Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

May 8, 2020

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

It’s almost Mother’s Day! This year is especially exciting for me as this is my first official Mother’s Day with my sweet guy! He was in my tummy last year, but I really had no idea how much my world was going to change once he graced us with his presence. There is really no other feeling like being a mom. It isn’t always perfect and it isn’t always easy, but it is a joy like no other and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I know I’m biased, but I have the world’s greatest mom. So this day has always been so special to me. I now also have the world’s greatest mother-in-law and step mother-in-law, so Mother’s Day is one of the best days of the year to celebrate the many mommas in my life who love and sacrifice so much for their kiddos.

Mother’s Day always centers around three main things in our family: Quality time, delicious food, and a creative and meaningful gift these mommas wouldn’t buy for themselves!

There is something about a bundt cake that says Mother’s Day to me. Bundt cakes are classic and lovely, just like a mom. And you don’t have to be a professional baker to make a bundt cake beautiful and delicious! My first bundt cake pan came from my momma and my Nina (my grandmother) makes the most delicious bundt cakes!

One of my new favorite bundt cake recipes is this Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake. It is super easy and you don’t have to have the entire baking aisle in your pantry. It only requires a few ingredients to make you look like Martha Stewart at your Mother’s Day family gathering!

Gather those ingredients and let’s bake!

Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake Ingredients

Cake Ingredients:

1 yellow box cake
3 eggs
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of water
2 cups of blueberries – I used frozen wild blueberries, but fresh will work too!
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp. fresh lemon zest

Lemon Glaze Ingredients:

1/4 cup powdered sugar
1-3 tbsp. lemon juice

Vanilla Glaze Frosting Ingredients:

2 cups of powdered sugar
1/4 cups of milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. lemon juice

Ready, Set, Bake!

Heat oven to 350• F. Prepare the box cake as directed on the box.

Mix the lemon juice and lemon zest into the cake.

Gently fold the blueberries in to the cake and distribute them evenly throughout the bowl.

Quick Tip: If you are using frozen blueberries, make sure they are thawed before adding them to the cake. You can add the frozen blueberries to a sauté pan on low heat to help defrost. This will bring out some of their juices, so make sure to strain some of the juice before adding the blueberries to the cake. Otherwise the cake will have too much liquid from the berries.

Add the cake batter to a lightly greased bundt pan and bake for 38-42 minutes as directed on the box.

For the lemon glaze, add the powdered sugar to a small bowl and add the lemon juice one tbsp. at a time until you have the desired taste and consistency. If the glaze is too thick, you can add a little bit of water to thin out the glaze.

For the vanilla frosting, combine all ingredients together and mix with a stand mixer or hand mixer until combined.

Once the cake is finished baking, allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the pan.

Place a plate or cake stand on top of the bundt pan and carefully flip the pan over to release the cake onto the plate or cake stand.

Use a toothpick to poke small holes on top of the cake and pour or brush the lemon glaze on top of the cake. The glaze will soak into the cake giving it extra lemony deliciousness and an extra moist cake! Depending on how much lemon flavor you like will depend on how much of the glaze you use. I like to use about half on the cake and save the other half to serve with the cake for those who want extra glaze!

Slowly pour the vanilla frosting on top of the cake allowing it to naturally fall down the grooves of the bundt cake. Like the glaze, the amount is completely up to you! I liked to use just enough to coat the top and make it pretty! I serve the rest of the frosting on the side of the cake for those who like a little cake with their frosting. I’m definitely talking about my momma here.

For extra garnish, zest part of a lemon on top of the cake. Enjoy!

I hope this cake brings joy to everyone at your table! How did it turn out? I would love to see your beautiful cakes! Leave me a comment below or send me a picture on Pinterest here! I hope you have a beautiful Mother’s Day!

