Homemade Barbecue Sauce

Last week, I made some barbecue chicken breasts in the oven. Grace loves chicken so I like to keep it made and in the fridge for her. It makes it easy for me on nights when she can't eat what we're eating.


We usually use store bought barbecue sauce but we ran out a couple weeks ago. The store was sold out of our favorite brand (Famous Dave's Sweet & Zesty) and I didn't care for the brand that Joe bought instead. It had way too much smoke flavor for my taste. 

I checked out my Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book (it's seen better days) and found a basic recipe. I was happy that I had all of the ingredients needed. As always, I adapted this recipe to suit our tastes and added or switched some of the ingredients.

Easy Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

1 C. ketchup
1/4 C. apple cider vinegar
1/2 C. water
1 1/2 T. brown sugar
1 T. Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1 T. brown mustard
3 T. finely diced onion
1 T. finely diced celery
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 oz. liquid smoke
several dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce
ground black pepper to taste

Method:

In a small sauce pot, stir together all ingredients. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring often. After sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) until sauce is thick, stirring often.


A couple of years ago, I never would have made my own barbecue sauce.  I wouldn't have even thought to do it.  I'm so happy that I made this sauce, it was so easy and so much cheaper than the store bought sauces.   I think we'll be sticking with this sauce for more daily use and save our favorites store bought brand as a treat. 
I'll be linking to the following blogs this week: 

• Homemaker Monday
• Motivate Me Monday
• Tasty Tuesday
• Tuesdays at the Table
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
• Kitchen Tip Tuesday
• Works For Me Wednesday
• Make It From Scratch
• Food On Friday
• Frugal Friday

Easier Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

I've been wanting to post more kitchen tips and other kitchen related topics to this blog but I've been focusing on recipes.  Since I haven't tried any new recipes lately, I thought I'd post this tip for easy grilled cheese sandwiches.

I  hate spreading butter onto bread.  Mainly because I always forget to take the butter out to soften and trying to spread the cold and hard butter on the bread tears the bread.  Sure I could soften it in the microwave, but I usually end up with an entire stick of MELTED butter.

For grilled cheese, I make it the way my Mom always made it for us.   With mayonnaise instead of butter.  It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I realized that most people used butter for their grilled cheese sandwiches. 

You've got to try it!  Instead of spreading butter onto the slices of bread, try some mayo!  I guess the oils in the mayo keeps the bread from sticking to the pan.  It still gets nice and golden brown too, just like a "regular" grilled cheese sandwich.  Joe even thinks that the mayo makes it taste creamier than the traditional way. 

Here's another tip:  For best results, use regular mayonnaise.  Don't use lite mayo or miracle whip.  The grilled cheese tends to stick when using those types. 

********Be sure to check out my other blog for a giveaway to celebrate it's 100th post!********



I'll be linking to:

• Kitchen Tip Tuesday  
• Works For Me Wednesday
• Food on Fridays

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! 

This photo is from my FIRST Mother's Day.

Grace is so tiny in this picture. 

Just 8 days old. 

Sigh.

I cannot believe that it's been a year already! 

