It is an age old debate…do noodles truly belong in chili? It’s also a debate that we have in my house every time I pull the chili ingredients out from the pantry. Personally, I love chili just the way it is, but my husband believes chili is only worth eating when it has noodles in it. I can also see the other positive side to noodles in chili, when you add noodles you need more water, and with more water, and pasta involved, the pot of chili can spread out a lot further. This is an excellent thing to consider when preparing soup for a potluck, a family get together, or even preparing a dinner on a Sunday night and knowing you may need leftovers for the long week ahead. I’ve provided you with two different versions of my spicy chili, so you can be happy no matter which side of the debate you fall on. 

I’ll start with chili without noodles since that is considered the standard approach. For me, chili is a slow cooker meal. This also makes it a pretty easy meal to make since I can leave it alone to cook after mixing the ingredients together.

1 lb Ground Round

1 can Petite Diced Tomatoes

1 can Low Sodium Kidney Beans

1 can Chili Beans with Hot Sauce

½ can Low Sodium Black Beans

½ tsp Onion Powder

½ tsp Garlic Powder

1 tbsp Dark Chili Powder

1 tbsp Mexican Chili Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

½ tsp Crystal’s Hot Sauce (You can use other brands, but I’ve found it tastes best with this one)

2 ¼ cups Water

The first step to making chili is to brown the ground round, making sure to strain the grease from the pan before dumping the cooked meat into the slow cooker. After the meat is in the pot, mix in the petite diced tomatoes and the chili beans. Before mixing the kidney beans and black beans in they need to be strained and rinsed. 

After all of the canned goods have been mixed in, the spices and sauces can be stirred in. Finish the chili by pouring in the water. I like to use 2 ¼ cups of water to get the chili to the desired thickness, but this can change depending on the consistency you like your chili to be. 

Once all of the ingredients are added in, turn the slow cooker on low and cook the chili for 5-6 hours. 

Making chili with noodles is very similar to cooking without them, but there are some things to consider. First, by adding in pasta, you are automatically taking away from the spice of the dish, so more has to be added in. Secondly, more water has to be added in because the noodles will soak a lot of it in as they are cooking. 

1 lb Ground Round

1 can Petite Diced Tomatoes

1 can Low Sodium Kidney Beans

1 can Chili Beans with Hot Sauce

½ can Low Sodium Black Beans

½ tsp Onion Powder

½ tsp Garlic Powder

2 tbsp Dark Chili Powder

1 tbsp Mexican Chili Powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

½ tsp Crystals Hot Sauce (You can use other brands, but I’ve found it tastes best with this one)

4 ¼ cups Water

¾ cups Elbow Noodles

Just like the regular chili, the first step to making chili with noodles is browning the meat, straining it, and mixing it with the canned items. The kidney beans and black beans still have to be strained for this version also. 

The process continues to be the same as you mix in the spices, sauces, and water. There is one important detail though – you DO NOT add the noodles into the pot right away. While you will still have a finished edible product if you do, you will end up with overcooked, incredibly mushy pasta. Instead of adding them right away you should let the chili cook on low for about 4-5 hours, then you can add the noodles in and leave the chili for another hour. It is very important to let the noodles cook for a full hour in the crock pot before eating it. The noodles will most likely finish cooking before this hour is up, but they will not have the full flavor of the chili infused into them unless they cook for the full hour. 

Whether you prefer chili with noodles or without noodles, this is a great recipe to eat on a cold snowy or rainy day. I like to garnish my bowl with a dollop of sour cream and a ¼ cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, and of course no meal of chili could be complete without a corn muffin on the side! 

Looking for a great side to go with this dish? Check out my recipe for Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Muffins!

Potato salad is such an interesting dish. When you think about potatoes normally the first images that would come to mind would be some sort of hot potato dish: mashed potatoes, loaded baked potatoes, twice baked potatoes, etc. All of these are items that need to be eaten warm, but then you have potato salad. A cold potato dish. Quite honestly, it took me a really long time to be brave enough to try potato salad because of this. I have always loved potatoes but would pass on the potato salad at every family get-together because it disturbed me that it wasn’t a warm dish. It wasn’t until high school when my mom had just finished making it that I decided to try it. I had just come home from a two hour morning swim practice, and like most teenagers that have just exercised, I was BEYOND starving. I would have eaten anything in that house, and it just so happened that potato salad was the dish in front of me. Needless to say, I fell in love. I felt so dumb for missing out on something so great for so long. 

