Game Day Menu

... because when your team didn't even make it to the playoffs and you could not care less who wins the superbowl, then it's really all about the FOOD! 

Tonight my football loving husband and dad will be watching the big game in the living room while my sister and I will be cooking, chit-chatting and keeping the boys entertained in the kitchen. ;) 

~ Game Day Menu ~

Dinner:

Guacamole + Chips

Warm & Gooey Cheesy Bacon Dip + Crackers

Sweet & Spicy Meatballs + Egg Noodles

Hummus + Veggie Sticks

Sweet Potato Pizza

Dessert:

Friendly's Watermelon Roll
Cookies

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Go Team!

Autumn Kitchen

My favorite way to warm our home on a chilly Autumn morning is by turning the oven on and baking something pleasing to the senses. That is how my mom made our house a home and I want my children to be blessed with the same sweet memories that I now hold so dear.

With rain, wind, and cooler temperatures on the forecast for this past weekend, I built up the anticipation with my boys in advance since I knew we'd be stuck inside for three days straight.

First up was Apple Pie complete with a nut pastry crust and a buttery crumble top.

We are attending a Fall Festival this weekend and I am entering the Apple Pie Baking Contest so I figured I could use a little practice session. 

According to my boys (those old enough to taste test, that is) this recipe is a winner!

(Crayons and sketch pads keep those little hands busy and little eyes distracted while I roll out the pie crust. ;)

For Saturday morning breakfast we made Apple Spice Muffins decked in nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and allspice and topped with freshly whipped Cinnamon Sugar Butter. All those spices made our entire little house smell like heaven.

Now my kitchen is now officially 'broken in'. May the cozy cooler months of baking commence.

Pizza Night

Every Sunday evening in our home is pizza night. The tradition began back when it was just my husband and me, during our first year of marriage. Since my husband is a big football fan and enjoys watching the sport, regardless of who is playing, I realized early on that Sunday afternoon and evenings in the fall were going to be devoted to one thing: football. (Luckily, I enjoy watching the game as well.) Casual dinners of pizza in the living room became a Sunday norm that I looked forward to.

It took a lot of experimentation before I mastered the perfect crust. The recipe I use now is a combination of The Pioneer Woman, Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, and my own trial and error. I usually double the recipe and put half in the freezer so that I only have to make the dough every other week.

I make two types of crust: white and whole wheat.

Toppings often consist of leftovers from the week that need to be eaten. For the boys that means ham, bacon, steak, turkey... For me that means kale, arugula, spinach, green beans, cherry tomatoes, peppers...

And, of course, lots of parmesan cheese for everyone.

This week, the boys had theirs with pepperoni.

I had mine with chopped baby kale & cherry tomatoes.

There is a relaxing element, as the family chef, in knowing what will be on the menu at least one day each week. (That means I only have to come up with six meals when planning our weekly menu! ;)

Now our boys have come to love and look forward to this Sunday tradition as much as my husband and me.

No one in this family gets tired of eating pizza.

...and there is plenty of extra dough to freeze for next weekend's Pizza Night.

Do you have a Sunday family tradition?

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Linking up with Tacy today:

Homemade Butter & Blueberry Jam

Winter + pregnancy has forced me to get creative when it comes to keeping the boys busy indoors.

The roads, sidewalks and parking lots have been so icy this past week or so that I have been trying to avoid leaving the house at all if possible. (The thought of slipping on ice while balancing my squirmy 20-month-old on my 3rd trimester belly makes me just a little nervous! ;)

The #1 activity that never fails to disappoint my boys is 'helping' me in the kitchen. (And I"m sure that has nothing to do with getting to eat the end result, right?)

Since my 3-year-old and I had just finished reading the chapter about Ma, Mary & Laura making butter in Little House in the Big Woods, I thought it would be fun to make some fresh butter of our own. (The modern way of course - no muscles required!)

Both my boys love when I use the stand mixer. They get especially excited when it mixes at a high speed.

Fresh blueberries were on sale this week so I picked up a few pints. We love blueberries in this house so I always stock up on them when they are in season because they make such an easy and healthy snack. 

