The Brie Stuffed Mushrooms were delicious! Since tomorrow is my birthday, I will not be cooking and I am going outlet shopping with my aunt this weekend so I guess I am taking a three day weekend. Everybody have a great weekend and remember....

Happy Eating!

Tomorrows recipe will be Mushrooms Stuffed with Brie. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/11/mushrooms-stuffed-with-brie/

This was suggested by a very good friend. Thanks Martha! If it doesn't work out I am sending hubby to her house for dinner :-}

I am looking forward to next week as we have a freezer full of beef and I am hoping to find new, creative ways to fix it. (You can only eat so much Hamburger Helper before it starts to get old)

Happy Eating!

OH MY CHEEZITS!! That Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie is delicious!! Hubby loved it. He said our daughter is going to be mad at me because I made it when she wasn't home. I will have to make it again, soon, because he is going to tell her all about it. Thank you Pioneer Woman. I have battled the Kryptonite and won!!!

Happy Eating!

I am going to take on the Kryptonite! Tonight I will be making Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/06/another-pie/

Hubby loves my chocolate peanut butter cookies, so I am hoping he at least likes this, or that I, at least, don't screw it up. It looks tasty and I am not as crazy about chocolate and peanut butter as he is so I should be safe. If I am going to be eating a lot this next year, I have to make sure and plump him up!

Happy Eating!

Very yummy! Hubby did request a little less pepper next time, made us sweat a little, but the overall flavor was darn good. I really like the spicy bbq sauce with the mildness of the pasta. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, or if I would like it, but I will make this again.

If I find a recipe tonight for tomorrow, I will post, if not I will let you all know in the morning.

Happy Eating!

Tonight we will be having BBQ Spaghetti. Recipe courtesy The Bar-B-Q Shop http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bbq-with-bobby-flay/bbq-spaghetti-recipe/index.html

Hubby loves bbq and he loves spaghetti, so today I will combine the two! I have heard of bbq spaghetti a lot and am looking forward to putting this together. I will let you all know how it turns out.

Happy Eating!

The salad was great! Couple of things that weren't quite right with it. Hubby picked up regular yogurt instead of Greek (no luck finding it at Food 4 Less). The tang of the Greek, I think, would have done wonders for the dressing, but it wasn't bad. Also, he couldn't find fresh tarragon at Food 4 Less and got dried. Again, not horrible, but I think the fresh would have been better. I really liked all of the flavors. The radish, the bell pepper, the cucumbers, and the potatoes worked great together.

After a long day, I was totally transformed and relaxed once I started putting it all together. I will do a little research tonight, not to the point of falling asleep at the computer again, and hopefully come up with something interesting for tomorrow. If I don't find it tonight, I will look in the morning and let you all know.

Happy Eating!!

Had a great weekend with the family doing nothing but being lazy, laughing and talking. Now, back to better cooking! Tonights recipe is Spring Chicken Salad. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spring-chicken-salad-recipe/index.html

I am very excited about this because it calls for making your own dressing, which I have never done. It should a beautiful sunny day today, so I think this salad with a nice glass of Vinho Verde should be delicious, light, and fabulous.

Happy Eating!

Taking the weekend off from cooking. Actually, there are way too many left overs in the fridge that we need to get through. Have a great weekend everyone. Happy Eating!

The bacon was a success. The Holiday Bacon Bites were ok. They did look like the picture and the house did smell amazing. The looks of love from my child and husband came from them walking into the kitchen as I was frying the half a pack of bacon I had left from putting together the appetizers. I was teasing them telling them the appetizers would be ready in two hours and the rest of the bacon would be used for breakfast. My daughter said, "You can not tease us like that! It is not right to make bacon right in front of us and then say we can't have any!!"

I asked Tate to finish frying the bacon and, Toni and I sat on the counter while he did. That was the absolute best part of the day! The three of us in the kitchen enjoying the smell of bacon, talking about our day, and laughing together. I love bacon!!

Today is Friday and there are always teenagers in the house on Friday night, so my recipe today will be Holiday Bacon Appetizers http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/flashback_1981_-_holiday_bacon_appetizers/ This is from The Pioneer Woman website and sounded tasty. The fact that I will probably have a house full of teens and I have had a 50% failure rate so far, helped me choose this recipe. It is very simple, but my family LOVES bacon. I don't make it very often and one day I was frying up some bacon for blt's and my husband came home early. The look of pure love on his face was amazing. He said I was the perfect woman for having bacon frying when he got home from work. The effect on my daughter is almost the same.

Happy Eating!

I am filled with disgust and I have no one to blame but myself. Tonights dessert was a complete disaster! I think it is karma coming to bite me in the butt. I was trying to take the easy way out by doing desserts thinking to myself "how hard can they be? You can make cookies like a pro, desserts will be easy" WRONG!! I am only on the fourth day and I already have a 50% failure rate. Wait, I am only on the fourth day, so maybe I should give myself a little bit of a break. The two dishes that were extremely successful, I thought I would totally screw up. Maybe I was a little cocky in the dessert category and didn't put as much time and love into my cooking. I was stressed putting tonights dessert together and I didn't enjoy it as much as I did last nights baked mac 'n cheese. I am thinking it is time for an attitude adjustment in the kitchen. I think, too, I will stay away from desserts for a little while. I will serve ice cream if the family needs something sweet after a meal for a little while so that I can rebuild my confidence and hopefully one day I can conquer dessert.

