Blog Move!

I've decided to change from my old blog to a new one! The new blog address is http://thehardistys.blogspot.com/. Save it, be a follower or put it in your favorites. I'll be deleting this old blog soon.

I've cleaned up the posts a lot and deleted some that I really wasn't that thrilled with. Hopefully the posts will be better organized and we'll have more "life" stories and not just recipes.

Pasta with Peas, Mushrooms and Proscuitto

After another long week of work, a bowl of pasta was right up our alley again. This time I tried recreating a pasta I had at Penne Pomodoro - linguine with peas, mushrooms and prosciutto. I searched for some recipes and settled upon this one from Kitchen Trial and Error. I added roasted mushrooms to the dish as well as swapped prosciutto for pancetta. It was pretty close to what I had at the restaurant except that their sauce was much more saucy and this one was a lot thicker. (Probably because the restaurant had more of a Parmesan cream sauce and this was based on an Alfredo sauce.) I'm still looking for a saucier recipe but this was a good substitute for a quick Friday night meal.

Pumpkin Bread with Cinnamon Chips

With fall weather right around the corner (which really occurred a couple of weeks ago when I actually made this bread), I couldn't resist making some homemade pumpkin bread with cinnamon chips. I got the recipe from Fake Ginger's blog, which is super cute. I visited two stores searching for cinnamon chips (which I assumed would look like chocolate chips except be cinnamon) but walked away empty handed from both stores. I started doing some searching online and found a lot of people complaining about a "waxy" taste of the cinnamon chips and that most people were unable to find any at all. I took one of the suggested recipes from these answers and just made my own cinnamon chips which was probably a better idea overall.

Cinnamon Chips (approximately 1 cup):

1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon solid all-vegetable shortening (I used unsalted butter instead)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Heat oven to 200F. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with fork until uniform and crumbly. Spread on foil lined baking sheet (I sprayed mine with Pam) and bake until melted and bubbly, about 35 minutes. Cool completely, then break into small pieces. Makes approximately 1 cup.

I left half the loaf at home for Mike and I and took the remaining pieces to work. I wish I could send some to my sister-in-law, Tarah! Pumpkin season is her fave!

More Daisy Sleeps

A few more shots of Daisy May's silly sleeping positions...

A Second Look at Fettucine Alfredo

Back in June, I posted about fettucine alfredo. That dish was made with butter, parmesan and pasta. The one I'm posting about now is made with butter, parmesan, CREAM and pasta. Wow. This is a serious treat. Either recipe is delicious, but if you really want something that's comforting go for the second recipe with cream. You'll only need a small bowl with something this yummy!

Pasta with Whiskey, Wine & Mushrooms + Garlic Bread

Mike and I had a long week a while back so we came home on Friday and made a really indulgent meal... grilled steak with pasta and garlic bread.

The steak was just typical... t-bone or rib eye... I can't even remember at this point. Grilled to medium and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I cooked up this pasta (half of it anyway) from Pioneer Woman - pasta with whiskey, wine & mushrooms. It sounds odd but trust me, this pasta has really good flavor (plus it has cream so you can't really go wrong there). My only complaint is that our mushrooms really shrunk while they roasted in the oven so next time I would actually add more. (Sidenote, the pasta can really be served without the steak, Mike just was extra hungry and pasta alone wouldn't do.)

I also made garlic bread using a mash-up of a few recipes I saw on pinterest. Basically, I took a baguette, halved it and then split it. I took 4 tablespoons of room temperature butter and "zested" a glove of garlic into the butter using a microplane. I then buttered the bread and sprinkled it a little bit of salt and pepper. I closed up the half, wrapped it in foil and let the bread warm through in a 300 degree oven while I made the pasta.

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.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

We've finally had some cooler weather in Dallas! Coincidentally, I planned to make chicken tortilla soup from P-dub for a dinner with some girls I used to work with. Catching up was good but my pup was not good! She was so overly excited for new people and jumped all over everyone. Hopefully the soup made up for it.

Note: My soup wasn't nearly as dark or brothy looking as hers below... flavor was still good!

(photo from P-dub)

Snickerdoodle Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream

I made this yummy cake for Ann's birthday. Its so good and literally smells just like snickerdoodle cookie. I added some gold sprinkles just for fun :)

I didn't have any good photos so this photo is borrowed from the original author, Always with Butter. (Which has so many recipes that I'm dying to try, anyone else need a birthday cake??)

The Freezer Meal Project

I'm sure lots of people have this problem... I cook on Sundays, more often than not, but we run out of this home-cooked food by Thursday. We end up eating out or hunting for things in our pantry until Sunday rolls around again.

We don't spend a ton of money on restaurants relative to most people but I do feel like its an expense we could control a little better. So, for the next few weekends I'm planning on making some ready-to-go freezer meals in order to have small, home-cooked meals ready for Thursday and Friday nights when we're out of food in the fridge but don't want to totally wreck the kitchen.

(I guess the key will then be not to forget what is in the freezer!)

Here are some sources/ideas I've been saving:

From Annie's Eats - Stocking the Freezer (Meals) and Stocking the Freezer (Individual Items)
From Simple Organized Living - Freezable Foods
From Shutterbean - Freezer burritos
From 100 Days of Real Food - Essentials

(Is it just me or is "freezer" starting to look like an odd word?)

First up - turkey meatballs and homemade marinara sauce. Yes, it took a while but its certainly easier to cook a lot of one thing one afternoon than multiple things during a week. I got our food for this week cooked (as of this post that has made it through 3 meals with more to go) plus I froze a serving of meatballs + marinara for one pizza and 6 other individual servings of meatballs + marinara that we can add to spaghetti on nights we are busy.

Daisy v. Thunderstorms

Daisy 0, Thunderstorms 2

The foster family we adopted Daisy from told us she heard thunder for the first time at their place just a week or two before we adopted her and she ran and hid under the bed. They just wanted to give us a heads up. Thankfully they did since it rained for the first time since we adopted her this weekend and she didn't do much better.

Friday night she paced the house in circles until I let her in the guest bath...


Sunday night we were out for a walk and it started thundering when we were at just about the farthest point from our house. She started getting really nervous so Mike ran her back home where she slid into our room under the bed...

(please ignore the creepy dog eye flash reflection)

Poor Dais! She has a lot to learn about our weather. These were mild storms... Hopefully she grows out of this otherwise she'll be spending a lot of time hiding!

She's much happier on days like this...