To go along with our fresh butter I decided to make some homemade blueberry jam. 

The boys were not quite as impressed by this process as they were with the butter since it's done mostly on the stovetop therefore limiting their involvement for obvious reasons. 

They did, however, appreciate the end result: 

Have you ever had toast with fresh butter and homemade jam? So delicious!

What have you been doing to keep busy indoors this winter?

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Linking up with Tacy today: 

Happy Monday!

My First Pie

In August my "little" sister celebrated her 22nd birthday. Instead of cake, she requested a pie for dessert. 

Her favorite pie flavors are Strawberry Rhubarb and Peach. Since blueberries and peaches were both at the peak of their season, I decided to be a little original and go with a Blueberry-Peach Pie. 

The whole process was a LOT easier than I had expected. My sister-in-law happened to be over the morning of so with her and the boys in the backyard, I was able to devote my entire kitchen to the grand event, classical music and all. 

I cannot even begin to describe the smell... Tortuously delicious!

I was very happy with the result. And, more importantly, so was my sister.

Next challenge: Apple Pie. A neighboring town hosts an Apple Pie Contest at their Annual Harvest Festival so I told my husband that my goal is to enter an Apple Pie next October... That gives me one year to practice and perfect.

Hearty Green Salads

During the Summer months we tend to have green salads for dinner very often. (My poor husband!) At the end of a hot and humid day, all I want to eat is a light, crisp, and refreshing salad for dinner.

The base is always the same: romaine, grape tomatoes (my son loves these), and cucumbers. If I have them, I'll add avocado, mushrooms, and peppers.

For protein I usually swap between either chopped hard boiled eggs, chickpeas, or sliced marinated, grilled chicken.

My Mother-in-Law makes the best salads and suggested that I add precooked pasta to make a salad heartier and more filling, especially when serving it as the main meal. Now I either add whole wheat rotini or, my new favorite, precooked quinoa.

My Mother-in-Law also introduced me to Wegman's Broccoli Slaw. It consists of broccoli, carrot, and red cabbage shavings that add extra vitamins as well as a nice crunchy texture.

So, there you have it: a few variations for a hearty, nutrient-packed salad, just in case you're in a bit of a rut. 

Beach Mix

My new favorite snack:

My mother-in-law bought me a club size bag of this Wegman's Beach Mix just after #2 was born. Since then I've torn through just about a bag a week. :)

First off, I love the name because anything with the word 'beach' in it automatically draws my attention.

And when I'm nursing a newborn through the night I get really hungry. With my first I would keep an apple on my nightstand as my middle of the night snack. If I munch on it before bed while I'm hanging out with my husband, however, this beach mix, with all its hearty goodness, keeps me full until morning!

Since I'm a grazer, I also keep a small jar of it in my diaper bag for days when I'm out running errands and need an easy, nutritious snack to munch on.

Considering it contains a ton of nuts and dried fruit which tend to be expensive, it's pretty reasonably priced. With cashews, almonds, banana chips, all different dried fruits and, my very favorite part, coconut chunks, it's worth every penny!

Recipe Journal

Well, I must be nesting because I've been baking, cooking, and cleaning my little heart out! Since I spent the weeks before my son was born packing up our apartment, moving into & painting our new house, and babysitting my niece and nephew, it's kind of nice to be able to use this newfound burst of energy to actually prepare for baby's arrival this time around!

My house is dusted, the laundry pile is getting smaller, half my son's dresser is now filled with adorable newborn sleepers, and there are even a couple of dinners waiting in the freezer. Baby is welcome to come whenever he/she is ready. :)

Here's what I've been cooking up this week:

