Kentucky Derby Book Club

This last weekend, we had another chapter chat! I heart my girls and I love getting together with them every few weeks. Sometimes we get around to chatting about the book, but mostly we just hang out and that is A-okay with me!

Last month our books was...

It was pretty amazing, I am not going to lie! It's been a spell since I read it, but I know that I finished it in like 3 days, when Kellen was sick and refused to take medicine a few weeks ago. 

It's the sequel to a book we read a few years ago, The Kitchen House and it picks up many years later with the main character Jamie, who at the end of the first book finds out that his mother is one of the slaves on his family's plantation, after being raised by wealthy his grandmother, and escapes his crazy family and past. The book starts with him being a successful business man living as a white man with no one suspecting his past. Then the plot twists begin. The man who saved him as young boy shows up at his door, with his own son, Pan and asks him to raise him as a servant in his house to keep him safe from slave traders. Well, old Pan decides to go down to the docks one day to buy a parrot to win over his boss and gets himself kidnapped by slave traders. Jamie decides since Pan's father, Henry, saved his life, to go after him back to his old town and enemies there are still out to kill him. The book goes back and forth between past and present and tells all the back stories of the characters and how they came to be where they are since the last book left off. There is lots of drama and controversy and secret things going with the underground railroad and escapes and captures, all the crazy things that you should love in book, this one has got them! So stinkin' good! 

Since it was Derby day and our books was pretty southern, I decided our food should be pretty southern as well.

Let me tell, it was a day of cooking firsts for this girl! I decided we were going have to Kentucky Brown sliders (never have eaten one in my life!) Deviled eggs, because, yum ( never made those either. Sad, right?) Pecan Pie (You guessed it, never made one of those either!) and Mint Juleps (Minus the bourbon, and nope, never tried that either)

So here's the crash course and the lessons, I learned!

First up: Kentucky Browns!

You need slider bread, I went with good old Hawaiian rolls

1 lb of sliced turkey

1 large tomato

10 slices of bacon

 1 stick of butter

1 tbsp of flour

1 cup heavy cream or milk

1 cup Romano cheese (I couldn't find this except in the deli and the line was super long, so I went with grated parmesan)

minced garlic

1 tbsp mustard

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 350

2. Slice all the rolls in half and brush both sides with a little melted butter.

3. Layer on the turkey and tomatoes

4. Whip up the cheese sauce! Make a rue by melting the butter and then whisking in the flour, let that cook down for about 2 minutes until it simmers. Then add in the milk/cream and whisk, whisk, whisk. Once it starts to boil removed from heat immediately and add in the cheese. I had a little bit more milk in to smooth the sauce out. Then add in some salt and pepper.

5. Layer the sauce over the sammies.

6. Add on the bacon and then put the bread tops back on. 

7. Mix in the garlic, mustard and Worcestershire sauce into the rest of the melted butter and then brush on top of the sliders.

Cover with foil and bake for 10 minutes, uncover and bake about 5 minutes longer to crisp up the tops. My tops got super toasty, cause you know we got to talking and I forgot the set the timer.

They were SO messy and a little gooey from the cheesy sauce, but they came out alright!

Next up deviled eggs!

So remember when I said I have never made these before, true facts right there. It's because whenever I make hard boiled eggs, I always crack half of them and they just end up an icky mess!

Thus, I had to make the perfect eggs! You better believe I googled that nonsense and found out how to make perfect hard boiled eggs. They were in fact perfect, so here's watcha do...

Put the eggs in the empty pot. Duh, that way they don't crack, you think I would know these things!

Then cover with cold water. Then put it on the stove on high. When the water is at a rolling boil take em off the burner and cover the pot with a lid. Let them finish cooking in the hot, hot water for another 17 minutes. Then rinse with COLD water. That's it.

They were amazing! No cracked eggs, the yolk was soft and creamy and the shells practically peeled themselves they came off so easy!

The rest you can probably figure out yourself, but you cut the eggs in half and scoop out the yolks and mix in mustard, mayo and vinegar. The fill the egg whites and top with salt and paprika.

I forgot to take a picture, but they came out really nice!

Pecan Pie!

This was probably one of the easiest pies I have ever made, ridiculous really...

You need:

a pie shell

1 cup of pecans (I used chopped)

1 cup of chocolate chips

1 cup of light corn syrup

1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. Lay out the crust in your pie plate and pinch the edges.

