Valentine's Day Wishes

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day. I am spending the day relaxing and doing some work on the computer. I hope that everyone has a wonderful day doing stuff they enjoy and spending time with the ones that hold a special in their hearts.

I Am Back

I just wanted to let all my blogging friends know that I am back to the world of blogging. It has been too long and I certainly have missed it. There will be some great posts coming soon.

It's Been Quite Sometime

It has been over a month since I have last blogged. There are no excuses for not having blogged and I am going to get right back into just in time for the start of the holiday season. Tonight when I arrived home from work, I set forth with starting laundry, picking up around the house and heading into the kitchen to do some baking. I already knew what I would be making per Randy's request, blueberry muffins. Of course after they were done baking I just had to try one and nothing beats a warm blueberry muffin with a dollop of butter.

Something For Me

I have been wanting to make macaroni and cheese and I know that Randy doesn't really care for it unless of course it is make with velveeta. When I went grocery shopping on Saturday morning I decided to buy the cheese and some noodles to make some mac and cheese for myself. Well when Randy had returned home from hunting I told him that our dinner tonight was macaroni and cheese made with orange cheese. I was thinking that maybe that would change Randy's mind and hey what do you know, Randy actually said the mac and cheese tasted really good. Well I guess from now on I will be using the orange cheese. Lol.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

2 cups rigatoni noodles
4 tablespoons butter
3/4 cups panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
2 cups Wisconsin sharp cheddar cheese (orange cheese)

Prepare noodles according to the directions on the package. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2 quart casserole dish. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter; add bread crumbs and toss to coat. Set aside.
Meanwhile, prepare cheese sauce. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in milk; cook until mixture thickens slightly and is smooth. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in cheese until melted.
Place drained noodles in casserole. Pour cheese sauce over noodles. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top. Bake 20 minutes or until bubbly and crumbs are golden.

But It's Not Apple Crisp

I was going to make apple crisp the other night but then I came across this recipe in my The New Good Houskeeping Cookbook and thought I would give it a try. Well, when Randy looked at this dessert in the pan he said, "That's not apple crisp, is it? I said, "It is similiar to apple crisp and you should try it before you decide whether you like it or not." Randy did try this and did not really care for it. On Saturday night I set to making the original apple crisp recipe that I usually do and this went over well with Randy. So I guess instead of straying away and trying something different I will just stick to the original.

Crunchy Apple Dessert

4 large cooking apples (McIntosh apples from the orchard in Mexico, NY)
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats, uncooked
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel apples and cut each in half; remove cores and slice apples. Grease an 8"x8" baking dish. Combine apple slices, raisins, and lemon juice in baking dish.
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Remove from heat, stir in oats and remaining ingredients until mixture forms large crumbs
Spoon oat mixture on top of apple mixture. Bake 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is crisp and lightly browned. Serve warmed or chilled.

A Great Tasting Meal

A meal that we both agreed on. Randy and I both were discussing how we wanted to have tacos for dinner one night. Instead of using ground beef, I used steak instead. This dish certainly satisfied our craving for tacos.

Steak Tacos

4 steaks , cooked well and cut into bite size pieces
1 large tomato, cut into chunks
lettuce
1 package taco seasoning
shredded 4 cheese mexican
sour cream
soft taco shells

Prepare the taco to suit your taste. Enjoy. If you feel like going back for seconds, go right ahead.

It's Been Awhile

It certainly has been awhile since I have posted. I made this dish the other night but am just getting a chance to post. This is going to be our dinner for tonight as soon as Randy comes home from hunting. I am going to be in my kitchen tonight making something with the apples that my coworker Patrick got for me while apple picking in Mexico, NY. I have a whole bag of delicious McIntosh apples and am looking forward to all the tasty treats I am going to make. So everyone can look forward to some great posts to come.

Muffins For Breakfast

On Wednesday when I came home from work I decided to make some muffins to have for breakfast for the rest of the week. I am usually a breakfast eater but the first part of the week I was just having a glass of orange juice and calling it good. I was thinking of making some blueberry ones but I know that Randy has been saying he wants to make some blueberry pancake so I left the blueberries alone and used some cinnamon chips instead.

Cinnamon Chip Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin. I chose to use my mini muffin tin.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, beat egg and milk until blended. Stir into flour mixture and add the cinnamon chips. Stir just until the mixture is moistened, the batter will be lumpy.

