Tostada Pizza

This is something I make quite often in our home. It's cheap and easy. We eat a lot of beans around our house so I usually have all these ingredients on hand. As you can tell in the picture though, I am lacking the green onion. Still good! I will post my favorite pizza dough recipe later.

Tostada Pizza

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

3/4 lb ground beef or turkey

1 4-oz can diced green chili peppers, drained

2 Tbs taco seasoning

1 tsp chili powder

1 Tbs cornmeal

1 15-ounce can pinto beans with jalapeno peppers, rinsed and drained (Don't worry, it does not make it spicy to use the one with peppers)

1 cup (4 oz) shredded Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded lettuce

1 medium tomato, chopped

1/2 cup (4) thinly sliced green onions

Bottled taco sauce or salsa (optional)

Pizza dough (10 oz refrigerated can or homemade)

Brown meat in skillet and drain off any fat. Stir in 3/4 cup water, chili peppers, taco seasoning, and chili powder. Bring to a boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, 15-20 minutes or until most of the liquid is gone.

Meanwhile, grease a baking sheet and sprinkle with the cornmeal. Pat pizza dough into rectangle on sheet and bake in 400 degree oven for 5 minutes.

In a bowl mash beans with a fork or potato masher; spread over partially cooked pizza dough within 1/2 inch of edges. Spoon meat mixture over beans. Bake, uncovered, 10 more minutes or until crust is just golden. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake 1 to 2 minutes more or until cheese melts. Top with lettuce, tomato, and onions. Serve with sauce or salsa if desired.

Well, I'm packed...

Menu for the weekend?

Tonight:

Hot dogs, roasted over a nice, hot fire with ketchup (catsup?) and mustard

Pork 'n beans

S'mores

Tomorrow morning:

Oatmeal packets

Hot cocoa

Pop tarts (for everyone else...I got chocolate)

Tomorrow for lunch:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Applesauce

Grapes

Koolaid

There are crackers, granola bars and fruit snacks for in-between meal snacks.

I'm looking forward to being home tomorrow night. I like my gas cooktop and modern conveniences....

Y'know what's good?

Zucchini bread french toast. Just sayin'. The kids suggested it and I being the amazingly patient, understanding mother that I am...well, we tried it. Delicious with a little sour cherry jelly dabbed on top. Mmmm!

Also, I made the best, BEST brownies the other night. Well, actually it's more like cake than brownies. We'll call them cake brownies...k?

Simply wonderful.

However, I can cook pretty much anything presented to me in a recipe, but I can not, let's repeat, CAN NOT, seem to master frosting. It always tastes good, but the consistency always bugs me. Maybe it's because I just don't particularly care for frosting, that makes me dislike it all...hmmm.

However, this is all that's left of Shane's lunch helping of the cake brownies...he said he liked it all, even the frosting. Which did, by the way, turn out much better than some recipes, I'd say keep this one, it tastes good, but wait until it cools to frost anything...trust me on that one. It's a much better frosting today than it was yesterday.

TEXAS CAKE BROWNIES

3 cup flour

3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cup butter

9 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 cup water

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

Frosting

1/2 cup butter

3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa

6 tsp. buttermilk

4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 12 x 18 inch jelly roll pan. ***Please note the size, it's a huge batch of brownies!!***

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. In a small saucepan, bring butter, cocoa and water to a rapid boil. Pour over the flour mixture and stir until combined. Add the eggs, buttermilk and vanilla extract, in that order, and mix well.

3. Spread evenly into prepared baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Cool before frosting.

4. Frosting: In a small saucepan melt 1/2 c. butter, stir in powdered sugar, 3 tbsp. cocoa, buttermilk and vanilla, in that order. Beat by hand until creamy. Spread on cooled brownies.

Bread, Bread, Bread

I just logged on to post a bread recipe my sis-in-law requested and noticed that Brooke just did Zucchini Bread yesterday! I guess it's bread week.Chocolate Banana Bread

1/2 c. softened butter
2 eggs
2 Tbs cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 c. mashed ripe banana (2-3)
1/2 c. sour cream
1 c. sugar
1 c. white flour
1/2 c. wheat flour
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Beat eggs and butter together. Beat in cocoa, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla. Add and beat banana and sour cream. Mix in sugar. Mix in flour. Stir in chocolate chips.
Bake in loaf pan for 55 minutes at 350.

White Chip & Coconut Chocolate Swirl Cake

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2-3/4 cup plain flour
1-1/4 tsp baking soda, divided
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1 cup chocolate syrup
1 cup white chips
1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Stir together flour, 1 tsp baking soda and salt; add alternately with buttermilk to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
Measure out 2 cups of batter and place in seperate bowl. Stir in syrup and remaining 1/4 tsp of baking soda. Add white chips and coconut to remining original batter. Pour into a greased and floured 12-cup fluted pan or 10-inch tube pan.
Spoon chocolate batter over vanilla batter in pan, do not mix.
Bake 65 - 70 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven. Check with toothpick (cake will sink in center). Cool 15 minutes in pan, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Glaze or frost if desired.
20 servings.

Zucchini Bread

Have I mentioned our garden? We planted spontaneously on Memorial Day with a hope and a prayer that we'd get anything. It was kind of late to plant, even here in West Texas, and we didn't know what our soil was like.

