Home, Sweet Home

I promised some pictures of my new home so . . . .

Kitchen counter with my canisters


Dining room wall - we were shopping at a Mennonite store and saw this sign - we both said "Oh, I like that" - so we bought it - we are truly blessed

My messy, messy desk


One of the walls in my office

Bittersweet on the front door

I will be posting more pictures later on . . . .

Just wanted all of my readers to know that I really appreciate them! We have been rushed for dinners some nights around here, so I wanted to share one of the better ones we have had lately.

Sweet-n-Spicy Sausage and Rice

Serves 4

1 lb Little Smokies - or sliced smoked sausage
1 jar sweet-n-sour sauce - I used La Choy
A handful of chopped green and red peppers
1 small onion, sliced (optional)
1 (8 oz) can tidbit pineapple, drained
1/4 teaspoon (or more if you like it spicier) crushed red pepper flakes
Cooked rice

Bung all of the above in a small crockpot - I used my 1-1/2 quart - and turn it on high for 2 hours or so. Serve hot over rice.




Easy peasy and even my picky DS liked it!

My Wonderful Life

My life has not always been wonderful. But, that was my own doings. Thankfully, I have learned from my mistakes and right now I feel my life is pretty wonderful. No, it may not always be this way, but for now it is pretty good.

I have peace and contentment. While I may not have everything I want, I have everything I need and that is okay with me.

These are the halcyon days to bask in, to fling wide open the doors to your soul and drink in the vastness of beauty that is God. There is a freshness in my heart. A yearning for simplicity.

I have never been one to much care what anyone else thought of me, or of what I wore or of what I did. Who cares what anyone else thinks, they are not living my life, they are not in my same circumstances.

I know that this post is pretty random, just trying to get a few things out of my head!

As much as I love Chinese take-out, it is expensive. Last night we had family over for dinner. I made some sweet and sour pork (blushing here - from a mix), fried rice and this easy-peasy dish below.

Empress Beef
Serves 4-6

1/2 pound boneless sirloin steak (I think I used closer to a pound)
oil
1/4 pound fresh snow pea pods, trimmed (I used broccoli)
3 celery stalks, julieened
Fresh mushrooms, sliced - probably about half of an 8 ounce container - we like 'shrooms!
1 large onion, sliced
1/2 can water chestnuts
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
Hot cooked rice to serve

Slice steak in 1/4 inch strips. Pour oil in wok or heavy skillet. Heat. Add steak, stirfry for 5 minutes. Take steak out. Add veggies, stirfry until moderately tender, about 3-5 minutes. Combine water, soy sauce, cornstarch and sugar. Mix well. Remove veggies from pan. Pour cornstarch mixture into pan and whisk to deglaze the pan. Cook to thicken. Add beef and vegs back to pan, stir to coat with sauce.

I added some carrot, julieened and 1/2 can of bamboo shoots, julieened. I also added in 2 fat cloves of garlic, minced fine when I added the vegs.



My SIL could not believe how easy this was! It is even easier if you don't burn yourself like I did! I had the bowl with the beef and vegs behind my burner when making the sauce. Duh - it was getting hot! I grabbed it and ow, ow, ow, burned my thumb pretty good.

Taco-Tator Casserole

Sometimes we get too busy. Too busy to appreciate the blessing of family.

I know I do at times. Working a 40-hour a week job, working in the house, cooking and cleaning, giving time to my son and my fiance. Sometimes I feel there is no time for me.

But then I think - how lonely would I be if it were just me? No family around?

My middle brother has been working here in town doing some yardwork to make some extra money. He comes over in the afternoons after working his regular job and brings his wife and her 8 year old granddaughter. Sometimes, it drives me crazy, as I have to work some evenings. Today, I just decided to let it go. And I thanked God for the blessing of having family close.

I made this casserole with a fresh salad for supper. Turned out great. Nice and restful. God knows what we need!

Taco Tator Casserole
Serves a bunch!

