Category: Cooking

Somehow an entire week of my life has flown by in the blink of one unproductive eye! Well, it’s been quite productive, just not in sewing or blog related ways.

I want to thank all of you for your amazing thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement following our collision with a drunk driver. It saddens me that so many of you have similar personal experiences and such a needless act has ruined many lives. Our wounds are healing and we’re getting on with life, but appreciate you reaching out to us (The Hubs reads all the comments you guys leave, too!).

We got the sad news late last week that our beloved Saturn was a total loss in the accident. We’ve had a hard time emotionally parting with it, as it holds so many dear memories for us. It was the first brand new car The Hubs ever bought (and it was totally paid off!). We spent many hours together talking and falling in love in it during the early days of our relationship. We drove away in it, complete with painted windows and colorful streamers, on our wedding day. It’s carried us safely on many road trips, vacations, and visits with family. Each of our three babies came home from the hospital in it. And it kept us safe and alive when it really mattered the most. While we’re excited to upgrade to a more family-friendly minivan, it’s been hard to part with such a great member of our little clan.

I spent the majority of last week on the phone with the claims adjuster, the salvage yard, the guy who estimated the damage to the car, the person at the total claims office at the insurance company, and fielded MANY calls from ambulance chasers. We spent the weekend celebrating my birthday with my family on Saturday, and The Hubs had to go into the office on Sunday.

Yesterday was my actual birthday, and I’m now enjoying the last year of my 20s. I remember so vividly my Mom saying for many, many years that she refused to be older than 29, and now that I AM 29, I totally get it! My darling husband came home from work early yesterday with flowers, a cake, and a bottle of champagne, then spent the evening spoiling me the way all men should spoil their wives on their birthday.

                          

And since Ella won’t let me put her down today, sewing is off the agenda. We decided some festive cookies were just the ticket on a cloudy afternoon. I decided to make the delicious candy corn sugar cookies I posted about last year. They’re still just as tasty!!

**I’m reposting my recipe from last year. I did use the plastic wrap when I made them this time–total lifesaver!

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Sshhh…do you hear that? It’s August. I thought July was never going to end! It was seriously the busiest month I’ve had in I can’t even remember how long! The Hubs was gone for a whole week, my Mother-in-Law and Sister-in-Law came to stay with us for a week, we had 3 family events, 4 birthdays, 7 doctor appointments, 4 round trips to the airport, and every day was full of regular life activities like grocery shopping, running errands, cooking and cleaning, and of course, sewing. I’m glad to leave July behind and I’m so looking forward to the peaceful quiet of August!

But for now, I’m enjoying my favorite parts of summer…the food! I love roadside stands and if you’re selling peaches or boiled peanuts you’ll get my business every.single.time. I’ve been craving peaches and eating them at an incredible rate lately!

Yesterday I was in the mood for some homemade peach ice cream and I thought since it’s SO easy to make at home, and WITHOUT an ice cream maker, that I’d share this easy and delicious recipe.

You just need 4 main ingredients for your ice cream base:
2 cups of milk
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract

I make this ice cream year round with other yummy fruits like strawberries and blueberries. The amount of fruit you add is up to your personal taste, but for this go-round, I used 2 peaches.

Slice them up nice and tiny. When frozen, you don’t want huge chunks of fruit in your ice cream. Or maybe you do!

Get an 8 cup tupperware container with a lid. Pour in the 2 cups of milk.

Then the 2 cups of heavy whipping cream.

Then the sugar and the vanilla.

Stir to incorporate. You want to get the sugar all mixed in really well and not settled on the bottom.

Then add your fruit!

Since the fruit floats, you’ll want to stir it around several times over the next few hours while it freezes.

And after impatiently waiting, and sneaking bites while stirring, the reward will be amazing! Enjoy!

Well, since I have no working machine (okay, okay, I do, but it’s plastic and cheap and I loathe it), I spent some more quality time with my favorite little ladies, and made an awesome dinner. From leftovers!

This is a twist on the Grilled Pineapple and Chicken Quesadillas The Pioneer Woman posted last week. Don’t worry, I made those, too! But I used canned pineapple and didn’t grill it. I had some leftovers and needed to clean out the fridge, so this idea immediately popped in my mind.

I used my favorite whole wheat dough recipe for the crust. I just made 1 pizza, so I spread the whole thing out on a greased cookie sheet. I sprinkled it with garlic powder, oregano and basil before popping it in the oven for 5-7 minutes.

Instead of your traditional marinara sauce, I spread barbecue sauce all over my crust.

I had leftover oven-roasted chicken I diced and spread all over the top, along with the rest of my canned pineapple.

Then I cleaned out the cheese drawer on top. I had a little Monterrey Jack & Colby that went down first, then some mild cheddar, then topped with sharp cheddar.

The whole thing went back in the oven for 8-10 more minutes. Because everything was already cooked, I just let the cheese melt and the whole thing get warm.

And that’s it! The Hubs loves his with some heat, so I topped it with jalapenos. Yum!

Perfect leftover comfort food! And it’s relatively healthy!

