B.S.C.

foodie tuesday

One of my resolutions for this year was to get back in to cooking. With the diagnosis of the following in July,  I had completely lost the desire to cook for my family this year. 

Gracie with her  peanut allergy, gluten intolerance, egg intolerance and let's not forget that corn intolerance was also diagnosed.  I just push that one out of my mind most of the time, but it's something we may need to explore cutting out of her diet at some point.  And then  me with my dairy and egg allergy.

Pffffft.

One day, while perusing the books at Costco, I came across this...so I picked it up.  I'm a self professed calorie counter (I know I have issues)  and the recipes looked decent. Simple and decent and healthy. 

So I'm just cooking my way through it.  Trying recipes that I think most of the family will like.  Last night it was Chicken with Fennel and Tomatoes.  It got 4 thumbs up.  The girls ate the chicken with no sauce. 

The beauty of this dish is that  I just made it and didn't tell Eric what was in it. Didn't tell him about the fennel and didn't tell him about dredging the meat in Pamela's gluten free flour.  It was brilliant.  After we eat I make notes on what I would do differently the next time.

Tonight I made Irish Stew (with beef, not lamb). It was yummy too! The kids ate the meat and potatoes separately. 

It makes me happy. 

Last week, I made this.  Not in the book, but yummy...and everyone ate it!  

Aside from making notes in the cookbook, I go to my handy little martha stewart everyday food app on my phone, search for the recipe and add it to my favorites. It's GREAT. Then, when I am out and about and need a recipe I can check "My Favorites," add it to my shopping list and GO.  

 

 

yummies

eric doesn't love my baking.  oh he'll eat whatever i bake but he's very boring when it comes to baking.  he really just wants a few things cheesecake, apple dumplings, pecan pie, coconut cake and carrot cake(which i will never make because i think cream cheese frosting is sick and wrong.)

yeah, i said it.  

so the other day i stumbled upon some mini cheesecakes from minibaker.

her recipe makes 12 but i halved it since...well, there are 4 of us and we don't need 12 mini cheesecakes.

here's my 6. i just ate one.  i might share the rest with eric or i might not.

here's how you can make them too. this makes 6. double if you're feeling piggish and you'd like to make 12.  

preheat oven to 350 and put 6 cupcakes liners in a muffin tin

crush  3 sheets of graham crackers to equal 1/3 cup and mix with 1 TBS melted butter

put 1 TBS of grahams into each cupcake liner.  press down with 1/3 or 1/4 cup measuring cup and bake for about 5 minutes.

beat the following together: 1 brick of room temp cream cheese, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 a cup of sweetened condensed milk (it's about half of the can) beat out all of those nasty lumps

fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes.  

let cook and then put in fridge to chill

once they've set up you can remove the liners and top with your favorite fruit.  yum!

on a savory note-

my favorite vegetable is asparagus.  i often roast it in the oven for about 20 minutes on 350 with kosher salt, olive oil and some good balsamic vinegar. we don't have fancy balsamic over here so i had to make do with the cheap stuff.

anyway this evening, i toasted some slivered almonds and set aside. then i thinly sliced some shallots, tossed them with the asparagus, olive oil, kosher salt and balsamic and roasted for about 18 minutes.  for the last two minutes, i threw on some crumbled blue cheese and let that melt.  once it was done, i sprinkled the toasted almonds on top. 

so good.  seriously. so. good. 

eric and i kind of fought for the seconds. 

nighty night.

st. pat's continued

yesterday the girls took a treat to school for their classmates.

i heart cute, free printables.  

i don't make bread other than the occasional banana or zucchini bread, but i had seen a recipe for irish soda bread that made me want to try it.  in looking at different recipes, i ended up with an Ina Garten.  i heart her.  i watch her show quite often while i am on the treadmill.  in fact costco just had a bunch of her cookbooks on sale and i am kicking myself that i didn't buy any of them when i should have bought all of them! here's her recipe.

