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Orange Vinaigrette over Romaine lettuce with orange slices and fresh mozzarella

It is time for my favorite foodie event, the Secret Recipe Club! The idea of it is you are assigned a fellow food blogger each month, it is kept a secret of course, and you go to their food blog and pick a recipe (or more) to make. On the assigned date, everyone posts their creations and you go and visit and see all the goodies that were made. Sort of like a secret Santa, right?

My host who is organizing my group is Tina from Moms Crazy Cooking. Thank you Tina for hosting!



My assignment for this month was The Tasty Cheapskate where Jeanie blogs about frugal food recipes. While I was sorely tempted to make her recipe for Chocolate Chip Brownies, I decided to go with a delicious citrus vinaigrette instead. (I'm still making the brownies, though!)


 Here is Jeanie's recipe:

Orange Vinaigrette
Makes several servings

1/2 C sugar
1/3 C orange juice
1/2 C rice wine vinegar
1 C canola oil (olive would work too, but will add a distinct taste to your dressing; I liked the canola because it didn't get in the way of the orange)
2 Tbsp dry Italian dressing

1. Shake it up in a glass jar and let it stand for 30 minutes.

While I would have liked to add a few more veggies to my salad, I was out of stock so I kept it simple. The flavors in the vinaigrette are delicious and refreshing. Thank you Jeanie for a great recipe and a great alternative to the same ol' ranch dressing for this salad eater!

Source: Recipe from The Tasty Cheapskate

Hi Friends -

I am taking the week off to catch up on life. I will have features from last week when I am back. Have a great Monday!

 Recently my little munchkin turned 4 and we had a Barnyard themed party for her. It was small scale, and mostly on the cheap, but it was a lot of fun. I wanted to share a few pictures and ideas with you if you have a little animal loving kiddo like I do.

First off, the Piggy Rice Krispies Treats! I used strawberry marshmallows and followed the recipe on the bag to make the treats. I put them in a small pan, ours was a small rectangular dish, and let then sit for about 10 minutes to cool slightly. Turn them out onto a lightly sprayed baking sheet, cut into equal pieces. We got 6 large piggies out of one batch of rice krispies.


Mold them into a circle with your hand and use a knife to cut around the ears to make them more pronounced. Using a bit of frosting, attach M&M eyes, a pink strawberry nose (half of a strawberry marshmallow with the sticky cut end dipped into hot pink sugar), and strawberry wafer cookie ears. Ta-da! Wrap individual piggy treats in saran wrap or into a treat bag for a take home treat.


For decorations we got basic party balloons, blew them up, and attached construction paper cutouts to make them look like barnyard animals.  They are sitting on top of a piece of construction paper that is taped to for a circular base, then cut into fringe pieces for the balloons to sit on top of. The exception being the duck because I thought it would be cute to set him ontop of water to simulate a pond.


For our menu we stuck to basic, tasty food. Pizza for the kids with creme filled cupcakes frosted with either vanilla or cherry frosting. For the adults, we had a hot artichoke & spinach dip and a cold veggie cheese dip which was amazing. Main dish was pulled pork with buns or the extra pizza from the kids dinners. We got a carrot cake from Costco (apricot mousse filling, yum!) decorated with frosting carrots to play into the theme.


For outfits we got some cheap little cowboy hats, denim jeans and overalls, and pretty plaid shirts.


It was a great party and we had tons of fun!

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If you are looking for a twist on the same ol' traditional potato salads, I have a tasty recipe for you to try. There is no mayo in this potato salad. Instead it is roasted with vegetables and mixed with a dressing of cider vinegar, oil and some optional Dijon mustard. Delicious! Ready for the recipe?

[Continue reading...]

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*Note* - Recipe Sharing Monday will be held tomorrow
 

It is time for my favorite foodie event, the Secret Recipe Club!

The idea of it is you are assigned a fellow food blogger each month, it is kept a secret of course, and you go to their food blog and pick a recipe (or more) to make. On the assigned date, everyone posts their creations and you go and visit and see all the goodies that were made. Sort of like a secret Santa, right?

My host who is organizing my group is Tina from Moms Crazy Cooking. Thank you Tina for hosting!


I came across this recipe while browsing my assigned blogger, Melanie at Fabulously Fun Food. This was a new blog to me so I had a fun time browsing through all of her archives for the perfect recipe to try. I had a few recipes in mind, like the Smothered Enchiladas or the Golden Macaroni and Cheese. When I saw the post for Mississippi Mud Cake I knew I'd found the one. It did not disappoint at all. It is super rich, gooey, sweet, chewy and delicious. After making these I have to say I think they are more brownies than cake, as they are very dense and rich. My little change was to rename them brownies instead of cake. :)

One thing I really appreciated about Fabulously Fun Food is that Melanie openly shares her experiences with good and bad recipes. At the same time, she isn't mean about it. Constructive criticism on how to improve the recipe is a great attribute. I have seem my fair share of food blogs that are outright mean and rude when a recipe doesn't turn out how they'd like. Often times, it isn't even the recipe at fault, it is all of the 'alterations' or mistakes the cook made. That is one of my pet peeves. I don't like it when bloggers are mean to each other. Can't we all get along? *wink*


Ahhmazing. Ready for the recipe?

