Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Ingredients
2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup (10.5 oz each)
1 package French Onion Soup mix
2 1/2 cups water
1 tbsp. garlic salt
2 tsp black pepper
3 1/2 - 5 lb roast 
6 medium potatoes, large dice
4 carrots, large slices
4 stalks celery, large slices
1 onion, large dice

Directions
Mix canned soup, soup mix, water, garlic salt and black pepper in your slow cooker. Add roast and cover with veggies. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours.

Recipe Ideas Needed

It looks like we may have planted too many yellow squash plants this year. We are already drowning in them and they just started coming off. What do you do with yours other than frying, stewing, grilling or adding to spaghetti? Any casserole or bread ideas?

We also have a lot of banana peppers. I am planning to pickle them but have misplaced my Ball book. I'm hoping to put up a batch of pickled peppers (perhaps a peck of pickled peppers) this weekend but I was wondering what else you would use these for.

Sausage Gravy

Yummy!

Adapted from a recipe we found on Homesteading Today

Sausage Gravy

Ingredients
1 pound sausage
1/3 cup flour
4 cups milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions
Fry sausage. Remove sausage and leave drippings in skillet. Add flour to the drippings in the pan and let flour brown. Add milk and spices. Stir constantly until thick. Return sausage to pan and heat through. Serve over biscuits (I use this recipe without adding the cheese).

Comments
We use Jimmy Dean Sage sausage and I add a couple dashes of crushed red pepper because Matthew likes the extra sage and I like my sausage hot. The sausage we use doesn't really make enough drippings to coat the flour so I added a couple tablespoons of butter to the pan after I removed the sausage and before I put in the flour.

Yogurt Parfait

Yogurt Parfait

I got this idea from watching Tyler's Ultimate this morning.

Yogurt Parfait

Ingredients
2 cups plain nonfat yogurt
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Zest of 1 lime
1/2 cup granola
1 cup fruit

Directions
Mix the yogurt, sugar, vanilla and lime zest in a bowl. Between two tall glasses, layer 1/3 of the granola, with 1/2 of the yogurt and 1/2 of the fruit. Layer ingredients again in the same order and top with remaining granola. Serves two.

Comments
I used fresh strawberries from the garden that had been covered with a tablespoon of Splenda just to get some juice. I also juiced the lime that I zested into the berries. In the yogurt mixture, I used Splenda instead of sugar.

Hypersmash

Margarita Cake

This is a take on my Taste of Summertime Cake.

Margarita Cake

Margarita cake with strawberries

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 limes
5 large eggs
3 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups butter

1 cup Jarritos lime soda
2 teaspoons triple sec
2 teaspoons tequila

Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup tube pan. Combine flour, salt and zest in a bowl. With a mixer, cream butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients and soda, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Add the liquors and mix until just combined. Spoon evenly into prepared pan and bake 1 1/2 hours or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Invert onto wire rack, remove pan and cool completely.

Margarita Glaze

Ingredients
2 cups confectioners' sugar

Juice of 2 limes

1 tablespoon triple sec

1 tablespoon tequila

½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

Combine ingredients and beat until smooth. Add lime zest. Drizzle over cooled cake.

Krystal's Italian Tomato Soup

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
3 15-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp. Paula Deen's House Seasoning (recipe towards the bottom of the page)
1 tbsp. Italian Seasoning (I buy mine already blended)

Directions
Mince garlic and onion. Saute in a dutch oven with crushed red pepper until the onion is translucent. Add crushed tomatoes, water, house seasoning and Italian seasoning and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30-45 minutes or until thickened the way you want it. Yields about 10 cups.

Pumpkin Pie Bread

I have been craving both pumpkin and gingerbread for the last two weeks so, today, I combined them and created pumpkin pie bread.

Ingredients
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 cup water
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
Dash ground cloves

Instructions
Grease and flour a 9-inch pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir until combined (should be the consistency of muffin batter). Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Greek Night!

Tonight was Greek night for us.

A couple of days ago, I made tzatziki from some cucumbers a coworker gave me and I roasted a chicken and deboned it (I seasoned the chicken with lemon, garlic, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning and roasted it in a Crock Pot with no added liquid).

Today we made homemade pita from this recipe. With this recipe, I noted that if I didn't poke it with a fork, as indicated, the bread puffed up and made a pocket. Otherwise, it was just flat bread. Also, I cooked them 30 minutes until they were brown all over and not just 3 minutes per side.

We put the pita, tzatziki, chicken and some sprouts (that we grew ourselves) together to make sandwiches. Matthew also added some hummus to his.

-Krystal

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

We have some ripe bananas to use up and I don't want banana bread. We decided that we'd make banana pudding but didn't have any Nilla Wafers. So, we decided to make our own.

I used this recipe.

