With the cost of everything shooting up I have been looking a lot closer at what I am spending and trying to find ways to cut the costs. As I sat thinking about this while the TV droned in the background, a commercial for a national chain of sandwich shops came on. they were touting their $5.00 dollar foot long sandwiches and I decided to see what I could come up with for $5.00 dollars. I went shopping at the local grocery store in town and went to Wal-mart as well. I came up with a couple of different simple dishes that I think are more satisfying than a foot long sandwich and will feed 2 to 4 people.

First up is my Sausage and sour kraut dinner. I picked up the ingredients for this meal at my local grocery store.

• smoked sausage ring $2.79
• can of whole kernel corn $0.59
• can of sauerkraut $1.09

Total $4.47 and with frequent shopper card discount the cost was $4.21, a savings of $0.26.

This is pretty simple. Heat up the sausage, sauerkraut, and corn. You can do this in the microwave or on the stove. Serve and eat. This will easily serve 2 people. The sausage can be grilled, or fried instead of just heated in the microwave if you like. After cooking this meal I decided that this really was not much different than opening a can of soup or chili and not really a good home cooked meal. I need to try a bit harder to offer up a good filling meal that is simple, has a fairly short list of ingredients, and will stick with you for a while.

So here is my weenie mac and cheese.

• 16 oz. Elbow macaroni $0.97
• 16 oz. Velveeta cheese $2.76
• Hot dogs $0.77

Total $4.50

I am a big fan of the Velveeta shells and cheese box mixes. I am not, however, a big fan of the cost. This is my version of that for a lot less money. this makes a meal that is more than enough for at least 2 meals for 2 people or to feed a family of 4.

Cook the macaroni until tender.

While the noodles are cooking, dice up the Velveeta cheese and hot dogs to make it easier to melt into the noodles. You could melt the cheese in the microwave or in a pan if you like.

Drain the macaroni.

Put the noodles back in the pan. Add a little milk, the cheese and hot dogs. Mix well. Continue stirring until all of the cheese cubes are melted and mixed in with the noodles. Serve and enjoy.

So there you have it. A decent meal for about the same price as a double mocha flappa whatsit from the coffee drive through.

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• Sour chicken casserole – Redneck Cooking
• Seafood pasta with tomato, baby spinach and capers
• Pasta with tuna, red wine and capers

My Idea of something different for dinner is adding some onion or bacon to my burger instead of having them plain. My wife, on the other hand, thinks cheeseburgers once a week is too often. She likes to try different things and likes a variety in the weekly menu. This chicken casserole is a good change of pace.

This recipe is a good one to add to your repertoire. It is simple and quick to prepare. You can use any meat in place of the chicken without having to change any other ingredients. We have used canned tuna and diced ham in place of the chicken and it’s just as good.

Sour Chicken Casserole

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups diced cooked chicken (I used chicken thighs)
• 18 oz noodles cooked (I used egg noodles)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 16oz container sour cream
• 1 cup shredded cheese ( I used Wal-mart’s fiesta blend shredded cheese)

The easiest way to cook the chicken is to get some boneless skinless breasts and grill them. Add a little seasoning salt to them and grill until done. Dice the breasts and set aside.

My wife prefers thighs to breasts so we usually mix some seasoning salt into a little flour, add the chicken thighs to the flour and coat lightly, but completely. Add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to a large frying pan and heat to a medium high temperature. Add the chicken thighs to the frying pan and cover. Cook the thighs for 5 to 8 minutes and turn over. Fry on the second side until done. This will take another 5 to 10 minutes depending on the actual heat of your stove and the size of the thighs. After the thighs are done set aside to cool. Remove the skin and remove the meat from the bone and dice. You can dice up the skin and add it to the casserole or enjoy the tasty snack while you are preparing the casserole for the oven.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine chicken, noodles, Cream of Chicken soup, Cream of Mushroom soup, and the sour cream. Mix well.

Pour into greased 9×13 casserole dish. Sprinkle top with the shredded cheese.

Bake 45-60 minutes.

Related posts

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Every Friday at work we have a treat day: a different person each week brings in food for the group. This is voluntary and we do have some people that do not participate. For those of us that do, we get something tasty each Friday morning. Sometimes this treat is doughnuts from the grocery store and sometimes it’s homemade cookies or brownies or some other dish. A few weeks ago Jeff Lim brought in a Hawaiian dish that was really good. I asked him for the recipe and thought I would try making Kalua Pig myself.

I am not one that tries new foods all that often. I know what I like and pretty much stick to that. Hell, I never even tried Chinese food until my wife and I got together. Chinese food is a favorite of hers so I agreed to take her to a Chinese restaurant. I don’t mind Chinese food, but I still prefer a cheeseburger.

I have tried different styles of BBQ pulled pork before and have never really been all that impressed, so as I looked at the pot of pulled pork I was not sure I’d really like it. When I tried it I realized that it was not at all like the pulled pork I had tried before.

Kalua Pig
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 4-5 pound pork butt
• 2½ tablespoons Hawaiian salt (substitute kosher salt)
• 2 tablespoons liquid smoke
• 1 banana leaf (substitute 4-5 whole, unpeeled bananas)
• 4-6 ti leaves (substitute aluminum foil)
• ¼ to ½ a small head of cabbage, shredded
• 1 to 2 cups white rice
• chicken broth, enough to cook the rice

Usually Kalua pig is cooked in the ground over hot lava rocks. I don’t have a large supply of lava rocks or a way to heat them so I used the oven instead.

Trim any excess fat from the roast. Make several shallow long cuts along the roast or pierce liberally with a fork. (This allows the salt and liquid smoke to penetrate the meat.) Rub with salt and liquid smoke. Wrap the roast with banana leaf or place whole bananas on top of meat.

Cut the ribs from the ti leaves and wrap over the banana leaf. Substitute aluminum foil, if ti leaves are not available. (Ti leaves can often be obtained from a local florist). Tie securely with twine.

Roast in a 325-350 degree oven for about 45 minutes per pound. When meat is done, remove ti leaves, banana leaf (or bananas) and shred pork.

I did replace the Hawaiian salt with the kosher salt, the banana leaf with 5 whole bananas, and the Ti leaves with tin foil.

After the roast was cooked and shredded I put a couple tablespoons of vegetable oil in a frying pan, added the shredded roast and cabbage and fried the mixture until the cabbage was tender. Serve it over the rice cooked in the chicken broth.

My version was very good, but a bit lighter in flavor than what I had tried at work. I suspect that because I used the substitute ingredients the flavor was less. The next time I make this I will increase the liquid smoke and kosher salt rub.

