Last week I went to a friends house for lunch. A few friends had decided to get together at our friends house who had had knee surgery. So since she could not get out, we wanted to take lunch to her and just visit for a bit. When we discussed what to have, I had just finished the video of the cheesy potato soup so they ask if I would bring that. Of course I did and so Dena said she would bring these delectable little corn muffins, which are so great with soups. She sent me the recipe and said I could share with you. So here it is and I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. They are so moist and so full of flavor. If you don’t like green olives, switch to black. But with the weather turning cooler, you will love having these with a pot of whatever type of soup is on the menu.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tables sugar
2 teas baking powder
1 teas dry mustard
1/2 teas baking soda
1/2 teas salt
1/4 teas black pepper
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Cheddar Cheese
1/2 cup chopped pimento-stuffed green olives
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
Preheat oven to 375. Grease or paper-one 12 muffin cups (2 1/2″ cups)
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, mustard, baking powder, salt and red pepper in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in cheese and olives.
Combine buttermilk with egg in a small bowl until blended. Stir into flour -cheese mixture just util moistened. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups (pan).
Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Immediately remove from pan. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm or cool completely.
They are great with a pat of butter melted over the top.
Why these little gems are called by that name, I have no idea, because they are so different from what you would think they would be. When I read the name of them, I envisioned a vanilla little “cornbread” looking muffin that would go with a cup of hot tea. But what they are are the most delectable chocolate gooey yummy morsels of bliss. When I made them for a video on YouTube last week, it didn’t dawn on me until today that not everyone out there in WordPressLand would watch my video (shame on you for not, but this is Thanksgiving week, so I will forgive you) and they are so good that I wanted to share them with you. A dear friend Peggy gave me this recipe after a mutual friend of ours told me that Peggy had made them for her and that I HAD to make them. So…here we are a week later and I have made them twice already. A friend from Corpus Christi wrote and she has made them for a ladies event also and loved them. So do yourself a favor and make these wonderful little brownie bites. You will get addicted to them, as I have done. The original recipe calls for 1 cup of butter, but I made them with 1 stick, (1/2 cup) and loved the texture of them using half the amount of butter, so that is how I am posting it.
1 stick butter
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup)
Melt the butter and the chocolate chips together. I microwaved them for about 40 seconds and stirred the mixture until all the chocolate chips were melted. But my butter was at room temperature.
Add 1 cup flour, 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, 4 eggs, 1 teas vanilla, 1 teas almond extract. Stir until mixture is well combined. Spray a miniature muffin pan with cooking spray. Using the middle size cookie scoop, fill each muffin pan with enough mixture to almost the time. This recipe makes 36 miniature muffins. Bake in preheated 325 oven and bake for about 13-15 minutes. You want to be sure and not overbake. You want the middle to be soft and gooey texture. Cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan.
Just wanted to post that I have started a YouTube channel with cooking videos. Have made a couple with some great recipes in the last couple days. One being Cheese Potato Soup and Antique Tea Muffins. Am not allowed to post videos on WP so please go To Sassy Southern for these great recipes! They are Butterful!!!
And no, I wasn’t around then to make this recipe up….it appeared in my email this morning as a recipe someone found in Taste of Home. I have not tried it yet, but it does sound really good and so easy to have on hand during the holidays when you have cooked so much that you feel like you are old enough to have been born in the 1800’s. Just get your slow cooker out and add ingredients and sit back and make your Christmas list to give to everyone.
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium sweet red bell pepper
2 teas minced garlic
3 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tables curry powder
1 teas ground cinnamon
1 teas ground ginger
1 teas dried thyme
1 tables light brown sugar
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
Hot cooked rice or noodles
Place onion, pepper and garlic in 6 qt slow cooker. Arrange chicken pieces over this.
Whisk the next 5 ingredients with the chicken broth. Pour over the chicken. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Add the raisins and tomatoes. Reduce heat to low and cook until chicken reaches 165 (about 2 1/2 hours).
Serve hot over rice or noodles. Sprinkle with parsley if desired or tops of green onions.
