Tag: ice cream

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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So I frequently get an email from my Dad after he reads the blog, but this latest one contained a shocking revelation about St. Urho.

First, he was from Finland, not Norway, and here’s the shocking part….He was made up by some old Finnish guy who was mad about all those Irish people celebrating St. Patrick’s day!

I’ve gone all of my life thinking he was real! Dad swears up and down that he told me he wasn’t real, but I don’t think anyone did. My Grandma Shirley celebrated him too, which is where I got Norway from instead of Finland. She was Norwegian. I was shocked!

Here’s a link to the Wiki page about how the legend got started. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Urho

Fancy was shocked and sad that my own father could have tricked me like that. This is her disappointed face. 😉

Regardless of my whole life being rocked by this revelation, I did make a bunch of new dishes this week.

I psyched myself up last Sunday and made Instant Pot Lamb Pho from Chef de Home. http://www.chefdehome.com/Recipes/801/pho-recipe-instant-pot

It was a little off-putting smell-wise. I loathe the smell of raw lamb to begin with. It makes me gag every time and we don’t have it often because of that. The Husband walked into the kitchen as the stem was being let out and said “It smells like lamb mixed with feet…” I’m having trouble eating meat at the moment (texture issue) and still had the raw lamb smell stuck in my brain, so it wasn’t as successful as it could have been.

That being said, it tasted much milder than it smelled. It actually tasted pretty good and I just avoided most of the meat. We had all sorts of things to put in it. I ended up eating two bowls of it. Not pictured are the rice noodles and the pickled ginger, which is the pink stuff in the bowl above. It had a ton of spices and we had black cardamom, which was new for us. We might try it again with beef.

We also had apple pie with cinnamon ice cream that night. The pie recipe was from our Pie Contest kit and was supposedly an award- winning pie. I’m not trying the throw a lot of shade at the original pie maker, but it was pretty much a complete failure…

It called for 1 1/3 cups sugar, which is more than the ice cream had in it. That is way too much sugar for an apple pie. It was so watery! I had it in for an hour and it just soaked the bottom crust. There was no flour or anything to absorb the liquid. I used the Better Homes pie crust and it also didn’t cooperate. I ended up rolling out small circles of dough because it was too thick. It looked pretty, but was not nice.

The ice cream though… I tried it after it was churned and I’m pretty sure I almost cried, it was so good. Creamy, silky, rich, not too sweet, perfect hint of cinnamon. Mmmmm…. Updated: Here’s the link for Pinch My Salt. http://pinchmysalt.com/a-sweet-goodbye-to-summer/

I want to make more right now. I also want to use the custard base with other flavors. I may have found my perfect custard recipe. It only has two whole eggs in it too, so it doesn’t leave me with wasted bits of egg.

Fancy loves cinnamon. We could put cinnamon on cardboard and she would eat it. Okay, she would at least gnaw on the cardboard anyway, but still. I make her sweet potato fries with cinnamon and they are her favorite treat. This was her whenever I was eating the ice cream. (I’m not sure why it looks like I have three legs…I assure you, I’ve got the normal two. I must have been sitting cross legged.)

Maybe I’ll make her some banana “ice cream” with cinnamon.

We tried a new turkey recipe too. It was Parmesan Crusted Turkey Tenderloins from Ginger and Oregano. We had roasted carrots and I had roasted zucchini and summer squash. I broiled it for a few minutes to get a crispier crust. It was a tiny bit salty, even for the Husband. Now he wants everything Parmesan crusted. 🙂

I think that’s it. I’ve made yogurt as well, but just the regular recipe. I have a sweet potato to make Fancy more treats, but am feeling lazy tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I hope your Friday night is treating you right and you’re relaxing as well. 🙂

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Apologies on the late post. I had a wicked migraine again yesterday and looking at screens made me nauseous. 🙁 I think I figured out what’s been causing them though and will not do that anymore.

