Posts

Showing posts from 2009

CEiMB - Maple Mustard Chicken Thighs (better late than never)

Image
I'm late with this post. It's Christmas season. Give me a break. I'm stressed like the rest of you! It's what. . .three days until Christmas and I'm not ready. Today I went to Walmart. Not Walmark. Not Walmarts. Just Walmart. (You might have to be southern to know what that comment actually means). Traffic was backed up for miles. Everyone is out shopping and they are driving crazy!! My grocery list was two arms long. Walmart did not have everything I needed of course, so tomorrow will be another trip to Publix for more supplies. You would think a big snow is headed my way if you saw my list of food. But it is just Christmas fixins! On top of all that, I need rehab. I am totally addicted to homemade chex mix. Addicted I tell you! I started eating it this morning with my pumpkin spice coffee before I ate my cereal. Then the hand continued to go into the chex mix every half hour or so the rest of the day. I'm making more tomorrow. The maple mustard thighs were s

Barefoot Bloggers - Croissant Bread Pudding

Image
Happy Holidays and a big thank you to all of you who cooked with me this week! I am the hostess this week for our Barefoot Bloggers group. We cook with the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, enjoying every delicious morsel her foods provide for us. After much deliberation, I chose Ina's Croissant Bread Pudding. I chose it for three reasons. First, because I love bread pudding, second, it seemed a festive thing to make here in December, and third, since we are in the midst of the busiest season of the year, I knew it would not be too time consuming. I made two additions to the recipe. I added about a teaspoon of cinnamon and about 1/2 cup of pecans, for the simple reason that I love cinnamon and pecans. If you are having guests over this month, don't hesitate to prepare and serve this. You cannot go wrong with this bread pudding. It is the yankee's favorite dessert and he complimented me not once, not twice, but after each bite. He did say, however, that the pecans did not add a

TWD - All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

Image
It's my favorite time of the year! This week especially. My birthday is Wednesday and Thanksgiving is Thursday and all that food we can consume!! Happy Birthday to Me! On our Tuesdays with Dorie group, we had the option of posting our recipes this month in any order we chose. This week I am posting the All in One Holiday Bundt Cake chosen by Britin of The Nitty Britty . Use this link to jump over to her website to get the recipe. This is one you do not want to miss. It is called all in one for a good reason - it has everything but the kitchen sink in it! While I thought the cake would taste more pumpkiney (is that a word?), it really tasted more like an apple cake to me. It is filled with pumpkin, apples, cranberries, pecans, and lots of yummy spices. I took it Saturday night to my birthday bash at our dance club and everyone really enjoyed it. The comment I heard the most was how moist it was. My DH ate a big hunk of it this morning for breakfast with our Starbucks Pumpkin Spice L

TWD - Cran Apple Crisps

Image
Here's a movie quote. One of my favorite movies of all time. Do you know what movie it is from? I'll have the answer down below in case you don't. "As God is my witness, as God is my witness, they're not going to lick me! I'm going to live through this, and when it's all over, I'll never be hungry again - no, nor any of my folks! If I have to lie, steal, cheat, or kill! As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." Em of the Repressed Pastry Chef chose Cran Apple Crisps for the month of November and what a great choice that was. It filled my home with the most wonderful fall smells. One might think Thanksgiving has already come! I am not really sure I did the crisp part right. I just sort of blobbed it on there. I'm writing this before I taste it, but I'm sure it tastes superb if it is anything like the smell. Yum. Check out the recipe at Em's blog and while you are there browse around. Em has some wonderful foods to sha

TWD below - CEiMB - Carrot, Green Apple, and Mint Salad

Image
This week's Ellie recipe was chosen by Jessica of Singleton in the Kitchen . Check out her blog. I always enjoy reading Jessica's adventures. I have to admit, this week's recipe, however, did not excite me initially. However, I changed my mind after making it. We loved it. I think the only change I would make next time is I would like to have raisens in it. Also, the mint did not thrill me so I might leave it off. The dressing, however, was delicious! I am not sure what the difference is in regular yogurt and greek yogurt, but I loved the taste of this. We enjoyed it with some rotisserie chicken and a vegetable concoction I came up with at the last minute consisting of corn, peas, turnip greens, and pinto beans. I mixed all those together and heated it up and it was very tasty. The carrot salad was a crisp and delicious side. Thanks Jessica for choosing this! I felt I had made a very healthy dish. I'll leave you with a favorite quote, "The sooner you fall behind