Overall it was a very good recipe and we had 3 good meals out of it. I’ll be making this again soon.

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Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you all are having a good Halloween. I thought about writing a piece about some cool spooky Halloween kind of dish. I came up with the idea of making a meatloaf into the shape of a hand or a foot or something. Then I came across the Not Martha website. This is a cool looking meatloaf and my wife and I thought it would be fun to make one of these the next time we get the whole family together so I am now on the hunt for a hand shaped mold. So now that the meatloaf body part has already been perfected by someone else I decided to go with my original idea and give you my lasagna recipe instead.

I like to make a big pan of lasagna because it will last a couple of days and it is easy to make. The prep time is a little more involved, but you will not be spending the whole day slaving over a hot stove.

Cheesy Lasagna

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound lasagna noodles
• 1 can (12 oz) tomato sauce
• 1 large onion diced
• 1 pound Velveeta cheese
• 1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 pound shredded cheddar cheese
• oregano and garlic

Cook the noodles in a large pot. If you want to use the ready bake noodles it will save some time. I have tried these and prefer cooking my noodles.

While the noodles are cooking, brown the ground beef in a large frying pan with the diced onion.

Add the tomato sauce. Add the oregano and garlic to taste. Simmer the meat and sauce for 5 minutes and remove from heat.

Drain the noodles and set aside to cool.

When the noodles are cool lay a layer of the noodles in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Add a layer of the meat and sauce. Next add a layer of Velveeta slices. You can get the large brick of Velveeta and cut into slices, or you can use the sliced Velveeta.Now add a layer of the mozzarella cheese and the cheddar cheese. Instead of using the mozzarella and cheddar you can use your favorite blended cheese.

If you like cheesy lasagna this is the way to go. I don’t know how many calories are in a serving of this lasagna, but I do know I have to loosen my belt after eating a plate of this delicious dish.

I hope everyone has a happy, safe, and scary Halloween.

Oh and Rich — I want to thank you for your Candy Pyramid post. When my wife read it and found out why we never seem to get any trick or treaters she banned me from handing out candy. Me and the dogs will be watching the World series game uninterrupted tomorrow night.

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I have always liked beans. They are cheap, easy to store, and will last a long time if stored properly. There are many varieties of dry beans available. With so many different beans to choose from you can change the flavor of any dish just by changing the type of bean used. Whether pinto, lima, garbanzo, or great northern, they each have a distinct and unique texture and flavor. When made into soup they all provide a tasty and filling meal that will warm you up on a cold winter day and give you plenty of energy to get you through the toughest of days.

The great northern bean is one of my favorites. A one-pound bag of dried great northerns will cost me 88 cents. I like to keep a few pounds on hand as part of my emergency food supply. The nutritional value of these beans is enough to sustain you for quite a while as well. One cup of great northern beans has 210 calories for energy with 38 grams of carbohydrates, 14 grams of protein and zero cholesterol.

Great northern beans have a light kind of buttery flavor. The beans are firm with a thin skin that holds up well during cooking.

Bean and Ham soup

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound great northern beans, or your favorite type of beans
• 1 medium onion, diced
• ¼ to ½ pound ham, diced
• salt and pepper to taste

Dried beans do not have to be soaked before cooking, however the cooking time will be increased if they are not soaked to begin the re-hydration of the beans prior to cooking. When I cook beans I prefer to slow soak them overnight before cooking. It’s a simple process to soak the beans. Rinse the beans and put them in a large bowl. Add enough water that is at room temperature to the bowl to keep the beans covered. About 3 cups of water for each cup of beans is a good starting point. Cover the bowl and let the beans sit for at least 8 hours. After soaking drain and rinse the beans again.

Add the beans to a large stock pot, or crock pot, or dutch oven. Add in the diced onion and diced ham. Salt and pepper to taste. Add in 3 cups of water for each cup of beans. If you are cooking them in a large pot on the stove, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and cook until the beans are tender. I usually will let them cook for at least 4 hours.

You can add other vegetables to the soup if you like. This recipe is a good place to start and is a good place to start experimenting with other ingredients.

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In past posts I have joked about the Zombie Apocalypse. It is a fun topic and is easy to write about as there are so many movies out with various scenarios of how this could come about. Today I want to take a more serious look at disaster preparedness. No matter where you live in this country the possibility of a natural disaster hitting and forcing all of us to hunker down in our homes for a time that could range from a few hours to a few days without power is always there. Do you have enough food, non perishable food, to feed yourselves for those few days? Can you heat that food or will you be eating cold chili straight from the can?

Here is the scenario I try to stay prepared for in my house. Living in the Pacific Northwest and having witnessed the awesome destructive power of Mt. St. Helen’s in 1980, volcanoes are a real threat. In Washington we have Mt. Adams, Baker Ranier and St. Helen’s which are all active volcanoes. And as I am also currently living here in Southern Idaho we are on the edge of the super volcano under Yellowstone park. All of these volcanoes have been studied for years and the experts believe they can predict when an eruption will be coming. There were dozens of people killed on May 18, 1980 by the eruption of Mt. St. Helen’s because the experts that were sure they would know long before any eruption happened that one was coming were wrong. There was no warning. In a matter of seconds, millions of tons of debris, ash, and hot mud were rushing down the mountain and swallowing everything in its path. The time to prepare for an emergency is now and not when it happens.

So what can you do to prepare for an emergency? To start with is water. Water is the most important supply you can have on hand. Luckily any grocery store you go into will have cases of bottled water. It is a good idea to keep a couple cases on hand for your emergency rations.

Next is food. There are a number of different ways you can go for food.

The first option is the M.R.E. This is Meals Ready to Eat. The U.S. Military uses MRE’s for our troops. These are complete meals sealed in a sealed package that can be stored for up to a year or so. A quick search of Amazon.com gave me several options such as the SOPACCO SurePak meals These can be purchased by the case that includes 12 meals from 6 different menus and also include heat packs to warm the meals. These meals include an entree, dessert, cracker or bread with spread, as well as coffee with creamer and sugar. The kit also includes a napkin, moist towelette, and a snack. Another option for this is survivalfood.com. Here you can get a food supply that comes packed in a back pack for easy portability.

Next up is canned food. Cans of soup, chili, beans, and vegetables will store for extended periods and can be eaten cold right out of the can. They are not as appetizing cold out of the can, but it is better than going hungry.

Another option is canned meat such as Spam. This is another canned food that can be used as an ingredient in just about any recipe or can be eaten cold from the can.

You may want to also include some dried beans or rice. Both of these can be easily cooked and added to broth to make a more filling meal.

