Trash Bag Snack Mix...Guest Blogger post numero quatro

---This stuff is killer...it's fun to shop for all the crackers that go in the mix. For some reason, the hardest thing to find is popcorn oil! Doesn't anyone make their own popcorn anymore? It's great for card parties, or football parties, or whatever event you're having where it's appropriate to constantly dip your hand into a community bowl of food.

ONE OF THE OTHER THINGS I'M MAKING FOR THE COUSIN'S REUNION THIS WEEKEND, AND THAT I LOVE TO FIX BUT ONLY DO IT IF IT'S FOR A CROWD, IS TRASH BAG SNACK MIX.

TRASH BAG SNACK MIX

GET ROUGHLY SEVEN BOXES OR BAGS OF YOUR FAVORITE CRACKERS. I USUALLY USE THE WHITE CHEDDAR CHEEZITS, OYSTER CRACKERS, RITZ CHIPS, SUN CHIPS, THERE ARE SEVERAL OTHERS THAT ARE LIKE STICKS, CAN'T THINK OF THE NAMES OF THOSE BUT YOU'LL KNOW WHAT I MEAN. I'VE HAD IT WITH PRETZELS BUT I PREFER IT WITHOUT.

TAKE TWO TRASHBAGS, KITCHEN SIZE, AND DOUBLE BAG ONE INTO THE OTHER AND POUR ALL OF THE CRACKERS INTO THE BAG. TAKE ABOUT A CUP AND A HALF OF ORVILLE REDENBACHER'S BUTTER FLAVORED POPCORN OIL, MIX INTO THE OIL 1 TBSP. OF GARLIC SALT AND 1 TBSP. OF ONION POWDER. WHEN YOU'VE GOT THAT GOOD AND STIRRED UP POUR IT INTO THE BAG AND SHAKE.

OVER ABOUT A THREE HOUR PERIOD SHAKE, TOSS, AND TURN THE BAG ABOUT EVERY HALF HOUR. I SCOOP THEM OUT INTO GALLON ZIP LOCK BAGS, USUALLY RIGHT AT THREE GALLONS. SCRUMPDILLYICIOUS!!!!!

Grandma Ash's Brownie's...Guest Blogger submission #3

---These brownies have been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. Now that my mom's shared the recipe, I think I'll make them for our next tailgate party. The recipe used to be a double triple secret, but some things are too good to keep to yourself.

GRANDMA ASH'S BROWNIES

MY SISTER-IN-LAW GAVE ME THE RECIPE PROBABLY 35 YEARS AGO AND MADE ME PROMISE THAT I'D NEVER LET ANYBODY KNOW WHERE I GOT IT, AT LEAST NOT WHILE GRANDMA GLADYS, HER GRANDMOTHER-IN-LAW, WAS ALIVE. SAD TO SAY, SHE'S GONE. I'M GOING TO SHARE THE RECIPE WITH YOU AND LET YOU KNOW I FOUND ONE ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE IT IN A PAULA DEEN COOKBOOK. WONDER WHO GAVE PAULA DEEN GRANDMA'S BROWNIE RECIPE?!? YOU'VE HEARD OF DEATH BY CHOCOLATE? GET READY, THIS IS A TRUE CHOCOLATE OVERLOAD:

1 STICK BUTTER, ROOM TEMP
1 CUP SUGAR
4 EGGS
16 OZ. CAN HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE SYRUP
1 CUP FLOUR

CREAM THE BUTTER AND SUGAR, ADD THE EGGS UNTIL WELL BLENDED. STIR IN THE FLOUR AND THE HERSHEY'S SYRUP. BAKE 25 MINUTES IN A 9 X 13 PAN, GREASED, AT 350.

AS SOON AS YOU TAKE THEM OUT OF THE OVEN START TO MAKE THE FROSTING:

6 TBSP. BUTTER
1/3 CUP MILK
1 1/2 CUP SUGAR
1 CUP SEMI SWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS

PUT THE BUTTER, MILK AND SUGAR IN A HEAVY SAUCEPAN OVER MEDIUM HEAT. STIR AND COOK TILL BOILING AND BOIL FOR ONE MINUTE. REMOVE FROM HEAT. STIR IN CHOCOLATE CHIPS UNTIL MELTED AND WELL BLENDED AND POUR OVER BROWNIES.

