Food Blogger to Day Care Provider to Cottage Food Business AND Volunteer!

It's been quite a while since I last published a post! Life has been busy my friends!

Since I retired in 2018, I started watching my two youngest grandsons for my daughter Ashley. About 50 hours a week is dedicated to being at her house watching the boys. This arrangement is working very well for both of us. 

Before I retired

Food blogging metamorphosed into a cottage food business called SalleeB's Kitchen. Remember, happiness is homemade and I'm the happiest baking and decorating sweet treats for special occasions of all kinds.

My daughter doesn't mind me baking and decorating in her kitchen. 

Therefore, I have two totes of cake decorating equipment that stays packed up in the hatch of my Nissan Versa most of the time. I have gotten quite fast at packing additional equipment into the car on baking days! 

Last year I baked 17 dozen cupcakes, 13 dozen cookies, and 45 cakes. 

Some of you might not think this sounds like a lot, BUT that is all of the treats I care to bake and decorate! My goal has never been to run a full-time business. It has always been to supplement my income AND keep it somewhere between a hobby and a part-time pursuit. 

Remember, I am spending about 50 hours a week watching the two grands. 

The oldest started Kindergarten in August 2018 and I am using my 20 years of educational paraprofessional experience helping him complete homework, practice math facts, and read 20 to 40 minutes a day. During school breaks, I also make packets of daily review and practice work. Don't worry though, I have a lot of online learning scheduled in there too. 

As if this wasn't enough, I also help with a church program called Bible Buddies. The Bible Buddies program is once a week for students in K-4th grade and it runs from September to April. There are usually about 28-33 children enrolled in the program. My role is shadowing my older grandson and assisting his group through the three class rotations; music, bible lesson, and crafts/games. 

Are any of you other Grammys keeping up with a schedule like this? 

Be proud of yourself! For me, retirement hasn't been the end of working. It is the end of working for an employer. Now I have a monthly income, supplemental income and every federal holiday and weekend off to go and play! Yes, I am blessed. Well, friends, that catches you up on what I have been doing. I am going to post some baking pictures for you to drool over. I wish you could taste them too!

 

 

 

 

 

My New Food Journey - 56 pounds and Another Inch Smaller

Yippee! Another 4 pounds smaller and an inch from most of my measurements!
My energy levels are higher, my knees aren't threatening to buckle anymore, and my lower legs don't feel heavy by the end of the day now. Stairs are no longer an obstacle to be negotiated one step at a time.

Carb counting is my happy spot!
Food is my friend and I can eat a lot of food in one day. Protein, dairy, grains, vegetables, and fruit fill my plate and my stomach. I love smoked sausage, pork sausage, bacon and beef. I can have a link of smoked sausage or a bratwurst, but not in a bun. I can have a couple of chocolate chunk chewy granola bars a day if I want and this curbs all of my chocolate cravings.

Breakfast was a breakfast biscuit minus the biscuit. Lunch was my chocolate fix. Dinner was a skinny version of chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. My husband had oven fried chicken, but the skinny mashed potatoes and gravy. I use chicken bouillon and 2% milk to make my white sauce and mashed potatoes. I still put 1-2 Tbsp. of butter in them. 

Pizza is another food I LOVE!
Carb counting lets me eat pizza just not in the amounts I was consuming before. Pizza is now 2 slices a meal from a medium pizza and I usually eat it for supper, 2 slices for breakfast the following morning, and 2 slices for lunch the following day. Pizza splurge over 3 meals!
Cheese is another food I LOVE!
I can have 1/3 cup of grated Colby Jack cheese or Mozzarella on salads, scrambled eggs, skillet scrambles, etc. Cottage cheese, sour cream, and yogurt are all things I can still eat.

Are you seeing the heavy cream and butter that I am still eating? Yes, I eat heavy cream and butter on or with my food. I cook with the butter and the cream, but I seldom go over 2 Tablespoons a day. Dinner was a skillet scramble that I love. Lots of veggies scrambled with a large egg and egg white. Then topped with picante sauce. 

