Recipes

Being a Southern girl, I’ve always loved Fried Pickles. And being pregnant they’ve sounded even more appealing to me.  So a few weeks ago I came across a recipe for Baked Fried Pickles and I knew that I’d have to try it.

The recipe definitely didn’t disappoint.  The breading of the pickles is a little time intensive but the kids got a kick out of “helping” me and couldn’t get over how big the whole kosher pickles were that I was cutting up.  The first pickles that I put on the cookie sheet ended up sticking so make sure you put even more cooking spray on the sheet then you think you’ll need.  But the end results was fantastic!  Pickles that tasted as good as ones I’ve had in restaurants, but baked and made in your own kitchen!

I love this Potato Ham Chowder because it’s made on the stove in 15-30 minutes so you don’t have to remember to set it up in the crock pot early in the morning.  It was a little time consuming as you have to monitor it pretty closely but none of the steps are difficult.  I did end up using a potato masher to mash my potatoes up to give the soup a creamier consistency but you can leave them as softened chunks if you prefer.

Just putting this picture up and writing this post makes me salivate for more of the Sriracha Cream Sauce that this recipe makes.  This is a fairly easy recipe that I made and served over Minute Brown rice.  It is FANTASTIC!  I’m sure you can guess that you can’t go wrong with a sauce that’s comprised of mayo and sweetened condensed milk but you really don’t understand how good this sauce is until you’ve made it.  Run, don’t walk, to the store to get the ingredients to make this Teriyaki Salmon with Sriracha Cream Sauce.  You won’t regret it!

If you can tell by last week’s Recipe Wednesday (Pumpkin Coffee Cake) and this week’s, baby Hadley has been making her preference for sweets known around these parts.  I made those two recipes two weeks in a row and told Jason the next weekend that my goal for the next week was to NOT make a 9×13 dish full of a dessert.

This is another one that might solve the world’s problems if everyone could just eat it at once.  I’ve always been a huge bread pudding fan and when my aunt brought this to Christmas dinner I thought it might be time for Jesus to come back.  But by the time I got to dessert I was stuffed and so didn’t get to enjoy the portion that I would have liked to so I made it myself in January!  Fantastic and ridiculously easy!

(**I don’t know where this recipe originated and haven’t been able to find it online but if you know please let me know so that I can give proper credit.  I definitely didn’t make this one up but it’s about to become a staple at our house!)

Vanilla Bread Pudding

Makes a 9×13″ baking dish full to the brim of bread pudding

16 slices (or a loaf) of bread
1 stick Butter, melted
3 Eggs, beaten
2 c Sugar
1 t Vanilla
1 quart Milk
1 – 2 t Cinnamon

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
(2) Butter a 9×13 baking dish.
(3) Tear bread into pieces and place into dish.
(4) Mix next five ingredients in a bowl.  Pour over the bread, making sure that all the bread is fully saturated.
(5) Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake for 1 hour.

6 oz White Chocolate Chips
1 stick Butter
1 c Powdered Sugar
1/2 t Vanilla
6 t Water

(1) Mix chocolate chips and butter and microwave for two minutes.  Stir to melt any remaining butter.
(2) Add other ingredients and use a mixer or a whisk to make it smooth.
(3) Spread over hot bread pudding when it comes out of the oven.

It might be the pregnancy hormones talking but we might just be able to solve all the world’s problems if we set everyone down and gave them a warm piece of this Pumpkin Coffee Cake.  It’s delicious.  Incredible.  Life affirming.  Sweet but not overpowering (as long as you’re eating it for dessert).  This cake is fantastic.  Go and make it today…and then eat it while it’s warm or warm it up before eating again.  It will make your day so much better!