Easter Breakfast Casserole - Guest Blogger Post Edition Two

This post is part deux of my mom's guest blogging event. I have been cooking, but by the time the kitchen is clean, I don't much feel like sitting down at the computer (since that's what I've been doing all day with overtime). I can't wait to get finished with my busy season at work so I can get back to posting. But in the meantime, I appreciate the help from my mom. I hope you all like this recipe, I can't wait to try some this weekend. I just realized, reading my mom's recipes, where I got my penchant for liberal onion usage. Every time her ingredient list includes onions, she says 'as much as you like'. You can never go wrong with extra onion!

ON SATURDAY MORNING OF THE REUNION WE'RE HAVING A BREAKFAST CASSEROLE THAT IS AMAZING! IT'S CALLED EASTER BREAKFAST CASSEROLE. ALSO, I'VE MADE EIGHT LOAVES OF FRUIT BREADS AND HAVE THEM IN THE FREEZER, PUMPKIN, IRISH SODA BREAD WITH CRANBERRIES, GINGERBREAD, AND OATMEAL AND APPLE BREAD (2 LOAVES EACH). WILL PROBABLY DO SOME BISCUITS ALSO.

EASTER BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

2# BACON CHOPPED AND COOKED
CHOPPED ONION - AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE
CHOPPED GREEN PEPPER - AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE
6 CUPS SHREDDED CHEDDAR CHEESE
16 EGGS
4 CUPS MILK
2# FROZEN HASH BROWNS THAWED

USE THE CHUNK HASH BROWNS NOT THE SHREDS. THIS IS A DOUBLE RECIPE, PROBABLY TWO 9 X 13 PANS. BEAT EGGS AND MILK, MIX IN ALL INGREDIENTS. POUR IN GREASED PANS, COVER AND COOK 45 MINUTES THEN UNCOVER AND BAKE 30 MINUTES. OH YEAH, AT 350.

THIS IS REALLY, REALLY GOOD STUFF MAYNARD!!!

NOW, SOME OF THE OTHER THINGS I HAVE IN MY FREEZER ARE ALL OF THE COOKED BURGER FOR THE CHILI AND SOUP, SIX POUNDS. THE TWO POUNDS OF COOKED BACON ARE IN THERE. I HAVE TWO BATCHES OF CORN BREAD FROZEN AND A CHOPPED APPLE WITH DATES AND WALNUTS CAKE AND SOME BROWNIES. NEXT POST WILL BE THE RECIPE FOR THESE FAMOUS BROWNIES.

---The fruit breads my mom listed above are all awesome, I'll see if I can talk her into doing another guest series of her fruit breads, I'm sure she'll be making them again for Thanksgiving. I'm liking this Guest Blogger thing more and more, less work for me, but more yummy food for me to try!

Quick Italian Soup ... and a Guest Blogger joins the mix!!!

---Hi everyone, I am swamped at work and have been feeling the guilt about neglecting my blog, so I've asked my mom to guest blog for me. Lately she's been cooking up a storm for a large family reunion that's coming up this weekend. She has several great recipes so I'm going to break it up into a couple of posts and make this a Special Event Mini-Series :) Enjoy! I don't know what's with the caps, I'll have to ask her to tone down the emotion next time! Thank you, Mom, for taking the time to do this, I really appreciate it!


HELLOOOO BLOGGERS! THIS IS THIS GIRL'S MOM. SHE HAS BEEN VERY BUSY AT WORK SO I AM GOING TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT MY PREPARATIONS FOR A BIG FAMILY REUNION THIS WEEKEND AND THE COOKING THAT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR SEVERAL WEEKS IN PREPARATION.

WE ARE HAVING A 'COUSIN REUNION' AT GRAND LAKE, OKLAHOMA. WE'RE EXPECTING AROUND 24 PEOPLE, SOME STARTING TO COME IN ON FRIDAY. THE PROBLEM IS THE TWO HOSTESSES, MYSELF AND MY COUSIN JAN, WHO I SOMETIMES REFER TO AS THE 'LITTLE GENERAL' BECAUSE OF HER ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS, LIVE ABOUT FOUR HOURS FROM THE LAKE. WE COULD HAVE OTHERS BRING THINGS BUT MOST OF THEM ARE COMING FROM FURTHER THAN THAT, PHILADELPHIA, ST. LOUIS, KANSAS CITY, WICHITA. SO TO TRY TO MAKE THIS EASY ON THE LONG DISTANCE TRAVELERS WE DECIDED TO PROVIDE MOST OF THE FOOD.

