Happy Mother's Day!

This is the card I made for my mom for Mother's Day this year. I think it's pretty and girly, though I wish I'd cut the pink panel a little smaller so there wasn't so much empty space. I of course didn't come to that realization until everything was adhered, so too late!

I used my Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder to emboss the card base and my SU scallop edge punch along the pink strip on the right. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, though I do want to add that the flourishy sentiment was traced with a black glitter pen, so it's nice and sparkly in person even though it doesn't show up here.

My parents come down today for a quick visit and it was so nice to have them here. The honeymoon period in my new condo has not worn off and I am still so happy to be here every day and so thrilled to finally have a place where I can have family and friends over. I love to cook and bake for people and to play hostess, so this has been a dream come true!

I planned a great menu if I do say so myself! When my parents arrived, I had a homemade spinach and artichoke dip and some cheese and crackers waiting for them. Then the first course was this delicious crab and avocado salad. It was so refreshing with such bright flavors. The main meal was a slightly healthified twist on my friend Suzanne's Imperial Chicken - a fabulous butter and garlic soaked chicken breast that is then dredged in parmesan cheese and bread crumbs and baked. Mmm! I served that with an orzo salad that my dad said was a definite keeper and some green beans sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese. And for dessert I made Ina Garten's lemon cake, though I left off the glaze and drizzled each serving with a strawberry coulis (scroll to the bottom of that page for the coulis recipe) instead. Everything was fantastic!

Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Relish and Brown Rice Pilaf

This meal was my next endeavor out of the Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine and was also a keeper! This photo doesn't look nearly as good as the one in the magazine, but at least it's not scary like my lasagna photo was! The relish is very unusual, not a combination I would ever have come up with on my own, but it was really delicious and packed with antioxidants from the dried cherries. Given my recent successes with this magazine, I think I'll try just one or two more recipes and if those are successes as well, I'll be subscribing for sure!

Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Relish

Pork Rub
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. each dried oregano, tarragon, and crushed dried rosemary (I did not have tarragon and don't particularly care for it, so I substituted dried thyme instead)
2 pork tenderloins (1 lb. each), trimmed

Relish
1 large red onion, sliced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. dried cherries
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. crushed dried rosemary

1. In a small bowl, combine garlic powder and herbs; rub over pork. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. For relish, in a large saucepan, saute onion in oil until tender. Add sugar; cook and stir over medium heat for 10 minutes or until onion is browned. Add the cherries, vinegar, and rosemary. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

3. Place pork on a rack in a shallow roasting pan lined with foil. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 - 30* minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with relish.

Nutrition Facts: 3 oz. cooked pork with 2 Tbsp. relish equals 217 calories, 7 g fat, 63 mg cholesterol, 46 mg sodium, 14 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber, 23 g protein.

*I first took the pork out after 25 minutes and my meat thermometer only read 120 degrees. So I put it back in for another 5 minutes, checked it and it was only 130 degrees. I put it in for another 8 minutes two more times and the thermometer never got above 140 degrees, but the meat was clearly done. So I don't know if my thermometer was broken or my tenderloins were thicker than usual or what, but if you make this, plan on possibly needing to cook it longer than 30 minutes.

Brown Rice Pilaf
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/4 c. uncooked brown rice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 c. water
1 c. reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. pepper

In a large saucepan, saute onion and green pepper in oil until tender. Add rice and garlic; cook and stir for 3 - 4 minutes or until rice is lightly browned. Add the water, broth, thyme, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 35 - 40 minutes or until rice is tender. Fluff with a fork.

Nutrition Facts: 3/4 c. equals 181 calories, 3 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 99 mg sodium, 34 g carbohydrates, 2 g fiber, 4 g protein.

Lasagna

I've never really thought lasagna needed a recipe. After all, it's just layers of meat and cheese and sauce and noodles, right? Well, I found a lasagna recipe makeover in a Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine and given my current quest to try eating healthier, I thought it was worth a try. Turns out I loved it and I think it's going to be my new go-to way to make lasagna from now on! I took a picture to post with the recipe, but I am a horrendous photographer of food, so I decided against posting the picture - don't want to scare anyone away!

I ordered a free trial issue of the magazine and I'm trying to make a few of the recipes from it before I decide if I want to continue or cancel the subscription. Here's the recipe - let me know if you try it!

