A top of the mornin to ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you All!!

This is the day where I can play with food coloring and celebrate my Irish Heritage to its fullest :)
I am making Green Oat Pancakes with green syrup and green applesauce for breakfast,

and Irish Stew, and Irish Soda Bread for dinner.

For Dessert we are having Irish Cream Cheesecake, yum.


The kids made some fun stuff yesterday to take to school, green sparkle wands and Irish potato candy.

And of course got all dressed up for the Day-




Irish Stew

Ingred;
3T. butter
2c. stew meat, I am allergic to lamb so I used beef
1/2c. minced onion
1/2c. chopped carrots
2c. peeled, cubed potatoes
1/2c. peeled cubed parsnips
1/2c. peeled, cubed turnips
2T. vegetable soup bouillon
1 small handful crushed, dried parsley
Salt and pepper
enough Water to cover the vegies.

I sauteed my butter and meat together until it was almost cooked through, stir in about 1/2t. pepper, 1t. salt. Then add in the onions and carrots until the onions became translucent. Then I tossed in the potatoes, parsnips and turnips. I added enough hot water to cover the vegie's with about 1/2 inch extra.
I stirred in the vegie bouillon, then added in my parsley and brought to a boil. I let this simmer covered until the vegies are tender.
I don't how traditional it is but it was sure tasty :)



May luck be our companion
May friends stand by our side
May history remind us all
Of Ireland's faith and pride.
May God bless us with happiness
May love and faith abide.
~Irish Blessing

And the Krafting continues

I am hopping on quick to put up a picture of Miss M's latest T-shirt dress.
I used the top of a cute t-shirt that she had out grown, I added a couple pieces to make it longer and trimmed off the sleeves and added a ruffle- and Wahla!


She has been dancing around in it all day :)

I am also adding a picture of Miss K's robot

and robot's friends Momma Bird and Baby Bird


and my favorite- Mr. Turtle

I have been crafting and sewing like crazy, it's awesome.
I did find some time to do a bit of cooking also, here is a picture of my go-to rolls-

This recipe can be found here- at AR. It calls for a bread machine to make the dough but I just use my Kitchen Aid. This is my favorite roll recipe, I have used this one a lot.

Last week I tried my hand at making Pretzel Baguettes-
Aren't they pretty?!? They were so much fun, they tasted and smelled fabulous, there are a lot of steps but they are really simple to make I got the recipe from HERE.

And onto Dessert, I saved the best for last-

Flourless Chocolate Cake with ganache and raspberry whipped cream.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingred;
4oz good chocolate broken into pieces (I used an extra dark chocolate)
1/2c. butter
3/4c. sugar
1/2c. powdered cocoa
3 eggs beaten
1t. extract of your choice (I used raspberry, but vanilla would be fine)

Heat oven to 300.
Prepare an 8 inch spring form pan, cut a wax paper circle for the bottom and grease the bottom and sides.
In a med. sized glass bowl melt together the chocolate and the butter.
Whisk in the sugar, cocoa and vanilla, when it has cooled a bit whisk in your eggs.
Pour into your prepared spring form pan.
Bake for exactly 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes then remove the pans sides and cool completely .

Ganache-
1c. dark chocolate chips
1/2c. half n half (or cream)
1/2t. vanilla

Put the chocolate in a glass bowl.
Heat the cream in the microwave just to the point of boiling.
Pour the half n half over your chocolate.
Let set for 3-5 minutes, whisk together, whisk in the vanilla.

I let this cool in the fridge until barely warm then spread over the top of my cake.

Raspberry Whipped Cream-
1c. whipping cream
4T. sugar
1t. raspberry extract
1/4c. raspberrries

Whip together the cream, sugar and extract until solid peaks form. Stir in the raspberries and serve over your cake.

This is the first time I have ever had flourless chocolate cake, it was wonderful. When I was looking for recipes there seemed to be 2 ways to make it. This recipe follows the quicker method. I am going to try the longer more involved method next time to see how they compare.

Minestrone Soup, Festive Herb Spirals and the Perfect Bribe

Hi all!
Sorry I haven't been reading and commenting lately.
The weather here has been gorgeous this week and Miss M and I have been taking advantage of it by spending our days outside. I haven't driven my car once this week we have just been walking everywhere, it's been pretty awesome.

For dinner last night I made a beautiful Minestrone Soup-
I use half V-8 juice, half water and add in whatever vegies I can find, this time we had a great mixture-

carrots, yellow pepper, onion, kidney beans, cilantro, parsley, spinach, corn, green beans and ditalini noodles. Yummy.

