Best Laid Plans

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I completely planned on making eggplant parm on Leap Day, that was until my youngest developed a 104+ degree fever.  I took him to the doctor, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia.  Luckily, it was caught early, and hospitalization wasn’t necessary.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to have our traditionally untraditional dinner.  What did we have?  Chinese take-out. (Wanton soup heals my soul 🙂 )

So, I decided to post a cake I made the other night.  I got the idea for the cake on Pinterest.

Summertime on a Plate

Sweet strawberry cake with a light lemony cream cheese frosting

 

In February, Tastefully Simple announced at a regional convention a Lemonade Fruit Dip Mix.  The consultants lucky enough to be able to attend the convention were able to sample the dip served in as a creamy layer in a trifle.  I loved the flavor; not too sour, not too sweet.  I couldn’t wait to order some and get experimenting in the kitchen!  Anyway, back to the cake.  Basically the recipe called for a packet of lemon flavored kool-aid to be mixed into whipped cream.  As nice as that sounded, I knew how I wanted to tweak it!

Strawberry Lemonade Cake

For the cake:  I “cheated” and used a strawberry cake mix, preparing it per the directions on the box.
I box strawberry cake mix
water
oil
eggs
Shortening to grease bottom of pan

For the frosting:
8 ounces of softened cream cheese
1 packet of Lemonade Fruit Dip Mix
2 cups Heavy Whipping Cream

Combine cream cheese and Lemonade Fruit Dip Mix in a medium sized mixing bowl.  Pour in Heavy Whipping Cream and mix until fluffy.

I made my cake with two layers, because I thought it would be pretty.  This would work fantastically as a sheet cake.  (I will be spoiling my Sweetie’s co-workers with this cake soon!)


Leap Day

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I haven’t posted in a while, and I apologize for that. I definitely plan on posting more in the coming days.

Today is Leap Day. Every four years we get a year with 366 days instead of 365 due to the left over fraction of days in the other years. Hopefully that sentence made sense to someone other than me!

In the past for Leap Day, my son and I would have dinners that were out of the ordinary, just like a year with 366 days. One year we had only breakfast foods, which is a common thing in this house. Last night we had unleavened pancakes, bacon, sausage, mango, and banana. Another year we did a “Build-Your-Own Peanut Butter Sandwich” night. His favorite that night was a peanut butter sandwich, with banana and chocolate syrup.

I threw around a few suggestions for dinner tonight, like sushi or Surf and Turf (for Surf and Turf Day FEB 29th!)

I was asked for something vegetarian….first thing that popped in my head was eggplant parmesan! Going to try out a mash-up of different recipes that I have collected. I will post pics and a recipe tomorrow!

My Girly Moment

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I could never be accused of being a girly girl.  I am not a frilly, hearts and glitter kind of girl.  I hate shopping.  I don’t like pink, and I think unicorns are early genomic experiments (or creatures brought here by the aliens….)  But I digress…

I grew up with two little brothers, and I have two sons.  I have been surrounded by boys close to all of my life.  But saying all of that I do have moments of girly-ness…I love butterflies.  For one, they are pretty. 🙂 And secondly, from a scientific standpoint, metamorphosis is fascinating.  And from the life lessons file, how wonderful it is to know that even if you start out as a weird caterpillar, some day you can be a fantastically beautiful butterfly!

So of course, as I walked down the pasta aisle at the grocery store, my eyes were drawn to the farfalle pasta.  You know the ones…the bow-tie pasta…but then I saw the farfalline…baby butterflies!  (ok as I just pointed out “baby” butterflies are catapillers, which look more like ziti, but I don’t have to be that critical ALL the time!)

I grabbed the box of pasta excitedly.  The wheels in the creative side of my brain started turning!  I had to find the perfect way to use these tiny butterfly noodles!

