Food

October 1, 2015

Holy Desserts

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For Pirtlefest 2015 I made 11 pans of desserts.

E…LEV…EN…

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It took me from 9pm on Thursday night to 4pm Friday afternoon to get them done, but I got them done.  And boy were they yummy!

I will share the links with you for three of the recipes:

  1. Peanut Butter Sheet Cake
  2. Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting
  3. Caramel Mallow Brownies
    • I altered my original recipe by melting the caramel bits with a little milk, poured it over the brownie base and then added the mallow and frosting.  It was the BEST idea I have had yet!

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I LOVE to bake, as long as it isn’t cookies.  Those little bastards take forever.   But, after almost 24 hours of baking, my Kitchen Aid Mixer was happy to see me go.

For now. 🙂

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Cheers!

 

September 16, 2015

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

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While they aren’t exactly appealing to the eye, they most definitely appeal to the belly.   These cabbage rolls are stuffed full of heartiness that screams fall with ground beef, black beans, mushrooms and corn.   Add this recipe to your cool weather lineup.  It’s bound to be a hit.

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil oil
  • 1 cup chopped red onion
  • 1 medium head green cabbage
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 can black beans (drained)
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 1 package fresh mushrooms
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup feta cheese (any flavor that floats your boat)
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 can (16 ounces) tomato sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika

Directions

  1. Heat oil in a skillet, add chopped onions to tenderize.   Add ground beef and cook through.
  2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Using a knife, cut in a circle all around the stem of the cabbage and remove the core. Place the cabbage in the boiling water. After about 2 minutes an outside leaf will come loose–pull it off and out of the water using tongs and place on a clean dish towel to soak up the water.  Repeat until you have 8 to 10 leaves.  Cut out the thick part of the rib from the bottom of each leaf, but don’t cut too much.
  3. Back in your pan with the ground beef and onion add black beans, mushrooms, corn, feta, chicken broth, tomato sauce and paprika.   Allow to simmer.    Reserve a little bit of the liquid for later.
  4. Begin stuffing and rolling the cabbage leaves into a lightly greased 9×13 pan.  Pour reserved liquid over the top, cover in foil and bake for one hour at 350.

Enjoy!

 

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September 8, 2015

Apple Pie Bars with Salted Caramel Drizzle

Say hello to these little slices of Heaven, recipe compliments of Sally’s Baking Addiction.

Apple Pie Bars

Buttery shortbread base underneath a juicy layer of cinnamon coated apples topped with a struesel topping is enough to have you singing…

and then you gotta go and add a SALTED CARAMEL topping?

I’ve Died.

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Oh me, oh my.  Come to mama.

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The list looks a little daunting.  Don’t be scared.  It really was no big deal to whip up three batches of these beauties.

Wait, what?  

THREE?

I sent one over to our neighbor, Carol, who fell and broke her leg a few weeks back.   I sent another one over to neighbor Harold, who if you read my blog last night, you know is one of the coolest old cats you could meet.

The other one got snacked on by myself and the hubs before disappearing from my work break room this AM.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

Ingredients:

SHORTBREAD CRUST

  • 1/2 cup butter, melted (I used salted, but my disclaimer is to leave out the 1/4 tsp, salt below if you do)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt (only if you used unsalted butter)
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

APPLE FILLING

  • 2 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced (I used fresh picked apples, which were fairly small.  Make sure to double up in size)
  • 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

STREUSEL

  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed

HOMEMADE SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE

  • 1 cup  granulated sugar
  • 6 Tablespoons salted butter, cut up into small chunks
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon salt (careful to not overdo it)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 300. Grease an 8-inch baking pan and set aside.
  2. Crust: Stir the melted butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until everything is combined. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes while you prepare the filling and streusel.
  3. Apple filling: Combine the sliced apples, flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a large bowl until all of the apples are evenly coated. Set aside.
  4. Streusel: Whisk the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
  5. Remove the crust from the oven, and turn the oven up to 350. Evenly layer the apples on top of the warm crust.  Sprinkle the apple layer with streusel and bake for 30–35 minutes or until the streusel is golden brown.
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  6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 20 minutes at room temperature
  7. Caramel topping:
    1. Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a high heat resistant rubber spatula.
    2. Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown liquid as you continue to stir. Stir, stir, stir!  Do not burn!
    3. Once sugar is completely melted, immediately add the butter. Watch out! The caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added.
    4. Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes.
    5. Very slowly, drizzle in 1/2 cup of heavy cream while stirring. Again, watch out!
    6. Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.
    7. Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cool down before using.
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  8. Once bars are cool, cut to desired size, pour cooled salted caramel sauce on top. These apple pie bars can be enjoyed warm, at room temperature, or even cold.

