Friday Five

And just like that, we're here on the very last Friday of 2016.  I for one, had some very good experiences this year but I'm very ready for this year to be over.  Let's hope 2017 is much kinder and gentler.  And in that regard, here are the 5 things I'm hoping to do in 2017.

1. My one little word for 2017 is: 

I want to be open to new experiences, new feelings and new ideas.  I want to go to new places, and see new things.  I mean, I always want to do that but that's the focus for this year.

2. I'd very much like to cook and bake more. I'm terrible at this, and I really want to be better.  Maybe my nice new KitchenAid will help out with this goal.

3. I'm sort of loving the idea of doing the NYC once a month thing again.  It was super fun this year and I really enjoyed having that one fun plan that was set each month.  Also, the 2017 theatre scene is looking way too good to pass up any chance at a trip.

4. Lose weight - doesn't everyone have this resolution? We'll see if it happens.  It would be nice if I could combine Numbers 2 and 4 and cook more food that's better for me.  But where's the fun in that?

5. I'm upping 2016's goal for reading to 4 books a month. My bookshelf is growing immeasurably which is just fabulous (for my sanity, not necessarily my wallet...) and hitting the 3 mark each month was so exciting.  I live a quiet life, what can I say? : )

Cooking in the Kitchen

Today I had the pleasure of attending a cooking class at the Baltimore Chef Shop, where my dad and I learned how to make croissants and danishes.  The Baltimore Chef Shop opened a few months ago in the Hampden area of Baltimore City.  It's housed in a cute townhouse on the avenue along with lots of other kitschy little shops and restaurants.  The chefs at the shop teach classes on loads of different styles of cooking; from French pastries to Omelettes, from Pizza to Dim Sum, and loads in between.

When I first heard about it, I was super excited!  It sounded like such a good time.  And since my dad is already a fabulous cook who took a class like this in Italy (and loved it!), I thought it would be a great birthday present for him.  And it turned out it was.  We had a wonderful time!  Our class was supposed to be 3 hours covering danishes and croissants for the first 2.5 hours, then give us a chance to eat what we had just made. 

Well, the class quickly turned into a 4 hour affair seeing as the timing was a little rough. This was the first time the BCS had covered croissants and danishes, and since they're just a bit labor intensive, we were willing to overlook that.  But after all of that, we finally got to taste what we made, and that was most definitely my favorite part.  The cheese danishes were so darn yummy!  The croissants were a little too buttery, a little too heavy and a little too empty (I would have preferred Chocolate...) for me.  And while I probably won't be attempting croissants any time soon, I'm already hoping to give Danishes a try one of these days - of course I'll be needing a Kitchen Aid, a scale and a bigger kitchen...

Cake-tastrophe

I watch a lot of cooking shows.  I'm not really one for the shows that teach me how to cook. I'm more of a fan of the ones that go all over the country for the best food - it's pretty much how I plan vacations.  Anyway, that means I spend a great deal of time checking out Cooking Channel hoping that Unique Sweets is on.  So, today after my usual channel flipping, I happened upon a new show - Cake Hunters.

And, usually one for a new food show - especially one involving cake, I decided to give it a shot.  And?  And it was basically a train wreck.  But a train wreck that I couldn't look away from.  The premise is simple.  A couple goes on the hunt for the perfect wedding cake so they meet with 3 bakers and get their thoughts, then choose their favorite for their wedding.  

It could have been decent - not fabulous, but good in a pinch.  But it's just not.  Tonight's couple was from Maryland and seemed a little too focused on a cake for the wedding.  At one point they decided that the cake was the most important focal point of the entire wedding. Really?  I thought professing your love in front of friends and family was the most important.  

Now I'm willing to give them that the cake is important - not the most important - but a big part of the reception.  I judge most receptions by how yummy the cake is, so it's at least in the top 10.  But the groomzilla - yep, in this case the groom was a little off his rocker rather than the bride - was sharing what he was most wanting to see in his perfect cake.  Patterns. Not taste.  Not flavors.  Not texture.  He was most interested in a cake that had "patterns" on it. What?!

