6.29.2010

(excerpt from Susie Q blog)
I love looking at the websites for stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond, or Lowe's etc.

GE and I actually like to look at them together, especially cooking things because we cook ALL the time.

While looking at the Lowe's website today, I was trying to keep my focus on what I might really want when I have my own house and had an "ah-ha!" moment. Kids never think about whether their food is going to stick to the bottom of the pan while cooking, or how long paint is going to last. All that matters to them is that it looks cool. Like the Rachel Ray cooking sets that come in orange or green. So pretty!

Of course as I've grown older I've learned that there are more important things than whether you can wiggle your spatula in the air all funny like, or if your juice pitcher is a fun shape. But I just realized how much I want the more important things, the things that will mean something over the long run, than the silly little "princess dream" ideas. I want cookware that will last....forever and cook my food the way I want it to. I want a knife set where the knives blades won't fall out of the handles and they won't get dull fast. 

Of course, with a tangent-mind like mine, I start thinking about the rest of the things I want in life, like a relationship that will last forever, and a job where the blades won't fall out and get dull fast (you know what I mean).  Funny how simple mundane thoughts like that trigger life-changing thoughts.

6/5/2010

Saturday night we had GE's friend Brian over for dinner, made up a new shot and went out to a favorite bar for pool and a great band.

Dinner consisted of kabobs, potato salad, and fruit salad, for three people. I will include how we made the fruit salad and kabobs, but our potato salad recipe is off limits.

These are our kabobs, eight total, including one that was solely meat: We used two 1 lb sirloin steaks from Hy-Vee (they had two different options and we went for what the meat department uses for their kabobs), common mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, red onion and baby potatoes (boiled before put on the skewers)

We grilled them for    , at

Next comes the fruit salad, I used one kiwi (quartered and sliced thinly), two bananas (quartered and sliced), one peach (cubed) and sprinkled in a container of raspberries (if you normally wash your berries, be very careful with them because they have a tendency to break open). I combined them in a bowl and used one container of Hy-Vee blueberry yogurt and then mixed it all together.

And our lovely potato salad, just for good swooning measure.

3/26/2001

I had this recipe as one of my weeklies. But here it is for all of you, just because it was so delicious I had to make it a permanent part of the blog.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/three-cheese-manicotti-ii/detail.aspx

here's how our's turned out:

As far as I know we did everything the way the recipe says, I'll have to ask GE to make sure though.

Pizza Success

I made homemade pizza for dinner last night. This is probably the funnest thing to make, especially if you like to play around with dough :).

This is the recipe I used for the crust, so simple but SO delicious and it turned out wonderfully fluffy and tasty too. It was probably the best crust I've had on any pizza so far (next time I'm going to make stuffed crust :D )
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pizza-dough-iii/Detail.aspx
My changes:
-Quick rise yeast (it's all I had, haha)
-9x13 cake pan, instead of a round cookie sheet or pizza stone (which will be my next investment)
-Baked for about 10-15 minutes passed what the recipe says.

While waiting for the dough to rise, I made the sauce:
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/exquisite-pizza-sauce/Detail.aspx
I LOVE just eying measurements while I'm cooking (and honestly, I do it while baking too, although not to the same extent). I didn't follow the measurements completely for the spices (do it to taste, you'll find it works a lot better that way). We love cheese, so I put probably 1/4-1/3 cup of Parmesan in there. We don't like anchovies so we ex-ed that out. No marjoram, and I only had garlic powder, so I just used that (and we LOVE our garlic too so of course I put a little extra in). I didn't have any cayenne powder so I used cumin and I didn't put any red pepper flakes in, although I might next time.
Here's a funny story for you: Don't forget to put the salt in. I was mixing the sauce together and tasting it and kept putting a little more of certain things in because it was missing SOMETHING and I couldn't figure out what. GE, who doesn't put extra salt on his food (just another thing to add the the list of ways he's like my father) takes one bite and immediately says, "Salt, it needs salt."

The amount of sauce fits perfectly with the dough recipe, which of course makes me a happy camper. Our toppings consisted of pepperoni, sausage (we'll try Italian sausage next time), red onions and mushrooms.

Delicious!

Cookie Eureka!

Short post for today:
I made chocolate chip cookies today because I've been craving them lately and I was reading the recipe they have for them on the bag of chocolate chips (actually chunks, I like chunks better). Nestle's recipe says to soften the butter and so I did and I will continue to do it every time I make these.
The cookies turned out beautifully!

3 cups unsifted flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter/ margarine
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 firmly packed brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
12 oz pkg chocolate chips

1) In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda,and salt; set aside.
2)In another bowl combine butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla.
3) Beat until creamy. Beat in eggs, add flour mixture mix well.
4) Add chocolate chips, bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.


Now the only issue I have with these is that they taste a little to flour-y. Any suggestions?