A Belated Things to be thankful for week #3

I realize that I will probably never be consistent in my blogging.  A perfect example is how I planned on doing a blog of things that I am thankful for every week and it has been more than a year since my last.  I suppose that the saying "better late than never" probably applies here as always with my sporatic blogging habits.

#1- My husband's love- I know I already said I was thankful for my husband but I just beel so lucky to feel his love every day of my life in all the little things he does. I truely understand what warm fuzzies feel like now because that is how I feel when he kisses me gently on the forehead or hugs me for no reason.  I am so thankful I found my soul mate who I can grow old with.

#2- Our New Apartment- A few months ago we moved out of our old apartment into a much nicer two bedroom apartment in a much friendlier neighborhood than our old apartment.  I finally can love being at home.

#3- My craft room- Since we moved up from a one bedroom apartment and had no real need for a second bedroom, my amazing husband gave the other room to me to use as a craft room.  I love my husband so much but it is so incredibly nice to have my own space to be creative in.

#4- Our kitchen-  we actually have a kitchen now!  I am no longer stuck cooking using a wall with appliances on it that happens to be a part of our living/dining/kitchen area.  I love having a separate room with so much more space to create in.  It has sparked my interest in cooking more than the old place ever could.

#5- My parents- When we moved into our new place, my parents were such a blessing in helping us to create a home.  My dad helped move furniture and both my parents supplied us with hand me down furniture to help our apartment looked lived in.  It's amazing how the furniture that had our old place bursting at the seams made our new place look so bare.  I will always be thankful for tow loving parents who would go to the ends of the earth for me.

#6- Yard Sales-  We were able to have a yard sale with others in our community and made quite a bit of money selling things we never used any more.  Also we were able to find several things for our apartment at yard sales as well.

#7-Fall- I love that time of year when the leaves start changing into such vibrant warm colors and the air gets chilly but is not too cold yet.

#8- Stew- This goes along with me liking fall, I love being warmed up after a chilly day with a warm bubbling crock pot full of homemade stew made with tons of fresh veggies.

#9- Bountiful Baskets- I started doing bountiful baskets about a month ago and in the last month I have been able to explore so many new recipes using all the fresh produce I get every week.  Also I have been able to cut back on many unhealthy snacks by reaching for fresh fruit instead.  I feel so much better and I know it must be because I am finally getting tons of fresh produce in my diet.

#10-Our Song- Everytime I hear the song that my hasband and I call our song it just brightens my day.  Whether I am with him or not I always smile thinking of how much I love him.

I think I will limit this blog to only ten things I am thankful for.  I plan on making some homemade pasta for the first time ever and I want to make sure I have plenty of time to do that before my husband comes home from work.

What a long time

Wow, I must say, I am embarrassed at how long it has taken me to post another blog.  Right now this blog is somewhat like my journals growing up.  I would always lose them for months at a time.  I guess I can't really use that as an excuse since this is online.  I guess all I can say is that life ran away with me.  Well time to update on the last several months of my life and then I promise to try to post more often.

In June, my mom retaught me how to knit.  I picked it up quickly as she had already taught me the basics when I was a child.  I spent time over the next several months knitting scarves for everyone for Christmas as well as some hats, bags, and other small projects.  I am still enjoying knitting and since Christmas is over, I am searching for a sweater pattern to make my own sweaters.

In July, My husband  and I had a yard sale and I sold my childhood polly pocket collection for enough money to buy myself a sewing machine.  I have really been enjoying teaching myself how to sew.  Some of my projects I have made include backpacks, aprons, purses, doll clothes, quilts, potholders, and stuffed animals.  I will post pictures of some of my favorite projects later.

On July third, I celebrated my first anniversary with my husband.  We rented a cabin in three island crossing state park and had a relaxing few days together away from the lights and sounds of the city.  When we got back into town we celebrated his 22nd birthday with a trip downtown with his sister.

In August, life got really crazy. I got a second job working a night support for a man who is quadriplegic.  With both my jobs, I was working six nights a week for a total of about 65 hours a week.  Andy started school again but since I graduated I got to really start experiencing what life is like without school.

