Vintage Recipe Fun!

Tee

I was doing some cleaning, sorting, etc. Time consuming type of cleaning… going through boxes that have been around forever, I didn’t even know what was in them. In fact, I uncovered one large bin (that was taking up valuable real estate) only to find it was broken and completely empty!  That one was an easy fix, just bummed that it’s been there for so long – I’ve since moved to clear bins for my storage needs.

To my delight, I uncovered an old box – it was a very old box.  I first noticed a few letters – they were mostly from my great grandmother to my grandfather.  I was excited to find a paper sack with a letter that said “here are some recipes from your grandmother…”(This would be my great-great grandmother) “…some are over 100 years old, do what you want with them.” Luckily, my grandfather did nothing with them and they have found their way into my hands!  Sadly, many of the pages are so fragile they are crumbled and I’m afraid to turn them as they will turn to dust.  There are some pages that are stronger and those gems I’m planning to make to see if they are worth sharing with you!!  I’ve found there are many newspaper clippings and it seems there are some more recent recipes from the 50’s and 60’s as well!

I thought it might be fun to bring you on this journey with me… so buckle up!  I think we are all in for a nice treat!!

See you soon!!

Tee

EAT (Egg, Avocado & Tomato)

Today I was thinking left-overs for lunch. In the past week we’ve made special tomato and egg tapas for a high school spanish class, spaghetti (requested by all of the kids in the family) and a wonderful Cucumber, Avocado salad with Tomato & Cilantro (recipe to post soon).  I had a variety of food left over – or so I thought.  When I opened the fridge to find out what I was going to have for lunch, I found that it had mostly been devoured and there was nothing left!!  What a great problem to have!!

What I found was a couple of hard boiled eggs, tomatoes & an avocado.

See above where the stem of the Avocado was removed…

Given the ingredients, I had a few choices.  I could open a can of garbanzo beans and make an avocado hummus or cook some bacon and have a BLTA sandwich (both which just seemed like too much work).  I opted for an avocado, egg and tomato sandwich.  It’s as easy as it sounds… just chop up some hard-boiled eggs & mash in some avocado with a little salt and pepper!  I added some sliced tomato and called it lunch!

Now… for some reason, I thought this mixture needed a spoonful of mayo, but next time I will leave it out.  It did nothing for the flavor and who needs the extra added fat???  The avocado added all the ‘good’ fat that was needed.

Now let me share with you a little tip about your Avocado!!  In the past, I’ve had hit and miss luck with picking ‘good’ avocados.  Last year, I read somewhere that to determine if an avocado is turning brown on the inside you need to remove the little stem at the narrow end of it.  See in the photo how the color under the stem is nice and bright green?  If it it brown or any color but green, it’s not good.  I’ve found plenty of brown under those little stems I’ve removed but just passed them by and looked for the green.  I’ve not had a bad avocado since learning this trick!!  Try it!!

Have a great Day!!  Tee

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!!

 

 

Hi!! We’re Back!

We’ve decided this is it!!  It’s time to revive our idea.  It may have changed a little, it may have not.  Cooking blogs and shows have really taken off over the past 5 years and our little blog is not meant to compete with any of them!! We are no Pioneer Woman (boy, hasn’t her career taken off!) or Rachael Ray. You will not find anything professionally done here.  HA!  I’m making this sound like a place you’ll want to come back to over and over!!

What you will find is this… ideas for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and a dessert or two.  Just friends, best friends, sharing with each other and providing helpful tips and tricks.  Oh…. and maybe just a little bit of sarcasm here and there.  Sorry, just can’t help it… it’s who we are!!

Some of our recipes will be full fat with full flavor thrown in.  Sometimes we will (or have) only been able to think about bacon and everything we seem to post will include it!  Some of our recipes are our own or have been passed down from our mom’s and grandma’s.  Other times we will try one of Ree’s and give it our full ‘two thumbs up’ approval and share it.

