Once a month cooking?

MoneySavingMom & FishMama are hosting a live once a month baking/cooking event that starts today. Once a month cooking... an interesting concept, but I am not quite sure I'm ready to jump in with both feet. There are only two people in my house (myself & the roomie) and our schedules vary, so we don't always eat at the same time, we eat out sometimes, and sometimes we just snack. However, I can say that the concept of having some meals on hand so that my kitchen can stay cleaner...well I can buy into that... so I'm dabbling with this notion of cooking/baking ahead... though I must say I cheated a tad, I roasted a turkey breast yesterday and have the deconstructed results already packaged and in my fridge, but I was really wanting some turkey and knew that would occupy my oven for much of the time, so I decided to get a jumpstart on it. So what else am I up to... well it's midday here and so far in addition to the turkey I roasted yesterday I have already made:

Baked Pasta - No recipe here, I just pick a pasta, this time I chose a whole wheate penne, cook as directed, drain, stir in grated parm cheese, saute up any veggies you have on hand, add in pasta sauce ( I had some jarred variety) and mix it up. I go ahead and portion it out in 2 serving portions and freeze. Then, just pop out of the freezer and into the oven... I usually top it off with cheese when baking (you can also stir in some cheese when you're making it up) and it's pasta for dinner without having to wait for water to boil, etc...

Stuffed Mushrooms - Again, no recipe, I'm really more of a method cooker. Start with stuffer mushrooms, remove stems and reserve... gently clean your mushrooms with a lightly dampened paper towel. Finely chop your mushrooms. In a skillet melt about a tablespoon of butter (or you can use an oil, I happened to have small piece of butter left over from some other recipes), as it melts, sprinkle in a tiny pince of red pepper flakes, lightly sautee a minced clove of garlic and a few tablespoons of chopped onions (I made veggie dogs last night, so I had some leftover onion... chop it once, store it in the fridge and add to dishes during the week!), stir in your mushrooms, and add some crumbled precooked meat (I actually used some Boca soy crumbles, work just as well, taste the same and you don't have to precook!). Season with whatever you have on hand, I used a bit of poultry seasoning, which is a fun little mix to cook with. Cook until onions are soft and then stir in some grated parm cheese. I then let the mixture cool... then just stuff about a tsp of the mixture into your reserved mushroom caps. Place on a lined baking sheet and freeze until firm, then transfer into another freezer safe storage option. You'll probably have some left over stuffing, just pop it into a freezer bag and toss in the freezer too, it's a great addition to pasta sauces! When ready to use, just pop them out and lightly spray or brush the caps with a little olive oil and bake at about 350 for about 15 minutes or until heated through. Oh, and sprinkle on some cheese!!

Next up - I have some yummy homemade bread that is rising and will be going into the oven shortly.

And I just pulled some yummy French Puff Muffins out of the oven and am getting ready to top them now.

I am also planning on whipping up some peanut butter fudge and then I'm probably going to call it a day for today... but that will definitely stock me up on some quick dinner options, breakfast options and a sweet treat... Also have to get some homework done and then I might regroup and see what I want to work with tomorrow!

Secret to great cupcakes & cakes

Good Morning folks! It's Tuesday... and one heck of a Tuesday it's been already! You know it's going to be a great day when you have an icepack on your arm before 9 am!

However, I'm pushing through. I've been absent from the blogworld, because lots of school stuff going on in a small amount of time (that's what happens when you cram a semester class into a 6 week summer session)

It's time for Kitchen Tip Tuesdays over at Tammy's Recipes. I thought of this tip last week when I was baking up some Vanilla Zucchini cupcakes. It's a tip that I use most every time I bake any kind of cupcake or cake. I discovered it by accident. Once, while baking a set of cupcakes, I didn't have enough batter to fill all of the wells. I poured some water into the empty ones to prevent the pan from warping. I noticed that when I was finished baking, those cupcakes seemed moister. So I experimented... now when baking any cakes, I put another pan on the rack below, partially filled with water. The water in the pan creates some steam & moisture which helps offset the drying effect of the oven. Every time I use this method, I get a much moister cupcake, that stays fresh much longer!

Hope you find this helpful, and don't forget to head over to Tammy's site to check out more tips!

