Frontier Kitchen

Ricotta and Roasted Asparagus Naan Pizza

2012-01-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love pizza? It's so yummy I could eat it every week and be perfectly happy. But right about now I need to be shrinking my figure (something about having a baby makes it a little larger than normal...whatever). Ahem!

I tried to healthify pizza a bit last week so I could enjoy one of my favorite foods without feeling too guilty. It was a fantastic success! Pizza for under 300 calories? Yes, please.

The night before I made whole wheat garlic naan so I decided to use some of the extra as my pizza crust. Then I shmeared on some lowfat ricotta cheese and topped it with roasted asparagus and mushrooms. Then I remembered that I don't really like mushrooms so I took them off mine after serving the family theirs.

Ricotta and Roasted Asparagus on Naan

Serves 4

4 naan flatbreads

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 clove garlic, grated on a zester

1/2 lb. asparagus

2 tsp. olive oil

1 cup mushrooms, halved

kosher salt and black pepper

parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 400. Trim asparagus ends and place on a baking sheet along with mushrooms. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes or until asparagus is nearly tender, tossing halfway through so everything cooks evenly. Meanwhile, combine ricotta and garlic in a small bowl.

Remove asparagus and mushrooms from pan. Place naan onto the pan. Spread naan evenly on top of each piece of naan. Layer mushrooms and asparagus on top. Pop the pan back in the oven for another 10 minutes. Serve piping hot with a bit of parmesan cheese on top, if desired.

Spinach Artichoke Dip Recipe

2012-01-24T23:25:00.000-07:00

Prior to four weeks ago, I had completely forgotten how much time a newborn takes up. I currently have five recipes worth of photos I need to share with y'all but a certain little lady likes to eat as often as possible and be constantly snuggled.

And I'm pretty much convinced that I need to snuggle this cuteness as much as possible. Who cares if the dishes get done or if I wear yoga pants up until 10 minutes before the husband gets home from work? Snuggling is pretty much the top of my priority list these days.

So I've got a lot of new recipes just sitting on my computer waiting to be shared. And I totally planned on doing so but I happen to be way too excited about something I threw together for the Patriots football game this past weekend.

I wasn't planning on blogging this recipe but my brother-in-law was watching the game with us and not only declared it the best spinach artichoke dip he's ever had but he also wanted the recipe. And I figure if a guy who rarely cooks is hitting you up for a recipe, you should probably hand it over.

Tomato Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 tbsp. butter

3-4 cups baby spinach

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

1/3 cup chopped marinated artichoke hearts

1/8 tsp. garlic powder

5 oz. cream cheese

4 oz. monterey jack cheese, grated

kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a small (2-3 cup) baking dish with nonstick spray.

In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add in baby spinach and green onions, cook until spinach has wilted down. Season with salt and pepper. Add in tomatoes, artichokes, garlic powder and cream cheese. Cook and stir frequently until the cream cheese has melted down. Remove pan from heat. Stir in monterey jack cheese.

Pour the dip into your prepared dish and pop it in the oven for 15 minutes. Serve piping hot with pita or tortilla chips.

Kitchen Tip: Declumping Sugar

2012-01-18T05:00:00.001-07:00

So! You're ready to bake cookies and then discover that your brown sugar is hard and clumpy - dang it!

Sound familiar?

I used to get annoyed when that happened because those rock hard lumps of brown sugar often foiled my baking plans.

Here's how to nevery worry about clumpy sugar again!

The next time you get hard lumps of sugar, just slide a piece of bread into your sugar container and let it sit for a few hours, or overnight before removing the bread.Your sugar will magically become loose and lovely again!

I had no idea this worked until I visited my Grandmother in November and asked her why she had a piece of bread sitting in her sugar container. :)

Crispy Oven-Baked Home Fries

2012-01-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

A friend recently asked people on her Facebook page why they like to cook because she has always struggled with enjoying it. At the time, I couldn't quite pinpoint why I love cooking so much. Then a week later, it hit me:

I love to cook because of two reasons.

#1 - I like to care for the people I love and putting a lot of time and effort into feeding them instead of throwing together prepacked foods or take-out is a way for me to show them how much I care.

#2 - Cooking is a fantastic way to be able to recreate foods you love at restaurants so you can enjoy it more often.

Back when my husband and I were first married, we were pretty darn broke. But that tends to happen when you're both students. I started cooking a lot more during those first three years of marriage because we couldn't afford to go out very often. And we had our first child just nine months after getting married (ahem!) so that made going out even harder.

I quickly learned that I could make restaurant-quality food at home for way less money than we would spend on even one serving of that same meal eating out.

Now whenever we go out and I really enjoy something, I have to come home and recreate it. It's a habit borderlining on the addiction line.

A few months ago the husband and I went on a date in Fort Collins, Colorado. We lunch at this pub and had a super yummy appetizer of home fries. They were so good, and I normally dislike thick-cut fries, that I decided to recreate them at home. Except I decided to bake mine to make them healthier.

I slice my potatoes into either thirds or quarters, lengthwise. Then chop each big piece into about 1/2" wide fries.

Then I place them on a pan, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on spices: garlic powder, creole seasoning, dried italian seasoning, paprika, kosher salt and black pepper. Oh and I add a few tiny pinches of ground mustard.

Then bake it at 400 for 20-25 minutes. To make sure they get crispy, I let them bake for at least 10 minutes before I flip them over and bake for another 10 minutes or until tender.

Oh, and if you want to kick these up a notch to the completely addicting stage, just grate some parmesan cheese over them right after they come out of the oven and drizzle with a tiny bit of truffle oil. You won't regret it.

Crispy Oven-Baked Home Fries

Serves 4

4 medium russet potatoes

Olive oil

Paprika

Creole seasoning

Kosher salt

Black Pepper

Italian Seasoning

Ground Mustard (two pinches)

Optional: 1/8 cup grated parmesan

1 tbsp. truffle oil

Preheat oven to 400. Scrub potatoes. Slice each potato into thirds or fourths, lengthwise. Slice each slab of potato into 1/2" wide sticks. Place potatoes on a large baking sheet; drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with seasonings and toss to evenly coat.

Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Flip each fry over and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven and toss with parmesan and truffle oil (optional). Serve with your condiment of choice and enjoy!

Healthier Eating

2012-01-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

How's 2012 going for you? Any goals for the new year?

I've got a few. Each year I make it a goal to eat a bit healthier than the year before. I know drastic changes are nearly impossible to maintain so over the past few years I've decided to find ways to make small, yet important, changes here and there.

This year my healthier eating goals include:
Making more things from scratch than I did the year before (tortillas, bagels, and maybe crackers?!).

Using mostly whole wheat flour - I'll pick up some whole wheat pastry flour for baking as soon as I can get myself to a Whole Foods store.

Limiting my sweeteners (in everything!) to maple syrup, raw sugar and honey. I grew up baking with turbinado sugar and honey so hopefully the no-white-sugar switch won't be too hard.

Eating out less. While I was pregnant we ate out more than we usually do because I often felt too nauseous or exhausted to want to cook. So we're getting back to more home cooking - yay!

Cutting wayyy back on processed foods. We rarely buy/eat processed foods but there are some things like fruit snacks and boxed mac n' cheese that I want to eliminate. Because, let's face it, real fruit and real mac n' cheese taste better and the former has nearly zero nutritional value.

This is a product I got to test out recently and it totally fits within my healthy eating goals. Crispy Green makes these freeze-dried snacks that are 100% real fruit. No added chemicals. Just fruit. Since it's freeze-dried, they're crispy and have that satisfying crunch like chips. Except these aren't fried like potato chips. Score!

And you know what? My daughter LOVES these. Which is seriously huge because the kid avoids fruits like non-other. She generally would rather eat spinach than have a bite of a pear.

If you're interested in trying these out so you can switch an unhealthy kiddo (or adult!) snack for a healthy one, check out Crispy Green's website where you can find locations near you that sell them or purchase the snacks online.

Surprise!

2011-12-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, our little family packed up and headed to Sheridan to visit my inlaws for the holiday weekend.

Good quality family time. Gotta love it.

On Sunday, my husband's uncle, aunt and cousin all came to my inlaw's house for a family holiday feast. There may have been prime rib involved. And it may have been delicious.

My water broke shortly after the feasting ended. It took me a little while to tell anyone (because I was convinced I had become one of those pregnant ladies who lose bladder control and randomly pee their pants - embarrassing! And something my brothers-in-law would probably never let me live down...). After calling my doctor, the husband and I rushed off to the Sheridan hospital where they confirmed that my water had broken. Four weeks early.

Gory details aside, our daughter was born at 12:11 in the afternoon on Monday; weighing in at 5 lbs. 14 ounces. She's tiny, perfect and completely adorable. We couldn't be more in love with her.

Our little family a few hours after baby girl was born.

Needless to say, my blogging will be a bit sporadic while we adjust to our new little bundle of joy.

May you all have a truly blessed 2012. Happy New Year!

Once a Month Cooking: Recipes

2011-12-22T16:07:00.001-07:00

I think the hardest part of OAMC is picking which recipes you want to use. I only like to use recipes that taste as good a month later out of the freezer as they would if I had just made them that evening. And I don't want to make a bunch of freezer-meals that require me to spend more than 10 minutes in the kitchen when I go to cook them later on. Otherwise I don't feel like it's really worth it.

So I'm pretty picky about what I'll make on my OAMC days. On Sunday when I did my massive cooking day, I made about 10 different recipes, all of which I doubled. Since we only have two adults and one child in our family, I froze the meals in portions that we could eat in one sitting with minimal leftovers so I ended up with a few extras of some recipes.

My freezer is a bit loaded down. :)

Here's links to printable recipes of some of the things I made this time around. The asterisk indicates meals that require no cooking. Two asterisks indicates that it is a crockpot dish

*Orange Honey Chicken Teriyaki (this could be adapted to be a crockpot dish if you want)

**Shredded Beef (for making burritos, taco salad, quesadillas, french dip sandwiches, etc)

*Steak Tips and Mushrooms in Red Wine Sauce

* **Winter Beef Stew (two varieties)

* **Saucy Crockpot Chicken Thighs

OAMC Chicken Enchiladas

Calzones

I also made a chicken vegetable soup (I basically dump cooked chicken, seasonings, broth, and chopped veggies into a bag and freeze it with plans to put it in my crockpot on cooking day). And my classic lasagna. Just be sure and undercook the noodles if you make a lasagna so they don't become soggy later on.

If you need more recipe inspiration, check out Once a Month Mom. I love this blog because each month they create a OAMC menus, shopping lists, and cooking plans. And! The menus cater to specific dietary needs: Whole Foods, Traditional, Vegetarian, Gluten-Dairy Free, Baby Food, and Diet.

Hopefully today I've been able to help you out a bit as you plan your OAMC day! Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas! :)

Once a Month Cooking: Planning

2011-12-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

Once a Month Cooking (OAMC) is this crazy idea where you spend hours in the kitchen preparing meals that go directly into the freezer to be eaten at a later date. I know several people who do this on a regular basis so that way they can still serve their families wholesome meals during the week when they're busy with work and whatever else. I do a OAMC day whenever I know that I have a few crazy weeks or months coming up. It really helps to have a stockpile of meals ready to go in the freezer so I don't find myself panicking at 5:00. This time around, I did it because baby #2 is due in a few weeks and I know we'll still need time to adjust after my mother-in-law, mom and husband all finish taking care of baby and I the first week or two. And I can only handle so much take-out.

Plan of Action

This is one of those things you gotta plan. You can't wing it. I happen to love few things more than a good list. I compile all the recipes I want to make and then go through each one and list the ingredients needed to make it. Then I check my kitchen to see which of those ingredients I have and which ones I need to pick up from the grocery store.

I also tend to plan about half of my recipes to be beef and half of them to be chicken so that way we aren't stuck eating the same kind of meat too often. Sometimes I go really crazy and throw a few vegetarian meals in there (the husband prefers when I don't).

I also plan to have a few of the recipes be ones that I simply have to chop stuff up for and throw in a bag because these are the fastest OAMC meals to make so you can get more done in less time. Usually these are crockpot meals, or in the summer, things that I'll grill.

You can also see on the list that next to each meal, I wrote what kind of container I was going to freeze the meal in. This helps to make sure you have enough bags, pans, etc.

What Recipes to Use?
Some foods/meals don't freeze well. Generally I stay away from using anything that has raw potatoes or cream in it. Rice and noodles also technically don't freeze well. However! You can use them in freezer meals as long as you only cook them about 3/4 of the recommended time so that they don't become soggy when you defrost the meal later on. Also, I've yet to have a problem with using sweet potatoes so I'll often substitute those.

Later on today I'll share the recipes I used last week in a separate post.

Ways to Simplify
#1- Get a cooking buddy. Whether it's your spouse or a friend who also wants to benefit from OAMC, get somebody to cook with you. It'll make the time much more fun and take half the workload off your hands. My cooking buddy is my husband...but he hates to cook. Yet he is still incredibly helpful because he takes our daughter for some intensive daddy-time so I can cook uninterrupted.

#2- Double it. If you look at the photo above, you'll see that I used about 10 recipes the last time I did a OAMC day. However, I ended up with 20+ meals because I doubled every single one of those recipes (and tripled a few). This cuts down your kitchen time like crazy and makes planning your grocery list so much simpler than if you made 20 different meals.

#3- Host a freezer-meal swap. I did this a couple times with friends. Basically everyone makes a beef, chicken and vegetarian freezer meal for each person participating. So when I did it when four friends, I made five chicken teriyaki meals, five beef enchilada meals and five vegetable soups. But after we swapped them I had fifteen different meals. It's important to make sure you and those in your group have similar tastes. Our group made a "no-casserole" rule because half of us have husbands who can't stand to eat them. Later I did a 10-meal swap with a friend from that group because our families had the most similar meal preferences.

