Snacks, cupcakes and quiche!

As you all are aware, I have become fascinated with Pinterest.  Particularly for the recipes.  I am constantly on the lookout for delicious foods to make to help break my family out of our dinner rut.  I decided to make some new snacks, as well as some old favorites for the superbowl.

Starting on the far left and moving clockwise you will find:  Judy Moulton's Taco Dip, White Queso,  Blueberry Lemon Loaf, Brownies, Pigs in a Blanket, and Honey Glazed Chicken and Bacon Bites.  Some of these are pinterest recipes, so I linked to the original site.  The brownies were a box mix...I can't make everything from scratch! 

Judy Moulton's Taco Dip

This is my favorite dip. Judy Moulton is a woman from my childhood church and she was the foods teacher in my high school. This is her recipe and I have stolen it over the years and I love it!  I always make it for parties because it is crazy easy and delicious.

Ingredients:

2 cans refriend beans

1/2 cup mayo

1 pkt taco seasoning

1 cup sour cream

Mix all ingredients well. 

Top with shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, sliced black olives, and green onions. 

Serve with tortilla chips.

Pigs in a Blanket

These are another crazy easy party food!  You just take crescent roll dough and cut it into 1/2" strips.  Wrap the little smokies in the strips in a "x" pattern.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes and enjoy.  Heavenly!

So the superbowl snacks were a success and one of the Manning brothers won...good day all around.

Quiche

Yesterday, Mimi was here with me and she has been asking for quiche for awhile.  Mom and I have different recipes we use, but I wanted to share mine because I think it's better :)  I got this quiche recipe from my college boyfriend's mom, Karen.  It is the best quiche ever.  The recipe is for 1 quiche, but I usually make 2 at a time.

Ingredients:

1 pie shell

4 oz cream cheese

2 eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder

dash white pepper

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 pkg shredded cheese (any variety)

1/2 cup mayo

1/4 cup milk

1/4 tsp salt

1 clove garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients into a large food processor until blended.  Pour into pie shell,  Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes.

Optional ingredients:

1 cup smoked sausage and 1/2 cup frozen peas OR

1 cup broccoli and 1/2 cup frozen peas OR

1 cup crumbled bacon

If you do add smoked sausage or bacon, you can cut out the salt because those meats are so salty.  This recipes makes it really easy to customize based on who will be eating it!

Vanilla cupcake with Caramel Frosting

I also made one othe pinterest recipe today.  A quick dessert.  It is a vanilla cupcake with caramel frosting.  The cake mix is from a box (I was not in the mood to make cake from scratch) but the caramel frosting was delicious.  The frosting didn't turn out as pretty as I had hoped, but I know better for next time.  It tastes perfect though!

After the cupcakes are cooled you start the frosting.  In a medium saucepan mix 1 cup dark brown sugar and 5 Tbsp unsalted butter over medium heat.  Add 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.  Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly then add 1 cup powdered sugar and mix thoroughly.  Take off heat and dip the cupcake tops into the caramel and quickly replace back on the cooling rack.  This must be done quickly as the caramel hardens quickly.  I think it will work better if the caramel is left on the heat at a low level while the cupcakes are being frosted.   Not sure though.  Anyway, they are tasty!

Pinterest

I held off as long as I could.

I tried to keep from peeking at it, knowing I would become addicted.

I fought.  I lost.

I am on pinterest and I LOVE it!

This past week, I decided to try pinterest recipes each day (except one day where I made my favorite chili from the recipe from dad - tweaked slightly).  These are not my pictures...these are the ones from pinterest.  I was a silly girl that did not take my own pictures of my beautiful foods :(

French Toast Breakfast Muffins

These were delicious!  Especially while warm, so be sure to put them in the microwave for 15 seconds or so.  Big hit with the guys in my house.

Bacon Ranch Chicken Pasta

Super easy crock pot recipe.  My family didn't so much enjoy the whole wheat pasta I used, nor the substitution of turkey bacon for "real" bacon, but they all still ate it!

Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

The frosting was the best part of this recipe...and of course I left off the nuts on top.  The cake was a bit dense for me (too much like banana bread) but still really good and a nice change from banana bread for those bananas that are about to hit the trash!

French Dip Crescents

This was probably the easiest recipe and everyone really loved it!