How To Make A Taco Cake

DIY Crafts Lifestyle Party Planning Recipes

April 28, 2020

Who doesn’t love tacos? Taco night is definitely a weekly staple in our household. Last year, one of our best friends was having a taco themed birthday party. His wife was planning all the details and mentioned wanting to have a taco cake. I immediately volunteered to make the taco cake because it sounded like a really fun challenge. I had never made a taco cake before, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard, right? Thanks to this amazing tutorial from Studio DIY, it was honestly a piece of cake! Ha! But I definitely learned a couple of things during this process.

The cake batter I made was enough for two 8-inch round cakes so my husband decided to make one too so that we could have a little bake-off! It was so fun y’all. We took the taco cakes to our friend’s party and had everyone vote on the best looking taco cake. So I HAVE to ask y’all, which one is your favorite?

Side Note: See the terrible grease showing on the cardboard from the buttercream? I definitely learned my lesson. See my quick tip below Step 1 to see how to prevent this rookie mistake. Face palm for sure. SO embarrassing. Lesson learned.

Okay now that you have already made your mental vote, I will tell you that my hunky husband won the votes at our friend’s party. We both took one different creative liberty while decorating that made our cakes stand out. As I was mixing the yellow buttercream for my taco shell, I left some specs of white in the mix to make it look more like a corn taco shell. Jeremy decided to add some of the crushed Oreos to the frosting on his shell to make it look more realistic.

While I was so annoyed I didn’t win, it was honestly so fun and we had two cakes to enjoy! We even had a request to make another taco cake for another friend’s birthday the following week! And not that I’m bitter or anything, but my husband is a dentist so he is required to have steady hands while working with hand tools on a daily basis. Again, not bitter or anything! =P I’m honestly so proud.

Date Night!

For a fun date night, enjoy these super easy chicken tacos for dinner and have a taco cake decorating competition for a fun activity and dessert!

Are you ready to make your own taco cake? Gather all of your supplies and let’s get to decorating!

Taco Cake Supplies and Ingredients:

1 8-inch round baked cake
1 Batch of Buttercream (Check out one of my go to recipes from Paula Dean)
- I started with 1 batch of buttercream, but depending on your recipe, you may need to make half of a second batch to make sure you have enough.
Red Food Coloring
Green Food Coloring
Yellow Food Coloring
Brown Food Coloring
Orange Food Coloring
Crushed Oreos
3 Tbsp. Meringue Powder
4 Cups Powdered Sugar
5 – 7 Tablespoons Warm Water

Step 1:

Cut your 8-Inch round cake in half. Spread buttercream on the bottom of each cake half and sandwich them together. This will act as your filling so be generous! Spread a little bit of buttercream on the flat edge of your sandwiched cake and place the flat edge on your cake stand. You should now have the shape of a taco on your cake stand.

Quick Tip: As you can see, I made the rookie mistake of using a round cardboard cake board as my base to decorate. Since my cake is not round, you see SO much cardboard and it just looks terrible! And once you start decorating, there is no moving the cake without absolute disaster! This is why I recommend first placing it on the cake stand you plan to serve the cake on.

Another Quick Tip: The birthday boy requested a strawberry cake, so of course that is what he received. However, the strawberry cake did make it look like raw taco meat when we cut into the cake. Ha! SO if you don’t have a cake flavor preference, a chocolate cake would be the most appetizing visual in my opinion.

Step 2:

Cover the cake in a thin layer of the buttercream frosting and place it is the fridge for 30 minutes to chill. This is known as your crumb coat to prevent crumbs from getting into your final layer of buttercream.

Step 3:

While the crumb coat chills, make your buttercream and icing paste colors.

Buttercream:

¼ cup brown buttercream.

¼ cup green buttercream

Color the remaining buttercream yellow

Icing Paste:

Mix the meringue powder with 5 tablespoons of water to form the icing paste for the cheese and tomato toppings. You want it to be thick, but thin enough for you to pipe. Just add a tablespoon at a time until you have the right consistency. I personally needed 6 tablespoons of warm water.

Step 4:

Remove the cake from the fridge and cover the cake in the yellow buttercream until the cake looks like a yellow taco shell!