The Husband knows the way to my heart. 🙂 We washed all the new knives and they are in the knife block waiting for glorious recipes! And also for me to accidentally stab, slice, or cut myself with… New knives are sharp!

Here they are in all their shiny newness.

They are Zwilling/JA Henckels, the twins. We don’t buy the International version, as they have some bad reviews and don’t seem to be as good. The Husband found a screaming deal online and snapped them up. I’ve used the chef’s knife and the paring knife so far. They are so nice to use.

We had three new recipes this week. I made a souffle! We bought a big souffle dish and I think I’ll get a matching ramekin set so I can make mini ones. I have 7 small ramekins, but they are different sizes, so it’s hard to figure out how many I need for a recipe.

1- Cheese and Mushroom Souffle from The Souffle Cookbook by Myra Waldo. Section: Cheese Souffles

My souffle dish is a 2 quart and was a tiny bit too big, but it was still very raised and fluffy.

We didn’t like the taste of it. We’re thinking the sweet souffles might be the way to go. It used undiluted canned cream of mushroom soup, so that’s probably why. We ended up throwing the rest out. I’m going to try a plain cheese one to see if we like that instead. I did feel very accomplished though!

2- French Vanilla Ice Cream from the Kitchenaid Attachment book.

This was good, but I had run out of cream and had to sub milk, which made it come out a little icy. It tastes good though and it made so much that it overflowed the bowl. I think I should have churned it in two batches, but didn’t have time before work.

3- Soul Warming French Onion Pot Roast by Little Spice Jar. http://littlespicejar.com/french-onion-pot-roast/

This was amazing! An hour and a half in, I wanted to lick the crockpot. I restrained myself, since we had guests coming. 8 hours later, I could hardly stand it.

I have no pictures because we fell on it like ravenous beasts and a 2.5 lb roast was gone in about five minutes.  It fell apart so easily and I will definitely be making this again.

I’ve started my 25 days of cookies and have made three cookie recipes.

One of them is the macaroons from last week and the other two are from the December Food Network.

So far I’ve made Chocolate Shortbread Cutouts, and Hibiscus Ginger cookies. My hands are still burning from hand squeezing ginger juice from freshly grated ginger…

I’ll post pictures and reviews of those recipes tomorrow when I review for the month. Have a good night!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Since I had my review on Friday, I wasn’t able to post a Recipe Roundup.

We had quite a busy weekend, but I did finally manage to get some freezer meals packaged. I used the Freezer Meals cookbook that a friend gave me.  We have 8 meals that can be thrown in the crockpot or oven for quick easy dinners. I made one of each recipe, except the fajitas, to try them. Once we know if we like them, I can make up some more.

So, on to the recipes:

1- Belgian Waffles from A Quilter’s Christmas Cookbook by Louise Stoltzfus and Dawn J. Ranck. Section: Breakfast Foods. 

Modifications: I added vanilla Chai protein powder for some of the flour. You couldn’t taste it at all and it probably only added a few grams of protein, but any little bit helps. They were good.

2- Creamy Pappardelle with Broccoli from Good Eating Pasta. Section: Vegetarian. 

Modifications: I really only used the sauce part of the recipe. I threw in mushrooms and used corkscrew pasta. I also used a shredded 5 cheese Italian blend instead of just mozzarella. If you haven’t tried it before, I highly recommend a pinch of nutmeg in cheese sauces. I was skeptical, but most of the creamy pasta sauces have it listed and it is fabulous. We would eat this again. It was quick and didn’t require thawing meat.

3- Tacos, method by me. I always half cook the meat, drain and rinse it, and then add about half a jar of salsa, cumin seed, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and cilantro. Throw it on a tortilla with some lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes and you have a delicious dinner.

