Casseroles · Vegetables

New & Improved Green Bean Casserole

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When I opened up my link to the Pioneer Woman’s blog  today and saw this recipe, I knew it would be on my table next Thursday. I have never been a real fan of the “casserole” that America feels like it is not really Thanksgiving without this sitting on the table beside the sweet potatoes. Thanks Pioneer Woman for upping the image of the infamous casserole. You are a winner in my books, as I know this dish will be.

  • 2 pounds Fresh Green Beans, Ends Cut Off
  • 4 slices Bacon, Cut Into 1/4 Inch Pieces
  • 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
  • 1/2 whole Large Onion, Chopped
  • 4 Tablespoons Butter
  • 4 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour
  • 2-1/2 cups Whole Milk
  • 1/2 cup Half-and-half
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon Salt, More To Taste
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
  • 1/8 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
  • 1 jar (4 Ounce) Sliced Pimentoes, Drained
  • Extra Milk For Thinning If Necessary
  • 1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs

Preparation Instructions

Cut green beans in half if you like pieces to be a little smaller.

Blanch the green beans: drop them into lightly salted boiling water and allow green beans to cook for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice cold water to stop the cooking process. Drain beans once they’re cool and set aside.

Add bacon pieces to a skillet over medium heat. Cook bacon for two minutes, then add diced onion and garlic and continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes, or until bacon is done (but not crisp) and onions are golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Sprinkle flour into the pan and whisk immediately to evenly mix it into the butter. Cook for a minute or two, then pour in milk and half and half. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, while sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Add salt, pepper, and cayenne then add the grated cheddar. Stir while cheese melts. Turn off heat.

Add pimentos to pan, then add bacon/onion mixture. Stir to combine. Pour over green beans and stir gently to combine. Pour into a baking dish and top with panko crumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and panko crumbs are golden.

 

 

Daily Thoughts

7 Days To Go

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The excitement is building. Each and every time I am in the store, you can spot the people who think that they are in there for the last time before Turkey Day. They have their “list” in their hands and the smug look on their faces reveal that they think that they are so smart to be shopping the week before the grocery stores look like the blue light special hour at Kmart. But, that isn’t what it is all about. The last minute runs to the store to get the canned cranberry sauce or the marshmallows for the sweet potato casserole are the things that make it a real Thanksgiving. It’s all I can do to not say, “you might think this is the last time you will be in here before Thanksgiving, but I can tell from your grocery cart that you will be here at least twice before you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner”. Some of the most fun times at the grocery store are the last minute jaunts to pick up last minute things. You always see someone you know, and usually the “feeling is in the air” of holiday excitement. It is fun to see first time cooks shopping the night before buying the frozen turkey, never guessing that it won’t thaw out for 2 more days. Love to see the fights of shoppers grabbing at the last can of cranberry sauce, or looking for the bag of seasoned bread crumbs. There is always panic on their faces when they realize there is none left. I take advantage of their misfortune and calmly say to Randy, (of course so they can hear) “honey, do you think our 3 cans of cranberry sauce we bought the other day will be enough” I have been offered their first born for just one of my cans. So think I will go take a nap. I still have 7 days to plan the menu, buy the necessities and figure out which recipe I will use for the dressing. No need to get in a rush. After all, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without the  3-5 last minute trips next Wednesday to the grocery store.

Chocolate · Desserts

Chocolate Buttermilk Pie (Micah, this is just for you)

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I couldn’t help but post this. One of my favorite pies is buttermilk. I don’t like buttermilk, but you never know this pie is made with it in there, for all the butter and eggs. I just saw this on Just A Pinch web page and it will be the next pie I bake this week.

 

2 unbaked pie shells
2 stk butter, room temperature

get recipes @ goboldwithbutter.com
3 3/4 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/3 c cocoa powder
6 eggs
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c plus 2 oz. buttermilk

Combine sugar and butter and mix until well blended. Beat in the eggs and mix well. Whisk in flour, cocoa and salt until mixture is blended. Add vanilla and buttermilk stirring until all is blended. You can mix all of this by hand or hand mixer if you desire. Pour into pastry shells and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. Cool before slicing and adding delicious whipping cream to the top.

