Kitchen Creations: "Homemade" Croutons

Quick kitchen creation today! 

I had the displeasure of overcooking the garlic bread the other week. I've been having a lot of those kind of days lately.

Well, one man's trash can be the same man's treasure.  

My overcooked, but not quite burnt garlic bread may not have been the best bread, but it became the perfect croutons for our salad.  

Seriously, y'all we all loved the bursts of flavor; I'm never buying croutons again! 

Simply bake garlic bread until the top and bottom is hard, but not burnt. (I think it took me like 30 minutes to do this. I'm not completely sure, because I didn't over bake the bread on purpose.) 

Then cut it up, and toss it on top of a salad.  

Easy & you can add that you make the best homemade croutons to your list of cooking accomplishments! 

Dinner (& Wine Mixer): Grilled Pineaches (& Chardonnay)

I have done it! Not only do I have a recipe that works with dinner, but I have a recipe that makes a great wine mixer, too. (Wine is amazing, but Wine Mixers are just so fun to create!)

I call this grilled pineaches [pine-E-chez], because I had a bag of peaches and a bag of pineapples. . (And because I still take pleasure in combining two words to make one rediculous word.) 

Disclaimer: I call anything I put in a skillet, grilled. No grill was used. 

Directions: 

I let my frozen fruit thaw at room temperature for two hours.  

By dinner time, they were pretty soft.  I threw them in a skillet with a 1/4 cup of juice ( I used Passion Fruit Lemonade, because that's what we had on-hand), 2 tablespoons of  brown sugar,  3 tablespoons of  ground cinnamon, and 2 pinches of ground ginger,

I cooked them on medium for 30-45 minutes, stirring regularly.  And sprinkled nutmeg on top when they were done. That's it. An easy, quick side,

These sweet and savory grilled fruits added some balance to our somewhat spicy fried chicken and potato wedges.  And they weren't too sweet or too bitter, so the husband didn't mind eating them with dinner, and the boys ate them without question or complaint.  

After dinner, the grilled pineaches were absolutely perfect when I added 1/2 cup of them into 1 cup of Chardonnay, and blended it.  It helped cut the bitter after-taste of the Chardonnay.

And although I did not try it, I think these would be wonderful with vanilla ice cream. I will buy some ice-cream tomorrow, and top it with the leftovers and let ya'll know! 

Because of their flexibility and catchy name, Grilled Pineaches just may be my new favorite recipe. 

Kitchen Creations: Mean Green Beans

Isn't my name catchy? It rhymes.  And I am pretty pleased with it. 

Anyhow, green beans are one of my favorite vegetables, and one of the few vegetables I can get Jeffrey to eat.  So we eat them pretty often.  And I wanted to share my no-fail (unhealthy) green bean recipe, since I get a good bit of compliments on them.  

Ya'll, I try to eat healthy and feed my family healthy food.  But I cook often with butter and salt, and that's like the very definition of unhealthy.  A salted green bean is still a green bean, so the good and bad cancel each other, right? (Well, that's what I tell myself.) 

Here's how I make my mean green beans! 

Ingredients: 

Everything is measured to-taste.  

1. Canned green beans (If you use fresh or frozen, you have to up the cooking time.)

2. Butter (I use 1/2 stick to a whole stick.) 

3. Garlic powder 

4. Onion powder 

5. Pepper 

6. Salt 

7. Hot Sauce 

8. Chicken Boilloin Cubes (I use one cube per can) 

9. A few tablespoons of vinegar 

10. Seasoning Salt 

Directions: 

1. Rinse and drain the green beans.

2. Throw all the ingredients into a skillet.  

3. Cook on medium high heat for 10 to 15 minutes, the green beans will be a darker shade of green when they are done cooking,