Kitchen Purgatory Pot Roast

Aaaaahhhhhh!!! I'm having kitchen withdrawls! Look at my poor oven. 

How could I not have seen this coming? Of course a kitchen remodel sounds glamorous, but as you can see from this picture, the process is far from glamour of any sort! I hate to sound like such a whiney baby considering Jimmy has done most of the hard manual labor, but it has taken a toll on both of us and it's looking like we will need to endure it for another week or so. Thankfully, we really don't argue much in general, but this project really has me pushing his buttons just as effortlessly as I type this posting. I'm not trying to aggravate him, but sometimes I'm just so darn good at it! Plus, it's easy to get sassy when everything is covered in dust, it's over 100 degrees outside and you can't turn on the AC and especially when you can't access the fridge for a drink or snack. Hopefully this madness will get wrapped up soon because I'm looking forward to whipping up something scrumptious for my hard-working hubby in my upgraded kitchen!

The first night this whole remodel debacle started, we had committed to taking dinner over to a friends house as they had just moved into a new home and had their first baby. With so much to celebrate, I really wanted to take them something comforting and delicious, yet low maintenance considering the circumstances in the kitchen. So I opted for a pot roast. It has a pretty broad appeal and is easy to transport. Dessert was also a must, so I also baked up some of my Brownie Cookies to go along with dinner. Although it was a bit of a hassle running back and forth to the guest room to grab cookware & ingredients, it was definitely worth it to support our friends at such an exciting time in their lives. So if you get brave and decide to undergo a kitchen remodel...well, you're probably just gonna wanna go out to eat! ;) But if you have a good dutch oven (or Crock Pot), you can still turn out some delicious low hassle meals to share with people you love.

Beef, carrots & potatoes is a hard combination to beat, although I guess it coulda used something green. Ha! The plate! ;)

This is what was left of that delicious dinner all cooked right in my fun red dutch oven.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (about 3 lb) boneless chuck roast or shoulder roast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 white or yellow onion, roughly sliced
3 garlic cloves, smashed

1 cup red wine (and the rest of the bottle to drink!)
1 1/2 cups low sodium beef stock
2 bay leaves
1 cup baby carrots
2 pounds (about 8-10) small red potatoes, quartered
Fresh thyme sprigs (optional)

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350º.
Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle chuck roast with salt and pepper. Add roast to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Add onion to pan; sauté 3-5 minutes or until tender. Add the red wine, thyme sprigs, smashed garlic cloves, beef stock and bay leaves to pan; bring to a simmer. Cover pot and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until the roast is almost tender.
Add carrots and potatoes to pan. Cover and bake an additional 1-2 hours or until vegetables are tender. If you're pressed for time, boil the potatoes & carrots in another pan for about 10 minutes so that they are partially cooked before tossing them in the dutch oven with the meat. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf from pan & discard before serving. Serve roast with vegetable mixture and cooking liquid. Cheers!

Simple Summer Salad (since my kitchen's kinda outta commission)

This would be a great salad to prepare for July 4th celebrations because it's fresh & light and super easy to put together.

This week I spent several nights out of town for some work meetings I had and when I checked in with my husband one night he casually mentioned that he had removed all the cabinet doors as well as everything stored in the kitchen cabinets. "Huh??!!!" was all I could say...at first, but like most women, I'm rarely speechless when it comes to words for my other half. Once I visualized my kitchen with empty cabinets it led me to picture how all of the stuff that was in there might look sprawled out all over the guest room where it had been relocated. And that's where I started to get concerned. Thankfully, Jimmy was very thoughtful in keeping all items moved out of the cabinets well organized in boxes, so right now the situation is about as good as it can be given the circumstances. We had talked about remodeling the kitchen, but I guess I hadn't fully thought through the inconvenience of it. So, as you can imagine, I haven't been too eager to work on really anything in the kitchen this weekend unfortunately. Since I have been limited in the use of the kitchen, I wanted to share a simple idea for a fresh summer salad that's pretty easy to throw together. You could tailor this salad to include any combination of fruit & nuts (blueberries and walnuts sounds good too!) that you enjoy, so use this concept and get creative to serve up a fresh and healthy dish for you and your loved ones this summer.

Strawberries in salads was a pairing that I didn't used to find appealing, but it didn't take long for me to appreciate the somewhat unlikely combination. This particular recipe brings together the sweet and fleshy texture of the strawberries with the crispy, salty bacon and pungent, creamy bleu cheese. Yumm!

Strawberry Bacon Spinach Salad Recipe
Serves about 4-6 people as a pre-dinner or side salad
About 8-10 slices bacon
1 bag Baby Spinach
1 1/2 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup bleu cheese crumbles
1 cup pecan halves (chopped pecans work too, but I prefer larger pieces)
Honey mustard salad dressing (I like Newman's Own Light Honey Mustard)

I like to start most of my salad recipes by putting my glass salad plates in the freezer. It's something many restaurants do to help keep your salad cold and taste fresh. Even if you don't remember until you're almost ready to serve, just a few minutes in the freezer is enough to create the same effect.


