Back from the dead!

Howdy Howdy! I am back and cooking again! These last 2 weeks have been quite a busy slur! We had a session of classes finish at the office, a short seminar, and the beginning of a new session all in the midst of being sick and re-occurrence of my back issues but all in the world is calm once more. 

Today I will share with you, not an actual food eating thing but I decided to go with a little different vibe for the ladies that check out my blog. Today I bring to you, *drum roll* beauty products using only things you can find in your kitchen! 

I know it sounds lame but these things work wonders for your skin and whats even better? They are cheap! 

Ok so here we go:

First up is my personal favorite. Avocado and honey face mask! Now, sounds sticky and gross but your skin will feel amazing afterwards. You take an avocado and mash it up and add about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of honey to it and spread it all over your face, leave it for 15 minutes then rinse it off and feel the wonderful softness it leaves behind! ALSO! If you want you can just rub honey on your face, a little bit stickier but it works wonders as well. 

Next on my list is baking soda micro scrub. All you need it baking soda and water. Wet your face to where it is dripping then rub a little baking soda onto your skin and it will clean out all those yucky blackheads that always show up. It does wonders for your pores. It will sting a bit but it really works! After about 5 minutes rinse it off and dry your face. 

Last on my list is a really important one. Store bought astringents to close your pores have so many chemicals that can burn your skin and eyes. One really simple one you can use is lemon juice and water! Mix about a tablespoon of lemon juice to a tablespoon of water and rub on your face with a cotton ball. It will leave your face feeling fresh. 

That is all I have for you guys today but stay tuned! I have a really yummy banana chocolate cupcake recipe as well as my once a week challenge blog in the making already!

Happy Eating! 

Amy

Zesty Chiken

Alright there is ,yet again, a story behind this recipe. 

I had late class one night and my sweet brother offered to cook dinner for my sister and I and just send it home with us in containers. Well what he made was awesome! So I wanted to try to recreate it! What this is...is not what he made...it was my attempt at it. Oh but did it turn out awesome! 

So, this is an Amy Murrell original recipe! Discovered when attempting to match another recipe from memory. (grin) 

Here we go! 

There are your ingredients! A1 Steak sauce, Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, Tarragon  Marjoram, Thyme, Rosemary  and Chicken! Not too hard right? Right! 

I cut the chicken up in cube/spears (Just cut them in cubes, they only turned into spears because I cut weird!) then combined all the sauces together in a bowl and let the chicken marinate in the sauce for about 15-20 minutes. 

When the 20 minutes passed by, I added the herbs into the bowl and mixed it around with my hands (ewwww). After washing my hands thoroughly, in a frying pan I some oil in the pan and heated it up. When it was as hot as I wanted I added the entire bowl of chicken, sauce and all. I covered it and let it go for about 10 minutes before turning the meat. I let it go for about 15 more minutes then removed the covering and let it simmer for about 5 more minutes. By this time...the house smelled amazing! 

Once it was done, we ate it with rice and, man oh man, was it delicious. Sara gave it a 5 star again! Win! 

As promised the recipe:

2-3 Large Chicken breasts

4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

4 Tablespoons A1 steak sauce

3 Tablespoons Oyster sauce

1 teaspoon Tarragon

1 teaspoon Marjoram

1 teaspoon Thyme

1 teaspoon Rosemary

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Cut up chicken and set aside. In large mixing bowl add all sauces and mix well. Once mixed, add chicken to bowl and mix till chicken is coated and let stand for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add herbs and mix well. In frying pan, heat olive oil. Add meat and cover for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes flip meat and allow to cook for 15 more minutes then uncover. Let simmer for 5 more minutes then remove from heat. Enjoy!

Happy Eating!

Amy

Crinkles Crinkles Crinkles!

