Cheesy Muffins

I found this recipe in the most recent Paula Deen Magazine.  The recipe seemed easy and it had cheese in it. Yum!  I made these to go with our Sunday dinner.  My granddaughter Samantha helped me.  They were delicious and the grandkids could not stay out of them!

Sorry the picture isn't very good.  I forgot to take a finished picture so this is a cropped picture.  These are real delicious with honey, too.  I probably should have filled the muffin pans up more.  I made about 2 3/4 dozen.

Cheddar Muffins

2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
3 T sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray 24 miniature muffin cups with non stick baking spray with flour.

2.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, and sugar.  Add buttermilk and eggs, stirring just until combined (mixture will be lumpy).  Stir in cheese.

3.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, and bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Serve warm.

Foodie Fanatics: Chicken Empanadas

This week's Foodie Fanatics recipe was chosen by Michele of Makin' Cakin' Weekends. I must say these were great! I have to admit, I didn't get to make these myself. My daughter, grandkids, and I were all set to make but I received a phone call that my mom had fallen and was on the floor. Kelly and I drove over there. Mom was fine. Her legs just are not real strong and when she bent to pick up something, they gave out. She was sitting in front of her chair in the living room, embarrassed. My dad was not able to pick her up by himself. They are both almost 79 years old. Kelly and I got her up and stayed to chat for a little.

My son-in-law, bless his heart, fixed the empanadas. We left out the bell pepper since I'm not the biggest fan. We used jarred jalapeno. This was not hard to make he said. They were really great. The recipe can be found HERE.

Good choice, Michele!

Foodie Fanatics: Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake

It was my week to choose the Paula Deen recipe. I chose Chili Chicken Stew which was from her January/February 2009 issue. It can be found here. This is what it looks like:

But.....after running around on Sunday putting Christmas decorations away from my home and my parents, plus the temperature getting into the upper 70's, stew just did not sound good at all. So, I opted to make a dessert to eat while watching the Denver/Steeler game. Go Broncs!

I stuck to the Paula Deen chef and made her Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake. Yummy! It was made with a box white cake which made the recipe easy. The hardest part was pureeing the strawberries! I added a little more strawberry to the icing.

The recipe can be found on the Food Network site here. You won't be sorry!

Foodie Fanatics: "Cake" Ice-Cream Cones

This recipe for the Foodie Fanatics was chosen by Michele at Makin' Cakin' Weekends. We are still baking from Paula Deen. My daughter and I made these yesterday before dinner to have to munch on during the night. They are super easy to make. You can make with any flavor cake mix. I was originally going to do funfetti, but had a bad egg and made chocolate instead.

Everyone seemed to enjoy them. My four year old grandson kept asking were the ice cream was! He knew they were cake, but they were in the cones. Silly boy!

The recipe can be found here on the Food Network Site. I recommend making these especially for a kids party! The flavor possibilities are endless.

Sorry the pic is fuzzy, we were outside enjoying a fire in our 60 degree weather!

My grandson with the frosting on his nose!

Foodie Fanatics: Chocolate Malted Milkshakes

I'm a little late on posting this recipe for Foodie Fanatics. With the holidays, I just have not had the time, or desire, to sit at the computer at home. I hope everyone had a happy holiday. Ours was very nice, but hectic. I really enjoyed having my daughter and family here for the holidays without having her leaving.

The week before Christmas, the recipe for Foodie Fanatics was Paula Deen's Chocolate Malted Milkshakes which was Kelly's choice (What's Cooking Kelly). Man, were they scrumptious! Very easy to make. Kelly and I made these one evening with the kids. Kelly actually did all the work...I only smashed the malted milk balls to sprinkle on top (which were left over from Halloween!).

I highly recommend trying this milkshake. You will not be disappointed! The recipe can be found HERE.

It's not the best picture, but you get the idea of it's yumminess!

My Girl Paula: Chicken Fried Chicken

This week's theme for My Girl Paula is Anything Goes. This was not the original Paula Deen recipe I was going to make. I was going to make oven fried chicken, but did not read recipe close enough to realize it had to sit in fridge for several hours. So, I searched on line and found Chicken Fried Steak and decided to make it with chicken instead. It was easy to make. The chicken was very tasty. The gravy.....never thickened up and I felt like I kept adding and adding salt and pepper. But, served with mashed potatoes, Caesar salad, and biscuits...very yummy meal.

The recipe can be found here.

My Girl Paula: Baked Ham and Cheese Chicken

I've seen this made by a couple different people and I had to try it. I love Chicken Cordon Bleus and this is just a different variation of this.

