Chicken N Dumplins

I was talkin' to my Momma this mornin' and she asked me how my blog was doin'? and if I'd been puttin' up any good recipes. I told her I was kinda strugglin' cause I just didn't know what I wanted to make. I tend to cook in a circle over here. We repeat so much for dinner.

My mom still has dial-up! (poor gal) and she hasn't seen my blog yet, but she tells everyone about it!

She told me that they had met up with my Uncle's family to celebrate my (Paternal) Grandpa's birthday and she was asking the wives of two of my cousins if they read my blog. They said that they didn't but my cousin piped up that he had been!

The whole reason I'm telling you this is because one of my Cousins-in-law told my  Momma that she has been hungry for 'Chicken N Noodles'. Her Grandma used to make it and her Mom and her do not have the

Gooey Caramel Corn, Anyone???

During the school week there are three days that I keep a friends kids. I always try to come up with some kind of snack to feed the hungry monsters children as soon as they get here!!

I am the worst person to assign snack duty too!!! When I was growing up and we came home from school, Do you know what my snack was??  A bowl of cereal!! My brothers too!! and my kids think I'm crazy when I suggest that to them!! How dare I?

so today I presented them with

Caramel Popcorn!!!

Short On Time....

but you still want to feed your kiddos a filling breakfast or yourself, if you have that pleasure of eating something hot!!

This is a simple and quick meal that my mom used to make for us growing up! I have not had it myself, in years!! But Thanks to Pioneer Woman's cookbook!! I stumbled upon it again!!

I introduce or reintroduce to you

EGG IN THE HOLE!!!!

I'm going to apologize right away for not having STEP BY STEP picture instructions. I was so excited

to be making these again that I completely forgot to take pictures BEFORE they were frying!!

Have your skillet preheating on medium-low while you prepare the ENH.

All you do is use a cup or circle cookie cutter and cut a hole in the middle of your bread.

Winner! Winner! Maybe she'll cook a Chicken Dinner!!

The winner has been chosen!!
She was anonymous but left an email.
I contacted her and she responded!!

Thank you to ALL who participated and checked out my blog!!



I'm pretty close to 100 followers on facebook so hopefully there will be another Giveaway in the near future!!!

Skillet Pizza

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!





I bet you all were pretty sure I had forgotten about THIS didn't you??

Surprisingly I hadn't!! I did, however have an EXTREMELY hard time trying to decide what I wanted to review!!!

and then!! What would I make?? so I could review the item.

I always seem to make things so much harder then they really should be!!

I made my decision, placed my order and recieved my item 3 days later!!! I couldn't believe how quick that was!!

It arrived in a very flat package!!

What was IT??

A 10 inch Cast Iron Griddle!!!

and one would think I would put a big ol' juicy steak on it right??

I decided to take a different approach!!

I made a PIZZA!!!!

Mixed-Up Pizza Crust

During the past 10 years Sean and I have made many pizzas from scratch!  I can remember when we

were first married and we thought our pizzas were THE BEST!! We would always talk about

opening our own PIZZA JOINT and how everyone would just love our pizza!!

Oh the sweet innocence of young people!!

I think back then we were using a crust packet!!

A couple of years ago my Mother-in-law gave me a recipe for Pizza Crust that a neighbor had given her twenty-some years ago.

It's a really good tasting crust, but I always had a hard time rolling it out into the pan.

The recipe said to pretty much 'beat it up' and so there wasn't much elasticity to it.

Last year my Bestie gave me Pioneer Woman's Cookbook and lo and behold, she had a pizza crust recipe in there!

PW's takes awhile to rise and I usually wouldn't start it soon enough, so I took from my MIL's recipe and PW's and put it together the way it would work best for me!!

Let's get your next Pizza Night started!!

This recipe will make 1 pretty good sized crust!

and it doubles very easily

You will need:

Active Dry Yeast, All-Purpose flour, salt, oil, warm water

Pour 3/4 cup warm water into a bowl. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp or 1/2 packet yeast over the water.

Combine 2 cups flour and 1/2 tsp salt.

With your electric mixer on low speed, drizzle the 1 TBLSP oil until incorporated.

Gently stir the yeast/water mixture and then drizzle it into the flour/oil mixture;

mix until the dough forms a ball.

Drizzle a little oil into the bowl and toss to coat.

Cover bowl with a moist kitchen towel. Set in a warm place and let set for 20-30 minutes.

While dough is setting, preheat oven to 425*F and get your toppings ready!

i.e. slice onions, black olives, grate cheese, fry hamberger or sausage

Lightly drizzle oil onto your pizza pan and spread your dough out onto the pan.

