Garlic and Onion Biscuit Ring

So yesterday Travis and I had a lazy day, but I still had to cook. So I made sloppy joes, potatoes from a bag, and a Garlic and Onion Biscuit Ring, one of our Sweet as Pie Cooking Club pics for the month. I was so lazy I didn't even take pictures. I did get to use my bunt pan for the first time ever. I have had it for years (thanks to someone selling a second home) and it has just sat in the cupboard, so I was kind of excited to use it. This was a very simple recipe. Really just melting butter and dipping the canned biscuits. I used powdered onion instead of chopped because Travis claims he doesn't like onions. I also used powdered garlic since it was just easier, and no poppy seeds because I am not a fan. This baked beautifully and I am eating it the next day. Which is a surprise because I am not usually a fan of these biscuits. Defiantly added to our list of recipes. Makes it look like I spent lots of time creating something when in fact I took five minutes.

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans

A new year, and a new set of recipes. This year our cooking club is branching out from the Pioneer Woman and opened the choices up to any recipe. So the first recipe that I have had time to cook is Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans from Real Simple. New red potatoes are included too! It's been a busy two weeks at work getting everything ready for tax season as well as reporting on the fiscal cliff deal, so I was glad to have a simple to put together recipe. Plus a new camera (Christmas present) to take all sorts of pictures with.

I like recipes with only a few ingredients.

Preheat oven to 450. Now I am supposed to line the bottom of the pan with lemon slices, but as you can see I don't have lemons. Which is just as well because I am not the biggest fan of lemons. So I skipped the first part and went straight to coating the green beans and potatoes in olive oil (5 tablespoons), lemon juice (2 tablespoons), garlic (1/2 teaspoon), salt (1 teaspoon), and pepper (1/2 teaspoon).

After coating the green beans (I used 1lb because that was the bag size), I decided that there wasn't enough coating to do the potatoes, so I made more coating. Somewhere in the middle of coating potatoes (10 because I love new red potatoes) and coating chicken my shelf of cookbooks fell over. The royal mess on my floor (and broken glass) meant that Snickers got to go in the garage for once. She loves the garage and whines if we don't let her out.

I put the pan in the oven and proceeded to clean the kitchen. Probably needs it anyway.

I didn't need the extra 10 mins of potato cooking so after 50 min I piled it onto my plate.

I thought it was delicious and Travis had some the next day and liked it as well. Though next time no green beans, neither of us are really big fans of them.

New Year

Well we ended a very busy year. December just flew by and now I am cleaning up the house after hosting one of our Christmas'. As I attempt to stay motivated, I thought about what I wanted out of 2013.

1. Pass the CPA
2. Eat out less
3. Cook more meals
4. Stay on top of chores
5. Work out more
6. Take a vacation (not involving any family)

One a more minor note I would like to also:

1. Add more flower beds
2. Add a vegetable garden
3. Paint two more rooms (at least)
4. Take lots of pictures (I did after all get a new camera for Christmas)

One last note. Travis is once again doing Polar Plunge to support the Special Olympics. Last year he raised $460. This year his goal is $500. All donations are tax deductible. Just click the picture to donate!
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Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Busy Weekend

This weekend was Travis' four day weekend and I took Friday off. We decided to make it a busy weekend with a trip to Chicago, painting, house work, and a birthday party.

Travis and I had originally planned to go to our first Blackhawks' game to celebrate five years together. Unfortunately, the NHL is on a lockout and our game got cancelled. Travis heard about a charity game involving a lot of the Stanley Cup Blackhawks' players in Chicago. So we got tickets and headed to Chicago on Friday. At least this time Travis is prepared for the tolls. He was not, however, prepared for the accidents. Smooth sailing until we reached Chicago. Then we hit stop and go traffic due to an accident. Illinois drivers are idiots and are reckless. Travis asking me what to do didn't help and without a map I could not make an alternation route. Needless to say it got tense in the car.

The wind farm always amazes me.

Not only can we walk to the arena from our hotel, but several of the players (we think) are staying at the hotel. Five of them where sitting playing cards in the lobby while we waited for the shuttle to the train. Finally get the the train and find out Travis has never ridden the L. Get downtown and my complete inability to tell direction gets us lost. Second time trying to get to the Blackhawks store, second fail. It was a long ride back to the hotel.

