Welcome to this week’s Works for Me Wednesday here at Little Jack’s Corner!

Ok, I’ve been making sweet tea the same way - like my mom - for years now.  The process from start to finish isn’t that long, maybe an hour from bag to fridge, but for a lazy cook like myself I wanted to find a way to shorten even that!

And the other week, I did.  I don’t remember where I actually saw the recipe, but it goes like this:

1. Pour 1 and a half cups of sugar in a gallon pitcher. 
2. Fill said pitcher up with very hot tap water while stirring to dissolve the sugar.
3. Take out 6 regular size tea bags (or 3 family size) and twist the string together.
4. Set the tea bags in the pitcher.
5. Cover pitcher and set in fridge.
6. Get thirsty a few hours later, head to fridge, pour a tall glass and enjoy!

You’ll want to remove and throw away the tea bags a few hours later, but otherwise nothing else needs to be done.  I am amazed at how great this tastes!  It’s just as good, if not better, tasting than my original recipe which was always a chore for me (remember, I’m a lazy cook!).

If you have issues with drinking hot tap water, you can always boil the water first to heat it up, but otherwise the recipe stays the same.

And that’s what Works for Me!

I also did a works for me wednesday at my other blog, www.HomeschoolFever.com in which I told how to convert MS Word documents to PDF documents for free.  Why not head over and check it out?

(Voiced by 5 month old Jack-Evan, Typed by Mommy)

…testing…testing…Hello?  Is this thing on?

Yes?  …ok.. Hello, Jack-Evan here, reporting from the pumpkin patch.
Today I am going to show you how to make toasted pumpkin seeds.

The first thing you need to make pumpkin seeds is, well, a pumpkin.
If you are not allowed to handle knives, you’ll also need a mommy.

Then, you will be removing the top to reveal the yummy seeds inside.

Reach your hand inside, and begin scooping them out.

(See?  Isn’t it easy so far?)

Or you may simply choose to remove them through the pumpkin’s nose.
(Although I wouldn’t recommend it)

After your pumpkin is empty….

….your bowl will be full.

You will then need to separate the seeds from the stringy flesh.
Put the flesh in the ‘fridge, and leave the seeds out.
(Don’t bother rinsing them.  You want this to be easy.)

Melt some butter in the microwave, and pour it on the seeds.
Use your hands to mix up the seeds so they all get coated with yummy butter.

Assemble your seasonings of choice.
Mommy makes 3 different coatings using salt, garlic, and cinnamon-sugar.

Sprinkle some salt on your pan.

Spread your seeds out in a flat layer on your pan(s).
Mommy seasoned the top pan with salt, and split the second pan
between the garlic and sugar seasonings.

Heat your oven to 275F. 

Place your seasoned seeds in the oven.
(Don’t forget to close the door)

Set the timer for an hour, and press start.

Go have yourself a snack of something orange in celebration of the fall.
In your excitement, though, please do not eat the raw pumpkin flesh.
Smooshed Carrots will work just fine.

When your timer dings, remove your toasted seeds and let them cool down

Store in baggies, and label them so your tastebuds will know what to expect.

….and that’s how you make toasted pumpkin seeds.

The End.

—————————

THIS POST IS IN LOVING MEMORY OF

Mrs. Momma Pumpkin

To us, she gave her all….

I don’t know about you, but I love yogurt!  I’m not a big fan of plain yogurt, but I do adore any kind of flavored yogurt dessert or drink.

However, I rarely buy the big tubs of yogurt at the store, because they tend to go bad before I remember to eat it all - and then when I buy 4 or 5 of the 50 cent fruit variety (such as Dannon or whoever), I eat them so quickly, I feel guilty because of the money seems wasted on such a small dessert. Also, I never cook with yogurt because when something (like bread) calls for 1-2 cups of yogurt, and yogurt costs $1 - $2 at the store, it makes the “homemade” part of it more expensive than the store bought counterpart!

Now…I’ve discovered a way to have yogurt til’ my heart’s content.  Yesterday, while browsing www.RecipeZaar.com, I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade yogurt.  It had never occured to me that making yogurt at home might be easy to do!  The only thing you need is some milk and yogurt starter.  Now, yogurt starter is anything with live active yogurt cultures in it - preferably a tub of plain yogurt from the store.  I had powdered milk to use, but no yogurt….so, Kevin headed out to do a quick store run for me (what a nice hubby he is!). 