Purple & Orange Cauliflower, Oh My!

I stopped in at Kroger today & they have a great little sale. You can buy a head of Purple or Orange Cauliflower for just .99 each! White cauliflower is still about 2.50, and these were normally almost $4, so I grabbed a couple (plus they are just so darned cute!)

Once you bring the cauliflower home, you might be looking for a good recipe. Here's a good one to try. I wish I had a pic of it, but it was gone before I blinked! Maybe next time.

One head of cauliflower - chopped into bite size pieces.

Olive Oil - about a 1/4 cup

Salt & Pepper (I never measure these when I'm just cooking, I just sprinkle)

Garlic Cloves - Anywhere from 10-20 (sounds like alot, but it's worth it)

Italian Seasoning - about a teaspoon

Red Pepper Flakes - just a pinch

Shredded Parmesean Cheese

Place your cauliflower in a casserole dish. Peel & slightly crack your garlic cloves, throw them in whole. Drizzle the veggies w/ your olive oil. Season w/ salt, pepper, Italian seasoning & red pepper flakes. Toss to coat evenly. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven. After 15 minutes, stir the veggies & sprinkle with the shredded parmesean cheese. Bake another 10 minutes. Check to see if the veggies are tender. You may need another 5 minutes or so (stir again if you do)

Remove & Serve immediately.

I really believe that in most cooking, (not baking which requires some degree of measurement) it should be about just getting in there and having fun. Feel free to swap out some ingredients if you want.

I suggest:

Can swap broccoli for cauliflower (or use both!)

Don't swap the garlic - It gets really tender & sweet, and is great smushed into the cauliflower as you eat (or on a hunk of bread)

Use whatever seasonings you want, experiment!

Staleness be gone - Kitchen Tip Tuesday

It's Kitchen Tip Tuesday over at Tammy's Recipes. Be sure and check out her site for a variety of tips!

Ever reach into a sleeve of crackers only to realize they're stale? or perhaps a bag of chips that someone left the clip off of? Maybe in your morning fog you didn't close up your Cheerios... While I'm a huge proponent of repackaging items, using clips, etc to keep out the air... inevitably something is going to get stale. And nowadays, everyone is looking for ways to make their money go further...

So the next time you find yourself with some stale chips, crackers, or cereal... try one of these two ideas:

#1 - Microwave - Use the microwave, on high, at about 30 second intervals until the item is thoroughly heated (it will vary depending on your microwave & the amount of food you're working with). Just spread the stale chips, etc out on a paper towel & microwave. Afterwards let the food cool down, and you'll find they've crisped back up.

#2 - Toaster Oven/Oven - Spread out the stale cereal, etc on a baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes in a 300 degree oven until nice and toasty. Once cooled, you'll find they taste fresh again.

Breakfast Pizza

Like most of my recipes, this is more of a method, you can embellish as you see fit to suit your tastes.

Ingredients:

1 small/med onion

2 T butter

Salt & Pepper

Small can of refridgerated biscuit dough (6 biscuits)

2-4 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 lb breakfast sausage

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Start by cutting onion in half, and then slice fairly thin. Place onions in pan with butter. Season with salt & pepper. Start on Med/High for about a minute, then reduce down to Med/Low and continue to cook until the onions become soft and caramelized to your liking (depends on how much time I have) stirring periodically to prevent burning.

Brown & crumble the breakfast sausage (you could do this with the onions if you like, but if you want to cut down on excess grease, cook separately) then drain. This is where I took a short cut. I used precooked fake sausage crumbles because my roomie doesn't eat meat.

Roll out each biscuit individually until about 1/8 inch thin. It's easiest if it's done between two layers of waxed paper. Overlap the biscuits in an 8" or 9" pan/pie plate. I used a can of 6 biscuits, but these were fairly small biscuits, if your biscuits are bigger, you could probably get away with 4.

When the onions are done, spoon them onto the biscuits. Add the sausage as well. Sprinkle with cheese (you can use any kind of cheese, and more or less to your liking)

Whisk together the eggs & milk. Pour this mixture over the topped biscuits. Bake in a preheated oven (375) for about 20-25 minutes (until center is set). Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serve.

