Saturday, February 26, 2011

Whiskey Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Oh My Heck! These are Soooooooo good! Really, you have got to try these. I could eat them for breakfast, lunch, & dinner.
The alcohol cooks out before you even put the sweet potatoes in the pan so don't be worried about feeding them to grandma or kids, it just adds such an amazing flavor.

You will need:
■1 stick of butter, divided
■2 -3 lbs Sweet Potato, cubed
■1/2 cup your favorite Whiskey
■1 cup Brown Sugar
■1 teaspoon salt
■black pepper to taste

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over high heat. Add sweet potatoes to brown just a little, do not stir around. Remove from skillet.

Pour in whiskey and allow to evaporate 30 seconds (WARNING: if you are using a gas stove remove from burner to pour and never pour directly from bottle. Alcohol is very flammable!).

Reduce heat to medium, and add remaining butter. When butter melts, sprinkle brown sugar over the top. Stir together, then add potatoes to skillet. Cover, and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Remove lid and add salt and pepper. Continue cooking until potatoes are done and glaze is thick, about 5 more minutes.

Pour into serving dish and enjoy.

I've found a few similar recipes that use carrots instead of sweet potatoes, so I tried it.  It is very good too!!!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Tin Foil Dinners

Okay here is a super easy dinner for you. It's pretty common around here but I know I forget about my favorite meals all the time.
Servings 4
You will need:
■1 lbs Ground Beef, into 4 patties
■1 bag Baby Carrots
■4 Potatoes, cubed into fairly small bite sized pieces
■1 Onion, sliced
■1 Bell Pepper, cleaned out and sliced
■1 package Lil Smokies
■Pepper
■Salt
■Garlic Powder
■Butter
■Tin Foil

*Keep in mind any of this is optional. That is except for the tin foil, it wouldn't be a tin foil dinner if you didn't use the tin foil. You can always add any favorite veggies in with it. The Bell Pepper and Onion give it such a great flavor though.

1.Preheat oven to 400.

2.Rip off 4 good sized pieces of Tin Foil. Don't be afaid to have a little extra, it will be much better than not having enough.

3.Place each hamburger pattie on seperate foils and season. Make a mountain of veggies and Lil Smokies on top of the burger.

4.Season.

5.Place about 1/2 Tablespoon of butter on each mountain.


6.Now your going to fold the foil in half length wise and fold the edges over several times to seal it.

7.Fold the ends very tightly.



8.Place on cookie sheet and place in oven.  Or place directly onto hot BBQ Grill or hot coals of a fire, you choose.

9.Bake for about 40 minutes or so. Cook time depends on the size of you potatoes and carrots so if you need it done quicker cut them smaller.

10.Carefully unfold one end of foil and check potatoes with a fork. Make sure to cook until tender.


See... Very Simple.

Chocolate Chip Panic Attack Cookie

I wanted to make a different kind of Chocolate Chip Cookie and came up with this.
Preheat oven to 325°

Make your favorite traditional Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I actually like the recipe on the back of a Nestle chocolate chip bag. I make one change to it. I use 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar.
Lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray.  With a small spoon, scoop out a tablespoon of dough onto a cookie sheet.  Only scoop two rows of 4 (8) balls onto your sheet.  These are twice the size of ordinary cookies.

Now, pretend this picture is rotated the right way!!!  And unwrap some fun sized or miniature candy bars.  I really like the Krackle in these cookies!
 Place one candy bar on top of each dough ball and press so it is safe and secure with no chances of falling off the dough bed.
 Now scoop another tablespoon of dough into a ball and press down on top of the candy bar.
 There is my special helpers hands again with his very own spatula his Granny gave him for his "Un-Birthday".  An "un-birthday" is always a great excuse to get a child something they will love right?
 Repeat the last step until every candy bar is covered.  Press the sides down a little like you are sealing the candy into the dough.  But you don't actually have to seal them.

Now place in your oven and bake for 10 minutes... NO LONGER!  Unless you feel the need for yucky crunchy cookies.  Mine are on the verge of being yucky crunchy cookies.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Mountain Man Breakfast

This is an all time favorite of mine. Come to think of it, it is a favorite of just about anyone I know that has ever had it. Ummm.... This is so good! I grew up eating it every time we'd go camping. It's always so good on a nice cool morning cooked in a well seasoned Dutch Oven over hot coals. BUT, I've decided it's just as amazing when my husband wakes up and makes it for us on any Sunday morning of any month of the year. You can even make it into a breakfast burrito with just one extra ingredient, tortillas.