When I started my food journey, I used the app LoseIt! and set my goal to lose 95 pounds at a rate of a pound and a half a week.
The app tracks calories, carbs, protein, etc. For myself, I watched the carbohydrates, but found that the calories I consumed seldom went over the calorie goal anyway. Fat and sodium intakes were two things I also tried to balance out. My weight was put on gradually and wanted to take it off gradually.
The initial plan was eating 135-180 carbs a day and almost 1900 calories a day.
As I logged my weight loss, the app gradually reduced the calorie count, but I continued to eat 135 - 180 carbs a day. Honestly, there are days I can't eat another bite because I am full and my carb count is at 80 to 125 carbs. See the food diary snip for January 29th. I ate 87 carbs and couldn't eat another bite!

My New Food Journey Continues - Fifty Pounds Smaller

It has been awhile since I have posted here at SalleeB's Kitchen, but life happens doesn't it? My new food journey began in June 2017 when my blood work came back in the upper end of the prediabetic range. I immediately resolved to lose the extra pounds that I had slowly put on over the last seven years. However, this news just increased my resolve to follow through on a decision I had made in April 2017 after seeing the picture below. 

To date, I have lost 51.8 lbs. 
My original clothing size was a plus size 22/24. Now, I am wearing a plus size 16/18. How amazing is that? There have been several other benefits to losing this weight. The first one is that my November blood sugar, or A1C test, was at the lower end of the prediabetic scale. Another benefit is that my knees and lower legs no longer ache and cause me pain. No more one stepping up and down stairs while holding onto the banister. My energy level is much better too.
Exercising Much? 
One of the first questions I get asked is how often am I exercising. This is funny because I haven't exercised once. Yes, I have lost over fifty pounds and haven't intentionally exercised once. Instead, I have made a change in what and how I eat. This eating change is responsible for my weight loss.
My choice for dropping the extra pounds is a combination of counting carbohydrates and using the plate plan method. 
When I first started counting carbs, I decided to use an app to help me log my carbs. This has been a great way for me to track my calories, carbs, fat, sugar, sodium, and protein intake too. My daily carb goal is 135-180 carbs a day. As long as I don't eat a lot of pasta, cake, or food containing starches that turn into sugar, I can eat a lot of food and I do not feel hungry or food deprived.  A side benefit of counting carbs and using an app is that I find myself planning my meals most of the time. 
The plate plan is easy! 
I just imagine a line divides my plate in half horizontally. That top half of my plate is for non starch food like lettuce, salad olives, cucumbers, etc. The bottom half of my plate is for starches on the left and protein on the right. None of my food should be taller than a package of playing cards. How easy is that? 
Measuring My Food
In addition to carb counting and the plate plan, I started measuring and weighing the food that goes onto my plate at home. No more guesstimates for me. Now my kitchen scale is in use almost daily in contrast to before when it sat in the cabinet for weeks at a time. I also use 1/2 cup and 1 cup containers to use when I pack my lunch for work. 
A Label Reading Surprise
I have always been a label reader, but after I started counting carbohydrates, my first shopping trip to the grocery store took label reading to another level. That initial trip took much longer than usual because I had to read the ingredient list  and carbohydrate count on every prepackaged product I picked up and was surprised at how sugar hides as an ingredient in an amazing number of foods! 
One of the Changes in What I Buy
One of the biggest changes in my new food journey is that I stopped buying prepackaged pasta and pasta sauce. I can't eat prepackaged pasta mixes because of the carbs and pasta sauce has sugar hiding in it. Sugar equals lots of empty carbs. These two items are no longer found in my pantry. 

I could go on and on about the changes, but I don't want to overload you with information that I have acquired over a seven month period of time. My new food journey is continuing and I will tell you more about it in other posts. 

Learning My Carb Counting Range and More

Life-long learner is a term that describes me well. 

A new project, or interest means I will immerse myself into learning and studying how to accomplish the task, or interest. This isn't just a passing phase, this is a part of my personality

Learning a new way of eating means I will devote myself to the initial learning and then keep myself updated. 

