Recipe To Try - Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

Have y'all seen my garden?  I'm pretty proud of it.

My 8-year-old is hiding back there

Our garden just took off this year.  The cucumbers and tomatoes have just taken over everything.  It took a long time before we got veggies, but they're coming in slowly but surely.

I swear I feel like Indiana Jone scouting out pathways to grab the veggies.  I feel like I need a machete or something - but if I used a machete, I'd cut down all the beautiful young baby veggies that aren't ripe yet.

Since I wasn't a schooled gardener, I thought that I'd be able to actually pickle and can tons and tons of cucumbers all at once, and I'd have jar after jar after jar of delicious pickles that would last us all year - I thought the same thing with the tomatoes.  That just isn't the case with this small of a garden - at least it's not happening that way for me. 

But I digress...since we're only getting a couple of cukes at a time, we came up with this yummy recipe for refrigerator pickles.  It really is delicious and it's super easy.  My girls could eat a whole jar of these in one sitting.

You can even have your little ones help you load the jars up.  What a great learning and fulfilling experience it is to have your kids help you in the kitchen.  You could feel like Mama Of The Year letting them help you.  It's so awesome having your kids help you...until they start fighting about who gets to put what in the jar.  No, it's my turn to put them in the jar.  No, it's my turn.  That's MY pickle.  That pickle is ME.  I GET TO PUT IT IN THE JAR!  IT'S MY TURNNNNNNNNN! 

That's when you scream at the top of your lungs THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A HAPPY LEARNING, BONDING EXPERIENCE FOR ALL OF US!!  LOVE AND PEACE AND ALL THAT CRAP!  NOW IT'S COMPLETELY RUINED BY Y'ALL FIGHTING.  And then you just quit for a few minutes and grab you a big ol' glass of Moscato and then all is right with the world.  

What? 

You know that happens in your kitchen too, right?

I'm not, like, a lone wolf in this situation, right?  Right?  I'm right, right?  Please tell me I'm right!!


But I digress again...here's the fabulous pickle recipe. The pickles really are awesome, no matter how much drama you have to put up with while making them!

Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

2 cucumbers - sliced
2 garlic cloves - sliced
1 very, very, very small onion - sliced (I use ones picked from my garden which are about the size of a big gumball)
1 tablespoon of kosher salt - plus a little more
ground pepper - however many shakes you want
fresh dill
vinegar
quart mason jar

Slice everything up.  Put a sprig or two of dill in the bottom of jar.  Then add couple of slices of onion and couple of slices of garlic.  Add a couple handfuls of cucumbers.  Keep going like that until the jar is full - dill, onion, garlic, cukes until you use everything up.  

Next fill the jar about 1/4 to 1/3 full of vinegar.  I put the salt in next and the pepper.  I use about a tablespoon of salt plus a few more shakes.  I also put quite a bit of ground pepper in.  Then fill the jar the rest of the way up with water.  

Put lid on.  Give it a good shake, shake, shake - let your kids shake, shake, shake the jar - then put the jar in the refrigerator.  

24 hours later, you'll have delicious pickles and your kids will be fighting over who gets the last dang pickle. And you'll be saying to yourself, Summer, I love you, but I'm kind of over you right now!

What?  I know they're cute!  They're also a tad ornery.  And they could quite possibly be one of the reasons why mama drinks a little...okay a lot a little... or a little a lot - either way works.

Recipe To Try - Cream Cheese Wontons

These were awesome.  And by awesome I mean, like, totally awesome.  And what makes these even more awesomer (yep, that's a word...in my dictionary anyway) is the amazingly awesome dipping sauce.

Don't be hatin' on my butcher block laminate countertops, yo.

Notice how there's, like, no sauce left?  It's because my husband and I devoured it.  I remembered to take a pic right before it was too late.

Click here to be taken to the recipes (or the doorway of awesomeness, as I like to call it) over on PW's site.

My only complaint about these cream cheese wontons is that you have to have patience to stand there and roll these suckers up.  At the end, I made one giant ravioli type wonton (you can see it in the first pic) because I was tired of standing there trying to make them all cute and cuddly.  Don't do that...because my giant ravioli didn't turn out right - too chewy.  I'm sure I probably still ate it, but it wasn't as good as those cute little wontons I spent countless seconds wrapping up.

