Recipe for Vegetarian Taco Salad

Every once in a while I like to make something a little different. I got this from my dad. Bless his heart, he loved tacos, but just couldn't get the hang of eating them, because every time he tried to bite into the tortilla it would break apart and he would have a mess on his plate. I watched with amusement as my dad broke up his taco with his fork and ate it like a taco salad. From then on my dad would break up two tortillas and then load all the goodies on top. Since then when I serve tacos with hard tortillas I do the same thing.

Here is what you need:

1 head of lettuce shredded
1 can of drained chili beans
2 diced tomatoes
1 cup of chopped onions
2 ripe avocados
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 pint of sour cream
2 packages of taco seasoning
8 ounces of shredded cheddar cheese
1 bag of tortilla chips

Here is what you do:

Mash up the avocados in a small bowl. Add lemon juice. I like to put the avocado into the food processor with the lemon juice to make guacamole.

In another bowl add the sour cream, and add the taco seasoning to it and set aside.

In another bowl add the diced onions, chili beans, and tomatoes.

To build the salad you put a layer of tortilla chips on the bottom. (I like to break them up into smaller pieces.) Add a bed of lettuce on top of the chips. Then add the chili beans, onions and tomato mixture. Top with cheese, guacamole, and sour cream mixture.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Crock Pot Potato Soup

Potato soup is one of my family's favorite dishes. I make potato soup many different ways, but this one is one of my favorites. Potatoes are plentiful, and if you get caught short of money until payday you can make lots of meals with potatoes. This one recipe is just the way my dad made it when I was young. It is so simple, anyone can do it. I like to use a crock pot to make this recipe, because I can start it in the morning and then by supper it is ready.

Here is how I make my potato soup recipe:

Cut up 6 potatoes and put them through the food processor or chop them up into very small pieces by hand and place them in the crock pot. Add about 2 teaspoons of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, and add 6 cups of water and 3 cups of milk. Add a stick of butter or margarine to this and let it cook. When the potatoes get tender add 1 and 1/2 cups of instant mashed potatoes to help thicken it up a little. Then add 1 and 1/2 cups of Parmesan cheese.

Serve with crackers, and douse with a good healthy portion of Louisiana hot sauce if you like. This is amazing. My family loves it.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Spaghetti Squash

I like vegetables, but sometimes I just want something different in the line of veggies. The other day I found a good sale on spaghetti squash, so I picked up 5 of them. You can make a meal off from spaghetti squash. If you are a vegetarian, you can make spaghetti squash and cover it with spaghetti sauce and eat it like regular spaghetti, but that is not what I do.

When you go to purchase a spaghetti squash you will need to note how the squash looks. The outer shell should be very hard; it should be a fairly uniform pretty yellow color. If you see bruising or discoloration on the shell of the spaghetti squash do not buy it. Only buy spaghetti squash that is not bruised or blemished, because they may be spoiled inside.

To prepare spaghetti squash, wash and dry it, and then you should cut it in half lengthwise. Spaghetti squash is very hard, so you will have to use a large sharp knife to pierce the skin of the squash and push the blade down into the squash. Once you get your knife inside the squash you will need to work the knife down to split one side; next start from the other direction and continue to split the squash. Once you have it split all the way, you then just pull the two ends apart until the squash breaks in two pieces. Now you will need to remove the seeds. Take a spoon and scrape out the seeds and throw them away. You can also save the seeds and dry them out for planting if you wish.

Once you have removed the seeds from the squash lay them flat side down on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Bake them in a 400 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes. When the squash is done the inside of the squash can be scooped out of the shell and into a bowl. The meet of the squash looks just like spaghetti.

All I do is add a bit of Italian salad dressing and top with Parmesan cheese. It is that simple. If you like you can serve with diced tomatoes, or you can prepare your spaghetti squash just like you would with real spaghetti. Any way you fix this vegetable is delicious.

