Banana Oatmeal Blueberry Cookies

My sister in law, Jennifer found this recipe one day and every one jumped at the chance to make it, like the same day she posted it on Facebook, lol. She also has a food blog, The Rookie Cookie...with some interesting tales of her own :)

I am not wild about Bananas. I like banana bread and I like sliced bananas in cold cereal...but that's about it. I'm also not to wild about blueberries. I like blueberry muffins and blueberries in other certain foods...but I'm pretty picky about these things. But to combine the two...a little to much for me. But...I thought I would give this particular recipe a try for the snacks after the Awana Grand Prix race that took place last night. These cookies are called Banana Oatmeal Blueberry cookies :)

  What I liked about this recipe was that added ingredient of Cinnamon. It always adds a lot of flavor to foods. But I haven't actually done much cooking with oats. I've attempted to make my own home made oatmeal in the crockpot many times and it always ends up disastrous. So I was looking forward to baking with oats and it coming out successfully.  Am I the only ones who gets mix happy with your ingredients? I could just stir and stir the dry ingredients...I just think it's fun. Boy, am I a nerd.

So the next thing I got started on was the wet mix ( that's what I call it) and that only involved white and brown sugar, butter, honey and eggs. Yummy! I love honey. It makes everything taste good.  In the picture I posted...I'm missing the egg and honey because first you mix, er cream the butter and sugars. I used a blender because in my opinion it's more efficient than my hand, haha! Thennn, you add the delicious golden honey and the beautiful bright egg. And you get this gorgeous creamy batter that smells sweetly of honey. You can add a touch of Vanilla as well...but I forgot to, so oh well. 

It's funny because I had to fight for the last 3 bananas that we had hanging on our banana tree in the kitchen. Josh takes a banana with him to work almost every morning and Grace almost gets a banana with her breakfast daily. So Josh was a bit confused as to why I told him he couldn't take the bananas with him. He made a point of telling me, but you hate bananas! Well, that is true, lol. But I explained to him than I needed them to bake cookies for, and he was like...okkkaayyy. If you know Josh...then you can just about imagine how he said that, heehee. 

Soooo there you have it...3 beautiful ripe bananas just begging to be smashed by malicious shiny silver fork. Isn't it vindicating to see something you don't really like to be kind of...I don't know...beat up, pushed down, and shown who's boss? I had a lot of fun smashing those Nanners, lol.

Mix all the ingredients together so they all feel the love and your set to go for the blueberries. I had frozen blueberries on hand...and they worked fine. You have to thaw them out and then drain them.  Which is a little annoying because blueberries just leak juice. Which...can get everywhere...Not on me but, all over the mix. 

But once everything is combine, gently gently gently, combine the blueberries to everything else. 

 Preheat your oven to 350 and place a nice dollop on a greased baking sheet. I was skeptical about the cooking time. It says to bake for 10 minutes...but, sure enough 10 minutes was a perfect baking time. Golden on the bottom and moist on the inside.  The kids at the Awana Grand Prix gobbled them up and Grace and Josh especially loved them. There were enough leftover to send home with my in-laws and to have Josh being some to work as well :) I would make these again...but probably only for a big event...just because I'm not a banana person.

I'm a nut for White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

I love cookies, and aside from my deep love of chocolate chip cookies, I have an even bigger love of White Chocolate macadamia nut cookies. They are just too good. And also the very best thing to bring to a family gathering because it indulges everyone's craving for seconds and thirds...or more ;)

I've been searching for this cookie recipe for years now...why I didn't just turn to a food website, I'll never know. I always just Google'd it and came up empty. But Thank you All Recipes...my own personal food savior website, lol. I found a great simple yummy recipe that I plan to always go to now.


Even though, I've been wanting to make these cookies for awhile, macadamia nuts are not cheap as most of us know. A container of them can easily price out in the $15.00 or higher. But my smart mom, reminded me that I could easily just buy as much as I need in the health food section of Freddy's because they sale their nuts in bulk. DUH! So I did just that. I needed a cup of nuts (chopped) for the recipe. They cost $9.99lb at the store, but I only paid $2.10lb, SCORE!!

I did my research on this recipe. I picked the recipe with the best ratings and I read a bunch of reviews. They all said, to not use the recommended amount of butter, but instead to use 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup of Crisco. Also, some decided to not use the Almond Extract. I personally, love Almond Extract and I used 1/2 tsp...but I added a bit more Vanilla and bumped it up to 1 tsp vanilla. And I think it worked out perfectly.

Those few minor changes made a delicious cookie dough. And though, I am not one to sneak a taste of dough... I did and the flavor was delicious. I perfected the cooking time to about 7 minutes. The website suggested 10min. but I don't know many cookies that cook for that long. One person said 8 minutes was a good, but I felt 7 minutes was perfect. The edges a beautiful golden brown and still moist and chewy on the inside. Delicious. My husband actually said," These are the best cookies you've ever made." Apparently even better than Chocolate chip. Everyone loved the cookies and within 30minutes, I think I can safely say all 59 cookies were eaten :)  Needless to say, I will make these over and over again.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

adapted from : All Recipes

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate ( I used white chocolate chips)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt, gradually stir into the creamed mixture. 

Mix in the nuts and chocolate.

Drop dough by teaspoon sizes onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes, until golden brown. 

This recipe is Linked To:

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables

I just finished posting the "A little Taste of Italy" blog and I made some roasted Vegetables. I'm just transferring that recipe into the side dish labels for everyone : )

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables

12 oz potatoes, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces

1 small eggplant ( I used 2 carrots) peeled, and cut into 3 x 1/2 inch sticks

2 bell peppers (I used 1 yellow bell pepper) whatever color you want.  Cut into 1 inch pieces. 

