First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

That's from Proverbs 16:18- maybe you've heard- pride goeth before a fall? Same sort of concept. Well, we all knew it was going to happen, didn't we?

I spotted the Southern Living magazine "Best Ever Cakes and Pies" edition and I really wanted it. All the pictures were completely amazing and I couldn't wait to start trying them out. The magazine was a little pricey, so every grocery store trip, I talked myself out of buying it. But today, we were at Sam's and they sell magazines at a discounted price. I could no longer resist. I immediately flipped through it when I got home and showed a few of the dessert pictures to Jeremy. I told him I would make whatever he wanted. He said he would like a strawberry cake (I'm not even going to comment on the fact that he chose strawberry over chocolate?!?! What???). The magazine didn't have a strawberry cake, but they did have a strawberry frosting and I could make just a plain white cake. Because we decided all of this at 7:30pm, I decided to cheat a little bit and use Betty to help me out with the cake part.

I baked the cakes and they looked beautiful. I let them cool on wire racks, while I whipped up the frosting, which was a combination of butter, powdered sugar, and fresh strawberries. I got out my fancy little cake plate, while I already started to imagine the gorgeous pictures that I would post on my blog. A two- layer white cake with a lovely light pink frosting with specks of delicious strawberries and garnished with sliced strawberries on top. It was going to be my blog masterpiece! Somewhere along the way, as I was frosting the cake, things went wrong. The top layer slid a little bit, but that's normal, maybe even to be expected.

But then as Jeremy came over to take a look at my masterpiece, it just broke itself into pieces . . . or maybe hunks?!?!

I couldn't even believe it! I've never seen that happen before. Instantly, I decided that I could clean up the mess, put away my camera, and never tell anyone (except for Jeremy and he doesn't care how food looks!). But what kind of a blogger would I be if I can't be honest and tell you about all my experiences in the kitchen? A prideful one. So here it is, my big mishap and my crazy falling apart cake. Any thoughts on what happened? The cakes were completely cooled- maybe the icing was a little too runny or melted? I don't know.

We still ate it and it tasted pretty good. I might be a little gun-shy with layer cakes now. I think I'll stick to cupcakes- they've not yet turned out this poorly for me. This wasn't my "best ever" by any stretch of the imagination. I'm not going to post the recipe- you can email me if you would like a copy!

Quick & Easy

I saw this recipe on the Food Network and I thought it looked pretty good. It's so easy!!! I know I say that about a lot of recipes, but if you're reading this blog at 4:30 today, you have plenty of time to serve this for dinner tonight at 6:00. It's also a great recipe for leftover chicken. The recipe calls for 1 lb. of penne, but I had a little bit of 3 different pastas, so I just threw them all in there together. Still tastes the same! This has very simple ingredients, but it's a very flavorful dish and relatively healthy. Although pasta isn't necessarily always the healthiest choice, it doesn't have a sauce and the boneless, skinless chicken breasts are lean.

Dinner tonight- easy lemon pasta with chicken

Easy Lemon Pasta with Chicken

(from FoodNetwork)

1 pound dried penne
2 chicken cutlets, cut into fingers
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
2 lemons, juiced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water, until al dente. Drain well.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat a large grill pan over medium high and add chicken. Grill until golden and completely cooked. Remove to a plate and slice.
Add the garlic and red pepper flakes to a saute pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil and saute until fragrant. Add the cooked pasta and turn heat off. Mix all together. Remove pasta to a large bowl. Add chicken to the warm pasta and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle in chopped parsley. Add the juice of 2 lemons and mix. Before serving top with Parmesan.

E’s Notes:

• Even if you are a little shy about using red pepper flakes, you definitely need to use them in this recipe. It’s just a little kick at the end of every bite!


• You could use leftover chicken.The parsley isn’t really necessary- it just looks pretty, but all the other ingredients really make this delicious!