Breads · Casseroles · Chicken

Dinner For Moms

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Tonight I am hosting a dinner for about 10 young moms who are so excited to be getting away from kids (and probably hubbies, but don’t tell the husbands that)  to come allow me to serve them. It is always a joy to have precious young women who are sleep deprived, frazzled and just tired of having to think up meals, carpool kids and all the while be attentive and trying to be a sweet, pretty wife. I hope that tonight when they leave, they  will feel loved on, waited on, with absolutely nothing to think about except what joy and fun they had just being “girls” for a few hours.

I can think of nothing better to feed them than comfort food. So the menu will be:

Homemade Chicken Mushroom Pot Pie, Dilled-Broiled Asparagus, Homemade Rolls, Salad and Homemade Peach Cobbler topped with Real Whipping Cream.

The Chicken Pot Pie is a new recipe that I am thrilled with the results. It begins with a cream sauce and was very simple, but tastes quite differently than most homemade pot pies. Try it during the holidays, it is such a great dinner for Fall nights and for impressing in-laws.

6 chicken breasts, baked and chopped (I sprinkle seasoning salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and parsley on them before baking. Bake them using 2 cups water or chicken broth. Makes the broth much tastier)

Save 2 cups of the chicken broth that the chicken is baked in. Set aside.

Cook 4 medium potatoes, chopped with 5 large chopped carrots, until tender. Drain, reserving the liquid and set aside. (won’t you be glad when you get to sit aside).

Melt 1/2 stick butter in a skillet. Add 1 cup each: chopped onion and chopped celery. Add 1 8 oz package of white mushrooms that you have washed and sliced. Sprinkle Seasoning Salt, pepper and garlic powder to your liking while veggies are becoming tender. Set this aside.

In another skillet ( I know, I know, all the pots and pans that you will have to wash, but isn’t that what either a dishwasher or hubby is for?), melt 1 1/2 sticks butter. Add 2 tables dried or fresh parsley, 2 teas garlic powder, 1 teas dry mustard, pepper and seasoning salt to your liking. When butter is melted add enough flour to make a paste, stirring with a whisk all the time you are adding the flour so that it does not lump. When you have a gravy like paste, add the 2 cups left over chicken stock,1 to 2 cups milk (adding the milk 1/2 cup at a time, until you get a thick cream sauce) and stir until thick. Add 1 8 oz package of shredded cheddar cheese to this gravy and stir until cheese is melted. Add chopped chicken, and veggie-mushroom mixture to sauce.

Pour into a large casserole dish which you sprayed with Pam. Using canned biscuits, or crescent rolls (but do not roll them up, leave them as they come out of package), place them over meat mixture to cover. It’s ok to leave a little room between the biscuits or rolls, as they will expand. Bake  at 350 until mixture is bubbly and rolls or biscuits are done and lightly browned.

Desserts · Fruit

Baked Peaches with Almond Frangipane

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When I began this blog, I promised myself I would never share a recipe that I couldn’t pronounce. But……this one just looks so delicious and really enticed me to go buy almond paste and make.  I still cannot pronounce “frangipane”,  so let’s just call it Baked Peaches with Yummy Yummy Flling! Plus you can make the “Yummy Yummy Filling” up to 2 days ahead and just keep it refrigerated in an airtight container.

8 oz almond paste, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3 tables sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup all purpose flour

4 large fresh, ripe peaches

Put the almond paste, butter and sugar in the bowl and beat on high until well mixed, 1-2 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until egg is blended before adding the other egg.

Scrap down sides of bowl and reduce the speed to low. Mix in the flour and blend until the “yummy yummy sauce” becomes a thick, wet paste. This just keeps sounding better and better, doesn’t it. Nothing better than a thick, wet paste to whet your appetite.

