A quick, tasty way to make some barbecue pork chops that will soon become a favorite in your house.
This recipe was given to me while I was working (years ago) and I have finally gotten around to trying it!
The boys stated that this one must be made again, it was that good.


* Exported from MasterCook *

BBQ Pork Chops

Serving Size : 6
Categories: Main Meal

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
6 pork chops -- extra lean
8 ounces potato chips -- bbq flavored - I like to use Pringles.
1/4 cup Bisquick® baking mix - can use reduced fat
Pam
2 tablespoon Barbecue sauce

• Place the potoato chips in a Ziploc bag and then use a rolling pin to crush the chips.
• Mix the crushed potato chips and Bisquick in a shallow dish.
• Break egg in a shallow dish.
• Place pork chops in egg, dip in Bisquick mix and then a greased baking pan. Place the barbecue sauce over top each of the pork chops.
• Place in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes.
• **You can add the the barbecue sauce to the egg and dip the pork chops into that mixture.

Yield:
"6 "
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Serving Ideas:
green beans
mashed potatoes
salad

Best of luck to Mats Sundin he is retiring after roughly twenty years in the NHL.
Can you imagine being able to play that long in hockey?
When I read the news today, it made me think of this funny Nike commercial.

Thanks for the memories Mr. Sundin!

Mr. Bacon's Big Adventure Board Game is a perfect gift for that special someone who just can't get enough bacon in their lives.

Grab your friends and bacon then find out if you can make it to the pan safely.

Get your Mr. Bacon's Big Adventure Board Game here.

This is the recipe for the strawberry cake that was made for my birthday.


I have to say that it was really bursting with strawberry flavor and was very, very good.
There is nothing like a wonderful cream cheese frosting for a cake.

mmm...
There was more than enough frosting and of course one just has to lick a portion of the bowl.

Recipe from Taste of the South

* Exported from MasterCook *
Strawberry Preserve Cake

Recipe By: Taste of the South
Serving Size : 14
Categories : Desserts

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup butter -- softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup strawberry preserves
4 large egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
red food coloring

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Line the bottoms of 2 (9 inch) cake pans with parchment paper.
2. Lightly coat each pan with baking spray; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, slat and baking soda together; set aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed with an electric mixer for approximately 4 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add preserves and then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down sides of bowl and add vanilla extract and enough food coloring to achieve desired color.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture, alternately with buttermilk, ending with flour mixture. Divide batter equally between prepared pans and spread evenly.
6. Bake on the middle rack of oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
7. Use the Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing to frost.

Yield:
"14 "
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving: 308 Calories; 12g Fat (33.2% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 48g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 87mg Cholesterol; 340mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 2 Fat; 2 Other Carbohydrates.

Serving Ideas: Fresh strawberries to garnish

NOTES: Easy cake to make.
Cake is just bursting with strawberry flavor.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

Recipe By: Taste of the South
Categories : Desserts

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
8 ounces cream cheese -- softened
1 cup unsalted butter -- softened
1/4 cup strawberry preserves
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 pinch salt

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter at medium-high speed with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes, or until smooth.
2. Add strawberry preserves and vanilla, beating until well combined.
3. Add confectioners sugar and salt, beating until smooth.
4. Decorate Strawberry cake

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Serving Ideas: Fresh strawberries to garnish

NOTES: Pinch of salt helps bring out the strawberry flavor.

I picked up a London broil last week and wanted to make it in the crock pot.
Not too sure how to make it, I just with what we had in the house.
I cooked the meat for around 7 hours on low then 1 hour on warm.
The meat was so nice and tender.
I added some corn starch to the soup mix to make gravy to use over top some rice I made to go with the meat.

I did have a photo to put up but it seems to have gone poof!
Rats!

It was a wonderful meal that we all enjoyed and had enough left over to make beef and noodles a few days later.

Ingredients:
London Broil - I cut it in half and placed it in the crock pot
2 cans Cream Mushroom Soup - sea salt version
1 can of button mushrooms
a few shakes of garlic powder
a few shakes of onion powder
1 tablespoon water

Cook on low for around 8 hrs and enjoy!

Happy Birthday to me.

I share with you my excellent strawberry cake that was made from scratch and had cream cheese frosting.
*drool*
It was a nice day; I'm tired so I will post the recipe for the cake tomorrow.