However, even though I can admit that potato salad is a delicious dish, certain versions are definitely superior to others. Some people make their potato salad on the sweet side. Some make it with spicy brown mustard, some with dijon mustard, and others with plain yellow mustard. There are literally so many different ways to make this dish that no two recipes are exactly alike. I have tried a lot of different potato salad recipes, but each time I would make it, I would feel like something was not quite how I wanted it. After numerous efforts of trial and error I believe I have finally found the combination of ingredients that works great together. I have tried this with different mustard types, different seasonings, and different amounts of sugar and salt, but after my last round of creating, I have found the perfect combination of flavors to make a delicious deviled egg potato salad. 

3 Large Potatoes – peeled, cut into ½ inch chunks, boiled, and cooled

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

4 tbsp Diced Red Bell Pepper

½ heaping cup Light Mayo

2 tbsp Milk

2 tsp Yellow Mustard

½ tsp Onion Powder

1 ½ tsp Sugar

¾ tsp Dried Dill Weed

1 tsp Salt

⅛ tsp Cayenne Pepper

⅛ tsp Black Pepper

Potato salad is a dish that requires some preparation ahead of time. You cannot just start throwing ingredients together and hope to have it done in half an hour. In fact, this is easiest if you know you are making it the night before. I say this, because I have found that boiled eggs are easier to peel and handle when they have been boiled and sat in the refrigerator overnight. Of course, you can boil your eggs the same day you make the salad, I simply prefer to prepare them the night before. 

The first step to making potato salad is prepping your potatoes. Either use 3 large potatoes or 6 small ones. Typically I can only find small potatoes in my area, so I usually go that route. Peel and wash your potatoes, then start chopping them up. I prefer to have smaller bite-sized chunks of potatoes in my salad, so I opt to chop them into ½ inch squares. This also helps them to boil faster. 

After the potatoes are chopped, pour them into a kettle of boiling water. The goal is to boil them until they are soft enough to be done, but not so soft that they would end up mashing when you stir them into your sauce. Typically, boiling them for 13-14 minutes is ideal. 

While the potatoes are boiling, dice up a red bell pepper. Then during the last four minutes of the boiling process, dump four tbsp of red bell pepper into the water. By only boiling the pepper chunks for 4 minutes you will slightly soften them up while still leaving a slight crunchy texture. Many people skip the “crunch factor” when making potato salad, but I have found that having an element of crunchiness here or there can add a texture to the salad that elevates it to the next level. Bell peppers are a good choice for this because they also add in a light flavor to the dish without it being overwhelming.

Next, strain the water out of the potato and pepper mixture and leave the strainer to cool for half an hour. While the potatoes are cooling you can take the opportunity to work on your sauce and eggs. 

Start by peeling and chopping your eggs up. Here’s the part that makes this into deviled egg potato salad instead of regular potato salad. I like to chop the eggs up pretty small so that the yolk is in extra tiny pieces. Just like deviled eggs have their yolks creamed with other ingredients, I prefer to let the yolk cream with the sauce instead of having large pieces of the yolk present themselves throughout the salad. It’s okay if the egg white has some larger pieces after being chopped, but your goal should be to chop up the yolks nice and fine. 

When making the sauce you will want to start with your liquid ingredients and use a separate smaller bowl than what you intend your finished salad to be in. Mix the heaping ½ cup of mayo with the yellow mustard and milk. I’ve attached a picture of my definition of a heaping ½ cup for you since heaping isn’t actually a measurable term.

After the liquid ingredients are mixed together add in your seasoning and whisk it all together. When you finish this, check the clock. If it has not been half an hour from the time you strained your potatoes, leave the kitchen and finish this recipe when the half hour is up. If you do not wait the entire half hour, your potatoes could still have some warmth to them. If you try to stir your sauce in with warm potatoes, you will be disappointed in the result, because warm potatoes soak up sauce instead of mixing with it to get a coating on them. 

After your half hour has passed, mix your sauce, eggs, and potatoes together. Make sure you are mixing this in a new bowl though because you DO NOT want to dump all the sauce in at once. This recipe makes up a little bit of extra sauce, and there is a reason for this. Sometimes when you come back to potato salad after it has sat in the fridge overnight some of the sauce will have soaked into the other ingredients. This will leave you with a dish that is less saucy than desired. By making up more sauce than what is needed right away, you can always add more in the next day if it needs more. 

