Oatmeal Raisin Scones

It's the day before Super Bowl. I have my wings defrosting in the frig and a few other things we are going to see if we can pick up tomorrow. We aren't having a party just the 2 of us. Wings and bacon wrapped tater tots and these scones for desert. I wanted something sweet. I have been making a really nice coffee cake which isnt too sweet. I will post the recipe for that another time. But these scones we can also have in the morning with coffee..hmmmm...coffee..and my favorite cookie is actually oatmeal raisin. WHich I am still searching for a really good. chewy one. Scones are not that hard to make and actually to me taste better the next day.

                                                           Oatmeal Raisin Scones

• 3 cups of all purpose flour, plus more for the counter
• 2 1/2 cups of rolled oats
• 3/4 cup of white sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 12 ounces sweet cold butter cold and diced small
• 1 cup golden or regular raisins or even both
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine everything except the half-and-half until just combined. Do not over mix. (Mixture will not be creamed, just mixed together.)

Quickly pour in 1 1/4 cups of the butter milk while mixing quickly. If the dough appears at all dry add the remaining 1/4 cups of half & half until just combined. Again, do not over mix.

Turn the dough out onto a very well floured surface. If the dough is very sticky, flour the top of the dough also. Pat the mixture into a layer 3/4 to 1-inch thick. Using a 2-inch diameter round cutter, cut out the scones, dipping the cutter into flour each time between cuts. Place each scone, as cut, onto a parchment paper covered sheet pan leaving 2 to 3 inches between each scone. This should make 12 round scones (You can also form dough into rectangular shape and cut with a knife into 12 square or triangle scones.)

Bake for about 18 minutes or until golden brown on both the top and bottom of scones.

Ideas For Gifts

Some times our gift giving can use a little help. For people who have almost everything why not a funny t-shirt? Whether your receipant is a gamer or go getter there is a shirt for everyone.

Here is a great place you can by some quality shirts with funny sayings on them:


Zazzle
Zazzle is a popular Print On Demand ( POD ) site that people have been using for a few years.
They have funny shirts wedding invitations phone cases and many other things.

I would definitely take a look and see what they have. You may be pleasantly surprised. I still have alot of things left on my list to get for people. How about you? Have you even started?
Do you like to wait till the last minute?

Please Pray For Paris

Doug Pitassi's 15 Best Restaurants in Portland

I love to travel. And when I do travel, the first things I check out before getting to my destination is the local food. Since most people, when on vacation, won't be cooking for themselves it is important to find the best places. Going to that one place and realizing the food and service was horrible can sometimes put a damper on your whole trip.
Before heading out to Portland Oregon make sure you pick up this little gem:

Doug who lives in Portland, Oregon, has tried the local eateries around town and has made our choices much easier to have a great meal whether we just moved to the area or we are visiting on vacation.
Here is a one of the places in the book:

Bambo Sushi

There are three locations in Portland.

"With a focus on sustainability and a commitment to conservation, Bamboo Sushi has clearly demonstrated that it is entirely possible for a restaurant to thrive by simply offering delicious and environmentally friendly seafood."

Here is the book which you can pick up for yourself:

Doug Pitassie's 15 Best Restaurants in Portland
http://dougpitassi.com/my-book/

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day

Let's Honor Our Vets

Halloween Pumpkin Picking 2015

We hope everyone had a nice Halloween this year. Things have been hectic once again now that the holidays are creeping up on us. Already November and still so much left to do before Christmas let alone Thanksgiving.

I will try and get some Thanksgiving recipes up. And some pictures and video when we sit down to eat.
I will have some unboxing videos and pictures coming from PinchMe and ipsy. End of next month I will show you what we got as far as samples go.

Here is a video of me and my mom at our local church picking our pumpkin. At the end is a house by us that had some really neat decorations. Mom really liked the dragon. Even it's wings moved!

Summer Grilling Recipes

It's that time again! Summer is almost here and tons of grills will be fired up and ready to go. This summer I will be adding some of our family favorites. From my brother Chris' burgers and chicken on the grill, to my mom's easy store macaroni salad. So look for these recipes coming up with the next week. We will also be including some grills tips from Chris on how to use your charcoal grill without lighter fluid. 

Spring is Here!

I am so ready for Spring. This winter was very cold. Can't wait to start cleaning up the garden so we can start growing our veggies.
Beautiful tulips and daffodils have been blooming throughout our flowerbeds. So much to look forward to. New recipes. New videos. And new reviews.
Hope everyone is excited about Spring as I am!

Corn Nuggets

As I am writing this my tummy is growling. I spent the day going through my old laptop and finding recipes I had collected. Being that I am originally from up north I had never eaten these before. Then I had moved to Jacksonville. Oh the foods I ate and loved! One BBQ place we went to alot had these as their appetizer. Oh so good with ranch dressing. Yes you have to freeze these. DO NOT skip this step!! That's how they stay together when you fry them. Gives these a try and tell me how they came out.

