Thursday, December 30, 2010

Baked Donuts

My husband loves donuts and is in fact a donut snob- he doesn't really care for the donuts at a grocery store. When we lived in Washington we frequented at Top Pot Donuts- they honestly have the best donuts I've ever had. We have yet to find our new donut joint in our new home and until we do, we rely on homemade baked donuts.

I bought a donut pan for him for Christmas last year off Amazon (seriously, what can't you find on Amazon?). We tried the recipe on the back of the pan and enjoyed them enough, but it wasn't until we found the following recipe that I decided to buy another donut pan so we can make them to share with family and friends. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com and though they are not as delicious as hot fried donuts, they certainly hit the spot as a baked alternative.

Fluffy Cake Donuts

2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3/4 c milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp shortening

1. Preheat oven to 325. Lightly grease donut pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and shortening.
3. Fill each donut cup approximately 3/4 full. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the oven, until donuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.
4. Spread with desired topping (Nutella, Mascarpone dip, brown sugar and cinnamon or a glaze)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Soup Season


Yet another soup that was absolutely fantastic, found on the Sister's Cafe. (Picture also from their site as I didn't get a picture and their picture is better than I could have taken)

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup

2 cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 c finely diced celery
1 c finely diced carrots
4 c chicken broth
1 c finely diced onions
1/2 bay leaf
1 tsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried basil

1/2 c butter
1/2 c flour
1 c Parmesan cheese
2 c half and half, warmed (we used whole milk since we had it on hand)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

In a large crock pot, combine tomatoes, celery, carrots, chicken broth, onions. (If using fresh herbs, add these now, if not, add at the last hour of cook time). Cover and cook on low for 5 to 7 hours, until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

About an hour before serving prepare a roux: Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add flour; stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly stir in 1 cup hot soup from the crock pot. Add another 3 cups soup and stir until smooth.

Add all back into the crock pot. Stir and add Parmesan cheese, warmed half and half, salt, pepper, basil, bay leaf and oregano.

The soup looked delicious at this point, but my sister and I felt it would be better if we pureed the soup a bit. Using our immersion blender we blended all ingredients to make it smooth.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Salmon Chowder


I made this the other night for dinner for me and my husband or my "man chowder" as my brother would refer to him when we were dating/engaged. This recipe is delicious, found on allrecipes.com (as well as the picture).

Salmon Chowder

3 Tbsp butter
3/4 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped celery
1/2 c chopped red pepper (not in the actual recipe, but I had it on hand)
1 tsp garlic powder
2 c diced potatoes
2 carrots, diced
2 c chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp dill weed (or tarragon as a substitutes)
2 (16 oz) cans salmon (I used fresh salmon that I baked before)
1 can evaporated milk
1 can creamed corn
1/2 pound Cheddar cheese, shredded

1. Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute onion, celery, red pepper and garlic powder until onions are tender. Stir in potatoes, carrots, broth, salt, pepper and dill. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Stir in salon, evaporated milk, corn and cheese. Cook until heated through.

I added a little more broth at the beginning because I had extra potatoes and extra veggies. At the end I also added a little flour to make it a little thicker.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Other ideas for baby

The bedding arrived and it is even cuter than I thought it would be. Now for more decorating. I am not sure I will actually do this first idea, especially as I would need to find coordinating fabric, but I love the idea. The only change I would make would be to turn the embroidery hoop around so the connection is at top and would thread ribbon through and hang them from the ribbon with a bow.

http://sew4home.com/projects/fabric-art-a-accents/372-stylish-baby-nursery-fast-a-fabulous-wall-art

This second idea, I am thinking of replicating with elephants and felt. The website below actually has several mobile ideas.


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Getting ready for baby...

Here is my design scheme for our coming baby girl. I was really hoping to have more of a pink and elephant theme such as Carter's Pink Elephant, but the price just wasn't working for me. I found a bedding set on Amazon called Dwell Studio (Target) Flower Medallion. The medallion design is actually made up of flowers. I really like the design and couldn't pass up the set for $26.00. So I went to working with this.






I still plan to incorporate elephants as my sister brought home a wooden figurine set of elephants from Africa. I think I will also paint a pink elephant with a purple bird on top to match the colors. As I also have some cute yellow and green frames, I will bring these colors in as accents. The vase, mirror and lamp are all found at Ikea.

Anyone else have cheap decorating ideas or places they found deals?

Monday, June 21, 2010

Easy "Spanish Rice"

Didn't quite taste like traditional Spanish rice, but it is wonderful and easy.