When mixing, add in half the batch of sauce first. Once that is stirred together, add in two large spoonfuls at a time until you are happy with the consistency of the salad. This level of consistency could be different for each person making the dish. Personally, I like mine to be extra creamy, but that is another nice factor of having extra sauce to experiment with. You can always add more in if you aren’t happy with the original amount that you put in. It can be really tempting to dig into this bowl of deliciousness right away, but save yourself and refrigerate it for at least two hours before diving in. I promise it tastes 100 times tastier when it is served chilled. I hope you get a chance to try this dish and enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed the process of trying to perfect it!

These past couple of months Cole and I have needed to reduce the amount of pasta we have been consuming. This gave me a bit of a dilemma after Thanksgiving, because my mom had given me a bunch of shredded turkey meat. My usual after Thanksgiving soup is Homemade Noodle, but with pasta being on hold, that wasn’t an option. However, rice wasn’t off limits, so I decided to start experimenting with a soup that I had actually only eaten once in my life: Wild Rice Soup. Now, there was a reason I had only eaten it once before. I had tried a cup at a restaurant and HATED the way the wild rice crunched while I was eating it, but after a bit of research I realized that the restaurant’s soup had been flawed, and the rice had been cooked incorrectly, leaving me with a biased opinion of whether or not I actually enjoyed it. Throughout my research, I came to the conclusion that there really was no other reason that I shouldn’t like this dish. Afterall, I enjoy all the ingredients that are typically in it. When creating my own rendition of this soup, I doctored it up in typical “Courtney Style,” aka added a bit more garlic than usual, decreased the celery amount, and increased the amount of meat, rice, and heavy whipping cream. Knowing that Cole likes his soups to be thick and not very brothy played heavily into these decisions. Just like my Homemade Noodle Soup, I like that this recipe is versatile. If I have chicken I need to use up, I can utilize it, or if I have turkey, that can also be used. Either way works! 

⅔ cup Chopped Celery

⅔ cup Coined Carrots

½ cup Chopped Onion

1 tbsp Minced Garlic

4 tbsp Butter

¼ cup Flour

2 ½ cups Cooked Chicken or Turkey

14 cups Water (Divided)

4 tsp Better Than Bouillon -Chicken or Turkey 

½ tsp Dried Thyme

1 tsp Black Pepper

1 cup Wild Rice

1 ½ cups Heavy Whipping Cream

½ to 1 ½ tsp Salt

1. Chop the celery stalks and onion into ¼ inch pieces and coin the carrots into about ¼ inch thick pieces. Place all the veggies including the garlic onto a plate and set off to the side. 

2. Create a thickening roux by melting the butter into the bottom of a large pot and mixing the flour into it. Once the butter and flour have combined, pour the veggies into it and stir it continuously for 5 minutes. 

3. Add 8 cups of water into the pot and dissolve the four tsp of bouillon into it to create a broth mix. 

Kitchen Tip: The directions on the bouillon jar will say to use 1 tsp of bouillon per cup of water. Ignore those directions. The bouillon has a bit of sodium in it and will cause the soup to be waaaaay too salty if you follow a one-to-one ratio. 

4. Add the meat, dried thyme, and black pepper into the soup and simmer on medium-low for one hour. Don’t be surprised when a bit of the liquid disappears over this time, more water will be added in later on. 

5. Pour the rice and another 6 cups of water into the pot, cover it, and simmer for 50 minutes. 

Kitchen Tip: It is extremely important to leave the cover on the soup for the full simmer time after adding the rice in. The extra steam built up is what allows the rice to soften and the black shells on each grain to crack open. If a cover is not put on during the simmering step, the rice will remain hard and crunchy. Reference the picture below to see what cracked open rice looks like. 

6. Once the rice has been steamed open, add in the whipping cream and ½ tsp salt. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. After the time is up, do a taste test. If the soup is to your desired saltiness, don’t add in anything else, but allow it to continue simmering uncovered for another hour to combine the flavors and thicken the cream. Personally, I added another tsp of salt before the last hour of simmering, but if you are trying to be healthier or watching your sodium intake you may want to stick to the ½ tsp. 

One thing to note while cooking this soup is every stove is a little different. During the last hour of simmering time, I encourage you to take taste samples of the rice. Rice texture is extremely important to whether or not you will love this soup. Wild rice does take a long time to cook to perfection, but it is possible that a taste test 45 minutes into the final simmer may prove that your soup is finished early. Feel free to lessen the final cook time if necessary. If the soup is finished, but you aren’t ready to serve your meal yet, throw a cover on it and keep it warm on the lowest setting your burner will go on. My stove has a warming center that I use in this scenario.

