Happy Holidays 2013

Good Morning my lovely readers!  Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!  I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday with their family and friends.  There is so much to be thankful for and one thing that I am thankful for being able to update my blog to keep in touch with you all!  I spent my Thanksgiving with my lovely daughter and was thankful for having a quiet and peaceful day.  I didn't cook much but we had food on our table.  I just wanted to check in with you guys to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you and that my blog is still live!  My life has been on a spin for the past year and I'm looking forward to starting the upcoming New Year on positive vibes.  You know we go through things in our lives that we may have no control over.  I'm learning day by day of how to let go and let God!  Wishing everyone many Blessing and Happy Holidays!!!

I look forward to coming back soon to share some more delicious recipes and fun filled stories soon so stay tuned.  Love you guys!!!!  Have a wonderful week!  Muah!


Jill's Comfort Zone

Brown Gravy

I always forget to post about the most important part to some of the most delicious savory dishes.  The gravy!!!!!  We all know that gravy complements most dishes we eat on a daily basis.  From here on out I will take more pictures when I make my different types and styles of gravy's.  This is one of the brown gravy's I make the most.  Simple and delish!  The first time I made this it came out too salty.  I keep forgetting that store brought stock has salt in it.  I've learned to lay off the added salt within time.

Ingredients:

1 can beef stock (2 cups)
1 to 2 Tbsps corn starch
meat drippings
Salt and pepper, to taste

Heat 1 cup of stock and add drippings.  Combine 1 cup of stock and corn starch in a cup and mix well.  Mix into heated stock slowly and stir slowly.

Add more cornstarch if needed to thicken or more stock to thin gravy.


Jill's Comfort Zone

Allrecipes "Dry Rub for Ribs"

I haven't been doing a lot of outside grilling due to the location of my grill.  I decided to share with you a few rubs that I've tried and loved!  This one I found on Allrecipes website and my family enjoyed it.  I tried it on beef and pork ribs.

Ingredients:

-3 Tbsps brown sugar
-1 1/2 Tbsps paprika
-1 1/2 Tbsps salt
-1 1/2 Tbsps black pepper
-1 tsp garlic powder

Mix together the sugar, paprika, salt, black pepper, and garlic powder.  Rub into ribs.  If you like spices, you can add some red pepper flakes along with some dry mustard.  Truly yummy!

Enjoy!



Jill's Comfort Zone

Crock Pot Asian-Inspired Beef Ribs

If you ever visit Pittsburgh, you must go down to the The Strip District!!!  Oh man do they have some delicious goodies down there!  A few years ago on one of my many Strip District adventures I decided to purchase some sake.  Of course once I got home I immediately went online to find some recipes to use the sake I purchase with.  Well on I have a similar recipe that I've tried on my blog like this one.  The hoisin and oyster sauce puts a little more spin on this one here.  Oh man, these turned out good!!!!  I think I found this recipe on Recipezaar. I can't really place the sake taste to this dish but I'll have to give it a go again...I'll keep you posted when I do.  Besides, I still need to come back to post some pictures.

What's funny is that I still have almost a full bottle of the sake left.  I wonder if it's still good to use?  I haven't thought about it until now.  LOL!  I brought it back in February 2012.  So should I toss it or use it?

Ingredients:

-4lbs beef back ribs
-2 Tbsps soy sauce
-2 Tbsps ginger, minced
-1 Tbsp garlic, crushed
-1/4 cup hoisin sauce
-1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
-3 Tbsps brown sugar or splenda
-2 Tbsps Sesame oil
-1 Tbsp oyster sauce
-2 Tbsps sake
-1 Tbsp Five-Spice powder
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Coast ribs with flour and brown on all side in a frying pan in some canola oil.  Remove and place on a plate lined with paper towel to drain.  Mix all ingredients except for ribs in crock port.  Add the ribs one at a time, coating them with sauce.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Remove ribs and pour sauce into a separate container.  Allow fat to separate and skin off of top.  Return sauce to meat and serve.

Enjoy!

Jill's Comfort Zone

Cucumber Salad

Good Morning my lovely readers!  I am thankful that the Lord saw a need to wake me up this morning...PURPOSE!!!  I am always grateful for his love!  Yes, I up thinking about recipes this morning.  Here's another quick and delicious salad I make often.  Sorry I didn't take a picture of this one...will do the next time I make this.  I just might make it today so I can post a picture for you guys.

