Tag: recipes

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Hi everyone! I hope your long weekend is going well. The Husband and I keep reminding each other that it’s only Saturday! We took Fancy to the pack walk on Friday morning, since the Husband had the whole day off. She enjoyed herself and since we walked for 45 minutes and went for three car rides, she was one tired out pup.

We’ve planned small yard work projects for each day this weekend. Yesterday’s was putting down mulch and today’s was chopping the lilac tree that had fallen and cleaning up the rest of the spot. The tree actually fell on our neighbor’s daughter’s car! Luckily, there was no damage. The tree core was hollow. It looked like ants had gotten to it. We’ll watch the rest of the trees there to make sure they aren’t dangerous too.

There were so many different kinds of trees in this tiny little spot, that I thought we could play an excellent drinking game. A shot for every different tree… We would be smashed in about 10 minutes. We had other things to do though, so we declined.

It’s been super hot lately, so we had a cold chef’s salad tonight. I left my salad on the tray table and went to get a drink tonight. I came back to a suspicious wet spot on my table, cheese outside the bowl…

And a very innocent looking dog…

Now, I’ll let you decide what you will about it, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’s tried to steal a taste of my dinner… Please excuse her toys. We put them away and she has such fun spreading them all over the floor again. Silly dog.

Last night we had broiled chicken sausages and fancy seasoned fries.

We also had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Store bought angel food cake and ice cream. The Husband loves berries macerated with sugar and we can “have them any time.” 🙂

They are quite delicious.

We had Chicken Bao or steamed buns last weekend and watched the Firefly episode “Our Mrs. Reynolds.” It seemed appropriate, since it includes the line “Did she really make fresh bao?” 🙂

They were delicious, as usual.

We had a crockpot meal this week as well. Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese from The Spruce Eats.

https://www.thespruceeats.com/crock-pot-scalloped-potatoes-with-cheese-3055527

I added cubed ham and spices. It was alright. Not my favorite thing. I probably won’t make this particular recipe again. The cheese separated in the sauce. Dairy is hard to manage in crockpots.

We also had a sandwich night, but no pictures, as we were in different spots.

I’m excited to start the garden. We have plans to dig out the spot tomorrow morning and get some flowers for the front boxes as well. It should be a fun day and we will still have a whole extra day! Just think of the things we could do!

I’ll leave you with this picture of my favorite part of summer; all the berries I can eat!

Have a great weekend!

 

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

I did a little better on pictures this week. We had my in-laws over Mother’s Day dinner and served crock pot stroganoff over homemade fettuccine noodles, roasted carrots, and homemade ice cream. I cannot find my recipe though…

It was deliciously tender and tasted very good. The pasta was giving me trouble by sticking together, but it worked out okay in the end.

I used the no cook ice cream recipe and it was good, but I do like the cooked one better. I also made a homemade ganache for a topper.

We also had a thrown together pasta and shrimp dish with the leftover pasta. I sautéed bok choi, green onions, and striped peppers together with garlic and olive oil. It was pretty good. No recipe, I just put things in a pan. 🙂

The Husband had pork with an extra bit of hoisin sauce in them. He enjoyed them.

I made Butternut Squash and Amaretti Mezzluna, from Luca Manafee’s In My Italian Kitchen for my crafting lunch with my sewing buddy. No pictures because I was super sick and couldn’t look at a screen to save my life. I think I’m having vertigo, but haven’t been able to get to the doctor. Friday was the worst day so far.

The pasta was good though. I have to make up the rest of it for the freezer. I used canned pumpkin instead of the squash and greek yogurt instead of ricotta, as there was no way I was driving anywhere.  Also, dried herbs instead of fresh.

For a breakfast experiment, I made Peanut Butter Banana Muffins from Kraft Recipes. 

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/peanut-butter-banana-muffins-133277.

I added dark chocolate chips too. It was a nice treat.

Dinner last night was nachos with homemade pico. I was still feeling sick and loopy. These were a quick way to still eat something.

