Joy in the Kitchen!

I don't remember when Mom started making Dilly Beans , but she has as long as I can remember and I've always loved them.  My kids really love them.  I save them for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Birthday's.   If I didn't limit them, they'd be gone before fall was over.  I don't count these as a vegetable much to my children's dismay. The recipe is simple and EASY.  They can be done with minimal equipment and canning skills.  My biggest problem in sharing this recipe is giving a quantity of fresh green beans.  When I do them, I just pick my patch of beans, save out the nice straight ones for this and snap and can the rest as regular green beans.  Then I do however many quarts of dilly beans as I ended up with straight beans for. :)  Yesterday it was 6 quarts.... today I had 4 quarts. Warning :  This vinegar solution is lower in acid that the currently recommended amounts.  It is the same reci...

We used to make these easy candies all the time.  I had about forgotten about homemade tootsie rolls until my daughter texted me today for the recipe.  She said she wanted to make some sort of treat that wouldn't use the stove or oven.  This treat is PERFECT! My daughter Jaylyn, who is 11, mixed these up in the mixer by herself.  It is easy enough to mix with a spoon and then knead with your hands until it's mixed smooth though, so a younger child could do without a mixer and just a little supervision. (Assuming you don't mind little kid hands & little kids tasting all over your dough.)  It's a bit like working with playdoh. Tootsie Rolls 3 C. powdered sugar 3/4 C. regular powdered milk (not instant) 1/2 C. cocoa powder 2 T. butter or margarine, softened 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 - 2/3 C. corn syrup Mix dry ingredients until blended.  Add softened butter, vanilla and corn syrup. (start with the 1/2 C. & see if you need m...

My husband's Grandma was such a cookie maker.  Each Christmas for years she baked cookies and made candy.  Lots of it!  She packaged it in boxes and sent to her children and grandchildren.  These O'Henry Bars often made it into those packages. They're really similar to a granola bar. At least those chocolate covered granola bars.... which I think are just a glorified candy bar most of the time.   I don't think you'd be out of line (much) to eat one of these for breakfast or a keep you going sort of snack.  Sometime I'm going to try adding craisins or rice crispies in the dough. These are easy and quick to make.  We did have a hard time getting them to cool in the house though so we put them in the freezer for a bit to speed things up.  Perfect!   You will want to have a glass of milk close by, they are rich! O'Henry Bars 6 C. quick oats 1 1/2 C. brown sugar 1 C. butter, softened 3/4 C. corn syrup 1 tsp. vanilla...

This recipe got a thumbs up from my family!  I love when an experiment turns out!  I had some leftover chicken I needed to use but we all agree here that pepperoni and cheese with olives or ham and cheese would be terrific too.    I made my own dough but you could easily use frozen roll dough thawed for this.... you'd either need 2 portions of dough or make half sized bundles though. To start, I had a few pieces of leftover fried chicken I bought at the store a few days ago.  Not enough for each of us to have a piece, but too much to save just for someones lunch.  I tossed that in a small pan with about an inch of water and simmered it for about 15 minutes so it was heated & would debone easy.  Any cooked chicken would work.  You just need about  2 Cups.  The dough recipe is just a modification of my favorite pizza dough recipe.  I used my Kitchen-Aid mixer to mix the dough, but it could be mixed and kneaded by h...