Dessert has become my kryptonite!!

I am off to look for a recipe for tomorrow. Happy Eating!!

Found the recipe! I did fall asleep sitting at the computer looking for it last night and was given a ton of grief by the hubby. First, I was talking to the computer when I was looking for recipes, mind you the computer wasn't talking back so I am not crazy - yet. Then I fell asleep while searching for the recipe I had already decided to do. Anyway, the recipe is Apple Crostata with Caramel Sauce http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/apple-crostata-with-caramel-sauce/1136af80f466-4956-9dea-0138807fe48a

I mainly chose this one because I have all of the ingredients here at home. Last night I was thinking "I don't want to go to the grocery store - again!" I know I will have to go to the store again, but really didn't feel up to doing it again so soon. I have been there every day this week. I know it is only Thursday, but it might be time for me to learn how to plan at least a little bit ahead with my recipes.

Happy Eating!

I have decided tomorrow will be a dessert...panic is setting in, but I will overcome this, I hope! Since we have a ton of left over tri tip, I am going to make some burritos or tacos and since I cannot find a recipe for either burritos, or tacos, that calls for left over tri tip, I will make a dessert. My plan is, after all, to try a "new" recipe every day that I am home.

The recipe I will be making tomorrow is an apple dessert. I will find and post info on where it is as I forgot to leave that window open when I opened this one, so I have no idea where the darn thing is. Be back soon!

OH MY CHEEZITS!! I LOVE Baked Macaroni and Cheese. It tastes nothing like that stuff that comes in a box and went fantastic with the very spicy tri-tip. Everyone had seconds. This recipe was a hit for sure. I had a really stressful day today and when I got home I started putting all of the ingredients together and by the time it was ready to go in the oven, I was completely stress free! This whole cooking thing might actually be a good idea. I will do a little research tonight and decide which recipe to use tomorrow. Happy Eating!!

Day three and I am very excited about todays recipe. I have decided to make Baked Macaroni and Cheese, recipe courtesy Alton Brown. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html I have always wanted to make baked mac and cheese so I am very excited about it. I think it will go great with the tri-tip as long as it turns out like it is supposed to. I think I will do a little salad with it as well so we aren't eating just a whole bunch of artery clogging goodies! Happy Eating!

uggh...tonights dessert was not too great. It was from http://easy-french-food.com and was called Tarte choco-poire. Basically it was a chocolate pear tart. Definitely not one of my proudest moments when it came time to serve it. I was very dissappointed in how it turned out. Toni didn't even try it, but Tate was a trooper. I will not let it discourage me. Tomorrow I am going to make a side dish to go with tri-tip that I have thawing in the fridge. The tri-tip is preseasoned and came from Trader Joe's so I won't be blogging about that, but I will be searching for some sort of side dish to go with it. I hope that I can keep myself motivated and continue with my adventure. Happy eating everyone (or just my one follower)!

Well, this is day two. My daughter decided we should get Wendy's for dinner tonight, not because she hated what I made last night, but because she has been craving it. Tonight I will make a dessert. My reasoning for creating this blog is so that I will not give up on this. I am determined to learn some new skills in the kitchen. Since I don't want torture my family and we do have things that we already enjoy eating (they love cheddar dog night), I decided that as long as it is a new recipe - main course, appetizer, side, dessert, etc. - that would work for my plan. I am going to figure out a way to keep all of the recipes I use and maybe make myself a book at the end of the year to see all that I learned. I am very excited about this and even if nobody ever reads this, I think it will be great for me.

Well, here we go. I have never been a great cook, so after watching the movie "Julie & Julia", I was inspired to try something. I am going to try a new recipe every day that I am home. It doesn't matter if we get take out, or my husband cooks, or our daughter cooks, or we have leftovers, I will try a new recipe-appetizers, desserts, side dishes, main courses. It may not be 365 recipes as I am not always home, but it will be an adventure. I started tonight. I made a "Weekday Cassolet" courtesy of Melissa D'Arabian who currenty hosts 10 dollar dinners with Melissa D'Arabian. My family absolutely loved it. I was a little worried that I would screw something up and it would be horrible, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I guess I should explain a little bit about why I decided to take on this adventure. My mother and grandmother are/were excellent cooks. My grandmother has passed, but I love my memories of her feeding so many people at her house, and never being stressed if one more showed up! She was amazing. Her fried chicken was so delicious and always was prepared with love and always made me laugh. My grandmother wore glasses and had a habbit of pushing them up by placing her thumb and index finger on the inside, upper portion of the lenses, regardless of what was on her fingers. On fried chicken day, she always had to little circles of flour on her glasses. One of my most fond memories of such a loving person.

Now my mother, she can prepare a feast made for kings! She has never had any professional training, but is, by far, one of the most talented chefs I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. She, too, does not get stressed by an extra person showing up for a meal. Her culinary skills are amazing to me.

I, on the other hand, have not inherited the wonderful skills in the kitchen that both my mother and grandmother possess/possessed. My brother did. I am pretty much a sad case in the kitchen, but I have been doing my best to improve my skills. This blog, hopefully, will keep me on task and learning something new every day in the kitchen that I am home.

I will maintain this blog for 365 days and hope to learn a lot!