s it! Easy, peasy!

My family has a tradition of buying cucumbers and onions, cutting them up, covering them with a little vinegar and water, sprinkling salt over it and gobbling them up like they’re going out of STYLE! So that’s my last little recipe for you! Buy a few cucumbers, peel them, slice them, and place them in a small bowl. Peel an onion, cut it into rings, and add them to the same bowl. Fill half the bowl with water, the other half with vinegar, sprinkle in a little salt and black pepper. Allow them to sit for about 10 minutes, pick one slice of the cucumber up, sprinkle a little salt on it, and enjoy! You can also add tomatoes to this too!

It all came together really well and my brother in law seemed to like it! Whiskey is not impressed as he only got a couple of butterbeans and then I made him eat dog food! Of all things for a puppy to eat on the day we adopted him! You can see he’s totally concerned about it huh?

Ya’ll have a good night! Hope ya’ll enjoy this meal as much as we have!

 

So tonight, I cooked my mom’s absolute favorite meal of all time. We both love Italian food… or as she call’s Eye-talian food 😉 and when I was in college I would look for stuff that would be easy for me to make for one person. It’s always hard to do that but one day, walking through the local Wal-mart, craving something good, and homemade, I came across Bertolli four cheese tortellini. I looked at it and thought, “Hmm, that sounds pretty good.” I almost didn’t get it because I thought it would be too heavy and I thought it wouldn’t be any good anyway. But, I got it anyway and I figured that if I didn’t like it, I would order Chinese food and call it a night! By the way, the fact that I could get Chinese food delivered was also one of my favorite things about Starkville, but that’s a whole different story! Anyway! As I walked through Wal-mart I tried to figure out what would go well with the pasta and I got on my phone and googled how to make my own Alfredo sauce. You see, I’ve tried jarred Alfredo, and it just isn’t good to me. It tastes fake… like EZ Cheese… it just doesn’t taste like it’s made with real cheese! So, I found a recipe, thought about how I could make it better, and went back to my apartment to experiment. I fell in love with it as soon as I tasted it and made it for my mom a few weeks later when she came up for a visit… She fell in love with it too. When I moved home though, I never made it because my dad didn’t like this kinda “girl food’ as he called it. One day this Spring, I was exhausted and I was craving it and I didn’t feel like arguing with him over it. I began to make the chicken and the sauce and he came inside from work. He asked me what we were having for supper and I gave him a tired and withered look. You would have thought I was making chitlins… the man looked at me like I was crazy when I said, “Chicken tortellini.” He said, “Well, I don’t know if I will like that…” I immediately said, “You’ll like it, don’t worry.” He must have known I wasn’t in the mood so he just nodded his head and sat in his recliner while I finished it up. We sat down to eat and he gobbled up three, yes, THREE, bowls of it with garlic bread and all. He LOVED it and now my mom begs me to cook it at least once a month. Of course, she claims that she can’t help me clean up after because she “will eat all the leftovers!” I say, she’s just trying to get out of cleaning up! Haha, whatever the truth is, she somehow gets out of it every time! On top of making her favorite meal of all time, (her words, not mine) I also learned how to can tomatoes this week. I’m now one step closer to making my own spaghetti sauce… that recipe will hopefully be coming next week, if it turns out right! You’ll also be getting a recipe for the best garlic bread in the whole world, if I do say so myself. 😉

Chicken Tortellini is so easy to make and it makes a good bit. I always end up making too much chicken… I have this constant paranoid fear that I won’t make enough and some people won’t be able to have any chicken. I don’t know why I have this fear, I always have enough, but every time I make it I feel like I need way more chicken than I really do. This also brings me to my next dream. After making my own spaghetti sauce, I want to learn to make my own pasta. And my own bread. But first, pasta because I have most of the stuff I need to make pasta; I just need the attachment on my stand up mixer. For the time being, I’ll stick to using Bertolli brand. Kroger has a brand now that’s pretty good too; however, keep in mind, the Kroger brand is made in the deli and it doesn’t last long. Maybe two or three days tops, it’s made without preservatives so you’ll need to cook it pretty soon after you buy it! It’s delicious though. I’m going to start by telling you how to make the chicken. This is what you’ll need:

Blackened Chicken:
1-2 pkg of boneless, skinless, chicken strips,

3 tbsp. olive oil,

Garlic Salt,

Lemon Pepper,

Tony Chachere’s

Yep, that’s it…. all you need to make the most awesome blackened chicken ever. I’m telling ya, it’s THAT simple! Turn your skillet on medium to high heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken. Sprinkle seasoning on the top side and after about 3 minutes, flip the chicken and sprinkle the seasoning on the other side. You’ll need to let it cook for about 5 minutes, and flip it again. What you want is a nice crispy crust on the outside. The more it sits in the pan with the seasoning, the crispier it’ll get. The seasoning needs to be judicious…

 

Once that’s done, take it out of the skillet and put it on a chopping board. Once it’s cool, you’ll chop it up and put it in a bowl. You can also use this blackened chicken for salads, other pastas, stir-fry’s, sandwiches, or even all by itself! It’s easy and delicious! While the chicken is cooking, you’ll want to start the sauce. Now, the sauce will require you to pay a little extra attention to it. You’ll have to make sure the cream doesn’t curdle and you’ll also have to make sure it the cheese doesn’t burn to the bottom of the boiler. I know it sounds kind of intimidating, but seriously, it couldn’t be easier!

Alfredo Sauce:

1 stick butter,

1 quart heavy whipping cream,

8 oz. cream cheese,

8 oz. Parmesan cheese, shavings or shredded are best,

2 garlic cloves,

Garlic salt,

Black Pepper.

Turn a boiler on medium heat and add butter. Allow the butter to melt and momentarily take the boiler off the heating element… you can leave the eye on, just move the boiler to the side. You’ll need to grab a whisk and slowly pour the heavy whipping cream into the boiler, while whisking. Doing this slowly will help you avoid curdling the whipping cream; it’s called tempering, for future reference. 😉 The butter will warm the whipping cream, slowly making it all the same temperature; whereas, if you pour it all in fast, the cream will reach an extreme temperature quickly, making it sour. Once the butter and the cream are mixed well, add the cream cheese and the parmesan cheese. Chop the garlic cloves and add them. Then add dashes of garlic salt and black pepper until it’s to your liking. Allow this to simmer for at least 20 minutes. You don’t want it to be too watery; the longer it simmers, the thicker it’ll be. It will come to a boil and that’s okay as long as you’re watching it! But, if you’re distracted by something else, just turn it on low and let it simmer, stirring occasionally.