Quick Tip: Use a knife or frosting spatula to smooth the top of the taco and help create a groove for your toppings. See how the picture above doesn’t quite look like a taco? Keep working with your knife or spatula until you have more defined edges on top. I worked on this step until I was pleased with the top.

Step 5:

Place your brown buttercream in a piping bag and cut a small whole at the bottom of the bag. Fill each side of the taco with the brown frosting about ¼ of the way up each side of the taco. Carefully coat the brown frosting with the crushed oreo pieces to make the “ground beef” for the taco.

Place your green buttercream into a piping bag and use the Wilton 366 Leaf Tip to pipe the lettuce on the top of the cake. You will cover the remaining yellow top of the taco cake with the lettuce buttercream.

Quick Tip: Practice using the leaf tip on a paper towel before you pipe the buttercream lettuce on top of the cake.

Step 6:

Divide the icing paste into two bowls and color one red and one orange. Add each icing color to a piping bag with a round tip. Pipe small lines onto parchment paper to make the shredded cheese. For the tomatoes, pipe tiny squares to resemble diced tomatoes. Let the toppings sit until set enough to remove with a knife or small spatula. I waited about 10 minutes.

Place the shredded cheese and tomatoes on top of the cake to finalize your beautiful and delicious taco cake!

I would LOVE to see your finished taco cakes! Please leave me a link to your post below. If you want a little more inspiration, check out this Nailed It! themed emoji cake decoration competition I had one my friends last year!

Have you made an awesome cake? I would love to see your finished cakes! Happy decorating, friends!

Christmas Crunch Candy Recipe

Recipes

December 13, 2017

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is baking delicious treats! I love putting on a Christmas movie and just baking away! I make more treats than the hubs and I should ever eat, so I package them together to give out as gifts and take to Christmas parties. It is something I look forward to every year. One of my go-to staples is making Christmas Crunch candy!

My aunt has made this delicious treat since I was little and it is absolutely amazing! She has this amazing treat corner in her kitchen and every year at Christmas, it is filled with the most delicious Christmas treats! I still feel like a little kid every time a make a beeline for that corner. She taught me how to make this several years ago and I am still amazed at how easy it is! This is the perfect treat to take to Christmas parties or to just make for a tasty Christmas treat!

Christmas Crunch Candy Ingredients:

Golden Grahams
Peanut Butter Captain Crunch
Peanuts
Vanilla Almond Bark or White Chocolate
Christmas Sprinkles

Let’s Get Baking!

Add the almond bark to a pan and stir continuously until completely melted. I personally love using my Copper Chef because it is evenly heated, so it melts the almond bark more quickly and it doesn’t stick to the pan! You will be so thankful for this when it comes time to clean up! If you don’t have a copper chef, you can use a big pot or double boiler. Just make sure you keep the heat on low.

Once the almond bark is completely melted, gradually stir in the cereal and peanuts. I didn’t put an exact amount because this is completely up to you! I like to gradually add the mix-ins until all of the almond bark is covering the cereal and peanuts. You don’t want the coating to be too thick because it will cause the candy to be too sweet.

Cover a baking pan with wax paper. Spread the mixture out onto the wax paper and add the sprinkles. I just do a few sprinkles for decoration. Allow the candy to dry completely and then break apart and add to your serving dish or storage tin.

Enjoy!

How is easy is that? I promise you will want to make plenty of this because it will be gone in a second! Merry Christmas, friends!

Christmas Crunch Candy Mix

2017-12-13 19:01:05

A delicious holiday candy recipe that is super easy to make and will be the hot of every Christmas party!

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Ingredients

Golden Grahams
Peanut Butter Captain Crunch
Peanuts
Vanilla Almond Bark or White Chocolate
Christmas Sprinkles

Instructions

Add the almond bark to a melting pot and stir continuously with the heat on low until completely melted.
Once the almond bark is completely melted, gradually stir in the cereal and peanuts.
Keep adding cereal until all of the almond bark is covering the cereal mixture.
Cover a baking pan with wax paper.
Spread the mixture out onto the wax paper and add the sprinkles.
Allow the candy to dry completely and then break apart and add to your serving dish or storage tin.
Enjoy!