I forgot to take a picture until part of it had been served :)

Baked Asparagus

Over at Tammy's Recipes, it's time for In Season Recipe Swap. I really like the idea of this recipe exchange, because it's all about using what's in abundance. This week's theme: Asparagus.

I've tried a few asparagus recipes. One of the new favorites in my house is one from Tammy's site, Creamed Asparagus Over Pasta. I only make 2 small changes to the recipe. (1) I go ahead and combine everything (the sauce, pasta & alfredo) in a casserole dish & bake it for a few minutes. (2) I add a pinch of nutmeg to the cream sauce. I like to add nutmeg to most cream sauces.

Hands down the favorite asparagus recipe in my house, and actually it's the easiest... is Baked Asparagus. It's more of a method than a recipe.

Start with the asparagus. You can use as few or as many stalks as will serve your family.

Snap or trim off the tough ends.

Lay the asparagus in a single layer in a baking pan.

Drizzle the asparagus with your favorite olive oil. (This is my favorite brand)

Toss the asparagus in the oil, so to coat them

Sprinkle with salt & pepper

I also sprinkle with shredded parmesean cheese sometimes

Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes

Serve warm

I like this recipe because it's so easy, I don't dirty any dishes except for my pan and it's done in less than 20 minutes without having to fuss over them, giving me time for whatever else I need to prepare. None of the ingredients are exact, just to your liking. I would guess it's about a tablespoon of olive oil, for an average bunch of asparagus. I just turn the bottle up and make one pass over the asparagus. I use a couple small pinches of salt & just a couple quick shakes of pepper. As for the cheese, I use it when I think to, but it's just as tasty without. You could substitute any hard cheese.

Make sure you go check out everyone else's recipes. I have a fridge drawer full of asparagus, so I'm excited to see some new recipe ideas.

Homemade Croutons

I love croutons... I'm not a fan of salad, but I snack on croutons... but have you ever looked at the ingredient list on some brands? Not to mention, it's actually pretty easy to turn ingredients you already have into yummy crunchy goodness without leaving home.

I'll share with you my method, it's not an exact recipe, because it will vary based on your personal preferences and the quantities you have on hand.

Start with your bread. You can use fresh bread or stale bread, doesn't really make a difference in the end. The only difference is that the fresher the bread, the longer it will stay in the oven, in order to dry it out. Most recently I made some croutons with some leftover Sourdough bread I had. It was a really rustic bread and had lots of flavor, but you can really use any bread you want.

Cube your bread, size is up to personal preferences. I usually cube mine in about 1 inch or so pieces, because I like jumbo croutons. If you make them smaller, they'll finish faster of course. You'll want them to be similiar in size, so they'll all finish at the same time.

Spread the bread out on a baking pan and drizzle with melted butter (for a full pan, I use about a 1/3 a cup of butter) you can use more or less, just eyeball it, the more butter you use, the better the end result. Sprinkle the bread with your favorite seasoning (I use garlic powder) and then toss the bread cubes to make sure they are coated as evenly as possible (you don't have to be perfect)

Bake the bread @ 300 degrees until lightly browned and completely dry. You'll want to stir them every 10 to 15 minutes. I usually bake mine for about an hour and 15 minutes. These are a good project for when you're cleaning the kitchen, etc, since you'll already be in there. After about 30 minutes, I usually take them out and drizzle/stir in some additional melted butter (maybe another 1/4 cup) and some more garlic powder.

When you think they are done, taste one... if it's chewy in the middle at all, go another 10 minutes and try again. At about the 1 hour mark, I take mine out and sprinkle in some grated Parmesean cheese (toss to coat) and let them go another 10 to 15 minutes. Once they're done, to ensure that they are completely dried out and nice and crunchy, I just turn the oven off and leave them in the oven to hang out for awhile.

You can store them in an airtight container, or in the freezer for longterm storage.

Want more great kitchen tips? Head over to Tammy's Kitchen for Kitchen Tip Tuesdays

A yummy mashed potato

It seems that everywhere I read, people are pairing down their food budget, trying to economize, not be wasteful, etc. One of the popular ideas, that's been going on, on a few blogs, is skipping the grocery store, and just using what you have on hand. I'm trying this as well. Yesterday I made a baked mashed potato recipe. Well, it's not really a recipe, so much as a method. I've read several recipes, and I just blended a few together, based on what I had on hand.