Preheat oven to 400. Cut the peaches in half and take out pits. Put the pitted peaches cut side up in a shallow baking dish the will hold them snugly. (now there’s a great invention, a peach snuggy)

Bake just until heated through, abut 10 mins. Spoon 2 tables of the paste into the hollow of each peach half and bake until the filling develops a golden crust, 10-15 min. As it bakes, the sauce will spread over the cut surface of each peach. Serve warm with whipping cream or ice cream, if desired.

Breads · Casseroles

Breakfast Bread

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We are down to 13 days before turkey day and if you are like me, (if you are, you poor thing), you are probably looking through magazines for new recipes to welcome family around the table. But not just any recipes, you want ones that are easy, quick but taste like Paula Deen, herself, were in your kitchen. This my dear ladies and gentlemen, is one of those recipes. It is like a breakfast bread pudding, without the cream sauce. I guess if you wanted you could make a gravy for those who think that any breakfast should include gravy. But make a batch this weekend to see how great it is.

2 cups shredded cheese

1 lb sausage, cooked and drained

8 eggs, beaten (we are sorry we always have to beat you, but it gets any hostility out before our hubby gets home)

3 tables chopped green chiles

1/2 cup chopped onion (optional, if you prefer, sprinkle in 1 teas of onion powder)

1 large can Grand biscuits, quartered

Mix all ingredients together. Spray a bundt pan with Pam (or Harriet, or Jane).  Pour mixture into pan. Bake in 350 preheated oven for 35-40 min….I told you it was easy…now get to the store and buy your sausage and biscuits and make it this weekend.

Daily Thoughts

Chocolate BIscotti

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This recipe has already been posted but I made it again yesterday and had to remind you that this is just an amazing and easy biscotti. I am hooked on making it and since the batch I made yesterday is all gone, (no I didn’t eat it all by myself) I have another batch in the oven. We meet friends for Mexican food tonight so will take some to share. Makes such a great hostess gift in a pretty little bag tied with ribbon during the holidays. Bake some and have it for coffee for guests that arrive during this festive season. They will think you have spent hours in the kitchen and you will be proud to serve it. This is my new favorite recipe to make to take to friends in the hospital or just to “snack” (if you can call eating 6-8 of them, “snacking”) on while watching The Voice…..Just type in Chocolate Biscotti in the bottom space beside the magnifying mirror and it will pop up…

Breads · Soups · Starches

Homemade Egg Noodles

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Because of the cooler weather, I have been in a major cooking mood. Yesterday, I remembered my Aunt making homemade egg noodles and thought to myself, “self…how hard could that be?” So I went online and googled recipes for egg noodles and up popped this recipe below. After making these incredible little dumpling noodles, I was transformed to my Aunt’s kitchen back in Ardmore, OK where she would roll out the dough until it was paper thin and drop them in boiling chicken stock. 

This recipe does not disappoint. It is easy, although it does take up time. While the noodles were drying, I left and ran errands and when I came back, I proceeded to make the chicken stock and dropped them in. Depending on how thick you roll the dough is how long they need to cook. So you will need to adjust the time to fit the size noodle. They really were so good and so different from just the noodles that come out of the package. Make a pot of turkey noodle soup, using leftover turkey the Fri after Thanksgiving. These will impress your family. These came from the food.com network!

