Changing It Up

So I'm changing it up a bit around here. A new header, a bit more up to date on who I currently am and where I'm headed. Not sure how this blog will change over the next year, lots of changes happening in my life, so if I keep it up it may be a bit of a rollar coaster on how roll with life's changes and all the awesome adventures that lay ahead.

For today, I'll just leave you all with a few of the recipes I've made lately and enjoyed. Happy summer everyone!

Carmelized Peach Caprese

So this seemed like the odest combination, but it is AMAZING! The flavors are so great together!

I just used kosher salt and left off the pepper. Such a perfect summer "salad"!

Mini Pies - Cherry & Strawberry-Raspberry

 

why yes, that is the state of Wisconsin on top of 2 pies :)

Sorry, I don't have a recipe for these guys. I used the recipe out of the Better Home and Gardens cookbook. My fiance had requested cherry pie for his birthday so I printed out a ton of recipes and ended up just using the simple one from my cookbook. Perfect with ice cream!

Awesome Sauce for your Burger/Wrap/Whatever!

 So I did make this sauce to go on a burger, which was wonderful, but found that if I add it to my wraps (with some lettuce/spinach, tomatoes, ham and mozerella) then it's so so good!

What I've Been Up To (The Sunny February Edition)

What I've been reading.

Dear Mr. Knightley: A Novel
by Katherine Reay

image from here

May Crowning, Mass, and Merton: 50 Reasons I Love Being Catholic

by Liz Kelly

 image from here

What I've been baking

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

image and recipe from here

This was my Valentine's Day dessert. The icing is amazing! A word to the wise, if you're going to make chocolate covered strawberries eat them right away. I tried to freeze them, big mistake, although I heard you can refrigerate them.

French Macarons

I used Nutella as the filling

Mango Chutney

Image from here 

Great with crackers. My recipe was out of a Jamaican cookbook, but looks very similar to this one.

What I'm listening to (Music).

 I am loving John Mayer's album Paradise Valley.

What I'm listening to (books).

  Now that I have a longer commute to work I've been flying through audio books. Some were great some, well not as great. I'm just going to include the ones I liked.

The Professor and the Madman

by Simon Winchester

image from here

This story was so interesting. It's about the true story of one of the main contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary.

 The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

by Edward Irving Wortis

 image from here.

I loved this story. It's a great adventure story, something I wanted to keep listening to until the end.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

 Image from here.

This book was wonderful! It is definitely one of my favorite books, and the audio book was so well done.

Dad is Fat

by Jim Gaffigan

image from here.

I listened to this on my long drive to Nebraska. It was great. I don't have kids and I still loved it.

 

What I've been doing to enjoy these past few snowy months

Well I got engaged a few months back :)

So it's been a lot of trying to decide what our wedding will look like. Lots to plan.

Also, I moved the end of January, so I've been settling in and still doing a bit of rearranging.

That's been my life recently, oh and watching the Olympics, which I didn't have nearly enough free time to watch. Hope you are all well and enjoying life!

Any suggestions for books to read or listen to? I'd love to hear what you're loving!

7 Quick Takes (vol. 17) Awesome Recipe Edition

I have been loving all the fabulous end of summer/beginning of fall produce and (finally!) the awesome fall weather! Here are a few of the recipes I've made lately and loved (7 Quick Takes Style ;)

 

 ~~ 1 ~~ 

Peach Cobbler Bars

 So I canned peaches with a friend and this recipe was the perfect use for some of them.

These are great for a little handheld snack for football parties or other fall get togethers. Simple to make too.

~~ 2 ~~

Zucchini Nutella Swirl Muffins

Oh my goodness I absolutely loved this recipe!! The flavor was amazing and because the only chocolate is the little bit of Nutella on top it wasn't over powering. A must try if you're looking for a good use of your zucchini.

 

~~ 3 ~~

One-Pan Pasta

 

image from marthastewart.com

I made a smaller version of this for supper the other night, added some zucchini and black olives to the finished pasta and it was pretty amazing. (I used this awesome Italian pasta that I got at Pike's Market when I was in Washington, which just made the recipe even better.)

 

~~ 4 ~~

Fruit Crumble

So I am absolutely loving Daphne Oz's cookbook "Relish", that's where you can find this recipe. I am really into coconut oil at the moment (I found a bottle at Marshalls, who knew?!). This is a simple crisp recipe that you bake in single serving ramekins. Top with vanilla ice cream and they are awesome! I made it the first time with strawberries and rhubarb and the second with peaches and strawberries. Both were great.

~~ 5 ~~

No Bake Energy Balls

 

These were a great pick-me-up snack that I didn't feel quite as guilty eating. They kept great in the fridge for a week or two. I left out the pumpkin seeds and flax seed and they were still yummy.

