at this rate, the end of the world might come before i post again...

You know how there have been a lot of bad earthquakes lately, a tsunami, and then that volcano in Iceland that just wont quit? Yeah, so if you wanted to think of this as like a natural disaster opening ceremonies then you would look down the line and see the the grand finale is the eruption of Yellowstone.  How you seen the movie 2012?
Guess where we are hosting a family reunion this summer? YELLOWSTONE! Let's hope that if mother nature is going to provide a fireworks show that it's when we are there to see it! (or we have all boarded the ship that's moving us to the moon, not like we could survive it even if we are back home).
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I made homemade pop-tarts the other day, some with boysenberry jam and some with nutella, delicious.
And since I'm thinking about food, let me give you the best tomato soup recipe ever.  Like, ever. I don't like chunks of cooked tomato in my chili or marinara sauce and I think the cream of tomato soups in a can are only OK but this soup totally changed all my ideas of what tomato soup can be. Please try it.

Slice several garlic cloves but not too small, I like being able to bite into my garlic, you will too.  Cook the garlic in a little oil for a few minutes.
Peel and dice 8-10 plumb tomatoes (I think I ended up using Roma because we had plenty already and the grocery I went to doesn't have plumb tomatoes)
Simmer tomatoes (and garlic) in a good quality stock until they start to break down. Like 15-20 minutes.
In each bowl place a slice of day-old crusty french bread...or buy a baguette the day of and toast it because who buys bread and leaves it out all day? Your cat will jump up on the counter after you've gone to bed and get her cat germs all over it. Gross.
Crack an egg over each piece of bread.
This is when you are supposed to ladle the soup over the egg and put the bowl in the oven for 5 min at 400 but when I did that the first time I ended up microwaving the bowls for a few seconds because the egg whites didn't cook enough and everyone was grossed out.  Sooooooooo, I put the egg and bread in the oven first so that I could watch them better, until the whites have just set, and then ladle the soup over them.
Top with chopped parsley.
I have some parsley growing in my little garden.  I mean, I have a parsley MONSTER growing.  I planted some last year and didn't even expect it to grow because that was the soil that Josephine decided to "help" me with and scooped it up and plopped it into the basil pot... I scooped it out, the parsley flourished, the basil never grew.  This year the parsley came back pretty early, it's gone through some snow and freezing nights but it has persevered.  The last time I went to cut some I decided to cut it back before it took over the rest of my herbs and I cut through stalks that were as big around as a quarter. Yeesh.
Anyway, the leftover soup is great alone too but the bread really makes it so toss in some croutons or something, because you at the rest of the baguette loaf before the dishes were even cleared from the table.

Dear vegetarians, think about taking a day off for this

One of the ways I earn my keep around here is to do the grocery shopping for the whole family as well as prepare dinner Mon-Fri. I really enjoy cooking for someone other than myself (Josephine doesn't count, all she wants to eat are scrambled eggs) and I try really hard to make an interesting meal each night. Every once in a while I find time to make a little something extra like a pie or banana bread. Last night I made magically delicious cupcakes. No, there was no weed involved, and no Lucky Charms either... are you ready for this?

Dark Chocolate+Coffee+Bacon Cupcake!!!!!!!

It's like breakfast and dessert in one cute package. I'm giving you this recipe because I love you, but be careful, you will have a hard time not passing out face first into the whole batch.


(The recipe I followed said it was for 24 cupcakes, so I split the batter 24 ways. They all overflowed in the oven, I really could have made 30ish.)

• Cook a package of bacon, extra crispy, crumble and set aside.

Mix dry ingredients in big bowl and create a well:

• 2cup flour
• 3/4cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2cup sugar
• 2tea baking soda
• 1tea baking powder
• 1/2tea sea salt

Pour wet ingredients into well and stir until just combined:

• 2eggs
• 1cup cold strong coffee
• 1cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Stir in 3/4 bacon crumbles

375degrees, 20-25min
Frost and top with remaining bacon.

who's hungry?

November 1998 I stopped eating meat after being totally grossed out by deer carcases proudly displayed on every car hood in town.

October 2001 I have been in college for a month and the cafeteria has few vegetarian options. I'm hungry and too poor to get my own groceries so I start eating the tuna. I continue to eat seafood but still avoid all other meats for the next several years.

April 2007 I take a pregnancy test, it's positive, I resolved to give in to any food cravings for the next 9 months. 1st up: fried chicken. I've been eating all foods ever since (except celery and mushrooms, yuck).

I've been considering going back to vegetarian side for a while now, I even planned on going vegan for a few weeks just as a sort of cleansing diet. My dad keeps making good food though, like ribs in our new smoker grill, and most nights it's just him and I that sit down to eat dinner.

My solution is that when I cook dinner I will try to make a (mostly) vegetarian meal and see if I can make meat a 'once-in-a-while' food.

Last night I made some pizzas. I made one that didn't turn out too well and so we won't talk about that one, but I made another one that was DELICIOUS.

Separate the sides of pita bread so that you have two thin round pieces. Pile on goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and sun dried tomatoes. Bake at 400 for 15ish min and finally toss on some diced up basil. Mmmmmmmmmm. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar over it just before you eat.