Here's what I used:
Bag of Oreda Steam & Mash Potatoes

1% Milk

Sour Cream

Onion Powder

Neufchatel Cheese

Smart Balance 50/50 Butter Blend

2% Colby Cheese

Salt & Pepper (not pictured)

Cooking Spray (not pictured)

Now, you could always use regular potatoes to start this out, but I had these on hand, buried in my freezer, and they cook in the microwave, less hassle for me!

You can also use regular cream cheese, I just happened to have the Neufchatel on hand.

You could also use whatever sort of cheese you had, I think any would work equally.

Now, start by popping the potatoes in the microwave, according to package directions (mine took 10 minutes on high). While they are doing their thing, go ahead and cube up your Neufchatel and shred your cheese:

Once your potatoes are done, wait about 2 minutes, then carefully pop open the bag, and dump them into a bowl with your milk & butter blend (use quantities recommended from package).

You can mash these by hand, or mixer. If I'm making regular mashed potatoes, I usually will just do them by hand, so as not to overwork them, but since I was going to be incorporating other ingredients and wanted it to be smooth, I used my KitchenAid. Once you get the potatoes started, and they're about halfway mashed, go ahead and add in your cream cheese (8 oz block cubed), shredded cheese (about 2 oz), sour cream (I just grabbed a big spoonful), and the onion powder (I just sprinkled some in, I'm guessing, about a half a tsp):

Mix until combined and kinda smooth. Spray a casserole dish (I used 9x13) with cooking spray, then spread the potato mixture in the dish evenly. Sprinkle with salt & pepper, and dot with some additional butter.

Bake @ 350 for about 20-30 minutes, until heated through. Serve

I forgot to take the picture until some of it had been served up, but I think you get the idea :)

Yummy*updated*

Crystal over at MSM is having a Baking Day. Sounded appealing, but I wasn't in the mood to spend all day in the kitchen with the oven going, but I thought it was a good idea to get a few things knocked out of the way for later. So I decided to join in. I've mixed up:

French Breakfast Puffs - Popping them in the freezer to enjoy throughout the week
Baked Pasta - Going in the freezer for later this week
Soup Beans - Possible dinner tonight for roomie
Frito Crockpot Candy - Intrigued me, so I decided to try them, they are yummy!

*Update, I also whipped up some yummy breadsticks, no photo, sorry :)

And I made some cornbread to go with the beans for my roomie :)

My new KitchenAid stand mixer really got a good workout today!

Perseverance and Lessons Learned

Lessons I learned this weekend:

1. Pizza Sauce is not a good tool for mopping the kitchen floor

2. Just a little butter will ensure a clean release of pizza dough from the pan

3. Egg whites are a great way to glue your waxed paper to your baking sheet


Saturday evening, I decide to make a homemade pizza for dinner. This can be a time consuming process, but the results are worth it. I started by making some dough. Next after getting the dough into a pan, I topped with my yummy homemade pizza sauce. What happened next, is still unclear, but somehow as I turned away to call to my roommate to come into the kitchen to help with toppings, I bumped the pan, and it fell from the counter. And of course... it flipped on the way down, landing sauce side down. You can imagine the fun of cleaning up this saucy, doughy mess, all while trying to keep the monster at bay!

Fast forward a bit, I recently bought a new Kitchen Aid stand mixer, and decide I wanted to give making meringues a shot. So of course it would only make since that the perfect time to start such a finicky recipe would be after having already had a dinner fiasco... Unfortunately, I pulled the meringues a little too soon from the bowl, and they hadn't quite reached the right stage.

Meringues take about 2 hours to bake, so an hour later when I peeked in the oven, and looked at the sad little meringue blobs... they had completely melted flat onto the pan. So I turned the oven off, and decided to wait until morning, to deal with the cleanup. I got up Sunday morning to find that the meringues, in their melting process, had completely glued themselves and the waxed paper to the baking sheet.

I did however succeed in making a pizza the second night. And yesterday, I made my second attempt at meringues, these turned out MUCH better.

Trying to decide what my next kitchen disaster will be :)

What's for dinner?

