Rainy Sundays are for baking…
Spent the afternoon playing Monopoly with my family- until my son decided that he would rather play alone in his room with his “attitude”. *sigh*
Evening spent in the kitchen; roast chicken, rosemary roasted potatoes, corn, home made lion house rolls & pie.
All kids are now in bed, which is where I am headed with my copy of “Great Expectations”…nothing more inviting than freshly bleached sheets & a good book.
December 25th we celebrated my 32nd birthday, with family, sparklers, and a sour cream chocolate-raspberry cake (email me if you want the recipe)!
A few weeks ago, Santa asked me to swing by Smeeks to pick up some Block candy for the children’s stockings; while there I saw number sparklers. I told Jaylee, if anyone asked I so wanted those on my cake this year, not candles!
My sweet friend, who I should mention is currently on crutches, sent her husband (Clint, you rock too!!) down to Smeeks minutes before they closed on the 24th to snag these sparklers for me! She also had him grab an extra set for next year too. Then, on Christmas afternoon she hobbled all the way to my house to deliver them to me! Thank you Jaylee for thinking of me, and remembering, and thank you Smeeks staff for staying open an extra few minutes so my birthday cake would sparkle!
I’m off to a cookie exchange (someone please tell me what I am going to do with 60 cookies?!), I thought I’d share my cookies with the interwebs….
recipe over here on BHG. Happy Weekending!
Yesterday was a wonderful winter day here in the valley of eternal sun. It was cool, the skies were grey and it rained almost all afternoon. Days like that just cry out for baking, and who am I to tempt the fates of mother nature? So, I baked, and stewed.
With a warm and crackling fire we had pot roast with potatoes, roast carrots and crusty bread for dinner- followed by this yummy lemony cake. It was really hard to leave home to attend a fundraiser meeting at my sons school. By the time I got home the fire was out and the kids were in that crazy “run around the house and make messes because its almost bedtime” phase….sigh….
I also wanted to show you 2 of the fun things I picked up at crafeteria last friday night:
This great little vintage pin…I really love costume jewelry, it’s so fun to wear! I don’t have a good lens for macro shots like this….sorry…
Of course I had to go into smeeks, after stuffing my bag with “Pot-o-Gold’s” I searched for something for the kids, I found these new (and totally fun) candy blocks for my son the Lego fanatic.
They actually stick together a bit when you build with them. My son built lots of towers before eating them. I may have to get another set to stick in his stocking.
If you are local and looking for an excuse to visit smeeks; I’m going to be having a smeeks giveaway soon, hopefully by next week I’ll have it ready, so be sure to come back!
Oh- and I forgot to mention. I am sure you have seen Lynne Bonnell’s pumpkins, they’ve been featured all over the interwebs, they are a velvety goodness. She had a booth at crafeteria and introduced her new line of velvet christmas trees- they are BEAUTIFUL! I’ve looked around for pics of them but can’t find any. Sarah bought one of the felt trees, maybe she’ll post a photo of it on her blog.
Have a great Tuesday!
T-45min until we start eating. This year, I am thankful that my sister in law is hosting! This is the first time in 8 years I am not hosting t-day.
but, I do get to bring a cherry pie, my favorite crust recipe HERE and the dinner rolls. I can’t make pie without Pie Cookies.
My mom somtimes called them “poor man’s pie”. They are just the crust trimmings sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar and baked for 7-10 min with the pie. YUM!
Sometimes (ok, a lot of times) life is overwhelming. But sometimes, sometimes the stars align and life feels calm, peaceful and I find joy- even if only for 5 min. I have been trying to focus on the little everyday things that make me happy. Today, while cooking dinner I realized things were calm, everyone was entertained and there was peace in our home.
They were both perched near enough to me that we could talk about their days while they did homework, coloring & I prepared dinner. Frank Sinatra was playing in the background. It didn’t last all evening, or really much longer after I took the shot, but I wanted to capture the moment before it passed.
Sweet & Sour Chicken- from my Grandma’s recipe book
1/2lb of chicken tenders salt and peppered, broiled and chopped into 1″ peices. Chop 1 bell pepper, cut 2 carrots (into discs), chop 1/2 a medium onion and saute all in a skillet with 2T of oil for about 5-6 min.
