Let's Go Bananas!

Super simple and simply wonderful is how I describe these wonderful little treats of goodness.
If you have sugar craves, but don't all that goes with it.  I found this to be a very nice afternoon treat on this snow in the Carolinas!

Cinnamon Bananas

1 banana
1 tablespoon honey
cinnamon



1. Slice banana -not too thin or too thick... how's that for you?
2.  Pour honey over bananas and sprinkle cinnamon. Mix well to coat.
3.  Lay on baking sheet and bake in a 350* preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool and enjoy!

I think this would be awesome over biscuits or ice cream, but it was fabulous just eating
from a bowl!

Breakfast bread.. yum yum!

I used my cast iron skillet to bake the bread!

The first time I saw this recipe, I thought: YES, this combines two of our favorite breakfast items: Sausage and bread!  Dave had just gotten up and thought 'Ok, how hard could this be?' Then I noticed baking time.  It's was little higher than I was hoping for at that moment, so I simply did something we didn't have to wait an hour for and pushed this off to the side.  However, today Dave was not yet up so I got busy.  Unfortunately, for him, he got up a little sooner than I anticipated and had to wait.  He's not good at waiting for his breakfast!

I changed the recipe based on what I have and like- I know us so why not?  That's the beauty of cooking
You can change it!  I don't understand why some thing 'I must follow this recipe word for word and ingredient by ingredient'- NO, you don't!  Promise!

So here is Sausage and Cheese Breakfast Bread

Ingredients
- 8 oz. hot sausage
- ¼ cup diced onion
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce- Louisiana is the BEST though
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt
- ½ teaspoon of pepper
- 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
- 2 cups Bisquick
- ⅔ cup milk
- ¼ cup mayo- yep, this is the Carolinas so you know it's Dukes!

Instructions
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Crumble sausage and brown with  onions over a medium high heat. Set side.
2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine egg, milk, mayo, cheeses, hot sauce, salt, pepper, Old Bay . Mix well.
3.  Add the Bisquick a cup at a time and mix slowly, but well.
4.  Fold in sausage & onions. Mix until just blended.
5.  Place about 2 tablespoons of oil into a 8x8 cast iron skillet with oil-  I added a little of the sausage grease and then allowed the oven to get it hot.  When the oil is hot,  spoon mixture into skillet Bake for 35 minutes.
5.  Let rest in pan for 5-10 minutes before serving.


This came out fabulous!  It was very good and Dave approved, but I have decided to add some things next time.  I will add more Old Bay and hot sauce because I think I could handle more.  Garlic powder would be ok too.   I might add a little seasoning to the sausage when browning.  Any one who knows me, knows I season my meat when cooking!   Maybe pepper jack mixed with the cheddar?  Regardless, this was a GREAT different breakfast for us today.  As stated, it is definitely a Dave approved recipe and Rosie enjoyed it too!

Not Nutty this year...

Last year, I made "Drunken Pecans" with the multitude of pecans I had, but alas this year, the local trees did not produce as they could have due to all the rain this summer.  Well, I thought of buying pecans, but decided it was just too much to spend on nuts! 

I had gotten the idea for the drunken pecans from the whiskey sticks I got at my favorite farm stand/winery in Pennsylvania (the goat's milk fudge and pepperoni bread is awesome too)- so I decided to put my twist on these sticks... by using my favorite spirit, Southern Comfort!

I made these for our annual tailgate to East Carolina back in November and they were a major hit- except with the three year old who declared they were 'bad' pretzels!  Sent some with Dave on his golf outing and all the boys loved them.  So here is the recipe, jazzed up Belinda style!

Savory and Sweet in one bite!

So Co Sticks

1 stick of butter
4 tbsp Southern Comfort
1 heaping tbsp Brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
pinch red pepper flakes
2 bags pretzel sticks or twists

1.  Melt butter, Southern Comfort, sugar and seasonings in a saucepan over medium to low heat.
2.  When melted, pour butter over the two bags of pretzels and mix well.
3.  Pour onto baking sheets and spread into one layer or as close as you can. 
bake at 250 for 20 minutes.  Stir them half way through.
4.  Remove and allow to cool and dry out as they might be still a little sticky!



Be sure to store in an air tight container!

I like to add a little more cajun seasoning to kick it up a notch after pulling these out of the oven.  It cuts some of the sweetness, but makes it a bit more biting!  The truth is that you can add any flavor you like to- I meant to add some hotsauce today, but forgot- however that next batch will be fired up!

So if you are on my 'nice' list this year, YOU might be getting some So Co Sticks!

BBQ Souper Supper!

I love soup...  I can turn pretty much any type of leftover into a soup.  We order a BBQ butt when we see fundraisers, but there is only so much BBQ sandwiches two people can have keep sanity alive.  So I made soup out of the BBQ.  The bonus is it's obviously tomato baseded,

And it was a BIG hit!

