My Mother-In-Law's Peanut Butter Balls

I just spent a glorious 5 days with my in-laws. And I mean that for real. I realize a lot of people aren't lucky enough to have really awesome in-laws. I am that lucky. When I go to my MIL's house, I always feel welcome and happy and stress free. It's a good change from normal life.

We always go up right before actual Christmas so we can do our celebrations with them and then be home for Santa's big visit. When I got there, we had some work to do to prepare for the festivities. One of these things was to make the Peanut Butter Balls.

We can't have Christmas up there without the Peanut Butter Balls.

While they can be a little tedious to make with regard to time, they are actually really simple to make.

Ingredients for balls*:

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 box powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (we use Reese peanut butter for this)
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 sticks margarine, melted
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Mix all of the above together, adding the butter last. Use your hands. It's more fun.

Ingredients for chocolate:

• 1/2 block of paraffin wax (we used Gulf Wax)
• 1 6oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate morsels

Melt the wax and chocolate in a double boiler or pot on pot.

Pot on Pot Boiler

How to "assemble" the peanut butter balls:

Rolled Peanut Butter Balls

• Pinch off a small amount of peanut butter mixture and roll it into a ball in the palm of your hand. It shouldn't be any wider than a quarter, really. Although, I guess the size can be up to you. We made 4 batches at once and had well over a hundred peanut butter balls. The smaller you roll, the more there are.
• Drop each ball into the melted chocolate mixture, rolling it around until it's covered.
• Remove the ball with a slotted spoon so the extra chocolate can drip back into the pot
• Lay your peanut butter balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper so they can dry. Drying won't take long.
• Store your peanut butter balls in a sealed container until ready to enjoy.

Chocolatey Goodness!

They are seriously sinful and yummy. All weekend, I'd watch people popping these things in their mouths. How can you not love a peanut butter ball?!

*I suspect you can leave some of these ingredients out for those who can't have, say, nuts or coconut, and these would still be just as yummy.

Chicken Pot Pie

I've been wanting to try the new Philadelphia cooking cremes since they first appeared on the shelf in the grocery store. So tonight, I put one to the test by making the Chicken Pot Pie recipe that's listed here. But, because I don't ever like sticking to a recipe, I changed some stuff up. It ended up looking like this at the end of the night:

Success!

My family inhaled it. And then made me wrap up what was left so they could have leftovers of it tomorrow. That almost never happens. We're not a family of leftovers...mostly because I've perfected the art of cooking for just 4 people.

Just out of the oven

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of chicken breast, cut into tiny, bite-sized pieces
• a spoonful of butter or margarine
• 3 cups of mixed veg, thawed and drained
• 1 container of Philadelphia Cooking Creme Italian Cheese and Herb*
• 2 deep dished pie crusts

Half Eaten

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400°
2. In a skillet, melt butter and brown the bite-sized pieces of chicken 
3. Add veg and cook through for 2-3 minutes
4. Add Cooking Creme and heat through until mixture just begins to bubble
5. Spoon into one deep dished pie crust
6. Top with the other pie crust (please read explanation below) and cut slits in the top
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Now, the explanation of step 6:

 The original recipe (the one linked above) says to just put the mixture in a pie tin and then cover with a crust. I don't like pot pies like that. I like my pot pies to be surrounded by crust, both top and bottom. But, when I went to the grocery store, I only got the deep dished crusts and forgot to get the roll out pie "top" that most people would use in this situation. Of course, I could of made the top from scratch, but no. So, after I put the mixture in one pie shell, I ran a knife around the rim of the second pie crust, cutting the fluted edges off and then turned the pie crust tin upside down until it (the crust) dropped out in one nice sheet. I then placed it over my mixture already on the first pie shell and thumb smashed the edges of the two crusts together. Turned out great.

Creamy and flavorful and divine

Of course, it doesn't quite cut into "pie" pieces. But so what. It's yummy no matter what.

Before the massacre.

Enjoy!

*The actual recipe called for Savory Garlic Cooking Creme. My grocery store was out of that flavor, so I got the Italian Cheese and Herb. It was yummy.

Arroz Mexicano

I love food. All kinds of food. There's just about nothing I won't eat, and I'll pretty much try anything at least once. But one of my all time favorite dishes ever is Mexican Rice. Yes, I'm fully aware that it's probably not "authentic" Mexican Rice when I order it in the restaurants. But I love it anyway.

