Tag: cooking

recipes

Recipe Friday: 4th of July

Well, the day is drawing to a close, but the activities continue in full effect.  Certainly tummies are full, shoulders are sunkissed and arms and legs are getting bathed in bug repellant as families and friends gear up to grab some grass and watch some fireworks.

We had a leisurely day in these parts.  We went for a walk, M and C scooting and biking as the Hubs and I took turns motoring V along on her push trike.  We had out cook-out at lunch time: hot dogs, hamburgers, Salsa Fresca and chips.  V napped, we lazed about before embarking en masse to Target for a sprinkler and then Whole Foods for some yummy dinner bites.

I can never leave Target without coming out with more than I went in for.  I know I’m not alone in that, but why? Why does that always happen? The Hubs is immune to Target’s siren song, but when we went into Whole Foods, he turned into Paul Prudhomme.  As our cart filled with fruits, veggies, cuts of meat and fish, he quipped, “We’re going to feel this in our whole wallet”.  Oy! Never go grocery shopping hungry. You come home with stuff you know you shouldn’t be eating (Hello, bakery bag of snicker-doodles. Nice to see you, quart-sized container of chocolate dotted trail mix) and/or come home with more food that you have room to store. Yes, those are cherries and grapes are just going to squat in the sink until we can find some real estate for them.

Dinner was a smorgasboard of options.  Shrimp grilled two ways for M and C. Pizza for V. Crabcakes and Baja Crab bites for the Hubs. Steak and fries for me (who’s a happy girl?).  As for dessert?   I had my eye on some cupcakes at Whole Foods — you can’t go wrong with cupcakes, but in an unmatched feat of strength, I left them behind.  We’ve got Cherries, grapes, watermelon, strawberries.  Add some ice cream or cool whip, and you’ve got a yummy, relatively health after dinner option that touches on patriotic.

Of course, it doesn’t get any more American than apple pie.  While I didn’t whip one up for today, just thinking about it has given me a taste for that crumbly, butter, sweet goodness.

Happy Independence Day, y’all!

Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie

via Epicurious

photo by Brian Leatart via Epicurious

 

A thick layer of finely textured crumb topping crowns a tall mound of apple filling.

Ingredients

Crust (personally, I use a storebought crust)

  • 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 1/4 cup frozen solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
  • 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Filling

  • 3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • Vanilla ice cream

Preparation

For crust:
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter and shortening; rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Mix 3 tablespoons ice water and vinegar in small bowl to blend. Drizzle over flour mixture; stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch; turn edge under and crimp decoratively. Refrigerate while preparing filling and topping.

For filling:
Mix all ingredients in large bowl to coat apples.

For topping:
Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add chilled butter cubes; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles wet sand.

Toss filling to redistribute juices; transfer to crust, mounding in center. Pack topping over and around apples. Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 40 minutes (cover top with foil if browning too quickly). Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly at edges, about 45 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream.

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IN: recipes ON: July 4, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , , BY: Hilary
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recipes

Recipe Monday (’cause I forgot to hit “Publish”): Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

One thing I love about summer is the abundance of fruits and vegetables.  No other season gets me to eat better than summer, and that’s not just because I’m trying to get right for my swimsuit.  The colors are brighter, the juices are sweeter, and everything just bursts in your mouth.  This past week, I’ve been gorging myself on strawberries and grapes.  The strawberries have been enormous and such a rich color red, you think it will stain your fingertips.  The grapes have had taut skins and sweet flesh that taste great by themselves, and even better when tossed into a salad with a champagne and shallot vinaigrette.  There have been many a salad enjoyed over lunch the past few days.

As for the veggies, we’ve done a lot of kebabs studded with squash, zucchini, chunks of red onion, and tri-color pepppers.  The simplicity of preparation — chops, marinate in salad dressing or salt, pepper and olive oil, and grill — only adds to the appeal.  I’ll grill up the vegetables, add some chicken or shrimp, a salad and some crusty bread – -voila! Dinner is served.

I’m all about ease when it comes to meal times.  While I haven’t quite gotten the girls on board with “just salad” for dinner, they’re coming around to having half their plate be fruits and vegetables.   C thinks nothing of asking for a whole orange, apple slices and a huge scoop of peanut butter as a meal. M swaps the orange out for carrot sticks and V will eat just about anything if the promise of dessert looms on the horizon.  Some nights, when we’ve been ripping and running from day camp to the pool to playdates to errands and back again, fruit salad is the plat du jour for my little ones.  More often than not, everyone is a member of the Clean Plate Club.

