Bran muffins

These have become something that I make fairly often.  We enjoy them for breakfast and snacks.  A pan of twelve only lasts a few days around us...

(found on allreceipes.com)

1 1/2 cups wheat bran

1 cup buttermilk

*I never have buttermilk - substitute it by measuring out 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice into a measuring cup and filling the remaining part of the cup with milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Mix together wheat bran and buttermilk; let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Beat together oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and add to buttermilk/bran mixture. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir flour mixture into buttermilk mixture, until just blended. Fold in raisins and spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Smear a little cream cheese on top...

mmm...hmm...

Sew much to catch up on

This year, Santa came to see me early on.

I had no idea he was coming this early - Casey had mentioned he was making a "sooner than usual appearance".  

This is what he brought.

I am so excited!  I took sewing classes when I was younger, but don't remember too much.  However, I come from a line of sewing women.  My mom claims she's not, but she is - she just hasn't sewn in awhile.  She made many of my dresses when I was little.  She and Casey's Nanny are going to have to give me some lessons/guidance.  I am going to start small and see how it goes.

In other news, I have found my new favorite baby shower gift to give.  Tiny Toms.  They are precious and make me giddy.   I took this pair to a shower last Saturday and am taking another pair exactly like them to a shower tomorrow. 

 (Don't worry, the expectant mother does not read my blog). 

I know they're not for a baby, but babies grow into toddlers so why not give them something they can wear down the line.  Plus, some other precious toddler in the world will get a pair - just like I mentioned in in this post.

I held the box up to my face so you could see how tiny it is.

Pink is always fun.

It's hard to belive that today is 11/11/11.  Fall is in full swing and we have lots little pumpkins around.

These take turns with the....

 

with the candles on the table.  We enjoy dining by candlelight.

My brothers cut this wheat for me this summer.  It's a great free, fall decoration.

Lastly, I made Pdub's broccoli cheddar soup for supper last night. 

It is a good soup.    Recipe found here. 

Have a great weekend!

Chicken a la King

One of my favorite dishes growing up was Chicken a la king.  My Grandmother made it, as well as my mom.  It was the dish I requested for my birthday dinner, and whenever else I could.  Y'all it is so good.  Makes my mouth start a waterin'. 

Anyway, as I was doing my Monday meal-planning before hitting the grocery store, I came across a recipe for it in The Goodhousekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. (One of the best wedding presents I received).  It looked yummy, and simple enough, so last night I gave it a whirl. 

Casey held up the cookbook for all to see while I snapped this on my phone.  He is catching on to my blogging ways - such a good hubs.

* I declared last night that I would never make this dish in that skillet again.  It was too small for this dish despite what the recipe says to use.  I could have used some more stirring room - it would have made the "stir constantly" process much easier.  It tasted just the same, despite the more gentle stirring motions I resorted to using. 

Also, you are supposed to fill patty shells with the chicken mixture and our Winn-Dixie did not have any.  Therefore, we baked up some Mary B's biscuits and spooned the Chicken a la King over top. 

Of course, it is just fine by itself, without some sort of bread if you prefer.

Recipe below:

Ingredients:

6  tablespoons of butter

1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 cups half-and-half

4 cups cubed, cooked chicken or turkey (or in my case 1 rotisserie chicken)

1 4-ounce jar diced pimentos, drained

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons medium sherry

1 teaspoon salt

8 patty shells, warmed

1.  In 10-inch skillet over medium heat, in hot butter, cook mushrooms and green pepper 5 minutes or until tender.

2. Stir in flour until blended.  Gradually stir in half-and-half and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.

3.  Add chicken and pimentos.  Heat to boiling, stirring often.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook 5 minutes.

4.  In cup, stir in yolks until mixed.  Stir in a little of the sauce mixture (from skillet) ; slowly pour mixture back into sauce, stirring rapidly to prevent lumping.  Cook, stirring, until thickened. 

5.  Stir in sherry and salt and spoon the chicken mixture into patty shells OR pour over biscuits. 

Eat it up!

I have channeled Pioneer Woman for 1 week

Hello faithful readers,

I hope this post finds you staying cool, and relaxing this weekend.  I am way behind on posting recipes, but I promise I have been cooking quite frequently.  Particularly, from Pioneer Woman's cookbook, and by that I mean I have exclusively been cooking from her cookbook this past week.   

