Recipes

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Kit Morgan

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Okay, so I’m one of those people that never measures, and tosses everything together and it works. So trying to figure out exact measurements isn’t easy. But here goes. This is the dish everyone wants me to bring to potlucks, family dinners, taco Tuesdays and so on. My famous Spanish Rice! I’m going to give the single batch version. Serves 6? I’m used to making double and triple batches so I’m having to pare it down. And that’s not a picture of my rice. I couldn’t find one on my phone (yes, my family is always taking pictures of food)  so had to find something similar. At any rate, it’s a colorful and festive looking dish!

1 cup jasmine or other long grain rice
1 3/4 cups water
1/2 cup Salsa. I use Salsa Suprema, and sometimes a cilantro salsa. For something different, I’ve also used pineapple salsa. Heat level is up to you but I usually stick with medium
1 1/2 teaspoons chicken bullion
1/2 medium onion chopped
1/2 red pepper chopped
1/2 yellow pepper chopped
1 bunch green onions chopped
1 small or medium sized can of sliced olives (depending on how much you want in there.
2 tablespoons butter

Melt the butter in a frying pan at medium low to medium heat. Add rice and fry, stirring frequently for a few minutes. Add chopped onion (not the green onion) and fry another couple of minutes. Stir in water and salsa. Add chicken bullion and stir. Bring to boil then cover and reduce heat to low. While the rice is steaming, chop up peppers and green onions if you haven’t already, put in a bowl with the olives and mix well. Set aside.
Steam the rice about twenty five minutes and check. If the rice is done, then add the chopped veggie/olive mixture. You can either spread it over the top and re-cover the pan for another ten minutes, or mix the veggie/olive mix into the rice and then recover. I’ve done both. The goal is not to let the veggies cook all the way through. You want them just tender. You can leave the pan on low heat for a few minutes, then shut off your burner. The peppers and green onions will steam fine with the cover on. If you’ve chosen to put the veggie/olive mixture on top to steam, then mix before serving.

That’s it! The famous Spanish Rice recipe!

My Summer Playlist

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As Kenny Chesney says in his song “Summertime,” “Perfect song on the radio. Sing along ’cause it’s one we know. It’s a smile, it’s a kiss. It’s a sip of wine, it’s summertime. Sweet summertime.” Though this year with all the over one-hundred-degree weather and the high humidity, I’m not so sure about the sweet.

Despite the heat, summer brings to mind certain activities. Boating on the lake (as a teenager I water skied on the Mississippi River), road trips, vacations, lazy beach days, picnics, hanging out with friends, and family reunions. And of course, summer needs a playlist. Here are some songs that are on my eclectic summer playlist.

  • “Margaritaville” Jimmy Buffett
  • “Waves’ Luke Bryant
  • “It’s Five O’clock Somewhere” Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett
  • “Knee Deep” Zac Brown Band and featuring Jimmy Buffett
  • “Firework” Katy Perry
  • “Pink Sunglasses” Miranda Lambert
  • “Buy Me a Boat” Chris Janson
  • “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problems” Kenny Chesney
  • “Cruel Summer” Bananarama
  • “Cruel Summer” Taylor Swift
  • “Water Brad” Paisley
  • “Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset” Luke Bryan
  • “Good Directions” Billy Currington
  • “Summer Breeze” Seals and Croft
  • “Toes” Zac Brown Band
  • “One Margarita” Luke Bryan
  • “Beers and Sunshine” Darius Rucker
  • “Vacation” The Go-Gos
  • “Watermelon Crawl” Tracy Byrd
  • “Under the Boardwalk” Otis Redding
  • “Wipe Out” The Surfaris
  • “California Gurls” Katy Perry

A few trends became apparent when I started my list. The first was that Jimmy Buffett features predominantly in summer songs. (I’d only noted five songs and he was part of three!) I hear you gasping. Yes, I know. I had that same reaction. Shocking that Jimmy Buffett and summer are linked. ? The other trend I spotted was various beverages being mentioned. Imagine, margaritas, beer, wine, and summer. Another huge shock.

