The cast:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Pre-heat your oven to 350 and get your muffin tin ready.

Now, cream the butter and sugar*, then add the eggs. Dump in your flour, mix and then add your pecans.

Pour (lumpy) batter into your muffin tins.

Bake for around 20 minutes.

Ta da!

Bottom line: These were gone very quickly. Hubby really liked them!

*If you take out your brown sugar and it’s hard, don’t despair – pop it in the microwave for a bit. It’ll soften right up, and the lumps will squish out.

The cast:

The muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries

The topping:

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 400, get your muffin pan ready with either liners or grease those babies up.

Mix the dry ingredients, then add egg and milk. Gently fold blueberries in.

Mmmm. I dipped my finger in at this point, but you don’t have to.

Dump the goodness in your prepared muffin tin.

Now mix the topping mixture together. Make sure your butter is nice a cold. Sprinkle some on the top.

It’s supposed to make 8, but I only got 7. But, I’m practically famous for overfilling.

Bake around 20 minutes.

Bottom line: The kids loved these. I honestly wasn’t crazy about the topping, but I think that has to do with the fact that I’m partial to streusel, and this wasn’t close to that. It got pretty hard too. But, the muffin itself was really, really good.

I have to say, I impressed the hell out of myself with these. Oh, did you hear that snap? Yep, that was my arm, I broke it patting myself on the back.

Moving on.

The cast:

1 cup warm milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 egg yolk, beaten
3 cups bread flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons active yeast

I dumped all this in the breadmaker, put it on knead, and walked away. I let it rise in there. Meanwhile, I prepared my breakfast filling goodness.

I chopped up some bacon, put it to fry, used some frozen sausage patties, and made some breakfast taters.

Once all that was done (and cooled! you don’t want hot fillings), I rolled out my dough on a lightly floured surface. Preheated the oven to 350, then I pulled off a handful and made a depression in the middle. Here’s where I put the yummies.

This pic sucks, I know. But, you get the point. This was bacon and cheese.

Fold the top over, and pinch the sides to make sure it’s closed good and tight.

Repeat. A lot. I actually got very tired of stuffing and pinching, so I froze half the dough for later use. I mean, this recipe makes 35 of these (delicious) suckers, and I knew we couldn’t eat that many!

Line them up all pretty like on a cookie sheet, pop into the oven.

Cook them around 15 minutes, or until done.

You can also stuff, pop them in the fridge and bake fresh the next morning.

How cute are they? And yes, that’s a paper plate. I could have pulled out a nice dish for the picture, but that’s not real!

Bottom line: Absolutely delicious. I dare say they are better than Shipley’s. We’ll never buy again! I also plan on stuffing with dinner goodness too – calzones anyone?

The cast:

1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
6 tablespoons shortening
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream shortening and powdered sugar together.

We used a mixer, but only because I had “company”. I usually just do it by hand, but wanted to be proper!

Add the vinegar and vanilla, mix until you have pretty peaks!

Frost!

Bottom line: This wasn’t the best ever. It had a weird taste that neither of us was crazy about, hence trying the cupcakes with no frosting *gasp*. If I made this again, I’d half the vinegar and add more vanilla.

Here we go!

The cast:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 cup water

Pre-heat over to 350. Sift dry ingredients together.

Then add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Mix well.

Dump into baking cups – batter was pretty thick. Only makes 8, but it’s easily doubled if you wish.

(we really DO make a mess while baking!)

Bake for around 20 minutes. Let cool and frost. We used a Vegan Vanilla Frosting.

These came out really pretty, rose nicely!

Bottom line:

I think that sums it up nicely! These were delish, even for a meat lover such as myself. They are good even without frosting (which feels like blasphemy typing! I love me some frosting). They aren’t too rich, and have a great texture.

So I decided to try homemade pizza crust and sauce.

We’ll start with the crust.

The cast:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 package yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup warm water
couple of turns of my italian seasoning grinder (it has oregano, red pepper flakes, sea salt, thyme, etc) – this is optional, just something I wanted to try.

I dumped it all in my breadmaker, turned it on pizza crust.

Meanwhile, I made the sauce.

The cast:

1 8 oz can tomato paste
1 8 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
olive oil
1/2 tsp sugar
herbs – I used the same italian herb grinder as above, and added crushed red pepper flakes
water – as much as you need to get your desired consistency.
salt
pepper

I added oil to the pan, and the garlic and sauteed on low for a bit. Add the tomatoes, herbs and water. Simmer on low for around 10 minutes, until the flavors are well mixed. Season to your liking.

Next, I removed the dough from the machine and rolled it out with flour. McHusband spread it on our big pizza pan, and I did a small one for the kiddos.

Add toppings!

