Crank it up...

the oven, that is!  Like much of the country, we have been experiencing some pretty intense, cold weather.  And I think I can pretty much speak for most people in our area that we are so.over.it.

However I also know that we've still got quite a few weeks left of these frosty temperatures so I'd better just suck it up and deal with it!  That being said, since it is so cold outside, might as well do a little baking inside.

This afternoon all was quiet in the house and I did some serious baking with peanut butter-chocolate granola from here, mint chocolate chip Neiman Marcus bars from here, and whole wheat blueberry muffins from here. Let me just tell you--the house smelled divine!  The minute the Noodle walked into the house she took one sniff and said "You've been making granola, haven't you?".  The kid knows.

The Neiman Marcus bars are for a certain someone who has a milestone birthday that we're celebrating on Saturday.  The granola is pretty standard fare around here--great for breakfast, lunch or a snack.  As soon as it runs out I usually make more.  The blueberry muffin recipe was a new one, but I make the banana whole wheat muffins all the time and so I'm sure these will be good as well.

Baked anything good lately?

Death by Chocolate

I have a confession to make.  I have a sweet tooth.  Big time.  I especially have a sweet tooth where chocolate is involved.  Dark.  Milk.  Even white.  I'm not too picky.  Mmmmmm. 

So, when I am preparing a dessert for a larger group, this is one of my go-to recipes.  Death by Chocolate.  Did I already say Mmmmmm?!  Super easy.  Tasty.  Only 4 ingredients.  What's not to love about that?

I know there are a million different variations of this floating around, but here's mine.

Ingredients:
1 box of 9x13 brownie mix
3 pckgs. of chocolate mousse (I could only find Dark this time, but Milk would be delish too)
1 12oz. tub of Cool Whip
1 pckg. of crushed Heath pieces

Bake the brownies as directed on the package and set aside to cool.  Please disregard the old, yucky pan!

Whip up the mousse and let sit for designated time as per the instructions on the box.

Once both of those are cooled and set, you're ready for construction.  Cut the brownies into small squares and begin to layer at the bottom of your trifle bowl.

Next spoon on some of the mousse.  This time, the grocery store only had Dark Chocolate mousse, but I actually prefer Milk Chocolate for this recipe--kinda balances out the taste and provides a bit more contrast.  Totally up to you though.

Next spoon on the Cool Whip and sprinkle on the Heath pieces.  Continue layering brownies, mousse, Cool Whip, and Heath pieces until you reach the top.

 

Swoon worthy, I tell ya!  Enjoy:)

A little bit of green, leafy delish!

A few weeks ago I picked up The Kind Diet from the library.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not making the switch to vegan...as of now.  Heck, I'm not even vegetarian, but I definitely find myself continuing to move more to that end of the spectrum, if ya know what I mean.  While I still love a good burger or buffalo chicken wrap, I'm finding myself more and more intrigued at how I can incorporate a (mainly) plant based diet, rich with whole grains and beans/legumes into our family lifestyle.

At the beginning of the new year I made a goal of trying to eat organic whenever possible, beef up the amount of veggies we were eating, and to try and increase the number of times each week when we had fish/seafood or a meatless meal.  This coincided with the fact that I felt in a rut with my typical meal rota and also wanted to get a better handle on menu prep a week at a time--since going back to teaching was fast approaching!

Quite honestly, some weeks are easier than others.  I'm slowly beginning to develop a wider range of menu options, and while some are definitely winners, others are MAJOR misses!  Thankfully J is a good sport and willing to go along with my ideas...most of the time!  It also is a big help that the Noodle digs a variety of types of beans, usually can be bribed talked into trying something new and is relatively willing to eat veggies.

All that being said, I tried a recipe from The Kind Diet and all 3 of us gobbled it up:  Sicilian Collards with raisins and pinenuts.  Instead of the greens, I used kale and it tasted great...next time I'm going to try it with the collards.

Here's the recipe...give it a try!  You won't be disappointed :)

Ingredients:
a bunch of greens (collards, kale, swiss chard?, spinach?)
EVOO
minced garlic
pinenuts
raisins
balsamic vinegar
Prep time:  maybe 10 minutes

Saute garlic in EVOO

Wash and pat dry kale (collards) and rip leaves away from stem.  Often the stem can be tough, but extra roughage is never a bad thing...