1 cup red onion, sliced

2 Tbsp evoo

2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp chives

4 cloves garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 ( I preheated it to 450). Combine the first 4 ingredients in a large, shallow roasting pan ( I used an 8x8). Whisk together the oil, vinegar, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl until blended. Drizzle the mixture over the veggies and stir to coat. Roast uncovered, until the veggies are tender, stirring once halfway through the roasting pan. Cook for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm :)

This recipe is linked to:

Family Fresh Meal's Recipe of the Week

A taste of Italy

I'm Italian and I love food; especially Italian food.  I can easily picture myself living in some little Italian village, eating outside and drinking a glass of delicious red wine. One of my life goals...is to live abroad...at some point in my life. Italy...would be my choice destination and I'm pretty sure Josh will agree full-heartily with that. Who knows...it could happen right...especially with Josh's job. But until that happens, I will settle for making delicious Italian meals in the comfort of my home.

Thursday night, is normally a rushed evening for us because Grace has her Awana Club at the church. I have become better in the last few weeks of making more enjoyable meals for us all to be able to sit down and enjoy and it helps when Josh is able to get off earlier so we aren't rushing. But this Thursday night was different from other Thursdays. Josh is leaving Friday night/ Early Saturday morning to fly out to North Carolina for his best friends wedding. Since he'll be gone the whole weekend :( we felt it was best to spend as much time together as a family as we could. I know the girls are going to notice his absence and miss him terribly...and I can't even go into how I'm feeling about this whole thing. I'm a mess whenever he leaves...yes I know...I am pathetic and completely nuts about my man, what can I say? So for dinner Thursday night, I felt a home cooked Italian meal is just what the Dr. ordered. Pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil, and Chicken with Roasted Mediterranean Vegetables.  Yum!

 I was a little nervous about this recipe at first because I have never used fresh tomatoes for making a sauce. I know a lot of people who have done it...but I don't know...I was skeptical if it would be enough. I probably would of had a bit more sauce than I ended up with if my DH hadn't stolen one of my tomatoes from me earlier this week for the Cheeseburgers he grilled. But I made do with the Two I had on hand. I got busy seeding and chopping the tomatoes and fresh garlic and oh my word...the aroma that steamed out of my skillet was incredible. And then to add Parsley and Basil Delicious! I have a feeling the aroma may of been even more aromatic if the herbs were fresh...but I only had the dry on hand it worked out just fine.  The recipe for the sauce only serves 2...so you can imagine why I was freaking a bit when Josh had stolen 1 of 3 of my tomatoes but to my surprise there was enough for Josh and I and the two girls.

While I was working on the Vegetables and getting the Linguine cooked, I had Josh fire up the grill. It is suggested that I cook the chicken in a skillet...but the flavor of chicken off the grill is unreal so that is how I prefer to have my chicken cooked most times. But first I had to pound the chicken breasts out first. It was funny, because Josh was just going to have at it with the chicken on the cutting board...but there is a method to it and if he is to do this in the future, he needed to learn the method. Cutting board, plastic wrap, Chicken, and meat pounder ( or heavy skillet). I covered the cutting board with a layer of plastic wrap, then put the chicken on it, then more plastic wrap went over the chicken and then I pounded the meat ( with the non spiky side) until it was not as bulky and not to thin. A nice even layer of thickness. It looked beautiful by the time I finished taking my aggression out on the poor poultry.

I am writing this a bit out of order than I did it, but oh well. Before I worked on the sauce, I worked on the Veggies. The recipe calls for potatoes, eggplant, 2 bell peppers, and red onion. Now...I am not a fan of red onion. Yes, I've tried it...in a sandwich and I spit it out. Maybe in time, I'll warm up to it. So I omitted the onion. I also omitted the the eggplant. Have I ever tried Eggplant, why yes I have. I have always been curious about the pretty purple veggie...but very wary about how it would taste. I ended up trying my first eggplant about a month ago...and while I was not wild about it, I know plenty of people that sing it's praises. To me, it tastes like a veggie version of Tofu...which I am not also to wild about. But each to their own. So instead of the onion and eggplant, I added 2 carrots. I used regular yukon potatoes, 1 yellow bell pepper (yummy), and 2 carrots and that was more than enough for the 4 of us (even Edie ate some).  The dressing smells and tastes incredible...I think it has a lot to do with the Balsamic Vinegar, Holla!!!

Dinner only took about 20-25minutes cooking time. The prep work of the chopping and stuff takes it a smidge longer. Simple, delicious, and perfect for the beautiful spring weather  we've been having. I'm going to post the veggies under a separate post ; side dishes...just so you can find it easier if you want to check under labels and you don't have to sort through the whole post. This dinner is extremely flavorful and delicious and easy. The only thing missing was a little mood music and Grace want Franz Shubert...so that's what we listened too :)

Pasta with Fresh tomatoes, basil, and Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

3 ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped ( dried is fine too)

2 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp evoo

6-8 oz linguini

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded ( we actually didn't use any cheese and it was amazing0

Using the flat side of meat mallet, pound chicken breasts to 1/2 inch thickness. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. In a large heavy skillet ( or grill), heat 1 1/2 tsp oil over medium heat. Add chicken and sear until well browned on both sides and cooked; about 5 minutes on each side.

In a second skillet, heat one tablespoon of evoo, simmer the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, basil, sugar, salt and pepper over love heat, stirring constantly until sauce is cooked. Add lemon juice until heated. Toss cooked chicken into the sauce, and keep warm.

Cook Linguini according to the package direction. Spoon sauce over hot linguini and sprinkle with cheese. 

