Death By Twinkies

I have made this dessert for a while now. My family loves this one and I got asked to make it for the Thanksgiving pot luck tomorrow. It is easy to make.

It takes a 9 by 9 pan, one package of Twinkies, one large package of instant pudding (your choice of flavors). one 8 oz Cool Whip, and chocolate syrup ( I left it off this time as it makes it rich). You can add cherries, nuts, or mini chocolate chips.

I cut up the Twinkies into circles. (They look like little doughnuts). I layer them into a single layer on the bottom. I make the pudding and then fold in the Cool Whip. I put a layer of pudding over the Twinkies. I then put more Twinkies then pudding until I fill up the dish. If I use chocolate syrup ,nuts, cherries, or mini chocolate chips I put them in the layers. Place in the fridge over night.

I have used several different Hostess Snack cakes in this dessert.  I have layered pudding in different flavors. I have played around and it has turned out different every time.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING to every one. Don't eat to much and be safe traveling.

Wordless Wednesday- Christmas Is Coming

Processing Deer 101

Deer season for gun opened this last Saturday. This means we will be given deer until well after Christmas. In one year I processed 12 deer that were given to us. Hubby doesn't even bother to hunt most years. We were cutting a load of wood when some one we knew asked us if we wanted one. We were happy to get it.

You will have to forgive the drawings as I do not put pictures of raw hunks of meat on my blog. I drew this the best I could for the purpose of showing you how to clean a deer.

The first thing is to have someone Gut and skin the deer. (Husbands are great for this.) My hubby cuts it onto chunks for me to process. We have the tenderloin (2), The back strap (2), the front quarter (2), and the back quarter (2). Some people use the ribs but I have only had one deer in 8 years with any meat on the ribs. We gave those to someone that asked for them.  If you are ambitious you can make leather out of the skin. (We know how just don't really have a use for it at all.)

Here is my picture of a tenderloin or back strap. There is not much difference but in size. You want to cut off the silver skin and fat. (the silver and white parts of the picture) The Silver skin is semi easy to take off. You put your knife under part of it and lift up. then pick up the edge of the cut and work your knife under it and it peels up as you go. The fat you just cut off. The fat does not taste good at all.

On the front quarters and the back quarters you want to cut on the lines. These are individual  muscles on the front and back legs. These are roasts. The front leg has smaller roast than the back. I usually make jerky or steak tips out of the front quarters. Again remove the silver skin and fat.

If you wish to make sausage please go get some pig fat to use. I keep it in the freezer since we raise pigs. But your local grocery store will always give you some. If you ground it with out fat to use as hamburger meat always put some regular hamburger in the dish you are cooking. If you do not do this it has a grainy texture as there is no fat in the meat itself.

We are for hunting legally here. It keeps the population from exploding causing diseases, starvation of the deer and traffic problems.  With that said those of you that shoot from the road and leave the deer laying or just shoot into the woods at shadows. I have a video camera that will be in my car all hunting season. We got the ones last year we will get you this year too. If you hunt legally and do not want all the meat make sure it is not wasted. Give it to families that use it or see if the food banks take them.

Hubby does hunt for squirrels and rabbits and such. I do not eat those but if you are looking for recipes for any wild life that is legal to hunt in your area just ask. I inherited a cook book that tells you how to cook opossum, beaver tail all the way to ground hog. I am keeping it for when times get really tough and the economy dies. I will be come a vegetarian at this point but hubby swears he will never full quit eating meat.

New Years Challenge

Rebekka and I were talking yesterday while grocery shopping. We have cut out alot of junk food, almost all Corn Syrup, and alot of fats and meat. We have upped the amount of vegetables in the house and stopped frying every thing. We were wondering what we could give up for the new year. (Preparing early on this one so I can get my fill before then I guess.) We decided to give up fast food for at least a year.

The fast food of which we speak is any restaurant that has a drive thru or a walk up counter to order. This does not include the Chinese restaurant or sit down restaurants where they actually serve vegetables. (I get my kids to eat alot of vegetables by eating out and letting them make their own choices.)

We are going to start on January 1st. We are going to keep track of what we eat and where the whole year. I will post it at least weekly. If we can do that we will be doing even better on our food budget and the way we eat. Right now as it stands we do not eat fast food but maybe 2 times a month. During the shopping for the holidays it increases a little and on vacation.

Please let me know if you are interested in joining us on our journey. I will make sure every one knows that you are on board with us and lets see just how many people we can get to stop the fast food nightmare.

Busy, Busy,Busy

I have been so busy lately that I have been doing good to get on Twitter. With that and being a computer down until today. (Yes I have to share with the kids and their school work when one is down.) I thought you would be ready for an update.