Recipe for Crock Pot Vegetable Soup

The thing about crock pot meals is that there is not fuss. You can get your meal started in the crock pot with very little prep time if any. If you work you can start your crock pot meal and have it piping hot for when you come home. I work in my home; I'm busy from the time I get up until I go to bed, so I try to make my life as easy as possible. One way of making my life easy is by making a vegetable soup made in the crock pot. It's quick to prepare and simple.

Here is what you need to make my recipe for crock pot vegetable soup:

1 and 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1 chopped green pepper
2 stalks of sliced celery
1 medium sized bag of baby carrots
3 cups of water
3 teaspoons of chili powder
2 envelopes of onion soup mix
2 large cans of stewed tomatoes
1 bag of frozen corn
3 large diced potatoes

Here is what you do:

Brown the ground beef, and drain off the fat. Transfer the cooked meat into the crock pot. Add all the other ingredients and stir. Turn your crock pot on high for 1 hour, and then turn the heat setting to medium or low. If you work outside the home, just set your crock pot setting to to medium or low and the soup will be done for when you get home.

Serve with crackers or French bread. I love to get the French bread in the long hard loaf. It is so good to cut off a piece of bread and dunk the bread into the soup and eat it. My family likes to load the soup down with crackers to sop up all the broth from the soup.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Spinach Salad

One of my family's favorite salads is spinach salad. My daughter will make a meal off this salad alone. Sometimes I add apples, sometimes strawberries, peaches and oranges. This recipe is so versatile you can use any fruit in this salad. This is also good for diabetics.

Here is what you need to make this spinach salad recipe:

1 bag of spinach salad leaves
1 large apple, or any fruit you choose
1/2 cup of mixed nuts
1/2 bag of mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup of spicy Italian dressing or a wine based dressing if you prefer

Now just toss the salad and serve.

Enjoy!

My 10 Most Favorite Foods

I love to cook, and it is a good thing, because I am the only one in the family that is good at it. Any time my daughter is ready to eat she asks me to cook it for her. There are some foods I like more than others, and the ones I like are the ones that I cook the most. Some of my favorite foods are not homemade, but I sort of make them my own, in an almost homemade kind of way.

Here are a list of my most favorite foods:

1. French Fries - I like to oven fry my fries by spraying them with a little olive oil cooking spray. I bake them until they are good and crispy. I don't like a soggy French fry. Once the fries are done I like to top them with some canned chili and cheddar cheese. These are yummy.

2. Pancakes - I make my pancakes with Bisquick only. I don't bother using regular flour or self-rising flour, because Bisquick has them all beat. These pancakes are light and fluffy. I sometimes use them for bread when I am out. I've made sandwiches with the. Just a couple of days ago I used small pancakes for hamburger buns. They are so good!

3. Hot dogs - I like hot dogs any way you want to cook them. I like them in a bun, of course, piled up with relish, onions and mustard. I also like hot dogs fried and cut up on a plate. I dip them in mustard. I've also used hot dogs in scrambled eggs. I kind of make the eggs like a Western egg, but I add hot dog to it. This is really good if you love hot dogs.

4. Grilled cheese sandwich - I use my pancake griddle to make my grilled cheese sandwiches. I butter one side of two slices of bread. I stick one slice butter side down onto the hot grill. It will start sizzling right away. While that is sizzling I cut off 2 slices of white extra sharp Vermont cheese. I buy the Cabot brand of Vermont cheese, because that is the sharpest cheese I can find. I love really strong sharp cheese. One I put the slices of cheese on the sandwich I put the other slice of bread on top of the cheese butter side up. Then I just flip the sandwich and let it brown on the other side and serve. This is to die for!

5. Stuffed cheese burger - For this kind of burger I make a meatloaf kind of mixture by using bread crumbs, an egg, and steak sauce. Then I take a about 2 ounces of this hamburg mixture and flatten it out to make a thin hamburger. I place it down on my baking pan and put a chunk of blue cheese in the middle and then cover the top with another really thin hamburger and seal the top. I bake them until they are done and these are so very good!