Whole-Wheat Pancakes with a Strawberry Sauce

I love breakfast...but I like yummy big breakfasts...not cereal or yogurt. Those plain meals just don't hold much excitement for me. But let me be very clear here...I am never the one to make the "Big Breakfasts." My husband takes much joy in preparing those meals. He loves to get in there and experiment.  I however...don't do a lot of experimenting...I make the things I know how to make.

A couple of years ago when I was pregnant with Eden I was watching the Food Network Channel. This recipe caught my eye because all I craved during that pregnancy was fruit and I had a huge love of strawberries then...still do actually. The recipe was Whole-Wheat Pancakes with a Strawberry Sauce. Doesn't that just sound delicious? Well, imagine a 6 month pregnant person watching it and then not being able to eat it when the show was finished...pure torture. So that weekend I went out and I recreated it and it was out of this world. And now...I am bringing the recipe to you. :) Aren't you lucky readers :)

I have always made my pancakes out of a box...but when I saw the show's host "Ellie Krieger" make pancakes out of scratch...it just looked so easy...why wasn't I doing this before?

Do you ever feel like you almost become someone else when your cooking? Like maybe you feel like Julia Child when your making Boeuf Bourguignon or Martha Stewart when you decorate a cake. I feel like Betty Crocker when I make something from scratch. And that's how I felt while I was mixing together a bunch of dry pancake ingredients, is that silly?

The recipe calls for Buttermilk. Now I didn't have any buttermilk and Josh couldn't find any at the store on his way home, but you wanna hear a cool little trick? If you need buttermilk, take a Tablespoon of Lemon Juice and pour it into the bottom of a cup or bowl. Then take about a cup of milk and pour it on top of the juice. Let it stand for 5 minutes and your good to go.  So once the dry mixture was ready to go and I had the wet mixture ready, I combinend to two and it will make a lumpy like batter. All you need is about 1/3 cup, maybe a bit less and start making your pancakes on the griddle. The batter will kind of puff up and make these beautiful pancakes that are really thick and fluffy. While the pancakes are cooking, puree the strawberries and pour into a saucepan until warm. Then add a bit more lemon juice and maple syrup and it's done. So simple...and smells sooo good. 

You can pour some of the sauce onto the plate first and then top with the pancakes and powdered Sugar or Pancakes, strawberry sauce, and powdered sugar. You can't go wrong; either way it is going to end up tasting delicious! Grace had the sauce poured onto her plate first and Josh and I did the other way...so the choice is up to you! 

Whole-Wheat Pancakes with a Strawberry Sauce

Source: Food Network

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup low-fat buttermilk

1/2 cup non-fat milk

1 TB honey

1/4 tsp vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Preheat a large non-stick griddle or skillet over a medium-low flame. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. In another medium bowl, beat together buttermilk, eggs, milk, honey, and vanilla. 

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing only enough to combine them. The batter will be lumpy. 

Use a 1/3 cup to ladle the batter onto the griddle or skillet. Flip the pancake when the top is bubbly and it is golden brown on the bottom. The cook until the other side is golden brown. Hold on an oven proof plate in the oven until the entire batch is ready.  Ladle about 1/3 cup of the strawberry sauce onto each plate, place pancakes on top and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. 

Strawberry Sauce:

16 ounces strawberries, fresh or frozen

1 tsp lemon juice

2 TB Maple Syrup

Puree strawberries to a chunky puree. Heat them in a small saucepan over a low flame, until they are just warm. Stir in lemon juice and maple syrup. 

Nun's Puffs?

I have been feeling the need to bake something for a few days now. Sometimes, I just get "that" urge to go into the kitchen and make a mess or experiment with something new and different; and though I didn't make a mess...I did experiment with something new and different.

Have you ever heard of a Nun's Puff? I hadn't till today. I was flipping through my Better Homes and Garden cookbook and I came across this little recipe. It's little because it doesn't call for many ingredients and the ones that are being called to use are staples we all have around the house. I thought, "hmm, this might be a tasty little treat for after dinner tonight." If you remember from my last post, Dinner was a roasted chicken.  So after dinner was done and I had the kitchen clean, I got to work on the puffs.

The directions seemed simple enough. So I got to work melting 1/2 cup of butter and adding the milk.  About here is where I preheated the oven to 375. I let that come to a boil and immediately added the 3/4 cup of flour. Right away it thickens up to this dough like combo. I nearly sprained my arm stirring the combo until it made a ball shape and wasn't breaking apart. I was then instructed by my handy cookbook to let it cool down for 5 minutes. So I did and cleaned up the flour mess I made. Have you ever noticed that no matter how careful you are with Flour to not spill it everywhere...it somehow does just that. Quite annoying that baking product is. After 5 minutes I started adding the eggs, one at time...and there are 4 of them. My goal, a smooth texture and to do that I had to stir each egg in to make the mixture get smoother. I filled the cupcake holders half way up, sprinkled them with sugar, and popped in the oven for 30 minutes. I made a mistake here in the following of directions in the book. It told me to grease the muffin tins...I would not do that again. I would just use prepared muffin paper cups. I think it would just work better.

After 30 minutes, I removed the puff's from the oven...and it made me mad that it didn't look like the picture. The Puffs are supposed to be huge and overflowing kind of. But I think here is where I made mistake number 2. My oven was still very hot from when I cooked the Chicken and it had preheated in rather record time. So I think maybe the overdose of the heat screwed up my puffy puffs. :( But on a  happy note...the Nun's Puffs were quite delicious. It's recommended that I use cinnamon or honey to top the puff with...I tried the honey and it was good...but what I really enjoyed topping it with was jam. Delicious jam!! I am a huge fan of Jam and I have some great marionberry jam that just made this Nun's Puff "heavenly"...despite the lack of puffiness.

