Oh, those Southerners.

I've never heard of country fried steak until I moved to Missouri.

Serious.

I've never attempted to make it until I married Kyle. I found out it was one of his favorites, so ofcourse I had to attempt it.

I've tried making it a few times before this, but this is definitely the best of those times it came out.

I also used a different method of peeling/cooking the potatoes for the mashed potatoes.

You can find the method here. I found that boiling my potatoes for 30 minutes made them cooked perfect for mashing. :)

Waiting to be boiled.

Preparation at its finest, yo.

I'm still not good with frying. Like, at all. But I'm trying.

The aftermath of the potatoes.

It's like a pot pie..but not..

I don't know how else to describe it, really. But this is a definite GO! in this house. Kids love it, I love it, Kyle loves it, that's good enough for me.

Biscuits. How do you go wrong with biscuits?

I know. This looks like a hot mess. But it's soooo good.

Our KFC Is Gone. :(

Okay, to be honest, I'm not really upset that our KFC got taken away. I prefer Popeye's, and we have one of those in the next town over. I'm not broken up about losing one restaurant in our area, especially considering it was absolutely horrible and ridiculously expensive for very little food.

So I may not miss it, but Kyle loves (er..loved) their snack bowls. He just hated how small they were. So we took it upon myself (yes WE turned into ME) to make our own rendition of it. It's definitely a family favorite. The kids are always asking for seconds or thirds.

Homemade mashed potatoes FTW!

Popcorn chicken ready!

Everything's better with gravy, yo.

My favorite. Always. <3

"Bacon makes the world go round."

Atleast, according to Kyle. *eye roll*

Tonight, I tried something completely new. As in, I've never made it before. Along with the sidedish.

Bacon wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with onion garlic cream cheese and potatoes au gratin. Let me just get my pat on the back up in here now. *pats self on back*

So, the potatoes were fantastic. But then I tasted the chicken. Let's just say, I didn't want the potatoes after that.

God bless my slow cooker.

Selena, my step-daughter helped me out tonight. She was so proud afterwards when dinner was "goooood!"

Oh good God. Oh yeah.

I freaking love my slow cooker.

I love that you can make almost anything with a slow cooker. That thing is my bitch. Heh. 

>.<

The slow cooker is definitely one of my must-haves in the kitchen. And pulled pork is one of the first meals I've made in a slow cooker. I still make it a LOT.

GAH I HATE WATING!

These Are Probably The Worst Pies In..Missouri?

While it's perhaps not the healthiest meal ever, it's still super delicious and great comfort food. The best part of chicken pot pie is that you can almost add anything to it. Any veggies you want. Yeah. GREAT way to get the kids to eat vegetables..unless you're Myriah. Then you pick out the green beans. 

Every.

Single.

One.

*sigh* This kid. She's something else. But I love her.

And now, onto the main event.

Mixing the inside goodness. *drools*

Ready for the oven. I'm WAY too impatient for this.

Beef: It's what's for dinner.

Kyle works swing shifts, so there's a fair amount of night shifts that I'm only making dinner for me and the kids. There's days he's off so I'm making dinner for everyone. Then, there's his day shift, when I make dinner for everyone, but alone. Needless to say, trying to cook ANYTHING with Gabe is tough. That kid runs to food like moths to a flame. 

I've been trying to get it through to him about the whole "HOT" thing, but he doesn't care. He wants some food, he gets some food and that's the end of it. But lately, he's been just standing between the kitchen and dining room, thank God.

Tonight, I opted for an easy choice seeing as I had to cook with Gabe at my legs. I went with some good ol' beef stroganoff. Marie Callander's ain't got shit on me.

Cooking egg noodles.

Making the sauce. Looks icky, but it's SUPER delicious.

This is something requested by a ton of kids in my family, if not my kids, then my nieces and nephews.

As shepherd's watched their flocks..er..food..by night?

I don't understand why this is called Shepherd's Pie. I probably never will. But I will always understand the deliciousness of this. Not to mention, the comfort aspect. It always seems to have a calming effect on me. Why? I'll never know. But it's a great way to get the kids (and the husband) to eat some veggies. There's nothing wrong with that!

Myriah's notorious for picking out EVERY green bean, saying "I don't LIKE this one, mommy. I don't LIKE this one." She won't do that for this. She eats it up QUICK. Hell, Selena takes 3 servings..but she's been eating 3 servings a LOT lately. Helloooooo growth spurt.

First layer...looks like puke. I'm sorry, but it does. It almost makes me not want to eat it. But it smells good. Oh, the dilemma.

Second layer, mashed potatoes! Yum! These are my cheesy garlic variety. *mouth waters*

Ready to be baked! Yay!

Italians Do It Right

I'm a huge chicken eater. I could eat chicken for every meal, every day, and not get sick of it. I get it from my daddy. ;)

I love how versatile chicken is. You can pair it with just about anything and get a whole new taste from just one main ingredient. Who can't love a food like that?!

Tonight, I made some Chicken Parmesan. Yummm..Italians sure know how to cook!

Pan frying before baking.

Mmmm I could eat it just like this!

Covered in sauce and mozzarella, ready to bake and eat! Yum!

Ohhhh F-U-D-G-E.

I was totally channeling A Christmas Story with my title. >.<

So, we've been going through a lot lately, more than anyone could probably imagine. I've been on edge and stressed out so badly. I needed something to calm myself.

I needed baking.

Ironically enough, I didn't want to bake. <insert shock face here> 

I went for the next best thing, though. Chocolate.

Now, everyone knows diamond ads lie ALL the time. Diamonds are NOT a girl's best friend. It's hands down chocolate..unless you're regretfully allergic. And I apologize to anyone who's allergic to chocolate. What a sad, sad world.

WIP shot, rolling boil.

Nomnomnom. Almost done.