Cornbread, White Tail And Lasagna..But Not Together

Honey cornbread. If you remember, I lost my recipe for honey cornbread and I searched high and low for it, and never found it. I'm hoping it's misplaced or filed wrong. Anyways, after trying different recipes and coming up with some so so, and some just aweful, I finally found a good one! This one had a very interesting ingredient prompting me to try this ASAP! Whip cream, and it was wonderful! This one made it into the box right away.

I made chili with White Tail Deer meat that my parents gave me recently. I grew up eating game, of all sorts, but have to admit that I never cooked it until last night. I almost forgot what it was like to smell it cooking. I was happy with the outcome and so was my husband. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture. Sorry!


This is tonights lasagna. Yes it's still in the oven. I had to jump at the opportunity to sit at the computer while I still had the chance. I also baked fresh bread to go with it. I made this one with sweet sausage and only 3 cheeses. I let the cheese on top brown a bit more than I usually do, but am sure that it will be delicious as ever. Talking about this and smelling it at the same time is making my stomach growl. Grrr...I'm gonna go eat now.

What Could This Be? An Experiment Gone Horribly Well?

Hmm, what's this? Ingredients for what? Let's try blueberry and apple pie...in one dish! We picked the blueberries from our cluster of bushes last summer. We ate them freshly picked on crepes, snacked on them, and made pies. But the harvest was more than plentiful so my mom got me in the habit of freezing and packaging them with the foodsavor and it's been a nice winter treat! Who wants to pay $6 for a tiny thing of blueberries. I'll pass. I decided to combine them with 3 small apples because this pack of berries wasn't enough for one pie.

Looking yummy already!

For the mix, I looked at both my apple pie recipe and blueberry/blackberry pie recipe and carefully combined and altered the ingredients. I was a bit worried, but I found that there was no reason to be.

Secret crust recipe. This recipe turned a pie crust hater into a pie crust lover.

All done! I got to use my pie bird for the first time. It worked well enough that I didn't have to scrub my oven, score! My miss Mia stared and waited impatiently all day to have her pie.

When all other sides dishes fail for one reason or another (this time I needed long grain rice and didn't have any..oops!) turn to a chilled orzo pasta salad. There's chopped tomato, cucumber, parsley, dill, salt, pepper, oil and feta. It was light and refreshing and went well with the fish.

Freshly caught Steelhead. Cut it up, did a lemon and brown sugar with a bit of butter mix and baked them. They look boring but are delicious. It's really a fool proof recipe. I baked some fresh bread and dinner was served!

Snow Day!

Snow day! Whoo hooo!

My first attempt at biscuits and gravy...didn't go quit as planned. Because of the blizzard going on outside, I decided it probably wasn't worth going to Haggens real quick to buy breakfast sausage, which I didn't have of course. So I did about 2 seconds of online research and found that it really isn't uncommon to make biscuits and gravy with bacon, and of course the bacon grease. So I did my biscuits which was super fun because I got to use my newly acquired biscuit cutters so they were perfectly round, and multiple sizes too!

I put those aside to cool and started my bacon. I chopped up 2 pieces of bacon to put in the gravy. I followed the recipe I got from online that had good ratings, and I followed it good...so it says to add milk shortly after you add the flour but it has to be hot...for the first time in my life...I curdled milk. Sad little violin song for me. My chances of good gravy for biscuits went from good to not happening. So I made scrambled eggs and melted muenster cheese on them...yumm!

We played in the snow for a couple hours and then had company so I didn't spend as much time in the kitchen as I was craving, and in the end didn't feel like cooking dinner, so I made a huge pot of spaghetti sauce and had to serve it with rotini, because I didn't have enough spaghetti for everyone. It was good, but as you know, a not in the mood to really cook type of dinner. The snow has started again and Im excited to see what it looks like in the morning.

Roast Me A Roast With A Snowflake Or Two

Fresh baked bread right out of the oven. This batch had Thyme in it.

Potatoes Au Gratin. First time ever making these. They took almost 2 hours!

Chicken simply sprinkled with paprika and tarragon.

