I heart breakfast

It's that time of year again! Love and all things hearts.

I am digging this heart shaped breakfast Christina made for her kids.

Egg in a heart shaped nest of toast and the middle toasted up with butter and cinnamon sugar.

My Sweet Girl loves things special things like this too!

Do you have any fun breakfast ideas for Valentine's Day?

~Victoria~

Score 1 for Mommy

Recently I found a copy of Deceptively Delicious, the cookbook by Jessica Seinfield, at the GW and picked it up for $2.50. I have poured over this baby and have enjoyed looking at the recipes, tips from Jessica, etc. It is actually a very interesting read for a cookbook.

Tonight I tried my first real recipe from the book and made Lasagna. This recipe calls for cauliflower and sweet potato puree and neither are veggies my husband will eat and I don't particularly care for cauliflower myself. Too, this is a somewhat easy way to add in extra veggies vs me preparing several sides.

I don't make lasagna in our home for a couple of reasons. First, my Sis always made lasagna growing up and made it well, so I just ask her to make it for my birthdays and occasionally a family get-together. Secondly, my father-in-law makes what my daughter calls "Grumpy's world famous lasagna" and they have us over for lasagna so I get my second lasagna fix that way. Pretty smart girl, eh?

Tonight I told Sweet Girl and Sweet Man "hey guys, this is a new recipe, used ground turkey, we all may hate it and I might never make it again". My parents happened by about the time I took it out of the oven and I gave them the same spill as I invited them to stay for dinner.

Fast forward 30 min and pan is practically empty. No one notices cauliflower or sweet potato! Woohoo! SCORE 1 for Mommy!

I'll let you know when I try the brownies made with spinach puree. ;)


~Victoria~

Summertime Lunch

I was thrilled to find that I had basil coming up in a huge pot on my deck this spring from my basil going to seed last year. Yesterday I realized I had enough basil that Sweet Girl and I were able to make our first batch of basil pesto. How I love me some basil pesto!!!!

Today for lunch we made mini basil pesto chicken pizzas. First we started with a round flat bread that might be more for gorditas...these came from Christina's food co-op and are in my freezer.
Then I spread a layer of my basil pesto on the bread.

I had a box of grilled chicken from Aldi that I buy for suppers in a pinch so I cut it up into smaller pieces.
Sprinkled a little mozzarella on top and voila, lunch is served!
I had my pizza with a side of Magazine heaven (won as a giveaway from Jen at thecottagenest - check her out today, she's having ANOTHER giveaway!)...

followed by a banana smoothie (choice of Sweet Girl).
What are you eating today? Do you have any summertime favorites?

~Victoria~

Recipe

Fresh Basil Pesto Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts or walnuts (I left out the nuts as I didn't have any on hand)
  
• 3 medium sized garlic cloves, minced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

1 Combine the basil in with the pine nuts, pulse a few times in a food processor. (If you are using walnuts instead of pine nuts and they are not already chopped, pulse them a few times first, before adding the basil.) Add the garlic, pulse a few times more.

2 Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream while the food processor is on. Stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor with a rubber spatula. Add the grated cheese and pulse again until blended. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Makes 1 cup.

Spring time cake

Since my life has been busy with getting our old house on the market, moving final items and digging up plants I can't bear to leave behind I thought I'd share a repeat of a yummy recipe for a spring time cake today. This cake is sooo easy and delish!



My sister Beth always has dessert, whether it's cookies, cake or something else, under her pretty glass cake dome at her house and she is the one that shared this recipe with me. I LOVE cakes that use a cake mix and additional ingredients. They seem so much easier than scratch and taste so yummy.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake

1 package yellow cake mix
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 cup plain or vanilla nonfat yogurt
3 eggs
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons poppy seeds

Combine cake mix and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add vegetable oil and next four ingredients and beat on medium speed for six minutes. Stir in poppyseeds. Pour into well greased bundt pan and bake for 40 min at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 10 min. Remove from pan and drizzle with lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Lemon juice

Sift powdered sugar into bowl. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice and stir. Add enough lemon juice until glaze if of drizzling consistency.