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ENJOY!

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September 7, 2015

Labor Day Weekend | 2015

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Three. Day. Weekend.   It’s like music to my ears.  Or was, anyway.   How does it always go by so fast?  Sigh…. and thus we begin our “Working for The Weekend” grind again.

Friday started with a Harley ride to work, as those opportunities are rare.  Being a girl, in a professional work environment, with 20 miles between home and work plus the need for gym attire, Harley attire, work attire… blah blah blah.  You get the picture.

Friday was a jeans day, with a fun Division meeting for the first two hours of my day (complete with t-shirt design competition), a few hours of work and an hour of Wellness Promotion (shameless plug for my fitness classes I start offering to staff on the 14th too)

😉

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FAW (Friday After Work) I was able to meet up with my girl Heidi for an impromptu early evening ride to Waterloo for some cocktails, live music and girl talk.   It was the perfect Friday night.

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Saturday

Clint was in C-town doing more Pirtlefest preps, so I decided to take on a few projects around the house.

Project A: Choose a new front door color.

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An early morning trip to Home Depot and I was well on my way.

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… with the Iowa game on and dogs monitoring my work, of course.

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Before | After

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I am in love!

imageChamp digs it too.

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I’d love to change the hardware and light fixture above the door as well, but maybe another day.

In between coats of primer and paint I also spent a great deal of time trimming up all of the rose bushes and random crap growing in front of our house (Project B).

…And by trimming, I actually mean cutting down.

Oops.

Have I mentioned I hate clutter?  Guess that transfers outside too.   I hate rose bushes.

Project C: String patio lights over our unfinished back patio.

:p

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Earlier this summer, Clint and company poured a sidewalk and half of our patio in the back.   It wasn’t intentionally done this way, but measurements were a little off… NBD.   Eventually it will extend to where the dog houses are and curve back around.  Our fire pit (which is sitting on top of the ground for now) will go in the middle.

I thought patio lights would look sweet over the top of this, so did a little mock-up, made a trip to Target for lights and started stringing.

So, how about a little math?

$48 of lights +  secure starting point +  connecting point for the four strands + a little too tight of a stretch on the last strand = a big glassy mess.

Just add it to my pile of trash for the weekend.

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Nightfall came quickly so the dogs and I had to call it a night.  Clearly they were exhausted after all that work.

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Sunday

An insanely humid morning equaled a less than enthusiastic start to my day.  5 miles sounded daunting in that heat, so I pulled out my witty tank to garner some laughs out on the trail.   I always wave/nod/acknowledge anyone I meet while out on the trail, so figured adding a laugh would help keep me going, if not them too.

Side Note: Please excuse me while I hop on my soap box for a sec.  I rarely wear this tank, along with a few other “wordy” tanks due to how low they sit on the chest.  I have to roll it into my sports bra a gagillion times to get it pulled up.   I think showing the girls while working out is just weird.  I know – this is probably all just me as I find boobs annoying (anyone feeling awkward yet) but I just find it a little odd to have cleavage showing when at the gym, running, teaching a group x class, etc.   Are we there to get a helluva workout in, or to get looked at?  Mmmmhmmm… that is all.    *Hopping off my personal opinion soapbox.

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After my long and disgustingly hot run, I hopped in an ice cold shower… hello happiness… and then Clint and I stupidly (influenced by my stupidity) went back out in the 100 degree heat for a ride to Lake Ohana.

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A few ice cold brews and we made our way back to Omaha.   Moonshine was producing, which is a very manual project, so you can’t leave it unattended for long without risk of ruining an entire batch.  Not cool.

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We ended the night with fire grilled grub and a few more beers.  Pretty great Sunday, if you ask me!

❤

imageThat fire pit sure works great sitting awkwardly out of the ground.  🙂

MONDAY | Labor Day

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Clint was gracious enough to bring an entire grocery bag full of apples back with him from Clarinda, so I filled up my day with baking.

Three batches of Apple Pie Bars with Salted Caramel (all made from scratch) and a large batch of Apple Crisp smelled up my kitchen.   One batch went to our neighbor, Carol, who broke her leg a few weeks back.  Another batch went to our neighbor, Harold, who hands-down, might be the coolest cat you could meet.  He is an older gentleman, with a love of old cars, rolled white t-shirt sleeves and strategically combed and slicked back hair.  Harold and Clint have become quite the garage companions when talking old cars and tinkering on old trucks.

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Recipe coming soon!

Another hot-as-hell evening short run followed by dinner and blogging has me thinking bed time soon.   Back to the daily grind tomorrow!

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Hope you all had a wonderful three day weekend with family, friends and doing whatever the heck you wanted to do!

Cheers!