Cooking Exceptionally With Gin Lee

Pickle juice non-alcoholic cocktail Do you need a non-alcoholic fun drink to bring in the New Year? Here's a tangy, tart drink that you may want to try.  Ingredients:  2-4 tablespoons of pickle juice (depending on your tastes) 1 small dill pickle ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) of red grapefruit juice (1 grapefruit generally contains 3/4 cup of juice) 1-½ tablespoons of lemon juice (1 fresh lemon will give you anywhere from 2-3 tablespoons of juice) 2 teaspoons of Splenda, or your preferred sweetener 6-8 ounces of sparkling water, homemade, or store-bought Instructions: First, squeeze the juice from your grapefruit, lemon, and strain the seeds out of it. Now, pour your citrus juice into a large tumbler, add in the pickle juice, Splenda, or your preferred sweetener; stir well. Next, pour your sparkling water into the juice mixture and stir. Add extra sweetener if needed. Serve in a cocktail, or wine glass and a dill pickle for fun.

  Happy Holidays Just want to take this time out to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and the very best for the upcoming holiday season! If you are one of my Newsbreak followers, allow me to take this time to give you my appreciation and endless gratitude. Each of you matter so very much to me!  I look so forward to sharing new ideas, new recipes, and gardening tips with you in the new year of 2023! Thanks goes out to each of you for being here for me! Happy Holidays! Stay safe!

Tomato sandwich spread Have you ever bit into a sandwich, only to have the entire slice of tomato fall out onto your lap, or shirt? I can't even begin to tell y'all guys how often that used to happen to me. Finally, I decided to make my own tomato sandwich spread. Ingredients: 1 large tomato, or about 10 cherry tomatoes, diced 1 cup of your preferred salad dressing Freshly ground black pepper, to your preferred taste Onion powder, to your preferred taste Garlic powder, to your preferred taste Instructions: Dice your tomato as fine as you can, add it to a small bowl.  Now, add one cup of your preferred salad dressing in with the diced tomato. Then add the seasonings. I just sprinkle the amounts I use in without measuring. This recipe makes enough servings for about six bacon and tomato sandwiches. I make it fresh each time I need some for a meal. That way it doesn't spoil.

Happy Thanksgiving! This video was made possible with the Dance Yourself Fun Face. I hope that everyone has a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving! 

Vintage potato candy Since the holiday season is just around the corner, I thought it would be nice to bring out some of my family's vintage candy recipes. It's vintage recipes, like this, that have always been a big part of bringing families and friends together in the heart of our homes (our kitchens). Vintage potato candy is not to be confused with Irish potato candy. The two candies are entirely different from each other. Irish potato candy is bite-sized pieces of candy made with sweetened cream cheese and coconut, then sprinkled with cinnamon. The Irish potato candy resembles miniature potatoes when they are dusted with cinnamon. However, potatoes are not an ingredient in them. Vintage potato candy dates back to the era of the Great Depression. Although, I don't remember my grandparents making these. This was a recipe that my mother-in-law always made for the holidays. Often she skipped using peanut butter in the recipe and simply cut the candy into small pieces, then ...

Homemade sourdough starter Are you tired of paying high prices for bread and buns? If so, this sourdough bread starter is the perfect solution for you! You'll have never-ending dough to create delicious homemade bread! Were you aware that sourdough starters improve with age? You can keep your sourdough starter alive for many years, and as the starter ages, the flavors intensify.   Just by following the following steps. Plus, you'll never have to buy yeast ever again! This dough can be fed daily, kept alive literally for years, and passed down to the following generations. The sourdough is truly that remarkable! Homemade sourdough starter: Ingredients: 2 cups of bread flour. 1 active dry yeast package 2 cups of warm water. Note:  I prefer using yeast in my starter due to the fact that using yeast makes my bread less sour. Typically, using just flour and water will make the bread have a natural, strong sourness. If that's what you prefer, just start making the sta...

Happy Halloween! (Video created by the Dance Yourself For Fun app, music Thriller, by Michael Jackson  The app added the sound track for this Halloween themed dance video.) Hope everyone has a blessed, safe, Happy 🎃 Halloween!

Easy Roasted Turkey Turkey anyone? Thanksgiving is coming upon us soon. So with the thought in mind... I thought I would shake a leg... So let's talk Turkey! Does your roasted turkey turn out dry and tasteless? Rubbery, or like jerky turkey? Well, today I'm going to give some helpful advice. Advice that has been completely proven to solve almost all turkey disasters. So sit tight and don't go flying off to the store just yet! The big secret to making a delicious, juicy, melt in your mouth turkey is... Give me the drum roll, please! Soaking the turkey in an ice, and salt water bath. For 24 hours. Yes, you got it! For 24 hours, let your turkey take a long chilling bath... Either in a well-cleaned tub, sink, or a pan large enough. The turkey needs to be completely submerged, into the salted ice-water bath. You'll need to add about 1 cup & 1/2 of salt to the water. While I know... Y'all are saying; "What? Is this lady crazy?" Don't fret! Th...

Baked Spaghetti  The one thing, well, one of the things that I love about this recipe is that I can do all the preparation for it in advance and then pop it in the oven to bake later on. For example, you can do all the prep work the night before and have the spaghetti bake all ready to place in the oven the following day. Believe me, it's so much better than frozen tv dinners.  I cook a humongous pot of spaghetti at least once a week. It makes lazy evenings happen for at least 3-4 meals during the week. Umm, spaghetti leftovers! Just heat the leftovers and serve! Or you can make a completely different meal with the spaghetti leftovers. Tonight I am preparing 16 ounces of dry spaghetti. When it's cooked it will be transformed into a saucy, gooey, cheesy, meaty meal. Tomorrow the leftovers will make a delicious spaghetti pie; then the following day spaghetti sandwiches, and so on. So, what do I serve with the various spaghetti dishes that I prepare? Usually, I make h...

Delicious Grilled Gyros However you slice it, gyros are so sooo delightfully good! For those of you who aren't familiar with gyros, most gyros are made with lamb. Although, processed gyros are made with beef and lamb mixture (sometimes other meats such as chicken, pork, and turkey) that's grounded up super fine, then flattened. The meat is seasoned with oregano, thyme, rosemary, pepper, cumin, and salt. The gyros meat is thinning sliced, about the same thickness and length as bacon, quite possibly a little bit thinner cut. Gyros originated from Greece, and were commonly eaten at taverns. Sometime in the 1970s gyros became popular in New York, NY. And now in many locations gyros are a popular 'street food'. Homemade Gyros  My recipe makes up a lot of gyros once cooked, and it's really delicious. More So than any of the processed gyros that you can buy. And the best part is that you'll get way more for your buck making homemade gyros. It's a fairly...