Hello! I am back from the dead! Well I obviously wasn't really dead, just disappeared from the blog world for a little bit. Real life was a little bit overwhelming to manage both!
But I am back with quite a blog too! 
Before I get into the actual blog though, I will give a little update on my way of doing things on here. It was suggested to me by my wonderful sister that I should go ahead and include my recipes in my blogs so, drum roll please, from this moment forth, my recipes will be at the end of every blog! Ok, now to begin. 
It all started like this...A dear friend of mine had a problem...a very big problem...A crinkle problem! What that means is she was pretty much obsessed with the idea of eating crinkles. It got to the point where every time I said goodbye to her I would say, "Bye!" and she would reply, "Crinkles!" We were talking one day and I mentioned how I have a cooking blog and wanted to try something with baking that I have never done. You should have seen the look on her face when she heard those words come out of my mouth! Her face lit up and she ran up to me repeating over and over again, "Crinkles!". So thanks to this wonderfully obsessed chikka, Today I am blogging about my Crinkles Experience.  
Now crinkles are pretty simple to make, they just take a while to make. They only have a few ingredients but the thing that takes the time is they must chill for at least  hours before you bake them.  This is because if you want the "crinkle effect", which is that cracked look that they have, they must be cold when you put them in the oven.

I decided to try the FIRST time when I didn't have exactly what I needed...notice the word first...this thing took 2 tries! I mixed in all the ingredients but realized before that I had no baking chocolate. So, what did this brilliant chef in training do? I used a substitute! I substituted the chocolate with unsweetened cocoa and oil. Mistake...It does not do the trick. I mixed everything together and let it chill over night and the next day tried to bake it. I told my sister, "I am just going to make 1 batch and then try it and see if it is actually good then if it is, then I will make the rest." Long story short...I only made 1 batch. They tasted like dirt...or what I imagine dirt tasting like. So what did I do? The next day I went to the store and got the chocolate I needed, tried again and got it perfectly right! 

I was so excited because I remember how hard it was to make them during Christmas helping mom in the kitchen. I was plesantly surprised when I made them and it was super simple! I mixed everything together, let it chill, rolled them into balls, rolled the balls in powdered sugar, put them on the cookie sheet then BAM!

Perfect crinkles! :) They looked beautiful! I definitely suggest trying these! I got the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (Here is a link to their super amazing online recipe section!). The recipe goes as follows:

4  Eggs
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (the white kind :D)
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
Powdered sugar

directions

1.In a large bowl, combine eggs, granulated sugar, melted chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined, scraping side of bowl occasionally. Gradually beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill for 2 to 24 hours or until dough is easy to handle.

2.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet; set aside. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl. Shape one portion of dough into 1/2-inch balls. Shape the remaining portion of dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar to coat generously. Place balls 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.

3.Bake small cookies in the preheated oven about 8 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry. Bake large cookies about 10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry. Do not overbake cookies. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. (Cookies will deflate slightly upon cooling.) Makes about about 72 small and 36 large cookies.

Happy eating! 
Amy

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Nail art on a food blog?

As most of you already know I am a fan of nail art! I have a sister that does amazing nail art herself! In fact I had a post specifically about that recently. Well Once again I am stepping outside of my usual posts and posting about digits again but this time it is a give away by a very talented nail blogger!
GnarlyGnails is having a give away because so many people follow her! Woohoo! Go check her blog and website out! Her giveaway like is also here! So go check it out!

Bloglovin!

Woohoo! I have bloglovin! :D I have to claim my blog somehow. I have so many blogs to post just no time to sit down and write them down right now. Stay tuned for a flood once again! Keep cooking!
Happy eating! 
Amy

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4893543/?claim=agmbuzw95vk">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a> 

Let's take a break for a moment!

