Taffy Baked Apples

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grown nutmeg
Dash ground cloves
Dash ground ginger
4 medium cooking apples


In small bowl combine sugar, water, molasses, lemon juice, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground ginger. Remove cores from apples; peel strip from top of each apple. (You may also slice the apples, if you prefer). In an 8-inch glass pie plate, place the apples top-side down. Pour molasses mixture over apples. Microwave, uncovered, for 4 minutes. Turn apples, top-side up, and rearrange. Cook until apples are tender, about 4 minutes more. Cool slightly before serving. Makes 4 servings.

Hot Dogs!

When I first decided to try this, I was sure nobody had ever done it before. So, I went on my search (Yahoo and Google search, of course) and found that I was wrong. I don't think there are any original recipe ideas left! So even though this is NOT uncharted territory, the crock pot is a really great way to cook hot dogs. I started with about 8 and it worked great! I've read where other people have cooked a lot more. But the thing is . . . it has great potential! When you cook them, they turn brown and get kind of "toasty" where they touch the crockery, giving a roasted effect. They turn out very plump and juicy like they do in those machines they use at ball games and carnivals.


It would be great to pile them in a crock pot, as many as you can get, and have them "self serve" at a birthday party or football party. I'd like to have an additional crock pot full of chili and a bowl of cole slaw and hot dog buns and shredded cheese, pickles and jalapenos and chips or oven baked fries.


Don't add water. Just pile them in and cook them on high for about an hour or so, or on low for a couple of hours. Then put them on warm. It's way too easy!

Parmesan Chicken With Penne Pasta

1 egg
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (1 1/4 lbs)
1 26 oz jar tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup shredded Italian Cheese (2 oz)
2 2/3 cup uncooked Penne pasta (8 oz)

Step 1 - Spray a 2 to 3 quart crock pot with cooking spray. Beat egg in a small bowl until foamy. In a separate bowl, mix bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.

Step 2 - Dip chicken in egg, then coat evenly with bread crumb mixture; place in slow cooker. Spread pasta sauce evenly over chicken.

Step 3 - Cover and cook on low heat for 5 to 6 hours.

Step 4 - Sprinkle Italian cheese over top. Cover and cook on low for 10 more minutes. Now, cook and drain pasta according to package directions and serve chicken with pasta.

Honey Cucumber Mask

There are more uses for food than to eat. Make yourself a honey cucumber mask.

The benefits of honey are said to be many. It seems more to be a personal choice if it works for you. Many details about honey can be found HERE.

1. Place 1 tbsp of honey into a small bowl. Honey has been used for centuries as a natural cure for a variety of ailments. Honey may be the perfect skin care product, as it kills germs and reduces swelling and inflammation. A honey face mask will gently clean your skin, while keeping it healthy, supple and beautiful.

2. Add 1 tsp. of olive oil to the honey. Olive oil helps nourish and clean the skin at the same time. Unlike petroleum jelly, heavy lotions and other oils, olive oil will rinse cleanly away, leaving your skin moisturized and glowing.

3. Break an egg, gently separating the yoke and adding it to the honey and oil mixture. The egg yoke will not only give your face mask a creamy texture, it will help remove oil and dirt from the skin. Egg yoke will remove the greasy shine from your face without drying.

4. Mix the ingredients until creamy.

5. Peel and slice four pieces of cucumber. Save 2 slices or the eyes and mash the other 2 with a potato masher as much as you can and the add to the mixture. Cucumber has gentle astringent properties, but is the same pH as skin. Including cucumber as part of your skin care regimen will help to restore the natural protective acid levels of the skin. Cucumber naturally nourishes and hydrates the skin and can help reduce circles from underneath the eyes.

6. Apply a warm washcloth to your face to open the pores. Apply the honey face mask and cucumbers. Place one cucumber slice on each eye. Relax for about 20 minutes while you wait for the mask to work, then rinse with warm water. Once fully rinsed, splash a bit of cold water on your face to close your pores and firm the skin.

Meatloaf For One In A Mug

2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 tablespoons quick cooking oats, uncooked*
1 teaspoon onion soup mix
1/4 pound lean ground beef
additional ketchup for garnish

*Bread crumbs can be used instead of oats

In a small bowl, combine milk, ketchup oats and soup mix. Add beef and mix well. Pat into a microwave-safe coffee mug sprayed with non-stick spray. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3 minutes or 4 minutes, until meat is no longer pink. drain; let stand for 3 minutes. Serve with additional ketchup. Makes one serving.

