Spaghetti

Yes, you could just cook the noodles and throw in some browned beef and store-bought sauce, but why? Ok, so that's basically all I did with the exception of making my own sauce. But whatever.

The Details:

1 lb spaghetti noodles

1 lb ground beef

1-12 oz can tomato sauce

1-6 oz can tomato paste

1 cup water

garlic

parsley

basil

salt

Cook noodles. Brown brown beef in skillet. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 15 minutes. Add to noodles.

Pretty simple. You can use less meat if you don't want so much, but we're a meat family. And you could add whatever spices you want, or just use an Italian blend.

I'm also going to be sharing my French bread recipe later this week, which goes great with this.

Happy Cooking!

Chocolate Chip Pizza

Just when you thought pizza couldn't get any better, they added chocolate chips.

The Details:

Take 1/2 of a boxed cake mix. Mix in 1/2 cup melted butter. Spread evenly over your favorite pizza crust. I use the same recipe I used for my homemade pizza. Sprinkle with 1 cup of mini chocolate chips, about half a 12 oz bag. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or as directed for your crust. I also like to sprinkle a little powdered sugar over it after it's done.

If you're using a crust recipe that makes two pies, you can save the extra dough, cake mix, and chocolate chips for another pizza! Now excuse me while I go find a plate. Yum.

Happy Cooking!

Grilled Country Style Ribs

Don't you just hate it when you can smell someone down the street barbecuing? Only one thing to do - fire up the grill and give 'em a taste of their own cooking!

The Details:

Marinade

1 cup water

1/2 cup Dale's sauce

1/2 cup barbecue sauce

1/4 cup vinegar

Lawry's seasoned salt to taste

powder garlic to taste

pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients for marinade together. Place country style pork ribs in marinade. Place in refrigerator overnight or at least one hour. Remove and place on grill set to medium-low. Slather on barbecue sauce. Cook until done, turning occasionally and adding more barbecue sauce.

Your mouth watering yet?

Now is it? I know mine is.

If you use a meat thermometer, pork is done at 160 degrees. You can always use your own choice of marinade. Mine changes depending on what I'm in the mood for. Sometimes I might add more garlic, or leave out the seasoned salt, or even add a tablespoonful of brown sugar or honey if I want a sweet sauce that night. Experiment and see what you like!

Happy Cooking!

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes! Or I-forgot-to-take-pictures-of-the-recipe-that-was-supposed-to-be-here-before-it-got eaten!! So here's a simple side dish for you to make!

The Details:

Peel your potatoes, and cut into cubes about an inch wide. Place in pot with enough water to completely cover the potatoes. Bring to boil. Boil until a knife inserted into the potato comes out without any resistance, anywhere from 20 to 50 minutes depending on how many potatoes used. Remove from heat and drain. Mash potatoes. Add desired amount of butter and milk.

You can use as many, or as little, potatoes as you want to. I use a potato masher to mash them, or you can also use a potato ricer. Or I've heard of people using a mixer. Or you could use your hands. That'd be fun but the other people eating might look at you strange. Not that I would know.

. . .

Anyway, I usually use about 1/2 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of milk for 5 medium potatoes. Add a small amount of milk at a time until it gets to the consistency you want.

Happy Cooking!

Chicken Fried Steak

I love to use this recipe for venison steak, but it's just as good with beef. All you need in some cube steak, egg, milk, flour, and some oil to fry it in!

The Details:

Heat 1/4 inch of oil in pan. Whisk together 2 eggs and a splash of milk. Place one to two cups of flour in a bowl. Season flour with salt and pepper. Coat steaks in flour, then dip in egg mix, and then dip in flour once again. Fry in oil, turning once midway through. Cooking time will vary depending on the size and thickness of your meat.

You can add additional seasonings to the flour, to the meat, or you can also marinate the meat.

Happy Cooking!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Does anyone else have that one item that's just them? That thing you are known for, that you make all the time? Ok, so I have a couple, but these cookie are at the top of the list. People my husband works with know me by these cookies. (And the Speedy Brownies) They might not have every met me, but I am famous (or infamous) for the cookies. So, here we go!

The Details:

1 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 c. milk

3 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla, and milk. Sift together flour, salt, and soda in separate bowl. Add gradually to wet mixture. Stir in chocolate chips by hand. Drop by teaspoonfuls unto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

I prefer to put parchment paper on my cookie sheet. Not all smaller grocery stores carry it, but you should be able to find it at larger stores. I like to us it because the cookies never stick and my cookies seem to cook better.

Happy Cooking!

Cloverleaf Rolls

Remember the crescent roll dough I froze here? I used that dough to make these rolls. They are made of three balls of dough stuck together and baked in a muffin tin. They pull apart nicely, ready to smear some butter on.

The Details:

Using this recipe, use either fresh made dough or frozen dough thawed in the refrigerator overnight. You will use 1/4th of the recipe for one pan. Roll the dough into a thick rectangle. Cut into 12 equal parts. Divide each section into three equal parts and roll each into a ball. Place each set of three balls into one section of a greased muffin tin. Pour 1/4 c. melted butter over dough. Back at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

These some out soft and warm, ready to smear some butter on. If I let them, my kids would just eat these for supper and forget about anything else!

Happy Cooking!

Homemade Pizza

Love pizza but don't want to pay to have it delivered? Don't want frozen pizza either? Then make your own! It's not all that hard and you can make it the way you like it. You can buy pre-made crust and sauce, but today I'm going to include some recipes to make your own.

