Weekly Carrots

I decided to call these Weekly Carrots because we have these so often. Sometimes we go through phases where we have these carrots 2 or 3 times a week!

Weekly Carrots
1 c butter
1 c packed light brown sugar
1 Costco size baby carrot bag
Kosher salt & black pepper

Heat the butter & sugar in the microwave at 30 second intervals. Put the carrots on a baking sheet, add the sugar & butter liquid and toss to coat. Salt and pepper liberally. Roast at 400 degrees for 20 minutes

Are You A Supertaster?

My husband actually told me about this. He was out of town and needed a place to work on his computer to send emails and quotes as well as eat. He ended up at what he called "the nicest, cleanest, greatest, SUBWAY shop ever." It was pretty vacant (great for working) and they had a tv there tuned to the Rachael Ray Show. They had a segment titled "Are you a SUPERTASTER" that peaked his interest.

As I've said a million times - my son is honestly the pickiest eater on the planet. My husband and I have struggled through the years with that. We've done everything you can think of to get him to just eat his darned dinner!

After watching that segment, my husband thought to himself "WOW! I'll bet Jen and Jack are both Supertasters! It explains SO much!"

If you are a picky eater - or know someone who is - I strongly suggest checking out the link.

Cheesy Potato Soup

Want to make a delicious, satisfying soup in no time? Yes. You. Do.

This soup was so good - even my 7 year old pickiest eater (hates potatoes) exclaimed "this is really delicious Mom! Maybe I do like potatoes..."
Cheesy Potato Soup
1 11 oz pkg Bear Creek Potato Soup

16 oz Velveeta, cubed

16 oz Ore-Ida Southern Style Hashbrowns (freezer section)

1 onion, diced

1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled

Get your bacon going. Many years ago I learned a little trick from a wonderful friend. Get your largest cookie sheet and line up your bacon on it. Put it in a cold oven, turn the temp up to 425 and set your timer for 20 minutes. Perfect. Bacon. Every. Time.

Dice your onion and sautee it in a little EVOO in the bottom of your biggest stock pot. This step is 2 fold. Cooking the 'bite' out of your onions and seasoning the pot. When the onions are nice and tender, take them off the heat and set them aside (in another vessle). Then, follow the directions on the back of the Bear Creek Soup (bring 8 c water to a boil, wisk in soup mix. Reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered 15 min. stirring occasionally.)

Follow the directions on the back of the hashbrown pkg. Cook them until they are nice and browned. Then add the hashbrowns, sauteed onion, crumbled bacon and cubed Velveeta. Stir often until the Velveeta is melted.

Delish!

*I cracked a little black pepper on top

Sweet's Ribs

My hubs (who I call Sweetness/Sweet's) and I were talking about the (NFL) playoffs this year. After this weekends games - we are left with America's teams. Teams that have been in the hearts and homes of Americans for generations. The Jets, Packers, Steelers - and of course, my Bears. This years playoffs are unequalled in the recent past.
Anyway... because of the games (I assume) my Sweetness wanted to make some "Man Food" some good ol' football watchin' man food. He decided on ribs. He is the greatest breakfast short order cook - and the best grillin' man I know - but it's been a while since he's had to cook - so he asked me for tips (if you knew us 10-15 years ago you would be laughing your head off). I gave him some tips (based on my go to rib recipe) and then let him go hog wild - pun totally intended...

Sweet's Ribs

Rack pork ribs*

Fav BBQ Sauce

Salt

Pepper

Garlic Powder

Put ribs in a large pot with enough water to cover them. Bring water to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.

Take your ribs out of the water and season them. Sweet's seasoned half of the ribs with his go to dry rub - salt, pepper and garlic powder - enough to cover the ribs. The other half of the ribs he brushed with our fav BBQ sauce. Then he took them out to the grill and grilled them for about 15 minutes. Boiling them cooks them thoroughly, grilling (or broiling) them gives you that crispy factor and helps the seasoning do it's job.

Tonight's dinner was hands down the single most relaxing, quiet, peaceful dinner we have had since my oldest was born. Seriously.

There was no whining, no complaining, no burping, no talking about burping, no giggling incessantly about burping, no poking, no bugging, no "how many more bites do I have to take before I can be excused?" no tears, no rambling on and on and on and not eating - it was (almost) COMPLETE SILENCE.

