BITE ME!

I am doing a double duty post today! I am going to give you some great recipes and some photos of what mine looked like! Mostly because I want to link up with Erin at Living in Yellow for Capturing Joy and Andi over at the Hollie Rogue!

What's more joyful than some good food...? hmmm... I'm not sure! And if delicious food isn't a blessing than I don't know what is! Anyways... here goes...


Since I have been working less hours, I have been honing in on my love of cooking and baking. Needless to say, Matt has been thoroughly enjoying my extra time spent at home cooking and cleaning. He's becoming rather spoiled.
I thought it would be fitting to share some of my favorite recipes as I cook them, and will do my best to take a photo of them as they are prepared. This will give me the opportunity to brush up on my photography skills.
Today we are going to take a look at three recipes; Clam Chowder, Strawberry Cupcake Frosting, and Cheddar and Garlic biscuits.

Clam Chowder
With the cold weather arriving, it's always good to have a stash of hearty soup recipes at your disposal. I am not a seafood person, so I cannot say that I enjoy this chowder, but my 76 year old grandfather-in-law ("as God as his witness")swears it's the best he's ever had... he's had a few bowls in his years considering it is his favorite bowl of soup! If you like clam chowder... try it and let me know what you think. The base of the recipe comes from my husband's late grandfather's famous Ham and Potato Soup.

You will need the following Ingredients:
(3) cans of Chopped Clams (I used Bumble Bee brand- 6.5 oz cans)
1 C chopped celery
1 C chopped carrots
1 C chopped onion (I used cooking onions- use what ever you have on hand)
2 C cubed potatoes
3/4 C butter
3/4 C all-purpose flour
1 quart half/half (if you don't have this on hand, I have a recipe for making your own further down the page. It's what I used for cooking my chowder.)
1.5 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Pepper
Bacon- (I used 1/2 a bag of the already cooked bacon but you can use 2-3 strips of cooked, chopped bacon)
Liquid Smoke to taste

Cooking Directions
1. Drain Clam Juice from can into big pot (leave meat aside)
2. Add chopped bacon, celery, carrots, and onion to juice.
3. Add just enough water to cover the veggies and simmer until tender.
4. In a sauce pan, melt the butter
5. Add flour and half/half to melted butter. Constantly stir until thickened.
6. Once veggies are tender, add the cream mixture into the veggie pot. Add liquid smoke to taste. Let the chowder cook until you get the desired consistency (don't let it boil.)
7. When you are ready to enjoy, add the clams. Don't add them too early as they will get more and more tough as they cook.
8. Serve warm with some crackers or cheddar and garlic biscuits (recipe to follow)!

Cheddar and Garlic Biscuits
I cannot take credit for these bad boys but I will say that I made a slight change to the recipe. I found the recipe in my Paula Deen cookbook. This is probably my favorite cookbook of all time!

CAUTION!!! These are EXTREMELY addicting. Cook only when you are expecting company, if not you WILL eat continue to eat them until you gobble up the last one!!!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Biscuits
2 C self-rising bread (if you don't have this... I can help you out-- scroll down)
1 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp sugar
1/3 C shortening
3/4 C grated cheddar cheese
1 C buttermilk (i also have a solution for this if you don't have it on hand)
1 Tsp Garlic Powder

Butter
1 stick butter
2 cloves of crushed garlic
2 Tsp Parsley flakes

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, and sugar using a fork.
3. Cut in shortening (I used my hands for this part) until it resembles cornmeal)
4. Stir in buttermilk- just until blended (I used a wooden spoon with Pam on it)
5. Drop on to well greased cookie sheet (I used a ice cream scoop to keep the sizes as similar as possible- also greased with Pam)
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes
7. Melt butter and add garlic and parsley flakes.
7. Spread with garlic butter and put back in over for 2 minutes.
8. Spread more garlic butter on them and serve warm!
9. Enjoy!!!

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
All I can say is YUM!

Ingredients
1/2 C Shortening
1/2 C butter or margarine (softened)
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
4 C confectioners sugar
2 Tbsp Milk
5 Strawberries (I used frozen- thawed or course)

1. Mix shortening and butter together, add vanilla.
2. 1 C at a time, add confectioners sugar to short/butter mixture.
3. Add milk.
4. Use food processor to chop up strawberries. Add to frosting.
5. Add frosting to your favorite cupcakes!

Substitutes
Half/Half- 1 Tbsp. Melted Butter and enough milk to make a cup. Basically, melt your butter in a measuring cup, add enough milk to equal a cup. Do this for every cup of half and half needed (you'll need 4 tbsp butter and roughly 4 C milk for the Chowder recipe.) There you have it, half and half.

Self-Rising Flour- for each cup of all-purpose flour, add 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. It's that easy.

Buttermilk- Take 1 C milk and add 1 Tsp of distilled white vinegar. Let sour for 5 minutes. Use what you need! Simple. Saves money and you don't really have to worry about wasting the rest of the buttermilk.

Well, folks, that's it.
Hope you found something that you will enjoy. Let me know if you make anything and how it turns out!
I'll be back again to share some secret family recipes! Stay tuned.