Making My World Go-Round

It’s Monday morning and all is right with the world.

Not because it’s Monday mind you, but because my dear husband is back home safe. 

He was gone eight days at a training seminar for work, and let me tell you, I’m not use to him being so far away!  (yes, I'm spoiled...and in love.) We have never gone more than a couple days without seeing each other since we were engaged so this was a new experience for me.  (and not one I was completely fond of either. Ahem.)

{Made me think of all your military wives out there who do that for months on end.  Hats off to you girls!} 

In the midst of his trip, I was reminded how important it is to cherish the little moments in life.  I was surprised to realize it was the little things that I missed the most… hearing his car pull in the driveway, or hearing his key in the door.  How he sneaks up behind me while I’m doing dishes just to put his arms around me and kiss my cheek, or when he randomly bursts into song. 

The little moments in life that are so easy to take for granted but are truly what makes the world go-round. 

via

At least my world.   

“Home” is wherever we’re together.  Simple concept, but definitely reinforced to me this past week.  Without him in it, the house felt like just a house.  But yesterday, it was home again. 

Sure, I might have gotten to sleep in the middle of the bed and had four pillows all to myself, but it’s lonely in the middle without my other half.   We were able to video-chat every night, but it just isn’t the same.  I was thankful for it, don’t get me wrong, but it was almost a taunt at the same time.  Being so close and yet so far at the same time is a strange feeling. 

Saturday night I went to the airport to pick him up, and seeing his face come through the gate suddenly made the past several days feel like a blur.  He was home.  My best friend, my husband…

In honor of my dearly-beloved’s homecoming, I made Cinnamon Roll Pancakes for breakfast Sunday morning.   You can view the recipe Here.   Although the pancakes turned out good, I was still slightly disappointed with the results.  Hubby thought it was the icing on top that needed a little work (maybe a thinner milk & powdered sugar drizzle would have been better?)  and I was just expecting perhaps something a little more dense overall.  All that aside however, they were quite tasty and we definitely enjoyed them!   

I loved the way they looked with the cinnamon swirl in the middle!!

Can’t believe I didn’t get a picture of the finished product, but you can check it out at the link above.

Happy Monday, ya’ll!  Hope all is well in your world!

Monday Munchies

I had some Cap'N Crunch cereal to use up from a previous recipe so I decided to make some yummies with the leftovers!

Ooey-Gooey Cereal Bars

• 1 c. Karo syrup
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 Tbsp. butter
• 1 c. peanut butter, smooth and unsweetened
• 4 ½ c. Cap’n Crunch cereal

1. In a medium sauce pan, mix Karo syrup and sugar, bringing to a boil and stirring until sugar is dissolved. 
2. Remove from heat and mix in remaining ingredients (minus cereal) and stir until smooth. 
3. Add in cereal and mix well.  
4. Flatten mixture into a wax paper lined dish or pan and allow to set.  
5. You must work fast so it doesn’t start to harden before you have it pressed out. 

I cut mine with a pizza cutter, which worked great.  I also kept them in the refrigerator and let them sit out for a few minutes before eating.

These are pretty naughty, but oh so good!

Hope your week is off to a GREAT start!

Bacon Bliss

A couple of weeks ago I was introduced to a new method of cooking bacon. It has changed our life. . .or at least our diet!

{Maybe not for the better. . . but our tastebuds certainly are happy!}

I now cook bacon in the oven.

How many of you already do that?

Have I been living under a rock?

{Don't answer that.}

I first saw my mom doing this a few weeks ago and couldn't believe how well it actually worked.  And then I tasted it.  Oh yeah, it works.  And in our house, it has become a favorite!

Good bye, frying pan!  Hello, broiler pan!

The best method I have found is:

• Line an edged pan with foil
• Lay bacon strips flat
• Place is a cold oven 
• Set temperature to 400 degrees
• Cook for 17-20 minutes
• Keep a close eyes on it after 17 because it will burn easily if it goes too long.  When it's done, place on separate plate so the hot grease don't continue to cook the bacon.

The greatest about this method?

NO STINK & NO MESS!

I hate coming home the day after I have cooked bacon and having a dirty greasy smell permeating everywhere. But this way, no smell!!

And once you have all that crispy-cooked-to-perfection bacon...

the possibilities are endless!

We started with this:

Bacon & Brown Sugar Stuffed French Toast

(recipe available here) 

  

This was some good stuff! 

Perfect with fresh maple syrup, straight off the farm!

