Pottery & Willow

Look at me posting twice in one month! I know its shocking! To top off the shock and awe, I am posting my ninth anniversary present only one day after my anniversary. Happy Anniversary to me!

NINTH ANNIVERSARY - POTTERY & WILLOW

Throw and DVD

For the past nine years I have given Trevor only gifts from the "traditional" list of anniversary presents.  There might be a year in upcoming years that I am unable to give him from this list and have to cross over to the modern gifts, but I would love to stick with the traditional list if I can.  On the traditional list some years there are multiple presents  to give.  Most years I have only given one or the other, our fourth anniversary was the only other time in which I gave him both fruit and flowers.

Instead of giving him something made from Willow wood (which by the way, what is made of Willow wood?) and a potted plant, he got the DVD Willow and the manliest throw one could find from PotteryBarn.  There was a slight problem with wrapping up Willow and giving it to him though, this being the fact that we already owned the movie.  Tell me how crappy of a wife would I be if I wrapped up something we already owned and tried to pass it off as a new gift???  So I didn't wrap up the movie and we turned the night into a stay at home date.

In true coordinating fashion I made a themed dinner for our movie watching pleasure.  In this house we watch Willow while eating miniature burgers and miniature pizza, with a side of littl' smokies and a dessert with miniature cheesecakes.  I know, I know, I should have made miniature Brownies instead. 

It was a perfect night with my man cuddled up on the couch in his new throw watching a movie.  Until next year...

Hopefully that won't be my next post!

Tuscan Pasta

If you are a lovers of all things Italian and all things meat, you are bound to love my Tuscan Pasta.  This is by far my most asked for recipe and that's because it is the most delicious Italian dish ever...yes, I did just go there!

 

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. Bowtie Pasta

1 lb. Italian Roll Breakfast Sausage

1/4 lb. Canadian Bacon

1/4 lb. Pepperoni

6 Strips Breakfast Bacon

1 jar Tomato/Alfredo Sauce

Parmesan Cheese to top

 

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Once the water is boiling cook the Bowtie Pasta until pasta is cooked.

 

While the pasta is cooking begin to brown Italian Sausage on the stove top in a medium sized skillet.  Chop the Canadian Bacon and Pepperoni into small squares.  Add the Canadian Bacon and the Pepperoni to the sausage to cook for 3-4 minutes.  Once the sausage, pepperoni, and Canadian bacon are all cooked, drain excess grease.

 

Cook the Breakfast bacon your personal desired way to an extra crispy consistency.  Chop the bacon once cooked and add to the meat mixture.

 

Drain the cooked pasta and return to the pot in which it was cooked.  Add the four meat mixture and the Tomato/Alfredo sauce to the pasta and stir to mix ingredients.

 

Top with desired amount of parmesan cheese. Serves 5-6.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Santa Fe Chicken

Ten years...that's how long this meal has been a staple in our household.  My friend Stefanie first made it for us when she invited us over for dinner years ago.  She and her mother at the time were doing Weight Watchers and this was a great meal to make that produced many left overs.  I love being able to make recipes my own and this one is really easy to add or subtract ingredients from to make it your own. 

 

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. Seasoned Fajita Chicken

2 1/2 cups Brown Rice

3 cups Chicken Broth

1 can Diced Tomatoes (un-drained)

1 bundle Green Onion

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Jalapeno Pepper (with or w/o seeds depends on desired spiciness)

2 tbsp. Paprika

Cheddar Cheese to top

 

*In the above pictures I included 1 can Sweet Corn (un-drained) and 1 can Black Beans (un-drained)

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut the uncooked Fajita Chicken into small diced cuts.  Cutting them in one inch cubes works best for the desired bite-sized consistency.  Begin browning the chicken on the stove top in a large skillet or Dutch oven.

 

Chop the Bell Pepper, Onion and Jalapeno.  Add the chopped vegetables to the skillet 5 minutes before chicken is fully browned.  Once chicken is browned and vegetables are soft drain the grease.

 

Add the rice, broth, and tomatoes to mixtures.  This is also when I added the corn and black beans (if desired) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 30-40 minutes or until rice is cooked. Stir in paprika once cooked and top with cheese.

 

This is a great meal by itself or turned into tacos.  Serves 4-6 and makes great left overs!

 

Enjoy!

