Thanksgiving as a real grown up.

So I went home for Thanksgiving and did indeed bring a pie on the plane with me. That's right, I made an apple pie from SCRATCH and then used a round cake carrier to bring it on the plane with me back to Minnesota. Everyone was surprised and also a little impressed (I think). The pie turned out great. Comments: I could have added more cinnamon or cooked it longer. I think I'll add more apples next time, because they cooked down a lot more than i anticipated. But overall it was a great first attempt at making a pie by myself. And look at how beautiful it turned out!
 

I think it looks a little better uncooked. Look at those edges!

 Golden Brown. Perfection.

 I also was able to bake the Sweet Potato Casserole and made some Roasted Parmesan Green Beans that were a HUGE hit. I like this whole learning to cook and growing up thing.

I also cooked dinner for my mom and Gramma one night. I made my famous Lemon Apricot Chicken with Apple/Pear and Mint Salad. They loved it. Gramma even went back for seconds! That's when you know you've finally made it big. 
 

Apple, Pear, Mint Salad

Apricot Lemon Chicken

Making momma proud.

My Best Friend's Bridal Shower

It was a success!

The hot tea and lemonade station.

The spread.

K chowing down.

K and her bandaged hand opening gifts.

I can breathe a sigh of relief!

My Best Friend is Getting Married - Let's make it rain!

So as Maid of Honor for the lovely K, one of my duties is to plan a Bridal Shower, which is coming up THIS Sunday. Now anyone who knows me knows that I love to plan this, but this has been harder than any other event I've planned. I just feel like I've been behind on it from the beginning. It's going to be a Tea party which is PERFECT for her, but I feel like it's lacking something a bit more...fun.

The Menu:

• Scones 
• Fruit
• Muffins
• Veggie Tray
• Michigan Salad 
• Tea Sandwiches
• Russian Tea Cakes
• Crackers and Cheese
• Tea
• Lemonade

The Color scheme is simple: White, Silver, Purple.
There will be White and purple flowers (I think).
And Tissue paper pom poms a la Martha Stewart in shades of purple, white and silver (if I can manage to figure out HOW to make them...Photo pending...)

I have the food, and the speaker ready. I think I'm going to bring Thank you cards for the women to address so K doesn't have to do that.

But I feel like there's something missing. Some pizazz or a game or something. It's K after all. A little crazy, a lot of fun. There needs to be SOMETHING Chilean or Spanish involved, right?

Stay Tuned...

I'VE GOT IT! SOPAIPILLAS! We ate them a lot in Chile and they are delicious and perfect for an Once! I'll sprinkle them with powdered sugar and it will be just the addition to make it more Chilean!

What can't you do with Bisquick?

So I'm not really sure why, but I'm on a Bisquick mailing list type thing. They sound out weekly recipes for all the things you can make with Bisquick (I honestly have only ever used it to make Coffee Cake) and I look at them but never actually try any.

So when they sent out one that talked about Candied Ginger Pumpkin Pancakes, I was intrigued. I have recently become obsessed with all things that contain pumpkin (as long as they don't have too strong of a pumpkin taste or smell) and who doesn't love breakfast for dinner (says the girl who grew up on pancakes and cereal). So I was going to make these for Roommate night, but decided against it. But I still had all the ingredients, so when I happened to have more time to cook on Wednesday with K, I decided it would be fun to try.

Overall, they were kind of fun. They lacked a sweetness to them though. I ended up adding more candied ginger than the recipe called for because I really liked the ginger taste. I also left out pecans because I didn't have any (I also am of the opinion that adding nuts to anything automatically ruins it, same with raisins). Now, I love the taste of bland things; I eat Total and Wheaties and Pancakes without syrup, but these pancakes were bland-even for my super-taster taste-buds. When I added the light butter and maple syrup, they tasted great. I think the maple and the ginger and the pancake went well together.

I think if I make them again, I would try adding some maple flavoring or maybe even some syrup to the batter? It would definitely make it less healthy, but would add more flavor. I suppose I could add more of the pumpkin pie spice too.

Either way, these pancakes paired with fresh strawberries made for a delicious dinner with K (who was still in a post-surgery stupor, but was a champ and ate the bland pancakes anyways.) I had planned on pairing it with a Woodchuck Hard Cider, but drinking alcohol with on Codine is generally a bad idea, and I wanted K to live, so we just had tea.

All around a delightful dinner. Not to mention the Mac & Cheese book I got from N and the Kickboxing DVDs K got me for my birthday. That's right. I'm soon going to be one tough kickboxing, mac and cheese making domestic dive.

