Everyone, say Hi to Eggy.

Eggy, say Hi to everyone.

Y’all wouldn’t believe the trouble that little bugger up there is giving me.

Nathan and I had such success with The 17 Day Diet (he 40 pounds, me 30 pounds) that we decided to re-visit the first 2 cycles after the New Year.  Oh yes, that’s now

I know I keep promising to share recipes with y’all – and honestly, I will.

Right now, however, I’m asking for y’all’s help.

That little purple veggie up there is driving me crazy – I just can’t think of what I want to do with it.

It can’t be fried or breaded – needs to be made baked or grilled or sauteed – no cheese – minimal fat -

Tomatoes, onions, garlic, chilies, peppers and the like are all okay – all welcome actually.

So, I’d love for y’all to share your ideas, thoughts, tips, tricks etc…

Share them in the comments, e-mail, me whatever… if I make it and love it, you and your idea will be featured on here!!

I’ve already gotten some great ideas on Twitter:

Anna @TheMedicoreMom Suggested: In a Casserole with Shrimp

@Tarable said that her husband Grilled it with Curry Powder

The Lovely @LoveFeast shared her family’s favorite way to serve eggplant

Cassie suggested the super unhealthy, but oh my holy heavenly deliciousness of frying it and smothering it with tomatoes and cheese

Help me, my friends!  Quick and delicious, healthy and favorites! Help me to figure out how to add Eggy up there to our repertoire, before he gets eyes and ears and a smile placed upon him by my ever so creative kids and becomes a family pet instead.

Today we’re going to be doing one of my favorite things

Having friends over and serving food.

Not that I *need* an excuse to host a party, but when Bush’s Beans asked if I’d like to partner with them to host a Game Day barbecue, pair a couple of my own recipes with a couple of their recipes, share them with y’all and talk about some of my favorite Game Day grilling tips — well I’m sure y’all can imagine just how quickly I said yes.

Today, I’m going to be serving grilled onion garlic Burgers and jalapeno bacon wrapped Brats alongside Bush’s Beans Homestyle Baked Beans and Onion Baked Beans.  There will be more food (obviously) but the food isn’t actually the point of today’s post.

Today’s post is about 3 of my favorite

Game Day Grilling Tips.

Tip #1 Clean Grill, Good Food

You must keep those grill grates clean!!  If you cook on a dirty grill, the leftover bits of food can cause flare-ups which causes burnt food which causes unhappy chefs and guests – not a good thing!

• A quick and chemical free way to clean your grill – halve an onion and rub it over your warm grill.  This cleans off all the residue and food leftover from cooking, smells wonderful and is a completely natural and biodegradable way to clean your grill.

Tip #2: Leave the food alone:

• For every time you have the urge to walk over and flip that burger sizzling on your grill – turn around and walk away.  The less you mess with the food on the grill, the juicier it will be.  Plus, if you flip a burger before it’s ready, it’ll stick to your grill.  Do not mess with the food, most food only needs to be flipped once. Once you’re ready to flip that burger, lift it up (if it comes up cleanly you know it’s ready) and place it down on a previously unoccupied space on the grill – because it was unoccupied, this part of the grill will be hot.

Tip #3: Let Cooked Meat Rest:

• Want the juiciest cut of meat?  Once your meat has cooked and you’ve removed it from the grill, let it rest.  Once the meat has left the heat of the grill and is on the serving platter, tent some foil over it and allow it to rest so those delicious juices can reabsorb into the meat.  This means do NOT cut into the meat immediately, you’ll lose all those juices and flavor!!

Rachel’s Bonus Tip(s)

• Have fun.  Prep as much of your food ahead of time as  you can, so that you aren’t spending your whole day in the kitchen getting everything ready. Get your family involved the day before in slicing and storing the veggies for dipping, or the burger toppings; write out your to do list so you know what you need to do and how much time you’ll need to do it.
• Once the guests arrive, let people help when they offer and make sure that you enjoy the food and the friends who’ve come over to celebrate and cheer on your favorite teams.  Be in the moment, the dishes can wait.  Leave the food out so people can nibble and remark once again what an amazing chef and host(ess) you are.

