no more cake! ok, maybe just a little piece...

Last Saturday, my friend KVO joined the 30 club which, in my opinion, is pretty awesome. And, it's about time (she's a young'un in our group). For her birthday, I made her a cake, another friend brought lunch over to her house, and another brought the makings for punch (non-alcoholic - it was the middle of the day, people), and her adorable nephew provided the smiles and laughs. We had a pretty awesome spread!

After lunch, we had the cake. Rewind 2 months or so... I told KVO that I found the recipe for Turtle Cake from Cafe Latte online. She loves this cake, so I told her that I would try making it for her for her birthday.

Fast forward 2 months back to present time... KVO has not forgotten the promise to make this cake for her birthday and is sure to remind me. :)  So, I start getting thinking about this, the ingredients, and the logistics... and for someone who has planned things for a living, I did not do a great job with this.

• Round pans. I have one, but forgot... so I bought one. This turns out to be fine because it's a three layer cake, so I need to make 3 anyway and this cuts down my baking time. Win. 
• Cake carrier. I do not have one because I never make round tall cakes, so I don't need one. Until now. After asking a few friends, I find a kind soul to borrow one to me. (thanks, Katie!) Win. 
• Dry ingredients. I have all of these things at home - flour, cocoa, sugar, chocolate chips, pecans, baking soda.  I even had some of the other ingredients - egg and caramel . Win.
• Milk. The initial recipe I looked up called for whole milk in the frosting, so I go to the gas station to get a small one because who needs a half gallon of whole milk? Not this girl. The recipe on the Cafe Latte site that I ended up using does not specify whole milk, so clearly I forget and use 1%. Anyone need a pint of whole milk? Fail. 
• Coffee. I wanted to start making the cakes on Thursday so I could frost on Friday and eat on Saturday. I wish I would have looked at the recipe closer and realized I needed hot coffee when I stopped at the gas station to get whole milk on Thursday after work (see above) because I got home and was ready to start. No coffee. No baking on Thursday. I stopped at the gas station Friday to get coffee on my way home from work, instead. Fail.
• Buttermilk. My mom gave me a great tip that if you use a tablespoon of vinegar to 1 c. of milk and let it sit for about 10 minutes, it is a great substitute for buttermilk. Awesome! So, I didn't buy buttermilk. I joked with mom, "watch - now I won't have vinegar at home... haha!" You probably see where this is going. No white vinegar at home. We have apple, balsamic, red wine, and even blueberry pomegranate vinegar... but no white. Fail. I tried asking two different neighbors  (which was kind of embarrassing). They didn't have white vinegar, either. Double fail. Online, it said I could use cream of tartar instead... sweet! Except I didn't have that either. I went back to the store.  Triple fail (I think the kids would call this an "epic fail").

But, once I actually got started, it wasn't so bad. The cake was pretty easy to make and I felt very Betty Crocker. The cake layers finished and I cooled them, per the directions. I made the frosting and started assembling the cake. Cake, frosting, caramel, pecans - rinse and repeat 2 more times. With the exception of forgetting caramel on the second layer and having to take the top off, things went smoothly. But jostling the top made it crack just a bit... but I don't think it had an impact on the taste. I was really happy with how it turned out, being my first attempt at a big layer cake thing.

Here's how it turned out:

The birthday girl & the cake.

The cake and it's ooey, gooey, layers of awesome.

It actually did taste like the cake at Cafe Latte, which, I suppose makes sense since it's their recipe. :) And, had I planned a little better up front, it would have gone a lot more smoothly. Case-in-point why I am a planner by nature, typically - I'm a mess when I don't.

I had one piece of the cake at Keri's party and I don't think I can eat cake again for a few weeks. It was SO rich, but SO delicious. When I came home, after wraps, salads (pasta, spinach, and fruit), punch, and cake, I came home and took a food-coma nap on the couch for a while. And it was worth it.

As an aside, happy birthday to my very good friend, KVO. She is smart, beautiful, funny, kind, thoughtful, responsible, trustworthy, and just plain wonderful. I think her 30s are going to bring all of the very good things she deserves in life. I'm fortunate to be her friend and look forward to celebrating with her (and the girls!) more in Colorado later this week. :)

microwave cake

A while back, I was looking through a church cookbook and, wouldn't you know, they have a "microwave" section in it. Ah, modern appliances. What I didn't expect is that I would find a cake recipe in there.

