Cast Iron Cookware Revision

I know in the past I said I didn't like porcelain lined cookware. The reason being all of the porcelain lined cookware I have ever used always 

chipped. All of that WAS true until my wonderful husband explained to me that was because the cookware was porcelain over tin. Then he 

got me a porcelain lined cast iron saucepan. Expensive ? Yes, but there's several companies that make it allowing a wide range of

prices. I find it very nice to make white sauces in it and have it stay white. You do have to be careful with it. Be sure to not use metal 

utensils in it, otherwise you'll scratch it and cause things to stick and make it hard to clean. So with everything said, I now must admit I like 

porcelain like cast iron cookware.


Dutch Oven Cook Off

Saturday April 6,2013 is nearly here!

I'm so excited. This will be my first of hopefully many dutch oven competitions.

I told my family I wanted to cook the "Corn Dog Casserole" recipe I've developed but my husband thought it needed some chili in it to 

make it more interesting. Then I thought it would be better if instead of using  whole cocktail dogs I would cut up hot dogs in rings. Then 

we had to adjust how much of what was needed in it. Now finally we got it dialed in, even down to the amount of coals we need on top 

and underneath so we can cook it and not have it get burned. No kidding in 2 weeks we ate the casserole three times for dinner. 

I hope you all come out and check out the event. It's called "Equine and Trails Celebration." It goes for three days (Friday, Saturday, and

 Sunday). It's all free. there's classes and demonstrations along with competitions. The event is being held at the Tehama District 

Fairgrounds" in Red Bluff, California.

Hope to see you there.

 NOTE: As it turned out I couldn't make it to the cook off. My daughter went into labor and I got to be there to see my grandson be born.

Now that I wouldn't miss for the world!

Fruit Cobbler

Fruit Cobbler


Put into a small oblong pan (6" x 8"): 

1/4 cup Butter (1/2 cube)

Put pan in 325̊ oven to melt butter – do not shortcut this by melting the butter in the microwave.


Pour into a blender and blend 'til smooth:

1 15 oz. can of Pears in juice

Pour blended pears into a small mixing bowl and add:

2 cups Fresh or Frozen Fruit

Note: If the fruit is really sweet and juicy on its own you do not need to add the blended pears.


In a medium size mixing bowl mix together:

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1 cup Evaporated Cane Juice

1/4 tsp. Sea Salt

2 tsp. Baking Powder


Then add to above mixture and mix together:

1 cup Milk

Note: The batter will be very thin.


Pour batter on top of melted butter in hot pan. Be sure batter reaches all sides of the pan.

Dot fruit (with the blended pears) all over the batter. DO NOT MIX!

Put pan into the oven and bake for 1 hour. The cobbler is done when it's golden brown all over.

Once the cobbler is done remove it from the oven and let sit for a few minutes before serving.

Great with vanilla ice cream.

Green Chile Chicken

Sometimes I get bored and feel a need to come up with new recipes. That's how I came up with this recipe. It's simple and very tasty.

Green Chile Chicken

1 whole Chicken-cleaned out and rinsed

2  7 oz. cans of Diced Green Chiles

2 cups Water

2 Large Onions-cut into 8 wedges

2 TBSP Chopped Garlic

4 TBSP Olive Oil

Heat a 10 qt. Dutch Oven on medium heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Once the Dutch Oven is heated put in the Olive Oil, Onion wedges, and Chopped Garlic, and saute them together until they begin to get golden.

Pour water into the Dutch Oven.

Put Chicken into the Dutch Oven.

Pour Diced Green Chiles on top of Chicken.

Put lid on Dutch Oven.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 min. before removing from Dutch Oven.

Serve with rice and salad.


Honey Cheesecake

Honey Cheesecake


1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

1/2  cup Walnuts (chopped) 

1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon

1/3 cup Honey ( I use Star Thistle or Alfalfa for the best flavor)

1/3 cup Butter (melted)

Mix together and press into a Springform  pan.

Bake at 375 F 10-15 mins. Check after 12 mins. 'till lightly browned.


2    8oz. pkgs. Cream Cheese

1/2 cup Honey

2 Lg. Eggs

2 Lg. Egg Yolks

1 cup Sour Cream

2 tsp. Corn Starch 1 Tbsp. Lemon zest

2 1/2  tsp. Lemon Juice

Blend all ingredients 'til smooth

Pour into baked crust.

Bake at 300 F for 50-55 mins., (check after 45 mins) 'til set and knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool and refrigerated several hours to get chilled before serving.


1.  If using a pie pan check after 45 mins. so not to over cook.

2. It also works well with Pecans , or Almonds.


Italian Seasoned Fried Chicken Dinner

I wanted some fried chicken the other night but not the usual fried chicken. My taste buds wanted something very flavorful and different. 

They were saying Italian and sauce. That's when i decided to add Italian seasoning to my flour. For the sauce I thought it should be gar-

licky. Then I remembered my Seafood Sauce. While I was making it I decided to add the drippings from the chicken in the frying pan to it.


Italian Seasoned Fried Chicken Dinner

Cook according to the package directions (I use a rice cooker):

2 cups of Rice

In the mean time, heat up a cast iron frying pan or better yet a chicken fryer (looks like a frying pan with taller sides) on medium high heat.

Cut into fork size pieces and set aside in a medium size mixing bowl:

4 Lg. Chicken Breast Halves

In a pie pan put in and combine:

2 cups All Purpose Flour

3 TBS of Italian Seasoning (or you can use equal parts of your favorite Italian Seasonings to equal 3TBS)

1 tsp. Sea Salt

1/2 tsp. Black Pepper

Toss chicken in flour mixture to coat.

