quick and easy

Thai Coconut Soup

My parents came up from Round Rock to visit for a day on their way to Oklahoma City.  They also came to drop off my amazing Swedish truck!  I am not quite sure where to put it yet.  It’s one of the biggest pieces in our house other than our bed and the couch which makes the options for placement a bit limited.

trunk

There is no rhyme or reason to our house.  I have some modern, some traditional, and some antique furniture and decor.  The problem is that I love certain things about all those styles.  While I dream of a house that would embarrass the homes in Dwell, I know that day will never come.  I am OK with that.  A lot of what we have has been given to me from my mom or Ben’s mom, and I can’t imagine replacing it with anything.  So, welcome to my hodge podge home.

While my mom was here we got pedicures and then went to the store to get ingredients for dinner.  One of the other things my mom brought to me was a wok that I’d bought for $7.99 at IKEA last weekend.  It’s not the best quality piece of cookware I own, but I still wanted to use it.  I decided to make a chicken stir fry and coconut soup.

stirfry

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Easy Mac and Cheese with Chicken

There is something to be said for Kraft Mac and Cheese.  That’s right.  I said it.  Come on people.  You know you love it.  It’s the cheesiest and it doesn’t stick to your cookware like real cheese does.  I honestly and truly like, and sometimes I even crave the unnatural orange colored pasta dish in its blue box of goodness.  However, there are times when a girl needs to eat mac and cheese made from scratch.  This macaroni and cheese recipe comes from the Better Homes and Gardens website.

mac14

I loved the crunchy breadcrumbs on top of this dish.  The sauteed onions and garlic mixed with tomato paste give the sauce a richer flavor that is more than just milk and cheese.  I used 2% milk and half swiss, half sharp cheddar with a great resulting flavor.  I cooked the chicken in chunks, but ended up kind of shredding it into smaller pieces before adding it to the cheese.  The recipe calls for penne or similar pasta, but I used traditional elbow macaroni.

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Dinner Rush: Greek Burgers with Tomato Jam

Over the past few week we have eaten burgers more than once a week.  I know.  Not exactly health food.  We did make them ourselves and tried some pretty different combinations of flavors.  These Greek burgers were the first in our series of burgers, and I thought they were delicious.  I love feta cheese, so the presence of that ingredient alone in the meat mixture had be smitten even while the meat was raw, but don’t worry, I did not do any taste testing until after they were cooked.

greekburger1

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First Days and the Start of a Beautiful Friendship…Bread

My Amish Friendship Bread on Foodista

I survived my first 2 days with 6th graders.  I realized that I’ve kinda missed teaching.  I didn’t miss staying at school for 11 hours, getting home after 6pm, sitting down and realizing just how exhausting it can be to be on your feet all day, well, except for a 25 minute lunch.  That’s right 25 minutes.  All of you office people out there who enjoy hour lunch breaks where you get to eat at a real restaurant with waiters and such should be thankful.  And on those days where you have to have a quick lunch, think of the teachers out there who don’t ever get to leave the building they work in for lunch.

Sorry!  I forgot this wasn’t about self pity,  but about Amish Friendship Bread.  I wish I knew these kids…they look so very friendly.

Amish_Children

Photo courtesy of hiddenvalleys.com

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Lazy Sunday: Coconut, Oatmeal, Toffee Chocolate No Bake Cookies

These little “cookies” are pretty tasty and incredibly easy to make.  Since these cookies are ball shaped they reminded me more of a truffle and less of a cookie.  From start to finish, including the 30 minutes chilling time, these were ready in less than an hour.  Pretty close to instant gratification.  I used a 2 1/2 quart saucepan and it was big enough to do all the melting and mixing so clean up was a breeze.  Well, we are dealing with melted marshmallow, butter and chocolate so clean up isn’t really a “breeze” but it’s just one sticky pan, not half a dozen, like some recipes require.  So it isn’t too bad.  Great for a lazy day when I want to do a little cleaning as possible.

The cookies on the left were just scooped, the center cookies were scooped, then rolled between my palms, and the far right were rolled in my palms then in coconut.

nobakes

The combination of flavors and textures is terrific.  The sweetener in these candies/cookies is marshmallow instead of the usual white sugar typical in no-bake cookies like this.  The oats make the cookies hearty, the coconut gives them a nice chew, and the toffee pieces add a nice crunch.  So, if you need a sweet fix and you’re not in the mood to bake a batch of cookies, try these.

Coconut, Oatmeal, Toffee Chocolate No Bake Cookies

  • 6 ounces chopped milk or semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 16 large marshmallows
  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup flaked coconut
  • 1/2 cup toffee pieces
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  1. Melt butter, chocolate and marshmallows over low heat in a saucepan (or you can use a double boiler).  Stir until mixture is smooth, 5-10 minutes.  Remove from the heat.
  2. Mix in in peanut butter, vanilla.  Stir in coconut, oats and toffee pieces until well combined.
  3. Scoop by tablespoons onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet.  Optional: You can roll the mixture into smooth balls and then roll the balls in coconut or toffee pieces for a fancier looking cookie.
  4. Chill the cookies for 30 minutes, then serve.

Buttermilk Cakes

I made SmittenKitchen’s raspberry buttermilk cake a few weeks ago.  The cake was so lovely that I decided to try it with some different additions.  Since I had blueberries, half a bag of raw blanched almonds and a tube of almond paste already on hand…that’s what I used.  The other ingredients in the cake are readily accessible in a bakers kitchen; 1 egg, 1/2 stick butter, sugar, flour, buttermilk (You can make your own!) baking soda, powder, salt and sugar.  Easy.

blueberry2Buttermilk Cake #1

The first cake I made was a blueberry almond cake and it was, in my opinion, incredibly delicious.  Tart and juicy blueberries in a sweet, tender and moist cake with crunchy almond paste crumbs on top.  The blueberries sank into the batter as it baked, but the almond paste stayed on top so it was able to get a little brown and crunchy.  I sprinkled regular granulated sugar on top as well.  I did not use lemon zest in the cake.  I thought it might not combine well with the almond, but it would probably be great.

I get so worried about overcomplicating a dish that I tend toward simple flavors and fairly normal ingredients.  If you want something crazy, make this.  It grosses me out a bit, but my 7th grade Texas History teacher, Mr. Dennis, made this for us as a Christmas treat when I was in his class, and it was good…so maybe Velveeta cheese is better for more than Cheater Queso?  If you’d like to make a bit more work of your queso…try this. After reading this post and drooling on my keyboard, I might have to try it as well.

Back to buttermilk…the possibilities are endless with this cake.  This recipe is definitely one I will be experimenting with.  It lends itself to fruit additions perfectly, but I would be willing to try chocolate pieces and various nuts as well.  Pecans and walnuts would be tasty.

Buttermilk Cake #2

I absolutely love almond, so next I tried a cake with chopped almonds in the batter and a sprinkle of the almond paste on top as I did this last time.  I used 1/3 white and 1/3 brown sugar in this cake, 2 ounces of chopped toasted almonds in the batter and about 2 ounces of crumbled almond paste on top.

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