Watch Out.......The Boys Are Driving!

Saturday was a beautiful day.  We went outside to enjoy the warm weather here in March.  Colton picked me a tiny flower of some kind in the grass, which was so sweet.  You can see it below.

He is such a thoughtful little boy.  Once we were outside for a bit, we decided to head over to Gabe and Ashley's house to let the boy's ride their truck and gator.  We've been wanting to get together for some time now so they could play since Noah can now drive his truck.

They both had a blast chasing one another.  Colton hit Aunt Ashley's tree that was growing, I don't think he was paying much attention to where he was going.  Noah hit their guttering coming off of the down spout.  Those silly boys just don't watch.  They did enjoy themselves though, so that was the most important thing.  After they got tired of chasing one another, they decided to ride together.

I'm so glad they have each other to grow up with.  They need that cousinly connection.  They have so much fun together and they love each other so much, I'm so thankful for a good family.

Grandma Puddin's Sausage Gravy

I love the days that I'm home and not at work.  I get to relax and spend time with my family.  I also finally have the extra time I like to take to make a home cooked meal.  Last night on the menu for dinner was my homemade sausage gravy over some whop 'em biscuits.  Unfortunately, I'm not much of a homemade biscuit maker, so I'm skipping that and making whop 'em biscuits instead.  Our minister calls them whop 'em biscuits because you buy the can of biscuits at the store, take them home, whop them on the counter to open the can, then bake them.  Thus the name, whop 'em biscuits!  Pretty funny I think.

I learned the basics of how to make sausage gravy from watching my Grandma Puddin.  She was an awesome cook and an awesome lady.  My only regret is that I wish I would've watched her cook more when I had the chance, I know she would've taught me a lot more.

Anyways, I decided today to share this simple recipe of how I learned to make sausage gravy several years ago.


Grandma Puddin's Sausage Gravy

1 (16 oz) package of Jimmy Dean's Regular premium pork sausage
1/3 C bacon grease (substitute vegetable or canola oil in you don't have any bacon grease)
1/2 C flour
1/2 gallon milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the sausage in a skillet on the stove top.  Break the sausage up and cook it just like you would cook ground beef.  Add some salt and pepper to the sausage and stir.  Once it's cooked, add the bacon grease or oil and stir.  Next add the flour to the cooked sausage and stir, once that is thick looking, pour in the milk.  You can now add more salt and pepper if you want.  Turn the stove top temperature setting to 6, because you need it high enough to make the milk mixture boil.  Slowly stir at all times so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the skillet.  Once it has a good boil, turn it down to a 4, but keep stirring until it thickens.  I generally have to cook it for approx 5-10 minutes after it first started to boil.  Once it is pretty thick, take it off the stove.  Let it stand for about 10 minutes, it will get even thicker.  Enjoy this sausage gravy over either whop 'em biscuits or homemade biscuits, it's your choice.

Our Cookie Cutting Afternoon

Last week, Colton came to me and asked if we could make some cookies.  He said, "I want to cut some cookies."  I wondered for a moment what he was talking about, but soon remembered our visit to my sisters last year.  My niece, Victoria, was making sugar cookies and soon Colton and Avery wanted to help.  She was so kind and patient with them as she let them help roll out the dough, smash it, roll it again, smash it some more and finally cut them with the cookie cutters.  That's what he meant by "cutting" some cookies.  He has been talking about it for a while and I have kept putting him off, but decided last week, we would actually take the time to make some cookies.

He had a blast helping me.  He loves to be included in baking these days.  I love it that he wants to help me in the kitchen.  He loves to crack the eggs and pour in the oil when I bake a cake or brownies.  I enjoy this time with him now, because I know one day he'll be all grown up and probably won't want to bake cookies with me anymore.  Right now though, we have fun!

He did such a wonderful job, he was so precise with pulling the excess cookie dough apart from the shapes.  I was truly impressed, because most of the time, he is in a hurry when we do stuff together.  However, when we made these cookies, he took his own sweet precious time.  He did so awesome!  I was a very proud ma ma.

  

By the time he finished cutting out all the cookies, he had flour all over him.  CUTE!  I love it.  It was on his hands, on his face, on his arms, on his clothes.............but none of that mattered, because WE HAD FUN!  I hope he remembers the time we spend together and the memories we make.  You can see our finished product below.  Yes, they are mostly Christmas cookie shapes below, but that is the only cookie cutters I have at this time.  We've got to get to the store and get some other shapes so we can make some more.

Where Did All the Little Smokies Go?

