Chilequiles

Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! TGIF tomorrow! Mexican food restaurants are very popular in my area. As a matter of fact, when I get to travel with my husband it is exactly what I miss the most (as far as food goes!). The dish that I am bringing you today is my very favorite mexican breakfast. In most restaurants you can either get a plate of this or they will wrap it in a flour tortilla and serve it as a taco. Both are delicious. I started out by dicing up some corn tortillas, a fresh jalapeno, and some fresh tomato.

Then I added a couple of tablespoons of butter to a fry pan.

I used about 7 eggs and I added about 1/4 of a cup of half and half.

Add salt and pepper. I absolutely love scrambled eggs with lots of pepper, but do this to your taste.
Add the tomatoes, jalapeno, and corn tortillas and saute until the veggies are starting to cook and the corn tortillas are starting to get crisp.

Add your salt and peppered eggs over the top.

Slowly pull the edges of the egg as it cooks until it is as cooked as you like.

Top with lots of cheddar and let it melt.

Dig in. You will shout "Aye Caramba!"

Chilequiles

2 tablespoons butter

7 eggs

1/4 cup half and half

1 fresh jalapeno, diced (or to taste)

5 corn tortillas

1 med. fresh tomato

salt

pepper

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, grated

Melt butter in your fry pan. Add vegetables and corn tortillas and saute until tortillas are starting to crisp up. While that is cooking crack eggs into a mixing bowl and scramble with a fork. Add half and half and salt and pepper to taste. Pour the eggs over the veggies in the fry pan and pull the edges of egg toward center as it cooks. When eggs are cooked to your liking, take off heat and sprinkle cheese over the top. Feeds 4-5 people.

Appreciate the Beauty!

There is just something about this time of year when everything is growing or beginning to grow. Its a time when you just cant help but feel hopeful about all aspects of life. I love to plant in the spring. I love to get up in the morning and just walk around my yard and see how much things have grown over night. This is a pot just outside my kitchen with Rosemary, Lavender and Chives in it. These plants were tiny when I put them in this pot. Cooking with fresh herbs makes a huge difference.

This is the beginning of the basil. Gosh, I just love fresh basil.


My first two grape tomatoes.



This is hanging in one of my trees in the backyard. It is called a fuschia.

This plant is getting prettier and prettier every day.

I hope everyone has a great day!!

Coca Cola Cake

Back during the holidays I bought the People Country Music Issue. It had a really nice article on the favorite dishes of some of the country stars. Faith Hill had listed this cake as a favorite of her husband Tim McGraw. She is a lover of good southern food being a southerner herself. She seems to really appreciate comfort food which is what this blog is all about (mostly!). All of my family and friends who gravitate towards my kitchen (because they all know there is some kind of baked good usually sitting on the counter) absoutely loved this cake.A boatload of ingredients. But really easy to make.

Start with the cake mix, cocoa powder, melted butter, coke, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla in a mixing bowl.


Mix it up until it is well blended.


Add marshmallows right into batter and fold them in.


Not your average cake batter.


Spread into a prepared pan.


Bake 40-42 minutes. Mine cracked a little on top but its okay, that will all be filled up with frosting.

After you take your cake out of the oven, make your frosting. Start with a stick of butter (of course!)


Stir in cocoa and more cola, mix well, and add confectioners sugar. Mix until ultra creamy. Fold in pecans if you wish.

Try to keep fingers out of it.

Spread all over the warm cake and try not to hurt yourself eating this.
You wont be able to stop.

Coca Cola Cake

1 pkg. white cake mix
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup coke
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups marshmallows.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 13x9 pan with vegetable oil. Mix together cake mix, cocoa powder, melted butter, coke, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with and electric mixer for 1 minute. Scrape sides and beat for 2 more minutes. Batter should be mixed well. Fold in the marshmallows and pour into the prepared pan. Bake cake for 40-42 minutes. Remove pan from oven and begin icing.

Icing

1 stick of butter
4 tablespoons unsweeted cocoa powder
1/3 cup coca cola
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup chopped pecans

Place butter in a medium sized sauce pan over low heat. Melt butter, stir in cocoa powder and coke. Let mixture come to a boil, stir constantly and then remove from heat. Stir in the confectioners sugar until smooth. Fold in pecans. Pour over cake, spreading to the sides. Cool about 15 minutes. Enjoy!

