Biscuits and Gravy Casserole, and Milky Maple Soda

Everyone knows it's fun to have breakfast for dinner. It's one of my personal favorites, because it's usually easy and cheap, and I just love breakfast foods. Biscuits and gravy especially seem to be delicious and appropriate any time of the day.

This recipe takes those simple biscuits and gravy just a step further - a little fancier and a little funner. But without adding a lot of extra work. This recipe originally called for canned biscuits, which I'm sure are absolutely delicious when used in this dish. I took it a little step toward tightwaddery and used homemade biscuit dough.

These biscuits and gravy turned out so yummy. The bottom layer of biscuits soak up the gravy and take on almost a dumpling texture, while the biscuits on top are browned and fluffy like typical biscuits. The gravy is just a basic sausage gravy that complements both layers of biscuits perfectly.

Biscuits and Gravy Casserole
(adapted from lemon-sugar)
2 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk
1/2 lb. ground sausage
3 tbsp. flour
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a small casserole dish (7x11) with cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, and 1 tsp. salt. Cut in shortening. Stir in milk just until combined. Turn out onto floured surface and knead gently 2-3 times. Flatten with hand or rolling pin until 1/2 inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut into 1 1/2- or 2-inch squares.

Layer half of the biscuit squares in prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare gravy: In a heavy skillet, cook ground sausage over medium heat until fully cooked. Sprinkle the sausage with 3 tbsp. flour. Stir flour into sausage until completely absorbed. Lower heat to medium, and cook flour/sausage mixture 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add milk, salt, and pepper; stir to combine. Stir frequently until mixture comes to a slight boil. Taste, and adjust seasonings as desired.

Pour gravy over cooked biscuits. Layer remaining uncooked biscuit squares over the gravy.

Place casserole on a baking dish, and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

This soda recipe came from a book we got at the library. It's called Grandpa's Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Cookbook, based on the original story. It's got recipes for things like Spaghetti Twister with a Tomato Tornado, Foggy Pea Soup, Chewandswallow Chicken Legs, and Jello-O Setting in the West.

Jeff decided to mix up some Milky Maple Soda to go with dinner tonight, "just like they serve in Ralph's Roofless Restaurant."

Milky Maple Soda
Milk
Plain seltzer
1 tbsp. maple syrup

Fill 1/4 of a glass with milk. Fill the rest of the glass with seltzer, leaving a little room at the top. Add about a tablespoon of maple syrup (more or less, to your taste). Stir and slurp!

I think I added about an extra tablespoon of syrup to my glass, I like things to be sweet! Anyway, this was a fun and unique little treat.

Linking:
Link Party Palooza
Strut Your Stuff Saturday

My Kitchen My World - Cuban Pork with Black Beans and Rice

After a very long absence, I am once again contributing my culinary offering to My Kitchen My World. The country for June was Cuba. So I hopped onto Allrecipes.com and found some delicious Cuban recipes.

Cuban Pork
(adapted from Allrecipes.com)
1 1/2 lb. pork loin roast, cut into 5 or 6 thick slices
1 lime, zested and juiced
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pinch crushed red pepper
1 tsp. minced garlic

In a bowl, mix together the lime zest, olive oil, cumin, salt, crushed red pepper, and garlic. Reserve the lime juice. Rub the seasoning mixture onto both sides of the pork slices.

Spray a heavy skillet or ridged grill pan with cooking spray, and place over medium heat. Pan-fry the pork slices until browned on both sides, 6 to 7 minutes per side. After you turn the meat over, pour the reserved lime juice over the meat and continue cooking until no longer pink in the center. Serve hot, topped with pan juices.

This pork is just bursting with lime flavor, and it paired really well with some plain rice and some delicious black beans.

Cuban Black Beans
(Adapted from Allrecipes.com)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
4 tsp. minced garlic
3 cans black beans, not drained
1/2 can tomato sauce
4 oz. roasted red pepper, chopped
1 tbsp. vinegar
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. black pepper

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and saute onion, green bell pepper, and garlic until tender.

Into the onion mixture, stir the beans, tomato sauce, red pepper, and vinegar. Season with salt, sugar, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Ahh, feels good to be back. I really am going to try to post recipes more frequently, I've really slacked off the past few...um...years.... 

Linked to:
Weekend Wrap-Up Party at tatertots&jello 
Think Tank Thursday at Joyful Homemaking 
Project Inspire{d} at Dukes and Duchesses 

6 Years

My sweet husband and I have been married for 6 years, as of yesterday. When Jeff asked if I wanted to go out to eat or make something special here at home, my answer was obvious - I always prefer a great home cooked meal! So here's what we ate for our special meal to celebrate 6 years of marriage.