I'm looking forward to a quiet day with my 2 favorite people (and my favorite puppy).  We may possibly run an errand or two, but for the most part, a nice quiet day....we need it!  

~~~~~~~ 

My other blog:  Under the Big Oak Tree is getting very close to it's

100th post!  

Soon, I'll be announcing a giveaway to celebrate! 

Check back this week for more details!   

Ham and Cabbage Skillet

I'm not a huge fan of the traditional boiled ham and cabbage St. Patrick's Day dinner.  I also don't like Corned Beef and Cabbage.  Honestly, I am Irish!  :) 

When I eat ham, I tend to only enjoy it if it's a spiral cut ham from either Heavenly Ham or Honey Baked Ham.  Or if it's in the form of deli meat.  Even then, I'm picky about it. 

I will, however, eat ham steak.  And I do enjoy that!  MMmmm! 

In the past, Joe and I never really did anything to "celebrate" St. Patrick's Day.  Well, besides wearing a green shirt to avoid pinching! 

Now that we have Grace, I want to celebrate all the special occasions in little ways.  You know, heart-shaped pancakes on Valentine's Day and stuff like that. 

Grace is still too young to even realize that it's a special occasion and she's just starting on table food, so this year was "practice".   We were out yesterday during dinner, so I put off making our St. Patty's Day dinner until tonight.  I really enjoyed it and think it will be a keeper.  Not only for St. Patty's Day but as another way to serve ham steak throughout the year. 

Ham and Cabbage Skillet

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbs. butter
• 3 potatoes, scrubbed and diced
• 2 cups onion, chopped
• 2 cups carrot, chopped
• 4 cups cabbage, chopped
• 1/2 cup water
• Mrs. Dash, paprika, black pepper,  to taste
• 1 lb. ham steak, diced 

Method:

• Boil potatoes in a pot until tender, drain.
• In a skillet, melt butter and cook onions and carrots until onions just begin to become translucent. 
• Add cabbage and cook for about 2 minutes.
• Stir in water.  This will help the cabbage cook and also deglaze the pan. 
• Cook until vegetables are tender.
• Season to your liking and combine well. 
• Add diced ham, heat through.  
• Mix in the drained potatoes.  You may want to add another Tbs. of butter. 
• Cook a few minutes more. 

If you happen to make the traditional boiled ham dinner.  This would be a great way to serve the leftovers.  Just drain the juices, add to a hot skillet with melted butter and saute until slightly browned.  

Twice Baked Potatoes

Usually when I cook, I find a recipe I think we will like and then switch some of the ingredients around.  Sometimes I make changes to exclude an ingredient that I don't like (i.e. mushrooms) or I make a change because I think the recipe could be improved if something was added (like peppers and onions) or I make a change simply because I don't have a specific ingredient and I don't feel like waiting until I go shopping to make the recipe. 

When I make twice baked potatoes, I follow the recipe as it is written.  Every time.  (except I leave out the green onion.) 

Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 8 baking potatoes*, scrubbed
• 2 sticks butter, sliced
• 1 cup bacon bits**
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• 1 cup cheddar jack cheese, shredded
• black pepper
• additional cheddar jack for garnish

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
• Bake potatoes on cookie sheet for 1 hour, 15 minutes
• Place sliced butter, bacon bits, sour cream and Lawry's Seasoned Salt in a large mixing bowl. 
• When potatoes are done baking, remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. 
• Turn oven down to 350 degrees.
• Hold potato with a clean dish towel or pot holder and cut in half (lengthwise).
• Scrape out the potato pulp into the bowl with the other ingredients, being careful to leave a little still attached to the skin.  Also, being careful to not tear the skin. 
• Place the skins on a cookie sheet. 
• Mash the potatoes and other ingredients with a hand masher (not the electric mixer) to the texture you like.  I like them a bit lumpy. 
• Add the shredded cheese and mix together until ingredients are well blended. 
• Stuff the potatoes. 
• Top with additional cheese. 
• Bake on cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes. 

*I prefer to use the huge potatoes from Costco, but the more normal sized baking potatoes from the grocery store work great, too. 

**Don't use the hard, crunchy kind of bacon bits.  Use the soft kind by Oscar Meyer or similar.  This can usually be found in the salad dressing/crouton aisle or in the canned tuna/chicken/Spam aisle. 

This recipe can be found on The Pioneer Woman Cooks! blog along with a great, step-by-step picture tutorial! 

Check out my other blog

I know it's been a while since I posted anything new.  I do have a few new recipes to post, it's just been a challenge trying to find the time to sit down and type them out. 

In the meantime, hop on over to Under the Big Oak Tree (my other blog) to read my review of the 12" x 9.5" Le Creuset Rectangular Dish that CSN Stores sent me! 

Here's a couple of pictures of the dish in action:

Green Bean Casserole

Stuffed Peppers

The recipe for Stuffed Peppers will be posted sometime soon!

Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

For years, I only bought baby carrots from the grocery store.  I like them better for snacking than whole carrots.  Recently, I started buying whole carrots for cooking.  I still buy baby carrots for snacks, but if I know I'm planning to make soup or stew, I'll buy the whole carrots. 

Now that I'm hooked on making my own veggie broth from scraps and peels, the whole carrots really come in handy!  For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a 5lb bag of carrots! 

When I wasn't using them as quick as I thought I would, I started to get worried that they would go bad and I'd have to throw them away, so I searched for recipes for carrots.  I found a few recipes for carrot soup and decided to attempt to create my own recipe in my Crock-Pot. 

Carrot & Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. carrots, peeled & sliced into coins
• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
• 2 onions, sliced thin
• 2 cans (14.5 oz. each) chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp. ground thyme
• dash of cloves
• Sour cream (optional)

Add all ingredients to Crock-Pot, cover and cook on low until vegetables are tender. 

Blend with stick blender to desired texture.  Top with sour cream and serve. 

I served the soup along with grilled cheese sandwiches for a Lenten Friday (meatless) meal.  Both of us agreed that the soup would have been better with some meat (maybe ham) added.  Or if left as a meatless soup, it would make a delicious first course to a nice steak dinner. 

I'll be sharing this recipe with the following carnivals:

• What's Cooking Wednesday
• Crock-Pot Wednesday