Birthday Pancakes

Someone please have these pancakes ready for my birthday!

oh my darling

Spring is Coming... I hope!

Spring (hopefully) is right around the corner. Like I said last time, I spent most of the weekend enjoying the sun and breeze on the porch in Orange. I can't wait for Spring to stick around for a while. Its typical February today... cloudy and overcast but there are 79 degree forecasts and sunny days ahead.

Defininately looking forward to days where we can leave the windows open, installing a screen door, working a bit in the yard, hitting the farmers market (see below!), taking a couple of trips, birthdays and enjoying not wearing a coat and uggs to work!

Foods in season in Texas during Spring -

March: broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, grapefruit, mushrooms, oranges, spinach and sweet potatoes
April: blackberries, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, grapefruit, oranges, peaches, spinach, strawberries and turnips
May: blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, cucumbers, honeydew melons, nectarines, peaches, pears, peppers and summer squash


My grandparents always had a garden with lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I don't know if I'm that talented but I would love to try growing some jalapenos, cilantro or parsley over the next few months.

I have a sweet potato soup recipe I need to make while they are in season. Also thinking about some pancakes/waffles with blueberries, pasta with mushrooms and spinach and hope to try a peach cake recommended by Ann!

Weekend in Orange

Most of the reason I spend so much time in the kitchen now is because I spent a lot of time in it growing up watching my parents cook and then learning to do it myself. Case in point... I spent the weekend in Orange with the family and spent the large majority of it in the kitchen (and the rest enjoying the 80 degree weather on the porch).

we didn't make these but my dad, sister and i love to get chili dogs. its not james coney island but its a good second place chili-dog from weinerschnitzel

saturday i taught my sister how to make cake balls. they aren't very pretty... the humidity was killing me. we made two flavors, german chocolate for my mom and her sisters and chocolate-strawberry for everyone else.

i also taught megan and her boyfriend how to make pasta carbonara with baby spinach and surprised my parents with a homemade dinner saturday night.

we cook breakfast every saturday and sunday morning. sunday's was mom's french toast, eggs & bacon.

Chinese Chicken Casserole

I made this yummy Chinese chicken casserole over the weekend. I'm not sure what qualifies something as a casserole but whatever you want to call this, its so good!


The recipe was sent in to thekitchn.com during a healthy casserole recipe contest. It is so simple and makes a ton. I did not use the sausage or its substitute called for in the recipe so I substituted boneless, skinless chicken thighs for the breasts to make up for the lost fat which was needed in the recipe.


Everything was really easy and came out with well cooked rice right on time. And it only dirties one pot! Next time I'm going to increase the amount of mushrooms, add chopped spinach and substitute pork tenderloin for the chicken. Mike of course wanted more meat in the dish haha.

photo from thekitchn.com

Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake

I have been so MIA lately... and Mike's been more than understanding and making up where I was lacking so I decided to do lots of nice things for him over Valentine's day weekend.

I gave him a new camera...http://blackbirdflycamera.com/ He was talking about wishing he had one of the originals... little did he know I had already purchased this version which uses 35mm film.

I also made this chocolate stout bundt cake from Real Simple's December 2010 magazine:


Shellie & Ann got a few extra cupcakes I made knowing I would see them at brunch the next day :) Nibbe also stopped by to see the house and sample a slice of cake!

I also attempted to make mike chicken fried steak and homemade tator tots. Eh. If there's something I'm not good at, its frying things. Which, I'm semi-ok with the fact that I'm not very good at it because I really don't enjoy doing it. Mike liked the chicken fried steak... I was less than thrilled. The homemade tator tots were ok... not worth all the trouble. I also made gravy and biscuits to go with our supper. Those two parts I really liked but the rest I could have skipped.

Overall, a pretty successful weekend spent spending time with Mike, catching up with friends, cooking and trying to get the house back in order.

House Pics

I know I haven't shown much of the house... its still being painted and re-arranged. Not quite ready for a full showing. But, I do need to show something so we'll start with some pictures from the day we moved in:

guest room

guest bath

mike's office

living

living - love that mirror!

dining

kitchen

master

master bath

Its hard to fully understand how saturated all the paint colors are without seeing it in person... we're basically repainting everything except the almondy color that runs through the living room/dining room area. Pics of what we've done so far coming!

MIA

I've been so MIA in life lately due to this little tiny project at work that has completely consumed me the past few weeks. Good news is that it will be complete Monday at noon! Sadly, I planned to spend Saturday baking goodies for the cupcake party but that adventure will have to be put on hold in order to get work finished by the Monday deadline. I'll just have to make them another day and pick something up for the party :(

Also causing some craziness is what people in Dallas are referring to as wintergeddon, snowgate, snowpocalypse... one guy at work actually used the phrase "storm of the century" (you get the idea). Basically we had a winter storm the busiest week I've had at work and the week super bowl madness in town. This made getting to work very difficult this week as the work had to get done and we weren't able to take any real snow days to relax with no work. I was lucky enough to be stuck at my house today because of this...


Thankfully I didn't have to try to drive in this but got to work at home, get a lot done since it was quiet here and stay warm!

I'm so looking forward to next week where I can relax a little!