3 Bean Salad

I made this last week for something to take to work. I've been thinking about it for a long time, but just never got around to it. It's 3 Bean Salad and it's pretty yummy. It's a different take from the vinegar and oil based salads I've been making most of my life. When I was working in a family-style steakhouse, we bought this stuff pre-made in cans. It's so simple to make and costs a whole lot less. It also tastes better than the canned stuff.

3 Bean Salad

As you can see, the three beans are green, waxed and kidney. The green and waxed beans are the staple of the salad. If you like, you can replace the kidney beans with cannelli beans or limas or whatever you'd like. Black beans or black-eyed peas would be pretty and probably taste really good in here.

Here's the recipe:

3 BEAN SALAD

1 can cut green beans, drained and rinsed
1 can cut waxed beans, drained and rinsed
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed - I used dark kidney beans for the color contrast
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped

Dressing
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil - if you use olive oil, it will coagulate until the salad warms up
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix the dressing ingredients together. Add to the beans. Stir and put into the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.

*You may need to double the dressing ingredients as this is just enough for my taste.*

This is pretty good to serve with just about any type of meal. It's nice on a hot day when you don't want to heat beans on the stove. It also is good to whip up if you know company is coming soon and you don't have much to serve. As long as the sugar dissolves, you can serve it lukewarm. In my opinion, it just tastes better if it's chilled.

Enjoy!

Take care and happy cooking.

Banana Pancakes

Did you ever get a bunch of bananas and not get them all eaten? I'm sure all of us have had a bunch over our lifetime as a housekeeper. Right? It must be so since there are so many banana bread recipes out there. I made about 3 double batches of banana bread over the course of a month. Yeah. That's a lot. Each of my double batches makes one very long loaf, which I have a special pan for, and 3 mini loaves. A lot of these were given away.

SOOOO, this time, I decided to make some banana pancakes instead.

Banana Pancakes & Sausage

Were they good? Yep! Were there leftovers? Yep! Are they in the freezer for later? You bet!

I have my own recipe for the batter, which I've perfected over the years. The standard batter from cookbooks just don't turn out good for me. But the banana pancake batter is a little different because of the bananas. Here's how I did it.

BANANA PANCAKES

Dry Ingredients
2 cups white flour
1/4 cup white sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon


Put all of this in a bowl and stir it together. If you decide to add chocolate mini-chips* to the batter, add them now, to the flour mixture and stir until they're coated.

Next
2 very ripe bananas mashed well with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Mix this together in a separate container.

Wet Ingredients

In a 1 cup measuring cup, put two eggs.
Put in a heaping tablespoon of sour cream or unflavored yogurt.
Stir together.
Add enough milk to this cup to make 1 cup of liquid.

Add the banana mixture and the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and stir well.
If you want your batter to be a little looser, add some more milk, a little at a time.

Cook on a greased hot griddle and serve with your favorite syrup or jelly.

I got about twelve 6" pancakes from this recipe. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to portion the batter.

In my opinion, these turned out really well. You can add chocolate mini-chips to the batter*, if you like. Also, I wanted to add nuts, but I didn't have any walnuts on hand. Raisins are good to add, too.

If you decide to try this, please come back and let me know in the comment section. I'll be very interested to see if you liked them.

Take care.

Easy Cinnamon Biscuit Roll

I'm always on the lookout for easy recipes to add variety to our meals. Here is one I found on Mennonite Girls Can Cook. It is their Cinnamon Biscuit Roll. This is the exact recipe I used without any variations except I didn't glaze my roll.

As you can see on my blogroll, I have the Mennonite Girls' website listed. Every recipe I've ever made from this site has worked out great and tastes great, too. I've also made the Rhubarb Platz for company and work. You can substitute fruits so I did. We don't have rhubarb here, in South Carolina, so I used apples and cinnamon one time. I used apricot filling another time. Next time I'll use canned cherry pie filling or fresh blueberries. It is really a pretty presentation and tasty, to boot. However, it is too sugary and I won't make it for home. This is just something special I make for others.