3. Evenly pour the pecans and chocolate chips right into the pie crust.

3. Mix up the corn syrup, sugars and beat on the eggs, then add the vanilla.

4. Pour the mixture over the pecans and chocolate.

5. Bake for 30 minutes on the top rack then move to the bottom for about 20 more minutes

It too got a titch too done, because I decided to take a shower the last 20 minutes it was baking and I didn't hear the timer going off. It was still mighty tasty even with the top being a little crunchy.

It was yummy-oh and I will totally make this again, but with a little less cook time!

Last but certainly not least, Mint Juleps!

I am not a huge Bourbon fan and we actually didn't have any in our house, so Vodka it was!

But first you have to make a simple syrup, another cooking experience!

You need:

2 cups of sugar

2 cups of water

mint leaves

lime juice (we actually used limeade) 

vodka

Berries (for pretties! I used black berries)

First you gotta make the syrup. You just add equal parts water and sugar. I used 2 cups. Then stir, stir, stir over medium heat. When it is completely clear, seriously, no cloudiness, and it's starting to bubble just a little on the sides, remove from heat. Then add in the mint leaves to infuse the syrup while it 

cools.

When the syrup is cooled, remove the leaves and store in a air tight container!

To make the drinks, I just added ice, a few shots of vodka, a few tablespoons of syrup and the limeade into a shaker, then pour over berries into a martini glass and enjoy book club with the girls!

  

Homemade hot cocoa love it or leave it??

This weekend, when I finally had a second to breathe, Callie suggested we make some hot cocoa. That sounded marvelous, cocoa, comfy clothes and watching Netflix with my girl!

Yeah... I could have made that look more appetizing and pretty, in hindsight....

I have had this recipe for homemade hot cocoa on my pinterest forever and one of my girl friends swears by it, so we decided to whip up a batch....
Here is what you need...
powdered milk
coffee creamer
powdered sugar
powdered baking cocoa

That's all! No creepy ingredients just good old easy things...

This is for a huge bulk, batch that I am sure you could measure out into jars or something adorable and give as presents.

So you mix together:

10 cups of powdered milk

1 3/4 cups of coffee creamer

4 cups of powdered sugar

1 3/4 cup of baking cocoa

Everything was going great, I had all my ingredients out and then dun, DUN, DUN...

 I opened the powdered milk and there were weird little packets of the powdered stuff. Hmm?? So I measure it out and it only was 3 cups. What?? What was I supposed to do??

Now I am not the greatest with math, but I thought, "Well I'll just cut the other ingredients down to match." Yeah, that was where everything went wrong!

I decided to go with like 3/4 cup of creamer, 3 cups of powdered sugar and 1 cup of cocoa. That sounds about right, right? Wrong.

So I went ahead and mixed up all the things using my estimated measurements and we gave it a try.

                                            Callie swears it was deliciouso. Me, not so much!

It was not so creamy, a little watery and the chocolate was undetectable....

You need a BIG bowl for this one!

I went back and added another 1/2 cup of cocoa and another cup of powdered sugar and it was manageable, but not amazing.

I think I will try, try again using the correct measurements and be sure to sift everything (it was a little lumpy) The cost for all of the ingredients was about $8 and a container of store bought mix is like 6, but we have waaaaayyy more than the containers, so it would probably be a money saver, if you consume lots of cocoa!

So the jury is still out on this one. For now, I leave it to the experts over at Swiss Miss to make my cocoa!

Crockpot Apple Butter

Last week on glorious fall break, I decided to try something fun and fall-ish! I have always wanted to try my hand at canning and or making jelly/jam, but I am not so patient or good with these kinds of things!

I found this recipe last week on Pinterest that didn't involve anything like blanching or pectin and I decided to give it a go! Apple butter here we come!

It was SO easy and the crock pot does all of the hard work for you!

You need:
3-5 lbs of apples, peeled, cored and sliced--We had a bunch of galas from the kids lunches last week, so we used those, I am sure any apple will work!
3/4 cup of brown sugar
 1 Tbsp of cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp of cloves
1/2 Tbsp nutmeg

My trusty tools got the job done quick!

First peel, slice and core the apples. Then rinse them and dump them in the crock pot.

Next mix together the sugar and spices, that's all the ingredients you need!

Toss the mixture right over the apples in the crock pot... 

Let the apples cook on high for 3-5 hours, stirring every hour, each hour the apples get a little bit softer and smaller in size.

