Weekend Breakfasts

During the week I get to work about an hour and a half before I am "contracted" to be there.  I put that in quotes because if I showed up at my contracted time, I would have kids entering the classroom along with me. So as you can imagine weekday breakfast, like yours, are quick...typically instant oatmeal or toast.  On the weekends, I love to bake breakfast!

I do in fact mean bake not make.  I am not an egg eater (unless it's baked into something amazing!), nor do I care for bacon (I know, I know! You LOVE bacon!) or sausage.  So I usually end up baking something carb-filled and scrumptious!  I most often make pancakes or waffles. I could eat pancakes every day, but my husband prefers waffles.  I have fantastic recipes for both, that maybe I'll share on here!

The kitchen counter displayed some very ripe bananas this morning.  I hate to just throw bananas away, so I make banana bread or muffins...which are far from being good for you.  I recently found this pin for Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins and figured they'd be a much healthier way to use up the bananas.

I followed the recipe almost exactly.  The recipe called for 2 Tbl. of flaxseed, which I did not have.  Flaxseed is used for a few different purposes- one of which is an egg substitute.  Since the recipe called for eggs, I knew it wasn't that.  Another purpose can be as substitute for oil or butter, and once again, this recipe had Greek yogurt, so I figured I could rule out that purpose.  I decided the flaxseed could have been for flavor, so I added a dash of cinnamon instead.  The tiny hint of cinnamon was fantastic!

My verdict: I'll definitely make these muffins again- I didn't feel guilty for eating two!

Birthday Cake

There's nothing better than dipping your finger (I am mean, a spoon...) into scrumptious buttercream frosting.  My husband even nags me to make the frosting long before the cupcakes (or cake) are ready for them.


Saturday I was baking a cake for my dear friend *of 16 years* birthday.  I didn't know what to make, but decided a more traditional cake would be best.  So I went for my yellow cake with chocolate buttercream.

My hands down favorite yellow cake recipe, that I've made came from King Arthur flour.  The recipe can be found here: Golden Vanilla Cake. Everytime I make this cake though, I am afraid that I have over baked it.  The outside feels dry, but then everytime I bite into a piece of this cake, I am so impressed with how moist it is.

For the frosting, I have made various chocolate buttercreams.  My favorite has been Georgetown Cupcake's recipe for it (Found in the book, The Cupcake Diaries).  This time though, I decided to search around for a different buttercream just because...well, maybe I am anxious to get to the 250 mark of Pinterest recipes I've tried. So anyway, I read a few recipes and decided upon Savory Sweet Life's posting of Chocolate Buttercream.

My thoughts?  It was an excellent consistency.  For my layered cake I made 1.5X of the recipe. The frosting had great flavor, but tasted more dark chocolatey than a traditonal chocolate buttercream.  Will I make it again? Probably, but I think I am set in my ways of favoring Georgetown Cupcake's chocolate buttercream.

Here's the final product- complete with a number sign I made with my Cricut.

92 Pinterest recipes later...

11 months and 92 recipes later....here I am again.

School and grad school got too crazy to even attempt to keep up with this...it's amazing I had time to try all of these recipes, but a hey! A girls got to eat, right?

As of tonight, I've made 192 recipes from Pinterest.  There are very few I wouldn't try again.  Several have become regulars...well as regular for someone who has tried 92 new recipes on Pinterest this year can get.

I am trying to figure out what my next 8 recipes will be...especially the 200th one.  It has to be extra amazing.  

I am going to try to get back into this to document my cooking, but mostly my baking.  I'll be sure to post some of the best recipes I've tried on Pinterest and this time actually post pictures to go with them.

Here's to a more successful blogging year!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Torte

Here I am thirty some days into the school year and sick already!  Last year I continually had strep throat and had a tonsillectomy over the summer in hopes to not repeat a year like last year.  I am off work tomorrow per the doctor's instructions so I will be catching up on delayed posts.  I have made 115 recipes from Pinterest.  That's 8 more posts to go...

I made the most unbelievable peanut butter and chocolate dessert from Annie's Eats.  I made this http://www.annies-eats.com/2009/04/10/chocolate-peanut-butter-torte/  chocolate and peanut butter torte for a family dinner party.  I am known in my family for my desserts and everyone knows I am obsessed with chocolate and peanut butter.

