Happy Halloween!

"Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate. The first one said,"Oh, my, it's half past eight! The second one said, "There are witches in the air!" The third one said,"Good folk, beware!" The fourth one said, "We'll run and run and run!" The fifth one said, "Let's have some fun!" OOOOOOOH, went the wind. And OUT went the light. And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight." Happy Halloween to all! 

Obsessed With...

...the Carrie Bradshaw bun. Maybe I'm a few years late with jumping on this hair trend wagon. Oops but oh well. In my defense, I was never a Sex in the City fan and didn't get introduced to this hair-do at the peak of the series' popularity. I've also been rocking an angled bob for a good portion of the last 2 years. ps- I love saying "angled bob."

After getting engaged, I had a heart to heart convo with my angled bob and told it adeiu. Longer hair was on the horizon. I began to grow my hair out because I need to make sure my hair has enough length for an wedding updo - if that is what my heart desires come the big day - I'm still undecided.

a messier version via B.Jones Style

As much as I love the angled bob, I love long hair too. In college, I sported a side-pony tail on a daily basis and brought back the sadly forgotten 80s 'do. But now, in my older years, I yearn for something a little more polished - but equally as fun. Insert the Carrie Bun here.

Rocking the bun and sequins w my bff, Schwem

I'm not quite sure what I love in particular about this hairstyle. Maybe I love it because it's easy to do. The perfect style for 2nd day hair for sure. Perhaps what I love most is how versatile this bun is - it compliments a LBD and sweatpants at the same time. totes awesome.

The bun gets formal

My bun is a little more toned down than Miss Bradshaw's - is that practicality I hear? Check out this great tutorial from B. Jones Style and master your own bun.

Still Nothing Wrong With That...

And clearly I'm referring to cornbread. Ain't nothing wrong with that. My love affair with cornbread is growing. I'm starting to crave it often. I might even be getting, dare I say, addicted to the stuff?!? Is it o.k if I've started to try to um force cornbread into other recipes? I admit that when looking for new baking recipes I often think - Hmmm can I somehow incorporate cornbread into that?

So that's what happened here. After coming back from my business trip in Florida, we had some overly ripe bananas that needed to be used up. C loves banana bread. He loves it almost as much as I love...cornbread. And the light bulb goes on. Banana + Cornbread = Banana Cornbread. A symbol of our love, if you will.

I found a quick bread recipe in one of my Food Network magazines to work off of and got busy in the kitchen. The result: perhaps the most delicious + addictive banana bread cornbread fusion ever. This stuff should be illegal. I've already mentally added on 2lbs to my weight. But still, ain't nothing wrong with cornbread.

Banana Cornbread with Dark Chocolate Chips 

(adapated from Food Network)

Ingredients: 

• 1 large over-ripe banana, mashed 
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour 
• 1/2 cup organic yellow cornmeal 
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt, 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda, 
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg 
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and then cooled 
• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1 1/4 cup dark chocolate baking chips  

Directions: 

• Preheat oven 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 5 inch loaf pan 
• Mix flour, sugar,  baking powder and salt, and baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl
• In electric mixer, whisk together eggs, butter, sour cream, and  vanilla extract
• Add in banana. 
• Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. 
• Spread the batter in the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool 30 minutes in the pan on a rack, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.

Resist the urge to cut a slice when this comes out of the oven!

Baby, It's Cold Outside

For some reason as the weather starts to get chilly, my body starts to crave pasta. I guess pasta is just my ultimate comfort food. On a cold fall or winter day, nothing beats a fire burning in the fireplace, hot coffee, a good book, and a big bowl of pasta. I usually don't like any cream based sauce. They are too rich for me. Too thick. Too yuck. Sorry Alfredo. However, I found this recipe for a lighter healthier cream based mushroom sauce and decided to give it a try. I had mushrooms and broccoli in the fridge and they were calling to me.

Broccoli and mushrooms are a great duo when tossed together with pasta. I also think peas or asparagus would work well with the mushrooms in this dish.

My mother and I recently attended a cooking class at our nearby Williams-Sonoma. The theme of the class was...Pasta! The chefs were very informative and the one tip they kept pressing upon us was to make sure our pasta water was heavily salted. I always thought you just toss in a dash of salt into your water when boiling pasta. But nooooo. They said the water should taste like the ocean.

