Fritters

October calls for pumpkin goodies. Cookies. Pies. Lattes. Waffles. Oh yes. Apples too! I just found this recipe. It's on! Holy yummo.

via

If they are good and I like you, you may just have some end up on your doorstep. :) Happy October!! A favorite month in or house! (No more flip flops, but Rory boycotted today. The sun is out, mom!)

     cheers

Summer Brunching

K... I am a sucker for breakfast. It's my absolute favorite. Moving to a small town hasn't bode well for my cravings. It's my goal one day to open up a cute brunch place around these parts. Until then, I do love cooking and can make a mean brunch for my family any day. This recipe is on my radar.
Bacon wrapped french toast. COME on! Yum!

I found a recipe, but slightly adjusted to my liking. Will prepare and probably change the recipe. Until then... start here:

1 loaf unsliced fresh bread (I like using challah for french toast)
1 pack thick bacon
6 eggs
a small carton of cream or whole milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp real vanilla extract
100% maple syrup
Powdered sugar

Bake your bacon at 375 till it's about 80% done. Do not cook to crispy. Make your batter with eggs, cream/milk, vanilla and spices. Soak bread and cook on a griddle. Cool slightly and cut into bite size pieces. Wrap bacon around your french toast pieces and secure with a toothpick. Throw on a cooke sheet or pan and bake at 400 for 10 minutes until the bacon is crispy. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and syrup.

via Foodista

YUM! I think the kiddos will like this one. 

   cheers

Food Friday

Been meaning to post a quiche recipe for a while now. I have a couple that I go to, but this one is so savory. I love it! Found it from Giada. Food Network was my vice during both of my maternity leaves. ;) Giada was a must. I usually start with a recipe and alter it, but I follow this one pretty closely.

Ingredients
Butter, for greasing pan
Flour, for dusting pan
1 unroll and bake refrigerated 9 inch pie crust (or sometimes I use a frozen deep dish)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tsp oil
3 ounces pancetta, cut (or I use several pieces of baked bacon)
5 eggs at room temp, lightly beaten
(sometimes I add another egg + a splash of whole milk to increase mixture)
1/2 c of Marscapone cheese, room temparature
2 cups shredded Gruyere
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven 400 degrees. Grease your pan if not using a frozen crust. Brush egg white on crust. Bake for 5-8 minutes. (Recipe calls for 10, but I like to underbake mine a bit). Let cool. Grab a skillet and saute pancetta in oil. Or bake your bacon (400 degrees on a lined pan) until slightly crisp. Drain on papertowel to get rid of grease. Put eggs in a bowl, slightly beat. Mix in Marscapone, add in Gruyere, onion, salt, pepper and bacon/pancetta (milk if desired). Pour into pie dish once that is cooled. Bake for 20-28 minutes. Depends on your oven, etc. (I bake mine a bit longer when I add milk and another egg in a deep dish crust). Bake until the top is slightly browned and your middle isn't wobbly. Don't overbake. :)

Enjoy it! Happy weekend!

 cheers

Wknd Grub

Had a fantastic weekend outside. Yard time, play time, good grilled grub.

On Saturday hubs grilled burgers. We only had venison in the freezer, so I took that and added some randoms to make it wow.

1 lb ground venison
1/2 of an onion, minced, sautéed in a little butter
1 tbsp of minced garlic
1 tsp or so of horseradish
1 tsp or so of Worcestershire
1 egg
sprinkle some fresh parmesan
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Mix it all up and patty. Grill. Don't do well done, venison is better slightly pink. A couple of burgers had american cheese on them. "Best burgers ever mom," Rory, 4 years old.

Mom and Dad had a burger topped with herbed goat cheese, spinach and sundried tomato tapenade on a bakery bun. Fantastic! Recipe keeper for sure. "You outdid yourself on this one, honey," Klint, 35 years old. :)

Venison Burger with Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomato

Sunday salad day. Marinated chicken, hubs grilled and I threw this salad together. YUM! Also boiled corn on the cob. Perfect combo. Recipe is now saved and will be great for summer parties. Took a little prep time, but so fresh and good! I used organic chicken and it was so moist and flavorful. I also substituted Sesame Teriyaki marinade for the hoisin sauce because I was out of that. I only used white sesames as well. Fresh ginger is everything! And the smell is so amazing!

