Tag Archives: Cooking

Only 3 Ingredients! Easy Ham, Egg & Cheese Breakfast

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by Texas Homesteader ~

RancherMan & I were getting together with my brother & sister and their spouses for a fun sibling vacation to Broken Bow, OK. We were staying in a gorgeous cabin with a full kitchen, so to keep our expenses down we planned to enjoy some of our vacation meals right there at the cabin. All three families were bringing food to contribute to specific meals. I brought Blueberry Muffins to snack on one day, Chocolate Crazy Cake for dessert after one meal, and promised to bring breakfast for the group one morning too.

I decided to make something easy that would transport well. Something I could make in advance & freeze so I could be on vacation too while we were on vacation!

I’ve made these breakfast muffins for RancherMan before & he loved them. So I decided to whip up a batch for our family gathering.

Easy ham egg & cheese breakfast muffins. Quick to make, easy to transport, and they're delicious! Serve with cream gravy. #TexasHomesteader

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Homestead Hack: Expanding Your Muffin Tin

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by Texas Homesteader ~

I was baking homemade blueberry muffins for a Sibling Vacation recently. I typically make jumbo-sized muffins for RancherMan. But this time I used my smaller muffin-sized tin because there would be several of us in attendance. It’s easier to eat two small muffins than to waste part of a larger one, ya know?

So I whipped up my Blueberry Muffin batter, placed my silicone muffin pan on a cookie sheet & filled the muffin cups. But there was still about 4 muffins worth of batter remaining.

Do I overfill the muffin cups? Do I bake this dozen and then refill 4 of the muffin cups and bake them separately? What a waste! Ugh, what’s a girl to do?

Need more muffin cup spaces? No worries! I used wide-mouth canning rings for those last 4 muffins. Everything baked up at the same time. #TexasHomesteader

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The Home-Gardener’s Sweetener – STEVIA!

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Several years ago our daughter mentioned casually that she was growing Stevia. Wait, Stevia? You mean, the sweetener? You can GROW THAT!!?? I had no idea!

Excitedly I sat out to find a place to purchase the plant. I found it at a local discount warehouse-type store and brought it home. I plunked it into my landscaping bed as part of my edible landscape. It’s a pretty enough plant, so why not?

I’ve had this plant for a couple of years and it always comes back in the spring. But now that I’m growing my own zero-calorie sweetener, what should I do with it?

Stevia is a plant you can grow in your edible landscape. Harvest the leaves to make your very own home-grown sweetener. #TexasHomesteader

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Pecan-Wood Smoked Meat For Pulled Pork Sandwiches

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by Texas Homesteader ~

RancherMan keeps our chest freezer filled with wild hog meat. I’ve made many dishes with this lean, mild-tasting wild pork. Many of those recipes are listed below. (Although you could use commercial pork instead)

But recently we were preparing for our annual family reunion. We decided to serve pulled-pork sandwiches with some of this wild-hog meat. But RancherMan wanted to smoke it with pecan wood before shredding it for sandwiches. It turned out Aaaaaaaahhhhh-MAZING!

Delicious Smoked Pork using pecan wood smoke. Delicious. And shredding all that meat can be done in minutes using our shortcut. #TexasHomesteader

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BBQ Rub & Beer-Based Mop Sauce Recipe

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Every year RancherMan & I host a fun family gathering we’ve always called ‘RanchFest‘. It’s actually celebrated on the anniversary of the date we purchased this little piece of paradise. But we consider it a mini-family reunion.

Back when the kids were young (but before we actually lived here) we’d bring our kids and my siblings would bring theirs. We’d have a big celebration & bonfire. Oh how much fun it was to get together, and the kids loved hanging out with their cousins.

But they’re all grown and most have children of their own now. So every year at RanchFest we get together to relive those fun times. This year we’ll be serving pulled-pork sandwiches using meat from the wild hogs RancherMan’s harvested. He’ll smoke the meat, but we needed a BBQ Rub & Mop Sauce. And he certainly found a good one!

A delicious beer/coffee based BBQ mop sauce and dry rub recipe for smoked meat on the grill. Super easy to whip up in a flash. #TexasHomesteader

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Rice Krispie Treats, With A (Chocolate) Twist!

