Home Canned Sweet and Sour Sauce

This is one of our family's favortie ways to use up garden produce. We've outgrown the pint-size jars and so this year I chose to can this sauce in 3 cup jars. I didn't even know they existed until I started searching for them, knowing a quart of sauce would be too much. They are as tall as quart jars, but skinnier. I hope they will be the perfect size for our needs.

Pizza Pot Pie

Sometimes we are in the mood for the flavor of pizza, but not the work. This recipe is a perfect solution for those nights. I always keep precooked sausage and hamburger in the freezer so this meal can be thrown together in a quick hurry. It is also one we love to do when we are camping. My husband is a scout master so coming up with recipes that can be done in a Dutch oven that 16 hungry boys will love is a challenge. This is one they all enjoy!

Pumpkin Black-Bean Turkey Chili

I like to spend my spare moments looking over cookbooks. I know that may sound odd to some of you, but I've found I enjoy it much more than reading a magazine. Sometimes I visit thrift stores just to pick up some new ones.

Freezer to Crockpot Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches

I am continually looking for recipes that I can make ahead and allow to cook while I am shuttling kids to and from activities. This one is a keeper!

Hearty Sausage and Red Lentil Soup

With the temperatures beginning to cool off, the warmth of a good hearty soup fills the need for dinner. Serve with some hot biscuits or homemade bread along with a green salad and you've got a full meal.

Garden Green Beans

We are harvesting the last few weeks of garden produce. We always miss the fresh grown-in-the-backyard flavor during the winter months. I thought I'd share one of our favorite ways to prepare garden green beans.

Overnight Chili Cheese Mac

I read a recipe in an old cookbook for an overnight pasta bake. It intrigued me since I had never tried this method. I decided to give it a try with this chili cheese version. I mixed it all together in the morning and then baked it up at dinner time. It left me free

The Joys of Ultra Gel, Ultra Sperse, or Instant Clear-jel

Ultra Sperse ,Ultra Gel, Ultra Maxi-gel or Instant Clear-jel - A rose by any other name would smell as sweet right?

I want to sing the praises of this amazing product whatever it is you want to call it. This product is a modified corn starch that thickens products instantly, hot or cold. No cooking is required! Because it is made of corn, it is gluten free.

Lasagna Soup

The first night I served this soup, my six year old told me he had a new favorite meal! Score one for mom! It really is simple to throw together and can be on the table in about 30 minutes.

Freezer to Crockpot Mediterranean Chicken

Isn't it the loveliest of all pictures? This is another meal we enjoyed during our kitchen remodel when I was cooking in a crockpot on the bathroom counter and eating on paper plates in the basement. The activity tablecloth is on the table since the other half of the space was being used to paint a school project. Ahh - the joys of remodeling! During that remodel, I learned to love the freezer to crockpot method. It was the only way we survived the remodel with home-cooked food! It has made my life since the remodel so much easier also. I serve a freezer to crockpot meal at least once a week to free up my dinner prep time to be used shuttling kids to and from events.

Holiday Baking has Begun

With Christmas just a week and a half away, I am knee deep into holiday baking. My all-purpose cookie dough makes it so easy to get a festive tray of cookies baked in no time. The picture above shows my pinwheel cookies.

Freezer to Crockpot Mongolian Beef

Notice the lovely paper plate - this is another meal we enjoyed during the weeks of our remodel. It's just taken me a bit to get it posted here on the blog. Now that the nights are getting cooler and the kids are busy every afternoon, I am turning to my crockpot much more. Preparing a few meals all at once and then storing them in the freezer for later is a time saver for me.

Honey Roasted Pretzels

I went in search of a recipe to use up a large bag of pretzels the other day. I had all my cub scouts coming over after school and they always hit the house hungry! My older daughter is my big pretzel eater so I have learned to keep some on hand as part of my short-term storage. The problem is she just got braces and pretzels are now on the "no-no" list - she can only have the sticks. That meant I had a very large bag of pretzels that was in need of being eaten. This recipe was great!

I often change up a recipe just a bit, but this one I did as is and we loved it. You could add some nuts if you wanted a sweet-salty mix. The cub scouts ate a lot of them and then the boy scouts finished them off over their weekend camp out. They would work great for teacher or friend gifts for any occasion or be a quick treat for any pot-luck or party. The topping just adds a hint of sweetness to the salty pretzels.

Start with a few basic ingredients -  Mix the sauce ingredients after microwaving them. Pour over the pretzels - notice how the sauce changes color after adding the baking soda. (You could turn making it into a science lesson for your kids.) Microwave again -  Stir to break them up. I used my hand to separate some as well. From start to finish in less than 10 minutes - perfect for my needs! Honey Roasted Pretzels  (Makes 9 cups) 9 cups mini pretzels (10 ounces) 1/4 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 tablespoon honey 1 tablespoon light corn syrup 1/8 teaspoon baking soda 1. Place pretzels in 2 or 3 quart microwave-safe casserole or measurer. Set aside. 2. Combine brown sugar, butter, honey, and corn syrup in 4-cup microwave-safe measurer. 3. Microwave mixture on Full Power 45-60 seconds or until mixture boils hard, stirring once. 4. Continue to microwave mixture on Full Power 60 more seconds. 5. Stir in soda mixture. 6. Pour syrup over pretzels. Stir to lightly coat pretzels with syrup. 7. Microwave coated pretzels on 50 % power, uncovered,, 3-4 minutes or until lightly toasted, stirring twice. (If you don’t have 50% power, try using the defrost setting for 4-5 minutes). 8. Turn onto lightly vegetable-sprayed waxed paper or foil 9. As mixture cools, break into pieces. 10. Store in tightly covered container or resealable plastic bag. Source: http://deannahouse.com/pages/recipes/snacks_honeyroastedpretzels.html

