25. Shortcake Biscuits

I needed something sweet and was completely out of powdered sugar for frosting (like I need another dang cupcake anyway). I had 4lbs of strawberries in the fridge and decided shortcake biscuits and sliced strawberries would work just fine. I immediately got to baking (and maintained a beautifully clean kitchen the entire time).

Please gather the following ingredients:

3 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup shortening

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl or stand mixer. I added mine to my stand mixer and used the paddle attachment.

Combine eggs & milk in another bowl, mix and set aside.

Add shortening to the dry mix and cut in with a pastry cutter or combine with the stand mixer on a low setting. I added 1/4 cup at a time while using the stand mixer on stir.

Once the shortening and dry ingredients are well combined, add your egg & milk mixture. Mix until dough becomes clumpy and sticks together.

Turn out on to the counter or cutting board and kneed for a few minutes until the dough feels well combined and a ball forms.

I split my dough down the middle and pulled it out in to big mess. I tore off pieces and placed them in a muffin tin line with papers for a rustic looking biscuit. You could also roll the dough to about a 3/4 inch thick and cut out biscuits with the mouth of a glass or biscuit cutter.

Place them in the oven at 450 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes.

My topping included sweetened sliced strawberries. I used 2 cups rinsed and sliced strawberries and 1 tbsp granulated sugar sprinkled on top. I mixed well and set aside.

My pretty little biscuits took their whole 15 minutes, perhaps due to the fact I shoved them in a muffin tin rather than rolling them out. So do keep an eye on them when baking depending on what option you choose. Allow them to cool.

I split my biscuit down the middle and used my pink pyrex for an overall pretty dish. I topped with a few scoops of strawberries and enjoyed! You could also butter your biscuits and drizzle with honey, or add whipped cream for a real strawberry shortcake treat!

Enjoy!

Shortcake Biscuits

3 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

2 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup shortening

Mix together dry ingredients. Beat 2 eggs with 1/2 cup milk and set aside. Mix 3/4 cup shortening with dry ingredients (like for a pie crust). Add milk and eggs. Turn out on to counter or board and knead for a few minutes. Roll 3/4 inch thick and cut. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Happy 100th Post: A little gift for a lucky someone!

I don't have any updates on the room. I have been feeling under the weather and haven't made any further progress. I still have three days of vacation to get through the painting. I will most definitely have pictures to update with before I head back to work on Wednesday.

On to something more fun! I was excited to find this is my 100th post! If I'm most impressed with anything, it's that I've stuck with this blog for 100 whole posts. 6 whole months, and I've made some great blog friends along the way.

I think giveaways are fun. Though I haven't been lucky enough to win one yet, it's really sweet that so many of you extend the courtesy. In honor of my 100th post, and that summer is coming in all of it's sunny glory, I'm having a giveaway for my blog friends!

I have a glass addiction. I have at least 15 different kids of glasses in my cupboard. I especially like cute summery glasses perfect for a BBQ or a glass of lemonade while basking in the sun. I found these, loved them and decided I wanted to share them with someone else.

A set of four polkadot tumblers in summer colors!

To enter just leave a comment with your favorite summer drink. That's it! I'll announce the winner on Wednesday morning, so leave those comments!

Good luck to everyone, and thank you again so much for reading. You give me a reason!

24. Miniatures Melt my Heart: Mini Strawberry Pies

I've had this recipe saved forever but had convinced myself it was too hard.

We were having new friends over for dinner. I know him through work, but hadn't met his wife yet. I was nervous and trying to find something adorable to impress. Let me tell you, these worked!

Thanks to my husband for being my cooking buddy. I don't think he knows how much I appreciate when he gets in to the kitchen with me and helps me get things done. Things get made in half the time.

The day started off with this adorable little bouquet picked by my husband. They were growing somewhere in our yard and he saved them rather than mow them. He laughed when he saw I actually put them in a tiny glass of water. An old shot glass to be more specific. They're on the window sill in the kitchen. Too cute.