Simply Fun!
My new iPhone.
There is even a soap app from Bramble Berry; I think I know what is in my future!
Anyone have an app they want to recommend?

As long as I can remember I have always loved adored blue cheese.
My grandfather was the one who had me eating it at a very young age - four I think.
He would crumble up some in my hand; I would pop it in my mouth and enjoy the wonderful flavors that would tickle my taste buds.
It was always a wonderful treat we shared together and my grandmother would always wonder what we were up to in the kitchen. :-)
You can bet that my favorite salad dressing is blue cheese and that every once in a while I will purchase some and nibble on it.
One thing we enjoy doing is place about a tablespoonful in the center of ground beef and then shape into a hamburger.
O.M.G.
If you have never tried it, wanted to but never gotten around to it or never heard of it, you have to give it a try!!
Blue cheese is not as bad as you think, really!

One of the local chains here is now carrying Turkey Hill Ice Cream.
I now have two totally happy ice cream eating machine boys happy!
This is what they eat when we are back in Pa and for years they have asked when we would be able to buy it.
They no longer have to wait and of course we had to purchase vanilla and chocolate.
That yummy creamy goodness will now be a permanent fixture in our freezer.

blogging..

This year we are doing a virtual school with both boys and let me tell you we are hopping from 8 to around 4 every day.
Throw in daily life items (cooking, cleaning, laundry, and groceries), yard work, and anything else that may pop up along the way and bam! you have one filled day.
Once we are done with dinner I get ready for the next day and try to unwind.
Seriously, I am slipping in the blogging department.
I miss it.
This is one of my outlets that I really enjoy and have missed over the past few weeks.
I'm trying to get items done in phases and it seems that I am slowly getting some time open up in the day.
Woo-Hoo!
Work with me and before long I should be back into the swing of things.
Well, I sure hope so.
I have a recipe coming up later in the week and will be looking at some new ones to give a whirl.
Seriously, it is pretty bad when I don't even look at the new cooking magazines when they arrive.
:-/
Learning curve, right?

I will admit that I am one of the many that plays FarmVille and Farm Town on Facebook.
I'm not sure what was going on with my farm last night on FarmVille besides the fact it was beginning to drive me insane.
Really, I was one crazy woman over it.
You see I had artichokes and eggplants that were ready to harvest.
Fine.
Get the harvester which makes harvesting easy, then my pink tractor for plowing and last I plant some sees.
Crud.
Out of sink with the server, so it puts me back to square one.
Repeat steps one, two and three, then decide to harvest my trees..
Sweet, done and I move on with my night or so I thought.
DH goes in to help my farm and tells me I have eggplants and artichokes to harvest.
huh?
You have to be kidding me, log back in, and whoa! there is my farm needing to be harvested.
*sigh*
Repeat yet again the harvesting of my veggies and trees there will be no planting.
I've done that twice already and will not be doing that again.
Hold my breath (not too long) click into a different game and then go back to my farm.
Aargh!!!
Nothing has been done, zip, zilch, zero, nothing.
All of the plants are sitting there waiting to be harvested and my trees are full of fruit.
Fine!
One last time and that will be it.
Complete, wait a few minutes this time, click out of game then back in and ....
You got it, the veggies were there just looking at me.
This whole situation reminded me of Groundhog Day the movie.
I was not reliving the day, I was reliving having to harvest over and over and over again.
My plants were not harvested, with my luck they will be dead in the am and out the money.
Ah, the life of a modern day computer farmer.

There are times when I like to take a plain milk chocolate bar and then add a huge small spoonful of peanut butter to the top.
Mmm.... so good.
I know you're probably telling me to just simply go out and buy a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
(Which just so happens to be my all time favorite chocolate candy.)
Trust me on this one, when you are really desperate for two of your favorite flavors you will mix them together if you have the separate ingredients in the house.
DH noticed what I was eating last weekend and reminded me of the old Reese's commercials.
Ha! I had totally forgotten about those commercials they were great.
Enjoy....

Here is one of those classic commercials for Reese's.