As for me, I need some protein in my life on a regular basis.  When I say protein, I should tell the truth and say chicken or steak. I don’t eat cheese.  Beans aren’t going to cut it.  A hard boiled egg will do in a pinch, but I’ve got to be desperate.  I’ll eat salad all day long and twice on Sunday, but I’ve got to have a side of meat to go with it.  My salads are usually topped with grilled chicken.  Occasionally, I’ll do shrimp, if I can nab a few pieces from the leftover tupperware container.  Add to that some baby lettuces, sliced red onion, a few grape tomatoes and I’m good to go.  I’ve left the “kitchen sink salads” behind me in favor of cleaner taste profiles.  Gone are the days when I’d throw every veggie the fridge had to offer into a Corningware baking dish.  Seriously, I was doing “the big salad” way before Elaine Benes.  As my cooking skills developed, so did my appreciation for flavor profiles.  Why dump all the veggies together when you could do a Cobb Salad one day, a mixed field greens with onion and grapes the next, and a Caesar or Greek salad the day after that?  So many options, so many lunches to enjoy.

Today’s recipe is one that I haven’t done in a while, primarily because I haven’t had any bacon in the house in weeks.  Turkey bacon just isn’t going to get it done, by the way.  This salad is great for lunch or for dinner.  Add a crusty baguette and a nice chilled glass of white wine, you’re good to go!

Enjoy and Happy Friday, y’all!

 

(via)

Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
recipe found here

Ingredients

  • 3 whole Eggs
  • 7 slices Thick Cut, Peppered Bacon
  • 1 whole Red Onion, Small
  • 1 package Mushrooms, White Button
  • 8 ounces, weight Baby Spinach, Washed Dried And Stems Removed
  • 3 Tablespoons Reserved Bacon Grease
  • 3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons Sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
  • 1 dash Salt

Preparation Instructions

  • Cook eggs: cover with water, bring to a boil, then turn off heat and allow to sit in water for 20 minutes. Drain off water and add ice on top of eggs.
  • Fry bacon until crispy/chewy. Remove to a paper towel.
  • Remove 3 tablespoons grease and set aside.
  • Add 2 add’l tablespoons of grease to a separate skillet over medium heat.
  • Slice red onions very thinly, then add to skillet. Cook slowly until onions are caramelized and reduced. Remove to a plate and set aside.
  • Slice mushrooms and add them to the same skillet. Cook slowly until caramelized and brown. Remove to a plate and set aside.
  • Chop bacon.
  • Peel and slice eggs.
  • Make hot bacon dressing: Add 3 tablespoons bacon grease, vinegar, sugar, and Dijon to a small saucepan or skillet over medium-low heat. Whisk mixture together and heat thoroughly.
  • Add spinach to a large bowl. Arrange onions, mushrooms, and bacon on top. Pour hot dressing over the top; toss to combine.
  • Arrange eggs over the top and serve.
  • Enjoy!
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IN: recipes ON: June 30, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , BY: Hilary
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Recipe Friday on a Tuesday: 5 Ingredient Lemon Chicken With Asparagus

Gah, I hate the sound of my own voice.  I read this article a few weeks ago that said if you put your hand over your right ear and talk, what you hear is how others hear your voice.  *shudder* I haven’t done it and I don’t think I want to.  I heard myself talking on my outgoing voice mail message and promptly decided to go with the default message instead.  I only bring that up because I’m transcribing this post from a voice memo I made last week.  In the hectic, scary wonderful week that has been leading up to the big reveal of my children’s book, I did manage to eke out a few ideas for my home base here at Hilary with One L.  Of course, most of those ideas came when I was either a) driving or b) as far away from my computer or any other means to write as possible.  I keep forgetting the iPhone has a voice memo app!  When I did remember to use it this week, I felt like a champion. Hands on hips, chest thrust out, I listened to my bright ideas unspooling like ticker tape like, “Look at what I have created! Wait, is that really my voice?”