6. Baked macaroni and cheese - I'm not talking about any of this boxed stuff with the fake powder cheese. No, I have to have the real thing. I boil the macaroni, and then shred a bunch of that sharp Vermont cheddar cheese I mentioned above and add that to the cooked macaroni. I add a little bit of salt and pepper and a bit of milk and put it in the oven to bake until it has a good firm crust on the top. You haven't had anything until you have had mac and cheese done this way.

7. Freshetta Pepperoni Pizza - This is a store bought pizza, and it is so good. I buy the kind that is made of whole wheat. I don't doctor this up at all, because it is perfect the way it is. This is really good dipped in ranch dressing.

8. Almost homemade chili - This is a chili that comes in a kit. I don't know the name of the kit, but it comes in a brown paper bag. In the bag is chili powder, salt, and cayenne pepper, and a little corn meal thickening agent. I make my chili by browning my ground beef and draining it. Then I put the meat into a pot with 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 3 cans of chili beans, and a small jar of Prego sauce. I add a chopped onion and a chopped bell pepper to the mix and let it simmer for 35 to 40 minutes and then serve with crackers. This is yummy with a dollop of sour cream and yellow cheddar cheese.

9. Brussels Sprouts - I love these things. I have always called them 'baby cabbages'. They are awesome steamed, boiled or even sauteed in butter. They are also scrumptious with Velveeta cheese melted into them.

10. Green beans and red potatoes - These are good cooked together. I like the really little red potatoes, but if you can't find them really small the bigger ones cut up in chunks will do just fine. I cook these until they are done and then at the end I add milk to them and heat them a bit more but I don't let them boil. I serve this dish in a bowl and it's good all by itself or with corn bread.

Recipe for Pancake Sandwich

What do you do when you are out of bread, but you want a sandwich? Do you put your sandwich off until you can get to the store to get more bread? When I don't have bread I improvise. The quickest way for me to make bread is to whip up a couple of pancakes. Pancakes make the perfect sandwich material.

Last night I made hamburgers and we had no bread, and neither did we have any hamburger buns. I make up a batch of small pancakes just large enough to make a cheeseburger nice and cozy. This morning I made pancakes to make a sausage and egg sandwich. For supper I made pancakes to make a grilled cheese sandwich. Pancakes are very versatile.

For 2 pancakes I just use about a half cup of Bisquick and enough milk to make it into a nice pancake batter. I cook the pancakes on my electric pancake griddle.I don't even measure it myself. I know how much I will need for the amount of people I am making pancake sandwiches for.

Then you just put your favorite filler on one pancake and cover it with the other and make a sandwich out of it. If you are ever out of bread, don't fret, just make a small batch of pancakes small enough to make sandwiches.

Recipe for Toasted Tuna Sandwich

I am one that tries to have fish at least twice a week. I do love seafood, but I don't always have the funds to purchase my favorite kinds of fish, so I do the next best thing and buy several cans of tuna packed in water. I don't buy tuna in oil, because I don't like the taste, and I don't want the extra fat in my tuna sandwich. If you are diabetic, this recipe is a good one for you.

Here is what you need to make my toasted tuna sandwich recipe:

Your favorite kind of bread toasted: I use 100% whole wheat
1 can of tuna drained well
1/2 cup of chopped onion
1 hard boiled egg finely chopped
5 to 10 olives sliced or chopped
1 small dill pickle chopped
2 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise
Salt and Pepper to taste

Here is what you do to prepare the recipe:

This is what I do when I make this recipe. I put the onion, boiled egg, onion, and pickle into the food processor and transfer mixture into a bowl. You can chop all the ingredients if you like. Then add the drained tuna. Add the mayonnaise, salt and pepper to your liking. Spread the tuna mixture on toast.

Enjoy!

Recipe to make Poutine: The Meal to Die For

The following is an article was written by my dear writer friend, Carol Roach. I have never heard the name poutine, but I have had fries made this way. I've just called them cheese fries, but I am sure these are so much better. Please take a minute to read this well written article about how to make poutine.


