The Best Little Kitchen Gadget Ever Made!

Hi!!! It's me and I'm back again. As promised in my post yesterday, I told you I would come back and tell you about this niffy little gadget I got from The Pampered Chef. My next door neighbor invited me to her recent home party and she was just doing on and on about how great this gadget is, but the one comment she made about how great it was at breaking up Italian sausage is what convinced me to not only buy one but to buy three! I gave one to each of my daughters too..
It is called Mix 'N Chop. You can use it for ground meat, scrambled eggs, homemade tomato sauce, but also for chopping and mixing frozen fruit or fruit juice concentrates.
It is top rack dishwasher safe.

All you do is place your thawed food in your pan, grasp the handle and gently push downward into the food and twist. Repeat motion until desired consistency is reached. It's that simple and now I can see why she was raving on about it. Both of my daughters have used theirs and really like theirs too. So if you are invited to a Pampered Chef party in the future, I would highly recommend you purchasing this gadget!

These opinion are of my own and I was not paid to write this blog post about the Mix 'N Chop by The Pampered Chef.

Have a great week-end! Mary

Italian Vegetable Soup

BRRR...is it cold in your part of the country? It sure turned off cold here in Kansas City, MO. this week. So what better thing to make than a big pot of soup?! I found this recipe over on Allrecipes, but changed it to the way I like to make and eat it.
First, put your hamburger and two Italian sausage links (remove the casings) along with your chopped onion in a pot. See that black thing? It makes chopping up your raw meat a SNAP, I love it and I found it at Pampered Chef. I will do a short post on it soon!

After you have the hamburger and Italian sausage all broken up, than remove the casing from the other three links and break those into chunks, I like some chunks, but if you prefer, than just mash them all up.

Now brown all the meat and onions until no longer pink and drain off any fat.

Now add the rest of the ingredients: garlic, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, kidney beans, beef broth, corn, green beans and potato.

Give it a good stir and bring to a boil, than turn it down to a simmer and let it simmer for one hour.

On the day I made this, I started out with it in my soup pot but than found out I was going to have to run hubby around alot the rest of the day, so I transferred it to my big crock-pot and put it on HIGH for about 3 to 4 hours (if you put it in the crock-pot first thing in the morning, than set it on LOW and cook for 8 to 10 hours).

 Serve with a crusty bread or biscuits or cornbread. It must have tasted really good to hubby, as he ate two bowls of it!!

Italian Vegetable Soup

1 pound hamburger
1 pound Italian sausage links
1/2 to 1 cup chopped celery
1/2 to 1 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 - 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 - 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 - 16 oz. can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 - 14 oz. cans beef broth
1 - 15 oz. can whole corn, drained
1 - 15 oz. can green beans, drained
1 cup potatoes, peeled and cubed

Remove the casings from the Italian sausage, set aside. In a large soup pot, add your hamburger and two sausage links, mash all together; than add remaining links, broken into chunks and chopped onions. Brown until no longer pink and drain off any fat. Add the remaining ingredients, stir. Bring to a boil, than reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer until potatoes are tender.

Serves 8. Serve with a crusty bread.
Can freeze any left-overs.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and stay warm too! Mary

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Annual New Year's Day Dinner

Hi too all of you! I thought I would share with you the meal that hubby and I every New Year's day, it has been come our annual meal now for probably over 10 years!

Shown is Hoppin' John, smoked mustard green (from a can) and from scratch cornbread muffins. Oh my, this stuff is so good and hubby always comments about how we should have it more than once a year and it is a big plate of comfort food at it's best!

When I make my Hoppin' John, I just use canned black-eyed peas, it make it really quick and easy to put together, the part that takes the longest is cooking the bacon and cooking the rice. The recipe for the cornbread is on the side of my Quaker cornmeal, so easy too.

Well, if any of you would like the recipe for Hoppin' John, just leave me a comment and I will be glad to add it to this post!