It was delicious. Seems like a lot of steps, but it was really easy. I also made Italian Herb and cheese frocaccia bread. It was from a mix. I've made it before and it's so yummy. I made caesar salad. I had no croutons, so I made some with left over french bread. Yum meal!

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp Paula Deen House Seasoning
2 eggs, beaten
hot sauce, to taste
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp Greek Seasoning, recipe follows
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
olive oil
4 slices ham
4 tsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
4 slices mozzerella cheese

Directions:

Dredge the chicken in flour seasoned with House Seasoning. Dip in egg mixed with hot sauce. Then, dredge in a mixture of bread crumbs, Greek Seasoning, and Parmesan.

Brown chicken on each side in a skillet with olive oil on medium high heat.

After frying, transfer chicken to a sheet pan. Top with one piece of ham, 1 tsp of parsely and 1 slice of mozzarella cheese. Place in oven for 8 minutes just unitl cheese melts and starts to get bubbly.


Greek Seasoning:
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder

Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

The bread mix

the finished bread

caesar salad with homemade croutons

Paula Deen: Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf

I made this Thursday to take to my mom's for dinner. I forgot to take a picture of this, so I'm using the one of the Paula Deen site.

My daughter, Kelly, made this recipe while we were visiting here in Kansas for the holidays. It was so delicious that I wanted to make it for my parents.

The recipe can be found here.

My Girl Paula: Star Sugar Cookies

I found this recipe in the magazine" Paula Deen's Holiday Baking 2009." I love sugar cookies. I don't like to ice them and decorate them, but sprinkling the sugar on them before baking is right up my alley!


I made these Monday night. I actually had all the ingredients, which was a big deciding factor! I didn't just make stars, tho; I made bells and trees, too.

These are really good. Hard to have just one!

Star Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar

1 cup confectioners sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
colored sugar sprinkles

Directions:

In large bowl, beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugars, beating well. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing well.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, mixing well. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide dough in half; chill 1 portion until ready to use.

On a lightly floured surface, roll remaining portion of dough to 1/8" thickness. Using a 2 1/2 inch cutter, cut dough and place on prepared baking sheets. Repeat with remaining dough. Decorate as desired with colored sugard.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Let cool on pans for 2 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Yield: 4-5 dozen

My Girl, Paula: Barbecue Meatloaf

This week's My Girl, Paula recipe was to make something with beef. I choice the Barbecue Meatloaf. I have had my eye on it and decided to go for it. It was so yummy! I will definitely make this one again. I split the meatloaf into two small loaves since my son doesn't like onions and I wanted some. But, I did not like the one the onions stayed so crunchy. Next time, I will make the meatloaf without the onions.

I loved the sauce that was made. I put both loaves together in one pan and basted both a few times. Yummy!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef

1 cup fresh bread crumbs

1 onion, chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

two 8-oz cans tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

3 T vinegar

3 T brown sugar

2 T prepared mustard

2 T Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

Mix together the beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg, salt, pepper, and 1/2 cup of the tomato sauce. From the mixture into a loaf and place in in a shallow pan.

Stir together the remaining tomato sauce, water, vinegar, sugar, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the sauce over the meatloaf.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Serves: 6

Crunch Top Apple Pie

For this week, I decided to make an apple pie from Paula Deen for Thanksgiving. My son wanted apple pie, so I decided Paula Deen since I didn't have plans on making the vegetable soup. This was the first crust that I made from scratch in a long time.

The recipe was very easy to follow and can be found here. The filling tasted good, but I'll have to let you know tomorrow how it tastes.

THURSDAY - IT WAS DELICIOUS!

These are before baking.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

My Girl Paula: White Chili

Last week's recipe for My Girl, Paula was ANYTHING GOES. I spotted this recipe in the January/February 2008 edition of the Cooking With Paula Deen magazine. Both Jimmy and I thought this sounded good.

I used a bag of Tyson chicken that was cubed cooked chicken. I simmered the chili all day on low. It was very yummy and I will definitely make this again. We topped the chili with cheddar cheese and jalapenos.

Ingredients:

5 cups chopped cooked chicken

3 (15 oz) cans Great Northern beans, drained

1 (32 oz) box chicken broth

1 (16 oz) jar mild salsa

1 (8 oz) package Monteray Jack cheese with Peppers, cubed

2 tsp ground cumin

Garnish: cheddar cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos

Directions:

In a 6 quart electric slow cooker, combine chicken, beans, broth, salsa, cheese and cumin. Cover, and cook on high for 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Garnish with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and jalapenos, if desired.

Serve with corn chips.

