Getting Creative With Bison

This month the Allrecipes Allstars program partnered with The Bison Council and I was lucky enough to receive 10 POUNDS of bison short ribs to play with! I'd never actually tried bison before this, and I was excited to have the opportunity. Half of the ribs I received were to be used in The Bison Council's recipe I signed on to make- Asian Bison Short Ribs. This dish is made in a slow cooker and takes very little effort. I served mine with cilantro basmati rice and tried it out when my in-laws were visiting a couple of weeks ago. We definitely enjoyed them, but the recipe itself wasn't out of this world. I knew I could do better!

Rainy Days Are For Brunch and Baking

A few Sundays ago we were treated to gray skies and rain so loud it drowned out the musicians as it pounded down on the roof of our church during that morning's service.  EEK!  So exciting.  Not to wish away the last of our warm weather but I am sooooo excited!!! 

I know I've mentioned my eager anticipation of Fall already a couple of times, but I'm really just so excited for the coziness of it all.  In fact, I already dyed my hair dark auburn instead of the the light auburn I tend to adopt in warmer months.

I'm ready.

So, I Have This Thing For Pineapple...

Really, I love it.  It's not quite the same fixation as I have with chicken salad, but still...oh baby.

I have been known to order a 5 topping pizza and request that 4 of those toppings be pineapple.

No joke.

I love it!

Click on the picture for the recipe!

When Life Gives You Apples

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I recently made my annual trip to our favorite apple farm in the mountains and came home with a whole bushel of apples.  Every year I find myself in the same predicament, trying to figure out what to do with them.  I don't own a pressure canner (though I plan on buying one soon!), so I can't can apple sauce and apple butter.  I make a great deal of applesauce for my son and freeze it in cubes so it's ready to go when I feed him or want to cook with it...but a bushel is a lot of apples :-)

This is the time of year when I start combing through saved recipes looking for anything even remotely apple-related.  Apple muffins, cakes, bars, pies...anything to use up the bounty on my counter.  

Click to see my recipe on Allrecipes.com!

I had to drop by my husband's office yesterday afternoon and I thought I'd make something sweet for his co-workers.  I remembered this recipe I pinned on Pinterest from Amy at "Oh, Bite It!" quite a while ago and thought I'd give it a try.  I have to give her complete credit for her fantastic idea!

The Two Bread Recipes You Should Never Lose

I'm not sure when my love affair with bread-baking began, exactly, but I think it was around the beginning of middle school.  Weird hobby for a kid, right?  I remember one Summer when I literally baked bread almost every day, just because.  When my grandmother spent a week in the hospital before passing away, for some reason I decided to send loaves of sweet, yeasty bread with my family each day as they sat at her bedside.

Baking bread is cathartic for me, I think.

Click on the picture for this fabulous recipe!

There's something magical about the transformation of it all.  Such plain ingredients turn into carb-laden goodness that makes the house smell amazing and induces happy smiles from those who taste it.  

The yeasty goodness of it all :-)

Cooler Weather and Turkey for Breakfast

Saturday morning the sky was gray and the air held just the slightest hint of the the crisp Fall weather to come..  :-) I woke up to a smiling husband, still-sleeping children, and awesome in-laws visiting from out of state.

My mission: Smoked Sausage Frittata.

Click on the picture to find the recipe at Allrecipes.com

My in-laws were willing guinea pigs in my Butterball® adventures during their visit, and it seemed like the perfect morning to try out a new recipe on them- so what if it wasn't Tuesday?  ;-)

This is an incredibly easy recipe.  Between the mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil this already had me salivating- I'm a sucker for caprese.  Add in the smoked turkey sausage that I raved about in my last post, and I was in heaven.

Thanksgiving Doesn't Have to Come Only Once a Year

Holiday meals are awesome, right?  In that loosen-your-belt-buckle comforting kind of way.  Why is it that we only think to make these awesome dishes a couple of times a year?  Turkey isn't bad for us and is relatively easy to prepare.  Mashed potatoes are delicious.  And honestly, if you don't like cranberry sauce I'm not sure we can be friends.

Ok, we can...but still...*sigh* boy are you missing out.  Not that jelly stuff, though that will do in a pinch...real, delicious, cranberry sauce.

Can the Allstars program partner with Ocean Spray one of these days?  I could be their poster girl.  Seriously.

Anyway, once again I've gone off topic just a tad :-)

My in-laws flew in from Dallas yesterday, and I thought this family time was the perfect time to try out Butterball®'s Maple Basted Roast Turkey with Cranberry Pan Gravy.

Busy Nights and Sausage Macaroni

Tuesday night was crazy- I take that back, Tuesday itself was crazy.

For a SAHM I stay pretty busy, and Tuesday was busier than usual.  Between Little Man's speech therapy, a promise to walk a few miles with my friend, LM's appointment with the Early Interventionist that visits our home to work with him, getting my daughter's homework done, tons of housework to do, and a Girl Scouts event in the evening, there was pretty much no extra time to do anything during the day- much less prepare dinner for the family.

Click on the picture to find this recipe at Allrecipes.com!

As an Allrecipes Allstar, I committed to "Turkey Tuesdays" during the month of September.  All I have to do is prepare a meal using turkey each Tuesday this month.  Pretty simple, right?  Especially since they provided me with the turkey products to try out.

That being said, this Tuesday I almost threw my hands in the air and told my husband to grab fast food on the way home from work.

How to Clean Your Home for Next to Nothing

A little over two years ago, I became a stay at home mom.  The name really belies the job requirements, as I am really running all over the place most days, but I digress.

As we transitioned from two incomes to one, I really dove right in to the world of being cheap.

Cheap as in frugal that is :-)

I learned couponing!  Oooh, that's a post for another day, but I love my coupons.

Not in a crazy couponer way...but in a saving-tons-of-money-on-things-I-would-buy-anyway kind of way.

I searched the internet for things to do in our community that were free or low cost as a family.

I planted a garden.

On top of all of that, I started researching ways to clean my home and laundry without spending money on cleaners and detergents.  I haven't looked back!

For over two years now I've made my own laundry detergent, fabric softener, static-reducing dryer balls, glass cleaner, stain remover, shower cleaner, wood polish, carpet steamer solution, and floor cleaner.

For the Love of Chicken Salad

I have a little bit of an addiction, and it's an odd one.

Chicken salad.

I didn't grow up with chicken salad- the first time I remember even trying it was on an Arby's sandwich when I was in the Air Force stationed in Mississippi in my early 20's.  It really was love at first bite :-)

It was many years before I tried to make chicken salad on my own, but now that I've started I just can't stop.  I crave it!  If there isn't a bowl in the fridge for me to dip into when I get the craving, it's time to make another batch!

It's become a bit of an obsession, really.  It's great on sandwiches, of course, but it's also great on a bed of lettuce, or, ahem...straight out of the bowl.