I baked at 350 for around 20 minutes. I’d recommend baking the crust first for 5-7 minutes, then adding the toppings.

Bottom line: Delicious! Huge hit with the kids, as we let them add their own toppings and cheese. Only two slices left after dinner. McHusband was a HUGE fan. We’ll make again for sure.

The cast:

1 lb ground beef
1/4 cup thinned steak sauce (I added water to this, because it’s thick and I was afraid it would burn)
a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce
2 packages of mashed potato mix
corn
cheese
brown gravy (optional)

Ok, so I cooked the hamburger and added the steak sauce and worcestershire sauce, some salt and pepper. While that was cooking, I made two packages of the butter and garlic mashed potatoes (yeah yeah). And preheated the oven to 350.

I dumped the meat in a glass pie pan, and added cubes of velveeta – I think cheddar would have tasted better, but I didn’t have any on hand.

Then I dumped some corn in, and covered with the cooked mashed potatoes.

Popped it in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the taters had a nice crust. While it was cooking, I made the gravy and some rolls.

Bottom line: It was DELICIOUS. It really was. The meat was full of flavor and together it was really, really good. End of the meal, the whole darn thing was GONE.

The cast:

1/2 cup warm water (at least 110 degrees to activate yeast)
1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/2 cup white sugar
1 package of yeast
3 3/4 cups flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon salt

I dumped it all in willy nilly (not knowing there was an “order” I was supposed to follow – turned out fine), set it to knead.

1.5 hours later, I had a nice fluffy dough.

I removed it from the pan, and punched it down, on a floured surface. You can roll them in balls and plop them on a sheet, let them rise again (around 30ish minutes) and bake at 400 degrees 10ish minutes. I chose to try to make cute little rolls in a muffin tin.

I buttered the muffin tin, and rolled three small balls each cup. Looks like this:

Cute, right? I covered with a dishtowel and let them rise again – this should take 30-45 minutes. I was having issues with them rising, so I turned on a stove burner, then turned it off and set them up there, worked like a charm. Yeast needs heat to work.

Done rising:

I melted some butter and spread over the top and popped them in the oven.

Now, in the future, I’m going to turn the oven down some, maybe 375, because the sides were a little too brown for me.

But, I was so pleased how well they turned out.

I mean, I made BREAD. By MYSELF, from scratch. And, it was GOOD.

Bottom line: I’ll make these again, soon. Nana loved them, ate two herself!

The cast:

1.5 lbs lean stew meat
4 cups beef broth
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1.5 cups mixed veggies (I had a frozen organic mix with green beans, peas, corn and carrots, so I used that – fresh would prolly be better)
2 large potatoes
1 package of seasoning
1 clove of garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Chop up potatoes (I used Idaho, but next time I’m going to try baby reds). Dump it all in the crockpot! I cooked on low for 5 hours, and high on 2. Do what works with your schedule – but I’d recommend at least 6 hours so the stew meat is nice and tender.

If you like thicker stew, add some cornstarch or flour to thicken it up.

Bottom line: a HIT, even with the kids. I paired it with Sweet Yeasty Rolls and some mashed potatoes. Delish!

The cast:

1 lb, boneless, skinless chicken breast
long grain white rice
corn
cheddar cheese
chicken tomato boullion or rotel
oil for cooking
garlic salt, pepper and seasoned salt to taste

Heat oil on med/high heat, drop chicken in and season – you aren’t cooking the chicken, but getting a nice coating on it.

Once browned, remove chicken from heat and add rice (we use a lot, because they LOVE rice – use as much as you like!). Your goal here is to get the bits off the pan, and brown the rice a bit. By brown, I mean when the rice is added, it’s got a translucent hue to it, you want it white and a smidge browned.

Now, I do this two ways. If I’m using Rotel (I get the spicy mix, with chilies), I use chicken stock. If I’m using the Knorrs mix, I just use water. How much water depends on how much rice (I never measure, just add some liquid, and keep an eye on it). A good rule of thumb is 1.5 cups of water per cup of rice.

Dump the liquid in (either Rotel and stock, or Knorrs – I eyeball it, if I had to guess, I’d say 2 tablespoons, but it’s a personal taste thing – and water), and put the chicken back in the pan. Cover, and cook on med/low for around 30 minutes, until the rice and chicken are both done. You DON’T want to stir, or really mess with the rice at all. It’ll make it mushy. Cover and walk away.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about when I say Knorrs, here it is:

Now, you can add corn prior to the water/chicken if you’d like – I usually just dump it on the plate when I serve. It’s really up to you.

Here’s the finished product:

I sprinkle some cheese on it, and serve with refried beans and tortillas. It’s really a simple dish.

Bottom line: A favorite around here, made at least twice a month!