Honey Barbecue Sauce

This barbecue sauce is delicious!  It's so good!  It's a little sweet, which I love, and it also begins with the smell of onions sauteeing in butter, which is one of the best smells in the world.  Bizzuck decided that for the Fourth of July, he'd rather have barbecue than hamburgers--because of this sauce.  It didn't take very long, I already had all of the ingredients, and it can be made up to a week in advance.  What's not to like?  It's from the Southern Living Complete Quick and Easy Cookbook, so there's no surprise that it's so good. 

Honey Barbecue Sauce

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 cup onion, diced (1/2 large onion for me)
1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, add the onion, and saute 4-5 minutes or until tender.  Stir in ketchup and remaining ingredients; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.  Stir leftover sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.  Makes about 2 cups.

Teak Dog Tuesday!

Here's Teak being so handsome in the front of the boat.  He loves the boat.

Here he is, being rather possesesive of his bed/girlfriend.

And finally, here he is after a busy morning of digging out of his kennel, rolling in something dead, and tracking mud all over the floor and couch.  He leads a busy life, and it'd wear you out, too.

Ricotta Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

I love these cookies!  They're light but also a little chewy.  So good!  I also made them pretty small, so it's easy to eat eight of them without blinking an eye.  I like the idea of making cookies with cake mix, and I'm going to keep looking for recipes like this.  Pour yourself a glass of milk, and try one (or fourteen) of these little gems.  I got three dozen out of the recipe.  Thanks to the Cooking Photographer for this great idea. 

Ricotta Lemon Cake Mix Cookies

1/2 stick butter, melted
1 cup ricotta cheese (not non-fat)
1 large egg
1 tsp lemon extract (I used vanilla extract)
zest of 1 lemon
1 (18.25oz) box lemon cake mix

Preheat oven to 350.  With a hand mixer, mix butter and ricotta cheese in a large bowl until fluffy.  Add egg, lemon extract, and zest, and beat until combined and fluffy.  Stir in cake mix until combined.  Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls on baking sheet.  Bake one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.  Let cookies sit for 2-3 minutes on baking sheet before moving to cooling rack. 

Blueberry Cream Muffins

My favorite part about these muffins is how the blueberries kind of explode in the oven and bleed their goodness everywhere.  Definitely use muffin cups for these; I did, and I still had clean up the blueberry juice from the muffin tin, so I can only imagine the cleanup you'd have to do if you didn't use the paper cups.  They're not exactly the healthiest blueberry muffins you'll ever have, but I made them a little bit better by substituting applesauce for vegetable oil.  I'm sure you could go even healthier and use yogurt instead of sour cream, but let's face it: I'm more likely to have sour cream in my fridge than plain yogurt.  I got 30 muffins out of the recipe, which I adapted from All Recipes.

Blueberry Cream Muffins

4 eggs
1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup applesauce

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda
2 cups sour cream

3 cups blueberries

Preheat oven to 400.  Line muffin ins with liners or grease with cooking spray.  In a large bowl, beat eggs.  Gradually add sugars while beating, and continue beating while adding applesauce.  Stir in vanilla.  In a separate bowl, stir together four, salt, and baking soda.  Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture alternately with sour cream.  Gently fold in blueberries.  Scoop into prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes.

No Fear Pizza Crust

I impressed myself by this recipe.  I'm a little scared of cooking with yeast just because I haven't done it much.  I wasn't sure how this pizza crust was going to turn out, but it was great!  I think this is a particularly easy recipe because it only requires the dough to rest for ten minutes, not to sit and rise for hours.  I don't have a pizza stone, so I baked it on a cookie sheet that I sprayed with cooking spray.  So good!  You can have whatever toppings you want, obviously, but we had diced tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, chopped onion, sliced mushrooms, and chopped bell pepper.  Try it, and you'll impress yourself and your friends. 

No Fear Pizza Crust

1 cup warm water
1 Tbsp white sugar
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Stir water, yeast, and sugar together until dissolved.  Add the olive oil and the salt.  Stir in the flour until well blended.  Let dough rest for 10 minutes. 

Pat dough in pan or onto a pizza stone using fingers dipped in olive oil.  If desired, sprinkle basil, thyme, or other seasonings on crust.  Prebake crust at 425 for 8 minutes; top with desired toppings and bake for an additional 10 minutes. 

Teak Dog Tuesday!

After being out of town for a week, Teak excitedly welcomed me back!

Honey Dijon Chicken

This was good!  It was sweeter than I expected, and I really liked it!  This type of recipe is nice, too, because it only calls for baking the chicken in the mixture; marinating isn't required!  I did marinate it as well as baking it in the mixture this time, but I love recipes that don't require the marinating, since I don't always have my act together enough to cook things that require forethought.  It requires throwing things into a bag, throwing the bag into the fridge, and then throwing the contents of the bag into a casserole dish; it really couldn't be easier!  It also leaves a lot of leftover sauce.  Next time I might thicken it with some cornstarch and serve it over rice.  It's from All Recipes.  Very good!


Honey Dijon Chicken


1/4 cup honey
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
4 chicken breasts


If you choose to marinate the chicken, combine the first four ingredients in a large zip top bag,  add the chicken, and place in the refrigerator.  When ready to bake, place chicken in glass casserole pan and pour honey mixture over the chicken breasts.  Bake uncovered at 350 for 35-40 minutes, turning or basting every 15 minutes.