Alive and....

Well, but still feeling a little, stalled for lack of a better word. Spotted this earlier on Posie Gets Cozy and thought it might give me a little kick. I guess we'll see. On top of feeling a little lacking in motivation, now the computer mouse is being a total pain. It reads every click as multiples. It's making me crazier than usual.

Where is your mobile phone? Kitchen table.
Where is your significant other? Don't have one.
Your hair colour? Nutrisse #70.
Your mother? Under-appreciated.
Your father? Missed.
Your favourite thing? Conversing.
Your dream last night? Forgotten.
Your dream goal? Bake Shop owner.
The room you're in? Badly in need.
Your hobby? Just one?
Your fear? Hurt.
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy.
Where were you last night? Home.
What you're not? Motivated.
One of your wish-list items? Fireplace.
Where you grew up? Loved.
The last thing you did? Cook.
What are you wearing? Sweatshirt & cords.
Your TV? Overused.
Your pets? Demanding.
Your computer? Awesome, with a pain of a mouse.
Your mood? Testy.
Missing someone? Always.
Your car? Non-existent.
Something you're not wearing? Uhh...
Favourite shop? Pier1.
Your summer? Too short.
Love someone? Frighteningly
Your favourite colour? Crimson
When is the last time you laughed? Last night.
When is the last time you cried? Yesterday.


Give it a try, pass it along, have fun.

Late Supper Suppa

Not sure where I have been as of late, my motivation tank seems to be running on empty.

I'm a little woefully behind with this, but better late than never.

Suppa Club Part 2

The recipe selected for the second Suppa Club meal was a Bavarian Sausage Hot Pot It seems to have been a big hit. I personally didn't make any changes, just the addition of a few whole garlic cloves and we all loved it so much that I have actually made it twice. It has my two favourite qualities in a recipe, ridiculously easy and megga delicious. I know it will become a well loved and much used member of my recipe collection.


Sorry about the pic, yummy as this meal was, I found it difficult to get a pic that actually did it justice.

Please check out how the other members of the Suppa Club felt about it. Siri, Ingrid, Kirsten, Nicole and Molly.

The next recipe on the list is Pork Roast with Three Mushroom Ragout. It looks to have the potential to be seriously yummy. I just hope that I don't take forever to make it.

Alive and Well...

I can't believe how quickly September is flying by. Anyhoo, enough with my life on fast forward. I do plan on being more diligent in my postings in the future. I had thought about again participating in NaBloPoMo, but I was really keen on the theme for October. Although I really do like October in general. The trees get all gussied up in their fall colours, there is Thanksgiving for us Canadians, and of course, there is Hallowe'en my favourite of holidays. I will admit though, it doesn't seem to be quite as much fun now that the kidlets are getting older.

On to what is new and exciting. I have joined an online Supper Club, and if all of the recipes turn out as fab as the first, this is a club that is going to a joy to participate in. The particular Supper Club is the brain child of Molly over at Batter Splattered. How it works, someone chooses a recipe and we all, within the same week, make up the recipe. Adaptations are allowed and then by Monday(at least I think that's it) we post with our results, thoughts and hopefully yummy looking pics to drool over. Considering that I am still pretty new to the whole food photography thing, my may not always be drool-worthy, but practice and all that.

This week's recipe was Cheese and Potato Soup, from Epicurious. I made mine up Thursday, but am just posting now as I spent most of the weekend helping a friend prepare to move. Back to the soup. It was delicious with a capital 'D'. Everyone absolutely loved it.

As usual, I did make a couple several of changes. I nixed the celery, as I am not a fan of celery strings, and instead added about a half a teaspoon of celery seed with the other seasonings. I used a bouillon cube, I know, I know, but I didn't have any chicken broth kicking around. I bumped up the cheese factor by using a combination old cheddar, mozzarella and smoked cheddar. I also added more ham, about a half a cup of niblet corn, a few dashes of Cayenne instead of the Tabasco and a sprig of fresh Rosemary for luck. The corn was a last minute thing that I decided on to replace the celery. Oh, I almost forgot, I sautèd the ham with the onions, carrots, garlic(2 cloves, diced,which I apparently also forgot to mention) and seasonings. I wanted to give the ham a little additional flavour.