Online Research

First, I researched online to find out what types of food I needed to be eating and what type of plan would work well for me. Websites by individuals can be helpful, but my initial search for information was from research-based websites, like the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders (NIDDK) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

The article that helped me shape my eating plan is linked to the NIDDK link above. 

Now on to carb counting.

I found a 15 pg. PDF booklet at www.lillydiabetes.com that I am finding to be very helpful and it has links to additional resources included. 

According to the booklet, most women need 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrates at each meal. This means the carb counting range for me is a total of 135-180 grams of carbs. 

I can easily count my carbs because I am using the LoseIt! online website and app to help me track what I eat. 

I hope you find this information helpful. I am finding that I can eat more food than I want and I am still losing weight and within my carb range. 

First Time Putting Spinach in a Smoothie

I made my first ever smoothie with spinach in it!
The taste was mango/strawberry with a hint of another flavor and surprisingly good. The luscious, thick smoothie was GREEN.

Go ahead and laugh, I don't mind.
If you have been hesitating about putting spinach in a smoothie, quit hesitating and go for it! The results will surprise you, I promise.

Recipe   Yield: One 10-12 ounce smoothie

• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1 handful of spinach I didn't grab a fistful, just reached into the bag and picked up spinach leaves between my fingers and thumb.
• half of a diced mango
• 3 fresh strawberries, stemmed and sliced. 

Directions
Put all the ingredients into a blender, or processor and blend until smooth and thick.
Pour into a 10-12 ounce glass and enjoy your smoothie!

Never tried using a mango and don't know how to cut it up? 
Watch the video below and you will be ready to slice and dice a mango.

#spinachsmoothie #eathealthy 

A New Food Journey Begins

Prediabetes
I have known that I have a high risk of developing sugar diabetes because during my last pregnancy, I developed gestational sugar diabetes. After the birth of my daughter, it went away. However, I recently found out that I have an elevated glucose level and my doctor wants me to eat healthier and exercise more. 

A New Food Journey - The Dinner Plate Eating Plan

After a little research, I decided to adopt the dinner plate eating plan. This plan fits in with my lifestyle and will help me eat consistently no matter where I am. The picture below shows how to mentally divide your plate into sections and what type of food to put in each section.

Today's Breakfast and Lunch Menu

• Breakfast: Overnight oats without any dairy, half of a mango,diced;  two large strawberries, sliced thinly; and  1 Tbsp sliced almonds. I put the half cup of oats on the bottom with an equal amount of water and layered the fruit and nuts. I added an additional 1/2 cup of water. Honestly, it needed a sweetener. Next time, I am adding a tsp. of honey. 
• Lunch Salad: 2 cups of chopped spinach and romain lettuce,  a small amount of thinly diced red onion, 2 large strawberries, sliced thinly; 1 Tbsp. of raw pumpkin seeds, and 1 Tbsp of lite raspberry vinaigrette. I was still hungry 15 minutes after I finished the salad, so I made a folded cheese quesadilla with one whole wheat tortilla containing 1 ounce of melted Colby jack cheese and ate it slowly - 10 chews per bite. 

Tonight I took a picture of my dinner plate. 

• The top half is filled with homegrown green beans and diced tomatoes, the non-starch vegetables
• Bottom left quarter has baked sweet potato fries, a starchy vegetable
• Bottom right quarter has my protein, Melt-in -Your-Mouth BBQ pork ribs that are baked in foil, unwrapped and brushed with BBQ sauce, then broiled on each side for about 2 minutes.

Drinks
I already drink black coffee by choice during the morning. For afternoon and evening,  I am now adding lemon juice to my water because the lemon juice will help lower my blood glucose level.
Exercise
A formal workout isn't part of my day at this time. To add more walking to my day, I am parking my car at the end of each store parking lot that I visit. Push mowing for 20 minutes instead of using the riding lawn mower the whole time has added more exercise into my day. Another way I am planning on incorporating exercise into my daily routine is to do leg lifts while watching TV in my recliner and to do some walking in place while watching TV. 
Two Weeks and 6 Pounds Later
I started my new meal and exercise plan two weeks ago. Yesterday, I decided that my clothes had definitely become a little looser around my midsection and hips. With some hesitancy, I took out  the bathroom scales to see if I had shed some pounds. I am happy to share that the fit of my clothes was from being six pounds lighter! 