Freezer to Crockpot Honey Mustard Pork Roast

Now that school is in full swing and the kids keep me busy between the hours of 4-6:00 pm, I am back to loving my freezer to crock pot meals! I purchased a package of pork roasts a few weeks back. The total package weighed just over 5 lbs and there were two pieces in it. I made this recipe and I also packaged up a Cranberry Lemon Pork Roast to use another time.

I let the meal thaw and then placed it in the crockpot at about 3:00 on high. I did cut the roast in half knowing that I was getting a bit of a late start. (I knew two smaller pieces of meat would cook faster than one larger piece.) I basted the roast a couple of times during the cooking process, but otherwise I was free to help kids with homework, piano practice, etc.

Just before serving, I sliced it up and drizzled a little of the thickened sauce over the top. Simple and delicious. I served mashed potatoes and green salad on the side.

Freezer to Crockpot Honey Mustard Pork Roast
2-3 lb pork roast 

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 small clove garlic, minced

4 tablespoons Dijon or regular mustard

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

Add just before cooking:

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon cold water

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a gallon ziplock bag. Knead until well mixed. Add the pork roast. Label bag with instructions to add 1 Tbsp cornstarch just before cooking. Freeze. Thaw before cooking. Dump everything into the crockpot. Mix cornstarch with a little cold water and add to crockpot. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours.

Chicken Caesar Tetrazzini

This is one of my most requested freezer meal recipes. It's hard to believe it's taken me this long to get it posted on my blog. I've learned to triple the batch when I make this recipe so I can have a couple waiting in the freezer for another day. They make a great baby gift! I've also taken this meal to friends if they are recovering from surgery or are just having a really hectic time. Everyone loves this recipe! I've learned to include a copy of the recipe each time I take it to someone because they all request it.

I had a great friend bring it to me during one of my pregnancies that was especially challenging. She was kind enough to share the recipe with me and now I have shared it with so many others. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as well.

Chicken Caesar Tetrazzini
8 oz spaghetti, cooked	1 (4 oz) can mushrooms, drained
2 cups chicken, cooked	½ cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup chicken broth	2 Tbsp dry bread crumbs
1 cup Caesar salad dressing
Combine noodles with chicken. Add broth, dressing, and mushrooms. Mix. Place in a 2 qt casserole dish. Cover and freeze for up to 3 months. To use frozen pasta: Thaw. Mix together Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and sprinkle on top. Bake at 350° F for 25 minutes or heat in the microwave. If using the microwave, wait to put the crumbs on top until just before serving. You can also use 1 cup of water and 1 tsp chicken bouillon to substitute for the broth.

Salsa Day Prep

The garden is producing and we are harvesting as things are ready. 

It makes "Salsa Day" so much easier if I have already chopped and frozen many of the ingredients.

A food processor makes for quick work.

Be sure to wear gloves so the pepper oils don't bother your hands. (Or worse, get into your eyes because you touch them after working with the peppers - that was a painful lesson learned a few years ago!)

I have a blue pair of gloves I reserve for using with food - my yellow ones I use for cleaning.

Label your bags of chopped ingredients and freeze them until the big day arrives. If you won't be making salsa this year, you can still chop and freeze your peppers and onions this way to use in other recipes.

Browning Hamburger for a Crowd

We were assigned the taco meal at our last family reunion. It meant we needed to make taco filling for 90 people! That's a lot of tacos. Thank goodness it is a recipe that can be done in parts and well ahead of time. I will share the taco filling recipe soon. Today I am just going to share my secret for browning the hamburger. I decided to brown my 10 lbs of hamburger all at once. I put it all in my turkey roasting pan. I then chopped a couple of large onions from our garden and added them to the pot. The hamburger chubs were still a little frozen in the middle so I broke up what I could and then put the lid on. 

I baked it at 300 degrees for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours stirring it occasionally to break it up. It took a while to do, but I did not have to be constantly watching it. I made and served dinner, did some laundry, and bathed my younger kids. It worked great! 

Once it was done, I lined two jelly roll pans with paper towels and used a slotted spoon to move the hamburger to the trays. I then worked to mix all the taco filling - more on that another time.

If you are not making tacos, just let the hamburger cool and package in ziplock bags to freeze for another day. Having hamburger pre-cooked speeds up dinner preparations many nights. Sloppy Joes, spaghetti, tacos, casseroles, and hamburger helper style meals all require that you brown the meat first. This way, you can skip that step and have dinner on the table that much faster.