Overall thoughts, the soup was amazing, and I would even like to try it with more broth and no dairy. For those wondering why, here's a shot of the soup pre-dairy. It even tasted great at this stage.



If you're interested in a few more takes on the soup, have a peek at the other Supper Club member's blogs. Siri, Ingrid, Kirstin, Nicole, Amanda and of course, Molly.

Trapped in Allergy Hell

First off, where the heck have the last two weeks gone? One minute the kids are gearing up for back to school, then all of a sudden POOF! We're heading into the second week of school. It's crazy I tell ya, crazy.

I had plans for today, there was to be the baking of bread of some sort, knitting and maybe some movie watching. Instead there is tissue, sneezing and snuffles. Apparently my seasonal allergies have arrived. Yay! So there will most likely be no bread baking, probably no knitting and maybe even no movie watching. The whole snuffle-nosed-head-in -a-fish-bowl thing is not exactly conducive to the enjoyment of anything.

Back to School Madness

The last couple of weeks have been busy with all the usual back to school preparations for the kidlets. It always seems like you have tonnes of time and then all of a sudden, back to school is ten days away.

Things have been so busy, I actually forgot my own one year blog anniversary. Happy Anniversary Moonlit Knit!

This year, when shopping for school supplies, Tall Child was unable to find binders that suited her tastes, so after I suggested to her that we sew her some binder covers, a trip to the fabric store was in order. Here are her choices. The one on the top is a purple satin argyle sprinkled with stars. The two on the bottom are fuzzy flannels, perfect as pillows for those boring lectures.



Of course she wasn't the only one who did a little shopping. There were a few fabrics calling to me, okay, more than a few but I restrained myself. My fabrics are destined to be aprons.


The orange and black one on the end is actually a ghost camouflage, how fun is that.

Delicious Thievery

Ever since Foodie Girl posted her stuffed mushroom recipe I have been dying to try them. Bought the mushrooms and the cream cheese, since I already had the other ingredients I figured it was a go. Not so, I am such a procrastinator I hadn't gotten around to them yet and was afraid that they would soon fall the way of the Monkey Bread that never seems to get made.

Tonight, I decided to steal her recipe and as I always do, I doctored those babies up a little. Being that I am not one of those people with super-human self control, who choose not to eat bacon, I added some crisp, crumbled, food of the gods bacon to the stuffing mixture. Then, since there was already a part of one in the fridge, I added some finely chopped, red pepper. Since I had no onion powder, I switched in some finely chopped, green onions. Finally, because I had a recently discovered recipe contest on my mind I topped the little, filled mushroom caps with some grated, double smoked, cheddar. They were incredible, they taste even better than they look.



Kelly's Magical Stuffed Mushrooms, the Moonlit Knit Way

20 whole fresh button mushrooms(I bought 24, but 4 vanished)
1-2 tablespoons finely diced sweet red pepper
3 slices bacon, fried, cooled & crumbled
1 teaspoon bacon drippings
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
6 oz cream cheese, softened(I could have probably gotten away with 4)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese(I used 1/2 Parmesan, 1/2 Romano)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 green onions, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1/4 cup grated smoked cheddar

Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.

Heat oil & bacon drippings in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, chopped mushroom stems and sweet red pepper to the skillet and fry until moisture has disappeared. Set aside to cool.

Stir in cream cheese, Parmesan(and Romano) cheese, green onions and spices with fried mushroom, pepper and bacon mixture. Combine well. Fill mushroom caps generously, using small spoon or butter knife. Arrange the mushroom caps on cookie sheet and top with grated cheddar.

Bake for 12-18 minutes or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.

If you're like me and forget to add the cayenne, you can sprinkle it on the mushrooms just before slipping them into the oven, or while they're in the oven, if you're a lot like me.

Growing Up is Hard...

On a parent. Tall Child turned the big One-Six today. I can say, it certainly doesn't seem like it's been sixteen years. Happy Birthday honey! I'm so proud of the woman you are growing up to be.

She had a B-day bash with her friends on the weekend, so this evening was just a quiet dinner for her, Megz and myself. T.C chose the menu, it consisted of lemon oregano chicken breasts, steamed baby carrots and rice.

