Category: Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Happy Thanksgiving Leftover day! I hope your leftovers are tasty!

I did make two new recipes for Thanksgiving, but the souffle was not made for dessert. I had big plans, but the interweb said that it wouldn’t rise after being transported in batter form and I was having an off cooking day. I thought I shouldn’t risk it.  I didn’t want to ruin Thanksgiving. We brought caramel brownies instead (from a box! The horror!). I burned the brownie edges actually, by mis-remembering the temperature. This was after my squash refused to flambe and my cranberry sauce was more like soup… I shudder to think what the souffle would have done.

I’ve made five new recipes this week. My unexpected day off helped on Monday. Fancy got a batch of seasonally appropriate pumpkin treats. She likes the apple ones better, I think, but these still get the tail wag and sometimes even a head tilt!

These were a Pinterest recipe.

1- Peanut Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Dog Biscuits by Created by Diane.

https://www.createdby-diane.com/2012/10/pumpkin-peanut-butter-oatmeal-dog-biscuits.html

The dough was very wet. I hadn’t ground up the oats, so that could have been why.  They didn’t bake up hard at all. They are nice soft little cookies. They work really well as a trick to get Fancy to eat when one of us isn’t here. We can crumble them up over her food and she seems to realize she’s hungry after picking out all the bits.

2- Triple Chocolate Ice Cream from the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Bowl attachment book.

This was good. I had thrown in a tiny bit more cocoa powder because I was at the end of the box and it showed up as a bitter aftertaste. I forget that the sweetness level goes down after being frozen. This was not the Husband’s favorite. He couldn’t get over the bitterness. I liked it.

3- Glazed Butternut Squash from Cast Iron Cookbook by Joanna Pruess. Section: Vegetables and Other Sides. 

No picture of this, but it looked like mashed squash. 🙂 It was a little mushier than I liked. I started with unexpectedly tiny chunks of squash, which might be why. I was disappointed in this. It had brown sugar, bourbon, butter, and maple syrup and still tasted a bit bland.

4- Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Casserole from Natasha’s Kitchen.

https://natashaskitchen.com/2011/04/17/chicken-and-mushroom-casserole/

This was very good. I needed more mushrooms, but even without them it was delicious. The Husband rated it very highly and requested that I make it again. We had fresh parsley from the garden and fresh parm.

5- Mulled Cranberry Sauce from Food Network Magazine, November 2017, V. 10, N. 9.

This was tasty, despite being a little soupy. I think it needed more fridge time, as it seems to have firmed up a little over night.  My inlaws enjoyed it as well. It had all the flavors of mulled wine in it.

Tonight we had beef fajitas, instead of leftovers. I need a day in between turkey dishes, since I’m not a huge fan of it to begin with. My M-I-L made a delicious turkey though, so I know the leftovers will be good. Now I just have to figure out what to do with the squash. I can’t make anything for Fancy with it, since it has things in it that are bad for dogs. I’ll keep you all updated..

I hope you’re all enjoying time with family!

The Leftover Problem
Recipe Roundup

The Leftover Problem

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Our party was a hit, the company was fantastic, the food was bounteous, and the leftovers are as well. This means, I haven’t made any new recipes at all this week!

The picture of Fancy by the fireplace was taken by The Husband during the party. Later in the night when everyone had left, I had taken her chair and she was crying and pawing at me until I moved. She was very happy in front of our hobbity fireplace. 🙂

Besides the leftovers, we had mac and cheese with snowflake noodles and smoked gouda cheese. It was delicious, but I really just made a roux and threw everything in the pot. We also had chicken salad with leftover chicken. Well, the Husband did, I didn’t think to take any to work with me.

Today we are taking a day trip for super secret Christmas purposes, so we’ll probably eat on the road. Fancy pup is staying home where it’s warm. We just got back from taking a walk and she’s curled up in front of one of the vents. I took her picture, she was rather annoyed about it.

