Love Me Some Ice Cream

I love me some ice cream. I love it for dessert. I love it for a snack. I love it for breakfast. I love it before bed. I never turn it down! With so many companies making it and so many varieties, I never get bored where flavors are concerned.

When the good people over at Mom Central asked if I'd like to sample some new flavors, I jumped on the chance. They were kind enough to send me some samples of the new Haagen-Dazs five. It is made with only five ingredients and has less fat than other types of ice cream (ah, let's face it....all ice cream is fattening and that's why we love it!). When the UPS guy knocked on my door to deliver the samples, I almost trampled him! Nothing comes between mamma and her ice cream!

I received samples of the ginger, mint, brown sugar, and passion fruit. I gathered the family around as I opened each container. Of course, I got the first taste and then I passed each container on to the family. Passion fruit is quickly becoming my favorite! It is very rich and creamy. I think the only thing more exciting than finishing this batch is going out and getting more! As a matter of fact, I think I'll go out and get the new chocolate flavor this weekend. If you haven't tried the new Five, I urge you to do so. It's worth every last spoonful :-)

I Want Soup

Tennessee weather is slaying me right now. It's madness...pure madness. One week, it's 70. The next week (like this week), it's cold, cold, cold. I have no idea how cold. I'm too cold to check :-) Hubby and I are constantly joking that we don't have winter in TN anymore. We rarely get snow and when we do, it only sticks around for a few hours. I think in the past five years, the girls have been sledding TWO times. Now, I'm not one for cold weather because I prefer to be warm. However, I hate, hate, hate having a week where I pull blankets up to my eyeballs at night and then the next week I have to turn on our ceiling fans. See, this is the madness I was referring to!

Since this week is a cold one, I'm dying to eat soup every night. If I can't stay warm on the outside, I ate least want to eat hot soup to keep me warm on the inside. I can't just get out a pot and throw a soup together. I need a recipe. Not just any recipe. I want tried and true recipes. I want soup recipes that will make me salivate just reading them. Hence the reason for this post. I can search online all day long and find a gazillion and six recipes. But I don't want to do that. I want to hear from you. I want the recipes you love and make often. I'm talking chili, corn chowder, minestrone....the whole nine yards. There aren't many soups we don't like. Thanks to fellow blogger Amanda, I'm dying to make soup bowls and fill them with some tasty concoctions. So, bring on the recipes ladies :-)

That's One Way To Diet

Today we went to a local Mexican restaurant after church. As we were eating, I started to play with my straw. That's when I noticed it. Big pink lipstick stains were all along the rim of my water glass. I immediately started laughing because that's the only thing I could bring myself to do. You see, I don't wear pink lipstick and those weren't my lip prints!

Needless to say, I was totally grossed out and couldn't drink any more of my water. In fact, I couldn't even finish my lunch. I think I threw up in my mouth a little!

Ewwwww.....

Wanted: Yummy Recipes

We've been on a real salad kick recently. One night a week, that's all we have for supper. I make this huge bowl of spring mix greens, fresh strawberries, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, grilled chicken, feta cheese, and the most important ingredient, candied pecans. We were buying pecans at the store but decided we'd try our hand at making them at home. The first batch I made were pretty good but not restaurant quality. I rolled the pecans in egg white and then a sugar/cinnamon mixture and baked them. Good, but not as good as O'Charleys (they have my favorite candied pecans). This week, we decided to try another recipe to see if we could capture the flavor we were looking for. Jeff made them this time by first baking the pecans, letting them cool, and then boiling the sugar/cinnamon mixture. After it was boiled, he coated the pecans with the mixture and laid them out to cool. Again, they were good but not what we were looking for.

Rather than looking through tons of recipes, I'm wondering if you've made them. If so, would you care to share your recipe? These things are so good that people eat them as snacks at Christmastime. I'm also looking for homemade egg nog recipes so if you've got one of those, pass it my way. I'm planning to have both of these and would love to perfect the recipes by the time December rolls around. I'm also wondering if you could make a pecan pie out of candied pecans. Have you tried it?

Recipe Round Up

It looks like we'll start trying to put our bathroom back together this weekend. We'll have to start with the plumbing. Once that's all fixed, we'll need to find a vanity, sink, mirror, flooring, and some Hinkley lighting . Just thinking about it seems overwhelming but I'll be happy to get a start on it. It looks so terrible right now. We haven't heard a word from the plumbers we fired. I guess that's a good thing. It kind of disappoints me though. A company as big as Roto Rooter should be more concerned with the service they provide.