Spoon batter into the muffin cups. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Immediately remove muffins from pan. Serve warm or let cool on a wire rack to enjoy later.

Four Years Ago Today....

I married my high school sweetheart and my best friend. Since I didn't do any cooking or baking today, I am going to share some photos from our wedding. The picture below is right after we had walked down the aisle after becoming husband and wife. As you can tell from the smiles on our faces what a wonderful moment this was for us both.

Randy and I as we were getting ready to cut our wedding cake. When it came time to feed each other a piece of cake, well let's just say I had a lot more cake on my face than in my mouth. That was quite the moment and had everyone laughing. Our cake was made by Cindy's Cake Shop.
The decorations and my flowers were done by Randy's cousin Stephanie.

One last picture of us enjoying our special day.

A Delicious Dinner

This delicious dinner just so happened to be what was served at our house this evening. Since it was my first day starting my new job, I wanted to have dinner somewhat started so I wouldn't have much to do when getting home from work. Last night before heading off to bed I made up the sauce for the ribs and had that chilling in the fridge overnight. This morning I put the ribs in the crockpot on low with the sauce I made. When I came home from work, I was greeted with such a wonderful smell. I did have to try a little piece to see how it tasted before dinner and only one word could describe the taste, YUMMY!

Country Style Boneless Pork Ribs

package of pork ribs
1 cup Kraft thick n' spicy honey barbeque sauce
1 cup Jack Daniel's honey smokehouse barbeque sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons liquid smoke

Mix the above ingredients together in a medium size bowl. I chose to chill overnight for use in the morning but if you plan on cooking right away there is no need to chill the sauce. Place the ribs in the crockpot and pour the sauce over top. Turn the crockpot to low. I started the ribs at 7:30 this morning so they were cooking for 8 hours, when I got home from work I turned them down to low for another two hours.

Take The Time To Remember

Today is a day that most of us will never forget. 8 years ago today so many innocent lives were lost. I still remember that September day, I had the day off and my sister Michelle called me and asked if I had the television on. I turned on the television and just couldn't believe what I was seeing. My thoughts go out to all the families and loved ones on this day and every September 11th.

A Good Morning Treat

This morning I was craving a fruit smoothie. Everyone knows when the craving hits for something you usually don't stop until you have satisfied it. I was in luck to have everything on hand to make a smoothie. As I sit typing this post I am enjoying the delicious glass that you see below. It sure is hitting the spot.

Banana Peach Smoothie

1 banana, sliced

1 can peaches

2 cups non fat vanilla ice cream

In a blender on high speed combine banana, peaches and ice cream until smooth. Serve immediately.

* Since I made so much I will have some more of this to enjoy tomorrow morning with my breakfast.

Caught Off Guard

Last week while Randy and I were driving around we came upon this field and just so happened to catch a doe with her two fawns. Randy stopped the Jeep and we were able to watch the deer for quite sometime and since I have decided to bring my camera along whenever I go anywhere I was able to capture this great photo.

There Is Nothing Like A Muffin

I have had my mind on making muffins the last few days and since I didn't really have anything in the house that sounded appealing to me for breakfast, today was a good day to make them. I love any kind of muffin, especially when they come right out of the oven. My choice of muffin this morning was to make ones using some applesauce that I had in the pantry. As I sit typing this post I am enjoying a muffin with a tall glass of cold milk.

Sugar-Topped Applesauce Muffins

2 cups biscuit/baking mix

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 egg

1/2 cup applesauce (I used country berry flavor applesauce)

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Topping:

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

In a bowl combine the baking mix, sugar and cinnamon. In another bowl, beat the egg, applesauce, milk and oil. Stir into dry ingredients until moistened Fill paper-lined muffin cups two thirds full. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. Dip muffin tops in melted butter then in cinnamon sugar.

Makes 12 muffins

*An update on yesterday's post, Randy came home from work late last night so he has yet to try the stuffed peppers. I did end up telling him that they were made with tofu and I said you really will like them, so I am hoping he does end up trying them.

It's All About The Stuff

I had bought some tofu awhile ago and have been trying to decide a recipe to use it in. I finally came up with something this morning as I was looking in the fridge. I had some bell peppers that I didn't want to go to waste and knew just the thing to make. Some stuffed peppers using the tofu. I have never tried tofu and never made anything with tofu so this was a new experience for me. As I was cooking I did try some of the tofu and was quite impressed with the taste. The peppers did turn out quite well and very tasty too, well this is just my opinion on this. I am wondering how Randy will feel when he has one of the peppers for dinner this evening. I will let everyone know tomorrow what Randy's thoughts were.

