Strawberry season is so close

Spring has Sprung!!!

Here in South Carolina spring has sprung!!! The weather is beautiful and warm. So now I get to dig out my wonderful spring salads!!! My favorite salad is Balsamic Strawberry Salad. Now some of you don’t like Bleu Cheese, but sometimes for kicks and giggles I add Bleu Cheese to my salad. I have to have a little protein with every meal, and the Bleu Cheese helps. Now if you want a different healthy dessert you could add these balsamic strawberries and put them over yogurt or cool whip. Enjoy this light salad and enjoy the flowers along the way!!!

Strawberry Balsamic Salad

1 pint of strawberries washed and sliced

2 ½ Tbsp of brown sugar

2-4 Tbsp of good quality balsamic vinegar

Salad for 3-4 people

Put your sliced strawberries in a bowl, then sprinkle the brown sugar over strawberries. Let the strawberries sit for about a minute. Then toss the strawberries in balsamic vinegar. Toss with the salad!!! EASY and ENJOY. (Remember you can add almonds, praline pecans, or bleu cheese!!)

Cheese Quiche

Quiche

What a simple word for a great dish. When the weather starts to warm up I always am in the mood for quiche. You start with a basic recipe and then start adding the different foods to make it you own. As I always say recipes are guidelines!!

If you are a full time working mom or dad and want something simple for supper, you need to try this recipe. It may take 10 minutes to put together, and only 40 – 50 minutes to bake. Add a salad and you have a great light supper!!! How simple is that? I have found that just by not eating out, we as a family have trimmed down!!! A lot of you would spend probably $7.95 – $10.95 for a lunch or dinner like this, but you can make it yourself for $2.95 – $4.95!!!

I have found that if I use ham or spinach I have to ring it out to get all extra liquid out of the ham and spinach. If you don’t it will take you a long time to bake and may burn.

Quiche

4 eggs

2 cups ½ and ½

¼ tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1-1/4 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Unbaked 9” pie shell

Beat together eggs with cream, salt and nutmeg. Sprinkle the cheese on the bottom of the pie shell. Pour egg mixture over the cheese. Bake on a rimmed cookie sheet for 15 minutes at 425*, then reduce heat to 325*; continue to bake for 30-40 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes, serve warm.

When I was catering Weddings and other parties I always used this recipe along with the cheese tray!! And everybody loved this pate, and would always ask me for the recipe. I’m not the kind of cook that makes up recipes out of thin air, but if I see a recipe 9 times out of 10 I will change it to suite my taste. I’ve started sharing more of my recipes and it’s hard because I’ve gotten so use to “eye balling” the ingredients. This pate is great for any get together large or small, and is best served with granny smith apples or other brand of apple. I also like to serve mine with toast points. Very easy, you slice Italian bread thin and bake 10 minutes on each side in a 350* oven.

I hope you enjoy making this and eating this cheese pate, and for those of you that eat low carb – this is excellent with celery. It’s a great “go to” to have in the frig to be able to grab.

Four Cheese Pate

½ of a small wheel of Brie

3-4oz of Blue Cheese Crumbles

¾ c. Swiss Cheese Shredded

3 – 8oz. packages of cream cheese

2-3 tbsp. of milk

2 tbsp. of sour cream

4 green onion (only the green part)

¾ c. – 1 c. pecans

You can construct this either in a food processor or a stand mixer. Beat you cream cheese until almost smooth or smooth and add all the rest of these ingredients. Turn out onto a platter and plate your dish, or put in an airtight container in the refrigerator. How easy is that!!! And people will think being complimenting you through the whole party. ENJOY

Special Occasion Cookie

Don’t you just love when you go into the mall and you walk through the food court and there they are – the Big Cookie!!! I make cakes for a living and normally I’m a huge cake fan, but on my birthday I love to call my local cookie shop and order a cookie. This year I thought I could bake awesome small cookies why not make a big cookie. Well in the past I have tried doing this and it never turned out, it always got over baked. So what’s a baker to do except go and Google my problem? Well, I wanted to share the recipe I found and it is so good it will want you to slap your granny it’s so good. I promise you that it tasted just like the big chain cookies!!!!! Except I thought it was better because we ate it fresh and it was just amazing and easy. The first cookie I baked was for my husband’s birthday. The key to this cookie is to let it cool in the pan, and you will need a pizza pan or a 12” round cake pan. Make sure that after it cools that you have a big cooling rack. I had leftover icing colored and bagged from a previous cake and the girls loved decorating the cookie. They simple put down an icing line to divide the cookie in half, so they each had a half to decorate. They were so proud and the cookie with the icing……… well they do have a phrase for that experience. Enjoy making these cookies for any occasion, and sorry I didn’t get this posted in time for the Valentines Day weekend. St. Patrick’s day is coming up and I’m making one to take to the office to celebrate (since there will be no drinking of green beer on the clock!)

THE BIG COOKIE!!

1 box of yellow cake mix

2 eggs

½ cup oil

1 tsp. vanilla

12oz. bag of chocolate chips

Lightly grease a pizza pan or a 12” cake pan. Mix all ingredients except chocolate chips in a bowl and mix until smooth. Put chocolate chips in and mix. Put batter into pan and bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes. Let cool completely and then turn out onto cooling rack. Ice if you would like.

Meatball Calzone

We’ve made it through the Holiday season and I’ve really enjoyed the beautiful snow and winter season we’ve been having lately. This is the perfect time to be cooking and baking comfort food.

