Light Wheat Bread

I LOVE making bread. I love the way it makes the place smell and I love that its easy (well, most of the time). I also love that I know exactly what is in it. The recipe has 8 ingredients. If you look on the bread bag, there will be more. Mine included lots of the same ingredients but also had lots of preservatives and long words that don't even sound like food.

I'm super excited to use this bread for sandwiches this week. Mine had a hard time rising... probably due to the chilly apartment. The recipe from Smitten Kitchen/The Bread Baker's Apprentice can be found here. Such a great site!







Definitely give this recipe a try!

Homemade Christmas

I think the theme of my family's Christmas this year was homemade. My mom hand embroidered this apron for me!


And my aunt crochet and knit everyone's gift. I got these mittens and scarf:



There was also this little nugget to play with during the holiday!







Look at the cute shoes Auntie Laura gave Baby G! Such a good time. Happy Holidays!

Twelfth Dish of Christmas - Pretzel Bites

Last dish! I made these pretzel bites to bring for a snack before Christmas lunch. It turned out to be pretty easy and really tasty! I omitted the ham. I had some leftover dough and made a few without cheese (I think I like those more than the ones with cheese). The dipping sauce was good too! If you need it spicier, add more jalapeno to the dip of you could add some diced jalapeno to the batter itself. (Note, my pretzels baked much faster than the recipe... mine might have been cut smaller). See the recipe here.
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Happy holidays everyone!

Eleventh Dish of Christmas - Coconut Shortbread

I made these cookies for my mom and her two sisters for Christmas Eve. I added a little extra coconut because they are BIG coconut lovers and I topped half with chocolate! Check out the recipe here from Big Girls, Small Kitchen, another blog I love!

I went ahead and rolled and sliced my cookies so I could package them a bit easier. According to my mom, they are very good!

Tenth Dish of Christmas - Baked Rigatoni

I wanted to make a dish for Mike that would be easy to take to work and fill him up. I used the tomato sauce from Dish Nine to make this "no recipe recipe" as Aida Mollenkamp would say.



I baked hot italian sausage (you can get it packaged like ground meat without the casings... really easy to handle), rigatoni, tomato sauce and mozzarella to get the above dish. Here are the specifics:

1 pound hot italian sausage (you can substitute ground beef, sweet italian sausage, mushrooms... the list goes on)
1 pound tube pasta (rigatoni, ziti...)
4 cups tomato sauce
2 cups mozzarella

Preheat the oven to 350. Break up and cook the italian sausage in a pan. Drain any residual fat and set aside. Boil the pasta until al dente. Toss the sausage, 3/4 of the pasta with 3 cups of the sauce and 1 cup of the mozzarella in a 9 by 13 pan. If the pan isn't too full, add in the additional pasta and sauce. Cook the pan covered with foil for 20 minutes. Uncover, top with additional cheese (as much as you want, I used about 1/2 cup) and continue cooking, 5 to 10 minutes until the cheese is melted.

Ninth Dish of Christmas: Easy Chunky Tomato Sauce

I got this recipe from the basics section of the "Everyday Food: Great Food Fast" cookbook (Martha Stewart). Its a great basic that shows that you can make an easy marinara at home and know exactly what's in your food.

Easy Chunky Tomato Sauce

makes 6 cups

prep time: 15 minutes

total time: 45 minutes

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (3 cups)
3 garlic cloves, chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
coarse salt and black pepper
2 cans (28 ounces each) diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or italian seasoning

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes with their juice and the thyme/seasonings; simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has thickened, 20 to 25 minutes.

The sauce can be used that day or frozen for up to 2 months.

I didn't want mine too chunky so I blended about 2/3 of the sauce in a blender. There are still tomato chunks but it is a bit smoother than leaving it all chunky.








Check out the Tenth Dish of Christmas to see what I used the tomato sauce for!

Eighth Dish of Christmas - Lobster Mac & Cheese

I made this dish (well, half of the Ina Garten recipe) for our "Christmas" dinner... although we exchanged gifts a week ago. It was good... rich sauce, pieces of lobster, breadcrumb topping. After making the dish and eating it... I think I might just be an old-fashioned, plain mac and cheese sort of girl. (However, the ancho-chile mac at Park is delicious and I'm attempting to figure out just what is in there and re-create at home.) As a side note, my sauce took much longer to thicken than the recipe says.







We also watched Julie & Julia tonight. So cute. Meryl Streep is hilarious!

Seventh Dish of Christmas - Creamed Mushrooms

The picture of these Smitten Kitchen creamed mushrooms was too good to not try the recipe! I made the brioche (see previous post), topped with chive butter and brought the creamed mushrooms to the annual Christmas Cocktail party. I think it turned out pretty good!



Good job on the party girls!