Next on my list to try is a Peanut Butter & Bacon sandwich, creation compliments of Lindsay.

What do you do with Bacon? 

Winner Dinners

Do you ever get into a cooking rut?

Same dishes week after week?

We've definitely been in need of a dinner-makeover at my house during the past couple months.  

So off I went to the library and came home with a stack of what I had hoped to be inspiration.

Yes, as you can tell, these were pretty much quick & easy cookbooks. I still have not mastered the art of working full-time, staying on top of all the laundry and housework, AND having a wonderful full-course meal on the table by 6:00 PM. 

I tried it for awhile when we first got married, but I never got out of the kitchen until 8:30 or 9 PM, and that put me on the verge of going crazy. What I've realized though is that pre-planning is half the battle.  If I know ahead of time what I'm going to make for dinner, than I can have the meat already thawed out and proper ingredients on hand so I don't have to make last-minute dashes to the store when i realize mid-recipe that I'm short on tomatoes, beans or broth. 

"Express Lane Meals" by Rachael Ray was the biggest disappointment to me.  I've perused several of her cookbooks and I don't think I've ever actually tried any of her recipe.  They all have really strange ingredients, and don't seem economical or appetizing.  Skip that.

I enjoyed the "Hungry Girl" cookbooks and made a few good things from those.  I like "real" ingredients though (not liquid egg substitute and stuff like that), so I used her recipes as a guideline and just tweaked whatever I made. 

I like tweaking. 

T-w-e-a-k-i-n-g. 

Tweaking.

Ahem.

Then there is always the trusty Internet, filled with creative recipe, absolute disasters, and some real winners!  Some of of my current favorites are:

Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti

Mongolian Beef (crockpot)

Lemon-Herb Zucchini Fettuccini

Baked Oatmeal (crockpot)

Noodles & Co Mac & cheese

Each of these recipes I have altered to suit our personal tastes.  More or less sauce, rice noddles instead of pasta, differently seasoned meat, etc.  I use the recipes like a canvas and take my own set of colors to spice it up!  Cooking is often my outlet for creativity these days. 

Have you tried anything new lately?

Happy Cooking ~

Sweet Yummies

Guess I’m just a few days behind on posting about Valentine’s Day, ‘huh?  We celebrated over the weekend since we both had to work on Monday, but it was nice and relaxing and we always love an excuse to have some “date” time!  

We walked around downtown, got our wedding rings cleaned, ate Rock Shrimp at the only place in town you can get it, and talked.  Always lots of talking.  We’re really good at that.  Probably one of the many reasons we’re best friends.  I love dates with my husband!

For our VDay breakfast I made Baked Butter Pecan French Toast, which was a new recipe for me but it ended up being delicious!  The fact it was super easy to make certainly didn’t hurt anything either!

Served with some fruit and bacon, we had us a top-notch breakfast! 

There were also some little presents, including these Mr. & Mrs. mugs from Dayspring, and some of M’s favorite tea from Aveda.  Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win a gift certificate for Dayspring and maybe you can get a set of mugs for yourself! 

And in case you’re looking for a sweet-little-something to make for breakfast this weekend, here’s the recipe for that French Toast (we cut the recipe in half and it made about 4-5 servings).

Baked Butter Pecan French Toast

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 loaf French bread, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
6 eggs, beaten
1 2/3 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Maple syrup

Heat oven to 350°F (175°C).

Combine brown sugar, butter and honey in 1-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar melts (2 to 3 minutes). Pour into a greased 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with pecans. Top with half of bread slices.

Combine eggs, milk and vanilla in large bowl; beat until well mixed. Dip remaining bread slices in egg mixture on one side only. Place over bread in the pan, dipped-side down. Pour remaining egg mixture over bread slices.  Sprinkle with a couple extra tablespoons of brown sugar and some additional pecans, if desired.

Combine sugar and pumpkin pie spice in small bowl; sprinkle over top. Cover; refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Bake, uncovered, for 50 to 55 minutes or until golden brown and knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes. Invert each serving when you scoop it onto the plate.  Serve with maple syrup, if desired.

Pecan Roll Goodness

Friday 3:30 PM

I find a recipe for gooey pecan rolls that I have to try. I text hubby and ask him to take a loaf of frozen bread dough out of the freezer so I can make them for breakfast Saturday morning.

Saturday 8:00 AM

I roll out of bed knowing that those homemade pecan rolls are only about an hour away. Time to get to work!