2 pounds ground beef
1/4 to 1/2 cup onion, chopped
2/3 cup water
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 can nacho cheese soup, undiluted
1 can corn, drained
grated cheddar cheese
1 bag tator tots

Brown ground beef in skillet with onion. Drain fat off. (I usually put it in a colander and run hot, hot water over it.) Add water and taco seasoning and simmer for a bit. Add corn and soup, mix well. Pour into a 9 x 13 greased pan. Top with grated cheddar cheese if desired (this was my addition, not in original recipe). Top that with tator tots and bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with a fresh salad. I think this would be good with some black olives sliced into the soup mixture, and some extra peppers.



It is always good to toss your tots with a little olive oil - makes them crispier!

Simple snackies

I like simple snackies. Something you can throw together in a flash and nibble on.

So this is not as much of a recipe as a guideline as it were:

A slice of cheddar cheese and half an apple

Pepper jack cheese and plain saltines

Fresh pear slices and a bit of Gorgonzola

Fresh cherries and custard

Hershey's bar and peanut butter

French bread slices with left-over steak

Sliced turkey breast with Dijon Mustard - this is my fave for after Thanksgiving

One of my favorite little snackies is one that my dear Mother made for us when we were kids. It is best eaten in the fall! Just take a bag or container of candy corn and a can of cocktail peanuts (without skins). Mix the two together and much away. Horrible for you, but oh, so good! I like to mix in a bag of plain M&Ms and some raisins, too! This is good at Halloween in little bags, too. Something about the sweet and salty together - MMMMMMMmmmmmmm.




I am absolved of all blame if anyone becomes addicted to the above mixture!

Pizza Tot Casserole

Ok, yet another quick-n-easy! But kids of all ages LOVE this and it is indeed quick, freezes well also. We took a pan to my sick auntie.

It is a not-so-traditional spin on a hamburger-tator tot casserole.

Hope everyone is doing well with the heat, we are back to normal here. We did get some nice rain, about 1-1/2 inches.

This is a TOH recipe.

Pizza Tot Casserole
Serves 4-6

1 pound hamburger (can use sausage here)
1/2 of green bell pepper, chopped small
1/2 medium onion, chopped small
1 can tomato soup, not diluted
1 can mushrooms, drained
1 fat clove garlic, minced
Italian seasoning to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 bag frozen tator tots
Snipped pepperoni - optional

Grease a 9 x 11 pan. Preheat oven to 350F. Brown hamburger with garlic, pepper and onion in skillet. Drain well (I usually rinse with boiling water after draining). Stir in tomato soup and season to taste. Mix in mushrooms. Spread in pan. Top with cheese and finally with tator tots. Top that with the snipped pepperoni. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve with crusty breadsticks and a nice green salad.



You can mix and match this however you like, according to what you usually put on your pizza. Throw some canadian bacon in, or olives.

Chicken Enchiladas

Ok, I know that just about everyone has a version of chicken enchiladas. So today, you all are going to get mine! Note that this is another quick-n-easy recipe. The other night I was going to have left-overs for supper, when to my surprise, all of the left-overs were gone! So another quickie! I do promise that I don't cook like this ALL the time!

I made 2 more pans of these this morning, one to take to my sick auntie and one to pop in the freezer for us. Don't imagine it will be around long.

Chicken Enchiladas

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
Approximately 1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
1 small can chicken gravy
1 can green enchilada sauce
Corn tortillas

In a bowl, mix chicken, 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, gravy, sour cream and about 1/3 can of enchilada sauce.

Grease 2 8-inch pans.

Warm tortillas slightly in microwave so they are pliable. Take a tortilla and spoon a heaping tablespoon of filling down the middle. Roll up and place seam side down in the pan. Repeat until you run out of filling. You can use more or less filling, depends on how quick you want to get done!

When done, drizzle 1/3 can of enchilada sauce on each pan. Then put about 3/4 cup of cheese on top.



