Melty Cheesy Banana Peppers from Heaven

    Sometimes in life you just have to break the rules. Yep, that's right folks.....I'm a rule breaker. Well, sort of. If you call battering and frying foods rule breaking then I'm in! I try not to eat alot of fried food. However, once in a while you have to break the healthy eating rule and just go for it. I would like to think that this recipe really goes for it. Breaded, fried, and topped with cheese. I'm sure it's probably illegal in at least 3 states and a couple of small island countries.
     The origin of this idea comes from several years ago. When I was a little girl I had visited one of our neighbors with my parents. The neighbor gave us a plate of these banana peppers that she had breaded, fried, and frozen. She said you just heat them up and put Velveeta cheese on them. Oh my goodness, from that day on our family was HOOKED on these. So thank you Louise for handing us that plate of peppers.
     Of course, since going gluten free I have had to adapt and change many recipes. This happens to be one that I had to find a way to make gluten free. I seem to make a different batter each time I try the recipe, but the one that I made this time was super good. So I have to get it written down so that I don't forget it for next time.
      This batter recipe yielded crunchy outside and cooked veggies inside....perfect!

Veggie Batter

1/3 C. Corn Starch
2/3 C. All Purpose Gluten Free Flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 tsp. Baking Powder
2/3 C. Milk

Mix the ingredients together with a whisk. You may have to add additional flour or milk to adjust the thickness of the batter.

Dip your veggies into the batter and fry in hot oil. (squash, banana peppers, okra, zucchini)

Wash the banana peppers, cut them in 1/2 lengthwise and be sure all the seeds are removed.

Dip the peppers into the batter, be sure that all sides and crevices are coated.

Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Drain off the excess oil on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels.

Top with pieces of Velveeta cheese.

Bake at 250 until cheese is melted OR microwave to melt cheese.

Cheesy melty goodness sent from heaven....mmmmm

Nutella and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

     Sometimes there are occasions in life that deserve to be celebrated. Today I had one of those surprise moments. I was cruising along on Facebook....and Udi's Gluten Free Foods had posted a link to a recipe. It sure looked good....Mozzarella Cheese Bites. Then I got to thinking...that picture sure looks familiar. Wow, that looks like the dishes that I have at my house. That's MY recipe that Udi's posted!!! Udi's had linked to my Mozzarella Cheese Bites Recipe. It soon became a fun afternoon of watching my blogger stats (I'm a bit of a stats nerd when looking at my posts). I watched that post get over 1,500 views in 20 minutes! It has been pinned like crazy on Pinterest. It has also brought lots of new Silly Yaks to the USASillyYaks facebook page. It has been about 2 hours since Udi's put my link up and about 3,500 people have viewed the recipe. I happen to think that is AWESOME. It blows my mind. So long story short.....I thought we should celebrate with some cookies. Get excited!
     A while back I had experimented with a Nutella cookie. It tasted amazing, but looked like a cow pattie. A very tasty cow pattie though. So I thought today I would give that recipe another shot. Well I adjusted a few things and have still ended up with the same result....cow pattie cookies ha. So these aren't a cookie that you would want to serve for the Queen. They are sort of ugly. However, they taste SO good that I had to share the recipe anyway. I hope you enjoy these ugly amazing cookies.

Nutella and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C Nutella
1 C. Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/3 C. Gluten Free Flour Mixture
1tsp Baking Soda
3/4 C White Chocolate Chips

Pre heat the oven to 350 deg. In a bowl combine the Nutella, brown sugar, egg, flour, and baking soda until well mixed. Add in the chips and stir until combined.

Drop the cookie dough onto a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 deg. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool and set up for 4 minutes on the baking sheet before removing them.

The cookies spread out and will not be "pretty" cookies. However, I believe their taste makes up for their looks. Enjoy!!

-Jessica

Mmmmm white chocolate

The dough will be pretty thick, but for some reason it thins out in the oven

Ugly, but so good!

