Let them eat cake!

I signed up to make a cake for our town’s annual ice cream social...triple chocolate seemed like the way to go! 😊🍦

Recipe credit: Triple Chocolate Layer Cake from Sally's Baking Addiction

Comfort Food: Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Today was not exactly a bad day, although I had a few moments of discouragement and disappointment when something I'd hoped would happen, ended up not working out.  Today was also not a cold day--we've had balmy temps in the 30s lately!! :)  But it seemed like a good day for comforting, nourishing food.  I had roasted a chicken on Friday--a large, plump, delicious "homegrown" chicken from our neighbor friends.  These are some GOOD chickens!!  And one of the things I like best about chicken is how I can stretch it into several meals.  I sat down on Saturday and made a menu plan for this month, as part of my experiment to see if I can keep our grocery budget at $100 or less.  (I still have 4 days unplanned at the end of the month, so we'll see what I come up with!) Anyway . . . back to the chicken.  So we had roast chicken with mashed potatoes and mixed veggies on Friday night.  Chicken quesadillas and rice on Saturday night.  Plus a couple chicken sandwiches yesterday and today . . . and then tonight, creamy chicken noodle soup.  I boiled the chicken bones for several hours during the day and got the most wonderful, rich broth . . .

. . . then I put together this recipe for supper.  I originally found it on Recipezaar (now Food.com) as this creamy turkey soup recipe.  I've made it with leftover turkey also, but I think chicken is just a little better. :)  Here's my variation:

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

1/4 cup butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups sliced carrots
1/4 cup flour
5 cups chicken broth, divided
2 cups milk or 2 cups cream
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (this adds a nice kick, but you can leave it out if you prefer)
1 teaspoon dried parsley (I usually leave this out because I hardly ever have it on hand)
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
8 ounces egg noodles

Directions:

Saute onions and carrots in butter until soft, not brown.  Add flour and mix well.  Gradually add 2 cups broth and milk.  Cook and stir until it thickens.  Stir in remaining 3 cups broth, and all remaining ingredients.  Simmer 10-12 minutes until noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.  Servings: 8-10

I actually doubled the recipe tonight, in the hopes that maybe I can stretch that chicken to one more meal!!  We'll see, though . . . I have one soup-lovin' boy in the family who can usually eat at least 3 bowls full. :)

I served the soup with Bakewell Cream biscuits.  Bakewell Cream is the Maine version of cream-of-tartar, and this is the recipe off the back of the can.  If you can't find Bakewell Cream, regular old cream-of-tartar should be just fine. :)  

Bakewell Cream Biscuits

4 cups flour (today I used half white and half whole wheat)

4 tsp Bakewell Cream or cream-of-tartar

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening (I use butter--much healthier!)

1 1/2 cups cold milk

Mix and sift dry ingredients.  Add shortening or butter and mix with pastry blender.  Add milk all at once, and stir quickly with a fork (I usually use a wooden spoon instead).  Some flours may require a bit more liquid to make a soft dough.  Turn out on floured board and knead 5 or 6 times.  Roll or pat to 1/2" to 3/4" thick.  Cut with biscuit cutter.  Bake at 475º F for 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and leave in oven for 5 to 10 minutes until golden brown.  These biscuits are extra high and light.  (And super yummy!!)  I usually get about 12-13 biscuits out of this recipe.

Chicken soup and biscuits are comfort food at its simplest, and finest.  This is a pretty easy meal to put together, especially if you take the meat off the bones early in the day and allow plenty of time for broth-making (or you can always make broth using bouillon, but it won't be quite as yummy!).  What is your favorite comfort food or wintertime soup?

Make it From Scratch Week, Day 4: Homemade Bread

 Well, it was a good thing I made elderberry syrup on Tuesday, since I got hit with a bad cold on Wednesday!!  I've been taking lots of it and trying to get as much rest as possible, and am feeling a bit better today.  :)

So I totally missed posting anything for Wednesday's project, although I was going to count the Almond Joy Bites (sweetened with xylitol!) that I made on Tuesday night.  However, I don't even have a picture of them (mine didn't come out too pretty anyway--should have made them in mini muffin tins :)), but you can follow the link and see the pictures at the Blue House Blog where I got the recipe.  I left the almonds out of mine to save money, so they were actually more like Mounds bites.  Very yummy!