My sewing machine broke on Wednesday. This is absolutely devastating to me because 1) I LOVE my machine and refuse to replace it. And 2) I still have a LOT to sew before Thanksgiving! In fact, my list looks something like this:

3 Halloween costumes
6 pillowcase dresses
12 pairs of Christmas jammies
10 bibs
4 aprons
37 bean bags
1 tote
6 tshirts

Yikes! And those are just my orders, it doesn’t include the things I want to make for my own family for the Holidays! So while my machine is at the repairman getting 2 gears replaced (I should get it back sometime next week!), I’m spending some much-needed quality time with my girls. I’m also working on my doll patterns!

Yesterday we made some candy corn sugar cookies. I scoured the internet looking for recipes, and really didn’t find anything that I liked. Most of the recipes have a chocolate layer, which just looks like a burned candy corn to me. Not exactly appealing! So, I took my favorite sugar cookie recipe and flew by the seat of my pants from there!

Candy Corn Cookies

1.5 C butter, softened
2 C white sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 C all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir dry mixture into wet ingredients until incorporated.

Here’s where I started experimenting. Divide the dough into thirds.

To 2 of the 3 pieces of dough, add food coloring. I did 8 drops of yellow on the yellow ball, and 8 drops of yellow with 4 drops of red on the orange ball. The third ball was left untouched.

I kneaded each ball about 5 minutes to get the color fully mixed.

Your help may be starting to get bored by now!

Grease an 8×4 loaf pan. In the future, I’ll probably also line the pan with saran wrap to get the dough out easier.

Take your plain dough and flatten to an approximate rectangle shape.

Place in the bottom of the loaf pan and press to fill the pan. Try to make it even on top.

Repeat with the orange,

then the yellow layers.

Cover the loaf pan and place in the fridge for at least an hour. I recommend overnight.

When you take it out to make your cookies, turn the pan over to remove the dough. You can see I had trouble getting mine out and had to separate it from the pan with a knife. This is why I’m going to use plastic wrap next time!

Slice off pieces about 1/4″ thick and lay flat. Cut into candy corn shape pieces. I marked how I cut mine, using the shape of the loaf pan to my advantage!

Place on a cookie sheet about 1″ apart (mine were a little closer) and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I take my cookies out just before the edges brown so they stay nice and soft in the middle.

I put my unused dough back in the loaf pan, recovered it, and put it back in the fridge between bakings.

I would estimate this recipe makes about 10 dozen cookies. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but they’re bite size, so they’re quicker and easier to eat! Plus, you’ll end up giving them away because they’re just so cute and festive!

Happy almost Halloween!

A few weeks ago, my sister and I started formulating an idea. My Mom had wanted to take her Granddaughters out for tea before they went back to school (my kids would just be tag-alongs as they’re obviously not school-aged yet). But since our girls are so young, we figured it would be more fun to have it at home, so I offered to host it at our house! I called my Aunt, cousin and Grandmother and invited them to come along, too. Our cousin is taking classes to get her Master’s so she was unable to come, but the rest of us had a blast!

I started planning 2 days before. I ended up grocery shopping at midnight Wednesday night, but boy am I glad I did! Taking the girls is hard and I was able to meander and actually concentrate on what I was getting. All day Thursday I baked and cleaned and Friday morning we were ready for our guests!

While we waited for everyone to show up, I tried to get pictures of my girls because they were wearing dresses I made. Sofie’s I actually made for her first Easter, and even though she was swimming in it, she pulled it off! 15 months later, it’s STILL big on her! Poor skinny thing. It’s a Laura Ashley McCall’s pattern and I changed almost nothing. Added the contrast, omitted the bows, and made the straps adjustable. Chloe’s dress is Made by Rae’s Itty Bitty Baby dress. I cut it out the size she provides, but used a 1/4″ seam allowance, and it fits my nearly 4 month old baby just fine! I also made her shoes!

I like occasions when I get to use my dining room! I used my vintage 1930s china for the big day. It belonged to my Great Grandparents. In fact, so did the furniture!!

I know traditionally the host would serve warm tea. But it was 98 degrees outside with about 1000% humidity, so I opted for iced tea! We had Strawberry Punch, Orange Lemonade, and Almond Tea.

To eat we had Brownie Biscotti, Pecan Tarts (that are to DIE for—and I don’t much care for pecans!),

peanut butter and strawberry jelly, chicken salad, and cucumber salad sandwiches,

this sensational Spinach and Strawberry Salad that The Hubs and I LOVE,

and finally Key Lime Cookies (I omitted the powdered sugar, and added 6 ozs of white chocolate chips), along with key lime cupcakes my Aunt found at Target.

We sat down to a delicious lunch at noon. My nieces were thrilled they got to drink water out of “fancy glasses” and eat dessert with their lunch!

The rest of the day the little girls played and the grown girls chatted. Before Meredith left she wanted to get a few shots of her girls together. But Sofie wanted to be included so we decided on cousin pictures instead. Have you ever tried to take a picture of 5 kids under the age of 7? In miserable heat? At the end of the day? With 2 separate cameras?

I just hope my sister has something cute!

Thanks for coming, everyone! We’re looking forward to doing it again next year!

…or maybe not because I just realized Sofie will start preschool next Fall! GULP!