Wedding Gift Craftyness

 
      A good friend from my college days is renewing her vows with her hubster tomorrow. It is their 10th Anniversary and so they are reaffirming their vows and love in front of friends and family. It's kind of crazy because 10 years ago I hadn't yet met Shauna. So, I feel really lucky that they are doing it all over again and I am lucky enough to get an invite.
     The lovely couple has asked for no gifts. However, I'm a rule breaker and I HAD to bring a little something for them. I decided to get crafty. Shauna, I hope you and Shawn like your gift...if not, lie to me and stick it on a shelf in your closet.

     On with the craftyness............I had run across a pin on Pinterest the other day where the person used crayons and watercolors to create a cool pattern. I have also been seeing cool frames with words burnt into the wood from etsy. I'm also in love with bright pops of color right now. So with all these ideas in my head I came up with my gift. Unfortunately I don't have wood etching kit, nor did anybody else in my family that I could borrow. So I decided to use the wood burning idea and put it into the crayon and water color idea. I would just put my words and ideas into a watercolor that could go into the frame. I decided that the frame would be painted a fun bright color. That way Shauna could either leave the water color inside the frame or take it out and just use the frame. She can use it however it fits best into her home.....even if that is hidden in the dark closet on a shelf! ha

In order to make my water color I used a white crayon, a large piece of card stock, and a bingo dauber (I wanted a more vibrant red than water color would offer).

I used the white crayon to write and draw and then used the red bingo dauber to wipe coloring onto the card stock. Of course the wax from the crayon repels the coloring and you can then see what I drew.

Sample of the end product after the ink is added over the crayon. Let the end product dry completely before putting it into your frame.

Next it is time to paint the frames. I chose two different frames to paint. I wasn't sure which one I would like more with the watercolor, so I thought I would have two options to pick from. Before you paint, remove the back of the frame and the glass.

First coat of paint

Paint it with two coats and let it dry completely before putting the glass and water color into the frame

Shauna and Shawn, I wish you two MANY MANY more years of happiness and love.

-Jessica

Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

     I wasn't going to blog this recipe because it is way too easy to really BE a recipe, but I had a request....so here it goes. Keep in mind that this isn't really a recipe where I measure anything. I just sort of dump this, dump that and ta-da we have dinner! ha So feel free to adjust the measurements because they are only approximate.
     I'll apologize in advance for the lack of step by step pictures....because like I said, I wasn't planning on blogging this one. So you just have a end product picture. Oh well.....it still looks and tastes good and that's what counts right??

Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry

1 package of boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into cubes
1/3 C. Corn Starch
1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1/2 C. Cooking Oil

In a large zip lock bag: Mix together the cornstarch and garlic powder. Dump the chicken pieces into the bag and seal the bag. Shake until all of the chicken is evenly coated. Heat the oil in your wok. When the oil is hot dump about 1/2 of the chicken into the hot oil and cook until golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside. Place the chicken on a plate lined with paper towels to drain off the excess oil. Repeat with the second batch of chicken pieces. Drain the oil out of the wok and continue on with the recipe.

2 Bags Broccoli Slaw (shredded broccoli, carrot, and red cabbage mixture)
4 tsp. Gluten Free Soy Sauce
1/4 C. Gluten Free Teriyaki Sauce
1/3 C. Diced Onion

In the wok, stir fry the broccoli slaw, onions, and sauces until they have wilted some, but still have a crunch to them.

3 C. Cooked Rice

Turn the heat very low or off and add in the cooked rice and the crispy chicken pieces. Toss to coat. Serve while hot.

Ta-Da! You have a quick and easy dinner!! Sometimes I just stir fry the chicken and don't coat and fry it. It is also good that way, and a little healthier without the frying in oil. I hope you enjoy this super simple recipe....it's what's for supper tonight at my house!

-Jessica

P.S. If you are still wondering about the broccoli slaw thing here is a little picture of a bag of it. It is usually found over with the bagged lettuce and snap peas and such.



