Cooking with Miss Kay - Mexican Corn Bread - Take 2

As you are most likely well aware of by now, I recently purchased Miss. Kay's cook book and I have attempted many of the recipes already.  You can read about my first attempt at the Mexican Corn Bread here.  It was good enough that we knew I needed to try it again and get it right this time.

 

This time, I did not crisscross the bacon.  I laid it out in the pan and cut some slices to fit.  I used about 9 pieces.

Then I mixed up all the ingredients

 

I cooked the bacon until it was almost done.    It was crispy, but not too crispy.  I drained a good bit of the grease, but first I greased the sides.

Then I added the corn bread mixture and cooked.    It came out perfect.  The corn bread was not greasy, the bacon was crisp.  We all loved it.  This time it was an A+ for sure!

If you don't already have Miss Kay's cook book.  I suggest you get it!

Cooking with Miss Kay - Nutty Good Oatmeal Cookies

My mom called and she needed to put together some marketing baskets for her work.  I decided to help her and I whipped together some of Miss Kay's Nutty Good Oatmeal Cookies (Page 78)

 

These were easy to make.  No harder than a normal cookie recipe.

I doubled the recipe, risky I guess, because I had not tried them.  But so far Miss Kay has not let me down.  EVERYTHING has been good, really good. 

 

So I made 7 dozen.

15 minutes later....

They turned out great, some were a little flatter than others, but I think that's because I did not get all the butter fully mixed in everywhere.  It is a very thick batter.

 

 

 

In the morning I bagged them up, and I had a thief.  That's always a good sign.  (He has to double fist his cookies, and his biscuits, and...you get the idea, anything)

 

 

Miss Kay recommends keeping a full cookie jar, I'm not sure about this.  I don't know anyone who does this.  I thought cookie jars were just for decoration.  Its not air tight.  But I figured, what the heck.  I'll give it a shot.

 

 

I did give people a heads up.  "Hey, there are now cookies in the cookie jar"  I'm sure my husband is in shock, or not sure whats going on.  I can see this turning in to the biscuit ordeal I have gotten my self into.  Every day Eli asks me to make more biscuits.  I am going to try to make some this afternoon....maybe I should double or triple that recipe....give myself a few days off from biscuit making.

 

UPDATE: 

Someone has figured out I keep cookies in the cookie jar.  And he lets me know through a series of grunts what he wants.  On another note, my mom took the cookies out on her marketing calls & she told her potential customers that her daughter had made these cookies from Miss Kay's cook book.  She said people were in love with them before they ate them "Miss Kay!  Oh I know I will like these."  "What a great Christmas present idea" (the cook book)  I'm so happy everyone liked them!

 



Cooking with Miss Kay - Homemade Mac & Cheese

 

I was excited and nervous about this one.  Since we have moved to our new home, in the country, and I am homeschooling I have wanted to cook lunches. Really, just cook more in general for my family.   Sandwiches get boring & price wise I think you can fix a nice healthy lunch for the same price.  I have tried a few homemade mac & cheese recipes and I could never get it right.  But I have had good homemade mac &cheese, so I knew it could be done & I was not ready to give up on my search for a good homemade mac & cheese recipe.

 

I started with some elbow macaroni.

 

Many of Miss Kay's recipes start like this:

 

 

Every thing is all mixed up and ready to bake.....

Here we go!

 

I was so nervouse.  I hate putting work into something and having it turn out...not so good.

 

Guess what?

 

It didn't happen!

 

 

Miss Kay's homemade mac & cheese (page 70) got a thumbs up from both boys & me.  They said next time I could add a bit more cheese & I agreed.  So that it the only change I will make.  It made a big 9x13 dish and we will heat this up for a few days.

 

 

I did not figure points on this one yet, but I ate a reasonable serving size and was full.

 

 

 

Cooking with Miss Kay - Melt in your Mouth Biscuits- take 2

These were such a hit on Sunday morning, we had the left over ones on Monday night with the pot roast.  That night my middle son was begging me to make more. "Please mom!  Please!  Make the home made biscuits."  I promised to make them first thing in the morning.  (Tuesday morning).  So I got up and mixed everything together.