The Details:

Pizza Sauce

1 (25 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

1/3 c. oil

2 tsp. oregano

1 Tbsp. garlic

2 tsp. basil

salt and pepper to taste

Stir together tomato sauce, tomato paste, and oil in sauce pan over medium heat. Add rest of ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

You can vary the amount of spices to your own taste, or add different ones. If you don't want to cook the sauce, it also works fine to just mix the ingredients together and use. Any sauce you don't use can be refrigerated or frozen to use at a later time.

Pizza Crust

2 1/4 tsp. yeast (1 packet)

1/2 tsp. sugar

1 1/2 c. warm water

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil

3 1/3 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

cornmeal

Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water until foamy. Combine oil, flour, and salt. Add yeast mixture. Knead until smooth, about 8 minutes. Placed in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover, and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let sit for one minute. Divide in half and form two crusts. Grease pan and sprinkle with cornmeal. Place crust on pan and let rise for 15 to 10 minutes. Top with sauce and favorite toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown.

To form crusts, you can either form dough into a ball and roll out to desired size, or try to toss it! If you don't have a pizza pan, you can simply form the dough to fit a cookie sheet and use it that way. I also like to sprinkle garlic salt with parsley on the outer crust. I use about 1 cup sauce and about 2 cups mozzarella cheese for my toppings. The pictured pizza has Canadian bacon cut into quarters.

If you don't need to cook two pizzas, you can put the remaining dough in a freezer bag and freeze. To use, place in the refrigerator overnight to thaw, then form and cook pizza.

You can also use the crust to make personal sized pizzas. Divide the recipe in 8 to 10 sections, depending on how big you want the individual pizzas. Let every family member make their own pizza, or even set out sauce and toppings at a birthday party or sleepover and let all the kids make their own. If making personal sized pizzas, remember they probably won't take as long to cook

Happy Cooking!

Speedy Brownies

Ok, so it sounds like something Speedy Gonzales would eat, but no one cares because they're chocolate! In fact, I suggest any recovering chocoholics stop right here and read no further. Of course, if you are like me and chose to embrace the fact that you cannot live without chocolate, by all means keep reading!

The Details:

2 c. sugar

1 3/4 c. flour

1/2 c. cocoa

1 tsp. salt

5 eggs

1 c. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c chocolate chips

• 
  
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients but chocolate chips. Mix well. Pour into greased 13"x9" pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake for 30 minutes.

So now you see why they are called 'Speedy.' Very quick and easy to mix up. I also added a few white chocolate chips to half of my batch this time. (Did you know white chocolate is not chocolate at all? It has no cocoa in it, and it therefore not chocolate! The nerve of it trying to masquerade as chocolate! Ahem. Where was I?)

And if you are too lazy to get your mixer out, like me (I mean, you have to get it out, and plug it up. Then you have to actually put the two beaters in the dishwasher. And put it up. So much easier just the use a spoon, and an extra bowl, and wear your arm out . . . I think I better stop defending myself) you can mix it by hand.  Or, at least this is how I do it.

Combine sugar, flour, baking cocoa, salt. Beat eggs well in separate bowl, then whisk in oil. Add to dry mix and mix well with spoon. Add vanilla. Sprinkle on chocolate chips and bake as directed above.

Now excuse me while I go grab a brownie before my kids finish them off.

Happy Cooking!

Kentucky Biscuits

Who doesn't love KFC's biscuits? Ok, I'm sure there's plenty who don't, but they don't have to read any farther. Or they could. I don't know why they would, though, if they don't like them. 'Cause that's what we're talking about. Biscuits that is, not people that don't like them. Or I guess we could, but that would probably offend those non-biscuit-loving people. But how could anyone not like those biscuits? Soft, warm, fluffy, delicious . . .

What was I talking about again?

Biscuits!

KFC's to be exact. You can find their recipe here. Pretty simple. I did cut the shortening in with a pastry blender before putting in the milk instead of cutting it in after the milk was put in and using my hands. (I still used my hands to knead it) I used a glass about 3" across to cut them out. They do have bicsuit cutters, or you can use a cookie cutter, but if you don't have those a glass works fine. Or you could form them with your hands, but try not to handle them too much.

Bake and enjoy!

Happy Cooking!

Garlic Butter Chicken

Chicken breasts cooked in a garlicky, buttery, coating? Yes, please!

The Details:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast

Flour

2 eggs

milk

1 sleeve crushed Ritz crackers

salt and pepper

powdered garlic

1/4 c. melted butter

Parsley

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix a pinch of salt, a dash of pepper, and about a tablespoon (more or less to taste) of powdered garlic in with crushed Ritz crackers. Whisk together eggs and a splash of milk. Coat each chicken breast in flour, dunk in egg mixture, and then coat with crushed crackers. Place in pan. Pour melted butter over and around chicken. Sprinkle with parsley. Back for 45 minutes, or until done(180 degree internal temperature).

The best way I've found to crush the crackers is to dump them into a gallon sized storage bag, seal, and smash with a rolling pin. They seem to coat the chicken better when there is smaller crumbs. You can also mix the melted butter with the remaining cracker crumbs and sprinkle that over the chicken instead of just pouring the butter over the chicken.  Bone-in chicken breast or chicken tenders can also be used, you will just need to adjust the cooking time.

Happy Cooking!