Birthday Cupcakes!

My mom had another birthday.....they keep getting bigger!  Anyway, I made a cupcake for each year!

I did a variety of flavors.

All on a hot day in July!

And this was not all of them, but I couldn't give her age away!

Cold Day Equals Spicy Soup!

Well maybe not that Spicy!

So I was down a few days with a bug which rarely happens.  All I could think of was some great spicy chicken soup with a southwestern flair.

Several years ago I made the perfect soup.  Of course, I did not realize how perfect till about four days into it when it kept getting better and better.

It had various beans, roasted chicken, I used several jars of my home canned tomatoes and juice and more like a cumin ( now that I think about it) flavoring.  I remember it was in a Southern Living Magazine and I recall having flipped over the mag so it would stay.  There must how been 20 ingredients.

But none of that matters now, since I can't find the recipe ANYWHERE.

Hence, any recipe I find is just not quite right and this one-well I should have started out easy-it called for 3 Tablespoons of chili powder.  Turned my white chicken meat so dark.

So have you ever had a recipe that you lost? 

Meanwhile I will suffer with my bowl of hot hot soup-maybe some homemade bread would be good.  I will spare you the recipe unless I can find the orginal one!

Red Ranch Potato Salad

Red Ranch Potato Salad

I whipped up a quick version of red potato salad for those of us who dislike the egg and yellow mustard versions!

5lbs of red potatoes  (chopped as shown with skin)
2 cups of salad dressing ( Not mayo!)
1 packet of dry ranch dressing mix

Boil the potatoes till they fall off a fork when poked and allow to cool.

In a separate bowl, mix the dressing mix with the salad dressing.

In a large plastic bowl (that will have a snug lid), add 1/3 of the potatoes and 1/3 of the salad dressing mix.  Stir and continue with more layers until all potatoes have been tossed in the dressing.  Cover and the next day you should stir again and again and again several times when you think about it.

You should at least let this sit in the refrigerator overnight but the best flavor is achieved on day 3!

Better than store bought!

Have a yummy day!

Bread Pudding

Bread Pudding

It is cold and snowy here on the East coast and tonight seemed like the right time to try my hand at bread pudding!  I went over to  my favorite recipe site...Allrecipes and found this one which was highly rated Bread Pudding II.

My Father-in-Law loved it and even my husband had a little bowl.  I am not much on eggs so it looked a bit much for me.  This recipe is a keeper and the house smells so good!  I doubled the recipe for this oval pottery dish and used 8 eggs with 4 cups of milk!  I am told it is really good though and maybe worth the calories!

Do you have a favorite recipe site? 

Cupcake Cake Pan

Cupcake Cake Pan

Guess what I got for Christmas??????  I ended up making six of these for the New Year's Eve party in town.  I was told by many in the cake walke that they kept going in order to win a cupcake cake!

Thanks to my mom for this wonderful gift that made me popular for a few hours.

Homemade Pizza!

Homemade Pizza!

I know...even my husband mentioned it.  If you watch your sales and special deals you can go pick up a pizza for about $5 for a cheese or $10 for several toppings.  So what is the point of making your own pizza?

Well we did have some fun and it was just the two of us. You can fix the toppings and the quantity of servings to your size.  We had ham an onion on about 3/4 of the pizza and the rest was pepperoni.  Typically when ordering you have to do the toppings in 1/2 this or 1/2 that.

Sometime it is snowing....and you don't want to go out.  Other times you might be lazy or not have a real good dinner idea.  This is cheap and if you always reember to have pizza sauce on the pantry shelf and some shredded mozzarella in the freezer...you and make one in minutes.

Dough Recipe

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mix these first three ingredients together and lightly cover with a lid or put another bowl over it making a cap.  This should start to foam and "proof" and will be ready in 15  minutes.

Add

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

3 cups all-purpose flour

Stir with a wooden spoon by hand.  Dump onto a floured dough board and roll in another bit of flour.  Let the dough stand for a few moment with a bowl over the top to help it rise for a second while you get your toppings.

All of us have onions, you might have leftover ham, canned black olives, canned tomatoes, canned mushrooms.  Add the mozzarella last and baked in a heated 400 degree over for just a few moments.  maybe 15 max.  Enjoy!