In order to cook your canned food you will need some kind of heat source. If you have a fireplace or wood stove then heating the canned foods or rice or beans can be done in a good cast iron pot placed directly on the fire. Another option is a portable stove. These come in many varieties and sizes. They use various types of fuel from butane to propane to white gas or even unleaded gas. A small back pack stove like the Brunton Raptor Foldable Canister Stove with Piezo Ignition or the Masterbuilt MDCL Double-Burner Propane Camp Stove will do a great job of heating your meals. It’s a good idea to also stock up on fuel for your stove and to practice with the stove.

Also, have an emergency drill with your whole family at least twice a year. Spend a weekend surviving without power or the ability to run to the store to pick up something or to call for delivery for dinner. This is the quickest way to test your survival preparedness and find out just what you forgot. It is also a good way to make sure your survival supplies are fresh and ready for when the real emergency happens.

There are quite a few other things that can be stored for long periods of time that can be used for emergency survival such as Ramen Noodles. These are quick and easy to prepare and make a good filling meal and if you are on a tight budget these are a cheap way to go. Packs of these noodles sell for 18 to 20 cents a pack and can be ready to eat in a few minutes. In the coming weeks I will be posting recipes for Ramen noodles as well as for other survival foods. Just because you are in survival mode does not mean you cannot eat well.

Related posts

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The other day my wife and I were talking about what to do with the apples we got from our apple trees. We talked about canning them as pie filling, or making apple butter. I suggested that I could use some of them to make apple crisp. We both decided that would be good and I mentioned that my recipe was a simple but very tasty one. When I explained what the recipe was my wife said that her recipe was much better. With my honor at stake I challenged her to an apple crisp bake off. I love you darling, but you are going down. Let’s get it ON!

LLLAADIESS AND GENTLEMEN, LLLLEEEETTTS GET READY TO RRRRUUUMMMMBBBLLEE.

IN THIS CORNER IS JEFF “THE REDNECK” LOVE.

AND IN THE OTHER CORNER, HIS OPPONENT THE CRUSHERRR.

The following contest will be a no time limit, falls count anywhere, no disqualification fight to the finish. Go to your corner and come out baking.

The Recipes

The CRUSHER’S Apple Crisp

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups of your favorite apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup flour
• ½ cup oats
• 1/3 cup butter
• ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Layer apples in a baking dish.

Combine brown sugar, flour, oats, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg and pour mixture over the apples.

Bake for 30 minutes. Serve.

Jeff’s Redneck Apple crisp

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups of your favorite apples, peeled, cored, and quartered
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup milk

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the apples and brown sugar in a baking dish.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Combine milk, flour, and oats and pour mixture over the apples.

Bake for 1 hour. Serve.

The CRUSHER banned me from the kitchen during the preparation of her recipe so there are no prep pictures of her entry.

The end result:

After both recipes were done we had to figure out a fair way to determine the winner. The dogs all volunteered to taste both, but their taste is questionable. We decided the easiest way would be a blind taste test. We put a small amount of each on a plate. I put on a blindfold and my wife gave me a bite of each. I picked which one I thought was better and then we switched and Lorie tasted each and picked a winner.

After the taste test we both decided that it was a tie. The filling on my recipe was better and the topping on Lorie’s was the better. We will have to try again with combining the recipes.

Therefore because it was a tie I am declaring victory.

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This week has been a good week. The ducks and geese are starting to migrate so there are more and more large flocks flying around; yet another reason why I love the fall. But the reason that this has been a good week is because of the onions.

The wild onion is a mysterious creature. I have not found any studies done to suggest any reason why they seem to migrate south, but every year these elusive critters do and for those of us that are fortunate enough to live along those migration routes we have the opportunity for some fine road side shopping.

These wild onions do look a lot like the domestic onions you find in the grocery store. The taste is also about the same, although some of the wild ones are a bit gamier.

As you drive down the roads you will see a lot of these wild onions that did not make it across the road and were  smashed flat or are in pieces all over, but some that were just clipped will be intact and these road kill onions are perfect for eating. Some bruising or road rash may have to be trimmed but for the most part they are excellent table fare.

One of my favorite things to use the road kill onions on are my version of the Philly cheese steak sandwich.

Redneck Steak and Cheese Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 pound elk or deer steak, sliced into 1-inch strips
• 1 green pepper, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 pound American cheese, sliced

In a large bowl, add a half cup of flour and a few dashes of salt and pepper. Mix well. Lightly flour the steak strips and cook in a large frying pan with just a little vegetable or olive oil. As with all wild game, it’s best to cook until well done. If you’re in a hurry or don’t have the elk or deer steak you can also use Steak-Umms for these sandwiches. You will not need to flour the Steak-Umms.

After the meat is cooked, set it aside and in another large frying pan heat just a little vegetable or olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the sliced onion and peppers and saute until the onion is translucent.

Add the meat to the vegetables and stir them together.

When the meat is heated, place a heaping portion of the mixture onto a slice of homemade bread, a hoagie roll, or stuff it in a pita pocket. Top with a couple slices of cheese and you’re ready to go. I like to use both white and yellow American cheese for mine. It gives the sandwich a little more color and the slightly different flavors of the cheeses combine well together.

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I have written many times about my interest in baking. I enjoy making my chocolate chip cookies as well as pies, cakes, cobblers and such. Sometimes in our busy lives, fresh baked cookies sound good but the time it takes to mix up the dough is just too time consuming. It has been a long week and you’re tired. You really want a nice warm tasty treat but the act of making a glass of ice water seems to be more work than it’s worth. Thankfully, the folks at Nestle have come to our aid. Nestle toll house chocolate chip cookie dough in the bucket is a great way to quickly have fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.

The directions for these cookies are simple and quick. A heaping spoonful of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9 to 11 minutes.

How simple is that? I baked these for 11 minutes and they were perfect.

So even though the directions say not to eat the raw cookie dough I had to taste it to make sure it was as good as the dough I make.

The dough is a little dryer than mine, but the taste is very good. The cookies themselves are also very good. The taste and texture are as good as the ones I make from scratch but the time to make them is so much faster. They are just slightly crunchy on the outside and still soft and chewy on the inside. I remember the fun that my daughter and I used to have making cookies together. Now that she is a mother with a one year old son and a daughter on the way I will have new helpers to make cookies with in a couple more years. The memories that both me and my daughter have of those times making cookies together will stay with us forever and the memories I will make with my grandchildren will be as special and will stay with them for the rest of their lives as well.