Lasagna Deliziosa
9 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 pkg. (20 oz.) Italian turkey sausage links, casings removed
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1 large onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (12 oz.) tomato paste
1/4 c. water
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. fennel seed (I omitted this)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 container (15 oz.) reduced-fat ricotta cheese
1 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley (I used dried and just decreased the quantity a little)
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1. Cook noodles according to package directions. When done, drain and rinse in cold water. Meanwhile, in a Dutch oven, cook the sausage, beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Drain the extra grease.

2. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, basil, fennel, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. In a small bowl, combine the egg, ricotta cheese, parsley, and salt. Spread 1 cup meat sauce in a 13 x 9 in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with three noodles, 2 cups meat sauce*, 2/3 c. ricotta cheese mixture, 2/3 c. mozzarella, and 1/4 c. Parmesan. Repeat layers twice.

4. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover; bake 10 - 15 minutes longer or until a thermometer reads 160 degrees. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Nutrition facts**: 1 piece equals 323 calories, 12 g fat, 79 mg cholesterol, 701 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 25 g protein.

*To me, it made a lot more sense to put the ricotta on the noodles first and then add the meat sauce, so that's what I did. It's a heck of a lot easier to spread the ricotta mixture over flat noodles than it is to spread it over saucy meat!
**The magazine didn't say how many pieces they cut the pan into, so I don't know exactly what serving size those nutrition facts are for. I have a sneaking suspicion I cut my pieces a lot bigger than I'm supposed to, but then I guess it's a good thing that I used turkey sausage and lower fat cheeses!

More cookies and cards

This weekend I baked almost 12 dozen cookies and I'm exhausted! I was really in the mood to bake this year and try out some new recipes. But I cannot possibly eat so many cookies on my own, so I decided to make up cookie bags for the people in my department at work. I ordered the small window coffee bags from Papertrey and used the Papertrey set Holiday Treats to decorate the bags with SU Night of Navy and Close to Cocoa ink. Each one has 4 butter toffee cookies, 4 peanut butter blossoms, 3 bon bon cookies, and 2 iced gingerbread people - one boy and one girl.

I've got two more Christmas cards to share - one that's more elegant and one that's just fun. They're both clean and simple designs, which seems to be the only style I can come up with lately! The first card uses PTI white as the base. The image is from A Muse and is colored with a silver sakura gel pen and SU markers. The sentiment is from the PTI set Take a Bough. I used Marvy punches for the circle and scallop circle and a white gel pen to dot the scallops. Clear gemstones act as headlights and the stitched ribbon "road" is PTI Pure Poppy.

On the second card I also used PTI white for the base and image piece, SU Brushed Silver for the strip, and PTI Pure Poppy for the border. The image is from a Basic Grey clear set I bought last year and is stamped in Encore silver ink. The berries on the wreath were dotted with a red sakura gel pen and I used a paper piercing tool to create a border for the image. The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs and was stamped in PTI Pure Poppy.

This will likely be my last post until after Christmas as I spend the next few days finishing up holiday preparations and then spending time with family and friends. I hope you all have a safe, warm, and very Merry Christmas!

Cards and Some Cookies

I am typically not a gold person. I wear only silver jewelry, have different silvery tones (chrome, nickel) for lamps, curtain rods, hardware, etc. in my house. Even my car is silver! But there's something about Christmas that makes gold seem to work so well and I really love how both of these cards turned out.

For the first card, I used the ornament cuttlebug folder on SU's brushed gold cardstock and flipped it over so that the front of the card was debossed rather than embossed. That was mounted on PTI Pure Poppy cardstock, as was the sentiment panel. The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs and is stamped in Pure Poppy ink. I used gold stickles to trace around the white sentiment panel, and finished off the card with Pure Poppy twill. Quick, easy, and I think pretty elegant.


For this 4.25" x 4.25" card, I used SU brushed gold as the base. I then created poinsettias (my favorite holiday motiff!) using white shimmery flowers from the bridal section of Michael's. I just pressed them onto my SU Real Red ink pad and, while they were laying on the ink pad, added a few drops of reinker to really saturate the flowers and get a deeper red. I put two flowers together with a gold brad in the center and adhered them with mini glue dots to the card base. The sentiment here is again from Lizzie Anne Designs, stamped with Palette Noir.