This is the view from my kitchen window.  Snow is falling heavy and the roads look slick. There are drivers going by, headed who-knows-where, while we are tucked cozily into the confines of our happy little home. I am craving some comfort food and a hot cup of coffee.  This seems like a perfect way to spend a lazy Saturday morning with my husband.  Bring it on.

In a 9" cake pan, mix 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1/2 cup of brown sugar.  Stir it until they are well combined and not separating anymore.  Sprinkle it with your desired amount of chopped pecans (I used about 1/3 cup). 

Roll out your dough making sure it's wide enough to be rolled into a nicely filled log.  Next, in good Pioneer Woman style, slather it with some melted butter.  Now you're ready to start adding all the good stuff!  

In a small bows, mix 2 Tbs. of Sugar and 1 tsp. of cinnamon (or more, depending on your taste).

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture evenly over the rolled out dough and then sprinkle with some extra pecans. I also took some brown sugar and sprinkled it over the top of the pecans, hoping to add a bit more runny goodness to come oozing out of the pecan roll after it baked. 

Now you're ready to roll 'er up!  Try to keep it tight and even as you roll the dough across the length of the log.  Seal the edge with your fingers when you finish rolling.  Gotta try to keep that ooey-gooey-goodness on the inside!

Start slicing the log into even pieces and lay them on top of the whipping cream/brown sugar mixture in the cake pan.  

I didn't raise my rolls, instead I wanted to keep them smaller.  If you do want to rise them at this point, set them in a warm oven or some other method of rising until they're the desired size. 

8:30 AM

Ready to go into the oven.

I wish I could send the smells to you through cyber-space.  Ohhhhh my goodness.   I haven’t smelled anything so  heavenly cooking in my house in… well, maybe in forever.  While these little yummies are cooking, I brew a pot of coffee to try and ward off the winter chill.  With the level of sweetness that will be coming out of the oven, I definitely think we'll be needing something to balance it out.  Ahh, and I have a bit of spare whipping cream leftover from the recipe to add to my coffee.  A definite treat!  

9:00 AM

The rolls came out of the oven bringing their sweet bakery scent with them.  I was dying to take a bite of this breakfast delight!  My recipe said to flip the pan upside down in order to let the caramel topping drizzle down onto the rolls, allowing every drop of the sweet-goodness to cover the gooey rolls.  

For the rolls to sit on, I pulled out a lovely white platter that my brother and sister-in-law gave us as part of our wedding gift.  You can't see it in the picture, but the platter has paisley prints etched into the porcelain.  So lovely!  I could see the pecans inching their way out from underneath the pan as the topping drained onto the rolls.

9:05 AM

Here they are! 

Coffee.

Goodies.

Hello Saturday.  

It's lovely when you come for a visit.

Grillin' Out

My husband is the Grill Master.  Everything he cooks on the grill tastes better than whatever I cooked in the kitchen -- he knows how to get er done!  

Another part of the reason it tastes so wonderful might also be because it meant he was helping me cook and everything is better when we are doing it together!

This past weekend we decided to use a new contraption we had picked up at the store and try our hand at grilling corn-on-the-cob. 

You peel back the husks, remove the silk, and slather the corn with butter and seasoning. 

Pesto for the Girl           Creole for the Boy

Into the corn-holder they went and we slid them onto the grill.

Waiting....Waiting.....

It smelled so good....

And 25 minutes later. . .
the finished product was bursting with juice & flavor!

This was our first attempt at grilling vegetables
but it's definitely something we want to do more of!
Do you have any recommendations?

Longhi's

I know I've written about Longhi's a few times, our favorite restaurant in Maui.
Several months ago I purchased their cookbook off Amazon.com and recently tried my first recipe from there -- Lemon Zucchini Pasta. 

Oh me oh my. 

Creamed wine sauce.  Ohhhh yes. 

Eating this pasta takes you to a place where calories don't exist.

Are you drooling yet? 

Want to try making it yourself?  Go right ahead.  Make your tastebuds happy.  They will start singing with joy.  By the second bite, you will be in pasta-bliss. 

Lemon Zucchini Pasta

1 tablespoon salt
1 pound linguine
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
½ cup dry white wine
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons salted butter
2 small zucchini, julienned
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper


Fill a large stockpot with water and bring to a boil. Add salt, then drop the linguine into the boiling water. Cook until al dente, and drain.
 