Look at the longing in my Sweet Girl's face! :)

(Picture from 2009)

Hope you are having beautiful Spring weather wherever you are today!

~Victoria~

Want a cookie?

Yesterday afternoon I decided to make Sugar Cookie Cutouts with my best gal pal. I hate to admit this, but we were having leftovers for supper and that is why I figured I had the time and energy to make these with her. They are so time consuming and the clean up....flour and dough everywhere, oh and sprinkles because I knocked the full jar of sprinkles onto the floor...
We had the best time! We used a mix that I had gotten on the cheap (or free) due to my obsessive couponing as of late so we took our time with the cutting out part.
The control freak part of me didn't want Sweet Girl to use the turkey or pumpkin cookie cutters because it's not fall. :) I let it go though and we did all sorts of shapes from carrots to frogs, ice cram cones to umbrellas!

After they were cool we iced a couple with a pink lemon glaze. :)

When Daddy called to say he was headed home, Sweet Girl answered the phone "Sweet Cookies Bakery, how may I help you?". Daddy played along and found out quickly that he couldn't afford to shop her bakery as a dozen cookies would cost him "50 dollars".

Hope you find some time this weekend to make some cookies for yourself!

~Victoria~

A Delightfully Different Cookie

Darlene over at Our Creative Life is having a Cookie Recipe Party. Make sure to go over and check out all of the goodies and join in with your favorite recipe. I would love to see what all of you guys make during the holidays.



My recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine in 2001. Something different for sure and just delightful. This has become my husband's favorite cookie and is the perfect addition to a Christmas cookie platter or with a cup of hot tea on a cold afternoon.




Berry Sage Thumbprints

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow corn meal
1 1/2 tsp. dried sage, crushed (mine is a powder)
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup blackberry preserves (I use b. berry jelly because I don't like the seeds)

preheat oven to 350 degrees

combine flour, cornmeal, sage and baking powder. Set aside.

Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat until combined, scraping sides occasionally. Beat in egg yolks, lemon peel, and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much flour mixture as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour.

Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls. Place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Lightly press the tip of your thumb into the center of each ball. Fill the centers with about 1/4 tsp. of the blackberry preserves. bake about 10 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool completely. Makes about 60.
From Better Homes and Garden's December 2001

Oh, so yummy!

I hope you enjoyed your virtual taste. Try it, you might like it.

{Christina}

Easy Peasy Supper

For years I have heard people talk about Fish Tacos and thought "ugh that sounds yuck." One day on a whim I tried a fish taco at Gezzos Surf & Grille. The young guy that runs the place told me to try it Californian style so I asked him to have at it and make it like he would make his own. Since then my husband has tried them and we both love them!

Fast forward and I decide to get a little more creative with our meals at home. They all seem bland and boring so I decided to try my hand at making my own fish tacos.

I start with a bag of Aldi's frozen Tilapia and some Dale's marinade.

Thaw the fish and marinate. Yesterday it was only for an hour because I got a late start on things. FYI, fish thaws very quickly so this is also a good meal for me when I haven't thought about things ahead of time!

We throw our fish on the Big Green Egg that I found at a yard sale but you can wrap in aluminum foil and put on the grill until flakey.

After that we grab a soft tortilla and throw on our fixings...

For us the fixings include:
Black beans
Sliced cabbage
Sliced black olives
Shredded cheese
Spicy ranch dressing (we prefer this but if I don't have it we use regular ranch or sour cream)

Please note that my husband and daughter would not touch cabbage with a 10' pole but Christina mentioned that they use cabbage on things like this where the lettuce would wilt. Amazingly enough, they now eat the cabbage! It is crunchier than the lettuce would be and it tastes great.

~Victoria~