Living On A Dime test Site

Holidays

Easter Menu and Leftover Easter Tips

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Easter Menu

Spiced Honey Ham
Boiled or steamed new red potatoes
Deviled eggs
Carrot and celery sticks (in honor of the Easter Bunny of course)
Peas and pearl onions
Cornbread
Pineapple Sour Cream Pie

 

Spiced Honey Ham

1/2 cup mustard
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp. cloves
1 ham

Mix first 5 ingredients and pour over ham. Cook ham according to directions on the package basting every 30 minutes or so.

This dessert is great a change from all the sweets everyone has probably had from the Easter Bunny that morning.

 

Pineapple Sour Cream Pie

1 pkg. (5 1/2 oz.) instant vanilla pudding
1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple plus juice
2 cup sour cream
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 baked pie crust (you can use a store bought one of course)
Whipped topping

Combine all but the crust and beat slowly for 1 minute. Pour into the crust and chill 3 hours. Top with whipped topping when ready to serve.

 

Easter Leftover Tips:

  • Run leftover Easter hard candy through your spice grinder. Sprinkle it on cakes, cupcakes and cookies for color, sparkle and taste.
  • To keep egg yolks from crumbling when you slice hard boiled eggs, wet your knife before each slice.

 

What to do with 1001 hard boiled eggs:

  • Use them and some of the leftover ham and veggies from your Easter relish dish to make chef salads.
  • Chop them up with ham, bacon or sausage and a little grated cheese to make breakfast burritos.
  • Use them for Scotch eggs. Wrap uncooked sausage (the moldable kind that comes in a plastic tube) around each peeled, hard boiled egg. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°. You can serve these cold or hot and make a great on the go breakfast.
  • Make your favorite egg salad. Then add to it equal amounts of ham. Slice a hoagie roll or French bread roll in half. Place bottom half of roll on baking sheet and spread with 1/4 cup of egg/ham salad. Sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese. Broil until cheese is melted. Top with roll top and broil a minute.
  • If you have a mound of leftover hard boiled eggs, don’t forget the simple ways to use them up like for deviled eggs, egg salad sandwiches, on a chef salad or just thrown in a lunch to be eaten with a little salt.

 

photo by: eraphernalia_vintage

Have an Old Fashioned 4th of July

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Independence Day Games!

I can’t believe the 4th of July is already here. It feels like I just put away my Christmas decorations last week. Well, many of you may have just put them away last week. HA!HA!

I was thinking (I know– that always gets me in trouble) that for something fun this year you might try having an old-fashioned 4th of July. Instead of just spending the day sitting around barbecuing and waiting for fireworks, why not plan some activities like gunny sack races, rope pulls, wheelbarrow races or just a good old-fashioned water balloon fight?

If you’re able, you can tie a gunny sack stuffed with straw in a tree for the kids (and adults) to swing on or, if nothing more, sit and have a watermelon seed spitting contest. I know that we usually think of apple bobbing for Halloween but apple bobbing would be great for July 4th and would help keep everyone cool!

Have a few fun, silly, inexpensive little prizes to give away or even simple blue ribbons for the winners!

      -Jill

photo by:fort_vancouver_national_trust

Hot Spicy Fruit

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This is a great dish to serve for a holiday party. You can make it a day or two ahead of time and then stick it in to bake right before the party. It will make your house smell delicious. You can use this all the way from a holiday brunch to an evening party.

Hot Spicy Fruit

1 (15-16oz.) can pear halves
1 (15-16oz.) can peach halves
1 (15-16oz.) apricot halves
1 (20oz.) can pineapple chunks
1 (16oz.) can bing cherries
1 (11oz.) can mandarin oranges
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (if you don’t have that use 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg and 1/8 tsp.ginger and cloves each)
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Drain fruit well and place in a greased 9×13 pan or casserole dish. Mix brown sugar, pumpkin spice and butter. Pour over fruit. Sprinkle with almonds. Cover and refrigerate until serving day. Bake uncovered at 350° for 40-45 minutes.

You can add or take away fruit as needed. For example, if you find bing cherries are too expensive, then use an extra can of peaches instead.

photo by: tambako

Tips and Recipe for Making Shish Kabobs

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Tips and Recipe for Making Shish Kabobs

Shish Kabob Tips and Recipe

For my holidays I usually like to keep things simple like always having hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, corn on the cob and potato salad for the Fourth of July but even I every once in a while like to “eat out of the box” and try something different. How about some kabobs for a change this year?

We all know about them but I don’t think a lot of us make kabobs that often. We really should. Shish Kabobs are so quick and easy and you can have most of the ingredients prepared the day before.

You can barbecue the recipe below on the grill but you don’t have to barbecue all kabobs. If you have a couple of pieces of meat like chicken, hot dogs or steak left from grilling, make them into “cold kabobs” the next day. Layer your already cooked meat with fresh veggies or fruit. These would be great to wrap and take on a picnic in place of a sandwich.

Use chunks of melon, strawberries, pineapple (you can use canned) and, if it will be served right away, apples or bananas. For veggies use small onions, green and red peppers, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli or cauliflower. Also if you will be serving it immediately, you could add cubes of cheese. The possibilities are endless.

For something fun and different, have a kabob bar and let everyone make up their own shish kabobs.

Use 2 skewers, holding them about half an inch apart to thread your items on the skewers. This will help to keep the ingredients from turning around on the skewers.

If you’ll be barbecueing them, soak the skewers for 30 minutes in water.

When cooking the shish kabobs, keep all the pieces of everything cut as close to the same size as you can.

Prepare as much as you can the day before. This will make your life easier the next day.


Barbecue Chicken Kabobs

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
2 cups pineapple, chunks
1 green pepper, 1 1/2 inch chunks
1 red pepper, 1 1/2 inch chunks

Place all of these on the skewers.

Brush with equal parts barbecue sauce and concentrated orange juice that have been mixed.

Cook on medium high grill until chicken is done about 8-10 minutes. Brush occasionally with sauce.

Makes 4.

-Jill

photo by: kristinausk