The family size tub of chocolate chip cookie dough will make about 3 dozen cookies. These cookies are not good for your diet, but the smell of cookies in the oven and the pleasure of sitting down and eating a few brings back all of those wonderful memories, and that makes all the extra calories very much worth eating.

Take the time to make cookies with your children. The memories you make are far more important and longer lasting than the mess that will come from it.

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One of the great things about fall are the fresh peaches. Here in Idaho I am fortunate enough to live in a part of the state that has a good season for growing peaches. I have one peach tree in my front yard and it is a good producer. Most years I get a good crop of peaches off this tree. We have had a few years that an early spring warm-up will get the tree to blossom out and then we get a cold snap to come back in and freeze the blossoms and kill off just about all the peaches.

Two years ago I got ten peaches off the tree. They were good but did not last very long. Last year I was able to can 28 quarts of peaches off of that one peach tree. Do you have any idea how many peaches that is? I can tell you that is a lot of flipping peaches.

I use the canned peaches for lots of things. I will put them in my oatmeal in the mornings, make my peach upside down cake with them. Take a jar to work for my lunch and use them as ice cream topping. Peach cobbler is another of my favorite recipes for fresh peaches. This year the peach tree was so loaded down with peaches it has nearly destroyed itself. Every time the wind would blow another branch would break. I ended up with another 28 quarts of canned peaches to get me through the winter.

Canning peaches is really a simple thing to do. It is time consuming but relatively inexpensive, and the peaches are so much better than any you can buy in the store. All you need to can peaches are sugar, canning jars, and fruit fresh.

The fruit fresh is a must-have if you do not want brown peaches. Peaches will turn brown quickly no matter how you handle them if you do not use the fruit fresh.

To start, wash your jars. In order to get the jars to seal they must be clean.

Next, prepare the syrup that the peaches will be canned in. The syrup I use is simply water and sugar. Because I do not pick my peaches until they are completely ripe, I use a light syrup that is one cup sugar to each quart of water. I have a large stock pot that I use for this. I mix the sugar into the water and bring the syrup to almost a boil. I add one teaspoon of fruit fresh for each cup of water.

While the syrup is heating up, I start water boiling in a smaller pan to heat up the peaches to peal them. In another stock pot I put cold water to put the peaches in after they are pealed and sliced. I also add fruit fresh to this water. I add 1 tsp per cup of water here too. Then I fill the sink with cold water to put the peaches in after they are taken out of the boiling water to cool down enough to peel.

Once the water is boiling, put in a few peaches so that they are completely covered and leave them in for a minute or two. Remove them from the boiling water and place them in the sink. After boiling them, the skin is very easy to take off and mostly you can just peel it off with your fingers. After peeling the peaches I slice them into wedges and put them in the cold water and fruit fresh.

When I have the stock pot full of sliced peaches, I transfer them to the hot pot of syrup.

Next I put a small amount of water into a shallow pan and bring it to a boil. This is for the lids and rings for the jars. The trick to getting the jars to seal is heat. If the lids are not hot they will not seal and the peaches will spoil.

Cook the peaches for five minutes or so and then get a few jars and lids ready. Boil the lids for about a minute. This will sterilize them as well as get them ready to seal.

Fill the jars with peaches to just below the neck and then fill to just below the rim with syrup. Wipe any syrup that may be on the rim of the jar off so that the rim is clean. Place a lid on the jar and secure it tightly with a ring. Place the jar under a towel on the counter to cool. You want to keep the jars under the towels so that they cool slowly. If the jars cool too fast they can shatter and the lids may not seal. As the jars cool the syrup inside contracts and creates a vacuum that will suck down the lid. You will hear the lids popping for a while as they cool. This is how you know they are sealing.

Once the jars are cool, wipe them off with a damp cloth to clean any syrup off them and then store them in the pantry or a spare closet. You now have plenty of tasty treat to enjoy anytime over the cold winter.

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One of my favorite meats is Steak-umm’s. These are pre-packaged sliced steaks that are thin and quick to cook. You can go straight from the freezer to the frying pan and have dinner in just a few minutes. You can put them on a bun and eat them like a burger, or make Philly cheese steak sandwiches out of them. They are great for tacos, spaghetti, or in a chef’s salad. Anything you can make with ground beef you can make with Steak-umm. One of my favorite ways to use them is to make jerky. This is a quick and simple snack to make that you can take with you on a hike or you can snack on it while watching football.

You can use Steak-umms with your favorite Jerky recipe. If you don’ already have a favorite jerky recipe then check out this page to see if you can find one that works for you. There are a great many web sites that offer other recipes so search around and try some different recipes.

One of my favorite simple recipes is to combine 1 cup of your favorite BBQ sauce, ½ cup of water, and 1/3 cup of Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Then take 4 to 6 frozen Steak-umms and break or slice them into strips.

Add the strips to the marinade and place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to marinate. The longer you let them marinate the better the flavor will be.

After the jerky has had time to soak up the marinade, take the bowl out and lay the strips out on a paper towel and pat dry.

There are two ways you can dry the jerky now. You can use either the oven set at about 150 degrees, or use a dehydrator. I prefer to use the dehydrator.

Leave the jerky strips in the the dehydrator for 4 to 6 hours, or until the jerky strips are completely dry.

Store them in a plastic bag in the fridge for a quick snack anytime.

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Whenever I go out in the woods to go hunting, fishing or hiking, I take along my back pack. I have everything I need in my pack to spend a night or two in the woods should something happen. It is a good idea that everyone do this when they venture out into the woods. Sudden storms or a wrong turn on a trail can put you in a position where you aren’t able to get out of the woods before dark and have to.

For the food I carry in my pack, I like to keep things that are light, take up very little space and will keep without going bad. I will carry a few energy bars, granola bars, Jerky, or meat snacks.

Some of my favorite meat snacks are from Pop’s Authentic. These are high protein, low fat meat snacks that are smoky, spicy, juicy and meaty. They are a great snack for kids and adults on the go.

Pop’s Authentic is a small family owned business located in New Franklin, Missouri. New Franklin — situated equidistant between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Pop’s offers their meat snacks in four flavors: Original, Peppered, Habanero, and Bacon. All flavors offer a unique and delicious snack. They are filling and will give you enough energy to make it to the top of the next ridge or to make it through the night.

The Original meat snack is seasoned with a special mix of spices that give it a mild flavor that brings out the taste of the blend of beef and pork. These taste kind of like a good hot dog.

The Bacon snacks are 100% pork and have a very good smoky bacon flavor. These are sure to be a hit with everyone. They would go well with some fried eggs or biscuits and gravy.

