This is MY time.

I hope you have all seen Miracle so you get the reference of my title :) If you haven't - it's a heart warming tale. You really should watch it.

So, today was a fairly normal day. I was dreading writing a paper, as usual. Still not done, but I won't think about that right now. Ben and I tag teamed on making some buttermilk panacakes (spelled incorrectly on purpose) which made the day start off a little bit better. I made them, and Ben flipped. They were super good and an EXCELLENT way to use up buttermilk if you have some leftover! (Also - bonus, one thing for me to check off my list!) Ben used to always tell me that he made homemade pancakes all the time for his family growing up, and I really didn't believe him. Now I know - they really ARE easy enough for an 8 year old to make :)

A few hours later, I was getting hungry again and went into the kitchen to heat up some leftovers for lunch. The doorbell rang. As per usual when this occurs, I hid in the corner of the kitchen (so they can't see me) and yelled for Ben to answer the door. As I peeked out, I saw a FedEx truck, which was perplexing as I was not aware that we had ordered anything as of late. Through the window I saw THIS.

Ben and I had discussed getting one pretty seriously for the past few weeks, but he kept saying we had to wait for it to go on sale on Amazon, and blah blah blah. Unbeknownst to me, he found a good deal on ebay this last week and ordered it as a surprise :) Way to go, Ben!

Behind this you will see one of the space saving solutions that allowed us to fit this in our tiny kitchen.

The last month or so, I have written about my wish for a stand mixer. Back in September, I was stupid enough to say I would never get one. I scoff at my former self now! After making homemade bread a few times without one, I can say with absolute certainty, turning on a mixer and having it knead the dough while you surf the internet for 10 minutes is WAY BETTER than doing it yourself.

Right away, I decided to try this bread recipe again (previously given to Becky and Rett). I kind of thought I did something wrong the last time - now I think I might have used "Active Dry" yeast instead of "Instant" because I wasn't paying attention. Who knows - there are so many stupid packets in the grocery store and none of them said instant. This time I got the stuff that says it's quick rise and hoped for the best. Becky and Rett said that the bread tasted great so I guess it must not have made too much of a difference!

This time around everything went much better! Mostly because I didn't have to do much. Homemade bread is SO easy with this thing! I will definitely be making it quite often. It rose much more this time due to the different yeast I'm sure. I had one slice so far and it is so yummy! I'm glad to have this loaf all to myself :) Well, I SUPPOSE I will share with Ben since he was nice enough to order the KitchenAid for me!

Calzones and Marinara Sauce

So, my blog isn't supposed to be a full on food blog, but sometimes that is what it becomes. I've been getting a little sick of it, so hopefully that will help to motivate me to take my camera out and shoot something that ISN'T food, because it has been far too long. This might be because it is cold and dark out, and because I'm in my final quarter of school and SUPPOSED to be working on my final project at all times... :) 41 days left!!

Even though I'm sick of it, I'm sure others will still like to see some of the food that I've made. When planning our meals last Sunday, I thought about having calzones. Ben suggested spinach and chicken, so a quick google search led me to this recipe. I was VERY skeptical since it came from Mayo Clinic, and healthy recipes and I usually do not agree with one another. Then I found this blog post from We are not Martha (great blog by the way - check them out!) and decided it might be okay.

I did add mozzarella to the mix, and also put in WAY more parmesan than it called for (4 teaspoons?? who are they kidding!) so mine weren't quite as healthy, but that's just fine with me. The most frustrating part of this whole process was rolling out the stupid bread dough. We got the frozen dough on Sunday afternoon and just put it the fridge because we made these Monday night. They had risen a bit but not much - I have no idea if that would affect how easy it was to roll it out (not easy at all). Next time I'm using pizza dough.

My calzone looks a little bloated.

I thought these would be kind of bland on their own, so I made marinara sauce to dip them in. I used this basic recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. It came together very easily. Since Ben is a chunk hater in sauces, I used the immersion blender to make this nice and smooth for him. This sauce was delish, and it made way more than we needed so I froze a lot of it for a future meal. One note - it says to "simmer uncovered" but I found that if it was completely uncovered, it looked like a marinara sauce bomb went off in my kitchen, so I put the cover on but left it cracked instead.

This was a great meal! The filling in the calzones tastes great AND as a bonus is pretty good for you. The marinara sauce also is healthy (I think? I hope.). Which makes it much easier to justify the 2 cookies I had for dessert.

Chocolate and Pork

Two seemingly unrelated things (but with the way people are throwing bacon on top of everything these days, who knows...) that were both made in my kitchen this weekend!

