Spinach Salad w/ Cranberries & Balsamic Vinaigrette

For the salad:



spinach leaves - washed
dried cranberries
slivered almonds
stinky cheese

When I say "stinky cheese" I mean a pungent cheese like goat cheese or blue cheese.
I'm not a fan of these types of cheeses...too strong for my tastes but I'm sure they would taste lovely on this salad if its your thing.

 For the vinaigrette:

1/4 cup good balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 T. chopped garlic
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar (optional)*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup olive oil


*the brown sugar is not needed if you have a good quality balsamic vinegar.
I mix all my dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake until they are well combined.
Adding more or less of an ingredient to taste.

I promise, once you make your own Balsamic Vinaigrette you will not go back to the store bought varieties if you can help it.
It's so easy to make and the taste is exceptional.


Mrs. B.

Sugar Cookies w/Lemon Zest

This Christmas I decided to try these Sugar Cookies. The lemon zest really made it intriguing to me. I thought they turned out really good! I will be making them again!

Uncooked Tortillas

My sister in law makes the best tortillas from scratch, but there is no way that I have that kind of time. So, I found these Uncooked Tortillas that are a great substitute. They are really easy to cook. They are great for Quesadillas, Fajitas, Tacos, Wraps, etc.

I have found them at Costco, some Grocery Stores, Walmart.

For quesadillas, I usually just add cheese, chicken, salsa. Makes a great lunch!

Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

I'm pretty convinced that these are the best cut-out cookies you can make.

They aren't sugar cookies, so they don't puff up when you bake them -

creating cookie blobs instead of cookie shapes.

Butter Cut-Out Cookiesfrom Susan Branch

2 cups butter -- softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer cream together butter and sugar. Add egg yolks and vanilla and mix well. Sift flour and salt together and beat into butter mixture until well mixed.

Roll dough into a ball and refrigerate, covered, for about an hour.

When ready to bake, use an ungreased cookie sheet and place cookies 1 inch apart. Bake for about 10 minutes, but do not brown them. Remove cookies from cookie sheet after cooled. Decorate, if you like. Makes 6 to 8 dozen.

For the frosting we just mix confectioners sugar with milk until we get the consistency we want. It takes a whole lot of sugar and just a bit of milk (you can use water instead if you want).
recipe also posted here.

TotallyFeelingTheChrsitmasCookieLove,

Mrs. B.

My Mom's Apple Crisp

So my mom is a really good cook...the only problem is, she doesn't use recipes and I need a recipe to cook...so I have implored my mom to write out a recipe here and there that I am just desperate to have...

Her Apple Crisp is divine...so here is her recipe and a couple pics of when I made it! It is a great treat!

"Apple Crisp ala my own made up Recipe"

by Lynda Baldwin

Peel lots of apples and slice (put in cold salt water so they don't turn brown- 1 tbsp salt to 2 quarts water) This means enough apples to cover the bottom of your pan (9 X 13) at least 1 1/2 inches thick. 10-12 big ones maybe

In a medium sized bowl combine:

1 1/2 cup flour (I use rice flour but whatever)

1 1/2 - 2 cups of quick oats

1 1/2 cup brown sugar. I use dark brown.

1 stick salted butter melted

Mix together to a crumbly

Drain apples and cover bottom of pan and put 1 Tbsp Cinnamon on top

Add 1/4 cup of apple cider or leftover juice of any kind in the fridge

Sprinkle the juice of one lemon over the top. You may use 2-3 Tbsp of Cider Vinegar (Organic) instead of lemon.

crumble the topping over the apples and add another good sprinkle of cinnamon over the top/

Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees (preheated)

Serve with Vanilla bean or Cinnamon Ice Cream

Thanks Mom!

a request for readers/contributors

okay ladies and gents...I am in need of a pizza sauce recipe...does anyone have one? I keep making home made pizza and my attempts at sauce are just not good. So if someone has a recipe and could either post it or leave a comment with the recipe or a link or something, I would SO appreciate it...

Help!

Jamie

Porcupines!

Okay People....prepare yourself for this one. It will make your mouth happy. So So So Happy.

Porcupines!

This is a picture of them right when I started cooking them...they were devoured before I could take an "after" pic...

So here's the story...one of my besties lives in NC and I was staying with her for a mutual friends wedding weekend. We were crazy busy, but the first night I arrived, she made these delicious little delights for dinner and I demanded the recipe! Turns out it is her moms recipe...and her mom is one of my favorite people because once upon a time she was the only mom we could get ahold of on a major holiday when we needed help figuring out how to get the stupid turkey's legs apart...but that is a whole other story ;-)

So here is the recipe..and I will have you know...I quadrupled the recipe so I would have left overs. And this recipe is really only enough for one person...double it and it's good for 3 people...quadruple it and it's enough for a couple meals and it is just as good reheated :)

1/2 lb ground beef

1/4 cup uncooked white rice (I used minute rice)

1/4 cup milk or water (I used milk)

2 Tbsp chopped onion (I use the equivalent amount of dried minced onion, instead)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp celery salt

1/8 tsp garlic salt or powder

dash of pepper

Sauce 8 oz can of tomato sauce (You can never have too much)

1/2 cup of water for every 8 oz of tomato sauce

1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix first set of ingredients together and form into balls about golf ball size or a little smaller. Should make 4-6 balls. Mix sauce ingredients in a deep covered saute pan or frying pan. Put meatballs in sauce and spoon sauce over them. You want to have enough sauce to come up at least halfway on the porcupines.

Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 40-45 minutes. Flip them over about halfway through the cooking time and add some water if the sauce has cooked down too much, but resist the temptation to uncover them more than once. When they're cooked when get firm and the rice should be soft. I usually break one open to see if the rice is cooked. Chef's prerogative to taste test. ;)

Serve with egg noodles or mashed potatoes to soak up all the sauce.

You are Welcome.

Joyfully,

Jamie