We're heading to my grandmother's house to spend the day today. Lots of my cousins, aunts, and uncles will be there so I'm looking forward to it. I wanted to post a couple of recipes before going though. These are two of my favorite things right now. Both are very good and I hope you'll try them.

Italian Cheese Bread

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 TBS quick-rise yeast
• 1 TBS veggie oil
• 1 cup warm water

Topping:

• 1/4 cup italian salad dressing
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1 TBS grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• pepper, to taste

Combine first 4 ingredients. Combine water and oil and then add to flour mixture. Form soft dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead 1-2 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Punch down. Place on a greased 12-inch pizza pan and pat out to a 12' circle. Brush with salad dressing. Combine seasonings and sprinkle on dough. Sprinkle w/cheeses. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or until golden. **Recipe courtesy of tammysrecipes.com . **Made this last night for the first time and it really is wonderful. It had great reviews so I had to try it. It was our favorite part of the meal. So yummy!

Luscious Key Lime Cake

• 1 pk Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Lemon Cake Mix
• 1 pk Instant lemon pudding
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup veggie oil
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup key lime juice

Glaze

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup key lime juice
• 2 TBS water
• 2 TBS melted butter

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 10' bundt pan. Mix cake ingredients together on medium speed until mixed well. Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. (I bake mine about 50 minutes). Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove cake from pan, then return to pan. Poke holes in top of warm cake with a long fork or skewer. Combine glaze ingredients. Stir well and slowly pour over top of warm cake. Cool completely. Turn out onto a service plate. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

**This cake is so wonderful and moist. It has a nice flavor and our family really likes it. In fact, I made it last night so that I can take it to our family gathering today. I hope everyone loves it as much as we do.**

Have a wonderful 4th!

Flame Grilled Chicken

When I think of grilling, one thing comes to mind....chicken. In the summer, we use our grill a lot. We love using various chicken recipes that we find on the internet or get from friends. We have tried over and over to reproduce that wonderful flame grilled flavor that we get in restaurants. I'm sad to say that we just don't get that same flavor. Recently, we heard about some flame grilled Mexican chicken from El Pollo Loco and we can't wait to give it a try. In the meantime, we are doing our research and watching some pretty informational videos about chicken over at Where's the Flame Grill. Check them out. You'll learn all kinds of ways to grill up chicken. Personally, I like the instructional video on how to grill your chicken in the fireplace. Maybe we'll try that tonight!

I ~Heart~The Holidays

One box of Jiffy baking mix: $1.68

One roll of mild sausage: $1.50

One bag of shredded cheddar cheese: $1.98

Making a batch of sausage balls to cook on New Year's Eve but forgetting to actually do so, which results in your eating them for breakfast and lunches for the next three or four days: PRICELESS! (And incredibly yummy)

And did I mention that DJ gave me a recipe for puppy chow, I made it, and the bag is completely gone? The girls, myself, and my BIL managed to eat a gallon size bag of it over a three day period. Can you say holiday weight gain?

Ahhhhhh, I love the holidays!

 

It's Beginning To Smell A Lot Like Coffee

Where would the world be without coffee? Seriously, everyone I know drinks it and loves it. I must admit that I love a good cup of java .I have to go out on a limb and tell you my secret. I like it iced! Cuppy's Coffee serves specialty coffee, espresso, lattes, and smoothies. You can go into the cafe and enjoy breakfast, lunch, a snack, or a treat while you enjoy your coffee. In a hurry? That's not a problem since the drive thru service will serve your gourmet coffee in under a minute!

I'm not sure about you but I like to try different coffees from different vendors. The hubby and I are celebrating our anniversary this week and we are planning a short trip to Knoxville. Well, guess where one of the newest Cuppy locations is? That's right, Knoxville! I can't wait to walk in and smell the wonderful aroma of the gourmet coffees they have to offer. I'm already looking over the menu so that I can go prepared to order. Right now I'm leaning toward the iced vanilla latte or the raspberry mocha. There are so many yummy things on the menu that it's hard to decide. I may end up choosing something totally different when I walk in and smell the heavenly scent of coffee. I'll think about you while I'm enjoying it and wishing you were with me!

 

Yummy Pound Cake

Last week while visiting a friend, I got a taste of this wonderful pound cake she had made. It was simple, light, and very tasty. Since Christmas is just around the corner, this could make a simple, quick treat to have around in case you have guests drop by.