Fast forward a few months. I'm having a craving for something sweet and there's pretty much nothing in the house. It's cold, and I don't want to go outside. And I remember: microwave cake! I wonder if that's real...

So, I pulled out the trusty church cookbook, and gave it a whirl because it was all normal stuff I have on hand in my baking box.

I find the recipe and it turns out it's actually called "Mug Cake." It says:

In a large mug, mix well:
4 Tbsp. flour
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa

In a separate bowl, mix:
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp. oil (I used canola)
chocolate chips (optional)

Add egg mixture to the flour mixture, stirring constantly, making sure everything is incorporated. (I used a palm of chocolate chips. Also, I did not stir constantly while adding the egg mixture... I dumped it in and stirred until it was well combined.)

So, I did that. It looked like this:

It then says to microwave on high for 3 minutes, then let cool. I don't know how to turn my microwave on high, so assume that normal is high. I set my microwave for 3 minutes and hit start.

I am skeptical that in 3 minutes, that bowl of goo is going to turn into magical cake that will get rid of my sweet tooth craving.

And, you know what? Microwave cake is real. It looks like this:

I didn't cool it, though, as the instructions said because, well, I lack the fine skill called patience.

The result? It did satisfy my sweet tooth. That being said, it's not the best cake in the world... but definitely worth the 5 minutes of my life it took to make a cake from scratch and it was certainly edible. It's pretty dense, but was moist, and if I would have had some vanilla ice cream, it may have even moved into really yummy. And, it's for sure dangerous that I now know a way to go from no cake to cake in 5 minutes flat.

Have you tried this before? Ideas for other microwave desserts?

a nice fall day

OK, so maybe it's not fall, yet... but it sure felt like it this morning. It was a little dreary and cool enough so that I needed my sweater. I'm going to be sad to see summer go, because I know that winter is coming then... but Fall is my favorite, so I'm looking forward to it!

So, (unrelated) I learned a lesson on this nice fall (feeling) day: Always dress in a way that you're prepared for the unexpected. I couldn't sleep last night until about 3 a.m. and, consequently, I was a little late getting up to get ready for church this morning. So, I got up, put on jeans (nice ones, no rips, holes, or the like) and a black sweater, threw my black flip flops on and ran out the door. Oh, and I did comb my hair and put it in a ponytail. I showered late last night, so I was not the smelly kid, either.  But, when I got there, Pastor stopped me on the way in...

(I'm paraphrasing here)

Pastor: We have another family joining - do you want to do the new member welcome in front of church with them?

Me: Today?

Pastor: Yes - sorry for the short notice.

Me: Um... (looks down at what I'm wearing) I probably would have dressed a bit differently if I would have known...

Pastor: It's OK, we can do yours another time if you want. Just thought I'd see if you wanted to do it with them.

Me: Ummmm... that might be a good idea.

I started to walk away and turned around and went back to him.

Me: You know, why not... I think I'm OK.

Pastor: I think it's fine - and it's a small crowd this morning.

Me: Let's do it.

And, it was fine. I wasn't dressed like a hobo, or anything, but I probably would have forgone the jeans and flip flops had I known. Argh... lesson learned.

Anyway - back to how it was a fall (feeling) day - the grocery store had apples on sale because it's getting to be that time of year so I bought some, some pre-cooked smoked pork chops (awesome) and some green and yellow zucchini. Here's what I ended up with for lunch:

I grilled the pre-cooked smoked pork chop to heat it up - these things are awesome. They're delicious and don't take very long to make since you just have to heat it up. I cut the zucchini up and sauteed it with some olive oil, salt, and pepper - and it was mighty tasty. My typical mistake with this kind of stuff is being too light on the seasoning, but today I did well. :)  And the apples, I sauteed in a bit of butter with honey, and sprinkled with cinnamon and a tiny bit of nutmeg. I went light on the seasoning with the apples, but that worked out well, too. I'm not sure what it is about apples and pork chops, but they are delicious together. And the meal seemed very fall-ish to me.