Poutine: The Meal to Die For


Is it really possible, could it be true, is the last standing tradition in Quebec coming to an end? If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about I am talking about that wonderful gooey mess of food called poutine. Poutine is a traditional French Canadian dish originating in Quebec Though there are several stories about just where in Quebec this tasty dish comes from. Poutine has now become a national treat. Poutine pronounced by the rest of Canada as pooh teen, is actually pronounced, "puts in" here in Quebec.

If you ask Mr. Fernand Lachance of Warwick, Quebec, he will say that the dish originated in his restaurant, in 1957, when a customer came in to ask for a bag of deep fries and curd cheese. " Ça va faire une maudite poutine! 'That's going to make a terrible mess!" Lachance responded to his customer,

Mess or not, poutine became an instant success and customers began to ask for it on a regular basis. Lachance claims the popular dish we have today with the French fries cheese curds and brown gravy is again a family variation. He says he started serving the brown gravy because his wife made it and today we have the three-ingredient combination that we Queberers just love.

The story I heard was that poutine is a dish from Lac St. Jean, Quebec. Where ever it is from, I tell you that it is good.

How Do Make A Good Poutine

You start with fresh potatoes, cut your own, I don't use frozen potatoes
Fry them in vegetable oil, now some people say frying them in lard is better I don't know I never tried that.
Pour brown gravy on top of the French fries
Then add curds of cheese, the original recipe calls for Gouda, or white cheddar, but you can use mozzarella, which is what I use.

Heat in the oven until the cheese is melted or nuke it in the microwave if you wish.

It is a simple recipe that is eaten alone as a meal, or can be eaten with hamburgers or hotdogs, or anything really that you would normally have with French fries.

Cautionary note: don't over do it, poutine is very filling.

Link to Carol's content producer page

Recipes for Hodgepodge Meals

When it is nearing the end of the month, my pantry is usually pretty close to empty. I know there are many others who are in the same boat. You have more month than you have money, but you still have a family to feed. Many times I think I have nothing to make a meal with, and I go to searching. Some foods you might not even think would go well together to make a meal, but when you try it, you find out that the concoction you made is really very good. Maybe you can identify with some of my recipes for hodgepodge meals.

I made something the other night that was really more of a science experiment. I had 6 eggs, and 2 red tomatoes and 2 green tomatoes and some scallions. I had some left over rice in the refrigerator, so I just put that in the microwave to warm it up. In a frying pan I sauteed the scallions, and the tomatoes with a tad of salt.

In a medium sized bowl whisk the eggs until they were nice and frothy. When the onions and tomatoes start cooking down, add the eggs and scramble them all together until they are soft and frothy. You will want the eggs to be moist and not really dry so don't over cook them. When the tomato egg mixture is done, you just put it over rice. It would be good with oven broiled garlic toast also.

Another thing that I have done with eggs is add cream of mushroom soup to it and scramble the eggs until they are soft but not hard. We have eaten this with garlic toast. There are so many ways you can make eggs where you don't only think of them as a breakfast food. When you have to make your food stretch, you add filler ingredients to make enough to feed everyone.

A few months ago it was really tight here until payday, and I had almost nothing in the house. I did have corn meal, and I had milk and bread. I could have made cornbread, but I didn't want to. I really wanted something else. I remembered what my dad made us kids when we were small, and money was short. He made a cooked cereal out of corn meal. We called it corn meal mush, but I don't know if that is the real name for it.

All you do is put some water and butter in a pot and bring it to a boil. Start adding corn meal slowly and stir it. It will swell up just like cream of wheat. Add enough corn meal until the texture is like cream of wheat. I use yellow corn meal, but you can make it with white corn meal also. When it is done, pour it into cereal bowls, add sugar or sweetener and add milk. You eat it just like you would oatmeal or cream of wheat. I like to eat it with strawberry jam and toast on the side. This country breakfast is really very good.