Grilled Ginger-Sesame Chicken Salad 

Please ignore my horrible picture here and my teak table. It needs something! I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Suggestions? Done treating it. Paint perhaps? New patio furniture next year. For now, teak has to do. Grill season is upon us. Must act soon. Happy springing...pin these recipes!

    cheers

Babe News

Think I convinced husband to find out Bean's sex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited! We may wait till xmas though. And we may not tell anyone either. hehe  You'll have to pay us a visit if you want to know! Wonder if Rory can keep a secret? (p.s. Bean is what Rory calls baby).

Now to figure out the elements of the surprise. Xmas box full of baby pink or blue for Rory to open??? Photograph some fun with balloons and such to share with all?? Cake/dessert fun...I LOVE what Chassity did over at Look Linger Love. Sweet idea!!! Or, we could have some fortune cookies made for xmas fun! Or Hershey Kisses and share with all if we decide to spill the news. Cupcake party! SO many neat ideas. I can't wait!

Enveloping it this month. Wow, time is flying fast. Hoping & praying for a perfect ultra sound! I have no trouble waiting till December and still a little time to plan. I waited 9 months for Rory girl. We were pleasnantly surprised to have a girl!! :)

Cool ideas below... I love the gender reveal party with a tally game! How fun! Craving station, gender buttons, name suggestions. Or have guests wear a pink or blue shirt to guess the sex.

via Amy Atlas Blog

 

CUTE

Then a reveal...

BLUE!!!



PINK!!!

I don't know, if we share the news this could be a good excuse to have a party! :)

   cheers





Crème de la crème

Croissants are my very fave and helping review them for work is like heaven! :) Buttery and gooey, chocolate, raspberry, almond...ahhh... I could eat you everyday and I seriously would if you were in front of me. Je t'aime! You remind me of Paris...walking around, eating the freshest foods, drinking a bottle of wine (yes, I was in college) and people watching. Lovely times. Happy Friday!!!!

Saw this wallpaper the other day while searching Rory room ideas. La Belle France!
 

C'est Magnifique Wallpaper found at where else? Anthropologie

    cheers

Chocolate Bowls

Totally stealing this idea I found on poppytalk. How cute!

Step by Steps found here at Bakerella. Via Jill O'Connor's book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids. This recipe fills the bowls with yummy peanut butter pudding and whipped cream. I think I would fill these lil' chocolate delights with ice-cream! Either or sounds delish! Perfect for a kiddy party or good day treat!

Book found here

    cheers

Fair Bound

I was excited to share our visit to the Indiana State Fair Friday evening, but after the tragic accident Saturday it's so hard to blabber about our good time. Thoughts of peace go out to the families that lost loved ones and to all that were injured. Klint has a student in the hospital. The teenager will never be the same. Let's hope he gets to go home soon, along with all the others that are still in danger. It was a horrific event that seemed impossible. We were home, several blocks away and the wind was nasty. I'm telling you, I don't think anyone was prepared for it. We were concerned our trees would fall. Our neighborhood was scared for a split second. No sirens went off, so we waited just like everyone else. I cannot imagine what those people were going through at that moment. Our power was out for hours, so we stuck to our phones for information. Facebook is how we heard of the event.

Having worked on stages with my brother at one point in my life put this close to home. I was concerned not only for fans, but for all those crew members too. We have lots of friends that are still in the industry. It takes all day if not longer to prepare for a show. Workers are not careless; I would say that that stage was put up properly...it's their job, hard work that consumes most of their lives. They are grieving too and probably feel so helpless. Indiana weather is not predictable. Ever. We heard and saw it first hand. One minute the radar was clear, the next we thought a tornado was coming. What was supposed to be a fun night turned into total chaos. So sad.

I feel very lucky that our trip to The State Fair was a safe one. Pigs, horses, sheep, goats, cows, lemonade, gyros, ice-cream and games. I will try to remember the fair that way and will never forget the families and friends that were affected this weekend by their trip. Mommy even won a fish for Rory. (Well, two fish, but one left us an hour after we got home). Nemo (#2) is flapping away in a vase in Rory's room. She was so happy and kept saying, "I won, I won!!" And mommy was feeling pretty good too. I NEVER WIN A THING. Needless to say, I didn't think I would win a fish! I used to play that game as a kid...I thought it was hard?! We have a good memory of our trip. Hopefully our Nemo sticks around. When I see him I think of all those happy people before the storm, anxiously awaiting a good show.