I’m going to skip telling you about the tortellini for now and go to the garlic bread. If you’re making this meal, the order you should go like this: chicken and sauce, bread, then tortellini. The sauce can be started first, then the chicken, allowing them to cook at the same time. For the bread, I buy from the Kroger bakery. You can get it from anywhere, but I’m usually at Kroger and the stuff they bake there is really fresh. It only lasts for a few days as well and comes two to a pack. For my big family, we love bread, so I usually make both loaves… any leftovers can easily be eaten later..that night…okay, we may take a few bites between wiping it down.., okay, there’s usually not much left and I could probably eat a whole loaf by myself! Don’t judge me! I like garlic bread… it’s like my number one carb favorite! You don’t know my life… 🙂 I use French bread with cheese. It looks like this…

Garlic Bread:

1 pkg French bread,

1 stick butter,

3 garlic cloves,

Garlic Salt.

There’s a lot of garlic salt in this meal… Sorry 🙂 Not really, it’s fabulous! Cut the bread lengthwise and chop the garlic finely. Place a skillet on medium heat, add the butter, and sauté the garlic. Then pour the butter over the bread and sprinkle the garlic salt over it. I like to kick it up a notch sometimes and add some Tony Cachere’s. Then you bake it for 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now, the tortellini. It’s not like normal pasta because it floats. You wont have to add any oil or salt to the water. Just boil the water and add the pasta, it’ll be floating on top the whole time, you won’t be able to cover it with water, but you’ll allow the water to continue boiling for about 8 minutes. You may have to pull one out and try it to know when it’s ready but it takes almost exactly 8 minutes. Then drain the water and assemble your pasta! First, the tortellini.

Then, the chicken.

Then, the sauce.

I like to top mine with a few extra shavings of parmesan and then some garlic bread on the side.

The pictures don’t do it justice!! You gotta try it out! You can buy Fettuccini noodles, stuffed ravioli noodles, egg noodles, bow tie pasta. I’ve even been thinking of buying some bacon and trying to remake the Macaroni Grill’s Penne Rustica with this recipe. It’s not much different, just with less sauce, and more cheese. Maybe a few mushrooms and bell peppers. I don’t remember 100% because it’s been a while since I’ve had Penne Rustica, but I remember it being my favorite dish at Macaroni Grill. I guess I’ll have to try it and let ya’ll know. I also want to learn how to make Tiramisu because it’s my favorite dessert. I have a love affair with coffee and Tiramisu just makes it even better. That’ll be one of my next recipes; hopefully!

A while back, I told ya’ll how I wanted to learn to make my own spaghetti sauce, but that I first had to learn to can tomatoes so I could use the canned tomatoes to make the sauce… I bought the canning tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market this weekend and had to use them soon or they would be too rotten to use. The trick to canning tomatoes is to get the super ripe tomatoes, just like with peaches and banananas, the best tomatoes to cook with are the ripe ones. You can usually find them by the box at the Farmer’s Market for a better price than just buying a bunch of tomatoes; you’ll need the whole box. Then, you’ll need to buy a bunch of mason jars with the tops. It’s hard to guess at it because the tomatoes are all different sizes so it yields different amounts every time.

Wash the tomatoes really good and cut out any bad spots on the tomato. Place all the jars in the dishwasher… if you don’t have a dishwasher, wash them really good and place them in boiling hot water. Then place the tomatoes in a large boiler and cover them with water. Let them boil until the skins are about to come off; about 15 minutes. It’ll look like this:

 

Now, drain the tomatoes and let cool. Peel the tomatoes by sticking the core with a fork and using another fork or a knife, gently peel the peeling away. Like so:

Cut off the core and then place the cored, peeled, tomatoes back in the pot. You’ll want to add a little vinegar and salt to the pot. About 2 tbsp. vinegar and 1 tbsp. salt. This helps preserve it. Allow that to boil for about 10 minutes.

Now, place the lids to the jars in a boiler, cover with water, and allow them simmer until you get done with the next step, which is: filling the jars with tomatoes.

You need to carefully fill the hot jars with tomatoes, making sure you clean the rims of the jar well. If there are any seeds on the outer edge of the jar, it will prevent the top from sealing. Now that that is done, use some tongs to remove each lid from the water. Dry the lid, put it on the jar, screw the lid closed, and remove the next lid. Do it one at the time, don’t try to do all of them at once or they won’t seal correctly. Don’t touch the jars! Let the seal pop down on it’s own. Once it’s sealed, let the jars cool, and store the at room temperature.

They’ll stay good for a year and half or maybe longer. We always use ours during the winter and are ready to make more by the time summer rolls around. You can use this for anything; Chili, Vegetable Soup, Tomato Soup, Pizza Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce… pretty much anything that uses tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes. Even tomato gravy! You’ll see me use a lot of this in the winter time in my recipes, but if you don’t want to can your own tomatoes, that’s okay! You can buy canned tomatoes and I’ll tell you what other things you can use to substitute.

 

So, that’s it for tonight ya’ll! I hope ya’ll enjoy these recipes as much as my family has! The chicken tortellini is one of the best homemade pasta dishes you’ll ever have and it’s so easy! It only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish! The garlic bread is so delicious… it’s a fancy version of the same old, same old and it just works! The canned tomatoes, while I don’t recommend eating them alone, I do recommend making them because they make the easiest dishes so much better than the grocery store variety! If you don’t notice a difference in your recipe I’ll pay you back for your crate of tomatoes! They’re only like $6 and it takes about 45 minutes so why not try it! Let me know how it turns out! And don’t forget to go to the bottom of my home page where it says Subscribe to blog by email and put in your email address! It’ll email you every time I post a new blog! Ya’ll be watching that email because I will be posting again in no time! Have a good night!

 

 

Hey ya’ll! I’m so sorry I haven’t posted this week! I’ve been struck down by the dreaded summer crud! Plus, my sweet puppy Bella got fixed and has been down for the count the past few days! She’s feeling better now though, as am I, and it’s time for some good ole county cookin’! Me and mama went to the Farmer’s Market today and loaded up on some fresh veggies!