4- Coldstone Sweet Cream Ice Cream from Cooking Classy. http://www.cookingclassy.com/cold-stone-creamery-sweet-cream-ice-cream-make-it-at-home/

Modifications: None! This recipe uses corn syrup and cornstarch, no eggs. It may turn into my go to vanilla recipe. It was very good. It froze a lot harder than the other ice cream we have had and didn’t melt as quickly. I did add vanilla extract, as it was a pretty plain base.

5- Creamy Coconut Popsicles from Little Spice Jar. http://littlespicejar.com/coconut-popsicles-paletas-de-coco/

Modifications: This made a lot more than I thought it would. Next time, I will halve the recipe. It made 14 popsicles and a ramekin of ice cream left over. They are very good. The Husband doesn’t like coconut, so I don’t have to share! Well, with him at least. I’ll share with other people. I finally used our rocket shaped popsicle molds. (TJ Maxx and they fell under the “$10 or under” clause… Or I’m really just a 6 year old at heart.)

I also made tortellini soup and we had canned soup and biscuits this week as well. I made yogurt again too and it is nice and thick this time.

For not feeling so good for part of the week, I am happy with how our meals turned out last week.

This week is a weird week. I’ve got late nights three days this week and we are going to a concert on Wednesday. Our 5th Anniversary falls on one of my late nights, so we’re going out to eat on Friday instead.

We’re having a party on Saturday and there will be a pickle tray and possibly two cakes… I took Friday off specifically to cook and bake. I’ve got a bunch of new recipes planned for the party, so it will probably have its own post. Now all we need is people to come eat all the food!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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Fancy didn’t want me to go to work this morning. She was whining at the bedroom door to say hello and then refused to come in later when I had to leave again. That’s her in the bush, being snotty and stubborn this afternoon.

I went all out on recipes this week. I must be feeling less stressed than I thought. I made two recipes in one day, and two in one meal! Now of course, all I want is a nap.

Here are the recipes.

1- Basic Chocolate Ice Cream from Ashlee Marie. http://ashleemarie.com/basic-chocolate-ice-cream-recipe/

Modifications: I’m not comfortable enough changing ice cream bases around, but it’s definitely something I would like to do. Almost every ice cream recipe on her site is something that I would like to try. I made two of her recipes between last weekend and today and they were both excellent. This chocolate ice cream was smooth and not too sweet. The Husband enjoyed it too. I had mine with strawberry slices, and with melted peanut butter on another day. The Husband likes plainer chocolate ice cream, so had chocolate chips both times. It made a little under a quart, I think.

2- Coconut Meringues from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. Section: Cookies and Bars

Modifications: I tripled the recipe, since I had triple the egg whites from the ice cream. I tried to go all fancy and pipe it, but the coconut clogged the nozzle repeatedly and I ended up just dropping them on the pan instead. Some of them were a little under baked, I think, but they were okay. They aren’t my favorite cookie, but it was a good way to use up egg whites. I sent them into the Husband’s work and ended up confusing a lot of people who didn’t know what they were. 🙂

3- Korean BBQ Short Ribs from The Seasoned Traveler. https://theseasonedtraveler.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/korean-bbq-short-ribs/ 

Modifications: This one was the Husband’s request. We found a good deal on boneless beef ribs at Costco. Since they were boneless ribs, I kept a close eye on them for cooko g time. I had run out of brown sugar and used molasses and some white sugar to substitute. I boiled down the rest of the cooking juices and marinade for a sauce. It was extremely salty. I didn’t eat any additional sauce, but the Husband did. I made myself roasted Parmesan Brussels sprouts, but they were not ready at the same time for pictures. They were tasty though.

4- Jasmine Cilantro Rice, method by me. I added bruised garlic cloves, cilantro, butter, and salt to the rice while it was cooking. It was good, had a nice light flavor, but added to the dish.

5- Garlicky Oven Fried Chicken Thighs (Drumsticks) from Party Food. Section: Main Dishes (We got this from a Goodwill store, it looks like it was originally from a Kohl’s Cares promotion.)

