Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Holiday Greetings! I had great plans to blog ALOT more this holiday season and well, it just didnt happen. It doesnt mean I havent been baking and cooking alot, I just havent had the time for pics and such. We have had house guests for the last couple of weeks and everything has just been so busy! My inlaws had to head back to Kentucky so we tried to make the most of their time here. Time with family is so important! My wish for you all is to have a very Merry and Blessed Christmas and I also hope this will be the beginning of a prosperous and special New Year. All of my blog friends, Thank You so much for what you provide in my life. You all fill me with inspiration and great ideas to make my family and home better! Merry Christmas!

Christmas here we come!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. As you can tell we had food aplenty. I took this pic before we all sat down and devoured it all. We were very blessed with great company and since my daughter is getting married next May we have new family. We went to visit with them after the meal and had a wonderful time. I am very anxious to start my Christmas baking and sharing it will you all! Love to everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving my dear friends!

I probably wont be posting this week due to the preparations for Thanksgiving at my house, but I wanted to take a minute to wish you all a wonderful, fun filled, blessed Thanksgiving. My wish for you all is to be surrounded by the love of family and friends and of course, great food. I have my menu planned out and have been soaking up all the wonderful Thanksgiving posts of my blog friends. When I am using your recipes this week I will be saying a little prayer for each of you, that you all are having a beautiful day filled with what we are thankful for all year long!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheese Wafers

How can you resist a recipe that starts out like this?

These little savory wafers will be perfect to snack on for Thanksgiving Day when everyone is ready to eat and the meal is just not quite done. These little snacks are melt in your mouth luscious. With just a couple of ingredients they are easy to whip up. They need to chill in the fridge so they are the perfect "make ahead" nibbles. I remember eating these back in the 70's when I was a kid. How about we go a little retro today?

Here is the rest of the ingredients: flour, salt, butter and a bit of cayenne pepper. Not enough to scare off the kids though. Trust me, they will love these.

Cream together your cheese and butter. Add salt, cayenne pepper and then work in your flour with your hands.

You will end up with a small dough ball like this.

Roll it into a pretty little log and wrap in wax paper and put in the fridge. Super easy.

Slice it up into little thin wafers like this and put on a parchment covered cookie sheet.

Just like this. Then bake for about 8-10 minutes just til they're a little bubbly and just set.

So pretty and delicious.

These really need to cool really well. If you try to eat them too soon they will just crumble up. Once they are cool they are much easier to eat.

Cheese Wafers

1/4 pound of butter

1/4 pound of cheddar cheese, grated

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 dash red pepper

Cream together butter and cheese. Stir in salt and red pepper. Slowly add the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until well blended. Knead dough until smooth. Roll into a log and wrap in wax paper and chill in the refrigerator. Slice thin and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or just until golden. Makes about 2 dozen.

Old fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

Today I am bringing you my familys all-time favorite pie! Yay pie! The other day I was going over our Thanksgiving menu with my husband and he said "yea yea yea but what about the pie"? We all became big fans of this pie when his grandmother (RIP Memaw) would make it for the holidays. She would literally make everyones favorite pie. If that meant there were 9 different kinds of pie then so be it. We loved bringing home the leftovers. Boy but that woman could cook. We always just loved the coconut (we would taste the others just to make sure, it was only right-ha!). You start out with a baked pie shell just like this one here-

Mix your sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan, gradually add your 3 c. milk
Stir constantly...
Keep on going....til it thickens and boils for one minute.
Stir half of hot mixture into 3 slightly beaten egg yolks.


Just like this....

Then put it all back in the saucepan and cook another minute. Add all but 3 tablespoons coconut and vanilla and mix well.

Pour into your baked shell.

Now for the meringue.(Dont be nervous. Sometimes it make me nervous).

Beat egg whites, salt and cream of tarter til soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Spread this over your filling making sure your touch all sides. Sprinkle that 3 tablespoons coconut you saved over the top. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

Old fashioned Coconut Cream Pie

9 inch baked pie shell

2/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp. corn starch

3 c. milk

3 eggs, seperated

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Dash of salt

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan. Gradually add milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and begins to boil. Let boil for 1 min. Remove from heat and stir half of the mixture into 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten. Blend it back in with remaining hot mixture. Cook another minute. Remove from heat. Reserve 3 tablespoons coconut mix in the remaining coconut and 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour into pie shell. Beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and vanilla while beating. Spoon over filling making sure to reach the edges. Sprinkle with reserved coconut. Bake at 350 for about 8-10 minutes or until golden.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks!

