for dinner tonight:

i had
a little cucumber,
some shiitake mushrooms cooked in some butter, with crumbled goat cheese on top,
some chicken marinated in recipe from a yogurt container
some toast from a rosemary loaf with apricot jam, butter, and goat cheese on top
a blood orange.

and that was delicious.

sometimes i really love food.
and it doesn't require much effort.

chicken marinated in:
1 cup yogurt
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 tablespoon sage (i apparently don't have rosemary or thyme. but i had sage, so i gave it a try.)
1 teaspoon salt (it asked for a tablespoon but in the end that is really unnecessary)
1 teaspoon pepper

Gingerbread cookies on Christmas Day

I used this recipe:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/12/spicy-gingerbread-cookies/#more-7015

I found that if you roll them extra thick, like a thick 1/4 inch, and bake them 10 minutes instead of 12, then they turn out wonderfully soft, but of course that was only on the third set that i figured that out. Still, everything is tasty with enough frosting...

Peach and Blueberry Pie

I had some leftover pie dough from Molly's pie, so I made a pie shell and browsed recipes for something to do with it... I had a can of peaches, and 3 cups of frozen blueberries.  This really became an experiment. I used honey and white sugar instead of brown sugar because I didn't have any (which didn't come out too bad, but i can definitely taste a hint of honey). I think i should have used half as much sugar though in the first place, this pie is really sweet. The recipe I used is from a peach and blueberry cobbler on Smitten Kitchen.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/07/cornmeal-drop-biscuit-peach-blueberry-cobbler/

Filling:
3 cups peaches cut into slices
3 cups blueberries
2 tablespoons flour
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

-Roseanne

Lemon Meringue Pie

I made a lemon meringue pie for Molly's Birthday! its a little more brown than i would have liked, but hopefully it tastes nice. She isn't a big fan of crust so i tried to make it thin.

I'm not sure what the name of the book was that i got this recipe from, but its at my mom's house, and the cover is red and white plaid...


Lemon Meringue Pie:

1 1/5 cups sugar
3 T cornstarch
3 T flour
Dash salt
1 1/2 cups hot water
-In a saucepan, gradually stir in water and bring to a boil. Cook while stirring for 2 more minutes, and remove from heat)

3 slightly beaten egg yolks
2 T butter
1/2 t grated lemon peel
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 9 inch baked pastry shell, cooled
- Stir part of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, then combine with the rest. Bring it to boiling and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Add butter and lemon peel. Slowly add lemon juice, mixing well. Pour into pastry shell.

Meringue:
3 egg whites
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 t cream tarter
4 T sugar
- Beat egg whites with vanilla and cream of tarter til soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff and glossy peaks form and all sugar is  dissolved. Spread meringue over hot filling.

- Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool before cutting.

Sorry there's so much sugar molly :)

-Roseanne

quiche!

 I used another Smitten Kitchen recipe, but I added I think 3 extra eggs and some tomatoes, because I wanted it to fill the pie tin and I didn't have as much spinach as it asked for.  I didn't feel that those changes could have a very negative affect on the over all taste, I love all the ingredients when they're on their own anyway. And I was right, its a great quiche.

recipe:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/ah-ha-ha-come-and-take-my-hand/

Also, here is my tiny pink Christmas tree!




- Roseanne

homemade oreos!

Ok this was the other night, but we forgot to take pictures of the final product.  But i'm still posting it!

Molly has been invited to a ladies night extravaganza, and is dragging me along with her.  On a whim, we decided to bring cookies. We used a homemade oreo recipe that i found on Smitten Kitchen. I've made it before with success, and its pretty easy even though there is some assembly required.

The recipe is here:
http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/

Ladies night was a lot of fun by the way.  And these are delicious. They actually taste like real oreos, thats the amazing part, but they're also better.

Asian noodle soup

This is a very simple recipe that my mom taught me to make when I have leftover spaghetti. It is delicious and healthy and can be changed up depending on what you have in your fridge.  I am a vegetarian so this could easily be modified to satisfy a meat eater or I think it is delicious just the way it is!

Start off by chopping up 1/2-1 leek depending on how much you like, I personally love it so I use a whole one and place it in a sauce pan.  Then add a cup or two of water also depending on how much liquid in the soup you want.  Add 1 or 2 packets of Trader Joe's vegetarian broth (they come in little green boxes), a splash of sesame oil, and soy sauce to taste. I also like to add some sliced or grated ginger.  I never seem to be able to use an entire knob of ginger so I was taught to put it in the freezer and then just grate it! It is a great trick. Turn up to medium and let the leeks cook. While the water is coming up to a boil chop up broccoli and jalapeno then add it. Once the broccoli is almost cooked add frozen green peas (my favorite food) and some left over spaghetti noodles.  In the picture below I used whole wheat, to make it even healthier than it already is!  I think this recipe is good and easy and really anything could be added to it.

-Molly