Are you still there?

I'm sure we've lost many readers due to our lack of posts.

I just wanted to apologize and let you know that we DO have a good reason for the absence.

We're both prego! Looking at food, talking about food, cooking food...just hasn't been super fun the past few months.

But, we're back.

Look for new blogs soon.

Chili Cornbread Casserole

I got the idea for this recipe from my Mom and was reminded to use it when I saw this recipe this morning.

This is a great way to use your left-over chili or you can make it from scratch like I did today.

Whip up some chili. Mine is always different, depending on what's in the cupboard. But, today I had kidney beans, black beans, a bag of corn, salsa and some cooked and shredded chicken. (And of course a little salt and pepper). We're not big fans of spicy food, so if you like things kicked up a bit you could add a can of green chilies or some Rotel or something.

Pour the chili into a baking dish. I'm not sure what size this is, it's my "medium" one. Does that help?

Then, mix up a batch of cornbread. I always use the recipe on the back of the cornmeal bag. It's super simple. ****TIP*** Don't try substituting wheat flour for the white flour, it makes really grainy and dry cornbread. I use half and half sometimes, but all white flour really tastes the best.

Pour the cornbread mix right on top of the chili. My mom's tip is to only put the cornmix on the outsides of the pan and leave the middle uncovered because it's hard to get it to cook all the way through. I tried to do this, but when I lifted the pan to put it in the oven, it just slid all over the casserole. Anyhow, it baked just fine...luckily!

Bake it in the oven with no cover for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, mine was perfectly cooked though, no gooey-ness. If you like it a little gooey, then just take a few minutes of time off.

Scoop away and enjoy!

Oh, and there was a little extra cornmeal mix so I baked two muffins with the casserole. Yum-o!

Fruit cuplets

These are so easy and good. I made them for my niece and nephew and they ate the fruit and cream out of the middle and left me the rest. I think next time I'd cut the cuplet in half. The dough to cream ratio was a bit off.

Buy some puff pastry cuplets.
Bake according to directions on box.
Remove as much of the middle as you can after you bake them.
Mix up some of the previously posted fruit dip (or you could just use your favorite whipped cream)
Add the fruit of season
Top with a dallop more of the fruit dip and place the lid back on top.

Cousin's Cornbread

I honestly can't remember if this is called "cousin's cornbread" because that is the real title or if I started calling it that because my sister-in-law made it for me and so it was my children's cousin's cornbread.
But either way, this is delicious cornbread, and that is coming from someone who is now corn-intolerant and didn't really like cornbread in the first place. I made this for a church activity the other night and was almost tempted to try some and let my stomach pay for it later.

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups milk

mix the wet ingredients together then pour the dry ones on top and mix well.
pour into an 8x8 pan and cook at 375 for 35-40 minutes. It makes 6 servings.

Lemon pork with rosemary

Last night I couldn't decide what sounded good for dinner. The hubby was starving after work, so we decided to just to a quick "whatever" night. That usually means sandwiches, cereal, oatmeal...something simple and cheap.

But, then I remembered I had these two leftover pork loins in the freezer. They are very small, but SO tasty. I also had a zucchini leftover from some bread I made yesterday. So, I decided to get to work.

Ingredients:

2 pork loins
1/2 cup water
salt and pepper to taste
1 t Rosemary
1/2 lemon (juice)
onions (about 1/4 cup sliced thinly)
1 zucchini

Directions:

Cook the pork loins over medium heat in 1/2 cup water and cover with lid to let the steam do the work. When almost done, squeeze almost the whole half of lemon juice onto the pork and add the onions to the pot. Season with salt and pepper and rosemary.

Once pork is cooked through, add peeled and chopped up zucchini to the pan. Cook for about 3 minutes until zucchini is tender, but not mushy. (Unless you're the type who like mushy vegetables, in which case, you probably won't want to eat dinner at our house.)

Remove contents from the pan and serve! (Makes one serving, well for me it did, but I'm sure you could serve two with it if you had some additional sides. The pork is very thin, though, and not super filling.)

How did it turn out? I loved it. I squeezed some more lemon juice on the zucchini afterwards, and that tasted great. It wasn't very filling, though. It would probably be good over some pasta or served with some steamed rice. I had some zucchini bread for dessert, and I was still kind of hungry. When I tried to share this with my husband, he politely replied, "No thanks, I'd prefer a turkey sandwich." Whatever. :)