My Newest Craze

I've become a little baby crazy lately! I really have no idea why. It's not like I'm pregnant or Seth and I are even trying. . . The other day, I found myself looking at baby furniture on line! What is that about? And I had a dream the other day where Seth and I had a baby, but we had literally nothing prepared! No crib, no clothes, no car seat. . . The baby actually had to sleep on the chest in our bedroom :)

I think this craze may be because of two reasons:

First, Seth and I are in the process of cleaning out the room that will one day be our baby's nursery :) Seth isn't nearly as excited about this as I am, mostly because he knows he will inevitably be buying paint and supplies soon so I can paint the room. Currently, the room is a very dark blood-red color :/ Kind of creepy and not a color that would soothe any future babies! So, I'm having fun looking through paint colors for that room, which I guess led to me looking at furniture. . . Seth wasn't excited about that either ;)

Second, after the new year, Seth and I wrote an extensive to-do list called "Before Baby." It's a list of all the things I want to have done in the house before we introduce a baby into it. The list has 25 tasks, everything from redoing the floors to putting a ceiling up in the basement. So far, we have finished two things and I crossed them off with a very satisfying straight dark line that makes me very happy whenever I look at it :) 

The first task I completed was Organize Old Drawers. Apparently, there are drawers in this house that haven't been cleaned out since all the boys moved out, or even since all the boys moved in. Some of them still had stuff left over from Seth's grandparents :) Oops! I love knowing what's in my drawers now and where I can put things.

The second thing (and something I never thought would happen) was getting a locking trash can for outside. I've wanted one of these for the longest time, and Seth always went on this tirade about how he would never buy a trash can when we have perfectly good ones. Just so you know, perfectly good ones to Seth mean cans that are cracked and disgusting without lids. Anyway, we have several very fat, very happy squirrels that live near our trash cans. These squirrels are fat and happy because their favorite activity is to tear open the trash and strew it all over our yard. I'm quite sure our neighbors don't appreciate it, and I would prefer a trash-free yard as well :) Actually, as I write this, the trash can has fallen over again and the squirrels had dragged several paper towels, a coke bottle and brownie box across the yard. Oy Vey! I can't wait to use the new trash can, and have a cleaner yard. 

When getting married, does anyone realize that these are the things that are going to excite them in a few years? Clean drawers and a new trash can!!

More Love, Less Cooking

I've decided this blog needs a little more love and a little less cooking. I promise! Seth and I do more than cook and eat :)

Studying his butt off!

Right now, this guy is at HCC taking a Praxis test for Biology. For those of you who don't know, this means that Seth is taking a test to get certified to teach Biology on top of his certification in Earth Science. This isn't exactly voluntary!! The County has decided, starting next year, to no longer have Earth Science as a required course :( It'll still be an elective, but the amount of classes to be taught will go way down. So, the teachers need to find something else to teach!

Seth was really bummed about this at first. My handsome nerd has dreamed of teaching Earth Science pretty much his entire life. On our honeymoon, we were on a tour of a waterfall, but my hubby was more interested in the volcanic rocks on the side of the stream!! :) He's a nerd, but I love him anyway! 

He's been studying his butt off these past couple weeks. I really miss him, but I've tried to be as supportive as possible! He's really nervous :/ Thankfully, the County pays for two tries at the test, so if he doesn't pass this time he can take it again. But, that would mean more studying and more headaches! 

Last night, Seth had to go to a basketball game at the school to supervise. When he left, he was really down. But, he actually came home with a really good outlook :) Apparently, he mentioned to his assistant principal that he was taking the test today, and he actually prayed for Seth right then and there!! In front of 200 parents, students and faculty :) We were so inspired! And I was so thankful to see a smile on my guy's face again!! How many times have I missed an opportunity like this? I'll have to remember that taking the time to pray for someone can completely change their outlook on the situation :) What a cool thing to come out of such a frustrating situation!! :)

Cinnamon Rolls

Every Christmas, (or the two we've had together) Seth and I make cinnamon rolls for breakfast! They're gooey and wonderful, and they're perfect for a special breakfast. The best part is that we usually make them on Christmas Eve, so they just need to be reheated that morning. It saves us from slaving in the kitchen rather than enjoying the holiday :) 

