What a fun weekend:)  I hate to see it come to an end. Paul and I took SareBear to see The Lion King yesterday:) She loved it:) We saw it a few years back but wanted to take her this time. I forgot some of the bits of it so it was just as wonderful the second time:)  Afterwards, we went to Grand Lux Cafe then did a little shopping at Marshall Fields (Yes, I know it’s Macy’s now but I still can’t accept it).  Today, we took the kids and a friend to see the “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”.  What a good movie. Jamie and Matthew both have read the books. I think they were a little disappointed but still liked the movie. They are still learning that the book is always better than the movie in these cases. They showed a trailer for the new Harry Potter movie. SOOooOOooo looking forward to that one:)  I told Paul that we need to have a HP Marathon right before we go to see the new one (and need to re-read the book:).  I read an article just yesterday that JK Rowling hasn’t ruled out another HP book:) YaY!!:)  So anyway:)

I made this next recipe today actually:) I’ve been meaning to make it for a couple of weeks.  It comes from our extended family in Cyprus (my sister-in-law’s mom and dad:).  I really liked them. I served them with buttered egg noodles.

Mr. Bryan said, “Can be served/eaten hot or cold with or without other vegetables as a starter or main meal, also excellent to take on picknicks. We find with mashed potatoes excellent. We also find vegetable cooking oil best to our taste, and as with all simple recipes quantities can be adjusted to individual tastes.”

I modified the recipe a little because I didn’t have 3/4 kilo (1.6 pounds) of pork. I only had a tad over a pound.  So I will show my adjustments:)

Give it a try:) Enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

3/4 kilo minced pork meat. (1.1 pounds)
1 cup of grated potatoes. (2/3 C.)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs. (1/3 C.)
1/2 cup of finely chopped onion. (1/3 C.)
1 egg.
salt and pepper to taste.

HERE’S What You Do:

In a bowl, combine your meat, potatoes, onions, bread crumbs, eggs and seasoning.

Combine and knead until well mixed. Cover and set aside for about 30 minutes.

In a skillet, heat your oil and fry your meatballs on all sides until they are done through. Can I TELL YOU how good these smell while they are cooking?!?!;) Remove and drain on paper towel.

Serve with potatoes or buttered noodles:) Very very yum:) Thanks Mr Bryan and Mrs Harri!!

It’s Friday!! YaY!!!

What a busy week. Paul and I went into Downtown on Wednesday with Sarah’s class. They are studying Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities in Social Studies so they took a field trip:) I was really surprised that there were kids that had not been on a train nor had some of them been Downtown. I guess the later surprises me most since we are so close.  Paul and I went with Matthew’s class when they did it in 3rd grade. It’s a flying trip, but it was fun:) Between this, class and the kids after-school obligations, hasn’t left me with a lot of spare time. However, I did make crumpets on Tuesday:)  So that’s today’s recipe:)

Today’s recipe is from my good friend, Steph in Nebraska:)  She has recently begun a foodie blog  called Mmmm Good. She and her daughter, Shannon, blogged about these crumpets last month so I had to give them a try. Man are they nice when they are right off the griddle or even toasted the next day!  Even though Sarah and I really enjoyed them, I’m going to try to freeze them next time because I got 10 out of the batch.  Steph has 2 different recipes for crumpets. This is the one she recommended to me – so glad you did Chickie!! They are lovely;) Hope everyone will give it a try. What a nice treat for breakfast!  Enjoy!;)

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)
2 teaspoons sugar
2/3 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

HERE’S What You Do:

In your big mixing bowl, combine your yeast, sugar and warm water. Stir it up a bit and let it set for a few minutes (Steph says about 5 minutes). It should get kinda puffy. Then, add your milk, (2 T) butter and egg. Mix that up well. Add the flour and salt next and beat it until smooth. It's thick and kinda sticky at this point.

Cover and set aside. Let it rise until it's double in size.

Heat your griddle up and melt your butter. You will need some sort of metal rings for this and if you don't have round cookie cutters or biscuit cutters, Steph's daughter came up with the mason jar rings:) Pretty darn smart! I put them in a bowl and sprayed them down well with Pam. Place them on the griddle. Be careful because they heat up fast!!

