Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a birthday coming up this week and my office mate just celebrated hers Monday, so it seemed fitting to celebrate the two mid-week.  Plus it's an excuse to bake something.  In my world, birthdays are best celebrated over at least a week and more if you can milk it.  I embrace my aging self and try to find the happiness in any age.  Hating it won't change what's happening, so might as well make the most of it.

I hemmed an hawed over what I wanted to make.  Something that could easily be shared, didn't take 5 hours to make, and something I know I would like, after all, it's partly my birthday thing too. :)  I realized while trying to decide what to make I only had 1 egg left in the house (that's what you call poor planning), but to my surprise the recipes I was narrowing my choices down to required just 1 egg.  It was a sign.  It was a toss up between Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Oat Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I decided to just go with plain pumpkin.  To be honest, the ingredients list was smaller and that won some points.  It's September, pumpkin is officially the flavor of the next 3 or more months.  Might as well get in on it early!

From my Cuckoo for Cookies board:
http://www.twotwentyone.net/2013/10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Folks, let me tell you, these smelled like a little slice of fall in my kitchen this evening.  It was a fabulous aroma to enjoy while multi-tasking making lunches and prepping things to go to work tomorrow.

I did let the batter sit for the 15 minutes (ok, I lost track of time, but it was more than 5 minutes) as directed on the recipe, but I was a bit skeptical about how they were going to turn out since the batter was a bit gooier (ok, that's apparently a word), than other recipes I use.  They turned out fine and in fact a bit poofy (not a word).

As is tradition, I snagged a cookie hot off the cookie sheet.  It was amazing!  Sometimes simpler is better!  These were light and flavorful without being too much.  Perfect for a pumpkin sweet fix.  If you like pumpkin flavored things for the fall, put this on your to-bake list.  I am not sure how long they are going to last at work tomorrow!

Strawberry Mimosas

I needed another reason to use my champagne flutes, so I decided to make a cocktail from my Cocktails! board now that I can actually have them again.

http://lauriearons.blogspot.com/2011/07/weekly-inspiration-seasonal-cocktails.html

It was totally tasty and pretty simple.  I think I would strain the strawberry puree since you get a lot of seeds, and in fact it might be easier to just add strawberry syrup instead.  Either way, I got a fruit serving and a bit of bubbly in for the morning. ;)

Salisbury Steak Meatballs

Talk about comfort food.  I saw this recipe while browsing Pinterest and I literally could feel my mouth watering.  I love meatballs in pretty much all forms (ooo, new post idea - Meatball Menagerie) so didn't take much to convince me to look through this recipe.  After reading it through, it sounded simple enough, so I figured this could be one of the last experiments before going back to work.

From my Real Food Board:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/04/salisbury-steak-meatballs/

I did make the raw meatballs up earlier in the day because I was worried I wouldn't have enough time around dinner time with all that was going on that day.  Honestly, they came together fairly quickly compared to some other meatballs I make. I cooked them and finished the rest of the meal at dinner time so everything was nice and hot. Warning - this meal really does make close to 12 servings.  There was enough to feed 3 adults and 1 toddler for 3 meals really big meals.

I did use their suggested method of cooking the meatballs in two batches. Yum Yum Yum!

Making the sauce to go with these was pretty simple.

Also, it was really "pretty" at the end. And yes, fresh parsley from the garden to top it off!

It was super tasty and filling and a hit with the whole crowd.  I also love that this meal provides leftovers.  However, in the future, if it was just my husband and I with our kids, I would probably half this recipe rather than having so many leftovers.  BUT!  If you have company coming over or a larger family (grown kids), this is an amazing dish.  Add a vegetable for a side and some rolls and BAM.  Everyone will think you slaved and in reality, this maybe took 40 minutes start to finish (the time on the recipe is right on).  Easy peasy and totally delicious!

S'mores Dip!

I don't know who decided that chocolate and marshmallows should be melted together and sandwiched between graham crackers, but I would love to shake their hand.  It's truly a beautiful combination.  Usually the opportunity to enjoy this is limited to over a camp fire, which in my opinion is the best way to have them.  However, we have no camp fires in our future or nearby.  So what's the next best thing?  S'mores Dip!

From Food Love:
http://www.southernplate.com/2014/06/oven-baked-smores-how-to-get-an-autographed-copy-of-southern-casseroles.html

I made this for our last mother's day play date with the babies and I didn't think to grab a photo of this, but I can tell you it was well loved by the mommies and children alike.  The best part?  It's so stupid simple!  I basically just took a bag of chocolate chips and tossed them in the bottom of a 2 QT casserole dish and covered with marshmallows (was about half a bag, but I could have, and probably will in the future, added more).  I plopped it in the oven for 5 minutes at 450* and it was just toasty enough on the top.  We went through 2 sleeves of graham crackers, but that will vary depending on your desired ratio of delicious per cracker.

