Crockpot Sour Cream Pork Chops and Prize Pack Winner

This might not be the prettiest food on a plate but it is very good. My family loved these tender pork chops so I wanted to share with all of you. So quick and easy to put together in the morning. At dinnertime, make some vegetables along with rice or noodles and you've got a delicious dinner on the table.

The recipe says to transfer the pork chops to the oven to keep warm while you put the sour cream in the crockpot to make the sauce. I kept the pork chops in the crock pot while I added the sour cream for the last 30 minutes. I just stirred in the sour cream mixture carefully.

Click here for the Sour Cream Pork Chop recipe on Allrecipes.com

Enjoy!

And the Tablespoon.com Prize Pack Winner sponsored by MyBlogSpark and General Mills is:

Comment #4: Mary from Theprovidentwoman.com who wrote:

"Do I really have to choose just one thing I like about their site? It's great. I really like the slow cooker ideas."

Congratulatons Mary! Please email me your contact information and MyBlogSpark will send out your Prize Pack to you.

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Crockpot tips - Browning your meat before placing in the slow cooker adds color and more flavor. Also, you can thicken juices and sauces by removing the lid and cooking on high for the last 30 minutes.

Rich Peanut Butter Cookies from Tablespoon.com and a Prize Pack Giveaway

This blog post is to share a quick and wonderful peanut butter cookie, to intoduce a new website, Tablespoon.com and to offer a prize pack giveaway from MyBlogSpark & General Mills. Tablespoon.com is a new website by General Mills where you can find over 25,000 recipes, save and share recipes. When you join the website, you can add your own recipe creations, print coupons from a variety of brands as well as the ability to rate, comment & save recipes you try.

MyBlogSpark contacted me about this new website and sent me a "Pass the Inspiration" Prize Pack that included a set of measuring spoons, a measuring cup and 2 terry cloth pot holders. They are also offering a "Pass the Inspiration" Prize Pack to one of my readers.

In order to be eligible for this giveaway, go browse the website Tablespoon.com and then leave a comment here about a particular feature that you liked on Tablespoon.com. Maybe there was a recipe that caught your eye or the printable coupons. I will choose a winner by Random.org. The deadline to leave a comment will be Tuesday, October 27th at 11:00pm (CST). I will announce the winner on Wednesday, October 28th.

Now, I want to share briefly about this cookie recipe. This is a peanut butter cookie kicked up a notch with the addition of peanut butter chips. It was so quick to make a batch and my daughters and husband were very happy to come home to these baked treats.

Click here for the recipe: Rich Peanut Butter Cookies on the website Tablespoon.com

The ingredient list

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Keep your pantry well stocked with items to bake with such as sugar, flour, baking soda, baking powder, confectioners sugar, brown sugar, different flavors of chocolate chips/morsels, cocoa powder and several variety of nuts. That way, when the mood strikes, you'll be ready to make something home baked your family will appreciate.

Shepherd's Pie

Make this and your family will love you.....I promise! Seasoned ground beef with peas and carrots with a topping of Yukon Gold mashed potatoes. What more can I say. This is a one dish meal that pleases everyone.

The recipe comes from Food Network chef Danny Boome.

Click here to view and print recipe from Foodnetwork.com.

Speaking of Food Network, check out the website, VickyandJen.com, a podcast and family resource site. They have a podcast series called Ask-a-Chef that feature interviews with various Food Network celebrity chefs and other chefs as well. VickyandJen.com have recipes, activities for kids and a blog in addition to their podcasts. It's a really neat website, so stop by and take a look.

Now, back to my Shepherd's Pie.

Look what's underneath that mountain of potatoes.....peek-a-boo, I see you!

Who wants a bite?

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Per Wikipedia, the term Shepherd's Pie, also called Cottage Pie, dates back to the 1870's. Early cookbooks show that Shepherd's Pie was made using leftover roasted meat with a bottom and top crust of mashed potatoes. With a recipe dating that far back, you know it's going to be a great comfort meal.