So if I haven’t been cooking, what have I been doing? Besides foisting leftovers off on people? I was thinking about the cookbooks I still need to use. Here are my cookbook shelves currently. 

They are a little cramped and I’m pretty sure there are a few in other places too. We’re going ro get a small bookshelf and put it around the corner in the dining room area. I’m running out of room for both cookbooks and kitchen appliances and pots and pans. It’s not the ideal situation, but it will solve two issues at least temporarily.

I started the blog as a way to keep track and to keep myself motivated to use all my cookbooks and I’ve done rather well so far, I think. It’s been fun to try new techniques and recipes.

I have 19 cookbooks that I still haven’t used. That’s just cookbooks, mind you. I haven’t gotten into my magazines, cut out recipes, recipe cards, or random chocolate wrappers with recipes…

I’m going to write the cookbooks down here, so I have a record to keep me on track.

Fried and True-fried chicken recipes

Cheese Cookery– How to make cheese!

Peking Tabletop Cooking- I’m thinking we’ll do a mandarin pancake party for Chinese New Year! It can be easily customized for people on diets and with other restrictions.

The Souffle Cookbook- I need to find a tall souffle pan or more uniform ramekins. I also really need to use this cookbook this week, I have way too many eggs. Chocolate souffle for Thanksgiving dessert?

AlphaBakery- Cute kid’s cookbook. I should send it to someone with kids when I’m done with it maybe.

Hot Cakes- I need someone to have a girl’s night or something for this one. A pin up cake, while adorable, might not be appropriate for the Ephiphany Party… 🙂

Microwave Chinese Cooking- This one scares me. I don’t know if I trust the microwave. Most of the recipes are pork as well and that won’t work.

Vegetables- I will use this for lunch more than anything, I think. There’s a mac and cheese recipe amd a Swiss chard pasta one that I can serve as a side with chicken for a dinner.

Mug Cooking- Mom and I each have two of these. I’ve not made anything from them and have had them for at least 10 years. One more look over and then out they go, I think.

Laptop Lunch- Only a few of the recipes would work, I think. Can I give it away if I decide I don’t want to make the recipes?

Dip Into Something Different- We’ve used a few of the recipes before. It’s fun to do for date night.

Great Dinners from Life Magazine- Borrowed from my M-I-L. If I give it back, I don’t have to use it! 🙂

KitchenAid Recipes- I forgot this came with my mixer. There are some pretty near looking recipes in here.

Stoneware Cooking from Pampered Chef- We onlh have the pizza stone, but the recipes will work in other pans too.

101 Things to Do With Chocolate- Mostly cake or brownie mix doctoring. I do use Ghirardelli brownie mixes, as they are fantastic!

2 Paperback Canning books

Everyday Asian- I have to check to see if I’ve used this one or not.

I didn’t give myself a time limit on these cookbooks and certainly didn’t take into account what a late night schedule would do to my cook times. It’s definitely a work in progress.

Sorry for the wordy post with not very many pictures! I wasn’t sure you’d want to see multiple pictures of cookbooks.

I do plan to try to cook  a little this weekend and next week and will plan to look at these books first. Now it’s off for super secret Christmas plans!

Recipe Roundup and Party Preview
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup and Party Preview

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Mom sent me these tiny spoons and forks because they “looked hobbit sized.”  I think they are adorable and of course, we will use them tomorrow. 🙂 She also sent us Halloween candy that was dressed as a Chinese takeout box. I love her! It’s also very clear where I get my sense of whimsy from. 🙂

I made lots of new recipes for the party, but will post them on Monday, after we’ve eaten them all. Luckily, my cold is pretty much all gone, except for some residual congestion and a wicked cough that sets off asthma attacks. We didn’t have to cancel though, which I was concerned about. The Husband made this Ferris wheel for our centerpiece. Also, it won’t fit anywhere else…

I did make three new recipes for this week’s recipe review. One was from the Sweeney freezer book , one was a made up recipe, and one was from Our Best Bites.

