Susie's Cat Litter Cake Recipe

Yesterday morning I was with my good friend Dan at a local diner and our favorite waitress Susie had something to share with us. She waited until we finished eating and then told us about the Cat Litter Cake recipe. We had a great laugh together and she assured me she would send the recipe and sure enough she did. I just I had to share it with.
This is for all you cooks out there looking for something a little different and to have a good laugh. The Cat Litter Cake is completely edible if you can get past the visual. Go to www.kidskuisine.com and click on kitty litter for a picture. Here's the recipe Susie emailed me.


CAKE INGREDIENTS
1 box spice or German chocolate cake mix 1 box of white cake mix 1 package white sandwich cookies 1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix A few drops green food coloring 12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent
SERVING "DISHES AND UTENSILS"
1 NEW cat-litter box 1 NEW cat-litter box liner 1 NEW pooper scooper
Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan. Prepare pudding and chill. Crumble cookies in small batches in blender or food processor. Add a few drops of green food coloring to 1 cup of cookie crumbs. Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside.
When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture moist but not soggy. Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.
Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable. Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points. Repeat with three more rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture. Sprinkle remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top.
Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter box. Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the edge of the box. Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with scooper. Enjoy!

We have a pot luck for our small group next week and I'm going to try it out.

Millie's White Chili

We have a wonderful cook in our church named Millie. She made a wonderful white chili for our chili cook off and I asked if I could pass it along. It's so simple.

1. 4 chicken breasts ( about 2 cups of diced chicken) diced



2. 3 16 oz cans Great Northern Beans



3. 1 16 oz Jar Salsa (medium hot Tostito's or your favorite)



4. 8 - 16 oz Shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese



5. 2 tsps of Cumin



6. 1 can of chicken broth



7. 1 cup each of celery, onions and carrots



8. 1/2 sour cream
   

Cook the chicken in the broth and vegetables in a large pot. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. In a crock pot mix the beans, salsa and cumin. Remove the chicken from the broth and add to the crock pot and cook on high for an hour. If it's too thick add some broth. Then cook it on low for another 2-3 hours. Then add the cheese and sour cream and serve. Freeze the remaining broth and veggies to use as a soup base.

If you're in a hurry mix the beans, salsa and cumin in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add the chicken and if it's too thick add some broth. Bring to a boil and add cheese and sour cream and turn down heat to a simmer. As soon as the cheese melts you can serve it.

The best tasting is to cook it in the crock pot for 2-3 hours and then refrigerate over night. When you reheat it to serve the next day add the cheese and sour cream then. This is a fun easy recipe; one you can play with.

Ham Bone Soup

Recently Charlcie and I were in Charlseton SC and we had a great time. The food there is great and I especially enjoyed the corn chowder and sea crab soup. So this got me to thinking about soup. It's still cool enough in Houston for some good soups and I had a ham bone in the freezer from Christmas I needed to use. I decided to make a ham bone soup which I've never done before. We had these growing up and alot of times we used the ham bone in navy beans, but I was hungry for soup. Here's what you need.

1. 1 ham bone with 1 lb of meat


2. 2 cups fresh chopped tomato


3. 1/2 head of cabbage


4. 1/2 cup carrots chopped


5. 1/2 cup celery chopped


6. 10 oz can of lima beans


7. 1 cup of frozen whole kernal corn


8. 2 chopped onions


9. 2 quarts of chicken broth and 1 quart of water


10. Salt to taste


11. 1/4 tsp black pepper


12. 2 quartered baking potatoes


13. Dash of cayenne pepper optional

In a large pot simmer ham bone in water and chicken broth, remove and cut off meat. Remove half the broth and freeze for future use in soups, green beans or navy beans. Place the meat back into broth along with carrots, celery and potatoes; simmer a minimum of 30 minutes. Add the remaining veggies and bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for an hour and half. Add pepper, salt to taste and serve.



Oh my, the smell will warm your innards and the soup will too. This turned out so good that I will be making more and making various variations. This is my own recipe that I arrived at from remembering what my mom did and looking at some other recipes. That's part of the fun of it and seeing your loved ones lap it up helps too.

Award Winning Chili

Superbowl Sunday our church always has a chili cook off. This year I won 2 awards but I won't tell you what they were. I will tell you I made a lot of chili and not one ounce was left. Here's what we need.

