Italian Pasta Salad

I forgot how much I love this salad.

I got the recipe from my sister-in-law who got it from a friend.

The key to this salad - the secret is in the sauce!

Ken's Steakhouse Italian with Aged Romano Dressing

Go get some!!

Great things about this salad:

It's not an exact science

Always a hit at gatherings of all sorts

Simple

Easy

Quick

Need I say more?

Ingredients

Tri-Color Rotini

Black Olives

Cherub Grape Tomatoes

String Cheese, sliced in 1/4-1/2 inch pieces

Bell Pepper, chopped

Mini Pepperoni

Ken's Steakhouse Italian with Aged Romano Dressing

Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and rinse in cold water until pasta is cool to touch.

Toss all ingredients together and toss in a healthy dose of dressing.

Back when I only had one child, I would cut the tomatoes in half and slice the olives. Oh how things change!!!

Miss you Michelle!! Come visit me soon!

Touch of Lemon Sugar Cookies

More lemon cookies!

Although I really liked the flavor of the first lemon cookies I tried, I prefer a less cake-y texture cookie.

These totally hit the spot!

Touch of Lemon Sugar Cookies

Meyer Lemon Ricotta Cookies

I made these (from the Tasty Kitchen website)...with COCONUT!!

Meyer Lemon Ricotta Cookies

Being at high altitude, I added 1/4 c. flour just in case.

Rather than getting globs of glaze on some and not all the cookies, I opted to dip half of the cookie in the glaze. It was the fair thing to do.

I'm sure Alex is so sick of coconuts now

So....

Happy Mother's Day to Me!! ;)

And Happy Mother's Day to all you WONDERFUL mommies out there!!!

Coconut flakes

I cleaned out my pantry and cabinets last week and found four bags of flaked coconut so I will be making some of the most perfect cookies in my brand new oven: Laura Bush Cowboy Cookies. That takes care of three cups...now what to do with the rest? Hmmm.

Easter Goodies

 Peanut Butter Blossoms - Easter Style (Reese's Pieces Eggs and Easter Egg Whoppers)

Eggs for Devil-ing and Creamy Potato Salad

PW French Breakfast Puffs

So Yummy! That's all I need to say.

Ingredients
3 c. flour
3 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. shortening
2 eggs
1 c. milk

Coating:
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 t. ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside

In another large bowl, cream together the sugar and shortening. Add the eggs and mix again. Alternate adding one-third of the flour mixture and one-third the milk to the creamed mixture, betting well after each addition.

Fill lightly greased muffin cups 1/2 to 2/3 full (I like to fill them less so you get a nicer round top and, dare I say, no "muffin top"). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden in a preheated oven at 350 deg.

While baking, prepare the coating by melting the butter in a bowl. In a separate container, combine the sugar and cinnamon. Dip the warm muffins in the butter, coating thoroughly. Then roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Amen!

Fruit Trifle

Happy Memorial Day! We remember all those who have unselfishly served our country. THANK YOU!!

Fruit Trifle

Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple Bites - Revisited

Remember when I told you to make these? Did you make 'em yet?

I just made them in bulk a few weeks ago. It was quite the operation, but soooooo worth it!

Instead of dredging each piece of bacon in brown sugar, I laid out some foil, sprinkled some brown sugar around, laid out the pieces of bacon, sprinkled more sugar on top of the bacon, placed a pineapple chunk on each piece of sugar coated bacon, rolled them up, and, lastly, slid each roll onto a skewer. Phew!

Take a lookie!

Blue-Cheese-Stuffed Green Olives

These are my new obsession. We get them the olive bar at King Soopers. They are super salty, but the blue cheese mellows them out. I bet they have these at Whole Foods. I'm going to have to shop around and see who has the best ones!

Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple Bites

Seriously EASY. Seriously GOOD.

Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple Bites

I really do think the motto in our house should be ... Bacon makes everything better!

Notes:
- The few times I've made this I cooked the bacon for about and hour. We like our bacon on the super crispy side. But then again, I'm not sure if the length of cooking time was due to our limited capability of the toaster oven. Oh well. They're worth waiting for.

- The thicker the bacon, the longer you cook. Duh.

- Instead of toothpicks I put them on long skewers, which makes it easier to rotate them and turn them over while cooking. Before serving, you can easily slide them off the skewer. They should still retain their shape, if you've cooked them long enough.

Pecan Pie Muffins

Holy PECAN! They weren't kidding. Make these. Make these now :P

Pecan Pie Muffins

And when you make them...

Please forget about eating healthy for just a little bit.

Please don't get confused when the recipe calls for softened butter. Just use melted like the blog shows you.

Please do not fill the cups more than 2/3 full. I'd probably even do half full, especially if doing them mini style like me.

Please remove them from the cups while still warm. They will get stuck. At least they did for me.

Please dot them with a little butter. Like I said, they weren't kidding.

Strawberry Jell-O Pie

Berries Take 2!!

I just couldn't resist the the sale at the supermarket...$1 strawberries...and sweet, too!!

So now what do I do with six boxes of strawberries??

My answer...Strawberry Jell-O Pie (from Arlene Kliewer :) )

2 T. cornstarch

1 c. sugar

1 c. water

1/4 c. strawberry flavored Jell-O

~2 c. strawberries, hulled and halved

1 pie shell (graham or regular), if regular, then baked

In a small pot, mix cornstarch and sugar, add water and mix to dissolve. Bring sugar mixture to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and stir in Jell-O mix until dissolved. Set aside and let cool.

