Now You're Cookin'

Right...so a friend "liked" a recipe on Pintrist and it looked yummy so I followed the trail and discovered a food blog that looks freakin' incredible!!! And so, I thought I'd share. It's called Eats Well with Others.

Here is the recipe that caught my eye:
Pasta with Creamy Avocado Sauce
Ingredients:
• 1 medium sized, ripe avocado, pitted
• 1/2 lemon, juiced plus lemon zest to garnish
• 3 cloves garlic, to taste
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, with more added to taste
• 1/3 cup fresh basil
• 6 oz bucatini
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions: gotta visit her blog!!!

Here is another yummy sounding one:

Chipotle-Glazed Squash Salad with Jicama, Goat Cheese, and Avocado


Ingredients:

1 recipe chipotle-glazed squash
1 jicama, peeled and chopped
Juice of one lime
4 oz goat cheese
1 avocado, sliced
baby spinach

Instructions:  Click on the link!!

Being Auntie M...

...means getting to spoil your nieces & nephew.....

Miss TeaRose is passionate about Winnie-the-Pooh & Happy Feet right now...which meant (of course) that Auntie M (and Gramma) had to try to find as many of the stuffed-animal characters from these movies as humanly possible: she now watches the movies clutching, Pooh, Eyore & a tiger (couldn't find a real Tigger) and a little Penguin. She also likes to hold the DVD cases. Too freakin' cute!

She loves dancing to Happy Feet...

but oddly enough her favorite part is in the special features section where there is an instructional video on the elements of dance. She LOVES it!!!

Oh~and here's proof that I really do exist:

Sharing yogurt~Yum!

As for Van & Kenyan, I got a bubble blowing machine (mainly so I wouldn't get so dizzy blowing the bubbles for them)...which they love!

Oh~and the cats love chasing the bubbles too! Which is good exercise for them: they've both gained weight since leaving CA & the large yard they used to have!

And of course, we had to bake & decorate cookies yesterday! The decorating really showed their personalities off to a T.

Van decorated with gusto & a spirit of muchness (eg-the more frosting, the better it'll be!). Kenyan, meanwhile, decorated with a quiet enthusiasm and a spirit of precission: everything planned out & executed with great care.

Of course this meant that Van was done decorating his share of the cookies in about 5 minutes. An hour later (after a quick break so they could have some hot chocolate & a cookie before Van went insane), Kenyan was still decorating her cookies.

Have I mentioned I love being the aunt? It means cheerfully spending time with them & spoiling them (within limits, of course) but then sending them home when they are on a sugar-high or just plain tired/grumpy! Ha ha!!

Case in point: Van had a minor melt-down yesterday....but I still love him to pieces even when he is a grump-a-lump! ;-) (Notice Kenyan's face of disdain: cookies & hot chocolate should not be mixed w/tears!)

(And YES, I know there is a ton of pictures in this post: I love taking them & sharing them!!)

Baking a Cake

Yesterday while Van was here, he requested to bake a cake. This kid loves cooking! He puts on an apron,  stands on a chair with a spoon in one hand & and oven mitt on the other and says "What do we do first?! Where's the ingrediants?!"

Yesterday he decided to count off each and every step (from washing our hands at the beginning down to the sprinkles he put on the frosting). Needless to say, there were probably a billion steps when you count each thing (like Auntie M: "Stir again" Van: "Ok, 21, stir again!')

Now, as you know, Valentine's day is coming up, so with this in mind I asked him if he wanted to bake a red cake (Yes!). Then I asked him if he wanted to make it in my heart-shaped cake pan. Oops~this showed him where the pans were located. He delved into the cupboard and emerged with a Christmas tree cake pan & declared that we would have a red tree with green frosting! And there you have it! :-)

Of course Gramma faithfully recorded each "step" of the process...but ding bat Auntie M forgot to take a picuture of the finished product! Duh! But trust me when I say it was glorious!

Here are just a few of the pictures~in case you were dying to see them! And, yes, this cake--& frosting too--were made entirely from scratch! Thank you very much!

This is probably "Step 10"...notice there are no ingrediants in the bowl yet! ;-)

In go the eggs...