1. 1/3 cup minced garlic; 1 cup finely minced green peppers, 2 chopped onions;
2. 4 TBSP chili powder; 3 TBSP Paprika; 1 tsp ground cumin
3. 26 0z beef stock; 12 oz beer (I used Shiner Bock); 20 oz green enchilada sauce; 6 oz crushed tomatoes and 6 oz condensed crushed tomatoes.
4. 1 lb coarse ground chuck (ask your butcher); 1 lb ground pork and 1 lb ground Italian Pork
5. Salt to taste; 4 TBSP mesa or all purpose flour ( add to desired thickness) pinch of brown sugar to taste and a pinch of cinnamon to taste.

First chop your onions (put them in the freezer for 30 minutes, before chopping, to cut down on the tears) and green peppers and combine with minced garlic. In a chili pot (a big one) brown the meat and drain and add onions, green peppers and garlic. Then place beef stock, beer, green enchilada sauce and crushed tomatoes in the pot. Add the Paprika, chili powder, ground cumin and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add salt to taste and add the flour. Start with a TBSP and then add a tsp to desired thickness. Let it simmer another 15 minutes and add a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon to taste if desired. But be really careful with this. When I say a pinch I mean a pinch. Let it simmer another 10 minutes. If you want it hotter you can always add some cayenne pepper, but I'd be very careful with this too.

This is a great chili if I do say so myself and myself does say so. My family loved it and while it was cooking they were drooling for a taste. The aroma filled the house in a wonderful way. But when I added the cinnamon, oh my goodness, you wanted to slap yourself silly to get at it. It wasn't disappointing either. Give it a try and send your comments.

Cooking In Charleston South Carolina

Here I am in Charleston wondering what in the world I was going to write about. My wife, Charlcie and I are here for a Leadership Meeting for the Vineyard Churches. I'm sitting at a coffee shop and someone has left a local paper on the table beside me. The top headline catches my eye, "Cooking up chemistry, Food 1D." So I open to 1D and muse through the cooking section. An article about brazing short ribs catches my eye.
Now braizing is something I remember my mom doing, but I've never really done. It's great for the tougher cuts of meat. Braizing means cooking with moist heat to soften up the meat. Then I realized that cooking pot roast and cooking with a crock pot are forms of braizing.
When you're braizing, you first sear the meat and you can brown the vegetables also. This enhances the flavor and gives out the most wonderful aromatic smell (pardom my drooling).
Anyway back to the article. After you braise the meat you add a cooking liquid that usually includes an acidic ingredient like beer, wine, Italian dressing or tomatoes. Use some beef stock to almost cover the ribs.
The article mentions 2 traditonal liquids to add. First, is a standard French combination of onions, celery, carrots, garlic and thyme. This one I've seen my mom use many times. The second combination is soy, sugar, sesame seeds, oil, garlic and ginger. It also talks about a fusion flavor that sounded great. You use left over coffee, couple of chilies (mild and a chipolte), remove the seeds and stems and don't forget to wear gloves. Then you add some wine and the result is an exotic tasty dish.


To really make this dish work it needs to be cooked for at least 2 hours, 3 0r 4 would be better. You can do this the day before and then it really tastes great.

What About Knives

Cooking can teach us many lessons in life. One of the lessons my mom and dad taught me was to have good tools. Since I've starting cooking, my family has begun to accumulate quality cooking accessories. Right off the bat I realized I needed some good knives.

There are 3 knives that will make cooking easier. A chef's knife is the most important knife in cooking. If you had to have just one knife, this would be it. Use it for slicing, dicing, mincing and chopping. Next is a paring knife. It's smaller and ideal for pealing and tedious jobs like deveining shrimp. Then you'll want a good bread knife, which is a type of serrated knife. These are great for cutting bread and other foods, like bread with a hard/soft makeup. These 3 knives will make cooking a lot less like work.

Did you hear why the 2 knives went to the dance? Becasue they both looked sharp. There's nothing like a bad joke to make a point about a good quality tool, like a knife in cooking, to make you look sharp. When I first got a good chef's knife, it was amazing how dicing and slicing all began to come back to me. My family thought I was amazing, but it was the training and the knife that made me look sharp. So stay sharp, the knife too.

Life is a lot like that. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of a his friend." As we share together we sharpen each other in thought and character. We also rub off on each other wearing off the rough edges. This takes work, forgiveness and effort but the benefit is worth it. Choose friends who sharpen you in good ways, not cutting you to pieces.

