Broccoli is one of those veggies that you either love or hate.  I actually used to hate it.  But, just after having my little sugar lump of a daughter, I was at a catered dinner where we were served a very miniscule sized main dish.  And it really didn’t even taste that good.  But that’s not what we’re talking about here…so back to broccoli.  So in addition to the teeny tiny main dish we were served some rice and broccoli.  Well, like I said, I had a newborn baby girl, and, well, without getting to personal here, let’s just say I was still eating for two…if you catch my drift.    Think mama cow and baby cow.  Okay, let’s continue with the story.  I knew I needed to eat a substantial dinner because my baby needed nutrients…and I was hungry!  So, after eating the three bites of the main dish (sorry, I said I wouldn’t talk about that any more!) I ate the rice.  I was still hungry.  Bbut I didn’t like broccoli.  What’s a broccoli-hating girl to do?  Well, when that girl is also one that has a sweet little bundle of joy to sustain, she must suck it up and eat the broccoli.  So, I hesitantly stabbed a piece of steamed broccoli and slowly raised the fork to my mouth.  I chewed once.  I chewed twice.  Wait.  This isn’t so bad!  No, this is actually GOOD!  From that day on, I’ve loved broccoli.  And I’m blessed with two kids who like broccoli (maybe it has something to do with mama cow eating broccoli when she was feeding baby cow??).  We eat steamed broccoli all the time.  And I mean All. The. Time.  So much, that we are getting tired of eating plain ol’ steamed broccoli.  So when I came across a recipe(don’t remember where I first saw it)  for Roasted Broccoli I thought I’d give it a whirl.  It was pretty darned good.  I tweaked it just a bit and it was even darneder gooder.  

Here’s how it goes down.

You need one or two heads of broccoli…depending on how many you need to feed.  My inlaws were visiting when I took these pics, so I used two heads which was plenty to serve 6 people.  If it was just the four of us, I’d probably just do one.  Give the broccoli a quick wash and cut it into small florets and place them on a baking sheet.

Drizzle it with some olive oil.

Use your hand to toss the broccoli around and get it all coated with the olive oil.  Season it with some salt and pepper.

Now pop it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Give it a stir and stick it back in for another 10 minutes or so.  The edges should be starting to turn brown, but still be mostly green.   Give it the fork test, too and make sure it’s tender enough for your liking.  If not, give it a few more minutes.

Now, zest a lemon and sprinkle that over the broccoli.  Squeeze a little of that lemon’s juice on it too.

Grate some parmesan cheese on the top and you’re ready to go. 

So far, this is my favorite way to eat broccoli.  But, maybe there’s something better?  Do you have a way with broccoli?  Share it with me…and you just might see it featured here on my blog…and who knows…I might include a gift for ya.  Leave me a comment with your broccoli recipe!

I have some pretty exciting news!  I am in the process of working on a cookbook!  Eeeee!  Doing the happy dance, doing the happy dance!  It won’t be anything super duper fancy, but it will be filled with a ton of my favorite recipes.  I hope to have it ready for purchase by the first of December – just in time for Christmas gift giving!  The price will be $15, and there will be well over 150 recipes in the book.  If you are interested in buying one, please leave me a comment here so I can get an idea of how many I need to get printed.  I will be adding a Paypal button to the blog soon so you can purchase it that way, or you can send me a check or money order as well.  All that info will be coming in the next week.  I can’t tell you how freakin’ excited I am about this!  Every time I think about it I just start smiling. 

Today’s recipe is one that will be in the book, and is one that I created in my own little crazy mind.  It was breakfast time and I was in the mood for oatmeal.  But I just didn’t want plain ordinary oatmeal.  No, I wanted something yummy and comforting.  So, I started plundering around the kitchen looking for something to give my oatmeal some oomph.  I opened the fridgyator door and I think I actually saw that little lightbulb come on over my head.  I had some leftover canned pumpkin sittin’ in there.  I’d made a cake with it a few days before and had just about a cup left over.  Okay, I said.  I think I’m going to invent a Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal.  And I did.  And it was delish.  And I ate it again the next morning.  And the morning after that.  And then I ran out of pumpkin.  Then I cried.  It’s now on my grocery list every week because I don’t ever want to run out of pumpkin again.  