Craftyness for the Wildflower Garden

     Maybe this post should be titled Pinterest inspiration #9,845. Ha! Seriously though, I just love Pinterest. I recently had run across a pin that used a ladder in a flower garden. I though that was super cute for some extra potted plants to sit on the rungs of the ladder. I have also been seeing at antique stores and such these brightly painted rickety old chairs. LOVE those too.....so I meshed the idea together.
     I was driving home a while back and along the curb was this old ladder set out for the trash man. Into my head popped that Pinterest pin so I went back to see if the ladder could serve the purpose for the flower garden. Sure enough it was perfect for that! It wasn't in such great shape for climbing on, but plants aren't heavy like people...it would work perfectly. I took it home and put it out in my wildflower garden.

     The ladder has hung out in the garden, just like it is in the picture above for a month or two now. That is, until Ace Hardware had their FREE PAINT SATURDAY!!! All you had to do was stop into a local Ace Hardware store, fill out a voucher and pick out your paint color (that is the hardest part). The folks there mix up your color and you are out the door with a free $15 quart of Clark + Kensington primer and paint in one. AWESOME!

     I was going to put off painting my ladder until next summer until the free paint bandit struck. I had a vision in my head of my ladder being a turquoise color. So I picked out a Benjamin Moore color called Tropicana Cabana.

It's really more turquoise in person...this picture doesn't do it justice.

     Today was a beautiful day so I decided to start painting. It took longer than I had expected it to take. However, I think that's because I had a smaller paint brush and I was pretty meticulous about getting every square inch painted. I love the end result though. It adds a fun pop of color to my wildflower garden. I also love that it didn't cost me a penny to make because of finding a ladder on the curb and Free Paint Saturday at Ace. (P.S. Thanks ACE Hardware for doing THAT) I just had to share my fun and FREE project with you. I hope you like it and maybe it will inspire you to do something fun in your flower garden.

-Jessica



Check out the pictures of my project:

This was the old ladder "before", not fit for climbing but perfect for a garden project.

This is my beautiful Tropicana Cabana color, yet again not showing the true turquoiseness of it.

Blood, sweat, and tears. Ok, maybe just sweat....sweat...and more sweat went into this project. It was kinda hot out in the sun after a while.

Almost done.....

Beautiful if I do say so myself! :)

Pink Pyrex LOVE!

     Well friends, I'm happy to announce I have another addition to my beautiful collection of Pink Pryex. If you recall I found a beautiful Pink Flamingo 2 quart casserole baker back in April. I feel like I need to send out baby announcements for these lovely pink beauties. Ok, maybe that's a touch overboard. Or is it..... Ok, FINE, I will settle for a blog post announcing their arrival (cue the trumpets and confetti)
    
Blog readers meet the ladies......ladies meet the blog readers.

This is the #444 big 4 quart mixing bowl in the Pink Cinderella with Gooseberries pattern. These bowls were made in the 1950's.

This is the #441 (1.5 pint) smallest of the 4 bowl set. It is also in the Pink Cinderella with Gooseberries pattern.

     Aren't they just beautiful? It is odd to call colored glass bowls beautiful? Oh well, I don't care if it is. They are beautiful!! Do you want to hear the story of how we met? Ok.....well if you don't then just stop reading here. If you do, then continue on.
      My Mom and I were browsing in a large antique store this weekend. We were mostly window shopping and that's when I saw it....the heavens opened up, the music sounded, there was a glowing light in booth #23 and there in that glowing light sat the beautiful bowls (events may have been exaggerated from actual facts to make a better story).
     I of course had to have these beauties. The big bowl (4 quart) seems to be sort of tricky to find in the sets. I guess it must have been used the most and probably dropped the most. I knew I had to have this one because it was in very good condition. It was also a great price for the two bowls. So they came home to live with me Happily Ever After for ever. The End. (was that a good story?)
     So, I do have some more work cut out for me.....I need to find the two middle size bowls in this four bowl set. I am missing bowl #442 and 443. However, that just means I get to have fun looking for them and shopping for a good deal. I will NOT pay an arm and a leg. That is part of the fun of starting this collection. I was pretty proud that I got these two bowls for less than what JUST the large bowl was going for on Ebay. I love a good deal!

Here are a couple more pictures for you to ogle if you wish:

Well thanks for letting me gush about my new pink loves.

-Jessica