Category: bake

Corn Bread Taco Bake

Budgets have been tight with the pandemic clearing and extra money vanishing. So our food budget has gotten tight. . . We have gotten creative.




Corn bread Taco Bake



I cook this in crock pot or slow cooker, but you can cook this in an oven.


Start making corn bread. . . let go for about an hour,
Then layer salsa (I use mild, but if you can handle the heat, you can get hotter.)


cook pound of beef on the stove (add taco seasoning or make up your own with paprika, black pepper, red chilli flakes, chilli powder, etc season to your liking)


I also make a rice mix (spanish, beef or other flavored)
Layer the rice and beef over the corn bread, then add cheese.


Within several hours, dinner is ready.


You can add corn, black olives, onions, peppers, tomatoes. I also put sour cream on my own bowl.

Christmas Traditions

Every Christmas my family has a mushroom-sauerkraut soup.

We made a huge spread. . .

  • Soup
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes fries
  • Ham
  • Turkey
  • Gravy
  • Rolls
  • Green Bean Cassarole
  • Balalki
  • Seafood Salad
  • Smoked white fish
  • Sauerkraut balls
  • Two types of stuffing

Desserts

  • Oatmeal cookies
  • Apple pie
  • Pumpkin Pie
  • Cherry pie
  • 5 Chocolate Brownie (*that is blog on itself.)

 

Thanksgiving food

This Thanksgiving I was very grateful for . . .

1. A roof over my head

2. Good family and friends

3. Kitchen to cook

4. So much awesome food.

Zero, turtle and I took over the kitchen and cooked so much.

We had so many sweet potatoes.. .we baked some as wedges and made sweet potatoes fried with cinammon glaze. We also made sweet potato skins.

We made two stuffed turkeys

We made dark forest and punkin cakes.

We had a huge spread.

  • Turkey
  • Stuffing
  • Awesome gravy
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes in three different ways
  • Green bean casserole with bacon
  • Cream corn casserole with bacon
  • Baked beans
  • Cranberry sauce
  • Rolls

It was a very nice holiday.

Chilli corn bread bake

I looked through my house to find something different for dinner.

I took a pound of hamburger,(I precooked) leftover salsa, two cans of diced tomatoes, a can of corn, and bunch of seasonings and then them into the crockpot for two hours.

Then I made corn bread mix and put it on top of the beanless chilli and cooked it for another 90 minutes. It turned out awesome.

Fritatta Or Crustless Quiche

I’ve been into writing (working on my novels) so I haven’t been cooking as much.

I made a crustless quiche (Fritatta) yesterday . . . It’s like omelet meets pie.
I added mushroom and green pepper.
I melted cheese on top.
I seasoned with chives, pepper, and season salt.
I made it in a slow cooker and it just took a few hours.
I made scalloped potatoes.

It would have been awesome with salsa and sour cream and toast.

It was fluffy and flavorful.

Another Huge Feast

Turtle, Zeroman and I take advantage when we can get access to the kitchen. We had access yesterday and we made a feast.

Zeroman made . . .

  • two type of meatloaf (Plain and BBQ Candied Bacon with a mountain of cheeses),
  • seafood pasta salad,
  • BBQ and Mayo chicken,
  • mashed potatoes
  • Potato salad

I made . . .

  • Lasagna: two sauces, seven types of cheese and layer of meatballs.
  • Cheese rolled Lasagna with a cheese sauce
  • Soured beans
  • glazed and roasted carrots
  • chopped Mac N cheese

Turtle helped with both.

We also baked. . . chocolate pudding cake and very chewy brownies.

The lasagna and the lasagna cheesy rolls.

Here is the plain and candied bacon BBQ meatloaf.

Roasted  and glazed carrots

glazed and roasted carrots

The soured beans had bacon and were sour and yet tangy. It was grandma’s recipe and my mom had asked for them, so we made them just for her.

The brownies were chewy.

The cake was soft with the creamy pudding on top. . . yum.

It was a nice way for us to celebrate Mother’s day as Turtle, Zeroman, and I got to cook for our mothers.

We had three days worth of food as we also have leftover for tomorrow as well.

Cooking Pet Peeves

I love to cook! I like being in a kitchen, turning on the radio and just making something yummy and awesome.

I enjoy making food. I really like it when I have people enjoying the food that I made. I appreciate feedback.

However, I have some pet peeves . . .  (I talked this over with Turtle and Zeroman, and they agree.)

  • I hate cooking with people who do not know their way around food or the kitchen. (They can’t even wash a simple dish. I don’t mind serving them, but they can stay out of the kitchen if they do NOT want to learn.)
  • Or people who think they know it all, because they have watched two cooking shows, but try to serve raw chicken. (The Food Network is amazing, I have so many show I love on there, but you need to know the basics first because imitating someone else’s cooking style.)
  • Picky eaters. . . (I hate cooking for hours at a time for someone to nick-pick my food. I think you should learn to cook for yourself)

 

Cooking is an exploring science. (Yes, most who know the kitchen, may not measure, but I always suggest taste as you cook, especially herbs, seasons, and sauces. Even the most studied chef will experiment with seasons, meats, veggies, and flavors.)
Baking to me is precise science. (You really need a recipe and to measure to get the brownies, cookies, cakes, or pastry exactly the way you need them. Measuring cups and spoons are baker best friends.)

If you don’t like to cook, then find friends who do.

If you are picky on your food, find people who are just ask picky.

Easter Dinner (Happy Ham Day!)

Happy Easter! Or Happy Ham Day!

Over the weekend, we have been cooking ham and other goodies to celebrate the holiday as we have done in past traditions.

Sandwiches. . . growing up we joked because we would make our sandwiches “Bleed” as we had an egg Easter bread, beet horseradish sauce, ham and cheese.
Cvikla s Chrenom – Beet and Horseradish Relish (http://slovakamericankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/04/cvikla-s-chrenom-beet-and-horseradish.html )

Easter bread: Paska (https://dcslovaks.org/slovak-easter-traditions-paska-bread/)

Easter Cheese: Veľká noc Cirák (https://slaviccooking.com/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/)

We kept it simple (we didn’t make Cvikla s Chrenom, Paska, or Veľká noc Cirák but do remember them as a kid.)

 

We made three hams (actually my friend and my brother made the hams.)

I focused on the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

What is awesome is that with ham. . . there are so many things you can do with the leftover. . .

  • You can add it to scallop or augrutin potatoes.
  • You can add into bean or split pea soups.
  • Add it to Mac N Cheese
  • Yes of course you can just keep it simple and make a bunch of ham sandwiches.

Note: Ham has a lot of salt, so make sure you drink a lot of water to get a lot of the salt out of your system.

This ham is addicting that I’m dealing with a stomachache from eating too much. So I am taking a nap now.