Mother's Day Broccoli & Grape Pasta Salad

This recipe would be a great addition to any Mother's day menu. It's perfect for the main course or for a side.  I made this for Max's 1st Birthday party and it is jam packed with goodies to eat.  There is not enough time to post recipes all the time anymore so when I post one I seriously mean it's that good so get to work (better yet, have your husbands make it for you for mother's day). 

This recipe comes from My Recipes.

Ingredients-

    1 cup chopped pecans
    1/2 (16-oz.) package farfalle (bow-tie) pasta (I used almost the whole pound)
    1 pound fresh broccoli
    1 cup mayonnaise
    1/3 cup sugar
    1/3 cup diced red onion (optional)
    1/3 cup red wine vinegar
    1 teaspoon salt
    2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
    8 cooked bacon slices, crumbled (I used the pre-done ones)

 

 Preheat oven to 350°. Bake pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan 5 to 7 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, cut broccoli florets from stems, and separate florets into small pieces using tip of a paring knife. Peel away tough outer layer of stems, and finely chop stems.

Whisk together mayonnaise and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl

Add broccoli, hot cooked pasta, and grapes, and stir to coat. Cover and chill 3 hours. Stir bacon and pecans into salad just before serving.

 

Happy Mother's day to all the moms and those who step up as moms of fur babies or real babies. I am so thankful for my original baby (Molly) and for Max. Have a great weekend.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes & Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

Over Christmas I tried out a few recipes that I saw on Pinterest. Lacey and Leah had both made one of these before so I knew they were good. They were both not very hard and tasted delicious.

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes by Recipe Girl-

PANCAKES:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten

CINNAMON FILLING:
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE: (since I don't like cream cheese I substituted for a plain vanilla glaze)
4 Tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Prepare pancake batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk in milk, oil and egg, just until batter is moistened.
2. In a medium bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside. You don't want this to remain super-liquidy. It's best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste.

3. Heat large skillet or griddle over medium-low heat (I set my griddle to 350). Spray with nonstick spray. Scoop about 3/4 cup batter onto the skillet. Let the batter sit for a bout a minute. Snip the corner of your baggie of filling and squeeze a spiral of the filling onto the top of the pancake. When bubbles begin to appear on the surface, flip carefully with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer to a baking sheet or platter and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve.

As you can see my pancakes weren't perfect spirals, but they still taste good.

4. In a medium, microwave-safe bowl- heat butter and cream cheese until melted. Whisk together until smooth; whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla extract and top your pancakes.

I don't have a photo of my icing because we probably ate these so fast. We made them a second time and had no leftovers each time.

The 2nd recipe I tried was Cinnamon Sugar Donuts that I found via pinterest as well.

Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
Ingredients-
-Canned biscuits (anything BUT the flakey layer kind).
-Melted butter in a shallow bowl (4 tbls per 8 biscuits give or take) 
-Sugar & Cinnamon in a shallow bowl (mixed together in your favorite proportions...I like a nice medium brown mixture.)
-Veggie oil to fill your pan up to about 1/2in or so. 

Heat up oil for a few minutes on medium heat. While it is heating up, cut holes in the donuts with a cookie cutter or some other circular object. Save the holes, I just made donut holes. 

When one side is golden brown, flip with tongs.  When that side is golden remove from oil and place on a paper towel lined pan or plate. When the donuts have cooled enough to handle...using your fingers dip one side in the melted butter, let the excess drip off, dip in cinnamon and sugar mixture.  Get it nice and coated.  Flip over and repeat for the other side.  

As you can tell I made a double batch and we ate for 2 breakfast meals. The donut holes would be great with a strawberry or raspberry filling. These were so simple and so delicious so give it a try!

Pumpkin Rice Crispy Treats

Since it is Halloween I thought I'd post a festive, semi-easy recipe for you to make. David and I made it for my work Halloween contest for festive food.
Pumpkin Rice Crispy Treats from  Home Stories A to Z.

Ingredients-
1 box Rice Krispie Cereal
1- 10 oz bag marshmellows
Butter
Red, Yellow and Green Food Coloring
Frosting
Tootsie Rolls
Chocolate Cookies for Dirt

Directions-
Follow the instructions on the box for regular rice krispy treats.