I also got a roast to make a Coke roast in the crock pot tomorrow. Yum!

What do you think? Are you dreading summer ending or looking forward to fall? As for me - I'm looking forward to it, along with the seasonal yumminess that comes with it.

the great minnesota get-together

Growing up I don't really remember if we ever went to the State Fair (aka the Great Minnesota Get-Together) - but now that I live only about 30 minutes from it, I think it's a must-do every year. The people watching is amazing, the company is excellent, and it's one time of year when it's perfectly acceptable to have everything you eat all day to be deep fried and/or on a stick. What's not to like?

Maybe the crowds - but the glass-half-full in me says: more people watching! I have the glass-half-full approach for the first 4 or so hours. Then glass-totally-empty kicks in and I hate pretty much everyone that I'm not there with. (I exaggerate just a bit.)

Fortunately (for the glass-half-full me) I was only able to go to the fair for about 3 hours this year. However, unfortunately (for the I-want-to-eat-deep-fried-everything-because-it's-the-state-fair me) I was only able to be at the fair for about three hours this year. The company was definitely the best part of the day, so thanks to the Hanson's, Storlie's, and Gavin's for letting me hang out with them again over the weekend.

Meeting up with them worked out swimmingly because the shuttle I was on dropped off by the Haunted House, across the street from the Horticulture building - and they were right behind it. I'm glad I didn't have to try to find them in the mess.

One of the first things we came across after I got there was - you saw it - the Spring Grove Soda Pop stand!!! If you haven't had it, or don't know why I'm excited, you're missing out totally. Spring Grove is one small town over from where I grew up and it was always a treat to get Spring Grove pop. I had strawberry, because it's the best. It's even better over ice cream - but they didn't have any.

Then we hit up the animal buildings. First, the miracle of birth center which is always fun. I think I mentioned in last year's post that the animal barns are probably more fun for someone who didn't grow up on a farm... but how can you resist this face?

After the miracle of birth center, we walked through the coliseum to see what was going on. They were showing cows. Then Kyle, Reagan, Harlee, Joan, and I walked through the cow barn and talked about our favorites. The others went cowboy/girl belt shopping.

Then, of course, the pig barns. Harlee petted a pig (don't worry, we know that pig). And we saw the largest pig in Minnesota (we do NOT know that pig.)

We ended the time at the animals there and went to the heritage area - and had some deep fried mushrooms.

While the girls went to pick up their aforementioned belts, I went to the deep fried pickle stand (I'll have two, please.) Don't worry, I shared with the group. Love. I can't believe the kids don't like these. Oh, well. More for us. I agree with Kyle, though, that the stand needs to be bigger - it's always SUPER busy.

Harlee and Carson were having a good time, I think. Aren't they awesome? I think so, too.

Time for a beer. The crowds are starting to get to me. (Grainbelt Nordeast - a nice local brew.)

Unfortunately, I had to leave shortly after that. :(  But I did pick up some deep fried cookie dough on the way out. Turns out I like cold cookie dough more than deep fried. Also, I like my cookie dough in balls smaller than a golf ball dipped in funnel cake batter. Disappointed, but glad I tried it so I wasn't left wondering what could have been!

Sadly, that was the extent of my food at the fair this time due to the time limitations (happily for my heart.) The state fair is full of mixed feelings. However, if you want to see what a real champ can do at the fair, check out last year's post. Last year, I was a champ. And irresponsible, fulfilled champ.

Sometime after the cow barn and before the pig barn, this is what happened to Reagan -- and it lasted at least until I left. She must have still been tired from last night's turkey.

Laura and I decided that it would be awesome to make strollers for adults and have a stand at the fair. People could rent one and have someone walk them around for an hour or two if they needed a nap during the middle of their time there. How awesome would that be if you could "sleep and rally!" at the fair?

I also liked my friend Janine's idea that she posted on facebook - she said that after all of that walking, she could have used an ibuprofen on a stick. Or even better, deep fried ibuprofen on a stick. I like where your head is, Janine... I like where your head is.

My only regret is not getting the cheese curds (mmm......) Maybe I'll have to go back.

