Pear Crisps

If you like cooked pears and crisp you'll love how this tastes and how easy it is to make.
Unfortunatley I do not like cooked pears or crisp.
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Bon Appétit



Recipe Links
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/?s=pear+crisps&submit=

Apple Berry Pie

For Thanksgiving I decided I'd attempt a homemade pie for the first time. I assumed it'd be easier than it looked... I WAS WRONG.
It is harder than looks, much much much harder. It is inconcievably hard, ridiculously hard, so hard diamonds look soft. (Diamonds are incredibly hard in case you didn't know.)

First you make the dough, (easy enough) leave it in the fridge for 15-30 minutes because it molds easier if cold and then take it out and proceed to roll. Now the tricky thing with rolling dough is you don't want to end up sprinkling to much flour, apparently it makes bad things happen, and lets face it that stuff is sticky so your CONSTANTLY sprinkling flour. To avoid this I read a suggestion to put the ball of dough on a cookie sheet, and then roll. Three hours later (not exagerating)I was covered in flour and dough, not to mention my hands had permanently assumed what I like to call the "roll position". My dough was cracking and breaking and sticking.

Pretty much everything you DON'T want it to do.

However, I was not yet ready to admit defeat. I reread the recipe and realized the suggestion was to put the dough BETWEEN TWO cookie sheets and then roll, occasionally pulling up the sheet to unstick.
Ya tried it, guess how long it took...15 MINUTES. That's it.
But I wasn't even mad, just incredibly happy that I had finally rolled out the damn dough. I imagine during my celabratory victory dance I looked something like this.

For the filling I just combined apples, strawberries, blackberries and sugar then filled the pie, dotted with butter and topped with the crust and some decorative crust-cut leaf things.

And after I took my masterpiece out of the oven.

Oh yeah.

Bon Appétit




Recipe Links
Pie Crust

Thanskgiving Meal

My thanksgiving meal was a succes, a HUGE succes!(Cue large crowds of cheering fans.)
There's nothing more satisfying than the "mmmm's" and "ahhh's" of people enjoying the food you, let's face it, slaved over for the past 3 days.
Blood, sweat, and tears, that's my secret ingredient.

Gross mental image.

Anywho, I'd like to apologize in advance for the pictures, or lack there of. But my guests were crowding around the kitchen with crazed looks in their eyes and forks in their hands. I risked death just to snap this one for you and I'm lucky I escaped with my life.

(From left, back row to front row.)
homemade pomegranate cranberry sauce, refried beans, skillet cornbread, carved turkey, green bean casserole, corn, mashed potatoes, and mac & cheese.

Now lets talk for a minute about turkey brines. If you've never brined a turkey you need to, it makes your turkey deliciously moist BUT you really need to have a great brine recipe. Last year my brine recipe must have not had that star quality because my turkey wasn't as moist or flavorful as I would have liked. This year the turkey I roasted was the best turkey I have ever had, even four hours after it finished cooking! And I attribute it all to the brine. I tweeked The Pioneer Women's Turkey Brine recipe a bit and used...
orange peels, basil, pepper, a crap ton of sea salt, apple cider, and corriander boiled and then left to cool.
If your cooking a turkey this year for christmas, this brine is the only way to go!

Bon appétit





Recipe Links
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry Sauce
Macaroni & Cheese
Skillet Cornbread
Turkey Brine

Hello Again/Turkey Day

WOAH BLOG, long time no see.
Which is not my fault, we recently moved into a new apartment and didn't have internet for...
drum roll please...

SIX WEEKS.
yea, it was horrible.

But here we are reunited at long last!
And here's what is on my mind.
THANKSGIVING.

I'm so excited and dreading it at the same time, I've never made any of the dishes I'm cooking/baking before, and one of them involves a pie from scratch, including the crust. I'll be cooking for 3 days straight :/ but I kind of can't wait, new recipes are my favorite!