Linguine with Creamy Broccoli and Mushroom Sauce 

(adapted from Eating Well)

Ingredients: 

• 12 ounces whole-wheat linguine
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped shallot
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Penzy's Pasta Sprinkle 
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds mixed mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup fresh broccoli, chopped
• 2 tablespoons brandy or dry sherry
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 (14 oz) can vegetable broth 
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

Directions: 

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta until just tender, 8 to 10 minutes or according to package instructions. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid, and return the pasta to the pot.
• Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shallot, garlic,pasta sprinkle, salt and pepper and cook, stirring, until the shallot is light brown, 1 to 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and broccoli and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated, 7 to 10 minutes.
• Stir in brandy (or sherry) and cook until the liquid has evaporated, about 1 minute. Sprinkle flour over the mushroom mixture and stir to coat. Pour in broth and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in cream and 1/4 cup Parmesan.
• Stir the mushroom sauce into the drained pasta. If the sauce seems too thick, stir in some of the reserved pasta-cooking liquid to thin to desired consistency. Serve sprinkled with the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.

C and I enjoyed the pasta with a nice simple side salad tossed in vinaigrette and a glass of wine. Yum! What's your go to comfort food? 

The Best Part of Waking Up

...is not Folgers in your cup. In my opinion, nothing says "Good Morning!" like the stickiest yummiest breakfast pastries hot out of the oven. Just like the amazing cinnamon rolls I made for C to take to work this past Friday. C requested something with apples. I could have gone the expected route of Apple Crumb Coffee Cake (or at least I think that's expected). I almost went down the Apple Cupcake route. But I just did cupcakes so that was out.

A bunch of cinnamon roll recipes call for a time period where you wait for the dough to rise. I don't like waiting. Boring. Now I'm not downgrading the importance of baked goods, but I only wait for really important things - like getting seated at Olive Garden and Mariah Carey's next album release. When I stumbled upon this speedy cinnamon roll recipe which required no wait time, I was like Boom. Zing. Done...this is the recipe for me.

Apple Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting 

(adapted from Julie's Eats and Treats)

Ingredients: 

For the dough: 

• 3 1/4 cups whole wheat flour 
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar 
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1 cup buttermilk or fat free sour cream or plain yogurt (I used the sour cream) 
• 1/2 cup skim milk 
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled slightly 

For the filling: 

• 1/4 cup butter, softened 
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1 tsp cinnamon (or more) 
• 1 tsp Penzy's Baking Spice 
• 1 apple - peeled and chopped ( I used granny smith) 

For the frosting: 

• 4 oz 1/3 fat cream cheese, at room temp 
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup 
• 1 tablespoon milk 
• 1/2 tsp vanilla 
• 1 cup confectionery sugar 

Directions: 

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• To make dough: combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together buttermilk, milk and melted butter. Add liquid to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. (You can use your dough hook with your stand mixer but, honestly this dough is pretty easy to work with and you don't really need it.) Use hands to knead dough until it comes together. 
• Roll out the dough on floured surface. Dough should be approx 18 x 10 inches. 
• Spread softened butter over dough. Combine the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and baking spice. Spread evenly over dough. Place apples on top. 
• Starting with the long end, roll dough tightly (tight is key!). Pinch seams and ends to seal. Cut into 12 pieces. ( I eeked out 14 small rolls) 
• Bake in greased muffin pan for 22-25 mins. 
• To make frosting: combine cream cheese and butter by microwaving for 15-20 sec intervals until mixture can be whisked together (Note: If using a Kitchen-Aid over-the-range microwave, select Soften/Melt option - choose melt - butter - 0.5 sticks and repeat cycle once). Whisk in maple syrup, milk, and vanilla. Whisk in powered sugar in 1/3 cup portions. 
• After rolls have cooled, top rolls with a little - or a lot!- of frosting. Yum!

Ps- Sorry I've been MIA for a week. My excuse is that I went to the LG Dealer Conference in sunny Kissimmee Florida. I got to check out all the cool new appliances and electronics that LG is rolling out in 2012. Sadly, I was unable to take pics of the products. But on the horizon - the new + improved Pentouch plasma TV featuring Smart TV technology and the hugest of hugest washer with a 5.0 cu ft. stainless steel drum. You can fit two small children (or Korean men) in this thing. 

