Saturday we had a pretty big snow - maybe 6 or 7 inches - so when everyone decided we were staying in for the day I was happy to comply. Our menu for Saturday was spaghetti and sausage (Adrienne's favorite form of pasta) and originally I had though I would make garlic bread with it but after some careful thought I figured why not make some garlic knots.
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Today has been a very weird day. I haven't felt 100% so I really didn't feel like much - but we had Adrienne's winter concert at school so I didn't want to be too lazy. I have to shout out that the concert was wonderful. They really did an awesome job and I was very happy to go.
This morning, though, as I was feeling blah, I was standing in the kitchen looking around to decide what to make for breakfast, my eyes caught on the bread machine and I had a thought. I know, let's make sticky buns! So, bizarrely, I did.
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Well, I challenged myself in November to post at least every other day - and I exceeded that so I think I can consider myself a blogger again (YEAH!). I hope you're enjoying my posts as much as I'm enjoying making them.
This week has been crazy busy believe it or not - I feel like I'm being pulled in all different directions and so scattered that I can't get anything done. Yesterday I drove out to Newark and met an old friend for breakfast (thanks Randi!) before I picked the kids up from the airport from their trip back to see their dad. I was planning on taking pictures but you know I didn't even think about it until afterwards. Last night I also made a quick, cheater baked ziti that I was going to post for my PPN post this week but I didn't get photos of that either. I really need to get my game back on.
What I do have for you today is probably the best banana bread recipe that I've found. And the best part? I made it in my bread machine. Really. No kidding.
Alright, I know it doesn't look like much, but it tastes fabulous.
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School lunches have taken a life of their own around here. Liam's been easy ... he hit middle school (okay, I still say it's wrong that 5th grade is middle school here) and he only wants to buy lunch. I can understand that completely. I know when I was in school it was embarrassing to bring a school lunch and I can't imagine it's much different today for some kids. I'm happy to say that they do have healthier options at his school so he's not just eating junk food. The other thing I like is on his lunch account it links what he buys so I get an idea of what he's eating every day.
Adrienne, on the other hand, refuses to buy lunch. She used to be happy with sandwiches, but not so much anymore. Her favorite, though, is pepperoni rolls. I try to make them every couple of weeks, but sometimes my days don't quite go as planned and I end up not getting them made. When they're not made, she takes cheese, meat and crackers along with the every day yogurt, fruit and chips or a cookie. This past weekend, though, I made them a little differently.
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Bananas seem to be the bane of my existence sometimes. They're innocent enough, but give them a few days and they turn on you - brown and inedible (at least in this house). I'm always trying to find something else to do with them so this week they ended up as banana scones.
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The weather here in NE Pennsylvania has been crazy. A week and a half ago we got over a foot of snow and now it's in the 60s during the day. I think Mother Nature is trying to trick us into thinking it's going to be a decent winter - I'm not buying it. Truth be told, I love the cold weather and the snow - but I will take this opportunity we're given and do some grilling before the snow overtakes us all.
We all know that different parts of the country have different food items that are unique to it. I grew up and spent the majority of my life on the west coast so I'm still getting used to some of the things I can't find here or are outrageously expensive. Honestly, while most of those are Mexican ingredients (cilantro for $1.99 a bunch anyone?), there are also differences in cuts of meat. While I'm no expert - I'm not a big fan of beef - I could happily live the rest of my life without it or any meat for that matter - one of the cuts I like to grill is flank steak. I know that it's a tougher cut of meat and that it's best marinated. But, seriously, $10 a pound? And so hard to find most of the time none of the grocery stores carry it. I happened to find it this week for $7 a pound (still, um, unhappy about that, but what food isn't expensive now?), and picked up a small steak to grill knowing that the one steak would feed us all.
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I did mention yesterday that I had some bananas to be dealt with and even mentioned baking some cookies. I printed out the recipe, went to the pantry and found out I had no Crisco (sigh). That meant back to the drawing board (okay, the web). What to make? What to make?
Hmm.. banana bread? Nah; didn't really have the time to let it bake (had to be to work at 11:00). Muffins? Yes! And the kind I chose was Banana Chocolate Chip. Now looking at the recipe, it only got 3 stars but that didn't daunt me. I read the reviews (gotta love recipes with reviews!) and followed the modifications from one of the reviewers.
How'd they come out? They were fantastic. Very moist, not too sweet, and hints of chocolate. Everyone that's had one has given their 2 thumbs up!
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As I looked in the refrigerator this morning I noticed two boxes of mushrooms that needed to be used and wasn't really sure what to do with them. I had originally bought them to make with steak but when I had hit the meat department of the store the steaks didn't look good at all. So the mushrooms ended in the cart and the steak didn't. Fast forward to this morning when I wrote a post on Facebook asking for suggestions what I should do with them ... Steak happened to be the consensus so off to the store I went. I decided on what looked the best -- some New York strip steaks. (And Paula from The Cookbook Junkie suggested I blog what I made so here we are.)
A couple of things to note ... I no longer have a gas grill ~ and I have never used charcoal before in my life.
Now isn't this grill cute? I picked it up at Target for about $15 and figured it was the perfect size for me to figure out if I even LIKE charcoal - let alone can cook on it. Yes, it is just as small as it looks ...
I was actually pretty surprised how well it went ... the steaks cooked pretty quickly and evenly and I think I'm now a convert to charcoal. :) Hopefully I'll get my blog mojo back and you'll be seeing some more grilled recipes before it turns too cold to grill (hmmm... is it ever too cold to grill?)
As for the mushrooms, they started out looking like this:
and ended up looking like this:
And all put together, you get this:
See that bread? OMG ... that has to be the BEST bread I've made in a long time (yep, I made it!) I was on All Recipes this morning and came across a post linking this recipe for pretzel bread. I made the dough in the bread machine and it came out PERFECT. As a tease, here's a picture of the loaf (the recipe made 4 decent size circles):
Make it, you won't be sorry!
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This past almost month has been a busy one -- Spring Break being our busiest time. The kids and I had an amazing trip to Pennsylvania (including the most bizarre snow storm as we almost didn't make it into the airport in Scranton). Food-wise, craft-wise, it's been pretty boring around here but I've been having this bizarre craving for scones.
What kind? I think my favorite has to be the pumpkin scones from Starbucks -- and while I've tried to make them before, that's not really what I was craving. Flipping through one of my cookbooks last night I came across a recipe for Orange-Cranberry scones and knew that's what I was making this morning.
Have you ever made scones? It's one of the easiest baked goods I think -- throw your dry ingredients together - stir in the wet - knead once or twice - pat it out into a circle - cut into wedges - bake. I also like them because usually they're not too sweet - this recipe uses just 7 teaspoons in the dough itself and a small sprinkling on top. Delicious!
(Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it yourself ... I'd recommend it!)
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Yesterday was Don's birthday so I told him to decide what he wanted me to cook for dinner. For me if someone asked I'd probably come up with something exotic and out of the ordinary but he just wanted spaghetti and sausage. To make it seem I did a little more work then just throw that together I opted to make some homemade breadsticks to go with it.
The unfortunate part? I thought they'd like the harder kind of breadsticks to dip into their spaghetti sauce but it was received as a "eh, don't do that again". I'm sure by today they'll be fine (I put them into a zipper top bag to soften up) but last night, while they were eaten, they weren't inhaled.
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Alphabets licensed from LetteringDelights.com
Clipart licensed from LetteringDelights.com