Give these a shot soon!  They're awesome!  They're definitely worth the back pain!


(You can usually find the wonton wrappers in the refrigerated section of your grocery store.) 

Recipe To Try - Pioneer Woman's Chipotle Salsa

I checked out the Pioneer Woman's new book at the library last week.  It's such a pretty book - pretty colors, cute kids and dogs and gorgeous horses...oh, yeah, the food ain't too shabby either.


I'm going off of memory here on this recipe since I've already returned the book and ding dong me took a picture of the recipe on my phone and then deleted it after I made the salsa thinking I could easily find the recipe online somewhere - not so easy!

You're going to want to try this salsa.  I thought it was delicious.  It's a little on the hot side even though we only used one chipotle.  I'm a wimp when it comes to hot stuff though.


Pioneer Woman's Chipotle Salsa (from my memory)

2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can Rotel
1 onion diced
1 garlic clove minced (or a teaspoon of jarred garlic)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (you know, the canned stuff)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
bunch of cilantro with stems whacked off
1/4 cup lime juice

Dump everything into the blender and give it a whirl.  I stored mine in mason jars in the fridge.

Don't be hatin' on my paper plate now, y'all!

Recipe To Try - Pioneer Woman's Chicken Quesadillas & Pico de Gallo & Guacamole

These are Pioneer Woman's Chicken Quesadillas minus some of the bell peppers.  We're not big bell pepper eaters round these parts, so I used just one yellow bell pepper.  I usually cut PW's recipes down by half - she's got more people to feed than I do.  I'm saying this so you don't freak out when you read the recipe calls for 12 tablespoons of butter.  That's a tablespoon per tortilla.  So unless you're planning on making six huge plates of quesadillas, then you won't use that much.  These are delicious no matter how many you make.

I also made Pioneer Woman's Pico de Gallo.  You can find that recipe on the same page as the quesadillas.  Yummy!!!

With the Pico de Gallo, you can make the guacamole.

Everything tasted wonderful.

Now for the funny of the day:

Recipes To Try - Father's Day Edition

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen Sunday.  But that's okay, my husband, the father of my children, is worth it.  Here's some of the things I whipped up:

For lunch I made Paula Deen's chicken salad.  For some reason or another, I forgot to take a picture of it.  Believe me when I say this recipe is super simple to make and it tastes delicious.  I always wind up adding more mayonnaise though.

I also made The Pioneer Woman's Deviled Eggs.  Here's a sad little picture of a lonely deviled egg - all his little friends had already met their demise.  I thought my husband was sneaking in the fridge and eating them throughout the day - come to find out, it was my sneaky 3-year-old.

For supper we had The Pioneer Woman's Cowboy Bacon Beans:

Delicious!

Pioneer Woman's Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

Probably the best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten

And we marinaded a couple of ribeyes in this steak marinade.
 

I'm going to list the recipe for that marinade here because the link for it is all wonky on Pinterest.  And I.have.no.earthly.idea.how.I.lived.without.Pinterest.


Steak Marinade

¼  cups Olive Oil
¼  cups Balsamic Vinegar
¼  cups Worcestershire Sauce
¼  cups Soy Sauce
2  teaspoons Dijon Mustard
2  teaspoons Minced Garlic
Salt And Pepper, to taste

Mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, Dijon mustard, and garlic in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
Makes enough marinade for 4 steaks - but I use it on 2 steaks - the more the merrier, right?

We had some full bellies on Father's Day.  I'll definitely be making all these things again. 

Recipe To Try - Charleston Cheese Dip

How can this recipe be anything but good with all that cheese in it -- oh, and the bacon!  You can't go wrong with cheese and bacon.

This is Trisha Yearwood's Charleston Cheese Dip and it is delicious.

Big German's Sweet & Spicy Pecans

This recipe comes from my brother.  Some people call him The Big German.  Why?  Because he's big and he's German - h.e.l.l.o.  He brought these pecans to our Thanksgiving get-together last week.  I thought they were absolutely divine.


Big German's Sweet & Spicy Pecans
16 ounces of pecans
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
dashes of nutmeg
dashes of cinnamon
dashes of cayenne pepper

Melt butter in saute pan.  Add pecans.  Stir and stew for a bit until all the pecans are coated with butter.  Pour the brown sugar over the pecans and stir making sure all the pecans are coated with brown sugar.