This has to be the easiest pie crust in the world. It was quite good too. Flour, butter, eggs. That's it. Mixed in a mixer or with a hand mixer.

Dough was rolled and placed in to tiny ramekins and filled with the strawberry mixture. Strawberries, brown & white sugars, flour, corn starch, cinnamon, nutmeg & vanilla. Over fill each of them, and for a cute touch, rather than basket weave the top I cut little stars out and placed them on top of the strawberries. Adorable!

Here they are ready for the oven. Place them on a baking sheet, pop them in the oven for about 40 minutes and then pull them out to cool. They are so easy and quick, and you've got the perfect summer treat.

How cute are these? Place them on a cooling rack and let them cool completely. You can either serve them straight in the the ramekin like we did, or you could pop them out and put them on a plate for guests to dish up. Be sure to grease your baking device, these popped out so easily on their own after I sprayed them.

I plan to  make these again while we're on vacation this week. We have raspberries, blackberries and blueberries in the fridge. As long as you have 4 cups of fruit, I think you could fill these with whatever you wanted. How perfect would these be for a baby or bridal shower? Or just a girls tea? I guess it's time to start planning a party!

Make them, enjoy them.

Mini Strawberry Pies

For the crust:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cold butter, cut in to 1/2 in cubes

2 whole eggs, lightly beaten

For the filling:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp corn starch

1/2 cup brown sugar, not packed

1/4 white sugar

1 dash cinnamon

1 dash nutmeg

4 cups strawberries, quartered

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix 1 cup flour, 1 cup cake flour and salt together in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the cold butter cubes and mix on low for 1 minute, then add the eggs and mix on medium low until the dough forms a cohesive mass. Pat the dough into a disc, wrap in cellophane and place in the fridge.

In a small bowl mix together the 1/2 cup flour, cornstarch, brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a larger bowl, toss the strawberries with the vanilla extract and then toss them in with the dry ingredients.

Preheat oven to 400F. Place a cupcake pan in the freezer.

On a clean surface, roll out 3/4 of your pie dough until it is about 1/8″ thick. Return the remaining 1/4 of the dough to the fridge.

Cut circles in the rolled-out dough using a round that is approximately 3″ in diameter to make a total of 9 circles. Remove cupcake pan from fridge and lightly grease 9 of the cups with butter. Gently press each dough round into greased cups, coming all the way up the edges and leaving a small rim of dough at the top. Patch any holes with a pinch of extra dough from the refrigerator.

Overfill each pie with the strawberry mixture. Roll out remaining dough and slice into 1/4″ to 1/3″ strips. Lay strips of dough across each pie in a criss-cross pattern, pinching each seam together as you go along.

Place the cupcake pan on top of a baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes. If at anytime the crust is becoming too brown, cover pies with aluminum foil and continue baking. When done baking, let the pies cool in pan for 30 minutes, then remove and let pies cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Makes 9 pies

23. Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Omelette

I don't know how many times I've made this omelette since Mother's Day. It was the second part to our brunch that day, and it was incredible.

Not only is it incredible, but it's easy. I love eggs. I love smoked salmon. And I especially love cream cheese. Too bad I'm allergic to cream cheese. Lame, I know.

The most surprising part of the whole recipe was finding that I loved it after making it dairy free. We used soy milk instead of cream and tofu cream cheese instead of real cream cheese. My milk friendly family memebers even liked it, but I don't know if we told them before or after they ate it. Sneaky, I know.


Fun Fact of the Day (have I mentioned this before?): I'm allergic to dairy. Not lactose intolerant, just allergic. To what we believe after 20+ years of confusion to be a protein called casein. I've tried a whey protein on it's own with no problems, but anything with casein gives me a headache, sore throat and makes me super congested. It's only continued to get worse as I've gotten older, like an instant headache even from butter, as to when I was younger things like butter and cheese had no effect. Milk (which I think tastes horrible), yogurt, ice cream, cream cheese and sour cream have always been terrible. If I over indulge, I should always expect a terrible cold, strep throat or a sinus infection. Lame.


