Cookies, Pancakes and Pierogies

Well, it has been about 10 days apparently since I blogged last, which disappoints me but also surprises me because it feels like it has been a lot longer!  We had some freezing rain last night and are still having some at random times today.  Everything is so completely frozen and icy its rather scary!  I've been seeing the large snow plows driving by several times already just putting out loads and loads of salt on the roads.  I'm very glad I don't have go to anywhere today and can just stay home under a blanket and in front of a heater.

I was writing an email to a close friend about a half hour ago and saw something funny.

Apparently I'm having a conversation with a human.  As opposed to everyone else?  hehe.  By the way, it was human resources from a bank, funny though!

Earlier this week, on Monday, I wanted some German pancakes with buttermilk syrup, so I made some.

I made them a little bit different than I usually do and my pancakes weren't as alien as they usually are, which was awesome!  Anyone that makes German pancakes probably knows what I mean by "alien."  If you don't know what I mean, look at the edges on the left side, it usually comes up and over the pancakes a ton more than that, so this was amazing!  And the buttermilk syrup turned out pretty good too!  Here is the link for the recipe: GERMAN PANCAKES.  Yum!  It calls for a lot of eggs, which suits us pretty well as we are starting to swim in eggs now that more chickens are laying!

I also made my mother in law's recipe for sugar cookies!  I MEANT to half the recipe, but I accidentally got excited with the eggs and put in the amount for the full recipe.  So....I ended up with a TON of sugar cookies!  I'm not complaining...they are delicious!  Thanks mother in law!!!  :)

 I only had one casualty...(poor little guy hit the floor...)

Because there were sooo many, we decided to frost them as we went instead of frosting them all at once!  So, I don't have any pictures of that.

I also thought I would try my hand at making pierogies.  We usually buy Mrs. T's pierogies from Wal-Mart, but we thought it would be fun to try to make our own.  I used This Recipe mixed with some info from another pierogi recipe.  The other recipe said to add some sour cream and I thought that might be a good addition.  I also halved the recipe, but that still made me end up with about a billion pierogies...You'll see.

First, I made the mashed cheesy potatoes.  I used about 2 and a half pounds of red skinned potatoes and about 10 ounces of mild cheddar cheese, grated.  I don't know if you have heard of this, but apparently if you put a wooden spoon over a boiling pot it will not boil over.  In this case it is totally completely true.  I would have had quite the mess on my hands.  Observe...

 Needless to say, I boiled the potatoes until cooked, then drained them in a collandar.

Then you add the cheese and smash it all together...YUM!  I added some salt and pepper because potatoes like salt and it helped the flavor quite a bit.  And sour cream, like I said.  Why have I never made cheesy mashed potatoes before that day?

Then, I put the mashed potatoes to cool and later in the fridge to wait for when I was ready.  On to the dough.  I wasn't sure the actual process so I probably did it wrong, but I think it all worked out in the end.  Here's the dough after I put in the eggs...

Then I put in some water and some other stuff and kneaded it for 10 minutes.  The first 5 minutes went pretty quickly but after that I kept watching the clock.  I was pleasantly surprised it came out so smooth.  (I love my table!)

After I cut off the first piece of dough to roll into the rounds I noticed the dough was getting skin on it, so I put a moist paper towel over it while it was sitting waiting for me to deal with it.  That worked pretty well until the paper towel dried out.  Instead, I grabbed a microfiber rag and used that instead, it worked really well!

Here is my set up.  I grabbed my desk and brought it into the kitchen to work on.  My table doesn't have the right kind of edge to clamp the pasta roller to, so that is why I am using the desk instead. Here is my first run through, it worked pretty well! But it took me a little while to get into a groove.

Here's what it looked like when I was rolling them out...these are my first few.  

And....here is how many I ended up with after I was done.

It took me like 5 hours from start to finish.  Holy cow! I can understand why people only make them a couple of times a year and why they have friends or family help them.  But they were pretty good!  Not sure if it was worth it, but still really good! Here they are after they were boiled for 4 minutes...(Then we froze most of the rest of them.)

