Will I get beat up? lol.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
I sang to my baby last night.
It was nice. Since we didn't get to go to Christmas Eve service, I sang him the Christmas story in hymns, as best I could (the order was a bit off, oh well!). And then we sang the unicorn song from Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends.
And it was everything I had hoped it would be.
And it was everything I had hoped it would be.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Fontina Mac 'n' Cheese
Oh gosh, this was good. It was a different kind of MNC, so if you're looking for the really creamy or chunks of cheese variety, this is not it. This is heavy on flavor and texture, and I might try a different type of noodle next time to capitalize on that.
Fontina Mac and Cheese
courtesy Annie, my favorite doctor. More info at her site, please visit, she makes me hungry just looking at titles.
Ingredients:
1 lb. small or medium pasta shells
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. Fontina cheese, shredded
Salt
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚ F. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to the package directions just until 1-2 minutes shy of al dente.
Meanwhile, dice 4 tablespoons of the butter and place in a large mixing bowl. Warm the cream in a small saucepan or the microwave. Cover to keep warm.
Once the pasta is cooked, add to the bowl with the butter and toss to coat well. Stir in the warm cream and the Fontina until the cheese starts to melt. Mix in salt to taste, and add the nutmeg.
Pour the mixture into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish. In a small bowl, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix in the panko breadcrumbs and shredded Parmesan. Toss with a fork to coat evenly with the butter. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture evenly over the pasta in the baking dish.
Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the topping turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
Notes: I omitted the parm cheese and the nutmeg, primarily because I forgot about the nutmeg, and had no parm cheese. I mixed butter and panko, the end.
I also took half and put it in a freezer-safe dish so that we could have some for later, when I didn't feel like cooking. Which will probably be sometime this week, lol. Again, I will PIP then as I will be insanely excited about taking food pictures with my new camera lens, and hubs will be laughing at me while waiting for food.
Verdict:
Fontina Mac and Cheese
courtesy Annie, my favorite doctor. More info at her site, please visit, she makes me hungry just looking at titles.
Ingredients:
1 lb. small or medium pasta shells
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz. Fontina cheese, shredded
Salt
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400˚ F. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta according to the package directions just until 1-2 minutes shy of al dente.
Meanwhile, dice 4 tablespoons of the butter and place in a large mixing bowl. Warm the cream in a small saucepan or the microwave. Cover to keep warm.
Once the pasta is cooked, add to the bowl with the butter and toss to coat well. Stir in the warm cream and the Fontina until the cheese starts to melt. Mix in salt to taste, and add the nutmeg.
Pour the mixture into a buttered 2-quart casserole dish. In a small bowl, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix in the panko breadcrumbs and shredded Parmesan. Toss with a fork to coat evenly with the butter. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture evenly over the pasta in the baking dish.
Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the topping turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
Notes: I omitted the parm cheese and the nutmeg, primarily because I forgot about the nutmeg, and had no parm cheese. I mixed butter and panko, the end.
I also took half and put it in a freezer-safe dish so that we could have some for later, when I didn't feel like cooking. Which will probably be sometime this week, lol. Again, I will PIP then as I will be insanely excited about taking food pictures with my new camera lens, and hubs will be laughing at me while waiting for food.
Verdict:
hollaaaaaaaaa
yeah, sorry guys. If there are any of you still reading, that is, lol. I've been pretty darn busy with the burrito for a while - not a food-related burrito, the baby. Yeah, it figures he'd have a bunch of food-related nicknames.
SO, the first thing I've actually made in a while that I haven't made before/doesn't involve a box is...
COOKIES!
How did you guess it would be a baked good?
This December was my first time making two types of cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms and Thumbprints. I've had the Thumbprints bookmarked for a while to be made, but the PB ones were a special request from hubs. They were made for the cookie exchange at work, and were received pretty well. I thought the thumbprints could've used a bit more sugar. Or, I should have put more sugar in the nut topping that I rolled them in. Anywho, the thumbprints were better. Go fig!
