What a Crock!

          When I moved in to my apartment, my Grandmom gave me a cute red crock pot she didn't have much use for. I always thought it would be a lot of work to use it, and I never planned enough ahead of time to start recipes in the morning. But when I saw this Southwestern Bean Medley recipe on Jess, Mackenzie's sister's, blog, I thought it couldn't get any easier.
          And it was. I made the bean recipe a little while ago, and it was so easy and yummy that I started looking for more and have been using it a lot since. We had frozen pork, and I found this Slow Cooker Pork recipe that also looked like a breeze. I can't believe how juicy and tender meat tastes in the crock pot. I'm mad I put off using it for so long!

This recipe was cheap, easy, and filling. Served over brown rice, it was a healthful treat.

The pork was so moist and tender that it fell apart when I took it out.

I whipped up some mashed potatoes (confession: they were instant) and served the pork on top. The extra juices in the pot made for a savory gravy.

I love how the crock pot lets you make something delicious and take the easy route at the same time.

Cheers,
Annie

Bunny Sweets

          Because I have such a love for cupcakes, I was really excited to make these bunny ones, inspired from Delish.com. I let Betty Crocker do the legwork on the cupcakes, and put vanilla frosting into two dishes. I dyed half pink and half blue and frosted all of the cupcakes. I enlisted my mom, who's great at decorating cakes, to help with the white faces. She used a large round frosting tip to make circles.

         The ears are made out of marshmallows. To replicate, cut diagonally across the marshmallow and then cut each half in half vertically. They stuck to the frosting easily.
         The eyes and nose are jelly beans, and the whiskers are chocolate sprinkles. Maybe I'm biased, but I think mine came out cuter than the original design (although probably not as perfect). I used them as placeholders at dinner, and stacked them on my cupcake rack for a festive decoration.

          I'm really happy with the end result, and glad my mom helped out so they didn't take too long. And I picked sugar free frosting to cut a few calories considering we used loads of it. Mmmmm.

          Also, my mom made a vanilla and orange sherbet ice cream cake with a cookie crust. She decorated it with sugar flowers and frosting. It was so cute and tastey. Can you say Ace of Cakes?

Hope you had a sweet weekend.
Love,
Annie

Easter Dinner

          After my success of putting on Christmas dinner, I volunteered to cook an Easter meal. Although I spent most of my Sunday cooking, it was definitely worth the time and everything came out delicious. The weekend was beautiful (besides some April showers) and was a big pick-me-up after what has been a dreary month. I browsed through several sites and selected my menu. I've linked the recipes.

Slow Cooker Easter Ham

This was the easiest recipe of all. I just put the few ingredients in the crock pot and forgot about it until dinner. It came out moist and flavorful.

Spinach and Feta Quiche

          I had never made quiche before, so when I saw it on a suggested Easter dinner menu, I was dying to make it. The recipe I found was for a spinach and mushroom quiche, but I in onion (though not as large a quantity) because I don't really like mushrooms. The quiche came out wonderful, and was a favorite among my family. The best part is it's pretty healthy, save for the pie crust which on a lighter night you can leave out.

I made this earliest in the day and left it in the fridge. 15 minutes before dinner, I popped it back in the oven covered. The texture was perfect; I'll definitely make this recipe again.

Scalloped Potatoes and Onions

         This was one of the more challenging recipes as far as prep. Cutting 5 large potatoes and a strong onion was no simple task, but the end product was worth the work.

Green Bean Casserole 

         I normally hate green beans. The thought of canned vegetables still brings me back to the elementary school cafeteria (shivers). But we don't normally have green bean casserole at our holiday dinners, so I thought I'd add it to the menu. Perhaps adding cheese and butter to anything can make it taste good, but this was truly delectable and a good way to add more greens to the meal.

The Ritz cracker topping was a yummy alternative to traditional crunchy onions.

Glazed Mini Carrots

          Trying to pull all this off in one day, I knew I needed something really easy to add to the menu. These were quick and healthy, and didn't require baking so it freed up space in the oven.

I love how the fresh carrots add a lot of spring color to the table.

         Daffodils from our yard added a spring touch to the table, and my homemade egg nest added a festive touch. I dyed hard boiled eggs pastel colors and put them in a woven basket with paper grass.

          My family all said they enjoyed the meal, and I was happy to make a yummy dinner for everyone...but I may need a week or so off of cooking to recover.

Happy Easter!