Our neighbors Nate and Molly are awesome - not only are they fun to hang out with, but as a total bonus, Nate is always willing to help Ben out with random house projects! We have had more than our fair share lately... I wanted to make him (+ Molly) a treat to say thanks and I figured chocolate chip cookies would do the trick! I had seen this post on The Way the Cookie Crumbles where Bridget helpfully tried 4 recipes out and compared them. Because of her comments, I decided to try out Alton Brown's The Chewy. I had tried this recipe before and while it was good, it didn't wow me, so I wanted something different.

I will look no further in the future for MY perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe - these are awesome! They stay chewy, which is key for me. I really am not a fan of any crispiness in my cookies (which was shown during my cookie baking bonanza last month). Ben also was a huge fan. In fact he wants me to make another batch tonight... :)

Ben has been having a hankering for pulled pork lately, so we decided to use the Pioneer Woman's spicy pulled pork recipe on Sunday. We used our roasting oven that Ben got for a Christmas exchange gift about 5 years ago that has been used exactly three times (once by my parents) and it worked great, but since there are tiny holes in the top we didn't get as much juices in the pan. I was expecting to be more wowed by this... it was good, but I think we'll try another recipe next time. For dinner that night we had the pork on tortillas with some sour cream and homemade salsa. The salsa was super good! I am very thankful that Annie posted it last Sunday, right as I was looking for a good recipe to try! We used the leftovers for BBQ pork sandwiches for lunches.

A couple of cuties

My coworker Kelley and her fiance Dean have made quite a few iron on shirts and onesies for their friends and I thought they were all so cute! I know how much Becky and Rett love their pets so I wanted to make a little onesie for Adelaide that featured Dugan and Chauncey. I sent Kelley these two photos and this is what her and Dean came up with! I was very impressed!

The onesie they had was newborn and was SO TINY!!! Kelley gave it to me on Friday and I told Rett and Becky that I needed to drop off something "time sensitive" for Adelaide because I was worried it already would be too small. Luckily she is a little peanut so it still fit just fine! Kate was over there taking their newborn photos so she was able to snap this awesome photo of Dugan and Adelaide together! Unfortunately, Chauncey was not able to tear himself away from his perch near the window for the photo :)

Photo Courtesy of Red Apple Images

My most eaten meal

The meal I've eaten the most in my life is probably a tie between mac and cheese in it's various forms, or chips and some kind of dip. I am SO health conscious. I usually just make the blue box, or Velveeta Rotini & Cheese with Broccoli.

When I saw this recipe for Easy Mac and Cheese on Liz's blog (that she found on Cate's blog) I knew I'd want to try it - it looked so much creamier than the other homemade mac and cheeses I have tried! This was JUST as easy as the blue box, with the possible exception of having to shred cheese. If you get the pre-shredded stuff, there is literally nothing difficult about this at all! Perfect for a weeknight meal.

I used medium (full fat, obviously) cheddar, and want to try again with white cheddar or other types of cheese. I mixed in some steamed broccoli which was great - I personally prefer to mix it in rather than have it on the side. This recipe makes the perfect amount for 2 portions and Ben loved it even more than I did!

Meals for the new parents!

Monday was a day off of work for me, and since Ben and I planned to go over to Becky and Rett's so he could meet little Miss Adelaide after his flight came in from Colorado, I wanted to make a few things to bring to the new parents so they wouldn't have to worry about food for a couple of days!

I have been wanting to try more bread recipes, and this Country Crust Bread on The Way the Cookie Crumbles (one of my favorite food blogs!) looked beautiful! I do not have a stand mixer (yet! but hopefully soon... as soon as I can figure out how to create enough counter space for it...) so I had to mix and knead by hand. I'm not sure if it was that, or some other factor (who knows with bread) but even though I increased the rising time and kept it in the oven to stay warm, my bread didn't really rise to "sandwich height". I thought it still looked rather pretty, I was just hoping for more of a sandwich bread. Oh well! Rett said that it is already all gone so I guess it must have been okay! I plan on making this again for Ben and I soon! The dough was super sticky, so it wasn't the most pleasant thing to knead by hand. I also kneaded for longer than the recipe said because I'm sure my hands aren't quite as efficient as a Kitchen Aid mixer :)

I also wanted to bring Becky and Rett a few things they could have for lunch and dinner. I had a few qualifiers - I wanted things that they could take out individual portions of (which ruled out huge casseroles that have to be baked all at once) and that didn't require any extra preparation other than heating up. I checked out the awesome blog Adventures in my Freezer for ideas and found two winners!

The first thing I made was basic chili. I used the recipe as more of a guide. Here are my alterations.