I know a lot of people prefer making soups in their slow cookers, but because wild rice can be a little tricky, I recommend following the directions and making this on a stove top instead. I am definitely curious as to if this would turn out in the slow cooker, but in an abundance of caution, I’ve decided not to risk it with this one. 

My final suggestion for this recipe is to make up a batch of Italian Herb and Cheese Buns with it. They taste absolutely delicious dipped into the creamy broth!

When you enjoy cooking, you quickly accumulate a large collection of spices and seasonings. You don’t even realize how fast it happens either, until one day you open up your cabinet to grab the parsley and have to struggle to find it because it’s buried amongst so many other little bottles. 

A messy spice cabinet was something I was okay with and lived with for a long time. The couple of times that I tried to fix it, it quickly went back into a state of disarray. I tried to order them alphabetically, and I tried by shape and size of the bottles, but nothing ever worked. 

Finally the English teacher in me came out. I realized that just like books in a library are organized into sections by genre, why couldn’t my spices be organized by style of cuisine? 

Before starting my sorting process, I had to decide which categories would be best to divide the spices out. This can differ from household to household depending on which styles of food are cooked most, but no matter what, it can be done. 

Here are the categories that I came up with after moving all the bottles on to my dining room table and sorting them into groups: 

1. Most Commonly Used Seasonings
2.  Italian Cuisine
3. Chicken Seasonings
4. Mexican Cuisine
5. Sweet Baking Spices
6. Rarely Used Spices

My first category is seasonings that I most commonly use. Some of these could easily fit into other categories, but it seems to make sense to make a separate section of my cabinet just for seasonings that I use most often. My cabinet has a Lazy Susan, so I always make sure to have the most commonly used seasonings face the front. This makes them easy to grab whenever I want them. 

While everyone has different preferences, my most used seasonings are the following:

1. Salt
2. Black Pepper
3. Seasoned Salt
4. Lemon Pepper
5. Ground Mustard
6. Dill Weed

The next category in my cabinet is Italian cuisine. Cole loves Italian food, so I use these spices quite frequently. Since I use them so often, these spices are awarded the space in my cabinet right next to the Most Commonly Used Spices on the bottom shelf. 

The spices is this category are the following:

1. Garlic Powder
2. Onion Powder
3. Parsley
4. Dried Onion Flakes (Yes, these are different and just as necessary as onion powder.)
5. Crushed Red Pepper
6. Basil Leaves
7. Mexican Oregano

Okay, now I get it. The last item doesn’t make sense. It clearly says Mexican oregano; therefore, it shouldn’t belong in the Italian category. Overall, oregano is used in Italian dishes. Mexican oregano has extra flavors of citrus and lemon in it. I prefer the extra tones that Mexican oregano brings to dishes, so I always buy that kind. I still store it in the Italian section of my cabinet though since that’s the cuisine that mostly calls for oregano. 

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I cook with a lot of poultry instead of red meat, but usually my chicken dishes contain pretty similar seasonings. I prefer my chicken to have a warmth of flavor, so these spices lean toward the spicy side. 

The spices in this category are the following:

1. Cayenne Pepper
2. Paprika
3. White Pepper
4. Cajun Seasoning
5. Chicken Seasoning (This one is kind of on the obvious side.) 

A monthly round of meals wouldn’t be complete without a couple of Mexican meals sprinkled throughout the menu; therefore, this cuisine definitely deserved it’s own spot in the spice cabinet. 

The spices in this category are the following:

1. Taco Seasoning
2. Fajita Spice Rub (This one is a homemade recipe I found on Pinterest, and it’s so good!)
3. Chili Powder
4. Cilantro
5. Cumin

Usually I have a 6th spice on this list too. I like to buy Mexican Chili Powder in addition to Regular Chili Powder. Unfortunately, the stores have been completely out of Mexican Chili Powder the last five times I went shopping, so there is a lack of it in my cabinet at the moment.

I use this category primarily in autumn when there are pumpkin and apple desserts galore. I LOVE all pumpkin recipes, and Cole is a sucker for a good apple crunch, but since these spices don’t get used as much as everything else they earn a spot on the top shelf in the back of the lazy susan. Luckily, I can always turn it and stand on tip-toe when I do want to get these down. 

The spices in this category are the following:

1. Cinnamon
2. Ground Allspice
3. Ground Ginger
4. Ground Nutmeg
5. Ground Cloves
6. Pumpkin Pie Spice

Kitchen Tip: I’ll let you in on a little secret, I’ve only ever bought pumpkin pie spice once, and I’ve reused the same plastic bottle ever since. A mixture of items 1-5 on the list are all the ingredients that it takes to make your own pumpkin pie spice. A recipe for the spice can easily be found with a quick Google search, and it is way cheaper to buy the ingredients, which can make multiple batches than it is to buy the small container of pumpkin pie spice in the first place. 