So if you think you have nothing in your pantry or your refrigerator, look again. You just might find something there in which to make another meal. I am always thankful for the way I was raised. My dad was able to always put together meals to feed our family, when it seemed we didn't have anything.

Recipe for Caesar Salad

When I make a salad, I like it to be a complete meal in itself. I never have room for a salad and a meal because I like to put so much stuff on my salads that they fill me up without having a main course. This recipe for Caesar salad is one of my dads. I grew up with a great cook in the family, and almost everything I know about cooking I learned from him.

Here is what you need to make Caesar salad:

3 heads of romaine lettuce
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 crushed clove of garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
4 tablespoons of lemon juice (fresh not bottled)
1 tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce
1 and 1/2 tablespoons of wine vinegar
2/3 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 and 1/2 cups of croutons

Here is what you do to make Caesar salad:

Several hours before making the salad you will need to prepare the garlic and the olive oil. Add the crushed garlic to the olive oil and let it sit out for several hours. After several hours you may then remove the garlic from the oil and throw it away. Tear up the lettuce and place it into a large salad bowl. Hard boil the egg, and when it is cool mash it up pour over the salad. Combine the Worchestershire sauce, the wine vinegar, the lemon juice and the garlic flavored oil. Pour it over the salad and toss. Pour on the cheese and add the croutons and toss again.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Spicy Chicken nuggets

Do you like chicken nuggets? Would you love to make them yourself and have them just the way you like them? I do just that with my recipe for spicy chicken nuggets. My mom was a diabetic and she couldn't eat a lot of processed foods because of the hidden sugar or other chemicals that would make her terribly sick. I got this recipe from my dad. He always seemed to have her best interest at heart when he cooked.

Dad always bought chicken with the skin on it, because it was cheaper, but I usually buy chicken without the skin. It's just less work for me. I like to cut the chicken when it is about half frozen, because the knife glides through the flesh so much easier.

Here is what you need to make my recipe for spicy chicken nuggets:

White meat chicken pieces
Spice rub (I use McCormick's chicken rub)
1 egg with a dash of milk (whisked)
shake and bake Chicken flavor

Use as much chicken as you want for your meal. Rinse off the chicken to make sure it is clean before you start to cut it. Once the chicken is cut into bite-sized pieces place the pieces of chicken into a Ziploc bag and pour in 3 tablespoons of spicy chicken rub. Work the spice rub into the chicken and place in the refrigerator for an hour.

After the chicken has chilled for an hour in the spicy rub you will want to put a coating on the chicken nuggets. Beat 1 egg with a dash of milk in a large bowl. Now add the chicken nuggets to the egg wash. Then just shake up your chicken pieces in shake and bake and bake them for 18 to 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Philadelphia Steak Bagel Sandwich

I don't know about you, but I love making portable fun foods that taste great. You can buy these sandwich steaks at the grocery store. They are very thin and cook really fast. If you don't want to get the sandwich steaks, you can use left over roast beef. Or you can buy roast beef slices at the deli and they will work just lie the sandwich steaks.

Here is what you do to make my version of Philadelphia cheese steak bagel sandwich recipe:

Pour about an ounce of olive oil in a skillet. Cut up an onion and a green pepper and saute them in the olive oil. Let them start to get tender and then place the very thin steak or roast beef slices in there to cook. It will only take a few minutes, because the slices are paper thin.

Now open however many bagels you want, and place a slice of Swiss cheese on each half. Add the cooked steak, onions and peppers onto the all of the bagel slices and top again with Swiss cheese. Now pop the bagels into the broiler until the cheese is melted. Now put the two slices of bagel together and you have a nice thick Philly cheese steak bagel sandwich. My mom was diabetic. She ate these whenever dad would make them.