If you haven't ever been to this site, it's well worth the browse. The recipes are great. The pictures are great. They give you a bit of a background about themselves. They have a special Sunday "Bread for the Journey", which is very inspiring.

Here is what my Cinnamon Biscuit Roll looked like.

Cinnamon Biscuit Roll

As you can see, it turned out pretty much like on the Mennonite Girls' website. It is nice and flaky and not very sweet. It's more like a biscuit in texture. It holds together well if you want to eat it with your fingers. If I were to serve this for company, I would either glaze it after baking, or sugar it before baking.

I hope you'll give this one a try and browse the Mennonite Girls' website.

Take care.

Picnic Today

As I mentioned yesterday, we had a Memorial Day picnic today. All of the local relatives showed up. We had the BBQ ribs (my way), burgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, pasta salad, potato salad, veggie tray and a few other things. My nieces brought baked beans (really yummy!) and deviled eggs and pasta salad. So, we had two of the same pasta salads. The deviled eggs looked nice, but I don't eat them so I couldn't say. However, a lot of them disappeared.

Thanks to my nieces for bringing their goodies. They didn't have to but they like to. : ) They're both good cooks.

I made something different this time. I made a trifle. I was looking for a dessert other than just cookies that I made and froze. So, I got the pound cake I made for strawberries and made it from a recipe from a very old cookbook. Here's how easy it was to make.

Chop up the pound cake into cubes.
Spoon / spread some strawberry jam or jelly on it.
Add some fresh strawberries (my addition because I had them.
Spoon a prepared large package of vanilla pudding over the strawberries. I used sugar-free.
Cover with whipped cream or topping.
Eat and enjoy!

I thought it turned out really well. My young nephew made a comment it was good. That was a compliment!

I hope all of you have a happy and safe Memorial Day. Please celebrate safely.

Take care.

Say Cheeeeeesecake!

Here's a pic of my chocolate cheesecake before it cooled. For those of you who don't make cheesecake, it comes out of the oven nice and high, then it falls slightly when it is cooled. That is why there is usually an indent on the top of the cheesecake when you buy one.

Chocolate Cheesecake

How many of you have tried to make a cheesecake? Did you know it is really simple? I used to think that there was some mystifying thing you had to do to get it to bake and taste good. That's why no one, except those with special talents, made them. Phooey! Anyone can make them.

Here is the link from Hershey's to make this scrumptious cheesecake. I like to serve my cheesecakes with ice cream toppings from a squeeze bottle. This makes it really easy to do. Also, you can change up flavors each time you make the cake by using the ice cream toppings. I bet the candied pecan ice cream topping would be really delicious with this! I just may try that one next time.

If you get a chance to make this cheesecake, shoot me a comment.

Take care!

Sauce

Today was sauce making day. I make sauce only a couple of times a year because it's an all-day affair. I buy sauce in a jar the rest of the year. However, I think that I'll be doing this more often. When I make sauce, I know exactly what is going into the batch. You have to take someone else's word of what is in commercially made sauce. Then there's the 4% unknown allowance...That's enough to make one sick, if you have an overactive mind like I do.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

No. We didn't have spaghetti for dinner. We had leftovers. However, we had some Italian-style food last night for dinner.

Macaroni and Meatsauce

This is one of my favorites since I can put dinner on the table in 30 minutes.

MACARONI AND MEATSAUCE

1 jar spaghetti sauce, chunky is best
1/2 lb pasta, cooked
1 lb ground beef

Brown the ground beef. Pour off extra fat, if there is any. Add jar of spaghetti sauce. Stir until warm. Add cooked pasta. Stir until coated and warmed through. Serve!

As you can see, there are a few extras in my sauce. I add chopped onions, peppers and canned diced tomatoes. But, if you get a chunky sauce, you don't have to add extras. Easy!!!

Have a delicious day!

Take care.

Enchilada Casserole

This is what we had for dinner Sunday night.

Enchilada Casserole

While this may not look so tempting, it really is tasty. This picture is straight out of the fridge and it loses some of the shiny yumminess to it.

