Last Minute--Gifts From the Kitchen

It wouldn't be December without me doing a quick recap of some of my favorite goodies to "gift" for the holidays. 

There are lots of delicious goodies out there, but not all of them are suitable for "gifting".  You need to have something that's not too gooey or sticky, is easily packaged, and has a decent "shelf-life" without refrigeration or specialty care.  The items I'm linking to below fit all of these criteria, with the added benefit of being quick and easy (my middle name in the kitchen) to make and take. 



First up are these cute jar mixes.  These are easy to make, easy to take, and easy to dress up with a little Christmas fabric or even wrapping paper, and ribbon.  You can give these individually, or add them to a cute gift basket of kitchen-y items, from dishtowels to gadgets.   



Next up on my list are one of my favorites--coconut macaroons. These are easy to make, smell divine both raw and while baking, and fit that "gift-y" criteria of being easy to package and to keep.  You can leave these plain, or dress them up by adding mini-chocolate chips, or dunk them in what I call "dipping chocolate" and rolling in holiday sprinkles. 

A quintessential goodie for Christmas is luscious, creamy fudge, and this microwave version is super easy to make. The main ingredient is this one is semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you could make variations by changing the flavor of chips--try milk chocolate, white chocolate, or even peanut butter chips for a variety of tastes. 

And last but certainly not least in this installment of gifts from the kitchen, is my absolute very favorite fudge--made in the microwave, it's less creamy, with a firmer, slightly grainy texture that reminds me of the old-fashioned stove-top cooked fudge of my childhood.  You know the kind--sometimes it seemed like it was never going to set up.  As a matter of fact, I remember my sister getting tired of stirring and pouring some into a buttered pan, and I remember my mom and I finally scraping it back into the pot and cooking it a little more when it never got beyond the "chocolate soup" stage.  This one is fairly fool-proof, I think, at least I've never had it not set up for me!

What goodies are you making and taking this holiday season? 

This post is linked to:

Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family
Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace

Until next time, good cooking, good eating--and good gifting!

Fall Favorites--2012

I know I haven't been blogging lately about what I've been cooking, partly because I've been in a rut about my cooking for a while now, and I not only haven't made anything new in a while, what I have been making has been a little, ahem, sub-par at times.  I'm trying to get back on the band wagon though!  And so I thought I'd share just a bit of what I have been making:



My original post on this pie was titled, You'll Never Guess What's in This Pie, and rightly so.  But fall is not complete with the smell of this yummy pie, made with--wait for it--navy beans!  It's a light, delicious sweet pie with all of the smells of fall spices, and while you'd never guess what's in it, you'll be glad you tried it. 


Lately I've made Stove-Top Barbecue Chicken at least once a week--what can I say, I've been in a rut--but I still don't think I'll cross this off my list, it's too easy to make, and statisfyingly good.



And last but not least, since my son & I are both trying to watch our sugar intake, I made our favorite version of this crustless Sugar Free Cheesecake.

What good things have you been cooking lately?

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating...

My Favorite No-Cook Banana Pudding

I first posted about this recipe almost three years ago--and I called it "Not Your Granny's Banana Pudding".

I just made this again tonight to take to a church dinner tomorrow, and because I'm here alone, guess who got to lick the bowl?

You got it!

And I remembered why I liked it so much.

It has all the good stuff in it--sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, and cool whip--not the mention the regular stuff, too, like pudding and milk and bananas and vanilla wafers. I mean, that's some pretty good stuff, too, right? But when you combine the really good stuff with the regular good stuff--you really do get Secrets of a Southern Kitchen.

Click on over and see the recipe, then add it to your must-try list of recipes. It's a real keeper.

Until next time, good (un)cooking, and good eating!

This recipe recap is linked to:

Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party

Meatless Mondays at My Sweet and Savory

Thanksgiving Day Recipe Round-Up

If you are looking for some last minute additions to your Thanksgiving Day meal, be sure to check out this recipe round-up at the Family Balance Sheet. She has graciously included my pumpkin pie cake in her listing.

Head on over and check some of these links out! I can't wait to try some of them myself!

Meanwhile, here are a couple more of my own favorites:

Cranberry Relish--not your usual cranberry sauce

Sweet Potato Souffle--not your typical marshmallow topping, this casserole is covered with a yummy pecan praline topping

Pumpkin Pie--completely traditional, with a made-from-scratch crust

And for something totally out of left field--how about this Navy Bean Pie--not only will no one be able to guess what's in it, they'll rave for the recipe, too--it not only tastes good, it smells out-of-this-world.

Until next time--good cooking, and good eating!

Summertime, and the Living's Not Easy

Its been such a long, hot summer for us here in SW Louisiana, I confess that my kitchen has been mostly closed. My husband has been working out of state, my son & I are the only two around the house, so most days it's been easier to scrounge something than make a real meal. We've eaten out more than we should have; eaten a lot of cold cereal and made a lot of sandwiches--followed by Popsicles that melt if you take too long to eat them.