TWD - Sugar Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

Image
It hasn’t been my best day and yet here I am blogging. You know what they say, some days you are the bug and others you are the windshield. Well you guessed it - today I’m the windshield! And sometimes it only takes a good cookie to turn your entire day around. Or a good laugh at Walmart. Have you ever really looked at the people walking around Walmart? Some of them need to ask Scottie to beam them back their clothes! Half naked is never a good look for shopping. But then, maybe their gene pool could use a little chlorine if you know what I mean! This week in our Tuesdays with Dorie group, one of my favorite bloggers, Pamela of Cookies With Boys chose Sugar Topped Molasses and Spice Cookies. I was not excited about making these cookies, but I did like the way they turned out. I thought they could do with more spice though. I also plan to use them as a topping for the Apple Cranberry Crisp that I will be making tomorrow night which is another TWD dessert. Check out Pam's blog becau

TWD is running late - Check back on Friday

First, please check back with me on Friday to see my Tuesdays with Dorie treat of the week. Cranberry Apple Crisp. Second, coming Thursday will be CEiMB's Carrot and Apple Salad with Fresh Mint. And third, there always has to be a third, right? Third, is Ina Garten's Pot Roast. All coming soon to a blog near you - namely mine! Movie recommendation - Pinkstripes recommended "Once" to me and I watched it this afternoon. If you are a fan of musical type movies, you should definitely check it out. We also watched State of Play with Russell Crowe and Ben Afleck and it was a very good drama. Happy week and again, please check back later in the week.

CEiMB - Pumpkin Pie Muffins

Image
Our host this week is Oddball Oven Mitt and she refers to herself as Hat and Fappy. I love that. She chose Pumpkin Pie Muffins for us to bake this week and she is one of my favorite people today because of that. With fall here, anything pumpkin that comes my way gets scarfed up, chewed up, devoured, swallowed whole, and enjoyed! I love the smell of it as well as the taste of it. It makes my home smell delicious while it is baking. It makes me feel warm and happy. The food we make during the fall season is one of the only things I like about fall. The leaves changing is another one. I hate the weather and I hate that it means cold weather is knocking on our doorstep. Give me spring and summer any day over fall and winter. I added a few chocolate chips to some of my muffins and topped the rest with walnuts. These were easy to mix up! Oops, where is the twelfth muffin? It's missing. There was not enough batter for twelve. But I had eleven nice big, fat muffins. Check out the reci

TWD - Sweet Potato Biscuits

Image
I take any opportunity I have to make biscuits. I love them all. Buttermilk, sour cream, or sweet potato! I was very excited that Erin of Prudence Pennywise chose this recipe this week for our Tuesdays with Dorie challenge. It's Halloween - grab your witch's broom (you know you have one tucked away in that closet) and fly over to Erin's webpage for the recipe. While you are there, be sure to read her fabulous, warm, witty post that goes with her baking. I loved these biscuits. I love anything pumpkin or sweet potato and they were perfect for fall. Easy to make and delicious served with butter or jam. Have a wonderful week.

CEiMB - Tuscan Vegetable Soup

Image
In the south, we do not expect cold temperatures in October. It was so cold this weekend a snowman showed up on our front porch asking if he could sleep on our sofa! I'm a bit dramatic, but while I was shopping yesterday I truly needed a coat. It is good soup weather however! Movie review - The Proposal - absolutely adorable. Another Sandra Bullock hit. I'm a bit late with this post, and I changed the recipe a bit. I added hamburger to it, and also a few spiral noodles for substance. I left out the white beans and used limas. I did not precook the vegetables and I left out the spinach leaves. If you need a bit of warming up this week, try a good bowl of this soup! Delicious. Use your witch's broom (you know you have one) and fly on over to Lobster and Fishsticks' post to see how hers cooked up. Thanks Pam for choosing this week's recipe. Tuscan Vegetable Soup courtesy of Ellie Krieger 1 (15-ounce) can low-sodium canellini beans, drained and rinsed 1 tablespoon

No CEIMB this week - but will return next week!

Please forgive me. . I've been lapse lately. I have missed some very important tasty looking recipes. I hope to do better starting next week! Loved all your cheese sandwiches, new york breakfasts, and chop suey!! Please share. . . come on over. . . I'll get you a glass of iced tea to go with.

CEiMB - Black Bean Mexican Style Pizza or Post Surgery Ground Beef Unspicy Pizza

Image
I hope you all notice the one lone black bean on the plate above because when I look at this photo, that is all I see. Of course I didn't see it when I was snapping the shot. You had to know that right? But now that I am looking at it closely, I think it adds interest and creativity, don't you? Who else thought to have a straggler bean all by itself on the edge of the plate? That is major, huge, outstanding creative photography. I'm just sayin. Since the yankee isn't supposed to eat spicey foods this week, I was very hesitant to make this. However, my sweet blogging friend Joanna of Apple Crumbles , the host of this week's recipe, offered a few suggestions for me as to how to change things up and de-spice the original recipe. Be sure to check out her blogsite to see how it is supposed to be made. Joanna is a creative cook and very adept at changing recipes to meet vegetarian needs so I always like to check out her blog. First, I cooked some very lean ground beef and