The first one, a banana muffin recipe was for my staff meeting today. We were celebrating birthdays and I volunteered to bake. I had four bananas needing to be used up, so it was perfect.

1- Skinny Chocolate Fudge Banana Muffins from Our Best Bites. https://ourbestbites.com/2016/01/skinny-banana-fudge-muffins/

These may be the absolute best chocolate muffins I have ever had. No joke, these are so unbelievably delicious. The recipe calls for applesauce instead of oil and a sugar substitute. I used real sugar and homemade applesauce. They are so soft and moist. The chocolate is a very deep chocolate flavor and they tasted ridiculously decadent. I will be making these whenever I have bananas. The Husband doesn’t like bananas, so I got to eat them myself.  They were a bonus recipe for the party too!

2- Stir Fried Noodles with Ginger Scallion Chicken Sausage ( Adele brand maybe?), recipe by me!

So I glanced at the recipe on the package for sesame noodles, but the sauce was sherry, soy sauce and extra salt and that’s just not right. I used a little bit of hoisin, soy sauce, sesame oil, sweet chili sauce, sherry, and a tiny bit of sugar to balance it. The sausage was extremely flavorful. We had broccoli, red pepper, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and bok choy for the veggies. The Husband actually suggested bok choy! He likes it in things, but we think not just by itself.

It turned out very good. Sometimes I have trouble with stir fry sauces, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.  I did actually use chopsticks until my hand started cramping. I have to practice for when we see the other side of the Husband’s family. 🙂

3- Carrot Beef Barley Stew from Freezer Meals by Juliana Sweeney. 

This worked out well. I was sick, so I just threw everything in the crockpot and let it go. The beef was so tender and delicious! I halved the amount of barley, as the Husband doesn’t like the texture and it got soft enough that he didn’t mind it at all. I forgot to take a picture of it until I was halfway through my last bowl of it.

We’ll have this again. It was a quick one to prep and froze well.

Fancy is very excited currently, she knows something is up, but not what yet. She saw me put together a frozen Kong toy for during the party and we cleaned everything! With it changing to colder weather, so has been liking walks, but then wanting to cuddle in her blankie when we get home.

Here’s her at the park. There were multiple squirrels!

And here’s a picture of her about 20 minutes after getting home.

She hasn’t figured out how to wrap herself up yet, so she’ll curl up on the blanket in the smallest ball possible and then burrow in if you put the edges over her.

Speaking of curling up, I should go finish up the last of the things before going to bed. If you have a minute between 11 am and 9 pm tomorrow, feel free to join the Husband and I (even just in spirit) in being a hobbit! Tea’s at 3!

Monthly Review And Recipes
Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup

Monthly Review And Recipes

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Another month gone by! I’m excited to be getting into the holidays and to be finally being down to one job. My current plan is to transfer everyone by The end of December. So far I’m on track. My Fridays are going to be Etsy and errand days. And blogging, of course. 🙂

I made two new recipes this week. One was good and was very good.

1- Gershwin’s Greatest Gumbo from Musical Feasts from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

I have no pictures, since we ate this on Halloween. I do have a picture of some of the leftover Halloween candy. We only had about 30 trick or treaters and two Costco bags of candy…

The Gumbo had Cornish hens and smoked gouda chicken sausage. I would switch to smoked turkey sausage instead. The gouda sausage was a little weird. This was delicious though. It had a little kick to it. We will make this again. We had it over rice. It made a perfect meal to have on a cold night.

2- Scalloped Potatoes and Ham from A Quilter’s Christmas by Louise Stoltzfus and Dawn Ranck. 

This was eaten while I was at work, so no pictures. I had a few bites when I got home. The Husband said it was a little soupy, but tasted good. It didn’t originally call for that, but I just threw some sliced ham in it. I would make this again.

Now for my monthly review. I made 20 recipes. 9 were new cookbooks or internet recipes.