Tofu and Rice Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked rice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 (12 ounce) package firm tofu, drained and diced

1/2 cup marinara sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 red and 1 yellow pepper, top cut out and seeded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook rice according to directions on the box. Set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, stir in garlic and tofu. Cook for about 5 minutes. Mix in marinara sauce, season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook and stir until tofu is evenly brown. Add the cooked rice into the tofu and sauce. Stir until well blended well. Fill each pepper to the top with tofu and rice mixture. Place stuffed peppers in a glass baking dish. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Just Breathtaking

Randy and I really enjoy taking walks and it just so happened that the last time we took one I decided to bring my camera. The walk that we go on takes us right along the beautiful St. Lawrence River. As we were walking down one of the hills, there was an opening in the trees and I was able to get a nice shot of the river. I probably could have spent quite sometime just standing at this spot enjoying the wonderful view and the slight breeze coming across the water.

For The Love of Apples

My post the other day was about apple picking and not having any success. Well I wanted more apples because I had made this yummy apple crisp and wanted so bad to make some more. I still haven't gotten any apples so this post about the apple crisp is the next best thing. I have two different recipes for apple crisp that I like to use. One is from the New Good Housekeeping Cookbook and one from my mom in my own recipe book. I used the recipe from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I will post both recipes and let's see which one you prefer.

The New Good Housekeeping

6 medium apples
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup old fashioned or quick cooking oats
6 tablespoons butter (3/4 stick softened)

Peel, core, and slice apples. Place apples in a glass baking dish.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium size bowl, mix brown sugar, flour, oats, and butter. Sprinkle oat mixture evenly over apple slices. Bake 45 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve warm or refrigerate to serve cold later.


Apple Crisp
My Mom's

6 apples
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 butter

Butter an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking dish or a 6 cup casserole dish. Peel, core and slice apples. Combine sugar, cinnamon and mix with apples. Turn into prepared baking dish.
For the topping, combine together sugar, flour, salt and butter. Mix together and top apples with crumbly mixture. Bake at 375 degrees or until apples are tender and topping is nicely browned.

I served our apple crisp with lowfat vanilla ice cream. Very delicious indeed!

A Birthday And No Apples

Yesterday was my husband Randy's 34th birthday. We spent the day just having a lazy day, well except for when we decided to go apple picking. That didn't turn out quite like we would have hoped. We wanted to pick some apples so I could make apple crisp, we only found one tree and were able to pick about four apples and that was it. We went driving around to see if we could find more apple trees but no such luck. I guess instead of driving around to find some apple trees we could have just picked the apples from our tree out back in our yard. But, that would have been a problem too, the apples on our tree out back didn't turn out very well and are very small. Even though we didn't have any success in the apple picking department we did have a great day. Randy had a wonderful birthday and had the cake of his choice, which is an ice cream cake. I was given the idea from my sister that I should have made an ice cream cake instead of buying one from the store. I am going to keep that in mind and when the occasion arises I will make one.

Back From Vacation Sooner Than Expected

Randy and I came back from vacation sooner than we hoped, I woke up on Sunday morning not feeling very good at all. I knew traveling on to Maine would not be a good idea so we ended up coming home. I am feeling much better after having gotten some much needed rest and relaxtion. Even though Randy and I didn't end up going to Maine, we enjoyed the time we spent in Vermont.

The Beginning of Our Vacation

We set off for our vacation at almost one this afternoon. The weather was perfect for driving and there was not a lot of traffic. This was my first time every going to Vermont but for Randy he has been a few times. Randy and I took a few pictures along the way.

I had to take this picture real quick, as we were driving in the car past this sign. Ahh.... we have made it into Vermont. I was taking in all the sights just like a tourist should.

We stopped at a pull off that was on one of the bridges to take some pictures. Here is Randy with Lake Champlain behind him. On either side of the bridge was water for as far as you could see.

I am all smiles as I sit waiting for Randy to take my picture. That is quite the view.

This sign is right beside where we were sitting on the rocks. Very interesting historial information about the lake and the islands.

Another shot of Lake Champlain.