Chunky Bleu Cheese Dressing

After making this amazing spread, I had some bleu cheese leftover and I decided to make some bleu cheese dressing. I get in such a rut with my homemade ranch dressing (as I've mentioned before) and I forget that there are some other great salad dressings out there.  And we all love bleu cheese in our house--even the Peanut.  This child snacks on bleu cheese crumbles.  Yes, snacks on them.  I love bleu cheese and all, but snacking on it is even a little much for me.  I can't complain though, because she has a very diverse palette. 

So without further ado....

Chunky Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup bleu cheese crumbles (as always, you can't beat the price at Costco for this!  WAY cheaper than the grocery store!)
1 clove garlic, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together and use as a dip or top on a green salad.   This is a little thick--we like it that way!--but if you prefer, you can thin it down with a few tablespoons of milk.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This recipe is linked to:

Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
Blessed With Grace Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Designs By Gollum Foodie Friday
Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap
Friday Potluck at EKat's Kitchen
Hearth 'n Soul Recipe Swap at Premeditated Leftovers
Miz Helen's Country Cottage Full Plate Thursday  

Menu Plan Monday

We have one more day to enjoy with Hub's family and then they leave tomorrow morning.  Which is why I am a little behind in posting!  For this week we will be having:

Sunday-Slow Cooker Honey Lemon Chicken (using drumsticks instead of thighs and is cooking as I type this), acorn squash, green salad with bleu cheese dressing

Monday-Spanakopizza (one dish meal!)

Tuesday-Spaghetti with homemade sauce, green salad

Wednesday-Spicy Peanut Chicken with brown rice, green salad

Thursday-Enchiladas with homemade sauce, cilantro lime rice, green salad

Friday-Blanco Chili, green salad

Saturday-Leftovers


For other great menu ideas, visit the Organizing Junkie. 

Tried It & Loved It: Apple Harvest Cupcakes

I apologize for the lateness in this post.  Unfortunately, this is how I am rolling this week!

With my in-laws visiting this week and my mother-in-law's birthday being early next week, we decided to celebrate her birthday a few days early.  Remembering that she is a lover of all things apple, and with the fall season upon us and apples being in great abundance in our neck of the woods--it just made sense to make an apple-y "cake" for her birthday.  I found this recipe last week in my blog hopping and knew it was perfect to try out.  Of course, I changed it up a little to suit what I use for pantry ingredients and have on hand, but all in all, these were a great little cupcake.

The only liners I had were pink, and not very harvesty, so they were removed for photographic purposes.  

Apple Harvest Cupcakes ~ slightly adapted from Cats and Casseroles  

for the cupcakes:
scant 1 c sugar (mine was sucanat)
3 eggs
3 cup finely chopped apples (I used Galas)
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts pecans (I don't particularly care for walnuts)

for the icing:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 lb powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract 

for the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray muffin pan with non stick spray or line with liners and set aside.

In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together sugar and eggs.  Add in chopped apples and mix in coconut oil and vanilla until fully mixed.  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt and add dry mixture to wet mixture one cup at a time until each is fully mixed.  Add in chopped nuts and mix on low speed for about 90 seconds.  Fill muffin cups about two thirds full. 

Bake for 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Abby says to bake for about 30 minutes, however that was not the case for me.  I checked on these after 25 minutes and they were well past done--too done.  :(  My oven actually tends to "burn" on the cool side, and most recipes I follow take a little longer than suggested.  Cupcake recipes normally say to bake cupcakes for around 20 minutes and I don't know why this didn't register when I made these--so that was my only complaint suggestion.

Cool cupcakes completely prior to frosting.   

for the frosting:
Mix together butter and cream cheese.  Add in sifted powdered sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly.  Frost cooled cupcakes or pipe frosting as desired.

I Heart My DVR and Netflix Streaming

I've mentioned here a time or two that I love my DVR.  We were about the last people on the planet (okay maybe not, but close) to have a DVR--mostly because we were cheap.  While we could have easily afforded cable and all that fun stuff prior to me quitting my job at the bank, it was always something that we lived without.  That was mostly my choice, as I knew that when we had kids things would be tight enough without my income and I wanted to avoid changing our lives as much as possible.  That may sound silly, but I have no regrets having done it that way--we made do with just rabbit ears--and we lived to tell about it.  

Fast forward a year after Peanut was born and we found ourselves moving to the middle of nowhere.  Well, at least it was the middle of nowhere in terms of major cities/broadcasting markets.  Even the rabbit ears wouldn't cut it any longer--but I wasn't willing to forgo TV all together either.  (Spoiled much?)

So we got cable.  Basic cable.

