Friday Favorites

Table setting Guide - This has table settings for a formal, breakfast, casual and a few others. Plus it has printable guides to help you out as you actually set the table.

5 Ingredient Chicken Recipes

The 25 Most Common Cooking Mistakes - I found the list interesting and regretfully I have done many of them.

Okay this is a new one for me that I am trying out and might have a review for it in the future....

Alice.com - I have found many of their products are either the same price as I pay now or lower. You can select your products just to store or to put in your cart and then the best feature....FREE SHIPPING! Another feature I really think I will enjoy is that you can set up reminders - so that it will send you a reminder to order something. Such as if you go through your granola bars every 3 weeks then you can set up a reminder to order them every 3 weeks. I haven't used it yet. But I think I will and if so....will do a review.

How to Replace a Kitchen Faucet - Just a good link to have around.

Book Review: Soup Galore

Soup Galore by Elisabeth Luard

This isn't much of a review but I just didn't like the book all that much. I thought that was something I should say at least. Although I think this book has recipes for a huge variety of soups, I still think I would go with another soup book. This book had many soup recipes that I had never heard of but not many I would cook. It had many good recipes but not many that I could just grab ingredients out of my pantry to make. Such as Rabbit Soup with Beer and Prunes or Chilled Sorrel Soup. If I wanted to go a good soup book, I would go with the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special book or Cook Illustrated The Best of Soups and Stews.

Friday Favorites

Country Living Soup Recipes - These are soup recipes for every seasons....including Cool Cantaloupe Soup with Basil Cream, Tomato and Garlic Bread Soup, Ginger-Pumpkin Soup, Cuban-Coffee Chili and so many other delicious looking recipes. I am all about soups this time of year but they had some combination that looked great for every season.

Grocery Store Planner via Design*Sponge - not only does it have how-to on covering the clipboard and the pencil holder but also pdfs to download and print for the grocery store lists and menu planning lists

Project Calculator - It has calculators for figuring out how much paint, wood flooring, vinyl flooring, tile, grass see and several others ones. I am horrible in figuring out those type of things so I see this coming in handy when we start remodeling our bathrooms.

Girl's Night Casserole Swap - First I wouldn't limit this to just girls but friends in general. So how about getting several of your liked minded friends together to do a casserole swap. So that you get something to freeze and have a dinner made some night. And you will have left overs too. I not only like this idea for getting a night off from cooking but the camaraderie and just being able to hang with other liked minded women is always a good thing to mental health.

Declutter Your Bathroom - a list of 11 things to help declutter your bathroom.

Leftovers

We are, I think, in the minority of liking leftovers. If we had roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and veggies one night, we are fine having roasted turkey with mashed potatoes and veggies the next night too. And when you cook for two, like I do, you always seem to have leftovers. But sometimes I don't have enough mashed potatoes for the next night. Or when I made that meatloaf I didn't use a full pound of pork so what do I do with the other half. Or maybe I chopped up a whole onion, bell pepper or other veggies, but only use half. Those things need to be used or at least frozen. So when I have leftover browned sausage, I put in the freezer to add to baked beans or on a french bread or pita pizza. Left over veggies can be used or frozen for omelets, stir-fry or soups. Leftover chicken can be used so many ways - put in a casseroles, tacos, soups, salads and so on. But sometimes the leftovers can be used simply for a sandwich.

Sunday we had a pot roast with roasted veggies. And sometimes I will use that leftover roast beef for beef stroganoff or stew but yesterday I looked in the pantry and saw some Whole Wheat Bolillo buns (a long bun that tapers at each end) that I picked up on the day old bread rack at the grocery very inexpensively. I knew I needed to use those up - so the easiest dinner for me came to mind - sandwiches.

