Shanes rib shack review

Shanes rib shack review

Yes. It is true. Occassionally this tight fisted cook it all from scratch mama likes to go out to eat. Infact if the truth were told this c...

Read more
blogger app

blogger app

I just discovered that blogger has an app. I don't know why I never looked into it before. I have the app for everything else. But I sea...

Read more
The perfect burger

The perfect burger

Im on a quest for the perfect burger. Ive tried many recipes, ive made up my own recipes, some have been decent... others wtf was i think...

Read more

how much does presentation matter with food

My oldest daughters favorite food that I cook, a comfort food for her is chicken stew. She love loves loves it. It is what she asks for ever...

Read more
1 minute chocolate mug cake

1 minute chocolate mug cake

Ran across this recipe tonight as I was surfing. Why havent I ever heard of this before?? Im so going to do it... You can find the recip...

Read more
Chicken stew recipe and family update

Chicken stew recipe and family update

We were blessed today to have the family visit, our two teenage nephews, my oldest daughter and grand baby, and a neighbor kid we love l...

Read more
Sweet and spicy pulled pork wraps

Sweet and spicy pulled pork wraps

I just had my cataract surgery a couple days ago, and my daughter cooked us a large pork tenderloin It was fabulous, very tender and moist a...

Read more

feeding the masses

Meal time is no small task in this house. Finding something that everyone of the notices will agree on is sometimes tough, sure I could stic...

Read more
tortilla shell churros

tortilla shell churros

Inspired by this recipe ( click this link or the image to go to the blog that inspired me. .)  i decided to make some tortilla churros last ...

Read more

Shanes rib shack review

Yes. It is true. Occassionally this tight fisted cook it all from scratch mama likes to go out to eat. Infact if the truth were told this cook it at home mama would eat out most meals if my budget could handle it. Tonight i am sitting here with 2 of my kids my neice and hubby all of us cellphones in hand. But we are interacting as well showing each other things on our phone and talking about stuff. So we are not just in silence zombified. Im starving. I ordered a smothered pork and it has arrived.

It looked like this


This is the smothered pork it has coleslaw on it.. and Hannah got the same thing and it eats like this...





It was kinda messy and bigger than her head almost.. But it was most tasty and I definitely want to eat there again. My review is 2 thumbs up... and a trophy for my little girl who managed to eat it all... Where she put it ill never know...

blogger app

I just discovered that blogger has an app. I don't know why I never looked into it before. I have the app for everything else. But I searched it on the google play store yesterday and low and behold the angels sang, the trumpeters trumpeted, and the gates of heaven opened up to me.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite that fantastic, but it did come close. Now I can save a step in uploading my pictures to the blog. I can write my blog in a doctors waiting room, I can blog in the car... Only as a passenger of course.

Ive only used it twice so far, but I have not been disappointed. If you are a blogger on the go this is definitely worth taking a closer look at...


I'm not sure if there is a free blogger app for all that "I" stuff or not but android has it.. click the image above to check it out..

The perfect burger

Im on a quest for the perfect burger. Ive tried many recipes, ive made up my own recipes, some have been decent... others wtf was i thinking? The perfect burger belings to a place i used to visit with my grandfather whrn i was a kid. Its been so long ago i dont even remember the name of the place. But it was a store. They sold soft drinks and snack, feed and seed, and gas and in the back was a little cook station that had 2 or three tables situated amongst the feed bags and they had the perfect burger. Gooey runny cheddar cheese oozing off the bread. The patties werent to thick you didnt need to sm [sh anything down to fit it in your mouth it was tje perfect size and so juicy that you really could hve loved this burger plain no condiments.
Today i was surfing burger recipes and i ran cross one that looked just like what i loved as a kid the ruff edges the gooey cheese. So im giving that recipe a go today and crossing my fingers. I remember reading somewhere that its important to not over handle the meat or it could become tough. So.. i didnt do that. Ill let you know how it goes.


I am back updating after the meal, and I am sad to report that I have realized that no burger will be the burger of my childhood.. For several reasons.. 1. nothing is ever as great as you remember it from your childhood. 2. I am the cook, so by the time I have the meal finished and can sit down and eat mine all those natural juices and warmth have gone... I cook for 6 or more on a daily basis so.. thats alot of burgers before I can get mine..... 

But the family loved these..  