Recipe for Amish Friendship Bread from a Starter Mix

In order to make Amish Friendship Bread you have to have someone give you some starter. The starter mix is fade from flour, milk and sugar. In the place of flour I use Bisquick instead, and this works really well. I will write the directions using the word flour but if you prefer to use Bisquick it turns out even better. I got my starter mix from a friend who got hers from a friend and on the generations of friendship bread starter mix goes back. I'm not sure how old the original starter mix is, because I'm not sure how far back the line of friends go. There may be starter mixes several years old.

On July 12 I received a Ziploc storage bag with a portion of starter mix. The mix contained fermented starter mix that my friend Brenda had made and fermented from the starter mix she had received from her friend. Along with the starter mix I received a set of instructions. Now each person that gets the fermented starter mix records the day they received the mix. I received mine on the 12th, so it sits on my counter top in the original ziploc bag in which I received it.

Here's what you do to make the Amish friendship bread starter recipe:

If you don't have anyone to give you a starter mix you will have to make your own. In a ziploc bag put one cup of milk, 1 envelope of dry yeast, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of flour and it works really well. Close the bag and mash the bag until the liquid and solids are combined.

Now leave it on your counter. Make sure you mash the bag to mix the ingredients, and don't put any metal spoons in there to mix with. It works best to just mash the bag to do the mixing.

Record the date. Count this date as day 1.

Day 2 mash the bag

Day 3 mash the bag

Day 4 mash the bag-periodically you will have to unseal the bag to let air out because the bag will blow up like a balloon as the mixture ferments).

Day 5 mash the bag

Day 6 add 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour, and 1 cup of sugar. Now mash the bag until ingredients are mixed.

Day 7 mash the bag

Day 8 mash the bag

Day 10 mash the bag

Day 10 add 1.5 (one and one-half) cups of flour, 1.5 cups of sugar and 1.5 cups of milk. If you want to you can do this step in a non-metal bowl. It might make it easier when you have to divide up the batter.

Now split up the batter into equal 1 cup starter kits in 4 Ziploc 1 gallon bags. Keep one of the starter kits for yourself and give others away to your friends. Encourage them to do the same. Be sure to give them these directions so that they know how to make the Amish Friendship Starter mix.

Once you give away your starters, keep the one cup of starter and start the process over again, but leave out the yeast. You don't need to add any more yeast, because the yeast is still alive and growing as you keep feeding it with sugar and flour and milk. So every 10 days you will be making starter and giving it away. It is this chemical process that makes the bag expand with air.

If you don't want to use a Ziploc bag to make the starter in, you may use a non-metal bowl. If using a bowl to ferment the starter, use a wooden spoon to stir it with each day. Don't use a metal utensil because that will ruin your mixture.

Now here's the recipe directions for the making of the bread from the starter mix:

This is what you need to do:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Take 1 cup of starter mix and place in a bowl add 3 eggs, one-half cup of milk, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, one-half teaspoon of salt, 1 large box of Instant vanilla pudding. Also add 1 cup of raisins, 1 cup of Diamond Walnuts chopped, and 1 cup of chocolate chips.

Now add three-fourths cup of melted butter or margarine, add 1 cup of sugar and one-half teaspoon of vanilla. Add 2 cups of flour. Mix well until all the ingredients are incorporated.

Grease to loaf pans with butter or margarine. In a separate bowl mix up a half cup of sugar with a half teaspoon of cinnamon and sprinkle the inside of the greased bread pans. Now pour or spoon out the bread batter into your loaf pans. You can also use a large bundt pan if you want to instead of the bread pans.

Bake the bread for 60 minutes. Be sure to let the bread cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the bread or bundt pans. Cooling allows for the bread to shrink away from the sides of the pans.

Now with the remaining 3 bags of starter mix, keep one for yourself and give the other two away. You will make lots of friends this way. As long as you have starter mix keep it out fermenting and every 10 days separate it and start the process again. Hope you don't run out of friends to give this to! If you don't have anyone to give the starter to you can freeze it. You won't kill the yeast. When you are ready to use the frozen starter just let it thaw for 3 hours to room temperature before using it.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Great Snacks Featuring Hillshire Farm Smoked Italian Sausage

Recently I had planned a little get together for after church; all the sisters of the church were coming. As luck would have it I didn't get to the store in time to get what I needed to serve my guests. I usually go to the store way ahead and have the food in the freezer for when I need it, but I go
t distracted and by the time I thought of getting the food I was broke.