We are also about being healthy!  Hey, we have kids & grandkids to think about… lol!  We will be adding low fat, gluten free and diabetic recipes to this little blog.  Feel free to come back and take a look, share our passion, hear our rantings and try the recipes that sound good to you.

If nothing else, it should be good for a laugh!!

Bex

Tee

Cinnamon Rolls à la Pioneer Woman

Fat Bottomed Bex is ba-ack!!! With a full semester under my belt and three A’s to my credit! WHEW! It’s no joke going back to school at this point in my life. Not only have I not cooked for you, dear readers, but my poor hubby thinks I’ve forgotten where the kitchen is! LOL So on this my first full day of freedom since August (let’s not talk about Christmas just yet, give me a day or two, ‘kay?) I was determined to post something…ANYTHING…for you! I can’t take credit for this recipe, but it’s one I’ve been wanting to try for a while now from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Her cinnamon rolls were everything they were promised to be. And if you’re not familiar with her, or haven’t tried any of her recipes yet, I highly recommend you take a visit to the country and give these a whirl. They really were so much easier than I expected.

I’ll be honest, I’m not a big yeast user. I buy it with good intentions and then it sits in the fridge until I unearth it a year after it has expired. Poor little dead yeasties. 😦 So to say I was a tad intimidated is fair. But this time I was determined to not send those poor little guys to a chilly death in the back of the refrigerator. I bought a fresh batch and went straight to work. To my delight, I was rewarded with huge, puffy bowls of dough. Woohoo! Surprising how a simple thing like dough rising makes you feel so successful and accomplished, huh? Here’s a peak at how they came out. Not bad, hmmm?

 

Her recipe makes a REALLY big batch. I ended up with 8 aluminum pie pans with 6 rolls each, a total of 4 dozen. It was a lot of dough to work with at one time. My note to you if you make the whole recipe is plan on splitting the dough into your 2 largest bowls for the rising stage. I’m going to try making just half next time…maybe. We’ve already gobbled up 1 pan, are working on our second at home, and I took 3 pans to school for one of my finals. Three pans managed to make it to the freezer. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they last until Christmas morning.

I did make a few small changes in the icing. I omitted the coffee and I didn’t have any maple extract, so I substituted vanilla, and poured in a couple of tablespoons of pure maple syrup. It seemed a little thick so I added some additional melted butter and a little more whole milk until I got a good consistency. Warning, these rolls are really sweet! If you’ve got a serious sweet tooth you’re gonna be in heaven. Next time around I’m going to experiment a bit, and cut down a little on the sugar inside the rolls and perhaps try some Stevia or Splenda just to see if I can make them a tiny bit less dangerous! Perhaps a cream cheese icing just to see how that works out. But this is just a personal preference, they really are downright wonderful and were so much easier than I thought they were going to be. So don’t be skeered, give ’em a try!

Ree’s Additional Notes on Cinnamon Rolls

Can’t wait to try these in our Cinnamon Roll Me Away Sundae with Praline Icing recipe!

BTW, those close up pictures earlier in the post? Yeah, the pan really looks like this!

Happy Baking my friends!

Rustic Seafood Chowder

It’s almost November and still in the 90’s out here in AZ!  I’m way past ready for cooler weather and comfort food.  I’m afraid we might just be swimming on Thanksgiving Day!!  I felt it was time to take things into my own hands…  I came home from work and cranked the air down to freezing… when I started to get a chill, I put on a sweater and started some chowder!  It’s a pretty simple thing, just a little of this and a little of that… simmer and drink in the lovely aroma.  I tore off a nice piece of bread and had dinner!! 

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 bottle clam juice
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chopped green onions
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup whole kernel corn
• 1 1/2 cups chopped potatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon bay seasoning
• 1/2 pound shrimp
• 1/2 pound bay scallops
• 1/2 pound crabmeat
• 1 (6.5 ounce) can chopped clams
• 1/2 pound bacon
• 3 tbs flour (optional)
• 1 cup Chicken stock (optional)

Directions

1. Place clam juice and garlic in a large pot over low heat. Cook and stir until simmer is reached. Mix in green onions, carrots, corn, potatoes, parsley, and remaining cream. Season with black pepper and bay seasoning. Simmer 25 minutes. Do not boil.
2. Cut bacon into 1” pieces and fry until almost crisp (if a thicker soup is desired, add flour to bacon drippings and stir) add bacon and drippings to pot.
3. Add the shrimp, scallops, crabmeat, and clams to pot and continue cooking 10 minutes, or until seafood is opaque.  If more volume is desired, add chicken stock & milk in equal amounts.