Once they are soft enough to mash up turn off the crock pot. 

Give the apples a final stir to coat in the spice/sugar juice in the bottom and they they are ready puree!                                      

                                            

I did mine in the good old blender in a few batches. I blended them on the highest setting until it was thick and smooth  or until you get the texture you like.

You could add some of the remaining liquid from the crock pot if the mixture was not smooth enough to your liking.

After the apples are blended, pour them into jars or containers and allow them to cool.

Then pop them in refrigerator to store!

So far we had apple butter on pancakes, toast and right out of the jar. It's not quite like butter or quite like jelly, kind of like really smooth silky apple sauce! 

It's not exactly what I was expecting, but it was easy, made my house smell amazing and it's pretty tasty too!

Brien's Green Chile

I promised this recipe last year and lost the recipe my darling husband had written down, but I was going through my cook books this week and lookie what I found!!!

We stocked up on green chilies at the pumpkin patch, I am talkin' a bushel, like 10 lbs of green chilies taking up my fridge. When we got home my mister immediately set to work making some green chile and it was so good! 

He refused to take pictures as he goes, like I do (I get made fun of relentlessly for stopping while I am cooking to snap pictures) but the finished product was just beautiful, the smell was literally mouth watering and I actually just ended up eating it with a spoon in a bowl, like soup!

You need to above ingredients. In case you can't read it...

You need:

4 cups of water

6 tsps of chicken bullion

1 7oz can of diced tomatoes, we use mild rotel

1/2 of a white onion chopped

1 lb of diced pork

4 large green chilies, chopped

1 tsp of minced garlic

2 Tbsp of flour

This year we doubled all of the ingredients and it was gone in 3 days flat. So the moral of the story is, make a big batch.

First bring the water and bullion to a boil in a large stock pot. Once it is rolling add in the tomatoes, onions, green chiles and garlic.

In a 12 inch pan, saute the diced pork until cooked through and then add in the flour to make a roux. 

Then add that into the broth and veggies. This year we also added some fresh diced jalapenos (totally optional) to have some extra heat.

Next let it simmer on low and let all those yummy flavors mix together. I think Brien simmered it for about an hour and then we couldn't stand it any longer and had to eat some! It was a little soupy last year so Brien added in a cornstarch/water mixture to thicken it up a titch. Just mix 2 Tbsp of cornstarch and a splash of water. Add it in until you have the desired texture! Be careful a little goes a long way!

It thickened up perfectly and ta-da!

I had never been introduced to the wonderful world of green chile before I met Brien and now it has become a fall staple! We had no idea what we were doing the first time we made it, so give it try, you will NOT be disappointed!

What's cooking Wednesday: Reese's Dip!

This week has been a fun one! We keep trading kids out for Grandma camp, because 5 kids together is A LOT for one grandma to handle, so now Callie is off livin' it up and my buddy is back home with me!

Last week Callie and I whipped up this delicious treat! We are big fan of dips especially sweet ones! and the more chocolate the better!

You need:
1 stick of butter--softened
1 8 oz package of cream cheese--softened
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar (I think we ended up actually using a whole cup, because it was not sweet enough)
1 tsp of vanilla
1/2 cup of Reese's peanut butter cups--chopped (we actually ended up using the whole bag which I am going to say was more than 1/2 a cup!)

This is super healthy right?? There is protein in peanut butter I think!

1. First cream together the butter and cream cheese using a hand beater.

                                         

2. Next add in the vanilla and brown sugar and continue to mix well.

3. Then fold in the chopped Reese's using a spatula.

4. Let it set up a little in the fridge, ours was a little warm from the cream cheese and butter sitting out to soften.

5. Last, enjoy with apples, vanilla wafers or my favorite, a spoon!

We definitely will be making this again!

Lemon Blueberry Dump Cake, What's Cookin' Wednesday!

It's back! I am so excited it summer and time for cooking! A few weeks ago we whipped up this delicious treat for dessert on Sunday dinner and it was delicious!

Yummy!

Have y'all ever had dump cake? It has an unfortunate name, but it is oh-so-good! I am pretty sure it's called that because you just dump everything in and bake, yeah, let's go with that!

Traditionally you make dump cake with cherry pie filling and pineapple chunks, but I went rogue this time.

