Rave Reviews

I've been hearing rave reviews about this recipe so I thought I'd share it. I haven't tried it yet, but I will be :)

THREE MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE


1 Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons flour (that's plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share!)

Did You Know???

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to low
and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza.

Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... tada! ... static is gone.

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't
digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

STRAWBERRY DELIGHT

I made this yummy dessert Sunday evening so I thought I would share the recipe.

1 stick margarine, melted
1 cup flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
8 oz. Cream cheese, softened
16 oz. Whipped topping
2 cups granulated sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups water
2 boxes strawberry gelatin, (3 oz. Each)
2 quarts strawberries, washed & sliced
1/2 cup chopped pecans, optional

Add flour, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and pecans to melted margarine in mixing bowl and mix together to form dough. Press dough in bottom of 9x13 pan and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.

Place 2 rounded cups of granulated sugar, cornstarch and water in heavy saucepan. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until thick. Stir strawberry gelatin into hot mixture. Remove from heat; add strawberries and mix. This mixture needs to be cooled before placing it on the cream cheese layer so do this step before making the cream cheese mixture so it will have time to cool.



In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 cup whipped topping from large carton. Then spread mixture over crust.



After the strawberry mixture has cooled, pour and spread it evenly over the cream cheese mixture.



Cover with the strawberry layer with the remaining whipped topping. Chill.

Chocolate Gravy

Here is a recipe that my family loves and is a breakfast favorite (and even supper sometimes too) ;). My mom and grandma both have made this since I was a little bitty kid. Don't tell my mom, but I like my grandma's better :)

1/2 cup butter, melted
4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a skillet, mix: butter, flour, and cocoa. Add: sugar, milk, and vanilla. Cook on medium heat until thick, stirring often. Serve with hot biscuits.

Macaroni Croquettes

I found this recipe today so I thought I would share it here. I'm thinking that it is going to be like Sonic's Mac & Cheese snacks.

Macaroni Croquettes

1 cup cooked macaroni
3/4 cup milk or stock
4 tablespoons butter
Few drops onion juice
4 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cheese
Oil for frying

Melt butter; add flour and cheese; when well-blended, add milk, onion juice, and seasonings. Cool, add macaroni; shape, dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs, and fry in deep fat.

Deep Fried Oreos

Well I told you I would be sharing lots of recipes so I couldn't pass this one up with I found it awalla go. Deep Fried Oreos! Oh my!!

1 20 oz. package of Oreos
2 cups Bisquick or Pancake Batter Mix
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
3 tsp. oil
Enough oil to deep fry the cookies

1. Blend Bisquick, eggs, milk, and 3 tsp oil until smooth.

2. Preheat your deep fryer to about 375°F (use a thermometer if you wish to deep fry in a pan).

3. Dip the cookies in the batter mixture until totally covered and then place in the hot oil (cookies will float).

4. Keep checking and turn over the cookie when bottom side of Oreo is brown.

5. Keep a close watch because it only takes a short time to brown.

6. Remove cookies and eat warm.

Dill Pickle Latkes

I love recipes! I love trying new recipes! I love searching for new recipes! So guess what? I'll be sharing lots of recipes here! I was looking for something last night online and ran across a blog from a lady down in Alabama. Well she had lots of southern recipes on her blog. I found one that had fried pickles in it and it sounded so good that I had to try it at supper tonight. And yep! It was good!


Dill Pickle Latkes

Even though the recipe called for cornmeal, I used flour in it's place cause I don't like stuff fried in cornmeal. Plus any recipe I've used for fried pickles uses flour instead of cornmeal like she said. Also, I didn't use a real onion in mine. I just used the dried minced onion you buy at the store.

1 large baking potato
1 egg
1/2 onion
4 tbsp. Cornmeal
4 mini dill pickles, sliced very-very thin
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Put oil in skillet, and put it on medium-high heat. Prepare a plate with a couple of layers of paper towel for draining the latkes.

Grate the onion and potato (I don't skin my potatoes because they taste great with the skin).

In a large bowl, add the egg, cornmeal, and pickles to the potato and onion mixture, and stir well to combine.

Once the oil is nice and hot, place mounds of the potato mixture into the skillet. When one side is nice and golden brown, turn them over (season with salt and pepper on both sides).

Cook on the other side until golden brown, then place on the paper towel-covered plate to drain a bit.

The cornmeal is a good choice for these rather than the flour because fried pickles are typically made using an either all- or most- cornmeal mixture for frying.


Hope you enjoy!!

Welcome To The Watermelon Patch

Welcome to The Watermelon Patch! I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon and start one. Like I have such an interesting life that anyone would want to read about it!...but oh well! LOL!!! One of my favorite things to eat is a good sweet piece of watermelon from the watermelon patch on a hot summer day! So that is where I came up with the name for my blog.

My name is Amy and I am a SAHM Mommy to my favorite little girl in the world - Abby, whom i'll be referring to as Butter....yep....that is her nickname! Bet you're wondering how she got a nickname like that, huh? Well she of course sleeps in the bed with dh & I. She sleeps right up under me. If I move, she moves. So like the Parkay commerical on tv that says "Moveeee overrrr Butterrrr", that is what I always say to her during the night so I can roll over or have room to move my arm. So Butter has just stuck with her and that is what I call her.

I like to sew sometimes when the mood hits me. I use to make clothes and sell them on ebay, but not much anymore. With all of ebays new rules, the sellers have no protection from dishonest buyers. So I have taken a break from listing things on ebay now. I might start listing stuff on etsy sometime in the future. That is where most of the ebay clothing sellers have gone to start selling their handmade items.

I love to take pictures! I am taking a class right now and hopefully it will be helping my pictures improve. I am in the process of starting a blog for my photography. I will post the link on here once I get it all set up so everyone can check out my pictures that I post on there.

And of course I love spending time with Butter! She is so fun and has such an imagination (well she did until Uncle Pumpkin stole it and lost it......that is what she says anyway ;) .....she blames everything on him....even the stuff he doesn't do). She keeps me busy and entertained, that is for sure.

And oh yeah! I can't forget Myspace. I love to surf Myspace and see what is going on with everybody.