Risotto

I have the day off, so I have been busy making ahead some meals for the rest of the week! One of my favorites is risotto made with mushrooms, onions and leftover meat of some kind! Today's lucky winner is leftover pork loin. Risotto takes about 45 minutes from start to finish, don't walk to far away from when you start as it might burn or get stuck to the bottom of the pan! So plan accordingly! I use Vigo brand rice( it has to be arborio rice), 1/2 onion chopped, 1 container of mushrooms, cleaned and chopped, and chopped up meat(shrimp, pork, beef, or chicken), and 1 box of stock. If you use beef, use the beef stock, otherwise you can use vegetable or chicken stock. This can be made entirely vegetarian with the vegetable stock, just add more mushrooms or veggies. Start off with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in the skillet, add onions, saute for 2 minutes and then add the cleaned mushrooms. Start the stock in a sauce pan to warm up, start adding the warm stock when the mushrooms start to wilt, a soup ladle at a time, keep stirring and adding the liquid until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is soft! Taste as you go so you know when to quit cooking. At the end you will need about 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese to add to the rice, it will be creamy and yummy! Salt and pepper to taste. Good luck and blessings!

fruit salad

I really like fruit salad! I really don't like fruit cocktail! I probably ate too much fruit cocktail as a kid! What kind of fruit do you use in your fruit salad? I bought a pineapple on Friday and by Monday I needed to do something with it or throw it out! So, I bought 2 oranges, 2 apples and 5 bananas, put most of it together with the pineapple and WOW, so delish!! We just ate the end of it tonight! Blessings!

brownies

Friday I will be making brownie waffles. I saw this on Rachael Ray TV show in Feb. It's pretty much the mix and put in the waffle maker, put your favorite topping on them such as pie filling or fresh berries! Come in and see me! Blessings! Photo was taken behind my house with our trail cam!

Easter

Good afternoon! We finished eating a little while ago, but I wanted to share something with you today not food related! Jesus is the reason we celebrate Easter! He rose from the grave to give us

new life and I am eternally grateful! I pray that you know Him also! Blessings!

new site

Hey, I checked out a new website that I've been following! They made cheesecake in a jar! WOW!!!!! The website is : mybakingaddiction.com They don't know me, so I'm not promoting them for anything, but their recipes! Blessings!

Grill cheese

April is grill cheese month, I bet you didn't know that till I told you! So, in honor of grill cheese month, for Thursday's demo I made a "jalapeno popper grill cheese sandwich." Recipe: 1 8oz. package of softened cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of jalapeno chopped finely(I used the canned jalapenos and drained it). Spread the cream cheese mix on both slices of bread and put the cheese in between(I used shredded), then butter the outside of the bread and fry them up!!! The cream cheese gets gooey and the cheese all melted! YUM!!! Blessings!

Ikea trip

Well, I did survive the trip with 3 other girls yesterday! We laughed, ate, laughed, chatted, ate, laughed and laughed!! I did manage to take a few photos of the day! These are 2 rooms that I thought were very neat! Blessings!

trip

Tomorrow(weather permitting), I'm going to Minneapolis to the IKEA store! I haven't been there and 3 girlfriends are going with me! I'm so excited to see the store and all the items! I will take my camera and hopefully give you a tour when I get home! So, I'm off to bed to get some much needed shut eye for the big shopping day! Blessings!

back up

Well, my computer is back up and running! YEAH!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I have been playing hookey from cooking for a few days with making do with what I have in the refrig with leftovers! So, look for a new recipe this week or two! Blessings!

computers!

My computer is down, so I won't be posting anything until the weekend! Sorry!!! Blessings!I sent this from work, oops, almost caught!

cookbook

I recently purchased Martha Stewart's cookbook called "Power Foods". I have spent the last 2 months going over different recipes trying to decide which one to make, I had bought all the ingredients, but used them to make an entirely different meal, go figure!! So, I will start all over and make the meal I was going to do over the weekend tomorrow night! Stay tuned!

Blessings

peach dessert

I made a new to me dessert, I think it has gone around the block a couple of times over the years! I started off with 24oz of peaches in a jar, 1-9oz cake mix from Jiffy, 1/2 stick of melted butter. I placed the peaches in a baking dish with the dry cake mix on top, then pour the melted butter on top. Place in preheated oven(350) for 40 minutes or longer until it turns golden brown! Serve with ice cream or whipped topping, Yum!!!! Blessings!

new recipe

I have made a few friends from my blog and one is a very cute young mother named Holly! She has a great blog named: life-as-a-lofthouse.blogspot.com Her recipes are absolutely fantastic! Here is one from the other day, cheese danish: 1 tube of crescent rolls(I used 2), 4 oz of cream cheese softened(I did 8 oz), 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and then make a standard icing from powdered sugar and milk. Preheat the oven to 350, then open the tube of rolls, there is 4 rectangles of rolls, separate the rectangles. Mix the cream cheese, juice and sugar together. Spread a small amount of the cream cheese on them and lenthwise roll it up and pinch the ends, twirl them into a circle! Add a teapsoon of your favorite jam in the center and bake for 15 minutes. Take them out to cool and then put the icing on! We are about to try them out with a cup of coffee! Blessings!

ideas

Since I had 1 lonely comment about what I blogged about last time and spent some time in prayer, I will do something new for this blog! I'm going to keep all of you in suspense for the day! Blessings!

cookbooks

Some of you know that I am a cookbook junkie! Well, I was reading another blog(threemanycooks.com) and she was saying the same thing. Mentioning all the clipping and printed out recipes that she has never made, but intended too someday! That got me to thinking(which isn't all bad) about what to do with all of mine! Any ideas, like, one meal a week has to be from another blog or cookbook, or do a whole month from one cookbook and see if we all like the recipes or not, or what???? Let me know as I like to keep up with new ideas and recipes! Where do you all find your dinner ideas? Or cookie ideas or cake creations?? See what I mean, this could so much fun! Blessings! The photo is from behind my house

rhubarb

I found some rhubarb in the freezer and thought I should probably make something before the new growth starts showing up this spring(if ever spring shows up, expecting some snow today, yicks)! Recipe: 6 cups of rhubarb, diced, 3/4 cup of sugar, 2 Tablespoons of oj, 1 pat of butter place in 8 inch pan, I sprinkle in some corn starch for thickening. Topping: 3/4 of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of flour, 3/4 of brown sugar and 3 Tablespoons of butter, melted. Mix this together and pour over the rhubarb. Bake 350 for 40 minutes, serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.

Pretty basic, but so good! Blessings!