In any event, here’s what I had recorded.  So, you know how I love tumblr.  My tumble blog  pretty much consists of me reblogging pictures of shoes, the Eiffel Tower, Christian Bale and food.  In one of my post-dinner tumblr time sucks, I came across this gorgeous photo.

photo courtesy of Pinch of Yum

This picture got my tummy to burbling.  Chicken, asparagus, and lemons? All in one pan? Get in my belly!  I clicked around a bit more and found the original post on a website called “Pinch of Yum.” Who couldn’t use a pinch of yum in their life, right?  I read about the author, Lindsay, and how she became a blogger-foodie-photographer.  Then I went back to the recipe to figure out how I could get this photo onto my kitchen table IRL.  As luck would have it, the post was entitled “5 Ingredient Lemon Chicken with Asparagus”.  Five ingredient?! Surely, you jest, Pinch of Yum.  It was too good to be true, but in fact, it was all true! Five ingredients! Ingredients that I have on hand pretty much all the time.

I’m big on proper prior planning, so there are some staples that I will always have for occasions when I have to throw something together. While I don’t keep a weeks worth of recipes at my elbow when I’m making my grocery list, more often than not, I’m making things with what I know I already have.  The grocery list may have a few odds and ends that we don’t normally find in our crisper or pantry.  Recipes that call for three filaments of saffron or 1/8th of a tsp. or cream of tartar just don’t get made.  These five ingredients, though — chicken, lemons, asparagus, flour, butter (and salt and pepper, but that doesn’t count because most folks have that on their table) — I had at the ready. The chicken was even already defrosted *miracle*  just waiting to be turned from raw and slippery to golden and crispy.

I know I’m a little overly excited about this, but bear with me.  It’s the small things that give you the greatest joys.  As we are winding down to the end of the school year, the activities are winding up with end of year parties, swim team, birthday parties, and the like.  Transitioning from one type of routine to another, while I’m working on the book, pressed for time and trying to get everything done has been daunting.  Being able to take something off my plate, no pun intended, by making a dinner that is relatively health, quick and delicious felt like such a huge victory.

Too often I’m running around like a crazy person. I’ve been told that I make it look easy, and while I appreciate the compliment, there is a lot of lever pulling going on behind the curtain. My recent post entitled Salt Water: 3 ways resonated with a number of people. I can’t pinpoint if it was the working out section, the crying anecdote or the beach paragraph,  but I did get a lot of feedback about it. Honesty is important to me. I’m not trying to “Insta-glam” or “Fake-book” my way through life. I’m trying to be as honest as i can about how I’m feeling. Certainly I was hesitant to reveal what prompted my huge cry because I want there to be some privacy in my life and by extension, my husbands’ life. There are some things you don’t want everyone to see and I did wrangle with the potential of The Hubs losing some cool points over it.  My honesty helped several people say, “Whew, I thought I was the only one,” or “Amen!” or “I’m glad I’m not the only one.” That meant a lot to me.  It’s important to let people know that they aren’t the only ones.  While we all lead very fortunate lives, it can be hard at times.

People would comment on how I do everything I do, and I used to say, “Oh, you know, I plan ahead or I do XYZ.” I would be dismissive about it, but now I’m starting to accept the compliment.  Admitting that it is hard can give someone else the chance to just relax and feel connected, if only for a moment, and say, “Thank goodness that someone else understands it.”   I read an article in Glamour magazine by the actress Zosia Mamet. She was talking about the definition of success and how women look at other women as giving up on their potential if they if they are just feeling good about what they are currently doing. For example,  if you’re an executive and not trying to become the CEO, then you aren’t reaching your potential. If you are a mother raising children and you aren’t knocking it out of the park with every birthday party, Arbor Day, Groundhog Day and Winter Solstice party, then you aren’t successful. That really resonated with me.  Mom competition (mom-petition) is real.  Mamet talked about women not supporting each other.  I want to be supportive of other women. Female friendships and relationships are key.  You can’t do it by yourself. Your mother isn’t always going to be there or your partner or whomever. It’s essential to have like minded individuals in your corner, in your community, that you can talk to and share with. In order to have that, sometimes you have to pull back the curtain, show the levers being pulled and risk a little bit of loss of face.

