Sunday, what a great day

for once the humidity is down low enough so it doesn't feel like someone is sitting on my chest. Lets hope it stays this way a couple days, which would be really nice.

I have a pet peeve, so tired of seeing the Dyson commercial on TV. I think it's admirable don't get me wrong that he was able to make a vacuum cleaner that works so great, BUT does it have to be so expensive that the normal family or person can't afford to buy one. I will never be able to afford to buy one. But I can dream about it LOL. Have to have dreams and hopes.

Today for dinner, yes we normally eat dinner on Sundays early. It was something my mom did and most Sundays we do. We usually make a meal that you won't typically make during the week.  Today we tried some very new to us. BBQ roast.

I decided to make Texas BBQ. Let's just say it was AWESOME.
 Grill Mates® Slow & Low Smokin' Texas BBQ Rub

This is what I used. I had a chuck roast, last night I rubbed this seasoning on the roast, wrapped it in tinfoil and put it in the frig till today.   At Noon hubby turned on the bbq'er and he put the roast on still all wrapped in tin foil, and let it cook for 3 hours (which our roast wasn't that big so this was a bit too much time for it and the bottom got a little burnt) but it was still nice and juice and sooooooooo good. Paired it with the salt potatoes and Bush's Grillen Beans and some cherry tomatoes. Great Dinner, it really was. If you ever want a great rub, try this one. I am going to make the rub myself next time, cause I really like a little less salt and now I have the package I just need to make some. Happy Grilling everyone

Philadephia Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes

This is what I decided to make for dinner tonight. I got the recipe from  A Taste of Home Cooking, which she got the recipe from Rachael Ray.

It was actually quite good but next time I make I am going to make some changes to the recipe. Here is the recipe. My husband really liked it, till I mentioned the changes I wanted to make and then he decided that would be better LOL. Men
Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes
Adapted from Rachael Ray

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground beef
1 softball-sized onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons steak sauce  (I used the 1/4 cup as Rachael Ray did)
1 cup beef stock
Salt and ground black pepper
4 dinner rolls
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1 cup provolone, shredded

In large skillet over medium-high heat add the oil and then brown the ground beef, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onion and green pepper and cook another 3-4 minutes, until the vegetables start to get tender. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and cook about 2 minutes.

Split open rolls and remove most of the soft insides, leaving a bed to hold the meat mixture. Toast the rolls and set aside.

While the meat is cooking, melt the butter in a medium-size pot over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook about 1 minute. Whisk in milk, bring up to a bubble and let thicken, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat and stir in the cheese.

To serve, place a scoopful of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the rolls, then top with the cheese sauce and replace the top of the roll.

Now for my changes, going to substitute a package of beef gravy instead of the beef broth. I like my sloppy joes thick and this one is a little runny for me. I not a fan of soggy bread LOL
The cheese sauce I didn't care for, I used cheddar cheese instead of provolone cause I am not a fan of provolone. But saying that Philly cheese steaks need to American cheese on them or cheese wiz LOL.  But other than that I did like them and would make them again.  

Macaroni and Cheese

Everyone is always looking for the best macaroni and cheese and everyone thinks theirs is the best. I am no different. Thru watching the cooking shows on Food Network, particularity Drive Ins, Dinners and Dives (which I just happen to love, it's one of my favorite shows). I have perfected our families macaroni and cheese, well at least that is what my husband and 8 year old daughter say anyways.  Here is a picture of the mac and cheese I made tonight for dinner.

and it was very very good. So instead of doing a Pinterest recipe  would make one of my own for once.

