Cookies and Explosions

Wow, I have made alot of cookies since I got my big fancy kitchen aid mixer...Ok maybe it's not that big and fancy but it sure feels like it whenever I have to get it down from on top of the fridge.

Anyway, here are some more cookies banana, honey and peanutbutter cookies.

I was going to drizzle the peanut butter honey galze over the cookies in a gently a creative and visiaby appealing pattern but then my bag exploded.

No, really!!! I have this awesomely delicious chunky honey that clogged the little hole in my bag but I was sure that if I just sqeezed this one big hunk out it would all be fine.

What a difference a year makes...

For the past few years we have been going to Baugher's to get our Pumpkins. I like to take my time and pick out four big old pumpkins to have sit around the house for awhile before I gut em and carve em up!

I also like to pick out the little pumpkins and gourds to scatter around the house. It makes it feel like fall and keeps me focused on things like pies and costumes.

ARB likes to pick out random things like tiny wheelbarrows.

Raw Apple Cake

I can't make a pretty cake. That is just something that I have to work on. I can only improve but for now I am satisfied that while they may look questionable my cakes taste really good.

I don't have a bundt pan and you are supposed to make this cake in a bunt pan. I made mine in a glass casserole dish and it turned out just fine. Delicious actually.

Caramel Apple Cider

There are two or three things that I crave from Starbucks...one is the white chocolate mocha, another is a tall skim latte and the third is the Caramel Apple Cider.

But now I make my own Caramel Apple Cider at home.

I just made a large batch and plan on heating it up a little at a time so I can have a cup every morning on the way into work...yum. I may actually be looking forward to going to work tomorrow.

Tacos?

What to do when you don't really feel like cooking...I don't know what you do but I make tacos. The problem is half of my family loves tacos and the other half not so much.

My youngest can't handle anything spicy, the hubby loves spicy but doesn't seem to like anything else about tacos. The older son and I are the only ones who like a regular basic taco.

I decided to do these tacos a little differently...

tacos with caramelized onions, pear and a Gorgonzola cheese sauce.

The Results

Just to irritate Kris here is a picture of the white chocolate and blueberry cookies.

I used the recipe from Blisstree but made some adjustments. I made the dough as directed but I divided into three sections and made some slight changes:

Section 1) I did this one with the dried bluberries and white chocolate chips - still following directions.

Section 2) I didn't want to buy two packages of the dried blueberries because they were small AND expensive so I bought one pack of the dried blueberries and one pack of the Craisins infused with blueberry juice. I used the Craisins with white chocolate chips

Section 3) I found a bar of blueberry white chocolate at Safeway (just the Safeway Select brand) and just chopped that up. No additional blueberries or white chocolate.

I have to say Section 2 worked out the best, followed by section 3 with following the directions coming in last (still good, just not the best).

Stuffed Jalepenos

I had lot's of jalepenos from the garden that needed to be used so it was time to make some stuffed jalepenos.

The in-laws were coming over to watch the Raven's game but they don't really like spicy food. 

What to do... what to do...

How about sweet and spicy stuffed jalepeno's wrapped in bacon? I tried it two ways the first one I dredged the bacon through a brown sugar mixture, stuffed the jalepeno with goat cheese and wrapped it in the bacon.  

The next group I used regular bacon but stuffted the jalepenos with goat cheese and fig jelly.

They were both good but in the end I liked the first batch better because it was sweet and spicy...the second batch disguised the spicy jaleneno a little too well and it was mostly sweet and salty.

Happy National White Chocolate Day

Wow that's a mouthful!

I wouldn't have even bothered with it except that I love white chocolate and I think it deserves it's own day.

What is the best way to celebrate N.W.C. day??? By eating white chocolate of course! Or if you are stuck in front of the computer with no access to the real thing the next best thing is to drool over these delicious white chocolate recipes.

Super Easy and Super Delicious

I have no idea what this is called but it is sooo good and so easy. One of those things that you can just throw together after work and call it a day.

I like to use the large Rigatoni noodles because the peas and sausage get trapped in the noodles.

Baconzilla

Did you know that September 18th was National Cheeseburger day? Don't ask me where I heard about this wonderful day but in the same vein did you know that September is national Mushroom month? I love mushrooms and will have to kick out some good Mushroom recipes.