Lemonade



Ice-cream at the barn!

Calling a sheep. Rory was scared of all of the animals.




So proud of her fish

 

A weekend to remember

    cheers

Happy Birthday Rory

My girl is 2. Wow! Time flies. We had a blast celebrating with family this past weekend. Another lil' party tonight. The big hit from her toy loot: a mini shopping cart. Rory loves to go shopping like her mama. It's super cute! Her baby sits in the cart of course. Baby goes everywhere.

A few pics of the fun day we had at Nana & Poppy's house: Cake, popcorn, candy, cousins, princess, balloons, presents, princess on her throne, baby trying to steal crown...

    .... and then we try to fly away with all the leftover balloons in our new back packpack. Successful party for our pretty little princess!  xoxo baby girl

      cheers

Shuckn' It!

Indiana folk will appreciate this...

Happy weekend!

    cheers

My Mango

So, found GP on the cover of June's bon appetit issue and had to buy it...last month; I know, I'm late on reading things. Sorry IM, I haven't read our issue in two months.

Yummy recipes peeps! Last week I went for the Grilled Halibut w Mango Salsa. Who doesn't like Mango? AND, I need to prepare myself for cooking lots of fish. I expect my husband to bring back a plethora of goody fish from his Alaskan trip. He better, he's been unreachable for days and he's been saving/dreaming for this trip since he was like 5. Pray the men make it home safely. Bears freak me out!

So I used GP's recipe, but gave it a few twists...

 Ingredients

• 1 medium ripe avocado, peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
• 1 medium ripe mango, peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
• 1 cup diced garden fresh tomatoes
• 5 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro (more or less to taste) 
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for brushing
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, divided
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons of diced red onion, to taste
• dash of cumin
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 6-ounce halibut
• 4 lime wedges

Preparation

• Prepare a grill to medium-high heat. Gently combine the avocado, mango, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, onion, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 tablespoon lime juice in a large mixing bowl. Season salsa to taste with cumin, salt and pepper and set aside at room temperature, gently tossing occasionally.
• Place fish fillets in a 13x9x2" glass baking dish. Drizzle remaining 2 tablespoon oil and 2 tablespoon lime juice over. Season fish with salt and pepper. Let marinate at room temperature for 10 minutes, turning fish occasionally.
• Brush grill rack with oil. Grill fish until just opaque in center, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to plates. Spoon mango-avocado salsa over fish. Squeeze a lime wedge over each and serve

Serve it with Quinoa. It's amazing, try it if you haven't already. I added garlic powder, salt, pepper, cilantro, mint, a squeeze of some lime and a tiny bit of olive oil. Put it over a bed of greens aside fish and mango salsa. Refreshing summer dinner! Tasty and quick!


marinating halibut



preparing salsa



dinner is served

  My photos are a bit drab, too lazy to break out the good lens. iPhone shall do though. Enjoy your mango!
 (Note to self: get a mango slicer).

     cheers

First Market

We hit up the market this past weekend. So fun! Rory loves it, can't you tell? We only let her sample crepes and a tamale and her very very favorite "copcorn" or rather "crackcorn" whichever she prefers to call it that day. AND a cookie from Rene's! :) OK OK, we shared a little too... YUMO! Happy girl = happy mommy! Happy girls = happy daddy! Good day!  Wish every day were Saturday morning. Now the market is open Wed evenings, sweeeet!

checking out the herbs or maybe it was a dog

Rory will try to eat her copcorn off the ground; she loves it that much

mmm mmm

see ya momma

playing around

chocholate face

...and a sugar high!

    cheers

scraps

Out of town over the weekend, worked late last night = empty fridge.  No fresh food.  Random things going on in there.  Rory is starving by the time we get home so I usually have to prepare quickly or have something in mind before she scarfs down snacks.

hmmm, what I had:  red onion, garlic cloves, green onion, a lemon, an orange, an apple, almond milk, sour cream, vegan cheese, condiments... What am I going to make?  Then I opened the freezer and remembered I had bought some homemade red pepper noodles.  Sweet!  Rory loves those.  Local peeps, Nicole Taylors Pasta and Market.  Go there, get it done!  Takes only a few minutes to cook and all of the flavors we've tried we've loved!  OH, I also snatched up the frozen peas from the freezer.