If bacon is precooked, move onto the next step, but if not, cook the bacon in the oven. It is easier and cooks the bacon to the perfect crispiness. Spread the slices out on a foil-lined cookie sheet (to make clean up easier) then place in the oven at 375 degrees for about 12-15 min or until brown and crisp. Once the bacon is done remove from pan, place on paper towels to absorb excess grease and let cool. Chop up bacon once it has cooled.


Make sure baby spinach is well rinsed and place in a large salad bowl. Toss in sliced strawberries, bleu cheese crumbles and pecans. Top with chopped bacon and serve on chilled plates with honey mustard dressing on the side.

As you can see I only have a few super important items left in my cabinets like a bottle of wine with glasses and my cheap little coffee maker on the bottom shelf next to the oven. This is the before picture, but hopefully the after picture will include granite counter tops, a new stainless over-the-range microwave and freshly painted cabinets. It's not exactly a gourmet kitchen, but it's all I need to produce some tasty treats.

My Brownie Cookie Love Affair

These brownie cookies were sooo irresistible that one bite turned into two, then three and...well look at the almost empty glass of milk! 

 I'm not much of a cookie girl when it comes to my favorite sweets, but these brownie cookies have stolen my heart! Brownies have always been a go-to item when I want an indulgent and comforting treat, so I had high hopes for this new take on them. To say these sweeties delivered on their promise would be an understatement considering that I have already made them 3 times and really had to contain myself each time. I will admit though, that the second time I made them I wasn't as impressed. As it turns out, using unenriched, unbleached flour was the downfall of the second batch even though they were still pretty good. The unbleached flour gave the cookies a more crunchy texture that felt kinda dry to me in comparison to the rich, chewy texture of the first & third batches.
So, if you like a crunchy cookie, try unenriched,
unbleached flour, but if you like the soft & moist texture of say, the middle brownie of a batch, than go with unenriched, bleached flour. It still has a slight crunch on the edges that give it that cookie feel, but the inside is so soft and almost fudgey yet not too sweet. I could go on and on about the deliciousness of these treats, but the more I describe them and drool over these pics, the more I am tempted to make another batch! As it is, my thoughtful hubby had to practically pry a dozen from my death grip to take to his coworkers so we wouldn't gain five pounds over the weekend. I love to share my creations with them, but I will admit that it was hard to part with these this time. Actually, I'm starting to worry that with all of the goodies I've been experimenting with lately, I may have to skip out on any summer activities that involve wearing a swimsuit in public this year! Believe me, it'll be a small price to pay, so do yourself (or a loved one) a favor and bake these gems today!

Thank goodness I would be seeing my brother the week I made these so I could unload all these tempting treats on him!

Brownie Cookie Recipe

½ cup butter
4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 cups (18 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (I recommend unenriched, bleached flour which is most common)
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 large eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine butter, unsweetened chocolate, and 1 ½ cups chocolate chips in a medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter and chocolate melt (will be slightly thick). Let cool while separately you combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl, set aside.

Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer. Lower speed and gradually add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Then add the chocolate mixture and beat well. Stir in remaining 1 ½ cups chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scoop dough (should resemble thick cake batter) onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper about 1 inch apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes. Carefully remove cookies from baking sheets leaving them on the parchment paper and transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Pure and Yummy

Banana Bread with Walnuts...and maybe Peanut Butter Frosting

So I know this isn't what you picture when you think "Banana Bread," but the Peanut Butter frosting added a rich & creamy layer of flavor that pairs so well with the banana.

 It was a rainy, somewhat gloomy day and I felt like baking something new that would be good to snack on but wasn't too sweet. Banana bread sounded like the perfect treat and it was something I had never made before, so I decided to give it a try. When I Googled it, I looked at several recipes and decided to go with this Food Network one because it looked pretty simple and didn't involve too many ingredients. It smelled so delicious in the oven and filled the house with a sweet banana scent that started to make Jimmy a little impatient. After pulling it out of the oven, he said "I want extra frosting on mine," and I explained that banana bread traditionally doesn't get frosted. I told him I didn't have the ingredients to make a frosting right then, so he opened the fridge and pulled out the leftover Peanut Butter Frosting I had used in my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes a few days before and said "what about this one?" At first I thought, "yeah, but that one is peanut butter," and then it clicked...peanut butter & banana is such a great combination! What a genius my husband is! I just used a round cookie cutter (or small glass) to cut out little cake rounds, piped the frosting on & topped it with a fresh banana slice. It was such a rich flavor pairing with the frosting, so the fact that it is small works out perfectly. On its own though, I could (ok, so maybe "did" is more accurate) eat slice after slice of this delightfully comforting treat at breakfast, lunch or dinner...yikes!