The Sassy Southern http://thesassysouthern.com/

Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe

Recipes

November 21, 2017

This post may contain affiliate links, but all opinions are my own. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

Dressing or stuffing? That seems to be a constant debate around the holidays. In my family, we have always had a southern cornbread dressing recipe, not stuffing! This is easily my favorite dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas! I know there are multiple ways to make dressing, but my favorite way is a savory and dry dressing compared to a sweeter moist recipe. The combination of the dressing with homemade gravy absolute perfection! I’m getting excited just thinking about it! I promise you will impress all of your holiday guests with this delicious recipe!

Buttermilk Cornbread Ingredients

1 ½ cups cornmeal
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 ¼ cup buttermilk
6 tbsp butter

Other Cornbread Dressing Ingredients

8 tbsp. butter
2 cups celery; chopped
1 large onion; chopped
4 cups organic chicken stock
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. sage
1 tsp. rosemary
1 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. oregano
8 pieces of dried bread broken into pieces

Let’s Get Cooking!

Mix all ingredients together for the cornbread and bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes.

While the cornbread is baking, put the 8 pieces of bread in the toaster oven at 200ºF for about 10 minutes. This will help dry the bread out, just make sure you don’t get it too crispy. If you don’t have a toaster oven, you can just let the bread sit long enough for it to dry out.

Add all of the other ingredients together in a big bowl. When chopping the veggies, a Ninja Express Chop and the Clever Cutter will be lifesavers! Especially around the holidays!

Crumble the cornbread. Add the cornbread and the broken bread pieces to the other ingredients. Mix well.

Add the mixture to a greased casserole dish and bake at 350ºF for 50-60 minutes. This will depend on how crispy you like your dressing. If you like a softer moist dressing, bake for about 30-40 minutes. If you are like my family and you enjoy it crispier, just watch the top to make sure you aren’t overcooking the dressing.

Serve with your delicious holiday spread and enjoy with some delicious brown gravy! Happy holidays, friends!

Southern Cornbread Dressing Recipe

2017-11-21 17:47:22

Enjoy this delicious southern cornbread dressing recipe at your holiday gathering!

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Ingredients

Buttermilk Cornbread Ingredients
1 ½ cups cornmeal
½ cup all purpose flour
-2 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp salt
-1 egg
1 ¼ cup buttermilk
6 tblsp butter
Other Cornbread Dressing Ingredients
8 tblsp butter
2 cups chopped celery
1 chopped large onion
4 cups organic chicken stock
1 tsp salt
3 tsp sage
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp black pepper
1 sp oregano
8 pieces of dried bread broken into pieces

Instructions

Mix all cornbread ingredients together and bake at 350ºF for 25 minutes.
While the cornbread is baking, put the 8 pieces of bread in the toaster oven at 200ºF for about 10 minutes. This will help dry the bread out, just make sure you don’t get it too crispy. If you don't have a toaster oven, you can just let the bread sit out for a while.
Add all of the other ingredients for the dressing together in a big bowl.
Crumble the cornbread.
Add the crumbled cornbread and bread pieces to other ingredients. Mix well.
Add the mixture to a greased casserole dish and bake at 350ºF for 50-60 minutes.
Serve with you delicious holiday spread and enjoy with some delicious brown gravy! Happy holidays, friends!

Notes

This total cook time will depend on how crispy you like your dressing. If you like a softer moist dressing, bake for about 30-40 minutes. If you are like my family and you enjoy it crispier, just watch the top to make sure you aren’t overcooking the dressing.

