DIY Home & Garden

A DIY & Gardening Resource

Recipes

Tomato Soup (Homemade in Pampered Chef Cooking Blender + Stove Top Version)

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Tomato soup is a hearty, cool-weather classic. When the weather turns, I can’t seem to get enough. I cooked this recipe in the Pampered Chef Deluxe Quick Cooker. For those of you haven’t taken the plunge and purchased one, I’m including the stove top method and a crockpot method. Truthfully, I cooked this batch the […]

5 Fall Recipes The Whole Family Will Love

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Fall is upon us. That means cold nights, cold mornings, and plenty of opportunities for comforting warm meals with the family. The following fall recipes prove that a finger-licking hearty supper or lunch that brings the whole family together doesn’t need to take much time or be overly complicated.  5 Easy Fall Recipes for the […]

Taco Seasoning to Never Go Without!

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Taco seasonings are a pantry staple for many households. But do you know what preservatives are in the packet? Skip the guesswork and eliminate those chemicals by making your own taco spice blend. We’ll show you how!

WW Creamy Italian Dressing (Zero Points)

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WW member? Then you probably know the value of zero point foods in the revamped WW Freestyle Program. This Creamy Italian Dressing hits all the marks–great in taste, offers protein, and zero points. For those of you who might not know, WW is the former Weight Watchers. About a year ago (when I joined the […]

Crock Pot Pierogies with Kielbasa Recipe

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This morning I had to drive to Raleigh to pick up my stepdaughter for the holidays, a four-hour round trip drive. Before I left, I tossed crock pot pierogies in to have a hot lunch ready and waiting when we got home. I’ve seen crockpot pierogies all over the internet, but I’d never taken the […]

Pull-Apart Cheddar Garlic Bread

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For your next gathering, swap out your same old dinner rolls for this home baked pull-apart cheddar garlic bread. Stand back. Watch your guests gobble them up!

Drunken Pumpkin Coffee: Hot Cafe Cocktail

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Drunken Pumpkin Coffee (pronounce it drunkin punkin) kicks up your holiday gift wrapping. Brew a cup before you gift wrap, and you’ll be singing fa-la-la-la-la-la and enjoying your last minute holiday preparations.

Hearty Deer Camp Casserole

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Deer camp casserole is one of those lazy weekend dishes. It’s perfect for Saturdays when my hubby is deer hunting since I never know exactly when he’ll walk back in the door–that depends on the success of the hunt. 

Apple Bourbon Peanut Mini Cakes

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In case you haven’t noticed, I love to cook with bourbon. Today, I have an apple bourbon peanut cake recipe to share.
It’s a cake so moist and delicious that nobody will know that it came from a box. The cake is rich from the bourbon (not extract, the real stuff!) and crisp from the apples. And, the peanuts? They add an interesting texture and great flavor.

5 Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Shortbread Cookies

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Pumpkin spice shortbread cookies are just the right balance of warm spice and slight sweetness. The flavors are complex and not overpoweringly sweet or pumpkiny. This means that even those who don’t like overpowered with pumpkin spice will enjoy this light, crisp cookie.

Pan Seared Flounder over Apple and Warm Kale Salad

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Today’s the first day of hunting season. This leaves me here on a Saturday with the house all to myself. I’ve had the chance to putter around at some little organizing projects, snuggle with my dog, and treat myself to a warm, decadent, but still Weight Watchers friendly lunch. I came up with the idea of putting pan seared flounder over apple and warm kale salad. 

Home Canned Pizza Sauce (so easy)

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Home canned pizza sauce is a fantastic item to keep on hand. From scratch made pizza to a quick dipping sauce, this recipe is easy to follow. Ideal for those just giving canning a first try!

Roasted Corn and Black Eyed Pea Salsa

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Looking for a snack to enjoy during tonight’s Monday night game? Try stirring up a quick, easy batch of roasted corn and black eyed pea salsa. It is a tangy, savory, and delicious salsa that’s got a very mild heat so even those who don’t brave hot salsas will be sure to enjoy this treat. […]

DIY Chili Seasoning Recipe – 4 Variations

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DIY chili seasoning is so simple to make. You can skip those little packets in the spices section and DIY to save tons of money. Plus, you will have control over how hot or mild you prefer your seasoning.

