Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball YUM!

I LOVE cheese. In any shape, form, or fashion. Yes, I even like the string cheese from a can. One of my favorite forms of cheese is in the form of a cheese ball. No, not those cheese ball puffs that resemble Cheetos. The good ole Southern cream cheese cheese balls. 

I've had this recipe pinned on my Pinterest for awhile and made it a couple of weeks back. I've finally gotten around to blogging about it!

It was midnight when I made this and I was hungry. I ate about half of it before I realized that the recipe was blog-worthy and took a photo of it half eaten. (I admit... I ate about 90% of that half....)

Here's the link to the recipe!

Birthday Boy! (with pizza dough recipe!)

A small interlude between the autumn themed crafts! It was my husband's 25th birthday yesterday! Quite an eventful day it was, indeed! We started off the day early (11am is early for us, okay?) and got ready to go survey people tailgating at the MSU vs South Alabama game for his Master's of Business capstone project. We managed to survey 50 people in a little over 2 hours. It was a little warm and sunny out, but a nice breeze kept us from  dripping with sweat. 

Surveying the event staff...

Chinese Sticky Rice

I love Chinese food. Well durr, I'm Chinese! One of my favorite dishes (besides Hainanese steamed chicken and chicken rice) is sticky rice with Chinese sausage, Shiitake mushrooms, and chicken. My mom used to cook this entire meal in just the rice cooker. My rice cooker is tiny so I have to cook most of it in my wok then mix it together when it's done.

Alot of these ingredients may not be found at your local grocery store even if it has an Asian section. I actually buy my Chinese sausage (DO NOT use regular sausage. It is NOT the same!) in bulk when I go visit my sister in Alabama 3 hours away. There is a local Asian market in my town, but it is owned by Taiwanese and Chinese sausage is not part of their cuisine so they don't sell it.

Let me tell you though, this is REAL Chinese food. You probably won't find this at your local Chinese buffet. As I begin my pretentious rant, American Chinese buffet food is NOT real Chinese food. Sure, it's cooked by Chinese people (sometimes) but the food served at buffets are not eaten normally by Chinese people. Plus, China is a HUGE country. There are a lot of different ethnic groups and a lot of different types of cuisine. For example, clam chowder is a dish founded in New England. Fried pickles and everything else fried was founded in the South. Get it?

The food you see in Chinese buffets originated from cuisine in southern China. Northern Chinese food is completely different and I must say that I don't think I've tried any myself. Enough information, onto the recipe!

That's not Corona Extra. It's just sweet tea. 

Deep Dish COOKIES

Split second decisions. We've all made them at some point in our lives. You've probably made a few that you regret and you've probably made a few that you're thankful for. Some were big. Some were small.

Some were delicious.

Well, the decision I made happened to be. While bored and stumbling on Stumbleupon, I stumbled on this recipe by Healthy Food For Living. In the few seconds it took to skim over the ingredients needed, I had already made up my mind. I WOULD make these. And so I did.

Left: Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip - Right: Reese's Peanut Butter

While they're not that healthy, the single serving size they came in was definitely better than a dozen of cookies. Plus, they were pretty quick and easy. The longest part was setting out the butter so it could reach room temperature, which took about 30 minutes.

Here's the recipe!

Delicious Pimento Cheese

I LOVE CHEESE. Of any shape or form. Yes. My name is Jessica and I am addicted to cheese.

I've grown up in the South and still live here so most of the food (besides Chinese food) I love is Southern staples like Memphis-style barbecue, fried chicken, sweet tea, and of course pimento cheese. To tell you the truth, I didn't start eating pimento cheese until this year. Yes. You read that correctly. I used to be terrified of its neon orange appearance and tangy-sharp smell. My mom used to buy small tubs of the stuff from the store and just spread it on bread and eat it like that. It horrified me.

Since the amazing invention of Pinterest, I've noticed a few pimento cheese recipes floating about and decided to try a couple. The first recipe I tried was by Positively Splendid. It was pretty delicious and I made it twice, but the problem I had with it was the large number of ingredients and prep work required. While browsing Craftster one day, I saw MissingWillow's recipe and was amazed at how simple it was. I've made her's twice too and loved it.

I've decided that I like some aspects of both recipes and came to the conclusion to combine the two. And here it is!

Yuuuuum!

Baked Eggplant Parmesan

Since becoming unemployed, I have been trying my hardest to cook more homemade, healthier meals. Let's say it's been like a roller coaster of fickleness. Sometimes, I really don't feel like cooking which results in us going out to eat or grabbing some greasy fast food.

