Pie oh my

Now it might be a coincidence that I just titled this post the name name as Tony Soprano's horse. Since I've been slightly obsessed with this amazing series it's no wonder it slipped into my subconscious. But 'pie oh my' just seemed to fit this very delish picture and truly it tasted ten times better than it looked. So it's 'Black Friday' night. I've shopped, prepped cooked, washed, cleaned, swept,set, ate  and ate some more. Then I sat down to a plate of my own delicious creation. I have given up counting calories a long time ago. I've really just adopted the idea of everything in moderation. So I sunk my fork into the pumpkin pie. The creamy texture filled my mouth immediately followed by the warmth of spice. Cinnamon. Ginger. Cloves. And the slight crunch of the flakey crust. I took a breath and savored that moment. If this was the reward for all the hours of prep, then I was all for it. Truth be told, I love the prep. The lists. The anticipation. I'm not really sure why I do. But after we ate, my twelve year old stood up and came over to me. Hugged me and said 'thanks mom that was delicious' wow. Talk about a blue ribbon mom moment. I must be doing something right. So often I doubt that. But today that was put to rest or at least quieted a bit. So I do believe two pieces if homemade pie with (ok fine it was canned whipped cream but that's only because there were dishes barricading my mixer and I couldn't actually get to it) whipped cream. I think a son kissing his mom and saying thank you is about the best reason to sit and celebrate. So I did. Happy Thanksgiving. 

Back from a long (too long) of a break...

The last time I posted was a year and a half ago. I hadn't even looked at my blog in months. Then for whatever reasons I read it and realized not only did I really enjoy it and miss it but it really did serve as a memory bank for times spent with my kids. Little things that were said and done that often are forgotten in the shuffle of life. I don't want that. I want to remember much more of my children's life than I am. This blog will help me do that along with many other things. My past posts have been about everything from cooking to organizing to books. That's how I plan to continue because that's who I am. Lots of different interests and passions and most often they change daily. One thing I hope to do more of is paper crafts and things like that. I have a few ideas for cooking and baking and am excited to get started again. Here are two beautiful pics I took last night while out walking with my friend...

Mom... whats for dinner?

My son: mom whats for dinner Me: Stew... My son: what kind of stew.... Me: stew stew.
HA! Im so funny. I was saying this as I was loading in my 239th load of laundry that day. I wasnt in the mood for such complicated questions!
So I started off with two beef boulion cubes and some butter. Probably half a stick...

 While that is melting together I grabbed flour and emerils seasoning and seasoned up the flour for the stew meat

 Then I gathered the rest of the ingredients. Mushrooms. Baby carrots. And an onion.

 Seasoned the flour...ALOT

 Coated the meat

 After the onions were soft and everything had melted together I added the meat and carrots

 The meat browned up really nicely. YUM

 Added the mushrooms ...

 Added the potatoes and more seasoning...

 After the meat was browned I put the pot in the oven at 350 for about an hour or so. It tasted really really good but the meat was still a little tough so I would have liked to have kept it in a little longer. There was alot of spice to this dish. Really warmed me up. yum

Sausage and Egg mess....but sooo good

I made up this recipe one nite when i wanted to make breakfast for dinner but didnt want to use 38 pots and pans or fuss with an omelet. So I started off by browning up some trusty old Jones breakfast sausage. YUM. Its in the frozen section. Its not the links its a roll of it for lack of a  better description.

 Here is the sausage you can see it sorta in its original 'log' form. I just browned it up

Then once it was all cooked I added a chunk and I do mean chunk of frozen hash brown potatoes. I just took it out of the freezer and threw some in. Maybe about a cup or two.

I let this cook for a while on high heat because I really wanted a crispy tater

Then I added some eggs. It was probably 4 or 6. I cant really remember. Whatever you think your family will eat. I scrambled them with a little milk salt and pepper and put them in the pot and turned the heat down to keep them from over cooking .

