At Home My Way

A Little Something Sweet: SMALL BATCH - Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 27 May 2026 17:21:00 +0000

Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

(makes an 8x8 square pan or one round cake pan)

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

PRINTABLE VIEW HERE!

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick (1/2 cup) real butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 cup chocolate chips

*This recipe could be doubled for baking in a 9x13 pan.

(Makes about 12 cookie bars.)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Stir softened butter, both sugars, egg and vanilla until smooth. Add baking soda, salt and stir. Next add flour and stir. Stir in chocolate chips last.

Batter will be thick. Spread in sprayed/prepared 8x8 square or 8" round cake pan. (I actually sprayed my clean hands with cooking spray and then patted the dough into my sprayed cake pan.)

Bake 22-24 minutes or until browning.

Wait to cut until cooled a little.

The Chit Chat

This weekend we put burgers on the grill. I typically make "a little something sweet" when we grill out and often that is simple (ditch the box) brownies or no bake cheesecake. This weekend, I already had butter on the counter at room temp to mix up some chocolate chip cookies when I decided scooping out cookies somehow seemed like too much work.

I found a nice chocolate chip cookie bar recipe and then halved it for this one small batch of chocolate chip cookie bars. (It made about 12 cookie bars.) Doug and I definitely don't need a full 9 x 13 pan of anything anymore so mixing up a one-bowl small batch of cookie bars was perfect for a quick dessert made after a full day of yardwork, housework and laundry!

These cookie bars turned out so delicious! Warm from the oven, they would be extra special with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. For us, they were simply delicious, warm and chocolately after we had both settled into our respective TV spots that evening.

SMALL BATCH BAKING IDEA: Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars would make a great meal prep item for packing lunches and even for delivering to a friend who needs a treat.

HINT: You can double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan if you need a bigger batch!

SWITCH THE CHIPS: Chocolate Chip cookie bars could be made with vanilla chips, peanut butter chips, with or without nuts.

THIS RECIPE IS A KEEPER: They are like chocolate chip cookie's dreamy cousin. They remain soft for days (if they last that long).

Let me know if you make these Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I'm betting they will be as good at your house as they are AT HOME MY WAY!

Enjoy!

Gina

I shared this recipe @ Sweet Little Bluebird. Come see all of the wonderful recipes shared there!

Sweet Little Bluebird Potluck #734

Sunday Funday: 2026 Garden Update and Cooking like a Granny!

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Mon, 18 May 2026 19:39:48 +0000

FIRST: Three recipes -

Cooking Like a Granny!

#1 Fresh Peach Pie

(home frozen peaches)

Two fresh pie crusts-unbaked

Filling:

1 gallon baggie (6 cups) of frozen fresh peaches/juice drained a little, thawed completely
2/3 cup of sugar
4 heaping Tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter sliced into small pats

Instructions:

Roll one crust and gently place in the pie pan making sure the edges extend over the sides of the pan a little bit.
Mix up the filling and pour into the crust.
Roll remaining crust (top) and cut into lattice strips about one inch wide or so.
Add strips across the pie.
Fold back the top half every other strip and add a cross strip starting in the middle with the longest strip. Unfold those strips over and fold back the remaining "every other" strips. Add another cross strip. Try to pick the wider/shorter strips to match the width across the pie. Continue until the top of the pie is complete and then do the bottom half. Crimp all edges when done. I use my finger pushed around the edge using the other hand to pinch that finger and dough to make a scalloped edge.
I brushed my pie crust with milk and sprinkled with sugar.
Place pie on a cookie sheet to catch any drips and bake at 350 degrees for 60-75 minutes or longer as your pie needs. (This pie bakes a very long time!) (I like to use a glass pie pan so I can see if the bottom crust is done enough.) Cover with foil at the end if the top appears to start burning and you can see in the glass pie plate that the bottom crust isn't yet browning.

#2 Pumpkin Muffins

(fresh or canned pumpkin / uses no eggs in this recipe)

1 3/4 cup flour (I used freshly ground soft white wheat)
1/2 cup brown sugar -not packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup canned pumpkin or 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree. (I used frozen, pureed, fresh pumpkin)
1/2 cup oil (I used 1/4 cup olive oil + 1/4 cup applesauce)
3 Tablespoons water (if using fresh pumpkin, the water can be skipped since it's usually pretty juicy)
Optional mix-ins: 1/2 cup nuts, raisins, chocolate chips (I used chocolate chips.)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients well. Separately measure and stir together the oil (applesauce if using), water (if using) and pumpkin. Stir wet and dry together and blend until smooth. Add any mix-ins. I used chocolate chips.

Scoop into sprayed muffin cups (or a single loaf pan).

Bake 20-25 minutes for muffins (or 50-55 minutes for a loaf). Remove from the oven when they spring back to the touch or when a knife inserted will come out clean.

Schoolhouse Rolls

(uses bread machine dough setting or hand kneaded)

1 1/3 cup very warm water (hot but no hurt)
1 packet of yeast (or 2 teaspoons)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup oil (I use olive oil.)
4 cups "fluffed" all purpose flour (fluff with a spoon before measuring) (I used half freshly ground wheat, half all purpose.)
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

For bread machine, add ingredients according to your machine's recommendations. For mine, I add water, sugar, oil & yeast to the pan. I then top with flour and lastly, the salt. I use the dough setting. When the dough cycle is complete, remove from bread machine and form into 12 balls. Place in two pie pans (sprayed) or one 9 x 13 pan (sprayed). Let rise about 30 minutes in a warm spot. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until brown. Brush with melted butter when done.

For hand kneading: Measure hottish water, add sugar and yeast. Stir. Add oil and stir again. Measure flour in a bowl and top with salt. Mix well. Add yeast/water/sugar/oil mixture to the flour salt mix and stir. Knead about 5 minutes (can add dustings of flour to keep from sticking or oil your hands) and then divide into 12 balls. Place in either two pie pans (sprayed) or one 9x13 pan (sprayed). Let rise 30 minutes and then bake 20-25 minutes or until brown. Brush with melted butter when done.

Gardening Update & Chit Chat

Here's an update on my 2026 garden and Sunday's cooking like a granny! That combo is the very best kind of day for me! It was a beautiful weekend here in Missouri and I loved every minute of my granny chores.

Saturday was rainy at first and after the rain ended, it consisted mainly of me push mowing my entire backyard, me recovering from push mowing my entire backyard, and then washing my bedding and organizing our closet. Doug worked on flooring in the basement and mowing the front yard.

After those chores, we had lunch at our favorite downtown restaurant and later visited with friends who had poured concrete for a home addition. The coolest thing happened on the way home! In their driveway we came upon a momma deer and her very tiny baby. Baby was about the size of a chihuahua. I had never seen a baby deer so small! He was adorable and was just figuring out his walking legs. He ambled away into the darkness before we could get our phones out to snap a picture!

Sunday was THE most productive day for us this weekend! Doug worked on filling a box trailer with unused metal items we had lying around. We have "scrappers" in our area who will come pick up the metal items for recycling. They sell the stuff at the recycling center and we get rid of a bunch of junk for free. We got rid of some old chairs, a broken fire pit, broken floor lamps, an old rusty refrigerator. Boy it felt good to clean out some junk!

I worked in my yard and garden and here are some pics of my 2026 garden!

This is a view looking through my raised beds. You can see the huge garlic we have growing. All of this is the Musik variety from Baker Creek Seeds. It creates massive bulbs. We loved our fresh, homemade garlic powder last year and intend to do the same this year.

On the right you can see a small bed of asparagus and strawberries. Not a good experiment! The strawberries completely choked out the asparagus.

Here's a pic of the fence row after a few hours of me cutting vines. Whew! I have lots to do out there but it's a start. I have some grapes to plant on the fence and I planted a few Delicata squash seeds there too. One of the grow bags has some green beans and the other is a mix of mint plants.

I have two Arapahoe blackberry bushes along that fence and the first year, I pruned them to the ground for winter. Dumb de de dumb dumb dumb! Arapahoe blackberries only get berries on second year canes. This year I left them alone and just look at all the little berries coming on!

There are a few beets planted in a small open space in the garlic bed. I have more beets planted in this little bed of lettuce and last year's onions are going to seed. I'm actually very excited about harvesting my own onion seeds!

Here is one of my first garlic scapes and you know what that means! Garlic Scape Stirfry and then soon after it will be time to harvest the garlic! Garlic Powder, here we come!

This bed has some Dunja zucchini (parthenocarpic-meaning it produces 80% without pollination so it can grow inside or under a cover- which can help with pests). It also resists powdery mildew although the leaves might convince you it already has it. It doesn't. The leaves just look like that. I planted these seeds early and so today I already have my first two squash babies coming on. One is a yellow squash and the other is zucchini. I cannot wait for my first foil packet of fresh veges on the grill!

Further back in this bed is the motherload of oregano that comes back every year on it's own. I need to cut some before it blooms and get it drying for the best tasting oregano.

Pitiful Bed #1 has some very tiny baby onions and tomatoes growing. I couldn't find onion starts this year locally and only had a few that I had wintersown. Oh well, we will take what we get! Under the wire trash cans are some baby Early Golden Acre cabbage plants. The wire trash cans are my feeble attempts to protect them from cabbage moths. I added the straw and wire trash cans this weekend after weeding. It was a hot mess of weeds in there but now looks much better. Still pitiful but much better.

Here are some flowers! That lavender smells amazing and I'm going to try rooting a few branches to grow more. It smells as amazing as the soap you find at the farmer's market!

The next pics are some green beans that had PITIFUL germination. In the open space of this huge bed I have some tiny pepper plants and some baby cucumber plants growing.

As if all of that gardening wasn't exhausting enough, I decided to make a real Sunday supper yesterday. It was a two crockpot night similar to this long ago post`. Two crockpot nights are sometimes the only way to go, especially on yardwork days! At about noon on Sunday, I tossed a ham butt in the crockpot and placed my last batch of frozen purple hull peas in another smaller crockpot. I used a combo of freshly ground hard white wheat and regular white flour (using the dough setting on my bread machine) to make these fluffy and amazing Schoolhouse Rolls!

I was out of all purpose flour at this point and already had peaches thawed for pie so ground some soft white wheat I had on hand for making pie crusts. It made an incredibly soft dough so there is a learning curve here. Next time I may just pat the crust in the pan. It tastes great though! The unbaked dough is just a little too soft for rolling and getting into the pan. I tenderly managed to add strips to the pie for a lattice crust. I think she is mighty beautiful! Baking a pie with fresh peaches put up last summer and making that beautiful golden crust using freshly ground wheat definitely gave me "all the feels"! lol

Next up, I used the pie crust bowl to make some muffins for the week. In my freezer, I had pureed fresh pumpkin from a porch decoration pumpkin. It was a hideous pumpkin (called a "Peanut Pumpkin") but had the most delicious flesh inside. I saved all of the seeds for my garden and pureed the pumpkin (six cups of puree) all for less than the price of one package of seeds.

So I thawed the pumpkin and made a double batch of pumpkin muffins for the week. I scooped out half as plain muffins and then add chocolate chips for the rest. My theory is when making a dirty kitchen, you may as well go all out and get a bunch of things done, which I did.

All of this gardening and cooking like a granny made me realize one thing. Old grannies are some tough cookies! They did it all the hard way not using bread machines and crockpots. They have some grit! I am blessed to be able to do it AT HOME MY WAY rather than the exhausting ways they had to get these chores done. Although,... it is always a good idea to learn those old fashioned skills even if you don't always have to use them. Just saying...

Spring is a busy season. Let me know if you are getting some spring projects done at your house. If you experience any cooking like a granny moments, I would also love to know those!

Have a good week!

Enjoy!

Gina

WINNER, WINNER - STEAK DINNER! Steak dinner in a Crockpot - We loved it!

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:43:00 +0000

RECIPES AT THE TOP; CHITCHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

Crockpot Steak Dinner (So good!)

PRINTABLE VIEW HERE

Sirloin Steaks (2-4) cut in large chunks like you would put on a skewer/kabob
4-6 potatoes (red skins work great but I had russet) washed, peelings on and cut into big cubes.
OPTIONAL: Fresh or canned mushrooms would be delicious added to the pot.)
1 cup beef broth (I used water + beef bullion)
1 Tablespoon garlic powder or minced / fresh garlic
2 Tablespoons worcestershire sauce
Drizzle of oil (i used olive oil.)
1/2 stick of butter
Salt & Pepper
Crockpot (I used a tall, round crockpot so that there wasn't much empty space around the food.)

Instructions:

Rinse the meat and cut into large chunks.
Wash potatoes and cut into chunks about the same size as your meat (big enough that you could skewer them if you were doing that. Like 2 inch cubes. (I left the peelings on.)
Drizzle oil in the bottom of your crockpot.
Place the potatoes in the crockpot and sprinkle w/ salt/pepper.
Top with the meat chunks. Add a little salt & pepper.
Measure the broth and add the garlic and worcestershire sauce. Stir.
Pour the broth mixture over the meat/potatoes in the crockpot.
Slice butter pats and place around on top of the meat/potatoes.
Cover and cook on high about four hours or on low about 6 hours total. After two hours, I drained most of the broth off (I just cracked the lid and poured it in the sink) because I wanted my meat to "roast" and not to just boil in broth. Then, I added the lid and continued to cook for the remaining two hours.
At the end of your cooking time check and see if the meat is fork tender. If so - set the table. It's time to eat!

THE CHIT CHAT

The other day I ran across one of those random recipes that pop up on Facebook. It was for a steak dinner in the crockpot. The post wasn't big and colorful. It was just a recipe and the lady said it was amazing. I snapped a screenshot of it with my phone. Who ever heard of such a thing?

Well, I love me a good steak dinner with delicious steak and yummy baked potatoes. I personally love a pink/medium cooked steak but I could live with a "well done" steak if it was tender and tasted like a good steak. I knew that steak cooked in a crockpot couldn't come out pink but if it was described as "amazing", I wanted to try it.

Back story is that we can never make steak at home taste good at our house. I have bought cheap steaks and more expensive steaks but all of them just aren't as good as I can get at a steakhouse. (Texas Roadhouse isn't too expensive and their steaks are delicious but their new policy of me waiting for my table in a cattle shoot after waiting with a beeper is a no-go and I will never go there again until they change that process lol.)But even steak in a restaurant sometimes seems to be a guessing game, ya know?

Plus + I am a big fan of ye old crockpot. Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest but that never seems to happen for me. About the only day that I have available to get a big meal on the table is Sunday but coupled with the remaining laundry, mowing, meal prep for the week, and visiting on our schedule, time in the kitchen is limited these days. I decided that if something as crazy as a steak dinner can be made in the crockpot, I wanted to give it a try. Worst case scenario was that it would taste like the overdone steaks we usually end up with on the grill and those still make a darn good meal.

Well, I'm here to tell ya - these steaks were the BOMB DIGGETY! No, they were not pink and cooked to medium sizzling perfection. But they were fork tender (wow!) and flavorful and the potatoes were also cooked perfectly. No the potatoes were not salted, shiny and had no crispy edges but they were delicious and so far they are the only way my husband eats a baked potato with the skins on. That in and of itself is a win! :)

Not having to baby the meal and stand in the kitchen or at the grill cooking was a double plus ++! Getting the whole thing in the crockpot only took about 15 minutes. Just WOW!

Doug loves garlic bread about as much as he loves me so I served our steak dinner with some garlic bread (made with our very own Homemade Garlic Powder), a few ears of overpriced (but delicious) sweetcorn that I found at Walmart, and a nice salad. I even made a small batch of Simple Homemade Ice Cream for dessert. (The recipes are linked on the items.) It was a feast!

The garlic bread is made by thick slicing a french bread loaf, spreading each slice with softened butter or brushing with olive oil and sprinkling each slice with garlic powder. I wrap the whole loaf in a big piece of tin foil and bake the loaf in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

The corn is also super easy. I cut off the stalk ends and microwave the corn (still in the husks) for about 10 minutes. After it comes out, I use a pot holder to squeeze the corn out of the husk. Squeeze pretty hard hard from the silks end of the corn and the cob of corn will come shooting out of the husk easy peasy. If it doesn't come out easy, then cook it some more. You will have no silks, and no mess. It's the very best way to make sweet corn!

Ok. There you have it! Steak dinner can be made in the crockpot and I, for one, am probably never going to make steaks on the grill ever again, unless we are having company and the whole grill thing is part of the atmosphere.