Would I make them again...yes, I would. I would make sure the oven is a normal temperature before I started the process and I think I would make it more of a breakfast pastry than a dessert pastry.  But I am so thrilled that I tried something new and it was pretty successful. :)

Nun's Puffs
Adapted From The Better Homes and Garden Cookbook.

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk

3/4 cup flour

4 eggs

1 TB sugar

Honey (optional)

Generously grease 12 muffin cups, including the edge and around the top of each cup; set aside. In a medium saucepan melt butter, add milk. Bring to boiling. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball that does not separate. Remove from heat; cool for 5 minutes.

Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating for 1 minute with a wooden spoon after each addition or until smooth. Divide dough evenly among prepared muffin cups, filling the cups about two-thirds full; sprinkle with sugar. 

Bake in a 375 oven about 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove from pan and serve immediately. If desired, serve with honey.

I reccomend Jam. Josh and I both agreed that it was delicious with jam :)

Tastes like Chicken...Roasted Lemon herb Chicken

They say practice makes perfect. I guess they (whoever they are) are right. The idea of cooking a whole chicken  seemed like such a great meal with endless possibilities. I love the idea of cooking a "Whole Chicken," but I hate the idea of having to clean the chicken. Everything else, I am more than happy to do...it's the cleaning part the makes my skin quiver. But now that I have done this 3-4 times now...I can honestly say...I'm not quite as grossed out or afraid of it as I was in the beginning. Of course, in the beginning I begged my Mommy to come over and walk me through it. Now, I do it on my own...without even having to call my mom ;) There is something about sticking your hand inside a birds rear end that is just GROSS! All the giblets and other loose darkish brown stuff I could do without. I can cut the fat off it's rear. I can even cut the neck off...though it can be a difficult little bugger. Cleaning it out is the only thing I hate to do. The rinsing of it takes awhile...you want to make sure it's not leaking any reddish fluid...but I do find I really enjoy the prep work of making it smell delicious for it's impending date with the inside of my oven ( or on occasion, crockpot).

Tonight, I'm making a Roasted Lemon Herb Chicken. Along side it will be rutabagas, turnips, carrots, and red potatoes. A whole chicken was always one of my favorite meals my mom would make for me when I was living at home. The house always smelled amazing and I would stay planted on the bar stool as I watched my mom prepare it and I took in the aroma...I wish you all could try my mom's cooking...it's INCREDIBLE! But, unfortunately for me, since my mom doesn't live with me, I have to recreate the same meals for my kids. My mom gave me a base recipe that I have written down in my Food Binder ( a binder full or recipes)...Rosemary, lemon, garlic, and salt and pepper. I had been buying the poultry herbs you can find pre packaged in the produce section, but a few nights ago I came across an Orange Herb Roasted Chicken...I had everything but the oranges...but I decided to go with a different recipe on allrecipes.com.

After gutting the chicken, rinsing, and patting dry I put it belly down in my roasting pan (yes, Josh brought it back home to me ;)). I mixed all the seasonings together : and rubbed it all on the inside and threw in a clove of Garlic, one half of the lemon I squeezed the juice out o,f and a few sprigs or rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Just to add a bit more of familiar flavor so the lemon wouldn't be overpowering. Then, I chopped up all my roots veggies. Oh my goodness, right now as I am typing this up...my knuckels on my right hand are throbbing. Looking back...I chopped way more than I needed (as usual), but I like leftovers :) I combined the fresh squeezed lemon juice, and evoo together and poured it over the chicken then added the rest of the seasonings. It goes into the oven at 350 for 1 hour and 45 minutes and I was done. I got to kick back and do what I wanted until it was time for dinner. So I cleaned the kitchen, washed the dishes and did my Bible Study.

Josh is my go-to man when it comes to carving the bird. I refuse to do it...well I don't refuse, but I do push the responsibility onto him, and I don't think he really minds to much. So Josh came home and Gracie set the table for us while Josh and I got dinner on the plates. The house smelled sooo good and if I do say so myself...I would say the chicken not only looked perfect...but tasted like perfection too. Moist and delicious!

Roasted Lemon Herb Chicken

Source: Allrecipes

2 tsp Italian Seasoning

1/2 tsp seasoning salt

1/2 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 (3 pound) whole chicken

2 lemons

2 TB olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the seasoning salt, mustard powder, garlic powder, and black pepper; set aside.  Rinse the chicken thoroughly, and remove the giblets. Place the chicken in roasting pan. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp of of the spice mixture inside the chicken. Rub the remaining spice mixture on the outside of the chicken.

Squeeze the juice of 2 lemons into a small cup or bowl and mix with the olive oil. Drizzle the oil/juice mixture over the chicken. 

Bake in pre-heated oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until juices run clear, basting several times with the remaining oil/juice mixture. 

A thwarted meal

Tonight, I was going to blog about the dinner I had made. Did you catch those words...was & had... it was Past Tense. Tonight I was going to blog about the Whole Chicken I was going to roast. But...alas, my DH (Darling Hubby) has thwarted my dinner plans. But let me clarify...it was not on purpose that he did this...he's just well...he's a man. And though he is the most Brilliant man I know...he can also not think or ask if it's okay to take something from my kitchen ;) Any other day, this would of been fine...but the fact is that it was today...is what's funny and makes it a good story.

Every Monday morning, Josh has a breakfast meeting with everyone he works with. Last night, he made French Toast for the breakfast (isn't he nice?) Also last night, I was overly tired and pretty much unable to function so I had asked him if he would take the whole chicken out of the freezer and stick it in the fridge. That he did...but he took my roasting pan with him to work to help him carry all the plates and forks he also stole from the house.  Needless to say 4:30pm rolled around and I wandered into the kitchen to get started on the chicken and thankfully, I didn't start on the chicken first, but rather looked for the pan. When I saw it was missing it was like a light bulb came on above my head. I knew he had taken it from the house. So, I did what most woman would do...I screamed at him through email, LOL! Well I wrote in all caps demanding to know where my pan was, even though I knew it was with him...I just needed confirmation. Within 20 secs I had a phone call from my hubby who said right away...please don't scream at me. LOL!