Eating this Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal is like eating dessert for breakfast.  I mean, come on!  Who wouldn’t want to be able to eat dessert for breakfast…and not feel guilty! 

So, let’s do this thing.  Grab some instant oatmeal (cuz I’m lazy AND impatient), brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, milk and of course, some pumpkin.  I also throw in a little flax seed for extra “cleaning properties”, but that’s totally optional.  You’ll also want to grab the jar of pecans for the topping.

Pull a microwave safe bowl thing from the cabinet and toss in 1/2 cup of oatmeal.  I’m making a single serving here.  Add a tbsp of flax seed if you want.  I wanted.

Now, add some brown sugar for sweetness.  I like mine pretty sweet because, well…I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas, so I put in probably 3 or 4 tbsp of brown sugar. Add less if that sounds like way too much to you.   (Just for the record…there’s probably only two tbsp shown in this pic…I added more later when I tasted it!)

Now, toss in about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, a dash of allspice and a dash of nutmeg.

Add a pinch of salt. Some people think it’s wierd to add salt to sweet dishes…but it really does help bring out the flavors.

Now, the first time I made this, I did this next step in a separate bowl.  The next time I did it, I just added it to the oatmeal bowl, and it was just fine.  So, don’t dirty up another dish for this next step…learn from my mistakes, and just throw it in the same bowl with the oatmeal stuff.

Add about 1/3 cup canned pumpkin and 1/2 cup milk.  Throw in a tsp or so of butter for good measure.  Stir it all up.

Now, pour this mixture into the oatmeal mixture.

Stir it all up, and if it looks too thick, add a little more milk. 

**Here’s a tip for ya…I like to add a little less liquid than you’re supposed to when I cook my oatmeal.  That way, when it comes out of the nuker super steamin’ hot, I can add a little milk to it to thin it down and cool it off at the same time. 

Pop the oatmeal stuff in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes, until cooked well.

Now, while that’s cooking, let’s make a crumb topping for that oatmeal.  Why?  Well, cuz I like a little crunch in my oatmeal.  Wierd?  Maybe.  Delicious?  For sure.

Put some brown sugar in a bowl.  Add some chopped pecans.  Add in enough melted butter to make it a crumbly mess.

Pour your oatmeal in a bowl and top with this crumble stuff.

And dig in!

Don’t forget to leave me a comment if you’re interested in buying a book (Or two!  Or three!). 

Happy Eating!

I apologize for not having printable recipes up for you on the last few recipes.  I finally got them done, and will post them all here in this post, as well as adding the links in the orginal post.    Enjoy!

Tex Mex Seasoning and Taco Pasta posted here

Smothered Pork Chops  posted here

Cheddar Garlic Biscuits posted here

Cookie Dough Brownies posted here

Scroll on down for today’s recipe…Homemade Ranch Dressing!

So, PW shared a recipe for Homemade Ranch Dressing once.  I never printed it off or tried it because I thought “How in the world can you make delicious ranch dressing at home?  It’s probably nowhere near the same taste as the bottled stuff.”  Well, someone should slap me for that comment.  Why on earth would I think that something in a bottle would taste better than homemade?  I must’ve had a brain fart. 

Fastforward to a few weeks ago.  I wanted salad and was out of the bottled stuff  I wanted to redeem myself, so I went back to PW’s Blog, printed the recipe and tried it myself.  Come along as I try my hand at this homemade Ranch Dressing.  We’ll just see if it really is as good (or better??) than the bottled stuff.  We’ll just see.

Let’s do this thing.

Grab a bowl and dump in a cup of mayo.  Use the REAL stuff people, not the fake junk.  Sacrifice something else in your diet this week if you need to, but we need the real stuff here.

Grab some sour cream and add 1/2 cup to the bowl.

Stir that together real good.  Now, let’s go over to the cutting board.

Grab a clove of garlic.  Chop it up pretty good.

Sprinkle the garlic with some salt, oh, just shy of 1/4 tsp.  Then, mash it all up with a fork until it becomes like a paste.

Now you need to chop up about a 1/4 cup of fresh parsley and a couple tbsp of fresh chives.  I was amazed that I still had some growing in my herb pots this time of year, but if you don’t have any growing in your garden, you can almost always find these in the grocery store produce isle. 