Hello everyone! So I know that this is a food blog but guess who else has a blog??? My fabulous sister Rachael! She does amazing nail art! Super elegant and beautiful nail art! Her blog is called "The Nailinator"! Clever! You should check it out here!
Well this week she joined a nail art challenge on Facebook :) Everyone needs to see this manicure! It has a super elegant Navajoe/tribal vibe. Take a look right here. If you just so happen to like the nails, like the picture too! It is a challenge after all :D!
Go vote! :)

I took a break this week from cooking so far because we have been so busy! Please bear with me. I promise I will cook and post this week sometime!
Happy Eating!
Amy

1st Weekly Challenge :D

After arriving home from the office Sara and I were trying to figure out what to do for dinner and neither of us wanted to go out to get any groceries so I came up with a new weekly challenge for me!
Here is how it goes...you make dinner...with what ever you have in the house! Unoriginal? Yes I know. Cheesy? Just a bit but oh boy was it fun!
I am proud to say that this brand new challenge for tonight earned me a 4.5 star and Sara's only complaint was that the potatoes could have been a bit softer. In my defense...I knew they would be but I was so hungry!
Anywho, as usual, I shall explain. My ingredients were beef broth, tenderloin (pork, of course :D), carrots, potatoes, soy sauce, oyster sauce, corn starch, garlic annnnd flour. All very common things in my house!
When I started, I looked in the cabinet and I saw mixed veggies and thought...I could do something with that...then I realized, nah! I decided to not go with a CAN of veggies when I saw I had a fresh carrot and potatoes! That is like sacrilegious to use a can of vegetables when you have fresh ones! (juuuust playing) After I decided I was going to use the fresh vegetables instead I saw frozen chicken and frozen tenderloin. I could have used either of them...The deciding factor? The tenderloin was not as solidly frozen! Ha!

Here is how it goes together. Cut up all the veggies and meat and set all of it aside and make the sauce first. In a small bowl add beef broth, soy sauce, and oyster sauce then mix it up. Set that aside and in a bigger bowl, add some beef broth, the meat, corn starch and flour and mix it up. A lot like you do for the sweet and sour pork. This batter is a lot thicker though. Once that is mixed up, fry it in oil.

Once it is all fried, set it aside and add a small bit oil in the bottom of a pan, add veggies and garlic. Stir around for a bit then add the sauce mix, cover then let steam for a bit. Stir now and then so it doesn't burn but leave covered for as long as you can so the potatoes get soft.

After about 20 minutes, add the meat and let simmer for about 10 minutes, thicken the sauce with corn starch! And there you have it! A 4.5 star recipe that tool less than an hour to come up with! I was so hungry that I almost forgot to take a picture of the final product! Thankfully there was some left over (:D)

I really enjoyed the "challenge" aspect of this meal. I used no recipe and had no planning ahead involved. On the spot creations! Yay! I encourage you all to get in the kitchen and try this challenge now and then!
Happy Eating!
Amy

Pork with Broccoli

I decided tonight to try something I have never tried all the way from scratch. It is a play on "Beef with Broccoli" but since beef is so expensive over here, I used pork. I tried this before using a seasoning packet from the grocery but this time, I was determined to get it all on my own. (With the exception of Sara helping me cut the meat because we were short on time! She is wonderful!)
I had to wait for Sara to get back from a grocery run before really getting into everything with the cooking for this one so I started out with cutting up the garlic and making the sauce for this stuff. Like the last recipe I used a recipe for inspiration but ended up diverting away from it almost completely by the end of it. The sauce had oyster sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and chicken broth in it. Super easy to mix. No catches. By the time I was done with this Sara was back with the meat, broccoli annnnnd...the onion...
Me and onions...we have a history. All I have ever done to an onion is cook it and love what it does to my food. With all of this love I have given it, you know what it does to repay me? Every time? Regardless of the circumstances? Makes me cry like a little girl! I have tried everything from chewing gum, cutting it under running water (big mistake by the way) to even trying the wearing goggles! It always gets me!
This time it waited till I was sauteing it to attack!