Yesterday was a day of reflection and gratefulness. As I scroll down on all the post from FaceBook and see everyone give honor and thankfulness to those who served, I can’t help but think of something that continues to fill my mind. Yes, I am most grateful for each and every person who has served in our military and sacrificed so very much, sometimes even their lives. But as I get older, there is something that just fills my heart with wonder. As most of you who read my blog know, I never got to meet my biological dad. He and my mom never married and she had given him instructions to stay out of her life and not to try to even contact her or me, when she learned that he was also the father of another baby that was due to be born around the same time as she would give birth to me. Yes, I am very grateful that she chose to keep me and she loved me and married a man who adopted me and loved me as his own. But being an only child, it becomes such a dream to meet someone that is related to me. My biological dad was named Eugene Gaylord Gipson, known also as Jiggs, from Peru, Indiana. He had four sons and two other daughters. From his obit, I learned that he served as a US Navy veteran in WW2 and was on the USS Wisconsin. My mom always carried around one picture of him and had given it to me years ago so I would know what he looked like. He owned a Tavern, called the Jockey Club in Indiana, after retiring from the military. He died in 1973, I have heard from cancer.
My adopted father, Carl Roland Michaels, served in the Navy, in San Diego until being discharged due to scarlet fever. He married my mom when I was 8 months old and raised me, like I said earlier, as if I were his own. My mom and dad were actively involved in church, serving as youth leaders, then teaching Sunday School, sang in the choir and allowed so many different people, who needed a place to live, in their home. Did they have a great marriage? No, not really. But they did, in their own way, love each other and they did love the Lord. They taught me what serving others looked like so very well. At night, I would walk by their bedroom and see them both kneeling by their beds, praying after reading their Bible. We went to church each week, not out of duty, but out of honor and respect for God. They taught me that the best way to love God was to love others. I remember my mom always saying, to have real JOY, put Jesus First, Other’s Second and Yourself last. My mom struggled with depression and with some anger all of her life. But through those struggles, she always depended on God for provision and for strength. My poor dad seemed to catch the blunt of her anger so many times. But through it all, he still loved her. I have often thought about how different my life might have been had I known my bio dad. God always knows what is best for us and because my mom had a priority to marry someone who would be a good dad, I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home.
The purpose in me writing about this is that maybe you are like me and never met your real mom or dad. Maybe you did not have a family that was the perfect Leave It To Beaver family. But God……He who sacrificed His Son that we might live and live abundantly. Will your life be perfect, because you are a Christian? Of course not. But you will have someone who walks through the valleys of life with you. He will give you strength and peace and joy that the world cannot give you. This is not about joining a church. This is not about a religion. This is about giving your heart to Jesus, who loves you as His own. We all can be adopted into the family of God, no matter who your parents are.
I heard on the radio yesterday to ask yourself every day this questions:
“At the end of the day, what is one thing I did today that I did because I am a Christian, that I would not have done otherwise?” Is there anything that I did that would point someone to Jesus? That is what I am going to begin doing. It helps me keep my eyes on what they should be on…..Jesus Christ.
I might not ever meet any of my biological family members this side of heaven. But I do know that my Father in Heaven loves me and cares for me and will one day say, “welcome home dear child, you are mine and I love you.” What better words could we hope to hear?