I haven’t done meal planning yet for next week. We’re having sandwiches one night and something with extra chicken. We have friends coming for dinner tomorrow and are having roast chicken, potatoes, and carrots. Not sure on dessert yet, but it might be ice cream. 🙂

Fancy was suspicious today when we got home. We smelled like other dogs! We had gone to visit her rescue at the Zoo adoption event and donated the toys she tried to steal and keep for herself. There was one male dog who looked almost exactly like her and who almost came home with us. He did the dancing paws and the sad eye looks and we had a very difficult time walking away. Right now is not the time for another dog though, so we left, hoping he got a good home.

It was fun to see the rescue volunteers. Some of them remembered Fancy and so we got to show off pictures. They were happy to see the toys, as somehow they had got forgotten. The dogs were certainly happy with them.

Fancy is currently curled up next to me napping. It’s a sad, rainy kind of day. I’m planning on doing some sewing and some cooking. I hope you’re having a relaxing weekend.

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

Somehow this week, I got two pictures. 2. Granted, I wasn’t home too much for dinner, so that’s why. I did take the great picture of my hamburger buns though. The buns are from Small Breads by Bernard Clayton. I have used the book bere, but this may be a new section.

We had hamburgers with Chophouse Seasoning from The Pepper Palace in San Francisco. It was spicy and delicious.

Toasted homemade buns, mushrooms and onions, and garlic butter carrots accompanied the meal. There’s cheese on the burger too.

We used the leftover buns for pulled chicken sandwiches on Tuesday. My lovely mother was in town after antiquing her way across the state, so she got to enjoy some too. No pictures, because I wasn’t home until late. The recipe was from Natasha’s Kitchen. https://natashaskitchen.com/slow-cooker-bbq-chicken-recipe/

I did have some when I came home and it would make a good freezer recipe.

The Husband had pork chops with the Chophouse Seasoning and said it was spicy and he would have liked it seared first. He’s going to learn how to sear things soon. 🙂

My Mom was headed back home yesterday, so she stayed with us again. We had homemade pepperoni pizza, but I got distracted and forgot pictures. A certain dog wouldn’t stop jumping on the couch and forcibly cuddling Mom. She’s a terribly vicious, you know, even if she is scared of the wind rustling her poop bags…

Tonight we were going go have pot roast, but were having such a good time at a friend’s birthday party, that we stayed until after dinner. I’m going to make it for lunch tomorrow. 🙂 We’ll have some excellent leftovers.

I’ve acquired several new cookbooks. My parents gave me two and I found some at the book sales, and I found a “Book of Festive Tarts” at the thrift store with my Mom.

My dad got me this one for Christmas and I think it got put in a “safe place.” You know the one where everything goes to never be found again?

So I finally got it and it fits in well for the blog theme. I’m excited to try some of the recipes.

They also gave me this pretty one called The Virgina Housewife. 

It has super old recipes and cooking tips. Some are slightly horrifying, especially when talking about killing chickens and pigs. It’s pretty cool. I’ve not had a chance to go all the way through it, but it seems useful.

So that’s my roundup for the week. We’re having the Husband’s parents over for Mother’s Day dinner tomorrow and I really need to clear the table. It’s been taken over by sewing things.

Wish me luck!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

LSiehLeave a comment

We have been busy beavers lately. Last year at this time, I had three jobs and was rapidly losing my mind. This year, I can actually focus on the house and yard. I feel much more settled.

We finally put up the hanging pegs we decided we needed in the bedroom. I think we’re going to paint it blue maybe, to match the bottom walls, but for now it’s grey.

We have some spring bugs coming in again, so it really was time to get my purse and work bag off the floor. The Husband also hung new work lights downstairs over my sewing area and now I really need to clean it up. I can see everything! 😳 I knew I had to clean up anyway, in prep for moving back down there for the summer sewing season, but those lights make it hard to ignore things.

We also broke down yard projects by section last weekend and started on some of them this weekend. We chopped a bunch of the out of control front landscaping and I pulled everything from the side of the garage. This was about halfway through.

