Category Archives: Recipes

Mango Crockpot Chicken

Sandy at 4 Reluctant Entertainers shared this recipe on her blog and I decided it would be perfect for my Saturday Company/overnight guests. Sandy has the gift of hospitality and if you are timid about entertaining she has a lot of great tips and inspiration on her blog for you.

Spray the inside of your crockpot with whatever cooking spray you like. Load it up with whole boneless chicken breasts. I used boneless/skinless half breasts – 6 of them. Pour 1/2 a plastic tub of the Mango Peach Salsa that Costco sells over the chicken. Cook on low all day long. Do not open, do not stir. When it is done you can shred the chicken and stir it into the sauce.

This is what it looked like before I shredded the chicken.

After I shredded the chicken

 

Here is how we chose to serve the chicken up this time around. Build your own soft tacos with corn or flour tortillas, cilantro, rice, more salsa, beans, onion, cheese, and jalapenos.

Here’s Dear’s creation before he gobbled it up.

After the 4 of us had our fill I still have enough of the shredded chicken left over to serve up a lot of meals this week. Let’s see there’s chicken enchiladas, chicken salad, chicken tacos, chicken burritos, chicken soup…

My brother Tim and his wife Letty came up to visit us on Saturday and stayed overnight. The beauty of cooking a meal in the crockpot is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen while your company is around. We went out for lunch and did a little antique shopping in Old Town Camarillo while our dinner was taking care of itself. The toppings were all easy to put together at the last minute especially since I made the 90 second Uncle Ben’s Santa Fe Rice :0). Everyone gave the recipe a thumbs up!

Thanks Sandy!

Tonight I used some of this leftover chicken for chicken enchiladas.

 

I bought Green Enchilada Sauce for these. Heat up half the sauce in a saucepan and heat up each tortilla in the sauce to make it more pliable. Fill the tortilla with the chicken and some cheese. Roll up and put in baking dish. ( I sprayed the baking dish with Pam before I filled it with the enchiladas) After all the tortillas are in the baking dish cover with remaining sauce and with more cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or so…

Here are the baking dish of enchiladas after they have been heated through.

They made a great dinner for Dear and I with a fresh salad on the side…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Pioneer Women’s Pork Shoulder

After seeing Pioneer Womens’ Slow cooked Pork shoulder I had to try it…

 

Ingredients:

A 5-7 pound Pork Shoulder Roast
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 cup brown sugar
3-4 peeled garlic cloves
1 onion quartered
1-2 Tablespoons salt
ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Blend all ingredients except the Pork shoulder (duh!) Rub this blended mush all over the Pork.

Place in Dutch Oven and cover every part of the Pork with the mush. Stuff into every nook and cranny. Add a couple cups of water and cook at 300 degrees for several hours turning once every hour. After 6-7 hours crank up the heat remove lid, turn roast fat side up for 15-20 minutes. Let rest 20 minutes before shredding. Serve with limes and tortillas.

 

I put this in the oven early on a Sunday morning. I left it in while we were at church so I didn’t turn it during those couple of hours. When we got home I cranked up the heat and let it cook for the last 20 minutes. We let it sit while we chopped up all the extras we decided to have with it. We shredded it and served it with tortillas and all these toppings. Yummy. We served 6 for the first go around and the rest of the meat lasted us for lunches and snacks for a few days.

I will make this again for sure!

Fruit Pizza

 

I found this simple recipe for Fruit Pizza on Bernideen’s Tea Blog and decided to make it for a get-together we were invited to. I’ll give you the original recipe and also give you some options that I decided to try.

 

The mix, the sticky dough in the pan, the baked dough and the cool whip with pudding mixed in…

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Yellow Cake Mix
1/4 Cup Water
2 eggs
1/4 Cup butter
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1/2 Cup chopped nuts
I large carton of Cool Whip
Assorted Fruit pieces

Mix together cake mix, water, eggs, butter, sugar and nuts until stiff. I think because my cake mix was a variety with pudding in it the dough was sticky and not real stiff but it was still spreadable. Spread into a buttered and floured pan. You can use 2 round pans or I used a large rectangular pan. I also sprayed the pan with the baking spray with flour in it. (lazy) Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes but watch carefully because it might bake faster and you want it to be golden brown not dark brown :0)

Cool completely and then spread with coolwhip and cover with fruit of your choice. I used blueberries, blackberries, and peaches that were frozen and peaches that were fresh.

