Tag Archive | easy

Recipes: Spanish Beef Rice

Spanish Beef Rice

Papaw’s Spanish Beef Rice
My Dad was quite fond of rice. I remember him cooking all sorts of dishes at least once a month on a quiet weekend with rice.

Most of them were with some form of fish. Not really my thing. But one recipe called for ground beef and tomatoes and sweet corn. It made the entire house smell so good!

As I got older and rice didn’t seem like something you had to eat to “clean your plate”, I started liking rice. Baby Boomers maybe the only folks who remember the “Clean your plate” edict. Thank goodness that concept has slowly passed by the wayside.

Anyway, on one very cold winter’s day when I was out living on my own, and feeling a little alone I longed for those gone days of comfort at Mom and Dad’s house.  I called home and asked my Dad how to make his Spanish Rice and this is the recipe he gave me. I make it for my family now and I’m glad to report, everyone still loves it! Continue reading

Recipes: Corned Beef & Gravy

Vickie’s Corned Beef & Gravy

A quick and easy meal that pleases the pallet and sticks to the ribs. My boys love this dish and it’s always a fall and winter time favorite. It’s especially good after a cold day of sledding!

I like it because it’s quick and easy to make. Not to mention, it’s one of the cheapest meals to make when you’re weekly budget is already a little stretched.

Preparation & Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 Continue reading

Recipes: Stove Top Chili

Papaw’s Stove Top Chili

When I was young, my Dad would make chili on a cold fall weekend. I wasn’t real fond of his chili, because he liked beans. He would add as many variety of beans in his mix that we had on-hand in the pantry. Then he let it cook all day on top of the stove.

It smelled great, as it wafted through the house. But I don’t like beans. My recipe is much like his, with a few tweaks. Like, I don’t add beans. You certainly can add your favorites to this mix. But no thanks. 😉

The trick to good chili is the meat. You can use chicken or beef with this recipe. But if you use beef, make it a good quality ground beef. Back in the early 2000s, we tried Bison with this recipe and it was extraordinarily fabulous. I highly suggest using it for any of your home cooked beef ground meals!

Also: You might like to try the Slow Cooked Chili recipe as well. It’s different from this one.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 4 Hours
Serves: 9 to 12 Continue reading

Irish Potato Soup

Vickie’s Easy Irish Potato Soup

Gary and I have been delving into our Celtic roots and trying some of Scotland and Ireland’s dishes.

This is a recipe I stumbled on one day from a BBC cooking show. We’ve tweaked the ingredients a little, just to update it for our own taste. And that allowed us to modify the original preparation and cooking process to make fixing this soup a little easier and less time consuming.

I guess you’ll have to call this an Americanized version of Irish potato soup, for busy families.

Preparation time: About 1 hour
Serves: 6

Continue reading

Recipes: Cinnamon Swirl Loaf

Cinnamon Loaf

Garrett’s Cinnamon Swirl Loaf
Fantastic for breakfast, after dinner or that late night snack.

There’s nothing like the smell of baking bread to fill a house with comfort and homeyness. Especially in the cold fall and winter months. But boy do we like that odor year round!

Preparation Time: 4 1/2 hours
Makes 3 bread loaves

Ingredients: Continue reading

Samsung S5 Screen Shots

Samsung S5

Samsung S5

The Easier Screen Capture Method

I’m still in love with my phone. Yeah it’s a phone but it’s also a life line. Especially when you’re getting old like me. I don’t remember things like I used to and I love that my Samsung S5 cell phone can help me with that.

I have alarms set for several reminders throughout the day. I have notifications set for meetings and appointments in my calendar. I have notifications for important local news events or warnings for weather and traffic.

Then there’s the other app notifications for information and news I like to follow, especially for my favorite pastime; NASCAR Racing and my favorite driver Tony Stewart. All important stuff in my day!

And then there’s the social media connections, FB, Pinterest, Twitter and text messages all to keep up with. The Man and I met online in an AOL Chat room. We’re a little sentimental about AOL and still use AIM as a consequence.

All these things keep me on schedule, informed and connected to family and friends. So every now and then I want to take a screen shot of what I’m looking at for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it could be simply to mark a moment in time, a goal or achievement, maybe a milestone that has been attained. It depends on the app, because not all apps provide a “Share” feature and there times you want to share the information. Continue reading