Anyway back to National Cheeseburger day. I could have made some great homemade cheeseburgers but I didn't. No I went out and bought the most insanely evil cheeseburger that I know about. Then not only did I subject my body to this but I also introduced this ginormous artery blocking burger to my son.

I am so ashamed those evil school lunches have nothing on me.

I really do try to get my son to eat healthy foods. You can ask him - I am always begging him to eat food with "green stuff" in it.

I shot myself in the foot with this one. The Baconzilla from Checkers is huge...double meat, double cheese and double bacon.  It really is good the little one and I split this one...we didn't even need fries and it is his new favorite food.

Notice...no visable green stuff. There may be a pickle under all that cheese and meat but I make no promises. 

Fig and Balsamic Jam

I was having a hard time coming up with something to do with the gorgeous figs growing in my backyard because while the figs were lovely they were not plentiful.

At first they were hard to resist and I didn't do anything special to them. No instead I just ate them one by one here and there.

But I am addicted to food blogs and there was so much I wanted to try to do with them but one fig here and there would just never do.

I did some research and freezing the figs pretty much limited your uses to just smashing them up into jelly because they don't hold up well after freezing.

Fine then I made fig jam. It was easy and delicious.

White Chicken Chili

I love chili and now that it's fall it is perfectly appropriate to make big pots of it and eat it for lunch or dinner. Or if you are like me and LOVE chili then you can have it for lunch and dinner. 

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies

I thought the little one would love these cookies because he loves chocolate and he loves Nutella. What? You don't believe me???

See exibit A.  

                                    

Anyway he took one look at the cookies and refused to try them. Yes both the older one and the younger child often refuse to try new things EVEN candy, cookies, cakes and pies. They are strange boys but not as strange as this college girl I know who doesn't like any sweets...no really...no sweets at all!

Now the hubby likes them and can't decide which ones he likes better these or the white chocolate and apricott cookies.

Daring Cooks Challenge: Canning

The hubby usually does the canning at our house but not this time.

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

I think that there is allot of fear regarding preserving food and canning but it is really pretty easy. It is easy to find tried and true canning recipes and they usually include all the instructions you need.

With a little bit of additional information you could even be confident coming up with your own recipes.

Sweet Preservation is a fun page with lots of canning information, recipes and craft ideas.

This month's challenge included a couple of recipes to choose from. I chose to do the Bruscetta. We picked up a bunch of tomatoes from a local farm for $3.00 and the only other thing I had to buy was a bottle of dry white wine.

Orchard Market

Persian food? That is not something that you can get just anywhere but lucky for us the Baltimore area has a wide variety of ethnic food choices.

The Orchard Market and Cafe may be in an out of the way spot. I had driven past that drive way so many times with no idea that there was excellent food back there and I am sure many of you had...Just off Joppa Road, near the Guitar Center (See you had no idea).

I had the Spicy Kermani Beef: Chunks of beef tenderloin sauteed with mushrooms, vegetables and pepperoncini peppers in a zesty tomato-garlic-curry sauce.

My friend Jen got the Shirin Polo: A colorful presentation of bone-in poached chicken in an orange-mango-saffron sauce. Basmati rice with carrots, currants, raisins, and nuts.

 

I Heart Pablano Peppers

I used thes baby's for the first time for a Daring Cooks Challenge and it was soooo good. Not spicy but tasty.

The hubby accidentally bought some of these for the graden this year and tried to say they were jalepenos! Seriously? Look at that shape and the dark dark green clolor.

You know roasting and peeling a ton of them in May makes me an expert.

Homemade Soft Pretzels

I finally did it.

First I saw it on Food Network and wanted to do it and then I saw it on one of my favorite blogs and I still wanted to do it...so last night when I just didn't know what football snack I wanted to make I finally decided to do it.

I made my own homemade soft pretzels!

The hubby likes them with salt and mustard, I love them with nacho cheese and my baby likes them with cinnamon and sugar.

Deviled Eggs

I love Deviled Eggs but you know sometimes you get in the habbit of making something the same way every time?

Deviled Eggs: Mayo, mustard, dill, salt and pepper...it was time for me to mix it up a bit.

White Chocolate and Apricot Cookies

I love these cookies. They smell so good when you are mixing them up and I would be happy to just eat a bowl of the dough before adding the yummy extras.

