Golden Brown & Delicious

Sausage-Broccoli Puff Pancake
adapted from recipe submitted by Kathy Steppler to Allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• FILLING:
• 2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 small onion, sliced into rings
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 pound bulk pork sausage
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli
• 1/3 cup uncooked instant rice
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Place butter in a glass 9-in. pie plate; place in a 400 degrees F oven for 2-3 minutes or until butter is melted. Remove from the oven. In a bowl, whisk milk, flour, eggs and salt until smooth; pour into hot pie plate. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes or until puffed and golden. Meanwhile, in a skillet, saute mushrooms and onion in butter until tender; remove and set aside. In the same skillet, cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in broccoli and rice are tender. Stir in mushroom mixture and cheese. Cover and keep warm When pancake is removed from oven, immediately spoon filling into center and serve.

Pie. Oh my!

We had a great Thanksgiving. I made 3 pies and green bean casserole. One of the pecan pies was commandeered by Hubs. I found this great recipe on allrecipes.com. I have to say that this was the easiest and prettiest pie I have ever made. Hubs ate a whole pie by himself (over 3 days) so I think it gets his seal of approval.

I also made a Pumpkin Pie from this recipe. (Also from allrecipes.com.) It was simple and since I had a premade crust it was easy too.

Practicing for Santa

Hubs has been requesting cookies for the last (maybe longer?) so tonight I made these. I found the recipe here on AllRecipes.com. They are just right. Not too chewy or crunchy. I am a cookie batter fiend so I think I did good to get the full 3 dozen out of the recipe.
It did me good to get a little practice for Santa.

Note to self... and others

These gingerbread waffles look so good that I just had to leave myself a reminder to try them. That is as soon as I get a waffle iron.

Several Weeks Ago...

I learned to make jam with my favorite aunt & uncle.

We made peach...
and pineapple...Didn't they turn out pretty?
I loved cooking in my aunt's magnificent kitchen. It is so roomy with lots of counter space and almost every tool one could imagine needing. I look forward to canning with her again. Next time though I think we will do it when my uncle is out of town. This turned into a BIG Doug project!

Thanks Aunt Phyllis. I had a ton of fun.

So good I should have taken a picture

Dinner tonight was fab.u.lous. I cooked some chicken in a pan with a spray of olive oil. Half way through cooking I added pepper, garlic salt, red pepper, and chili powder. YUMM-O! Removed them from the pan then made a quesadilla and added the chicken. Oh man was it good. We had a side of microwaved veggies and water. You'd think that with good food like this I would be losing lbs left and right. To top it all of A & I walked down to Granny's house. A in his little red wagon and mama pulling it along. We had a good time.

Business is super fantastic. Today we won a bid for the stone veneer on the California Pizza Kitchen in Cherry Creek Mall. It was a good bid so we will be able to reserve the booth for the Garden & Home show coming up this winter. N & I talked about that today and got a few of our ideas down on paper. This is good stuff folks. We don't have a lot of advertising going on so I think it will be fantastic to get out business card out there in so many hands. Who knows there may be a huge payoff in the years to come from just one show.

Today we got to sample some more from our garden. The grape tomatoes are starting to turn red and ripen. I just got a taste today but there are a couple more that will be ready tomorrow. I am hoping I can get a good photo before hubby gets out there and plucks them. I also need to get the squash. They are so pretty with the blooms and the veggies all hiding under those massive leaves.

I was going to take photos of green today but didn't get to it. Bummer dude. Guess that will have to wait for my excursion with A to the park tomorrow. I think I will add either red or yellow to the day so I can get more than one day from a color. :)

Well that is enough from me tonight. I want to be up early to get a head start on my day tomorrow.

BBQ Sunday

I love to grill. I especially love to do it for friends and family. In our house I am the grill mistress! Today some of my hubby's friends came to enjoy some hamburgers from the grill. We all had a good time. I put on a good spread if I do say so myself. It was a lot of work to do it all on a day that I wanted to just relax but now that the kitchen is all cleaned up I feel like it was worth it.

Blessings for today
my grill
A's pack n play
giving gifts to others
the neighbor boys
sandboxes

Tostada Pizza

Before becoming a SAHM I did not cook much. Since I have been at home I cook almost every night. I send thanks to my Mother In Law, Susan, for the Better Home & Gardens New Cookbook Limited (Pink) Edition. There are so many super yummy recipes in this book. A go to recipe for us is Tostada Pizza. I made this earlier this week but do not recommend making this during the hot summer months unless you have air conditioning.
You need:
1 lb of ground beef
1 onion
1 (4 oz) can of diced green chiles
1 envelope of taco seasoning mix
1 tsp chili powder
spray olive oil
some cornmeal
10 oz package of refrigerated pizza dough
15 oz can of pintos with jalapenos
4 oz shredded cheese (we use cheddar)
shredded lettuce
chopped tomato

1. Brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Add green chiles, taco seasoning and water as directed on package, and chili powder. Simmer until liquid is gone.
2. Grease baking pan with spray olive oil. Sprinkle cornmeal to prevent dough from sticking. (This also gives the dough a bit of cornbread flavor.) pat dough into rectangle. Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes.
3. Mash pintos in bowl. Spread over partially baked dough. Spoon meat mixture over beans. Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is golden. Sprinkle cheese over top and put back in oven for 1-2 minutes until melted.
4. Cut into squares. Top squared to be served with lettuce and tomato. Leftovers can be refrigerated for a couple of days and topped as they are reheated.