Oh - and I paid a descent amount for our steaks. I paid about $25 (at Walmart) for a package of thick sirloin steaks. However, by cubing the steaks and serving a couple of cubes for each person, that $25 has given us supper for the next few days. We just reheated in the microwave and it worked great. Plus it was WAY cheaper than eating steak in a restaurant!

Definitely I got lots of brownie points making steak dinner, delicious garlic bread, fresh corn on the cob, AND homemade ice cream for Sunday Dinner.

Let me know if you give it a try!

Here are some pics of this meal in action:

Enjoy!

Gina

Want some more easy peasy, delicious crockpot ideas? I make everything from Two Hour Crockpot Bread and Banana Bread to my top clicked Easy Dump and Go Parmesan Chicken in my crockpot.

Click here for a few more of my favorite time saver crockpot meals made AT HOME MY WAY!

Crockpot Meals

REPOSTING: A Bunny Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 18:20:00 +0000

REPOSTING FOR EASTER: Bunny cakes bring so much joy! Here's how I make a Bunny Cake AT HOME MY WAY!

My Aunt Donna has made an Easter bunny cake for Easter dinner for as long as I can remember.

Since I miss my Florida family so very much, I decided to make a bunny cake myself so that I could feel a little closer to home!

You can make an Easter bunny cake with a cake mix and canned frosting or your own favorite cake/frosting recipe. I decided that since my family prefers chocolate cake and chocolate frosting, to make a completely all chocolate bunny cake. Pretty cute, huh?

I used my always good, stand-by Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake recipe found HERE. I used my homemade Chocolate frosting recipe also, recipe found HERE. (I added a little more powdered sugar to my frosting to make it a tad thicker - like 1/2 cup more powdered sugar than the recipe calls for) for making my cake.

Here's how I made our family's favorite Easter Bunny Cake AT HOME MY WAY:

Easter Bunny Cake

Cake mix for a two layer cake, your favorite flavor and/or recipe for a homemade cake.
Cooking spray is a must! You want the cake to completely release from the pans so take no chances!
Frosting for two layer cake, white or chocolate, or even tinted your favorite Easter color
Decorations (I used Pull & Peel and jelly beans as well as coconut).
Food Coloring (green for the "grass" and red for the "pink" in the ears.
Cooking Spray
A large foil covered board/cardboard (sturdy) for your assembled bunny cake (needs to be the length equal to three round pans since the ears stick out the length of a round cake pan).

Instructions:

Mix cake according to directions. Spray two round 8 or 9 inch cake pans well with cooking spray. Pour half of the cake batter in each pan.

Bake according to directions or until springs back and a knife comes out clean.

Let cool 5 minutes and then CAREFULLY remove to the foil covered board to finish cooling.

Cut one of the round pans into a shape like this, which forms the cake for the bow tie and the two ears:

I had removed the pieces before I remembered to take a picture, so I placed it all back together, but you get the idea.

Feel free to shape better to look like bow tie and bunny ears after you take the pieces apart.

Make sure the cake is completely cool and placed into the bunny shape BEFORE frosting:

Notice the cracks in my cake. I texted my aunt because my cake was very wiggly and cracking after moving it to the board. My aunt said "Frost it anyway! No one will ever know that!" LOL.

Frost the bunny with your favorite frosting. Careful on the sides of the ears and bow tie because it will be crumbly. I whipped mine and just smeared it on gently. Try not to get too much on the foil. I had to wipe my foil a little after I finished frosting the cake.

*Tint coconut for inside ears like this:

Place a small amount of coconut in a small bowl. Add one drop of red food color and a little drop of milk. Stir until pink like you want.

*Tint the coconut for the "grass" the same way, a drop of green and a tiny drizzle of milk (like 1/4 teaspoon), stirring until green and gorgeous!

My aunt makes her bunny all white or a combination of white and chocolate frosting for her family. Here is my Aunt Donna's cake for Easter 2014. She covers her entire bunny in coconut, which I LOVE, but the rest of my family doesn't like coconut so I just put the pink coconut on mine in the center of the ears and sprinkled a little around for "grass". It looks like my aunt my uses fluffy white frosting (like seven minute frosting), which I also LOVE!

Make this part of your family's Easter tradition. I'm starting from 2014 on... I really wish I had always made this for my girls. Mr. or Mrs. Bunny will be a cheerful and delicious addition to your Easter meal.

Enjoy!

Gina

Making Homemade Stromboli (Hot Pockets) - LEFTOVERS-FREEZER FOOD-YUMMY!

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:13:00 +0000

Stromboli are an American version of calzones that have the addition of some sauce inside. They are typically made with pizza dough and filled with meats, cheeses, and other ingredients. "Hot Pockets" are overpriced little freezer foods found at your favorite grocery store. Yes-they are easy and always sound good but I'm hungry as soon as I finish the thing! Making them at home is a winner way to save money and a delicious way to eat! Made at home, they are inexpensive, are made with a super easy homemade dough with fillings of your choice, and are just as easy to reheat as the store bought version!

Recipes at the top: Chit Chat at the bottom!

Here's how we make homemade Stromboli / Homemade Hot Pockets AT HOME MY WAY!

Homemade Stromboli (Hot Pockets)

(uses Freshly Milled Wheat OR Store Bought Flour)

PRINTABLE VIEW HERE

Dough:

No Knead Bread Recipe found HERE (using freshly milled wheat) OR make the same EXACT recipe using regular store bought flour.

Fillings / Additional Ingredients for Pizza Hot Pockets

Pizza or Spaghetti sauce (marinara)
grated cheese or slices
Pizza toppings like pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, cooked sausage crumbles

Other ideas:

Hot Pocket "Subs" - Lunchmeats of your choice (slices of turkey, ham, salami, chicken, bacon, cheeses of your choice, etc.)
Leftovers Hot Pockets- Pulled pork, sloppy joe or taco meat, cooked chicken, turkey/cranberry sauce, roast beef & cheddar, bacon chicken ranch, buffalo chicken, etc. all make great hot pockets.
Breakfast Hot Pockets can be made with cooked (scrambled) eggs, meats (sausage links or crumbles, pieces of ham or bacon), vegetables (cooked onions, peppers, mushrooms) and cheeses! I have even added jams or fruit/cream cheese to make easy breakfast roll type hot pockets.
Dessert Hot Pockets/Strombolis - Add small amounts of pie fillings, fruit, chocolate, or Nutella to make dessert hand pies!
Remember to include your favorite sauce like BBQ sauce, hot wing sauce, salsa.
Cheeses, either grated or sliced.
Options are endless here! You could even use smaller circles and make them for appetizers.

INSTRUCTIONS:

To make the Stromboli (hot pockets):

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Remove dough from the fridge and sprinkle with a little flour. Pull the dough out of the bowl and form it into a nice ball on a lightly floured surface.
For my no knead dough recipe linked here, cut the dough into 8 sections for dough balls. (I make an "even number" by cutting the dough in half, cutting each in half and each in half until I get eight. You need a dough ball a little smaller than a baseball.)
On a floured surface, roll each ball into an 8 inch circle (the size of a small flour tortilla). (You can use a rolling pin or if you don't have one, can use a plastic or glass cup!)
On half of each dough circle, add a few tablespoons of sauce.
Top with a meat of your choice and any cheese you like (if any). Not too full because they have to close and seal.
Fold the dough over making a half circle. Pinch the sides around really well / crimp like a pie crust all the way around. I kind of fold the bottom edge over the top edge and then crimp.
Place the pockets on a sprayed or parchment paper lined cookie sheet with a little space between each one.
Bake at 400 degrees until toasty brown - about 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool before freezing.
If eating, be careful! Remember that filling will be HOT!
To freeze, bag them up cold and freeze them for up to three months.
Reheat by placing in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes.

The Chit Chat

Our favorite way to eat homemade hot pockets/strombolis are with pizza toppings but I also use these delicious hand pies for filling with leftovers like pulled pork, sloppy joe or taco meat, even meatballs. We also use them to make sub type sandwiches using lunch meats and cheeses. They are even great for breakfasts using scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese or even as sweet hand pies (think chocolate chips, jam, pie fillings).

Homemade Hot Pockets freeze great and are a wonderful last minute supper or Saturday lunch. They are great for meal prep and make packing lunch a breeze (if you have use of a microwave).

Lately, I've been keeping a weekly batch of no-knead dough in my fridge using freshly milled wheat. This delicious and nutrient dense dough offers a great launch pad for easy meals like pizzas, bagels, bread, and now Homemade Hot Pockets.

Last night while making supper, I decided to use up the little ball of the dough I had in the fridge from last week's bagels to make these homemade hot pockets. I hadn't made them in years! I filled them with jarred spaghetti sauce, a few pepperoni, and the last of a bag of grated cheese. Even though they weren't what we were having for supper that night, Doug was SO EXCITED to see them baking in the oven! Plus the little bit of sauce, pepperoni and cheese likely would have been thrown away had I not used them since they were all on their last leg.

Doug suggested some of the leftover pulled pork in the fridge would also make good hot pockets. Sooooo - I quickly mixed up another batch of no-knead dough just for using up the pulled pork. I baked them over the weekend and they were delicious!

Groceries are expensive and one of the best ways to cut grocery bills is to use up every single thing. Don't throw away your hard earned money! I don't know about you, but the hours of my life that I trade for money are not taken lightly. Making homemade hot pockets makes great meals on the run and the money they save is a game changer!

What do you have languishing in your fridge that needs using up? Mix up some no knead dough and make yourself some homemade hot pockets! Let me know how you like them. I'm betting they will be a game changer for you too!

(My pics below are from when I used up the BBQ pork but at least show you the method.)

Enjoy!

Gina

Finding Joy: The Gift of February - February is Cold and Bright, Pink and White, Red & Sweet

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:20:00 +0000

February 5, 2026 -

February is cold. Cold but bright. It’s pink, white, and red and sweet! The days are getting longer and the sun is setting later. February leaves much of the holiday stress behind. At work, frantic storms of last minute deadlines were potholes to dodge following December and January and for Doug and I, there were no winter breaks. There was little time to catch our breath before the next storms arrived. We enjoyed little time to linger. Exhaustion. And then an unexpected trip to Florida to check on my parents turned into a blessing of answered prayers with time to sit and wait, to pray, and not do much of anything else. To catch late night meals, to enjoy Taco Bell and DQ all in the same night with my mom, the queen of healthy and frugal eating. (She nearly croaked when she saw the price of two small blizzards. She had never had one!) Time to talk and reminisce. Time to read and look at old recipes. Time to reassess how quickly life can change in a single moment and then be so very grateful that it didn’t. Time presented itself to refocus. A gift…

Florida was a delightful distraction of lush green and flowers blooming. I enjoyed a day trip with my brother and his wife to the lovely and tiny Astor, Florida on the St. John’s River where I saw real Florida, old Florida, my Florida.

I saw vivid green lily pads and beautiful old houseboats docked for so long that there were large house plants sitting outside their spaces. I also enjoyed the graceful sandhill cranes who visit my parents each day where my dad feeds them dried corn and they get so excited that they dance.

Florida is an oasis for me. It is home, forever my home. But I am ever so slowly starting after 45+ years of living in Missouri, to really appreciate the gifts Missouri has for me. And so today, I want to enjoy February in Missouri with all of its snow, cold, wind, and moments to linger.

While in Florida I missed below 0 windchills and a snowstorm but it was still good to get back home, to get back to my beautiful home and the peeps who live there with me. A home which is just about to be finally finished after a raging fire destroyed it, now years behind us but never for one second forgotten. Years have passed and so many life changes have happened since the thing that divided our lives into before and after, but Doug and I get to still wake up together. We are blessed. We are so blessed to get to go forward into happily ever after.

I have tried to take the last few weeks to do some of the things that bring me so much peace. I’m a weird one. I’m not out there shopping and watching ball games. I’m not after fancy restaurants or vacations to far away places. For me, peace is right at home in the very place that was taken from me doing things that I was afraid I may never want to do again.

This February, I have finally started decorating with my heart again. I’m not a huge decorator. I tend to lean towards the minimalist side of things but have learned that decorating even a few smalls spaces brings joy, either to the person decorating or to anyone else who comes to your space. I love our local thrift store and I found this heart in hand plate, a very perfect addition to my February dining table. I switched out my candle holders from December and January’s gold to black. Anyone who knows me knows I do love some black! I left the red berries in the white vase from December and added a black and white porcelain bowl that I also got second hand. It was the very inspiration for our new home. That very first piece would be a vision of what home might look like again. It spoke to me and so I bought it, when I didn’t even have a real home to take it to. It is black and white. Shiny porcelain but practical in use. Simple but luxurious. Pretty much all descriptions for me, actually and our nearly finished new home. lol

This month I have continued baking bread with freshly milled flour. I mixed up no knead dough for loaves #6 and #7 and the dough is chilling in the fridge. One for us, one for a friend.

I made a batch of yogurt and strained it thick and lovely. I made granola, this time adding coconut and bright red cranberries. Breakfasts have either been toast with homemade bread & jam or homemade yogurt with this perfect batch of homemade granola.

I made to the YMCA once this week to run a little, to walk a little. It felt good! It brightened my spirits for days and I plan to go again soon.

At work, I took breakfasts and lunches packed from home, enjoyed bright and sweet juicy oranges and a few treats of spicy red hot candies to feed my sweet tooth.

I have cooked two suppers this work week, Shells & Sauce and also a super frugal hearty meal of Crockpot Chicken Noodles. (Recipe coming soon.) I made a batch of lightly sweetened cornbread muffins from scratch, a recipe I know by heart. No box of Jiffy mix required! The two of us have enjoyed leftovers all week from these two hearty meals. Mmmmm. Cooking at home feels so good!

I have wintersown seeds for onions for this season’s onion powder, cabbage for maybe some sauerkraut, and have shuffled my seed packets over and over like I’m counting my money as I plan my 2026 garden.

Citrus is ready for harvest in Florida and I actually have my very own huge lemon ready for picking in my barely heated Missouri sunroom. I named this little lemon tree, “Uno”. She gives me exactly one huge lemon each year! So far, I haven’t had the heart to pick her lemon. Seeing this bright yellow orb ripened in the depths of a Missouri winter reminds me that a Florida girl can still spread joy in Missouri!

I finished reading book #2 for 2026. I’m now reading a book my mom suggested and which she says is her favorite book ever, “Wrapped in Rain” by Charles Martin.

Spring is surely just around the corner but for now, I plan to enjoy February and all it has to offer! Oh February, pink and white, and red and sweet. Your snows are melting and the cold is brisk but fading. Your sun casts long shadows in early evenings as we finally can arrive home before complete darkness outside. I am so thankful that I get to enjoy the blessings of February and all of the things I can fit into embracing it!

If you are reading this today, please leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you and know how you are finding joy this February.

Enjoy!

Gina

Sunday Supper: Shells & Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 18:07:00 +0000

Shells & Sauce

WWW.AtHomeMyWay.blogspot.com

Printable Recipe / HERE

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

1 Pound Ground Beef
3 teaspoons onion powder (or fresh 1/2 of a chopped onion if you don't have picky eaters like me)
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste + 3 cans of water
1 (8 oz) tomato sauce + 1 can of water (I used home canned 16 oz tomato sauce.)
1 teaspoon + 1 Tablespoon garlic powder (divided)
2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
2 dried bay leaves (REMOVE AFTER COOKING, BUT BEFORE EATING - DO NOT EAT THESE)
1 (16 oz) box of pasta shells
1 Tablespoon olive oil (or butter)
Salt & Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS:

Sauce:

Add ground beef to a skillet/dutch oven. Add salt (about 1 teaspoon) and some pepper. Add the 3 teaspoons onion powder & 1 teaspoon garlic powder to the cooking meat. (If using fresh onion, cook in a little oil until clear before adding the ground beef to the skillet.)
Cook ground beef until no longer pink. Drain if needed. (I didn't drain mine. I like a little fat to my sauce.)
Add the tomato paste + 3 of its cans of water.
Add the tomato sauce +1 of its cans of water.
Stir and simmer without a lid until the paste and sauce / water dissolve and form a cohesive sauce.
Add the remaining 1 Tablespoon garlic powder, the basil, sugar, and bay leaves, salt & pepper. Stir well.
Simmer WITHOUT A LID for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Taste it. Does it need some salt? If so, add a little. Does it taste bitter? If so, add a little more sugar, 1/2 teaspoon at a time. (I like mine a little sweet, but my daughter does not so she leaves out the sugar.)
Feel free to increase the spices as your tastes prefer.
Always cook another 10-15 minutes after adding any more spices.
REMOVE THE BAY LEAVES BEFORE SERVING.