Please excuse the messy backseat… as real estate agents, my mom and I tend to live and work out of our cars!Tonight’s post is all about Mamaw, Papaw, and mommy recipes!! These are the few recipes I actually go by and don’t tinker around with, except the squash casserole, that’s all me! My mamaw perfected the fried minute/round steak, and my papaw was the KING of peas and cornbread. After Mamaw passed away, Papaw didn’t know how to cook much of anything. His diet consisted of peas, cornbread, steak, chili, and boiled peanuts. Until he came to live with us of course and I cooked for him every night. He taught me the importance of a good, seasoned cast iron skillet and a good bushel of peas. He didn’t like frozen peas you get from the grocery store, he wanted to go pick ’em himself and when he got to where he couldn’t do that, he would go to the local famer’s market and pick them out. Mamaw was a little different. She liked it fresh but she would get frozen if she had to. Now, that’s not to say we wouldn’t freeze them and put them up for the winter! These are the recipes of my childhood… when you ask any one of my siblings what they want for supper the obvious answer is almost always: “Fried minute steaks or Fried Pork Chops, peas, cornbread, and squash.”

I grew up in the small town of Union, Mississipp; my daddy was the local preacher and every Sunday mama made a HUGE home cooked, farm fresh meal. She even used eggs we got from a friends chicken coop! I don’t remember many Sunday dinners where it was just our family… most of the time there was someone else there; another preacher, a member of the congregation, a friend, or all of the above! Ask any one of them what their favorite meal is and this is probably going to be the unanimous answer! I know many of my readers are thinking that this is going to be a really complicated or hard meal to cook but it’s really not! It’s amazingly easy and all of the meals use a lot of the same ingredients. Just read it and see if you can do it and if you can’t, find someone that’s more experienced to help you out! Just because vegetables are fresh, doesn’t mean that they’ve got to be hard or time consuming to cook. Promise 🙂

So, some of you may be asking what a minute steak is… it’s basically a cube steak. It’s a piece of meat, either a top round or top sirloin that’s been tenderized by the butcher. They’re super cheap and super easy to cook. They only take a couple minutes to fry… fried is my favorite way to make them. You can do much more with them, you can make them with gravy and onions, sort of like a Salisbury steak. But they seem to be more tender and flavorful fried. This is what you’ll need:

Fried Minute Steaks:

1 small package minute steaks,

2 cups self rising flour,

1 tbsp. Garlic Salt,

1 tbsp. Black Pepper,

1 cup (more or less depending on size of skillet) canola or vegetable oil.

Pour the oil into the skillet and turn to medium to high heat. Allow the oil to get hot before frying. Cut the minute steaks in half. Put the two cups of flour in a long, shallow bowl; stir in a garlic salt and black pepper. Put one steak into the flour at a time and cover with flour. Make sure each side is completely covered. Pick up and place to the side while you coat the rest of the steaks. Place the steaks in the hot oil and allow it to cook for about two minutes on each side. The blood will rise to the top of the steak on the first side, when a lot of blood is on the surface, you’ll need to flip it. Take them out of the grease and let drain on a paper towel. Don’t flip them too often, I usually only flip them once or twice. And don’t allow them to sit in the grease before it’s hot. If you put them in the grease before it’s hot, two things will happen. First, they’ll be greasy and mushy. Second, most of the flour will come off.

Gravy is a staple in Southern cooking! You gotta have some gravy to go along with and fried food. It’s just the way it’s done! It’s also super easy and fabulous!

GRAVY:

Since you just fried up all that minute steak, you’re gonna start with the grease from that, take about half of that grease away…. enough so that the bottom of the skillet is covered. Turn the heat down low.

Sprinkle in about half a cup of flour and stir until brown. Now slowly, add a large, 20 oz. glass of hot water. Stirring it constantly. Add a little black pepper and salt and VOILA, you’ve got some gravy, sugar!

So, you’re probably asking how you’re supposed to pick the peas. Easy! Ask the folks at your local farmer’s market and they’ll be all too glad to help you. You can also use frozen. These are so simple you’ll make them with everything!

Pink Eye Purple Hull Peas:

2 cups of Pink Eye Purple Hull Peas,

3 strips of bacon,

enough water to cover the peas,

1 tbsp. salt.

Pour the peas in a boiler that has a top, place the bacon in with the peas, and cover them with water. Add salt and put them on low to medium heat. You want them to come to a slow boil. If they boil too hard, they’ll fall to pieces so you want it to cook low and slow. You may have to add a little water, don’t let the water level get too low or they’ll burn or be dry. Make sure they always have enough water to cover them or almost cover them. Cook them for about 35 minutes or until they’re soft. Dish yourself up a big ole bowl and top them with a dollop of mayonnaise. Don’t say “ewwww” believe me it’s DELICIOUS!!! There is almost no other way to eat peas… unless you crumble up some cornbread with it. 🙂

 Squash Casserole is something that I never thought I would like; but, over the past few years I’ve learned to appreciate all things squash! I’m big on texture and squash doesn’t have the best texture. I’ll be the first to admit that! But, I can handle it when I’m in the mood for it or in small doses. I love fried squash, which is something my mom does, more so than me. I, honestly, don’t like to fry stuff. You see, I’m a clumsy fool! It doesn’t matter what I’m eating or cooking, there’s a 99.99995% chance that when I get done, I will have it on my shirt or my pants or something! Maybe I should design and sell some aprons for all of ya’ll who love reading about my recipes so much 😉 Anyways, so no matter what, I’m going to have stuff on me and it’s best if it’s not greasy! I can’t tell ya’ll how many articles of clothing I’ve replaced because of grease stains. Hence, my aversion to frying bacon, pork chops, minute steaks, chicken, and much much more; however, I still do it because everyone loves it so much. But that’s off topic. This squash casserole is the first one I ever tasted and the only one I’ve ever liked. That being said, it’s a combination of two recipes. This is what you’ll need:

Squash Casserole:

3 cups or 10 medium sized squash, washed and sliced,

1 small Vidalia onion,

1 1/2 cup roasted garlic bread crumbs,

1 sleeve Ritz crackers,

1/2 stick butter,

1 can Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken soup,

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese,

1 tsp. garlic salt,

1 tsp. Black pepper.

Cut the onion and squash up into a boiler and put about 2 cups of water into the boiler with it; enough water to cover half the squash. Sprinkle in a little salt and let it boil down until completely soft.

Drain the water and add the soup, cheese, garlic salt, and pepper tot he squash.

Crush up the crackers and add half of them to the squash mixture, along with half the bread crumbs. Stir it all up and set it aside. Take the half stick of butter, put it in a baking dish, and put it in the oven on 350 degrees until it melts. Once it’s melted, pour in the mixture, top with the rest of the crackers and bread crumbs, and put it in the hot oven for about 30 minutes. Once you take it out, you’ll know this isn’t your every day squash casserole! This is the casserole you’ll be bringing to every potluck and become a staple at every holiday feast!