Love,
Annie

The banana blueberry streusel experiment

          The other day, Mackenzie and I went downtown for lunch. We grabbed drinks at Blue State Coffee, and I couldn't help but drool over the big, blueberry muffins on display. Although we resisted, I was still craving blueberry muffins later, and resolved to make something delicious. We also had a big bunch of bananas that were going bad (Mackenzie prefers green bananas). I searched for recipes, but couldn't find one that combined all of the ingredients I wanted to use. So I did a little experiment, tweaking the Awesome Banana Muffin recipe from Cat Can Cook, adding the streusel topping from Allrecipes.com, and tossing in blueberries. My muffins came out moist and delicious, and were a big hit.

Here's my final recipe:
Banana Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Prep: 30 min Serves: 12

Ingredients:

4 Large bananas mashed
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Topping:

1/3 cup sugar (brown may be better, but I only had white)
2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter

Method:
          Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas and mix with sugar, egg, and oil. In another bowl, mix baking powder, salt, and flour. Mix wet and dry ingredients and stir in blueberries. Pour into greased muffin tins. In a small bowl, mix sugar, flour and cinnamon for topping. Cut in 1 tbsp butter until mixed and sprinkle over muffins before baking. Bake 20 min.

Yum! I would definately make these again.

Monti, in his new favorite place to cuddle.

What the Text?

         Wow, it has been a while since my last blog. I better get back on track. In short, Spring break came and went, March went in and out, and here we are in the last six weeks of class.

         Last week, my loyal phone of two years bit the dust. As I weigh my options for a new gadget--to upgrade to a Droid or iPhone, or keep it low key with a cheap Verizon phone--I immediately thought of dollar signs. But it occurred to me that there might be more I should consider besides pure cost. Although I am itching for an Internet phone (I am always behind the technological curve), it has really hit me how plugged in our society has become. Our cells require that we are always available; we have to drop everything to answer the call or respond to the text (I just ran downstairs mid-blog to grab my ringing phone). We feel constantly dependent on our phones: texting, checking email, or playing a game while waiting for coffee at Dunkin' Donuts or filling up on gas. It used to be considered a faux pas to answer a call or text during a date, conference, or chat, but the rules have changed. Now, when my friends and I go out to coffee, we each have our phones sitting on the table. An article in this month's Women's Health, "Never Run Late Again," suggest that cell phones encourage perpetual lateness. A simple text saying "Running late! Be there in five!" rids us of the guilt for making someone wait.

          And in the past few years, the Internet was added to the cell-reliant mix. Freshman year, I took a class called "The World According to Google," where we talked about the affect the Internet, Google in particular, was having on our society. We read an article from The Atlantic, written by Nicholas Carr, called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" It suggests that the way we read has been changed by the Internet, and that many of us are developing a case of Google ADD. Read a few sentences on one site, click on a link, skim a paragraph there, click again. Next thing, you're reading about a vacation in Hawaii when you started out looking up the earthquake in Japan.  Sitting down to read a full page of text, or God forbid a book, is now a daunting task. Bing's "search overload" commercials may actually hold some truth. But at the same time, instant answer sites like Bing and Cha-cha may be messing with our problem solving and cognitive thinking skills.
       
         If the suffering of our attention spans and social skills wasn't enough, another April Women's Health article, "Improve your Inner GPS," suggests that our heavy reliance on GPS devices is dumbing down our inner compass (not that I had one to begin with).  So I'm pondering all of this as I decide if I want to plug myself into the Matrix with a new smart phone. I mean, do I really need it to tempt me to go on Facebook during a boring lecture? But if I don't upgrade, do I risk being left behind by the technological curve?

         Definitely food for thought, but I'm not making any promises either way.

Text me! Love,

Annie

         

The Luck of the Irish

          Happy St. Patty's Day! I always love to be festive for holidays and this is no exception. Sunday we celebrated with the New Havens St. Patrick's Day parade and did everything green-themed. We woke up for green pancakes and jello shots and dressed in our best Irish attire. Yesterday I made Irish Soda Bread muffins, which didn't turn out quite like the real thing but they were fun and tastey enough. It just so happens that this year the holiday rests smack in the middle of MIDTERMS, so the festivites provide a much needed distraction. And after tomorrow SCSU is on spring break so everyone will have a reason to celebrate!

          I normally hate lime jello, but I made an exception for this occasion. These green jello shots (of course in lime green plastic shot glasses) were really easy to make, and came out tastey--lime flavor and all. The recipe I found is from drinkstreet.com, but there weren't a whole lot of us I halved the recipe. And since you don't really taste the alcohol, the cheap stuff is fine.

