feel good food :)

Tonight for dinner, I fell back on an old favorite: sausage with peppers and onions.

When I go to a fair, all I want is a sausage sandwich (and maybe deep fried oreos). They are so good! Actually... there's a lot of food I want when we go to fairs! :)

They are SO easy to make: saute the sausage in one pan and saute some peppers and onions in another. Heat up the oven and get the hoagie rolls browned and toasty!

Brown the sausages over medium-high heat for about five minutes (just until there's some color). Then, add about half a cup of water and simmer for about ten minutes (temperature should be somewhere in that 160-170 degree range)

While you're cooking the sausage, throw some peppers and onions in another pan and get them cooking... they just need to soften up and caramelize, so it shouldn't take too long.

Put it all together on your toasted roll and you're finished!We ate ours with curly fries and broccoli on the side :) Yum!

a new twist on an old favorite...

AJ and I met up in the Adirondacks in 2007... long story... but I hooked him with Rachael Ray's bacon wrapped chicken (with pecans and blue cheese inside!) That was the beginning of our story :)

I still make this chicken on special occasions for AJ, and he loves it just as much now! It is very, very yummy but it takes some time.

The good news is: it's very easy to simplify and sub in different ingredients depending on what we're in the mood for. Today, after work, I wandered around the grocery store (they change the sales on Wednesdays... I am such a nerd) trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

I got a few good deals and then headed home. I have a new-found obsession with colby-jack cheese so I decided to use that...and then it hit me! Make chicken roll-ups with cheese inside! How could this go wrong?

Here are the ingredients I used, plus the chicken that was defrosting when I took this picture ;)

I pounded the chicken breasts until they were about 1/4 inch thick. I did this by putting them in a closed ziploc bag and then hitting them repeatedly with a soup can... that took some of today's stress away :)

After that, you just take it out and then place the cheese and hot sauce inside:

Roll them up like a pinwheel and secure with toothpicks... and then pour some shake and bake on them. I tried to pick up the pieces and get some of the mixture on the bottom as well...

And then I baked for about 30 minutes at 400 degrees and they got nice and crispy!

They went perfectly with some fresh celery and blue cheese mixed with some more hot sauce:

Delicious! Hope you had a great Tuesday.

hindsight is 20/20

So for Thanksgiving, I made three pies: one apple, one apple-cranberry, and one pumpkin.

Freezing apple pie filling is something I'll have to try again. We tried to thaw out the filling on our drive from Virginia to Florida (yikes!) and it worked pretty well. However, when I went to bake the pies, there was a lot of water in the bag. In hindsight, I probably should have tried to get the water out and keep the pie filling in tact. Hindsight is always 20/20, though ;)

I started by mixing up the pumpkin pie. I always use Libby's pumpkin pie recipe. Maybe it's just a tradition? It never fails though. So yummy, and such comfort food!

The color was a bit different than I've seen and I think that's because I used real pumpkin puree. The taste was SO delicious though. AJ is constantly sneaking off to the fridge for more.

The pie that I was super excited about serving was the apple-cranberry. The one I got from Trader Joe's last year was beyond yummy and I was eager to see if I could recreate it. I had read a recipe online that called for mixing a cup of cranberries into the apple pie filling and baking... so I decided to try that.

Hindsight is 20/20 again. I had an inkling... let's call it woman's intuition... that I shouldn't have done that. I wanted to simmer the filling with the cranberries until the cranberries popped and could be infused with the sweet apple flavor. Well, my impatience won out again. I wanted to get it done quickly, so I just mixed them in with the filling.

Lattice crusts are probably the prettiest pie crusts, in my humble opinion. Here's how to do it: roll out a pie crust and then cut it into stripes (a butter knife works fine here). Lay the stripes across the pie filling one way. Then you pull back some of the stripes and start going the other way. It's like basket weaving.

When I finished, I brushed it with an egg wash (a whole egg mixed with some milk) to give it a shiny finish after baking.

This is the final result:

 It was a beautiful pie. Now if only the bottom crust didn't get soggy and I was grumpy all Thanksgiving because of it.

