Joy in the Kitchen!

Scalloped potatoes are one of my comfort foods.  Warm and creamy, they are terrific for cool fall evenings, or freezing winter nights.  Mom used to make this recipe once in a while during the winter.  She often served it as a side dish to ham or chicken.  I like to use it as a side dish to ham, chicken, barbeque country style ribs, OR as a main dish by adding chunks of ham or chicken on the top before baking.   Mmmmm!  It is super easy to make pretty much an entire nice meal in one oven with this.  Scalloped potatoes (in a 9x13), a roast chicken or some ribs, and on the rack under the potatoes, some winter squash.  Easy! I'm sure we had these less when I was growing up because they use Cream of Mushroom soup, and Mom didn't buy that very often.  Sure seems like I use cream of whatever soup a lot these days!  I know there are plenty of recipes that use milk or cream, but this one is easy, and so creamy and delicious! Tonight I made a triple batch so we could share with a ne

Today I ran across a couple of menu calendars I made in October and November of 2000.  I know... it's sad I keep things that long. :)  HOWEVER, it was fun to read through them and see that 11 years ago we still ate seasonally.  There was a lot of soup, winter squash, baked potatoes, and apple dishes.  It also reminded me of a few dishes I haven't fixed for quite a while and would like to serve again...  Like brown sugar chicken. Yummy! I have some pumpkin I plan to bake up and freeze to use later.  Right now they're a decoration, but soon they'll fulfill their purpose on the table.  I got an email from Better Homes and Gardens today that had a link to 41 Yummy Pumpkin Recipes.  Some of those recipes looked REALLY good!  I'm looking forward to trying the Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bars and the Pumpkin Creme Caramel!  I'm considering trying the Pumpkin Bean soup.... but I can almost bet you that I'd be the only one who'd eat it without complaining

This recipe is one of those childhood memory things .  I remember Mom cooking hamburger patties in this once in a while and I loved the delicious flavor it added.  I've thought about it several times since I was married, but this year I finally asked Mom for the recipe.  She said she used to love putting it on fried potatoes and different kinds of meat.  (I only remember it on hamburger patties)   My husband remembers his Mom making chili sauce as well.  He remembers her mixing it with mayonnaise to make thousand island dressing.  I had to call his Mom about it too and her recipe was basically the same as my Moms.  :)  Go figure.  She said though, that sometimes they couldn't get celery so they just used some celery seed in it for flavor.   The celery is about my favorite part of this. In trying to figure out why this is called "chili" sauce, I did some research online and found that MOST recipes do call for some type of chili pepper.  There were a few, like Mo

Ratatouille! (pronounced "rat-a- too -ee") I love this wonderful blend of garden vegetables.  I took a minute and researched ratatouille online and found that there are a lot of ways people make this. Different methods of assembly and an assortment of different herbs and seasonings.  One way is to saute all the vegetables together (as my recipe does), another has you saute each vegetable separately and then add to a pot all together to simmer, and the third is to saute each veggie individually and then layer in a casserole dish and bake.   I tend to always lean to the easy preparation methods and this recipe does that! Mom gave me this recipe along with a little dish of freshly cooked ratatouille several years ago.  It tasted so good I had to make it for my family.  I've no idea where she found the recipe, but it was a good find! When I set this on the table the other night and told my younger girls the name of it, they immediately thought of the animate

         My Mom makes the best carrot cake ever!  I grew up thinking that all carrot cake was just like hers, but I soon found that most have a lot more than carrots in them. :-)  I don't care for pineapple or raisins in carrot cake, and this recipe doesn't have it.  Perfect. I think this cake has accompanied almost every Thanksgiving dinner (along with the assortment of pies and other desserts on the buffet) Mom hosts.   I'm not sure where she found the recipe, but I know she's used it for over 45 years - and I've never seen her have to throw a piece out. There is not a picture to go with this yet, but my niece asked if I had Grandma's recipe, so I thought this was a terrific time to post it.  I suspect, that she might be wanting to make this for her birthday tomorrow - am I right?   I'll add a picture when I make some next week when we dig the carrots in our garden. The Best Ever Carrot Cake 2 C. flour 2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. salt

Each year our family (Dave and I and our children and their families) goes camping for several days the end of July.  We figure with 16 people in our family we deserve our own reunion.  LOL   Our oldest son and his wife brought along friends the first year and we just enjoy them so much we've adopted Jen and Lance as part of our reunion family!   Last year, two of our other children brought along friends, and I think we'll have to adopt THEM as part of our reunion family as well!  Our kids sure choose terrific friends! This year during one lunch, Jen shared some salsa she'd made.  Oh. My. Goodness!!!  It is SO amazing!  Just so fresh, tangy and full of summer flavor!  I craved it so badly once we got home, I had to call Jen and get the recipe.  She was sweet and said I could share it with you on my blog.  Thanks Jen!  Oh - and she just titled this recipe "Easy Salsa".... but it's much too good for a simple name like that, so I renamed it.  Hope you don'