Strawberry Butter & Buttrmilk caramel syrup

Strawberry Butter

1/2 cup butter softened

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon strawberry preserves

Combine 1/2 cup butter, 1/3 cup powdered sugar and preserves in small bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Cover; refrigerate until serving time.

So doesnt that sound tasty. I got it from One good thing who got it from land o lakes

she also had this recipe for

Buttermilk Caramel Syrup


3/4 c. buttermilk
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 stick real butter
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla


Combine buttermilk, sugar, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda in a LARGE pot. Like one you’d make soup in. Yes, you’ll have way more pot than ingredients (and I’m not referring to the green leafy stuff), but this will boil all over your newly-cleaned stove if you put it in a smaller saucepan.


Bring ingredients to a boil and reduce heat to low (as long as it’s still bubbling, you’re okay). Cook, stirring very frequently, for 8-9 minutes. You’re basically making canPlanters Peanuts, Spanish Redskin made with Sea Salt, 12.5-Ounce Packages (Pack of 12)dy here and candy-making requires constant vigilance.


When it’s done, it should take on a luscious golden-brown color. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Homemade Decorative Sprinkles

This is a recipe that I got from one good thing
how cool I just had to share it with you. when I make em I will post photos

Homemade Decorative Sprinkles

Ingredients

4 ounces (about 2 cups) confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon Just Egg Whites
1 tablespoon warm water, plus extra as needed
1/4 teaspoon vanilla, almond, or lemon flavoring
Pinch salt
Tools
Parchment or wax paper
Food coloring paste (optional)
Toothpicks
Pastry bag
Pastry tip with very small round hole, such as Wilton No. 2

Instructions

1. Lay a piece of wax paper out on a clean surface. Gather your ingredients. Decide how you want to flavor your sprinkles. You can leave them unflavored, or use vanilla or another flavoring. I used Fiori di Sicilia from King Arthur Flour, which gave my sprinkles a distinct taste of Creamsicles.
2. Sift the confectioner's sugar into a medium-sized bowl. It's very important to sift the sugar in this case, because even the tiniest lump will clog your pastry tip later. So sift the sugar through a sieve or a sifter.
3. About Just Egg Whites, or powdered egg whites: This is a substitute for raw egg. You could also use about half of a raw egg white, but I find this stuff useful for royal icing and other recipes that call for raw egg white.
4. Whisk 1 teaspoon of the powdered egg whites together with 1 tablespoon of warm water. Whisk until smooth and foamy. Whisk in the flavoring and a pinch of salt.
5. Mix the egg white liquid into the powdered sugar and stir to combine. The mixture will probably look clumpy and thick, as pictured.
6. Add additional water in 1/2 teaspoon increments until the mixture is smooth and liquid, yet still thick.
7. I am not giving a specific amount of water here, because it depends on the powdered sugar and even the humidity of the day. But you want a smooth, thick, pipe-able frosting like the one pictured above.
8. Choose your food coloring, if using. It's best to use the paste or gel type of food coloring, as opposed to liquid. The colors are more vibrant, and they don't significantly change the texture of your icing the way extra liquid will.
9. Using the tip of a toothpick place a dot of food coloring in your icing mix.
10. Stir thoroughly until the color is completely distributed.
11. Set up your pastry bag with your #2 (or similar) tip.
12. Fill the bag and press any air pockets out of the icing.
13. Pipe out a long, thin line of icing on the parchment or wax paper. It's best to keep the line as straight as you can, but it doesn't need to be perfectly straight. (See how wavy mine is!)
14. Repeat until all the icing is used up. Important: Let the icing strips dry for a full 24 hours, or at least overnight. In winter, like now, I let mine dry for about 20 hours, and they were fine.
15. When they are completely dry, line them up evenly against the edge of a flat knife, like a cleaver or santoku.
16. Chop into small pieces, or longer ones for jimmies. Store in an airtight container until using.

