Tag: cookbooks

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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My coworkers got me an assortment of tea infusers and a huge tumbler, as well as a Joann’s gift card for my birthday. They know me so well. 🙂 I’m excited to use all of them, but especially the shark one.

One of the books we found at the library book sale was this gem: The Gallery of Regrettable Food by James Lileke. 

It has pictures and commentary on old foods and recipes from the late 50’s – 70s. The author wrote the book after finding some of the old cookbooks that had been given to his mom after they moved into their new neighborhood. The chapters are titled things like “It’s 10 P.M. – Do You Know Where Your Wieners Are?, Moldorama, Glop in a Pot!, Dreck from Foreign Shores, and So You’re Going to Serve…a Salad.” Also, my absolute favorite “Eat Brains and Whip Hitler!” Not surprisingly, that last one has wartime recipes for offal and rarely eaten parts of animals. It’s fairly horrifying.

This description is from one of the party sections.

The pictures of hotdogs in jello do not seem appropriate for a family blog… They are also black and white, so seem vaguely sinister. The writing is excellent. At some points, I was laughing too hard to share with the Husband. I would highly recommend reading this if you get the chance. It’s too funny to pass up.

Now, on to serious food talk. 🙂 I made crockpot beef stew, and homemade mushroom alfredo this week, in addition to some new recipes.

I tried another muffin recipe from the Food Network Jan/Feb 2018 issue. This one was definitely pretty much a cupcake, although it was a little less sweet. It was a Double-Chocolate Salted Caramel muffin.

They were delicious. Since I had leftover dulche de leche, I made Dulche De Leche ice cream from Laylita.

Homemade dulce de leche ice cream

This was also delicious and has received the Mom seal of approval. 🙂 She stayed with us overnight while waiting to fly to visit my sister in law. Fancy was ridiculously excited for someone else to pet her.

It’s a little less sweet than I expected, but it’s lovely and smooth. I was surprised that it didn’t turn icy, since it doesn’t have eggs in it. It does have three cups of cream and a cup of whole milk. I used half and half instead, which may have helped. 🙂 I’m planning to eat it with my coconut cake from my birthday. 🙂

I made one of the husband’s recipe picks. Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken from Food Network May 2016. 

I made homemade pasta and sautéed chard, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil. The Husband tried the veggies and did eat them, although they were not his favorite. He likes the chard better in things than by itself.

So those were our dinners. This week starts my week with more late evenings, so it will be interesting. We did go to Costco and stocked up on a huge pile of meat, so we do have a lot for slow cooker and freezer meals as needed.

Now, I need to go sew something. Fancy kept me from doing that by laying on my lap all day. Pets were more important. 🙂 Have a great night!

Monthly Review
Crafty · Monthly Review · Sewing

Monthly Review

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I know February is a short month, but man, it seemed to be even shorter than usual. I swear, it was just the beginning of February a week ago. Regardless, it’s now time for a review again.

I made 14 new recipes, 4 from new cookbooks, and three me method recipes.

Hits were the buttermilk pancakes, Voracious cupcakes, chai pear scones, Asian burgers, the chicken and shrimp jaozi, spicy beef tortellini soup, and the bao.

We also enjoyed the creamy mushroom pasta.

Misses were the salted caramel frosting, creamy mushroom chicken, candied oranges from the cheesecake, and Instant Pot pot roast.

The goals that I completed were to use the Instant Pot, go through a cookbook inventory, and use new foods for the party. I didn’t complete a freezer inventory or actually give away the cookbooks I don’t want. I know which ones they are, they just haven’t left my house yet.

Things I’ve learned this month are to trust my instincts about seasoning. Also, I need more recipes for slow cookers. I may need to make some up, if I can’t find enough.

Fancy liked her biscuits a lot, so I may make that recipe again. There are a ton of them though, so I ended up freezing them. She doesn’t mind.

New Food Goals

– Actually get rid of the cookbooks I don’t want.

– Get the lighter fluid for my kitchen torch.

– Meal plan consistently.

– Cookbook inventory to find the ones I haven’t used yet.

Craft Review

When I first went through my posts, I didn’t think I had actually have that much done. I’ve been focused on finishing things. I finished the rainbow crazy quilt.

I also fixed my leggings, so now have fun flamingos to wear.

I made three new flowers.

Buttons were added to these tea wallets.

Here is my favorite combo.

Obviously a glittery butterfly button needed to be on this tea wallet.

I have two rainbow quilts in progress and will be working on them today before work. I made a table runner, but keep forgetting to take pictures.