I had leftover ingredients and stuffed them all in the pita pockets and put it under the broiler for a few min for lunch today.

The night before I made this:



These zucchini "crab" cakes that were yummy. (There isn't really any crab in them)

Chiles Rellenos (stuffed poblano peppers):

Scorch the outside of the peppers with an open flame from your gas stove or put them under the broiler until they are black and blistered all over then stick them in a plastic bag to let them "sweat" for a while.

Cook up what you plan on stuffing them with. I cooked together onion, cactus, eggplant, tomatoes, and corn until the onion was soft.

Now you can take off the skin of the peppers...but be careful! Wear gloves if you have any cuts and make sure all the babies are being cared for by someone else far away from the kitchen sink. Run the peppers under cold water as you slide the skin off and wash your hands often so you don't accidentally rub your eyes or pick up your baby with fire fingers. (This dish isn't really spicy at all after you finish, I promise)

Cut a slit in the peppers and cut out the guts (that's the spicy part, watch it go down the disposal)

Stuff the peppers with your filling, add cheese too if you want, and "sew" them back together with toothpicks.

Whip three egg whites together (for four-five peppers) until fluffy and then mix in the yolks. Dust the peppers with flour and cover them with the egg mixture and then set them in some hot oil and fry those suckers till they are golden.

Put any left over stuffing on your plate as a bed for your chiles rellenos and top with any remaining cheese.

These are fricken awesome.

Finally the pretty little things inthe middle of the picture:

Blackberry Cornbread Tartlets with Ricotta Cream via Vegetarian Times:

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal + 1/2 cup unbleached (white) flour* (I used whole wheat) + 3Tbs sugar +1 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl.

1/2 cup milk whisked with 1 large egg, fold into dry mixture.

Add 2 Tbs melted unsalted butter and 1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels.

Bake the corn muffins at 375 for 14ish minutes.

Whisk 1 cup ricotta cheese + 1/4 cup sugar + 1.5 tsp vanilla extract + 1/2 tsp orange zest.

After the cornbread has sufficiently cooled, cut off the tops to make a flat surface and plop some cream on each and top with blackberries. I used frozen berries, but if you use fresh ones you should toss them with a little sugar and a pinch of salt ahead of time and let them rest so they'll be juicier.
Now if you made it to the end of this post you get a little treat...

tuesday cake

My mom decided that Josephine needs to have a cake for every month until she is one, at least. The only kind of cake that I really like is pound cake and she just happened to make pound cake at one month and I have made sure it's been pound cake ever since.

May is busy, my first mother's day, my sister's birthday, both parents' birthdays, (and tomorrow my other sister is graduating high school) so there have been lots of cakes. My dad, whose birthday was the same day as Josephine's 5 month, always has strawberry pie so I decorated a pound cake just because I wanted to decorate something.

Are you asleep yet? Gosh I can be so boring sometimes.

Anyway, here is the cake I decorated for fun:

No those are not turds, they are logs! Pretty awful picture, trust me the real thing was much cuter...still pretty cheesy though. The flames were made of some left over fondant and there were supposed to be marshmallow coals but someone ate all the marshmallows...someone who might be getting a bag of marshmallows for a graduation present.

Only the third Tuesday and I'm already sinking

So here's the deal: My sister Martha eats what I cook for her, my dad eats what I cook as long as there's little to no wheat, my sister Sarah has only been here a little over a week so far but will eat what I cook, and my mom is so picky that she very rarely eats dinner with us.

This last week my dad was out of town, Sarah was busy visiting all of her friends she hasn't seen all school year, Martha has been busy preparing for the end of her high school career, and I was house/dog sitting for a few days.

What I'm saying is, I haven't invested much time in the kitchen this past week.

I have made several batches of the granola bars though.

Almond/cranberry

Blueberry/pecan

Chocolate/cherry

Chocolate/coffee

Bacon/sunflower seed

Also, you HAVE to let them cool completely in the fridge before cutting them up.



Tonight for dinner I plan on making some stuffed chicken, because there is chicken in the fridge that needs to be cooked.

And some potato pancakes, because YUM!



My mom had a birthday and she's a big pirate fan so I decorated her cake to look like a treasure map of our property and put a red X where her presents were hidden. Aaaand I didn't take a picture of it. Aaaaand the cat got into it the next day. It was covered with plastic wrap on the counter and when I looked at it I wondered who had been punching the cake. I know it wasn't that pretty, but come on! Turns out it was cat foot prints.



My sister had a birthday too but she opted for a Cold Stone cake instead of a "Rachel cake"...I don't blame her.

Recipe Twofer Tuesday

I made these the other night.

mmmmmmmmmm

(I even made some w/out the bacon and they were good)

Rachael Ray annoys the crap out of me, but she usually has great recipes.

Second, my favorite food right now is a very simple wonton soup.