Always use fresh ingredients whenever you can!  If fresh is not available, frozen is the next best thing.  I suggest canned goods only be used as a last resort – the taste is inferior and sodium content is high.

Well the dishes are washed and put away… my air still has a slight chill… my husband is going to question me when the electric bill comes in, but it sure was worth it!!  Time to turn the air back to a more normal setting, take off my sweater and put my shorts back on… I think the heat is here to stay just a little bit longer…

Baby Got Fat Bottomed BBQ Ribs

Maybe what I should call these is Forever Ribs, huh? Cuz that’s how long it feels like it took me to post this durn recipe. Ribs certainly are a menu item that benefit from some time and tender loving care, but they definitely don’t take as long as this post took! LOL So first, I apologize for my long absence. What can I say? Life intervened. School, the flu, etcetra. But back to the ribs! They actually had these on sale this past week at my local market, so I guess it’s not completely past barbecue season. (Of course, in sunny So Cal, we barbecue pretty much all year round!) So let’s make some Fat Bottomed BBQ Ribs!

Ingredients

Ribs & Rub:

• 3-4 racks Pork Baby Back Ribs
• Olive Oil
• 3 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Paprika
• 2 Teaspoons Salt
• 2 Teaspoons Chili Powder
• 2 Teaspoons Ground Cumin

Barbecue Sauce:

• 2 Shallots, finely chopped (or 1 small onion)
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine
• 1 Cup Catsup
• 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed
• 3 Tablespoons Lemon Juice
• 3 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon Molasses
• 1 Teaspoon Liquid Smoke
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Mustard
• 1 Teaspoon Celery Seed
• 1 Teaspoon Ground Cumin
• 1/8 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper

    

Prepare roasting pan with heavy duty foil and rack. Give yourself a break and spray the rack to make clean up easier. Now let’s see those fancy knife skills! Mince 3 cloves of garlic.

    

Place in a shallow roasting pan and drizzle ribs with olive oil and  then give them a nice garlic massage.

Cover and bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours. Cool slightly.

Now let’s do a little rub!

    

Combine sugar, paprika, salt, chili powder and ground cumin; rub over ribs.

Cover and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Time to get Saucy!

More mincing fun with shallots and garlic!

   

In a saucepan, sauté shallots and garlic in butter until tender.

          

            

Stir in remaining sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cook and stir until thickened, about 10-20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside 3/4 cup.

    

Brush ribs with some of the remaining sauce. Grill, covered over medium heat for 12 minutes, turning and basting with sauce. Watch carefully so you don’t burn the sauce. As you can see mine got a teensy bit…ummm…charred in a couple of spots, so I know what I’m talkin’ about! If this happens to you, just cover it up with a little extra sauce, like me! 🙂 Place back in 250 degree oven after grilling for 20-30 minutes or until ready to serve. Low and slow is the name of the game here. The longer they cook on low temperature, the more tender they will be.

  

Serve with extra sauce and your favorite bbq beans, corn on the cob, or macaroni salad.

We usually go with the corn on the cob so we can just eat the whole meal with our hands and don’t have to mess with silly things like utensils.

Finger lickin’ good!

Yummy Veggie Medly

We’ve got a great, easy and VERY tasty veggie dish!!  I will share my secret ingredient with you and when you make this for your kids… hubby… or boyfriend… they will jump up and down and beg for more!!!  I promise this!!

Let’s start with some yummy veggies.  