Anyway, yesterday's Make it From Scratch project was one that I do pretty much every week: homemade wheat bread.  I make 4 loaves at a time and this lasts us about a week, sometimes less.

My recipe is adapted from the homemade wheat bread at Tammy's Recipes . . . I haven't changed it much, only I use molasses instead of honey since it is cheaper (and we don't mind the stronger flavor of molasses).  Here's the recipe:

Wheat Bread

4 cups warm water

4 T. milk

1/2 cup oil (I use coconut oil)

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup brown sugar

8 t. instant yeast

6-7 cups whole wheat flour

6-7 cups all purpose flour

4 t. salt

several sprinkles of ginger

several sprinkles of citric acid 

(both ginger and the citric acid are optional, but help with the rising)

Add water, milk, oil, molasses, brown sugar and yeast to large mixer bowl.  (NOTE: You MUST have a large mixer for making this recipe--I use the largest size Kitchen Aid, which holds 6 quarts and can handle this much dough.  If you don't have a mixer that large, you will need to make the recipe by hand, or cut the recipe in half to make 2 loaves instead.  Make sure you don't overtax your mixer; we don't want anyone burning out their motors trying to make this bread!! :))

I never bother mixing up the liquid ingredients; just dump them all in there with the brown sugar and add the yeast on top.  Next, add the flours, salt, ginger and citric acid (if using).  (See recipe at Tammy's Recipes for more ideas on dough enhancers!)

Attach dough hook and mix on stir speed until the dough is mostly combined, then turn it up to the next speed for a little bit to get everything nicely kneaded together.  I find that it doesn't take long (less than a minute) to get it kneaded to my liking.

Turn oven on to 200 degrees F and grease a LARGE bowl.  When dough is finished kneading, dump dough into the greased bowl and turn so top and bottom are both greased.  Cover with a clean kitchen towel and wait till oven has come up to temperature.  Put the bowl in the warm oven and TURN OVEN OFF.  Let rise in warm oven for about an hour.  The dough should have risen nicely, a bit above the top of the bowl.

Turn dough out onto a clean, floured counter.  (Turn dough over so both top and bottom are floured.)  Grease 4 bread pans and cut dough into 4 roughly even pieces.  Shape into loaves and place in pans.  Turn oven on to 200 again and put the pans in, once it's up to temperature.  TURN OVEN OFF again and let the bread rise for about 35 minutes.  (Don't bother to cover it this time.)  Once the 35 minutes are up, turn the oven light on and peek in through the window if your oven has one, to make sure the dough looks nicely risen.  Turn oven on to 350 degrees F and bake for 35 minutes.  As soon as it comes out of the oven, brush the top of each loaf with butter.

Cool bread in pans on wire racks for 15ish minutes, then gently loosen and turn out of pans onto racks to cool more.  Slice and enjoy!

Phew!  It took longer to write that all out than it takes to actually do it. :)  I hope I didn't leave anything out.  I do this recipe from memory now, so I was walking through each step in my mind . . . hopefully I didn't miss anything.  I should note that as with anything, making bread takes a lot of practice.  This bread turns out well for me almost every time, but I still have days where it comes out different than others.  A lot depends on humidity, etc.  Sometimes I get a nice firm bread, almost like store bought bread in texture.  Other times it turns out floppy and fall-aparty.  But at least it always turns out yummy (except when you forget the salt--don't ask me how I know ;))!

Recipe Rave: Homemade Mayo

I have several recipe links to share, but I decided to do them separately, since when I went to post pictures it looked a little funny to have a photo of mayo right above a photo of fudge balls and milk! :) Anyway . . . first, this recipe.