When your marshmallows are nice and melty add red and yellow purchased or homemade food coloring until you reach a pumpkin orange color.

 We were afraid of ours turning red so we left it this orange. When you make them go for a way brighter orange. Ours turned out a bit too pastel and didn't differ much from the regular rice crispy color.

 After you stir the cereal into the marshmallow mixture, rub some butter on the palms of your hands (we used spray Pam as well) and roll the mixture quickly into balls. I placed more butter on my hands between rolling each ball. Place a tootsie roll in the center of each pumpkin and garnish with frosting leaves. We mixed regular frosting with the green food coloring and used our leaves tip to make them.

 We placed our pumpkins on a bed of crushed chocolate cookies just for fun and presentation.

Happy Halloween!

Update from the costume front at work:

We went as the 3 Marketeers (get it, like 3 musketeers) since we all work in marketing.

  Unfortunately, we did not win the most creative contest (we got robbed if you ask me!). I also did not win 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the food competition (not happy about that!).

Bolognese Sauce

This weekend we had dinner with some friends and David's parents, but other than that David had class and I hung around the house and went on errands. I got some cute decorations for the gender reveal party, went to Pet Smart for molly food, went to home goods (didn't buy anything) and I grocery shopped! I was craving some pasta with meat sauce all weekend so I decided to make some yesterday.

It was also the first time that I used my dutch oven skillet pan. The Pioneer Woman uses hers ALL the time and I happened to be using her recipe so I thought I'd do as she does. This is her Bolognese Sauce.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1-1/2 cup Grated Carrots
• 1 whole Large Red Onion, Diced
• 2 pounds Ground Beef
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Oregano
• 2 Tablespoons Dried Basil Flakes
• 1 can (6 Ounce) Tomato Paste
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 cup (to 2 Cups) Red Wine
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
• 2 cans (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes
• 1 cup Milk
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• Fresh Parmesan Cheese

Start by grating your carrots (I only needed 2 whole carrots) and dicing your red onion. 

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over medium heat. Add grated carrots and onions and cook for a few minutes. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and then add in the ground beef.

Cook for a few minutes until brown, gradually stirring it into the carrot mixture.

Throw in oregano and basil. Use fresh if you have it; if you don’t, it’s fine. When the meat is browned and combined with other ingredients, make another well. Add tomato paste and let it heat. Add garlic and stir to combine.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add red wine. Stir together.

Add Worcestershire and stir. Add canned tomatoes. Finally, pour in milk, stir, and let simmer for 30 minutes to 2 hours—however long you need.

I interrupt your recipe viewing for some funny doggie pictures. Molly loves when we pour new dog food into her container, I've posted on this before.

She always eats it mid air and tries to catch it.

Then she sticks her mouth right in the container and munches on some more.

 Serve over noodles. I chose linguine. It makes enough for 2 lbs of pasta or 8 hefty servings.

Serve with a nice garden salad.

Voila! I loved it. Tips and notes: the sauce was a little runny (I added some cornstarch) and I might add another can of tomato paste to make it more red. The color was a bit brown so not typical pasta sauce. David devoured it and said he missed my cooking, isn't that sweet. Hope you all had a great weekend.

Easter Recipes

 We had a great Easter dinner complete with a honey baked ham and turkey at Gina's house Sunday. Here are some yummy recipes that I made and would make again for an Easter celebration. First up is a Carrot Pound Cake from Apples to Zucchini.

Ingredients-
3 c. flour
1/2 c. softened butter
1/2 c. canola oil
2 1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. undrained crushed pineapple
4 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c. shredded carrots

1. Mix together sugar, butter, oil and pineapple in mixer
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly into the batter between each addition
3. Add flour, baking powder, salt vanilla and carrots until well blended
4. Pour into a greased bundt or tube pan. I used a lamb mold that is a tradition in Davids family. More on this later.
5. bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until brown and a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean
turn over onto a plate after allowing to cool slightly

For our lamb mold, you are suppose to fill the face side and put the back end side on so it can expand. Little did we know how difficult it would be to bake him. We put it on for that first hour and 15 mins and stuck a tooth pick into the tiny hole at the head. It looked done and I opened it up only to find the middle wasn't cooked AT ALL. In case I ask for next year, here is what needs to be done. Either you cook it for 3 hours (yes I cooked this for about 3 hours) on 350 or cook both halves separately and frost them together (would have been smarter).

