The Cake Balls go Cheesy

Ya know.  Just when you think you have something perfected.  Nooo, someone just kicks it up a notch. 

I have tried to make cakeballs a few times, and even if my attempts weren’t always gorgeous, my kids gobbled up whatever came of the attempt.  I finally thought I had it.  I was now a cakeball master right?  I mean every time you do something again, you get a little better.  I would not put cake balls on the top of my favorite things to make list.  Just because it’s a messy endeavor.   But yet, the temptaion comes again.

Here it is the holidays, and as if I haven’t baked enough already, something in me drives me to just bake one more thing.  Well, I log on to WordPress today and there it is.  That recipe that is going to make me do it again.  I mean, I just finsihed ruining meringues, and putting together a roll of chocolate chunk oatmeal cookie dough.  The recipe is for cheesecake snowmen.  Who can resist this?  Really? 

I believe the Author of Lemon Tart Diary goes by Annie.  Her blog is darling.  And if you want to attempt her Cheesecake Snowmen.  She lays out all the steps beautifully.  Just in time for you to have one more go in the kitchen before Christmas.  I always love find recipes that could be big impact, little dough.

Thrifty Meals to Get You Through Christmas

In the hustle and bustle that comes with Christmas, life still manages to happen.  Here are a few of my favorite thrifty recipes to keep you on budget during the holidays.  Some of these cheap family meal ideas come from friends or relatives, but when I say they are cheap, I mean CHEAP.  I hate when you watch the Today Show or something, and they’re all like, you can feed your family for just thrifty bucks with this meal.  30 BUCKS?  Try three.  So as you make through the unwrapping and piles of bills.  I hope these cheap recipes will keep you full and sane.

Sausage Gravy & Biscuits by My Momma

This one will fill you up without emptying your wallet.

Ingredients:

• Bob Evans Savory Sage sausage (1 tube)
• tube of refrigerated biscuits
• 2T butter
• 1/4c flour
• 1/2c milk

Directions:

Preheat oven according to directions on biscuit package.

Crumble up the sausage and brown it in a large skillet over medium heat.  I like to chop mine up really well with a spatula as it cooks.  Once brown, kind of push the sausage to one side of the skillet. Turn down the heat.  Do this all over low heat at this point. Drain the grease to the other side of the skillet and add the butter to the grease side.  Now stir the flour into the grease/butter side to make a thick mixture (not a solid mass though).   Add some of the milk to  that and gradually slide the meat over to the milk side adding more milk and flour alternately until desired gravy consistency is reached.  Bake your biscuits according to package directions.  Spilt biscuits in half and spoon some of the sausage gravy on top.

Hamburger Hash Ala my MIL Clara

Ingredients:

• 1 pound or so of Hamburger
•  1 or 2 large baking potatoes
• garlic salt (Lawry’s is good)
• Beef bullion, onion soup mix or whatever you have that is similar
• small onion

Directions:Brown the ground beef and cook the onion in a skillet.  At this time, season the ground beef too.  Like I said, I use Lawry’s garlic salt, but whatever you’ve got that works well with hamburger.  Meanwhile, chop up the potato(s) really small like hashbrown size.  Once the beef is browned add the potatoes and rest of ingredients, plus enough water to cover the potatoes.  Cook over med until potatoes are soft.  Really good and filling, and uncomplicated.

That’s two, I’ll add more cheap recipes to this, but I wanted to share some thrifty meal ideas I’ve found while perusing online.

Check these thrifty meal links out.

A healthy choice:

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/cookbooks.asp?cookbook=58000

or

A Dollar Stretching Chicken Recipe  When you’re on this site, scroll down to Leanne Ely’s Rubber Chicken.

http://www.flylady.com/pages/kitchen2.asp

More coming soon, but this will keep you fed for now.