And finally I thought I'd show you the peanut butter blossoms for which I made the dough over the weekend. Try to look past my less than desirable photography skills, poor lighting, and reflective chrome plate! The Recipe Girl herself saw on my blog the other day that I was going to make these cookies and suggested that I roll them in red and green sugar rather than regular white granulated sugar for a more festive look. Duh! I don't know why I didn't think of that myself! But then I guess that's why she's called The Recipe Girl and I'm just The Girl Who Likes to Drool Over Her Recipes! The colored sugars do make for a more festive holiday cookie, and I swear they actually are red and green, not radioactive pink and green!

I still have so much to do in the next few days. I went from being totally relaxed because my family is not really exchanging much in the way of gifts this year to kicking myself for being so relaxed and leaving my homemade projects to the last minute. I have two scrapbooks that I need to finish that I'm making as gifts for friends of mine who went to Disney World with me in April (I've only had 8 months to work on them!!), some Christmas cards to finish and mail out, a mini scrapbook to make for another friend of mine, stocking stuffers for my mom, 4 more kinds of Christmas cookies, and gift packaging for all the cookies! And yet the motivation doesn't seem to be with me. Instead of being productive tonight, I sat on my couch, admired my Christmas tree, and ate peanut butter blossoms while I watched the new Muppet Christmas special. Then I watched the 2008 White House Christmas special. And now I'm sitting here typing about all I have to do instead of doing it! Will I never learn?!

Hope you're all being a lot more productive than I am!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

...or at least what Christmas would look like if it exploded in my kitchen! I make such a mess when I'm baking. This picture doesn't even show the half of it, or the flour all over my floor! It's so much fun though, except when I knock over an almost full bottle of vanilla and it spills all over my recipe...

I started off the night making peppermint bark using this recipe from http://www.recipegirl.com/. I didn't take a picture of my bark because, due to my impatience, I didn't wait until the second layer fully hardened. As a result, the minute I poured the warm melted white chocolate over the top, the middle layer began melting, so the top of my bark has a swirled effect that is much less pretty than it should be. But it still tastes phenomenal and really is so easy if you just wait the amount of time suggested for each layer. I'd even suggest putting the pan in the freezer rather than the fridge to make sure the layers really do harden up properly. A little side note: I had no idea how much 6 oz. of peppermint was in terms of candy canes. I crushed up 4 and it seems to have been the perfect amount.

Then I made a batch of gingerbread dough using this recipe on my friend Tammi's blog. I was going to make a double batch, but this is the first time I've made gingerbread cookie dough from scratch and in case I messed it up, I didn't want to have a ton of dough. It was super easy to make, so I can always whip up another batch later in the week. I shaped the dough into a log and put it in my freezer until I'm ready to make the cookies in the next few days.

I finished up this evening's endeavors with a double batch of dough for Peanut Butter Blossoms. My best friend's mom has made these for years and I finally got the recipe from her. I've tried other versions of this cookie, but hers is always the best! She said the dough freezes really well (and actually the baked cookies do as well) so I've got two logs of this dough in my freezer. Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Blossoms
1 stick unsalted butter
½ cup peanut butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
1 ¼ cups flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
3 Tbl more sugar
36 chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Put margarine, peanut butter, ½ cup sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg into a large mixing bowl. Beat with electric mixer on medium until smooth and creamy.
Mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder together, and mix into creamed ingredients. Cover w/plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour or more.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease cookie sheets or use parchment paper or silicone mats.
Put the 3 T of sugar in a plastic bag.
Shape the dough into balls the size of walnuts in the shell. Shake three balls at a time in the bag of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
Bake 8 minutes. Put a chocolate kiss in the center of each cookie and press down gently. Continue baking 2-4 minutes, or until chocolate has melted down a little.
Remove cookies with a spatula and cool on a cooling rack. (I let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet a little before removing to a cooling rack, or they fall apart sometimes.)

I'm going to make half the cookies with Hershey Kisses and half with milk chocolate Dove Promises just to compare. Dove is my most favorite chocolate, so I have a feeling they'll be pretty darn good!

I've got a bunch of Christmas cards to share and will do that over the next few days, so check back! For now, my feet and legs are tired from my evening in the kitchen, and it's after 10pm and I haven't eaten dinner yet, so I think I'll go curl up on the couch with some food and watch the end of It's a Wonderful Life on TV. I love this time of year!!

Cheese Balls

Cheese balls are, to me, a very holidayish food. I've never made one before, but this past week I had a few occasions for which I needed to make an appetizer and a dessert. I experimented with both a savory and a sweet version and both turned out very well if I do say so myself! I didn't take pictures of either of them, but thought I'd share the recipes in case you happen to be in need of some new ideas this season.