This banana bread is so moist and perfect served as is without any extras.  The crunchiness of the walnuts adds a nice variety to the texture and the heartiness of it makes it truly comforting. 

If you want to step it up a bit, pipe some Peanut Butter Frosting on top and you have a lovely little dessert.

 Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for preparing the pan
1 cup sugar
3 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup)
1 cup toasted walnut pieces (use less or omit walnuts to suit your taste)

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl, set aside. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup with a spout, set aside. Lightly brush a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with butter. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with an electric hand-held mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the butter while mixing until incorporated. Add the bananas (the mixture will appear to be curdled, so don't worry), and remove the bowl from the mixer.

With a rubber spatula, mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Bake for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pan and let cool completely on the rack. Wrap in plastic wrap. The banana bread is best if served the next day but of course we ate a few slices immediately. If you like crusty pieces though, don't wrap it in plastic because it gets very soft.

Recipe adapted from Food Network Kitchens

Peanut Butter Frosting

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup smooth peanut butter (I used a honey peanut butter)

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream (or milk)

Beat the butter until smooth. Add the cream cheese, and continue to beat until smooth and fully combined with the butter. Add the peanut butter and beat until well combined. Slowly add the powdered sugar and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth. Add in the cream, and beat another 30 seconds. Frost cakes with piping bag & top with a fresh banana slice immediately before serving to avoid turning brown.

Frosting Recipe adapted from Glorious Treats

Chocolate Fruit & Nut Granola for light snacking...think summertime & swimsuits!

I have been making variations of this recipe for a few months now ever since I saw an episode of Giada at Home on Food Network, but this particular recipe has turned out to be my favorite. I had always wanted to try making my own granola and as it turns out, it's pretty easy. The hardest part about making it is gathering the ingredients, which looks like a long list, but it is so good altogether that I wouldn't want to leave any of these ingredients out. My next experiment with granola will definitely include peanut butter though, so stay tuned!

This is a double batch of nuts before they are roasted, but you can pretty much include any nuts that you like. If you've never experimented with these nuts though, I highly recommend them. I never knew I liked flax seed until I started making this, and pumpkin seeds have really grown on me too!

It should look kinda like this after you've mixed all the ingredients and baked it. I love that this recipe is so easy to tailor to your personal preferences because you can change the variety of fruits & nuts as you wish.  

So the mini chocolate chips I used look weird because I had them in my car and they all melted into one big chunk! I just carefully stabbed at the chunk with a knife to break it back down into small pieces and sprinkled it all over. I also used white chocolate chips to add some color, and because more chocolate is never a bad thing! Make sure to add the chocolate chips just when the granola is pulled out of the oven so that the warmth slightly melts the chocolate into place. Of course if you want a more healthy version you could just omit the chocolate chips altogether...womp, womp!! : (

I managed to make some pretty good looking bars for some fairly nice pictures, but truth be told, they don't actually hold up like this so well. They fall apart really easily because they're more soft and chewy, but maybe I just got over eager and didn't let them cool long enough before cutting them. Either way, they are delicious and sort of addicting probably because they're kinda healthy so I subconsciously allow myself to keep stuffing more in my mouth! 

This whole batch only lasts about a week in my pantry because my hubs and I munch on it for an early morning to late night snack. It's definitely more figure-friendly than the amazing banana bread I recently made that seems to be perfect at any time of day as well.

 Chocolate Fruit & Nut Granola Recipe

1 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup flax seeds
1/4 cup unsalted sunflower seeds

1 cup unsweetened cranberry juice (not cranberry cocktail)
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown because it's what I had, but dark or light should work fine)
1/4 cup agave nectar (I used Amber, but dark should work too)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup roughly chopped roasted, lightly salted almonds
1/3 cup chopped dried apricots*
1/3 cup dried mixed berries*
2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

Optional:
1/2 cup of mini milk chocolate chips (I used Tollhouse)
1/2 cup of white chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli)


-Start with roasting the pumpkin, flax & sunflower seeds at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes keeping a close eye (and nose because you'll smell the nuttiness) on them so they don't burn. While this is working, you can chop up your almonds & dried apricots.
-In a small saucepan, bring the cranberry juice, orange juice, brown sugar, agave & cinnamon to a simmer. Stir it regularly and you should notice it thicken just a little bit.
-In a large mixing bowl, add the oatmeal, salt, toasted nuts, almonds, apricots & berries. Mix together well with the cranberry juice reduction and spread onto a baking sheet coated with a non-stick spray.
-Bake granola for about 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees until golden brown. Sprinkle on chocolate chips soon after removing from the oven. Allow time to cool before cutting & removing from pan. Store in an airtight container for up to a week or so.