September went quickly in a haze of work for me and work and school for Andy.  A former friend from freshman year, Reilly, moved in next to us and we became much closer than we ever were before.   I finally have a friend nearby that I can do girls days with. :)

In October, I celebrated my 23rd birthday with a tattoo from my husband, but I was unable to much of anything else since I worked the night before and the night of my birthday.    We celebrated with my family later in the week and they put a baby picture of mine on a cake.  Luckily none of my friends had to see that. lol

In November, My friend Amanda and I had a table at a craft fair.  After spending months crafting, we were disappointed that the church holding it had not advertised.  As a result, we barely sold anything, but we did get to enjoy knitting together like old ladies for the day and trading with other vendors.  The highlight of my day was trading a jar of jam I had made for a purse from the woman next to us.  I would say that was a nice bonus for the day.  Later that month, I celebrated my brother's 27th birthday.  Seems like the years have flown.  I still remember nerf gun fights in the yard and arguing over which disney movie to watch.

December brought a flurry of Christmas shopping, crafting, and wrapping.  I discovered some of my Christmas crafting plans will have to wait until next year, but at least I finished at least one homemade thing for each person on my list.  And trust me when i say that with a husband who comes from a family of nine kids, my Christmas list is about as long as Santa's.  We were able to spend Christmas with both of our families, doing Christmas morning with his family and afternoon with mine.  Around Christmas time, I also made the decision to quit my second job.  Andy got a better job in December so we didn't need me to work both jobs and working so much had gotten too stressful for me.

January brings a new year and what feels like a new life.  Now that I have cut back on work I have once again been able to enjoy things like cooking and baking.  Sadly, we ate too many pizzas and hamburgers the last few months because of how busy I was.  For this year, I plan on once again reviving my passion for cooking and posting some yummy new recipes.  Who knows what else the year will bring, but I am certainly ready for the adventure that ensues.

Things to be thankful for: Week 2

Once again I am posting 20 things to be thankful for this week.

1. The sound of a baby's laugh- No matter how bad my day is there is just something about how sweet a baby's laugh sounds that can always cheer me up.
2. Robins- I always love seeing the first robin after a long dreary winter because it means spring is soon to come and the world will brighten up again.
3. Hair Dye- I have never liked the natural color of my hair, but thanks to hair dye, I am able to have whatever color I want.
4. Red potatoes- I love cooking with these in stews and with roasts.  I love how they absorb flavors and become the most delicious part of a dish.
5. My Pepper grinder- fresh ground pepper is so much more potent and flavorful than the stuff you buy in the store.
6. Hoodie Sweatshirts- I have about half a dozen BSU sweatshirts that I love to wear whenever the weather is a little chilly outside but not cold enough for a coat.
7. Clocks- this one is pretty self explanatory.  How would we ever get anywhere on time without clocks.
8. Sunscreen- With summer coming up, I really need to make sure i apply plenty of sunscreen because I tend to burn.
9. Olive oil- This one is for two reasons: i love cooking with it and it is a great treatment for sunburns when i forget to wear sunscreen.
10. My new Bread knife- until recently, I did not have a bread knife and had to attempt to cut bread with either a chef's knife or a steak knife.  Trust me when i say that neither is appropriate for cutting bread.
11. Jeans- Who doesn't love jeans?  They're comfy and durable.
12. Posters- the quick and easy way to add some color and fun to boring white walls.
13. Showers- most people don't believe me when I tell them that my family did not have a working shower til I was 17.  Trust me, when you go from taking baths every day to having the convenience of a shower, you truly appreciate how nice a shower is.
14. Winco- Another two reason one: They gave my mom a great job and treat her well and they are cheap and convenient for all my grocery needs
15. Shaving cream- lets face it, shaving would really suck if we always got razor burn from not having shaving cream.
16. Mirrors- they keep me from going outside with my hair sticking up in the morning.
17. Stop lights- without them, there would likely be a lot more car wrecks.
18. Oven mitts- I found the cutest pink and white polka dot oven mitts the other day.  Not only are they cute, but they also keep me from burning myself .
19. Colored Pens- I always hated taking notes with boring black pens. Colored pens kept me more interested.
20. Coupons- I have gotten some pretty kick ass deals with coupons lately which have saved me a lot of money.