I let the eggs cook a while on low because I was going to add cheese and I wanted to be sure the eggs were fully cooked before I added the cheese so I didnt mistake uncooked eggs for melted cheese.... ick

 After I dished it out I added a little more cheese to the top. It was just shredded cheese in a package. I think the mexican blend. It doesnt have any mexican seasoning or anything I just like the way it melts... and tastes!

 Thats it! I have no idea why the picture quality is so poor. I apologize! You could very easily add all sorts of ingredients that you would to any type of omelet. Mushrooms onions peppers ham... I just had these 4 ingredients and it really came out delicious and was very easy and quick to clean up!

Some Quick and Easy Dinners

Since I blogged about a long time consuming I thought I would follow it up with a few easier ones that are great for busy weekenights. The first was artichoke pasta. There are some easy  variations to this. You can add mushrooms, spinach or chicken. I usually dont add chicken because its an easy meat free meal that you can make with items in usually in your pantry. Ok here we go!

Atrichoke Pasta
Gather your ingredients. There is only a few! A can of artichokes a lemon some parm cheese and o I forgot, a pot of boiling water for whatever pasta you want to use. I used penne.

Star with about a half a stick of butter in a pan and chop up 2-3 cloves of garlic.

Chop up your artichokes into quarters. I wouldn't go any smaller because they may just fall apart and we wouldn't want that!

 Throw those in with the garlic.

 ....add a handful of pecorino romano cheese (aka parm cheese)

 Squeeze in juice of one lemon and about a cup of water. Let this simmer while the pasta cooks...Then drain the pasta and stir in with the artichoke mix. I added some shredded mozz cheese at the end and tossed it all together. You can absolutely leave this out. I usually do!

Another pic of this creamy tasty easy pasta dish...enjoy every bite!

Super Saturday Nite Dinner

This was something I made several weeks ago. Its defiantly not a quick and easy weeknight meal. There are some ways that you could make this a little bit easier. First you could use no boil lasagna noodles. I really dont care for the taste of those so I use the regular kind. Another way would be to mix it all together like a ziti instead of layering it. I also had cannolis. So so good.... here it is!

Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Shells with Cream Sauce

Start off by cooking on low a container of crimini or baby bella mushrooms. They have alot more flavor than button mushrooms and since this is one of the main ingredients I wanted to have as much of that flavor as possible. Cook this in about 2-3 Tbps of butter. You can leave it on low while fixing the other ingredients.

After you start your mushrooms start the water for your shells or if making this into ziti the ziti noodles you will use. This is the longest step so start it after the mushrooms so you arent waiting for the pasta to cook.

 Meanwhile start a 'bechemel  sauce' thats a fancy frenchy way of saying...white sauce. This is a basic sauce you can use to start sauce for home made mac and cheese or the scalloped potatoes I made a while ago. Start with one stick of butter and a half a cup of flour. As that starts to thicken add about a cup of milk. Keep it on low and dont wander off and txt your friend about something or check your facebook status. Or i dont know, make sure your kids arent killing each other. Because this will boil over in a heartbeat. And its a mess. So stay put. This will thicken and you can add milk as needed to desired consitancy. This is to go over the top of the stuffed shells.

 Next come the filling. I had defrosted one package of frozen spinach and squeezed it dry. Then i added it to half a container of sorrento ricotta cheese. Along with 2 eggs and a handful or parm cheese. And some garlic powder. Mix this up

 Add in the mushrooms. By now it smells amazing. And I love the colors in the filling. Yum

 After the shells are cooked (I usually undercook them slightly so they arent totally over cooked coming after they come out of the oven) Put a heaping tablespoon of filling in each shell. This is messy. And the shells will tear but it wont matter because it will taste so delicious. Put some sauce on the bottom of a large glass dish, fill the shells until the dish is filled.

 Now its time for some more yummyness. Yup thats right yummyness. My new favorite word. Anyway. Cover the top of the shells with the remaining white sauce. And some more parm cheese. and some shredded mozz cheese. If you wanted to make this as a baked ziti you could mix the filling in with the ziti noodles and then cover it with the sauce and cheese. Of corse I forgot an 'after pic' but it really didnt look much different. Just hot and slightly brown and bubbling. This dish is rich and delish and obviously not light on calories. If you wanted to cut that  a bit you could use a red marinara sauce instead of the white sauce.