#4 - Slowly Stockup. You could also plan a week or two where each night for dinner you'll make something that can also be frozen. Double up the amount you would normally cook and then freeze half. After two weeks you'll have 14 meals in your freezer without really having to think about it.

Packing it Up

Use freezer bags instead of regular plastic bags.

For foil containers, cover the top in plastic wrap and then cover it in a layer of foil. This way, if the top layer gets punctured or torn, you'll have a backup layer.

To eliminate frost from getting all over your meals, don't place piping hot foods in the freezer. Let them cool a bit first and then throw them in there.

When freezing soups or other bagged items, lay them flat on a freezer shelf so that later you can stack them up and use less space.

Be sure and label everything. I use labels written with sharpies on everything. Include the thawing/reheating/cooking directions on the label so you have it handy later on.

Soft Molassas Cookies with White Choclate Chips

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

Every year around the holidays the playgroup Lillian and I are part of does an annual cookie swap. Everyone brings a dozen cookies for each attendee. Sometimes that means I end up baking twelve (or more!) dozen cookies. But it's all good fun. Most of the people who participate in the cookie swap take their assorted cookies home, package them up and then deliver them to neighbors, offices, classrooms, etc.

Every year I bake up a different kind of cookie than the year before. Last year it was some Double Chocolate Bailey's Irish Cream Sandwich cookies. This year, I made soft molassess cookies using a recipe I adapted from Food.com. With 244 reviews and just a tiny smidge away from getting five stars, I knew this recipe was going to be good.

And it was. I made a few extra dozen so the husband could take some to share at his office and so we could all munch on a few while we baked and packaged up the other seven dozen.

One of the things I changed in the recipe was adding in white chocolate chips. They really brought the cookies up a notch or two. These cookies are moist, chewy, and have a lovely crinkly, slightly crisp, exterior. You should bake some. And then share with me...ours didn't last very long. :)

Soft Molasses Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Adapted from Shirl at Food.com

Yields about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

3/4 cup shortening (3/4 cup correct amount)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup molasses

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1/2 cup white sugar for rolling the cookies

Cream together shortening and brown sugar. Stir in egg and molasses and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients and mix until well-combined. Fold in white chocolate chips. Cover and chill for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Roll dough into small balls and roll in white sugar. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake at for 8-10 minutes. Leave on sheet one minute then remove them to cool on a cooling rack.

Orange Cranberry Muffins

2011-12-12T09:26:00.001-07:00

Two years ago I shared with y'all a recipe for Orange Cranberry Bread mix in a jar. It's from a recipe I got from my mother-in-law and once you bake it up, it's quite yummy. Similar to Panera's Orange Cranberry bread.

Well, the other day I thought it would be fun to tweak the recipe a bit and make it more muffin-friendly since bread and muffins don't generally have the same texture.

The bright bursts of cranberry throughout these muffins makes them a perfectly festive breakfast for this time of year.

First you gotta cream together butter and sugar. Then add in eggs and orange juice.

Once that's all combined, you can dump in all the dry ingredients.

Ina Garten would be horrified to know that I never sift together my dry ingredients or add them in stages to my wet ingredients. And I don't really care. Because honestly, y'all, it doesn't matter. Your baked goods will taste exactly the same and you'll have less dirty dishes to deal with.

The end. :)

Next you get to lovingly fold in your fresh cranberries. You could also use frozen ones if you have some sitting around.

Spoon the batter into greased or lined muffin cups and in a small bowl whip up a lovely nutty topping: 1/3 cup flour, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup chopped pecans and 1/3 cup softened butter. Easy peasy.

Sprinkle it on top of the unbaked muffins.

Then bake the muffins at 350 for about 12-15 minutes or until they are golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly touched.

Oh yummy.

The subtle sweet orange flavor in these is the perfect partner for the tangy cranberries. In the sake of all honesty, I have to admit to eating nearly all of these myself (I froze half though) because my daughter doesn't like fruit in her muffins and my husband only eats breakfast about once or twice a week.

Oh darn. :)

Orange Cranberry Muffins

Yields about 18 muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup orange juice

2 cups flour

1 1/ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Topping:

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup chopped pecans

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add in eggs and orange juice. Beat until smooth then add in flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir until all the ingredients are well-combined. Gently fold in cranberries.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or line it with wrappers. Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling about 2/3 full.

Use a fork to mix the topping ingredients together in a small bowl. Once the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, spoon some on top of each muffin.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until the muffins are golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly touched.

Random

2011-12-07T21:00:00.000-07:00

I'm gearing up for baby's arrival. Which is supposed to be in about five weeks. One of the things I'm doing to get ready for life with two kiddos is cooking up a bunch of freezer meals (also known as Once A Month Cooking). Because as our family adjusts to its newest member, I don't want to let the family go hungry or resort to take out on a regular basis.

So! I'm wondering - do you guys have any interest in seeing what freezer meals I make? If so, I could put together a list, complete with recipes and freezer instructions, and then post it up here on this ole blog thingamajig. If you guys are really interested, I could perhaps even try to put together a printable grocery list to go with it. Just let me know. :)

In other news, is everyone loving the holiday season? I'm a big fan of it because I love how the spirit of giving becomes contagious, all the get-togethers with friends and family and, of course, the cooking and baking.

While you're out shopping for holiday gifts, consider giving a gift that keeps on giving. Here's a couple of my favorite ways to do so that I also plan on including in my holiday list this year:

My Fight.
My Fight is a organization that sells t-shirts to fund small business micro-loans to women in Ethiopia and Honduras so they can overcome poverty in their life. My husband's cousin is one of the people who helped establish My Fight and he continues to work for it so I can vouch that it's a quality organization and that your money really does go to helping these women. If you check out their Facebook page, you can see photos of the women they are working to get loans for as well as see how many shirts they have left to sell before the loan is fully funded. All you have to do to help is to buy items from the My Fight store. The designs are really cool too:

And! If all that wasn't awesome enough, from now until January 1st, all their shirts are on sale for $7 off. And shipping is FREE. And this month a donor is doubling each purchase. Win-win-win! So buy one or two (or three) shirts to give as gifts this holiday season.

Random Acts of Kindness

While you're running around doing errands and whatnot, consider adding a random act of kindness into your day. Or make it into an advent-type activity where each day you and your family select a random act of kindness to do for others. I found this great printable list of easy and thoughtful things you can do for others from this the Lil' Light O Mine blog.

source

Some of the things include: taping quarters to a vending machine with a note, handing out candy canes with a note, delivering cookies to firemen, and writing encouraging note on someone's sidewalk.

Slow-roasted Beef. Yes.

2011-12-05T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a little blogging break. Because last week was crazy and I barely had enough time and energy to cook (we may have had PB & J sandwiches for dinner one night), let alone sit down and get some blogging done.

But! Today I'm taking a final exam and then I'm putting my education on hold for a extended maternity leave. There's only five and a half weeks left until baby is due! So much to do - my nesting instincts are in full swing (my inability to walk without waddling is also in full swing). I'm making a quilt, bumper pads, and recovering a rocking chair I picked up at a Once Upon a Child store. Aaanndd I only just started the quilt. I tend to have grand to-do lists and then find myself only with enough time to do half of the stuff.

Anyhow. All that has nothing to do with what I'm about to share with you.

I don't know if it's because I grew up in a family with seven brothers or what but I'm totally a meat and potatoes girl sometimes. In the winter I often find myself in the mood for tender, slow-roasted meat with a nice pile of mashed potatoes to soak up all the gravy.

So last night, that's what I made.

I took some beef short ribs, seasoned them with salt and pepper, then quickly seared them in my cast-iron skillet.

You can use a regular skillet if you want. It won't cause anything terrible to happen.

Then I added in chopped onion, whole garlic cloves, rosemary, beef broth and wine.

Then all you have to do is stick it in the oven and wait for at least three hours.

Your house will smell amazing.

You can see how the wine and broth reduce down while it cooks and not only flavor the meat but also create a fantastic little sauce/gravy.

And, of course, you serve it over mashed potatoes. Make sure you spoon some of the extra onions, roasted garlic and sauce over the top of everything.

Beef roasted in wine is perfection. And since we cooked it nice and slow, the beef falls off the bones and practically melts in your mouth.

Rosemary Beef Ribs Braised in Red Wine

Serves 4

8-12 beef ribs

1 large onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, peeled

salt and pepper

1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary

2 cups red wine

2 cups beef broth

Drizzle a large oven-friendly skillet with olive oil. Heat skillet until it's piping hot. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and add them into the pan. Sear the ribs on one side, flip and sear on the other side. Add in onion, garlic, rosemary and red wine. Cook for a minute. Remove from heat, add broth.

Cover pan with foil and bake at 300 for 3-4 hours. Serve over mashed potatoes and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

2011-11-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

How is your Thanksgiving menu planning coming along? Are you one of those people who has it planned out for weeks (or months!) ahead of time? Do you pick at the last minute?

I totally fall into the first category. As in, my husband and I are already calling dibs on hosting a Lenhart Thanksgiving here next year. I also like to experiment when it comes to the big turkey day. I know for many people, this is a holiday you don't mess with. But I like to take the old classics and give them a bit of a twist. Like with my Sausage Cornbread Stuffing or Amaretto Cranberry Sauce.

This year we're celebrating the holiday with my mom's side of the family and having a big old party. With about 24 people...only two of which are kiddos. I'm in charge of making the stuffing and pies. With such a large group I'm thinking I might make three pumpkin pies (because I would feel bad if someone didn't get any), an apple and a cherry pie. I can't wait to spend Wednesday afternoon baking it all up! :)

Anyhow, if you're on the hunt for perfect rolls for your Thanksgiving table, I just happen to have the recipe for you. A friend of mine shared this with me a while ago and I have to say, these are some of the best rolls I've ever had. My friend makes them with regular potatoes but I thought that with it being Thanksgiving and all, sweet potatoes would be a perfect little subtle twist.

Plus, sweet potatoes are loaded with vitamin A so these are practically health food. Right?

First you'll need to peel and chop a medium sweet potato. Place it in a saucepan and cover it with two cups of water. Bring it to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Allow the potato to cook for about 10 minutes or until it is tender.

Drain the liquid but set it aside to save it. Throw a couple ice cubes in there to cool it down to being a bit-warmer-than-body-temperature. Mash the sweet potato.

In a large bowl, combine potato-cooking-water and yeast.

After a minute or two, the yeast will start to bubble. This part is really fun for kiddos to watch so bring those little helpers on into the kitchen. :)

Add in honey, salt, a beaten egg and your mashed sweet potato.

Take a moment to ooh and ahh over the pretty orange color while you add in the flour. You'll need anywhere from 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 cups of flour to make this. You want the dough to form a ball while you knead it but you also want it to retain its stickiness (your hands shouldn't come away clean when you grab it). So stop at 5 cups of flour and slowly add enough to get it to come together.

Here's a little tip: Instead of kneading the bread on a floured surface, just go ahead and knead it in the bowl. It keeps things so much cleaner and I think it's actually easier to knead dough inside a bowl.

Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and let it rise in a warm area until doubled in volume - about an hour.

Divide the dough into two-four equal sized mounds. I used three but my friend said she only does two. The more mounds to use, the smaller your crescents will be. I did three this time around and they all came out about twice the size of the crescents you get from the cute little blue tubes.

Roll each ball/mound into a circle, about 1/3" thick. Brush it with melted butter. Cut the circle into 8 triangles, like a pie, and roll each triangle up - starting at the base and rolling to the point.

Allow the rolls to rise for another 20-30 minutes. Brush with more melted butter when they come out of the oven.

Serve 'em piping hot for maximum enjoyment. However, you can bake these up and freeze them or bake them the morning before you plan to serve them.

You could also use this incredibly light and fluffy bread to make cinnamon rolls, loaves, dinner rolls, etc.

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

Yields 16 large, 24 medium or 40 small rolls

1 medium potato, peeled and diced
2 cups water
1 package (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/4 cup honey (or organic sugar)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
5 1/2 to 6-1/2 cups all purpose flour

Place potato in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving cooking liquid.

Set cooking liquid aside to cool to 110-115 degrees (add a ice cube or two if you're impatient). Mash potato; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm cooking liquid.

Add the honey, oil, salt, egg, 4 cups flour and mashed potato. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. This part can be tricky, the dough will still be sticky and you want to be careful not to add too much flour or it will be dry and tough. Add the remaining flour slowly to make sure not to add to much.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 7-8 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until just barely golden brown. Serve warm.

Cranberry Thanksgiving Appetizer

2011-11-14T05:00:00.003-07:00

The switch off daylight savings time is always such a shock to my system. We usually don't eat dinner until 6:30 (or later!) and since the sun sets at 4:30 it's been wrecking havoc on my ability to have time to prepare anything and photograph it with decent lighting.

Does "falling back" mess with anyone else's routine? It does make getting up at 6:30 so much more doable though.

So a couple weeks ago I started seeing pins/links pop up on Pinterest for a spicy cranberry appetizer that looked simply fantastic. It got my creative-recipe-plotting-wheels turning and I came up with a Sweet and Savory Cranberry Cheeseball recipe.

If you're looking for a yummy, quick, fix-it-ahead-of-time, appetizer for Thanksgiving, you might just want to keep reading...because you can totally make this up ahead of time and then set it out on Thanksgiving day for people to munch on while they try to patiently wait for the turkey to finish roasting. Or frying. Or whatever.

You'll need cream cheese, gorgonzola cheese, green onions, dried cranberries and a smidge of parsley (oops! left that little guy out of the photo).

In a bowl combine cream cheese with gorgonzola cheese, minced parsley and 2 finely chopped green onions. Sprinkle in a bit of salt and pepper just to enhance the flavors a bit.

Once that has all been combined, dampen your hands with a bit of water and use them to form the cheesy mixture into a ball.

Press chopped dried cranberries into the cheeseball, all the way around.

Wrap it in plastic and chill it for at least two hours.

