Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Oreo Crumb Icing

 

I'm starting to think the youngest daughter may yet be my next creative baker.  This weekend she wowed us all with her take on whoopie pies with her addition to store bought vanilla icing!  The results were wonderful and you could not eat just one!

One thing I've always enjoyed is cooking a big Sunday lunch. To try to get my girls to help out, I'll either have them make a side dish or dessert to add to the menu.  This week Audrey decided to use our new whoopie pan and create a new family favorite from the seasonal Red Velvet Oreo's I'd found at the grocery store. 

Audrey made the cake from start to finish for the first time on her own and we could not have been prouder.  She used an idea I've done for years by adding whole milk instead of water to the cake mix.  This addition just adds such depth and flavor, yet still keeps the cake moist. 

We spooned about one large tablespoon of the Oreo Crumb Icing in each whoopie pie round using our ice cream scoop which made it extra fun for Audrey.  She loved sticking the toothpick in them toward the end of each batch to check if they were done.

 

The icing sandwiched between each whoppie cake round helped take these over the top.  We enjoyed them yesterday at midday and then again after dinner during the Oscars.

Audrey hopes you will try them and knows they will become a new family favorite.  She has me thinking now of what else to add to icing to make it a little out of the ordinary.

Click here for Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Oreo Crumb Icing

 

 

 

So give these Red Velvet Whoopie Pies with Oreo Cookie Crumb Icing a try soon and especially get creative with your icing additions! 

 

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen



The Ranch Kitchen's Egg Roll Bowl

Tonight I wanted to cook something a little different, yet use what I had at my house.  I tend to have a little problem with the grocery store and usually impulse buy a little too much of certain things.  But thankfully it's good to overstock the pantry and fridge when you live in the country.

My motto should be to 'don't go shopping hungry'. Yesterday I bought two bags of 50% off Valentines candy that I certainly did not need. However, I did already have the cabbage, soy sauce and brown sugar because I always buy those in excess.  And as for the chocolate...it was put to good use. 

The Eggroll Bowl I prepared tonight was an easy dish that called for most of the ingredients I use in my Granny's Wilted Cabbage recipe.  Adding soy sauce and brown sugar along with the sliced ham steak was a great addition and made this a meal in itself. 

Thanks goodness for the pork we raise on our ranch from my daughter's FFA project.  It was put to good use in this fantastic recipe. 

We served this pork dish over white rice, but I also think it would be excellent over pasta.  This recipe will be easy to reheat and a treat for my lunch tomorrow.

Click here for The Ranch Kitchen's Eggroll Bowls



So if you need a relatively low calorie dish that is full of flavor and just a little different from the meals you normally serve each night, this is your recipe.

Enjoy!

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen

Fiesta Stuffed Bell Peppers

One of the dishes my husband enjoys the most are stuffed bell peppers.  Over the years I probably haven't cooked it near enough.

So tonight with a little inspiration from some bulk bell peppers I had bought, I created these Fiesta Stuffed Bell Peppers.

Around our house if we eat anything, it's going to be spicy and full of flavor.  We love anything with our Certified Hereford Beef especially.  It's nice to know we can depend on the beef we raise off our ranch and the tradition and quality behind this historic breed of cattle.

Click here for the recipe for Fiesta Stuffed Bell Peppers 

This recipe was easily thrown together with two pounds ground CHB - beef, some onion and my new favorite fast Knorr Fiesta Spanish Rice, some Rotel Mexican Tomatoes with Lime and Cilantro, along with some cheese and Howe spice.  Howe spice is a Cajun variety that is just wonderful on just about anything.

It was a more involved recipe for tonight's meal, but totally worth it.

So if you are wanting a meal to impress, then this is it.  Fiesta Stuffed Bell Peppers are simple to put together and even my teenager loved it.  And that my friends is saying a whole lot!


Alise - The Ranch Kitchen 

The Ranch Kitchen's Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl

During December my daughter Bethany and I tried a few new recipes and added our own flair to them.  She had recently come across a recipe and it reminded her of her days in Aggieland when she loved these from their favorite taco restaurant.  

We recreated this recipe giving it our own additions dubbing it Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl for my Sure champ post for January of 2016.  We added our own special changes on two separate evenings to this fun dish. 

This rice, bean, corn with onion all in one pot meal was made in large batches so that we wouldn't have to cook the next night.  Around Christmas with our school and family events, it was nice to have a hearty meal that was easy to make and quick to reheat in the microwave.  

The second time we made this recipe we substituted the black beans for pinto beans and exchanged the whole kernel corn for creamed corn since that is all our pantry had.  It was just as good, but Bethany preferred the pop of the whole kernel corn and the black beans.  

We added sliced black olives the second time and really loved that addition. My husband and I love extra spicy dishes, so we even added Tabasco Sauce to the top of our taco bowls. We also added sour cream and fresh cut cilantro to Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl for extra flavor as a garnish or topping.

 

I told Bethany that this would be a fun dish to serve with a variety of toppings for a party or feeding a large crowd.  Condiments like your fresh shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro, diced black olives, and even jalapenos would be great additions to the top of this delicious dish.  