Pasta:

Add at least 3 quarts of water to a large pot. Salt (2 teaspoons).
Bring to boil. Stir.
Dump in the pasta and bring back to a hard boil.
Hard boil (without a lid) for about 11 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Taste a shell and make sure it's done enough for you. Careful! The water inside those shells is hot.
Drain water from the pasta and then drizzle with about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil (or butter). You can add more salt if the pasta needs more salt at this point.
Ladle hot sauce over hot pasta. Can be combined and served all together. We just like to control the ratio of sauce to pasta for our plates!

The Facts!

When did "Shells" or "Seashell" pasta first become a thing?

"Conchigile" commonly called "shells" or "seashell" is formed in the shape of conch shells. This Italian pasta originated in southern Italy and requires mass production so likely origins trace back to 18th and 19th century southern Italy in the Puglia region where mass-produced pasta was born.

What is Seashell Pasta made of?

Semolina wheat and water.

Is there a practical purpose for seashell pasta rather than other shapes of pasta?

Conchigle pasta (seashells) has ridges and works great to scoop up and hold onto the sauce, no mater what sauce you prefer.

What else can you make with Seashell pasta?

Seashell pasta also makes great mac & cheese as well as being served with alfredo, often perfect for shrimp dishes and pasta salads!

The Chit Chat!

I grew up in Florida in the 1970's. My mom made spaghetti for our family at least once a week and to this day my brother and I both love it any time she makes a pot of sauce and we happen to be home to eat it. We never, EVER had jarred sauce at our house! (Our dad would still croak if he had to eat jarred sauce.) The sauce is saucy (duh) and the spices are just right! It's aromatic with onion, garlic and basil, bay leaves if we have them. If there is a memory smell attached my mom's kitchen, it is ground beef and onion cooking as she prepares to "get the sauce going".

It seems in the midwest where I live now, they love mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes, smashed potatoes! Bah! For us growing up in Florida, whether my granny made it or my mom made it, it was "the sauce"! THAT was the meal that would melt our hearts and fill our tummies. That was the meal that we craved after days in the hot Florida sun either swimming in our above-the-ground, three foot deep swimming pool or out pretending survival in the orange grove and riding our bikes around the neighborhood.

It was a good day at our house when we opened the door with the jalousie windows to the cool dark inside and got a whiff of "the sauce". "Dinner's ready!"

I have always "made the sauce" for my own little family. It took me a bit to get it right after I married my husband at the young age of 18 (my mom does not have a written recipe) but I did get it right shortly thereafter. Doug did not grow up ever eating spaghetti sauce but being the good hubby that he is, he has developed a glimmer of love for "the sauce". I taught our two girls to make "the sauce" and they now make their own versions for their own little families.

My mom makes seashell pasta about half as much as she makes spaghetti to go with the sauce. My brother and I love either one. We didn't realize back in the 1970's in central Florida that not everyone knew about seashell pasta. For us, seashells were part of our lives there and so of course, seashells would adorn our plates nearly as much as they did the sand outside. Also, meals weren't tailored to children back then. Seashell pasta was about as close as we got to dinosaur chicken nuggets or Paw Patrol spaghetti o's.

Back in the day, our mom had a dark pine Ethan Allen dining table that she worked at McDonald's just long enough to pay for. We used a table cloth on it every single night even if it was just her and us two kids eating supper (our dad was a long haul truck driver). Heaven forbid if we set a glass on that table without the tablecloth and left a little white ring. Eek! My parents still sit at the dinner table with a tablecloth mostly every single night. Craziness!

These days I'm making more "shells and sauce" than I am spaghetti since lately Doug prefers shells over spaghetti. He covers his serving with mozzarella and melts the cheese in the microwave. I have always loved me some "Shells & Sauce" so last night for Sunday supper here in mid Missouri that's what I made. It was frigid! Snow was piled up everywhere and temps were in the low 20's. Brrrr! I couldn't be in sunny Florida but I could make some Shells & Sauce! It was a great way to step back and remember my silly little brother and I lapping up the delicious suppers that our mom made for us every single night, sitting at that Ethan Allen dining table with a tablecloth. :)

Food takes you back and definitely my Shells & Sauce did the trick for me! Get yourself a box of seashell pasta and try it with some sauce. I'm betting you will love as much as we do AT HOME MY WAY!

There's only two of us so this is our leftovers. Nothing like starting off the week with some yummy leftovers!

Enjoy!

Gina

A Beginner's Journey with Fresh Ground Wheat: Super Easy No Knead Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:46:00 +0000

Remember in children's book "The Little Red Hen" when she said, "Who will help me carry the wheat to the mill?" and her friends replied, "not I" said the goose; "not I" said the cat; and "not I" said the dog. Being the city girl that I am, I never fully understood how the heck the Little Red Hen got soft fluffy flour from golden grass-like stalks of wheat. YouTube to the rescue! Now I know and so can you. Join me as I begin my journey baking bread with fresh ground wheat AT HOME MY WAY!

Recipes at the Top: Chit Chat at the Bottom

No Knead Bread

Using Fresh Ground Wheat

(Printable View HERE)

"No Knead means no kneading! It means stirring with a spoon like you do a bowl of brownie mix. That's what I'm talking about!"

3 1/2 cups Hard White Wheatberries (wheatberries aren't milled yet) (This will make about app. 4 1/2 cups of flour. You only need 3 1/2 cups of freshly milled flour for this recipe.)
2 teaspoons table salt
1 1/2 cups warm/hottish water ("hot but no hurt")
2 1/2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast (instant also works)
2 Tablespoons honey (any granulated sugar would also work)

Instructions (super, super easy but as usual I tell every little thing):

1. Grind 3 1/2 cups of wheat on the finest setting (which will make quite a bit more flour than is needed).

2. Measure 3 1/2 cups of freshly ground flour into a bowl. (Save any leftover flour separately. I keep mine in the freezer.) Add 2 teaspoons table salt to the flour and stir.

3. In a measuring cup, add 1 1/2 cups warm/hottish water ("hot but no hurt") and stir in the yeast and honey. Let the water/yeast/honey sit for about 10 minutes to "proof". You should start to see bubbles/foam forming if your yeast is alive.

4. Pour the foamy water/yeast/honey mixture over the flour/salt and stir well to fully incorporate, scraping down the sides to get it all mixed well. Cover the dough bowl with plastic wrap (I use a Walmart bag) and refrigerate for at least eight hours (longer is fine).

5. After at least eight hours, remove the bowl from the fridge and uncover. Sprinkle the dough in the bowl (risen) with some flour.

6. Place a dutch oven pot with lid in the cold oven and preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

7. Create a ball of dough (still in bowl), lift, form a ball, and gently push/ squeeze the edges of the dough ball over the outsides and back underneath so that you are stretching the top surface of the dough ball. A tight surface is what you are after. Once the dough ball is a good tight ball, place it on a sheet of parchment paper dusted with flour (tight surface of the dough ball is the top). Let the dough ball rest while the oven is fully preheating.

8. Once the oven is preheated, give it another 15 minutes so that the inside of the dutchoven is also hot.

9. Using a sharp knife or razor blade, cut across the dough ball (1/2" deep or so) making score marks to allow the bread to expand as it bakes. Make any sort of decoration you want.

10. Lift the parchment paper holding the dough ball and place into the very hot dutchoven, replacing the lid. (Any overlapping parchment paper hangs outside the lid.) Bake / Set a timer for 35 minutes.

11. After 30-35 minutes, remove the lid. If not brown, continue baking until it is brown / like another 5 minutes or so. (My bread was completely brown.) Remove from the oven and carefully lift the bread with the parchment paper out of the pot. (I had to use a spatula because my paper was tearing.)

12. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Slicing: I slice homemade bread with an electric knife. A sharp bread knife also works. I store homemade bread in a gallon zip bag or under a cake plate.

Now, was any part of that difficult? Nope! Is the bread delicious and does your house smell like the Little Red Hen lives there? You betcha!

Ok - now the Chit Chat!

FYI - I am not affiliated with any of these companies. Any sources are simply resources that I have found as options to purchase.

It wasn't until after I knew more about freshly ground wheat that I made the connection back to The Little Red Hen and that beloved story that I must have read to my girls hundreds of times. The Little Red Hen must be so proud of me now. :)

However, to be honest, the more I read about grinding wheat at home and baking with it, the more complicated it sounded. However, I found myself wanting to do it anyway!

I bought a Grain Mill (wheat grinder) over a year ago. I decided 2026 was the year to open that box and get started, New Year's weekend, I did just that. Five loaves of bread, a homemade pizza and a batch of peanut butter cookies later, and I'm hooked!

Why mill / grind your own wheat? Can't you just get flour at the store?

NUTRITION is the #1 reason for me.

Freshly ground wheat is made up of three parts:

The bran (full of fiber and nutrients)
The germ (where the oils, vitamins, proteins and mineral are located)
The endosperm (the starch)

Guess what parts are left in the flour you buy at the store?

The endosperm (the starch)

"Of the 44 known essential nutrients needed by our bodies and naturally obtained from food, only 4 are missing from wheat; vitamin A, B12, and C, and the mineral iodine." Sue Becker

(link to the article here)

Why are the bran and the germ removed? The bran and the germ cause the flour to become rancid after time decreasing the shelf life of the flour. By contrast, the wheat itself (before being ground into flour) can last literally thousands of years!

There are lots of articles about this and since I am not a food scientist, I will let you do your research on it. The main source that I used for this info was Sue Becker at www.BreadBeckers.com. Sue has lots of videos about this subject. She is entertaining, passionate and is a real mom and an actual food scientist who saw the differences it made in the health of her own family.

Personally, I believe that any food we eat which is closest to its original form is better for us. No brainer for me. Any actual health improvements are a bonus!

This is the grain mill that I purchased. It's a Nutrimill Classic.

Where do you get a grain mill?

The fact is that brand new grain mills aren't cheap. But investing in your health is rarely cheap, is it? However, I recently found one at a thrift store that was marked $15. I snatched it up even though I already had a new one in the box at home. Just couldn't help myself. lol. I may pass it along to a family member or just keep it for a backup. The thrift store thought it was a mixer but it doesn't mix. It grinds wheat, corn, beans, and rice. A mixer can make the cookie dough but the grain mill grinds the wheat. So, just knowing what you are looking for, is a good idea!

A variety of grain mills are available on Nutrimill.com (I made my purchase during Black Friday specials and saved $100 on it). You can also find a variety of brands on Amazon and other online retailers like www.PleasantHillGrain.com. You can even get a wheat grinder attachment for a KitchenAid mixer. There are options so do not rule this out because you are "blinded by the price". lol

Are grain mills electric or do you need lots of muscle?

Grain mills are available as manual or electric. Mine is electric and works like a charm. Its a little loud but the thing is grinding little hard kernels of wheat so of course that's going to make some noise.

Back in the day (pre-1900's), most towns had their own grain mills - like in the Little Red Hen story. People took wheatberries (threshed from the stalks of wheat) to the mills and got the wheatberries ground into flour for baking. Once commercial flour started shipping all over the country, wheat mills went by the wayside.

Hard White Wheat.

What are wheatberries?

Wheat berries are the little kernels found on stalks of wheat. Grinding wheatberries produces flour. Commercial flour sifts out the bran and the germ and creates the pretty white flour you find at the store. Flour in the store is either unbleached or bleached. Yep - w/ bleach! True story: I once washed my flour cannister and got such a strong, overwhelming smell of strong bleach that afterwards, I was done with bleached flour. Last time I checked, ingesting bleach was bad for a person.

What about whole wheat flour/bread?

Whole wheat flour found at the store and whole wheat bread sold in stores does have some of the germ and bran found in wheat. It definitely is a healthier option! However, the longer shelf life of that flour and/or bread causes many of it's essential nutrients to be lost. Plus, you know that bitter taste you get from store bought whole wheat bread? Yea...😒 Bread milled with freshly ground flour doesn't have any of that! That bitter taste comes from the oils contained in the wheat germ becoming slightly rancid and that bitterness is the price paid for the longer storage times required ship it all over the place.

Where to buy wheatberries?

There are lots of sources for wheatberries.

Pelouse Brand - I ordered a combo variety from this company (hard white, hard red, and soft white).

Amazon - You can also get Palouse wheatberries at Amazon.

Azure Standard- Another great source is the online company Azure Standard although I haven't tried ordering from that company yet. This company has dropoff locations around the country and you basically go pickup your stuff at your closest pickup point.

4 Generation - I have not yet tried but I believe their wheat comes in food safe buckets ready for long term storage.

Local farmers / farmer's markets - I found a local farmer with organic wheat about an hour's drive away so I can buy wheatberries for a much better price than I can get it online. Local is usually always going to be your best option if you can find it.

You might also be able to get it at natural type groceries stores or farmer's markets in the bulk section.

What kind of wheat do you need to get?

Hard white and hard red wheat are used for yeast breads.
Soft wheat is best to use for pastries and biscuits, pancakes, pies, things like that.

This is the flour that my grain mill produced! It's gorgeous and fluffy and pretty amazing stuff.

Can I just replace the flour in my recipes with fresh ground wheat 1:1?

Apparently there is a little learning curve to using fresh ground wheat and I'm going to try some recipes and see what happens.
Fresh ground wheat is extra thirsty and so definitely needs a good rest time (15-30 minutes) to fully drink up the liquids in your recipe before kneading and/or baking.

How do you start baking with it?

Honestly, there is a ton of info about using fresh ground flour and that is what scared me off from it. I started with one recipe for no knead bread which I found at www.GrainsandGrit.com (Felicia has super informative videos with actual recipes to try.- HERE is the YouTube video for Felicia's No Knead Bread. I tweaked Felicia's recipe a little plus I only used hard white wheat.) I didn't notice a single difference in the bread that I made without Felicia's stretch and pulls so I eliminated those steps - so its even easier! I incorporated a long fridge time like I already do in my regular no knead bread and it worked great.

Also - I'm not a professional bread baker nor professional bread eater so just having good (simple/easy) bread was all I was after. If it was a little dense, I could toast it. If it was a little wonky in shape, that wouldn't matter. I wasn't looking for a Blue Ribbon. I just wanted good healthy bread and that is what I got!

This recipe is super easy! In fact, I managed to mix it up before I left for work. I allowed myself an extra 20 minutes and got it done no problem!

My morning prep before work looked like this:

I had the three cups of wheatberries measured and ready before I went to bed - placed near the grain mill. I had the grain mill on the counter ready for action.
I dumped in and ground the three cups of wheat while I was packing lunches.
I added yeast and honey to hot/warm water in a cup, gave it a good stir.
I added 3 1/2 cups of freshly ground flour and 2 teaspoons of table salt to a bowl, stirred well and then dumped over with the water/honey/yeast. I stirred this dough with a wooden spoon.
I covered the bowl with a Walmart bag and placed it in the fridge. Fingers crossed! (How bad could it be?)
I washed the spoons and measuring cup and placed the leftover flour in the freezer.
Done!

Once I got home from work, nearly 11 hours later:

I placed the dutchoven in the (cold) oven, started preheating to 450 degrees and got the dough bowl out of the fridge.
I sprinkled the now risen dough with some of the leftover flour, formed the dough ball in the bowl (so not to dirty the counter) and then placed it on a piece of parchment paper to rest while I changed out of my office clothes. Efficiency is where it's at! LOL
After fully preheated, I scored it, and baked the bread in the covered pot for 35 minutes.

Done - It was beautiful! It was delicious! I'm thinking 90% of the bread I now make will be made with this recipe!

Let me know if this interests you or if you already grind your own flour. I'll keep you posted on the additional recipes that I make. This journey has just begun for me and I'm super excited to see what a difference it makes in our health. I obviously get lots of joy from doing old fashioned things so I'm looking forward to doing more stuff like this AT HOME MY WAY!

Stay tuned. 2026 is on the ground and running!

Enjoy!

Gina

Making Thin & Crispy Pizza AT HOME MY WAY

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 19:38:00 +0000

Thin & Crispy Pizzeria Style Pizza

At Home My Way

WWW.AtHomeMyWay.blogspot.com

(printable view here)

Thin & Crispy Pizza AT HOME MY WAY is perfect for pizza nights at home. You can have restaurant quality pizza in the time it takes to get pizza delivery. Crispy pizza at home with some crunch? Oh yes - that crunch is possible right in your very own kitchen!