I decided not to put a picture of me crying on here for fear of scaring you guys away (just kidding :D). I sauteed the onions and garlic in olive oil (or sesame oil) then set it all aside. The next step was the meat. You brown the meat and sprinkle however much salt and ginger you desire to have on it, on to the meat while it is browning. Then about half way through you put about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce in it and brown the rest of the way.

Once that is done you add the onions, garlic, broccoli and the sauce then you cover it and let the heat steam the veggies into the wonderful tenderness we all know and love in beef with broccoli. Once that is done you add a little corn starch to thicken the sauce then it is yours to consume.

I had quite the group of critics tonight. One of the critics was this little cutie! My niece Lily <3

After dinner was done, all the consumers (how official sounding) gave it a 5 star! I think I am on a roll here y'all! 3 for 3!
Let me know if you want my recipe!
Happy eating!
Amy

Pork Stew!

After a long day at the office cleaning and organizing yesterday, Sara and I were trying to decide what to do for dinner and I said, "Hey! I can make something to blog about!" So I did! I took 2 "stew" recipes and did what I do best :P. I Frankenstiened them!
I got this new wonderful app on my iPod called "What's for Dinner?". Basically it takes all the well known apps and combines them! You can search for a single ingredient and it pops up all sorts of 4-5 star rated recipes! You can also do meal planning if that is what you are wanting but it is an all around cool app. If you are interested you can find it here in the app store.
Anyway, the recipes I took it from pretty much were used as...inspiration. (Ha!) It took a lot more ingredients than I was really expecting but it was totally worth it.

I used the basic staples of stew (Broth, Potatoes, Carrots, Onion and some meat). I started it all out with cutting up the veggies.

It took a long time to get that all done which was really not what I was hoping for. You might notice I did not peel my potatoes. I never do! You cheat yourself out of so many good vitamins just from the skins. I just wash them and cut them. They are fantastic!
The next thing I did was I cut up the meat in cubes. I used tenderloin again because it is my favorite cut of pork. It is good for if you want an easy cut of meat you don't have to tenderize. I put it in my pan with some bay leaves and a bit of oil to make sure the meat didn't burn and browned the meat. Once it was browned I added my sauce. My sauce was just pork broth and Worcestershire sauce. Once that was mixed in I added the needed sugar, paprika, salt, pepper and ground cloves (believe it or not).

By this time...the house smelled...intense! I was already hungry so it made cooking hard. The recipe I was using said to take out the bay leaves but I decided to wait till after I was done to do that. Then it was time to add the veggies. After I got those in there it looked so pretty!

Then I just covered it and walked away...not entirely though. Had to come back and stir every now and them but it was suppose to come to "an intense boil" while it was cooking. It took about 30 minutes for the veggies to get tender and after they did I added the corn starch to thicken it to "Stewy thickness".

After that I let it go for about 10 more minutes then Sara and I feasted on this wonderful recipe of stew! She took a little taste of the soup and said, "If it tastes anything like the soup, you have another 5 star here." She then took a bite then held up 5 fingers nodding her head. This is a keeper recipe!

We had it with rice and, oh my my was it good. Like i said in the last blog, I am not shy to share my recipes so if you want it just ask!
Happy Eating!
Amy

Sweet and Sour Pork :)

Alright here we go! So last week I made my sister Rachael's favorite thing I make! Sweet and Sour Pork. This is originally a recipe from an old school Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from my mom but we have tweaked it to perfection.
Now here is how it happened for me this time.
After getting home from the office I was trying to decide what to make and so I got my "Dinner Spinner" app out and started looking. I looked for a good half hour and then just decided to go with something I knew!
I went to the grocery store and got what I needed.
When I got home I got right to work of cutting up my veggies. In my family, we like to "flower" our carrots.

Basically you cut 4 small groves in the carrot all around before chopping. After I got done with that I just set all the veggies aside and started on the meat. I am not a huge fan of cutting meat BUT, I got it done. I cut the pork tenderloin into cubes and set that aside. I then prepared the batter (Flour, cornstarch, and beef broth), the pans (Frying pan and larger pan for deep frying) and got all the other sauces (Soy sauce, vinegar, beef broth, and sugar) ready.

