Sunday, May 1, 2011

Welcome Guest Blogger Babs Hightower with her Grandmother's Baked Beans and Sam's Cookies!


Sam's Cookies
(Hello Dollies)


Please welcome our guest blogger, Barbara (Babs) Downey Hightower. Babs is a passionate book reviewer and blogger who is also an amazing cook. She's sharing two very special recipes with us today: one for a favorite cookie and one for her grandmother's baked beans. Take it away, Babs! 
 ~ Cleo Coyle



I am thrilled to be here with all of you today. Mystery Lovers' Kitchen is one of my favorite sites. I visit each day, so imagine my surprise when Cleo invited me to be a guest.

I love to read, but that has not always been the case. It wasn’t until high school when I had to read Rebecca, that reading caught my attention. The thriller got me hooked on mysteries from then on.

I started my website in 2008 to post my reviews for my close friends as they were always asking if I liked or even if I did not like a book. It started catching on when I asked a few authors to be guests on the site.

One day in 2010, I got to talking to Cleo about being a guest as I have always been a big fan of hers. She took me under her wing and introduced me to the blogging world. She even helped me with the title of my blog, The World of Book Reviews. I did change it to Babs World of Book Reviews as I wanted to stand out a bit more. Since then, the blog has taken off. I have had more authors contact me to be on the blog and review their books than I could ever imagine.

It might sound hard to believe, but mysteries were all I wanted to read until I started my blog. My eyes have been opened to more genres that I did not know I would enjoy. I always frowned on romances while growing up. My mom always read them. I remember her dragging me to the book exchange to turn in her old ones for new ones or the book store for the newest releases. I did not see the big hoopla of it all. Now that I look back, I wish I would have paid more attention to the book shelves when I was younger. My main genre to review is still a good old mystery.

As my husband (TJ) and I have had a recent addition to the family and since Cleo wanted to see a picture of the little fellow, I better tell you about my family.

We have 4 boys that are all adopted and all half brothers. We have Ethan 14, Logan 8, Duncan 18 months and Marco who as of today is 6 months old. We started out with Ethan who was 8 at the time and Logan who was 2. They are my babies (don’t tell Ethan). We got a call last year that the birth mom had another baby boy and would we take him. Well, of course my answer was yes. TJ and I already decided we would keep their family together if we could. So, Duncan came into the picture when he was 5 months old. I was happy with 3 boys and thought that would be it until 2 months ago. We got another call about another little boy, Marco. I never thought I would have 4 children much less 4 boys. I keep hoping for a girl one of these days, but if not, I am just as happy.


Now for the fur babies. We have 13 pets that are all rescues. We have 4 indoor cats as one just passed away. Their names are Bandit, Casper, Timber and Katie Bell. We also have 9 Siberian huskies they are, Winter, Glacier, Nanook, Avalanche, Sleet, Sapphire, Summer, Nomad and Alpine. 

We have a house full of adopted and or rescues. They all keep me on my toes. This isn’t all of the dogs of course but there is TJ holding Duncan, Logan in front of them and Nomad and Summer can’t tell who the ones are behind TJ.  --->>>

Last, but not least there's my love for cooking. My mom’s side of the family is from Georgia. Every summer and any vacation time I had from school, was spent in Georgia with my great grandmother. She cooked everything home made with no short cuts.

My mom said I was 3 years old, on a chair helping grandmother stir whatever was in the pots. She taught me a great deal about cooking and cooking with joy. She always said never treat cooking like it is a chore, if that happens you need to stop cooking. I never copied any of her recipes. I thought she would always be here.

When she passed I was 18 years old and my great uncles surprised me with all of her recipes. One of my happiest days. The most important thing my great-grandmother taught me, southern cooking isn’t just fried chicken and the fixins. It is also about lots of love.


I had so many recipes running through my mind to share. I finally narrowed it down to these two.

I love this recipe as there can be so many variations to make how you like it. This recipe is from a friend of mine.

Sam’s Cookies (Hello Dollies)

Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Oven Temp: 350 degrees F. 
Pan Size: 13 x 9


LAYERS

1 stick butter melted
1 cup crushed graham crackers
1 cup ( 6 oz ) chocolate chips
1 cup medium sized pecan pieces
1 cup coconut ( optional )
1 cup condensed milk

Directions: Line your 13 x 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Do not mix above ingredients. Layer each ingredient separately into your pan. Press each layer down as you would in making a pie shell. Finish top layer by spreading condensed milk over it. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. When the cookies are done, cool, cut and peel off paper.


<< Line pan with parchment.

Layer ingredients >>





<< Finish with condensed milk.

Bake, cool, cut, and peel off paper >>



*  *  *  *  *  *


Grandmother's
Western Baked Beans

This next recipe is from my grandmother. We like to use this recipe when we are cooking out on the grill.


Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter 
1 pound ground beef (or ground turkey)
1 package onion soup mix
1/2 cup water
1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoon mustard
2 tablespoon vinegar
2- 12 oz cans of any pork and beans
Bacon slices (cooked and drained)

Directions: In skillet, heat butter and brown the ground beef (or turnkey). Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into a 2 quart casserole dish. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 20 to 30 minutes. Garnish with bacon strips. I also like to add cheese and sour cream to top mine off. There are so many different ways you can.



I hope you like these 2 recipes just as much as my family does. Thank you for inviting me to be a guest today and hope to see you stop by my blog.

~ Babs



Website:






Thank You again to Babs for joining us here today.
I cannot wait to make these amazing recipes!

~ Cleo


9 comments:

  1. Welcome to the blog today, Babs! I'm excited to see you as a guest poster...you've been such a great commenter. :)

    Oh, these recipes look amazing! I don't see how you even find time to cook--you've got so much going on with your children and fur family! The Hello Dollies look wonderful (pecans!) and so do the baked beans. I can't wait to try these...think my family will love them. :)

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  2. Elizabeth thank you for the welcome.

    Hopefully you will like the recipes as much as we do. The kids make the dollies by themselves it so easy. I thought you might like the beans with the bacon. I like more bacon on mine.

    Some days are better for cooking and some I just give up and do something quick.

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  3. wow great article and i found out one thing i didn't know you loved the book rebecca as a kid.lolol me too. i want to try the beans recipe at my next bbq. Been looking for one.
    You know i love to read anything you write

    noreen

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  4. Bans~ love the hello dollies. And all your rescue animals! Wow! Thank you for joining us!

    Avery

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  5. Noreen thanks for stopping over here at MLK you should come by more often. There are always great recipes here to try.

    Avery thanks :)

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  6. Babs!
    Great post!! Wonderful to meet your entire family. We have only 4 rescue dogs and 2 teens and I complain about my house being full!! Now I will stop complaining :-)

    The recipes look terrific...I am on Weight Watchers now so the cookie recipe is perfect...I don't care for coconut or chocolate!!! I can still treat the family and save my waistline!!! Baked beans are wonderful on the grill...now if only it would warm up here I could dust off the grill and get busy.

    Thanks again, Babs!!

    Nanc

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  7. Hi Nanc

    Complain away :). I would but no one listens ha.

    I hope you like the recipes, the cookies are easy to adjust. It has been in the 80's here in SC I will send you some of the weather.

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  8. Babs - My hats off to you. Four wonderful children and all of those rescue pets... Wow! That's all I have to say. ; )

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