*2 small cucumbers
*1/2 small red onions, sliced
*1 large tomato, sliced
*3 Tbsps Mayo
*1 Tbsp white vinegar
*1/4 tsp salt
*1/2 tsp pepper

In a small bowl, toss together cucumbers, onions and tomato.  Gently stir in mayo, vinegar, salt and pepper until coated.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Sometimes I like to add a splash of fresh orange, lime or lemon juice to give it a little zesty flavor.  When I do I sometime add a pinch of sugar to balance the flavor.

Enjoy!

Jill's Comfort Zone

Momma's Corn Bread Stuffing

Good Afternoon All!  I have been meaning to blog about my mom's Corn Bread Stuffing for some time now but always forget to take pictures.  I remember when I tried her recipe for the first time about 8 years ago for Thanksgiving.  I called her probably a thousand times to make sure I was doing it correctly.  LOL!  See, my mom just eye ball her ingredients which made it harder on me.  She never have the exact measurements to any of the things she cooks.  I guess that's where I get it from because it took me some time to re-do a lot of my dishes so that I can share the exact measurements with you guys.  It sure isn't easy to do I tell ya that.  I don't even like stuffing and neither does my girls so I only make this during the holidays when I have friends and family over.

Below is the list of ingredients that I use and of course I added my own twist to my mom's recipe.  It wouldn't be me if I didn't!  I promise to come back and update this blog with pictures and measures that next time I make it.  I have not mastered my mom's stuffing yet but I am working on it. LOL!  Don't get me wrong, each time I've made it everyone enjoyed it.  So I must be doing something right huh?  


Mom’s Corn Bread Stuffing My Way....

Ingredients:

Corn bread mix
Corn Meal
Chicken gizzards
Chicken necks
Hot and spicy ground sausages
Eggs
Onions, finely chopped
Green and red peppers, finely chopped
Celery, finely chopped
Sage (half and half)
Smoked paprika (half and half)
Butter
Sugar
Poultry seasoning (half and half)
Red pepper flakes (half and half)
Garlic powder
Salt and Pepper (half and half)

Preheat oven at 400 F.

Cook chicken necks and gizzards with onions, red and green peppers and all other ingredients in a pot except for celery, sugar, butter, sausage, egg and corn meal.

Save some of the chopped peppers and onions for later use. (If you use Jiffy corn bread mix, prepare following box instructions and set aside.)

Fry up the sausage in a pan and set aside.

Once gizzards and necks are tender (where you can just strip the meat from the bones), *save the juices*; in a large bowl, combine gizzards (finely chopped), chicken necks (discharged bones), sausage, onions, peppers, celery, eggs, the rest of the seasoning and all other ingredients and mix well.

Pour mixture into a baking dish and place cubes of butter on the top of mixture; bake at 350 degrees in the oven.

Enjoy!

Jill's Comfort Zone

Italian-Style Stuffed Peppers

My children can be so picky at times and the older they get the harder it is for me to get them to try different dishes these days.  I guess they have it honest because most of my family are picky eaters as well.  Like my dad for instance, he won't eat any kind of seafood.  Nor will he try anything new.  The same thing with my mom.  Since she has been visiting the girls and I more frequently, she has opened up a little.  Oh, trust me it's not easy!  She complains the whole time until she taste's it.  LOL!  Even then she'll say, it's not too bad but I still don't like it.  Secret be told, I think she don't wanna admit that her daughter cooks better than her!  Hahahaha!  Shhhhhh...don't tell her I said that.  :/

I have always wanted to try Stuffed Red Peppers.  My foodie friends are always talking about how delish this dish is and finally back in September 2012 I finally tried my hand at this.  One of my fellow foodie friends, Bob, gave be a brief list of items that I needed and I just took it from there.  I kind of did my own thing and followed blending and cooking instructions from a blog called dashingdish.com.  By the way, you guys should check it out.  There is some delicious recipes on there.  OH MY...it was soooooooo good ya'll!  My mom was visiting us at the time.  The girls spent the Summer with her and she brought them back home.  She even enjoyed it to my surprise.  Of course she had a complaint, which was why didn't I put more filling in hers!  LOL!  As for my lovely girls, the youngest took her meat mixture out of the pepper, gave her pepper to my mom and just ate it with her salad.  The grated Parmesan is missing from the picture below.  Sorry about that but I was moving too fast.