Mac and Cheese

8 oz Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese - or what ever your family likes.
8 oz Monterrey Jack Cheese
about 8 slices of American Cheese
1/2 container of Deli Parmesan Cheese - I usually by Stella Brand and its in the specialty cheeses in the Deli
3 cups of milk - I use 2% but you can use what ever you want even Heavy Cream
1/4 cup of butter
1/3 cup flour
a squirt of yellow mustard or you can use dry mustard about a tsp full
1 box of Cellentani - that is the pasta I love to use the most. It holds on to the cheese plus there is some in the pasta but you can use what ever you want
I a lot of times will use about 1/4 lb chuck of Velveeta, I like that creaminess it adds to the mac and cheese, but I didn't have any tonight. 
I use a 9x9 baking dish, sometimes cause it really fills the pan I will use a slightly bigger pan. LOL Depends on how lazy I am.  Sprayed with Pam
Preheat oven to 400 degrees

I cook the pasta and leave it just a tad bit more al denta cause I bake my pasta, love that crusty cheese top it gets.  Grate your cheese while your pasta is cooking.
Drain the paste and I just leave it in the strainer, I don't like to dirty too many dishes so I use the same pan as I boiled the pasta in to make the cheese sauce.
Put the butter in the pan, melt it.
Add Flour and stir untill mix together and cook for at least a 1 or 2  minutes. Its important to cook the flour so that your sauce won't taste floury or pasty
Pour in your 3 cups of milk and whisk, continue whisking till it comes to a boil. This is the only place you want this cheese sauce to boil. It's the only way to tell how thick your sauce will be,. You want it to be thick like a nice thick gravy.  If your sauce boils with the cheese in it, it makes it grainy.
Once it has boiled turn your heat down to low, you just want it to keep the sauce warm while you add the cheese.
I cut the American cheese in chunks and add that first, once that has almost all melt if I am using Velveeta I add that next. Then the rest of the cheeses one at a time, leaving a good hand full for the top of the mac and cheese.  You can turn your heat off now when most of the cheese is melted. Just finish whisking till all the cheese is melted and mixed together.
Squirt in a good squirt of yellow mustard, stir in the pasta put it your baking dish and top with the rest of the cheese. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is as crusty as you want. Dinner is ready. 

Served it with some Italian Chicken Sausages and tomatoes. It was yummy

Dinner Tonight

I know I haven't posted in a few days but really haven't been cooking anything out of the ordinary of us anyways. LOL

Today's dinner was very yummy. I really out did myself tonight.
Marinated boneless chuck steak - that I pounded out to be thinner than it was.
and warm potato salad with a warm bacon vinaigrette. check it out
Roasted Potato Salad with Bacon, Caramelized Onions and warm bacon vinaigrette.

I didn't have any red onions so I just used white onions and it was soooooooo good.
This recipe comes from The Cozy Apron

Best Steak Marinade in Existence -so the recipe said. We liked it, I won't call it the best cause I have had better that I really like but it's different and that is what I was going for, Now next time I do it thou cutting down on the basil, it was just a bit too much basil in there. Check out the recipe it comes from All Recipes
 I do have a recipe from one of the dinners we had last week that my family really loves beyond the veggies for my husband. He is just not a veggie person, he will tell you he likes them but I know better.
sorry don't have a picture of my dinner 

Italian Chicken with Veggies

you will need
3-4 chicken breast - I do boneless
spaghetti
Italian salad dressing
1 small zucchini
1 small yellow squash
some good Parmesan cheese - not the kind in the can, actually get some from the deli so much better

Do this in the morning  to mid morning.
Marinate 3-4 chicken breast in Italian salad dressing
    now this past week I used a Mediterranean Salad Dressing by Wishbone and OMG it was sooooooo good but use what your family likes.
Cut the zucchini and summer squash down the middle, place in a storage bag and dump some Italian dressing on them. Situate them so that the squash insides are resting in the dressing. 
Let everything marinate till dinner time,
Have someone grill the chicken breast, summer squash and zucchini. Till done Watch the squashes cause you don't want them too soft. Want some bite to them  Save the marinate from the squash
Boil some spaghetti. After the spaghetti is done, drain and put back in the pan. Dumb the marinate from the squash into the pain with the spaghetti and any more from the bottle depends on how much you want. I tend to like a lot LOL Keep warm on the stove till the veggies and chicken are done,
When the squash is ready, cute into bit size pieces add to spaghetti.
cut the chicken along the top but not quite thru the whole peices, you want to fan it out across the top of spaghetti, if you want to.
Put some spaghetti, veggies, place chicken on top and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. This is really good.