Six weeks of no internet and this is all I have to say?
Yep.

<3

Um, Ouch.

I just came to the realization that I get injured every time I cook.
Literally,
every
single
time.

I like to think it's because I'm so enthusiastic of a cook, but in reality I just do things like lay my hand ontop of the elment to see if it's hot,
or hold the blender by the spiny things,
or forget that ovens are hot after having used them,
or start cutting with the sharp side of the knife facing up where my finger coincidentally is.

I hurt but the food is so good.


I also just realized there was no point to this blog other than to point out the painfully obvious.
HA, no pun intended.

So um,
thanks for reading.

Frenchy Toast and the Buttery-est Blackberry Butter

As always, (can you say always after having only posted one recipe?) I am posting this recipe the way I made it so if you want the original I will post a link at the bottom!

Things you will need.
1.BUTTER!

2.Blackberries

3.Nailpolish (Although I personally suggest using this BEFORE you cook and take pictures.)
4.Eggs
5.Half & Half
6.The Juice of 1 Lemon
7.Vanilla
8.Sugar
9.Cinnamon & Nutmeg
10.Flour
11.Absolutley NO photography skills to speak of.
You'll just have to bear with me people.

Let's Get Started.
Step 1.
Put the butter in a bowl. Easy enough.

Step 2.
Become thoroughly confused by the blender for a few minutes before realizing where the on switch is. Then flip it not realizing your other hand was holding the blender by the spiny things.
Almost break your finger.

Hand held blender - 1
Finger - 0

Step 3.
Return, oven mit in hand, or on it in this case on hand, in hopes of preventing said injured finger.

Step 5. Blend butter until fluffy, then add blackberries.

and blend again

Hold on I'm trying to remember what comes next. Oh yeah

Step 6.
Lay down foil then plastic wrap ontop. Slop, yes I said slop...no need for formalities here, the blackerry butter ontop of the plastic wrap.

Step 7.
Take the plastic wrap and kind of roll the butter into a cylinder shape, then wrap the tinfoil around that and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes to solidfy. Take it out of the freezer and place in the fridge.
And voila!

Beautiful Blackberry Butter!
On a side note, whenever I say butter in this blog I say it with a French accent, you should definitley do the same...
Say it with me, BUTTER!

Step 8.
Slice some of your butter to top your frenchy toast with.

Then make some frenchy toast and top with the butter.

My finished product.

Bon Appétit

For the original recipe click these words.

Pasta with Tomatoe Cream Sauce

I have recently been inspired by one Pioneer Women. If you don't read her blog you should...seriously like go, now.
Anyway, I've been on a cooking craze trying recipe after deliciously decadent recipe.
My first attempt at being a master chef was her absolutley scrumptious Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce. My mouth is watering just remembering the taste, this will definitley be a go-to in my house for the rest of my life. (Though the length of that life is now debatable due to the large amounts of butter I've been consuming with these recipes...definitley worth the 10 years I just hacked off mercilessly with my butter knife.)
I'm blogging the recipe the way that I made it so if you want the original, I'll post a link to the page at the bottom.

So here we go!
Start by sauteing chopped onions and minced garlic in olive oil. I was feeling brave and added some dried red peppers for a little kick.

The smell is divine but try to resist sticking your face in your frying pan and slurping this down...I may or may not have attempted this with incredibly disastrous results.

After the onions start to turn a beautiful golden color add in two cans of tomato sauce and let that simmer on low heat for a good 30 minutes. Oh yea if your like me and you forgot to add in the pinch of sugar go ahead and do that too.
Then slowly pour in the heavy cream

Now stir that around until everything is orange and beautiful. Then throw in some freshly grated paremsan and stir...on second thought go ahead and throw in a lot. Chop up some fresh basil and throw that in as well, along with some salt and peppa!
(Obviously you should have been cooking your noodles this entire time and obviously I should have said that at the beggining. Make sure to save some of the water your noodles cooked in to thin out your sauce if needed!)
Then drain your noodles, mix them with the sauce, and serve!
Or eat it all yourself!
Right out of the pot!
It'll be utterly delish either way I'm sure.