Now for the cornbread! My favorite part! This is so easy and so many people are so intimidated by it! I know that not everyone has grown up with it like me, but I promise! It is just as easy as buying the mix and about 100 times better! But, you HAVE to have a cast iron skillet! You can buy them pre-seasoned from Log Cabin or from Cracker Barrel. I guess you can use a cake pan, but nothing will give you the crunch and taste of a cast iron skillet. So, go, buy, NOW! 🙂

All you need is cornmeal, buttermilk, 1 egg, and a little oil.

Papaw’s Cornbread:

1 1/2 c. white cornmeal,

+/- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk,

1 egg,

+/- 1/2 cup oil.

I know, I know, you’re thinking, “this chick is telling me how easy it is and she doesn’t even know the recipe!” This is the type of recipe you eye ball and it depends heavily on the size of the skillet that you have. The end all and be all is this… You want to have a batter that is the consistency of pancake batter. First, you put the cornmeal in a bowl and start adding the buttermilk until you can stir it easily, but not too soupy. Then add the egg and stir it until the egg is fully incoprorated. Put your cast iron skillet on the stove top, pour in about a quarter of an inch of oil. Let that oil get really hot… piping hot 🙂 Once it’s hot, pour in the batter and put it into a hot 450 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown! Here’s the tricky part, once the pan is out of the oven, take a plate, put it upside down on the top of the pan, put one hand on the plate, and one hand on the skillet handle, and flip the skillet over. Now that the cornbread is on the plate, cut it up and put a little pat of butter on each piece. YUMMY!! I like to do Mexican cornbread too, which I’ll be writing the recipe for this winter but basically, I add onions, corn, cheese, and peppers in it. But, this is the best! This, is comfort! THIS, is home! And it’s sooooooo easy!!

Last but certainly not least, we’ve got dessert. Nothing’s better in the summer than fresh, homemade, from scratch, peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Peaches are finicky though and you’ll have to pick the right ones. You need peaches that are ripe and soft, almost too ripe. You want them to be mushy and juicy… like this:

Notice the dark pinky color on the right and the light pink on the left. The darker the peach, the more ripe it is. By the way, the darker and riper the peach, the easier it is to peel; and, I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to peel an un-ripe peach, but it’s rough! I only used 4 peaches for this and it was plenty! But you can add more if you want! Using 4 gives you a good ratio of batter to peach though!

Peach Cobbler:

4 peaches,

1 1/2 cup sugar,

1 cup milk,

1 cup self rising flour,

1 egg,

1/2 stick butter

1/2 tsp. vanilla,

and a dash of cinnamon.

Peel and cut the peaches into slices, throwing the pit away. Put the peaches in a bowl and sprinkle on half a cup of sugar.

In a separate bowl, add flour, milk, egg, one cup sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon; mix it vigorously until all the lumps are out… Most people don’t use vanilla, egg, or cinnamon in their peach cobbler. But I’m a different soldier, marching to my own drum 🙂 Plus, who doesn’t add vanilla, cinnamon, and eggs when an opportunity presents itself?!? Put the 1/2 stick butter in the bottom of a baking dish and place it into a 350 degree oven until it melts. Once it’s melted, tilt the edges of the pan until the butter coats every inch. Pour the batter in on top of the butter, place the peaches along the batter and bake for 20 minutes or until gold and bubbly.

That’s it for today ya’ll! I think I made up for taking so long to blog again! Ya’ll have an arsenal of Southern recipes to try out now! But seriously, these recipes are so close to my heart. I’m glad that I can share them with ya’ll! Writing them down is something that I’ve always meant to do and just never took the time! That’s right! Most of these recipes are all just floating around in my head. Sometimes I forget measurements and have to guess because I just eye ball everything. It’s easy to just say, “Oh, that looks like enough” or “Oh, it needs a little more of this.” It’s just what I’ve always done… So, bear with me! I’m trying to remember measurements for everything! Doesn’t this look like a spread straight from the Beverly Hillbillies or Petticoat Junction?!?

Hope ya’ll enjoy!! Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear?!?

 

WOW! It’s been a SUPER busy weekend! Not only did we have a nice July 4th celebration but my mom sold a family friend’s house for her and her family! It was only on the market 3 days and since mommy dearest is at the beach, I took our friend house shopping now that she has no where to go in a month or so! And oh boy, did we do some shopping! We went all over the world and had a good time doing it!! Then today I spent the day trying to get my wild little puppy trained!

Her’s a good girl, her just needed some training. 🙂 When I got done with that, I came home and relaxed for a little while. I had my other puppies to take care of too. I’m the crazy dog lady… Bella stays with a friend of mine but here at the house we have Pete, Lady, Diesel, Buster, Duchess, and Whiskey. Whiskey and Pete are my babies too… Diesel is the newest member! I’m sure ya’ll will see plenty of pictures of them before too long! 🙂 Even though I’ve been busy and alone at night, I did make a pulled pork… It’s one of my favorite meals to make, not to mention the easiest. It also goes a long way… It’s too much even for my family… I’m planning on taking some of it over to my sister-in-laws and maybe some to a co-worker. I’m also going to post my recipe for potato salad. BUT, I forgot to take a picture of the final product of the potato salad! I was in a hurry and completely lost my mind for a second there! Sorry folks, I guess you’ll have make it yourself to see the final product!

Before I start talking about that though, I wanted to touch on another subject for a second! You’ll all notice that in most of my recipes I use the same ingredients: garlic, salt, pepper, Tony Chachere’s, Worcestershire sauce, onions, and bell peppers. I do this for many reasons: 1) These are my favorite ingredients, they have their own flavors and they go well with the flavors of one another. 2) They work well with almost all dishes, there aren’t many dishes that they don’t go well with. 3) I always have them in my kitchen! Now, I told you that to tell you this, I was talking to someone this weekend about a recipe and she was saying that she had just recently gotten to where she actually liked cooking. She said her only problem with it was that she felt like every time she looked in a cookbook, there were a bunch of ingredients she either didn’t have, couldn’t find, or didn’t have a clue as to what they were. That’s the beauty of most of my recipes, if I do say so myself. 😉 While I will throw in the occasional rosemary, thyme, mint, basil, or herbs de Provence; I use the stuff that most people already have or at least they know what it is. That being said, if I ever use something that you don’t have or don’t know what it is or if you don’t know how to use it, please don’t hesitate to ask. Or if you come across another recipe either in a cookbook or on a blog somewhere, I’ll be happy to help with it as well! Now that I’ve bragged on my cooking and told all ya’ll about how good it is 😉 I will continue with the recipe for Pulled Pork!