I found this recipe after we started watching the Food Network religiously after work every morning. Tyler's Ultimate is my new favorite show. I thought he was weird at first, but he won me over with his amazing food and amazing kitchen. Who wouldn't want that awesomely green tiled kitchen?

All you need are a few eggs, cream, cream cheese, smoked salmon, green onions, salt & pepper. Most people probably already have these on hand, except maybe smoked salmon. That probably makes me weird.

This recipe is a test of patience. You have to cook the eggs slow and steady to avoid any browning. You want it cooked, but not brown. Have you ever noticed that when eggs end up with the tiniest bit of brown, they taste weird? Almost burnt? Maybe I'm just sensitive to burnt food. Yeah, I'm probably weird.

Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese Omelette

8 eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/3 pound smoked salmon, torn into large piece

1 cup cream cheese, room temperature

4 green onions, finely chopped, garnish

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Whisk eggs and heavy cream together in a large mixing bowl.

Take a large nonstick pan and set over medium heat. When the pan is heated add the butter and spread out evenly over the surface of the pan. Once it starts to foam turn the heat down and add eggs. Using a spatula swirl the eggs quickly in a circular motion as you gently shake the pan back and forth to cook evenly, you don't want any color.

Once the eggs begin to set, drop the pieces of salmon, small spoonfuls of cream cheese, and green onions over the top. Season with salt and pepper, then as you slide it out onto your cutting board, roll 1 side over the top as you go to form an omelette.

Slice crosswise into portions and serve.

Happy cooking everyone!

22. Stuffed French Toast

On Mother's Day I treated my mom to a few new recipes for brunch. One element of brunch included stuffed french toast. It was ah-maaa-zing! The best part is that it was super easy.

A loaf of french bread, some cream cheese & strawberries. A few tablespoons of strawberry preserves. An egg bath with a little milk & cinnamon. You've got stuffed french toast!

You honestly don't need anymore than one slice, unless you're really hungry. But it's perfect topped with strawberries and powdered sugar. I was told plain old maple syrup wasn't bad either.

Here's the original recipe, taken from Tasty Kitchen. Make it! It's the perfect spring breakfast on a lazy weekend.

Stuffed French Toast

1 loaf french bread

3tbsp fruit preserves

4oz cream cheese

2 eggs

1tbsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup skim milk

2tbsp butter

Heat skillet or electric griddle to 325 to 350 degrees.

Cut french bread into 2-3 inch wide slices. Then, with a paring knife, go back and cut halfway into each slice, in the center, creating a ‘pocket’ that your fruit mixture can be stuffed into.

In a bowl, place the room temperature cream cheese and three tablespoons of fruit spread of your choice. (I used all organic blueberry spread in the picture.) Combine well.

In a separate bowl, break 2 eggs; add cinnamon and milk and combine well.

Now, take fruit mixture and stuff into the ‘pockets’ of your french bread slices. Place on a baking sheet.

When done stuffing each piece of bread, completely coat each piece in egg mixture. Make sure all sides are covered. Do all pieces before starting to fry.

Put 2 tbsp (you can use less!) of butter into a hot skillet and melt completely. Add all of the bread to the skillet and cook roughly about 3-6 minutes on each side, until it reaches a nice golden brown. You want to make sure the cream cheese mixture heats through.

When done cooking, serve immediately with butter and syrup.

21. Enchiladas Verdes con Pollo

I feel like I fell of the face of the planet. How many days have I been missing? I've had crazy writers block when trying to put this recipe post together. Kate, I'm sorry I've held out on you for so long. Please forgive me!

I'm pretty particular about my Mexican food. This recipe is my own, and it's given me a reason to stay at home, yet again. It's getting harder and harder to go out to eat when we make it so much better at home.

