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Archive for December, 2011

December 29th, 2011

Happy New Year 2012!

Well this Christmas has been fast and furious! We had a death in the family (expected, but too sudden for anyone to prepare), family from overseas staying with us for Christmas (hubs had to work Christmas day), we closed on our first home (wow!!!), and now we are ready for some R&R! The new year will be here soon and then hubs and I will begin winding down our time in Florida and preparing to go back home to Texas!

Speaking of the new year… It’s that time again for resolutions! Every year I make resolutions (or goals) and I typically  choose realistic ones that I can achieve or ambiguous ones that are harder to measure so I don’t feel like a failure.

Can you tell I have a competitive spirit?

But you know, making year-long goals in January is too complicated. Either I achieve them fast and then have no more goals or else the year goes on and I forget about them or I don’t achieve any at all! So I will try something new this year: I’m making bi-annual goals that I have until June to complete. Then, in June I will make a list of goals for the next 6 months!

Here are my top 3 goals:

1. Build our emergency fund up to where it should be.

2. Learn basic French.

3. Stretch daily for 10 minutes.

What about you? Do you make resolutions? Do you make goals?

What are your resolutions???

Categorylife experiences | Comment5 Comments »

December 23rd, 2011

crispy peanut butter butterscotch treats

These treats are an all-time favorite for the hubs and the recipe is from my sweet mother-in-law. I’ve never been a huge fan of butterscotch, but even I sneak a bite or two of these crispy butterscotch treats! They are super simple to make, and they only take about 10 minutes plus cooling time. Sometimes I even add extra peanut butter because…well, you know…we love peanut butter in this house!

crispy peanut butter butterscotch treats

Cook Time: 7 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 12 squares

Ingredients

  • 1 package (12 oz) butterscotch chips
  • 1 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 6 cups crispy rice cereal (I used Rice Krispies)

Cooking Directions

  1. Melt butterscotch chips with peanut butter in a heavy sauce pan over low heat; stir until well blended. Remove from heat.
  2. Add crispy rice cereal; stir until well coated with butterscotch mixture.
  3. Press into a buttered 9x9 inch pan. Let stand in a cool place until firm.
  4. Cut into squares and serve.

What I love about basic desserts/treats like these (besides the instant gratification) is that the number of variations on the recipe are endless. For example, if you don’t like butterscotch, you could easily swap out the butterscotch chips for white chocolate chips. Or even chocolate chips! Or, you could go really overboard with the peanut butter (which by the way I’m convinced is not possible in this home) and use peanut butter chips.

See? Possibilities. Endless.

How would you make these? Just like they are? Or would you change it up a bit?

Categorypeanut butter, recipe, sweet | Comment5 Comments »

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December 19th, 2011

easy bacon spinach frittata

I’m not a morning person. It’s not that I’m moody or grumpy when I wake up, quite the contrary!

It’s just that usually by the time I wake up it’s closer to noon than it is to morning!

Some weekends I do wake up early enough to make breakfast, and on those days I’ll make waffles, pancakes, dutch baby’s and anything of the carb variety. Recently I decided to change up my carb fest for a more hearty breakfast and since I had some grocery items on hand (bacon and spinach) that don’t normally live in our fridge, I decided to whip up a frittata. It was splendid!

bacon spinach frittata

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Yield: 6 slices (or more)

Ingredients

  • 8 eggs
  • 1/2 cup lactose-free, fat-free skim milk
  • 1/2 lb fresh spinach, rinsed, dried and torn into roughly 1-inch pieces
  • 7 slices bacon
  • 1/2 large onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • salt to taste

Cooking Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
  2. Cook the bacon in a cast iron skillet (or a frying pan that is over-safe) over medium-low heat. Remove bacon from pan when done and set on a plate with paper towels to drain. Roughly chop bacon once cooled and set aside.
  3. Add the onion to the same pan and cook on medium low heat for 3 minutes, or until the onions are softened and slightly translucent.
  4. Remove the pan from the heat, add the spinach and stir until the leaves are wilted.
  5. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add the milk and stir just until combined. Add a dash of salt, if desired.
  6. Add the egg mixture and the bacon to the skillet. Stir until well mixed and then return the pan to the heat and cook on medium for about 5 minutes so the eggs begin to set.
  7. Sprinkle the cheese across the top, and then carefully place the skillet to the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until edges are brown and eggs are cooked through.
  8. Cut into wedges and serve immediately.

Want to know the best part of this recipe?

I had the leftovers for lunch the next day and they were just as delicious as the morning before!

Categorybreakfast, food, recipe | Comment3 Comments »

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December 12th, 2011

white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies

A few months back I was tweeting and Julie of The Little Kitchen responded to one of my tweets encouraging me to sign up for the First Annual Food Blogger Cookie Swap! She and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil combined forced to host the event this year.

The deal was if I were to make a dozen cookies for each of 3 other people and send them, in return I would receive 3 dozen (total) cookies, in 3 different varieties.

3 dozen cookies?

Yes, please!

For my cookies I chose to make a new recipe, one I had not made before:

I said a little prayer that they’d follow suite of my good culinary adventures and that they’d be tasty and eagerly welcomed.

They were.

I found the recipe from Martha, and modified it to substitute cranberries for apricots.

white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies

Yield: 4 to 5 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal (uncooked)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light-brown sugar, packed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 8 oz white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
  • 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Cooking Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix flour, oatmeal, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Cream butter and sugars with a mixer until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs, and beat until well combined, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture gradually, beating until just combined. Stir in chocolate and cranberries. Cover, and refrigerate until cold, about 30 minutes.
  3. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are golden brown around the edges but still soft in the center, 14 to 16 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

I mailed my freshly baked creations in little red and white tins, padded with lots of bubble wrap and crumpled magazine pages, to ensure minimal cookie crumbling, of course.

Then I waited. 

I waited patiently for my 3 dozen cookies to arrive, a delicious dozen by dozen.

And they did.

First I got a batch from Life of a Bama Girl; she made these cinnamon flavored pinwheels that were down right addictive! They were tiny and scrumptious, I had to exercise major self control to not eat the whole box in one sitting.

The second batch was close to my heart, and my thought processes! From My Sweet Heart sent me Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal cookies, sound familiar? They were the same flavor combination I used in my cookies, only cherries instead of cranberries! They were a winner and I will have to make these very soon! I guess those of us who love to bake think alike…

The third, and much anticipated  box, arrived when my hubs and I were on our way out of town. They came from Mother Thyme and were a perfect road trip cookie: white chocolate cookies with a peppermint glaze. I guess white chocolate is the new milk chocolate? Or has milk chocolate already been usurped by dark chocolate? Either way, these cookies were fantastic! The minty glaze complimented the white chocolate perfectly and was so light it made you feel slightly less guilty for eating them before dinner.

Slightly.

If you missed it this year’s swap, I highly encourage you to sign up for next year’s swap, I know I will!

Categoryfood, recipe, sweet | Comment12 Comments »

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