The Peppered snacks have a rich cracked black pepper flavor that is sure to please those that like their meat snacks to have just a little kick to them. These are not going to burn your mouth, but they do have a mildly spicy kick to them.

If you are the five alarm chili type then you will find the Habanero snack sticks pretty mild too. If you are like me and prefer two alarm chili then these will be perfect for you. There is enough heat and hot pepper flavor to really bring out the flavor of the blend of beef and pork and leave you with a mild burn in your mouth for a while after, but you will not be trying to drink the nearest lake or river dry to put out the fire.

All of the different flavors can be purchased individually packaged in a 12 count box as shown, a master case (12 – 12 ct boxes), or in 8oz. bulk packages. The snack sticks sell for about $1.00 a piece.

Pop’s is also working on bringing out Beef Jerky and Beef Nuggets soon.

Related posts

• The great breakfast meat debate – Breakfast at Clique-any’s
• Bacon fried taters – Redneck Cooking
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Summer is over and fall is finally here. I have been looking forward to fall all summer. Harvest time is my favorite time of the year. The vegetables in the gardens are getting ripe. The peaches are getting ripe. In the mountains the wild blackberries and huckleberries are getting ripe. The fall wild mushrooms are starting to come out and hunting season is beginning. It is time to start laying in the winter food supply.

I started with my potatoes. Last spring things did not go as planned so we did not plant near the number of potatoes I had wanted to. We planted Yukon Gold potatoes and here is a picture of a couple I harvested.

Yukon Gold potatoes have a buttery flavor and are good for any of your favorite potato dishes.

Wild blackberries are a great thing to harvest. They are present in every state in the country and are easy to find. Blackberries have a very unique flavor and can be easily made into jams, jellies, pies, cobbler, ice cream topping, and syrup for pancakes and waffles. The different varieties of blackberries have flavors that range from very sweet to tart.

We also have Walla Walla sweet onions. These are really mild onions with great flavor, and can be used for cooking in place of the onion you might normally use.

Next is the sweet corn. It is so hard to get good corn in the store. Most canned corn tastes like the tin can. Frozen corn is better but for really good corn you just have to grow your own. You can grow corn in a surprisingly small area. I have even grown corn in pots.

Next we have radishes. These are one of the fastest and easiest vegetables to grow. You can normally grow several plantings in a season. Radishes are great in salads, soups, or raw with a little salt. Radishes can also be grown in pots if you don’t have room for a garden.

We also have Roma tomatoes and Beefsteak tomatoes. The Romas are perfect for making salsa and the Beefsteaks are good plain or on a burger or sandwich.

Last are the peaches. I have one peach tree here in Idaho and this year it is loaded with fruit. I thought the 20 quarts of peaches I canned last year from that tree was a lot, but this year it looks like there will be even more. The peaches are within a couple of weeks of being ripe so I will be harvesting them and canning them soon.

Over the coming weeks I will be posting my recipes and tips for canning the peaches, making the blackberry jam and depending on how my hunting season goes, I hope to have some new recipes for grouse, deer and elk.

My freezer is empty and ready to be filled with this year’s harvest. I will be starting on that this weekend. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend everyone.

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I don’t know what has gotten into me lately. I have been craving sweets. I don’t normally eat a lot of sweets. Most of the time I would rather have something salty like potato chips or popcorn, but for the last week I have had that gnawing ache in my belly for something sugary.

I tried peanut butter and jelly, I tried pancakes with peanut butter and syrup and still could not shake the craving. Oh and unlike Kona, I can make really good pancakes. I thought about getting a candy bar, but chocolate is not good for Bo and he gets downright offended if I don’t share with him so I decided to see what I could find at home to make.

I scoured the cupboards for something and came up with enough fixin’s to make my favorite homemade doughnuts. These are quick to fix and are really tasty.

Redneck Doughnuts

[print link]

Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons margarine
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ cup milk
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 ½ cups flour

Cream the margarine and sugar.

Mix the dry ingredients together and add them to the butter by adding a little of the dry ingredients and a little of the milk until all ingredients are well mixed.

Fill a greased muffin tin about half full with the batter and bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

When they are done you can brush them with a little melted butter and roll them in a mixture of ½ cup sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon, or glaze them.

For the glaze I make, I start with ½ cup of powdered sugar, add milk until I get the desired consistency and then add a teaspoon or two of vanilla for taste. I never measure the glaze ingredients.

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One of my favorite dishes is fried potatoes. They can be the main course or a side dish to something else. They can be made for any meal and are always tasty and filling. You can dress them up or leave them plain depending on how you are using them.

The base of this dish is very simple. Fry up ½ to 1 pound of bacon that is cut into bite size pieces.

After the bacon is cooked to your desired level set it aside and add in the potatoes.

In this picture I diced up about 8 small potatoes. You can peel and dice your own or by a bag of hash browns at the grocery store.

Salt and pepper to taste, cover the pan and fry them up in the drippings from the bacon to add that extra bacon flavor. Stir often to keep them from burning. When the potatoes are cooked to your desired doneness add the bacon back in and they are ready to eat. Add some onion or country gravy and they are a pretty good meal.

As I said, you can dress these up in a number of ways to make them a more interesting meal or side dish. When I make fried taters for breakfast I will dice some onion and cook it with the bacon. After the potatoes are cooked, add the bacon and 4 to 6 scrambled eggs. You can add the uncooked eggs to the potatoes and cook until the eggs are done, or you can cook the eggs separately and mix them in with the potatoes.

If you want a more Southwest style breakfast, add in some red, green and orange bell peppers, some whole kernel corn, and some Jalepeno peppers. Top it with some salsa and you are ready to go.

In the spring when the Morel mushrooms are available I add them to the mix. The flavor the Morels add is unbelievable. In the fall, the Chantrel mushrooms are out and I will do the same with them. Both of these species of mushrooms grow wild and are much better than any you can buy in a store. If you are going to go pick these mushrooms yourself, make sure that you know what species you are picking. There are many poisonous species that look a lot like the edible ones.

How about some bacon fried taters Au gratin? This is also simple and the cheese sauce can be used for other dishes as well. Prepare the potatoes in any of the ways I have described. In a separate sauce pan melt about 4 tablespoons of butter. Add a quarter cup of milk and half a brick of Velveeta cheese cut into small cubes. Melt the Velveeta stirring constantly. If the sauce is too thick, add more milk a little at a time until the desired thickness is achieved. Pour the sauce over the potatoes and serve.

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This meatloaf recipe is packed full of flavor and is sure to be a hit for any occasion. I have made this with ground beef, ground elk and ground deer. Each has a distinct flavor and this recipe brings out those distinct flavors very nicely.

