A peek of springtime??

The weather has been sunny this past week or so and we have been outside as much as possible!! I think everyone around here needed it after a week of sickness that we had, especially me. So I'm posing a few random shots of our fun. :)

This pretty much sums up a lot of my life :)

Burritos

I didn't come into marriage with a great foundation for meal preparation. In other words, I really didn't know squat about cooking. Our meals were more reheating frozen or packaged food. I remember one day our neighbor brought over these yummy burritos, fresh and hot. I asked her about them and she said her husband makes them and he'd teach me if I wanted to learn. (they were a really sweet elderly couple, so please no thinking this is weird)



So a few weeks later I was invited over and got to watch him assemble these. I think the key was the process of crisping them in butter after they were all rolled up. It took a good burrito and made it great!



This recipe makes 35-40 large burritos. Plenty to feed a family and freeze a couple more meals worth.

Here's what you'll need:

1 beef roast 3-4 lbs
1 pork roast 3 lbs
2 lbs hamburger
40 burrito size tortillas
3 packets burrito seasoning (I use Lawry's)
1/2 small can diced jalepenos (can use more but my kids don't like them spicy)
1/2 medium onion diced
1 to 1-1/2 cups water
2 cans refried beans
grated cheddar cheese ( 6 cups? this depends on how much you want to use)

I cook the roasts in the crock pot overnight and then shred them. Brown the hamburger in skillet (you'll need a BIG one) and add onion & jalepeno towards the end. Drain off fat & add refried beans, water & Lawrys. Stir in the shredded roast meat and heat through. Warm tortillas, spoon in meat mix, top with cheese and roll up.

I brown mine on all sides in a cast iron frying pan w/butter to give them a nice crisp outside.

Then eat some & freeze some.

To use the frozen ones just put on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes.

These are good served with sour cream and salsa. :)

The kids and I usually make an assembly line. These don't take too long to whip up if you have a couple of helpers!

If you want to try out some other recipes head on over to Gayle's, she hosts a recipe swap every friday...Lots of good stuff there!

As they grow so must the pans

A couple of years ago I had a conversation with a mom of 4 grown boys. We were talking about cooking and how things change as the kids get older. She mentioned that her mother in law had taken to getting her a larger cooking pot each year for Christmas. I thought that was brilliant. So far I've gotten by with my normal size cookware and I LOVE my cast iron pans. I have two.

The first is this cute little one I use for frying eggs, it's the perfect size for it and it gets daily use.





The second is a 12 inch skillet that's great for frying (like the chicken fried chicken). Though I use it mainly for potatoes.


The last couple of times I've made potatoes (seasoned cubed potatoes or hashbrowns) I've filled this guy to the brim, so full that every time I stirred some fell out the side. At dinner the potatoes were the first thing to run out. So, I've been eyeing a bigger pan. I looked on Amazon and found this one but I just wasn't up to paying $69.99 for it.

Then last night we went out to the store looking for a couple of things, cookware wasn't even a thought I had. We're walking through the store and I ended up on the kitchen aisle, actually pricing muffin pans (mine need replacing). What I found though was this guy:



A giant 17 inch cast iron skillet....exactly like I wanted! Anticipating a large price sticker, I looked down and saw $36.99, I was excited!!

But wait, I stood up and saw another sign saying they were on sale... the final price $27.99!

I bought it.

Now I can't wait to see how many potaotes I can cram in that puppy :)