 Saute the greens in the garlic and EVOO until nice and bright green (only a minute or 2).

Throw in the pinenuts and raisins and cook for about 2 more minutes.  Splash on some balsamic vinegar and give one or two more stirs.  Quite honestly, I think that the recipe said to do something fancy with the pinenuts like roast them or something...but I just threw them in.  Let's be real.  Tummies are hungry.

We had ours tonight with some warm, homemade whole wheat bread (from our CSA flour) and some mahi mahi that was sprinkled with some seasonings and then grilled.  Some major delish!!

The only thing the Noodle wasn't crazy about were the pinenuts, but at least she tried and tasted one before refusing to eat them.  I told her to just eat around them and she was a happy camper.

If you give the recipe a try, I'd love to hear what you think of it.  You just may look at greens in a whole new way!

Carrot-cake muffins

After reading a book from the library (in which a horse gets to go out to pasture and eat all the carrot-cake muffins she likes, day after day) the Noodle requested to make some.  Sure--I happen to like carrot-cake, but put a big ol' dollop of cream cheese frosting on top and my "like" turns into "loooove"!  I do have a couple of "helpful pointers" for any of you out there who decide to make your own....

1.  Buy pre-grated carrots.  It is a big horrific pain in the patootie to try and grate baby carrots.  Not so good on the fingers/nails either, especially little ones.

This cracks me up...monkey see, monkey do!

2.  Don't try to skimp steps and go with the pre-made cream cheese frosting.  When you've been used to the "real" stuff, the store-bought just doesn't compare :(

Good thing they still made the Noodle smile!

Soup-a-Polooza

"In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago."
              --Christina Rossetti

When the weather is like this outside, there's nothing better than soup on the inside!  Here's one of the Noodle's favorite meals right now.  Warning:  not a good choice for those with peanut or shrimp/shellfish allergies

North African Peanut soup
**this ran in our local paper a few years ago, but unfortuanetly I don't have any other info. in order to give proper credit

The cast of characters:

 
Chop up your onion and throw it into the pot to get all nice and browned up with the garlic and olive oil.

Inhale deeply...love all those yummy smells wafting through the air!

Next add in your stock (vegetable or chicken) as well as your 2 cans of diced tomatoes.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Sprinkle in red pepper flakes and ginger (to your personal taste).

While the soup is coming to a boil, wash and de-rib the kale (or spinach).  Eyeball it.  I used the entire amount, but it was a small bunch--if it looks like too much, then save some for another meal.  Note here, there are several different varieties of kale.  Pick which ever one you'd like.  The purplish kind appealed to me the day I went shopping, so I went with it.  No biggie.

Rip/tear the kale into smaller, bite-size pieces and add to the soup.  Add in the peanut butter (approx. 1 C) and shrimp.  Stir and let simmer for about 15 minutes.

Dish up and serve with some bread (we had homemade honey oatmeal bread that night).  Interestingly enough, the Noodle ended up not even TOUCHING her bread, but certainly gobbled up her soup.

Come join Soup-a-Palooza with TidyMom and Dine and Dish sponsored by Bush’s Beans, Hip Hostess, Pillsbury and Westminster Crackers

 

Sweet endings

The sun is shining.  The sky is an amazing color of blue without a cloud to be seen.  It is the end of the week, with the weekend knockin'.  Have a little treat...on me.  Perhaps an early Valentine gift to yourself?  Ahhh!  Sweet endings!!

Sources:  Chocolate chip scone recipe and spicy hot chocolate recipe

I'm going back to Cali

The year after college, when I traveled as a consultant for my sorority, I spent a good bit of time out on the West Coast.  During one visit (to San Diego State University) the women took me out for fish tacos.  I had never had them before, but let me tell ya...they were delish!  Nothing quite like a fish taco eaten on the beaches of Southern California...basking in the sun...ahhhhhh.

So lately, I've had a hankering for some sun and surf.  Perhaps because of the perpetual gray that is surrounding us now...yuck.  You can read the recipe that I used here, but I also included a few photos.  Sorry for the grainy quality of some of them.  You can blame it on the weather (or the rain--like Milli Vanilli said--did I just date myself?!)

