Black-eye Pea Dip for New Years!

Eating black-eye peas on New Years seems to be a more Southern tradition. I have looked it up just out of plain curiosity, why we have this tradition! Is it superstitious? Is it because it's healthier than bringing in the new year with a bowl full of sugar? Although I can't remember finding an exact answer (this was many years ago because I was hoping the tradition was wrong and it was actually something more delicious), I do remember that it says the "tradition" dated back the Civil War days. Black-eye peas are hearty and had no problems holding up in winter temperature, they were cheap and readily available to everyone! With that being said, I wish strawberries or tomatoes made the top list of "readily available farm foods", but no here we sit bringing in 2013 with black-eye peas on our plate! It's said to bring luck to your New Year (I'm not superstitious, but why not?)! So, I'm going to share my yummy way to eat black-eye peas! It's simple, and I've made it for years! I can't remember where we came across the recipe! I've seen many variations since, but none of them make my taste buds do a little happy dance quite like this one! I've taken it to many parties and family gatherings and can honestly say, I have NEVER heard a complaint. I've actually had to "re-make" it in front of groups of people because we ran out, and then everyone wanted to know how to make it! So I had a, "make this incredibly simple dip" session in the middle of a get together and felt so silly because in about 5 minutes, I was done, all the while I felt like I should have done a cartwheel/back handspring to give a more "wow" effect! So let's get started so ya'll can hopefully enjoy this tomorrow (I've already grabbed a couple bites and then had to make myself stop or it would be GONE!)

Ingredients:
2 cans of plain black-eye peas (no extra flavorings...I've tried them and it just takes a wrong turn)
1 can of white hominy
1 can of petite diced tomatoes (again no extra flavorings)
3 green onions, chopped
1/2+ of red (you can use any color or combine colors) pepper, chopped
1/2 jalapeno, chopped (more or less depending on how spicy you like your dip)
1/2 bottle of Zesty Italian Dressing
A splash of red wine vinegar ("Splash" means I start to pour count to 1 and put the lid back on)
A couple shakes of salt (really one or two shakes from the salt shaker is all you need because your chips will probably be salted and then it becomes too much)

To start off you're going to open and drain all your "canned" items (peas, hominy, and tomatoes). Once they are drained, pour them into a large bowl. Next chop your green onions and peppers, then add those to the bowl! Now hold your breath and stand on one leg, and turn yourself around (not necessary but it makes me feel like I'm not giving you the EASIEST recipe ever lol)! Add the dressing, and splash of red wine vinegar along with the salt! Mix together and you're done!! It is BEST if chilled overnight, but you can pop it in the fridge covered for a couple hours and you're still good to go! Seriously, THAT EASY!! 

Here are some hints I've heard along the years:
Too Spicy: Easy fix, don't add jalapenos/remove the seeds of the jalapenos/use less jalapeno
Too "Runny": Easy fix: Use a slotted spoon so excess liquid drips off/use less dressing
Would garlic taste good: YES!! Add it if you so desire!
What about chopped onion?? Of course! I love onions, so the more the merrier!

So DELICIOUS

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years! I'm working on some blog ideas for 2013! Ya'll have been so good to me this past year! I'm looking forward to another year of sharing recipes with you! Until next year...

~Happy Eating~

Mongolian Venison (Or Beef)...You decide

So, I've been going a little blog reading crazy! My Pinterest boards have been feelings the effects of it as well! There are just SO many recipes that I want to try, I have no idea how I'll get them all done. I stumbled upon this little blog, Tracey's Culinary Adventures, and fell head over heels for her recipes! I quickly pinned as many recipes as possible, before her Mongolian Beef recipe popped off the page! She uses skirt steak, I used hind steaks (venison), you can take your pick! The smell alone, got DJ out of bed and ready for work without any snooze button!! (Just so you know, I didn't fix this for breakfast! When schedules are crazy you eat an early "dinner" a lot.) But, before we get started on this crazy awesome dinner, I want to introduce to you to my new niece and nephew!

Meet Malachi! Such a sweet little man and full of so much spirit!

Meet Morgan! She is such a cutie pie!

Okay, I won't gush...even though I REALLY want to! I just wanted ya'll to see how much more fun and exciting our lives just got!! 

Now, let's get started on this recipe! Here are the ingredients you will need:

Ingredients

1 lb. skirt steak-thin sliced against the grain (I used venison hind steaks)

1/4 c cornstarch

1/2 c water

1/2 c soy sauce (low sodium)

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

3 tsp canola oil--divided

1/2 tsp. grated ginger

1 TB garlic 

Scallions or green onion to top off (I didn't have either, used a white onion...tasted great)

To start off, you're going to want to take a paper towel and pat the steaks dry and then place them in a resealable bag. Add the cornstarch and give a good shake, shake, shake to move it all around! Once the pieces are coated, pour out onto a strainer and get rid of any excess cornstarch! In a small bowl, whisk together the water, soy sauce, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Set aside for later!