Great for a last minute dessert and great for groups of people to enjoy.  Although I wouldn't judge if you made this for just your family.  :)  It's scalable too, so if you need to just cover the bottom of a smaller pan and top with marshmallows.  Winning tasty treats!!

Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Sometime last year I found a recipe for making Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing through the canning process.  I thought it sounded amazing, but I was past the strawberry season.  This year I planned on picking enough to make sure I could make this.  So at 8 month pregnant I went to the strawberry field around here and picked enough to make the smaller batch which is called out on the site I went to.

From my Canning Board:
http://canninggranny.blogspot.com/2011/05/canning-strawberry-vinaigrette-salad.html

It was fairly straight forward with soaking the strawberries overnight and then boiling the juices with sugar.  Kind of similar to making jam if you have ever done that.  I altered the recipe so instead of all white vinegar, I used half white distilled vinegar and half balsamic vinegar.  On my first batch, I think I got 4 small jars of dressing.  Once sampled I knew what I wanted to make more of!

My parents came to visit over the 4th of July and brought a boatload of strawberries from the family farm in NY.  I froze a lot of them for smoothies which I am quite fond of and the rest were prepped for shortcake, dressing, and eating.

So I stood at the sink cleaning and hulling strawberries into the night time hours (in my very best clothes to boot!).  I of course sampled as I went.  Can't beat fresh berries from the patch!  

The process was a bit more labor intensive with the full recipe in use:

http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/strawberry-vinaigrette-dressing

Just more berries to squeeze juices from was really the major impact.  The rest was pretty simple.  I still love this as a dressing and I am so glad I made more than the 4 jars from the first batch.  Scrumptious!  

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

People are always telling me I need to add chocolate chips to my grandmother's banana bread and I consider that an act against nature.  I love her banana bread recipe just the way it is.  Besides, I can make chocolate chip anything else I like, so why mess with a classic?  While strolling around on Pinterest recently I found a recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and I thought, ok, those I could make.

From Food Love:
http://www.runningwithspoons.com/2014/06/24/banana-oat-greek-yogurt-muffins/
Also, I am going to stop here and mention how much I like her blog title. :)

These were incredibly easy to put together.  Most because I only had to measure the oats (I used half old fashion to finish the container I had and half quick cooking) and brown sugar.  I eyeballed a 7oz container of Faye Yogurt against my 1 cup measuring cup and decided that was really close.  If a recipe calls for 2 bananas, it's kind of gray anyway.  Bananas can be all sizes, so I figured the small amount that my yogurt might be off, I wasn't worried.  Also, muffins are a one pan deal so nothing like cookies which usually take a few rounds in the oven.

I only baked mine for 15 minutes and they were plenty done.  Mine don't look like theirs they showcased for the recipe, but they tasted pretty darn good.

I even let it cool slightly before diving in.  These are made with generally healthy-ish ingredients (minus the chocolate of course), so if you needed a sweet fix, these would be more acceptable for the waistline than say scones (ie - breakfast cookies).

Teriyaki Salmon

We really enjoy salmon and I have found a few recipes that we just really love.  This is one of them.  This comes from my Real Food board:

http://damndelicious.net/2012/05/30/teriyaki-salmon-with-sriracha-cream-sauce/

I also started to realize in the last week or so, that I have a lot of pins from the Damn Delicious website and all the ones I have tried, I really enjoy.  They are simple and tasty!  My favorite combinations!  They also have published a handful of One Pot recipes which I consider to be the ultimate trifecta; simple, tasty, and one pot mess!  I have edited the side of my blog to include a link to the Damn Delicious blog so people can hop over and check them out.

The recipe for this salmon is pretty straight forward.  I think it makes almost too much marinade for two servings, so I could easily see doing up to 4 with the same marinade.  The only thing I don't like it waiting for the marinade to cool back down.  I usually have forgotten to make this until mid-afternoon and thus, my allotted marinade time is winding down.  To aid in cooling the sauce more quickly, I have frozen cold packs I just drop into the sauce and then wash them later.  I have made this recipe twice and both times I have gotten only about 30 minutes of marinating in.  Still tastes awesome though.  Hopefully, next time I can make the marinade the night before and not worry about it as much.