In the end they decided on some 4 foot monstrosity full of gilding, aqua butter cream strawberries and passion fruit.  Not a chip of chocolate to be found!  Most definitely not what I would have chosen for my future wedding.  But then again, I would definitely not choose to go on a show this ridiculous either...

In the Kitchen: Experimental Edition

Looks delicious doesn't it?  I thought so too. Until I decided to scoop it out and nothing in the center was done...

I started the day searching for a recipe on Pinterest for dinner tonight.  I wanted something breakfast-y like a strata, however, those need to be refrigerated over night and I didn't have that kind of time.  After picking through a few, I found a sausage gravy version that used Grands Biscuits and store-bought gravy mix.  I hate store bought gravy but I LOVED the idea of using Grands as opposed to plain old bread. 

So I sort of improvised.  I used sausage, and onions and peppers.  Then I scrambled some eggs and mixed it all in with quartered grands biscuits.  And that's where we picked up the story.  It took a bit to get it to finish, and when I pulled it out, it wasn't jiggly anymore.  But as soon as I scooped, it was still juicy inside. Gross!

I followed the directions from the sausage gravy recipe for timing. Apparently, store bought gravy cooks much faster than eggs & sausage...Fortunately, I have a microwave which helped.  After the grumpiness of uncooked eggs subsided, the dinner was pretty delicious! 

I have to say, if it weren't for that annoying part in the middle, I would amaze myself : )

Pinning in the Kitchen

After a bit of a drought on the cooking/baking front, I somehow happened upon 2 winners on Pinterest this week.  I actually went back and forth on trying either of them; I wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  But I'm super happy I decided to give them a shot.  They were both delicious, even if dessert wasn't exactly what I was expecting.

First up, for dinner was the Chicken Caprese Flatbreads.  This one I sort of winged.  I can see the pin, and click on it, but no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to scroll down and see the recipe.  But I sort of got the idea from the picture, so I just rolled with it. Maybe you'll have better luck.  

I'm not sure why it never occurred to me to grill the bread dough like that, but it's a fabulous idea!  I used chicken thighs because I like them, and they shred well, and excluded the arugula and pesto, in favor of garlic oil.  I also strategically placed the tomatoes between the chicken and the cheese to avoid the whole warm tomato conundrum.  (There's a good chance you won't have to do that, since you're probably not as weird about hot tomatoes as I am, but in case you are, it worked perfectly!)

Conclusion: Perfect dinner for a super hot and humid summer day!

Next up, for dessert was Peach Cobbler.  Now, I LOVE peach cobbler.  It's one of my most favorite desserts. However, it's quite difficult to make when you don't have really good peaches, which is the whole reason I chose this recipe.  It used canned peaches as opposed to fresh, which is a good thing since it's not quite peach season time yet.  I had a bit of problem with the pin not matching the recipe; it's basically 2 recipes in one.  And seeing as I misread and forgot the self rising flour, there was a bit of finessing of the recipe - AP Flour mixed with baking powder seemed to do the trick.  I also had to bake it for a full hour as opposed to the 45 minutes.  I probably would have baked it longer, since I was dreaming of  a crispy top, but the master baker prevailed and I finally took it out.  It was no where near what I was expecting. In the photo it looks all nice and crisp and crunchy on top.  Mine was neither, but...

Conclusion: It was pretty darn tasty with vanilla ice cream!  Delish!

Looks like it was a 2 for 2 evening in the kitchen - love it when that happens!

Cooking & Crafting - But No Photographing

I must be the worst blogger ever.  I've been into the cooking a!d crafting this week, but I haven't remembered to take a single photo.  However, it wasn't all bad.  Both the cooking and crafting were quite successful.