We had a couple of hits, the gumbo, Fancy’s dog treats, jerk chicken, and the cuban steak.

Misses were Dad’s bread method and the Hungarian Beef Stew.

I tried using Dad’s method for my new technique and will try it again. I made some more frozen meals to keep and they have turned out good so far.

Crafting wise, I made my goal of finishing an item of clothing and my UFO goal on one fell swoop with my flamingo pjs. They are so cozy!

I also made my elephant bag, but couldn’t bring myself to sell it. It needed to be mine.

I also started Nanowrimo this month, so my challenge will be getting my writing done as well as maintaining  sewing and cooking. I foresee a lot of crockpot meals this month.

So to explain Nano, the point is to write 50,000 words in the month of November to end up with a short novel. I’ve attempted this before and only “won” once.  This year’s novel is a Steampunk novel involving political intrigue and magic. Somehow while writing yesterday, cowboys showed up. It was weird, but it kind of worked out. I think. It’s going to be interesting to see where it goes.

So my goals for this month will be a little smaller, due to Nano. I plan to still keep the 2 new meals per week. I also want to try cooking something familiar with a new recipe.

Sewing goals are to find my serger pedal and to try sewing with knits. Also, to finish one of the quilts that I have tucked away.

Now, I have to go get the dog off the bed. She snuck into our bedroom while I wasn’t looking. She likes to steal blankets and pjs and snuggle them.

Oh, and make word count. Wish me luck!

Recipe Roundup and Bread Experiments
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup and Bread Experiments

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I have one recipe this week. I think I’m losing my way a little. I know I’ve said this before too, so I apologize for repeating myself.

Meal planning has been out the window and my schedule has turned into late nights almost every night. That should be a little more under control in a bit. Fridays are going to be off my schedule after tonight. I need to go back to dance and have a night in. My Monday nights will be earlier too when I am able to switch to just one center, probably only until 6:00 pm. The Husband will be happy to see me, I think. 🙂

My one new recipe was Jerk Chicken, which was a freezer recipe from Sweet Peas and Saffron. https://sweetpeasandsaffron.com/7-chicken-marinade-recipes-freezer-friendly/

I got home late and haven’t tried it yet, but the Husband said it was good. He had it with rice and we had applesauce or strawberries as sides.

We also had spaghetti and lasagna this week. The Husband pointed out that I change how I make those each time. He’s right, it changes with what I have in the fridge. The spaghetti had celery and less mushrooms than usual this time.

I used some of my flamingo pasta for lunch one day with the spaghetti sauce. It made my lunch more fun for sure.

The lasagna had fresh mozzarella instead of ricotta and didn’t have any shredded parm. It also had a mix of shredded mozzarella and provolone. The Meijer brand, I think.

I also made bread, well, attempted to make bread with my Dad’s method. It did not go well.

The spoon in the first picture was made by my Dad for our wedding. I love it too much to use it. I just gaze at it. I have very distinct memories of watching both my parents make bread, but I associate it more with my Dad. We had a huge bread bowl that would hold enough dough for three or four loaves. My brothers and I would fight over who got the end piece with butter… Mmm… He sent me his method written out, but I forgot to see if I could post it. I’ll ask him and post later maybe.

This, kids, is what happens when your yeast dies a horrible death…

I didn’t use enough yeast and it got too cold. It didn’t rise even after being in a warm oven. Our house is freezing. We’re playing the “See how long you can go without turning on the heat” game. I’m perpetually cold, no matter what, so just add hoodies and socks. Fancy snuggles more, but she doesn’t seem to mind as much as me.

Poor bread. It tastes good, but it’s pretty sad. I’ve made bread before lots of times, but always with measurements. My Dad has been making bread for many years, so he knows all the tricks. I’ll have to study his methods a little more. For now, I might stick to recipes.