I ripped weeds! Pulled dead things! I tore out trees! With my bare hands! Well… with a huge trimmer, while wearing gloves. 🙂 Now it looks like this:

Doesn’t it look so much better already? I’m going to put my fairy garden here. It will mostly be in planters and will have butterfly and bee friendly flowers in it. If the ground cover gets too crazy, we may rip it all and put down mulch.

The Husband chopped up some tree limbs that had fallen on our windy day, mowed the grass, and wielded the leaf blower and hedge trimmer. I feel much better about the yard now knowing we can take it in small chunks and get things done.

We were going to get the garden started, but we couldn’t find the tiller at our inlaws. We did get it staked.

Hopefully next weekend, we can till that spot up and get started. So that’s some yard/ house projects from the month. Let’s move on to the food!

Food Review

I used 19 recipes this month. 10 were new recipes. Hits were the fried chicken, prosciutto wrapped chicken, the white pizza sauce, and the dulce de leche ice cream.

The pasta in this picture is homemade fettuccine! Pasta is definitely not as scary as I always thought it was.

Chicken seems to turn out well for me. It’s one of the meats I can regularly eat more than once without texture issues. I also made a different version of spaghetti with a can of sauce and 3 cans of tomatoes. It was much less liquid.

We did have some misses, including one that was so bad, I didn’t even blog about it! 😬 It was a crockpot version of Italian Wedding soup,  but it got weird after the noodles were added and got all slimey and starchy. Blech. I don’t even want to talk about it, except to say, don’t cook noodles in the crockpot ever… The other miss was more of just an “eh..” moment. Beef stew in the crockpot. Wasn’t great, wasn’t horrible.

I honestly think that this blog has improved my cooking skills. I wasn’t as confident about trying new recipes, or trusting my instincts when it came to seasoning. We also haven’t had very many misses lately, so that has to count for something. I also used my spice grinder that I got for Christmas and will be definitely using it again. It made it very easy!

Speaking of skills that have improved, let’s move on to the sewing review.

Sewing Review

I have made 5 projects this month. I have made four more in the past three days, but those haven’t been blogged about yet. Stay tuned for Monday or Tuesday!

My favorite has been my polka dot maxi skirt.

It’s so comfy and lovely. Plus, I saved $36, plus shipping! 🙂

I actually loved everything that I’ve made and am proud that I’m using my stash. It’s so fun to walk in wearing something I made and get to tell people that.

Here’s my other polka-dotted item.

My secret pajama shirt with my very first knit neckband. It’s a proud moment for me. I blame my friend and Instagram for that. She and all these other people keep making all these cute knit things and I couldn’t be left behind!

So far, I’ve made 28 or 29 projects since January. If I keep this up, I might beat last year’s record!

So, for goals this month, I have mainly the same ones.

Food Goals

* Try a new technique, or equipment

* Meal plan consistently. I don’t know why this one is so hard for us, but it is. I end up panic cooking halfway through the year

* Pantry meals 1x per week, at least

* Make more side dishes

 

Craft/ Sewing Goals

* Complete decorating office clipboards

* Decide on summer decorations/ make summer decorations

* Complete Me Made May

* Go through clothes and get rid of unworn ones

* Make 2 solid color or neutral pattern dresses

* Use my serger!!

I think that’s it. I’ve got another shirt waiting on me to sew, and a sad puppy wanting pets.

Have a good night!

Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

The rose is my beautiful birthday rose from my Dad. I’m a very bratty daughter and wouldn’t let him stop sending them even after I got married and got old. 🙂 I literally send him flower store information and where I will be on my birthday about a week before. 🙂

He started the tradition when I was seven, sick with the flu, and couldn’t be close to my new baby brother. Even though it was Easter, it was a terrible birthday, but the flower helped. So obviously, it can’t stop. I enjoy getting them and my work ladies were very impressed. It’s stayed good for a long time. This was yesterday and my birthday was over a week ago!

This post isn’t all a birthday recap though, it’s about food! For familiar recipes this week we had spaghetti and the Husband had Asian marinated pork. I’m making lasagna for tonight with fresh parm and fresh mozzarella.

A new recipe was English Muffin Bread from The New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. 