Results? Tomato plants that are healthy but won't produce fruit until the fall when it cools down a bit. Pepper plants that are healthy but won't produce fruit. Carrots that didn't come up at all. Corn that is midget and still trying to produce corn cobs that will probably be midget too. However, the cantaloupes, watermelons, pumpkin, eggplants, yellow crookneck squash and zucchini are doing great!

Now that we're finally getting some zucchini I decided to get a handle on it early. I made a double batch of Great Zucchini Bread. I gave some away, froze some and kept a couple of loaves out for the family to snack on!

The recipe was so easy I can't wait to get more baked soon!

GREAT ZUCCHINI BREAD

4 cup shredded zucchini
3 cup white flour
2 1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup olive oil (I used 1/2 veg. oil and 1/2 olive oil)
4 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup chopped nuts (optional, and sadly, I didn't use them)

Mix all ingredients together and bake in greased loaf pans at 325° for 50 - 60 minutes on until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

New Header, New Look, New Recipe!

I am back from my vacation to the land of good friends, cheap groceries, good food and fun. Back to real-life. Good news is I came back with 6 new cookbooks to my name! Yay! My son, who will one day be as proficient in the kitchen as I am, found me a recipe I couldn't wait to try...Lemonade Pie! It was on the menu for last night.

Creamy, lemony, and cool - perfect for a Summer evening!

Lemonade Pie

1/3 cup Country Time Lemonade Flavor Drink Mix

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened

1 tub (8 oz) whipped topping, thawed

1 prepared graham cracker crust (6 oz)

Place drink mix in large bowl, add water and stir until mix is dissolved. Add ice cream and beat with mixer until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping. Spoon into crust. Freeze at least 4 hours until firm. Let stand at room temperature until pie can easily be cut.

***I doubled the recipe so I could make it in a 9x13 in. pan since we were having a larger group. Instead of a graham cracker crust I used cinnamon teddy graham crackers ground up. It was delicious! This was one that was so super easy and so refreshing on a hot Summer evening!

Grill Time

I love cooking out in the summer and I love burgers. This is my recipe I always use for my basic burger.

Basic Juicy Burgers

1 1/2 lb ground beef

1 Tbs. milk

1 Tbs. dehydrated milk powder

2 Tbs. worcestershire sauce

Seasoning salt or Cajun all-purpose spice (to taste, I do about 1 Tbs)

Italian bread crumbs (premade from package, use until desired consistency)

1 egg

Put meat in large bowl and make a well in center. Add all other ingredients except for breadcrumbs into the well. Beat with fork. Mix together with hands gradually adding breadcrumbs until it will hold up well. Grill!

Cleaning Recipes

I tried to make Brooke some of my Laundry Soap Recipe but somehow screwed up. (sorry Brooke, hope you got it figured out).
I thought I would post some of my favorite other cleaning recipes that I like. Brooke has posted some on here previously, I just thought I would add to it. I see recipes online a lot and have tried several. These are my favorite of the ones I've tried.

The first one is not really a recipe. Instead of Rinse Aid I just put vinegar in my rinse aid compartmant in my dishwasher. It really works, I promise you'll never go back. Jet Dry is $3.30 for small bottle. Vinegar $1.42 for one gallon. I've tried two different kinds of Homemade Dishwashing Powder and niether of them worked very well. If you know a good one let me know!

My favorite All-Purpose Cleaner is:

All Purpose Cleaner
1/8 cup Mild Dishwashing soap (Ivory or Palmolive)
2 Tbs. White Vinegar
1 tsp. of Borax
Distilled Water

Mix vinegar and borax. Add 1 cup hot water and stir until disolved. Let cool before pouring into 16 oz. spray bottle. Fill with water, leaving just enough room for the soap. Add soap. You can add 15-20 drops of any essential oil if you like. You can get one that smells good, like lavender. If I add any though I use Tea Tree or Melaluca Oil because it has great cleaning properties.

To clean my microwave I make a 50/50 solution of water and vinegar. I place in a microwave safe bowl with 1 tsp. lemon juice. Place in microwave until it boils for about two or three minutes. You want the steam to go everywhere but don't let your bowl dry out. Turn it off and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Then you can just wipe it clean.

Summertime Treats

Yogurt Popsicles
1 package (4-serving size) fruit flavored gelatin
1 cup tap water
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
3 cups plain yogurt (homemade is fine)
Molds, Sticks, Freezer
Heat the water until it is boiling. You can do this on the stove or in the microwave. Stir it the flavored gelatin. Stir and Stir and Stir. Add the sugar. Keep stirring until the fluid is clear and everything is dissolved. This may take a full 5 minutes of stirring. Add the yogurt and beat until the mixture is smooth. Pour into molds and freeze.



Fudgesicles
3 eggs
2 1/4 c. sugar
3 Tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. cocoa
2 c. water
4 1/2 c. milk, heated
1 tbsp. vanilla

Beat eggs, add rest of ingredients. Mix well. Pour into plastic popsicle cups and freeze.


Here's my tip: If you do not have molds you can pour into an ice cube tray. Cover with aluminum foil and poke toothpicks down each center. The foil will help hold the toothpick straight in the center.

Birthday Cake

For my sons birthday this year we did a cowboy theme. I got the pattern to cut out the boot from Parents Magazine. I just used my sons boot as inspiration for decoration because I didn't like how theirs was decorated. If I can do this anybody can!