anyway, it was delicious.  i skipped the currants and the orange zest, though.

we had quite a bit left over because neither of the girls would eat it--their loss.  i put it in a bread bag thinking it would be as hard as a rock today.  nope.  i got home from my class (continuing education sucks!) today and it was delicious with a dollop of butter on it.  i made it during the day yesterday so it had cooled down by the time we got around to dinner.  next time, i'm serving it just out of the oven.  

we also ate shepherd's pie.  i used a different recipe this year.  i have always made a cooking light one.  boring.  so i made this one. it was absolutely delicious too-used ground beef rather than lamb.  the thyme and rosemary give it so much flavor.  i didn't even use fresh herbs.  i used my penzey's spices that i got from my m-i-l for christmas.  

and for dessert we had chocolate stout cupcakes with vanilla bean frosting and caramel drizzle or in this case "clumps."  someone needs to work on her drizzling a bit. i'll tell you what though, i absolutely HEART my new extra large decorating tip.  who knew a $2.00 purchase would bring so much joy?

not a huge fan of the chocolate stout, but it was fun to try.  i didn't care all that much for the cupcakes yesterday, but i think my tongue was totally sugared out.  i had one when i got home from my class today and it wasn't too bad.  yeah, a cupcake and a piece of buttered bread...the picture of health.  got a nice little carb overload going.  totally canceled out the all-organic salad loaded with veggies that i got at whole foods for lunch today.

we're gearing up for the husky basketball game this evening.  have a great weekend. WOOF!

knocked it out of the park

and burnt the hell out of my hand during the process...

and then burned it again.

and then i took two tylenol with my wine.

this was good  ( i think it's from eric ripert's blog)

blue cheese dressing

4 ounces (115g) blue cheese, crumbled (buy a good blue cheese for this. i used point reyes, i think it is)

 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

a few turns freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped chives
1/4 cup (60g) sour cream, regular or lowfat
1/4 cup (60ml) buttermilk
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or white wine vinegar
a few drops of red wine vinegar

1. In a medium bowl, mash the blue cheese with the salt and pepper with the back of a fork until the pieces of cheese are finely broken up.

2. Stir in the chives, sour cream, buttermilk, and lemon juice or wine vinegar until well mixed.

3. Add a few drops of red wine vinegar. Taste, and adjust any of the seasonings to your liking and if the dressing too thick, add a bit more buttermilk.

Serving: Spoon over wedges of very cold Iceberg lettuce or use as a dip. Garnish with additional chives, crumbled or sliced bacon, and some freshly ground black pepper.

Storage: Blue cheese dressing can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated.

and this was knocked out of the park.  

double smoked bacon wrapped filet mignon with caramelized mushrooms

i doubled everything but the onions and the mushrooms (cause me no likey mushrooms, but they give good flavor) and just a note:  when i make this again, i think i'd fry up the bacon just a little bit.  it didn't get as crispy as i like it.

given the nature of eric's job, he eats out at a lot of fancy places...namely expensive steak joints.  he said this ranked right up there with them.  be still my heart.  to me, that's the hottest compliment EVER.

i said "yeah, but does el gaucho make you do the dishes?"

and he did.  which he usually does when i make nice dinners. i LOVE him. 

so the story on my hand is this.  after searing both sides of the filets, they go in a hot oven to cook them for about 9 minutes.  eric pulled the pan out after they were done and moved the steaks to a plate to rest.  i poured the red wine in to deglaze the pan and did what any sensible person would do...GRABBED THE HANDLE. oops.  forgot it had just come out of the oven. 

and then to add insult to injury, we had to put my steak and gracie's back in the oven because as much as i like a tender steak, i do not like mine mooing. when i took the pan out, i set in on the counter and went to grab something in front of the pan and hit my wrist on the handle.  AWESOME.

and the jury is still out on the millionaire's shortbread.  i have my doubts.  it's been a long process and i'm just not sure about the caramel layer. waiting for the chocolate glaze to set and then we'll have a taste test.

nighty night.

