The buzz is in the air. I think it has come with the cooler – if 89 degrees can be called “cooler” – temperatures. It’s been tweeted, facebooked, and sent around in emails everywhere…football season is nearly here!

More so than baseball, football is America’s favorite past time. Or maybe I should say eating while watching football is America’s favorite past time. There is nothing more American these days then everyone huddling around an enormous TV and drinking beer and eating hot wings.  There is usually a lot of yelling and screaming and to this day I’m sure “game day” was where I learned how to use all of my favorite cuss words.

Nothing says “football” like a four letter word screamed at the TV.

I think women love football season as much as men. If not for the muscular quarterback with the nice butt on the field, then because this is where they can try out new recipes on a room full of guinea pigs ( pigs being the operative word here). It’s fun for us, and someone has to be there to explain to the kids how exactly a referee got his head stuck in his butt in the first place.

So, here is a good recipe for you to try out at your next get together. It is my grandmother’s recipe. The woman loved a good chicken wing and this is one of her best recipes. It’s very savory with a bit of an Asian flair. You can broil or grill these if you wanted instead of frying, using the sauce to baste often. But I am sure somebody will have a vat of hot oil going and why not fry these puppies instead!

By the way, don’t forget to enter the Saucy Mama sauce giveaway!

Finger Drumsticks
3 pounds of chicken wings
1/2 c. sugar
3 T cornstarch
1 t. salt
1 t. grated fresh ginger
1/4 t. pepper
3/4 c water
1/3 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. soy sauce
3 T toasted sesame seeds
1/2 gallon oil for frying

Separate wings into drumettes and wings, discarding wing tips ( or save those for stock).

In a small saucepan, heat and stir together all ingredients except the oil. Bring to a boil stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Set aside.

Meanwhile heat oil in a deep sided heavy pot ( oil should go about half way up the sides) to 350 degrees. Make sure you leave plenty of room for the oil to expand. Fry chicken in batches until done, about 8 minutes.Drain on paper towels.

In a large metal bowl, add about a 1/4 cup of sauce to the bottom and then add wings on top. Toss to coat in sauce and then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

 Continue until all the wings are done. Serve and enjoy!

Our nation’s Independence Day is coming up this weekend and Americans around the country will be headed to backyard barbeque’s, pool parties, and fireworks displays. It’s a time for all of us to remember the past and the present and to look forward to the future of our nation. It’s a time for us to swell with pride at the great things this country has to offer. Because even during this desperate time of war, foreclosures, and environmental tragedies, we still have the freedom to carry on our way of life the way we choose, and that is truly American.

As a way to celebrate what is truly American, I joined up with several other bloggers to post about “What is American Cuisine?”. Casey at Eating, Gardening, and Living in Bulgaria is an American away from home. She asked for food bloggers everywhere to submit what they thought of as American cuisine.(It should be up this weekend) Being from the South, I immediately thought about Blackberry Cobbler.

Cobbler was a huge part of my life as a child. Mom would make peach cobbler, apple cobbler, but my favorite was blackberry cobbler. Blackberries grow wild all over my parents’ property and we would go and brave the thorns, snakes, and bees to go and pick as many blackberries as we could before we bleed to death from all the the briers. We would proudly tote those cobblers to cookouts and parties and we always took home an empty dish.

There is nothing more divine, more American than a hot blackberry cobbler with a scoop of ice cream on top.

This is a simple recipe and the cake recipe can be used with any fruit.

Blackberry Cobbler
1 cup sugar, plus 1/4 cup for fruit
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 stick of butter, melted
4 cups or more of Blackberries

Preheat oven to 350. Pour melted butter in the bottom of 9×13 pan. In a separate bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, sugar and flour.

Pour this in the pan with butter.

Taste berries for sweetness and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar if needed.

Pour fruit in the middle of pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

I am fairly new at this adventure called “blogging”. I started a yearlong dinner challenge for my family of four in January, and thus Gourmet Meals for Less was created. It has been such a wonderful creative outlet for me on several fronts. Cooking being the obvious one, but also writing and photography. What I didn’t realize is how complex the world of food blogging can be.