Serve with crackers and enjoy! I really love the combination of sweet and savory that you get from the craisins and gorgonzola. Plus the craisins add a bit of fun color and texture to it.

Cranberry Cheeseball

Yields 1 Cheeseball

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese

2 green onions, finely chopped

1 tbsp. fresh parsley, minced

salt and pepper

1 cup craisins, chopped

In a bowl combine together cream cheese, gorgonzola cheese, green onions, parsley and a pinch of salt and pepper. Once combined, dampen your hands with water and use them to press the cheese mixture into a ball. Once the ball is formed, cover it in craisins by gently pressing them onto it.

Wrap in plastic and chill for at least two hours before serving. Serve with crackers.

Easy Crockpot Apple Butter

2011-11-09T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start blogging Thanksgiving-friendly recipes. Because it's only just over two weeks away. And because it happens to be my hands-down favorite holiday.

Seriously.

I love that we have a holiday that isn't about the gimmies or people insisting that they need tons of random stuff to make them happy (my biggest pet peeve is when people talk about how much they NEED or DESERVE stuff that isn't water, food, shelter or breath).

So I love that Thanksgiving makes us all stop and think about everything we've been blessed with. I love that I get to spend a massive amount of time in the kitchen baking and cooking for the people I care about. I love that I get to spend a morning doing nothing but snuggling up with my daughter in our pjs as we watch the parade.

I also love that this year I get to spend Thanksgiving not only with most of my immediate family but also with my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunt. It's going to be a grand ole time.

Alrighty then, moving on to the recipe. Which actually, today there isn't going to be a recipe. Just a good guideline. Because that's all you need.

To make some awesome apple butter! Now, apple butter actually has zero butter in it. It gets its name from the lovely creamy texture it has.

This stuff is so good - it tastes like apple pie when you put it on a biscuit or some freshly baked bread. I may have licked the spoon once or twice.

Here's your guidelines. This is what I did but you can deviate a bit without any terrible consequences. :)

Easy Crockpot Apple Butter

Yields about 4 cups

- Core and chop apples, leaving the peel on if you wish (I do), and place them in a 4 quart crockpot. Keep going until the crockpot is filled up.

- Add in 1/4 - 1/2 cup brown sugar. The amount you'll need depends on how tart your apples are.

- Pour in 1 tsp. cinnamon

- Pour in 1/2 cup water. This keeps the apples from sticking to the bottom of the crockpot and prevents it from burning. If you're using a pretty dry apple, you might want a bit more water.

- Turn your crockpot on low for about 8 hours. A little extra time won't hurt it.

- Using an immersion blender, or just a regular blender, puree up the apples.

- Eat and enjoy! Chill or freeze whatever you don't eat right away. :)

The Grown-up Grilled Cheese

2011-10-31T05:00:00.003-07:00

A few weeks ago my daughter and I were flipping through a children's cookbook and stumbled across a recipe for "french grilled cheese." Since grilled cheese sandwiches are currently in the top 5 favorite things she likes to eat, the little lady insisted that we make them right away.

I thought it would be fun to add a bit more grown-up flavors to my husband's and mine's sandwich so I rummaged around in the kitchen and found the sun-dried tomatoes that I had bought for my bakery-knock-off Sun-dried Tomato Artisan Bread. I also pulled out the spinach because while I'm pregnant I try to sneak it into as many things as possible to keep my dark green veggie intake high. Soup, smoothies, eggs, sandwiches, it's all fair game.

All you need is provolone cheese, chopped spinach and chopped sun-dried tomatoes. You could also add some mushrooms or purple onion if you want. I like it fairly simple though to let the tomato flavor really come through.

Just assemble your sandwich, brush the outer sides of the bread with either olive oil or butter and then throw it in a hot skillet or onto your panini press. Toast until the cheese is gooey and the bread is golden brown.

If you're inner child is craving a grilled cheese sandwich, you should try this grown-up version. I'm a huge fan.

Sun-dried Tomato and Spinach Grilled Cheese

Serves 4

8 slices french or ciabatta bread

8 slices provolone cheese

1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes

2/3 cup chopped baby spinach

olive oil or butter

Heat a skillet or panini press to medium heat. Layer cheese, tomatoes, and baby spinach on a slice of bread. Top with another slice of bread and drizzle olive oil or brush butter onto the outer sides of bread. Place the sandwiches on the hot pan or press and toast until golden brown and the cheese has melted.

Snow Paint

2011-10-28T12:52:00.001-07:00

With the 10 inches of snow that we got this week, my daughter and I have been playing outside in it like crazy. We played snow fairies, built snowmen, threw snowballs, started three snow forts, and went sledding.

But there was still something we needed to try with the snow.

Painting.

After all the stuff we made, my daughter decided we needed some color amongst all the whiteness.

So we filled some spray bottles up with cold water, added food coloring and went crazy.

We just decided to do purple and green this time around. Next time we might have to add a bit more food coloring to make the colors more vibrant.

She had fun spray painting her partially finished snow fort. In between asking me over and over why it was winter already. :)

So! The next time it snows, which for some of you may be a really long time, break out the food coloring and add some to your spray bottles along with water.

Pumpkin Scones

2011-10-26T10:36:00.000-07:00

My annual Fall obsession with pumpkin continues!

Today my daughter and I are hanging out having a snugly crafty and baking day. Why? Well it looks like this outside:

We may have gotten over 8 inches of snow last night with more still coming down.

Yep. It seems like the perfect day to ditch school - schools out here don't close unless there's like two feet of snow. And ice. And zero visibility. And sub-zero temps.

How about you join our cozy day by baking up these pumpkin scones? I made these with a maple glaze so they could fulfill all my fall cravings at once. :)

This honestly was one of the first times I've ever made scones so I wasn't planning on blogging them. But! They turned out amazing - don't you love it when that happens?

They're also yummy with chopped pecans thrown on top.

Pumpkin Scones with Maple Glaze

Yields about 12 scones

2 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/3 cup (about 5 1/2-6 tbsp.) cold butter

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup pumpkin

1/8 cup milk

Maple Glaze:

2 tbsp. maple syrup

3/4 powdered sugar

1 tbsp. milk

Preheat your oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cut butter into slices. With a fork or pastry blender work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add in the egg, pumpkin and milk all at once. Mix the ingredients together and then work them into a ball. If the dough seems a bit too wet, add in an additional 1/4 cup of flour.

Divide the dough into two balls. Pat each ball into a rectangle, about 1" thick. Cut each rectangle into 6 triangles. Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake at 400 for about 12-15 minutes or until they are golden brown and cooked through.

Whisk together the glaze ingredients. Drizzle it over the top of warm or cooled scones and enjoy!

Family Fun Night: Kung Fu Panda

2011-10-19T05:00:00.003-07:00

You know how life can get so crazy, overwhelming and just plain busy? One of the things that I'm seriously dedicated to is making sure my family still gets in plenty of quality time during the week - not just the weekend. My husband and I want to be the kind of parents who play, really interact with and develop a healthy relationship with their children. Too often it seems easy to get caught up in just being around our children and taking care of them that we forget to really invest and nurture our relationship with them.

Yep, that's my rant for the day.

Anyhow, with that in mind, I wanted to share with y'all one of our family nights that we have coming up next week. This one is really simple, requires very little prep and is something a wide range of ages can enjoy.

Step #1 (optional)
Make an invitation with details about your fun family night and hand it out to all your family members - consider using this Chinese symbol for family on the invitations.

Also be sure to include a note about how all cell phones must be put on silent (not vibrate b/c it's still distracting) and ignored until the family night activities are over. This includes mom and dad's phones.

Step #2

Either make your own Chinese food for dinner (click here for my Sesame Chicken, Egg Rolls or Pineapple Chicken recipes) or pick up some at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Challenge! Everyone at the table has to try eating their dinner with chopsticks for a few minutes - if you're anything like our family you'll get lots of laughs while you try to figure out your unfamiliar utensils; our daughter has way better chopstick skills than I do.

Step #3

Get your movie snacks/dessert ready. These little creme filled wafer cookies go perfectly with the movie (see Step #4) and can be found in Asian grocery stores, on Amazon and the Target near my house has been carrying them for months in their $1 section. They are pretty yummy and come in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors.

Step #4

Eat your panda cookies while watching either Kung Fu Panda or Kung Fu Panda 2 together. My whole family thinks these movies are hilarious. If you don't own them, consider getting them through Netflix or your local library.

Step #5

After the movie, have the whole family show off their best kung fu moves...preferably on invisible opponents or set up some ground rules so nobody gets hurt.

Update: Kickin' Corn Chowder

2011-10-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hopefully y'all are getting a great start to the week today. I have a love/hate relationship with Mondays because I love getting back into a routine and being productive but I hate saying goodbye to late nights, late mornings and general relaxation time.

I finally remembered to take a decent photo of the Kickin' Corn Chowder and wanted to give y'all the heads up that the recipe's been updated. This is such a yummy soup and all the ingredients are pantry staples or things I tend to have on hand in the fridge so it's an easy dinner for me to whip up on nights when I don't know what else to make. :)

I also added some spinach this time around when I made it because the pregnancy has recently caused me to be unable to eat green vegetables unless I hid them in other things. In other words, I've apparently developed the tastebuds of a two-year-old.

Recipe Hack: Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

2011-10-13T05:00:00.002-07:00

Earlier this week I got an e-mail from a reader requesting a salted caramel hot chocolate recipe, a la Starbucks. I love when I have reader's make requests because it helps me feel connected to you all...instead of just feeling like I'm typing into an endless internet void. :)

I got hooked on these fabulous drinks last year and once the addiction really kicked in, I knew I had to start making them at home. After experimenting and trying different methods, I finally came up with a winning recipe - and it's super simple to make!

So, without any further ado, I'm excited to share with you my knock-off for Starbucks' Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate.

Starbucks (Knock-off) Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate

Serves 2

2 1/4 cups whole milk (or indulge and use half & half)

2 tbsp. dark cocoa powder

2 tbsp. cocoa powder

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. caramel sauce

1/4 tsp. sea salt

Topping:

whipped cream

caramel sauce

sea salt

In a saucepan, combine all of the ingredients. Whisk together over medium heat until it reaches your desired temperature and the sugar has dissolved.

Pour the hot chocolate into mugs and top with whipped cream, a drizzle of caramel sauce and a tiny pinch of sea salt. Inhale, sigh, sip, smile and enjoy!

*You could make this a mocha by stirring instant coffee into each cup.

This post is linked to $5 Dinners.

How 'Bout Them Apples?

2011-10-12T18:28:00.001-07:00

Just popping in really quick tonight! I'll be back with a Starbucks knock-off tomorrow! You don't want to miss it.

My father-in-law recently brought me a bag filled with fresh apples from the tree at my in-laws' house. If you're a Frontier Kitchen fan on Facebook (click here to join if you aren't yet!), you already know that yesterday I decided to tackle the bag of apples three different ways.

As a result, my house smelled like apples all day. So much more rewarding than a candle!

If you don't have access to an apple tree, stalk your grocery store - this is the time of year when they sell bags of apples for ridiculously low prices.

First, I sliced up a bunch of the apples, added a bit of sugar (these apples were naturally pretty tart) and a dash of cinnamon. Then I threw it all into the freezer. Now when Thanksgiving rolls around, half of my apple pie work is done for me.

If I was really ambitious I could have made the entire pie and then froze it without baking. Either way generally works pretty great.

I have serious love for homemade applesauce so I used about half of the apples to make some. All I do is combine chopped apples with about 1 cup of water, bring it to a boil and then allow it to cook down. As the water evaporates, I add more. Sugar doesn't ever make its way into my homemade applesauce because even with tart apples, it's still pretty dang good with just a pinch of cinnamon on top.

And I've been toying with the idea of giving up all sweeteners except honey and maple syrup (for a few weeks) so until I take the plunge, I'm trying to keep sugar usage to a minimum around here.

I also made apple chips - so good! All you have to do is core an apple, slice it thinly, lay it on a baking sheet that's been lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper, and then bake them at 200 for a couple hours, flipping halfway through. Gotta love healthy 100% natural snack foods!

Playtime: Fun with Salt Dough

2011-10-10T05:00:00.003-07:00

There's just something so fun about doing crafts with your kiddo. I love seeing my daughter be creative and we have some of the best little chats during our crafty time each week.

If you have a child who loves play-dough, or if you just like to play with it on your own (hey, it's fun!), today's craft is completely for you.

I know salt dough is commonly used by kids to make cutsey Christmas ornaments but I think it's the perfect base for many other things.

My daughter is a huge fan of getting to mix, roll out and form dough so I knew she would be all over this.

I thought we would only use half of the dough at first...but nope, she wanted to keep going until every scrap was used.

You can color your salt dough with food coloring but we kept ours white so we could paint them once they dried.

We made tons of things, heart shapes for magnets, "clay" beads, pretend food for her kitchen, and this random L thing that I'm not sure what to do with.

For the beads, we rolled balls or squares and then poked the middle of them with the end of a wooden kebab skewer.

Lily's been slowly handing the hearts, as well as some stars she made, out to friends.

Here's her pizza. She made it 100% by herself. It's my favorite piece because of that. I get a little cranky when adults are so obsessed with perfection that they end up doing 90% of the craft by themselves.

She painted her pizza blue and black. And looks very little like a real pizza. And it's perfect.

Salt Dough Recipe

1/2 cup salt

1 cup flour

1/4-1/3 cup water

food coloring (optional)

In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients. You can add a bit more water if you need to. Roll the dough out and form or cut it into your desired form. Cookie cutters work great!

To dry, allow items to air-dry on a baking cooling rack. Or you can bake the dough on cookie sheets at 200 for a few hours or until dry.

If you want to paint yours, allow them to dry first before applying paint.

Great Harvest Sundried Tomato Bread Recipe

2011-10-06T09:34:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I happened to try some of Great Harvest Bread Company's Sundried Tomato bread at a MOPS meeting.