View from my room - in the Key West Section

I stayed at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. This hotel is pretty cool because it is built surrounding an indoor atrium. The atrium features many water elements and plant life and is divided up into themed sections - the Everglades, Key West, Emerald Bay, and St. Augustine. These themes then carry over to the hotel rooms and are expressed through the room decor. Very theme-y. Very I'm in the theme park capital of the world. But, all in all - a nice stay. 

Are you reading that sign? And this is for REAL. The had a live reptile exhibit for all to fear see.

Dinner? 

Chicken in a Curry

I crack myself up with my wittiness sometime - chicken in a curry - get it? hurry...curry?? bahaha. And moving on...I've recently been struggling with my weeknight meal ideas. I try to do the whole planning ahead thing but, I'm often distracted by shiny objects. And in this case the shiny objects are new recipes I've found on blogs + foodie sites. I'll see a new recipe and get all excited and then just like that all my planning goes out the door. Example: this beyond delish chicken curry recipe. 

One of the great things about this curry recipe is that you probably have almost all the called for ingredients already stocked in your pantry. The only ingredient I needed to pick up was the coconut milk. 

Curried Coconut Chicken 

(adapted from Taste And Tell)

Ingredients:

• 1 to 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch chunks 
• 1 red pepper, chopped or diced
• 1 tsp garlic salt 
• 1 tsp pepper - or more if you like 
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 2 tablespoons smoked paprika or curry powder 
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 onion diced 
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed or diced 
• 1 (14 ounce) can light coconut milk 
• 1 (14 ounce) can stewed tomatoes (you can dice them if you want but I didn't) 
• 1 (8 ounce) can plain tomato sauce 
• 1.5 tablespoons brown sugar or organic sucant 

Directions: 

• Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
• Heat oil and curry powder or paprika/chili in a large skillet over medium-high heat for two minutes. Stir in onions, red pepper, and garlic, and cook 1 minute more. 
• Add chicken, tossing lightly to coat with curry oil. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink in center.
• Pour coconut milk, tomatoes, tomato sauce, and sugar into the pan, and stir to combine. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

I served this up with jasmine rice and - for all you good strive for 5-ers- also a side salad of baby lettuce tossed in  oil & vinegar. Can you guess whose plate is whose? 

I'm proud of how I executed this recipe. Yes, that's right, I'm proud of my weeknight dinner creation. I really took this recipe and gave it my own twist by adding the red pepper and changing up the spice combination as well as the type of sugar used. Also - using light coconut milk instead of just regular made this dish not only good for the taste buds but also good for the hips. 

ps- I got my coolpix camera working again! Amazing what charging the battery will do. Mind you it's not that fancy but it's better than the usual iphone/ ipad I've been using (the pic above of the red pepper is via the iphone but the rest are taken with the camera). I'm still hoping Santa brings me something bigger and better in the photo equipment department. But until then, Ashton Kutcher's camera of choice will do just fine. 

All About the Dishwasher (and then some...)

Another post about dishwashers you say? ugh but yes! When I found this, I squealed with random fact overload delight and knew I had to share it. It's a poster ad all about the dishwasher created by the geniuses over at Ikea. Added into the mix of useless knowledge is sarcasm and real life tweets related to dishwashers -all for your comedic enjoyment. I could only grab this as a jpg file so you might need to do a little right click save as action and re-open the file in order to read all of it. Do it. It's worth it. At least my nerdy appliance self thinks so.

"Must go. The dishwasher is beeping. That's an appliance btw, not a seventies nickname for my wife." -@wossy

Obsessed With...

Orange a Day Chair, $350.00 (RubbishRehab) - gorg. totes gorg. I know I'd find a perfect spot for this in my dream home. in my dream library by my dream fireplace. 

Etsy as usual. But this is the fall addition of everything I'm currently loving on this fantastic site. Need a cute Halloween costume for your adorable tot? Autumn themed papers in lovey warm colors? or foliage inspired arm candy? Etsy is the place, as always, for you. (wow. Etsy needs to seriously consider me as a spokesperson....)

Oak and Acorn Paper Garland, $10.00 ( Paperacron) - I probably could DIY but for 10 bucks why not?

Burlap Halloween Wreath, $36.95 (MADCraftsDesigns) - It even comes with a removable chalkboard sign so you can personalize a message!

Gold Leaf Necklace, $41.00 (divinestampings) - so affordable. so pretty.

