Bouillon~ what is it and what do you do with it?

Food.com states, "Any broth made by cooking meat, poultry, fish, or vegetables in water. The liquid strained off after cooking is bouillon. A bouillon cube is a compressed, flavor-concentrated cube of dehyrated meat, poultry, fish, or vegetable stock. Bouillon granuales are the granular form of the dehydrated concentrate."

Many recipes call for "broth": chicken, beef, ham, vegetable, or fish. What do you do if you don't have any on hand? I always keep bouillon cubes and granules in my pantry. They store well and are super handy when you don't have any cans of broth in the cupboard. 

Creamy Potato Soup~ Slow Cooker Method

 Ingredients

30 oz bag of frozen shredded hash browns

42 oz chicken broth

1 can cream of chicken or potato soup

1/2 onion-chopped

1/4 TSP ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese (make sure not to use fat free, it won't melt)

Instructions Combine hash browns, chicken broth, cream of chicken or potato soup, chopped onion and pepper into your slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Add 1 pkg. of cream cheese during the last hour and serve with shredded cheese and chives.

Money saving tip

Did you know that you can find most of your Kitchen staples at a discount store?
95% of my spices and liquid condiments that I purchase come from a dollar store or similar place. I paid $1 for Soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, vinegars, buffalo wing sauce, as well as cinnamon, garlic salt, onion salt, etc. Save yourself some $$...stop in to see what they have, you'll be surprised!

Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip

You may substitute Blue Cheese dressing for the Ranch and use full FAT cream cheese. Just remember, when you cut the FAT in a recipe with "hot/spicy" ingredients, the recipe will tend to be more spicy/hot. FAT decreases the heat in spicy dishes.

Allow cream cheese to soften or place in the microwave to speed it up.

Cook chicken, any way you like. I just use a frying pan, quick and easy. You can also used canned chicken, 20 ozs.

Mix all ingredients together (saving 1 C of shredded cheese for the topping) in large bowl.

Pour into baking dish or microwave safe dish.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 mins or microwave for 6-10 mins. 

Serve with tortilla chips!

Venison Pot Roast~Oven Bag method

Place roast in oven/turkey bag

Chop Celery

Cut up potatoes

Cut up Sweet potatoes or yams

Add 2 tbs garlic~more or less.. you decide

Add 2 bullion cubes to 2 cups warm water

Allow them to dissolve

Stir to mix well

Place all veggies in bag on top of roast and pour bullion over top

Seal bag and bake in oven at 375 degrees for 3 hours or so.

Fat substitute

Did you know that you can replace the "fat" (oil) in most of your baking recipes with the same amount of mashed banana or applesauce or babyhood prunes? It reduces the fat content and makes it more moist.

Guacamole~made easy

Ingredients: Avocados and Salsa

Cut ripe avocados in half, discard seed

Use a spoon to scoop the flesh from the shell

Place in mixing bowl

Mash with a fork or potato masher

Pour in your favorite salsa, just enough to mix well

Well mixed avocado and salsa, refrigerate for about 30 minutes to meld the flavors

Finished product, serve with your favorite chips

Venison Roast or Beef~ whichever you prefer

Ingredients

 Place frozen roast in Dutch oven or Slow Cooker (this one is the Pampered Chef RockCrock)

Pour Root Beer over roast and add water so that entire roast is underwater. Add bullion cubes.

Cover and cook on Med/simmer for 4 -6 hours

Roast will literally "FALL" apart. Serve immediately or save for sandwiches or Stroganoff or Fajitas.
This will have a "sweet" taste due to the Root Beer.

Christmas Confections and Cookies

Christmas Cookie Baking Day 2013

Jalapeño Popper Dip

Jalapeño Popper Dip

 Ingredients

Mix 1st 6 ingredients together

 Place in Baking dish

 Mix bread crumbs, butter, and Parmesan cheese

Sprinkle on top 

 Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 mins

Serve with Crackers or chips

Ingredients:

2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup mayo
1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese (half Monterrey Jack, half Cheddar)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chillies
1 (4 ounce) can diced jalapenos
1 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (yes another 1/2 cup)
1/2 stick of butter, melted

Directions:

Combine the first 6 ingredients in a mixer or food processor and blend until smooth.
You do NOT need to drain the cans of chillies or jalapenos.

Spread the dip into a greased casserole dish.
I used a large pie plate.

In a bowl, combine the panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and melted butter.

Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over the dip and bake
in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

You want the top to get browned and the dip
to be heated through and bubble gently on the edges.

You do NOT want to over-bake this dip.
The mayo will begin to separate and leave you with a greasy mess.

Trying the "blog" thing again

I do believe that I started to blog about this same time last year. Then college and Travel softball took over my life and I dropped the ball. I will once again, attempt to make this a great blog of nifty tricks, tips, and helpful like hacks.