 Lamby finally came out and was a little malformed so I left the walnuts chunky instead of chopping them to cover some of the imperfections. As you can see, the walnuts fell and we call this the P90X lamb since its shedding all that weight. Still cute and it tasted really god.
Glaze-
1 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
3 tbsp milk
-Mix together and Pour over warm cake.

Fruity Pebble Treat Eggs from In Katrina's Kitchen-

Ingredients:
¼ c butter
10 oz bag of marshmallows (I used mini ones)
5 c Fruity Pebble (kroger brand) cereal
6-12 plastic eggs for molding

 Directions:
1. In a large pan melt butter using medium heat.
2. Add marshmallows and stir until melted.

3. Pour in the cereal and mix to incorporate.

4. Spray plastic eggs with cooking spray. I found it was easiest to break open the egg so its not attached.

5. Spoon the cereal mixture into each half of the egg then close egg to form shape. We used a mix between bigger eggs and small ones. We rotated between 6 or so big and small eggs. They don't take long to take shape but we kept them in there for about 30 seconds- a few minutes each. You have to go kind of fast so that the cereal mixture stays warm.

 They came out great and the kids (and adults) loved them!

If you are wondering, I did make a real food item that wasn't dessert. I made a spinach salad, recipe from Pioneer Woman that I altered.
Ingredients
    - 8 slices Turkey Bacon (real bacon would work much better, but more fatty)
    -  ½ Red Onion, chopped
    - 8 ounces, Baby Spinach, Washed Dried And Stems Removed
    - 3 Tablespoons Reserved Bacon Grease or Olive Oil if you used turkey bacon
    - 3 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
    - 2 teaspoons Sugar
    - ½ teaspoons Dijon Mustard
    - 1 dash Salt
Directions-
1. Fry bacon in a pan until crispy/chewy. Remove to a paper towel.
2. Remove 3 tablespoons grease and set aside. I didn't have much grease, so skip that step.
3. Add your diced red onions to your pan you cooked the bacon in, Cook slowly until onions are carmelized. Add a little olive oil if needed.
4. Chop bacon.
5. Add spinach to a large bowl. Arrange onions and bacon on top. 
6. Make hot bacon dressing: Add 3 tablespoons bacon grease (I used olive oil), vinegar, sugar, and Dijon to your skillet on medium-low heat. Whisk mixture together and heat thoroughly.
7. Pour hot dressing over the top; toss to combine.
This would be great warm, but I had a few hours before we ate so I refrigerated and it still tasted really good. You can add mushrooms, eggs or anything else you'd like to it, I'm just not a huge fan of those.

Baked Homemade Gift Ideas

I have been in search of some great edible homemade gifts. Our Best Bites has so many great suggestions and it made this really easy. Lets get started with cookies!

 

Sugar cookies frosted and festive are great gifts. You can make shapes or keep it simple.

 Candy Cane Kiss Cookies It really is all about the packaging. Take a look in all the photos to really make the presentation festive and fun!

 My new favorite thing is dry mix cookie ingredients with the recipe attached. We might just be doing this for Davids family (spoiler if you are reading).

Candy Cane Brownies

 My next idea is for homemade bread! Who doesn't love bread, whether you give them the tools or you make it for them.

 Our Best Bites also had this cute photo of garlic bread seasoning with a loaf of bread! How adorable. Sorry, they only had a small pic available.

 Last year we did this hot fudge for his family.

My last idea is popcorn. I love Carmel popcorn and this candy popcorn looks so festive! My mom also wanted to add her fruit cakes which are easy and you can wrap it up with colored saran wrap and a cute bow. Her camera phone wasn't working last night so no picture. Any other suggestions I haven't thought about?