Vintage Recipes

If I were to sell something on Etsy, and call it “vintage,” it would need to be 20 years old or better.  If that’s the case, I’ve made it to vintage.  For some reason, my mind usually drifts to the 1940′s when I think of vintage.  My holiday baking this year has had a bit of a theme running through it, and that theme is definitely vintage.  I love looking through depression era cookbooks, and even up into the 1970′s.  Primarily those books are very basic, and you can really glean a lot of wisdom from the ladies (and gentlemen) whose recipes grace the pages of these types of books..

I tried my hand at candy making.  My son and I took a crack at candy canes, and well, that is not easy!  We managed to have candy coated hands and that was about it.  I had to laugh as I watch Guy Fieri of the Food Network make candy canes at Disney World, and yes, they wore gloves!  click on the pic for some coverage of that action.

Guy Fieri's Cooling Canes at disney care of DIS Unplugged

My mom was kind enough to “foist off” some of her cookbook collection to me last week.  One of the titles in that collection was Depression Era Recipes by Patricia R. Wagner.  I just love the recipe titles.  things like Mrs. Knowles’ Radio Cake, Aunt Minnie’s Oatmeal Cookies (which are delicious, if I do say so myself) and Mayonnaise Moisturizer.  So often we find ourselves online looking for advice or tips on how to live within our means and make the most of our budgets, when sometimes the best tips can be found in Gramma’s kitchen.  Hasn’t she been telling you all along?

One of the quotes you’ll find in Depression Era Recipes is from Oliver Wendell Holmes.  I thought you might enjoy.

“No soil upon earth is so dear to our eyes

As the soil we first stirred in terrestrial pies.

She may dress in silk, she may dress in satin,

She may know the language, Greek and Latin,

May know fine art, may love and sigh,

But she is no good if she can’t make pie.”

-O.W. Holmes

Depression Era Recipes by P. Wagner

Cheap Lunchbox Trick: I’m Proud of This One.

When I was little, I had a strange habit.  Every time I would get a piece of bread, I would try to squish it into the smallest, most perfect cube possible.  Fast forward to 2009, my bread squishing habit is long gone.  This brings to me to my son, no he’s not a bread squisher.  This is about his lunch.  I’ve discovered a great way to save lunch money.

My son likes to pack Brownie Bites.  Brownie Bites are found in the snack aisle, and for a box of maybe 6 packs, 6 brownie bites per pack, you too can purchase Brownie Bites for about 4 bucks.  Needless to say, he doesn’t get to pack these very often.

Last week the grocery store had brownie mix on sale for $0.88!  I baked these bad boys according to the directions, and found myself backsliding into my bread squishing habit.  Only this time it was brownies.  I sliced up the brownies into squares and began squishing the squares into perfect little cubes.  I popped about 5 into a Baggie and threw them in the freezer.  My kids found them in their lunch the next day.  The review: fantastic.  No crumbs, perfect portions, and absolutely yumminess.   So for a little over $0.88, I made my own brownie bites.  And I came away with a lot more than what comes in the $4 a box originals.

I knew that bad habit would pay off.

Fruit Bouquets

Cute Fruit. Care of Allrecipes

  Here’s the link! http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/Make-a-Fruit-Bouquet/Detail.aspx

I just found this at the ever famous AllRecipes.com.  I guess I didn’t even realize you could make your own fruit bouquet.  Duh!  What appeals to me most about the idea is, I think it would encourage more kids and grownups to make at least one healthy choice. 

One of the rules I try desperately to enforce is if you’re feeling hungry, make sure you have some water and a healthy snack.  If your family is anything like mine, you know that easy is good.  If it involves getting out a dish, cutting something, and heating…oh my.  This is too much effort.  Heaven forbid we lived in the Colonial Days!  We’d be some skinny suckers.  So anything that is healthy and easy to grab and eat…I’m all about it.

My mom and I were kidding each other that this fruit bouquet would cost about a hundred bucks to make.  But why not sub out some of the fruit.  You could skewer on some angel food cake bites on the top.  Or, you could just cut the sticks shorter. 