I am still serving some homemade happiness on a plate; it is just a lighter version of homemade happiness on a plate!

 #prediabetes #dinnerplateplan 

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July 2017

Father God I ask that you protect Americans everywhere as they travel and go about their holiday business. Let us remember that this is a Christian nation, under your Lordship Father. Amen. 

My First Ever 4 Tier Wedding Cake.

Tier sizes: 12 inch, 10 inch, 8 inch, and 6 inch
Yield: about 100 servings of cake

I volunteered to make a wedding cake for a friend's wedding as my wedding present to her. 
My experience with making wedding cakes is limited to 2 - two tier cakes and 2 - three tier cakes. However this is my first, four tier cake. 
Despite losing electricity for almost eight hours, baking the cake layers went somewhat smoothly until I started baking the 12 inch rounds. After throwing away 3 layers of cake due to fallen middles and falling apart,  I managed to end up with 2 usable layers of vanilla cake.
Why did I have so much trouble with the 12 inch layers? 
After thinking about it, I believe the cake mixes that I bought on sale were old and just didn't bake as well as they normally do. Even the smaller layers had one or two issues, but nothing like the large, 12 inch layers! 

Once the power was restored and the cake layers were cooling, I set about making the buttercream frosting with 10 pounds of powdered sugar, 2.5 lbs of butter, and 2.5 cups of solid, vegetable shortening, 3 Tbsp. and 1 tsp. of vanilla extract, about a quarter cup of lemon juice, and about 1.5 cups of water. 
Like Making Four Cakes of Different Sizes
When I began to work with the two inch layers, I quickly discovered that making the wedding cake was the same as making four, separate layer cakes. Each tier had two cake layers that had to have the tops leveled before they were cut in half, filled with frosting, stacked, and crumb coated with icing. THEN, each tier had a final coat of frosting applied and smoothed. 

Each sunflower was individually piped onto a square of parchment that was attached to a flower nail.

Sunflower petals and buds: Wilton #366 leaf tip

Sunflower centers: Wilton #21 open star tip

Sunflower leaves: Wilton #125 petal tip. 

Cake borders: Wilton #21 open star tip

Sunflower Tutorial

Smoothing Crusting Buttercream
The following tutorial will show you the basics of frosting a cake and then smoothing the crusted buttercream frosting with a Viva paper towel.

• For best results, wait 10 to 20 minutes after frosting your cake before you begin smoothing the frosting. 
• If your work area is warm, put the frosted cake into a refrigerator for about 10 minutes before you begin smoothing the buttercream. 

Believe me, it took several attempts before I figured this out for myself!

My Cooking Hasn't Been Fancy

Since the beginning of January 2017 I haven't been posting much because I really haven't been cooking as much. 
Working 40 plus hours and winter weather has kept me viewing Netflix, or DVR recordings of cooking shows more than I have been in the kitchen.
Dinner - Deli Chicken
Twice a week, dinner has been fried chicken from the store deli, rotisserie chicken from the store deli, and canned veggies. Not real exciting fare.
Pasta, Pasta, Pasta
Next has been a lot of pasta with homemade white sauces. The hubby has a stomach issue that is keeping him from eating most tomato based pasta sauces. See? Nothing real exciting. Certainly not post worthy. I have already posted about making a basic white sauce.
Click Here for the white sauce recipe.
Roast in a Crockpot
 My crockpot has been getting a workout making pork roast and chuck roast that is served with the thickened broth. Again, nothing real exciting or post worthy.
Homemade Pizza
Pizza has also been served quite a bit lately and I have already posted about how to make homemade pizza,
Click Here for the update and recipe link
Future Posts
My youngest grandson is turning one in February and I am making a rubber duck smash cake. Watch for the pictures and step by step photos. Also, tricolor, Valentine cookies for the grandkids are going to be baking in a week or two.
So keep looking through my recipes and cooking up some homemade happiness on a plate!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season!

