Hunk of Meat Monday: Pizza Casserole

If you’ve ever eaten at my Grandma Bailey’s house, then more than likely you’ve eaten her famous Pizza Casserole. It’s a family favorite and kids and adults both like.

It’s easy. So easy a Husband can do it. (No Ronny, I’m not suggesting you’re a caveman!). The other night I had all of the ingredients for Pizza Casserole and when he asked, “What do you want for dinner?”, I told him I had all of the ingredients and he willingly said he would make it.

So while I got to spend some more time with our little man, he made my favorite casserole. He doubled the amount of cheese it needed, but I won’t blame him for that!

{Pizza Casserole}

Ingredients
1 (12-oz.) bag wide egg noodles
2 lbs. hamburger
1 onion, chopped
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cans tomato soup
1 (6-oz.) pkg. pepperoni
8 oz. mozzarella cheese
½ tsp. garlic salt
Sliced black olives, optional

Directions

1. Cook noodles to al dente.
2. While noodles are cooking, brown hamburger and onion together, then drain.
3. Mix soups and hamburger mix together.
4. Spray a 11 x 15 casserole dish (or make 2 smaller-sized casseroles – this works great in the freezer!) with cooking oil, then add noodles to the bottom of the pan.
5. Layer meat mixture on top of noodles, and top with cheese.
6. Generously layer pepperoni slices on top of cheese. (Add black olives if you want – or add other veggies to make it “supreme”!).
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.

Enjoy!

Easter weekend–He is Risen!

We had a fun-filled, family weekend to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus!

My Kansas grandparents hosted Easter with my mom’s side of the family, so all of the siblings and cousins were together to spend time – and to enjoy Grandma’s amazing food. (Why is it that I can make her recipes to the exact recipe and it still doesn’t taste the same? I think she throws some Grandma-magic spice in, although she won’t admit it. ;)

One of the events we participated in was the annual Easter egg hunt. All of the “kids” ages 21 to 30 enjoyed a Easter egg hunt thanks to Aunt Tam (for filling over 400 eggs with candy) and Grandpa. (You really like finding Grandpa’s eggs because it means money – and this year, Subway gift cards!)

We got all lined up for the hunt – then had to be  just a little bit silly. :)

Then, because they love pity me, the pregnant one, they let me take three steps of a head start. And guess what…this lady got 82 eggs! I almost beat Josh (the non-relative) so really I won. :)

It was a great weekend and so great to all be together. One of the best parts this year was having Miss Maelle with us! I don’t think she was put down for one minute – she got lots of love this weekend.

Hope you had a Happy Easter to celebrate Christ being Risen!

high five for friday.

Nebraska Wheat Growers brought ah-mazing cinnamon rolls to our office. ‘Nuff said! Happy weekend!

Linking up with high five for friday at From My Grey Desk.

Christmas Day | 2012

It was so nice to relax at home on Christmas Day after our fun Christmas Eve outing with my sister and parents! We missed my brother and sis-in-law though, but they are expecting a baby any day!

Ronny was excited about his K-State gear and Mom and Dad were excited about dinner and a musical.


Emily got a Prince William collectors doll. “I’m staring at you, Emily!” (in a British accent of course). :)

In the evening, we did our intermediate family tradition – fondue! Ronny stole the camera while we were preparing all of the food.


Hello Mama!


The table was all ready to go and we ate ourselves full of delicious meat and veggies. Then chocolate with cake and strawberries. Another great tradition besides our Swedish ones! We missed you, Ryan and Lindsay!



We celebrated an early Christmas with Ronny’s family in early December – but I unfortunately didn’t take my camera to get any pictures! The whole fam was there and we enjoyed all of the little kids celebrating Christmas.

Sausage Soup recipe for a snowy day

As with most of the Midwest – we finally got snow! My neighbor, Kim and I who carpool to Lincoln left early in the afternoon and we’re glad that we did.

When I got home soup just sounded like the most logical thing to make to warm me and the kitchen up. So I made Grandma Bailey’s amazing Sausage Soup. Sounds simple – and it is – but it is SO good! The secret ingredient is….shhh…liquid smoke. :)


Since it’s not a secret family recipe, I’ll share. Try it. You’ll thank me later.

Sausage Soup 
Ingredients 
1 lb bulk sausage
1 cup water
1 medium potato, diced
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. summer savory
1 – 10 oz pkg frozen mixed veggies
1/3 cup water
1 tsp. sugar
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 soup can milk
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup Velveeta cheese, grated or diced

Directions Crumble sausage in frying pan and cook until done. Drain fat. In a large saucepan mix sausage, water, potato, onion, bay leaf, liquid smoke, popper and summer savory. In a small saucepan, cook the frozen vegetables, water and sugar until they are tender. Pour mixed vegetables into large saucepan, then add remaining ingredients. Stir until well blended and simmer until the potatoes are tender and flavors blended, about 30 minutes.

