This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. I grew up living out in the country. It was so great. I wish my kids could have had that lifestyle in some ways. For one thing, I knew where my food came from. We gardened and raised chickens and sheep. We sold corn 12 ears for a $1.00 on the side of the road. We sold eggs for 50 cents per dozen. Our family didn't have cows, but our neighbors did and we were often the recipients of delicious fresh milk. My mom would skim off the cream and we would pass the container around shaking it to make butter, just like the pioneers. That was some delicious butter. Lately, I've seen some ideas for making flavored butters as gifts to enjoy with various crackers and breads. Most of those recipes used butter purchased in the store, softened with herbs, etc. added to it. That seems nice. But, to me, if you are going to "make" a homemade gift, then it should really be homemade! Butter is super easy to make and you don't have to shake the cream forever to turn it into butter! I mean, that can be a lot of fun as a family activity to teach your kids how butter used to be churned. But, with modern technology, like a stand mixer, making butter happens much more quickly! Here are the steps to make your own butter: I then decided to make one of my little bowls of butter into a flavored butter. I knew that Honey Cinnamon would go fast around here. But, you can flavor your butter in a savory way as well. To make the Honey Cinnamon Butter, I put the butter back into a larger bowl to mix in the ingredients and continued to squeeze out buttermilk (without adding it to the jar of course) as I mixed it. Here is the recipe: I'm not going to pretend that this butter is less expensive than store bought butter because it is much more expensive to make. But, it does tasted so good and fresh! Also, as a gift, it is just a little extra effort that will be appreciated. Or, if you just happen to have a chance to get some fresh cream from a friend with a cow, then making your own butter will be very cost effective! Plus, these kinds of projects are so good to do with kids so that they can learn where their food actually comes from. After packaging the butter and making the Honey Cinnamon Butter, I got onto Avery.com and used some of their cute stock ideas and customized and printed some labels for everything. This will be especially important to do when making flavored butter gifts. Have you made butter with your kids? They will get a kick out of it! Here is the link to the Lit'l Bowls by Tupperware. I also found them on Amazon. (See Below)
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A couple of months ago, I ordered peaches and pears to can. That was before our household was hit with Covid. I totally forgot about that order and I was taken aback when it arrived because now I needed to get some canning done at the same time as taking care of my husband who is still in the hospital recovering. It has worked out alright because Maricopa County has very strict rules about how often and how long my visits can be. So, coming home and doing an activity that I normally love doing gives me something else to think about rather than brooding over my dear husband's slow recovery.
If that wasn't enough for me, the produce wholesale place where I sometimes find really great deals had one of those really great deals this last week. Crazy woman that I am, on my way to see my husband, I swung by the drive through cash and carry sale and asked for mangos and apples. At the same time as they were loading my order, my SIL called, so I was a bit distracted, so I may have heard the attendant wrong as he read me my order. Imagine my surprise when, after being with my husband and then returning home to unload my produce, I found that they gave me a large box of avocados instead of apples! It was too late to go swap them out, the place was closed! Don't get me wrong, I really like avocados, but I was looking forward to some Cinnamon Red Hot Apple Rings! I found out that avocado pulp can be frozen for later use, but so far I have been handing out avocados to family and friends pretty quickly. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the beautiful, super large mangos that I also purchased! They are so sweet and amazing! And, now that I have some great mangos and wonderful fresh peaches at my house at the same time, I decided that today, I would use some of those avocados myself and make this amazingly delicious Peach Mango Salsa w/Avocados! Not all Peach Mango Salsa recipes also have avocados in them. But, the perfectly ripe avocado is so creamy and delicious when eaten in this salsa. When you get a little of each ingredient on a chip, it is the perfect bite!
Not only is this salsa good with tortilla chips, one of my favorite ways to eat it is as a topping to grilled chicken. I made that for dinner for my son and I tonight. We ate it up really fast and I forgot to take a picture. Trust me, it looked and tasted delicious! Here is the recipe for this fabulous salsa!
This recipe is really quick to put together and gives such a great result. I hope you give it a try!