• I put 4-5 whole garlic cloves in the olive oil with the red pepper flakes. Then, I removed the cloves before adding the pasta to the oil. It still had a garlic flavor, but it wasn’t over powering.

As I was finishing up the dishes, I realized that I could not hear Ivy or see her. That's a very bad sign! I was pretty sure she was upstairs, but normally, when she's upstairs, she's chasing a ball around and that is clearly audible. I start up the stairs and in the distance, I hear a licking sound. I round the corner into the bathroom . . .

By now, Ivy has probably licked the entire tub. I have no idea why she enjoys that. I'm sure there is a little water leftover from the shower I had earlier, but she has a completely full bowl of water downstairs. Crazy dog!

Full of Beans

Today was definitely less eventful, which was nice for a change! Over a year ago, we went to a church potluck and someone brought these baked beans and Jeremy loved them! Today, I was searching recipes and I stumbled across the recipe and decided to make them for dinner. I didn't love them- I think I like them the regular way with ketchup, mustard, and brown sugar. Jeremy was still a BIG fan! I halved the recipe and we still have a lot of beans leftover, especially since I didn't eat too many.

Dinner tonight- hamburgers (leftover), guacamole and tortilla chips, and baked beans.

Sue and Gloria's Baked Beans

(from FoodNetwork and Paula Deen)

4 (16-ounce) cans baked beans
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup molasses
1 cup BBQ sauce
2 tablespoon yellow or brown mustard
5 slices cooked bacon, crumbled
1 (6-ounce) can french-fried onions, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl, mix together beans, pineapple, molasses, BBQ sauce, mustard, bacon, and a third of the onions. Add some salt and pepper, to taste. Pour beans in 9 by 13-inch casserole dish and sprinkle remaining crushed onions and bacon on top. Cook in oven for 1 hour or until beans brown and bubble. Serve warm.

All is well that ends well . . .

We got off to a very rough start this morning. Jeremy had a little work luncheon today and he was supposed to bring an appetizer and dessert. With all the cleaning and organizing yesterday, I didn't have time to make anything, so I decided I would start cooking this morning and bring it up to his office a little before lunch time.


I got up while Jeremy was getting ready and I started getting the ingredients out to make brownies, and then, I took Ivy out for a little walk. While I was outside with Ivy, Jeremy kissed me goodbye and left for work. Ivy and I headed back inside, so I could start the baking BUT . . . the door was locked!!! In following his normal routine, Jeremy walked out of the house and locked the door behind him. (He has been in trouble a few times when I've headed into the living room to find one or more doors unlocked)


Jeremy was too far down the road for me to try to run after him, so I had to try to find a neighbor at home. Let's also take this opportunity to mention that I looked like I had just rolled out of bed- pj tank top on, glasses, no makeup and crazy bedhead (not the cute, trendy bedhead, either!). I found a neighbor at home and called Jeremy on his cell phone- no answer, work phone- no answer. I finally tried his cell again and he answered. He was already half way to work!

Ivy and I sat and waited on our little porch. After several minutes, Jeremy let us back inside, so I could start on the brownies (again) when I saw a little silver shiny HP laptop. That's right- Jeremy's work computer. I called him and said- forget something?!?! So I put Ivy in the car and drove up to Jeremy's office and dropped off his laptop. I rushed back home and started on the brownies.


I made brownies and sweet chicken bacon wraps. I had to drive them back up to Jeremy's office- I was a little late. Too bad gas is $4 a gallon!!!

Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps

1 1/4 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (about 4 breasts)
1 (1-pound) package sliced bacon
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut chicken breasts into 1-inch cubes. Cut each bacon slice into thirds. Wrap each chicken cube with bacon and secure with a wooden pick. Stir together brown sugar and chili powder. Dredge wrapped chicken in mixture. Coat a rack and broiler pan with nonstick cooking spray. Place chicken wrap on rack in broiler pan. Bake 350 for 30 to 35 minutes or until bacon is crisp.

