Today is Independence day. While this is the birthday of our nation in America it means different things to different people. Everyone has a touchstone memory of how this day was celebrated in their childhood. Whether it was decorating your bicycle with streamers and spoke covers or marching in the local main street parade and enjoying fireworks, everyone has a memory that they hold dear to their heart on this day. This is mine. Hungarian bacon bread is a touchstone to my past that will always hold a special place in my heart. I hope you enjoy this delicious tradition on this Independence Day! When I was a kid in New Jersey, before my family relocated to Arizona, between birth and 11 years old, there were certain things that went without saying on the Fourth of July. First, you had to have a patriotic outfit. Next you had to decorate your bike and ride it to the parade route with your family. Babies rode in the Radio Flyer and everyone sought out the perfect spot on Main Street. Kids compared their bikes and decided whose was best adorned. Older kids got to ride in the parade! Oh how long the wait was for that? Kids made sure to get just the right spot, not too far from mom so they could catch and gather the candy that would surely be thrown from those floats that were getting ready to come by. In my family the above was the norm, after the parade, it was time for the family barbecue which was usually held at my Mommom and Poppop's house the next town over, in Roebling, a hard working steel mill town that was once busy with the sounds of iron coke being turned into steel wire and girders. On this day, you could smell the wood fire smoke coming from the many row houses in town in preparation for bacon bread. While Roebling was a melting pot of first and second generation immigrant families, Amboy Avenue was filled with Hungarians and Czecs. Mommom being the former and Poppop being the latter. I have wonderful memories of sitting in their back yard with the garage door open, the wood fire built in the open kettle barbecue and the smells of fatback or salt pork being open fire roasted over flames that licked the meat until the fat dripped. I grew up calling this seemingly Gypsy delicacy "Bacon Bread". I remember the adults calling it shudaskenya (phonetic spelling which I most likely butchered). I dug around a bit and found out that this is also known as Sutni Szallona which in Hungarian translates to "bacon barbecue". A time old tradition that has been around since days of yore when community was built around a fire and men became men and stories were shared. The process is simple. Build a hard wood fire. We used dried oak for ours. Take a piece of back bacon that is smoked and/or salted and then the skin side is scored ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr4g3eGFCf4

Today I am sharing the best bread storage solution we have found for our family. It took us a long time to cycle through options we thought were good but ended up not being so good. Like bread boxes with flip tops, baskets and even just shoving the bread in the corner. None of those worked. Couple that with the fact that we have pet cats and if you have cats you understand. Bread bags are just not safe if you have cats. like it or not, they will get on the counter. So this is what we have come up with. Maybe it will work for you too! It took us 10 years to figure this one out. We have been using this system for bread storage and overflow for the past year and a half. It is perfect for us and so we thought we would share it. Many people always ask me how we store our homemade bread rolls etc. This is how. We also store our store bought bread rolls and sometime snacks in these sealed boxes. They really have been the best solution for our family. When we decided to explore this possibility we went to the store and grabbed two loaves of the bread we always have if I am not home baking. These include a pan loaf such as a Pepperidge Farm or Arnold Country White and a loaf of swirled rye bread. Then we headed over to the section of the store that carries the plastic storage bins. We dry fit the bread in the bins and with the foreknowledge of the space between the counter and the bottom of the cabinet we knew about how high we could go. In our kitchen we were able to accommodate two deep bins and one thin bin. The top bin is where we keep most of our bread. We honestly do not eat a ton of bread. We go through spurts where we make lots of sandwiches or toast, but over all we go through less than a loaf a week and the rye bread we go through less than one loaf in two weeks. These bins help keep the bread super fresh and they also help to inhibit mold. The skinny bin in the middle is used for overflow bread like we have shown here. Such as hot dog and hamburger buns. We have also used this bin for fruit bars, granola bars, date bars and other healthy, grab and go snacks. It is easy to lift the lid and grab what you need and you can see when you need a refill. The bottom bin is used for kitchen overflow. I have extra spice jars that don't fit in my spice rack along with a jar of my taco seasoning and an open bag of shell pasta. This bin is a place to keep open pasta bags or open packages of saltines or sleeves of butter crackers to keep them fresh and safe from cats who are curious. I hope that this system gives you some good ideas of how you can implement it into your kitchen. We have a very small kitchen. Our prep area is really small. The reason I place a cutting board over the one side of my sink is so I have extended p ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbhe1amLINA