I have been following The Pioneer Womans blog for awhile now. I just cant get enough of her stories of her life, gardening, and especially the cooking. I have made too many of her recipes to count and I am not fibbing when I say I have never had a bad experience with any of them. So much to my delight, she has published a cookbook. In this book she does the step by step tutorials that I love so much. Everyone needs this book in their collection. She has some cute stories in there too and some great photography of the ranch that she lives on. I got mine at Wal Mart but I saw it at Borders too. Love it!

Fall Weather and Spice Tea

Happy Fall Everyone! Its not super cold here but there is cooler temperatures down our way. It has been mid 70's and just gorgeous outside. This morning when I woke up and opened all the blinds to let in the light I noticed that the trees in the backyard are changing colors. Keep in mind that in our area we really dont have a change of seasons. It usually works this way. Super hot one day, then a cold front blows in, its cold for one or two days then back to super hot. Thats pretty much it in a nutshell. The trees in our backyard looked so pretty that I had to go outside and take a few pictures to show you. They looked really pretty with all the different shades of fall. This is my favorite time of year!

My backyard!

My sideyard!

My pretty little BellaGrace keeping watch. Shes a sweet little doll and she is just enjoying the sun.

Charlie watching the dogs behind us making sure that he is ready if they want to play.


I went to Wimberly Market Days this weekend with some great girlfriends and I found this bleeding heart plant. I have tried to grow it before and had no luck. We shall see this time. It is beautiful right now. I re-planted it in a bigger pot and it perked up. I hope that I can protect it through our harsh winter. Ha!


With the cooler temperatures settling in I am reminded of when I was a kid and my mother would make this spice tea. This is a truly southern recipe that is very popular. It is also a great gift for teachers, girlfriends and just to make for yourself.

Here are your ingredients:

Just put them all in a bowl...

Mix the ingredients thoroughly with a fork until well blended.

Put in an airtight container until ready to use. So simple! So tasty! This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.




Add a heaping tablespoon per coffee cup full of steaming water.

This is great for a winters day. It will warm you from the inside out!

My Fall Swap!

I participating in a fall/halloween swap hosted by Lori at Morning Glories and Moonflowers and once again, I had a great time shopping for my new friend Valorie from Wisconsin! Hi Valorie! She sent me the most wonderful things. She is a very talented lady. The outside of the box was so pretty and I can tell she spent alot of time on it. She has really great handwriting and it looked awesome.

Look at the great pumpkins she put on the outside of the box!

It was so cute!



My pictures are not so great and didnt do the goodies justices but I really wanted to share these with all of you.

This was how it looked before all the unwrapping. I was so excited!

This is a vintage cone I hung on the front door knob. I am going to fill it with some delicious something!

She include some candles that are making my house smell awfully good. And also some very cute coasters that I dont even like to put drinks on because I dont want to mess them up!

Thanks again Valorie, for making this fall season so special!

A yummy treat for the extra pie crust!

When I was growing up and even after I was grown my mother always like to make pecan pie whenever we had a family get together. My mother makes wonderful pecan pie. When we would make the crust she would always have a little bit left. She never liked to throw it out so this is what she would do with it:

Here are the scraps leftover.

Roll it out a little bit without handling it too much so it doesnt get tough.

The put little pats of butter on it and sprinkle it liberally with sugar and cinnamon. Bake this for about 10 minutes and it is so good and you dont feel like your wasting anything. Neat!

Fancy Lemon Pound Cake with Glaze!

I cant tell you guys how much I am enjoying my Debbie Macomber Cedar Cove Cookbook. It has the best recipes in it. And so so easy! I didnt take many pics because I got caught up in baking and before I could catch myself I would be moving on to the next step. I served this cake to a group of my friends and it got rave reviews. Lemon flavor is a funny thing, some like it and some dont, there is usually no middle ground. This has all fresh lemon in it so it has the crisp tartness to it and it turned out beautifully. Here goes:This calls for cake flour which seems to give it a smoother texture. And also, sugar, butter, baking powder, fresh lemons, vanilla and salt. Oh and lemon zest. Missing ingredient: eggs. Like I said, I was moving on.
I did take of pic of the lemon zest because I think its pretty. Undetectible in the cake because it will go through the food processor with the sugar.

Look at this texture. It is great with coffee. The glaze gives it just the right sweetness!