Fill each of the rings 3/4 full with crumpet batter. It'll puff up so don't fill them completely. You'll probably hear a sizzle when you put the batter in the rings:) Love that sizzle:)

After just a couple of minutes, with a pair of tongs, carefully remove your rings from each of the crumpets. Let them continue to cook until the underneath side is golden brown. When you go to turn them over, do so gently because you don't want them to splat and be bigger on one side than the other.

Continue cooking until both sides are golden and done through.

Slice in half, serve straight from the griddle with your favorite jelly or jam (because by now, you aren't going to want to wait until the next morning!:) Oh, and definitely have one the next morning toasted:) YuM!!!!:)

Good Monday morning!!:) How are yall?  Weekend is never long enough is it?  I’m sitting here having my coffee watching the news and contemplating my day.  Momma will be here in less than 2 weeks, I’m super excited:)  She’ll be here for 8 days. She usually comes for a week or so around her birthday. It’s not to hot and not to cold this time of year.  Although, saying that, she freezes in anything under 80 degrees!  Jamie takes after her.  He freeeeezes while MyMatthew is sitting there in t-shirt and shorts sweating:)

So, the brownies… Paul got me Trisha Yearwood’s  ”Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen” a few weeks ago and I love it. The recipe made 12 individual brownies – I used a new pan that my friend Monica gave me. It’s really cool. There is one brownie left but that’s because Sarah has laid claim to it for lunch today:) It’s hot dog day and so I will be taking something for lunch up to her. She says that hot dogs give her a headache.  Bless her heart, when she gets a headache, they are really bad (Jamie is the same way).  I’m not sure what I’m taking up there, but the brownie will be included!:)  There are so many great recipes in this book but I have laughed because several of her things are things I already make the same  way;) That’s pretty cool:)  Give these brownies a try, I can guarantee that they won’t be around long:) Enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

2 oz unsweet baking chocolate

1/3 C. shortening (like solid Crisco)

2 large eggs

1 C. sugar

2/3 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 C. chopped pecans (I omitted these since the kids don’t like them)

1 Tsp vanilla extract

HERE’S What You Do:

***Preheat the oven to 350 F

Chop up your chocolate and in a microwavable bowl, melt your chocolate and your shortening

Microwave til smooth - You can also do this on the stove top but this was much faster.

While your chocolate cools down a bit, in a separate bowl, beat your 2 eggs really well

Add your sugar and mix well.

Stream your chocolate into the sugar/egg mix while beating at the same time. Lookin' pretty darn good huh?:)

Sift your flour,baking powder and salt into a bowl together.

Blend in your flour mixture.

Prepare your pan:) This is the one my friend Monica gave me:)

Spread evenly. These actually turned out a bit to thin, so I'll only make half of them next time in this pan. Bake 20 - 30 minutes (depending on your pan). Done when you insert a knife and it comes out clean:)

Brownies and a big old glass of cold milk! Mmm Mmm MM!!!

How is everyone this fine Saturday evening?  Paul and I are sitting here watching LSU vs West Virginia.  It’s a great game, but I’m so scared that LSU is going to give it up this 2nd half!

Paul and I went to the movies yesterday afternoon. Wall Street came out and Paul has been waiting on it. I think we were both disappointed.  I mean there was a fun surprise in it, Bud Fox. The movie had so much potential but it just never delivered. Another movie we wanted to go see is “Still Waiting on Superman”.  However,  it isn’t showing around here anywhere.  Tomorrow, we hope to take the kids to see the “The Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”.  Matthew and Jamie have been so looking forward to seeing it.  We’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

It got really chilly here today. I don’t think it even made it up to 60 degree. Probably hung in there at 58.  We went up to a craft fair and I wore a sweatshirt but I wore capri pants and flip flops. I froze. Yeah just can’t quite let go of summer yet. I am a total flip-flops girl.  When we got home, I went and put on my flannel jammies and started my gumbo:)  Perfect day for it;) I also baked some brownies (I’ll share those with you later on). They turned out really good too:)  I have to admit, I made Paul … or WAS making Paul potato soup because he’s not a gumbo person.  I didn’t have button mushrooms on hand so I used the cremini ones I had. *sighs* I don’t know. They didn’t smell bad in the package but when I started cooking them down in butter, it had a weird, almost fishy(??) smell.  I haven’t used cremini before so we weren’t sure if that was just the way they smelled.  I got it all put together and the soup color was kinda grey. Paul took a taste and … yeah.. well… he ate gumbo tonight:)  I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the mushrooms because I’ve made potato soup a gazillion times before and that’s the only thing I did differently this time.  I’m waiting for it to cool so I can throw it out.  Anyway, yall have a great weekend. Hope you get a chance to try this gumbo:) Enjoy!!

