I Just Want to be Inspired

Are you ready for some football??!??! After cooking for an army yesterday, I'm not wanting to spend too much time in kitchen. 1 hour, tops. Split 3 lb bag of chicken wings into 2 pans. Sprinkled them with seasonings and put into oven @400'. Start with 20 mins, then turn over. Another 20 mins, drain off juice. Then bake for about another 10 mins.

Dug out my triple crockpot madness.... I don't use this enough!

My dream is to make a trifecta of soups once the weather cools.

Crock 1 - cocktails weenies n bbq sauce. Dump in sausage, drizzle on sauce and stir. Embarrassingly easy. 

Add honey (1/2c) and mustard (1TBSP) to second crock. Add preferred wing sauce or other for 3rd crock. Stir wings and sauce to coat.

Crab dip. Easy. Plebian. Tasty. You could buy cocktail sauce, I usually have ingredients on hand and it tastes better.

Schmear cream cheese block across plate

Cocktail sauce:
1 C ketchup
1 - 2 TBSP horseradish
juice of half a lemon
1/4 tsp white (or black) pepper
Spread on top of cream cheese
Chop up imitation crab meat, spread on top; serve with crackers

You had me at cocktail sauce

Ham and sweet pickle rollups

Usually I use sweet gherkins, store only had bread and butter. They'll work.

After smearing a bit of cream cheese, add pickles, and rollup. Use a toothpick to keep in place.

Closing in on the hour mark. Spread tortilla chips on tray, sprinkle with cheese, put in oven, still hot from wings. Mix 1 C sour cream and 1 C salsa for dipping.

Show me the nachos!!!

Sorry... game's on.

Ironically... our hometown team beat this team today... after this team WAS our hometown team. Go Rams!

The Ham That Time Forgot

Hey, what's this blob in the bottom of the freezer anyway? OH, a partial ham... when did I put this in here?

Not really THAT long ago.... more like a couple of months. Leftovers from some other dinner and I was too lazy to take meat off bone, tossed whole thing in ziploc bag and banished to the freezer. Kept digging and found some frozen green beans and some produce co-op potatoes.

 Layered everything in the crockpot, added seasonings, and a couple of cups of chicken broth.

Set crockpot on high for 3 hours and headed for the office. Since dinner was so easy, I decided to make a batter bread to go with... but what kind????

Cheers! Beer bread it is! Recipe here.

Mix ingredients as directed...

Stir until mixed, batter will be thick and lumpy

 Spread into bread pan, or into a cake pan as I want to use my toaster oven instead of heating up the house.

 Baked at 325 in toaster over for about 45 mins. Warm, crusty outside and tender inside!

Ham is tender and simply falls of the bone

No sign of Easter now... dinner is served

I love Fall. Spring and Summer - Meh. Winter? Wake me in September.

Well, it is September... but it's still in the 90's during the day. I want football, chili, and hoodies. In lieu of that, I'm going to console myself with some crockpot chicken and dumplings.

Chop up some carrots and celery (onion if your miscreants "allow" it)

Grab some chicken from freezer - boneless breasts, thighs, or bone in work. I prefer bone in as they add more flavor to the overall dish, increasing it's "food of love" quotient.

Layer in crockpot, chicken on the bottom

 Then veggies

Then a drizzle of olive oil and seasonings. I like an herb blend, you could also use poultry seasoning, or thyme and a few bay leaves. Because the miscreants are mortally offended by chunks of onion and garlic, I sprinkle in granulated onion and garlic.

 Pour enough chicken broth (or water) to completely cover chicken and veggies

I set mine to cook on "high" for 4 hours, it will "kick over" to "warm" for another 4 or 5 as I hit the office for the day.

As I walk back in the door, I set it back up to "high". Need heat to cook the dumplings.

 I pulled the chicken thighs from the crockpot and replace the lid. While it is heating back up to "high".

 I gently shred the meat off the bone. This takes maybe 10 mins and is easy - the meat is fall off the bone tender. I set aside the skin for the dog, another resident miscreant. She will not leave my side for 3 days after this bounty of chicken goodness.

 I put the meat back into crockpot and mix up the dumplings. You could use biquick, if you have it. I have flour and such on hand, I prefer to make my own. The miscreants don't fall far from the persnickety tree.

 For fun, I stir in about 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar. Why? Because cheese is yummy.

 Drop little blobs of dough into the mixture in the crockpot. Put lid back on and walk away for half an hour. In my case, probably to gripe at my darling children over incomplete chores, homework, and to take away a bag of Doritos they filtched from the pantry because they are STARVING.

 After 30 minutes, lift the lid and give dumplings a poke. They should float and be puffy, no longer raw dough. Give pot a gentle stir- this will thicken up the broth into a gravy.

I'm so ready for bowls of this and bowls of that...

Let the journey into fall comfort foods begin...

Back in the Saddle Again

Been off the blog awhile, life, kids, work, massive amounts of blah. So, time to climb back on the horse..

And I'm headin' out west sucker... because I wanna be a

Cowboy baby

With the top let back and the sunshine shining

With my blahs, I let my produce pile up, unused, and potentially about to waste - hate that! So pulled out all the fruits on hand... 

Sliced and dumped in a lighted sprayed cake pan. Found blueberries, dumped those in too! Preheated oven to 350'.

Sort of followed this recipe for a oatmeal crisp type coating.

I didn't melt the butter, just forked in the bowl with the dry ingredients and poured over top of fruit

Bake at 350' for about 50 mins, until golden brown and fruit bubbly.

My little cowpokes didn't want to wait for it to cool

So I served up, hot, with vanilla ice cream

Fruit Cocktail Cobbler

I bet you'll hear my whistle blowing when my train rolls in

It goes (whistle) like dust in the wind