Sweet and savory breads

Last week when i baked bread I realized that baking bread is actually cheaper than buying really nice bread in the store and it tastes oh so good.  So I set a personal goal for myself and I am going to try to bake some kind of bread at least once a week.  When I told my hubby this, he looked like a child who was told Christmas would be coming twice this year.  Anyone who knows my husband can attest to the fact that he has something of a bread addiction.  I swear he would eat bread for every meal if he could.  Now that I have already baked the basic white bread that I grew up on, I wanted to challenge myself to come up with other types of bread.

My first choice for today was easy.  Ever since childhood, the bread aisle in the grocery store has always been my favorite.  While some kids begged their parents for cookies in the cookie aisle, I couldn't wait for the moment we entered the bread aisle and I could breathe in the aroma of cinnamon bread.  Even now I still love to make that trip down the aisle simple for the smell itself.  My one problem is that I absolutely hate raisins. So while I have always loved to smell cinnamon bread, i have never bought it because stores tend to fill it with the very thing I detest.  i set the goal for myself to make a bread that smelled just as delicious but was tasty as well.  Since I didn't want raisins I decided to make cinnamon chocolate chip bread because how can you go wrong with chocolate?

I knew this bread would be sweet and I didn't only want to make sweet bread so this week is a two bread week.  For something savory, I designed a garlic cheese bread that could be delicious alone or as part of a sandwich.

For the dough I started with the basic white bread dough I made last week.  I made it exactly the same until I reached the point where I divided it in half. That is when I changed each loaf to make one sweet and one savory.

The cinnamon bread is on the left and the garlic cheese is on the right

Cinnamon chocolate chip bread

Ingredients

Half of the white bread dough

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

handful dark chocolate chips

handful semisweet chocolate chips

melted butter

Directions

1. Mix sugar and cinnamon in a bowl

2. Roll out dough to about a 18 inch by nine inch rectangle.  

3. lightly brush with butter and spread cinnamon and sugar over entire thing.  press chocolate chips into dough.

4. roll up tightly.  fold ends under and place in greased bread pan.  brush with butter. let rise 30-50 minutes.

5. bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. brush with more butter and let cool before removing from pan.

Garlic cheese bread

Ingredients

Half of white bread dough

4-5 garlic cloves

grated cheese of choice (i used cheddar and monterey jack)

Directions

1. Roll dough to a 9 by 18 inch rectangle.

2. Mince garlic until it becomes almost a paste and spread on dough.  sprinkle with cheese.

3. Roll tightly. Fold ends under and place in greased bread pan.  Press cheese into top. Let rise 30-50  minutes.

4. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes or until turns golden brown and cheese on top gets crispy.  let cool before removing from bread pan.

Chicken Alfredo Calzones

The other day I was at Ross which is one of my absolute favorite stores. I decided to browse through the cooking supplies to see if I could find some cake pans for this new cake I have been wanting to bake.  I didn't find the right pans, but I did find this set of dough presses.  Looking at the examples on the box, I started day dreaming about all the possibilities that could arise from having these presses to help form the perfect shape. I quickly bought them and headed home to start experimenting.

I brought out the trusty Betty Crocker Cook book and started skimming the pages.  That's when I landed on the pizza dough recipe that I watched my mom make countless times as a child and an idea was formed: Calzones.  Now I enjoy the basic types of pizza such as pepperoni and sausage as much as the next person, but i usually prefer to make a more sophisticated pizza so I chose to make my favorite type of pizza into a calzone and the chicken alfredo calzones were invented.

When these came out of the oven, steaming and golden brown, I could almost see my husband's mouth begin to water.  He quickly scarfed down a couple before he decided he was too full to move.  And of course he had to try the leftovers later and these are just as good cold as they are hot. 