Ingredients:

1 pkg dry yeast

1 C warm milk

1/2 C sugar

1/3 C margarine

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

4 C flour

1 C packed brown sugar

2 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

1/3 C margarine

2 tbsp flour

Icing:

8 tbsp margarine

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

1/4 C cream cheese

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in the bowl of a standing mixer. Let sit for about five minutes so the yeast can fully dissolve. (A good trick to see if your yeast is actually active is to throw a pinch of sugar in the bowl. If the yeast bubbles, it means it's eating the sugar and will actually work for your rolls.)

Add sugar, 1/3 C margarine, salt, eggs and flour. Mix well.

Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a well floured surface. Knead the dough into a large ball. Put into a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Before:

After:

Roll the dough onto a floured surface into a 1/4 inch rectangle.

Melt down 1/3 C margarine and spread all over the dough. It's going to seem like a lot of butter, but it's what makes the filling so gooey! 

Mix together brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Sprinkle all over the dough until completely covered. Next, sprinkle the 2 tbsp flour until it's in a pretty even layer on top. This is so the insides don't seep out all over the place in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll the dough into a log, and cut into 1 3/4 inch slices.

Put the rolls in a greased pan. We usually get twelve or thirteen rolls. Give each roll room to move as they will rise a little and puff in the oven.

Let the rolls sit for about 15 minutes and let the rolls rise a little. Put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. 

Beat the icing ingredients together. We usually one and a half the icing because Seth likes a LOT of icing! Spread the icing all over the rolls, and Voila! Enjoy :)

Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

I never realized how hard it would be to keep a blog updated! :) When did life get so busy? Just a couple years ago, I had more time than I knew what to do with, but lately it seems I have limited time to experiment in the kitchen, let alone blog about it! But, don't distress, foodies!! I have a real treat for you today :)

Seth and I had some friends over for dinner last week, and I was really stressing over what to make for dessert! I just had zero inspiration. But, then I stumbled upon this recipe for Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. I have tried to make cakes like this before, but they would cook mostly all the way through, and if you don't get enough chocolate gooey deliciousness, then what's the point? However, this recipe promised a soft center, so I thought I'd try it. Thank goodness I did! Seth liked it so much that we had to make it two more times that weekend. And it really isn't all that hard to make. The only ingredient we didn't have was baking chocolate, and one 8 oz. box lasted us through three batches :)

Ingredients:

2 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate

1/4 C butter (1/2 stick)

1/2 C powdered sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

3 tbsp flour

To start, preheat your oven to 425 degrees. You will definitely want your oven to be hot before putting these cakes in so they cook enough not to be a gooey mess.

Melt chocolate pieces and butter. Most likely the butter will melt faster, so just whisk until the chocolate melts all the way.

Add the powdered sugar and continue whisking until incorporated. Now, the first time I made this, the mixture got so clumpy that I almost panicked, assuming the chocolate burned!! Don't worry about it. The mixture settled out after adding more ingredients. And this honestly only happened the first time, so I don't know what I did differently the other two times.

Now, whisk in the eggs and then add the flour. At this time, the batter should be creamy and smooth, and it should resemble the color of a bar of milk chocolate. 

Grease two ramekins with baking spray and divide the batter between them. They should be 3/4 full and the cake will puff in the oven. Cook for about 14 minutes. THE CAKE WILL NOT LOOK ALL THE WAY DONE! It is supposed to wiggle :)

Let the cakes sit for one minutes, so they can set a little more. Now, you can choose to eat them straight out of the cup or on a plate. When putting it on a plate, it's important not to just plop it out onto the plate. It's not a very stable dessert and doing this would probably make it fall apart, which frankly isn't much fun! Inside, put the upside down plate on top of the ramekin and turn the whole thing upside down so the cake falls gently onto the plate. Voila!!

Seth likes his with ice cream, but I think it's just delightful on it's own!