Yes, we can find these same veggies mostly year round, but they are far more plentiful at certain times of the year and if you have a garden, you probably grow most of them!  I don’t have a garden, I’ve tried… alas… it is not my calling to grow anything in the ground.

I like to get my veggies at the local Farmers Market…. or in a pinch, Safeway!

Here we go….. Take you beautiful fresh veggies and slice into nice bite size pieces.   Then take your zucchini, yellow squash & onions and place into a skillet with a drizzle of EVOO.  Top with some sea salt and cracked pepper, then saute for about 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat (be careful not to cook too much, we want them nice and firm).  Fight the urge to add more spices… you don’t need them,  the flavor of this dish will dance on your tongue!

When time is up, transfer to baking dish and add 1 can of Italian Stewed Tomato’s.  I also like to chop some fresh tomato and add to the mixture.  Here is where we add the secret ingredient… Ready???

Just shake about 1 to 2 teaspoons of Garlic Bread Sprinkle onto the mixture and stir… top with shredded jack cheese (or whatever you have on hand) and pop into the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes!

Scoop out a serving and taste…. It’s really delicious…. even non-veggie eaters seem to love this dish!!

Feel free to serve with some crusty bread to sop up all those juices…

If you’re anything like me you won’t be able to shove it in your mouth fast enough!!  You’re gonna LOVE this dish!!

Better Than A Burger Joint Bacon Cheeseburger!

“Better thank a burger joint, Mom!”

Now those are words a mother sure likes to hear. Am I right, moms? I know I was pretty jazzed. So I’m going to share the secret with all of you, so you can enjoy the burger AND the compliments that go with it! It’s not much of a secret really, but here it is…

BUY THIS SEASONING PACKET

 

That’s it, that’s the secret. LOL

Archer Farms brand is found at Target so no one should have much trouble finding it. Unless you live somewhere where there’s no Target…wait, is there such a place??? If there is, I don’t want to live there! hahaha! Cuz I loooove Le Tarjay! You can buy almost anything there. And it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! Well, perhaps I’ve spent an arm a time or two, but I never spent an arm AND a leg! hahaha! But I digress…back to the burger!

Here are a few other tips to really get the best burger on your plate…and in your mouth! Use ground chuck as opposed to ground beef, ground round, or ground sirloin. Chuck has the most flavor. Also make sure it has some fat in it. No extra lean for this baby. After all, it’s a burger people, not diet food, so let’s not ruin it by worrying about the fat content. Just don’t eat it every night! You can go back on the diet tomorrow. Errr, unless you haven’t  GOT a fat bottom and can afford the extra calories that is. 🙂 So get some ground chuck with at least 20% fat. Buy a nice hunk of colby jack, or your favorite cheese and slice it fairly thick. None of that cheese that comes out of a plastic wrapper please! Fry a few slices of a good quality bacon  (we like applewood smoked) and set aside. Slice up some ripe, juicy tomatoes, maybe a spanish onion (the purple ones), maybe an avocado if that’s your thing, pickles if you like ’em, and a nice crisp piece of green leaf lettuce. Now don’t wreck it by putting it on a substandard bun, this is a burger masterpiece we’re creating  here folks! Stop by the bakery and get some quality buns. I got some fresh egg buns at a nearby deli and bakery that we love. They also have some amazing kosher dills. Shout out to Katella Deli! Yummm! Good restaurant too, by the way if you live in the Southern California area.

Okay, you’ve got the makings for a great bacon cheeseburger. Now just follow the package instructions on the seasoning. Fire up your bbq and get these babies grilling. We like ours a little pink in the middle, so they’re nice and juicy. Place the cheese on the patties after turning the meat and the burgers are just a minute or two away from your optimal doneness. Butter your buns (the burger buns, I mean!) and toast them on the grill while the cheese melts.

Dress the toasted bun with the condiments of your choice. I suggest a good 1000 Island, or mayo and ketchup, (side track…are you a catsup or a ketchup person? Is that a regional thing?) mustard, whatever. Then build your burger!