* sliced left over roast beef - left over london broil, pork roast, steak, chicken or turkey work too
* bun - sliced brats, kaiser, bolillo or whatever you have on hand
* toppings - sauteed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers or just bbq sauce or horseradish
* cheese - sliced or shredded any kind you want

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9 x 13 cake pan with tin foil. I fit 5 sandwiches in the cake pan so you might need a larger pan if you need to do more. I have lined a big jelly roll pan when needing to a larger batch. Layer roast beef in the buns. Place each of them in the pan. Pour bbq sauce on them and/or add other toppings. And then add cheese on top.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes and cheese is melted and gooey.

Serve and eat!




I wanted to point out that Allrecipes.com has an option to search by ingredient. It even allows you to put in ingredients you don't want. So if you are in a pinch and don't know what to cook or have some left overs you want to get rid of without wasting then I suggest trying out that feature.

Friday Favorites

Just a few links...some of course are Valentine's Day inspired. I know many don't celebrate it and in fact we are very romantic but we don't do a lot on Valentine's as our anniversary is the first of the month. But I am sure we will do something.....even if it is a romantic dinner at home.

So here are a few Valentine inspired links but also a few that can be used all year round or for other celebrations or special occasions....

Light Your Lover's Fire - sensual homemade massage oils

And just a FAQ on massage oils

Champagne and Sparkling Wine Cocktails - so many yummy recipes.

20 Lightened Chocolate Recipes by Cooking Light

Martha Stewart's Making Valentine Cards

Felt Fortune Cookies

Sentimental Valentine's Wheel - Okay this is mostly because I think it might be a cute idea to make something like but with a twist of course...make it more sexy, naughty and kinky!

Crock Pot Pasta Sauce

Some time ago I came across a recipe for making pasta sauce in the crock pot. I then promptly lost the link because I'm organized like that. With yesterday being such a cold, blustery day, and with a kitchen stocked with the ingredients that I could remember being in the dish, I decided to give it a go.



First, I sauteed some chopped onion, carrots and celery in a small amount of olive oil until soft. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, dumped in a can of tomato paste and let that all cook together for awhile.



I used about 6 oz. of red wine and deglazed the pan. Then I let that all simmer together until it was thick and bubbly and smelled amazing.



While that was simmering, I put 3 cans of diced tomatoes and 2 cans of stewed tomatoes (all normal sized cans) into the crock pot. I dumped in the wine-veggie mixture, added two bay leaves and a healthy sprinkle of italian seasoning.



I stirred it all up, set the crock on low and left it to cook, about 6 hours or so.

The house smelled divine. My tummy growled all day long.

Because the sauce was all chunky with big pieces of stewed tomato and carrots, and because none of us particularly like chunky sauce, I used my hand held blender, stuck it right in the crock and blended it all up, removing the bay leaves first, of course.



I'm sure that is an optional step if you like chunky sauce, but it sure seemed to open up and smooth out the flavors. I poured in a bag of frozen meatballs (which I would have preferred to make myself but didn't have the ingredients on hand) just because My Man is a caveman-esque meat-eater.

I served it over whole grain rotini pasta, with a side of veggies and a slice of buttered french bread.



Though it filled my 6 quart crock about 3/4 of the way, I had just enough left to make Master's lunch today and that was it. It was a hit with everybody.

The wine gave it a very distinctly sharp flavor. Though it was really good, next time, I think I might try deglazing with broth and see if the flavor is a little more subtle. I'm also going to leave out the meatballs, or have them on the side. I thought they added too much grease cooking them in the sauce.

I can't tell you exactly what it cost to make the sauce because I had most everything in the kitchen already. But I'm pretty sure that for 5 to 6 quarts of pasta sauce, this was much cheaper than buying that amount pre-made. Plus, it tasted so much better than anything I've ever gotten in a jar.

Someday I'll work up to using whole, fresh tomatoes plucked straight from my garden. But I'm still just a baby in the kitchen. ;)

Burning Recipes

I was doing a search on youtube for cooking videos. I have come upon good cooking videos there often.