For dinner, we tried them a few different ways.  Hubby tried to deep fry one...

The dough was too thin, so I think next time I make them I would do double the thickness of the noodle, then it should be perfect.  Then we baked some, which turned out really good/perfect.

It was definitely an adventure!  And now I have a freezer full of pierogies to show for it.  Yum! Will I make them again?  I'm not sure...

Next up...Lego Christmas houses!  Yay!  I better hurry and build them though, only 5 days til Christmas! Or is it 4?...I dunno.  

xoxo

c

Yummy food stuff and a Chili taste test!

Okay, its been a pretty crazy last week or two!  I started my new job last week and I am really enjoying it so far!  I think working in the bakery will be something I'll really enjoy but we will see how things progress!  I'm very optimistic though! :)  Plus, it will be fun to see how the inner workings of a real bakery work.  Yesterday I got to make stuffing bread.  They just throw older and smushed bread through the bread slicer so that it is in slivers, but that bread slicer is a crazy machine to operate!  It was pretty cool though!  Speaking of baking and stuff, I've been making all sorts of delicious things lately....

For example, I found this recipe for Double Apple Cinnamon Muffins.  I've been looking through pinterest land for some good muffin recipes and found that one, and I also had a couple of apples that I probably wasn't going to eat.  So, voila!!  Here they are!  I made them into jumbo muffins instead of standard muffin size.  They are soooo good!  Moist and delicious! :)

I've also been wondering what all the hullabaloo is about with Greek yogurt, so I got a container a few weeks ago and decided to try it.  

It seems like the section for Greek yogurt is overtaking the area for regular Yoplait yogurt!  Crazy! My thoughts?  Well, first of all, its a dollar for one container (too much).  Second, I do kind of like how much protein is in it and that there is a gram of fiber.  But, and third, I didn't like the texture. I think people like it because it is thicker than regular yogurt, but for me? Not so much.  I didn't even finish the container because of the texture.  And the "fruit on the bottom"?  To me it seemed just like a little raspberry jam put on the bottom...that didn't really do it for me either.

I've also been making a TON of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...

I got a recipe for them from a friend and forgot that we didn't have any pumpkin, so we got two small cans of pumpkin puree.  Come to find out we had two BIG cans of pumpkin puree in the food closet.  The recipe calls for 1 cup of pumpkin and there is about 3 cups in one big can, so I pretty much have to triple the recipe.  I doubled this recipe and it made just a hair less than 9 dozen cookies.  They are almost gone (because they are soooooo delicious!), so I'll have to use the other cup here soon before it goes bad.  Oh dear...no...not more cookies! ;)  heeeheee....But its full of veggies, right? Pumpkin is a squash which is a vegetable...Right?!?!?!?  Yum! I usually don't like pumpkin cookies either, but these are waaaay good!

Also, I've been super into scones lately.  Not the ones you fry in the deep fryer for Navajo tacos, but the English kind.  I figured I would give this recipe a try, it is Simple Sweet Scones.

This recipe calls for a stick of butter, so they aren't necessarily healthy.  But they are so good! The first several times I made them I cut them into little circles like biscuits, but today I decided to cut them into wedges.  Hubby likes them too, so I've made them several times already.  No complaints here!  When I did the biscuit circles the recipe made about 14-15 scones, but today we did 8. And we always have them with some raspberry jam.  YUM!  The texture of these is kind of interesting because its kind of biscuity but its also kind of not.  They are pretty moist and buttery (obviously...).  They are really good! (did I already say that?) ;)  I really want to try some cinnamon scones that I found in Pinterestland too...but we'll have to wait for when I have some free time again.

The sweet little chickens have been laying pretty steadily this last week.  We have gotten one egg a day since the 1st, so today we got our 9th little egg.  But!  Oh wait...there was another one today! Yay!  So now we have gotten 10 total!