Instead of dropping the dough onto cookie sheets, I rolled the dough into one-inch balls. I got 4 1/3 dozen cookies out of the dough by doing it this way.

The cookies flattened out during the baking process and they look to be about the size of store-bought Nilla Wafers. I wanted mine to be a bit crunchier than the recipe poster had suggested so I cooked them for about 18 minutes until they were golden brown all over.



-Krystal

My Favorite Cake

A buttery yellow cake with rich chocolate icing has always been a favorite choice for my birthday. I recently found out that it was also my boss' favorite cake. When we were planning her at-work party, I volunteered to make the cake since I love to bake.

For the cake, I used Paula Deen's 1-2-3-4 cake recipe. The layers came out really even and beautiful.


To frost the cake, I used my grandmother's cooked frosting recipe.


Richmond Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
1/2 cup cocoa
dash of salt
1 cup hot water
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions
Mix all ingredients except butter and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook the frosting until it is thick, stirring constantly. Once it is thick, remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. This yields enough to frost a double 9-inch layer cake.

--Krystal

Citrus Soda Pound Cake

This is a take on my Taste of Summertime Pound Cake.



Citrus Soda Pound Cake

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 cup Mountain Dew, Mello Yello or Sun Drop (I used Diet Sun Drop for my cake)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup tube pan. Combine flour and salt in a bowl. With a mixer, cream butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients and soda, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts and mix until just combined. Spoon evenly into prepared pan and bake 1 1/2 hours or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Invert onto wire rack, remove pan and cool completely.

I glazed my cake with a lemon glaze but you can leave it plain.

Lemon Glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients until smooth

Krystal

Lentil Soup

We've had some lentils and green split peas sitting in our cupboards for a couple months so, tonight, we had lentil soup, homemade corn bread and a salad (mostly from our garden) for dinner.



Lentil Soup

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
4 carrots, diced
4 stalks celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1 1b. dry lentils
1 lb. dry green split peas
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
4 cubes beef bouillon
2 14.5 oz. cans diced tomatoes
16 cups water
2 cups fresh chard (you can substitute spinach)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Heat olive oil in a pan. Add carrots, onion and celery and saute until tender. Add garlic, bay leaves, Italian seasoning and mustard seeds and cook for two minutes. Add lentils, peas, beef bouillon, vinegar, tomatoes and water. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until peas and lentils are cooked through. Add the fresh chard and cook until greens are wilted and tender.

Krystal

Family Dinner May 2009: Taste of Summertime Pound Cake

Taste of Summertime Pound Cake



Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
5 large eggs
3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup Jarritos pineapple soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract

Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup tube pan. Combine flour, salt and orange zest in a bowl. With a mixer, cream butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low; add dry ingredients and soda, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Add the vanilla and orange extracts and mix until just combined. Spoon evenly into prepared pan and bake 1 1/2 hours or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Invert onto wire rack, remove pan and cool completely.

Family Dinner April 2009: Quiche Lorraine

Since we are getting a lot of eggs from our chickens, now, we thought we'd make something to take to this month's family pot luck dinner that would use a lot of eggs.

So, here is my take on...


Quiche Lorraine

makes 2 9-inch pies

Ingredients
2 9-inch deep dish pie crusts
8 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
4 green onions, chopped
12 eggs
3 cups milk
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups emmental cheese, shredded (you could also use gruyere or swiss)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Divide the bacon crumbles and the green onion pieces between the two pie crusts. In a bowl, beat the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg together. Spoon this mixture over the bacon and onions in your two pie crusts. Top with the shredded cheese. Bake 45-50 minutes or until the egg mixture is set in the middle.

Krystal

5-Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

My sister-in-law shared this on Facebook. I'm saving it here for my own personal reasons...

4 tablespoons cake flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
A small splash of vanilla
1 coffee mug

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix well. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla and mix again.

Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!

Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

Krystal

Family Dinner February 2009: Sweet Potato Cobbler

Every month, my family has a pot luck dinner. February's dinner was held this past Friday and I tried a new recipe on my family: Sweet Potato Cobbler. No one in my family had heard of it before but we enjoyed it.


I used canned sweet potatoes for this because that is what I had on hand. I chopped them up and used the liquid from the can to replace the water and sugar in the recipe above (I still put sugar in the cobbler batter). My great aunt suggested that next time I mash the potatoes instead of leaving them sliced and I think I agree with her.

Krystal

Valentine's Day Menu 2009

Apéritif: Kir



Starter: Spicy Cheese Rounds with cream cheese



Soup: Shrimp Bisque



Citrus Sorbet



Entree: Chicken Gruyere with Sauteed Mushrooms and Steamed Green Beans



Salad: Cucumber Dill Salad



Cheese & Fruit: Watermelon, Red Grapes, Emmental and Provolone



Dessert: Chocolate Mousse garnished with sliced almonds

Krystal