Joy in the Kitchen!

We recently traveled to Tennessee to help our daughter and her husband move to Utah.  So happy to have them closer to us!  Happy Happy!   While we were there, we celebrated her birthday by going to dinner at their favorite BBQ place, Top Hog BBQ in Gallatin, TN.  It was a delightful, homey place and the food was plentiful and delicious!  Our server welcomed us with southern charm.  We were obviously not the only ones to love this place as even though we were seated right away at 11:30 am on a Saturday, before we left there was a fair bunch waiting to be seated.  Our daughter said there is often a 30 -60 minute wait on a weekend evening.  SO worth the wait!     Barbecue there seems a little different than here in Idaho.  The sauce is much thinner.   The sides were different as well!  So much fun to try different foods!   I enjoyed BBQ Smoked Pulled Pork, Hoe Cakes, and Onion Rings, and I tasted Keeley's colesla...

It's been a lazy Saturday morning and my girls requested Puffy German Pancakes.  They are quick to mix up and take about 25 minutes to bake which gives me time to make home made maple flavored syrup to go with them.  (You can find that delicious home made syrup HERE . Just scroll down past the buttermilk pancake recipe.) With a large family, I've doubled this recipe and baked it in a 11x15 pan.  Today we fed 5 of us with a nice sized piece left for the girls to take to Grandpa when they went to work in his yard this afternoon. It is fun to see what shape each pancake takes as sometimes it will puff more in the middle and less on the edges and sometimes it will puff right over the edges of the pan making an odd shape.  It's always fun to open the oven when the timer goes off to see how creatively it shaped its self! Puffy German Pancakes 1 C. milk 6 eggs 1 C. sifted flour 1/4 tsp. salt 6 T. butter or margarine With hand beater or whisk...

This fun little dessert is so simple, easy, and tasty we should have it more often!  Mom always bought bushels of fresh peaches and canned them in quarts at home and they were in the most beautiful little halves.  Just lovely!  They were good all by themselves, but once in a while, especially if the milk cow was giving a lot of cream that needed used, Mom would make these for dessert. I just had cool whip when I made these this time, but to do it justice, you should have freshly whipped, sweetened cream that smothers the whole thing.  YUM!   Easy Peach Dessert Per person: 1 full graham cracker broken in half so you have 2 squares 1 peach half syrup from canned peaches whipped cream In each individual bowl place one graham cracker half, then the peach half with the cut side down, then top with the second graham cracker half.  Spoon a few spoonfuls of the peach syrup (from the can/bottle of peaches) over the top and then generously top with ...

I love a good, innocent prank now and then.   Nothing mean or particularly wasteful, just all in good fun!  April 1st is a great day to surprise your family with a chuckle or two!  Here is what we did this year:   This morning when Wesley got the milk for his cereal, it was BLUE!  He swears it tastes like Easter Eggs. A few googly eyes made for fun looking lunches for the kids! A little tablet of egg dye tucked in the water faucet was a surprise as well!  (It does only last a minute before the tablet dissolves and you're back to clear water) Dinner tonight will be breakfast:   pancakes, bacon, and hot chocolate.  (You would LOVE my favorite Buttermilk Pancake recipe!) Happy April Fools Day! You can see a couple of our other April Fools Celebrations through the links below: Chicken Sandwiches    Meatloaf Cupcakes and more...

A few years ago I had fun tricking my family with this fun April Fool's Dinner.   The recipes aren't critical, you can use any meatloaf recipe and any mashed potatoes/gravy mix.   It was so much fun to prepare and the kids had fun eating this silly dinner! April Fools 2013 Dinner Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting Mashed Potato Sundaes Jello "KoolAid" Wormy Dirt Pudding Meatloaf Cupcakes:  Bake regular meatloaf recipe in large muffin tin and pipe mashed potatoes on for frosting.  Place in a cupcake liner. Mashed Potato Sundaes:   Layer mashed potatoes and a caramel colored gravy (chicken works good) in Sundae glasses. KoolAid:   Mix KoolAid colored Jello and pour into glasses.  Set straw in and put in refrigerator to set. Dirt Pudding:   Mix 1 package chocolate pudding as directed.  Add a cup of whipped topping if desired.   Fill individual bowls or cups with pudding....

Zippy Pizza Rolls! My 12 year old daughter has been requesting pizza a lot lately.  Today I made bread and decided to combine that with a pizza type dish to satisfy her craving.     I generally make 4 loaves of bread in a batch.  Today I saved half of that dough for the pizza rolls.   I keep shredded mozzarella and pepperoni in the freezer so every thing I needed was right on hand!  I love being able to keep a stocked pantry and freezer!  I can't tell you how much money that has saved me over the years! The bread recipe I used is found HERE .  You could use your own favorite recipe or frozen bread dough that is thawed and ready to work with.   You'll notice at the bottom of my recipe I have the ingredients for just 2 loaves.  That size will fit in a regular sized Kitchen-Aid mixer. Zippy Pizza Roll 2 loaves worth of bread dough 1 can spaghetti sauce small package of pepperoni sliced 2-3 C. shredded mozzarella ...

This bar cookie recipe comes from Grandma Evelyn, my husbands grandmother.  She sure had the best cookie recipes ever!  These are actually on the healthy side of cookies.  The base is mainly oats, sugar, and butter.  (And if you count the butter as a dairy serving, all the healthier, right?!)    These are quick and easy to make.   My sister makes a similar cookie but hers has a different name.   I would venture a guess that these are as healthy as your average chocolate covered granola bar and MUCH tastier! O'Henry Bars 6 C. quick oats 1 C. melted butter  1 1/2 C. brown sugar 1 tsp. vanilla Mix together well and press into an 11 x 17 inch pan.  Bake 15 minutes at 375. Mix in double boiler or carefully in microwave: 3/4 C. corn syrup 1  1/4 C. chocolate chips (I like semi-sweet) 3/4 C. chunky peanut butter Heat and stir until melted, spread on hot cookie bar crust.    Cool, cut, and serve!