I tried a new recipe from Tammy's Recipes for Spinach Rice Casserole. I am not a spinach eater myself, but my roomie thought it was quite good!

It's a pretty simple recipe, I made a couple minor modifications to the original, based on what I had on hand:

9 or 10 ounces fresh spinach leaves ( some people who reviewed the recipe used frozen, I went ahead and picked up fresh, it was on sale)
1 tablespoon water (I used a couple extra tablespoons of water)
1 teaspoon dried onion or 2 tablespoons of fresh, minced onion (Didn't have either, used 1/2 tsp onion powder instead)
1 cup cooked rice (measurement is after cooking, not before) (I had a pack of 2 of the Minute Rice cups that already cooked, that you microwave to heat up, since I was cooking the rice in the casserole, I didn't bother to microwave, used both cups, which equalled a little over a cup, but worked great!)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon sal
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Start by wilting down your spinach leaves. I did this by dropping about half of them into a large pan with a couple tablespoons of water, over low-med heat. Pop a lid on, and periodically turn the leaves as the bottom ones wilt. As there is room in the pan, add more leaves until you get all of the leaves worked in. Once all the leaves are wilted down, remove from heat and allow to cool. (I removed the spinach to another dish, and spread them out so they would cool quicker) I prefer doing this because if you try to add the hot spinach to the rest of the dish, you can end up cooking the eggs a bit prematurely, which wouldn't be that tasty.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together. Stir in spinach. Place in a greased 8x8 casserole and bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes, or until middle is just set (you can check this with a fork) Keep in mind that you'll have some carryover cooking, so it'll finish once you pull it from the oven and let it stand.

Free Breakfast Tomorrow (Tuesday)

Tomorrow (Feb 3rd) Denny's Restaurant is giving away a free grand slam breakfast to everyone. Click here for details

The ten spot

So, what exactly can $10 get you these days. You definitely can't get pizza delivered for that, and most drive thru value meals for 2 will run you more than that. That's not to say that you can't stretch that $10. I did just that yesterday... with change to spare!

I stopped in at Kroger last night. The above pic is a shot of my purchases. The grand total: $8.96

My total before savings would have been $57 - so that's about 85% savings

I bought:

2 Boxes General Mills Cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Trix) @ $3 each

2 Boxes Chex Mix Bars (Turtle) @ $2.50 each

3 Boxes Strawberry Poptarts @ $1.78 each

3 Bottles of Hairspray @ $1.11 each

3 Bags Lifesavers Candy @ $1 each

1 Can of Hairspray @ $2.18

4 Trial Size FiberChoice Tablets @ $2.19 each

1 Almay Makeup Remover Towlettes @ 2.99

1 Maybelline Mineral Makeup @ $1.69 (clearanced)

I used

$1/2 Cereal Coupon (Internet Printable)

$1.25 off Chex mix bars (x 2) (I.P.)

$1 peelie off poptarts (x3)

$.50 off any Suave (doubled) that was a peelie on the products (x4)

$1 off Lifesavers MFN (x 3)

$2 off FiberChoice (hang tag on some of the other products) x 4

$2 off Almay Product (From the Kmart Beauty Book)

$2 off Maybelline Mineral Foundation MFN

I also got the $4 off your order for buying 4 select General Mills products.

Cool Giveaway

Over at Moms by Heart you can enter to win a $20 coupon for one of the Jennie O Oven Ready Turkeys! Now this is a giveaway I can get into... hello... TURKEY!!!!!! Yummy. I've used one of these before and loved it. Click here to get the scoop.

A pretty good deal on some pizza!

I used this last night so I know it works! Papa Johns Pizza has started marketing through Facebook. If you "add them as a friend/fan" on Facebook, THIS WEEK, they will give you a code for a free medium cheese pizza with an online order! (You have to buy something else online, but it's not one of those "regular menu price" things where you still spend $15.

Go to Facebook (Register if you have never used facebook

Search Papa Johns (you'll know you're on the right one, the promo is on the page)

Add yourself as a fan

Check your inbox for a notification or message from Papa Johns shortly after, they will send you a message, it contains a place for you to enter your email address.

Then just check your email, you'll get your one time code.

Visit Papa John's online (Register if you have never used before)

Enter the code, and add something else.