And how does this all relate to 5 Ingredient Lemon Chicken with Asparagus? There are so many thoughts and feelings –all the feels– coursing through and around my brain, that when something small as being able to make dinner without having to think about it because you have all the ingredients on hand, ready to go,  when everything else seems to be really tough and in need of 25 steps, finding something that is pleasing to all the senses is a huge a win.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

5 Ingredient Lemon Chicken With Asparagus

recipe courtesy of Pinch of Yum

serves: 3-4 (nutrition is for 4 servings)

Ingredients
  • 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • ¼ cup whole wheat flour (all purpose will work, too)
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning
  • 1 cup chopped asparagus
  • 2 lemons, sliced
Instructions
  1. Cover the chicken breasts with plastic wrap and pound until each pieces is about a ¾ of an inch thick. Place the flour and salt in a shallow dish and gently toss each chicken breast in the dish to coat. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat; add the chicken and saute for 3-5 minutes on each side, until golden brown, sprinkling each side with the lemon pepper directly in the pan.
  2. When the chicken is cooked through, transfer to a plate. Add the lemon slices and chopped asparagus to the pan. Make sure the lemon slices are on the bottom so that they caramelize and pick up the browned bits left in the pan from the chicken and butter.
  3. When the asparagus is done and the lemons are golden brown, add the chicken back to the pan and rearrange everything (lemons on top) so it looks nice for serving.
photo by hgd via Instagram

photo by hgd via Instagram

Lindsay at Pinch of Yum suggested serving this dish with the following: an extra sprinkle of salt and pepper, fresh herbs, a drizzle of honey, and a slice of whole grain bread. I did not have any bread on hand, sadly, but I did have some brown rice which I jazzed up with some onion powder, salt and pepper.

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IN: hair recipes ON: June 3, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , , , , BY: Hilary
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recipes

Recipe Friday: Salad Days, Again

I am a creature of habit. When it comes to food, I know what I like and what I don’t. I know what tastes good, what tastes meh and what I would rather leave on the shelf.  Lately, I’ve been having a lot of working lunches.  Don’t confuse that sentence for white table cloths and artfully arranged centerpieces or anything.  My working lunch consists of a stack of folders, a ream of papers, my laptop and a salad with a side of popcorn on my dining room table.  Seated next to me, my tote bag, erupting with additional folders, pens, magazines and power cords. I’ve got my slippers on and my jewelry off, with a half of a paper towel tucked under my keyboard to catch wayward crumbs. It’s all very high end, CEO level lunching over here.

While I would much rather have lunch out with friends or even lunch in, for that matter, I’m grinding, grinding, grinding.  The school year is coming to a close, so I’m coordinating the schedule for the summer. I’ve got a folder for that, stuffed with finished applicatoins, calendars from the respective camps, brochures for camps for next season and the like.  I’m working on consolidating my presence on the Internet and trying to brand myself. I’ve got a folder for that.  There’s the packet on how to maneuver through Google Analytics (which is taking years off my life). There’s the packet on how to use Bit.ly and Buffer. There’s the packet my awesome social media consultant put together to keep me on task (it’s like a social media syllabus).

I’m writing, writing, writing.  I’ve got a folder for that.  Several drafts of my book are wedged between spreads of illustrations. There are post it notes reminding me to send out drafts to the editor, to revise write an “About the Author” paragraph, narrow down who will be included in the dedication.

I’m working on my photography.  I’ve got a folder for that. I recently received an order from SmugMug that included over 150 prints that I plan to put in albums.  See, I’ve got photo albums from elementary school, one for every year of high school, one to two for every year of college, and one to two for every year after that.  It’s a lot. I also have several photos boxes (9) to hold the photos that don’t make it into the albums.  When I took V’s photo in for her birthday, I realized I couldn’t remember that last time I put a picture of her in an album.  I pulled out the latest one and the last picture was from that time V came home from the hospital.  Ooops.

I’m blogging, blogging, blogging. I’ve got a folder for that.  My hand written notes dividing each post into a specific category book-end a ream of paper that it is the sum total of all the posts I’ve ever published.  Per my father’s urging, I’m trying to select my favorite as well as most well received posts for a collection of essays. Easier said than done.  As I’ve amassed all manner of working implements, I’ve constructed an improbable wall around myself comprised of my favorite books, my dog-eared planner, several electronic devices and cords, three magazines that I’m planning to read,  two catalogs that I want to peruse and 1 sweating bottle of water.

