Okanagan Relish!

Another famous recipe from my Grama. I just so happened to make this on Thanksgiving so here is the step-by-step instructions so you can make your very own. It is the best and you can use it on crackers, burgers, chips, toast! (I eat it just by the spoonful as well!)

Start with six clean pint size canning jars then heat jars in oven on a cookie sheet at 150 degrees for the amount of time the relish is cooking.

Dice and peel 3 pears, 3 peaches, (I used frozen peaches, 3-4 cups, since they aren't in season. Let thaw.) 3 onions, 3 green bell peppers, 6 tomatoes. Put in a large stock pot. Add 2 and 1/4 cup of white sugar, 1 cup of white vinegar, 1 tbsp. of salt.

Simmer on low heat at least for 2 hours with one 1oz. bag of cheesecloth full of pickling spice. Uncovered.

This time I made a bag out of cheesecloth, but next time I make this I am just going to use a tea ball.

Here are all the veggies and fruit cut up with cheesecloth bag.

When the 2 hours are about up, boil the lids for about 15 minutes so the jars seal tight.

Pour the mixture into the hot jars and clean off tops and the seal with lids. (My aunt was in town while we did this and she said to not tighten lids too tight at first, then a day later after all the lids seal you can tighten tighter.)

The relish turned out great! It is sweet, tangy, and delish! We have already gone through half of the batch!

Hot Chocolate Supreme!

Look what I got last night!! I'm still dreaming about it today!

Hot Chocolate Supreme is what I am calling it!

Made with whipped cream, marshmallows, and shaved milk chocolate!

It was the best way to finish of a cold, wet, football watching Sunday!

Get in on the actions! Enter to win my Holiday Giveaway!

Perfect Roast Turkey!

I love Ina a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa.

So when I made my first Thanksgiving turkey about 3 years ago, I naturally turned to her for guidance. I found this recipe for Ina's Perfect Roast Turkey and I have made this turkey every year since. It seriously is the best turkey I have ever had in my life! (Sorry mom!) I am making it this year again for about 18 people, so it will be the biggest one yet!

The flavors of the lemon and thyme are subtle but it is one juicy bird!

Good Luck tomorrow with your turkey!

Ginger Crackles!

My Grama is an amazing cook, baker, and canned goods maker!!

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm posting her acclaimed Ginger Crackles.
Perfect for Thanksgiving dessert with tea or coffee, (and a piece of pie).
Oh and Grama, I hope this wasn't a secret family recipe because I am posting it for the world to see!

Why am I rhyming?

Grama's Ginger Crackles

3/4 cup Crisco
1 cup sugar (and extra to roll dough in)
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
2 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger

1. Cream Crisco and sugar
2. Add egg and molasses
3. Combine all dry ingredients then blend into liquid
4. Shape into 1" balls
5. Roll in sugar
6. Grease cookie sheet and place cookie balls
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 mins

Enjoy them this Holiday Season!!

Dump Cake!

"Dump cake. A cake made by "dumping" the ingredients directly into the baking pan, mixing them, and baking the batter."
-Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 117)
Sounds simple, right? I'm obsessed with easy recipes and this has to be the easiests around. The dump cake, from what I hear, started sometime in the 1960's, but then mastered by me in 2009!

It is so simple and it takes about ten minutes or less to mix up and then about 55 mins to bake.
Here is my tried and true method for this cake, there are variations everywhere online, but don't be fooled, this one is the best!

You will need:
1 box of yellow cake mix
1 can of any brand; apple, peach, blueberry, cherry, schnosberry, pie filling or any flavor you so desire.
(I just used apple last weekend and it was oh-so-good!)

photo courtesy of: flickr.com/photos/waffles2005/304677752/

(ummm no, that is not my thumb nail, ewe...)

1 can of crushed pineapple
2-3 tablespoons of chopped pecans or walnuts
1-2 sticks of butter or margarine
-optional whipped cream or vanilla ice cream

1. This is the most important step*: Buy a disposible 13' x 9' cake pan like this one below:

photo courtesy of: We Sell Coffee

*OK, this is in no way required or the most important, but it is for me!!

(I do this so I can take this cake over to a friends house and leave it and not have the left overs at my house!)

2. Grease that pan, with any spray or butter. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees (F).

3. Open the cans of pie filling and crushed pineapple and dump into cake pan then mix up with a spoon and even out.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

4. Evenly sprinkle over the fruit mixture the whole box of dry cake mix.

5. Cut up 1-1.5 sticks of butter or margarine into even sized pats and evenly distribute over the top of the dry cake mix.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

6. Sprinkle over chopped nuts.

7. Bake in oven for 45-60 minutes. Check on it at 35 minutes to see if there are any dry or unbuttered portions of the cake, if so then add more butter to the top at that time to the dry areas.

8. Once the cake is browned and golden remove from oven and let cool slightly.

9. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

photo courtesy of: The Pioneer Woman

This cake is more like a crumble and best served straight fromt he oven with vanilla ice cream! It is a perfect fall time treat! Try it tonight and let me know what pie filling you used!

My Birthday Cake!

So somebody did get my *hint hints*! People do read this blog! I hinted in a past posting that I would LOVE this chocolate peanut buttery slice-o-heaven and oh boy did I get it!

But FIRST I opened this beautiful ceramic cake stand and plate from Jenna. It is a perfect almost Jadeite green color with fancy edges. Tucked in the middle of the two was this chocolate book, so cute! That should have given the cake away but I didn't even think about it at the time.

Then after a long day of shopping at the Trade Days I came back to the cabin to see this beauty on the table:

It was perfect and looked so delicious! Riann had secretly brought up all the ingredients to the cabin without me knowing and made it for me while I was junkin'.

Homemade and beautiful slice-o-heaven! It looked so pretty on my new cake stand!

She said she didn't want to cover the whole cake in peanut butter cups, which I thought was perfect! It allowed the homemade frosting to be easily seen and drooled over!

And boy was it delicious!! Rich and moist two layer chocolate cake, vanilla frosting, and chopped peanut butter cups around it! How could it get any better than that?

I think my dad ate five pieces of it when we brought it home!

Thank you, thank you, Riann! You are the sweetest for making it and surprising me! I LOVED it!!

Blogger Inspirations!

I cannot get over this obsession I have with amazing blogs and awesome websites!

For the past week I have been closely examining and loving everything I've seen on Kevin And Amanda. (Wait, that sounded weird.)

Kevin and Amanda are website geniuses, (also highly trained in website design and html.) They have several tutorials for jazzin' up your blog or scrapbook with a ton of free fonts for your very own blog embellishing enjoyment! (I had to stop myself short of adding entire blog text postings! Even though I very much wanted to, I figured it may load too slow for y'all, and if you are like me, I have no patience.)

Also to make you and everyone in the Continental United States aware of their posting from today.  It is quite possibly the most amazing peanut butter chocolate cake I have ever seen! I am literally drooling over it. I hope the cake tastes as good as the photos look! I'm talking mini peanut butter cups, people! I'll will, or someone in my family will, *hint-hint* try that recipe very soon (possibly for my own birthday next week, I'll add one more *hint* here). We'll report back to you if the pictures were doing this chocolate, peanut-buttery, slice-o-pure Heaven, justice!

Check them out right now! Tell 'em Swiss Avenue sent ya!