This is a recipe I came up with myself a few years ago.

It is Felicity’s absolute favorite thing I cook and she could literally eat her weight in it at one sitting.

I’ve never measured anything when I make this, but once you read the recipe, you’ll find it is easy to do without any measurements.

Amy’s Easy Baked Ziti

Cooked & drained pasta (use what ever amount needed to feed your family).  I use Wal*art’s generic brand called “Penne Rigate”.  Any small tube type pasta will be fine.

Prepared spaghetti sauce. You can use your own homeade sauce, or jar sauce. (I use Prego Meat flavored).  Again, the quantity depends on how much you will need to feed your family.

Grated Parmesan, Mozzerella or any Italian blend cheese. I buy mine pre-grated so I just buy the “Italian Blend” in the refrigerator section at the store.  Amount?  Well, cheese is like butter.  One can NEVER have enough cheese or put too much cheese on a dish!

Here we go:

Place cooked/drained pasta into oven safe casserole dish (size depends on size of your family).  Pour spaghetti sauce over pasta and stir together to coat pasta.  Use as much or as little sauce as you like.  Some like alot of sauce, others like the drier side with less sauce. Then, layer grated cheese over top of pasta.

Cover and place in 350 degree oven until cheese is melted and starting to brown.

Serve with salad and garlic bread!!

There you go! I told you it was easy!!

Enjoy!

Take a look at this over at The Pioneer Woman’s place!

5000+ reader submitted recipes

Good gosh! Something new to cook every day for years!

Enjoy!

I made this wonderful Pound Cake yesterday. It is absolutely to die for.

I adapted this recipe from one I found on (yup, you guessed it!) BackyardChickens.com.

Old Fashioned Pound Cake

Grease/flour 10″ tube or bundt pan.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine together and sift (this creates “Self-Rising” flour): 

4 cups all purpose flour
6 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons salt

OR

4 cups (1#) cake flour, sifted (this is what the original recipe calls for)

OR

4 cups minus 8 Tablespoons All Purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (1#) butter (salted or unsalted either one, but use real butter)
2 cups (1#) sugar
10 whole eggs (1#)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or any other extract flavor of your choice)

Sift flour(ingredients to make the flour “self rising” as shown above) and salt. Place butter and sugar in LARGE mixing bowl. Cream together until light and fluffy. Add whole eggs, two at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add half of the sifted flour/salt. Beat about 1 minute. Add remaining flour/salt and the flavorings. Beat about 1 minute. Pour into well greased/floured tube cake pan. Bake for 1 hour & 15 minutes to 1 hour & 30 minutes.  Remove cake IMMEDIATELY from pan after taking from the oven. Cool on a cake plate or cooling rack.

On what has become my most favorite place to visit on the internet lately, I found a fantastic and EASY PEASY way to make homemade yogurt! No machines required! I love mine with just a drizzle of honey on it. YUM!

Easy Homemade Yogurt Recipe

Also, last night, I made my very own “homemade” recipe.

Lemonade:  1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 2 quarts water. Mix and enjoy!

Have a great weekend!

Mike is off from work today and tomorrow.  Generally, when he’s off, he and Felicity make breakfast.

Felicity saw my Peppermint extract on the cabinet the other day and decided that we would have Peppermint Pancakes for breakfast this morning.

They used the normal recipe they always do, from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  However, instead of the normal vanilla extract, they substituted Peppermint extract.

I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant and really not thinking they would be very good.

I was totally surprised! They were awesome! 

One day, use your favorite pancake recipe and try this. You’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Have a great day!

This was shared by a fellow forum member over at www.homesteadingtoday.com ! 

Household Cyclopedia, published in 1881. The file is LARGE, 15mb.  Over 800 pages with illustrations!

This is a rare find!  It is LEGALLY downloadable!

Here’s the Table of Contents so you can see how extensive the information is: (download link is below the TOC).