There’s just enough room to slide my salad plate in so I can fork baby lettuces and avocado into my mouth. Lately, I’ve been munching on my old tried an true of baby lettuces, grape tomatoes, red onion and grilled chicken drizzled with garlic infused dressing.  Dinner the other night was taco night at our house, so lunch the next day was an amalgamation of the usual salad and the Mexican leftovers.  What I’m craving, though, is the simple clean taste of the house salad from Can-Can Brasserie.  I was talking to Jessika over at “Oh My Goji” about it last week and have had a taste for it ever since. Just thinking about the shallots and the slight bite of vinegar couples with the sweet crunch of sliced grapes is enough to get my mandibles tingling.  I’ve tried to duplicate it myself, to no avail.  It’s not the ingredients that fail me, it’s the dressing.  Some kind of oil, vinegar, shallot, and maybe champagne concoction? There’s an herb that I’m missing, I think.  I have no idea and all of my iterations have fallen short.  Guess that means I need a field trip to Can-Can to sate this palate!

In the mean time, try your hand at a simliar recipe and tell me what you think.  Happy Friday, y’all!

Butter Lettuce Salad with Champagne and Shallot Vinaigrette

recipe courtesy of Williams Sonoma

Use the best-quality ingredients you can find to prepare this simple salad, which combines butter lettuce and fresh herbs with a Champagne and shallot vinaigrette. A garnish of chive blossoms adds a splash of color.

Ingredients:

  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup Champagne or Prosecco
  • 1/4 cup Champagne vinegar
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
  • 2 heads butter lettuce, larger leaves torn, smaller leaves left whole
  • 2 Tbs. snipped fresh chives, tips and blossoms reserved for garnish (optional)
  • 2 Tbs. snipped fresh tarragon

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk together the shallot, olive oil, Champagne and vinegar. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper.

In a serving bowl, combine the lettuce, chives and tarragon. Toss with as much of the vinaigrette as needed to evenly coat the salad. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with the chive blossoms and serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Cooking for Friends, by Alison Attenborough and Jamie Kimm (Oxmoor House, 2008).

 

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IN: recipes ON: May 23, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , BY: Hilary
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photography projects & DIY recipes

Recipe Friday: Teddy Bear Beach Party

The week-end is already over and it’s only Thursday. I’m calling it because between now and Sunday evening, it’s go, go, go until we can face-plant among the pillows only to wake up on Monday and start fresh.  The kids are heading into end of year mode.  May marks one month until the end of this school year.  The first week-end in May kicks off the slide down that slope with Spirit Week, Field Day and Magic Dragon Day. Spirit Week involves the kids dressing up each day from a pre-approved theme.  Monday and Tuesday were Blue and White Day (school colors), Wednesday was Tie-Day day, and Thursday was Crazy Hat day.  Sadly, we have no “crazy” hats, but the girls looked, to quote M, “Stylish, sophisticated and continental,” in two of my church hats.  Friday is field day where each grade participates in relays, running races, and other fun games.  They wear their Magic Dragon Day shirts — the dragon being the school mascot, the shirt color pre-determined by the eldest family member attending the school (Go, Blue!) — and run around, getting hot, sweaty and grass stained.  It’s an early release day as well and I’m confident that this year, I’ll remember to get them at 1pm instead of the regular dismissal time like I did the last two years (oops!).

Magic Dragon Day is on Saturday and it promises to be a rolicking event.  Every year, the school hosts a carnival like event for the entire school.  There are booths with games of chance, tug-of-war contests in each grade, dunking booths, Spirit Wear sales, book sales, a cake walk and the highly anticipated kidnergarten May Pole Dance.  While this is our third MDD, this is our first May Pole Dance and cake walk experience.  The kindgergarten kiddos have been practicing since before Easter to kick off MDD with their dance.  The girls and boys wear their Sunday best and dance around the blacktop, lacing grosgrain ribbons up and down the length of a flower topped pole.  Once the dance is over, Magic Dragon Day can officially begin.

C is in kindergarten this year and has been protesting having to do the May Pole dance because she “doesn’t want to hlod hands with a boy!!”  Keep up that attitude, kiddo!  As we’ve gotten closer, though, she’s started to get more excited.  She’s picked out her dress, she’s decided what color flowers she’d like in the wreath that will sit atop her head.  She is ready to peel out of the dress with her friends and into her MDD shirt in order to paritcipate in her first ever tug-of-war.  I suppose it’s no surprise that her enthusiasm has been escalating. While neither she nor M have ever done a May Pole before, they’re third year MDD vets and ready to eat and play their way through the day.

