Sausage Chips

If your looking for a new, unique snack or appetizer, try these sausage chips! They were so easy and just like potato chips, you
can't eat just one!

Apple Danish Roll-Ups

This is a quick easy dessert that tastes like it came from a fancy bakery! I've seen many recipes with apples rolled in store bought refrigerated crescent biscuits, but that wasn't good enough for me! Noooo, I had to tweak it and change it to make it into something different!

Chicken Scampi

I love a good shrimp scampi! My kids...not so much! They're just not a fan of shrimp! So I decided to switch the shrimp for chicken! It worked...they loved this! 

Five Minute Chocolate Mousse!

When I have a chocolate craving I want something fast! So having this simple recipe is a joy! I didn't think it was possible to make chocolate mousse that fast! But after trying this recipe I was happy to see that it can be done!

Tastee Apple Giveaway!

I have been a big fan of Tastee Gourmet Apples for a long time! I buy them whenever I see them in my local food stores! These apples are always so juicy and decadent! You may have seen me blog about them a few times in the past!

All Free Casserole Recipes Website

I was very honored recently to have 3 of my casserole recipes posted on the All Free Casserole Recipes website! That site has so many interesting categories such as...

Foodie Review - a section where the editors tell us about food products that they've tried.

Featured Foodie - a section where they highlight certain food bloggers.

Free eCookbooks - a section where you can look through all the free eBooks they offer.

Plus sections for giveaways and grocery coupons! And of course, many sections of different casseroles such as chicken, beef, vegetarian, dessert and even diet casseroles!

These are my 3 casserole recipes that they published on their site...



Corn Dog Casserole
Click title to see recipe

The Sloppy Shepard
Click title to see recipe







One Pan Baked Potato Casserole
Click title to see recipe



I love the well written recipe descriptions they added to each one of my recipes!

Go check out my recipes and tell me what you think!

For St. Patty's Day!



I'm not Irish but I made this corned beef and cabbage for dinner last St. Patty's Day in honor of the holiday! 'Corned Beef and Cabbage I' ...and I followed what this reviewer said...

 

Reviewed: Mar. 6, 2008

"I take the corned beef out and while the cabbage, carrots and pot's are cooking in the liquid, I put the brisket in the oven for 30 minutes with this sauce that I combine on the stove until smooth. 1/3 cup of brown sugar,2 tblsp of butter, tbsp of prepared yellow mustrad, 1/3 cup ketchup, 3 tbsp of apple cider vinegar. I combine these ingredients till smooth, then pour over the brisket while the veggies are cooking. 30 to 40 mins. at 350 will do it. Hope you like it, all of my friends who hate corned beef will only eat mine!" By Tracey
 

 I was so lost on which recipe to use because there are a million recipes for corned beef and cabbage! I decided to just pick the recipe with the most positive reviews! 
I made the right choice...we loved this!

This recipe worked out PERFECTLY!! Look at how that delicious sweet and tangy glaze just glistens on the corned beef! Thank you Tracey, for mentioning your sauce recipe in your review!

Unstuffed Greek Chicken Breasts

Oh how I love to make recipes as simple as possible! That's exactly what I did with this recipe! I'm not very good at stuffing things into pockets of meat! I can never get enough stuffing inside and the stuffing usually comes oozing out before it's done cooking! So why not just put the stuffing on top of the meat! Chicken meat, in this case! But I intend to do this with other meats also! And even with fish! I'm going on an 'unstuffed' recipe frenzy, so watch out!

Chocolate Cobbler!

This is some kind of wonderful...yes it is!  And this is what great songs are made of! I was happy dancing to that song as I was eating this perfectly fabulous chocolate dessert!

I'll try to put into words, what this tastes like! It is like a combination of a perfect cake brownie on a bed of the most splendidly light chocolate pudding! Some foodies have compared this recipe to a lava cake, but since I've never eaten a lava cake, I can't make that comparison! I just can't believe how delicious this turned out with so little effort and such simple ingredients! And what is even better is that it doesn't contain much butter and doesn't contain any eggs!

I even used low fat milk! So I would consider this a low fat dessert!

The Liebster Award!

 

I was recently honored to be nominated for this award from a fellow blogger named Summer at Mallow and Co. This award is to recognise the efforts of fairly new bloggers who fall into the category of having less than 3000 followers...that's what I found out when I researched this award on Google! I love Google! The Liebster award seems to be a very popular award in the blogging industry!

The word 'Liebster' is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.  All good stuff! And I'm so grateful that Summer would consider me or my blog to be any of those things!

This award doesn't come easy! There is a lot of work involved, but it's all fun work! Here are the rules for anyone who accepts this award...

* Tell 11 random facts about yourself
* Answer the 11 questions the nominator has asked you.
* Choose 11 new bloggers (with less than 3000 followers) to pass
the award to and link them in your post.
*Create 11 new questions for the bloggers you pass the award to.
*Go back to their page and tell them about the award.
*No tag backs.

 

Okay, here is a list of 11 random facts about myself...

1.) I don't like driving over bridges.
2.) I can't share food off my plate with anyone. Not even my own kids!
3.) I love garden fairy statues.
4.) I totally dislike the smell of wet dog, to the point where I lose my appetite!
5.) I do not like ANY sports except for boxing.
6.) I wish I had better handwriting.
7.)  I never saw the movie 'Titanic'...I know, I know, I really should watch it someday!
8.) A crab running sideways really freaks me out! And I live on an island, no less!
9.) I wish I knew how to knit! But it's just too boring to try to learn!
10.) I don't 'text' and I never will because it's so much easier to just talk!
11.) Now that I'm a blogger I wish I would have taken typing classes in school.


And here are the 11 questions from Summer...

1.) What are your hobbies or things you do in your spare time?
My hobbies are cooking and food photography.
2.) What is your biggest pet peeve?
My biggest pet peeve is clutter! I like to have things put away! I'm the total opposite of a hoarder!
3.) What's one of your favorite blogs of the moment?
'Made From Pinterest'...they test things that they find on Pinterest!
4.) Salty or Sweet?
I like a combo of the two! But if I had to pick one it would be 'sweet'...I have dessert every night!
5.) What is a goal you have for 2013?
To not sweat the small stuff!
6.) How many kids are in your family?
I have 3 older brothers and one younger sister.
7.) What is your dream job?
To get paid to test recipes!
8.) What is the hardest thing about blogging?
Using correct grammar and punctuations! Have you noticed that I just love exclamation marks!
9.) What is your favorite restaurant and why?
P.F. Chang's China Bistro because they make the best Mongolian Beef! And great cocktails too!
10.) What would your touchdown victory dance look like if you were in the NFL?
**See 'Random Fact List' above and read #5...but I'd pick the Chicken Dance!
11.) What's your favorite season and why?
Winter, because it's so much easier to get warm than it is too stay cool!

Thanks Summer! Great questions!

My list of 11 blogs that I would like to nominate for the Liebster Award are...

Arctic Garden Studio

Bake at Midnite

Smoked 'N Grilled
Oh Abby Day
No-Frills Recipes
Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom
Cookie Rookie
Hungry Couple
A Couple in the Kitchen
Chachi Joan
Made From Pinterest

My 11 questions for the above nominees are...

 

1.) What is your most popular recipe, among your family and friends, that you've created?

2.) How much time do you spend working on your blog each day?

3.) If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

4.) What's the furthest you've driven for a good meal?

5.) What is your favorite kitchen gadget?

6.) What do you do to relax?

7.) What is your favorite cooking show?

8.) Who is the biggest fan of your cooking?

9.) Who or what inspires you to cook?

10.) What is the most you've spent on a single ingredient and what was it?

11.) What is your favorite and most used spice? 



 
I hope the nominees, who accept this award, will be as honored as I am and have as much fun as I did, with their tasks!




