Slow Cooker Smothered Pork Chops #2

Ok, Ok,... OK... I know I have another pork chop recipe for the crock pot. BUT.... this one is easy and just as yummy. Again, I'm using what I have in the house, and not necessarily following any directions or recipes. My brain is crazy that way. But I love it! So here's to another YUMMY dish my brain made up all by it's self! Now you know, it's good when my kids eat it all up, even the sauce! And yes, they did, even my husband said it was WAY YUMMY! Another GREAT compliment! So hold on to your hats ladies and Gents! It's so easy and delicious... you'll want it at least one night a week... I know I do :)

Ingredients

8 boneless pork chops

1 can progresso french onion soup

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 stick of butter - unsalted

6 oz of cream cheese

2 tbsp corn starch mixed with cold water

1 pkg dry onion soup

Directions:

In a 4 Qt slow cooker, add the french onion soup, the cream of mushroom soup, the stick of butter and the pork chops. After that cooks on low all day... about 30 minutes before serving, add the cream cheese, dry onion soup mix and corn starch mixture... stir and let the cream cheese dissolve... if it doesn't dissolve take out the pork chops, and use your immersible blender and blend til smooth. Should thicken a little.

Then spoon over the pork chops and serve with rice or orzo.

DIG IN!

This was so yummy! We ate it all up, so fast that I couldn't get pictures... I thought about taking pictures when I was half way done and then thought you wouldn't want to see it half demolished and so I saved you from my partially eaten food. If you make it send me your picture... It's so YUMMY!

French Bread, Cinnamon rolls and Focaccia Bread

I have this amazing friend! Her and I make bread about once a week together. This week I have made bread three times. Once with her and twice on my own. My family can not get enough of this amazing bread. My dear friend got this recipe from a friend of her's who served an LDS Mission in France. She got this recipe from a group of French Monks. They believed that the oil, and salt killed the yeast. This is how to make their bread.

This is my favorite bread recipe. My friend who I lovingly borrowed this recipe from, makes pizza crust and bread loafs out of it. I decided today that I wanted to use this for a few different things, so I decided to make cinnamon rolls and focaccia bread out of it after I made three bread loafs... So here is the recipe. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Ingredients

13-14 cups of Lehi Roller Mills unbleached flour (or other unbleached flour high quality)- in utah can be found at Costco.

2/3 cup oil

2 Tbsp Salt

2 Tbsp dry active yeast (Red Star or SAF)

1/2 cup LDS church Dry Milk or 1 cup regular dry milk

6 cups Hot Water

1 cup sugar

Follow the steps exactly -

Directions:

This is what we call the science experiment stage.

1. In a large bowl add 6 cups of hot water, dry milk, sugar and yeast. Using a wire whisk, mix the ingredients until the dry milk completely dissolves. Then add in 6 cups of flour whisking until paper mache' consistency. Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise aprox 1 hour.

Next...

2. After risen, sprinkle the salt, and pore the oil on the risen yeast mixture. Then mix incorporating the salt and oil. Then gradually work the mixture adding 2 cups of flour at a time until dough starts to form and gets slightly less sticky... remove dough from the bowl onto floured surface, then continue kneeding the dough adding flour until nice light non sticky dough is formed.

then clean the large bowl from earlier, spray with non stick cooking spray, place dough in prepared bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise an hour. punch down... turn over

cover again with plastic wrap and let rise another hour, then punch done, turn over.. recover

then let rise another hour... punch down and then

Shape into bread loafs, rolls, cinnamon rolls, focaccia bread or what ever... cover with plastic wrap,

Let rise until double in size. Then bake in an oven 350F for 27 min for loafs, 18 min for rolls.

Remove from oven, spread melted butter on the tops and enjoy!