Also - I got a brand spankin new nikon lens for my D40 from Santa, so pictures to come should be freakin spectacular. Only thing I'm missing is a giant light!
Peanut Butter Blossoms
courtesy Hershey, founder of all things good. Like me. The recipe is on their website, and it's more fun than mine, so I'm not gonna c&p it here - the only change is that I used room-temp butter instead of shortening, because, well, shortening grosses me out. No, I've never made biscuits, and of course, I'd use shortening for those. Now move along, self-righteous shortening devotees.
Thumbprints
courtesy Martha, natch.
Makes about 3 dozen.
Ingredients:
* 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 large egg, separated
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
* 1/2 cup jam, or preserves
Notes: I doubled the recipe, and used both apricot and black raspberry jelly, and also used almonds for the apricot ones, but pecans for the black raspberry ones.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and 1/2 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla; beat well. Whisk together flour and salt, and add to mixture, beating on low until combined.
2. In a small food processor, combine almonds with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and process until almonds are finely ground. In a small bowl, lightly beat egg white. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Dip in egg white, then in almond-and-sugar mixture. Place balls on parchment-lined baking sheet. Make a deep indentation in the center of each ball with your finger or bottom of a thick wooden spoon.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press down the centers again. Fill the center of each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of jam. Rotate sheets, and bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes more. Remove from oven, and place on a wire rack to cool.
These came out really well, but the black rasp jelly did run over in a couple. The apricot stayed together a bit better. Next time, I might splurge on the black rasp jam with fruit instead of the jelly kind. Also - I will make sure I mix the nuts and sugar better before I dip the cookies. I used my coffee bean grinder to chop the nuts as I didn't want to clean the whole darn food processor. And also, the processor may still have been dirty from last week's mac and cheese. Oh, I have to post that recipe too, gar.
PB Blossoms:
Thumbprints:
SO, the first thing I've actually made in a while that I haven't made before/doesn't involve a box is...
COOKIES!
How did you guess it would be a baked good?
This December was my first time making two types of cookies, Peanut Butter Blossoms and Thumbprints. I've had the Thumbprints bookmarked for a while to be made, but the PB ones were a special request from hubs. They were made for the cookie exchange at work, and were received pretty well. I thought the thumbprints could've used a bit more sugar. Or, I should have put more sugar in the nut topping that I rolled them in. Anywho, the thumbprints were better. Go fig!
Also - I got a brand spankin new nikon lens for my D40 from Santa, so pictures to come should be freakin spectacular. Only thing I'm missing is a giant light!
Peanut Butter Blossoms
courtesy Hershey, founder of all things good. Like me. The recipe is on their website, and it's more fun than mine, so I'm not gonna c&p it here - the only change is that I used room-temp butter instead of shortening, because, well, shortening grosses me out. No, I've never made biscuits, and of course, I'd use shortening for those. Now move along, self-righteous shortening devotees.
Thumbprints
courtesy Martha, natch.
Makes about 3 dozen.
Ingredients:
* 1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 large egg, separated
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
* 1/2 cup jam, or preserves
Notes: I doubled the recipe, and used both apricot and black raspberry jelly, and also used almonds for the apricot ones, but pecans for the black raspberry ones.
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and 1/2 cup sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolk and vanilla; beat well. Whisk together flour and salt, and add to mixture, beating on low until combined.
2. In a small food processor, combine almonds with remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, and process until almonds are finely ground. In a small bowl, lightly beat egg white. Form dough into 1-inch balls. Dip in egg white, then in almond-and-sugar mixture. Place balls on parchment-lined baking sheet. Make a deep indentation in the center of each ball with your finger or bottom of a thick wooden spoon.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press down the centers again. Fill the center of each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of jam. Rotate sheets, and bake until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes more. Remove from oven, and place on a wire rack to cool.