The brown one on the left is the same size as they were last time, they haven't really started getting super jumbo yet.  Both of the red sex links are laying eggs like that and alternate days because of the lack of daylight outside.  If we wanted as many eggs as we could get, we would probably put a light out there so that they would lay very regularly.  Something about the amount of light they get regulates their egg laying, its kind of weird.  The one on the right is a regular store bought egg and that sweet little white egg in the middle is from one of our brown leghorns that we got today!  (I only know that it is a leghorn egg because the leghorns are the only ones that will lay white eggs.) I'm so proud of them! :) Because we have so many of our own eggs now, we decided to weigh and see the difference between store eggs and ours to adjust for baking and all that.  The store eggs were 47 grams (without shell) and our eggs were about 42-44 grams.  I think that with the large eggs we don't need to adjust for baking but with the bantam eggs we definitely will need to.  Also, since we ate a bunch of eggs for breakfast this morning we decided to eat ours.  Yum!  Something interesting we noticed was the color of the yolks.  See below:

(Hubby was in charge of cracking the eggs and getting them ready...he got a little excited with the quantity!  But...we do love eggs!)  I think it is really interesting how dark our egg yolks are compared to the store bought.  Maybe its all the delicious grass and bugs and wormies they get, or maybe that is what you get with happy hens?...I don't know, but they are very good!!!

And last, but certainly not least...we got some delicious baking potatoes straight from Idaho that some of our friends gave us.  Yum!  So we decided to eat them with chili.  Because hubby and I don't hardly ever eat chili, we were wondering which kinds were best.  So, we both did some research, made a list of chilis that we wanted to try and we did a small chili taste test!  Yum!!  So here are the kinds that we did and some information about them.  I'll give the full name of the chili that we tried, the price that we paid for it, and a little bit of nutrition information.  All the cans provided 2 servings per can.
#1.  Campbell's Chunky Chili, Beef and Bean Roadhouse.  $2.59
Calories 240; Fat 8 g; Cholesterol 25 mg; Fiber 6 g; and Sodium 870 mg.
#2.  Hormel Chili with Beans.  $1.59
Calories 260; Fat 7 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Fiber 7 g; and Sodium 900 mg.

#3.  HyVee Chili with Beans (store brand).  $1.49
Calories 280; Fat 11 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Fiber 7 g; and Sodium 1300 mg.
#4.  Wolf Brand Chili, Mild, No Beans.  $1.34
Calories 340; Fat 24 g; Cholesterol 30 mg; Fiber 5 g; and Sodium 950 mg.

Unfortunately, we didn't have much criteria for the test, mostly taste and kind of texture.  A couple of things I would like to note before I give you our winner.  The first one, Campbells Chunky chili had extra chunks of veggies and stuff in it that hubby doesn't care for, but that didn't sway his decision.  I kind of liked the extra chunks that were there and it seemed really smooth.  The HyVee chili (#3) was a bit too salty or there was too much of something, not sure what (now that I Look at it again, there is 1300 mg of sodium, so that makes sense).  Also, the Wolf Brand chili (#4)....look at that texture!!  It looks soooo bad!  And when I opened it it smelled a bit like wet cat food or dog food.  Not very good.  Also, it has 80 to 100 more calories than the others!  And holy fat! 24g?! And not as much fiber either!  Wow!!!  But we proceeded with the test as planned regardless of initial thoughts.  And our winner?  That would be Hormel Chili with Beans (#2)!!!!  We both decided that we liked that one the most!  And number two was Campbells Chunky chili (#1).  The last two is where hubby and I disagreed, I put HyVee chili above Wolf Brand, and hubby put them the other way around.  So, we ate a little bit in the taste test then mixed them all together for the potatoes and ate them for a couple of dinners later that week!  It was kinda fun! :)