It was just a simple burger...

lightly patted out very thin.. and bigger than you will want it because they will shrink and plump up from the juices..

salt and pepper both sides
cook 9 minutes then flip
smear dijon mustard on the browned side and cook 5 more minutes, then add your cheese and cook until cheese melts and is runny. cheese should go on top of the dijon.
sautee some onion in the burger grease this loosens up the stuck on drippings and adds even more flavor to your burger with you top it with the sauteed onions.

toast the buns

add your favorite condiments and fixin's and chow down.. 

It might be the best so far.. Not "the" burger.. but a mighty fine burger.. 

Whats your favorite burger recipe?

how much does presentation matter with food

My oldest daughters favorite food that I cook, a comfort food for her is chicken stew. She love loves loves it. It is what she asks for every time she is sick. Well tonight I made her a big pot of it to make her feel better as she recovers from the flu. My chicken stew was shot down..

It wasn't the taste.. she eat 3 bowls and took some home with her for later.. But she did have complaints. Normally I only use white meat in my chicken stew and normally it is shred super fine and cooked to bits. This time, all I had was dark meat, and rather than shred it into superfine strings of white meat chicken throughout the pot, I didnt let it cook as long and this dark meat was chopped into cubes and larger chunks.. Her response was....


"Im disappointed... This isnt mama's chicken stew this is grandma;s and I dont like grandma's chicken stew.." well when I asked her why she had only one response... Hers isnt as pretty as yours.. I asked her well does it taste right, and she said it did, and that the flavors were spot on, but it just didnt "look" right.... Hmmmm....

Well this got me to thinking, and wondering just how much the visuals play a role in weather or not a food is enjoyable. It got me recalling a conversation the hubster and I had recently. Where I told food just hadnt been tasting right to me. If I havent mentioned it before let me say that I had cataract surgery just 3 days ago, and I had no idea my vision had changed so much. Colors.. I had lost them. I couldn't tell pink, from red, from orange, I couldnte tell you if a thing was dark greem dark blue, brown, or black.. So now I was wondering if that loss if taste in my food was a product.. or rather a symptom of my cataracts. Today I thought the food was amazingly good and it wasnt my sense of smell that was doing the trick since I am sinusy and the old sniffer is congested. It had to be the visuals. I thought the chicken stew was pretty darn sexy by the way...

This sparked a conversation in the house, where hubby said a smart thing.. As rare as that has been in the past it is becoming more common for him, or I am liking him and respecting his opinion more, or something... Well what he said was.. "the first impression you get or a person, a food, an art work, anything is.. the visual.." He is right,,, in any situation where you are not a blind person you can usually see the thing in question long before you can taste it, talk to it, smell it, or touch it...

Well, long story - short, what i learned today from my family is presentation does make a difference, and next time I make my daughter an ugly chicken stew I will also give her a blind fold... or feed her in the dark...

1 minute chocolate mug cake



Ran across this recipe tonight as I was surfing. Why havent I ever heard of this before?? Im so going to do it... You can find the recipe for it here. You put your dry ingredients together and seal for up to six months and its as easy as add a little water a few chocolate chips and microwave for 1 minute.. Yep!!! you heard me right.. 1 minute and you have chocolate cake. I think this would make awesome christmas gifts too, and there are only a few ingredients in the dry mix so its cheap too.. What I love.. yummy, chocolate, and cheap... Ohhh yeahhhh!!!!

Chicken stew recipe and family update



We were blessed today to have the family visit, our two teenage nephews, my oldest daughter and grand baby, and a neighbor kid we love like our own who calls us mama and daddy. The oldest daughter was sick, and she "needed" mama's chicken stew.. My youngest daughter and grand baby don't like chicken stew so we made one pot spaghetti for them, and I had some left over pork I posted the recipe for in my last post.  Here is that recipe if you are interested it was a big hit. The sweet balanced the spicy excellently and the kids gobbled up the wraps,  I ran out of tortilla wrappers before I ran out of pork so we took the remaining pork and put it on Hawaiian sweet rolls and had sliders which were equally loved.. They were the first thing to be eaten and they asked if there was more..

So anyway there was something here that everyone loved, and almost all of everything has been eaten. That always makes me feel like a winner winner chicken stew dinner...