Tammy's Tempting Cheese Ball
1 (1 ounce) package dry ranch salad dressing mix
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup milk
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
12 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese
5 ounces roasted, salted almonds, chopped (I omitted)

If you want to see the actual directions, click on the link above. I didn't follow them. I am lazy, so I just threw everything into my food processor at once rather than mixing particular ingredients together and whatnot. It turned out nice and evenly mixed, so I'd recommend going that route if you have a food processor. This made quite a large batch, so I separated it into two balls and wrapped each in saran wrap. I made this the night before it was needed so the flavors had more time to blend and so the balls could set up properly. As noted, I did not roll the balls in chopped almonds. I do not like almonds, so I wasn't going to taint perfectly good cheese with some icky nuts. And I didn't miss them, nor did my friends who came over last night. We had the whole ball eaten in about 10 minutes flat. :-) I served these with Wheat Thins and Triscuits, but any cracker would do. Or even vegetable sticks I suppose, though I would never.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans (omitted)

Again, I just threw all the ingredients (except the chocolate chips) into my food processor to mix everything up. Then I just stirred the chocolate chips in by hand. As with the savory cheese ball, I spooned it onto plastic wrap, shaped it into a ball, and allowed to chill overnight. Mine was a little softer than I think it should have been, I think because when "softening" the butter in the microwave I got carried away and partially melted it. If I wasn't so lazy, I would have added a little more powdered sugar to firm it up, but I didn't care enough to bother. I did not roll my ball in pecans as the recipe suggests because, again, that would have ruined the recipe for me. I served this with those holiday cookies that Keebler comes out with this time of year - the gingerbread men and those Jingles cookies - but graham crackers, chocolate wafers, or whatever other kind of cookie you like would be just fine.

Pumpkin Pumpkin Everywhere!

I'm finally just about settled in to my new condo! I still have some things to buy and some decorating to do, but for the most part, everything is in its place! I even started doing some stamping this weekend - I missed it! I'll share some of those cards later tonight or tomorrow, but for now I thought I'd blog about food!

I love this time of year and all the food that's associated with it. I especially love anything pumpkin so when I saw recipes for pumpkin chili and pumpkin cornbread on the Recipe Girl website, I knew I needed to make them. I'll post the recipes with some comments on changes I made, but check out Recipe Girl for literally thousands of recipes that all look so so good!

Pumpkin Chili
1 lb ground beef
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 clove garlic, minced
Two 14½oz. cans diced tomatoes
1 cup pure pumpkin pureé
1 Tbs ground chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin seed
½ tsp ground black pepper
dash of salt
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
½ cup sour cream

1. Brown ground beef in large sauté pan with onion, green pepper and garlic. Spoon off grease.
2. Return to heat and add tomatoes, pumpkin, chili powder, cumin, pepper and salt. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
3. Serve topped with cheese and sour cream.

My notes:

• I used ground chicken instead of beef because it was cheaper, but it's also a slightly healthier alternative.
• I put at least 3 Tbsp of chili powder in my regular chili recipe, so the 1 Tbsp called for here seemed like not enough to me. I added a little bit extra - not too much because I was hoping to have the pumpkin flavor shine through, so I probably put in about 1.5 Tbsp
• I cooked this in my crockpot, so I did not cook the onions, garlic, and peppers with the meat. I browned the chicken and drained off the grease, and just threw the vegetables right into the crockpot after chopping them. I let it cook on low for about 5 hours.

The verdict: This was very good as far as flavor goes, but I did not detect any trace of pumpkin at all, either in taste or smell. It tasted pretty much like another other chili I've made, just less spicy. I don't know if the 1/2 Tbsp extra chili powder I put in was too overpowering, but I kinda doubt it. I also expected the pumpkin to make the chili a little thicker, but I actually found it a little more watery than my regular chili. It wasn't bad, just not what I was expecting. So all in all, this was a good recipe, but if anything, next time I'd probably just make my usual chili and add some pumpkin to that if I wanted some extra vitamins!