I've tried to make it a few times with different sorts of recipes. Most of those recipes were massive culinary failures.

Until now.

A successful Mexican Rice

I adapted this recipe from a couple of different recipes. I like how flexible it is.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rice
• 1 small white onion, minced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 medium sized carrot, minced
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 cups of water
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/8 tsp celery salt (optional)
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. In a pan (that you have a lid for), heat oil and butter over high heat until really hot
2. Add onion, garlic, carrot, salt and pepper, celery salt, and cayenne pepper. Saute for 3 minutes.
3. Add rice and saute for 5 minutes. You will need to stir this almost constantly. Your rice may start to brown, which is a good thing. (If it doesn't brown, that's ok, too.)
4. Add water, being careful of the steam that's going to try to smack you in the face.
5. Drop in the tomato paste and just whirl it around a bit in the rice. Don't completely mix it.
6. Bring everything to a boil and then turn your stove down to the lowest possible heat setting. (I put mine on warm. If you have a gas stove, you want it low enough that the flame is just about to go out.)
7. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from heat and let sit for 15 minutes. DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF AT ALL UNTIL IT HAS SAT FOR 15 MINUTES. If you let the moisture escape, your rice won't finish cooking.
9. Remove lid, fluff with fork, add any more salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Sauteing 

Simmering (I cheated and lifted the top. Do not do this.)

My family loves this rice. It's diverse enough to be served with a number of different dishes, so it's very versatile.

And yummy. Don't forget yummy.

Better than Sonic

OK, bear with me on this one. I know it's super simple, but maybe...just maybe...it's not obvious to all.

My sister recently pointed out that Sonic is now serving bratwursts. She kept going on and on about how delish they are. And then it occurred to me that maybe she didn't know how simple re-creating the recipe would be. So today, after picking the children up for school, I went to Sonic for a milkshake and to spy on their menu brats. Super simple. Super easy. Super yummy when made in your kitchen and not in a fast food joint.

It didn't take much twisting of the arm to convince my hubby that we needed brats tonight for dinner. Here's how ours looked:

sauerkraut bratwurst

Ingredients:

• A package of bratwurst (the ones you find in the cold cut/hotdog section of your grocery store
• hotdog buns
• spicy mustard
• a can of sauerkraut (drained and lightly rinsed)
• a medium onion (halved and sliced)
• olive oil
• celery salt
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. In a small pan, drizzle a little olive oil and heat on medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until soft and starting to brown.
2. In a small sauce pot, heat the sauerkraut with a tiny bit of water (since you drained the original "juice") until heated through.
3. Grill your brats until they crack and get a little black in places. (I guess you could also bake them or boil them, but grilling them in best.)
4. Heat the hotdog buns in the microwave (I keep mine in their bag, with the bag open)

Once all of these things are done, just assemble your brat to your liking, sprinkling it with celery salt, salt, and pepper to taste.

WAY better than anything Sonic could come up with and made to taste. How could it not be good?

Thanksgiving Practice

This weekend was full of Crock Pot madness. In fact, on Sunday, I had two slow cookers going at once, something that is a true testament to my slow cooking infatuation. One of those cookers held my apples(auce) recipe previously posted. The other held a Try-Out-Thanksgiving recipe I've been wanting to try before the big day.

If you're anything like me, Thanksgiving is a day of utter chaos in the kitchen. There are so many wonderfully delicious things I always want to cook for my family that I often overdo it and end up with way more on my hands than I can properly deal with. But this year, I've decided to do two things:

1. Not cook every single Thanksgiving recipe I've ever come across, made, or maybe even head about
2. Use a slow cooker whenever humanly possible.

So, I happened upon a chicken and dressing recipe that looked simple enough to give it a go, just to see if it was up to Thanksgiving standards. 

Slow Cooker Stuffing Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lbs of chicken breast strips
• 8-10 slices of swiss cheese
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup milk
• 1 box stove top stuffing (chicken or savory herb flavor). Yes, I KNOW this is cheating at Thanksgiving. Trust me. I know.
• 1/4 cup melted butter.