Modifications: I used drumsticks instead of thighs, because it was what we had. I used the Garlic and Herb Mrs. Dash seasoning in the breading. These were okay. They were good for an easy dinner, but we weren’t happy with the level of flavor. We had fruit and a new recipe for potatoes with it.

6- Easy Roasted Potatoes from Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook. Section: Fruits and Vegetables.

Modifications: I quartered the potatoes instead of halving them. I used a bit more paprika than what it called for and completely forgot to salt and pepper them. We just added those after. These were good. I normally forget how long it takes potatoes to roast, so it was nice to have a reminder of timing. I’m working on getting everything to the table on time.

7- Blueberry Muffins from The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. Section: The Best of Susan.

Modifications: This section of the cookbook is designed to be a “how to cook section,” I think. It has all sorts of tips about cooking and other housewifery for women on their own, or newlyweds.

I used butter, not shortening, for these. I also added a little sugar to the batter instead of only on top. Vanilla was also an addition. I thought it would be too plain without it. They were your basic muffin, but good.

8- Toasted Marshmallow Ice Cream from Ashlee Marie. http://ashleemarie.com/marshmallow-ice-cream-recipe/

Modifications: None. It looks like a giant marshmallow in the bowl. It’s shiny!

It is delicious. The base was very pudding like after being in the fridge overnight. The gelatin in the marshmallows probably makes it too firm. I also had half and half for another recipe, so subbed that for the milk. I would have eaten the base as marshmallow pudding too. The Husband isn’t a huge marshmallow fan, so this is not his favorite. He said it was too sweet. It is incredibly smooth and rich.

I made the base before going to bed so that I could churn it before work the next morning and some of it may have found its way into my mouth for breakfast… I was broiling marshmallows at 11 pm and the kitchen was a huge sticky mess. Fancy was very concerned that the marshmallows were going to eat me and kept trying to “help” me clean up. I didn’t have a chance to take pictures of the marshmallows after broiling, but they were so pretty!

I made a s’mores bowl with it last night with milk chocolate chips and graham cracker crumbs. Mmmm… it was delicious.

Tonight we are having leftover French Onion Soup and tomorrow we’re supposed to pull out the grill for a new burger recipe. So far it isn’t supposed to rain!

Not So Wordless Wednesday- 4th of July
Wordless Wednesdays

Not So Wordless Wednesday- 4th of July

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My family has a unique way to celebrate the 4th of July, which we happily credit to my Grandma Shirley. She was a nurse and had just come off a night shift and was eating cereal at a restaurant when they put up a sign for “Fresh Strawberry Sundaes.” She said they looked so good that she had to order one and when it came, she poured it on top of her cereal. Ever since then, my family has done the same. No matter where we are, we all take the time to have this breakfast treat. Over the years it evolved to have blueberries too, so we can say it’s patriotic.

We normally send pictures of our breakfast to each other too. This year our breakfast included homemade custard based vanilla ice cream and three small strawberries from the garden along with the store ones.

Here’s this year’s breakfast shot! 

Here are the components in case you want to adopt the tradition:

You need a flaky cereal, strawberries, blueberries, and ice cream. The proper way to make this (although there is some debate) is to pour the smallest amount of cereal you can get away with on the bottom, add the ice cream, then berries. Some people put the ice cream first, but that’s wrong…

Now, if you happen to run out of ice cream before you finish the rest of the berries (as I make sure to do,) it’s fine to get just a bit more. You have to come out even, of course.

I have won friends and influenced people with this breakfast. We had it one year when I was working at a summer camp and had brought other staff friends home and they thought it was the best part of the weekend. 🙂

Fancy ate some strawberries to celebrate with us, but only likes frozen blueberries. She spent most of the last two evenings with me in the basement hiding from the end of the world, otherwise known as the fireworks. The fleece blanket I tucked her in with apparently has magical powers, as she spent most of last night sleeping while I sewed and organized.