Drink Recipe: Jello shots

Ingredients:

     6 ounces Jello (large package)

     16 ounces Water (boiling)
     6 ounces Water (cold)
     10 ounces Vodka

          Mix the jello mix with the boiling water until the powder is fully dissolved and add the cold water and alcohol. Pour the cooling mixture into either shot glasses or paper cups. Shot glasses are more attractive, but drinker can turn the paper cups inside-out to more easily eat the alcoholic jello.

          I made these muffins yesterday to have something festive actually on the holiday. The traditional Irish Soda Bread recipes I found had a lot of ingredients, so I picked one with fewer necessities (of course from my go-to site, Sparkrecipes.com). On top of that, I took a few liberties with the recipe so that could be why my muffins were good, but not exactly authentic.

IRISH SODA BREAD MUFFINS
Ingredients

6 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 stick melted butter, 1 cup raisin, 1 cup golden raisin (I just used double of the normal raisins), 3 cups buttermilk (I used regular milk), 2 tbs baking powder, 1tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, and 2 Tbs caraway seeds (Skipped 'em).

Directions

bake at 350 Mix all ingredients. spray muffin pan with PAM. Spoon about a large spoonful into pans and bake for about 15 min or until toothpick comes out clean. allow to cool then eat. may freeze

Number of Servings: 36

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user XN8960.

Why have green eggs and ham when you can have green pancakes?

Caden and Monti were fast friends. Must've been the matching "Pet Me I'm Irish" T-shirts.

Sunday was a beautiful day to be downtown.

Shout out to Aleisa and Mackenzie for actually being Irish. Hah!

         Good luck on midterms and happy Spring Break!

Love,

Annie

Rain, rain go away

          Yes, it's finally March! The shortest (yet longest feeling) month of the year is over. They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but in New England, it's pretty much a lion-lamb hybrid throughout. So far this month, the climate has been rainy. Definitely preferable to snow and ice, but it can be a bit dismal. Everyone seems to be sick of staying inside and the taste of sun last week seemed to spark some spring fever.
          Since I am extremely warm blooded, I was not one of those girls Friday wearing dresses and flats. But in anticipation of the coming season, I've been wearing brighter colors (nothing like hot pink rain boots to brighten up a dark day), and punching things up with flowers. I never wear this flower headband, but I was feeling like spring this week and it was the perfect solution.

          And after a rainy weekend of being inside, whipping up some Irish-themed cupcakes cured both my sweet tooth and spring fever. Yum!

          How do you cure spring fever?

Love,

Annie

Health Kick

                How come short weeks always feel so long? Even with a four day weekend (thanks to Abe, Ronald, and Obama) these past four days seemed like an eternity. But there is light at the end of the tunnel: March. The groundhog called early spring, so fingers crossed that he predicted right. To get through the rest of February, I’ve been upping my cooking. While advancing my still-beginner cooking skills, I’ve learned that it’s okay to take some liberties and stray from a recipe. So that’s just what I did with what I whipped up this week.

                Because I’ve been on a health kick, I wanted to make some muffins to grab as a healthy snack (and to have something to put in the cupcake holder Kenzie got me for Valentine’s Day). I searched for a recipe to start with and found a Banana Muffin recipe from Sparkrecipes.com. I made some minor tweaks, and they came out delish. And good thing they are low cal because I thought they were pretty addicting.

Love my cupcake stand. Can't wait for an occasion to bake some.

Banana Muffin (with Yogurt)

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (didn’t have it, so I just used the powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt (I used vanilla)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I added a handful of oats for a little extra texture

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together banana, sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in the yogurt (I've used applesauce when out of plain yogurt as well). Stir banana mixture into flour until just combined. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Let cool before serving.

 

                The Title of an article in February’s Better Homes and Gardens had me hooked. It’s called “Warming Winter Fare” and featured a recipe called Green Chile Pork Stew. The recipe called for the stew to be cooked in a Dutch oven, which I don’t have. So I baked the pork in the oven first and then put everything in a pot on the stove.

