Attention! I'm back.......

I have missed you all tremendously. I miss interacting with my blogging friends and please dont worry, I have been reading all of them! I just havent h
ad the energy to create a new post. It has been one extremely busy and nervewracking year. I am going to avoid ever having to go through such madness ever again! I am just going to jump right in here and tell you the basics. My daughter is happily married as of last June. I have an amazing son in law that I wonder how we ever did without before he came into our lives. Not to mention, how happy he makes my daughter. (Grandbabies soon......? That is our prayer.) We have completed our new home and now we have been putting in a yard. Oh. My. Goodness. ALOT of work. We are preparing now for my parents 50th wedding anniversary party in April. I am an only child so I am doing all the plans. Trust me, I prefer this. It is so nice to do everything myself, it involves no one elses decisions. The year they had their 25th, they were kind of passed over because I was married July of that year. So I decided they needed, no, they deserved this party. I will surely post some pictures. Since I do try to share what I have been cooking in my "brand new super duper exactly what I wanted kitchen" I will leave you with what we are addicted to right now.This is Pioneer Womans Salsa. This tastes better than what you get at the Mexican Restaurants. An it is amazing easy. Go to www.pioneer woman.com and you will find the recipe. Please make it. You wont be sorry. Be back soon, love you all!

What a year!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying their hot, hot summer. So much has happened this year. Its almost a blur. My daughter was married on June 12, 2010. It was probably the most stressful event I have ever been too. As we were getting nearer to the date, and attending showers and parties in celebration of the wedding my emotions were an absolute roller coaster. The day was beautiful and the bride and groom were not nervous and very ready to begin their life together. Although it was extremely hot and it was a garden wedding we couldnt have been happier or more proud. This is a picture of my family complete with our new son-in-law.

Our next big adventure is that we are also building a home, it is gorgeous and I feel like I am in a dream everytime I go inside. It is coming along beautifully. It was not a smart move to be doing both of these major projects at once. Not to mention, we are living in a travel trailer on the property while this home is being built. So we stare at it everyday and anticipate the move so much! I will take pics and show you soon! My kitchen is going to be so much fun I cant stand it. I know my pups will be glad to have a bigger yard to run in. They are not really into this camper livin'. My mind has been full of ideas and dishes and I cant wait to share. Glad to be back and get into a routine again! Missed you all.

Lauren and Travis

Please forgive me for not blogging more but these two little dolls have been keeping us busy!

We have less than 3 months before the wedding. Its exciting and bittersweet. Although I love Travis so much, she is my baby. My first baby. My mini-me. She will be living close by, thank goodness. I need to be close for when the babies start coming! (Sorry Trav!)

Simple Chocolate Croissants

Hi everyone! Hope everyone had a great weekend! It is finally warming up around here, thank goodness. We are knee deep in wedding plans but its been fun. Last night I had a sweet craving and this is our "go to" recipe for later in the day when you dont want to dirty up the kitchen.I unrolled a can of croissant rolls and flattened them out.
I brushed each one with melted butter and added some semi sweet chocolate chips.

I rolled them up and put them on a parchment covered cookie sheet.

I brushed the top of each with some egg white and added some chopped up almonds.

They baked for 15 minutes and then I dusted them with powdered sugar.

This is so easy to whip up for your family or to take to a get together with friends. They are so tasty and so easy but they look like you put alot of work into them. My favorite kind of recipe!

Simple Chocolate Croissants

1 pkg. refrigerated croissants

semi sweet chocolate chips

3 tbsp. melted butter

1 egg white

confectioners sugar

sliced or chopped almonds.

Unroll and flatten dough. Seperate into triangles. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle 1-2 tsp. chocolate chips on each triangle. Roll each triangle into a croissant shape and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. In a small bowl, add 2 tsp. water to egg white and mix well with a fork or whisk. Brush the top of each with the egg wash. Top with the almonds, if desired. Bake in a 375 oven thats been preheated for about 15 minutes. Let cool briefly and sprinkle with powdered sugar. You can use different filling for this very easily.

Enjoy!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup with Cheesy Pull Apart Bread

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is staying warm and surviving "Arctic Blast 2010". Its been so cold here in my neck of the woods! We have had the coldest temps here in about 8 years. Its kinda funny to watch the news and they call it the "arctic blast 2010". I have also been under the weather and cant seem to kick it so I have been trying to rest. I happen to come across my very favorite food blog (like I dont visit everyday!) Mommys Kitchen at www.tinamommyx3.blogspot.com and she had this delicioius looking soup with some wonderful cheesy bread that I just had to make it. I started out baking about 8 slices of bacon. It called for 12 but 8 is all that would fit on my cookies sheet.

Then I baked 4 good sized potatoes.
This is the rest of my ingredients. Butter, flour milk, chicken broth, salt, pepper, green onions (optional), cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

I started out making a roux of butter and flour.


Added in my broth and milk.

And then added the salt, pepper, baked potatoes, cheddar cheese.

This soup was so comforting and delicious you must go over to her site and see the entire recipe. I just love her site. She is a special girl and she has a real talent for food blogging. She works really hard and never fails to leave comments on other peoples blogs as well. She makes you feel like she always has time for a friend by her sweet comments.

This Cheesy Pull Apart Bread is a great accompaniment to the soup. It is extremely east to put together. Go see Mommys Kitchen and you will be glad you did. She has complete tutorials on both of these great recipes and has the recipes there with a printable button as well.

Homemade Butter

Hello to all my friends! I have missed you! I have been enjoying the holidays and I hope all of you did too. I am always secretly happy after the holidays. Life is just simpler getting back to some sort of schedule and getting my house back in order. I absolutely love to decorate for the holidays but I also like to deep clean when I take everything down and it feels like a fresh start. My daughter is getting married in about 4 months (gulp!) and I am sure I am going to eating, sleeping and breathing wedding. We are doing well and I think we are on schedule but when I start to stress out about anything my relief is to get in the kitchen and cook. I have SO many recipes that I want to try from many blogs. My stack of recipes is getting thick! My news years resolution is to try to master homemade biscuits. The best biscuit I have ever had in my life is at the Pioneer Flour Mill, The Guenther House right here in San Antonio. They are beautiful and tall and dreamily light! If any of you have any pointers or helpful hints I would love to hear them. Of course you cant have a great biscuit without some really good butter (Not margarine. In the words of a dear friend of mine "Who is she anyway?") I made some butter today and you all must try it. It is so easy and its the perfect quantity if you are having a nice meal. It makes two small dishes. One for each end of the table.

This only has two ingredients, unless you want flavored butters (honey, fresh fruit, garlic herb) then you would add your ingredients for that at the very end. Today just plain ole creamy dreamy butter.

I poured in a whole pint of heavy whipping cream and about 1/4 teaspoon of salt into my food processor. You can also use a blender or just put it in an airtight container and shake it. I ended up adding a little more salt at the end and it tastes perfect.Put on the lid and process about 5 minutes.

When it has "lumped up" and gets very thick open the lid and pour off the liquid and put in your desired containers.
See here. One for each end of the table.

I got exactly one cup of buttermilk that I poured off the butter. Wish me luck for turning this into the biscuit of my dreams. Ha!

Homemade Butter

I pint of heavy whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon salt.

Place ingredient into your blender or food processor and blend for about 4-5 minutes until the solids look like butter. Pour off the liquid (Dont throw it away, its yummy buttermilk!) and put into desired molds or containers. Keep in the refrigerator.

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!