Sweater Pillow

So our couch has been pillowless for over a year. I bought a bunch of fabric and pillows, made 1 purple pillow (was trying a ruched technique that failed-epically) and the rest are sitting on our couch their boring white selves.

So when I came across this tutorial in a blog, I knew I just had to try it. I mean, who doesn't love the idea of a sweater pillow? ESPECIALLY in winter. The only problem is that the cover isn't removable, so the pillows would be permanently sweater themed.

I kind of think I'm ok with that-although it might make washing them a little bit difficult. But hey, I have a bunch of extra sweaters, so I might as well try, and if it's a complete failure, well... I highly doubt anything could fail more than my Martha Stewartesque attempt at "textured" pillows. She makes it seem so easy -it's not.

And this is great, because the sweater already has built in texture! I bet I could even use an ARGYLE sweater. Oh my goodness, I just got a whole lot more excited about this project!
I'll let you know how it goes!

Happy sewing!

Healthy Comfort Food - Roommate night

What is the one thing I know I can cook for my roomie and it will never fail? Grilled Cheese and Soup. We are both definitely Midwest girls through and through. We love all things warm and comforting, not to mention full of carbs and cheese. While I never ate Tomato Soup growing up (we always did Chicken Noodle Soup with Grilled cheese in my house) I have learned to love it almost as much as L does.

So after a weekend stuck in bed and still not feeling in top form (did I mention it was raining?) I tossed around a few ideas of fairly simple things to make. I finally settled on the no-fail Tomato Soup and Grilled cheese. Now, there are probably HUNDREDS of recipes for tomato soup out there, most of them are delicious I'm sure. But since we don't have a blender or any way of turning tomatoes into soup, I wasn't sure how this would go. (Last year I tried making it and while it was delicious, putting individual portions of soup into the Magic Bullet to try to get the right consistency did not work so well). By the time 5oclock rolled around and I was leaving work, I still hadn't decided what I was going to do.

Thankfully, Harris Teeter made things nice and easy for me. Soup was BUY ONE GET ONE FREE. That's right. Fresh (no preservatives) Tomato Basil soup, 2 for $5 (each cup has 2 portions, so one for dinner, one for lunch this week!). With the soup all ready to go, all that was left was the trimmings. Now I'm a big fan of dipping my celery in tomato soup (Like a Bloody Mary but sans all the empty calories) and L could eat celery like its her job. So that was a must. And I was tired of Roasted Asparagus, so when Skinnytaste posted a recipe for Roasted Parmesan Green Beans, I knew I had to try it. All that plus a Grilled Cheese = the perfect winter meal.

I decided to do something a little crazy with my grilled cheese this time. I had found some recipes that talked about making Grilled cheese croutons, but that required day old bread, something I could have had if I had planned this meal more than 2 hours in advance... I wanted to do something that would help prevent the bread from getting too soggy when I dipped it in the soup. And I found the jackpot of solutions when I found the Caramelized Cheese Covered Grilled Cheese Sandwich. My mom always used to cook burnt cheese for me when she would make a grilled cheese or scrambled eggs, so I thought, why wouldn't it work to just add it to the outside of the bread? It would add some crunch and some texture and hopefully help prevent the bread from getting too soggy.

Honestly, it was DELICIOUS. Now, it wasn't pretty. But it was SO GOOD. I don't know if I'll ever eat a regular grilled cheese again after eating the Holy Grail of grilled cheeses. But all around I'd say it was a pretty good meal. I might make it again this weekend!

Sadly, I didn't take any photos (like I said, not pretty). But I'll do my best to make it look good the next time I cook it so I can share. Because believe me, this will be a recipe that get's made again.

Project for November

So I think I've decided what my newest project will be: Menu Planning.

It makes sense right? If I only ever really cook for myself, the best way to do it is to plan it out so I can eat leftovers or use the same ingredients in different ways. Otherwise I end up spending $20 or $30 on a meal for one person. And that's just sad. Plus, I figured it's a good way to prepare for the future.

But. It's really kind of hard. I feel like I have a repertoire of maybe 6 meals? 2 of those being frozen pizza (=4-6 meals!) and Kraft Mac and Cheese (3 meals!). Sad. I know. I have the cooking abilities of a 12 year old babysitter...

Let's face it. Grocery stores are HUGE and kind of overwhelming if you don't know exactly what you need. You might be fooled into buying something because it's on sale but you have no idea what to eat with it or when you are going to eat it.

