Think With Your Tastebuds - Desserts

Thank you to everyone who participated in helping me select the cover for my new cookbook Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts which will be coming out in June, 2011.  This is the cover that received the most votes.  It's beautiful!  Thank you to all of you.

Ground Beef Balls

One night this week I was trying to come up with something different to do with ground beef.  Then it hit me.  I like sausage balls, why not make ground beef balls.  This is what I did.

1 lb extra lean ground beef, browned and drained
1 Tbsp. dried onions
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend)
1 1/2 cups biscuit mix

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together.  Form in to golf ball size balls.  Bake 20-25 minutes.  I made up a little white milk gravy to serve over mine.  They sure are good!  Makes about 12-15 balls.

Mobile Phone Emergency #

This tip was sent to me and I want to pass it along.  Some of you may already know this but I didn't and I'm sure there are others out there that are unaware of the use of 112.

The Emergency Number worldwide for mobile is 112.  If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked.

Stuffed Red Peppers

Perfect for Valentine Dinner.  Who said stuffed peppers had to be green?!

4 red peppers
1 box wild rice mix
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. sausage
1 can cream of mushroom soup
shredded cheese
French fried onions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook rice according to package.  Remove tops and seeds from peppers.  In a sauce pan, cover with water and boil 5 minutes.  Remove from water and place in baking dish sprayed with non-stick spray.  Brown beef and sausage.  Drain meat.  In a large bowl combine rice, meat and soup.  Spoon into peppers.  Spoon remaining mixture around peppers.  Cover with foil and bake 1 hour.  Remove foil.  Sprinkle with cheese and French fried onions.  Bake until cheese melts.

Cookies and Brownies

Get creative with your cookies and brownies.  The brownies above are from a mix and I simply added about 1/2 cup of chocolate covered peanuts and 1/2 cup of Milk Duds cut in half.  Mix and bake according to the package.  I'm not a chocolate fan but these became a really big hit with some of my testers.

The cookies are simply nothing but a package of peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips added.  You can also add a few nuts if you like or use caramel chips instead of the chocolate.  Or throw in some of the chocolate covered peanuts and Milk Duds. 

New Oatmeal Flavors

I love flavored coffee but don't like to make it in my regular coffee pot.  It seemed to carry some of it's flavor over into my next pot of regular coffee.  I don't use the flavored creamers because I don't drink my coffee with sugar and they all seem to be sweetened with either sugar or a substitute.  So, for Christmas I became the proud owner of a Krueg single cup coffee maker.  Now I treat myself to a couple cups of flavored coffee every day. 

I also love oatmeal and eat it daily but don't have time to cook my favorite the "Old Fashion" kind so I depend on the instant that can be made in the microwave.  As with my coffee, I love the flavored oatmeal but they too have a good bit of sugar or sugar substitute. 

Today I made a wonderful discovery!  I had about 1/2 cup of my cup of Caramel flavored coffee left and was getting ready to make my cup of oatmeal when it hit me.  Why not flavor my oatmeal with flavored coffee.  I was Thinking With My Taste Buds.  I used flavored coffee instead of water and it is DELICIOUS!  Oatmeal comes in flavors like banana bread, spice and apple cinnamon.  I've just added flavors to my oatmeal such as Hazelnut, Caramel and Egg Nog.  Any flavor you like in your coffee will be good in your oatmeal.

Potato Puffs

The original recipe called for "real" potatoes baked, mashed and seasoned with green onions.  I simplified the whole recipe by using instant potatoes with the works.  The original recipe called for a Shake 'N Bake coating, I changed it to the seasoned Panko.  You can change these by using regular instant potatoes and adding cooked, crumbled bacon for a stronger flavor.  You can use regular instant potatoes and add shredded dried meat.  As always...Think With Your Taste Buds.

See the full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet

Kibbles & Bits For Humans

My Niece ask for some simple recipes to work up for the super bowl game.  I referred her to the wonderful Pace Stuffed Mushrooms but decided to see what else I could work up.  So, this is what I came up with.

I'm sure most of you have found yourself with packages of just a little of this and a little of that but not enough to do anything with.  I've found a way to use those almost ready to throw away packages.  I looked around my kitchen and found a few thin pretzels (about 2/3 cup after I broke them in half), a few corn tortilla chips that I had used for scooping salsa (about 1/2 cup after breaking them into bite size pieces), about 3-4 cups of oat cereal waiting for someone to finish off.  I dumped everything in a large baking pan, added some pecan halves, a stick of butter chopped up, a few splashes of hot sauce and enough Montreal steak seasoning to fit my taste.

After mixing everything together I placed the pan in a 325 degree oven for about an hour stirring about every 15 minutes and testing to make sure I have enough seasoning. 

Changes - I really love the combined taste of all the items I put in my Kibbles but the flavors can be changed just by adding different seasonings as well as main ingredients.  You change or add to the nuts.  I will admit that I added walnuts and didn't like them so I took them out but you might like the addition.  You can add the small cheese crackers such as "fish" or use the traditional square cereals.  Remember - Think With Your Taste Buds.

Bacon Broccoli Quiche

The idea for this dish came from a recipe for Garden Frittata.   The Frittata has on crust and I wanted a crust.  It had no meat so I added bacon.  It called for a couple of ingredients that I decided not to add so to compensate for the changes I increased a couple of the ingredients.  This is so simple to make and is perfect for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and even dinner.  Add a salad and roll and you have dinner.

Changes and short cuts - you can use precooked bacon to save time.  You can change the meat to ham instead of bacon or change the cheese.  You can even use asparagus instead of broccoli.

See the full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet

Sunrise in Charlotte, NC

I took this picture last month and thought it was so beautiful that I wanted to share it with everyone.