Snacks

Have been making a few snacks lately. We are having a get together for the husband's pool team. Like to try and make new snacks to take along as they go good with a few beers. Have a Mustard Dip that goes with pretzels.

Mustard Dip

1cup mayonnaise
1cup sour cream
1 cup mustard
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
1/2 cup sugar
3 heaping tsp. horseradish

Mix together and serve with pretzels
Really good, use the pretzel rods, they are good for dipping.

My Mother had a favorite veggie dip, Dill Dip

Dill Dip
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup minced onion
3 tsp. dill weed
2 Tbsp. Beau Monde
1 Tbsp. Parsley flakes

I take my onion (fresh) and mince it in my chopper and I use fresh Parsley . The taste is much better.

Making your own booze

I have been a very active maker of flavored Brandies. Yeah Blackberry, Strawberry, Raspberry, Apple, grape, Cherry, Peach, Apple Pie, Apple Raspberry, Mixed Berry and many more. I was told how to do this about 5 years ago and have made many many many gallons of the stuff. I, myself do not drink much of it. I do like the Apple Pie myself. That is the only one I do sample once in awhile. You can go on the internet and get recipes for how to make it, but I have tweeked mine so it is better than some that others around here make. If you would like to find out how to make it you can go to my website at www.downhome-cooking.com and e-mail through there.
I am putting out a recipe for Irish Cream here for you. I know St. Paddy's Day is long gone but Irish Cream is good anytime.


Irish Cream
1 cup Whiskey
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. coconut extract
1 1/2 tbsp. chocolate syrup
1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
Blend in blender 1 minute. Keeps in fridge up to 5 weeks

Try putting some butterscotch Schnapps (1 1/2 shots to 2 shots) over ice and add Irish Cream, this is a very good drink for warm lazy afternoons. ENJOY!!!!!!

Diabetes--High Blood Sugar

Woow, what a week. My husband found out that his blood sugars are high along with the total cholesterol being very high and other things. Need to see the Dr. this coming week. I am now coming up with new ideas for my website. More new pages and hopefully I can find new information to put on it that will be able to help out other people that have the same problems. Have a book the neighbor gave me that is called the Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate Counter. Looks like alot of good info in it. My husband says if it's so good, why does Deb still have problems? Good question. She is a three shot aday inslin user. She has admitted that she is not very good with what she eats and drinks. She does not drink beer or booze at all, but she is not very good with her eating, and she really likes to eat out. She drinks alot of diet soda, which is bad as far as sodium goes. Way to much sodium in it. Anyway I am determined to help my husband to control his problems and help myself also. Let you know how things.

Good, Better, Best

According to Prevention Mag. Popcorn is a good treat, Peanuts are better but Almonds are the best. They are the most nutritious nut around. Almonds are also the go-to-snack when trying to loose weight. In one study, women who ate almonds had higher levels of cholecystokinin, a hunger-suppressing hormone. Also almonds help to lower LDL cholesterol as much as a statin drug. I guess eating almonds can make a world of good in your diet.

Full Day

Today I have been married for 5 years. Some of ours good friends wanted to take us out for lunch. My husband was in heaven as they wanted to go to Old Country Buffet. Love the salad bar, hot food is ok, dessert bar great. Never go away hungry. They said there is a recession going on out there. When it comes to eating, I wonder. We will always need to eat even if we don't have the money to do so. Every time we eat out like this I think of all the people who don't have the money to do so or don't have the money to put food on the table. What do they do? I know we can make it as my husband hunts and fishes. I do alot of gardening and canning. We would make it. What do others do?

Husband cooking

Just the other night I came home from work, and as I walked into the house the aroma that came to me was heaven. Food!!! Someone else had been cooking. Who? My daughter was at work yet and the husband don't cook since I came into his life. I always tease him that the one neighbor does all the cooking when he is home. He will make roasts, meatballs, steaks, chops, anything he can put into a slow cooker. His wife loves it cause dinner is ready when she comes home.
Anyway my husband had taken a roast and put potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage and corn in a slow cooker, spiced it up some. Heaven, let me tell you anyone can cook with a slow cooker.
A neighbor came down, so we had him stay for supper. He also does the major part of the cooking for he and his wife. He said he would of add alittle more salt and pepper,but other than that it was really good. I use very little salt(bad for you) so you have to season that yourself if you want more. I hve always said my husband can cook, he just don't want to. Push them alittle ladies, they can do it.

