Out of town for a few days :)

Hi everyone :)

I just wanted to let everyone know, that me and the rest of my cute little cat family will be heading to the coast tomorrow morning for a few days. My sister is graduating from Bible College tomorrow morning and then the rest of the weekend we'll be spending resting and soaking up each other for a few days just the 4 of us.

Sadly, this means I won't be attending any of the fun link-ups this weekend...unless some are opened tonight...but if they are still open when I get back I will try and link up.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I'll miss I'll my blogging buddies, but I'm so excited to get away for a few days with my family.

Love,
Chels

Homemade Pizza Pockets

I love coming across new foodie blogs. I love all the ideas that I get when I read someone else's post or pictures. There is so much talent out there it's overwhelming. But the one thing I keep coming across each time I find a new blogger is how humble and sweet they are. They are all blogging for the same reasons I am, because we have a passion for food, serving, and taking pictures of our master pieces. We may all get started for different reasons...but it's our passion for it that helps us all meet in the middle.

This is so true of a blog I've recently started reading. She calls herself SnoWhite and her husband, Frog Prince. Do you know who they are yet? They are the creators of Finding Joy in my Kitchen. I've chatted with SnoWhite a few times and she is so kind and helpful and very encouraging. And what I love is that they are a cooking team like my husband and I and like Two Peas and their Pod. I love foodie making couples!

They recently did a post on making Pizza Pockets and they're story was so similar to ours with how they used to buy the stuff in the freezer section and now they make their own. I loved that idea! We haven't had a pizza pockets in ages! So I asked Josh if this was a meal he was interested in and he was so I went for it.

To make the dough for the pockets, I took some yeast and dissolved it in warm water for about a minute.  Then I added some honey, salt, and olive oil. And then mixed in the flour and kneaded with my awesome dough hook for about 5 minutes until there was dough and it was mixed together and smooth.

While I let the dough sit for 5 minutes, I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees and I prepared the pizza sauce, which consisted of tomato paste and Italian seasoning mixed together. 

I rolled the dough out completely and then divided it into sections. I followed Joy in the Kitchen's advice and made 8 sections, but mine were all different sizes, oh well.  I took the first section and rolled it into a rectangular shape and put some of the sauce on one side. 

Followed by pepperoni and Cheese. Now, it's confession time on my part. At some point, my family got into the cheese I had reserved for the recipe and I hardly had any for this recipe. And since I was making these on a pretty dark night, my pictures aren't as pristine as I would of liked. Just imagine more cheese and more pepperoni and better lighting :) When the pockets were ready to be folded over, I dabbed the sides of the dough with water, folded the dough in half and sealed it by using the tines of a fork to push it down.

Once I got all of my pizza pockets filled and folded up, I put them on a greased baking sheet and baked them for 15 minutes. 

These were really filling and delicious! My husband loved the dough ( I think the honey really adds something special) and it's a great recipe because you can easily make Ham and Cheese Pizza Pockets, just make a white sauce instead of tomato paste. These even worked really well as a lunch for Josh to take to work. he said they heated up nicely in the microwave and were very filling. Well that makes me super happy because now I have a new alternative for lunches for Josh :)

Homemade Pizza Pockets

adapted from Finding Joy in my Kitchen

Dough:

1 cup of warm water

1 tsp honey

1 T yeast

1 tsp salt

1 T olive oil

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour

Fillings:

Pepperoni

8 oz tomato paste

1 tsp Italian Seasoning

Italian Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a baking sheet. 

To make the dough, dissolve the yeast in warm water and let sit for 1 minute. Then add honey, salt, and olive oil. Using a mixer, knead in the flour for 5 minutes until well combined and smooth. Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes. 

Mix together, tomato paste and Italian seasoning and set aside. Prepare filling ingredients.

When the dough is ready, flour your work surface and divide the dough into 8 equal sections. Roll out each section into a circle or rectangle. 

