A Southern Girl

Crack Dip – Seriously good stuff…

Recipes

I bring this dip to every get together and it’s always a huge hit. This is another one of those super easy crowd-pleasers. Great things happen when you mix bacon, ranch, and cheese. Before you know it, 1/2 (or all) of it’s gone!

 

crack dip

Here’s an easy printable recipe

[AdSense-A]

 

Crack Dip – Seriously good stuff…
Prep time:
Total time:
Ingredients
  • 1 24 oz Sour Cream
  • 1 4.3 oz pkg Crumbled Bacon Bits
  • 1 pkg Ranch Dressing Dry Mix
  • 1 Cup Shredded Cheddar
Instructions
  1. Combine dry ranch mix and sour cream, mix well. Add bacon bits and cheese and mix until combined. That’s it!
  2. Serve with Ruffles or Fritos.

 

I want my MTV…

Random Ramblings

mtv

 

It was 1980..something.. and life was good. It was back when the ‘M’ in MTV actually stood for Music.. instead of Mindless. You could see Bon Jovi sing about being wanted Dead or Alive… Madonna was telling her Papa not to preach.. and Dire Straits had the coolest music video we had ever seen… Money For Nothing. Ah, those were the days. That’s what sparked my love of music. I can hear a song today..  like Van Halen’s ‘Jump’ and still see David Lee Roth with those ridiculous, leave nothing whatsoever to the imagination, tights.. or hear a Whitesnake song and see Tawny dancing on cars. We didn’t have cable at our house.. because we lived on the outskirts of town and we couldn’t get cable.  My sister and I spent a lot of time at our Grandmother’s house and the first thing we did when we got there was turn the TV to channel 23. My poor Grandmother HATED it… she thought we were going to be warped by watching that filth… we probably were.. a little.  My sister is 8 years older than me, which meant we didn’t agree on a lot of things, including what to watch on television… but this was one thing we agreed on.

mtvvjs

Back in the days of playing MASH with friends… hoping you weren’t sentenced to a life of living in a shack, VJ was always on my list of dream jobs. I wanted to be just like Martha Quinn. I thought they had the coolest gig on the planet. Getting paid to hang out with rock stars and listen to music all day… that’s what I’m talking about. I must be old, because I still remember the original lineup of VJs. Wow. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long ago. *sigh*

Then came the late 80’s, early 90’s… the beginning of the end. It started off promising… all innocent… they lured you in with a little, teeny, tiny break from all music/all day… with a game show, Remote Control… which was fun.  They were sneaky about it that’s for sure… because, then came The Real World, which I watched the first few and liked.  Blocks of music got shorter, and little by little, more reality shows were popping up in the lineup. Before long, our beloved MTV as we knew it was a thing of the past. I do get it, there’s not much need for MTV in today’s world… with music videos at your fingertips just by searching YouTube. It’s not economical.. the reality shows are the network’s bread and butter. The kids of today will never know what it’s like to have to wait for your favorite video to come up in the rotation… or turning it on just in time to see the ending of your favorite song. Videos were how bands and artists made their mark… yeah, of course the music was the biggest way, but the videos were almost just as important. The image. I still get my fix on occasion since VH1 Classic still plays music videos from back in the day. Back in the day… ugh.

Man, I’m old.

 

 

Christmas is over…. winter, you may be dismissed.

Random Ramblings

It’s no secret that I’m a summer girl. I love the sunshine, the warm breeze, the long days, the trees full of leaves, the smell of fresh cut grass.. all of it. Shorts, flip-flops, and tan lines… doesn’t get much better than that… living life like a Jimmy Buffett song.  Also, there’s that little thing called summer break. I love having my kiddo all to myself for those 3 months (give or take) out of the year. No waking up early, no alarm clocks, no packing lunches, no homework..  absolutely no hustle and bustle whatsoever.

summer girl

 

Seriously.. Christmas is all winter is good for and Christmas is over, so now I’m ready for Jack Frost to get to packing. Winter is just icky. All the sickness gives my inner germaphobe an eye twitch… the sneezing.. the coughing.. just all around germy, flu-like nastiness. No. Thank. You. Hand sanitizer is my friend. We’re tight.. like PB&J.

Another thing the irks me about winter… I hate coats… literally loathe them. I don’t see how people up north tolerate really frigid temperatures. We actually get by pretty easy compared to some places. I wouldn’t survive. I just know it. I am a wuss with a capital ‘W’. I’ll admit it. No shame.

coats suck

This was the first super cold day that I had to break out the coat, coat. Normally, I try to get by with a ‘light’ jacket for as long as possible. 

