Sloppy Joes

I have made these Sloppy Joes several times and it sure beats the canned stuff I had when I was a kid. My husband wouldn't even touch the stuff until I made this homemade version. The canned version seems overly sweet to me now.

Sloppy Joes from: The New Better Homes and Garden Cookbook

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
2 tablespoons of water
3 teaspoons chili powder ( the recipe calls for 1 tsp)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons hot sauce (use less if you don't like it with a little kick)
salt and pepper to your liking

Cook the beef, onion, green pepper and garlic in a skillet until the meat is browned. Drain the fat.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. I have cooked this up and put it in the crock pot to stay hot for a party before. This serves 3-4 people but can easily be doubled or tripled.

Homemade Granola

Who doesn't like granola? They say it can be fattening. This recipe has oil, but at least you know exactly what kind and how much is in it. I use canola oil in this.Of course if has honey and brown sugar to. Do the oats and nuts cancel out that?

Granola from: Once a Month Cooking from 1986-Here is a link to the newest edition

8 cups of rolled oats

1 ¼ cup brown sugar (I use dark brown sugar)

1-2 cups of wheat germ, bran, unprocessed wheat or I just grind up some more rolled oats in my hands

1-2 cups chopped nuts or a mix with sunflower seed

¼ cup canola oil (or you can use vegetable oil)

¾ cup honey

2 teaspoons of vanilla

2 cups of raisins or craisins or other dried fruit

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the oats through the nuts together in a large bowl. Put the oil, honey and vanilla in a saucepan and heat while stirring until it gets bubbly. Pour this over the dry ingredients and stir well. Spread onto 2 large, rimmed cookie sheets and bake 20 to 25 minutes, stirring several times for even cooking. Remove from oven and cool completely stirring occasionally to keep it from clumping too much. Add the raisins. This should store for a least a couple of weeks, but it has never lasted that long here. Makes 14 to 16 cups. We like to snack on it or have it with milk.

Cabbage Rolls

We love cabbage rolls around here. We use the hottest sausage we can find for these, but any type will do or you could just use some ground pork.

This recipe is a combination of a couple recipes, but mostly it comes from a Barefoot Contessa recipe on Food Network. That Lady knows how to cook and bake. I still need to make her brownie recipe that has like a dozen sticks of butter in it. I bet they are good!

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls  From: Food Network Barefoot Contessa

Sauce:
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped white or yellow onions
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
2 (28) ounce cans of crushed tomatoes (or I sometimes use  2 (14) ounce cans of petite diced tomatoes with one 6 ounce can of tomato paste and 1 cup water)
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
1/4 cup brown sugar (I use honey or agave sometimes instead)
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
3/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (I got this idea from a Martha Stewart recipe for stuffed cabbage)

1 Large head of cabbage. My neighbor just told me about a cool trick for the cabbage. Instead of coring the cabbage and soaking it in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes-take the whole head and freeze it for a day or 2 until completely frozen through. Then thaw out on the counter starting the morning you are going to make these. She said almost every leaf is usable and doesn't tear. That would eliminate the frustration I have when making these. I am definitely trying this trick next time. Takes a little planning ahead though.

Filling:
1 to 1 1/2 pounds of sausage(as spicy as you want it) or ground pork
2 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon or more of smoked paprika (if you want more spice-idea also from the Martha Stewart recipe)
You can add about a 1/2 cup of the sauce to this filling if it seems like it needs a little more moisture.

Start you water boiling in a large pan for the head of cabbage. In another pan, saute your onions and garlic in the olive oil about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer about 30 minutes. I just start with the sauce and by the time I make everything else, the sauce is ready.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Core the cabbage and immerse into boiling water for a few minutes or try the freezing trick up above. Separate the cabbage leaves once cool enough to handle.

Mix all of the filling ingredients together and divide among the cabbage leaves. Roll the cabbage around the filling and put in a greased or sprayed 9x13 pan. Spread the sauce over the top and bake cover with foil for an hour. Take the foil off and make sure the sausage is fully cooked by slicing into the middle of a cabbage roll with a sharp knife. You may have to cook them for another 15 to 20 minutes. You can leave the foil off.

This recipe feeds the four of us-3 adults and a 16 year old that eats more than the rest of us. Ha!

Lemon Yogurt Cake

I have been eyeing this recipe for a while and it did not disappoint me, but I am a bit of a lemon freak!  I took it to work and the ladies in my department liked it. My boss, who usually eats anything, said he doesn't do lemon. I have one word for that: Weirdo!