Things I’ve learned:

I need to prune my stash. It’s time to be ruthless about giving things away. I get a lot of satisfaction from finishing things, so I want to focus on doing that.

New Crafting/Sewing Goals

– Make a dress for the wedding in April.

– Finish the two rainbow quilts.

– Finish OT quilts and mail them.

– Finish one of the completed quilt tops.

– Regular Etsy updates.

My work schedule seems to be getting a little more normal, so if I can continue to be productive, I should be able to get a bunch done. If the Fancy pup will let me that is. She’s currently dancing and whining for me to play with her or walk her. 

I’d better go get her taken care of. She’s licking my iPad case. Weird dog. Hope your day is less weird than she is!

Belated Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Belated Recipe Roundup

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My weekend kind of slipped away from me! I had all of Friday with nothing much to do except suddenly I had a lot to do in the house! It looked like this for most of Thursday and some of Friday.

Then, around 11:30 AM, it started simply dropping off the trees and roofs. It was crazy. I stayed in side as much as I could. It was gross and wet all day.

Fancy spent most of the last few days like this:

The Husband was gone and she was so sad. She’s perked up now and won’t leave him alone. 🙂

Anyway, I’m sure you’d rather hear about the recipes for the week, rather than weather conditions, so here they are.

I made a Moroccan Lentil Soup from This Gal Cooks. https://www.thisgalcooks.com/slow-cooker-moroccan-lentil-soup/

I had it with some leftover rice. It was pretty good. The lentils were slightly crunchy still even after cooking overnight. But the flavors were good. I’m going to freeze a bunch of it.

I also made bean and cheese enchiladas for myself. The Husband doesn’t like beans, so they are all for me!

These were from Retro Fiesta by Geraldine Duncann. They were delicious. I added red bell pepper and a can of green chilis. Mmm… I think I might have them for lunch too.

My day yesterday was full with a conference from work and then a movie party with some friends. My contribution was dessert, so I used a Voracious (Cara Nicoletti) recipe- Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream. I used a different frosting though. While the cupcakes were amazing, the frosting got too hard and was a bit grainy for me.

I have no pictures, as the frosting won’t spread without ripping up the cupcakes. The frosting is from Sally’s Baking Addiction. https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2017/02/24/salted-caramel-frosting/

It was not silky or smooth as promised. I’m not sure if I put too much powdered sugar in it or what, but I won’t be making it again. Everyone else liked the taste at least.

I bought powdered buttermilk last week. A lot of my recipes call for buttermilk, but I can’t use an entire thing of it, normally. This morning, I was feeling like  pancakes for breakfast, so I made the recipe on the container. I added chocolate chips. They were tasty.

So that was what I’ve made lately. I had soup and grilled cheese as well and burned my finger while making it. The Husband had pork and we went out for dinner on Friday. I had completely zoned out that I was supposed to cook something and we didn’t have a lot of the things to make for my normal quick dinner ideas.

I will be doing my monthly review tomorrow. I was shocked when I realized I would need to do it so soon. It feels like I just did a review last week! Stay tuned for that!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Mmm…crepes. They weren’t as good as my friend, Steph’s, but they were still delicious. She spent a year in Switzerland and learned how to make perfect ones there. I’m still learning. 🙂

My usual goal of 2-3 new recipes was definitely met this week. I surprised myself a little with how many I made.

I also made a second batch of the Pinch My Salt cinnamon ice cream, but this time, left it just vanilla. It was still so creamy and delicious. My plans for today include making another batch, but adding cocoa powder to make it chocolate.

So for new recipes, I used 3 online ones this week and one from a cookbook. Two were from Pinterest, one from a sewing blog, oddly enough. I’ll start with the one I have no pictures of. It wasn’t the prettiest of dishes anyway, so it’s probably okay.

It was Creamy Slow Cooker Portobello Chicken from Cutefetti.com. https://cutefetti.com/2015/04/portobella-mushroom-chicken-slow-cooker-recipe.html 

It needed more mushrooms, but I hadn’t had time to get more, so only had half. I also got nervous and added some water to the slow cooker and didn’t really need too. It was alright, not the best thing I had ever eaten, but not something I will probably make again either. The Husband agreed.

