Joy in the Kitchen!

These little graham cracker sandwich cookies are quick and easy to assemble, even for little hands.  Kids of any age love them, at least at our house.  We make these mostly when we have leftover frosting from another project, sugar cookies, birthday cakes, etc.  A little tub of frosting from the store would be a fine substitute. Graham Cracker Sandwich Cookies frosting graham crackers hungry kids Let each hungry kid spread a nice, thick layer of frosting on one graham crackers half.  Top with the other half of the graham cracker and carefully squish it down into the frosting.  Eat right away OR if you're able to wait a bit, make several cookies, put in container with a lid, and let sit a few hours....( this allows the graham crackers to soften) Today for our after school snack, the girls made up several of these to enjoy...  making them and licking the spreading knife is half the fun!  I would love to know if anyone else grew up with these tasty t...

Just take a look at that beautiful sunshiny Plum Jelly!  I love the translucent plum color.  You wouldn't even have to eat this - just use it as decoration!  :o)  The flavor is fabulous too though, so it wouldn't last long as a decoration at our house... it would be slathered on toast and piled on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! This batch of jelly is nostalgic.  Dave's Grandpa and Grandma were always so resourceful and frugal.  They rarely let things go to waste.  Their yard, years ago, had a huge Damson plum tree .   In 1994 there was a bumper crop of plums!  I remember picking quite a few and making jelly.  Grandpa couldn't bear to see that fruit fall and go to waste so he spent hours juicing those plums.  I don't know for sure how many gallons of juice he got, but I would guess between 10-15 gallons.  They put the juice in containers in the freezer.  A year later, Grandpa passed away.  He was in the hos...

This weeks menu was pretty easy!   We decided to cut down from three freezers to two.  One of those freezers is pretty old... I'd say early 60's.  I'm sure it's using a ton of power.  Just not built as efficient as the newer models.  I feel sort of sad though, it was Dave's Grandma's freezer, and it has just worked it's little heart out over the years.  Seems like it deserves better than just being unplugged.  :o)   Back to the menu!  I am too ashamed to tell you how old a few of the food items I found in those freezers are.  Most of it though, is still in great shape, just need to use up a little to reduce to the two freezers.  This weeks menu's are based around using up some of those items. Menu February 22-28 Monday - Enchilada Casserole, corn, peaches (using taco filling I found in the freezer) Tuesday - Ham & Bean Soup, cornbread (using ham bone and broth from the freezer) Wednesday - Pork Cutlets, corn, garlic...

Granola bars are an easy eat-on-the-go snack!  I realize that most granola bars are just glorified cookies, but there are additions to them that make them more nutritious than many empty calorie treats.  In this recipe, the oats add fiber, protein, and iron.  The crispy rice cereal adds a nice crunch, but is also fortified with vitamins.  The nuts (assuming you use walnuts) add iron, fiber, calcium. Raisins are going to add even more iron, fiber & calcium.  Who knew these tasty bars could actually be fairly good for you!  (Watch the fat and sugar though, they're not calorie free!) My 14 year old son needed a nutritious snack to take snow shoeing tonight, these were his choice.  He loves them!  I think I got this recipe from Frugal Families .  I have no name attached to it though and I've been making it several years now...  I really need to document better!  Any suggestions on who's recipe this is, my Frugal Family friends... ...

Grrr!  This weeks menu was really hard to make myself plan!  There are a few things I have on hand that I need to use; fresh mushrooms, potatoes, whole wheat tortilla's.  It did help to know Tuesday was soup night and Friday or Saturday could be pizza.  Monday of this week was a holiday & we had leftovers from Sunday.  YUMMY Sweet & Sour Chicken & eggrolls.  I think I have a workable menu.  Lots of chicken dishes though.  But that's what I have a lot of on hand right now.  :)   Here's the plan: Menu February 15-21 Monday -  leftover's from Sunday; sweet & sour chicken, fried rice, home made eggrolls Tuesday - Chicken & Homemade Noodles over mashed potatoes, fresh fruit salad Wednesday - Yaki don Buri (a Japanese dish using egg, chicken, mushroom, green onion) served over rice Thursday - Chicken Enchilada's (using half of the whole chicken cooked for dinner Tuesday) Friday - Homemade Pizza.  ...

I think we celebrate every holiday here with food!  We chose to stay home and fix our own special Valentines Dinner this year.  We put a tv in our sons room so he and the girls could watch a movie and eat their pizza. (quite a treat here - frozen pizza and pop. lol!)  Put the baby to bed, and then fixed dinner together.   I was in charge of setting the table, Dave found a great station on Pandora (Harry Connick Jr.!) and even the gas fireplace cooperated and came on just as our main course was ready!  It was a relaxing evening...  quiet, no waiting, easy cleanup.  Wonderful! Our Menu: Tossed green salad with avocado  Country Mushroom Soup Broiled Steak Shrimp Scampi Baked Potato w/ sour cream & butter Cherry Cream Soda Dessert would have been Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream, but we were too full to enjoy it, so we saved it for the next day! Here are a few pictures of our evening. :)      Table for Two   ...

Country Mushroom soup is simple to make, yet fits into a special occasion wonderfully.  We started making this several years ago for Christmas Eve and it has been a favorite ever since.  In fact, it is Dave's favorite soup ever.  The base is so smooth and rich, the mushrooms make it hearty.  Delicious!   Last night we had this as one of the courses for our Valentines Dinner and just made a single batch.  When I'm feeding the whole family and use it as the main dish, I triple this. Country Mushroom Soup 1/4 C. butter 1/3 C. flour 2 C. chicken broth 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper 1 bay leaf 2/3 C. celery, chopped 1/3 C. onion, chopped 1/4 C. butter 4-5 C.  fresh mushrooms, sliced 3/4 C. cream or half & half (or a combination of the two) In a 2 quart saucepan, melt 1/4 C. butter, stir in flour until smooth.  Gradually stir in broth until smooth.  Add salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasio...