Belly Bean

Well, I've started a new blog.  This one was supposed to be about cooking.  Now I need one just about life.  So hop on over to ...  The Belly Bean !  Hope to see you there.

Cookies!

I've been in the mood to cook, and I've been in the mood to write - but not at the same time. :)

I baked cookies all afternoon today. I forgot how much I love baking cookies. I went through a faze about a year back when all I baked was cookies, cookies, and cookies. Thankfully, I haven't forgot all the good habits I developed. I'll admit, I did have a couple batches with burnt bottoms, but I think I was using a bad pan. No more cookies on that one, just dinner food. However, a big victory for me, NONE of them stuck to the pans! I'm so proud of myself, as that was my biggest downfall way back when.

Now I'm just waiting for boyfried to get home, so he can tell me how delicious they are!

(And even though I seperated the "crispier" ones, I'm sure I'll hear about them. ;) )

Sick Boyfriend :(

Poor Josh had to come home from work today, something he never does. So I knew he was really sick. We've got three different medicines and a Neti-pot. Hopefully he'll be feeling like new by his birthday this week. No sniffling over turkey, either.

So tonight was nothing fancy. Just some Progresso chicken soup and ham sandwiches. I flattened out buttermilk biscuits and topped them with ham and cheese, placing another biscuit over them, bake, and ta da. Hot ham and cheese sandwich. They were pretty good!

Dessert was Yoplait, which Albertson's basically paid me to eat. I bought 6 yogurts on sale (over half-off) and used a coupon. Frugality is just so tasy! Since I was buying six, I thought I might as well go for some of the crazier flavors I've never tried before. Tonight I had the Key

Lime Pie, and it was really impressive. Very refreshing and limey. :) Josh ate the Apple Turnover flavor. I had a taste before he dug in, and it tasted exactly like an apple turnover. The downside - and reason I probably won't be buying it again - is the texture. Pre-chewed apple turnover. But maybe that's just my problem with yogurt in general.

Waffle Flashback!

I found this in an old journal, and I thought it would be fitting here. Originally written on June 20, 2010:

Well, thanks to my cell phone alarm, Josh and I woke up at 5:30 am (again). We slept for a little bit longer, but both of us decided it was time for breakfast around 7:15 am. I had actually dreamt about blueberries and blueberry pancakes last night, so I'm sure you can guess what happened. Did you? Well, you're close. Waffles! Only because I have very little faith in my pancaking abilities, and we happened to have a lonely little waffle maker tucked away in one of our cabinets (Sabrina?). So BLUEBERRY waffles it is! I just told Josh we were having waffles, and when I gave it to him, he asked "Are these blueberries in them?" To which I replied, "Honey, everything we eat for the next decade is going to have blueberries in it."

[Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!]

I'm not all that familiar with waffle baking, even if there is a waffle iron involved. So the first waffle was actually more like waffle carnage. Jack didn't mind it though. He thought it was delicious. I was afraid it was going to be Breakfast Fail two weekends in a row {insert horrible French toast flashback here}, but I gave it another shot. Hell, I'm not wasting all those juicy berries. And because I had a waffle-hyped boyfriend in the living room by now, if I didn't succeed, we would also be having Waffle House for the second weekend in a row.

Fortunately for me, and for Jack's tummy, the second waffles were.... waffles! Josh got the first helping, I ate the second (it's a very small waffle maker), and the third and a half servings are now in the fridgy waiting for either a hungry friend or a munchy boyfriend to finish them off. Yay for breakfast!

(After which, we took Jack to the park. He saw a squirrel and a bird, some skateboarders, and another doggy. Good day so far. Good day.)

Pizza Pizza

Dinner yesterday was nothing too exciting. Just pizza. :) I wanted something easy, and I had almost enough ingredients at home already. I really love trying new recipes, but it's also nice to just get in the kitchen and go for it. I cooked a few links of mild Italian sausage, casings removed, with mushrooms and bellpeppers. I used Boboli pizza crust and bottled pizza sauce. I like to get the 3 small crusts instead of the two big ones. I'm sure someone will eat a little leftover pizza for lunch, but with just two of us we always waste a crust if I buy the large.

Easy and Delicious! :D

New Measuring Cups!

They squish for easy pouring:

I haven't really used them yet, but they look like so much fun! Thanksgiving here I come!!!

Baked Salmon

Monday dinner: Baked Salmon with Spinach, Tomatoes, and Mushrooms

I wanted a light dinner tonight, something healthy and filling. I looked through all my recipes and just could find the right one. So, I went to my go-to site for qui

ck easy last-minute dinner planning: Kraft! And this is what I found...

It's not the most photogenic dish I've ever made, but it is colorful. Basically, it's chopped spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes in Sun-dried Tomato Vinaigrette over salmon fillets. Bake at 375* for 20-25 minutes.

This was my first encounter with fish. The Windixie butcher was little help. I asked for enough to feed three people and realized when I got home that I could feed at least four. Oh well, in the freezer it went. Jack was probably thoroughly entertained while watching my try to cut off the skin and scales. Yuck. But worth it.

Both Josh and I ate every bite on our plates, but it will probably be a while before i foray back into a fish dish. Chicken is my staple. :)

Saturdaze

I spent almost the entire day ignoring the fact that I have tons of laundry to do and started planning Thanksgiving! It took more lists than I'll admit to, hours of recipe browsing, and numerous emails to my favorite chef - my step-mom. :) But, I now have my full menu planned. I've even written two shopping lists - one for non-perishables and such, one for fresh produce and dairy, etc. I had to cut a lot of exciting and tasty sounding treats, but I'm happy with what I've picked. There's a few new recipes and a few tried and true ones. And of course, a few time/sanity-saving cheats (like Pillsbury and Stove Top Stuffing). Now to sort out my coupons - that's going to be the real chore.

After much deliberation, my menu....

Turkey/gravy

mashed potatoes

crescent rolls

spinach and mushroom salad

homemade cranberry sauce

stuffing muffins

vegetable casserole

chocolate chip cheesecake

fruit salad

hot mocha coffee

Wanna place at my table?

Well, we're a bit more casual. Wanna place on my couch? If you don't want to eat off your lap, we've got a few TV trays. ;)

Peeling Potatoes

There is a video on youtube of Mary Ann from Giligan's Island with a cooking tip on peeling potatoes. It's an ingenious technique, I think. Reading the comments, though, some people make the argument that in the time it takes for her to peel one potato (it sits in boiling water for 15 minutes), they could have used a peeler and gone through a whole bag. Well, true the video only shows one potato peeled, but I'll be using it for multiple spuds. Also, I make a big mess with a potato peeler. But, really, it's up to you, the cook, which method you use. Probably if I did only need one potato, I'd use a peeler. This Thanksgiving, though, when I'll be using lots of potatoes for mashing, I'll be using the method in the video. It will give me 15 minutes of prepping other dishes and getting ready for company. :)

Also, Kathy Maister of StartCooking.com has a similar way of peeling tomatoes. And this way is super fast and super easy. I've used it when making Tomato Basil soup. There's a video, but the link is broken right now. Here's an explanation and pictures from her site.

Italian Sausage Spaghetti Sauce

And now the long awaited 2nd episode of The Cinnamon Bird! :)

I've been cooking a lot lately. It's a bit healthier than eat

ing out, and of course cheaper. And I love cheaper!

Last week, in an effort to fatten up my boyfriend, I mad

e spaghetti for dinner. My mom always made a meat sauce, but I could never find a great recipe until I found Kathy Maister's StartCooking.com. The recipe called for 1 1/2 pounds of Italian turkey sausage, but all I could find at Walmart (b/c I was broke) was Italian pork sausage. It was so delicious, I think I'll always use it. I used 6 links of Sweet Italian Sausage and 2 mild Italian links. I cannot believe how amazing this turned out. It was definitely worth standing over the skillet for 30 minutes. We had a green salad and rolls to complete our meal.

I'll be serving this to company, especially since it supposed to feed six people.

Recipe to come soon!