Pepper Jelly on a Lazy Day

      This past weekend, my three best girlfriends and I went to a Taylor Swift concert! It was so fun and I wish I could have a Taylor Swift concert every night with my best friends! So the concert was on a Saturday night and I didn't get home and in bed until after midnight! I was exhausted! So I didn't go to church the next morning and I felt really guilty, but I know He still loves me even though I skipped church!ha
         So on my lazy Sunday my family and I made Pepper Jelly!!!! We have the best time making it and we are eating it like crazy!! So I took some pics for you guys to show how easy it is and how you can do it too!

         AMAZING Pepper Jelly
        recipe from Putting Up

Canning Notes:

• This recipe can be doubled but not halved.
• Makes 7 plus pints of jelly
• This is a hot pack, sugar saturated recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups small dice green bell pepper (seeded)
1 1/2 cups small dice red bell pepper (seeded)
1 1/2 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
6 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 pack liquid pectin (Certo)

Bring all ingredients except pectin to a rolling boil in a pot. Add pectin return to a boil. Time for 1 1/2 minutes and begin checking for jelling.  Take pot of burner and start putting the ingredients equally into 6 pint jars. DO NOT GET THE JELLY ON THE SIDE OF THE JAR OR ON THE RIM. After you have distributed the jelly equally into the jars, put the lid on tight and turn over for 2 minutes and then turn back over for 2 minutes and keep repeating until it is firm enough for you!!!

Enjoy your jelly on crackers with cream cheese! Happy Canning!!!

hum...hum...HUMMUS!!!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE hummus! Hummus is my go-to snack after school. I normally just buy the organic hummus from the store, already mad. BUT today I had the brilliant idea to make it myself! I don't know if you know this about me but last spring break I was was "vegan". I put vegan in quotations because I didn't stick with it:( My whole family is big on hunting, I mean I have dead deer hanging on my living room walls. I couldn't do, I felt like the deer were really staring at me and my chickens wanted to peck my eyes out for not eating their eggs. Let's just say it was difficult.

Back to the hummus! So the whole story about me being a vegan had a point, I bought a vegan cook book. I never use it but I knew it had great hummus recipes, so I dug it out of my growing shelf of cookbooks. I looked through the chapter about hummus and I found one that sounded yummy. Chipotle Lime Two-Bean Hummus! This recipe seriously took me maybe 5 minutes to make! Super easy!

Chipotle Lime Two-Bean Hummus
Eat Drink and be Vegan-Dreena Burton

1 cup cooked kidney beans
1 cup cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
4-4 1/2 tbs. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 medium garlic clove
2- 2 1/2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 tsp. agave nectar
1-2 tbs. water (depends on how thick or creamy you want it)
1 tsp. lime zest,grated
1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves

In a food processor, combine all ingredients except water, lime zest, and cilantro. Puree until smooth, gradually adding water as desired to thin dip and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add lime zest and cilantro and puree briefly to incorporate cilantro.

Refrigerate and enjoy! You can eat with pita, crackers, anything. I'm spreading the love of hummus to you, so try this recipe!!!

Things I love about my brother

My brother is 18 years old. He is 2 years and 2 days older than me. We weren't that close when we were in  middle school, but since we have out grown all of our "your touching me" or "he's looking at me" phase, we are the best of friends. I'm not going to lie and say "Oh we are the perfect siblings and we never fight" we fight sometimes, but not as bad as it was when we were younger. We have become closer because we have both matured and realized that we are all we have. That's my only brother and that's that.

Some things I love about him are, he is very kind and helpful(when he wants to be). He does a lot for me and he appreciates me. He is the best brother. I mean there are some down sides for having a big brother. He is very protective, mean at sometimes, and he thinks he has a say over what I do. But don't get me wrong, he is great.

About a month ago my brothers girlfriend and I made dinner for Keith. My brothers girl friend emitted to being....... lets say "helpless" in the kitchen, so I promised her we could make dinner for Keith and I would teach her some things. I got out my new cookbook and we found a recipe that Keith would LOVE. Beef Volcano! Sounds fun huh?!?! Well a beef volcano is a huge thing of mashed potatoes covered in beef that is cooked in wine, bacon, little onions and other yummy ingredients. One thing about my brother that I don't like is his metabolism. He can eat WHATEVER he wants and he won't gain a pound. It's depressing:(

Beef Volcano
Rise to the Occasion
Yields 4 servings

1 cup water
10 ounces white pearl onions,peeled
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbs. sugar,divided
4 tbs.+ 1 tsp. butter,divided
1 pound beef tenderloin

2 tbs. olive oil

2 tbs. white flour
2 cups red wine (Merlot)
2 cups veal stock
4 ounces bacon, crisped and diced
8 ounces button mushrooms, quartered and sauteed

To caramelize onions, boil water in a small pot. Add onions, salt, pepper, 2 teaspoons sugar, and 1 teaspoon butter. Simmer over medium heat until the onions have absorbed all the water, about 15 minutes. Set aside.