It is kind of funny and entertaining and makes a good story. But it is also annoying and frustrating. He just didn't think about it. So I can only blame him so much. But I told him, he was making dinner and I gave him the option of Frozen Stuffed Shells or Grilling Cheeseburgers tonight. I hope he chooses the latter, because that is what now sounds good to me. So though there was no technical food blog...you did get a funny story :)

Kitchen Item of the Week: Measuring Cups & Spoons

Measuring Cups and spoons are something every cook/baker needs. It is an item "Must Have." I have two sets of cups and spoons and I use them a lot. I don't think it's as important to have this stuff for cooking as it is for baking. If your going to bake...these are essential to making your dish a success. If your not going to use them...then why are you baking? I figure pretty much anything you will make will turn out into a disaster. If a recipe calls for salt...you want to have the right amount. It would be awful if your chocolate chip cookies tasted more salty than sweet.

You can find them anywhere and they are a dime a dozen...in fact I'm sure the dollar store even has them. I was given a nice set for my birthday a few years back. They are plastic and the labels have rubbed off now, but I still use them a lot even though I bought a nicer stainless steel set a few years ago. I think having a set of two is nice to have since I do quite a bit of baking. So lesson of the day...if you plan to bake...invest in a set! :)

It's not Lasagna, it's pastagna!

I have a bad habit of making to much Pasta. Maybe it's the Italian in me, but I always make enough to feed the whole neighborhood and have leftovers for a week too. Maybe in a way...I do it on purpose. I think I secretly like having having a huge bowl full of Pasta at the end of the meal. Pasta is just a comfort food and almost always heats up well the next day. Pasta is also a meal...that just seems to bring people together and makes things fun, not forced.  Which is why it was the Perfect meal for me to make when we had Josh's brother over for dinner and a movie Tuesday night.

Jeffrey, is one of those individuals that is just easy. Easy to be around, easy to cook for, and has this easy going personality. I figured since he was coming over I needed a meal that would be delicious...but also since he is a growing young man ( 17 yrs) he may want seconds and Pasta would be great for seconds, and thirds and fourths :)  I was already going to make this meal this week, but when Josh called me earlier in the day and said," What do you think about having Jeff down for a movie and dinner tonight" I knew that I would be making this meal. 

The Pasta is like a delicious lasagna meat sauce...but made with smaller noodles and packed with flavor. I came across the recipe one day when Rachael Ray made it on 30 minute meals on the food network channel and is simply titled as Not-sagna Pasta Toss! I knew that since there was ground sirloin in it I needed to get that thawed out so as soon as Josh gave me the okay that Jeff was coming over, I took it out of the freezer at noon and it was perfectly thawed out by 6:30pm. 


 The first thing I did was work on my side dish. The Asparagus was on sale this week and I thought it would be a nice companion to the Pasta. So I rinsed it all off ( Something I forgot to do Saturday after grocery shopping) and started snapping the ends off. For those who have never cooked with asparagus...it's one of my fave veggies. The fun thing when cooking with it is snapping the ends off. When you cook with Asparagus you don't use the whole stalk. If you take one stalk and bend the end it will naturally have a breaking spot and that is where you want it to snap to cook with. I actually really enjoy snapping them individually. I think I get some weird twisted satisfaction of hearing the "SNAP" sound.  Then...I decided since I was already going to be using to burners on the stove I thought I would roast it in the oven. It is now one of fave ways to cook Asparagus. It gets this nice smoky/wooden flavor and has a nice crunch. So I minced up 2 cloves of Garlic and sprinkled it over the asparagus and then sprinkled salt and pepper over them and doused it with EVOO and mixed it all together and set it aside till it was time to throw it in the oven. Okay, I didn't really throw it...I placed it :)

Then I needed to get to work on the ground sirloin and pasta. I filled up a huge pot with water so it could start boiling and I got the sirloin in my pan. I broke it down into smaller pieces and then got to work on chopping my garlic. I am supposed to add an onion as well. But Josh has a thing against them and though I am not much of a fan either, I am a bit more open minded than he is. Once the meat had browned a bit, I added the garlic and red pepper flakes. I know I am supposed to measure this stuff, but I have more fun shaking the bottles as I add it. I combined that and the smell of the garlic and pepper cooking with the sirloin hits you. It's amazing! About this time, my water was boiling. So I dumped in my fusilli noodles and salted the water generously and stirred it just a tad and got back to my meat sauce. I added my Salt and Pepper and Worcestershire sauce to the meat and I was supposed to add allspice and I didn't have any...so I left it out. :( After about 5 minutes, I deglazed the pan with some red wine. I find that red wine adds more of a flavor than the dry red wine you find in the cooking section. And no worries about getting tipsy off the wine, all the alcohol cooks out and your left with a very smooth flavor.  I love cooking with wine for that reason. Whether you drink or not...I think we can all appreciate flavor and you get the very best with real wine. Cook it for just a moment and then add the beef stock and stir in the crushed tomatoes. I let it come to a bubble then I reduced the heat and allowed it to simmer. 

