Two down, seven to go!

Today's project: horse birthday invites. My girl turns 9 in less than 2 weeks, so it is party time! We will be going bowling, and she loves horses, so there is the party theme. My Cricut has a unicorn pattern, so I am using it and just amputating the horn :) then to fill in all the info and deliver the invites! Finished pic as soon as one is completely done :)

Best part of Thanksgiving? LEFTOVERS! Is it wrong that I have been dreaming about onion gravy since yesterday? It was super yummy (was, cuz I just ate the last of it). When I roasted our chicken, I sat it on an onion that was thickly sliced (recipe from marthastewart.com). When the chicken was done, I put the chickeny roasted onions in the blender with a bit of the liquid from the pan and about a half cup of water (I had put about a cup each water and white wine in the roasting pan with the onions and chicken). After pureeing it up, I added it back to the roasting pan on top of the stove with the remaining pan juices and brought it to a bubble. Season with salt and pepper as needed, and you have a super easy, yummy, creamy gravy without adding cream. I am going to use that onion method with all my roasts from now on...chicken, pork, beef...can you think of something onions DON'T go with? :) Just goes to show that it pays to read the reviews of a recipe you find online. The original recipe just got rid of the onions (?!?) but a reviewer suggested pureeing them and adding them back to the gravy. Thank goodness he did!

Dinner is served! Due to inclement weather, our original dinner plans at the ex-laws were cancelled...4 inches of snow in NW WA is unusual on Thanksgiving, and they live at the top of a hill. So daughter and I braved the weather to go to the store and buy dinner...a turkette (chicken) with onion gravy, stuffing and corn casserole, with a glass of hard cider for mommy.  It turned out very yummy. I was going to make buttermilk yeast rolls, but while heating up the buttermilk, it turned all nasty looking, so we opted to skip that item :-/ Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The inside of the bread...I couldn't resist :D

Cranberry orange bread! This is my super simple version of panettone. It is a white bread recipe from Food Network that had a cinnamon raisin variation, so I varied that :) I added the zest of an orange to the dough while kneading (I <3 my Kitchen Aid!), then when shaping the loaf by pressing into a rectangle to roll up, I scattered craisins over the surface. I then rolled it up as per the recipe. After the last rise in the pan, I brushed it with egg white and sprinkled demerara sugar on top to add sparkle and crunch. Just took it out of the oven...I soooo want some, but it needs to cool, and I am supposed to take it to the ex-laws tomorrow by special request from Papa. Maybe it will be missing the end...quality control, you know. That is Papa's line of work, so he should understand.......

Busy busy

I have lots to do, so why am I sitting in a coffee shop playing on the Internet and reading? Cuz my daughter has a shortened, short day. Early release for parent conferences, plus late start due to icy roads. That equals a 2.5 hour school day. Third day in a row. That isn't enough time to go back home and do anything before turning around to pick her up bso I am enjoying the lull before the storm :)

Once I get home with my girl in tow, we need to get busy. We have thanksgiving cards to finish, cranberry orange bread to make for Papa for tomorrow, laundry to do for church and party tomorrow, not to mention dinner to make and eat. I also found a cute draft idea that if I have all the necessary parts may take them for the kids to make tomorrow before dinner. All this equals Tricia running in circles doing it all at once, cuz I am one distractible girl :) Wish me luck!

Steak and potatoes...

I remembered to take a picture of my dinner...when it was gone :( Oh, well! I made a dinner from a Food Network show called 10 Dollar Dinners. The entree was "French cut steak." it called for a skirt steak, but my store didn't have any, so I used a flat iron steak, which a reviewer on the recipe had success with. Rub the steak (cut into individual steaks)with a combo of paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper; let it rest while you do the next step. Caramelize a sliced sweet onion and remove from pan. Wipe out the pan, then cook the steaks to your liking (medium rare is the yummiest) and remove to cutting board to rest. Add some white wine and red wine vinegar to the pan and scrape up bits, reduce by half. Add onions and beef broth and reduce again. Stir in a bit of butter to thicken.

Our side was muffin pan potato gratins from Everyday Food magazine. Slice potatoes, then layer into buttered muffin cups with salt and pepper (go easy). Then pour over a tablespoon cream in each cup. Bake at 400* for about 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender. I found the tops to be a tiny bit dry, but overall, it was yum.

