The Best Waffles EVER!!!!

I have made these waffles several times and every time they are a huge success!  They are super easy and so delish!

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups All Purpose Flour
4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 tablespoon Sugar
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 3/4 cup Milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.    In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together, set aside.

2.  Separate the eggs.  Place yolks in with dry ingredients.  Whip the whites to form semi firm peaks.  Set aside.  (I usually whip them while I am doing the next step!)

3.  Add milk,  cooled, melted butter, and vanilla to dry ingredients.  Mix until smooth.

4.  Gently fold in egg whites.

5.  Ladle into griddle and cook until golden brown!

6.  Top with syrup, powder sugar, fruit, whatever your heart desires!  Enjoy!!!

Hot Diggity Dog Corn Muffins (a.k.a. corn dog muffins!)

So I live in a household of males who are hot dog eating machines!  I blame our German heritage, you put any sort of grounded meat in a casing and I bet my boys will eat them!  My big boy (husband) wants a snack, he reaches for a hot dog, whenever lil man (Jasper) won't eat, I cut up a hot dog and he is licking the plate clean.  Well, this mommy gets sick of eating just regular plain hot dogs all the time.  (Don't get me wrong, I do love me some hot dogs, but just need a break!) Tonight though I think I found a recipe to help with the boring hot dog meals we eat.  I am calling them Hot Diggity Dog Corn Muffins, because my lil man starting doing "The Hot Dog Dance" while eating them.  Those with a toddler in their lives will know what I am talking about!!! These would be great for a birthday party or even an adult party (make them in a mini muffin tin).  Tonight I served them with strawberries (another staple in our household!) and LaLa (what my son calls chocolate milk!).


Hot Diggity Dog Corn Muffins (6 regular sized muffins)

1- package of Jiffy Corn muffin Mix ~or if you have a favorite corn bread recipe, use it!  I don't have one :(
1/3-cup of milk  ~if using Jiffy~
1- egg ~if using Jiffy~
3- hot dogs, sliced ~I use Oscar Meyer Bun Length dogs and cut them lengthwise then slice them into bite       size pieces!

1.  Preheat oven as to the directions for your muffin recipe.  Mine was 400 degrees and spray your muffin tin!

2.  Mix muffin mix and let it sit for 5 minutes.  I do this will all my corn bread recipes, it helps re-hydrate the corn in the mix!

3.  Slice up your hot dogs.

4.  Put some mix in tin, put hot dog slices in, then top with rest of mixture.

5.  Cook for 14-17 minutes (also depending on your muffin recipe), Cool for 5 minutes and serve with ketchup and mustard and ENJOY!!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

This has been a very interesting day for weather here in Dillon!  Woke up to almost black, cloudy sky, then it all cleared away to beautiful blue skies, so we took the lil man out for a bike ride and and then the wind nearly blew us away.  Now, after dinner we have the perfect spring evening!

This was a very productive weekend for the Johnson household.  I spring cleaned the kitchen and living room and started on the laundry room, then I hurt my back again :(.  I am hoping this week I can finish unpacking our house (it has been since January) and sort through lil man's clothes (again!).  I have one more assignment along with my final for this class then I am down to two more classes then I graduate with my Master's in Library Media Sciences from the University of West Alabama! Go Tigers!

Anywho!  Tonight for dinner we have found another yummy recipe.  I cannot remember where I found and I am sorry.  It is a great Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe.  It is one of my favorite takeout meals and this recipe is easy, inexpensive, and delish!  I had everything except for the chicken in my pantry!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

3- Chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces (I only used two because they were HUGE!)
2- teaspoon Kosher Salt
1- teaspoon Black Pepper
1-cup Corn Starch
2- Large eggs beaten

1.  Mix salt and pepper with the corn starch.  Dip chicken in the corn starch to coat then dip in egg.

2.  Place chicken in fry pan with heated oil.  Cook chicken thoroughly.  Place on paper towels to drain the oil.


Sweet and Sour Sauce

3/4- cup white sugar
4 - Tablespoons of Ketchup
1/2- cup Distilled White Vinegar
1- Tablespoon of Soy Sauce
1- Teaspoon Salt
1/2- Teaspoon Garlic Salt

1.  Mix everything together in small sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes.

2.  You can toss the chicken and sauce together or just drizzled the sauce over the chicken!!! Enjoy!

** The recipe calls for the chicken and sauce be cooked together in a 350 degree oven for an hour.  I did not want the sauce in every piece of chicken since I have the Lil Man eating with us, but I think it would taste good and will be a thicker sauce! Let me know how it goes if you go it this way!!**

Enjoy!!!

Nice and Fluffy Pancakes with Blackberry Syrup

This beautiful Sunday morning, I woke up and made my little guy and big guy some homemade pancakes with freshly made blackberry syrup!  They gobbled it all up!  It was such a great Sunday morning breakfast! These pancakes are fluffy and have a great taste. I did not take pictures before they were all gone!