Speaking of recipes, I was overcome at Costco and now we have 5 dozen eggs… This week we will have the crustless quiche, homemade ice cream, and I will have egg salad for lunch. Possibly also chef’s salad and I’ll have to bake something. Many things… They are good until the end of the month, so I’ve got time. We’ve also got our Elevensies/Lord of the Rings Party coming up, so it should be okay. If you have any other ideas, let me know!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cuddle this cold puppy and find more egg and party recipes. I’m behind on planning.

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Since I will be dancing my heart out this weekend, I thought I would post my recipes early. 🙂 We had a lovely brunch with Kayla on Sunday and I made a Quiche recipe that I actually liked! Typically, I’m not a fan of baked eggs, but this was very good and even better on the second day.  I also made a new freezer recipe, for which I cannot find the recipe and a new pork recipe for the Husband.

I’ll start with the food I can’t find the recipe for.

1- On the freezer bag, it’s called “Hungarian Beef Stew.” It specifically called for mini peppers and had caraway seeds in it. Betty Crocker has a similar slow cooker recipe, but it doesn’t have all the ingredients.

I believe I used a slow cooker recipe and just prepped it to freeze, but don’t remember. I cooked it for about 7 hours in the slow cooker. I liked it. The meat was very tender. The Husband thought it had a strange taste, most likely the caraway seed. I probably won’t make it again.

2- Quiche Lorraine from Bacon 24/Seven by Theresa Gilliam

This was delicious! I had one less egg than I needed, so I added more cheese. I used smoked Gouda. I also made it crustless.

We had it with a salad and some yummy almond flour muffins that Kayla brought. The Husband loved it! He requested it again on a future weekend.

3- Baked Pork Chops and Rice from Baked at Midnite. https://bakeatmidnite.com/baked-pork-chops-on-rice/

The Husband said he liked this. I need to find different ways to cook them, but there don’t seem to be too many different ways that don’t require searing or stove top, neither of which the Husband is comfortable doing on his own. We’re going to try having him do that when I’m home.

4- Sautéed Spinach and veggies, method by me.

I sautéed sliced garlic, mushrooms, garden tomatoes, and spinach in some olive oil, salt and pepper. It was delicious. The Husband doesn’t eat spinach, so I didn’t even have to share! We ate it with smoky paprika turkey tenderloins and boiled carrots with butter.

It was a pretty good week for new recipes. The Husband has some leftovers for the weekend, but also has the play, so he’ll be on a weird eating schedule.

I made some tea blends for Ooky to go with my tea wallets too. There’s three green tea blends, and three black teas. They are in cute little 4 oz. Mason jars.

Wish me lots of sales this weekend! I know the dance part will be a ton of fun already!

Recipe Roundup- Leftover Edition
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup- Leftover Edition

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This week was a week of one recipe and two leftover recipes. I had a few freezer dinners and chili at work. It was “Hell Week” for the Husband’s play and he was gone until late all week. Fancy and I missed him a lot! His group performed “The Laramie Project.” It was so powerful! I’m not sure if I’m ready to blog about it, because it brought a lot of stuff up. Maybe I’ll tackle it all in a future post.

Fancy did get a new toy over last weekend, from the Husband’s uncle to distract her from the Husband being gone for so long. Poor little pig didn’t even know what was coming for him…

She’ll get one of her treat bones today with some homemade treats in it. It’s raining and she won’t go out except to use the bathroom. She’s going stir crazy though, so if anyone has a need for slightly crazy puppy cuddles, let me know. 🙂

I just made a chocolate applesauce cake today, so I’ll start with that recipe and end with the leftover recipes.

1- Chocolate Applesauce Cake from Taste of Home. https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chocolate-applesauce-cake

I was trying to recreate a chocolate applesauce cake my Mom makes, but this was not the right recipe. It’s delicious and moist, but not dark chocolaty enough. She said another name for it was “Chocolate Tea Bread” maybe, so I might look that up. I used my homemade applesauce for it. I wanted this cake since I made the applesauce, so I am happy with it. 🙂

2-Slow Cooker French Onion Chicken from Pillsbury. https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/slow-cooker-french-onion-chicken/ec69f51d-b79d-4ac0-8619-693a35167a87

First off, I didn’t make this in the crock pot. I baked it at 350 for about 45 minutes, maybe? I also used boneless thighs and drumsticks instead of chicken breasts. I ran out of time for the crockpot.