You can now freeze this for baking later or bake it right now. Bake about 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

You can mix up the cheese and the sauce for these, use pepper jack cheese or a hot enchilada sauce if you like it spicy. You can also saute onions and peppers and add to the filling. I am just giving you bare bones here. Also, DS does not care for onions and peppers, so I try to accommodate! Also before you bake, sliced black olives are great to strew over the top. Serve with a green salad with fresh tomatoes.

Another Quick-n-Easy

I know, I know. I am getting lazy? When it is hot and humid as it has been here, kinda saps me. I look for what I can find that is quick and easy to throw on the table to satisfy the hungry horde at this house.

For those of you who may be new here, I live in an extended family situation. My DS and I live with my parents. My oldest brother lives just down the street and my neice and her 2 sons live across town (about 5 blocks or so). So instead of having 4 people at a meal, we may have as meany as 8. So even if I try to plan a night for leftovers, a lot of times that does not happen. But I would not have it any other way, I love my family!

Anyway, it was like 97F here yesterday and I was not wanting to cook something after working all day, getting off at 6 PM.

So I rummaged around and here is what I came up with.

Quick-N-Easy Sweet-N-Sour Meatballs
Serves 4-5

There are entirely too many hypens in that name!

1 package (1 pound) frozen meatballs
1 jar sweet-n-sour sauce
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and cut in large dice
1/2 medium onion, peeled and cut into large dice
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1 (8 oz) can tidbit pineapple, drained

Bung all of the above ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on high for 2 hours, low for 4 hours. Or you can do it in a skillet on top of the stove, just cook your meatballs with onions and peppers first, then throw in the rest of ingredients and simmer over low until good and hot. Serve over rice. I did mine in the slow cooker, threw it in a 4 pm. I did brown my pepper and onion a bit in a skillet before putting it in with the rest.



This was pretty good, for being a throw-together quickie! You can add any manner of vegs that you like, I think mushrooms would be good here, too.

I am having a terrible time with my photos here lately! Blogger had an internal error and photobucket never works any more! Agh! any suggestions?

Wouldn't you know, after I had already threw this in to cook, about 5:30 my gentleman friend called and wanted to know did I want him to bring pizza over! I had to tell him no, I am already cooking something, sorry! Maybe next time!

Quick-n-Easy

I like to take my time and fix a meal. I don't mind recipes that have lots of steps. But sometimes I am in a hurry. We had unexpected company for lunch on Sunday. Now, on Sundays I usually sleep in a bit. Instead of getting up at 5:30 or 6:00, I usually sleep till 7:00 or so. I get up, fix some breakfast and get ready to go to church, we head out the door about 9:30. Lunch a lot of times on Sunday afternoons is whatever they have that looks good from the Deli. Unless I stick something in the crockpot. We usually get home between 12:30 and 1:00 and eat, then take a nap.

Well, with unexpected company, we had to make do. We had some salad and with fresh tomatoes, that was no problem. We got some chips out and made some iced tea. But what to make for a main?

We had hot dogs, so here is what I came up with.

Sorry, no pics, they were devoured on the spot.

Barbecued Hot Dogs
Serves 4-6 depending on how hungry you are

1 onion, slivered
2 tablespoons butter (I used olive oil)
8 hot dogs
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup ketchup
3 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon mustard (I used more)
Buns

In saucepan, brown onion in butter. Add rest of ingredients except buns and hot dogs, simmer 30 minutes. Pot hot dogs all over with a fork and place in oblong baking dish. Pour sauce over hot dogs. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve hot on buns.

Now, since I was in a hurry, I just put the oil in a skillet and threw the hotdogs and onion in and browned them a bit. I mixed all of the other ingredients (forgot the vinegar!) and poured it in and then let that simmer for a while, until the sauce thickened up a bit. I did not measure, but it still came out delicious. I also added in about 1/2 teaspoon or so of liquid smoke. They were quite tasty and quick!