Toss the chopped herbs into the bowl with the mayo/sour cream.

Now, you need to add some milk/buttermilk to get it to the right consistency.  Buttermilk will give it a nice tangy taste, but if you’re like me, you never have buttermilk on hand.  So, I fake it.  I take a little regular milk, add a splash of lemon juice to it,  and let it sit on the counter for a minute or so.  The lemon juice will thicken the milk a bit and give it a nice tangy flavor.  You can use this trick for pretty much any recipe that calls for buttermilk.  But I probably wouldn’t try drinkin’ it.  That’d just be gross I think.  Anyway, back to the dressing.  Pour your buttermilk, or fake buttermilk…maybe we’ll call it futtermilk…into the mayo mixture a little at a time.

Add just enough futtermilk to get it to the consistency you like.  Stir it all together and give it a taste.   I would suggest actually tasting it on a piece of lettuce and not just using a spoon or your finger. 

I know what you’re thinking.  That was too simple, right?  Mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, garlic and herbs.  That’s IT?  Yup.  That’s it.  Of course, you can add other stuff if you want, like vinegar, dill, worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, paprika,  tobasco, other fresh herbs or anything else that tickles your fancy.  But me?  I like it plain and simple. 

Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  It will thicken some as it chills, so you might need to add a little more futtermilk to thin it down later.  It’s all good.

 This stuff is awesome people.  I think the heavens opened up and I heard the angels sing when I tasted this stuff.  I’ll never buy that bottled stuff again.  Never in a million years.  This stuff is That. Good.

Printable Recipe:  Homemade Ranch Dressing

Over at Rach’s Cakes, this month’s challenge was “Halloween”.  I made a cake for one of my husband’s coworkers this week, so that’s my submission.  It is a carrot cake with cream cheese decorator’s icing.  Piped pumpkins adorn the top.

And I thought I’d also share another pumpkin cake I’ve made in the past.  This one was actually for a baby shower, but it would be great for a Halloween or Thanksgiving cake too, minus the baby on top!

Rach decided to take a ‘hiatus’ on the challenges until January, but I can’t wait till the next one!

Okay, people.  If pork chops smothered in caramelized onions and ooey gooey cheese doesn’t get your fire started, then your wood is wet!  These are oh so delish, and really easy to prepare. 

To get started, grab yourself a large ziplock bag.  Dump in 1/2 cup olive oil.  Zest one lemon and add that to the bag.

Then squeeze the juice from half the lemon into the bag.

Mince up 3 garlic cloves and throw those in.

Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp basil, 1/2 tsp parsley, and 1/2 tsp rosemary.

Use your hand to squish it all around and it will look like this.  Which, frankly, looks pretty gross, but it will make your pork taste awesome.  And that’s what matters here folks.

Then, put your pork chops into the bag.  I like boneless chops that are cut around 1/2″ thick.  Turn the bag and massage it a bit to make sure that the chops are well coated with the marinade.

Now just toss the bag in the fridge to hang out for a couple of hours, or even overnight.  I usually do this in the morning sometime and let them chill out (get it, *chill* out?  Okay.  Never mind.) until supper time.

About 30-45  minutes before you’re ready to eat, slice up a nice onion.

Put some butter in a saute pan to melt.  Then add the onions.

Cook the onions over a medium heat for the first 10-15 minutes to soften them up some, stirring here and there.

Then reduce the heat to low and let them slowly start to caramelize.  Again, stir them every once in a while.  Just let them cook until they turn a nice dark golden brown.

Now, take your chops out of the fridge.  Remove from bag and place in a baking dish (discard marinade).   Broil for about 5 or 6 minutes on each side, or until done.

Then, place caramelized onions on top of each chop.

Top with some shredded colby-jack cheese.

Broil for another couple minutes until the cheese gets all melty and yummy and dreamy. 

Now, stuff your face.