Ingredients

    • 2 cups flour
    • 3 egg yolks
    • 1 eggs
    • 2 teaspoons salt
    • 1/4-1/2 cup water

Directions

  1. Measure flour into bowl; make a well in the center and add egg yolks, whole egg and salt.
  2. With hands, thoroughly mix egg into flour.
  3. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
  4. (Add only enough water to form dough into a ball.).
  5. Turn dough onto well-floured board; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
  6. Cover; let rest 10 minutes.
  7. Divide dough into 4 equal parts.
  8. Roll dough, 1 part at a time, into paper-thin rectangle, keeping remaining dough covered.
  9. Roll rectangle around rolling pin; slip out rolling pin.
  10. Cut dough cross-wise into 1/8-inch strips for narrow noodles and 1/4-inch for wide noodles.
  11. Shake out strips and place on towel to dry, about 2 hours.
  12. When dry, break dry strips into smaller pieces.
  13. Cook in 3 quarts boiling salted water (1 tablespoon salt) (We use chicken broth.) 12 to 15 minutes or until tender.
  14. Drain thoroughly.
Daily Thoughts

Post Election Thoughts

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As we went to bed last night learning that our country will be under the leadership of President Obama, both Randy and I were, to say the least, disappointed, saddened and surprised that he had won. As many of you across the country have been setting special times of prayer to pray for our country and this election, and probably feeling like we were, I couldn’t help but wonder, “why did God not answer our prayers”….were there not enough of us praying?, did we not have the right attitude in our hearts?  Had we really been praying, believing? As I laid there last night, not being able to sleep, I could not help but go over these questions, asking God, “why”?

This morning, after waking up to realize that America had indeed voted for a President that does not support what we feel is a Biblical approach to lead this supposedly, “One Nation Under God”, something occurred to me.

Over 2000 years ago, was this not what the disciples were thinking and struggling with the night Jesus was arrested? They must have been asking the same questions, “wasn’t Jesus suppose to be setting up His kingdom” and if everything they had been taught were true, why was God allowing Jesus to die? What was happening to their perfect plan to have Jesus as their leader and what would they do now, that Jesus had been crucified?”

In 3 days, they found the answers to all their questions. God had a better plan. A plan that would bring salvation to all who believed and a plan that would last throughout generations to bring eternal life and joy and peace that the world had never known.

We might not find out in 3 days what God’s plan is, but we can be sure of this.God does have a perfect plan and He is still on His throne. Let’s commit to pray for our President and leaders. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see salvation come to the White House.  We, just like the disciples, will be watching expectedly for God’s Perfect Plan” to unfold!

“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone, because I know Who holds the future and life is worth the living, just because He lives.”

Beef · Daily Thoughts · Meats

Gingersnap Meatballs

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I’m BACK! Ready to cook and had to share this recipe with you. Jane Warren, one of my mom’s friends who allows me to stay at her house while I am in Corpus, served these one night and I must say they are delicious. She had given me the recipe years back and I had never tried them. They are now going to  be served during the Thanksgiving holidays while the kids are here. They are simple and delicious. You can actually freeze them, as Jane did and she just pulled them out of the freezer and covered them with foil (still frozen) and baked them. The last 15 min of baking, she removed the foil so they could brown. I think it made them even more moist cooking them that way. The gingersnaps just give them a very deep, almost a sweet and sour flavor. Everyone there just went crazy over them.

 

1 1/4 cups gingersnaps, crushed
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 lb ground lean pork
1/4 cup onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
parsley
Directions:

Crush gingersnaps, approximately 20, 2 inch cookies, to make 1 1/4 cups.
In large bowl, combine crushed gingersnaps with milk and egg.
Add ground beef, pork, onion, salt, pepper and allspice. Mix well to combine.
Refrigerate, covered for one hour.
With moistened hands, shape mixture into meatballs, 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

Preheat oven to 325.
Place meatballs on a cookie sheet with sides and bake about 25 min or until meatballs are brown.

Remove to a 2 quart greased (pam) oven proof casserole dish as they brown. Pour off drippings to measure 1/4 cup, adding more butter if necessary.

Add drippings back to skillet heat and add flour stirring to make a smooth mixture.
Gradually stir in beef broth and bring mixture to boil, stirring constantly.

Add garlic, thyme and bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste simmer for 5 minutes for flavors to mingle.
Pour over meatballs and bake covered one hour.
Garnish with parsley and serve with noodles.