Spread the pecans out on a cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with the salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and cayenne.  Bake at 275 degrees for 20 minutes. 

When you're done eating handfuls of these at a time, raise a glass to The Big German and say PROST!

(My brother corrected me on the amount of pecans.  I thought it was a 12-ounce bag, but he bought two 12-ounce bags and used a full bag and 1/3 of another bag bringing the total amount used to 16 ounces.)

Shared @ Weekend Potluck:
  

Happy Tomato Fresh Salsa

We've discovered something delicious, something fresh, something made with organic tomatoes, something locally made.  It's called Happy Tomato Fresh Salsa.  And...it...is...delicious!  It is the best salsa I have ever eaten.  It is fresh and yummy and just WOW!  

You really have to try some for yourself.  You can purchase this fantastic salsa at Roy Pope Grocery in Fort Worth, Central Market in Southlake and Fort Worth, The Sunflower Shoppe in Fort Worth, and Green's Produce in Arlington.  You can also catch them at the Southside Urban Market. 

They offer original, medium and diablo.  For the holiday season, they've concocted a cranberry / lime flavor that is scrumptious.  All the flavors are delicious (I'm taking my husband's word on the diablo cuz I was a little chicken, chicken, bock, bock, bock to try that one).  I think the medium has just the right amount of kick.

Give Happy Tomato Fresh Foods a like on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.  The owners are super nice and were really informative, plus they're right here in good ol' Fort Worth.  Let's help them grow their business.  Go out and buy some Happy Tomato Fresh Salsa today.

Party-Pleasing Appetizers

This weekend we celebrated our daughters' birthdays.  We had a get-together at our house and I made lots of crowd-pleasing appetizers.  Everything turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself.  Here's what I made:

First up, this yummy Creamy Peanut Butter Fruit Dip from Southern Plate.  One of the party-goers told me it was the best dip he'd ever had in his life.  Now that's some statement, isn't it? 

Also from a reader of  Southern Plate is this Taco Rex dip.  This is always a favorite at our house.

Another favorite at our house are these Mexican Pinwheels from Just A Pinch.  I've been making these for years and everybody always looks forward to eating them when we have get-togethers.  Instead of the red pickled jalapenos (which are sometimes hard to find) I used green pickled jalapenos - gave the pinwheels a little extra kick.

I also made these Bacon Cheeseburger Puffs from Plain Chicken.  They turned out good too.  They weren't quite as puffy as the ones pictured on Plain Chicken, but they still tasted good.  I also made some ranch dressing to dip them in.

Also from Plain Chicken, I made Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pulls.  This turned out really good too.  It was kind of hard to eat, so I just wound up cutting the bread up into pieces after it was cooked.  It didn't look very pretty after I did that, but dangit it was good!

I also made Paula Deen's Garlic Cheese Biscuits.  These are, like, my favorites y'all.  They even make you start talking like Paula, y'all.  I mean, really, y'all. Y'all, I'm serious, y'all.  I could be the next Deen Team Blogger, don't y'all think?  These are delicious and I could eat about five pounds of them at any given time.

I also made this Strawberry Champagne Punch from Allrecipes.com.  I used two bottles of champagne and one 2-liter bottle of ginger ale.  I also used one bag of frozen strawberries and one bag of mixed berries.  I realize this is not really an appetizer, but I did make it for this party because what person doesn't need an adult beverage while at a child's birthday party?  I mean, come on!!

And last but certainly not least, the star of the show:  The Country Cook's Crock Pot Party Meatballs.  These were by far the easiest appetizers I made and they were, if you ask me, the best.  Nobody can hold a candle to these balls - they were awesome!

And there you have it - pictures and links to all the appetizers we had at my girls' birthday party this past weekend.  I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you find all the links useful.  If you get a chance, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  Love to hear from y'all!

Linking up with these great parties:




and

Creamy Fiesta Dip

I must admit I'm not very creative when it comes to food.  I can follow a recipe like a champ, but when it comes to creating a recipe, pffft, notsumuch.  So I was, like, super-duper proud of myself for coming up with this.  It tastes phenomenal.  My husband thought it would be delicious stuffed in some jalapenos and wrapped in bacon.  I think it would be great slathered on some flour tortillas and make pinwheels out of them.  It's probably at its best when it's sitting on top of a tortilla chip.

