Thursday, September 8, 2011

Macaron Afternoon

Mitzi, Ann and I have been wanting to try macarons for a while now. Lots of bloggers talk about how temperamental they are and how a lot of the time they collapse and aren't very pretty. In P-dub fashion, we did an afternoon of baking at my house. We had a REALLY good day and luck on our side and were able to successfully make 3 kinds of macarons!

We started out with Bravetart's French macaron recipe. Ann and I stuck with vanilla and Mitzi added 25 grams of cocoa to hers to make them chocolate. I filled mine with blackberry buttercream while Ann filled hers with pistachio buttercream and finally Mitzi filled her chocolate ones with marshmallow frosting (for hot chocolate macarons).










Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Pork with Parmesan & Sage

I made these parmesan & sage pork chops for dinner last week. We did some nights with salad only and other nights with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans.

Really easy plus its from Cooking Light. The recipe says each serving (1 thin sliced pork chop) has 272 calories.

ingredients
1 slice white (I substituted wheat) bread, pulsed into breadcrumbs using a food processor
1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
1 tbs chopped fresh sage
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tbs prepared mustard
2 large egg whites beaten
4 thinly sliced boneless pork loin chops
1 1/2 tbs canola oil

Set up a breading station: 1st plate with flour, mustard and egg whites in the 2nd plate and the breadcrumbs, cheese, sage, salt and pepper. Dredge chops one at a time first in flour, shaking off excess, then in the egg mixture, allowing excess to drip off, and finally into the breadcumb mixture. Repeat with remaining pork chops. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add oil to pan, swirl to coat. Cook pork 3 minutes on each side until done. (I actually found mine to be undercooked at that time so I put all 4 into a 300 degree oven for another 10 minutes to keep finish the cooking process.)



Friday, September 2, 2011

Daisy Sleeps

We've learned several things since getting Daisy... she's clearly adorable, too smart for her own good, is able to sleep all night with no accidents, makes friends with other dogs, doesn't like the doorbell... this list could go on and on. BUT one of the funniest things we've learned is that she does not just curl up in a ball and go to sleep. She has several sleeping positions that range from comfortable looking to well, not comfortable looking.