Anyway, I just thought I’d share this fruit bouquet.  Cute for entertaining.  Healthy and quick for the kiddos…and mom.

Gooseberry Patch: Where I Met My Heroes

I’ve been jumping out of my skin to share this with everyone, and now is the time.  I met Jo Ann Martin & Vickie Hutchins, co-founders of Gooseberry Patch at the Country Living Fair this Summer in Columbus, OH!  (Did you hear me screaming?) Of course my camera weirded out, so my picture with them turned out purple, but thank Gooseberry, I got the autographs.  

See my autographed copy of Coming Home with Gooseberry Patch! BTW: Crustless Pumpkin Pie on Page 32 is the Bomb!  I have already made it three times since getting the cookbook this summer.

Proof that I was in the presence of my Heros!

The only picture that turned out well in the bunch. The line to get in!

  If you’ve read my blog, or know me at all, you have to know that I LOVE Gooseberry Patch.  I could get all weird and make a list of 100 reasons why, but I’ll keep it simple and try to keep myself from looking like too much of a fanatic. 

While Gooseberry Patch offers a mail order catalog that is too cute for words, I’m in LOVE with their cookbooks.  Why?  Because every recipe I have EVER made from their books (I have a few) has turned out great.  Each one is simple to make, and doesn’t take you to some crazy part of town searching for strange ingredients that you have to spend time learning to pronounce. 

 Last year, I received Cook’n with Gooseberry Patch.  What is this?  Cook’n is software that you load via CD onto your computer.  What does this software do?  Oh my, let me tell you.  There are a few pre-loaded Gooseberry Cookbooks from which you can hand click your recipes for the week.   Then print on your little ol’ menu for your family and boom,  you know what’s happening each day for meals.  BUT THAT’S NOT ALL…before you  print out the grocery list, you can take off the items you already have in your pantry.  Let me tell you, this has saved me loads of cash on my grocery trips, and even more mental energy in avoiding the whole “what’s for dinner?” conundrum.  Here’s the glorious part.  You can even enter your own recipes.  So say you wanted to cook your mom’s famous chilli one night.  No problem, enter it in one time (takes maybe 3 minutes tops) and click it over to Monday.  Dude, all the ingredients will be on your grocery list and you just go to the store, and its fabulous.  No more guesswork or freaking out.  Love that! DVO is the company that makes this software (another fabulous company) and they offer other recipe dowloads so you never run out of goodness in the kitchen.

Gooseberry Patch also offers calendars and the cutest gifts and kitchen/service ware you could ever want to see.  Be sure to check out the Gooseberry Patch website. when fulfilling that Christmas list because you can definitely pick up some unique items that will please both the recipient and your budget.  Gooseberry Patch carries items like the Hostess Twinkie Baking set.

Make your own twinkies! Yeehaw.

And remember my cake ball post?  Yeah, they have a pan for that. 

It’s always awesome to find a company you can feel good about supporting, and Gooseberry Patch is definitely one of those companies.  Women who are making it happen, and having a good time doing it.  Thanks Jo Ann and Vickie!

Halloween Party: The weekend agenda.

Ok, I have almost all of the ingredients I need for the Halloween Party Menu.  Today, I am going to make these cookies. 

Vampire Bites. What a cute & simple way to celebrate the night!

I found this cookie recipe on the Baking Bites blog.  Awesome resource for very dessert recipes, go check it out. 

I usually like to make sure I like the stuff I plan to serve at this shindig.  And yesterday I made a recipe that I found while looking up some cheap ideas for decorations.  This one is called Sliced Snakes & Veggies Over Maggots. 