The days are much shorter now.  Fall is definitely arriving.  The days are tending to be more gray and wet.  As much as I want to hold on to summer, I am looking forward to autumn.  BUT butterflies are a spring/summer kinda thing…some how I need to find a way to make an autumn-y dish more summer-y.

This is how I created Butterfly Garden Soup

Butterfly Garden Soup

No butterflies were harmed in the making of this soup!

This soup is far from complicated.  Some of the best meals are ones that are just thrown together.  I browned a pound of ground beef with a bit of Onion Onion and Garlic Garlic. While that was cooking away, I filled a pot with a bag of frozen vegetables.  My favorite would have to be vegetables for soup:  stewed tomatoes, corn, potatoes, green beans, onions, carrots, celery and okra. Cover the vegetables with water and put on medium heat.  I drained the grease from the ground beef, and slid it into the pot with the vegetables.  I used three beef bouillon cubes and two cans of condensed tomato soup.  Season with salt and pepper after the bouillon has dissolved.  If you season before, you could end up with too much salt.  Lastly I added two handfuls of little butterflies.  Honestly I did toss the butterflies in…so that they could fly into the soup…hey I never said I wasn’t easily amused!

Like most soups or stews, the next-day left-overs are much better than day of soups…not that I would know with this soup, I didn’t get any left-overs! 🙂

Experimenting with Breakfast

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My oldest son is not a breakfast person.  Don’t get me wrong he LOVES breakfast foods, just not in the morning.  He would rather sleep later into the day than get up early for breakfast.  Unless there is bacon involved…

One of his favorite breakfasts would have to be cinnamon rolls.  Usually I do the quick and easy thing and buy the refrigerated tube, pop it open and bake.  The other night I decided I wanted to make some kind of muffin with Tastefully Simple‘s Bountiful Beer Bread.  After a quick search, I decided to just “wing it” and try to create something cinnamon roll-ish.  Another appeal of the cinnamon roll would have to being able to say the word cinnamon, which happens to be a word that will almost instantly put a smile on my toddler’s face, and usually warrants a giggle also!  PLUS tigers hate cinnamon, so it will keep the tigers away.

One of the things I absolutely LOVE is the versatility of the Bountiful Beer Bread.  I have yet to actually prepare the bread according to the recipe on the box.

There is something that is fundamentally appealing to me about baking.  The science of the reactions needed to get the perfect rise.  The caramelization of the sugars to get that exceptional crunch.  I love the fact that I can add something fizzy to the mix and get the bread to rise.  I adore the fact that I can change up the fizzy ingredient, and get a fantastic new flavor!  The possibilities of this single product…virtually endless.  This is where experimentation in the kitchen fascinates me.  (AND this is where my family loves me to be… They will be my guinea pigs anytime I try a new recipe!)

Not a bad way to start the morning!

I decided to use cream soda as my fizzy ingredient for the cinnamon roll muffins.  Cream soda gives a sweet, but not overpowering, base for the bread.

I poured my Bountiful Beer Bread mix into a mixing bowl, then added a tablespoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons of firmly packed brown sugar.  I stirred those ingredients together while three tablespoons of butter melted in the microwave.

I added a cup and a half of cream soda to the dry ingredients, and mixed only enough to get the dry stuff wet.  Don’t over mix!

I then poured the batter into the wells of my greased muffin tin.  I poured the melted butter over the muffins, then sprinkled each with a bit of cinnamon/brown sugar mixture.  I baked them for about 15-20 minutes.

I used a suggestion I found online for the icing.  I melted a bit of vanilla frosting (from a can) and poured it over the warm muffins.

What I would do differently next time:

  • LOVED the brown sugar flavor, will add more sugar next time.
  • I didn’t like the melted vanilla frosting.  Next time, I will just use powdered sugar and milk.
  • I liked the muffin idea, BUT next time I want to make a loaf of cinnamon roll bread.  I will then slice the bread and drizzle with the icing.
  • One of the comments from the morning’s experiment was that the muffins weren’t fluffy.  That I didn’t have control over.  The Bountiful Beer Bread will make a more dense muffin, but I liked it!

