Dinners You Have Missed

I made my first Corned Beef and Cabbage for St Patrick's Day. I admit completely and honestly, I WILL NEVER MAKE THAT AGAIN. The vegetables were everyone's favorite for one reason, the meat was SO fatty! I had no idea how fatty that meat is! I spent the evening after the meal separating the fat from the meat. It was a huge waste of time just to get a smidgen of meat. Everything tasted good once the fat had all been removed. I must admit though, it sure was pretty!



I really enjoy black bean burgers. I do not claim making the burger, I just claim eating it. I did make the delicious Red Potato, oven baked, fries. Those were tasty. My husband thought I had bought those too. To be honest the best part of the burger was the cheese on top! It was a New York Buffalo sauce cheese. MMMMMMMMMM!



Saving my favorite recent recipe for last....I can't even remember what it is called! It was a wild rice salad with cranberries, walnuts, green onion, and chicken. Definitely a keeper! Everyone loved it.

Favorite Meal of the Day

Breakfast is my favorite food and I do not typically make it for breakfast. Although, I have found that Sunday brunch is a really nice time to make breakfast. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I made my new favorite pancake recipe. I was too busy eating to even think of taking a photo. So, that will have to be added next time I indulge! The recipe consists of spelt flour, fresh blueberries, pecans, cinnamon, and bananas if I happen to have them. Something about the spelt gives these delicious flap jacks a yummy crispy outer nuttiness, and I'm not talking about the pecans!

Puffy Pancake: that is what I grew up calling this delicious breakfast item. A few years back I tried the English version of the stuff which consisted of baking the mixture with sausage and serving it with onion gravy, this version was not my favorite. Something about warm fruit and puffy pancake reminds me of my Mom. Puffy pancake is definitely one of my comfort foods. This one here is made for the first time using spelt flour. Using spelt makes this recipe much more filling than the white floor I traditionally used. I could eat half a pan of the stuff by myself using white flour. I served the puffed oven pancake with fresh blueberries, pineapples, and strawberries. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!




Tropical oatmeal: oats (I was too hungry to wait for the steel cut oats to cook so I used instant, which I am not a huge fan of since I have tried steel cut), fresh pineapple, bananas, coconut cream, walnuts, and non-sweetened coconut for topping, make this one delicious oatmeal!



Eggs Benedict: I have never before tried to even make poached eggs let alone a funky sauce to go over them. I don't know that I will make these again, but for my first I think they were pretty tastey. I was inspired to even make this recipe because of an excellent movie called Run Away Bride. The movie was on my mind and I remembered she went on a mission to discover what her favorite way to eat eggs was. I have never taken on such a mission and was curious if I too would like Eggs Benedict. I think my favorite will always be scrabbled with garlic and a little cheese.

Absence

I have been having so much fun taking pictures and I love sharing them with you. I was really excited to share with you my most recent photos, so when I went to my computer to download my photos off my camera nothing happened. I was so upset to discover the internal port on my camera was all busted up; just like my heart!

So, I have since ordered a handy dandy memory card reader from ebay, my first ebay experience, and look forward to its arrival. Once the gadget comes I will immediately download my photos and share them with you. So until then maybe I can get back to my other passion...writing! It has been so long since I last posted creativity with the written word I think I am a little afraid to give it a try. If I can't I may have to plagiarize my own stuff from earlier posts! Well, I won't do that, but if you are interested you can always go back and find a good one to read! My early posts are almost solely my creative thoughts and such like writing.

Have a great time until we meet again!

Funky Baking Going On!

In the past couple days my girls and I have tried some rather interesting new recipes and some old favorites with some funk!

To celebrate Dr Seuss's birthday my youngest requested green eggs and ham. Well, the light green eggs just didn't cut it! We wanted some seriously GREEN eggs! Eggs just aren't eggs without some minced garlic and we like lots of it. The ham wasn't green but boy was it delicious! I put the whole thing in the slow cooker for 6 hours on low and it came out by far the best ham on the whole darn planet!


This afternoon my youngest (who plans to be a chef when she grows up and open her own "shop") announces that she will be making crackers, a recipe from Kinder Krunchies (but modified by me, of course). Well, she helped get the ingredients, had a lesson in reading a recipe and learning "fractions", did some measuring, turned the mixer on and off and helped cut out one batch. Then I was left to finish up the last 2 batches and do the clean up. Go figure! All batches turned out beautifully except the last which turned charcoal brown because I forgot to take them out when the timer beeped. I promised to save that batch for the husband.

Here's the Picture (The crackers really are small, about 1 in. I am displaying them on the only neutral colored object I could find in my house, a mug lid!):


Here's the recipe with my adjustments because obviously they are the best!

1 c whole wheat flour

3/4 c wheat germ

3/4 c flax meal

4 t honey (honestly who measures this delicious essential sweetener? I know I didn't! I just squeezed until it looked like 4 teaspoons.)

3/4 t sea salt

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 c softened butter (coconut oil would work lovely in these as well, butter just sounded too delicious to pass up tonight!)

1/2 c buttermilk (I always make my own with 1 T Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon Juice and enough milk to make 1 cup.)