Uses regular pizza pan, regular oven, no special equipment needed!

Here's how I make Thin & Crispy Pizza AT HOME MY WAY!

FIRST THINGS - FIRST:

Place your oven rack on the lowest level in the oven.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees while mixing up the crust.

Quick Pizza Crust Recipe

Crust Recipe:

1/2 cup warm/hot water (like hot bath water - "hot but no hurt")
1 teaspoon active yeast
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
1 1/2 cup All Purpose flour (unbleached is best)
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons oil (I used olive oil.) (plus a little more for your hands).
Cooking spray or oil to prevent the pizza from sticking to your pan.

Also needed to make pizza:

Pizza Sauce
Grated cheese of your choice
toppings

Crust Instructions:

MEASURE the "warm/hottish" water (hot but no hurt - should feel like hot bath water) in a measuring cup. Add the yeast and sugar to the water and stir gently. Add the 2 teaspoons of oil and stir. Let it rest while getting out your mixing bowl / other ingredients. Stir one more time and pour that liquid mixture into your mixing bowl.
SPRINKLE 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour over the liquids in the bowl.
ADD 1 teaspoon table salt over the flour in the bowl.
STIR all ingredients well to fully combine. I use a wooden spoon.
KNEAD for about one minute. Oil your hands if its sticky. No lengthy kneading process is needed.
LET IT REST for about 10 minutes so that the flour fully absorbs the liquid.
ROLL dough out on lightly floured surface (or use a silicone rolling mat) as thin as you can get it so that it equals the size of your pizza pan / cookie sheet. If it springs back, let it rest a few minutes and then try rolling again.
PLACE DOUGH in your sprayed/oiled pizza pan (or cookie sheet works too) pressing it to the edges of your pan if you can. You want a thin crust here.

Instructions for getting it CRISPY / baking instructions:

Prick the dough with a fork.
Prebake the crust: Place the pan in oven and bake for about 10 minutes. It needs to be baked long enough for the dough to be solid so that you can lift it off the pan and still holds its shape.
Remove the pan w/ prebaked crust from oven.
Sometimes I brush the edge of the crust with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic powder if I'm feeling EXTRA.
Carefully (the crust is hot & still on the pan here) spread sauce, top with cheese, and add toppings. Now you are ready to bake the pizza.
Using a potholder, hold your pan to the edge of the rack in the oven and with a spatula, slide the pizza off the pan and directly onto the lowest oven rack.
Bake - WATCH IT for browning for about 15 minutes or until the crust appears to brown and cheese melts/start browning in a few spots.
Remove pizza carefully from the oven by sliding it from the rack back onto the pizza pan using a spatula to slide/lift it OR use a pizza peel to remove from the oven. I use a pizza peel to remove from the oven and place the pizza on one or two cutting boards for cutting into slices.
Take a bite once it's not so hot and then JUST LISTEN for the crunch! Amazing, isn't it?

Why we love it:

Super Fast:

Mixing up the homemade crust only takes a few minutes. No rise time is needed. By the time your oven is preheated, you will be ready for baking the crust.

Frugal / Family Favorite:

Uses basic pantry ingredients + a little cheese/toppings for a crunchy, pizzeria style pizza at home. Restaurants are expensive these days so eating at home avoids restaurant prices, wait staff tips, and even gas money!

Variety / options are up to you:

Make several small rounds of pizza crusts and prebake and then (after cooled a little bit if kids are helping) let kids and family members create their own pizzas, then finish off in the oven.
Or make one large pizza and use up some leftovers. Think rotisserie chicken pieces mixed with BBQ Sauce & topped w/cheese; How about ranch dressing as the sauce topped w/ chicken/bacon & cheese; Taco Pizza using leftover taco meat / cheddar cheese and topped w/ lettuce, tomatoes after it comes out of the oven. Options are endless!

Freezer Options: Prebake some pizza rounds, cool and freeze in gallon baggies for even quicker pizzas on days when mixing up a crust just takes more energy than you can find.

Pizza Hut - eat your heart out!

Gina

Microwave Lemon Pudding and Daydreaming about Homemaking

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 17:39:00 +0000

Microwave Lemon Pudding

(PRINTABLE VIEW HERE)

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 ½ cups milk
1 egg
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup lemon juice (I used bottled lemon juice.)
2 tablespoons butter
yellow food color is optional. I used two drops.

Instructions:

In a microwave proof bowl (mine was a large glass Pyrex measuring cup), combine sugar, cornstarch & salt - stir well.
Add the milk - stir well to combine (until smooth).
Place the egg in a separate small dish and stir to scramble the egg. Hold the egg out while completing the next steps. (My instructions will tell you what to do next with the egg.)
Microwave the mixture containing the sugar, cornstarch, salt & milk for 1 minute and stir. Microwave another 1 minute and stir.
Keep microwaving/stirring in short increments until the mixture starts to bubble and get thick, stirring often. (I probably did this three or four times).
Once it feels thick (like gravy), remove from microwave and stir again to incorporate that thickness throughout.
Ok. Time for the egg. Add a couple of spoonfuls (the size of a heaping tablespoon) of the hot mixture to the dish with the egg (to temper the egg). Stir well. Now add the egg mixture to the hot thickened sugar, cornstarch, salt & milk mixture. Stir really well to fully incorporate the egg into the thickened mixture.
Microwave 2 minutes, stirring in between if it's bubbling hard.
Remove from microwave, and add 1/2 cup of (bottled) lemon juice, two or three drops of yellow food color (optional) and 2 Tablespoons of butter. Stir until smooth and the butter is melted/fully incorporated into the pudding.
Cover the hot pudding and place in the fridge.
Let cool completely and then dive it. So delish!

THE CHIT-CHAT:

(The highlighted text below are links.)

I mention to nearly everyone I talk to lately that I have a thing now for homemaking/gardening YouTube videos.lol I cannot get enough of them! I enjoy the subtitles, the relaxing music, as well as all of the things I learn from them. What a wealth of information! Who doesn't need homemaking hacks and inspiration?

While watching a favorite homemaker from Canada the other night (Farmer's Wife LINK IS HERE), I heard Suzanne describe what I've obviously been feeling a lot of lately - Daydreaming about Homemaking. That's it! That's my obsession these days. It has a name...Daydreaming about Homemaking!

Not everyone can relate and I understand that. I'm sure lots of people hate homemaking. They hate cooking or cleaning but I don't hate those things. I actually look forward to all of them, probably because I never get to do them. There's that, "I get to - instead of I have to" mindset which changes a lot of things once you put them into that perspective.

I am 59 years old and have worked at various small and big jobs since I was about 12 years old. My first job was babysitting for the lady down the street instead of the fun things that most 12 year -olds were doing back in the 1970's. I have worked full-time, commuting an hour each way for the past 40 years. I love my job! Don't get me wrong. I really love it and I especially love my work family and commuting to/from work with my husband every day but I find that I am doing too much "waiting to live". My PTO (Paid Time Off) is reserved for visiting special loved ones or taking off work for practical reasons like meeting a delivery person, medical or dental appointments, being sick or preparing for a holiday. While I dearly love visiting my loved ones and am grateful for PTO instead of unpaid time off for the other things, at this juncture in life I feel like the "waiting to live" part of my life is wearing me down.

I crave hanging out my laundry, folding clean clothes, baking bread, making "ditch the box" recipes like homemade yogurt, pudding, brownies, and cakes. I crave a few moments to clean out my car or organize my closet. I dream about sewing dolls and crocheting homemade gifts. I crave making special dinners for loved ones without multi-tasking.

During my working life these tasks have absolutely been enjoyed but they have been completed during "stolen moments" like making biscuits at 5am before I get dressed for work, or late night canning sessions after getting home; buying groceries before work and stashing them in the office fridge; making 5 Minute a Day bread that can be refrigerated for baking another day; and using my crockpot to make wonderful dinners like THESE.

My mom was usually home most every day. She had jobs here and there but for the most part I remember her being home. I remember her making yummy meals and keeping our home at perfection, tweaking curtains and recovering furniture. I know this is the life experience that is pulling me to this dream of homemaking but that is what I feel I'm missing out on.

When I heard the phrase "Daydreaming about Homemaking", I knew that was it. I never wanted to be a business professional type person. I wanted to be a stay-at-home wife/mom my whole life and at 59, I'm tired of waiting. I'm a little tired of squeezing those things into someone else's schedule for my life.

However, it's not in the cards yet. We still have bills to pay and for now, I'll keep squeezing in mixing up cookie dough and baking the cookies in stolen moments. I'll keep using my crockpot to make Easy Dump & Go Crockpot Parmesan Chicken and I'll find shortened ways to make homemade pudding like this delicious and amazing Microwave Lemon Pudding. (Making pudding in the microwave is the easiest, completely fastest way to make pudding. No mixer or beaters to wash, no pot to scorch and scrub. If there was a shortcut that is life changing in my homemade kitchen, this is it!)

But - I AM going to find a way to spend more time at home though. I really am!

Let me know if you try the pudding. It's beyond delicious and you'll know exactly what's in it, sugar, cornstarch, salt, milk, an egg, lemon juice, and butter (food coloring is optional but does make it look more like store bought lemon pudding).

Enjoy!

Gina

Ditch the Box: Dreamy Easy (Homemade) Microwave Chocolate Pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:48:00 +0000

Groceries are EXPENSIVE, aren't they? Let's Ditch the Box of chocolate pudding (and the snack pack cups) and make some ourselves. Let's make it DREAMY EASY and do it in the microwave. It takes maybe only 10 minutes and tastes the same (or better) than store bought pudding. Let's make Dreamy Easy Microwave Chocolate Pudding AT HOME MY WAY.

Dreamy Easy

Microwave Chocolate Pudding

(Homemade)

Printable View Here

Servings: 3 (1/2 cup sized servings) or 2 large servings so double it if you are preparing this for a family.

INGREDIENTS:

4 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder (unsweetened)
6 Tablespoons Granulated White Sugar
2 Tablespoons Corn Starch (flour would work just fine)
1 1/2 cups COLD Milk
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine (optional but I like to use)
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
Pinch salt

EASY INSTRUCTIONS:

WHEN SELECTING A BOWL, you want room for the pudding to expand by at least double when it cooks.)

IN a glass microwave safe bowl, COMBINE cocoa powder, granulated white sugar, and corn starch. STIR WELL to combine all of the dry ingredients together.

ADD the COLD milk and stir with a whisk until it's as smooth as you can get it. (Don't worry. It won't be completely smooth.) (DO NOT include the butter or vanilla yet.)

HEAT in the microwave (on high) for about 35 seconds to 1 minute. ONCE heating up, stir well to combine ingredients again / smooth them out.

HEAT in the microwave again for 1 minute. STIR WELL again.

HEAT AGAIN in microwave another 1 to 2 minutes but WATCH it so it doesn't bubble over. It will start to swell when it really starts cooking so watch closely. This is when the thickening happens.

STIR. Pudding should be thicker now and you can stir/whip to get that thickness to incorporate all throughout the pudding. If not thick yet, microwave at small increments until it is thick but mine was thick at this point and I didn't cook it anymore. It will feel like gravy. In fact, sometimes chocolate pudding is call "chocolate gravy".

REMOVE it from the microwave if it is thickened and ADD 1 Tablespoon butter (or margarine) and the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Stir until the butter melts and the vanilla/butter are both incorporated well into the pudding.

NOW COOL in the fridge - The pudding will thicken completely once cold - OR, you can eat it hot and yummy and not quite thick (over some delicious homemade biscuits or pancakes) but if you want thick pudding, it will need to be cold. I moved mine to a plastic, covered container for cooling overnight in the fridge. (Of course, I dipped some hot pudding out first to ladle over my biscuit for dessert before chilling the remainder overnight.)

THE CHIT-CHAT

This Easy Microwave Chocolate Pudding (Homemade) is so much better than snack packs or box pudding!
It is made with basic ingredients you probably already have at home. (I even used canned milk + water for the milk.)
You will know every single ingredient in it! No hard to pronounce ingredients or food coloring in this pudding.
You can make it almost any time if you have these basic ingredients in your pantry.

Here are the ingredients printed on a box of pudding mix:

I have read about making pudding in the microwave. I wasn't sure if it would really work and I usually cook my pudding on the stove. This is the recipe for Homemade Chocolate Pudding that I normally cook on the stove.

Last night, I wanted a "little something sweet". Does everyone else do that at about 8pm in the evening? Anyway - I love to make hot chocolate pudding, especially when I have some homemade biscuits ready to be nestled under that hot chocolate pudding for dessert. This was the case last night.

But, sometimes (a'hem), I have been known to cook my pudding on the stove while multi-tasking too many things and my chocolate pudding then sometimes sticks to the bottom of the pot, badly. It also may have happened once or twice that Doug has had to scour my stainless steal pudding pot with a brillo pad for a period of time to get the pudding off the bottom (that or throw away the pot) and I just didn't want that to happen! (Doug loves to do dishes so that's why he was taking care of this task.)

So - last night I already had some homemade biscuits and I decided that maybe microwaving chocolate pudding would not result in my pot turning into a tar pit so I gave it a "go".

How did it go making chocolate pudding in the microwave? IT WORKED! I was amazed! Wow!

#1 It was faster than cooking on the stove and by being faster in the time that the thin combo of ingredients started to thicken and turn into pudding..

#2 the pot didn't have time to create pudding tar in the bottom of my pot! The glass measuring cup that I used (a four cup Pyrex measuring cup) worked like a dream. After I transferred the hot pudding to a covered dish for cooling in the fridge, the glass dish cleaned right up in like two seconds. No stuck pudding, no mess, no brillo pad needed.

AMAZING! I will not be making pudding in a pot on the stove EVER AGAIN!

I am going to try my regular recipe in the microwave at some point but for now, this one works so this is the recipe that I'm going to use.

Mind you - it does not make a very big batch of pudding. But for a quick fix of "something sweet" at 8pm, I didn't have to get it from a box and I knew all of the ingredients in my pudding. Plus, I didn't have to go to Walmart to get some snack packs Jello Pudding when I wanted to be on the couch. All of the things I avoided are the reasons I will only be making Easy Microwave Chocolate Pudding from now on AT HOME MY WAY!

Enjoy!

Gina

Last of Summer Canning: Sweet Hot Mustard (canning recipe)

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:33:00 +0000

Recipes at the Top: Chit Chat at the Bottom

Sweet Hot Mustard (a/k/a "Hot Pepper Butter") comes from a garden of sweet and hot peppers, prepared mustard, vinegar, sugar, and Clear Jel. It's great for gift giving and for potlucks. It can be your little secret because they don't sell anything like it in the store. Somewhat like honey mustard but with some spicy kick. You are just going to love it! Come see how I make Sweet Hot Mustard / Hot Pepper Butter AT HOME MY WAY!

Sweet Hot Mustard (canning recipe)

(a/k/a "Hot Pepper Butter")

(printable view here)

Ingredients:

16 cups rough chopped hot and/or sweet peppers (36 peppers of various heat and colors) (I used bell peppers, green, red, and purple; red banana peppers, green tricked you Jalapeno peppers, and about 5 red hot chili peppers. I will increase the heat next year cause I kinda like it a little hot) Regular jalapenos would be great but I didn't have any this year.
4 cups white vinegar (5% acidity) (plus a glug for the water bath canner pot to keep the water from leaving lime scale on the jars)
4 cups prepared mustard (the yellow condiment you eat on your hot dog)
4 cups white granulated sugar
3/4 cup ClearJel (available at Amazon online) (no substitutions) (This is added separately from the other stuff.)
1 T. table salt

Instructions:

1. Sterilize (I use the dishwasher) at least 8 pint jars, lids and rings (or various half pints/quarter pints which are good for gift giving). I always sterilize extra jars just in case!

2. Wash peppers, remove seeds and veins, stems. I ALWAYS wear gloves because... the potential for error is huge with peppers! Chop the peppers small. I use a food processor and puree my peppers. I don't measure 16 cups of pureed peppers. I think the 16 cups refers to rough chopped peppers but I don't measure them. I used 36 descent sized peppers for my batch! (NOTE: For a completely smooth end product, you may want to cook the seeded/de-stemmed/deveined peppers in a little water for about 10 minutes until they are soft. Then, place them in the food processor and puree.)

3. In a large stainless steel saucepan, combine the pepper puree, prepared yellow mustard, 4 cups vinegar, sugar, and salt. DO NOT INCLUDE the Clear Jel YET. (No substitutions on the Clear Jel. You got to have it!)