1 lb ground beef
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 large onion, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, pressed
approx 1/2 cup of water (mine was seeming a little dry)
some of the following spices (at least a teaspoon each, but I just added it until it tasted good without being too spicy): Penzey's Adobo seasoning, chili powder, cayenne pepper

Brown beef, drain. Add to a dutch oven along with everything else, simmer for approximately 1 hour or so. Pretty easy :) I put what I thought were 2 healthy size servings in a gallon size freezer bag. This made 3 bags, so 6 servings.

I also made the "Chicken and Rice Wraps" on this document, which Adventures in My Freezer had as a OAMC (once a month cooking) Link on her blog. This was another super easy recipe that I packaged as suggested - in individual servings. The recipe made 8 for me, but I don't know if I was making them big. I did use the big enchilada size tortillas (it didn't specify a size in the recipe). I only tasted a bit of this but it tasted great.

How lazy am I that I didn't want to go into the other room and get my flash so this photo could turn out halfway decent? Oh well :)

If you are ever wanting recipes to bring to new parents, I think these are some great ones! Easy to freeze, easy to reheat, and do not require any extra work!

Ready for Rett and Becky!

On another unrelated note, Ben had been growing a beard for approximately one month, kind of for this guy's trip, but mostly just to see if he could. I am a facial hair hater so I am SO glad he finally shaved! I don't know what it is with men and beards...

Ben looks so hipster with his beard and new glasses :)

Pasta + Vodka = Yum

I don't know if I've ever had a vodka sauce before, and if I have, it was from a jar. When I saw this recipe on Pioneer Woman, it looked so tasty! Ben and I were in need of a meal that did not require a trip to the grocery store, and this fit the bill! We still had an unopened HUGE bottle of crappy vodka that we bought for some party. Apparently we are too old for crappy vodka, so of course everyone drank anything other than that :) I guess that means there will be a lot of vodka sauces in my future, which is fine with me!

I used a 28oz jar of diced tomatoes that I pureed in the food processor, and topped with some shrimp because we had half a bag of frozen raw shrimp left from something else. I liked this slightly better than the Penne a la Betsy (made prior to starting the blog) but I think that is because I let the sauce thicken up a bit. I did like all the fresh basil in the Penne a la Betsy, but now is not the time for fresh basil. Now is the time for vodka.

Edit to add: I don't think I was very clear about what we thought of this dish: We both LOVED this sauce - it was delicious! I think that I used way more tomato sauce than she did because my jar was huge (28oz) and it might have been slightly different than canned tomato puree because I drained and pureed the diced tomatoes I had. I also used organic diced tomatoes which I have heard can have better flavor than regular (but who knows if that is true or not - I'm no canned tomato aficionado).

Introducing Adelaide Rae!

My good friends Rett and Rebekah are now parents!! Adelaide Rae was born yesterday at 2:39am. Approximately 12 hours later I was there to visit :) I definitely got a little teary eyed when I first held her, but luckily there was enough commotion in the hospital room that I don't think anyone noticed :)

She is beautiful and Rett and Becky are looking way too awesome... especially Becky because she didn't even have any drugs for the labor/delivery..... yowza. Ben gets home tomorrow from his little boy's trip to Colorado, so we will have to make another visit to see her at home!

This is for my sister.

Since my sister left a pleading comment on my last post asking me to update... here you go, Liz. I know this may be hard for you to believe, but sometimes I just don't have anything to write about!

Today is one of those days where I get very angry at my great-great-great-grandparents for settling in this state. Most of the time, I can tolerate winter. Even when it is 10 degrees - fine. I can deal. I don't really have to go outside that often. But on days like today, when the ACTUAL temperature, not windchill, is -20? No. Also, it is all that anyone can talk about. 90% of the conversations I hear or participate in are about the weather. I hate myself just a little bit as I bring it up, but it's like some other force is controlling me.

Almost exactly one year ago, my mom, Liz and I were headed to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. It was a day not unlike today, when the high temp would never get even close to zero. My flight was delayed because the bathroom on the plane FROZE and they had to thaw it out. This apparently is quite difficult to do.

If I ever think my life is bad - I just have to look at this photo and thank the Lord that I don't have THAT job.

All was right with the world as soon as I got to the condo we rented and stepped onto the balcony to see this view. If you are ever going to Zihuatanejo, I highly recommend this condo - it was perfect and in a great part of the town.

Since I don't have any travel planned until our trip to Europe in May, I will have to live off the memories of Mexico and wonderful Minnesota summers until the temps start to get above freezing.

Since this post is for Liz. Here she is.

