Soup Supper: Cowboy Stew and Cornbread

Brrrrr! It's been chilly here (I know, if you live up north you're calling me a sissy!). I cook a lot of soups and stews in the fall & winter. This also gives me an excuse to make cornbread.  They're so easy because you can ad lib on ingredients or change the type of beans (or meat or other veggies) if you have a preference. Just use what you have! Soups are easy to cook in the crock pot too.

This is the chili sauce I use but Heinz is good too. Look for it near the ketchup.

Everything combined and simmering in the dutch oven.

I used to have a recipe for Cowboy Stew that uses chili sauce. Moving several times, I've misplaced some cookbooks. Well, technically I haven't lost them. I have them somewhere in the black hole that is our storage unit. So I did what I usually do when I don't have the instructions or I've never done it before....I WING it! I have a habit of making up my own recipes. I like to grab whatever is in the pantry (it's a long drive to town!). So here is my rendition of Cowboy Stew. I've never found another recipe that uses chili sauce. My "new" one does! You can find chili sauce in the ketchup aisle. I use Kroger brand but Heinz makes it too.

Cowboy Stew

- 1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey)
- 5 medium potatoes
- one 12 oz. bag frozen crinkle cut carrots (or if you want to use fresh, baby carrots)
- one 12 oz. bottle chili sauce
- 1 beef  bouillon cube
- one 15 oz. can pinto beans, drained (you can sub chili beans, baked beans, etc)

Peel and cut potatoes into large bite-size pieces. Place in large saucepan with carrots and enough water to cover. Add beef bouillon cube. Par-boil ( until they're almost soft when you poke them with a fork). Meanwhile, brown ground meat in a dutch oven. Drain fat and return meat to dutch oven. Add entire bottle of chili sauce. Add entire pan of potatoes, carrots, and cooking liquid. Stir. Add beans. Simmer about 15 minutes or until potatoes are completely soft. I serve mine with cornbread but the stew is good with yeast rolls or biscuits too! This makes a dutch oven full, 6 servings if you're really hungry. And you will be when you smell this cooking!

Thought I'd make you hungrier and get really close up!

Smells Like Fall Y'all! Our Favorite Muffins

Our favorite breakfast muffins: chocolate chip pumpkin spice muffins (yes,  I know, that's a long name for a recipe. That's why I call them favorite muffins!)

Biker Chick

I had a very busy weekend coming up and the "bug" hit me! No, not a stomach bug, the "crafty bug". 

It seems to hit me at the most inopportune times. I had 2 baby showers to go to, a t-shirt quilt to finish, house sitting for a friend, fabric and thread to pick up, drawing a pattern for a lap top back pack. Then there's the issues of the family wanting to eat and have clean laundry (so demanding aren't they!?). I found a blog: www.sweetaprils.com with a cute idea for a diaper bike. I was looking for a twist on the diaper cake for the shower gifts and this was really cute! I made some changes in the details but followed the general assembly directions. My niece, Amanda, has a jungle theme nursery and my niece, Nicole, has a frog theme nursery.  Here are some changes I made below. 

The original directions are on : www.sweetaprils.com.  

Amanda's diaper bike with a lion

Oh Baby!

Baby girl quilt made from onesies

Close-up of square on baby girl quilt

Baby quilt for a boy with camp fleece back. Dad likes to hunt! The plaid shirt squares were from one grandfather who passed away before the baby was born. Camo square, as well as the "Screamin' Eagle" patch, from other grandfather. I made a matching throw pillow too. Baby will have a memento to treasure from his grandfathers.  

The back showing the camo fleece

Skirting the Issue

Fun, bright, and modern print for the skirt

We've all seen this issue, ugly school bathroom! Paint the walls, add cute modern artwork, and cover the utilitarian sink (with all of it's plumbing glory showing) with a fun, bright fabric skirt. I sewed velcro to the skirt and used double-sided mounting tape to attach the other side of the velcro to the sink.    

Complete the Look

Re-covered dining room chairs

This is the same dining room I posted about a couple of weeks (I think!) ago. I made the curtains with self-border made from the reverse side of the fabric. We considered some sort of trim but when I swathe back of the fabric, it was just as pretty and finished-looking as the front! I just folded, pressed, and top-stitched along the lengthwise fold. These curtain panels were double-width so they were still really full even when I used about 5 inches of fabric on the inside edge for the border.  

Pinterest Is Making Us Fat!

Close-up of the finished crescent cinnamon rolls. I had to put this one first! It looked the yummiest!

Ok, I confess, you CAN get healthy recipes from Pinterest but what's the fun in that? I like to try new things, change it up a bit. My husband would be satisfied with the same 4 or 5 things every week for dinner I think (the man orders the EXACT same thing in every Mexican restaurant we go to without ever looking at a menu). I love all sorts of food. I love cooking all sorts of food. That's probably why I have several boards dedicated to recipes with a huge variety of recipes. I do eat healthy for the most part but sometimes I hear the siren call of something sweet. I also love to make breakfast.

Canned cinnamon rolls cooked in a waffle iron (they don't look too bad)

They were hard like hockey pucks but if I make them again maybe I'll take them out of the waffle iron sooner. 

I've tried some real bombs too. The mac-n-cheese in the crock pot  (lumpy, dry), making waffles out of canned cinnamon rolls (like hockey pucks), man-pleasing chicken (way too much mustard didn't please anyone!) just to name a few.
So lately I have found some I really liked (and tweaked the recipe just a touch). The crescent cinnamon rolls from howto-simplify.com were easy enough but had too much cinnamon. I made mine bigger. Also, when you slice them it helps immensely to chill the rolled dough then slice with a serrated knife. They kind-of mush together and lose their shape if you don't.

On the left, the dough un-rolled, spread with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. On the right, rolled and sliced.

This plate didn't last long!