The only noise at the table was lip smackin'. At one point during dinner, Sweets turned to me with honest to goodness tears in his eyes and said "this may be the best day ever. You watched football w me all day AND we had the most pleasant, peaceful dinner in the history of our family." They really were that good...

*We get our ribs at Costco - now that I've typed that for the millionth time - I'm thinkin' Costco needs to give me a free membership and do a fun giveaway for all my readers for all the free advertising I give them! LOL.

Ham & Fontina Panini

I was trying to decide what to make for lunch today and I came up with this absolutely delicious sammie. While I was eating it I actually thought to myself "this is the best sandwich ever!" And even better - it's so freakin' easy!
Ham & Fontina Panini
2 slices deli ham*
Fontina, shredded
Mayonnaise
Salt
Pepper
Good bread
Butter

To make a really good sammie, you HAVE to start with good bread. Sourdough, ciabatta, whole wheat, today it was an Everything Bagel. Spread one side of the your sammie with mayo and season with salt and pepper (if I was making this for my hubby I would also add mustard). Top with ham and fontina (as much as you'd like). I've said it before and I'll say it again - fontina was born to melt. It's ooey gooey deliciousness gets me everytime. Top with your other slice of bread.

Spread butter on the outside of both slices of bread. Put in your panini press, George Foreman Grill, what have you and cook it until the cheese has reached it's maximum potential:)

*Ham - I get mine at Costco - it's fairly thick - none of that so thin you can see through it stuff
**You can also use a sautee pan with a heavy pan on top to get that 'squished' effect, some people even use bricks wrapped in aluminum foil to weigh their sandwiches down.

Homemade Sugar Scrub

**I made some more - put them in these little tupperware jars and gave them to my kids teachers! Sharin' the love baby:)
A few years ago I saw a tub of sugar scrub on clearance (just saying that word makes me giddy) marked down from $39 to $5 and I snatched it up before anyone else could. I had never used sugar scrub - but at that price - I was willing to see what the hooplah was about.

I fell in love. My fav thing to do is scrub it on my legs and rinse off before I shave them. It's a total luxury item. I was so sad when I was I ran out that I went to Target and found a different sugar scrub for $17. Although I usually wouldn't spend that much on a 'luxury item' I was so addicted to that darn scrub that I bought it.

That tub ran out a few months ago. This morning I was noticing how dry my hands are and I started thinking about that lovely stuff. Then I thought to myself... I bet I could MAKE IT MYSELF! And that's what I did. And you can too...
I googled a few sugar scrub companies and read their ingredients online and went from there. I'm not sayin this is the greatest recipe for sugar scrub - but it's a good, cheap one that certainly does the trick!

Homemade Sugar Scrub
1 c brown sugar
1 c white sugar
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
1 T Vanilla extract

Add sugars together and combine well. Add EVOO a bit at a time. Add a big dollup to the sugars and use a spoon to incorporate it. Keep it up until you get the consistency you want. Add the vanilla last - just based on your preference (you can add any fragrance you want). I added a little more EVOO than I will next time - but that was planned. You see - my skin is so dry that I wanted that extra EVOO to help repair my skin and get it back in shape!!

Now go - get off the computer - grab those ingredients out of your pantry and soon you'll be living in the lap of luxury!!

Goat Cheese and Herb Sweet Pepper Appetizers

I posted about these Sweet Pepper Snacks that I make for my kids all the time. Last time I made them, I read the recipe on the back of the bag and made them today for me! It's pretty much the grown up version...
Goat Cheese & Herb Sweet Mini Peppers
Sweet peppers
Goat cheese
Herbs - chives, tarragon, basil, thyme - whichever you've got

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Leaving them stem intact, cut a slit along the top of each pepper and remove the seeds. In a small bowl, combine goat cheese and snipped herbs. Spoon cheese mixture into prepared peppers. Arrange filled peppers close together on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is heated through and peppers are crisp-tender. Serve warm.

I made these with basil today - delish!