I took this next recipe to a get-together after our evening church service this past New Year’s.  It’s really simple and it’s a yummy appetizer to most people.  However, my family eats it as a meal most of the time because they love these little things!  My son and husband can eat two entire packages of little smokies between them, I’m lucky if I get a few.  No joke!  Last time I made them for my family, I put them in the crock pot to cook when we got home from church one Sunday afternoon, so they would be ready that evening for dinner.  I decided I needed to do some grocery shopping, which actually turned into just plain shopping of every kind, but that's not the point..........anyways, my husband and son decided to stay home.  When I returned there were only 6 little smokies left in the crock pot for me to eat.  I said, "Where did all the little smokies go?" and my son replied with, "Uh...........daddy did it."  How funny is that, blame it all on dad.  I had to share that though, because it was too cute to pass up.   Apparently, they were hungry for something to snack on and didn't realize that was going to be our dinner..........so they ate them.  Silly boys!

You might already know how to make these, because I think this is just one of those recipes that gets passed around quite a bit, but I’m going to share it with you anyways.  Hope you enjoy them!  :-)

LITTLE SMOKIES

2 (13 oz) packages of Hillshire Farms lit'l beef smokies

1 ½ cups of grape jelly

1 (12 oz) bottle of Heinz chili sauce

Mix the grape jelly and the bottle of chili sauce in the crock pot.  Add the packages of little smokies next.  Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, depending how cooked through you want them.  Eat and Enjoy!

Food, Food and More Food

Well today was a busy food day for our family and I felt like we ate like Kings all day long.  For breakfast, I made us fried eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and biscuits.  Yes, I typed it correctly, I had to fry eggs for Barry and make Colton and I scrambled eggs.  We are all picky on our eggs.  :)  For lunch, we met our Minister and his wife at the Mexican Restaurant we enjoy so much in our small town.  Again, we ate a LOT of wonderful food.  Next, we headed to Springfield to do some shopping.  In the afternoon, I even talked Barry into stopping by McDonalds to get me a small Caramel Frappe that I love so much!  When we finally arrived home, I had placed a pork tenderloin in the crock pot that morning and cooked it all day long while we were gone, so when we got home, we could enjoy this awesome pulled pork recipe I found here.  I invited my mom and my brother and his family over to enjoy it with us.  So last but not least, for dinner we had pulled pork, potato chips, macaroni and cheese, corn and brownies for dessert.  However, we were all stuffed from the pulled pork, that nobody ate any of the brownies for dessert.  Barry was excited about that...........more for him!

My family has literally eaten ALL DAY LONG today and we are stuffed from all the good food.  Everyone thought the pulled pork was really good and flavorful, so I wanted to share it with you.  It's another easy, great tasting recipe to make in the ever loving crock pot, so enjoy!


BBQ Pulled Pork
adapted from www.melskitchencafe.com


4 pounds Boneless Pork Loin
1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 tsp Salt
1-2 tsp Garlic Powder
3 cups Water
2 Tbsp Hickory-flavored Liquid Smoke
Your favorite Barbecue Sauce
Hamburger Buns or Other Buns of Your Choice

Rinse the Pork Loin and pat dry.  Cut the Pork Loin in half so it will fit nicely in the crock pot.  Rub salt and pepper over the pork and place it in a slow cooker.  Add water, garlic powder and liquid smoke. Cook on high setting for 6 to 8 hours or low setting for 8-10 hours, until the pork is very tender.  Remember the longer you cook it, the more tender it will be.  Remove the pork from the slow cooker and throw away the remaining liquid.  Make sure to shred the pork using a couple of forks, because the pork will be extremely hot.  Place the meat on the buns, then pour as much BBQ sauce on it as you want.  Enjoy!!!!

Fred the Turtle

Colton and I were driving down the highway the other day after stopping by Dollar General for some candy.  We were getting ready to pass by this road where a year ago my mom, Colton and I had found a turtle.  Colton immediately pipes up and says out of the blue, "Ma ma, that's where we found Fred."  I said, "Bubby, you are right.  That's where we met Fred."

My mom had always talked about how she would love to find a little turtle so Colton could see how they lived in their own shell.  We would look and look for one as we would be driving down different roads, but never found any.  Well one day exactly one year ago, my mom and I had stopped in the middle of the street, because we saw a little, bitty turtle trying to cross the road.  We didn't want him to be ran over and this was our perfect opportunity to let Colton see what a turtle looked like up close.  So I pulled over, went and picked up the turtle, then took it to show Colton.  He thought the turtle was great!  Long story short, I ended up taking this little turtle home with us so Colton could have his first very own pet.  He absolutely loved this little turtle and ended up naming him Fred.

We kept Fred in the back of Colton's little gator.  We wanted him to feel at home, so we got him some grass and twigs to crawl on.  I thought he might be hungry so I let Colton take him some lettuce.  Colton tried to feed him, but poor little Fred wanted no part of it.  He only stayed with us for two days, when I decided he needed to be on his own to survive, so we let Fred go and be free.  In those two days, Colton fell in love with Fred.  To this day, he still talks about how Fred the turtle used to be with us and how we had to let him go so he could live.  Funny, isn't it what kids remember an entire year later?