BBQ Soup

1 can tomato soup
1 cup barbeque sauce- your favorite
1-2 cans of pinto beans, drained - how many do you want? it is UP to you!
1 can tomatoes, drained
1 cup pulled or chopped BBQ
1/2 cup onion
3 cups water


1.  In a stock pot, add soup, bbq sauce, and water together.  Mix and combine the liquids.
2.  Add pulled pork, pintos, tomatoes,and onion.  Bring to boil and then turn to simmer.
3.  Simmer for about 20-30 minutes, stirring often.

The pork breaks down and gets absolutely wonderful!  It's amazing how simple, but flavorful this soup is.  If you BBQ area tends to lean towards serving hushpuppies, I would suggest serving with cornbread. 

Oysters are da bomb

I love OYSTERS!  Any way, shape or form... now I  know many do not like raw oysters, but oh well... that's just more for me!  Dave, as you can imagine, is not a fan of raw oysters.  Not a shocker huh? I mean, we were at Acme Oysters in New Orleans and I ordered an oyster shooter- he didn't realize it would really be a shooter! Well, he did that OK so I have to give him a pass on raw oysters.  He will on occasion eat a fried oyster, but the raw ones, well, it's just a 'no go' with the Dave!

I have had a  hankering for some oyster stew, but was trying to figure out how to give the stew a little more Dave friendly feel... so I decided to make it more of a chowder than a stew. The catch is the consistency of the stew and that is up to you in my opinion.  I like mine a bit thicker, but not too thick.  So add more milk/water

 I mean oyster stew is pretty basic so why not jazz it up a bit? So this is what I did :

Oyster Potato Chowder

1 pint oysters, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup oyster juice   maybe more, up to you
2 large potatoes, diced, boiled to tender
6-8 slices of bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled
1/2 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 clove garlic - pressed
2-3 cups of FF milk- plus 1/2 cup water
1 package of instant mashed potatoes
Old Bay Seasoning
hot sauce
celery seed
1 tbsp butter


1.  Boil potatoes until tender.  Drain and set aside.
2.  Fry bacon until crisp.... remove to crumble. Reserve 1 tbp bacon drippings and  saute onion and celery in the bacon grease- add pressed garlic clove at the end so as not to burn garlic.  (Is there anything better than garlic/onion/celery in bacon drippings? I mean, come on!)
3.  Add 3 cups of FF milk and water to boil and add the instant mashed potatoes.  This is where it gets a bit tricky because you need to watch the consistency of your chowder/stew. Bring it down to medium to low simmer.
4.  Add in the potatoes and onion mixture. Add seasonings  Watch your consistency again... add oyster juice now. 
5.  Now add the oysters , butter, and bacon pieces... let them simmer in the stew until the edges curl up... then simmer at low.

Serve with oyster crackers (yes, you must buy  them when making oyster stew/chowder)  and hot sauce to taste. Garnish with more bacon! 

Another try at the chicken-phobia

As stated before, the Dave does not care much for chicken.  And I love chicken- I would eat it EVERY day if I could... seriously!   Therefore, I am always looking for a chicken recipe that I think MIGHT entice the Dave just a bit.  I intended to make this last weekend, but poor Dave's face when I speak of chicken- especially if it is NOT fried- makes me change my mind.  However, this weekend, I decided to go with this recipe I- of course- saw on Pinterest.  Seemed pretty simple, yet appealing.  Yet, as I always do, I had to make this simple recipe a bit more my own!

Crock Pot Chicken and Dressing

Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts- thawed
1 box of Stove Top Dressing
1/2 cup of Sour Cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 teaspoon sage or poultry seasoning
1/2 onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots

1.  Place chicken on bottom of crock pot; top with onion, celery and carrot.
2.  Sprinkle Stove Top on top of this layer.
3.  Mix soup and sour cream in a bowl together with sage.  Pour mixture over the stove top.
4.  Cook 4-5 hours on low-- make sure it's low... I screwed up and put on high...uggh

5.  Fluff and serve

Orange you glad you are my Momma?

I am a creature of habit-- well, the habits of one Charlie Kinder.  My father's 'food' tastes have long ruled the Kinder household.  One is told it's YOUR birthday dinner, but in reality, you choose something Daddy would like- or face the consequences. With desserts, he is the opposite of me. He does not do chocolate so you tend to stay with the reds: Cherry and Strawberry.  But I wanted to go out of the box and considering it's MOTHER'S DAY- not FATHER'S DAY- I decided to treat my mother with something different!

I searched my Pinterest board entitled Sugar Craves and found something light and fat free.  Using just three ingredients, I decided this would be my Mother's Day dessert--

Orange Creamsicle Cake!


1 box White Cake Mix
1 container (6 oz) non-fat Greek yogurt, plain  (or just over a half cup)
1.25 cup orange juice
zest of one orange
powdered sugar, optional
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
Fat free whipped topping


1.  Preheat over to 350*.
2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, Greek yogurt and orange juice. Mix well.
2   Pour batter into a greased 8 x8 inch  square or 9 inch round pan.  Bake at 350* for 33-35 minutes. 
3.  Allow cake to cool and dust with powdered sugar.  Add mandarin oranges .  Serve with whipped topping.

I have decided that added orange liquor would be nice too-- either to the cake itself or the whipped topping. It's a dense cake- some what sponge-like, but very moist and flavorable!
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