 

is this a dream?

we headed east last night. 

as i was unpacking, both girls put on their pajamas, unprompted.  gracie sprawled out on the couch and read her book.  annie snuggled up with a blankie on the other couch. after some time had passed, annie asked sissy "what do you learn in third grade?"  which led to all sorts of discussions between the two.  all the while, lullaby radio on pandora was playing in the background and i was reading a devotional about motherhood (thanks jen). Lord knows i need all the help i can get. 

by 8:45 annie was sawing logs and by 9:10 gracie's lights were out too.  

it was sort of like a dream. 

i was snapped back into reality when annie cried over the hot chocolate i made for her.  we don't have it hardly ever and the last couple times we've been here, i've made it from scratch.  well, apparently the stuff that comes from a box is just not worthy. what a diva.

the girls are taking ski lessons again today. this time just for an hour.  let's hope we don't have a repeat of annie crying for the first hour or THAT will be money well spent.

i'm excited to cook and bake today.  mixing in some new recipes:

double smoked bacon wrapped fillet mignon with caramelized mushrooms, roasted potatoes and herb salad with a homemade blue cheese

and for dessert:

millionaire's short bread from baked. it's the first cookbook by the bakers who wrote the book with the pistachio cake recipe that i made for mom's birthday. 

did i ever share this recipe?

stuffed peppers

i was watching cake boss' buddy valestro on his cooking show last week to kill time while i was on the treadmill.  the episode was all about making stuffed dishes.  the stuffed artichokes and the stuffed peppers looked so good. we were having friends over for dinner that weekend and the stuffed peppers looked less intimidating. 

they rocked. they would be perfectly suitable as a main dish with a little salad on the side.  i even made buddy's breadcrumbs.  two bits of advice.  it made  a LOT of breadcrumbs and you only need 6 tablespoons.  i would either really cut down the recipe OR plan some meals that use breadcrumbs like a chicken parmesan or a topping for a mac and cheese dish. i used them to top this dish and then i ended up throwing most of them out.  

the other piece of advice is that if you are using organic long grain brown rice that isn't instant rice or a quick cook rice, DON'T par boil it. cook it all the way.  my rice didn't cook all the way and i was so embarrassed!  fortunately when you stuff anything with italian sausage it makes up for those kind of mistakes. well, that and serving copious amounts of really good red wine helps too. 

i don't know how it would turn out if you used a white minute rice or just a white rice.  if you try it let me know.

that's what i get for breaking the rule of not trying it out before making it for company.

a valentine countdown and more proof that i've lost my mind

because we should celebrate those we love every day of the year. here's a little countdown to some of the goodies/activities we've done this week

tuesday

we all started our valentine's

and in an attempt to NOT spend $50 on homemade valentine's that will just be thrown away, i found these at target.  be still my heart.  gracie loved them. (remember their halloween costumes?)

and a sneak peek of mine (i don't want to ruin anyone's snail mail goodness)

 

and annie decorated her valentine mailbox.  mama likes to think out of the box, so she found this paint can at michael's, let annie have creative control by slapping on some stickers and we called it good.

wednesday

i had a reunion committee meeting and wanted to bring a easy and quick to make treat

i'm going to toot my own heart for a minute...these were delicious. i used my sugar cookie recipe. didn't chill it. dropped spoonfuls roughly shaped into a ball on the baking tray. WAY underbaked them and then pressed in the chocolate hearts in  when they came out of the oven.  after they cooled a bit i put the cookies on a plate and stuck them in the fridge.  (the hearts were really melty but i didn't touch them, moved them carefully, and they maintained their shape)

thursday

this morning i promised gracie pancakes.  if i'd been thinking i would have molded them with a heart shaped cookie cutter, but i wasn't thinking..shocking?!