Pesto With Flank Steaks

Here's a great cooking idea for that extra pesto you may have. Take 1/3 cup of pesto, add 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp grated lemon peel and 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper and combine it. Serve it with grilled steaks or fajita's.

This is also great for a spread on sandwiches and burgers. Another way to use it is as a pizza sauce. Pesto also goes great with fish. We love to cook talipia. Make extra pesto if you need it. Spoon the pesto on 6 pieces of talipia and put a tomato slice on top along with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, or until the fish is done. There you have it, simple and easy for cooking meals. There's so many ways to use pesto and so many different ways to make pesto that you can't go wrong.

Pesto Pesto Pesto Chicken

I love pesto because it keeps cooking simple. I make my own pesto on Saturdays because it'll keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. In a food processor or blender puree 1&1/4 cups chopped basil; 1/3 cup chicken stock, 2TB pine nuts; 2TB parmesean cheese; and 3TB olive oil.

If you didn't make the pesto ahead, I like to use about 1/3 cup of commercial pesto. Cook 8 ounces of Penne pasta according to package directions. While it cooks cut 1.25 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken into 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle with Italian Seasoning, a teaspoon of salt and freshly ground pepper. Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray to medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes stirring frequently. I like it to brown a little. Drain your pasta and add pesto and chicken and toss; Pesto, like magic, you're home cooking. It should make about 5 1 cup servings.

This is so much fun to make and it's so simple. It should only take you about 20 to 30 minutes to cook it up. I like to make extra pesto while I'm at it, or you can use the extra commercial pesto to put on sandwiches or make a dip with parmesean.

Together In The Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the most important rooms in the house. I remember coming home on Sunday's to the fragrance of home cooking wafting through the house. We'd gather in the kitchen and swap stories and jokes as we finished cooking and put the meal on the table. We learned many of life's lessons in the kitchen and over a meal. Just like everything tastes better when shared with loved ones, so life is enjoyed more when shared with loved loves. Jesus said in Revelations 3:20 that He stands at the door and knocks and anyone who hears and opens the door, He will come in and eat with them. Just being together, cooking in the kitchen, eating and cleaning up together in the kitchen is one of the simple pleasures of life that brings us all together.

Menu Planning: Cooking For a Week

Menu planning for a week can be a challenge at first. But with a little bit of time and energy, it's well worth it. Here's a list of things we do to plan for home cooked meals.

1. Look at what you have - make a visual inventory.
2. List all the meals (main dish, vegetables, salad etc.) for cooking this week on paper.
3. Write down some of the extras you might want to cook (we love oven fried zucchini).
4. Start a shopping list.
5. Plan your cooking around your schedule. On Monday's, Tuesday's and weekends we have more time; but on Wednesday and Thursday we have small groups at church.
6. Plan how to use leftovers. We use them for lunch and for one of the busy nights.
7. Be flexible and switch things around.
8. Make cooking a fun, family activity.

Our family makes our cooking plan on Saturday's. We have a tradition that goes back to my family's restaurant of cooking Phifer burgers on Saturday nights, but that's another post.
Planning helps us in so many ways. It keeps our cooking interesting and tasty. We can better control what and how much we eat. You've heard the old joke, "I'm on the sea food diet, I see food and eat it all." That's me and planning helps keep my proportions in proportion. Plan home cooked meals and you'll be less likely to eat out or eat fast food and you'll save money. Now how good is that; good cooking, family fun and saving money. It can't get much better!

Cooking Home Meals

Welcome to Cooking Home Meals made the easy and fun way. Cooking great meals at home can be both healthy and tasty, too. Don't let cooking be a chore; learn easy methods to prepare meals in short order. With a little planning, great recipes and simple directions you can break up the monotony of busy living. Learn where to find new and interesting recipes from professional chefs and everyday people who have discovered cooking made easy and fun.
Recently, I grew bored with the rut my family had fallen into with the meals we ate. I knew I had to change my diet longterm to lose weight and keep it off. But diets are so boring and boring means you won't stay with it. I grew up cooking in my families resteraunt and at home, so I knew cooking could be fun, easy and healthy. I was amazed as I started on this journey, how with a little planning I didn't spend anymore time cooking than before. And what a difference it has made in attitude and taste. Things are no longer boring and we eat out less and save money.
Cooking has become a fun family event around our house. We plan meals, shop, cook and clean up together. We get out old cookbooks, search the web and experiment with simple recipes that are easy to follow. We've learned to marinade, rub and brine; bar-b-que, roast and saute, and so can you.