I want to eat everything

Wow, I thought I had a hearty appetite when I was pregnant!  Now 3 plus months into breastfeeding I want to eat all the time!!!  And facebook doesn't help matters any.  There are a ton of tasty videos floating around the interwebs with some awesome recipes...mostly desserts...like this one:

Triple D Chili

Last night my DH and I were watching "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" and it seemed like every episode we watched had hot dogs, so of course we both got hungry for hot dogs!  Chili cheese dogs to be precise.  One particular episode the owner showed how to make chili from scratch.  So that is   what I am attempting to replicate tonight.

There is no set recipe, and there are no measurements aside from the pound of hamburger.  So you will need to gather

Canola Oil and Olive oil

Beef Soup base

Ketchup and Mustard

White Vinegar and
Worchestershire sauce (not pictured)

Paprika

Chili Powder

Oregano

Garlic Powder

Cumin

Ground Pepper

Onion and Carrots

 After spending several hours at the Zoo for a birthday party I used the easy route and used the food processor to chop up the carrots and onion.

Set a pan on the stove and pour in a blop (yes this is a technical term) of each of the oils.  The sweat the carrots and onion.

Once they are sweating good add the hamburger

And the spices, all just kinda thrown in depending on how you think you will like it.  And I forgot to mention that you need some water (12-ish ounces) too...so add that now.

Yes, at this point the hamburger is raw but that is OK because this is going to cook and simmer and make you drool for 30-45 minutes.  After 15 minutes or so taste the chili to see if you like the flavors, and then you can add more of any of the spices, whatever you think it needs.

Almost done!

Once the chili is done it's time to assemble the chili dog!  Bun, grilled or boiled dog, top with chili and cheese.

ENJOY!

It's a gloomy day, time to bake away!

As I've mentioned on other posts, Pinterest will be the death of my current wardrobe.  So many recipes, so little time...well used to be little time, but now I'm home more than I'm not so I can experiment in the kitchen, and blog about it, even more!

Photo from http://butteryum.blogspot.com

Today is the day I have been waiting for. Overcast, a bit cold, and rain possibly even thunderstorms!  Last week I wanted bananas, so I bought three, two were already more ripe than I care to eat, and bruised.  So I left them on the counter until today, and now they are PERFECT for banana bread.  But wait, what did I find on Pinterest?

Oh yes, a delicious banana cake!  So now I have something new to try!  Click here for the recipe.

To start as always, gather your ingredients, I know it seems silly, but getting everything ready will make sure that you have everything you will need!

Then turn on the oven, to 375

I know that the original recipe says this can be done by hand, but I prefer to use a blender to make sure it is smooth.  Nothing is worse than getting chunks of butter, or banana in an otherwise perfect piece of bread, or in this case, the cake.  Start with the butter, sugar, sour cream and egg.

When it is smooth add the vanilla and the bananas.  When you are using the blender it is not necessary to pre-smash the bananas.  Which makes this an easier way to make this recipe.

While the bender is doing it's thing, grab a separate bowl, and mix the flour, baking soda and salt.

As most people know, I can never follow a recipe as written, I noticed with this recipe there is no cinnamon, or allspice, so I added 1/2 t cinnamon, and 1/4 t allspice to the flour mixture before pouring the pureed banana mixture into the bowl.

At this point mix, scraping the bottom of the bowl well and pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Bake for 20 minutes.

The cake has to cool completely before frosting.  Ah the frosting, you can't go wrong with vanilla frosting!  I had everything on hand, except for the heavy cream.  Instead I am going to use milk, with some powdered milk added in.  This way it's thicker than regular milk, but a lot less fattening than heavy cream.  And because this frosting recipe only calls for 1/4 cup heavy cream, I'm going to make extra, then turn that into hot chocolate!

Again, I used the blender, well the food processor attachment this time, it worked really well!

Then I simply poured the icing over the mostly cool cake, I did not want to wait!







As soon as the icing is set I am all over this cake!!!

Enjoy!

Pizza snack attack!

Nothing gets me hungrier than looking at Pinterest   Hours can be wasted looking, searching and pinning.  Today's snack comes from Pinterest   I'm not sure exactly who the original recipe comes from.  There are many floating around out there.  I have a board for just about everything!  I do shamelessly pin my own blog posts to Pinterest....so follow me. :0)

As I'm sure you can guess from the title, I made pizza something, pizza bites to be exact.  Super simple, something the DH or kids if you have them can help with!  And seriously this can be a full meal.  Any type of stuffing can be used.  After eating these my DH even said, you know, you could even do a cheeseburger stuffing...That will be happening later this week!!!  He's so smart!  I will blog that later!