TWD - Flakey Apple Turnovers

Image
Enjoy the photo of these beautiful apples. Because the following photos you should view at your own risk. My dough did not turn out right. I'm not sure what went wrong, but the stars and the moon did not line up for me. And of course this is my first post for TWD since July because I took a break for our Italy trip. Wouldn't you just know I would mess up on this one? My turnovers are huge - honkers even. And dough was kind of hard and crumbly. Okay I'll admit one thing - I thought that was a tremendous amount of butter to put in the dough and I left a tad of the butter out. Why oh why did I question Dorie? Dorie the master chef. Who am I? Please please please go to Julie at Someone's Kitchen's blog who chose this recipe for the week and see how these are supposed to look! I'm also a horrible wife. The yankee had his gallbladder removed just four days ago and this is what I fed him for dinner tonight because I had to make these apple turnovers that did not even

NO FOOD BLOGS THIS WEEK - SORRY

Chandler, or "the Yankee" as I fondly refer to him, is having surgery tomorrow so I will not be cooking/baking and probably not even eating much this week. Check back next week for more recipes!

CEiMB post below this one: BAREFOOT BLOGGERS - White Pizza with Arugula

Image
I'm a pizza lover. But only if it has a white sauce or a thin layer of red sauce. If it is running over with red sauce, I'll share. Otherwise, get out of my way while I cut myself the largest piece! One of my favorite pizzas is California Pizza Kitchen's club salad pizza. When I saw the recipe that Andrea of Nummy Kitchen chose for this week, that is immediately what came to my mind. The dough was easy to mix up but I tried to halve the recipe and just make one pizza instead of the six small ones Ina suggested. And there is a reason the lemon in the above picture looks like it has already had the life squeezed out of it. Because it has. I squeezed the lemon juice and then remembered I needed a slice for the pizza! This was delicious and will be made again at my house! Check out Andrea's and the other Barefoot Bloggers and see how theirs turned out here ! That Ina Garten never fails to deliver a great recipe. At first glance, it may "sound" complicated, but it

CEiMB - 100th Post!!!!!! Chicken Sate with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Image
It seems like just yesterday that I joined my first cooking group and that was 100 posts ago! I'm excited that on my 100th post I can tell you about my trip to Italy and also, my good friend Cathy of The Tortefeasor picked this week's recipe for our group. Life just doesn't get much better than this, right? First, let me say that cooking with Cathy has been a real encouragement to me. We have enjoyed sharing tips about recipes and many discussions about our "pick." When Cathy first came to work at my firm years ago, I was her assistant. I remember my son came to my office to visit (he was 15 or so at the time) and saw Cathy and said "Mom, who was that hottie?" I said "who, Cathy? That's my boss!" I don't think I've ever told her that story. Little did I know at that time that she had real honest to goodness writing/blogging/cooking/comedic talent as well as being attractive to teenagers! She's a rockstar for sure. Cathy chose Sa

CEiMB - Grilled Thai Beef Salad

Image
I made this salad a week ago for our Sunday lunch because I knew I would be out of town on posting day for this. I hope you are in awe of my dedication to my group! Me, actually planning ahead! My friend Jennifer of Jen-B's Cooking Carveout chose this week's Craving Ellie challenge. I could not find flank steak so I chose a different cut, but it was still very good. I marinated the meet overnight and then grilled it for a few minutes on each side. I forgot to add the cilantro, but I added a few avocado slices and fresh cucumber slices. We really enjoyed this dish and I would definitely make it again!! We ate while we watched The Elegy with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz. A strange movie to say the least! Not awful, not great. See you next week with news of my trip abroad. :) And the 18th (yesterday if you are reading this on the 19th) was my anniversary with the Yankee. We are celebrating in Italy! Eleven years and we hope for fifty more!! Grilled Thai Beef Salad Ingredients

CEiMB and Barefoot Bloggers - Stuffed Turkey Burgers and Frozen Mango Banana Daiquiris

Image
As you read this, I am most likely roaming the streets of Venice, or perhaps enjoying gelato in Florence. Yes, okay, eat your heart out! I was trying to figure out how I could manage to cook everything before I left and I could not believe my luck when I saw Veronica of Supermarket Serenade had chosen Frozen Daiquiris for this week's Barefoot Bloggers choice! We were having a lazy Saturday afternoon, the yankee was paying some bills, and I handed him this delicious concoction to try. We put away the checkbooks (I mean what fun is that, paying bills?) and put in our Netflix movie of the week, Confessions of a Shopaholic. While we watched, we sipped. Yum. They were not quite as "frozen" as I would have liked, but they were delicious nonetheless. The only change I made was to use spiced rum because that is what I had on had. Thanks Veronica - I owe you one for this great pick! Mango Banana Daiquiris serves 4 2 cups chopped ripe mango (1 to 2 mangos, peeled and seeded) 1 rip