If I do say so, I think I can think on my feet. I looked to see what I had to work with and I saw that I had Italian smoked sausage by Hillshire Farm. I had plenty of that so I started looking around for something to go with it. I was able to pull off two great snacks to serve. The first one was something similar to pigs in a blanket, which I call sausage and cheese wraps, and the other one was what I called pigs in sweet sauce.

Here is what need for sausage and cheese wraps:

Grand's refrigerated biscuits
1 pack sausage
1 block Cracker Barrel cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the biscuit dough so that the pieces are lying flat on a floured surface; flatten them with your hand, so they can be filled. Cut up small pieces of sausage and small pieces of cheese and fold the biscuit over and seal each one so the cheese will stay inside. The biscuit dough should flatten to at least double in their circumference. Place your filled biscuits on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown. The biscuit dough will bake a little faster than normally because they are thinner, so you will need to keep a watch on them to make sure they don't burn.

Here is what you need for Pigs in sweet sauce:

1 cup current jelly
1 tbsp honey
1 cup ketchup
1 pack sausage cut up into small pieces

In a small skillet add the jelly, honey and ketchup, heat until it begins to boil. Lower heat and add the sausage. Let the sausage heat through for about 10 minutes. Serve hot in a bowl and let people serve themselves with toothpicks. This is especially good served with sharp cheddar cheese on the side.

Recipe for Jiffy Cornbread Salad

Jiffy Cornbread is a staple I keep in my pantry. Normally, I am not fond of cornbread, but I love Jiffy! I bake Jiffy sometimes just to have cornbread and milk for breakfast or dinner. But I have experimented with Jiffy and found that I can make some very interesting meals with this wonderful staple. I can make a complete meal with Jiffy in the form of salads and casseroles. The first one is Jiffy Cornbread salad, and the other one is Jiffy Corn and Bean Casserole.

Jiffy - Cornbread Salad

2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix

12 slices bacon

2 cups sour cream

1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

2 cups mayonnaise

2 cans kidney beans

4 finely chopped tomatoes

2 cans (drained) whole kernel corn

1 can button mushrooms

1 large onion chopped

1 bell pepper chopped

3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

First step - Empty both packages of Jiffy Cornbread Mix into a bowl and mix as directed on the box. Let it cool and then crumble it all up and put aside until later.

Fry up the bacon until it is crispy. When the bacon is done, lay it out on paper towels to drain. When it is, cool crumble it up into little pieces.

Second step - In a small mixing bowl add sour cream, mayonnaise, and ranch dressing mix. Mix well with a wire whisk.

Third step - In a fairly large bowl or serving dish make layers of corn bread, beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms, bacon and cheese. You should be able to make at least 3 layers of each. Cover the salad with cling wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours before you are ready to eat. Some folks don't like mushrooms, but we do. You can add or leave out any of these ingredients and add some that you think of.

Recipe for Mom's Potato Salad

Everyone has their own way they like potato salad. Many of us have had our recipes handed down to us from our mom's, and their mom's before them. My daughter makes the same potato salad that I grew up with as a kid. My mom's recipe for potato salad differed from all the people we knew. The ingredient that made ours different were olives and paprika.

Here is what you need to make Mom's recipe for potato salad:

1 large boiling pot
10 fairly large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of vinegar
1 finely chopped onion
1 large dill pickle finely chopped
5 hard boiled eggs finely chopped
1 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 cup of sliced olives
1/2 cup of black olives
Several good shakes of paprika

Here is what you do to make Mom's recipe for potato salad:

Boil the diced potatoes until they are tender, and then drain them. Run some cold water over them if you like to cool them off. When they are drained well pour the diced potatoes over into a large mixing bowl. Add the oil, vinegar, pickle, onion, black and green olives. Mince up the eggs (I like to put them through my food processor.) Put about half the eggs in the potato salad, and mix well. Add the mayonnaise and combine all the ingredients. Now transfer the salad into a decorative salad bowl. Top the salad with the rest of the crumbled egg and then shake on the paprika so there is a pretty red coating over the eggs. Cover the salad with plastic wrap, and refrigerate before serving.