We made it back with enough time to grab the tickets and walk to the game. Once again I am reminded why we hate people. Guy to the left takes up half my seat and guy to the right won't stop complaining. The kids in front of us stood most of the time. It was fun though. The crowd was really excited to see the players. Blackhawks gear as far as the eye can see. Not to mention very crowded for a game they put together two weeks ago. The players looked like they had a lot of fun too. We saw a coach and player fight and a goalie score on a penalty. Plus a shoot out. Eleven thousand fans showed up and $325,500 was raised for the Ronald McDonald's House.

Pretty good seats I think.

I do want to take a moment and give kudos to the Residance hotel. The rooms were really nice. The room was warm when we got there. The rooms there are suites with a fridge and a kitchenette. The shelves were stocked with nice dishes and there was a dishwasher. We could even leave a grocery list at the front desk. The free breakfast in the morning included hot food. The price was really good. We plan on staying there in the future.

On the way home we took a little different way and we were able to avoid all the toll roads. As soon as we hit the Indiana line Travis attempted to get the Ball State game on 104.1. Unfortunately for him, good for me, 104.0 in northern Indiana is a country station. We could hear the game under the music so Travis kept trying to move his body to get the game to come through clearer. He kept telling me not to move every time we got the game to come through clearly. Then within thirty seconds the music would win. This went on for miles and gave me a good laugh.

So get home Saturday and while Travis finishes watching the game, I start to tape the bathroom.  Two and a half hours later I am done and have to help Travis finish the bedroom. Then we pull out the paint stuff. Apparently we should have looked before I got paint. So Menards run number one for a paint tray and roller. Three hours later coat one was on and everything was cleaned up. All that was left was to order dinner.

Sunday involved paint touch up, changing the deadbolt, and attempting to move the new treadmill upstairs. The bathroom got finished, the bedroom will need more touch up, the deadbolt got changed, and the treadmill got as far as the kitchen. I think it's funny that Travis thought I could lift it up the stairs. We did take a break to head to a birthday party.

I love this green!

The treadmill sat in the kitchen for a while until a friend came over to help Travis.

 Monday we finished painting and changed the plates in the bathroom. The almond just didn't go with the purple so I changed them to white. All in all not a bad little weekend.

Travis changing the plugs.

The treadmill got put together.

The bathroom is my new favorite room.

Just need new curtains.

Found out that if the light is on for an extended amount of time (like an hour) a burning smell is emitted, but that is a problem for another weekend.

French Onion Soup

So one of my favorite soups is french onion so when it was my turn to pick a meal for the cooking club I was excited to see that PW had a recipe that seemed fairly easy. Now of course I waited until I was hungry to start cooking. WARNING: This is not a fast soup to make.  So I preheated my oven and melted my stick of butter. Then I sliced up six onions. PW said four large, mine aren't large.

I don't know what I would do without my mandarin.

So I sliced up the onions and threw them into a pot to simmer for twenty minutes.

Sorry for the blur, my eyes were watering so bad I thought this was in focus.

Meanwhile, I put away the rest of the groceries. And took the Jello Jigglers out of the mold. Then into the oven for an hour. Maybe I will have some popcorn while I wait.

An hour later golden goodness. Add some wine, chicken broth, beef broth, Worcestershire, and garlic and let simmer for another forty-five minutes.

So I can't say that mine turned out pretty. I don't really have broiler safe bowls so I used some Pyrex and the cheese didn't really go over the bowl so I kinda sank to the bottom. Still melted though. I know the bread is supposed to keep it up but I never liked the soggy bread so I didn't use any. Very good though. I plan to freeze my extra (since Travis won't eat anything with onion in it) and eat it all winter. On my list! Maybe a little pepper next time.

Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce and Other Things

We leave for Alabama tomorrow morning to celebrate Grandmother's 90th birthday. So while I am making crockpot candy (sorry family secret recipe) I am also making dinner for myself. Tonight, since Travis is working, I am making a PW recipe. Pasta with Pesto Cream Sauce. I started by getting the crockpot started and music on the stereo (Kelsi was such the mixed CD maker in high school).

