Light and airy Root Beer Cake with our Vanilla Buttercream
Fried corn with a kick!
We cooked up way to much corn this past Fourth of July and I somehow ended up with 12 ears of cooked corn on the cob. I just could not let this yummy stuff go to waste so I made it into leftovers with a twist. With a family as big as ours you just don’t waste food.
Fried Corn with a Kick
12 ears corn on the cob, cut off the cob
1/2lb bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces (approx 6 slices)
1 onion, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1tsp chilli powder
1/8tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
In a large frying pan fry bacon until crisp, draining bacon grease as needed. Add onion and peppers and cook until onions are translucent. Add corn and spices and cook 5-10 minutes until corn is throughly warmed.
>Chicken Pot Pie with a Biscuit Crust
>
I was feeling like we needed some comfort food tonight and what is better than Chicken Pot Pie but Chicken Pot Pie with a Biscuit Crust. OH MY Goodness! This was one tasty dish!
I started with my Chicken and made my Chicken Broth.
Tonight I kept it simple, chicken, water, sea salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, bay leaves, thyme leaves and rosemary.
Once done I chopped up my chicken and set aside 3 cups of the broth.
I then chopped up red potatoes, carrots, onion and celery and added to the remainder of broth. adding water if needed to cover veggies and brought to a boil and cooked until fork tender. Fork tender is usually around 10 minutes, it depends on your stove and elevation and that type of fun stuff. I cook at 4000ft above sea level so things take a lil longer for me. Once done I drained the veggies and returned to the pot. Next I added the chicken broth and diced chicken to the pot. Next I added garlic and cream and brought to a boil and sifted in flour until thickened. The frozen part is important. When you use frozen peas, they stay bright green and don’t get all mushy. Then again I may just have pea issues;) Lastly, pour the chicken and veggies into a greased 13×9 baking dish.
Biscuits were next… In a large bowl add flour and sugar, cut in shortening until it looks like coarse crumbs and add milk until well moistened. You may not need the full 2 cups. Place on a floured surface and roll out…you want them about a inch or a little less thick. I chose to cut out mine and just place on top. Doing this I had few leftover to bake on their own. You can just add the rolled out biscuit dough on top of the chicken/veggie mixture as well… I’ll let you decide how you want to make yours.
Finally I placed my baking dish on a cookie sheet just in case I had any spills and baked for 20 minutes, until the biscuits were golden.
Now doesn’t that look yummy?
Chicken Pot Pie With a Biscuit Crust
4 cups diced cooked chicken
4 cups diced red potatoes
2 cups carrots
1 onion diced
1 stalk celery, chopped
4 cloves garlic
1t poultry season
fresh black pepper
3 cups of good chicken broth (this helps flavor your dish)
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup frozen peas
Biscuits-
4 1/2 cups self rising flour
1TB sugar
1 1/2 cups shortening
2 cups milk
additional flour for rolling out.
Bake in a preheated to 425 for 20
Chicken Enchiladas
I love to eat Mexican food and for the longest time I was afraid to make Enchiladas. Then one day I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com and tried it out. True to form, not entirely following the recipe. I had to add my own little touches. The enchilada’s I made were awesome and became a regular in our house. Every time I made the enchiladas I would do something different and now they are almost completely from scratch.
Chicken Enchiladas
2lbs (approx.3 boneless skinless chicken breast) cooked and shredded
2TB butter
1 small onion,diced
2-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno’s (seeded if desired to control the heat)
1 red pepper,diced
1 can diced green chili’s
8oz pepperjack cheese, diced
1/3cup flour
2 cups milk
10 tortillas (I used whole wheat)
cilantro (optional for the cilantro haters out there)
black pepper, fresh ground to taste
2 cups of cheddar or Mexican cheese, shredded (optional)
For the chicken you can use rotisserie chicken from the store or bake it or grill it. I prefer to boil it as follows:
2lbs chicken breast
8 cups water
sliced onion
1t red pepper flakes
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
boil chicken until done/no longer pink inside. Set aside chicken and onions to cool, to shred for later.
Directions
Step 1
in frying pan melt 2TB butter and add onion, garlic, red pepper,green chili’s, and jalepenos. Cook until Onions are transluscent and pepper’s are soft.
Step 2
Add milk and flour (I use a tupperware quick shake) and diced pepperjack cheese. This will make a creamy cheese sauce. Add cilantro if desired and fresh ground black pepper, to taste.
Step 3
Take shredded chicken and mix with 1 cup of sauce mixture and mix well. Place 1/4-1/2cup mixture in middle of tortilla and roll .
Step 4
Once all tortilla’s are rolled pour creamy cheese and veggie sauce over tortilla’s. If desired cover with shredded cheese.
Step 5
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes
Voila there you go almost completely scratch made enchiladas… You could go that extra mile and make your own homemade tortilla’s and use fresh green chili’s but that is up to you. With 4 kids i’ll stick to the premade tortilla’s and my Hatch green chili’s
>Cran Nut Chicken Salad
>
If you made the chicken broth you may be wondering what to do with the cooked chicken. How about some Chicken Salad?
Cran Nut Chicken Salad
approx 2lbs cooked chicken breast, shredded
1/2 cup Mayo
2Tb apple cider vinager
1Tb Sugar
1/2 cup Craisens
2/3 cup sliced almonds
1 stalk celery diced
Combine all ingredients and serve on your favorite sandwich bread.
(bread 7 grain honey wheat)
>Chicken Broth
>Chicken Broth is EASY to make and it just needs a little thinking ahead of time.
Chicken Broth
approx 2lbs of chicken breast
8 cups water
sea salt
black pepper
fresh thyme
small onion sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
any other seasoning you like (carrot, celery, bay leaf, etc.)