It’s Just Taco Night

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I want to apologize for the quality of my photography to this point on this blog.  I’ve been using the camera on my cell phone as the primary source for photography, which hasn’t been horrible.  Next photos should be of a much higher quality!

But I digress…

YUM!

There's no folding this one!

TACO NIGHT!  Growing up, we had taco night quite regularly.  In fact, a memory a friend of mine has of overnights at my house was taco night! Mom would buy these mini-taco shells, and we would have tiny taco nights.

I really wanted Mexican food the other night, and with the MAJOR tightening of the pursestrings at our house (like so many other houses in America), I decided to make Mexican at home.  I had hamburger in the freezer, seasoning in the cabinet, and cheese, tortilla shells and tomatoes in the fridge.  I thought a quick trip into Wal-Mart for lettuce and sour cream would be all we needed.

That was until I got into the store.  All of a sudden, I wanted black beans too.  Thinking my 20-month-old wouldn’t eat black beans, I got refried beans, because I KNOW he loves those!  Then an avocado was a must-have…as well as onion…

Realizing that I needed to get the youngest from daycare, and the oldest out of Wal-Mart, we headed to the check-out.

I didn't think about all the dishes I would have to do though!

Mom's Build-Your-Own-Taco-Bar

Dinner tends to be more family-style in our home, but taco night equals buffet-style!

The countertop became “Mom’s Build-Your-Own-Taco-Bar!”

Dinner was also delayed because I sliced my finger open on the refried beans can.  Finding something to keep the gash closed was tricky (I’m allergic to adhesives on band-aids and tape, but that’s another story for another time), but we managed, without needing to amputate!

This post will probably be more of a list of goodies, rather than a recipe.  The only real recipe will be how I seasoned the beef.

LIST OF GOODIES ON THE BUFFET

Avocado
Onion
White rice
Refried Beans
Black beans
Cheese
Lettuce
Grape tomatoes
Tortilla Shells
Sour cream
Salsa

Taco meat

1 pound ground beef
6-8 ounces water
2 T. Fiesta Party Dip Mix (R) 

Brown ground beef.  Drain any grease.  Add Fiesta Party Dip Mix (R) to beef and stir.  Add water to pan.  Simmer and stir occasionally.  When water has cooked down, serve!

Chicken and Dumplings 2.0

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The more "mature" version

One of my oldest son’s favorite meals would have to be chicken and dumplings.  I had a tried -and-true recipe that I have been using for quite a while, but as I pointed out in the first recipe, I tend to deviate a bit from tradition.

I decided my previous recipe needed to mature a bit, which really just means I needed to add some veggies and stuff.

I tend to use chicken thighs in my recipes.  I know that they aren’t as lean as chicken breasts, BUT I enjoy the flavor of the dark meat as opposed to the white.  I boiled a large package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.  I used seven thighs and the stock for this recipe, and I have chicken in a baggie in the fridge for chicken and rice later in the week!

Chicken and Dumplings 2.0

Chicken
Water
1 T. Garlic Garlic (TM)
1 T Onion Onion (TM)
3 stalks of celery, tops and bottoms for stock/hearts for soup
Onion, quartered
4 carrots, sliced
6-8 mushrooms, diced
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
I can refrigerated flaky biscuits
1/2 c flour
1 t. pepper

In a large pot, add chicken, seasonings, celery (tops and bottoms), onion and water.  Heat to a light boil.  Allow to cook until chicken is done.  Scoop chicken out of the pot and place on a plate to cool.  Remove and discard celery and onion.  DO NOT THROW OUT THE WATER!!!  Save that yummy goodness for your soup!