Easy Egg Nog Pound Cake

• 1 yellow cake mix
• 1 (4 serv. size) pkg. instant vanilla pudding
• 3/4 cup egg nog
• 3/4 cup veggie oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cake mix, pudding, egg nog, and oil. Beat on low speed until moist.
3. Add eggs and nutmeg. Beat on medium for four minutes.
4. Pour into greased and floured 10" fluted or tube pan.
5. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely.
7. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

This is wonderful served with coffee! I'm not sure of the exact origin of this recipe but I believe it came from a Borden recipe book. Enjoy!

Peppermint Crunchies

Every year, the ladies in my church gather for a cookie exchange. Each of us bring five dozen cookies to exchange. It's a beautiful sight to behold, to see all of those cookies spread out along the dining table of the host. The exchange is always such a wonderful time of fellowship. All ladies, five years of age and older, are invited to come to the exchange. When we arrive, each of us take our cookies and put them on display. Then we gather to talk, sing Christmas carols and hymns, and eat some of the cookies.The younger girls usually form a circle in the middle of the floor and sing along with us. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to watch our daughters celebrating with us through singing. A few minutes before it's time to go home, the host tells us to gather our cookies. We form a line around the cookie table and start to collect the cookies we'd like to take home. I think last year we each brought home almost 60 cookies.

The exchange is coming up on Monday night so today I'll be making the cookies I will take. Last year I made Peppermint Crunchies and they were the only cookies of this kind. A few of the ladies have asked me if I will be making those same cookies this year and expressed how much they loved them, so I will be taking them again this year! I would love to take credit for the recipe but the way I found it was by looking confused in the baking aisle! Last year, I was in Walmart looking through the baking chips, trying to figure out what kind of cookies I wanted to make. There was a nice lady standing near me doing the same thing. We struck up a conversation and I told her that I had to make five dozen cookies and I was trying to determine what kind of baking chips I wanted to use in my cookies. She immediately picked up some Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips and showed me the recipe on the back. I'd never noticed these chips before and I listened as she told me how she made these cookies to take to a work party. She went on about how her co-workers raved about them.She said she was asked to make them for almost any work party they had. Right away I knew that making these cookies had to be a great idea so I picked up several packs of chips and off I went. I made them last year, took them, and they were wonderful. Alas, here is the recipe:

Peppermint Crunch Chunkies

• 2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup sweetened grated coconut
• 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 cups Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla extract. On low speed, add baking soda, salt, and then flour. Mix completely. Stir in oats, coconut, pecans, and baking chips. Measure about 2 Tbs. for large or 1 Tbs. for small cookies. Place round balls on lightly greased cookie sheet two inches apart. Press lightly. Sprinkle some of the remaining chips on top of each cookie. Bake for 20 minutes for large cookies or 12-15 minutes for small cookies. Do not over bake. They get crunchy on the outside but remain soft inside. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.

Yield approximately: 30-3" or 60-1 1/2" cookies.

 

Yummy Kitchen Eats

Hey there y'all. How are ya? Yesterday it was at least 70 outside, which is extremely odd for mid-December in our part of TN. I have to admit, it was really nice to walk around in short sleeves and no socks! It looks silly to see all of the Christmas decorations up in the subdivision with no snow or really cold weather in sight. I know that will change but for now things just seem kind of odd. We had every intention of washing our cars but alas, my grocery shopping took way to long. That's what happens when you run out of all the basics! Several hours and a whole lotta money later, I got home with a car load of stuff and the girls were diligent to help me put things away. I had been promising my hubby I would make an Italian sausage dish for him since last week. After my grocery trip, I really didn't feel like cooking but I hung in there and did so anyway. I'm really glad I did too because we had a couple of wonderful things that I want to share.

First, the Italian sausage dish. We don't eat this a lot and I had already determined (in my head) that no one would eat this dish except for hubs. We all LOVE meat but when it comes to something we don't eat very often, the girls and I automatically decide we won't like it. This is bad because we miss out on good food sometimes. Anyway, a few weeks ago, hubby went to the home of one of the guys in the bagpipe band. They were having a meeting and this guy's wife was kind enough to feed them lunch. She made lasagna and this Italian sausage dish and hubby came home raving about it. I heard him but never thought to go search for a recipe. Last week, hubby was still raving about it so he emailed the guy and asked for the recipe. To make a long story short, I got all of the ingredients while shopping yesterday and came home to make it. It was fabulous! I could not believe how tasty it was and very simple to make. By the time I thought to take a picture of it, the dish was all messy and most of the sausage was gone so I'll share the recipe with you:

For our family of four, we used:

• One package of good Italian sausage (I used Johnsonville Sweet Italian Sausage)
• One jar of Classico meat sauce (I used tomato and basil flavored Classico sauce)

That's it! All you have to do is cook the sausages on the stove top until browned (according to package directions). Next, put the sausages in a baking dish with a lid. Pour the sauce all over the sausages. Put the lid on and pop them into the oven @350 for 45 minutes. You will not believe how tasty this is! I'm sure it's not figure friendly but what's a little fat and grease now and then! I served this as a side dish. My main dish was fettuccine alfredo and I threw in some french bread.