Directions:

1. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with non-stick spray
2. Wash your chicken and lay it flat in the bottom of your cooker
3. Cover with the swiss cheese slices
4. Mix milk and cream of mushroom soup until creamy and...
5. Pour mixture over cheese slices
6. Pour dried stuffing over mixture
7. Drizzle with butter
8. Cook on high for 3 hours and on low for 1 hour
9. Turn your slow cooker lid sideways for the last 30 minutes to let the moisture escape so your stuffing isn't soggy.

As you can see in the above picture, the cheese and soup mixture will bubble up through the stuffing.

The recipe was a success, except for one thing. I don't know if it's Thanksgiving worthy. It's dinner rotation in the Mahaffey house worthy. But Thanksgiving dinner is a big deal, and I'm just not sure it's THAT good. The husband says it is. I'll have to think about it.

To go with the chicken stuffing, I made my garlic roasted brussels sprouts and corn on the cob. We were some happy people!

Slow Cooker Apples(auce)

My mother recently spent the weekend in the Appalachian mountains for her birthday, and while there she got her hands on some apples. Not just some apples. Massive amounts of apples. Pink Lady apples to be exact. Her garage has boxes and boxes of pretty pink lady apples spilling out of them.

The problem: My mother doesn't cook. She's more of a "heat-it-up" kind of woman. So, she told me I could have full access to all of these apples.

Recently, I came across an applesauce recipe that I thought was pretty interesting, particularly because it was made in a slow cooker. But, I'm not a huge fan of applesauce. It's the consistency. Something about it freaks me out. So I've been trying to figure out how I can work with these apples without making traditional, mashed up applesauce.

Behold!

This is, of course, before the cooking process. I'm not sure what to call it. Granola Cored Apples? 

Anyway, here's the information.

Ingredients:

• 6 medium sized apples of your choosing
• 1/2 c light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granola
• 1/4 cup cranberries
• 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice*
• 1/4 cup orange juice

Process:

1. Combine brown sugar, granola, cranberries, and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl
2. Wash your apples thoroughly and then halve them going side to side**
3. Core the halves using a sharp paring knife. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just get all the middle bits out.
4. Put the two halves back together, so that it looks like an apple again, and fill the cored middle with your granola mixture.
5. Place the filled apples in your slow cooker
6. Pour orange juice in the bottom of your slow cooker
7. Cook on high for 2 hours and then on warm for 2 hours.

You can then spoon each full apple directly out onto individual serving dishes. Serve with a scoop of Vanilla Bean ice cream.

I can't even explain to you how good this is. It's restaurant quality good. It's close-your-eyes-and-purr good. It's why-did-I-serve-this-in-my-kids-plastic-bowl good.

*If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, you will need 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves.

**If you have an apple corer, you don't necessarily have to halve your apples. I halve mine for two reasons. First, I don't have a corer. Second, that little break up of apple allows the granola mixture to kind of seep in between the two halves, which I think spices them up more.

Slow Cooker Chili

I love the fall. It's my favorite time of year. The weather is gorgeous, college football is in full swing, Halloween gives me reason to eat obscene amounts of sugar, and we gain an hour of sleep when the clocks change. 

I also love fall foods. Soup. Chili. Chowder. Pumpkin Pie. Baked Apples. Stuffing. Hot Cider. How can anyone argue that these aren't the best foods?

This fall, I've decided to make use of my Slow Cooker, mostly because we are SO DAGUM BUSY! And when we get busy, it usually means we eat out a lot more, which is never good. Not just because it's unhealthy, but because it's just gross a lot of the time. Why spend $30 on food for the family if the food you get isn't excellent?

So, I've pulled out the Slow Cooker. And I've pulled out my recipes that are easiest to do in the Slow Cooker.

The first is my chili recipe, which has been adapted and shaped over the years from a very basic recipe I found on the back of a canned tomato can. (I don't remember which one.)

Ingredients:

• Ground Hamburger or Ground Turkey (Venison would work, too)
• 1 can of stewed chili flavored tomatoes (with juice)
• 1 can of whole kernel corn (with juice)
• 1 can of light red kidney beans (drained well)
• 1 can of black beans (partially drained)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 1/2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 packet of chili seasoning
• 2 dashes of cinnamon
• 2 dashes of celery salt
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Brown meat and drain thoroughly
2. Add all ingredients to Slow Cooker
3. Cook on low for 4 hours
4. Remove bay leaf before serving
5. Garnish with shredded cheddar cheese and chopped green onions if desired.