Spread some sauce on the dough, and add pepperoni and cheese to it. Using your fingers or a plastic basting brush, lightly dab water around all the edges of the dough and fold over to seal. Take the tines of the fork and press down. Place on cookie sheet and repeat with the following pizza pockets.

Right before baking, moisten the tops of the pockets with water and sprinkle with additional Italian seasoning. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. 

Serve with leftover tomato paste sauce or plain!

This recipe is linked to:

Spiced Pear Sour Cream Bundt Cake

I love Holidays because it's just one more excuse for me to get in the kitchen to bake and create. I can't go over to someone's home on a holiday without bringing a treat. I think I would get that feeling that I forgot something, which is really annoying because knowing me the way I do, I know I would be thinking about whatever it was that I forgot, the whole time I was gone. Plus, it's just good manners to bring something...I see it as a hostess gift. My mom taught me from an early age, that when someone invites you over to their home for a holiday, event, or whatever...you bring a little something. My mom, would normally bring a bouquet of flowers. I bring dessert =)

I hate to wait to the last minute to pick out a dessert or treat. I normally have some sort of idea of what I want to make. I take into account of who I'll be serving, what their tastes are, and what kind of gathering it is...meaning low-key or fancy, or maybe a little of both.  I just happened to find this dessert weeks ago. The $5 dinner mom posted it and I looked over the ingredients and it looked so good and so easy and perfectly delightful for Easter Dessert with my husband's family. 

I was going to make two desserts on Saturday for Easter and this one was so easy to make. Did I mention that it was easy to make? Really, it was really really easy to make!! I took 4 beautiful anjou pears that I had bought at the store, ( How did I decide which pears to buy? I bought the ones that were on sale =)) and began taking the skin off and coring them and cutting them into bite sized pieces. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter with this recipe if they are ripe or not. But the day of making this dessert, I stuck the 4 pears in a brown paper bag anyways so they wouldn't be so hard to cut. 

After the pears were cut up, I took one of my sauce-pans ( a medium sized one) and dumped some brown sugar and water in it and let it come to a boil. Once it was boiling, I poured the pears into it and let it come back to a boil, before reducing the temp back and letting it bubble for 8-10 minutes. While the pears were bubbling away, I took my bundt pan and greased it with shortening and sprinkled flour inside it. The key to getting your cake successfully out of the bundt pan is to have a really well greased bundt pan. 

At this point, I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees. When the pears were done simmering in their yummy brown sugary sauce, I took the pan and poured it all into a colander and then back into a bowl and began mashing them up a bit and allowing them cool. 

While the pears were cooling, I began the batter, which consisted of mixing butter, applesauce, sugar, vanilla, and eggs together. When that was mixed together, I sifted together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger together in a bowl and added it to my already beautiful looking batter in my mixing bowl. 

And then I added the sour cream...and mixed it together again. Once it was mixed together, I took my very clean finger and took a swipe of the batter. Oh boy, was it delicious! One of the best batters I've ever tasted. Mmmm........OKAY, moving on, now this is where I added in my nicely cooled pears and folded it into the batter. And then I poured that into my prepared bundt pan and into the oven it went for about 50 minutes. 

Have you all seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding? I love the scene where the Mother in law gives the Greek Mom the Bundt Cake and the Greek Mom is so confused as to why it has a hole in it and they go back and forth on how to say BUNDT! Cracks me up every time. I can't make a Bundt Cake now without thinking of that scene, hahaha!

When the cake was done, I let it cool for about 10 minutes before flipping it over and out of the pan and onto my cake platter. I would say a word to the wise, don't sprinkle with powdered sugar until your about to serve it. The Sugar dissolves into the cake which is sad. Maybe this is common sense...but after making 2 desserts, I was not really thinking about what the powdered sugar was going to do, so I kept adding more to the cake until the light bulb went off above my head and I figured out what was going on. LOL, so then I added the sugar before we served it the next day. 

My mother in law cut the cake and I wasn't in the kitchen helping like I should of been. I was sitting on the couch with my hubby, tired from the long holiday. So I never got any final pictures of the cut cake, but even with the massive amounts of powdered sugar that had absorbed into the cake, it was still so delightful and perfectly fluffy and moist. 

