A Proverbs 31 Kind of Day

 Image from the Internet It's fresh. It's easy. And my girl cherub loves it! Pico de gallo. Eat it on a crunchy chip. Wrap it in a fresh, warm tortilla. Spoon it on grilled chicken. Slather it on a taco. Regardless of how you eat it; it's versatile and worth keeping in your fridge! What I love about this is you can adjust the ingredients to your taste!  If you want to load up with the cilantro; go ahead! If you don't want the jalapeno . . . or you want to add the seeds for a little kick; it's your perogative! The only thing I wouldn't suggest doing:  leaving out the tomatoes! Pico de Gallo 3 large tomatoes, cleaned, chopped* 1 small/medium onion, chopped* 1/4 bunch of cilantro, stems removed, leaves chopped 2 jalapeno, seeded, and chopped* 1/2 tsp. salt 1 lime Place the chopped tomatoes and next 4 ingredients in a bowl.  Squeeze the juice of the lime over the entire mixture and stir until well mixed. Refrigerate until r

Image from the Internet Long and short of the story;  I'm teaching cooking classes to 10 year old girls this Summer. I was going to enroll my cherub in a class for a week and then I realized:  "why do that, just do it yourself . . . and invite some of her friends." So that's what I did! It's a learning process and the moms have been fantastic to work with me to get it figured out! One of the things I learned:  the Mr. didn't buy me a house with a big enough kitchen to hosts 9 girls cooking! For yesterday's class I offered the same lessons, twice!  We made homemade flour tortillas, pico de gallo, fruit salsa, cinnamon chips, and quesadillas. The girls did a GREAT job and their food tasted amazing! The next several posts will the recipes for what I taught the girls! Fruit Salsa 2 apples, cored and chopped 1 orange, peeled and chopped 1 pound strawberries, washed, hulled and chopped 4 kiwi, peeled and chopped 3 TBSP apple jelly 1 T

Image from Food Network I've been wanting to try roasted cabbage for awhile. It sounded interesting. And I've seen it on Pinterest. If it's on Pinterest, then it's got to be legit, right? I was at the store yesterday because I needed to get some fruits and veggies, desperately. I've been at jr. high camp for a week -- enough said! While the food was a step up from pre-conceived notions of camp food -- I still  wanted   needed some "fresh" food. I walked by the cabbage, as I normally do and didn't pay it any attention. But in a flash, I spun my cart around, apologized to all those little cabbages sitting there -- picked up the cutest little head of cabbage I saw and headed home. The consensus around the table were these two things: My cherubs like roasted brussel sprouts better I needed to have cooked it a little longer I'll roast the wedges on the cut side, rather than on the rounded side This cabbage isn't mine -

Image from Food Network I bought strawberries the other day while at the store. I actually bought too many containers of strawberries. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with the strawberries before they go bad. I hate when I do that! I've tried lots of recipes before, and I've always wanted to try "balsamic strawberries" but in all honesty, I've never really had the nerve. But I got the nerve today. I have made the following recipe. Actually, I also had peaches that I forgot where in my refrigerator. So I'm adding that to the mix. And truthfully, I think this is going to be a nice dessert. If I have the gumption, I'm going to make crepes and serve this as the filling/topping. I think that might be fun. But then again, it's the first day of Vacation Bible School and it was hectic. And the fact that I'm even cooking for my family is a big accomplishment. So we may just eat the dessert as printed and call it

It's beginning to be the season for fresh tomatoes. I absolutely love fresh tomatoes. The ones that have been grown with love. The ones that comes from someones garden. The ones that are brought to you in a brown paper bag. Those are the tomatoes I love! We had some tomatoes given to us this weekend. For lunch on Sunday, I made tomato toppers. My girl cherub adores these tomatoes for lunch. She would eat them any day I made them. Her favorite is the Italian topped tomato. Tomato Toppers 1 tomato, sliced thick (3-4 slices) 3-4 TBSP fresh grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 tsp chopped garlic 1-2 tsp basil a drizzle of olive oil Take the tomato slices and blot with a paper towel. Place the tomato slices on a cookie cooling sheet that's been placed over cookie sheet. Top each tomato with the cheese mixture. Broil until golden brown and bubbly. Serve warm.

 My oldest cherub took the pictures for the post. He took 21 pictures . . . and this was the best one ! We work with what we've got! We celebrated Father's day yesterday. The Cherubs wanted to make a pasta dinner because that's what the Mr. likes. But one cherub wanted Caesar salad to go with it. The Mr. doesn't like Caesar salad. The other cherub wanted garlic bread. The Mr. does like garlic bread. But I thought it was so funny that the cherubs were having me cook things for the Mr. that they wanted! I guess they kind of have a right to do that; after all, he wouldn't be celebrating Father's Day if it weren't for them! So we had pasta, and meatballs, and a salad, but not a Caesar salad, and garlic bread, and pecan cobbler. When it comes to garlic bread, I'm always looking for a way to improve it. I've had some really good garlic bread. And I've had some really bad garlic bread. I want to make really good gre

Image from Yelp! Several months ago we went on a road trip to a restaurant. That's right! We drove 90 miles to eat at a restaurant. A restaurant known for their fried catfish. It was worth the drive. I don't really know what was better; the fish the hushpuppies or the pecan cobbler. You know, I'm kind of confused about what cobbler REALLY is! In my heart of hearts, I think it's a lazy pie. I think. I'm not really sure though. But after tasting their pecan cobbler, the quest was on! I wanted to make a pecan cobbler too! I searched the internet looking at a ton of different recipes. None of them really sounded like it was like the one we had eaten at the restaurant 90 miles away. But in my search, this recipe kept turning up. With that, I decided this would be the recipe I'd try. It's Father's Day . . .as in yesterday! Buy my oldest cherub was with his Mimi on Father's Day. Not for Father's Day -- beca

