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Menu Plan Monday

May 20, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Another week has passed so it is time for another weekly menu plan.  I don’t know about you, but the days just go by faster and faster.  Just think, next Monday is Memorial Day ALREADY!!  Why do pretty days seem to last half the time dreary days do? 

Speaking of dreary days, this weekend has been a little damp for us around here with scattered showers both days so we spent most of our time indoors taking it pretty easy for a change. Hopefully we will have some nice evenings this week to get out and enjoy. 

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven fries (2 nights)

Easy deep dish pizza casserole (new)

Shredded beef taco roast (didn’t get made a couple of weeks ago so it is still new.)

Pizza night

Cinnamon roll cake (new)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.  Have a great week!

Posted in Menu Planning | Tagged , , |

Fruit Trifle

May 18, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

A little while ago, C’s family hosted a baby shower for his cousin and wife who now have a precious baby boy so, of course, I offered to bring a sweet treat.  I had been wanting to make this beautiful fruit trifle from Chef In Training and this was a great opportunity.

I love fruit and dip and this is just another pretty way of having that.  I kept the types of fruit pretty close to the original, but you could use any that you like.  It is a very versatile recipe

FruitTrifle

Strawberries

Green grapes

Red grapes

Pineapple chunks (fresh or canned)

1 1/4 cups milk

1/2 cup sour cream

8 oz. crushed pineapple

1 3.25oz box instant banana cream pudding

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Layer fruit in a large bowl or trifle dish.

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Whisk the remaining ingredients together to form the topping.  Pour this mixture over the fruit and use a little leftover fruit to make a pretty design on the top.

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FruitTrifle

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , , , , , | 23 Comments »

Thoughtful Thursday-Flower Power

May 16, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

For today’s Thoughtful Thursday post, I would like to tell you about two garden centers in my area that I love to visit.  When my mom was living, she ran a small garden center with my aunt and grandmother and, on my days off, I would go with her to pick up wholesale flowers.  I loved these trips and enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful things offered by these businesses.  Thankfully, they also sold retail and now I return every year to purchase my flowers from them.  Please excuse the phone pics…I didn’t have my big camera with me.

Mammoth Cave Transplants is located in Edmonson County, Kentucky,  just a short distance from Brownsville.  The owners are retired school teachers who have this wonderful business right beside their home.  If you are near, please stop in and have a look around.  There are many greenhouses packed tight with blooming beauties along with trees, shrubs, garden art and vegetable seeds.

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While you are there, take a second and pet the resident nursery cat, Smoke, who has been there for YEARS!

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The second business is Greenleaf Nursery in Glasgow, Kentucky which is only about 30 minutes from where I live.  This was the main place we bought flowers when I was a child and I remember going here with my mom every year.  I have loved gardening from an early age and always enjoyed looking at all of the pretty plants and wanting to try them all! C & I stopped in a couple of weekends ago to pick up a hanging basket so I grabbed a few phone photos while we were there.  It was a nasty wet day but the bright cheery flowers made it worth the stop in the rain.

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Greenleaf had some beautiful displays set up to give people ideas of how to decorate with their flowers.  If it had not been so rainy, I could have spend hours just wandering around looking at everything!

I hope you enjoyed this short virtual tour of two of my favorite places to shop.  If you are in the area, please stop by and support these two long standing Kentucky businesses.

Posted in Gardening, My Thoughts | Tagged , , , , |

Menu Plan Monday

May 13, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Please join me and other menu planners at I’m An Organizing Junkie for today’s edition of Menu Plan Monday.  Welcome to the start of another week and I hope my work schedule is a little calmer than last week.  We had court three days and played catch-up the other two from those court days.  All of us at the office were beat on Friday afternoon and were ready for a weekend of R and R.

C & I made it to the grocery Friday night and to Lowe’s, where we purchased 3 more Compacta holly shrubs and a dwarf Alberta spruce tree to finish up the front retaining wall landscaping.  They were planted Saturday and we also installed 4 new landscape lights in the back garage flowerbed.  Now all of we have to do is get a load of landscape rock to finish up then we can start on some new project.  I don’t think we will ever call our house done because there is always something we want to do.

I am keeping this week’s menu pretty simple because I hope we get to get outside and enjoy our evenings.  Hope everyone has a great and blessed week!  See you next time!

Bubble up pizza

Grilled pork chops with oven fries

Sausage bake with salad

Slow cooker saucilious pork chops (new)

Take out pizza night

Honey bee cake (new)

Posted in Menu Planning | Tagged , , , |

Brown Sugar Honey Glazed Ham

May 11, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Because of some unfortunate circumstances, I was not able to cook as many dishes at Easter that I had planned.  In fact, I just cooked one: this tasty baked ham recipe that I saw on Trisha Yearwood’s show on the Food Network.  Her show is one of my favorites because all of her dishes are fairly simple with ingredients that you will find in any grocery store.

When I saw this recipe, I knew it would be a perfect holiday main dish and it didn’t disappoint.  I love using honey in recipes especially since my father-in-law and his first cousin have hives and process their own honey.  The little bees that made this honey buzz around in my own backyard.

bshgham

1 spiral sliced ham-Mine was approximately 10 pounds

1 cup honey

2 cups brown sugar

Adjust your oven racks to accommodate the ham and preheat to 350 degrees.  Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a rack on top of that. Spray both with non-stick spray.  You will want a large baking pan with sides to catch the extra basting liquid.