And, as those tasty dishes were coming to completion, I realized my green beans were still in the freezer. So I will save them for another meal :)

My first crafting post! This is the Thanksgiving card I am giving to some family. I made the tail from a rosette made with my Martha Stewart scoring board. The body and head were cut with my Cricut. I stamped the caption at the top and stenciled the waddle with stamp pad ink. All my ink was Ranger. Cute, huh? :)

I cheated :D

Tonight we had biscuits and gravy. I am not a skim milk user. It just seems like a waste of a glass...it doesn't look or feel like milk. But tonight in my gravy, I used fat free evaporated milk. Being evaporated, it was richer in texture than regular fat free milk, but fat free. So that helped with the (very slight) guilt of the sausage in the gravy :D And to top it off, I couldn't tell the difference! Yum! So now I am going to stock up on fat free evaporated milk for other cooking projects...so stay tuned for the results!

Well, this is the left overs we had for dinner tonight of the chicken vesuvio we had for dinner last night. Chicken, red potatoes, canned artichoke hearts, sauce with oregano and thyme. It was quite yummy both nights :) Now if only the power would come back on :-/

This looks a lot like other meals this last week or so. Cuz it is :) I used the left over sweet potato bisque from Trader Joes and the left over honey roasted root veggies and made new soup! The flavors were all very similar, so there you go. The only issue might be the walnuts...it is a little disconcerting to take a bite ofsoup and have a crunchy walnut half. At least it was for me. But otherwise it was very tasty :)

Bounty

Well, no new food today! I have a ton of left over mac and cheese that we had for lunch, and left over pork roast that I will make into pork hash for dinner.

Now, what should we have tomorrow night? Hmmm...

Oops. That should be root vegetables, not rot :) still yummy tho!

The macaroni and cheese was Thursdays dinner. Tonight we had honey roasted rot veggies (sweet potato, carrots and parsnips) with roasted pork loin. Perfect fall dinner. Yum. 

Home made Mac and cheese with roasted (again) Brussels sprouts. The Mac and cheese didn't seem like it would make enough reading the recipe, so i doubled it. Oops. Apparently Emeril knows what he is talking about :P It was made differently that I would usually make it...mixed evaporated milk and grated sharp cheddar and a bit of jack and parm and stir in cooked macaroni and crispy bacon. Bake tip bubbly. It was yummy, and rich...probably why 1/2 lb of Mac will feed 4-6 people...

Dinner tonight is confetti chili. Super easy. Hamburger, chopped onion, 1 can each petite diced tomatoes (with juice), black beans (rinsed) and white hominy (drained), and a cup of beef broth. Season with chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Then I sprinkled about 2 tablespoons of masa flour over it and stirred it in to thicken it up. We chose to sprinkle cheese on top, you could also do sour cream. Yum-o :)

Roasted chicken and butternut squash soup is what's for dinner tonight! Dice up a butternut squash and some onions, toss with olive oil and salt and pepper and spread out on cookie sheet. Rub chicken thighs with oil, salt and pepper and place on sheet as well. Roast at 425* for about 30-45 min, til squash is tender and chicken done. Put squash and onions in a pot and mash roughly with potato masher. Add chicken broth, ground cumin and ground coriander. Bring to a simmer. Remove skin and bones from chicken and shred into bite size pieces and add to soup. Serve. I thickened mine up with a little instant potato flakes, which was not part of the original recipe (from _Everyday_Food_ magazine, Oct '10) Yummy!

Where have I been

Not much of interest going on here. Sunday dinner was leftover steak, and Monday dinner was take and bake pizza with daughter and niece before girls club at church. Considering a roasted chicken and butternut squash soup for tonight...it is cold and rainy here in NW WA today, perfect for a nice warm soup. Might make some biscuits to go with it, or something like that to soak up yummy soup...

These are my yummy pumpkin spice muffins make from spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin. That's it. I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top for yummy crunchiness. Oh boy :)

Steak, potato and broccoli with cheese sauce...yummy! :)

And dinner was...