Snowman Cookie Exchange Winner

My adorable snowman cookies won 1st in the Best Decorated category in the annual Christmas cookie exchange at work. 

Sugar Cookie recipe   Click Here  Use a 3 inch gingerbread man cookie cutter

Royal Icing recipe      Click Here  Use clear vanilla extract to get snow white icing. 

Icing Colors

• Apply the white royal icing with a butter knife and allow to dry for about 20 minutes.
• Tint a small amount of icing black with Americolor Gel Super Black.
• Tint a small amount of icing orange with 1 drop Americolor Gel Super Red, and 2 drops Americolor Gel Yellow.
• Put tinted icing into a small decorator bag. Carefully snip the very end of the bag off. Pipe onto the cookies. 

Selling Cupcakes at a Community Marketplace Event

A local organization is hosting a community marketplace on the first Saturday of December. 
Their community marketplace event began several months ago, but this will be my first time to participate by selling cupcakes.

Do you have trouble picking only four cupcakes to bake? It is terribly difficult for me to make a decision when it involves cupcake flavors and frosting choices.

Impromptu Survey
I tried an impromptu survey on my personal Facebook page to have my friends and family help me pick four cupcake and frosting flavors to make. What I discovered is that everyone has a personal favorite and some were not on my list. lol...lol  The first two cupcakes on my list below were the front runners in my cupcake survey.

My picks are:

• chocolate with peanut butter buttercream
• carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
• pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting
• sugar-free, marbled chocolate/vanilla cupcakes with a sugar-free vanilla cream cheese frosting.

Packaging and pricing the cupcakes was my next knotty problem. 

I kid you not, I sat with an online baking/pricing calculator, pen, and paper for a couple of hours to figure out how much my total cupcake and packaging cost were per cupcake. Then, I had to decide if my community will pay $1.10 - $1.20 per cupcake. After a great deal of thought, my price point is going to be:

Individual cupcakes - regular $0.90  and sugar-free $0.80

Half-dozen - regular $4.80 and sugar-free $4.40

Dozen - regular $9.00 and sugar-free $8.80

These prices are higher than bake sale prices, but lower than custom cupcake shops. 

More importantly, my costs are covered, I will make a small amount of profit for my time and labor, and someone will be eating some homemade happiness on a plate, or cup in this instance!

Baking Hen Shoulda Been a Stewing Hen!

The Baking Hen
Wow! I bought a "baking hen" a couple of weeks ago. Note the parentheses, I am being sarcastic
After thawing the frozen bird, I was ready to bake it for supper last night.
And the Meat Thermometer Said...
I baked the hen using a meat thermometer and took it out when it reached the correct temperature for poultry. Pushing gently down on the drumstick of the bird, I found that there was very little yield in that drumstick joint. Quickly, I relocated the meat thermometer from the middle of the breast to the back of the breast by the thigh. Yep, the thermometer still read 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The bird was done.
A Rubber Chicken or a Tough Old Bird?
However, after letting it rest for 20 minutes, my serrated knife acted like I was trying to cut through a firm, rubber ball. After switching to a newly sharpened butcher knife, I managed to cut off some breast meat for supper. The meat was done and wasn't dry, BUT Bill and I had to cut it up with steak knives. Our jaw muscles had a nice workout though.

Laughing through our meal of "tough old bird", we finished dinner and the remainder of the "baking hen" went into a large pot of water on the stove. Once the water started simmering, I tried to stick a fork into the bird every 30 minutes. It took two full hours of simmering to make that hen fork tender!

I am positive I bought the world's oldest baking hen AND it should have said stewing hen on the outside wrapper!

To conclude this post, chicken and noodles will be on the Bonham menu next.

