Rhubarb Spice Cake

This cake is full of spicy fall flavors that are nicely complimented by small chunks of rhubarb. This cake is soft, yet not as moist as I'd like. It goes really well with a tall glass of milk. This is a nice, subtle way to enjoy rhubarb. :)

Slow Cooked Tequila 'Refried' Beans

These beans aren't actually refried because they are made completely in the slow cooker, not fried. They are much healthier than traditional refried beans and pack a lot more flavor. These beans are thick and creamy with a hint of lime and a kick of tequila. You could definitely keep out the jalapenos and tequila if that's not your sort of thing, but I would recommend sticking to the recipe. Trust me. These are by far the best refried beans I've ever had. If you haven't tried homemade refried beans yet... Do it. Now. :)

-Jess

Homemade Carpet Deodorizer

Having a new puppy who is in the process of being housebroken means you can expect accidents to happen on your carpets. Store bought carpet deodorizers can become pretty expensive in the long run, so I decided to make my own. It's as simple as having some baking soda, and a fragrance. You can use any fragrance you want whether it be flowers or your favorite spice from the kitchen to get your carpets smelling their best.


What you'll need-

•Baking soda. How much you need depends on how much carpet you have to cover.
•Something to put the baking soda in, preferably a mason jar.
•Fragrance of your choice. This can be a flower (like lavender), scented oil, or even a kitchen spice such as cinnamon. I used my favorite scented wax. You can pick it up at whole-sale stores, like wal mart.

What to do-

Pour the baking soda into an air tight jar. How much you use depends on how big of an area you want to cover. I used about ¾ cup for my 12x12' living room.
Add the fragrance of your choice to the jar of baking soda, and give it a good shake to combine. If you're using scented oil it will clump, you'll need to break up these clumps to allow all of the baking soda to combine with it. Let the mixture sit for at least an hour to allow the baking soda to soak up the scent.
Lightly sprinkle the scented baking soda over the surface of your carpet. Let sit anywhere from 15 minutes to overnight. Vacuum as usual.

Now you have clean carpets that smell the way you want them to, not the way he makes them! :)

Side note: I finally found the original recipe I used to make Sweet Honey Cornbread. Now you have it, too!

Sour Cream Peach Pecan Pie

This pie is made by putting peaches in a pie dish and covering them with a mixture of sugar, eggs, and sour cream that transforms into a sweet custard when baked. It's topped off with a yummy brown sugar and pecan streusel.

While baking, the custard in my pie started forming a top crust before I could cover it with all of the streusel topping, which is supposed to be a very thick layer. The filling also did not firm up as much as the source's picture shows, but it still cut very well and held it's shape for the most part.

The combination of fresh peaches, sweet custard filling, and pecan streusel made this pie truly amazing! The flavors, as well as the textures, are fantastic. This is one pie that you will definitely want to try before saying goodbye to summer. :)

Dorie's Dimply Plum Cake

Plums are good.
Having never baked with them before, I instantly wanted to bake this cake the first time I saw it. The Man was suspicious of it, but I knew it would be yummy. It is a Dorie Greenspan recipe, after all. And I trust Dorie. :)

The cake is very easy to make, the longest part is always the actual bake time which in this case is 40 minutes. This cake is very moist and has a fantastic flavor! I was hoping that the plums would have given it something special, but they were just plums. The Man isn't fond of them, but he happily ate the surrounding cake. I'm thinking of making another, but next time I will slightly cook the plums in a brown sugar/butter mixture, sort of like I did for the peaches in my Rum Spiked Peach Cobbler. This will make the plums sweeter (mine were a bit tart), and give the whole cake more flavor.

Shortcut Slow Cooker Chili

My pregnant sister was dying for some chili, so I invited her and our younger sister over for dinner. That meant 2 extra mouths to feed (3 if you count preggers) than what I'm used to. So, I wanted a recipe that would be really, really easy and very fast to whip up. Enter this chili.

I thought this chili turned out amazing, it had so many great flavors. It came out thick, with just the right amount of juices. The recipe itself is not too spicy, so I added some extra chili powder to give it a little more kick.

We enjoyed it with Sweet Honey Cornbread. Alexis and I ate it by taking a spoon of cornbread and scooping up the chili on top of it. Very yummy! I also like to eat mine topped with crushed saltine crackers. And, of course, it's good with shredded cheddar.

The best thing about this recipe is how quick and easy it is. You pretty much just throw everything into the slow cooker and forget about it. Nothing is better than coming home from a long day to the wonderful smell of chili ready to be eaten. :)

Sweet Honey Cornbread

My favorite recipe for cornbread.

This Sweet Honey Cornbread is really yummy. The texture is nice and moist, not overly dry like some others, and it has the perfect sweetness. The Man took a bite and asked 'Why haven't you made this before?!'. Even my 9 year old sister kept coming back for more. Actually, I'm damn sure she ate more cornbread than the chili that I served it with.

I will definitely never have a need for another cornbread recipe. :)

Corn Tortilla Enchiladas

Enchiladas are my favorite Mexican dish. Growing up, my family ate a lot of them, so often that enchiladas were the first dish I knew how to cook on my own. They're great because you don't really need a set recipe, just meat, tortillas, and sauce, then you can throw in whatever else you like.

I really like this recipe from Pioneer Woman.
For one it doesn't use just canned sauce itself; it combines the canned stuff with chicken broth and spices making it way better. Two, it gives the meat filling texture and great flavor by adding onions and chiles. Three, it uses corn tortillas that are gently fried and then dipped into the red sauce. Dipping the tortillas was definitely the hardest task to accomplish for this dish, but the end result was well worth it.

These Enchiladas are very good. I made these for dinner while my two younger sisters were staying with us, and they both loved them! I know I've done something right when my picky-eater sister gobbles down something I've made, like she did that one time.

If you follow the recipe as is, it doesn't make a very spicy dish, so the only thing I changed to this recipe was adding a small can of hot tomato sauce. I like my Mexican food to be SPICY. The spicier the better!  I also added green onions to the meat filling. Next time, I'll make these with chicken, just cause I like it better than beef(in this case I used ground turkey). :)