Spring Cake!

My parents came down for a bit this past weekend, and my mom brought me a really cute cake!  

 It's a sunflower!  (and gluten free! Mmm!)


Thanks Mom!!







Note: I've eaten a lot more of it in the time it took me to upload this picture

I cookied!

I cooked this weekend, for the first time in quite a while!  I made Potato Leek Soup, and some pretty healthy (though not low fat) cookies!


Simple Potato Leek Soup with Ham

• 1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
• 3 Leeks, white & light parts only, rinsed and chopped
• 5 or 6 potatoes, peeled and diced (i used red, cut up tiny for faster cooking)
• about a cup of diced up ham (i used about 1/5th of a ham steak, cut up tiny)
• little bit of ground or fresh thyme (i used about 1/4 tsp ground)
• little bit of ground or fresh oregano (i used about 1/4 tsp dried)
• 2 big bay leaves
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 6 cups of water

1.  In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat.  Add leaks and stir occasionally to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Add Ham, stirring until fragrant
3. Add dried thyme and oregano(and salt and pepper if desired), stir well
4. Add water, potatoes, and bay leaves, bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft.
5. Remove bay leaves, then mash or blend as desired (I used a masher to break up the potatoes until the soup had a slightly creamy broth, but i didnt use an immersion blender because i didn't want to destroy the ham).
6. Serve with Salt and Pepper to taste.  Yum!

Healthy-ish Everything Cookies!

• 1/2 cup grapeseed oil (i only had about 1/3rd cup, i made up the difference with applesauce)
• 1/2 cup flour (i used Pamela's gluten free baking mix)
• 1 cup almond meal
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut (the kind i had was more like ground, unsweetened)
• loose 1 cup of brown sugar (i think maybe this was too much, the coconut added to the sweetness)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup raisins (i used golden)

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix together oil (and applesauce), sugar, vanilla, and egg until well combined
3. Stir in flour and almond meal
4. Stir in coconut and oats
5. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins
6. Using 2 spoons or wet fingers, add globs of sticky dough to a parchment lined or greased baking sheet (or 2) in desired cookie sizes, pressing until relatively flat (these don't spread while they bake).  These get pretty chewy once they cool down.  Make thinner for crispier cookies.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes, until they lose their sheen and are slightly brown on the edges.
8. Enjoy!  

These would probably also work fairly well as bars, though maybe a little less sugar would be wise if planning to eat for breakfast.

Man sweater

I have a confession. Sometimes I shop in the men's section. Better bargains! One of the best shirts I ever had was a boy's (as in child) size large, and I was almost 25!

This morning I've been caught in the act. Here's a sneaky picture of the man asleep next to me on the train... As well as a sneak peek at my own outfit for the day. On the plus side, I now know that I'm not the only person on the train who doesn't buy all of my clothes at Anne Taylor and brooks brothers, this was a $10 old navy sweater! Take that Fairfield county!

 

10 AM Update:  Ok, so upon closer inspection, my sweater has purple lines on it and his doesn't.  I wasn't fully awake yet.  So maybe his is from brooks brothers afterall... but what a scare!  And at least my $10 sweater can be confused with an expensive one...

Ice cream!

I got an ice cream maker attachment to my mixer for Christmas!  Yaaaay!  Thanks Sissy!  (And husband thanks you too!)  It's kind of intimidating to make ice cream for the first time, so many rules about refrigeration and you have to cook stuff and then cool again and oh man so much prep time I had no idea... BUT IT'S WORTH IT!  MMMmmmm!!  For my very first try, I made simple vanilla, following the recipe that came with the bowl (ridiculous number of egg yolks, cream, half and half, vanilla, pinch of salt).  When you first make it, it's soft serve, and later on when you put the leftovers in the freezer, they get hard as a rock.  I'll have to work on that.   

Best vanilla ice cream I'd ever had (except for Carvel!)

I added some strawberries, and it was kind of melty, mmm

Then, I made another variety of vanilla, which i think was even better!  But Husband didn't like it.  I loved it though!!  I didn't have any vanilla, so I used 4 tsp of real maple syrup.  And i didn't have any regular sugar, so i used brown.  WHAT A DREAM!!  Buttery flavor, not maple-y, next time i'm going to mix in some crushed nuts!  (And I learned on this batch that it's ok if you accidentally cook your eggs too much, push it through a fine strainer and it all works out A-ok!)

And then it gets even better.  This past weekend I tried the "lazy" method of ice cream making.  No cooking, no waiting as long as you already had the bowl in the freezer!  Here's what you need:

• 1 can of evaporated milk (i used 2%)
• 1 can of condensed milk (we always have plenty of this since it's husband's favorite "food")
• 1 cup of milk (i used 2%)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• handful or 2 of mini chocolate chips

mix them all together (except for the chocolate chips), put in the fridge if you're worried about mixture not being cold enough (or refrigerate cans first maybe?)  I refrigerated for like 5 minutes, not really sure why I bothered.  use your ice cream maker as directed, mix in mini chocolate chips at the last minute.  Mine was extra soft serve, i guess the mixture wasn't cold enough to begin with, but oooooh sweet satisfaction!  so tasty, and so little effort!  Froze up alright, lots of ice crystals though, i think all of my problems are base on the fact that there was too much water and too little fat.  I read that adding some corn starch or using whole milk can fix that... i'll try it next time!

Each time I've made ice cream so far, I've put it in 2 containers and hidden one in the freezer so that Husband can't eat it all on the 1st day!  So far the record is 4 days with this rationing method.

Christmas Day Menu!

Again, I'm a month late with this post... but so what!  The food within will be delicious any  month of the year!

My mom, sister and I all loooooooove to cook.  And we as a family (including our men) looooove to eat!  So we planned and planned, and came up with the perfect christmas menu!  Every effort was made to accomodate our added dietary restraints this year, no wheat for me, and no salt for dad.  In the spirit of Christmas Dad and I both made a few exceptions... and all in all it was a fantastic menu!

Breakfast

• Crockpot overnight oatmeal - ammaaaaaazing!!  We tweaked the recipe slightly, using cranberries and raisins instead of the other dried fruits, and added maple syrup, walnuts, bananas and milk as mix-ins upon serving. Also, I ate this for like a week, it makes a ton of oatmeal.
• Sausage and Egg Quiche - mom made her own no salt sausage!

Snacks

•  Variety of cheeses and crackers

Starters

• Ad-libbed white bean, sausage, and kale soup.  My sister is so good at this!
• Arugula, fennel, and nut salad - Mmmm... another great find by sissy

Dinner

• Filet Mignon
• Mahi-Mahi
• Braised Celery - tasted surprisingly like stuffing
• Mashed root vegetables (sweet potato, potato, and turnip)
• Peppercorn gravy

Dessert

• Chocolate Chip Bourbon Pecan Pie - Really easy!!  (but I wasn't very happy with my first attempt at pecan pie... it was totally ruined by the gluten free store-bought crust, making my own next time!
• Variety of cookies!  (went to a cookie exchange party!)

Yaaaay Christmas tree!!