T.C's B-Day Dinner

For dessert, there were peanut butter swirl brownies. As we didn't have enough baker's chocolate squares, I used the Fry's cocoa recipe and topped them with the p.b. & chocolate mixture. I did cheat and melt the butter in the microwave as opposed to on the stove top.

Brownie Batter

Untitled

Yesterday I was feeling under the weather, so our evening meal consisted of hot dogs. Today was the staff appreciation bbq at work, so since we were allowed to bring kids. The kidlets met up with me, and we had our evening meal there. So... there hasn't been a whole lot of cooking going on.

There has however been some ....are you ready for this? Knitting Progress! I have completed the body for the wee baby hoodie I started a while back, and am now progressing on the first sleeve. The baby it is intended for did wind up making an early entrance into the world, but she is a teeny, tiny thing, and her Auntie(the person who requested the knitting of the sweater and bonnet) says the babe is little enough that size won't be an issue.

As for upcoming cooking, I am not going to say that I plan on making Monkey Bread this weekend, 'cause every time I say that, I don't make it.

Today marks the end of the July food themed NaBloPoMo. I didn't technically sign up to participate, but did a good job of posting almost everyday. I think I only missed one day.

Insert Witty Caption Here

At the request of Tall Child, I am introducing a new weekly featurette. Random Wildlife Photography, aka:cat pics. The term "Wildlife Photography" and the idea of cute cat pics is being borrowed from one of my favourite blogs, Crazy Aunt Pearl.

The first installment of this new featurette is a photo of Marzipan, taken on Tall Child's bed. Doesn't she look impressed? Marzipan that is, not Tall Child. Tall Child has built in sensors that alert her when someone is trying to take her picture and allow her to evade photos. She has inherited these sensors from her Mother.

Wildlife Photo of the Week

This is where to insert witty caption.

Get Out of Jail Free Card

Flora Photo of the Week

Pretty, purple, petunias in a pot outside of our back door.

Sorta True... I Guess

You Are Mayonnaise

You tend to be a very quiet, introverted person. You're happy to sit back and let stronger personalities shine. You value loyalty and harmony. You try to bring people together. Your taste in food leans toward simple comfort foods. You love holiday meals as well as old school favorites like mac and cheese. You get along with mustard and ketchup personalities. You have an unlikely alliance with hot sauce personalities.

What Condiment Are You?

Delicious Cinnamony Goodness

Today's project was going to be Monkey Bread, but as I couldn't really find a recipe that suited me, I instead made Cinnamon Rolls.

In the past, I have tried two different cinnamon roll recipes. Both were good but neither was fabulous, so I decided to try another and see if it was more of what I was looking for. I Think I may have found the one. As usual, I did tweak the recipe just a little. They were oh so soft and yummy. I will be using this recipe more often and I look forward to playing around with different fillings. The tweaks I made are in green.

Dough

4-1/4 cups all-purpose flour(I only used 3 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 envelope FLEISCHMANN'S RapidRise Yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 TBSP cream
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

Cinnamon Filling (recipe follows)

Directions
In a large bowl, combine 1-1/3 cups flour, sugar, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water, cream and butter until very warm (120o to 130oF). Gradually add to flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add eggs and 1 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. Stir in remaining flour to make a stiff batter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate 2 to 24 hours. I didn't refrigerate, I just let the dough rise in a warm spot til doubled then rolled it out.

Remove dough from refrigerator; roll to 20 x 10-inch rectangle. Brush with melted butter; sprinkle with Cinnamon Filling. Beginning from long side, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal; cut into 18 pieces. Arrange rolls, cut sides up, on greased large baking sheet to form a heart.* Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Bake at 375o F for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from sheet; cool on wire rack.

Cinnamon Filling: In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar(1/3 cup white sugar, 2 TBSP brown sugar) and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Stir to blend.

The recipe also calls for an icing sugar glaze, I instead made a cream cheese frosting.

Adapted from www.breadworld.com



This photo was taken before the second rising and subsequent baking. By the time they were baked all the good light was pretty much gone. Even unbaked, you can see all the sugary, cinnamon, buttery yumminess.

Pseudo Elegante Gourmet

Can Pillsbury Crescents ever be elegant, or gourmet? Probably not, but for me most of elegant is in the presentation, and I'm not really a gourmet kinda girl anyway.