You can actually order a "Create your own" 6 inch pan pizza for $3.49, and you'll get the free pizza. I opted to get some of their yummy parmesean breadsticks for $4.99. I also opted to pick it up, so I didn't have to worry about a minimum delivery charge. Keep in mind, if you're planning on getting pizza, it appears you can combine it with the other specials on their website, but if you just want to get a quick meal, pick something small and you'll score the free pizza!

(Note, on Facebook, it says "w/ online pizza purchase" but when you enter the code on the website, it just says online purchase, so you could order breadsticks, cheesesticks, dessert, etc!

Let's Try home made pizza

Ok, so for this "try it Tuesday" I am going to share with you my latest culinary adventure, a pizza made with home made pizza dough. My original plan was to do the sauce from scratch too, but there were forces conspiring against me, so I decided to just stick with the dough for this attempt. I've been wanting to try this dough for awhile now. It's a recipe I've read that several other bloggers tried and loved. I also had finally acquired my bread machine... and decided to give it a whirl (no pun intended!).

But first I had to run to the store, 2 stores in fact. I had to run to CVS because I had some ECB's that were expiring AND they had Coke products on sale. My original plan would have netted me 4 - 12 packs of Coke for about $5, but as I tried to print out some Coke Reward coupons, my ink cartridge completely gave out on me. I searched in vain for the refill I bought a few weeks ago, and COULD NOT FIND IT. Finally, frustrated, I just headed to CVS and bought the soda anyways, better luck next time I guess. Then on to Kroger to pick up flour. Flour would be a crucial ingredient in making pizza. I suppose you think it's odd that I don't already have flour in my house, considering if you know me, or have been reading my blog, you know I have stockpiles of practically everything. Everything except flour. I knew that I did have some flour, but I knew at least part of it was self rising (bad for bread machine) and the other, well I honestly couldn't remember when I bought it (I never really use it much) so I decided it would be best to start from scratch.

Now, next time I decide to be adventurous in the kitchen, I will probably exercise a little pre-cooking planning, but I was hell-bent on making this pizza. And while I do know how to cook, have a pretty decent stocked kitchen in terms of equipment, etc... lately cooking has been more of a quick process. Quite frankly, I'm a bit out of practice to actually preparing a real meal, from raw ingredients. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's more of a sign of the times...

The following are actual phrases heard from my mouth last night, that could probably give you an indication that I probably should have just had a bowl of cereal and tried again another night:

"Kev, I can't get the bread machine out of the box!"

"Kev, do we have any measuring cups that we're not using for dog food?"

"Kev, can you Google how many teaspoons make up a tablespoon?"

"Kev, can you do something with this dough ball?"

Don't you feel bad for poor Kev, who I had convinced to postpone having dinner, because I was going to make us a pizza? See, the bread machine had just been bought this weekend, and it didn't want to come out of the box. I don't do alot of baking from scratch, so when I cook, I'm good at eyeballing, I rarely need to measure a dry ingredient, other than Zali's puppy food, so it seems that the measuring cups have disappeared except for hers. And I believe that the tablespoon measuring spoon has wandered upstairs with the humidifier for cold season.

I do recommend pre-assembling all of your ingredients. I did this, it helps... I also recommend reading through your recipe before you start, I did this, it helps... I also recommend not being scatterbrained while you're doing it, I didn't do this, but I think it would help. The first mistake I made was as I started dumping my flour into the mixing chamber... BEFORE any of the the liquids (in case you don't use a bread machine, this is a No-No) so I had to dump that out, wipe the residue out and start over. Now the unfortunate thing, I didn't really take timing into consideration. So when I finally started the dough in the bread machine and did the math, imagine my mood when I realized the dough was going to take an hour and a half... and it was almost quarter after 8!!! (Que poor Kevin as I explain "well it will only have to bake for about 15 minutes once it's done!"

An hour and a half later, my machine beeped, and I headed back in to check out my doughy goodness. After removing said dough, I realized that this dough made a bit more than I would want to use, so this is where "can you do something with this dough ball" came in, as I divided the dough in half (the other half is now resting in the freezer). As I formed my pizza, I got ready to start preparing it. I ALMOST forgot that you're supposed to sprinkle the dough with salt before putting on the sauce... and when I say almost, I mean, I had placed a blob of sauce in the middle of the pizza when it occurred to me. Though I didn't notice a big difference in tast between that spot and the rest of the pizza when all was said and done.