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by Texas Homesteader ~

RancherMan was in the mood for something sweet. But I wanted to use only ingredients that I already had in the pantry. Hummm, let’s see. There was an older bag of marshmallows (when did we even buy those??) and a partial box of Rice Krispies cereal. Maybe I can make some Rice Krispie treats.

Then I spied a bag of chocolate chips…

Oh my goodness – somebody please save me from myself! These are absolutely amazing. I found the recipe for plain Rice Krispie treats on their site. (you can use any crisp rice cereal though).

But of course I added chocolate because chocolate makes everything better!

I made Rice Krispie Treats, with a (chocolate) twist. The addition of chocolate takes these crisped rice treats to a whole new level! #TexasHomesteader

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Quickest Apple Crumble Dessert From Pie Filling

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Y’all know my aunt sends me home with bushels of apples every year. I get to work making all sorts of fun things with them. There are some examples of apple recipes we’ve enjoyed at the bottom of this post. But one thing I like to do with those fresh apples is to make & can apple pie filling. Then even when unexpected company shows, homemade dessert is ready in a flash.

For a fast appley dessert I can use that homemade apple pie filling to make homemade Apple Pie.  Or maybe something even faster – Apple Crumble.

Apple Crumble Recipe using apple pie filling. You can use any flavor you like - homemade or purchased. Come see my easy recipe. #TexasHomesteader

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Corn Dodgers – An Accidentally Simple Recipe

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by Texas Homesteader ~

I was in a hurry. We were planning a day trip to see my father & I always try to bring food along so he doesn’t have to bother with ‘entertaining’. So early that morning I made the Homemade Soup and some homemade Apple Crumble. And dad loves cornbread, so I whipped up some of my homemade cornbread too (no Jalapenos this time though…)

But as RancherMan came into the kitchen he  saw ‘that‘ look on my face. “What’s wrong?” he asked.  UGH! My cornbread wasn’t rising. In my haste to get everything done I’d apparently forgotten to add the baking powder.

Looking at the flat cornbread & to make me feel better he said: “Don’t worry, I’ll eat them. They’ll be CORN DODGERS!”

Corn Dodgers are like cornbread, but more dense and not as crumbly. My baking mistake had delicious results and I'll be making them from now on. #TexasHomesteader

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Quick & Easy Taco Seasoning Mix

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by Texas Homesteader ~

Back in ‘the day‘ I always kept several packets of taco seasoning in my pantry for those days I was making Carnitas Tacos. Or Pulled-Pork Enchiladas. Or maybe Taco Soup. Or… well anything Tex-Mex flavored. RancherMan & I enjoy lots of Tex-Mex food, y’all. You know, ’cause that’s how we roll in Texas!

But that was before I started on this simple life journey. I’ve since learned that it’s beyond easy to whip up these spice mixes for myself. Come see…

It's beyond easy to make your own taco seasoning. Just gather a few spices and blend! Come see my easy recipe. #TexasHomesteader

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Stuck-On Food? How To Easily Clean Cast Iron

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by Texas Homesteader ~

The skillets in my kitchen are comprised of a single stainless steel skillet for making my Homemade Chocolate Pudding and such, & several sizes of cast-iron skillets for cooking virtually everything else. Now I love my stainless skillet but let’s be honest, I love cast iron the best. I make spicy Cornbread and Bake Bread in cast iron. And I use those skillets on the stove top too for cooking Potato Cakes or frying potatoes. (or anything savory!) It rocks my world whether I’m using it stove top or oven. It does it all.

But it’s true that Caring For Cast Iron is a little different than typical cookware. And although mine’s virtually non-stick after decades of use, there still comes the time when frying potatoes or cooking scrambled eggs causes a layer of cooked-on food to remain on the bottom of the skillet. Now back in ‘the day‘ I’d scrub-scrub-scrub to get it clean again.

That was then, this is now…

Stuck-on food frustrating you while cleaning your cast-iron skillet? I've found an EASY way to get it clean. Check out my lazy-cook's method! #TexasHomesteader

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