It was good. I liked the garlic and always like caramelized onions. I had it with green beans and a homemade herbed french bread roll. I forgot to oil the mini cast iron, so the bottom of it got stuck. It still tasted delicious though.

So I made a lot more chicken than I needed by accident and had to come up with a few things to do with it. I have no pictures of these ideas, but can give you the measurements from what I remember.

3- Chicken Salad, recipe by me.

I chopped up a couple of pieces of the chicken, added a few tablespoons of chopped celery, and about a 1/8 cup mayo. Also, salt, pepper, and I accidentally dumped at least a tablespoon of dried tarragon in the container. It was delicious! I was going to eat it with crackers, but they had gone stale in my snack drawer at work. Apparently my face was absolutely hilarious because my client burst out laughing in the middle of her sentence. 🙂 I ate it by itself after that.

4- Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup, recipe by me.

I chopped up the rest of the chicken, a small onion, a garden jalapeño, and two cloves of garlic. I added them to a box of chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of diced green chilis, and a can of tomato paste. Spices were cumin, garlic powder, a little turmeric, oregano, and salt and pepper. I let it cook overnight and promptly had it for breakfast on Friday. It’s delicious and spicy! It’s helping the Husband’s cold, we think.

I did learn that the massive jalapeños are probably massive in heat level, not necessarily size. I know this because I rubbed my eyes at 4:30 AM and cried for a very long time. I had cut one (only one!) up, washed my hands multiple times and went to bed. Apparently it was extremely potent. I think I might need gloves to make the salsa. Yikes! Not a good way to wake up for sure.

My work schedule is crazy as usual. I decided to move to one counseling center full-time, instead of part-time at two centers, so while this will eventually make it better, right now it’s not the easiest. I’m attempting to tell clients I’m leaving, but both last Friday and Monday, I had three no shows or cancellations each day. It makes it hard to move things along for sure. My plan is to be full-time at only one center by January. Hopefully I can have a couple of earlier nights  during the week to actually cook things again.

Speaking of cooking, I should go make dinner for me. I’m going to make a grilled cheese with the herb bread. I’ve used it before and it was delicious!

Have a great weekend! May it be filled with naps!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

I had to wait to post for two reasons. The Husband was gone for most of the night yesterday with his play and Fancy was sprawled across my lap, not letting me up. Also, I had only tried one new recipe! I was horrified and decided I needed to try at least one more before I posted.

I had a bunch of late nights this week and the Husband was at practice, so I had frozen chili and microwave soup, while he had pork one night and leftovers or a frozen meal the rest of the nights.

Here’s Fancy, judging me for the lack of meal planning and homemade dinners… (I’m pretty sure it was actually her judging me for stopping the pets to take the picture.)

Here are the couple of recipes I made:

1- Grilled Cuban Flank Steak from Kayln’s Kitchen.
https://kalynskitchen.com/cuban-flank-steak-recipe/

This was pretty good! It marinated while I was at work and we broiled it on Tuesday. It got dark a little too quick to grill. The Husband had a salad, I had buttery garlic green beans. I also had a pear.

2- Banana Carrot Dog Treats.

http://homemadedogtreatsnow.com/banana-carrot/?utm_content=bufferead83&utm_medium=social&utm_source=pinterest.com&utm_campaign=buffer

I had a banana to use and since we are still keeping Fancy off chicken, she needed more treats. She was less than enthused about the fish biscuits I found at the store, so I decided to go with things I knew she liked. She does not like bananas plain, but loves carrots.