Halloween Argyle Dog Collar, $8.50 (jennamichelle)- maybe your  furry friend is too grown-up for a full on pet costume. This a classy but still fun alternative!

 

Fall Tie Onesie, $24.50 (CoutureForKids) - I don't think anything gets cuter than this. 

Vegan Adventures

Yesterday, we celebrated my dad's birthday. And you couldn't ask for a more beautiful fall day- a perfect sunshine filled day. In fact, it was even a little warm in my opinion for October.

We headed over to my parent's house to watch the Bills game and so I could help my mom prepare this special birthday Sunday Dinner.

My dad hates anything that even remotely resembles a vegetable. His standing rule is that if something is green, he won't eat it. There is no convincing him of striving for five. How healthy. We have a family tradition that the birthday honoree always gets to pick what is served at his/her birthday celebration. His birthday entree of choice: scalloped potatoes and baked ham. ew. And, aside from C, a dish disliked by everyone else in the family. But, rules are rules, and the Birthday Boy gets what he wants on his birthday.

To ensure that everyone else could find something to eat, my mom also made a lovely roasted chicken with fresh sides of broccoli, cauliflower, and roasted butternut squash. I made my very popular thin crust pizza appetizers w/ whole wheat crust for appetizers.

I also made a vegan friendly quiona dish for my recently turned vegan aunt. So I named it in her honor.

Ro Ro Quiona 

(adapted from Heather's Quiona via 101 Cookbooks)

Ingredients:

•  a splash of extra-virgin olive oil
• a pinch of fine grain sea salt
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 cup uncooked quiona 
• 1 cup corn, fresh or frozen
•  1/2 cups kale, spinach or other hearty green, finely chopped
• 2 cups extra-firm nigari tofu, browned in a skillet a bit
• 1/3 cup Sharwood's pineapple and coconut milk sauce 
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted

Directions: 

• Prepare quiona. Rinse about 1 cup quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa and 2 cups water until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Set aside. 
• In a big skillet or pot heat the olive oil and salt over medium-high heat. Stir in the shallot and cook for a minute or two. 
• Stir in the quinoa and corn and cook until hot and sizzling. Stir in the kale and then the tofu, cooking until tofu is heated through. Remove the skillet from heat and stir in the pineapple sauce and pumpkin seeds. Mix well so the sauce is spread throughout. Serve warm. 

I was nervous but this dish really turned out - my aunt (and mom and even C!) loved it. The original recipe called for pesto which isn't usually vegan friendly. I don't know what got me thinking pineapple or Indian flavoring but it works here. The pumpkin seeds give the dish an extra and very welcoming crunch. 

My dad didn't opt to take any as the bowl of quiona came his way around the table. His loss :) 

"Cheater" Chocolate Cupcakes

 Earlier this week, I came down with a cold (passed on from C thanks a lot I'm really feeling the love...) that left me dragging. Thursday night I really didn't feel like baking. And I was sad because I had high hopes of finally getting to those homemade poptarts. Boo.

I didn't want to disappoint C's co-workers because I know they were expecting some goodies come Friday morning. Solution: a boxed cake mix. Eeekk. I'm not ashamed. Every baker needs a help sometimes. Plus, if you add in your own elements to a pre-made mix - like chocolate chips and quick easy as can be homemade frosting- something so generic becomes a lot more fun. 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 box dark chocolate cake mix 
• 1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar 

Directions: 

• Prepare cake batter according to package.  Add in 1/2 cup chocolate chips to batter. Bake according to package.  Allow to cool. 
• In microwave, combine chocolate chips and butter and melt. (My microwave has a melt option that works perfectly but if you don't have that option try microwaving in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until the chocolate + butter are melted. Be careful not to scorch the mixture.) 
• Stir until smooth and pour mixture into a bowl electric mixer and add sour cream. Beat until combined. 
• Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time beating until incorporated and desired consistency is achieved. 
• Frost cupcakes. Enjoy! 

 

I really hate the taste (yikes too sweet) of canned frosting so I would never use it - no matter how sick. This frosting is super super easy and fast to make. The sour cream gives the frosting not only a great cream consistency but helps balance out the sweetness of the powdered sugar.  The only thing I wish I did differently - jazz the cupcakes up with some rainbow colored jimmies. Next time. Next time.

PS- Super excited for the Bills game tomorrow. Let's Go Buffalo!