We made some oven roasted asparagus to go with this and used brown rice instead of white (trying to be healthy).  I didn't make the Sriracha cream sauce the same way because I can't for the life of me figure out what to do with the rest of a canned of sweetened condensed milk.  The good news?  The mayo and Sriracha make it delicious anyway.  It's that sweet with something spicy combination that's just amazing.

If you are looking for a new way to do salmon, I would definitely recommend giving this a shot.  It's now in our current recipe rotation.  Some of the comments on their blog have inquired about possibly doing this with chicken which seems to be a viable alternate if you aren't a big fan of seafood, although you may want to marinate it longer.

Homemade Bruschetta

With the bounty of our garden being pretty decent this year and having gotten a cheese making kit from my brother in law as a Christmas gift, I thought it would be fun to make completely homemade bruschetta.  

I have never made cheese before, but I thought, how hard could it be?  There were instructions, the kit ingredients I needed, got some milk, and I thought I was good to go.  Well, it turns out there's something to picking the right milk, which I am not very good at.  Yet.  I did pretty good until I added the rennet tablet and then it kind of went south.

 My cheese never really "set up" to a curd state, so I kind of got this ricotta looking stuff instead.

On the upside, it still tastes pretty decent, so I decided we still had a green light for bruschetta.

I picked some basil from our deck.  The scent of fresh basil is unmistakable! 

Then I harvested some really red tomatoes.

During the day I made some homemade baguettes thanks to our nifty bread maker.  It has the option to do those which has been handy more than once.  Finally, I put it all together. (You can see my "helper" in the background)

For me personally, I thought this was pretty tasty.  This is saying something since I don't really like tomatoes.  I have gotten a lot braver over the years to try them in different ways, but I think bruschetta is about as close as I will come to having that much tomato with little else around it.  My husband thought it was extremely good and he is much more a connoisseur of these things than I am.

I think it's pretty awesome that all of this was either grown or made by our own hands.  I'll be looking for more ways to take advantage of our garden in the coming years, but this was definitely fun!

Brownie Pudding

How could this even begin to be a bad thing?  I like brownies and pudding, so I would only hope the two combined would be heavenly.  I was not wrong.

From my Food Love board:
http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/02/16/brownie-pudding/

First melt butter:

Then beat together eggs and sugar and add some vanilla:

Flour and cocoa powder:

I sifted these two together because I have learned over all my baking expeditions that cocoa powder can be notoriously clumpy.  Sifted them together is an extra step and one I found quite annoying when I first did it, but now I understand it's purpose and add it in even when I am not told to do so!

Mix these all together and bake:

I would have a picture of the finished product here, but it was consumed extremely quickly and without presentation.  This is the best chocolate fix I have had in a while.  Super easy recipe and super delicious.  What are you waiting for?  Go make this now!

More Meatless Monday

Huh, I could abbreviate this post as MMM which would be kind of ironic since it's about food and good food that makes you say MMMMMM!!!!  Ok, enough about that.  I realized that I skipped over my use of a Pin from last week's Meatless Monday experience.  Truth be told, I used this recipe more as a guideline because I have used a similar approach to pasta toss meals, so this wasn't what I would call a "new" recipe.  Just a new variation of it.

From Meatless Mondays:
http://www.skinnymom.com/2013/04/23/skinny-mediterranean-pasta-toss/

Since I have made a version similar to this, I played around with the ingredients a little more than I normally would on a first go for a recipe.  First, I didn't have zucchini, so that didn't make the cut.  I did not have 10 small sweet bell peppers, but I did have one big one, so I compromised.  I also didn't have grape tomatoes, but had a fresh one from our garden, so I figured it was equivalent in other ways.  I substituted egg noodles for penne because I like it better for a pasta toss.  Turns out I was out of balsamic vinegar (*gasp*) because I had used the last of it to make Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing and hadn't remembered to get any at the store in a while (this has since been fixed).  I should do a post on that too - it was the best!  ANYWHO, back to the actual topic, given all those changes, the meal still turned out great.  I even added capers to the mix because, why not?

I think a pasta toss is a great way to blend a lot of fun flavors together.  Mine always include artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes with egg noodles.  The rest is whatever is on hand.  But that's my personal preference.  This is probably one of the few meals I really go off recipe for.  So far it has yielded some pretty tasty results.  I would encourage you to try it too!

Meatless Monday Inspiration

As part of our New Year's Resolution we have adopted the Meatless Monday here in our house.  We have been mostly successful at acknowledging it on Monday, but other days are ok too.  At least in my book.  The idea is to focus on not needing to eat meat at every meal.  They are usually healthier meals and they cost less too.  Pinterest has been really good to find meal ideas for this.  Generally I think of pasta, but they have plenty of beans, vegetable, tofu, and grain options.  It's been fun trying new foods.  Some were better than others, but at least we are trying.