These came out really well, but the black rasp jelly did run over in a couple. The apricot stayed together a bit better. Next time, I might splurge on the black rasp jam with fruit instead of the jelly kind. Also - I will make sure I mix the nuts and sugar better before I dip the cookies. I used my coffee bean grinder to chop the nuts as I didn't want to clean the whole darn food processor. And also, the processor may still have been dirty from last week's mac and cheese. Oh, I have to post that recipe too, gar.
PB Blossoms:
Thumbprints:
 |
| a really bad phone picture, but you get the idea. |
Saturday, December 25, 2010
ok, I'll admit.
It was a pretty superb Christmas. (say it again Lucas...Su. Perb.)
Except for the burrito being sick, of course. It has now been a grand total of 4 times he has thrown up in the past 3 days, and the night is still young. It's just a baby cold, but he can't get the mucus out, so he ends up coughing so much that he vomits. Not cool, especially when I'd just spent an insane amount of time getting him to take half the dropper of baby tylenol without spitting it out (we now have orange burp cloths), and when I'm trying to keep the current pair of jeans on for at least three hours.
here's the burrito in his new Abominable jacket:
and here is my Christmas present from burrito: (I know, cell phone pic, sucks, but our cameras are currently still at the in-laws) It's a necklace with a foot charm (I love me some baby feets), with Ben's name and birthdate and his birthstone, a sapphire.
I also got: a remote car starter, a new lens for my camera (which means super close pics of the burrito now, which will drive my husband bonkers - at least it won't all be dogs and food this time!), a new work outfit, lots of gift cards, some clothes for the burrito, a new kitchen tool, lots of Burt's Bees stuff, and chocolate, of course. : ) It was an absolutely fantastic Christmas, and it was so nice to be able to do it as a family this year. Last year sucked big time. This year, almost perfect. It feels nice to be...somewhat normal.
Except for the burrito being sick, of course. It has now been a grand total of 4 times he has thrown up in the past 3 days, and the night is still young. It's just a baby cold, but he can't get the mucus out, so he ends up coughing so much that he vomits. Not cool, especially when I'd just spent an insane amount of time getting him to take half the dropper of baby tylenol without spitting it out (we now have orange burp cloths), and when I'm trying to keep the current pair of jeans on for at least three hours.
here's the burrito in his new Abominable jacket:
and here is my Christmas present from burrito: (I know, cell phone pic, sucks, but our cameras are currently still at the in-laws) It's a necklace with a foot charm (I love me some baby feets), with Ben's name and birthdate and his birthstone, a sapphire.
I also got: a remote car starter, a new lens for my camera (which means super close pics of the burrito now, which will drive my husband bonkers - at least it won't all be dogs and food this time!), a new work outfit, lots of gift cards, some clothes for the burrito, a new kitchen tool, lots of Burt's Bees stuff, and chocolate, of course. : ) It was an absolutely fantastic Christmas, and it was so nice to be able to do it as a family this year. Last year sucked big time. This year, almost perfect. It feels nice to be...somewhat normal.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Baby Cold.
Dislike.
Burrito started a little while ago with a stuffy nose, and yesterday it escalated into a full-on runny nose, complete with coughing. Such coughing, in fact, that he actually vomited twice yesterday morning. Thankfully, not on ma's work clothes. He seemed fine after he got all the mucous (and some milk) out, so we took him to daycare.
The coughing? May have gotten a little worse. I was supposed to go to a meeting last night but elected to stay home so I could nurse him as much as he wanted, which was A Lot. Lot. He coughed when he was upset pretty much, so we tried to keep him as calm and content as possible.
He woke up at 330am, after hubs and I went down to see the eclipse (looked like a big orange moon with dark parts and light parts, folks), probably because he heard us talking. Nursed, coughed a little more, was tormented by thenasal aspirator boogie-sucker, coughed a bit more, then went back to sleep with his pac.