LOTS of vanilla

LOTS of Red Food coloring!

Hmmm...kinda pink still instead of red...oh well!

One of the most important ingrediants: chocolate chips!

Finally: flour (thanks to Gramma who ran to the store to get it!) & oatmeal

Into the pan

And into the oven

With enough left over for some mini cupcakes

Very GREEN frosting!

I still have green hands from the frosting!

Final step: enjoy the fruits of our labor!

Van took the tree cake home so we enjoyed mini cupcakes while he was here. With candles to blow out and singing of "Happy Birthday" to each person at the table! Except for cousin Teagan: "She's too small," says her wiser, older, and bigger cousin!

But she had fun looking at the candles & listening to the singing: good practice since her 1st birthday is coming up!

It was another great day!!!

Feed Me...Please!

So I am once again on The Fat Flush Diet (only waaaay modified so I don't kill myself. You can get the book from Amazon, should you wish to torture yourself) and, while eating my nutritious & yummy lunch of hard boiled egg with fresh tomato, snap peas, & carrots (seriously, really good), was trying to describe a scottish egg to my mother. A scottish egg is probably one of the ugliest things you may see (think brown baked golf ball) but (with Coleman's mustard) one of the tastiest treats I grew to love while living in England a century ago.

So, while looking for pictures via Google, I ran across this recipe which I thought was hysterical & thought I'd post it here just for fun. I especially like the beer part. For those that must know & to give credit where credit is due, I obtained this recipe from Recipeland.com (link is in my side bar).

Scottish Eggs
Have some eggs for dinner the old Scottish way with this savory recipe that will find its place in your cookbook.

Preparation-40 minutes
Cooking-20 minutes
Ready In-60 minutes

Ingredients
1 pound sausage meat
7 large eggs, hard boiled
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped or grated
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning or sage
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon water
Some all-purpose flour, for coating purposes
Package of bread crumbs (fine & dry)
Beer

Directions:
To begin, crack a Kokanee (that would be the beer--I'd substitute for a Snakebite*, myself), pour it into a frosted mug and quaff it while six of the eggs are hard boiling. When they're done, put them to one side and mix the meat, onion, and spice mixture together. Take the resulting mixture and coat the eggs with it carefully and evenly. You might even want to peel the shells off first - although they do add an interesting texture.

When the eggs are done, roll them in the flour, shake off the excess, and put the eggs in the fridge for about an hour so the meat sets up. While you're waiting, you might as well crack another Kokanee and put your feet up; no sense straining yourself.

A couple of minutes before the hours up, lightly beat the remaining egg with the tsp. of water. Again, you might want to remove the shell. Take the eggs, dip them in the egg mixture, and roll them in the breadcrumbs; they are now ready for cooking.

Traditionally, Scotch Eggs are deep fried. You can do that if you wish, but who needs all the extra grease in their diet and the mess and smell? I suggest you bake them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the sausage covering is firm when picked at with a knife or fork. I usually stick them on a wire rack with a pan underneath so that they don't sit and cook in any grease that renders out of the sausage.

A great way to serve them is with a chilled Spinach and Bacon salad and fresh tomatoes. Or take them on a picnic or simply snack on them. Don't forget the Coleman's Mustard! Enjoy!

Yum!!!!

*Snakebite is a drink made from hard cider and lager beer (I prefer Guiness) In the United States the term has come to denote a beer cocktail comprising equal quantities of beer and cider. The drink is also known as a Poor Man's Black Velvet. A Black Velvet is a mixture of half Guinness, half champagne. I love them both!

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Tomorrow, we are celebrating my sister's 31st birthday with some of her friends...I am cooking. Being on the Fat Flush Diet reminds me of all sorts of foods that I used to make but don't anymore (mostly because standing for prep & cook time causes intense pain and not because I am "dieting," but I digress). Anyway, we are having gazpacho (a cold tomato, cucumber, & bell pepper soup) and butternut squash quesadillas...I love these things & haven't made them in years so I hope I don't forget how I used to make 'em. Of course there are recipes online, but since I never used them in the past, why start now? If all goes well, tomorrow's luncheon should resemble this:

and this:

And shall be served with lots of this:

And this:

Wish me luck!!!