Tonight's meal comes from my Meatless Monday board (duh):
http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/06/grilled-corn-cheddar-quinoa/

Quinoa has become a staple grain in our house and a nice alternative to just plain rice.  According to what the internet tells me, it's also healthier for us.  Bonus.  Like most recipes I was drawn to this one for the ingredients list - I liked them all, and the ease factor of the recipe.  I will say I already pre-grilled the corn and it's been hanging out in the refrigerator waiting.  The meal itself came together really easy (when you have the corn all ready and waiting).

The taste factor/family taste bud test was a hit for both my husband and myself.  My toddler had other opinions, but it could just be the day of the week since he usually loves this kind of stuff.  It's a little weird having this as the main dish because it feels like it could easily be a side to salmon, chicken, or pork.  It was still pretty substantial to stand on it's own though, so either way, it was good and we will do it again.

Getting Things In Order

Since I have a bit of time on my hands, I decided that I could tackle some of the more frivolous organizational tasks on my wish list.  First batter up: our pantry.  I mean, who usually has the time to just dive into taking apart their food stash in the busy days of our lives?  If I weren't on maternity leave, I know I wouldn't.  I would be using those precious free moments to drink a glass of wine and read a book.  Anywho, in keeping with the theme of things this month, I did find a Pinterest pin regarding organized/inventoried pantries.

This comes from my For the Home board:
http://www.pullingcurls.com/2014/03/pantry-excel-file.html

It mostly talks about having an excel file for the inventory of the pantry.  I thought this was a good start, figure out what has fallen into the darkest pits of this tiny closet and arrange it in some meaningful manner while recording what I have in an excel file.  I didn't use the template she had because I am pretty good at excel and customizing her sheet to match what we actually had was going to take more work for me than just making my own.  Here's a before picture of my mess:

I am sure this picture isn't going to do it justice, but there was only a somewhat convoluted convention to how this was organized.  It changed every time I stocked it from a grocery trip too.  A summary of what I found:
Oldest expiration date:  I think the oldest date I found was 2012, so not tooo bad.  And it was only one item, so really I think we were doing pretty good.
Most bizarre item: Seaweed snacks.  I guess they were supposed to be like kale chips, but just made out of seaweed.  Clearly we were not interested in trying them.  This is what happens when people give you really weird food to try and you have no intention of doing so.  You take it home, give it a nice cozy spot deep out of sight and when you do some big deep clean months later you realize that you took it to be polite and have no intention of ever consuming these things.
Most Unexpected Find: 6 boxes of chocolate pudding.  I think I just kept buying them 2 at a time thinking, I would love some pudding pie.  Well, I have enough to make 3 pies worth now.  I guess we are stocked for any pudding pie emergency we might have.

Let's just say I filled a trash can with stuff that was either old, stale (marshmallows that were like pebbles), or just something we were never going to use.  I tried to put things back in a manner to reflect the categories I used on my excel file.  Keeping pasta and grains together, bakery items, snack foods, and canned goods on their own shelves.  This is what it looks like after:

It may not look like much, but I now have a better idea of everything we have and more importantly, where to find it.  I also got to sweep out the bottom of the pantry and finally collect the last of the popcorn kernels that exploded all over the place last winter.  So we are cleaned and generally in order now.

The next step is figuring out the best method to update this big excel file.  I am a nerd, but not a very diligent nerd.  I could say I'll update it daily after preparing meals, but I know me.  That's not going to happen.  I also know I don't have time to do an inventory every month, so we will have to figure out something that will work.  In the grander scheme of things, it would be nice to determine a good way to incorporate what gets depleted into a grocery list.  I still have another 3 weeks of leave, so I am sure something will come to me by then.  In the meantime, I have photographic evidence that at one point in time, this was clean and organized.  Score one for me!

Smores Bars

Do you like rice krispie treats?  Do you like smores?  Then this recipe is definitely for you!

From my Food Love board:
http://www.countrycleaver.com/2012/06/smores-graham-krispie-treats-and-tuesday-wedding-things.html
I stumbled upon these about a year ago and think they are the most scrumptious thing ever.  When I get a craving for something sweet, these have been able to provide that "fix".

These come together just like rice krispie treats with cereal, marshmallows and butter.  These also require chocolate chips and vanilla.  (Clearly we are a Wegmans brand family).

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the contents to cool before cutting into them.  They are delicious!