Well, for years I have been hearing that getting older was very hard and took lots of time during the day just to keep Dr appointments, be sure you are taking prescriptions at just the right time and then trying to keep up with your daily routine without having to lay down between doing dishes and finishing the laundry. But this week, was especially hard. I’m not use to going to the doctor. Truly, I have been so blessed with great health, even though my cholesterol is higher than how much money is in my checking account. Maybe it is all the chocolate I have eaten through the years, but while our friends are in the process of having shoulders, knees and hips replaced, my biggest concern has been being sure that I was well stocked with chocolate chips and cream cheese. As I would waddle around the grocery store picking up whipping cream, more butter and of course, Diet Dr Pepper (can’t have too much sugar you know), I felt pretty spiffy always walking around in cute little sandals, thinking to myself, “oh those poor old ladies who have to wear those awful looking shoes”. As I would walk past them, always trying to walk a little faster then they, to show what great health I was in, I would glance back at them and give them that smile. You know the one. The one that says, “I might be over 65, but I can still walk faster than you, even in my cute blingy flip flops.” Until this week…………
let’s just say that my whole self image has been shattered. All this time, when I saw on the paperwork that would come home with me the letters, BMI, I thought that it stood for Beautiful Magnificent Individual. So all these past years, I thought it was such a kind gesture that doctors would include this to still make us think we were still beautiful people, no matter our health problems. So when a nurse this week told me that I needed to get my BMI down, I ask her why. I told her that I always worked at getting the percentage higher because I thought I was trying to get to 100%….She looked at me with the strangest look. She informed me that my BMI number was showing that I was OBESE!!!!! WHAT?????? I’m OBESE!!! when did that happen? How could eating butter instead of unhealthy margarine make me obese? Randy and I have been trying to eat veggie meals at least 3 days a week, which we then knew would allow us to eat, (without worry) buttermilk pie or apple cobbler on those days. We don’t eat bought bakery items, we make all our own pies, cakes, cookies, biscotti and cobblers. We never order anything but diet drinks and use Stevia in our ice tea which we drink with our chicken fried steak dinners. We never use sugar in our tea. We have even begun a exercise program which includes parking as far away in the parking lots when we go to our favorite restaurants, Babes Chicken, Kenny’s Hamburgers and Maggianos for lasagna.
This was just a shock to my system. No longer will I assume I know what the letters stand for when the Doctors hand me their reports telling me all the things that the blood work shows is wrong with me. So I guess now, I need to order some of those pretty awful looking shoes to hold my obese self up. Obese ladies don’t look very nice in blingy flip flops. From now on, I guess I can just wear my pajama bottoms like the rest of the obese when I go to Walmart. I will fit right in. Am thinking of starting a BMI support group. Maybe just maybe, we will at least order matching T-shirts with our logo,
As the weekend approaches and we are getting excited about going to AZ for Thanksgiving to visit, we have had a “to do” list that we are checking off little by little. One of the items was to get a RX refilled before leaving town, so today we went to pick it up. As I walked up to the pick up window inside the store, the young man ask for id and for insurance. He quickly informed me that if I didn’t have insurance my medication would cost $140.00. And they wonder why we have headaches. Anyway, since I did have insurance the medicine cost $ .39. Yep, that’s right 39 cents. The only catch was that with the insurance card, instead of getting the 50 which the prescription was for, they could only give you 9 pills and you would have to come back every 3 days if you needed more. So let’s see. I can get all 50 of them for $140 now, if I don’t use insurance or get 9 at a time, every 3 days for 39 cents. This just does not make sense to me, but we took my 9 pills and left.
On the way home, I began to tell Frosty that I just couldn’t sleep last night. I was up half the night thinking about my new book that will be coming out soon! . I know it will include different trials that we go through along with great dessert recipes. Well, you know women, that made me think of the season which we went through the year. 2015 and Randys retirement. I had this thought that just won’t leave my mind. Why don’t people start out retiring? Think about this. Remember when you were first married and you couldn’t keep your hands off your new mate? You walked them to the door when they left for work in the mornings, after making anything they wanted for breakfast. During the day, I just couldn’t want until hubby walked in the door at 5, throwing my arms around his neck and smothering him with kisses before leading him to the dining table where his favorite meal would be waiting. I cried when he had to leave town for 2 days. Anything he wanted to watch, of course, I “wanted” to watch. It was important to learn all about the people at the office so I could feel like I was apart of his daily world when he was at work. If I made his lunch, I put little love notes in the sack. We called back and forth during the day just to say hi and ask what was going on. He would call me on his way home every day and talk to me until the car pulled into the garage.