The other pie I made was plain apple with a pecan sandies topping. My mama loves pecan sandies so she was my inspiration. The crust didn't have as crisp as a texture as I would have liked, but I'll try again for Christmas :)

We have SO much to be thankful for! I love this season of the year when we spend so much of our time with our families :)

cranberry sauce

On Tuesday, we left after work to drive to Florence, SC and we stayed the night there. We woke up at 4 on Wednesday and drove the rest of the way to Orlando, FL. I love Thanksgiving! So excited to eat all the yummy food today!

When we arrived yesterday, I had to bake all of the pies. Just as I predicted, I was super-thankful to have made the apple pie filling a few months ago. I also had the pumpkin puree so the pie making was pretty easy. I'll blog about the pies tomorrow after we actually taste them :)

I used about half the bag of Trader Joe's cranberries for the apple-cranberry pie and then didn't know what to do with the other half of the bag. Then I found this recipe for cranberry sauce and tried it.

It was super easy... You just dissolve the sugar into the orange juice and then add the cranberries! Lovely. just make sure you put a splatter screen (or a paper towel) over the pan if you decide to make it. When the cranberries start to pop, things got a little messy ;)

 doesn't this look pretty?

And then the final product...

I tasted it and it's super yummy! Who knew cranberry sauce was so easy to make?

alfredo!

Spaghetti squash is changing my life. I love having no guilt eating 'pasta' and I love that I can make everything that has regular pasta in it with this magic vegetable. And it tastes GOOD.

We've had our spaghetti now with parmesan & butter, red sauce, and in lasagna. All wonderful. Time to bring out the big guns... Can we do alfredo?

I baked some frozen chicken breasts in the oven (350 degrees for one hour with foil covering: perfect every time). I made a quick alfredo sauce with garlic, parmesan cheese, heavy cream, and butter on the stovetop. And I cooked the spaghetti squash in the microwave like I did last time, cut in half with some water inside. 

After everything was cooked, I spread some of the 'spaghetti' into the bottom of a baking dish and then placed some of the diced chicken on top. I poured half of the alfredo on top and then repeated layers. On top of it all, I sprinkled some more parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and fresh parsley. (Side note: Why do the grocery stores sell parsley in such HUGE quantities... who needs that much parsley?)

I baked it for an hour in our 350 degree oven. AJ had two servings... and I think he wanted three, but the promise of sweet potato pie calmed him down ;)

Seriously... so yummy. Try it :)  Yummm!

too much chocolate cake.

We had dinner with some friends tonight and I brought one of my favorite super-easy desserts! Every time I bring this cake somewhere, it gets great reviews.

I would like to say this is an old family recipe or that it's a big secret, but it's not. Not at all. But it tastes like it is :)

It's called Too Much Chocolate Cake. You seriously mix all the ingredients together and then stir in the choco chips. How easy is that?

The other good thing about this recipe is that you can mix it up. I've used different flavors of the cake mix and pudding. For this version, I was hoping for a cookies and cream taste. I used vanilla pudding and crushed up Oreos. DELISH.

And I also threw in some white chocolate chips for color.

I had a vanilla glaze in the pantry to top them off. And I sprinkled the rest of the Oreos on top.

 Make this cake. You won't regret it.

an assortment...

This morning, my husband (aka the BEST Husband EVER)  took me to Trader Joe's (aka my favorite grocery store EVER). We bought a few things, but I mostly just like to look. They didn't have the cranberry apple pie filling I was looking for... so we got some cranberries and I'm going to try and figure out how to put those in one of the apple pie fillings... we'll see how it goes :)

I also found some of my favorite Christmas cookies... candy cane joe-joe's.... YES, PLEASE.

And then, I found this recipe for candy cane joe-joe's bark. Sounds amazing. I'm going to try and save this box of delicious until Christmas with my Mama's family. I know Lydia will appreciate these cookies.

After Trader Joe's, we also went to Whole Foods, which is coincidentally right across the parking lot. It was my first time at Whole Foods... it kind of reminded me of Wegman's, but much more expensive. We marveled at all of the pretty food there: 

But ended up only buying two bottles of Swedish soda that they used to sell at Ikea but have since stopped. Apple and pomegranate... yum!