The final category in my spice cabinet is Rarely Used Spices. Only three spices go in this category, and that’s because they don’t belong anywhere else. It’s also because I only use these three spices for making two different dishes: gumbo and curried squash bisque. I only make these dishes twice a year, and I make them in bulk to freeze. Therefore, these three spices hide behind the Sweet Baking Spices on the top shelf of my cabinet. I have Cole reach them down for me when I do need them. 

The three spices in this category are the following:

1. Gumbo File
2. Curry Powder
3. Ground Sage

Here’s the reason I’m sitting here writing this blog post – this method actually works. All the other methods I’ve tried have broken down in a matter of weeks, but I’ve been organizing my spices this way for five months now, and everything is still in its rightful place. Cooking is so much easier now these spices are accessible, and I’ve been so happy with this system.I hope you are able to find a similar helpful solution after reading this post!

The first time I ever had this dish was the morning after attending a holiday party thrown by Cole’s work in a cute little town on the shores of Lake Superior. The town was so adorable, and clearly catered to tourists staying on the lake, so we decided to go to one of the local cafes to check out the brunch options instead of getting donuts and driving straight home. The cafe was obviously a favorite of many tourists such as ourselves since it was very busy, and was both a coffee shop and a cafe. Normally, at an establishment such as this, I would be all over the pancake and waffle options, but the night before I had had so many of the delicious desserts at the holiday party that I had no desire for anything sweet. Being a huge fan of avocado, this dish, Huevos Rancheros, stood out to me. I had never tried avocado on eggs before that, but I knew I needed to order it. And I absolutely loved it! 

After going to Mexico this year, I have come to realize that the version of Huevos Rancheros that I had at the cafe was very Americanized in comparison to the authentic version I was served at our resort. The cafe dish was served over hash brown potatoes and slathered in queso, and the authentic version was served on top of a crisped tortilla shell and topped with enchilada sauce and goat cheese. There were elements of each that I preferred, so for my Huevos Rancheros recipe, I have combined bits and pieces of each version to create my own personal take on the dish. 

*This recipe serves two people

3 tbsp Butter (Divided)

½ bag Shredded Hash Brown Frozen Potatoes (This should be about 15 oz)

Lime Juice Squeezed from ½ fresh lime. 

1 tsp Dried Onion Flakes

¾ cup Black Beans 

10 Grape Tomatoes

4 Fried Eggs

8 oz Mild Red Enchilada Sauce

3 oz Goat Cheese

1 Avocado

Fresh Cilantro – optional

1. Chop the grape tomatoes and lime into fourths. Measure out the black beans, and set all three ingredients next to the stove so that they are easily accessible. 

2. Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Once it is melted, add in the hashbrowns and spread them into an even layer. Cook for 6-7 minutes, then use a spatula to flip them. 

3. Squeeze the juice from half the lime into the potatoes, sprinkle with the dried onion flakes, melt in the final tbsp of butter, and stir in the black beans and tomatoes. Let cook for another four minutes and remove from heat. 

Kitchen Tip: I use black beans made from my Slow Cooker Jalapeno Black Beans recipe. I always have some of these premade and frozen so that I can thaw them out whenever I want to use them in recipes such as this. If you are using black beans from a can instead you may want to sprinkle a little cumin and chili powder into your hashbrowns for some extra flavor. 

4. Fry four eggs. This dish is supposed to use over easy eggs so that the yolks can be broken open at the end to provide a sauce, but the eggs can be made to a different preference instead. For tips on making a perfect over easy egg, follow this link.

Whoops! One of the yolks broke a little when cracking these eggs into the pan, but since Cole likes his eggs over hard, I didn’t redo this. It’s less important for a yolk to stay intact if you are making an over hard fried egg.

Kitchen Tip: I’ve found it’s easiest to fry only two eggs at a time unless you own an extra large skillet. I switch to a new skillet when starting the second round of eggs so that it’s not too hot when doing the second round, but if you don’t own enough skillets to switch them out, use paper towels to wipe out the grease from the first round (be careful not to burn yourself!), let the skillet cool a little bit, then start the next round. 

5. After the eggs are done cooking, slice the avocado in half, remove the pit, and dice up the insides. Then it’s time to combine all the elements together!

