Caribbean Rum and Coke at the Friday Afternoon Happy Hour

I never had much of a taste for Rum and Cokes… I would only have them served up at concerts and club like bars. It left me thinking they had actually served rubbing alcohol or kerosene. So when Tavis and I were dating and we were over at his parents house for a long weekend, I cringed (not visibly, only on the inside) when his mom brought rum and cokes out to the pool. Trying to make a good impression with his folks, I vowed that no matter how it tasted, I would sip away without making any weird faces.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice

The past 3 years have been busy! Moving internationally, new born child and all the business that comes with that. We love Thanksgiving and Christmas! Family, friends, celebrating our faith, and especially the FOOD!!! This year I have vowed to make the most of this holiday season. Since I feel like we have missed the past few years, I decided to make my own Pumpkin Pie Spice for all of the cooking that I have planned over the next few months. Here is what you will need if you want to join in and make your own:

Friday Afternoon Happy Hour!! Skinny Mojito

When you mix a drink there are two things that contribute to the calories in the drink; 1) the alcohol and 2) the mixers. Since you cannot eliminate the alcohol (well you could but that would be no fun…) you need to control the calories with the mixers that you use.

In this case we are going to eliminate the simple syrup to make our skinny version. It ads about 50 calories and we are going to use the diet-tonic to sweeten the drink. We will also be leaving out the club soda since the diet-tionic covers that as well.

Hearty Steakhouse Stew

I am a lover of heavy, filling soups. Ones that are easily a filling meal by themselves. I got on this kick back in college when I ordered a cup of steak stew rather than a salad at a steakhouse one time and was instantly in love.

There are two versions of this stew that I make, with and without chicken. With the rising cost of food, and everything in general being more expensive down here in Puerto Rico, I have been using only the scraps and bones from the steak for flavor, and then using a precooked rotisserie chicken for the main protein. This is another one of those meals that you can make with a $5 chicken and really stretch it to get your moneys worth.

To Bundt or not to Bundt… Why should you use a Bunt pan?

I have gotten a number of questions lately about fluted pans, so I wanted to talk a little about why this type of pan is so important to the type of cake that you are making. Many people have been asking, “Can I bake a pound cake in a regular round cake pan?” The short answer is, yes you can… but it won’t turn out as well. I am a “why” person… and I figure some of you might be as well, so lets go into a little more detail.

First of all, there are several types of fluted pans. For the sake of this discussion we will call them a “bundt pan” (the patented name by Nordic Ware) and an “angel food cake pan” (or tube pan). They each have different qualities and different situations that they should be used.

No Bake Cookies

Two of my weaknesses are chocolate and peanut butter… but when they are combined it is more than double trouble for me. This is one of my very favorite cookie recipes but I have limited when I make them to times that I can take at least half of the batch to someone else and […]

Easy Chicken Enchiladas

This is the first post in a series where I am going to share easy recipes that you can make with a rotisserie chicken, found at your local grocery store. Here in Puerto Rico I can get a pre-cooked, hot-off-the-spit-chicken from Sam’s club for just under $5. I can’t even get a frozen chicken for that price! I have been trying to get creative with how I serve it, so that we do not get burned out on this great money saving dinner staple.
Here is what you will need to make the enchiladas.

The Best Strawberry Shortcake EVER!!

The Best Strawberry Shortcake Ever has to start with The Best Pound Cake Ever… or things just wouldn’t work out right, your strawberry shortcake would turn out good… but who wants just “good” when you can have the best ever!! So head over and make yourself some of great-grandma’s poundcake then we can get on to […]

Real Southern Fried Okra

Growing up we ate good… when I say good, I mean good southern meals that consisted of meat, veggies, and a starch (maybe 2)… and at least half of the meal was fried. Then as we neared the end of the 80’s and moved into the 90’s, as a culture we were told that all […]

Perfect Summer Sangria… or for any season :)

I don’t often toot my own horn, but I feel like over the past few years I have become a connoisseur of red sangria. It all started when I was working on a political campaign (about 5 years ago… before I was a wife or mom).  I didn’t have much time to cook, so I […]

Sausage Scramble Breakfast Bake

I love a big breakfast, but I don’t love cooking it every morning…. (I’m not much of a morning person by nature) This breakfast bake is really easy and perfect  to make at the beginning of the week and reheat for a quick breakfast that is filling and doesn’t leave you hungry in a few […]

Easy Monkey Bread

I didn’t realize that this was an “easy” monkey bread recipe until I started reading other recipes and sow how involved they were. This takes me about 10-12 minutes from the fridge into the oven and is DELICIOUS! I made this last minutes this week to take to a bible study. I generally do not have any self-control when it comes to monkey bread so I always make sure to take it where I can share it and not bring it back home with me. 😉
2 large cans of refrigerated flakey biscuits (16oz)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cups of butter (1 and a half sticks)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Smoked Fish Dip

I had never tried smoked fish dip until I started dating Tavis.  I found out early on, he impulsively orders any fish dip he sees, on his self proclaimed pilgrimage.  His goal is to talk the chef out of the recipe and create his own ultimate fish dip. When I would see fish dip on […]

Easy Cheesy Chicken and Salsa Dinner

A friend of mine, Angela, passed this recipe on to me a few months back and I have fallen in love with how easy it is to make and how delicious the leftovers heat up! The first time that I made it I was a little skeptical so I only made it in a small baking […]

Easy Re-Baked Potatoes, Great for the Freezer

One of my very favorite side dishes since I was little has been re-baked potatoes. Not the ones that you get in the freezer section at the grocery store or even the ones from a good steakhouse, but the ones that I used to help my mom and sisters make when we were growing up. For some reason […]

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