The Sassy Southern http://thesassysouthern.com/

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S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipes

November 9, 2017

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

The fall season is the start of sweater weather, the holidays, and so many fun family traditions and memories. We all have our favorite recipes to cook and bake during certain seasons and one of my favorite treats in the whole world are s’mores! They are just so delicious! However, they are very messy to make and they are only good as soon as they come off of the fire! These delicious s’mores chocolate chip cookies give you the delicious s’mores taste, without the mess AND you can keep them in your favorite cookie jar or freeze them for later! These s’mores chocolate chip cookies have quickly become a staple in our home during the fall and they are a popular request from my friends to bring to our holiday parties!

If you love this GORGEOUS Threshold marble tray as much as I do, you should probably just treat your self right now and have it delivered straight to your door from Target! The incredible price will surprise you.

S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients:

½ Cup of Crushed Graham Crackers

2 Hershey’s Chocolate Bars

1 Cup of Mini Marshmallows

2 Sticks of Butter; Softened

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Cup of Brown Sugar

2 Large Eggs

2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

½ Teaspoon Salt

2 Cups of Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Let’s Get Cooking!

Heat oven to 375 °F.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt.

In your Kitchen Aid Mixer, mix the sugar, brown sugar, and butter on medium. Beat in the eggs and vanilla on medium. If you don’t have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer or hand mixer, you can definitely do this by hand! However, I would highly recommend purchasing a beautiful Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer and your life will be so wonderful! Okay, back to baking.

Slowly add your flour mixture while your mixer stays on low. If your flour mixture sticks to the sides of the bowl, use a spatula to push the excess flour into your mixture. Once your ingredients are combined and your blended ingredients look like cookie dough, add your crushed graham crackers and mix on low until combined. This is where my Ninja Chop comes in handy! It quickly crushes my graham crackers to my preferred consistency. This saves my hand a lot work and prevents the graham crackers from flying all over my kitchen as I break the plastic bag I’m crushing them in! It’s okay; we have all been there!

Fold in your chocolate chips. Let the cookie dough chill for 10 minutes.

Add cookie dough to a greased cookie sheet. Can we please stop and take a moment to appreciate these beautiful gold Threshold cookie sheets from Target? They come in a set of three different sizes and they make my kitchen look so glamorous while I bake! Did I mention that they are an absolute steal and are super easy to clean? Okay, back to baking. I like to use a 1 ½- inch cookie scoop when scooping out my cookie dough. I am in love with this beautiful gold cookie scoop from Target! It matches my gold measuring cups and gold measuring spoons! It helps keep each ball of cookie dough close to the same size so that they cook evenly. It also really makes my eyes happy while I cook.

Cook for 9 minutes at 375 °F.

Pull the cookies out of the oven and add 4-6 minimarshmallows on top. Bake for another 2-3 minutes until the marshmallows start to brown. Quick tip, don’t let the marshmallows get too brown! This will cause them to melt completely into the cookie and you don’t get the ooey-gooey marshmellowey goodness on top!

Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes and then add a piece of Hershey’s chocolate to the middle of each cookie.

These are delicious straight out of the oven, room temperature, cold, and frozen! Basically, they are good all day every day! Serve with coffee, hot chocolate, or milk and enjoy!

Have you tried this recipe? Leave me a comment below to let me know how your S’mores cookies turn out!

S'mores Chocolate Chip Cookies

2017-11-08 21:16:04

The taste of s'mores wrapped in a chocolate chip cookie!

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Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

11 min

Prep Time

10 min

Cook Time

11 min

Ingredients

1 Cup of Crushed Graham Crackers (About 10 Graham Crackers)
2 Hershey’s Chocolate Bars
1 Cup of Mini Marshmallows
2 Sticks of Butter; Softened
3/4 Cup of Sugar
3/4 Cup of Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Cups of Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

Instructions

Heat oven to 375 °F.
In a medium mixing bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In your Kitchen Aid Mixer, mix the sugar, brown sugar, and butter on medium.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla on medium.
Slowly add your flour mixture while your mixer stays on low.
Once your ingredients are combined and your blended ingredients look like cookie dough, add your crushed graham crackers and mix on low until combined.
Fold in your chocolate chips. Let cookie dough chill for 10 minutes.
Add cookie dough to a greased cookie sheet. I like to use a 1 ½- inch cookie scoop. I am in love with this beautiful gold cookie scoop from Target!
Cook for 9 minutes at 375.
Pull the cookies out of the oven and add 4-6 mini marshmallows on top of each cookie.
Bake for another 2-3 minutes until the marshmallows start to brown.
Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes and then add a piece of Hershey’s chocolate to the middle of each cookie.
Enjoy!

