Meal Plan Jan 2- Jan 7

Sunday
Steak
Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Baked Potatoes

Monday
Italian Wedding Soup
Brown and Serve Rolls

Tuesday
Pork Burgers
German Potato Salad
Fresh Pineapple Cubes

Wednesday
Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday
Capellini w/ Kalamata Olives and Mushrooms
Garlic Bread

Friday
Eggs Rolls
Fried Rice
Steamed Edamame

Happy New Year!!!

Well, 2010 is coming to an end. It's been a year full of ups, downs, good times, some bad times, smiles, tears, good food and some recipes that didn't pan out so well. But one of the most exciting things 2010 brought with it was this blog. I can't believe it's been 7 months since I finally listened to family and friends that kept saying I should start one. It's been such a surprising blessing in my life allowing me a hobby that combines 2 things I love--food and "cyber" communication. No matter how long I do it, I will always be astounded that I can take 5 minutes to type something on here that has the potential to be read by an enormous amount of people. I am so thankful to all of my readers--I still get excited when a comment is left, or someone mentions "they read it on my blog". Thank you for allowing me into your kitchen to share a little piece of me w/ your family.  I hope 2011 brings you many blessings from above and is filled w/ good times, much love and a lot of great food!


A loud wild party, many hours spent at a local bar, welcoming the new year in w/ a lot of drinks--that is our way. NOT!!!!!! With Alex at home, New Year's Eve has taken on a whole new meaning for Adam and I. We used to go out to dinner w/ my parents, and a few times we've had friends over and even mom and dad stopped by last year, but really since Alex was born, we've stayed home and just enjoyed the time together, or w/ a few people we love. Now what I do is put out what Alex calls my "party buffet" instead of a traditional supper and fill it w/ yummy tidbits that we make a meal out of. Tonight our buffet includes: 2 shrimp rings, pot stickers, jalapeno poppers, veggies/dip, deviled eggs, popcorn, crackers/cheese/summer sausage and dried beef roll ups. The last is a SUPER easy snack or party food that I have been making for years and I'm happy to share it w/ you for the first recipe of 2011!!

Dried Beef Roll Ups
1 jar dried beef
1 container whipped cream cheese (the whipped is much easier to spread)

Spread cream cheese on each piece of dried beef. Roll up and cut in half.

Knock Off Hopes

One of our favorite restaurants here in Fort Wayne, and our absolute favorite Italian one is Casa De Angelo and all of those in the Casa family. They have the best food for the price and I think the 3 of us could eat there once a week if we tried:) One of Adam's favorite dishes is Capellini Pomodoro which is a thin pasta in a red sauce w/ mushrooms and kalamata olives. And now Alex likes it as much as he does. Since we can't eat there as much as we would like, I'm going to try to recreate this dish for supper next week. The only difference w/ mine is I'm using whole grain spaghetti instead of the capellini. I try to use whole grain whenever possible since it is healthier; and that was we don't have as much guilt for eating it.

Capellini Pomodoro


1 lb cappellini or thin spaghetti
1 26 oz jar marinara sauce
1 jar pitted kalamata olives
8 oz mushrooms- sliced
2 TBS garlic
Salt and pepper, to taste
Olive Oil

In a saute pan,  cook mushrooms in oil until brown, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and season w/ salt and pepper. Add olives and let cook 5-8 minutes until flavors develop. Add marinara and simmer on low. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to directions. Drain. Add 1/2 of sauce to pasta and mix well. Serve each portion w/ 1/3 of the remaining sauce on top.

Merry Christmas!!!

For the holiday, my gift to all my readers is a 2 for 1 special holiday treats. Both are great for a party and I will be making both for our Christmas Eve celebration w/ Adam's family. The first is one I've been making for a few years now and could not be easier; and that is funny b/c when I used to eat them at parties I thought they would be kind of complicated to make only to find this recipe that has 2 main ingredients. The second is a great dip recipe I got from my friend Erin and was so surprised to find it combines all of my favorite kinds of dips into one! So, enjoy your holiday--fill it w/ good food, great times, people you love and memories to last a life time. Merry Christmas, God bless us everyone!


Cocktail Bites
2 lbs. Hillshire Farms Lil' Franks Smoked Sausages
1 1/4 cups ketchup
1 1/4 cups jellied cranberry sauce

Mix ketchup and cranberry in a sauce pan over medium/low heat. Stir or whisk until smooth. Place sausages in crock pot and pour sauce over. Heat on low until warmed through.

Vegetable Dip
16 oz. French Onion Dip
16 oz. sour cream
1 packet Ranch dip mix
1 packet Knorr Vegetable Soup/Dip mix

Mix all together well. Chill over night.

Easiest Ever

So Alex looked at me yesterday and said "Mommy, can we make Pa Pa (my dad) some fudge for Christmas? How sweet is that?? He must remember us doing it a couple years back, and knows how much Pa Pa enjoyed it. I of course, agreed and thought I would share the recipe for what I think is the easiest chocolate fudge ever. I actually found it on the back of Toll House chocolate chips bag years ago and it's been my go to recipe ever since. The recipe calls for walnuts, but Pa Pa doesn't really like nuts in his fudge, so we just omit them; but you can make the recipe w/ or w/o and it turns out perfect every time.

Chocolate Fudge
2 cups (12 oz package) Toll House semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp vanilla extract

Line 8 or 9 inch square baking pan w/ foil. Combine morsels and milk in medium heavy duty saucepan. Warm over lowest heat stirring until smooth. Remove from heat; stir in nuts and vanilla. Spread evenly into baking pan. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm Lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into squares.