CORN NUGGETS
Ingredients:
1 (11 ounce) can creamed corn
1 (11 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg white
2 tablespoons milk
salt and pepper to taste
3 cups vegetable oil for deep frying
Directions:
In a medium bowl, stir together the creamed corn and drained whole kernel corn. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, and coat with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Drop spoonfuls of the corn mixture onto the sheet, and freeze until firm, about 3 hours. Heat one inch of oil to 350 degrees F in a large deep skillet, or fill a deep-fryer with oil as directed by the manufacturer. Mix together the cornmeal, flour, egg white, milk, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Dip frozen corn nuggets in the batter, and quickly fry in hot oil until golden brown. Remove to paper towels to drain.

Asian Noodle Salad

I was looking for a quick noodle dish and had a hankering for some Chinese noodles. Yes I said hankering. It was the first word that popped in my silly brain. I have found that during the hot summer days I do not want to heat up the kitchen. I am envy of those people that have summer kitchens. Looking through the grocery aisle I found some Hokkien stir fry noodles. Like the Uncle Ben's rice that you microwave for 90 seconds these noodles were the same. That means no turning on the stove! Here is the recipe:

1 pkg of Hokkien Stir-Fry Noodles
1/3 cup of rice vinegar
1/3 cup of stir-fry oil
1/2 bottle of Sweet Chili Sauce
1 bag of sliced red cabbage
1 bag of baby kale or spinach chopped
1 red onion sliced
1 yellow pepper sliced
1 bag of bean sprouts ( you can use canned but drain them )
3 carrots shredded
chopped cilantro for garnish
chopped cashews for garnish

Microwave the noodles for 90 seconds and set aside. In a large mixing bowl add and stir the vinegar, stir-fry oil, and chili sauce together. Add the rest of the ingredients leaving the noodles till last. Add noodles and stir. Let sit for about 15 minutes till all the flavors marry.

ENJOY!

Classic Home Style Macaroni Salad

I am all for trying new things. Whenever I go out to eat will look over the menu and decide on something new. Don't be afraid! But there are times when just a good ole classic dish is what me and my family are craving for. Here is a simple macaroni salad that I know your family will enjoy.

CLASSIC HOME STYLE MACARONI SALAD

2 cups of macaroni pasta
1 red bell pepper diced
2 stalks of celery diced
1/2 of a red onion diced
1/2 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons of white vinegar
2 teaspoons of yellow mustard
1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of black pepper

Cook your pasta according to the directions of the package. Drain and run under cold water. This stops it from cooking more and you do not want to mix mayo with hot pasta. Cold pasta makes the dressing stick better and it won't be absorbed into the pasta. In a large bowl stir the ingredients together and chill for a few hours. If the pasta seems a little dry then add a little bit of mayo. A spoonful at a time. This makes 8-12 servings. Enjoy!!

Chicken Parmeatballs

I have made and eaten several different kinds of party meatballs. Either with sausage or beef. Never chicken though. So here is a recipe I hope you will enjoy and make for your next party that you plan. These taste just like Chicken Parmesan!

CHICKEN PARMEATBALLS

1 pound of ground chicken meat ( you could use turkey )
3/4 cup of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic crushed or pressed
1 small onion finely grated
2 tablespoons plus 1 cup of marinara sauce ( you can make your own or store bought )
1/2 tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped parsley
2 tablespoons of fresh chopped basil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1 large egg beaten
1 cup of shredded Italian blend cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set the 1 cup of marinade and the shredded cheese aside for now. In a large bowl mix the other ingredients together but do not over mix the meat mixture. Then scoop out enough mixture to make a small meatball. Rough a tablespoon size. You can use a tablespoon scoop if you have one. Put your meatballs on the baking sheet and bake for 16-18 mins till light brown. Take the meatballs out. Set your oven to broil. Drizzle the 2 tablespoons of marinara over each meatball and a little bit of the shredded cheese. Put back under the broiler. Broil for 2-3 mins till cheese is melted then serve with marinara. Enjoy these yummy meatballs!!!

Makes about 48 meatballs.

Key Lime Tarts

Spring is here! It's been nice enough to grill outside. A quick treat to make for desert is Key Lime Tarts. And being I had lived in Florida for several years this is a very, very yummy treat.

Ingredients:

24 Key Lime Cooler Cookies
8 ounces of softened cream cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of lime key lime juice
1 teaspoon of lime zest
fresh sweetened whipped cream
mint or lime zest for garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Fill 2 ( 12 muffin ) mini muffin tins with paper cups that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Place one cookie in the bottom of each paper cup with flat side down.
Prepare the filling by beating the cream cheese, egg, sugar, lime juice and zest until well mixed. fill the cups with mixture to the top. Bake tarts for 10-12 mins. remove tarts to cool. When completely cooled top each tart with sweetened whipped cream. Garnish with mint leaf or lime zest.

Popovers

I went to a wonderful place for a Christmas luncheon with my mom and a few of her friends from work. The place was decorate so beautifully for the holidays. One of the first things they brought out was these wonderful popovers. My mom has told me many times that one of her grandmother's favorite holiday recipe that she made was popovers. She would put chicken salad in them or Lobster Newberg. Here is her recipe for just the popovers that my Mom has handed down to me. Miss you great Granny!