FRIDAY EVENING WE ARE PLANNING CHILI AND A QUICK ITALIAN SOUP. CHILI IS CHILI, MINE IS PRETTY GOOD BUT I WON'T BORE YOU WITH THE DETAILS. NOW, THE QUICK ITALIAN SOUP I'M EXCITED ABOUT:

2# LEAN GROUND HAMBURGER BROWNED
CHOPPED ONION - AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE
10 CUPS HOT WATER
2 BOXES HAMBURGER HELPER LASAGNA MIX
2 CANS DICED TOMATOES WITH JUICE
2 CANS WHOLE KERNEL CORN - DRAINED

MIX THE HAMBURGER, ONION, 10 CUPS OF HOT WATER AND THE SPICE PACKETS FROM THE H.H. AND BRING TO A BOIL. LOWER HEAT AND SIMMER 10 MINUTES. ADD THE TOMATOES AND THE CORN, SIMMER 10 MINUTES. ADD THE NOODLES FROM THE H.H. AND SIMMER 10 MINUTES.

THIS IS A DOUBLE RECIPE. I'VE MADE IT SEVERAL TIMES AND I USUALLY ADD ABOUT A HALF A PALM FULL OF GOOD LARGE CUT DRIED BELL PEPPER PIECES IN WITH THE WATER.

Trying Something New - Curry

While sitting at the hair salon, waiting on my highlights to set, I stumbled across an intriguing recipe in a random RealSimple magazine: Curried Rice and Shrimp. One of the greatest things about it was that I already had all the ingredients except the curry. Call me a sheltered small town plains girl, but I've never smelled or tasted something and had someone say 'hey, that's curry'. I didn't know what to expect either, because I've heard bad things about curry, that it smells strong, it's hard to get the smell out of your house, etc. Undaunted, I trucked it down to Target with my wet head (because I'm too cheap to pay for a style, and hey, it was almost 9:00pm) and picked up a bottle of curry in the spice aisle. Since there were about five curries to choose from, I bought the simplest one. All voyages should start at the beginning, right?

The next night when I prepared this dish, I was blown away (in a great way) by the cumin/cinnamon/nutmeg smell of it. And it made the rice such a gorgeous yellow color previously unproduced in my kitchen! So here is where this post gets interesting. I have beautiful pictures of this tasty recipe, but I've decided to wait...because I think I can beat RealSimple at it's own game! I have a couple of changes I plan to make and I'm really excited to try again! Expect to see a lot more curry use on this blog, folks. I have found a new style of cuisine.

On another note, I found a new blog and it's not only eating all my free time, but simultaneously gives me both smiles and tears. Now that's an emotion, isn't it? It's called matt, liz and madeline and as of this morning, I've only read his posts through the middle of June but I am addicted. Matt's story is poignant, his writing is beautiful, and his honesty is inspiring. I also love his fascination with robots.

Mini Sausage Quiches

Have you ever decided to have a party and begin to plan the food menu, only to realize that the food question majorly stresses you out because you don't have time to cook/clean/shop/what the hell was I thinking to invite these people to my house/what am I going to wear/I'm such a loser!!!!? After hours of fret and catatonic worry, you buy a sausage and cheese platter and throw it on the coffee table, secretly wishing to be a domestic goddess for whom planning and preparing for a party weren't such a crisis. This has happened to me more than once and it makes me think twice before I decide to entertain. However, I have decided to meet my partyphobia head on and try something that seems to work for others (so surely it can work for me) ...planning ahead.

West 95 and I decided that it's time for us to have some killer appetizers in pocket so we are ready when the party bug hits us. Our plan is to make yummy party appetizer recipes a couple times a month so we know how they taste, how long it takes to prepare them, if they freeze well, and how much they cost to make (that's an important one if you're having a big gathering). The first recipe we decided to try was quiche. They were supposed to be mini, but neither of us owns a mini muffin pan, so they were muffin sized. Even so, they were the perfect size and consistency to be eaten without a fork, or even without a plate, if you party with heathens like we do.