Red Beans and Rice

So this is a family favorite. It is easy and fairly cheep

1 Smoked kielbasa sausage cut into slices. (I also like to cut the slices in half for smaller bites)
1 celery stalk chopped
1/2 bell pepper chopped
1/2 onion chopped
1 1/2 cans red kidney beans (we use light)
dash of red pepper flakes
rice (cook to your preference)

Saute onion celery bell pepper and red pepper flakes in some oil till onion is soft. Add in sausage and beans and cook till beans are soft and tender. (about 6 - 10 minutes)
serve over rice

the "ragen cajun" at aarons work gave us this recipe.

Here is a great recipe that I made last night. My husband went crazy for them. (note the image is from the internet) You can also mix this in a bread machine if you wish.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Caramel frosting

---

Ingredients:

• 2 T. yeast
• 1/2c. warm water
• 1/2 c. canned pumpkin
• 2/3 c. sugar
• ½ t. salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ c. melted, butter
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 4-5 c. bread flour
• for the filling
  
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. cinnamon
• 2 T. melted butter

Method:

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Wait 5 minutes. Add pumpkin, egg, sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and cloves and mix well. Slowly add flour one cup at a time. Scrape down sides of bowl after each addition of flour. Turn into lightly greased bowl, cover and set in warm place until double in bulk. Punch down dough and let rest for 5 more minutes. Roll dough out into a rectangle.
Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle the dough with sugar and cinnamon mixture. Starting with long side of dough, roll up jellyroll style. Pinch seams to seal. With sharp serrated knife cut roll into 12 1 in. pieces. Place rolls, cut side up in greased 9*13 pan. Cover and let rise until double, 30 to 45 minutes.
Bake rolls at 350 degrees about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle with caramel frosting as soon as they come out of the oven. Let cool until warm, add the rest of the frosting. Enjoy!

Caramel Frosting

• ¼ c. butter
• ½ c. brown sugar, packed
• 2 T. milk
• ¼ t. vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• ½ c. to ¾ c. sifted powder sugar

In a small saucepan, heat butter until melted. Stir in brown sugar and milk. Cook over med. Low heat 1 minute. Transfer to small bowl and cool mixture. Stir in vanilla, salt, and powder sugar. Beat with Electric mixer until well blended. If necessary, add more sugar for desired consistency.

Fancy Cookies

I thought it would be fun to make the new cookies that Nestle Toll house came out with for Easter

This is the package that they come in


After opening them this is what they look like there are 2 sheets making 24 cookies. The package also states that you can roll up the extra dough and make more cookies but I didnt do that.


Here they are fresh out of the oven


And for presentation this is them on a plate. I would of taken a better photo but my camera died and I didnt get a chance to take another one before they were eaten.

All in all I don't recommend them. They were fun cute and easy to make, but when it came down to eating them I felt (along with my Husband and Little one) they tasted like ink. I would rather make my own sugar cookies and decorate them with frosting or just have them dipped in sugar before they are baked. But it was a fun experience to try.

Almond Joy tastys (or Mounds)

I originally posted this on my other blog ritzy things but i dont have any photos for it yet.

Mounds or Almond Joy
Makes about 3 dozen bars

You will need...
5 ounces Sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
14 ounces premium shredded or flaked coconut
one 24 ounce package semisweet chocolate chips

getting on to making them...
1. Blend the condensed milk and vanilla
2. add the powdered sugar to the above mixture a little bit at a time.stirring until smooth.
3. Stir in the coconut. The mixture should be firm.
4. Pat the mixture firmly into a greased 9 x 13 x 2 inch pan. Chill in the fridge until firm.
5. in a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water, melt the chocolate, stirring often. You may also use a microwave oven. Place the chips in a bowl and let for 1 minute on high: stir then hear for 1 minute more.
6. Remove the coconut mixture from the refrigerator and cut it into 1 x 2 inch bars.
7. Set each coconut bar onto a fork and dip into the chocolate. Tap the fork against the side of the pan or bowl to remove any excess chocolate.
8. Air-Dry at room temperature on waxed paper. This could take several; hours, but chocolate sets best at cool room temperature. (below 70 degrees). You may speed up the process by placing the bars in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

And if you feel like a nut...
1. add 1 cup dry roasted almonds to the to the list of ingredients.
2. Substitute milk chocolate chips for the semisweet chocolate
3. In step 8, place 2 almonds atop each bar before dipping.

and enjoy....
but be careful they are too good. addicting one might say. Mounds or almond joys

Cheddar Macaroni Beef Casserole

So the other night for dinner we had a pasta bake. I got the recipe from a magazine that my wonderful neighbor gave me. It is a Kraft mag so they use Kraft products. I don't think it matters what you use as long as you like the flavor and results you get. But on with the show...
Prep 20 minutes Total 30 Minutes Makes 4 servings
This is the dirt you need
1 package of mac and cheese dinner
1 pound of ground beef
1 can Italian style tomatoes undrained
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.