Kevin bought the only plain yogurt he could find at our local grocery store, Food Lion. It’s Dannon brand. And, it has live, active yogurt cultures in it….

Once you have your main ingredients - this is how much you need of them:

2 Quarts of milk
1/2 cup of yogurt (I used 1/2, but you can use less…the recipe calls for 1/3-1/4)

I used powdered non-fat milk, because that’s usually the only milk I keep on hand at all times. The ratio of water to milk that I use is 3 parts water to 1 part milk (3:1). In other words, I fill whatever container I’m using 1/3 of the way with powdered milk and then fill it up the rest of the way with cold water.

Setting your yogurt aside, pour your milk into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Be very careful though, because milk will scorch easily. I used medium heat and (almost) constantly stirred it with a whisk. It never did fully bubble, but I think the main point is to get the milk up to a high temperature.

After heating your milk, pour into a pitcher or bowl and let it cool to 120 F. I didn’t have a thermometer to test it, but other yogurt making advice I read says that this means “cool to where you can’t feel the bite of the hotness”. I just let mine cool down while sitting on the table during dinner, and a while afterwards - about an hour I think. The recipe also says to pour it in a glass or pyrex bowl, but I used a plastic pitcher because that was all I had. I’m not sure if it calls for glass for health reasons or something - but I can say that mine worked perfectly fine in my 2 quart plastic pitcher.

After your milk has cooled down to about 120 F, slowly pour in your half cup of yogurt and stir. Then wrap the container in a towel, all around (top and bottom) so that heat stays even throughout. Place it in an area where it will not be disturbed and let it sit for 4-6 hours. I placed mine in our pantry.

When the time is up, remove the towel and place the container in the refrigerator for at least 8 more hours. Be careful not to shake or jiggle it, as this will prevent the yogurt from “setting” up correctly. You may notice some yellowish liquid at the top. This is called the “whey” and is perfectly fine. Leave it alone for now.

I left our’s in the refridgerator for 12 hours before checking on it today. And when I did….It was perfect! I can’t believe how easy it was to make the yogurt.

Now I have a huge 2 quart jug of homemade yogurt.  The yellowish liquid throughout, and collected on top, is the whey.  Whey is a good health food substance that can be used in a variety of other old fashioned and modern recipes (such as protein drinks). 

I just poured it off the top as much as I could into a tupperware container, then I labled it and set it in the fridge.

Here is my fresh, homemade yogurt ready to eat!   I added some vanilla extract to my hubby’s bowl.  He doesn’t care for plain yogurt, but was a doll and ate mine just because I was good enough to make it.

This yogurt is self perpetuating - whenever I start to run out of this, all I have to do is boil another 2 quarts of milk and add 1/2 cup of this homemade yogurt to it, and let it set up.  Now I’ll always have yogurt - and lots of it!!  There’s so much I can do with this…. breads, drinks, smoothies, dips.  Right now, I’m also making some “yogurt cheese” out of the homemade yogurt.  It should be great on our bagels!  I’ll post about that later if it works. 

———————-

THE EASY RECIPE

(Here’s a summary of homemade yogurt!)

Ingredients:
2 quarts milk
1/2 cup yogurt

Boil milk, being careful not to scorch it.  Pour into a container and let cool to 120F.  Once cooled, stir in a half cup of plain yogurt.  Wrap in towels top to bottom and set in a warm, dry place.  Let it sit undisturbed for at least 4-6 hours.  Then, being careful not to jiggle it, remove towels and set container in fridge for another 8 hours.  Remove from fridge, pour liquid whey off, scoop into a bowl - eat and enjoy

———————

Yum yum yummy….I just cooked my first ever boneless pork chop tonight. 

If you’ve read my blog before, you know I’ve mentioned that before I married in 2006 I didn’t cook anything.  I didn’t even know how to boil water! :)  Since then though (and since my hubby has an enormous appetite), I’ve learned that I absolutely adore cooking.  I especially love southern cooking (not unusual since I have lived in South Carolina my whole life!). 

Cooking is quite fun, and really easy once you get into it.  I hate following recipes, leaning instead towards a dash-of-this-and-dash-of-that style of cooking.  Coming up with something tasty isn’t rocket science.  Here’s how I cooked a very tasty pan of boneless porkchops tonight.

BONELESS PORKCHOP & PAN-FRIED GRAVY

Rinse off your porkchops, using however many you need to feed your family.  Place them in a clean mixing bowl.