It makes very good toast. I’ve made rye bread for the Husband before too. He likes toast in the morning. He liked this one, but I’ll have to make more rye for him to compare. It’s been a while.

I also made yogurt again. Last time, it was a terrible failure and I have no idea why. I used part half and half, but that should have made it thicker. This time, I followed the recipe and it turned out just fine.

This is it with cherries and granola at work. Mmmm…

I also made a really good chicken stir fry from the Food Network Magazine, March 2018, V 11, N 2. It was Stir-fried Udon with Chicken and Vegetables.

I don’t know if I’ve had udon noodles before. They are a thicker wheat based noodle. They soaked up the sauce nicely though and tasted delicious. The Husband was very impressed and said we could have it anytime. I subbed pretty much all the veggies. We had broccoli, mushrooms, garlic, onions, bok choy, and carrots. It  was tasty.

We finally had a movie night again and watched “Coco” with some of our friends. It was a terrific movie, making me cry, as Pixar does. We had pizza with the movie and made out own personal pizzas.

I made a white sauce from this recipe from Bon Appetite: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/white-pizza-sauce-recipe-joe-beddia

I didn’t listen and tried to cook it and it eventually worked itself out, but do yourself a solid and actually follow this recipe… Then you won’t panic in front of guests because your sauce isn’t working. 🙄

I didn’t get a picture of the topping buffet, but we had mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, onions, garlic, sautéed Swiss chard, red and yellow peppers, and chicken sausage. We also had the traditional red sauce. I made my pizza with the chard, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and sausage. It was delicious!

It worked out perfectly. We had six people and three pans are all that can fit in the oven. Kayla brought a birthday chocolate cheesecake and it was delicious as usual. Also, as usual, everyone laughed at me when I started cataloging additional foods in case the pizza wasn’t enough…

I used The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for the pizza dough, but tripled it, as the one that came up was for one pizza. We had one portion of dough left over that I made into a pizza the next day.

In other news, Fancy is being a terrible brat at the moment. I know many of you won’t believe that, but it’s true.

She really wants the lasagna and someone to play with her. She seems to like it best when we are both in the same room so she can keep an eye on both of us. She also gets concerned when I do yoga. I think she thinks I might be dying when I’m laying down. Then when I do child’s pose, she gets all excited thinking I’m play bowing. She also tries to lick my face and sit on my head. Here’s a cute picture of her guarding me while I stretched.

I’d better go give her some attention and spare the Husband. Silly goof.

I hope your weekend is full of fun and goofy moments!

Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

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!

Scandinavian Support Groups
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Scandinavian Support Groups

LSiehLeave a comment

This was how my weekend went. On Friday I had a conference which took all day, followed by a Trader Joe’s trip (No, Dad, I didn’t see the chili lime spice.) Then frantic cleaning, because I have been sick all week and the last thing I wanted to do was tidy the house.

Saturday, I had my monthly staff meeting, followed by more frantic cleaning to get ready for the fondue party. The Husband and I had the following conversation as I was staring at my list of fondue dippers, 2 hours before the ladies were due to arrive.

Me: “I have strawberries, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, and croissants for the chocolate. Do you think I need a pound cake? I could make a pound cake.”

The Husband: Laughs hysterically before saying “I don’t think you need a pound cake.” 🙂

This then led to a discussion of whether or not a support group for Scandinavian people attempting to rein in the concern for having enough food at gatherings would be productive or not. We decided it would probably just devolve into the members just trying to outdo each other in baking skills. 😄

I called my Mom to check on the group idea and got my Dad, as my Mom had just gone off to her church lady meeting, carrying no less than four items for the potluck. I think I’m probably doomed…. Later she called me back to suggest I was remiss in my hosting duties for having no pickle tray and no pound cake. I love my family… 

The fondue party was fun and I completely forgot to take pictures. We watched a couple of chick flicks and ate just about all of the fondue. We had cheese and chocolate fondue. I’ll give you the recipes for both.

Chocolate Fondue– by Linnea Sieh

Ingredients: cream, semi-sweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate, chocolate/orange/kalhua liquor. (I used Godiva chocolate liquor.)