Printable Recipe: Smothered Pork Chops

Okay, so when you go to that famous seafood place…you know the one with the big lobster on the front of the building…the one that brings you a big basket of their awesome cheesy garlicy biscuits?  Yeah.  Go ahead.  Admit it.  You could eat the whole basket yourself.  I know I could.  I’ve tried to recreate those puppies several times and always ended up with a biscuit that was good, but not quite like those amazing warm, cheesy, smothered-in-butter biscuits.  Well, recently I picked up an issue of Food Network magazine and lo and behold (does anyone say that anymore?  Well, I just did.) there was a recipe for those biscuits in there.  I kinda thought…yeah, I’m sure they’ll be good, but probably not as good as the ‘real ones’.  But, I gave it a whirl anyway.  Come along with me as I whip up a batch of these babies.

Grab your food processor.  Yep, these are made in the food processor…how easy is that?!?!   Toss in 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 tbsp plus 2 tsp bakign powder, 2 1/2 tsp sugar and 1/4 tsp salt into the bowl of the processor.  Plop in 3 tbsp of shortening as well.

Pulse the mixture until well combined.  Add in 4 tbsp of cold butter, which is cubed into small pieces.

And pulse that about 4 or 5 times, just into the butter is in small pieces, like so:

Now toss in 6 oz. of grated cheddar cheese

Pulse a couple times again.  Pour in 3/4 cup milk.  Pulse just until the mixture is mostened and forms a ’shaggy’ dough.  (I know, that word just kinda sounds gross…but it’s the word FN used, so I’m rolling with it.)  It should look something like this:

Now, remove the blades and start scooping.  Drop the dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet – you want globs of dough that around 1/4 cup.  I used one of my handy-dandy ice cream scoop type scoopers that happens to be… wait for it…1/4 cup.

Throw those in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. 

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking.  “But, what about the garlic?  There’s no garlic in there!  These are supposed to be Cheddar Garlic Biscuits?  Where’s the garlic??” 

And I say to you…”Don’t get your bloomers in a bunch…it’s coming.  All in good time, my garlic loving friend.  Be patient.”

When the biscuits come out of the oven, they’ll look like little golden mountains.  Mmmm, I love golden mountains.

Sing with me!  “For golden mountain majesty, above the fruited plains…”  Oh, wait.  Um.  Never mind.  Back to the biscuits.

Here, my dear friends, is where the beloved garlic comes in.  You can now unbunch your bloomers.

Melt 3 tbsp butter in a small saucepan with 1 cloved of smashed garlic.  Remove from heat and add in 1 tsp chopped parsley (dried or fresh).  Then, brush that buttery, garlicy goodness onto the biscuits.

And there you have it.  Amazing Cheddar Garlic Biscuits.

Oh yeah baby.  I could eat every one of these things myself.  But I didn’t.  I was nice.  I shared with my family. 

They each got one. 

Printable Recipe:  Cheddar Garlic Biscuits

I love pasta.

I love sun dried tomatoes.

I love Ree (aka Pioneer Woman).

The three come together in this amazing pasta salad recipe she shared a few weeks ago.  It looked sooo good. It looked easy.  And we had a Bible Study meeting to go to, so I thought I’d try it out.  I have to admit that I adapted it just a bit (mainly because I didn’t have a couple of the ingredients called for), but it’s all good.  It’s cooking…not rocket science!  There’s room for experimentation!  So, if you wanna see P-Dub’s Original version, clicky here.  Hers is wonderful, I am most certain (I haven’t tried a single PW recipe that I didn’t like!), but like I said, I was missing a few things so I just kinda went my own way a bit.  

Here’s how it went down in my kitchen one lazy Sunday afternoon. 

While hubby is sawing logs in the recliner and the kids are playing Wii, you march your little self into the kitchen and put a big pot of water on to boil.  Once the water comes to a full rolling boil, pour in about a pound of your favorite shape of pasta.  I almost always have rotini on hand, so that’s what I used.

Throw in a good amount of salt and give it a stir.

While the pasta is cooking, we’ll get our sun-dried tomato dressing made.  At my grocery store, I’ve only found the sun dried tomatoes in a plastic container in the produce section.  But you may find them in a jar, packed in oil.  If you buy the jarred kind, be sure to drain them well before proceeding.

Place about a 10 or 12 pieces of sundried tomatoes into a food processor bowl. 

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Toss in a couple cloves of garlic.