5 Best College Football Snacks

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The debate over which are the best college football snacks can be a lively one in my household. My husband and I are both avid football fans. I prefer the NFL (Go Steelers) and he’s a die-hard college football fan (UNC Tarheels). The college football season starts next weekend already, and we are already planning our menu!

Feed a Crowd for Cheap with the Best Fajitas (Homemade!)

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There’s nothing quite like the smell of hot and tasty fajitas. Zesty, seasoned steak meets freshly grilled onions and peppers. The aroma is tantalizing. Better yet, they are cheap, quick, and so simple to make. In fact, the prep time takes longer than the actual cooking. It’s a fantastic and easy way to feed a crowd for cheap!

Bake the Best Scottish Shortbread Cookies Ever

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Whenever I offer to bake for a fundraiser or to take to an event, I am inevitably asked to bake my Scottish Shortbread. These are light, not overly sweet, and buttery cookies that are as much in demand in the spring or summer as at Christmastime. Today I’m sharing the secrets of how to bake […]

Honey Maple Peanut Butter Protein Bites

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Honey maple peanut butter protein bites are the perfect snack to pack with you on the go when you’re trying to get healthy and avoid temptation. I selected products that were non-gmo and gluten-free to amp up the health benefits.

10 Minute Meal Shrimp and Grits

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This 10-minute meal, shrimp and grits, is almost faster to make than waiting in line for fast food! And I am certain that you will find it healthier and better tasting!

How To Make 5 Ingredient Lip Scrub At Home

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Today I wanted to share how to make 5 ingredient lip scrub at home. The air is getting colder and drier. I don’t know about you, but winter is starting to take a toll on my lips! They get dry, chapped, and flaky if I am not vigilant with a lip scrub this time of the year.

How to Host a Cookie Exchange Party

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Holiday seasons are meant to be fun, but usually, we get caught up with a lot of important stuff to do: gift – shopping, sprucing up the house Christmas-style, choosing and decorating the tree, and yes, baking cookies. It’s time to take a deep breath and cut down on the workload. This Christmas season, instead […]

Easy Recipe: How To Make Peanut Crusted Sweet Potatoes

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We’re halfway through the holidays. Thanksgiving is a week or two behind us and Christmas is just three weeks away from today. In the south, ’tis the season for all things sweet potatoes.  This is an easy recipe to make–peanut crusted sweet potatoes.

Peanut Pie – So Decadent You’ll Want To Slap Yo Mama

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Thanksgiving is only a few days away, and it’s time to share my secret recipe for Peanut Pie. It’s rich, decadent. In the South, we have a saying when something’s this good:  “Slap Yo Mama!”.  This pie is so rich, so decadent, and so satisfying it makes me want to cry when I take a bite. 

5 Essential Jobs To Get Your Yard Ready For Winter

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After a long, hot summer followed by a long, hot fall, it’s finally begun to cool down here in the coastal region of North Carolina. This is the time of year that I love. There’s a cool nip in the air, yet it isn’t freezing cold. It’s the perfect time to get out in the yard. This is the perfect time to tackle these 5 essential jobs to get your yard ready for winter.

How To Grill A Perfect Steak Every Time!

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Perfect steak. Every time. It’s every grillmaster’s dream come true! A steak is a classic American protein. It’s on the menu at all the finest restaurants, it’s appropriate for every occasion, and it’s impressive to look at…when it’s done right!

How To Deep Fry A Turkey Safely

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It seemed fitting to make a post on how to deep fry a turkey safely. I have been getting hungry for turkey, so why wait for Thanksgiving? I can fire up the fryer and turn out a succulent, moist deep-fried turkey just because. However, we’ve all seen news stories on disasters that occur when turkey fryers go wrong. Burnt hair. Burnt cars, Burnt houses. You get the idea.

God Bless Texas Hummus Recipe- Tex Mex Mid Eastern Fusion

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I absolutely love both guacamole and hummus. I crave them but sometimes can’t decide which one to make. I call this dish God Bless Texas Hummus. Tex Mex flavors and Mid Eastern hummus make a savory, delicious fusion. A hummus recipe is always great to keep on hand because it’s just so easy to make. […]

Maple Bacon Corn Muffins A Fall Morning Treat

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Maple bacon corn muffins are a treat for a cool fall morning. I bake them on Sunday morning and serve them piping hot. You get 18 muffins out of one batch, leaving plenty of muffins left over to keep on hand for a quick weekday morning breakfast.