Red cabbage, doused with some vinegar

Fresh cilantro and a little onion (I took the quick way and used dried onion...really, it is better w/green onions)

Mix in the lime juice, mayo and Greek yogurt

Pull out the tortillas and layer cabbage, fish (leftover from a previous meal w/a great rub), some yellow tomatoes and top with the lime-cilantro cream.  Yum!

What's cookin'?

This is a yummy recipe that I use a lot. New Year's Day, weekends, friends over for dinner--you get the point. It is from a Bon Appetite magazine, but I don't remember the year (probably circa 2003-2004). It is easy and quite tasty.

Roast Pork with Cherry and Honey-Mustard Glaze
**the recipe originally calls for apricot preserves which is also really good

1 C cherry/apricot preserves
1/3 C chopped, seeded jalapeno chiles
1/4 C red wine vinegar
1/4 C country Dijon mustard
2 T honey
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 t chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 t salt
3/4 t pepper
1 pork tenderloin (EVOO, S & P to taste)

**depending on the size of your tenderloin, you may have some glaze left over. It freezes well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk all ingredients except the pork in medium bowl. Set aside. Butterfly cut your tenderloin. Drizzle EVOO and S & P to taste. (Yuck...raw meat)



Cover tenderloin with glaze and pop into oven.



Cook for about 45 min. (again this will vary depending on tenderloine size). Spoon on extra glaze and serve. We had it last night with Indian flavored kale and brown wild rice. Delish!



What are you cooking for dinner tonight?

Banana dippers

One of the Christmas gifts the Noodle received from Uncle S and Aunt C was a subscription to Highlights magazine. Both J and I receive periodicals at home and now she has her own mag to leaf through whenever she wants. In the February issue, there was a cute picture recipe for "banana dippers". When she saw it, she decided she wanted to make it...immediately. I managed to convince her to wait until after she got home from preschool, had lunch and her nap and that THEN we'd make it for a snack. She agreed. The fact that she could "read" the entire recipe was certainly a highlight (pun intended) as was the fact that she got to practice her knife cutting skills on the banana (we've got a toddler knife and she's been working on that skill on easier foods like pancakes). All in all, I'd give the recipe 3 out of 4 stars--one star lacking due to the messiness of the peanut butter/honey in regards to fingers...not that she minded :)


Not sure which is more intriguing...the honey itself or the bear shaped bottle that it comes in....

Careful...careful
Mmmmmmm, delicious.

What's cookin'?

When I think of cold, snowy January, my mind frequently wanders to the warming pleasures of soup. Many a night finds us filling our bellies with some sort of liquid nourishment. I thought I'd share one of our favorites: Fisherman's Stew from this book

1 onion
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 1/4C fish stock
approx 12 scallops
1 lb cod fillet (or any kind of white, flake fish)
2T olive oil
1 large potato
fresh thyme sprigs, chopped
1 red and 1 green bell pepper
1/2C white wine
1C creme fraiche (I use plain yogurt)
approx 10 oz raw shrimp
3/4C grated sharp cheddar cheese
S and P to taste

** Tr*der Joe's has a frozen seafood blend (that is easy to use in this soup)
*** Sometimes I will add 1/2 lb. of hot sausage to give it a little kick

Cut the cod into large cubes, season w/ S and P and set aside. Cut onion into small wedges, heat olive oil in large pan and cook onion wedges for about 2-3 minutes. Slice potato and add to pan w/chopped thyme. Cover and cook for about 15 min. until the potato has softened. Dice the peppers and add to onion/potato mixture and cook for a few minutes. Stir in the fish stock, wine and creme fraiche/plain yogurt. Bring to just below boiling point then add cod and scallops. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and simmer for a further 3-4 minutes, until all the seafood is cooked. Season as necessary. Spoon into bowls and garnish w/thyme sprigs and sprinkle w/cheese.

Eat and enjoy!

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Today starts the first day of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. This is a very important holiday in China when families re-unite and celebrate abundance and togetherness. During this time, the moon is at its fullest and brightest and the harvest is also celebrated. It is akin to our Thanksgiving. Traditionally, on this day, families get together to eat mooncakes and enjoy the beautiful full moon.