I hope the rest of your summer is safe and filled with days that become warm memories, and I’ll leave with you a summer tip. Take some advice from the Zac Brown Band’s song “Knee Deep.”

“Gonna put the world away for a minute
Pretend I don’t live in it
Sunshine gonna wash my blues away

“Mind on a permanent vacation
The ocean is my only medication
Wishing my condition ain’t ever gonna go away

“Cause now I’m knee deep in the water somewhere
Got the blue sky breeze blowing wind through my hair
Only worry in the world is the tide gonna reach my chair
Sunrise there’s a fire in the sky
Never been so happy
Never felt so high
And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise”

To be entered in my random giveaway for an ebook of Aiming for His Heart, my book in the Pink Pistol Sisterhood series, leave a comment telling me about your favorite summer song.

 

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Kari Trumbo

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Hey everyone! I’ve got a super easy recipe for you today. In the Trumbo house, we would usually use venison, but we’re almost out for the year, so we used beef this time. This recipe feeds 6 with lots left over.

  • Ingredients:
    • 2 lbs beef or venison
    • 1 lb crinkle sliced carrots
    • 1 lb med potatoes cubed into 1″ pieces
    • 1/2 a large onion, diced
    • 1/2 C peas
    • 3 C water
    • 1 Tbsp celery seed
    • 1 Tbsp Worcester sauce
    • 1 Tbsp flour
    • 2 Tbsp brown gravy mix
    • 1 tsp turmeric

 

In a crock pot, dump 2 lbs cubed beef (or venison) and the flour, stir to coat. Turn on high for 5 hours of cook time or low for 8+ hours. Add carrots, potatoes, onion, water, celery seed, and Worcester sauce. Let that cook for 4 hours until the meat is cooked and the veggies are just tender.

When there’s one hour left of cook time, in a small sauce pot, put 2 C of cold water. Follow the directions on your brown gravy mix to get 2 cups. Add that to crock pot. Just before serving, add peas and turmeric, stir and serve!

My family loves this. I know it’s more than the usual 3-4 ingredient recipes, but this comes together mostly from ready-made ing. (I buy my beef cubed when I don’t have venison and I buy fresh, crinkle cut carrots) I also don’t bother to peel my potatoes, but you certainly could if the peels bother you. Enjoy

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Jeannie Watt

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Greetings fellow cowgirl cooks!

I love, love, love this recipe! It’s my go-to when family comes and I have to feed a crew. It’s simple and easy and I usually have everything on hand. I hope you’ll give this one a try:

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Cathy McDavid

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Good Morning Everyone.

I’m going to let you all in on a well kept secret. I’m not much of a cook. I manage in that you won’t starve. And my homemade soups are actually pretty good. But I just don’t have the touch. Not like my mother did. She was a wonderful cook, which is why I’m amazed and a little shocked I wasn’t born with the good cook gene.

So, both in honor of my mom, and because she left me her collection of recipes, I’m going to share one her hers and a particular favorite of mine: apricot cream pie. This recipe does take a little effort to prepare, but I guarantee you, the results are worth it. So delicious. A real treat for a Sunday dinner or any special occasion.

Ingredients:

2 4-oz packages of Jell-O Vanilla pudding mix

1 pkg (6-oz) dried apricots (more if desired)

1 qt. milk

1/2 pint whipping cream (can used store bought )

1 baked pie crust (store bought or make your own)

 

Directions:

Cook apricots in water until tender – time can vary depending on the apricots and how many

Chop cooled apricots into tiny pieces

Make pudding according to directions on box

Cool slightly, then stir in apricots

Fill pie shell (there may be some filling left over) and chill till firm

Whip the whipping cream with two teaspoons sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla (if desired)

Top pie and continue chilling until set

coconut cream pie

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Karen Kay’s Quick and Simple Recipe

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Howdy!  Howdy!

Welcome, welcome to a marvelous Monday!  Hope this day sees y’all doing well.

The recipe I’m posting here is one very beloved by my grandchildren, as well as my husband (and me, too).

Simple to make.  Delightful to eat.

So, here we go!