 

 

 

 

 

Sausage and Brew

 

This is another recipe that I adapted from Allrecipes.com as part of my assignment as a brand ambassador. I found this recipe called Beef and Brew and tweaked it to work with Johnsonville smoked sausage. I mentioned this fun assignment yesterday in this post *here*. I used the same sausage to make the egg rolls in that post!

Smoked Sausage Egg Rolls

**Click Here For Recipe**

I thought I would try a unique spin on the average Chinese egg roll by using smoked sausage instead of ground pork! I was very happy with the results! These egg rolls are just as good as traditional egg rolls but are easier and less expensive to make! These are baked egg rolls, so they are healthier also!

Sweet Garlic Chicken

This recipe is so VERY easy and so tasty! And it only has 4 ingredients...well 6, if you count the salt & pepper! I love garlic and would put it on almost anything! But I never thought that combining garlic with brown sugar and olive oil could make such a flavorful recipe!

This chicken was so tender and juicy! This meal was done in less than an hour! It was sweet and savory...my two favorite flavors!

Island Dream Cocktail

 

My inspiration for this new cocktail creation came from this recipe *here*. I first saw the recipe on Pinterest. I was looking for a good way to use up a banana and some coconut milk. This seemed to be a great way to do that! I didn't have all the ingredients for that recipe, so I improvised! I was very happy with the results!

 

 This is a creamy and light drink that reminds me of the kind of cocktail you would have while on vacation in the tropics!

Ham and Bean Stew

I recently met a very talented food blogger with a real knack for taking amazing food photos! She's not a professional photographer but you would never know it by looking and her pictures! Her name is Judith Hannemann. Her food blog is called The Midnight Baker.

That's where I found this next recipe. This one stood out to me because I love smokey bean soups! But I never saw such an easy one with so few ingredients! So this is one I just had to try!

Cream Cheese Mints

I've been seeing lots of recipes for making your own mint candy! I love after dinner mints, so I decided to give it a try! The recipes looked so simple! I'm not much of a candy maker but it just looked so easy and tempting!

The recipe called for powdered sugar. I didn't have powdered sugar but a fellow food friend showed me this recipe on how to make your own powdered sugar. Yes, you can make your own powdered sugar from regular sugar! Just put the regular sugar in a blender with some cornstarch and blend away until it becomes powdered! Well, this didn't work for me...it just became slightly less graulated! I was getting the feeling that these cream cheese mints just weren't meant to be for me!

I decided to continue making the mints. So I creamed the butter, cream cheese and sugar together and added in the peppermint extract. I tasted the mixture and LOVED it. It tasted very similar to a 'York Peppermint Pattie' minus the chocolate coating! It was very grainy though because I didn't use powdered sugar. But I didn't care because it still tasted great! My hopes were restored!

Then you're suppose to shape the mint mixture into some sort of candy shape. I chose to make small discs. The mixture was very sticky, so this was tricky...I love rhymes! I placed the discs on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet sprinkled with sugar to help keep the mints from sticking. This worked great! I also dipped the tines of a fork in sugar to make impressions on each mint disc, just to add a little design.

Then these mints need to air dry for 2 hours. It was difficult to keep from eating all of them before they were done drying! I think next time I will freeze them and then dip them in melted chocolate! YUM!

 Here is how I made the mints!

INGREDIENTS:

4 oz. cream cheese - softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1 Tbls. butter - softened

1/2 heaping tsp. peppermint extract

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl mix together cream cheese, butter and sugar.

Then add in peppermint extract.

Mix well.

If the mixture is too sticky add more powdered sugar.

Form into teaspoon sized balls and place on waxed paper lined cookie sheet dusted with sugar.

Dip the tines of a fork in sugar then press lightly into each mint ball.

Allow to air dry for 2 hours.

Makes about 8 dozen small mints.

 

This recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Pretzel Rolls!

I am such a HUGE soft pretzel fan! I just love the thin, crunchy, outer layer with the very soft and fluffy center!

Flower Hot Dogs!

I found this cute way of making and serving hot dogs on Pinterest...I think I may have mentioned that site a few dozen times! And I knew I was going to try it because how often do you come across a new way to prepare hot dogs? 

