Baked Pork Chops with Crushed Tomato Sauce

You will need:

• Large package of boneless pork chops, (about 2 pounds)
• 1 Tablespoon Veg. oil
• 1 Can crushed whole tomatoes
• 1/2 Cup Ketchup
• 1/4 Cup light brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tablespoon Mustard
• Salt and Pepper

Put oil in a skillet, wash the meat put the meat on a plate and then sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper, brown the meat on both sides, then place the meat on a greased baking pan. Mix the remaning ingredients together in a mixing bowl and pour it over the pork chops. Bake uncovered for 45 min. to 1 hour until tender.
Enjoy!

Easy Homemade Cheesecake

You will need:

• 2 (8oz) pkgs. cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ready made graham cracker pie crust

Let cream cheese sit out at room temperature until soft, cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer until blended well. Add the eggs and mix well. Pour into pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 min. Refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.

Serve with fruit toppings if desired..... I like mine "plain" just like it is.

Enjoy!

Southern Fried Rice with Bacon, Ham, and Carrots

This quick Recipe is courtesy of my husband's mother...my version varies a little from hers because there is not really a recipe. The reason I say this is because she just throws it all together.... I was given no real measurements, but I have watched her years ago, and saw how she made this and this is what I came up with. Of course, I think it's not as good as her version, but it's pretty yummy. This is a recipe that you can season to taste and add what you like to it, .....you can vary the ingredients according to your taste buds seasoning with salt and pepper to taste on this. Rice is so versatile.

What you will need:

• 1 Box of Success Brown Rice (this is the boil in the bag rice and you will be using 2 of the 4 bags that the box comes with). Cook Rice according to the package directions and set aside or you can cook regular white rice or jasmine rice. 
• 4 Tablespoons Butter or Margarine
• 2 Slices Bacon (Optional)
• 1/2 Vidalia onion chopped or a couple of green onions chopped
• 1 Carrot peeled and grated
• 2-3  Slices of cooked smoked ham cut into small pieces, (I used about a hand size piece of left over ham steak, but you can purchase ham steaks or use the deli ham slices cut up)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook rice according to package directions, set aside.
Cook bacon in a skillet on medium heat until it is done, (slightly crispy), remove bacon from skillet, and after it's cooled, chip it up and set aside for later. Add butter to the bacon grease along with the onion, and carrots, saute' until they are tender, about 10-15 minutes, then add the cooked ham and cook for an additional 5 minutes until it is warmed. Add cooked rice and cooked bacon back to the skillet, stir and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low, cover for about 5-10 minutes until ready to serve, stirring occasionally.

I serve this as a side dish with grilled meats or barbecue dishes and baked beans, but since there is meat in this dish you can always add more meat to the rice and serve it as a main dish.

Enjoy !

For a healthier lower saturated fat version, leave out the bacon and ham, and cut the margarine or butter by half. 

Cream Corn Casserole Old-Fashioned Southern Style

 This will feed a crowd and the ingredients will fill a 13 by 9 Casserole Dish, (sorry for the picture showing just half of a casserole dish...I forgot to take the picture, until we'd eaten half of it).

You will need:

• 2 Cans Cream Style Corn
• 1 Can Whole Corn (do not drain)
• Jiffy Cornbread Mix
• 8 oz Sour Cream
• 1 Stick of butter or margarine melted

Grease 13 by 9 inch casserole dish, mix all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl , pour in the baking dish, cook uncovered for 45 min. to 1 hour, at 350 degrees until light golden brown around the edges.
That's it. This is so easy and fast, tastes sweet creamy and delicious...I've been told that this tastes similar to the fresh cream corn grandma used to fix in the iron skillet.
Enjoy!

Icebox Lemon Meringue Pie

You will need:

• 1 Ready made Graham Cracker Pie Crust
• 1/2 Cup Bottled Lemon Juice
• 14 oz. Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk (such as Eagle Brand, just make sure you don't accidentally pick up evaporated milk)
• 2 Eggs Separated
• 4 Tablespoon Sugar

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Crack eggs and separate the yolks from the whites in two small bowls. You will need the yolks for the filling and the whites for the meringue topping. Now, In a med. bowl, combine lemon juice and canned sweetened condensed milk and stir well with a spoon or hand whisk, add yolks, stir and pour in the pie shell. Now in another bowl beat the eggs whites with an electric mixer until they start to get fluffy,(keep mixing it takes a little while) gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the whites are stiff, and will hold a peek, but not dry. Pile this on top of the pie filling. Bake at 325 degrees until lightly browned about 10 minutes. Cool Completely and then refrigerate for several hours until chilled well before serving.

Enjoy!

Easy Chicken Salad for Spreading on Crackers

You will need:

• 12.5 oz. Can of Great Value Chunk Chicken Breast in water fully cooked (drained and crumbled)
• 4 Heaping Tablespoons Mayo (I used Kraft)
• 3 Boiled Eggs chopped
• 1 Heaping Tablespoons Sweet Pickle Relish
• Seasoned Salt and Pepper Sprinkled to Taste

Mix ingredients together in a bowl, put in the refrigerator until chilled, serve in individual bowls with the crackers of your choice (I used Townhouse Crackers). This is good spread on bread for chicken salad sandwiches also.
Enjoy!

My sweet Mama made her chicken salad this way for sandwiches.