Here are the recipes for the one pot spaghetti.. I got the spaghetti recipe from this recipe n The skimpy Pantry blog. I tweaked it a little. I used 1 small can of tomato paste, 3 cans tomato sauce, one can diced tomatoes, and about 3 cups water, 2 tbsp sugar, the dried oregano and basil that it calls for and I added my Parmesan cheese to the sauce. I followed the cooking instructions as they have them, but you can add your favorite spaghetti fixings whatever you like.

The chicken stew is a recipe I have used since my kids were babies.. It's simple and delicious. Warms the tummy... Wow.. It never lasts very long around here. E#specially when my daughter comes to visit.

4 chicken breasts
1 cup carrots
1 cup celery (I chop up the leafy ends along with the celery stalks because I like the way it looks)
1 cup onions
2 cups potatoes
3/4 cup sour cream
water
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 cans Campbell's cream of chicken and mushroom soup
dash of Cayenne pepper
dash of cinnamon
dash of salt and pepper

boil chicken and set aside to cool, add other ingredients to pot tear chicken from bone and shred add it back to the pot simmer on medium low heat until potatoes and carrots are done.

The chicken stew is a dish that I can say no matter how big a pot I make I have NEVER once had left over s of this stuff...

Hope you enjoy...



Sweet and spicy pulled pork wraps

I just had my cataract surgery a couple days ago, and my daughter cooked us a large pork tenderloin It was fabulous, very tender and moist and I want to get her recipe and post it here because it was quite possibly the best tenderloin I have ever eaten, not bad at all for a new cook. Maybe about time to pass the hat to her and retire as family head chef. But anyway. There was some leftover so we had pulled pork wraps today and they too were da bomb...



2 cups pulled pork
1 stick butter 
1/3 cup dr pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup apple juice concentrate
1/2 cup franks hot wing sauce
put in a casserole dish stir to mix well, and cover 

bake for 1 hour at 350

roll up in tortilla shells

I served with ranch dressing 

feeding the masses

Meal time is no small task in this house. Finding something that everyone of the notices will agree on is sometimes tough, sure I could stick to the same old go to meals that most humans enjoy, pizza, spaghetti, grilled cheese, burgers and fries.. But where is the adventure in that?

The mouths in this house range in age from 2 to 48 and some are so picky you want to strangle them. Or at very least shove that slaved over meal down their throat and tell them to like it or else.. But in the spirit of avoiding a psychotic episode and ending up on Jerry Springer, or worse.. I do what I can to please them all. So far, so good.

A little background on my life is in order here. I grew up an only child until my only brother came along when I was 10. We lived in the country so there were no neighbor kids to hang out with.. There was just me.. I went on to have 4 kids, on a quest to make sure my children were never lonely. In addition to that, you know there are places where people have a tendency to drop off stray cats, or dogs, or maybe they aren't dropped off and god just leads them to a safe haven.. Well my house has been that for a many of stray kids. Some remember me, some were young enough they don't but I have hand a hand in raising at least to some extent plenty of the neighborhood kids. and feeding them.

The ones who are still around, who may show up on my door step unannounced and always welcome are numerous, and I love them all. But that's another blog post for another time. This is about the mouths I am feeding today, and so lets get back to that.

everyday of the week I am responsible for feeding a 48 year old, a 17 year old, a 16 year old, and a 12 year old.. on more days than not I add to that mix another 17 year old, a 14 year old, another 12 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a little more rarely but still often a 22 year old, a 39 year old and a 51 year old, and too that if I'm feeling froggy which usually I'm not, but on occasion I also add to that my parents. maybe twice or 3 times a month i feed them as well. So as you see I have a whole slew of mouths in want of something to eat. To which I say...

Challenge accepted...

We do alot of soups, and stews, and rice dishes because they can stretch for days..

anything with potatoes is cheap.. Potatoes and rice are a cheap filler for crowds..

But then there are other things too..

One of my favorite go to recipes is chili.. Not just chili but chili and dogs..

I just cook up my favorite chili recipe and throw in some franks to simmer.. those who like chili have chili and those who don't can have a chili flavored hot dog.. This is always a big hit. Something for everyone, and then if there is chili leftover a nice Sheppard's pie, or add baked beans and corn and top with cornbread for a nice new flavor.