I have been SO HAPPY to finally find a homemade mayo recipe that we love, and that turns out perfect every time!!  I have tried a couple recipes in the past with less than stellar results . . . I guess the third time was a charm. :)  And you know what I think was the key to my success: letting the egg and lemon juice come to room temperature, as per the very specific instructions.  Yay!  I also love that this recipe uses one whole egg, instead of just egg yolks.  The finished mayo has a great flavor, and true, thick mayo texture (after some time in the fridge), and it is super simple to whip up in the blender.  I am a big-time lover of mayo, so I am really really happy to be able to make my own, and know that it's a lot healthier for us.

Here is the link: http://homegrownpaleo.com/2013/02/12/homemade-paleo-mayo/
The original recipe (as noted in the post) is from Melissa Joulwan, who has written a Paleo cookbook called Well Fed: Paleo Recipes for People Who Love to Eat.  I had a chance to check out her cookbook through inter-library loan and there were a lot of great-sounding recipes in there, including this one.  I really liked being able to watch her make the mayo in the little video imbedded in the above post.  I'm a visual learner, so that was really helpful to me!

No more store-bought mayo with weird oils and other ingredients for us . . . we've found a winner!  I would also note that I know some people would be skeptical of homemade mayo because of the raw egg.  I probably wouldn't make this if I was using generic store-bought eggs, but using our own fresh eggs from our own chickens, I am very comfortable with it. :)

Pinterest project for January: Homemade potato chips!

I decided it would be fun to attempt one Pinterest project every month--or more than one, if possible!  I'm defining a Pinterest project as something I either have already pinned, or something I make and then pin.  Being me, most things are pinned before I get around to trying them. :)  Anyway, this month's project was homemade microwave potato chips!  Sound interesting?  It was!

Making crispy chips in the microwave just doesn't sound like it should be possible.  However, when nuked long enough, the chips actually did get nice and crispy, and they tasted very yummy, to boot!  Here is the link to the blog post with all the instructions.

 This was a fun experiment and it was nice to know exactly what went into our chips.  I would definitely make these again, although probably not that often, as it seemed like a lot of work for a few chips.  I mean, it was plenty for Jim and me, but not anything like having a whole bag. :)  Also, I don't own a mandoline, so "we" (I mean Jim :)) had to slice the potatoes as thin as possible.  This probably took more time than a mandoline would have.  And the plate got really hot in the microwave for so long--so just something to watch out for if you try making these yourself.  Other than that, I'd definitely recommend giving these a try!

A post a day--Dec. 21: Salted Caramel Mocha Lattes

I'm not a coffee kind of girl.  I've always loved the smell, but hated the taste.  But on our trip to Ohio this summer, we got lattes a couple times to help us stay awake on the road.  And I found out that I LOVE caramel lattes. :)  Then I had a salted caramel latte at the ladies' retreat in the fall, and I decided I needed to learn how to make something similar at home.  I dug out the cheapo coffee maker that we bought years ago to have around for company but which we've only used a handful of times, and after looking at a few recipes online, I came up with this:

I use the recipe found here at Mom Advice for a salted caramel mocha latte.  Only I make my own caramel syrup and caramel sauce using the recipes found here.  Once I have a batch of each made up, it lasts in the fridge for several weeks.  Jim and I often have our lattes on Friday nights for our in-home "dates" while we watch a movie after the kids go to bed (I use decaf when we're having them at night :)).  This has become a special little tradition for us, and a very yummy one too.  I keep canned whipped cream on hand just for these.  The freshly ground salt adds the perfect finishing touch!  

A post a day--Dec. 20: World's Easiest Christmas Candy

Just a quick little post for tonight, and sorry for the lack of pictures . . . it's been a busy day!!  I wanted to make some little goodie gift bags today, so we made the super quick "World's Easiest Christmas Candy" from Money Saving Mom.  It is really yummy and only takes minutes to put together!  The longest part is waiting for it to harden for an hour in the freezer.  Here's the recipe:

1 sleeve of saltines (or a little more)
1 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter
2 cups chocolate chips

Spread out saltines on a cookie sheet/bar pan.  (I used my Pampered Chef large bar pan and lined it with parchment paper to avoid sticking.  I could fit 40 crackers on there, which was a little more than one sleeve.

