I’ll give you something easy. I’ve told you before its in the sazon.
1 can (red) of beans.
Green olives (how many you want)
1tps of Brown sugar
Pinch of Salt
Culantro
Half a diced onion
The top of Red bell pepper
2tps sofrito
Half a can of water (since its just you two)
Put it over med high for 25 mins and DONE!

Now if you want Black beans its pretty much the same. Just don’t add the brown sugar and make sure you use the top of the green bell pepper. Easy.

These are the glazed pumpkin cookies I made around Halloween last year. They’re good for all these “wintery” months though.

They taste kind of cake-like unlike regular cookies and are soooo good!

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners’ sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

This is what I look forward to every year during Christmas time!

Hot Buttered Rum Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 pinch salt
3 sticks cinnamon
6 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups rum
heavy cream — whipped
ground nutmeg — for topping

Directions:

Put all ingredients, except rum and cream, and nutmeg into crockpot. Add 2 quarts hot water. Stir well. Cover pot and cook on LOW for 5 hours. Add rum; stir to blend. Serve from pot in warm mugs with a scoop of whipped cream and a dusting of nutmeg.

I just found out these things call whoopie pies existed. Google it! Trying it this weekend in chocolate and pumpkin!

SO CUTE BTW!!!!!

Christmas Cornflake Wreath Cookies

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup butter
* 4 cups miniature marshmallows
* 1 teaspoon green food coloring
* 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 4 cups cornflakes cereal
* 1 (2.25 ounce) package cinnamon red hot candies

Directions

1. Microwave marshmallows and butter on High for 2 minutes. Stir, then microwave on High for 2 minutes more. Stir. (This can be done in a double boiler if one doesn’t have a microwave.)

2. Add and mix quickly the coloring, extracts, then cornflakes. Drop by spoonfuls in clumps on greased wax paper and decorate with 3 red hots each.

3. Once cool, transfer to lightly greased serving/storage tray with lightly greased fingers.

Turkey soup, baby! It can’t fail!

PART ONE: The Stock.
You need:
— One Xmas dinner turkey carcass, stuffing scraped out and extra meat reserved.
— One large stockpot with lid (or two depending on the size of the carcass — pasta pots with lift-out strainers are great for straining the stock later)
— One onion, quartered **
— Four ribs celery, broken into approx. 3-inch pieces**
— Four carrots, split and cut in half**
— Five peppercorns**
— Tablespoon coarse sea salt**
— 1-2 springs tarragon**
** per pot

Step 1: Break down carcass as best as possible (detach legs, wings, break off ribs from breast. Cooked turkey bones break easily, but they poke so tell hubby to make himself useful and do this part!) It helps the turkey fit in the pot(s). Make sure you take off as much meat as you can!
Step 2: Add veggies to pot, then turkey pieces on top (if you’re splitting between two pots, it’s good to evenly distribute dark meat [wings/legs] and white meat [ribs/breast] bits), then seasonings. Fill with water to cover everything — don’t worry if some pokes out; once everything softens you can push it under.
Step 3: Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cover: simmer for 90 minutes. Uncover and simmer another 90. VOILA.

PART TWO: The easy part — er…I mean, the Soup!
You need:
— Reserved turkey meat, chopped
— Four MORE ribs celery and four MORE carrots, chopped**
— One cup celery leaves, chopped
— Two tablespoons tarragon (new), chopped**
— Egg noodles (I like NoYolks) or barley
** per pot

Step 1: Pull out turkey bones and place on large plate or cutting board. The fat and gristle will have dissolved to flavor your stock by this point, so any meat left on the bones will come right off! Pick as much as you want, and add it to your reserved meat.
Step 2: Skim out all the stock veggies, bone fragments, and scummy bits. See note re: pasta pot!
Step 3: Add your chopped carrots, celery and celery leaves. Bring stock to a boil and add noodles/rice/barley, cooking according to package directions (remember, barley and rice multiply and soak up a LOT more soup than noodles!), watching for foam.
Step 4: When noodles/grains are tender, add turkey and tarragon leaves, and cook until warm through, about 5-7 minutes. You’re done!

NOTE: This soup comes out bland on purpose, so you can season with salt and pepper to taste (or a little hot sauce if you’re feeling zazzy). I prefer to eat the first few bites unsalted so you can really savor those gorgeous veggie flavors in the stock, the richness from the turkey bones and the sweetness from the carrots and tarragon. You can also use rice instead of noodles/barley, but I’d recommend pre-cooking and adding to the soup when you’re ready to eat it.

Your apron is so cute.

Melz, just like you, I am a totally dysfunctional cook. :/
With that being said, all of these recipes on the comments are making me HUNGRY! They all look so good!! MMM!

I can hardly cook, but give me a recipe, and I’ll make something edible! This my grandmas recipe for squash casserole. I had to make something for my work holiday party, and this was always my favorite dish at our family dinners. I had to copy it down from a paper bag, written in pencil!! For Christmas shes getting a recipe journal.

Squash Casserole
2 lbs of small yellow squash (cooked) slice 1/4 – 1/2″ thick, boil and drain. set aside.

in large mixing bowl:
combine 2 medium grated carrots
1 can undiluted cream of chicken soup
1 medium chopped onion
1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper

mix together and fold in drained squash

in separate pan, melt 1 stick of butter
remove and stir one package of pepperidge farm stuffing

grease: 9 x 14 baking dish
put 1/3 of stuffing on bottom
add squash and top with rest of stuffing

bake uncovered at 350 for 40 minutes
if pre-cooking, bake for 30 minutes. at room temperate, reheat for 10-15 minutes at 350.