Sparkling Peach Sangria

Gotta throw a drink into the mix!  This was delicious and again, crazy easy!  I used Moscato for the sparkling part and when I made my drink I mixed in a bit of beer to cancel out a tad of the sweetness.

 Stuffed Zucchini

Of course the guys didn't eat this one, but Mom and I did.  I did make a few tweaks with the spices, but it turned out really good!  I think I will put back into the mix only half of the zucchini pulp though next time.  There was too much stuffing to put back in the zucchini boats!

Three-Cheese Pasta

This is what the guys got instead of the zucchini.  It was really creamy and cheesy!  I definately reccomend it as a side or add some chicken for a meal!

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Healthy, easy meal!  The filling was enough for 10 rolls, not 8 like the recipe says.  Also, I would make a few extra noodles incase they break or rip.  I used more cheese on top too :)  Shawn though I was trying to poison him with spinach!



Overall, good eats in my house this week thanks to Pinterest!!

Thankful for...

...time with my family.

It's Thanksgiving again.  One of my favorite times of year.  This year has been far from easy, but I am reminding myself today that I have so many things to be thankful for.  I have a great husband, a wonderful family, a gorgeous nephew, and a dog that thinks I am the greatest person in the world!  We had a great Thanksgiving meal today, Skyped with the family back in Indiana, and talked to Dad.  Great day!

I made a green bean casserole from scratch this year...first time!  It was really good!  I also made knot rolls from scratch...again first time!  I was quite the gourmet chef this year!

Mom and Mimi liked the Turkey!

Shawn reading to Logan...of course!



Logan was all over the place...as usual!

Our little Indian :)

I also made a Berry Trifle this year...It was delicious!  Mimi has some personal size trifle dishes so we made Logan his own.  He loved it!  Of course he did, it had raspberries and strawberries in it and he would eat fruit all day if we let him!

Overall, Thanksgiving success.  Now we're just killing time before we hit the Black Friday deals at midnight :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Relaxing

For anyone worrying about me...I would like to start by saying that I am feeling much better.  My headache is mostly under control (pain medication 2-3 times per day now) and I am only napping once a day.  I going to the doctor tomorrow for a follow-up appointment and hope to be back to work by Thursday.

As for this time I've been home...I have been relaxing a lot.  Here are few random pictures.

I made a peach pie last week.  With peaches from the farmer's market. I have never made peach pie before (and to be honest, I had never eaten peach pie before.).  I think it turned out pretty good.



Logan came over and played on my porch last week.  Before I was sick.  I just hadn't posted this cute picture yet.  He is just about the cutest thing ever.  Mimi posted the cutest picture of him to date on facebook...I will have to repost it here later.

Marcie was very glad I came home from the hospital.  She has been taking over Shawn's side of the bed when he's not in it so she can be close to me.  She loves me :)

Lastly, I have never had much of a green thumb, but I try occasionally.  I found this beautiful plant at the farmer's market months ago and it has been growing very well for me!  It is a Texas Buttercup and I love it!  It was doing so well, that I decided to take one of the new sprouts and replant it in its own pot.  Success!  The new plant is still small, but doing well and today finally had its first flower! Yay!

That's all for now.  Back to my recovery.

Week Awesome!

Shawn has dubbed this week Week Awesome for several reasons.

#1  My bestest Theresa Vargo is visiting with her mother Barb Sequin.  Yay!

They love us so much that they drove down from Indiana to spend the week here!  They arrived Sunday night...and so Week Awesome began!

Monday we went to lunch at the Hula Hut.  Theresa and I shared a drink that was served in a fish bowl!  It was tasty...fruit juice and rums.  Yum!

We also went out to dinner at an Irish pub downtown called Fado.  It was really good!  I had a drink that was delicious.  It was called a Black Velvet.  It was half Strongbow and half Guiness.  Delicious!  We all had really good food too.  Everyone cleaned their plates!  The waitress tried to get me to try some drink that sounded disgusting.  It was Jameson Whiskey with pickle juice!  Gross, right?  Anyway, we had fun and I got called an asshole while we were walking back to our car.  Oh...fun times with Theresa!

#2 Yesterday was Shawn's 28th Birthday!