Thyme, sage, sea salt and pepper is what I rubbed my meat with.

Browning my roast.

Sorry it's sideways. I roasted this in my new pot that my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas. Never used one like it but it was perfect for this size roast. It was yummy! I served this with creamy mashed potatoes and freshly baked bread.

I did make my tacos, but didn't get a picture. I made guacamole and it ended up being my best batch to date.

A Splash Of Difference, But Don't Forget The Banana Bread!

Why did I take a picture of this? An elf, more and more these days, puts these letters and animals into my pots and pans. It's always a nice surprise that puts a smile on my face. I believe I was starting mashed potatoes.

Banana bread, a recipe from my Grampa Audettes family. Got to use my new cooling rack and new glass bread pan. I'd never baked bread in glass before and didn't think that it would make an inkling of difference. Turns out I actually had to bake this 10 minutes longer than the normal 1hr and 10 minutes. It sure made a nice crisp on top though so it wasn't bad at all.

Why did I take pictures of empty cake pans? Because I just got these and have every intention of using them. Who knew? LOL! I've always wanted to make angel food cake and have never made a bundt cake and the square one is just cool.

We have finally been able to check a few things off the to-do list so I'm thinking that I will have more time to bake. I finally managed to get back into the groove of cleaning the house and kitchen when I get both girls into bed so it's been nice to wake up to a clean kitchen and fresh coffee without any kind of mess. That's always been a pet peeve of mine, but when you are so exhausted from constant go go go that you fall asleep in your super thick robe because your too tired to take it off, who really cares that your house looks neglected? I don't. But now I do, so in the end I guess I always did. Now, how about that sewing project and maybe checking something off the spring cleaning list? I think I can finally catch up on laundry tomorrow.

I also want to do some roasting of some sort. I love waking up, starting dinner and then being able to relax the rest of the day without needing to do anything else. My dad sent me home today with some White Tail Deer meat, ground, and I'm super excited to cook with it. I need to do something special. I grew up eating game meat but sadly I admit I have never cooked it before. Maybe do some kick ass burgers? I'll work on that and get back to you.

On A Side Note...

I know that when I first started this blog I was on a serious role with new recipes and kickin' ass at it. Things have been so busy it seems I barely have time to keep up with my own kitchen. So the nights that I don't post anything, it's usually because I've made something that I've made many times before and just don't feel like talking about it, made spaghetti because I make that when I'm not in the mood to cook, or possibly because we have eatin' out. Honestly, we rarely eat out because it's way overpriced, and who wants to eat at a restaurant that probably uses a microwave, my husband and I have all become all to aware of what goes on in a kitchen. Gross. So anyways, that's what is happening on those nights. Goodnight and good feedings!

Beef Welling For Desire

Browning my beef for beef wellingtons.

Browned and wrapping in puff pastry about to go into oven.

The start of the "gravy". Onion and fresh mushrooms being sauteed in butter.

A beautiful thing this was. It was sooo yummy! This was also really good over the mashed potatoes. I didn't do much to my pots but just butter and milk knowing that I would be putting this all over them. There's a ton of leftovers and I'm excited to see what else I can do with it.

Just in case you don't know what pots on a stove look like, LOL. Blanching asparagus and boiling potatoes.

Done! I baked these for the full 30 minutes. Next time, I will cut that down to about 23 minutes to get a bit more red in them. They were about 4 minutes away from being well done...what's the fun in that? Still great though!

I also made hollandaise sauce for the first time that was drizzled over the asparagus. It didn't taste bad, but I wasn't impressed with it. I thought there was too much lemon. The first batch of it I made had to be thrown out. The pan was too hot and the egg yolks partially cooked the second they hit the pan. Oops! The heat has to be right and you can't stop mixing with a whisk or it will curdle, as the first batch did but for a different reason. I'm definitly going to look more into this because again, the lemon juice was too much for me to be happy with. I thought I had bookmarked the basil vinagrette recipe that I originally wanted to make for the asparagus but couldn't seem to find it.