Now, before you go on and read the ingredients let me tell you this is a HEARTY meal! And NOT in any way heart healthy. Also, these amounts will feed 8-10 people. But you can easily alter the amounts of the ingredients about however you want and it will still turn out good. You can use one of both meats, less or more hashbrowns, less eggs... You get it right.

Ingredients:
1 lbs bacon, cut into one inch pieces
1 lbs breakfast sausage
1 lbs hashbrowns
12 eggs
1 lbs cheese
Optional: onion, peppers, tortillas

In a large Dutch Oven or pan over medium high heat begin by cooking the bacon pieces. When the bacon is about half way cooked add the sausage. Stir frequently so it does not stick or burn. When the sausage is browning add the hashbrowns to the meat. The bacon and sausage grease in the pan will keep the hashbrowns from burning and also give them great flavor. Stir together well and cover, still stirring often. As the hashbrowns begin to brown crack the eggs into the mixture and stir. When the eggs are cooked through mix half of the cheese in and top with the other half. Then, ENJOY! I like mine just plain but my husband and kiddos like theirs with sour cream and salsa.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Light Crisp Waffles

Makes about eight four inch waffles.

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, separated
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, melted

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolks, milk and butter. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

In a small bowl, beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Fold into batter.

Cook as you would any waffles on a waffle iron. Top with whatever you like. Fresh friut, syrup, powdered sugar, or my favorite peanut butter then hot syrup to melt it... So Good!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Five Can Casserole

Mmmmmm.... This is a recipe that may seem to be a bit weird and unusual but it is SO delicious.  You will love it!  It's very simple and also quite fast.  It's called five can casserole I am assuming because it is supposed to use five cans of ingredients to build... but it's not exactly five cans.

You will need:

1 or 2 cans of chicken, drained (found by tuna in your supermarket) or 2 chicken breasts boiled and cut into chunks
2 cans Cream of Chicken or substitue 1 can Chicken & Rice soup
1 bag Hard Chinese Noddles
1 can Mushrooms, sliced or chopped (OPTIONAL)
1/2 cup milk
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In dutch oven or casserole dish combine soup and chicken.
Add Chinese Noddles
Pepper

Now add about 1/2 cup of milk, the milk is only to moisten the dish so if you feel like you need more then just add more milk.
Bake covered for about 30 minutes or until heated thoroughly. 
Salt & Pepper to taste and enjoy one of my favorite simple dishes.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

I apologize, I am having a hard time uploading photos at this time. If you visit my Facebook page and check out the photos you will see a picture of this last post of the"Muff Nutz"

MUFF NUTZ or French Breakfast Puff

The name Muff Nutz you ask? Simple... Its a Doughnut & a Muffin mixed, but not fried.



I found this recipe on The Pioneer Woman's blog.  When I find something I like or want to make I normally find a few other similar recipes and take a little something from each and put it together how I want it... Well I just couldn't see anything I wanted to change with this one, it is pe pretty much perfect in every way. REALLY! Okay except I do like to add more Nutmeg, but you can be the judge of that.
Please take my advice though and double or triple the recipe while you're making it now because these babies are good and they freeze wonderfully after they are cooled completly.  When you're ready for one just nuke it for 30 seconds or so.

Ingredients:
3 cups Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
1 cup Sugar
⅔ cups Shortening (Crisco)
2 whole Eggs
1 cup Milk
Coating:
1-½ cup Sugar
3 teaspoons Cinnamon
2 sticks Butter

Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 12 muffin cups.
In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening. Then add eggs and mix again.
Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.
Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden.
In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture.


Goes great with Hot Cocoa or Coffee!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tyrel's Hop, Skip, & Go Naked Slush

This is our favorite party drink! It's one you can furnish for a good sized party (about 20 people) and not go broke. It was introduced to us by one of our favorite people too, our cousin Tyrel. Tyrel loved to make this drink!
Now, I am not a beer drinker in fact I hate beer but I love love love this drink, so give it a try. It tastes like juice.


You will need:
1 Standard sized cooler/ice chest, washed with soap well
30 cans of cheep beer (we use Natural Light)
1.75 L Rothschild Vodka, Rothschild because that was Tyrel's Vodka
5-7 cans frozen juice concentrate. We mix two, different flavors, one is always some sort of mixed berry
5-10 lbs dry ice, broke into chunks with a hammer or breaking it on concrete should work too. Just be very very careful, dry ice burns!

Empty Vodka, beer, and somewhat thawed juice concentrate into clean cooler and mix together well. Carefully add one our two chunks of Dry Ice, this will eventually create a slushy type drink. Stir often, you will need to add more dry ice to achieve the consistency of the slush and possibly throughout the night to keep it.  Never close the lid of the cooler... this will create a bomb.