This dish would be an excellent recipe to make for my friends on the show road this winter and especially for those of you who will be in Denver or Fort Worth in January.  I am even imaginging it for tailgating at Texas A&M next fall.  I can just see it all now in my large roaster hauling it in to the barns instead of my tradition Chicken Spaghetti for a Crowd.  All my toppings would be set off to the side with southwestern decorative dishes, a big basket of my favorite Pappacita's chips from home and some of my Nolana's Family Hot Sauce. 

Click here for the recipe for Sure Champ's Southwestern Taco Bowl

We hope you'll give this recipe a try and let us know how you made your own additions to it as well.  Remember you can share your own recipes on my site under the Share a Recipe tab. The Ranch Kitchen is also on Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram, so follow us there as well! 

It was fun cooking and planning out meals with my daughter this past holiday while she was in from college.  She has a good eye for recipes and is creatively detailed when this momma sometimes needs an extra push to get dinner on the table.  

She starts a new internship this week.  We pray and wish the very best for her as she completes her masters this spring.  I'm one proud momma in more ways than one.  I have three good reasons and sweet husband that helps makes life a good one. I hope each of my daughters find their way in this big old world in a profession they love and a man like mine who loves both me and most of the time my cooking adventures!

Alise  and Bethany - The Ranch Kitchen  

Happy New Year from The Ranch Kitchen! Foods for good luck!

Crazy to think we are about to close off the year 2015!  I remember thinking as young woman how old I would be in 2015...  Well I am a bit older, hopefully a bit wiser and life is speeding by, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

As we look forward to tonight, our New Year's Day celebrations or simple family meals, here are some tried and true recipes that are good luck foods.  We always try eat to these recipes to bring us prosperity and good health in the year ahead.

One of my favorite appetizers to serve on New Year's Eve is this The Ranch Kitchen's Black-eyed Pea Salsa.  It's a fast and easy side to make and is great with corn tortilla chips or as a side vegetable.  I love to serve it in a large over-sized champagne glass or footed crystal bowl for some height with the chips underneath it.  There is seldom any of this left, but if there is and you make a ton it will keep up to one week in your refrigerator.  

Click here for the recipe for The Ranch Kitchen's Black-eyed Pea Salsa

Each New Year's day I also make sure to cook a pot of black-eyed peas from scratch on my stove-top. I'm a little silly about eating it out of the can as I think I have to cook it to have the good luck.  But if I had to I would as we are that superstitious about it!  These are one of my very favorite peas and one thing we always make sure they are full of is some smoked ham.

You can eat the black-eyed peas alone or over white rice and make your own Hoppin' John dish.  I usually make around two pounds of black-eyed peas so that we can take them out with our other evening meals the next few nights.  One note is to buy  your black-eyed peas early on New Year's Eve or before as the stores are always sold out.  And I have been known to cook them in a crock pot beginning at midnight of the new year to have them ready the next a.m. for lunch.  

Click here for The Ranch Kitchen's Black-eyed Peas

At our house, you also have to make sure you make my Granny's Wilted Cabbage.  Cabbage is a sure fire way they say to have wealth and prosperity in the new year ahead...so we always make sure to eat a ton of it! This is as close as I can remember her recipe and we really do love it.  The surprise is the mustard that you add to the cabbage.  Don't add too much mustard or it will overpower your cabbage.  The mustard really gives it an added kick.  We rarely have much left of this cabbage recipe.  You can also add smoked ham or Kielbasa sausage to it to make a complete meal.  

Click here for Granny's Wilted Cabbage

And last try these Baby Back Ribs because anyone can cook them, you don't have to have a grill and can even get them done on a counter top oven.  The trick is to spray your foil with oil, season liberally with your favorite Cajun Seasoning like Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning and cook away.  

 

My husband's mom, Billie Nolan always served up ribs on New Year's Day at her house along with sauerkraut as her cabbage side dish.  It was always a great lunch and welcomed meal after a night out the evening before.  Our tradition the last few years was for Scott to smoke the ribs on his smoker, but in a pinch or when it's up to me to make them this was always my go to recipe.  You can baste these ribs with BBQ sauce ten minutes before taking off the grill, just before serving or eat alone as they are that good.  

 

I like to make huge double or triple batches and use the left over rib meat in pork enchiladas using my King Ranch Chicken recipe.   We will miss her lunch this year as she is now watching down from heaven on us, but will eat these quickly before we head to Houston to take our Bethany for her internship there.  We wish her the best and are going to miss her.  

Click here for The Ranch Kitchen's Baby Back Ribs Recipe

I hope these food help bring you the very best year yet.  To say I am excited about the year ahead is an understatement.  As we all know luck is what you make it.  It's truly  about how hard you work to achieve your goals and to have a little fun in the process.  

So here's to slimming down, blogging more for me, making time for yourselves and loving your families, friends and life.  

Enjoy your evening with family and friends and from our ranch to your home - Happy New Year!  

Alise - The Ranch Kitchen