Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

Holiday season!  Here’s a recipe that was printed in our Christmas holiday recipe section in last year’s program from our women’s banquet.   Elaine makes the best party food!

Move over Halloween … I’ve started getting daily e-mails with Thanksgiving recipes.  I love Thanksgiving!  Here is one of my all-time favorite recipes.  I could just make this and eat it all by myself! I also like to add dried cranberries.  Might as well knock yourself out!

My son (12 years old today- Happy Birthday, Jameson!) found this recipe on the internet a few months ago and just had to try it.  We had all the ingredients on hand, so I told him to go for it. (“Just make sure to clean up after yourself.”)   He tried it and liked it.  I liked that he could follow a recipe – lol.

Rain, rain, rain!  Getting a little old, don’t you think?  Days like this make me want to simmer something on the stove, and I love this chowder, which is a little different from your usual chowder.

A few weeks ago I was planning to take a little basket of goodies to our new neighbors.  I have a recipe for pumpkin bread that I absolutely love, so I dug out the recipe and ran to the store to grab the supplies.  Little did I know that my grocery store does not carry canned pumpkin all year long.  Who knew?  Well, now that pumpkin season is officially here, I am happy to share this wonderful and easy recipe!

I’ve been trying to be good about packing the kids’ lunches most days for school.  However, I get bored with the same-old, same-old, so I keep an eye out for interesting recipes that will keep well.  I found several versions on the internet.  I can’t remember where the original link came from, I think from Light and Tasty magazine.

The kids thought the muffins were pretty good.  I liked that I could freeze some for later lunches and snacks.  They are also no-sugar added, which is a definite plus!

I have made this lovely salad for my Tuesday lunch bunch.  We usually go out to eat after Bible study every Tuesday.  This summer we got together at my house to visit since our Bible studies don’t meet May-August.  They all loved it.  Besides being a beautiful presentation it is quite yummy.  I think what makes it special for me is the crunch.  I love crunchy things and the almonds and sunflower seeds give it the extra umph.  The dressing is also delicious.  If you prepare the items ahead of time it makes the construction of the salad quick.  I actually saw this similar idea in a magazine and amended it to make it mine.  Go ahead and impress your friends!

My friends and I are always looking for ways to streamline time and money when it comes to meal planning.  We swapped meals last school year but haven’t started back up yet.  In the meantime, Trish found a coupon for one of those DIY fix-it, freeze-it dinner stores.  This one was for 50% off the meals.  They put the recipe together and then deliver them ready to put in the freezer or to assemble and bake.  Sounded like a great deal, so we all jumped in.  The verdict – eh, so-so.  I found the portions to be a bit skimpy even with the discount, and there really wasn’t anything that I couldn’t put together myself and throw in the freezer.  However, it was a good reminder of how to prepare food for the freezer and have meals on hand.

The few times I did go in to the store and fix some meals I picked up a few tips.  My favorite was to line a canister with your zip-lock bag so you could just keep throwing all the ingredients in without holding the bag.  That’s pretty clever!  Works great with meatloaf, mixes, and marinades.  Another tip – always play music.  Wait, maybe that’s just my own preference.  Nothing like getting your praise on while chopping veggies

I thought I would pick out a new recipe for dinner and freeze an extra for later.  This recipe came from the Sunday edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution…

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Ah, cornbread.  I remember going to the annual covered bridge festival near our home in Indiana when I was a kid where the main dish was beans and cornbread.  I guess the pioneers and settlers ate a lot of it.  I can’t really remember if the cornbread was sweet or not, though I do recall the sheep sheering contest that was held every year.  As I read up on the matter, it was probably a sweet variety, more common in the north than down here.  Regardless, I do love cornbread.  I remember having corn fritters in Alaska that were to die for, basically hushpuppies with whole kernels of corn in them.  I like the buttery muffins you get at Cracker Barrel.  I love, love, love the half cake/half cornbread at Smoky Bones (served in a little cast-iron skillet with a side of pecan butter – it’s dessert!).  When I was a young married on a tight budget, we ate a lot of beans and cornbread.  I have to admit, I always had a few boxes of Jiffy Mix in the pantry.

David and I had the opportunity to have lunch with some friends recently, and the talk turned to food.  My friend remarked how much she loved cornbread.  After we went home, I remembered that I recently clipped this recipe from www.eatingwell.com to try, so I gathered up the ingredients and went to work.  It turned out really nice.   It’s really more of a dessert or snack than your traditional cornbread.  I think it would even be good for breakfast.  I made an extra one for our community group.  We were celebrating some birthdays with a few cakes, so my little spoonbread was sort of a wallflower at the party, but that’s okay, my family pieced on it for a few days and snacked happy!  The boys enjoyed some squares in their lunch boxes, and I snuck in a little extra fruit for them.

Two new sets of neighbors!  Hurray!  Even better, one family has an 11-year-old boy, just like mine!  Wahoo!  I love watching them walk home together from the bus stop after school.

I made a mess o’ cookies to take over to both families.  Taking cookies over is a good excuse if you’re a nosy neighbor (like my hubby – LOL).  I had to dig through my favorite recipes to find this cookie recipe.  I made a mess o’ cookies, including some cheater cookies (those Pillsbury white chocolate macadamia nut ones are gooood!)   This recipe turns out cookies that look a lot like the Hershey oatmeal treats, but don’t be fooled.  Spencer calls them the brownie cookies.  I like them because of the whole one-bowl-in-the-microwave part.  Gotta love that.  Oh yeah, make sure you coarsely chop the chocolate, those big chunks of solid chocolate really make the recipe terrific!