Did you go to "the fair" this year? What was your favorite part?

how to deep fry a turkey

This past weekend was super busy, so there's more to come... but first let's talk about how you deep fry a turkey. Because I'm an expert in that.

That's not true. I know nothing about deep frying a turkey, but thankfully my friend Matt does so I watched him do it on Friday night - and took some pictures. So, for fun, let's talk about how I would explain how to deep fry a turkey based on my "experience" - emphasis on the quotation marks.

First, you get a turkey and tie some string around it. This is a two-person job.

Then, you put the turkey on a hook and slowly lower it into the oil. The oil should be hot by this point. (take a step back - make oil hot). It should bubble when it goes in (be careful) and then put the lid on it.

Take a break and take pictures of the dogs and the bonfire. Say hi to Pepper (left) and Buddy (right). Shotsy (sp?) and Lexi were camera shy.

Check the turkey. If the oil lowered in temperature too much, take it out and put it in the pan next to you on the log bench. Check under the fryer to make sure the flame is big enough. A few minutes later, when the oil is hotter, put the turkey back in.

Take a break and wait patiently for the turkey to finish. It's also recommended you eat some spinach artichoke dip from costco. It's yummy, and a good way to kill time.

Also, there's Shotsy (puppy).

When it gets dark outside, the turkey should be done. OK... it's like 4.5 minutes per pound, I think. In our case, that's when it got dark outside.

Then it looks amazing - like this:

Then you wait excitedly while Joan carves it so you can eat. You try to help, but it's questionable how "helpful" you're actually being. Then eat - it is SO good. Great with potato salad, pickles, and cucumbers.

 Then, get ready to take a nap in the drained hot tub. Turkey makes you sleepy.

And then, victory is yours!

And just because I think it's cool, check out Harlee's hamburger hat. Laura said it was delicious. But the turkey was better.

And that's how you make deep fried turkey (BK-style). If you want to know the real way, talk to Matt. He's the pro.

Thanks to Joan, Kyle, Jen, Matt, Jared, Laura, Harlee, Carson, Reagan, Buddy, Pepper, Shotsy, and Lexie for letting me hang out with them. :) It was very educational.

cherries

I had some cherries that I bought at the farmers market and they had been sitting for almost a week - so it was time to take action. I don't really know what to do with cherries like this except for eat them plain. Do you? Ideas welcome for next time.

So, this time I tried using them in cupcakes. First, I put the cherries in about 1/4 c. water and 1 Tbsp. sugar in a small pan and boiled them (stirring frequently). They didn't really sauce-up like my blueberries did... but they did soften, so when they were soft, I drained them (keeping the juice), let them cool, and then squeezed the pits out. I put the cherries (less pits) and juice into my food processor, and chopped it up. I think I ended up with 1.5 c. of cherry mash (that's what I've decided to name it.) This was probably more work than it was worth...

I made this recipe for white cake, subbing 1 tsp. of almond extract for one of the tsps of vanilla. I added the cherry mash, and gave it a whirl as cupcakes. I baked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes and that was perfect.

Then, I used this butter cream frosting recipe for the top.

They're pretty tasty, but as I said before, the whole cherry prep was probably more work than it needed to be. Oh well, fun to try something new.


Here's the finished product.By the way, it's one of my pet peeves when I see someone post a picture on a recipe site for cake - and you can't even see the cake. Just the frosting. If people want to put a picture of a decorated cake, put it on the frosting recipe. :) And don't worry, I'm not talking about you - just in general.

 

 My cake is not decorative, so here's a picture of the actual cake - it was kind of purple-y:

 And then I remembered I had kept a cherry for the picture. Now it's decorative:

 
 So, what else can I do with cherries like this?

something old, something new

This past week seemed exceptionally busy - work during the day and something almost every evening. And then Friday I was sick (booo). Yesterday was spent at home (yay!) doing laundry, etc... I'm not sure about you, but when I have those weeks where I'm gone all week and eating out a lot, the only thing I want is something made at home. It could even be macaroni and cheese, but as long as it's made at home, I'm happy. And when it's better than macaroni and cheese, that's even better!