Thanks, Bush’s Beans for including me in this Game Day Grilling Opportunity!  I am receiving some product and compensation for my time and participation in this program.  The opinions, ideas, recipes shared are 100% mine unless otherwise stated.

Stay tuned! Next week I’ll share the recipes that we’ll be enjoying today and I have a pretty fantastic Game Day Grilling Kit to give away, courtesy of Bush’s Beans!!!!

This tweet came through my stream yesterday from Hollee (one of my favorite people), after I had put on Facebook that I had spent hours baking my favorite Homemade Granola that I’ve made a kajillion times only to have the recipe go awry somehow.

I tasted the granola, that I was going to gift to the Teachers at Princess’ school for Teacher Appreciation week, and it was awful — it had a sort of plastic-y taste.

Frustrated and disappointed were just the tip of the emotional ice-burg.

Her tweet got me thinking though, do y’all really think that everything I make always comes out perfectly and deliciously?

That thought sent me (and still does) into gales of much needed laughter.

Oh y’all — I am so far from the perfect cook — I’ll get so excited about a new recipe and spend time creating it and cooking it only to taste it and think– “Well, damn.  That’s about 10 shades of wrong”

There are nights where Nathan gets all excited about a new dish that I’m making because of the smells or the way I’ve been hyping it up only to end up with a Supreme pizza from Pizza Hut instead.

Hollee got me thinking — would y’all like me to share these blunders and then possibly, if I figure out what I did wrong, how I fixed it?

Would y’all be willing to share YOUR kitchen damns?

I’d love to hear about them and we’ll probably all be better and more confident for seeing that others aren’t all June Cleaver-Martha-Betty Crocker all the time, too.

So — Get Ready — Get Set —-

Go — Share your Kitchen Damns in the comments, please.

Who knows what solutions we might find amidst the commiseration and the laughter.

Today’s Kitchen Disaster Story is brought to you because I’ve been invited to be a part of Pampered Chef’s Spill It! Contest.

By sharing MY story with y’all, I’m entered to win a $3500.00 shopping spree to Pampered Chef to stock my kitchen and a $125 Spa Gift Certificate.  {swoon}

UPDATED: 4/11/11 2:10 PM CST

I’m really excited to announce that I was just given permission to do this and I’m SOOO excited!

If I win, I’m going to share this awesomeness of this with y’all!!!!

IF I win, everyone who commented on this post and helped me win — gets entered to win MY $125 Spa Gift Certificate!!!!!  Thank you TPC for being SO Generous!!!

How do I win?

With YOUR help!  The blogger with the most comments on their post by NOON Friday, April 15th — wins.

Have I mentioned how much I love y’all?  How beautiful you look today?

I’m about to share my biggest/most memorable kitchen disaster with y’all — I’d love for you to share yours with me here and Pampered Chef wants you to share it on their facebook page, too!

** Check below the post for a way to ENTER to WIN THE EXACT SAME PRIZE that I’m in the running for!!!!!!

*************************************************************************************************************************************************

Do you remember when you were learning to cook?

The thrill of mastering a recipe?

The nervous butterflies in your tummy when you pulled something out of the oven for the first time, hoping, praying that it turns out correctly?

The double and triple checking of ingredients and measurements?

OH!  You didn’t double and triple check the recipe ingredients when you first started cooking?

I did — except this ONE time — this time that 20 years later I STILL hear about.

Okay y’all — truthfully,  I measured everything I just um……

Well, I was making my Dad’s Raisin Bran muffins which were my favorite favorite thing ever for breakfast and snacks.  I was SO confident that I could do it just like he did.  I just knew that my muffins would be light and moist and filled with plump raisins and delicious — just as good, if not better than my Dad’s.

{sigh} to be young and cocky confident

Everything was going perfectly until young teenage me added 3 Tbsp of baking powder instead of 3 tsp of baking soda.

Let that sink in for a moment

This was literally, a recipe for disaster.

The resulting (I hesitate to call them muffins) muffin shaped imposters were horribly bitter and completely inedible and I was devastated.

I’ve had multiple other kitchen disasters in my day but this one — this one stands out to me as my BIGGEST kitchen disaster of all time.  Maybe because it was my first, or because it taught me the lesson that I should always read a recipe completely and measure out my ingredients carefully beforehand  but mostly because those were hands down the nastiest muffins EVER.