Place the ham on the rack and cover the ham with foil as well.  Place it in the oven and bake for half the estimated cooking time (about 20 minutes per pound).

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When you are close to the halfway mark, heat the honey and brown sugar in a medium pan until the sugar dissolves.

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  Pour this over the ham and continue to cook, basting occasionally with the juices.  Allow the ham to stand for a few minutes after it is done then slice and enjoy!

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bshgham

Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Book Beginnings

May 10, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Happy Friday, everyone!  The weekend is almost here and that means it is time for another Book Beginnings post.  After you read mine, jump on over to Rose City Reader who is the gracious host of the literary link party.  There you will find a link to my post and other book loving bloggers.

Today, my beginning lines come from “A Game of Thrones” by George R.R. Martin:

“We should start back,” Gared urged as the woods began to grow dark around them. “The wildlings are dead.”

Ooh, doesn’t that sound ominous? Who are the wildlings and how did they die?  Is that who Gared was looking for or did he just happen upon them?  So many questions!

I picked up this book while my dad was in the hospital and I needed some way to pass the time.  This is not a story for the faint of heart.  It is full of action, violence, love, hate, and every other emotion you can think of.  I enjoyed it and have read the second book of the series. 

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , |

Wordless Wednesday

May 8, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

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Posted in Home, Photography | Tagged , , , |

Menu Plan Monday

May 6, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Welcome to another rainy Monday here in our neck of the woods!  The last few days have been nothing but wet and dreary so we are ready for some sunshine anytime the weather wants to cooperate. It certainly has put our outdoor plans on hold, but I have used the time to take care of some housework and C & I spent Saturday in nearby Bowling Green using a few Christmas gift cards and doing a little shopping.  I used to love to shop all day, but now it just wears me out.  Is that a sign that I am getting old?  No? I didn’t think so either.  Ha!

I have a few new recipes to try this week, time permitting, so I hope they work out well.  Whenever the sun shines, I hope to be outside so some of those dishes may have to wait until later.

Italian sloppy Joes (new) with oven fries (Didn’t get made last week.)

Tacos with salad

Cheesy steak sandwiches with oven fries

Salsa burgers (new) with chips

Shredded beef taco roast (new) with potatoes of some kind

Pizza night

Black/White cookies (new)

Please join me at I’m An Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

Posted in Menu Planning | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Butter Dips

May 4, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Ever since I found the blog, Plain Chicken, I have pinned their recipes like crazy.  This is one of those recipes and I made them to go with the Simple Pasta Soup I posted a few weeks ago.  Butter Dips are just a simple homemade buttermilk biscuit recipe, but the taste magic happens when you bake them in a pan with melted butter instead of just on a baking sheet.  I could have eaten the whole pan by myself.

ButterDips

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
2/3 – 1 cup buttermilk or milk (I used 4 tbsp. dried buttermilk and 1 cup water.)

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Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in a 8×8 inch baking dish using the microwave.

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Combine all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl then add the water (or buttermilk).  Stir until combined.  The dough will be a little sticky.  Put the dough into the pan with the melted butter and press it out to cover the pan. You may want to flour your fingers to keep the dough from sticking to them. Using a sharp knife, slice through the dough to form 12 biscuits.

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Bake for 15-18 minutes until the tops are browned just a little.  My oven cooks a little slow, so check them at 15 minutes so they don’t burn.

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Posted in Cooking | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments »

Thoughtful Thursday-Eat Local Edition

May 2, 2013 by pictureperfectcooking

Back in March, when C & I went to the Kentucky Green Living Fair, I planned a couple of extra stops while we were in the area.  We don’t go that direction very often so I wanted to make the most of my trip.

Our first after-the-fair stop was for lunch at The Bluebird Café in Stanford, Kentucky.  I had heard of this restaurant many times when it was mentioned by other Kentucky Food Bloggers that lived in the area so I definitely had to check it out.  The food and ambience were just as good as advertised!  If we are back in Stanford again, The Bluebird Café will be a definite stop.

 

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C had the Bluebird burger made with locally produced ground beef from Marksbury Farm (more to come on that in a minute) with French fries.

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I had the NYC roast beef panini with French fries and it was so good!

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Stanford is a beautiful little town that takes advantage of its history and heritage.

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Next, we traveled to Lancaster, Kentucky to visit Marksbury Farm which according to their website:

“is a small scale, locally owned, Butchers Shop, Farm Market,
and Processing Facility.

We partner with local farmers who share our
commitment to sustainable, humane,
and natural production methods.

We use traditional and modern methods to
deliver an array of high quality, healthy,
and fresh products.”

It is located in an old farmhouse with a beautiful little courtyard and other old outbuildings left over from days gone by. Make sure and watch your step when you enter.  The porch roof is a little low!  The owner said he had to choose between the step railing and the roof so the railing won.

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While there, I purchased a pound of ground beef, a package of pork chops and a package of sausage patties.  The beef is delicious and I can’t wait to try the other products as well.  C & I had a great day of enjoying Kentucky people and products that day.  Can’t wait for another day just like it!

Posted in Fun, Kentucky Proud, Photography, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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