Time for Dessert!

 

While I was doing all the other steps I also made cannolis. I used the remaining ricotta cheese and confectioners sugar and choc chips. Also about a teaspoon of vanilla. The amount of powdered sugar totally depends on how sweet you want it. There's no magic formula. Just add til it tastes just right!

Stuff the canollis! I also add some mini choc chips on the end. I didnt get a pic of that...

Dust with some powdered sugar and enjoy after the outstanding amazing stuffed shells. ENJOY!

A wintertime project to fight the blues...

I thought I would share a project that I started working on. I am a lover of those little mini cookbooks that are usually at the checkout counter at the grocery store. I have amassed quite a collection. I dont know what to do with them and yet.... I keep buying them! So I told myself if I am going to continue to feed my addiction then I need to pare down and organize it better sooo I came up with this system... First I gathered up my mini cookbooks...

 Then I used my old page protectors I had tried to use for my coupons but it didnt work. They are page protectors for photographs and work perfectly for the recipe cards in the books.

 THen I went thru all of the books and tore out the recipe cards I wanted to keep...

 Organized them by catagory.... breakfast, sides and salads mains with beef, mains with chicken etc

 A week or two ago I bought a binder at Target that was on sale and perfect for this project.

I started to put the cards into the sleeves....

 At first I was only going to put one in the sleeve so you could see the front and back but quickly realized this would have taken up way too many pages so I decided to go back to back. So you can see the picture of  a recipe on one side and then another picture of another recipe on the other side....does that make ANY sense???

Tada! My work in progress. Now I have en entire binder with everything organized and easy to find instead of looking thru (way) too many books. This would be a great way to keep other recipe cards like ones you use for christmas cookies or if you have a bunch from a bridal shower. Instead of putting them in a recipe box. I love that I can see them!

As usual Im all over the place...

But this time I have a legit excuse! HA HA. well three days after Halloween my husband fell and its been crazy since...but I like to think of this blog as an escape from that. Christmas has sadly come and gone and like many people I get so down after the holidays. I love Christmas and hate to see it go. However after decorating and putting things up and away and moving bins up and down the stairs since August... Im definatly ready for a clean slate so to speak. A huge project I decided to start was cleaning my basement. Its a DISASTER. I think this is a great way to help me through this tough time in my house. Right now Im doing everything for everyone and its difficult to say the least. Taking on the basement one small space at time gives me some control during a time that most everything is out of my control. And the best part is that I can start crafting stamping and sewing like I have wanted to do for so long. Anyway Im looking foward (yet again) to getting back into the swing of things in terms of blogging and "undecking the halls"... Does anyone else have a hard time staying focused on projects or housework or any type of undertaking? Im excited to keep learing about blogging and all the 'bells and whistles' that go with it. Mine may not be very fancy... but I do love doing it!!

Thai food.... with Randee

Several years ago we visited relatives in Vermont and they ordered thai food one nite. I am not too adventurous with food but I really did like this  dish it was an interesting and unusual tastes. IT was chicken with pineapple snow peas carrots and cashews. With coconut milk and red curry. IT was absolutely delicious. The curry added heat to it and the coconut milk balanced that out perfectly. It literally warmed you up on a cold nite. Yum. So I went home and tried to recreate it and I must admit it was pretty accurate and also delish. I made this last nite and here it is.....

These are the the ingredients that can be found at any food store in the asian food aisle. You will need boneless chicken breasts about one per person. You will also need a can of pineapple chunks, a can of coconut milk, carrots, snow peas, cashews and red curry paste...

Cook chicken in oil in a large pot until cooked all the way thru...

 Add coconut milk snow peas and carrots... let cook for about 5-10 minutes...

 Add pineapple chunks about 3/4 of the can...

 Add one tablespoon of the red curry paste.. this didnt make it very hot in terms of spice. I would start with that and taste and add if desired...

 Serve over rice and enjoy w your friend!!!

She loved it! Thanks Randee for coming over and having a taste!!!!