Southern Stewed Squash Plus a Low Fat Version

You will need:

• Small yellow onion sliced
• 1-2 slices bacon
• 1 cup water
• salt and pepper
• 3 Tablespoons veg. oil
• 3 Large Yellow Squash

In a large skillet add veg. oil, bacon, onion, sliced squash, and water. Sprinkle with Salt and Pepper generously. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat cover with lid and stew on low-med heat until tender, stirring occasionally. Once they are tender in about twenty minutes, uncover and cook about thirty minutes more or until a lot of the juice has cooked out. Serve with fried cornbread or serve as a side dish.
Serves 4

Enjoy!

For A Low Fat Version of This Recipe:

Add 2 tsp. canola oil to the skillet, omit bacon, add onion slices, stir in oil and cook on medium heat for several minutes until the onion starts to soften and browns slightly, add sliced squash to skillet, sprinkle with salt and pepper, 1/2 tsp. sugar and 2 cups of water, stir together, cover and bring to a boil on medium- high heat, stir again, and then cook on low-medium heat (slow boil),until tender. I usually cook it about 30-45 minutes or so. Once tender, leave on low until ready to serve. Season to taste with more salt and pepper before serving. The longer it simmers the better it tastes.  

Mexican Enchilada In a Skillet

You will need:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1/2 cup of your favorite Salsa (I've used both Chi Chi's brand and Pace brand before)
• 1 can tomatoe soup
• small chopped onion
• 4-6 oz. grated cheddar cheese for the topping
• 10 Mission Brand soft yellow corn tortillas (6" size) cut into 1-2 inch pieces
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder sprinkled
• can of Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce

Brown the ground beef in a skillet with chopped onion, sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder, drain fat and return to skillet. Add the water, salsa, tomatoe soup and cut up corn tortillas bring to a boil and stir, then cover and reduce heat to low for about 5-8 minutes stirring occasionally. Top with grated cheese and cover until melted. Put on serving plates and drizzle the skillet enchilada with heated enchilada sauce on each individual plate. Serve with chips and salsa, chips and guacamole dip (click HERE for my recipe for guacamole dip), refried beans or rice.
Serves 5
This recipe is about as easy as it gets, when you need something quick! This was a Campbell's Kitchen Recipe I found in a magazine....I changed a few things to suit my taste...like adding the enchilada sauce, onion, salt, pepper and garlic salt.
Enjoy!

Ground Beef Vegetable Soup

You will need:

• 1 Pound ground chuck 
• 1 Cup chopped yellow onion 
• 1 Cup chopped celery
• 1/2 Cup green bell pepper
• 1/2 tsp. Salt

Cook above in a small amount of cooking oil in skillet until vegetables are tender and meat is done. About 10 minutes, stir frequently. If there seems to be a lot excess grease, spoon some of it out with a large spoon.
Next you will need:

• 1 Can beef broth 15 oz.
• 2- Cans tomatoes 15 oz.
• 1-Can Kernel corn  (undrained)
• 1/2 tsp. Black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. Garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt and more to taste
• 4 Peeled cut up potatoes 
• 1 Can green beans 15oz.  (drained)
• 1/2 a bag of family size frozen lima beans or small pkg. of frozen lima beans 

Put the above in a soup pot and add meat and vegetables. Bring to a boil and simmer for about and hour. The longer it simmers the more flavorful it will be. Soup will thicken like a chowder.
Serve with garlic bread
Enjoy! 

Recipes For Fudge and Divinity....These Are Christmas Traditions At Our Home!!

Fudge

• 3 cups sugar
• 3/4 c. butter or margarine
• 2/3 c. evaporated milk
• 1 jar 7 oz marshmallow cream
• 1 pkg. 12 oz semi-sweet morsels
• 1/2 c. chopped nuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Stir together butter, sugar, and milk in a medium size heavy pot, bring to a boil, stir constantly. Boil 5 minutes, (be sure to set a timer) and cook over medium heat. Remember to stir constantly. Remove from heat, gradually stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into a 13 by 9 inch pan that has been foil lined all the way over the sides and sprayed lightly with cooking spray. Cool at room temp. When cooled lift from the pan and cut into bite size pieces. This recipe makes 3 pounds, plenty to share.
Enjoy!


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Divinity

• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 c. white karo syrup
• 1/2 c. hot water
• pinch of salt
• 2 egg whites, well beaten
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until they are foamy, set aside, leaving the mixer handy. In a small saucepan Mix and boil sugar, syrup, hot water and salt on about medium to medium high heat. Hold a candy thermometer in the pot while you stir with a spoon...there are candy thermometers with hooks to hook on the side of your pot, but I don't hang mine on the pot, I hold on to mine and keep it lifted in the liquid, making sure that it doesn't touch the bottom of the pot. If you hang it on the side of the pot and it touches the bottom of the pot and that is not good. You don't want to be taking the temp of the bottom of the pot, you want to take the temp of the liquid itself. Just thought I'd throw that little tip in there for you. Trial and error, learned tip from experience. Cook this mixture until it reaches the hard ball stage on a candy thermometer. This is very important. Stir it the whole time that it boils. This will take quite a while, I'd say longer than 15 minutes usually, it will start to feel like it's taking forever, but keep watching the thermometer while you stir and just keep stirring. When it reaches the hard ball stage quickly but carefully remove it from the heat, and carefully pour it slowly into the beaten eggs as you mix it with the mixer. This mixture is extremely hot, so be very careful. You will now mix it with the mixer on medium for a while, it will seem like it's not going to hold it's shape, but just keep mixing it until it holds it's shape . When it begins to hold shape, then quickly drop by teaspoon onto wax paper and let them cool.
Extra Tip: I've heard people say not to make divinity on rainy days, but I have made at in all kinds of weather and it turns out beautifully as long as your candy thermometer is working right.
Enjoy!