Bare bones basic cable.  Local channels and the Home Shopping Network.  No fun stuff like HGTV or Sprout (for Peanut).  Local channels.  That's it.  At the time we signed up, the cable company was having a special and they threw in a DVR for free.   For a whole year.

Ahem.

(source)

I had heard how they change your life.  I heard things will never be the same after having had one.  I am fully ashamed to admit it, but it's so true.  They change your life.   

My friend and I were talking one day and she made the comment that she didn't know how people who have kids could NOT have one.  With all the questionable content on TV and obviously not wanting to watch those shows around the littles, well, the DVR makes it really easy to indulge in primetime TV.

Of course that begs the question, if you wouldn't want your children watching it, should you be watching it? Is there really anything of value on the show, if it's that questionable?  

But I digress, as that is a discussion for another day.

Besides, let me tell you, I love me some crime dramas. I am the self-proclaimed Law & Order junkie, you know. 

Combine all of this with the fact that with Netflix, nearly any show you could imagine is on DVD (and better yet, tons are available on streaming), well, you could easily never leave house again.

But alas, I have a family that needs to eat and a little girl with buckets of energy that must be burned off, so my dream of being a recluse will have to wait for a few years. 

Sigh.

Bittersweet

As much as I heart all things fall related..... 

and definitely the last day in tank tops!!!

this was probably be one of our last trips (taken last week) to the park for this year.  


Sigh.  

BLTs with a Blue Cheese Spread

I seriously thought a BLT couldn't be improved upon.  It's pretty much perfection in a sandwich.  Or so I thought.  As I was flipping through the pages of my newest Food Network Magazine, I saw this and thought, well, I MUST try that.  

Bacon and blue cheese are like Fred and Ginger or salt and pepper or Diet Coke and M&Ms.  Wait, you don't do that?   Oh that's right, that last one is my dirty little secret.  Well, it's certainly no secret that bacon and blue cheese are a match made in heaven and this sandwich....it just might be the yummiest sandwich this side of heaven. 

BLT Sandwich with a Blue Cheese Spread ~ adapted from The Food Network Magazine

Blue Cheese Spread

1/4 cup mayonaisse
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup + blue cheese crumbles
2 Tbsp hot sauce (like Frank's)
1 small clove garlic, minced
Freshly ground black pepper (I used lots!)

Mix ingredients together until well mixed.  Add additional blue cheese crumbles or hot sauce if desired.   

Sandwiches

Bread (I totally cheated and used store bought bread--Dave's Killer Bread--have you tried this?  It's so killer, but (unfortunately!) SO pricey)
Bacon strips, cooked until crispy, but not burnt
Tomatoes, sliced (garden fresh put this over the top!)
Romaine lettuce

Toast bread slices and let cool just a bit.  Slather blue cheese spread on a toasted bread slice and layer bacon, lettuce, and tomato.  Top with remaining bread slice.  Slice in half and serve. 

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

This recipe is linked to:

Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
Blessed With Grace Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Designs By Gollum Foodie Friday
Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap
Friday Potluck at EKat's Kitchen
Hearth 'n Soul Recipe Swap at Premeditated Leftovers
Miz Helen's Country Cottage Full Plate Thursday  

Menu Plan Monday

Today is a big day.  We get to go pick up our hog today in two weeks.  (Update:  We don't get to pick it up just yet.  I guess "the smoke" (bacon, hams) isn't done yet.  Hmmph.)  Well, our hog in the form of nice, little, white butcher paper packages.  Honestly, that's the way I prefer to think about the meat I eat.  In nice, little, white, butcher paper packages.  If I don't, I don't know how much longer I would eat meat.

I prefer to be desensitized like that.

Anywho, the ranch where we got our beef from this year (as well as last) made in error in our meat reservation this spring and didn't order the proper amount of beef.  When the rancher and I figured out his error, he already had sold out of beef, so we didn't have a way to order any more beef.  Enter in more pork.  We'll be getting a fair amount of pork today (three quarters of a hog!), so I am excited.  Now, if they could just create a hog that only has bacon cuts on it.

Oh, how I kid.

Sort of.  

All that to say, we'll be eating lots more pork around these parts you'll be seeing more pork recipes in the next year.  And also on the agenda for this week, Hubs parents get here on Tuesday for a visit, so we are excited to have some visitors!  For this week,

Sunday-Chicken Parmesan, mashed potatoes, green salad with blue cheese dressing

Monday-Cobb salads and focaccia bread

Tuesday-Out for dinner at Hub's restaurant

Wednesday-Chicken Pot Pie with a cheddar crust (doesn't that sound aaaah-mazing?), green salad

Thursday-Pork and Black Bean Chili

Friday-Italian Sausage Pizza, green salad

Saturday-Leftovers


For other great menu ideas, visit the Organizing Junkie. 