Here's what you need:

1 box of lemon cake mix
1 large can of blueberry pie filling (I think next time I might take this to the next level and add lemon pie filling as well!)
1 large can of pineapple chunks
2 sticks of butter

1. Pre heat the oven to 350.  First mix the pie filling anddrained pineapple right in a 9x13 pan, just dump and mix right there. No need to dirty up a bowl!

2. Next sprinkle the whole box of cake mix over the top of the fruit. It seems like  lot, but just do it, this is the "crust".

3. Then grate up the butter. Usually I just slice it up, but I decided to give this a try. It just makes the butter lighter and easier to melt!

4. Then sprinkle the cheese, I mean butter, over the top of the cake mix as evenly as you can. Just sprinkle right on top, DO NOT MIX IT!

5. Pop that pan right in the oven for about 45 minutes. I checked mine at 30 and it was getting close to being done!

Ta-da! The finished product!

Serve this up warm with some vanilla ice cream and prepare your mouth for a party! So easy and so delicious!

Lava Cake

This weekend we made another yummy treat at the Wood house. This one was way out of my comfort zone... Crock pot desserts were a little scary.

I am all over making dinner, but dessert, this was a whole 'nother story!
You need...

Chocolate cake mix prepared as directed on the box

Instant chocolate pudding mix prepared as on the box

1 cup of chocolate chips

Ice cream to serve with it later

1. Spray cooking spray in your crock pot

2. Prepare the cake mix as directed--Ours called for 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 cup of oil, and 3 eggs.

3. Pour into the crockpot

4. Prepare the pudding mix. Ours needed 2 cups of mix.

5. Pour the pudding mix right in the middle.

6. Sprinkle with chocolate chips

7. Cook on high for 2.5 hours. I turned my to low the last 30  minutes once the top was set up!

From this...

To this! Who knew?!

It came out so well! The top was super yummy warm cake and the bottom was ooey, gooey goodness. Then dump on a scoop of ice cream, mmmm perfection!

Fun Fetti Chex Mix

This weekend we checked a yummy treat off our dessert snack recipe list! Callie had pinned this forever ago and we couldn't wait to make it until spring break, so Sunday it was!

You need:

6 cups of Rice Chex

6 bars or 1/2 lb of almond bark

1 tsp of shortening

1/2 cup of funfetti cake mix 

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

First, measure out the cereal.

Next put the almond bark and shortening in a microwave proof bowl and melt according to the directions on the package!

The struggle was real! Someone didn't realize how hard it was get shortening off the spoon and into the bowl!

One the almond bark is all creamy dreamy, mix it in with the cereal until it is well coated!

Next sprinkle on the cake mix and powdered sugar!

I don't have a big enough bowl with a lid so we transferred the mixture to a doubled up plastic bag and I sent my chef outside to shake that thing around!

That did the trick and we had a delicious and super simple snack! It was pretty yummy and there is nothing left in the bowl but the little crummy bits, however, I think I prefer the original way. But this worked too! Enjoy!

Creamy, cheesy, Crockpot Ham and potatoes

This supper is the BEST! It's so super easy and cheap to make and it was such a hit at Sunday dinners that it has made it in the weekly rotation!

You need: 

2 cups of cubed ham (I use the ham steaks from the meat section and cut those up)

3/4 of a large bag (I think they are 30 oz) of shredded frozen potatoes. I thaw mine in the microwave for a few minutes so they are easier to mix)

16 oz of sour cream (I use reduced fat)

1 Tbsp of dried minced onion

1 Tbsp pepper

1 can of cream of chicken soup

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 bag of herbed stuffing

1 stick of butter, melted

First, spray the crock pot or use a liner.

Next, mix up the potatoes, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, minced onion, pepper and cheese in a big ol' bowl!

Once it's all stirred up, dump that in the crock pot.

Then, top with the cubed ham.

Then, spread the stuffing over the top of the ham.

Last, pour the melted butter over the stuffing and put the lid on it!

Cook on low for 4-5 hours. Our crockpot runs hot, so I check it every so often to make sure that it's not burning. 

I forgot to take an after picture but just imagine deliciousness. It makes a ton and even I will take it for leftovers!

What's cookin' Thursday(??) Chocolate Croissants

This week had been just CRAZY! We are almost  done with VBS and I am thankful that despite a flood, being a little short handed, and rampant sickness running amuk, it has been amazing! Callie was a sleep over on Wednesday with her bestie, so we had Thursday cooking school.