GEAUX TIGERS!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

1 whole cut up chicken

1 pound of good smoked sausage – I use smoke polish sausage because I can’t get andouille up here

1 pkg frozen onions or 1 pkg frozen season blend (the one with like onions, bellpepper etc)

big stock pot

parsley (flat leaf)

1 bunch green onions

roux (1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup oil)

cooked white rice

HERE’S What You Do:

First, you make a roux:) 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup flour in an iron skillet. You really don't have to have an iron skillet I guess, but I've never made it in anything else;)

Blend together on medium heat. Stir often.

It's getting there. This is kinda the roux's "ugly stage". Don't walk away at this point. Stir almost constantly from here.

Almost there, keep stirring.

Done! Kind of looks like melted chocolate doesn't it?:)

You could actually start this part while you're making your roux. Fill your stock pot about half full of water. Bring to a boil.

Once your roux is done and your water comes to a boil, CAREFULLY put your roux into your water. PLEASE be careful here because it will flash boil on you and burn the heck out of you (you know hot oil into water and all!) Once you get your roux stirred in, put your pkg of frozen onions or seasoning blend in at this point. Let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

While you're waiting, wash your chicken parts. I really only use the legs, thighs and breasts. Season them well. Salt, pepper, garlic powder... Tony's is good too. Drop the pieces into your pot and let cook for about 15 minutes.

Sanitize!! Don't want none of that Salmonella thankyouverymuch!!

Once you have your area cleaned, slice up your sausage and drop into your pot. Continue cooking for at least an hour. Yeah, not a quick dish really but so worth the wait:)

***I debone my chicken right before the next step. You don’t have too, but to me,  it makes it so much easier to eat:)

About 15 - 20 minutes before you plan on serving, cut up your parsley and green onions and throw on over into the pot. Make sure you've got your rice cooker on because you are almost done:)

Give it another good stir and you're ready to eat:) Put you some rice in a bowl and ladle over with plenty of broth and lots of good chicken and sausage:) Ca C'est Bon!:)

***Remember too, when you go to refrigerate your leftovers, do NOT put your rice into your gumbo. Store it separately. I put mine into a big old ziploc and microwave it that way the next day. Even better the next day!

Good morning! It’s the first OFFICIAL day of Autumn (my favorite season!!).  Did anyone see the Super Harvest Moon last night? I didn’t, I missed it. Pretty bummed about that because now I have to wait 20 years to see it again.  Anyway, I hope everyone else got a chance though.   When it was supposed to be optimal viewing (around 6:20 cst), I was baking banana bread and talking to my neighbor through my kitchen window;)  I was making bread and frying minute steaks (Chicken Fried Steak).  My kids go CRAZY when I make banana bread.  They wipe it out in no time at all, so I made 2 batches last night.  The muffins and part of one loaf are already gone.  I found this EASY PEASY recipe on Mommy’s Kitchen. This is the second time I’ve made it. As I said, I ended up doubling the recipe. I came out with 2 regular loaves (no nuts), one smallish loaf (with walnuts) 6 muffins with walnuts and 6 muffins without.  While I was making them yesterday, they could hardly wait til they were cooled enough to eat:) That’s the kind of recipe I like!  Yall give it a try:) ENJOY!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

(this recipe is not the doubled)

1 box yellow cake mix

1/3 cup Crisco Oil

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

3 really ripe bananas

walnuts or pecans (optional)

HERE’S What You Do:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a bowl, mix up your cake mix, eggs, oil and milk. The batter will be thicker than normal batter.

Break up/Smoosh up Add your bananas

My naners weren't getting really mooshed so I had to kinda guide them with my rubber scraper into the beater. Now, here is where you want to sample a bit.. I like to think of it as "quality assurance":)

Pour into your prepared (Pam'd) tins and cups. I sprinkled walnuts on the tops of the nutty ones so I'd remember. Give the kids the beater(s) and the bowl (Or keep them for yourself! I won't tell:)

Bake the loaves for about 35 ish minutes. The muffins not so long. I am really terrible about timing my baking. Does this make me irresponsible? (Don't answer that) Anyway, insert a knife and when it's clean, YER DONE!! Let them cool while you make a pot of coffee and enjoy!!