Cooking Light Virtual Supper Club Cooks with Wine

Cooking with Wine. That is the theme for October's Virtual Supper Club gathering. Five food bloggers (3 from the United States & 2 from Canada) get together virtually to present a menu with recipes all from Cooking Light. Cooking with Wine was a great theme. There were so many Cooking Light recipes to choose from on Myrecipes.com, their online listing of recipes. When I saw this fish recipe, Salmon with White Wine Mustard Sauce, I knew this was the meal I wanted to "bring" to our supper club. If you follow my blog, you know I love seafood and we eat salmon several times a month. This dish was simple to prepare. The sauce was so velvety smooth and worked perfectly with the salmon. When my husband said, "This tastes like it came from a restaurant", I was so happy. I know I will make this again and again.

Now, take a look and see what my other blogger friends brought to our October Supper, everything from an Appetizer to a Dessert: (click on each one to see detailed recipe)

Shelby (The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch) - Cheese Fondue w/Apples

Helene (La Cuisine d'Helene) - French Onion Soup

Jamie (that's me, Mom's Cooking Club) - Salmon with White Wine Mustard Sauce

Val (More Than Burnt Toast) - Baked Rice with Butternut Squash

Aggie (Aggie's Kitchen) - Red Wine Pear Crisp with Spiced Streusel

Wow, what a menu!

Click here to read more about our Cooking with Wine menu on Cooking Light's Blog; Test Kitchen Secrets.

Start with a beautiful piece of salmon and cut in equal fillet portions.

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: I'm not a huge wine drinker but I do always try to keep a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red wine to use for cooking. I'm sure we are all familiar with the phrase, "cook with a wine you would drink". So, buy what you like. You don't have to buy an expensive bottle of wine to cook with. There are many good wines that are reasonably priced. Also, avoid cooking with "cooking wine" that you find in the vinegar aisle of your grocery store. Salt and food coloring has been added to these weak wine bases. Check out this Cooking Light article about Cooking with Wine for some great information about using this ingredient in your cooking.

Pecan Waffles

Here's a wonderful waffle recipe that is quick to prepare. The waffles turn out light and fluffy. The recipe is for plain waffles but my husband and I love to add pecans. I add them on the top of the batter after it's poured into the waffle maker. I have a Belgian waffle maker but any waffle maker will be fine.

Click here for Waffle recipe on Allrecipes.com

I chopped up some pecans and sprinkled them on the batter before closing the waffle maker lid. If you've never tried pecans in your waffles, you need to. It is so YUMMY!

Enjoy!

Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Try these other add-ins to your waffle batter: blueberries, bananas, chocolate chips and how about some crumbled cooked bacon. Oh....bacon waffles! That might be on this weekend's breakfast table.

A Birthday Surprise - Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

We spent this past weekend at my sister Maxine's house to celebrate the birth of her son's (my nephew's) second child, Brady. It was a family gathering with people coming from all over Florida. It just so happened that it was also my birthday. Now, I'm at the age where I really don't make a big deal about my birthday. I honestly don't want to focus on the fact that I'm a year older but none the less I got many birthday wishes and hugs. I also got a huge surprise when my sister-in-law, Aggie, sent these birthday cupcakes to the celebration. We've had many conversations how we both love chocolate and peanut butter.

All I can say is... thank you Aggie! These cupcakes were so rich, so full of chocolate flavor and the peanut butter frosting with the chopped nuts on top was the perfect combination. Please go to Aggie's updated blog site, Aggie's Kitchen, for this Barefoot Contessa cupcake recipe. I'm sure I can find another celebration soon to make these cupcakes myself.

My nephew Ben (father of Baby Brady)

My daughter Mariah and niece Janey


My nephew Andy


My great nephew, Brady, the newest addition to my family.
Sorry Brady. You have to wait a couple of years before you can eat one of these yummy cupcakes.

Well, this is me the birthday girl, celebrating my (blank) birthday!

Enjoy!
(We all did...thanks Aggie!)


Mom's Cooking Club Lesson: Reconnecting. That's what we did this weekend. I got to spend time with my mother, some of my brothers and sisters (plus their spouses), nieces and nephews (plus spouses) and 2 great nephews. My daughters got to spend time with their grandmother, aunts, uncles and many cousins. Family time is so important and it was great to catch up with everyone's lives, reminisce and celebrate another addition to our family.