She’s better today and is still pretty cuddly. We took her to the dog friendly mall twice over the weekend and she liked that. The second time she refused to leave until we took her to the dog bakery for her free sample and some pets. There is a chance she is a very spoiled pup.

I hope you all had a happy and safe 4th! Feel free to adopt the family tradition and make it your own. We don’t mind sharing!

 

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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There was a short delay after I started writing this post because there were ants. (About 7 of them before I got them.) I unexpectedly had to clean my kitchen cupboard and wash all the dishes. This was not exactly my plan for the night.

When we first moved in, we had a terrible time with red and black ants. I live in fear of another bad time. I think they had come from the moving truck. They were in a bunch of our boxes and we didn’t have them before we moved. Now I panic clean when I see tiny bugs. I hate bugs.

We had another week of late nights, but I made three new dishes. I had plans to make yogurt tonight; however, ants happened. I finally bought a yogurt maker and am excited to try it. It has the most adorable glass jars. I’ll try to get it going tomorrow, if I can get the rest of the cleaning done in time.

Well, enough about tiny creepy beasties, on to the real reason you are here: recipes!

1- Turkey Noodle Soup method by me.

Modifications: Can I actually make modifications on a made up recipe? 🙂 I used homemade chicken broth along with the store broth, turmeric, fresh herbs from the garden, carrots, onion, celery, leftover turkey, and mushrooms. I used about a stalk of celery, two carrots, an onion, about 4 cups of broth, and salt and pepper. Herb wise I used sage, oregano, rosemary, and thyme. I used about a teaspoon of turmeric. We had ditalani noodles, so I threw some of them in. Sautéed all the veggies first and dumped the broth in after. It was a yummy soup and we used up all the leftover turkey from the weekend.

Fancy is a bird dog in that she will follow you to kingdom come if you have poultry that she might be able to eat. She drooled all over the floor while I was making the soup. Then after I had it out to eat on the table, she wouldn’t stop sniffing it. Here is a picture of her turkey crazed eyes.

2- Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream from Six Sisters Stuff. http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2015/05/old-fashioned-homemade-vanilla-ice-cream.html

Modifications: We had 2% milk and cream, so I used those. I think it would come out creamier with whole milk. I used vanilla bean paste as well. It turned out delicious! I may have tried a spoonful of it for breakfast this morning…It made a little under two quarts. It also has no eggs. I do want to try a custard based recipe, but didn’t have the patience to deal with 8 egg yolks and the resulting egg whites. Maybe next week.

3- Thai Vegetable Curry with Lemongrass Rice from 400 Thai & Chinese Healthy Recipes for Healthy Living. Section: Vegetarian Main Dishes

Modifications: I didn’t have lemongrass , so the rice was cardamom and kefir lime leaf infused. I also used way less spicy peppers. Normally I would spice it up, but my stomach still hates me. The recipe started with a spice paste that made me want to eat it with a spoon. I almost swooned.

So I wasn’t planning to make this tonight. I was in the grocery store wanting to try a new recipe, without actually having looked up a recipe. I wanted something easy on my stomach and since the Husband was busy, I could eat vegetarian. I had finally decided on coconut curry and was reading the back of the a ready-made sauce packet trying to figure out what I needed. At one point, I texted the Husband to find out if it would be weird if I started reading cookbooks in the book aisle. He said it probably would be, so I refrained and guessed. 🙂

Oh my gosh, it was amazing. I used jasmine rice and it soaked up all the amazing sauce. I was so happy to not have to share. It was light and refreshing and comforting. If you are ever feeling bad, let me know and I will make you this. It will make anything better.

Our weeks should go back to normal after this. I may actually get some of these other recipes I want to try done.

Fancy will be glad to have us both on a sort of normal schedule again. I will be happy to have meals with the Husband again. It’s been kind of lonely with just me. Speaking of just me, I really need to go to bed. The ants made me crazy!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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I took lots of pictures this week and the Husband helped too! I took a few different shots to see what looked good, so you’ll have to tell me which ones you liked best.

