Dana Marie's Country Living Blog

Homemade crackers are so delicious and taste much better than store bought. I like to serve them with summer sausage, chicken salad, cheese and olives - a small charcuterie, if you will. You can also serve them with a soft cheese spread to take them to another level of yumminess. It's so worth it to make homemade!! Homemade crackers with summer sausage & olives Homemade Crackers   Ingredients 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons garlic powder 1/2 cup shortening 2-1/2 cups water, room temperature  fresh herbs such as oregano, thyme     rosemary, chives (opt.) fresh-ground Himalayan or sea salt for tops (optional) Everything Bagel seasoning (optional) Instructions 1 . With a pastry cutter or two forks combine the flour, salt, garlic powder and shortening together until the dough resembles small peas. 2 . Slowly add the water and continue to cut through the dough with forks or a pastry cutter. Once it starts coming together, remove the dough from ...

This recipe for homemade cheese is very, very easy. No special equipment is needed. The texture of the cheese reminds me of feta, which I love. You can slice it, spread it on crackers and sandwiches and crumble it on your salads etc.  I used some of it on a chicken pizza, and wow, so delicious. It's fun to make too!  Chicken Apple Citrus Salad  with crumbled homemade cheese Here's the recipe that is customized to my tastes, but you can totally change up the flavors to the way you prefer. Easy Homemade Cheese All you need is 4 cups whole milk 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar  4 tablespoons butter, melted salt to your taste 2 - 3 teaspoons garlic powder (optional) chopped herbs such as chives, thyme, rosemary, oregano (optional) Instructions 1 . Add the milk to a large pot on the stove. Heat it up until just boiling, stirring constantly so you don't scorch the milk. 2 . Take it off of the burner and immediately add the apple cider vinegar. Stir for a couple of minutes...

A few months ago, I had a get-together coming up and I thought I would make cake in Mason jars, so if anyone wasn't ready for dessert they could take one home. I just didn't fill them extra-full on that night so a lid would go on easily. The good thing about a dessert like this is that you don't have to eat it all at once. If you only eat half, just put the lid back on and place it in the fridge. Here's how to do it: Cake in Jars 1 . Make your favorite chocolate cake in a 9x13 sheet pan. Let it cool.  2 . Make or buy both caramel sauce and chocolate frosting. 3 . Place pieces of cake in Mason jars about a quarter of the way up, then cover with frosting. 4 . Add a second layer of cake and drizzle with caramel sauce. 5 . Top with caramel whipped cream, which is made by stirring some left-over caramel sauce into heavy cream and whipping it up like normal. It tastes delicious! 6 . Lastly, drizzle with more caramel sauce and add chocolate sprinkles. 7 . Store in the fridge. ...

I made these delicious cookies today with semisweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, and Peanut M&Ms.® It's kind of one of those cookies that you use what ya got. They are great! You can't tell in the photo but they are big!  For Large Cookies Step 1. I use an ice cream scoop for the big scoop and a regular-sized cookie scoop to add another scoop to the top of the ice cream scoop. Step 2. Then push down slightly on the stacked scoops. By doing this you will make your cookies nice and ooey gooey in the middle and crunchy on the outside. Look for my new cookie cookbook, My Olde Country Home: Vintage Cookie Recipes , coming out soon on Amazon. You can get a sneak-peek of the book  here . This big cookie is not in it, so I will share the recipe with you.  M&M®, Semisweet and Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients 1/2 cup salted butter 1/2 cup shortening 1-1/2 cups brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking ...

I cannot wait for canning season! If you haven't already, it's time to get your seeds in or start searching your local nurseries for plants. I have to tell you all - nothing is more satisfying than preserving your own food that you have grown yourself! Most of us who "can" are growing our own fruits and vegetables, but I want to mention that if you can't have a garden, remember your local farmers market. They should have a large amount of fresh produce ready for canning later this summer. I go to mine often, to find items that I don't have growing in my garden. Strawberry Jam, just out of a hot water bath canner If you don't know how to can, I urge you to learn how it's done. I think it is time again for us all to start growing our own food, for a couple of reasons. There may come a time in our economies in which there is a food shortage. And we surely do not know what chemicals are on our produce bought at the grocery stores. If we grow our own food, ...

This month I made some beautiful Butterscotch Candies from scratch. Butterscotch is my favorite hard candy. These taste even better than the famous yellow disk candies from Brach's®. This recipe makes a lot so you will be in business for a while. The great thing about these is that there is no artificial coloring. Make some for yourself or as a gift for a friend. This is the LorAnn® butterscotch flavoring I use. You can find it at your local crafts stores or online. I order it from Amazon®. Here is the silicone candy mold I use. The cavities are .78" wide and .43" deep. I got them from Amazon®. Printed waxed wrapping papers are available online from Amazon® and other sellers. Butterscotch Hard Candies Ingredients 2 cups white granulated sugar 1/2 cup brown sugar 3/4 cup water 2/3 cup light corn syrup 1/2 cup butter (1 stick cut into 8 pieces) 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt 1 teaspoon of LorAnn® butterscotch flavor Instructions  1 . Bring to a boil on medium heat the sugars, w...