Saturday

Today was a very uneventful day to say the very least. I did get a little designing done on the computer, at least the way I want to go with the color scheme I chose. We shall see how it goes.
Hubby and daughter are at a birthday party for hubby's youngest brother's twin girls. They are so freakin cute. Nope I didn't go. I don't like the heat or humidity  and it's a bit hot and humid today.  At least today my emotional state is better than it has been, don't feel like I am going to explode. Good thing I guess. Getting ready to go up stair turn on the air and lay in bed and watch a movie.
But I wanted to share another one of my pinterest recipes that I found with you all, well anyone that might come along and read this LOL.
Best ever Pot Roast and yes it is good. Now it's a bit salty for me, course I don't care too much for salt. So if you like salt you will love this. Thou next time I make it going to use my own homemade stuff so I will have less salt.

Easiest and most amazing roast ever. Combine the ranch, italian dressing and brown gravy packets with a 1/2 cup of water and pour over roast in a crock pot. Sooo good!  Have no idea where the original recipe comes from. Hope everyone has a great Sunday

Dinner

Well dinner tonight was not a fabulous new recipe, nor a old favorite recipe. It was Burger King, which made my daughter very happy. The repairman came this afternoon to repair my frig finally. So when I knew he was going to come between 3 and 5, it was decided to eat out. Cause knowing my luck I would be right in the middle of getting dinner and he would show up. Can't cook with someone working in the middle of your kitchen. LOL So just sitting here watching the Olympic Trials. was crocheting, almost done with the scarf I was working on for Christmas. Took a break to blog, trying really hard to get into a routine of bloggin. So I will share with you one of the other recipes from Pinterest I have tried.

This one was fabulous and I mean fabulous. Pork Tenderloin with pan sauce. I though grilled mine. Put the grill on high to heat it up, shut one side off, kept the other side on med high, put the tenderloin on the side that was off and let it cook for 1 hour. Then the last half hour, turned the grill back on and grilled it, turning it every ten minutes or so. It was perfect. It has such flavor, was very juicy, it was perfect. Give this one a try.
almost forgot to give you the address for the recipe, what a blonde moment. Chef Mommy

20 Minute Teriyaki Chicken, this one didn't work out so well for me. It was way to sweet for me. I did it on the stove and my chicken just fell totally apart. Didn't not like this one at all.  But you try it and see if you like it. Original recipe comes from While He was Napping

Dinner Tonight

Ok you know this hasn't been the greatest week. It started off with the frig being warm. So we call my uncle who repairs things but he doesn't do frigs LOL So Tuesday I call for a repairman, he comes tells us the fan is gone in the frig, he will order a new one and be back either Wednesday or Thursday to put it in. So knowing he will probable have to go thru the freezer to get to the fan, we have eating up what ever we can in the freezer so that it's not sitting out while the frig is being repaired. We have done pretty good at this. Now mind you all week has been so beautiful here, nice and cool, great breeze. Till today don't you know today it gets hot and tad humid, I can never win.
But whatever tonight for dinner I baked a loaf of bread that was in the freezer and need to use up some frozen grand biscuits, so off to Pinterest to find something good to do with them LOL
I know any excuse to browse pinterest.  so I found something good., The one day of the week that had to get hot and I decide to bake, what is up with that people LOL
Here is what I made with my frozen grand biscuits and lets just say OMFG they were so good.

 Parmesan Garlic Monkey Bread, the original recipe comes from The Virtuous Wife , whipped upped some spaghetti and we have a great dinner, my husband was tickled pink.

If you never try anything, you have to try these

Recipe is from Come Together Kids BLog, or idea. I did them a little different, we were pigs. I added more ice cream on top, some hot fudge, whip cream and nuts. Can you say YUMMY YUMMY I got love in my tummy LOL Have a great evening everyone, off to crochet and watch Wipeout at 9.