1 box of rice pilaf
1 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 can green chiles
1 tbsp butter (or whatever the package of rice says)
chicken broth (I happened to have some open, and put in about 1/4 cup)

Do not add the water to the package of rice pilaf, instead add the above ingredients and follow the rest of the directions as you would normally.

We put these in burritos with grilled peppers and onions, shredded chicken, chard, cheese, black beans and some corn and they were delicious.

We ran out of chicken for lunch today but I put down rice, black beans, corn, grilled peppers and topped with cheese and lettuce and had a salad with my new favorite Mexican dressing (salsa with Dorothy Lynch)

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Fun cards for little boys (or girls)

I have seen similar creations on other blogs and wanted to make some for my nephews who were turning 3 and 5.



I kept the first items (1 airhead, 2 punch balloons and 3 quarters) the same so as to cut down on fighting and the other items I tried to have so they would be able to share (4 glow in the dark bracelets and 5 markers that write on the windows).

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

My own Wordle

You can find a site online that will make these "Wordles" for you, but I decided to make my own for my nephew so I could personalize it a bit more with colors, different fonts and sizes and pictures. It was really simple and fun to make, I just used Word. His name is in really big in the middle, but to protect the innocent, I edited it out for here.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Recent Cooking Blunders/Insights...

Smocked sockeye salmon is really salty, no need to salt it yourself. Actually, I can't think of a good way to season this.

Potatoes that don't look terribly appetizing to eat, are great if cooked, pureed and turned into a sauce for pork. My mom uses her old potatoes for potato pancakes- I'll try this next!

Cheesecake takes a long time to bake/cool/set before you can actually take one precious bite. This is especially true if you put the fresh, out of the oven graham cracker crust on a heated burner and you have to start all over again because you burned the crust. This said, it is well worth the time and effort. (Recipe below)



Cheesecake with Strawberry Swirl

crust:
1 1/2 cup crushed graham crackers (the original recipe called for pecans, I used graham but added pecans)
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup melted butter

filling:
2 pckgs cream cheese
2 eggs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tsp tsp grated lime zest
1 tsp pure vanilla extract


1 cup strawberries
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch

Position rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350. Butter bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

Pulse grahams, flour, and sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Add the butter and pulse just until combined. Press the crust evenly over the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until light brown. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Reduce oven temp to 300.

To make the filling: Mash the strawberries and sugar together in a medium saucepan with a pastry blender or fork. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the berries begin to release their juices. Stir in the cornstarch, bring to a boil over med-high heat, stirring constantly and boil for 1 minute. Pour the puree through a coarse strainer set over a small bowl, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Refrigerate, tightly covered until thoroughly chilled.

With an electric mixer on med-high speed, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl for 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the condensed milk, zest, lime juice and vanilla, scraping down the side as necessary. Reduce the speed to med and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour the batter into the pan.

Transfer the strawberry puree to a small glass. Drizzle it in a spiral pattern over the batter, then swirl a table knife through the batter to marbleize it. Bake 55 to 60 minutes, until the cheesecake is puffed on the sides and still slightly jiggly in the center. Let cool on a wire rack.

Refrigerate, tightly covered, for at least 8 hours, until thoroughly chilled and set.

*This recipe comes from the book, luscious creamy desserts by Lori Longbotham and is called blackberry-ripple lime cheesecake- I obviously altered the recipe, but will definitely try this recipe as calls out.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Thai Soup


(This picture is also taken from the blog, she claims she is not a food photographer, but I am pretty sure it would be better than one I could take)

My friend posted this recipe on a blog we contribute to. Her mother-in-law introduced it to her while in Idaho. In her words, "it is SO yummy and SO easy." I completely agree and would add that it is SO versatile.

INGREDIENTS:
1 14oz can of coconut milk
2 Tbs red curry paste
2 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 of one red bell pepper (chopped)
2 Tbs fish sauce
1/3 cup water
sticky rice or jasmine rice
chicken, shrimp, crab, halibut, or salmon

INSTRUCTIONS:
Make rice according to package directions. In another pot, simmer coconut milk and curry for 5 minutes. Add all other ingredients and cook until heated through. NOTE: Because the seafood cooks so fast, you can just add it uncooked. If you are using chicken, cube and cook BEFORE adding to the soup.
Spoon rice into serving dishes. Ladle soup on top and serve immediately.