If you noticed, I really like having everything before hand. Makes things simple when you are starting to actually cook. Another thing I am not fond of is measuring stuff. I like to just estimate. I have cooked enough to know what a teaspoon of this and that look like :). I have not failed yet!
I started my oil for deep frying the meat and then began the dirty work! When you are cooking you have to be willing to get your hands dirty right? Well In this case you use your hands. (Wash them first please. We do not need any extra minerals :P)

Using my hands I mixed the batter onto the meat and then once the oil was ready I just put as much meat that could decently fit into the pan in the oil.

While this was going on, after getting the batter off my hands, in a frying pan, I put the oil, carrots, bell peppers and the garlic. I turned the fire on and start the cooking of the veggies. This smelled amazing by the way! I do not know about you but I love the smell of cooking bell peppers and of cooking garlic! Once they were tender I added the sauce into the pan.

Once I added the sauce I knew I was in business! It started to smell right! After it started simmering I added the meat and then I added the corn starch. It did not only smell amazing but it looked so great! I have done this recipe many times but it is still amazing when you get it right.

As we ate this wonderfully beautiful dish the "mmmm"'s and "yum"'s I was getting from the girls made me so happy!
I asked the girls to rate it for me 1 star being awful and 5 stars being amazing and without hesitation Sara said 5 and Rachael gave me a 20 out of 5 stars! :D How about that?!? I say this was a win!
This is a must try!
If you would like to try it tell me, I will give you the recipe and you can tell me how it turned out for you!
Happy eating!!!
Amy

Back from outer space!

Howdy howdy from my humble kitchen in Cebu! It has been far too long since I have been on here and blogged about anything, food or otherwise! A lot of stuff has been going on but thanks be to God all is well and I can get back to the cooking that I love! 

When I started this I was going through a couple of cookbooks but now that I am super blessed and have an iPod I have access to so so soooo many cooking apps. I really enjoy being able to view blogs and apps that have a reviews section! So what I will be doing is I will just pic a recipe from any form of cookbook and make it so (grin). I am notorious though for throwing my own twist into all the recipes I do. Just how I roll! 

Please feel free to comment or, if you feel so inclined, try them out yourself and tell me what you think. 

Happy cooking! 

REVIVAL!

It has been so terribly long since I have taken time out to write a cooking blog! I have decided however to revive it once again! Life has been keeping me very busy and continues to do so but I still take time to cook why not take time to write. :) Just because the blog stopped doesn't mean my aspirations of cooking did. I have continued to try many different things with cooking. Even tried some barbecuing! I shall enjoy being back into writing once again!
Happy eating!
Amy

Coconut Cream Pie :)