And then we came home and had to stop at Food Lion... (three grocery stores in three hours... my dream come true) for milk... One of AJ's co-workers brought in a sweet potato pie a few weeks ago and he's been raving about it since then... he doesn't even like sweet potatoes so it must have been good. Our local Food Lion has had the Mrs. Smith's pies on sale for a little over $3 and I've been looking at them all week... trying to decide if I should buy it...

Well, with AJ with me today, we decided to buy it. We just baked for 30 minutes and ate. It was so good. It was my first time trying it... I'm impressed. I love sweet potatoes in anything though ;)

Yummy! Have a wonderful weekend.

sentimental

One Christmas party in elementary school, my mama was a hero. She had made homemade popcorn balls for my whole class. I was so proud of her. They were DELICIOUS and everyone wanted the extras.

I've never attempted popcorn balls... and I don't remember her ever doing it again either... but this comes close: caramel corn! YUM. I followed this recipe after finding it on the 'Best Desserts' list... and it did not disappoint. I did cut it in half though because we do not need to feed 20 people ;) But I'm pretty sure I could eat the 10-person serving! 

You start by melting a stick of butter. Yes, a stick. Imagine you're Paula Deen if it helps...

While I did that, I also popped some popcorn. Some of the reviews said to NOT use microwave popcorn and make your own... I trust those allrecipes.com people, so I did that. I have fond memories of my mom making popcorn on the stovetop as well... She's awesome!

Start with that... end with this...

And... then you add corn syrup, brown sugar, and salt to the butter and stir until boiling... and then it has to boil for FOUR minutes. EXACTLY :) Or so they say.

While you are being patient and waiting your four minutes, pour the popcorn into a greased, large baking pan (I used two Pyrex containers, one 9x13 and one a little smaller).  

When the caramel has boiled, mix in some vanilla and baking soda. Mix it and then start pouring over the popcorn! Try and mix it up with the popcorn. I then added some peanuts because I love caramel corn and peanuts together. 

You have to bake it for an hour and stir every 15 minutes. That was a little annoying if we're going to be honest.

But it is SO worth it. Delicious. AJ and I are trying not to eat it all while waiting for guests to arrive :)

the best potatoes ever.. fo reals.

I am not the kind of person who finds a recipe and only makes that recipe. I ALWAYS want to try something else and make it better. Not so with oven-roasted potatoes. I have a go-to recipe... I don't want to change anything... they are SO good.

The recipe was found here. Have you caught on that I get a lot of my recipes from allrecipes.com? So awesome. I love to read the reviews and change things up based on what other people have said.

Today, I am making these potatoes to go with chicken and Brussels sprouts. These are my husband's favorite potatoes and his favorite vegetable is Brussels sprouts... I'm kind of trying to make up for how mean of a lady I can be ;)

Anyways- I took pictures of the potatoes and the process... and then my blackberry deleted EVERY one of my pictures... about 400. Ticked me off.

So here's an after picture: so crispy on the outside but soft and delicious on the inside. Make them for your family; show them you love them :)

complimentary

The makings of something awesome.

This school year, I've been working on positive reinforcement with my students. I have a personal goal to not punish the students who don't necessarily need to be punished, unless the whole class exhibits bad behavior.

Anyway, one of the ways I'm doing this is by spelling out C-O-M-P-L-I-M-E-N-T every time they get a compliment in the hallway (from someone other than me) when we're 'traveling' or if someone comes in our classroom. They also can earn one letter if the whole class has excellent behavior. When they spell out the whole word, they get a reward. With me, that usually means sweets! (To give credit, one of my co-workers, Heather gave me this idea at the beginning of the year. Thank you!)

I love baking for people. It sincerely gives me joy. I've baked for my fifth graders two or three times this year and they all want me to bake their birthday cakes. I have the sweetest kids.

They FINALLY earned their 'T' on Friday, so tomorrow, they're getting rice krispies treats!