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• Southern Belle Chicken Salad: Scrumptious! I served it on leftover cinnamon raisin bagels topped with lettuce and sliced apples. Fruity, refreshing, and delicious: perfect for our picnic in the park.
• Better Homes & Garden Cookbook's Classic Potato Salad: Made this to serve with the Chicken Salad Sandwiches for our picnic in the park and my husband didn't stop ranting about it! SO easy. 
• Cocoa White Chocolate Chip Cookies: Made these for my husband's office as per his request. Apparently they were gone by eleven in the morning & have now been named "the brownie cookies." Such an easy recipe to whip up that I really can't take much credit!
• Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Quinoa: Not a huge fan. A little too nutty for me as a breakfast food. I'll just continue to eat my oatmeal for breakfast and save my quinoa for dinner, though, I should add that my son said, "Mmmm!" after his first taste and then proceeded to scarf down his entire serving.
• Greena Colada: Saw this recipe on a blog that I recently found. It really did taste just like a pina colada! I substituted 6 oz. greek yogurt for the 1 c. of milk. Probably because I don't have a Vitamix, it didn't turn out as smooth as I would have liked so little chunks of coconut got stuck in my straw. Otherwise, great recipe. 
• Cranberry & Dark Chocolate Chip Scones: Excited to wrap these up and give them out on Sunday. :)
• Creamy Polenta with Fried Eggs & Sauteed Vegetables: Delicious and easy dinner I came up with last night. Will post the full recipe soon. 

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Have a great weekend!

Recipe Journal

Haven't been spending as much time as usual in the kitchen this week because the weather has been absolutely perfect and I just want to be outside! I love May, especially when the weather cooperates as it has so far this year. Warm, sunny days, cool, bug free nights...

Here are some of the recipes I've made this week that are worth noting:

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• Avocado Chocolate Chip Cookies: Made a few alterations to this recipe. Because my avocado wasn't ripe and I didn't feel like waiting any longer to try this recipe out, I just shredded the avocado before beating it into the batter. I also decreased the sugar to 1 cup and substituted whole wheat for the white flour. They were delicious! Though I would still like to try making them with a ripe avocado next time just to be able to compare. I would also consider further decreasing the sugar to 3/4 cup since I found them plenty sweet enough with 1 cup. 
• Roasted Chicken & Vegetables: This was such an easy, throw together, one pot dinner that I kind of made up as I went along and my husband didn't stop ranting about it the whole time we were eating! :)
• Fresh Tomato Sauce: Just as I was about to start cooking, I realized that I needed about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce for our pizza over the weekend and, not wanting to open a can of tomatoes when I had a big bowl of fresh ones on the counter, I decided to experiment and whipped up a quick, stovetop sauce in minutes. It made ALL the difference on our pizza that night!
• Strawberry Pineapple Green Smoothie: As soon as my son notices me dumping the ingredients into the blender he starts getting excited saying, "Oh, boy," over and over! Then once he hears the whirring of the motor, he digs through his basket of kiddy cups and bowls and retrieves the specific one I always pour his half of the smoothie into. Ah, the little joys in life like a fruity smoothie on a warm Spring day. :)

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Enjoy your weekend!

Recipe Journal

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

It's a good thing my boys love to eat so much because I'm always cooking or baking something or another.

I love looking at food magazines and reading food blogs for new recipe inspiration. Sometimes I feel like I come across so many different recipes that I can't keep track of them. Or, when I do try out a recipe that I like, I completely forget about it a week later.

To help me keep better track, I plan to start posting any new (and old) recipes I make throughout the week as well as what my family thought of it.

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• Cocoa White Chocolate Chip Cookies: My husband loved these, as usual!
• Strawberry/Pineapple Green Smoothie: Used greek instead of regular yogurt to up the protein content.
• Hearty Granola: It had been a while since I made this last & I had almost forgotten how much I love it. A bowl of yogurt topped with fresh strawberries and a sprinkle of homemade granola has been my dessert almost every night this week! :)
• Hearty Granola Cookies: My son and I are still obsessed with these, my husband, not so much... Hence, I made him a batch of the cookies above. ;)

Valentine's Day Manicotti

Instead of going out to dinner, each year for Valentine's Day I prepare my husband's absolute favorite dinner: my Grandmother's, made from scratch, Manicotti.

I love all the prepping and planning that goes into this traditional dinner. It's my way of showing my husband how much I love him! Manicotti is not that difficult to make from scratch but it's time consuming enough that I only make it for special occasions.

