Category Archives: Kitchen Crafts

Stuffed Bell Pepper Casserole

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This is sort of my own creation.  I’ve taken 2 different recipes and turned them into this.  One of the recipes is from the America’s Test Kitchen book and the other was from a friend who had a recipe for a casserole.

Stuffed Bell Pepper Casserole

2 medium red (any color you like) bell peppers.  chopped in 3/4″ pieces

1 cup cooked brown rice

3/4 # ground chuck (80% is what I like)

1 T. olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, pressed

1 sm can diced tomatoes, drained, reserve 1/4 cup

2 t dried parsley

1 1/4 c. of Monterey Jack/ Colby Cheese, shredded

1/4 c ketchup

salt and pepper to taste

First,  cook pepper pieces in the microwave for several minutes just until soften slightly. Meanwhile, cook meat, onion, garlic in oil.   Once that is cooked add the drained tomatoes, peppers, rice, 1/2 the cheese, parsley, then season to taste, mixing these ingredients well.  Put in a prepared casserole dish and mix the topping ingredients.  Stir together the ketchup with the reserved tomato juice, spread this on top of the casserole and top with remaining cheese.  Bake at 350* for 25-35 minutes or until hot.

4 servings

Weight Watchers  6pts per serving

Enjoy!

Italian Sub Relish Recipe

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This is soooo good!  You can put this on any sandwich and turn it into something great!  It’s easy and healthy too.

2 med. tomatoes, chopped

1 med. red onion, chopped

3 T. olive oil

1 T. red wine vinegar

2 t. dried parsley

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 t. dried basil

1/4 t. red pepper flakes

pinch of oregano

Combined and refrigerate for an hour or more.  Add to subs or sandwiches.  Check here for the original recipe.

Enjoy!

Pretzel Bites

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Maybe you know this about me, maybe you don’t, but I like to try new recipes.  Here’s this Christmas seasons new recipe.  So easy that Nathan played a big part in making them.

Here’s the recipe:

one bag pretzels

one bag Hershey’s kisses (we chose dark chocolate)

one bag m&ms

Stack the kisses on the pretzels and heat in a 350* oven for about 5 minutes then press a m&m into the kiss.  Cool and eat.

Making Apple Sauce

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I purchased a sauce maker more than a year ago.  Bountiful Baskets had a good deal on 40# of fuji apples, so here we go…

First we washed them and then pressure cooked them for about 4 minutes.

We did 2 different batches and by the second one we were working as a team.

Wow, it looks like real apples sauce, and tastes good too.

We processed 21 pints of fuji apple sauce and strained 1/2 gallon of good apple juice out of the bottom of the cooking pot.

Over all we did well on our first try at apple sauce.

Chocolate Coconut Ball Recipe

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One of the fun things I did on vacation with all the driving time was to read through some old recipe books.  This recipe came from one of those community recipe books either from a church or other organization.  I cut up many books and saved only the “must try” recipes.  Here my first experiment.  These are delicious and if you like mounds bars, I think the recipe is very close to the same.  They are a hit in our house.  Yum.

Chocolate Coconut Balls

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 cup butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

32oz bag of powdered sugar

2 cups finely chopped walnuts (original recipe called for pecans)

3 cups flaked coconut

2 bags of dark chocolate chips

Combine first six ingredients.  Blend until smooth. Chill over night.  Shape into nut size balls. Refrigerate until ready to dip.  Melt chocolate in microwave or in double boiler. Dip each ball in chocolate and place on wax paper.  Keep balls cool.  Makes 80-100.   Freezes well.

Canning beans

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We had some friends come up from Casa Grande and spend the day with us.  We got to visit and tried out my new pressure canner to see how it would work.  We canned 3 different flavors of pinto beans to sample the recipes. (not that appetizing to look at)  Thanks for visiting C. girls.

Fresh Eggs

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Our hens started laying eggs about 3 weeks ago.  It was still over 100 degrees but bless them they started producing despite the heat.  We believe we have 5 of the 6 laying so far.  Ethel is the picked on one and is small, she might be they one having a time getting started.

The skillet is a 6″ pan.  The 2 eggs are small but tasty.  We are thankful.

Meatloaf and Potatoes

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Kitchen's Assistant

Last week I made meatloaf and potatoes for dinner (and I actually did most of the work. Mom got to take a nap. ) Nathan helped me squeeze all the ingredients into the meat. Above, he is mixing in the oatmeal.

Squish!

 ^Here he’s mixing in three eggs.

Buttery and delicious

I was doing multi-task. Between cracking eggs, measuring ingredients, keeping an eye on Nathan who was standing a chair, and sauteing onions, I was also trying to take pictures. 

Squeeze

 ^Bar-b-que sauce and salt and pepper.

“I’m a strong boy!”

^When I did the final mixing myself, I was lifting the meat up into the air to turn it over. Well, I turn around and then turn around again and he’s doing it too. 

Warm and sweet

 All finished and ready for the table. The sauce is a multi-generational recipe from my grandmother. We like to tease that it’s our secret sauce.

Watch those fingers! . . . .

 I’ve never liked mashed potatoes (GASP!) so I wanted to try doing something different. I decided doing Mrs. K’s Messy Potatoes and they worked out perfect. We all enjoyed them, especially Dad and Mom.

In the mix

Some of the ingredients include cheese, sour cream, and hash browns. 

Crispy Goodness

 Here it is out the oven and all done. I was so proud of my large meal.

It looks like there’s enough, but looks are often deceiving!

And of corse, I made chocolate chip cookies that morning, so we also had a fresh dessert.

~Jamie

Happy Birthday, Kayla!!!!!

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Today is Kayla’s birthday! We celebrated yesterday (Saturday) and I made her a cake, which is pretty much what this post is about…..

Kayla loves chess (I’ll play it, but it’s gets old after you’ve been beaten one game after another) and she wanted a chess cake. Big Sissy to the rescue, now.

 “I’ll make you a chess cake!”  “On one condition.”  “Oh yeah?”  “The chess peices must be sanatized.”  “Then you’ll have to do that yourself.”  “Oh. Okay.” :P

Hey! That’s me! . . . . .

 I made the cake Friday morning. It was a milk chocolate mix, at her request. On Saturday I got out the frosting pipes and tips and made the icing. The brown frosting is chocolate frosting. It’s soooo good.

A Chess Board

I used this chess board as something to copy after. As you can tell, I did NOT get perfect squares. In fact, I think most of them are rectangles of different sizes. But, hey! I am an amature!

Fill ‘er up!

^You can see in this shot that some of the linings that I made are not even connected. The squares looked awful when just an outline. But when I filled them up they looked much better. :)

FINISHED! NOW I HAVE A SORE BACK…..

 Here is the cake completed, with the writing ‘Fourteen!’ at the bottom, complete with chess pieces and a shell outline around the bottom of the cake. I let Kayla put the chess pieces on the cake.

*drool*

 Does this not make your mouth drip?!?!?! (It’s very good, incase you’re all wondering!)

On the Board
The Birthday Girl

And here’s Kayla with the completed cake. Happy Birthday, sissy!