Melt some butter in the microwave (I used a half cup, and just melt it in a coffee mug).  Stir a few spoonfuls of olive oil and one egg into the cup.  Stir to break the yolk.

Pour the butter mixture over the porkchops and coat well (the egg & oil helps create  a sticky coating). 

Meanwhile, set a large frying pan on the stove on *almost* medium heat and drizzle in some oil.  Let it heat up for about 5 minutes.

Fill a quart ziplock bag up with some flour and breadcrumbs (I only filled half of the bag).  Mix in some salt, pepper, and whatever seasonings you find tasty.  I personally used a lot of Lemon Pepper.

Taking one pork chop at a time and drop it in the flour/breadcrumb bag.  Zip it and then shake the bag to coat.  Remove the pork chop from the ziplock bag and place in the frying pan.  Repeat the process with the remaining pork chops.

Once all pork chops are in the frying pan, pour the remaining flour mixture into your remaining butter mixture and set it aside.  You’ll use it for gravy once the chops are done.

Let your chops cook for approximately 30 minutes, flipping them about every 5 minutes.  Keep an eye on the heat and turn down the burner if they seem to be burning.  You can also add a bit more oil if you wish (I like to keep the oil in the pan to a minimum).

After 30 minutes, pour 1-2 cups of water into the flour/breadcrumb/butter mixture that you had set aside and stir.  If you didn’t have much flour left, add more.  Add salt and pepper to taste (gravy always tastes better with more salt!).  Using that mix, pour into the frying pan with your chops and let cook, scooting the gravy around the pan as needed.  If the flour cooks up too thick, just add more water.  Keep the chops and gravy cooking for about 20 more minutes, flipping and smothering the chops with the pan gravy every 5-10 minutes or so. 

Then you’re done!  There’s really no way to mess this up unless you have the heat to high and aren’t watching it!

Add some peas and mashed potatoes to the side and you have an excellent, easy southern style meal.

Tonight’s Menu at Our House:
Cheesy Manwich Potatoes
Italian Cucumbers
Broccoli Soup
Chicken & Dumplings (courtesy of my mom!)
Banana Split Milkshake
Tea to Drink

CHEESY MANWICH POTATOES

Wash some irish potatoes (regular white), and put in a pot, whole, to boil for an hour or two.  Don’t worry about peeling them. :)  You can also “bake” them in the oven like a regular baked potato if you’d like.

Brown some ground beef.  I always brown mine immediately after buying and then store in the freezer in a ziplock baggy.  When I’m ready to use it, I take out a portioned off bag and dump in the pot to reheat.

When beef is done, pour in a can of Manwich sloppy joe sauce; let simmer.

To Serve: cut potatoes in half longways, smother with butter, manwich mix, and sprinkle with shredded cheese. 
   

 
BANANA SPLIT MILKSHAKE

Place 2-3 bananas in blender (I use frozen), a full cup of dry milk (don’t add water), 2 cups water, a few squirts of honey, a spoon of whip cream, and fill the rest of the blender with ice.  Blend to make a smoothie.  Pour in cute cups, drop on a dollop of whip cream, and sqeeze syrup flavor of choice on top (chocolate, strawberry, caramel). 

Jack-Evan, sitting with us at dinner!

Tonight’s Menu at Our House:

Homemade Chicken Nuggets
Little Green Peas
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Ketchup / Mustard for Dipping
Water to Drink

HOMEMADE CHICKEN NUGGETS

Cut chicken breasts into nugget size portions.  In a bowl, break 1-2 eggs and stir to break up the yolk.  If you are out of eggs, oil can also be used.

Using a gallon sized plastic bag, pour in 2-3 cups of bread crumbs of choice.  You can also use cracker crumbs or even crushed nut crumbs.  Season crumbs with seasons of choice (we like italian, salt and lots of pepper.

Place cut up chicken nuggets, a few portions at a time, in the egg and cover well.  Then place the egg covered chicken pieces into the gallon bag with the bread crumbs and shake for a few seconds.  Remove nuggets one at a time from the bag, ensuring they are coated with crumbs and place on a tin foil lined (for easy clean up) or greased cookie sheet.  Pieces can be packed close together, but should not be over lapping each other and not layered on top of each other.

For a final yummy addition, sprinkle on your choice of flavored toppings such as onion powder, garlic powder, lemon pepper, salt, parmesean cheese…or whatever you like!   I like to shake a different flavor over each section of the pan so we can have a variety.

