Pepperoni Pizza Poppers

My family loves pizza. Especially pepperoni pizza. So I was excited to find an idea for a twist on pizza while looking at pinterest recently. It's like a savory monkey bread. I added the step of rolling each little ball of pizza dough in garlic butter. Then sprinkling each layer with parmesan cheese.Pop it in the oven at 400 and watch the buttery little pizza poppers (as my boys called them) puff up. When it was almost done, I cranked it up to 425. Maybe I was getting impatient. But look at that yummy golden brown goodness.I shouldn't even post this pic.. I didn't fix my plate pretty and you can't see the bowl of salad that we ate with it. But here they are on my plate. With a spoonful of warm basil, garlic, oregano tomato sauce (with a little more garlic and a little more italian seasoning added to it). Huge hit at my house. We ate the whole pan....which included enough dough to make 2 pizzas. Easy supper success. Thank you pinterest.

Who Turned OFF the Crockpot?!

So we were expecting company on Sunday after church. I get up extra early and get a roast going in one crockpot and just before we leave for church I start another crockpot with potatoes in it (suppose to be a pretty "potato roast" but later turned into mashed potatoes with thyme and shallots). Everything should be perfectly done when we got home from church right? Wrong! Why? One word: JACK. I left the crockpots close to the edge of the counter where Jack can reach the knobs and apparently when we weren't looking he turned the beef roast OFF and the potato roast to HIGH. So we came home to mushy potatoes and raw beef. Off to the local cafe we went. The roast and now mashed potatoes were good for supper though... and even better today.

Today I reheated the roast for supper and added flour and eggs to the shallot & thyme mashed potatoes and made potato cakes. The boys loved it. They went so far as to say that it was the best potatoes they ever ate. Maybe not the healthiest lol but the best!

Rice Broccoli n Cheese Cups

Our local grocery store sends out a recipe of the day if you sign up for their newsletter. Recently they sent the recipe for Rice Broccoli n Cheese Cups. We tried out tonight along with the best grilled pork chops and corn on the cob. The boys loved it and they are not usually happy about eating broccoli. I will make a couple of changes to it next time... it was a little dry for me... but it was tasty. Click HERE for the recipe. I swapped regular brown rice for the minute white rice.

Grilled Veggies

We had an awesome dinner... grilled steaks, corn, squash, & zucchini. I seasoned the veggies with garlic salt and lemon pepper and they were delish! I usually eat them just because they are healthy but I really liked them this way. And so did the boys! I didn't realize until after the picture that someone had already taken a bite of my food.... James must have been testing it as he grilled. Ha!

Pineapple Fried Rice

Wow, it's been a long time since I've cooked... I'm getting back to it though and loving it! I'm also trying to excercise, eat healthier (husband and kids too) and just live healthier in general. BUT, I do not want to sacrifice flavor. I don't care how healthy it is, if it's not tasty, I'm not interested!

A friend turned me on to Gina's Skinny Recipes. Basically good food revamped to be healthier and it still tastes good. She has the nutritional value and even weight watcher points for each recipe if you're interested. I tried out the Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice last night. We all (kids included) loved it! I was a little scared of brown rice but we really liked it and the husband even prefers it over white rice. Score! I think he recipe would be great with chicken or pork too if you aren't a shrimpy kind of person.

I changed a couple of things. I seasoned my shrimp with garlic salt although the recipe doesn't call for any season on the shrimp. I used quite a bit of cilantro because we love it in our house. Rather than just garnish with it, I stirred it into the rice just before serving. It was wonderful. One other change - I already had several cans of pineapple at home so I did not use fresh pineapple. It was still really good though and can imagine it would be even better with fresh pineapple. Cooking this made me wish I had a non-stick wok!

One word: CHOWDER

Clear Springs Cafe has an amazing Jalepeno Crawfish Chowder. I am in LOVE with it. I want to make it home but can't find a recipe for it. (anyone that works there feel free to share it with me!!!) It's spicy, it's a little sweet, it has chunks of crawfish in it... I'm thinking some corn too. It's SOOOOO good. I get it every time we go. Of course, everything I have had at Clear Springs has been good.

I found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog for Corn Chowder with Chilies. I had hopes that it would remind me of my chowder from Clear Springs... just minus the crawfish. It didn't. But it was good! Spicy, corny, creamy... a little "bacony"... and hot...perfect for today!

Bacon, onion, and butter! It has to be good!

It called for two of these but I chickened out and went kid friendly with only one. With these and the green chile's... it was just spicy enough.

Throw in some corn and the peppers...

Add chicken broth and heavy whipping cream, masa/water mixture and simmer.

