Italian Fries - from Mad Hungry

Remember when I posted about Mad Hungry the new tv show spinoff from Martha Stewart?
Have you tried any of the recipes?

I tried her Italian Oven Fries.

YUM!!

The kids loved them!

These take a little time (mainly oven time), but they are easy and worth the wait.

What was the best tip?

She soaks the fries in cold water, then dries them a bit before putting them on the baking sheet. This helps them crisp up well, by extracting the starch.
She also sprinkles italian cheese, coats with olive oil and dabs with butter....mmm!

Of course she has a blog with links to all her recipes check it out here!

Blogs

Have you heard of a book-azine?

I first heard about Matthew Mead

and his Holiday Book-azine on the

Mary Englebriet blog.

I love Mary Englebriet!

Big Fan!

Wish the Magazine would come back but it looks like that will not happen.

She mentioned this holiday book-azine, and

Mary Englebriet has something featured in it!

It is only sold on-line and I am very tempted to purchase it!

Mary Englebriet also mentioned something else I had never heard of an "e-zine".

Basically it is a magazine on the computer.

Amy Powers has issued an e-zine called Inspired Ideas.

Her blog is called inspire co. and can be found here.

Here is the cover of her fall e-zine. You can look at it page by page here.

The Christmas edition just came out too! You can view it here.

This issue is over 130 pages! It has contributions from other craft bloggers,

and projects for the holidays. The pictures are great! And there

is probably at least one craft idea you will come away with.

A "book-azine" an "e-zine" who knew!

Fall -- Apple Cider Recipe!

Look what I picked from my garden just yesterday!

Not bad for the end of October! Fall is here!

And it seems that this time of year is always busy.

School is in full swing.

We are getting ready for the holidays!

(I would have uploaded more pictures but I am having some technical difficulties.)

I would like to share a recipe for Apple Cider.

It is a family favorite this time of year.

It makes the house smell great!

And it warms you up.

Perfect for Halloween night after trick-or-treating.

Hot Apple Cider

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 quarts apple juice

1 t. whole allspice

1-1/2 t. whole cloves

2 sticks cinnamon sticks

Put brown sugar and apple juice in crock pot (if you don't have a crock pot just put it in a pot on your stovetop.) Add spices, if desired wrap whole spices in a cheescloth. Cover and cook on low 2 to 8 hours in crock pot. On stove top bring to a simmer and it will be ready in approx 45 min.

I reuse the dried spices....you can just keep adding more juice and brown sugar as needed.

Happy Fall!

Random Update

I have not posted in AWHILE!

What have I been up to?

Nothing too exciting...

just keeping up with the everyday stuff.

Kids, kids activities, cooking, cleaning, organizing.

Thinking about all the projects I WANT to do, but not making to0 much progress.

I will have to correct that.

The next two weeks the big kids are on fall break.

Ellie is off this week.

What do we have planned?

Well, Ben went here with his Academic Decathalon team.

Do you recognize the skyline?

I have never visited this city...just the airport.

It is Chicago. He left yesterday and will be back on Saturday.

I am sure he will have lots of fun!

Madeline and I will be going to San Francisco for a quick over night visit.

We definitely plan to go here. We also have reservations for Alcatraz.

We also want to hit Union Square, Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown, ride a cable car...

I think we will have plenty to do.

I finally got brave enough to trim "E"'s hair!
It had grown very long!
She has only had one trim...
before she turned a year old.
Her hair was turning quite green on the ends.
We were calling it mermaid hair.
I may need to have someone fix it up in a few weeks...

But, I think it went pretty good for MY first hair cut!

Yesterday we went to what has become Ellie 's favorite place.

The New Children's Museum in San Diego.

She really wanted to bring her big sister (unfortunatley I did not take any pictures of her yesterday :(

They have this really cool rainbow tunnel jumpy that has become her favorite!!

She would have nothing to do with it the first visit.

There are many other fun things to do there...

very focused on hands on art, there is a rain house,

a rock wall, clay, chalk, paint, chariots....lots of fun, not your typical museum.

Have great day!

New Show --- "Mad Hungry"!

Have you heard of the new show Mad Hungry?

It is part of the Martha Stewart entourage

but don't let that turn you off!