Pinterest Challenge

Ok so it's been a while.  A long while.  Ok, just over a year long while kind of.  I could fill in all the blanks on what happened in the last year, but honestly, I have better things to do with the limited free time I have.  Speaking of free time, I am on maternity leave, so it seems I have some more time available to me than I used to have.  Funny, first kid is a loss of personal time, and the second you get some back and don't know what to do with yourself.

Anywho, since it's the middle of summer and it's not always nice or easy to just get out and go for a walk or otherwise occupy my time anywhere other than home, I have come up with a game plan.  I have decided that I am going to set a challenge for myself.  I don't have anything better to do right?  So the challenge is this: Do something related to my Pinterest Pins 5 times a week.  This could be anything that has to do with the just over 1,000 pins I have on my board.  Preferably, it's some sort of "project" and not me just laughing at a hilarious eCard I pinned.  Although, on some days that might count.  This challenge is for the month of July (what's left of it).  I am hoping this yields at least roughly 20 project-ish things.

So to kick things off, here's what I did yesterday:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/01/chocolate-chip-scones/
That's right, make something from my Food Love board.  This is where I pin things I consider "treats" instead of Real Food (another board).  I have to say, baking things really isn't a huge time investment other than waiting for the oven to make your mush turn to magic deliciousness.  Also, I prefer recipes that don't care for completely off the wall ingredients.  So, this one fit the bill.

There may be one missing because I couldn't wait to taste it before taking a picture.  I regret nothing.  It was delicious and I would encourage you to try the recipe if you like to have "cookies" for breakfast because let's face it, scone is a nice way of saying breakfast cookie.

The second project is one that I adapted from this post from my Craft board:
http://www.ohreallybeckyforever.com/2011/08/15/im-not-crazy-youre-crazy/
Making envelopes from scrapbook paper!  We have decided after this past Mother's day that we are kind of done spending $45 on cards for people for one holiday.  Since when should it cost $5 to say Happy Mother's Day with a cute picture on the front?  My kids can do that!  Anywho, in her tutorial she was making the envelopes a different size.  I wanted to make mine so they would fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper/card stock folded in half.  For those that want to know, this is known as an A2 envelope size (4 3/8" x 5 3/4").  She also had a template to work from that fit the scrap book paper.  I did not. You would think I would have measured using the dimensions for the A2 size envelope, but that would have made sense right?  I just sort of eyeballed it with a piece of folded over paper.  I did however pick a scrapbook paper that was essentially a grid so I would have some guidelines.

Overall, it came out pretty good.  I also did not have double sided tape, so I raided the Elmer's glue stash and used that instead.  I would in the future make the tabs that fold in a bit wider so there's more surface area to glue to.  One of the questions that she was asked was how did you seal the envelope?  There are a few ways to do this; 1 - use double sided tape, 2 - use Elmer's glue, 3 - use a decorative sticker (you can splurge there since these are cheap to make - see breakout below).  I think I would go with double sided tape or a sticker.

Otherwise I think it turned out ok.  I just need to put something on the card stock and mail it to someone.  :)  Also, if you are tempted to do this at home yourself, the comments section recommended that you use a white sticker address label so the poor people at the post office don't have to decipher the mailing address a midst whatever pattern paper you decided to use.  And if you want a price comparison for store bought vs. homemade, here you go:
Store bought - cheapest I could find $1.99, but I'll admit, even those were sort of lame.  Typically $3.99 is more average for a card.
Homemade - 50 pack of card stock (regular price $9.99, I buy it only with 40% off coupons at a minimum - $6).  Price per sheet (assuming $6 for pack) - $0.12.  Price per sheet of scrapbook paper - Individually $0.49, rock bottom sales - 6 sheets for $1 ($0.16 each) for individual sheets.  Packs can come in 180 sheets for $20, can get them on sale for $10 - $0.06 a sheet. So card stock - $0.12 + $0.16 = $0.28

So that's $3.99 - $0.28 = $3.71 savings per card.  I know some people will say, "I don't have time to make a card."  I get that.  I don't have time to agonize over the 50+ card selection in the store (which can take me up to 30 minutes, plus driving to and from - I hate picking out cards) only to find cards I like which are $6 a piece which I won't spend.  SO!  To each their own, but for family at least, you are going to get homemade wonders.  Don't worry, we have markers, crayons, glue, glitter, and stamps to make them all one of a kind Picasso's.  :)

Will It Grow?

It's been a long long time since I have lived in any one place to be really "settled" in.  In fact, now that I think about it, the last time I was in one place this long I was in high school.  Wow.  I guess that enhances the reason of why I am so excited about my garden project.  It's been forever since it was even a possibility!