Spiced Pear Sour Cream Bundt Cake

adapted from 5 dollar dinners

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

4 pears, peeled, cored, and cut into bite sized pieces

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 cup sour cream

powdered sugar, for dustin

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

In a small saucepan, add brown sugar and water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the pears and return to a boil. Reduce the heat and let the pears bubble for 8-10 minutes. Strain off the excess water and then mash the pears with a fork or potato masher. Let cool while you prepare the batter.

In a stand mixer of mixing bowl, beat together butter, applesauce, sugar, and vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl after each time.

In another mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.  Add to the wet ingredients until a wet mixture appears. 

Beat the sour cream into batter on low. Fold in the cooked and cooled pears. 

Pour into greased bundt pan and bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

Let cool for 10 minutes before flipping over onto serving platter.

Sprinkle Powdered Sugar on top and Serve :) 

This Recipe is Linked to:

Good Cheap Eat's What's on your plate

Weekly Menu 4/25-5/1

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!!! Ours was really wonderful. We had beautiful weather up until Sunday, and then the rain, clouds, and wind came in...but we were lucky that we got a few breaks long enough to take a few family pictures and the kids got to do an Easter Egg hunt outside! A lot of pictures were taken, but I was helping Eden hunt for eggs, so all of my pictures are of her. But I know Josh and my one of my sisters got some of Gracie too. When I post the desserts I made for Easter, I'll include some of those photos once I get them all :)

This is going to be a pretty busy week for us. Grace is finishing school this week, My parents celebrate 25 years of marriage, and one of my other sisters graduates from Bible College on Friday, so we'll be heading down to the coast for the graduation and then Josh and the girls and I, will stay down there and make a weekend of it, just the four of us. Josh has been working A LOT of long hard hours lately and I think him, more than anyone else, needs this little break.

Monday

Fettuccine Alfredo with a side Ceaser Salad and some rolls

Tuesday

( My parents 25th wedding anniversary)

Josh and I have offered to make them dinner, so that would either be tonight or Wednesday night. 

Roasted Rosemary and Lemon Chicken with a garden salad and Sea Salt crusted Baked Potatoes.

Wednesday

Tuna Casserole with a fruit salad

Thursday

(Awana Night)

Josh will working late, so it's just going to be me and the girls, so I'm thinking leftover Tuna Casserole.

Friday-Sunday

We'll be at the beach and most likely bringing food with us, easy stuff like Spaghetti and grilled cheese. 

It seems like a pretty easy week in terms of cooking goes. I'm not trying anything new, it's all stuff I already have, so that's nice. 

Desserts/Treats

I'm only making one specialty thing this week. And that would be a dessert for my parent's anniversary.

Another awesome dessert from Sprinkle Bakes- Pumpkin Spice latte Cheesecake

Just take a gander at that link...and now aren't you jealous that your not celebrating 25 Amazing Years of Marriage to your Partner for life?

Resurrection Cookies

My holiday dishes are always so late in coming to the blogging world. Sorry about that. We're very wrapped up over here finishing up school with Grace and all the other end of School type things as well. I do though, have a recipe for you all that you can make with your kids :)

On Thursday at our weekly Awana Club meeting, Grace's best friend's mommy was in charge of snacks for that evening. She made Resurrection Cookies. I had never heard of them, but I went ahead and tried them and I thought they were quite good and what a wonderful message to keep in your heart while making or eating them.

Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees.

Place pecans or whatever whole nuts you have in your home ( I used whole almonds) into a plastic ziploc bag and beat them with a wooden spoon or crush with rolling pin. Remember that after Jesus was arrested, he was beaten by the Roman soliders ( Read John 19:1-3)

I found Almonds to be really hard to break up into pieces so I ended up using the food processor. 

