Foodie Post

I am totally not a foodie.  But, my hubby is.  Sort of.  He loves food and he loves to eat.  Over the last year or so, because of cooking through the PW cookbook and needing to find recipes for our garden veggies, I have become way more comfortable in the kitchen and almost enjoy the challenge of trying something new.  Almost.

We have tomatoes.  Lots and lots of tomatoes.  We have done the canning thing and we don't have soooo many tomatoes that it is worth all of that hassle.  We did spaghetti sauce and froze it last year and that worked out much better.  This year we are using them as we go.

Last week was Ina Garten's Roasted Tomato Basil Soup.  (A recipe shared by my sister.)  And it was a hit, although a little spicy hot for some of my crew.  (Note on recipe card, use half of the crushed red pepper called for.)  It was crazy easy and didn't take that much time.  It had all the things we love:  tomatoes, onion, garlic, 4 cups of fresh basil, salt and pepper and the crushed red pepper flakes.

What is better with homemade soup than homemade Ezekiel bread.  We will definitely do it all again. Next up, tomatoes au gratin . . . . 

Thanksgiving

We spend Thanksgiving with my husband's family.  This year my job was to bring dessert for all of us.  I baked my usual cookies but then decided to venture out a little bit and do something a little more festive.  Actually my sister-in-law gave me the idea.  I googled mini pies and came up with a crazy easy recipe for mini cherry and pumpkin pies.

The girls and I had fun making them.  And, if I do say so myself, they turned out pretty good! 

Thanksgiving was great!  All the cousins did their annual Thanksgiving day play with a little twist.  "Yo, let's eat."  Pretty sure the Pilgrims and Indians didn't phrase it quite like that.  During dinner my niece announced she was engaged.  We like the guy she is going to marry.  He likes our kids and loves to hang out with them.  As evidenced by the following pictures.  

Dinner prep.

Everyone gathered around the Thanksgiving table.

The kids, young and old acting silly with their place cards.

The oldest and youngest brother in the kitchen.

Like father, like son.

Girls and hair.

EG is in there.

Missing two of my husband's siblings and their families.  But, a good family picture none the less.

Always fun to get together . . . 

The Pioneer Woman and Me

This is going to be a total advertisement for the Pioneer Woman.  If you haven't heard of her, I encourage you to check her out.  She started out as a blogger.  She lives on a ranch, likes to cook and homeschools her four children.  We have two things in common.  I love ranches and we homeschool.  The cooking not so much.

But, about a month ago, probably more, a good friend made my hubby some really great ranch dressing (she knows he loves ranch dressing.)  The recipe just happened to be out of The Pioneer Woman's latest cookbook.  I had asked to borrow it so I could check out the recipe.  Then I started to read it and fell in love with her, her life and her food.  She cooks real food.  I like to call it "meat and potatoes."  The kind of food my family is use to.  And her story is pretty good too!

So, for Christmas, I got her first cookbook as a gift and for the second time in my life, I sat down and read a cookbook.  The recipes were great.  And doable!  I loved the step by step directions and her pictures that went along with the recipes.  I picked out a few I wanted to try before we went back to school.  My plan was to make my birthday dinner along with her fabulous sounding Coffee Cream Cake.

Between the time I got my cookbook and my birthday, a friend got up with me about cooking through the cookbook together.  I thought that was a great idea!  There are over 100 recipes so that means about 2 a week.  I got to choose the first two because I had already picked out some recipes to do for a birthday dinner.  Ranch Chicken, Roasted Cauliflower and the Coffee Cream Cake for dessert.

Honestly, I spent most of the day, this past Tuesday, in the kitchen.  It was really kind of fun.  It isn't something I could do just any day though.  I just don't have that much time to prepare a meal.  Not that it was difficult, just a little more time consuming them my normal crock pot meals!

But, the end result was fabulous.  Even the kids liked the dinner.  The cake was rich and really all you needed was a sliver.

Of course, my pictures don't do the food justice.  It really tastes a whole lot better than the pictures show.  But, I had to memorialize the event.  Expect more pictures of food in the future.

Hubby had to do the grilling.

The bread crumbs and butter will be used on other veggies as well.

I need to work on plate presentation.

The recipe said drizzle on the icing.  Now I know why.  If you pour it on, it runs off the sides quicker than it has time to set.  Lesson learned!  (I made notes in my cookbook on post it notes so I wouldn't make the same mistake twice.)

I do not have a cake knife.  And, I have noticed, a lot of other tools necessary to cook/bake.  And, unfortunately, I figure it out too late in the game.  I am making a list of cooking/baking utensils that I will be needing to complete our adventure!

Anyway, I am very excited to cook through the book with my friend!  It is going to be a great and unique experience for me.  And along the way, the family and I will get to eat some really great meals . . .

Apples, Apples, Apples

We got some apples from Tennessee. Quite a few apples. We have been eating plain apples, apples and peanut butter, apple and cinnamon muffins (we are bring a few to our neighbor this afternoon), and tonight I am going to attempt apple brownies.

That recipe intrigues me the most. Brownies, without chocolate, interesting concept . . .