Chocolate Chips

Christmas Memories

I have a lot of memories of holidays gone by--and some of the happiest are when I was little. The Christmases spent w/ all of our family in Pennsylvania--still to this day, when I think of Christmas I think of those times first. And a lot of those memories revolve around food. Each of my grandmas had their "special" things they made at the holidays and I have a few favorites from each. This is one of those. It comes from my Grammy and will always be one of my favorite treats during Christmas; and I'm so happy to have passed that love onto Alex!!

Cinnamon Apples
As many apples as you want to make, peeled, cored and quartered
1/4- 1/3 cup cinnamon candies (use more or less depending on how "hot" you want them)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water

Mix together candies, sugar and water. Bring to a boil and add apples a few at at time boiling for 1-1 1/2 minutes. When all done cooking apples, pour liquid over apples and add a dash of red food coloring. Store in a air tight container in the fridge.

Apples at Very Good Recipes
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Thinking Of You

Sometimes while looking through my many cook books, I will see a recipe and it will immediately remind of someone in my life and scream out "share me". That was the case when I read this one. It comes from The Pillsbury Family Christmas Cookbook, one in a stack of Christmas cookbooks I have. I love looking through them for ideas and inspiration and when I came upon this I knew it had to be dedicated to my sister in law, Amanda. This girl has more blueberries each year than anyone else I know. She cooks w/ them all summer and then freezes a TON to supply her through the winter months. So, hopefully when she  reads this she will know I was thinking of her, and missing her; and of course give it a try!!

Warm Blueberry Sipper
3 cups water
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 lemon slices, 1/4 inch thick
1 cinnamon stick
1 TBS cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
Whipped cream if desired

In medium saucepan, combine 3 cups water, berries, sugar, lemon and cinnamon; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes or until berries are soft. Remove lemon and cinnamon. Pour berry mixture into blender or food processor and blend until smooth. (If container too small, do in 2 batches) Return to sauce pan. In small bowl, combine cornstarch and 1/4 cup water; stir into berry mixture. Cook over medium heat until boils and slightly thickens, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour into 8 heatproof glasses. Gently place dollop of whipped cream on top and serve immediately.

Blueberry

Let The Christmas Baking Begin

I love holiday baking. And I don't bake a lot, so that should tell you how much I love Christmas! Usually though it's nothing really complicated or involved, b/c I like to include Alex in it. And every year I try to find something, or the past few years since he's been older, that he can do mostly on his own w/ just a little help from Mommy. I found this for him in Taste of Home Christmas Cookies and Candies. And while I was going to wait until closer to the holiday to do it, he is home sick today and needed a little cheering up. So we now have a whole bowl of these in the fridge for snacking on! (And of course half the fun is "sampling" the ingredients while making them....lol)

Chocolate Pretzel Treats

1 bag mini pretzel twists (rings work too)
1 8 oz package Hershey kisses, each piece unwrapped
1 bag M&Ms

 Count out the number of kisses you have. This way you know the number of pretzels you need. There will be more pretzels and M&Ms than kisses. Place the pretzels on greased baking sheets; place a chocolate kiss in center of each. Bake @ 275º for 5 minutes until chocolate softened. Remove from oven. Place an M&M on each, pressing down slightly so warm chocolate fills the pretzel. Chill for 5-10 minutes until firm. Store in airtight container at room temperature.

*We actually put ours in the freezer to speed up cooling and setting.
*I am storing ours in the fridge b/c our kitchen gets a lot of sun light and is warm most of the time.
*Steps the kids can help with: Unwrapping all the kisses, placing pretzels on sheets, putting kisses in center and taking off sheets when cool.

My little holiday elf 

Alex loves to be in the kitchen.

Shared on Gooseberry Patch Oct. 20, 2011
Shared on Everyday Sisters Oct. 30, 2011

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My Favorite--What's Yours?

Of all the yummy holiday treats, or traditional foods we have every year, one stands out as my favorite. And that's a hard task b/c I'm surrounded by GREAT food for days on end during Christmas. But the one thing I always look forward to (no matter how many times we have it throughout the rest of the year) is Green Bean Casserole!!!! And this year, I'm the one making it to take to my parents' house for Christmas Day dinner. My mom usually makes it, but this year I volunteered and while I will be using the same recipe she does, I doubt if it will taste as good--nothing ever does as well as when Mom makes it. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to eating it once again, and am making enough for lots of leftovers!

Traditional Green Bean Casserole (from Campbell's.com)

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp soy sauce
Dash ground black pepper
2 16 oz cans cut green beans
1 1/3 cups french fried onions

Stir soup, milk, soy sauce, pepper beans and 2/3 cup onions in 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Bake @ 350º for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbling. Stir and top w/ rest of onions. Bake for 5 minutes more until onions are golden brown.

Shared on Comfy Cuisine Aug. 11, 2011
Shared on Gooseberry Patch Aug. 31, 2011
Shared on Everyday Sisters Nov. 13, 2011

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FREE FREE FREE

I love a good deal. Rather it be saving money, or better yet free! This came to me from my fellow blogger Real Mom's Kitchen and I found it to be a great read! A cook book filled w/ holiday recipes to make your season even brighter! Enjoy an early Christmas present from two Mommy Food Bloggers!

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/gm/holiday08/