I wish. A nice glass of cold champagne.
But, I’m talking about champagne grapes. I never had them before and bought some today. They look so petite and just the perfect size for C.
I picked up a few bunches along with some blueberries and strawberries today. We’ll be enjoying these all weekend!
Categories: Food
I’m always on the lookout for new junk food. Yes, I love potato chips. But, part of me wants to stay away from chips and *try* some healthy chip-like snacks. (Do they even exist?)
I’ve been seeing a product called “Snapea Crisps” at the market for a few weeks now. Yesterday, I decided to try a bag and see what it was all about. And, am I glad I did! (I got the Original flavor.)
The snack is basically green peas. But, they’ve made the snack taste delicious. Light, crispy, crunchy, yummy! I gave a few to C, and she loves them too. I’m sure they are not as healthy as eating steamed green peas. 
I’m excited about discovering this new snack!
Categories: Food
I learned from the Williams-Sonoma catalog that Danish ebelskivers are “light, puffy pancakes filled with jam, curd, fruit, or cheese.” I’ve been getting the WS catalog for a while now and each time, I see their description and photos for the ebelskiver filled-pancake pan. I imagine making batches of ebelskivers for S, C, and me to indulge in. Ebelskivers filled with custard, fruit, or even chocolate (as a dessert).
But, when I put down the catalog, the pan is forgotten. Until the next time I get the catalog in the mail.
Perhaps one day, I’ll order this pan and make these cute little pancakes for my family.
Categories: Food
The moms’ group that I’m a part of is having a cookie swap playdate tomorrow. I’ve never been to a cookie swap before, and if you’ve been reading this blog, you can tell that I’m not much of a baker/cook (but, I’m trying hard to pick up a few good recipes).
I was going to buy the cookies from the local bakery, but after I realized that I would need about 40-45 cookies, I decided to make them to save money. I have flour, sugar, eggs, butter, almond and vanilla extracts, coconut flakes, chocolate chips at home. So, thought I’d be able to use the ingredients I already have and skip a trip to the grocery store.
The recipe on the back of the coconut flakes (which was one of C’s new foods to try!) was for Coconut Macaroons. The only ingredients needed were sugar, egg whites, almond extract, flour, and coconut. Mix them up and bake. Easy enough. The macaroons turned out very chewy, but very, very sweet. I didn’t make any more batches and decided againt this recipe. (Although S liked the macaroons, but he likes anything sweet.)
I turned to allrecipes.com to find a recipe using chocolate chips. Everyone likes chocolate chips, right?
I found a few recipes that actually uses CAKE MIX. I didn’t know that can be done to make cookies. And, I happened to have a German Chocolate cake mix in the cupboard. So, I whipped up several batches of this delicious and very-easy-to-make cookie recipe. I made 47 small size cookies. I’ll bring 40 of them to the cookie swap, and S will get 6 of them. I tried one of them. It was good, chewy, and moist.
I’ll have to try variations of different cake mix flavors and goodies (chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, etc) to put in them. How about lemon cake mix with powdered sugar? One of the reviewers of the recipe used this mix. I love a good lemon cookie or bar.
And, tomorrow night, we should have about 10 different cookies to sample in return. Not bad!
The sweetness of the pumpkin sauce balanced with the saltiness of the pecan crusted pork. A very tasteful combination in the meal that I made on Friday night.
The meal was relatively easy to make. The only preparation I had to do was to chop the pecans with a hand chopper that I rarely get a chance to use.
The one thing I’d do differently next time is to dip the pork in some egg first so that the pecans / bread crumbs would stick to the pork a little better while cooking. Otherwise, everything turned out great.
We had some of the pumpkin sauce left over. It can probably be used to top french toast, pancakes, or even crepes for dessert. (Not that I make any of these regularly, especially crepes, at home!)
I’ll be making this meal again soon!
Here is the Pecan-Crusted Pork with Pumpkin Butter recipe from allrecipes.com.
The ingredients are here you can check it out and then click on the recipe if you want to try this yourself. The amount will vary based on number of servings. I used 4 thin cut pork chops.
Pumpkin Puree
Apple Juice
Sugar
Ground Cloves
Ground Ginger
Ground Cinnamon
Pecans
Bread Crumbs
Boneless Pork Chops
If you make it, let me know how it turns out for you!
S and I have been watching the Sopranos on DVD for a while now (and still not done with the show). One of the meals that the characters on the show mention quite a bit is “Baked Ziti.” I wasn’t sure what it is, but then this recipe came across my Inbox. So, I decided to give it a try.
It turns out that this meal is very much like lasagna – same type of meat and sauce baked in a casserole pan. The recipe calls for different type of pasta (of course) and sour cream instead of ricotta cheese. We had my brother and his family over for dinner – the Baked Ziti was a hit. A 9 x 13 pan fed all of us (4 adults, 1 child), and we still had leftovers which went into the freezer for another time.
We’ll keep this meal in our dinner rotation. Personally, I liked it better than lasagna because I like the pasta in the Baked Zita better.
Here is the Baked Ziti recipe from allrecipes.com.
The ingredients are here you can check it out and then click on the recipe if you want to try this yourself. The amount will vary based on number of servings. As some of the reviewers suggested, I mixed a quarter of the sour cream with the pasta before layering the pasta.
Dry Ziti pasta
Lean ground beef (can also use sausage)
Onion
Spaghetti sauce
Sliced Provolone cheese
Sliced Mozzarella cheese
Sour cream
Parmasean cheese
Fresh basil
I made this over the weekend and was rushing so I didn’t get a chance to capture the finished meal in a photo.
It’s a great meal. Now, I know what they are talking about on the Sopranos.