Tortilla Soup

I found this soup mix at the store and decided to try it. You can do in the crockpot and it will be ready in about 3 hours (or when the potatoes are just shy of tender). 

You mix the soup packet with 8 cups of water. Peel and dice and couple of small potatoes and an onion. That's it. When the potatoes are tender it's done. Plop a dollop of sour cream in the middle and sprinkle with shredded cheddar.

The Marie Callender Southwest Cornbread mix went very well with it. I'm not a fan of sweet cornbread, but it was a good match to the soup. My family liked it and so did I. I will make it again.

 Do you like snow cream? Check THIS out.

Basic Bouillabaisse - From The Freezer To The Microwave

Enjoy some now and freeze the rest for later. As, usual, click and click again to enlarge.

Beans & Wieners

Now that the holidays are over, we settle down to more simple, realistic cooking that better matches our day-to-day lives... and our football weekends.

Beans and Wieners (a kid's favorite too)

o 1 lb of cooked bratwurst or polish sausage (or hot dogs)
   sliced into 4 chunks each (or smaller if you prefer)

o 3 15 oz cans of pork and beans in tomato sauce (undrained)

o 1 small, finely chopped onion (about 1/4 cup)

o 1/4 cup molasses

o 2 teaspoons yellow mustard

o 1/2 cup ketchup

Spray crockpot with cooking spray. Add all ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.

Serve as a side dish or serve with your choice of chips as a dip.

New Year's Leftovers - Crockpot Hoppin' John

Every year, I have the tradition that everything left over (except for bread, salad and desert), after eating leftovers on January 2nd, goes into the soup pot. This year we had mac and cheese, collards, black-eyed peas, ham, hash brown casserole and 2 cans of chicken broth. Apparently, we ate most it of this year. We got 2 freezer bags for 2 meals in the freezer. I tasted it before we bagged it. It's good.


Here's another great idea for leftovers or for any time.


Crock Pot Hoppin John

This is just a basic recipe. You can add chopped celery or chopped red or green peppers or just about anything else you like.

1 lb left over ham or 1 lb smoky bacon
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
2 cans black eyed peas (15.5 oz size) or 2 can size servings of leftover peas.
3 cans chicken broth
1 1/2 cups (or cans) long grain rice (not instant rice). You can use a empty soup can to measure the rice.

Instructions:

Brown the bacon on the stove and crumble in large pieces. Drain most of the fat off add the onion and garlic and cook until onion is clear and tender.


Spray crock with cooking spray. Put the bacon mixture in the crockpot and add remaining ingredients. Stir well. Don't drain the black eyed peas if using canned peas. Cover and cook on low for 3 to 5 hours. Stir after an hour and and half and check liquid. If more is needed, add water 1/2 cup at a time. Often, it only takes 3 hours for this to be done, depending on how hot your crock pot is on low. My old crockpot took about 2 hours longer to cook food than my new one.

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Eat poor that day, eat rich the rest of the year.
Rice for riches and peas for peace.

- Southern saying on eating a dish of Hoppin' John on New Year's Day.

Hoppin' John is found in most states of the South, but it is mainly associated with the Carolinas. Gullah or Low Country cuisine reflects the cooking of the Carolinas, especially the Sea islands (a cluster of islands stretching along the coats of south Carolina and northern Georgia).

Black-eyed peas, also called cow peas, are thought to have been introduced to America by African slaves who worked the rice plantations. Hoppin' John is a rich bean dish made of black-eyed peas simmered with spicy sausages, ham hocks, or fat pork, rice, and tomato sauce.

This African-American dish is traditionally a high point of New Year's Day, when a shiny dime is often buried among the black-eyed peas before serving. whoever get the coin in his or her portion is assured good luck throughout the year. For maximum good luck in the new year, the first thing that should be eaten on New year's Day is Hoppin' John. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, many southern families toast each other with Champagne and a bowl of Hoppin' John. If it is served with collard greens you might, or might not, get rich during the coming year.

There are many variations to traditional Hoppin' John. Some cook the peas and rice in one pot, while others insist on simmering them separately.

Most food historians generally agree that "Hopping John" is an American dish with African/French/Caribbean roots. There are many tales or legends that explain how Hoppin' John got its name:

    It was the custom for children to gather in the dining room as the dish was brought forth and hop around the table before sitting down to eat.

    A man named John came "a-hoppin" when his wife took the dish from the stove.

    An obscure South Carolina custom was inviting a guest to eat by saying, "Hop in, John"

    The dish goes back at least as far as 1841, when, according to tradition, it was hawked in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina by a crippled black man who was know as Hoppin' John.

quote taken directly from "What Cooking America"