Shawn decided that he wanted to rent a canoe and go out on the lake for his birthday.  Mom found us a deal a few days earlier so we decided to do it.  Barb and T had one canoe and Shawn and I were in the other.  We had 2 hours out on Lady Bird Lake.  It was awesome!  Shawn and I will being doing this again for sure!  I forgot to sunscreen my legs though...mistake!  They are beet red!

Just starting out.  We ditched the life jackets pretty quickly!

We got our exercise!  Especially Barb and I, because Shawn and Theresa decided to relax back a few times into the canoe!

Downtown Austin from the lake.

We encountered some wildlife along the way too.  Theresa was afraid of the swan...he did sound pretty mean though.  But I just reminded her that we had a paddle and I'm pretty sure we could take him!  There were a ton of turtle too!  Shawn and I drove our canoe under the Congress Street Bridge to see if we could see the bats...we could not.  They tuck themselves way up into the bridge during the day.  We could hear them though!  You could really tell there were a ton of bats up inside the bridge!

Overall, the canoe experience was awesome!  And so Week Awesome continued!

#3 Eric came home from his trip to Indiana yesterday, just in time for Shawn's birthday!  The house was not the same while he was gone!  Of course Nessa was CRAZY EXCITED that he was back.  Plus, she just got back from her trip to England and Ireland.  And she brought us a present from Dublin.

 It's Mini-Marcie!  We love it!

Marcie is not so sure though ;)

We all went to Plucker's for dinner for Shawn's birthday since he get a free meal on his birthday.  It was a great time!  Logan was super adorable, as usual!  He was eating everything in sight...he really liked the ranch dipping sauce!  Afterward, we all came back to the apartment and played a new game Theresa brought with her.

Basically everyone acts really stupid during the game and there are some hilarous trivia questions.  Ask Shawn about cantaloupe.  That is all I will say about that!

Well...the week isn't over yet!  We still have outlet mall and Harry Potter ahead!

Homemade Irish Cream

Bailey's Irish Cream is one of my favorite things to drink.  Several times I have been given the recipe to make Irish Cream at home and I thought I would share it.  It is delicious!!  I made some today because I had extra Jameson Irish Whiskey left over from Christmas.  Yummy!

Irish Cream

 1-3/4 cups Jameson Irish Whiskey

1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 cup (1/2 pint) Whipping or Light Cream

4 eggs

2 Tbsp Chocolate Syrup

2 tsp Instant Coffee

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Almond Extract

Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.

Store in container with tight fitting lid for up to 30 days refridgerated. 

No way it will last that long though!! Enjoy!

Thai Smile

is delicious....

that is all.

Shutter Island

Oh, how I love date night :)  Shawn and I went to the mall last night to do some shopping then we decided to see a movie while we were there.  Shawn had been planning to see Shutter Island when it came out, but I wasn't so sure.  I thought it looked kind of scary plus I typically am not a huge fan of Scorcese films, but Shawn loves them (especially when they have Leonardo DiCaprio in them).  So we decided to see the movie then get dinner afterward.  I have to admit that I loved the movie!  I was so surprised.  I didn't know anything about the movie at all (and I have since discovered that it is based on a book - my dad read it and said it is good).  It is a great movie!  There are parts that a bloody and kind of graphic but the story is really great.  I would definately recommend seeing this movie.  We were near a Steak N Shake, which Shawn loves, so we ate dinner there and got milkshakes before heading home.  We really had a nice night together...but we always do anyway when we're together!

Shawn leaves tomorrow for his work conference in Santa Cruz, California, which is right outside of San Jose.  He'll be there for 3 days, but we decided since he was going there for work anyway we might as well make a trip of it.  So...he will be done Wednesday morning and I am going to fly out to LA and we'll meet there Wednesday then we'll stay until Sunday morning.  We're going to be staying with Albert, plus we'll be able to visit Andrew finally!  Our friend Bryce lives out there also, and Shawn has another old friend who we're going to try to see as well.  We planned out today all the stuff we're going to try to do while we're there and we're getting excited.  I've been out there once before in 2003, but Shawn never has.  I'm sure we'll have a great time plus we're really looking forward to seeing Andrew!  He's doing really great in his recovery, so we're really happy about that!  We'll take lots of pictures, so check back.

Comfort Food

Apparently, when I have killer headaches and severe neck pain all I can think about is eating.  This is bad.  All the more reason to get this neck pain taken care of.  Thank goodness I am going to the doctor tomorrow.  As for now...I guess I will eat some more?