Pulled Pork, surprisingly enough, is a much debated dish in our household! I make mine in a crockpot. I could probably do it on a smoker, but, I’ve never tried to and why would I since it’s so easy in the crockpot? However, my brother seems to think his is better because he does do his on a smoker. I called his bluff, of course, and challenged him to a cook-off of sorts. We had it all scheduled and planned for about a month ago. I go to the grocery store, get all the stuff I needed to make it and all the fixin’s, and got to work on my KILLER pulled pork. The next day dawns bright and early and I get up to the wonderful smells of pulled pork wafting from my crock pot. I hurriedly got ready for church and as I’m talking to him after the service, my poor brother informs me, “I just got too busy and wasn’t able to smoke it. It takes a full twelve hours to do it and I just didn’t have time.” Now, some might say that he just chickened out… Some would say he’s just a busy fella. I prefer to think he chickened out because of my mad cooking skills; either way, we’ll have to reschedule our cook off since SOMEBODY, not naming names, umhmm Chance Hall, couldn’t stand the thought of being beat by his baby sister. First things first, you need a pork shoulder. I forgot to take a picture of the raw one in the package but I found one online for reference.

The one in the picture expired about 4 years ago and is only 9 pounds… I usually get one that’s around 13 pounds. You can get a smaller one if you want, I do have left overs, a majority of the time. Just make sure that whatever you get will fit in your crockpot! You’ll want a whole pork shoulder butt or a Boston butt. This is what ya need:
Pulled Pork:

1 whole Pork Shoulder,

1 medium sized onion,

1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce,

1 12 oz. can Dr. Pepper,

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce,

Garlic salt,

Salt,

McCormick’s Cowboy Rub (all to taste- I use about 1 tbsp. of each).

Cut package of pork shoulder open and wash meat. Place the shoulder in the crockpot, fat side down. It’s very important to put the fat side down, since it’s a little greasy, the fat doesn’t stick to the crock pot and you don’t want burnt pieces of pork stuck to your crockpot. Cut the onion into quarters and place them around and underneath the pork. Pour the can of Dr. Pepper over the pork, slowly. If you do it too fast, it’ll fizz up and overflow. Now add the Worcestershire sauce over the pork, followed by the can of chipotle peppers. You can pour them on top whole, scrape the insides of the can to get all the sauce out. (You can find these peppers in the International foods section of the grocery store.) The can looks something like this:

After you put the chipotle peppers over the shoulder sprinkle on the seasonings and put the top on the crockpot. Turn it on low and slow for 10 hours!

 

Once that 10 hours is up, let it cool down for a while by taking it out of the juices, but leave the crockpot on. I always forget that when I take it out and put it on a cutting board, the juices will run over. SO, use a bowl or platter with some kind of lip to prevent the juice from making a mess! You’ll notice that I didn’t do this and it got ALL over my floor! So let that cool off out of the juice for a few minutes. Now, taking it out of the crockpot is kind of tricky in and of itself though. This is because the meat is literally, falling off the bone. You’ll need some tongs, a slotted spoon, and a fork. Heavy artillery! 😉 Also, try to wear an apron or something you don’t mind getting pork juice on…. it will splatter and it will stain!

While it’s cooling, use the slotted spoon to get out the chipotle peppers and the fat. You don’t have to remove the peppers if you don’t mind having them in there, they are a little spicy though so keep that in mind if you’re serving this to kids. I leave the onions in there for little chunks of flavor though! Once that’s done and the pork has cooled, take two forks or one fork and one set of tongs, and rake the fork across the meat, holding it in place with the other utensil. Then place back into the crockpot for about 30 more minutes.

Now its time to make you’re sandwich or just pile it on your plate and dig in! Here’s a picture of my awesome sandwich though:

There are several ways you can change this recipe. I like to put banana pepper rings and some of their juices in it with the chipotle peppers. It gives it a nice tangy flavor but it’s also super spicy with these. Also, after I shred the meat and put it back in the crockpot, sometime I add a good bit of barbeque sauce to it, stir it up, and let it sit for a while. I like Sweet Baby Ray’s.

What goes better with Pulled Pork than a nice potato salad? Calah’s Potato Salad of course! My nephews and my brother (the chicken ;)) beg me to make this stuff! They love it! It’s a little different but in a good way. I make it like I make the Devilled Egg Dip/ Egg Salad that I posted a few days ago, except for with less eggs and I add potatoes, of course. You can find that recipe here: Steak, Devilled Egg Dip/Egg Salad, and Pound Cake.

Potato Salad:

8 small to medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes,

1/2 stick butter,

1 tbsp. salt,

4 eggs,

1 small onion,

1 1/2 cup mayonnaise,

2 tbsp. mustard,

1 tbsp. dill relish,

1 packet dry Ranch dressing mix,

1 tbsp. Tony Chachere’s,

1/2 tsp. Black Pepper.

Cut the potatoes into quarters, place in large boiler, cover with water, add butter and salt, and boil on high heat until fork tender. My mom fusses at me for boiling it in butter and salt, says its a waste of the butter because I drain the water off. But, the flavor soaks into the potatoes, meaning, you get more flavor in all of the potatoes using less butter! In a separate boiler, put in the four eggs, cover with water, and boil for 12 minutes. While that’s boiling, chop the onion finely. Now that the eggs are probably done, place them in cold water immediately, this helps when you peel them. Peel them and put them into a medium sized bowl. Chop the eggs, add mayonnaise, mustard, onion, dill relish, Ranch seasoning, Tony’s, and Pepper. Stir it well. It’ll look something like this:

Now, drain the potatoes and mash them up. Add in the egg mixture and stir until well incorporated and you’ve got one heck of a bowl of potato salad honey! You don’t really know that what you’re tasting is ranch dressing seasoning, it’s got a sharp and salty flavor. You can add a little dill weed to the top for a little extra flavor but it’s not necessary. This dish is PACKED with flavor as it is and the whole family will love it. Even the people that don’t normally like potato salad. I serve it warm because that’s the way a majority of my family likes it but it’s good cold too. You also don’t have to mix it separately, I just think it’s easier to stir it all up this way! Plus, as my last post says, this makes an awesome dip so you can boil a couple extra eggs, throw them in there, and hold half of it out for a dip and use the rest for this! You don’t have to use Yukon Gold Potatoes, you can use red potatoes, fingerlings, or baking potatoes. Whatever you like! I like Yukon Gold’s in this because of the flavor. It soaks up that butter well and doesn’t have the raw earthy flavor of the red potato.

That’s it for tonight ya’ll! I’m gonna cuddle up with my puppies and get some rest! I feel like I’m getting a Summer cold or Strep Throat so I may be posting my recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup way sooner than I thought! Ya’ll have a good night!!