The next recipe was a hit. It was Spicy Beef Tortellini Soup, from The Slow Cooker Gourmet. https://slowcookergourmet.net/slow-cooker-spicy-beef-tortellini-soup/

The Husband thought it had a kick, but I didn’t really find it. There’s a chance I’m turning into a chili head without realizing it. It was a nice meal on a cold day. The stew meat was mostly frozen when I added it in, but it got so tender by the end that it just fell apart. I used my frozen tomatoes too. The Husband doesn’t like the skins on the tomatoes, so next time I use them, I’ll have to pull those first. He did like the soup though. I’ll keep this one in the soup rotation.

We also tried Salt and Pepper Chicken from Sew Petite Gal. http://sewpetitegal.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2014-08-17T12:38:00-07:00&max-results=2&start=32&by-date=false

While it felt a little weird to make a cooking recipe from a sewing site, it was a good recipe. The chicken was coated in cornstarch before being fried, so it was a new technique for me. It was also double fried.

We had it over rice and I added a bunch of veggies to it. It needs a sauce, I think. I’m pretty sure it’s meant more as a snack, rather than a meal, but it was easy enough to make a bigger amount and add veggies. It tasted good and wasn’t greasy, like I feared it might be. I’ll keep this and start experimenting with it. The Husband liked it and is requesting more fried foods.

The recipe we used from a cookbook was from Good Housekeeping, section: The Story of Meats. We had bacon wrapped burgers with sautéed mushrooms and onions.

We the Husband cut the onions and mushrooms and did an excellent job. You can just see Fancy’s feet in the corner, she was very jealous and grumbled and whined throughout the entire meal. We ignored her, but did laugh a little first.

We had a couple of leftover meals this week, so this was pretty much all we ate. It’s nice to have leftovers. I had intended on making longevity noodles yesterday to celebrate, but was sick with nasty migraine, so we ended up having the beef soup again instead. We have a shopping trip to the Chinese market today to get party foods, so we’ll probably have the noodles tonight.

I never got Fancy’s new collar made, as I kept forgetting to get the last part I needed. If I’m honest, my organizing work in my fabric this week has made me realize I can’t be trusted at fabric stores when upset, or when in a shopping mood, so I never went back to get it. I might have something that will work downstairs though, so I’ll look. She may just get a pretty bow to wear with her party harness. Either way, she will be thrilled to see everyone.

Stay tuned for party pictures on Monday and quotes tomorrow!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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I really have to remember to take pictures of all my recipes, not just the new ones. This week, we had spaghetti and lasagna and I only got the spaghetti photographed. I ate separately from the Husband most nights, so that’s probably why.

This spaghetti was made on the stove and it cooked for about 6 hours. There was a little too much acid in it and I ran out of tomatoes. I used a can of tomato paste and one can of sauce with two cans of diced tomatoes.

We had lasagna on Monday. The Husband baked it and I ate some when I got home late. No pictures, because I kept forgetting. It had fresh mozzarella, Boursin cheese, and Parm in it.

We also had mac and cheese later in the week. I made it in the morning and the Husband baked it when he got home. It doesn’t photograph well, especially as leftovers, so no picture. No fancy cheeses for this one, except I added a tiny bit of cream cheese for extra creamy texture. We were out of milk, so the roux was chicken broth based instead. I find it’s not as creamy that way, hence the cream cheese. It wasn’t the best thing ever, but it was decent.

We also had caramelized onion bacon pizza. I had a scary moment where I thought bacon might have to come out of my diet, but it turned out to be the dairy instead. I haven’t had any problems since, so I think bacon is still in! We fell on it like starving wolves, so no pictures. I used the thin crust pizza recipe from a Food Network magazine, I think October 2015?

So now for a new recipe, this time with pictures!

Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken from The Recipe Critic.

https://therecipecritic.com/2016/09/sheet-pan-teriyaki-chicken-with-vegetables/

I think I ate sautéed spinach with it. I have a picture of the spinach and I remember eating it, but it seems like a very long time ago…

The chicken was good, the veggies were an absolute salt bomb. Blech. Next time, they will not be seasoned, just have the glaze. I’m going to make this up as a freezer meal and it will be a good one to keep around. The spinach was good, just olive oil, garlic, s + p.

Tonight we tried out a recipe from Peking Table Top Cooking by Linda Lew, Anges Lee, and Elizabeth Brotherton. We used the Chimney Soup recipe from the Firepot chapter.

This is the end noodle soup with the extra bits. It was hard to take a picture of the hotpot and the bits, we were eating them too fast! The Husband said it almost reached the level of the duck and requested the 3 ingredient marinade on all the meats. 🙂 Seriously, this magic marinade was 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 T sherry, and 1 T of cornstarch. The recipe called for Chinese rice wine or ginger juice and I had neither, so subbed sherry. It’s in a lot of the other marinade. I was happy that he liked it so much though.