I added some cilantro for garnish and served with warm flour tortillas. DELISH!

Warm me up kinda food

Today would have been a good day for a nice hot bowl of chicken and dumplins... but we already had them twice this week! Honestly, I could eat them every day that it is below 50 outside but James and the kids would get bored.

When I made these, I didn't have a whole chicken on hand so I used a bag of boneless skinless breasts. It is NOT the same but it works. I boiled the chicken with a couple cloves of garlic, half an onion (left whole so I can take it out), salt, & pepper. When the chicken is done, just shred or dice and add back to the pot. For the dumplins, I used 2 cups bisuick, 2/3 cup of milk, 1 tbsp of salt, 1/2 tbsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tbsp of pepper, 1/2 tbsp dried sage. Mix it up, and drop clumps in the boiling chicken broth, put a lid on it and wait 10 minutes.

They are soooo delicious! We ate all the dumplins up! I had to make more the next day to go with the rest of the broth and chicken. Tell me, how do you make your dumplins?

What happens when you put jalepeno, pineapple,

monterrey jack cheese, bbq sauce, tortillas



and amazing grilled chicken together?



You get Grilled Chicken & Pineapple Quesadilla's! THANK YOU Pioneer Woman!! Sweet, spicy, tangy, cheesy... You must make these. Seriously.

I used the same season on the chicken as she does (Slap Ya Mama) and the bbq sauce we used is Stubbs. We will be grilling the chicken again soon...I snacked on it while I was making the quesadillas and it is probably my favorite grilled chicken ever. Next time we have the quesadillas I'll cut everything into little bites before putting it on the tortilla so I get some of everything in each bite. The cilantro was a great accent!

Cheesy, Buttery, garlicky, goodness... with a kick.

I'm not normally a grits kinda girl but I had some the other day at MOPS (Mother's of PreSchoolers). It was a complete accident. If I had known what it was, I probably wouldn't have put any on my plate. But I just saw a big bowl of cheesy goodness and on my plate it went! They were incredible! I hunted down the maker (Rhonda) and inquired about the recipe. It was Paula Deen's Baked Garlic Cheese Grits with some doctoring up. I never really thought of Paula Deen's recipes as anything needing to be doctored up so I was suprised. Take the recipe I linked back to and get some jalepeno's... the "nacho slice" kind and chop up about a 1/4 cup (more if you like it spicier) and sprinkle in some Tony's seasoning. The perfect addition! I made the grits myself last night to go along with our breakfast for supper. They were a big hit with the adults (especially Gramps), Cracker Jack, and even Nelson. Henry had to force them down but he's a little strange. :)

So... even if you don't care much for grits, try these! Make a half recipe if it's just a couple of people. We had 6 of us and had quite a bit leftover. How can you go wrong with a corn product, 1 1/2 lbs of cheese, and a stick of butter??

Here it is all mixed together and in the biggest bowl I have... topped with cheese and ready for the oven. I forgot to take an after picture but I can asure you: IT LOOKED GREAT!

M is for Meatloaf!

I have tried a couple different meatloaf recipes that were just so-so. Nothing my family has ever asked for again. Tonight however was different! I made a half recipe in case is wasn't that good... I should have known better since it's from The Pioneer Woman. We are sad that we don't have enough leftovers for everyone. Just enough for James. He is happy though. I was really surprised by how delicious the ketchup sauce was. I am trying to think of another way to use it. If nothing else comes to mind, I'll just make some french fries to dip in it! If you need a good meatloaf recipe that is not quite traditional but not too different...that is moist and has everyone wanting there to be leftovers for sandwiches then this is the recipe for you! Oh, and you have to like bacon. :) My pics are below but here is the link to the recipe. My Favorite Meat Loaf

I wasn't so sure about that bowl in the lower left corner...but it worked. (plain white bread soaked in whole milk). Notice my retro mixing bowls. They were my Mom's. I love using them! :)

Put together and ready for the oven! The ketchup mixture was really good and I had to swap out a couple ingredients - I didn't have brown sugar or tabasco so I used white sugar and Louisiana hot sauce. That and some dry mustard made an amazing sauce. And how do you like my homemade broiler pan? For some unknown reason I don't have one so I improvised. Foil wrapped around a metal rack (used for cooling cookies!) with slits cut in it on top of a baking sheet. Worked out well!

Ready to be devoured! The only problem I had was the bacon we have is too thick so it wasn't as done as we like it. Next time I'll have to make sure I get that really thin bacon that I usually avoid OR cook it a little before I put it on the meatloaf. All in all - it was a FANTASTIC meatloaf! We had it with the Crash Hot Potatoes. We can't seem to get enough of those. And this time we seasoned them with Tony's, chives, and added a sprinkling of cheese.