Rotten Week-end

This was to be the week-end of love!! Yeah right, just a night to go out for supper would of been nice, but guess I did something wrong. Have a cold so can't be taken anywhere. I't o.k. that we are having a birthday party I have to cook for though. I will do the cooking as I love to cook, but may disappear after that. Can't get anyone sick.
We are going to have garlic creamed chicken served over brown rice. Made a nice jello (watermelon and passion fruit) for the grandson, he'll love that. Need to make a salad yet, maybe some fresh rolls. My daughter is bringing ice cream cake as the grandson love it. Wish it was nice enough to grill out. Can't wait to make chicken on the grill. Yum Yum Yum. Cooking makes me feel better when I"m down so this will help take me out of mood. Maybe I should another cookbook. Let's keep cooking

cooking troubles

Every have a problem trying to figure out what to fix for a big day? Well I have that problem now. My husband's birthday is today, and the grandson's is the 17th. We have a small get together for their birthdays as we are a blended family and the ex wife is something else. You know nothing we do is good enough, so we have our own little party. This past week has been great weather out there so I was thinking of grilling out, yet it is only to be about 35 for a high on Sunday. There will be 9 of us so there isn't a big group. Maybe I could do burgers and boneless chicken breast on the grill along with cheesy potatoes, and green beans and a salad. The daughter is bring an ice cream cake. Can't hardly wait for Spring to get here so we can cook out on a weekly basis. Love to grill out. Love Sunday dinners. Love to cook. and really love new cookbooks.

Vinegar Cookies

When my oldest daughter was about 14 years old, she decided to help mom out by making cookies one day. Bless her heart she wanted to help make things easier for me as I was working 2 and sometimes 3 jobs. Anyway, she went to work and made some cookies, I belive that it was chocolate chip cookies. She was so proud of her cookies.
I come home drop dead tired that night and she brings out the cookies for me to try. Boy they sure were good looking cookies. I said that they even looked better than my own. I took one bite and asked what all she had put in them. She started to name off everything, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, shortening, soda, salt, chocolate chips, vinegar, flour. Whoooo, what did you say vinegar? Yeah, vinegar. She got out the recipe and pointed to vanilla and said see, oh shoot, I thought it said vinegar. What a laugh we got out of that. We don't bring it up too often as she has turned out to be quite a cook.

Soup

Hi, It is to get very cold again this week-end, so I thought that I would talk a little about a really good soup. My sister-in-law gave me this recipe and I tweeked it myself. It is a good one for the cold days of winter and very easy to make. It is not very good for people who are watching their weight as it is very rich.
I have a web site that I will be putting recipes on from time to time, so you can find more good things to make with little effort at DownHomeCooking.com. Please stop by our site and see what we have to offer. Feel free to make comments and to offer any advice that we can use to make our site better for you. We are in the new stages yet but hope to have something for everyone.

My Soup is Hearty Beer Cheese Soup
1-42oz can of low sodium chicken broth (I use any type)
1 can, any Beer
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots
1 1/2 lb. velveeta cheese, cubed
1-42 oz. can of water(use the broth can)
1 1/2 cup chopped celery
3 to 31/2 cups diced potatoes
1 large can of cream of chicken soup.
Combine chicken broth , water, beer, celery and onions. Cook covered for about 20 minutes. Add potatoes and carrots. Cook until tender. Add chicken soup and cheese. Heat until cheese is melted and soup is hot. Makes 4 to 5 quarts. Chopped cooked ham may also be added, or browned hamburger. This also freezes well.
Hope you like it. cooknmom- DownHomeCooking.com

slowcooker greats

Hi, I am working building a website. Is that interesting as I really don't know what I am doing but am getting some really great help from some good people. There are so many things to do with cooking that I really don't know where to start. I do love to cook and can't seem to keep food around my house as my husband likes to eat. I put a pork loin in the slow cooker last night with chopped red onions, cabbage, and carrots. Seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic and season salt. It cooked all night. I could of eaten some for breakfast as it smelt so good. Now that's down home cooking.

NEW year

Today is the 2nd of Jan. and the start of a new year. New cooking will be done in this household. I am trying to find new things to make without gaining weight. It will be a trying time cooking here. I know cooking can be healthier and will try it. There are many types of cooking utensils out there to help. We will check into them.