Cut the tenderloin in large rectangles measuring 1 1/2" x 1". Season with salt and pepper. In a large pot over medium heat, sear beef in olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Remove beef from pot and set aside.

In the same pot make a roux be combining 4 tablespoons butter with flour. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Add the wine, veal stock and 1 teaspoon sugar, stirring often.

Simmer gently over medium heat, uncovered, for 20-22 minutes.

Add the onions, beef, bacon, and mushrooms. Serve hot over mashed potatoes.


This recipe sounds involved and super long, but its not. Give it a chance and try it. You will not be disappointed!

The perfect sugar cookie

       This is weird. I haven't blogged since August. I have missed this. Last year as I was signing up for my junior year classes, a couple of people told me that junior year is easy! I was excited, but my excitement soon came to a holt after the first week of school. This year I am taking AP language, AP US history, Physics, & Algebra II. During the first week of school I had a total break down after school one day. It was horrible, and I cried and said I didn't want to go to school like I was four years old or something. But finally after the SIXTH week of school, I am finally getting the hang of college classes and that I actually have to plan ahead for the week  to come.  Lets just say lesson learned.
      Since I haven't blogged in so long, I was trying to think about what to blog about. Since fall is around the corner and Halloween is fast approaching, I thought of sugar cookies. For some reason fall makes me want to make sugar cookies. It's something about making a cookie and then decorating them in the most artistic way. Sunday's are my cookie day. Drinking my pumpkin spiced coffee and decorating cookies in my comfy clothes. Sound like a good day doesn't it.
     Now to the cookies! I feel like my Nana has perfected the art of making sugar cookies. The recipe is very simple, but you will never use another recipe after this one.

SUGAR COOKIES
1 CUP  soft margarine
1 1/2 CUPS powdered sugar
1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cream of tarter

1/4 tsp. salt

    Cream together margarine, powdered sugar, egg, and vanilla. While that is being creamed together, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, cream of tarter, salt. After the wet ingredients have been creamed, pour the combined dry ingredients in the mixer, a little at a time, until it is all combined.
    Chill until hard. Then roll out about 1 to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters and place on a greased baking sheet. Bake on 375-400 oven for 8 minutes. Watch the cookies as they bake, don't let them get too brown! Just a little golden around the edges. Let cool and decorate!!!

Pie Diner & More to Come!

Last night I was laying in bed thinking about how summer is almost over and how much time I had before school starts. To stop all of my crazy thinking, I turned on the T.V. and of course nothing is on at midnight. So I go to my DVR and I see something that I have recorded and forgot to watch it. The show that I recorded was Unique Sweets on the cooking channel. I am in love with this show! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching it. The reason I love it so much is because I feel like my true calling is baking and the whole show is about baking different, fun, and crazy things. When I bake I feel relaxed and feel all warm inside. The best for me is baking for someone else. I love it, it makes me feel like I have really brightened up someones day!

So last night on Unique Sweets they were talking about pies! They went to all these fun pie places all over the country. It was so cool! While I was watching the show I got this urge to make a pie. I don't know if it was the weird herbal tea I was drinking or the anxiety for going back to school that was making all these thoughts go into my head. Of course I wasn't going to make a pie at midnight and I sure wasn't going to go get one, so I had to wait.  This morning my mom and I were talking and I brought up this idea to open up a pie shop! My mom thought it was a great idea and we kept talking about these ideas and all kinds of stuff. Of course in my head it was going to work out perfectly because I have all the money in the world. I am lying, I don't have all this money lying around to open up a pie shop! I mean its a great idea because there really isn't a place in Edmond where you can buy just pies! And my mom was thinking for it to be like a 50s Diner! Before I start rambling about how cute it will be and all the ideas we came up with, I will stop myself. OK so we can't start off in a building so I had the idea to start at the farmers market. It will be a great start to see if people will really buy them and hopefully come back the next week for more! If any of you steal my idea, I will find you and burn down your pie shop and then thank you for reading my blog! So anyway the farmers market is almost over, so that gives me and my mom plenty of time to master that art of pie making. Wish us luck! So with all of this trying and failing, I will be posting some of the pie recipes on here. Of course not all of them because I love you guys, but not enough for you guys to steal all of my pie recipes. So don't give up hope of me not posting anymore recipes. Trust me keep up with my blog or you will miss out on some great recipes! High Pie!