In addition to the May Pole prep, kindergarten parents are also tasked with preparing two cakes (or 48 cupcakes or some combination of cake and cupcake) for the MDD cake walk.  Cake walk? What’s that, you ask.  The Cake Walk is one of the most fun and successful booths at MDD.  Similar to musical chairs, participants move along a serpentine path on the blacktop.  The path is sectioned off into numbers which correspond to numbered cakes set up in the auditorium.  When the music stops, the emcee draws a number from the pile and whomever is standing on that number, wins the corresponding cake.  The cakes are indeed prizes to be had!  The cakes are either homemade or store bought, and decorated within an inch of their lives.  The more decorations, the better!  In years past, cakes have been decorated as sand castles, treasure chests, dragons, Legos, Polly Pocket Beach parties and Star Wars themed cake toppers.

Earlier in the year, when talking with another kindergarten mom, we resolved to buy our cakes instead of fool around with the homemade foolishness.  At the time, the mandate was, homemade only — not necessarily from scratch, but definitely homemade.  I was all about “breaking the law” because I didn’t know what the heck kind of cake I could scrape together or whether or not I was really up to the challenge of finding something that could hold its own against other Pinterest-worthy cakes that were sure to come down the pike.  I went back and forth the Hubs about it, who clearly fell on the side of “Just buy the cake!” and my mom who was more of “Oh, c’mon, you can make it.”  Truthfully, I was doing a cost benefit analysis as to what was more cost effective: buying a pre-decorated cake or buying the uspplies and doing it myself.  In the end, I think it was a wash.  I found a recipe that looked hard, but was more time consuming than anything else.  Ultimately, my biggest challenge was making sure my cupcake cups were equally filled.  Well, that and trying to keep the girls from eating the decorations before I could put them on the cake.

Between the cake and the prep for the May Pole dance, which included hot gluing silk flowers to a ribbon encased wreath, it’s been straight up Crafty Town up in here. The recipe for the cupcakes follows the photos of my finished product. I baked the cakes and cupcakes a few days ahead of time so that I could focus solely on frosting and decorating.

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Teddy-At-The-Beach Cupcakes.

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Teddy’s lounging.

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Here’s my layer cake. Same premise as the cupcakes, but I got a little fancier with jelly bean rocks in the sand and icing trim around the edges.

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Here, fishy, fishy!

 

Enjoy and Happy Friday, y’all!

Teddy-At-The-Beach Cupcakes

recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker, found here.

Ingredients

  • 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® cake mix (any flavor)
  • 2 drops blue food color
  • 1 cup Betty Crocker® Whipped vanilla frosting
  • 1 roll (from 4.5-oz box) Betty Crocker® Fruit by the Foot® chewy fruit snack (any flavor)
  • 1/2 cup teddy bear-shaped graham snacks, crushed, or brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Betty Crocker® blue sugar, if desired
  • 12 teddy bear-shaped graham snacks
  • 6 paper drink umbrellas or small plastic umbrellas, if desired
  • 6 ring-shaped gummy candies
  • 6 multi-colored fish-shaped crackers

Directions

  • 1 Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. Make and bake cake mix as directed on box for 24 cupcakes. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Tightly wrap 12 cupcakes; freeze for a later use.
  • 2 Stir blue food color into frosting until blended. Frost remaining 12 cupcakes with frosting.
  • 3 Cut six 1 1/2-inch pieces from fruit snack roll; peel off paper backing. Use fruit snack and remaining ingredients to decorate cupcakes as shown in photo or as desired.

See also:  A Day at the Beach Cake! Recipe courtesy of Reloved Recipes, found here.