~~ 6 ~~

My Mom's Potato Salad

There are a ridiculous amount of varieties of potato salad. I grew up on this one and so I'm a bit biased, but I like it because it's simple, you can actually taste the potatoes and it's an easy base recipe if you want to add anything (plus it uses celery salt instead of celery, which is fabulous for those of us that aren't too fond of celery).

 

 

~~ 7 ~~

I don't have another new recipe that I've made lately (that I liked enough to share), so I suppose you get 6 instead of 7.

I'm off to Nebraska this weekend for some awesome family time. I get to see my awesome sister sister at her convent :)

I hope you all enjoy the weekend!

For more Quick Takes, head on over to Conversion Diary.

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 15)

It's summer! I am supper excited :) Excited for longer days, warm weather, plants on the patio, flowers blooming, fresh fruits and veggies. I love it! Alright on to a quick list of my recent crazy life.

 

 ~~ 1 ~~

We had a siblings day a couple weeks ago because my younger brother was up for a wedding so we had some awesome hangout time and went to the great Wollersheim Winery (which I love). We're quite the stair-steps in the above picture.

This is what happens when Kevin chooses the pose. I can say that I think we entertained the lovely lady that took our picture, we were quite the group ;)

~~ 2 ~~

Did you know that they call Rockford, IL the Home of the Sock Monkey? Yeah, me neither. But it's true, I was there.

 

~~ 3 ~~

Over Memorial Day Weekend (I'm telling you, this is a hardcore catch-up post) my parents were up and we spent Saturday hanging out with my Dad's family and visiting the graves of my grandparents, great-grandparents and even great-great grandparents. The rain held off and it was a beautiful day.

We said a rosary at each of the cemeteries. It was a nice day of reminiscing about the past.

~~ 4 ~~

Last weekend I spent in the Wisconsin Dells with my boyfriend. It was a wonderful mini-vacation. The above picture was taken on the Original Wisconsin Ducks. I had never been and loved it. Wisconsin is such a gorgeous state. The tour was of course filled with all kinds of corny jokes that you had to laugh at, it's a very family friendly little tour.

~~ 5 ~~

 These Kangaroos were in the "nursery" the grown ones were outside in a larger area.

While in the Dells we also went to The Timbavati Wildlife Park. It was neat to see the variety of animals they had, but I didn't like the lack of space the animals had. They are doing a lot of remodeling,  so it may be better in a year or two.

 Can you tell he's an animal person?

~~ 6 ~~

 I was given a bunch of rhubarb and have enjoyed finding awesome stuff to do with it. I found this recipe that where you cook down the rhubarb and add some sugar and water to make a concentrate for drinks (bottle on the right). Add it to some sparkling water and you have a rhubarb Italian soda. The jar on the left is the cooked chunks of rhubarb that you can eat over ice cream or whatever.

~~ 7 ~~

I am in love with this sandwich! I made 1 big sandwich (using a hamburger bun) and cut the sauce recipe in half and it was awesome. It's a super quick and easy meal.

I hope you all had a wonderful week month, enjoy the weekend! 

For more Quick Takes, head on over to Conversion Diary.

A Bit of Cooking

Hello Everyone! I've been cooking and baking and so I thought I'd share some of the recipes I've tried recently with all of you. Here are some of my recent favs:

Overnight Ham & Egg Breakfast Cups

These are awesome! I made them for breakfast this morning and they turned out great (just make sure to bake them on a cookie sheet, mine spilled over a bit). They probably would not be as great for the big families out there but if you're feeding just yourself or a couple others they are perfect. I had 2 for my breakfast.

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

Oh my goodness this was so good! If you're making it for a big group you may want to double everything, as this recipe only made enough for 2. I've always had an issue with sauces thickening (I blame it on my lack of patience) but this sauce thickened up great and the flavor was excellent. I made up an Asian Fried Rice packet to go along with it.

Ranch Roasted Potatoes (use homemade Ranch Seasoning Mix)

These have become a go-to side for me. I'm a meat and potatoes kind of girl, and of course a sweets and chocolate, bread and fresh fruits/veggies, well I guess I'm a food girl :) Anyways, I love this recipe because it's quick (you can even prep it before hand, make the seasoning mix and cut up the potatoes) and it can cook while you make the rest of the meal. For the ranch mix I leave out the buttermilk and it tastes great.

Bacon, Brie and Basil Pasta

So I was given a huge wheel of brie cheese, not such a bad problem to have. I came across this recipe and love it, although your house will of course smell like bacon and onions for a week, just a warning ;)

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes (with peanut butter frosting!)