Pork and Bacon Skillet
Jeff created this dish specifically to use cheap cuts of pork and bacon ends. Since he didn't really measure anything, all amounts are approximate.


Start by cooking about 1/4-1/2 lb. bacon ends. Remove from pan and set aside, leaving bacon grease in the pan. Cut about 2 lb. pork into 3-inch chunks and add to pan. Brown on both sides. Add a sliced green pepper, some sliced green onions, 1 cup beef broth (or 1 cup water and 1 tsp. bouillon), and the bacon, plus salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with rice.


Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad
A delicious and hearty salad from the new Southern Plate Cookbook (love this book!!!!!!!)


1 head cauliflower, broken and sliced
1 head broccoli, cut up
2 small onions, cut and separated into rings (I used half of a large red onion)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine the vegetables in a large bowl. Whisk together the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl. Add to vegetables and toss to coat. Refrigerate until ready to serve.


Anniversary Pie
This pie has become tradition since I created it a couple years ago. I've made it differently each time, but it's always delicious. This time I went for a yummy cinnamon flavor.


1 package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup eggnog
1/2 cup ice cream (fried ice cream flavor - cinnamon ice cream with shortbread chunks and a caramel swirl, yummmm)
1 graham cracker crust, made with cinnamon grahams
Additional cinnamon graham cracker crumbs

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggnog and ice cream. Pour into crust and freeze until firm. Remove from freezer 10 to 15 minutes before slicing to soften the pie. Return any uneaten portion to the freezer. Sprinkle each slice with additional cracker crumbs.

Fantastic Fall Casseroles

I've made a couple delicious casseroles in the past few days. I thought I'd make up for not posting in a while (has it really been a week and a half?) by putting them together into one post.

First up is Harvest Hamburger Casserole. I've made this one several times - we love the combination of flavors. It's a tiny bit similar to Shepherd's Pie, with a beef and tomato layer and a potato layer, but different enough that it's a completely different and unique dish. It's hearty and flavorful, and one of my favorites.


Casseroles are funny things - by that I mean funny looking! No matter what angle I try to shoot at, it just ends up looking like a big blob on a plate. But it's definitely a very tasty blob!


Harvest Hamburger Casserole
1 lb. ground beef, browned and drained
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, with liquid
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
2 cups sliced potatoes
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 package (10 oz) frozen corn, thawed
1 package (10 oz) frozen lima beans, thawed (I usually skip this)
1 green pepper, cut into strips (this time I used a combination of green and red)
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded cheese

In a mixing bowl, combine beef, onion, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, and salt. Spoon into a greased 3-qt casserole. Layer the potatoes, flour, corn, lima beans, and green pepper on top. Bake, covered, at 375 for 45 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and continue baking, uncovered, for 30 minutes longer.


Next up is Apple/Sausage/Sweet Potato Casserole. I just made this for the first time today, and it was incredible! I knew as soon as I read the recipe in one of my many little recipe books that I wanted to make it as soon as I could. A layer of sausage, topped with sweet potato and brown sugar, and finished off with apple slices - the delicious definition of a fall casserole!


Apple/Sausage/Sweet Potato Casserole
1 lb. seasoned lean bulk pork sausage
1/4 cup water
1 can (23 oz) sweet potatoes, drained and thickly sliced (I used the equivalent in boiled fresh sweet potato)
1/4 to 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
3 medium apples (red cooking variety), cored (I used one huge apple)

Form sausage into patties; brown in a skillet and drain. Place patties in bottom of an ungreased 2-qt casserole. Add water. Layer thick slices of sweet potatoes over sausage. Sprinkle with sugar; dot with half the butter. Cut unpeeled apples into 1/2-inch slices; layer over all. Dot with remaining butter. Cover and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 15 minutes longer.


Oooohhhh, this one turned out so delicious! This flavor combination is so awesome. Between Jeff and the kids and I, we didn't have any leftovers. Thomas particularly enjoyed the apple slices; Zaylee adored the sweet potato. Jeff and I, we just loved the whole thing!

***By the way, today is National Chocolate Day. Go eat some chocolate and celebrate this inspired holiday!!!!***

Our Anniversary Dinner, Yummy!

Yesterday Jeff and I celebrated five years of marriage. Then today we celebrated more by closing on our house - we get the keys on Tuesday and are so excited!!!!