As I tend to do with my Secret Recipe Club assignments, I went a little overboard with the amount of pictures. I don't think you will mind, though.



Notes:

• I halved this recipe and baked it in an 8" x 8" glass baking dish that was liberally sprayed with baking spray (The kind with flour in the spray). Alternatively you can butter the dish and dust with cocoa powder. 
• The original recipe called for homemade chocolate frosting but I substituted premade frosting, which I don't mind at all. If you are anti-prepared frosting, feel free to make yours from scratch. The frosting recipe can be found here.
• Originally the pecans are added to the cake batter, but I preferred to have them on top. Do whichever you prefer. They can be omitted if you have nut allergies in your family or if you just aren't a fan of nuts in baked goods. They do add a great flavor and crunch so I recommend adding them.

Mississippi Mud Brownies
Makes one 15" x 10" cake

1 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1 (10.5-ounce) bag miniature marshmallows
1 can prepared chocolate frosting (I used a milk chocolate frosting)

1. Whisk together melted butter and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in flour. Pour batter into a greased and floured 15- x 10-inch jellyroll pan.

2. Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven; top warm cake evenly with marshmallows. Return to oven, and bake 5 minutes. (If you use a different size pan you will have to adjust cooking time. Just keep an eye on it and keep checking for doneness).

3. Remove cake from oven and cool completely. You can transfer the cake to thefridge once the pan is cooled enough. (Don't put a hot pan in a cold fridge).

4. When ready to serve, microwave the chocolate frosting for 30 seconds and stir. Spread the frosting over the cake, then garnish with chopped pecans.  Using a sharp knife that has been sprayed lightly with Pam, cut into squares.

Source: Slightly adapted from Fabulously Fun Food and The All New Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook

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If you aren't able to get your hands on fresh cherries, I have an alternative that uses a great quality canned cherry. This is not cherry pie filling, these are red tart cherries in water that are drained and cooked on the stove to create a deliciously sweet and tart filling. On top of the cherry pie is a crunchy and sweet crumble topping. Traditionally crumble toppings use brown sugar, but we like to use plain sugar for a twist. Ready for the recipe?

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A few days ago on the Jam Hands facebook page I asked my fans if I should post a totally fugly but DELICIOUS recipe that my mom has been making forever.

Everybody said yes and that they trusted me, so here it is.


So here is the scoop on the Stuffed Burger Bundles, which my family calls Burger Pods. Why pods? Well, they sort of look like alien pods and it was our way to poke fun at the ugly but so tasty dinner meal. This is my favorite meal that my mom makes and I hope that you will trust me. Ready for the recipe?

A ball of stuffing is covered in a thin mixture of ground beef and evaporated milk, which makes it really tender and delicious. A mushroom gravy coats the bundles while they bake and makes the most delicious sauce. Serve the bundles and extra sauce over egg noodles with a side of veggies.

Typically I make my stuffing from scratch, just using torn up white bread, diced celery, poultry seasoning and a little chicken broth to moisten it so it will form a ball. If you would prefer you can use a box mix for stuffing, just try to get one that tastes really good.

Having made this a dozen times myself, I will say that it is easiest to use a small plate to flatten out the ground beef into a thin patty, place the stuffing in the middle, and wrap the meat around it. Previously I had just used my hands and no plate, and it is a lot trickier to handle and the meat can get too thick. We want to make sure that the meat is just thick enough to hold the bundles together. If it gets too thick, it takes a lot longer to cook and it can get a bit tough.

Those are my tips, I hope you enjoy it if you try it. Happy eating!

Note: I recommend doubling to sauce mixture, however the original recipe is below. Also, do not use regular milk as a substitution for evaporated milk. I have tried this and it makes the meat tough and not very tasty. We usually double the bundle ingredients, and triple the sauce ingredients to make larger bundles/ more bundles, but I wanted to post the original recipe here.

Stuffed Burger Bundles
Makes 5 bundles

• 1 cup packaged herb-seasoned stuffing mix
• 1/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 10 1/2-ounce can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon ketchup

1. Prepare stuffing according to package directions.

2. Combine evaporated milk and meat; divide in 5 patties. On waxed paper, pat each to 6-inch circle.

3. Put 1/4 cup stuffing in center of each; draw meat over stuffing; seal. Place in 1 1/2-quart casserole.

4. Combine remaining ingredients; pour over meat.

5. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 45 minutes.

Source: Epicurious