Last night on Twitter’s #DadsTalking live chat, lucky parents won bottles of Texas Rib Candy, and they were excited to get theirs!

(By the way, if you’re a parent, and especially if you’re a dad, why don’t you follow along with the hashtag #DadsTalking along with us? We never stop talking, and you’ll pick up awesome, useful parenting hints as well as tips as to when the next live chat will be.)

Tonight was a long time getting here, so we’re going the lazy route once again and having soup and chicken nuggets for supper.

However, ever since we discovered Texas Rib Candy, plain old chicken nuggets have never been plain again. Now even something as simple as a chicken nugget has become a piece of awesomely delicious yumminess, because I brush them with Texas Rib Candy before I throw them into the microwave.

Not only that: my husband now dips almost everything into Texas Rib Candy as he eats. Seriously, Rib Candy is addictive (the GOOD kind!) and wonderful.

So, envy us, dear readers, for we are having chicken nuggets and black bean soup for supper tonight, and, to be perfectly honest, BOTH of these simple dishes were made with Rib Candy.

Mmmmm, Rib Candy. . . .

I’m really excited about Texas Pepper Jelly’s newest product, Texas Rib Candy! And now I’m even MORE excited because Texas Rib Candy gives you more choices than ever: now you can get it with the fabulous peppers, or without!

Here’s a note from Texas Pepper Jelly’s awesome big boss, Craig Sharry:

Here at Texas Pepper Jelly we are always trying to think of something new for our customers. A couple of months ago we introduced our new Texas Rib Candy. The response was huge. Honestly, I knew it was good but I never imagined the type of success that we have seen already from this product.

PS … I almost forgot. Texas Rib Candy also comes in three fantastic flavors. Apple , Apple Cherry and Mango. And you can get with or without peppers. Be sure to try one of each!

It might be Friday the 13th, but this is actually your lucky day! Today, you’re learning how to make Spicy Strawberry Pie – and it’s absolutely delicious. Period.

It’s also simple to make – and I’ve said many times here that often, the best and tastiest dishes are also the easiest to throw together.

Spicy Strawberry Pie is so easy, you don’t even need a conventional list of ingredients and directions. All you have to do is mix together about four cups of sliced strawberries with a cup of Texas Strawberry Jalapeno Pepper Jelly and spoon it into a fully baked pie shell. Dollop your slice with some whipped cream, if you like whipped cream, and dive in.

It’s even better if you refrigerate it overnight.

Mmmmm, awesomely good.

This is an awesomely good dish.  It’s so attractive, in fact, that it’s good for a company meal as well as for a family dinner.  It’s also a vegetarian dinner.

Ingredients:

3 green peppers

3 red peppers

3 yellow peppers

Texas Pepper Jelly, several different kinds

diced carrots

peas

diced apples

raisins

Pretty much any leftover vegetables from your ‘fridge

What to do:

Cut off the tops of the peppers and clean them out.  Keep the “caps.”

Mix together everything else and fill each pepper almost to the top.  Replace the “caps.”

I always make several different mixtures, using different kinds of pepper jelly.

Placed re-capped and filled peppers in a shallow baking dish and bake, uncovered, in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes.  Remove and check to make sure vegetables are done.  If they are, remove from oven and serve immediately.  If vegetables are not quite done, let the peppers bake for another ten minutes.

Pour some more pepper jelly on them and you’ve got a meal.  A nutritious, delicious meal.

Shiitaki mushrooms are so yummy good, however you fix them, but this recipe turns those huge thick slices into deliciousness beyond any comprehension!  Oh, and once again, it’s those simple, easy-to-make foods that are so often the best.

Ingredients:

As many thick slices of shiitaki mushroom as you have hungry guests, plus a few extras.

1 bottle of Texas Rib Candy

What to do:

Fire up the grill, and slap down the mushroom slices.  Heat thoroughly; char a little if you like ‘em that way.  Just before removing from heat, brush on the Rib Candy.

It’s really all the condiment you’ll need.

Serve.  Eat.  Smile.  Repeat.

Texas Rib Candy can’t be beat.

Crockpot suppers are so nice when the weather is hot and humid, as this summer’s weather has been for weeks now.  Turning on the stove, and especially the oven, will force your home’s air conditioner to work way too hard, and usually there’s no way it can compete with an oven.  Your slow cooker, however, adds no heat at all to the temperature of your home.  Plus, crockpot meals are so easy, and so nice to come home to.  You just throw it all together, put the lid on the cooker, turn the dial to low, and go to work.  When you get home hours later, your dinner is ready.  Brown Rice Casserole is nutritious and filling, and even better the next day!

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups crushed tomatoes (fresh or canned)

3/4 cup brown rice

1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 small jalapeno, chopped

1 1/2 cup water

12 ounces of sausage, cut into half-moons (can be left out if you want a vegetarian supper)  (You can use any kind of meat; my kids like this with chicken) (My husband likes it best with sausage, though)

1/2 cup Texas Pepper Jelly, any flavor (Rib Candy or any of the grilling sauces are also good)

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

6 tablespoons sour cream

Shredded cheddar cheese (if your family likes a lot of cheese)

What to do:

Stir together the onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, rice, chili powder, oregano, jalapeno, sausage, pepper jelly, and water in your slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for about 5 hours.

Remove lid and stir in the cilantro.  Serve with sour cream and cheddar cheese.

My son isn’t a cilantro fan, so I take out his servings before I add it.

Zesty Pineapple Ham is an excellent family dinner entree, and an equally excellent company dinner entree.

We had this delicious dish for Easter Dinner last year; there is just something “warm weather-ish” about baked ham.