So I know it has been forever since I wrote but that doesn't mean I stopped cooking :D Over the holidays I decided that I was starting a new tradition for myself :) I am going to try to make a new pie or desert every holiday that we have a big dinner or lunch :) So this Christmas I tried out making a Coconut Cream Pie. I went out of the 2 cookbooks I was originally using. I used a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens cookbook :) It is a variant of the Vanila Cream Pie :) It calls for an obvious Pie shell :) For the filling it calls for egg yolks, corn starch, milk, butter, and vanila as well as 1 cup of flaked or desicated coconut :) I made this same pie twice :) First time it was me trying to see if I could do it and how good it was :) second was me just showing off ;) My dad said that there used to be a restaurant that used to make the best coconut cream pie that he has ever had. Well I tried to see if I could make it at least close to what it tasted like. Well the first and second time I made it I suceeded :) So I shall now elaborate on the fun actual making of the pie. It starts out with combining the sugar and cornstarch. I must say it was not very exciting at that point :P The next step is separating the yolks from the whites. In the filling you only use the yolks. You later use the whites for the meringue (deep breath :D) Anyway, you stick the sugar and cornstarch mix in a sauce pan :) Then you slowly mix in your milk. Once it heats up to a bubble. then you cook it for 2 minutes. After the 2 minutes remove from heat. It got so thick so fast lol. Well then you are suppose to take 1 cup of the mixture and add it to the egg yolks. Then you put it all back together and mix it up! So then the coconut comes into play. You then mix in the coconut. It sounds simple buuuuuut it is difficult to get it mix in right. Once you have that right then you just pour it into the pie shell :) Next is the part that EVERYONE I have ever talked to about meringue has said it is really hard to get it to work...well I went into all this with that in my head and was very surprised. I had so much fun with this :) The first time I did it I whipped my meringue by hand then the second time I did it using mom and dad's kitchenaid :) Well once I got it whipped up it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL if I did say so myself :) I put the meringue on top of the pie and sprinkled some coconut on top of it, popped it into the oven annnnnd when I took it out it was absolutely PERFECT! It was absolutely picture perfect. I was so amazed at how beautiful it was. I have never been so proud of something I made before. TWICE! I was so excited. I then proceeded to ask dad how it compared to the restaurant he liked before and he said it was just as good :D You can imagine just how happy I was. Anyway, it has been a while since I have made anything super note worthy but there shall be more to come!
Happy eating!
Amy :D

My pooooor laptop :(

This morning I woke up and turned on my computer and instead of it doing a normal boot up...it was accompanied by some smoke and an unsucessful boot up lol. So my blog sadly shall have to be postponed till my computer is fixed :) I once again apologized :)

SORRY!

I do in fact realize that I have not posted a blog in the past few days. I am technically late on my last recipe. But I think I am going to have to switch to 2 a week. Too much going on to do 3. After that last one I realized how much work it would take to keep up lol. I shall do my best to get 3 a week but I will for sure do 2 a week :)If you are reading this I would appreciate any and all feedback you have to offer :) Thank you for reading!
Happy eating!

Cinnamon Rolls!