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I hate August. The freezer is empty, well except for some zucchini that was missed, and it is still a month until hunting season starts. I am so looking forward to September. I need some fresh grouse. I always have trouble finding something good to eat this time of year. As much as I love cheese burgers, every once in a while I do like a change. I went to the Walmart and wandered through the meat department looking for something interesting. I picked up a package of smoked sausage and some rice and headed home.

I decided on my beer-simmered sausage and onions over rice for dinner. This is a simple and easy recipe that will fill you up and is very tasty too.

I was lucky enough to have one of the Walla Walla Sweet onions my mother–in–law gave me left so I added that to dinner.

Sausage and Onions Over Rice

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound smoked sausage, sliced into ¼ inch pieces
• 1 Walla Walla sweet onion, thinly sliced
• 2 cups rice
• 4 tablespoons bacon grease ( You can use butter instead, but why would you?)
• 1 bottle (12 oz.) beer
• minced garlic

Start by cooking the rice however you prefer it. You can use white or brown rice for this dish. I like to cook my rice in a mixture of water and chicken broth. It adds a little more flavor to the dish. NOTE: If you cook the rice with chicken broth, DO NOT LET YOUR WIFE HAVE A BOWL WITH SUGAR, CINNAMON AND MILK! Even in August spending a month in the dog house is no fun, and it takes forever to get rid of the fleas. My dogs may never be normal again.

In a large skillet, melt the bacon grease. When the grease is melted, add the minced garlic to taste. I usually use between ½ to 1 teaspoon.

Saute the onions for 4 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the smoked sausage and brown for 3 to 4 minutes.

Pour in the bottle of beer and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes.

If you happen to have any fresh peppers you can slice them up and add them in with the onions as well.

Serve over the rice and you have a quick and filling meal.

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While the weather out West here has been fairly hot lately I was watching the news and they were talking about how cold it has been back in New York. I also have friends on Twitter from Michigan and Wisconsin that have been telling me about how cold it has been there. As I sit here in Southern Idaho sweltering in the 100 degree heat, longing for those wonderful fall days that they seem to be getting back east in July, I got to thinking about tater soup. There is nothing like a hot bowl of tater soup on a cold day to warm you up and make you feel good.

I don’t know what it is about soup on a cold day that warms you so well, but I know that after spending a long day out in the woods hunting there is nothing like a hot bowl of soup to chase the cold away. Tater soup is one of my favorites. It is a simple, easy to make dish that tastes great and fills you up.

Tater Soup
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 6 to 8 medium potatoes
• 1/4 to 1/2 pound of bacon
• 1 medium onion
• milk
• salt and pepper

Fry the bacon to desired crispness and set aside on a paper towel to drain.

Dice the onion and saute until translucent in a few tablespoons of the bacon grease.

Dice the potatoes and add them, the onion, and the crumbled bacon to a pot. Pour in the milk. Use enough milk to cover the potatoes by about an inch. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bring the soup to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked.

Let it cool for a few minutes and it is ready to eat.

This is also a great soup for the slow cooker. I like to fill the slow cooker with the ingredients before I leave for a day of hunting and just let it cook all day. When I get home it’s ready and adds the perfect ending to a perfect day in the woods.

You can add other veggies to the soup if you like. Be creative and enjoy a simple, easy meal. The great thing about this soup is that the leftovers are even better the next day. Letting the soup sit overnight in the fridge lets the potatoes absorb more of the flavor.

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The other day all day long at work I was craving red meat. Hamburger, bacon, sausage, hot dogs — they all sounded so good. I could not decide which I wanted more. I heated up my Top Ramen for lunch and ate it. The Top Ramen did not satisfy my hunger.I began to form a recipe in my mind as I dreamed about red meat for the rest of the day.

On the way home I stopped and picked up some bacon, biscuits, and onion to complete my red meat fest. The more I thought about my recipe the better it sounded. as soon as I got home I started preparing my feast.

Meat Lovers Pie

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients

• 1 pound bacon
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pack hotdogs
• 1 medium onion
• 1/2 pound Velveeta Mexican Cheese
• 1 roll of biscuits

In a large frying pan cook the bacon to your desired crispness and set it aside.

Pour most of the bacon grease out of the pan. Leave a few tablespoons in the pan to cook the ground beef in. Dice the onion and add it and the ground beef to the frying pan. Brown thoroughly and drain.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. grease an 11X9 baking dish. Take half of the biscuits out of the roll and flatten them out on the bottom of the baking dish.

Slice the Velveeta Mexican Cheese and the hotdogs. Layer all ingredients onto the biscuit dough in the baking dish.

Top with the other half of the biscuits and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure that you bake it long enough to melt the cheese. Top with your favorite salsa, or gravy and enjoy.

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I want to introduce you all to candh_sugar. This is the official Twitter account of C and H Sugar. A name we all have known for years and have probably used their sugar in many of our recipes.

candh_sugar Posts a lot of simple and tasty recipes for their Twitter followers. The recipes are simple posts that resemble a recipe card from your grandmother’s recipe box and are easily printable.

The recipes cover many different types of dishes such as this recipe for Shrimp on a stick: grilled tender shrimp marinated in a sweet, spicy sauce wrapped in crisp bacon.

Have a craving for Chocolate? How about trying these Classic Cake Brownies. These are soft-style brownies with plenty of chocolate flavor.

How about some Chocolate-Raspberry Cupcakes? these are flavored with cocoa, cinnamon, and almonds. Plus a raspberry surprise inside!

Maybe you are looking for something healthier and yet sweet and delicious. Try these Cranberry Apple Cookies. these are fruit-filled with a Just a touch of citrus and cinnamon. This recipe was posted after I jokingly threatened to stop following them because the recipes they were posting sounded so good that it would ruin my diet if I started trying all of the tasty sweets they were posting.

The Twitter master of this account is not some automated script that randomly posts recipes from the C and H Sugar archives. The person behind the scenes really does read the posts of those following them and makes a very good effort to post recipes that those followers will like.

Maybe you want something with more of an international flavor. Try this Vanilla Carmel Flan. The whipped egg whites make it light as a cloud — smooth, silky & creamy.  I have never tried flan, but after reading this recipe I am ready to try it.

One that I will be trying very soon is the Peachy Peach Pie. This recipe took first prize at a Kansas State Fair baking contest! I love peaches and this recipe will fit well with my peach upside down cake.

One last recipe for you to think about. The Chocolate Truffle Dessert Ball with  sweet crackers sounds so good. A scrumptious chocolate/peanut butter truffle with light, crispy cookies.