Sliced Snake and Veggies over Maggots

It is INCREDIBLE.  I could eat this every day.  I was so pleased because the recipe is cheap and simple, and healthy.  What more can a girl ask for?   This Halloween party recipe is care of  The Ghostess.  While on the subject of the Ghostess, I have to say, her site is sooooo cool.  From what I can tell, she is a veteran at Halloween Parties.  AND she shares tips and tricks throughout her site.  Pictures galore can be found of everything from invites to decorations.  I really enjoyed perusing through her haunt and I hope you do too.  If not, you’re really missing out on a great resource. 

So this weekend will be full of baking, and after I have crossed off my baking list, I’ll make a plan for the rest of these ghoulish dishes. 

Oh, I am making those paper mache pumpkins, and so far, so good.  It’s actually kind of fun.  My kids want to help, so that’s a good sign. 

If you don’t have a lot of decorations yet.  Here are a couple of cheap items that can make big impact. 

1. Streamers
2. Table cloths (Dollar Tree, and they have a lot more stuff too)
3. Candy corn in glass containers (Dollar Tree has some cool glass containers)
4. Those pumpkin buckets you use for Trick or Treating (Walmart has neon versions for 94 cents).
5. You can always use Martha Stewart Templates to make something cool.
6. Old tools from the shed.
7. Spider web from dollar tree/walmart
8. Old sheets
9. White candles  (I like dripping the wax from a red crayon or candle over these to make them look bloody).
10. Make a scarecrow out of some old jeans and shirt stuffed with all those plastic bags you have hanging around.

Check back, this thing ain’t over by a long shot!

Halloween Party: Menu Part Two

Dessert Table

 

 

I told you I would share last year’s menu, and what I am planning to do with this year’s Halloween Party Menu, so here goes.

Last Year:

We did potluck with this caveat in mind.  People get sick, fired, forget…so while potluck is good, make sure you’re covered and let the potluck stuff be in addition to.

Menu:

Chicken Wings.  All I did was each week purchase a frozen bag of chicken wings at Walmart, if they were on sale, I bought two bags.  GFS usually has a good sale on these the week of Halloween.  The great thing about chicken wings is you can cook them like the day before, and then add your sauces in a crock pot or big pot on the stove the day of your Halloween Party.  I baked some on parchment according to package directions, (this way you can cook like two bags at a time).  AND I did some in the frydaddy while those were baking.  This is a hot process.  You will be hot, and so will your kitchen.  But for about $30 you can make 147 wings.  (A serving is generally considered three wings, but then there are guys and face it, hungry gals, so I’d kick it up to six and the skinny girls will make up the difference).  If you are buying these on bag at a time and throwing them in the freezer, by the end of October you’ll have a load of wings with budget in tact.   

Let’s just see how that works out for premade. Wingstreet from Pizza Hut is generous to give you 44 honey bbq wings for $26.99.  Hmmm, you can have 100 more doing it yourself AND you can customize flavors.  Just sayin’.

Ham N Fleas Sandwiches: That’s a live link to the exact recipe I used last year.  It’s on AllRecipes .com so the beautiful thing is you can plug in a guest number and the recipe ingredients adjust.  The recipe sounds very weird, but the sandwiches are grubalicious and cheap.  These sandwhiches are made on dinner rolls.  Again GFS has giant packages of rolls you can buy in advance and stick in your freezer. 

Beer Bread:Again, a live link.  I only made on loaf of this, and I made a flavored butter that all you do is sit the butter on the counter and ad  1/2 pkg of italian seasoning and a chopped clove of garlic.  This is a very hearty and filling recipe, and EASY to make, and CHEAP.  Love that.

Pumpkin Dip: This recipe is cheaper than cheap and VERY Good.  Warning, ginger snaps are not cheap.  Not at all.  You could sub out like graham crackers or something, or like I said, grab one on a trip to the grocery, for my purposes (80 guest) two bags will be plenty.  Very filling.  You could serve this in a cup or bowl placed inside a hollowed out pumpkin, very cute.  I called mine, GINGER SNAPPED DIP.