Once cooled, pour gelatin mixture over strawberries in a large bowl and toss to coat. Fill pie shell with strawberry mixture and refrigerate until set.

Enjoy!

Notes:

- Arlene suggested I use a regular pie shell, rather than graham, b/c the graham ends up making too sweet of a pie. Plus, the buttery flavor of the regular shell tastes yummie with the sweetness of the filling.

- I also never have a pre-baked pie shell, so once I get the sugar mixture going on the stove, I let the pie thaw for 10 minutes, then poke it with holes, and bake per the package instructions.

- While the gelatin mixture cools down, I prepare the strawberries (wash, hull, halve).

- Make sure the strawberries have been completely drained, free of any excess liquid. The pie filling may not set if there is extra liquide.

Easy as pie!

Fresh Berry Cobbler

This is the only picture I have of this berry cobbler.

Sorry. We just couldn't wait.

Wow!! Let me say it again...WOW!!!

I'm not even a black berry fan, but this is good...REALLY good. And pretty easy considering I made this on Day 1 of flying solo with two kids. Sure, when I was done making this, I had a baby nursing to his heart's content in the Baby Bjorn, Annie had and accident (not a pretty one at that), and I found Cheez-Its in the DVD player, but this cobbler was SOOOOOOOO worth it!

Fruit:
~ 3 c. black berries, rinsed
~ 1 qt. strawberries (~1 lb.) (halve the large ones)
1 T. cornstarch
1/2 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla

Topping:
1 c. flour
1/4 c. plus 2 t. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. buttermilk (or substitute a little less than 1/3 c. milk plus ~1/2 T. vinegar...let stand ~5 minutes to thicken up)
4 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/3 t. cinnamon

Mix all the fruit ingredients together and place in a baking dish. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-303 minutes until the fruit begins to release liquid.

Meanwhile, whisk flour, 1/4 c. sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, butter, and vanilla. In a small bowl, mix remaining sugar and cinnamon.

Gently stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until dough is just combined and no dry pockets remain.

Remove fruit from the oven and drop dough by spoonfuls on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon topping. Bake for 15-20 minutes until biscuits are golden brown and cooked through. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

From The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Annie's Birthday Dinner

So this meal was certainly not catered to fit the likes of children. There were only two and at their age their main interest is not eating, so why fuss! And as far as difficulty, the whole menu was pretty fuss free...mostly dump, stir, and set it and forget it :)

Here's what we had...

1. Salad
2. Baked Brie en Brioche served with crackers
3. BBQ Cocktail Weiners
4. Taco Soup
5. Flower Cupcake Cake (and just realized as I was typing we forgot to serve some ice cream!!)
6. And to drink...hot apple cider

Baked Brie en Croute

What a yummie appetizer! A crowd-pleaser any day.

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 wheel of brie
1 egg, lightly beaten
Any kind of fruit preserves (I used strawberry)

Roll out puff pastry to about 12x12 inches. Place wheel in center of puff pastry. Trim corners to make somewhat a circle, leaving about 4 inches or so around the wheel. Brush edges of puff pastry with egg. Fold puff pastry over top of wheel pulling back a little the puff pastry near the top (the excess pastry should make a little cup at the top to place filling in later). Brush exterior of pastry with the egg. Freeze for ~20 minutes (I didn't do this b/c I didn't have time...not sure if this step makes the pastry more flaky). Bake in a pre-heated 425 deg oven for about 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and place in center of pastry opening. Let cool a little bit before serving.

From the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook.

BBQ Cocktail Weiners

This is an easy side/appetizer and I figured Annie would eat this if she didn't want the main course.

1 package of cocktail weiners
~1/2 c. BBQ Sauce
~1/2 c. grape jelly
~1/4 t. garlic powder, optional

Combine all ingredients in a small crock pot (we have a 3 qt.). Give a little stir. Cook on low for about 2 hours. Yum!

Taco Soup

And for the main course of the evening...

Taco Soup (from the kitchen of Paula Deen)

Here are the few changes we made (and it's a good thing we did, because all the ingredients probably wouldn't fit in our 4 qt. crockpot).

1. We went with less beef (probably about a 1.5 lbs.)
2. 1/2 the amount of onions
3. Only 1 can of pinto beans
4. Replaced kidney beans with black beans
5. Used Italian tomatoes instead of Mexican (couldn't find them in Target)
6. No olives

I'm sure this would pare down nicely for less people.

One more note: Close all your bedroom doors! This soup can have a pretty meaty smell...yummy...but meaty.

Pumpkin Bread Recipes

YUM! We LOVE pumpkin bread in this house. Just can't seem to get enough of it, especially during the holidays. Here are some of our favorites:

Crane House Pumpkin Bread (minus the nuts and ESPECIALLY minus the raisins - ICK for cooked raisins)

Spiced Pumpkin Bread (made this for all the neighbors this year - mini-loaf style - SOOO CUTE!!)

Potato Chip Clusters

Just made these today and they're just another addition to my sweet and salty collection. It's a recipe from my Taste of Home: Fun Food Magazine.

9 squares (1 oz. each) white baking chocolate

2 c. crushed potato chips

1/2 c. chopped pecans

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt white chocolate. Sitr in potato chips and pecans. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until set. Makes about 3 dozen.

Cake Pops Never Fail

You gotta love these cake pops from Bakerella. I made these for Annie's first birthday and again for my friend's baby shower. The first time I made them I followed Bakerella's directions down to each detail. This time around I made them about half the size with less frosting for easier handling. Can you say YUM!!