Pumpkin Cornbread
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup cornmeal
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or freshly cooked and processed)
2/3 cup brown sugar
¼ cup canola oil
1 Tbs molasses

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease 10-inch glass pie pan or 9-inch square baking pan.
2. Sift flours, baking powder, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in cornmeal.
3. In separate bowl, beat eggs lightly. Whisk in pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and molasses.
4. Make a well in the dry mixture. Add pumpkin mixture and blend batter with a few quick strokes (just until blended- don't overmix).
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cornbread is browned and the surface has a slightly springy feel.

My notes: Though the recipe called for half all-purpose and half whole wheat flour, I used only all-purpose. I've never used whole wheat flour in my life and couldn't justify spending $4 on a bag of flour for a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of it. I don't know if the wheat flour is supposed to serve any purpose other than being healthier, but I didn't notice that using a full cup of all-purpose made anything go horribly wrong!

The verdict: Very good! The pumpkin taste and smell was subtle, but it was definitely there. It was a little dense, and maybe that's because of the flour, but then I don't usually think of cornbread as being completely light and airy anyway. There are a good number of ingredients, but it was easy enough to make and a nice change from your normal cornbread.

Oh. My. Goodness.

My mouth is so happy right now! My friend Stacy shared a recipe with the LOSTies this week, more as a joke than anything. We are a pie-loving bunch, but have some rules about pies with meat in them. I personally don't condone meat in a dessert pie, but have no qualms about meating up savory pies. So I happened to think the pie she posted looked delicious and I knew I had to make it pronto. Well make it I did and it is so so good. The flavor combination is so wonderful and, while it was a little bit time consuming to make, it wasn't difficult. This one's a keeper! So without further ado...

You can find the recipe for Apple and Sausage Pie here. Go, check it out now, and make it immediately! One little note - I chose to use asiago rather than the other choices of fontina or provalone just because I love asiago quite a bit. Other than that, I have no other comments because I followed the recipe to a T and wouldn't do it any other way! Well, on second thought, I might decrease the amount of sausage a tad to make room for more apples, but it wasn't like the sausage was overpowering or anything, so I'd make it as the recipe says on your first try.

I also have Stacy to thank for introducing me to Scentsy. I've had their Simply Irresistible scent melting all day and my living room smells soooo good! This is my favorite of their scents - it smells like an irresistible man with good taste in cologne or body wash. YUM!

Margarita Pie

Try to overlook the melty pie in the picture to the left. I am a HIGHLY impatient person, especially when it comes to food, and barely waited the 2 hours I was supposed to before I dug into the pie. Therefore, it wasn't quite as set as it should have been and doesn't quite look too pretty!

I had high hopes for this pie - ice cream: good, limeade: good, tequila: gooood! So I'm sorry to say I was a little disappointed in it. It was pretty tasty, don't get me wrong. And I WILL finish off the whole thing myself. I guess I was just expecting more of something. I didn't put in the orange-flavored liquer that the recipe called for because I didn't have any at home and I didn't feel like buying a whole bottle for the tablespoon it called for. So maybe that's why the taste was off? I got the recipe from http://www.pillsbury.com/ and it had high reviews, so I guess I thought it would be more 'wow'.

I think part of the problem was the crust. It wasn't as flavorful as I would have liked and I think if I were to ever make this again, I'd go with a graham cracker crust as opposed to this homemade pretzel one. The other problem with the crust is, because you have to keep the pie in the freezer, there's no crunch or crispness to it, which I like in a crust.

Oh well, it was a nice pie warm up before The Real Pie Club officially kicks off next week. Don't ask me to explain the RPC because then I'd have to kill you.

Margarita Pie

2 cups miniature pretzel twists
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1 6 oz. can frozen limeade concentrate, slightly thawed
1 qt. vanilla ice cream, slightly softened
1 tsp. grated lime peel
3 Tbsp. tequila
1 Tbsp. orange-flavored liquer

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In food processor bowl with metal blade or blender container, process pretzel twists until crumbs form. Add sugar; process with on/off pulses to mix. Add butter; mix well. With machine running, add 2 tablespoons of the limeade concentrate, processing until well mixed. Place mixture in ungreased 9-inch pie pan. With back of spoon, press mixture firmly in bottom and up sides of pan.

Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until set. Place baked shell in freezer or refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to cool.

Meanwhile, in clean food processor bowl with metal blade or large bowl for electric mixer, combine ice cream, remaining limeade concentrate, lime peel, tequila and liqueur; process or mix just until blended. Spoon into cooled baked shell. Freeze 2 hours or until firm.