I am a big Plurk fan but have linked my account with a Twitter account so really I am on both.
Now, I heard that more major companies are watching Twitter for customer service issues.
Which had me pondering should I post on Twitter an issue that needed to be resolved or keep calling customer service and getting a run around?
Eh, what could it hurt by posting?
Post I did and within two minutes I had contact!
Quite impressive to say the least and then a phone call shortly there after.
With some luck the issue will be resolved (crossing fingers and toes) and I shall be a happy camper.
I will keep you posted and let you know how it all turns out. :)

I have learned to eat raisins at my young ripe age of $!.
You might be thinking but they are wonderful, how could you not like them?
Honestly, as long as I can remember I would never eat them.
My mom would place that tiny red box in my lunch in grade school. *shudder*
The first thing I would be to trade them or simply give them away.
My DH loves oatmeal, raisin cookies and I do make them every so often for him.
Notice I state for him, I would never touch them (unless I was really desperate for something sweet and could not find anything else) because they have raisins.
What came over me?
Um... I really don't know.
Last month, I opened a bag of raisins, ate a few (like 6) and decided they were fine.
A week later, I then ate a small handful and it was not that bad at all.
I went on to eating a tiny box, ate them all in one sitting and I liked them.
Yeah, really I did eat them all in one sitting and like them.
I have since begun to eat about a tiny box every other day and I really do like them!
Who knew that I would end up eating raisins all these years later?
Not me, that is for sure.

Goody's

We started using Goody's when we moved here twelve years ago, it's a Southern thing.
Why do I say that?
Honestly, I have not found this any place else in but the southern United States.
One little packet with a glass of water and poof!
Aches, pains, headaches and sinus headaches gone within twenty minutes.
This stuff is like gold, really it is.
We have convinced various family members to try it when they have been visiting us and all they can ask is, " Where can I get some?"
What makes it so good is a mixture of asprin, caffeine, and acetaminophen.
The best part is that they now make it in a cool orange flavor which is hands down better tasting than the original.

I wub my Goody's.

yeah, I used a packet today which is where I got my inspiration for the post. ;->

With the boys doing online schooling this year, things run a bit different than they used to in the house.
One of the most important items is dinner time; we have been adjusting it so that I can still make meals that are filling and taste really good.
I had some bone-in chicken breasts in the freezer and honestly I did not feel like cooking last Thursday so I decided it was the perfect crock pot day.
I just used what was in the house that ended up creating a tasty chicken dinner.

4 bone-in chicken breasts
1 low fat can of cream of chicken soup
1 package of Italian salad dressing mix
add 1/4 cup of water ( you can add a bit more if you would like)

Cook on low for 8 hrs

Be very careful of bones that may have come loose while cooking.
Right before you serve, mix in 1/4 cup of shredded cheese into the soup mixture.

Boil egg noodles or rice to serve with the chicken and sauce.

Simple and easy.

This recipe calls for just a few simple items and creates a light, wonderful tasting apple treat.
I crushed the almonds instead of slicing them but it did not change the taste one little bit. :)
Great for a quick morning breakfast or even as a dessert really you can't go wrong with this cake.

The recipe was found here.


* Exported from MasterCook *

Buttermilk-Apple Coffee Cake


Serving Size: 8
Categories : Breakfast

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced apples -- granny smith
3 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons butter -- softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
cooking spray
2 tablespoons sliced almonds

1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon low fat buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cake:

Combine the first four ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook 5 minutes or until syrupy, stirring frequently; cool.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Combine granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended; add egg and extracts, beating well. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with buttermilk; mix well after each addition.

Spoon the batter into an 8-inch round cake pan coated with cooking spray. Arrange apple mixture over cake. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Glaze:

Combine powdered sugar, 1 tsp of buttermilk and 1/4 tsp of vanilla in a small bowl; stir with a whisk. Drizzle glaze over cake. Serve either warm or cold.

Source:
"Cooking Light"
Copyright:
"2001"
Yield:
"8 servings"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Serving Ideas:

• Excellent with a nice cold glass of milk.

NOTES:

• Simple, easy and tastes wonderful!

Earlier this week my parents had to help their dog over the Rainbow Bridge, it was quite heartbreaking.
Sasha was thirteen (they got her when Nate was born) and they were fun filled thirteen years. :D
I can still remember the first time they brought her and she met Nate.
Nate ran around with Sasha right at his heels, and when he fell down she smothered him with kisses.
The giggles that erupted from him were so wonderful.
She was so gentle and kind with children.
Sasha was my dad's best buddy, she was so calm when he came home from the hospital in February and followed him all over their property.
I always laughed because she looked for her new squeaky toy when they came home from grocery shopping and was never disappointed.
(She had a massive basket full of them.)
*heavy sigh*
She was a great little fuzzy friend that will be greatly missed.
R.I.P Sasha

Back to school + fall = apples
So, why not take a quiz and find out what kind of apple you are?