Reuben Dip!

When I think of a really tasty deli sandwich my mind always goes to a nice, thick, messy, dripping with dressing, Reuben sandwich! But I like my Reuben on white bread...

I know, I know! It should be on rye bread!

Seriously Scrumptious Drunken Pork Chops

 I have LOTS of pork chops in my freezer, as I mentioned in this post about a recent pork chop recipe that I tried...'Cornmeal Crusted Pork Chops'. So, of course I just had to try the 'Drunken Pork Chops'!

That title really says it all! This recipe was so easy and tasted so good! The sauce in this recipe had an Asian flare to it! I thought it would taste like BBQ sauce, but nooooo, it was so much better than that! It always amazes me how certain combinations of simple ingredients, can come together and make flavors that you would never expect! That's what keeps me compelled to try new recipes! It's like a delicious science experiment every time!

Handy Dandy Brandy Cocktail!

I love a good cocktail from time to time, but I don't have a large selection of liquors in my liquor cabinet! I'm not a big drinker, I guess!  I do like a good glass of wine with dinner...or while I'm cooking dinner! So I'll always have some sort of wine in the fridge!

When I do want a cocktail it's usually the fruity kind! I came up with this next one while looking through the liquor cabinet. It turned out really well! It's fruity but strong at the same time! If it's too strong for you just swirl the ice around in
the glass and them melt a bit.  

This is a simple cocktail with simple ingredients that you probably have handy...hence the name 'Handy Dandy Brandy Cocktail'...

INGREDIENTS:

2 oz. brandy

1 oz. vodka

2 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice

1 oz. maraschino cherry juice

1 maraschino cherry

ice cubes

DIRECTIONS:

Fill a cocktail shaker half way with ice.

Add all ingredients except the cherry.

Shake, shake, shake and strain into a glass with ice cubes.

Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Remember what I said...if it's too strong for you, swirl the ice cubes around and let them melt a bit!

Sip and enjoy!

One Pan Baked Potato Casserole

 I love one pot meals! It's just so convenient not having to wash a lot of pots, pans and utensils. I also love potato recipes that do not require pre-cooking the potatoes in a separate pot. So I decided to create this baked potato recipe that has all the easy steps that I love!

Super Easy Poor Man's Mongolian Beef

My favorite dish to order when I go to my favorite Chinese restaurant ( P.F. Chang's China Bistro) is their Mongolian Beef. The beef is saturated in a thick, rich, dark, sweet and savory soy sauce glaze. And the flavor of the green onions and other veggies just go so well with the beef and sauce!

Cannoli Dip

Internet Photo

When I think of good Italian pastries, the first thing that comes to my mind is cannoli! It's found in every Italian bakery! And it's always served at important family gatherings in our house! My favorite kind of cannoli is the little mini ones! Sometimes the pastry shell is dipped in chocolate! The best!!! But a properly made cannoli, in my opinion, must contain mini chocolate chips!

The Sloppy Shepherd

 The Sloppy Shepherd

In my house we love a good Sloppy Joe sandwich! But I've always wanted to make a Shepherd's Pie! So why not combine the two?

Cheese Crisps

Anything with the word 'cheese' in the title, will usually get my attention when it comes to recipes! And when I saw that this recipe only contained 3 ingredients, I was even MORE interested!

Zucchini Souffle

I love to make vegetable recipes that my kids will actually eat! They don't like too many vegetables, but this one didn't seem to be a problem for them! So I was doing a happy dance after they ate this for dinner!

Eggs in Clouds

This was a very interesting recipe from the title...to the preparation...to the taste and texture! I had some concerns about if this recipe would work because I've come across many Internet recipes these days, that just look good in photos and are very popular on certain websites, but are totally fake and could never work in the real world! They just look cute on 'Pin' boards, if you know what I mean! This recipe had its share of problems from start to finish but it did taste very good! So all was not lost!

Here is how it went...