 Hubby and I went for a visit to Florida this past Christmas. We visited his brother and family. My BIL's one daughter made this and I made a piggy of myself. Of course, I got the recipe from her. THEN, I took my liberties to make it mine. Here is my version of her recipe.

ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

1 pound ground beef
1/2 large onion, diced, optional
1/2 large green pepper, diced, optional
1 package taco seasoning, or similar seasoning
1 large can enchilada sauce, 20-24 oz
9 or 10 corn tortillas, the ones that are in a paper wrapper and lay flat
Cheddar cheese, shredded, optional
Salsa, optional

Brown the ground beef in a skillet. Add the onion and green pepper. Cook until the onion gets transparent. Add the seasoning and stir together. Add 1/2 can of enchilada sauce. Turn off heat.

In a greased 8" x 8" baking dish, put down one layer of corn tortillas. I put two whole ones in opposite corners and split a third one in half for the opposite corners. Layer on 1/2 of the beef. Add some cheese, if you want cheese. I used mozzarella for this one because that's what I had. Mozzarella gives a buttery taste and pretty much takes the flavor of the food. Layer more tortillas, meat cheese and ending with tortillas. Pour over the rest of the enchilada sauce. If you use a glass baking dish with a cover, use the cover. This is preferable. Otherwise, cover the pan with foil. The foil may stick to the corn tortillas.

This will bake and soak up most of the enchilada sauce.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes.

Serve with salsa, if desired. I like mine spicy, so I heat it up with salsa. If you want, stick on some fresh lettuce and tomatoes. Take liberties with this. This can be tailored to your taste very easily.

It makes a great and quick dinner.

I hope you enjoy!

Today's Stuff

This morning at about 6:20 am we had a really loud crack of thunder followed by lightning. It shook the whole house and woke Hubby. Hubby doesn't usually wake up for thunderclaps or anything. He sleeps through mostly anything noisy. He got up and put the dog in bed with us because she was nervous and pestering him.

This meant we had rain. BOY did we have rain! The whole yard was flooded to mid-shin. The garden out back was partially under water. That's not a good thing. The strawberry plants were the ones mainly covered. That is the bad thing about living at sea level. This happens a lot.

Then we helped a friend of mine move some large appliances. Luckily the rain stopped long enough to do that. Then it started sprinkling again, just as we finished. She gave Hubby and I a tour of her new house. It was very nice. If you like Japanese food, you've got to check out her blog here!

Today, our dinner consisted of enchilada pie and salad. I'll take a photo of that and show you how easy it is to make. It is so yummy, too!

Now it's time for nite-nite. I am waiting for the dogs to come in from outside as I write this.

I hope you had a nice day today.

Take care.

Meatball and Sauerkraut Soup

Today was a first for me. I made Meatball and Sauerkraut soup. It doesn't look exceptionally tasty, but it really is! I found this recipe on allrecipes.com but modified it for what I had. Take a look at the recipe here. There is a picture with the original recipe. Below is how I made it. It was really easy to do.

SAUERKRAUT SOUP
Heat about a quart of water to boiling.
Take 3 tablespoons of butter and melt.
Add 1/2 chopped onion. This wasn't in the original recipe. I use this for extra flavor.
When the onions are transparent, add 1/4 cup flour. Stir together until all the butter is soaked up.
Add the water and whisk vigorously.
Add 1 can evaporated milk. NOT the sweet milk! Whisk some more.
When the milk gets hot, but not boiling, add some precooked meatballs and sauerkraut.
Simmer on low until all is hot. This will take about 30 minutes.
If you need to thicken the liquid, do so.
Salt and pepper to taste.

I made about 4 servings because I had a dozen meatballs on hand.

This is really a yummy recipe, but, like I said, it doesn't look that yummy.

If you try it, let me know. I'd be intrigued to see if you liked it.

Easy Recipe - Bean Salad

I love easy recipes! I hope you do too. This is one of my favorites which you can swap just about any beans you want. I use canned beans, but you can make this from dried beans.

Bean Salad

This recipe you make to your own taste, but the ingredients are simple.

Open a can of beans and pour into a bowl. Here, I used pork and beans. You can take out the invisible piece of pork, if you like.

Dice up some onion and put that in.

