My Sweet Potato Pie

At every Holiday or special occasion you can expect to see some Sweet Potato pie, Apple pie, Pecan pie, Pumpkin pie. I buy yams by the bushel in the summer and they last me almost a full year. A bushel is about 50 lbs. I keep them stored in a clothes hamper in my mud room. This is just 1 of many recipes I make with them.

This recipe is relatively quick and easy.

3 Large Yams
1 Stick of melted butter
1 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 C condensed sweetened milk
1 t cinnamon
2 t lemon juice
2 eggs
1 pie crust
Cinnamon Sugar
Egg wash

Boil the yams till soft (1 hr.) and let them cool.

Preheat oven to 350. Peel yams and mash. Add vanilla, butter, sugars, cinnamon and lemon juice.
Mix with a hand mixer beat till smooth then slowly add 2 eggs and condensed milk.

Egg wash the uncooked pie crust and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Pour filling in the pan and Bake 1 hour or until center is set and crust is golden brown.

Crockpot Rancho-Taco Chichen

Delish....

Y'all heard me say this before; this is one of my go recipes! No lie...I cook this just about every other week. I kick off my Sunday routine starting this in the crock pot. I usually start this right after breakfast and cook it slow. My sister introduced me to this recipe. I can't remember the original recipe name but I believe she came across it on Pin.  So I dubbed it the Crock Rancho-Taco chicken.

We eat it through the week; I make tacos with it. This recipe can be done in so many different ways. I've used the tortilla boats (find these at wally-world) and top it with black beans, tomatoes and cheese. Then bake them till cheese is golden. I do this with left overs because it's perfect for lunch.

Crock Rancho-Taco Chicken

• 1.5-2 lb. Chicken thighs (Chicken breasts are good too!)
• 1 pkg Fiesta Ranch season mix - fyi..most times I use regular Ranch season.
• 1 pkg taco season mix
• 1/2 C chicken broth

Place chicken in crock pot; single layer.

Sprinkle Ranch and Taco seasoning over chicken.

Pour chicken broth over. Cover and cook in crock pot on low for 6 hours of high for 3-4 hours. Pull apart and cook on low for a little bit longer; 1/2 hour. I like to pull it and let it cook low and slow while I start the rest of the dinner.

Here is a variation of this recipe I used the next day;

• Rancho-Taco Chicken
• 2 pkg Crescent Rolls
• Colby Jack cheese
• 1 egg

Heat oven to 350. Separate crescent rolls and place a spoon full of the chicken in the center of the dough.

Sprinkle with cheese. Place another crescent roll on top and seal with a fork.

Brush with egg and sprinkle with more cheese. Cook for 12-15 minutes, till golden brown. Its a wonderful thing!

Simple Man's Venison Dinner

Another favorite in our kitchen is a simple dish. It can be the go to meal during the week. We also do this when we camp. I have so many variations of recipes for Venison that I am trying to get together for this blog. I hope you enjoy them.

This recipe can be changed in so many ways to suit your taste. Sometime I use a soy sauce, honey marinade or a spice run marinade like, garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned meat tenderizer and salt & pepper with a little olive oil to coat. But by far the below marinade is our favorite. Again so versatile and good on really any meat. This is my main venison marinade or choice.

Simple Stir-Fry Venison Meal

• 1 C Zesty Italian Dressing 
• 1 T garlic powder
• 1 T onion powder
• 2 T Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 T Red Pepper flakes (add more for a meal with a kick)
• 1 LB Venison Stew cut meat
• 1-2 green peppers 
• 1 yellow onion

Mix all ingredients Italian dressing, garlic, onion, Worcestershire and red pepper flakes together in a small bowl. 

Pour over venison in a zip lock bag and marinade for a couple of hours or over night. 

Slice your onion and green peppers. Over medium-high heat, saute the green peppers and onion until slightly tender. Add the venison and continue to cook until med rare. About 10 min. This is great over rice or egg noodles. Enjoy! 

Sweet-Bacon Wrapped Venison Tenderlion

My husband is great hunter. We harvest a few deer each year to refill our meat stock. We trade meat with neighbors to keep a variety in our stock. I love Venison; it is so versatile and is the red meat of choice in our home. I hear folks say all the time, they don't like venison because of the gameness. It's all about how the meat is prepared. Sure you can soak the meat in water or milk but if you prepare the meat properly, you won't have to go through the soaking process.

My husband has his own method of preparing the deer meat before packaging. As with any other avid hunter, each have their own "best" practice that they have learned from their fathers or grandfathers. For mine; he will clean the meat and put it on salt ice for about 10 days before he cuts and packages the meat.  We use a 7 day cooler to pack the meat in ice and salt. The salt pulls the blood out of the meat and in my opinion removes the "gamey" taste.  We check the meat every day and drain and add ice as needed. Then clean all the silver skin away from the meat and cut to our family protons and freeze.

Our Christmas Eve catch yielded Tenderloin, Steaks, Stew meat and Flanks. We use all of the meat, including the heart. Yes, we keep the heart and eat it. We cook the heart on thanksgiving with some onions and green peppers. On Christmas we use the sweet meat (tenderloin) for breakfast biscuits.

Back to the recipe....this recipe is a wonderful on Port as well. I've done it with a large pork tenderloin without the bacon or with. It's a very simple recipe and I bet most folks; like me have all the ingredients in the pantry at any time.

Sweet Bacon wrapped Venison Tenderloin

• 1 1/2 LB of Venison Tenderloin
• 1/2 LB sliced bacon 
• 1 Cup Soy Sauce (not the low sodium)
• 1/2 C Brown Sugar (use as much brown sugar as you like)
• 1 t Cumin
• 1 t Garlic powder
• 1 t black pepper (want a little kick; use red pepper flakes)

In a bowl, mix the Soy sauce, sugar and spices with a whisk till sugar is mostly dissolved. Pour over tenderloins and marinade for 3 hours or over night.

Remove tenderloins from marinade; don't discard the marinade! Wrap the them with bacon. Secure with toothpicks.

Heat your grill to med-high heat. Then baste with the marinade through out the cooking process. We like our meat on the med rare side so cook for 25 minutes, flipping as needed to evenly cook the bacon. Basting the with marinade will allow the bacon to crisp up and have a nice sweet flavor. YUM!

Note: Cook for approximately 35 min for medium/well done meat.

With our meal, i harvested the last of my carrots from the garden.

Clean up the carrots and trim the "hairs" as I call them. Slice them and put them in a sauce pan.

Simmer with water, 1 T of butter and 1 T of brown sugar until they are tender. Very simple yet very tasty. Enjoy!