Easy, smeesy, Chocolate Truffles!

What you’ll need:

  1. 8 oz. organic semi-sweet chocolate bar
  2.  1/2 to 3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
  3.  1 1/2 Teaspoon vanilla

How to make:

  1. Simmer cream — do not boil
  2. Break up chocolate into pieces
  3.  Pour cream over chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes.  Then, combine until smooth.
  4.  Refrigerate until hard
  5.  Roll into balls with your clean hands
  6.  Roll each ball in cocoa powder or broken/crushed candy canes — the candy canes work well for Christmas.

That’s all!  But, there are some substitutions and some simple tricks, also.

  1. Don’t use chocolate chips because they don’t work well for truffles.  They have a different consistency when cooled.
  2.  Your cream must be whipping or heavy cream.  If you try using half and half, the chocolate will not roll into balls.
  3.  If you have only cocoa powder, you can substitute it in a pinch for the organic semi-sweet chocolate bar by doing the following:  substitute 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to every ounce of chocolate; add 1 teaspoon melted butter or coconut oil for every tablespoon of cocoa powder; add 1 tablespoon sugar for each ounce of chocolate.
  4. Follow the rest of the recipe above.

There you go.  A wonderful addition to the holidays or just for fun.  Yum!  Chocolate!

Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever made your own truffles and if so, how did they turn out?

Cowgirls in the Kitchen – Jessie Gussman

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Hey, Everyone!

 

I’m so excited to get to do this with you all! I spent a lot of years of my life cooking big meals. Every day of the week, anyone on our farm and trucking company property was expected to stop what they were doing at noon time and come on up to the house to have dinner, and yeah, that’s what we called it – dinner.

 

To those of us on the farm, dinner is the big, noon meal, and supper is a lighter, smaller meal you eat, often leftovers from dinner, after the chores are done for the day and you’re inside for the night.

 

At any rate, our big meal was at noon, and I was often responsible for cooking for anywhere from seven to twenty people. We have a big table that stretches out and we can put boards in, and, if we grab our picnic table benches from outside and use my piano bench as well, we can seat twenty people around it comfortably. It makes for a fun time.

 

Honestly, there have been times where I didn’t even know the names of all the people who were sitting at the table with us. We just grab them, sit them down and feed them!

 

Once, my friend who was going through a hard time, was there with us along with her five kids – a daughter and four little blond-haired boys. Real cuties. We also had two men from Chiapas, Mexico eating with us as well, one who had just arrived in the US for the first time.

As we ate, the new fellow spoke to the man sitting next to him in Tojolab’al, the language the native people speak in that Mexican providence. While we understand a little Spanish, we didn’t understand Tojolab’al and we asked the fellow he’d spoken to what was going on, since the man had pointed at the children and had seemed amazed at something.

 

The man we’d asked grinned a little and said in halting English, “He no has seen such white skin. He no can believe they are very much pale!”

 

We laughed at the fun of it – a Mexican sitting at a table in Pennsylvania talking about the little Italian boys who happened to be sharing a table with him. Kind of funny when I think about the culture that has sat at our table.

 

Hospitality is a trait that the Bible commands, and, while I love for my home to be clean and everything in its place, hospitality is less about having a perfect house and all about making the people who grace your home and table feel comfortable and welcomed and loved.

 

Food is a big part of that. I always tried to make hearty meals that would “stick to the ribs” and keep my growing, working boys and the men fulfilled and satisfied the rest of the day.

 

I also tried to make things easy on the girls and myself and keep things simple. We had some favorites that were a little complicated – lasagna and chicken pot pie – but a hearty chili or simple roast beef sandwiches and gravy were often on the menu.

 

I’d like to share two simple 5-ingredient recipes with you today that I often used during those times of feeding a bunch of people simply, on a budget, but still wanting to give them hearty meals that kept them feeling full for an afternoon of working outside.