 

Instead of using straight cool whip I mixed the cool whip with a box of instant vanilla pudding to make it stiffer. Next time I think I’ll first make the pudding according to the package instructions and fold it into the cool whip or whip cream and see how that works…

 

You can make this look a lot prettier and arrange the fruit more creatively. Enjoy the possibilities…

 

Thanks Bernideen for this fun, easy recipe!

I auto posted this for Saturday morning because Dear and I got up bright and early to hit the road from Seattle to Camarillo today. I’ll be brain dead for at least a couple days after we arrive late Saturday night. Hope you all have wonderful summer weekend!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

 

Easy Ground Beef Stroganoff

 

I started making this easy meal years ago when my kids were little. They still enjoy it as adults. It’s a great meal in a pinch. Easy to have all the ingredients handy. The original recipe is from The Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book (1970 version). I made it easier than their recipe and something my kids would eat and like.

1 lb. hamburger
1 medium onion diced
1 clove garlic minced
1- 10-1/2 oz. can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 Cup Sour cream
2 tablespoon Catsup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Noodles – Cooked in salted boiling water

Saute onions in a little olive oil till they are soft. Add meat and garlic and cook till meat is done. Combine remaining ingredients except sour cream and noodles and add to meat.  Heat through. Then mix in sour cream and heat but do not boil.

Serve over noodles. I mix the noodles and the meat mixture all together in the pot.

 

Enjoy with something green!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

Crockpot Ranch Chicken

I was on a quest to make a meal with my crockpot while in Washington because that is where my crockpot lives. I looked around some blogs and found this one and now I’m ashamed to say I can’t find/remember the blog I heisted this recipe off of. I thought it was Susanne’s but when I went back I couldn’t find it. If this is your recipe let me know and I’ll give credit where credit is due…

 

Crockpot Ranch Chicken

12-18 drumsticks or thighs skin removed. (I used 12 thighs)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons bottled ranch
2 tablespoons flour

Spray or oil the sides and bottom of the crock lightly. Very lightly salt the chicken pieces and place them in the pot. Combine soup, sour cream and ranch dressing packet and pour over chicken.

Cook on low for 5 hours or on high for 3 hours.

Remove chicken carefully with slotted spoon. Mix bottled ranch and flour then whisk into the liquid in the crockpot. Put chicken back into pot for 30 more minutes. Serve with Rotini noodles.

This was so easy to make and it was very tasty. I would make it again. Both my son and daughter enjoyed it, too.

Chicken Stew

This is an easy recipe that I elaborated on and decided to share with y’all!

The original recipe was by Giada De Laurentiis from Food Network

Chicken Stew

2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 stalks celery, cut into bite size pieces
1 carrot peeled, cut into bite size pieces
1 small onion, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (14-1/2 oz) can chopped tomatoes
1 (14 oz.) can low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 Tblsp. tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
2 chicken breast with ribs (about 1-1/2 lbs. total)
1 (15 oz.) can of organic kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Heat the oil in a heavy 5-1/2 quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, and onion. Saute the vegetables until the onion is translucent, about 5 minuts. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, basil, tomato paste, bay leaf, thyme. Add the chicken breasts; press to submerge.

 

Bring the cooking liquid to simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently uncovered until the chicken is almost cooked through, turning the chicken breasts over and stirring the mixture occassionally, about 25 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the chicken breasts to a work surface and cool for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Add the kidney beans to the pot and simmer until the liquid has reduced into stew consistency, about 10 minutes.

Discard the skin and bones from the chicken. Shred or cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Return the chicken meat to the stew. Bring the stew just to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

 

Ladle the stew into serving bowls and serve with good crusty bread.

So here are my variations: I doubled the recipe. I used a whole chicken instead of just breasts. I let the dark meat cook a little longer than the breasts. I used chopped tomatoes with jalapeno and chopped tomatoes with sweet onions and garlic. I used both kidney beans and a can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) I drained and rinsed both. I didn’t have fresh basil so I used dried. The last thing I did different was to throw in some fresh mushrooms!

Enjoy!

We had a full wonderful day yesterday exploring. Didn’t get home till 9:00 just in time to watch the New Season of Project Runway. Whoohoo! This happy old gal is tiii-rrred! Now to upload all the wonderful photos. Have a great morning everyone…

Slow Cooked Brisket

Barbecue Brisket

This is a great recipe for a crowd!

