Do you love Taste of Home?

Found a fabulous deal for all you chefs and mommies out there who love to cook.
Go to Shop Taste of Home to see all the Taste of Home and Pillsbury cookbooks on clearance. I'm talking $5.00 a book, for the nice hardback books that have a whole years worth of TOH or Pillsbury recipes. I own two of these, and I LOVE them! The recipes are fabulous, tasty, and easy to make. The books are made very well, and have soo many recipes that you will actually use!



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Codes:
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Now where did I find out about this fabulous deal? Pinchingyourpennies.com is the coolest site ever. You can join the facebook group, or get their daily emails. You get so many coupon codes, and notices on clearance deals on places like Children' place, cheap magazine subscriptions (got me two of 'em) and other well known retailers. Check them out!

What does your day hold?

This was my day yesterday.

After a long presidency meeting I was:

Doing Laundry.....

Folding clothes.....

Putting away groceries....



Then picking up Macie from school, going to Kohl's to use my Kohl's cash and find some new shoes for Mace,( a BIG drama, let me tell you), coming home, doing homework, and still able to throw a fabulous dinner on the table.
What did you make, Susan, please please please tell!
OK!
I grilled these yummy sausages with cheese that were Johnsonville brand, and also tried my hand at making home made sweet potato fries. I love the ones at Ruumbi, so here's what I did:

I selected about 4 large sweet potatoes, and slice them up into large french fry size slices. I placed them on a greased cookie sheet, and then I swabbed them with butter, then sprinkled them with garlic salt and basil. I placed them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 1/2 hour. If you want to crisp them up a bit, keep them under the broiler for a couple of minutes. They burn quick, so watch them! Serve with ranch or ketchup or whatever sauce you fancy. I didn't think to take pictures, so you'll have to imagine the fabulous tastes of all the foods.
Then, I whipped up some Sassy apples. Those are super easy!

I only have three in my family, so you'll need to adjust accordingly, but I peeled 7 Fuji apples (our favorite), then cored and sliced them with my handy dandy Pampered chef corer/slicer thingy.

OK, so It's NOT Pampered Chef brand, I lied. It's just an inexpensive store brand, and I actually got it at a yard sale for 50 cents, but hey, who can tell?
Throw apples in a pot with 1/2 cup water (more for more apples), and bring to a mild boil for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
At this point, they should be mushy, so go ahead and mash them up with a potato masher. Add a little cinnamon and brown sugar to make 'em sassy, and there you have it! Brilliant!

This girl looks like her day could be going better.....

Brrrr!!!!

Some snow, some sugar, and a crockpot

Yes, once again, snow has hit us! We've had literally no snow all winter, and once spring came, so did the snow. Here is a view out my front door. So I thought...

Why not make some Monkey bread? Yummy!

How can you resist all that brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon?

I've seen this recipe floating around for years, but never paid much attention until last Christmas, I was getting bored with quick store bought cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. I made these, and boy were they good. Good and fast, with that Islavedoverthisandtheyare definatelyhomemadetaste!

I took this recipe, and tweeked it to make it my own. Will I share? Of course!

Homemade Monkey bread

1/2 Cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cans Grands Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 stick of butter, no substitutes

Heat oven to 350F, lightly spray a fluted bunt pan with cooking oil.

In a large ziplock bag, mix white sugar and the cinnamon. Open biscuits, and cut each one into 4 pieces, then a few at a time, shake in sugar mixture, until all are coated.

Mix melted butter and brown sugar together.

Place half of the coated biscuit pieces in the bunt pan, and pour half of the brown sugar mix over the pieces, then repeat with the second layer of biscuits, pouring the second half of the brown sugar mix to finish the top. If you want the walnuts and raisins in there, just sprinkle them among the two layers evenly.

Bake 30 minutes, uncovered, then pull out to see if the layers are cooked all the way through. I always have to cover it with foil, then bake it an additional 10-12 minutes, to finish it off.

Pull from the oven and eat while still hot. Yumm-o!

My daughter loves the snow, so we bundled her up, to go out and help Dad shovel. That lasted about 10 minutes, then she was off to the backyard to play by herself!

Then, she came in and was treated to some hot chocolate, her favorite.


After that, I assembled everything to put in the crockpot for some hot split pea soup for dinner tonight. If I'm feeling really energetic (which I doubt), I may make some homemade biscuits.

I have to tell you about my crockpot. Last night for dinner, I decided to do some BBQ chicken in the crockpot. I put the stuff in, and turned it on, and forgot about it, like you're supposed to do. I was so busy sewing the poodle skirt, and doing other things, I didn't really notice there was no yummy smells filling the house.

At 5:30, I go up to check dinner, and the crockpot had apparently decided to give up the ghost, AKA die!

I fiddled with the knobs, plugged and unplugged it, and nothing! Stupid thing!

I can say that, because I've always hated my newer crockpot.

About 3 years ago, I bought a bigger, fancy stainless steel looking one, to replace my smaller, totally 90's looking one.

The only thing I liked about it was that it was bigger, so you could cook more food. But it really was weird, because even on low, it vigorously boiled everything to death! The lid rattled to no end the whole time, and you couldn't leave it for the day to cook stuff, or it was burned to a crisp when you came home!

I'm glad it died, because now I can go buy a new one, how cool is that?

Here's my old trusty one, below, that is happy to come out of the cupboard, and tirelessly serve our family, once again.
.

I actually think the pattern on it is rather cute!

The soup is a really easy recipe, which I'll also share with you. I used leftover ham from Easter dinner last week.

"No Hassle" Split pea soup

1 lb. dry green split peas (soak overnight)

4 C. water

3/4 lb. ham, cubed

1/4 tsp. pepper

3 Tb chicken bouillion

1/2 C. celery, chopped

1 C. carrots, sliced

1/4 C. onions

1 bay leaf

Drain peas after soaking overnight, and add all ingredients to your crockpot. Cover and cook on low 7-8 hours, or high 4-5 hours.

This fit in my smaller crockpot fine, and was plenty with leftovers. Double and put into the bigger size if you have a large family.

Enjoy!

With the cold temperatures, I will not be able to do my silverware project, due to spray painting in a cold garage gives me the shivers, so stay tuned. Instead I'll be working on something indoors.