Mix all the dry stuff together, drizzle in the honey, drop the softened butter in and keep mixing, slowly add the butter milk. I had to then whip out my handy dandy Pampered Chef scrap and stir gadget and stirred in about another 1/4 cup flour until it was not so sticky (I probably could have done this last step using the mixer but I really am working on getting bigger biceps and shoulders so I did it by hand.)

Flour your clean surface, roll out the dough really thin, I am talking cracker thin, if you don't you end up with funny shaped dry bread like stuff. I cut the crackers out using these adorable little metal cutters from Pampered chef. I don't know what they are really any good for other than being cute but they came in really handy tonight! We used the shamrock, the hot pepper, and the flower shaped cutters.

Place all the little cut outs (or big cut outs if you like big crackers) on an ungreased cookie sheet, place in oven at 400 degrees bake for 10 minutes, dump baked crackers on rack to cool... and watch them disappear! We served them with tomato soup and goat cheese!

Which brings in the 3rd and final funky recipe of the evening. Never in my life have I tried goat cheese. I have always been intrigued, since seeing Shirley Temple in Heidi (her grandpa makes goat cheese). Now that I have tried it I cannot say it is my favorite, but I can say that it is an acquired taste and probably will have to grow on me.

Again this recipe is slighted modified, mainly the final ingredient, which was purely inspired at the very last moment.

goat cheese (obviously) rolled into small bite size balls

finely chopped pecans

Cinnamon (I never measure cinnamon, it is too delicious to use sparingly)

Honey for drizzling

And drum roll please...cocoa powder!

Stir the dry stuff together, roll the little goat cheese balls around in the yumminess, slightly mash the ball of goodness, place on a lovelier plate than the mug lid I am using, and drizzle honey to your hearts content! I found these yummiest with LOTS of honey! My oldest tried one, ran to me yelling and hopping all over the place "Mom, those are the best thing ever! They are so good!" She was almost too ridiculously excited. So, I went and tried one, certainly not as excited as her over the little morsel. I said to her, "needs more honey!" I will try one again tomorrow after my stomach settles from eating too many crackers!

The S.S.S (Scrumptious Spaghetti Squash)

I have no idea what the original recipe is called, so I came up with my own name for it seen as how I only used 3 ingredients from the original recipe!

1 Spaghetti Squash

1 bunch of asparagus

couple shakes of Thyme

(those are the original ingredients)

1 garlic bulb (that means the whole thing!), roast it and squeeze out the softened cloves. (My kids thought it was funny, I thought it was really hot!)

3 roma tomatoes

Chicken

1 packet of Good Seasonings italian dressing

Sea Salt to taste

Cook squash according to your favorite method, I did mine cut lengthwise in the oven for an hour. At the same time I wrapped a head of garlic with the top sliced off and olive oil in some foil and roasted it.

Cook FROZEN chicken in slow cooker with the seasoning packet on low for 6 hours or so. (That's it. I had made the chicken for another recipe and used the left overs for this one. If you are going vegetarian just leave out the chicken, but to be honest I think the seasoned chicken made the whole dish!

Steam the asparagus to your desired consistency. I like my veggies firm/crisp so I did it for a short time. When it is done cut it up into bite size pieces.

Dice the tomato.

When the squash is done scoop out the innards (The kids loved this part and really enjoyed sampling it plain!). Put all the ingredients in a big pan with some more olive oil, a couple shakes of thyme, sea salt and Voila!

Even my picky non-vegetable eater gobbled this up (minus the tomatoes, it is her least favorite!) I was looking forward to the left overs for lunch the next day, but my husband came home late that night and gobbled it up. Both my girls had 2 servings! My husband didn't like the whole garlic cloves, he felt they would be better mashed up or something, but I and my girls devoured them!

My First Biscuits

Ever since my 10 day fast food is pretty much constantly on my mind! I made my first biscuits last night and they are already gone! Breakfast finished off the remaining morsels. Here is the recipe with my tweaks.

Spelt Flour Biscuits

2 1/2 cups spelt flour

1 T baking powder, heaping (by the way, what exactly does that mean? My heaping could end up being 2T, someone else's may be just a smidgen over 1T, so heaping really is relative and thus to me doesn't make sense why it would be stated as such in a recipe. Does the amount over 1T make a difference in results?)

1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon (I would add more than this next time, we love cinnamon at our house!)

1/2 cup coconut oil (If you keep your spelt in the fridge the flour is cold, thus keeping the coconut oil solid giving it the same consistency of butter. I keep all my flour in the fridge, my coconut oil at room temperature, stays a soft solid.)

1T honey (I just squeezed the honey until I thought it was long enough. The biscuits were not sweet, so whatever I did put in wasn't a large quantity.)

1 cup milk

Mix together dry ingredients (I used my KitchenAid for the whole recipe.) Cut in coconut oil (or other fatty substance of your choice). Add honey and milk (I did this while the machine was going and I gradually added the milk). Put on floured surface, smoosh into a circle (My circle was larger than the recommended 9 inch. I got 11 biscuits out of my dough, plus the fun leftover shapes.) Place on a greased sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until brown.

