Hello!

Hope everyone had a great weekend:) Our’s has been fun. I love having Momma here.  Yesterday, for her birthday, we took Momma out to lunch then we went to the Painted Penguin:) We lovelovelove the Painted Penguin. When Paul’s parents were here, we took them there as well:)  If you aren’t familiar with it, you go and pick out a piece of ceramic and paint it:)  While our pieces dried, we did a little shopping.  Yesterday, we took Momma to Ikea for her very first Ikea experience:) Can I say how much I love that place?  We even ate lunch at their little cafe and was impressed – good and cheap.  Afterwards was ballet with Sarah and swim with MyMatthew;)  I’m sure Momma is worn out but still have a full week ahead!

The other night, I made fettuccine. Sarah and I about made ourselves sick. It’s not a light dish by any means.  I hope yall will give it a try Enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

12 oz fettuccine

3/4 cups butter (1  1/2 sticks)

1 cup whipping cream

1/4 tsp pepper

2 cups Parmesan (Don’t use the green shake stuff – use as fresh as possible:)

1 tsp cornstarch

2 T. parsley and chives (chopped into small pieces – I use my kitchen shears)

HERE’S What You Do:

Boil your fettuccine noodles in salted water.

For the sauce – melt your butter in a medium sauce pan.  Whisk in your whipping cream and pepper. Stir often until the mixture becomes thickened. It doesn’t take long.  Gradually stir in your parmesan and cook until it’s melted.  Whisk in the cornstarch and stir until slightly thickened – about 3ish minutes.

Drain the pasta and  add it to the cheese sauce. Serve it up with more Parmesan and sprinkle with chives and parsley:)

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Momma;)

I’m so happy to have her up here for her birthday again this year:)  Aunt Kathy, Martha and Bob came over tonight for pizza, salad and birthday cake.  Afterwards, Paul and I snuck off into the family room to watch the LSU vs Florida game and let the ‘grown ups’ talk;)  What a game! Edge of your eat once more:)  Tomorrow (Sunday) is actually Momma’s birthday. Hopefully it’ll be a nice day for her:)  Everyone really enjoyed this cake. The fresh whipped cream really makes it.  I didn’t have long toothpicks for the cake. Definitely need them so make sure you grab some at the store if you don’t have them. The top is all “slidey”.  Enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whipped Cream:

2 cups Heavy whipping cream

2/3 C. sugar

1/2 T. vanilla

Red Raspberry Jam – stirred up really well

powdered sugar

HERE’S What You Do:

Bring your butter to room temp and cream it really well.

Add your egg, sour cream and vanilla - beat well.

In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking soda, powder, sugar and salt. Mix well and add a bit at a time to your butter/sour cream.

Mix well

Grease your cake pans and pour batter evenly into each of them. Drop on the counter a couple of times to get the air bubbles out. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.

Once your cake is out of the oven and completely cooled - whip your cream, sugar and vanilla.

Generously, spread your whipping cream on the bottom cake layer.

Next, slather on the Raspberry Jam.

Place top layer on. Insert your long toothpicks into the cake to keep the top from sliding. Cover with a heavy sprinkling of powder sugar:) SOOoooOOoo YuM!!

Good morning:)  Off to take an accounting test this morning so this is a fast one.  I made Chicken Kiev last night and it was SO good!! Sarah got to try a bit of it and she said she it’s the best thing she’s ever eaten:) Well, I don’t know if it is really true but it was good:) I even got the Paul seal of approval:)  It did take me a while but I think it was worth it.  The pictures are a bit on the dark side, horrible lighting in my kitchen. Oh and one last thing, these were huge, so I think next time, Paul and I will split one!   Enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

4 chicken breasts (flattened)

4  T. butter (softened)

1 T. chopped parsley

1 T. chopped chives

1 clove garlic (pressed)

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

flour (for dusting)

1 egg (beaten) + a splash of water

Italian breadcrumbs

HERE’S What You Do:

In a bowl mix your soft butter, parsley, chives, garlic, salt & pepper.

Divide into 4 and place in the refrigerator until it's chilled (No, not very pretty is it?:)

***Meanwhile, flatten your chicken out. I put mine in a freezer bag and pounded it out to 1/4 inch thick.

In the center of each chicken breast, place one of the dollops of butter. Enclose completely and secure with toothpicks.

Dush lightly with flour.

Dip in egg and roll in Italian bread crumbs.

Place in a oven safe dish that has been Pam'd:) Bake, covered, at 350 F for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake another 15 minutes.

I made mashed potatoes to go along with it:) Yum!