Smell the Vinegar. Put 1 tsp into a mixing bowl. Remember that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, he was given vinegar to drink. ( Read John 19:29-30)

Add egg whites to the vinegar. Eggs represent life. Jesus gave his life for our life. ( Read John 1-:10-11)

Taste a little of the salt, then brush the rest into the bowl. The salt represents the salty tears shed by Jesus followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. ( Read Luke 23:27)

So far the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar. Now the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because he loves us. He wants us to know and belong to him. ( Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16)

Beat with mixer on high speed for 11-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Notice the white color of the eggs. This represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. ( Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3 :1-3)

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by tsp onto waxed paper ( or parchment)-covered cookie sheet. Think of each mound as the rocky tomb where Jesus body was laid. ( Read Matthew 27:56-66)

ut cookies sheet in the oven. Close door and turn oven OFF. For fun, place several pieces of tape on the oven door to remind you that Jesus' tomb was sealed. ( Read Matthew 27:65-66)

Go to bed! It may make you sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. ( Read John 16:20 and 22)

On Resurrection morning open the oven and give everyone a cookie! Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Resurrection Day Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. ( Read Matthew 28-1-9)

We actually made our cookies during school in the morning and didn't open the oven till dinner time. 

Resurrection Cookies

1 cup whole pecans or other whole nuts ( not peanuts)

3 egg whites

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vinegar

1 pinch of salt

wax/parchment paper

cookie sheet

tape ( optional)

Instructions for the recipe are as you read them above :)

Have a Blessed Easter Everyone!!

He is Risen!!

This recipe is linked to:

Weekly Menu 4/18-4/24

I know my weekly menu is a day late. I had thought about posting it yesterday, but it never really quite happened. So, today it is :)

How was everyone's weekend? I got the girl's Easter Dresses and Josh washed both the cars and...we got to grill! The weather is still...eh eh. At least it's not raining today, but the sun keeps hiding behind the clouds and it's cold outside...maybe to cold to even do some gardening. I'm hoping that as the week goes on the weather gets better.

I got my first 2 plants for my garden this weekend. There was a coupon in our clipper magazine for a free tomato plant at our local Wilco, so I sent Josh down there to pick up one for me and he got me an Heirloom tomato plant. But then my parents decided they weren't going to use the coupon they had and my dad picked me up a Roma tomato plant. I can't wait to get started with the planting process. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I gotta learn so as soon as the weather warms up, I'm going to go planting crazy :)

I was thinking about doing a weekly post on how my garden plants are coming. Would that be silly...I mean it is food related...currently, my plants are hanging out in my large living room window with the bean plants the girls planted.

Monday

I made Chicken BBQ Sandwiches with my mom's recipe for Home made Macaroni & Cheese.

I wasn't going to make the Macaroni and Cheese because I was really tired...but when Josh heard I had thought about it, he insisted and I'm glad I did, because he loves it. He always says he eats way to much of it :)

Tuesday

We bought some beautiful Keizer Rolls at the grocery store so Josh is going to make sandwiches on the rolls with chips and fresh fruit, probably some Grapes. 

Wednesday

Homemade Pizza Pockets with a salad

Thursday

 I think I'll fix the kids something easy like Chicken nuggets or Grilled Cheese...but for Josh and I, I'm not sure.

Friday

Fettuccine Alfredo with a salad

Saturday

Chicken and Garlic home-made pizza

Sunday

Easter Dinner....not really sure what our plans are yet. I don't know if we'll be eating with Josh's family or coming back home and making something for just the 4 of us. 

I think it looks like a good menu. I realized last week that I haven't made this Fettuccine recipe in probably about a year and I'm craving it!  Do any of you have plans for Easter yet? 

I have two desserts I'm hoping to make this week. We're having a potluck breakfast Sunday morning at church and Josh will make a breakfast casserole and I'll make a dessert and then if we do indeed end up having dinner with his family, I'll make a dessert for them as well. 

Desserts and treats

Sausage-Egg Casserole- For Church Potluck

White Ricotta Tart, without the sugared fruit- For Church Potluck

Spiced Pear Sour Cream Bundt Cake- For family dinner

What are you cooking or baking for Easter this year?