Other Salsa Recipes You Might Love:
This post was originally posted in July of 2018! Although Independence Day was yesterday, many people will still have the day off today. So, there is no reason not to keep the celebration going with a great American traditional meal! This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support. Hey guys! Alicia here with more recipes from my ancestry. This month I decided to do American food, as in The United States of America. My ancestors have been here for a long time from many other countries throughout Europe. It's been difficult to find purely American foods, because the great thing about this country is it's a melting pot of people and cultures. And in fact today we have a meal that is an blend of foods from other countries, that when together makes a quintessential American meal. Hamburgers, Fries, and a MilkshakeHamburgers, wereminced Hamburg beef steaks made in Hamburg, Germany. They were usually very expensive. When Germans came to the USA, they made a version of the Hamburg steak here. These steaks were passed out to factory workers during the Industrial revolution, but proved difficult to eat standing up. This was until one chef put the patty between to slices of bread. This popularized the hamburger across the country. And I'm so glad! I love hamburgers. To make mine, I usually just make a patty with ground beef (80/20 or higher). Sometimes I mix in spices like pepper, garlic, thyme, or onion powder. Then as I put them on the charcoal grill, I salt them. When they're cooked through, and just about done, I add a slice of cheese. Cheddar, Pepper Jack, Swiss...to me all cheese has a place on a burger, it just depends on what else you're topping it with. For our burgers this time we used cheddar cheese, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and onion. All on a lightly grilled sesame seed bun. It was so delicious. I don't have a recipe for you because hamburgers are the perfect food to experiment with. There are so many delicious combinations. The bacon cheeseburger like we made is an American classic, But I also love Swiss cheese and sautéed onions. To go with hamburgers, the classic way here in the USA is with French Fries. While named French fries, they're actually from Belgium! During World War I, American soldiers in Belgium tried these delicious fried potatoes (that date back to the 1600's in Belgium). Because of the language spoken in that part of the country, the soldiers called them French Fries and the name has stuck (except for that very brief moment in time where we changed it to Freedom Fries in one of the most hilarious forms of animosity between countries). Fries are eaten all over the world now and in different ways. In Canada they use them to make Poutine. In the UK they're called chips and eaten with fried fish. No matter how you eat them, they are delicious. To make my fries I peel russet potatoes, and then slice them into long thin rectangular prisms (not exactly since the potatoes are round). Then I soak them in water or blanch them. I feel like this helps them to get plump up and be crispy when they are done frying (instead of soggy). I fry them in my 10 inch frying pan with about an inch of oil. As soon as they come out of the oil I put them on a plate with a paper towel and salt them. You can also bake them, just coat them in oil and salt first. To finish off the meal, is a milkshake! From my research it seems milkshakes are an American invention. Now we don't always have milkshakes with fries and burgers or even for dinner. Usually it's an after dinner treat! But we made an exception for this meal. Milkshakes are easy to make. Get your favorite ice cream, put it in a blender, add some milk and blend it up. It's so so simple and so delicious! You can make it as liquid as you want. We like to be able to drink ours through a straw but many people eat theirs with a spoon. Sorry I don't have a good picture of our milkshake. We drank it too fast. This post contains affiliate links. We will be compensated for any purchases you make at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support! To say that it is hot here in Phoenix is an understatement! Look at this meme that my son posted the other day: That just about says it all! We are all about finding the things that make us cooler. We have spent a lot of time in the water already this Summer, and in between we are drinking as many cooling drinks as possible. We have shared a number of our cold beverage concoctions here on the blog in the past. Here are some favorites that you can click on to try out if you are suffering as much as we are! Years ago when my brother was a teenager, and I was much younger, he got a job at one of the first Orange Julius Shops that we had ever heard of in our town! (Although, they have been in business since the 1920s.) We loved those things, and still do. But, I think the recipe has changed since all of those years ago. The recipe that I've been making is more reminiscent of the original one that I remember so fondly! It is such a great way to get cooled off with a thirst quenching beverage! The ingredients are simple and you may already have them all on hand. My blender is so great at crushing up the ice cubes that the texture is perfect. (Right now, the price on Amazon is amazing!) The other night we were all feeling so hot! I asked, "Who wants an Orange Julius?" Everyone responded with a resounding yes! I whipped some up for everyone in the blender and I have to tell you that the coolness and bright flavor of this drink was just so wonderful and cooling that I am going to run out and pick up more frozen concentrate as soon as possible to make this our summer beverage of choice! More healthy than soda, cold and delicious, you can't go wrong. Let me know if you give it a try! |
Creators of Hot Cocoa Bombs! (copyrighted)
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Helen Reynolds: Mother of six children , grandmother to eleven! I love to cook, craft and create things and I especially love doing that with my family, So, when my lawyer daughter, Lindsey, my artist daughter, Madalynn, and I came up with the idea of Hot Cocoa Bombs, this blog was born. Then, one more daughter, with her technical and science skills, plus creativity has joined in to round us out! Read more about us here! Archives
March 2024
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