Notes

Quick tip, don’t let the marshmallows get too brown! This will cause them to melt completely into the cookie and you don’t get that ooey gooey marshmellowey goodness on top!

The Sassy Southern http://thesassysouthern.com/

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Fall Recipes: Pear Preserves

Recipes

October 12, 2017

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy for more information.

My grandma (lovingly known in our family as Nina) and my mom have been making homemade preserves since I was a little girl. Fig, pear, blackberry… you name it! Each time I spent the night at my Nina’s house, she would make her homemade biscuits and serve them with her homemade preserves. I would eat until I was stuffed! They were always so delicious! This past weekend, my husband and I spent the weekend at his parents’ house and they have a beautiful pear tree on their property. We left with a giant bag full of beautiful pears! There is no way that the two of us could possibly eat all of these before they went bad, so I decided to make a couple of jars of pear preserves! I made a smaller batch since it is just the two of us, but you can easily make are larger batch for more jars. They are delicious and make for adorable gifts! I’m super excited to share a jar with my mom and mother-in-law! This was my first try at making preserves by myself and I am pretty pleased with how they turned out! Ready to get started? Here is what you need for this tasty fall recipe:

Ingredients

1 Cup of Sugar
½ Cup of Brown Sugar
½ Cup of Water
4 Cups of chopped or sliced pears
Canning Jars With Lids
Copper Chef
Giant Stockpot
Tongs
Towel

Let’s Get Cooking!

It is time to prep your jars! I will admit I struggled with this part. As I was on the phone with my mom and my Nina, I kept having them tell me how to do this part over and over! I purchased a 12 pack of Kerr Regular Mouth Jars. I was nervous doing this on my own for the first time; so I used this guide to help me with the process of preparing the jars and processing the jars once I filled them with preserves! Before you can put the preserves in your jars, you must boil the jars and the lids. I didn’t purchase any special tools or a pressurizer; I just used a deep saucepot and tongs to handle the hot jars. I boiled the jars for the recommended amount of time in the guide above and kept them in the hot water until I was ready to fill them with the preserves.

Add your chopped pears and water to your Copper Chef and bring to a boil. The Copper Chef made such a difference! The Cerami-Tech Non-Stick Deep Dish Pan made it so much easier to let all of the gooey goodness simmer without sticking to the pan! I highly recommend purchasing a Copper Chef ! I wanted to make sure my pears were super soft, so I had the pears boil for about 10 minutes before adding the rest of my ingredients. Just watch this closely and stir occasionally.

Add all sugar to the mixture and stir.

Leave uncovered and boil for 10 minutes. Bring heat down to a medium-low temperature and let simmer for 1 hour; stir occasionally.

Once your pears are soft and you have a thick consistency, add the pear preserves to your jars leaving about ¼ inch of space between the preserves and the lid. Your jars will be very hot! If you don’t have a cooling rack, I just used a pair of tongs to remove the jars from the pot of water and held them with a thick towel to fill them. If there are any air bubbles in the jar after you add your preserves, use a rubber spatula between the jar and the preserves to remove any air bubbles. Wipe off the edge of the jar and secure the lid on the jar. Repeat this step until all of your jars are filled.