SalleeB Shares: Subpar Desserts for $16

Hi there. Last night the hubby and I had dessert at a local chain restaurant.
You know the saying, "hindsight is 20/20"? NOW we know ordering dessert was a bad and costly idea. After a lengthy wait, long enough that we thought our order was lost, the two desserts and beverages arrived.
Should've Looked at the Price
Now I do have to say that the hubs didn't look at the menu price because the words "Chocolate Lava Cake" robbed him of his common sense. lol...lol  Chocoholics know what I am talking about don't you? Yes, we are taking part of the  blame for the dessert debacle.
The Hubs Chocolate Lava Cake
Bill's chocolate lava cake looked good except for the two walnut sized scoops of vanilla ice cream. The size of the lava cake actually made the minuscule scoops look even smaller.

Being in tune with the hubs, I knew he didn't like it because he paused after he chewed the first bite of cake once.

He went ahead and ate it, but probably shouldn't have because he told me the ice cream tasted "weird." Also, the "lava" was chocolate syrup drizzled over the cake and maybe a little bit in the center.
My Strawberry Cheesecake
I did look at the menu prices and figured about $4.00 for a slice of strawberry cheese cake would be good. After all, it is hard to mess up cheesecake.

My slim wedge of cheesecake was about two inches wide at the outside edge. Since I am trying to cut calories, it was the perfect size and it taste great!

By comparison, the cheesecake just made the quarter of a cup of  thawed, frozen strawberries and juice look slightly pitiful. Yes, that was what topped that lovely wedge of cheesecake.

Comparing Bill's dessert with mine, mine was the better of the two sweet treats. Cheesecake won over chocolate this time.

The waitress arrived with the bill for our lovely desserts.
Yes, you hear sarcasm. Here is where the hubs went into price shock. Silently he handed me the ticket so I could read it and go into price shock with him.

Chocolate Lava Cake with vanilla ice cream     $6.49 

Strawberry Cheese Cake                                      $3.99

Coffee                                                                   $2.49

Soda                                                                     $2.49

Total                                                                     $15.46  before tax was added. 

Wow! The beverage prices were sky-high!
I am going to rant a little bit here. For $2.49 I can buy two, 2-liter bottles of soda! AND when you fill a glass full of ice you might have 4-5 ounces of soda in your glass. The hubs may have drank 20 ounces of soda. What the heck?  Additionally, my coffee cup might have held about 8 oz. of coffee and I only refilled it once! For $2.49 I should have drank half a pot!

Okay, I am trying to calm down and remember things like overhead that a restaurant has to deal with.

I think what bothers us the most about our dessert experience, is that we could have gone to another local restaurant and eaten a meal with drinks, and dessert for an additional $5.

Sure, the dessert wouldn't have been cheesecake, but the self-serve ice cream and dessert bar would have been infinitely better than Bill's chocolate syrup lava cake and weird tasting ice cream!

Here in the Ozarks we have a lot of  folk sayings and I am going to conclude this post with my Great-grandma's favorite saying:

Don't buy a pig in a poke, or Don't buy something you haven't looked at! 

SalleeShare: Life is Complicated

Pancakes for supper. A simple and fast dinner for a busy day. 

Lately, dinner at the Bonham house has been fairly plain fare. 
I know this will shock you, BUT I even used prepackaged, add-your-own-meat, pasta dinners twice in the last week. Are you feelin' sorry for the hubby? Don't, he grew up on TV dinners and actually LIKES them.

Yep, I am shaking my head too. Seriously, he actually asks for mac and cheese for dinner. Just mac and cheese. No meat. No side dishes. Just mac and cheese. I digress. Let me get back to the complications of my life.

Writing isn't my pay-the-bills job.
Not yet anyway. My forty hour a week job takes up my time from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. 7:00 AM is my departure time and 4:00 PM is my arrival time, the actual job is from 7:55 AM to 3:20 PM.

Once I arrive at home, I spend some snuggle time with the hubby and our doggy children before starting in on home making jobs and writing.

I have had several writing projects put on the back burner, or partially completed, for months. In August, I began putting together my second book of poetry, Faithful Facets: Poetry Inspired by Loving Jesus and Life in the Ozarks. It is now an ebook available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, iBooks, and Kobo.com.

Last week I completed a second project, another ebook: A Joyous Journey: Devotional Readings From The Book of Psalms. This ebook is now available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, iBooks, Lulu.com, and Kobo.com, too.