Thanksgiving InstaFriday

I’m thankful for …

My hilarious little puppy who is always making life interesting and making me get out of the house on nice evenings.

Beef (food in general). I’m glad to be able to raise beef and consume this protein powerhouse – and have an exciting job that I get to advocate for ag!

Family. These pictures were from a family get-together – it is so wonderful to me that my little niece gets to know her grandpa and our three generations get to spend time together.

Our house. Even though it is easy to dream of better places to live and things I wish I had, we are very blessed for the house that we have and the awesome community we live in with awesome friends!

My husband – yes he may be silly and sarcastic, but I love him more than words can say. Thank you for fulfilling my life, honey! (even if it is with your “cute” little milk jug.)

My faith in Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior.

sweet n’ salty pork burgers.

Yum. I made Shana’s sweet n’ salty pork burgers from from CommonGround Nebraska this week and they are to.die.for. 5 easy ingredients = a quick meal. Enjoy!

sweet n’ salty pork burgers
Ingredients

1 lb ground pork
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp seasoned salt
Sliced Provolone cheese
Buns or Hawaiian Sweet Rolls

Directions

1. Preheat the grill or a stove top griddle to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine ground pork, sugar and salt
   
3. Mix with your hands until the sugar and salt are incorporated evenly.
4. Make 4 to 6 patties.
    
5. Cook on first side for 6 minutes or until golden then flip for another 6 minutes until the internal temperature is 145 degrees. (If grilling, use a sheet of heavy foil and spray with cooking spray. The sugar caramelizes as they cook (which is delicious), but can cause the burgers to stick to the grill grate.)
   
6. Add your favorite cheese right before you’re ready to take them off the grill. I used provolone. 
   
7. Pile onto a bun and serve. Enjoy!
   

Check out other CommonGround recipes here.

August Garden

I must admit, I’ve been neglecting my garden – but it must still love me because it has been producing some great cukes and zukes.

Hanky can attest – he really likes when I cut them up and “accidentally” drop some on the floor.

My sister, Emily, came for a weekend visit and she – the horticulture girl – gave my garden and bushes some love and discovered this little carrot growing. In a few more weeks I should be able to harvest the rest.

We also are officially a one-pumpkin family after our effort with the DIY Vertical Pumpkins. And a weeny pumpkin at that. At least  he turned orange, but Ronny was pretty disappointed. 

I was able to slice and freeze three of my zucchini’s and will look forward to lots of recipes this winter I can use them in.

Pumpkins, peppers and cukes

Even though we are very dry here, the garden is surviving, except I’ve given up on my lettuce and broccoli. For one, the broccoli gave me one good crop and didn’t produce much else afterwards – and Ronny thought it tasted funny. :) With the lettuce, I ate enough salads to make me sick of it, so I abandoned the last few weeks.

But my vertical pumpkins are doing just that. Going vertical.

And then horizontal again. These long vines are really stretching out – but as long as they stay on the rock, I’m ok with them. And do you see that in there?

We have our first pumpkin growing!

As far as the cucumbers – they are officially taking over the garden.

I’m loving my cucumber harvest, however, and have been taking them for snacks to work and am glad to have more growing.

Lastly, my peppers (that I started from seed) are growing pretty big! Hopefully they’ll produce some peppers before the first freeze.

Anyone else having good luck with their garden?

InstaFriday

I’ve been traveling a little bit the last week for a visit home to Colorado for Father’s Day and for Board meetings in Western Nebraska. Here is my collection of Instagram photos from the last couple of weeks!

I made lemon bars for my dad for Fathers Day and guess what I forgot to buy at the store? Yes, a lemon. So yes, I went to the store for one lemon.

Before heading out to Colorado, a nasty storm came through Seward. We had dime and nickel sized hail and Ronny felt compelled to run out in it to get the big pieces. Silly guy.

We ended up getting 4.2” of rain, and no - that is not supposed to be a pond.

Out in Colorado, I had fun playing with Remy – he is such a sophisticated ranch dog!

I got to see all of the pretty Red Angus cattle – the purple tags are my heifers.

We had some excitement on the ranch.  A train going through was dragging something and it caught on the road crossing and derailed over 12 cars full of coal. Did you know each car weighs 100 tons? That’s a lot of metal to stop moving! I have more pictures I’ll blog about later. There was also a fire that my dad help put out – scary being it is so dry out there.

When I got back to the office this week, I had a new chair waiting for me….it is so much easier to sit for longer periods of time with a nice chair. I have named him “Hulk”. :)