This recipe has three parts to it if you so choose. The marinade, the tortillas and the rest. Each party is pretty simple. The marinade is simply tomatoes, lime juice, salt & water blended in a food processor or blender. It's thrown in to a ziplock back with the chicken and put in the fridge for 6 hours. Over night if you so choose, or if your plans get canceled, then the freezer. When you're done marinading, just drain the chicken and you're ready to start on the "rest" part.

The "rest" is a diced onion, diced jalepeno, diced green onions and the marinated chicken. The topping includes half of the diced green onions, cilantro, verde sauce & monterrey jack cheese. The chicken is thrown in to a pan over medium heat to brown. About 5 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan, add the diced onion, jalepeno and half of the green onions to cook while shredding the chicken. Add the chicken back in and start on your tortillas. If you so choose to not make homemade tortillas, just use store bought and you can skip to the assembly part.

When it comes to the tortillas, you'll need 12 either way. Whether you make them or just use premade. Set up your assembly line including your pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, your meat mixture and tortillas. Fill your tortillas, roll and place in the pan. I found that the homemade tortillas rolled a lot easier than premade. In other recipes I've had to heat the tortillas in a little canola oil for about 30 seconds each to soften them up to avoid splitting. In the spirit of trying to keep this moderately healthy at the same time, I avoided this step and had pretty good luck.

When your 12 adorable enchiladas are rolled and put to bed in their pan, top with a can of green enchilada sauce and monterray jack cheese. It's ready to go in to the oven at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is lightly brown and bubbly.

When it comes out of the oven, top with chopped cilantro and the other half of the diced green onions. You're ready to serve! I served it with my easy "refried" bean recipe. Delicious and impressive if you ask me.

Beautiful! Enjoy!

Enchiladas Verdes con Pollo

3 tomatoes

1/3 cup lime juice

1 tsp salt

1 cup water

2lbs chicken thighs or breasts

1 onion

1 jalepeno

1 bunch green onions

1 bundle cilantro

1 can verde enchilada sauce

12 homemade or corn tortillas

Monterrey jack cheese

In a blender or food processor, blend 3 diced tomatoes, 1/3 cup lime juice (about 2 limes), 1 tsp salt & 1 cup water. Place in a ziplock bag & add chicken. Seal the bag, pressing the air out. Toss to coat and place in the fridge for 6 hours or over night.

Drain the chicken and place in a pan heated over medium heat. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side to brown. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add 1 diced onion, 1 diced jalepeno (remove seeds and membranes if you'd like to tame down the heat), and a half bunch of diced green onions to the pan. Allow to cook while shredding the chicken. When the chicken is shredded, add back to the pan and allow to cook for an additional 5 minutes.

If you choose homemade tortillas, prepare them now. You can find the recipe here.

Set up your assembly area. You'll need a 9x13 baking dish, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, 12 tortillas, the meat mixture and 1 can of verde enchilada sauce. Fill each tortilla with the meat mixture, roll and place in the pan. When all 12 enchiladas are rolled, top with the verde sauce & monterrey jack cheese.

Place in the oven at 350 degrees and cook for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese is lightly brown and bubbly. Remove from the oven and top with chopped cilantro and half a bunch of diced green onions. You're ready to serve!

Mother's Day, with Mom.

Weird.

That I'd have to mention I spent Mother's Day with my mom, that is. Because I did drive by the track on my way to my mom's place and noticed a guy and girl dressed in running attire, but not running. They were casually walking around the track and their body language lent to them being very flirty. A "running" date on Mother's Day?

Anyway.

I went to my parent's place on Sunday to provide my mother with both my presence, and amazing food. Yep, you can always rely on my for amazing food. And the pleasure of my company... even if you're not interested (my poor coworkers, ha!).

The sun was shining, and after a quick nap I was refreshed and ready to take on the day with the family. I hit the grocery store to pick up my last minute items and made the 45 minute drive to my parent's place.

My mom always has the best flower pots, she did all purple around her fountain this year. So pretty.

We had a brunch planned of stuffed french toast, smoked salmon olmelette & bacon. It sounded like a strange combination but I was sure it would present well on the plate. While us ladies got to cooking in the kitchen, my dad cooked the bacon on the grill.