Zebra Cupcakes - Low Fat

I've been looking for a decadent chocolate dessert that has some substance, but is not too fattening! Is there such a dessert or am I just dreaming? Well if I'm just dreaming, then my dreams just came true!

I found this recipe called Root Beer Float Cake and decided it was the one for me! It had lots of positive reviews and one of the ingredients was root beer...which I had some that needed to be used up since my family hasn't been drinking it lately! I decided to tweak the recipe to make it lower in fat and calories!

It was a huge success! I didn't taste the root beer in this cake, but I loved the spongy texture and the decadent chocolate flavor! I made them into cupcakes and decorated them with a root beer drizzle (my own idea) The cupcakes were such a lovely dark chocolate color. The drizzle really stood out and resembled a zebra print, mainly because I have poor drizzling skills! The drizzle, just like the cupcakes, didn't take on any of the root beer flavor, but I thought I would use the root beer to continue the theme!

Here is my version of the recipe...

Thai Iced Tea

Me and my hubby...or is it, my hubby and I? Well, we went to a really good Thai restaurant that served iced tea. It's not the iced tea that Americans usually drink here in the U.S. It's a darker, richer kind of tea and they serve it with some sort of sweetened milk. Thai iced tea has such a unique flavor. I asked the waitress how it was made and she said it's just tea with milk! Well this didn't taste like tea with milk, so it must be some special kind of tea and some special kind of milk!

I did a little research recently because I've been wanting to duplicate that Thai iced tea.
I read lots of recipes on the Internet and found that some people like to use  Thai tea bags. And others use black tea like the black tea they serve in Chinese restaurants. Some recipes called for spices like star anise and cardamom. Also many recipes used sweetened condensed milk, sugar and/or coconut milk to sweeten the iced tea. My head was spinning trying to think of how to make Thai iced tea!

Then I just decided to take the plunge and try this

 Thai Iced Tea from a blog called

 Oh Abby Day 

It was very good, but I know it would have been better if I would have used Thai tea bags instead of black tea! I added 6 drops of red food coloring because Thai tea is much more red in color than black tea. I'll be trying this again with the proper tea next time!

 

Ingredients:

4.5 cups of water
4 tea bags of Thai tea (if loose leaf then 4 tablespoons). Must be purchased at Asian supermarket.
4 tablespoons of white sugar
4 tablespoons of sweet condense milk
ice
3-4 tablespoons of coconut milk

Instructions:

Bring water to boil and turn oven off.

Steep tea for 10-15 minutes and remove. (I usually steep for a much longer time because you need this strong!)

While this is still hot, mix in sugar and condense milk. Stir for three minutes until everything dissolve.

Allow tea mix to cool down to room temperature.

Pour mixture over a glass of ice

Topped with 3-4 tablespoon of coconut milk. No need to mix in the coconut milk. Let it sit on top of the drink.

Optional: Can garnish with mint leaves.

 

Recipe courtesy of  'Oh Abby Day'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Update: February 26, 2013

 

I'm so happy to say that I have an update!

Cornmeal Crusted Pork Chops

 

I love to find new ways to prepare pork chops! I've been buying lots of pork chops these days because I've been finding great sales! I can never pass up a great meat sale! So now I just need TONS of recipes for yummy ways to prepare pork chops!

This recipe sounded very interesting because of the cornmeal. I've never used cornmeal to coat pork chops. This worked out really well!

Thai Chicken Noodle Soup

 

I love Thai food so this was a no-brainer for me! The ingredients and direction were so simple, which enticed me even more! This recipe cooked up so quickly! It was done in less than 30 minutes!

Bak Kwa Cookies ( Bacon Cookies)

 

You know what? I'm so glad that I love to try unique recipes because the title of these cookies alone, might have scared me away! I'm very happy it didn't! These cookies were so very good! I thought they were going to be a very savory cookie, but they're not! These Bak Kwa cookies are very similar to a shortbread cookie. Slightly sweet and very buttery! The bacon bits just gives the cookie a little  hint of smokiness and a nice chewiness! This is a crisp but crumbly cookie. I truly enjoyed these and will make them again!