Melt butter and brown sugar together until gooey (make sure to stir it so it doesn't burn!) and carefully pour over saltines till they are covered.  Bake at 350 for about 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips on top.  Let them sit for a few minutes, then spread them over everything to cover.  I then let the pan cool a little bit before putting it in the freezer for the next hour to harden.  After it's hard, take out the pan and break the candy into pieces.  Yum!!  Store in the freezer.

A post a day--Dec. 13: Soup & Breadsticks

I had planned a longer post for today, but time got away from me and I didn't have time to finish it.  So I will save that one for another day, and instead share links to two very yummy recipes that we enjoyed last week.  I've been trying to get back to menu planning, and in flipping through my big binder of recipes, this Zuppa Tuscana Soup caught my eye.  I've made a variation of it before, but this time I used this recipe from Passionate Homemaking.  It is supposed to taste like a soup from Olive Garden--I can't say how it compares because I've never had the restaurant's version.  But I can say it is delicious!!  Mmmmm, so yummy on a cold winter night!

To go along with it, I used our favorite breadsticks recipe from Money Saving Mom.  Double yum!!  These don't last long at our house; everybody LOVES them. :)

A post a day--Dec. 6: Fantabulous Flapjack Mix recipe

Oops, I'm just barely squeaking in under the wire to get this posted on the 6th! :)  The day kind of got away from me.  I thought I'd share a great pancake mix recipe that also makes a great gift.  My mom had made this mix for Christmas gifts quite a few years back, and then I forgot about it and didn't make it myself for a long time.  But I recently resurrected it from my overstuffed recipe box, and we've been enjoying it.  I often make pancakes for Thursday night supper, since they are quick and easy and we have church that night.  Having this mix already made makes it even easier. :)  Hope someone else will enjoy this as much as we do!

Fantabulous Flapjack Mix

4 cups quick oats

2 cups flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup dry milk (I'm guessing you could skip this and use milk in place of the water later, if you prefer not to use dry milk)

3 T. baking powder

2 T. cinnamon

2 1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cream of tartar

Combine in a large bowl.  Store in an airtight container, or ziploc bag.

For 1 batch, add: 

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 cup oil (tonight I used coconut oil and it worked great!)

2 cups flapjack mix

1 cup water

Then make pancakes as usual!  I usually make mine on my electric griddle at 350 degrees.  I usually make 1 1/2 times the recipe and I get about 10-12 pancakes out of it.  Pretty soon I'm going to have to start doubling the recipe for our family of five!

Sorry I have no picture to go with the recipe . . . I know recipes are always more fun with pictures, but I forgot to take any tonight when we were eating.  Maybe I'll be able to add one sometime in the future. :)  I also have no idea where this recipe originally came from (maybe a Gooseberry Patch book?) so I can't give credit where it's due . . . probably my mom will chime in and let me know if she remembers. :)

Grilled Chicken Sandwich Recipe

I am usually the kind of girl who sticks to a recipe for most things, but last night I invented a recipe! :) Okay, it was super simple and really not anything that special, but these were yummy enough that I wanted to share (and this way I have a record of what I did, so I can look back here on the blog if I forget :)).

First, I cooked a couple of chicken breasts in olive oil. (The grill would also work well, but I used the stove.) I sprinkled both sides with Montreal Chicken Seasoning and a little sea salt as they cooked. When they were done, I sliced them up and set them aside.

Then I mixed up some spicy mayo (mayo with a dash of Buffalo wing sauce--or any other kind of hot sauce--and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper). (This is also a fantastic dip for sweet potato fries--just saying. :)) And I sliced some mozzarella, and heated up a little bacon on the griddle (I had some leftover in the freezer).