 

 

He was so excited he watched.  This really touched my heart to see him sitting in the kitchen talking to me while I was cooking something that he was so excited to eat.  Like, really, really excited to eat

 

I popped them in the oven and baked for 20 min

 

 

They came out nice and hot and ready to eat

 

 

 

We added some of our homemade strawberry jelly (courtesy of my mom).   I had three very happy boys!  (And rolls for dinner too!)

 

 

Melt in your Mouth Biscuits (page 75).

Cooking with Miss Kay - Willie's Favorite Roast with Vegetables

 

This was my first time to cook a roast.  I was excited to try it and I like how she suggest it as a Sunday meal.  We go to church on Saturday nights, but it is still nice to have meals where you can throw everything in a pot & eat it in a few hours. 

 

Willie's Favorite Roast with Vegetables (page 32)

I did a few things wrong.  First, my cast iron Dutch oven was not large enough, so I moved everything in to a larger pot.  I am thinking this contributed to a longer cook time, because cast iron cooks much hotter than a normal pot.

 

The vegetables were a little crispy, which was odd.. 

 

But everyone agreed it had a really great flavor and I should try again.  I think I am going to get a large cast iron Dutch oven and give it another shot.  Or try again with a lid.  I'm not sure. But its worth making again.

The points on this one vary depending on what you eat, potatoes are 3pts each, meat for 3oz is 4pts, and the veggies are 2 pts.  I'm not sure on the gravy.

Cooking with Miss Kay - Jase's Choice Italan Creme Cake

On Sunday I was in a baking frenzy.  I was and still am in love with Miss Kay's cook book.  We were having an after Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving at my mom house and I decided to make Jase's Choice Italian Crème Cake (page 30).  I was not really sure what it would taste like, I had never had it before. 

 

 

This cake was so unbelievably awesome.  I absolutely loved it.  I thought it was good enough to sell in a bakery.  It got rave reviews from everyone who ate it & my mom thinks it should be what I take when I bring dishes to peoples homes.

 

By my calculations the cake is 12 diet points

Cooking with Miss Kay - Melt in your Mouth Biscuits

The second thing I made from Miss Kay's cook book was her Melt in your Mouth Biscuits (page 75).  They were not hard at all to make and I served them with bacon and eggs.

 

 

You can see I had a very happy boy (4 actually)

 

By my calculations this is 5 diet points

 

The next morning we had the left overs with jelly & tonight my middle son was begging me to make them.  I promised I would get up and make them in the morning for breakfast.

 



Cooking with Miss Kay - Mexican Corn Bread

On our way home from Arkansas we decided to take a side trip and go to see the Duck Commander warehouse.

 

 

I was not really sure what to expect, and I was very impressed.  it was extremely crowded that day, which surprised me.  Apparently a lot of people had the same idea.  I felt like the Robertson's were very accommodating to their fans.  They have huge parking areas for guest and several photo opt areas.

 

 

 

 

As I was browsing I saw Miss Kay had a cook book.  I took a look at it and decided to buy it.  I was so excited to read it.  She has so many story's about her family.  And I have so many favorite parts, which is funny, because its a cook book, you would not think it would make for good reading, but it did!  In addition to the awesome recipes.

 

(So excited that I am going to be cooking like Miss Kay)

 

The first thing I made was the Mexican corn bread. (page 55) I made it Saturday night at 9:30pm, so it was some late night cooking.  It has bacon, jalapenos, cheddar cheese and corn bread.  Wow, it was so good.  I have to do some tweaking to it.  The bacon was not quite as crisp as I would have liked and the corn bread was a little greasy. I did 10 slices in one pan & I think that caused the problem.  Next time I make it I will cook the bacon longer, drain, the add the corn bread once the bacon is crisper.

 

I did not take a picture of it, but I will next time for sure.  It was something that everyone agreed I should try to make again.

It yielded 16 servings and I figured it to be 9 diet points, because, yes I am still trying.

Pintrest Inspired - Cozy Coop Make Over

Recently my sister gave me my nieces old cozy coop.  I got the idea from  Pintrest to make a Bat Mobil.  I didn't consult the picture before I did it, so I just did the bat symbol.

Before

 

 

 Flat Black Paint

 

Finished product

 

He loves it!

Pumpkin Painting

This is a classic, easy and fun.