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Well I intended to post the best possible breakfast imaginable this morning. I had it all worked out. In my dreams last night I came up with the perfect recipe. I had picked up some fresh cherries at a road side stand in Naches Washington last weekend and wanted to use some of them for my post.

I came up with the idea to make Cherry Pancakes. When I got up I was hungry for those pancakes. In my dream they tasted so good I could not wait.I pitted and sliced a bunch of cherries, mixed up some buttermilk pancake mix and added the cherries.

They looked very good and the cherries were still juicy and they smelled great. I cooked up the short stack and sat down  to eat.

The taste was much less than spectacular. The combination of the buttermilk pancake mix and the cherries did not combine well at all. The cherries were juicy but had a bitter taste and the pancakes tasted like they were made with bad buttermilk. I tried to feed them to Bo. He took one bite yelped and ran out the door and spent an hour out in the yard licking the ground and growling at me. I tossed them out in the yard for the neighbors chickens to eat. The chickens pecked at it and ran back into the coop. I have not seen them come out yet.

Most of the time my experiments do work out, but every once in a while I come up with one like this. I will have to work on my Cherry Pancake recipe and when I perfect it I will post the corrected recipe here.

Have you ever had a recipe that you worked out go bad? I would like to here about it if you have. Leave a post here or drop me a line on Twitter.

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My favorite holiday is Independence day. The 4th of July is always a big deal because we celebrate the birth of our country and we give thanks to our founding fathers and everyone who has served our country. The 4th also means its time for an all-out feast. On the menu this Independence day is BBQ’ed ribs, bratwurst, potato salad and beans.

Now, I have made my love for wild game known here in my posts, so you might be expecting the ribs to be deer or elk, but they are not. There is very little meat on the ribs of wild game so you end up just chewing on bones. This year we are having pork ribs.

The next surprise is that I am not cooking them on the grill. I will be cooking these beauties in the slow cooker, or crock pot if you prefer. I have found this to be the best way to get juicy, tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs, and it is so easy to make them this way.

Start with a thawed out rack of pork ribs. Cut them into sections that will fit into your slow cooker.

Add enough of your favorite barbeque sauce to cover the bottom of the cooker and heat it to cooking temp. My slow cooker will cook a rack of ribs in 6 to 7 hours on high heat so they can be prepared the day of the feast. If I use the low heat setting and let them cook overnight, they are just as good.

Heat a frying pan, with the bottom coated with vegetable oil, to a high heat.

Lightly coat the rib sections with flour and brown on both sides. Add some seasoning salt to each side as you brown it.

After the ribs are browned coat each side with BBQ sauce and place them in the cooker. After all of the ribs are in the cooker, add the rest of the BBQ sauce. Fill the bottle about half full of water and swish it around to get the last of the sauce out and add that to the pot. That is all there is to it.

The potato salad is also an easy recipe. This is always a big hit at our get-togethers.

Ingredients:

• 6 or 8 medium potatoes
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 6 boiled eggs, diced
• 4 to 6 small dill pickles, diced
• 4 to 6 small sweet pickles, diced
• Mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper

Peel, dice, and boil the potatoes and set aside to cool.

Add the pickles, eggs and onion to a large bowl with the potatoes. Also add about a quarter cup of pickle juice from both the sweet and dill pickles.

Add the mayo, mustard, salt, and pepper to taste and mix everything together.

For the beans we start with a can of baked beans. Any brand will do so go with your favorite.

Ingredients:

• 1 large can baked beans
• Molasses
• Brown sugar
• Bacon
• 1 medium onion (chopped)

Fry up about 6 strips of bacon and set aside to drain.

Add the can of baked beans, 1 cup molasses, 1 cup brown sugar, bacon and onion to a large oven-safe pot. Mix well and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 2 hours. If you like the beans really thick then bake them longer.

The Brat’s I do cook on the grill. I start by getting he grill hot and then searing the Brats quickly on all sides. I do not leave them on the high heat for more than a few minutes right now — just long enough to sear the outside to lock in the juices. After that I use the bun rack in my grill to finish cooking them. By placing them up on the rack they are farther from the heat and cook slowly and do not burn. If you do not have the bun rack then reduce the heat on the grill. The slower you cook the Brats the better.

That is what I will be having to celebrate Independence Day this 4th of July. We will sit around after eating and talk about the family and friends that have gone or are now in harm’s way to protect and defend freedom around the world. I hope everyone has a good holiday.

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I promised the review of Land Shark Lager and According to Jim and I finally have time to set  down and do it. I don’t normally drink fancy beer like Land Shark because I can get a half rack of Old Milwaukee cheaper than a six-pack of this beer. So with the final episode of According to Jim on the DVR, a Tomb Stone Supreme pizza ready to go in the oven, and the six-pack cold in the fridge … here we go.

To start with, I had to search for a bottle opener to even open the beer. At least the cap does say to pry it off so I didn’t waste time trying to unscrew the top. Land Shark is bottled by the Margaritaville Brewing Co. It is a lighter beer than I normally drink. I tried Corona once and thought it tasted worse than fermented Buffalo piss. The Land Shark Lager has a very good flavor. It is light and not too filling. After the first one I am ready for number two.

This is really smooth beer. I have had Kool-aid that had more of a bite to it. The last time I had anything this good was when I was drinking Moose Head Beer in the Mangy Moose Saloon in Jackson Wyoming many years ago. I hope this project goes better than that night did. Two down and four to go. I am starting to feel the beer already. I have a good buzz starting and am feeling good. I am ready to move onto number three.

Popped the top on number three. Normally I am getting full after three beers, but this stuff is really good and I am not feeling full at all. I can easily chug half the bottle. I am half way into the six-pack and Enemy of the State is starting to look funny. This bodes well for Jim.

OK, I’m half way through bottle four and I am feeling very good. I was really worried about doing this post when I agreed to do it, but I am really getting into it now. I am starting to make comments I probably shouldn’t on Twitter. Perhaps Internet access is not a good idea while doing this post. Four down, onto number five. I am starting to get a little full. I am glad I did not put that pizza in the oven. I don’t think I could get through all six if I did.

Number five is open. I am feeling really good now, so I apologize if my typing gets worse. Not that it is ever all that good. Five bottles down and I am ready for the last one.

I am now on the last bottle of the six-pack. I am having some trouble with the keys on my keyboard so my typing is slowing down. I hope that my rambling makes sense to the readers. Just popped the top on number six and after I finish it I will give it some time to kick in before I begin watching According to Jim. I want to have the full effect of the beer before watching the show. I have finished the last bottle of the six-pack and actually wish I had a couple more. This is really good beer. I will have to get some more for my next BBQ to share with my in-laws.