Next, I sliced and buttered some sandwich buns and toasted them on the griddle too. Once they were all nice and crispy, I spread on the mayo, piled on the chicken, mozzarella and bacon, added the top bun and microwaved them a little bit just to melt the cheese. And these were YUMMY, I tell you! And pretty easy, too! They would also be a great way to use up leftover chicken. The kids skipped the mayo and had theirs with ketchup, but overall these were a pretty good crowd-pleaser. Hope you will enjoy too, if you happen to try them!

Miscellaneous DIY projects from this month

**I actually typed this post way back at the end of March, but never got around to publishing it because I planned to take some pictures and go back and add them in. Posts are always more fun with pictures . . . :) However, I STILL haven't taken any pictures of this stuff and I want to get this posted before I completely forget about it. So if you want to see pictures of the detergent or cleaning wipes, you can do that by clicking on the links and seeing the photos at the original posts, okay? :)

I thought it would be fun to post about the various DIY projects I've tackled this month. One of my monthly goals is to do something "homemade," and I did get this month's project done, but I also did a few other things--some that were new to me, and some that weren't, so I thought I would blog about those, too.

• Homemade foaming hand soap: This was the one thing I had planned to make this month, because our soap was running out. Back in December I had gotten 3 natural foaming soaps for a good deal, but they didn't last long. However, one of my main reasons for getting them was that I had read about how to make foaming soap, and wanted the bottles so I wouldn't have to buy them specially. :) When it came time to make the soap, I read the directions and realized that regular creamy liquid soap (what we have) wouldn't work. So instead I used some of the natural, clear dish detergent that we had. I just put in a good squirt (supposed to be a couple of tablespoons, but I didn't measure), filled up the bottle with water, and . . . voila! I actually like the lather-i-ness of this better than the soap that was in the bottles originally. :) This was SO easy, and can you say "cheap?!"

• Homemade laundry detergent: I've been making this for a while now, but today I had to whip up a new batch, so I thought I would write about it. I use the recipe found here at DIY Natural. It's so easy--1 bar of Fels Naptha, 1 cup of borax and 1 cup of washing soda. I grate the soap in the food processor, then blend everything together in it, as well. (Then I make sure to wash the food processor REALLY well afterwards. :)) Sometimes I double the recipe so I don't have to make it as often. A batch doesn't last all that long around here! I keep it in an old coconut oil jar along with a half tablespoon measure, and I use about 1 tablespoon total for each load of laundry.

• Homemade cleaning wipes: I used to love using Clorox wipes to clean the bathroom sink and the toilet. Just swish, swipe, and you're done! But they get expensive after a while, plus over the years I've come to prefer using more natural cleaners as much as possible. So I haven't bought the wipes for a long time. A while back I came across a post about making your own reusable wipes, using rags made from old t-shirts, soaked with a combination of water, castile soap and tea tree oil. So I whipped some up a few days ago. So far it seems to be working well, and I love the convenience! I used the instructions here, but later I noticed this post that I had bookmarked a long time ago, which is worth a look, also.

• Homemade elderberry syrup: We love elderberry syrup for cold season. Well, I shouldn't say we *love* it . . . although none of us are crazy about the flavor, I love what it does for colds. :) I have had several colds that started over the winter and got stopped in their tracks by this stuff. It is seriously amazing! My friend Jen gave me a cup or so of it back in the fall, and then I bought some dried elderberries from her so I could make my own. I finally remembered to make it today (too bad I didn't think of it when the kids were first showing signs of cold symptoms last week!). I feel a bit of a scratchy throat coming on, so I'll definitely be taking lots of this over the next few days. Here is how you make it; it's really easy-peasy.

1/2 cup of dried elderberries

3 cups of water

1 cup of honey (raw local honey would be best--I don't have this--yet!--so I used

store-bought)

Combine the elderberries and water in a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and

simmer for 30-45 minutes. Strain into a bowl, squishing the elderberries to get as

much juice out as possible through the strainer. Mix in the honey. Store in the fridge

(I use a mason jar) for up to 3 months or so.

I love trying new homemade things! Have any of you tried any DIY projects lately?

