I didn’t do much crafting this weekend, as we were partying it up! I did do a whole bunch of baking though. 🙂 I ended up trying six new recipes for the party. I’m going to make the party its own post, as I tried so many new things.

1- Hearty New England Dinner from Taste of Home Market Fresh Cookbook. 

Modifications: I cheated and left out the cabbage. The Husband doesn’t eat it and so we didn’t have any, and I’m not a huge fan of it cooked anyway. This was from the cabbage section though, so I may have to try another recipe, since I ignored that part. We never actual ate this as a meal. I had it as a snack the night it was made, but I started it late, so it wasn’t done until 10 pm.

Oh my gosh, this was delicious. I have actually made a pot roast that was too dry before, using a larger crock pot, but this was good. It had 2 cups of broth in it, which kept it very moist. It didn’t include potatoes, like my normal recipe. I fudged a recipe for onion soup mix, it was just basically beef bullion, onion powder, pepper, and garlic powder. The only other thing it called for was dried onions and I just used a little more fresh onion.

2- Shredded Beef Sandwiches, method by me.

Modifications: I added sautéed peppers and mushrooms and Gruyere cheese. I also made my own french bread with a recipe I think I’ve shared and now can’t find from Tasty Kitchen. Mmmm…. so good. This would be a good option to use up leftover pot roast for sure.

3- Asian Pork Chops, marinade by me, Cooked by the Husband. I have talked about these before, but I threw soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder, and white pepper over the chops in a pan and the Husband threw them in the oven when he got home. I had also left carrots with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and he roasted them along with cooking the chops. Apparently they were both delicious.

4- Silver White Cupcakes from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook edited by Dorothy B. Marsh. Section: Our Best Cakes. 

Modifications: Used orange flavoring instead of vanilla. I frosted them with a basic orange buttercream. This was my family’s traditional Easter cupcake recipe and the cake I most often requested for my birthday. I was excited to have my own copy of it now. We found the cookbook in a bin at the thrift store and the lady at the checkout was very jealous.

This cookbook is fun because it shows the shift from the 50’s where things were just getting more “ready made” into the 60’s where it was suddenly cool to have store bought things. There are a few bizarre recipes in here and the cake section has a few pages that talk about how to jazz up store bought cakes. The bread section does it too. I keep looking through it for dinner ideas, but it’s such  big book, I think I get a little overwhelmed.

I was terrible at taking pictures of things this past week. I wasn’t home for some of the dinners and the ate all the other foods before I could get out a camera. I will try to do better this week and have the Husband take a picture of Tuesday’s dinner before he eats it.

Now, on to the party foods!