I'm going to go off course here a minute and talk about a brand of tortilla chips that I just discovered that I'm in love with.  I found them at Albertson's.  And here they are:

Yes, the bag is ripped and the chips are 3/4 of the way gone - that's because Mama got ahold of them.  I might have shared a couple with the youngins because I have a big heart like that.  

Julio's chips are flavored tortilla chips.  The number three ingredient is lime which I think might be why I like them so much.  They're manufactured in Del Rio, TX, so that is awesome.  But I will say, if you use these chips to eat the Creamy Fiesta Dip, you might get a little overwhelmed with all the flavors going on in your mouth.  So I'd suggest just using a plain, unflavored tortilla chip.

Okay.  I told you I was going to go off course but I just had to tell you about Julio's chips because they are the bomb.com.

So back to the Creamy Fiesta Dip.  Here we go:

Creamy Fiesta Dip

2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese - room temperature
1/2 cup mexicorn
1 1-ounce package dry ranch dip
1 chipotle pepper diced
1 Tbs. adobo sauce
1 1/2 Tbs. chopped cilantro

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then refrigerate.  Serve with plain tortilla chips.

This dip probably tastes better a day after you make it so all of the flavors have a chance to marry.  (Look at me talking all chef-like now - holla!)

Bon appettit.

(Go here for some other yummy recipes.)

Comeback Shane Sauce

Comeback Shane Sauce

I've seen a ton of recipes for Comeback Sauce or Raising Cane's dipping sauce.  This is the closest I've come to Raising Cane's.  It's delicious and I could eat it up with a spoon all by its lonesome.

I call this Comeback Shane Sauce because every time I hear the word comeback, I think of that old western Shane, where that little boy is yelling come back, Shane!  Shane, come back!  That's just how my silly mind works!

I found this recipe at this link.  There is no picture of it, so I couldn't Pin It and Lord knows I'm addicted to pinning stuff, so that's one of the reasons why I'm posting this...so I could pin my horrible pictures of it on Pinterest and I won't have to search through my millions of bookmarks to find that one about the daggum Raising Cane's sauce.  So there you go - I did the work for you.  You're welcome! 

Comeback Shane Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
ground black pepper to taste

If you're a fan of Keith Whitley (RIP) which I am a huge fan, you could call this Comeback Kid Sauce. A little Keith Whitley for your listening pleasure:

Ranch Dip

This ranch dip is delicious.  Very easy to throw together.  You could easily halve this recipe if you needed to.  It makes quite a lot, but you probably won't want to cut the recipe in half if you make those yummy Spicy Saltine Crackers I posted yesterday. 

Ranch Dip

2 1-ounce packets dry ranch dressing mix
2 16-ounce containers of sour cream
Real Bacon Bits (I use about 1/2 of a 3-ounce bag)
8 ounces fine shredded cheddar cheese

Mix all the ingredients together and chill in the refrigerator.

Now, wasn't that easy?!

Spicy Saltine Crackers

These crackers are delicious and they go especially well with a dip that I will post tomorrow.  You can adjust the spiciness by adding more or less crushed red pepper. 

They sure don't look very pretty, but they are yummy to your tummy.

Here's the recipe:

Spicy Saltine Crackers

1 lb original saltine crackers (I used a box of Kroger brand cuz I'm cheap like that)
1 1/3 cup canola oil
2 or 3 Tablespoons crushed red pepper
1 envelope ranch dressing mix (1.0 ounce)
2 gallon-sized resealable bags

Mix oil, red pepper and ranch dressing mix in a small bowl or measuring cup or however you want to mix it.  I just pour the oil in a 2-cup measuring cup and then pour in the pepper and the dressing mix packet.  Mix all that up.

Pour two sleeves of crackers in one resealable bag and then the other two sleeves of crackers in the other resealable bag.  Pour half the mixture over the crackers in one bag and then the other half of the mixture over the other crackers.  It will look like a lot of oil and you might think there's no way the crackers will soak up this oil and not be soggy, but you'll be in for a surprise.  Let them sit a while.  If we're having a get-together, I usually like to make these the day before just to make sure everything is soaked up like it should be.

Be prepared to get asked for this recipe!

Spicy Saltine Crackers