Ruby's Crispy Oven Chicken

This is the last recipe that I wanted to make from the September/October 2009 Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine. This was from the Light & Luscious section. My son didn't think he would like it because of the cornflakes, so I made it into chicken tenders, and ha! He liked it and even had seconds!!! This was very good and I would make this again.



Ingredients:



2 cups crushed cornflakes cereal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
2 egg whites
3 lbs split chicken breasts (used boneless

Directions:



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a shallow dish, combine cornflakes, salt, and red pepper.

In a separate shallow dish, lightly beat egg whites.

Dip each chicken breast in beaten egg white; dredge in cornflake mixture, pressing cornflake mixture gently to adhere to chicken.

Place on prepared baking sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion of chicken registers 165 degrees. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4-5

My Girl, Paula: Pepper Steak

This recipe can be found on page 77 of "The Lady & Sons, Too!" Cookbook. It was good, not my favorite of Paula's recipes, but good. We made the dish Thursday over at my mom's. My parents both loved it. My son decided it was okay and wrapped it up in tortillas. Not a bad idea.! We ate it over rice.

My mom bought cube steaks. She was worried the round steak wouldn't get tender.

Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality. They were taken with my camera.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 lbs round steak, trimmed of fat and cut in strips

1 cup water

1 medium onion, sliced

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

2 medium green bell peppers, cut into strips

2 T soy sauce

2-3 tsp. sugar

1 T cornstarch

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large, heavy pot. Add the meat and brown for 5 minutes. Stir in the water, onion, garlic, salt and ginger. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. After 10 minutes, add the peppers.

Stir together the soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch. Pour this into the pot and stir until the liquid thickens. Place tomato wedges on top of the meat and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 mintues longer.

Serve over rice.

Serves 4-6.

Paula Deen's Spicy Orange Grilled Chicken

This is another recipe from the September/October 2009 edition of "Cooking With Paula Deen". I believe there is only one more recipe that I want to make in this edition.



I was going to make this for dinner Wednesday, but never got to. I can't make it Thursday night either. I had the meat in the refrigerator marinating. I got home too late from work and then had to turn around to go to a Boy Scout committee meeting. I went ahead and cooked the meat inside.

I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts since that is what I had. It worked good. I used Coke Zero and low sugar marmalade.

I tasted a small bite of chicken. It was very good and spicy! This was very good in a salad and I put some in a tortilla...real good that way too.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cola flavored carbonated beverage
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/4 cup cider vinegar
4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 T adobo sauce from chiptole peppers
2 1/2 lbs chicken legs
2 1/2 lbs chicken wings

Directions:

In a large resealable plastic bag, combine, cola-flavored beverage, marmalade, vinegar, chiptole peppers, and adobo sauce. Add chicken. Seal, and refrigerate for 8 hours, or overnight.


Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Spray grill rack with nonstick nonflammable cooking spray.

Removed chicken from marinade, reserving marinade. Grill chicken, covered with grill likd, for 12-15 minutes, turning frequently, or until a meat thermometer inserted in thickest portion of leg registers 180 degrees.

Pour reserved marninade into a grill-safe saucepan. Grill for 15-20 minutes, or until marniade is reduced to 1 cup. Brush sauce on chicken before serving.

Serves 10-12

My Girl, Paula: MIni Mummies

Happy Halloween everyone! My son had a party last night. It was me and a bunch of teenagers! They were all good kids. Last one left about 11:30 (not counting the one that spent the night).

Along with setting out a bunch of other food, I made Paula Deens' Mini Mummies that was one of this month's My Girl, Paula's recipes. I used the lil smokies sausages instead of hot dogs. These were so yummy made with the little sausages and the pie crust. I will definitely make them again! There weren't many left. I used almost the whole package of sausages, too.

Sorry about the pictures. They are from my cell phone. I took a couple on the digital, but camera is in my son's room. The boys are still sleeping!

1 package hot dogs, each cut in two

1 package prepared pie dough

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Unwrap the pie dough and cut into 1/8" strips. Wrap strips around the hot dog halves in a mummy like pattern. Pinch the ends together on the bottom side of the hot dog. Place on the lined baking sheet and bake until golden brown. Approximately 10 minutes. Serve with mustard and ketshup.

Before baking:

My Girl, Paula: Easy Yeast Rolls and Hasselback Potatoes

This week's My Girl, Paula recipe was to pick your favorite. I decided to try a new one. After searching through her magazines and cookbook, I picked two recipes to try - Hasselback Potatoes from the September/October 2009 Cooking With Paula Deen magazine and Easy Yeast Rolls from "The Lady & Sons, Too!" book.