Anyway, we like to do special homemade meals for special occasions. Yesterday was no different. We had an absolutely delicious dinner of Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing, salad with Basic Vinaigrette, and Anniversary Pie for dessert. It was the same pie I made for our anniversary last year, but I changed it up to include chocolate, teehee. The whole meal was absolutely wonderful.


Pork Chops with Apples and Stuffing


This recipe was based on a recipe I got from my sister a long time ago. The flavors of the pork, the stuffing, and the apple pie filling are absolutely wonderful together. It's delicious just the way it is on her blog, Fabulous Food, but I wanted to give it more of a homemade touch, so I made the apple pie filling from scratch. This is what we came up with.

4 pork chops, about 3/4 inch or thicker
6 apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1 tbsp. lemon juice (only if the apples lack tartness)
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour
1/2 to 1 tsp. cinnamon
Dash nutmeg
1 box stuffing mix

Combine the apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spread in the bottom of a crock pot.

Quickly sear the pork chops over high heat on the stove, just until they're lightly browned on the outside. They shouldn't be cooked through. Place on top of the apples in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low until the pork is thoroughly cooked. In our crock pot it took about 8 hours.

Just before serving, prepare stuffing according to directions on the box. Serve with the pork chops and apples.

Next time I might add a bit more flour to the apples - it made a whole lot of syrup because it was in the crock pot instead of the oven. But as is, it was still absolutely delicious.


Salad with Basic Vinaigrette


For the salad, I just mixed together some green leaf lettuce with a bunch of veggies - mushrooms, shredded carrot, tomatoes, fresh chives (from the garden of a wonderful elderly gentleman in our church). Then I topped it with this simple vinaigrette.

1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp. vinegar
2 tbsp. water
1 tsp. mustard
1/8 tsp. each sugar, salt, and pepper

Combine ingredients and mix well. Store unused dressing in the fridge.

This recipe is really easy to customize and make it however you want. Use flavored oil or vinegar, specialty mustard, or add herbs and/or spices along with the salt and pepper. I made it very basic last night, but it's fun to change things around and make it your own.


Anniversary Pie


Last year I made this with butter pecan ice cream and a plain graham cracker crust. This year we changed it up a bit. I used vanilla ice cream and brown sugar instead of white. I also made a chocolate graham cracker crust, and we topped the pie with an easy chocolate sauce. It was divine!

Crust:
18-20 graham cracker squares (9-10 full sheets)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
6 tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

Crush graham crackers in food processor. Add sugar and cocoa powder, process until mixed. Add melted butter and process again until thoroughly mixed. Empty into a 9-inch pie plate and press onto bottom and sides. Set aside.

Filling:
1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup eggnog
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggnog and ice cream. Pour into crust and freeze until firm. Remove from freezer 10 to 15 minutes before slicing to soften the pie.

Chocolate Sauce:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk (approximately)

Melt chocolate and milk slowly, either in the microwave, in the top of a double boiler, or on the stove over very low heat. Add additional milk if it's too thick (I don't really know exactly how much milk I used, I just eyeballed it and stopped adding when it was a good texture). Drizzle sauce over individual slices of pie (I admit that I might have drizzled a bit more on after taking the pictures).


Well, by the time we were done eating, my stomach was very full, but I sure was happy! This was definitely a very good meal for our anniversary. May Jeff and I continue to have many more years of cooking beautiful and delicious meals together.

Bean Soup - Freezer Meal

Here's the next installment in my freezer meal saga! Going through all my dry beans, I realized that I'm running really low; there was only enough for the refried beans, the chili, and these next couple of bean meals. So this soup and the baked beans (soon to come) had to be made with the only beans I had left - one pound each of black beans and black-eyed peas. I soaked them all together, then used half of that combination to make the soup and will use the rest for the baked beans. And yes, we bought several more pounds of beans when we did our weekly shopping yesterday!


I will take this moment to remind you (or rather, remind myself...) that when you decide to do several large freezer meals in a short period of time, make sure you have all the ingredients necessary. I took it for granted that we would have basics like carrots and onions, because we always have those! But I forgot to take into account that I've been using them in large amounts for the other meals I've done. So when I went to start chopping veggies for the soup, I realized I had only two small carrots and was out of onions. Jeff volunteered to walk to the nearby grocery store and pick up onions (I just can't live without onions), and I added a chopped green bell pepper in place of the third carrot. I could have avoided the need for an extra trip to the store had I made sure that we had all necessary ingredients before we did our shopping yesterday - even the ones that I take for granted!