Contents
1 AGRICULTURE 11
11 The Modern Theory Of Agriculture 11
12 Wheat 35
13 Drainage 65
14 Sugar 69
15 Cotton And Tobacco 70
16 Directions For The Rearing Of Silk Worms 71
2 HORTICULTURE 81
21 Budding And Grafting 84
22 Keeping Fruit 117
23 Flower Gardening 120
24 Insects 123
25 Illustrations 124
3 RURAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY 131
31 To Manage A Dairy 132
32 Bees And Their Management 141
33 Insects 151
34 Illustrations 155
4 FARRIERY 157
41 Dogs 174
42 Cattle 175
43 Hogs 178
44 Sheep 178
45 Illustrations 184
5 MEDICINE 189
51 Diseases 189
52 Accidents 219
53 Wounds 219
9
10 CONTENTS
54 Fractures 223
55 Dislocations 226
56 Amputation 228
57 Poisons 230
58 Miscellaneous Articles 234
59 Medicines For Indigestion 243
510 Cholera 247
511 Diseases Peculiar To Females 250
512 Management And Diseases Of Children 256
513 Useful Domestic Medicines 262
514 Hygiene - Salutary Cautions 270
515 Preservation From Drowning And Shipwreck 272
516 General Rules For Preserving Life And Health 277
517 The Teeth 282
518 Illustrations 284
6 CULINARY ARTS 311
61 Plain Cookery 311
62 Cookery 334
63 Confectionery 374
64 Pickling 383
65 Carving 387
66 Qualities of Food 398
7 BREWING 403
71 Fermentation 403
72 To Make Cider 420
73 Wines 422
8 DISTILLATION 441
81 Essential Oils 459
82 Waters 463
83 Vinegar And Acid Liquors 469
84 Artificial Waters 473
85 Fixed Oils 476
86 Animal Oils And Fats 477
9 PERFUMERY 481
10 BLEACHING AND SCOURING 491
CONTENTS 11
11 DYING 501
111 Staining 515
12 PAINTS AND COLORS 521
13 VARNISHES 539
14 INKS 567
15 METALLURGY 575
151 Assaying Of Metallic Ores 575
152 Parting 582
153 Alloys, Or Compound Metals 583
154 Foils 590
155 Electro-Metallurgy 592
156 Gilding, Silvering, And Tinning 595
157 Iron And Steel 602
158 Illustrations 606
16 PYROTECHNY 609
161 Matches for Instantaneous Light 612
17 TANNING 615
18 ENAMELLING 621
19 POTTERY 627
20 GLASS 637
21 PHOTOGRAPHY 651
211 Photolithography 664
22 ENGRAVING 667
221 Lithography 673
23 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 679
231 Specific Gravity 685
232 Gas Meters 686
233 Value Of Coins 689
24 CHEMICAL RECEIPTS 693
241 Preventing And Removing Boiler Incrustations 695
242 Artificial Cold 696
243 Antiseptics And Disinfectants 697
12 CONTENTS
25 WEATHER PROGNOSTICS 705
26 ANGLING 711
261 The Culture Of Fish 714
262 Illustrations 716
27 MISCELLANEOUS 719
271 To Tie Knots 719
272 Knitting 721
273 Management Of Canary Birds 722
274 Dogs 722
275 To Destroy Insects 723
276 Petroleum 725
277 Electro-Magnetic Telegraph 726
278 Book-Keeping 727
279 On Preparing Copy And Marking Proof 727
2710The Art Of Rowing 729
2711Macadamized Roads 730
2712Miscellaneous Medical Receipts 738
2713Dialysis 743
2714Riding 744
2715Decalcomania 745
2716The Cattle Plague, Or Rinderpest 748
2717Miscellaneous Illustrations 753
2718Illustrations of Ellectrical Machines 762
2719Illustrations of Military Weapons 765
28 IMPLEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 769

Household Cyclopedia 1881

 ENJOY!

One of my favorite forums is Backyard Chickens Forum !

 Today I found this FABULOUS and EASY recipe that I want to share with you all!

MissPrissy’s Chicken Parmigiana (or Parmesian)

I’m off to go to the store to get the couple of items I don’t already have on hand to make this tonight! 

Enjoy!!

I read a post today on one of the blogs that I read everyday, sometimes more than once a day, if she does more than one post.  Ree does FABULOUS things with food!

I plan to make this for breakfast for Saturday! I’d love to make it now for Friday, but don’t have enough eggs.

Let’s face it. We all have them. Days where we just don’t want to do anything. Sundays are the worst, but with just cause.  Sunday is a day of rest.

I find, on Sunday especially, I do love to cook. Several weeks ago, I started cooking “big” on Sundays.  I prepare 3-4 days worth of meals at once, and it saves me time later in the week. PLUS it saves energy doing so! A huge plus(at least during summer months) in using your slow cooker is the fact that it doesn’t heat up your kitchen as when using your oven or cook top.

I think at this point, one of my favorite things in my kitchen is my slow cooker. AKA “Crock Pot”. I have several cookbooks with recipes only for slow cookers. MY OH MY! Slow cookers and recipes have come a long way!

Along with the convenience of the slow cooker, the food cooked inside has all it’s nutritional value kept intact and tastes fabulous!

I currently own this one, although because I’ve had it a few years, the outside design is a bit different.

Rival Crock Pot 6 Quart Buffet Slow Cooker And Server

This baby is on it’s way to me! I’ve wanted it since Christmas, but am finally able to get it.  Having this adjustable size one is going to be so handy. My 6 quart one is just too big for some recipes I make, thus creating a huge mess to clean up, or the recipe not turning out right.

Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 Slow Cooker with 2-, 4-, and 6-Quart Crocks

Having two slow cookers is going to double my efficency on my “big cooking” days!

Then there’s the hundreds of slow cooker cookbooks on the market! The sky’s the limit what you can make. I even “baked” cornbread in mine this week. I was a bit sceptial, but it turned out wonderfully!

Enjoy your Sunday, the entire week and get cookin’!

I was just visiting the Mother Earth News website.  I found that they currently have an unbelievable special on their magazine subscription!  $10/6 issues (1 yr). 

Mother Earth News magazine is worth WAY more than $10/yr!  It is one of our favorite magazines to read cover to cover. You will find so much wonderful information in the pages! Mike even reads this one!

Mother Earth News has been in publication since the ’70’s and still growing strong!

Here’s the link to subscribe to this fantastic magazine!

https://www.motherearthnews.com/subscribe/subscribe.aspx

Enjoy!