The potatoes where delicious! Very tasty. Next time, I may just slice and lay them in pan. I kept slicing all the way through!

The yeast rolls are delish, too. I just notice on Paula's website that the sugar was 1 tablespoon, but the book said 1 teaspoon.

I baked chicken with the Bone Suckin' Sauce I got at Cracker Barrell. It was really good. My only problem was getting everything timed!

EASY YEAST ROLLS

Ingredients:

One 1/4 oz package dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)

2 1/2 cups, plus 1/2-1 cup The Lady & Sons Biscuit Mix, or any prepared biscuit mix (I used Bisquick)

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Put the 2 1/2 cups of biscuit mix in a large bowl; stir in the sugar. Add the yeast mixture; stirring vigorously.

Sprinkle the work surface generously with the remaining 1/2-1 cup biscuit mix. Turn the dough out onto the surface and knead well 15-20 times. Shape the dough as desired. (I made 15 balls).

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet; cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Brush the rolls with melted butter while they are hot.

Yield: 15 rolls

HASSELBACK POTATOES

Ingredients:

2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled

1/2 cup cornflakes cereal

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided

3 T grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

Cut bottom one-fourth off 1 long side of each potato, making a lefel surface. On a clean flat surface, place potato, flat side down. Cut 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick slices crosswise into the top of each potato, cutting to but not through the bottom 1/4 inch of potato (you want potato to bend like an accordian).

In the work bowl of a food processor, combine cereal, 1 T of olive oil, chese, paprika, garlic salt, pepper, and salt; process until finely ground. Place in a shallow baking dish.

Drizzle potatoes evenly with 2 T olive oil. Carefully bend potatoes to separate sections; dredge in cornflake mixture. Place potatoes, cut sides up, in prepared baking dish. Cover with foil; bake for 30 mintues. Uncover, and bake for 15 minutes longer or until potatoes are golden brown. Drizzle with remaining 1 T olive oil. Serve immediately.

Yield: 2 servings.

Bobby's Goulash

My friend, Michele, from Alwayz Bakin' made this awhile back. I always wanted to make it but wasn't sure if my son would eat it. My daughter spotted the recipe in a stack in the kitchen and asked to make it. All I did was brown the meat; Kelly did the rest. It came out delicious!

Here is the recipe off of Paula Deen's website: http://www.pauladeen.com/recipe_view/222

My Girl, Paula: Strawberry Cream Shortcake

This week's recipe for My Girl, Paula was Strawberry Cream Shortcake. It was super easy to put together. The hardest part was cutting the strawberries! I've had a very hectic week; my mom had a mild stroke on Tuesday which has affected her speech. She was discharged home on Saturday late afternoon. I had made a huge pot of spaghetti for Sunday and decided to make this for dessert. I loved the pudding part! My mom and I put some on the couple little pieces of pound cake. Yum!

The shortcake was light and delicious! It's a great summertime dessert.

Ingredients:

1 large Sara Lee pound cake
1 (5.1 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (12 oz) container Cool Whip
2 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced

Directions:

Cut the pound cake into thin slices. Layer half in a glass 13 x 9 baking dish.

In a bowl, combine the pudding mix, water, milk and vanilla with an electric mixer. Fold in Cool Whip.

Pour half of this over the cake and lay half of the strawberries on top. Repeat to make second layer.

Refrigerate until well chilled.

Yield: 8-10 servings

The yummy creamy part!

My Girl, Paula: Not Yo' Mama's Banana Pudding

This is our second entry for My Girl, Paula. This recipe was another hit! This is probably the best banana pudding I have every had. It is so creamy and yummy! I definitely liked it with the sweetened condensed milk. I could not find French vanilla pudding, so I just used vanilla instant pudding. Still delicious! Good job, Michele, on picking this recipe! I loved it! So did my family! The Chessman cookies make the dish look classier!

I took the pudding over to my parents' house for our weekly dinner. It was a HUGE hit! Everyone loved it! I made the pudding the night before and put it together before I went over there. I love these cookies so much better than Nilla Wafers. I will definitely make this one over and over again!

Ingredients:

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies

6-8 bananas, sliced

2 cups milk

1 (5 ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

Line the bottom of a 13 x 9 x 2 inch dish with 1 bag of cookies and layer bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the cream chese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended.

Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Yield: 12 servings

mixing the milk and pudding

mixing the cream cheese and condensed milk

folding in the Cool whip into cream cheese mixture

folding the cream cheese mixture into pudding

1st layer of cookies

bananas on top of cookies; starting to spread pudding