Cinnamon rolls

After I had three loafs of bread in the pan, I then divided the remaining dough in half. From one half I rolled out the dough to rectangle and spread melted butter cinnamon, a few dashes of cloves, and brown sugar on it, rolled it up along the length of the dough, then cut it with string into aprox. 1 inch wide rolls. Then I let rise until aprox double in size. Then Baked in the oven 350 for 19 minutes. They came out golden brown, Next I got a premade cream cheese icing, thined it out with milk, and drizzled on top. Will serve these cold tomorrow morning. But will be good warmed. Enjoy! :)

Focaccia Bread

With the other half of the dough I tried to flatten out as best I could on a cookie sheet, that had been drizzled generously with olive oil. As I was flattening the dough, I dug my fingers in to rip the dough with my fingers. Then I let rise til puffy and double in size. I sprinkled with rosemary and garlic seasoning, salt and another drizzling of olive oil. Then Baking in the oven 350F for 20 minutes. Until golden brown.

This should be light and fluffy, and full of yummy flavor. Enjoy warm or cold.

Smokehouse Maple Flat Iron Steak with oven roasted onions and potatoes

Tonight is not too much like any other Sunday night, except for the fact that I am feeling quite under the weather and really would have liked someone else to make dinner for me. My stomach feels a little weird. And I'm completely exhausted. I was up until 3:30 am Saturday night and got up at 7:30am to get ready for church and then home to try to work on school work, just to get sidetracked into wrapping christmas presents to be shipped off tomorrow, along with christmas cards and a strong desire to make some christmas cookies. Needless to say, no homework done and very ADHD on everything else. So I didn't want to cook... alas,... I did anyways. :)

Tonight is a very EASY and I stress EASY! not a lot of prep and just easy peasy...

Ingredients

Smokehouse maple seasoning by McCormick

1.5 to 2 lb Flat Iron Steak

2 onions large sliced

4 potatoes (medium to large) cut into chunks with skins on

1/3 cup oil

1 pkg onion soup mix

For the potatoes you cut the potatoes in to chunks place in a 13X9 pan coat with the oil and onion soup mix. Place in a preheated 425 preheated oven for 25-35 min tossing occasionally until golden brown. While that is baking in the oven. Pull out the Flat Iron Steak and cut on the diagonal, then turn and cut on the opposite diagonal only about 2-3 cm into the meat. Do this on both sides of the flat iron steak. Then with the onions sliced place on a foil lined cookie sheet/jelly roll pan. Next you will want to sprinkle generously the seasoning on both sides of the flat iron and rub in. This will give it a nice crust and flavor to the meat. If you have a separate broiler then broil for 5-8 min each side for medium rare. let rest for 5 min. and then slice against the grain into slices. Serve with the roasted potatoes and the slices of onion along with a fresh leafy green for a yummy, EASY Meal :)

Red Velvet Cookies

As I was making the Pumpkin Chocolate Butterscotch cookies, I also wanted to make red velvet cookies. I have never made even cupcakes that were red velvet. I looked on allrecipes.com as to how to make these. I was surprised that there was actually cocoa in red velvet, as well as sour cream. Luckily I had just enough sour cream. :) I also happened to have two bags of the betty crocker sugar cookie mix in my food storage. :) Double score! :) So I decided to make them.

Ingredients:

1 (1 pound 1.5 ounce) pouch Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/4 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon red food color

1 egg

3/4 cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy cream cheese frosting

1/4 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

Mix cookie mix, cocoa, butter, sour cream, food color and egg in bowl until soft dough forms.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 8 to 9 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

Frost cooled cookies with frosting. Sprinkle with nuts. Store tightly covered at room temperature.

I didn't have any nuts, so I skipped that option. Other than that I followed the recipe. Braeden said they were yummy and he couldn't even taste the sour cream. (mind you he HATES sour cream). so that was a GREAT thing :) They are light and airy. Pretty tasty :) Enjoy!

