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!

Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos

Tired of eating pot roast the "regular" way? We are and we've been on a Mexican food kick lately so I decided to try making the roast differently. It turned out great! The kids even loved it.

1.5 lb pot roast
1 pk of low sodium taco seasoning
1 small can roasted garlic tomato sauce
1 small can of water
flour tortillas
avacado
cheese

Rub the taco seasoning into the roast. Put it in your crockpot and pour the tomato sauce and water over it. Let it cook on low until tender. The tomato sauce will thicken so you may need to add more water to it as it cooks. Once it's tender, shred the meat and stir it into the tomato sauce. Serve wrapped in a tortilla with cheese and avacado slices and any other toppings you like! We also topped ours with a store bought Island Chipotle Dip which is basically sour cream mixed with chipotle powder and other seasonings. Super Yum!

Chicken Dorito Casserole

I searched on to find a good chicken dorito casserole recipe. I found one and tweeked it a little bit. We all loved it!

1lb of chicken breast strips seasoned with lawrys, garlic, and pepper.
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 small can diced green chilies
1 8oz container of sour cream
3-4 green onions, chopped
A bag of doritos
colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Saute and chop the chicken strips. Lightly grease the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Cover the bottom with crushed doritos. Mix chicken, soup, chilies, sour cream and green onions. Pour mixture over the doritos and cover with colby jack cheese. Cover dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 5 min. or until cheese is golden and bubbly.

For the kids sake, I gave the green chilies and onions a really fine chop so they wouldn't see them and complain about them! :)

Dale's Steak Seasoning and a Pork Tenderloin... Yummy!

Hallelujah! :)

I fixed something "new" to the kids tonight. I knew James and I would like it (although he hasn't got to taste it yet!) but was unsure about the kids... and guess what... they liked it!!!

We had a pork tenderloin and scalloped potatos. I was going to have a real veggie with it too but tonight just felt like a meat and potatoes kind of night!

The scalloped potatos were just from a box so I won't go into detai there.

For the pork tenderloin...I marinated it in Dale's Steak Seasoning http://www.dalesseasoning.com/. You can get it at most any grocery store. My step-sister, Donna, told me about it. She lives in Alabama and that is where the sauce comes from. Although it's labeled "seasoning" it's a LIQUID marinade. Anyway, it has soy sauce in it so I thought it would taste good with pork. We've already had it on other meats and it's always great. One tip.... it's salty so don't marinate your meat for too long...just a short time before you cook it. They do make a low-sodium variety but I haven't seen it a the store yet.

Okay... back to the pork. I marinated in Dale's for a while. I put a little vegetable oil in an iron skillet on high. I browned the tenderloin on all sides to seal in the juices and flavor. I sliced half an onion and threw that in the skillet along with some sliced pineapple and pineapple juice (just enough liquid for the onions and pineapple not to dry up). Put a lid on it and stuck it in the oven pre-heated to 425. Now, here we like our pork with NO pink in the middle. So I cooked it for 45 minutes. With a lid on it, it stays moist. If you like it medium, just cook it for 25-30 minutes.

The pork turned out perfect!!! Moist and flavorful! The pineapple combined with that flavor from Dale's was superb. I can imagine next time having it with rice instead of the potatoes. Yummy!!!