I just got my bone shaped cookie cutters in the mail. This is the smallest cutter. I figured if I was going to be the crazy lady who bakes for her dog, I may as well have the cute shapes. I subbed rye flour for the whole wheat flour. The dough is very wet and looks like it won’t hold together, but it actually did. Fancy seems to enjoy them.

3- Chocolate Chip Bars from The Wooden Spoon Cookbook by Miriam Miller. Section: Cakes and Cookies

This is for my father-in-law. It’s his birthday today, so I thought he could use a giant cookie. 🙂 I added vanilla to the batter and used M&Ms too. We haven’t eaten it yet, but it smells good. We are planning to eat it with ice cream.

I made another batch of yogurt and have found the perfect ratios for me, so I thought I would share my secrets. It’s the recipe from the instruction manual for my yogurt maker, so it’s not a new one, but it works very well. The yogurt maker was a terrific investment.

I’ve been making just plain yogurt and then typically adding jam, mini chocolate chips or coconut flakes, and some type of nut. This bowl has my homemade strawberry marmalade and walnuts. Mmmm….

Here’s what I do. Heat 5 1/4 cups milk to 180 over low to medium heat. (It’s not supposed to boil, but I swear it waits for me to look away and then explodes, so it has typically boiled.) Turn off the heat and let it cool to 95. Then I add 10 T of dried milk powder to the mix along with the starter yogurt and whisk it until smooth. Pour the mix into my little jars and put the machine cap on. 8-10 hours later, I have beautiful, firm yogurt to eat. It almost has the texture of greek yogurt.

One of these times I will try making it with jam, but I like the freedom of having plain yogurt. I got through the mix in about a week and save one jar for a starter. I’ve not seen a difference using homemade yogurt or storebought as a starter. It’s definitely saving us a bunch of money, considering what I was spending on yogurt per week.

I have plans to make dinners in the crockpot over night in the next week. I just made three beef freezer meals and have plans for three chicken ones, plus the omes we had already. The Husband’s play opens this coming week, so he will need lunch and dinner at work. I want to try some more veggie meals for me too. If I make the dinners overnight, we can both have it for lunch and then he can figure out a second meal.

Well, it’s time to head out to deliver the cookie! Hopefully he likes it!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Fancy, the Husband, and I are tuckered out. We went on a grand adventure today to our college’s homecoming. We took Fancy with us and discovered that she can be in the car with just the car harness belted in and not in her crate for about 2 hours. We had the crate with us in case, but it’s nice to know that we can do that.

We all had a great time! It was a little weird being back on campus and realizing I graduated 10 years ago. Gosh, I’m getting old.

Some things we discovered during the parade: Fancy does not like drums, is unsure of bagpipes, and would very, very much like to eat the cheerleaders’ pom-poms. She’s currently snoring on her blanket after meeting several new dogs and a very many new people. She was quite the attention getter and is now an honorary Phi Mu Alpha (The Husband’s fraternity) house dog. 🙂

Because it was homecoming, I made one of our college’s famous foods, Highland Chicken. It figures, the only school spirit I have comes out in food… Of course, I improved it a little.

1- Highland Chicken, recipe by me. Absolutely no measurements, sorry!

Saute mushrooms and onions in olive oil until tender. Add garlic powder, salt, pepper, and parsley. Add half a brick of cream cheese. Cook until melted. Roll out puff pastry and cut into 6 squares. Divide mixture between puff pastries, twist corners into center. Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

It was good and brought back a bunch of good college memories. 🙂

We used left over chicken from the next recipe to make the Highland Chicken.

2- Roast Chicken With Herb Butter from In the Heat of the Kitchen by Gordon Ramsey. Section: Poultry and Game Birds. 

I was brave and popped the legs off as suggested and roasted them separately. I didn’t get this one too badly  off, although I forgot to make carrots to go with it and we had salad instead.