Add a little bit of vinegar and oil. I use about 1/4 cup of each.

Add some salt and pepper.

It's ready to eat! See. It's simple. You can use white beans or kidney beans. Use your imagination. However, the longer it sits, the better it tastes. I also like it cold, so you can make it ahead of time for a dinner or party.

Happy eating!
Take care.

More Biscuits!

I shared with you my recipe for baking powder biscuits a few posts ago. Now let me share with you my version of cheddar biscuits. They are similar to the ones you find in a famous restaurant, but I like my version better. Of course, I'm partial to my own cooking. But, hey! Who isn't partial to their own cooking?

Michelle's Better Cheddar Biscuits

Use my biscuit recipe from March 12, 2013.

Extra ingredients:
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, or a little more if you like
2 teaspoons garlic powder

Mix all of the dry ingredients together, including the garlic powder. Add butter and shortening and cut into flour mixture until it is very well dispersed. Add cheddar and stir well until the cheddar is fully coated. Add milk. Stir until blended. Turn out onto floured surface. Fold and press dough upon itself 5 or 6 times. This will make layers. Cut and place onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes. The biscuits will be nicely browned when done.

Here you have it! Right out of the oven they'll be nice and warm and tasty. Slather them with butter and eat! Yummy with chili, BBQ ribs, fried or baked chicken, etc. I even eat them for breakfast and snack!

Have a yummy day!

Homemade Sloppy Joes for Dinner

Today we had homemade sloppy joes for dinner. Yummy!

Homemade Rolls & Sloppy Joes

I was trying to figure out what we could have for dinner. I spent half of my day trying to be creative. We hadn't had them for a while. Since we had the homemade rolls from Sunday, Hubby agreed that sloppy joes would be good. Who am I to turn down homemade rolls?!

Here's how I made them. I'm pretty good at knocking off recipes by taste, so here's my version.

Michelle's Homemade Sloppy Joes


1 pound ground beef
1/2 onion, minced
1/4 green pepper, minced
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish, heaping
ketchup

Brown the beef until almost done. Add the onion and green pepper. After onions turn transparent, add sweet relish. Heap the spoonfuls of relish or use about 1/4 cup relish. Stir until warm through and add ketchup - just enough to make them sloppy. Add to buns and you're done! Enjoy!

I'd like to say that ketchup is a wonder condiment. It has so many spices and flavors in it that it is good in a lot of dishes I make. You don't really need salt and pepper when you use ketchup. There's enough salt in it anyway.

I hope you enjoy my recipes. Leave me a comment if you've tried them. I'll be glad to post more recipes later. If you have a recipe you're looking for or need an idea for a certain ingredient, ask me. I may have a good recipe for you.

Take care.

Biscuits, Anyone?

Baking Powder Biscuits

I thought I'd share my biscuit recipe with you since I tempted you with all of those other goodies I made this past weekend. I've used the same recipe from my Betty Crocker Cookbook for years. However, I got to experimenting a little and made a better tasting biscuit, IMHO. ; )

Michelle's Baking Powder Biscuits

2 cups white flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup of plain yogurt or buttermilk or sour cream
3/4 cup of milk
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of shortening (looks like lard stuff)

Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add butter and shortening and cut into flour mixture until it is very well dispersed. You shouldn't see any large lumps in the flour. Add milk and either plain yogurt or buttermilk or sour cream. I like using yogurt or buttermilk. Stir until blended. Turn out onto floured surface. Fold and press dough upon itself 5 or 6 times. This will make layers. Cut and place onto an ungreased baking sheet. I use a flat pizza stone. Bake at 425 degrees F for about 20 minutes. The biscuits will be nicely browned when done.

Enjoy!

EEEEWWWWW!!!

Saurkraut salad.  

WRONG!

YUM!

Once upon a time, very long ago, I dated a really great man. His Mom invited me over for dinner on Sundays or Saturdays, depending upon when we had a date. He always apologized for his Mom's cooking not being up to par.Well, let me tell you...she was a fantastic cook! I learned so much from her. Including this scary sounding salad.

