Back to school

The first day of the new school year is refreshing. The first couple of years in school fly by, and I remember thinking it would always be that way, but after a couple of years you've got the whole school thing down and you can sit back, relax, and enjoy watching your kids grow. Aren't mine beautiful?

New school year calls for a new recipe....


Vanilla Cone Oatmeal

2 cups old fashioned oats

4 cups water

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons vanilla syrup

1/2 cup milk

sugar to taste

rainbow sprinkles

1. Bring water and oats to a boil. When cooked add cinnamon, syrup, and milk.
2. Add sugar and serve adding the sprinkles to the top.

I tasted it and thought it was pretty sweet with the syrup but the kiddos said it needed more sugar, so it depends on your personal taste I guess. They still thought it was fun. What child wouldn't like rainbow sprinkles at breakfast?

Hawaii & the I's

What is "Hawaiian Steak"? Spam, of course. Braden and I made a Hawaiian pizza and Braden was responsible for making the pizza sauce. I gave him a can of tomato paste and told him to use his imagination and he made the most amazing sweet & spicy pizza sauce. I wrote the recipe down and Braden put it in a secret place, don't you just love kids excitement. What made the sauce so great really was the pineapple juice which went well with the spam and pineapple toppings. Putting spam on a pizza with pineapple and a great pizza sauce doesn't make spam taste like anything other than spam. Spam is something you either like or don't. I happen to like spam, don't judge.

Hawaiian Pizza

I didn't even have to look up Idaho to know what they are famous for...

Idaho Baked Potato Soup

Illinois was a little harder, so, I made a healthy version of the Chicago dog with turkey franks and whole wheat buns. And, yes mike still picked the spinach out of his mac & cheese.

Turkey Hot dogs & green mac & cheese

Apparently pork sandwiches are a big deal in Indiana there was even a documentary made about it.

Breaded Pork Sandwich

The largest cereal company in the world is Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Everyone said these were the best oatmeal cookies they've ever had. I realized later that I used the ingredients but I didn't follow any of the directions so if you decide to try the recipe know that I didn't refrigerate the dough or flatten cookies with a fork dipped in sugar and they came out great!

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

Delaware, Georgia, & Florida

I made some Delaware crab puffs and they weren't really puffy but insanely delicious. And I made a peach cobbler for dessert and before you say isn't Georgia the peach state...Delaware is the peach blossom state. I admit I just couldn't wait until Georgia for peach cobbler.

Delaware Crab Puffs

Peach Cobbler

For Georgia I made shrimp and grits. This was the first time I had ever tried grits and they were so good with the bacon and melted cheese.

Shrimp & Grits

Florida was this garbanzo bean soup and key lime pie.

Garbanzo Bean Soup

Key Lime Pie

Hungry yet?

The C's...

I learned Fallbrook is known as the Avocado Capital of the World and hosts an annual Avocado Festival. Sounds like my kind of festival I loooove avocado. And Fresno proclaims itself the Raisin Capital of the World. So I made an avocado pasta salad and cinnamon rolls for dessert.


Colorado fun facts: Dove Creek, Colorado has been known as "the Pinto Bean Capitol of the World." Rocky Ford has been dubbed the "melon capital of the world." I made a pinto bean burger and a cucumber and tomato salad. I just learned that cucumber is a melon.


Did you know? Some food historians claim hamburgers were "invented" in a tiny restaurant called Louis Lunch in New Haven, CT. This is a terrible picture, sorry.

The A's

Finding dishes specific to one state was a little difficult. Some states are easy, like New York Cheesecake, but most needed a lot of research.

Sweet potato soup w/salad and pecan pie for dessert.

Blackened salmon club on sourdough & blueberry swirl pie for dessert. I think this is the best sandwich I've ever eaten.

Black bean salsa with homemade corn chips and tostadas w/ rice. We had a party and guests included: Hot Mama, Big Daddy, Senorita Emily, and Senor Braden.

Fried chicken of course for Arkansas w/ mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, & green beans. This is a not a very good picture.

Life is good

This morning I was chatting with my BFF and talking about our mornings and as she described her morning I felt a small wave of sadness. I missed the crazy toddler running, screaming, laughing through the house while morning cartoons blared in the background. And even though my baby is only 10 he seems so grown up choosing sleep in favor of watching Dora. And I guess I always feel a little sad when summer's almost over and I'm forced to start thinking of tackling the back to school lists. Not today. Today I had that picnic in the park I've been meaning to have since school let out and with all the rain the grass was green and the weather was perfect. So my baby may be growing up but it's not so bad...

Freakin' fabulous, in fact.

Pizza Week

Margarita on wheat & flax crust

Meatball

Cinnamon & sugar with chocolate sauce

Hummus

Pizza week was fun! I really enjoy making pizza dough, I find all that kneading therapeutic. My favorite was the hummus, and I think that was everyone else's least favorite. I didn't eat the last few and learned that I can not eat pizza every day of the week. The family voted and we will be "traveling" the US in alphabetical order and I'll share our food journey with you so stay tuned....

Cheesecake pizza?!?

I've got a lot to share. This is the first of the pizzas. Strawberry cheese cake pizza and chocolate cheese cake pizza. I just used the cheese cake recipe on the Philadelphia cream cheese package. I split the recipe in half and then divided between the two crusts, and topped the strawberry one with fresh sliced strawberries that one was my favorite.