Sixth Dish of Christmas - Brioche

I made this basic brioche from Epicurious this weekend. Bread usually isn't as hard as it seems but this recipe was overly complicated. If you are looking for a bread recipe, I've got better ones stashed around here. Aside from lengthy directions, the bread turned out really yummy. I served it with the seventh dish and with the eighth dish. Check those out!



This bread is also good when used in french toast or with strawberry jam (eating that right now for breakfast!)

Fifth Dish of Christmas - Cheesecake Marbled Brownies

I made cheesecake marbled brownies for some of my faves for Christmas! I don't eat chocolate but, I have to admit, the kitchen smelled really good while these were in the oven! Mike was dying to sneak a bite!









Merry Christmas girls!

Fourth Dish of Christmas - Sticky Buns

Oh how I love Barefoot Contessa! I made this quick dish for a pot luck breakfast at work. I did not put in raisins or nuts as called for in this Ina Garten recipe. I also made these in mini-muffin tins so they would be snack sized! (To do this, cut the dough in half long ways before rolling and slicing your rolls.)

For some reason I can't get the first picture to upload landscaped...








Also, important... definitely put the second baking sheet under your muffin tin. The butter and sugar will bubble everywhere and end up on your oven floor as my first attempt did!

Third Dish of Christmas - Butternut Squash Enchiladas

Third dish down! My co-worker Kristin brought this dish to work one day... I was definitely skeptical. Squash? Enchiladas? Those two words did not go together in my mind. However, these enchiladas are full of flavor and definitely worth trying. The recipe is from a vegetarian website but I think these would also be good with chicken inside the enchilada. The hardest part of the recipe just might be slicing the butternut squash in half!







Good recipe find Kristin! Get the recipe here!

Second Dish of Christmas - Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

I made this dish for Mitzi and Danny's couples shower this past weekend. It was so yummy and the dish was gone by the end of the night! I thought using fresh pasta really made a difference (my opinion). It also cooks super fast (about 4 minutes).

I used a Giada De Laurentiis recipe from her book Everyday Italian and can also be found here. The only changes I made were adding chicken and parsley and omitting the nutmeg.

It was great seeing everyone! Thanks Shellie and Jon for being such great hosts!

First Dish of Christmas - Cream Biscuits

I have finally had some time in town to do my First Dish of Christmas! I made "Cream Biscuits" that I saw on the delicious Smitten Kitchen website. They turned out really well! Perfect snack on this cold day. I added about half the sugar the recipe called for and rolled the dough out a bit thinner than called for so I could be sure to have enough to bring for the shower decorators to snack on tomorrow! Be sure to check out the pics and the recipe here!

Dear Santa,

I would like a shopping spree for Christmas. See inspiration for this request below.

All from Anthropologie: colassal cables throw, digit spice jars, schoolboy blazer, stacked smoke heels, rosettes and ruffles dress, scalloped dots skirt, iced rosettes clutch, earth and sea posts and iced lait necklace

Thanksgiving

My family came into town for Thanksgiving this year. Definately thankful that I didn't have to make the drive to them this year! We had a really good time!

We ordered Rudy's Barbque instead of the traditional turkey. See pictures of our alternative Thanksgiving below!

Rudy's & bourbon chicken legs

my grandmother's potato salad with homeade mayo

honey buttermilk rolls (from alexandracooks.com) made by me

gg

and

banana bread (from smittenkitchen.com) made by me

jj

Family Pictures

My mom and sister also went wedding dress shopping with me. I am down to two choices!

Thanks for coming everyone!

December is here!

In honor of the 12 days of Christmas, I will be doing the 12 Dishes of Christmas. Basically, I've got a huge stack of recipes I've never made and lots of things to cook for this month. Instead of cooking reliable stand-by recipes, I will be making 12 new things during the month of December and writing a post about each one. I haven't made a complete list of what I will be trying out so stay tuned!

In other news, winter has officially come to town and Christmas is just around the corner. Its cold, windy and there's no trace of sun today. Other ways to know Christmas is coming (and shopping needs to get done if you are me), the Holly channel is on XM (also known as all pop Christmas music, N*SYNC anyone?), our Christmas tree is up and has two wrapped gifts for the adorable Baby G underneath! Dr. Suess' "The Grinch" has been tivo'd (came on last night) and I've got my DVD of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" ready to watch!

A Concert, Dublin, and a Wedding

The past few days have been FULL of activity!

Last week, Laura A and I went to see Regina Spektor. Jupiter One opened for her and they had some pretty catchy music and were funny to watch. Regina was great as always! Here's a picture of her... (not the best but it'll do!)

Over the weekend, Mike and I piled into the car with Mitzi and Danny to meet Jon and Shellie for Amy and Ogden's wedding. We stopped in Dublin on our way for some Dublin Dr. Pepper and to stop in an antique shop.

In Dublin about to enjoy some Dr. Pepper floats!

Congrats to Amy & Ogden! We all had such a good time at the wedding!