6. Split the hash brown mixture in half spreading it out across the bottom of two plates, next place two fried eggs on top of each plate. Pour two ounces of enchilada sauce on top of each egg. Split the diced avocado up between the two plates, and top with crumbled goat cheese. 

7. This last step is optional because I know some people absolutely loathe cilantro, but I’ve found that some fresh cilantro sprinkled over the top of the dish adds a little something to the flavor palette. 

When eating this meal, it’s best to break the yolks of both eggs first before digging in. This allows the runny yolk to run into the hashbrowns creating a delicious sauce to mix into everything. This recipe is a little more complex, so I definitely suggest making sure you master the technique of making the perfect over easy fried egg before trying it; otherwise you may find yourself a little flustered. Also, be warned ahead of time, this dish is so, so, so filling. You will not be hungry for a very long time after eating it. Because of this factor, I usually end up making this as a meal for dinner instead of breakfast. However, if you make it for brunch or breakfast, recognize that you might only want a light dinner that day. 

Even after I developed a BBQ sauce recipe that I enjoyed, I still avoided Sloppy Joes like the plague. I had disliked them my entire life, so I figured, why try it again? That all changed one busy Friday night. I was directing my school’s production of The Little Mermaid, and we had sold out so many of our shows that we decided to do two shows in a row on Friday after school, with only an hour in between to feed the kids. The parents were so kind and volunteered to bring in Sloppy Joes for everyone. We got all the kids lined up in the theater basement and served them their food. As the director, I was running around trying to make everything perfect and ready for the second show of the evening. What can I say? I’m a workaholic. Thankfully, my choreographer realized I hadn’t hit the pause button to feed myself, handed me a plate with two Sloppy Joes on it, and forced me to sit down and eat. I didn’t have much of a choice, I needed to eat something, so I inhaled two sandwiches, and shocked myself by enjoying every bite. 

This was my wake up call – I realized I could enjoy Sloppy Joes if they were homemade, and not the kind that comes out of a can. From that point on I was hooked. With a combination of my Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce, pickles, and my meat of choice, Sloppy Joes are now my go-to meal when I have a busy night and need to make dinner quickly!

1 lb Ground Round or Venison (I prefer venison, but both work!)

⅓ cup Diced Green Pepper

1 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 ½ cups Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce (This is the equivalent of one batch of sauce.)

Dill Pickle Slices

Burger Buns

1. Dice a green pepper into small ¼ inch squares. Set the ⅓ cup needed off to the side and flash freeze the rest for future use.

2. Make up a batch of Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce, or if this has been made up ahead of time, heat on medium low in a medium-sized pot. 

3. Heat a large skillet to medium-high and start to brown the meat. 

4. When the meat is halfway cooked, add in the pepper, and continue to cook until the meat is done. 

5. Add the brown sugar to the mixture, and continue to heat and stir until the sugar is melted/mixed in. 

6. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the meat mixture into the BBQ Sauce. Simmer in the sauce, on low heat, for 15 – 30 minutes. The longer this simmers the more the flavors will infuse together. 

Kitchen Tip: If all of your slotted spoons have large slots, you may need to use a strainer instead before adding the meat into the sauce. 

7. Use a slotted serving spoon to put meat on each bun, top the meat with 3 pickle slices, and place the top bun back on. 

This recipe is so easy, and I promise that even if you have never tried pickles on a Sloppy Joe before, it truly brings the whole dish together. Cole recommends adding a slice of pepper jack cheese on top too, but I prefer my sloppy joes sans cheese.

For a delicious, filling meal serve this with my Oven Baked Seasoned Steak Fries

Because this dish is so easy, it can be great to serve a crowd, or bring to a potluck. Below are my tips for making both my Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce and Sloppy Joes for a large group of people! 

*This recipe makes enough to fit two 6 quart slow cookers

6 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp Dried Onion Flakes

4 tbsp Minced Garlic

6 cups Ketchup (Fructose Free)

1 ½ cups Vinegar

1 ½ cups Water

¾ cup Brown Sugar

6 tbsp Chili Powder

6 tbsp Ground Mustard

1 tbsp Salt

6 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1. In a large pot, melt the butter and sauté the minced garlic and onion flakes for 2-3 minutes. 

2. Pour the ketchup, vinegar, and water into the pot and turn it down to medium low. Stir until all the ingredients come together and it is lightly bubbling. 

3. In a mid-sized bowl whisk together the brown sugar, chili powder, ground mustard, and salt to get rid of any large clumps within the spices; then add the spices into the saucepan. Stir to combine.

