Family Favorite Potato Salad

Potato salad is a definite favorite in my family, especially in the summer months. We almost always have potato salad with anything grilled. My family has been making this recipe for potato salad for as long as I can remember. Actually, it is one of those recipes that doesn't have a recipe. We use a "just a little of this and a little of that" method to make it. If you try this recipe, just use the amount of  ingredients "to taste". 

Family Favorite Potato Salad
potatoes
hard boiled eggs
onion
salad dressing
mustard
salt
pepper

Prepare the hard boiled eggs and cook the potatoes.

Mix together the potatoes and chopped egg whites. Add onion.

Put the cooked egg yolks into a separate bowl and mash them.

To the yolks, add some salad dressing, mustard, salt, and pepper. Mix together until it looks like this:

Pour the dressing onto the potatoes and eggs and mix. The salad tastes best if it is allowed to set in the refrigerator for a few hours.

Happy cooking!

Ground Pork Enchiladas

I put these super yummy enchiladas together the other night and they were a huge hit with the hubby! I honestly believed him when he said that they were great. He ate three of them and finished the leftovers last night! (That's how I know he wasn't just saying they were good.) Being married to a hog farmer means lots of pork. I try to use pork in a lot of recipes and have found that it actually tastes better than beef in some of them.

Ground Pork Enchiladas
1 lb. ground pork
chopped onion, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
1 can rotel tomatoes and green chiles
2 10 oz. cans green enchilada sauce
1 can refried beans
cheese
tortilla shells
Cook the pork, onions, and garlic until pork is cooked through. Add the rotel and 1/2 of one can of the enchilada sauce. Let this simmer for about 10 minutes.

Then it is time to assemble the enchiladas. First, spread some refried beans onto the tortilla shell.

Add some meat mixture and cheese.

Fold up and put in a greased 9x13 pan. Once they are all wrapped up, spread the left over refried beans on top. Then sprinkle with cheese and the remaining sauce. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until bubbly. This makes about 8 enchiladas.

Happy cooking!

French Silk Pie

My husband's birthday was this past week. I always want to make him something special, but he hates cake. I think the only time I have ever seen him eat cake is at our wedding when we cut the cake. So every year I make him a birthday french silk pie. He absolutely loves it!

First I start out with a homemade crust. I use a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, the orange Betty Crocker cookbook from 1969 that I got from my mom. She bought it for me at garage sale because she didn't want me to take hers! You can find the recipe here, but I always use lard instead of the shortening that it calls for.

Then I make the delicious chocolate filling! It is so easy with only 5 ingredients!

 You need:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 1 oz. squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large, very fresh eggs
sweetened whipped cream
Start by creaming the butter in a bowl. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light. Blend in the chocolate and the vanilla. Add eggs one at a time and beat for five minutes after you add each one. Pour into the cooled crust and top with your whipped cream! I like to whip up my own whipped cream. I think it adds to the homemade goodness! Happy baking!

If you are at all concerned about salmonella or are uncomfortable eating raw eggs, this recipe is not for you! It is recommended that immuno-compromised patients, the very young, or elderly should not eat raw or lightly cooked eggs. Consuming eggs that have not been cooked to 165*F is at your own risk!

It's Here!

My dutch oven has arrived! Isn't it beautiful?!? I love the blue color.
















When I was looking for a dutch oven I knew I wanted one that was cast iron. I also saw somewhere that you should get one that is coated with enamel. So I decided on the Lodge brand that I saw on the Target website.















I can hardly wait to cook with it! I have found a few recipes that I already want to try, but I am looking for more, so feel free to share!

Chicken Tortilla Chowder

Need a quick soup recipe? I am always looking for quick recipes to make during the week, especially with my daughter and homework keeping me busy. I love this recipe that I found for Chicken Tortilla Chowder. It is quick, easy, and delicious. I just made a batch tonight so that I could have leftovers for my lunch this week.

Photo from www.tasteofhome.com

 Happy cooking!

Sausage, Anyone?

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than to make your own meat! One of the things that my husband enjoys doing is processing our own meat. Of course I always get roped into helping, but I don't mind. I get to see where and how some of our meat is made and I get to package it how I want. We start with trim pieces of meat that have previously been frozen. Partially frozen meat will grind better when going through the grinder. Today we processed deer and pork. The deer got turned into ground deer for jerky meat and the pork got turned into brats, Italian sausage, and plain ground pork. My husband has a special concoction of seasonings that he adds for our brats, and I even use some in a soup recipe that I made. (I will have to post that recipe later!)

It all starts in a grinder that looks like this:

Inside there is a blade that cuts the meat and then it comes out through a plate with holes. There are several different plates with different sized holes. The bigger the hole, the coarser the meat. It comes out looking like this:

Then some of it gets weighed so we know how much seasoning to add, and it gets run back through the grinder to get mixed. We have special plates for that so it does not get ground too fine.

Once the seasoning is added, some of it gets run through the stuffing horn to be made into brats.

My job is to wrap the meat. I think I have become an expert at it! Then it's back to the freezer until we are ready to use our sausage and ground meat!

Valentine Brownies

Looking for a special Valentine's Day treat? Make these super chocolately brownies!  They are so delicious and moist! I made some to take to the teacher's lounge and they were gone by the end of the day! (We LOVE food at school.) My mother in law shared the recipe with me. I am not sure where she got the recipe from, but I know that she calls them Texas Brownies. Happy baking!

2 cups sugar
1 tsp soda
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 TBSP cocoa
2 sticks butter
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. In a pan, melt the butter and add the cocoa and water. Bring it to a full boil. Pour it over the dry ingredients and mix. Add the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla and mix. Pour into a jelly roll pan that has been greased. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Frosting:
1 stick butter
1 TBSP cocoa
6 TBSP buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 lb. powdered sugar
Melt butter and add the cocoa and buttermilk. Bring to a boil, then add the powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread on the brownies.