Bean Soup
2 cups (1 lb) dry beans
2 quarts water
1 ham bone or several polish sausages, sliced (optional, I didn't include this)
1 onion, chopped
3 stalks celery with leaves, chopped
3 carrots, sliced
1 quart tomato juice or stewed tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak beans overnight or by quick method. Drain and add fresh water, 6-8 cups. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer 2 hours or more until beans are tender. Add more liquid if necessary. If you used a ham bone, remove meat from bones, chop, and return to soup.

Freezer Meal: Let soup cool, then spoon into freezer containers or canning jars in meal-sized portions. I don't recommend putting the soup in freezer bags, just because it's so liquidy. Freeze. To use, thaw in refrigerator, empty into a saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Should be good served with a loaf of fresh bread or some corn bread!


I'll probably cook the rest of the beans this evening and do the baked beans in the crock pot overnight tonight. That way I won't heat the apartment too much, which is very important. ;-)

Just a note to myself: I really need to start using more of what's already in the freezer - I'm running out of room to put all these freezer meals! I still have a few more planned and am just hoping that there will be room to squeeze them all in. Fingers crossed!

Our Day-After-Easter Feast

We were a bit slow with the holiday this year. But we did finally go out and buy a ham this morning (well, Jeff did. I was stuck home with morning sickness). So Jeff cooked it up and made some mashed potatoes and frozen peas (so much better than canned!) to go with it. My contribution was finding a delicious glaze recipe for the ham, and adding cream cheese and sour cream to the potatoes to make them creamier.

I'm not putting any recipes in this post - even for the ham glaze we just used this recipe as a guideline instead of following it completely. The potatoes were just thrown together, with Jeff adding whatever seasonings he thought would taste good. Basically, this post is just me being excited that we actually cooked and ate a fancy-ish dinner, and I took a picture of it! Go me!


I spooned some of the pan drippings / glaze over the ham and potatoes on my plate. So good!!!

Taste & Create - Canberra's Baked Beans

I haven't participated in Taste & Create for what seems to me like a long time. But I'm back in the saddle, paired up with Cath, The Canberra Cook. She already posted in December about her experience with my pumpkin pie from homemade puree, here. She had some trouble with her oven, so the pie suffered a bit, but the mini pies she made turned out great!

Meanwhile, having looked through Cath's extensive list of recipes, I chose one that fit wonderfully with my budget and my family's tastes. Here is her recipe for baked beans. These aren't the Boston-style baked beans, they include tomatoes and are less sweet. But they were delicious. The whole family enjoyed these hearty beans.


Baked Beans
1 cup haricot or navy beans (I didn't have either of these, so I used pinto beans)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 onion (I substituted dry minced onion)
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
100g lean ham (I just used about half a can of DAK ham)
water
brown sugar, salt, pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight in plenty of water. Drain, and dump beans into slow cooker. Chop the onion finely, and the ham into small cubes. Mix in with beans, add canned tomatoes, molasses, vinegar and mustard. Add about another tomato can of water to make sure beans are well covered. Do NOT add salt.

Cook on slow setting for 6-8 hours (here I had some problems - I think there was something wrong with my beans because after 13 hours, they were still kind of hard. Maybe I should have soaked them longer). Stir occasionally if you're around, and add a little water if it seems to be drying out. When beans are soft enough for your taste, add salt, pepper and brown sugar to taste.


I doubled the recipe, because I figure why cook half a pound of beans when you can do the whole pound. Hmm, maybe that's part of why mine took so long - my poor old slow cooker had twice as many beans to cook. Hmmm... Besides the cooking time, this recipe doubles very easily. Anyway, this made a whole big pot full of beans, and I plan on freezing the leftovers to enjoy later. The flavor was good, especially after adding the salt and brown sugar. I think this is a recipe I would be glad to make again.

My Kitchen My World - The Philippines

I'm back in the saddle! I have been dreadfully remiss in my blogging events, like My Kitchen My World, Frugal Fridays, and I Love Baking. But I'm going to try to slowly phase myself back in, because it was fun to have the motivation to cook something I normally wouldn't or to challenge myself to go as cheap as possible. This week's My Kitchen My World country was chosen by Lauren, our moderator. We headed off to the Philippines. I visited my favorite recipe website, allrecipes.com, because it never lets me down! I found a good-looking recipe for pork adobo, and though several reviews stated that ketchup is not traditionally found in filipino adobo, I decided to go with it anyway. I guess it worked because my husband, who has eaten adobo on many occasions, said the pork tasted just right. I cut the recipe in half because we only had about a pound of pork thawed.