I was so excited to find other food blogs, which had the same goals as I did…creating and cooking great recipes on a budget. When I stumbled upon Eatin’ on the Cheap, and started to read JodiMo’s entries, I felt I had found a kindred spirit. She cooks, she sews, she’s creative and she obviously adores her family. That’s why it was such an honor to receive an email from JodiMo asking me to be a guest blogger for her while she’s away. Our blogs are like our babies, and it takes a lot of trust to allow someone to put their own words on our creation.

My wonderful husband turned 38 this past Saturday. Don’t tell him, but I think it was kind of bothering him a little. For years he has been young and carefree, but I think this birthday was weighing on his free spirit a bit. That’s when I knew the typical “Let’s get a babysitter and go out to a nice dinner” wasn’t going to do the trick. We needed a party.And boy, did we have one!
The hubby really wanted to barbecue. Not only does he love it but he also needed to practice for the upcoming competition. So he manned the smokers all night.

He made pork butt…

He made ribs, sausage, and smoked bologna…

And then there was the chicken. Chicken is my favorite. I don’t know all the steps but he cuts all the knuckles off…

Then puts them in a pan, seasons them…

and then pours a chicken soak over them…

and smokes them.
The meat stack was impressive.

And our friends pitched in with side dishes!

Then we all gorged ourselves on delicious barbecue. The kids played…

and advocated for peace…

and we ate cake…

and best of all, my hubby got his young and carefree spirit back…

Happy birthday sweetie. We love you!

I have been an avid reader of On a Whimm, a crafting blog, for a while. She recently posted a great tutorial about making homemade watercolors and Thank You cards with preschoolers. It’s such a great idea and one I plan on using very soon! I wanted to share it with all of you Moms out there.

Need something good and cheap to make for your sweetie tomorrow? Here are a few recipes that would be perfect for that special someone.
First, the meal that won over my hubby and a breakfast that will make any man swoon, Biscuits and Gravy.

 

Dinner of course is the real biggie. You could win them over with something exotic like Tandoori Chicken with Saffron Rice

or, you could be more Carribean with Orange and Ginger Pork Loin with Corn and Avocado salad

 

 

 

Or some homemade candies. Perfect to eat in bed

  

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Every gas station and drug store is full of plastic roses and boxes of cheap candy.Children every where are filling out Hello Kitty Valentine Cards to give to everyone in their home room class. Some love sick little boy is buying his girlfriend of 3 whole months a cheesy gold plated bracelet that says “Be Mine” on it. Husbands everywhere are reminding themselves not to forget to buy their wives something this year. Wives everywhere are dreaming of a surprise vacation to the beach where sleek, tanned cabana boys bring you fruity drinks with little pink umbrellas.

Ahhh….Amore.

The reality is though that cabana boys are totally out of the picture and now I have several preschool teachers to make little gifts for. I also have to tape a Dum-Dum to 30 Tinkerbell and Cars Valentine’s cards before Friday. Oh, and several loads of laundry.

Ah….motherhood.

Today I decided to move the laundry to the very bottom of the priority list and spent most of the day making homemade candy with the kids. Ok, well, I made and they ate it. They were hopped up on chocolate all day.

These are my favorite candies. My mother would literally make thousands of these candies a year back when they still ran a supply company for factories. We would spend hours in the kitchen making candies, cookies and cakes from November to the end of December. These candies though were always a huge hit.

Now, don’t freak out. This is not rocket science. Candy making is not difficult. Time consuming ? Yes. Difficult? No. You can even stretch this whole process out over 2-3 days.

Now, someone out there is asking if this is really cheaper than just buying the cute little boxes of candy at the drug store. The answer is: Maybe. If you have a lot of gifts to give to a lot of people then this is the way to go. If you are buying just one gift, then, probably not. But homemade is so much more heartfelt than just buying something and that’s what it’s all about right? And look at it as an opportunity to bond with your kids. This is a great project for you to do together

All right. I’m gonna quit jibber-jabbering and get to it already.