4. Separately, in a small bowl, combine the Clear Jel with about 3/4 cup COLD water. Stir until smooth. Once smooth, add to the peppers/remaining ingredients in the pot.

5. Heat the pot on medium and stir nearly constantly to avoid sticking. Cook until the mixture is nice and thick. (Think the consistency of your favorite honey mustard.) (Remove from heat if it starts to boil and then resume cooking. You don't want a hard boil here. Just to cook until it thickens.)

5. Place hot jars on a clean towel beside the stove and fill jars with the Sweet Hot Mustard leaving 3/4-1/2" headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean, wet paper towel to remove any sticky residue. Add the lids and rings and tighten "finger tight" (which means until it stops and another quarter turn).

6. HOT WATER BATH PROCESSING: Place rack inside the canner or use a towel submerged in the bottom of the pot. Place jars in the pot right side up only. Cover jars with water 1-2 inches over the jars and add a glug of vinegar to keep the jars sparkly. Bring to a boil and start timing when the water is boiling good. SET A TIMER and time the boiling jars for 15 minutes.

7. Turn off the canner and let the water calm down before removing the jars (with a jar grabber). Place the wet, hot jars on a thick towel and leave them overnight. Don't touch them until the next morning. Let them seal on their own.

THE CHIT CHAT:

Where did I find this recipe?

I first made Sweet Hot Mustard (also called "Hot Pepper Butter") last summer. I had lots of peppers and followed a wonderful blog called "Chickens in the Road". I loved Suzanne's recipes, her wealth of knowledge about all things homesteading, and knew I could trust her recipes to be safe so I gave it a shot.

What is Hot Pepper Butter? Is it that good?

What resulted was the most delicious condiment "known to man". It is sweet and deliciously hot and turns a regular cold sandwich into something extraordinary. To say I loved this new recipe was an understatement. It's like a spicy honey mustard if I had to describe it.

Throughout the year, I handed out several jars of Hot Pepper Butter and one of my cousins actually called me on the phone (which he rarely does) to tell me how much he loved the stuff; where could he buy something like it in Florida; and when could he get more? The first call that I got from Jeff when he received it was "Thank you for sending me such a nice thing, but WHAT is it and what do I eat it on?" A few months later he was calling to tell me he loved the stuff and needed to get his hands on some more! That's my kind of recipe!

I told Jeff that my favorite way to eat it was on cold sandwiches (turkey, ham) or with potato chips but he now tells me his favorite way to eat it is with wings. I also think it would be great for dipping chicken strips, as a side to turkey, pork or ribs.

I know I'm getting wordy here but... I got to tell it.

In September, I set out with plans to pick a "peck of peppers" from the 28-pepper raised bed and checked out "Chickens in the Road" for the recipe. Well, wouldn't you know that a blog that has existed for years and years and years; a blog that has resulted in books for sale on Amazon and lots of followers had SHUT DOWN! Nooooooo! I never print recipes anymore but that is about to change!

Thankfully, I found some other places on line that featured a similar recipe. Finally in October, I made some.

I'm not sure if this is exactly the recipe that I started with but this recipe is delicious! It's the stuff sandwich dreams are made of. Definitely I wanted to place this recipe on my own blog so that I never lose it again- and yes, I'm going to print it!

Whew. It was a close one but sweet cousin, Jeff - I think we are back in business. Your hippy cousin Gina made us some more Sweet Hot Mustard. You just worry about getting us some wings when I come to visit! I'll be bringing the mustard.

(Note this recipe, this specific summer, resulted in orange Sweet Hot Mustard. Last year's batch was more yellow. I made my batch late in the season this year when mostly all of my peppers had turned beautifully red. The red peppers combined with the yellow mustard created a beautiful fall colored Sweet Hot Mustard but be ready for a little variation in color depending on what color peppers you are using.)

Here are some pics of this years batch on the stove!

Look at all of these beautiful peppers! Gahhh!

All cut up and ready for the food processor.

Pepper puree smells like heaven!

I measured out the mustard. Do you know they don't sell glass jars of mustard anymore! What the!

This is what Clear Jel looks like.

I made a slurry with it with some water.

Cooking it in the pot looks like this.

(This was before it got thick.)

Ready for filling the jars.

Ready for the canner!

Enjoy!

Gina

Potluck Success: Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:19:00 +0000

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

PRINTABLE VIEW HERE

1 Yellow Cake Mix (standard box -dry mix only)
3 Eggs (one for the crust; two for the cream cheese mix)
8 oz block of Cream Cheese (softened)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter (the real thing), melted
4 cups powdered sugar (+ a little extra powdered sugar for sprinkling after cooled)

Instructions:

PREHEAT OVEN to 300 degrees F. and spray a 9x13 dish well with cooking spray.

MIX cake mix, melted butter and ONE egg to a soft dough.

PRESS into the bottom of the sprayed 9x13 pan.

MIX powdered sugar, softened cream cheese and remaining TWO eggs until smooth (for about 1-2 minutes). (I used the same bowl that I used for making the crust.)

POUR on top of unbaked crust.

BAKE at 300 ° for 40-50 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle).

THE CHIT CHAT

Potlucks are always tough for me. I love to cook. I mean, I really LOVE TO COOK but when I need to take something to a potluck where I have no idea what other folks are bringing or what is needed, I kind of freeze. This was the case two weekends ago when we were invited to a friend's farm for a fish fry. Mmmm fish! That's really all I had on my brain but I knew I needed to take something to share.

I am blessed with full pantries and two full fridges and freezers so I knew I just needed to look around and see what I had that I could make without going to the store.

I had a standard yellow cake mix. I don't use them much but do buy them when they are super cheap. Mine was Duncan Hines.
I had cream cheese. Aha! An idea was coming to me.
I had real butter.
I had powdered sugar.

Gooey Butter Cake was it!

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake is a regional favorite dessert, local to St. Louis, Missouri. The town where I live is directly between St. Louis and Kansas City so we end up enjoying all of the flavors of KC BBQ along with all the flavors of St. Louis (The Hill Italian fare AND Ooey Gooey Butter Cake).

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake is a combo of delicious chewy blond brownie crust on bottom and cheesecake-ish, cream cheese on top. It bakes up with a paper thin top like a perfect brownie. It is rich so you want to cut the pieces like small brownies, but no one ever said you can't have more than one!

Ooey Gooey Butter Cake has been a St. Louis tradition for over 80 years. My recipe is a modern take on this regional favorite. The original doesn't use a cake mix and I believe doesn't use cream cheese although has a similar ooey gooey factor. If you see Ooey Gooey Butter Cake these days, it's generally made using a standard cake mix and cream cheese. When people from my area see it at potlucks, they will generally say, "Oh! Ooey Gooey Butter Cake!" or "Who made the Ooey Gooey Butter Cake?".

My dish was a hit at the fish fry. It was a small crew due to rain and thankfully each one of us brought something different so there were no duplicates. We enjoyed fish, fries, pasta salad, slaw, pepper jelly & cream cheese and for dessert- Ooey Gooey Butter Cake! But most important, we enjoyed lots of chit-chat and that was the best part of all!

Doug, being the adventurous eater that he is (not) had never had Ooey Gooey Butter Cake. He absolutely LOVED IT and enjoyed a few more pieces once we got home that evening. I would expect we will be making this for his next office pot luck!

If you are looking for your next potluck success, give Ooey Gooey Butter Cake a try! It's a guaranteed winner at our house!

Here are some pics that I took as I was preparing this easy potluck dish AT HOME MY WAY!

Mixing up the crust.

Formed it into a dough ball.

I divided the dough into 12 equal pieces to make it easier to press the crust evenly into the pan.

Mixing the cream cheese layer.

The cream cheese layer is poured over the unbaked crust.

Baked at 300°F for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Mine baked 45 minutes.

After cooking, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Let it cool before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

Gina

The Basics: Recipes you Know By Heart: 30 Recipes I know by Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:59:00 +0000

What recipes do you know by heart? You know, the recipes you pull out of your soul when you cook on auto pilot; the recipes that a special loved one made for you once upon a time and now you make them for the people you love?

Recipes You Know by Heart

By Gina 2025- www.AtHomeMyWay.blogspotcom

What recipes do you know by heart,

made from memory each time you start?

Where recipe books sit packed away

and stains adorn them where they stay.

Where biscuit bowls sit and wait

for sifts of flour and sleepers late.

Where sizzling butter becomes pancakes fluffy

and tummies become happy stuffy

Where muffins don't need a mix

and frosting needs no special tricks.

Where warm chocolate pudding doesn't start with a box

and ice cream churns in icy rocks

So many Spaghetti Sundays through the years

for celebrations, hugs or tears.

Simmered slow by moms and grannies

with bread to swipe all the crooks and crannies.

They are the meals that families remember

and inlaws soon admit surrender.

The comfort food that grandmas made

before minds and bodies began to fade.

It's rice and beans when money is tight

and soup or chili on a cold winter night.

Mama makes her own mac and cheese

that tops the blue box, yes indeed!

These are the meals that remind you of home

and take you there even when you're alone.

Bridging present to the past, they are a secret sign

that these meals connect hearts, yours and mine.

Recipes I know by Heart

Breads/Breakfast

1. Homemade Biscuits

2. Perfect Pancakes

3. French Toast

4. Plain Muffins (add-ins of your choice)

5. Granola

6. Cornbread

7. Garlic Bread (will share soon)

8. 5 Minute a Day Crusty Bread

Meals:

9. Simple Quiche

10. Parmesan Chicken

11. Spaghetti Sauce - HERE & HERE

12. Oven / Crockpot BBQ Chicken (just chicken w/ bbq sauce)

13. Chicken & Biscuits

14. Chicken & Dumplings

15. Hobo Packets

Sides:

16. Pot of (Dried) Beans

17. Rice - Plain, Spanish

18. Macaroni & Tomatoes (Noodles & Tomatoes)

19. Homemade Mac & Cheese

20. Pepper Gravy (butter/flour/milk/salt & pepper) (recipe coming soon)

Desserts:

21. Homemade Frosting (Chocolate / Vanilla)

22. 123 Peach Cobbler

23. Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

24. Chocolate Pudding

25. Fruit Dip

26. Whipped Cream

Snacks / Miscellaneous:

27. Homemade Croutons

28. Cinnamon Toast

29. Grilled Cheese

30. Bologna (Ham), Chicken, or Egg Salad

As a young mom, I was once invited to a friend's farm for an imprompu birthday celebration. After I got there and our kids were playing, she led me to the kitchen where she was taking the birthday cake out of the oven. She quickly mixed up some chocolate frosting without a recipe. She added a little butter, some cocoa, powdered sugar and then created the right texture by adding less or more milk and a drizzle of vanilla. I was stunned! I had never really paid attention to my mom doing this although I know she did nearly every day of the week.

Its funny the little things that make us who we are today. THIS was the thing I wanted for my own family. I wanted to be the kind of mom who could mix up frosting for cakes or graham crackers without a cookbook; the kind of mom who could feed her family without always needing measuring cups and spoons; the kind of mom who could host a birthday party without a store bought cake! THIS was incredible! Now - nearly 35+ years later, I have a few of these "recipes" up my sleeve. I was surprised at the number of things I make without a recipe. I guess after 40+ years of cooking, I SHOULD be able to cook without a recipe. I always say that if you want to do something well, do it a lot. The rest will fall into place. Not everything I make turns out perfect but after this many years, I can pretty much guaranty that these meals will always turn out delicious - even without looking at the recipe.

Do you have recipes you know by heart? Please share if you have the time -and if you don't mind my silly rhyme 😍:

This recipe was shared at Sweet Little Bluebird's Potluck 706 HERE! Go check out all of the amazing recipes featured there this week!

Enjoy!

Gina

TGIF, Pepper Jelly SUCCESS ,and Apple Pie Filling FAIL!

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 21:04:00 +0000

*This recipe isn't hard. I just tell every little thing.)

Recipes at the Top - Chit Chat at the bottom!

Pepper Jelly (Surejell)

(Printable View here)

14 various peppers, some sweet/some hot (50% hot peppers is good)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon butter/margarine
1 box (regular-yellow box) Surejell (I only use that brand)
5 cups sugar, measured into a separate bowl
Nitrile gloves for seeding/trimming the peppers.
(Makes 6 pints of jam -I always use some 4 oz jars and 8 oz; washing up extras so I have enough just in case. Any partial jar at the end can be refrigerated for a "test taster")

Instructions

Wash jars, lids and rings with soapy/hot water. (New USDA guidelines say you don’t have to sterilize jars if you are processing for 10+ minutes.) I use the dishwasher. Once the dishwasher cycle is complete, I then start my recipe while the jars, etc. remain in the hot dishwasher until time to fill.
Wash, remove stems and seed peppers, making sure to WEAR GLOVES, avoiding eyes and other sensitive areas of the body. (Milk/yogurt will help if you have any issues though but isn’t sure fail).
Chop the peppers or use a food processor until small like confetti.
Place chopped peppers in 6- or 8-qt. saucepot (like a pasta pot). Add vinegar and Surejel and stir until smooth. Add butter (to reduce foaming).
Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop when stirred) on high heat, stirring often.
Dump in sugar all at once. Stir well again.
Return to full rolling boil (one that doesn’t stop at all – very “hard” simmering and bubbly) and boil exactly 1 minute. Stirring constantly.
After boiling 1 minute - remove the pot from heat. Skim off any foam.
Ladle into hot jars using a canning funnel (not required but super helpful), filling to within 1/2 inch of tops. Add dried lids/rings just until finger tight.
Water bath to process for 10 minutes.

To water-bath/process (which is required): Using canner/tall pot so that the jars will be covered completely by an inch or two of water, place the jars on the rack. Or, if you don’t have a rack, use a thick hand towel to submerge in the bottom of the canner to provide a barrier between the glass jars and the hot burner.

Fill the pot /cover the jars with water by 1-2 inches.

Bring to boil on high and then turn down a little to simmer. Boil gently 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes on a timer, turn off the burner. After a few minutes/boiling stops, remove jars using a canning jar grabber and place them upright on towel to cool. After jars cool, check seals by pressing centers of lids with finger. (If lids spring back, lids are not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.) Remove rings for storing canning products.

The Chit Chat:

I’ve decided to include more life in my blog posts (when I feel like it lol). I actually love the journal that this blog has been for me. I love seeing what I wrote about and what I cooked; who I cooked for; and what stage of life we were in. These days, I actually enjoy lots of YouTube videos and blogs of real life moments for other people and so this is mine. I’m going to try to do these on Fridays.

What did I do?

I especially enjoyed lots of special moments with my family this week. Long calls with my mom, both of us complaining about heat and no rain this October - for them in Florida and us in Missouri. I enjoyed some fun facetime calls with my grandsons/ younger daughter’s family. With my older daughter, I enjoyed our weekly Wednesday/dad’s gone bowling, Mexican outing followed by some true crime TV-the Sherri Papini story. What a sad mess that was! Always lots of kitty love going on at our house except for now, Becca and I have to text each other when one cat is inside and the other is out - because my cat Mick would kill Becca's little sweet boy kitty if given the chance.

Work was very busy and let's say picking out fall dress clothes when its nearly 90 degrees is getting old! I'm sure in February, I will miss this but for now I'm ready for cooler weather.

What did I cook?

I got some canning done last Sunday. I started out thinking it would be a breeze. I had high hopes of canning pepper jelly, apple pie filling, making homemade pasta and making lasagna. See that beautiful apple pie filling? The pepper jelly was done before lunch and that apple pie filling? It about did me in. And no- I did not make homemade pasta or lasagna. I was exhausted after the dang apple pie filling.

I used a variety of peppers from my 24-plant raised bed (lol) for the pepper jelly. Beautiful banana peppers, Tricked You Hybrid “jalapeno” peppers, Thorixera sweet red peppers and a few red and green, Red Ember chili peppers. Chopping the peppers in my food processor worked great and the aroma of all of those chopped peppers was completely intoxicating for me! Ahhh! We dearly love some pepper jelly/cream cheese for our Friday night happy hours at home. I would like to say we use it in other ways but pretty much I make the whole batch just for the delicious reminder of summer in the dead of winter that it is. I share a few jars for gifts but I don’t part with too much of it. It's that good!

