My Stand By Recipe...

Everyone has something that they are known for making. You know the thing people expect you to bring to the annual family reunion, cook out...for me my tried and true recipe is Apricot Squares.

Here's what you need to make these delicious bits of heaven.

flour, sugar, lemon juice, 1 jar (18 oz) apricot preserves, 1 lb of butter (yep, the whole pound)

and eggs (4 yolks), powdered sugar (not pictured but recommended: chopped pecans )

I use my stoneware jelly roll pan, but any jelly roll size pan will do.

Start with 4 sticks of softened butter.

Add 4 egg yolks and mix like below.

slowly begin adding 2 cups of sugar, mix mix mix

once that is finished, begin adding 4 cups of flour, one at a time, mixing after each

ideally, your mixture will look like this, it works best when it forms this crumbly sort of dough

makes it much easier when you are putting it together later.

In a seperate bowl, add 1 jar of apricot preserves.

Add 1 tbsp lemon juice, and mix

Get your dough, apricot mixture and pan ready to assemble.

Start by putting about two thirds of your dough into your pan and pressing to cover the bottom, like so...

Next pour your apricot mixture on top, I like to use a small spreading trowel to get it evenly distributed.

There's my ever present and helpful assitant!

Next, this is where your crumbl dough makes it super easy...just sprinkle your remaining dough on top. *Typically I add chopped pecans to the top before baking, I didn't have any the day I made these, but highly recommend you add some to yours.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for approx. 1 hr or until golden brown. Allow to cool.

After they are cooled, I top with powdered sugar. Cut into squares and serve.

These freeze well too.

A Quick Recipe

I had a good response to my first recipe, so here's another one. I tried this for the first time the other day, its easy and a new take on an old cookout favorite...coleslaw.

With the exception of cooking the bacon, Ava or any of your 4 years could put this together.

Here's what you need:

Bagged coleslaw, Cider Vinegar, Sugar, Miracle Whip, Bacon and Peanuts.

I double my recipe on this day, so I used 2 bags of Coleslaw, 8 slices of bacon, ...

Start by frying your bacon

Next combine 1 cup miracle whip, 2 TBSP sugar, 2 TSP cider vinegar

You can adjust to taste and how creamy you want your coleslaw.

crumble your bacon and peanuts

Like so...

And Whamo, mix it all together and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

I think next time I would add shredded cheddar cheese. I thought it was tasty and definitely easy to prepare.

Oops we did it again!

This is our latest casualty. Ava jumped off a swingset at her end of soccer season party and hurt her foot. No major fracture but an area of concern of her xrays regarding her 2-4 metatarsals.

She is in a "wee walker" walking boot. She didn't walk on it for the first several days, but then in Ava style she decided to come all the way upstairs to show me she could walk as hasn't looked back. She is her old self, doing crazy things with the boot now. Hopefully she will be out of it this Tuesday.

Donut Sunday

Ava and Tony make "homemade" donuts. (I am struggling between typing doughnuts and Donuts...ok you get what I am talking about right?)

They use refrigerated biscuit dough which they fry and frost with canned frosting. Ava gets such a kick out of making and of course eating them, as they are laden with sugar.

Spring Things!

It's been too long. But an exciting thing happened since my last post...Spring arrived!

We had been cooped up in this house for 6 months with more illnesses and injuries than any one family should endure. Since the weather changed we have been nearly living outdoors.

Gia is so much happier now that we can be outdoors. Wish I could say she was sleeping in because of the fresh air but that is not the case. So here's what we've been up to..

planting this tree, a prarie fire crab tree and some dwarf lilac bushes

creating, digging, planting and caring for our new garden. we have a new "green" area

in a private service yard, it houses our garden, a retractable clothesline, trash and recycling containers

we have been visiting our local parks, in an effort to visit 10 parks, which is part of a contest our park district is sponsoring.

This was from a visit to a local farm to buy mothers day flowers. I call it the "free zoo"

We celebrated Ava's last week of preschool with a school music program and a family picnic.

I promise to try another recipe for you soon. I just need to get organized and have all of my ingredients ready to go. I will try to post again soon...I think I may need a laptop since my time indoors in limited these days. Happy Spring!!!

My Homage to Pioneer Woman...Let's cook!

I am in love with the blog Confessions of a Pioneer Woman I describe what she is doing there in the cooking section as food porn. It is absolutely enough to make you drool and informative enough to make you think you too can do it in your kitchen. So...today I had planned what I would make for dinner and decided to try it out for all of you. Once you visit Ree's site and see the fancy pants way she has everything set up and how magnificent her photos are I doubt you will be back here, but try not to forget us all together. Ree, try to ignore the elementary set up of my page, the very amateur photos and design...it was all done with love. Thanks for the inspiration.

Today I am making Cornbread Taco Casserole.
Anyway, shall we get started???

Here is the cast of characters...

Not pictured: Water, Milk and 1 lb ground beef (be patient I am learning, and besides I had to call and borrow the milk from my neighbor...!)

Preheat your oven to 375degrees and add your raw meat to your pan.

Cook until brown, drain fat and return to heat.
Add taco seasoning and prepare according to package directions. For some of you these first three steps may be considered advanced cooking (Joel). If you want to stop here and have tacos I won't judge.

Once your taco meat is done turn off the heat, add 1 cup cheese, I used cheddar here, monterey jack is also a good choice. Next add I can of Chilli Magic...this stuff is not the easiest to find in the grocery store...check by the chilli, or by the beans. Combine and set aside.

In another bowl add 2 boxes of Jiffy or similar cornbread mix to 2/3 cup of milk. In this case I had 1/3 cup and my neighbor Lynn brought me the other 1/3...sometimes it takes a village.

Next Add 2 eggs.

Stir Stir Stir...Ava is doing this for me in this picture.

Add one 15.5 oz can of Fiesta Corn or as I lovingly call it "mexicorn".

Add 1 cup of cheese...In my opinion cheese like butter makes everything better.

Mix and Set aside.

Layer your beef mixture in the bottom of a jelly roll pan/stoneware pan. If the need for the pan I just listed is the deal breaker on whether you will make this or not you could always use a 9x13 pan, the finished product will just be deeper and may require a bit longer in the oven. If you don't know what a 9x13 is...call me I will recommend a good take out place.



Who wouldn't like this recipe you ask??? Here's one little punk who is not digging it.





Throw some M&M's or other blackmail item to the distraction and press on... Spread your corn bread mixture on top of the beef mixture until it is completely covered.

Stick it in the oven for 15-20 minutes...longer if you go the 9x13 route...until golden brown. Once it's ready pull it out of the oven and cut into squares. You can garnish with sour cream as I did, and/or black olives, tomatos...whatever you like.


Yummo!