The bread was so good I had to go back and have seconds. And kinda wanted thirds but then I might have had to endure the "eating for two" comments. I dislike that concept because eating for two should mean that I'm eating healthier than ever - not gorging myself on bread.

However, if there was one bread that I would gorge myself on, this might just be the winner. :)

Often when I find a food that I love from a restaurant, I'll go home and recreate it. One of my favorite things about cooking is being able to do that. I'm a firm believer that homemade food doesn't have to be a boring routine of food that's half-heartedly thrown together. If you're going to spend time and money on dinner, why not make it amazing?

And when I say money, you should know that I usually spend about $80/week at the grocery store for our family so I'm not talking about a major investment here.

Anyhow, that's my little rant for the week. On to the bread!

In a large bowl, pour in warm water and yeast. Allow to sit for a minute or two - the yeast will start to "bloom" or appear to be bubbling upwards.

Chop up sundried tomatoes - you want about a 1/4 - 1/3 of a cup, depending on how much you want your bread studded with tomato bits.

Add the tomatoes, salt, flour and rosemary (optional...I don't think Great Harvest puts it in theirs). I plunge my hand down into it at this point and combine it all together that way. If that's too messy for you, just use a spoon.

You can add in a bit more flour if the dough is too wet to work into a ball. Depending on the humidity levels where you live, some people may not need any extra flour and some may need 1/4-1/2 cup extra.

Once the dough comes together in a ball shape, set it in a warm place and cover it with a clean towel.

After an hour, pull the dough out, sprinkle a bit of flour on it and form it into a round loaf. Place the loaf on a baking sheet (use a pizza stone if you have one, if not, no worries!) that's been brush with vegetable oil and sprinkled with cornmeal.

The oil and cornmeal together give the loaf a nice crusty texture on the bottom.

Allow the dough to rise for another 30 minutes. You can start preheating your oven during this time - set it to 400.

Bake the bread at 400 for 25-30 minutes. During the last 10 minutes, whisk together an egg white with 1 tbsp. of milk and brush it on top of the bread so you can get that lovely golden brown coloring.

The next time you're craving soup, try baking up this sundried tomato bread recipe - it's perfection when served hot and fresh from the oven.

Sundried Tomato Artisan Bread

Yields 1 Loaf (you can easily double the recipe)

2 tsp. active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4-1/3 cup chopped sundried tomatoes

1 tsp. dried rosemary (optional)

2 tsp. kosher salt

2 cups unbleached flour

1/2 tsp. cornmeal

1 egg white

1 tbsp. milk

In a medium bowl, pour in yeast and warm water. Allow to sit for two minutes - the yeast will start to bloom or expand. Add the tomatoes, rosemary (optional), salt and flour all at once. Use a wooden spoon or your hand to work the ingredients into a dough. It should be a bit sticky but still be able to form a shape similar to a ball - if not, add in a bit more flour, a 1/4 cup at a time, until it holds together. Leave the dough in the bowl and cover it with a cloth. Allow to rise for 1 hour.

After an hour, brush a baking sheet or pizza stone with vegetable oil. Sprinkle cornmeal on top. Shape the dough into a round loaf with your hands and set it on the prepared pan. Allow the dough to rise for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400.

Bake the bread at 400 for 20 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together and egg white and milk. Brush the egg wash onto the bread and allow it to bake for another 5-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve piping hot and enjoy!

This bread would also serve well as an incredible base for paninis or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancake Recipe

2011-10-03T19:35:00.001-07:00

My husband goes to work at 7:30 and I'm not enough of a morning person (or heck, a morning person at all!) to be serving up breakfast at 7:00 on weekdays. So Monday-Friday, we're more of a cereal, toast, yogurt, or microwaved oatmeal kind of family. It's the cold, harsh truth.

However, on the weekends, when we can eat breakfast at 9:00, I enjoy rummaging around in the kitchen and making something a little more spectacular than peanut butter toast.

Last Saturday I decided to make pancakes. I happened to have just recently made some pull-apart pumpkin bread for a friend and had some leftover pumpkin sitting in my fridge staring at me just begging to be eaten. And and since you can't always have pumpkin pie for breakfast (gosh darn it!), I decided to settle for the next best thing - pumpkin pancakes!

I made these with whole wheat flour and honestly, I think pumpkin recipes are the best place to sneak whole wheat flour in if you don't normally use it because the pumpkin keeps everything tender and super moist.

Yumminess. If you have kiddos who go to school, you could save the extras for their lunch the next day. Just send 'em along with a bit of syrup or applesauce to dip with. Or make a pancake sandwich with cream cheese or jam inside.

Maple syrup is especially good when combined with pumpkin pancakes.

Or you can go a healthier route - I cooked sauteed slices from 1 apple in about 1 tbsp. of butter and sprinkle of cinnamon. After a minute or two I added about 1/2 cup apple cider (remember, I'm an addict right now) and brought it all to a boil. I let it continue to boil while I made the pancakes and then served a heaping spoonful on top of them.

You could also freeze the leftovers (if you have any) - click here for my pancake/waffle freezing tip!

Healthy Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

Yields about 1 dozen medium-sized pancakes

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup buttermilk (make your own - click here)

2/3 cup pumpkin puree

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

2-3 tbsp. honey

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add all the remaining ingredients into that well. Stir together until well-combined (batter will still have some small lumps; it's okay!).

Heat a skillet or griddle to medium heat. Lightly oil the pan. When the skillet is hot, scoop pancake batter onto it in 1/4 or 1/3 cup measurements. Cook for a couple minutes; when the pancake starts to bubble, flip them over and cook on the other side until cooked through.

This post is linked to $5 Dinners. Click here to see a wide variety of yummy budget-friendly meals you can make.

Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

2011-10-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

So remember earlier in the week when I professed on the Frontier Kitchen facebook page how I had cooked up something that made my eyes roll back in sheer tastebud delight? Well, the sauce that I showed you on the Pumpkin Cake with a Cream Cheese Swirl is the source of that.

Apple cider is just one of those things that I can't get through Fall without. When we lived in Boston, we would trek out to an apple orchard, pick bushels of apples, and then top it all off with fresh apple cider doughnuts and well, apple cider. It was so good!

So I've been drinking apple cider with reckless abandon lately and adding it to all sorts of other things.

While making the pumpkin cake, I got inspired to try and make an apple cider caramel sauce. I'm so glad I went for it because this is going to be a new Fall tradition around here.

In a saucepan, you want to boil about two cups of apple cider (the good quality stuff - don't get the kind that looks just like apple juice!) until it reduces by about half. This takes about 15-20 minutes.

Then add in sugar, molasses, and butter.

Oh, and evaporated milk.

Bring the sauce back to a low boil and stirring it frequently, if not constantly, allow it to further thicken up. You'll want to boil it for at least 10 minutes after adding those other ingredients. Remove it from the heat and whisk in baking soda. This will cause the sauce to foam up a bit but when it cools, it will also help thicken the sauce so don't be alarmed if it suddenly looks too frothy.

You can serve it with cake, ice cream, crepes, in your coffee, whatever!

I think it works best if you let it cool and refrigerate it for a couple hours before using it. But you can certainly go ahead and serve it immediately if your patience has run out for the day.

Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

2 cups apple cider

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

4 tbsp. butter

2/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

In a saucepan, bring apple cider to a boil. Allow it to continue to boil for 15-20 minutes or until the cider has reduced by about half. Pour in the remaining ingredients, except the baking soda. Bring the sauce back to a boil, stirring frequently. Allow it to boil for another 10 minutes or until it is the consistency of warm syrup. Remove from heat and whisk in baking soda. Don't be alarmed with the sauce gets frothy- it's supposed to do that when the baking soda reacts with it. The froth will go away when the sauce is cool.

Once the sauce is room temperature, you can store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Or freeze some and save it for later!

Pumpkin Cake with a Cream Cheese Swirl

2011-09-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

I've been on a serious pumpkin kick lately. Which will probably continue up until just after Thanksgiving. Because that's how I roll. I've made pumpkin pie, spiced pumpkin white hot chocolate, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake and I'm planning on making pumpkin pancakes for breakfast tomorrow.

I just have serious love for pumpkins. Except in jack-o-lantern form. Can't stand those.

This week a friend of mine had surgery so I brought her and her family some dinner. And whenever I bring people dinner, I use it as an excuse to bake.

This time around, I decided to make pumpkin bars with a cream cheese swirl on top. Although, full confession, these ended up being more like a super moist cake so feel free to call them either cake or bars. Or just call them yummy. That's okay too.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, brown sugar, and eggs.

Then beat in pumpkin and vanilla.

Now add in all your dry ingredients: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda.

Mix until well-combined.

In a small bowl, beat together an egg yolk, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.

Pour your pumpkin batter into a 9x13" cake pan that's been lined with foil (spray your foil with cooking spray).

Pour the cream cheese mixture on top - drag a knife through the batter to create swirls.

Bake the cake/bars at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out with just crumbs.

Oh, and while we wait for it to bake, we're going to make a lovely sauce. That's apple cider, sugar, butter and molasses.

Oh and evaporated milk.

I'll give you the full details of this yummy sauce tomorrow. It's Uh-mazing so I promise that it'll be worth the wait.

The pumpkin cake is scrumptious all on its own. But paired with the apple cider caramel sauce? It's quite fantastic.

Check back tomorrow for the sauce recipe!

Pumpkin Cake with a Cream Cheese Swirl

Serves 12-18...depending on how big you like your slices.

Cake Batter:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

2 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Cream Cheese Swirl:

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg yolk

Preheat your oven to 350. Line a 9 x 13" cake pan with foil, spray the foil with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add in eggs, vanilla and pumpkin; beat well. Next add all of the dry ingredients at once: flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well-combined.

In a separate bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and an egg yolk, until creamy.

Pour the pumpkin batter into the prepared pan. Drizzle the cream cheese mixture on top. Drag a knife through the batter to create swirls.

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes. Serve warm or chilled. Refrigerate the leftovers...if there is any!

Transition

2011-09-26T20:07:00.000-07:00

I let the weather dictate more than just my wardrobe. When I'm doing my menu planning on Saturday or Sunday for the upcoming week, I often look at the forecast to see when we're supposed to have a cold rainy day, which days will be unseasonably hot, etc. Some foods like soups just aren't as yummy when it's hot outside.

Since we're in that lovely time of year when the mornings and nights are chilly but the afternoons are perfectly warm, I've been feeling a bit like that girl who wears a jacket with flip flops and shorts in October - not really sure which aspect of the weather I should embrace.

Some dishes, however, are just the right amount of fresh light flavors blended with cozy comfort food.

This was one of those. I cooked up sausages and sliced them into medallions. Grabbed some some cherry tomatoes fresh from my in-law's garden, sauteed them up in olive oil and butter until they burst and broke down to create a beautiful sauce. I poured it on top of tortellini pasta and served everything on a bed of sauteed spinach. It's so rustic, so straight-forward, and so yummy.

If you want to go vegetarian, you could skip the sausage and still have an amazing meal.

Tortellini in Cherry Tomato Sauce

Yields 4 servings

4 spicy italian sausages

1 pkg. tortellini pasta (any flavor works fine)

25 cherry tomatoes, approximately

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. butter

kosher salt and pepper

Slice sausages into medallions. Place the medallions in a hot skillet and allow them to brown, flipping once, until cooked through. Remove sausages and set aside.

Chop the tomatoes in half. Add olive oil and butter to your skillet. Heat it over medium heat; once the butter has melted, toss in the tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have burst and created a sauce with their juice.

Meanwhile boil the tortellini pasta in a pot of water until it is al dente. Drain; toss the cooked pasta with the tomato sauce. Add in the sausage medallions and serve immediately.

Spiced Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate

2011-09-23T05:00:00.002-07:00

I think I'm in love.

I joined Pinterest last week. Do you Pinterest?

I always like browsing around the internet and finding fun craft ideas and recipes. Finally having an easy way to save them all in one spot makes me a happy girl.

One of the things I found via Pinterest was a recipe for Pumpkin White Chocolate. Having recently gotten hooked on pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, I knew I had to make something similar - pronto!

Here's what you need: milk, white chocolate chips, pumpkin, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg. You could add some cloves in too if you want. I kinda hate them so I didn't.

Sidenote: When I was a kid I bit into some pumpkin bread at a friend's house and apparently their mom used whole cloves in the bread. Biting into a whole clove was the nastiest thing I've ever eaten.

Aren't you glad you know that now?

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, pour the milk, chocolate chips, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir constantly until the chocolate melts.

Whisk in the pumpkin. Heat for another minute or two.

Then serve and enjoy! If you wanted to make this especially yummy, you could add a drizzle of caramel sauce to it. I may have also stuck a caramel candy down in the bottom of my glass. Just for funsies.

If you're making this with homemade pumpkin puree, you'll probably want to strain the hot chocolate before serving it because homemade pumpkin can have a bit of tiny pumpkin strings in it.

Spiced Pumpkin White Hot Chocolate

5 cups of milk

1 bag white chocolate chips

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

whipped cream (optional)

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine milk, chocolate, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir constantly until the chocolate has melted. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla.

Serve piping hot with whipped cream on top and an extra sprinkle of cinnamon. Enjoy!

Family Fun: First Day of Fall

2011-09-21T05:00:00.011-07:00

Fall is almost here!

Friday is officially the first day of Fall this year and after much fighting, kicking, screaming and wishing for Summer to come back, I'm finally excited and ready for it. Fall is actually my favorite season, probably because I love baking, a lit fireplace, crafting and anything Thanksgiving-related.

Today I wanted to share with y'all some fun family-friendly things you can do with your kiddos to help usher in the Fall season. You could spread the activities out over the weekend or do them all in one day.

#1 - Read it!

There's so many awesome Fall-themed books out there but I wanted to focus on the leafy aspect of Autumn so here's two that perfectly fit that theme:

Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert is a cute story about a man made out of leaves who travels all over the place, wherever the wind takes him. Click here to find it on Amazon. Also check your local library. I know ours has several copies.