I usually serve this with tostitos or cornbread. It depends on how "hands on" I want the meal to be. My children LOVE this. During cooler/cold weather, this meal makes the rotation in our house usually once every week and a half.

It's Barbeque Time

Being from the south means it is ingrained in my DNA that I love BBQ. The south is riddled with BBQ joints that serve up BBQ, squash casserole, lima beans, corn bread, mac and cheese, and every other kind of comfort food there is. And we flock to these places, especially after church.

But you know what's even better? Making a big batch of bbq that can feed your family all week long if need be. Oh, and of course, you can also take it to family functions...that is if you're willing to share.

So, here's what you need:

• 5 lb boneless pork butt shoulder
• 1 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
• 2 tsp of pepper
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup of water

1. In a small bowl, combine all of the seasonings
2. Place your pork butt in a slow cooker
3. Rub the pork butt evenly with your seasoning
4. Pour the cup of water into the bottom of the slow cooker
5. Cook your pork butt on low heat for 8 hours
6. Shred your bbq with a fork in a large bowl.

Now, you can eat it as is. And trust me when I say it's really good like that. But usually, I'll separate the bbq into two different containers, leaving one of them as is. With the other I mix in 1 cup of Uncle Yammy's Southern Style BBQ Sauce and 1 cup of Shealy's BBQ Sauce, both of which you can find at the grocery store. This is the BBQ we eat with grilled corn on the cob and fried potatoes. 

The epitome of a southern summer meal!

Weight Watchers Succotash

This house certainly isn't a Weight Watchers house, as you can see from the other recipes I've posted, but there are some really good recipes in their cookbook. I find myself incorporating these recipes into our meals quite often. One that I like a lot, particularly during the summer months is their Zucchini and Lima-bean Succotash. It can be served hot or cold. I find that my husband and I like it better hot, while our children like it better cold. But everyone will pretty much eat it any way it's served.

What you will need:

• 1 10 oz. box of frozen lima beans, thawed and cooked with package directions
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/2 red onion, chopped (although a yellow onion will work just as well)
• 1 medium sized zucchini
• 2 small tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups of fresh or thawed corn
• 1 1/2 tsp of fresh thyme (1 tsp if from a spice rack)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp cayenne

1. Cook your lima beans, drain them, and set them aside
2. Heat the olive oil, add the onions, and saute for 4 minutes
3. Add the zucchini and tomato and cook for 3 minutes
4. Add everything else and cook through until hot.

I can't think of any other way to describe what this tastes like other than to say it's like a garden in your mouth, especially if you used fresh veggies. It's really good with pork chops or baked chicken.

(Sorry for the fuzzy picture quality. I was holding a six-year-old on my hip.)

From Start to Finish: Sour Dough Bread

I don't know about y'all, but around here, Sour Dough Bread is just about the best thing ever. I remember being a little girl and my mama bringing home a loaf every now and then from some giving friend. We'd all sit around that loaf in the kitchen, spreading butter on it and eating it until it was only crumbs. As soon as it was gone, we'd wish we'd rationed it out some to last longer than 10 minutes. 

Much, much later, while I was in Grad School, a sweet friend of mine, Melissa, would give my little family a loaf when she thought to. And same as when I was a kid, we'd inhale it.

Recently, my Gran gave me some starter. But of course, I did something wrong almost immediately and it didn't do as it should. So I decided to make some starter myself. After trying out a few different recipes on line, I finally found the one I liked. The one that tasted like the bread from my childhood. (I have no idea where I got the recipe from though! If I discover where, I'll be sure to give credit.)

Now, technically, this isn't "real" starter because it doesn't take months to get going. It's cheat-starter, but the bread is just as good and tastes like the real deal.

Note: Use only glass bowls and wooden spoons for this recipe. Any metal will mess up the mixture.

To Make Sour Dough Bread Starter:

First, in a large glass bowl, mix:

• 1 packet of Rapid Rise Highly Active Yeast
• 1/2 cup of warm water

Stir this until the yeast is fully dissolved.

Then, add:

• 1 cup of warm water
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of instant potato flakes

Stir this mixture well until it is thoroughly mixed and pour it into a quart glass jar. Cover the jar with a tea towel or wax paper and let it sit at room temperature for 8 hours.

After 8 hours, put the lid on the jar (make sure your punch holes in the top so the starter can breath. I use an ice pick, but a screwdriver will work just as well.) Put your starter in the fridge for 4 days.

