Help!

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Ali

Ok, so we eat lots of onions and bell peppers in this house. We have fajita’s like twice a week. But my question is, what else is good to make with bell peppers?

Check out these colorful beauties I got at the Farmer’s Market this morning:

Seriously, we got orange, red, purple, green, yellow. So tasty, too, but I am just looking for another thing to do. Maybe stuffed peppers?

And just because these were pretty too… apples!

These babies are huge.

I am planning on making apple cobbler for Sabbath Lunch tomorrow. We’re having Paul’s mother join us for lunch. Making a pork loin roast. Mmmmmm.

The Accidental Awesome Dinner

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Ali

Tonight’s dinner was a thrown together mish mash of what we had on the fridge.

I had an onion, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumber. I chopped them all up into bite size pieces and tossed them into the oven for 20 minutes, then tossed them all into a pan and let it all simmer for about 20 more minutes and then added a bit of cream cheese.

I served with quinoa, delish.

It was a tasty, tasty, tasty dinner.

The veggies can be substituted with just about anything you’ve got in your fridge, as long as you’ve got tomatoes. The quinoa could be substituted with rice, cous cous, pasta, whatevs.

Eggplant

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Ali

I made fried eggplant yesterday for lunch. It was so good.

Not the healthiest way to enjoy my vegetables, but come on, eggplant fried in a pan with olive oil and garlic powder? Count me in.

Eggplant Parmesan is next on my list.

Peach Cobbler

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Ali

I love peach cobbler. I love peaches so much. They’re even better when they are amazing, juicy, fresh peaches from the farmers market.

Start with fresh peaches.

Dash 1/4 cup sugar and about a table spoon of cinnamon on top

Mix 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and mix until it’s nice and moist. Sprinkle 1/4 cup granola on the top and another 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon.

Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

YUMMMMM!

Pie Fail.

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Ali

So, I tried to whip up a pie on short notice last night.

It was delish, but you know when pie crusts just decide they don’t want to be pretty? That’s what this one did. It was the ugliest pie I think I’ve ever made in my life. The top was cracked, split open, lumpy and a little too brown around the edges. At least it tasted good. And plus, the guests never had to see the top. I sliced it in the kitchen and put a scoop of ice cream on top so you couldn’t even tell, so I guess it wasn’t a total fail.

Any other baking fails out there lately? I’d love to hear about them to make me feel a little better!

Pantry

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Ali

I’ve been collecting glass storage containers. I got a few at garage sales, some at Ross and then some more when I went to Ikea last week. Now that I have a pantry I’ve got a place to put them!

Can you tell we like pasta? Ha.

So nice and organized!

Homemade Mac’n cheese

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Ali

Last night we made mac ‘n cheese. It was so, so, so yummy.

It was delish. I added some dijon mustard, but next time I will definitly leave that out. But I might add a bit of ham or chicken, to make it a bit more filling.

also, some nice flowers from the farmers market.

And, a parting shot of my pearly whites! It’s so nice to not have braces!

Calzones

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Ali

We made calzones for dinner this evening, and they were a huge hit. These were better than calzones I think I’ve ever had at a restaurant.(Mostly thanks to my husband who had spent a few years in the pizza biz back in the day)

What you’ll need:

Dough:

1/2 Tbsp active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons white sugar

Toppings: (you can use any pizza toppings, but this is what we used)

Mozzarella cheese

1 can cubed pineapple

1 bag of diced ham

1/4 cup alfredo sauce

1/4 cup thinly sliced green pepper

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour, olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Roll out your dough.
Add your toppings to 1/2 of the dough, leaving room to ‘seal’ it up.
Fold it over, and press, use a fork or just your fingers to make sure it’s got a good seal. You don’t want any of your cheese to escape!
Brush the top with either olive oil or egg whites, whatever your preference is, and then shake generous amounts of spices ( we have one in our cabinet that’s just called Pizza Seasoning, the best I can reckon is that it’s oregano and basil)
Cut slits in the top so they don’t explode.
Bake them for about 30 minutes, depending on how full you made yours.
Enjoy!

Cooking in my new kitchen is way more fun.

My loot

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Ali

Erika let me pick out my birthday present while we were at Target (Always gotta make a Target run while you’re in a city that’s got one!) And, while there wasn’t much Liberty of London stuff around, (I was hoping to score some more stuff for the house, but didn’t find much) I found this jewel. I love it.