And I found this one - which I love. It is about burning your recipes and thinking of cooking as an art. I agree with that thought. I love looking at recipes. I love using them. But to be comfortable in the kitchen and cooking, you often have to take a leap of faith by throwing out the recipes and going for it. Experiment and give yourself permission to burn food and to ruin meals. It is okay to learn. Learning creates growth in skills and comfortableness in the kitchen. So take a look at this video and think about taking a leap of faith and going for it.

Friday Favorites

Lisa's Kitchen - After posting yesterdays review of the Moosewood Restaurant cookbook, it made me realize that I hadn't posted this website before. It has a lot of really good recipes for vegetarians. I also look at them for meals for us when we go meatless or some to add as a side dish.

Free Printable Book Plates - We love books around here. And in the past I have lost a few books due to lending. But having a book plate in them helps those you lend them to remember the owner of the book. These are also stylish without being overly girly.

Wine 4 Beginners - I saw this website mentioned by another blogger so checked it out. It is what it says it - Wine 4 Beginners.

Appreciate your Imperfect World - I don't think we shouldn't strive for excellence in everything we do but there are some things here that I know I should remember.

Vintage Sewing Info - Okay this is a wealth of information on vintage sewing. It has many books online that I know I would never get to see in person. And I am sure I could learn a lot from many of these books.

Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special

Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special: More Than 275 Recipes for Soups, Stews, Salads and Extras

I am not vegetarian like most readers of this book seem to be so the seafood sections didn't bother me at all but I haven't actually even been interested in those sections as much as the others. (Those seafood sections aren't very long out of the 400 page book.) This book is soups, salads and then some extras to go with them such as dressings, croutons, breads and such.

I have only made a couple recipes from this book so far each were amazing. I see so many recipes I would love to try when looking through it. I think even with the seafood sections if your vegetarian or just like a diet with a lot of veggies, this cookbook will add new elements to your meals. These soups and salads are meant to be starters to a meal but I really feel these are so good that they are meals in themselves. Also these are great to make and have for lunches during the week.

The fall backs of this book are that the recipes are time intensive as they have a very long list of ingredients and not all the ingredients are just things I have on hand normally. But I would still urge people to check the book out and at least cook one or 2 of the recipes so that you can see how amazing they put flavors together.

Just a few of the recipes you will find in this book: Cream of Spinach Soup, Black Bean & Chipolte Soup, Jamacian Tomato Soup, French Pasta Salad, Tostada Salad, Low-fat Tomato Basil Dressing and Herbed Cheese Quick Bread.

Also one of my other favorite things about this book is that at the bottom of each recipe it lists other recipes that would go good with the recipe - including the page number which is very helpful.

Overall this book seems to be a good one as it has many recipes that look so good and I can't wait to try. And the few I did try were so good. It is one I think I would enjoy having in the kitchen all the time.

Homemade Soup Stock

Both Master and I enjoy soup, especially in the winter months. Generally, I make a big pot and we eat on it for two or three nights with some homemade bread. As much as we like soup, we obviously go through a lot of stock / broth. I searched everywhere for something we liked. Neither one of us found a bouillon all that good, just salty. Chicken and Beef base was ok but it was hard in our small town to find one that wasn't full of MSG. Good organic broth seemed to be the best but also incredibly expensive in the quantity that we go through.

Finally, I started making my own. It isn't all that difficult, its super frugal, and just plain yummy. I start by saving bones from various meals in freezer bags and freezing until I get enough bones to fill an entire stock pot. Save those whole chicken carcasses, whether from a home-roasted or store bought rotisserie chicken. Beef bones from roasts, steaks, the new year prime rib, etc. All that even ones that we might have gnawed on, get frozen (you're going to boil it later anyway).