Put into frying pan. NOTE: This will cook quickly! Take chicken out as soon as it starts to get golden, and put into a 9"x13" pan, then into a heated oven (350 degrees) to hot.

Reserve the drippings, you'll add this to the sauce later.


In a 2 qt. sauce pan saute together:

2 TBS Garlic-minced

1 TBS Olive Oil

Once the garlic starts to get golden add:

2 cups Chicken Broth

1/2 cup  Wine ( Chardonnay,Chablis or White Zinfindale)

1/2 tsp. Sea Salt

1/4 tsp. Black Pepper

Bring all to a boil. 

Turn down to a gentle boil (simmer).

Mix together in a cup until smooth and a milky liquid:

3 TBS Corn Starch

2 TBS Water (you may need a little more)

Stir in cornstarch liquid stirring CONSTANTLY, until thickened to a thin gravy. 

Add drippings from frying pan and stir into above sauce.


In a heated cast iron frying pan stir fry together until onion is tender:

3 TBS Olive Oil

1 Lg. Bell Pepper-sliced 

1 Lg. Sweet Onion

3 cups of Broccoli Florets

Add 1/4 cup of water to steam the broccoli a bit.

To serve put the sauce on the chicken and /or the rice. If you don't want rice mashed potatoes are great with it as well.

When it's all done you have dinner for 4-6 adults that cost about $10.00 to make (provided you have the ingredients on hand). 


 NOTE:You can purchase Italian Seasoning from me for $6.00 for a 4oz. bag. If I need to ship it postage will be added.

Call me at (530) 528-8825 or email me at:



Italian Seasoned Orzo

Italian Seasoned Orzo

I came up with this recipe because I felt I needed some different Italian pasta recipes. I looked to see what I had and this was what I 

came up with. I hope you like it. The first time I made it I used too much bouillon and it was too salty. Be careful -just because it is low in 

salt doesn't mean it is salt free.

In a 5 qt. Dutch oven put:

1/4 cup Olive Oil

2 cups Orzo

Cook Orzo in olive oil until it's lightly browned.


3 qt. water

1/2 cup Low Salt Chicken Bouillon Powder

Bring to a boil and cook 10 minutes

Drain off water.

Return Orzo to Dutch oven.


Add to Orzo and cook all together to blend flavors (approx. 5 min.):


1 Tbsp. Oregano

1 Tbsp. Basil

1 Tbsp. Sage

1 Tbsp. Thyme

! Tbsp. Parsley

1 whole Bay Leaf

1 Tbsp. Garlic- crushed

1/2 cup Sundried Tomatoes in Olive Oil- cut into thirds


Serve and enjoy!

NOTE: You can buy Italian Seasoning from me for $6.00 for a 4 oz. package. If I need to ship it postage will be added for postage.


Kitchen Helps

Parchment paper is a BIG one. It saves you on clean up.

Baking several batches of cookies for a bake sale? Parchment paper is a MUST!

Take 2 cookie sheets and line them with parchment paper. Cook them. Remove them from the oven and slide them with the parchment

 paper onto the counter to let them cool. Line the same cookie sheets with parchment paper again and repeat. Except this time when you 

go to put more onto bake the first batch will be cool so you can put them onto a plate and re-use the parchment paper from them to cook 

this batch. The beauty of parchment paper is:

1) You don't need to oil the cookie sheet if you're cooking something sticky- saving time, money, and calories!

2) It's re-usable until it literally gets all brown and crumbly

3) (my favorite) You don't need to wash the cookie sheets or pans-just throw away the parchment paper and put the cookie sheet or pan 


4) It is relatively inexpensive- get it at restaurant supply for about $36 for 1,000 double sheets-translates to 2,000 cookies sheet size pans.




When you buy your knives you want to get high carbon steel or high carbon stainless steel.

The high carbon steel will end up looking splotchy but they sharpen GREAT and hold their edge the best.

If you're a stickler about having stainless steel, get high carbon stainless. They'll stay pretty looking for you and sharpen easily.

Stainless steel knives that are not high carbon you might as well throw away when the edge gets bad. They are next to impossible to sharpen, and you have to sharpen them often.

Ideally you don't want to sharpen your knives very often because you remove steel every time you do.

What you do want to do is run it on a GOOD steel. It won't remove the steel like when you sharpen it but it will straighten the edges.

You'll be surprised how wonderfully this works.

Every time you go to use your knives you should VERY carefully check the edge with your fingers, you DON'T want to get cut.

To do this hold, the steel at about your belly button to the blade. Starting at the tip run the knife down the front and then down the back. 

This way you get both sides of the knife. Do this 3 or 4 times, then you're done.

If I'm doing ALOT of cutting or chopping sometimes I'll have to stop and clean the knife and run it on the steel again then I get back to 


In taking care of your knives one IMPORTANT thing to remember is to be careful of the surfaces you use them on.

For instance you don't want to cut on a tile, granite, or marble countertop, by doing so you not only make your knives dull but you can 

actually ruin (flatten or bend) the edge of your knives. 

A wood or plastic cutting board is the better choice over tile or granite.

We all know that good knives can be very costly so it's to our advantage to take care of them


Those of you that are afraid of sharp knives shouldn't be. Yes, they are sharp and as with anything that's sharp you need to be careful

 but the fact is more people get cut with dull knives than with sharp ones. Why? Because they have to use more pressure to make the

 cuts and end up cutting themselves because the food moves from the pressure and instead they get their hand or fingers, and get cut

 sometimes very severely. With a sharp knife you don't use much pressure and have a lot less accidents and stitches.