Recipe Rave: Farmhouse Ham Chowder

A few weeks ago we got a good deal on ham, so this week we've been eating a lot of ham dishes. :) One of the first ones I tried was this yummy chowder from an old issue of Simple & Delicious magazine. To my amazement, this was actually a hit with both Sam and Julia, and Josiah even ate his up without too much grumbling. :) I will definitely be making this again!

Farmhouse Ham Chowder

1/2 c. finely chopped onion

1/2 c. finely chopped celery (I skipped this)

1/2 c. chopped sweet red pepper

2 T. butter

1/4 c. all-purpose flour

1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix (I made my own using this recipe and used 2 T of it)

4 1/4 c. milk

2 c. frozen cubed hash brown potatoes, thawed

2 c. frozen corn, thawed (I didn't thaw first)

2 c. cubed fully cooked ham

1 t. minced fresh thyme or 1/4 t. dried thyme

1/2 c. shredded smoked Gouda cheese

In a large saucepan, saute the onion, celery and red pepper in butter until crisp-tender. Stir in flour and dressing mix until blended; gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Add the potatoes, corn, ham and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for 8-10 minutes to allow flavors to blend. Stir in cheese until blended. Yield: 8 servings (2 quarts)

**Just take a tip from me and either use the frozen cubed hash browns it calls for in the recipe, or cook your potatoes ahead of time and add them to the soup at the end. I threw in cubed fresh potatoes near the end and then it took forever for them to get soft, and some of the soup stuck to the bottom of the pot in the meantime. I should have known better. So don't be like me! :)

**Also, I used some shredded cheddar instead of smoked Gouda. Call me cheap (because I am ;)). I'm sure smoked Gouda would take this soup up another notch, but it was super good with the cheddar!

Recipe Rave: Fiesta Sweet Potato Soup

A few weeks ago, the kids and I had lunch with my mom and she served us some yummy soup. I loved it, but hadn't gotten around to making it myself till last night. I have a hubby who is not a fan of beans, so I wasn't sure how well this would go over, but he said I could try it. :) Well, he said it was "good"--which means it might not be his favorite soup ever, but he wouldn't be totally opposed to me making it again. ;) And actually, I think this would be just as good without the sausage, in which case I could make a batch of it for just me and eat it for lunch for a week!

Anyway, here's the recipe, and I'll note at the end the changes I made to it.

Fiesta Sweet Potato Soup

(original recipe from Taste of Home)

1 package (9 oz) fully cooked spicy chicken sausage links, chopped

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 large onion, chopped

1 small green pepper, diced

2 T. olive oil

2 t. ground cumin

2 cans (14.5 oz. each) chicken broth

1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained

1 can (14.5 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained

2 T. minced fresh cilantro

Sour cream and thinly sliced green onions

Directions:

• In a large saucepan, saute the sausage, sweet potatoes, onion and pepper in oil until onion is tender. Add cumin; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the broth, tomatoes and beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in cilantro.
• Garnish servings with sour cream and green onions. Yield: 6 servings (2 1/4 quarts)

Notes: I used Italian turkey sausage instead of chicken sausage because it was cheaper. Like I mentioned above, I think this soup would be just as tasty without any meat, though! I only used about a third of an onion because hubby isn't a big fan. I also forgot to add the cilantro, and it was great without (although I'd like to try it with, sometime--I think it would add a nice dimension. We did garnish with sour cream and that added even more flavor, but if you want to cut some fat/calories, the soup is great without it. I also forgot about the green onions, but we didn't miss them. :) And I threw in some leftover rice, too, which I think is why the soup ended up looking more like stew--but it was still good that way!

So there you have it--a new yummy soup recipe to try! This was packed full of flavor and it's pretty healthy, too. Enjoy!

