The featured picture was taken on Wednesday, perhaps it was a warning of things to come. When I pulled the ice cream out of the freezer, it came with a disappointed face in the lid. I have a feeling the Husband and I will be sending it to each other frequently when we need a laugh.

I had a pretty productive week, up until yesterday when my day involved the dog’s poo bags breaking, a violent and unpleasant digestive reaction to ham in my salad, and an unexpected guinea pig in session. I never thought I would need to utter the phrase “Please don’t bring live animals to session.” But now that it has happened, at least I will be prepared for the future…

I made four new recipes this week and two were not main dishes! I have plans for this weekend for the smoker, assuming it works. The Husband has had it for years, but hasn’t ever used it. If those recipes work out, it will be very exciting, as one of them is homemade bacon! It’s up in the air about whether or not I will actually be able to eat the homemade bacon. I had a bad stomach ache from store bacon in the last few weeks and now a terrible reaction to ham. I’m hoping they were just isolated incidents, but this is how the pork issues originally started, so I’m a little nervous.

Anyway, here are the recipes I used this week.

1-Fresh Herb Scones from Pillsbury Best Muffins and Quick Breads. Section: Biscuits, Scones, Popovers, and Doughnuts.

Modifications: I added a little more rosemary than needed, but it didn’t make them taste any different. I used herbs from the garden: rosemary, parsley, and thyme. We had these at a belated dinner for my father-in-law. They turned out nice and fluffy and tasted good. Everyone seemed to enjoy them.

2- Chewy Crisp Chocolate Chip Cookies from Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees. Section: Cookies & Bars

Modifications: None, I did follow the recipe. These were eaten too fast before I could take a picture. They did not brown up as much as most cookies do, so I was a little worried they would ve doughy, but they turned out nice. I was even eating them and typically I don’t like them. They did have melted butter in them, which changed the browning and texture, I think. It also called to use a bowl and spoon, but I was in a hurry and used the mixer. These got the Husband’s stamp of approval.

3- Caramelized  Onion Grilled Cheese from Food Network. October 2016, V.9, N. 8

Modifications: I completely forgot to add in the sherry and added the thyme last minute and used dried, instead of fresh. I also used Texas Toast, as the Italian bread I had was too thin, I thought.  We had it when I was hosting craft night and it was lovely. I used pepperjack and Gouda in two of them and Colby jack in mine. We had a friend staying with us and she loved them as well. The onions were an extremely delicious addition. I would definitely make these again.I was so distracted that I almost forgot to take pictures of the sandwich and had to steal the Husband’s half eaten one to make sure we had a pic. We had this with salad.

4- Whiskey Marinated Rib Eye Steak from The Book of Steak. Section: Up Front Cuts

Modifications: I marinated the steak for longer than it called for and it got extremely whiskey soaked near the ends. It was quite strong! The other flavors were good though and I cooked the steak perfectly, according to the Husband. We had salad and scones with this. I debated putting the salad on the plate, but the steak was dripping everywhere and I don’t like steak flavored salad. I couldn’t do it, even for pictures. I only ate about half the steak and if there are leftovers, I may make a potato steak hash with it for breakfast over the weekend.

Fancy was haunting the kitchen while I was cooking and was extremely disappointed that she couldn’t have any. I caught this picture gem while she was trying her puppy dog eyes out on The Husband. After I showed him the picture he said “Oh, just give her the steak!” The marinade and sauce were definitely not okay for pups though, so she didn’t get any.

The other cool thing about this steak recipe was that the sauce was flambeed! I watched my Dad flambé things a lot when I was a kid and it was fun to do it myself. It burned for a surprising amount of time. The paper towel in the background is not on fire, I just didn’t think to move it before pictures.

It was pretty neat, but hard to get it lit. On TV, it looks so easy, but in reality, I was attempting to not pour sauce all over the stove. I would definitely flambé more things, now that I’ve tried it once.

I do have one more recipe, although I think it is more of a method. I used the yogurt maker to make my first batch of yogurt. I didn’t have time to heat it, like it said, so it made a looser yogurt. I had some yesterday with the rhubarb marmalade and had an orange, strawberry, coconut milk smoothie for breakfast today with more.

I just followed the directions in the instruction book. It turned out very good. Unsweetened of course, but I typically use jam in it anyway. This would be perfect for baking. I did use 2% milk and I think I’ll experiment with whole milk and non-dairy milks as well. It made 7- 6 0z jars. I am also going to try making it in a large Pyrex bowl and straining it for Greek yogurt. I’ll make sure to take pictures and write reviews for comparison. It is the basic Euro Cuisine yogurt maker.

Today is the first anniversary of moving into our house! If my head stops hurting, I may make a cake I will use a new recipe, of course! 🙂