Salsa Verde Shredded Chicken

We love chicken cooked this way! I use it in many Mexican style dinners and it is so easy to cook up a large batch.

I place 5-6 frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot. Then I dump in a bottle of salsa verde. We like the mild version, but you can make it as spicy as you like. I add 1-2 tsp of chicken bouillon. That's it - put the lid on and cook for 3-4 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. To prepare ahead and freeze, just combine everything in a gallon ziplock bag. To use, thaw and cook as above.

When you can poke a fork into the chicken and twist easily, you know the chicken is ready for shredding.I lift it out of the crockpot and into a casserole dish so the juices don't get all over the place while I shred it with two forks. (Reserve all the remaining liquid in the crockpot - the next post will tell you how I turn it into delicious enchilada filling.)

Here is my pile of shredded chicken. I usually plan it so that I use some of the chicken for dinner and freeze the rest for another night. To freeze, allow to cool completely and bag in freezer ziplock bags or containers.

You can top a taco salad, roll some in a burrito, make enchiladas, bake up some chicken nachos, top a tostada, use it in white chicken chili - really your options are about limitless. 

You can do the same thing with red salsa or picante sauce. You can also substitute pork roast for the chicken. It really is that simple - 

Microwave Caramel Cereal Snack Mix

Caramel Cereal Mix is loved by all the kids and adults who have ever tasted it! It never stays around long. We love to take it to game nights or other pot luck events. By doing it in the microwave, it can all be done in a flash and a flurry.

Begin by melting the butter and brown sugar mix in the microwave.

Combine the cereal and any other goodies like pretzels and nuts in a clean, brown grocery bag.

Add the baking soda.

The mixture will turn this light, brown color when you add the baking soda. (The kids think you just did a neat science trick.)

Pour the caramel mixture in to the bag and mix well with a long handled spoon.

Fold the top of the bag over and shake. Microwave for about 90 seconds - each microwave is a little different so you may have to adjust the time slightly.

The bag should look like this when you are done - 

Tear open the bag and allow the mix to cool. It's pretty impossible to keep snitching hands out of it entirely. Once cooled - enjoy! Store any remaining mix in an airtight container - you probably won't have any leftover for long.

Microwave Caramel Cereal Snack Mix
1 cup brown sugar, packed	½ tsp salt
½ cup butter	½ tsp baking soda
¼ light corn syrup	10 cups Corn or Rice Chex or Cheerios Peanuts, cashews, pretzels - optional
Measure cereal into a large brown paper grocery bag. Combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, and salt in a glass bowl. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes in the microwave. Remove and stir in baking soda. Pour caramel mixture over cereal and shake and stir until coated. Roll down the top of bag to close. Place bag in microwave and microwave for 90 seconds. (Each microwave is a little different so you may need to adjust cooking time.) Lay bag on table and tear open the side of the bag to allow the mixture to cool. Don't hesitate to double the recipe. If you do, you will need to shake the bag after cooking for 90 seconds and then return to the microwave for an additional 90 seconds. Try a mix of different cereals, popcorn, and nuts for a sweet snack mix.

Campfire Fajitas

Camping season is upon us - a few quick, easy to prepare ahead meals are essential for the family cook to enjoy the trip. Here is one that we enjoyed on our first outing this year.

We prepped the food the night before. We were only staying one night this time around. When that is the case, I've learned to prepare the meal at home in my own kitchen and then take the food in a thermos. By the time we leave after James gets home from work, we get to camp right at dinner time. Everyone is hungry and the food is hot so we can eat right away. It works out nicely and really cuts down on the complaining from hungry children.

We have a couple of thermoses I use just for this purpose.

This one holds about 6 cups of food which is plenty big for this fajita recipe or taco filling or sloppy joes, etc. It is supposed to keep hot foods hot for up to 6 hours. We have only tested it for 2-3 hours, but it has worked great!

You can also use a little hard sided cooler like this one. If doing so, I wrap the food in foil packets and tuck them inside. I have taken foil (hobo) dinners in this thermos after baking them about halfway in the oven. The thermos acts like a crockpot and continues to slow cook the meals while we drive. We will open them up and they are still piping hot 5-6 hours later. We can do an entire day trip without needing to pack any cooking equipment - it is great!

Campfire Fajitas

1 lb boneless chicken breast

2 large peppers, any color

1 med onion

4-5 cloves minced garlic

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 Tbsp dried cilantro

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp liquid smoke

2 Tbsp lime juice

Flour tortillas

sour cream 

guacamole

shredded cheese

At home: Slice chicken into strips and place in ziplock bag. Add garlic, vegetable oil, spices, liquid smoke, and lime juice. Allow to marinate while getting to the campsite. (You could even do this step way ahead and place the bag in the freezer. Then it could just thaw in the cooler until you need it.) Slice peppers and onions (being sure to remove the seeds from the peppers) and place in a second ziplock bag.

At camp: Remove the chicken from the marinade and cook in a large frying pan over an open fire or camp stove. When the chicken is nearly done, add the peppers and onions and cook until the onions become translucent. Combine everything in a flour tortilla and top with your choice of toppings.