CEiMB - Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Image
It was MY pick this week in our Craving Ellie in My Belly group! Woo hoo! I tried to think of something that might work for everyone! I ended up choosing Ellie's Stuffed Turkey Burgers. I'm leaving for Italy soon and time was a huge consideration. These were so easy to prepare and a delicious meal you could fix anytime, weekend or middle of the week. First you make thin patties of ground turkey and you top with shredded mozzarella and roasted red peppers. Then you top with another thin patty of turkey breast and crimp the two together around the edges and add salt and freshly ground pepper. Then you sit back and enjoy a budlight with lime while you grill them. Foam, foam, go away!! We probably overgrilled ours a bit which made them a little on the dry side. Still, very delicious! I really hope everyone who made these enjoyed them as much as we did. And for those of you who haven't tried them yet, do. They are healthy and a fast dinner fix! I served with a tomato slice, re

Sorry again, no TWD this week!

Taking a break until September on TWD. Do check back in on Thursday for some great turkey burgers!

BAREFOOT BLOGGERS - Peach and Blueberry Crumbles (or if you don't have blueberries, substitute blackberries)

Image
Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen chose this week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe for us -Peach and Blueberry Crumbles. Thanks for a great pick Aggie! I really enjoy cooking and baking with Aggie! I started to buy blueberries, but then I remembered I had frozen some blueberries a month ago and decided to use those. However, when I got home and began preparing to make the recipe, I remembered I had fresh blackberries that were just about to go to waste so I decided to use those instead. It is a woman's perogative to change her mind, twice right? Speaking of berries, is it just me, or does everyone find that fresh berries only last like a day after you get them home? I bought raspberries and one day later they had mold all over them. I have tried keeping them in the refrigerator and they get wet and mushy. So this time I left them on the counter and they got mold on them. I guess the only solution is to freeze them? Any thoughts on this subject? We love our fresh berries on our cereal in t

CEiMB - Oven Baked Onion Rings

Image
One of my very favorite bloggers, Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen chose Ellie Kreiger's Oven Bake Onion Rings as this week's choice for our group to try. Now the yankee hates onions. I'm not even sure the word hate is strong enough. He will occasionally tolerate cooked ones. So I knew if I made these it would be up to me to eat the entire batch. I did feel I was up to the challenge that night. Stopped by the store and got what I thought were all the ingredients I needed, only to get home and realize I forgot the buttermilk. So I improvised and used whipping cream with a little sour cream added to it. Other than that, I followed Ellie's recipe. I used Baked Lays potato chips. The milk mixture was probably not quite as sticky as the buttermilk would have been, but it seemed to work overall pretty well. Meanwhile, I had Chandler out back grilling us some hamburgers to go with. While the onion rings were baking I went outside and had a Bud Light with Lime along beside h

CEiMB - Aromatic Noodles with Lime Peanut Sauce

Image
This week's recipe for our Craving Ellie group was chosen by MrsBethORama at Supplicious and it sounded really good so I was excited to make it. Be sure to check out her blog and see how hers turned out. I went swimsuit shopping on my way home from work. Is there anyone alive to who loves to swimsuit shop? They were almost sold out so I came home suitless. Not naked, but suitless. That means more shopping on Saturday! Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that it is just really difficult to find a good breast anymore? Chicken of course. They are either so big that you need a wheelbarrow to get them in from your car to the kitchen, or they are dry and tasteless. The yankee and I grilled a few breasts the other evening so I thought I would chop one up and add it tonight in this wonderful asian inspired dish. I put the whole wheat noodles on to boil. I slightly roasted the peanuts. I cooked the broccoli and snow peas. I made the sauce minus the onion. Now, I'm not sure, b

TWD - Plum Brioche Tart

Image
Thank God I took today off. I was planning to make the brioche last night until I read the recipe and realized it was one of those two day recipes. First you mix up the dough. ... The Dorie says to put the dough into a clean bowl .. .. Then you let the dough rise . . . (never my favorite part I'm so impatient) . . . Then you refrigerate. So I made the dough last night and let it refrigerate overnight. Then you cut up the fruit, add some jam on the bottom of the crust and some walnuts with sugar on top and voila - bake in the oven! The only problem I had was the dough was a bit sticky after it warmed up to my hands. Cathy had warned me that hers did not cook in the middle and to make sure I cooked it long enough for the juices to be bubbling. I hope I did, but it looks a bit runny in the center. Also, Dorie says it will sound hollow when you tap it. Where the heck are you supposed to tap it when there is fruit all over the top of it. Maybe I used too much fruit. I just finished ba