 

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IN: photography projects & DIY recipes ON: May 2, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , , , , , , BY: Hilary
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recipes

May 1st

After all that talk about not being able to get a decent night’s sleep, I’ve completely set myself back by staying up later than planned.  Last night, I was all set to go to bed.  The kids had been fed and watered.  My face had been scrubbed, my pj’s were on.  Then the Hubs and I got to talking about our week-end plans, parenting challenges we faced this past week and how to manage them. Then, it was 11:15 and I was kicking myself for falling short of my goal.  My sleep was restless.  I was hot. I was cold. I stuck one leg out from underneath the blanket to bring balance to the force and that didn’t help.  My boot was too tight. Then it wasn’t tight enough.  Then I took it off, but realized, I didn’t want the blankets pulling on my foot and causing a prolonged extension of my tendon for the duration of the night. So, I put it back on.  I was finally drifting off and felt the urge to pee.  I tried to ignore it, but my brain ran down the facts of why holding it was a bad idea. Hello, UTI.  I peed. I washed my hands. I crept back into bed and V cried out in her sleep from behind closed doors and across the hall.  I counted to ten and all was silent.  I closed my eyes. I skimmed the surface of sleep, not quite submerging, knowing that the alarm was going to hoist me back to consciousness.

Today, however, I planned to try again.  My goal was to be in the bed by 9pm.  Shutting down the house (i.e. kids squared away, kitchen clean, laundry done), I was going to take this evening to burn through a baking project that I committed to for Saturday.  As luck would have it, I pushed through the Betty Crocker business and got everything wrapped  during the after-school rush.  I was simultaneously baking, making dinner and issuing directives to my minions. Set the table! Wash your hands! Get ready for lacrosse practice!  It was a well oiled machine. By the way time the wee ones were in bed, the eldest home from practice and in the shower, it was 8:15.  That gave me a good hour or two to devote to writing. So I did. . .I wrote a healthy, photo studded recipe Friday post.  For Friday, not today.

Today is the first of May. I have been pretty inconsistent when it comes to posting on the first of the month. It’s not that I have some obligation to fulfill, nor have I been challenged in some way, but to me, a first of the month post is a clean break from the previous month and a committed start to the next.  I am consistently inconsistent about it, though.  As I started to gather up my things and make my way to bed, I remembered that today was the first.  While tomorrow’s post is in the pipeline and ready to go, I had nothing to say for today that I hadn’t already said for tomorrow.

The Hubs and I were sitting at the dining room table, working in tandem, when he abruptly snapped his computer shut, flashed me a peace sign and made for the upstairs.  It was 10:35.  What in the world? What happened to my evening?  I was going to bust out a post, maybe click around tumblr a bit, read a few chapters in my book and then go to bed.  10:35 and I’m still fully dressed, face unwashed, wondering how in the devil I’m going to get 24 cupcakes, 1 layer cake, myself and V into the school auditorium tomorrow without incident.  10:35 and I could see all that potential good sleep swirling away from me like Calgon laced water down the drain.

So, I decided to call it a night, only to have the Hubs call me to carpet about it.  With a pep talk to rival Mickey, he convinced me to keep at it, offering to stay up with me until I was done — provided it was a wrap by midnight. Are you kidding me? Midnight? I haven’t seen the far side of 12am since NYE and even then, it was because I had my eyelids propped open with the toothpicks from my martini glass.  But I digress. . .the prospect of staying up until midnight was SO unappealing, I just grabbed the first meme I could find, banged out a couplet about it and was ready to post when the Hubs called me out again.

Standing behind me, he simply asked,”Is this your best work?”

the face i make when i know i’m wrong.

Damnit.

I’m not under the gun, contractually obligated or even financially compensated for writing.  I write because I love to do it. I write because if I don’t, I can’t function properly.  To quote Gloria Steinem, I write because “Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”  And right now, despite my desire to lay my head on my pillow, I am perfectly happy stringing words together for you to read.

I want to write.  I want to share my writing process, which is not that different from how I ended up drawing something from nothing at 10:30 on a Thursday night. I want to tell stories, share experiences, and draw out responses.

I also want to go to bed.

11:05.  I’m kind of cross-eyed with fatigue right now, but the Hubs is cheering me on like I’ve hit the final mile marker on this race and all that’s left to do is break the tape.

*cue up Chariots of Fire*

Fingers flying, I’m coming into the homestretch. I’ve only got a few more lines. It’s closing in on 11:15 and. . .

SWEET FANCY MOSES! HIT THE SAVE BUTTON!! HIT THE SAVE BUTTON!!

It’s time for bed.

 

 

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IN: recipes ON: May 2, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , , , BY: Hilary
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recipes

Recipe Friday: Salad Days

A little bit ago, I was lamenting how boring my daily menu has become. As luck would have it, I was invited to a Facebook group entitled To Your Very Good Health, which was created to “to share recipes, cookbooks, blogs, encouragement and photos of healthy food! Paleo, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, vegan…whatever floats your boat as long as it’s healthy!”