There was lots of at-home food happening this weekend, and it was awesome. I bought buttermilk yesterday to make corn fritters that we saw on Down Home with the Neelys on the Food Network. (They were good, but I didn't take a picture, so I'll make again and post sometime soon.) Believe it or not, I don't think I've ever made anything with buttermilk before. So, now I have all this buttermilk to use and am determined to use it all and not let it waste.

So, this morning, I made pancakes with buttermilk - but not regular buttermilk pancakes. I found this recipe for Brown Sugar Oatmeal Pancakes on Allrecipes.com. I'm pretty sure this is going to be my go-to pancake recipe because I loved them - and it's all stuff I normally have in the house (except buttermilk, which I understand you can 'make your own', so we're good.) I followed the directions exactly, except I used all-purpose flour for all flour, because I didn't have wheat flour.

Brown Sugar Oatmeal Pancakes
(this is my something new - I've never tried this one before)
10 Tbsp. quick cooking oats
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. brown sugar (packed)
1 c. buttermilk
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (I used canola)
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients well in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl (I used my food processor and whisk attachment), beat the egg, oil and buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Pour batter by 1/3 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until the second side is golden brown.

And my something old? Instead of syrup, I used up some blueberries I bought this week on sale and made blueberry breakfast sauce that I've made before - and it was yummy! (again)

The best part? It's all pretty fast, to do!

Now, I'm making refrigerator pickles to replace the mistake ones I made last weekend (more on that soon).

Also, if you're interested in checking out some of the other things I've made, you can check out the food archive.

mango/key lime pie!

I finally found my inspiration this weekend to make something new (that was worth posting about)! So, last fall when I was on vacation in Florida, we had like 3 key lime pies (there were 7 of us) and they were delicious. If you don't know this about me, key lime pie is my favorite dessert. Ever. So, when my brother was there again last month, he emailed me and said he had some mango key lime pie. Say what? Say: Yum!

Since then, we've talked about trying it sometime, but haven't gotten around to it until today. Oddly enough, this is my first time making key lime-anything... and being that it's my favorite, I'm a little surprised myself. Maybe I thought it was one of those things that I want to keep as a special eat out food. Who knows.

What I did is probably enough for two pies, but with reason. I got these cute little pre-made graham cracker crusts (6 in a pack, about 3 inches in diameter) and then used the rest with a homemade graham cracker crust to make some bars. It worked out swimmingly. I basically used this recipe from Food.com for guidance, but made it a bit different. Here's what I ended up with:

Mango/Key Lime Pie
1/2 c. mango puree
1/2 c. key lime juice
2 - 14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
6 egg yolks (no whites)


[[Yep, that's it. Just four ingredients]]

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a blender, puree mango (I used about one mango - leaving a little for me to snack on - it equaled 1/2 c.) Add lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks and blend to mix well. Pour into your pie crust.

Bake. I used 15 minutes for the small ones, and 20 minutes for the bars. If you do a regular pie, I would do 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let set for 15 minutes before putting into the refrigerator to cool. Then, put in the refrigerator and chill until just before you are ready to serve.

This was the type of key lime juice I used:

My notes:

• The original recipe said to put diced mangos into the mixture, too - but I didn't want the chunks in it. I bet it's good though!
• Those little pies are super handy and a good size to share - but you can't really stack them, so they may be hard to travel with for a party - the bars would be better for that, or a regular-sized pie.
• The bars I made were just graham cracker crust on the bottom and this mixture on top. Simple.
• You can put whipped cream on top... but I didn't. I like it straight-up. :)  
• I did, however, garnish them with lime wedges - I sliced a lime and cut the pieces into quarters. I dipped them white sugar (well) on both sides and put them in the freezer until I was ready to serve soon - and then stuck them on top of the little pies (see photo above). The sugared limes were tasty!
• I made my homemade crust using the recipe from Food.com that is in the original pie recipe. It made more than I needed, so I asked the peeps on the Allrecipes.com message board, and they said I could refrigerate the leftover and it keeps well... and to use it as crumble with pudding, yogurt, or ice cream. Great ideas! So I did - and I sprinkled a little bit on top of the bars I made.

It was really good. Keith said the one he had in Florida was a little more "lime-y" but that this was really good. I thought it was really yummy, and will definitely make it again.