A is for Asparagus!

Asparagus is such a pretty, green vegetable. I love the "paintbrush tips" as my boys call them. Like most vegetables, they are GREAT with bacon and garlic! Most of the time we just cut them into bite size peices, fry some bacon, add the asparagus, garlic, and a little salt & pepper. Other times we let the asparagus sit in italian dressing then bundle them with bacon and and bake until the bacon is done. It's also great in an egg casserole for breakfast. But last night we drizzled them with oil, salt, pepper and roasted them whole at 450 until done. Simply delicious! I was thrilled when after peeking into the oven my 6 year old said, "Asparagus! Yes!! We haven't had that in a long time, Mom!" He usually loves it but last night he didn't... and neither did my 8 year old. They both insisted on dipping each bite into mustard (gag!) but whatever makes the veggies go down, right? And for the record, the baby devoured his asparagus....without any mustard.

So I want to know.... how do you like your asparagus?

Hand-washing Memories

If you know me well at all, you know that I would rather run the dishwasher AGAIN for the 5th time today than to wash those last few dishes by hand. I just don't like hand-washing. It takes time. It takes effort... especially if you cook like I do and things get stuck on! And that's why dish washers were invented. There you have it. 3 perfectly good reasons to not wash anything by hand!

However...... There is an exception to all rules, even my no hand-washing the dishes rule. At Christmas time I received something that means so very much to me. My Momma's pots and pans. Her Saladmaster cookware that she bought before I was born. Over 30 years old and still they are like new. I really think cooking in them makes everything taste better. She hand-washed these after every meal for 30 years. These are the one exception to my rule. Hand-washing THESE pots and pans is somehow therapuetic. I can remember watching Momma wash them as a kid. Then later being her helper and rinsing and drying them as she washed. So in addition to the fact that it will make the handles last longer... I will continue to wash these pots and pans by hand because it feels good...because it makes me feel closer to my Momma.

A Blog About a Blog...

A while ago after a couple of friends kept telling me how wonderful The Pioneer Woman was, I checked out her blog. http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ They were right! It is great! It has all kinds of stuff but most importantly the recipes. Recipes with step by step instructions and great pictures. I love having the pictures of every step so I can make sure what I'm doing looks like what she did! :) So far everything... and I mean EVERYTHING... I have tried has come out delicious! If you love to eat good food, love to cook good food, or WANT to cook good food but haven't quite got it down... you need to check out her blog! Below are a few pics of food I have cooked of hers with links back to her recipe. Delicious!

Stuffed Mushrooms were tonight....even the baby boy ate them! I didn't have any wine so I left that out and I forgot the egg yolk and parmesan cheese! Oops. They were still great though and I sprinkled a little parsley on top to make them pretty :) http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/stuffed-mushrooms-baby/
I've also cooked her Chicken Parmigiana which was WONDERFUL but didn't take a good picture of it so you'll just have to look at hers! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/10/chicken-parmigiana/

Now her Chicken Spaghetti...seriously... the BEST I've ever eaten. And my family DEVOURED it! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/chicken_spaghet/

Need a new way to eat a potato? This is simple....crisp on the bottom, soft and fluffy on the top, and can be topped with whatever you want! Crash Hot Potatoes! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

And Finally...The Pork Loin with Cranberry Sauce. This one, I'll put a prep pictures up too. It smelt fabulous and was so pretty in the process. :) http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/12/pork-loin-with-cranberry-sauce/

Oh! The rolls... so simple. Store bought rolls dressed up a little. Buttered Rosemary Rolls http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/?s=Buttered+Rosemary+Rolls

Campfire Blackberry Cobbler

Hungry Man has really gotten into campfire cookingand finally tried his hand at dessert. It. Was. Fabulous.! Campfire Blackberry Cobbler.... So simple too.

2-12 oz bags of frozen blackberries (it would be better with fresh seedless but they aren't in season right now) and 1/2 c. sugar. Toss together and pour in the bottom of your cast iron dutch oven. Then used the bisquick biscuit recipe but added 1 1/2 c. sugar to it. "Dropped" it on top of the cobbler and then sprinkled on a little more sugar and put a few pats of butter on top.

I don't know much about the campfire part of it but you do something like pile up a bunch of hot coals, set your dutch oven on top... ...then pile some hot coals on that and check on it once in a while. When the crust is nice and brown, it's ready to eat! Of course, it's best served like the first picture you saw... with some Blue Bell!