Now, even when I’m distracted — you can bet I triple check my ingredients AND my measurements!!!

What’s YOUR biggest/funniest/most memorable kitchen disaster?

I’d love it if you’d share that here in your comments and help me to win this amazing contest!

Want to know how YOU could win big??

Go to the Pampered Chef Facebook Page and share your own disaster story on www.facebook.com/ThePamperedChef (under the “contests” tab) before Friday at noon!.  If you do this.. then YOU can be entered to win your own $3500 Pampered Chef Shopping Spree and the $125 Spa Gift Card.

Pampered Chef is sponsoring TWO giveaways!  One for bloggers (I’m participating with MY post here) and one for Facebook Fans on their Facebook page.

Here’s today’s linky! Please leave a comment (to help me win!) after you link up your recipe! Thanks y’all! Happy Monday!

There are many things that *I* believe will help make a good food blog better.

I’m not an expert — I’m just Rachel, just a Southern Girl tap tap tappin’ away on her Mac takin’ pictures of her food and writin’ out her recipes to share with those she loves at home and out there in internetz land.

After speaking about Food Blogging at BlissDom in January, I realized that a few of my favorite things are not all that well known; so today, I’m sharin’ my favorite WordPress Plug-Ins for Food Blogging.

First and Foremost -

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Think about your favorite cookbook – is it black text on white paper? Or is it glossy and filled with beautiful photographs that leap off the page and cause you to drool?

For me – pictures tell the story.

Therefore, I think every recipe should be accompanied by beautiful pictures however, a lot of photographs can bog your blog down so one of my favorite plug-ins EVAH is my  Flickr plug-in that allows me to pull my Flickr pics and insert them directly into my blog posts all with the click of a pretty little button on my dashboard.

Next -

Easy to Read and Follow

Recipes need to be well formatted and easy to read and follow.  When the ingredients are jumbled and the directions are an ongoing paragraph — the recipe is hard to read and can be more confusing than necessary.

That’s why I ADORE LOVE the hrecipe plug-in.  All you have to do is  enter the information in the provided spaces and the plug-in formats everything for you.  Your readers will love you for it LOVE> LOVE> LOVE <3

Next and this one is near and dear to my little heart

Copyright Protection

I’ve had blog posts and recipes plagiarized and it is an ugly horrible feeling.  There are only so many things that you can do and I highly urge you to do every single thing that you can to protect yourself and your work.  I highly recommend

• Simple Feed Copyright Plug-In
• WP Copyright Protection

Share-ability

If your recipes and blog posts aren’t easy to share – you’re losing out on potential readers.  You need to make it easy for your readers to share your posts – they WANT to share the posts and recipes that they love .  Reward them by making it easy!

• Tweet Meme Rocks
• Facebook Share – A Must
• Sexy Bookmarks is an all in one if you prefer it that way

Last but in NO WAY Least

Printability

Y’all.

Y’ALL

{insert serious eyes}

If your recipes aren’t printable – you are doing your readers and yourself a serious disservice

• If you aren’t on WordPress or you aren’t in any way comfortable with html — Print Friendly is for you.  It’s crazy easy, it gives your readers the choice of highlighting – selecting – deleting what they do or don’t want to print
• If you have some savvy with html (I have about zero and I can do this) or you have someone who can set it up for you, I can’t tell y’all enough just how much I love my  WP Print This plug-in.  A couple of easy little tags added to my posts and I can choose which part is printable and which isn’t – easy peas-y lemon squeeze-y.

Okay y’all, there you have them.   A few of my MUST have Plug-Ins for Food Bloggers.

Have I left any out? Do you have one that you just L-O-V-E?  Please share it!

I know this isn’t my typical Mouthwatering Monday but, I hope y’all don’t mind the lack of a recipe this week

So, on Saturday I shared my Poblano, Cilantro and Citrus Roast Turkey recipe with y’all and gave two of y’all the chance to win Butterball Turkeys (congrats to the winners!)