Chicken Alfredo Calzones

Ingredients

Dough
1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Filling
One cooked chicken breast cut into small pieces
1/4 cut chopped onion
1/2 - 1 cup alfredo sauce
1 cup cheese

Directions
1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in medium bowl
2. stir in remaining ingredients.  you may have to kneed the dough a bit to work them all together.  let rest five minutes
3. form into six equal circles of dough and fill with other ingredients.
4. moisten edges of circles.  Fold over and press together using a dough press or your hands.
4. brush with melted butter and bake at 425 for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Pork Fried Rice

The other day, I told my sister in law that I was going to make fried rice and she looked at me in amazement. "YOU know how to make fried rice?" she questioned as if it were some great feat that only the brave attempt to do.  When I told her that it is one of the easiest things I know how to cook she didn't believe me.  What I can never believe is that most people react in this way when they find out that I can make fried rice.  My husband's coworkers didn't believe him that his wife was white after he brought it to work with him one day.  Even when he showed them a picture of me, they thought he must be joking.

I actually don't remember when I learned how to make fried rice because I've been making it most of my life.  I would like to give you a link to the recipe, but my mother made up the recipe a long time ago.  For years my mom searched for a fried rice recipe similar to that of her favorite restaurant Jade's Chopstick, but alas, no recipe was to be found. Finally, she set out to make her own recipe and I feel she succeeded in making one which is almost as good as the fried rice at Jade's.

You can use this as a side dish if you make something like sweet and sour pork, but I prefer just eating a big bowl of this by itself. I apologize for the quality of my camera, I only had my phone with me to take a picture that day.

Pork Fried Rice

Ingredients

3 cups instant rice
3 or 4 eggs
6 or 7 green onions, chopped
several slices of ham, cut into small pieces
salt
pepper
soy sauce
olive oil

Directions

1. Cook the instant rice to the directions on the box.  If you have time, make it before you plan to make the friend rice and cool it in the fridge for a while.  this will keep it from sticking together when you cook it.

2. Put about two tablespoons olive oil in a hot frying pan and scramble the eggs in it.

3. When the eggs are cooked add the rice, ham, and green onions.  Stir in a little more olive oil and a few dashes of  soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

4. Cook the rice, stirring occassionally until it starts to brown.  If you like lots of soy sauce, feel free to add more as the rice cooks.  Serve as a side or by itself.

Pool Party Pasta Salad

On Saturday, I decided to try a new recipe for Pasta Primavera that my friend Jessica Posted on her blog, The Learning Curve.  That was the first time I had ever cooked with asparagus and I absolutely loved it.  With asparagus and tomatoes left over, I went in search of something I could cook for dinner last night that would be nice and light since summer always makes me detest really heavy foods.

During my search, I was truly happy that we have google.  Instead of pooring over cookbooks, I was able to type in asparagus salad and instantly had thousands of recipes vying for my attention. The one that caught my eye was a pasta salad wich I had most of the ingredients for that also used an ingredient I hed never used before.  In search of feta cheese, I rode my bike to the grocery store.  This is when I discovered that winco only sells one brand of feta cheese.  I guess this is lucky since I honestly had no clue how to pick good feta.

After adapting the recipe a bit to fit our tastes, I found my favorite pasta salad dish.  This is probably going to be on the menu for all our BBQs this summer.  You can find the original recipe here, but I will include my adaptation as well.

Pool Party Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package farfalle (bow tie) pasta
• 1 cup broccoli florets (I used fresh, but frozen would work too)
• 8 ounces fresh asparagus spears, trimmed and chopped
• 8 ounces diced cooked chicken breast meat
• 1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• 1 cup Italian salad dressing, or as needed
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Add broccoli florets and asparagus to the boiling water during the last 5 minutes. Drain, and run under cold water to cool.
2. In a large serving bowl, stir together the diced chicken, kidney beans, black olives, green pepper, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and Italian dressing. Stir in the pasta, broccoli and asparagus. Season with salt and pepper to taste. This salad is best if chilled for a couple of hours before serving.  You may want to add a little more italian dressing right before serving.  It tends to dry out in the fridge.