Dirt Pudding: This version is not the kind with the gummy worm on top.  This one boils down to; cream cheese, vanilla pudding, cool whip and crushed oreos.  All mixed together, so if you look on AllRecipes.com.  You can probably find something close.  Very good, very filling and makes a lot for cheap.  Serve in a glass container for an ugly, but dang good effect.

Queso:  Make your favorite recipe.  I use a block of velveeta, a jar of salsa, and a pound of taco meat.  Easy.  And chips. 

My neighbors and friends bring all sorts of goodies.  Beth brings meatballs, Wendy brought a pumpkin roll one year.  Roger brought his buffalo chicken dip, Sherry brought some pop and chips.  I live in an awesome neighborhood where everyone is so much fun, and with those kinds of friends, you just can’t go wrong.  Think of the people you love who will be attending your Halloween Party and remember anything that is their specialty, and let them show off their skills.

Beverages: A quick note, the first year I did this I ran out, so be sure you have plenty on hand.  Maybe that can be a potluck request, a 12 pk of pop or some 2 liters.  I just house this in a big ol’ bucket outside.  The garage can be a beautiful thing.  Less mess, and close to the house.  Utilize this place if possible.  This year I think I am going the punch route.  It’s cheap and serves a lot.  A generally speaking, people can’t overload on punch, unless they are itching for a stomach ache.

This Year’s Halloween Party Menu:

I’m sort of over the wings, and am thinking of shredded chicken sandwiches.  Gooseberry Coming Home has a fabulous recipe and it is CHEAP.  But more importantly it is soo good.  I’ll have some sauces and toppings to add. 

Ham and cheese sandwiches. Makes a lot for a little.

Dirt Pudding again. Easy and cheap

Queso and chips

I found an awesome cheese ball in my Gooseberry book, but you could do this with a premade one and it would be cute. Slice off the stem of a pumpkin, clean it up and stick it on top, and your cheese ball looks like a pumpkin. Too cute.

A couple of soups/chilli:I recently saw in a magazine soup served in styrofoam cups with little decorations added to the side.  I wonder how safe that is.  I guess if you can drink coffee out of one, maybe this would work?  Hmm.  Seems easy and convenient for sure.  But if you’re a little squeamish about styrofoam, I’d check out the safety on that.  Soup is cheap and goes far, and you can make ahead and freeze it.   And if you’re weather is dreary, might make the perfect addition to your party.

Sugar cookies.  I am going to do the cut out kind. Yeah, by now I have a lot of Halloween Cookie Cutters, but you could do like a rectangle and round off the top with a knife and do little tombstones.  Cute and easy.

My point here is that you can feed a lot of people without breaking the bank.  It just takes a little planning ahead.  SO go ahead and finalize your menu and write down the ingredients you’ll need for each recipe.  Next time you head to the store (keeping in mind if you plan on making things ahead of time, that you’ll have everything).  grab a few items off the list.  Each week, check to see how far you are, before you know it, you’ll have everything you need for a perfect Halloween Party Menu that is cheap, easy and crowd pleasing.

  

  

 

Project Halloween Party: The Menu- Part One

Just a small part of the spread.

I sat down this morning and quickly threw together a guest list for our Halloween Party.  This year there will be 80 people (invited).  Because this is the 3rd year for the Halloween Party, that isn’t scary.  The first year it was.  If you are planning your own Halloween Party this year, I hope you’ve been following along, if not just peek at the Halloween category at the right and jump right in.

Up to now, we have our handy dandy notebook with the pumpkin on the front.  And a page dedicated to our guests.  Who/How Many/Attending or Not.   And then we did a brainstorm of ideas.
Next week we’re going to really get the ball rolling as far as the details go.  Oh yes, the making and fun stuff is coming, but for now we need to be getting our ducks in a row, so we can stay on budget and stay sane.  So trust me, just follow along and you’ll be the better for it. 