When I have enough bones to fill a pot, I do so. In the pot also goes a head of garlic, with the top cut off so the cloves show a bit, an onion that has been peeled and quartered, a handful of celery, another handful of carrots, 3 bay leaves and some whole black peppercorns. I let that all simmer away on the stove for about 8 hours - a gentle simmer not a rolling boil. At the end of that 8 hours, strain out all the bones and veggies. Put the strained broth into the fridge and let it sit overnight. In the morning, all of the fat will have congealed on the surface of the broth. I skim that off, and toss it. You could leave the fat if you wanted too or save it for some other purpose (frying, etc.).

At this point your broth is ready to use or store. It stores well in the freezer or if you're not afraid of a pressure-canner, it can be canned for long-term pantry storage. Freeze the broth in quantities you're likely to use it in, 2 or 4 cups for instance. This way you can just dump the frozen broth into a pot and cook when you're ready to make soup.

Friday Favorties

Chalk Dehumidifier - I receive Martha Stewart's organizational tips in my email daily and this one was either today or yesterday. But I am curious has anyone tried it? Does it work? It just sounds like one of those off the wall solutions that not in a million years would I have ever thought of on my own.

Chicken Paillards with Clementine Salsa - These look so good. And right now we are seeing clementines at every grocery store.

Wallpaper Maintenance - from cleaning it to to hanging it and the problems with that...just all sorts of wallpaper maintenance how-tos and suggestions.

In my Chocolate Peanut Popcorn post, I have a picture of the popcorn in ziplocks with little toppers that I stapled on to the bags. I made them in photoshop but you could easily make them in Word. The images I used for the toppers are all free vintage images from Dover. I signed up and they send me a weekly email that links to free samples. And I download the ones I like to my computer. I use them for greeting cards, gift wrap, making recipe cards, pdf files, tags and the toppers. I just find all sorts of uses for them.

Paint Your Place by Behr.com - You can upload a photo of the room and then go through colors and see it on the walls of the photo. I think it would be a cool test drive before painting. (If that link doesn't take you directly to Paint Your Place: Go to the Explore Color Smart - the menu will drop down and then Paint Your Place is the last options)

Gourmet Popcorn: Butterscotch

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups peanuts (optional)

Heat oven to 250 degrees F. Line a large cookie sheet (or 2) with tinfoil. Spray with cooking spray.

Pop the popcorn. Put nuts and popcorn in a very large bowl.

Bring brown sugar, corn syrup and butter to boil, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in butterscotch chips, vanilla extract, baking soda and salt until blended and smooth. It will foam up when you put in the baking soda - that is normal.

Working quickly and using two spoons, pour syrup over popcorn and nuts, stirring to coat thoroughly.

Pour mixture into pan; bake 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, cool mixture in pan about 15 minutes. Turn mixture out of pan onto foil to cool completely.
Break popcorn into smaller pieces; store in airtight containers in cool dry place up to 2 weeks.

Gourmet Popcorn: Zesty

Zesty Popcorn
1/2 cup unpopped popcorn
6 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups pretzels - optional

Pop the popcorn. Place in a large bowl (or 2 bowls if you don't have anything large enough to to place all the popcorn).

Combine butter, paprika, chili powder, salt, garlic and onion powder - stirring well. Pour over popped corn; stir to coat popcorn as evenly as possible. Turn mixture onto baking sheet. Sprinkle half the cheese on the popcorn. Bake at 250 degrees F for 20 minutes or until crispy; stirring once. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and toss to coat evenly. Let stand on baking sheet, stirring once or twice as mixture cools.

When thoroughly cool, store in airtight ziplock bags or container.

NOTES:
* I used butter but I am sure margarine would work also.
* My second batch of this I used Penzey's BBQ 3000 in place of the paprika and chili powder and it was even better. The first batch, as the recipe is above, was really good but the BBQ 3000 just gave it a little something extra.
* I added pretzels to my second batch too and that was a hit too. I am sure peanuts in it would be great too.