The rice that has been browned We've been eating this dish since before we were married! I remember the first time I made this for the Mr. I must say, he was rather impressed. It's true. I wouldn't lie about that! However, I haven't made this in a very long time. I have actually forgotten about the recipe. But I'm taking dinner to a friend who is recovering from surgery and it hit me! Chicken and Rice! This recipe is from my friend. We tease her about it! Because any time we go to her house for dinner; this is what she serves. As in A.N.Y. time! For Y.E.A.R.S now, this is what we eat! I'll call it her "signature dish!"  Actually, Auntie Ronda is a fantastic cook -- so with that in mind, if you haven't ever tried this, give it a whirl! Truth be known, it's an old recipe -- but it's a good one to keep on stand-by . . . just like Auntie Ronda does! Rice Consomme with Chicken 1/2 cup butter 1/3 cup

Picture used from "My Recipes.com" My picture didn't look nearly as appetizing! We've been eating this since the late 90's. Oh man!  That sounds like we're really old! This is one of those fantastic Southern Living Recipes that looks really hard, sounds really gourmet-ish, and is so easy! Whenever the Mr. requests his birthday dinner, it's always this meal! He had his 43rd birthday yesterday! To go along with his new "older" age, we recently counted the number of doctors he has. Yes, doctors! Right now in life, it's not his social outlet to visit these physicians on a regular basis . .  .but none-the-less, he has a well-rounded network of doctors that can take care of any need of his, ranging from his head to his toes. What a treat it is to get older. But with getting older comes this meal! Serve this with a green salad and dessert and you'll be the hit of the party! Creamy Poblano Chi

A mark of maturity is if you eat pimento cheese spread. OK, I'm kind of kidding there -- but not really. Think back to the last picnic you went to  . . . . there were 2 or 3 choices of sandwiches that someone made; and took the time to cut into cute triangles. One of those choices was pimento cheese . . .probably on white bread.  Because that's how you're supposed to eat pimento cheese sandwiches. And who was eating those sandwiches? I bet you didn't see little grimmy hands reaching onto the plate to grab a sandwich that was stuffed with orange-colored filling. It was the grown-ups who were snacking on those! As a kid, I remember my parents would eat pimento cheese sandwiches. I would not. But then, one day, when I was grown, a friend served homemade pimento cheese. It was fantastic. I really only prefer homemade pimento cheese spread. If you're thinking, "I don't like pimento cheese!"  Give this a try and see if you don

I don't even know what to call this post. It goes with the pork that I made the other night -- before I made the cowboy nacho stuff . . . but after I roasted the pork. I made this sauce to put on the meat. I didn't want to put BBQ sauce, but I wanted a little something to keep the meat tasty and not to get dried out when I was re-heating. I found this on the world wide web. I'd give credit to the rightful owner and inventor but  I don't even know where I looked to find this secret recipe! The only reason I can repost this is because I'm lazy . . . but it saves me! I'm lazy in that:  when I find a recipe on line that I want to make, I take a picture of the recipe on my computer screen with my smart phone and I carry my smart phone into the kitchen so that I don't have to keep running back to my computer. Enough about how weird I can be -- here's the sauce. This is a very thin, flavorful sauce to pour over your pork or beef. BBQ

Remember the cowboy nachos from the other night? I used left-over pork loin from a previous meal. I actually love roasting meat. To be truthful, I'm not sure that I'm roasting the meat at all -- I just like the way I cook meat in the oven. It's kind of fool proof. It always turns out juicy and amazing. I'd use the word "moist" -- but I have a friend that reads this and she can't stand the word "moist." So I won't say the meat is "moist," I'll say it's "tender and juicy." I think that's the same as "moist!" Anyway -- I do beef and pork the same way. All I do is change the seasoning. This time, I used the seasoning from Goya , called Sazonador Total .  I found it on the ethnic aisle.  I didn't know anything about it.  I just thought, "that's something new to try." And guess what! We love it. We love it on meat. We love it on corn. We love it on other

The end of the year brought great experiences and cute pictures. That's all there is today . . . cute pictures of my cherubs! My cherub's favorite home room teacher! My cherub's favorite math teacher! My cherub's favorite reading teacher! My cherub at the state Duke TIP recognition ceremony. What does this mean: he's smarter than the me or the Mr.! Of the more than 22,000 7th and 8th graders across the state of Texas, a little more than 5,000 scored high enough to receive either state or national recognition. In a nutshell:  the cherub scored as high on his ACT as a seventh grader than the Mr. or I did as a Senior in high school.  . . .and that's why we smile! Two of his buddies from school also received state recognition!

What do you call something when you make it up? It's the hardest thing to name something! Take your child, for example . . .remember how you thought about it; wrote it out; said it out loud; thought of other children with the same name . . . and changed the name of your child? Well, now just think about that same process, but for a recipe! It's so stressful! This recipe is made up . . .according to me! I cooked a pork loin the other night. Which means leftovers. Days of left overs! I try to make our left overs not look like left overs. Because I don't like left overs. So when they look different, my mind is fooled. It's a great trick I play on myself! On day number three of still having pork loin -- I came up with this little treat. We were all pleased. As in "All!" What's great; if you need this to be gluten free, just use your gluten free foods!  It's that easy! Cowboy Nachos 1 package frozen waffle fries BBQ