Green Chile Pork Stew

Ingredients:

1 lb. pork tenderloin (salt and black pepper)

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 7oz packages mixed vegetables in garlic herb sauce (I used one big package…I couldn’t find what they were calling for, but I found a bag of “Ranchero Fiesta Blend” which had a few different kinds of beans, carrots, and peppers. It was unseasoned so I sprinkled some extra garlic and cayenne pepper into the stew)

1 4.5 oz can diced green chiles

1 tsp ground cumin (skipped it)

Fresh cilantro

Lime wedges

Directions:

1.       Cut pork into ¾ inch pieces; sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. In Dutch oven head olive oil over medium high heat. Add pork; cook 4-5 minutes or until browned. Stir in two packages of the thawed vegetables, the chiles, and the cumin. (I put in the olive oil and cooked pork into a pot, and added the veggies shortly after.)

2.       In a blender, combine remaining thawed vegetables and 1 cup water. Process until smooth. Add pureed vegetables to Dutch oven. Bring to a simmer. Cook, covered, over medium high heat about 15 minutes or until pork is cooked through, stirring occasionally. Ladle into soup bowls. Top with cilantro and squeeze of lime juice. Makes 4 servings. (I skipped the pureed veggies and just added the water to my mixture. It was still yummy and flavorful.)

Stay warm. Love,

Annie

Hugs and Kisses

          Although many feel like Valentine's day is a product of capitalism, how can you hate a holiday that celebrates love, flowers, chocolate, and all things pink? Every year, I try to do something crafty and thoughtful for my friends and family. This time I made bookmarks with famous love letters printed on them written by different historical figures--Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Napoleon Bonaparte, Abagail Adams, Winston Churchill, and Nathaniel Hawthorn. I printed the letters in pretty type on card stock, punched a hole in the top, and tied a ribbon through.

          I also made cut-out cookies of X's, O's and hearts. I frosted them with homemade frosting and topped with X and O sprinkles. The butter cookie recipe is from my mom's Mennonite Cookbook, and has always been a family favorite. The frosting is my mom's recipe and super easy to whip up.

Cut-out sugar cookies

Makes: 4 dozen

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups shortening, butter preferred; 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar; 2 egg yolks; 4 cups flour.

Method: Cream shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and continue to beat. Add sifted flour and stir until well blended into mixture. Roll out on floured board to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out with cookie cutters and decorate with frosting or colored sugar. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown (about 10 minutes).

Frosting

Makes: About enough to frost one cake

Ingredients: 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp molk, 3 cups confectioner sugar, 1 tsp vanilla.

Method: Cream butter. Add milk and sugar. Continue adding sugar until frosting is desired consistency. Stir in food coloring if desired.

         Next, I put an X, O, and heart cookie in a cellophane bag (I found cute X and O ones for $1 at Target), and tied the bookmark to the outside. Wallah! I had a great time making these, and will need to look for more excuses to craft little creations. St. Patrick's Day, anyone?

Happy Heart Day and a special shout out to my Valentine, Mackenzie.

Love,

Annie

...And to my other valentine, Monti, who is not happy to be wearing this T-shirt.

Cooking for love



Taken on the beach in Maine last weekend

           This past week has been cold, windy, and more cold. So to stay warm, and to keep from getting severe cabin fever, I've been cooking and baking my heart out. Monday, I made this Artichoke Spread, which came out delicious (and not nearly as unhealthy as you would think). It's one of Kenzie and my favorites to order out, but it made a good stay-in treat.

          Of course, I found it on my favorite recipe site, sparkrecipes.com.

Artichoke Spread

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 3 cloves garlic, minced 4 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach 1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped 1 8oz pkg reduced fat cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup fat free mayonnaise dressing or salad dressing 2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese (8oz) 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (2oz) 2 dashes bottled hot pepper sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium saucepan melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, cook for 3 minutes. Add spinach, cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until onion is tender and spinach is cooked, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in chopped artichoke hearts, cream cheese, mayo, cheddar cheese, parmesan and hot pepper sauce. Transfer artichoke mixture to an ungreased 1 1/2 quart casserole. Bake for 40 minutes.

For some extra crunch you can add 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans and bake for 10 more minutes.

Number of Servings: 64

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user DEADEENA.

 

          Thursday, Kenz and I made rice and beans and quesadillas, which didn't turn out so beautifully. So we tried again Friday with the new quesadilla maker Jay brought up, and the results were much nicer to look at.

We threw in some rice, cheese, chicken, salsa, onions and peppers. Yum!

Kudos to Jay!...Pretty cool, huh?

          Lastly, I went on a late-night baking binge yesterday. I remembered I wanted to make a Valentine's Day cake, so I whipped this up. It's just Pillsbury mix and pink frosting, but the results are always yummy.

Topped with red hots and X&O sprinkles.