 

Linked to: LizMaireBlog

 

 

 

Potato Leek Soup

I think I am starting to crave Fall more than the average person.  It's Texas and still ninety degrees outside and yet here I am making soup for dinner.  Then again Texas doesn't really have Fall; it's the little things like making this soup that help make it feel like Fall.

INGREDIENTS

3 Leeks

1 White Onion

4 tbsp. Butter

2 lbs. Russet Potatoes (5-6 medium sized)

9 cups Vegetable Broth

3 Garlic Cloves

2 Bay Leaves

2 tbsp. Cooking Wine

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Cut the leeks in half lengthwise and thoroughly wash each half under cold water.  Make sure to pull apart the layers to remove any dirt and grit inside each layer.

Chop the leeks, dice the onion, and mince the garlic.  Melt the butter over medium heat in a large soup pot.  Add the leeks, onion, and garlic and cook, stirring regularly until soft and wilted, approximately 10 minutes.

Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes, this will make blending easier. Add the potatoes, broth, bay leaves, cooking wine, salt and pepper to the pot and bring to a boil.  Cover and reduce the heat on low to simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Remove the bay leaves from the pot, then puree the soup with an immersion blender until smooth.  Add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer.  Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.  Garnish with fresh herbs, chives, cheese, and/or bacon and serve. 

Enjoy!

 

Linked to: LizMarieBlog

Pup-Cation 2.0

After last years trip to the Arkansas Ozarks with our hounds we decided to hold up the tradition of Pup-Cation with 2.0 in Colorado.  We made the fourteen hour road trip into Colorado to Winter Park in the Arapaho National Forest.

We ended up finding a great spot to camp in the Arapaho National Forest in Winter Park.  The place we found was off Vasquez Road, it was a great spot for dispersed camping, Vasquez Creek ran right through our campsite.

 

The creek was much to cold for Trevor and I, but the hounds loved it!  It was also a perfect creek to fill up our Nalgene bottles every morning with fresh water.

 

 

Our second day in Colorado we went hiking in the Indian Creek Wilderness and made our way up to Lake Columbine. It was a very serene beautiful place to just sit and relax, and of course let the dogs get a few laps in.

 

 

The third day we went with the dogs on another hike on Berthoud Pass to hike a sectional of the Continental Divide, which still had snow...in July!  The views from this hike where breathtaking.   Archie also had his first experience with snow, he was in love! Still no bear sightings on this trip, but we did see our fair share of Moose.

 

 

Oh the camping foods!  I love camping foods, there is something about cooking on an open flame and the smell of a campfire that I love so much.  These were a few of our foil pack recipes this camping trip. 

 

I love things cooked in foil!

Chicken, Broccoli, and Cheese; seasoned with a little salt and pepper

Turkey Patty, Carrots, and Potatoes; the turkey patty is seasoned with onion soup mix



                                        Foil Pack Breakfast - Ham, Potatoes, and Cheese

 

Until our next adventure...

 

 



 



 

Amanda & April

By far my favorite thing that I have accomplished on my 30 Before Thirty list was cooking my way through a cookbook.  Who wouldn't want to make yummy healthy(ish) foods, while singing and dancing in the kitchen and drinking wine? I became very close with Elvis Costello many nights while cooking. 

I had originally anticipated cooking my way through The Healthy Gluten-Free Life by Tammy Credicott, but once I bought the cookbook mid December I came to the realization that there was no humanly possible way for me to cook 200 recipes in 180 days.  I began the hunt for a new, smaller cookbook that I wanted to cook through when I stumbled upon Gluten is My Bitch by April Peveteaux. 

I've been mostly gluten free and dairy free for a little over two years now.  When I read the description of Gluten is My Bitch I wondered "where was this when I stopped eating gluten?" Both humorous and informative this book is a must read for the gluten free and non-gluten free.  The recipes are all delicious and range from southern comfort food to paleo.   



Gluten Free Beignets

 

Gluten Free German Chocolate Cream Cheese Brownies

Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

 



Of course I somehow managed to only take pictures of the baked goods. The recipes to these baked delights can all be found in the Gluten is My Bitch cookbook, which everyone should go buy, or I have linked to the Gluten is My Bitch blog for two of them.   Make sure to check out Gluten is My Bitch for other delicious gluten free recipes.

Maybe in true Julie & Julia fashion I will take on a Julia Child cookbook next, or maybe just wait for April's next book!

I can do the splits!