What a fun weekend:)  I hate to see it come to an end. Paul and I took SareBear to see The Lion King yesterday:) She loved it:) We saw it a few years back but wanted to take her this time. I forgot some of the bits of it so it was just as wonderful the second time:)  Afterwards, we went to Grand Lux Cafe then did a little shopping at Marshall Fields (Yes, I know it’s Macy’s now but I still can’t accept it).  Today, we took the kids and a friend to see the “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole”.  What a good movie. Jamie and Matthew both have read the books. I think they were a little disappointed but still liked the movie. They are still learning that the book is always better than the movie in these cases. They showed a trailer for the new Harry Potter movie. SOOooOOooo looking forward to that one:)  I told Paul that we need to have a HP Marathon right before we go to see the new one (and need to re-read the book:).  I read an article just yesterday that JK Rowling hasn’t ruled out another HP book:) YaY!!:)  So anyway:)

I made this next recipe today actually:) I’ve been meaning to make it for a couple of weeks.  It comes from our extended family in Cyprus (my sister-in-law’s mom and dad:).  I really liked them. I served them with buttered egg noodles.

Mr. Bryan said, “Can be served/eaten hot or cold with or without other vegetables as a starter or main meal, also excellent to take on picknicks. We find with mashed potatoes excellent. We also find vegetable cooking oil best to our taste, and as with all simple recipes quantities can be adjusted to individual tastes.”

I modified the recipe a little because I didn’t have 3/4 kilo (1.6 pounds) of pork. I only had a tad over a pound.  So I will show my adjustments:)

Give it a try:) Enjoy!!

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

3/4 kilo minced pork meat. (1.1 pounds)
1 cup of grated potatoes. (2/3 C.)
1/2 cup of bread crumbs. (1/3 C.)
1/2 cup of finely chopped onion. (1/3 C.)
1 egg.
salt and pepper to taste.

HERE’S What You Do:

In a bowl, combine your meat, potatoes, onions, bread crumbs, eggs and seasoning.

Combine and knead until well mixed. Cover and set aside for about 30 minutes.

In a skillet, heat your oil and fry your meatballs on all sides until they are done through. Can I TELL YOU how good these smell while they are cooking?!?!;) Remove and drain on paper towel.

Serve with potatoes or buttered noodles:) Very very yum:) Thanks Mr Bryan and Mrs Harri!!

It’s Friday!! YaY!!!

What a busy week. Paul and I went into Downtown on Wednesday with Sarah’s class. They are studying Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities in Social Studies so they took a field trip:) I was really surprised that there were kids that had not been on a train nor had some of them been Downtown. I guess the later surprises me most since we are so close.  Paul and I went with Matthew’s class when they did it in 3rd grade. It’s a flying trip, but it was fun:) Between this, class and the kids after-school obligations, hasn’t left me with a lot of spare time. However, I did make crumpets on Tuesday:)  So that’s today’s recipe:)

Today’s recipe is from my good friend, Steph in Nebraska:)  She has recently begun a foodie blog  called Mmmm Good. She and her daughter, Shannon, blogged about these crumpets last month so I had to give them a try. Man are they nice when they are right off the griddle or even toasted the next day!  Even though Sarah and I really enjoyed them, I’m going to try to freeze them next time because I got 10 out of the batch.  Steph has 2 different recipes for crumpets. This is the one she recommended to me – so glad you did Chickie!! They are lovely;) Hope everyone will give it a try. What a nice treat for breakfast!  Enjoy!;)

OK, HERE’S What You Need:

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)
2 teaspoons sugar
2/3 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

HERE’S What You Do:

In your big mixing bowl, combine your yeast, sugar and warm water. Stir it up a bit and let it set for a few minutes (Steph says about 5 minutes). It should get kinda puffy. Then, add your milk, (2 T) butter and egg. Mix that up well. Add the flour and salt next and beat it until smooth. It's thick and kinda sticky at this point.

Cover and set aside. Let it rise until it's double in size.

Heat your griddle up and melt your butter. You will need some sort of metal rings for this and if you don't have round cookie cutters or biscuit cutters, Steph's daughter came up with the mason jar rings:) Pretty darn smart! I put them in a bowl and sprayed them down well with Pam. Place them on the griddle. Be careful because they heat up fast!!

Fill each of the rings 3/4 full with crumpet batter. It'll puff up so don't fill them completely. You'll probably hear a sizzle when you put the batter in the rings:) Love that sizzle:)

After just a couple of minutes, with a pair of tongs, carefully remove your rings from each of the crumpets. Let them continue to cook until the underneath side is golden brown. When you go to turn them over, do so gently because you don't want them to splat and be bigger on one side than the other.

Continue cooking until both sides are golden and done through.

Slice in half, serve straight from the griddle with your favorite jelly or jam (because by now, you aren't going to want to wait until the next morning!:) Oh, and definitely have one the next morning toasted:) YuM!!!!:)