Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Pie

Pastry for two-crust pie

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 cups blueberries

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp stick margarine or butter

Heat oven to 425.  Prepare pastry (or in my case, unroll it from the box it came from)

Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon in large bowl.  Stir in blueberries.  Turn into pastry-lined pie plate.  Sprinkle with lemon juice.  Dot with margarine/butter.  Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal and flute.  Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning.  Remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking.

Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.  Cool in pie plate on wire rack.  Serve warm if desired.

I apologize - I forgot to take pictures while I was preparing it, but it really was very simple!  I've never made a pie before and blueberry is my favorite!  I can't wait to try this out tonight, with a bit of cool whip on top.  YUMMY!

What NOT to do...

I've decided that I am just UNABLE to cook meat.  I don't think I've ever really been able to get it right, which is sad, because I know Chris would really LIKE some good meat!  I found a recipe for oven-baked bbq pork loin ribs.  Here's the meat...all pretty!

I gathered all the ingredients for the sauce...it was looking promising!  The recipe said to just cover the meat with the sauce and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour (uncovered).  So, that's what I did!

 

In the meantime, I had one of those seasoning packets where you just drizzle some oil over potato wedges, sprinkle the seasoning on, and bake!  Easy, right?!  Here they are...ready to go in the oven!

This is what the meat looked like...

...after I yanked it out of THIS:

And my potatoes...well....they didn't fare any better:

I thought that at least the potatoes would've survived!  Unfortunately, they didn't.  Fortunately, Chris is very forgiving and just appreciated that I tried.  Looks like I need to take some cooking classes...

Be a critic!

I know not everyone is okay with the idea of leaving their name on a comment, so I've added some things to the bottom of the posts, including a "star" rating, and a comment you can click on.

Of course I'd love to hear if you've tried one of these recipes, or if you have an idea to make it EVEN BETTER!

Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberry Cobbler

1 cup butter, divided

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

 1 1/2 cup self-rising flour (OR 1 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 2 1/4 tsp baking powder)

1/3 cup milk, room temperature

2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbsp sugar

 

In baking dish, melt 1/2 cup butter; set aside.

In saucepan, heat sugar & water until sugar melts; set aside.

Place flour (and salt/baking powder if needed) in a mixing bowl.  Cut remaining butter until fine crumbs form.  Add milk, stirring with a fork until dough leaves side of bowl.  Turn out onto a flowered surface; knead 3-4 times.  Roll out in an 11x9 pan.

Spread berries over dough; sprinkle with cinnamon (I forgot to do this until later, but it still tasted fine).

Roll up, jell-roll style.

Cut into 1/4 inch slices. 

Carefully lay slices in baking dish over the butter (this is where I obviously put the cinnamon on).

Pour sugar syrup around the slices.  It will be absorbed.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.  Sprinkle the last of the sugar on top and bake for 15 more minutes.

Serve warm or cold!

MY REVIEW:   This was delicious!!!  And you probably didn't even notice the small handful of blueberries mixed in there - I didn't quite have 2 cups of blackberries.  But it worked!  I'd say the only downside to this dish is having to wait an hour to eat it!

Garlic-Chive Mashed Potatoes

Garlic-Chive Mashed Potatoes

5 potatoes, peeled and then quartered

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1/8 tsp paprika

1 cup chicken broth, warmed

2 1/2 cups sour cream

2 Tbsp chives

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Peel and quarter the potatoes, placing them in a large pot, covering them with water.

Peel 3 garlic cloves, placing them into the pot, whole. 

Get the remaining ingredients ready.

Put paprika in with the potatoes and garlic.  Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and let boil 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Drain pot and place in large mixing bowl.  Mix well, then add the rest of the ingredients.

Serve and enjoy!

MY REVIEW:  These were quite tasty, although I should've paid more attention when pouring in the broth and sour cream.  Using 5 pototoes is relative...so mine turned out quite a bit more soupy than desired.  Not bad, but I should've just slowly put things in and gone with the feeling of the thickness.  Brandon liked them - Chris prefers baked potatoes.  I saved the rest in the fridge, so we'll just have to wait and see how they are re-heated.

Baked Paprika-Parmesan Chicken AND Bacon Tomato Rotini

I was down on ingredients so I quickly looked for something I could throw together.  Originally, I was going for a baked potato with my chicken, but when I got home I found they were no good.  So a pasta side dish it was!

Baked Paprika-Parmesan Chicken
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp milk
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350.  Coat a shallow baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine flour, parmesan, paprika, salt, and pepper in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and milk.  Dip chicken in the egg, then dredge in the flour mixture.  Place in the baking dish, and pour melted butter evenly over the chicken.

Bake about 1 hour, 15 minutes until cheese has bornwed, and chicken has cooked.

Bacon Tomato Rotini
1 lb rotini pasta
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup parmesean
2 tsp parsley flakes
8 slices backon (I used bacon bits)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (I used only one - it's what I had on hand)

Cook pasta. In saucepan, melt butter & stir in flour, salt, pepper.  Blend in milk, stirring constantly over low heat until thick and bubbly.  Stir in cheese, parsley, bacon, tomato and rotini.  Toss to coat evenly and heat through.  Serve immediately.

MY REVIEW:  The chicken was good, although a little over-cooked and a bit dry.  Still very edible though - Brandon even ate some of his.  The pasta was good and Brandon LOVED it.  It was good the second day too, although I had to add some milk to the saucepan when heating it up to help make it creamy again.

Almost-Lasagna

The recipe can be found here at cdkitchen.com.  I had this a couple weeks ago when my friend Tiffanni made it and the entire family LOOOOVED it!  I made this today and I'm already anxious for dinnertime!  Paired with a yummy french bread, it's the perfect dinner.

Almost-Lasagna
1 box your favorite pasta
2 jars (28-oz) pasta sauce (one with tomato chunks works well)
1 egg
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb sausage
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup parmeesan cheese
1/2 cup italian breadcrumbs
1 bag mozzarella cheese
1 container (16-20 oz) ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tsp parsley flakes
1 dash each salt & pepper

Grease crock-pot, or spray with non-stick spray.  Cook pasta according to package directions, drain.  Brown and drain meat.  Toss pasta w/olive oil.

Add pasta sauce to mixture, toss well.  Stir together 1 cup parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 1/2 bag mozzarella cheese and brown meat.  Can sprinkle lightly with garlic powder (I didn't do this).  Beat together ricotta, 2 eggs, 1 cup parmesan cheese, parsley, salt & pepper.

Pour half of pasta/sauce/meat mixture into crock-pot.  Spread entire ricotta mixture over first layer of pasta.  Cover ricotta layer with remaining pasta mixture, and cover with remaining cheese.  Cover and cook on low 4-6 hours.

OKAY.  When Tiffanni made this, she accidentally mixed it ALL together.  It was fabulous.  So, since that was what I was used to, that's what I did - only I did top the remaining mozz. cheese.  I'm not a huge fan of having to layer things like that, so knowing that mixing it together would work out just fine, was good for me.

YUM!