A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

About a week ago, the Mr. and I headed to the Texas Hill Country for a little get away. It was a perfect weekend! We went with some friend; we shopped, we ate, we laughed, and we listened to great music each night! One of the places that we ate, served cranberry salsa and chips. It was phenomenal! I knew I wanted to make it for the holiday season . . . . and with 8 bags of cranberries in my freezer, I knew I had enough ingredients! The minute I see cranberries in the store, I start buying! There are several great recipes that I like to make during this time of year, and this is one to add to the list! The Mr. had the recipe on his phone, but when I started to make the salsa, I didn't have the recipe. But I remember reading it -- so I just started making it! I mean, how hard can it possibly be? While I didn't make it exactly like the recipe, it was pretty close, and we all devoured it! Here's the real recipe!  What I love about this ...

Today, we cleaned out the freezer. The big freezer. The one in the garage. It needed to be defrosted, which took a good amount of time since it is in the 30's today! Ice doesn't melt too fast when it's cold enough to freeze! Along with the defrosting came the Mr. being all productive! Like making me create a list of all the things in the freezer. So, I willingly agreed! As a result, we're having for dinner tonight something from . . . the freezer! I surely wasn't planning on having brisket tonight . . . or tomorrow night, or the night after that! I just went to the grocery store yesterday and I clearly didn't buy anything that would be a great side to brisket! However, I remember Auntie Ronda making a BBQ green bean bundle. But we're just eating -- not being fancy tonight, so I took a spin off of her idea and put these ingredients together for our side to go along with our brisket! BBQ Green Beans 2 cans green beans, ...

Saturday mornings used to be sorta lazy. Meaning, there was time to get up, have some coffee, and the Mr. would make a "traditional" breakfast, as the cherubs like to tease him about. But now, we have baseball and ballet and other what-nots that start earlier than I'd prefer and our lazy Saturday breakfasts have sorta gotten . . . lazy. But this morning, I decided to make pancakes before everybody scurried off to their activities. Since both of my cherubs like pumpkin, I decided to do a quick pumpkin pancake. I've posted before a quick pumpkin waffle and a pancake, but this is even easier! That's great for a Saturday breakfast! Pumpkin Soda Pancakes 2 cups buttermilk pancake mix 1 bottle pumpkin pie soda Heat a pan or griddle with a bit of oil or Pam. In a bowl, stir together the pancake mix and enough soda to make the batter the consistency it should be.  I used nearly the entire bottle . . .there may have been 2 or 3 drinks left in th...

I think I have said it before, but it's worth saying again. I really like my crock pot! My cherubs aren't too fond of it! They say they get tired of crock pot food! I say you aren't old enough to appreciate a crock pot! Since there is a small battle that surrounds the crock pot at our house, I try to make our crock pot meals "worthy." This recipe has made it's rounds 'round town, but I've never made it until now. I'm so sad that I've missed out all these years! Easy French Dip Sandwiches 3-5 pound boneless beef  roast 1-2 envelopes Lipton onion soup mix 2 cans beef broth 1 tsp black pepper Ciabatta rolls  ("hard" bread absorbs the au jus!) provolone cheese Combine the dry soup mix, broth and pepper, pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until meat is tender. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred with two forks on a cutting board. Place the meat back in the crock pot with the liqui...

I'd call this Six Can Soup, really. Doesn't that sound more fun? I think so! My friend, Kim, is a great cook! I always love to have dinner with her for two reasons. She makes it look "souper" easy (a little funny since she gave me the soup recipe!) It always tastes amazing. Nothing, absolutely nothing , bothers her! Well, I know that's not exactly true, because then she'd be a Saint. She is a Saint, but not that kind of Saint! But when things do bother her, she doesn't show it like I do! She's raising three great boys and a husband and they have a dog named Chief. "Chief!"  That tells you Chief isn't a tea cup poodle -- Chief is big enough to count as one of the boys. But I didn't include him! Why did I tell you all of this? Because when Kim cooks, it has to please! She gave me this recipe almost a year ago. Or at least when the weather was cooler and we were freezing together at the baseball fi...

I'd like to say "Beef" in the title, or "pork." or maybe even "chicken." But because this is versatile, I just called it meat. Doesn't sound appetizing, does it? I know! I'm not sure that I would have read much further than the title! But I'm just saying, that if you'll give this a whirl, you'll be glad that you hung with me! This can be as spicy as you want. I like this recipe because it's kind of a sweet heat. Because my girl cherub is a wimp when it comes to much spice, I kept it easy. But I will say, I could have easily added an extra toss of the chipotle peppers! Which!  Let me tell you my most exciting find on the grocery aisle this past shopping trip! Normally, I have to buy a can of chipotle peppers. Like this: I pop the top, use what I need and freeze the rest until another recipe. But then I found the peppers, chopped, in a jar . . . a small jar, but none-the-less, a jar! That means I...

I've made reference to our trip last Summer to different European countries. My prized souvenirs are cookbooks from each country. I'm not sure, of the 4 cookbooks, which is my favorite, but I surely enjoy the one I purchased while in Greece. I'll tell the quick story: We were in an open air market in Greece, searching through antiques and junk. Along the perimeter of where we were shopping were business. In typical European fashion, outside one of the restaurants was a young man leaning against the doorframe, as if to summon customers into his restaurant. When he heard our English, he asked where we were from, as he had studied in the States when he was in school. That question led to a great conversation and he invited us into the restaurant which he and his mother owned.  We sampled all sorts of incredible foods that afternoon and when I told him that I would love to have a cookbook because of the great experience we had just had, he showed me the co...