Brownies with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
(Original recipe here)

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Baking Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

PREHEAT oven to 350º F. Grease 13 x 9-inch baking pan.

COMBINE granulated sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan.

BAKE for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into bars

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:
In a saucepan melt 1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; cool. In a small bowl stir together two 3 ounce packages softened cream cheese and ½ cup sifted powdered sugar. Stir in melted chocolate until smooth.

I was exhausted before noon! The frosting on my brownies looks a little cracked, because I had to put them in the freezer to speed up the cooling. Everything turned out well!

A Place for Everything & Everything in its Place

I completely love days like today! We slept late and made a delicious pancake breakfast. And by "we," I mean Jeremy helped out with the cooking, which almost never happens. He was in charge of the pancakes and they were very tasty! Then, we took Ivy to the dog park for a little bit- we had to leave early because it looked like rain and if you're reading the blog, you know what happened last time! The not so fun part of our day was cleaning up and organizing our closets, but we feel accomplished. We had hamburgers and baked sweet potato fries for a late lunch (traditional Memorial Day lunch!). And a little later in the day, we enjoyed Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (Blue Bell, of course!). It was a really great day. We're all tired and ready to start our week tomorrow!

Bisquick Pancakes

(here is the link)

2 cups original bisquick mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs

Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat or electric griddle to 375°F; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening. (Surface is ready when a few drops of water sprinkled on it dance and disappear.)
Stir all ingredients until blended. Pour by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle.
Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook until golden.

E’s Notes:

• I add a few tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla, so they taste a little more homemade!
• Pancakes should be served with peanut butter, maple syrup, and molasses (Grandma's).

Doesn't my pantry look awesome! I should have taken a "before" shot, so you could really see the improvement! Let's just say the floor was not visible!

Happy Memorial Day!

We enjoyed a family dinner at a Japanese steakhouse!

Ivy and Sebastian

Enjoy your Monday off!

Berry Sweet

I love strawberries! When I was little we had them growing in our garden and my dad used to joke that he couldn't take me to pick the strawberries because he didn't come back with any. I'm also still working on those pantry items!

I made strawberry shortcake- I used Bisquick and Jello instant pudding! So easy and pretty delicious! Here is the recipe on the Bisquick web-site!

Strawberry Shortcake

2 1/3 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Sweetened sliced strawberries
Whipped topping or vanilla pudding

Heat oven to 425°F.
Stir Bisquick mix, milk, sugar and butter until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Split warm shortcakes; fill and top with strawberries and whipped topping. (Sweeten strawberries before making shortcakes so sugar has time to dissolve; for each quart of sliced strawberries, stir in 1/2 cup sugar.)

I can't believe how big Ivy is getting! It's almost her one year birthday. Here are some "berry sweet" pictures of our little Ivy.

THEN

NOW

Something to Smile About

Again, still with the theme of trying to use up pantry items. Somehow, I ended up with two very LARGE containers of oatmeal. That’s a lot of oatmeal! I had some for breakfast yesterday and today, but the thought of trying to eat my way through 2 LARGE containers one breakfast bowl at a time, kind of makes me nauseous. In addition, I would probably still be eating oatmeal a year from now- one little bowl hardly makes a dent!

So I came up with meatloaf and no bake cookies. I very rarely make meatloaf- maybe twice ever! My mom never and I mean never made meatloaf when I was growing up (nor does she even to this day). I think maybe she ate it too often when she was a kid? Or maybe she just doesn’t like it? Needless to say, I don’t have some great family recipe for meatloaf, so I have to resort to finding a recipe on-line. If you have a great recipe, feel free to share!
On the other hand, no bake cookies were a regular in my house- growing up and even now! I love them- chocolate, peanut butter, oatmeal! Delicious! I have so many memories of my bff, Amy, and I eating these cookies- or really just licking the pan while the batter? was still warm. Mmmm!

