Tis the season

I know my blog is a food blog; however, I haven't had the time to make anything due to the holiday season. So, I decided to share about my holiday. 

Christmas is probably my favorite holiday. Not because of the presents, even though that's a plus, but because of family and friends. I love how this season shows the love family has for each other. The kindness and joy this holiday brings into homes is heartwarming. It's a time where I get to see my brother and sister-in-law, who live in California, bringing the whole family together once again. Our house is filled with laughter and stories from the past. We are able to continue making memories together like we did when we all lived under the same roof. We were raised in a christian household and every year we jump into the story of Jesus once more, filling our house with the spirit of the Lord; experiencing the true joy of Christmas with the people I hold dear to my heart. 

For the past 2 years I've been able to share my love of Christmas and the Lord with the Hearne family. They continue to make me feel like part of their family. The Lord blessed me with a great man, as well as a great family. I have the opportunity to spend the afternoon on Christmas Eve with my boyfriends family to enjoy lunch and exchanging of gifts. This year his family was too generous.

 Tanner and Meagan, Taylor's brother and sister-in-law, gifted me an adorable apron and oven mitt. I seriously have been wanting an apron and now I finally have one and I love it; can't wait to put it to use! 

Mr. and Mrs. Hearne gifted me two great measuring cups from Pampered Chef. Always a necessity in a kitchen, so this was a perfect gift!

I can't wait to put my measuring cups, oven mitt, and apron to use! 

Thank you for all the love shared during this Christmas time. 

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year

Tater's Tots

I already like the website I got the recipe from; they've got the same idea as I do. These delicious tots are from made from pinterest. They are my kind of meal, simple and delicious. It's a quick dish and easy to consume, whether it's on its own or as a side. 

~Once again, I forgot to take a picture of our creation. I just get so excited about eating the meal that I forget about the pictures! Let's hope the next time I remember & use my own pictures~

Ingredients

1 bag of frozen tater tots

1 c sour cream

1/2 c ranch dressing

1/4 c milk

1 c shredded cheddar cheese or more if desired (you can never go wrong with more cheese)

1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 c real bacon bits

1/4 c green onions

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the tots on a cooking sheet according to the package instructions. 

While tater tits are cooking, mix sour cream, ranch, and milk until well blended.

Drizzle mixture over cooked tater tots. 

Sprinkle cheese, bacon bits, and green onions all over the top of tater tots.

Put back into the oven and cook until the cheese is melted.

Serve immediately!!

TATER RATER

Suggestions: Tater would have given this a 5 if it was a delicious side dish. So, that is my suggestion; pair this with a burger or a hot dog or chicken nuggets, pretty much anything you would eat with fries

Hearne Chili

This chili brings back good memories; it is the first thing Taylor ever made for me and let me tell ya, it's delicious. I like to call this recipe Hearne Chili. Why? Well, simply because I got this awesome recipe from the Hearne family! Which in their house I'm sure they just call it chili. Nonetheless, this chili is the best. However, I could be biased. But, it's true, this chili is yummy. Definitely a reoccurring dinner in the Anderson-Tate apartment. Taylor's dad recently reminded me about this chili and I thank him for that; how did I forget about this!? It's a cheap (that's what a college student loves to hear!), fast, easy, and a fantastic dinner. It's a good break from ramen too. Give it a try!

-I used sweet onion Ranch Style beans-

-The Hearne boys like a kick to their meals, so they get the Jalepeno beans-

-You cant go wrong with either options-

Ingredients

Can of Stewed tomatoes

Wolf brand chili no beans
Ranch Style Beans

Directions

Stove: Medium-Low

Pour in tomatoes, beans, and chili. 

-DO NOT DRAIN TOMATOES-

Let it simmer slowly, stir occasionally, do not let burn.

TATER RATER

Suggestions: Tater and I love cheese, so we topped it with shredded cheese. You can never go wrong with a side of corn bread, you wont regret it.

~Thank you Mr. Hearne!~

Crockpot Sausage Dip

We had another chance to use our crockpot! This is not from Pinterest. However, I'm sure you can find it.  I discovered this delicious dip a few years ago on a mission trip to Jackson, Mississippi. The pastor's mother lives in Mississippi and one of the nights we would go to her house for a fantastic dinner. Every time I went on the trip she always made this mouthwatering dip and I always, always devoured it; I was never hungry for dinner, which was perfectly fine with me because my stomach was filled with this delicious dip. I swear she adds a splash of love to this dip because it's addictive. It's been awhile since I've made the dip and I can't imagine why, but I'm glad it is once again in my stomach. I hope y'all enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients

16 oz Jimmy Dean sausage

12 oz cream cheese, softened

Can of Rotel tomatoes

Directions

Crockpot: Low

Heat cream cheese in crockpot.

 In a medium sauce pan, brown sausage until no longer pink-break it up into small pieces.

Drain the grease.

Add the browned sausage and Rotel to the cream cheese mixture.

Stir to combine. 