I like to pre-bake my crust for 10 minutes or so before placing the sauce and toppings

onto it.

Recipe for Pizza Crust

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp or 1/2 packet Active Dry Yeast

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup warm water

1 TBLSP Oil, plus extra for drizzling

1. Pour 3/4 cup warm water into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast over top of water.
2. Combine flour and salt in mixing bowl.
3. Turn electric mixer to low speed and drizzle oil into bowl. Mixing until incorporated.
4. Gently stir the yeast and water mixture.
5. Drizzle the yeast/water mixture over the flour/salt mixture and mix until dough forms a ball
6. Drizzle oil into bowl and toss ball to coat.
7. Cover with a moist kitchen towel and let set for 20 to 30 minutes.
8. Preheat oven to 425*F and prepare toppings.
9. Drizzle oil onto pizza pan and smooth the dough out to the desired shape.
10. Prebake crust for 10 minutes or lightly browned.
11. Place toppings onto pizza and bake until the cheese melts.

Mini Corny Dogs

I have been wanting to try and make the corn dogs over at Mommy's Kitchen for a very long time. But for whatever reasons, i.e. not having any hot dogs, or time in the evening, I just never got them made!

Last week was THE PERFECT time to make them!! All of the
 Christmas chaos festivities were over and the girls didn't have any evening activities we had to mess with attend!

It just happened that I WAS missing something very important!!! THE STICKS!! But I didn't let that stop me!! My kids ALWAYS loved the mini corn dogs we used to buy and Miss Tina said we could make them that way!!

Let's get started!!

You will need:

Hot dogs!!, flour, sugar, corn meal, baking powder, oil, salt, eggs and buttermilk

In a large bowl, mix together well the buttermilk, eggs, oil, sugar and salt. Next sprinkle in the baking powder, flour and cornmeal. Stir it up really good to make a slightly thick batter.

Make sure you dry the hot dogs off with a paper towel so the flour will coat the 'dogs'!!

Cut the hot dogs in half, place some flour in a bowl and line them up with the batter.

Coat each mini dog one at a time with flour and the batter.

Hold the corny dog vertical to let some of the batter drip off.

Carefully 'drop' the corny dog into the oil that has been preheated to 375*F. They will start to 'puff up'.

'Roll' the corn dog over to brown the other side. This only takes a couple of minutes. Cook 3 or 4 at a time, depending on how big of a pot you are using. If they get too crowded they won't fry right.

Remove the corny dogs from the pan with tongs and place on paper towels to drain the oil.

Place in a bowl and serve them with mustard, ketchup or my favorite.....mayo!!!

Here's the Recipe for Homemade Mini Corny Dogs

(taken from Mommy's Kitchen! and altered a bit)

1 - cup buttermilk, (I never have buttermilk so I make mine!

a little less than 1 cup milk and 1 Tablespoon vinegar, stir together and sprinkle a little salt on it!)
2 - medium eggs
1/4 - cup oil
2 - tablespoons sugar
1 - teaspoon salt
2 - teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 - cups corn meal
2/3 - cup flour
1 to 1-1/2 - pounds hot dogs (I use whatever is cheap)
flour for dusting (about 1/2 cup)
Oil for Frying (Canola or Vegetable)

Start preheating the oil to 375*F.

1. In a large bowl combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil, sugar and salt. Mix it very well.
2. Sprinkle in the baking powder, corn meal and flour. Stir it all up to make a slightly thick batter.
3. Take your hot dogs and dry them off on paper towels.
4. Cut the hot dogs in half. 
5. Roll the hot dogs in the flour, coating them completely. The cornmeal batter won’t stick to the hot dogs unless they are coated in flour. The batter just slides right off.
6. Set the hot dogs aside.
7. Coat the floured hot dog with the batter.
8. Let the excess batter drip off.
9. Place the battered dog in the hot oil.
10. Let fry for a couple minutes and roll over to cook the other side.
11. When they are brown, remove from pan with tongs.
12. Place on paper towels to drain.

ENJOY!!!

Paula Deen's House Seasoning

Alot of Paula Deen's recipes call for her HOUSE SEASONING.

I made something one time without it and I'm pretty sure it didn't taste as good as it was

supposed to.

This is really is to mix up and keep in your cabinet until you need it!!

You only need three ingredients!!

salt, pepper and garlic powder

Mix 1 cup salt, 1/4 cup black pepper and 1/4 cup garlic powder

This makes 1/2 cups and lasts up to 6 months in an airtight container