 

 

 

 

 

Well tomorrow is the 4th of July and I can’t believe it! It feels like just yesterday that we were celebrating Christmas!! Half a year has gone by since then and it just doesn’t seem like it! The 4th isn’t just another day we have off; it’s a day to celebrate our country, our soldiers, our freedom, and our family! This year is a little different for us… My mom’s at the beach with my sister and her kids and my dad’s in Texas working hard. So, my brother and his wife are having me and my sister in law’s family over for lunch! I’m bringing a couple dishes that I made tonight and my brother is smoking a brisket and barbequing some chicken. I’m making my famous potato salad and a recipe that I’ve stolen from Christy Jordan’s cookbook Southern Plate. I’m also making a new recipe that no one has tried yet so I’m hoping that everyone likes it because I sure do! I haven’t made the potato salad yet because, most of the people in my family like it warm. Plus, I put onions in it and the onions get stronger as it sits in the fridge!

So, there’s this little bar and grill I go to in Canton. On Friday nights, they have a huge ribeye, fries, onion rings, or tater tots, and a side salad for $20. It’s called the Ratliff Ferry Trading Post and a friend of mine started running it this summer. On Thursday’s during crawfish season they have the SPICIEST crawfish, 4 lbs for $15 which is really good. Anyway… I’ve been super busy lately and somehow, EVERY Friday night, something has come up and I just haven’t been able to make it out to Ratliff. I really hate that I haven’t been able to go but low and behold, this Friday is no different. So, I’ve been craving a good steak for three weeks or so. Tonight, even though I really hated to fire up the grill for one, I had to make me a steak. I went to the grocery store, bought a nice Porterhouse cut steak, and went to work on my marinade. I usually buy ribeyes, but tonight I wanted something a little different. The most important part of cooking a steak is knowing how to pick your meat. If you pick a steak that’s really thin, it’ll be tough; if you have one with too much fat it’ll be grisly and kind of slimy; if you don’t have enough fat, it won’t have any flavor and will be super tough. The thin lines in the middle of the red is called marbling and you don’t want too much marbling; but, you don’t want too little either. That marbling is what melts into the steak and makes it tender and flavorful. Now, I normally wouldn’t call out any brand like this; however, I’ve tried this brand of meat on a couple different occasions and both times they were horrible. Laura’s Lean beef is not a good brand to buy. I know that the thought of lean meat is appealing but you pay way too much  money for this cut of beef for it to be as disappointing as it is! Just don’t buy it! Please! This is an example of a NICE ribeye:

Over the years, I’ve been working on perfecting my steak marinade. I used to use a nice garlic butter but I’ve found a new one that I like a little better. Keep in mind, I like to marinate for at least 3 or 4 hours, more if you want. This is what you’ll need:

The Best Steak Ever:

2 GOOD quality steaks,

1/2 cup Dale’s low-sodium steak seasoning,

1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce,

1 tbsp. lime juice (yes lime juice)

1 tsp. garlic salt,

1 tsp. Tony Chacher’s,

1 tsp. white pepper,

1 tbsp. McCormick Cowboy rub.

Put the steaks in a Tupperware container or on a large, deep platter. Mix together the Worcestershire, Dale’s, and lime juice. The acidity in these liquids all help break down the muscle in the steak and make the meat more tender. Pour it evenly over the steaks and using a fork, pick each steak up and coat the bottom in the marinade. Now mix the salt, Tony’s, white pepper, and cowboy rub together. Sprinkle generously over the top, then flip and sprinkle the other side. Cover and let sit for 3-4 hours in the refrigerator. Take them out about 20 minutes before you’re ready to grill them. Now, I can’t really teach you how to grill. There are too many factors of it. I use a charcoal grill, I like it, I feel like it’s more of a challenge. Other people don’t like it as much and that’s ok. With a charcoal grill you have to be careful of the temperature and how long you cook it depends on two things: the temperature of the coals and keeping the top of the grill closed! “If you’re lookin’, you’re not cookin’,” keep that in mind! Stack the coals in a circular mound, if you buy coals that need lighter fluid, spray the lighter fluid judiciously, and let the coals sit for about 5 minutes. If you don’t need fluid you can go ahead and light it… After the 5 minutes is up, light the coals. Wait for all the coals to be totally white and the flames to die down, about 20 minutes, and place your steaks on the grill, over the coals. I like to sear my steaks, with the lid open, for about 2 minutes on each side. Then depending on the temperature of your grill and how you like your steaks, cook for about 7 minutes, flip, cook the other side for 7 minutes. This will give you a nice medium temp. I’ve heard you should let the meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before you cut it, but let’s face it, it looks way too good to wait that long!

Ya’ll everyone in my family loves devilled eggs. I’ve never cared for them that much… let me re-phase that, I like the middle, I don’t like the egg white. It’s just kinda slimy. I’m big on textures and anything that’s too slimy just grosses me out! But, I’ve made devilled eggs a few times and I realized it would be really good in potato salad, so I used it in potato salad and added ranch dressing mix. Well, I have chronic tendonitis in my left shoulder and one day, while cooking, it was killing me. I didn’t know if I could stir the potato salad all together and have it mixed well enough, so in a stroke of genius, I decided to mix all of it together without the potatoes first. It looked and smelled so good that I had to taste it and when I tasted it I realized I had made the perfect, tangy, dip. THEN, I realized that I had basically made an egg salad, haha! So! Once I realized it was basically egg salad, I didn’t feel like much of a genius but I still really liked it as a dip; besides, every time I hear or say egg salad, I think of that scene in The 40 year old Virgin and I can’t even take myself seriously! 🙂 Anyways, this is what you’ll need for Devilled Egg Dip/Ranch Egg Salad:

Devilled Egg Dip/Ranch Egg Salad:

8 eggs,

1/2 a small onion,

1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise,

1 tbsp. mustard,

1 tbsp. dill relish,

1 tbsp. Tony Chachere’s,

1 pkg. Ranch Dressing, dry mix.