We decided to celebrate as well. Our preparations began with a visit down to the Chinese Market earlier in the week. While we were there, a lantern caught the Chinese Noodle's eye. Sucker that I am, I bought it. As an FYI, when you pop the batteries in it, it does light up, but it also plays this excruciatingly loud
tune(?) at a decibel level that is not acceptable for human ears. Needless to say, when she asks for the batteries, we say NO!....but I digress...



I had also found a recipe for mooncakes that I wanted to try. Mooncakes may have many fillings: fig, white lotus bean, red bean, pineapple, etc. These are obviously geared more towards a Chinese palate, so I was pleased to see that the recipe said you could use strawberry jam--perfect. If you want to see the recipe, you can find it here. We had fun last night making the dough, rolling out the balls and of course tasting our handiwork.



As an aside, I know that many families who have daughters that were born in China use the Moon Festival to remember and discuss birthparents. Tomorrow we plan on having Chinese take-away, eating our mooncakes, and lighting a candle to remember the Noodle's birthmother and birthfather.

I also happened to stumble upon this great book in the library's new book section. It is called Star of the Week: a Story of Love, Adoption and Brownies with sprinkles. You can find it here. Currently, the C.N. is asking to be read it again and again. Goes along pretty nicely with the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, don't ya think?

CSA Week 12

We only have a few more weeks with the CSA, so we're making the most of it. This week we received: red apples, turnips, kale, broccoli, sweet potatoes, a red and yellow tomato, a red pepper, an acorn squash, bib lettuce and 2 jalapeno peppers. Earlier in the week I made a delicious vegetarian recipe--Moroccan-style stuffed acron squash. You can find it here. The Noodle enjoyed the stuffing, but wasn't so crazy about the squash. We'll have to keep trying.

On a different note, I've taken on a new "job". I'm now responsible for our weekly church newsletter that goes into the bulletin. I've never really done any desk-top publishing before, so this is another new adventure. We'll see how it goes.......

Not-so-tired Tuesday

Things have been much calmer on the sleeping front, thank goodness! While the Noodle is still waking up 2-3 times per night, she generally is going back to sleep without much fuss within about 5 minutes. We haven't had any more tantrums (in length or intensity) like we did a week ago, so everyone is started to let out a sigh of relief. Let's hope it continues....

Sweet and Sour Bok Choy (c/o Cooks.com)

Heat olive oil in a large skillet, add bok choy (1 head) and onion (I also added some cabbage, because hey, why not?!). Cook and stir over high heat 1 minute. Blend 1/4C brown sugar, 1/4C red wine vinegar, and 1/2 t ginger; add to skillet. Mix well. Cover and steam 1 minute. Combine 1T soy sauce and 1T cornstarch with 1/2C water. Add to skillet. Cook and stir until thickened. **Since I added some cabbage, I increased the liquid amounts, but it ended up making too much sauce. If you make it at home, better just follow the recipe. Other than that, it was good.
Dinner tonight: Salmon with dill, drop biscuits and sweet and sour bok choy and cabbage

Kitchen Greens recipe

A sorority sister of mine gave me this tasty recipe for any kind of greens you may have--collards, kale, beet greens, etc. I used it for our dinner tonight. Thanks Sister B...it was delicious!! The Noodle ate the entire thing, in fact that was about all she ate tonight.

Creamed Kitchen Greens
Blanche greens 30-60 sec. in boiling salted water and then cool in ice water; saute 2minced shallots in 4T butter until soft; sprinkle with a touch of flour and whisk around; add 2C warmed heavy cream and whisk; let simmer down about half and then add S and P and a little nutmeg.

I had found a nice sounding recipe that combined the potatoes and turnips, but when I went downstairs into the basement (where I kept them to keep them cool) I found that they had shriveled. Bummer. I used the recipe for the potatoes and made a mashed potato gratin. That plus the pickled beets J had made (delicious!) and the BBQ short ribs in the crock pot (ala Dr. G), we had a yummy meal. It was a bit heavy for summer, but hey, we used the veggies we had. We won't even think of the fat or calorie content.


Sorry the picture is not better. I tried to keep the food separate...I HATE it when foods touch or run together...pet peeve of mine...but alas it didn't work.