Easy Peach Cobbler

This was a request from one of our good friends that Aaron met in nursing school. I'm a fan for cobbler with thick crusts, so this is one of my very favorites!

INGREDIENTS:
1 (29 oz) can sliced peaches, drained well
5 slices white bread, crusts trimmed (hamburger buns work well, too!)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons self-rising flour**
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Dump peaches in the bottom of a buttered 9-inch square baking dish. Cut each slice of bread

into 9-12 cubes and place over peaches.

3. In medium bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, egg, margarine, vanilla and cinnamon; pour over bread

4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown

TIPS:

**If you don't have self-rising flour, you can just use all purpose flour with a pinch of baking soda, a pinch of baking powder and a dash of salt.

It is pretty sweet, so you can cut down on the sugar if you'd like. Also, I'm sure this would work just fine with Splenda for my diabetic readers :)

The Can Can Shepherd's Pie

So, I never liked Shepherd's Pie, and Aaron has said a few times that his mom always made it and he doesn't really like it, but I got desperate today and didn't want to go to the store, so I created my own version, and it was good!! Aaron's exact words were, "I don't want to say this too loud, but this was pretty dang good!" (He hates making his mom feel bad.)

Anyway, I used canned roast beef, but leftover pot roast I'm sure would be great.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cans roast beef (found by the tuna)
1 small onion, chopped (or a bag of onion soup would be good I'm sure)
2 beef bullion cubes
1 can chopped tomatoes (I had the garlic and chives mix)
1 can corn
1 can green beans
4 (or so..) cups of mashed potatoes, prepared (I used one of the mini bag of instant from Costco)
1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. In skillet, mix roast beef (with juice from can), bullion cubes, can of tomatoes and onion or onion soup mix. Heat until onions are tender and bullion cubes are dissolved

3. Pour in 9 x 13 dish. Top with corn and green beans

4. Spread mashed potatoes on top of beef and veggies

5. Cover with cheese and cook for about 30 minutes.

Serve with a can of bisquits fresh out of the oven and you've got yourself a classic, white trash meal!

Hawaiian Beef

PREFACE: This is definitely not a White Trash Recipe, this is a little bit of heaven introduced to us while in Hawaii. My dad made a friend while he was barbequing chicken (definitely white trash style.) The guy was one of the nicest men I've ever met, and he shared some of the meat he was grilling. OH MY GOODNESS! It was amazing. He and his wife told me how to cook it, I don't know if I'll ever duplicate it, but I sure am going to try!!

The meat is just ribeye from Costco that they have the deli slice into thin pieces (I'm sure you could get Ribeye anywhere, but Costco definitely has the best meat.)

Marinade: (I don't have the measurements, so we'll just have to guess)
Shoyu (Hawaiian soy sauce) - enough to cover meat
Brown Sugar - LOTS! Like, probabl a whole cup, or more, depending on how much meat you have
Ginger - I grated 1 full fresh ginger root
Garlic (he says he uses lots of garlic)
Sesame seed oil (he said that is best on pork ribs)

The secret to marinading from our new native Hawaiian friend:
He says to leave the meat out for a few hours to get a "little slimy." Then, you marinade the meat for 1-2 days leaving it at room tempature for a couple hours at a time, then putting it back in the fridge. He says it's critical to marinade for at least a day, but 2 days is best.

I'm going to try some when I get home and I'll let you all know how it goes. He said he's going to meet us again tomorrow and bring morestuff from home to share...we told him we'd do a trade, but we don't have anything even remotely close to offer. He did share a shake and a hug from my dad when he left, though. Only in Hawaii do you hug people you just met. ALOHA!

Creamy Rice Pudding

I have never been a rice pudding fan because I was never brave enough to try it, but I found this recipe and decided to use the leftover Minute Rice I made for our teriyaki chicken dinner and I'm so glad I tried it. Aaron loves rice pudding and said that it tasted just like it was supposed to, and it was so dang easy, I thought I'd share!

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cup cooked white rice

2 cups milk, divided (I used skim and it worked just fine)

1/3 cups sugar (I used a heaping 1/3 cup because I knew I'd prefer it super sweet)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup raisins (optional)

1 tablespoons butter or margarine

1/2 teasponn vanilla extract

cinnamon and/or nutmeg (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. In medium saucepan, combine cooked rice, 1 1/2 cups milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until think and creamy, about 20 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, mix egg and remaing 1/2 cup milk (this prevents the egg from getting cooked too fast in the pudding). While stirring rice, add egg mixture. Add raisins, if using. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.

3. Remove from heat, add butter and vanilla and any spices you'd like for a little extra flavor! I added some Pumpkin Pie Spice which was just perfect. It's ready to eat!