Spicy Refrigerator Dill Pickles

Yesterday I made a few pickles using this super delicious recipe that I found last year. They are seriously sooooo good (if you happen to like pickles, that is!). I don't have a pressure canner (yet!) but from reading the comments I see that this recipe works fine for canning too. If you try the recipe . . . definitely scan through some of the comments first. The biggest recommendation is to cut back on the sugar--I would recommend cutting it back to half the amount or even less than stated in the recipe. Unless you want your dills to be sweet. :)

Luscious lemons

I am a huge fan of pretty much anything with lemons in it. When I was a kid, my family would pick on me because I would actually eat the flesh and juice of the lemon wedges that came with a fish dinner at our favorite local restaurant. I don't do that anymore (well, not usually :)), but I do still love lemon! This weekend my mom brought me a jar of lemon curd that she had left over from a cake she made. (See her post and recipe here.) I was looking forward to having the whole jar to myself because Jim isn't much of a lemon fan. Then he wanted to try some . . . and ended up really liking it! So much for my plan of eating it all.

Tonight I made these lemon scones from Tammy's Recipes. I'd made them before and they are sooo yummy. I wanted to use the lemon curd in or on them . . . I ended up slicing them open and sandwiching the curd in between the layers. Jim and I each tried one this way for dessert tonight and it was a winning combination!! But the kids liked the scones too . . . and unfortunately the recipe only made 8 . . . so I think I am going to have to make some more to use up the rest of the lemon curd. :)

Any other lemon lovers out there?

A Handy Tip for Cooking Fresh Eggs

I am so excited about this tip, I just had to share it with everyone. Now some of you who have had chickens for a while may already know about this, but for those (like me!) who didn't . . . it may be helpful. :)

I love having fresh eggs to enjoy and our hens keep us very well-supplied! The only thing that I don't like about fresh eggs is trying to peel them after hard-boiling. Fresh eggs just don't peel well at all, and I hated how my deviled eggs would come out looking like they'd been through a battle! Plus, a lot of the egg white is wasted when half of it gets stuck on the shell. I read a tip in a magazine that suggested cracking the shells of the hot eggs all over before soaking them in cool water. That helped, but who really wants to be handling hot eggs (it was awkward with gloves)? Not me. I was resigned to doing it this way, until a friend of my mom's shared this blog link with her.

Turns out the best way to "hard-boil" a fresh egg is to STEAM it in a steamer over boiling water! Who knew? I tried it last night and lo and behold, my eggs peeled much better than ever before. There were still some that ended up with "pock marks" but that may have been because I was in a hurry while peeling them. Here is how I did it:

Put eggs (I used six) in a steamer basket above a pot with a small amount of hot water. Bring the water to a boil. When it starts boiling, cover the pot and steam for 20 minutes (next time I might go a teeny bit longer--maybe 21-22 min.--just because some of my whites came out a little soft). Soak eggs in cold water for a little while, until cool enough to peel. Voila! Easy-to-peel steamed eggs. :)

Photo credit: sxc.hu

Recipe Rave: Gourmet Garlic Chicken Pizza

We recently tried another fabulous (and I do mean fabulous!!) pizza recipe from Tammy's Recipes. This is a "knock-off" of a Papa Murphy's pizza. Well, I've never had Papa Murphy's (we don't have them around here) but this pizza was super delicious, and I'm so glad we tried it. I will definitely be making it again and again! Way back many years ago when I was in college, I once had a garlic chicken pizza at Pizza Hut. I honestly don't remember exactly what it tasted like, only that it was really yummy, and I wished for years that I could recreate it. While this pizza isn't exactly the same as that one, it definitely satisfied my desire for a good garlic chicken pizza.

I made my own ranch dressing for the sauce, and used a little less cheese, but other than that I made the recipe just as it was written. If you like to try different varieties of pizza, you should definitely try this recipe!! I give it 10 out of 10 stars!!

My favorite easy homemade BBQ sauce

I have lots and lots of recipes I want to share with you (or link to), but the one at the top of my list for today is this easy homemade BBQ sauce. True, it is not the most complex-flavored BBQ sauce in the world. And it is very sweet, not very spicy or vingegar-y at all. BUT, easy. That's the key word here! And yummy! I got this recipe from Taste of Home ages ago. It goes great with pork, beef, or chicken. Tonight I'm actually trying it on venison. I'm making shredded BBQ venison sandwiches!