TATER RATER

Suggestions: If you don't like your dip to be thick, add a splash of milk!

Personally, I like to eat with Fritos Scoops, but tortilla chips work perfectly fine.

Sweet Potato Casserole

I normally post on Friday or Saturday, but with Thanksgiving just around the corner I figured why not! I love Thanksgiving. Mainly because of the food, but I do love the company. My family's Thanksgiving is always welcome to friends. My mom likes to think of it as an orphan Thanksgiving. Both sides of my family, even my brother and his wife, live in California. So, we invite friends over who have family other places as well. For the past few years the same people have sat around our table and shared thanksgiving together. I am thankful for all the people that love us and want to be in our company. We love having everyone to share Thanksgiving memories with. 

On to the glorious dish- I made this last year for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it. I will most likely make it for the holiday this year. Tonight we had an event for Diamond Sweethearts, "friendsgiving", where I brought this delicious dish. I assume everyone liked it since it was practically all gone. Luckily, there was a little left for Tater to eat so she could do her rating. She ate it cold and was even pleased with that; so if its good cold, you know that it will be amazing warm. Other than stuffing, sweet potato casserole is my favorite Thanksgiving dish. But lets be real, every thanksgiving dish is my favorite. This recipe is from Ruth Chris Steakhouse. Now you know this will be a good recipe; I promise it won't disappoint. 

Like 90% of the time, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product and I'm beating myself up about it because it looked so amazing. So, I got this picture off where I originally found the recipe.

Ingredients

3 c mashed sweet potatoes

1 c sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs- well beaten

1 stick (1/2 c) of butter, melted 

Crumble:

1 c brown sugar

1/3 c flour

1 c chopped pecans

1/3 stick of butter- MELTED

**I don't use marshmellows, but
If you're a marshmellow lover get a bag of marshmellows
put as much on as desired, but don't go too crazy!

Directions

Oven: 350

For the crust: melt the butter then combine all ingredients. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine mashed sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and MELTED butter. Mix well. Then, pour mixture into buttered baking dish. **Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the sweet potato mixture. Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to set at least 30 minutes before serving.

Serves 6

TATER RATER

 

Suggestion: Double the recipe! 

**For you marshmellow lovers- add marshmallow fluff evenly over mixture, then sprinkle the crumble over the top of sweet potato mixture. 

Taylor's Tomato Basil Soup

This is a simple twist to a classic soup; the twist is basil if you couldn't tell. I am not a big fan of tomato soup, but my boyfriend insisted that I make some. Obviously I did and it was pretty good! I recommend making a grilled cheese. We did and it was a great choice. If you're in the mood for soup and sandwich this recipe is perfect. Enjoy!

                           

Ingredients

Can of Campbell’s tomato soup
(I recommend family size can)

Heavy whipping cream

Basil (to taste)

Directions

Stove: Low

Pour can of tomato soup into pot
Stir in half of the heavy whipping cream or how ever much you please.
Add basil.
-First time I tried this recipe, I added too much basil-
-So, I recommend a few leaves (3-4) cut into small bits-
Constantly stir soup until hot.

TATER RATER

-I think it's because I put in too much basil-

Crockpot French Onion Soup

Leslie, my roommate, and I have been saying that we need a crockpot. So, we finally got one! We searched through Pinterest and found a French Onion Soup from Cookie Monster Cooking. I've never been a fan of french onion soup, but Leslie is, so I figured I would try it out. The process takes quite some time. So if you have the day free, I'd try this out. It is worth the time, the onions caramelize so well. This recipe also makes a large amount of soup. We ended up freezing the majority of the soup.
We weren't able to follow the directions completely since we didn't have oven-safe bowl, so the way I executed the end is a little different. If you have an oven-safe bowl, I would go check out the original recipe. 

- I forgot to take a picture, so here is the picture from where I got the recipe-

Ingredients

6 tbs unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
8 cups low sodium beef broth
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
¾ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
Parmesan cheese
Loaf of french bread
freshly shredded gruyere cheese
(we used plain swiss cheese)

Directions

Crockpot: high

Add in the butter chunks and then put on the cover. 

Once the butter is melted, add in the sliced onions. 

Mix to combine. Put on the cover and let cook for about 1 hour.

After the first hour, give the onions a good stir. 

Place a double layer of paper towels under the lid (this will help absorb some of the moisture - you’ll want to replace this layer about 2 to 3 times during the cooking process). 

Continue to cook on high for about 5 to 6 additional hours, 

stirring the onions about every 35 to 45 minutes.

You want the onions to be a caramel color. 

Towards the end, you may need to stir them more often so you don’t burn them

Discard the paper towels. Turn down the crockpot to low. 

Add in the broth, bay leaf, garlic, salt and pepper. 

Cover and cook for 1 hour. 

Discard the bay leaf and then taste and adjust with additional salt/pepper if needed.

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This is where you would use the oven safe bowls, but since we don't have any here is what we did:

 Put the oven on broil.