To Feed Your Starter:

Sour Dough Bread Starter has to be fed every 3-5 days or it will "die," which means no yummy bread. To feed it, add:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of instant potato flakes
• 1 cup of warm water

Stir the mixture well, and then let it sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours. Stir the mixture again, and remove 1 cup of starter. Put the rest of your starter back in the fridge until the next feeding.

With the removed cup of starter, you have 3 options. You can throw it away, give it to a friend to start their own bread making abilities, or make bread. The 3rd option is certainly my favorite.

To Make Sour Dough Bread: (This recipe makes roughly 3 medium sized loaves.)

In a large bowl, mix:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of corn oil
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 cup of starter
• 1 1/2 cups of warm water
• 6 cups of bread flour

Mix all of these ingredients in a large glass bowl until your batter is stiff. You can use a fancy mixer with a dough hook, but I prefer doing this all by hand. Remove dough from the bowl, and, on a floured surface, knead dough until firm and elastic. Wash the bowl you previously used, and then grease it well with corn oil. Put the dough back in the bowl, letting it get good and greased on the bottom. Then turn it over so the other side gets good and greased. Cover the bowl lightly with a tea towel or wax paper and let it stand overnight. Don't refrigerate it! I either put mine into a cold oven or the microwave. While you sleep, your dough will rise and be pretty when you wake up in the morning.

The next morning, punch your dough down. You will literally only have to press on it a couple of times to make it thoroughly deflate. Remove dough from bowl, and, on a floured surface, knead your dough a dozen times or so. Again, you can use a dough hook for this, but the palms of your hands work really good, too. Divide you dough into 3 separate parts and place it into sprayed loaf pans. Cover with a tea towel or wax paper, and let them rise for at lease 4-5 hours. (I usually let mine rise all day.)

Bake all three loaves on the bottom rack of your over at 350° for 30-40 minutes. Remove and brush with a little butter if you want, although this isn't necessary. Let the loaves cool completely on a cooling rack. 

And ENJOY!

My family has figured out my bake schedule now, so they miraculously show up at my door on the days I have fresh bread. Be aware of this possible side affect.

Strawberry Shortcake in a Jar

I've been wondering what my first post on my brand new, spiffy blog would be, and this seems as good as any.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. During this on-going time of war, it's important that people celebrate for the right reasons. I come from a family of veterans, and while we have been lucky enough to never lose anyone in war, our veterans have lost buddies who fought right next to them during harrowing times. 

So, tomorrow, when my extended family gathers for our cookout, we will be doing so in honor of these buddies. I hope that you will do something similar to honor those who you have known, directly or indirectly.

For the cookout, I was given the job of dessert. I think I was given this job because many of the women in my family believe dessert is the most stressful dish to make because it often involves THE dreaded word: Baking. Little do they know, they are getting nothing baked from this girl.

Behold! The Strawberry Shortcake in a Jar!

When it's hot outside, there is nothing better than strawberry shortcake. 

Here's what you need:

• 1/2 pint jars (I bought mine at Walmart for $8.)
• A Package of Shortcakes
• A Carton of Strawberries
• A Container of Whipped Cream
• Sugar

First, quarter your strawberries and sprinkle roughly a tablespoon of sugar on them. Leave them in the bowl to juice a little while you prepare your shortcakes.

Second, crumble all of the shortcakes in a glass bowl. There's usually 6 to a package. Since I filled up 12 1/2 pint jars, I used 2 packages, making it roughly 1 shortcake per jar. You can do more or less depending on your taste for shortcake.

Third, start layering your ingredients. As you can see, I filled mine with a layer of shortcake first. I then put 6-8 quarters of strawberry on top of the cake. Then, I spooned whipped cream on top of the strawberries up to the bottom of the rim. 

Lastly, I spooned some of the juice from the berries over the whipped cream and added one strawberry quarter to the center. It looks like a little heart sitting in a pillow of white.

These can be eaten immediately, but they're really good if they sit in the refrigerator for a little while. All of the juices from the strawberries run down into the shortcake, making it entirely sinful.

And because I knew we wouldn't be able to wait until tomorrow to try it, I made four extra for me, the hubby, and the 2 munchkins. 

I'd say the treat was a success.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! God Bless our Troops!