While still hot, spread on some coconut oil and honey and then devour! We sure did!

Pamela's Bakery and Cafe

I don't usually review things on my blog but this place is worthy of my review! A good friend of mine took me there for the first time in September '09 for a birthday lunch date. I order the quiche and she got the turkey club (if my memory serves me correctly). The quiche was simply mouth watering and every bite was savored! The dish came with a side of coleslaw. Now, if you are anything like me you would say, "I'll pass". Well, don't pass on this coleslaw! I don't even know what was all in it but it sure wasn't any coleslaw I had ever had. We got little desserts to go, later at home I devoured it with my girls.

Just before Christmas I took my husband there for a breakfast date. I ordered Darren't Huevos Rancheros, a breakfast burrito like none other! I have actually tried to imitate this dish and have proved unsuccessful, close but no cigar! My husband ordered the french toast, mmmmm! We left there feeling completely satisfied, without the feeling of being weighed down by cheap ingredients or grease!

The last cake I purchased from a bakery was in September (my birthday and I wanted a fancy cake). I recall it's dry cardboard cake, with a thick, overly sweet, stick to the roof of the mouth chocolate slop, decorated with some fancy looking chocolate straws and very waxy chocolate shavings to make it appear delicious. I was incredibly disappointed in it's high price and poor quality. I swore I would never buy another nasty cake again. So, when I was looking in the showcase at Pamela's, leaving drool all over the glass, I knew they were the one's to make the future cakes that would enter my mouth!

For my oldest daughter's birthday I special ordered a very dreamy Valrhona chocolate cake with a coconut mousse filling, whipped cream frosting, decorated with almond slices, fresh strawberries, and flowers. When my daughter saw the cake, she said with tears in her eyes, "That is the most beautiful cake I have ever seen!" This was followed by a huge hug and a best Mom ever compliment. What about the chef who created it? She deserved a huge hug for creating such a special masterpiece for my baby girl (who happened to turn 9). The cake was even more delicious than it was beautiful! I am so looking forward to the next birthday when I plan to order either the Strawberry Lemonade, the Chocolate Bavarian Creme, or the Carrot Cake!

So, craving the deliciousness of Pamela's once again, my husband and I had a rare date again this morning and chose Pamela's. I ordered a 3 egg omelette with chicken, pepper jack cheese, and tomato. This is the third omelette I have ever eaten. The first 2 shouldn't even be classified as omelets, anything that makes you feel like puking afterward shouldn't be classified as food. So, knowing that the previous meals at Pamela's were superb, I gave the omelette a try. Boy am I glad I did. My husband got the Big Boy Breakfast Burrito. My husband has a bit of a sweet tooth and grabbed a chocolate dipped coconut macaroon to go. I caved and took the last bite and I am so glad I did! I am a huge fan of coconut and that was simply the best macaroon that has ever passed my lips! It was not too sweet and gloppy like my homemade ones.

I don't typically eat out unless it is a special occasion and those are so rare that when I eat out I want, not just good, but GREAT food. I am usually disappointed and realize I could have made better food at home. I feel like I wasted my time and money and regret having gone out. I have not felt this way with Pamela's. I leave feeling like I have eaten food rather than excessive grease, salt, and seriously, who knows what else!

I have raved enough about the food, now for the owner and the other's running the place. They are the friendliest most helpful people in the food industry! Truly a delight!

Once again Pamela's out did themselves and sent away another pleasantly filled couple!

My new philosophy has been taken from the food critique on Ratatouille: "If I don't love it, I don't swallow!"

Crazy Squirrel

During Christmas break we discovered we had a pet and we didn't know it. A squirrel, who was quickly named Squeakers, was conditioned to beg at the sliding door within days. I even saw him scratching at the door once! My kinds found it most enjoyable to feed him MY walnuts, pecans, and almonds. Squeakers certainly didn't mind at all! Pretty soon we found Squeakers more entertaining than each other! We would sit at the table and watch him and laugh at him. My patience for the whole thing didn't last long, as he was eating more of my yummy nuts than I was! So, I went and bought him some squirrel food, which happens to be corn. I then decided I needed to feed the birds too, they are far less annoying than Squeakers. Within moments of hanging the bird feeder full of a lovely bird seed mix (nuts, seeds, and raisins) Squeakers came crashing down to the earth, along with the bird feeder. That was the last time he ever ate the corn I had bought for him. My bird feeder broken and Squeakers vanished I ventured out and got a new bird feeder. Within a few days it was filled with cute little finches and I was enjoying watching them. No joke, that crazy Squeakers shows back up, scares away the birds, and I find him hanging by one foot upside down from a tree branch reaching for the food. I stood and watched him reaching and grabbing for the food, his little claws not long enough to reach. He made one final swing for the food and once again gravity proves ever faithful and he came crashing to the ground. Luckily this time, my feeder stayed in tact, hanging to the tree. In complete shock, and probably humiliation, Squeakers ran off. He is one desperate critter though! I saw him back in the tree just moments ago having another try at that feeder! I think there is a lot to learn from this picky determined rodent!