Potluck Pleaser

As the holidays approach we all have gatherings that require us to bring along a hot dish. I personally almost always bring some sort of yeast bread or rolls or a cheesecake or another dessert....mostly because that's what I like the best and other people don't seem to want to make that kind of thing.

But, homemade bread and super rich cheesecakes are not necessarily easy on the budget. I've recently discovered a cheap potluck dish that is easy to make and pleases the crowd. My friend Lucia made this for a cast party we attended and everyone raved about it. And all of the ingredients cost just a few cents (except the bacon). It takes the standard baked beans just a little further. I give you Lucia's Bean Bake

Lucia's Bean Bake

8 slices of bacon (cooked and crumbled)

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. cider vinegar

1 tsp. dry mustard (or 1 Tbsp. regular mustard)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

4 large onions

3 15-oz cans of beans (choose any combination of the following lima, butter, kidney, white, pinto, black, green)

1 15-oz can of baked beans (not pork'n beans)

Mix sugar, mustard, garlic salt, salt and vinegar. Place sliced onions & vinegar mixture in pan. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Drain all beans, except the baked beans. Place in a 9x13 pan. Cover with vinegar/onion mixture and crumbled bacon. Bake 1 hour @ 350.

For more Kitchen Tips and recipes head over to Tammy's Recipes.

Just Another Manic Monday

Sugar Rush

At Grandma and Grandpa's Place.....

...there were always a lot of sweets....not necessarily for us. Mostly for Grandpa. But he always shared.

Grandpa had a massive sweet tooth. As a matter of fact the sweets had claimed most of his teeth and for many years when I was little he had only his two eye teeth left (and he was only 50 years old!). He finally lost those too and got a nice set of false teeth....that he only wore to church and for eating meat. But I digress.

Grandpa should have owned stock in Hostess. He loved Hostess pies the best but he appreciated all of their products. There were always half eaten pies wrapped up and laying on top of the fridge, accompanied by one of those two packs of the square cinnamon rolls with the gooey cherry filling in the middle. What are those called? Next to them there would most likely be a few candy bars, too.

But one of Grandpa's all time favorites was the Oreo cookie. He ate Oreos every single day. He would break 4 or 5 of them up into an aluminum glass filled with cold milk and then eat the whole soggy mess with a spoon. (I still eat my Oreos that way to this day.) He loved Oreos so much that we started giving them to him for Christmas. What else did he need? What else would he enjoy more? Someone even gave him an Oreo throw pillow that looked just like the blue Oreo package, that adorned his chair for years.

Then one day he just stopped buying them. He went cold turkey. We couldn't believe it. Where were the Oreos!? They had gotten too expensive. Yep. If there was anything Grandpa loved more than sweets it was a bargain. And despite his great love for that creamy center he wouldn't over pay for it. So that was it. I never saw him buy an Oreo again...and we're talking years with no Oreos.

(Of course we are talking about the man who only 2 years ago bought a motorcycle that only had one handle bar because it was a great deal. He claimed he could find a one armed man to buy it off of him.) His search for cheap forms of sugar took him down many paths actually.

I was there in person for his experiment with diet soda. Grandpa's drink of choice was always Pepsi. He called it his "medicine" and made a great big "ahhhh" sound after each swig. But Pepsi wasn't on sale this particular week, Diet Pepsi was. So what is any cheap sugar-aholic gonna do? Buy Diet Pepsi and put sugar in it, of course.

Yes, long before Diet Coke and Mentos was ever thought of, I saw what a tablespoon of sugar dumped in to a bottle (remember glass soda bottles?) of Diet Pepsi would do. It was like he'd been shaking that bottle for half an hour. It immediately started fizzing and spraying all over Grandma's kitchen. Of course Grandpa thought that was hilarious. I wonder what he did with the other 5 bottles in the pack? I'm sure he didn't drink them. Diet and Grandpa did not get along at all.

Despite his great love for all things sweet, when asked which food he would choose if he knew he could only eat one thing for the rest of his life his reply was, "Gravy."


On This Date In 1979:
There were no entries in Grandma's diary for November 1st through November 14th. It was the middle of harvest and Grandma was busy with her classes, I guess. So here is the entry from October 29th, 1979:

"Washed clothes and took care of the kids (my sister and I). They ate dinner with Bill at the field. They played out a lot and took a long nap. Tim picked 1100 bushel of corn, Shannon hauled for Irvin Sager."

Happy Birthday X 2

With a birthday right between Halloween and Election Day what is a 9 year old boy to do?

How about have a Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake with a vote on top for which costume he should dress up in for the party? Ingenious.

Yes, Ryker's party guests had to vote (there were ballots next to the cake) for whether he should wear his Iron Man or Indiana Jones costume during the party.

He always dresses in costsumes for his parties...I guess because they are usually the day after Halloween. But this year he was conflicted about just which super hero (oh yes, in our house Indiana Jones is a super hero) he should be.

When the votes came in Indy won by just one vote, but being the kind kid that he is he wore both costumes during the night so that no one would be too disappointed.