I did spice up the broth with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder, and ginger.

Mom would have frowned at us though. We pretty much ate standing at the stove, until we had the noodle soup. We couldn’t figure out managing the fondue pot and extension cord on the table and managing Fancy at the same time. She was extra interested, as she got some little pieces of steak that wouldn’t work for the dinner when the Husband cut the steak. He did an excellent job, we had very little waste and perfect strips of meat. We’re trying to figure out if he could do this with pork too. I’m sure he could.

Next week I have all late nights except for Monday, due to some emergency appointments. I really need to start keeping to my hours, or just accept the fact that I probably won’t be home before 8 most nights. That’s a terrible thought though, so I need to figure out something else.

This week includes probably another Instant Pot dinner, possibly pot roast, ice cream, and fancy muffins. It should be fun, assuming I can work it all in.

Possibly also biscuits for Fancy. She’s been super-duper snuggly today and I think misses us. She’s not eating when we aren’t both here and it’s gotten worse. She won’t drink water either. We’re trying to train her to specific meal times. Currently, we have to hide tiny pieces of treats in her bowl in the mornings to get her to eat even a few mouthfuls. Then she eats too fast in the evenings and gets very bad, stinky, gas. Like, clear the room bad. Here she is all mad that I told on her…

Hopefully she will learn that she can eat and she’s safe, even if our schedules change. Wish us luck!

Yearly Recipe Review
Monthly Review · Recipe Roundup

Yearly Recipe Review

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Here goes my last review! It will be back to regular posting for the rest of the week.

The Husband’s favorite recipe was the Thai Sweet Hot Duck, hand’s down. I’m a little nervous to make it again for fear I will mess it up!

We might have it for Valentine’s Day though. We never go out, just eat a fancy dinner at home.

My favorite new recipe was the coconut veggie curry.

It was so comforting. I need to investigate more veggie options for my lunches.

The French onion  grilled cheese sandwiches were also a surprise hit. Messy, but delicious.

I liked the marshmallow ice cream, but the Husband didn’t. We both liked the chocolate ice cream.

I did make two really good chocolate cupcakes, the blackberry ones and my birthday cupcakes.

I normally don’t really like chocolate cupcakes, but these recipes were really moist and delicious.

Of course, the dragon bundt cake was delicious and I was excited to use the pan. It wasn’t too bad to clean or get the cake out either.

Fancy liked all her treats. I couldn’t tell which one she liked the best. She does get so excited when I pull out the frozen sweet potato sticks. 🙂

Misses were the chicken risotto, a couple of stir fry experiments, and the cheese and mushroom souffle.

I used a total of 113 new cookbooks! My idea of sections went a little wonky because there were multiple recipes in each section that I wanted to try. Overall though, I did use new cookbooks and recipes in the spirit of the challenge. I have a bunch of cookbooks left to use.

There are a few cookbooks that I think I may need to just get rid of. The Microwave Chinese Cookbook scares both of us, so it will go. Basically, any cookbook that doesn’t make me want to cook with it should probably go. There’s no sense in holding on to them, if I won’t use them. It’ll make more room for new ones! 🙂

What I learned: 

– Trust my instincts. I know how to cook and bake and if something doesn’t look right, it might not be.

– Up the spices! We like a lot of flavor. Part of this might be to measure things out for a little bit to make sure I’m eye measuring correctly.

– Have fun with it! Play with my food/recipes more.

– Try new things.

– Meal plan. Even if it’s enough meals planned for the week, but not assigned to the specific day.

– Involve the Husband. He can learn to do more of the prep and try new things as well. Plus, it would be fun to have some help.

Goals: 

My goals aren’t that different from last year when I started the blog. I’m debating adding some more social media and trying to grow my readers, but it makes me a little nervous. We’ll see how I feel in a little bit.

So here are my overall goals for the year:

– Take pictures of everything food related. Figure out my photo editing.

– Meal plan consistently.

– Try new techniques.

– Have a Chopped themed dinner party, even though it’s slighty terrifying.

– Actually measure my own recipes, so I can recreate them.

That’s probably enough goals for the year. I don’t want to get too crazy with planning. Let me know if there’s anything else I should do differently, or more you’d like to see!

Stay tuned for a regular Wordless Wednesday post! Have a great day!

 

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!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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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

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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!