Pork Adobo
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce (I reduced this to about 3/8 cup because a few reviewers suggested that it was too salty)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 black pepper
1 pound lean pork, cut into 1 inch cubes

Stir together the vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, and bay leaves in a large saucepan. Add the cubed pork, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the pork is tender, about 2 1/2 hours. Stir occasionally. Serve over rice.


I was a little dubious about simmering for 2 1/2 hours, because the pork was cooked through long before then. But I followed the recipe anyway and learned that the long simmering time was necessary to reduce the sauce down - it was much too liquidy at first. The resulting pork was very delicious, tender and flavorful. Maybe a little too flavorful, I think I would reduce the soy sauce even more next time. But all four of us enjoyed our culinary trip to the Philippines.

Visit My Kitchen My World to see what the other MKMW-ers made this week.

Our Big Ol' Family Dinner

My house is in shambles - we need to have everything in boxes and ready to load into the truck on Wednesday morning, so I've been really busy. So this isn't going to be the big, wonderful post that I had hoped for and planned on doing. Oh well, the food was good!

Our meal was very much like a regular Thanksgiving dinner, with turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, fruit salad, and lots of other stuff. My contributions were a roll of cranberry butter, a jar of spiced cranberry sauce, some freezer crescent rolls (they thawed and rose beautifully, you just have to remember to keep them covered while they thaw and while they rise), and a simple chocolate cream pie.

The delicious turkey (sorry for the bad picture, Dad was still carving the ham and wouldn't let me get too close, lest I try to sneak a piece).


My beautiful, gem-like cranberry sauce.


The crescent rolls.


My yummy chocolate pie.


I also have posted a recipe for wheat salad, a delicious salad made with whole wheat berries. I plan on using that idea in a number of other salads, once we've settled in. I think you could use cooked whole wheat berries in place of noodles in a pasta salad with fantastic results! I really couldn't get enough of this salad.


Our dessert was a trio of pies provided by my sisters and I. We're kinda funny, we all decided to start slicing the pies all at the same time, providing these fun pictures.



You may notice that my sister who brought the pecan pie (left) is getting nowhere with her pie - it was kind of hard and she was having a hard time getting the knife to slice through, hence the funny faces! She was finally able to slice her pie with a big pizza slicer. :-) All three pies turned out absolutely delicious.

Anyway, sorry this isn't the big, wonderful post I promised, but I have to get back to packing and cleaning. Don't expect much in the way of posts for the next while, we're packing the computer tomorrow. I'll miss blogging and I will get back to posting regularly as soon as I can! Yesterday was my birthday and I'll post about my cake when I'm able to.

Wish us luck!

Corn Bread-Topped Ham Loaf

This recipe is adapted from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook featuring hamburger and other ground meats. I didn't have some of the ingredients it called for (such as ground ham), and wanted to make a smaller amount for our smaller family. So I made a few adjustments here and there, and this is what I came up with. The fruity sauce and mildly sweet cornbread topping go really well with the savory ham loaf.
Corn Bread-Topped Ham Loaf
10 oz. ham (I used the extra-processed kind that comes in a big loaf. We've been using this same chunk of ham for meals upon meals - it lasts forever and there's so much of it!)
1 large egg
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/4 cup peach or apricot jam
1/4 cup fruity salsa (I used Sam's Club Peach Pineapple Chipotle Salsa)

Corn Bread Topping:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. cornmeal
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup milk (actually, we're running low on milk so I added 3 tbsp. dry milk powder to the dry ingredients and 1/2 cup water to the wet. It worked great)
2 tbsp. melted butter or margarine

I had an interesting time with the ham. The recipe called for ground ham, but I had to improvise. I cut up the ham and stuck it in the blender with the egg and milk. It took some working to get it all chopped up. Just blend for a few seconds, then turn it off and press the goop down, letting out the air pockets, then blend for a few more seconds. It's okay if there are still some kinda big chunks of ham left - it adds to the overall texture.

After the ham has been ground up in the blender with the egg and milk, scoop it out into a bowl and stir in the bread crumbs and chopped onion. Press mixture into a deep 8x8-inch baking dish (I used my 2 1/2 qt. casserole). Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

While the meat is baking, combine the jam and the salsa; set aside.

Prepare the corn bread topping by mixing all the dry ingredients(1st 5 ingredients) in one bowl and all the wet ones(last 3 ingredients) in another bowl. Set aside.