While pasta is cooking, combine garlic, wine, and lemon juice and zest in a large sauté pan with high sides and reduce until 2 tablespoons remain, about 5 minutes. Add the cream and simmer for 1 minute.
 
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the zucchini and sweat for 1 minute.
 
Add the cooked pasta to the cream mixture. Add the zucchini and toss. Season generously with salt and pepper.
 
***  I also included a grated carrot which I added in with the zucchini and some diced grilled chicken.  It was a complete meal all by itself and so good. ***

Happy cooking,

More Jam

You might remember when I made Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam a couple months back, and although I thought it was delicious, hubby was wishing it was just plain strawberry.  Soooo, the other night I gathered the energy (and necessary ingredients) and decided to whip up a couple batches of jam: Lemon-Blueberry and my man's favorite, Strawberry. 

Freezer jam is my favorite, as it is a breeze to make and I love seeing lots of homemade-goodness stacked up in the freezer, especially in the winter.  So I prepped my load of containers and set to work!

I decided to put half the blueberries in my food processor first to give the jam a little smoother consistency.  The rest of the berries I left whole, and they would cook down as it boiled.

I cooked the blueberries and sugar, and instead of adding regular pectin at the end, I added one package of lemon gelatin.  It added just a subtle taste of lemon and made it very refreshing.

I'm hoping to try a bit of this jam slathered on some homemade waffles or pancakes! 
The rich color would make for a beautiful presentation.

Next, I moved onto the Strawberry jam, and the sinful load of sugar that goes into it!  I even called my mom to make sure my recipe was right. 

Yep, lots of sugar.

I boiled, stirred and disolved, all to make this beautiful jellied goodness.

Ta-dah! 

Into the freezer it shall go! 

What's your favorite kind of jam / jelly?

Making Hummus

As mentioned in my previous post, I love hummus! And if anybody wants to try making it, please do not be intimidated! It takes a grand total of five minutes and stays good stored in the refrigerator for over a week. Hummus is a food that allows you to get in touch with your inner-creativity and make it taste exactly how you want it to taste. I never use a recipe -- I simply alter as I go until it’s just right.

There are many varieties of hummus out there, and if you search any of the recipe websites I’m sure you’ll be able to find a dozen or so that sound worthy of trying. I’ve seen variations with roasted tomatoes, lemon & basil, etc. The recipe I am posting is for basic hummus with tahini (sesame paste), which is the only kind I’ve made because I am so in love with the rich fullness of the sesame flavor. My favorite Lebanese restaurant in town makes to-die-for hummus and theirs is loaded with tahini, more than I’ve ever tasted in any other hummus. It’s amazing.

Basic ingredients:

• 1/4 C. Tahini (usually found in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store)
• 1 tsp. Lemon juice
• 1 can garbanzo beans/chick peas (same thing)
• 1 Tbsp. Garlic, minced
• 1-2 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 1/8 tsp. Salt

 Drain garbanzo beans and reserve the liquid.  Put beans and garlic (to your liking, but I use about 1 Tbs = 1 clove) in a food processor and give it a whirl to break up the beans (it helps everything to mix in better later, at least in my machine!).  Add in a scant 1/4 C. of Tahini (you can always add more later), about 1 tsp. of Lemon juice, a couple swirls of Olive oil (probably 1 Tbsp to start), a dash of salt (no more than 1/8 tsp. to start with), and a few drizzles of the reserved bean juice.  Blend it all together, adding more Olive oil or reserved juice as necessary based on the desired consistency. 

After adding in the beginning amounts, take a taste and see what you think.  Keep adding more of those ingredients until it's to your liking -- more tahini for a stronger sesame flavor, more garlic if you're looking for an extra kick, more salt if it needs it (but over-salting hummus is gross -- trust me, I know this), etc.  The options are pretty endless on this one and it's nearly impossible to mess up!

In case you haven't noticed, this is not an exact science!!! I tend to like my hummus as bit thicker than what you would purchase in the grocery store, but that's just me. I've come to the conclusion there is no right or wrong way to make it. I know you can also experiment with adding chili powder and cumin to the hummus, but I haven't tried that yet. I even saw a recipe for peanut butter hummus, but I don't know if I've brave enough for that one...

When I'm all done, it usually looks something like this (can you tell presentation isn't my strong-point?).  Sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner, depending on my mood when I was whipping it up. 

This is great on wraps, sandwiches, as a dip with veggies, on pitas, or even on grilled cheese (yum!).  Do you have any other ideas of what we could use it on?