Food, Food and More Food!!!

If you're on Facebook at all then you've noticed lately how much I've been posting about making food. Part of the reason is I've been finding really great deals on bulk amounts of produce through a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. So far I have canned dill pickles and salsa on my own and apple pie filling with a friend using food from the co-op. I have also canned blueberry-lime jam with some friends because the blueberries were on sale.

 All my pickles minus 2 jars. Andrew keeps asking if he can eat them yet.

 I made 1 batch of each type of salsa, so I have 4 varieties.

 

 Aren't they pretty?

 All my salsas set up for my salsa tasting open house. :)

 

Yummy!!!

 

I totally stole this idea from my friend Amanda.

 What better place to store my canned food than in the kitchen?

 

Most of the apple pie filling. It's still on my counter since we just canned everything yesterday.

  

The rest of the apple pie filling.

 

 
I have also started once a month cooking (OAMC) with another friend. We've only done it once but we're  already planning our meals for next time. In fact we have a blog specifically to discuss and plan our meals: http://freezercookingexperiment.blogspot.com/. The reason I've finally been able to do OAMC is because I found an awesome freezer on craigslist for a reasonable price. I love being able to buy meat when it's on sale and stock up our freezer.

My lovely craigslist freezer (it's frostless)!

 All stocked up after cooking all day and meat sales.

Yummy meals ready for eating.

Brownie Yummy Goodness

I went to a baby shower a couple of weeks ago and someone there made this super yummy dessert. I don't know what she calls it but I have decided to call it Brownie Yummy Goodness. :) It is very easy and very YUMMY! I thought that I would share it with everyone.

*Recipe Notes* I'm not sure what size of pudding box you need I only had a large one and it turned out really good. I also only made one batch of brownies and thought that 2 would make it even better.*

Brownie Yummy Goodness

Ingredients:
Brownies (either make or buy the equivalent of 2 9x9 pans of brownies)
1 box of chocolate pudding mix
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup water
1 16 oz container of cool whip

Directions:
1. Crumble the brownies into small pieces (1"x1" or so)
2. Mix the chocolate pudding, sweetened condensed milk, water, and 8 oz of cool whip together.
3. Mix the crumbled brownies with the mixture you made in #2 and spread out in a 9x12 pan.
4. Spread the rest of the cool whip on top.
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. Dig in!

Only 65 Days Left Until...

Christmas!!! I bet you all thought that I was going to say until the baby comes, nope that's 70 days, only 2.5 months. It really is crazy how time flies. I'm feeling kind of like Costco right now. They have Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations out for sale right now but they're really gearing up for Christmas. :) I'm also feeling like a little kid again: counting down the days, wondering what I'm going to get, feeling like it's never going to come, wanting to make Christmas sugar cookies or at least get the premade dough and eat it (not that I was allowed, but I like cookie dough). :)

Andrew told me that some of his family are planning to go to Afton Wyoming for Christmas to visit his Dad's parents and that sounds like a lot of fun. But I'm not going anywhere anytime near Christmas, well except for the hospital that is. :) It's actually kind of weird not going to either of our parent's houses for Christmas, or Thanksgiving for that matter. I guess we were really spoiled living so close to both of our parents and extended family. Andrew says Christmas with just the two of us will be fun, I think it will be too. I'm just glad that we've already got our Christmas tree, with lights on it and everything. :)

Yummy Recipes!!

We went to a party tonight at one of Andrew's co-workers' house and it was fun and there were lots of really yummy hors d'oeuvres but one that I kept coming back to was some yummy goo on an english muffin. They were so good that I asked the hostess for the recipe and she wrote it down for me and I think it was good enough to share with everyone. :)

Ingredients:
~1 jar old english cheddar cheese
~1 stick butter
~garlic (as much as you like)
~1 can crab meat

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together. Spread 1½ tablespoons on each half of an english muffin. Freeze topped english muffins overnight (you can put on aluminum foil and move straight from the freezer to the oven). Broil for 8-10 minutes or until brown. Quarter to serve as an hors d'oeuvre.

**I forgot to ask how many english muffins the spread can cover.


The other recipe is for crock pot lasagna which I made today for a church activity. It is also really yummy! :)

Ingredients:
~2 26½-oz. cans spaghetti sauce (I like Hunts)
~1 pound of hot italian sausage, browned (if you don't want spicy lasagna use ground beef instead)
~1½ cups cottage cheese
~16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
~½ cup parmesan cheese
~1 box uncooked lasagna noodles

Directions:
Spray the crock-pot with cooking spray.
Mix the spaghetti sauce with the cooked italian sausage in a bowl.
Mix the 3 cheeses in another bowl.
Spread the meat sauce mixture in the bottom of the crock-pot. Put the raw lasagna noodles on top of the sauce to cover, you may have to break some noodles depending on the shape of your crock pot. Next spread a layer of the cheese mixture to cover the noodles. Put the lasagna noodles on top of the cheese. Continue to alternate meat sauce, noodles, cheese mixture, noodles, meat sauce, etc. until you reach the top of your crock pot. The last layer to go on will be the remainder of the cheese mixture and the remainder of the meat sauce to cover the noodles.
Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.