Mini Sausage Quiche

About.com

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed and unfolded
1/2 pound bulk pork country sausage, hot or mild
1/4 cup finely minced sweet onion
1/4 cup finely diced sweet red bell pepper
1 clove finely minced garlic
4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 large block), at room temperature
1/8 tsp dry mustard powder
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp ground thyme
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of hot sauce, to taste
Dash Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs
Shredded Gruyere or Swiss cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a mini-muffin pan. (I used a regular sized muffin pan)

Lightly flour your workspace and using a rolling pin, roll out the puff pastry to a 12" x 14" sheet. It should be about 1/8" thick. Use a biscuit cutter to cut out 24 rounds. (I actually preferred the quiches that only had crust on the bottom as opposed to crust going up each side. Use a smaller circle cutter and experiment with the amount of crust to use)

Saute sausage, onion, red bell pepper and garlic until meat is no longer pink, breaking the sausage into small pieces as it cooks. Drain the fat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature. Place 1 tbsp of the mixture in the bottom of each cup.

Blend the cream cheese, dry mustard, sage, thyme, onion powder, salt, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce until smooth, then beat in eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated. Spoon the egg mixture into the cups and sprinkle with the shredded cheese.

Bake 10 minutes until golden, serve warm.

The recipe also says these can be frozen and reheated in a 350 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes, and I know I told you this experiment was meant to test the freezing quotient of the dish, but soon after these honies came out of the oven, five ravenous people devoured them, rendering me incapable of that portion of the project. We'll have to take about.com's word for it.

Taco Soup

Since I've started blogging, I've noticed that I cook a lot of things Mexican-like. I guess it's because our favorite Mexican recipes are pretty easy, don't require a lot of fancy ingredients, and they aren't that expensive! This recipe for Taco Soup has been in my family for awhile. My mom first found it and I latched onto it like a frat boy on a keg. It took me awhile to convince Brent that the beans are necessary cogs to this soup-machine, but he's a believer now. I don't know if he just got tired of picking them out of his bowl or if he decided they really don't taste bad at all. All I know is that I'm glad I won the bean fight of 2008.

Taco Soup

1 1/2# burger
1 onion chopped
1 16 oz can kidney beans with liquid
1 16 oz can chili beans
1 small bag frozen corn
1 can Rotel
1 16 oz can diced tomatoes
1 4oz can green chiles
1 pkg. Ranch Dressing mix
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 1/2 c. water

Brown beef and saute onion - drain, stir in remaining ingredients. Simmer @ least two hours.
Serve with whatever garnishes float your boat.

P.S. This soup tastes even better on day 2. I like to mix it up by using the leftovers to make some kickin' nachos. Just drain the soup, put over a bunch of chips and ta da, taco soup with chips!

Pretty in Pink Bon Bon Cookies

In internet years, two weeks is an eternity. Yet I've been guilty of neglecting this blog for at least that long. And considering that I just celebrated my one month blog-iversary, this delay is beyond unacceptable. But please don't abandon me, I am very busy at work and I just haven't been able to find a way to exist on less than 6.5 hours sleep. Something's gotta give, and so far that something has been a social life and blogging. I am still cooking, and I have made some wonderful things, but by the time the kitchen is clean, I am too tired to come up with clever words. Hopefully soon I can spend an afternoon catching up on all my tardy posts.

I made a meal for my husband and his parents last Sunday and wanted to try something new for a sweet finish. I saw these cookies on Cakespy and fell in love. To make them right I bought myself a new little kitchen tool at Target, a small cookie scoop. Little gadgets like this are so fun to me! Plus, they made these yummies the perfect round shape I wanted.

Bon Bon Cookies

Courtesy of Cakespy:

For the Cookies:

1/2 c. soft butter
3/4 c. sifted confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
food coloring if desired
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt

Fillings: I made mine with marischino cherries which I liked because of the pink cookies. Next time I'm going to try to make a great purple color so who knows what filling I'll try.

For the Icing:

Mix 1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar, 2 tbsp cream, 1 tsp vanilla, and food coloring (if desired).

Heat oven to 350.

Mix butter, sugar, vanilla and food coloring, thoroughly. Sift flour with the salt and add to the sugar mixture. If dough is dry, add 1 to 2 Tbsp. cream. Using a small cookie scoop, partially fill with dough, add your filling, then finish with more cookie dough. Place 1" apart on un-greased cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes, then cool on a cooling rack. Dip the tops of the cookies in frosting and decorate.

Makes 20-25 cookies.