First thing was the craft project for Christmas Gift giving - a block puzzle.

 Of course mine was a bit different.  I'm making mine for a little one so I traded up to 2 inch blocks as opposed to 1 inch - better for little fingers.  Aside from being a major pain in the crafting butt, and aside from my serious spatial issues (apparently I have issues organizing blocks in my head), it's turning out super cute.  I now have 2 more sides of all the blocks yet to cover, then I need to seal it with Mod Podge.  Oh and BTW, Mod Podge is the absolute coolest product in the entire world.  I can't wait to use it on about 20 other projects.  I'm hoping the little one loves it as much as I do!  And I will most definitely have pics of it when it's through - it's already too awesome not to document.

Next up was the cheese streudel from Pillsbury I've been dying to make for the last 2 weeks. Easy peasy and super delicious.  I love that the super smart people that work at Pillsbury, have created loads of recipes to make with their products.  Crescent rolls - boring.  Crescent rolls filled with cream cheese, sugar cinnamon and chocolate chips - delicious!

Though I gotta admit, mine was nowhere near as pretty as this one.

Pinning in the Kitchen

This week's recipe is courtesy of  The Girl who Ate Everything.  No, that's not what I call myself, though I probably should. It's a blog that serves up all sorts of yummy recipes.  I've tried a few of hers before that were complicated.  They always turned out ok, but the easy factor wasn't there.  This week's had the bonus of being super easy and super delicious.

I pinned it a few weeks ago and have been planning to make it since then.  The recipe is for Monterey Chicken.  Before you ask, I wasn't sure why it was called that either.  But I learned that it was because of the monterey jack cheese used to make it all gooey delicious.  In that case, I suppose I should call my version Chedder Jack Mix Chicken, but that's beside the point.  

The verdict is that the recipe is perfect for a weeknight meal.  I have a super difficult time with time management in the kitchen.  Absolutely nothing gets done at the same time as everything else.  However, with the marinade time needed for this one, I was able to mix up the first part, throw it in the fridge then get everything else ready before actually cooking the chicken.  How's that for simple!?  And it was perfect with the house recipe rice and my favorite corn muffins.  The perfect meal for boring old Monday!

Friday Five

1. Not only are the Orioles on a hot streak (after the first of 2 games today, the magic number is now 7!), the Ravens managed to pull out a win last night against the Steelers.  And not just any win, a really big win that ended Big Ben's streak of touchdown passes thrown.  Way to go guys! It seems Harbaugh was just a little excited - it seems he forgot just how big his players really are : )

2. In other Sports news, somehow Rory McIlroy managed to hit a golf ball off a tree into a spectator's pocket.  I was never that great at science but that has to be against the laws of physics, right?
            

3.  With the anniversary of September 11th this week, there was a lot of focus on survivors and their families, as well as first responders.  At the time of the attacks, there were also dozens of disaster dogs combing the rubble looking for signs of life.  13 years on, all of those hero dogs have passed away except one golden retriever named Bretagne - and she's about the most adorable dog ever.  Instead of retiring into a cushy life, she still manages to work for a living by allowing children to read to her at a local school. What a cutie!

4. As someone who used to teach little ones, I hearby decree this is an entirely accurate picture of a kid who's just had enough of this crap. : )  It was taken by a White House photographer back in June and somehow was released this week.  I don't even know the kid's name but I want to meet him.

Speaking of cute kids, this one is super adorable too...apparently.  If you don't recognize him, he's the kid that made headlines a few weeks ago for being interviewed by the news and using the word apparently about 20 times in a 2 minute segment - in other words he's a cutie pie and apparently, pretty darn clever too.

5. And people wonder why I don't cook all that often - every darn one of these things have happened to me at least once (most often more than once...)