I linked this to Sweets for a Saturday.

copycat

I don't eat Subway a lot, but kind of regularly -- and I have some favorites. The spicy italian, the steak and cheese, and the veggie. Which one of these is not like the other?  ....

I think my favorite, though, is the chicken bacon ranch on flatbread. Mmmm...

So, when I was at the store one night, I was hemming and hawing about what I wanted for dinner. And then I saw a package of 4 ciabatta buns and it hit me: I want homemade chicken bacon ranch ciabatta. Mmm...

There was some leftover chicken, so I cut the ciabattas in half, put some cut chicken on one side, then cooked bacon, and a little shredded cheese. I baked it, open-faced, probably at 350 for 10-13 minutes. I should really write things down when I don't have a recipe, as my directions now are somewhat less than helpful. I may as well say "I used a heating device for a period of time until it was good."

Anyway, when it was done, I put some ranch dressing on the bun top, put it together, and enjoyed. It was really yummy and I recommend.

And the nice thing was that I had grabbed some roast beef, so we used the other two ciabatta buns a couple of days later for french dips. No photo of that, though. Sorry. :(

Do you have a favorite sandwich? Subway or otherwise? Always looking for ideas....

cuban wraps

It's been a few posts since I posted any food-related stuff, though I have several things to catch up on. And since I'm cooking for one for the next week or so, yet, I a little lost on inspiration -- so now is as good a time, as any, to get caught up. Right? :)

At least a month ago, now, we had made a pork roast and because there's just two of us, there was obviously leftovers. This is really Keith's idea, and I just helped put them together. His favorite sandwich (or at least in the top 5) is a Cuban sandwich, but we've never made them at home -- so we did, but as a wrap.

What you need is:

• Ham slices
• Pork roast slices
• Pickles 
• Swiss cheese slices 
• brown mustard
• mayo
• jalapeno tortillas

In a small frying pan, place 1 medium-thickness slice of ham (or more if you have shaved) first, and then layer 3 slices of pork roast on top. Heat, and then flip in the pan. Cover with swiss cheese and melt.

In the meantime, prepare your tortilla with a little mayo and brown mustard spread around the center. Add pickles. 

Once the meat is heated and the cheese is melted, add it to your tortilla, and wrap it up!

Be sure to grab a napkin, because they're messy, but delicious.

I'll admit that I was skeptical about the whole mixing ham with pork roast idea, but it totally works - and it's a good, easy way to use up pork roast - especially if you have some deli ham and the other stuff around most of the time like we do. If you don't have/like tortillas, you could use bread and make it a sandwich - I think you would make it panini-style but I'm not really sure - you might have to ask Keith. :)

What's your favorite sandwich or wrap to make?

Or, do you have any inspiration for cooking for one?

stuffed peppers

I've been wanting to try stuffed peppers for a while because I've never had them and every time I see a photo, I think they look delicious. Today, I finally got around to it and looked up a few different recipes and ended up with two - one for stuff peppers and one for Spanish rice - that I used for guidance and went from there.

So, here's what I ended up with:

Prepare the peppers
Cut open the tops and pull out the insides. Use a spoon to scrape any extras and seeds from the inside. Put the peppers in a large pan with water covering them. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Remove the peppers from the hot water and put into a bowl of ice cold water. Remove and drain (open side down) on paper towels.

Rice mixture
1 c. long grain white rice
1 c. spaghetti sauce
1 c. chicken broth
1/2 tsp. chili powder
Franks Red Hot sauce, to taste

Mix this all together, bring to a boil, and reduce to medium heat. Stir frequently until fully cooked - about 25 minutes? I wasn't good at keeping track of time.

Meat mixture
1 med. onion (diced)
1 jalapeno pepper (seeds removed, diced)
1/2 lb. Italian sausage
1/8 tsp. ground cumin
Salt to taste

Saute onion and jalapeno until translucent, then add Italian sausage. Sprinkle the cumin over the mixture. Cook until the meat is browned and no longer pink. 

