Fried Banana Peppers

Want a quick, tasty appetizer to serve at your next get together?  Try fried banana peppers!  Apart from the delicious, crunchy, vinegary bite...they take only about 5-10 minutes per batch!
Ingredients:

• Canola/vegetable oil
• Jar of banana peppers
• Salt/seasoning salt
• Flour

Mix flour and seasoning salt together in a bowl.  Add the banana peppers (get them out of the jar with a fork so you don't get a ton of juice in the flour) and coat them with the flour.

In a small skillet, add a shallow amount of oil and crank the heat to medium-high.  When the oil starts to ripple, it's probably ready.  To check, put a few sprinkles of flour in the oil and if it sizzles, it's ready.  DO NOT ADD WATER -- it could pop and spatter all over and potentially be very dangerous if you do.

Put a few banana peppers in the oil and watch them very closely.  Do not leave these unattended.  Flip them over every so often until they are golden brown.

When they are golden brown, fish them out of the oil with a fork (or a spider strainer) and place them on a paper towel lined plate.  Sprinkle with a pinch of salt for taste.  Serve alone or with a dipping sauce.  These are sure to please!

Ornaments

Well I've been quite absent from here since I was so busy with the holidays...sorry!  Anyways, I'm back now to let you in on my ornaments I did this year.  See, I've kind of made it "my thing" to do ornaments each year for friends and family.  It can be a super simple, easy gift.  This year, I tried a clay-ish dough ornament and then painted them.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup of baking soda
• 3/4 cup water

Mix the ingredients together in a sauce pan (it will look like milk) and stir constantly with the burner on medium heat.

Stir until it comes together into a ball of dough.

Put the hot dough into a mixing bowl and cover with a damp towel to cool.

When the dough is cool, put cornstarch on the counter and plop the dough out.  Knead it a bit (like bread dough) and roll out with a rolling pin about 1/4 of an inch thick.

Use cookie cutters to cut out your ornament shapes (or freehand with a knife!)  You can also use your scraps of dough again...just knead together, re-roll, and cut out more shapes.  You will also need to punch a hole out of the top (so they can hang from the tree).  You can use a straw...or improvise like I had to do and use the tip of a pen!

Place the cutouts on a parchment paper lined baking sheet or stone.

Bake them for one hour at 175 degrees.  30 Minutes in, turn them over.

Once your ornaments are cooled, you can leave them as is...or...you can paint them!  This is just basic acrylic paint (usually on sale for less than a dollar a bottle).  And...maybe don't paint on the couch -- lol.

Here's what my Christmas tree and ginger bread man looked like!

When you're finished painting them, go over them with a clear gloss.

Once dry, add a cute ribbon or ornament hooks.

Christmas Wreath

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.  I love everything about it, especially decorating.  This year, I decided to make my own wreath.  It was a whole lot easier than I thought it would be.  Here's what you'll need:

• Wire wreath (you can get a foam piece of tubing from a home improvement store as well)
• 9-12 ft. of garland
• Ribbon
• Decorative accents

I bought some small decorative red branches and miniature ornaments that had wire attached so you could wrap the wire around anything...I also bought the red ribbon above but changed it out later on.

Wrap the garland around the wreath.  If you have a wire one like I do, weave it through in a few spots to secure it.  Fluff out the garland as well if you find you are having gaps while wrapping it around.

Then, I tucked in the red branches in various spots.

Add the mini ornaments...I used the wire to wrap them around the garland to secure them even more.

Take wide ribbon and make a bow (I literally messed around with this  until I got big loops and it didn't become untied).  Attach it to the top, hang on a wreath hanger or suction cup and you've got yourself a homemade wreath!

You can make your wreath as small or large as you want/need.  You can also add whatever decorations to the wreath that you like.  It's almost like the wreath is a blank canvas, so let your creativity flow!

Taco Soup

I would like to share a wonderful recipe that my boyfriend and I cook often.  It's from his mom (she's such a good cook)!  It's taco soup, cheap to make, and super simple!  Here's what you will need:

• ground beef
• beef broth
• kidney beans
• navy beans (or any other beans you wish to use!)
• white corn (you can use yellow)
• diced tomatoes
• taco seasoning
• ranch seasoning

Brown the ground beef

Add all canned ingredients...drain all liquids first, but reserve the second can of tomatoes to see if you need more liquid (if doubling the recipe)...crank the heat so it can start getting warm

Drain ground beef and add taco seasoning and water (cook like you are having tacos)

Add the ranch seasoning to the soup...

Add the taco meat...

Viola!  Taco soup!

Serve as is, with cheese, sour cream, or anything else your heart desires!

You can make the recipe as small or large as you wish.  I did two cans of everything (except just one can of kidney beans).  You can serve right away, or even let it cool down and freeze a batch for later.  This is a great go-to meal, so I hope y'all enjoy it!

Cookies!

Well, I've had a crazy week to say the least!  Monday after working all day I babysat, and then I stayed up making sugar cookie dough...note to self, room temperature butter makes for easier mixing!  Moving on to Tuesday...I got dinner with one of my best friends from elementary school!  Then...my night of baking began.  We were decorating the Christmas tree in the office today, so some people also brought in cookies for everyone to enjoy.  I was thrilled to say the least because I have wanted to try my hand at homemade cookies.

So...I started my oven at 375 degrees.  Luckily, both recipes called for the same baking temperature.  Let's start with lace cookies.  These little gems are so delicious!  My boyfriend's mom makes THE BEST ones ever, but I figured I would try to make them!  It's really simple too...

• Flour
• Sugar
• Melted butter
• Quick cook oats
• Light corn syrup
• Baking powder
• Vanilla

Mix the ingredients together...

Scoop a heaping tablespoon of the mixture onto a baking stone and bake in 5-10 minute increments checking often...don't they look yummy?!?!

This is the homemade sugar cookie dough...it had been wrapped up and chilled overnight...roll it out about 1/4 inch thick...

Cut out the shapes you want...I used an ornament, gingerbread man, and Christmas tree

Bake on a baking stone in 5-10 minute increments checking often until they are slightly golden brown

Finished product!  I decorated the sugar cookies with royal icing (powdered sugar, meringue powder, vanilla, and water).  I got the colors by buying some nifty edible colored gel at the craft store.

And there you have it...my night of baking was tiring (I went to bed at 1am) but so very fun!  Just call me Betty Crocker!

There's a First for Everything

I have to say, Pinterest is quite an amazing resource for everything from food to crafts and even ideas for the home.  One of the great things I have come across though are links to blogs.  I really enjoy reading various blogs and seeing what thoughts, ideas and inspirations people share with the world; but, I got to thinking...why can't I blog?  Since I'm out of college now, I find I have a lot of time on my hands when I get off work since I don't have to "study" or do "homework" anymore (yipee!)  And, I've always kept myself entertained with crafts, food, and baking...so why not share those passions with everyone?  Anyways, I'm looking forward to starting this blog and sharing with the world!