Before they got thin sliced and coated in cornstarch

Now take 1 1/2 teaspoon fulls of the oil and heat it in a pan over med/high heat. Add the ginger and garlic and saute for 15-30 seconds. Add the sauce to the pan and heat through another 2 minutes. Transfer this back to the bowl.

My new cutting board I got from my sister! Love it :)

Turn your heat on high and measure out the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil. Add the beef (or venison) and cook until browned on all sides. Add the sauce back to the pan and turn down the heat. Allow to simmer until your sauce has it's desired consistency.

Getting ready to be cooked! 

Ready to add the sauce back now

Simmering away...Smelling DELICIOUS

All finished! I snapped this photo and then devoured it! It's truly that good!

We served this over white rice, and it was really delicious! Great, quick meal for that left-over meat in your freezer! Thank you all for the visits to my page!! Can't wait to give you an update on the cutie pies!! Until then...

~Happy Eating~

The Pioneer Woman's Prime Rib--Cope Style

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! I hope all of you are enjoying this time of year and not too stressed out or overwhelmed yet :) There are a lot of great memories attached to this time of year for many of us! Seeing friends we haven't seen in awhile, spending time with our families, and more often than not, gathering around in the kitchen sharing stories and laughs with those we love! The kitchen seems to be a gathering place for many households! I can remember many mornings spent in my Mema's kitchen watching her cook breakfast for the family, while the smell of bacon cooking, and biscuits in the oven would wake up and bring the rest of the household in to see what divine breakfast we were all about to eat! Over the holidays, as a little girl, my job was always to taste test her dressing! It was by far my favorite job I've ever had! She would get everything mixed together in a big bowl, add all the seasonings and then let me take a bite to see if I approved! I was always the one who could eat about 1/2 the pan of dressing, it was truly my favorite. With that being said, I guess she figured if I wasn't happy with the way it tasted, she would tweak it until she got it just perfect and then pop it in the oven and we would move on to fixing something else! Lot's of memories made it her kitchen for sure!

Some good friends of ours, The Copes, had a family get together at their house not too long ago! They worked hard to get their table ready and sit with their loved ones to talk and laugh and make a new memory for the holiday! Although we were not present, they sent me pictures of their time together and lots of delicious looking photos of how they prepared the Pioneer Woman's prime rib dinner! So let's get started on this dinner that I'm sure many of us will want to try after hearing about what a successful evening they had!

You can find the recipe on her website, or by clicking here. They told me they followed her directions, and it turned out great. So let's see what ingredients you're going to need:

Ingredients
1 whole rib-eye roast (should weigh in at about 14 pounds)
4 TB olive oil
1/2 c Kosher Salt
4 TB tri-colored peppercorns
3 sprigs of Rosemary
3 sprigs of Thyme
1/2 c minced garlic

Get your oven pre-heated to 500 degrees.

You will take your oil, and add to a pan and heat the oil on high heat! Cut the rib loin in half, then sear both sides of the loin until it has a golden brown color to it! You will want to make sure the heat is on high to make sure you get both sides seared!

Getting the Roast ready to go

Ladies....he's already a married man! Don't get jealous with a good looking man workin'

hard in the kitchen! (He makes some really EXCELLENT food too!)

The Roast...Looks fantastic!

Now take the peppercorns, and place them in a bag. Take a rolling pin and crush the peppercorns with the rolling pin! Take the leaves off the thyme and the rosemary and add  it with the salt and garlic to your crushed peppercorns! 

Then take your olive oil and pour over the roast and then pour on the rub mix! To get the mixture to stick to the roast you will lightly "pat" down on the roast! Sometimes if you try and "push" a rub onto meat you will find that it sticks more to your hands than what you want it to stick to!

Now with your oven set to 500 degrees, you set a timer for 20-30 minutes for the roast. Reduce your heat back down to 300 degrees and cook another 20-30 minutes or until the internal temperature of the meat is reading 125 degrees (this is medium/rare...but no worries...your roast will continue to cook once it's been removed from the oven!) Once you pull the roast from the oven, let it stand for 20 minutes to ensure that it continues cooking! If you like your roast a little more "cooked" then just leave it in for a little longer at first! But you don't want it to go over medium/rare for proper cooking!

In the oven it goes

Finally out of the oven...and looks DELICIOUS!

Now all that's left to do is sit down at this beautiful table and enjoy

the good food, great company, and good laughs!

From word-of-mouth, this roast looked delicious and I've been told tasted even better than it looked! I have yet to find something from the Pioneer Woman that I don't like! She not only has great recipes, but her blog over all is fantastic! We also love her blog, because my sister home-schools (as does she) and she always has great tips and funny quips about her life! 

The professional photos are courtesy of Full Feather Photography. Tara does excellent work, and specializes in children and family photography! You can also follow her blog here. Her business comes to you from Claremore, OK (she does travel to Tulsa frequently). Be sure and check out her work, or even find her on Facebook if that's easier! 

I hope everyone had a safe holiday season, and is gearing up for bringing in 2013! 2012 has been such a blessing for us! Our Christmas was one for the books!! My sister adopted 2 beautiful children from the Congo, and they made it home Sunday evening!! It has been truly amazing to get to know these two angels, and love on them and learn with them!! You'll have to stay tuned for this Aunt to go picture crazy!!! We already have SOOOO many, but they all need to be filtered through! Until the next happening from my kitchen to yours.....