Now, here is where I first went astray from PW’s original recipe.  And for a couple of reasons.  One…it called for red wine vinegar and I didn’t have any in the pantry.  Two…remember the Chicken Bryan recipe?  It had a nice sauce of sun-dried tomatoes and lemon juice/zest.  Mmmm…what a nice combination.  So, to replace the acidic vinegar, I used lemon juice.

Squeeze the juice of one lemon right into the processor bowl (being careful not to let the seeds slip into the bowl!)

Add in a pinch or two of salt and pepper and blend until the tomatoes are chopped pretty well.  Take a peek and if it looks too dry, add some more olive oil and blend a bit more.  You’re finished when it looks something like this:

Here’s another point where I went astray…I was out of olives, fresh basil AND cherry tomatoes.  What?  Quit looking at me that way…it was time for a grocery trip, okay?  So, I diced up a couple slices of bacon that were hangin’ out in the fridge and cooked them till they were nice and crispy.

Grate yourself about a cup each of parmesan and pecorino romano cheese.  I like the combination of the flavors, but feel free to just use 2 cups of either one instead.

By now, your pasta should be done.  Drain it and rinse it with cold water until it’s cool to the touch.

Place your pasta in a large bowl.  Toss in the bacon, about 1-1/2 cups of the cheeses and some of the dressing, stirring gently to coat.  At this point, you’ll also want to add in some basil and/or parsley.  Sadly, my parsley plant has just about seen it’s last days, so I had to use dried.  Same with the basil.   Although the salad tasted fine, I know it would have been even better with fresh herbs.  *Sigh*

As you’re stirring it all together, add more dressing until it reaches the consistency you like.  If you like your pasta salad a little more ‘dry’ – more pasta, less dressing, don’t add much.  If you like your pasta salad all goopy and drippy with loads of dressing, add it all.  Or, if you’re like me (and Goldilocks) and you like it in the middle, use just enough to get it “just right” for you.

Then, sprinkle the reserved 1/2 cup of cheese over the top. 

And finish it all off by putting a couple of lemon pinwheels on top!

Yummalicious! 

PRINTABLE RECIPE FOR SUNDRIED TOMATO PASTA SALAD

I know this is a cooking blog…but, hey…I have other hobbies too!  If you don’t already know, I love scrapbooking and crafting of all kinds.  Well, I have a friend who is having a GREAT giveaway on her blog right now…as a matter of fact, she’ll be giving stuff away for a month!  So, go check her out, and leave a comment saying Carla sent you!  You won’t regret it!

A.K.A. White Chili.  It’s been cold around here lately and that puts me in the mood for warm soups and chili.  About a week ago, I wanted something warm and comforting, but I didn’t have time to make our regular chili recipe (watch for that in the next week or so!).  So, I looked through a few recipes I had for White Chili.  I didn’t really find one I liked, so I just made up my own recipe.  And it turned out great!  I even used some convenience ingredients to lessen my cook-time!  Oh yeah…now that’s what I call a good recipe – quick, easy and YUMMALICIOUS!  That describes this chili/soup for sure! 

Let’s Get Cookin.

Start by throwing one chopped onion and 4 cloves chopped garlic into a soup pot.  Let those cook until translucent.

Then, pour in 7 cups water.  Drop in 7 chicken bouillon cubes.

If you have chicken stock on hand, just use 7 cups of stock instead of water and omit the bouillon cubes.

Bring that mixture to a boil.  Add one small can of pinto beans, navy beans, butter beans, or any other kind of bean of your choice. 

Use a potato masher to lightly mash up the beans.  This will help thicken the chili.  Add another 2 small cans (or one large can) of beans.

Add in 1 tsp dried parsley, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp cumin and 1 tsp paprika.

Now, some people may cringe at the next ingredient, but it’s really not as bad as you might think.  Canned chicken.  Found in the same place as tuna at the grocery store, it works in a pinch.  I didn’t have time to cook chicken and shred it.  So, I used canned chicken.  I wouldn’t eat canned chicken by itself.  Um…no.  But, in a recipe like this, it’s not that big of a deal. 
So, open up two cans of chicken, drain well and chop it up a bit.  Of course, you can use ‘real’ cooked chicken if you want.  I won’t judge you.

Add the chicken to your pot. 

 Let the mixture simmer for about 30 minutes, and voila!  Bean & Chicken Chili!

To serve, I like to add a dollop of sour cream.