This fun little quiz makes reference to Jamie Oliver who is an excellent British chef.
(I love to watch his shows.)

Anywho, take the quiz, get your results and share them with me.

APPLE QUIZ

I am apparently a Royal Gala-which happens to be one of my favorites to eat.
Who knew?

Yahoo!
I have my MasterCook back on my computer.
*skips around the room*
Not sure if you noticed or not but when I posted the recipes there was no nutritional information.
That was due to my error when moving my pictures off my computer to a portable hard drive last month.
I was feeling really great because I figured out by myself on how to move the pictures then remove them off my computer.
The only issue was that some how in my moment of feeling wonderful I accidentally removed my MasterCook program.
D'oh!
Computers and I are not the best of friends from time to time as it turned out that day.
*sigh*
This past week my DH found my back up of my old computer which held the copy of the software.
(Yes, I did thank him and made his favorite cookies.)
We are back in action (minus any recipes I placed in the software before we backed it up) and the recipes again will show the nutritional information.
Ahh..this is great news.

Oh! If you would like to order MasterCook check out Amazon.com.

A few weeks back DH bought these chocolates for me to try and review because he knows that I like to do chocolate reviews. :D

I needed a chocolate fix pretty bad this past week so I raided my emergency chocolate drawer and pulled out these Minstrels made by Galaxy. I did find out that Galaxy is made by the Mars Company in the UK and the chocolate is sold in parts of Europe.

The first thing I noticed once I opened the bag was how big they were. I popped the first chocoalte in and noticed that the shell was quite hard. It was much harder what you would find on an M&M. Then there was the taste of the chocolate it had a definite sweet milk taste to the chocolate but there was a slight flavor that reminded me of I dunno something.
Hmm..
I needed to ponder this and of course taste another.
Definitely the candy had a harder shell than I like.
The chocolate was sweet but there was simply something about the taste that kept throwing me off.
Personally, I could not eat a lot of these at once and would not go out of my way purchase them.
I seem to be the odd one out with this candy.
Why?
See for yourself.
Candy Blog Review and Chocablog Review

Perhaps I will pick up another bag and give them another chance.
I'm game.
You can pick these up at UK Goods or do a search for them for other online stores.

Have you ever had a week were you were thrilled when it was finally over?
Yeah, see I knew you had.
I have to admit that I am thrilled that this past week is over.
*exhales a heavy sigh*
You see I was to have surgery on the 29th of this month.
(post is here)
This is now not going to happen due to a request from the Dr's office for money up front due to the fact we have not met our deductible. (Let me just say that it is a nice chunk of change.)
Huh?
We have never had this issue with any other doctor and trust me between dh and I we have had our fair share of surgeries.
They then went on to pressure the second Dr's office to be on board with their billing practices.
We have talked to our insurance co. and they stated that yes, it can really happen because they (Dr's office) want to guarantee they get paid and for us to find a new doctor.
Has anyone else ever had this happen?
I would really like to hear from you if it has. Leave a msg or email me..(my email is on the side bar over there. --->

Needless to say I have been crabby and in tears all week.
I was finally going to get on with my life in certain aspects; now I need to find a new Dr. and start from ground one.

Joy...

I am taking some down time this weekend by reading, baking and not really thinking about anything.
Thank goodness.

The past two days I have been battling those little tiny sugar ants in the kitchen.
I thought I had found their source, some of Nate's peppermint candy.
The candy removed, cabinets scrubbed down, and all was looking up.
That was until I flipped the kitchen light last night and there they were walking all around.
They were just streaming all over the cabinet, counter top and sink.
Argh!
Clean up the ants, spray some areas, cross fingers that this does it and off to bed I go.
Nothing in the morning but by dinner time you got it they were back.
All that kept going through my head was the song The Ants Go Marching.
No more Mrs. Nice Mom... I brought out the heavy bug spray.
I hit every spot I could find inside and out to make sure they would not be back.
It's been 6 hours and counting without a sign of an ant.
*crosses fingers*

Just like that it is September and our nights are turning cooler.
I love this time of year, there is nothing like fall at all!
Our days are still warm (80's) but the nights drop into the low 60's.
This means wonderful cooler sleeping weather.
How relaxing!
Best of all, we can finally throw open the windows and turn off the AC.
Ahhh...
:D