Mix following ingredients in a small bowl and then add to skillet with veggies.
1/2c brown sugar
1T cornstarch
1/2t salt
1/2t paprika
1/2c pineapple juice
1/4c vinegar
Cook over meduim heat, stirring, until thickened. Add 1 can of chunk pineapple (drained) and diced chicken. Serve over rice.
If you are anything like me you are always looking for easy, inexpensive weekday meals to feed your family! When did we become a side dish eating people? What’s wrong with a one course, one dish meal?
I remember as a kid I loved flipping through my mom’s BHG cookbook- she has the 70’s edition- which includes a whole chapter on casseroles. Imagine my disappointment when I got married with my own copy- and found that my edition did not have that section?! I have since thrifted myself a copy of it!!
So, here’s the deal. I started a flickr group: One Dish Wonders
Blog your amazing One Dish Wonder recipes and post the pictures with recipe links into the group pool. To get everyone started, here is what we had Tuesday night:
I know the pic isn’t the best, but its dark these days when we eat and I just can’t get a good food shot without natural light. sigh.
from an old Martha Stewart Baby Issue
Biscuit Topping:
1c flour, 2 t baking powder, 1 1/2t coarse salt, 1/4c shortening, (mix until looks coarse with pea size chunks), 7T milk, mixed just enough to combine, add 1/2 shredded cheddar cheese
saute 1/2c diced carrots, 1 stalk of diced celery and 1/2c diced onion in 2T butter. Add 1 whole diced apple (with skin, cut into 1″ pieces) . Cook until tender. Add 1T flour and mix well. Add 3/4c chicken stock and stir well.
Mix with 1c diced cooked chicken. Pour into small casserole and top with biscuit topping. bake at 375 for 25min.
Can’t wait to see what kinds of stews, soups and dishes you guys come up with, my stomach is growling! Oh- and feel free to lift the graphic above to post it on your blog- the more visible the group is the more recipes will get posted!!!
a simple and tasty dinner.
Potato Soup & Homemade Rolls (my son arranged his own place setting)
Followed by
I only got a small sliver of cheesecake Friday night, so I whipped another one up today for us.
After dinner we lounged in the living room- the son reading me an eye witness book all about tadpoles while the daughter and husband played a round of checkers.
I enjoy these moments on sundays so much, it’s a treat to spend unstructured time together on sundays…my husband spends most of the morning in meetings and later evenings visiting people…he is always good about waiting until the kids are in bed though, before he does sunday visits. which i appreciate!
i hope your sunday was just as nice!
I forgot the memories that are evoked from the smell of these rolls It’s like being a kid at my Grandmother’s surrounded by family, waiting for Thanksgiving dinner!
For years, Thanksgiving dinner was not complete without my Grandma’s orange rolls. They are a sweet roll, but we served them with dinner anyway (we are a sugar addicted family)! I decided to adapt the recipe a bit to make them more of a breakfast roll, the kids and my husband snarfed them down!
1 1/4c milk
1/3c butter (not margarine, BUTTER!)
1t salt
1 package of yeast
1/3c sugar
1 egg
1/2t baking powder
1/4t baking soda
3 1/4c. flour
Scald the milk and butter, until butter is melted- do not boil. Let cool on counter about 10 min then add yeast, salt & sugar. Mix well and let sit about 10-15min, until yeast is all bubbly.
Add egg and beat well. Mix in remaining ingredients- you may need to add a few more tablespoons of flour until the consistency is right. Knead dough two or three times and let rest in bowl for about 15min.
Roll dough into a rectangle about 1/4″thick. Spread with 3-4Tablespoons of softened butter, zest from a whole orange, and sprinkle with 1/2c sugar. Roll and cut like cinnamon rolls (you should have about 12 rolls). Place in pans and set into a warm oven (I preheat mine to 170, then turn it off) to rise for about 15-20min.
Bake at 425 for 12 min, or until slightly brown on the edges. For the frosting I blended 3-4Tablespoons of butter with 2 cups or so of powdered sugar and about 2 teaspoons of orange juice, I also added food coloring to get more of an orange look…totally optional though.
Enjoy!!