Now you see why I haven't been cooking much. I am sitting in front of the laptop A LOT. My third project is a half-finished book of vegetables for children. It is still sitting on the proverbial back burner.

Yesterday, the hubby and I took a bike ride to Mark Twain Lake/Clarence Cannon Dam to visit with both my daughters and all of the grand kids.
It was a gorgeous day to be riding a motorcycle, warm, no heavy jackets needed.  The rumble of my bike under me, my handsome hubby on his bike in the rear view mirror, and grand kids at the end of the ride made the day perfect!

Supper wasn't a prepackaged meal last night.
It was breakfast for supper, homemade pancakes and syrup. With a tummy full of pancakes, I went to bed and slept for eight hours. I am certain it would have been ten hours, but our baby dog started whining in the kennel because he needed to go outside.

Balancing Life
Now I am sitting here, sipping my cup of dark roast coffee and sharing with you about why I haven't posted much from the Bonham kitchen. Life is complicated when you are trying to balance work, writing, and family time.

Mom, How Do You Make Your Mac n Cheese?

Food allergies are tough to deal with. 
My daughter Ashley is allergic to yellow dyes: FDC 5, FDC 6, and FDC 10. These three dyes are found in an incredible number of food and nonfood products. Packaged macaroni and cheese always has one or more of these items in the cheese portion AND all types of cheese food products also contain these three dyes. Hence, Ashley grew up eating healthy. 

I made homemade mac and cheese for her entire childhood with white American cheese, Colby Jack, or mild Cheddar cheese colored with annatto. 

Now this daughter did not want to learn to cook from her mom.
No, she was too busy running track, cheering, or participating in band concerts. However, now that she has children and is cooking more meals. I am regularly receiving phone calls that begin with, "Mom, how do you cook..."

Last week, she wanted to know the secret to making my mac and cheese. 
Unbeknownst to me, she had tried and tried to make it on her own and couldn't get it to turn out correctly. 

The "secret" to my mac and cheese is homemade cheese sauce.
When I told Ashley how to make the cheese sauce she exclaimed, " That's IT!"
I valiantly managed to smother my snickering. 
About two hours later I read this post on her social media page:

Yep, this a a proud momma moment and a moment to smile from ear to ear. 

Now you too, can make my homemade Mac n cheese.                         Click Here  for the recipe.

Enjoy a Blessed and Safe Fourth of July

I love my country, the United States of America and I love Independence Day celebrations! May the Spirit of Lord be found with you and keep you safe over the 2016 Fourth of July, or Independence Day, holiday weekend. Enjoy the time with your friends and family!
God Bless America,
Sallee Bonham

Naked Wedding Cake Cookies and Heart Cookies

. 

Yes, we wore clothes.The wedding cookies are naked, not the wedding party. 

My daughter, Cassie wanted a destination wedding in the Colorado mountains about an hour and a half from where my sis lives in Greeley, Colorado. 

Greeley, Colorado just happens to be about 800 plus miles from central Missouri. 

Cassie wanted rustic simplicity with immediate family members.

No fancy dress. 

No reception hall. 

No catered meal. 

No wedding cake. 

Rustic, simple, and outdoors was what she wanted. 

However, she did tell me I could make my sugar cookies for the simple, outdoor meal she wanted us to share.

Naked wedding cakes gave me the idea for making three tier, naked wedding cake cookies.

Graduated, square cookie cutters used to make the tiers for the wedding cake cookies.

Double heart cookie cutter for making the Mr. and Mrs. cookies.

Each square is cut in half cross-wise. This yields two wedding cake cookies.

Hot pan of baked cookies cooling for five minutes before the cookies are removed and placed onto the cooling rack.

Royal icing piped with a #5 decorating tip outlines the cookie tiers.

Royal icing piped with a #5 decorating tip outlines each heart. 

Royal icing flowers and leaves are piped on each tier for a naked wedding cake look. Blooms and leaves are made with a Wilton #16 star tip and a #67 leaf tip. 

 Each double heart cookie has a dozen blooms created with the Wilton #16 star tip and a #67 leaf tip. Script writing is done with a #5 decorating tip.

