Food

Food

Great Pies
Most everyone loves a good pie. But, everyone also has their own favorite. I love easy pies, both sweet and savory. What is your favorite pie?
Our first recipe is an old family favorite. My aunt Daisy used to make the best sliced sweet potato pie. Our family really looked forward to her pies at family events and Thanksgiving.

January 25, 2012 2 Photos
Make Ahead Dinners
I spent most of Sunday cooking. I love to cook so that is not a hardship. in this case, I was cooking ahead. Cooking ahead is a great way to save time, money and effort.
If you don’t really like to cook, it’s a great way to cook only once or twice a week. If you stay on the go a lot, cook most of the week’s meals at once and refrigerate or freeze them for later use. When you prepare a meal, it isn’t that difficult to prepare twice the amount that you need and freeze half. The next time that you’re in a hurry or just don’t feel like cooking, pull something out of the freezer, add a salad and bread and abracadabra, you have dinner.

January 18, 2012 2 Photos
Sweet treats for the New Year
I know that we just finished the Christmas holidays and we all probably ate too much. However, New Year’s Eve is just around the corner. Also, there will be other needs for sweet stuff during the cold winter months and there is always Valentine’s Day in a few weeks. So, here are some great sweet treats. These are some of my favorites.
The first is cream cheese Danish swirls. They are made with crescent rolls so they are very easy to make. If you have the crescent rolls, you probably have the other ingredients as well.

December 30, 2011 2 Photos
Christmas Eve is almost here
t’s hard to believe that Saturday is Christmas Eve! Wow. This year has flown by. When your little ones are restless on Saturday and excited about Santa coming, here are some things to do. Bake cookies to leave with the traditional glass of milk for Santa.
If you don’t normally do that, give it a try. You can start a tradition that your kids will then pass down to their kids and so on. Besides, it gives them something to do and the parents get to eat the results! This is a win-win situation.
Our first recipe is my favorite. It’s cinnamon rolls. Yummo, as Rachel Ray would say. But, these use frozen bread dough, so you are even making the dough for them. Otherwise, you will have most of the ingredients. You can also use these as part of Christmas breakfast.

December 21, 2011 1 Photo
Baking Christmas Cookies
Christmas will be here before you can blink. I swear it comes earlier every year! At least it seems that way. I am not the best cookie baker in the world. I don’t know why. My BFF, Debbie Bridgers, can bake any cookie, any time. I struggle and struggle and can’t get half as good a cookie as she does. It’s just not fair!

December 14, 2011 1 Photo
The Feast What to do afterwards
The big feast is done. Everyone has collapsed on the sofa to watch games or take naps. But then dinner rolls around and it’s time to feed some of the people again! Usually, at my house, that meal is just a smaller version of the feast. Everyone kind of gets a little of whatever was their favorite things from lunch.
However, if you cook like we cook, there are still A LOT of leftovers. That’s where these recipes come in handy. These are what you do with some of the leftovers.
The first one is for the turkey. This year, at my sister, Michelle’s house, we are cooking two turkeys. So, we will have plenty of turkey left over. This recipe is for a baked turkey sandwich. It’s all melty delicousness!

November 30, 2011 2 Photos
It's pumpkin time
There are a lot of reasons to need a pumpkin at this time of year. I use them to decorate my yard. I use them for jack o’ lanterns. I use them for pumpkin pie and I use them to make jams. But, I am always looking for new pumpkin recipes. Here are a few that I think you will like.
Our first is pumpkin crunch. It’s so easy that it’s idiot proof and everyone will love it. You will keep this recipe for years. You serve it with whipped topping but sometimes I substitute a powdered sugar glaze instead.
The second recipe is for pumpkin cookies. These freeze well, so make extras and put them in the freezer for those times when you need something to take somewhere. You can glaze them before or after freezing.
The third recipe is an easy and fast pumpkin bread. It’s almost like a cake. It’s also extremely moist when you use fresh pumpkin.
The fourth dish is pumpkin stew! This stew recipe is baked and served in the pumpkin. It's a neat way to cook and serve pumpkin stew. Your kids will love this one.
The last recipe is grilled pumpkin. Use this grilled pumpkin along with grilled meats, including beef poultry, pork, or even seafood.

November 23, 2011 2 Photos
Thanksgiving is just around the corner
I love Thanksgiving. It’s actually my favorite commercial holiday. I guess that’s because I LOVE to cook. For Thanksgiving, no one can tease me about cooking too much. I cook everything that lays still. So be warned!
This week, we have a few of my favorites. I have many! So, this is just a few. I hope that you enjoy these. Next week, we will look at what to do with all of the leftovers!
Our first recipe is giblet gravy. I chop the giblets up really well so that my finicky kids don’t know exactly what I’m feeding them! They love my giblet gravy.
The second recipe is Oyster Stuffing. My brother-in-law loves this. So I make this each year just for him! But, even though I prefer good old fashioned dressing, I like stuffing too.
The third recipe is mashed potatoes. My sister, Michelle, started me with adding cream cheese to mashed potatoes. It was a great idea. It makes them wonderful! Now I can’t imagine mashed potatoes without cream cheese.
The last recipe is cranberry slaw. This is a little different way to use cranberries instead of just the jellied cranberry sauce. Of course, at my house, you still have to have the jellied variety as well. My husband couldn’t imagine Thanksgiving dinner without the cranberry sauce from the can!
Whatever you decide to make this year, I hope that you have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving holiday!

November 18, 2011 1 Photo
Tailgating Feast
We aren’t tailgaters. We rarely go to games but when we do, we don’t tailgate. However, I have many friends who do and they can take tailgating to a whole different level! I think that might be fun. Here are some recipes to give you some ideas to get started with.
Our first recipe is for shrimp. This will take your tailgating up a notch! A very simple and easy marinade that makes your shrimp so delicious that you don't even need cocktail sauce. You won’t even taste the cayenne pepper, so don’t leave it out. I make this with frozen or fresh shrimp and use my indoor electric grill if the weather is not good.
The second recipe is from an ECU student. It’s for wings. You can’t have tailgating without wings. This one is easy. I still like to dip them in Ranch dressing or bleu cheese dressing though.

November 16, 2011 2 Photos
Some things are better slowwww
We stay so busy that we end up just throwing together dinner many nights. Or even worse – going through the dreaded drive-through window for fast food. With just a little planning, we don’t have to do that. Most of us own a Crockpot, we just don’t use it often enough. Here are some great Crockpot recipes that will make your kids want to sit down to a family dinner. I hope you enjoy them.

November 9, 2011 2 Photos
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