Challah is the bread that is used for the Sabbath and at most festivals.  Usually you make two loaves of bread because there’s no baking or cooking on the Sabbath (Saturday). So you make two loafs, one for Friday and one for Saturday. I went to a bread making class and LOVED it!! If you ever get a chance you should take a class in bread making. It is not as difficult as you may think. In this class is where I received this wonderful challah recipe. My girls love when they get to have homemade sweet rolls in the morning for breakfast. I tried to make them using different kinds of dough and they never turned out soft and yummy like the rolls you find in northern bakeries!! I finally had this great idea to try making them with this Challah dough, and WOW they were off the chart. It really helps because the dough is sweet and it gives the sweet rolls that extra sweetness.

The most common way I use my recipe is for Calzones!! My family loves them and this recipe will make two large calzones. If you don’t like calzones you can use the dough for pizza!! Making your own pizza dough is a great way to save on the grocery bill. Or this recipe will make two loafs of bread. I will say if you are a full time working mom this is better for the weekend.  Here is the recipe and I hope you enjoy whatever creation you decide to make with this lovely versatile dough!!

6 cups of bread flour

2 scant cup of sugar

1 Tbsp salt

4 eggs

½ cup oil

3 pkg. yeast

1-½ cups warm water

Proof yeast in warm water. Measure dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Beat eggs in a separate bowl and mix with the oil. Add proofed yeast and egg/oil mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix until you form a dough. Turn out dough onto a floured service, and knead the dough until smooth & elastic. (For about 5 minutes) Place dough into an oiled bowl and cover with a wet towel and let it rise until double in size. Punch the dough and shape as desired. Brush a beaten egg over bread for glaze. (I never do this or rarely) Bake the bread at 350* for 18-20 minutes for bread and 12-15 for rolls.

***** If you are making pizza dough or calzones you only want it to rise one time!!! —- So after you let it double in size the first time you divide the dough in two. Each ball of dough you want to flatten with you fingers. Pour a half jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce, cheese, and whatever meat you like. My family loves meatballs. Wrap it up like a baby and cut wholes in the top to vent. Bake at 350* for 30 minutes you have supper and lunch for the next day!!!

Abbi as a tree for Christmas play

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you guys are enjoying this beautiful time of year!!!! The kids are almost out of school and next week is Christmas. I wanted to share some pictures of a few things that have happened over the weekend!! Abbi had her play on Monday night and she was the cutest tree ever. Reed was our photographer, because we some how got stuck in a corner.  She was able to get these great shots from where she was seated on the floor. I had a wedding cake go out this past weekend and it was so beautiful with all the pretty colors. I find that I’m so busy this time of year and constantly baking, but I really am enjoying baking for the ones you love. The girls and I have to make some cut out cookies for Abbi’s class Christmas party and we’ll be doing that tomorrow. I hope wherever this blog finds you that you are happy and blessed.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Our beautiful photographer

Beautiful Winter Wedding cake

Abbi with wedding cake

cute little minnie mouse

Here in Greenville, SC it has been raining and cold!! These are the days that just scream chili. All you want to do is go home put your pajamas on and eat something HOT. I know when you guys think of chili you usually think the red chili, well not today we are doing white chicken chili. Now those of you that used to visit the café, yes this is my recipe that I’m giving away!!! This was very popular in the café and it’s so easy to make you feel bad about taking all the compliments! Just kidding.

White Chicken Chili

2 boneless skinless breast of chicken cooked and cubed.

1 can green chiles

1 small onion (butter or olive oil to sauté)

1-2 Tbsp of chili powder (adjust it to your taste)

2 tsp. of oregano

1/2tsp. of white pepper (or to taste with black pepper)

1 can of navy beans not drained

1 can of great northern beans not drained

1 can pinto beans not drained

8 oz. of sour cream

1 cup of cream

Saute onion in butter or oil (2tsp) until soft. Add your spices to your onions. Then add chiles, beans and chicken. Let this come to a boil then turn down to simmer. Just before serving add your sour cream and cream. Now with the spices you need to adjust them to your own taste buds. I like things a little spicy, and the one thing I’ll add to my bowl at the very end is some hot sauce!! It’s great for supper and the left overs you could take to work to help save cost of eating out. There are so many cute lunch bags you can buy to take your lunch in these days. It’s very fashionable!!

These are my cute little ThirtyOne thermal totes I take snacks and lunch.

This time of year is an AWESOME time for soup!! This is also wonderful to your wallet! You can make soup out of anything. I know that sounds crazy, but growing up in a large family I learned a few things about making your dollar stretch. Now if you have heard me talk about food for any length of time you know now what I’m getting ready to say, “Now this recipe is a guide line”. You can increase or decrease or ad or subtract from this recipe. Today it’s Corn Chowder!!

1 small onion chopped

1 clove of garlic

¼ c. chopped green bell pepper

1 can creamed corn

2 cans cream of potato soup

2 cups of milk

3 oz. cream cheese

salt and pepper

Saute the onion, bell pepper, and garlic until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until everything gets hot and comes together. I always keep little cans of green chiles on hand and if I don’t have a bell pepper I use a can of chiles. Now come on how simple is this recipe? You can make this yourself and reclaim your budget on groceries!! Your children are eating vegetables and not deep fried foods. I always keeps these ingredients on hand for those days that are hectic and crazy. You will be eating within 30 minutes from the time you start on chopping the onion. Enjoy!

corn chowder soup