Another weekend delight!!! Making "Stinkin Beans"

Cheating at Baked Beans

This a great recipe cheat at baked beans!
Check out the many fun recipes on Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman website. I always enjoy trying them and tweaking them a bit.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/the-best-baked-beans-ever/

 

CROCK POT BAKED BEANS

·         One whole medium yellow onion, diced

·         6 slices of bacon cooked until only limp, sliced into 1-1/2 pieces

·         1 pound bag of dried pinto beans

·         3-5 garlic cloves, crushed

·         Tomato paste 6 ounce can

·         Diced Fire Roasted Tomatoes , 14.5 ounce can

·         ½ cup Molasses

·         1 teaspoon crushed black pepper

·         ½ to 1 teaspoon chipotle chile pepper

·         1/2 teaspoon chili powder

·         1 teaspoon liquid smoke

·         Carton of low-sodium chicken broth

·         Salt to taste – only add when beans are almost done

Rinse beans thoroughly. Remove any small pebbles. Place all 12 first ingredients into crock pot. Make sure beans are fully covered by liquid and give a good stir. If you need to add more liquid, just add water.  Cook on high until done.  Check in intervals to make sure beans are always covered with liquid (water or more chicken broth). The longer cooked the more flavor and the “thermo heat from the chili” will calm down.  Only add salt when beans are almost done, as adding salt at the beginning of cooking lengthens cooking time and makes beans tough. If you cook on stovetop (medium heat rather than high) instead of slow crock pot, you will need to add more liquid in frequent intervals and stir occasionally. Flavor tends to cook out faster on stovetop.  Also you can cook in cast iron Dutch oven inside oven 300 degrees until done.  The idea is slow cook for more flavor. I generally cook beans in crockpot for 4-5 hours.

Time for Baking

 RED LOBSTER’S CHEDDAR BISCUITS

Biscuit Mix

2 ½ cups Bisquick baking mix

¾ cup cold whole milk

4 Tablespoon (1/2 stick) cold butter

¼ teaspoon garlic granules

1 heaping cup graded cheddar cheese

Topping 

2 Tablespoons melted butter

¼ teaspoon dried parsley flakes

½ teaspoon garlic granules

Pinch salt

 

·         Preheat oven 400 degrees

 

·         Combine Bisquick with cold butter in medium bowl with pastry cutter or large fork until chunks of butter are size of small peas.  Add cheese, milk, garlic and mix by hand. Do not over mix.

·         Drop ¼-cup portions of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet using ice cream scooper.

·         Back 15-17 minutes until tops turn light brown.

·         Upon removal from oven brush melted butter/garlic/parsley topping on tops.

Makes 1 dozen small biscuits.

"Those Stinkin Good Beans!"

"Those stinkin good beans!" What? "Those stinkin good beans!" Those are the words of the little sweet pea of my eye!  One evening friends arrived and we pulled out some yummy sweet things to eat, but it was the non-fat, unsweetened vegetarian dish that my little diva granddaughter chose to scarf down with enthusiastic gastric pleasure. This dish is a revision of an original recipe that appeared in the Taste Of Home's Light And Tasty 2003 Annual Recipe book submitted by Kathy Faris of Lytle, Texas, that she called Texas Caviar. So with our family's revision and one little girl's suggestion, it was appropriately renamed "Those Stinkin Good Beans!"

 

"Those Stinkin Good Beans"

 

1 can (15-1/2 ounces) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained.
3/4-cup chopped sweet red pepper. ***
3/4-cup chopped yellow red pepper. ***
3 green onions, chopped.
1/2 yellow sweet onion.

1/3 cup minced fresh cilantro.

1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimientos, drained. **
2 garlic cloves, minced.
1 bottle (8 ounces) fat-free Italian salad dressing (any brand). **

 

In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours--though it is still delicious to eat right away. Serve with tortilla chips or over salads, fish, meat.

 

***You can also just utilize one pepper yellow or red. You chose.

**Most instances you'll only find 16-ounce bottle of fat-free Italian dressing and/or

4-ounce pimientos. Either double the batch of bean dip or just save the extra dressing and pimientos for another day.

 

TEXAS CAVIAR, by  Kathy Faris

1 can (15-1/2 ounces) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained.
3/4-cup chopped sweet red pepper.
3/4-cup chopped yellow green pepper.
3 green onions, chopped.
1 medium onion, chopped.

1/4 cup minced fresh parsley.
1 jar (2 ounces) diced pimientos, drained.
2 garlic cloves, minced.
1 bottle (8 ounces) fat-free Italian salad dressing.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.

It's A Wedding!

Key Lime Cupcakes

 

1-package (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix (no pudding in the mix)

1 1/4-cups water

3 eggs room temperature

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons key lime juice (Nellie & Joe's Famous West Lime Juice)

 

Preheat oven 350 degree F. Line standard muffin pan with baking cups.

 

In large bowl, combine cake mix, water, eggs, oil, and lime juice; beat with electric mixer 2 minutes.

Spoon into baking cups. Bake 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in pain on cooling rack for 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely.

Makes about 24 standard cupcakes.

 

Key Lime Frosting

 

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening

1/2 (1 stick) butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (appx. 1 lb.)

2 Tablespoons key lime juice.

1 Tablespoon fresh lime zest.

 

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer until fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well.

Gradually add sugar one cup at a time beating well. When all sugar has been mixed, icing will appear dry.

Add lime juice until fluffy and then add lime zest. For best results, keep icing in fridge when not in use.

Makes 3 cups.

 

When cupcakes are completely cooled, frost. May decorate with thin wedge of lime skin or small bits of dark chocolate.

One Snowy Wintery Night

Growing up we had no snow, though wintertime never disappointed us. There was much baking to be done. Mother didn't have a lot of money and so throughout the year we were not allowed candies, soda pops, or sugary cereals, but she sure made up for it when she baked pies, cakes, and cookies at the end of every year. It was the cookies that I remember the most. Ginger Cream Cookies with snowy white fluffy frosting. That was my snow! As an adult and mother it became the custom to bake dozens of these thickly cut cookies and frost them all with the help of our children. Now days we get the real snow, and the little chickens have moved on, but at the end of the every year when the Ginger Cream Cookies are baked many memories of my childhood and of our 3 little chickens makes for such a sweet end of another year.

GINGER CREAM COOKIES

Cookies:
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1 cup molasses
2 egg yokes
1/2 cup hot water
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ginger
5-6 cups flour

Heat oven 400 degrees. In a large bowl cream sugar and shortening together. Now mix in each molasses, egg yokes, hot water, baking soda, and ginger. Finally, add a cup at a time flour until cookie mixture is workable as play dough. Lightly dust clean counter surface with flour and roll out cookie dough until flattened to 1/2-inch thick. Using your favorite cookie cutters (lightly dusted with flour) cut cookie shapes and place them on lightly greased cookie sheet (I use non-greased air bake sheet) and bake for 10-12 minutes. Don't let them brown on the edges. They should be raised and soft. Cool completely before frosting

Frosting:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

Beat egg yokes until fluffy set aside. Cook sugar and water together at a soft boil until it forms a ball when you place a drop of it in water, approximately 10 minutes. Be sure to stir constantly. Now slowly add in sugar/water mixture into beaten egg yokes and beat on high until soft white peaks are glistening creamy and white as snow, meringue-like. Use frosting immediately to frost all cookies as it sets up stiff when cooled. Use your favorite sprinkles or decorate cookies as you like.