Chocolate Covered Cherries
makes about 4 dozen

1 large jar of Marashino cherries with stems
1/4 cup softened butter
2/3 cup Sweetened Condensed Milk
16 oz. Confectioners Sugar
pinch of salt
1 c. flaked coconut
Dipping chocolate ( at least a couple bags, maybe more)

Cream together the butter, sugar, milk and salt. Fold in the coconut. Chill for 1 hour ( or overnight)

Drain cherries. Line a baking sheet with wax paper.

Pat out a small amount of coconut mixture in your hand until it’s about the size of a silver dollar and about 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick.

Place a cherry in the middle and gently wrap coconut patty around it. Make sure the filling wraps tightly around the base of the stem.

Contine with the rest.

Chill for a couple hours or overnight in the freezer.
Melt chocolate in the microwave. 1 minute at a time, stirring in between cycles.
Holding cherry by the stem dip the cherry in the chocolate letting any excess drain off.

Place on a wax paper lined baking sheet to set.

Coconut Creams:
Follow directions as above except omit the cherries. Roll coconut mixture into 1/2 inch balls and dip in chocolate.

Peppermint Creams
makes about 9 dozen

1 – 7oz jar of Marshmallow Cream
2/3 c. softened butter
1 t. vanilla extract
3/4 t. peppermint extract
6 cups sifted Confectioners sugar
1/2 cup peppermint candies or candy canes
Dipping Chocolate ( at least a couple of bags, maybe more)

Beat cream, butter and extracts well. Gradually add in sugar until well mixed.

Pulvarize candy canes in a food processor or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin.

Fold candy into cream mixture.

Chill for a couple hours.
Roll mixture into balls or shape into molds and place on a wax paper lined baking sheet.

Chill again for a couple hours ( or overnight)
Melt chocolate using 1 minute intervals in the microwave. Then dip candies into chocolate.

 

 

Place on a wax paper lined baking sheet to set.( not on a wire rack like I did. Unless of course you want to pry all of your candies off with a butter knife)

Fell free to drizzle white chocolate on your candies!

Super Bowl! Colts! Saints! Football!

That’s pretty much all of the information I have about the subject.

I’m not a huge football watcher. Probably because my TV isn’t big enough. I do love the parties though. Lots of people and food and beer. Lots of yelling and shouting at the TV, lots of wives shaking their heads at the noisy beings on the couch.

It’s also when lots of people fall off of their dieting wagon. I am not one of them.

I plan on getting back on next week.

So, hot dogs are great cheap party food. They have been for decades. Show me a person who doesn’t love a good hot dog and I’ll show you a person who has never had a good hot dog.
Oddly enough, my husband and I love hot dogs so much that we , at one time, contemplated getting a hot dog cart or two and hitting the streets. ( No, seriously, some of those guys make 100k+ a year!) We checked out vending carts, looked into licensing, and tested recipes for chili and relishes. In the end though, we decided that the high-falootin’ suburban town we live in wasn’t the best place for that particular adventure.

We did come up with some really awesome hot dog condiments. I mean really awesome. We love to make them for the hubby to take to work on slow days like the Fourth of July and Super Bowl Sunday. Some of them may be a little strange, but trust me they are all delicious. Not figure friendly, but delicious.

Chili Dog Chili
thick and delicious

3 T vegetable oil
2 lbs ground chuck
2 minced garlic cloves
1/4 c. tomato paste
1 finely chopped onion
2 cup beef broth
5T chili powder
6T corn meal
2 t. sugar
2 t. salt
1t. cumin
1 bay leaf
Saute onion and garlic in oil until golden.

Add chili powder, sugar, and cumin. Stir for 1 minute then add in beef. Brown beef.

Stir in remaining ingredients

 

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Use a potato masher and slightly mash the chili until nice and thick. 

Hot Kraut Relish

1 medium diced green bell pepper
2 cups undrained sauerkraut
1/2 cup water
1 T worcestershire
1/4 cup grated carrot
In a saucepan combine green pepper, water, worcestershire.

Simmer, covered over medium heat , stir occasionally for 10 minutes. Add the carrot. Drain if needed .( if you are making this ahead of time, don’t drain. It makes it easier to heat up later. Drain before serving.)