Pancakes (makes about 8 pancakes):

3/4 cup  Milk
2 tablespoons White Vinegar
1 cup AP Flour
2 tablespoons White Sugar (I add an extra teaspoon)
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons Melted Butter (make sure it is cooled before mixing)

1.  Combine the milk and vinegar together and let set for 5 minutes to make a sour milk

2.  Combine the flour, sugar, powder, soda and salt.

3.  Add egg and melted better to soured milk, add to dry ingredients ad whisk until all the lumps are gone!

4.  Heat large skillet over medium heat, spray with cooking spray.  Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto skillet and cook until the top is bubbly.  Flip and brown other side.  Serve warm and Enjoy!!!

Blackberry syrup:

1 pint Fresh Blackberries
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of water

1. Combine ALL ingredients and bring to a boil on the stove.

2.  Boil for 10 minutes, until it forms a nice syrup.  Let cool and serve over the above pancake recipe or ice cream!

7-up Biscuits

7-up Biscuits

So as most of you know, I am no longer in the south! We moved to Dillon, Montana over Christmas.  I love seeing my mountains every morning and being closer to family and friends!  Also, I am two classes away from graduating with my Master's in Library Media Sciences from the University of West Alabama!  Also, Jasper is getting so big!  It's been a while since I have posted, so hopefully someone will read this post.

Well, I made a New Year resolution this year to try at least one new recipe a week.  Lately, Facebook has be flooded with amazing looking recipes.  Most of them are very simple and this biscuit recipe is one of those easy ones!!!  One night for dinner I had a craving for biscuits and gravy, so I found this recipe and tried it! They came out beautiful and not a single one was left at the end of the night!  I was looking forward to having one with some scrambled eggs in the morning!  But this is a recipe keeper!!!

7-Up Biscuits

2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup 7-up
1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 450.
Cut sour cream into biscuit mix, add 7-Up. Makes a very soft dough.
Sprinkle additional biscuit mix on board or table and pat dough out. Cut in to 9 biscuits. 
Melt 1/4 cup butter in a 9 inch square pan. 
Place cut biscuits in pan and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Happy Cooking Y'all!!!

Tiff J.

Beef and Rice Casserole!!!!

So here I am. Back again to share some yumminess!!! Since the new year, I began grad school!! I know many people who have done this (ie my husband 3 times ;D) so I decided it was my time. So needless to say my spare time is nonexistence. Now most of my recipes will short quick and to the point or recipes that I can put in the Crockpot in the morning and forget about it until dinner time!! Besides grad school, baby, housework, and husband, I am trying to lose at least 50 pounds by my birthday in December. Lots going on, so let's see if I can do it!!!!
A new casserole that I found that sounded kind of gross when I first read it, butit was one of the best things I had ever tasted!!! It was called Beef and Rice Casserole.

3 cups of cooked white rice (I used long grain and cooked it in my rice cooker, gave it a neat sticky texture, but you can use the minute stuff if you want)

1 lb of ground beef

1/2 medium yellow onion, diced

1 can of tomato soup (YES TOMATO SOUP, I like Campbell's)

Garlic Salt to taste

Chili powder to taste

2-3 cups of shredded Cheddar Cheese (I like medium cheddar)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a pan, put a very lil amount of oil (just enough to sweat some onions). Sweat your onions and season with with garlic salt and chili powder. Add and brown hamburger. Then add the soup to the meat and warm.

3. In a 2 qt. casserole dish, put a layer of rice on the bottom, then meat mixture. On top of meat mixture add cheese. Repeat another layer. Top with cheese and bake for 20 minutes.

4. Serve with some yummy veggies or salad and ENJOY!!!!

Next time I make this I want to add some green bell peppers to the meat mixture. My hubby loved it so much that he had it for lunch and was upset that there was not any left when he got home.

Porcupine Meatballs

When I was growing up, my mommy dearest would make the most wonderful, amazing meatballs.  I loved them!  They were huge and full of rice and covered in a tomato-y sauce.  I thought she spent hours on these things, she had to have, they were so tasty!

I grew older (not up), moved out and kind of forgot about them.  As I was working on my own recipe book, I remembered those delectable meatballs.  I asked my mom for the recipe, thinking it would be for special occasions or weekends when I had some time to spend in the kitchen.  How did I not ask her about these sooner?  They are so easy!  Now they are a regular staple for the boys and I to enjoy.  They are still incredibly special but can be made any day of the week.

Porcupine Meat Balls

1.5-2lbs  Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
2 eggs
1c. Instant Rice (white or brown)
1/3c. Water
1 clove Minced Garlic (or 1/2 tsp. garlic powder)
Salt and Pepper

1-2 cans Tomato Sauce (depending on how much sauce you like)

Mix all ingredients (minus the Tomato Sauce) together and form into balls.  Depending on the fat content of the meat, you may need to alter the amount of water.  You want the mixture to be wet (the rice will soak up a lot of the moisture)  but it needs to be able to form into fist-ish sized balls.  Place in deep baking pan about an inch apart.

Bake at 375 for 10-20 minutes.  Once the meatballs have a decent crust on them, pour the Tomato Sauce over the meatballs and bake until done.  About 20 more minutes.

I usually serve these with more rice on the side and some yummy veggies.  So tasty!