To go with the soup I made some Festive Herb Spirals, these would also make great appetizers-

Festive Herb Spirals
Ingred;
1 pkg crescent roll dough
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4c. minced fresh herbs- I used cilantro and parsley
1/2t. greek seasoning
1t. onion powder
3 minced green onions

I ran everything except for the dough through my food processor.
Unroll the crescent roll dough and seal the edges.
Spread with the herbed cream cheese and roll up.
Slice in 1 inch slices and place on a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

Now if you kids are like mine and you tried the usual pleading, or threats to get them to eat their dinner and that hasn't worked I have the perfect Bribe, er um reward. I am totally not above bribing, um rewarding my kiddos to get them to do what I ask. Everyone loves a reward right?

This was the one I offered my little ones for dessert after they finished their dinner-

That is my kind of reward, yum.

Chocolate Mousse Bars
Ingred;
1 pkg Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix + the ingred it calls for
1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1c. whipping cream, whipped
1c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2c. cream

Oven 350.
Prepare cookie mix and spread into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.
Bake for 15 minutes. Cool completely.
Beat the cream cheese, melt 1c. of the chocolate chips in the microwave, beat into the cream cheese. Fold in the whipped cream.
Spread over the cookie layer.
Melt the remaining 1c. of chocolate chips, whisk together with the 1/2c. cream.
Spread over the mousse layer and refridgerate for a couple hours.

I was told by the kiddos that they wanted me to make this everyday, because it was the BEST thing they have ever had, and that I am the BEST cook ever.
Anyone else think they were trying to butter me up for something????
A second piece maybe?????

Pizza Pizza who wants some Pizza

We have a family tradition of Pizza for dinner on Friday nights, sometimes it's take out, some times it's from frozen. But our favorite is the homemade kind, over 5 years ago my Sister-In_Law introduced us to Valentino's Pizza Crust and the online site where it was located, All Recipes. Which I fell in love with, you can find a recipe for pretty much anything there and then save recipes you want to try in a recipe box. Mine now has a total of..... 432 in it, that wasn't as bad as I thought :)
Hubby is our resident pizza maker, he and the kiddos really enjoy making pizza together. And ever since we were introduced to this recipe it's the only one we use.

Valentino's Pizza Crust
Ingred;

• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Stir water, sugar and yeast together until dissolved. Add the olive oil and the salt. Stir in the flour until well blended. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
2. Pat dough into pan or on to a pizza stone using fingers dipped in olive oil. If desired sprinkle basil, thyme or other seasonings on crust. Top with your favorite pizza toppings and bake for 15 to 20 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven.

When we make this I always double the recipe. It also makes great mini pizza's, we have used this recipe at more birthday parties than I can remember. If you have never baked with yeast before this recipe is perfect for you (LB:)
It is quick easy and delicious :)

Welcome! Come on in and Enjoy...

a nice slice of my Mommers Apple Bread. She didn't make this loaf, sadly, but I used her recipe which is as good as I get with her being a few states away from me now :(

Last weekend the kiddos, some friends and I went apple picking

and came home with these-

Some beautiful Rome and Yellow Delicious Apples, that are frankly- Delicious. I had no idea Yellow delicious apples could be sooo good. These look (taste) nothing like the ones in the store!
OK, on to the recipe :) :) :)

Mommer's Apple Bread

1c. oil
3 eggs
2c. sugar
1t. vanilla

Mix these together than add in-

3c. flour
1t. cinnamon
1t. soda
1t. salt

When this is all mixed together stir in 3c. of diced apples, pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

I also want to say Welcome to anyone joining me from Willoughby's Cocktail Party, and a big Hello and Thank you to all my regular Blogging Buddies- you guys are wonderful :) :)

What happens when you are a Forgetful Fool

So Yesterday I decided to make bread, I got out all the ingredients, mixed it all together. I was thinking to myself how quick and easy it was. How the dough turned out perfect, not too sticky not too dry. I put my dough in a bowl to rise and started cleaning up, I was wiping the counter when I noticed a carton of eggs sitting on the counter, eggs? hmmm why are those out? Did my recipe call for eggs? Did I put eggs in it?
So I grabbed the recipe, which was sitting on the eggs, yep called for 1 egg, nope I didn't put an egg in it. Dang! What now? Should I try to mix in an egg?? Ummmm no probably not a good plan. Should I toss it or just cook it anyway?
I decided to cook it anyway to see if it would work, then I mixed up another batch of dough. You know, so that I could do the whole scientific thing and compare the 2. Cause apparently I wanted to spend all day in the kitchen, I am such a goof.