Chicken Broth can be made to YOUR taste and that is what is good about homemade broth. You need low sodium, you can control the sodium by how much salt you put in it. Your broth can be as flavorful as you like it. Some recipes you need a flavorful broth, others a mild (for ex. if you are using as a replacement for white wine).
After seasoning boil chicken breast for a hour, a low boil. Once chicken is done remove and allow broth to cool before straining into a container to store.
Super Easy Pasta Salad
It is summertime and one thing that means is simple meals and there is nothing better than salad. I try to keep either salad ingredients if not some sort of salad in my fridge at all times. Pasta salads are a quick go to and are great for light filling meals. My Super Easy Pasta Salad definitely fits the bill. It has a great balance of pasta, meat, veggies and cheese. How can you go wrong when there is cheese involved?
My Super Easy Pasta Salad is an extremely easy to make pasta salad. I cannot even begin to tell you how many times I have made it over the years. It is always a huge hit at potlucks and i’m always asked for the recipe. When I tell people the recipe they are always shocked at how easy and good this recipe is. Sure, you could make your own dressing but this recipe uses store bought for the easy factor.
Make it for yourself and see how good it is!
Super Easy Pasta Salad
Ingredients
- 2 13oz bags frozen tortelenni (cooked per package directions)
- 16oz diced ham
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 cup tomatoes (diced roma’s or halved grape tomatoes)
- 6oz baby spinach
- 16oz whole milk mozzarella, diced
- 2.25oz can sliced black olives
- 14oz bottle Zesty Italian salad dressing (I typically use Kraft)
- Shredded Parmesan cheese to garnish
Directions
- Combine all ingredients except salad dressing.
- Add enough dressing to coat. Somedays I use the whole bottle, others almost the whole bottle.
- Garnish with shredded Parmesan.
Biscuits and Gravy
I am going to admit something, I am not a born southern girl. I am a convert, I claim the south as my home 100% but… I was born in New York, south western New York. I moved to North Carolina right before I turned 2 and lived in the south until the Army decided that my husband needed to be a recruiter in NJ in 2006. My mom never fried a chicken, made black eyed peas or biscuits and gravy for breakfast. Somehow though I can cook all of the above and more. Maybe being raised in the south it is just something that is now in my blood. Good thing because I have 3 Carolina boys of my own and we are pretty sure my lil Jersey girl is going to grow up claiming Texas as her home.
Getting back to food, I’m not much of a breakfast person. I can’t stand eggs or cereal but give me some good biscuits and gravy and I’m all over that. I keep 2-3 things of pork sausage in my freezer at all times because we love biscuits and gravy so much. It is the easiest thing to make too and you don’t need those canned biscuits. From scratch biscuits are easy to make.
Easy Biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 1/4cups Self Rising Flour
- 1TB Sugar
- 3/4cup shortening
- 1 cup milk
Directions
- Mix flour and sugar together. Cut in shortening and mix until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add milk and combine until all moistened. Do not over mix.
- Put flour on counter and take dough and spread to a 3/4-1in thickness. I use my hands but feel free to use a rolling pin. Then use a biscuit cutter, cup or whatever you want and cut your biscuits out.
This is part of a pampered chef measuring cup…It is perfect, imo for making biscuits.
bake in a preheated 425* oven for 20-25 minutes
Don’t they look yummy?
Quick, easy and not from a can.
Now to go with the biscuits, you need Sausage Gravy. Yes you can by a powder mix from McCormick but why? Sausage Gravy is easy to make plus you get real sausage with your gravy.
Sausage Gravy
Ingredients
- 16oz pork sausage
- 2cups milk
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1tsp seasoned salt
Directions
Step 1 take Mr Jimmy Dean and brown
Once brown add milk and sift in flour and stir, add seasoned salt.
Or…
I use this:
It is a Tupperware Quick Shake.
I add the milk, then flour and seasoned salt and shake well (my kids love doing his part) and pour.
Cook on high heat and stir until it thickens.
There ya go quick and easy sausage gravy.
Now just take your biscuits put some gravy on top of them and enjoy!
>Homemade Veggie Burgers
>I LOVE Veggie Burgers! My family can take them or leave them so we rarely have them. Until today that. I have edited a veggie burger recipe off allrecipes.com The only person who knew these burgers were veggie burger’s was my husband and out of the 6 of us 5 of us liked them. Son #3 was being picky tonight and did not want corn so refused to eat his.
Veggie Burgers
2 16oz can Black Beans
1 green, red, yellow or orange pepper (or combination of different types)
1 onion
4-6 clove garlic (to taste)
2 eggs
2tsp hot sauce
2TB chili powder
2TB cumin
2tsp dried cilantro (optional for the anti cilantro people out there)
black pepper to taste
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup flax meal
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
Rinse and drain beans well. In a food processor finely chop green pepper, onion and garlic. Drain any excess water. Use food processor to mash beans. Transfer to large bowl and mix in egg and seasonings. Finally sir in bread crumbs, flax meal and corn kernels. Mixture will be sticky but will form patties. Form 8 burger patties. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet at 375 for 10-12 minutes.
Brining a Turkey
One of the best things you can do to ensure a nice juicy turkey is to brine it. Brining is Easy! Just gotta plan ahead a lil.
Country Girls Turkey Brine
1TB Rosemary leaves
1TB Thyme leaves
1TB Black peppercorns
4 bay leaves
6 cloves of garlic
1 onion, halved
1 orange, quartered
1 lemon, quartered
1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
water (like 1.5-2 gallons)
A container big enough for your bird (such as a cooler)
ice
In your container mix all ingredients and then add turkey (be sure to remove innards first). Cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 12 to 24 hours. Remove the turkey then drain and discard the excess brine and pat dry and prepare your turkey as desired.