Pinning in the Kitchen

This week's edition was the Korean Beef from Lizzy Writes.  I'm a big fan of Sesame Chicken with the sweet brown sauce.  Based on the picture on her blog I was thinking this would be almost just like that.  It wasn't but it was in fact delicious!  It wasn't too sweet and it was just a little spicy (it probably could have been a bit more spicy had I not been so scared of using Red Pepper Flakes - just a few too many of those things and your tongue's on fire).  And the special homemade secret family recipe rice makes everything better.  Finally a home run for a change! Yum!

Hit & Miss

While the epic mess I made of dinner tonight was most likely a bit my fault, I've decided to place all of the blame solely on Pinterest.  Most slow cooker recipes take just a few hours instead of the required 8 I need to work but after finding one for sweet and spicy chicken wings, I was feeling pretty excited and on the ball.  Things were good when I got home to a yummy smelling kitchen.  They continued to be good even when taking them out, they proceeded to fall off the bone a bit.  It means they were going to be tender, which is perfect. Things began to be not so good after throwing them in the broiler for 4 minutes as opposed to the required 10.  As you can see from exhibit A below, it was an epic fail of monumental proportions that required a trip to Pizza Hut since dinner was inedible.  Always great when that happens...

Big Miss

At least the Pinterest crafty win a few hours later made up for it a bit.  But those crock pot recipes better watch their backs.  Depriving me of dinner is no way to make me happy...

Big Hit

In the Kitchen: Breakfast Pie

There are a few recipes that I love to make and tend to make quite often.  This breakfast pie is my specialty and I make it probably a great deal more than I should.  It's good for breakfast, but I usually have it for dinner with lots of salsa.  The salsa is a special recipe so I can't share that, but I will share the pie - it's so simple and is the perfect dinner for a busy week night!

Before:

 After

PS: I've seemed to figure out the blogging, the cooking and the crafting but not so much the photography just yet.  It may not look appetizing but I guarantee it's delicious!

Kristen's Breakfast Pie
Makes 2 Pies

Roll of Breakfast Sausage
One Green Pepper
One Onion
8-10 eggs 
Pillsbury Pie Crusts 
Grated Cheddar Jack Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
And any other yummy ingredient you'd like

Preheat oven to 375 and lay out pie crusts in 2 pie pans,  
Saute onions and peppers until soft.  Remove then fry up the sausage.  When sausage is fully cooked, add the cooked onions and peppers and mix well.  While they're warming on the stove, crack and scramble the eggs and add cheese as you like.  Add the sausage mixture to the egg mixture then dump the whole mix into the opened pie crusts.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.  In the last 5 minutes, sprinkle some cheese on top if you'd like. 

Enjoy with your favorite salsa or accompaniment!

Things on a Tuesday

~ I somehow managed to put dinner on the table with relatively no stress and managed to nail all 3 components (thanks to some additional chef-y help).  The corn muffins were the best I've ever made even though I had no sugar and was forced to open about a billion Splenda packets.  And both new pans worked perfectly.  Gotta love non-stick!

~ I'm having some serious restless leg issues at this moment and am squirming like worm. I hate when this happens!

~ In the midst of my new craft room upheaval madness, this article hits a little too close to home.  I'm pretty sure at least 3/4 of these fit me to a tee!

~ Speaking of crafty upheaval, I discovered about 40 different shades of embroidery floss amongst my supplies this evening.  For someone who doesn't really know how to embroider, that's a lot of floss. Also, I have no recollection of buying that much so I'm not sure where it came from exactly...

~ When I woke up this morning there was a new 1 inch of snow covering the old 6 inches but when I left work this afternoon it was 55 degrees outside.  And yet, there is a possibility of a few more flurries this evening.

~ Even after a long weekend and a snow day last week, I'm hoping and wishing for another snow day on Friday.  Mostly, so I can watch the Women's Hockey Gold Medal game.  Is that wrong?

Kitchen Pinning Tuesday

I am by no means a fan of Sloppy Joes.  In theory, they have all of my favorite things going for them, but they're just not my thing.  I'll eat them, but if I can avoid it, I will every time.  So it came as a surprise to me as well, when I found one on Pinterest that actually sounded yummy and that I wanted to try.