~Happy Eating~

Country Cooking-Spinach Cannelloni

After reading through my new cookbook some more, (Country Recipes), I decided to make spinach cannelloni. Her description of this recipe will make you feel like you're in Italy with her! She talks about friends and family sharing recipes and meals together, and how fresh everything was that they cooked with. Even though the recipe seemed long and tedious (just by looking at it), it was much easier than I expected! The only difference was that when we went to the grocery store, I thought I remembered someone (DJ) saying in the isle that spaghetti sauce was in the cart. I think I must have dreamed that, and didn't even enough supplies to make my own. However, we did have Alfredo sauce in the pantry, so I used that. You make your own white sauce in this recipe so ours was very creamy and delicious! I will probably make it again and use the red sauce just to see what the difference in the flavor is. So let's get started with the ingredients you will need for this:

Ingredients
3 TBS olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, minced
2 cups cooked spinach, squeezed dry and chopped
1 TBS butter (I used about 1 1/2)
1 pound ground sirloin (we used venison)
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley (store was out, I used dried-and used only about half)
2 TBS chopped fresh oregano (store was out, I used dried-and used only about half)
1 TBS basil
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 TBS light cream
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
12 cooked manicotti tubes (or pasta sheets--I used manicotti)
4-5 cups Italian Tomato Sauce (forgot this--we used Alfredo)

Besciamella (White Sauce)
4 TBS butter
4 TBS all-purpose flour
2 cups light cream or half-and-half
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

First, I got my water boiling for the manicotti noodles. Then, in a large skillet, you're going to heat the oil and add the garlic and onion to the oil and saute. You are not wanting to brown the garlic and onion, just cook until they are translucent. Next you're going to add the spinach and cook about 5 minutes until the mixture becomes dry. Remove everything from the skillet, and place in a large bowl. In the same skillet, you are going to melt the butter and brown the meat.  Once the meat no longer pink, add the meat, oregano, egg, parsley, basil, cream, 1/3 cup of Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste, and the nutmeg to the bowl and mix well!
Don't forget about your manicotti! You're going to want to cook them al dente and make sure they are not "too done" because they will fall apart on you while you're trying to stuff them.

 Before the oven

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and stuff each tube of manicotti with the meat mixture. Pour your red sauce (in our case white) on the bottom of the pan (just a thin layer). Next add the stuffed manicotti and then layer with the red sauce again, and then a layer of the Besciamella (white sauce), and then finish it off with Parmesan cheese! Pop it in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the cheese and bubbly and brown! Serve and enjoy!

After we dug in! Yummy

If you're interested in purchasing the wonderful cookbook you can find it here! It's $18.95 on Amazon!

Stay tuned for more recipes and

~Happy Eating~

Lettuce Wraps-PF Chang style

I love those recipes that are so good, they are asked for again and again! Dee Jay just reminded me that we haven't had lettuce wraps in awhile, so I started on this extremely delicious dinner for us last night! A happy side note is that even though you are "wrapping lettuce" around a mixture of goodness after about four of them Dee Jay decided he was full and that they make a heavier meal than one would imagine! So ladies, get your guys to try them out. I'm going to go out on a limb that they will not be disappointed (or left hungry)! I found this recipe on this cute blog, Bohemian Transplant! If you have some time to look around her blog at all her recipes, you won't be disappointed! She also has great insights for parents, and photography as well! So let's get started with what all you're going to need for this recipe!

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken
1/2 onion, minced
salt & pepper (to taste)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
1 TB sesame oil
2 1/2 TB soy sauce
1/2 TB water
1 TB peanut butter
1/2 TB honey
1 TB + 1 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp (+) Chili garlic sauce (you can add sriracha if you want to add a kick)
3 green onions
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped

First, you're going to add the chicken and onion with a dash of salt and pepper and cook in a skillet until nearly done! Next, add the garlic and ginger and continue to cook until the chicken is no longer pink.

Here we are simmering with garlic

and ginger and onion

 

In a small sauce pan, heat the sesame oil, soy sauce, water, peanut butter, honey, rice vinegar, red chili sauce, and another dash of pepper. Stir until the sauce runs smooth and then add the sauce to the skillet and stir to combine everything.

After you have everything mixed, you can add the green onions and cook another couple of minutes and then sprinkle with the chopped peanuts. 

 

Sorry about the blurry photo! I was in a hurry to eat and didn't stop and

look at the pictures I was taking :)

 

When everything is mixed and warmed through, you are going to serve this in the middle of cold lettuce leaves! Wrap the sides of the lettuce around the mixture and enjoy! It's that easy! 

Woo-Hoo

 

I hope you all enjoy this as much as we do! I know it's not exactly PF Chang quality, but sometimes it's nice to bring those recipes home and try them out for yourself! Hope everyone is having a fun and fantastic start to your week!! Stay tuned for more deliciousness from our kitchen to yours!! 

~Happy Eating~