4. Add the Worcestershire sauce into the mix, stir, then split the sauce evenly between two slow cookers.

8 lbs Ground Round or Venison

2 ½ cups Diced Green Pepper (About 3 Large Peppers)

½ cup Brown Sugar

Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce (My recipe multiplied times six. These instructions are listed above.)

1 Jar Dill Pickle Slices

40 Burger Buns

1. Dice the green peppers into small ¼ inch squares.

2. Make up the Sweet and Spicy BBQ Sauce using the directions listed above, this is the equivalent of multiplying the original recipe times six. 

3. Heat a large skillet to medium-high, and start to brown the meat. 

Kitchen Tip: You will probably need to divide the total amount of meat up into four in order to fit it in the skillet. Divide the other ingredients up accordingly too. There is no need to measure this division exactly, since all of the ingredients are going to combine in the slow cookers eventually.

4. When the meat is halfway cooked, add in the peppers, and continue to cook until the meat is done. 

5. Add the brown sugar to the mixture, and continue to heat and stir until the sugar is melted/mixed in. 

6. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the meat mixture into the slow cookers that already have BBQ sauce in them, and stir the meat and sauce together.

Kitchen Tip: If all of your slotted spoons have large slots, you may need to use a strainer instead before adding the meat into the sauce. 

7. Heat the slow cookers on low for about four hours before serving.

I always like to provide my guests with a nice buffet table and let them create their own sandwiches. When serving Sloppy Joes, my table consists of buns, the slow cookers full of meat, jars of dill pickle slices, a cheese platter with an array of cheese choices, and potato chips to serve on the side. Hopefully the year 2021 will allow us all to host parties again, so you can try out this party food recipe! It’s a great meal for a game day!

Stir fry is something relatively new to my kitchen. Growing up, this was a dish that was never served. My sister has a dislike of rice, and my dad is not a fan of veggies, which meant any stir fry had ingredients in it that half the family wouldn’t eat. After marrying Cole, he alwaysContinue reading “Steak Stir Fry”

Do you ever have a craving that hits you out of nowhere? This feeling happened to me last month. Out of the blue, I remembered a delicious dish that I had eaten at a friend’s house in high school. I knew that my mom had gotten the recipe from his parents, and that the starContinue reading “Italian Beef”

One of the easiest ways to cook for a crowd is to buy a large roast and shove it in the oven. Many people are intimidated by large beef roasts because they take a substantial amount of time to cook, but overall, they are one of the fastest items you could prepare, so if youContinue reading “Sirloin Tip Roast”

Cole and I typically only have steak a couple times per year on special occasions such as our anniversary and New Year’s Eve. It’s the one red meat that Cole truly seems to enjoy. Because of this, I typically buy too much when I’m shopping for these special occasions, and we end up with someContinue reading “Steak Quesadillas”

I love a good steak dinner, but I’ve only recently begun to branch out from the typical steak and potatoes combo. My recent vacation to Mexico opened my eyes to the numerous different flavor combinations that can be used to enhance a tenderloin though. For example, our first night there we had a tenderloin thatContinue reading “Chipotle Lime Surf and Turf”

Pretzel buns are commonly seen eaten with brats or burgers, but one of my husband’s favorite lunches is a chicken sandwich on this specialty bun. After he told me that he liked pretzel buns, I started to buy them during my weekly shopping trips. However, after a while, this started getting spendy. The grocery storeContinue reading “Pretzel Buns”

Sometimes I think that snack foods and appetizers are the best of all the food courses, and among all the many options in this food category, guacamole consistently comes out on top. Maybe it’s because it can be eaten with a little less guilt. Avocados are notoriously known as a super healthy food, so theContinue reading “Guacamole with a Zip”

For a person that lives in Northern Wisconsin, I’m not nearly as outdoorsy as I should be. I don’t camp, fish, hike, or hunt. While admitting to these things is a pretty big character flaw in this neck of the woods, the one outdoor activity that I thoroughly enjoy is sitting by a campfire. MoreContinue reading “Chili Cheese Dog Pudgy Pies”

This recipe takes me straight back to the tiny galley kitchen in the first apartment that my husband and I shared. We were still in college, and the only good things about the apartment were that it was near the walking trails and had a beautiful view of the Eau Claire River. Everything else wasContinue reading “Dill Pickle Chip Dip”

It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally I have to break my rule about using processed ingredients in cooking. Cajun Mac and Cheese is one of the dishes that I definitely bend the rules for, and that is because of the magical ingredient known as Velveeta. I am a Wisconsinite, so it feels like a sin to say that I use processed cheese to make my homemade mac and cheese, but honestly, there’s a reason they advertise it as liquid gold. I have made so many homemade cheese sauces, and none of them produce the saucy, creamy deliciousness that Velveeta gives me. 