First, place all eggs in a boiler and cover with water. Turn on medium to high heat. Once the water starts to boil, leave it boiling for about 12 minutes, then remove from heat and immediately put into cold water. Once the eggs have cooled down, peel the shells off. House keeping tip: it’s said that putting eggshells down your disposal will sharpen the blades. Chop the eggs up, dice the onions into very small, fine pieces, and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well and serve! I liked it with Frito Scoops but you can also serve it with Ritz crackers or Wheat Thins. This is really salty and tangy and would make a great sandwich as well. You can leave out the ranch seasoning or only put in half to reduce the sodium content. Let me know what ya’ll think because ya’ll will be the only ones other than me that have tried it… until tomorrow at least. 😉

Now on to the Pound Cake! For my birthday a couple years ago, my best friend in the whole world gave me this cookbook called Southern Plate by Christy Jordan. She uses a lot of recipes similar to what I grew up with… One of them was Aunt Sue’s Pound Cake. I made it one time and paired it with homemade whipped cream and macerated strawberries. I had no choice but to make it again and again after that. My whole family fell in love and asks for it all the time. My sister in law’s sweet, sweet Nonnie even offered to pay me to make one for her. That sweet lady! She makes me smile! It’s recipes like this that just make ya feel special. Now that I know she loves it so much, I make it for her any chance I get. She was in the hospital recently and I made up a cake and sent a couple slices to the hospital with my sister in law, Lauren; we didn’t tell her I was sending it. Well, I was supposed to have sent it the day before and something came up; so the next day when Lauren got to the hospital with it, Nonnie looks at Lauren  and says, “Oh, I was thinking about that cake all day yesterday! I’m so glad you brought it to me!” This was a happy day for everyone because she hadn’t eaten much in days and she ate every bit of that cake! Anyways, this cake is awesome so ya’ll have to give it a try! But, you have to pay close attention to the measurements. It is a big deal for me to say this… I hate measurements, I can’t stand them, I walk around the kitchen pouring a splash of this and a dash of that and I don’t pay attention. I just eye things. But if you don’t measure this out the right way, it won’t turn out right. I will say that I’ve changed Christy’s recipe up just a bit, but here’s her original recipe for ya’ll to reference: http://www.southernplate.com/2013/11/aunt-sues-famous-pound-cake.html

Aunt Sue’s Pound Cake:

1 cup butter, room temperature,

3 cups sugar,

6 eggs,

3 cups all-purpose flour,

1 cup heavy whipping cream,

1 tsp. vanilla.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. The original recipe calls for beating a full minute after each addition, but let’s face it, “ain’t nobody got time for that!” I mix it until I can’t see the yolk anymore, then I add another one. The original recipe also calls for sifting the flour and again, “ain’t nobody got time for that!” I know sifting is important, but in some situations it’s just not necessary. (No offense to Ms. Jordan or her Aunt Sue!) I’m just messy and I decided I didn’t want to sift and it worked out just fine! So, now that you’ve mixed the butter, sugar, and eggs, add the flour and the heavy whipping cream alternately until fully incorporated. Now stir in the vanilla and set aside.

Get a tube pan or a bundt pan and rub with soft butter, then add a quarter of a cup of sugar and roll it around.

 

Pour in the batter and put into the 300 degree oven for 80-90 minutes. It’s okay if it looks kind of brown. It’s supposed to!

     

While that’s baking, make the Whipped Cream and Macerated Strawberries. Whipped Cream is so easy and it’s so much better if you make it homemade than if you buy it in the store. It’s really amazing how much better it tastes and how easy it is!

Homemade Whipped Cream:

3 Cups heavy whipping cream,

1 cup sugar.

Pour the cream into a mixing bowl with the sugar and beat it until it reaches a stiff peak. Easy as that! This is easier with an electric or stand up mixer! You can also put it in a jar and shake it or do it by hand… it’s up to you! Don’t let it mix too much though because then you’ll have sweet butter. As soon as the cream can stand up stiffly, stop beating and pour into a container. For my purposes, it’s in a Tupperware container, because I’m taking it to my brother’s tomorrow. You’ll want to keep it refrigerated as well, nobody likes watery whipped cream! 🙂

Macerated Strawberries:

2 pints strawberries,

1 cup sugar.

Wash and dry strawberries, cut them up into another Tupperware container. Pour the sugar over the top, stir lightly, and cover for at least an hour. I know 2 pints seems like a lot but the strawberries break down and it makes you need more than you think! You should probably keep these in the refrigerator too! Now that everything’s ready, slice the cake, spoon on some whipped cream and strawberries, and ENJOY!! I know we will!

I’ll post a picture of the finished product tomorrow! Trust me, you won’t regret making this cake though! It’s too good for words! You can change it around a little bit too… use cream cheese or sour cream into the batter, add in some poppy seeds and you’ll have a poppy seed pound cake. Top it with chocolate sauce or caramel sauce or just some toasted pecans… melt a little butter on top and sprinkle on confectioners sugar. Also, use different fruits like blueberries or raspberries… even apples with cinnamon! Whatever is your favorite!! That’s all for now! Ya’ll come back now, ya hear?! 😉

 

 

 

 

 

Sooooo, my whole family is out of town this week! I’m cooking for one, which is something that I’m not good at! It has been imbedded in every fiber of my being that “having too much is always better than not having enough!” My mamaw would sit in her dining room/living room and literally shove food at people as they came in her house. I’ll always remember her, sitting at her dinner table, hands clasped over the table, hair and makeup perfect, waiting for someone to come in and see her. The first thing out of her mouth would always be, “Have ya’ eat yet?” and it would be immediately followed by, “Let me get ya’ a little bite of something,” no matter what your answer was! You could say, “Oh Mamaw, I just had a sandwich,” and she’d say, “Well, that’s not enough you need a little bit of something else.” She loved to feed people, she passed that along to my mom, who in turn passed it on to me. Not saying my mom didn’t teach her a thing or two. My Mamaw was my dad’s mom; my mom and her mom didn’t always see eye to eye and when my dad brought my mom home to meet the parents, Mamaw immediately took Mama under her wing. One thing my mamaw did NOT do, was use any kind of pepper, or much seasoning at all for that matter. When Mama started cooking with Mamaw, they both had to show each other a few things. Mamaw would go behind Mama adjusting temperatures and Mama would go behind Mamaw adding salt and pepper. Back to my original point though, Mamaw always told us, “Make sure you have enough; we don’t want anyone to leave hungry.” That was the type of woman Mamaw was. She didn’t want anyone to leave her house unless they were full as a tick and smiling like a fool! Gosh, do I miss that sweet woman! So, in turn, I do NOT know how to cook for just a few people. My whole life, it didn’t matter if it was just going to be me and her, or me and my whole family, we were cooking plenty for everyone. When I moved to Starkville, I lived alone for most of my time there and it killed me trying to cook for one person. I ended up surviving on frozen meals, take out food, and fried egg and bacon sandwiches. Or I would invite friends over to eat so I wouldn’t have to cook for one person. That being said, this is going to be a hard week for me to blog. 🙂 But, never fear! For I am not one to give up so easily! Tonight, I’m going to tell you about a place that I absolutely LOVE to get take out from… It’s what I ate tonight 🙂 and I’m going to give ya’ll a couple simple recipes that would be pretty easy to make for one! First of all, Angelo’s Eatery.

