Baked Vanilla/Vanilla Donuts

I have been fighting buying a donut pan for some time... I couldn't hold out and picked one up the last time I was at Hobby Lobby. (The recipe for blueberry baked donuts with orange glaze pushed me over the edge... thanks Pinterest!)

My first try was a really simple recipe for vanilla donuts (with a hint of cinnamon) and vanilla glaze with sprinkles. Everything from the dough to the piping to the glaze was simple. The pan works really well. The donuts are a bit softer and less dense than a real cake donut which I think I might prefer... still deciding. In any event, baking donuts at home will be a great substitute for picking up fried donuts on the weekends!

(On a random note - the colored sprinkles melted into the glaze but the gold ones didn't.)

Donut recipes I have been pinning and will need to be made:

• chocolate donuts with buttermilk glaze
• blueberry donuts with orange glaze or lemon glaze
• buttermilk pumpkin donuts
• maple bacon donuts
• cinnamon-sugar donuts
• cake batter donuts
• vanilla donuts with strawberry glaze

Perhaps I need to host a coffee/donuts brunch?

Fort Worth Stockyards & Love Shack

Mike and I ventured out to the Fort Worth Stockyards during our long anniversary weekend. I have to say, we were a bit underwhelmed... I just wasn't sure what we were supposed to be exploring there. Mostly there were steak restaurants and just a couple of shops. There were tons of people walking around but Mike and I were kind of at a loss. We're guessing when there is an actual event there its a lot more exciting...

We were able to spot a couple of fun things during our outing, a guy riding this longhorn and a group riding horses down the main road of the stockyards.

(who knew you could ride a longhorn?)

Mostly we ventured out to the stockyards to try Tim Love's Love Shack burgers. Now, be aware, if you go its cash only and the term "shack" is to be taken literally. (There is no actual building so go on a nice cool day like we did.) The restaurant is very thin and long with picnic tables on bottom and a series of porches built 3 stories high to view a small stage where a guy played country music while we ate. The burgers were really good and the atmosphere was great (plus I had a pretty good date with me)!

homemade chili & parmesan chips

Spicy Chop Beef Sandwiches (and homemade bbq sauce!)

I made these yummy spicy chop beef sandwiches for Mike and I along with the homemade bbq sauce. I really like this girl's blog... how could I not? Its all about Texas!

The brisket can be expensive but the actual work could not be simpler. I don't have a "real" roasting pan so I just used a 9x13 pyrex and everything turned out just fine. The meat is really tasty even before you put the bbq sauce on it. I had mine with just bbq sauce while Mike wanted his a lot fancier... jalapenos, onions, jalapeno jack cheese and sauce.

(I also was able to freeze enough for two sandwiches for a rainy day!)

Stumbling Upon Banh Mi

Mike and I went to downtown earlier this month to visit the Crow Collection of Asian Art and when we got there we walked right into a month-of-art kick off day in downtown. All the museums had special things going on and food trucks were lining up and beginning to serve food. We finally caught Nammi and were able to grab a banh mi. Seriously delish and a huge sandwich for around $8.

Freezer Burritos

As part of stocking our freezer, I made Mike freezer burritos. There are lots of nights where he gets back too late to dirty the kitchen but needs to eat something pretty substantial. Most of the time that means frozen food of some kind so hopefully these homemade ones will be better than the ones we buy at the store.

No real recipe - just browned a pound of ground beef and seasoned it with spicy taco seasoning and half a can of Rotel tomatoes (in place of the water the seasoning packet called for). I also browned some thinly sliced onion and bell pepper to go into the burritos. The last ingredient of the burritos was refried pinto beans. I then portioned it all into 8 large burritos in individual foil sheets.

In place of a photo of 8 burritos rolled in foil... here's a picture of our Halloween pumpkin!

Mongolian Beef & Thai Fried Rice

More uses for the wok - Mongolian Beef and Thai Fried Rice.

(yes, we do keep chopsticks at the house)

I thought the rice, while pretty salty, tasted a lot more like take-out rice than a lot of other recipes we have tried in the past (I think next time we'll either decrease the fish sauce or use low-sodium soy sauce). Mike liked the beef more while I preferred the rice. I like the meat to be a bit more tender than this turned out to be but I really enjoyed the sauce that the beef cooked in more than the beef itself.

Fat, Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits

Alright, I don't know what is going on with my biscuits but they never seem to be as tall as the photos of the recipes I use. I'm not sure if I'm rolling them out too thin or the baking soda/powder isn't working correctly. In any case, I made these while my parents were in town. Taste great but I don't think I've found "best" biscuit recipe out there yet. The search (and baking) is still on (no complaining either... I clearly have a love for southern biscuits).

Here's the recipe from Bakergirl and a photo of hers... they just look much more scrumptious than mine!

ONE year

Mike and I celebrated our one year anniversary this weekend. The past year has gone by so quickly!

We were both able to take off to spend a long, 4-day weekend together. Part of that time was spent taking care of our little patient after she had her lady-surgery done last Thursday (she also had some baby teeth pulled... bad day for Daisy!).


Thankfully she behaved as if nothing had even happened... she didn't even come home with a "cone of shame" which was sad for me and Mike. We were looking forward to taking funny pictures.

(cone of shame)

We spent our weekend doing a lot of relaxing, movie watching, eating and just spending some downtime with each other... our schedules usually don't permit it. Friday we slept in since Daisy had to spend the night at the vet, yay! Some quick weekend highlights - strawberry glazed donuts (my fave) for breakfast, burgers at LoveShack, quirky bottled sodas in Bishops Arts District, massages at Pure, sushi at Roy's Hawaiian, and finally, fried food and people watching at the State Fair.

they decorated the table with star confetti and a "happy anniversary" sign :)

the restaurant also takes a commemorative picture and frames it for you haha!

Pig & Fig Pizza

So... another fab recipe from Pioneer Woman, Prosciutto & Fig Pizza with Arugula! So good. Such an interesting mix of salty and sweet, gooey and crunchy. My parents were in town recently and my mom and I wanted to try something new. We grabbed a ready to roll-out pizza crust from Central Market (which is one of my favorite things... its ready to go for $1.99 and so fresh!) plus the rest of the short list of ingredients. Thew the pizza in the oven for less than 15 minutes and had a delicious dinner.

(photo from Pioneer Woman... I've really been slacking on the pics lately!)

Hospital Survival Gift (plus Sea Salt Caramel Corn)

My cousin Stephanie is having her second baby today! Joel should arrive sometime today. Paige, Laura, Stephanie and I grew up together so the girls and I put together this care package for Stephanie's hospital stay.

We included... an outfit and two onesies for Joel; a book, snack and "big sister" badge for Grace; a magazine and chocolates for Stephanie; and homemade sea salt caramel popcorn for Stephanie and her husband Shane.



I made the badge for Grace as well as the caramel popcorn. Get the recipe here. I didn't add the M&Ms this time but I am thinking of doing red & green ones and giving it away with Christmas gifts during the holidays.