I hope that, as my children grow up, they too will begin to recognize, appreciate, and look forward to this little Valentine's Day tradition my husband & I have started for our family.

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Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with those you love!

Sunday Gnocchi

My maternal grandmother's family is from Sicily, Italy. Her father immigrated to New York on his own, as a teenager. She grew up in an apartment above her father's Italian Meat Market in Greenwich Village, long before it was the trendy place to live. Though she married an Irishman, most of the traditions that my mother grew up with came from her mother's Italian side of the family. One such tradition is the big, Sunday dinner. Every Sunday involved church, cooking, baking, eating, and family.

As assimilation would have it, the traditional Sunday dinner that my mom grew up with has slowly been taken down a notch or two, but a few times a year, my grandmother still invites everyone over for Sunday dinner and cooks up storm. 

Dinner is served around two or three, a concept my non-Italian husband still does not understand. (Is it lunch or dinner? ;) Everyone squeezes around the dining room table, set with fine china dishes. A large array of foods take up every inch of the table. Grace is said and the feast begins. Each person grabs whatever dish is in front of them, takes their share and passes until everyone's plate is literally overflowing with food. Seconds are insisted upon by my Grandma. I kid not, if you do not take seconds she is personally insulted. (For someone like me who is used to eating small portions, this part of the dinner can be quite stressful!) Only when everyone is forced to loosen their belts, is the meal considered finished. The women immediately begin clearing dishes as the men retire to the family room to watch whatever sport is in season. A short time later, just as your stomach is starting to feel normal again, it's time for dessert!

This past Sunday I decided to try a recipe I found in the April 2012 edition of  Food Network Magazine for homemade gnocchi. The recipe involved several steps that, in themselves, were quite simple: shredding, baking, kneading, etc. But because there was a waiting period following each step, the entire process was pretty time consuming, encompassing the duration of the day from first thing in the morning, through the afternoon and evening.

Even though it was just my little family of three enjoying the meal together, for some reason, it reminded me of Sunday dinner at my Grandma's.

There was something very gratifying about serving my family a dinner that I had made from scratch, literally with my own hands. I knew exactly what went into each of those little pasta-potato balls and that fact was incredibly rewarding. The difference in taste from the packaged variety was definitely worth the extra time and effort.

I made a few changes to the original recipe. For one thing, I did not have a ricer so I used a grater instead. I also used red potatoes in lieu of russet potatoes but any variety would probably work fine.

This recipe yields about 4 servings.

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{Sunday Gnocchi}

adapted from a recipe found in Food Network Magazine

4-5 small to medium potatoes

1 egg, beaten

1 t. salt

1 - 2 c. flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using a fork, poke holes all over the potatoes. Spread parchment paper on a baking dish. Pour a mound of salt in the middle of the dish and lay the potatoes on the salt. Bake for about 45 minutes, until fork tender. Cool slightly. 

Cut potatoes in half. Using a fine grater, (the side used to grate parmesan cheese) shred the potatoes. Discard peels. Pile potato shreds into a mound on a clean, floured counter. Set aside until completely cooled. 

Mix salt into scrambled egg and pour over the potatoes. (Yes, this will be messy!) Coat hands in flour. Sprinkle 1 c. flour over potato and egg mixture and mix with your hands. Knead. Add additional flour as necessary. I used close to 2 c. flour in total. Knead until dough is no longer sticking to your hands. Dough should be smooth and elastic. Form into a ball and set aside to rise for about ten minutes. 

Bring water to boil in a medium pot. Using kitchen scissors, cut dough into six pieces. Roll each piece out onto a floured surface, jelly roll style, about 1/2 inch in diameter. Cut each roll into 1/2 inch pieces. Once all the gnocchi are formed, dust with flour. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the boiling water to prevent gnocchi from sticking together. Add gnocchi to water, one at a time. Stir often and gently. Gnocchi are finished when they float to the top. Strain. Stir in another small drizzle of olive oil then serve immediately with sauce of your choice. 

{enjoy!}