(I know some of you are not Martha fans, I for one do like her for the most part. I like to dvr her show that way I can skip the segments that do not interest me but I digress.)

Lucinda Quinn is the author of the book Mad Hungry.

It came out last year or maybe early this year.

She has been on the Martha show many times, and is one of the hosts of Everyday Food.

Now she has her own show which began on Monday.

It airs on the Hallmark Channel that is 343 for Cox Cable Viewers in San Diego.

Her emphasis is family dinners, and she even has her "boys" in the kitchen with her.

Yesterday she made a great Flat Roast Chicken you can find the recipe HERE.

It looked easy, and because it was flat it is a little faster than roasting a chicken.

Today she made these great bagel sandwiches you can find the directions HERE.

She had a good tip for bacon.

She cooks a big batch in the oven. Then freezes it, and wraps it individually, that way you

can pull a piece of bacon out to put in your sandwich without having to actually cook the

bacon everytime....it is already PREpared beforehand.

Doesn't that look yum!

Let me know if you check out her show!!

I think it has potential for some good recipes and tips.

Pretend Play...

"E" is proving to be my best "pretend" player!

She cracks us up everyday!

Most recently she wanted a guitar!

So I quickly put together a paper towel holder, a shoe box and some rubberbands!

And guess what?

She loves it!

(I didn't even do a very good job...I was in the middle of making dinner.)

She wants to take it with her everywhere!

She took it to Sports Authority and "strummed" some songs for the employees.

Grandma picked this flapper costume up for her for Halloween.

It doesn't look like she likes it does it?

This is her chef's costume my friend Wendy got her last year for her birthday!

She still wears it all the time!

This picture was taken just last week.

Her older sister has gotten involved and they have gotten creative in coming up with costumes, but my teenager would not be too happy if I posted those...they are pretty funny!!

Weekend ....birthday and a garden invasion

We celebrated a birthday this weekend!

Here is the "birthday boy" enjoying the backyard living room with a beverage.

Notice the blanket...yes it was a little cool in San Diego this weekend especially at night.

We made homemade barbeque pizzas!

A Chocolate Cream Pie from Hans and Harry's!!
(I usually make something but my oven is broken!)

We also had a garden invasion!!

Can you see the culprit!

No it is not "E"

You can see it better here!

Tomato Worms!

Yuck!

I hand plucked over 20 of these guys!

I looked it up on the internet...

they turn into large moths the size of hummingbirds!

Gross!

So we bought some safe spray...and I will start vigilant supervision of the garden!

Hope you had a good weekend!

Photo

Last weekend we were in Del Mar

and there was a lady doing a photo session with a family.

"E" asked, "can she take my picture?"

She said yes and took this cute photo of "E".

She told me she would post in on her blog petite feet and there it was.

You can see her blog here. Maybe we need to get some professional photos done?

True Friends...

"M" has some good friends!

As you may recall she recently got her braces removed!

Monday, she received her retainers!

Tuesday at the end of lunch she realized

they were in the trash at the middle school!

Yikes!

What did her two good friends do?

You guessed it ...

They were right there with her digging through the trash!!

And they found both retainers!!

Thanks Girls!!!

Summer is Here!!

OK Summer was supposed to start in June...I know.

But, really in San Diego it just started this week!

Yeah!

So we have been enjoying the pool!

"E" is getting braver!

And, "M" got her braces off!!

Look at those pearly whites!

Have a good weekend!

First Day of School Traditions....

Do you have a first day of school tradition?

I think many people take a first day of school picture!

Our tradition is to take it in front of the door.

(This was started by my mom.)

Why you may ask? It gives a gage of how much they have grown.

We have been doing this every year.

These pictures were taken in 2004...then 5th and 2nd graders! There is always the group shot!

The individual shots!

I really like it if you can see the doorknob because that is a good marker, but sometimes I forget about this in our rush to get out the door. (Madeline really wanted a jumper for the first day of school that year...we looked high and low!...memories)

Now look what happened to them 6 years later.....

11th grade, 8th grade and preschool!!

The kids are big now!

But, they appease me!

They know the drill!

Stand in front of the door, smile and they can be on their way!

This was "E's" official first day of school!

She was eager to carry on the tradition!!

Homemade Popsicles!!!