Sugar Cookie Recipe              Click Here            Note: I use 1/2 cup of salted butter

Royal Icing Recipe                  Click Here            Note: I use lemon juice instead of cream                                                                                         of tartar.

Happy Father's Day to my Pops and Dads Everywhere!

Happy Father's Day to My Pops, Richard Tucker!
Keep on Riding Pops!

SalleeB Shares: Food Network Star Week 3

Creating Some Homemade Happiness on a Plate!

And the challenge is....."Cook the Word", or match a dish to a catchy, descriptive term!

How's "Better Off Bread" or "Carved for Attention?" These are two of the terms that the finalists had to work with this week for their opening, individual challenge.

The catchy terms were assigned by the perennial mentors Bobby Flay and Giada de Laurentis. Additionally, a  food photographer assisted each chef with creating a magazine worthy picture of their dish.

Click Here  to see a pic of each chef and their playful phrase.

Food Network Magazine's founding editor, Maile Carpenter, matched the gorgeous pictures of each chef's food to the cleverly worded phrases without knowing who had created each dish. 

And the Secret Is...

Unfortunately, the chefs didn't know that if Maile couldn't match their food picture with a phrase, the mentors wouldn't sample their dish. Jernard, Martita, and Monterey had the three dishes that Maile couldn't match in the "Cook the Word" challenge.

And the Winner Is....Tregaye!

Tregaye won with her Mount Everzest dish, Lobster Bread Pudding cooked in an individual bundt cake pan and topped with citrus zest.

Road Trippin' Themes

"Family Road Trip" was the team video and cooking challenge. As the winner of the individual challenge, Tregaye assigned the teams of two before the teams were given their road trip themes.

Tregaye obviously had a strategy in assigning the teams.

Regrettably, her strategy didn't work very well. Several of her assigned teams worked incredibly well together. Their filmed intros and dishes were worthy of an actual Food Network show.

Top Teams

• Jernard and Joy won the challenge. Their partnership and southern cooking was solid Down South Family with tremendous appeal. Honestly, they could have a show right now!
• Monterey and Rob filmed an amazingly professional video. The partnership was dynamic, but their dishes weren't very well received. This dynamic duo are safe due to the quality of their filmed intro. Loved Rob's black shirt with chains! 
• Damiano and Erin put an Italian spin on camping. Bakers bake and Erin's upscale spin on S'mores was judged to be flavorful and unique. They're safe for another week.

Bottom Teams

• Martita and Ana, spent more time talking about their abuela's (grandmother's) drink of choice than what they were cooking. Good job on that pairing Tregaye!
• Tregaye and Yaku found themselves on the bottom. Yaku's performance and food kept him safe. However, Tregaye's energy started out okay, but then she was sidetracked into a clownish performance that I found painful to watch. Additionally, Tregaye's Crab Topped Corn Muffin? wasn't found to be kid-friendly.

SalleeB is Shocked! 

My mouth literally fell open when the mentors announced Martita was going home. Really? Really! I took to Twitter and tweeted #FoodNetworkStar to let them know the really short version of  how I feel about this decision.

In my opinion, it is inevitable that Ana is going home.

Ana has already given a plethora of excuses for her poor time management. I find her very unpersonable. She makes a catty comment, blinks like she just realized it was catty, and then shrugs her shoulders and says it's the truth. Yeah, the truth according to Ana. Why not go ahead and send her home NOW?

Yes, Martita was repeating her culinary point of view in the same way and cooking similar dishes.

I agree she sounded very rehearsed and polished,  but the camera loves her. She sparkles and comes right through the camera and into my living room. Martita can fix rehearsed and one note.

You can't fix  unpersonable. 

Ana wanted to be less scripted and more conversational in the team challenge. Look how well that went! Yes, I'm being sarcastic. 

Bobby and Giada, what were you thinking?
I believe that Week 4 will only further reinforce the fact that Ana needs to be sent home. Maybe I'm wrong and she can improve. However, I'm from Missouri and Ana will have to "Show Me" an improvement before I will change my opinion.