 

Angelo’s is located on Weisenberger Road in Madison, right near Gluckstadt Road. It has a little bit of everything! It has Barbeque, Pizza, Pasta, Salads, and Sandwiches! My new favorite appetizer in the whole wide world is at this restaurant! That is the wonder that is Toasted Ravioli.

 

These bad boys are AWESOME!! Cheesy and crunchy, fried and delicious, and their marinara sauce, while they don’t share their recipe with me, I think has a little touch of jalapeno in it. Just enough for you to taste the flavor but not enough to be spicy. It may be something besides jalapeno but it sure tastes good!! Now, they make their own pizza dough! Which just adds to the deliciousness of the pizza that I am totally in love with! It’s not on the menu… I know, leave it to me to create my own pizza 🙂 Actually, a friend of mine created it and introduced me to it and I fell in love. It’s just a pesto, grilled chicken, feta, and mozzarella pizza and OH MY GOSH is it delicious!

Now, it’s confession time! While these are not the only two things I get here at Angelo’s, it’s what I get most often. I have gotten the Soprano Sub, which is grilled chicken, pesto, mayo, and mozzarella. My mom has had the lasagna and several of my friends have recommended the Mac and Cheese bites; everything that I’ve tasted from here has been awesome, between the food, the excellent service, and the atmosphere this place is a gem! Ya’ll have to go check it out!

But since I can’t give ya’ll any recipes from there, I will give ya’ll some other recipes that you’ll be sure to enjoy! Something simple, easy, and quick that I recently made for my family is a Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich! Okay, so I know that doesn’t sound all that simple, easy, or quick but believe me it is! This is what you’ll need:

Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches:

1 pkg beef, sirloin, tips- packaged at your local grocery store,

 1 small onion,

1 small green bell pepper,

3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce,

1 tbsp. olive oil

A pinch of each- garlic powder, salt, pepper, McCormick Cowboy rub,

4 slices American cheese,

2 to 3 whole wheat hoagie buns.

First things first, slice those onions and bell peppers. It doesn’t matter how you cut it, you can cut into big chunks, dice them finely, or have medium sized slices. It’s really up to how you like it… my nephews are ok with onions and peppers as long as they can’t see them; but, I like mine to be a little bigger so I separate my meat from my veggies. But, most people are less picky so I’m doing this together… The most important part of this recipe is to cook the onions and the peppers to the right consistency. You don’t want raw onions and peppers, it’s just not done! So I put the steak, onions, and peppers in the skillet all at the same time (and let them cook for the same amount of time and in the same seasoning when I’m separating them,) after I put the meat and veggies into the skillet, I pour in Worcestershire, salt, pepper, garlic, and the cowboy rub. Let it all cook until the steak is cooked to your desired temperature and remove them from heat. Now, open up your hoagie buns, spoon in enough of the meat and veggies so that you’re happy, place a slice of cheese on top, and put it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. You can also use chicken, I just LOVE steak! Also, the beef tips are already chopped into chunks so it’s less time and energy. You can use the same exact ingredients, you can add a little soy sauce, do some swiss cheese instead of American, add some mayo, and different colored bell peppers to dress it up! This is something that you can do SO much with and in a very short amount of time. Heck, you can even add shrimp!

This next recipe is perfect for the summer, perfect for baby and bridal showers, and perfect for a dinner or lunch for one or two! Pimento and cheese is a Southern staple. It’s right up there with sweet tea and grits! It’s also super easy to make!

Roasted Pepper & Jalapeno Pimento & Cheese:

1 8 oz. block sharp cheddar cheese,

1 8 oz. block pepper jack cheese,

1 8 oz. block Monterey jack cheese,

2 tbsp. roasted red peppers, chopped,

2 tbsp., diced, pickled, jalapenos,

2 cups mayonnaise,

Tony Chachere’s

Salt,

Black Pepper.

Okay folks, the hardest part of pimento & cheese is grating the cheese. Can you buy shredded? Sure, but if you buy the block cheese and grate it yourself the cheese is much softer and velvety. It’s purely about texture! So, bare with me and break out that grater, put some elbow grease into it! If you notice that you’re having a trouble with your cheese crumbling, you can stick in the freezer. The colder the cheese, the easier it is to grate! Once it’s all nicely grated, throw it in a bowl, and pull out the peppers. The roasted peppers are sold in 7oz. jars in the grocery store, I used Cento brand. When you take the peppers out of the jar, you’ll notice they’re in long slices, so you’ll need to take about 8 peppers (depending on the size), and chop them up. The jalapeno’s also come diced in a jar. You don’t have to use jarred, you can use fresh if you like but I like the taste that the jarred gives it; plus, jarred is a little less spicy. Same with the roasted red peppers but it takes a LONG time to roast peppers! But, to each their own! Anyways, as I was saying, once you’ve grated the cheese and chopped the red peppers, add the jalapenos, Tony’s, salt, and pepper and give it a good stir. Finally, add the mayonnaise and stir well. It may take a little more mayo or a little less depending on what you like. It’s kinda tough to stir all that cheese, don’t worry about making it pretty though! Just stir it until all the ingredients are mixed all together. You can eat this on crackers, toast points, chips, regular white bread, or even croissants. A good idea is to spread a little butter on two pieces of bread, spoon some pimento and cheese on to one piece, top it with the other piece, and throw the whole thing into a skillet for a grilled pimento cheese sandwich! You can set out a bowl of this, add some Ritz crackers, Mezzetta Jalapeno stuffed Green Olives, and a little deli meat and you have yourself a party platter for your friends! You can also wrap it in some saran wrap, form it into a ball, refrigerate for 1 hour, sprinkle on bacon bits, and have yourself a pimento and cheese cheeseball!

Well, I guess that’s it for tonight folks! I’ve been trying to think of what to post for the 4th of July. Most of my family will be out of town, but my sweet brother has invited me to come spend it with him and his family. He and I are always “fighting” about who’s the better cook. He can master a grill, so can I; he knows his way around the kitchen, but I play with flavors and recipes and make them my own; he can smoke the devil out of some meat, I can’t even begin to tell you how to start a smoker. So this 4th of July, he’ll be making the meat, and I’ll be making some potato salad and the BEST pound cake you could possibly imagine! A co-worker has also asked me to make a few things for her so I think I’ll be making some crockpot pulled pork, chicken spaghetti, and something I call goulash! I may even throw a steak in there tomorrow night! 😉 Ya’ll stay tuned for what’s coming your way and don’t forget to sign up down below to follow my new blog posts! Have a good night!