Around this time I put my asparagus and garlic bread into my oven. I had it pre-heated to 400 degrees and just let the asparagus cook for 10-15minutes. Meanwhile, while the sides were roasting away in the oven I got to work on my Ricotta Cheese. I love Ricotta Cheese. Actually I love pretty much every cheese...but there is so much that can be done with Ricotta. In your huge pasta bowl, take a ladle of the hot starchy noodle water and pour it into your serving bowl. Then add the Ricotta and mix together until combined. The recipe calls for Parmigiana Reggiano, but again it was to spendy at the store so I just used regular Parmesan. I mixed that into the Ricotta Cheese and drained the noodles and added them to the Ricotta mixture. Mix it really good. Believe it or not, there is enough there for every single noodle. Add half of the meat mixture and combine, add basil and toss again. Add the remaining sauce and I like to mix it again just for kicks and giggles. While Grace set the table, I served up all the plates and Josh got drinks ready.  

Dinner was perfect! The Company was great and the conversations and laughs made memories. It was really fun for me to sit there and watch Josh bond more with his little brother...who isn't really little anymore...he is super tall.  When dinner was over the boys did the dishes. I think that is my fave part...getting out of doing the dishes. But when they were done...my kitchen sparkled and I didn't have to lift a finger :) After the kids went to bed, the boys made an ice cream run and then we started The Matrix. Such a great movie and brings back a lot of memories of high school, LOL. Such a long time ago!

Not-sagna Pasta Toss

Source: Food Network, Rachael Ray

1 lb curly short pasta, like fusilli 

Coarse Salt

2 TB EVOO

1 lb ground sirloin

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Black Pepper

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup dry red wine

1/2 cup beef stock

1 (28 oz) can crushed red tomatoes

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese

1 cup fresh basil ( about 20 leaves)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

Heat a large pot of water to boil to cook pasta. Salt water and cook pasta till al dente. Reserve a cup or so of starchy cooking water for the sauce.

Heat a deep nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add evoo and meat and break it up into bits so the meat can caramelize. Once the meat has a good color ( about 5 minutes), add garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, black pepper, allspice, and worcestershire sauce.  Cook another 5 minutes and deglaze the meat and onions with red wine and cook off for about a minute, then combine the beef stock. Add the crushed tomatoes and bring to a bubble. Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. 

Place ricotta cheese in the bottom of a large shallow bowl. Add a ladle full of starchy cooking water to ricotta cheese and stir to combine. Add a couple of handfuls of cheese to the ricotta and mix it in.

Drain pasta. Toss hot pasta with cheeses. Add half of the thick meat mixture to the pasta and combine. Tear or shred some of the basil  and then add the rest of the meat to the pasta and toss again. Taste to adjust salt and pepper. Serve bowlfuls of Not-sagna with extra sauce on top and more grated cheese to pass at the table.

This recipe is linked to:

Taste and Tell's Saturdays with Rachael Ray

The Easter Holiday brought yummy desserts...

I love holidays because of the food. I like to see what the different holidays will bring in the food area. A lot of people have traditions when it comes to food at holidays. Turkey at Thanksgiving, Ham at Christmas, and this year it was a Roast at Easter. (Provided by my in-laws)

I was brought up that if you are invited over to someone's house for dinner...you bring something. Whether it be a bouquet of  flowers for the hostess, a side dish, or a dessert. You never ever show up empty handed. And I admire being brought up that way because it is nice to have someone contribute something. It shows you care and by bringing something I think your helping out the person who is doing all the cooking. What I tend to bring are desserts. I wouldn't say they are extremely elaborate or anything. But I do like to bring something sweet that I know everyone is going to enjoy.

We had previously gone over to my parents house for dessert and coffee after church. My parents had bought a yummy chocolate cake from Cosco and they wanted to give all the grand kids the opportunity to open their Easter Baskets. But we were going to have dinner at Josh's family's house that year. Every year we switch off who gets to have dinner with us. We try and make it an even thing among all the siblings so my parents have everyone there and vice versa for the other families.

Earlier in the week I had presented Josh with two Dessert Choices. A peanut butter cup pie or a chocolate mousse tort. Josh, being the peanut butter lover he is wanted the pie, as well as most of his family. But his mom was intrigued by the mousse tort and after talking it over with Josh, I decided that I could and would make both.  The pie itself was a pretty simple recipe. I've made quite a few peanut butter pies in the past year so I wasn't to concerned that it wouldn't turn out right. The only thing I was debating was making my own chocolate crust. I don't have any problems with making my own crusts as long as I have the time to do it. They can get a little time consuming and since I was going to be making two desserts the night before a holiday, I decided that it would be better if this time, I took a little help from a store a bought one of the pre-made crusts. I don't like doing that...but oh well. The Peanut Butter Cup Pie probably only took 15 minutes to prepare and it just had to sit in the fridge till it was ready to be eaten.

The Chocolate Mousse Tort I was a little more apprehensive about... just because the directions sounded a bit confusing. But I was able to watch a how to video and I wasn't freaked out any longer. This dessert looks really fancy, but I think it's a fake out dessert. You start with a cake pan and put plastic wrap on the inside and then line the sides with Vanilla Wafers. I am not a vanilla wafer fan...I like my cookies to be soft. And all you do is mix ingredients together and layer it in, inside the cake pan. The recipe calls for Chocolate pudding, semi-sweet bakers chocolate and cool whip and that makes the mousse. Pour that into the pan. Then you mix the cream cheese and sugar together and that goes as the next layer. Place more wafers on top of that and stick it in the fridge for 3-4 hrs. I think I had it in the fridge for 4 hrs. In the fridge, the mousse stiffens up and it allows the wafers to stick to the sides so that when you invert the pan onto a serving platter nothing budges.  I can't tell you how scared I was to invert that stupid cake pan. I was scared it was all going to fall apart. But, it didn't. It fell out easily onto my cake platter (thanks to the plastic wrap). I put some more cool whip on top, with some fresh raspberries and then I made little chocolate curls to top the dessert off and it was done. It looked beautiful. But it tasted incredible! The wafers ended up getting soft and really complimenting the texture and flavor of the mousse. I would make this dessert again.