When the meat is done baking, remove from oven and turn temperature up to 400 degrees. Spread jam/salsa mixture over the meat.

Add the wet corn bread ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. Spread over the sauce-topped meat. Bake at 400 for another 20 minutes or until the corn bread is done.
I'm assuming this was a successful venture, because Jeff says, "That was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten!" And he's been standing over my shoulder making sure I write that. And he says to make sure I write that he wants this on his birthday.

Split Pea Soup

This recipe was on the back of our bag of split peas. I had a headache this evening, so Jeff took over dinner-making duties. He proudly proclaimed that he followed the recipe exactly! He measured the vegetables and seasonings and everything. Except that he added chopped ham instead of a ham hock or meaty ham bone - we use what we have. But other than that, he made it exactly as it said to. That's kind of a big thing for us!
Green Split Pea Soup with Ham
1/2 lb. green split peas
4 cups water
1 ham hock or meaty ham bone (here Jeff made his only substitution and added 1/4 to 1/2 lb. cubed ham)
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped carrots
1/2 tsp. salt
1 garlic clove, minced

Wash, sort and drain split peas. Combine all ingredients in a large pot with lid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered, approximately 1 hour or until cooked through; stir occasionally.

Before serving, remove ham hock or bone. cut ham off bone; dice. Add to soup and serve (since our ham was already chopped and bone-free, we were able to skip this step. I keep saying "we," but Jeff was the only one who did any of this. He's great.)
Tip: Green split pea soups are very thick and may need thinning. To thin, heat slowly and stir in small amount of either water, stock, light cream, or undiluted evaporated milk. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook with lid ajar to avoid boil over and add water if needed.

1 cup = 200 calories

Lentil Ham Salad

This is a Taste of Home recipe (Yet again! What can I say, I like Taste of Home!). The combination of ingredients looked really good, and I'm always up for trying something new. Originally it called for chicken, but we have a huge thing of ham in the fridge, so once again I substituted ham for the chicken.

After making and eating this salad, I debated whether to post this recipe or not. I didn't particularly care for it, but Jeff liked it. In the end I thought, why not? After all, I took pictures, and I might as well post them. So here it is.

Lentil Ham Salad
2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
1 cup cooked lentils
1 cup diced ham (or chicken)
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chunky salsa
2 tbsp. dried onions (original recipe called for 4 green onions, chopped)
1 tbsp. lemon juice

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the mayo, salsa, onions, and lemon juice. Pour over salad; toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

This recipe was deceptively time-consuming. Sure, the instructions just say, combine the ingredients. But when you look at the ingredients, about half of them say chopped, diced, or shredded! It took a little while to prep all the veggies and stuff.

Like I said, this wasn't my favorite salad. I though the mayo and salsa would turn out really good, but it just didn't do it for me. I like the idea of lentils in a salad, especially because they're healthy, easy and quick to cook, and very inexpensive. But next time, I'll probably just make up a different salad to put them in.

***Update: I took some leftover salad and added about a teaspoon of sugar. It tasted much better! More like a coleslaw. With sugar, this salad goes from weird to tasty.***

Ham a la King with Baking Powder Biscuits

I asked Jeff what I should make for dinner as we came home from shopping today. After thinking long and hard, all he could come up with was, "Something with ham." At first I was frustrated because that wasn't a very detailed answer. But then I realized that it gave me plenty of leeway to come up with something fun and creative, while giving me a general direction to take. I ended up altering a recipe for chicken a la king and serving it over Betty Crocker's Baking Powder Biscuits. I seriously thought of renaming them Mile-High Biscuits because they rose so well while they were baking. They're the kind that practically split themselves right in the middle - delicious!

Ham a la King
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups broth (I used water and 1 cube chicken bouillon, 1 cube beef bouillon)
2 cups cubed ham
Parsley for garnish (optional)
Baking Powder Biscuits

In large saucepan melt butter over medium-high heat. Cook onion in butter, stirring occasionally, until onion is crisp-tender.

Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk and broth. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in ham; cook until hot. Serve over biscuits. Garnish with parsley.


Baking Powder Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening using pastry blender or criss-crossing 2 knives, until mixture looks like fine crumbs. Stir in milk until dough leaves side of bowl (dough will be soft and sticky).

Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 10 times. Roll or pat 1/2 inch thick. Cut with floured 2 to 2 1/4-inch round cutter (I used the lid ring for a wide-mouthed mason jar). Place on ungreased cookie sheet about 1 inch apart for crusty sides, touching for soft sides.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Serve warm.