Gourmet Popcorn: Chocolate Peanut

For Christmas I had to be very creative with my gifts as we just didn't have the money to spend on gifts. And I wanted to think outside my handmade/homemade gifts. And still giving gifts I thought my friends and family would enjoy.

One of the gifts I created was "Gourmet" Popcorn. The popcorn kernels are very inexpensive as well as the ingredients to use on them. I then packaged them in ziplocks and designed and printed out little toppers for the bags.




The reason though I am posting this now is because any of these would make a great treat for a Super Bowl party. I served them at a Christmas party and they were gobbled up. And everyone was in awe that I made them...that they weren't "store bought" gourmet popcorn. I have 3 recipes but will post one a day for the next 3 days as I don't want this to be a huge long post.




Chocolate Peanut Popcorn
1/2 cup popcorn kernels
1 1/2 cups peanuts (other nuts would be good I am sure too - such as cashews or almonds)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
6 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoons coarse salt

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Take a rimmed large cookie sheet (or jelly roll pan or 2 smaller rimmed cookie sheets) and line it with tinfoil. Spray it with cooking spray. Pop the popcorn and place in a large bowl. Add the peanuts and set aside. Put sugar, corn syrup, butter, cocoa, and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until mixture comes to a gentle simmer, about 5 minutes.

Pour sugar mixture over popcorn and nuts; toss to coat. Keeping tossing even if it doesn't look like it is coating well. And even if you are having trouble getting it to coat "well" - it doesn't need to have chocolate on every bit of popcorn. It will be good no matter how the chocolate mixture coated the popcorn. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake until dry. Stirring every 20 minutes and cooking about 1 hour. Cool on sheet on wire racks. And then break apart into pieces. Store in airtight containers or ziplocks.

Friday Favorites...

January's my month to nest and be crafty, so I'm including some of my new favorites.

For those who make jams, etc... here's a few cute options for packaging and printable labels/tags.

• Fabric Jam Jar Topper How To + Free Printable Jam Tags & Labels
• DIY Home Made Jam Packaging- Free Labels

Artful Arranging
Some great ideas on different ways to arrange art in space. I love how many photos there are to inspire and illustrate examples of using the space.


DIY: Canvas Frame Inspiration Boards
Tutorial for a cute inexpensive craft project- customize with your favorite fabric. Make one, or several for a mosaic-like effect.


Refreshing Your Home- 8 tips
Timeless, easy, inexpensive tips on freshening up your home space.


Tutorial: Glossy Bookmark or Magnet
Excellent tutorial, with step by step instructions on how to make some thoughtful gifts for about $2 each. I liked how you had the option to make it a magnet, or a bookmark, with charm or without.

Maple Butterscotch Cake

We got a new oven right before Thanksgiving. And this cake was the first cake I baked in the new oven. When I made this cake in my old oven, it didn't turn out too good. But Master loves maple so I knew I needed to tackle it again for his birthday. And it turned out perfectly. Unfortunately my photo didn't. It came out blurry. The cake has amazing flavor but I have to say this frosting is to die for....really Oh my! You know the maple frosting on donuts? That is kind of what it tastes like only this is better. Trust me!




Maple Butterscotch Cake

Cake:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or cake flour*)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Frosting:
1/3 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon maple extract


Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13-inch pan.

For the cake cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl at least once. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the extracts and mix to combine.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. And then add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk.

Pour the batter into the pan, spread it out evenly and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch and a pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes.

For the frosting put the butterscotch chips and half of the butter in a heatproof bowl, and melt together over low heat or at low power in the microwave. Stir until smooth; if it looks a little broken, that's okay. (If you have made my maple fudge you know the same thing happens)

Put the other half of the butter in a mixing bowl with half of the confectioners' sugar. Mix until smooth and then add the melted chip mixture. Add the rest of the sugar and beat again until you have a smooth frosting. Mix in the extract. Add the milk if necessary to make the frosting a spreadable consistency - which I find I always need to add it. Spread the frosting evenly over cake. Serve.