P.S. I really don't like daylight savings time.  Its 6:30 and so dark outside.  Feels like it should be so much later.  So annoying!
P.P.S.  What is the deal with microfiber cloths?  Why does everyone like them so much?  I do have a few and I kind of don't like to use them, but maybe I'm not using them for what I should be...They do hold a lot of water, which is kind of cool!  So, here's a question that anyone that reads this can answer if you like!  Why you like microfiber cloths so much?  Please tell me!  :) Have a good evening!
xoxo
c

Octobeard and Very delicious dinner

It is October 1st.  Apparently the department hubby works in is doing a beard growing contest for the next 2 months.  Per my knowledge of the thing, you have to shave clean and put $10 into the pot to participate.  Apparently its a team building exercise as well, and whoever has the best beard or something at the end gets the pot of money.  His supervisor also said that he has to participate. Sooo...its been a very sad morning.  It has been soooo many years since he has shaved his face clean.  I think in the 9 and a half years we've been married he's only shaved completely clean, maybe, twice.  He hates getting his picture taken, so I took a picture of his facial hair after he shaved it off.  Sorry, this is probably pretty gross, but there we are. 

On the left is his goatee.  We've been dreading this day for the last week, so just for fun the other day we measured the very longest hair and it measured about 4 inches long.  And on the right is the rest of the hair covering his beautiful chin.  So, as you can see, he had a lot of hair on his face. Seeing him clean shaven again is very weird for both of us and we don't like it!  He looks so young! :) But also I can see the super handsome man that I married and its been a very long time.  He is so handsome no matter what, but we are very excited for it to grow back! 

And...one of our favorite dinners...Navajo tacos!

We had this last night and I just couldn't resist taking a picture and talking about it.  YUM-O!!!  It has Indian fry bread that I found a super easy recipe for that calls for Bisquick, flour and a little bit of salt.  Perfect!  And then deep fried in the deep fryer until golden brown and delicious....topped with (in this order) refried beans, hamburger seasoned with Taco Bell taco seasoning, shredded cheddar cheese, tons of lettuce, black olives, and then ranch dressing on top.  (Don't judge me...) Oh My Gosh, YUM!  Just for fun, last night I figured out the calories for this using the myfitnesspal app! I figured (not including the fat that may have entered the fry bread during frying, which, really, I think is probably minimal), that this dinner is about 715 calories.  Which actually isn't that bad.  When we DO change our diet, we usually allow dinner to be about 700 or so.  And, according to my calculations it only had 24 grams of fat, which is still about 5 grams of fat less than one delicious Big Mac.  YUM!  Please make this!

xoxo
c

Baking / Foodstuff!

Well, I think it has been quite a while since I have posted anything about food or anything and I have been doing quite a bit!  Well, sort of.

Let's start with my go to hamburger buns!  We have finally perfected (I think) the perfect hamburger bun, including size and time baked and all that.  Here is the link to the 40 Minute Hamburger Buns recipe that we use!  They are soooo good!

The recipe says that it makes 12 buns.  If you do the 12 buns they are a little bit too small for a good hamburger!  So, I usually make 8 pretty decent size ones.  In the picture above, I believe I halved the recipe and only made 4, so we had very little leftover (that is not an 11" x 17" baking sheet, its half that size, so the rolls aren't THAT big!  haha!).  Oh!  And we usually let them rise for a half hour or so until we get the size we like, not the 10 minutes the recipe calls for.  You should definitely try them!

Well, I thought it would be fun to try my hand at cinnamon rolls.  This is the first attempt with a cinnamon roll recipe with cream cheese icing.  As you can see, making and cutting them was a GIANT mess.  (I love my table!)

That thing that looks like a really thick hair at the bottom of the pic is actually dental floss.  It is a really great way to cut the cinnamon rolls!  And yes, I put the goo from the table back onto the cinnamon rolls in the pan.  I couldn't just waste it!  Is that gross?  Oh...but it wasn't!  :)  here they are after baking...they look really messy and not pretty...