Second pizza was bacon cheese burger. I made my own sauce with tomato paste and mustard to make it taste like a cheeseburger.

With fries, haha.

I had some leftovers in the fridge: taco seasoned meat, black beans, grilled corn on the cob. First I made a basic wheat bread dough and divided it into 24 pieces. Twelve of them we flattened and pushed down into muffin cups filled with taco meat and topped with cheese and baked. Fast and easy for B since there's not much time for eating between playing.

The rest were flattened out filled with corn, black beans, and a mixture of sauteed carrots, onions, celery, and bell pepper. Folded them up like empanadas and baked.

I really love how these napkins turned out and the kids think they are great.

Weekend Baking

I baked some Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Bread on Friday. I divided the dough in half and and rolled the bacon, diced jalapeno, and cheese up and then twisted the two together. I took pictures of the inside but they turned out blurry.

Bacon Jalapeno Cheese Bread

Ingredients:

3 1/2 Cups Bread flour

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup diced jalapenos and a few slices

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

4 strips cooked bacon

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix flour and salt and make a well. Add yeast and sugar to well.
2. Pour warm (110-115 degrees F) water into well on top of yeast and sugar (pour slowly)and wait 5 mins.
3. Pour oil into well and stir until all ingredients are mixed. If you have a mixer with dough hook, mix for 5 mins or until dough is smooth. If you don't have a mixer your going to have to knead for 10mins. You may need to add more flour as you are kneading if the dough is too sticky. When your dough is smooth coat the outside with a little olive oil or spray and place in bowl, and cover.
4. Leave dough in warm place for 30-45mins or until dough has doubled in size.
5. Divide dough into two equal pieces and stretch out to the length of baking sheet and about 4 inches wide.
6. Fill each piece with jalapenos bacon and cheese.
7. Roll up up each piece and twist the two pieces together.
8. Sprinkle with cheese and a few slices of jalapeno. Let rest on baking sheet in oven for 20mins.
9. Turn oven on 400 and bake bread for 20mins.

I'm not sure how good I am at writing recipes. The measurements are probably pretty close I didn't take note while I was making it how much cheese, jalapenos went in. Is it easy to read?

These are the banana buckwheat pancakes I made for breakfast this morning. I just made the batter and added the banana slices while they were cooking. But, next time I'll put cinnamon in the batter and if I'm feeling really fancy some candied nuts on top, oh yum.

I'm going to have a week of pizza starting Sunday and would like to continue the "week of's " for as long as I can or as it's fun. The ideas I've come up with are week of breakfast for dinner, week of desserts or pies, please give me some suggestions and I'll find new fun, or healthy/vegetarian ways to prepare them.

She's cute, bad, sometimes really bad, but cute.

White Bean Enchiladas

How good does that look? I used this recipe but when I pureed the beans they seemed a little thin so I added about a cup of leftover brown rice I had in the fridge from the previous night's dinner. I also made a layered casserole, rolling enchiladas is messy and time consuming. Along with a side of spinach I made chili cauliflower smashed potatoes (that sounds like a good recipe name to me).

Chili Cauliflower Smashed Potatoes

2 cups peeled diced potatoes

2 cups cauliflower

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon butter

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

dash of cayenne

salt and pepper to taste

1. Add potatoes and cauliflower to pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Continue to boil 15mins or until tender.
2. Drain water and add milk and butter. Mash until smooth.
3. Add rest of ingredients and stir. Serve immediately.

Did you know that if you put the white parts of green onions in water that they will grow back? I picked this tip up from Melissa d'Arabian on the Next Food Network Star, I really hope she wins I would love to watch her cook. I put mine in the fridge and then realized that they need sun, so they're sitting in my kitchen window sill. It takes about 3-4 days for them to grow back full, and I don't know how many times it will grow back I'll keep track.

Crazy Crafting

I have been wanting to make a set of dinner napkins for awhile and got the inspiration from a paper napkin. Kind of a spin off the tuxedo t-shirt. Like my newspaper pattern? I think reuse is the most overlooked of the three R's. I read the newspaper then use it in the place of paper towels to wash windows or uh sometimes make patterns, then recycle it.


Here's an idea of what they'll look like. Hopefully they will be finished tomorrow.

And I broke out the crocheting needles here's a collar for Mousey May....

And Em made one for Follow...

And she made me this bracelet. Got my jogging shoes on, I had just got back from the track.

And, I made her this cuff bracelet but she's wearing it on her ankle. It's hard to see the detail but it's a string of flower beads.

I've cooked some great meals lately, like cornmeal crusted black bean burgers, but just started taking pictures yesterday, but I'll take a picture next time they will definitely be a repeat. So last night we had this great cornbread. I used the cornmeal recipe but instead of adding flour and baking soda and salt.... I just used Bisquick and added enough to make the consistency between a batter and a dough, and then I added cubed cheddar cheese and sliced green onions it was very good.

This is the bean soup that went with the bread. I learned a lesson, don't put spinach in crock pot, it was slimy, but Mike and Em liked it, or they didn't want to hurt my feelings. But if I made it again I'd leave out the salt pork (animal grease, bleck, I think this is what really ruined it for me) and instead of water I'd use all veggie stock and definitely put the spinach (or really any green would be great) in at the end.

This was tonight's dinner Alfredo pasta, with roasted carrots, and peas. I love pasta and cheese so much.