Carrot Relish
my favorite!

3 cups shredded carrot
1 medium onion finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
1 t. whole cloves
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 t. salt

Mix together carrot, pepper and onion in a bowl

In a saucepan, mix together remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

 

Red Onion Sauce
Spicy!

2 T vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. chili powder
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup water
1/2 t. cayenne
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper

Heat oil, add onions and cook until soft.

Stir in cinnamon and chili power and cook for 1 minute. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cook mixture for 10-15 minutes ot until thickened.

Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature before serving.

Here it is…crunch time. The day after tomorrow is Christmas and the excitement in the air is nearly palpable. The tree is trimmed, the turkey is thawed, the gifts are…

CRAP! GIFTS! I forgot to get a gift for my neighbor/cousin/UPS guy/hairdresser/random person at my door!

I need something quick, something that doesn’t require a trip to a store. Food! I am NOT baking another confection today. A MIX! PERFECT! Mason jar, pretty fabric, clever tag, VOILA!

Whew….

Merry Christmas!

Chunky Chocolate Cookie Mix
recipe from Gooseberry Patch Christmas Book 3

1 1/4 c. AP Flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2t. salt
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/3 c. sugar
1 1/3 cup chocolate chunks
1 c. chopped pecans ( these are optional, I didn’t use them I just added more chocolate )

Blend together flour, soda, and salt. Spoon into bottom of wide mouth Mason jar, press down well. Layer on the remaining ingredients in the order given, packing tightly after each layer.

Attach these instructions:
2/3 c. butter, softened
1 egg
1 t. water
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Cream together butter, water, and vanilla. Add cookie mix and blend well. Drop by spoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen.
P.S. You can find Gooseberry Patch Books everywhere, even the library. If you can’t find this one and would like this tag for your mix send me an email and I will send it to you friend to friend. Out of respect for Gooseberry Patch, I won’t post it here.

When it comes to holidays, I’m a traditionalist. I will never have a hot pink tree. I will never leave Santa tofu bars and soy milk, and I will never serve fish for Christmas dinner.Yes, when it comes to the holidays, I like it just the way it has always been.
A huge part of the way it has always been is the food. If you asked anyone in my family what their favorite part of Christmases past has been and I would be willing to bet that my grandmother’s ham would be the first thing out of their mouth ( probably followed up by my other grandmother’s coconut cake but that’s another blog post).
My grandmother was a difficult woman to live with but when it came to the holidays she always did it right. The house was always decorated, there were always tons of cookies and cakes and jellies around, but the Pièce de résistance was the ham. It was the first thing you put on your plate, the first thing you put in your mouth and it was the first thing to be gone from the table. It was the most looked forward to dish of the year. The Christmas after she passed away there was a very noticeable void at the dinner table. She had left us all, and and being true to the difficult woman that she was, she took the ham recipe with her. For several years after that the ham at Christmas fell short, obviously not the ham we all desperately wanted.
I had inherited my grandmother’s recipe box. It is a pink and blue crosstiched box with a plethora of hand-written index cards and magazine clippings. One day, a couple years ago, near the holidays, I was flipping through and came across a magazine clipping for a ham. It was the only ham recipe in the whole box (which seemed odd because there was at least 6 different clippings for meatballs and Salisbury steak). I figured this must be it, the ham we had all been craving! So for the next few years I made this recipe, and it was close, but not it exactly. This year though, I made a few changes and I hit the nail square on the head…EUREKA!
It has been nearly 8 years since my grandmother passed away and finally we got a little bit of her back. It wasn’t easy, but then she never was.

Mona’s Holiday Ham

1 spiral sliced ham
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup pear nectar ( you can find this in the alcohol mix section if its not in the juice section of the store)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup ( molasses is good too)

Preheat oven to 375. Place ham cut side down in deep baking pan. Mix pear nectar and OJ together and pour over ham. Roast for 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes with juice.
Meanwhile mix together syrup and sugar. Pour on top of ham then spread evenly over it. Bake until sugar carmelizes and starts to form a crust, about an hour. Let rest, enjoy!