Funnel Cakes

We had funnel cakes for supper on Sunday night.  That's right, funnel cakes.
I made a giant thing of pizza hotdish for lunch.....and we ate late, so when mom and dad came over I was TRYING  to make beignet's, but failed miserably.  They were far too dense and the other ones were far too thin so they were like cracker beignets.  Plus it was a HUGE mess with flour, and have I mentioned before that I HATE flour?!  Truly, really, that's why I don't bake.....I HATE flour.  Although I have it in my house, I avoid using it at all costs, which is why my poor children are void of homemade cookies in their lives.  It is something that stresses me out but I'm working on, for the kids.
Anyhow, funnel cakes sounded like a good idea to me since I had the hot oil going anyway.  They turned out surprisingly easy and not really messy....too bad.  Compared to the beignets....okay, it was still messy.

You put all the batter into a ziploc, cut off the end, and lace the batter around in the pan really fast.
The first one I made was dense, the oil wasn't hot enough and I didn't let it cook long enough.  So the second one I let it sit for what seemed like forever.  And it was perfect!  Totally almost tasted like the fair.  (Caution....it's still messy.  My second enemy in the world besides flour is powdered sugar.  What I need is a powdered sugar shaker.  Then I'd be okay with making these all the time...)  Like the fair except not the same.  I'm not sure why, maybe it was because there was no carnie music and ferris wheels spinning around above us.  Can I get some ferris wheels here please?!

ribs n asparagus

For some reason I haven't been into cooking so much.  Maybe it's because it's blah weather outside and I seem to always need groceries....
But we're having ribs tonight, and I'm making some sweet bbq sauce to put on them.  Made with:  crushed tomatoes, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika, worcestershire, and brown sugar.  It smells good, so it should be good!
We're having it with asparagus and either fresh pineapple or watermelon.  Which one sounds best with it?  Pineapple would be more colorful.

Poor hubby had scrambled eggs with cheese and salsa ontop last night.  The night before was tacos.  So...we do eat, people.  It just doesn't seem like it lately!

Spaghetti

We had spaghetti last night.

I didn't buy spaghetti sauce, which I usually use as a base, but I wanted to make my own this time.  Everyone else seems to make delicious spaghetti....
But it was horrible!  Super bland.
The girls fell in love with it though....

So sometimes bland wins over.

Brown sugar bacon cheeseburgers

We had hospitality Sunday, so we wanted to grill since it's been soooo super nice out!  So the night before I baked bacon at 400.  When it was just about done, we sprinkled brown sugar on it and popped in for another couple of minutes.  Then we had burgers with paprika, garlic powder, salt, pepper, worcestershire, and brown sugar mixed in the meat.  Grilled it, slapped some sharp cheddar ontop, let it melt, and built the burgers.  I have a new favorite...brown sugar glazed bacon.
IT'S LIKE CANDY!

Spinach stuffed flank steak

Hey guys!  I cooked again............shocker!
Cleaned up a flank steak, which, by the way, is NOT the prettiest meat to work with.  It's got all these stringy fibers in it, and I'm super picky about fat, so I kept finding spots to fillet off.  The fat runs across the whole top of it, so it's seriously like you have to fillet it like a fish.  Anyhow, I tenderized the crap out of it and pounded it out way thin, put salt and pepper on it, and stuffed it with a mixture of chopped spinach, a beaten egg, and italian bread crumbs.  Rolled it up, and broiled it until it was done.
Along with it was a sauce made up of horseradish, mustard, beef stock, flour, butter...
And we had cheesy bread again and a box of sour cream n chive scalloped potatoes.  My husband loves those boxes of potatoes, and that's what we had!  No extra money for food this month, so we're using up what we have around, which is good because there's a lot of things around I just haven't used because before I get to it we go grocery shopping again and then I forget about it.

Ivy loves the potatoes too.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

The wedding is over now, everyone!  That means I might just might have time to cook a little more.  I've been very preoccupied with the wedding, so let's just say my family's been having lots of pizza.....
So I pounded out chicken breasts and stuffed them with ham and swiss cheese, rolled them up, baked them for 45 minutes on 350.  While it was cooking, I made a sauce of shallots, fresh chopped roemary, white wine, salt, honey, mustard, garlic powder.  When it was good n cooked, I added cornstarch with water and thickened it.  MMMMMMM!  The sauce was the star of the meal.  It was sooo good.  We also had buns I split in half and Lucy put a sice of smoked provolone ontop and we broiled it.  The girls loved the bread, of course.  It was like cheese pizzas with no sauce.
Perfect cheese to use on cheesy bread though!
The sauce was great.  Even better than the chicken.  It was delish!  And the girls ate so much we had no leftovers for Mike's lunch.  They had the chicken with ranch, of course.  Ranch.
Whatever floats their boats....

hb bacon egg bake

We had to do some cooking for company for the wedding, so I found this super amazing and easy recipe onine (allrecipes.com, baby!).  1 bag of hashbrowns, 1 lb of crumbled bacon, 8 eggs, 2c milk, 1 1/2 c shredded cheddar, salt, pepper.
Takes about 50 minutes to bake and remember to mix the eggs and milk before you put it over the hashbrown mixture...and save a little cheese for at the end when there's like 5 minutes left so it's good n cheesy stretchy!
I'll add fried onions next.  And maybe a few sauteed mushrooms, just for me.  :-)
Quick company food.