I sampled both desserts that night. I liked the mousse more than the pie because I'm not really a pie person and I like peanut butter in small doses. The pie to me was extremely rich and I had such a tiny piece and I couldn't finish it. So Josh did for me. He ended up having two slices and many others went back for seconds. Which made me very happy :) Both of these desserts are extremely easy and delicious and do not disappoint! You can find the recipes here:

Chocolate Mousse Tort

Peanut Butter Cup Pie

Chicken Cordon Bleu Burgers with an Apple Chutney Sauce

My husband has a passion for burgers. And I love to be able to indulge his cravings for a decent burger from time to time. But I am not a burger making queen. My dear Rachael Ray holds that title. One of the reasons I enjoy her cooking and her show so much is because she cooks for the every day people. She makes food accessible and fun ...something you desperately need when your in the kitchen. Let's face it, we don't always want to be in the kitchen cooking. There are days when you just don't feel like it. Today was one of those days for me.

I've known what I was going to cook for dinner tonight most of the week.  Lucky for me, it's a meal I enjoy cooking because it involves different flavors and it mixes things up. But I've been fighting a headache off for the past few days and I really didn't want to cook tonight. But Josh got home a little bit earlier than expected and when I saw him walk in the door...for whatever reason...I got excited to make him this meal, because this meal is a rare treat for him. Tonight I was making Chicken Cordon Bleu Burger with an Apple Chutney sauce...on a burger?? I know, it's different right? It certainly doesn't sound your typical condiment for a burger. But I saw Rachael Ray make this recipe back in 2007 and I've made it several times since it aired and every time I get the same reaction from Josh. His eyes close as he sinks his teeth into the delicious moist burger while chutney drips off the bun and onto his plate and he give a slight groan as he licks his lips and says,
" This is amazing."

I love all the ingredients in this recipe and they are fun to play with. I think the most interesting thing though is making the patties. Ground chicken is a funny thing. It's incredibly lean and moist, which tends to make it on the mushy side when your sculpting your patties...not to mention very very messy. But before we get to the making of the burgers themselves...we have to start with the amaziness that is this burger...The Apple Chutney.  In order to make this delicious concoction,  you need apples, ( the recipe recommends Macintosh, but I used Gala) brown sugar, nutmeg, apple cider vinegar, and whole-berry cranberry sauce. Sounds like a pretty interesting mix of ingredients right? Well, you should smell them together. There is a slightest hint of a bitter smell in the air due to the vinegar...but the sweetness of the apples really compliments the bitterness. You heat up all the chutney ingredients except the cranberries until the apples are tender about 10minutes or so. Once the apples are soft and tender, reduce the heat and add the cranberries and it will thicken up. Then your done with that. It just hangs out on the stove grooving with each other until served on top of the burgers.

You are going to want to remove any and all jewelry on your fingers for this next part, because as I said earlier...it gets a little messy. Combine the ground chicken, swiss cheese, and ham ( I was using leftover honey baked ham from X-mas) some Thyme and grill seasoning in a bowl. Make sure all the ingredients are mixed well through because those are your only seasoning for the chicken itself. I take a little help from Rachael on the next part because it really does help with making the patties be an equal amount for everyone. Once everything is mixed together score the bowl into 4 sections and grab a section and start making a patty shape with your hands. Let me take one step back real quick...make sure your pan or grill is heating up while doing this. I was excited because I got to use my new cast iron grill pan. Place the patties in the pan and don't touch it for another 5-6 minutes...that's all the time you really need on each side of the patty. With that time you can either make some some sort of side to go with it. The burgers themselves are pretty filling so we just had Salt and Vinegar Kettle Chips with dinner. But if you get the recipe off Rachael's site she make a slaw salad and dressing to go along with it.

Here is the last twist to this fascinating meal...instead of buns, were using English Muffins! Who doesn't love an English muffin, they just sound so happy? Toast the muffins up in your toaster oven or in the broiler for just a few moments and then place the patty on the bottom muffin and then layer that wonderful good smelling chutney on top of the burger and place the top of the English on it and your all set. It really doesn't get much better than this meal. What's great about it is, if you don't have a grill or the weather is nasty out ( like it was here today) this meal is perfect for the weather and it works well with being cooked on the stove.

Looks good doesn't it? Well it is and I really hope you try it sometime because the smells alone will wrap you up and clothe you with tastiness. But the bite...is possibly better than the smell...if that is possible ;)

Chicken Cordon Bleu Burgers
Source: Rachael Ray Show

For the Burgers:

3 slices ham 1/4 inch thick, diced into cubes

1 4-ounce  chunk swiss cheese, diced into 1/4 inch cubes

1 1/4 lb ground chicken breast

2 sprigs thyme, chopped

2 TB grill seasoning

For the Chutney:

4 apples, cored and chopped

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

nutmeg, freshly grated

1/2 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce

1/4 cup golden raisins 

4 sandwich sized english muffins, split and toasted

1 large bag salt and vinegar potato chips

In a small saucepan, cook the apples, cider vinegar, brown sugar, and nutmeg until apples are soft, about 10-15 minutes. Once the mixture has reduced and is thickened add the cranberry sauce and raisins. Allow to sit while you make the burgers

In a large bowl, combine the ham, cheese, chicken, thyme, and grill seasonings and season with salt and pepper. Once mixed together, flatten the meat in the bottom of the bowl and score into 4 equal parts. Form patties about 1-inch thick. Preheat a large nonstick skillet with about 2 TB evoo, add patties and cook for about 5-6 minutes. 

