Bless My Heart I Married A Yankee

I love Greek food.  Something about Meditteranean food just lights a fire in me.  My friend Sophie is Greek and I have really been wanting to meet her grandparents and learn how to make some of the authentic ways of cooking Greek food.   A few weeks ago I cooked a boneless leg of lamb roast and for some reason, my taste buds were yelling at me to make a gyro with thin slices of garlic rosemary lamb.  Which means I needed to make tzatziki sauce.  Now by no means can I say this recipe is authentic.  I will say that it turned out rather tasty.  Scott loved it.   With the spirit of wanting this to be as authentic as I could make it, I decided to make homemade  Greek yogurt .   Chop some garlic cloves Chop the cucumber Combine Greek yogurt, cucumbers, olive oil, salt, garlic, dill, and white wine vinegar and some white pepper.  I chose to use fresh dill.  I am sure you can use dried dill weed.  If you use dried remember you need to use much less.   TZATZIKI

Since posting this recipe, it was really reviewed and looked at quite a bit.  I decided to post pictures to go along with steps in making these.  I hope you will take the time and review the update.    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 mu

A few weeks ago I went to a friend's house on Labor Day and had dinner with them.  Karen and her husband, Floyd made a wonderful dinner for me.  It was so tasty.  Floyd took some Mediterranean salmon and smoked it.  Oh my, it was so darn good.  Since then I have wanted to duplicate the salmon.   As usual, I did tons of research on a spice mix I thought I would like.  I took 3 different recipes and made my own blend.  Not to brag but I really rocked this recipe.  So much that when some friends dropped by and tried it they loved it.  Dusty said he did not like salmon but he still tried it and he LOVED it!!  I thought it was really good but with Dusty and Matt devouring it I have to admit it truly made me happy.   While I tried this on salmon, I think it would be excellent on chicken.  I even put some on my potatoes I cooked that night.  Really you can use this on about anything you would wish to put it on.   I keep a well-stocked spice and herb cabinet.  I normally have just ab

I love to can stuff.  I mean I really love to can.  It is almost an addiction for me.  If you could only see everything on my canning shelves downstairs.  Heck, I have 5 shelving units full of stuff I have canned.  Then I have a couple more shelving units with supplies on them.   Canning is a dying art because, in this day and age, people have the mentality that they can get whatever at the store.  Well, this is true, but do you know what is in that can of stuff you just purchased.  Oh, you can read the label but do you REALLY know what those ingredients are and what they mean to your body.  Do not get me wrong I shop at the grocery store but I prefer to put up stuff that we have grown, hunted, and raised.  Everything we grow is organic.  No pesticides used.  Now go buy a can of organically grown San Marzano tomatoes and tell me what you paid for it?  Or a small container of bone broth.  Well, that stuff is expensive but do you really know what is in it when you purchase it a

New Year's Eve is tomorrow.  There will be lots of parties going on.  Food and appetizers to make.  Well, this recipe is quick, simple, and cheap to make.  Of course, I normally have the ingredients on hand but others might not.  Others might not though.  Still, it is a fairly quick and inexpensive something to make that everyone will enjoy. There are many reasons I love this recipe.  It goes without saying the fact it is simple and cheap to make.  You can make a batch in 20 minutes, which makes it incredibly quick to make.  It really is something you can throw together and take to a party in mere minutes.  It tastes great too.  Scott loves these little tasty crackers. Gather your ingredients. Mix ranch mixture, garlic powder, and dill weed. Add canola oil Blend well Add oyster crackers to a dill bag and pour wet mixture on top of crackers. Toss crackers with the wet mixture to coat all crackers Place on a baking sheet and co

I remember growing up and my mama making banana nut bread.  It was such a treat when she made some of this delectable bread.  Once I went to kindergarten, my mom went back to work full-time.  I do not think my dad wanted her to go back to work but she felt if she did they would be able to provide us with some extras that we could not afford before.  Geesh, I was 4 when I started school, turning 5 a month later, and she was worried about affording braces for my brother and me.  Mom cooked a lot.  I mean a lot.  We had homemade meals for dinner every night.  My mom was an amazing cook and not only did we have a good warm meal each night, she always had some type of dessert afterward.  I mean sometimes it might have just been hot from-the-oven biscuits with homemade jelly, jam, or butter mixed with some delicious sourwood honey.  My daddy would put some butter on a small plate and add some honey on top and mix it up with his fork.  Then he would dip the warm biscuit into the mix.  It

One of the best things about Christmas has always been ham.  Well, in the household I grew up in ham was the main dish for Christmas dinner.  Once Christmas is done you are left with a beautiful meaty juicy ham bone.  There are many things I can do with a good ham bone but one of my favorites is to make split pea soup.   Not everyone likes split pea soup.  For some reason they get all hung up on the fact pea is in the mix.  However, making split pea soup is nothing like eating green peas.  This delicious soup gives an entirely new meaning to the word PEA.   I like split pea soup to be nice and chunky not turned to mushiness but you have to know how to cook it in order to ensure that it does not turn to mash.  My favorite way is by layering the ingredients in my crockpot.  Using a crockpot ensures a slow cooking method which allows flavors to mingle and intertwine.  It helps to break down the goodness that is left in and around the ham bone.  People do not realize how much goodnes