While your chicken is cooking, prepare your veggies and stuff (you know, the things to make this more “mature”)  I cut the carrots and celery into slices on the diagonal, because I just think it looks pretty.  I didn’t really need the mushrooms to look pretty for some reason so I just diced them up.  After removing the chicken and veggies from the stock, add the freshly cut “mature” ingredients.  Let that cook on a slight boil while you shred your cooled chicken.

There have been debates on the best way to shred cooked meats for recipes.  Most people will tell you to take two forks and just pull the meat into pieces.  I say to wash your hands and use your fingers! (this is a common approach for me)  Add chicken back into the pot with veggies.  This would also be a good time to add a can of cream of chicken soup.

I let this cook until the carrots are not quite finished.  Now it’s time to add the dumplings.  These are the secret to quick and EASY dumplings:  Refrigerated FLAKY biscuits.  I used a little can (7.5 oz) of 10 biscuits.  Peel  the dough apart at the layers so that you have two pieces, then I put them apart again.  This is completely up to you, depending on how big you want your dumplings.  Dredge the chicken in a mixture of flour with a bit of pepper.  Then add the biscuit to the pot.

The next statement is one of the most important, so pay attention!  DO NOT STIR THE SOUP ONCE THE BISCUITS ARE IN! This is an incredibly valuable piece of information.  Stirring the soup will cause the dumplings to disintegrate.  You will end up with a delicious dumpling flavored soup…but no dumplings.  Also important, don’t have to heat too high.  A rolling boil would have the same effect as stirring!

To get all the dumplings to cook, using a spoon or ladle or something (this would not be an appropriate place to use your hands…ouch) gently push the dumplings into the liquid.  Just give them a little dunk.  The dumplings need to cook about 10-15 minutes depending on how thick they are.  

“Ruining” A Tradition

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Ruining a Tradition

Deliciously Ruined

Tradition – noun: the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to
generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way

Last night I “ruined” a traditional meal that has been passed down in my
family. You might be asking how I ruined it. Was it burnt? Did I add too
much salt? Neither of those apply in this situation.

I called my mom yesterday evening to tell her that I had ruined Gramma’s
beef stew recipe by adding one simple ingredient…mushrooms.

Gramma doesn’t like mushrooms, ok that’s putting it lightly. I made this
AMAZING pot roast around Christmas. I offered to warm some leftovers up for
her one afternoon. She was quite vocal about her dislike of the fungus.

While talking to Mom, I decided that my secret would be safe if I blogged
this recipe. Usually putting a piece of information on the internet isn’t
the best way to keep something quiet, but knowing that Gramma won’t be
surfing the net anytime soon, I figure it’s a safe-ish bet. (saying all that
was probably all in vain, knowing that Gramma is currently visiting my
technophile Aunt and Uncle in the D.C. Metro area and will probably see it
shortly after posting 🙂 )

So here it is, the recipe that could get me dis-owned.

Beef Stew

~ 1 pound Stew Beef

1 T butter

1 T Garlic Garlic(TM)

1 package Beefy Onion Soup Mix

~ 3 cups Water

Petite Red Potatoes cut in half

Carrot baby or cut into 2 inch pieces

½ pound portabella mushrooms

1 can tomato soup

Brown the stew beef with the butter and Garlic Garlic(TM). Once thoroughly cooked, add the onion soup mix and about a cup of water.  Let that cook down, then add more water.

I usually let that simmer down one more time while I prepare the potatoes, carrots and in this version of the stew, the mushrooms.

I used petite red potatoes in this recipe, so I just sliced them in half.  The carrots were cut into 1 ½ to 2 inch pieces, cut on the diagonal.  For the mushrooms, I removed the stems and cut the caps into quarters.

Place the freshly cut ingredients to the pot with the beef.  Add a can of condensed tomato soup to the pot as well.  Add water to cover the contents of the pot and stir.  Let the stew cook on medium heat until the carrots are cooked through.

I served my stew with a piece of a loaf of bread from Jimmy Johns! (Only 49 cents!)