Heat your fondue pot, add 3/4 cup cream and let it bubble. Add about a cup of the semi sweet chocolate and a cup of the bittersweet chocolate. Let it melt and stir it in. Add more cream or chocolate until it is dippable consistency.

Wisconsin Trio Fondue – from Dip Into Something Different from The Melting Pot. (I based mine on this, I didn’t really follow it.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded Butterkase

1 1/2 cups Fontina

3 T flour

3/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 tsp chopped shallots

1 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup Blue cheese

2 T chopped scallions

Directions:

Toss the Butterkase and Fontina cheeses with the flour. Using a double boiler (or bowl and pan) bring water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and pour in wine and sherry. Stir in shallots using a fork. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring consistently. Add half of cheese blend and cook until cheese is melted, stirring constantly. Add remaining cheese slowly, stirring in a circular motion after each addition until cheese is melted. Fold in pepper and Blue cheese. Pou into a fondue pot and keep warm. Garnish with scallions.

Modifications: Subbed a chedder/Gruyere blend for the butterkase. Subbed more Fontina for Blue cheese. Used onions instead of shallots. Omitted scallions by accident.

It turned out very good. I apologize for the lack of pictures. We were too busy eating it.

We ate less fancy foods during the week. The Husband and I were still a sick at the beginning of the week, so we had a couple of soups and a crockpot beef meal. I received my Pampered Chef order, so two of the recipes involved things from the box.

We had Scotch Broth, from my recipe.

It was delicious, as usual.

I had bought a Carnitas spice rub blend from Pampered Chef, so I threw that on a flank steak along with some peppers, onions, and about a half cup chicken broth in the crockpot and let it cook for 10 hours. We had it in tortillas.

It was delicious! We might have the rest of the meat as nachos.

I’m trying to be better about repurposing leftovers instead of wasting them, so I used some of the jerk chicken to make this soup, Chicken ‘N Gnocchi Soup from 29 Minutes to Dinner- The Pampered Chef. 

I left out the sage, as I thought it might not play well with the seasonings, but it was definitely tasty. I couldn’t stop sneaking crispy gnocchi out of the skillet though while the soup was cooking.

The Husband really liked it and kept telling me that we could definitely have it again.  You’ll be seeing this cookbook a bit more too. It has delicious sounding recipes like Oven-Fried Chicken with Waffle Sticks, Asian BBQ Chicken Drumsticks, Savory Shrimp Rolls, Middle Eastern Beef Pops, and Japanese Steakhouse Pork Chops. 

I’m going to write my monthly review post early, as we will be on vacation during the normal time. I need to get some more sewing done too. I have a bag that I want to finish for the trip and a dress to make for the wedding that we are attending. Hopefully you’ll see some updates on Tuesday’s sewing post!

Recipes and Adventures!
Crafty · Life Posts · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Recipes and Adventures!

LSiehLeave a comment

I only made two new recipes last week and then we went on an adventure! I did help make a new ice cream recipe on our adventure, but our friends did the cooking, which was so nice.

I have one picture of the three recipes I made before we left. I redeemed myself from the chicken potpie that we don’t speak about, using leftovers from a roasted chicken.

The chicken recipe was from The Family Recipe Keeper. We had roasted potatoes from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I threw some carrots in with the chicken.

Here’s the potpie and Fancy, being so jealous.

We also had Meatball Marsala, from one of the Food Network magazines. I’ve misplaced it, but when I find it, I’ll post the edition number. It was good. I made fancy mashed red potatoes to go with it. It wasn’t a very pretty looking dish though.

Fancy was very concerned that we were leaving her behind and started laying on our bags or sticking like glue to one or the other of us. She also didn’t let me finish the quilt I needed for this weekend.

I ended up attempting to car quilt, which just made me a little car sick and then finally finished it while everyone else was napping.

I believe it’s a split 9 patch from Bonnie Hunter, but set on point instead of regular. The pattern has something funny with it, but still looks okay. Baby S loved it and spent at least a half an hour rolling around in it. This is what happened when I first attempted pictures.

Fancy loved her time with the tiny human and was so concerned about him that she spent the whole weekend following him around and whining when he cried.