So my thoughts are this. Why not have retirement at the beginning of marriage when we are so in love we want to be with them 24/7? We wouldn’t mind them standing right in the middle of the kitchen blocking us from opening the dishwasher. We wouldn’t mind them falling asleep in the lazy boy as they are watching the 5th football game of the day. It would just give us more of a chance to wait on those precious young men that we couldn’t wait to attach their last names to our first name.
That way, they would be at home with us when we are needing help raising children. They would be around to take out the dirty diapers, take the kids for a walk so we could take naps, entertain the little darlings outside while we cooked dinner.
After the kids are grown, and we really are empty nesters; THEN send our hubbies to work. Why this might even cut down on office romances. I just bet that those cute little office girls wouldn’t be as quick to grab on to the “oldies with the hair growing out their ears. Their bellies that shakes now like a bowl full of jelly, just isn’t as appealing as the tight chested hunks that they use to be. Did I mention that we would then have the house to ourselves. That because they worked all day, when they got home, they would be so tired that they wouldn’t even be able to stay awake to watch every football game, so we would still be able to watch House Hunters or Castle. Am I the only one that this sounds like a great plan? That instead of having to dodge the yellow tape that divides our house to keep us from killing each other during these “golden years”; I would be thrilled when he drove into the garage, knowing that he might be even to tired to think about wanting dinner and go straight to bed. Not having to share the remote or the recliner again tonight. And that would be true “golden years”.
This song came to my mind this morning as I sat here thinking about tomorrow and the election. “From CA to the Gulf Streams Waters, this land was made for you and me.”
Tomorrow will be one of those days that will mark, in so many lives, a day which will not soon be forgot. No matter your political preference, it will certainly be a day that might change the course of the America that we have known for hundreds of years. It dawned on me as I sat with the Bible in my lap reading in 2 Chronicles 7 today that I have been thinking about the outcome all wrong. This scripture in Chapter 7 of Chronicles says, “if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and seek my face, I will hear from Heaven and heal their land.” In my mind, I have been thinking that the only way God can heal this land is for the party which represents my core values, to win tomorrow. But God……..God will be on HIs throne no matter the outcome. He can still heal this land though ways which we might not understand. Like the Bible tells us, “His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.” We, as people who have proclaimed that God is our Lord and have tried to live according to what we feel represents Him, have the idea that we can only be healed if the person who leads the Republican party, wins the election . But God…maybe, just maybe, God will allow America to go through some painful years of seeing just what happen when we have sat back and allowed God to be pushed out of every aspect of our lives. We have told God He was not invited in our schools, our politics, sometimes even our churches and yet, even not in our homes. We say that we want to live in a “Christian country” but we live as though we don’t need Christ. We have become hard hearted, and have tried to live in such a way that most days, we don’t give Him a thought. We think it is because of the hard work we have done that we have what we have. The road rage that fills our highways, the anger we see in protesting, the disrespect we see in the political debates and the political commercials. Is this the America that was “made for you and me?”
Is this the country we want our kids and grandchildren to grow up?”
A sweet friend of mine has a book coming out tomorrow which is called 24 Karat. It is a study on how to shine for God. Tomorrow will give Christians an opportunity to truly shine for Him. How will you respond to the results? How will I respond to the results? Will our lives shine in such a way that points others to God?
Yesterday our pastor shared that no matter the outcome of the elections, we are to look upward, outward and inward. Will my actions be to look up to the God who is still on His throne. Will I look outward to others to show that Christ is in my heart and gives me a love for others who might have totally different opinions that mine. Will I look inward to my heart to see who is truly on the throne of my heart, leading me to shine His light as I live each day, showing God’s love to everyone I meet, no matter their thoughts, their actions and their political opinions.
Yes, this land was made for you and for me. It was given to us to enjoy, to take care of and to love and give back what we have to the One who created it. To truly heal this land, we all need, myself included, to allow God to heal our hearts and for us to humble our selves until the mighty Hand of God. Then and only then will our land be healed…….
This song came to my mind this morning as I sat here thinking about tomorrow and the election. “From CA to the Gulf Streams Waters, this land was made for you and me.”
Chocolate Castles 