I could eat it every day. This is what I suggest:

• Goat cheese or feta
• Sausage* (I use Jimmy Dean sage)
• Spinach

Mix them up and fill wonton wrappers, cook them in broth with some green onions, peas, whatever...OR steam them (then are they dumplings?) or fry them in a little oil (then are they pot stickers?) and eat until you have to change into sweat pants. Then eat some more (you can totally have one more)

*So there were two sausages in a frying pan, one sausage rolls over to the other and says "Hey, sure is hot in here, huh?". The second sausage rolls over and replies "AAAAGGGGHHHHHH A TALKING SAUSAGE!!!"

Recipe Tuesday!

Let's see how long I can keep this up. I can get pretty excited about food, but my time management skills could use some work.




Today I made granola bars.

mmmmmmmmmm....



Mix together:

3 cup rolled oats

1.5 cup crisp rice cereal

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup flour (I used whole wheat)

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup butter

3/4 cup honey

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups yummy stuff (I used almonds and dried cranberries, be creative!) (maybe next time I'll try mini chocolate chips and some coffee?)



I started mixing it with a spoon, but had to finish with my hands to get it mixed well enough. Then I had to use all my will power to keep from shoveling the mixture right into my mouth because it smells sooo good.

Bonus! when you wash your hands, just rinse them off w/out soap and they will be soooo smooth.

Grease a 9x13 pan and pack that stuff in there. Smoosh it as hard as you can. (smoosh is not a word)

Bake at 325 for around 20 min. Cool and cut.



** always remember that I don't really "measure" so, you know, cook accordingly.

Hey, let me have that camera!

Cha Cha Cha Chicken

Try this: Pound out some chicken breasts, pile some good stuff on, wrap them up, and cook 'em!



Here is what I did:



Spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese, parsley, garlic, and cilantro. The spinach is raw and the rest of the ingredients were mixed in a food processor...



Hold them together with toothpicks and put them in the oven for...uh...you can figure the time and temperature out...
My dad loved these, I however, am not as huge a fan of cilantro as I thought...I would have liked more cheese, tomato and spinach. I think I actually made that once.

Anywho...can you tell how much I like food? Right now my favorite food is, oh, I'll save that for another post. I can tell you that a after dinner snack I am loving is a peanut butter and KitKat sandwich. That's right. I may as well get my maternity clothes back out.

soup for you

It's not quite summer, so if you have an afternoon free you should make this awesome soup. (I guess I think of soup as a winter/fall/sorta spring thing) I made it when a friend was sick and also my grandmother was here and both asked me for the recipe. I haven't given it to them yet so feel special I'm sharing it with you first.
This will make a whole lot of soup, like for 10 people…you can obviously cut the measurements down as you please but this is how I remember making it and I can't be bothered to do the conversions for you.

Ingredients:
1/2ish cup butter
1 1/2 finely chopped onion (I used yellow)
sliced carrots, as many as you want
3/4ish cup all-purpose flour
7-1/2ish cups chicken broth (I used 4 cans of low fat/low sodium broth)
2 cups wild rice (Rinse half way through so your kitchen doesn’t stink too badly.) (Pretty sure I had 2 uncooked cups)
1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 package (1 lb?) of spicy Italian sausage
3 tablespoons and 2-1/4 teaspoons dry sherry
2-1/2 cups half-and-half (or 2ish cups 1/2n1/2 and about a cup of milk)

DIRECTIONS
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and carrots and sauté for 5-10 minutes. Then add the flour and stir well. Gradually pour in the chicken broth, stirring constantly, until all has been added. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat to low and let simmer. *I forgot to cook the rice before hand so I let this simmer for about an hour while the rice cooked.
Add the rice, chicken, sausage and sherry. Allow to heat through, and then pour in the half-and-half/milk. Let simmer while you set the table and wash your pans… *Do not boil or your roux will break; at least that’s what I’ve heard, I’ve never tried it.

Add salt to taste, it’ll bring down the spiciness of the sausage. Pretty sure my dad added salt when I wasn't looking & I have no idea how much he added. Add more milk to thin it out

yummy yummy

blueberry sour cream banana bread

Steal this recipe:

This is basically the recipe I followed, though I don’t concern myself much with accurate measurements. You shouldn’t either.

In a small bowl, mix together 2 cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, 1.5 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp salt, and ½ tsp cinnamon.

In another bowl, a bigger bowl, combine 2 large eggs, ½ cup sour cream, 1 tsp vanilla and ½ cup melted butter. (I didn’t have vanilla extract so I used vanilla flavoring, I know, not the same thing, but I’m pretty sure you can omit the vanilla and never know the difference)

Mix in two mashed bananas then the dry ingredients. I guess you’re not supposed to over mix, but maybe you should and tell me what happens.

Fold in 1 cup blueberries. I used thawed out frozen berries only because they were cheaper than the fresh ones. Also, some nuts would probably be good, but I didn’t feel like putting any in this time.

Pour into a greased loaf pan (I wish I didn’t have to tell you that step, but I’d never forgive myself if I found out you poured the batter directly into the oven) bake at 350 for about an hour. Start tooth-picking around 50 min.

Use a potholder or thick rag to pull the pan out of the oven, and wait a little while for the bread to cool before eating it so you don’t burn your mouth.

Then enjoy

You’re welcome.