So I am now watching the series finale of According to Jim. This episode is called “Heaven Opposed to Hell.”

The scene where Jim pretends to be excited over Dan and Andy’s news was still not funny. He still looked like a complete jerk that did not care at all about anyone but himself.

I still like seeing Dan Aykroyd, but the scene with him was not funny. He explains to Jim that they are both dead and that he has to check in with the guy at the gate. When Jim gets to the gate to check in and is red flagged he says, “Oh hell.” The gate keeper saying “potentially” was the first funny line so far.

The appearances of Lee Majors as God and Eric Estrada as The Devil was not funny. The attempts at jokes were not well written and the jokes did not make me laugh at all. The special effects when Jim opened The Devil’s gift bag were good, but his reaction did not make me believe there was really fire coming out of the gift bag. The choice of Andy to represent Jim and Dana to represent The Devil were still very predictable and not all that funny. The Devil asking how his baby was doing and rubbing Dana’s belly was really funny to me. I have always told my kids that I hope they have kids just like them and somehow I think a devil would be what Dana was like as a child. When Dana’s husband Ryan took the stand to testify and asked about the baby, Dana said “he was a little devil” and Estrada said, “Oh you are terrible” — that scene really cracked me up this time. Quick pause and break while I get rid of some of the beer. Please talk amongst yourselves until I return. Thanks.

When Andy called himself to the stand as a witness it was very disturbing to me. This guy has some serious issues with his mother fixation. I think he is the next Norman Bates if he does not get help. Jim taking over as his own defense seems like a good idea. I have to wonder why it is that early on in the show, whenever you saw Sheryl her nipples were showing through her top, which made the show much more worth watching, but now she is always wearing sweaters and other tops that do not show them. This episode would be much better with nipples showing.

On a side note, the Ashton Kutcher Nikon commercial annoyed me even more than normal while watching this. Can we please let him fade into obscurity and not have to see him unless we watch reruns of That ’70s Show?

The final scene of the trial when Sheryl and the rest of the family said they would go to hell to be with Jim was nice, but not really funny. And after Andy saved Jim by getting the shrimp puff he was choking on out and Jim spitting it on Dana was funny, but Jim deciding he would live forever because God didn’t want him and the Devil wouldn’t have him showed just how stupid Jim really is.

My assessment of the show? Overall, According to Jim is a better show when you have drunk a six-pack of Land Shark Lager, but it is still not all that funny. The jokes are still old retreads from much better acted shows and it still makes me wonder just how has this show been on the air for this long?

Now that the show is over, Bo is asking for dinner so I had better get something fixed for him. Wait — when did he learn to  talk?

Keith, thanks for the challenge of writing this project. I have really enjoyed it.

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One of my favorite meals for breakfast are baking powder biscuits and gravy. I don’t care what kind of gravy you use, these baking powder biscuits make the meal. My wife makes a fantastic sausage gravy most of the time when she makes biscuits and gravy and I have used deer, elk, bear, beef, and even grouse to make gravy for these biscuits.

I also like to eat these biscuits with some butter and homemade blackberry or strawberry jelly on them.

I have used them to make deer steak sandwiches to take along on hunting trips and for lunch at work.

This is another old recipe I got from my Mom. These old recipes are still so much better than anything you can buy in a store, and they are simple and quick to make. My wife and I have been spending more time going through old recipes and finding simple things like these biscuits to take the place of the ready-made or ready-to-bake biscuits you get in the store. These are not full of preservatives and other things that may not be so good for you. We enjoy gathering, growing and making our foods. You can use the refined white flour, whole grain flour, or even grind your own flour to use.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sifted flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons cold shortening
• 2/3 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together and cut in shortening. Add milk to make a soft dough. Place on floured board and knead for a few seconds using as little flour as possible. Roll out 1/2 inch  thick and use a lightly floured biscuit cutter to cut into biscuits. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake in a very hot oven (450 degrees) for about 12 minutes.

For some added flavor, mix in 1/2 cup of shredded cheese to the dry ingredients. For spaghetti, I like to mix in some spicy cheese mix and then after baking the biscuits add some garlic butter to them and toast them lightly in the oven for garlic bread.

If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, increase the milk to 1 cup and drop from a teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet and bake in a very hot oven (450 degrees ) for about 12 minutes

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• Redneck doughnuts – Redneck Cooking

I have been posting here on CliqueClack Food for a while now. I have really enjoyed bringing my simple recipes to everyone, and I have gotten some really good replies and suggestions from many people. I have promoted the site on my blog and on twitter — you can follow me at jelo45110 if you like — and I have brought CliqueClack Food to several people that probably would not have found it. I have had my differences with Kona and her crazy ideas about chili with no meat. I have also gotten requests from people I know at work and from people I know on Twitter, so this has got me to thinking.

Up until now I have been writing my posts using the recipes that I like. I have not paid attention to how healthy or unhealthy my recipes are. I just cook what I like and share those recipes with everyone here. After reading Kona’s post, Why don’t you just eat a burger?, I really got to thinking. My parents raised me to respect other people’s choices in life. Just because you don’t agree with their choices does not make them wrong. I certainly have not been as bad as the jerk mentioned in Kona’s post, but I have been pretty close.

So I have been looking into Vegetarians, low carb, diabetic restrictions and I have come to the conclusion that none of it makes any sense. I am totally lost. I want to expand my repertoire and maybe I will learn something in the process. So I am asking you, the readers and writers of CliqueClack, to help me out. What are your dietary restrictions? What will you eat? What won’t you eat? I have made it clear that I will eat pretty much anything slathered in bacon grease.

I know that Kona and Cate have restrictions on what they will eat because there are some vegetables that they just do not like and will not eat. As summer is fast approaching and the fishing season is beginning to pick up, I intend to have some good fresh fish recipes coming up soon. I know some vegetarians that will eat fish, some that will only eat certain kinds of fish, and some that won’t eat any fish. As a confirmed and life long meat eater I am not looking to change. I do, however, want to be able to invite a vegetarian to dinner and offer them something more than a bowl of lettuce or a mushroom sandwich.

I have some members of my own family that have type 2 diabetes and have to watch what they eat so I have some experience with that.

I know that Keith and Debbie have restrictions on goat’s milk and gluten because of food allergies their son has. I have known others that have been gluten intolerant and have tried some of the food they ate. It had very little flavor and I would rather eat cardboard than some of it. I know I am supposed to be writing recipes but this has been bothering me for a while and I really need help from all of you so, thanks for reading my ramblings and helping me out.

Thank you.

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