My father is a farmer.  He grew up on a dairy farm and has basically had a farm, tractors, land to play on most of his adult life.  I know how delicious food from a garden can be and have wanted to have a mini garden of my own for a long time.  Even growing herbs seems to be a challenge around here with cats.  This year I decided to get serious about it and figure out what I wanted to plant and how.  I called my dad and said, "I have room on my deck that gets good sun, what can I grow?"  The answer was apparently a lot.

This is my year of experiments.  I plan to take notes on what grows well, what doesn't have a hope and a prayer for making it on the deck, and how much of any one thing I really need.  I went to the garden supply store in March and purchased starter soil, containers, and seeds.  A lot of them.  I think the whole thing came to about $50?  I figured there's something to that 'strength in numbers' philosophy, so I planted a bunch of them.  Probably more than was necessary, but that whole survival rate can be tricky.  There were a few things that had a terrible success rate; oregano - zero, catnip - one plant made a come back, dianthus and carnations are running at about 2 plants each. 

Most people think I am nuts that I am growing everything from seeds.  Apparently, getting starter tomato plants is the preferred method.  What do I know?  Seeds were $1.69/pack with the potential for 24 plants.  I had time and space, so give it a whirl.  If it does work out, I am out $5 for the containers, dirt and seeds.  I am ok with that investment risk.  So far about half have made it and of those, I am not sure which are going to thrive in the transplanting process.  I tell myself the solution will be to just buy the starter plants everyone else buys and call it a day.  :)

So what did I decide to grow?  I am so glad you asked!  Here's what's growing so far:
Heritage Tomatoes
Roma Tomatoes
Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
Romaine Lettuce
Butter crunch lettuce
Spinach
Radishes
Green Beans
Peas
Green Onions
Parsley
Basil (also sad growth rate, but I have 3 tiny plants)

The radishes and peppers are doing very well, the tomatoes had a lot of struggling seedlings, but they are in the zone where they may make it.  I am planning on also planting a hill of cucumbers for giggles.  I am probably most excited about the lettuces because we do eat so much of them.  It would be wonderful to have a good crop to save some money there.  I am planting waves of those to have them available all summer/fall long.   

So, the ultimate question - Will it Grow? should be answered over the summer.  I'll keep you posted!

Fettuccine Carbonara

I apparently am on a Foodie kick lately.  In a sort of panic on what to make for dinner Sunday, I asked my husband to pick something.  He came up with Fettuccine Carbonara which seemed to hit the mark for quickness to put together and the food mood we were in.  I am not from an Italian family, but there's something about a big pasta meal on Sunday that just seems right.

Fettuccine Carbonara
6 slice of bacon diced
1/4 cup of onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
3 eggs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes (this makes it spicy which we like, but you can dial it back if it's too much for you)
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1 pound Fettuccine (we actually had half a box of linguine and half a box of thin spaghetti, worked fine)

Put the water on the for the pasta.
Place bacon, onion and garlic in a medium frying pan over low heat for 12 minutes.
Boil pasta for 6-8 minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk the eggs in a small bowl.  Add the Parmesan cheese, red pepper and black pepper.

When pasta is done, drain and place in a large bowl.  Pour the bacon mixture over the pasta and toss quickly.  Then immediately add in the egg mixture and toss to coat.  Serve and enjoy!

It might not be the fanciest version of this meal, but it sure was delightful!  I was so thankful we actually had bacon in the house which made this meal possible.  Kind of makes it a case to always have bacon in the house.  Haha.

A New Kind of Sweet Roll

Here it is Sunday morning again and we tested out a new recipe for our breakfast collection and I believe we have a winner.  I pinned this tasty treat from inspired by charm Nutella Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing.  If you are like me, you are probably thinking, how could that possibly be anything but deliciousness?!  Let me tell you, it was amazing.  And the upside is they really don't take that long to put together!  Using the canned biscuits saves a LOT of time.  Thank you Pillsbury! 

Here's the recipe so you don't have to click another link just to get it.

Nutella Rolls
Makes 8, Prep time 15 minutes, Bake 15-20 minutes

Rolls:
1 can Pillsbury Grands Biscuits
3/4 - 1 cup Nutella (I just eyeballed this)
Flour and Sugar for rolling
*For a variation I bet you could try jam or marmalade in place of Nutella and still get an amazing breakfast sweet roll.

Cream Cheese Icing:
4oz Cream Cheese (softened)
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and spraying eight sections of a muffin pan with cooking or baking spray (or use your reusable muffing cups).