So here is my eggless bread-

Here is my follow-the-recipe bread-

They look pretty similar, they taste very similar too! The one without the egg is a bit crumblier, and I decided that next time (this recipe is a work in progress) I will be adding a little more sugar and 1 or 2 more eggs- if I remember them that is!
But if you wanted to make eggless bread, because of allergies or you want to make bread and have no eggs ( been there) this recipe will work! Yay! :)

Easy Homemade Bread
Ingred;
2c. milk
1/2c. butter
1-1/2t. salt
1/4c. sugar
2 1/2T. yeast
2/3c. warm water
1 egg
7c. flour

Place milk in a heat proof bowl, microwave on high for 3 minutes. Stir in the sugar, salt and butter. Let set until butter is melted in. Mix together the water and yeast, let set until creamy.
Mix the yeast and egg into the milk mixture.
Place the flour in your mixer bowl, turn on the mixer, slowly pour in the milk mixture. Mix until well combined, let the mixer continue to knead the dough for a few minutes. Turn dough into an oiled bowl, cover and set somewhere warm, let it rise until doubled- about 30 min.
Heat oven to 350. Shape loaves, place in oiled bread pans and let rise until dough reaches the top of the pans.
Bake about 30-40 minutes.


While we are on the subject of eggs, or the lack of, this morning for breakfast Mr K and I tried a new recipe for eggs, it was a big hit! I'm sure we will be making this one a lot :)


Shirred Eggs
Ingred;
eggs
butter
cream
salt and pepper
shredded cheese

Butter each small ramekin, place about 1T.cream in the bottom of each one. Place on egg in each. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cheese (if you want cheese, they do cook about 5 minutes quicker without the cheese).
Place in oven, 350, for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy.

Parmesan Puffs and Focaccia

I have been trying to use some of the recipes from my Allrecipe collection that I keep adding to, every time I go on there I end adding at least 2! I will never get caught up at this rate :)

The two I just tried are-
Parmesan Puffs
Easiest Focaccia Recipe

Tonight I am making a pizza casserole recipe from there, that will make my total for today 3 I am slowly making headway, I will keep you posted on that one :)

So here is the Focaccia Bread, it didn't brown up very well but it was pretty good. I think next time I will double the sugar and add a little salt to the dough, we'll see what that does. Because as the recipe stated it's "Extremely easy, fast and cheap" see it's right up my alley :)

Easiest Focaccia Recipe

Ingred;
1t. sugar
2-1/2T. yeast
2/3c. warm water
2c. flour
olive oil
salt
toppings

Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water, let stand until creamy. Mix in the flour, stir until well combined. Knead for a few minutes, I let my Kitchen Aid do that for me :)
Place dough in a bowl that has been lightly oiled and let raise for about 30 min. Heat oven to 475, pat dough in to a rectangle drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with your topping. I used chopped green and black olives. Bake for 10 minutes for chewy bread or let bake 20 min for a bit crisper bread.

Now this next recipe I altered a bit and came up with a couple of tasty appetizers.


Parmesan Puffs

Ingred;
1/2c. water
1/4c. butter
1/2c. flour
2 eggs
3/4c. parmesan cheese

Heat oven to 375, lightly grease a baking sheet.
Bring the water and butter to a boil, whisk in the flour until it forms a ball. Remove from heat and dump into your mixing bowl, beat in the eggs one by one. Then beat in the cheese. Scrape sides, using a small scoop- scoop into small balls and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 15 min. until puffed and golden brown.

Now there are a few things you can do with these, the original recipe suggest dipping in marinara sauce. I made a butter garlic sauce to dip them in while they were warm, which was tasty. Then I dipped the tops of the remaining puffs in the butter and let cool then I filled them with a yummy cream cheese crab mixture-

Parm Puff Filling

Ingred;
4oz cream cheese
1/4c. immatation crab
1/4c. chopped olives
1/2t. salt

Blend all together with a food processor and pipe into the center of the puffs, refridgerate any leftovers.

Now mine are a little big because I haven't been able to find my small scoop since we moved, so I had to use a big one. But with the small one these would be such cute little appetizers! They were very tasty : )

Homemade Sugar and Salt Scrubs

Since I had the coconut oil I bought I decided to make some scrubs with it. If you have never used/seen coconut oil is has kind of the same look/consistency as shortening.

I wanted to make a sweeter scrub for a body scrub and also one to keep by the kitchen sink for my hands. So here we have our ingredients-

For the Salt Scrub I used-
Sea Salt
Coconut oil
an oil mixture of grapefruit, eucalyptus, peppermint & lavender.

