Smoked Salt & Pepper

What's in your Christmas cookie tin?  In previous years, I usually just do gingerbread mean, but this year I was really in the holiday spirit and baked gingerbread cookies, Christmas Kisses thumbprint cookies, magic bars, peppermint bark, and no-bake chocolate bon-bons.  I gifted these to the techs, receptions, and vets at my work and my family.  Each of these recipes are relatively easy and simple, and I even used a mix to cut down on work for the thumbprint cookies.  The peppermint bark especially, was very tasty to test-try.  The peppermint bark rivals the famous William-Sonoma ones. The gingerbread men are my favorite recipe for producing perfectly crispy on the outside, but chewy on the inside gingerbread men.   The no-bake 5 ingredient bon-bons are great because they use almond butter instead of peanut butter which means my peanut-allergic-self can make them without fear that my fingers will swell up! Gingerbread man recipe from Food Network Kitch...

As a veterinarian, I was really concerned about the tainted jerky treats that were coming from China a few years ago (although some deaths still being reported today).  There were a lot of dogs that got really sick, some going into kidney failure and dying, from chicken jerky products coming from China.  Since this has happened, PetCo and PetSmart have been trying to only stock American sourced treats, so it makes me sleep a little easier.  Of course most of the general public aren't reading the back of the treat backs to see where the sources come from, like me, so if you want to be extra careful, make your own treats! I've seen loads of homemade dog treat recipes and yes, they are cute! But who has time to really make your dog biscuits from scratch? I can hardly convince most dog owners to brush their dog's teeth because most of them don't even have time to brush their own teeth!  You can also buy really cute, gourmet treats from boutique dog stores (like Woof Ga...

A while back, I posted my turkey quinoa "chili"  and though it is absolutely delicious, and I've had several people tell me they make it all the time, the reason I couldn't call it chili without the quotations is because of this chili recipe.  Like I'd mention before, Reid is a chili purist.  There should not be beans in chili, or TURKEY, and especially not quinoa!  And that's because Reid had this chili growing up. His uncle Brent and his father perfected this recipe years ago and used to enter it into (and win) chili competitions.  So, yea.  It's pretty stinkin' good.  Reid's version uses the fattiest meat that you can find.   I found the ground beef for chili at HEB and it's a thicker grind and appears pretty fatty.  I've also added a chipotle in adobe (that I had leftover from making chipotle twice-baked sweet potatoes) the last time I made it, and it was really tasty.  I always make a box of Jiffy cornbread in a small cast iron sk...

What kind of cheese doesn't belong to you? Nacho cheese!  Heehee, I love really bad jokes.   Nachos, synonymous with football games and fairs, these guys have gotten a bad rap.  Those stale tortilla chips and processed cheese toppings from the concession stands are kinda gross.  But homemade nachos are delicious!  Nachos for dinner are one of Reids favorite dinners.  There are a few variations I've made, but the following is a more classic one.  Homemade nachos are also wayyyyy healthier than processed-cheese-squirted-out-of-a-squirt-bottle-nachos.  I also use Greek yogurt in place of sour cream which also cuts back on the calories a lot.  I also like to add a little taco seasoning to the Greek yogurt to add some additional flavor.  I got the taco seasoning substitute recipe from AllRecipes .  This is a really quick and easy weeknight meal, and I'm sure it would be a hit with kids (because my husband is basically I giant kid ;) )...

Nothing is better in the cold than a piping hot bowl of ramen!  There are a few really excellent places in town (Ramen Tatsu-ya, Daruma, Kome at lunch) and one of the places we frequent is called Michi Ramen.  There, they have a 'Texas' style ramen, which is served with Texas toast and has brisket in it.  Yesterday I made pulled pork sandwiches (2 lbs pork butt, salt and pepper, 1/2 sliced onion and 1 c. chicken broth in slow cooker on high for 4 hrs, then shredded with a fork and mixed with bbq sauce), had some left over pork and pork broth so I made this copy-cat ramen.  The bbq sauce in the pulled pork gave the ramen lots of flavor. Homemade ramen is soooo much better than store bought.  It tastes better and it doesn't have all that awful sodium and MSG most of the packaged stuff has. That stuff is bad for you!  I remember when I was younger, my mom, sister and I would go to France to visit our grandparents.  My dad stayed back to keep his phar...