Last night we had company for dinner and I made her blackberry (or whatever fruit you want to put in it) cobbler.  It was simple to make, and good, and I used blueberries. 

 Before baking.

After baking.

Ingredients:

1/4 pound (1 stick) butter, melted

1 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup self-rising flour

1 cup milk

2 cups fresh (or frozen) blackberries, or blueberries, peaches, raspberries, etc.

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 3-quart baking dish with butter.

2.  Place the stick of butter in a microwave-safe dish.  Heat in a microwave for 30-45 seconds, until melted. 

3.  In a medium bowl, whisk 1 cup of the sugar with the flour and milk.

4. Whisk in the melted butter.

5. Rinse the blackberries and pat them dry.

6. Pour the batter into the baking dish.  Sprinkle the blackberries evenly over the top of the batter.

7.  Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the blackberries.

8. Bake for 1 hour, or until golden brown and bubbly.  When 10 minutes of cooking time remain, sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over the top.  (I skipped this step because I completely forgot about it).

Serve with ice cream or whipped cream or both!  

I also made blueberry muffins with chocolate chips.  Mmm, these will get ya goin' in the morning fa sho! (The only food this week that is not copyrighted by PW).

I made her chicken spaghetti. Delish!

Creamy Rosemary Potatoes. Divine.

And of course, with lots of cooking comes a multitude of dirty dishes.  I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of the dirty dishes though - I was tired of looking at them.

Clean dishes = a moment to savor for ever and ever amen.

(We don't usually wash wooden utensils - we know the rules.  It sounds like I'm blame shifting here, but Casey admits that he forgot about the rules).

This weekend I have resorted to us eating leftovers and cereal.  However, this morning Casey and I went for a run and found ourselves to be very hungary afterwards.  We headed downtown to a local dining attraction for breakfast - Southbound Bagal.  Friends, if you are ever in Hattiesburg, and you love coffee, and you love bagels, you need to eat at Southbound.  For those who are familiar with City Bagel in Starkville (Dad), it is much like that.

Chocolate chip bagel with cream cheese.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I'll run for this any day.

Ok, enough about food.

Shrimp N Grits

The night before last I made my own version of shrimp and grits.  This is a dish that I always enjoy ordering when I'm dining out - particularly at the beach. 

For the sauce:
1 15oz jar Alfredo sauce
diced onion - however much you like
1 diced roma tomatoes ( next time I will use 2)
shredded mozzerella cheese
couple teaspoons of garlic powder
your choice of tortellini (I used meat & cheese stuffed) 
1 bag (containing 100-150 shrimp)
parsley flakes to sprinkle on top

Cook tortellini accoding to directions on package.  While waiting for the pasta water to boil, poor Alfredo sauce, diced onion, diced tomatoes, mozzerella cheese, garlic powder, and shrimp into a frying pan on medium heat. Stir until mixed.  Once tortellini is cooked stir it into the sauce as well.

Grits:
I used Quaker Instant grits.  Once cooked, serve grits into bowl and spoon as much of the shrimp sauce as possible on top.  Top with parsley flakes.  (I'm sure fresh toppings would be great as well).

YUM!

Don't you love getting mail?

Real mail is one of my favorite things.  This week our wedding album shipped in, yay!  We have thoroughly enjoyed looking through it, and remembering what occured almost a year ago.

Thanks shutterfly.

Ok, now I have to share a discovery.  It's a mini recipe. 

3 ingrediants:

Vanilla waffers

Regular cream cheese

chocolate chips

Together, they tastes like a cheesecake bite!  Y'all, I read this recipe idea right off of the cream cheese lid.  Good thinking, Philadelphia.

However, I learned the hard way not to make them too far in advance.  Otherwise, the cookie gets soft.  The crunch of the cookie is important.

Have a great weekend!

Picklin', cupcakes, and memories

I don't know about y'all, but we are sure feeling the summer heat this week.  Whenever the temps reach 90 degrees and above I always crave classic summertime foods and drinks.  Like right now, there is nothing better to me than a glass of lemonade.  I've ordered it at the last two restaurants I've eaten at, and yesterday at the grocery store I bought Country Time strawberry lemonade.  Remember the scene involving pink lemonade in the Sound of Music?  I digress.  Anyway, along with lemonade should be hotdogs, and with hotdogs there should be pickles.  Homemade pickles.  I made my first batch and could not have been more pleased.  Also, this recipe from allrecipes.com could not be more basic.  That was a big plus for me considering the fact that I have never "canned" a thing. 