The Haute Dog Carte

Today has changed hot dogs for me forever...from now on wasabi mayonnaise and minced red onion is no longer going to satisfy me.

You must go to The Haute Dog Cart on Falls Road to get one of these fabulous haute dogs! I got the HD Signature with tomato and onion jam and (yes AND) the Bacon Marmalade!!!

Next time I am getting the Spicy Italian with Dijon and Red Wine Vinaigrette.

*The Haute Dog Cart is on Facebook and Twitter!

Gunpowder Lodge

On the way home from the gym I used to pass by a place called Thunder Creek that always looked interesting. I thought it would be fun to go one night to experience country music and line dancing first hand...it just looked like that kind of place.

Well I never did and now it's the Gunpowder Lodge.

Gunpowder Lodge Cheesesteak - what?

Sometimes you just want a cheesesteak.

Carribean Style Grilled Tuna with Mango Salsa

One day on our way past the same old place I convinced the hubby to stop (it was convienent that we were both starving at the time). There was no country music and no line dancing. The inside was bright and fresh the food was good...needless to say I was a little dissapointed that it wasn't like Roadhouse.

Crab and Shrimp Pizza

Another delicious way to use up leftovers...all I had to buy was the Pillsbury pizza dough.

Seriously, the veggies?

#43 - Eat roasted vegetables at Donna's…wearing black.

OK I like vegetables and all but seriously this made the list?  Don't get me wrong it was delicious but it's like an insult to everything else on the menu.

You know the Mediterranean lamb burger is a little pissed that he got beat out by veggies.

Peanut Butter Bread

On a whim I dug out the old bread maker and because I hadn't used the thing in 10 years or so I had to dig out the instruction manual. Be proud of me people it took me less the 10 minutes to find.

So what to do with this delicious smelling bread...

Flowermart

# 46 - Get a crab cake and a lemon/peppermint stick at the Flower Mart. It isn't a fabulous crab cake but even an average crab cake in Baltimore is better than anywhere else!

I chose the wrong day to go to the Flowermart. The wind was ridiculous so more than half the stands had shut down. But it was all good I still got to try the lemon/pepermint stick and my mouth is puckering just thinking of it!

Pork and Pineapple Burrito

Sometimes you can just throw some leftovers together and then be so surprised by how good it all comes together.

The kidlets wouldn't touch it but the hubby and I chowed down. A little Spicy and a little sweet...

Left Over Birthday Cake?

Make a Trifle!

Leftover sheetcake never tasted so good!

All you need is pudding, whip cream, chocolate syrup (or shaved chocolate) and the leftover cake of course.

Puppy Chow

This is an old childhood favorite. I loved it when one of the kids brought this stuff in for a class party but that was before everyone was worried about peanut allergies.

I am guessing that they called it puppy chow because it doesn't look nearly as good as it tastes and at one point in the putting it together process it could actually pass for puppy chow. Luckily it smells like Heaven. Well like peanut butter and chocolate which is how I think Heaven smells.

H-Mart

# 57 - Wander aisles of exotic produce at H Mart or Lotte Plaza in Catonsville. Eat some yummy bi bim bap or udon soup at the food court and then pick up a beautiful fresh whole fish for dinner before you go home.

Try the Free Samples at H-Mart

Buy Dragonfruit...or just look at the pretty colors.

Sunshine

What is so special about Sonic...I am not sure but if I had to guess I would say sunshine um and tater-tots!

Red Conoe

#32 - Savory muffins at Red Canoe in Lauraville.

Where is Lauraville...about 4 miles down the road (Harford Road) from me.

Corn Muffin w/sausage & Maple (Saturday Muffin), Bacon, Egg and Gouyere & Spinach & Cheddar

Bread, Cheese & Love

Finally made it to Grilled Cheese and Company during actual business hours. Yum! 

I have great memories of grilled cheese sandwiches my mother made but let me tell you mamma didn't make a grilled cheese like this!

The Santorini: Gyro Meat, Red Onions, Tzatziki Sauce and Feta Cheese. 

Figs

Yup, these came from my backyard.

Don't be surprised to start seeing fig recipes...oh like a fig and brie pizza. Can't wait to make that one.

No Ordinary Potato Salad

Potato Salad - No Mayo!

I went to a little restaurant in Baltimore and had this for the first time years ago...I have been trying to figure out a reliable recipe ever since.