Sunday, January 20, 2008

Sunday dinner 1/20/2008

Okay so i should work on the titles of my blogs. For dinner this Sunday we had ham, chard, butternut squash and corn. I was aiming for a colorful, well rounded plate. I think I accomplished it. The only thing is, and I don't say this to sound cocky, but the ham I made was better then this one. This time around the ham was fully cooked and spiral sliced out of the package, so all I had to do was warm it up. If at all possible, whenever making ham in the future I will try to get an uncooked ham. So here are pics:

Here is the red chard all ready to go into the pan. I had never had chard before, so this was a new experience. I chose to sautee it in olive oil and crushed garlic. It came out well, but it is a bitter tasting green.



Here it is all done:



I also made butternut squash for the first time (yeah I was feeling adventurous with my cooking today). It came out really well. I boiled it and the melted in some butter and brown sugar:



Finally the finished plate:



Desert will be cake since tomorrow is Josh's birthday. I have become enchanted with the idea of Sunday dinners. They were not something that my family really did. We had a day during the week where we would go over to my grandparents house and have dinner though, usually fajitas and Dove bars. I loved those dinners. So Sunday dinners are starting to become a every week thing this winter. Josh says he looks forward to them because they are always so good. I look forward to it because I get to cook all day. I know some people would think that it is insane that I think that much time in the kitchen is fun, but at the moment it releases stress and makes me happy.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Ham

I attempted a ham on New Year's day. It was the first ham I have ever cooked. I even used Coke as part of the marinade, with some brown sugar, and pineapple juice.

Here is the ham pre oven. It looks naked but it has cloves on it, so there is no need to blush:





And here it is all done:



It was cooked perfectly and tasted good. Josh wants me to make another one this week so I have succeeded with ham!! Hopefully it was not just a one time thing.

Swedish Coffee Bread

This was my first attempt at Cardamom (or Pulla) bread. My mom usually makes it for Easter and Christmas. I love the smell and taste of cardamom. I was VERY intimidated by this bread. It always comes out amazing when my mom makes it and I was afraid I would screw it up big time. I did not do so well on the braiding part of the bread making. The taste more then made up for it though. If I do say so myself I make some pretty darn good cardamom bread. My mom and grandma would be proud. Of course they could not taste it since we all live in different states. Josh was thrilled with it, he said it tasted like the cardamom bread his grandmother used to make. A very high compliment indeed :-). So here are some pictures of the finished bread:





Chocolate Oreo Truffles

I have recently been overcome with a need to cook and bake like a mad woman. So I decided that I would start a blog where I can showcase all of my baking and cooking successes and failures.

Oreo truffles otherwise known as white trash truffles were on my menu last weekend. Josh and I had them at the Fall Festival party our friends threw in October and they were so GOOD!! I found a recipe on Craftster and made some last Saturday. So here are the results:

The crushed up Oreo's:



After the Oreos were crushed and mashed together with cream cheese they were rolled into balls and put in the fridge for an hour:



The finished product after they were dipped in melted chocolate and chilled for an hour:



These were REALLY messy to make but ridiculously good when they were done.