So glad I did!  These Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes were delicious!  I've never actually bought A1 before so when I opened it and it was pretty thick (like ketchup as opposed to the soy sauce consistency I was expecting) I was a bit worried.  Also, the beef mixture smells a bit funny, so I was sensing yet another epic fail.  Thank goodness, I was very wrong.  It tasted 100x better than it smelled.  These little babies will most definitely go into the regular rotation.  I recommend using a soft roll though as opposed to the toasted roll.  I was skeptical that a soft roll would be good seeing as it's all sort of mushy  but somehow it all worked together.  

PS: I am about the worst blogger ever and therefore took not a single photo of my delicious dinner, which is why I was forced to steal the original blogger's photo.  Hers is much better than mine would have been anyway.

Kitchen Pinning

Two more hits this evening from Pinterest.  Dessert was a slightly bigger hit than dinner mind you, but my record is getting much better.  Usually at least one recipe fails miserably but somehow I managed to eek out two wins in the same evening.

First up is the Broccoli Cheddar Quiche.  Only thing I can add is that the cooking time is way, way off.  I basically had to double how long it said to cook it after quite a few attempts at cutting into liquid.  Oh, and be sure to cut the broccoli small - my chunks were just a bit too large.

Next up was dessert - Banana Foster Crumble.  I noticed it last week because it made the rounds quite quickly.  Before I pinned it, I saw it at least 5 times, then 3 more people pinned after I did.  That's always a good sign.  And boy was it ever a good sign!  It was absolutely delicious!  I didn't make the Kahlua Chocolate Sauce, mostly because I had none of the ingredients. But I don't really think it needed it.  It was sweet enough and with the cold ice cream, it was pretty darn perfect!  Also, you have to love a recipe that uses so few utensils.  Yum!

PS: Is it odd that I'm strangely fascinated by the fact that I have 500 food pins exactly?  I kinda don't want to pin any more recipes since I've reached a cool number : )

Yum!

I'm usually a by the book cook.  I like having recipes because it's hard for me to know exactly what to put into things to make it taste a certain way.  But today, I decided to be adventurous.  I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought it looked pretty yummy.  However, I hate canned tomato soup - dreadful!  So I just took a long shot and figured I'd wing it.  I threw together some tomato sauce, onions, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, & pepper. Then I threw in some mini-sausage meatballs I rolled from Bob Evan's Italian sausage log and some frozen tortellini.  In about an hour, I had a delicious dinner!  Three cheers for taking a risk.  They hardly ever pay off for me, but this time it most definitely did.  The hard part of course, is seeing if I'll ever be able to recreate it : )

PS: Apologies for the less than stellar photography.  I get a little excited when there's food waiting and don't always have the time to grab the good camera.

Friday Five

1. NotontheHighStreet.com: I just discovered this site today and I'm thinking it might be my new Etsy.  I'm still overly obsessed with all the goodies Etsy has to offer, however, this new site just increases those goodies 10 fold.  Of course, it's based in Britain, so there are quite a few Britain-centric accessories and that may be why I find it so darn amazing.  Their tagline is "For a life less ordinary"so if you are looking for new and out of the ordinary gifts, this should be one of your first stops.

2. The very fact that after 2 years, Sherlock is finally back and I'm able to watch it with England, due to my TunnelBear VPN.  Absolutely amazing invention though I have no idea how it works!  However, I know now I can use the BBC iPlayer which makes me very happy. Also, seeing as I live on Pinterest, I would have never had the willpower to avoid some major spoilers since the show hasn't started showing in the states.  The show itself has been fabulous and I think I may be even more in love with where it's going than I have been in the past (however, I fear evil is in the air, so I'm slightly scared to watch the finale on Sunday...)