Fancy Lemon Pound Cake with Glaze

1 1/2 cups cake flour (not self rising)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup unsalted butter, melted plus extra for greasing the pan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set oven rack to middle position. Light butter your 9x5 loafpan. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt. In a food processor pulse granulated sugar and zest until combined. Add lemon juice, eggs and vanilla. Process until combined. With machine running add 1 cup melted butter in a steady stream. Transfer to a larger bowl and fold i flour just until combined. Pour batter into prepared batter and smooth top. Bake 60 to 70 minutes until golden and a pick stuck in the center comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack and cool 15 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and cool completely.

Glaze:

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup confectioners sugar

In a small bowl whisk all ingredients until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

Charlie

This summer my daughter Jena and I were on our way home from Wal Mart. We live in the country so there is a road we go down that is not very populated. There are some houses but they are kind of off the road. It was one of those beautiful Texas days in July when the temp. was hovering around 105. I mean it was hot. We were riding along talking and all of a sudden we both notice a puppy on the side of the road up to the top of his head in stickers and panting like crazy. My daughter tried to convince me it belonged to someone on that road but I just couldnt leave it there. I am so glad I didnt. Jena opened the passenger door and he just hopped in. It was almost as if he were waiting for us. He had alot of stickers on him but he didnt smell or anything. We came home and we made flyers with his picture on it and our number but no calls. I know in the country alot of people dump dogs (I swear, I better not ever catch anyone doing that or I will not be responsible for my behavior!) Well after just a little while we all fell in love with this sweet natured, very smart pup. He is now a part of our family and I hope he will be forever. This may seem silly to some but when I look at this dogs eyes I know I was meant to find him that day. He is completely potty trained and loves our other animals and even plays with the cat!

Introducing CHARLIE!!

I think he likes us too!

Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet

Good Morning All!! I just have to spread my happiness around today! We are at 65 degrees this morning. Yep. Thats 65 degrees. I cannot express to you what this weather does to me. It motivates me, inspires me, it gives me a feeling of renewal, it makes me want to bake fall things, makes me want to get up and move and get something done! It looks like we may get a little rain too! I have my daughter home with me for a couple days. She is 20 years old but still my baby. She called me day before yesterday and told me she was sick. She has an apt. on the other side of town and it was killing me I wasnt there to take care of her. Yesterday my husband and I went and picked her up and took her to the dr. FLU! YUCK! I brought her home with me and have been taking care of her. ( I secretly love this! Not that shes sick, but that I get to baby her).I have made plenty of soup, chili, and baked potatoes the last couple of days but I also made this yummy, yummy cake. I mean this cake is really good. You really need to try it. It has a very rustic feel. I love anything I can bake right in my cast iron skillet. I absolutely love my cast iron pans and after about 20 years they are seasoned just right. Before I get to the recipe I have to tell you that it came from one of my favorite blogs www.thepioneerwoman.com. Even though my photography isnt what it should be-yet (Coming soon-better pics!) you should go over to Ree's site and see her tutorial. Its awesome. These apples in this first pic represent my favorite color. This apple green is so fresh and clean I realized I had three rooms in my house with this as a dominant color. I need to branch out and try other colors but I gravitate toward this color! On to the recipe:

Start by melting butter and sugar in your skillet.

Peel, core and wedge your apples and lay them curved side down til they are gettting soft. Just a little head up: Your house is going to smell wonderful!

Dice up the remaining apple.

Mix up the batter portion of the recipe and spread over the apples. Bake for just about 20-25 minutes and its perfect.

Look at that beautiful cake. It would be so wrong to not have Blue Bell homemade vanilla with this!

Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet

4-5 small Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

1 3/4 stick butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 stick butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or more if your like me!)

1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped finely

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a 9 or 10 inch iron skillet melt your butter over low heat. Add 3/4 cup sugar to the pan and stir around, then place apple slices, wedge side down in the butter. Dont pack them too tightly but dont leave overly large gaps. Allow this to cook over med. low heat while you make the batter. In the bowl of an electric mixer beat 1 stick of butter and 2/3 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in vanilla and eggs. Add sours cream and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture until just combined. Gently stir in the chopped apple. Remove from heat and spread batter over the top very gently until batter is evenly distributed. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cake is golden brown and bubbly. Allow cake to sit in skillet for 5 minutes. May be inverted to a serving platter. This cake is absolutely delicious!

Coming Next: Another Debbie Macomber Cedar Cove Cookbook Recipe!!