Woke again at 640, which is when hubs rolled over to ask me when I was getting up. I'm thinking he stirs when he hears his voice, because I've talked to him before and nada. So we nursed then as well, and handed off to daddy for burping while I got a shower. Apparently he enjoyed that, because he spit up all over daddy, lol. Attacked him with the boogie-sucker a few more times, then packed him up for daycare.
I let them know that his cold was a little worse, and that he liked being upright so that his mucous wouldn't clog him up and make him cough. I also told them where his boogie-sucker was in his bag so they could attack him as well. She informed me that there were respiratory things and ear infections going around, so be sure to watch for signs of that too. Greeaaaaat. I feel so bad for the kid. I was sick last week, so I can't help thinking this has something to do with his cold. I'm drinking my oj and popping my PNVs, so hopefully keeping myself "well" will help him too. Because I can't stand baby coughs!
Burrito started a little while ago with a stuffy nose, and yesterday it escalated into a full-on runny nose, complete with coughing. Such coughing, in fact, that he actually vomited twice yesterday morning. Thankfully, not on ma's work clothes. He seemed fine after he got all the mucous (and some milk) out, so we took him to daycare.
The coughing? May have gotten a little worse. I was supposed to go to a meeting last night but elected to stay home so I could nurse him as much as he wanted, which was A Lot. Lot. He coughed when he was upset pretty much, so we tried to keep him as calm and content as possible.
He woke up at 330am, after hubs and I went down to see the eclipse (looked like a big orange moon with dark parts and light parts, folks), probably because he heard us talking. Nursed, coughed a little more, was tormented by the
Woke again at 640, which is when hubs rolled over to ask me when I was getting up. I'm thinking he stirs when he hears his voice, because I've talked to him before and nada. So we nursed then as well, and handed off to daddy for burping while I got a shower. Apparently he enjoyed that, because he spit up all over daddy, lol. Attacked him with the boogie-sucker a few more times, then packed him up for daycare.
I let them know that his cold was a little worse, and that he liked being upright so that his mucous wouldn't clog him up and make him cough. I also told them where his boogie-sucker was in his bag so they could attack him as well. She informed me that there were respiratory things and ear infections going around, so be sure to watch for signs of that too. Greeaaaaat. I feel so bad for the kid. I was sick last week, so I can't help thinking this has something to do with his cold. I'm drinking my oj and popping my PNVs, so hopefully keeping myself "well" will help him too. Because I can't stand baby coughs!
this past week's happenings
We had a wonderful weekend. I actually had a fabulous weekend, a better one than I've had in a while. Here's some stuff we did this past week/weekend:
- dressed the burrito in some fabulous outfits; I'll have to get a better pic of him in his fantastic new (well, old really) hat and mittens. It's the best thing ever, baby hats.
- accomplished the Christmas pics!
- hubs started my car every. single. day. so the burrito and I would have a warm car. and cause it's buttasscold in PA. suck.
- burrito found the toys on his swing tray yesterday! had no idea what to do with them, but they moved. and he's still trying to figure out what that thing making them move was.
- he found his feet on Tuesday. lolz
- had a wonderful counseling session this weekend.
- went to see a Christmas skit at church.
- that's all I can think of right now, more to come later!
Countdown to Cmas: 5 days.
- dressed the burrito in some fabulous outfits; I'll have to get a better pic of him in his fantastic new (well, old really) hat and mittens. It's the best thing ever, baby hats.
- accomplished the Christmas pics!
- hubs started my car every. single. day. so the burrito and I would have a warm car. and cause it's buttasscold in PA. suck.
- burrito found the toys on his swing tray yesterday! had no idea what to do with them, but they moved. and he's still trying to figure out what that thing making them move was.
- he found his feet on Tuesday. lolz
- had a wonderful counseling session this weekend.
- went to see a Christmas skit at church.
- that's all I can think of right now, more to come later!
Countdown to Cmas: 5 days.
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