3. A Crock Pot supper: I think I may have said this already, but having dinner ready when I came home the other evening was about the coolest thing ever.  The smell was fabulous and the recipe worked like magic.  Gotta love something so easy and so delicious!

4. "The Tower, The Zoo and The Tortoise" by Julia Stuart: I have to say it was most definitely not what I was expecting.  I've been looking at this book for the last year or so, and assuming it was a bit of a fairy-tale for grownups.  While not necessarily, light and breezy, it was quirky and cute and after the first 40 pages or so, I fell in love.  Fantastic story and fantastic characters.  Oh and the setting (Tower of London!) wasn't so bad either.

5.  My new inspiration for the year 2014.  

Crock Pot Dinner #1 - Success!

I've been wanting a Crock-Pot for a while now.  Well, when I say awhile I suppose I mean since the invention of Pinterest and since I saw Target had a cute Chevron one. (Isn't it adorable!?) Though, it did make sense, seeing as I stress about getting dinner on the table on time and making everyone wait until I've finished cooking to eat.  What could be better than dinner that's ready as soon as you walk through the door?  So after receiving it for Christmas (Thanks buds!) and hitting Pinterest up for some recipes, I decided to give it a go.  Though, the first recipe I tried wasn't found on Pinterest at all, it was found on Facebook.  

The recipe was Salsa Chicken and it was delicious!  It was a little juicier than I had hoped so it would have made very messy tacos, but the juice was perfect on rice which I had made, so it worked out perfectly.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because I was much too excited by the fact my house smelled yummy when I walked into it and much too hungry to grab my phone when we sat down to eat.  All in all, I'm calling the Crock Pot Project a giant success and will be scouring Pinterest this evening to see what other goodies I can come up with for the next meal.

Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken
 lbs. (32 oz.) chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
1 cup salsa, homemade or purchased
1 cup petite diced canned tomatoes (choose low-sodium)
2 tbsp. taco seasoning
1 cup onions, diced fine
1/2 cup celery diced fine
1/2 cup carrots, shredded (you can leave these out if you are concerned about the carbs)
3 tbsp. sour cream, reduced fat (can use regular sour cream if you like)
Directions
Place the chicken in a slow cooker. Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the meat then layer the vegetables and salsa on top. Pour a half cup water over the mixture, set on low and cook for 6-8 hours. The meat is cooked when it shreds or reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. When ready to serve, break up the chicken with two forks then stir in the sour cream.
Makes eight 1 cup servings.

1 For 2 in the Kitchen

As I said last week, I've been trying a bit harder with cooking and baking lately.  Pinterest has been a big inspiration and I've loved trying to find new and interesting recipes to try out.  Sometimes these recipes are big hits and other times unfortunately they are huge misses. Today I went 50:50 on the hit miss scale - One was most definitely a hit and one was most definitely a HUGE miss.

 

First up in the miss department we have Chocolate Cream Cheesecake.  At first glance, it's the perfect recipe: Dove Dark Chocolate Squares and Cream Cheese. Yum!  It even looked pretty coming out of the oven.  But after letting it cool and having a taste, I decided looks were deceiving.  It had a weird non-cheesecakey texture and the 24 squares of chocolate I was told to add, was much too much chocolate even for a chocolate lover like me. After throwing it out, I decided to delete the recipe from my Pinterest as well - Don't want to make that mistake again.