And had a bit of an accident. Good thing I forgot I told my mom to buy the bacon and brought a package. The second batch turned out less tragic than this.

Smoked Salmon Olmelette with Cream Cheese & Scallions

French Toast stuffed with Cream Cheese & Strawberries

My mom added the pretty tulips I brought her to the table.

The plate turned out beautifully. What a combo of flavors too. It was a truly gourmet brunch.

(notice the second batch of bacon, we spared it from being flamed broiled)

My parents are the best. I'm so glad my mom felt so loved.

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day with us, Mom! We love you and had so much fun. Thanks for letting us spoil you with a fabulous brunch!

20. Easy "Refried" Black Beans

I've been searching for an easy and perhaps more healthy way of whipping up a batch of refried beans. My search ended after I was inspired by the Food Network.

Best part about this recipe, it only took me 5 minutes to think up with the help of my husband, and prep was even faster. I even made it again to take to work with me that week and topped the beans with tomato & avocado. Yum.

Get out your food processor (or I'm sure a blender would work too), a can of black beans, olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, white wine vinegar & one lime.

Drain your black beans and dump them in the food processor. Add a teaspoon of cumin, a dash of cayenne pepper (more if you like the heat), a splash of white wine vinegar and the juice of a whole lime. Add salt & pepper to taste, drizzle a couple table spoons of olive oil over the top, then blend.

This is a give & take process when it comes to the spices. Add more if you want the heat & spice, add less if you don't. You'll know when it tastes right.

Nice and smooth! You can serve them cold as a dip or throw them in a pan and heat them to serve them as a side dish.

We had ours with enchiladas verdes con pollo. My recipe for the enchildas are to come!

Easy "Refried" Black Beans

1 - 14oz can black beans

2-3 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. cumin

1 lime

white wine vinegar

cayenne pepper

salt & pepper

Drain 1 can of black beans and place in a food processor or blender. Add 1 tsp cumin, the juice of 1 lime, a splash of white wine vinegar and the cayenne, salt & pepper to taste. Then add 2 tbsp olive oil & blend until smooth. Less oil will give a chunkier paste & more oil will give a much smoother consistency. It's all up to you!

Enjoy!

Favorites: In the Kitchen

Last weekend I took a ton of photos. I had borrowed a DSLR camera from a coworker who is interested in selling it. They were nice enough to allow me to use it for a few days to decide if it would be the camera for me. And though it wasn't, I was snapping away in the kitchen of some of my pretty vintage things.

That's when I realized they were some of my favorite pieces in the kitchen. And to top it off, they all have something very sweet in common. They all belonged to my husband's grandmother. The relationship he had with his grandmother was similar to the one I had with mine. Though I don't have anything but a memory left of my grandmother, I was more than touched to have the opportunity to have some of his grandmother's things in my kitchen to use.

This beautiful yellow Pyrex bowl. It's small and dainty, perfect for a hearty serving of salsa.

These peach depression glass relish dishes. I use these when I make tacos. I place my diced tomatoes, onion, cilantro & avocado in them.

Another peach depression glass relish dish. This is usually on my counter filled with fruits or vegetables. Onions, apples, bananas, potatoes. Anything I've brought home from the store that week.

This blue Pyrex mixing bowl. I realized I had this and the yellow bowl over Easter. I was looking for something to put the rolls in that would have a little spring color. I now keep it on the counter in my kitchen because it's the same color as my KitchenAid mixer!

My last piece of peach depression glass. This serving tray held the pulled pork & tortillas from my earlier taco post. It's also out in the kitchen to be seen. It's just too pretty to put away.

The mixing bowls were something my husband received many years before our time together. They've always been something he's enjoyed having. The glass pieces were my birthday gift from my mother-in-law last year.