*Note: When choosing dried fruit, check the ingredients to be sure there is no added sugar because it adds unnecessary calories and sweetness for this application. I used some local dried fruit from Nature's Eats (www.texasnut.com) found in it's own little section within produce at HEB.

Heavenly Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes

Jimmy and I were in cupcake heaven with these rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes today. The chocolate cake is so moist and the frosting is not too sweet (with some adjustments to the recipe). I only wish my brother could have one because he and I have a long history of love with Reese's. Pieces mostly, but cups were a close second. I remember he loved getting the bag of Reese's peanut butter baking chips and still does now. Hopefully we will live closer some day, but for now, I have another excuse to bake these bad boys next time I go home to visit. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter tends to be a favorite of men in general, so this would be the perfect dessert for Father's Day!

This cake is so rich you'll almost NEED a glass of milk to wash it down with!

What the heck am I gonna do with all of these tempting treats?!

It starts out so innocent, but before you know it you've got a sweet new addiction!

Chocolate Cupcakes
(makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)

2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)
1 cup boiling water

Directions-
1. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
4. Stir in boiling water (the batter will be very thin, don't worry, this is right).
5. Fill liners about 3/4 full with batter.
6. Bake cupcakes for approximately 18-20 minutes.
7. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.



Peanut Butter Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup smooth peanut butter (I used a honey peanut butter)
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream (or milk)

Beat the butter until smooth. Add the cream cheese, and continue to beat until smooth and fully combined with the butter. Add the peanut butter and beat until well combined. Slowly add the powdered sugar and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth. Add in the cream, and beat another 30 seconds. Frost cupcakes with piping bag & top with Reese's Mini Cups or Reese's Pieces.

Frosting Recipe adapted from Glorious Treats
Cupcakes Recipe Adapted from Hershey's

Cute Little Watermelon Jello Shots

The jello shot has become even more fun recently with all of the creative ideas circulating the web. I saw this one on a dessert blog I have been enjoying lately called Erica Sweet Tooth. They were a bit labor intense due to the gutting of the limes, but I think they turned out pretty adorable.

A helpful tip is using a mini muffin pan to hold the lime halves in place like this while they set in the fridge. This also works well when using strawberries instead of lime rinds because if the jello seeps out it stays contained in the pan and you can scoop it back into the strawberry when it becomes solid. (You can see a little of the strawberries on the very top of the picture above.)

Watermelon Shaped Strawberry Limeade Jello Shots
Idea adapted from That's So Michelle
Recipe yields about 40 wedges

10 limes, pulp removed
1 box Strawberry Jello (or use any other red flavor)
1 cup boiling water
1 cup cold Strawberry vodka (or whatever flavor you like)
Black colored food gel

-Halve limes and use a melon baller to juice limes and pull the pulp from the rind. My approach in doing this was to juice them, pull out the pulp and then gently turn them inside out to scrape out as much of the white skin as possible. That white skin is what tastes bitter, so the more you can remove the less bitter flavor your jello shots will have. Place lime halves in mini muffin pan empty side up.
- In a separate bowl, add 1 cup of boiling water to the Jello powder and stir for 2 minutes until fully dissolved.
- Stir in a cup of cold strawberry (or regular) vodka.
- Pour mixture into lime halves, filling all the way to the top.
- Chill Jello-limes in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
- Using a sharp knife, carefully cut each lime half in half again, making wedges.
- Paint on watermelon seeds with colored food gel.


As I mentioned above, I also tried some strawberry filled jello shots which were more tasty to eat, but a little tricky to make. You have to trim the tips to get them to stand upright & if you take too much off the bottom, the liquid jello will spill out before it sets. They basically looked like the picture below, but filled with the jello shot recipe above. (Using the mini muffin pans will really help.) My sister (in-law) Judy had a simple recipe for Strawberry Cheesecake Bites that were another delicious way to use strawberries as a fun little edible vessel. Try these for a guaranteed home run at your next summer gathering.

Strawberry Cheesecake Bites
from Nutmeg Nanny

Ingredients:
1 lb large strawberries
8 oz. cream cheese, softened (can use 1/3 less fat)
3-4 tbsp powdered sugar (4 tbsp for a sweeter filling)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Graham cracker crumbs

Directions:
-Rinse strawberries and cut the tops off. Carefully scoop out insides with a melon baller and trim the bottoms to create a flat surface so the berries stand upright. Prep all strawberries and set aside.
-In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy
-Add cream cheese mix to a piping bag or ziploc with the corner snipped off.
-Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture. Once strawberries are filled, sprinkle tops with graham cracker crumbs. You can also drizzle a little melted white or milk chocolate over the tops to dress them up some more.
-If not serving immediately, refrigerate until serving.