Summer time ADULT drink

My family absolutely loves this drink. It is great for having people over or to sip on by the pool.
You will need:
Ice, diet ginger ale(or Sprite zero), limeade concentrate, maraschino cherries, and your favorite "on sale" champagne.

To do:
Add ice, soda, limeade, and champagne to punch bowl. Add a drizzle of the maraschino cherry juice and the rest of the cherries. ENJOY!

This is what you get!

Peach Cobbler

Peach cobbler is a southern staple...and is oh so good. This year I hope we a great crop of Texas peaches like last year! This recipe is awesome, especially served with some vanilla bean ice cream!

Peach Cobbler


1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar (divided), 1 tablespoon baking powder, pinch of salt, 1 cup milk, 5 cups fresh peach slices, 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Melt butter in your favorite 13x9 baking dish
Combine flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Add milk until everything comes together and is moist.
Pour into your baking dish. DON'T MIX TOGETHER!
In a pot on the stove top combine the remaining cup of sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil while stirring constantly. Do this until everything comes together and the peaches kinda pop open.
Pour over the batter in your baking dish. AGAIN DO NOT STIR!
Bake at 375 for 35 min.
Now...invite Paula Deen over and enjoy!!!

Creamy Pasta...Pantry Thing

With my garden actually growing this year...this recipe is perfect for using up my zucchini, squash, and basil. It's also a good "getting rid of things in the pantry" recipe. AND it makes a lot so there is always left overs for J to take to work the next day. My kind of recipe!



You will need:
1 jar of Alfredo sauce
1/2 jar of pesto (or you can make your own)
1 box of penne pasta
2 cups cooked and shredded chicken
some chopped roasted tomatoes (use as much or little as you like...I love them so I use the whole jar)
1 can of artichokes chopped
2 chopped zucchini or squash (whatever is on sale or you have!)
1 can of mushrooms
1 bag of mozzarella or Italian cheese blend
1 tablespoon garlic
Some bread crumbs
1-2 teaspoons Olive oil
a few basil leaves..or some rosemary would work too

What to do:
Preheat over to 375. Spray your favorite casserole dish (the larger one would work better here)

Cook pasta in salted water. Once pasta is cooked, drain and return to pot. Add alfredo sauce, pesto, your cooked chicken, chopped roasted tomatoes, chopped squash/zucchini, garlic, drained artichokes, drained mushrooms, and 1 cup of your cheese.

Stir all of this together in the big pot then transfer to your casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese, sprinking breadcrumbs over the pasta, and drizzle olive oil over it.

Cook this uncovered for 30 min. When done chop up some basil and sprinkle over your dish...DON'T PUT THE BASIL ON BEFORE COOKING. Fresh herbs are horrible nasty when they get burnt.

Enjoy with some vino!


On a side note...my garden!

Moms Tortilla Soup

Here in Texas it can be 95 one day and 50 the next. I spent the BEAUTIFUL weekend working on my garden (with a ton of Justin's help) in the 85 degree weather...now it's 50 and misting outside. With that said, I figured I should get my last bowl of soup in before summer hits. I made one of my favorites that I grew up with. My mom made this often. We always serve this over chips and top with cheese.


Moms Tortilla Soup

8 oz. cream cheese, 1 can Ro-tel, 1 can chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups milk, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 2 tsp. garlic salt, 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper, 2 tsp. cumin (I always use more!), 1 can drained corn, 1 can drained kidney beans, 2 lbs cooked/shredded chicken breasts, chips, shredded cheese.

Cook chicken however you like. Cube or shred once cooked. Meanwhile, in another large pot combined cream cheese, ro-tel, and chicken broth. Cook until smooth (HINT: I use a whisk at this point. It helps with breaking down the cream cheese). Add milk, lemon juice, garlic salt, cayenne pepper, and cumin; heat through. Add corn, beans, and cut up chicken and continue to heat. Serve in bowls over chips, topped with cheese! ENJOY!


A few weeks back Ty and I got together with my sister and mom over Spring Break. We took tons of pics before going out for lunch. We had good food, good fun, and good company. I love this pic of Ty. This is usually the look we get before he is going to do something he probably should not do!

MY version of King Ranch Chicken

King Ranch Chicken is always a cheap, delicious way to clean out my pantry. It always comes out differently, and it's always a winner.



Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded
8 tortillas cut into strips(whatever you like...I'm into the yellow corn tortillas by the Tortilla Factory right now!)
1 Can Cream of Chicken soup
1 Can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 Green Bell Pepper diced up
1 Can rotel (or whatever diced tomatoes you have...for this one I had Hunts diced tomatoes with garlic...it's just what I had!)
1 Onion
1 small can mushrooms
CUMIN!!
Shredded cheese!

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Saute the onion and bell pepper with some salt. Added the chicken, soups, rotel, and drained mushrooms. At this point add your cumin and just let it simmer and stir occasionally. In a baking dish place down a layer of your tortilla strips. Next layer with a bit of the soup/chicken mixture, then layer with some cheese. Repeat this until you are out of the soup/chicken mixture. Before you place this in the oven sprinkle with cheese. IF you have some old broken tortilla chips that you are just going to throw away, go ahead and pour these on top! They make a great crust! Pop this in the oven for about 25 min!

Crockpot Lasagna

This is a great recipe that I actually had at my sisters house first. I have tweeked it a little so that we have left overs for the week. This particular recipe does not call for any meat...however I am sure ground beef would work in here.



Crock pot Lasagna

Ingredients:
3 (14.4 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes
garlic salt (however much you like)
little bit of dried oregano
little bit of red pepper flakes
little bit of black pepper
2 containers (15 oz each) of ricotta
2 cups of mozzarella
12 lasagna noodles
6 cups of fresh spinach chopped

Directions:
SPRAY CROCK POT!
In a bowl combine the crushed tomatoes, garlic salt, oregano, red pepper, black pepper. In a different bowl combine ricotta and 1 cup mozzarella.

Put a little bit of sauce on bottom of crock pot. Top with about 3 noodles. You will need to break this up to fit. Spread a little bit of sauce over the noodles. Layer with chopped spinach. Dollop some of the ricotta mixture on top. REPEAT. I like the put the rest of the mozzarella on top of the lasagna. Cook low about 3.5 hours.

This is really good! Enjoy!

Sunday Dinner

I love Sunday dinner! It is a chance for my family to get together, eat, and have fun. Yesterday we spent a lot of time in the pool since we are in the middle of a crazy Texas heat wave!


We decided to heat up the charcoal grill and have hot dogs with chicken sausage. My Mom made her delicious home made potato salad. Since peaches have been so good this year, I decided to make a home made peach cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream.


Can anyone believe that Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner??? I will take the cooler weather, but not ready to go out Christmas shopping quite yet.