This dessert was incredible.  It was so decadent and rich.  The top chocolate layer was bitter, but blended well with the sweetness of the rest of the dessert.  I was disappointed when the cake was finished, but glad for my waist line...this certainly isn't a dessert if you are watching what you eat.  You can't even pretend it's not too bad.

Wednesday Night- Shrimp Night

Such is life, and I haven't posted in over a month! I need to make this a routine in order for this to work.

My next Pinterest recipe was Spicy Parmesan Shrimp Skillet.  Each Wednesday, we eat shrimp.  Wednesday is also trash night.  This has worked out as a great way to enjoy shrimp and then not having to deal with stinky trash.

 The recipe for this can be found here:  http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/02/spicy-parmesan-shrimp-skillet/

This was a fabulous and easy meal.  My week nights are very hectic so anything going on in the kitchen needs to be easy.  I always buy frozen, peeled shrimp.  It saves me a lot of time and I can just keep it stocked in the freezer so I don't have to run to the store during the week.

I did use regular pasta penne for this (not whole wheat).  Whenever I try to sneak whole wheat pasta in Pat reacts as if I was trying to poison him!

Anyway, this was a great recipe.  It is definitely on my list of repeaters!

Hawaiian Grilled Chicken

I saw this on Pinterest of course.  When I went to retrieve the recipe, my original pin didn't link to a recipe. After some searching, I found the recipe to make this Hawaiian Grilled Chicken.  Here's the recipe:
http://www.carddit.com/view/tLPxS2lPS

In order to begin to understand this post, you first need to know that I really, REALLY wanted to be a vegetarian when I was little.  I wanted to be a veg simply because I couldn't/can't stand the thought of knowing where meat came from.  My mom wouldn't allow me to be a vegetarian because I "needed my protein."  So, I would eat filet and chicken.  I never could stand the sight of raw meat.  From the age of ten, I was responsible for cooking dinner one night a week.  Gradually, I had to cook raw meat! I acted as if it should be a crime.  One thing that never changed from my childhood state of mind- I don't eat the edges of my meat because when I was little I thought it was the skin of the animal.  Now I know it is not true, but it is a habit.  Good thing my husband is a carnivore!  By the time I was in college, I obviously needed to even prep raw meat.  Now I can even trim fat off of meat without gagging.

When grocery shopping, I made a HUGE mistake.  I didn't buy boneless and skinless chicken.  I had to buy chicken thighs for this recipe which  I rarely cook with.  And this time, I bought it with skin on and the bone in.  As soon as I realized what I had done, I called on my husband Pat.  I felt nauseous and wanted to toss the 5 pounds of meat.  Pat told me I would be fine and it seemed silly to toss the meat (**Note:  He didn't offer to take the skin off for me.)  Bravely, I peeled of the skin, but firmly believe I have never done anything so disgusting.  I did all of this without touching the meat.  I let the chicken marinade overnight.

This chicken had nice flavor.  I think I would like it even more if I diced up chicken breast instead of using chicken thighs.  This is a recipe I would make again.

Lemon Cookies and Gnocchi

....no! Not together.

After recovering from my sister's housewarming.  I woke quickly to start baking. I made a family recipe for Pignoles which is an Italian cookie with pine nuts.  These were for my father-in-law's birthday.  First time making them and I think quite successful :)


Then I had to rush around making High Tea Lemon Cookies for tea at a friend's.  This recipe was originally posted here:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/Cookie/HighTeaCookies.htm

There is a special note added in the recipe that discusses properly melting the butter.  It says that if you don't melt it correclty, they will be crumbly.  Well, mine was melted correctly; mine were crumbly.  I think the recipe calls for too much cornstarch.  The cookies have a nice flavor, but several fell apart.  When eating them, I also felt the consistency was weird. If I try these again, I will use less cornstarch.


Coming home from the tea, I quickly made recipe 103- Gnocchi with Sausage, Fennel, and Tomatoes.

The recipe is here:  http://www.divaeatsitalia.com/?page_id=84

I liked the recipe.  It was good-but nothing great.  I used store bought gnocchi for this recipe (although I have made my own gnocchi several times).  I really like the tip on this blog for the gnocchi.  It suggests pan searing the gnocchi.  My husband and I thought that it really stepped up the store bought gnocchi.  The recipe itself was easy to follow.