Here’s the lineup:

Bottom bun

Dressing (aka the wet stuff)

Lettuce

Tomato

Onion (mine is no ‘O’ but I grilled some for my hubby cuz that’s what he likes. Aren’t I nice?)

Burger with melted cheese

Bacon

Pickles

Dress the top bun

Flip the lid and enjoy!

Masterpiece achieved.

Hope you enjoy Bex Better Than A Burger Joint Bacon Cheeseburger!

Happy Labor Day to all my Fat Bottomed Friends.This is coming to you from Havasu Landing on the California side. Hope you all are having a great holiday weekend also.

Watch for Fat Bottomed BBQ Ribs in the next few days!

(How’s that for a blatant ploy to keep you coming back for more????)

Pizza Rolls

Here’s something kind of fun for you!!  This weekend I was talking with a friend of mine and I realized that I hadn’t posted any of our camping recipes yet!!  I thought I’d post a quick one for you today.  Keep in mind that while camping there are times you have to think on the fly… not always prepared with the right sauces or spices we just have to make do… and we sure do!  My sisters and I started to brainstorm and came up with this idea during our second week of our summer camping trip.  The kids were hungry and dinner wasn’t even in the making yet… we started going through our list… there’s cheese sticks (NO!), there’s chips (NO), have an apple (NO)… what about some carrots (NO!)… I’m sure you see where this is going!

So we were searching through our ice chests and our food tent… yes, we have a little tent for our food… don’t laugh until you’ve tried it!!! 🙂  This is what we came up with….

Take a roll of ready made dough… pizza dough would have been perfect, however we were stuck with crescent dough… it worked!

Please forgive our photography… we were camping!! 🙂

Add Papa’s pepperoni‘s that he was saving for a snack later…

Cut cheese stick in half and place onto pepperoni… It would have been really great if we’d had some kind of sauce here…. we didn’t.

We’ll have to plan for these next year!

Cut the dough into sections around your treats.

Roll and place on parchment paper or foil and pop into the oven for about 10 minutes.  Oh… did I mention that we also have a camping oven???

Yep… It’s pretty cool.  We make orange rolls for breakfast and cookies for snacks (when we aren’t in the mood for s’mores!).  Anyway… back to our newest treat…

They come out of the oven all toasty and brown with melty cheese on the inside…

Now doesn’t that just look yummy… for a snack?  I know, it needs a bit of sauce 😦

Here is where I would normally show you a picture of the kids eating and loving the treats we made…. but by the time they were all cooled off and passed out and I scrambled around my tent looking for the camera (I had just put in there)… they had all been eaten!!!  Of course they wanted more… but we didn’t have anymore dough, so we tell them to wait for next year… we’ve promised to add these to our ‘food’ list!  You’ll have lots of Happy Campers when you make these!!

Cinnamon Roll Me Away Sundae with Praline Icing

Yes, yes, I know I it’s Monday, and I promised you this over the weekend. (Picture me here, hanging my head in shame.) I am not yet in the groove with this whole homework thing! I did however manage to get that done on time, but I’m sad to say it was at your expense! So here’s a little sugar rush that’s super simple. Dare I offer it as a “study-aid?” LOL You decide. But I’ll bet if you try it, you’ll get an A Plus!

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• One can Cinnamon Rolls
• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Praline Liqueur
• Sweet tooth

Directions

Now don’t blink, you might miss somthing!

1. Put the rolls in the pan

2. Then bake ’em up!

  

3. Put the icing in a bowl.

4. Add a little (or a lot…hic! Excuse ME!) Praline Liqueur (check out your local BevMo for this) and stir it in.

   

5. Drizzle it all over the baked rolls.

6. Use it all up, so they are fully covered in Praline-y goodness!

7. Now most people would stop here and call it dessert….but then you’d be missing out! So plop a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a couple of bowls. (You really should share this with a few folks, but hey, who am I to judge?)

8.  Top with a warm, gooey, roll and enjoy!

Origin of the Name:

Cinnamon Roll Me Away Sundae with Praline Icing

If you eat more than one, you will probably need a helpful friend to roll you away from the table!