Bring it all together
Pour the meat mixture into the cooked rice mixture and mix well. Fill the peppers half way with this mixture, then add a light layer of Mexican cheese (or mozzarella or cheddar would be good). Fill the rest of the pepper, all the way to the top, with the mixture and top with a little more cheese.  Put the peppers on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Things you should know

• You'll want the rice to be cooked how you would normally eat it before you bake it, because it didn't seem to get softer once in the oven. I had it almost done, but not quite, because I thought it would cook up more. It didn't.
• I used a 1/2 lb. of Italian sausage -- next time I would maybe use a full pound if I want it a little meatier. 
• The Italian sausage I used was a half/half mixture of mild kind and hot kind. It was a good mix for us. 
• You could probably use ground beef or turkey and spice it up yourself instead of using the Italian sausage. 
• We only made two peppers (medium-sized) and there's a bunch of leftover mixture. I'd guess you could make 5-6 medium peppers with this amount of mixture. We're going to use the leftover either as burritos or stuffing some poblano peppers tomorrow.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it was really good! And this is what it looks like:

In my opinion, it was well worth the effort - at least for us, because we'll get another meal or two out of the mixture. I'd guess we'll get two more poblanos and a couple of smaller burritos over the next couple of days, yet.

Oh, and the weird looking brown stuff on the plate? Refried beans. We weren't sure what else to serve with it because it already has meat, veggies, and rice in it. :)

Have you made stuffed peppers? How do you do it?

m&ms!

Tonight is boys night, so the guys are over.  One of Keith's friends brought his 5-year old daughter, Gracie, with him until his wife was able to pick her up.  By the time I got home, they had already had dinner (there was a leftover pork chop for me - yeah!) and they were watching Megamind.  When it was over, I thought it would be nice to do something fun with her and I have had this bag of m&ms sitting around for a few days, so made some cookies and had Gracie help decorate them.  They're pretty good!  I used an m&m cookie recipe I found online.  I made a couple of changes:

• I was low on brown sugar, so used 1/2 c. brown sugar and about 3/4 c. white sugar
• Since I wasn't mixing in the m&ms, I mixed in some mini chocolate chips and let Gracie put the m&ms on top

She did a great job!

At the end, I just made the last of it into two big cookies - and she wanted to take them home, but they weren't baked yet... so I told her I'd send at least one of them home with her dad.  Maybe I'll send both.  Maybe I'll keep one for me. :)

What are some fun things you like to make with kids?

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food & memories

Tonight was relaxing - movies and take-out Indian food. It was grand. We watched The Fighter, which I thought was great, although there were a lot of f-bombs. And for a movie about a boxer, the movie didn't have a ton of actual fighting, but a good amount. We also watched The Tourist, an impulse rental.  Note to self: do not impulse rent.  Reviews and plots are important.  The best part of the movie is that Johnny Depp is in it, but unfortunately I thought that's about all it had going for it. 

The Indian food was great and I got my favorite dish, chicken makhani, Keith got the beef josh, and we got some naan (flat bread) to split.

The sauce on the left (greenish) is the beef josh; the one on the right (orangish) is the chicken makhani.

Sometimes food will trigger memories - at least it does for me. I was telling Keith that the first time I had Indian food, I was in Atlanta for a work trip and my cousin/godmother Becky took me out to an Indian place for dinner.  That first experience was fun - I even remember having Indian beer - but mostly remember that it was SOOOO spicy hot. It was really good, but so very hot. Since then, I've had it a bunch of times and from a bunch of places.  I just ask for a more moderate level of spicy.

That led me to think further about this and I realized (and I'm not sure she knows this) but she is the reason I've had a couple of other food firsts.

When I was there for her daughter (my goddaughter), Sierra's baptism, Becky and Corey took me and Mary (Corey's sister and Sierra's other godmother) out to a sushi restaurant for dinner.  That was also a fun and interesting first time experience for me.  I remember someone (I think it was Becky) telling me that sushi is one of those things you don't want every day, but once you've had it, you'll someday down the road find yourself craving it.  She was right, because it was a while before I went out for sushi, again, but then the craving hit and now I love it.  It's still not something I want to eat every day, but every couple/few months I find myself wanting it now. Here's a pic of some sushi rolls I had last fall in Baltimore.

at Ra Sushi in Baltimore

Another time I was there for work, we went to a tapas restaurant.  Be careful when you tell someone you went to a tapas place for dinner, because it often comes across sounding like you went to a topless place for dinner.  There's a pretty big difference.  Anyway, we went there with Sierra (she was so little back then!!) and for some reason I remember that was the first time I had bacon-wrapped dates that were stuffed with some kind of cheese (feta, gorgonzola, or goat, maybe??) and they were delicious, even though I am typically not a fan of foods wrapped in bacon. The only other one I can think of that I like is the 'lil smokies with bacon.