Finally, at 10:15, we were chowing down on the home made pizza. It was good. I will definitely use this recipe again. I've normally used one of those mixes in a pouch, but not always been satisfied with the results. Maybe next time though, I'll actually have my act together!

And if you're wanting to see a picture of my creation... well... if you hadn't been able to gather by reading this, that was another FORGOTTEN step... maybe next time!

Sweet Reason to Vote

I just got an email from Krispy Kreme. If you wear your "I Voted" Sticker, you'll score a FREE Doughnut. Details of the offer:


On Election Day, Nov. 4, 2008, participating Krispy Kreme stores will be offering a free star-shaped doughnut, with white icing and red, white and blue sprinkles, to each customer wearing an "I Voted" sticker. While voters may not always agree on the best candidate to win, each voter can agree on one thing: Celebrating one of America’s most coveted constitutional rights can be oh-so sweet.
The star-shaped treats are made from Krispy Kreme’s signature, yeast-raised dough, and will be available only on Nov. 4th. This promotion is good for one doughnut per customer. Select stores may offer yeast-raised doughnuts in the standard circle shape, but still decorated with white icing and red, white and blue sprinkles.
Please call your local Krispy Kreme store now to find out if they are participating.

It's Tuesday... let's try Haagen Dazs

Well, my posts have been few lately, I apologize, but life has been hectic and Zali has been keeping my hands full. Then I unfortunately caught the plague... ok... not the plague... but I'm not 100% yet either... But still I trudge on!

This week, let's talk ICE CREAM, which in case you didn't know, is in my opinion, it's own food group. I make no bones about it, I believe in daily frozen confection consumption. Which is why I'm sharing with you my most recent flavor adventure... Fleur de Sel Caramel Haagen-Dazs. It sounds fancy, huh? It shoud... The pint I picked up, at Wal-Mart none the less, set me back $4.04!!! Normally, I can manage to get a couple half gallons for that. I have, however been eyeballing this flavor for MONTHS... It's one of their "Reserve" flavors, which means, the ingredients are harder to come by and the production is limited... and as a result... the price goes up, more than your regular Haagen-Dazs. Ever since I first spotted that little pint a few months ago, I have been scanning the frozen food cases, watching for a sale, a price drop, a coupon... ANYTHING... but alas, no such luck. Finally, I bit the bullet. I have been doing a great job with budgeting lately, and have cut my household budget, easily 50% or more each month... so by George, I was having the Haagen-Dazs.

Now some background info, Fleur de Sel or "Flower of the Salt" is supposed to be one of the rarest and most delicate salts in the world. It is harvested by hand on the French Coast of Brittany. The ice cream contains Fleur de Sel caramels, covered in chocolate, and then mixed into a caramel ice cream with swirls of caramel and French sea salt accents. I almost felt that I should put on my black dress to enjoy this... instead I opted for my comfy pj's.

Now, I should say, I'm not a huge "salt" person. I really don't use alot of extra salt, etc... but this flavor intrigued me. And, after sampling it, I can say that for me, it was worth the $4 price tag. It had the most interesting flavor, slightly sweet, slightly salty, pefectly creamy. This is what ice cream is supposed to taste like. Now granted, I won't be dishing this up at my next party, and this isn't the ice cream you make a milk shake with.... no this ice cream is best enjoyed by itself, it doesn't need anything extra to make it special.

There are some other "Reserve" flavors, I'm going on a search for 'em.

$1 Butter Burgers!!

Check it out! Culver's will be celebrating their 24th Year on Tuesday Oct 7th by serving up their famous ButterBurgers for just $1 (Limit of 5 per order)

Free Ice Cream & a Good Cause

Tonight is Coldstone Creamery's Make-a-Wish night. They will be giving away ice cream - in your choice of:

Jack's Creation - Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips & Fudge

Emily's Creation - Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat & Yellow Cake

It's their 7th annual Ice Cream Social, from 5PM - 8PM - and donations made will benefit Make-a-Wish

So stop in and grab an ice cream & make a donation!

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