1- Salted Caramel Gelato from KitchenAid. I bought it along with the mixer attachment. https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/kitchenaid-reg-2-pack-fanzese-gelato-salted-caramel-mix/1047357136?Keyword=Salted+caramel+gelato

Modifications: None. It was my first time using the attachment, so I didn’t deviate from the instructions at all. We just added the milk and made it up. It was extremely fun and made us feel ever so fancy. We froze it for a few more hours to make it more of a harder texture, but it was still nice and soft. We ate it with mini chocolate chips. Fancy was very sad that she couldn’t eat it.

The Husband helped me take pictures, as it is impossible to pour the gelato mix into the mixer and take a picture.

It was definitely a hit and I have a bunch more recipes pinned on the blog’s Pinterest page. The Husband has requested a rich vanilla ice cream next, because we can put all sorts of toppings on it. I want to try a basil  ice cream recipe that I found as well. It looks very interesting and I bet it would be good if I used the lime basil too.

2- Mongolian Ginger Beef Freezer Meal from Freezer Meals: 365 Days of Quick and Easy Make Ahead Meals for Busy Families by Julianna Sweeny. Section: Beef Freezer Meals

Modifications: I added a little bit more water to the crock pot and added white pepper as well. I also used chuck steak instead of flank. We couldn’t find flank or skirt steak and it was going to be cooking for a long time in the slow cooker.

It was delicious! My first thought when I took a bite was “oh my gosh, this is melting.” The meat was so tender! I thickened the sauce more at the end, as it was a bit watery. I might make a double recipe of this, it seemed like it wasn’t going to make a lot. I will definitely make this again. The recipe includes directions to freeze the meal and then make it in the slow cooker, but we cooked it right away this time. This book was a birthday present from a friend and it will be put to good use.

3- Freezer Spicy Enchilada Soup from the above cookbook. Section: Chicken

Modifications: I added garlic and garlic powder, because who makes a recipe for an enchilada soup with no garlic? I used diced tomatoes instead of crushed, because it was what I had, and I didn’t crush the bay leaf. I just left it whole and then fished it out at the end.

This was another slow cooker recipe and it cooks for 8 hours, so was perfect for my long day on Monday. It was also delicious.

I did notice a few odd things about the cookbook. One, there are page numbers in the index, but no page numbers on the actual pages, which makes it a little confusing to find things. Two, there seem to be some repeat recipes with different names and slightly different instructions, but the same ingredients. The beef recipe has a twin about 10 pages in front if it that just has differently worded instructions, but that mean the same thing.

Overall, I really like the cookbook and will probably break my rule about one recipe per section, mostly for the sheer simplicity of it. We are in desperate need of meals that go in the crockpot, or can just be put in the oven by the Husband too and this book has plenty.

4- Italian Sausage Tortellini Soup from Our Best Bites. http://ourbestbites.com/2009/10/tortellini-sausage-soup/

Modifications: First off, I finally made the soup! I had only been talking about for weeks and it somehow never got made. I don’t use the recipe anymore, just kind of throw things in, but the one thing I do not ever leave out is the apple juice. The recipe says it is not the same without it and they are totally right.

I put this in the crockpot before I left for work, made the tortellini when I came home and then added them in. The spices cooked off a little and it wasn’t as flavorful, so I think I will stick to the stovetop for this.

5- Thin and Lacy Pancakes from Food Network Magazine: The Big Breakfast Issue, April 2015. V. 8, N.3.

Modifications: None! I love crepes. I cooked down frozen strawberries and peaches to make a sauce.  I completely forgot about the vanilla yogurt in the fridge, which was perfect the next morning for breakfast as a topper. I actually made these for dinner on Tuesday, as I was feeling rather horrible and wanted something gentle for my stomach. (Apparently stress is bad for you. My doctor told me I should stop having so much of it… Thanks, I guess?)