Why Do Leaves Change Color? by Betsy Maestro. This is a book for young children (PreK-2nd) about different kinds of leaves and the simplified scientific details about why leaves go from green to shades of red, orange and yellow. Here's the link for Amazon and again, check your library!

My daughter always wants to know why things happen and doesn't rest until she gets the scientific explanation so this book was perfect for her little curious mind.

#2 Walk it!

This is the perfect time of year to head out on a little nature walk with your kiddos. Bring a bag with you and stop to collect any interesting leaves you find. As you pick them up, help your children identify what type of tree the leaf came from. Make it a challenge to see how many different kinds (and colors!) of leaves you can find on your walk.

#3 Create it!

Using the leaves you collected, create your own leaf man or woman. I found this cute idea on Meet the Dubians.

Click here for all the details.

#4 Eat it!

You knew I wouldn't let you go without a fun food idea, right? I love cute little lunch ideas for kiddos and thought that celebrating the first day of Fall was the perfect time to make one.

I used a mini leaf cookie cutter to cut leaf shapes out of a PB & J sandwich. The trunk is 100% natural fruit leather. Grass is sliced celery. The apple was cut out of jello. The sun was cut out of cheese.

If you had a teeny tiny apple cookie cutter, I think it would be really cute to put little apples on the tree. Or maybe fill a muffin cup with yogurt and place the mini apples inside the yogurt so it looks like a basket of apples.

If your kiddo doesn't like natural fruit leather, you could also make the trunk out of the classic ants on a log snack.

Just have fun with it!

Classic Lasagna Recipe

2011-09-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

One of my husband's all-time favorite things that I make is lasagna. The guy loves it. It's one of the few things that will make him head back to the kitchen for seconds...and sometimes thirds.

I've been meaning to share this with y'all for a while but then always get too impatient and eat it before I can snap a photo.

I almost did the same thing this time around. Oops.

Except then I had the presence of mind the next day to snap a photo of the leftovers. Which is why it looks a little on the flatter side. :)

One of the things I love about this is that I can either make a 9x13" pan and have enough for dinner and then lunch for two days or I can cook up a few extra noodles and split the lasagna into two 8" square pans, bake one and freeze the other for later. Even when I do it that way, we end up having at least enough leftover for my husband to eat the next day. I'm all about leftovers...when they taste just as good as the original.

The lasagna does have more sauce than it appears to in the photo...I removed some so you could see the layers easier.

Classic 4 Cheese Lasagna

Serves 8

12 regular lasagna noodles, boiled to al dente according to package directions

About 4 cups of marinara sauce (I used my favorite homemade recipe)

16 oz. cottage cheese

16 oz. ricotta cheese

8 oz. mozzarella cheese, grated

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 egg, beaten

2 tbsp. chopped basil (use 1 tsp. for dried basil)

2 tsp. finely minced garlic

Preheat your oven to 350.

Stir together cottage cheese, ricotta, just over half of the mozzarella and all of the parmesan cheese with egg, basil and garlic in a bowl. Save the rest of the mozzarella for the top of your lasagna. Combine1/4 cup of your marinara sauce and a bit of water into the bottom of a 9x13" pan. Place a single layer of noodles on top of the watered down sauce. Top with nearly half of your cheese mixture. Add another layer of noodles and top this one with a decent amount of sauce. Layer on more noodles, top with almost all of the remaining cheese mixture, saving about 1/2 a cup. Layer on the last layer of noodles, top with sauce. Dot the top with the remaining cheese mixture and remaining mozzarella.

Watered down sauce, noodles, cheese, noodles, sauce, noodles, cheese, noodles, sauce and cheese. Or use whatever layering pattern makes you happy. I use the watered down sauce on the bottom to keep the first layer of noodles from sticking to the pan.

Bake the lasagna in the oven at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and let it stand for about five minutes before cutting into it. Enjoy!

After School Snack

2011-09-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

With the weather steadily getting cooler here, I've been baking up a storm. Last night I baked up a bunch of bread from one of my favorite cookbooks, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. There's few things more yummy than a hot loaf of bread fresh from the oven on a chilly day.

Except maybe warm cookies.

Last week I decided to whip up a batch of cookies to take along to a playdate with friends. Since we were meeting at 3:30, I decided to add a couple healthier bits (whole wheat flour and whole grain oats) into the cookies so I wouldn't completely ruin everyone's dinner.

I only ended up baking half of the batch of dough before the playdate and kept the rest in the fridge so we were able to pull out the cookie dough and have yummy homemade cookies for days afterwards. If you want to go that route, the dough will keep for about a week in a sealed container inside your fridge. We just finished our last cookies today. :)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies (with butterscotch and chocolate chips!)

Yields about 4 dozen cookies

1 stick butter, softened

2/3 cup peanut butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups oats

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and peanut butter together until creamy. Add in sugars, beating until well combined. Next beat eggs and vanilla together until just combined. Add in baking powder, salt and whole wheat flour. Blend until well-combined. Remove beaters and fold oats, chocolate and butterscotch into the batter.

Drop cookie dough by the rounded tablespoonful onto a cookie sheet. I like to line my baking sheet with a silicone baking mat but if you don't have one, you can just place the cookies directly on the pan.

Bake for 7-8 minutes and allow the cookies to cool and firm up for a minute or two on the cookie sheet before placing them on a wire rack to finish cooling.

You can save some of the dough by placing it in the fridge for up to a week or by freezing it for up to three months.

Loveliness

2011-09-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

About a year and a half ago, my husband and I took a little trip to Seattle to visit my brother. We had a lovely time frolicking around the city acting like tourists. But the cool kind. Of course.

A large part of our trip was centered around food. My brother knows how much I like good food and how limited my access to good restaurants is here in Wyoming. We ate some amazing things. Seattle introduced me to truffle oil and salted caramel ice cream.

Ever since I simply have to add a bit of extra salt when making anything caramel. It's divine and I don't know how I lived so long without it.

Recently, I acquired a ice cream maker - something I've been lusting after for years. The very first batch of ice cream I made in it? David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream.

Not only is this ice cream a good salted caramel flavor, it also has little golden nuggets of salted caramel toffee running through it.

David Lebovitz has some of the best recipes around. This is one of them.

Go dig out your ice cream machine and make this!

Pineapple Chicken (the yummy kind)

2011-09-09T22:09:00.001-07:00

Chinese food is one of my favorite things. There's a Panda Express in the student union at my school and it's darn hard to resist it when I'm walking across campus during lunch. Suddenly my turkey sandwich and carrots seem really really really sad.

So sometimes I cave. And I always order chow mein with orange chicken. And it's yummy.

But a while back I had a thought - what if you made a similar dish but used pineapple flavors instead? Good things, that's what.

I'll admit, the first time I tried to make this it wasn't very fantastic. It wasn't gross. It just wasn't amazing either. So I spent some time pondering the recipe and tweaking it, throwing it out, starting over, and then came up with a craving-worthy version.

First you want to marinade your chicken in milk, red pepper flakes and paprika. Not for very long, about ten minutes. While you're waiting, preheat a pan with about 1" of oil covering the bottom over medium heat. Also, put some flour into a bowl along with plenty of salt, pepper and more paprika.

Good fried chicken needs to be seasoned every step of the way.

Don't you love this awkward camera angle? I was in the frying zone and didn't realize it until later.

Anyhow, take the chicken and double batter it: dip it into the flour then dip it back into the milk marinade and then once more into the flour. Gently place each battered piece into the hot oil. Cook for about 3 minutes and flip; continue cooking until cooked through.

Don't overcrowd the pan while you're frying. I did about three batches for only two chicken breasts. If you crowd the pan, the oil will cool down too much.

All I could think about while frying the chicken was Minnie teaching Celia how to cook in The Help movie. This is sooo much fun!!!

While you're frying the chicken whip up a easy sauce of pineapple juice, red pepper flakes, a few drops of sesame oil, ground ginger, honey and water.

Bring the sauce to a boil and allow it to boil while your chicken is cooking. It should reduce down a bit. Then, right before you're ready to serve the chicken, whisk in 1 tsp. cornstarch and cook the sauce for another minute so it can thicken.

Then you just pour it all right over the lovely fried chicken.

And eat! I served mine over brown rice and sauteed spinach.

I'm pretty sure the spinach and brown rice make it healthy. I hope so. I ate quite a bit of that chicken.

Pineapple Chicken

Serves 4

2 chicken breasts

1 cup milk

1 tsp. paprika

2 pinches red pepper flakes

1 1/2 cups flour

Lots of black pepper

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. kosher salt

Sauce:

1 cup pineapple juice

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes

dash ground ginger

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp. honey

4 drops sesame oil

1 tsp. cornstarch

Cut chicken into pieces, about 1" square. Place the chicken in a bowl with milk, paprika and red pepper flakes. Allow to marinate for 10 minutes.

Pour vegetable oil into a large skillet or pan until it is just about 1" deep. Preheat the oil over medium heat. Oil is ready when a bit of flour dropped in bubbles up immediately.

Dip each piece of chicken in the flour mixture, then back into the milk, and once more into the flour mixture. Shake of any excess flour and gently place the chicken into hot oil. Allow it to cook for about 3 minutes per side or until cooked through. Cook your chicken in batches so it doesn't cool the oil down too much.

Meanwhile, pour all the sauce ingredients, except for cornstarch, into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and maintain the boil while the chicken continues to cook.

Once the chicken is cooked, whisk cornstarch into the sauce. Cook it for about a minute, just until it thickens a bit and then pour it over the fried chicken pieces. Serve over rice and enjoy!

Seven

2011-09-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty homesick lately. Not necessarily for the unGodly hot humid Tennessee temperatures but homesick for trees, rivers, Southern accents, non-pine forests, and rolling hills. And especially homesick for my big, crazy, beautiful, opinionated family.

I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones or what but I keep wishing my Momma would swoop in with one of her big hugs and make me dinner. But there's this little detail of her living over 1200 miles away. Darn details.

So last week I decided to console myself by making one of the desserts that my Momma has made my whole life - one of those things that the second you smell it baking, all you can do is remember all the good times associated with them when you were growing up.

You start with butter (always a good place to start) and graham cracker crumbs. It's about 12-13 graham crackers or 1 3/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs.

And you press that winning combo into the bottom of a 9 x 13" baking pan.

I experimented with lining the pan with foil, thinking it would make the bars really super ridiculously easy to remove from the pan later. Except I found out that the foil actually makes removing the bars a nearly impossible task. So don't be like me. Skip the foil.

Now, in whatever order makes your heart happy, sprinkle chopped pecans, flaked coconut, chocolate chips and butterscotch chips on top of the graham cracker crust. Drizzle the entire thing with a can of sweetened condensed milk.

If you want to let your creativity go wild, try switching up the types of chips involved. Peanut butter and dark chocolate? White chocolate and mint chips?

Bake in the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes - just until the edges turn golden brown and bubbly. Once the bars have cooled in the fridge for a bit, you can dig in and enjoy one of the world's best bar recipes. They're soft, chewy, chocolaty and just darn good.

Seven Layer Bars

Yields 24 bars

1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup butterscotch chips

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

In a bowl, combine melted butter with graham cracker crumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9x13" baking pan. Layer remaining ingredients on top, saving the sweetened condensed milk for last.

Bake the bars at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Allow bars to cool and then, before removing them from the pan or cutting them, place them in the fridge for an hour. Once the bars have firmed up a bit, you can go ahead and dig in!

Po.ta.toes.

2011-09-02T05:00:00.002-07:00

Happy (almost) Holiday weekend!

I'm excited to spend some extra time with the husband and our little girl. We're heading up to visit my in-laws for the weekend and I'm really not sure what all we'll be doing but I do know that Lillian will spend 90% of it running around outside, checking on the chickens, going on little exploratory adventures and begging for multiple rides on "her" pony, Sandy.

She turns into my little cowgirl every time we're visiting Papa and Grandma Lenhart. It's so fun to watch her little self bounding around in her boots and cowboy hat with her blonde curls flowing away beneath it. By the end of every day she's covered in dirt and sweat and grinning like she couldn't possibly be happier.

So what sort of fun things are you doing this weekend? Do tell.

For many people, Labor Day is about the final Summer cookout. If that's you, I've got a yummy side dish you can whip up to go with your burgers and whatnot. It requires very little attention and reheats fantastically well so you could always opt to make them the day before and then just pop them in the oven for a bit before serving.

We'll start by baking up some red potatoes. Just drizzle them with oil, olive or vegetable works just fine, and then sprinkle on salt and pepper. Bake at 375 until they are fork-tender.

Cut each potato in half and then smoosh each half with a fork to flatten them out a bit. Sprinkle with creole seasoning, kosher salt, black pepper, and italian seasoning.

Then top each one with provolone and parmesan cheese.

And return them to the oven for about 10 more minutes or until the cheese has melted beautifully.

Each little cheesy potato is just fantastic. If you're making these for a group, I would plan on 2-3 potatoes per person.

Here's a recipe outline for you because this is one of those things where precise measurements don't matter in the slightest so you can just kind of wing it.

Zesty and Cheesy Potatoes

2-3 red potatoes per person

olive oil

kosher salt

black pepper

creole seasoning

sliced provolone cheese (1 slice for every two potatoes)

parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 375. Place your potatoes in a baking dish; drizzle them with oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until all the potatoes are fork-tender. Remove pan from the oven.

Slice each potato in half, drizzle with a smidgen more olive oil and smoosh each half with a fork to flatten it a bit. Season with creole seasoning. Cut each slice of provolone into quarters and place a piece on top of each potato. Grate parmesan cheese over the top and return the potatoes to the oven for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is gooey and melted.

For Your Salad

2011-08-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

I'm desperately hanging on to the last bit of Summer left. I spent about half of the Summer lying on the couch, due to nausea, so I feel like there's so much that I missed out on that I'm not ready to relent to the impending Fall.