Admittedly, I thought my friend had me confused with someone else. However, I realize that somewhere in all my chatter about food and fitness, I have been talking about going, being, and staying healthy.  It’s encouraging to know someone’s paying attention.  So far, I’ve posted a few times, but mostly, I’ve been reading the posts that come though the page. Along with that, I’ve been learning quite about about what it means to be GF, DF, Vegan, Vegetarian, and all places in between.

I’ve picked up some good recipes, some tips and tricks, and while I’m not sure I’m ready to go feet first into any one way of eating, I’d like to think I’m taking the best parts of all of them to create a lifestyle that suits me and my family.  Really, isn’t that what is all comes down to? I have to do what works best for me in all areas of my life. I maintain that line of thinking when it comes to child rearing, when it comes to home improvements, when it comes to pretty much everything that I have a hand in.  Food is so pervasive in our daily lives. The way in which we eat it, how we prepare it, where it comes from, where we purchase it from — these are discussions that five or ten years ago, I wasn’t having.

I’m trying to be mindful of those things in addition to things like sodium and sugar content, the amount of processing, do I even know how to prepare theses things and so on.  There’s been quite a bit of trial and error, but my greatest successes have been with my salads.  I’ve always liked salads.  When I was in middle school, I used to take my mom’s CorningWare Casserole dish and make a “Big Salad” — this was way before Elaine Benes and her big salad.  Everything  — lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, celery, olive, hard boiled eggs, nuts — went into that dish. I’m a creature of habit, and these days, my salads are roughly the same.  Though, as I said before, I was starting to get a little tired of the repetition.  I poked around some websites, a few cookbooks and added a few things to my salad fixin’s. First up was endive.

I didn’t really know what endive was when I came across it in my Mediterranean recipe book.  Straight to Google, followed by www.endive.com and I had an “aha!” moment.  I’ve heard it pronounced en-deeve and en-dive, and I’m still not sure which is correct.  The recipe I saw didn’t say specifically which kind to get (there are several varieties), so I just got what I laid my hands on. I chose to add some Belgian endive to my salad.  It looks like a a white torpedo with pale green tips.  It’s crunchy and a little bitter, but adds a punch of flavor to you salads.  According to www.endive.com, you can eat it raw, you can grill it, you can slice it or you can just pull the leaves off and use them as scoops for a dip.  Very versatile little green.  I got my Belgian endive, sliced it up and added it to my baby lettuces, red onion, chopped walnuts and grilled chicken.

salad3

Endive, Baby Lettuces, Red Onion and Walnut Dijon Dressing

Staying with the endive (they were on a two-fer special), the next day, I added it to the baby lettuces along with some leftover roasted aparagus and red onion, chopped pecans, sliced granny smith apple and a lemon walnut sauce.  It was really good.  The peppery bitter bite of the endive balanced out the heavy handed salting that I had given to the roasted veggies. The apple slices and grapes provided some crunch, some sweet and some tart.

salad

Endive, Baby Lettuces, Granny Smith Apple, Grapes, Asparagus, & Lemon Walnut Sauce

When I was going through the fridge to see what I could use next, I came across a few avocados that had left to ripen.  As luck would have it, one of the recent posts on “To Your Good Health” was for a deconstructed guacamole salad.  I usually keep tomatoes, red onions and cilantro on hand to make my salsa fresca, I didn’t have any coriander.  I thought it was used more as a ground spice, as opposed to the base of a salad. Learn something new everyday, it seems.

Enjoy and Happy Friday, y’all!

 

Deconstructed Guacamole Salad

recipe found here:

2 ripe avocados, in thick slices
1 red onion, sliced in half moons
A generous handful of coriander
Cherry tomatoes, sliecd in half
Salt and pepper to season

Dressing:
Juice and zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon of Tabasco sauce
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl and set aside.

Assemble the ingredients for the salad on a serving platter, start with the slices of avocado then top with the red onion slices and then the cherry tomatoes.  Pick off little leaves of coriander and sprinkle all over the top of the salad.

Drizzle over the dressing and then season with sea salt and a good grinding of black pepper.
Serve straight away.

 

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IN: recipes ON: April 18, 2014 TAGS: , , , , , , BY: Hilary
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