After making a successful batch of pepper jelly, I tackled the two bags of “seconds” apples that I got at the farmer’s market to can apple pie filling. Again… about that apple pie filling. I’ve made apple pie filling in the past but the instructions for “safe” apple pie filling have now changed. Great day! You can only use Clear Jel (no flour allowed any more) and you have to actually BLANCH the apple slices before making the pie filling. What the heck! I almost didn’t do all of that JUNK but I wanted it to be safe since I would be using it as holiday gifts. I used the safe recipe that I found here in case you want to make some sticky sweet apple pie filling that takes all day yourself.

By the time I got all of the apples peeled, sliced, blanched, made the glaze, canned it, – I was OVER apple pie filling. The day was gone; we had no homemade pasta/lasagna ("Spaghetti Sunday") ; and everything was a sticky mess! And that apple pie filling? I don’t like it. How depressing is that. It’s sugary sweet - too sweet. You have to use a specific amount of sugar to follow the safe USDA recipe but I am not a fan. It takes home picked, crisp, apples and turns them into some kind of soggy, jelled pie filling like you get in a can at the store. I will never do it again. Never ever in a million years. Next time I will just can apple slices for pies or stick to canning applesauce. It’s beautiful! Yep-gorgeous stuff, but too sweet.

What else did I cook?

Sunday supper: After I accepted the fact that I had made something that took nearly all day and hated it, I got back at it and made some supper. This was the night I made that delicious Spanish Rice w/ Ground beef. It made up for that awful apple pie filling. Doug doesn’t eat rice so I made him – yes.. I did make him some CANNED biscuits. Say it isn’t so. He also wanted FROZEN Stouffer's chip beef gravy. Hey, when a man wants you to take some short cuts and you are dead tired, you make him canned biscuits and frozen gravy. Since Doug has really outdone himself laying 2500+ pounds of landscape block to get the house done, I indulged him with his choice of canned biscuits and frozen gravy when I knew he wouldn't like my spanish rice. I also made him some fried potatoes (air fryer) and those were a piece of heaven. My picture for those after cooked sucked so I’ll post that recipe next time I make them.

Here's the beautiful project Doug is working on. Six plus years after our house burned, we are getting so close. We almost have steps to the front door! But it is a lot of block for one old man to lay.

Tuesday morning I put a ham in the crockpot and made some Schoolhouse Dinner Roll dough by hand (I don't use a bread machine anymore since I wake up without an alarm clock at 4am-ugh). I went ahead and made the dough balls and stuck them in a buttered pan and placed in the fridge for baking after work. Doug buttered the pan and then claimed not to have buttered the sides so well – when they stuck. But they were delicious anyway and he tried to help. Plus, he laid ALL OF THAT BLOCK… so what can you say about a stuck dinner roll? lol I also cheated and bought prepared, Bob Evans mashed potatoes. Those things are dang good if you haven't tried them.

Wednesday supper was the local Mexican restaurant where they know us and brought out some of our order before we even place one. Got to love small towns for that reason alone.

Thursday was leftovers, Spanish rice for me and ham/mashed potatoes for Doug.

And now it’s Friday – Maybe pepper jelly & cream cheese are on tap with some other refreshments and our favorite 70’s tunes. Jessie Coulter and Tammy Wynette, maybe a little of my latest favorite, Van Morrison, Into the Mystic – here we come!

Enjoy! This is how we roll around here AT HOME MY WAY!

Gina

One Pot Meals: Skillet Spanish Rice Dinner (with meatless and bonus options!)

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:22:00 +0000

Move over Hamburger Helper!

Ditching the box over here with Skillet Spanish Rice Dinner!

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

Skillet Spanish Rice Dinner

(with Ground Beef)

(PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE)

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef (totally optional) (can sub w/ drained/rinsed beans like pinto, kidney, black beans)
1/2 - 1 chopped onion (could be replaced with 1 teaspoon onion powder)
1/2 - 1 chopped bell pepper (any color is fine - or leave it out if you don't like fresh pepper)
1 cup uncooked (long grain) white rice
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes (undrained) (salsa or rotel would also be good substitutes)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups water + 1 beef (or chicken) bullion cube (or replace with 1 1/2 cups beef or chicken broth) (I used the 8 oz tomato sauce can to "measure" my water so as not to dirty another dish.)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon chili powder (or taco seasoning would work fine)
Salt/Pepper to taste

Instructions:

USING a medium/large skillet that has a lid, brown the ground beef. Blot off any grease with a paper towel or drain well.
ADD chopped onion and bell pepper once the meat is no longer pink.
COOK a few minutes or until onion is getting translucent (clear).
ADD uncooked rice, stirring and letting the rice sizzle one/two minutes in the beef/onion/pepper mixture until the rice gets glossy.
ADD all remaining ingredients (tomatoes, tomato sauce, water/bullion/beef broth, spices and salt/pepper).
SIMMER, STIRRING OFTEN so the rice doesn't stick. (It hardly looks like you can even see the rice at this point. It's ok! It will get there!) Once the rice is incorporated and the skillet is simmering (bubbling), turn the skillet down on nearly the lowest setting to cook.
COVER with a lid.
SIMMER on low (covered) for 20 minutes, barely stirring occasionally (just so the rice doesn't stick), or until rice is done and expands to fill the skillet.

Optional replacements:

OMITTING the ground beef and replacing with any drained/rinsed can of beans would be equally delicious!
ADDING 1 cup of frozen corn or 1 can (drained) whole kernel corn would be great!
REPLACING the beef bullion + water combo with beef broth is great. I had water/bullion.
REPLACING with chicken broth (bullion/water combo) would be fine too!
REPLACING the uncooked rice with uncooked pasta (small like elbow macaroni) would turn this meal into Chili Mac. Brilliance!
TOPPING with grated cheese and adding the lid until melted would be yummy!
FREEZING leftovers (if using rice) in flour tortillas for freezer burritos would be a bonus!

THE CHIT-CHAT!

FRUGAL / CHEAP MEAL:

Do you need an easy, frugal (cheap) meal that uses regular, pantry ingredients and can be on the table in about 30 minutes? Skillet Spanish Rice Dinner is your meal!

IT'S FAST - 30 MINUTES!

I made this Skillet Spanish Rice with Ground Beef on Monday evening after work in about 30 minutes for supper - AND just loved it! I knew right then and there that I would be posting the recipe here so that I won't forget about it.

LOTS OF REPLACEMENTS / OPTIONS make this meal a WINNER!

I have a complete LOVE for all things "saucy". I tend to not be a meat/potatoes person since I grew up eating more rice and pasta meals. This dish was a complete win for me!

I especially love that so many replacements / additions can be made using this meal as a guide.

Don't have any meat? Use canned beans!
Need to feed more folks? Add beans and corn!
Don't have diced tomatoes but do have salsa? Use salsa!
Don't have diced tomatoes but do have canned Rotel? Use Rotel!
Don't like rice, but do like Chili Mac, then replace the rice with uncooked small pasta, like elbow macaroni!
Don't have beef bullion or beef broth but have chicken bullion/broth? Use chicken broth!
Don't have chili powder but have taco seasoning? Use taco seasoning!
Love cheese? Top with grated cheese and let it melt!
Only one person for supper and don't like to be stuck with leftovers for too many days? Turn it into burrito filling and wrap individual burritos in foil or place in baggies and freeze for later meals.
Are your kids "dippers"? Let them scoop it up with tortilla chips!

I hope you give this recipe a try! It's really SO GOOD!

Here are some pics of this one skillet meal in action!

Ground beef with onions, peppers, and uncooked rice sizzling!

Remaining ingredients added. (The rice disappears until it has a chance to cook/swell up.)

The rice in this pic is about half cooked. See? It's starting to fill the skillet.)

My kind of meal! Saucy and smells delish!

ENJOY!

Gina

Beginner Friendly Recipe: Easy Banana Pepper Hot Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 17:08:00 +0000

Banana Pepper Hot Sauce

(Using Home Grown Peppers)

Recipes at the Top; Chit-Chat at the Bottom

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

6-7 large Banana Peppers (at the yellow / ripe stage)
1 Jalapeno Pepper (or your favorite "hot" pepper)
2-4 cloves of fresh garlic, sliced
1 cup white vinegar
½ cup bottled or filtered water, as needed
2 tsp sugar (I will cut this down to 1 teaspoon next time since we prefer less sweet)
1 tsp salt (no iodine - so I used canning salt)
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tsp ground mustard seed
1 tsp celery seed

(I made a double batch of the brine to make sure that I had enough.)

Instructions:

Sterilize a quart (glass-canning) jar and lid/ring (I used my dishwasher).
Cut the banana peppers and jalapenos into slices, removing the tops and the seeds. A few seeds are fine. Place the pepper slices and garlic pieces in the jar. (I always use gloves for handling any peppers.)
Bringing the water, vinegar, and spices to a boil in a small saucepan. Simmer 5 minutes.
Pour enough hot brine over the pepper mix to cover the peppers.
Add the lid/ring and allow it to cool for a few hours.
Place the jar in the fridge for 3 days, occasionally shake/turn upside down.
Blend using an immersion blender directly in the jar or use a traditional blender until smooth.
Strain the sauce for a smooth texture and/or pour into the bottle of your choice. (Dollar Tree has the bottle I used in the picture.) (We shake before serving.)
Directions are to consume within a month but I doubt we use it that fast. I'll probably use mine for a couple of months which is what I do for refrigerator pickles. You can also store this hot sauce in the canning jar if you don't have a bottle.

Store refrigerated at all times as this is not a USDA tested canning recipe.

The Chit Chat

Disclaimer: I am completely new at making hot sauce. I found this recipe on Pepper Geek HERE. This is the first "hot sauce" that I have tried (although this sauce is not hot at all).

From what I gather, hot sauce can be made by either brining (pickling) or by fermentation (salt). I chose to make this one because it seemed beginner friendly. Basically it seemed like a refrigerator pickling recipe that you blend until smooth to create a sauce. I'm going to try some fermented hot sauce next. I just needed to get my hot sauce making skills fired up before I went that route.

What to eat it on?

Serve it over pizza, eggs, over cream cheese as an appetizer, on nachos, tacos or just with some good old plain potato chips. I also think it would be good w/ BBQ chicken or steak. It's yummy! Let me know what you think.

Is it hot?

I'm a bit of a wimp about hot sauce so I am overly cautious with hot peppers. I had a bad experience once with a ghost pepper that someone snuck in on me and ever after I have been more cautious than not with hot peppers. In my sauce, I used three tiny jalapenos and a tricked-you-jalapeno which has no heat. My sauce is NOT HOT AT ALL. In fact, its kinda wimpy and I will be adding some cayenne pepper to up the heat a little bit. Next time, I will increase the hot pepper ratio.

Will I make this again?

You bet! It's delicious! Its all the things that I love about pepperoncini and pickled banana peppers but in the form of a sauce.

What makes it a beginner recipe?

To me, beginner recipes are easy with little risk. This one is incredibly easy and pretty much no risk. You sterilize/wash a jar; chop the peppers and garlic and place in the jar; heat the vinegar/spices and pour into the jar. Add a lid, let cool and shake a couple of times a day for three days. Blend and strain and add to your favorite hot sauce bottle. It can't get much easier than that!

Here are some pics!

The cast of characters. Easy enough!

In went the peppers and garlic!

After "chilling" for three days but before I blended it!

Ta-Da! It's lovely and tastes so delicious!

Enjoy!

Gina

Frozen ChocoNana pops AT HOME MY WAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 15:20:00 +0000

Frozen ChocoNana Pops

Recipes at the Top; Chit Chat at the bottom

(REMINDER: The bananas need to freeze overnight before dipping the next day so allow time for that when making these frozen dipped banana pops).

Ingredients:

3 Whole bananas - ripeness of your choice
Popsicle sticks (I bought mine at Walmart for less than $1.)
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet but you can use dark chocolate or milk chocolate chips if preferred.)
4 teaspoons coconut oil (Shortening like Crisco will also work but isn't as good for you. You can even get a little coconut oil from Dollar Tree)
Optional: Sprinkles, coconut, crushed nuts (toppings of your choice)

Directions:

Peel and cut bananas in two or three sections. Each banana pop should be about 3-4 inches long.
Place popsicle sticks inside each banana section so that you can hold the banana on the stick.
Freeze bananas with sticks on a plate - overnight. They need to freeze solid before dipping. (I placed mine on a plate and stuck them in the freezer overnight.)
In the microwave or in a double boiler on the stove, melt chocolate chips. (If melting in the microwave, cook only short bursts of 30 seconds, stirring/checking often because chocolate burns fast and can seize up when overheated.) (I used a heat proof mug in a shallow pot of hot water for making a DIY double boiler but definitely don't let the water come in contact with the chocolate because those two don't mix.)
Stir melted coconut oil or shortening into the chocolate.
Dip each banana section in the chocolate. You may need to swirl the last banana to get enough chocolate to cover or make another batch of chocolate.
Sprinkle with toppings just after dipping. They need to be added to wet chocolate.
Place dipped bananas on a plate, not touching of course, and put them in the freezer until the chocolate is solid.
Move frozen, dipped choconanas to a resealable container for storing them in the freezer. They can touch at this point since they are frozen and the chocolate is solid.
Stores up to a month (or more, really) in the freezer.

The Chit Chat

This summer I attended our town festival called "Heritage Days" and at the parade, we stopped by a food truck vendor to get a frozen treat. It was so hot! We all needed some refreshments. Well, low and behold-I saw that they had an old school favorite. I grew up calling them "choconanas" and this food truck had whole bananas, frozen on a stick and dipped in melted chocolate (no toppings). I REALLY wanted one - UNTIL I SAW THE PRICE. Inflation is definitely a thing when one frozen choconana costs $9. $9 each??!!!! Bananas are one of the cheapest fruits to buy and I usually can buy a bunch of them for less than $2. I'm all for people making money but that was ridiculous! I actually saw a lady walking around eating one! $9!-yea...

Growing up in central Florida, my mom often had "choconanas" that she had made in our freezer. We loved them and I'm sure our mom was offering a much healthier treat than the grape, cherry, and banana frozen popsicles that she sometimes got for us. (Remember those pixie brand popsicle sticks that could be connected? I digress..)

Anyway, our mom made hers from a little yellow box kit (Chiquita brand) that was sold in the produce section of the grocery store along with those boxes of red hard candy apple mix. (She made those in the fall, back when our teeth wouldn't break off from eating them lol.)

I knew that if I could find a recipe for homemade Magic Shell (dipping chocolate), I could make my own choconanas. So - I made them for my grandsons this summer. The baby was teething during a visit "to swim in PawPaw's pool" and I thought frozen bananas would feel good to his sore little gums. (Of course, I left chocolate off of a few frozen banana pops for the baby.) We loved these frozen treats and my daughter especially enjoyed a blast from the past.

Isn't that one of the best things about going home? Enjoying yummy food prepared by the same loved ones who made yummy food when you were little? For me, food is a kind of blessing that I can give to my family and I hope to do more of it now that we have a normal size house to cook in. 💕

Here are some FUN FACTS that I found for frozen, chocolate dipped bananas - because inquiring minds like mine want to know!

Fun Fact #1 - The first chocolate-dipped frozen banana was sold in 1940 by the Frozen Banana King himself- Don Phillips on the Balboa Peninsula in Orange County, California.

Fun Fact #2 - The treat was eventually brought to Disneyland in 1955, helping to spread its popularity across Southern California and beyond.

Fun Fact #3 - Chocolate-covered frozen bananas are still available at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Fun Fact #4 - When made with dark chocolate, the dessert can have nutritional benefits from both the bananas' potassium and the chocolate's antioxidants.

Fun Fact #5 Chiquita Banana Pop Making Kits are still for sale, from Amazon and possibly near the bananas in your grocery store. However, my recipe is so simple that there really is no need to buy a kit!

Choconanas / Frozen, Chocolate Dipped Bananas are a fun summer treat. They can be made ahead and avoid the dripping factor that ice cream has. Frozen, chocolate dipped bananas are delicious! We love having choconanas in our freezer, made AT HOME MY WAY! I hope you give me them a try!

Enjoy!

Gina

Grown Your Own! Garlic to Garlic Powder

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:45:00 +0000

I planted garlic for the first time this past fall in my mid Missouri, zone 6B garden. I planted in October and harvested mid/end of June, just in time to get my bush beans planted!

Making garlic powder was super easy! It smells and tastes sooo good! We love some garlic at our house and for sure will be planting twice as many bulbs this fall. Turning garlic into garlic powder was pretty effortless although I did have to purchase a dehydrator and coffee (spice) grinder.

This is how I grew garlic and turned garlic bulbs into garlic powder AT HOME MY WAY.

