Pecan Pie

I love the idea of pecan pie because I love pecans and I love caramel and nuts and pie crust, so really, pecan pie should be delicious! But the problem is that it is not. It is generally too sugary and lacking in pecans/pecan flavor. So I think I have found a few simple solutions to make delicious pecan pie :)

In a saucepan combine the following ingredients:
1 cube butter (you can get away with 3/4 cube)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar and I mean brown sugar, not the off brand white sugar with molasses stuff that most of the public think is brown sugar-though that will work.
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup water
Melt butter and mix together until smooth.  Remove from heat.
Whisk together
3 eggs
If the sugar/butter mixture is fairly hot, temper the eggs (whisk some sugar/butter mixture into the eggs so the eggs don't cook from the high heat of the sugar mixture) and then whisk into the butter/sugar mixture.
Mix in:
2-3 tsps vanilla
1/2-1 tsp salt
The above 2 ingredients are really to taste. The salt is one of the solutions to helping the pecan pie not be too sweet.  Start with the smaller portion and taste. Then add more if you want.
Chop a ton of pecans! 3-4 large handfuls-about
2-3 cups pecans (before chopping). 
This is the real solution-finely chopped pecans. If you want some large or whole pieces, that's fine, do that as well, but if you want a pecan pie, not a brown sugar pie, you will need to add finely chopped pecans.
Add pecans to raw pie crust. Pour butter/sugar mixture over the pecans. Cover the edge of the crust with strips of tinfoil otherwise it will burn.  Bake at 350° for 25 minutes and then remove tinfoil edges. Then bake for 20-25 minutes more.
Enjoy your delicious pecan pie!

Pepper Steak

**Warning**
This recipe is estimates.  It is very flexible and written out based on memory from making it.  

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1-2 lbs steak (could use London broil as well)
1-2 Tbls butter or oil (unless there is plenty of fat on your meat)
1 sliced or chopped onion
2-4 green peppers, cleaned out and cut into large pieces
3-5 beef bullion cubes

Mix together flour, salt, & pepper.  Sprinkle onto meat and pound into meat, getting it all around the meat.  In a large skillet or fry pan (with a lid), heat oil and brown steak.  Add onion and saute for a few minutes.  Cover with water and add bullion cubes.  Bring to biol and simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.  Add large chunks of green pepper.  Let continue to simmer until green peppers are cooked through and soft (another 30 minutes-1 hour).  Pull meat out and blend with immersion blender or take liquid out of pan along with pepper chunks and blend.  Then return with meat.  Add any remaining flour mixture to thicken.  Add more flour if needed (I would add this when I blended to prevent any flour chunks).  Salt & Pepper to taste.

Serve over cooked rice.

And the following is my favorite, favorite, favorite way to cook rice!!  I LOVE it!  And I LOVE the brown rice I get from our Costco.  It is delicious!

Baked Brown Rice 
3 cups brown rice
5 1/2 cups HOT water
1 Tbls butter
1 tsp salt

Add ingredients to a 9"x 13" pan.  Cover tightly with tinfoil.  Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and fluff with fork.  Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Broccoli Chicken & Rice

I got this recipe from theprettybee.com

I'm going to try it out today, if it is good, I will leave it up, if it is not so good, I will delete it. I'm hoping it's good!

PREP TIME

10 mins

COOK TIME

4 hours

TOTAL TIME

4 hours 10 mins

 

A classic comfort food, cheesy broccoli chicken rice, made gluten free and dairy free.

Author: The Pretty Bee

Recipe type: Slow Cooker

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1½ pounds chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup uncooked long grain rice (white or brown, your choice)
• 1 32 ounce box chicken broth
• 1¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅓ teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups of chopped broccoli
• 1¼ cup Daiya dairy free cheddar cheese (use regular cheese if you are not dairy free)

METHOD

1. Put the olive oil, chopped onion, and garlic in the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Add the chicken breast pieces, salt, pepper, and rice.
3. Pour ⅔ of the container of broth on top. Stir.
4. Put lid on the slow cooker and turn it on high. Cook for four hours on high.
5. After two hours, check to make sure there is still enough liquid inside. If not, add some more warmed up broth.
6. A half an hour before it is done, add the chopped broccoli and stir. Add more warm broth if needed.
7. Cook for another half an hour until broccoli is bright green and tender.
8. Add the Daiya cheese and stir until melted. Season with more salt and pepper if desired.
9. Serve immediately.