*My mom gave me the nifty wavy slicer.

Homemade Refrigerator Pickles
Ingredients:

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tablespoon salt
2 cups white sugar
6 cups sliced cucumbers
1 cup sliced onions
1 cup sliced green bell peppers

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.
2. Place the cucumbers, onions and green bell peppers in a large bowl. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables. Transfer to sterile containers and store in the refrigerator.

What I learned while doing this:
1.  One large cucumber makes two cups of sliced cucumbers.  I only had two cucumbers, therefore, I had 4 cups of sliced cucumbers.
2.  I didn't reduce the amount of sugar, vinegar, and salt, because I figured I could just get rid of what I didn't need.  (I did not have to get rid of much.)
3. I did not have bell pepper on hand, but I added carrots.
4.  Everything fit into a quart sized mason jar.   

5.  They are good on top of hotdogs!

Now, onto cupcakes.  In my last post I mentioned that we were attending the RUF end of the year crawfish boil.  I helped out with dessert. 

Hav you ever heard of these?

If you are into rich chocolate desserts than these are for you!  I am not however, which is why I made them to take somewhere.  Oops, that was just a live blog confession.  Pioneer Woman would be proud of me.

I used my microplane to shave dark chocolate on top of the icing. 

 Once I was done I packed up my goodies and headed out to the party.

Attention: If you do not have one of these cupcake carriers you can fix that by going to Bed Bath & Beyond.  I'll never forget the days before these existed.  My mom would sign up to bring cupcakes to the church pot luck, and inevitably I was the one responsible for balancing the tray in my lap during the car ride there. Stressful.  But not anymore! 

Speaking of RUF functions, my brother Stephen came through Hattiesburg yesterday, on his way to RUF Summer Conference.  He called me and said he was pulling into Arby's for lunch, and that I should come see him.  Stephen and the people he was with were very excited about their week ahead.  As they should be.  You are infused with solid teaching, surrounded by great conversations, people, and God's wonderful beach creation.  I was incredibly sad that last year, was my last chance to go.  Despite the fact that I had graduated and was getting married in 3 weeks, I was determined to go.  So, I went.  I came back built up, refreshed, challenged, and a little more prepared to face the "real world".  I can't wait to hear about all that Stephen has absorbed during his time there.  

This is a picture of the senior girls from last year.

Sweet memories.

 

 

         

April Shower

This past Friday I helped give a shower for my college roommate (Amy) who is getting married this June.  It was a fun-filled evening with friends we haven't seen in awhile.  

Here are a few shots of the prep and the gathering.

Of course, you have to start with the invitations.  The colors scream Spring and "wedding" in my opinion.

Next, I found these and decided that they would make great party favors.

A little ribbon..

and they're dressed for the party!

There they are amongst the gifts.

Everyone received a blank note card in their invitation.  Instructions were to fill it with encouraging words for the bride-to-be.  We then filled the little red album with all of the written cards.

The menu consisted of punch to drink, salad, rolls, and poppy seed chicken.  Amy's twin sister Annie helped me shop and cook all of the food.

Yum!

Dinner was followed by dessert, and dessert was delish!  It was inspired by the one and only Pioneer Woman herself.  (And Amy because she loves, loves, loves coffee).  You can check out PW's recipe and measurements here.  They were so simple to make! Promise me you'll make Frozen Cappucciono Cups at some point during the warmer months?

 

Here is what they are made of:

Oreo cookie bottom

coffee ice cream

nutmeg

cinnamon

chocolate chips

*I expecially enjoyed the additon of the cinnamon and nutmeg to the ice cream, and I think the others did as well.

This is the last picture I took that night.  Once again, no group shot.  I really am kicking myself for this - maybe I should make a new year resolution this month to take group pictures!

Amy is the one holding the baby.  That little guy is the reason we had this shower.  His mommy graciously hosted Amy's shower at her home.  Thank you Rebecca!

Amy we are getting more and more excited as your wedding countdown continues!