Bless My Heart I Married A Yankee

Right now all I have are some pictures to tantalize your tastebuds.  These are as good as any store-bought bagel you could find.  They are so easy and simply amazing to eat.  Scott made fun of the jalapeno cheddar ones but then he found they are the BEST ones!!!   For now, enjoy the pictures.  I will get the recipe up soon.  

UPDATED  will get pictures up soon. Oh my goodness, focaccia is so very good.  Hot right out of the oven with a nice EVOO dipping sauce and this is one of my favorite recipes to make with my discarded sourdough.  There are tons of awesome discard recipes.  I mean who likes to waste sourdough?  I do not!!!  It is so easy and overall a quick and simple bread to make.  You can top it with almost anything.  My normal toppings are course kosher salt, homemade tomato powder, fresh rosemary from my herb garden, garlic powder, and olive oil. QUICK AND EASY SOURDOUGH FOCACCIA 1-3/4 cup bread flour 1 cup unbleached flour 2 tsp kosher salt 1 teaspoon quick yeast 1-1/4 cup warm distilled water 2/3 cup discard sourdough starter DIRECTIONS Add the discarded sourdough starter to the distilled water in a bowl.  Mix together.  Add salt, quick yeast, and both flours to the wet ingredients in the bowl.  I do not knead this recipe by hand or with my stand-up mixer.  I just use my spatula to incorporate th

It is already hot where we live and May just started!  In the warmer months, it is hard for us to eat a hot heavy meal.  I try to come up with lighter cooler-style foods and snacks for us to enjoy.  This one hit the spot nicely. I also make a Shrimp style snack using almost the exact same ingredients.   1 large cucumber 1 avocado 1 jalapeno 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro 2 garlic cloves minced 1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt 1 - 1/2 tsp lemon juice 1 - 1/2 tsp lime juice 1/4 tsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp salt We serve this with tortilla chips or over broiled fish.   So it can be a snack or an addition to your meal.  Happy Monday!!

I have to say shortly after Christmas we found whole turkeys on sale for .25 cents a pound.  I really do not know what we were thinking considering we have moved and no longer have 2 refrigerators and 2 freezers because we bought 100lbs of turkey.  SMH!!!  Boy, what a ton of work.  We used about every single part that we could. One of the things I really wanted to make was some turkey sausage along with canned turkey, bone broth, smoked parts, and pieces for beans and greens.  I do not regret doing it but for a couple of weeks, we had our hands full working on turkey stuff.   We found this recipe and multiplied it by ten.  We made ten pounds of turkey sausage without even being sure we would like it.  Thank goodness we did!  I am putting the recipe in a pound increment so you can try it before you commit to several pounds.  Please remember you can tweak it as you wish.  If you want less maple syrup put less. If you like a real sagey sausage add more.   Maple Turkey Sausage Ingredients

I love good sourdough bread.  I make a few loaves a week with my potato starter.  I have almost stopped purchasing bread at the store now.  No need to do so when I can make my own bread which is so much better than store-bought chemical-filled stuff.   A few years ago I had my potato starter and my flour starter going great.  Then tragedy struck.  Well not really, I just stopped making bread for about 6 months and when I came back to it I had to start fresh with new starters.  Unfortunately, my flour (San Francisco style) just kept molding and I could never get it right or going again.  I did everything to make sure my container was clean.  Even washed the jar in the dishwashing which should have ensured everything was sanitized.  Oh well, it is what it is, right?  Fast forward to last week.  Scott and I were hanging out at our friend's house by his pool enjoying some good conversation.  The deal was we were to come over and help pick grapes and in return, Wade would cook some pizz

With winter always comes dry skin for me and for some reason along the way I forgot that a good toner for your face will help combat dry skin. I had a small bottle of toner that came with an IPSY bag which I started using.  It really is making a huge difference in my daily routine of taking care of my skin.  Since the toner is a sample I knew it would not last but a couple of weeks so I started doing research on which toner to purchase.  In doing so, I learned that I could make a much healthier version of toner for my face that would be natural.  Meaning no harsh chemicals on my already aging and dry skin.  This is so simple I am ashamed I never knew about it before. First, you need to use a good raw apple cider vinegar with a mother.  We make our own so I knew it was organic and healthy.  Second, you want to use distilled water so you know there are no chemicals.  Next, you need to work on the ratio for your skin.  The more ACV you use the more dry, harsh, and astringent it will be on