3- Old Fashioned Bread Stuffing from The Comfort of Cooking. http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2010/02/old-fashioned-bread-stuffing.html

This was good. A little dry for the Husband. I normally don’t like stuffing, but it was good.

4- BBQ Beef Ribs, by me!

I threw some boneless beef ribs and homemade BBQ sauce in the crockpot with some garlic cloves and cooked it for 7 hours. We had it twice. The picture is from the second time when we had mashed potatoes and carrots. The Husband had it with a salad the first time.

We managed to have a few new recipes in the past week, even being busy. The Husband starts being at play rehearsals more this month to figure out the production side of things, so our meal schedule may be a bit crazy.

Now if you’ll excuse me, Fancy is currently making this face at me to try to get me to play. 🙂 Stay tuned for my monthly report tomorrow!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup · Uncategorized

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Fancy was very excited this week, she got two new dog treat recipes made for her! Sadly, the vet thinks she may be allergic to chicken and if that’s the case, she can’t have one of them. We’re keeping her off chicken for a few weeks to see if it helps her ears and feet heal. I’m finding other recipes for her though.

1- Apple Crunch Pupcakes by Lola Bakes. http://blog.candiquik.com/apple-crunch-pupcakes/#more-6534

The pupcakes ended up being a trip. I used coconut flour and had to call a friend in a panic because the mixture wouldn’t stop expanding. I think I will not use coconut flour again. Fancy loves them, she won’t even let me get the paper off of them normally before she starts licking them. This is good because with the expansion of the flour it made 24 big cupcakes and two pans of minis. I froze them, as they started condensing a lot in the containers.

Here’s what the flour looked like in the bowl:

And a mini pupcake:

2- Mushroom Stroganoff Tortellini from Food Network Magazine, Oct. 2017, V. 10, N. 8

I saw this recipe when I got the magazine and the picture made me say “yum!” I used cheese tortellini instead of beef, since it was what we had. We always have the Kirkland/Costco brand tortellini on hand for quick dinner. One set will generally get us four separate meals and it keeps very well.

It was a little rich for me, but it tasted good. The Husband liked it a lot and said we could definitely make it again.

3- Vegetarian Chili, loosely based on this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/72508/the-best-vegetarian-chili-in-the-world/

I read the recipe, sort of, and then threw everything into a pot and cooked it for a few hours before work. Meat has been causing me issues lately. I haven’t wanted to cook or eat it, so this was a good option for lunch. I am the only one eating it too, so I am going to freeze it for lunches later. I used pinto beans instead of garbanzo beans. I also used a home-grown jalepeno. It was lovely and had just the right hint of spice.

4- Chicken Sausage with Spaetzle from Food Network Magazine, Oct. 2016, V.9, N.8. 

First off, this was in the weekday dinners section and I have no idea how they thought making spaetzle was a weekday thing. We didn’t eat until 8:30 the night I made this. Second thing, if I am going to make spaetzle again, I need a different colander with bigger holes. Also, three more arms, so I can rotate when they get tired. I have actually always wanted to try making spaetzle, so I was excited to do it, but man were my arms tired.

It tasted good though and I had a craving for chicken sausage, so was happy with it. It was relatively easy too, just awkward when trying to hold the colander and smoosh it through.

5-Freezer Cafe Rio Chicken from Freezer Meals by Juliana Sweeney. 

I don’t have a picture, as we ate this on different days. This meal saved my behind this week when I forgot to take anything out for dinner. It thaws for an hour before cooking and that’s it. It was surprisingly good. I thought it might be weird as it had Italian dressing and ranch seasoning, but it was actually good. We had it with rice.

My friend, Kayla, got us this book and it has been great! I have had a much easier time prepping dinners and using the crockpot more because of it. Tomorrow, I will be prepping more of them to freeze as I am almost out.

I’m pleased with my meal prep and execution this week. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like cooking after work, but I do get a lot of benefits out of it.

Any suggestions on techniques or recipes I should try? I’m trying to be more adventurous lately. I have to top the duck!