I ended up with no pictures of the mini meatloaves- Jeremy's cousin came over for dinner, so I didn't really have a chance. I really like the mini-meatloaf concept, because they are individual portions and they bake a little faster. And you don't have to worry about it crumbling apart while you try to slice it. I added a little more seasoning to my meatloaf- salt, pepper, and some garlic powder. I think it turned out well.

Dinner tonight- mini meatloaves, mashed potatoes, corn, garlic rolls, and no bake cookies! Hello carbs!

Mini Meatloaves

1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound ground beef
2/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, combine the egg, milk, cheese, oats and salt. Add the ground beef, mixing well, and form this mixture into eight miniature meatloaves. Place these in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking dish.

*Tip: put foil in your backing dish so clean up is super easy- just throw away the foil!

In a separate small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar and mustard. Stir thoroughly and spread over each meatloaf.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.

No Bake Cookies

4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
3 cups quick cooking oats
1/2 cup peanut butter1 tablespoon vanilla extract


Mix together sugar, butter or margarine, and milk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for one minute, stirring constantly.


Remove from heat and mix in cocoa, quick oatmeal and vanilla. Drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper.

This is the best part about making no bake cookies!

Ivy licked the peanut butter spoon!

A plate of no bake cookies!

When life gives you lemons . . .

make a delicious dinner!

Dinner tonight- salmon baked in foil and lemony rice. Yum!

I'm trying to clean out my pantry and freezer, so I've been brainstorming on some recipes that will use up all those staples that seem to multiply while you have them stored. For example, I have about 4 or 5 different types of opened, partially used rice- brown rice, instant rice, texmati rice, risotto, etc. Several months back, we also purchased a huge (3 lb.) bag of salmon fillets from Sam's and I'm pretty sure we have had salmon one time. So that's how this dinner came about! As always, this is really easy to make!

Salmon with Lemon

(I adapted this recipe from Food Network)

2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
2-3 tablespoons cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
several sprigs of dill
4 lemon slices (about 1 lemon)
1/4 cup lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1/4 cup Marsala wine (or white wine)
2 pieces of aluminum foil

Brush top and bottom of salmon fillets with olive oil and season with salt, pepper. Place each piece of seasoned salmon on a piece of foil large enough to fold over and seal. Top the each piece of salmon with dill, 2 lemon slices, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of wine. Wrap up salmon tightly in the foil packets.


Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill. Place the foil packets on the hot grill and cook for 10 minutes for a 1-inch thick piece of salmon. Serve in the foil packets.

OR


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 12-17 minutes (depending on size of salmon). I went with this option- it seemed easiest!

Lemony Rice

(original recipe here)

1 cup Uncle Ben's Converted Rice (not instant)
2 T olive oil (or 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil)
1 tsp. salt
3 T lemon juice (or more)
3 C chicken stock
Lemon zest

Use a heavy pan with a tight fitting lid. Saute rice in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add salt and lemon juice and zest and saute 1 minute more. Add chicken stock carefully so it doesn't splash up on you, let it come to a boil, reduce heat to the lowest you can get it and still keep the liquid boiling and cook 30 minutes without peeking at all.

After 30 minutes you are allowed to peek to see if all the liquid is absorbed. If not cook a few more minutes until it has. I find it usually takes 35 minutes, but I can't keep myself from peeking after 30 minutes.

E’s Notes:

• If you don’t have 3 cups of chicken stock, you can use a combo of chicken stock and water- it just has more flavor with more chicken stock.
• When I first started making this rice, I had an issue with the rice getting really brown on the bottom (i.e. burning). Now, as soon as I see the chicken stock/water slightly start bubbling, I turn another burner on low heat and get it warmed up. Then, when it’s boiling, I move it to the burner on low. You probably won’t have this issue if you have a gas stove.

I gave Ivy some of the lemony rice and she loved it! She literally licked the bowl clean!!! Don't you wish that everyone could see you through the eyes of your dog?!?!