First is the Allen's Allies article for this month went up yesterday.  http://su.pr/5Y4Cbz  It is on Bean Burgers. When we make these the kids fight over them.  This is a recipe the hubby will not eat as it has mushrooms in it. But the kids and I are ok with this as it means more for us.

The second is: I know I have been slacking on blogging. I have posted what we have for dinner and sometimes lunch on twitter. I am @waylandcook there. I have been really busy with cleaning house, school work, and getting ready for the trip to Disney. Yes we leave on Dec. 1st. Hubby will be here 8 days by his self. This may be interesting. He is planning on slaughtering hogs with a friend while we are gone. This also means he has to do the laundry, clean up after his self and feed his self. (Yes I know when I get home my house will look like a teenager threw a huge party. lol)  I will be in a wheel chair when we get back. I have Wesley all by my self this time. Rebekka is 14 and not to bad to keep up with. Wesley is in a hurry every time we go some place.  This is going to be fun but a lot of work. At least this time it wont be so hot. Wesley is thrilled this time too. He is tall enough to ride all the rides. He is sadly mistaking about a few he thinks he is riding. The Tower of Terror is on his list but is not on mine with him. I rode it with Bekka last time and she had her eyes closed the whole time. I can not imagine a 6 year old riding it. He thinks he is big. He has to be told he is not quite a bit lately.

The third thing and the biggest I saved for last. I am now the Tennessee State Mom for MomTV. This is a huge honor. Here is the twitter address @TennesseeMoms .  The web page is http://www.momtv.com/state-network/313  There is a facebook page too. I will post that one as soon as I get it.  I will be doing videos (Yes you can hear me and see me now). When I told Hubby that the biggest fear I have is sounding to much like a red neck he tells me to just not holler at the kids while I was taping my video. He said I can hear it now. Hey yall kids stop that I am shooting a video here and get that pig out of this house.

I will keep everyone posted on when I get a video up. It should be some time after this weekend. I am thinking about shooting it Sunday when the kids are gone if hubby will behave. I think he will have to much fun the first time around.

Not missing

I was going to let every one know that I am still alive. I have been busy this week and not feeling so good. Wesley is learning how to cook, Rebekka is fine tuning her cooking skills, and Jr is eating less meat with out noticing.

This week I did fix steak tips. I took a roast that I found on sale. (Wesley had fun cutting up a rump roast or in his words cow butt.)  I cubed it, browned it, put it in the crock pot. I put two onion soup packets and enough water to cover. I left it on low all day. I thickened it with corn starch and served over rice.

I also fixed some low sugar fudge from a friend on twitter @joyfulabode and the blog post for the fudge is http://www.joyfulabode.com/2010/11/07/low-sugar-chocolate-fudge/

I am hoping to post more recipes this week if I get to feeling better.

Wesley Cooks Dinner

Yesterday my 6 year old son asked me if he could fix dinner. He sees me and Rebekka cooking and wanted to do it. So tonight he helped me cook dinner. He came up with the recipe, and actually cooked part of it.

The first thing he made was baked beans with hamburger meat in them. He fried the hamburger meat with salt and onion. He pulled his chair up to the stove top. (yes mom was very nervous). I stood there with him and had the stove eye on medium. (It took thirty minuets to brown the meat but he didn't get burnt) I held the pan while he stirred. He then added two cans of baked beans, a table spoon of mustard and about a table spoon of molasses. He stirred it together and I put it in the oven to bake until bubbly.

The next thing he wanted to cook was pumpkin bread. (He has a huge sweet tooth.) We made the recipe below. It says it makes two loafs but he wanted it in a bunt pan. He puts black walnuts in this. (He loves them and we have several trees)

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup pumpkin puree, canned or homemade

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Mix dry ingredients. Add the wet and mix until just blended. Pour into grease loaf pan or a bunt pan. Bake at 350 until a tooth pick comes out clean.


It is important to encourage our kids to get into the kitchen and cook. It helps them learn science, math, where their food comes from and what is in their food. Plus Wesley got to spend time with his mom and feel like he did something very important. ex specially when there was no casserole left over at all.

Wesley's Bean Salad

I always keep some sort of dried beans or peas cooked and in the fridge. Tonight I was going to make bean salad. My 6 year old son loves to help so this is his bean salad. It was his idea to add the pickled banana peppers and it made the salad that much better.

In the salad is pintos, drained, Canned diced tomatoes (drained and because fresh are not in season), onion, pickled banana peppers. (not hot and home canned), and Caribbean Jerk Season. Then enough Mayo to coat. (I did not put measurements because you can make as much as you would like or just use a can of pintos, tomatoes and a small onion for a small batch.)

I have added some cubed ham on occasions but tonight was Meatless Monday so I left it out and did not miss it. If you let it chill over night the flavors mellow together nicely.