 I am going to be honest; I love rice krispies treats, but I hate making them. It's too messy and too sticky. They put me in a grumpy mood... until I taste them.

priorities... and all things Nutella.

Teaching requires a lot of mental energy... and a lot of time, in my little experience. I am working on budgeting my time and forming priorities. My job is a job... and I love it but it is not my first priority.

This weekend, I was forced to focus on other things. We had a Date Night for our young married group at church last night, so we were at church from 12:30-9:30 PM getting ready for that. It was so worth it, because it was amazing. So proud of my hubs for planning it all.

After Date Night, we went to some friends and played a board game called Quelf, which was hilarious to say the least. We are definitely going to buy it. The bad thing was: the game lasted two hours and we walked out the door of their house after midnight. Worth it? Yes.

Needless to say: we didn't get that much sleep last night, which translates to me being a space cadet all day. We brought some snacks to church today for our ABF... I pulled those pumpkin muffins out of the freezer, made a quick Nutella glaze, dipped them in, and went out the door. So easy... and they were yummy!

I have these cute little dragees to put on the top:

Very cute.

This evening, after a birthday party with friends and the required Sunday afternoon nap, I sat down to get my schoolwork done. In the past three days, I've re-read From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and read Dollhouse Murders for the first time. So excited to have fifth grade 'Book Clubs'. So I finished getting that stuff together and began planning our week.

And then, in a fit of procrastination, I found this delectable creation. Obviously, I had to make it. Two ingredients, people. Two ingredients:

Put two tablespoons of nutella in a sauce pan, add a cup of milk, and whisk until frothy. Delish. And obviously, I had to use my milk frother to top it off:

After I had my hot chocolate and had planned most of the week, I had a craving for Nacho Popcorn. I started making Nacho Popcorn in high school with my darling sister and little brother... we would mix the taco seasoning with butter and then pour it on. And then top it with cheese. Not very healthy... at all. And, the popcorn (as delish as it was) would get soggy quickly. So... I figured out a new way to make it that is much better:

Cook the popcorn in the microwave normally and then sprinkle about a teaspoon or two of taco seasoning on top. Mix it up and it's good to go. So easy... and oh so yummy. The best part is: it saves really well so I'm going to take the rest to work tomorrow for snack ;)

Also, I would just like to say again that my husband is amazing... I am so blessed. Today, he took me to Starbucks after church because I was so tired and we used a gift card to get a cup of coffee. I spilled some on my shoe when I tried to sip it and realized it was hot. DUH. (Impatience.) Without any hesitation, he grabbed some napkins, got on his knees, and started to clean my shoe. So sweet.

Love you, AJ.

cinnamon bun pancakes :)

For the past few weekends, I haven't been able to sleep past 6:30 or 7 AM. BUMMER. This morning, I woke up at 6:40, wide awake. Lovely.

However, AJ and I are part of an planning team for a church event tonight, so I was almost grateful that I didn't want to sleep until 10 because we have a lot to do.

I didn't do any cooking yesterday except for my oatmeal and that MRE, so I was yearning to do something. I found a recipe for cinnamon bun pancakes yesterday on Pioneer Woman (my hero!) and decided to try it. So glad. I think this may become a Christmas morning tradition for us... it's that special.

It was also pretty easy... whisk the dry ingredients up:

Whisk the wet ingredients together:

And then whisk them together:

Ladle on to a warm griddle and practice your patience.

While I was being patient, I made this maple butter icing for the top. The powdered sugar didn't mix in as well as I thought it should, but did it matter? NO.

After the pancakes were all cooked, serve them up with lots of the icing on top and a big glass of milk. You and your loved ones will need it.

Side Note: We honeymooned at Run of the River, this amazing bed and breakfast in Washington state. The staff served us absolutely incredible breakfasts with more food than anyone could eat. The inn is small (I think nine rooms) and you eat at 9 AM with every other guest at this big table. It was awesome. Anyways- this breakfast reminded me of something we would eat at Run of the River.

Seriously, if you haven't eaten breakfast... make these.

this is what my plate looked like about five minutes after we sat down... YUM! :)

Have a great Saturday!