I didn’t have to share any of them either, as the Husband doesn’t like them. I also played around with the picture and was pretty pleased. Maybe a lighter color plate might be nicer next time.

6- Leg of Lamb from A Taste of Lebanon by Mary Salloum. Section: Entrees. 

Modifications: This was a circus. A full circus with clowns, tigers, and bears. I thought it was only a pound and a half of boneless leg of lamb, but apparently it was 2.38 pounds, which meant it was nowhere near cooked when I had said it should be cooked. The Husband, who was cooking it for us was extremely distressed and I had clients, so couldn’t tell him to do anything until later in the night. It did work itself out, he found the package and had the recipe, so figured it out. By the time I got home, it just needed a few more minutes. Recipes that have a set time to bake seem to be a better idea.

I used Lamb Seasoning from Penzey’s Spices. It has allspice, ginger, oregano, pepper, cumin, and something else that I can’t remember. The recipe called for allspice, salt, pepper, and 6-8 cloves of garlic. The garlic was sliced and stuffed into slits in the meat. It made the lamb delicious and it wasn’t overcooked at all. I highly recommend any Penzey’s spice. My brother and sister-in-law gave us some spices from them several years ago and they were all wonderful. Plus, Penzey’s is currently supporting various peaceful protests and attempting to spread kindness through food, which I highly approve of.

7- Wheat Free Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats from Doggy Dessert Chef.

http://doggydessertchef.com/2011/11/08/wheat-free-peanut-butter-pumpkin/

Fancy is undeniably a spoiled pup. Lately, she has been waking me up for morning snuggles when the Husband leaves for work and now thinks she can sleep on the bed whenever she wants! Silly puppers. I really should snuggle her on the couch, but it’s normally half an hour before my alarm goes off and it seems like a lot of work to get up and move.

Modifications: I used Chickpea flour for this recipe instead of brown rice flour, since it was all I had. They smell funny, but she seems to like them. I’m still on the hunt for a hard biscuit recipe for her, but can’t seem to find one that bakes up hard. I’ve got a few more to try. This was her, waiting patiently for her treats.

I don’t remember making homemade things for your dogs being a thing in the past. I know our dogs when I was a kid got table scraps and vaguely remember giving them treats, but certainly never actually making stuff for them. I tend to go nuts when buying her treats though, so as long as I make ones with things we have on hand, it might be cheaper. I just can’t resist when I think she might like something. Plus, I bake for everyone else, so why should she be any different?

8- Spicy Beef from Wok and Stir-Fry. Section: Poultry and Meat. 

Modifications: I am not supposed to eat spicy foods for at least two weeks thanks to my stomach being dumb, so I left out the spicy part. I also really only used the recipe for the sauce recipe, as I have trouble with proportions when making stir-fry sauces. The recipe doesn’t call for any veggies, just scallions. I added red pepper, broccoli, zucchini, and mushrooms. I cooked the separately and used already seasoned beef left over from kebabs at a friend’s house that we had frozen. It turned out really good.

Reenergized by my sad review last week, I made a lot of new recipes. Now I just have to remember that feeling in the next few weeks, so my next review is full of new things. I also need to realize that my new recipes can also be breakfast, side dishes, or lunch dishes, they don’t always have to be dinner. I’ve used a lot of the entree sections of cookbooks and need to look for sides to go with my familiar dishes as well.

I’ll leave you with those thoughts and a picture of Fancy with her new favorite toy. We now get our cardio by playing tug with her. She has an amazing grip and gets so excited while playing. She likes playing tug with the Husband more, because he’s a little rougher with her. She’ll go bark at him until, he comes out of his office and plays with her. Last night she did that four times. She just couldn’t get enough playtime. Hopefully, you all have something that makes you as happy as she gets with her toy.