Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Sugar cookies Emily was looking thru her craft book and found this cookie recipe. I promised to make it and we tried the recipe. It turned out great! 1/2 cup butter, 1 1/2 white flour, 1/4 cup of icing sugar, 2 tbsp of corn syrup. I beat the first two in the kenmore mixed with the paddle then added more butter and when it was the proper consistency I added remaining two ingredients. Put in fridge for 30 mins, roll out and cookie cutter. Let the kids decorate. Bake at 350 for 10 mins. I think i will mix in orange food colouring and make little pumpkin cookies for Hallowe'en!

Dump and run taco soup

http://10minutedinners.com/easy-taco-soup/ Read this recipe This website had this recipe that I tried twice. It is very easy. I made spaghetti for the family one night but cooked 2 lbs of ground beef and split it in half and put it in the fridge. The next day I made taco soup in the crockpot with it. I had some ladies over and while we were 'crafting it up' we stopped for a bowl of soup (and a handful of cookies, a girl has to keep her energy up). I changed the recipe a lot because I wanted to use up more of the ingredients I had on hand. My version went something like this. The taco soup - I cooked 1 pound of the ground beef (not 2 lbs) and mixed in taco seasoning. I used green salsa instead of green chilies. 5 peeled tomatoes instead of stewed tomatoes. I added 1/2cup of regular salsa (optional) and 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes. 2 cups of water. Some frozen corn, 1 can of kidney beans, you can use any beans. It turned out good!

Fall Feast

I have been collecting tons of fruits and vegatables from my family garden. This years harvest includes, peppers, squash, tomatoes, apples, onions, raspberries, cucumbers, wild grapes and more. I have done my canning of salsa, jams and pickles are in the fridge. I froze tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, apples and applesauce, raspberries. Now I am on the casserole stage of using up all these veggies. I like to prepare meals in advance while the food is free from the garden. I love to have crockpot meals ready in ziplock bags in the freezer for when there is a friend who needs a helping hand at a tough time. Today I have made spaghetti sauce and chili, butternut squash soup, beef stroganoff and orange chicken. I have been checking out some great websites for new crockpot recipes. I am going to share the links here so I can find them again another time.I'm having a heck of a time posting links (insert sad emotion). look in the comments for more links. The first comment is '8 crockpot freezer meals' including the orange chicken and beef stroganoff. Butternut squash soup- http://cleaneatingchelsey.com/2011/10/27/slow-cooker-butternut-squash-and-apple-soup/