so i got out some candy hearts

they nearly crapped their pants with excitement over FIVE... count them ...FIVE candy hearts on their pancakes.  it really doesn't take much does it?  which makes me think that i need to try to remember to do the little things like that more often just to show them how much i heart them.

and more proof that i've lost my mind. i can see eric shaking his head thinking "iv'e know that for years and i've got all the proof anyone needs."

anyway remember my blog from way back in dec when i wrote about disneyland, day 1, i think it was?

i had bought some antennae toppers for miss marcie.  right.

so yesterday i asked her how much i owed her for something we purchased together for a friend.  she texted and said nothing because she still owed me for the antennae toppers.

reflective pause followed by a trip to the den which would be the likely location for something like that.

my text back: "did i give those to you?"

marcie: "no but we haven't seen each other."

my thought: huh.

i can't find those toppers anywhere. ANYWHERE. i'd say they lost in neverland with annie's roly poly pooh bear, but i KNOW that i unpacked them from our suitcase.  i can actually visualize doing it.  unfortunately, i can't bring myself to visualize where they went after they were unpacked.

eric, have you seen any antenna toppers lying around?

no?

well, it looks like we have to go back to disneyland.

ponopoly

for one of annie's homework assignments this week, she was required to play a game with her family.  wanting to complete all her homework for the week this evening, we played a game. 

she picked "ponopoly" which is really quite hilarious because she can't focus on the board for more than one trip around.  

and then she chooses to be banker.

huh.

considering she can't add higher than 2+3, i didn't think it was  the wisest choice but "IVENEVERBEENBANKERBEFORE"

ok whatever.  

daddy actually got home at 6:50 (because he's not feeling well), so he was invited to play too. lucky him.

annie actually ALMOST made it two times around the board before she declared that she was done.  

we counted our money and added up what our properties would be if we mortgaged them and I WON.  i never win anything. 

gracie is having some tummy issues and being the mean mom that i am, i still sent her to school with the hope that she'd tough it out.  i got a call on my way home from work...foiled my plan of going to the gym...and i picked her up. 

ya wanna know what we did?

we rented secretariat and snuggled on the couch.  it was pure bliss.

saturday our good friend came over for dinner.  i owed them one since the last time they came over for dinner, they paid for romio's.  i think i'll NEVER get over that one.  i owed them a home cooked meal.

for starter we had tortilla chips and my pico de gallo: seeded and diced roma tomatoes, white onion, cilantro, salt and fresh lime juice

guacamole: avocado, cilantro, red onion, salt and fresh lime juice

easy peasy

for dinner we had pioneer woman's tequila lime chicken and mexican rice

and then i tried something new...homemade refried beans.  vicky had told me they were super easy to make and then i found this recipe.  and how can anything be bad with bacon? eric's not much of a bean eater and he liked them. 

and for dessert, we had cinnamon chocolate churro cupcakes.

they were kind of nummy.

to be honest, i just looked at the photo and thought "i want to make those." i didn't really read the steps until i was in the process of making them and realized that i had to make pudding from scratch.  i thought "this could be ok or it could be really, really bad. eric may be running to the store for ice cream."

it worked!  and i had the left over cinnamon chocolate pudding for dessert tonight!

 

happy birthday gram

today was my mom's birthday!  gram and papa came over for dinner, cake and presents this evening. 

we started off with herbed goat cheese and crackers.

then we moved to Leek, Butternut squash and Potato soup with sour cream (this blog has lots of gluten free baking-FYI) i made this cause i thought my mom would enjoy it and it's something eric would never eat if i made it just for us. his theory "why waste your calories on vegetables."  i guess in some ways it's hard to argue with that logic. anyway, i'll be making more soups like this he can like it or lump it.

then we had 

roasted green beans with shallots, creamy herbed risotto and roasted scallops with breadcrumbs and bacon 