Lightly flour and sugar your surface. Michael likes to sweeten the dough with the sugar.  You really don't need it, but it just adds something.

 Roll out your biscuits until they are about double in size.  Spread Nutella on them, like I said I eyeballed this part.  If you love Nutella, I guess you could just spread it on thick.

 The next step he took better pictures of, but you'll roll them up and cut them into thirds.  Then take those three piece and stand them up in a muffin tin (or cups in my case).

Place these in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.

 While those are in the oven, you can whip up you icing.  Just blend the 3 ingredients together until creamy.  You'll have plenty to put a healthy dose of icing on all of them, in fact I had left over.  Once the rolls have cooled enough, frost them and gobble them down.  Be warned, you may want seconds!

Making Your Own Baby Food

This may seem like an intimidating idea, but trust me, nothing could be easier to make.  I wish all my meals could be as simple as the ones for a baby.  During a visit to the pediatrician's office we were told some enlightening things about baby food.  The first of which is they do not need to start with cereal.  Silly uneducated me thought that was what you had to do!  She actually suggested avocado as a great first food.  The added bonus being you can eat whatever they don't.  Fabulous!

We actually did choose to make avocado Colin's first food and it was probably one of the best decisions we made.  He actually liked the avocado and, as we later found out, on the mess scale, it's pretty low.  He did still manage the get it all over him, but it wasn't nearly as bad as cereal.  We decided to make that the second food so in a pinch if we had to, we would know it would be ok to give that to him.  I am glad I bought a small box because I can't see going back to that EVER.  On the mess scale that was probably oh, about an 11.  I think the only way we are going to finish that box is if it gets mixed in with other real food.

After that episode, I decided to go educate myself on what a baby needs and great first foods.  Aside from avocados; apples, sweet potatoes, and bananas are great too.  My dad sent a big care package of apples from the family orchard in NY, so those were immediately used to make the first batch of food for him.  Surprisingly, they were very easy to make.  I chose the boil method, where you peel, core, and cut up apples and place in a pot.  I added a small amount of water and cooked for about 15 minutes or until they were breaking down to mush.  That's when you know they are ready.

For the sweet potatoes, I scrubbed them and stabbed them with a fork.  Wrapped them up in tin foil and baked in a 400 degree oven for an hour.  I didn't have time to puree them yesterday, so I put them in the fridge and did that today.

I peeled the sweet potatoes, which is really easy after they are cooled.  The skin just peels off almost on it's own.  Then I dropped them into my food processor.

You basically blend them up until they are smooth.  You will probably need to add a little water to get a decent consistency.  I think I added maybe a half a cup for two sweet potatoes.  I just kind of eye balled it.

You should get a pretty smooth puree which you can then portion on into ice cube trays.  For me, my ice cube measurement is roughly a tablespoon, so that works out pretty much perfectly.  Place all your puree into your trays and then freeze.   Once they are froze you can use a knife to pop out the cubes and place into a Ziploc freezer bag.  Two potatoes gave me 30 cubes of food plus 2-3 servings which I didn't freeze since I will be using them for a few days.  

Between this and the apples, I have plenty of food to keep him fed for a while.  Total hands on time was maybe an hour for each food.  I am using the Wholesome Baby Food website as a reference/guide to making food for Colin.  I think it has a lot of good information and recipes.  Lentils will probably be one of the next foods to get prepared this way as they are rich in iron and provide a great base for adding in other foods.  Good luck!

Homemade Mixes

Lately I have been pondering ways to be more efficient in the kitchen.  Sometimes this means time-wise and sometimes this means cost-wise.  In this particular instance, I think it might have been a little bit of both.  With fall settling in fast and furious, comfort food season will soon be underway.  This time of year I find myself wanting to bake more and this includes breads, specifically as it relates to this post - corn bread.  Ain't nothing wrong with that!

I have always just bought the blue box of Jiffy mix and called it a day, but I thought how hard can this be to make my own corn bread?  Thanks to the age of the internet, turns out, its really not too difficult.  This website offered the recipe for the dry mix and then how to use it.  For those that are too lazy to go to the site, here's the scoop.

This cornbread mix makes one batch of either a 8x8 baking dish, or approximately 6 muffins. You can also use it any place a recipe calls for a “8.5 ounce cornbread mix box.” It can be easily doubled, tripled or multiplied to any degree you wish (I did quadruple) and stored in an airtight container for 4-6 months. If you do multiply this mix recipe, simply use approximately 1 ¾ cup mix.

