St Patrick's Day

This is always a fun holiday for me, mostly because of the time required in the kitchen. This year, like year's past, I made corned beef and cabbage (in the crock pot!), potato leak soup, and Irish soda bread. This year I also added potato leek pizza and a friend brought a yummy casserole! It was delicious! Here's the spread:

Super Bowl

So once a year we a host a huge party. We host Super Bowl for our mutual friends. We have people over often, but Super Bowl is our big one. So yesterday I spent the day cooking, Joe spent the day cleaning and we spent the evening relaxing with friends.

Another perk of my cooking all day? I finished the appetizer section of PW Cookbook! Two sections down, three to go!

All in all it was a good party. Now if only I didn't have to catch up on homework today....

My New Love

I love my mini muffin pan. I had originally bought it right before my wedding. I wanted to make dessert for the rehearsal dinner, so I made a LOT of mini cupcakes. Since then I have used it for recipes which call for the lovely mini muffin pan. But I have also used it to make miniature versions of larger recipes: full sized muffins, zucchini bread. To be honest, I don't think I have ever used my full size muffin tin. I like having bite sized foods. Its so simple, especially for my hectic lifestyle and easily helps me stick to the ever frustrating diet. So, to my dear and wonderful mini muffin pan, I want to send my love; thank you for your versatility and dependability.

Julie and Julia vs Meg and Ree SUCCESS!

Today I have officially cooked all the recipe's in the the dessert section! 1 down, 4 to go!

Oma's Stuffing

Those of you who know my husband know that I have one picky eater to satisfy. Thankfully, he has lately opened up to the thought of trying new things. As we sat down to family dinner the other night, he was hesitant to try the stuffing my mom had made (using my grandmother's recipe). He was surprised that he liked it! I knew immediately I had to figure out an exact recipe to share with you all, so that's what I did today!

Oma's Stuffing

1lb sage pork sausage

1/2 onion, chopped

2 chopped apples

4 chopped celery ribs

2 eggs, lightly beaten (I forgot these and it was just as yummy)

1 6oz box of cornbread stuffing

2 cups of chicken broth

1. brown the sausage with the onion, then reduce heat to medium/low
2. add apple and celery and cook for 2 minutes
3. lightly beat and add the eggs (unless you forget like I did)
4. add stuffing and chicken broth stir until the bread has all the juices (my skillet was small so I transferred the meat mixture to a baking dish then combined the stuffing and broth in the skillet)
5. bake covered at 350 for 45-60 minutes (we baked ours in a rectangle baking dish, you could also loosely stuff a bird)

NOTE: if you like more stuffing you can add a 2nd box and 2 more cups of broth. But we like ours chunky like this.

 

Destroying My Kitchen

Cooking is a HUGE stress reliever for me. Consequently I do a LOT of it. This week was no exception. I made prune cake, zucchini bread and 16 trays of cinnamon rolls. I'm usually not a baker, but this week seems to have changed that. Next week I'll probably make friend chicken and maybe Joe's dad's pork chops.

As one can imagine, spending this amount of time in the kitchen is bad if you like your pots, pans and bowls clean. So, Joe and I now call my cooking/baking marathons "destroying the kitchen." I believe my next big destroying will come when my cousin and I bake our Christmas cookies. And I can not wait!

10 Things I Don't Know How I Lived Without

In no particular order....

1. DVR
2. poblanos
3. Ball jars
4. Fiestaware
5. a passport
6. pumpkin chip cookies
7. salmon dip
8. freezer bags
9. buttermilk
10. my food processor