Today, for Mouthwatering Monday and in honor of Thanksgiving coming up and Turkeys being cooked all across the country — I’m sharing the interview that I got to do with Mary Clingman, Director of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line.

Thank you so much for taking time to answer my questions and sharing your knowledge with my readers and me; Please introduce yourself and share how long you’ve been a Butterball Diva

My name is Mary Clingman and I have been on the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line for 25 years.

Do you remember your first phone call? Were you nervous, excited.. was it an easy question or did it dump you right into the hot water?
I was VERY nervous to take that first call! I had studied and thought I was pretty comfortable with the information but I just KNEW that first call was going to be someone who would ask me something that I had no clue how to answer! Well, I took the first call and it was a young woman who didn’t have any money and she thought it would be a good idea to cook her little boneless turkey breast just enough to be able to get a couple of slices off of it and then she would freeze the roast back up for another time to cook it again. She didn’t know I did this but a big smile came on my face because I KNEW the answer! (do not cook turkey in different steps).

What question do you get asked the most?
“What’s the best way to thaw a turkey?” is the most popular question year after year. Some people may not realize you should allow one day of refrigerator thawing for every four pounds of turkey.  In fact, Butterball is declaring November 18 “National Thaw Day” to encourage people to purchase their turkeys in time to thaw properly before the holiday!

Can you share with us your craziest story or question? Oddest, funniest etc.. Has anyone ever called crying?
A flustered father called the Talk-Line a few hours after his wife had given birth to their first child.   He was concerned their turkey had been thawing in the fridge for too long while he was at the hospital.

When the staffer asked the man how much it weighed, he replied, “The turkey or the baby?”

After determining the turkey’s weight and thawing time, I assured him he would be able to deliver a safe, delicious Thanksgiving dinner by the time mom and the baby returned home.

What is the best advice that you can give a first time Turkey cooker?
My top tip for new (and experienced) cooks are what I call the Three T’s:

• · Thaw: Thawing in the refrigerator is the recommended method. For every four pounds of turkey, allow at least one day of thawing in the refrigerator. The refrigerator temperature should be 40° F or below.
• · Temperature: Always use a meat thermometer to determine when the turkey is fully cooked. The turkey should reach 180° F in the thigh, 170° F in the breast and 165° F in the center of the stuffing.
• · Two-Hour Rule: Store leftovers in separate containers within two hours after cooking and eat or freeze within two days.

Who calls more often? Men or Women?
We receive calls from both men and women across all age groups. We’ve seen a surge in men over the last few years…30 years ago we had less than 10% of callers were men. Today it is around 25%!

What is your favorite part about being a Turkey Diva?
I love that my job allows me to help so many people during the holidays. I get to join families across the country during one of the most special times of the year – not many jobs can offer that!

If you had one trick or secret to share to making a Tonguegasmic Turkey — what is it?
Always have a meat thermometer handy to determine done-ness! Oh and definitely tent the turkey breast with a piece of Reynolds foil 2/3 through the cooking process to ensure a tender and juicy turkey.

What’s your favorite way to prepare Turkey?
I prefer cooking in an open roasting pan. It makes cooking your turkey so easy, and your turkey comes out tender and juicy every time.

Thank you so much, Mary, for taking the time to answer these questions for us AND for being such a help to so many people!!!
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I can’t wait to see what y’all have been cooking up and sharing with friends and family! Thank y’all for linking your delicious recipes!
Please leave a comment after linking up your picture and recipe, make sure that you link back here in your post so that others can find the Mouthwatering Monday fun and visit at least 3 other participants! Trust me, you’ll love it, although you may need a drool bib

This post was inspired by a Tweet tonight from Tanis; she tweeted:

Cream, Cream Cheese and Sour Cream were the popular answers, however, with a homemade tomato sauce.. adding a cream can easily go wrong.  That’s a delicate balance and can go bad on you, very quickly.

Truly, the answer is quite simple and is probably in your pantry right now:

Honey.

I know, you’re sayin’:  “Honey, please”

Honestly, y’all.. Honey.  Just a little bit of the sweet combats the heat from too much cayenne, too much red pepper, too much hot sauce.   A little bit of honey goes a long way and won’t compromise the integrity of your dish.