Potstickers

I got out of work two hours early on Saturday, so Seth and I decided to try something new for dinner. Not only a new recipe, but a new technique as well :) Potstickers were definitely something we have never made before! We had actually only eaten them a few times before, but it was something different that we both liked, so we thought we'd try it.

Normally, potstickers are made with pork or shrimp. But each of those cost more than chicken ;) So, we substituted! This recipe would probably work for both of those though if you had some to use. 

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

3 tbsp chopped green onion

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C water

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp hot mustard

1-2 tsp chili garlic sauce

pkg wonton wrappers

1 egg, beaten

canola oil for pan

Put the chicken in a pot and top with water. Boil until cooked through. Drain the pot and let the chicken cool. 

Once it is cool to the touch, shred the chicken and put it into the bowl of a food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients up until wonton wrappers. Pulse until the mixture resembles a chicken salad-esque paste (I know this sounds kind of gross, but it tastes good and it keeps all the mixture in the wrapper after you've taken the first bite).

Put a spoonful of mixture in the middle of a single wonton wrapper. Brush beaten egg around the edges of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper and pinch the edges together to form a pocket. Seth was a little better at this than me. I always put too much in, and my wrapper would split when I tried to close it. You don't want this! All the chicken will fall out when you boil it :) Repeat until you've used up all of the chicken mixture.

Place the potstickers gently into a large boiling pot of water. Let them cook for about one minute or until the purses float to the top. 

Sear the outside of the wrapper in a hot canola-coated pan until brown.

Serve!

I like them dipped in the following sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp rice wine

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Come autumn, there are always tons of recipes popping up everywhere whose main ingredient is pumpkin. Pumpkin bread. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin cookies. It's all good fun for those who love pumpkin, but I've never been a fan of the taste :/ Don't get me wrong! Coming home from school the day before Thanksgiving to the smell of fresh-baked pumpkin pies will always be one of the strongest holiday memories from my childhood. I love the smell, just not the taste. So, I thought I'd give the others like me an alternative for a hearty bread :) Chocolate Chip Banana!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C sugar

1/2 C butter

2 eggs

1/2 C milk

3-4 mashed bananas

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 C flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 or 1 1/2 C chocolate chips (depending on how much you like chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. 

Mix in milk, mashed bananas and vanilla.

Mix in dry ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Now, the baking time can get iffy. I usually set it for an hour, and then check it. It always takes different times. I think it may have something to do with how many bananas you use and how ripe they are. Anyway, the center is usually rather uncooked once the hour is up, and I just set the timer for small increments until it's more solid :)

Enjoy!!

Vegetable Beef Soup

As the saying goes, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Well, in this house, I've added another line. "The way to my man's stomach is through his wallet." :) For the first 6 months of our marriage, Seth insisted that he didn't like soup. Now, me, I'm a huge soup person, but I went a whole fall without any soup! So, I needed a plan. I finally convinced Seth to agree to a batch of vegetable beef soup. He'd had the recipe at my parents' house before, and he did like it because it was more on the stewy side than soupy. But, he was still a little apprehensive. Until he realized that we were able to stretch the soup to last several dinners in the week. Seth was happy about anything that can stretch our grocery budget :) Plus, he says it tastes pretty good ;)

This week has been rainy and gross, so I thought it was time to pull out the recipe for the cold season.

Ingredients:

-1 chuck roast, cubed

-med onion, diced

-6 small bouillon cubes

-1 C barley

-1 bag mixed veggies

-4 or 5 potatoes, cubed

-1 can diced tomatoes

-1 can tomato sauce

Fill a large pot 3/4 of the way with water. Add meat and onion, a little salt, a little pepper and several bouillon cubes.

Bring to a full boil and then turn down to a soft boil. Add 1 C barley.

Cook for 1 hour.

Add veggies, potatoes, tomatoes and sauce. Stir and check consistency. (Optional: 2 tbsp bacon grease)

Bring to real soft boil for 20 minutes or so.

Add more bouillon cubes to taste.

I also like to sprinkle Old Bay in my bowl, because it gives it a little spicy kick. Perfect for rainy and cold weather!