I have done a few things, though, from my it's-too-hot-to-cook-but-we-gotta-EAT repertoire.

Stove-top Barbecue Chicken is always a favorite-I usually serve it over rice--I love the BBQ 'gravy' that it makes.

And believe it or not, I make a lot a soup, even during the summer--anything that I can do in one pot on one burner on top of the stove suits me just fine...

from Taco Soup...

to Chicken Corn Chowder

Occasionally, I even brave turning on the oven, as long as it's something that doesn't take long to bake, like this White Chicken Pizza, made with jarred Alfredo Sauce and ready-made pizza dough,

or Stuffed Bread, made with pizza dough and meat-and-cheese (and even veggie) filling of your choice.

My hubby is home this week, which always means more cooking on my part, so I'm hoping to have a couple of new recipe posts up later this week.

Meanwhile, how was your summertime cooking this year?

Until next time, good cooking and good eating!

Pillsbury Pie Crusts--Review, Recipes, and Giveaway

(This giveaway is now closed, thanks for entering!)

MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury have done it again with what I think is the best goodie box yet!


As part of a review/giveaway opportunity, I received a coupon for a free package of Pillsbury Pie Crusts, as well as all of the cute kitchen things pictured above--a glass pie plate, pot holder, cutting board, apple slicer, nested measuring cups, and apple-shaped kitchen timer.



Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts have to be one of the greatest commercial kitchen achievements since sliced bread! I grew up in a household where we made cakes and bought pies, and if it weren't for pre-made crusts I probably would have made very few pies in my lifetime! I've made exactly one "from scratch" pie crust in my adult life, and while it tasted fine, it definitely wasn't pretty! I love, love, love the ease and convenience of these crusts, and they taste, in my opinion, better than most frozen pie shells I've eaten.

Let me just show you some of the ways I've used Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts:

(click on the links to go the recipe posts)

During Purim in the spring, I've cut out circles of pie crust and made these little apple tarts known as Hamantaschen....

During berry season in the summertime I've used one as a bottom crust and cut the other into strips to make this Lattice Top Blackberry Pie...

...or pre-cooked the crust and filled it for this Chilled Blackberry Pie...

And last but certainly not least, made this beautiful full-of-spice-and-smells-of-fall custard style Navy Bean Pie.

This giveaway is now closed, thanks for your interest!

And now for the giveaway---thanks to Pillsbury and MyBlogSpark, one reader will recieve a package identical to the one I recieved. To enter, just leave your information on the giveaway form, and let me know what kind of pie you'd make with your Pillsbury Pie Crusts. The form will stay active until next Monday night, November 15, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. Central Time, and the winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.

Good luck!

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

(The opinion stated is that of my own.)

Sugar Free Sunday--Recap Edition

Welcome to this week's edition of Sugar Free Sunday!

Ya'll know I fell off jumped off the sugar-free bandwagon a couple of weeks ago. I took advantage of my time off and ate my fill of Krispy Kreme donuts and full sugar ice cream, but this week I made a couple of desserts that have really strengthened my resolve to stay sugar-free. They were quick and easy and tasted delicious. So today I'm going to do a recap of the recipes I've shared, as well as link to several others that I've found on my wanderings around the blogosphere.

Check out these links, or link to your own sugar free recipe



Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

Sugar Free Sunday--My Favorite Sugar-Free Products

Welcome to this week's edition of Sugar-Free Sunday!

I'm trying to get settled into my summertime routine now that I'm back at our home-away-from-home in Georgia. I spent four mornings this week at the pool, and afternoons trying to unpack and take stock of what I needed to get my kitchen up and functioning here. I brought lots of fresh vegetables from my parent's garden back home, as well as farm-raised beef from our freezer. By the time I did some grocery shopping to re-stock some items, it was a real balancing act to get everything to fit into the fridge and the little freezer up top.

I did cook a little bit:

Round steak cooked in the crock-pot, same seasonings and technique I used here for chuck steak...

...purple hull peas--frozen, but originally from my parents garden...

...ice box pickles (made with Splenda), and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.

For desserts, I've been eating a variety of fruit, including some delicious fresh blackberries that my husband picked from wild blackberry brambles. I do plan to make some sugar-free desserts, but I'll be honest, these fresh berries are so good, I put some in a bowl, pour on a little milk or cream (if I have it) and eat them with a spoon like a bowl of cereal. (One night I ate two big bowls of berries and milk instead of supper.)