But I digress... the point isn't really the food. It's the memories that they can trigger.  I had a lot of great times with Becky over some really great (and sometimes new) food and hope to have many more.  And I can credit her with broadening my horizons to try new things in my life - so, thanks Becky! 

What foods trigger memories for you?

Has someone in your life helped broaden your horizons (food or otherwise)?

blue

As I was starting to put this post together, I realized that I had to use this song -- if you haven't listened, yet, please do.  I'll hold.

....

Done?  OK, good deal - and don't judge because that song is awesome.  Now, let's get started.  I didn't really used to like blueberries that much - not plain or in other stuff.  But I have found that as I've grown up and the older I get my tastes are changing with a lot of things.  I had a conversation recently with someone about this because we were talking about something that was sooo good in college and I told him that I'm pretty sure it would probably taste gross now, so I'm just not going to eat it again because I don't want to ruin a good memory.  Salmon, too.  Hated it until about 5 years ago.  Has that happened to you? 

The good news is that I love blueberries now - plain and in stuff - and they make me think of spring and summer.  The time of year when you start eating more fruit, veggies, salads, and other healthy stuff that is good when it's warm outside.  Since they've been on sale on and off recently, we've tried a few different things with them.

Blueberry Buckle
Kind of like a blueberry coffee cake, and this was Keith's idea.  He found this recipe and made it as it's posted - no alterations - and it was great!  The thing you need to know if you try this recipe is that when it says to "pour" the batter into the pan, it's not going to pour because it's too thick - so you kind of just empty the bowl of mixture into the pan and pat it down evening.  And that's OK - we weren't sure if the consistency was right, but it turned out great!  Looks like this:

Blueberry Banana Muffins
This was a nice change from regular blueberry muffins - I used a recipe for blueberry banana bread and made it muffin tins.  I followed the recipe pretty closely, with the only change being using almond extract instead of vanilla.  When it came to the baking part, it was about 13-15 minutes to do them in muffin format (at the listed heat).  And instead of the topping in the recipe notes, I used something I found in the reviews and modified slightly...

Topping
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 Tbsp. butter (melted)

Mix.  I used half of this on some of the muffins and then added 1/4 c. chopped pecans to the mixture so I could have some with a nutty top.  I ran out, though, so in the end had some plain, with streusel topping, and some with streusel pecan topping. These were a hit with my colleagues!  I accidentally left some uncovered at home, though, and they got hard.  I put them in a plastic baggie with a piece of bread and they softened back up, though. :)

Blueberry Breakfast Sauce
I saved this one for last because I think it was my favorite - and the most simple - using this recipe I found online.  My friend Kim was kind enough to let me come to her house last weekend and have brunch with her family; since I don't have a waffle maker, I was happy she did so we could make them.  I brought the blueberries to try this sauce, but honestly wasn't sure how it was going to work because the recipe seemed too easy. But it was awesome!  And don't be fooled by it being called a breakfast sauce, because I would bet money that it would be delicious as an ice cream or cheesecake topping, too.

1/2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. corn starch
1/3 c. water
2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

In a 2-qt. saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; gradually stir in water. Add blueberries; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.

That's it.  Seems too easy, doesn't it?  I didn't think that the blueberries would soften up enough in just a minute, but it was true - and then we turned down the heat until our waffles were ready.  This is how it works:

Before

After

My plate

Up Close - mmmm.....

I will warn you though, that if you have kids to be careful... because I accidentally stained Kim's kids. Especially James. :)

That's gonna leave a mark. Sorry Kim...
I hope you still let me come again :)

What about you?  Have you ever

• found that your tastes have changed over time? with what?
• tried an awesome blueberry recipe you want to share?
• stained your kid?  or, like me, your friend's kid?

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