A Walk in the Park

Well, it was an exceptionally beautiful day in Nashville and after church, we thought it would be perfect for a picnic. Jeremy absolutely loves Maggiano's salad and there happens to be a Maggiano's right by the park. So, we order the salad and a mozzarella/ tomato salad to-go and we head over to the park. It was perfect- not too hot, not too cold. There was a nice little breeze. Looks tranquil, doesn't it?!?!

There was only one problem. A group in a nearby pavilion was blaring (and I mean blaring) their hip- hop music. We heard everything from Laffy Taffy to Michael Jackson to Brush Your Shoulders Off to Beyonce. It was terrible and there was no escaping. They had those huge speakers that people set up for outdoor parties or radio stations that are at remote locations. I felt like I was standing by the dj in a hip-hop club! We pretty much ate our food as fast as possible and took Ivy over to dog park, which like the picnic idea, started out well.

Ivy gets crazy excited about the possibility of playing in the dog park, especially the dog park that is only for little dogs (20 lbs. and under). She starts whining as soon as she sees the fence. She's having a great time- running around, playing, making new friends. Jeremy and I found an open bench and sat down to watch her have fun. All of the sudden, out of no where, huge rain drops start falling. It wasn't a little sprinkle, it was a downpour. All of the other owners, rush to get their dogs and run to their cars. We rush to get Ivy and she runs. At this point, every other dog is on a leash and the owners are trying to leave. A few of them, feel sorry for us and try to help us get Ivy. She's running around like crazy- a little white lightning. People can get their hands on her back and she shoots off. We can't catch her. It's almost like she's laughing- you can't catch me!

I decide to go with the idea that you catch more flies with honey. I go over to the water fountain area and in my sweetest voice say, come here, Ivy, let's get you some water. Of course, after all the running around, she's very thirsty and runs over to get some water and I nab her! We run to the car and we are completely soaked. Ivy, too!


As we drive home, we realize it hasn't even sprinkled by our house- it's still a perfectly sunny day! More pics from our day! And a few more!

Going Nuts

Over the weekend in Abilene, we had a celebration party for my parent's "neighbor" and dear family friend, Kristi. Kristi graduated from nursing school. Several of her friends came to the party and brought various party foods. One of her friends brought some completely delicious and amazing thumbprint cookies. If you love pecan shortbread cookies, butter pecan ice cream or anything else with pecans, you will love these cookies!
As soon as I got back to Nashville, I sent an email requesting a copy of the recipe. Luckily, Kristi's friend, Laura, was willing to share, so here it is! It's fabulous! Thanks, Laura!

She called them thumbprint cookies, but I'm going to call them pecan thumbprint cookies. "Thumbprint cookies" take me back to the high school days when at school events they brought in cookies with gobs of icing in our school colors- purple and gold (yellow). Those were pretty good, but these are MUCH better!

Pecan Thumbprint Cookies

2 sticks margarine
1 C sugar
2 eggs separated
1 t. vanilla
2 C flour
¼ t salt
1 ½ C finely chopped pecans
Icing

Cream butter and sugar with egg yolks until fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix well.

Roll dough into 1” balls, then roll in slightly beaten egg whites. Dip into chopped pecans until completely coated. Place on greased cookie sheet and make a thumbprint in each. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until done. Cool.

Fill thumbprint indentation in each cookie with icing.

Icing:
2 C confectioners’ sugar
2 T butter
1 t vanilla
2-3 T milk
½ - 1 t maple flavoring to taste (optional)

Also, if you happen to own a dog, Target has a portion of their dollar area (you know right when you come in the door- on the right) dedicated to dog stuff. I purchased several plush toys and other cute things for Ivy. One dollar item happened to be a cute little pink visor with a flamingo on it. Of course, Ivy hates wearing anything- she just wants to chew on it. But with plenty of treats, I kept her distracted long enough to get a picture. Although in most of the pictures, she's trying to get it off! Here are the rest of the pics!