Soda Pop Biscuits

4 Cups Bisquick mix
1 cup Sourcream
1 cup lemon/lime soda such as sprite, 7-up or any off-brands
1/2 cup butter

Melt butter in 9x13 casserole pan.
Cut sour cream into Bisquick mix at you would shortening into flour.
Add lemon/lime soda and stir together.  Dump onto floured surface.  Pat to be about 3/4" thick and cut into biscuits.  Place biscuits into the melted butter in the pan.

I generally shape the pile of dough into a 9x13" rectangle.  Then I just make 4 parallell cuts through the dough, and then 2 long cuts, creating 15 squares.  Then I place them into the melted butter in the 9x13" pan.  This keeps my dough light and fluffy.  You end up with square biscuits, but that doesn't really matter to me.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

*If you don't have Bisquick (which I generally don't) you can make it from scratch.
Homemade Bisquick Mix:
4 cups flour
2 TBLS baking powder
2 tsp salt
Mix together.
Cut in 2/3 cup shortening

You can double the recipe and have enough for 2 batches.

Store in fridge for up to 4 months.

Chicken Fajitas Ole' & Homemade Flour Tortillas

2 Tbls oil
2 large onions chopped
3 stalks chopped celery
2 green peppers, chopped

1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder 
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika

1-2 cups chopped chicken (depending on what you have and how meaty you want it)

2 tomatoes
1 can green chilis (or 1-2 chopped anaheim peppers)
1/2 cup chopped olives

*Keep in mind that the vegetables and amounts are variable.  You can add other peppers, more or less of something and it will likely still be delicious!

1/4 cup water

2 cups grated cheese
20 flour tortillas (homemade option below are delicious)
1/4 cup green onions
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Heat oil in pan.  Saute green pepper, onion, and celery.  Add chicken & spices and stir fry.  Add tomatoes, green chilies and olives. Cook for a few minutes. Add 1/4 cup water and turn heat down to medium low. Cook 3-4 minutes.
Spoon into tortillas, sprinkle with cheese and roll up tortillas.  Place in baking dish.  Sprinkle with green onions, parsley, and remainder of cheese.
Cover with foil and bake in oven 300 degrees for 15 minutes.  Serve with guacamole, sour cream, & salsa.

Crock Pot Option:
**for this option, use 2-4 raw, skinless, boneless chicken breasts**
Add all ingredients from oil to the water in crock pot.
Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low 5-6 hours.
About 30 minutes to an hour before serving, pull out chicken and shred or shred directly into mixture. Stir into mixture to simmer another 15-30 minutes before simmering.  You can have people build their own or bake it all in the oven in the tortillas.  Both options are yummy.

Homemade Flour Tortillas:
5 cups flour
1 1/2 TBLS baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1 1/2-2 cups HOT water

Mis together dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening.  Stir in water and do not overmix.  Roll out on a floured surface and fry on griddle or fry pan-no oil needed for frying.

Dad's Amazing Hot Chocolate Recipe

I titled this as "Hot Chocolate" because Hot Cocoa doesn't actually quite say it right.  This is amazing and only for true chocolate lovers-meaning real chocolate-not fake chocolate, but real, delicious, good quality chocolate!  And I love it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream in it (I love ice-cream-chocolate ice-cream or chocolate smothered ice-cream-so of course, I would love a scoop of ice-cream in my hot cocoa-or better known as hot chocolate.

I am just pasting the recipe the way my dad sent it to me-I added several more shakes of salt though because I love salt and how it really brings out the flavor.

Jims Hot Cocoa:

2 parts water

1 part cocoa powder

1 part brown sugar (start with less - easy to add more later)

small dash of salt

Bring to low boil stirring constantly, add large dash of baking soda (e.g. 1/16 tsp for half cup cocoa), keep stirring until fizzing stops and bad smell dissipates (you're getting rid of the acid).

Remove from heat, add:

2 parts semi-sweet choc chips (e.g. regular Nestle)

1 part darker choc chips (or French Vanilla disks)

(You can vary that, e.g. use 1 part semi-sweet, 1 part milk chocolate chips).

Stir in until thoroughly blended, then return to medium heat and start adding milk by small amounts at first, blending in after each addition.  Some cream is nice if you have some.  Initially add milk slowly enough that the mixture stays warm & keeps the chocolate melted.

Keep adding milk until it tastes about right (usually I stop right after I've added just a little too much).  Add vanilla. Add sugar if needed (especially if you started with half the expected amount).

If too sweet, adding milk can reduces sweetness some.

All of this is very approximate.