Pumpkin chocolate butterscotch cookies

I love baking cookies! Don't you? Doesn't everyone?! I can't see why not. I love the joy of eating the cookie dough, the smell of the cookies baking in the oven, and the warm cookie with a cold glass of milk... ah... the good stuff, that's the joy of life... isn't it... I think so...

Well, enough about me and my obsession with cookies, well, baking in general. I believe that cookies make the world a little brighter place. Today's recipe came about because at first I was going to make some pumpkin chocolate chip bread. Then i thought, I know a scary thing... Can I make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I liked the recipe that used oil instead of butter, since I'm out of butter... I know another travesty... So, I decided I would double the recipe so I have enough for my kids to have some and for me to give some away. (I love sharing food with others :)) So, in doing that, I realized that I had 1/2 a bag or 1 cup of butterscotch chips that needed used, and I wasn't wanting to put them in regular chocolate chip cookies. I thought (I know I need to stop that) these would be good in my pumpkin cookies.... So here is what ingredients I used :) Enjoy!

And yes, I've already had some of the dough and a fresh warm cookie... mmmmm tasty... I think I will eat another one soon... now I'm craving them! Darn them!!!

Ingredients:

2 cups canned pumpkin

2 cups white sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

2 egg

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons milk

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips*

Directions:

Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

Add vanilla, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips*.

Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

Makes at least 4 dozen cookies

Recipe from Allrecipe.com

Easy quick beef stew with noodles

So, tonight was my quick, I mean really quick dinner night. I was tired and it was cold out. I didn't want to do too much. It was really supposed to be reheated leftover night, but instead, I pulled out an old classic at my house. Now, those who REALLY know me... know that I like to cut corners, I know this is supposed to be a blog about cooking from scratch... but sometimes, this is as from scratch as it gets.

Ingredients:

2-4 cans of beef stew (store premade canned) depending on your family size

1 Lb egg noodles

6 Qts of water (to boil the noodles in)

Directions,

In a sauce pan - heat the beef stew, in a large pot boil water, add egg noodles to it, salt the water to flavor the noodles, boil noodles for 6-8 min depending on desired tenderness. Drain noodles, return to pot. Once the beef stew is heated through, pour on top of the noodles, stirring to incorporate the beef stew with the noodles. Serve...

Mind you, this isn't at all from what some would call scratch, and for some, this is what they mean from scratch. This is a nice quick warm dinner that my kids enjoy, and I like to make when in a pinch. My middle child Braeden - He had 3 or 4 helpings of this. He LOVES beef stew no matter if it's from scratch or store bought. This is a really quick easy dinner. I hope you enjoy, Even mommies who usually cook from scratch need a night off. Enjoy! we sure did :)

Peach Cobbler

This is my absolute favorite peach cobbler recipe. I got it from a great friend in Winchester, Virginia. After I had her's I don't make any others. :) This recipe was given to me by Sister Shake. She is amazing. I think of her sweet spirit each time I make this. Her sweet smile. Ah, good times. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.

Ingredients

2 cups of milk

2 cups self-rising cake flour (self-rising flour sifted works fine too)

2 cups sugar

1 stick of butter - diced into small pieces

1/2 cup oil

2 cups peaches in heavy syrup (or *homemade canned peaches in syrup)

*1-2 tsp cornstarch and water(only if using homemade canned peaches)

Mix together the milk, flour, sugar and oil.

In a medium sauce pan heat the peaches until the liquid is thickened. *If you are using the homemade caned peaches once the liquid is boiling add the dissolved cornstarch mixture and stir constantly until thickened. Remove from heat.

Pour the peach thickened mixture into a 13X9 pan, add pats of butter evenly on top of the peach mixture.

Next pour the milk, flour, sugar and oil mixture on top. stir slightly to evenly distribute the milk mixture.

Place in a preheated 350F oven for 30-35 min. Till the top of the cobbler is browned. Remove from oven and enjoy either warm or cold, with ice cream and/or whipped cream. This is even delicious plain with no toppings :) So Good!