Hope you have a great day in the kitchen! Mary

Chocolate Chip Brownie Cookie Bars

Wow, did you all survive Christmas and New Years? We made it. My husband had total knee replacement done on his right knee on December 20th, yup, right before Christmas!! It was the soonest they could get it done and we wanted done before the end of the year for insurance reasons. So I had our small family Christmas at our house on the 18th, in between, working, getting as much done before his surgery and oh ya, also remodeling our master bathroom! Are we CRAZY....YUP!! Oh and I also squeezed in some baking for my neighbors goodie trays too.

I received this recipe from a Stampin' Up demostrator, Patty Bennett. She found this quick, easy and oh so delicious recipe at http://www.bettycrocker.com/. I'm so pleased that she shared it with me too! So now I'll share it with all of you.You mix your box of chocolate chip cookies according to box directions and you also mix the brownies according to box directions. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough in your prepared 9 x 13 inch cake pan. Than do the same with your brownies.

Opps, forgot to get a picture before putting in the oven, but you can still see from this, what I mean.

Here they are all done baking, so the house smell so yummy too!

Here they are with a can of chocolate frosting on top!

Not the best picture, remember, I'm flying around trying to do too many things at one time, but boy do they ever taste good!

1 package Betty Crocker Brownie Mix with chocolate pouch

egg, vegetable oil, and water as noted on brownie package

1 package Betty Crocker Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

1/2 cup softened butter

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix brownie mix as directed on box.

Mix chocolate chip cookie mix as directed on box.

Grease 9 x 13" baking pan.

Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough in baking pan.

Drop spoonfuls of brownie dough in baking pan.

Spread alittle, if needed, so the doughs just touch.

Bake for 42 to 47 minutes.

Cool on cooling rack.

Frost, if desired, after fully cooled.

Cut into bars.

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Happy New Year 2012!!

I hope you all had a safe celebration, if you choose to celebrate. I also hope you all have a wonderful New Year this coming year also!!

Mary

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas, from me to you!

Cookie for One Perfect for Santa

Hi everyone! Hope you all are ready for the big day coming on the 25th! We had our Christmas last Sunday, only seven of us, as my husband had knee replacement surgery on December 20th. I know, but that was the only time before the end of the year and had to get it done so insurance would pay for most of it.

Ok, now on to this cute idea that I found surfing the web. It is a recipe for one big cookie for Santa. Heck, you could make it for yourself if you are all by yourself and looking for something sweet to eat but don't want to make 2 dozen cookies. I have not tried this recipe but it is just too cute of an idea not to pass along to all of you.

You can find the recipe HERE. If you try this recipe, let me know how it taste, please. I bet the kids would love to help make this cookie with you too.

Cincinnati Chili

Hi everyone! I hope that you all are doing well and looking forward to the week-end too. If you are like me, you still have some Christmas shopping and baking to do too.
Today I wanted to share an unusual chili recipe with you. I found this recipe in one of those little cookbooks that you find by the check-out in the grocery stores, probably about 10 years ago now. It has quickly become one of my family's favorite way to eat chili. Oh, we still enjoy the traditional chili too, but this is nice for a change and now is the perfect chili weather too. As you can see it has some of the same ingredients that traditional chili has in it. Oh, by the way, I accidentally put cloves in the picture, that is wrong, so ignore that spice, it should have been the chili powder in there instead.

Start off by browning your hamburger and chopped onions together. When brown, drain off any excess fat. When I was cooking this my daughter was in the kitchen with me and when I took this picture, she looked at me really funny and asked, "Mom, why are you taking a picture of raw meat?" I told her it was for my cooking blog. Well she didn't know I had this blog! Oh the things we will take pictures of for our blogs, LOL!

Now add your crushed tomatoes, chili powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar and ground red pepper (cayenne). I also add my red kidney beans at this time, but you can leave those out and serve them on top of you chili, if you like to do it that way. Mix together well and simmer for 10 to 20 minutes, or until ready to serve. Now while your chili is simmering, cook your spaghetti until desired doneness. Drain.

When ready to serve, place your cooked spaghetti in a bowl or on a plate. Top with chili, chopped onions, beans (if not added to chili) and shredded Cheddar cheese.