Cherry Turnovers

As promised, here's dessert! I have a magazine sitting on my desk at work with a big juicy cherry pie on the cover. For the purposes of the magazine, the pie is actually representing a graph, and the slices have to do with the results of a survey on salary compensation within my field. For my own purposes, the pie has done nothing but torment me all week long, because I love cherry pie. I LOVE it. It's probably the only pie on the planet where I go just as crazy for the filling as I do for the crust. So tonight, I had to have something with cherry pie filling. For a few seconds I contemplated just buying a can of filling and eating it with a spoon, but then I thought I'd try my hand at turnovers. I just bought a can of crescent roll dough and put a big spoonful of filling in the middle, then pinched up the corners. I ran into some issues because if I put too much filling, the sides wouldn't pinch shut and filling oozed out. On the ones where I cut down on the amount of filling, the flavor is too much crescent and not enough filling. But they're darn tasty anyway, and so super easy! I was wishing I had some confectioner's sugar to make a glaze with, but I didn't. And as usual, my laziness trumped my good idea!

Shrimp Scampi

I have been craving shrimp scampi for about a week now and finally caved in and made it for dinner tonight. This is one of my specialties (well, mine and Tyler Florence's, since I stole the recipe from him) but I try not to make it too often because it's not what you might call health-conscious. But it's oh-so-delicious and just what I needed tonight! And I'm excited that I actually remembered to take a picture before I dug in so you could get a look at this buttery, garlicky goodness! I didn't have any parsley, so I had to leave that out. And I added some parmesan cheese on top after I took this picture just for some extra calories and fat! My main recommendation if you try this recipe is to have tons of French bread on hand for dipping. I generally go a little heavy handed on the butter, olive oil, wine and lemon juice so there's extra yummy sauce. Mmmmm!

I'm so stuffed right now and am very thankful for the elastic waistband on the shorts I'm wearing. I have a dessert craving that I decided to indulge in tonight as well, so stay tuned for a post on that when I feel up to eating again!

Dessert...

Another recipe to share! I found this recipe for White Chocolate Cashew Pretzel Bars while browsing the Pillsbury website not long ago and knew I had to try it. I was waiting for an opportunity to make them when I wouldn't be forced to eat the whole pan myself - it IS bathing suit season after all! Well tomorrow night a group of friends and I are supposed to go to a Pops Summer Concert and we're all bringing picnic foods to share. I figured this was my perfect chance - bring half to the picnic and make the other half another Chatapalooza indulgence!

These were pretty easy to make (just a bit of waiting for the crust to bake then cool, then for the chocolate/cashew layer to set) and are delicious! They're the perfect blend of salty and sweet. YUM!

I made the crust in my silicone baking pan and it turned out perfectly golden brown on the bottom and popped out with no problems at all, I didn't even use any cooking spray. Since you can't cut on silicone bakeware, I let the crust cool in the pan, then popped it out onto a rack and "frosted" it on there. Worked perfectly! I hope you enjoy!

Dinner...

I love to cook. I really do. I just seem to never do it anymore. Well tonight I made one of my new favorite recipes and figured since this is the closest thing to cooking that I've done in a while, I'll share it! It's LOSTie Chatapalooza weekend which, for many of us, is a great excuse to chow down on junk food! So for my evening munching, I made this Buffalo Chicken Dip with a few variations.

First off, I don't use canned chicken. Both times I've made this, I've gotten Boars Head Buffalo Style chicken breast from the deli. I have them slice it pretty thick, about half an inch, and then just dice that up. It's quick and easy and adds extra buffalo flavor. Of couse, you could also bake or boil some chicken breasts yourself, but really, I can't be bothered with that most of the time. I also tend to go heavy on the hot sauce because I love it and lighter on the ranch dressing because I'm not crazy about it. Because I eat this with an inexcusable amount of Fritos Scoops, I try to lighten the dish by using Neufchatel (sp??) instead of cream cheese, light dressing, and low fat cheddar cheese.

Now, I ordinarily do NOT believe in going low fat when it comes to cheese. To me, low fat cheese usually = rubbery puke. But in this dip, there are so many other flavors going on that you don't even notice it. Plus, the full fat cheese tends to emit an oil when it's melted into the dip and let's face it, that just ain't pretty.

I meant to take a picture to add to this post, but I dug in too quickly. Oops! So the picture on Allrecipes.com will have to suffice. If you decide to give this dip a try, let me know how you like it!