I found this recipe *here* on a blog called 'No-Frills Recipes'.

I'm posting the recipe below with conversion from metric, to make it easier for my U.S. readers.

Cran-Broccoli Slaw

This is such a unique and refreshing salad! It's perfect when you want something out of the ordinary to tickle your taste buds!

Key West Chicken

I'm not much of a griller! That's usually my hubbys job! But I can say that I really out did myself with this chicken! Look how juicy it is!




 And there was 32" of snow covering the BBQ just days earlier, from a freak NY storm! But I was not going to let that stop me! It was all worth it for that chicken!

 

Creamy Crab Pasta

 

This recipe was calling my name from the first moment I laid eyes on it! I found the recipe on a food blog called

'A Couple in the Kitchen'

I love creamy, cheesy, pasta recipes! And I had a can of lump crab meat that was begging to be used!! So this was destiny!

I whipped this up so quickly...it was done in LESS than 30 minutes! Take that, Rachael Ray!

This was so good! I was afraid there wouldn't be any left to put with the pasta! I was just eating it out of the pan while I was waiting for the pasta to boil! That's when I realized that this recipe would work great as a dip! Or maybe even as a stuffing for mushrooms!

I was so tempted to tweak this recipe because the ingredients looked to simple... how could it be tasty? Oh, but it was perfect 'as is'... So don't mess with it! The only thing I did was sprinkle some fresh chopped parsley on top to make it look pretty for the camera!

 

Creamy Crab Pasta

 

Ingredients:

¼ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup all purpose flour

2 cups half and half

½ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese, plus more for garnish

¼ teaspoon. ground nutmeg

kosher salt, white pepper, and black pepper to taste

1 lb. cooked lump crab meat

1 lb. cooked pasta of your choice

Fresh chopped parsley garnish - optional

 

Directions:

 

In a large deep skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in the half and half and continue whisking until the sauce begins to thicken. Stir in the cheese and seasons to taste. Simmer for a few minutes to blend the flavors. Then stir in the crab meat.

Cook just until the crab is heated through.

Serve over cooked pasta of your choice. Top with optional parsley garnish and additional cheese and pepper, if desired.

Serves 4-6 people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fruit Roll-Up Valentine Fortune Cookies!

 

Okay, don't judge these by how sad mine look! This is a cute Valentine treat to give the kiddies! Especially if you use the Fruit Roll-Ups that DON'T have the tongue tattoos printed on them! You can add any message you want inside! No cooking involved! Just roll out, cut and fold into shape!

 

Check out this *link* to see the easy steps to making these fortune cookies for yourself!

Bombay Stew

 

I've been loving Indian food lately! I'm always looking to try new recipes with the flavors of India! I've never tried an Indian stew before, so that's what attracted me to this recipe!

Skinny Pop Popcorn

I am totally in love with this snack!!! I buy it whenever I see it and I eat it just about everyday! I even bring it with me to the movies because I like it better than movie theatre popcorn! I never thought I would like ANY popcorn better than movie theatre popcorn! This popcorn has the unique flavor of movie theatre popcorn without all the fake butter and heavy salt!

The fact that it is lower in fat and calories...and cholesterol free, is just a bonus!

I was not compensated in any way for my opinion of this product! This is just something I wanted to share with my readers!

Happy Chinese New Year!

This is the year of the Snake! In honor of this holiday I decided to share with you this delicious recipe that I tried last night. Snake is not one of the ingredients! That's not something I think I would ever eat! I said 'think'...so it is possible I would eat snake, if it was prepared in a totally delicious way! Instead, I'll show you this Asian Meatball Soup Recipe posted on a blog called 'Noshing with the Noland's'.

Simple Creme Brulee Pie

My husband loves creme brulee! He orders it every time he sees it on a menu! I've been thinking of making creme brulee at home, but it requires the use of a small blow torch (kitchen size) to crystallize the sugar topping! I don't want to invest money in a kitchen torch, that will probably only be used to make creme brulee! Then I saw this recipe and knew I had to try it...