Now, saurkraut salad...doesn't sound that great, does it? If you like saurkraut, even a little bit, you'll love this salad. It doesn't taste like saurkraut. It does have crunch and flavor.

Here's how you make this simple recipe.

Saurkraut Salad
Saurkraut, canned, in a jar or in a plastic bag
Crunchy veggies like celery, carrots, onions, radishes, cukes, green peppers, etc.
Equal parts white wine vinegar, cooking oil (not olive), sugar

Place equal parts white wine vinegar, cooking oil and sugar in a saucepan over low heat just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat to cool.

Place saurkraut in a colandar, rinse and drain well.

Peel and chop or grate your veggies.

Place saurkraut, veggies and cooled vinegar mix into a bowl. Stir well.

Salt and pepper to taste, if you like. It gives more color and flavor.

You may eat this at room temperature, but I like it best when it has been refrigerated until cold.

Crunchy, sweet and yummy!

Now, Mr. K, you were blessed with a great cooking Mom all of your years. You didn't even know it!

Cooking for Freezing

It's been a while since I've posted here. The reason is that I've had a short stay in the hospital and I couldn't get up and about very well until lately. What I'd like to tell you about is a real life saver for the family. Since I knew I would be out of commission for a few days, I prepared freezable meals that could be heated up by anyone in the family. Actually, it's just me and my wonderful hubby. He benefited from the preparation because he had to prepare the meals until I could stand on my own.

First, I prepared two rice dishes - peppered rice and Spanish rice. I divvied them out into quart bags and that gave me one serving for the day I made it and two servings to go into the freezer. This was for both of them which ended being 4 quart bags of sides. Rice freezes really well as a prepared dish or plain cooked rice.

I made a large amount of macaroni and cheese. We had one dish for dinner and I divvied the rest into glass loaf pans and put them into the freezer. This gave us three loaves of mac and cheese to reheat.

Then I made chili. One quart and one pint went into the freezer.

Next was chicken and dumplings. I made the first night's dinner with dumplings and the frozen portions were frozen without dumplings. I had one quart left to put into the freezer after the dinner. I taught my hubby to make cheater dumplings using store-bought biscuits in a tube, when it came time to eat.

I also made small meat loaves that cooked in about an hour. Hubby likes meatloaf for dinner and cold on sandwiches. This made it easy for him to prepare his lunch for work, too.

I made pizza shells with a quick dough recipe. I keep all of the fixin's on hand so hubby can make a pizza all by himself.

I made dozens of cookies that we could set out if company came to visit. Oh well, we didn't have too much company. The cookies were good!

In the freezer, I also had a steak, some hot dogs and hamburgers, kielbasa and a few other things that could be fried on the stove quickly.

This was enough food for us for about 3 weeks of eating. My WONDERFUL hubby was able to come home from work and throw something in the oven or the microwave for us for dinner.

Preparing food ahead is a really good idea even when you're not expecting to be laid up for a while. Frozen food comes in handy when you've had a busy day and don't feel like cooking. Throw a few things in the oven or microwave and you'll have really good meals without buying expensive TV dinners.

I hope you enjoyed this post.

Comforts of Home!

Mmmmmm! I know this isn't the most gorgeous picture, but it is a very comforting picture. Just think...these are warm out of the oven! Homemade! I sat down with a cup of steaming hot joe, these biscuits and a jar of lemon curd. How much more comforting can you get?! Here's my recipe.

Scratch Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
6 tablespoons of shortening, butter or margarine
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt

Cut all of the shortening into the dry ingredients until nice and crumbly.

Then, add...
1 cup of milk or buttermilk (I add 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup of either sour cream or plain yogurt)

Stir this all together until the ingredients are nice and wet.
Dump the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead about 6 times. This will make a few flaky layers.
Pat into about a 1/2 inch slab.
Cut with a biscuit cutter or a floured drinking glass.
Place on an ungreased baking pan.
If you have dough left over, gather it, fold it once or twice and pat into another 1/2 inch slab.
Cut more biscuits.
When you don't have enough left over to cut, make a hand-styled biscuit (see top left biscuit).
Bake at 400 degrees until nicely browned.