It can be a little demotivating at times to cook for two. I grew up with 3 other siblings so our family dinners were always HUGE. I basically learned how to cook for a small army with leftovers. I've been striving to exercise more so I've been doing Couch to 5K, but I've been stuck on week 3 for like a month. And I've been striving to cooking healthier, fresher dishes. Here is where community markets come into consideration.

I love community markets. My town has a great one every Saturday during the late spring and summer months. Tons of fresh produce and baked goods handmade by locals for super cheap. Plus, I'm supporting local business so I feel even better for buying. Unfortunately, it runs from 7:30am to 10am which are my prime sleeping hours and I am NOT a morning person. You could say I am an afternoon wildebeest.

Anywho, last weekend my husband and I stayed up all night and went to the community market. We actually arrived a bit too early so we went to get breakfast and came back 30 minutes later. I bought 2 eggplants, handmade wheat pasta, strawberry bread, cheesy za'atar flat bread, and baklava.

My original intentions were to grill the eggplant, but then I remembered that eggplant parmesan is even tastier! I even baked it to make it healthier!

Bacon Wrapped Egg [Mc]Muffins

My husband, Drift0r, and I LOVE breakfast food. This is great and all, but not so great for our waistlines. Of course, we're also bacon lovers so our hearts currently hate us.

We're also still on the night schedule. We've been going to bed around 5 am every morning/night so sometimes we like to have a very early breakfast-snack, er, meal.

The other night, there was a dilemma on what we had to eat in the house. Sure, we have lots of food, but most of it needs to be cooked. First world problems, no? Well, Google to the rescue! I searched for a recipe generator and used Supercook to help find a recipe for spinach quiche. Well, apparently I didn't have all the necessary ingredients for quiche, but I spotted this recipe in my search results and BINGO!

BACON WRAPPED EGG McMUFFINS!

OMNOMNOMNOM

Comforting Tuna Casserole

As a Southern girl, I love comfort food. My husband and I have lived most of our lives in the South so we grew up with awesome dishes like casseroles, real barbecue, fried chicken, fried catfish, grits, and corn bread. In reality, I never took a liking to either grits or cornbread, but my husband loves all of the above.

Today's post is about a casserole. No, not green bean casserole, mind you. I won't post that recipe until closer to the holidays along with my infamous sausage balls recipe. I present to you...... tuna casserole!

As usual, I've made variations of this tuna casserole through the years so there is no definite recipe. The one I made last night was as close to the original as I hoped to get.

Hmmm.... Doughnuts!

You guys! My air conditioning is working again! Hooray!!!

So, my nonexistent sweet tooth got the better of me. You can ask my husband because I rarely crave anything sweet. He, on the other hand, LOVES sweets. His ideal desserts would be cakes, pie, cookies, ice cream, and candy. My mom usually gave me fresh fruit for dessert as I was growing up. We rarely got ice cream or cake for dessert and that was only a few times a year.

I saw this amazing pin on Pinterest a few days ago and I had to make it. I used this recipe by Christy Jordan from Southern Plate. It is AMAZING!

JWo's Super Awesome Spaghetti Sauce

Hello everyone! Let me start today's post with a moment of silence for the victims and families affected by the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting.



Today's post is going to be a recipe of my infamous spaghetti sauce. I've made this sauce for about 6 years now for many friends and family and they LOVE it. I've had people request it even though I haven't seen them in years.

The problem with me and recipe blog posts is that I am a cook. Not a baker. For those of you that are confused, cooks don't measure ingredients, but bakers do. I NEVER measure anything. I just throw in about how much I think it needs and hope to God that it tastes good. So far, I haven't messed up......... much.

Also, another problem is that about every time I make this spaghetti sauce it tastes different because I add different spices every time. I actually don't remember what the real recipe is so..... yeah. So, today I am going to make the basic sauce! Let's begin!

Sweltering Summer Days: Lemon (or Lime!) Mint Tea Recipe

I don't know about you guys, but it's HOT here in Mississippi. Who am I kidding? It's ALWAYS hot (and FREAKING HUMID) every summer in the South. Ugh.

In order to stay cool on these horrendously hot days, I make iced tea! Being the southerner that I am, it's gotta be sweetened, of course! To tell you the truth, I got out of drinking sweet tea for over a year since I moved out of my old place. My old roommates used to drink (VERY) sweet tea like water! I would watch my roommate brew sweet tea and pour an ENTIRE highball glass (12 ounces!!!!) of sugar in the pitcher.

I've been experimenting with different tea concoctions the last few weeks and my favorite is to brew green (or black) tea with peppermint tea since it adds a nice hint of minty-ness and refreshing taste. My husband HATES tea (he only drinks milk and water and very rarely some juices) so I get the entire pitcher to myself!

Alright! Let's get started!