Here’s what we want to do next:

Next Page in Halloween Party Planner: WRITE THE WORD MENU

Some thoughts and suggestions before I get into this any further.  It is NEVER cheaper to do the premade thing.  You will be so surprised how easy and cheap this is going to be.  BECAUSE we are going to just add a few of the ingredients that will be on our menu list to our grocery cart each week. 

Any Halloween Party recipes used should meet the following criteria (for the most part).

• Something(s) sweet.
• Something(s) savory.
• Drinks
• Can be made ahead of time (this is most definitely true if you’re attempting something more complex-try not to do that.)
• The less ingredients the better unless we’re talking spices.
• Tried and True is always good.  not the time to really experiment, unless you want to make a small batch of whatever for the fam first (always good testers, and tellers of truth).

 Just jot down a rough idea of what you’d like to serve as a main dish(es), a couple sides, and a couple desserts and snacky things.  Don’t forget beverages.  This list will change, but for now, it gives some idea.  Think simple, easy and cheap.

Think:

Double Duty Food!

Let’s face it.  Big companies pay big money to package their products in eye catching ways.  So let THEM pay.  For instance, Jones Soda.  The containers are great receptacles for plastic cutlery.  Let’s say we’re just doing the regular orange and black thing.  Start thinking pumpkins are orange.  licorice is black.  Candy corn fits the scheme.  Oranges fit, lollipops, orange Sunkist, chocolate can be dark and sinister.  Keeping in mind the color of the menu, we are basically decorating and feeding guests all at once!  Bonus!  I’ll get more into this, but it’s another one of those brainstorming things that will help you generate ideas while coming up with a menu.

 I’m sharing the start of my menu with you tomorrow, and I’ll let you in on what I did in the past too.  So if you’re stuck, never fear, I’ll let you know exactly what I did, and where to get the goods. 

My Favorite Entertaining Cookbooks & Why

If you’re like me, recipes and cookbooks are so fun to read, but often leave me with this feeling, “Yeah that’s nice, but I’m never going to make it, and I’m not spending the money on ingredients just to have it turn out badly and nobody eat it.”  When I am considering a party menu, I want my guest leaving with happy bellies.  Going to parties where the food is a half hearted effort does not accomplish this at all.  Well, I have found one very reliable source for cookbooks from one of the most charming companies on earth. 

Must Have Party Food Recipe Book

 No, I am not getting paid to say this.  I am speaking from experience.  There has never, not one time, been a party food recipe I’ve tried from these gals that has not delivered.  Gooseberry Patch offers realistic dishes that anyone can prepare, with ingredients that are found everywhere.  The most important thing is they all sooo good. 

My kids are finicky, and I mean finicky, and they have enjoyed (yeah, I said enjoyed) everything I’ve ever made from a Gooseberry Patch Cookbook.  The other great thing about Gooseberry Patch cookbooks are the entertaining tips.  Each recipe features a little simple and inexpensive tip for sprucing up your next party. 

Some of my favorite party recipes from Gooseberry are Overnight Asian Salad (who knew salad could be addictive), mint chocolate brownies, and twice baked potatoes.  The recipes and party ideas are so good that I have their calendar, several cookbooks, and a software product called Cookin’ with Gooseberry Patch.  This product has several cookbooks installed that allow you to choose a recipe (as well as  enter your own) and pick out your menu for the week, then  print your grocery list.  One such cookbook is 5 Ingredients or less.  How easy is that?

If you’ve never tried Gooseberry Patch before, you’re really missing out.  The company offers products that are very affordable.  The writing style is simple and easy to follow.  Pick up Get-Togethers with Gooseberry Patch or a Very Merry Christmas with Gooseberry Patch for some wonderful beginnings to what I am sure will prove to be a growing collection.  These cookbooks would also make fantastic gifts, and won’t cost an arm and a leg.  Next time you make a Goosberry recipe, let me know how it turns out so we can tell everyone which book it came from.

Now get Cookin!