I have a roast in the crockpot, several dozen cookies baked and fresh buns raising. It has been a very rewarding day! Ben and I may even pull out the tree today.

The tree is such a significant symbol of the holiday season. Of course the fact that the snow decided to show up suddenly also adds to my anticipation and excitment.

I am adding a new cookie recipe to my Recipes I reccommend section.

Pop a top!

Ok this might mean something different to some of you.  But to me it means my canning jars sealed – yeah!  I know it seems like a stupid thing to be excited about, but I don’t enjoy canning that much, so when I hear those jar tops start popping I get excited! 

Canning is a lot of work with little payback.  The biggest benifit is saving what we can’t get up here in the winter time.  If you can preserve a fruit or vegetable and it tastes as fresh as when it’s picked from the garden that’s wonderful, but with inovation in frozen food and even the canned food at the store I don’t know if it’s worth the work! 

All of you canning maniacs will probably disagree with me, but that’s life and mine is busy enough.  I don’t need to add more work to the mix.  Call me lazy.

If life gives you Tomatoes make salsa!

I have acquired the greatest Salsa recipe that I have ever tasted and it’s home-made!  So if someone is giving tomatoes away from their garden this fall take them and try my easy and fresh tasting salsa recipe. 

When I made this salsa I was very proud of the result, so I wanted Mitch to try it.  I stuck the spoon in his mouth and he made a face.  Not a completely unwelcoming face, but not an excited appreciative face either.  He told me it was good and then said he wasn’t really a salsa person.  What?!  Salsa is tomatoes all smooshed up and made into a sauce of sorts.  He loves tomato sauce.  I believe he and Ben would have tomato sauce intravenously transported into their bodies if it was humanly possible.  spaghetti, tomato hotdish, pizza, maranara sauce with cheese sticks – it’s endless.  But apparently salsa is a different taste.  And that is fine, because there will be more for me!

I did it! I made Emeril’s Creamy Lemon Icebox Pie

This is very easy and so tastey!  The recipe will be posted in my new tab if you would like to try it.  The pictures above are from my day today.  Can you believe I had to squeeze four lemons to get a half a cup of juice?  I couldn’t believe it.  I bought five just in case, but I really thought it would only take a couple!

Check out my new tab!

I have added a recipe tab to the blog.  I will post easy and quick family meals and recipes that won’t break the bank.  Most of the recipes call for ingredients many homes keep in stock.  And of course they will not be time consuming!  Who has time these days?  Not me, but we have to eat right?

A healthy hotdish – sort of…

Chicken Triscuits

1 pkg. Triscuits

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup mayo

2 cans of sliced water chestnuts, drained

2 cans asparagus cuts, drained

3 cups cooked chicken

salt and pepper to taste

Put half of the crushed Triscuits in a well-buttered large casserole.  Layer chicken, asparagus and chestnuts.  Add salt and pepper.  Pour chicken soup that has been heated with mayo over mixture and sprinkle remaining Triscuits on top.  Bake with cover for 1 hour at 350 degrees.  Bake uncovered for 15 minutes.  For healthier version use low fat, low salt soup and mayo. 

I recommend paying attention when buying water chestnuts – I didn’t know they came whole so I ended up slicing them myself – not so hard, but kind of a pain in the butt!  So can anyone tell me what a water chestnut is?

A quick and easy hotdish recipe

1 pkg of ground turkey

2 small onions

1 box of Uncle Bens rice (whatever flavor you like)

1 1/2 cups of chicken broth

1 can of cream of celery soup

1 box of stuffing mix (whatever brand you like)

Butter as directed on rice and stuffing

Brown ground turkey with chopped onions.

Add box of rice mix and seasoning.

Add chicken broth and stir until blended. 

Add butter and the can of cream of celery soup.  Stir until sauce thickens.  Don’t cook the rice to much or it will get soggy.

Poor mixture into a glass cake pan or casarole.

Prepare the stuffing as directed on the box.

Sprinkle the stuffing on top of the hotdish mixture.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.  Rice will firm and stuffing will be a little crunchy. 

Toss a garden salad with your favorite dressing and dinner is done! 

I made it tonight and it was delightful!  Everyone ate and no one complained!

Attention Roseau County Restaurants!

Listen up!  Please update, change or completely scrap your old menus.  Every restaurant in this county sells the same kind of food.  Every restaurant that opens seems to want to conform to this “home cooking” type of food service and it is sooooo sickening.  Who wants to go out to eat home cooking?  Not me – I can cook that at home! 

Please subscribe to the Food Network if you can and if you can’t, grab the nearest computer and log onto foodnetwork.com.  They have free recipes for good food.  And the recipe titles do not include home cooking.  Don’t be scared they are not difficult and involve a lot of the same ingredients most kitchens would have.  I make the recipes at home and they are delicious.    You won’t have to take out a loan to re-vamp or your entire kitchen, I would just really like to see something special when the sign says daily special.  Not another chicken breast and fry special.  What is special about a chicken breast?  NOTHING!

Advice for men

When taking your wife’s shopping list and trying to “help” her, make sure you know what all the abbreviations are before you leave!

For example do you know what shred ched che is?  Or, hamb?  A hint – it doesn’t mean ham bone or any other kind of ham either. 

When Mitch and I first lived together he went shopping off of my list and came home with 3 different kinds of ham because the list said hamb.  It means hamburger of course, which he did not come home with:) 

We have come a long way in the last nine years.  We now shop seperate.  I get the groceries we need for meals and he picks up the treats and cereal. 

I am not sure what made me think of that, but it gave me a good chuckle anyway.

Growing Pains!

There are times when it is so great being able to eat for two.  You know like when you are at a buffet and you want to try everything…twice.  And when there are free samples of ice cream at the grocery store.  I only took one come on now!  And when you have a dinner party with all your favorite foods and there are a lot of left overs…Yeh! 

Then there are those days when my shirt is too tight, my pants are cutting off the circulation to my lower body and my ankles look like small tree trunks. 

At that point I regret my repeat trips back to the line!