Steak. Baked potato. Steamed broccoli with cheese sauce. A friend came over, so I got a little fancy-ish. I had bought cheese for something else, and cheese sauce for the broccoli sounded yummy. I even put some on my potato. It was all quite delish. I then went on to kick bootie on wii basketball...the only. time. ever. I will beat some one at basketball is on wii. In real life I have 4 feet. I also almost won at golf. Now if it was archery, I would have kicked some serious boogie. Oh well.

Breakfast of champions?

Or maybe brunch is a better word for it. After sleeping in (to 830) and reading a bit, I finally stirred myself and made food. A cheese omlette (made with kraft singles) and Greek yogurt with honey. Note to self: buy more honey...the bear is now empty of the final tablespoon possible to squeeze out. I am still pondering dinner options...will have to see what is tasty (and on sale?) at the store in a bit. Now I am going to do a bit of wii fit (gasp! I'm exercising?!?) before said shopping excursion.

Solo meals

The meals when my daughter is at her dads tend to be one two styles...something new and fancy (or expensive, since I am only feeding one), or they are extremely easy. That was last night.

I had left over rotisserie chicken that I tore into bite size pieces, and cooked it with "souper rice"...made with minute rice and a can of condensed cream of chicken soup. I added some Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning for flair. It was tasty, warm and filling. Tonight I am thinking of something a little fancier...stay tuned!

Crafty stuff

On Monday, I bought a Martha Steward scoring board. I tried making some boxes and an envelope today. It was pretty fun and easy. I got it to finish/replace parts for an advent calendar for Mairi. I die cut all the pieces (they go together like matchboxes) a long time ago, but then lost all the insides, except one :( So now i am going to use that one as a template and make a whole new set of insides. Figure if I start now, they might be done in time for advent to start...wait...I only have 25 more days! Yikes!

(I do my posts from my iPhone...once I figure out how to include photos, I will start including them too!)

Tasty and quick

Lunch today was tasty and quick. My nephew had a lunchable (what can I say, he is 4), and I had some of Trader Joe's sweet potato bisque. The box said to top with a sprinkle of nutmeg and a dollop of sour cream (I used Greek yogurt). It was warm, filling and yummy. I also had a piece of rosemary bread left over from four buck cluck night :)

My daughter went to a friends house after school (early release), but I have my nephew and niece until their mom gets out of school. So we had a snack of microwave popcorn (I put some Old Bay on mine...a little too much and it gets spicy!) and home made hot chocolate...made with evaporated milk and Hershey Special Dark syrup, warmed up in my chocolate pot and frothed nice and fluffy. Yum :)

Shepherd pie...

Or rather, cottage pie. Turns out, if it is shepherd pie, it is made with ground lamb. Ground beef makes a cottage pie. I guess that's because shepherds watch sheep, not cows.

Anyway, tonight it was cottage pie and roasted Brussels sprouts...my new favorite way to make them. Cut them in half, and put cut side down on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Roast at 375* for about 30 minutes, until tender and browned. Yum.

The cottage pie was yummy too. Browned ground beef, diced onions, quartered small mushrooms all browned up together. A little salt, pepper and dried thyme. Gravy made with 1 1/2 cups beef broth/stock and 3 tablespoons wondra flour...shake it up in a jar witha few dashes or worchestershire sauce and pour in pan with the rest. Bring to a simmer until thick. Pour it all into a baking dish and top with very soft mashed potatoes. Spread them over the whole top, trying to seal the edges to keep it from bubbling over. Dot with a little butter and bake with the Brussels sprouts for about 20 minutes.

Tonights dinner is...

We ate tres gourmet tonight...four buck cluck. Wish I could have had a glass of three buck Chuck with that, but have choir practice tonight. To translate, we had rotisserie chicken that is on sale on Wednesdays for $4. And three buck Chuck is Trader Joe's lovely $2.99 wine selections :) Oh well, I will have the wine when we get home. Or maybe a spiced hot cider with rum. Or a hot buttered rum. Hhhmmmm...decisions, decisions!

Here I am!

Well, I did it.  I started a blog.  Now all I have to do it keep up with it!  I hope to post pics of yummy things I cook, cute things I make, and fun things we do.  Wish me luck :)