Mmm, Mmm Good

Here are some of the fantastical feasts we've had in the last month:

St. Patrick's Day we made this Beef Irish Stew and Colcannon w/ham.  My friend, Mandy, made the best Irish Soda Bread and 2 Apple-Ginger pies.   Sadly, the only thing I remembered to take a picture of was the stew!

Next I made french macarons for my sister's birthday.  They turned out great!  I had some flops too, but they tasted good.  We had those for snacks at our St. Patrick's Day party.  I used about 4 different recipes for these, so I'm not going to post any links because it's just too difficult to tell you what I used from each one.  I will say that some people say to be very careful not to over fold the egg whites.  However, I found that once I beat them into total submission they worked better!

I made the Chicken Pomodoro for dinner, but felt I really wanted more to go with the meal but not pasta.  I put it on a bed of spinach - it was amazing!!!

I found a recipe for Bourbon Chicken on Macaroni and Cheesecake's blog.  I really like it at the mall, but this is even more amazing when it's homemade and fresh!  Serve on rice - yummers!

Now for my ever-famous, authentic Italian pasta salad.  I take this to almost all of my dish to pass events.  It's so good!  This is from a beautiful cookbook with tons of pictures of Italy that my parents bought when I was young called: Italy and Its Cuisine by Jillian Stewart from Mallard Press.

Here's the recipe:

Pasta Salad
Serves 6
4 cups cooked red kidney beans, drained
3 cups pasta shells or spirals, cooked
1 large green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large red pepper, seeded and chopped
20-30 pitted black olives, sliced in half
1 tbsp. capers
4-5 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped
Dressing:
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 1/2 tsp. finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 1/4 tsps. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Combine the beans, pasta, peppers, olives, capers and parsley in a large bowl.  Mix all the dressing ingredients together; add to the salad ingredients and toss together.  Mangia, Mangia!

This is a really quick lunch and makes you come running back for more:  I saw this in the April edition of Martha Stewart's Living Magazine.  Basically it's fresh Italian bread, ricotta cheese spread on it, fresh baby spinach leaves and a couple of proscuitto slices.  Enjoy!

Here are the Asian Cabbage Rolls.  I didn't have any mushrooms, so I substitued chopped carrots.  They were very tasty.

Finally, for Easter we had our 2nd Annual Easter Egg hunt with baby lambs in attendance.  Everyone invited brought something.  My contribution were these chocolate crosses as favors and an egg-shaped coconut-almond cake with cream cheese frosting.  I made some chocolate flowers for the top along with green colored coconut for the "grass" bedding.

April's Regroup

This coming month of April is my birthday month and even though I have just gotten on the ball with the menu AND grocery list, I'm giving myself the month off.  However, I won't leave you hanging.  I'd love for you to join in with me - I'm just not going to do all the work from scratch!  I am going to do the Body & Soul Challenge - Whole Living    They have all the tools for the month, etc... so let me know if you try it.  I'll let you know how it's going along the way.  (Trust me - I know it won't be easy, but that's why they call it a challenge, right?)  So, have fun and I hope for you to see less of me in the coming weeks!  (because I will have lost some weight - get it?)

Welcome home!

My sister and her husband came home at the end of January from California.  We hadn't seen her since August  and him since the year before.  We REALLY missed them.  So, the night they flew in my parents picked them up from the airport while I made Julia Child's Beouf Bourguignon with mashed potatoes for dinner to have when they arrived. (Actually my friend, Mandy, had come over that day and she made most of it because I was running around doing everything else but making dinner! Thanks Mandy - it was perfect!!)  It had to be special because, well, it was a special occasion.  However, it was so good, I didn't have time to get a picture of it before it was all gone.

Yeah, it was that good.

Mom even ate what the girls' didn't eat:

Then I made Martha's Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake.  But I omitted the lavender.  Mine didn't come out as pretty as hers, but it did still taste good.  It looked like it was burnt to a crisp, but the butter and sugar browned very fast in the skillet.  It really wasn't burnt, nor did it taste that way - I promise!  Oh well.  It was still good.

The Baking Bug

I must have been bit by the baking bug because I've been baking a little more in the last couple of days.  The outcome was pretty tasty and fairly low in fat.  Who would have thought you can bake and it's guiltless?

First I made Martha Stewart's Old Bachelor's Jam and Blackberry Tart from her March 2010 issue.
I cheated a little though - I didn't make homemade jam, I bought a three-berry jam (blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry) from my local grocery store that was very good.  I also added raspberries to this.  It turned out very good and everyone loved it!

Here it is in the springform pan ready for the oven.

Ready to be served:

 
Then the next day, I wanted to make blueberry muffins.  I found a healthy and lower-fat recipe for them a while ago from Stoneyfield yogurt.  Although, I used my store brand yogurt - they still turned out delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The first thing I remember making as a child was my Grandma's famous chocolate chip cookies.  (It turns out she always used Crisco's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.)  I still love to make these and the other day Angelina helped me make a batch.  Aubrey was on some errands with Jeremy.

I love the look of cookie dough - it's so comforting.

Angelina just can't resist licking the spatula.  I let her because, you know, it's just part of the enjoyment of being a kid!

The yummy result:

March has a Grocery List!!!!

Click on the link to get  March's Grocery List

I worked on this for about 2 hrs. today.  When I was finished it all went away because, like a goof ball, I did not save it.  So, here it is after the 3rd month of doing this blog and promising a list and after 4 hrs. of work - TaDa!!!!

I divided things up into categories that I will use in my grocery store.  So, I hope you will have ease and enjoyment in your shopping experience.  Also, I made it small so it will print all on one page.  However, if it is too small you may want to enlarge it - don't ask me how - but you can if you can figure it out!

Valentine's Day 2010

Jeremy gave me roses this week as a belated Valentine's (it was a little tight the week of it!). They are the perfect and so fragrant and my favorite color too.

For the actual Valentine's Day everything was homemade. 
It really ended up quite fun!

First we started out early the week before making ladybug valentines for all their classmates and friends.  We found the idea here:  Ladybug Valentines

 

  

We had spent so much time and energy getting ready to take Valentine's to others that I totally forgot about doing anything for my own children!  So, at 1am that morning, I recruited my husband to make Valentine's cards for the girls while I made some little stuffed owls for them.  By 2:30am, everything was ready for the girls to wake up later that morning.  They loved what they found.

This was Angelina's:

 

This was Aubrey's:

I cut out hearts to hang from the chandelier:

 

 

Here were the owls I made for the girls from felt.  I found a couple of pictures online and then just did my best.  They really liked them and I have to say, they turned out kinda cute!

Then for dessert that day I made strawberry shortcake with heart shaped biscuits and I cut the strawberry on top to look like a heart.

The day before I made Jeremy and I a special and delicious brunch, complete with heart shaped ice cubes!

Here's the recipe I used: Grilled Asparagus with Prosciutto, Fried Bread, Poached Egg, and Aged Balsamic Vinegar