Not quite decorator quality, but still festive.

          I'll be sharing the rest of my V-day creations once they're finished and dolled out.
Love,
Annie

I made these a couple weeks ago, but thought I'd include them since they're more Martha Stweart-esque

 

If at first you don't succeed...

                As you can tell, I’ve had the topic of New Year’s Resolutions on my mind a lot lately, and it appears I’m not alone. The last page of my January/February edition of Women’s Health featured statistics on that very subject. One declared that 38 percent of women break resolutions in a month or less. And if this statistic is true, that means by today, February 1, nearly half of all resolution-bearing women have “broken” their goals. But I’m having a problem with the word broken. What does that even mean—to miss a day at the gym or give up entirely? And if we are prone to resolution failure, are we the problem or are we simply aiming too high?



Pic from http://justjudyjudyjudy.com/



                Personally, I think the important thing to remember is that there are 12 months in a year. Okay, so Monti’s leash is starting to collect dust (not really; please no calls to PETA), and the book I started reading for fun over break is still half finished. But I refuse to accept defeat so soon! I mean, come on it’s only February. I have had some successes in my resolutions, and although I could give a laundry list of excuses for why I’ve faltered in some, the most important thing is to keep working towards them. If you resolved to get healthier, one cupcake does not mean you’ve failed or even “broken” your resolution. If you vowed to save money, one new pair of shoes is not the end of the world. My view? Let that guilt nag at you if you’ve veered from the path a little, and work to get back on. Saying a resolution is broken on February 1 is a copout.

21 Candles and Resolutions in Review

         Friday I celebrated my 21st birthday...Finally! I celebrated with a nice lunch with Lei and dinner with Mackenzie and my parents that night. Liz, who is away, surprised my by leaving a gift with Lei to give me on my birthday. It was totally unexpected, and totally proving of how well she knows me. The gift is a pretty leather journal with my name engraved on the front. Giving a writer a journal is like giving a painter a blank canvas. It's a challange; it's an opportunity. The past few days, I've been tossing around in my mind what I'd like to do with the journal. I debated writing a diary again, which I've done routinely in the past, but I feel like I already have that outlet through my blog. Another idea I came up with was to use it to write poems and short stories. But, honestly I prefer to type those rather than scribble over and over on paper.

          A long time ago, in my church youth group, we made collages on composition notebooks for a "happiness journal." On the first few pages, I listed 100 things that made me happy (I'm sure the list has changed in the past 8 years or so). Then, each day or as often as possible, I wrote 10 things that made me happy that day. In a way, it is a condensed diary. The happiness journal makes you focus on the positive points of each day, and it doesn't take a whole lot of time or commitment. I remeber enjoying it at the time, so I decided to revive this practice. I plan on writing my 100 things tonight because such a beautiful journal would be a sad thing to waste. Plus, with classes picking up speed I think focusing on the happy things in life is a good idea.
          So as I'm making another resolution, it's a good time to reflect on the one's I've already set.

1.       Be proactive on making plans with friends.

2.       Make time for pleasure reading.

3.       Take Monti for more walks.

4.       Go with the flow.

5.       Remember family.

           For the first, I'm going to say success. Over break, I had a bunch of little dates with my girlfriends. I have been slipping up on my "pleasure reading" resolution, however. With all the readings for my Macbeth class, I didn't take a lot of time to finish the books and magazines I've been reading for enjoyment. Another resolution setback, there has been one snowstorm after the next and frigid temps in between...which has been making my walk Monti goal a bit difficult. I did suit up for some long walks a few times over break, but I have to admit I've been falling short of what I intended. Today was a high of 15 so no long walks, and a snow storm is coming Wednesday. I guess I'll have to refresh my resloution after that.
          As far as my "go with the flow" resolution, I've had some successes and some failures. I think that is pobably the most difficult one for me because it doesn't involve a deliberate action. What's hard is remebering the resolution in the moment. But at least recognizing I did lose my cool on few occasions is a step. Lastly, I'm calling my last resolution about remebering family a success. I had a long-overdue conversation with my Grandmom today, and I bought cute thank you cards to send for my birthday and Christmas gifts. Okay, so some resolutions are something to brag about and some need some work. But I am keeping them in mind!

How are you keeping up with your New Year's Resolutions?
Stay warm,
Annie

My Mom has been baking cakes and decorating them as a hobby lately.
I love the way she made my favorite kind of cake, chocolate with caramel frosting, so pretty and personal.