That, and because Fall here essentially means snow. Last year we had a whole month of pretty Fall weather with the leaves changing colors and everyone kept remarking about what a long and glorious Fall it was.

Uh, excuse me? A month is a long Fall?

I've lived the vast majority of my life in places where Fall lasts the three months that it's supposed to. You know, places where you can go apple picking and the leaves turn dozens of shades of red, orange and yellow. Places where kids don't have to wear winter jackets over their Halloween costumes because in those places, it doesn't snow every year on Halloween.

:sigh: There's a lot of things I like about living in Wyoming. The 9 months of Winter is not one of them.

Anyhow. In my efforts to make Summer last a bit longer, while everyone else races for the candy corn and sweaters, I made this yummy dressing:

In a bowl (or large food processor if you have one handy) combine green salsa, avocado, lemon (or lime!) juice, kosher salt and pepper; breaking down the avocado as you blend it together.

Then add in a bit of mayo and milk to thin it out.

And you have a scrumptious and slightly rustic salad dressing! I don't like large chunks of avocado in my salad so this was a perfect way to get that yummy fresh creamy goodness into my ~~mouth~~ salad.

If you're an avocado fan, you simply must try this.

Avocado Salad Dressing

Yields about 2/3 cup of dressing

1/2 avocado, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup green salsa

1 tbsp. lemon or lime juice

4 tbsp. milk

2 tbsp. mayo

kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

In a bowl or large food processor, combine all of the ingredients. Blend or pulse until all the ingredients combine into a lovely creamy dressing. Chill for at least an hour before serving it over a salad.

Personal Update

2011-08-26T08:00:00.001-07:00

There's something important that I want to share with you guys and figured now was as good a time as any.

Earlier this year I poured my heart out and shared with you guys a bit about the challenge and heartbreak my husband and I had been dealing with for a few years concerning infertility.

Infertility was something I really struggled with. There's so many hopes and plans wrapped up in lifelong dreams of being a mommy. And like I mentioned in my post about it, nobody really prepares you when you're a little girl for the fact that not everyone gets to have kids. And to be experiencing not only infertility, but infertility that doctors and specialists couldn't figure out the cause or solution for, it was the most difficult thing I've ever gone through.

I simply had to come to terms with the fact that no matter how darn hard I wanted, hoped and prayed for a baby, that simply wasn't going to happen unless God wanted it to. Writing about my infertility was the last step I had to take to get to the point where I fully understood, accepted and achieved peace about that. It was the final step in the mourning process for me.

Sometimes I wonder if God does things to get our attention - things to prove how powerful He is and that our lives are in His hands and that our wants and desires are nothing compared to the perfect plan He has for us. You know?

Well, y'all, I think God also likes to be a bit ironic at times.

Less than two months after coming to peace with the fact that I may never have any more kiddos - and giving away all my maternity clothes - I found out about this little guy:

To add to God's love of irony, I found out I was pregnant on the anniversary of the day (and at the same time of day) I found out I was having a miscarriage with our second baby. The miscarriage that happened to cause my body to start rebelling and become infertile.

And can I just tell you how gosh darn good it feels every time I have to puke from all the nausea?

Even though I'm 19 weeks pregnant and totally shouldn't lose my breakfast anymore?

Nausea is a glorious and wonderful thing, my friends. It's your body telling you that the baby is growing strong and healthy. I thank God every day for that nausea.

I couldn't be more thrilled about this little miracle baby growing and kicking away inside me.

Baby is due in January. We find out the gender in two weeks. I'm currently getting plump and round and eating fruit like it's going out of style.

Y'all were so sweet and supportive when I wrote about my infertility and your comments honestly meant the world to me. And I just wanted you to know that. I appreciate you guys so much for being there for me, someone you've never even met.

And now you know why my blogging has been sporadic and a bit less enthusiastic lately; it's a bit hard to cook or talk about food when you don't feel like eating anything besides peanut butter and potato chip sandwiches. :)

Peach Breakfast Pastries

2011-08-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

We've been getting some amazing peaches in the farmer's market and grocery store this year. They're so good!

While I love them for snacking, I often just slice them up for breakfast (using this super easy and fast method) and eat them alongside my usual toast for breakfast. Or sometimes I go a little crazy and shmear cream cheese on top of my toast and then top that with thin peach slices.

But this past weekend my father-in-law was visiting and I thought it would be fun to do something a little different.

So I grabbed a sheet of puff pastry, cut it into circles, topped them with peach slices, brushed them with an egg wash, baked them and then drizzled a bit of honey on top. And then we ate. And ate some more.

I thought you guys might enjoy a yummy and quick way to change up your regular breakfast routine.

Peach Puffed Pastry

Yields about 12 pastries

2 peaches, sliced thinly

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed

1 egg

1 tbsp. water

3 tbsp. honey

Preheat your oven to 375. Using a round cookie cutter, cut the puff pastry into circles. Place the pastry onto a greased baking sheet, with at least an inch between each one. Then top with peach slices. Whisk together egg and water; brush the top of each pastry with the egg wash.

Bake pastries at 375 for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the pastries from the oven and drizzle them with honey. Serve immediately.

5 Years

2011-08-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

5 years ago today I got married to this guy I happen to know.

He's my best friend

He finishes my sentences.

He can make me laugh when I feel like crying.

He's the only person in the world that I tell everything.

We've been through our fair share of challenges over the years but they've only brought us closer together.

He's one of the most genuine people I've ever known.

He knows all my secrets.

He knows when to turn on one of my favorite movies so I can have a good cry.

We tell corny jokes, dance in the car, belt out pop songs and quote movies with reckless abandon.

Our personalities are completely opposite - it's cheesy and cliche but he really is my other half.

He's the only person I can completely be myself around.

He constantly encourages and inspires me to reach my personal life goals.

He's a caring and wonderful father.

And I'm pretty sure I'd be a complete mess without him.

I love you, Khale!

This song was the one we used for our first dance as husband and wife during the wedding reception (click here to listen). Moulin Rouge might be a weird movie to have your wedding song come from but whatever, we both loved the song and thought it expressed how we felt/feel. :)

Baba Ganoush

2011-08-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

Lately, with all the heat from the Summer, I've been making tons of dips for pita chips and tortilla chips. The dips are usually really healthy and if you make them with whole wheat pita chips, you can totally dig in and eat as much as you want without feeling the least bit guilty.

Which is pretty much my favorite thing these days.

One dip that I love, is baba ganoush. It's kind of like a eggplant hummus because the only difference between the two recipes is that one uses chick peas and one uses eggplant.

Now, I'll confess, I usually highly dislike eggplant. The texture of it just doesn't work for my tastebuds. BUT! in this recipe we're roasting the eggplant and blending it up into smooth creaminess so you don't get that funky texture going on. And y'all, I LOVE me some baba ganoush.

First we need a medium-sized eggplant. But if you have a smaller or larger one that's fine; just adjust the spices you add in later a bit to accommodate. I got mine at the farmer's market then waited a few days to cook it so it wasn't in the prettiest condition. But that's okay. I'm not superficial.

Just set your eggplant on top of a gas burner, turn it on and let the flames do their thing. We're going to char the heck out of the eggplant. Just keep it on the flame, rotating and turning it as needed, for about 5-10 minutes. Just long enough to char the entire outside.

If you don't have a gas stove top, you could certainly do this on a grill.

When it's charred enough, it will have brownish spots and resemble a giant raisin. Place it in a baking dish and bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes, until it's soft all the way through.

When it comes out of the oven, cut it in half and scoop out all of the flesh.

It's not going to look pretty at this point and you'll probably start to question my sanity for telling you to make this.

But then, in a food processor or blender, combine the warm eggplant flesh, sesame seeds, kosher salt, lemon juice, garlic, chili powder and olive oil. Blend until creamy.

And you'll get this lovely savory dip! Yum!

And baba ganoush just really wants to be served up with some pita chips or whole wheat naan.

While it's just fine warm, baba ganoush tastes the best when it's had time to sit in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

I made this for dinner last night with naan and more roasted vegetables from the farmer's market. It was totally a easy, yummy and healthy vegetarian dinner.

Baba Ganoush

Serves 4

1 medium-sized eggplant

1 tbsp. sesame seeds

1 tsp. kosher salt

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed

1/8 tsp. chili powder

2-3 tbsp. olive oil

Preheat your oven to 350.

Turn on your gas stove top burner to medium-high heat and place the eggplant directly on the flame (or use a grill if you don't have a gas burner). Char the eggplant, rotating and turning it as needed, until the entire eggplant is wrinkly and has brown spots. Place the eggplant in a baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until the eggplant is soft all the way through.

Cut the eggplant in half and scrape out all the flesh. Place the warm eggplant flesh and the remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend together until creamy.

Refrigerate the baba ganoush for a few hours or overnight to allow the flavors to deepen. Serve with flatbread or pita chips and enjoy!

Lovin'

2011-08-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to keep things simple and just share with you a few awesome things I've stumbled across and fallen in love with lately.

Okay, if you don't know who Pioneer Woman is by now, you're probably just stepped out of a deep dark cave that you've spent the last few years of your life in. I love pretty much everything she puts on her blog but there was one thing that someone dredged up from the archives lately that is seriously amazing.

White. Chicken. Enchiladas.. Y'all.

These are dang good. Every week at our local farmer's market you can find a bunch of vendors roasting hatch chiles. Last week I grabbed a bunch and then proceeded home to make the aforementioned goodness.

I did skip using the jalapeno, because I'm a wuss, but these still had a bit of heat to them from the chiles.

And, as much as my pride doesn't like to admit this, we all liked these better than my personal enchilada recipe. Granted, mine have a great deal less fat in them but whatever. These are so good I don't even care.

Another thing I've been loving lately is this blog: Meet the Dubians.

I totally confess to being terrible at coming up with creative snacks. This blog is filled with creative snack and meal ideas for kiddos as well as fun nifty crafts, most of which use everyday household items.

One of the crafts my daughter and I did recently from that blog was Bubble Painting. We both had a ton of fun doing it and giggling every time the paint bubbles popped and splattered on us. :)

Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips

2011-08-15T12:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago my in-laws came to visit and brought along some of the produce from their garden. One of the items was this bad boy:

A massive zucchini. Since zucchini that large really aren't as tasty as when they are smaller, I decided to just grate the whole thing up and freeze it so that way I could use it later.

And then I stole my mother-in-law's zucchini bread/cake recipe. Except I modified it a bit just to change it up. Because I have issues sticking to recipes.

It's a serious problem. I need some therapy.

We're going to start with creaming together shortening (I always use butter flavored...because it seems like a good idea) and sugar. Then blend in three eggs and vanilla.

Next you can dump in 2 1/2 cups of grated zucchini. Or if you want, you could do a combination of zucchini and grated carrot.

Add the dry ingredients. You know, the usual suspects: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Then you can remove the beaters and fold in chocolate chips.

Because everything is better with chocolate.

Pour it into a greased bundt pan or two greased loaf pans. Your call.

I have a silicone bundt pan and, even though it's stained, I love it. I never have to worry about my bundt cakes sticking.

Bake at 350 for one hour.

Then cut into it and enjoy! Although, I will say that this is infinitely better the next day - just like with banana bread - because it gives the flavors time to deepen within the cake.

I'm off to go have some for an afternoon snack! The bit of chocolate running throughout makes it the perfect little afternoon pick-me-up snack.

Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips
Yields 1 bundt cake or two loaves

2 1/2 C. flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3/4 C. crisco
3/4 C. sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 C. grated zucchini
1/2 C. milk
1 C. nuts (optional)
1 C. chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350. Coat either a bundt pan or two loaf pans with cooking spray.
Beat Crisco and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat. Add zucchini and beat.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl then begin to add them to the wet ingredients, alternating with splashes of milk. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.

Grilled.

2011-08-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Today's recipe is something I've been making for years. It's one of my go-to entrees for lunch or a quick dinner. And somehow, I don't remember when or how, but my husband started referring to them as goshdarnquesadillas.

For instance, our conversations about them often go something like this:

Me: "Will you be able to make it home from work for lunch? I'm making quesadillas."

Khale: "Goshdarnquesadillas?"

Me: "Heck yes!"

Khale: "Yessss. I'll be there."

The nice part about these is that they are pretty simple but since we're grilling up steak, bell pepper and onion to go inside, we're able to bump up the quality of the meal considerably.

However, I'll often make these a day or two after going to a steakhouse because I never can finish my steak (or half my sides) and usually bring it home in a box. Which makes for a really quick lunch.

If you aren't a steak person, or don't have any on hand, you could also use chicken.

Sprinkle chili powder and garlic powder over a steak. I use ribeye because it's my favorite. Then slather it with salsa and let it rest for a bit while you heat up the grill.

Also cut a bell pepper and onion in half. Drizzle one half of each with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place the other halves in the fridge because we don't need them.

Once your grill is heated, place the steak, bell pepper and onion on it.

Grill everything for about 3-5 minutes, flip and grill for another 3-5 minutes. I like my steak on the medium well side of things so I usually do five minutes per side.

Slice the bell pepper and onion. Then slice into the steak. Do the steak last so it has a few minutes to rest.

Grab a tortilla and place it on your grill, top it with cheese, steak, bell pepper and onion. Add another tortilla on top and cook until the bottom tortilla is toasted, flip and toast the other side.

While this isn't the prettiest entree, it certainly is tasty. And if you top it with a bit of salsa or guacamole, the prettiness factor bumps up a bit. :)

One of the nice things about this dish is that if you throw some veggies on the grill, you'll have zero pans to wash for dinner! I love that - especially in the Summer when I would much rather spend quality time with my husband and kiddo than surrounded by a pile of dirty pans.