After a lot of stretching and flexibility I did it, I did the splits again!  I had to stretch really far to the back of my pantry to fetch the chocolate syrup and I had to be flexible to the fact that I don't own banana split bowls, that everyday owns will have to work.  

What was going through my mind when I decided to add this to my list?  I don't think that anyone over the age of thirty is capable of doing the splits.  Well maybe Betsy Johnson, kudos to you Betsy!  Doing the splits is just no longer in the cards for me, and I am completely fine with that.  So I did the other splits, the only ones I know how to, the delicious banana kind that is!

 

 

 

Look how talented I am.  That's me doing the splits again! The Hubs also has some mad talent as well, look at those picture taking skills!

 

 

 

 

Turkey Day

Since I have hosted Thanksgiving at my house for the last 4 years one would think that I would have cooked a Thanksgiving turkey before, well one would be wrong.  With our first Thanksgiving in our new home I decided that this would be the year for me to defeat the beast that is the Thanksgiving Day Turkey!  I searched Pinterest, cookbooks, and internet cooking sites for the perfect recipe.  I had my "a-ha" moment on Allrecipes.com when I found a Maple Roasted Turkey.  I had to try this recipe, and since this was going to be my first Thanksgiving turkey I couldn't have a Griswold Christmas Vacation experience, so I had to do a trial run.  After the trial run, I knew this was my turkey!  The recipe for this turkey can be found HERE.  After the trial run I decided to double it based on the size of my 18lb turkey. 

I was terrified the whole time that the turkey wasn't going to fit in the our oven, which is by chance the world's smallest oven.

No Griswold turkey reenactment here, it came out perfect.

I was so excited this year to not have to rent tables and chairs for Thanksgiving.  I actually have a dining room and a breakfast room that was able to seat everyone.  Fancy dining room called for fancy place setting as well, I used my wedding china and wedding silver for the occasion.

I discovered the best benefit to cooking the turkey is getting to make turkey stock!  I was able to make a ton of it and have it frozen for future use.  I have already benefited from it and made turkey soup, yum! 

Just call me Betty Crocker

For Trevor's impending descent into his 30's I decided to let him indulge and gift him 30 of his favorite things for his birthday, one of which being German Chocolate cake.

*Side Note* Coming up with 30 of someone's favorite things is a lot harder than it seems. It's hard enough to come up with 30 of my own favorite things, let alone someone else's!

Lucky for me my Grandmother has an amazing German Chocolate cake recipe that helped satisfy at least one of his favorite things, as well as helping me conquer another item on my 30 Before 30 list. With my Granny' recipe in hand and my KitchenAid "locked and loaded" (literally) I baked my first cake...from scratch that is! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a German Chocolate cake from scratch...YEAH ME! That is after 4 phone calls for further instruction, 4 and a half hours of baking, 1 bad batch of icing, the wrong type of flour and 2 cake rounds that broke in half...maybe I should stick to cooking instead!

 



 

High Heels to Hiking Shoes

So when you're relaxing in the Caribbean what is the logical thing to do...plan your next vacation obviously!!!! I traded in my high heels for a pair of hiking shoes this time around.  We packed up the hounds and took a Road Trip to the Arkansas Ozarks for a camping trip. 

With the wind in their hair and their ears flopping in the breeze we were off!  I'm not too sure how much they enjoyed the road trip aspect of the vacation. 

 

 

Our first campsite was at Tompkins Bend at Lake Ouachita.  It was a nice campground that offered lake access and hiking trails with A LOT of RVs and people!!!  I guess what should we expect for going camping over 4th of July weekend? We decided to pack up camp the remaining days of our camping trip and trek into the Ozark Mountains and camp in the woods. I was in hopes to see a black bear the whole time, but no such luck :(

The next day we drove into the Ozarks and hiked into the woods and found this wonderful spot and popped up camp.

I think that Remington and Archie loved the second campsite much better!  Archie's alter ego "Mudspot" even came out a time or two.

We hiked, we swam, we relaxed, we ate!  Camping food is one of the best parts about camping.  Who doesn't love Puppy Chow, Trail Mix, S'mores and foods cooked in foil? Here's to sharing our adventure in camping foods...

The essential "oven"

Chicken and Veggie Kabobs

"Foil Packs" Turkey Patty, Carrots, Potatoes, Onions

Potato Packs

Strawberry S'mores

 

Banana Boats

Until our next adventure...