Put your sealed jars back in the pot of hot water and make sure the water covers the jars completely. Bring the pot to a boil and boil the jars for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and move the pot off of the burner and allow the jars to cool in the water. Once the jars have cooled, have them sit upright for about 12 hours. If your jars have properly sealed, the middle of the lid will not pop up and down. I was so nervous that I didn’t’ do this part correctly because if they don’t seal, there will be bacteria growth! The next day, I tried to lift the lid with my fingers and I couldn’t! This means I had a good seal. Again, since I didn’t have my mom or Nina with me, I was super nervous about this part, so I kept referring to this helpful guide from Ball and Kerr.

We decided to go ahead and open one of the jars the next day because they just looked so yummy! When we opened the jar, we heard the pop sound that lets you know it was properly sealed! Success! These pear preserves turned out so yummy and I was super proud that I didn’t destroy these yummy pears on my first try. They are perfect to serve with gourmet cheeses and artisan bread for a dinner party and they are delicious with biscuits and scones! I added fabric and twine to the top of two jars to give as fall gifts to our mommas! I hope you enjoy!

Pear Preserves

2017-10-12 20:56:43

Yields 3

Homemade Pear Preserves

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Ingredients

1 Cup of Sugar
½ Cup of Brown Sugar
½ Cup of Water
4 Cups of Chopped or Sliced Pears

Instructions

Prep Your Jars (Refer to link in blog on how to do this)
Add your chopped pears and water to your Copper Chef and bring to a boil. Watch closely and stir occasionally.
Add sugar to the mixture and stir.
Leave uncovered and boil for 10 minutes.
Bring heat down to a medium- low temperature and let simmer for 1 hour; stir occasionally.
Add pear preserves to the jars.
If there are any air bubbles in the jar after you add your preserves, use a rubber spatula between the jar and the preserves to remove any air bubbles.
Wipe off the edge of the jar and secure the lid on the jar.
Repeat this step until all of your preserves are in your jars.
Boil and seal the jars to seal. Refer to link in blog post for this process.
Enjoy!

The Sassy Southern http://thesassysouthern.com/

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EASY Two-Ingredient Crockpot Chicken Recipe

Recipes

October 1, 2017

How many nights do you want to make a delicious and healthy dinner, but you just don’t have the energy? You know the scripture in Matthew, “…the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”? I find myself in that position way more than I would like! That usually leads to eating out or a frozen pizza and that really doesn’t help our fitness or money-saving goals. So I started experimenting with fast, but healthy recipes that would also make for great next day lunches! This two-ingredient crockpot chicken recipe quickly became a staple on our weekly dinner menu! It is the perfect protein for so many dishes and is just so tasty! I think you will be shocked to learn just how easy it is!

Crockpot Chicken Ingredients

4 Raw and Rinsed Chicken Breasts
1 16 oz. Jar of Pace Chunky Style Medium Salsa

Directions

Place all 4 pieces of chicken in your crockpot and cover with the salsa. Place the lid on the crockpot and select the setting for 4 hours. Go have a glass of wine, read by the pool, or head to the office while the amazing invention that we call the crockpot works its magic! After four hours, take the lid off and watch with amazement as you are able to shred the chicken with a fork!

Two hours in. Looking and smelling so yummy!

Tada! You are done! How easy was that? This chicken is cooked to perfection and is so delicious! You can serve this in a salad, on nachos, or with a side of veggies for a low carb option! This week, I already had the ingredients for tacos, so we decided to have some shredded chicken tacos. Jeremy (my hunky husband) really likes when I serve this Chipotle style with beans, rice, and guacamole on a salad! However you decide to eat it, I can assure you that you will absolutely love it! Enjoy!

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Easy Shrimp and Sausage Foil Packet Recipe

Recipes

September 28, 2017

Y’all! It is officially fall and I could not be happier! Football, sweaters, and pumpkins! Oh, I love this time of year. I don’t know about you, but as the colder weather starts rolling in, I find myself getting much more creative with new recipes in the kitchen! As I was heading out to the grocery store for the week, I checked to see what random items we had left over from the recipes I made the week before. You know, trying to use everything possible, because, well, let’s save all the money! I have also made it a game. Like how creative can I be this week?