Two pots going at once. Note, double batches in one do not work.

Now on to dinner! Needed ingredients: basil, Parmesan, garlic, olive oil, heavy cream, butter (duh! this is PW), and pasta. This recipe calls for pine nuts and tomatoes, two things I am not a huge fan of so I just left them out. PW wasn't specific on the kind of pasta so I went with rotelle because it look fun. While my water boiled I started making the pesto sauce. In the food processor I was supposed to mix 3/4 cup of fresh basil leaves. Ha. Not something I keep around so I used dried. Helpful tip, 1 tsp dried = 3 tsp fresh so I needed 6 tsp. Also 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese (which I have) and 2 garlic cloves (which I don't). Thanks to Better Homes and Gardens I know that 1 clove of garlic is equal to 1/8 tsp of garlic powder. Mix while drizzling 1/3 cup of olive oil. My food processor doesn't let me drizzle so I added it all at once. I put the pasta in the water before I hit the mix button. I did use 16 oz not 12oz of pasta because I won't use the 4oz later.

After mixing.

Before mixing.

Heat 1/2 cup heavy cream and 2 tbsp butter in a skillet. Only 1/2 cup means I have half a carton of heavy cream left. What to do with it? Whipped Cream? Any way, melt the butter and heat the cream in the skillet. Then add the pesto and let it simmer. My noodles are done by now.

After the pesto simmers, mix in the pasta.

Pretty good pasta. Needed more sauce but I did add extra noodles. The real test is how the left overs work out. We shall see. 

Chocolate Mint Brownie Bites

So this month for the cooking club I got to pick. So of course I found something that involves two of my favorite things, brownies and mints. Here is the recipe from the Pioneer Woman for Chocolate Mint Brownie Bites.

Couldn't find bittersweet chocolate in the squares,
but I did find these Andes pieces.

I love the Baker's squares because they are already in 1 oz wrapped squares and they are easy to break in half. Unfortuntaly my Meijer didn't have any of the Baker's Bittersweet in stock so I had to go for the candy bar. I did find Andes baking chips and one Andes mint is 0.17oz.

First I melted the unsweetened chocolate in the microwave. Normally I would do this over the stove but it was late and PW said to. I then added about an oz of chocolate (just under the 50ml line on my measuring cup).

Mmm, chocolate minty goodness.

Then I mixed my slightly melted butter (I had to soften it in the microwave) and sugar in my Kitchen Aid. What would I do without my Kitchen Aid? Probably cry. Eggs were next and then scraping the sides. I always suggest scraping the sides after mixing butter and sugar. It just doesn't like to play well with others. Then I got to drizzle in the melted chocolate.

Best present ever! Thanks Travis.

Last was flour and mint extract to make the mixture into batter. It smells so good. Let me just take a moment to explain my love of mint. It started when I was very little (no more then two) with my slightly sadistic father and York Peppermint Patties. Dad would hold one in front of me, just out of reach, and would make me say Peppermint Patty perfectly before he would give it to me. I can say it perfectly now, and I have been addicted to mint ever since. (See my many mint varieties of Chapstick.) Just so you don't think my dad picked on me, he taught my brother to eat Cheerios off the floor and bark like I dog. I am not kidding, we have it on tape. Its funny.

PW said 18 and I probably had enough for 19
 but was not going to dirty another tin.

While that baked I was once again serenaded by the casino five miles away. At least it was good. Big & Rich with Cowboy Troy. A black country raper. Ironic? I also made the chocolate to dip the tops in. PW said 25 mints, I did about 2/3 cup. I didn't really chop the chocolate into fine pieces. I am not allowed to use knives without supervision. I am a klutz and I know it.

They may have ended up a little on the big side. Next time I will use all four tins and put a little less into each spot. Also I ran out of the chocolate to cover the last four. Not sure if this was a size issue or not enough chocolate. The chopped Andes were easy to sprinkle on top.

Yummy.

Mmmm. Chocolately goodness with minty breath after. I like it. We will just have to see if anyone else does.