However, just because I use Velveeta cheese to create my mac and cheese, doesn’t mean that I can’t dress it up. Here’s a little secret, ANY mac and cheese can be made classier by putting add-ins into the bowl, and given my love for Cajun cuisine, of course I fancy this pasta up with a touch of Cajun cooking. If you are looking for an easy Mac and Cheese dish that tastes like it came out of a gourmet restaurant, look no further!

8 oz Chicken Breast

½ tbsp Olive Oil

1 tsp Cajun Seasoning

4 oz Andouille Sausage

2 cups Elbow Macaroni

5 oz Velveeta Cheese

2 ½ tbsp Butter

⅓ – ½ cup Whole Milk

½ cup Panko Bread Crumbs

¼ tsp Cajun Seasoning

½ tbsp Butter

¼ cup Parmesan Cheese

Salt

Sriracha Sauce

1. Before working on the actual pasta part of the dish, the meat needs to be prepped and cooked. Rub the chicken breast with the olive oil and Cajun seasoning. Place in a covered baking dish and bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees. While this is cooking, the rest of the dish can be prepped

2. Slice the andouille sausage into thin coins, about a fourth inch or less. Place in a frying pan and brown the sausage at medium high heat. After it crisps up – about 5 minutes of frying – place the sausages on a paper towel lined plate to degrease them.

Kitchen Tip 1: Andouille is a smoked sausage, so technically it is already cooked. Frying it provides a nice crisp to the edges of the coins though. DO NOT grease the frying pan before frying these. Andouille is greasy enough that it doesn’t need more grease added in. 

3. Next, it’s time to create the Crunchy Panko Topping. Wipe the andouille frying pan mostly clean, leaving a little grease residue for flavor, then melt in ½ tbsp of butter. Once it is melted, pour in the panko bread crumbs and ¼ tsp of Cajun seasoning. Stir this constantly until the bread crumbs turn toasty brown. 

Kitchen Tip 2: It is essential that you are using panko, not regular bread crumbs. Panko is larger and crunchier than traditional bread crumbs, creating a better textural element. If you must substitute something for panko, Townhouse Crackers work best. 

4. Once the panko has been toasted, pour it onto a plate, let it cool, then mix the parmesan cheese in with a fork. 

5. Boil a pot half full with water, and cook the pasta according to the box instructions. Strain the noodles in a colander. 

6. Measure out the proper amount of Velveeta cheese and cut it into tiny ½ squares. 

7. In the same pot the noodles were cooked in, add ⅓ cup of milk, the butter, and the Velveeta. Cook on warm until the butter is melted, then pour the pasta back into the pot and stir until the cheese is melted.

8. By this point the chicken should be fully cooked. Slice the chicken into bite sized pieces, and mix both the andouille and the chicken into the pasta. Heat until the andouille is rewarmed.

Kitchen Tip 3: At this point evaluate how saucy you like your mac and cheese. If you prefer a saucier dish, add in the rest of the milk, otherwise your dish is ready to serve. 

10. Scoop the appropriate amount of mac and cheese onto each plate, sprinkle the crunchy panko topping on top, then add salt to taste, and a drizzle of sriracha sauce.

Kitchen Tip 4: Be cautious with the sriracha sauce! This stuff is spicy. If you are not a spicy fan, you will probably want to skip that step. Even if you do like spicy food, make sure you are only drizzling a thin line onto the pasta, otherwise the flavor of the sriracha will overwhelm everything else. 

That’s all there is to it. This mac and cheese is easy to make, but looks so pretty, and tastes way fancier than it actually is. If you are a fan of gourmet mac and cheese or Cajun cuisine, you are going to love this recipe! Enjoy!

Desserts are simply the best. There, I said it. Most of the time I hold a strict mantra that, “Dessert is not worth eating unless it has chocolate in it.” However, Cole loves fruity desserts, especially ones that have apples or peaches in them, so out of love for my husband, I decided that thisContinue reading “Summertime Crisp”

I may not be a huge fan of apple desserts, but Cole loves them, and this recipe is his absolute favorite. The concept behind this dish is very similar to apple crisp, with an apple filling layer, and a crispy top; however, since Cole isn’t a huge fan of oats that are traditionally in crisps,Continue reading “Apple Crunch”