* Cake Flour gives it just a little bit different texture to me - probably better but I usually don't have cake flour around. Though you can "make" your own. But read about subbing all-purpose flour for cake flour and how to make your own cake flour.

Friday Favorites

Hot Coupon World - This was a link given to me by Sanna, a reader of Domestic. You have to register but it is free. And then it not only gives you coupons but has forums, chat, blogs and other resources on saving money on your grocery bills.

All You - it is a paper magazine but I found the link to the website in Real Simple. The website is full of tips on "enjoying life for less." A few articles I read and enjoyed....5 Coupon Blogs We Love, 6 Ways to Make Couponing Easy, A Month's Worth of Money Saving Ideas and 8 Surprising Foods You Can Freeze

Makes Great Leftovers from Woman's Day - We like leftovers so this link caught my eye. It had some recipes that were different to me. I am going to try to create a calendar of new recipes I want I try and hopefully add at least one of these.

Pretty Plastic Bag Organizer from Martha Stewart - I have one of these that was made by someone else and given to us. And it made from an ugly towel. But it is hung in the pantry where no one but me sees it and it works well. It is getting very old though and I think there is a little hole in the towel the cords are being worn away from how I have it hung so making a new one with a towel I like might be in order eventually.

Tie a Tie - It has how-to's for several knots, length calculator, tips and tricks, tells you about various necktie accessories and so on.

6 Changes

After posting Friday Favorites yesterday I was reading a website that linked to this website....6 Changes. And it is a website that many of us would like and could. It is a website about creating 6 new habits for 2010. Now I am not one for resolutions but I am for setting goals anytime of the year. And so I think this website would help in creating those goals and working towards the end result.

What goals do you have set for yourself?

Friday Favorites (on Saturday Morning)

Last night our internet went out just as I was going to post Friday Favorites so...here they are on Saturday morning instead.



Get Organized - This is a long list of tips to get organized in the new year. I repeat it is a long list. It might overwhelm so I would just read it through and pick 1 to 5 things you want to accomplish and then when you do those come back and pick a few more.

Top Ten Organizing Resolutions for the New Year - I really think 7, 8 and 9 are good for all but also a very good reminder for those of us in service.

Organized Home - also has some great tips and articles on organizing for the year.

Clickable House - Click on a room of the house and it gets you tips for organizing that room.

Storage Solutions for Your Home - some tips on creating and looking for storage solutions for your home

DIY Storage Solutions - a list of projects to create more storage in your home

and I will end with a recipe that I think I want to make for brunch tomorrow...

Brown Sugar Pancakes

Menu

Happy New Year! I don't like to make resolutions but I do usually have a few goals for the new year and this year...I am hoping to change up my menus more this year. I have a folder that it stuffed full of "want to try" recipes and never seem to get around to it. So this year my aim is try a new recipe a month. If I try more, great! But I don't want to set myself up to do one a week and then not get around to them. So once a month should be do-able goal.

But in the meantime here is 2 weeks of menus....

Last week's menu....
Sun -nachos
Mon - spaghetti and Italian sausages with homemade tomato sauce, salad and bread sticks
Tues - frittata (potatoes, veggies and cheese) and baked apples
Wed - left overs
Thurs - grilled cheese and tomato soup
Fri - ham, creamed potatoes, green beans
Sat - ham sandwich, potato chips, pickles

This week's....
Sun - baked pork chops sprinkled with seasonings, fettuccine noodles tossed with fat-free half and half and chopped spinach and Parmesan cheese and ground pepper, steamed California veggies lemon squeezed on it and sprinkled with ground pepper
Mon - sloppy joe skillet and mixed veggies
Tues - baked potatoes loaded with veggies and cheese
Wed - patty melts and salad
Thurs - omelets and biscuits
Fri - shredded pork in the crockpot with Rotel and pinto beans - serving on tortillas with toppings
Sat - grilled chicken breasts, risotto and peas