                                                                    Popovers


3 Tbls of butter
2 large eggs
1 cup of milk which should be lukewarm
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 tsp of kosher salt

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Brush some of the melted butter over a muffin tin. Put the tin in the oven for 5 mins. Meanwhile mix the eggs in until they are a light yellow. add the milk until blended then the salt and flour. Pour the batter in the muffin tinsand return to the oven to bake for 30 mins or till golden brown. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DURING THIS TIME! Serve with just butter. These are so good you can't just eat one.

Christmas Wreath Tutorial

Some people have been asking me how to make some of the charms in my last post. I decided to pick the Christmas wreath as it is the easiest to learn how to do and easy to follow along. Below is the tutorial video on how I made it. This is my first time doing a tutorial with the camera on a tripod. It kinda didnt want to focus a few times so I talked to my brother and he said it was a setting he had to look at. My next tutorial will be alot better.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hello!

It's been a trying spring and summer. Moved back home with Mom so we could get back on our feet. Things just ended up falling apart. But we have hope and faith things will go well and I will try and keep up to date with the blog.

I started a garden at my Mom's..a small garden. Containers of Roma tomatoes, green peppers and yellow squash. She had herbs she had from last year and then in the fall we are making a bigger garden which we will be planting alot more stuff next spring. I can't wait!!! I will give updates with pictures tomorrow if its not raining. 

I have been doing alot of family history research here and went to a few of the family cemeteries. I have pictures also to share. Been some nice findings and much more to research. 

Lastly me and my youngest brother have been going to garage sales and estate sales to by things to resell on ebay. During one of our garage sales visits I bought a bead kit which had everything in it to make different pieces of jewelry. My brother had some vintage camera charms and this is what I made:

And this pair:

We decided to put them on ebay and the first pair already has a bid on them. Sometime this week I will be going to buy some more beads and make some pendants and more earrings. There is a place by us that is going out of business so we might find some really great stuff on sale. 

And that is what has been happening since last I posted. I really will try and post more. Please check out our ebay site for vintage cameras and other things we sell.  Hope everyone has a great day!

Latest Garden Update

Another week has passed and things have really taken off in our garden! We did lose a few plants. One of our potatoes had the early stages of blight. So we burned the leaf growth and harvested the potatoes. Sad to say there was only 4 red potatoes. But luckily they were ok and I had those for breakfast with some eggs. They were really tasty.
When it rains we have a bad run off of water in the garden. We haven't been able to replace some of the gutters so I have had to dig a trench so the water will go in a different direction. With that said we lost our two Brandy Wine tomato plants but never fear I had replacements. I made sure I had a few extra of each.
We have already harvested some turnip greens and have been adding them in rice dishes. It's almost like eating spinach. We can't wait till things finally start to produce so I can bring you some great cooking videos.

Things have also been a little tough this month what with work slowing down. Hopefully things will pick up.And please dont forget to subscribe to our youtube channel. We have already hit 102 subscribers! We are hoping when we get to 500 to do a giveaway. Come help us get to that goal!

Click here to go straight to my channel and subscribe! Thanks for your support!

April 13th 2013 Garden Update

Our weekly garden update. As you can see things are growing right along. We are getting temps in the 80s during the day and 50s at night. At least one full day of rain a week. We are still having a problem with corn so I planted 6 corn plants in a plastic tote so the "pest" doesn't eat the tender young leaves. So far it hasn't touched anything else. This week inside I planted June bearing strawberries, bibb lettuce, spinach, collards, cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli, parsley, and sunflowers.
Today I started a big old pot of blackeyed peas which I do have a recipe for and this time I used a smoked ham bone.
Outside I planted 4 green bell pepper plants, 2 eggplants and one brandywine tomato. I will plant the rest in a few days till I see how these take. So far so good. Okra is next.

Thanks for everyone who has been subscribing to our youtube channel. We are almost at 100 subs. When we get to 500 I will see about having a giveaway. I was thinking maybe fall seeds to grow in your garden. I might throw in some spices too.

Our Garden Update April 2013

This year we have a new outlook on life. We have set a few goals and we are going to try and accomplish them. First and foremost is eating healthier. Of course eating healthier usually costs more than what we would normally buy on a limited budget. So we decided to take another stab at growing our own organic garden.

 As you can see things are looking pretty good. We spent very little on getting started. A wonderful person in our lives donated the seeds and we couldn't be happier. ( Remember to always play if forward with kindness) Most of the material we found. We bought a few bags of manure and worked that in the soil a few weeks before we started planting. I have compost but just started it so it won't be ready to work into the soil till the end of the year.
Growing your own food is so rewarding. I can hardly wait to make the first harvest! There will be recipes and DIY on gardening and some other things we will be throwing in. If you would like to follow the garden progress please subscribe to our youtube channel for weekly garden updates and future recipes!

Rag Rug

My kitchen rug or mat has seen better days. Being we don't have much money I opted to make my own and it's coming out really nice. It's made from old sheets and clothes. With a big thick crochet hook I am just crocheting it all together. This one is actually going where the kitchen and livingroom meet up. I started a blue and green one from DH old jeans which will stand up more to kitchen wear. Just by the sink. I will post a pic when it's finished.