Homemade Cornbread Mix
¾ cup cornmeal
¾ cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients together. Store if needed.

When ready to use preheat oven to 425 degrees, then, mix in a separate bowl:
1 egg
¾ cup skim milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Add the wet ingredients to the cornmeal mix and stir until just incorporated.

Cook for 20-25 minutes if using a 8x8 baking dish, or 15-20 minutes for muffins, removing the muffins or bread from the oven when the center is no longer jiggly and the edges are slightly browned.

The site goes on to mention that this is a great money saving way to use pantry staples for something you would normally get "out of a box".  Also, they make another great point which is this probably has less chemicals/garbage than you average box mix too.  That's always nice. 

I am hoping to make a few more of these mixes as I find ones I would actually use.  I just need to find containers for them all.  I happened to find the one for this in a random cleaning on the cupboards the other day.  I don't think I'll get that lucky again, but ya never know!

Pinterest

Pinterest, the latest and greatest web phenomenon that's sweeping the nation.  Ok, it may not be that popular, but it's definitely main stream and sucking up hours and hours of peoples lives as they skim the website for the coolest ideas and funny photos of cats or the latest eCards.

I posted to Facebook the other day that I had learned the following things from Pinterest:

I need Mod Podge, it's the new duct tape
Chervon patterns are apparently the latest trend, but I think it's ugly
"I'll be glad I pinned this one day" is the most over used tag line
Some people are really clever
Some people have too much time on their hands
I need about 30 more hours a week to do some of the fun things I have pinned

I could also add these as well:

People appear to keep everything in cute labeled baskets and never seem to have anything out of place even if they are organizing a toddlers room!
People are blindly re-pinning things that have websites that go to no where (not a big deal when it's a funny picture, more so when it's 'follow these instructions to happy organized home")
Nutella is the new ingredient for any dessert recipe
Mason jars are the new "it" containers for everything from summer fun drinks to baking cake in to using as a vase.

 I love pinterest, I really do, but I also recognize that there is no way I am ever going to make half of the things I have pinned.  As my husband has told me, it's like the new magazine for people to oohh and aaahh over.  I don't disagree, but it sparks some little bit of self doubt when you see what people are pinning.  "Am I doing cool enough things around my house?" "Should I be craftier?" "What if I don't know how to make 50 random meals from what I have on hand?" "Do people really have time to do all of this and how the hell do I make time for just one of these ideas?"

A perfect category in which the above worries come into play is the "Brilliant ideas and tips for around the house".   Nothing like making you slap your head and say, "Why didn't I think of some of these?"  Of course, two minutes after you pin it, you can't remember one simple idea that seemed so second nature when you were reading and so the cycle continues.

A lot of what I a pin are ideas that I hope to reference when Colin is older.  Ideas for keeping kids entertained that involve simple household items or cool craft projects they can make and occupy themselves for an hour or so.  I also like to pin gift ideas and crafty things around the house in the event I find time and want to make something  homemade (which I love to do).  But I try to at least skim the articles/blogs/sites and see if it is anything I would honestly every try to attempt on my own.  Some of the pins involve some really whacked out steps or materials and all I can think is, "Really?  You think people are honestly going to be able to do that on  their own?"  But that is what Pinterest is for after all, imagining the possibilities even if they aren't possible for you.

Food recipes I have gotten a bit more discriminating of because there are SO many food pins.  I am trying to get on board with using the crock pot more, but some sites use some really terrible ingredients.  The fact  that something has 5 ingredients or less is not always a plus in the dishes favor no matter how quick it is.  I like to enjoy my food.  I have made a couple of things from my pins and had varying degrees of success.  I am happy to try new things, but just not every day.

*gets on soapbox*

One of my bigger pet peeves about Pinterest pins are the ones that use the tag line, "I'll be glad I pinned  this one day".  I can't stand it.  That's the whole purpose of Pinterest!!  You "pin it" so you can reference it at some point in the future.  This pet peeve also includes things like,  "Definitely making this one day" or any other statement which implies that you think you'll do something with the pin at a later date. I want to write NO DUH! in response to many of these, but as Pinterest doesn't really have a medium for that (and thank god they don't) I vent my annoyances here.   Every time you re-pin something, you have the option to change the text that goes with it.  Do us all a favor and remove those silly statements and just give a two sentence summary of what you pinned if appropriate.  Comics don't need summaries, a simple Haha, LOL, Hysterical, Hilarious, or other such statement is perfect.

*gets off soapbox*

With that I say, if you haven't joined the Pinterest community and want to see some fun things, what are you waiting for?  :)  Happy Pinning!