Baby, it's {NoT} Cold in here...

Those days that I am home all day {rare but a treat when it happens}. I love when the house smells of "good" food cooking in the crock pot or Dutch oven. I have tried MANY beef stews but this is one of my favorite recipes and so VeRy EaSy!

Get yourself a dutch oven....{if you don't have one-put it on your Christmas list}

In a large dutch oven (or you could do this in the crockpot), toss 2 lbs of beef (cubed),

1 pkg of baby carrots, 1 lb of small red potatoes (halved),1 chopped onion,

1 leek, 2 Tbs of flour, 1 pkg of 1.5 oz beef stew seasoning mix (i like McCormick)

and 1/4 tsp. black pepper. Toss until everything is well coated.

Stir in 1 cup of dry red wine and 1 cup of water.

Cook at 300 in oven for 4.5 hours in the oven.

(If using a crockpot -cook on high 4.5 hours or until meat and veggies are tender).

I serve with fluffy biscuits and honey. It's a delight and a great hearty meal!

Nothing smells better....

Late last night, I baked some apple cake for a school event. This is a simple cake but makes the house smell delicious! You could almost {lick} the air....after you lick the bowl, of course!

You can't let Fall pass you by without making something warm and full of cinnamon{even if it's at 10:45p.m.}. At least , No one is tugging at you for the spoon that late at night!

Apple Cake

2 cups of flour

2 cups of sugar

1 t of vanilla

1 t of cinnamon (maybe a pinch more)

3 eggs

3 cut up apples chopped small (skinned and cored)

Mix well; Pour into a greased 9 by 13 pan; Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350.

Enjoy!

Bringing "Neiman Marcus" to me~

When I came home from college on holiday, I was a companion for an older lady. I traveled with her from NY to LA. When she was {home}, she would go to Saks 5th avenue and Neiman Marcus every week....sometimes we would get one of their yummy chocolate chip cookies.

Someone sent me a recipe that is suppose to be similar to their {amazing} chocolate chip cookie. I am not sure if this is the recipe BUT this recipe makes ONE GOOD chocolate chip cookie. Plus my {official} spoon licker gave it the thumbs up!!!

(Recipe may be halved):
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal**
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

** Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

Dolly's Ham Casserole

Today, I am participating in Tasty Tuesday with a bunch of other bloggers over at this blog. I love cookbooks...I just sit and read them. Sometimes without any intent of cooking a thing.

But, some of my family favorites don't come from cookbooks but good friends and family.
This recipe is from my mom called "Dolly's Ham Casserole"...who is Dolly? I don't know..a great aunt???an old neighbor?
But, if you baked a big ham for Easter...here is what you can do with the leftovers...Enjoy~

Dolly's Ham Casserole

Saute 1/4 cup gr. onion and 1/4 cup green pepper in 2 T of butter in skillet
Add 2 cups of cubed ham; warm up
Then transfer this to a 9 by 13 pan and add 1 cup of sharp cheese (should begin to melt);add 1/2 cup mayo; add 3 cups of thawed frozen hash potatoes or cubed; Mix it all up!

Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 350
Take out and put crushed potatoe chips on top; put back in oven for 5 more minutes.
Enjoy!

Thank you Dolly (whoever you are!)

P.S.

Crisp "Delight"

At Nest To Keep dot com, she is hosting a Fall cooking fest!  There are already some great recipes I want to try!

My kids have had no school this week due to the wind storm.  So they have spent a lot of time outside riding bikes, chalk coloring and building a fort out of bark (that will be another post). They also have enjoyed picking pears off our tree...at first I was not sure but they are VERY delicious and ripe!

So with so many pears and everyone home...a warm "pear" crisp is what this family needs!  It turned out wonderful...so good in fact, that I was going to take a picture of it after it was cooked but it was ALL gone!  You could use this recipe with any type of fruit...apples would be great.  It is so sweet and the topping is thick and yummy!

Pear Crisp Recipe

6 Large Pears

1 cup of sugar

pinch of salt

2 T of cinnamon and nutmeg

2 stick of butter

2 cups of flour

2 cups of brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350; Peel pears and cut into cubes;Mix pears, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 T of flour in pan (8 x8); 

Combine butter, remaining flour and brown sugar and mash until crumbly.

Pour topping over pear mixture and sprinkle with brown sugar.  Bake 40-45 minutes.  Enjoy!