Hi y’all! I hope that everyone is having a good Monday. We’re having thunderstorms, or whoppers, as Eli calls them. It’s a welcome thing, actually. I love a good thunderstorm.

 

I wanted to mention these recipes before I go and forget them. Days turn into weeks so quickly, and, sooner or later, I find myself standing in my kitchen, wondering where that great recipe for such-and-such is.

This blog is sort of my remembrall, it seems. So, here are some great recipes that I don’t want to forget….and some that you might love to know about, too.

First, the awesome queso sauce recipe that we made for our small group a few weeks ago. When our small group from church gets together, we have a theme meal that everyone contributes to. So, not truly potluck, but more like themed potluck. We were doing loaded nachos, and I was on the hunt for a good queso sauce recipe. One that didn’t use processed cheese, too. I found a great, easy one, here.

(I doubled the recipe, using chipotle chiles instead of jalepeno and using only monterey jack cheese. Make sure to grate your own cheese  — instead of buying pre-grated — for the best melting.)

Also, this waffle recipe is it. Smitten Kitchen is a genius, anyway, and these waffles prove it. Essential raised waffles are made the night before using yeast. The batter is then aged on the counter all night (or, if you are like me, on the counter until your microbe phobia seizes you and propels you into the kitchen to refrigerate the batter). In the morning, you stir in baking soda and eggs and then either make the waffles right away or keep the batter for several days in the fridge, using batter as needed. The taste is just great, y’all. It makes me want to find a pancake recipe that is similarly made to achieve this depth of flavor in those, as well. Try them!

 

Smitten Kitchen also does some great pasta recipes. A quick one that I’ve been enjoying lately is her Pasta Puttanesca recipe. It is so fast, y’all, that it literally takes as long as the pasta takes to cook. So fresh and zesty, too, with the olives and capers and arugula. In fact, besides the arugula, it is a pantry meal. Very yummy and a nice break from other pasta dishes that are in my recipe rotation.

Okay, now, everyone needs a good homemade barbeque sauce. I made this one from Pioneer Woman for a weekend meal and it was great. I made it as written, except that I upped the amount of adobo sauce by quite a bit. I didn’t measure (darn it) so I don’t know exactly. I would really like to know, then I could make it like that every time. It is really good with just enough zing. I’m squirreling away the remainder to have on a bbq pizza later in the week.

Okay, that’s all that I can remember for now. I’ve gone and made myself hungry.

Happy Monday!