Ingredients:
-1 lb ground beef (I used a little more than a pound.)
-4 red bell peppers
-Spaghetti sauce, I used the sauce with cheese (to your satisfaction)
-1 1/2 tsps dried basil
-Fresh oregano, chopped (to your satisfaction)
-1 garlic clove, minced
-1/2 tsp salt and pepper
-1 cup fresh spinach, rinse and drained
-Green onions, chopped (to your satisfaction)
-2 Tbsps grated Parmesan
-Mozzarella cheese or cheese of your choice
-Rice, cooked (I can't remember how much I used.)
-Non stick cooking spray

Line baking pan with with foil and coat with non-stick spray.  Cook meat in pan over med heat.  Drain meat and return to pan.

 Add sauce and seasonings to pan and simmer for about 10 to 20 minutes.  In a sauce pan, saute the garlic and green onions in a little extra olive oil.  Add the spinach, oregano, green onions, garlic, rice and Parmesan cheese to the meat mixture; stir until everything is well combined; and remove from heat.

Scoop 1/2 cup of the meat mixture into each pepper.

 

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is melted and lightly brown.

Remove and let cool.  You may want to use more that 4 red bell peppers because there is plenty of meat mixture to go around unless you use some very large peppers.  I served these with some salad.

Enjoy!


Jill's Comfort Zone

Chive Mashed Potatoes

I use to find making mash potatoes nerve wrecking.  My hands have been fighting with Arthritis for about 6 to 7 years now.  So mashing potatoes wasn't pleasant.  They turned out delicious though!!!  I can't remember where I found this recipe from because I made this dish about 3 and 1/2 years ago.  I have made it a few times after and just did my own thing.  The potatoes just melts in your mouth!  So creamy and yummy!  I know...sorry it has been taking me so long to post recipes lately.  There are so many recipes I have to share with you.

Here is the ingredients and I'm sorry that I don't have the measures but I'm sure you can find one similar to this one online some where.  

-Red potatoes, peeled and cubed (I have also kept the peeling on at times.  Just make sure you rinse them off real good.)

-1 container sour cream

-butter + a few slices to add on top

-Salt and pepper, to taste

-chopped fresh chives

-pinch paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place potatoes in a large pot of water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender.  Drain.  

Combine potatoes, sour cream, butter, pepper and salt together and mash or blend until creamy.  As you can see, I used my hand blender.  Add in chives and paprika and stir until well blended.  

Spoon potato mixture into a casserole dish.  Add slices of butter on top along with some paprika and chives.  Bake in the oven until bubbling and serve.

I have seen some recipes that uses cream cheese as well.  I haven't tried it yet but will soon.  I will keep you posted.

Enjoy!


Jill's Comfort Zone

Healthier Living

Hello faithful readers!  I was suppose to post this for Mother's Day but I got tied up.  So let me start off by wishing all of the beautiful women a Happy belated Mother's Day!  Mother's Day is everyday and we should pamper ourselves every chance we get.  I would also like to wish all the great dad's a Happy Belated Father's Day as well!  I've been going down my Goals list or bucket list and checking things off.  At the top of my list was for me to go back to school which I have done.  The second was to quit smoking cigarettes which I am still working on.  It is a hard battle but I am not giving up.  Next on my list was a healthier living which I am working on at this time.  I began my health kick on April 27th with the Fat Flush 10 Day Diet.  I won't call this a diet because I'm not counting calories or nothing.  I'm just eating better and smaller portions.  I'm still enjoying the foods I love and added on some healthier dishes as well.  Before I started, I weighed in and I was 240 pounds.  By May 6th I lost 11 pounds.  That was the easy part...the hard part is keeping the pounds off and to keep losing weight.  now I've gain 4 of those pounds back. I am working out twice a day and eating healthier.  I'm still drinking the Fat Flush Water (FF) to date but I feel my pants getting looser by the day.  My goal is to get down to 180 pounds!  I was told to stay away from the scale and that's what I'm going to do.