Tortilla shells are also a go to around here as I have mentioned several times recently.. You can put anything on a tortilla and its awesome..
*cheese
*cheese and pepperoni
*bbq
*pb&j
*ham sammich fixins
*tuna salad
*chicken salad
*ham salad
*rice and beans
The possibilities for a roll up are limitless and that's not all

you can season them with herbs and spices and make crackers that you can serve with or without dips

you can buy just about anything powdered.. I recently bought powdered sour cream and powdered cheddar and you can cut tortillas in to triangles and add the sour cream and cheddar and a touch of salt for a great sour cream and cheddar cracker, ad garlic powder and salt, popcorn seasonings work on this too.. buffalo wing, ranch, and caramel are the popcorn seasonings I have tried and all have been fantastic.. use your imagination the combinations are limitless thanks to the fact that the soft tortilla shells are pretty much tasteless you can make them sweet or savory or spicy entirely up to you. you just dip in oil or butter, or ever spray liberally with cooking spray and they sprinkle your flavorings onto them and bake for about 15 minutes or until crisp at 375 degrees... My latest were churro flavored just simple cinnamon and sugar...  Kids and adults loved them..

The grand baby loves anything pasta.. So i can cook up a mac n cheese, a chili mac n cheese, a pasta salad, chicken noodles, as long as it has elbow mac, or spaghetti noodles she is on board for trying it, and that is another simple relatively tasteless base ingredient for a multitude of recipes that nearly everyone will love... Pasta.. whats not to love...

 Here are some ideas...

elbow mac and cheese and hotdogs
elbow mac and chicken and hotwing sauce
elbow mac and cheese and chili mixed
elbow mac n cheese and rotel (with or without ground beef)
elbow mac n cheese and bacon
elbow mac n cheese and little smokies
elbow mac ranch dressing and chicken
spaghetti alfredo
spaghetti alfredo with bacon
spaghetti alfredo with little smokies
spaghetti alfredo with peas and carrots

another staple that has limitless possibilities and most everyone loves....

there are more but Ive rambled on enough for one pictureless post so Ill continue this at another time, but would love to read your ideas of go to meals that will satisfy the masses.... tell me something good....




tortilla shell churros

Inspired by this recipe (click this link or the image to go to the blog that inspired me..)  i decided to make some tortilla churros last night for the bon fire. We have a bon fire every Friday or Saturday night and my kids can invite friends over, and I fix food, and I know... I know.. teens will hang out with or without food.. But I LOOOOVE LOOOOVE LOOOOVE taking care of kids. I love feeding people. I guess its bred into me. I remember as child my papa would have these huge get togethers where we would butcher a whole hog (I was raised on a farm) and we would cook that hog over a slow flame all weekend, and everyone would come on Friday and plan to stay all weekend and the first thing ready back then was the cracklins, and omg that was the best part. Then there were fish fries, turkey shoots, any reason for a group to gather and hang out... Its just in my blood, and I feel like I'm  doing a good thing, those kids might be off drinking and driving, and doing all sorts of things if they didn't have a safe place to hang out...  Plus... I missed those days of my childhood when the whole neighborhood knew each other and gathered for good food and good times... I thought they were gone for good, until my kids came along, and want to invite people over and do things, I love that they want to have their friends here and I know where and what my kids are doing. At least most of it... Anyway the biggest challenge of this is something to feed them... Last nights menu options were , chicken risotto, pork chops, cinnamon sugar tortilla chips, maple bacon cookies by Betty cracker, Doritos, salsa, queso blanco dip, cuties oranges, and that was all.

The risotto was da bomb... SO many good flavors combined to make an awesome dish... But... that's not the one I want to talk to you about... I want to share my tortilla churros with you.



what you need

regular tortilla rounds
cinnamon
sugar

I used a cookie cutter and cut mine into little circles at first but then decided that that was wasteful because so much was thrown out.. (the chickens didn't mind tho) so at the end I just started cutting them into triangles.. to cut them into triangles you just cut them in half stack the two halves, cut them in half again and stack them again then cut the top edges into triangles and that should leave you with a diamond shape that you cut in half to give yourself another two triangles.

I then took the triangles and sprayed them with butter flavored cooking spray.. you could also mopped them with melted butter if you wanted but i was looking for quick and easy so i used spray.

I dipped the greased side of my triangles in a cinnamon sugar mixture and put in the over at 375 for about 8 minutes or until crisp and that's it... they loved them, and they were super quick and easy....

As for the Risotto.. I just learned to cook that thank you barefoot contessa.. I love that junk even if i dont add pramasan Ill share that recipe another time.. Try the churro recipe tho it is the best thing since sliced bread and makes teen mouths happy....






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