Thai Spring Rolls

I made these Thai Spring Rolls for Election Night last year....that's a holiday/party in the house. My darling friend gets all psyched up with me and we spend the night talking, eating, and drinking. This was one of the snacks we had that night.

I made these again for our House Warming and they were LOVED and people asked for the recipe. I'm ashamed its taken me this long to get to posting the recipe.

I saw a spring roll recipe on a blog, and adjusted the ingredients for a Thai theme. I don't have exact measurements because it really goes by quantity and taste. Rice paper was hard for me to find, I had to go to an Asian market a few towns over.


Thai Spring Rolls

rice paper
rice noodles
shredded carrots
shredded purple cabbage
roasted red peppers, julienned
cilantro, chopped
green onions, chopped
peanuts
wonton strips
edamadme, cooked and cooled

1. cook the rice noodles as directed and cool by running under cold water
2. one at time, soak the rice paper in warm water until pliable, add small amounts of each ingredient and wrap like a burrito
3. serve with peanut sauce

**Squint close and you will see them on the white plate!

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.

 

Hummus

I have been asked to post some of my favorite recipes on here, so over the next couple months I will try to post a bunch of my favorites.

This is what I use for homemade hummus:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Cannellini-Bean-Hummus

I use extra garlic and omit the parsley. You can find the Tahini at Whole Foods. Delish! Especially since I strongly believe everything is better homemade!

Julie and Julia vs Meg and Ree Part 2

So here I am thinking I have made a huge dent in my Meg and Ree challenge. I've been making a few things each week. Including the Creamy Rosemary Potatoes that are responsible for my sliced finger. Apparently you are supposed to be careful when you use mandolines. Unless of course you want your finger to match mine...but I promise you that you don't. Its not pretty, takes too long to heal and will never look the same again, its just not worth the trouble to be my finger twin. Anyway, back to the challenge. I'm only 26% of the way through the cookbook. But I suppose to be fair, there are things I have made more then once. I also suppose I will consider myself a success if I finish before the next cookbook comes out in the Spring. Also, before ya'll jump to the conclusion about me using all that butter, I want it noted that I am working hard on my weight loss goals. I even appear to be making some headway! Consequently, I am allowed to have butter a few times a week. I've decided.

Julie and Julia vs. Meg and Ree

As I'm sure most of you know by now, there was an author named Julie Powell who wrote about her experience cooking all of Julia Childs' recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. It was an interesting concept and had me thinking about what cookbooks I would like to make everything in.

By now, I'm sure you have all gathered that I like the Pioneer Woman and her cookbook; The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Before I continue, I would like to once again explain why.

1. I grocery shop at Walmart and Target. There has only been one ingredient I could not find in either of those stores...and to be honest, I'm not sure I checked at Walmart.
2. The woman is practical. She gives options if you are missing some ingredient or uses dried herbs occasionally instead of fresh. Basically she lives in the middle of no where, so her ingredients have to be something she can have easy access to.
3. She gives ideas on how to preserve the food. Example: when and how to freeze or store a recipe, etc (until my husband went searching, I had a pie plate of her Cinnamon Rolls in my freezer).
4. And while this doesn't have anything to do with her cooking, her writing is amusing. Who doesn't like to be reminded to poor yourself a glass of wine while cooking with it? Or to use more butter? Wine and butter are good...although probably not together.

So, no, I am not going to be writing about every recipe I make. And I do not have a time frame on which to cook everything in her cookbook. I have been choosing two to three recipes a week and giving it a shot. The more I cook the more I realize I may end up doing the whole book and cooking something I would not have normally cooked. For example, I think I may end up making her prune cake...and that is not something I would have said when I first purchased the book and I believe it to be a true possibility now.

I guess we will see how this goes and how it is followed through. I may post occasional blogs about my progress, but I will not be writing about every recipe.

Dorothy's Zucchini Bread

One of my old coworkers from my Sisters of St. Joseph days makes this AMAZING Zucchini Bread. I begged her for the recipe! Its absolutely delicious (and if you shred all your summer zucchini at once you can freeze it in 2cup portions to use all year.) Anyway, here it is so you can try it!

Zucchini Bread

3 Eggs
1 cup of oil
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 8.25oz can of crushed pineapple
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
optional: 1 cup dates/nuts
2 cups shredded zucchini

1. Beat eggs, mix in oil, sugar and vanilla until thick
2. Stir in remaining ingredients, stirring well.
3. Add zucchini and its juices
4. poor into a mini loaf pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or poor into 2 loaf pans and bake for an hour

My Husband's Game Day Dip

This is by no means a Graf Original, but it is one of my husband's favorites. Since I have one in the oven and we are watching the Bear's game, I figured I'd share. Enjoy!

Chili Cheese Dip

8oz cream cheese
1 can of chili (We use Hormel's Hot with Beans)
Shredded Cheddar (we shred our own, I don't like the flour in packaged cheese)
Tortilla Chips

1. Layer the cream cheese, chili and cheddar in a pie plate
2. Bake at 350 for about 15minutes, or when the cheese is melted
3. Enjoy with tortilla chips

Note: if my husband is near this dip, you want to make two..just trust me...

My Version of Greek Salad

One of the best things about gardening is not having to pay for produce. I'm a fan. But there is one thing I am not a fan of. Lettuce. I like salads, they are good for me, especially seeing as I am dieting. However, lettuce bores me. I need LOTS of toppings on my salad. And I love stocking them up with veggies, meats and cheese. Sometimes I make salads without the actual lettuce. My Greek salad is one of my favorite combinations.

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1 cucumber, seeded and diced
10 kalamata olives, halved
3.5oz package of Feta cheese
pinch of salt

Combine and enjoy! I have also done this where I added a drizzle of olive oil. And I am sure it would taste good over a bed of lettuce or with some noodles.

Cinnamon Rolls

Today I spent the whole day in the kitchen(s). Sometimes I feel productive and kick some butt. Today was one of those days.

I started my day with my friend Heidi. Heidi and I are both addicted to our The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook. So today we decided to try our hand at one of her favorite recipes: Cinnamon Rolls.

This is the effect that yummy frosting has!

 What resulted was a lovely smelling kitchen and a buttery counter top. Lots of goodness! And then there was the frosting! Mmmm!

 Ok, so maybe now I can see why the diet thing isn't going as planned. But it was definitely worth it. Best news: I have a pan in my freezer for future use!

Yum!

Miss Diane's Salmon Dip

Miss Diane is a very dear woman to me. I have known her for years! In addition to her wonderful support, she has also shared with me her A M A Z I N G Salmon Dip recipe. Its become a staple at parties, and I make sure I always have a can of salmon in my pantry!

1 can of smoked salmon, 6.5oz (we order ours from Seattle)
1 package of cream cheese, 8oz
2 Table spoons of sliced green onions
a couple drops of Tabasco sauce

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor (my choice) and blend until smooth!

Enjoy with crackers! Delish!

Recipe Writing

Recipe writing is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. I want to share some of my recipes on here but I am running into some problems.

1. I have no professional training. There is a lot of trial and error in my kitchen. I want to insure I only share successes.
2. I have just started cooking when I got married about three years ago. So my cooking is still evolving, and hopefully always will be. There is a lot of experimenting to find out what works best and how, etc. But when the end results are worth sharing I will!
3. And my biggest problem: I generally don't measure. This means that I have to start in order to share recipes with you guys. A pinch looks a lot different in my fingers then in a measuring spoon.

So hang in there with me, the recipes will come, and will be delicious....it just may take awhile.