It was simple to make and is so moist. The simple sugar poured over the warm cake has a lot to do with that I am sure. The recipe comes from Big Mama's Home Kitchen and she got it from the Barefoot Contessa at Home Cookbook.

Lemon Yogurt Cake
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 cup of vanilla yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons of lemon zest
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used canola oil)

Lemon simple sugar: 
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

Lemon glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 and grease and flour a loaf pan. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the next 5 ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients, then the oil. Bake 45-48 minutes. While the cake cools for 10 minutes, make the simple sugar by boiling the sugar and lemon juice until the sugar dissolves. You can take the cake out of the pan and pour the sugar over or I just left it in the pan after loosening it. Cool the cake and then mix the glaze ingredients together and pour over the cake. Just a note:  I used 3 lemons to make this recipe.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have made these once before but I think the recipe I used was a Paula Deen recipe. This time I used the one off the McCormick website. They make great extracts! They turned out great and made plenty. I was able to send everyone home from a party with some.

Red Velvet Cupcakes from: McCormick Website
Cupcakes:
2 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of butter, softened (I used unsalted)
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
1 bottle of red food coloring (I just used a big dollop of gel coloring)
2 teaspoons of vanilla

Frosting:
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons of sour cream
2 teaspoons of vanilla
16 ounces of powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the flour through the salt together. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add sour cream, milk, food coloring and vanilla. Slowly add in dry ingredients just until blended. I used my 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to fill 30 lined muffin cups. Bake for 20 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean). Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove and cool completely.
Make the frosting by mixing the cream cheese and butter until blended, then add the sour cream and vanilla. (the website says to mix the 1st 4 ingredients together, but this didn't work as well for me and I was mixing like crazy to get a few lumps out) Add the powdered sugar slowly. Frost your cupcakes. I used a Wilton's 1M frosting tip in a ziplock to get the swirls. I love the swirls! I was a little leery of the sour cream in the frosting. I have never heard of adding this, but the frosting was really good. I kind of wonder if it cuts the sweetness down a bit. Refrigerate the leftovers. I thought refrigerating these made them more dense and I liked that.

Halloween pillow and popcorn

I wish I would have gotten more into Halloween this year. It's just been so cold and dreary! I did make this  pillow though.

Sad that this was the only decoration I actually had out. I didn't even ask anyone to help me get the decorations from the attic.

I started with this shirt my husband decided he couldn't stand to wear anymore. When I first thought about making a pillow out this shirt, I was thinking of sewing a pumpkin on. A black cat would be cute also.

I got this template off the Country Living website. I think I enlarged their template 144% to get the size I wanted. I pinned it like crazy and sewed it with my sewing machine. Hand sewing would also work. The back of the pillow has the button front of the shirt so it is easy to cover a pillow I already have.

I also made this popcorn and forgot to take it to the adult dress up party we went to. I was too busy worrying about our costumes.

It is a cross of 2 recipes I saw on a couple of blogs. One for Candy "corn" popcorn at I Heart Nap Time and another for Payday caramel corn at Shugary Sweets. Both of these sites always have great ideas and I visit them often.

Tonight we have trick or treating in our town. Halloween was delayed because of Sandy. Luckily our area did not see much more then some rain and wind. My son did get a day off of school for it. I went to Kmart last night and bought all of my candy. I ended up not paying anything for the almost $22 bill. I was able to use my points and I still have a few dollars left over. Love that!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

I have seen a lot of recipes for this on other blogs. I used the recipe from Baking Blonde. My guys love cookie dough anything so this went over well.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars from: Baking Blonde

Crust:

1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs

4 tablespoons of melted butter

1 tablespoon of sugar

2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Cookie Dough:

5 tablespoons of melted butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

4 tablespoons of sugar

dash of salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla

¾ cup flour

1 cup mini chocolate chips

Cheesecake:

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened

¼ cup sugar
1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Extra mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter an 8x8 inch pan and then line with parchment paper extending over the sides. Butter the parchment paper. Mix the crust ingredients and press into the bottom of the pan. Bake 6 minutes and let cool. Mix the cookie dough ingredients together. Mix the cheesecake ingredients together with a mixer and pour over the crust. Drop the cookie dough by spoonful over the filling. Sprinkle with some extra mini chips and press them and the dough down into the filling a little. Bake for 30 minutes or until set. Cool and then refrigerate for 2-3 hours.