I love my girls!

Just wanted to share some picture of my girls.

My Latest Swap

Also, coming up next! Coca Cola Cake!

Make your house smell wonderful!

I wanted to share a little trick that I use around here when I want to make my house smell good. All to often we have oranges, lemons and apples that just dont get eaten up. So I just take them and cut them up into chunks. I bought this crockpot around christmas time for $4 at walmart! I use it as a pot pourri pot.
Chop them up and pack em in there.

I add cinnamon (which you all know is my favorite) and nutmeg and ginger and a big amount of cloves because I have determined that makes the most unbelievable aroma. We are going to play a little game called "picture imagery". You need to imagine you see the cinnamon in the picture. Warning: We will probably play again soon. sorry.

Add as little or as much as you feel is right for your area. I load mine down because I can fool people into thinking I am in there whipping up some great dessert, then I hand them the oreos.

I fill up the top with apple or orange juice if I have some or if not I just use water. It works just as well. A few red hots work great too!

Happy Easter Wishes To All!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

My New Apron

One of the great many finds I came across in Canton was this beautiful apron. It was made by Apronality. It is so pretty and has the cutest ruffles on the bottom. It even has a cell phone pocket on the top! It also reminded me of this.....

The History of APRONS:

I don't think today's kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.In the flll, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Bobbys Ranch Burgers

I know that we are from Texas but I think we are weird. We dont like huge hamburgers. We dont like going to places where you order a burger and they bring out this monstrous thing that has a pound of meat on it. But actually, ever since my husband starting making our burgers like this about 5 yrs ago we dont like restaurant burgers as much as these. They are so tasty! It all began when my middle daughter had her friends over for her birthday one year and she wanted burgers. We didnt want just a regular burger so he thought of this. They are the best tasting burgers you will ever put in your mouth. We make ours to fit on a regular bun so that leaves some room for fries!Here is what ya need: Ground hamburger meat, bacon and cheddar cheese. Now really, doesnt that combination just sound yummy?

Chopped up bacon, cooked about halfway through.


Put your meat in a bowl.



Cube your cheddar into small cubes. Dont just grate it or it will cook away..




These are the only seasonings he uses. Salt, pepper, worcestershire sauce.

Mix it all together and form your patty. Whatever size you like.

These right here are the best buns!!! But use whichever kind you like.

Grill your patties to desired doneness.

These are just perfect!! The taste is just right.

This recipe really is just one that gives you an idea. Use the amounts that fit your family. We only used a couple of pounds of meat and about six slices of bacon and eight ounces of cheese.

Adjust to your family accordingly. Salt, pepper and worcestershire to suit your taste.

Very Vintage Easter Basket Swap-WHAT I GOT!

Hi Everyone! I'm sorry for the delay in blogging, I have been out of town since Thurs. evening. My shopping group and I went to Canton for a couple of days of relaxing, shopping and just having fun. We had such a good time! We saw alot more of the grounds this time. The place is just so huge. It is acres and acres of anything you could possible want. It is a great place to find collectibles and one of kind things. I will post more on that later. I really wanted to show you what I received in the Very Vintage Easter Basket swap I posted about last week. My package came from Shara in Farmington, AR. She sent the most wonderful goodies and I had so much fun unwrapping each item and reading the cute little notes she put on each.

That dozen eggs back there are candles! Adorable! A cute kitchen towel and a fuzzy pic frame that will have my girls pic in.

These are going to be on my Easter table. They are the honeycomb fold out decorations!

A little fun. You put this egg in water and it will crack! Cant wait to try it!

From left, a vintage easter egg, and a couple of easter pretties. The egg on the far right she actually made. and the egg in front was the card she wrote on.

Some Easter sweets!!

And my favorite, these eggs are beautiful!

She knew I liked to cook so she sent an Easter Egg cake pan with a mix, and one of the greatest cookbooks. The kind where everyone contributes their tried and true favorites. Cant wait to get cookin'!