Meanwhile, there are a couple of sugar-free products that I want to mention:

• Splenda--I know that there are a lot of people out there that don't support the use of artificial sweeteners. In a perfect world, we wouldn't need artificial anything, but it's not a perfect world, and for myself, using artificial sweeteners is a choice I make in order to accomplish the goals I have of losing weight and getting my blood sugar back to a good level. It's not for everyone, I'm not a doctor, I'm not advising you to use them. But. For me, it works for now. I've been a dieter on and off for years. More years than I care to remember. But I do remember when our only choice in non-sugar sweeteners was saccharin. Little pink packets or some kind of drops, you couldn't cook with them, and to be honest, most of the products made with it, with few exceptions, tasted gross. Next came aspartame, the little blue packets. Still couldn't cook with, but it did at least taste a little better. There are all kinds of products out there today, some of which I haven't tried yet, but I have to tell you that so far, I've been very impressed with my use of Splenda in cooking. I bought the granulated Splenda, the kind in the bag or box that you use measure-for-measure in the place of sugar. I've used it so far in the filling for my cheese blintzes; additional added to leftover filling to make a sugar-free cheesecake; and in my ice box pickles. I'm going to try it in the next few weeks in some other things, including jam and cobbler.
• Popsicle brand Sugar-Free Popsicles--especially the orange ones. 15 calories, folks--15!
• Sonic--I know this isn't a product, but Sonic has half-price drinks during their afternoon "happy-hour", and they have more sugar-free drinks than any restaurant or fast-food place that I know. They not only carry Diet Coke, they have Diet Dr. Pepper, Coke Zero, Sprite Zero, Minute Maid light lemonade, Low-cal diet limeade, diet green tea, and according to their on-line menu, their raspberry and peach tea is low-cal, as well. In this heat, they are my new favorite drive-through.

And now it's your turn. What new sugar-free recipes do you have to share, or what are your favorite sugar-free products?

Thanks so much to Chaya for her link last week for sweet potatoes with chopped pecans and maple syrup, and to Debbie from Where's My Rolling Pin? for her feedback in the comments.



Until next time, good cooking, and good eating...

Vegetables, Smedgtables

Fish Mama at Life at Mom is hosting a recipe swap this week with a vegetable theme. I don't have any new ones to post right now, but I do want to do a re-cap post and highlight some vegetable recipes I've posted in the past.

First up is my version of pan-roasted asparagus , which is my easy method of choice. Sometimes to make a variation, I squeeze on a little lemon juice, or sprinkle it with grated Parmesan cheese right at the end.

Next up is Corn Casserole, favorite of children and adults alike. I like that I can make this for my family, or double up and make a big one to take to a church supper or family reunion.

Probably my very favorite home-grown vegetable is pink-eyed purple hull peas. My parents grow these in mass quanitites during the summer heat, then put them in the freezer where they become a year-round staple for our family.

Next up is the delicious Sweet Potato Casserole--the potato casserole you can eat for dessert. Usually a fall or winter vegetable, my family requests this year round, as well.


And last but not least, the real dessert--a pie made from navy beans.

Hope you enjoy these, and don't forget to visit the Ultimate Recipe Swap at Life As Mom.

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!

How to Make a Cheap Inexpensive Cut of Meat Taste Like a Million Dollars

Edited to add: I've posted these before, but I'm reposting in order to participate in the Ultimate Recipe Swap Crockpot Edition at Life as Mom.

One of my favorite meals to make in the crock-pot is pot-roast. Using slow, moist heat, almost any cut of beef, including those that are relatively inexpensive, will come out delicious and fork-tender.

The easiest way to do this is use a packet of Lipton Beefy Onion soup, along with a good all-purpose seasoing mix ( I use Tony's Chachere's Creole Seasoning.) If I have them, I usually throw in some potatoes and carrots.

When I don't have any soup mix on hand, I use dried onion flakes and beef bouillion or beef stock paste (my favorite), along with my Tony Chay-chay's.

Sometimes I had a couple of splashes of Worchestershire and soy sauce, but not always.

I have three different slow-cookers, but becuase of the way I travel back and forth between home and where ever it is that my husband is working at the time, I don't always have the right size for the amount of food I'm cooking. A tip I got from Stephanie Odea at A Year of Crockpotting is to use a crumpled up piece of aluminum foil to fill up the "dead space" when the crock is oversized in comparison to the the amount of food I'm cooking.

Some basic tips for using a crock-pot or slow cooker:

• Always, always, always lightly grease the crock insert or spray with cooking spray. Always.
• Turn it on high for the first hour or so to get a bit of quick start of bringing your food up to cooking temperature, then turn down to low for the rest of the day.
• Crock-pots work great for overnight cooking, too. I do this a lot on Saturday night so that I have a meal ready for noon on Sundays.
• I seldom add any water or liquid when I'm cooking roast, other than Worchesteshire sauce, etc, for seasonings, I find that the meat usually makes enough au jus on it's own.

Sometimes I take it out and slice it, then put it back into the au jus to keep warm--it only gets better and more tender--and leftovers the next day are better yet!

Until next time, good cooking, and good eating!