Cook nuggets at 400 F for about 30-45 minutes, until browned.  Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn! (The timer is my best friend because I always forget when I’m cooking!). 

Enjoy fresh out of the oven, or put in a freezer bag for storage.  After they’re froze, just remove a few from the baggie, pop in a toaster oven (but not the microwave! they’ll turn rubbery) for about 20 minutes.

    

I like cooking.  Especially good ol’ downhome southern cookin’.  No out of the way 100-ingredient cuisines for me.  Just good ol’ cookin….the easier, the better.  I rarely follow recipes when I’m cooking a meal, just adding this or that in ways that seem right.

Tonight’s menu included:

Chicken & Rice Casserole
Shredded Cheese
Ritz Crackers
Italian Cucumbers (Sliced)
Frozen Grapes
Fruit Yogurt
Water to drink

Easy Chicken & Rice Casserole Recipe

Cook a cup or two of rice in the normal way you usually cook rice.  While the rice is cooking, take strips of chicken breasts and lay them in the bottom of a casserole dish (spray with non-stick spray or spread on some melted butter first).  Combine one can of cream of mushroom soup, one can of cream of chicken, and one and a half cans of water in a pitcher or small bowl and stir.  When rice is done, alternatively layer the rice and cream soup mixture on top of the chicken until the dish is full.  Sprinkle salt & pepper to taste, and a little bit of shredded cheese if desired (not much though since cheese burns fast.

You can also top it with whatever you like.  I used some celery stalks cut into 3 inch pieces along with a small can of mushrooms (drained). 

Cook at 425 F for about an hour.  Check it every now and then to ensure it’s not burning, stirring the mixture a bit.  Just before removing from oven, sprinkle more cheese on top (we like a lot), turn off the heat, close the door, and let the cheese melt for about 10 minutes.

Have shredded cheese on the table to sprinkle on top of servings or to eat as a side snack.  You can also crumble the ritz crackers on top or just eat the cracker as a side.

Italian Cucumbers

Right now cucumbers are 4 for $1.00 at our farmer’s market.  And you can find some HUGE ones too! 

Take your cucumber, wash, and then slice into rounds, a little less than half an inch thick.  Place in a large serving bowl, smother with italian dressing (or vinegar and oil), sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste, and add a little of Ms. Dash’s Garlic & Herb spice if you are so inclined. 

Pass bowl around the table so everyone can get their own italian cucumber slices!

Frozen Grapes

I read about these in someone’s Works for Me Wednesday tip a few weeks ago.  Who would have thought you could freeze grapes??? Not I.   The last 20 or so grapes from a bunch would always go bad before I’d “remember” to eat them from the fridge.  Not any more! 

Now when I buy grapes, I immediately take the stems off, drop the whole bunch in a gallon ziplock freezer bag, and plop them n the freezer! 

They’re a very, very yummy treat in these hot summer days. :)   Just open the freezer, reach in the bag, grab a handful…and enjoy.  Ahhhhhh…

Don’t tell anyone, but I love cooking.  I mean absotivelyposolutely llluuuvvv it.

(So I’m not quite sure why I don’t do it more often…I…just..don’t). 

I guess it’s easier to just give in and grab the $5 Hot & Ready pizza at Little Ceasars after a tiring day with the baby.

But oh I do love cooking a good meal when it boils right down to it (pun intended :))

Today I went to the Farmer’s Market right down the road from our house (how lucky are we?!) and picked up all sorts of wonderful goodies.  This is just a quarter of the stuff!

For dinner tonight, we ended up with

• Yummy, cheesy, nutty squash cassarole
• Fresh string beans cooked in ham stock
• Wheat bread
• Baked cinnimon & nutmeg apples from the crockpot
• Red Seedless Grapes
• Freshly-blended “Banana Split Shake”

Yummy!

Dessert is ready!

Dinner is over and all is well…

Time for a nap.

Using some left over homemade flour tortillas, cut into triangle wedges with a pizza roller.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, cheese or any other seasoning you like and bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes.  

Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn or turn brown!

Heat a flat skillet or frying pan to medium heat. 

Using 2 slices of bread, spread mayonaise on one piece, place a piece of slice cheese on top and cover with the other piece of bread to form a sandwhich. 

Spread butter onto the outside (both sides!) of the sandwhich and place in the skillet.  Using a spatula, flatten the grilled cheese while it’s cooking.   Let it cook until it’s barely brown, then flip and repeat on other side. 

Remove from heat and eat!