These are super sweet but really good. I love love love the frosting (I added about 1 tsp vanilla). I had a bunch of the mini peanut butter cups so instead of chopping them up and adding them to the batter I just put them in the filled cupcake holders before baking (push them down a bit). Either way would work well.

Happy baking/cooking everyone!

7 Quick Takes (vol. 14)

So it's February, not exactly sure how that happened, but I'm ok with it. There is snow all over the ground and the sun is out, so I am hoping for a beautiful weekend. Here's a quick update on me.

 

 ~~ 1 ~~

I forgot how much I missed crafting/sewing. I know that may seem odd since Christmas wasn't that long ago, but that's different, there's a deadline there (that I often miss, but it's still there). I've been on a tote bag kick lately, random I know, but they're fun and fairly quick (depending on how you do them). 

  I made this for a friend, no I am not quite that vain.

I also have piles of stuff I need to scrapbook. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

 

~~ 2 ~~

So I had this lovely cold for about 2 weeks, bad enough to stay home from work, but thankfully I didn't have to deal with the Norovirus (which sounded awful!) and I figure it's winter, everyone is bound to get sick sometime, right? Anyways, I found an awesome comfort food that was perfect when I was home (I'd made it a few days before and had frozen the leftovers so the timing was great).

 

Cheesy Chicken and Rice

 picture from here

When I had it at first I thought it was a bit bland (not really any seasonings in the original recipe), so I add a bunch that first night. When I was sick I was glad I hadn't add the seasonings to all of it. It's good and simple. You should try it.

 

~~ 3 ~~

I've been on a red velvet kick, which is handy with Valentine's day coming up and all :) I made red velvet brownies using a cake mix and they turned out great. This recipe is good (I left out the nuts and chocolate chips and didn't frost them) if you want quick brownies and happen to have a cake mix on hand (or made your own mix). Maybe this weekend I'll make these cuties 

 

 picture from here

 

with this awesome Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting (although the original frosting sounds pretty temping as well). Sounds like a plan to me :)

~~ 4 ~~

I am currently reading The Breath of Dawn by Kristen Heitzmann (thanks Katie for the recommendation :) and it's great, although I think I may need to read parts of it during the day, I get freaked out by mental and supernatural stuff. It's a Christian romance, which means it's got a great lovely story and lots of strong Christian characters and usually a happy ending (that's what I'm banking on. I hate books and movies that don't have happy endings). I was in between books for a while, which kind of drove me crazy, but in that time I picked up Zen and the Art of Needlecraft: Exploring the Links Between Needlecraft, Spirituality, and Creativity by Sandra Detrixhe (my aunt) again and read a few more chapters. I love it because it has so may stories about my parents and other relatives, some I've heard and some that are new to me. It makes me miss family, but I love that there is a print copy of our stories.

~~ 5 ~~

Speaking of family, my younger brother was in "Dancing with the Local Stars" a fundraiser for Cornerstone in Quincy. Rumor has it they put all the dances on YouTu.be but right now here's a link to a sneak peak. Danny's at the 2:38-3:00 section.

 Picture from Table Sixteen Productions

 

~~ 6 ~~

I am so ready for the weekend, not sure what all I'm going to be doing, hopefully some baking, reading and scrapbooking, some time with friends and the boyfriend. I don't really have much planned, which means it will be wonderful :)

~~ 7 ~~

  I haven't really done any winter sporty stuff this winter season. No skiing or snowshoeing, skating or even good snowball fights or snowman/angel building. I need to rectify that in the coming week. After all, what's the point of living in Wisconsin if you're not going to enjoy the snow?

 

I hope you all had a wonderful week, enjoy the weekend! 

For more Quick Takes, head on over to Conversion Diary.

A Little Food Post

I've had a bit of free time, so I have been happily spending it in the kitchen. I was talking with my friends a few weeks ago about the challenge of using what you already have on hand and cooking fabulous (new) recipes with those ingredients instead of finding the recipe and then having to go out and buy the ingredients. Liking this idea, and what it would mean to the many neglected odds and ends in my pantry, I decided to do just that. Below are some of the recipes that came from my odd collection of ingredients. I'm big on bread, can you tell?

Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks

I didn't use Lauren's pizza dough recipe, but instead used my simple recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Dipped it in some pizza sauce and it was pretty amazing :)

Beer Bread

This recipe is ridiculously easy. It's fabulous for that can of beer that someone brought over to your place and left and has been sitting in your fridge for months...This would be amazing with a fresh bowl of soup.