 

Jessie’s Pizza Casserole

  • 1 16 oz box of pasta
  • 1 20 oz jar of spaghetti sauce
  • 6 oz pepperoni (or more ; ) sliced and cut into quarters
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese
  • 2 pounds of hamburger, crumbled and browned

 

Directions:

  1. Cook the pasta and drain.
  2. Cook the hamburger and drain the fat.
  3. Mix everything together and serve.

 

*Notes from the farm: I typically served it with garlic bread and peas or broccoli, depending on what I had in the garden. You can also add mushrooms and onions and peppers – anything you’d put on pizza. I often threw it together and left it in the crock pot on low for several hours so the guys could feed themselves if I had to be gone over lunch.

 

Jessie’s Favorite – Creamed Dried Beef Over Toast

  • 2 1 oz containers dried beef, chopped into small pieces
  • 2 sticks of butter
  • 3/4 c flour
  • 8 c milk
  • 2 c sour cream

 

  1. Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet.
  2. Chop the dried beef and add it to the butter.
  3. Put the flour in and mix it up.
  4. Pour the milk in and stir continuously until it bubbles.
  5. Add the sour cream.

Serve over a loaf of French bread, cut long-ways and toasted in the oven.

*Notes from the farm:  You can chop up leftover ham and use that in place of the dried beef. If I use ham, I don’t usually use as much sour cream. You can also use sausage in place of the dried beef. French bread was what we aimed for, but sometimes I used toasted hamburger or hot dog rolls – whatever bread we had is what we used. : )

 

Cowgirls in the Kitchen ~ Pam Crooks

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When my girls were young, they loved these cookies.  They make a small batch, so they never lasted long.  The dough is sticky–thank goodness for that powdered sugar!  If you love lemon and want to add a little more zing, you could add 1/2 teaspoon or even a full teaspoon of lemon extract.

Of course, there are variations on the Internet (oil instead of Cool Whip), but this is the recipe that I’ve made again and again.

Easy Lemon Cookies

  • 1 pkg. lemon cake mix
  • 1 egg
  • 5 oz. Cool Whip, thawed
  • Powdered sugar

Mix the cake mix, egg, and Cool Whip.  (Remember, the dough will be sticky.)

Roll dough into balls.

Roll in powdered sugar.

Bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Please enjoy!

Merry Christmas and…the New Year is full of books!

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The Wyoming Sunrise series kicks off in February with Forged in Love

TI was inspired to write The Wyoming Sunrise Series when I found out Wyoming was the first state (then a territory) in the Union to give women the right to vote.

Wyoming.

Doesn’t that seem odd?

Then I found out it wasn’t just the right to vote…all sorts of other rights were given to women by women’s suffrage. The right of women to run for elected office. Or be appointed to office. The right to serve on a jury. (They took that away after two years, trails were just too awful for sweet little women to watch!) And I found the first woman justice of the peace in America was from Wyoming. Esther Hobart Morris.

This inspired me to have one of my heroines be the second justice of the peace in the United States.

As I researched this book, reading about all that went on in Wyoming was fascinating. They became a territory in 1868…with women voting. I read somewhere that initially they didn’t have enough people in this large state unless they included women in their citizen count. Not sure if that’s accurate based on other things I read. It sounds like men genuinely (but not unanimously) supported the right to vote for woman.

Because of this suffrage nonsense (insert sarcasm) they weren’t allowed statehood for 30 years. Why? When other states were getting granted statehood in only a few years? Because the United States refused to let them in unless they took the vote away from women.

And Wyoming adamantly refused to strip that vote from women. I also read that Utah gave women the right to vote but, when they applied for statehood, they were told, not if women can vote. So Utah stripped women of the right to votes.

So, year after year Wyoming was denied statehood. When they finally got it, the women maintained their right to vote because Wyoming just would not budge. The whole history of it was great reading.

But the part I loved was, when the word was out that THIS YEAR it was going to pass there was a riot in Washington D.C. PROTESTS against. One representative from Wyoming kept shouting the words from a telegram he’d received from the Wyoming legislature: “We will stay out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without our women.” 

Whoever it was who was shouting it, ended up having to climb a wall somewhere to escape the mob but even as he climbed he kept yelling, over and over again, “We will stay out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without our women.”

That story makes me smile.