Drum roll please!
Here is my finished product with my home made bite size garlic bread!



Visit the Pioneer Women's blog for more delicious recipes!
And here's the link for her Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce

Bon Appétit

Save A Life Today

There is so much in our lives that we take for granted,food, water, clothing, things that other people are not fortunate enough to have. East Africa is facing their worst drought in 60 years and an estimated 800,000 children could die from the lack of food and water.
I know these pictures are hard to see, that's it's easier to just turn away because this doesn't directly effect us but these children need our help. To learn more about how East Africa is suffering and to find out where to donate go to the link...
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/newsroom/somalia-famine--how-to-help.html
Or go to yahoo's homepage and click "How to help East Africa."

Inspired

Child Book Memories

Growing up I read books like I eat. For those of you who know me you are aware that means at practically an exponential rate. They were my salvation, an escape from my life into something wonderful. EVery book is a new world, new friends, new enemies, new loves and new adventures.
My love for reading has never lessened and I'd like to pay tribute to the books that touched me as a child and have stayed with me as an adult.

Alice in Wonderland

"Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision."

"There's a large mustard-mine near here. And the moral of that is -- The more there is of mine, the less there is of yours."

The Little Prince

“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”

""The proof that the little prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists."

A Wrinkle In Time

"Nothing is hopeless; we must hope for everything"

""It seemed to travel with her, to sweep her aloft in the power of song, so that she was moving in glory among the stars, and for a moment she, too, felt that the words Darkness and Light had no meaning, and only this melody was real."

The Chronicles of Narnia

“He’ll be coming and going...One day you’ll see him and another you won’t. He doesn’t like being tied down-and of course he has other countries to attend to. It’s quite all right. He’ll often drop in. Only you musn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

"In our world," said Eustace, "a star is a huge ball of flaming gas."
Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of."

tattoos, tattoos, tattoos

I'm totally obsessed. I love them. Love to look at em, so I thought I'd share some favorite.

Swallow Tattoo

I absolutley love these!

Spirit of a Swallow

I am a big believer in signs. I feel like it's one of the many ways God chooses to communicate with us.
That being said, yesterday we were almost hit by a tornado...IN GERMANY.
I woke up to a call from my mother telling me to get in the basement because there were tornado warnings being issued.

Naturally, I ran outside to see.

Not actually expecting to see anything, I found myself utterly delighted and suprised at the funnel cloud that was dropping from the sky. It was rotating ominously as I excitedly ran up the street to get a better view.
I would have expected everything to be chaos, cars honking, babies crying, people screaming in various languages... the usual sounds that seem to prelude a natural disaster. But everything was completley still. No birds, no people, and absolutley no breeze.
I lifted my eyes to pray to God that the tornado would actually touch down and right at that very moment a swallow flew over me.
A SWALLOW!

I realize that to most people this may seem incredibly ordinary, but not to me. I have alway loved birds and everything they symbolize and had just recently decided to get a tattoo of a barn swallow on my back. However, I have never actually seen one in real life, until now! Coincidence? I think not!

To my dismay the tornado never did actually touch down but God seems to be pleased with the plans for my tattoo, so all in all it was a successful day!

Thoughts of today

Our life is fragile...

Compared to the earth, the planets, the stars our lives are practically nonexistent. We are born and within the blink of an eye we are gone, as if we were never here.
The only reminants of the past civilizations who have lived before us are piles of rubble and dust; Our buildings of wood and stone long outlive the hands who build them. However, this does not diminish the importance of our invdividual lives, quiet the contrary.
Like a flower, that blooms only once for a few small minutes before withering away, our lives our beautiful because they are fleeting.


We must take chances,
risk everything,
change,
believe,
love.

We must live.