Freezing Sweet Potatoes (Without Them Turning Brown)

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Freezing sweet potatoes without them turning brown can be challenging. There’s nothing worse than doing all the work of freezing, only to have your lovely potatoes turn from that gorgeous sunset orange to the color of rust by the time you serve them. 

Carolina Cajun Cheeseball Game Day Kickoff Snack

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This weekend is the best weekend of the year. NFL Kickoff! Woot-woot! The first game day is a big deal in my house. Playing around in the kitchen, I thought of an easy way to make one jar of local NC peanuts into three super tasty game day snacks.

20 Easy Fruit-Infused Waters That Hydrate Your Body

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If you live in a relatively hot climate, with long and humid summers, you probably get tired of drinking water. These 20 easy fruit-infused waters will help hydrate your body. Better yet, they taste great and add variety to all the water you’ve been drinking. 

3 super easy Mexican sauces for any occasion

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I think you know by now that we Mexicans love our food spicy. Even if we don’t enjoy spicy things as a child, like myself, you develop a taste for it. Soon you start to feel like food doesn’t taste as good, or has any flavor at all, unless it makes you cry of how […]

Jalapeno Pimiento Cheese: A Southern Classic With A Zesty Twist

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Jalapeno Pimiento Cheese is a southern classic with a delicious and zesty twist! In fact, this is one of my husband’s favorite sandwiches.  Every southern woman has a family recipe for Pimiento Cheese. This is because it’s a staple in most southern households. RELATED POST: Oven Dehydrate Jalapeno Peppers: An Easy Way To Preserve But […]

Southwestern Bean Salad

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Southwestern Bean Salad is a recipe I came up with on a moment’s notice. It was prompted by necessity. We received a last minute invitation to a cookout with some friends.

BBQ Pork Sliders From The Pressure Cooker

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BBQ pork sliders from the pressure cooker taste rich and moist. Because of the steam in the pressure cooker, the pork doesn’t get dry. It’s one of the quickest ways I have found to cook a pork loin, and the results are consistently great!

Spicy Jalapeno Vinegar In A Mason Jar

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Jalapeno Vinegar in a mason jar is a sassy and spicy way to use some of my jalapenos. My garden runneth over with jalapenos right now. Every day I harvest more than a dozen jalapeno peppers. A good hot pepper vinegar is always fun to keep on hand in the pantry.

Oven Dehydrate Jalapeno Peppers An Easy Way To Preserve

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Oven dehydrating jalapeno peppers is a quick, easy way to preserve them. When you use this method, the jalapenos hold their famous sweet heat flavor so that you can use them all winter. They only take a few minutes to prep to dry. Once you have finished prepping them and have put them in the oven, they take care of themselves and just need to be checked occasionally.

Chicken in Poblano Pepper Cream Recipe

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Last week I found an amazing sale on Poblano peppers at about $.40 a pound and so I stocked up and figured out I could cook some Chiles Rellenos and one of my favorite comfort food: chicken in poblano pepper cream.

Jameson Irish Whiskey BBQ Sauce

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This Jameson Irish whiskey bbq sauce makes a rich and flavorful addition to your summertime cookouts. It’s super easy to make but the flavors are complex. It’s sweet, smoky, and tangy all at one time. Mix a batch of this barbecue sauce, invite over your friends, and prepare to see them amazed at your bbq prowess.

Primanti Bros Pittsburgh’s Most Famous Cole Slaw

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As a relocated Yankee living in the south, I sometimes miss being able to order Pittsburgh’s most famous cole slaw. You can get this very special slaw only at Primanti Bros. restaurants. They build sandwiches that are piled high with fresh meats, french fries, and they top it all off with this style of coleslaw

Low-Fat Creamy Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing

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Low in fat is not what normally comes to mind when you hear “Creamy,” but this salad dressing delivers on the promise of low-fat but high in flavor.  “Creamy” most often conjures images of foods based in mayonnaise or heavy sour creams.  But this low-fat salad dressing has a secret ingredient.

Quick And Easy Recipe: Spaetzle Made With Garden Fresh Herbs

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As my garden progresses, I’m always trying to use up herbs; Spaetzle made with garden fresh herbs is a fantastic recipe. It’s a quick, easy side dish that gives you home-cooked noodles in just minutes. Re-think spaetzle…it’s not just a heavy winter dish. The herbs give it a light, bright flavor.