Ingredients:

1 two-pound fully-cooked ham center

1 can of pineapple chunks, drained (save the juice)  (8 1/4 oz. size can)

1 tablespoon whole cloves

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 cup packed brown sugar, dark or light

2 tablespoons rum

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

What to do:

Slash the top of the ham and place it on a rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake for a half hour, at 350.  Remove from oven.

In a large saucepan, mix together everything except the cloves.  (Don’t forget to add the pineapple juice!)  Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.  Stir until the mixture thickens.

Spread over the ham and return it to the oven; bake for about fifteen more minutes.  Remove from oven, and spoon any “pooled-up” mixture or fallen pineapple chunks over the ham again.  Stud the ham with the cloves, put ham back in the oven for five minutes. Remove the ham, remove the cloves.

Serve hot.

If there is any ham left over, which I doubt, it will make a spectacularly tasty sandwich, hot or cold.

Mmmm, Zesty Pineapple Ham.

I’ve already recommended pepper jelly ice cubes to you all, and I still recommend them heartily.  The weather here in southern Indiana is so hot and humid that you can’t have enough cold things within your grasp.

Today I’m going to recommend pepper jelly popsicles.  You can use almost any kind of enclosed container for a frozen pop; I have used small juice glasses, Tupperware frozen pop molds, cheap dollar store molds, and a spoon or stick in each square of an ice cube tray, even.  These all work fine.

My favorite popsicle mold, however, is something rather strange.  Well, strange to be used for this, that is.  I teach hands-on science when I’m not experimenting with pepper jellies in my kitchen, and I own dozens of “baby soda bottles.”  I buy them from Steve Spangler’s website.

These are perfect for so many things in my science job, but they are also absolutely the most perfect popsicle molds I’ve ever used.  Seriously, they’re the perfect shape and size!  They’re tough and almost unbreakable, and dishwasher-safe.  I have several sets, each with its own little rack.  They take up very little space in the freezer, so you have room for several rows of pepper jelly popsicles.  Pepper jelly frozen in these baby soda bottles is also the perfect size and shape to make ices to drop into thermos bottles and those awesome stainless steel drinking glasses with lids.

But mostly, when I’m not using them in my labs, I just fill those baby soda bottles with pepper jelly – or sometimes with fruit juice – or sometimes both – stick a stick in there and let the freezer do its job.

Oh, and by the way?  Do you know why these little beauties are called baby soda bottles?  It’s because they really are baby soda bottles!  Yup, these are what your two-liter pop bottles look like before they’re blown up into two-liter soda pop bottles!  Cool, huh.  Don’t try to make popsicles in a full-grown soda bottle, though.  Use these, or something that’s the approximate size of these.  It’s not that I begrudge you the large popsicle; it’s just that if it’s too big, there’s no way you can eat it all before it melts all over you!

Stay cool, y’all.

It’s Fourth of July Weekend, and that means cookouts, picnics, and reunions galore!  And what is any of those things without a big bowl of cold potato salad?

That’s why I’m posting our fantabulous potato salad recipe again.  People ask me for it all the time, ever since I first posted it here, and I usually just send them the link or the recipe via email.

However, since everybody will be wanted potato salad this weekend, here’s our Texas Pepper Jelly potato salad recipe, in its entirety.  Enjoy, y’all.

Ingredients:

Ten large potatoes: peeled, cubed, and boiled.  Drain and set aside. (I don’t peel them any more, if I use red potatoes.) (Let them cool before you start mixing things into them)

Eight large dill pickles.  Chop LARGE and set aside.

One large onion.  Chop finely and set aside.

One green pepper.  Chop LARGE and set aside.

Two boiled eggs.  Peel and chop and set aside.

One small jar of red pimento.  Open and drain.

3/4 cup of Miracle Whip.

One tablespoon cheap yellow mustard.

1/3 cup of Pineapple Habanero Pepper Jelly

Tiny dash of salt, if you must.

What to do:

Now, dump the drained potatoes into a large bowl, and throw everything else in there with them.  Mix thoroughly but carefully, so you don’t mash the potatoes.  Cover the bowl tightly, and put it in the refrigerator.  Potato salad is best cold, you know.

We’re having all the family here on the Fourth, and we’re grilling out, naturally.  I’ll be making Spicy Potato Salad tomorrow night AFTER everybody goes to bed.  If I make it too soon, there’s none left for the actual meal.

We do what we gotta do.

(Don’t forget to watch this space for our new product’s official debut!  It’s awesome, and you’ll love it.  That’s all I’m sayin’ right now.)

I went to a party last night and there was a huge pitcher of Sangria on the counter with the other drinks.  Big as the pitcher was, the hostess had to keep refilling it because people crowded around and helped themselves to a glass whenever the pitcher was full.

I like Sangria myself, but I’d never seen a pitcher of it be the life of the party before, so I poured a little for myself and had a taste.

It was absolutely divine.

My hostess gave me the recipe.  It’s simple as can be – Sangria isn’t a fancy drink – but her little personal touch absolutely MADE that pitcher of Sangria. This recipe must be made fresh with each pitcher refill.  I plan to use a punch bowl when I make it for my next gathering; it holds more than a pitcher and the pepper jelly cubes will look nice floating on top.

Ingredients:

1 Bottle of red wine

Juice of one large lemon

Juice of one large orange

2 Tbsp sugar

Shot of brandy

2 Cups ginger ale or club soda

Frozen Texas Pepper Jelly ice cubes (any flavor)

Fresh berries, fruit slices

What to do:

The first thing you have to do is fill several ice cube trays with your favorite flavors of Texas Pepper Jelly and make sure you have plenty of cubes for your party.  Do this the night before or that morning, to give your pepper jelly cubes time to freeze solid.

Mix all of the above ingredients  in a huge pitcher or punchbowl.

Add the pepper jelly ice cubes and as much fruit as you personally like.

Stand back, but be ready to refill the pitcher again and again.