Cooking in the Suburbs

2010-10-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yum! Steak, sweet potato, and poblano fajitas. Easy to make and soooo delicious!

2010-10-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

Finished my Master of Science in Library and Information Science, we moved to Austin, and I am currently trolling for a job in a library or archive. We are ridiculously happy in Texas, but since I am still playing housewife the baking has been going strong.

Banana Cream Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Whipped Cream:

Fried Cheese and Buffalo Chicken Pizza:

And of course Cinnamon Rolls:

Cooking recap

2010-02-21T06:43:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted anything on here. It was not for lack of cooking, but school, wedding, and life has kept me from posting pictures. So a cooking recap of what I have been up to lately:

Pizza:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies:

Pretzels:

Test Run Turkey

2008-11-06T19:09:00.001-08:00

Here is my test run Thanksgiving dinner. It thankfully came out really well. I glazed the turkey, which I have never attempted before, and it tasted wonderful. Plus homemade whole cranberry sauce, honey glazed carrots, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob. Of course there will be a ton more food at Thanksgiving, but there were only two of us eating that night.

Picture:

Josh Carving:

Chili and Macaroons

2008-11-02T03:56:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I made up some macaroons and chili for Sunday dinner. I have never made macaroons, but they were really simple and tasted SOOO good. All eggy and coconutty. I decided to use two types of beans in the chili and was pleased with the taste. Here are the pics.

Chili beans, they look so pretty:

The completed Chili:

Dessert, well okay we actually ate these first:

Today I am practicing Thanksgiving dinner. Pictures to come later.

Ribs and muffins

2008-09-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while since I have posted. It is fall again!! Yea! I love to cook in the fall. Once the weather turns cold the urge comes back. Football season began and in honor of that I made some coca cola glazed ribs and corn on the cob. The blog I found the recipe on is a great Southern cooking blog, and I love it. Here is a picture:

This morning I used some of the apples we picked last weekend and made some apple muffins with cinnamon streusel topping :

They smelled SO good baking, and they tasted just as good. How am I ever going to loose weight during the winter??

Blueberry Muffins...

2008-07-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

that are so good I don't have to go to the bakery to buy them again. I also do not have to use any box mixes again. Lower sodium and I know what is going into my muffins! They were fantastic! I do not have a picture, but that is probably a good thing. Licking the screen tends to ruin your computer...

Salmon

2008-06-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

So Josh and I decided to eat healthy. Oh boy...I just can't tell you how excited I am about this (it is a shame you can't hear sarcasm through the computer). The first meal I made was actually pretty tasty. It was salmon fillets with a sauce that is made with the juice of one orange, ginger, garlic, chopped green onions, and some tamari. I served it over fresh spinach leaves, with a side of steamed squash. It was actually really yummy, and Josh LOVED it. So without further ado here is a pic:

I made Sushi

2008-06-01T04:53:00.000-07:00

So my first attempt at sushi came out ok. It looks like a sushi roll at least and it tasted good, not exactly like I wanted, but edible. This is also the first food I am posting that was made in the new kitchen. So here it is:

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

2008-04-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

So I have been very lapse in my baking and my posting. Last weekend I made a Strawberry Rhubarb pie for the first time, and it was good. WHy have I not been eating this wonderful pie until now. The sweet and the bitter blend together to make deliciousness in your mouth. Next time I will be sure to make some homemade whip cream to go along with it. Here are some pics:

I can't wait to move to our new apartment. It will just be a galley kitchen, but it will have tons more counter space, and none of it will have to be taken up by the dish rack because there will be a dishwasher!! Yeah I have missed having a dishwasher SOOOO much. It will make cooking so much easier, especially the cleaning.

Banana Bread

2008-03-02T18:17:00.001-08:00

So what do you do when you have left over bananas that are to ripe to eat? Why you make banana bread of course! Well at least I do. I have not had much time to be in the kitchen since I started grad school, but I found time this morning. I hate to throw anything out if I can use it to bake so I whipped up an easy banana bread (sans nuts, I don't like nuts in my banana bread). Then later in the day I made up some chili. I have a picture of the banana bread that I will post later.

Sunday dinner 1/20/2008

2008-01-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

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.

Ham

2008-01-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-19T11:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-19T10:29:00.000-08:00

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.