Here is the icing...still looking for just the right recipe.  I still haven't found an icing/frosting recipe I like that doesn't taste like powdered sugar.  What am I doing wrong?  But this one called for cream cheese, which I think helped the flavor a little.  I'll have to keep playing with it.

 And here are the cinnamon rolls after the icing is on...Mmmm...

 They were really really good!  Funnily enough, BETTER the next day!!

Here is another attempt at cinnamon rolls using the other half of my famous roll recipe.

While they are prettier, I don't think that the regular roll recipe should be used as cinnamon rolls, I think it needs to be a sweeter, better recipe instead.  I also shouldn't have made them so small, I didn't like how thin the dough was after it was baked, it needed more structure to it.  So I think I'll stick with cinnamon roll dough instead.

This post isn't all about cinnamon rolls and hamburger buns, even though they are the best part of ... well, anything!  It is also about salsa and spaghetti sauce.  I made my first attempt at salsa.  The recipe I received from a friend said to roast the veggies until almost burnt to add more flavor to it.

The salsa that I made that called for roasted veggies turned out okay, but it was still a little too tomatoey for hubby and way too garlicky.  He doesn't like fresh tomatoes, you see.  But, I also tried another batch with fresh tomatoes and things like that, this one turned out way better, but it tasted, pretty much like fresh tomatoes blended up.  The picture below is not the recipe that was made from the roasted veggies above, it was the fresh tomato one.  I didn't really care for the bright red color, it kind of weirded me out.

Final verdict: I think we will be sticking to buying our salsa.  Pace knows what they are doing, they make it so it doesn't taste too much like tomato and it's just right.  

I also tried my hand at spaghetti sauce, mostly because I just had so many tomatoes!!!  I wanted to can it at some point, but I figured I should try the recipes first before I'm committed to a bunch of jars of it.  I got this recipe from a book called "Healthy Meals for Less" by Jonni McCoy.  She says that it also doubles as a pizza sauce, which is really cool.

I purchased the ebook not too long ago, and it has been really fun to page through it and see what I would like to make.  This book is all about being frugal and providing realistic food that is cheap and they don't seem to use too crazy of ingredients.  The recipe for this spaghetti sauce called for homemade italian seasoning (recipe also included in the book).  It also only cooked for half an hour, but of course, the recipe took me an hour or so to make.  But it actually tasted really nice! And I could see how it would be a pretty decent pizza sauce too!  I have another recipe for pizza sauce that I got from a friend that I need to try with the last bunch of tomatoes that I picked yesterday before finishing up the garden.  But I think this one really is a contender for my spaghetti sauce that I could can.  I'd have to look into safety for canning and stuff like that, I think.  At least if I have a plan for all of the tomatoes I'll have a better justification for planting them, otherwise I might just do 1 or 2 cherry tomato plants...we will see how things go!

I also tried two recipes for blondies.  Butterscotch Blondies and Blondies.  I found both of them on Pinterest, which I am falling more in love with every day.  I actually made 2 separate batches of the Butterscotch Blondies, they were definitely the favorite and had the best flavor.  I think that maybe I didn't cook the Blondies as long as I should have, but we definitely liked the Butterscotch ones better. Speaking of which, I might go get some right now... :)  With the butterscotch ones,  the recipe calls for a 10" x 10" glass pan, but I tried an 11" x 7" instead.  I felt like it should have been in a larger pan.  And it also didn't cook all the way in the middle, but the parts that were cooked were really good.  For the second batch, I added half a teaspoon of salt.  Maybe to give it some more flavor/savory?  I dunno, but I felt like I should add it, so I did.  I also baked it in a 13" x 9" equivalent oval stoneware pan that I got from Ikea.  (LOVE IKEA!)  I ended up cooking it for about 46 minutes, I think, and it cooked pretty well and all the way through.  We were very pleased... :)  Wish I would have taken pictures of them for you, but I forgot to! Sorry! :(

Alrighty, well, I best get to eating those butterscotch brownies... :)
xoxo
c