Grilled Steak Quesadillas

Yields 3-4 Quesadillas

1 lb. steak (I used ribeye)

1/2 bell pepper, seeded

1/2 onion

chili powder

garlic powder

1/4 cup salsa

olive or vegetable oil

10-12 oz grated cheese

6-8 tortillas

Rub your steak with chili powder and garlic powder then slather it with salsa. Drizzle both the bell pepper and onion with a bit of oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat your grill. Once the grill is hot, place the steak, bell pepper and onion on it. Allow them to grill for 3-5 minutes, flip and grill for another 3-5 minutes. Remove everything from the grill and slice the bell pepper, onion and finally the steak.

Place a tortilla on top of the grill, add cheese, steak, bell pepper, and onion; top with another tortilla. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Flip the tortilla when the bottom is toasted and cook for a few more minutes until the other side is toasted as well.

Keeping it Real

2011-08-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have really amazing cooking streaks in the kitchen where everything comes out tasty, nothing gets burned and your whole family thinks you're a culinary genius?

Well, I've recently been experiencing the opposite.

I've burned toast, pita chips, and cheese sauce.

I made (all within the same week - can you say epic fail?) three of the strangest tasting dishes I've cooked up in a long time:

Super Uber Healthy Chocolate Zucchini Muffins. I tried to make these with zero fat (by using greek yogurt instead of butter), half the amount of honey I should have used and 100% whole wheat flour. They came out with this weird sponge-like texture that I just couldn't handle. And attempting to only slightly sweeten the dark cocoa powder was a bad idea.

Surprisingly, even though my husband and I hated them, our daughter ate 6 of them within a couple days. Kids are weird.

Then I got this idea to make a pesto or tapinade of sorts by using olives, tarragon, garlic and onion. Let's just say that the briny olive taste DOES NOT mesh well with the slightly licorice taste of tarragon. We all choked down a few bites and called it good before diving into the few remaining cinnamon rolls.

The worst part though was when I went to make my Lamb Kebabs with Garlic Sauce. You would think that a recipe I've made before and loved wouldn't turn out nasty. But it did. The ground lamb seemed a bit fatty when I was working with it but I decided to ignore that and carry on. Then I discovered that I was out of eggs so I used baking soda to hold it together...something I had seen a chef recommend for a similar recipe. The texture of the kebabs when they were cooked was, well, crumbly. They were so dang greesy but yet dry and somewhat bitter tasting (from the baking soda). It was the weirdest fail I've experienced in a long time.

Anyhow, I just thought I would share with you some of the bloopers I've had in the kitchen recently. :sigh:

To play it safe, and because my daughter requested it, we're having our favorite Griddle Cakes, scrambled eggs and fruit smoothies for dinner tonight. :)

Tomorrow I will share with you one of my favorite lunch recipes! I've been making it for years so here's hoping I don't screw anything up and have another fail on my hands. :)

Black Bean Hummus

2011-08-08T05:00:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I get all situated to blog and after staring at the computer screen for several minutes I realize that I'm mostly speechless. Uh, typeless? Textless?

Such is the case today. I was a little tempted to just write "JUST MAKE IT, YOU'LL LOVE IT!!!" and then leave you with nothing else other than the photo and recipe.

Would that work?

Maybe?

Anyhow, for me, I like to think that this recipe is the hispanic version of hummus. We're going to use black beans instead of garbanzo beans and salsa instead of tahini. The black beans turn into a really lovely and creamy dip in this dish and the salsa just brings the dish to life by kicking all the flavors up a notch.

Confession: I normally dislike avacados. But this Summer I gave them another try and absolutely love them! So to go on top of my black bean hummus, I mixed up some guacamole. If you've never made guacamole, you should - it's seriously easy and the freshness is delightful. Here's Alton Brown's recipe which is similar to what I make.

I served this with my homemade pita chips. I like to make a really big batch and then freeze the extras so I can have pita chips on hand whenever I need them later.

Black Bean Hummus

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 purple onion, chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. water

1/4 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 cup salsa

1/2 cup guacamole

In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients except for the guacamole. Blend until well-combined; adding equal parts olive oil and water if needed to reach the desired consistency.

Cover the black bean hummus and place it in the fridge for at least an hour. Top with guacamole before serving. Serve with pita chips or tortilla chips. Enjoy!

The Breakfast for Dinner Sandwich

2011-08-05T05:00:00.002-07:00

Since I've been on a break from good old college classes, I've been discovering that I have all sorts of time for things I never used to get to do. Like cleaning my baseboards. Or organizing my fridge. Or taking naps.

Ah, naps.

Often in the afternoon while my daughter has her "quiet playing time" in her room, I turn on Food Network (you know you're a mom when you need the sound of people nearby to fall asleep) and curl up on the couch and allow myself to take a 20 minute nap. The other day, I woke up to find Paula Deen's show on and the woman was making a myriad of breakfast foods; one of which was this lovely egg, bacon and avocado sandwich.

I immediately wanted one right then and there.

So I made some for dinner last night! I made a few small changes to suit my family's tastes a bit better. And y'all, these were so darn yummy. I put two eggs on my husband's sandwich but just one on mine because if there's one thing I learned from growing up with 7 brothers - it's that men don't like skinny sandwiches. Makes 'em cranky. So anyhow, that's why there's a range of how many eggs you'll need in the recipe below.

Egg, Bacon, Tomato and Guacamole Sandwich

Serves 4

8 slices of bread (I used regular whole wheat bread)

4-8 eggs

2 tbsp. butter

12 slices of bacon

1 tomato, sliced

1/2 cup guacamole

salt and pepper

Toast the bread. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add in the bacon. Cook the bacon until you're desired level of doneness, flipping halfway through. Remove from the skillet once they're crispy.

If you're using turkey bacon like me, add in butter (otherwise, just use the bacon grease). Once the butter melts, crack in the eggs. With a fork or knife or spatula or whatever you've got nearby, poke the yolks of the eggs so they break. Season the eggs with salt and pepper. Cook the eggs for about two minutes. flip and cook for another two minutes.

Lather guacamole onto one piece of your toast, pile on the eggs, bacon and tomato. Season with a bit of salt and pepper and place the second piece of toast on top. Repeat for the other three sandwiches.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Tip: Bug Bites

2011-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

Haven't you just been loving all the fun Summer weather? We've been spending quite a few hours every day outside soaking it all up before it ends.

But one of the downsides of all that time outside is the darn mosquitoes. They like to bite me and my family like crazy. My poor daughter doesn't ever seem to notice them crawling on her so her little legs get quite bitten up.

Instead of going out and stocking up on anti-itch cream, I hit up my kitchen and bathroom cabinets whenever we have a bug bite or two that needs some attention.

Toothpaste
Not kidding, this stuff works. All you have to do is shmear a bit of toothpaste directly on your bug bite and the itching immediately starts to lessen and continues to until the toothpaste is dry. The only downside to this remedy is that it can be a bit sticky but the perk is that even if you're traveling, you're bound to have some toothpaste on hand.

Baking Soda
For me, this is a messier option but still effective. Just grab some baking soda and mix it together with a smidge of water to create a really thick paste. Then just apply it to the bug bite. Once it hardens, you can wipe it off. For really bad bug bites I sometimes need to repeat the process by adding more paste to it.

Here's to itch-free playing in the yard!

Meditteranean Nachos

2011-08-01T05:00:00.005-07:00

The small Wyoming city that I live in is wonderful in a lot of ways. Except it's somewhat infamous with everyone around here for having a frustratingly (is that a word? please?) tiny amount of quality non-chain restaurants. And an even smaller amount of non-chain-non-steakhouse restaurants. Steak is it's own food group around here.

But! there is one cute trendy place that is pretty much everyone's go-to for date nights. Or heck, I've been there quite a few times with friends for girls-night-out. It's this fun little tapas bar right downtown that has a great atmosphere (including old classic black and white movies projectedd on the wall all night). I love going there. Oh, yeah, they also happen to have fantastic food.

Whenever my husband and I go there for date night, we always get a few of their tapas plates so we can sample a little bit of everything. But I like to make sure that the Mediterranean Nachos always make the cut. They're pita chips piled high with artichokes, tomato, feta and olives. Then it comes with a slightly spicy cheese sauce that you can drizzle on top to your heart's content. Yum!

Since I happen to love making my own pita chips, I thought it was high time that I copycat the "nachos."

Y'all, I love the way the crispness of the pita chips mixes with the creamy cheese sauce. And you get a nice balance of light tangy flavors from the artichoke, tomato and feta.

Oh, I skipped the olives because I only like them in certain things. But feel free to include them in yours. Because you're going to want to make this. Seriously.

Mediterranean Nachos

Serves 4

Pita chips (recipe here)

2 roma tomatoes

6 oz jar marinated and quartered artichokes, drained

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup chopped black olives

2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1 1/4 cups milk

1 tsp. creole seasoning (I use the Tony Chachere's brand)

8 oz monterey jack cheese, grated*

Chop the tomatoes and drained artichokes. Set aside.

In a saucepan melt butter over medium low heat. Be sure and keep the heat no higher than medium otherwise the sauce can become grainy. When the butter has melted, whisk in flour. Cook for two minutes to allow the flour to thicken the butter. Pour in milk and creole seasoning. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Once the milk is simmering, reduce the heat to low and stir in the monterey jack cheese. When the cheese is melted, remove the pan from the heat.

To serve, pile pita chips onto a plate, top with artichoke, tomato, feta and olives. Drizzle the cheese sauce over the top and dig in!

*For a much creamier sauce, grate the cheese yourself instead of buying it pre-grated. Please.

Oven-Baked Zucchini "Fries"

2011-07-27T20:59:00.002-07:00

My friends, we've reached that lovely time of year when zucchini are massively prolific. Those of you who garden are probably really feeling the zucchini love these days.

I thought about putting in a vegetable garden this year. But there's this slight problem that's messed up my gardens for the last couple years - hail. It seems that nearly every time we get a thunderstorm here, hail pours down. A couple weeks ago we got a really good one - you can see photos here. Everything is still struggling to come back so I've been really thankful that I didn't plant a garden or spend massive amounts of money on landscaping foliage.

But for those of you who live in more zucchini-friendly growing areas, I thought I would share this recipe with you for oven-baked zucchini "fries." Although, I confess that my daughter wasn't fooled by me calling them fries because after her first bite she indignantly said, "Guys! These aren't fries! They're healthy."

Good point.

But I do know that many people can coerce their kiddos into eating these like crazy by offering them along with some marinara sauce and letting their kiddos go nuts with it.

Cut your zucchini into homestyle fries shapes. I took each zucchini, cut it in half, and then cut each half into fourths lengthwise.

You'll also need to get out some bread crumbs (I used panko) - season them with salt, pepper, ground red pepper, garlic powder and onion powder.

In a separate shallow dish, whisk an egg with salt and pepper.

We're seasoning every step of the way with these guys because zucchini takes on other flavors really well and without them it can be a bit bland.

Dredge the zucchini into the egg first and then into the bread crumbs. Set the zucchini onto a baking sheet that's been topped with a cooling rack. This allows the heat to circulate all around them while they bake so you don't have soggy bottoms.

Drizzle the tops of the zucchini with a tiny bit of olive oil.

Bake at 400 until the zucchini are golden brown and crispy.

Like so. As soon as you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle them with a bit more salt. Serve right away and enjoy your healthy snack/side dish!

Oven-Baked Zucchini Fries

2-4 zucchini

1 egg

1 cup breadcrumbs (panko works great)

salt and pepper

ground red/cayenne pepper

onion powder

garlic powder

olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with cooling racks.

Rinse the zucchini. Chop off the stem of each and then cut the zucchini in half. Cut each half into fourths, lengthwise, to create "homestyle" fries.

In a shallow bowl, whisk together the egg along with salt and pepper. In another shallow dish, combine panko with a couple pinches each of the red/cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt.

Dredge each zucchini piece in the egg mixture first and then the breadcrumbs. Place them on top of the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all the zucchini is breaded. Drizzle a bit of olive oil over the tops.

Bake in the oven at 400 until they are golden brown and crispy, about 15-20 minutes.

100% Fruit Popsicles

2011-07-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

It's July. Which I'm sure is a fact that's not surprising to anyone. And it's hot. Also, not surprising.

The "lovely" heat has put me in the mood for popsicles quite a bit lately. Except whenever I go to buy them at the grocery store, I end up leaving them on the shelf because I can't help but wonder how much of the popsicle is good for you and how much is processed sugars and other junk.

So I decided to make my own!

Confession: I've been consuming a massive amount of watermelon lately (we're talking eating an entire seedless one by myself in a few days) so I thought it would be perfect to start off with watermelon popsicles.

And y'all, these couldn't be easier.

All you need to do is chop up some seedless watermelon (the white seeds will puree up so don't worry about removing them if you have some), place it in your blender, and blend away.

Pour the puree into your popsicle molds and freeze. That's seriously it! 100% fruit and a refreshingly icy cold treat for your hard-playing kiddos (and you!).

My baby was too sweaty to actually eat hers outside so she just stood in the doorway gazing out. :)

Zesty Grilled Potato Salad

2011-07-21T05:00:00.002-07:00

As soon as the temperatures hit 40 and above on a regular basis, I fire up our grill nearly daily. I love grilling. It's fairly fast and there's little mess to clean up. And as much as I love cooking, I loathe washing dishes.

Last night I decided to grill up some potatoes and make a potato salad, of sorts, to go along with our steaks.

I sliced some red potatoes and onions in half. And peeled a few cloves of garlic. Then I drizzled it all in olive oil and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. Then I wrapped the garlic cloves in foil.

And threw the potatoes on the grill. After 10 minutes, I flipped them and put the onions and garlic on the grill. Then cooked them for another 10 minutes, flipping the onion halfway through that time.

I smooshed the roasted garlic cloves with a fork and then added them to the dressing I made of mustard, mayo, olive oil, paprika and dried cilantro.

Then I roughly chopped the potatoes, onions and some fresh endive I had. I tossed it all together with the dressing and called it good.