So, this got me thinking… what other quick kitchen fixes do I know?

Too much salt in a soup or stew?

• add in a few thick slices of peeled potato, potatoes absorb salt.  Just add the potato slices and slowly simmer until the potatoes become translucent.

Bitter Coffee

• Add a dash of salt to a pot of coffee that tastes too bitter, yet you can’t bring yourself to throw it out.

Undercooked Cake

• Scoop out the center and fill with frosting or fresh fruit
• Crumble up the usable parts to serve over ice cream or make into a beautiful parfait.
• Whatever you do, don’t tell them it’s a mistake!!!  Just smile, wink and accept the compliments and praises on your delicious concoction

Too Thin Sauce

• if your sauce is too thin, you can add a bit of cornstarch mixed with water, mashed potato flakes or even a quick flour and butter roux

Recipe Substitutions:

Did you run out of buttermilk or another key ingredient?  There are some surprisingly simple fixes for that.

• 1 tsp baking powder = ¼ tsp baking soda +  ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 cup buttermilk = 1 Cup Skim Milk + 1 Tbsp vinegar or Lemon Juice
• 1 tbsp cornstarch = 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cream = ½ cup butter + ¾ cup whole milk
• 1 cup honey = 1 ¼ cups sugar + ¼ cup water
• 1 cup molasses = 1 cup of honey
• 1 cup sour cream = 1 cup of yogurt
• 1 cup brown sugar = ¾ cup of granulated sugar + ¼ cup molasses
• 1 cup granulated sugar = ¾ cup honey or ½ cup corn syrup
• 1 cup powdered sugar = 1 cup granulated sugar + 1/8 tsp cornstarch (blended in food processor)

How To Take The Gamey Flavor Out of Venison

• Soak the venison in a mixture of buttermilk and worcestershire for 24 hours.

and I can’t believe I forgot this one! Thanks, April!

What Can I use in Place of Oil during Baking?

• I use applesauce in place of oil in a LOT of my baking recipes: Like in my Easy homemade Granola
• April also suggests: pureed pumpkin, sweet potato and even pureed black beans!

These are just a few ideas, a few quick tips to fix those “happens-to-everyone” kitchen oopsies

What are your favorite tips, hints and tricks?

A couple of weeks ago I posted this Roasted Green Chilies Stew recipe.

You could say that today’s Mouthwatering Monday is a follow up to that.

This is a step by step How to Roast Peppers Mouthwatering Monday.

Roasting peppers is crazy easy and the smell in your house, y’all will not believe it.  Your house is going to smell AMAZING!!!!

these are anaheim and poblano

1.  Wash your peppers and place them on a foil lined (ignore the lack of foil) baking sheet and place them in your oven on broil for about 6 to 10 minutes (or until blistering and well roasted and blackened) per side.  (unless you’re lucky enough to have a gas stove and then you, you lucky duck.. can roast them and blister and blacken them over your awesome flame) If the weather allows, you can also roast your peppers on your outdoor grill.

2.  Remove them from the oven or flame and place them in a zip-lock bag and allow them to “sweat” for about 15 minutes

3.  Remove the peppers from the bag.

4.  Put a small slit in the skin, slide your finger under the skin and it will just peel away from the pepper.  Discard the skin and add the roasted pepper yumminess to your favorite recipe

If you’re adding your recipe to Mouthwatering Monday, Thank you!  I love seeing the recipes and finding new food lovers’ blogs!! Please make sure to link your recipe URL and link back here in your post so that others can find and link their own recipes!  I love the comments on my recipes and hearing what you’d do differently for your own palate or your successes with my recipes (that makes my day!)

As always.. use the print friendly button to print the recipe with or without pics!!!

Want to know more? Hop over to Mom’s Marbles and see what I have to say about yummy, easy Kid friendly summertime meals and get lots more tips to help keep us Moms (and Dad’s) from losing our Marbles.

While I’m off at the lake, cooking, boating, fishing, playing and celebrating Princess’ graduation from Pre-school yesterday *sniff* and my little brother’s 28th birthday today…Happy Birthday, Michael!!! aka Monkey’s Uncle y’all please go check out what I have to say over on Work It, Mom! about what spices you should have in your cabinet