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February 11, 2015

Smoked Sausage & Potatoes



Ingredients:
-1 package of smoked sausage, sliced into rounds
-1 large onion, peeled and chopped
-5 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into ½ inch cubes
-olive oil
-fine sea salt
-freshly ground black pepper
-sweet paprika
-dried thyme
a handful of greated strong cheddar cheese



Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400*F. 

Line a large baking tray (with sides) with several sheets of foil, and spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

Put the sausage rounds, onions, and potatoes into a large bowl. Drizzle with a couple TBS of olive oil and season to taste with salt, pepper, paprika and dried thyme. Toss together with your hands until everything is evenly distributed. Pour this out onto the baking tray, and spread it out as much as you can.

Place into the heated oven and roast for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until the potatoes are golden brown and tender. Turn off the oven. 

Scatter the cheese over top of the cooked meat and potatoes, Pop back into the oven a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Mexican Casserole







Ingredients:
1lb. ground beef
1/2 cup diced onion
1 pack taco seasoning mix
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 
1 can refried beans (thet spread easier if you warm them in microwave)
1 cup prepared rice (I used Minute Rice)
1 can Mexican blend corn (DRAINED)will only use about 1/2 can
4-5 large flour tortillas
8 oz of thick chunky salsa (your choice mild or hot)

Directions:
Spray a spring form, round cake pan or casserole with cooking spray
Brown ground beef ,and onion and drain 
Add taco seasonings and cook according to package direction
Lay 1 tortilla in bottom of baking dish and spread 1/3 of bean on it ,top with 1/3 of the meat and sprinkle on some cheese .
2nd layer tortilla, 1/2 the rice, 1/2 salsa, 1/2 the corn and cheese
3rd layer tortilla, 1/3 beans ,1/3meat, cheese 
4 layer tortilla . beans ,meat, corn, rice, salsa and cheese


Bake covered with foil at 350 for about 40 minutes uncover and bake 10-15 minutes longer. let sit 5 minutes before cutting . After baking top with sour cream,diced onion and shredded lettuce if desired

Pumpkin Crunch Cake


Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup)
1 cup butter, melted

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.  Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Pour mixture into greased pan.  Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture and top with pecans.  Drizzle melted butter over pecans.  Bake 50-55 minutes

No Bake Cheesecake



Ingredients:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 8 ounce tub of cool whip
1/3 cup of lemon or lime juice
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese.



Instructions:

Most important part of this recipe, is to leave the cream cheese out for a couple hours at room temperature. The cream cheese will become soft and smooth. The importance of this is to create a smooth texture. Not doing so, will create horrible lumps of cream cheese that will ruin the flavor of this pie.

After your cream cheese is softened enough, I like to see if it will spread easily with a plastic spatula. In a mixing bowl, mix all before mentioned ingredients. Please note: the lemon/lime juice must come last. The reaction of the citrus juice will start to harden your mixture almost immediately.

On the low speed of you hand mixer, blend well. Around 2 minutes of so is plenty, just make sure all ingredients are incorporated. Immediately pour mixture into a waiting graham crust ( (I like to use a vanilla wafer crust instead of graham and I used an 8” cake pan. Recipe below.) ) or for those of us that can't have the gluten, I opt for muffin cups. Refrigerate for an hour to and hour and a half and viola.

Vanilla Wafer Crust
24-30 vanilla wafers depending on pan size
3 Tablespoons melted butter
Mix both ingredients until it sticks together. Punch onto sides of cake pan to resemble a crust.

Add-ons-Make it your own!

To make this recipe your own, there are several things you can add.

Oreo cookie crust. Incorporate a few of the cookies in to the batter, smashed of course. Top with a few whole or halved cookies as well.

Fresh strawberries, with or without glaze. I like to cut the strawberries up in to quarters and place in a zip-lock bag. Gently whacking the bag of berries on the counter a few times to start releasing the juices. A half an hour later, you have a no fuss, no extra sugar strawberry topping and glaze. Although a little vanilla in bag wouldn't hurt anything.

Key lime juice instead of regular. This will give you a tart cheesecake, more like a key lime bar if you lessen the cool whip content. About half is needed for recipe, although the more that is used, the lighter and fluffier the taste and texture will be.

January 29, 2015

SAVORY GREEN ONION PANCAKES




Click here for the recipe:

CRANBERRY UPSIDE DOWN CAKE


Click here for the recipe:
http://myrecipemagic.com/recipe/recipedetail/cranberry-upside-down-cake

TURKEY SALAD with CASHEWS




Click here for the recipe:

LEMON GREEN TEA MUFFINS


Click here for the recipe:

LADY BIRD CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES



Click here for the recipe:

EASY PUMPKIN PUDDING

Easy Pumpkin Pudding


Click here for the recipe:

PINEAPPLE PIE

Pineapple Pie





Click here for the recipe:



December 9, 2013

Note to self:


5 Rules to Happiness



The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away, just for this time in my life.”

She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.”

And with a smile, she said: “Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less

December 7, 2013

Sin is wrong because God says so




Some argue that sins such as pornography are wrong because

they are “harmful to society.” However, you have more 

chance of convincing a pig that the mud in which he wallows 

is harmful to him. The reason he wallows is to cool his flesh. 

The only practical way to stop a pig wallowing in the mire is 

to kill him. That’s the function of the Law: it nails the sin-

loving sinner to the cross. It deals directly with the sinful 

nature. Sin is wrong not because it’s harmful to society—it is 

wrong because God says that it’s wrong.

Focus On The Lord





12/7/13