I couldn't say enough good things about that woman. When we had been down at her house in the spring of 2009 I had admired the pink glass dishes in her china cabinet. She told me they were her mother's and that they used to use them during holiday meals. I had never seen depression glass in pink before and thought they were beautiful. Mind you, I never go to her house and comment on her things in hopes to have them gifted. You'd imagine my surprise when she sent us home with my birthday gift but made me promise not to open it until July. I pulled out that gift on my birthday and cried. How sweet to receive such a beautiful and thoughtful gift. I felt so absolutely blessed that I was unable to find the words to thank her.

I love vintage things that have a story. I look forward to adding to my vintage kitchen collection whether they be meaningful heirlooms or just items we find on our own. Remeber to enjoy those things around you that hold special meaning.

18. & 19. Spicy Smoked Potatoes & Oven Steamed Asparagus

These are both super simple side dishes that take just minutes to prepare. We love both potatoes and asparagus. Potatoes are a treat for us, I don't care to eat the boat load of starch potatoes have to offer.

We do however eat a ton of asparagus. I make it for most meals, and a lot for work lunches. Since we work nights it's a little more natural to just eat dinner type food for our meals throughout our 10 & 12 hour shifts.

You'll need two large bakers potatoes & one large bunch of asparagus.

Any sort of spicy seasonings you'd like to incorporate on your potatoes. I've chosen a Traeger Beef Rub we picked up where we buy the pellets for our barbecue.

Olive oil, salt & pepper for the asparagus.

Go ahead and wash both. I made sure to get the potatoes nice and clean since we are leaving the skin on them.

Cut up the potatoes in to large cubes along with one stick of butter. Slice the butter up so you have about 10 little pads that we'll layer in to the potatoes.

Grab a baking dish you're willing to put in the oven and on the grill. Place half the cubed potatoes in to the dish and sprinkle with the seasonings of your choosing. Then place 4 to 5 pads on top.

Add the other half of your cubed potatoes and repeat.

Season the potatoes and place the last of the butter on top. I put a little extra seasoning on top just for good measure.

After washing & snapping the ends off your asparagus pull out a sheet of foil and place the asparagus on top. Drizzle with olive oil and generously salt & pepper it. You'll wrap the asparagus up in to a little pouch for the oven.

Place the potatoes & asparagus in to the oven and cook at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here are the potatoes after 30 minutes. He's taken them out of the oven to place on the grill to add the smoky flavor. You can see I've thrown on a few diced onions. I had a little extra from our onion slices we grilled for the meal. If you choose to not place your potatoes on the grill for 30 minutes, just leave the potatoes in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Another pretty picture of the whole thing. Everything went back on together to finish cooking.

Here's the asparagus after an hour in the oven. It came out soft and perfectly steamed. They were salted & peppered to perfection. Be careful though, let the foil package sit for a few minutes to cool before you open it. The steam is hot and doesn't feel great on the fingers if you open it right away. Can I say this from experience? Yep.

When you pull the potatoes off the grill (or out of the oven if you skip grilling) give them a good stir, much of the butter will have collected in the bottom. We don't want them butter soaked, we just wanted to give them a little buttery flavor.

Beautiful! They were so tender. A few even came out a little crunchy. It was a really great mix of flavors. The buttery flavor was sporadic and soft, and the spice was the perfect amount.

Spicy Smoked Potatoes

2 large bakers potatoes

1 stick butter

Seasoning of your choice

Wash and diced potatoes. Cut butter in to 8-10 thin slices. Take half of the diced potatoes and layer in the bottom of a baking dish. Place half of the butter on top and sprinkle with your seasonings. Repeat with the second half.

Place in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove from the oven and place on the grill. If you choose not to grill your potatoes, leave in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.

After 1 hour of cook time, remove from the oven and stir to ensure the potatoes are well coated with seasoning and butter.

Oven Steamed Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Wash and trim the ends of your asparagus. Lay out a piece of foil large enough to fold in to a pocket around the asparagus. Lay the asparagus in a pile in the middle of the foil, drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Fold the foil up around the asparagus and seal off the edges. Leave a little room to allow the steam to circulate. Place in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes prior to opening the foil pocket.