Enjoy!

Recipe for Spicy Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings; I buy them already separated into two pieces and the little wing tip is cut off. This recipe for spicy chicken wings is good for a lunch, dinner, snack or party. Bear in mind that I like my chicken wings hot and spicy. You can adjust this recipe to your own liking, if you don't like as much heat as I do.

Here is what you need to make spicy chicken wings:
3 pounds of split chicken wings

This is for the marinate:

1/2 cup of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of chili sauce
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tablespoons of honey
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3/4 teaspoon of ginger
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons of Louisiana Hot Sauce

Here is what you do to make spicy chicken wings:

Pour all the liquid and dry ingredients into a Ziploc bag. Close the bag and mix up the ingredients well. Then open the bag and place all the chicken wings in the marinate. Let as much air out of the bag as you can before sealing the Ziploc, and lay the bag flat on a plate or pan in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

After the chicken wings have marinated for the 4 hours, take the chicken wings out of the bag and arrange them in a roasting or baking pan. Pour the marinate on top and bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes until done. When done arrange the chicken wings on a plate and pour the drippings from the marinate over the wings. Serve with blue cheese or ranch dressing. Add extra hot sauce if you desire.

Recipe for Stuffed Hamburgers

I like to experiment with food, just like a lot of other people do. Everything, or almost everything comes out great when I just think it up. Last week I made stuffed hamburgers. Here is what I did:

I took 2 pounds of hamburger and put it into a mixing bowl (you can use how much you think you will need) because I like left overs for the next day.
Next chop up some onion (I like to chop my onions in in my little food processor). Add them to the burger. Add two beaten eggs and onion soup mix.
I like to also add a good dollop of steak sauce.

Next I work it in all together and I make my burgers into large, and fairly thin patties. I go ahead and make them all into patties and place them on a sheet of aluminum foil.

Next I cut some extra sharp cheddar cheese. I like the New York cheese the best. I cut them in cubes and place a cube on half of the hamburgers.

Next use the other half of the patties to go on top of the patties with the cheese on it. Now go around the edges and seal them. I line a large baking pan with foil and place the stuffed burgers on them.

Next place them into a hot oven 375 degrees and bake for about 50 minutes. Serve with salad and garlic bread and you have a great meal.

Recipe for Ham and Cheese Macaroni Soup

This is a comfort food that was one of my father's favorites. If you like sharp cheddar cheese you will love this recipe, but if you don't like sharp cheese you can use the milder brands, and you can use Velveeta processed cheese if you want to. I have made it with sharp and processed cheese and both are very good.

I like to use canned ham in this, but if you have any left over ham from another meal you can dice that ham up also. I've even used SPAM in this soup when I was totally out of money and had to make do with what I had. I am nothing, if not resourceful.

Here is what you need to make ham and cheese macaroni soup:

1 pound of elbow macaroni (or any shape you like best)
2 and 1/2 cups of sharp cheddar cheese (I use Cabot cheese, but you can use any kind you like)
2 and 1/2 cups of diced ham
1 and 1/2 quarts of V-8 Juice (or tomato juice if you prefer)

Here is what you do:

Boil the macaroni until it is almost done and drain it. Return the drained macaroni into the skillet and add the V-8 juice , ham and cheese. Cook on low heat for about 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the ham is hot.

Note: when melted, cheddar cheese is sort of stringy in the soup. It has a wonderful texture. If you like cheese you will love this. This soup sticks to your ribs. I like to top my soup with a little hot sauce and crackers.

Enjoy!