(my plating looked prettier, not as much risotto. that was eric's plate) 

i hadn't made that particular risotto before.  it was touted as a "no stir" risotto.  i also changed the recipe a bit--i felt like i was taking a bit of a gamble.  it was DEE-LICIOUS. there was not sticking to the bottom of the pan and the rice turned out to be a nice consistency.

and for dessert

Pistachio Cake with Honey Buttercream Frosting (from the cook book "Baked Explorations")

it had so many steps my head was spinning.  three layers and techniques i'd never done before since i am not much of a baker.  well...i think i've proved that wrong cause it was divine if i do say so myself!

i went with a heart theme.  yes i realize valentine's is weeks away, but i like to get my decorations out early so i can enjoy it.  it's always a challenge to decorate tastefully for heart day.

just a couple of things...

yes, those are real candy hearts and no i didn't come up with that idea on my own

andy my candy jars and pink lights.  you can get away with that crap when you have girls.  they just eat it up. and it really doesn't look garish. and no my window isn't really that dirty.  it was rain drops. 

i have a couple things to craft that i'll hopefully get done next week so i can hang and enjoy them til heart day.

have a good evening.  me and my food baby are going to bed.

my sweet angel

this morning eric and i woke up to the sound of annie's chest of drawers opening and closing.  

"is that the sound of annie getting dressed?" i ask eric

"yeah, i think it is"

i think i was in shock. we both lay there listening to the sound of the girls getting dressed.  then we heard them clomping down the stairs.  

the pantry door opened.  it's nice and creaky. 

i eventually willed my bottom out of bed and went downstairs to find the girls just finishing breakfast.  they were both dressed and fed by 8:00.  IT'S A THANKSGIVING MIRACLE!

gracie had planned to get the turkey gravy lunch, which i know, it's the best thing for her to eat, but it's one of her favorites.  i think it also has sentimental value. her first grade teacher used to eat with them in the lunch room on turkey gravy day because she loved it too!  

but i digress.. annie needed a lunch. gracie volunteered to make it for her.  and she did.  quite beautifully, i might add.

and when i saw her get a piece of scratch paper and write annie a note, my heart almost stopped right then and there.

on the inside it said...

"annie have a fun day.  from, gracie"

gulp.

she's a keeper.  they both got 3 unexpected points on their helpful charts for being so helpful this morning. (they're earning disney dollars for every 10 points!)

eric took a day off work and went to the husky game.  they started at northlake pizza at 11 ish, then went tailgating and then the game, of course.  we killed time this evening by taking annie to gymnastics, eating dinner at baja fresh and glazing petite vanilla bean scones.

i made petite vanilla scones today.  you can find the recipe here. these are annie's favorite starbucks treat.  i had printed off the recipe when she posted it back in april and promised annie that i would make them for her.  guess what?  i never did.  

then i had a lovely dinner with some of my gal pals last night and found out that jen had made them a few times and she attested to their deliciousness.  

i ran right out today to get those vanilla beans--which i got from the bulk bin at central market.  they were nice and moist and only 2.50 a bean.

it was VERY fun to use my sifter.

they turned out yummy, though next time i need to make the glaze thicker. and i'd make sure the vanilla bean wasn't as clumpy.  

best of all, the girls loved them and that makes me happy.  

i'll be making more on saturday.

 

pecan pie

said like billy crystal in when harry met sally.  can you really say pecan pie without thinking of that line?

i made my first pecan pie tonight. it tasted good though the crust was not great.  definitely doing martha's pecan pie next week.  i should have gone with what i know.  i've made that crust before.  

anyway, eric loves pecan pie for thanksgiving so i am trying to carry on the tradition of pie making that eric's aunt lue did for so many years. she passed away last december.  although i certainly don't have her skill and i will NEVER make anything with meringue, i think she'd laugh at my poor pie and then give me an a for effort.

and, in this month of thanksgiving, today i am thankful for having a good morning AND night with the girls.