Throwing it Together
Preheat your oven to 400. Make the mac and cheese as it says on the box but leave out the butter (you don't need it) while that is going brown the beef drain and add the tomatoes and oregano. mix well and bring to a boil (What you say boil, that's right remember the undrained tomatoes that liquid will boil). Add the meat mix to the mac and cheese mix em all up and spoon into a 9 inch baking dish. sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake for 10 minutes or till the cheese is melted and is heated through.

Enjoy.

Now that is the directions that the recipe states. I being unconventional and wanted to try it my way. I had the box of mac and cheese but I thought Hum I bet this will taste better If I make my own mac and cheese. So I did, and to do that I measured out a cup and a half of macaroni and brought it to a boil and boiled for 5 minuets. (we like our pasta a little on the firm side) then I added in 1/4 cup of milk and 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese. now normally when I make this i add in 2 to 4 tablespoons of butter or marg but it said to leave it in the fridge.
I don't like to use a lot of ground beef because it is on the pricey side so I only used 1/2 pound. I also didn't have Italian style tomatoes so i used tomatoes with sweet onion in em, It gave the dish a nice sweet flavor. I couldn't find my oregano leaves so I used crushed and only 1/4 tsp. The results were wonderful and My husband was upset because there wasn't more, Unless he wanted to eat his lunch for the next day. Make it tonight you will love it.

Let me tell you about this pan. I LOVE this pan. We picked it up at Ross for $11. bucks. it is awesome it is non stick and deep. so i can mix all my goods in one pan without having to dirty a bowl or make my stove a mess. and the blue is pretty. (granted my kitchen is red and black but it didn't come in red or black)

It is made in Italy by a company called TVS

Here I am boiling some water for the Mac and cheese

This is a cup and a half of macaroni

the milk and shredded cheese for the mac and cheese

This is the Beef with the tomatoes and the oregano

Ahh it is in the 9 x 9 pan before I put it in the oven.

and Whala it is done ready to eat. I let it cool for a few minutes so my little one didn't burn his mouth. it sure was tasty. You can serve it with some french bread or garlic bread if you like. Not bad for a meal that i had (almost) everything on hand.

Here We Go!

I decided that with all the tasty yummy recipes that I make and feed my family, It would be a shame to not share them with you. Not all the recipes that I post are my own. I get them from somewhere, whether it is from a friend a family member or just off the internet. I want you to all enjoy the delicious food that we are eating. Heck I may even post things that We didn't really care for. that is if it was hard to make or what not.

This is our toaster oven. It is awesome. We use it all the time, and the feature that we use the most...the rotisserie. My mom gave us this for Christmas. Thanks Mom

Yep that is a raw chicken. we have seasoned it with some chicken seasoning and now it is getting ready to be roasted. The max size that the rotisserie will take is 5 pounds. you can find a bird for around 4-5 dollars at that size, and if you want you can get them for even cheaper if you buy them in 2 packs.

Here we have put the skewer through the bird so that we can put it in the oven and let her spin.

You have to tie the bird up. It keeps her centered in the oven, and so she doesn't wobble around and let her wings flap. You use all cotton string. we got a large spool of it at Family Dollar for a buck.

she has been cooking for about a half hour here

that's my husband he wants to know if the bird is done yet. He is looking forward to having a tasty bird for dinner.

she has been cooking for about an hour here

Ahh sweet satisfaction. She is done. and let me tell you. better than any bird that you will buy already cooked for you at various grocery stores. Maybe the satisfaction is because we put all the easy labor in to it or maybe it was because she was fresh. but this way we are able to guarantee that she is up to temp and we loved her.