Garlic Bulbs to Garlic Powder

Supplies needed:

Garlic bulbs (I used about 20 large bulbs and got about one pint of garlic powder.)
Food processor
Dehydrator (I got a good deal on mine from a "return/ overstock" store.)
Coffee (spice) grinder (This is the one I bought.) (I like that the cup is removable.)
A few glass canning jars
Optional: Jar Vacuum sealer (I got THIS ONE from Amazon.)

Growing Garlic:

I planted garlic bulbs in my 3'x6' metal raised bed after prepping my bed by adding a bag of compost and a good sprinkle of 5-5-5 organic fertilizer. After planting the bulbs, I watered well with Alaska Fish Fertilizer mixed according to the instructions on the jug. Once the garlic shoots popped up and grew to about six inches, I mulched with EZ straw and watered well so that my mulch wouldn't blow away. I watered occasionally until our temps dropped below freezing. Winter set in. It snowed, sleeted, rained and I just kept hoping that my garlic would do it's thing in the spring.

Spring came and the garlic grew! I harvested scapes on May 28, 2025. Here's the link to my post about garlic scapes, what those are, and what to do with them (I made stirfry with them). (Harvesting the scapes causes the bulbs to grow larger. An added bonus is they are DELICIOUS!)

I harvested my garlic bulbs on June 24, 2025. Whoa! They were huge (Music garlic typically has large bulbs and I was thrilled!) After harvesting, I "cured" my unwashed garlic by storing for about three weeks laid out and not touching on a piece of cardboard in my shed where it was hot and dry. Most folks hang garlic upside down to do this, but I just didn't have a place to do that, and I'm a big believer in "start where you are". After curing, I trimmed off the leaves and roots and placed the bulbs in a basket for storing in the house.

To Make the Powder:

Garlic bulbs were separated into cloves and peeled and "minced" in two batches in my food processor. I pulsed to "mince" the garlic cloves watching carefully not to process too long.

Minced garlic was spread on my dehydrator trays. I used the solid liners with a lip that came with my unit and topped them with parchment paper.

I placed my dehydrator in the garage so that it didn't permeate every part of my home with garlic. I dehydrated at 125 degrees for about 24 hours total, checking every 8 hours or so until the pieces felt "breakable". (They looked like cornflakes.) Our garage smelled like the best garlic toast you ever had in your life! 😃

I placed the garlic flakes into glass canning jars and stored them in the house for two weeks before I had time to make the garlic powder. I shook the jars once a day to make sure they weren't sticking. (If sticking occurs, dehydrate a little bit longer.)

Turning it into powder was super easy! I filled my coffee/spice grinder about half full per batch and pulsed until it was a fine powder. I used a strainer over parchment paper and kind of tapped the strainer to "sift" the powder out. If any big pieces were left, I ground them in the next batch.

I plan to use my jar vacuum sealer to "seal" the jar of powder to keep it from getting any moisture. (Tip: Make sure not to shake your powder over a steaming pot because that would let in some moisture.)

We are super happy with our home grown garlic powder! We made garlic bread with it, sprinkled it on hashbrowns, and used it to season steaks. It tasted exactly like we were expecting! Who knew you could make your own garlic powder?

Special thanks to Aaron and Deanna at Homestead and Chill and Its Bre Ellis for so much useful information and for being so kind to answer my questions. I attribute my inspiration for growing my own garlic and making my own garlic powder to both Homestead and Chill and to Bre Ellis on YouTube. You guys make the process seem so easy and possible, even for a beginner like me. I will do my best to pay it forward and encourage others to give it a try. For the best tips and tricks for growing garlic, please visit Homestead and Chill and Bre Ellis. These two sites will set you up for success in "growing your own" garlic to garlic powder!

This summer has taught me that home gardens aren't just for tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. I set out this year to grow everything I needed for spaghetti sauce. So far I have harvested tomatoes, oregano and garlic powder. Next is onion powder and basil. I'm almost there and you can do it too!

I am sharing this post at Harvest Mondays - Dave's Happy Acres Blog. We are all growing different things in different parts of the world and it's so fun to see a day in the life of those of us who love to garden, take pics, and blog about it! Please check out all of the gardens featured there this week.

Enjoy!

Gina

Garden Update: July 8, 2025 - Let's Get this Party Started!

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:03:00 +0000

Success!

My 2025 garden was started in October, 2024 and since I have already harvested garlic scapes and lots of lettuce, its time for another update!

I planted seeds for both Boro (purchased from High Mowing Seeds) and Detroit Red (purchased locally) beets. I have no idea which are which. I kept planting because none came up - and then a bunch came up. This year, thinning and a long cool spring made all of the difference. These beets are sugar sweet and smooth. Their huge size did not affect their texture. I have been baking them wrapped in foil like a baked potato, then trimming, slipping off the peels and slicing them. I have more out there including some Golden Beets. I just need time to get them canned. A favorite recipe for our family for using the "juice" from cooked beets when making canned or pickled beets is my Raspberry "B" Jelly (beet jelly), recipe found HERE.

Music Garlic, purchased from Baker Creek

Onions, purchased as "starts" (not sets)

from my local Walmart

Two surprisingly new (to me) crops this garden season are garlic and onions. I was super excited when I saw the size of the garlic heads! I have never seen garlic so big. Same with the onions! I planted onion starts (not sets) and was in shock when I found softball sized onions perched above the soil. I harvested 15 heads of huge garlic June 24 and 15 onions on July 6. My husband thinks I'm a little loony for getting so excited about garlic and onions lol. I plan to make garlic and onion powder using a dehydrator and blender since those two spices are the most used in my spice cabinet. The garlic and onions are curing in my shed for a few weeks.

Pictured are Suyo Long and Merlin cucumbers, my first zucchini, two yellow squash, one Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage and a half jar of oregano.

So far, I'm not thrilled with the Suyo Long and Merlin cucumbers. These are parthenocopic varieties but the Suyo Long are super spiny and sometimes skinny and the Merlin seem to have a slimy texture that I'm not sold on.

I had added knee high (panty hose) stockings to my cabbage plants which were being attacked early on by cabbage loopers. The knee high panty hose worked great and seemed to solve the cabbage worm problem. The bigger threat lately which caused me to harvest early was a new family of groundhogs. After my first and only beautiful head of broccoli became a midnight snack for the groundhog family, I decided to pick the cabbage early.

First canning project -

Tomato Sauce from last year's (frozen) tomatoes

In an attempt to make room in the freezer, I found three gallon zip bags and one tied Walmart bag full of whole, unpeeled tomatoes. Geesh! Sunday, I decided to soak them in a sink of warm water, slipped off the skins, removed the stem areas and put them on a slow simmer for tomato sauce. I blended the cooking tomatoes (including some cherry tomatoes) with my immersion blender and canned up this luscious sauce using the tested instructions for tomato sauce from my Ball Canning Book. I ended up with 11 nice jars (mostly pints) which I will use for soups, chili, and lots of Spaghetti Sundays.

Failure!

These were three huge tubs of beautiful sweet potatoes. 😕 I started my own slips in soil instead of jars of water and they were doing so great! Sadly, the groundhog family picked them clean. I'm not sure they can recover. I need to get some of the weeds out and see if they can be saved. This happened last year and I still got plenty of sweet potatoes, but I don't know. These seem especially sad and I'm not sure they will make it. The groundhogs also picked clean a few squash plants and some teddy bear sunflowers that I was especially looking forward to.

I'm not sure how to handle the groundhogs. The mama groundhog has babies so I hate to capture and relocate her if she has babies to take care of. I'm a softie and so I'm hoping I can add some fencing so that we can co-exist a little better. I don't mind sharing, but dang, girl!

Lots of Yellow Flowers!

My new favorite seed-started flower is the Celosia-Yellow Queen Cockscomb. I love its thick yellow blooms which seem more like soft chenille than flowers. I had hopes for cutting a few and adding to vases of zinnias. Still waiting on the zinnias but at least the Cockscomb has proved itself a show stopper!

I overwintered my two hibiscus plants in a sunroom and one of them is an overachiever after they were both placed back outside. Her flowers are bright yellow with red centers and she is just preaching some good news to me out there!

Coreopsis Tinctoria (Golden Tickseed)

I believe these are Coreopsis Tinctoria (Golden Tickseed) and they are so pretty. I have several self seeded sunflowers and I hope later in the summer to fill the vase on my dining room table with some of my own seed-started flowers. Apparently yellow is the color of the summer for me, so far.

I have a few crops that I am anticipating. My luffa plants are huge and are creating a jungle over my cattle panel arch. Here are a few beautiful yellow (of course) luffa blooms.

Here is my one and only sugar baby watermelon. This vine is growing on the other side of the cattle panel from the luffas and I am watching ever so carefully in the hopes that I can get a sweet taste of homegrown watermelon soon!

I enjoy reading about my previous gardens when the winter dreariness settles in so I hope no one minds this little view of my garden AT HOME MY WAY.

Enjoy!

Gina

Beginner Recipe: Freezer Strawberry Jam (no canning-no waterbath)

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 13:47:00 +0000

Recipes at the Top: Chit-Chat at the bottom.

Strawberry Freezer Jam

(Super Easy - Beginner Recipe)

(Printable-one page recipe)

2 cups fresh (not frozen) strawberries (I bought a quart.)
4 cups white granulated sugar
3/4 cup water
1 package Surejell Fruit Pectin (I have not tried other brands. I prefer Surejell for fruit jams.)
6+ half pint canning jars plus lids/rings (or plastic containers will work fine). (I like to have extra clean just in case I have extra from leaving extra headspace.

(This is the recipe from the Surejell packet except now they don't provide paper instructions in the box and you have to go online for it at Kraft Foods. Bah! Just give me back the paper instructions!)

Instructions:

Wash/sterilize glass jars and lids/rings (or wash plastic containers, if using plastic) (I used my dishwasher and just ran them through a normal cycle.)
Wash berries well. (I did a double wash because mine were pretty sandy.) Remove and discard stems.
Crush strawberries thoroughly. (I used a pastry blender because the sharp edges worked great to break down the berries.)
Measure exactly 2 cups mashed fruit into large bowl. I like for my bowl to have a spout for easy pouring.)
Stir in sugar. Stir well and let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally. (Set a timer.)
In a small saucepan, mix the water and pectin. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 minute (Set a timer and time for exactly 1 minute).
Add the boiled pectin/sugar mixture to the mashed fruit/sugar combo which is in the bowl.
Stir 3 minutes. (Set a timer.)
Fill containers/jars. Allow a good 1 inch of head space because the freezer causes expansion. Add lids/rings.
Filled jars (w/ lids on) should sit at room temp for 24 hours before freezing.
Label and freeze.
To serve, remove from freezer to thaw and ENJOY!

The Chit Chat!

Strawberry Freezer Jam is the easiest preserving recipe for using fresh fruit. If you can follow a recipe, you can make this one! If you have never canned before but want to start, this is the place. This process does not involve water bath or any kind of official "canning". Its just washing, mashing, stirring, cooking, and stirring again. You can do it!

Why make freezer jam instead of regular jam?

To me, Strawberry Freezer Jam has a brighter and fresher flavor than regular (canned) strawberry jam (which I also make and love; that recipe is here). Both are completely over-the-top wonderful compared to the stuff you get in the stores but for me, freezer jam is just better, especially for strawberries. The color is brighter (kind of like the color of watermelon jolly ranchers but red if that is a good visual lol). This jam doesn't have a long processing/ cooking time so the jam will be in more of a fresh state of berriness.

What can I eat it on besides toast?

It brings a little bit of summer to your favorite pancakes (or these pancakes), toast (w/ homemade sandwich bread), or biscuits, bagels, or easy english muffins. I also enjoy adding some jam to my plain yogurt (homemade or not) to make it taste like store bought or add to ice cream. There are so many ways to use homemade strawberry jam!

Do I have to use canning jars or can I use plastic?

You can use small plastic containers or glass jars. I prefer not to use plastic any more than I can help it so I use straight sided glass canning jars (8 oz-half pint) but plastic is perfectly fine. Make sure not to fill jars too full (so that there is room for expansion in the freezing process). I allow a good inch of "headspace" before adding my lids.

How long will it take to make it?

I bet this jam only took me 30 minutes once I got the jars out of the dishwasher.

Show me how!

Here's a few pics of how I made Strawberry Freezer Jam AT HOME MY WAY:

Wash them well. They are pretty dirty, even from the grocery store. Who has ever eaten them straight from the container? Me! But never again. lol.

I ran my jars and lids/rings in the dishwasher. I placed them on a towel to dry.

Mash them up well. A pastry blender works great for this.

Stir in the sugar. Stir well before setting the timer for 10 minutes.

Cooking the pectin & water looked like this. I started the timer (one minute) once it was boiling really well.

After adding the boiled pectin/water to the berries/sugar, I stirred for the full three minutes. That was easy enough!

Use a canning funnel if filling canning jars. It makes a straight shot!

I left a good one inch of head space to allow for freezer expansion.

I hope you get to enjoy yourself some Strawberry Freezer Jam! It's good stuff and this winter when the snow is blowing and the sleet is sleeting - you will for sure enjoy a bright sweet taste of summer, your own strawberry freezer jam!

Enjoy!

Gina

Garlic Scapes Stir Fry: Simple Homemade Stir Fry Sauce (using pantry ingredients)

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:19:00 +0000

Recipes at the Top: Chit Chat at the Bottom

Garlic Scapes: Stir-Fry w/ Simple Homemade Stir-Fry Sauce

Printable Recipe (one page view) HERE

Ingredients:

· 1 pound cubed chicken, pork, or steak (meat is optional) (I didn’t use any meat.)

· vegetable oil (I used olive oil) (used for stir frying any meat and the for stir-frying the vegetables separately)

· 6 cups chopped vegetables (use any but below are some good options, including GARLIC SCAPES):

garlic scapes, harvested early just after they curl into a loop, washed, blossoms trimmed off and cut into 2-4 inch lengths (as big as you might for fresh green beans or asparagus) – or you can actually use asparagus or fresh green beans if garlic scapes are not available for this dish
mushrooms (if canned, drained; if fresh – sliced)
bell pepper, onion, carrots, squash (washed/peeled/sliced for stirfry)
broccoli (bite sized pieces, washed if fresh; I used frozen because I had that)
fresh snap peas (snow peas) (washed & "little hats” removed)

· stir fry sauce of your choice OR my simple Homemade Stir Fry Sauce (recipe below)

Homemade StirFry Sauce

Whisk these ingredients together in a separate dish or measuring cup:

· 1/2 cup chicken broth (I used a teaspoon of chicken bouillon w/ ½ cup hot water)

· 1/3 cup soy sauce (I used lite low sodium soy sauce.)

· 2 Tablespoons honey (or brown sugar)

· 1/2 to 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes or ground cayenne pepper (I used about ½ teaspoon. Could also use prepared hot sauce instead of spices to increase heat)

· 1 teaspoon garlic powder or 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced

· 2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger (I omitted because I didn’t have any.)

· 1 Tablespoon cornstarch (I don’t care for thickened sauce so I omitted this.)

Instructions:

· Heat 1-2 Tablespoons of oil in a large skillet or wok. Add 1 pound of meat (chicken, beef, pork) and cook until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a clean plate.

· Add 1 more Tablespoon of oil to the skillet. Add 6 cups of vegetables (garlic scapes, snap/snow peas, onions, peppers, mushrooms, carrots, etc.) to the skillet. Stir fry until crisp-tender (still bright in color).

· Return any meat to the skillet with the vegetables.

· Add the stir fry sauce and cook for 2-3 minutes.

· Lastly, add any broccoli as it only needs to steam in the skillet until bright green and crisp-tender.

Serve over steamed rice.

This scape isn't quite ready to harvest. I like to harvest just after they make a loop.

THE CHIT-CHAT!

About Garlic Scapes

What are garlic scapes?

Garlic scapes are the curly shoots (flower stalks) that grow from hardnecked garlic several weeks before garlic bulbs are ready to harvest. (Garlic is harvested when half the greens have started to die back). The plant sends out a garlic scape (flower stalk) which then curls to form a loop. At loop time, you want to cut the scape because cutting off the scape causes the garlic bulbs to get larger and.. well, size matters!

How to harvest:

Garlic scapes should be harvested by cutting as close to the base of the plant as possible and/or sometimes you can gently pull them out or snap them off. I snapped off my garlic scapes. They keep in the fridge for up to a month and can be frozen.

What do they taste like?