Remember when I showed you this book?

Well I finally made my first batch of popsicles using one of their recipes.

Meyer Lemon Creme! "E" and I put them together in the morning.

And the girls enjoyed them when "big sister" came

home from school!

I finally bought these 3oz. plastic cups at Target.

80 for either $2 or $3.

The beauty is they can be washed and reused.

(I am not reusing popsicle sticks for some reason

that seems yucky!)

This recipe was super easy.....

"M" thought they tasted like a lemon cheesecake!

Lemon Myer Cream
(William Sonoma Cookbook)

1TBSP Meyer Lemon Zest
3/4 c Meyer Lemon Juice
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt

Now let me stop here and say I did improvise.
I did not have Meyer Lemons!
So I cheated I used Minute Maid Lemon Juice straight from the bottle!
No Zest!
Still Delicious!

Mix above ingredients in a bowl until well blended.
Pour into ice pop molds and freeze until solid.

(Note: insert popsicle sticks about an hour in
if you are using poor man's method that way
they will stand up.)

Enjoy!

Overripe Fruit Tip!

Overripe Fruit!

In my house once the bananas look like this nobody will eat them.

So what do we do with them?

Smoothies.

Banana Bread!

But, sometimes or often times when you realize the bananas are past their prime

you don't have time to make the banana bread.

My tip?....Peel 'em, Bag'em, Freeze'em! I also freeze strawberries.

Sometimes when they begin to have some brown spots,

nobody wants to eat them fresh anymore...

into a smoothie

or

wash, cut the tops off and freeze individually on a cookie sheet.

Once frozen they pop off easily and I put them in a ziploc.

This way you can use what you want, and not have one frozen blob.)

One more idea for the bananas!

I defrost the bananas on the counter.....

they turn brown, and juicy and are quite unsightly at this point

(not pictured)

pop them right into your banana bread mixture

nobody will know the difference and the bread/muffins will taste great.

The same can be done for any berry.

Blueberries, boysenberries buy them when their cheap.

Eat what you can.

Freeze the rest!

Remember the most expensive food is the food that goes into the trash!!

Have a great weekend!

Honey Sesame Grilled Chicken Wings--A Keeper!

First let me start by saying I love magazines!! I subscribe to many, and tend to keep them for quite sometime. One of my favorite things about many of the magazines I subscribe to is finding new recipes, I am always looking for dinner ideas.

Last night I made these Honey Sesame Grilled Chicken Wings from the July 2010 issue of Sunset. Interestingly enough as I pulled up the recipe on the internet for this post the same recipe was posted in their June 2008 issue, can you say recycling? Nevertheless it is a great recipe you can find it here.

Picture from Sunset Website

Everyone in the family, from the 16 year old to the nearly 3 year old LOVED it!! It is not always easy to please everyone's palate but this did just that. I doubled the recipe, and served it with steamed rice, and steamed broccoli and carrots. Lots of compliments from the kids on this dinner....when the kids like one of the new recipes I try we call it A Keeper. And this is A Keeper.

As a side note I skipped a step and did not cut the wings apart at the joint, let's just say cutting apart 4 lbs of wings was too time consuming...call me lazy, or maybe efficient, I like the sound of that better!

Enjoy!

Have you seen this?

One of my favorite things to do is cook, bake ...eat!! One of my favorite stores is Williams Sonoma. This is not to say I buy much there because I do find it a bit expensive but I do like to pop in and browse around. On Monday I saw this new "machine" it makes Popsicles in 7-9 minutes!!! Can you imagine? Talk about instant gratification for the kids..(and me). You freeze this apparatus, poor your liquid mixture in and in 7-9 minutes a Popsicle!

The ladies at the store suggested you get make adult versions too....can you say margarita or sangria Popsicles that would be good on a hot evening!!

They also had this great recipe book! With many interesting flavor ideas....

Blackberry-Orange Sangria

Raspberry-Chocolate

Cookies and Cream

Meyer Lemon Cream (sampled this in the store delicious)

Mimosa

Strawberry-Vanilla Swirl

Watermelon-LimeSo this is what I settled on the recipe book!

Heading to Target for low budget Popsicle molds, perhaps

something as simple as dixie cups and sticks.

We will just have to have patience.

Have a great day!