Cinnamon Caramel French Toast, A Sweet Breakfast Recipe

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French toast is often categorized as a way to use up old bread, but Cinnamon Caramel French Toast is so much more than that. Okay. Technically, it is a wonderful way to use up old bread. However, this is so much better than that. It is rich and sweet at the same time.

Carne Asada at its Simplest and Finest

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I once had one friend ask me for a good recipe for a marinade sauce to prepare meat in order to make carne asada in a true Mexican style. I was a little shocked by his question because where I come from, they meat doesn’t need anything else than the heat from red hot mesquite charcoal and some salt.

Quick & Easy Homemade Pepperoni Rolls aka Pepperoni Balls

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As a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, I grew up eating “pepperoni balls;” to the rest of the nation, these are called Pepperoni Rolls. I say this because I am going to try to remember to refer to them by their more common name but the Erie girl in me may pop up and stick her head into this post.

Leftover Grits? Make Grits Bread for a Quick Weekday Breakfast Toast

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Every time I fix them for breakfast, I end up with leftover grits. As a result, I have come up with a way to bake those leftovers into a hearty, richly-textured bread with a rustic appearance. It makes a wonderful toast and is also a full-bodied bread to get out the door in the morning. […]

Authentic Mexican Pozole for your Cinco de Mayo Aftermath

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Cinco de Mayo is a huge celebration and people go crazy on that day. They eat all sorts of Mexican food, drink Mexican beer or Tequila, make tons of guacamole and have a Mexican-brand hangover sometimes! So while America celebrates the triumph of Mexican militia over the French Army in the heroic Battle of Puebla, […]

Hot, Fresh Strawberry Pancakes: A Reason To Get Out of Bed!

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In North Carolina, we are lucky that we harvest strawberries in April every year. The season starts around mid-April here in Eastern NC and lasts through early May. Give or take a few days, we have a few short weeks to savor the juicy, sweet flavor of strawberries. Pancakes with fresh strawberries are the perfect way to start out a cool April morning.

Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls

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Easy Homemade Dinner Rolls are exactly as the name suggests. These are simple and unpretentious dinner rolls. Using quick-rise yeast, you can have these piping hot and on your table in around an hour. No bread machine is needed, but you can run this on the “mix only cycle” if you do have one.  I […]

Nine Point Nachos: A Venison Nacho Comfort Food

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Today is a double game day.  My Pittsburgh Steelers are playing the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Wild Card Game and the UNC Tarheels are playing NC State.  It’s freezing cold outside. In fact, the temperature is the lowest it’s been all winter thus far. It’s a great day to take it easy, kick back, […]

Oven Dehydrated Herbs

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Oven dehydrated herbs are the quickest, easiest way to preserve herbs. In a short time, you can have your herbs preserved for the witner.

Southern Peach Cobbler

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I love peaches. And I really, really love a luscious peach cobbler. A Peach Cobbler should have a smooth, warm filling and lightly browned top with just a little bit of crunch. This Peach Cobbler fits the bill!

Cheese Tortellini & Kale Salad

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Cheese Tortellini & Kale Salad has become a staple in my household. Do you remember playing Never Did I Ever as a child?  I can honestly say that as a little girl, I would never in a million years have thought that I would grow to love kale as much as I do. Because I love […]

Home Canning: Peach Pie Filling From Fresh Carolina Peaches

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Today, I want to share my home canning recipe for Peach Pie Filling made with peaches from the Farmer’s Market. About My Peach Tree Firstly, I admit defeat.  This is because I have a peach tree.  So in the spring it was loaded with blossoms. I then knew I was going to have a tree […]

Savory Garden Marinara For A Hot Summer Night

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This Savory Garden Marinara is the perfect dinner to fix on a hot summer night.  It has been an extremely hot past couple of weeks here in North Carolina.  And I mean too hot to even think about grilling outside. In fact, the temperature has been about 100 degrees for the past two consecutive weeks. […]

Zesty Cucumber Basil Salad

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Zesty Cucumber Basil Salad is a salad I came up with on the fly.  I found myself bombarded with cucumbers.   I don’t waste food and needed to come up with something to do with five large cucumbers, quick!

Sweet Basil Vinegar In A Mason Jar

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Fragrant sweet basil vinegar adds a burst of flavor to salads or greens. This offers you a fantastic way to use up all the sweet basil from your herb garden!