For the Sugar Scrub-
turbinado or raw sugar
coconut oil
vanilla extract

To make this you need to fill you container about 3/4 of the way full with your sugar or salt. Melt the oil in a glass cup in the microwave, about 30 sec. a little less maybe. Add in your oils(5-10 drops) or extract(1t.) Stir it in. Slowly pour the oil over the salt/sugar and stir it in until you get the consistency that you like. Cover and enjoy! :)

The vanilla sugar one, oh boy this stuff smells good enough to eat :)

I put some of each of these in cute little glass containers that I bought at goodwill. And labeled them to give as a gift.

Since we moved here there is a lady from church that made an extremely kind and thoughtful gesture to my family. Long story short she arranged a big get together, spur of the moment, to introduce Mr. K to some other boys his age so he would feel more comfortable here- which he now does.
So I packaged these up with the body butter I made,

and a couple loaves of Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread.

To give to her as a Thank You. When someone does something like that to help your child it really touches your heart.

In the Mood for some Bakin'

There are SO many cooking/baking/food blogs out there, it's too much fun :) I have googled several things like baking blogspot and cooking blogspot ect..... I'm sure you get the picture, and now have a pile of recipes tagged to try- It's almost worst than my All Recipes recipe box, Almost ;)
Anyway one that I have come across a couple times and always catches my eye is called
The Sisters' Cafe

Part of my fascination with this blog is the wish that I could get all my sisters to do a cooking blog with me, how fun would that be!!! I love the idea & will begin asking/begging them right away :) The other part would be, of course, the FOOD! They have tons of great recipes and pictures, Yum, Yumm, Yummy!! I actually made 2 of theirs today, I have been going through cooking/baking withdrawal. And my poor family is having a hard time remembering what a home-made treat/dinner tastes like! While I have been down my Hubby has mostly done instant or fast food- although one night he did make a pretty good Goulash- Kudos to my Honey.

Anyway I thought I would surprise the Kiddos with some Pumpkin Bars as an after-school treat. Shepherds Pie for Dinner, and for Breakfast tomorrow- Home Made Cinnamon Rolls. That should hold them for awhile.


















So here we have the Link for the Pumpkin Bars Recipe. And here is the link to the
Cinnamon Rolls Recipe. The Shepherds Pie one is in my head, I will try to post it for you, although I'm pretty sure most of you probably already have your standard go to recipe for that :) :)

Shepherds Pie
Ingred;
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 can each corn, peas, beans
1 can cream of mushroom soup-(shhhhh... this is a secret from my Family, they are not mushroom fans)
2 pkts brown gravy mix- equal to making 2 cups gravy
1-1/2c. cool water
3c. mashed potatoes
1c. shredded cheddar cheese

Brown your beef, when cooked through add vegies, & soup, whisk together the water & gravy mix & add to the rest. Cook until thick & bubbly. Pour into a 9x13 pan, spread the potatoes over top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 min.
This is my families favorite variation of Shepherds Pie, so there ya go.
Happy Wednesday All!!!

Potato Soup with Focaccia

Here is my soup for this weeks Souper Sundays
I have been making this soup since I was 12, it's one of my families favorites. One of my favorite things about this soup is how easy & simple it is, as long as I have a bag of potatoes and some kind of milk I can make this soup. Now if I were making this just for me I would add celery, the kids (& Hubby) out-voted me on this one. Darn it!!

McFarland's Potato Soup


Ingredients;
1- 5lb bag of Potatoes, peeled and cubed
Water
1c. cubed Ham
1c. Corn
1c. Cream
1/2c. Butter
2T. Parsley
1c. shredded Cheese
2T. Alpine Spice/ or Salt & Pepper blend

Place your potatoes,ham & corn in a large pot. Add enough water to cover those ingredients. Bring to a boil, turn heat down, stir in the parsley, simmer until the potatoes are tender about 20-30 min.
Remove from heat add butter, cheese and cream- you can substitute marg, for the butter, and reg. milk, half 'n half or canned milk for the cream.
Now I get to use one of my absolute favorite kitchen gadgets- my immersion blender- here it is- The Star *******

Here is the soup before I use my Star-


Here is the soup after-

Nice & thick & creamy, yum.

Now the Focaccia recipe I got from Allrecipes.com, it's not the best I have ever had so I decided not to post it, but if you wanna check it out you can go there :)

So here we have the finished product, Potato Soup with Focaccia-


If you get a chance you should go check out the Souper Sunday Blog, she made a beautiful soup there Sunday :)
Happy Monday All!