Monthly Review
Crafty · Monthly Review

Monthly Review

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Since I am having tea with some friends on Sunday, I thought I would go over my monthly review a few days earlier. I had a bit of a hiccup in my crafting and baking time, due to the paperwork problem, but did pretty well at getting things done.

According to the Husband, I just need a few more cooking techniques under my belt to be ready for Masterchef. He thinks I can get them done in a month or so. (I’m hoping his play will start needing him soon and he’ll be distracted.)

Fancy is hoping I stop messing about on the computer and make her some biscuits and give her more snuggles. We’ve all got dreams…

Meanwhile, my dream is to find my serger pedal so I can start learning how to sew knits and can make myself all the tunics I need. This means cleaning the basement completely. Maybe this weekend I can unpack and reorganize a few more boxes.

So in terms of craft goals, I had set some category goals last month, with only two firm projects. My office art is mostly completed. I need to add words to my “Heavy” picture, but the first one is done and at my office.

I washed the backing fabric for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and plan to tie it on Monday, when my whole day is free. I also plan to work on my Ren Fest costume on Monday, but we’ll see how much I get done.

I made a pretty dress with pockets! I have gotten several compliments on it whenever I wear it. It needs a neckline fix, but is still wearable.

I made many tea wallets for Etsy, just have to take pictures of all of them and get them posted. You are probably all sick of seeing pictures of tea wallets, so I’ll spare you this time. 🙂

I am slowly working on the basement. We are planning on getting new shelves to give the Husband a way to get his Lego boxes off the floor. Fancy likes to lay under his table and gets a little snappy when we try to get her off the boxes. No new updates since the last big organization effort.

I still haven’t figured out how I want to store the fat quarters, so for now they are still in shoeboxes in the trunk. It works, it’s just not the nicest looking way to do things and I think standard sized boxes would be better.

I didn’t finish anything from the UFO pile, but have hip wraps earmarked for Ooky Spooky, so can maybe catch up then. My teen group requested a pj party for our last session, so I am going to try to get my flannel flamingo pants done by end of September.

I did make two new hip wraps! They are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. It’s an edgier color scheme than I normally use, so I am excited to see how they sell. I really want to keep both of them, but will have to just make myself one to wear there. Perhaps I can even use it for my costume piece for my own dance.

Here’s the first one:

It has a repurposed belt as an accent and has black and white skulls on the other side with 4 tassels. 

The second one has more embellishments and no tassels. It has black fringe along the bottom and a chain piece along the top.

I almost broke my needle while sewing the chain piece on. There’s only about an 1/8 of an inch for the needle to go and one of the links was just a bit too far over. Both machine and needle are okay, but I definitely need to change my needle.

Food wise, I did not do so well. I don’t know what it was this month, but food did not sound interesting at all.

I used 9 new recipes. 3 of them were also new cookbooks, Cooking from the Gourmet’s Garden, Retro Pies, and The Vintage Tea Party Year. I made 9 recipes by my methods and used 4 recipes from Pinterest or elsewhere online.

Hits were Rack of Lamb with Potato Puree (My Italian Kitchen, Luca Manfe), the Rosemary Bundt cake, and the    sweet cream ice cream from Cooking Classy.

I also made a really good apple pie following a recipe from Retro Pies, by Linda Everret. It has sugar and cream brushed on the crust, which the Husband enjoyed a lot.

Misses were my homemade chicken soup. It came out a little weird and watery. The chocolate cake was not moist enough for me either.

Food hasn’t been a priority lately. I haven’t really wanted to eat, which makes it hard to cook. We’ve been eating the freezer meals that I put together a few weeks ago and that has helped. I’m not sure how to motivate myself at the moment beyond the bare minimum. Any ideas for getting out of a food rut?

The Husband did get me a beautiful Boos cutting board for our anniversary, which makes me want to have cheese plates and other things we can display on it. It’s so pretty!

Maybe exploring some options like that might help. Sometimes the thought of doing all the work to cook is what stops me.

Here are my goals for the month, before I get too philosophical on the subject of food.

Craft Goals:

*Finish at least one UFO project

*Rainbow Snowball Quilt

*Finish Ren Fest costume

*Clean/organize basement

*One item of clothing

Food Goals:

*Try one new technique

*Try a new ingredient

*Meal plan

*New breakfast or lunch recipe

 

Speaking of food, I should probably go eat lunch and get the dog out for a walk. She whined until I got up this morning, ran around like a crazy dog, and then went right back to sleep. Silly dog..

Have a great holiday weekend! Hopefully it’s relaxing and fun!