I can truly tell you guys that I feel so much better then I did before I started down my new way of living life style.    Thursday, June 27th marked two months that I've transitioned into this life change and I'm down 22lbs.  I have a long way to go but I feel good.  This isn't an easy transition but I'm up for the challenge!  As long as you surround yourself around good positive people, you can get through anything that comes your way!  I love my support team...always lifting me up!!!  Thank you so much guys!!!!  I could not do this without you!

So on April 26th I started the Fat Flush Water (FFW) that was on Dr. Oz with Kim Lyons.  I saw some friends on Facebook talking about how much the FFW works and decided to try it out.  Let me tell you, this truly helped me get a jump start on my weight lost!  All you need is some filtered water, sliced cucumbers, tangerines, grape fruits and fresh mint leaves.  It takes a few days to get use to the taste but you can adjust it as you go along.  The longer it sits the better.  Tangerine season is over so I'm substituting them with clementines and oranges during the Summer.

I have also been trying my hand at infused water to cut out sugar.

As well as protein drinks!  Didn't know how good raw greens could taste.  My girls aren't a big fan.

Shopping has been fun but not kind to my pockets!  It's truly sad that it cost so much to eat healthy these days. It really don't make no sense how much fruits and vegetables cost today.  I am truly struggling trying to keep up!  LOL!  Not funny but you have to laugh sometimes.  I just wanted to share with you a glimpse of what my meals has been like for these two months.  Chips is my weakness...something about that crunch and salt goodness (unhealthiness is more like it) is oh soooooooooooo good!  LOL!  Well I have switched them out with tortilla chips and hummus!  Don't get me wrong...every now and then I still have me a bag or two of potato chips.  I just learned to cut back and know when to put them down.

Thank you for supporting my health kick journey and for reading my blog!  I truly appreciate you guys and I hope you will keep supporting me.  Have a great weekend and stay tuned to more blogs from my home to yours!  :)

Jill's Comfort Zone

BBQ Sauce III

Here is another delicious and easy BBQ sauce recipe to try. 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

3/4 cup chopped onions
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 tsps salt
3/4 cup water
2 Tbsps prepared mustard
3/4 cup ketchup
3 Tbsps worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup salad oil/Olive Oil
3 Tbsps sugar
1/2 tsp pepper

Cook onions in oil.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Enjoy!



Jill's Comfort Zone

Potato Soup with Sausage

Hello my devoted readers!  It feels good to me rid of that nasty cold I was fighting last weekend!  I haven't been sick like that all year...glad that's behind me.  I'm not a soup fan at all.  If I do indulge, it must be chunky and not watery.  Since I was under the weather, I knew I needed something other than water, tea, and DayQuil!  Something that would stick to my bones and help fight off whatever it was that had me down.  I've always wanted to try some Potato Soup but just never wanted to make it until now.

I found this recipe in Taste of Home's "Special 10th Anniversary Edition" Family Favorites Recipe book written by: Dorothy Althause, from Magalia, California!  Girl I have to say thank you for sharing your great-grandmother's recipe.  This was truly easy to make and delish!!!!  I must give you and your great-grandmother props.  Gladly to say, two days later I was back to normal.  Thanks again hun!  I added a few ingredients of course.  And I didn't puree the ingredients after it was done cooking.  Oh and forgive me, I forgot to take a picture of the parsley garnish...I was so hungry!  LOL!



Ingredients:

1lb pork sausage links, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsps all-purpose flour
1 can (14 1/2 ozs) chicken broth
1/2 cup water
4 med. potatoes, peeled and diced
1 cup milk
1 cup green beans

Chopped fresh parsley

In a heavy skillet, brown sausage over medium heat.  Remove sausage and set aside.  Drain all but 1 Tbsp drippings; saute celery, onion, thyme and salt until onion is tender.  Stir in flour; cook 1 minute.  Gradually add broth and water, stirring until the mixture comes to a boil.

Add potatoes, sausages and green beans (if you like your green beans crunchy like me, add when the potatoes are almost done); cover and simmer 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  In between the 25 minutes, when it starts to thicken a little, add milk and stir.