Make yourself (or a sick friend) up a quick batch of this and you WILL be 100% better in 24 hours! Miracle stuff!!

Enjoy!!       

Shady’s Cure-All Hamburger Soup

The main benefit to this soup is that No matter what cold/flu/sickness you are afflicted with, eat 2 – 3 bowls of this soup and it cures whatever ails you within 24 HOURS!!! Everytime!!! I’m not sure how – and I don’t care, I just know by personal experience – IT WORKS!!

*NOTE: Recipe can easily be doubled (this is how I normally make it now, I also will use bags of mixed frozen veggies when I can) or you can even triple the recipe for freezing leftovers. Recipe freezes wonderfully, and will keep up to 6 months this way – just thaw and reheat*

1 1/2 to 2 lbs ground beef , browned and drained

2 cans corn (drained)

2 cans green beans (drained)

1 can carrots or mixed veggies (drained)

1 can peas (drained)

2 cans stewed tomatoes (do not drain) (optional)

1 large can tomato juice (or 2 cans plain tomato sauce mixed with 1 can water if you are out of juice)

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp (or more to taste) ground black pepper (this soup LIKES pepper)

2 tsp Italian seasonings (or 1 tsp each Oregano and Basil)

1/2 tsp. onion powder (optional)

*if more soup broth is desired, you can add 1 can plain tomato sauce to above ingredients*

Dump all into large pot and simmer on med-low heat until heated thru, stirring occasionally.

Serve and enjoy! I occasionally top with shredded cheddar cheese if I have some on hand, and a dollop of sour cream tastes great too! 

 This soup warms your insides, makes a nice change from chili on really cold days, and I haven’t met a kid yet who doesn’t like this one!     

Hope y’all enjoy!

Shady

Here’s what you need to do:

Grab your Crock-pot, plug it in, set it on LOW.

Grab a 4 – 6 LB FROZEN  Pork Roast out of your freezer, unwrap it, throw it in Crock-pot. Sprinkle on some Garlic Powder and lots of Black Pepper.

Grab a bottle of BBQ Sauce outta the cupboard and dump it over Roast, Refill bottle 1/4 full of WARM or Hot water, swish around to clear bottle, and dump it over Roast.

Now cover crock-pot and walk away. In 8 hours you will have a Falling-Apart, Melt-In-Your-Mouth BBQ’d Pork Roast! 

Now take Roast out of crock-pot and place into a large mixing bowl. Take 2 large forks and pull roast apart – at this point it will fall almost completely apart on its own!!!

Now, you have 2 options – you can either dump the BBQ sauce cooking mixture back over roast and stir to serve – OR – take a new bottle/batch of BBQ sauce and pour it over the shredded meat, mixing in well (I prefer the later method since the sauce the meat cooked in is a bit “watery” at this point, but either method works well! I then use the sauce that is remaining in the crock-pot as gravy for smashed potatoes that I serve on the side of this dish – sounds weird, but tastes GREAT!!). 

Now, scoop meat out of the bowl onto buns for Pulled Pork Sandwiches!

Enjoy! 

Shady

P.S. This also works for BBQ Beef  for sandwiches as well – same instructions, just a different meat. 

P.P.S.  This is an awesome recipe for the “Game Day” buffet. Just return the shredded meat/bbq sauce mixture to an empty (no cooking liquid remaining) crock-pot,  and set crock-pot to “WARM” or “LOW” once you reach your destination to watch the game.  Just be sure to stir the meat every so often while watching game so the sauce doesn’t burn to the sides of the crockpot.   

This kind of warm, gooey chocolate fix???

Mmmmmmmm……Cheesecake middles…….

Well then, here you go:

Chocolate Treasure Cupcakes 

preheat your oven to 350 degrees 

prepare muffin tins for 24 cupcakes (either use liners, or grease and sugar; or grease and cocoa powder – if you REALLY love chocolate – the tins) 

Filling: 

1 - 8 oz. pkg softened cream cheese 

1 egg, beaten 

1/3 cup sugar 

1/8 tsp salt 

1  (6 oz.) pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips (1/2 a regular size pkg) 

Combine cream cheese, egg, sugar and salt. Beat with mixer on medium speed until well blended. 