While this was totally different than normal potato salad, I thought it was quite tasty and my husband, who normally won't touch potato salad with a ten foot pole, ate all of his. Yay!

Zesty Grilled Potato Salad

Yields 4 Side Servings

1 lb. small red potatoes

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 endive, chopped

olive oil

1 tsp. spicy brown mustard

2 tbsp. mayo

1 pinch paprika

1 pinch dried cilantro

salt and pepper

Preheat your grill.

Rinse the red potatoes and slice them in half. Drizzle potatoes, onions and garlic with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap the garlic cloves in foil.

Place the potatoes on the grill. Cook for ten minutes and flip. Add the onion and garlic packet. Cook everything for another ten minutes; flipping the onion halfway through. Remove all items from the grill.

Unwrap the garlic packet and smash the cloves with a fork. In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, mayo, 1 tbsp. olive oil, paprika, cilantro and a bit of salt. Add in the smashed garlic.

Roughly chop the potatoes, onions, and endive. Toss them together in a large bowl with the dressing you just made. Eat promptly and enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies...with Pecans!

2011-07-19T07:23:00.001-07:00

Lately I've had a serious hankering for cookies. But not just any cookies, oatmeal raisin pecan cookies. And I don't know about y'all but I like my oatmeal cookies to be thick, moist and chewy.

While I've tried a few other cookie recipes here and there, my all-time favorite is an adaptation of the classic oatmeal cookie recipe from the Quaker Oats can. Doesn't it always seem that the best recipes are the ones on the food item's packaging? Those recipe writers/testers know what they're doing.

I like putting pecans in my oatmeal raisin cookies because I prefer the flavor of them to walnuts. But if you're more of a walnut fan, go with those. Sometimes you just gotta go with your heart when you're baking.

If 4 dozen sounds like too many cookies to you, you can cut the recipe in half or roll the dough into balls and freeze them for later.

Oatmeal Raisin and Pecan Cookies

Adapted greatly from Quaker Oats

Yields 4 dozen

14 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour and 1/2 cup white flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

1 1/2 cup raisins

1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars with a mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; mix well. Remove beaters and fold in oats, raisins and pecans.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown on the edges. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets before removing to a wire rack.

Kitchen Tip: Freeze!

2011-07-15T05:00:00.001-07:00

Last night was the weekly Kid's Night here at our house. We started doing these a while back after our pastor encouraged families to do so. I love it because it reminds us to spend an entire evening focused on our daughter and nurturing our relationship with her. It just seems way too easy to spend evenings caught up in to-do lists or zoning out in front of the tv than having quality family time.
So one night during the week, Lillian gets to pick what's for dinner and the entire list of activities that we do from when her Dad gets home from work to bedtime at 8:30.

Last night she picked colorful pancakes and sausage for dinner, a water balloon fight, and a movie.

Since we had quite a few griddle cakes leftover, I thought this was a good time to share with y'all my tip for storing leftover pancakes.

Just lay the pancakes flat in a single layer inside a plastic freezer bag or container. Then top that layer with wax paper and add another layer. Repeat until all the pancakes are packaged up. The wax paper keeps them from freezing together. Later on, you can just pull out exactly the number of pancakes you need and thaw them in the microwave - easy!

Click here for an awesome griddle cake recipe I found in an old country cookbook. It's yummy. :)

Cherries

2011-07-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Cherries are abundantly in season right now. And they keep calling my name at the grocery store.

I, of course, oblige.

One of my favorite desserts to make in the Summer is pie. I love pie. It's fairly uncomplicated and you can make a million different kinds of pies. Plus, if you make it with fruit, it's practically health food.

Uh, right? Fruit cancels out the fat from the crust?

Anyhow, since cherries are flourishing, I recently decided to make a cherry pie. Y'all, fresh cherry pie is lovely. It'll make you become a snob whenever you see canned cherry pie filling. And sometimes it's okay to be a snob.

In a large pan, combine pitted cherries, water, and sugar together. Bring to a boil and cook until the liquid has thickened into a syrup-like consistency.

Stir in cornstarch that's been turned into a thick liquid with a smidge of water. This will help keep the cornstarch from clumping.

Pour the cherries into a pie crust. Preferably one that's resting in a pie pan.

If you want, you can roll out another crust for the top.

But this particular day I was feeling like making my cherry pie with a crumble topping so I mixed together brown sugar, oats, flour and butter.

Then I sprinkled it on top of my pie filling.

Bake your pie at 350 until the crust is golden brown - about 40 to 50 minutes.

I made this particular pie for the Fourth of July picnic at our friend's house so I added the little stars on top. :)

Fresh Cherry Pie

Yields 1 Pie

2.5-3 lbs. of cherries

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

3 tbsp. cornstarch

1 tsp. water

Crumble Topping:

1/3 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup oats

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 prepared pie crust

Preheat oven to 350.

Pit the cherries. Add the pitted cherries, sugar, and 1/2 cup water to a large pot. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and 1 tsp. water. Pour the cornstarch liquid into the cooking cherries. Stir rapidly to combine. Cook over medium heat for another 3-5 minutes or until the cornstarch thickens the cherries.

Place one of the pie crusts into a pie pan. Pour in the cherries.

In a bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, and oats together. Sprinkle over the top of the cherry filling. Bake the pie in the oven at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until the pie crust is golden brown.

Gyros with Greek Yogurt Sauce

2011-07-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I was flipping through this month's Food Network magazine on our iPad in an effort to come up with something tasty to cook this week; my usual go-to dinners were seeming a little too blah and unexciting.

When I got to the page with a gyro recipe on it, I stopped, stared and began salivating a bit. (Is it unlady-like to tell people you were salivating over food?)

Then I showed it to my husband and he declared that I should make the gyros right then and there. The only problem was that #1 - we already had dinner. #2 - It was nearly 11:00 at night. #3 - I didn't have half the ingredients.

So we made them yesterday. Except, since we both enjoy lamb a great deal, we made them from lamb instead of the recommended skirt steak. However, if you're adverse to lamb for whatever reason, I'm sure skirt steak will work just fine in its place.

The fun thing about gyros is you can really put whatever sounds good to you in them. So just look at this "recipe" as more of a guideline.

Gyros with Greek Yogurt Sauce

Serves 2 (but easy to double or triple!)

1 lb. of lamb chops or skirt steak

Paprika

Garlic powder

Salt and pepper

Dried Basil

2 pitas

Sauce:

1/3 c. plain greek yogurt, room temperature

1/2 lime, juiced

1 clove of garlic, minced

salt and pepper

dash of paprika

Toppings:

Diced tomatoes

Diced cucumbers

Grilled Onions

Grilled Bell pepper

Lettuce

Cilantro

To make these gyros, sprinkle paprika, garlic powder, dried basil, salt and pepper on each side of the lamb/beef. Grill it until medium. If you're wanting to use the bell pepper and onions, just drizzle them with oil, then sprinkle on salt and pepper before throwing them on the grill.

Heat up your pitas by wrapping them in foil and placing them on the grill for a few minutes.

While the food is on the grill, mix up the sauce by combining greek yogurt, lime juice, minced garlic, paprika, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Allow to rest on the counter until you need it.

Once the meat is cooked, allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes. Then slice into it and cut it into bite-size pieces. Place the meat into your warm pita and top it with some of the yogurt sauce. Add in any toppings your heart desires and chow down!

Souvlaki!

2011-07-08T09:07:00.000-07:00

I love Greek food. Just love it.

I think that's partially because the first thing I ate after giving birth to my daughter was a yummy greek salad from this little corner restaurant near the hospital. And those of you who have had babies know that the first meal you eat after giving birth is quite possibly the most magical thing you'll ever eat in your life. I still dream about that salad... :sigh:

One of the Greek foods that my whole family loves is Souvlaki. Souvlaki is essentially a chicken kabob that's been marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and other seasonings. It's such a light marinade and the kabobs cook up so quickly that this recipe is easily a Summertime favorite in our house.

In a bowl, combine olive oil, minced garlic, lemon juice, lemon zest, pepper, marjoram and basil.

Add in chicken that's been cut into 1" pieces. Allow chicken to marinade for about 10 minutes while you fire up the grill and chop a bell pepper and onion into 1" pieces.

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of the bell pepper and onion pieces.

Skewer the chicken along with chopped bell pepper and onion. You can see how the acid from the lemon juice in the marinade has started to work on the chicken and "cook" it a bit. This is why we don't want to let it rest in the marinade for longer than ten minutes; otherwise we would have some really dry chicken on our hands.

Grill for about 5-8 minutes, flip and grill for another 5-8 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

I love when onions and bell peppers get that nice char action going on. Thankfully, our daughter only wants to eat the chicken so I get to steal all the charred veggies off her kabobs. :)

Souvlaki

Serves 4

2 lbs. of chicken breasts

1/3 cup olive oil

1 large lemon, zested and juiced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. dried marjoram

black pepper, to taste

2 bell peppers

2 onions

Cut the chicken, bell peppers and onions into 1" pieces. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; whisking well. Then add the chicken to the marinade, toss well and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Preheat your grill. Skewer the chicken, bell peppers and onions onto kabob sticks. Grill on each side for 5-8 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Cheese. Cake.

2011-07-06T05:00:00.001-07:00

Did y'all have a lovely Fourth of July? We just had a quiet day at home followed by a casual party at our friend's house and finished it off with watching the city's firework display.

Which pretty much sums up the perfect Independence Day for me.

Actually, my husband proposed on the 3rd of July so every year as I watch fireworks go off I love thinking back to the excitement and fun and sheer madness of planning the start of our lives together...

Which has nothing to do with the recipe I'm about to share with you.

One of my good friends happens to be a devote lover of cheesecake. I happen to be a devote lover of baking. And if I happen to know what someone's favorite baked good is, chances are, I'll spring at any opprotunity to bake it for them. This friend happened to have surgery last week and I figured that bringing her a cheesecake would be way more fun than bringing over a casserole. Especially since neither one of us likes casseroles.

So I made a lemon scented cheesecake with a blueberry swirl:

In a saucepan, combine fresh or frozen blueberries, sugar and water.

Bring it to a low boil on your stove.

When the liquid has thickened and the berries have mostly all burst, whisk in cornstarch and cook for another five minutes over medium heat to allow it to thicken nicely. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Btw, if you ever have to add cornstarch to something hot, it's best to put it in a cup and whisk it with a smidge of water to turn it into a thick liquid before pouring it in; it'll be clump-free every time!

Meanwhile, press the crust mixture (graham cracker crumbs, sugar and flour) into a 9" springform pan and partially up the sides. I usually use a measuring cup to help me press the crust into the right spots.

In a blender, combine an obscene amount of cream cheese, sugar and flour together until creamy.

Then add the eggs, beating each in separately.

Lastly add in vanilla, sour cream, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Blend until just combined.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the prepared pan. Pour the blueberry syrup over the top in a random manner.

Drag a knife through the syrup to create swirls.

Like so.

Bake at 325 for 75 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature, and then chill it for several hours, or overnight.

And dig in. (I didn't wait the recommended amount of time before cutting into it. Shame on me).

This is delightful and will fulfill your every cheesecake desire.

Or something.

Lemon Scented Cheesecake with a Blueberry Swirl

Adapted from Bakerella

Heaping 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 water

2 tbsp. cornstarch (diluted with a touch of water)

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tbsp. flour

32 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

5 eggs, room temperature

1 cup sour cream, room temperature

1 tbsp. vanilla or almond extract

zest and juice of two lemons

In a saucepan, combine blueberries, sugar and water. Bring to a low boil and maintain, stirring often, until the liquid thickens and the blueberries burst. Dilute the cornstarch in a cup with a touch of water, whisk together. Whisk it into the blueberry mixture. Cook for another five minutes over medium heat and then cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Combine graham cracker crumbs, flour, sugar and melted butter. Still until well-combined. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9" springform pan. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Remove and cool to room temperature.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, and flour together. Beat on high until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, being sure to completely combine each egg before adding another. Add in the sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla, blend until just combined.

Pour the cheesecake filling into the prepared pan. Pour the blueberry syrup over the top. Drag a knife through the top of the cake to create swirls.
Bake at 325 for about 75 minutes. Remove when the cheesecake still wobbles in the middle when lightly shaken but the edges are golden brown. Allow the cheesecake to cool to room temperature before removing the pan. Chill in the fridge for several hours or, preferrably, overnight.

Quick Lunch Idea

2011-06-29T21:02:00.001-07:00

I'll be the first to admit that I'm generally terrible when it comes to thinking up what to make for lunch; I usually find myself resorting back to sandwiches. But sometimes, when I'm feeling daring enough to try sneaking a meatless meal past the husband, I like to make these quick and easy burritos. They're lovely because the black beans give you great protein and substance and because you don't have to worry about measuring anything. Just put it what looks good to you and you'll have lunch in minutes. Easy!

In a pan I saute together onion, bell pepper and canned (rinsed) black beans; seasoning it all with salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, and cumin.

Once the onions and bell pepper have softened a bit, I add in leftover cooked rice from the night before, chopped fresh cilantro, and my fresh salsa. As soon as it's hot, I pile it into my tortilla.

Along with some sour cream, lettuce and cheese, of course.

I like to toast my tortilla up a bit on our cooktop. If you have a gas grill, just turn a burner on to low and place a tortilla directly on top of the burner. Flip after a few seconds so it doesn't burn. Toasted tortillas are a beautiful thing.

What's an easy and quick (but non-sandwich!) lunch you like to make?

Giveaway Winner!

2011-06-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

And the winner of the P.F. Chang's giveaway for FREE home entrees is...as chosen by random.org...

Entry #14!

Also known as, Diana! Congratulations!

Diana, please send me an email (frontierkitchen@gmail.com) with your full name and mailing address so we can be sure to get those coupons to you.

Disclaimer: If I haven't heard back from the winner within a week, a new winner will be randomly selected.