Anyway, my husband absolutely loves shrimp. While I love the idea of shrimp and I think there are so many delicious recipes out there, my taste buds will never know. Yes. I’m allergic. But thankfully, I’m not so allergic that I can’t cook it for the sweet husband. I had some frozen shrimp and corn from other recipes I had made earlier in the month, so I decided to grab some sausage and make one of his favorite meals! I purposefully did not include potatoes because we are both trying to do low carb, but you can easily add potatoes to this dish. Just boil the potatoes with the corn to make sure they are soft enough. Since I can’t taste test shrimp recipes as I go along, I rely completely on my husband’s review. He promised it was delicious, so I’m trusting his opinion! It is SO easy to make and cleanup is a breeze! This recipe serves 2, but it is so easy to double or triple the recipe for a dinner party! Ready to get started?

Ingredients

1 ear of corn cut into 4 pieces. You can use frozen or fresh.
20-30 pieces of shrimp depending on how hungry you are! Make sure the shrimp are peeled, no tails, and deveined. You will divide the shrimp between the two foil packets. If you have frozen shrimp, make sure it is fully thawed.
12 ounces of your favorite sausage
3 Tablespoons of butter, melted

Seasoning Ingredients

1 tsp. of garlic powder
1tsp. of onion powder
1 tsp. of Lowrey’s seasoning
1 tsp. of paprika
1 tsp. of Cajun seasoning
1 tsp. of Parsley
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of PepperRecipe Card

Step 1:
Preheat oven to 400 F.

Step 2:
Boil the corn for 4-6 minutes. Drain.

Step 3:
Add your sliced sausage, corn, and shrimp to a large mixing bowl. If you are using potatoes, add them to the bowl as well. I chose Hillshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa Sausage. It is already cooked, so it is ready to heat and serve! I was worried that it would cook too much, but the hubs said it was perfect and so delicious! If you are not using precooked sausage, make sure you cook it ahead of time.

Step 4:
Add the seasoning mixture and melted butter to the bowl and squeeze a little lemon juice on top. Gently stir all of that yummy goodness around to make sure everything in the bowl is evening coated.

Step 5:
Spoon out half of the mixture onto one piece of your aluminum foil cutout. Bunch the foil together at the top to create a foil bowl. Make sure it is completely closed at the top. Repeat.

Step 6:
Bake both foil packets at 400 for 20 minutes or until the shrimp is pink and white in color. Add a lemon wedge to the foil packet and serve!

Easy Shrimp and Sausage Foil Packet Recipe

2017-09-28 16:13:57

Serves 2

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Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

40 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Total Time

40 min

Ingredients

1 Ear of Corn Cut into 4 Pieces
30 Pieces of Shrimp; Peeled, No Tails, Deveined
12 Ounces of Your Favorite Sausage
3 Tablespoons of Butter, Melted

Seasoning Ingredients

1 tsp. of Garlic Powder
1 tsp. of Onion Powder
1 tsp. of Lawry’s Seasoning
1 tsp. of Paprika
1 tsp. of Cajun Seasoning
1 tsp. of Parsley
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Pepper

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Boil the corn for 4-6 minutes. Drain.
Add your sliced sausage, corn, and shrimp to a large mixing bowl. If you are using potatoes, add them to the bowl as well. I chose Hillshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa Sausage. It is already cooked, so it is ready to heat and serve! I was worried that it would cook too much, but the hubs said it was perfect and so delicious! If you are not using precooked sausage, make sure you cook it ahead of time.
Add the seasoning mixture and melted butter to the bowl and squeeze a little lemon juice on top. Gently stir all of that yummy goodness around to make sure everything in the bowl is evening coated.
Spoon out half of the mixture onto one piece of your aluminum foil cutout. Bunch the foil together at the top to create a foil bowl. Make sure it is completely closed at the top. Repeat.
Bake both foil packets at 400 for 20 minutes or until the shrimp is pink and white in color.
Add a lemon wedge to the foil packet and serve!

The Sassy Southern http://thesassysouthern.com/

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