Now stir in chocolate chips, using a spoon. Set aside for later. 

Cupcake Batter: 

3 cups flour 

1/2 cup cocoa powder 

2 cups sugar 

2 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp salt 

2 cups water 

2/3 cup vegetable oil 

1 tblsp white vinegar 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

Combine first 5 ingredients (dry team) in a large mixing bowl. 

Mix thouroughly – I use a whisk for this part. 

Assemble the rest of the ingredients (wet team). 

Now, SLOWLY add (in order) water, oil, vinegar and vanilla while mixing on LOW speed with electric mixer (otherwise you will be consumed in a dust cloud of chocolate…..sounds good, breathes bad).    Mix well. 

Now, fill cupcake tins 2/3 full of Batter, then drop heaping teaspoons full of cream cheese Filling in center on top of batter. Don’t worry – it will sink into batter while it bakes.    

Arrange pans on center oven racks so that they are not touching. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 – 35 minutes. 

Remove from oven and place on trivets or wire racks to cool before removing cupcakes from pans. 

You must let them cool a bit before eating – you don’t want to hurt yourself! But, most importantly of all…….BEWARE that blasted Hand Monster thief!! 

Because you are going to want all of this yummy goodness for yourself!!! 

Although, in order to avoid possible over-consumption and extra “jigglies” where you don’t want them, you MIGHT want to consider sharing….. Notice I only said “might” though.     

Enjoy!! 

Shady

This recipe can be made with ANY cheese you have on hand, and it’s awesome for ANY meal – not just breakfast!!

Enjoy!      

Shady’s Breakfast Casserole

Easy Breakfast Casserole

With butter (and esp. flavored butter) prices going thru the roof, I thought I’d share this one with you to help stretch your grocery dollars a bit farther.       

Sorry for the lack of photos  – my camera wasn’t around for this one.   

HOMEMADE BUTTER AND BUTTERMILK

 
2 pints heavy whipping cream

Leave the cream out for 12 hours before making the butter.

Put the mixing bowl and beaters for your mixture into the freezer for a half hour before you make the butter.

Pour the cream into the mixing bowl and beat until the cream turns yellow and clumps, and the liquid separates out. This is buttermilk! Don’t leave the mixer unattended or when that separation happens the buttermilk will splatter all over your kitchen!!!

Pour the buttermilk into a container and save for another use.

Pour the butter into a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Using a large spatula, press as much liquid as you can out of the butter.

Put the butter in a bowl and pour a few cups of cold water over it. Stir, press, and fold the butter, then drain off the cloudy water. Repeat 8-10 times until the water is clear.

Add salt to taste.

Add minced chives or basil to use on vegetables or pasta.  Add chopped peaches, a bit of honey, cinnamon or strawberries for a sweet flavored butter spread.

Enjoy!!!

This one’s on my fridge!!

Last, but not least:

Love this!!

Have a Great Day!!

Every new couple needs a Wedding Quilt – dont’cha think?        

So, using all of their Wedding colors, their love for the “untraditional” yet “sophisticated” (just see their Wedding Cakes below)…

Wedding Cake 1 (for Bonnie)

Wedding Cake 2  (for Chris – he’s from New Orleans)

I came up with this quilt for them:

“Broken Roads”

They LOVED it…

BUT…. my son (who adores both Chris and Bonnie) wanted to name it – so it is not known as “Broken Roads” in their house.

Instead – it is…..

Their reaction to the label….

Priceless!!

Too pretty God!!

Thank You for the inspiration!

Apologies re: my absence, but life has been a bit crazy over the past several months (and when you add in 16+ hour workdays at multiple jobs, turning on the computer is not even on your list of priorities! LOL).

With that said, I hope you are all having a good Summer – and staying cool!       

Also, I just wanted to extend a quick “Thank You” to those of you who have kept my family, and I, in your prayers over the past few months while they were in ICU/surgery/recovery from the multiple life-threatening events/circumstances they endured.

“Thank You”…….. You know who you are!         

All are now doing well (finally), save 1, whom they had to recently move to a facility up North for more specialty care/treatment. It is still unclear regarding his recovery, so please continue to keep he and my Aunt in your prayers.

Well, it is time to catch a few hours sleep before my next shift. So, until next time……

Have a great day!