Country Corn

I found this recipe in one of my new cookbooks Taste of Home Contest Winning Annual Recipes 2010 My hubby and I weren't very hungry tonight (Saturday) so I decided just to make Macaroni and Cheese (out of the box) for my kids. Then, I started feeling guilty about the whole out of the box dinner and decided to whip up this side dish to ease my guilt and boy howdy was it good.

It was so good in fact that the kids kept asking for more helpings and when it was all gone they begged for more. My hubby (who wasn't hungry) grabbed one of the last bites and also suggested I make another batch - so he could have some too! So I made another batch and when that was gone - all the little bellies in my house were full and the macaroni hadn't been touched.
Country Corn
6 green onions, chopped
3 T butter
3 c frozen corn, thawed
2 t cornstarch
1/2 c half and half cream
1/4 c water
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 c grape tomatoes, halved

In a large skillet, saute the onion in butter for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Stir in the corn; cover and cook for 4-5 minutes or until heated through.

Mealwhile, in a small bowl, combine cornstarch, cream, water, salt and pepper until smooth. Grandually stir into the corn mixture. Bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in the tomatoes.

*The recipe calls for 2 cups frozen corn, but the second batch I made it with 3 cups and it was much better. Also, I didn't have grape tomatoes and it was STILL good!

**The pic is of my hubby's plate - he had leftover Spice Coated Pork Tenderloin with his corn.

Cobb Salad with Cucumber Ranch Dressing

I got this recipe from one of my new cookbooks Annual Recipes 2008.

When I serve salads to my family, I serve them 'buffet style' that way everyone gets only what they want and I don't hear any complaints.

Cobb Salad with Cucumber Ranch Dressing
5 c mixed greens (I used Romain today)
1 large tomato, diced
1 medium avocado, diced
2 breasts grilled chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
1 c crumbled blue cheese
1/4 c green onions, diced
1 c crumbled bacon
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

Dressing:
1 c cucumber ranch dressing
1 small cucumber, seeded and finely chopped (I just used an English cucumber)
2 T chopped fresh dill

No directions necessary (I hope!)

Sweet Pepper Snacks

Atleast once a month I grab a big bag of sweet mini peppers at Costco for a healthy, crunchy, tasty, juicy snack.

I make them the way they are pictured. Cut off the tops and remove the seeds, fill with a dab of cream cheese and top with chives or any herb I have on hand. My kids mack these up! In fact, my 3 year old absolutely couldn't even wait for me to take a picture - so I had to wait until she was sufficiently satiated. These are the last few that hadn't been devoured (yet)...

Sweet Pepper Snacks

Sweet Peppers

Cream Cheese

Herbs

Cut off the tops of the sweet peppers and clean out the seeds. Squeeze a little dallop of cream cheese into each pepper and top with whatever herbs you have on hand. I usually use chives - today it was parsley. My son likes them sans herbs but with a little salt.

Tuna Puff Sandwiches

I found this little gem in my new cookbook Taste of Home Contest Winning Annual Recipes 2010. I have to be honest, although I am a fan of tuna melts, a few ingredients in this recipe made me a little nervous - BUT, considering this is an award winning recipe, I stuck to the recipe and was pleasantly surprised. This is an awesome kicked up version.
Tuna Puff Sandwiches
3/4 c mayonnaise, divided
2 T chopped green pepper
1 1/2 t grated onion
1 1/2 t prepared mustard
1/4 t Worcestershire sauce
1 pouch (7.1 oz) tuna (I used a can)
3 hamburger buns, split
6 slices tomato
3/4 c shredded cheddar cheese

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 c mayo, green pepper, onion, mustard and W sauce; stir in tuna. Spread over each bun half; top each with a tomato slice. Arrange sandwiches on a baking sheet.

In another bowl, combine the cheese and remaining mayo; spoon cheese misture over tomato. bake at 400 degrees for 11 - 13 minutes or until topping is puffy and golden brown. Yeild 6 servings.

*I made a few substitutions: I didn't have green pepper, I used diced red onion instead of grated onion and I used half of an 'everything' bagel instead of a hamburger bun. YUMMMMMMM
**Also, I never ate tuna until I met my hubby. He taught me that you don't just eat "Chicken of the Sea" usually packed in oil - that you eat "Solid White Albacore Tuna packed in water" it seriously makes a world of difference.