Bless My Heart I Married A Yankee

Wednesday was National Hot Dog Day.  Not sure if you knew that and I am a bit late on this post but in all honesty, I came home from Texas on Wednesday at 1 am and was not feeling well.  Wound up back at the doctor's office yesterday and back on an antibiotic.  I just came off of one Wednesday morning.  Hoping this one clears up what I have.   Growing up in North Carolina, I ate my hotdogs with chili, bbq slaw , mustard, and onions.  For me, the onions are a new addition.  Only in the last few years have I started to enjoy onions on my dogs.   Chili has become something I have been trying to master since Texas Pete stopped making their wonderful chili.  I can not say this is anything like that chili but I do like this recipe quite a bit.  Until I can figure out how to come close to Texas Pete chili I will be making this chili for my dogs.   It is really rather easy.  I know I say that all the time but I love simple and easy recipes.  Especially when I am sick and have no

We grow scotch bonnet peppers which are from the same family as habaneros but believe me they are 100 times better. They have flavor along with the heated punch you get from a habanero.  They're fruity which is one of the reasons they are one of my favorite peppers we grow. A while back Aldi had baby carrots like a quarter a bag and since I have never been successful growing carrots I stocked up.  I had been wanting to try a recipe I had found on a blog called Putting Up With Erin.  With her recipe, I was able to adapt with just a switch of peppers and make her recipe. You can use any type of carrots you wish.  Erin used multi-colored ones.  As I said I used baby carrots in my first batch.  Since I have used regular carrots, baby multi-colored and regular sized multi-colored.   I use scotch bonnet peppers thus the title name of this blog entry but you can switch out your peppers for any hot pepper.  It really depends on the heat level you are going for.  You ca

Pickle pickle pickle.  I LOVE PICKLES.  By that comment I mean I love just about anything pickled.  Oh me, Oh my, a pickle in a pie.  Haha just made that up.  Maybe the coffee here in Texas is getting to me and making me giddy. The wonders of PICKLING, you can pickle just about anything. Yep, I said it and mean it! Did you know that?  So, when I came across Melanzane Sott'aceto, I just had to give it a try.  Are you asking yourself just what I am talking about yet?  If so, let me educate you.  It is an Italian style pickled eggplant.  Since you all know I love all things Italian you understand just why I had to try this tasty looking delight.  For those who do not know me, I love all things pickled and all things Italian, including my quarter Sicilian husband.  I am pretty sure that makes me quarter Italian too, although per Anchestry.com I have zero Italian blood.  That means I must grab it by marriage rights. FYI, in Italian pickled veggies are called sottaceti.  Th

I am still away in West Texas visiting family and making new friends. It is canning seasoning though and I have left you high and dry.  Sorry about that peeps. In the spirit of canning and with no pictures.... SORRY, I wanted to give you my absolute favorite brine recipe.  You can rock this brine on anything you wish to pickle.  In the past, I have had specific recipes per whichever veggies I was gonna can but primarily now this is my go to and believe me when I say it truly is great. You may have green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, peppers, okra, asparagus, brussels sprouts etc to pickle.  This is the brine for you.  I love it because you can use this brine and pickle more than one veggie at a time.  Another positive is you can double, triple, quadruple ... well, you get the idea.  Plus it is only 3 ingredients. BASIC PICKLE VEGGIE BRINE 1 cup water 1 cup white vinegar 1 to 2 tablespoon pickling salt     Simple easy and awesome.  Even better you can

Gnats, gnats go away.... come again to another place....  OK, you may know them as fruit flies.  Either way, I want them out of my house. That is my line and I am sticky to it or drowning them little flying boogers. Every year it happens.  Those flying varmints invade my house in bucket loads.  They get into everything.  I try hard to keep my kitchen clean.  No amount of anything seems to truly help but I have found a few ways that eliminate some of them.   Use a leftover glass of wine as bait.  They will get drunk and die.  LOL ok maybe not get drunk but they do drown.   Apple Cider Vinegar and a drop or two of dishwashing soap is another good bait for them. Place rotting fruit into a jar with some plastic wrap.  This is a magnet for them.  They love it. Once inside they can not figure out how to get out and they will die.  Or you can take them outside, far from your house and let them go.  I want them to die.  Yep, I am a bit bloodthirsty when they take over.  Mash

Let me say this first, this is by no means bread.  It is more like a wonderful lemony cake with nice fat blueberries inside.  Think lemon pound cake but 100 times better.  Then and only then will you understand how truly wonderfully delicious this bread is to eat.  Actually devoured is a better term to use when talking about this bread because it is normally devoured quickly. I have no idea how I came about this recipe but I know I found it about 7 years ago.  I had just moved in with Scott the November before and all of a sudden it is June and we have tons upon tons of blueberries.  I was doing everything I knew to use up the blueberries.  I made  blueberry jam ,  honey bourbon pickled blueberries , blueberry syrup, and  blueberry butter .  I really did not need to can any more blueberries.  So somewhere around that time, I decided to look up baking recipes.  I have always made blueberry muffins which were out of this world.  I use to make them a lot when I was young.  Matter of

I did a lot of cooking the last few days and I am hoping to get everything posted prior to leaving for Texas on Wednesday.  Yes, I am going on a much-needed vacation to see family and help celebrate my Aunt Louise's 90th birthday.  I have not seen my Aunt in many many years.  It is important for me to go and see her.  My dad passed away in March and she is the last of that generation.  It is weighing heavily on me to be there.  I am so fortunate my husband felt the same way and told me to go and have fun.   With all that said I hope to get these things posted by Tuesday. TO DIE FOR BLUEBERRY LEMON BREAD CINNAMON ZUCCHINI BREAD HOW TO FREEZE ZUCCHINI AWESOME AND EASY ZUCCHINI FRITTERS HOW TO GET  RID OF GNATS  BECAUSE IT IS THAT SEASON Stay tuned to see these new recipes.