Anyway, fun research for this new series. I’m hoping to get it all into the pages of the new books.

When sparks begin to fly, can a friendship cast in iron be shaped into something more?

Forged in Love

coming February 2023

Mariah Stover is left for dead and with no memory when the Deadeye Gang robs the stagecoach she’s riding in, killing both her father and brother. As she takes over her father’s blacksmith shop and tries to move forward, she soon finds herself in jeopardy and wondering–does someone know she witnessed the robbery and is still alive?

Handsome and polished Clint Roberts escaped to western Wyoming, leaving his painful memories behind. Hoping for a fresh start, he opens a diner where he creates fine dishes, but is met with harsh resistance from the townsfolk, who prefer to stick to their old ways.

Clint and Mariah are drawn together by the trials they face in town, and Clint is determined to protect Mariah at all costs when danger descends upon her home. As threats pursue them from every side, will they survive to build a life forged in love?

Click to Pre-Order

 

 

 

 

The Laws of Attraction

Coming June 2023

If widowed town seamstress Nell Armstrong has to make one more pair of boring chaps for the cowboys in her tiny Wyoming town, she might lose her mind. So meeting Brand Nolte, a widower father struggling to raise three girls, seems like her dream come true. Brand has no idea how to dress the girls, and Nell finally has a chance to both create beautiful dresses and teach the girls to sew.

But Nell is much more than a seamstress, and the unique legal and investigative skills and knowledge she picked up alongside her late lawman husband soon become critical when a wounded stagecoach-robbery survivor is brought to town. As danger closes in from all sides, Nell and Brand must discover why there seems to be a bull’s-eye on their backs.

Click to Pre-order

 

 

 

 

And because it’s Christmas time I’m including a recipe. This is a Connealy family FAVORITE.

It’s like scalloped corn combined with Mac & Cheese. 

Because my sister-in-law Mardelle brought it every year to every holiday, we’ve named it Mardelle Corn

Mardelle Corn

1 can whole corn-drained

1 can creamed corn

1 cup salad macaroni (the type isn’t important)

1 cup cubed Velveeta

1 stick butter cut up

Mix together, pour into 8 x 8 buttered casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour, stirring halfway through.

I actually self-published a book of Family Favorite Recipes.

Leave a comment to get your name in a drawing for a signed copy of Faster than Fast Food.

And Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My Favorite Christmas Candy

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Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Whenever my BIG South Louisiana family gets together there is always, among other things, lots of amazing food. And that includes sweets. There are pecan pralines, coconut pralines, divinity, cookies, bars, fudge, fruit candies, brittles and novelty treats for the little ones like these gnomes and reindeers.

But one of my personal favorites is just plain old fashioned peanut butter fudge. Partly because it brings back such great memories for me. It is one of the first things my mom taught me to cook.  I remember her standing over me and my younger sister as we made batches of this sweet treat.  Sometimes it didn’t turn out quite right and we had to eat it with a spoon. And I’ll let you in on a secret – I actually enjoyed eating it this way and on a few occasions I deliberately sabotaged the batch so that it wouldn’t harden properly.  🙂

Anyway, here is the recipe – it’s very sweet so unfortunately I can’t eat it with as much abandon as I once did. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Shirley’s Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 5 cups milk
  • 5 cups peanut butter (either creamy or chunky)
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

  • In a heavy 4 quart saucepan, combine sugar and salt
  • Stir in milk
  • Over a medium heat, stir constantly until mixture reaches a bubbly boil.
  • Continue to boil without stirring until mixture reaches a soft ball stage or 234 degrees.
  • Quickly stir in peanut butter until well mixed.
  • Remove from heat and add butter and vanilla – DO NOT STIR
  • Cool to 110 degrees.
  • Beat until fudge thickens and shine fades.
  • Quickly spread in a buttered 8” or 9” square pan.
  • Cool completely and then cut into squares.

So do you have a special treat that brings back memories for you?

I have several copies of The Holiday Courtship that I’d like to giveaway since I’m reissuing it under a new title and with a new cover so leave a comment and you just might end up with one of these.

 

Petticoats & Pistols