My feet stay cold.. my skin stays too dry and my hands are chapped from all the extra hand washing. Blah!  My language is so much more colorful during the winter.. nothing like trying to pump gas with a 90mph minus 50 wind blowing the entire time. I’m ashamed at some of the words muttered under my breath during these times.  I’ve tried the whole ‘mind over matter thing’.. chanting ‘it’s 75 and sunny.. it’s 75 and sunny’. Yeah, that crap doesn’t work.

The countdown to summer has officially begun.

160 days… 19 hours.. 56 minutes and 19 seconds.

Bring on the sunshine.

Spicy Garlic Pasta

Recipes

Oh em gee… this is good. I try not to eat pasta all that much because of the whole bad carbs vs good carbs thing, but I couldn’t resist this one. You could always substitute whole grain pasta if you chose to. This is great as a side dish, or as a meal.. just add garlic toast. Heaven…

Spicy Garlic Pasta Recipe... these noodles are packed with flavor!

[AdSense-A]

I love recipes like this because they are so forgiving. There’s no need for exact amounts of anything. You can always adjust it to your own personal tastes.

Spicy Garlic Pasta
Recipe Type: Pasta
Author: A Southern Girl
Ingredients
  • 8 oz spaghetti
  • 3 garlic gloves finely diced
  • 1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (plus an additional Tbsp)
  • 1 Tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 Tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese
  • 1 1/2 Tsp Sea Salt
  • Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
  1. Add 1/2 Tsp of salt to boiling water and cook pasta until it’s al dente. You want a little bit of resistance when you bite into it, not undercooked and definitely not overcooked. While pasta is cooking add your minced garlic along with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and cook garlic over a medium heat until it just starts to brown. Be careful not to burn it. Just as it starts to darken to a golden color, remove from heat. Set aside. When pasta is done, drain and add remaining olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic, parmesan, salt, and pepper to taste. Toss well and serve immediately.

 

 

Pretzel Turtle Bites

Recipes

These are so easy and so good… a little salty.. a little sweet.. chewy, crunchy… yum. I called them Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pretzels.. which was a mouthful! Someone informed me that they are Pretzel Turtles. That’s sooo much easier to say. I never knew they had a name. Thanks! 😉

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Pretzel

[AdSense-A]

 

Pretzel Turtle Bites
Ingredients
  • 1 bag of pretzel snaps
  • 1 bags of Rolo Minis (or 2 if you are taking them to a party, like I plan to do. 😉 )
  • 1 bag of pecan halves
Instructions
  1. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper and cover with pretzels. Then put one Rolo on each pretzel.
  2. Pop them in a warm oven for about a minute until chocolate is softened.
  3. Then immediately top each one with a pecan and push down slightly. Boom! Done. 🙂

 

chocolate caramel pecan pretzel 2

This is the kind I used. You could use full sized Rolos if you like.

chocolate caramel pecan pretzel 3

chocolate caramel pecan pretzel bites

Coke Ham.. It’s the yummiest ham ever!

Recipes

My Grandma made ham this way… my Great-Grandma did too. For as long as I can remember, it’s been a tradition in our family to have Coke Ham at the holidays. We aren’t too crazy about turkey in this family.. so the turkeys get pardoned at our house at Thanksgiving… Christmas too. 😉 The Coke helps break down the fat, and tenderizes the meat. At least, that’s what I assume it does. I totally just made that up. I’m not really sure what kind of magical sorcery happens when it cooks, but whatever it is.. it’s yummy.

Coke Ham

[AdSense-A]

It doesn’t get any easier than this either, and the flavor is awesome.

 

Coke Ham.. It’s the yummiest ham ever!
We usually get a large ham since we have a lot of mouths to feed. The one in the photo is about a 20 lb cured ham.
Ingredients
  • a ham
  • large roasting pan
  • 2 liter bottle of Coke
Instructions
  1. Place the ham in a large roasting pan, pour the Coke in the pan until it comes up a couple of inches on the ham.
  2. Cover with a lid if you have it, or heavy duty foil.
  3. Bake for 8 hours at 250, basting several times.
  4. I usually put mine in the night before and let it cook all night long. By morning, it is fall-off-the-bone tender, and juicy. Mouthwatering good!
3.2.2885

This year I bought an electric Oster Turkey Broiler that sits on the counter top. It was awesome! It kept the oven free for any other baking I needed to do. Money well spent.