Cincinnati Chili

8 ounces uncooked spaghetti

1/2 medium onion, chopped, other half will be used for the topping

1 pound hamburger or lean ground turkey

1 tablespoon sugar

3 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne), less or more depending on how hot you want it

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes, undrained

1 15.5 ounce can dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

additional chopped onions

shredded mild Cheddar cheese

Add hamburger and chopped onion into a large frying pan. Cook meat/onions until done; drain off excess fat. Add all remaining ingredients except kidney beans. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add kidney beans and simmer until thoroughly heated. To serve, spoon spaghetti into individual soup bowls. Ladle chili over spaghetti. Top with chopped onions and shredded mild Cheddar cheese.

Serves 4.

Hope you enjoy my recipes and give this one a try, you'll not be disappointed! Mary

Linked up to Flour Me With Love

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Cherry Pound Cake

Cherry Pound Cake

Hi everyone! Well today I don't have a full picture tutorial for you but I did want to share this recipe with you. I found this recipe about three years ago on a thread about Christmas projects and recipes on Splitcoaststampers, which is a website that deals mainly with stamping and making paper crafts. You can find some really good ideas over there. Well anyway, I recently downloaded my digital program by Stampin' Up! called My Digital Studio. I was playing around in it one day and created my very first project! I think if you click on the picture, it will enlarge it and than you can print it off.

Now on to this recipe. The first time I made this, I made it in the small loaf pans and put them on my Christmas platters that I give to my neighbors each year. I had an extra one left and my daughter asked if she could have some (everyone in the house ALWAYS ask first, "can we have some or is it to give away", yep, I've trained them very well...lol!!) Well, after one bite, she was in LOVE with this cake and is always begging me to make some for her. It is so good and I thought I would share it with you now, so if you want to, you can try it before Christmas and add it to your Christmas goody list! Here is what it looks like after mixing for five minutes. Here are my cherries all quartered and drained. Here are my loaves before baking. Here they are after baking.Thanks for stopping by to see me today! Mary {Printer Friendly Version}

Best-Ever Banana Bread

Hi everyone! Hope you all are doing well! We survived all of the ghouls and goblins that came around and now am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Today I want to share a recipe that I found in the late 1970's in the cooking magazine Bon Appetite'. At first I was not going to cut this recipe out because it called for such a small amount of buttermilk, but than I decided to save it anyway. Boy, I'm ever so glad that I did, this has turned out to be one of my most requested recipes of all time. Everyone that taste this bread, always request the recipe! Now I did not name this recipe, that is the original name that Bon Appetite' gave to it, and it is very fitting for this! So let's get started! First I want to show you a picture of the banana's that I use, it is very important to use banana's with a nice yellow color and some of those brown spots on them. These are the one's that will give your bread a wonderful banana flavor without having to use that icky fake banana flavor extract! Most people would throw these out but don't they make the best bread, muffins and cake too.

I mash my banana's up with my hand held mixer, makes it very easy and fast too and I think it spreads the flavor around in your bread more.

See, here is how it looks after the banana's are all mashed.

Next I add all of my wet ingredients; eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix it all up real good.

Than I add the sugar and incorporate it good too.

Now add your dry ingredients; flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix well again.

Now add your nuts. If you don't like nuts leave them out, it still taste just as great!

Now pour your mixture into a greased loaf pan, 9" x 5". Bake for one hour and 20 minutes, at 325 degrees. Oh your house will smell wonderful too!

After it is done baking, remove from oven and let cool, turn out of the pan. Now get the butter out and spread some on your bread...hmmmm!

My husband and daughter's just LOVE this bread. One year for Christmas I made 12 loaves of this to give to neighbors, work and to freeze. Oh, by the way, this does freeze very well too!

I hope you give this recipe a try and sit back and wait for the compliments to come your way!

Best-Ever Banana Bread

2 ripe medium bananas, mashed

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup chopped walnuts, or your favorite

1/2 cup vegetable oil, I use Crisco

1/4 cup PLUS 1 tablespoon buttermilk

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour one 9" x 5" loaf pan. Combine all ingredients in large bowl and mix well. Transfer to prepared pan. Bake until top is golden brown and splits slightly, about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Serve warm.
DO NOT DOUBLE.

I don't know why you shouldn't double the recipe but I never have, I don't want to mess up a good recipe!

Enjoy.................Mary

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