As the oven is heating up:

 cut the loaf in half, add butter, parmesan cheese, and gruyere cheese (or swiss)

heat for about a minute, keep checking on the bread so it doesn't burn. 

-Instead of placing cubes of bread in the soup, I dipped the bread into the soup. Just as delicious-

TATER RATER

Suggestions: Depending on your broth, you’ll need to adjust the amount of salt to your taste, so just taste and adjust as needed. You can always add more salt later, so start with a lower amount and go from there. 

I love cheese, so I also sprinkled parmesan cheese into the soup. Highly recommended

Game Day Sliders

 Happy November! It's a new month and I missed posting last week, so I am making it up with this delicious recipe. If you're looking for something to eat while cheering on your favorite team, "Eat 'em up cats!", try these awesome sliders! My recipe is a little different from the original; I've taken away the mayo (I do not like mayo one bit, kinda makes me gag) and added worcestershire sauce, which was one of the most brilliant ideas ever. If you're not like me and enjoy mayo, go check out the recipe from Normal Cooking! This recipe worked perfect for me, a college student, since I did not have to grill the burgers. Plus, I love Kings Hawaiian Sweet Rolls!



Ingredients

1 lb of ground beef
1 pkg of onion soup mix
½ cup of shredded cheese
¼ teaspoon of garlic powder
½ teaspoon of black pepper
Worcestershire sauce
1 pkg of kings Hawaiian sweet rolls (12-count)
-any type of mini hamburger buns will work too- 
3 slices of American cheese

Directions

Oven: 350
In a medium size bowl, mix raw beef, shredded cheese, pepper, onion mix,
garlic powder, and a couple of drops of Worcestershire sauce
Flatten hamburger mix in a 9x13 pan to form a thin layer (1/4 thick) bake for approximately 20 minutes- meat will shrink into smaller size. Remove, cut into 12 quarters. Top with sliced cheese - I usually fold the cheese and break apart to make smaller squares.
Put back into oven and cook for another 5 min. so the cheese can melt a bit.
Remove and place on buns.
(The original recipe has you place these in foil, if you want to try that head over to Normal Cooking)

TATER RATER


Suggestions: add avocado or pickles or condiments or all of 'em!

Chicken Parmesan Crescents

I love simple meals. Simple and delicious meals. And I found one! Of course, like every recipe I make, I found this delicious recipe on Pinterest from Six Sisters' Stuff. It's a classic meal with a twist. Give it a try, its yummy!

Ingredients

8 chicken strips, fully cooked (We used Tyson Crispy Chicken Strips)
1 8oz can crescent rolls
8 slices mozzarella cheese (we used shredded)
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
1 Tbsp butter (melted)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Oven: 375

First, you need to cook the chicken strips according to package directions.

After cooking the chicken, or while cooking, Separate crescent rolls into 8 triangles. 

Place one slice of cheese on the wide end of each crescent roll. 

In a saucepan over low heat, warm spaghetti sauce until heated through. 

Dip cooked chicken strips in spaghetti sauce so they are completely covered. 

Place dipped chicken strips on top of cheese and roll up crescent rolls. 

Place rolls on an ungreased baking sheet. 

Brush melted butter on top of each roll;

sprinkle with garlic powder, Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese. 

Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

TATER RATER

Suggestion: Ours got a little too golden brown and I only put it in for 13 minutes. It may just be our oven cooks a little faster, so next time I'll try 10 minutes and keep checkin up on it.

A Twist to the Average Ramen

I found the perfect meal, well to me at least, to liven up the famous college dish; A Twist to the Average Ramen. It's an easy and quick recipe. Even if you aren't a fan of Thai food, I still suggest you give it a try. I didn't feel much like cooking tonight, but I also didn't feel like plain ol' Ramen, so I went on Pinterest, of course, and typed in "Ramen Noodle Recipes". Ramen is basically the majority of my diet, so I wanted to spice things up. I found this recipe from Seventh House on the Left and was quite pleased. It is basically college Thai food. I love me some thai food and haven't had it in a while. Luckily, I had all ingredients, which isn't likely with the recipes I usually find. I'll probably have it again whenever I feel like spicing up my Ramen. 

Ingredients

Package of Ramen Noodles 

-any flavor is okay, but I used Chicken-

2 tbs of Chunky Peanut Butter

1 tbsp of Soy Sauce

2 tsp of Sriracha 

Directions

Cook Ramen according to package.

Once it’s done, drain most of the broth – only leave about a tablespoon or two of broth. 

While the noodles are still hot, add the chunky peanut butter. 

Once the peanut butter is melted completely, add the soy sauce and Sriracha.

Stir until everything is evenly combined. 

TATER RATER

She went home for the weekend, but I will make her try this 

and update it when she does 

Suggestions: I would but in 1 1/2 tbs next time. Don't get me wrong, I love peanut butter, but it was over powering. Add lime juice. I know I did and I don't regret it. Also, thinly sliced scallions make a good addition to taste.