Mother Daughter Adventure

This past weekend my mom and I took a girls trip to Dallas Texas. I had all this babysitting money that I had been saving and I wanted to buy some new clothes for school. We love going to Dallas because it feels like we are getting away even though it's only 3 hours away from home. It's great to go because it gives time for me and my mom to connect and talk. We have a ton of great memories when we come home and we have the best time. We normally go to north park mall because it has higher end stores and I think it is a better mall. This time I spent almost all my money in Anthropology! If any of you have been there or got to experience its awesomeness you know what I'm talking about.

taste of the inside

Anyway, while we are there we try to eat at places that we don't have in Edmond or that are unique little places. This time we went to this awesome place that we found online. It is called Rise No. 1 and it is the best place in the world! It has the best environment and unique things in this place it is un real. They are known for their AMAZING souffles. They have other things but you want their souffles! Unfortunately we forgot our camera and I was going to bring it so I could take pictures of this crazy food to show you guys but I found some pictures online to give you a little sneak peek.
I'm going to give you a play by play on our great meal.

First when you step in there are a ton of people and we went for dinner so the lights were dimmed. The tables all over to  just fit all these people. You can eat outside or inside, we choose not to sweat in the 108* Texas heat. But I'm sure its fabulous in the fall and spring. So their is a chandelier made out of wine glasses and trees in the restaurant. I could go on and on about the decor but I'm going to get to the food part. So we sit down and look at the menu, and our waitress comes over and we ask her what to get. She recommended to get an appetizer because the souffles take about 20 min. to make so we can order our souffle and appetizer that the same time so we wont be waiting forever. She said she would get the marshmallow soup for an appetizer. My mom and I looked at each other and said OK we'll give it a shot! And at the same time we ordered our souffle, I got herb and spicy sausage and my mom got sun dried tomato and pesto.  We got the marshmallow soup and it turned out to be tomato and basil soup with 3 goat cheese marshmallows! It was so goood!!!!! We practically licked to bowl clean! Our souffles were wonderful as well!! So yummy and so rich with flavor! For dessert we got a AMAZING bread pudding souffle!!!! It was heaven in a bowl!!! They brought it out to you and they poke a hole in the top and our this yummy cream inside and it puffs up even more!!! Its crazy! I was so crazy about this place that I bought their cookbook! I'm going to try to master the art of souffles! Wish me luck! :) So if you are ever in Dallas Texas please, I beg you, GO to Rise No. 1!!!!! You can also go online and look at their menu and pictures of all the amazing food!!!

marshmallow soup!



the bread pudding souffle!!!



Our souffles looked like this!



Bought this cookbook!!!

Cheese and Honey

So about a week ago my dad donated one of his kidneys to a man at our church. That's one of the many things I love about my dad. If he has anything to give, he will give until he can't give anymore. Literally he can't donate anymore kidneys, so don't even ask. Anyway, at our church if someone has surgery, has a baby, or someone passes away we bring food to them. I don't know if any other church does that, but mine does. It is a great help because the last thing you want to be thinking about is, what am I going to cook. The people who have brought us food have been so generous and loving. BUT I feel like I have gained 50 lbs! The food is wonderful comfort food. I'm talking banana bread, BBQ, lasagna, pasta, cake, pies. You name it, we have been eating it in the last week. We have so much food in our fridge, freezer and pantry than anyone should ever have. So my mom told her church class thanks and that's enough.

So last night our long time family friends the Pipkins came out to our house last night. They said they were going to bring dinner and we didn't have to worry about it. We had no idea what they were going to bring so I was trying to think of an appetizer. I got online and went to my favorite website of course notwithoutsalt and got a grilled cheese with thyme and honey. I thought this would be great and easy.

Grilled Brie Cheese with Thyme and Honey

1 Brie cheese
a couple springs of thyme
1/4 cup honey

On a inside grill, outside grill or panini maker place the cheese on it when it gets really hot. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get burned. While that is grilling put the honey and thyme in a skillet on medium just to infuse the thyme with the honey. Once you start to see the honey bubbling, its done. Once the cheese has grill marks on both sides and it is soft and yummy, take it off the grill. Place the cheese on a platter and put the honey on top. Serve it with a baguette.

This makes a great appetizer and it was super easy. You can really use any cheese you like, but the Brie has that hard outside white stuff so it holds up better. Try it out and tell me what you think! Happy cheese grilling:)