Yes, I know. You are thinking that Ryker had a fresh pumpkin pie for his birthday. That's true. He had two parties. One with my side of the family and one with Brian's side of the family. It is just too many people to have all at once.

My side got to vote and eat Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake (Ryker's special request) after a weiner roast. And Brian's side got to have fresh pumpkin pie and make homemade pizzas (again Ryker's special request). They were not treated to any costumes however, except for Cainan's appearances as Batman and Optimus Prime...but that is such a regular occurence that I'm not sure anyone even notices any more. I know I don't.

It was a fun, but crazy party weekend that left my house trashed and Ryker praying, "Thank you for all of my presents, even though I know that's not what's really important. Thank you that my family was with me."

Recycling Baby

I guess all of my reducing, reusing and recycling efforts over the past year have really made an impact on my kids.

Not long ago I turned on the faucet to fill a big soup pan that was sitting down in the sink. I then left the room for a minute. It wasn't long before I heard Cainan shout, "Who's wasting water?!"

Not two days later I was watching as Kinley played with one of her dolls. She put the doll in her high chair then got out some play food and started to feed her. She picked up a little pretend box of corn flakes, dumped them in the doll's bowl then marched right over to the closet, opened the door and threw the box into the cardboard recycling bin.

It makes a mommy proud.

And on that note, if you would like to have your very own reusable Target shopping bag go here for details.

May The Best/Cutest Man Win

Well, the polls haven't closed yet but our family is firmly divided in this election.

When the ballots were cast at school yesterday our sons did not agree on who should be our next president.

Ryker voted for John McCain because he read a story about how he was in the military and captured by the enemy. He felt like this made him a "great man".

Cainan voted for Barack Obama because he "had the nicest face".

Anybody got a better reason to vote for either one of them?

Me neither.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie

I still haven't used all of my apples up yet so there will likely be another apple recipe here next Tuesday, but for a little bit of a switch I thought I'd give you all a pumpkin recipe.

Ryker requested a fresh pumpkin pie for his birthday. By fresh I mean made out of a pumpkin that he picked out of our garden. It really isn't as hard as it sounds and in tastes delicious.

Even if you don't have pumpkins in your garden a lot of places will be selling pumpkins for next to nothing now that Halloween is over. You can pick one up and surprise your family with a homemade pie tonight. Or you can also make the pumpkin pie filling and freeze it until you are ready to make your holiday pies.

Here is how you do it.

1. Cut the top and the bottom off of your pumpkin and scrape out the seeds, being careful not to scrape out too much of the flesh.

2. Peel the pumpkin with a potato peeler and then cut it into 2 in. square chunks.

3. At this point you have a couple of options. If you have a pressure cooker you can dump the pumpkin chunks in there with a little water and let it start pressuring. Once it gets to full pressure just let it cook for 10 mins. and then cool it off and you're ready to go. If you do not have a pressure cooker you can lay the pumpkin chunks on a cookie sheet and bake them in a 350 oven until they are bright orange and extremely soft. This may take up to an hour. Just poke them with a fork to test for doneness.

4. When your pumpkin is soft use your electric mixer to mush it all up into a pie filling consitency. You will need 2 cups of mashed pumpkin for this pie recipe, so reserve that out and then put the rest into freezer containers and let it cool before you place it in the freezer.

5. That's it! Now proceed with your favorite pumpkin pie recipe or use this one.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie

2 cups fresh pumpkin, mashed

1 can evaporated milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

1/4 brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

In a mixing bowl beat eggs. Add milk and vanilla. Combine sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Add to egg mixture. Stir in pumpkin. Beat until smooth. Poor into prepared crust. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 and bake for 30 additional minutes. Remove from oven when filling is set. Let cool. Refrigerate.

Warning: This pie will not look like a regular pumpkin pie made from canned pumpkin. It will not be dark orange and may even look more like a custard pie than a pumpkin pie. That orange coloring is added to canned pumpkin. But yours will taste just like the pumpkin you are used to...only better.

For more great recipes and kitchen tips head over to Tammy's Recipes.

Manic Monday

I know I've used this one before but I thought it was appropriate for the eve of the election.

Aldi vs. Wal-Mart

In case you've ever wondered if shopping at Aldi is really worth the hassel....

Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer did an item by item price comparrison of Wal-Mart and Aldi and posted the results in spreadsheet format on her blog.

Check it out here.

The Reading List

I've been a little behind in my reading list lately but I recently got it all caught up.

If you haven't noticed, I have a list of all of the books I've read in 2008 on my sidebar. I also have a link there to the reviews I have written about those books. If you like to read and like to see what other people are reading then you should check it out.

Click here to see my complete list of book reviews.

And here is a sneak peek at the books I would like to read next:

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright
The Shack by William Young
Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
So Brave Young and Handsome by Leif Enger
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Grupery
The Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Innocent Man by John Grisham

Let me know if you've read any of these and if they are good or not. I don't really know much about any of them except that they were recommended to me in one way or another.