Tangy Barbecue Sauce

1 cup of ketchup

2/3 cup of brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons of mustard

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

Mix it all together! That's it. It doesn't get much easier than this!

I love to make a double recipe of this sauce, throw it in the crockpot with a couple pounds or so of meat, then shred it all up together when the meat is done. It makes a wonderful filling for sandwiches, enchiladas, etc. Mmmmm. Enjoy!

Happy New Year!!!

I love the first day of a new year! It feels like such a fresh new start for . . . pretty much everything! I have a bunch of goals for this year in my head, but I haven't written them down yet. My plan for this week is to post several specific goals over the next few days so you can see what I'm hoping to work on this year. Then, I'm planning to post at the end of each month and let you know how I'm progressing on those goals. I'm hoping that by doing this, it will help keep me more accountable and focused than I was last year!

We had a really fun New Year's Eve. We had no special plans for the night, so earlier this week I decided to make Chinese food and have a fun family dinner. Of course the kids don't really like Chinese food, but I knew I could use the fried chicken "nuggets" that were going in the sauce for General Tso's chicken, and they would happily eat them with ketchup. So they were basically eating the same thing as us, but just not exactly the same. :) Anyway . . . as I was working on starting supper prep in the afternoon, my friend Gail called and asked if we would like to come over to their house for the evening for games, food, and fellowship. So after supper, we did! They had some of their extended family there too, and we had such a good time. In fact, we figured we would stay for a couple hours and then come home, but we were having SO much fun that we ended up seeing the New Year in with them. :) We played some new-to-us games--Fluxx and a Pictionary card game. We played round after round of that one, and it was a blast! We laughed so much. I love laughing with friends . . . something we need to do more often! Laughter really is the best medicine! :)

Back to the Chinese food . . . we have a good Chinese restaurant nearby, but we don't go there often. We get takeout maybe once a year at the most. And it's actually really cheap for lunch. But we really like Chinese food, so I decided to make our own for last night! I have a great recipe from my sister-in-law for General Tso's Chicken, so that was the main dish (along with plain rice). I also made Hot 'n Sour Soup (Jim's favorite from the restaurant) and egg rolls. I used this recipe for the soup and this one for the egg rolls. They were both delicious!!! It was a lot of work (and a lot of mess) to put together this dinner, but it was a lot of fun. And, it made a lot of leftovers, which we will be eating tonight, along with fried rice. :) Yum! I changed a couple of things in the recipes--I used Italian sausage instead of ground pork for the egg rolls, probably only about half a pound instead of a full pound, and I threw the rest of the cooked sausage in the soup instead of using shredded chicken or pork. I also left out the tofu and sesame oil--I was already buying enough unusual ingredients, and figured the soup would be just fine without those two things. Jim said it turned out very similar to the restaurant version (I'd never had it before) and it was definitely tasty! Easy, too. I'll be making it again, that's for sure.

Well, I need to go so we can get things organized for church tomorrow, and get everyone to bed early tonight! Hopefully you'll see several more posts here over the course of the week, and I'm hoping to schedule time this year to blog a lot more regularly, too. Happy New Year, everyone!

Super Simple Supper

I love to cook, but sometimes (actually a lot of times) I just need a meal that's super quick and easy to get on the table. In the summer, that would probably be hamburgers or a simple salad or sandwiches. In the fall and winter, I turn to soups or one-pot dishes. This is one of my favorite simple suppers, and it's a favorite with my family, too (well, everyone except Julia--we're working on her :)). Sam especially loves this, and tonight he had 2 bowls full!

Alphabet Vegetable Soup (recipe from my mom--2nd recipe down in the post)

and this focaccia bread (from Taste of Home) makes a great accompaniment (yum, yum!) to this meal, and pretty much any meal, for that matter! You've gotta try this, it is SO good.
(Sorry for the photo quality--I'm a terrible food photographer, and I was in a hurry, which didn't help!)