Here is another great hot cocoa mix that is quick to make and easy to give! This one is a request from a viewer who asked if I could make a cocoa mix flavored with banana. I hope this one works for them! I am calling this Coco-Nanas Hot Cocoa Mix! This is very tasty and I know your friends and family are going to love this! If you have a bottle of Torani creme de banana, give it a boost with that syrup and it will take the flavor over the top! I started with the basic building blocks for all my cocoa mixes. Powdered milk, non dairy creamer powdered sugar and cocoa. This time I added grated white chocolate to give this a creamy texture and a great sweetness and flavor along with 2 packets of banana instant pudding which gives this cocoa mix a great banana flavor along with a silky smoothness from the corn starch in the mix. This makes six cups of cocoa mix. Enough for six jelly jar gifts or six cocoa cones. You can decorate the jars up any way you like! Pretty bonnets and ribbon go a long way to spruce up those great jars. Cocoa cones are even a bit more fun because you can add chocolate chips, both white and dark, along with mini marshmallows and this time I think some dried banana chips would be in order. This gives the recipient an idea that there is banana flavor in there and it will be super cute! Tie those cones up with a great ribbon and a cute tag and even an extra little gift of a chocolate spoon to stir that cocoa up with and you have a gift that will be enjoyed and appreciated and remembered and looked forward too next year. I love food gifts from the kitchen because they are always consumable and people love them. They don't gather dust on a shelf and everyone knows what to do with them! They are always appreciated and loved! Not to mention you will be asked if you are making that mix again next year because they are going to look forward to it and receive it with glee! I hope you give this Coco-Nanas Hot Coco Mix a try and I hope you love it! Happy Eating and Happy Holidays! You can find the printable recipe for this mix on my website here: http://bit.ly/2gjkYWU Business Inquiries can be sent to: info@noreenskitchen.com Sign up for my weekly newsletter and get exclusive recipes, video tutorials and articles! http://eepurl.com/TZCV5 Don't forget to subscribe! New videos Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday! http://bit.ly/17JVMTP Subscribe to Rick's Tips Channel for Home Improvement and DIY Tips! New videos every Saturday! http://bit.ly/1ixCK8W Check me out on social media! Facebook: http://on.fb.me/12bdibt Twitter: @noreenskitchen Instagram: http://bit.ly/12bdqrp Google + http://bit.ly/1o5GMYy Read my Blog: http://bit.ly/15R5GvV ***MAILING ADDRESS**** Noreen's Kitchen PO B ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-jfGHI7iU

Cranberry sauce is definitely one of my holiday favorites and I have been making mine from scratch for years. I love the homemade version with lots of chunks and have experimented with many different versions, virtually making a different type every single year. This time I am making a sweet cranberry chutney. This will be an even chunkier version of the old classic. I think you are going to love this one! We really love this version and it can be made well in advance if you like. Even though it is super simple and can be made a day ahead and held in a jar till dinner. I am calling this recipe sweet cranberry chutney because it is just that. Sweet. Traditional chutney has vegetables and fruits and is both sweet and savory. It can often contain mustard seeds and vinegar and have an acidic edge to it even more so than just the tangy flavor of the cranberry. Traditional chutney also includes onions and garlic and any variety of different veggies like carrots, celery and even fennel. This cranberry chutney is all fruit and sweet goodness. Cranberry sauce or in this case chutney is super simple to make and depending on how you like it can be made with any number of additional ingredients. I always use juice instead of water and this time have pumped this full of lots of different delicious ingredients like apples, pears, oranges, dried cranberries and golden raisins and lots of different flavors of juice as well as a healthy grating of fresh nutmeg. The recipe for this can be found in my Make Ahead Thanksgiving cook booklet which can be found by using the link above. This can be made up to a month in advance as as for how long it will last. Well if you haven't devoured it within a couple of weeks you are still good to go as long as you store it in a jar with a tight fitting lid. I have had cranberry sauce last a couple of months when I have made big batches. There is a ton of both pectin and acid in there so you are good as long as you keep it cold. Because I know someone will ask, this is not appropriate for canning because it will over cook the apples and pears and we are not going for a mushy sauce but a chunky one with some toothsomeness. The second reason is because this is my recipe which is not safety tested for canning. So I cannot recommend or condone that this be canned for shelf stability. You may wish to seek out another recipe if you choose to do some cranberry canning. I hope you give this sweet cranberry chutney a try and I hope you love it! Get my cookbooks here: http://bit.ly/1czqM5R Business Inquiries can be sent to: info@noreenskitchen.com Check me out on social media! Facebook: http://on.fb.me/12bdibt Twitter: @noreenskitchen Instagram: http://bit.ly/12bdqrp Google + http://bit.ly/1o5GMYy ***MAILING ADDRESS**** Noreen's Kitchen PO Box 14173 New Bern, NC 28561 Have a question for me? Send me an email: info@noreenskitchen.com Noreen's Kitchen Community Guidelines (The Rules) http://bit.ly/2i7VocU Any links to Amazon are, in many cases, affiliate links. Produced by Noreen's Kitchen ©2008-2016 all rights reserved All embeds must live link to Noreen's Kitchen channel. No Editorial Excerpts without permission, Violators agree to pay royalties, all court costs, all collections & all lawyers fees. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV0UYyWy1ZQ