I bought some oyster sauce, never used it before. I would really like to do something with it and also I bought red curry. I'm a yellow curry gal' but thought it might be a nice change of pace. I just enjoyed a nice bowl of vanilla ice cream with peanuts and chocolate chips. It was good and now I'm thinking of heading to bed.

I almost forgot! We had a huge breakfast this morning of bacon, potatoes, eggs, and bell peppers. A couple hours later I got the most disgusting skinny carmel macchiato ever. It really made me feel sick for a few hours and I started to worry I wouldnt be up to spending 2 hours in the kitchen for dinner. Apparently I wanted meat! I hope that I can finish my sewing project tomorrow.

Tomato Soup For The Shrimp Creole's Soul

Tomato soup. I haven't bought a can of tomato soup for a very long time. I came across a recipe for shrimp creole and it looked and sounded good. I had all but 1 ingredient; 1 can Campbells tomato soup. I always keep a bunch of cans of tomato paste to make sauces with as well as a ton of fresh tomatoes. This was different, but hey, I tried it and it wasn't really that bad. After adding a handful of other stuff like herbs, spices, and fresh vegetables, I could no longer taste the canned soup. Well, maybe just a bit. Maybe this would be better made with tomato juice. ??

A finished product. Served over jasmin rice. As you know that's my favorite and always jump at the use of it whenever I can. Again, it really wasn't bad. The picture that I had had a much richer look to it, but all in all, good. I could have used a bit more spice than it called for. It asked for 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, I think I added about 1 tsp, and still, it needed more.

This is my sewing project for right now. In fact, every single thing you see in this picture, is a project about to be finished. The ugly back wall is finally going to get properly painted, and the extra table will find a new home somewhere in storage. I now have smaller tables I can use for my sewing that fold up nicely for storage but thought I would get one last use out of my old table before it gets put elsewhere.

Anways, the sewing project is a cool apron for one of the girls I do dinner parties with every month. It's going to be around her birthday so I've decided that's what I'll be doing for the girls until we all have our own. One side is dark purple with swirls and the back side will be light purple, or lilac to be specific I suppose. I'll post a picture when I'm done.

Tonight I plan on making beef wellingtons, fresh asparagus with either homemade hollandaise or some light vinagrette and potatoes. I haven't had time to make bread and I don't have enough time to start artisan bread and have it ready by dinner time so I think that I will make cheesy biscuits. Definitly not for the dieters. Free Bird baby! Free bird!

Food

Italian chopped salad with chicken...maybe shrimp. Mozzarella and tomato homemade pizza...maybe sausage. Au gratin potatoes...with some red meat and veg. Beef wellington, asparagus with a light sauce and roasted red potatoes, fresh bread. Beef tacos with fresh guac, sauteed peppers and onions...yummy cilantro.

It's All In The Peach Salsa

Peach salsa. There's tomato, cilantro, white vinegar, and salt.

I decided to take a picture of the table. I rarely set up the table and put food on it, I like to plate someone up and then put it on the table. It was a welcoming change for me. I fried up some chicken in a cornmeal, salt, pepper and paprika mix and the peach salsa went on top. Yumm! I also made creamy mashed potatoes, a bowl of veggies and baked some bread. It was well rested and definitly ready to be cut into by the time we all sat down for dinner. Still had a bit of steam! All in all, I could eat last nights dinner all over again.

My house has been a mess for weeks now. Yesturday, for the first time in weeks I didn't have to go anywhere, do anything, or take care of anything but my little family. It was refreshing! I managed to find a safe place for all the new crystal pieces, cleaned out the dining room closet, created a goodwill pile, started to re-arrange Mia's room and prep in my mind what I'm going to do to it this spring. I plan on finishing her closet...finally! This step will have taken me 2 years to complete. Also, she needs some things painted and refinished and then my most daunting task will be to find something for her walls. She had decals that went perfect in her old room which was a pale pink, these walls are purple. I'm tired of looking at it and besides, there just isn't enough of them. Her old room seemed like half the size. It will be a whole new room when I'm finished.