So, one blog suggested a "theme" for each day of the week that becomes the pattern for all of my weeks, so here it is.

Sunday

• Breakfast - Cereal
• Lunch - College lunch or go out with friends
• Dinner - MAC

Monday

• Breakfast - Bagel Thin
• Lunch - Tuna
• Dinner - Pasta

Tuesday

•  Breakfast - Yogurt
• Leftover Pasta
• Roommate night

Wednesday

• Breakfast - Bagel Thin
• Lunch - Tuna
• Crock Pot Meal

Thursday

• Breakfast - Yogurt
• Lunch - Crock Pot Leftovers
• Mexican

Friday

• Breakfast - Bagel Thin
• Lunch - Mexican Leftovers
• Dinner - Chicken/Out

Saturday

• Breakfast - Cereal
• Lunch/Dinner - Cooking Light Recipe

Now when do I go grocery shopping? Well, if all else fails, Sunday in between services. But the last time I went they didn't have a great selection of fruits and veggies, so I should maybe try Wednesday after Bible study...we'll see. Or Monday after Small group? That should be my running rest day anyways.

I'm also trying to put together a list of foods/snacks I should always buy.  So far I have:

1. Yogurt
2. Cereal
3. String Cheese
4. Carrots
5. Apples
6. Grapefruit
7. Celery
8. Bagel Thins

Roommate Dinner: Pork Loin Chops with Cinnamon Apples

Last night I cooked the Pork Loin Chops with Cinnamon Apples and sides of roasted asparagus and mashed potatoes with a Cabernet Sauvignon. It was quite the elegant and classy meal. The pork was a little dry, but I liked the contrast of the sage on the pork with the sweet cinnamon apples. It could have been a little bit more saucy though. Maybe if I had added some apple cider to the apples or some apple sauce or preserves? I'm not sure. I'll probably try it again sometime. It might even work with chicken, I think chicken gets less dry than pork when you pan fry it. Or I wonder how this dish would taste if I made it in a crock pot? Lots of things I could try I guess.

Mashed potatoes were bland. And overcooked. And the wrong kind of potato. So all around, this dish did not work.

The asparagus was great though. I marinated it in olive oil, sea salt, and freshly ground pepper for about an hour before I cooked it. I usually like to do it overnight, but I wasn't prepared enough in advance. Still, it turned out and was cooked perfectly.

At least it looked good. :)



Make again? I'd say yes. Although scrap the mashed potatoes.

The best part? Leftovers.

Candy Corn Cookie Fun

Since today is Halloween and I'm not big on dressing up, I figured I should still do something festive. So I decided to make Candy Corn Sugar Cookies. Now, don't let the name fool you, there are no candy corns involved in this process, other than the fact that the cookies look like little candy corns. I love to bake, and my office loves to eat the cookies I bake, so I figured it would be a perfect match.

This was probably the most fun I have had baking cookies in a while. And I decided to document the process with photos!

So I started with a simple sugar cookie mix. I didn't have time to make it from scratch, so I just used a box. Also, I have yet to find a sugar cookie recipe that I actually like, so the mix always seems to be the best bet for me. Once I had the dough, I divided it into 3 parts and left one section the normal color, dyed one section yellow and the last section orange. I lined a small bread pan with plastic wrap and layered the dough inside. First white, then orange, then yellow. I smoothed out the top and placed it in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.


When I took out the dough, you could clearly see the 3 layers.



Then I sliced a 1/4 inch section and you could really see the layers.


Next I cut little triangles out of the dough.


I think if I had used a larger bread pan I might have been able to get more triangles out of each slice, but this worked just fine.



Once all the triangles were all cut, I set them all out on the pan. I put granulated sugar on some and some orange sprinkles I had on others. For one batch I dipped the ends into sugar and some I left plain. Not sure which ones turned out best, but they all looked so cute.


I baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes. (I like to leave them a little on the doughy side so when then cool they are nice and soft).


I let them cool on the pan for a couple minutes.


And moved them to a wire rack to cool.


They actually look like little candy corns. I was quite pleased!


Finally I layered them in a Tupperware to bring to work for my coworkers to enjoy!


Such an easy treat. But so fun!

Dinner Preparation

So I've found the recipe I'm making for next Roommate night dinner, and I am SO excited!

Pork Loin Chops with Cinnamon Apples.

Still trying to figure out what I'm going to make to go with it. I'll check sales this weekend, I'm thinking a good salad or asparagus or possible mashed potatoes? And I have to figure out which kind of wine is best of course.