We made the easiest little treat, Chocolate Croissant. Easy to make, hard to spell! They are only 3 ingredients and they are pretty yummy!

 You need:
Crescent rolls
Mini Chocolate chips or Hersey Kisses (we used semi sweet, I would suggest milk chocolate because they melt easier)
Powdered sugar to dust on after they cook

First pre-heat the oven to 350 and lay out the crescents on a foiled cookie sheet.
Next, place the chocolate chips right on the rolled out crescent.

Then roll those puppies up!

Pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes
Dust with powdered sugar as soon as they come out.

Then wait a few minutes for them to cool. We ate them fresh out the over and scorched our tongues on the melty chocolate.

They were the perfect "light" dessert!

Baked potato soup!

The weather has been chilly and dreary around these parts, so we have been eating a lot of soup! I love baked potato soup and this recipe is a bunch of recipes that I have combined from other recipes, per usual.

You need:
1- 5 lb bag of potatoes cubed (I used new potatoes because I did not want to peel them)
Chicken bullion (I used 6 cubes)
1 medium yellow or white onion chopped
1 stick of butter
4 cups of milk (It is suggested to use a higher percentage of fat, I used 2%)
4 cups of cheese (I used cheddar and colby jack)
1/2 sour cream
1 package of bacon bits or 8-10 slices of bacon
(Depending on how creamy you like it, you might need some cornstarch)

 First I cube up some new potatoes I use almost a whole 5lb bag for this recipe. Then I boil them in chicken bullion depending on how much soup you make, I would say a cube for every cup of water.

While the potatoes are boiling, saute 1 medium yellow or white onion and a stick of butter. Get that butter nice and melty and the onion good and soft.

Then I  realized it was close to dinner and company was comin' and I stopped taking pictures!

After the potatoes are nice and soft, but not falling apart,  add in the onion and butter mixture. Next stir in 4 cups of milk. I used 2 % because that's what we had. I am sure that half and half or whole milk would probably make it a little more creamy, but, I am trying to watch what we eat!

After you stir in the milk, bring the mixture back to a light rolling boil and stir in 4 cups of cheese. I did a mixture of cheddar and colby jack. I even added a little velveeta, we can't watch what we eat too closely! Stir to melt all that cheesy goodness...

Then I added in a little sour cream to thicken it up and stirred in a package of bacon bits. Let it simmer for a titch and it should be ready to serve. (If your soup looks a little too soupy and not thick enough, mix a little cornstarch with water and whisk in, but don't get too crazy, a little goes along way!)  Yummy creamy potato-y goodness!

Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

So I have mentioned a few times that at every holiday get together someone has an assigned dish to bring, that becomes theirs forever. Apparently my sister and law and I are now sharing pie. I used to be terrified of pie. People depend on it and if you mess it up, well, there is just no coming back from that!

A few years ago I called up my grandma and she gave me her recipe. It is so easy!

Pre-heat the oven to 400

Mix together 15 oz can of pumpkin, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk, 1/2 tsp of ginger, 1/2 tsp of all spice and 1 tsp of cinnamon 3/4 tsp of salt. This year I tripled it and used 1, 15oz can and 1, 30 oz can, that's a lotta punkin'. I tripled all the other ingredients as well, of course.

Stir everything together and pour into a 9 inch pie plate. I used a pre-made crust because crust is a lot of work! If I do a fruit pie, I always make a real crust, but I have been sick all week and making a pie crust seemed beyond my ability today!

Pop the pie into the oven and bake for about an hour. The recipe says 45 minutes, but mine ended up being about an hour. Start with 45 minutes and check every 5-10 minutes after that.

You'll know its done when the crust is golden brown and I knife comes out clean!

Not super pretty, but super yummy!!

2 Ingredient Cupcakes

As if we needed more sweets in our lives... A few weeks ago I made the easiest dessert known to mankind! Pumpkin cupcakes!

All you need is:
1 16 oz can of canned pumpkin
1 box of chocolate cake mix (ours had little chocolate chips in the mix!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Mix the pumpkin and cake mix
3. Spoon into muffin tins (I think ours made like 16 and they were pretty big)
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

The batter is super thick, but don't worry!

Done!! Let them cool and frost them! I used the a can of frosting from the store (I was on a tight schedule). I brought the left overs to school the next day and one of my colleagues said that they were only 2 weightwatcher points without the frosting. So I feel like they are pretty healthy and I had like 4  in a day!