Pepperoni Pizza Chili

My husband doesn't get involved in the kitchen too much, but when I asked if he had a blow torch I could borrow he didn't hesitate to offer his services!

To make this dish all you do is prepare your chili as you normally would. Then add lots of pepperoni. When it's through cooking top it with cheese and some more pepperoni. I usually put my pot in the oven and turn the broiler on to brown the cheese. But this time my pot was too large for my oven, so that was the reason for the blow torch.

And the boys got to cook in the kitchen! Now if I can only get them to do dishes............

The Kitchen, My Favorite Place To Be!

I've had this deep heart shaped dish for years and never used it until this past weekend.

It made a wonderful deep dish Apple Crumb pie!
All I do is peel, core and slice my apples. put them in a pot with a little water cook until warm all the way through. I add a cup of sugar and a tsp. of apple pie spice. Thicken with corn startch and pour in my pie shell. Last but not least I sprinkle with a brown sugar topping. I used about 8 to 10 large apples for this one.

With the extra dough from the pie crust I make cinnamon sticks just like my Mama use to. All you do is roll the dough out thin and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Put it in the oven @ 350 for about 12 to 15 minutes. They are yummy and they bring back wonderful memories of my Mama in the kitchen.

Curry Chicken & Broccoli

1 Large bag of frozen broccoli
1 whole chicken or 4 large chicken breasts cut up and cooked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken
1 cup of mayo
1 tsp of lemon juice
1 tsp curry powder
1 cup of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
Optional Topping: Bread crumbs and melted butter

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and put in a prepared large casserole dish. Put in the oven @ 350 for about 1 hour and 1/2 . I covered mine with tin foil and at the last 20 minutes or so I take off the foil to brown the bread crumbs.

More recipes to follow. Right now we have to start school. Happy Baking Everyone!

Another Bucket With A Bow

 This is a gift basket I had made over the weekend for a good friend. It was her Father's Birthday present.

 The basket was filled with homemade Raspberry Jam, Peach Butter, Corn Relish, Bread n Butter Pickles, and Apple Butter. Among other tasty goodies.

If your interested in a one of kind gift for a friend or family member, Just let me know. I enjoy putting these Buckets together. Prices vary.......You just need to give me an idea of about how much you want to spend.

You can e-mail me at jkhcb5@aol.com

Sausage, Rice and Fried Potatoes

This is an easy dish:
Smoked Sausage
2 Boxes Uncle Ben's Rice
4 Cups water
1/4 cup brown Sugar
1 onion
1 Pepper
2 ribs of celery
2 zucchini
6 Potatoes
2 cans diced tomatoes
garlic salt to taste

 Cut your potatoes and put them on a griddle and let them cook on low heat. while your potatoes are frying, you cook your smoked, spicy sausage, onions, peppers and celery in a large pot. Then you add 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 4 cups water, 2 boxes of uncle Ben's original recipe rice, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and garlic salt to taste. Cook until rice is done and potatoes are golden brown. Add your zucchini at the last minute to heat through. Place on a large platter.

This is a large recipe for our big family! But it would be easy to cut in 1/2.

Lewis & Clark Nature Journals

The kids and I are learning about Lewis and Clark in history. So I wanted to show you the nature journal replicas that we made.

 We made them out of chamois, two pieces of card board, parchment paper, hot glue and embroidery thread.

 The kids were so excited when they were finished, they immediately went out to find things to draw!

 My little man has almost completely filled every page in his journal. And we made them yesterday!

It's a pretty easy project! We are using Time Travelers, by http://www.homeschoolinthewoods.com/ It's a great hands on History Study!

It's The Great Pumpkin

This has to be one of my all time favorite recipes ever!

Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Muffins, Pumpkin Cake with Cream cheese frosting

This recipe is very versatile it does really well all three ways!

3 1/3 C flour
3 C sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 can 15 ounce pumpkin
1 c vegetable oil
4 eggs
2/3 c water
Preheat oven to 350
Put all ingredients in a large bowl and mix very well. This is where you have to make a decision... you can either prepare a cookie sheet and make a sheet cake with cream cheese frosting, prepare a large muffin tin and make large yummy muffins or you can prepare 2 loaf pans and make pumkin bread. Bake untill tooth pick comes out clean. It is absolutely wonderful and moist all three ways! You will not be dissapointed with this one!

Butternut Apple Butter

 I'm always looking for different ways to use my apples. I had a butternut squash sitting on my counter and was wondering what I should do with it. So after some thought I decided to make Butternut Apple Butter. I have always made Pumpkin Apple Butter, so why not? It's the same concept.

 So here it is Butternut Apple Butter! Yum! Yum!

You cook your apples down like you would for apple sauce. Add your spices, cinnamon, allspice, ground cloves, nutmeg, ginger. What ever you prefer. Add your sugar. I use brown sugar. While your apples are simmering cut your squash in half and bake it in the oven for about an hour. Remove squash from skin and put it in your apple mixture. You can puree the squash first if you want to. I've done it both ways and either way is good.
Ladel it in your jars and process in hot water bath.

We put it on toast, I use it as baby food, And my husband likes to put it on cottage cheese. We have even been known to heat it up and put it on vanilla ice cream! Mmmmmmmm...........GOOD!