 

 For easy clean up I covered the table with brown paper, put paint on paper plates and let the creativity happen,

 

This took 20/30 min, could take longer depending on how detailed your kiddo is.

 

Eli was so proud of his pumpkin.

 

Have fun crafting ~Laura

Small World - Fall Play

I set up some fun "small world" fall play for the kids.  I will leave it up as long as they are showing  interest.  Sometimes people ask what small world play is, and it is just a term for a pretend world of play that I create for them. 

 

First I covered the table with brown paper.  Then I set up the pumpkins in the center.  I knew I would have four sections of our fall farm.

 

Giant Pumpkin Mountian

 I placed a few guys on the mountain and a little sign that said "pumpkin mountain"

 

The fall leaf tree

I took some of our table scatter and put it around one of our lego trees, I also added a lego man and a rake.

The Pumpkin Patch

Here we have more table scatter (targets dollar bin, also great math counters) lego men, and tractor

 

 Cute little farm

Here is the farm part of the "Fall farm small world"

barn, lego animals and men

 

Around the whole "small world"  I drew a brick road.

 

I love setting these up because the kids add to it.  We started with this & currently we have Batman, green Lantern their cars and an array of super hero's playing on the farm.  Its fun to see imagination at work.

 

Have fun Playing ~ Laura

Fall Bean Leafs

 

I love the fall & I love crafts.  Every day after school we are doing some kind of craft.

 

This was our bean leaf craft.  For this I had the leaf pre-cut out of card board, an assortment of beans, and glue.

 

Then the boys got creative.

Eli's leaf.

Noah's leaf.

 

Super simple and fun. 

 

Have fun crafting.~Laura

Adventures in Homesteading - The Back to Eden Garden

We are putting in our first fall garden & decided to use the "Back to Eden" Method.  We had orginially planned to have the garden area tilled and then the mulch delivered, but the man I found on craigslist appeared to have a drug problem and that did not work out.  So we went to plan B.  The rail road ties (30) were delivered on a Thursday & 75 yards of finely shreddedmulch were delivered on Friday. 

We originally thought we could spread all 75 yards by hand.  We were wrong.  We spread out a paper that helps prevent weeds.  After some further reading and since we were waiting for the man to come and spread the mulch we sprayed the majority of the weeds with vinegar.  This took a lot of time and it 1/2 way worked.  I think it works best on walk way areas, and actual weeds, not grass.

 

The day came and we eagerly watched them spread our mulch.

 

The guys were very nice and worked much faster than we ever could have

 

 

We shortened the garden from the original size we had planned on, we decided this was still a REALLY BIG garden.

 

 

Over the next few days we watered the mulch to get it good and wet.  The back to eden idea is the much holds more water.  And its fine shredded so its a mixture of wood and organic material

Micah is an expert water.



 

I planted beans, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, radishes and turnips.  Everything has sprouted except the carrots.  When it cools a bit more I will plan the lettuces.

 

 

 

So far I am pleased with this method.  I have noticed:

1) The grass that grows up around the sides (that wasn't fully covered with dirt)  is mostly dead at the bottom and pulls out fairly easily, I pull a bit each day.

2) the fresh grass that grows in the mulch pulls up very easy from the root we pull about 5 or so pieces a day when we go out to check the new growth. 

Towers

I have gone back to my normal self, I planned to have one planned activity set up for Micah to do a day.  To keep him busy, if we are in the middle of school work.  even though I try to plan school around his nap schedule.

 

This one is pretty simple.  We set up tons of towers and then Godzilla (Micah) knocks them down.  And my super smart friend suggested teaching him multiple ways to knock things down.  So we have been doing that too.

 

Below is the video of tower knocking in action

 

 

Impromptu Jam Session

Impromptu Jam Session

 

I love watching the kids play.  We got the older boys guitars and a microphone and amp for Christmas.  Anyways it was out of batteries and I had replaced them because I thought Micah would really like it.

 

 

Sure enough, I was right

 

I forget how this happened exactly, I assume Noah brought out the microphone and got Micah set up.  He was singing (Rarararara) lol

 

He loves his big brother

 Then E came out to join us. No group is complete unless someone is wearing a cape

 

In these photos Eli reminds me of a real rocker.  Goof ball

Action shot

 

 

And this was our Impromptu Jam Session, it was fun.  I hope we have another one soon.