Raspberry Muffins

So see these 6 beautiful muffins? That's all this recipe makes! It's amazing. I'm always nervous about doubling or halving new recipes, afraid that my proportions will be off. Uma has already done the dirty work and here's a lovely recipe if there's only one or two of you in the house. I used butter milk instead of regular milk (yes, ridiculous that that's what I had on hand) and of course added a bit more vanilla :)

Lemon Basil Pesto Pasta

picture from here

If you've got fresh herbs and want a very flavorful side, this recipe is great. I did not use anchovy fillets (shockingly I did not have any on hand) but did have capers, that are who knows how old, that were dieing to be used. Also, I feel like I never have the right type of mustard for recipes. I just used plain old yellow mustard in this recipe and it turned out quite nicely.

How about all of you? Any clean out the pantry recipes you've found and love?

7 Quick Takes (vol. 9, because aparently last week I couldn't count)

Alright, so in the original 7 Quick Takes fashion, this post will be random, no theme this week. Just what's going on with me :)

~~ 1 ~~

I've been cooking, imagine that. I have actually been on a pizza kick lately.

You see, I have all this amazing fresh oregano that must be used in something equally amazing.

So of course, I had to make up some pizza sauce

I absolutely love this recipe. I cut back on the wine and throw in some sugar and it is pretty darn tasty.

~~ 2 ~~

See the fabulous ingredients above, fresh basil, bacon, balsamic vinegar...
well they all came together to make this fabulous pizza.

 

I got the recipe from over at White and Rice Couple.

I just used what I had on hand, so feta instead of blue cheese, sungold cherry tomatoes instead of the regular red, canola oil instead of olive oil (I can't believe I'm out of olive oil!). It was soooo good. The combination of flavors put this at the top of my list of favorite pizzas.

~~ 3 ~~

Last weekend I had the pleasure of getting together with some college friends. It was wonderful. I loved it. The babies were cute, the people were amazing, the food was fantastic, the conversation was excellent as always. Sadly, I failed in the picture taking department, so just the memories remain.

~~ 4 ~~

Last week (Sunday - Wednesday) I helped chaperone an awesome mission trip in our area, Love Begins Here. I went with a friend who is a local youth minister and her group of middle schoolers. It is always refreshing to see the eagerness of kids to learn more about their faith and the willingness to help others. It was a wonderful boost to my sometimes stagnant faith life.

~~ 5 ~~

 

 picture from here.
I'm not big on the actual logo and liked the above one much better.

The Olympics start tonight! I hope you are all going to watch and appreciate the hard work and amazing talents of the athletes from all over the world. I love it! A friend is having an opening ceremonies party so I will be there, watching it all :)

~~ 6 ~~

August starts next week. I am still trying to wrap my mind around that.

~~ 7 ~~

I have a packed weekend, all kinds of little fun stuff. A friend's birthday party, a concert in the park with the boyfriend, a visit to a friend in the lovely state of Illinois on Sunday and a day off of work on Monday. I am sure there will be much more thrown in throughout.

 

 Alright, that's all from me. Enjoy the weekend! 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes (Vol. 7) Recipes to Try

So lately I've run across a lot of fabulous and a bit strange recipes that I really want to try so I thought I'd share some. They are all still on my to make list, so I can't actually say if they are good or not, but they sure sound fun.

~~ 1 ~~

Highway to Heaven Cupcakes

Picture & Recipe from Sweetapolita

Yes, those are ruffle potato chips on top, along with salted caramel sauce and bittersweet ganache.

~~ 2 ~~

Rhubarb BBQ Sauce

Picture & Recipe from Simple Comfort Food

This is just the sauce recipe, so it can be used on pulled pork, chicken, burgers, 

whatever you desire :)

~~ 3 ~~

Bacon Beer Cornbread

Picture & Recipe from How Sweet It Is

This just seems, well, like a pretty great combination and I don't know why I didn't think of it.

~~ 4 ~~

Strawberry Balsamic Bacon Pizza

Picture & Recipe from Annie's Eats

This seems like the perfect light summer time pizza. Strawberries and bacon? Yes please :)

~~ 5 ~~

Cream Cheese Spread

Picture & Recipe from The Pioneer Woman

Alright, so this one isn't so strange and I have made it, but I thought it needed sharing. It's a great way to use those fresh herbs of the season and it helps spice up a quick lunch wrap.

~~ 6 ~~

 Festive Feta Dip

Picture & Recipe from Eat2Gather

This is so simple, but I'm on a feta kick right now and have a ton of cilantro, so it sounds perfect.

~~ 7 ~~

Fried Pickle Chips & Dipping Sauce

Picture & Recipe from A Cozy Kitchen
I'm not usually one to fry things, it's just too much of a mess for me and I don't like my home smelling like grease for weeks, but I do love fried pickles, so I may have to make an exception...
 

 Alright, that's all from me. Get outside and enjoy the extended weekend! 

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!