The ingredients are simple,
One can (10 each) can biscuits 

Cheese, I used shredded pizza cheese, but you can use any type of cheese (block or shredded)
Toppings to stuff into it, I used pepperoni

Preheat the oven to 425. Smash the biscuit flat, but keep the round shape,  make sure to wash your hands first of course!  Layer the toppings and cheese.  

Fold into a pouch of sorts,

put folded side down into a greased pan.

Then you need an egg, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.  Of course if you aren't doing pizza bites you change up the seasonings to match what you are making.

Brush with the beaten egg.

Sprinkle the tops with the seasonings.

Bake for 18 minutes

The tops will be brown.

Serve with pizza sauce for dipping, or a different kind of dipping sauce.

Enjoy!  I know we did!!!

Black Eye Peas, starring Bacon-I-Love

The end of the year is upon us, I got off work "early" today, so I only worked 6:30-2 a decent day.  And with the snow falling I headed home, then decided to go to the grocery store.  After all I do have a nice newer SUV that gets around great in this stuff!  While walking around the store contemplating what we should eat for our last dinner this year, and whatever other snacky stuff would be nice I discovered that there was:
#1 a run on milk, and I wish I had gotten a picture, but the shelves were almost completely bare!  I guess if congress doesn't pass the farm bill then milk will basically double in price... luckily i did find some milk so I can make ham bone soup tomorrow....but that is another blog. And...
#2 a "shortage" of black eyed peas, which if you are superstitious are supposed to bring good luck in the new year...and as luck would have it, I found A can stashed on a shelf...so I am making some tonight!  I found a recipe online, several in fact, but only one had bacon in it...can you guess which one I'm making?

And being even more lucky this new years eve, I did have all the ingredients I needed at home...lucky part was not finding the recipe till I came home...and still having everything I needed!  Even if I did have to do a scavenger hunt for the diced tomatoes and chilis (it was in can #7)

(a leftover prank from my wedding, thanks to my brother and sister-in-law)

The recipe was simple, start with bacon...

brown and remove...then add onions.

then dump in the peas (after draining and rinsing)

and then the tomatoes, and water and stir all together, you also add the chili powder, black pepper and I had some chipotle bacon salt...you can never have too much bacon!

Cook for 45 minutes to an hour...then serve with bacon on top!

Happy New Years!  From my family, to yours!

The big day is upon us!

Happy Turkey day!!  It's almost 9 am...and the coffee is brewing!  Time to make a quick breakfast for my DH then I'm going to start on the prep work for the Stuffing. If I had more room in my refrigerator I would have done some last night...cause this is gonna take a lot of work!!!

Ok, in re-reading the recipe for the stuffing....wow...maybe I should have gotten up at 7...oh well no turning back time...let's dive in...

Cube the sourdough,

Chop 6 cups of onion

Chop 2 cups of celery

3 pounds of granny smith apples (peeled cored and cubed of course)

2 pounds of parsnips peeled and cubed

Now to start cooking everything!

Toast the bread in the oven, cook the sausage, saute the veggies, then saute the apples, and then more butter and the parsnips...more butter and the fresh sage!  Then mix it all together!

Stuff the turkey (after patting it dry, and finding the giblet bag...SO THAT's where it is! hee hee)

Put the rest in a buttered dish (glad I have another dinner to go to...cause this made a LOT!)

Then we started the gravy,

and the turkey glaze!

While that was cooking I finished up the cranberry relish!  My dad says it's just like what his mom used to make!  Best compliment ever!!!

Then before we knew it an hour had passed and it was time to glaze the turkey!

And then it's time for a short break....when we return it will be time for prepping the cauliflower, carrots and potatoes!


Of course during that little break my mom took Fergus on a walk...and while she was gone the turkey was done...heee hee....so I got to chopping again and got the cauliflower

Garlic...yum!

Salt, pepper and the garlic with rosemary all mixed together!

And the carrots going

And of course I forgot to start the potatoes...

Luckily I always cube my potatoes instead of just quartering...so they were ready a lot faster than we thought!  And then there was the "we forgot the rolls" moment...but mom got those rolled out and rising!

Once everything was in the oven I started the gravy with the all important Applejack Brandy...and had a bit of an accident...lets just say that roux burns really badly when you splash it (think hot marshmallows that doesn't come off) on your face, chest and hand...a quick douse in the sink, and a bit of first aid from my DH and I was back to cooking.   

All in all it was a long, wonderful day in the kitchen!

I did THIS!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, from my family, to yours!