Mother's Day

I want to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day. I hope all of you were waited on all day and had no cooking to do. My day was nice. My husband had to work until noon and my daughter had to go to work around 9 am. I had several hours to myself and enjoyed every minute of it. Friday, my husband and daughter went out to eat to celebrate Mother's Day since their hours for work today overlapped.

Once my husband got home, we along with my brother, took my mom to the local casino for an afternoon of gambling. Actaully, we were only there for a couple hours and that was enough. I never win and neither did my mom or brother, but my husband started out with twenty-dollars and came home with fifty. Not a bad day and he bought my supper on the way home, so no cooking for me this evening. 

Tonight, I'll make some buttered popcorn and spend the night watching the season finale of Survivor.

Carol

I won first place!!!!!

We had a Derby party at work on Friday. Well, sort of a party, we had to work all day, too. A contest was held for the best Derby hat and I won. Since I didn't have a hat to start with, I had to go buy a cheap straw hat and decorations. Do you know how hard it is to find a small toy horse, even around here. I went to two Walmarts, a Dollar Tree and two Dollar General stores. I ended up having to print a racehorse from the Internet. I put play money behind the picture and glue all to the front of the hat. Surrounding it, I place fake red roses. I'll post a picture soon. It was raining when I left work Friday and since I didn't want to get it wet, I left it at work.

The party part of the day was a pitch-in lunch at noon. There was so much food. I made a pasta salad and am including the recipe here. This is one of those dishes where there really isn't a recipe, but instead you throw everything together. I'll list the ingredients below, but you're on your own with the measurments. You really can't go wrong with it.

Pasta Salad

cooked pasta, any type
chopped carrot
chopped green pepper
chopped tomato

Sauce:
Equal amounts of sugar and mayonnaise (I use Miracle Whip)
add a little milk if it's too thick. If it's not sweet enough, add more sugar.
Pour over pasta. Chill before serving.

Kentucky Derby

I live in southern Indiana and in close proximity to Louisville, Kentucky. With all the festivities that Louisville has for the Derby next Saturday, I thought it would be timely to have two local Derby favorite recipes. The famous Derby Pie is a copywrited recipe, but there are tons of knock-off pie recipes and I have included my recipe. It would be hard to go to a restaurant this week in Louisville and not find it on the menu. The other recipe below is for the favorite drink at Churchill Downs, the Mint Julep.

I've never been to the Kentucky Derby. It's far too expensive and crowded for me to go. I enjoy sitting at home and watching it on television. I have been to Churchill Downs where the race is held. It's beautiful there in for the spring meet with all the flowers and tulips in bloom.

So, next Saturday afternoon you can celebrate the Kentucky Derby in style with a piece of imitation Derby Pie and a Mint Julep.

And, they're off..........

Carol


Kentucky Chocolate Nut Pie

2/3 C. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 t. salt
1/3 C. white Karo syrup
1 t. vanilla
1/3 C. melted butter
1 C. pecans
1/2 C. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and pour into an unbaked pie shell. Bake for 60 minutes. Makes one pie.


Mint Julep
2 C. water
2 C. sugar
Bourbon
crushed ice
Sprigs of fresh mint

Make a syrup by boiling the sugar and water together for about five minutes. Let syrup cool slightly and pour into a container with 5-6 sprigs of mint. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Make one Mint Julep at a time by filling a cup with crushed ice, 1 T. of the syrup, and two ounces of Bourbon. Stir well and garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Shake, Rattle & Roll

That's how I woke up this morning.... to a 5.2 earthquake. It's been a while since I experienced one, but this was my fourth. Thankfully, we had no damage.

Spring has finally arrived. As I type I can hear the spring peepers out in our pond. Sometimes when we sit out on our porch, the sound of them is deafening. I don't have any recipes today, but in honor of Spring, I'm going to go dig out a really good recipe for a spring meal and try and post it this weekend.

Until then,
Carol

Breakfast To Go

I need your help. This time I want your recipes. Recently, my company transferred me from a local office to a regional office. My commute went from 20 minutes to 90 minutes. Needless to say, I don't have much time in the morning to eat breakfast. Sure, I could run by a fast food place and grab an egg and biscuit combo, but that gets expensive, not to mention full of fat.

What I am looking for are some easy recipes that I can either fix the night before or quickly in the morning to eat on my drive to work. If you have any such recipe, please feel free to post it in the comments section of the blog, or email them to me directly at carolsfoodbites@hotmail.com and I'll include them in future posts here.

Thanks a bunch. I'll look forward to your recipes.

Carol

Snowed in

They said on television that it's been ten years since this part of Indiana has had as much snow as we are getting right now. By tomorrow afternoon, we could have as much as ten inches. If that happens, we'll be snowed in with drifts of up to two feet in our driveway.

Why is it when you're stranded at home, you crave certain foods? My daughter wanted pumpkin pie and is in the kitchen making one right now. Her first, as a matter of fact and her orders were that we were not to help her unless she asks. So far, she only had one question. Although, I got in a bit of trouble when she over heard me asking my husband if she had checked the oven and then pre-heated. "I can hear you, and I did that already." So, even though I'm a little nervous about turning the kitchen over to her, she's old enough to cook and should learn more kitchen skills.

She's using the recipe from the can of pumpkin, but below I have listed my grandmother's recipe for pumpkin pie. I don't think there's anything better than a recipe that has been handed down from mother to daughter. I picked up one of those spiral-bound journals the other day and plan on recording the recipes of some of my daughter's favorite dishes that I fix and give it to her when she moves out someday. This pumpkin pie recipe will be included.

Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

2-15 oz. cans of pumpkin
4 eggs
3/4 C. evaporated milk
3 T. flour
2 C. sugar
1/2 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon

Preheat over to 350 degrees f. Beat eggs, sugar and milk together. Add spices and flour. Mix well. Pour into two pie crusts and bake for about 1 hour.

Success!!

I'm happy to report that we now have hot water again. My husband did a wonderful job of installing our new water heater, even though he's not a plumber. Of course, he couldn't have done it with out my help. LOL

Carol