These babies were quick, easy and very tasty. I whipped them up this morning as a gift for Patrick, one of my fave supervisors at work who has decided that it is time for him to move on. I will miss him and decided that even though my shift for today had been cancelled, I would take these in when I said my goodbyes. Patrick always appreciated the goodies I brought to work.


I did change up the recipe a little, since I didn't have the exact combo of ingredients. I swapped the pepperoni for salami, and switched up sharp cheddar for the mozzarella. I also omitted both the egg yolk in the cheese mixture and the egg white brush on top. I did sprinkle them with grated Parmesan before popping them into then oven. I'm sure these would work with endless combinations of ingredients.

Featurette

These are some pretty, little, white sweet peas that have sprung up out front with the pink lovelies. This is the first year that there have been white ones. I love them and am hoping the make repeat appearances.

Flora Photo of the Week

Sweet Deviation

Today my allergies are still messing me up so there was frozen sausage & cheese pizza and Rice Krispie Square experimentation.

We added cinnamon to the melted butter before adding in the marshmallows, and switched up maple extract for the vanilla. They were quite tasty, though I think I would add more maple next time. Of course there will be a next time.

Hippy Shake

My seasonal allergies are freaking out, so I'm falling back on my usual cop out, a quiz.

You Are a Chocolate Shake

You are a total hedonist. You are drawn to pleasure. You are an expressive, over the top person. You're naturally dramatic. You're the type of person who always chooses quality over quantity. Life's too short to not have optimal experiences. You're proud of being picky.

What Flavor Shake Are You?

No Monkey, Just Cats

So, as it turned out, I wasn't energetic enough to head out for groceries yesterday, there-by the making of Monkey Bread has been delayed yet again. It will happen, though maybe not this week (especially since I forgot to buy yeast). Perhaps it will be my weekend goal if nothing else comes up.

This evening the kidlets and I made Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies and twice baked potatoes for dinner. As before, I bumped up the recipes a little. This time the Jalapenos were purchased from Sunripe and, with the addition of the Jalapeno Monteray Jack, were quite a bit spicier. Lip burnin', tongue tinglin' spicier. Tall child will be eating most of them as Megz and I are a little tongue tender when it comes to extreme spice. Even T.C said she could only eat a few at a time.

Tonight a new stray turned up in our yard. She's a pretty, sleek, black sweetheart that Megz has temporarily named Scarlet. This makes two strays that frequent our yard. Well, I don't really know that they are strays, but they show up to be fed. The other is a cute little striped tabby T.C has give the name Demi, because she's not really ours and this makes her half a cat to care for. Apparently my crazy old cat lady gene is sending off signals. Heck, I at least thought it would wait until I was 40.

Humid, Hot & Lazy

Yesterday was too warm to think of breathing, let alone baking. It did rain and then cooled down a little, but by that time the last thing I wanted to do was go heating up the kitchen. Grocery shopping was also a bust. First it was too hot to walk there, then it was too rainy, and after that I was just too lazy. Besides I really hate being in the grocery store on a weekend, it is just way too crowded.

Here's hoping that today will be a little cooler and I will be brave enough to venture out and face the grocery store crowds. I will have to soon, otherwise the cats may run out of food. I'm always afraid what the pair of them might do if they don't get fed. As it is when feeding time rolls around, they circle like sharks the whole time it's being dished out.

In Case of Inclement Weather

Depending on the heat of today, there may be baking. As previously mentioned, I want to make some Monkey Bread and perhaps some Buttermilk Cookies.

I made a batch of the cookies earlier this week and they were amazing. Like little morsels of cakey goodness. The recipe calls for lemon zest, which gave them a nice subtle lemon flavour, and I am thinking they would also be really tasty with orange zest.

But first there must be grocery shopping and that too will depend on the heat. If it's like yesterday I will probably be spending the day in front of the fan. We don't have air conditioning, and if I bake when it is this warm, I might melt the cats.

If baking does indeed happen, I hope to have some photographic evidence to share.

Holy Heatwave

It is so hot here today, cooking is completely out of the question. Dinner consisted of take out pizza, topped with pepperoni, sausage, bacon and mushrooms, and lots and lots of ice water. It's even too hot to take pictures.