The last time I made this, I was making lettuce wraps with rice noodles and tofu. So for the meat I used tofu and instead of rice, I added the rice noodles. You can put in any vegetables of your choosing and could even go all vegetarian, any way it is made, it is delicious.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Box Flowers and Fabric Flowers

Basic instructions for a box flower:
  1. Punch out 4 circles or 4 scalloped circles (or both and add one box flower over the other)
  2. Fold each in half
  3. Overlap/overlay them as you would if closing a moving box, gluing them together as you go along
  4. Put a brad in the middle and fluff/bend each petal to add dimension
  5. There are plenty of instructions/tutorials online, I just can't remember where I saw the tutorial I looked at




Monday, March 29, 2010

"Never eat more than you can lift"- Miss Piggy

I found these cupcake glitter stickers and chipboard cupcake stickers for a $1 at Target, so I went a little cupcake crazy... too bad they weren't real cupcakes...





Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Maple Cream Cheese Whipped Cream

I made apple bread the other night and there was a suggestion to make maple butter or maple cream cheese to put on top. As the bread made two loaves and I only have one bread pan, I put half in a 9" round cake pan so I thought some whipped cream frosting would be delicious and took the maple suggestion. I made sure to get every bit left over in my bowl from dessert last night.

Apparently my husband has faith in my cooking abilities just not in my memory capacity and highly encouraged me to write the recipe down, even though there was no recipe used. So these are estimates of how much... and now I also have a lovely reminder of our conversation from that night :)

Monday, March 22, 2010

Vegetarian Meals...

ISBN for any who are interested: 9781588165169



We have now tried five recipes from this cookbook and have enjoyed them all (although, some we have enjoyed more than others and we have made some adjustments). Last night for dinner I made the phyllo pizza and it was delicious. I did use mozzarella cheese instead of goat cheese, added some red peppers and now have a note in the book to cook it for 10 minutes not the 12-15 it suggested.

Friday, February 26, 2010

New ideas...

My friend, Sarah, put up a New Year's To-do list... for cooking and crafting things. She found some great ideas. One in particular that I wanted to do was the bleached stripe shirt. Find it here and dream of it after! With the current rain here, I think this is going to have to wait until summer...

I am also interested in learning to bleach burlap to make a picture, almost like painting with bleach. I haven't been able to find a lot of research online so I may have to go home to my papa to learn. Anyone know anything about this process?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Spring Wreath

I wanted to make an ornament wreath such as the one below and had no luck. I couldn't find a single wire wreath so I tried to use a wreath with multiple wires and it didn't work. Then I thought maybe I could use a styrofoam wreath and attach with ribbon- that didn't work either. Oh well, next Christmas!

Since I had a styrofoam wreath and the weather has been so wonderful (minus yesterday and today!) I made this wreath with ribbon, cut out fabric flowers with rhinestone brads and paper leaves. It is hanging on my door, gladly welcoming spring if it wishes to come back.


Thursday, February 18, 2010

One of my favorite cookbooks...

is a vegetarian cookbook. They really are delicious recipes, like the one below:

Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

3 medium sweet potatoes
1 Tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

2 cans garbanzo beans (drain and rinse)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can vegetable broth

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro


Cut sweet potatoes into 1/2" cubes and microwave for 8 1/2 minutes. Meanwhile, put oil in stock pot and warm on medium heat. Add oil, garlic, cumin, cinnamon and salt.

Add garbanzo beans and tomatoes and veg broth. Mix and then add peanut butter. Once all mixed and sweet potatoes are done, add and stir in with cilantro.

*My sweet potatoes were not done from microwaving so I just cooked them longer in the stew- which I think next time (because there will be a next time because it is so delicious) I would try to cook the sweet potatoes completely in the stew.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Delicious Pizza Combination

Layer in this order:

garlic-ranch sauce
spinach
tomatoes
mozzarella cheese
chicken
artichoke hearts
bacon
mozzarella cheese

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, basil and oregano. Seriously, this was amazing. We had ours on wheat crust which was also amazing. Any other combinations we should try?

Friday, January 8, 2010

Homemade Christmas

I love Christmas traditions. My in-laws have a tradition where they you make a present for one person and buy for another. This tradition often comes with a little frustration/anxiety, much thought and always a lot of enjoyment when opening these presents. This year I made BBQ sauces and a BBQ recipe book for one of my brother-in-laws. And I received a table made by my father-in-law to further my crafting needs. I have been looking for a table that isn't too big and has some character- this has it all- and was made just for me! Now I just need to get the rest of my crafting items into the spare bedroom and take complete domination...

Get this- the design is called Domestic Goddess! Isn't this perfect! This beauty was made by my sister. I am sorry for the amateur photo, but I couldn't get it to work a better way.


Over the break, with the help of two of my sister-in-laws, we made this darling painting for my other sister-in-law who just had a beautiful baby girl. I had a lot of fun with this one and am thinking of making another one with different colors or a very similar one for kicks and giggles.