Today, I plan to finish cleaning house and hopefully somewhere in between I would love to clean my floors. It's been too long since they had a good scrubbing. I have decided to give up sleep with Isabels teething and my stress level went from 10 to -1. I call that a score! Who needs sleep anyways? I plan on moving a plant today, but I'm worried because I wonder if I will forget to water it.

Pad Thai And Coffee On The Brain

This is the start of a wonderful dinner! 2 eggs, scrambled solo and waiting, along with a mixture of lime juice, soy, oil, cayenne and brown sugar. Gosh I think that's all that went into that mixture.

My rice noodles hangin' out after sitting in- off the burner- boiled water for 3 minutes.

In such a big bowl, dosen't seem like very much shrimp. They were simply put in water to cook with some butter.

Put oil in pan, sauteed shallots and garlic then added my 2 scrambled eggs. This is apparently a very delicate procedure.

Scrambled but still perfectly soft and ready for more!

Adding my rice noodles and lime juice mixture into pan to mix. This required a lot of mixing with 2 spoons.

Still tossing and thickening.

Adding some color. Fresh cut green onions and shrimp.

Dry roasted peanuts added.

A finished product! Topped with freshly cut cilantro and finely chopped peanuts (not put into the pan). This was an awesome dinner and I'm just sorry it took so long to come across this recipe. Definitly one for the box. The only thing that I might try different is next time I would like to sautee the shrimp instead of just cook them. They were good, but would be better with a bit of brown on em'. All in all, success! And, this recipe made a ton, I have 3 large helpings left.

Gorgonzola Oh La La!

I forgot to take a picture. Sorry! This morning I made a large breakfast of eggs, potatoes, sausage, and bell peppers topped with fresh parmesan cheese. Yumm! For dinner I made linguine gorgonzola. The original recipe was a meatless one and not sure how it would come out, I played it safe and fried up some chicken and seasoned it with just pepper. I served it with freshly baked and steaming hot bread. Yumm!

Pizza With Some Much Needed Success!

Yeast, sugar and 115 degree water sitting. I gave it a swirl or two to make it's short life interesting.

Pizza dough mixed, kneaded and ready to rise. I added a quick dash or 3 of oregano and it gave the dough a nice little flavor.

Got my toppings on. I kept this pizza pretty basic because it was the first time using the recipe myself and I didn't want to put too much time or ingredients just in case it didn't come out very well. Sauce, pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, red onions, and olives.

Done! I had a quick errand to run, so as soon as I put the pizza in the oven to bake, I took off. So my husband is the one who got to see it fresh out of the oven. So sadly I didn't get that picture but I took one of the slices that were left for me. I was pleasantly surprised! I've tried a few different dough recipes, some from scratch and one from Jiffy...and I don't know what I was doing wrong, but they were all bad. I finally got it!

I plan to work on this for a while, doubling the dough recipe and putting more time and effort into awesome ingredients. I'm craving a huge breakfast but being so busy I haven't had the time to finish grocery shopping so I don't have any potatos or breakfast meat :(...now THAT is an epic fail if I ever heard of one. I can hear my husband silently screaming with the upmost patience. I guess I have a bit to do. Goodnight!

It Started With Chocolate, And Ended With Chocolate

This is the appetizer that started off girls night perfectly! Chocolate dipped bananas and strawberries. I simply couldn't eat enough of these.

Browning the meat for Beef Wellington's.

Some fruit to put in our Sangria.

The mushroom sauce that gets drizzled over the Beef Wellington.

Fresh out of the oven - Beef Wellington! This was absolutly amazing! I can't wait to make this for my husband, he will be extra happy he married me when I stick this on a plate and serve him.

Fresh greens - asparagus and green beans with a dip that was delish and had a bit of a kick to it.

Bacon wrapped asparagus.

This was dessert. Brownies that had peanut butter and coffee grounds in them and served with vanilla ice cream, wow! This was so what every woman should have hidden somewhere in the cupboard. I'm still enjoying some of the leftovers from this.

So all in all, girls night was another success. Chocolate, meat, and wine...I simply don't know what else I could ask for. I get to get out of the house for a night and eat like this? Awesome!