For dessert, I made Apple Cranberry Crisp. I found the recipe over at Kelli's place and she made it look so good, I knew it had to be yummy! I used gala apples too since they are my favorite. The crisp was tart but you could easily tweak that by adding fewer cranberries, if you don't like tart things. I think it was wonderful and we served it with ice cream last night. I'll be trying it with Redi-Whip this week. It smells wonderful while baking too! Very easy and very yummy.

It looks wonderful while you're putting it together.

It smells great while baking and is very yummy topped with ice cream.

Have you made anything special lately? Was it as yummy as the things I told you about?

Freezer Cooking Group

Today was a lot of fun. I got to spend some time with four other ladies and we talked about food and cooking for two hours. It was great! My friend Jenny decided to pull a group of ladies together to do some freezer cooking and sharing. She got the idea from Freezer Chicks and I am so glad she did. It was a blast. Here we are:

(From L to R: Heidi, Kristen, Laurie, Jenny, Me)

The girls and I got up this morning and quickly started in on our chores and school work. My duties halted when one of our kitties started to bleed from her jowl (that story will come in another post!). I rushed off to the vet's office and the girls continued to clean up and work on their math and grammar. When I got back, we quickly loaded up and headed over to Jenny's. Right now, there are five of us in the group. We cook a meal that will freeze well for each person in the group. I made loaded potato soup and each batch contained 6 adult servings. The idea is for this to be the entree and you can cook whatever you'd like to go along with it. So, I gave each person a batch of potato soup and when they decide to have it for supper, they can make corn bread or french bread to go with it. You get the idea. Anyway, I came home with some pretty tasty looking stuff. The meals I received were overstuffed burritos, quiche in a bag, chicken a la king, and spaghetti pie. We at the burritos for supper tonight and they were a huge hit!

We really enjoyed ourselves and we'll continue to meet once a month. I think it's wonderful because I come home with four days worth of meals. Plus, I have a batch of the recipe I cooked for everyone which gives me a total of five meals. That means that one week out of a month, I am doing very little cooking. My main entree is already done! It's great fun. It's also a great opportunity to try meals that you may normally not make. For example, I've never made quiche so I am looking forward to having that meal! It's great fun and if you ever have the opportunity to start a group like this, do it. It's wonderful!

Do You Love Popcorn?

While Jeff and I were in NYC last year, we went to a place that I had heard so many good things about. Every review I read before going up there said that we owed it to ourselves to go to Dale & Thomas Popcorn. I was thrilled when we found it because we were to fly home the next day and I really didn't want to leave without trying it. It was quite a trek from where we had been spending most of our time but I'm so glad we did find it.

If you've never had Dale & Thomas, you will have no idea what I mean when I say that this is the best popcorn I've ever put into my mouth. There are a variety of flavors including BBQ, chocolate drizzle, and my favorite, peanut butter and white chocolate drizzle. I'm telling you, this stuff is so good that if we ever go back to NYC, I'm taking an empty suitcase just to fill with this popcorn to bring home. Until then, I'd love to have one of those old popcorn machines and try to come up with my own flavors.

I'm curious what flavors of popcorn you've tried and what your favorites are? Have you ever had Dale & Thomas popcorn? If you ever have the opportunity, try it. It's expensive to order online but if you're in NYC, you can swing by and get a big bag for a little of nothing. It really is that good folks!

Steak On Sale

I've really been in the mood for a good steak lately. The problem is, it's hard to find a really good one. I've heard alot about the Kansas City Steak Company but I've never ordered from them. Besides their wide selection of steaks, they carry roasts, steak burgers, pork, seafood, and desserts. Just looking at their products made my mouth water!

From October 15 through October 23, they are offering 15% off all orders over $100 on all KC Steak products. This is a web only special so hop on over there and place your order. You can order now and have them shipped during the holiday season. If you'd like to buy me some for Christmas, it'll be helpful to know that I like the Kansas City Strips. Mmmm, mmmm.