In the hit department we have Cheesy Chicken Quesadilla Pie.  It was everything it promised to be and much, much more.  I thought the batter over the chicken would get gloopy and heavy but it wasn't at all.  Also, I decided to change it a bit and leave out the disgusting cilantro it called for and added instead, green onions - it worked perfectly! The only problem I had was the tortilla on the bottom was a bit difficult to cut through after they baked.  Aside from that, with a little salsa, it was the perfect dinner!  Ironically: I was more worried about this dish being terrible than I was the dessert - Shows what I know : )

Pros and Cons

In the land of cooking and baking there are lists upon lists of pros and cons.  I may be the only one but I simultaneously love to cook and hate to cook.  I'm hoping this is true of others and I'm not the only one that's torn when someone asks "oh you like to cook, huh?"  On the one hand, I have cookbooks, and Pinterest and family recipes to draw from.  All of these, I'm partial to and feel no need to venture too far out of the comfort zone.  Why mess with a good thing when you've eaten all sorts of yumminess for your entire life?  On the other hand, I'm rubbish at actually making these recipes.  There's something about it that I just can't master.  
I'm ok with following the recipe and usually can master all the ingredients but it's the whole combining thing I have a problem with.  Portions and cooking times and stirring for specific numbers of seconds  or making sure all 3 items are timed perfectly to wind up on the table at the same time always put me off, which is frustrating. Don't even get me started on cooking times and being expected to be the bringer of good things for the office when you're having an off night.  (If you haven't noticed based on the tone of this blog - tomorrow is an office party and tonight was an off night.  Gosh darn cooking times!) 

While not as difficult for me for some reason, baking also has its ups and downs. Even though they say baking is an exact science, I'm much better and find it so much more fun.  For one thing I love sweets but on the other hand, there's no eyeing or estimating.  As long as you follow the recipe you're good.  I get a little worried when attempting to go off book, unlike some people.  Even in the baking land, I can master the good stuff.  The kitchen may look like a cyclone, but the recipe has been completed and the sweets are on the table and they actually taste delicious (most of the time - there have been some doozies).  The problem there is that it's never ever as pretty as it should be.  I know in my head that as long as it's delicious, I shouldn't care what it looks like but it doesn't help.  

All that being said, there's a certain rush finding a new recipe that sounds delicious and whipping it up perfectly for family and friends.  And finally having it come out just as you'd hoped and adding that recipe to the recipe book you keep of your favorites.   It may be messy, and torturous, and I may be terrible at it at times, but it's fun and challenging and if I could just make myself do it more often, I think I'd be much happier and better at it...but much larger in the waist : )  It must be the influence of that fantastic and patient teacher I had cooking all the yumminess that I've eaten all my life.  I may not be the best cook, but I know without him I'd be a whole lot worse, not to mention a lot less happy.   So I suppose, in the end, it is an easy question afterall: Yes I do love to cook and bake!  I just won't be signing up for Top Chef any time soon.

Now that we've come to this conclusion, maybe I could get him to realize a restaurant kitchen of our own would be even more fun...

On A Roll

I'm beginning to think that I should do all of my menu planning on Pinterest.  After last night's yummy dessert, I gave 2 more recipes a shot and went 2 for 2 in the delicious department.  The first, as much as I hate to admit it, was a Pioneer Woman recipe.  No offense to Ree Drummond and her little self-made empire, but she and her brood drive me up a wall.  Listening to her life on the ranch stories while she's holed up in her ginormous house, makes my skin crawl.  But that's all beside the point.  What I wanted to say is that I attempted her Sesame Noodles, and realized she could actually cook.  Those darn things were delicious!  With just a few ingredients and a few minutes, I had exactly what I was craving. Unfortunately I was so excited to scarf them down, I forgot to take a picture, so you'll just have to rely on Ree's.  Oh and if you're planning to give these a shot too, take the advice of a friend of mine.  She told me to definitely not forgot the green onions and boy was she right.  They're delicious in the sauce!

As a side dish to accompany my pork chops and Sesame Noodles, I wanted something different than the usual green beans or corn.  And for some reason, I always equate bananas with Asian food so I tried these sweet bananas with honey and cinnamon.  They were good, just not nearly as pretty as the ones in the picture below (once again, I was hungry and the iPhone was just too far away...)  Even though they were a bit mushy, they were sweet and banana-y and delicious.  They may not have been the perfect accompaniment for pork and noodles, but they certainly hit the spot!