Tried It & Loved It: Apple Pancakes

Any of you watched The Chew yet?  No?  Well it's a fun daytime show if you like cooking.  Lots of yummy sounding recipes from a bunch of different types of chefs.  Mario Batali is one of the co-hosts.  I just love him to pieces.  I've honestly never cooked any of his recipes, but they all sound so amazing.  The way he talks of the history and culture of Italy.....it makes me want to go there.  And that's saying a lot for this none-adventuresome homebody. 

I really don't know why I haven't ever tried any of his recipes...

But it's on my list of things to do.

Heh.  Have you seen that list? 

Anywho, this really isn't about Mario.  One of the other co-hosts on the show, Carla Hall, made this easy little recipe and I knew I wanted to try it.  Our landlord gave us a bunch of apples right after we got home from our trip, so I knew it would be a great way to use some of those up.

They were very yum and such a fun variation.  We loved them!  

Apple Pancakes ~ adapted from Carla Hall on The Chew

1 batch of pancake batter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

2-3 medium apples

The original recipe calls for Bisquik and we all know I don't do that.  I use the Betty Crocker recipe (listed below), substituting some of the ingredients for that more whole foods approach.

Core 2-3 medium apples and slice thinly.  The thinner, the better.  I don't have a mandoline, but I wish I did--the thicker slices that I made were still good, but the apples were still a little crunchy.  Had they been sliced SUPER thin, they would have been great.

Stir in cinnamon to pancake batter, mixing well to combine.  Dip apple slices in pancake batter, coating evenly on both sides.  Cook on a griddle over medium heat until lightly browned, flipping to cook opposite side--about 2 minutes per side.  Butter while pancakes are still hot, serving with warm maple syrup.  The real stuff.  Enjoy!

Pancake Batter

1 cup whole wheat flour (I use my fresh ground, soft white wheat)
1 Tbsp aluminum free baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 - 1 cup milk (start with 3/4 and go up from there....I can't stand thick pancakes, so I tend to like my batter pretty runny)
1 large egg, beaten
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
Butter, for topping

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large batter bowl.  Add in milk and egg and start to mix.  When about half way mixed, add in the melted coconut oil and mix completely.  I add the coconut oil in very last because once it hits the cold egg and milk, it will start to harden fairly quickly.  Adding it in very last will allow it to mix in the easiest and have the smoothest batter. 


This recipe is linked to Life As Mom Ultimate Recipe Swap.

Playtime

Peanut is loving her big girl bed.  In fact, I have to make her bed several times a day as she loves to climb in and snuggle away.  I can't imagine what it will be like once she has her own full size bed. 

She is also loving the dollies my parents got for her for her birthday.   And seriously, what's not to love?  They have their very own little wardrobe with lots of changes of clothes, shoes, and accessories. 

And the shoes.  They are so many.  And they are so cute.  I'm jealous!

Funny story about the pink shoes by the way.  So she told me dolly needed to be put to bed, so I set her on the bed.  Peanut said, "NO!  She has to take she shoes off first."

Oops.  My bad. 

So she takes them off dolly and sets them right next to the bed. 

Oh, and then one more funny story.   Brace yourselves, I think this is about the cutest thing ever.  And for the record, I realize every parent thinks their child is the cutest (as they should!), so bear with me.

'Cause this is really cute.  

Peanut decided to measure dolly.  As in she stood Dolly up right next to the wall (like I do to her) and asked me for a pencil.  I gave her a pencil and said, "Gosh Dolly is getting so big."

And Peanut's response?

"Yeah, she is.  She'll be talking soon." 

Tomatoes!

I have mentioned a time or two that we have a really sweet landlord.  Not only has she given us an abundance of fresh produce, babysat our Peanut while Hubs and I went on date, and let us come over and swim a countless number of times, but just last week, she helped me put up my first batch of tomatoes.

And she gave me the tomatoes. 

Fresh from her organic garden.  

Eight quarts worth. 

So, so, so nice, right? 


























 

I had canned apricots last summer (my first canning ever!) but I had never attempted tomatoes.  It was so nice of her to help guide me in the canning process and also help distract Peanut while I was up to my elbows in tomatoes.

Oh, and to top it all off.....

After processing the jars, you take them out of the water and you want to let them sit, undisturbed, for 12-24 hours.  At that point you can test the lids to make sure they sealed correctly.  I did remember all of this from before, but I wanted to double check with my landlord.

"Oh, no, no, no, no!  You want to let them sit for at least a week," she said.



























"Oh!  A whole week?  Why so much longer?" I asked, a little surprised. 

"So your husband knows how hard you worked." she tells me completely straight faced.

Isn't she too funny?!?!?!?!!!!!