1 (5-pound) brisket
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup chili sauce
1 cup water
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1 (10-ounce) bottle of beer
Fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Wash and dry the brisket, cutting away most of visible fat.
Sprinkle the brisket with salt, pepper and paprika.
Place the brisket, fat side up, in a heavy baking pan. Surround with the onions, celery and garlic.
Pour chili sauce on top of the brisket.
Slowly pour the water into the pan around the brisket. Sprinkle with the parsley.

Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and pour the beer over the brisket.
Do this slowly so it doesn’t wash off the chili sauce.
Cover the brisket and cook 3 hours longer or until tender.
Cool to room temperature. Place in refrigerator.
Remove any accumulated fat from the top.
Slice and reheat in the sauce.
Garnish with a sprinkling of fresh minced parsley.

Yield: 10 servings.

This recipe is from That’s My Home Free Recipes – Cattleman’s Barbecue Sauce

We served ours after baking it for 5 hours without refrigerating it. We cut it across the grain and shred it before serving also. We served it along with BBQ Sauce.

We also provided Potato Rolls for anyone who wanted to make it into a BBQ Sandwich. Yummy!

This is my big turkey roaster I cooked 2 – 5# briskets in here and all the extras fit in around them well for the baking time.

So the next party you have invite a crowd and let them bring the extras to go with the brisket. It will make for an easy breezy fun party for the hostess and guests!

Italian Wedding Cookies

This is one of several recipes for Italian Wedding Cookies out there. We had these cookies recently at a shower and I decided to share the recipe for Wendy at Ivory Spring and anyone else who might like it.

Ingredients:

5 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup melted crisco
1/4 cup softened butter
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp. Anise

Mix together the dry ingredients. Beat the eggs and sugar together. Add the crisco, butter, milk and anise. Work into dry ingredients. Roll into 1/2 thick rolls. Cut to desired size and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for approx. 10 minutes. When cool you can ice them.

Icing:

3 Tblsp. melted butter
3 Cups powdered sugar
3 Tblsp. lite whipping cream or 1/2 and 1/2.
2 tsp. anise

Mix together and if you want to add food coloring to coordinate with your event now is the time. Ice the cookies…

Hummingbird Cake ~ Recipe

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

I first saw this cake on Abigail’s blog, In the Garden. I decided to make it last Thursday night and Dear says it’s a keeper. You really do not need the cream cheese frosting but I’ll include the recipe for that, too. A little on top is nice. *We don’t know why it’s called Hummingbird Cake and no hummingbirds were harmed in any way in making this cake 🙂

 

Hummingbird Cake

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple with juice
2 cups diced bananas
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.
2. Measure flour, sugar, soda, salt, cinnamon, oil, eggs, vanilla into mixing bowl. Beat until smooth*. Stir in pineapple with juice, bananas, and pecans. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Bake in oven for about 70 minutes. (I checked it after 60 minutes) Turn cake out onto rack or plate after cooling for 20 minutes. Cool, and ice with cream cheese icing.

 

*My mixture never got smooth until I added the pineapple and banana and nuts. Then it got smooth quickly and I put it into the greased and floured pan.

 

Cream Cheese Icing

1-8 oz. cream cheese softened
1/4 cup butter softened
2 tsp. vanilla
1 lb. package powdered sugar

Beat cheese and butter till smooth. Blend in Vanilla. Gradually beat in powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

ht: Allrecipes.com

Monkey Bread? ~ Recipe

Easy Monkey Bread

I saw this recipe recently and forgot to write down where I borrowed it from. So sorry to whoever posted it. Let me know and I’ll give you credit. I don’t even know what it’s called but it really is similar to Monkey Bread so that’s what I’ll call it. Here’s the easy “how to” better known as a recipe.

Ingredients:

2 tubes (12 oz. ea.) refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1 tsp. good cinnamon (this is different from that bad cinnamon)

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Cut each biscuits into 4 pieces, arrange evenly in a 10″ fluted pan coated with cooking spray. (I used the new Pam baking spray with flour) Combine sugar, cream, and cinnamon, the good cinnamon not the bad cinnamon 🙂 Pour over the biscuits then bake for 25-30 minutes.  Note: I added chopped walnuts because I love nuts. I also layered one tube then added nuts and some of the blended goo then layered the second tube of biscuits added more nuts and poured the rest of the goo on top.

 

Assemble and put into the oven then enjoy the heavenly smells wafting through the house.

The result will look like this. You can gently flip it over onto a serving platter of some kind.

Enjoy! This is great for a Saturday Morning instead of a donut!

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!