Garlic scapes have a mild, garlic/onion flavor and the crisp stalks have the texture of fresh green beans or asparagus. They remind me a lot of asparagus!

Where can I get some?

If you don't grow your own garlic, garlic scapes are sometimes found in farmer's markets or grocery stores in late spring/super early summer. I harvested my garlic scapes on June 2 in my mid Missouri garden. My garlic was planted around October 31, 2024.

Are garlic scapes THAT special?

Garlic scapes are so delicious that it would be worth planting garlic JUST for the scapes ... even if you didn't get any garlic bulbs! Definitely I will be planting more garlic this fall, just so I can get more scapes next spring. MMmmm!

What are other dishes that I can make with garlic scapes?

Garlic scapes can be eaten raw, added to salads, blended into hummus or pesto, stir fried in a skillet and added to scrambled eggs, quiche, pizza, rice or pasta dishes. You can even chop them into small pieces like chives and blend into cream cheese. Think I'm adding bagels to the menu for this weekend's garlic scapes cream cheese!

This was my first year growing garlic AND my first year eating garlic scapes. They are like the buffalo dip to your hot wings; the deviled eggs to Easter dinner; the first taste of salty pasta to a full plate of slow cooked spaghetti sauce. Garlic scapes are THAT special and I will be looking forward to this time next year - for garlic scapes!

I'm also sharing my post at Harvest Mondays June 9, 2025: Dave's Happy Acres Blog. Special thanks to Dave for his awesome site and offering a great place to share harvest updates!

Enjoy!

Gina

In My Garden Granny Era - 2025 Spring Garden Kickoff (Zone 6B-mid Missouri)

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Tue, 27 May 2025 18:52:00 +0000

Garden Granny Era

2025 Spring Garden Update

(US Hardiness Zone 6B-mid Missouri)

I am now in my garden granny (Mimi) era so I thought this meme was perfect, although I'm not nearly as hip as the person in the photo. Yes, I still work in an office but being a garden granny is definitely where my heart is!

(Obviously I must not be cooking much from scratch lately because all of my posts have been about the garden and here goes another one.)

I love my garden! I love mothering my seeds and plants, and most of all-watching them flourish as spring turns into summer. As winter came to an end, I enjoyed learning new things like starting seeds in jelly rolls (the internet knows this as "snail rolls") but they seem more like jelly rolls to me. This worked REALLY WELL for starting quick seeds (marigolds, cucumbers, squash, and even carrots) when I wanted lots of plants and needed to maximize space under my grow lights.

I used packing foam from Amazon packages. Worked great!

Overall, I have not been impressed with starting seeds under grow lights. My wintersowing results in much hardier plants. I struggle with starting seeds in seed trays. Not sure I will do that again. What a pain! Plants started under lights are little plant divas in every way as far as I am concerned.

Here are a few of my wintersown plants- snapdragons and Valencia onions. I was worried the onions wouldn't get big enough outside, but they did and were perfect in my mid Missouri garden.

I attended a workshop on drip irrigation at the local public library. Seems easy enough although I haven't decided yet to invest in drip irrigation.

Here are a few pics of my 2025 Garden. My little granny garden is just getting started. New gardens are the stuff dreams are made of. I have high hopes for mine.

First harvest was some nice radishes. They are perfection!

The spinach already bolted but the flowers are so lovely that I left them. I think I'll wait until the seed pods give me some spinach seeds for next year before I pull these plants.

This is a David Austin rose that I bought in 2021, "Princess Alexandra of Kent". She is so pretty and the blooms are as big as peonies. We have her growing where our little dog, Rosie, loved to chase squirrels. 💗

I planted this "Music" garlic (from Baker Creek) last fall (10/31/25). This is my first year growing garlic. Doug thinks I have overdone it but a girl who loves spaghetti needs a lot of garlic. He's a potato lover. What would he know about garlic? 😎

Doug built two new raised beds for our garden. Bringing loads of soil up that hillside nearly killed us both. I hammered in a few of those t-posts with a sledge hammer and nearly took off my pinky finger. No pain no gain in the garden!

I have planted a variety of peppers in the bed on the right and indeterminate tomatoes in the bed on the left. There is the teeniest Sweet 100 growing under the wire basket. I have two Luffa vines growing on the cattle panel with a couple of Teddy Bear sunflowers planted at the front.

In the beds behind the new raised beds are my metal beds. I have a huge pile of oregano that comes back every spring, some carrots, beets and snap peas back there. I also have some strawberries in one of the beds (where my asparagus didn't come back after three years of waiting to cut it) :( along with a sprinkling of chaos lettuce to fill in the spaces. That lettuce is so delicious by the way!

I have a few grow bags of regular potatoes (for Doug, the potato lover) and my sweet potato slips are now planted in the red tubs. Definitely starting sweet potato slips laying in soil is the way to go. I learned all about this from The Millennial Gardener HERE. The sweet potatoes started in jars were started a MONTH EARLIER than the plants in the soil. I won't be fooling with sweet potatoes in jars of water again!

In closing - here is my spring 2025 garden.

Doug took the picture from the roof while up there working on the chimney. Not my best side but it will be fun to compare the garden as it gets to cranking later this summer. We started this garden a few years ago and just add a couple of beds each year. We are turning a very steep hillside into our garden and I'm loving it!

I shared this post for Harvest Mondays at Happy Acres Blog HERE! Special thanks to Dave for hosting his sight and inspiring me to grow my very own salads!

Happy Gardening 2025!

Gina

Rolling, Folding & Smashing - How to Make Paper Pots (Gardening) (+ Video)

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:05:00 +0000

INSTRUCTIONS AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

I have lots of seeds started under lights this year and decided I have spent enough money! I could not spend more money for up-potting baby plants when there is a nearly free way to do it. Here's how I make easy paper pots for gardening AT HOME MY WAY!

How to Make Paper Pots

(for garden seedlings)

Supplies needed:

Paper (Large sheets of paper from paper grocery sacks, packing material, newspaper, old wrapping paper would probably work)
Jar (no lid) with straight sides (approximate diameter of the paper pot you want)
Scissors
Tape-optional

Instructions (See pics & video at the bottom of this post):

1. CUT PAPER IN STRIPS. (LENGTH of the strip is enough to wrap the jar in several layers. WIDTH of the strip is equal to the height of your desired paper pot PLUS enough paper to equal the diameter (width) of your jar. (My strips were about 7 inches which gave me a 4 inch tall pot and 3 inches of paper to form the bottom of the pot.)

2. ROLL PAPER STRIP ON THE JAR. Place open jar on "beginning" of the strip of paper with the open top of the jar placed inside one edge of the paper by the distance of approximate width the jar) (Example: If the jar is about 3 inches wide, then the open top of the jar will be placed on the edge of the paper strip with about 3 inches of paper extending from the top of the jar. See pics below.) Now roll the paper on the jar as tightly as possible.

3. FOLD EXTENDED PAPER INTO THE JAR. Holding the paper around the jar, push the first section of paper (now extending above the top of the jar) into the jar tight against the top lip of the jar. (Start with the loose edge of paper first.) Move around the jar tightly folding the paper into the open top of the jar.

5. CREASE THE EDGE AROUND THE TOP OF THE JAR. Once the paper is folded into the top of the jar, crease the fold against to the top of the jar.

6. REMOVE THE JAR FROM THE PAPER.

7. PLACE PAPER POT ON HARD SURFACE (counter/table top) Place the paper pot on the counter so that the top of the pot is open and the bottom is sitting on the counter.

8. PLACE THE SOLID BOTTOM OF THE JAR INTO THE POT. Place the solid bottom of the jar inside the form of the paper pot and push to flatten the folded paper at the bottom of the pot with the jar against the hard surface.

9. REMOVE THE JAR. Your paper pot is finished.

10. TAPE OPTIONAL- You can tape the edge of your paper if it tries to unroll but I haven't had to do this with the stiff brown kraft paper OR newspaper that I have used.

CHIT CHAT & PICS/VIDEO

Back in the day, I used to make newspaper pots for starting seeds. I didn't use paper pots for starting my seedlings this year because I wanted to use a heat mat and because I had a limited amount of shelf space so I used those cell-type seed starting trays. My baby plants are growing and needed more legroom to get bigger so I remembered back to my younger days of making paper pots and checked out the latest and greatest ideas for making some. These paper pots are a whole lot easier than my old paper pots! These pots involve just some cutting, rolling and smashing and they are done.

I have some pics and a short video to show how I make Homemade Paper Pots AT HOME MY WAY! They are easy peasy and I know you are going to be able to whip some out really fast.

Supplies:

Paper (I had an old roll of kraft paper in my storage and some brown packing paper from Amazon boxes. Newspaper, paper grocery bags also work well and I think old wrapping paper might work too!)

Straight sided jar (no lid)

Scissors

Tape is optional. I didn't need any.

Place the open top of the paper at a distance from one edge of the paper. (This distance will become the bottom of the pot and will get shoved inside the jar.)

Roll the jar tightly in the paper.

Starting with the edge of the paper, fold sections of the paper inside the top of the jar.

Crease the edges of the paper over the top of the jar and remove the jar.

Then, place the BOTTOM of the jar into the pot to crush the paper you folded inside into a flat surface.

Remove the jar and your paper pot is done. (If you need to add tape to the edge of your paper, you can do that, but I didn't need any.)

NOTE: Paper pots will bleed/fade ink when wet so make sure to stick tags inside the pots instead of just writing on the sides of your paper pots.

Also - here is a quick video to show how speedy these pots are to make. I cut several strips at a time and then rolled up my pots in no time!

I shared this post at an awesome blog that is chuck full of good stuff! See me on Harvest Mondays at Happy Acres Blog - HERE!

ENJOY!

Gina

My Six Favorite YouTube Garden Channels - At Home My Way

noreply@blogger.com (Gina) — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 17:50:00 +0000

My Six Favorite Gardening Channels

on YouTube

Am I the only person who has a thing for YouTube garden channels? Talk about an infinity of garden information – plus links - to all of the best supplies and equipment to use. The folks who create these channels are like your favorite teachers times 100. They have extensive knowledge and use their very own homes and gardens as their classrooms. They can take a beginner (like me) and give her garden wings to really grow some good stuff! Gardening has arrived and the coolest kids are doing it!

If you are like me and life has gotten stressful, then take yourself away. These trips are only a few clicks away. Switch off Forensic Files and the nightly news, and enjoy the gardens. Or - when the view outside your window is frozen with ice and snow - head on over to YouTube and enjoy learning to start seeds, see lush zucchini plants, skyscraper tomatoes, and happy little beans plump for picking. Marvel at backyard apples, huge heads of cabbage, figs and even oranges growing as far north as North Carolina. Get the fever for getting your own hands in the dirt. These videos have been a gift to me lately and here are a few of my favorites. Join me in the gardens on YouTube At Home My Way. It's a super happy place to be!

Gardener Scott

I started my love of Garden Videos with Gardener Scott (Colorado). Gardener Scott's extensive knowledge and video style really sing to me. He starts talking and I just cannot tear myself away. I love that he offers Live Video Chats on Monday mornings. Even if you don't want to ask your own questions, you can bet someone else will ask and you can just take it all in. Gardener Scott even has a new book which I will be getting my hands on very soon. He does it all, from explaining biochar to making sauerkraut. Interested in making hot sauce with your very own peppers? Yep, Gardener Scott! Chili Powder? Gardener Scott! Gahh… I cannot get enough. Am I actually making hot sauce and paprika this summer? Oh yes! My seeds for this year’s peppers are growing as we speak. 😊

The Millennial Gardener

Next, I started watching The Millennial Gardener (North Carolina). His videos show start to finish with whatever he’s working on. I love that he's growing citrus trees in his backyard in North Carolina where he keeps them happy and healthy even in a snow storm. Whatttt?!! Yes - he does this and he knows the most cold hardy varieties for you to try. He even tells you things that don't work, like "Don't Do This!" The Millennial Gardener says it like it is and I love that about his videos. He conducts cool tests and comparisons. Some are quite funny (MiracleGrow vs. Pee as Fertilizer) but some are pretty serious – like Protecting your Garden from Heat Using shade cloth for Incredible Results. He has videos about the best tomato varieties to grow, best cucumber varieties to grow. (Did you know that some varieties grow better than others? And yes, I have some growing for my garden!) Also, you just cannot have a bad day while watching The Millennial Gardener. And then there’s his dog, Dale. There’s just everything to love about The Millennial Gardener!

The Gardening Channel with James Prigioni

The Millennial Gardener did an interview with The Gardening Channel’s James Prigioni (New Jersey) and so I next became a huge fan of The Gardening Channel. James (and his sweet little dog, Tuck) have inspired me to incorporate more fruit plants (apple trees, strawberries, grape vines) into my backyard and even to use 5-gallon buckets (containers) for growing vegetables like peppers. James really packs it in and generally uses square foot gardening. His yard is the stuff garden dreams are made of and he has massive garden harvests. He is a complete wealth of plant knowledge like protecting your fruit trees and squash plants from pests with Surround Kaolin Clay, growing the best strawberries even under your trees and basically turning an ordinary back yard into a food forest. He makes it all seem easy peasy and just seeing the amount of food harvested in James’s backyard is reason enough to watch. After watching, you pretty much know that you can grow spectacular food in your own yard with his content. I never miss an episode!

MIGardener

And from there, James Prigioni did an interview with Luke from MI Gardener (Michigan) which led me to that channel. I believe his videos have been around since 2011 (when Luke was 16 years old, wow!). Incredible amount of information are available on this channel! To me, Luke is to general plant knowledge what Eliot Coleman is to organic gardening. Luke seems to have become the authority for all things plants. He takes the basics and does videos about them but in ways that are super interesting and super organized. Want to know why your cabbage isn't forming heads, how to grow broccoli, how to get free blueberry plants from storebought blueberries? Luke is your man. Luke’s videos all have a similar order to them which I find tremendously helpful. Luke is like a plant/garden doctor. When you watch his videos, you understand why you might have been doing it wrong and how to fix it. He knows his stuff!

I also have a few other favorites. These are content creators who offer a little more than gardening. Since I have a love for all things homemade, I just love these two channels. In every single video, I take away useful bits of information that I can use. Check them out and don’t’ forget to subscribe if you enjoy them as much as I do.

Seed and Sparrow Homestead

Seed and Sparrow Homestead (Pennsylvania) has a super comforting style to me and the branding is more old fashioned. Kelsey is a mom and wife, homemaker and gardener, and her channel has awesome old fashioned skill videos like baking a month of bread, making homemade snacks that are better than storebought, preserving and using the garden harvest as well as growing medicinal plants and how to store them, and even planting a cottage garden. (She also makes me want to wear beautiful aprons. Lol) Kelsey’s garden is both romantic/ whimsical and utilitarian as it cranks out serious amounts of food but also features beautiful flowers. You get to see Kelsey and her family as they are loving life in their home with stuff they grow in their yard and cook in their kitchen. I love Kelsey’s narrative, her beautiful background music and the real life views of her plants, meals and family.

Our Freedom Song

Our Freedom Song (South Carolina) completely and totally brings me JOY! I cannot describe it any other way. Taquisha’s family grows lots of food, beautiful flowers and medicinal plants in their yard using different growing options (Green Stalk, raised beds, grow bags). She even has plants growing in file cabinets that she has turned into some beautiful raised beds. I love-love Taquisha’s visits and especially her garden tours. I often watch her videos multiple times to take in all of those beautiful plants and her beautiful garden. My dream would be to have a garden as beautiful as Taquisha's. I also love-love that her entire family helps and that she and her husband genuinely seem crazy about each other. The entire family gets stuff done together whether that’s moving gravel, setting up new garden beds or starting seeds and the kids seem to actually enjoy the garden! Taquisha and her husband are teaching the next generation (their children) how to tend to their plants, how to build things, and how to help each other as part of a loving family. If you get a chance, also enjoy some of Taquisha’s music videos. She is quite a talented singer and musical artist. I just cannot get enough of Our Freedom Song!

I’m kind of wordy here but I felt that each channel deserved a summary for what makes them special. I also feel like HGTV is completely missing the boat by not picking up these folks. Their videos require lots of creativity and tech. They nail it on all levels and in spite of good days and bad days, sickness and health, they keep cranking out the content and inspiring us everyday folks with real homes, gardens, and food.

I find a huge amount of peace and happiness watching these videos. The world is a stressful place these days but gardening and homemaking are places of peace and joy. Join me in watching (and subscribing) to these awesome YouTube channels!

Enjoy!

Gina