What was in the pantry?  2 cans of beans, one can of tuna, rice, crackers...  grabbed the tuna.  Took out my lemon and started to chop onions and mince garlic.   Sauteed onion and garlic with a little olive oil in a skillet while I boiled some water for noodles and peas.  Both the peas and noodles only need a little time to cook, so they do well together.

Turned down stove for skillet, added tuna and half of squeezed lemon to onions and garlic.  Threw noodles and peas into boiling water.  Spices...grabbed red pepper flakes, basil, salt, pepper and garlic powder.  Add a tad of each to tuna.  I also threw in about a teaspoon of butter.  Noodles & peas done in 5 minutes.  Drained & tossed into my tuna mixture.  Wallah!  Done in about 13 minutes.  AND not much to clean up!  :)

Added some Parmesan cheese and a teensie bit of course sea salt... pretty good.  I had to restrain myself from having seconds.

The best part... Rory loved it!  This is how I keep her nice and plump.  Healthy mix.  Not a lot of oils, protein, little bit of veggie, garlic and the red pepper pasta was not from a box!  win win

She cleaned her plate and left some on the floor for the dog.  Finn liked it too!  Happy cooking...

       cheers

p.s.  Try it with meatballs (any kind) instead of tuna and substitute fresh diced tomato instead of peas.  Sometimes we throw it over a small bed of mixed greens lightly covered in balsamic.  Fantastic!

grill n pizza

Food! I love to cook... and eat!!  It is nice to have a man that can use the stove too!  I'm pretty lucky in that department.  We LOVE to make homemade pizza together.  My husband is getting good at the perfect crust.  He usually turns to me for the spices and goodies.  I often use an ingredient or two on most recipes and then improvise on the rest.  Do you get Vegetarian Times?  If not, subscribe.  It's a good one.  Even if you're not veggie...the pizza recipes look yummo in this month's issue.  I was flipping through last night and started craving our grilled roasted garlic pizza!  Spring around the corner = grill time.  GRILL it, so much better!  Will share this recipe when we actually have spring weather.  No grill tonight in the cold & no time to make homemade crust & no husband home to light the grill.  Pizza is on the mind though; you bet your buns my oven will be hot!  I might try this from an older Veg Time's Mag.  Looks good huh?  ...or maybe combine it with one in this current issue...balsamic-glazed onions and goat cheese!  YUM  (I'm also lucky my daughter will eat the random stuff I like to make!)


Vegetarian Times



Portobello Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella

1 12-inch (1-lb.) prepared pizza crust, such as Rustic Crust

• 1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. olive oil
• 3 medium-size portobello mushrooms, chopped (about 2 cups)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 Tbs.)
• 1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup prepared marinara sauce
• 1/3 cup diced red onion
• 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, drained, and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cups arugula or baby spinach

**Instead of the marinara sauce I have some olive terpenade that I'm going to use, will caramelize my onions and maybe substitute my cheeses.  I just got some fresh goodies from my biweekly delivery, will have to see what I actually have in my fridge to work with.  Green B.E.A.N Delivery....try it if you're in the area!  Love it for winter time and we try to eat local as much as we can.

Directions

Preheat oven to 450F. Coat 12-inch round pizza pan or baking sheet with cooking spray, and set crust in pan.

1. Heat 1 Tbs. oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, and cook 5 minutes, or until browned and tender, stirring occasionally. Add garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Cook 30 seconds, stirring often. Stir in vinegar, and remove from heat.
2. Brush crust with remaining 2 tsp. olive oil. Spread sauce on crust. Scatter mushroom mixture on top. Sprinkle with red onion. Arrange mozzarella slices over vegetables, and sprinkle with Parmesan.
3. Bake 10 minutes, or until cheese has melted. Scatter arugula on top. Cut into slices, and serve.

        cheers