Place each burger on top toasted english muffins, top with apple-cranberry chutney sauce and serve with chips!

This recipe is linked to:

Taste and Tell's Saturdays with Rachael Ray

Kitchen Item of the week: The Wooden Spatula

This is a little bit later in the week than I planned on, but I didn't want to miss another week. This will probably be fairly short though, since I've been fighting a headache for a few days now.

I've always used a plastic spatula for my cooking. Browning meat, stirring, etc. But a couple of years ago, we decided to try out the wooden spatula because we had heard good things about it. We picked one up at Target and the first time I used it, I was in love. The meat broke up so much easier and I had so much a of a better grip with it. I rarely use my plastic spatulas for anything now...flipping pancakes or other things that need to be flipped  or dug up some how like fries or cookies off a baking sheet.

The one I have is a little bit different than the ones in the pictures, but they come in all different varieties. I would eventually like to get a few more. But they are great utensils to have in the kitchen :)

My Italian roots let me down

I would be lying if I said I was anywhere near the perfect cook I wish I was. I haven't been to culinary school and I've never really learned techniques. I've had one semester of a healthy cooking and fitness class in Middle School and that was it. But for the most part...I am a decent cook and more often than not, the recipes I work on are successful. Which tells you what...last night's dinner was not successful...at least in my opinion.

I have the tendency to get easily stressed and anxious. I can multi-task...but I'm  not so good at it when I'm doing stuff I don't always do. And I really feel that it wouldn't be fair to anyone if I only wrote about my successes in the kitchen. I have failures too; like last night's Chicken Piccata.

Chicken Piccata is one of my favorite dishes. It is the only thing I will order when I go to Pastini ( a charming little Italian Restaurant) . Which is also the only place I've ever really found that serves that dish. What I love about it, is that it's light, the flavors aren't overpowering, and it's filling without making you feel like you've gorged yourself. I've been looking for a recipe for awhile now and I finally found one athttp://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cooking-school-chicken-piccata and after reading the recipe probably a dozen times, I figured it looked simple enough...I can do this. WRONG!

As I look back on last night now...I can see several things that were pointing in the direction of a complete meltdown. About 35minutes before I was to start dinner...I got a horrible headache. It was a throbbing aching one at the very top of my forehead right where the hairline is. When I went to fetch the capers from my cupboard, I quickly scanned over the jar and I read it was immersed in Vinegar... but the capers needed to soak in water for 20 minutes...well I don't know if this had anything to do with it, but the jar expired in 2008, oops! And as far as prep work for the chicken and cooking it went, I was doing great. I sliced my chicken breast into cutlets perfectly. I pounded the meat to perfection without making any tears or holes. And it cooked up nicely. But around the time the last piece of chicken was done...the kids started to get ansty. Let me clarify for a moment right here, I had requested to make this dish with Josh when he got home...and he said that was fine...but I could tell from his tone that he was really tired so I went ahead with the meal on my own. Grace started asking me a ton of questions, Eden was roaming around yelling at everything (it's actually quite cute...it's not an angry yell, very playful) and I was trying to talk to Grace, while keeping an eye on the chicken, and dash over the baby gate that separates the kitchen from the living room so I could look at the recipe on the computer.  (Normally I have the recipe printed out, but for whatever reason, the computer has decided that for the last 6-9 months it has an attitude problem and refuses to print.)

Needless to say, I could feel myself starting to feel overwhelmed very quickly. I was trying to make a lovely Italian meal for my family. Normally Italian dishes come naturally to me, but tonight it wasn't going to happen. When it came time to make the Piccata Sauce, the pan was to hot and I had forgot to turn it down so when I first tried to pour the dry white wine into the pan, it screamed and bubbled till it practically evaporated and when I finally did get everything in there....then my pan made a huge POP sound and the liquid jumped right out of the pan all over the floor...which I then had to clean up while also trying to reduce a  sauce and add more ingredients too. I wanted to make the meal like the one I get at Pastini. So I had cooked up some Linguine noodles and I thought that if I doubled the sauce it would be enough to lightly coat the noodles. Wrong again. Around that time, Josh got home and he needed to change, etc. By the time he got back out...dinner was ready...if you want to call it that. The chicken was no longer hot ( my foil trick refused to work with me) the sauce was overcooked and there was nothing there but capers, ( that tasted horribly of vinegar, still) The noodles were dry. The only thing that turned out good was the corn I had prepared and the rustic bread that had a little butter on it.

We sat down and I took a bite and I could tell instantly that even the chicken that was cooked to perfection, it had waited to long to be eaten. I didn't even eat the noodles. Grace, was none the wiser. She loved it and cleaned her plate, God bless her. Josh was telling me it wasn't bad and I did good and I shouldn't be so hard on myself.  Eden ate the corn and bread.  I was so mad at myself and disappointed that I worked myself into a grumpy little frenzy and not even adorable little Eden who was sitting in my lap could make me smile.  When dinner was over, Josh got Eden in the tub. I think he knew that I needed time to myself, so that I could calm myself down and I did the dishes...which actually helped. As I scrubbed away the mess I had made...I felt better. I was scrubbing away a meal that didn't turn out perfectly...maybe it could of if it the circumstances had been different. But by the time the kitchen was clean...I was in a better mood. Only tired, by then. The kids went to bed shortly after that. We let them stay up so Eden could finish her milk and Grace wanted to watch Josh on the Wii Fit. But when the kids went to bed, Josh ran across the street to grab me a Frosty from Wendy's and you know what...I was in a much better mood then :)

I had taken pics to go along with this post. But I don't really feel the need to show what it's not supposed to look like. You know what I mean? So better luck next time right? I will try the recipe again someday. But for now...I think I will stick to going to a restaurant for my Piccata.