She was very gentle with him, although she did try to chew on almost all of his toys. She shared hers, for the most part, but did very nicely take the ball back from him when he grabbed it. She was a spoiled dog and got a tennis ball of her very own, but chewed some holes in it instead of playing nice.

K made some lovely baby and dog friendly treats and S didn’t like them cold, so he shared them all with Fancy. She quickly learned that his highchair  meant delicious dropped things from up above.

The Husband and I ate very well too. There was beef stew waiting fir us when we arrived. We had homemade butternut squash ravioli and beef and parm ravioli for lunch.

The squash were cooked in butter and sage and the beef had a homemade golden marinara sauce over it. Mmmmm…. K gave me  ravioli maker to play with, so I might be making some pasta on Friday.

We had the traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage, with roasted veggies and carrots. Traditional soda bread too. It was all delicious!

We made Irish Whiskey Salted Caramel ice cream for dessert. One of the coolest things about K and A is that they have chickens and ducks! We got to use extremely fresh eggs for the ice cream. Guess which egg yolk is a duck egg yolk…

The ice cream was a little soft and a lot boozy! It was delicious though. Had it been harder, we probably would have made ice cream sandwiches with the giant homemade cookies that were made for the Husband. 🙂

I think we used a Pioneer Woman recipe for the Caramel sauce.

We had a great time and it was fun to meet the baby. He definitely helped wear Fancy out. She slept for most of yesterday.

Now she’s out basking in the sun. If we would let, her, she would probably stay there all day. 🙂 Hope your day is as sunny as her day!

Belated Recipe Roundup
Recipe Roundup

Belated Recipe Roundup

LSiehLeave a comment

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

LSiehLeave a comment

We’ve been eating leftovers, since Chinese New Year. We had so many! I made steamed buns on the day when every appointment, except my very last one, all cancelled for various reasons. I did make a few new things though.

Tonight we had a mushroom cream sauce over mini ziti, with baked calamari. The calamari were from Costco, I only baked them.

The Husband says that I just “wave my arms about” and food appears. Tonight was one of those recipes. It turned out good.

Here’s what I did:

Creamy Mushroom Pasta, recipe by me! 

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

2 T olive oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped

5-6 garlic chives- optional

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chicken broth- approximately. I forgot to measure.

1 lb mushrooms, sliced- I used button mushrooms.

2 T flour

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cooked pasta- I used half a box of mini ziti.

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put the butter and olive oil in a skillet and turn the heat to medium. Add the onion, garlic chives, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until veggies are soft. Sprinkle the flour over veggies and stir until coated. Add in the chicken broth, cook until the it thickens. Add the cream and cook until thickened and bubbly. Add garlic powder and salt and pepper. Add the Parm and stir. Put the cooked pasta in the sauce and mix until coated. Serve and enjoy!

I made a new breakfast recipe- Chai Pear Scones by Baked By an Introvert. https://www.bakedbyanintrovert.com/chai-pear-scones/

They have delicious bits of fresh pear in them. I would maybe up the spices a bit, but they were good. I did use the glaze, which I typically won’t do, but it was delicious. I brought them to my Supervision groups for the last two days, but sadly came home with a lot more than I can eat. I’m going to try freezing them, even with the glaze.

I had a craving for turkey burgers, so I found a fun Asian inspired recipe. It was originally a beef recipe from Carlsbad Cravings. https://carlsbadcravings.com/asian-burger-recipe/

I didn’t have a recipe when I went to the store, so ended up not using the slaw part. We also didn’t bother with the ketchup. Neither of us like it. I did make a little sweet chili mayo and it added a nice bit to the burger. It looked a little plain, so I sautéed mushrooms and green onions in olive oil. They turned out to be a pretty decent burger. I would make them again.

This week, the Husband is going out of town for a couple days, so I’m trying to decide what recipes I want to make just for me. Any good vegetarian ideas? Send them my way if you have them. I may also have some Lebanese food. Mmm… For now though, I’ve got some figure skating to watch and am trying to decide which thing to sew next. Have a great weekend!