Loaded Oatmeal Raisiny Cookies

I'm having some friends over tonight and a yard sale tomorrow, so I need something sweet to feed everyone. So I found this recipe on the back of a generic tube of oats and messed with it to make these cookies explode with raisiny goodness!

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups Quick Oats
1/2 cup dried currants
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup regular dark raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a large cookie sheet with cooking spray. Beat shortening and sugars until creamy (use your Kitchenaid mixer if you have one). Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Sift flour, salt and baking soda together onto a piece of waxed paper and add to mixture, beating together well. Add oatmeal, raisins and currants and mix well.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes. YUM! Makes as many cookies as you have dough left after eating raw cookie dough.

Honey Glazed Carrot and Parsnip Side Dish

It's so nice having my husband home! I can just give our crawling, creeping baby to him and have my hands free to cook. We've been eating leftover Spareribs the last few days, but I wanted to add a real home-cooked side dish to our leftovers tonight. This is simple and feeds 3-4 people if you give small/normal servings (hubby and I ate it all ourselves though).

Ingredients:

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp honey
1/8 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp basil
dash of cinnamon

Heat butter in a large frying pan on low-medium heat. Add the parsnips and carrots to begin cooking, coating in the butter. Then add the other ingredients, mixing all well and spreading out in the pan.

Flip the veggies over once and cook altogether about 6-8 minutes, until carrots are mostly soft. Yum!

Pork Spareribs with Special Sauce

My husband finally came home from sea and is getting out of the Navy this week, so to celebrate I bought a big rack of pork spareribs for him to grill. He says barbecue is an art, and apparently he's an artist. I boiled a little hunk of pork for the baby to try bits of while he grilled this huge rack and basted it with my sauce on our charcoal grill.

Sauce Ingredients:

3/4 to 1 cup Kraft Original Barbecue Sauce (depends how large a rack you are cooking)
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp Sweet and Hot mustard
1/4 cup honey (a little more if you have a lot of ribs)
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garlic pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together well. Cook spareribs on a hot grill for about 10-15 minutes on each side, turning over every 3-4 minutes. Baste with this sauce after each turn. Cook meat until no longer pink inside, or solid to the touch. Serve with corn on the cob and grilled or mashed potatoes.

Split Pea Soup

I made this a couple nights ago, but the baby just started crawling. This means blogging about dinner is incredibly difficult, as she's always crawling all over me and complaining when I try to type. Anyway, this soup tastes great and will feed probably about 10 or so people, so I have a ton of left overs.

Ingredients:

2 cups dry split peas
2 quarts cold water
1 14 oz can Vegetable broth
2 small onions, or one large
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 clove garlic, diced
1 carrot, chopped
ham bone or small ham steak chopped up
1 cup milk
salt and pepper

Bring the first 8 ingredients in a large pot to a boil, then turn down to a simmer (add a little salt and pepper during this stage too).



Simmer, covered, for 1-2 hours (mine took about 1 hour and 15 minutes), until peas and carrots are soft. If you are using a ham bone, remove it and let whatever meat bits remain fall into the soup. Then add the milk and simmer another minute or so while stirring it in.

Add a little more salt and pepper and stir. Serve. Very easy and tasty!

German Cucumber Salad

This is my mom's recipe. We used to have this as a side dish with dinner sometimes, or it makes a great lunch or snack. It's pretty easy to make once you figure out what tool to use to slice the cucumber thinly enough.

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers, peeled and then sliced very thin and squeezed dry
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp light sour cream
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Serve. Feeds 4-5 people.

Semi-Spicy Marinated Tri-Tip Steaks

I shop the Reduced meat section, and you should too, if you are on a budget. I got this package of frozen tri-tip steaks for under $4, and putting this recipe together only takes about 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

1-2 pounds tri tip steaks
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Spicy brown mustard
1 Tbsp sweet and hot natural mustard
1/4 tsp garlic pepper
1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce (add more if you want a real kick)
dash of A1 sauce, if available

Mix all ingredients except steak in a large storage bag, then seal and shake well. Rinse off steaks and shake dry, then put into sauce bag. Seal bag and let marinate at least 15 minutes.

Broil on high 3-4 minutes on each side. Serves 2-3 people with added veggie side dish.

Breaded and Baked Catfish Nuggets

I shop as cheaply as possible these days, so when I saw a 3/4 pound package of fresh catfish nuggets for less than $2 I scooped it up. I'm not a big catfish fan, but it is fish so I figured it'd be healthy. It might not have been as fresh as I first thought, as it tasted really fishy, but for catfish I think this recipe was surprisingly good. It also afforded me the opportunity to cook and feed the baby her first egg yolk, which she enjoyed quite a bit.

Ingredients:

1 lb. (or so, give or take) catfish nuggets
1 egg white
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2-3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp basil
1/8 tsp dill
1/8 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp parsley flakes

Spray a cookie sheet/baking pan with cooking spray. Add the lemon juice to the egg white and stir. Combine bread crumbs and spices, mixing well, then dump onto a sheet of waxed paper.

Rinse off the catfish nuggets and dry with a paper towel. Dip each nugget into the egg mix, then roll around in bread crumb mix until well coated. Place on baking tray and bake for 13-15 minutes at 400F. Feeds 2 people if seved with a veggie side dish.