Monday, July 18, 2011

And so... it begins

You will have to excuse me while I type and enjoy the absolutely mouth watering cobbler I just cooked and will share with you later in this post..

So I have been cooking quite a bit since I got married 4 years ago and have found a definite knack for it... There have absolutely been many bumps along the way and lots of wasted food, effort and ego... but I figure everyone goes through that.. 

Here lately I have been cooking quite a bit. With a toddler who is learning restaurant etiquette and a one income household paired with a coupon clipping mama comes lots of home-cooked meals around the dinner table with fun, laughing and hopefully some friends since I tend to cook enough for a small army.. or the Duggars.

So with all these meals and "experiments" I have posted a few of them on the almighty facebook and have had inquiries regarding recipes etc... So considering I am an avid blog reader, and avid blog try to writer.. (I start blogs write a few times then give up.. hopefully this does NOT happen here).. I figure why not start a blog of my adventures in the kitchen for all other housewives and maybe even bring back the concept of dinner on the table, not in front of the tv, and show how simple it truly is to plan, cook and enjoy a good meal!

So today my grandmother, God bless her, gave me a huge bag of blueberries, free fruit.. nothing better. Upon leaving her house she explains that I need to probably bake with them considering they are a little tart... (Tasty tip... tarter berries make the best baked goods.. they come out sweeter once cooked .. some chemist could probably tell you why.. this cook can not..).... but she also added I need to use them soon or freeze them. I am NOT a fan of frozen blueberries (or actually the product after frozen blueberries are defrosted) so the entire drive home I am contemplating what to do with these blueberries... A given is a batch of homemade blueberry muffins.. but then I had at least two cups left over..

Well last week I purchased and amazing cookbook by Ree Drummond... Amazing and simple and involves photography... oh and lots of butter.. butter makes anything better.. just ask Paula Deen...





So then it comes to me... hows about some blueberry cobbler... Seems simple enough... So I double check my pantry.. yep got everything (flour, sugar, blueberries, milk, sugar, butter, sugar.. oh yea and some more sugar)


So I grab my handy dandy new cookbook... and find the page and realize crap.. I have all purpose flour not self rising.. I figure ah whatever.. it said all purpose... (PS I am well aware this recipe says "blackberry",... you can substitute certain berries"



And well here is comes :::: 



all the "cakey" part stayed at the bottom.. but still remained equally delish.. Ps I am sure someone out there can tell me why it didn't rise or some trick to make it rise the next time when using all purpose flour instead of self rising... PLEASE let me know!



recipe can be found here via the Pioneer woman herself :  


Oh and those blueberry muffins...



Yea... put a few lbs on them hips but SO worth it... recipe is as follows:::::

1 cup blueberries
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt

preheat oven 400
combine ingredients and mix lightly
pour into greased muffin pan (should make 12 muffins...)
base 20-25 minutes till browned!



Oh and look at me putting dessert before the actual supper... typical ..

So for supper.. well I had about two cups of left over mashed potatoes from steak and potatoes yesterday... oh and a good bit of corn too.. So... in my house that means Shepherd's pie..well my favorite Megan in the whole world's version of shepherd's pie... I am partial to my homemade from scratch with lots of butter and hrs in the kitchen but  my hubby loves this bbq version so much more.. and well as lazy as I felt after making such yummy baked goods this version fit (plus I still have about 10 bottles of bbq sauce from my free score from winn dixie last month)

So I grabbed the ingredients:::

1 lb grounded beef (we like the leaner version but whatever you have it fine)
1 can green beans (drained and rinsed)
1 can corn (drained and rinsed)... or leftover like I had
2 cups of mashed potatoes (u can do the box kind.. but I had leftovers.. mashed potato recipe another day)
1 bottle of ur favorite bbq sauce (The hubby likes plain ol' original kraft for this one).
1 cup cheese (cheddar or whatever you have on had is fine)...

Brown the beef, drain the fat... mix together the beans and corn with the beef... give the bottle a good swirt.. put mixture in a casserole dish..
top in and even layer with the mashed potatoes.. 
sprinkle with cheese
cover with foil
bake at 350 for about 30 minutes
take the foil off the last 5 minutes to brown the top a little

Serve :)