Whole-Grain Peanut Butter Blondies with a Chocolate Drizzle

On Monday night, we had my husband's family over for dinner. My sister in law and brother in law were in town from Washington for a Village Missions Conference at Cannon Beach, Oregon for a few days and before they left we wanted to visit with them and make a yummy meal since we hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving.  Josh made his delicious Panini Sandwiches...and I, made dessert!

I know I've mentioned before that my husband is nuts for Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and Coffee. Well, his family is equally as obsessed with all 3 things and I was more than happy to oblige and indulge them a little bit.  I have to be careful with what kinds of desserts I make for his family because a lot of them suffer from Migraines and my Mother in Law mentioned last time she was over, she can't eat a lot of chocolate anymore. She can eat it, but in moderation. These Whole-Grain Peanut Butter Blondies seemed like a safe way to go.

To begin making the Blondies, I started by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees and lining a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper. Parchment paper is cool and a nuisance all at the same time. I love how nothing sticks to it, but cutting the paper down to the right size is annoying. I always have loose strips of paper flying around my kitchen, hahaha!

To start making the batter, I took some peanut butter, butter, brown and white sugar and beat it well. 

I added some eggs and vanilla and gave the mixture another whirl and what I got was this beautiful creamy mixture. 

To the creamy batter, I added my whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips and mixed it up...

and I ended up with this stiff yet crumbly batter.  This is the part where I got to play with my food. I took handfuls ( with my clean hands) and started dropping heaps all over my parchment paper lined baking dish and pressing it down to make a crust-type layer.

When I had all the batter pressed down as evenly as I could get it, I placed it in the oven for 20 minutes. I think next time I would maybe bake it for 17-18 minutes...everything is always better slightly under baked. 

When the blondies were done baking, I let it hang out on my wire rack and completely cool down before I began making the frosting.

When the blondies were cool, I took more Peanut Butter, butter, powdered sugar and mixed that all together. I had to add a few tsp of hot water to get the frosting fluffy, but I can tell you since I sneaked several samples that it was a very divine frosting. 

I frosted the blondies and licked whatever left was out of the bowl and began making the chocolate drizzle. I used a couple bars of Semi-Sweet Bakers chocolate and microwaved it a couple of times to get it all melted before drizzling it over the frosting.

Have you ever tried to drizzle bakers chocolate before? It's not the easiest thing in the world to do. I'm sure there is a way to do it and make it look beautiful. Maybe if I hadn't been pressed for time I could of done a better job...but still even though the drizzle isn't the prettiest, it didn't effect the taste at all because it WAS SO GOOD!

The parchment paper worked really well for this dessert because once it came time to serve, all I had to do was lift it out of the baking dish and start cutting the blondies into squares. And let me tell you, this makes a lot. We had 12 people all together in our house and several of us had 2nds and 3rds. So it's the perfect dessert for company. It tastes healthy without being to in your face healthy which I appreciate. 

You should definitely make these the next time you have friends or family over for a game or movie night. Or, you could always just make them for yourself...;) Either way, you can't go wrong with this one!

Whole-Grain Peanut Butter Blondies with a Chocolate Drizzle

adapted from An Oregon Cottage

 1/2 cup peanut butter, natural ( I just used the Skippy I had in my house)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 lg eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips ( I used mini)

Frosting:

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

hot water as needed

Optional: Garnish with melted chocolate drizzle, chopped peanuts or chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a 9x13 baking dish with parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat peanut butter, butter, and sugars together until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix through. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls into lined pan and press evenly.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the edges are browned. Let cook completely on wire rack.

Make the frosting by mixing the peanut butter, butter, and sugar together with a whisk, adding tsp of hot water as need to attain a light and fluffy frosting.

Spread over the cooled bars and garnish with whatever you like. 

Remove from Pan and cut into squares, take a bite and smile! :) 

This recipe is linked to:

Good Cheap Eat's What's on your Plate