Curried Cranberry Turkey Salad

As I mentioned before, we had a whole bunch of leftover turkey from our dinner party! We froze some of it and then used the rest to make turkey salad for lunches this week.

Kind of unrelated, but I just liked this lime :)

We frequently make tuna/chicken/egg salads with chopped veggies and mayo, and this turkey salad is completely different from that. I liked the change of pace! The yogurt gave it some tang, and the curry powder and cayenne made it a little spicy. The sweetness of the cranberries offsets the spice a little, and there is lots of cilantro in there for flavor. I have been eating it with butter lettuce and a whole wheat pita.

Curried Cranberry Turkey Salad from Cookthink

Lovin the Microplane (Ben took this photo. Don't think I could have contorted myself into a position that would have allowed me to zest and photograph at the same time)

Belated Holiday Party

I lived in a large house on Hennepin Ave fall semester of my junior year of college - there were 7 people total living in the house, and I subleased from Kimberly, who was studying abroad that semester, because I was studying abroad spring semester of that year. Two of my roommates were my friends from high school, and at one point or another I think there were 10 different people living in that house. Eight of us are still very good friends, and we always refer to this group as the "Hennepin House Girls".

Anyway, now that the back story is out of the way, each year we try to have a holiday dinner - this year everyone was way too busy during December so we tried to find a date in January. With work, family plans, vacations, and the final weeks of pregnancy for Becky, it was still impossible to get everyone together at the same time, but we did pretty good by getting 5 of the girls and our respective significant others there! Laura and Kevin came a little late due to work (silly doctors, having to work on weekends :) so they aren't in any of the photos. Maria and Chelsea couldn't come due to living thousands of miles away :)

We had to rearrange the living room so that everyone could fit around the dining room table

I love having people over, as it allows me to try some of the bigger recipes that would be way too much for Ben and I. I saw this recipe for Roasted Turkey Roulade on Annie's blog (originally from Ina Garten so I knew it would taste great!) and thought it would be perfect! My only slight problem was finding the turkey breasts. These are probably abundant in November and December, but not so much now. Or maybe it was just that I went to Whole Foods on an off day (Friday night?) because when I was there today I saw about 7 in the butcher section. The only two they had were quite large (about 3.6 pounds each) and since the recipe called for 5 pounds of breast total, I felt like I should get 2. These were huge.

I found this blog post, where the writer had rolled up and baked each breast separately, so I did it that way instead of somehow using both breasts in one roll. There was one thicker area that was being a little stubborn and not getting up to the right temperature, but otherwise, it cooked to 150 degrees in 2 hours. This turkey was delicious and I LOVED the stuffing. Of course, in the end, 1 turkey breast would have ended up being enough for the 9 meat eaters we had there, but I'm always paranoid about not having enough food. Ben and I will be eating turkey leftovers all week :)

Figs and cranberries simmering in Brandy... mmmm

Before rolling it up

Before the roasting

Plenty of extra stuffing!

Finished product - delish.

I also made Honey Yeast Rolls, another one that I found on Annie's blog (originally from ... A cookie a Day). These were very good, the only problem was that I waited to bake them until right before dinner (because I personally love rolls fresh from the oven... and who doesn't??) which was the same time that everyone wanted to warm up their dishes in the oven. That probably affected the baking time, and despite leaving these in for about 17 minutes, they still weren't browning on top. They were maybe VERY slightly underdone, but everyone seemed to like them. Of course at this point I was a little busy so didn't have a chance to get a photo of the final product, but that's fine because mine didn't look as good as Annie's! I saw another blogger, Amber, just recently made these, and I took her suggestion of making them in a 13x9 dish, which worked perfectly!

At least I have a "before" shot even if I didn't get a photo of the final product! This apron was given to me by the Hennepin House girls so I figured I had to wear it when they came over :)

The last thing that I made was dessert! Desserts especially are something that I rarely make for just Ben and I, but that I love making for other people. Ben had requested long ago that the next cheesecake I make be a Banana Cream Cheesecake. This is his favorite at Cheesecake Factory, and since we haven't been back there since starting our blog, he has been craving it. I found this copycat recipe and followed it exactly (except for subbing butter for margarine). I thought this was delicious! I should have mashed the bananas more, but other than that it was awesome. I used a 9 inch springform pan and this was still a pretty thin cheesecake compared to the other two that I've made. I topped with whipped cream. As you can see, I clearly didn't bake this for quite long enough - the center wasn't set. Oh well. I'll just have to practice making some more so I can tell when it is really done!

Um, I really didn't want to have to wash 10 more plates so I definitely used some paper plates... how classy of me :)

We had a great time hosting the dinner, and all of the dishes everyone else brought were wonderful.