Ok first off I would just like to say just how easy it is to misspell Cinnamon lol
Alrighty. Ingredients! We shall start with the Yummyness that goes on top :D It is called Confectioner's Frosting :D It has a looooot of Powdered sugar in it, then it is suppose to have half and half but I didn't have any so I improvised :D I used half coffee creamer and half milk :D (Don't judge :P) it also called for Vanilla :D (I love the smell of vanilla extract. So yummy!) Ok and for the actual Rolls. MILK! I got to drink a whole glass for myself as well :D Butter...lots of butter. Some sugar and salt. Then Yeast.............I hate yeast lol. WATER! Warm water to be exact. Very important for the yeast. Eggs. Rooooom temperature. No idea why but thats what it said. Vanilla <3 Flour...lots and lots and loooots of flour :P More Sugar! More Butter! And of course they wouldn't be CINNAMON ROLLS without Cinnamon :P
Alright so my baking adventure started at around 10pm or so :) The VERY FIRST instruction was, and I quote, "In a small sauce pan, SCALD, the milk over medium heat." I stood there for about 5 minutes thinking, "hmmmmm scald...scald...what does that even mean?" then I had an epiphany :D I continued to read :P "(See page 9)"...It is now that I shall encourage anyone who decides to try to do cooking like this...read ALL instructions! You will feel a lot less stupid in the long run <grin>. Ok so scald means to heat the milk to the point RIGHT before boiling. :P Simple as that. They could have just said that but nooooo :P they decided they wanted to make fun of us who are less fabulous with words and squish it into 1 word :P ANYWAY, Then once it is scalded :P add the butter sugar and salt then blend it together. Once it is blended remove it from the heat. Then...the horrible part lol...the yeast...It said while waiting for that other mixture to cool off a bit, (I am paraphrasing :P) in a small bowl sprinkle yeast over WARM water...not hot..not cold...not luke warm...WARM lol. Very important. But take it and stir and bled the water and yeast. At first I was like OH COOL! Yeast! So I stirred and stirred and stirred. Well then I got the bright idea to smell it cause it looked like it would be something that smelled good....WRONG! Wronger then wrong! So after I got done getting my sense of smell back :P I continued. It said to combine the 2 mixtures plus 2 cups of flour. So I did. Thanks to my wonderful mother I had an electric mixer to help me out. Then it got a tad bit more difficult. It told me to ditch the mixer and switch to a big spoon...It was so sad. For about 4 minutes I had it so easy lol. Anyway it said to take that big spoon and slowly stir in more flour until the dough wasn't touching the sides of the bowl anymore...in other words till it looks like bread dough. Then it said to put a towel over the bowl and let stand for 5 minutes. A CLEAN towel. This is important as well :D  THEN take the dough out of the bowl and knead for about 10 minutes...I tell you, 10 minutes of kneading is like lifting weights for 10 minutes lol :P But it said to knead it till it was smooth and like elastic. Then grease a pan really good and put the dough inside the pan...then flip it over and get the dough all greasy then cover the pan with a towel and let sit for 1-1 and a half hours...so I waited...10 minutes passed...then 30...then 50...then and hour...the 1 and a half...but sadly...the yeast didn't appear to be making the dough rise...I was so sad...so I left it sitting there...and another hour past and I kept glancing over at it frowning. But at about 2 hours later to my surprise it ACTUALLY started to rise! I got so excited. Sara was sitting in the living room and I went and was like, "Sara Sara Sara! It is RISING! YAY!" I am pretty positive it was annoying but I did it anyway lol. Anyway from then on it just rose and rose until aout 2 hours from when it actually started to rise it had doubled in size :D That was a pretty cool feeling. Going from thinking I messed up the yeast to it working beautifully :D So by that time I had decided ok this is going to have to wait till a few hours later because it was already 4AM! So I went to bed for a VERY short time and got up at around 6:30 and opened the cookbook and got started again. The next instruction was "Release all your anger that you built up last night starting this recipe out on the dough and punch it"…ok so maybe I am paraphrasing again. <grin> So it really said to "punch the dough down and knead it a little more" :D So I did as it directed. Then I was to cut the dough in half and roll the dough out in rectangle shapes…it was about this time that I remembered a small conversation I had with Sara the night before…
(Fades into yesterdays conversation with magical music) :D Sara was on the phone talking to Clint (My brother in law :D) and they were talking about Clint being a follower of my blog and how that gave him the right to be a taste tester of my Cinnamon rolls :) somehow that lead to the statement, "Uh oh! Amy you don't have a rolling pin…" To which I responded, "I have a tree outside I will just go out and rip a branch off and use that." Clint and Sara both laughed but were not to fond of the idea of "barky" cinnamon rolls. And so the conversation ended with no solution to the problem…(Fades back to the future *cue music from the movie*) Ok now it is just getting silly lol.
On a more serious not :) I was standing there with 2 balls of dough that needed to be rolled out and I was without a rolling pin. So I was looking around my kitchen thinking, "hmmmm what to use…what to use." Then something caught my eye. I found a glass bottle that was of ample size and shape for me to use as a rolling pin. I was so excited. I had no rolling pin but I had a bottle! Yay! So I successfully rolled out both balls of dough perfectly. Then I took some melted butter and coated 1 side of the dough with a thin layer of butter. Then I mixed ¾ cup of sugar and a table spoon of cinnamon and sprinkled the mixture on both of the rectangles and rolled them up in "Jelly Roll" fashion :D Then I decided to try my hand at a trick my mom taught me a long time ago. I took a piece of string and used it to cut the rolls into pieces :D It was pretty wonderful :) It turned out amazing :) It made 24 wonderfully PERFECT pieces in 1 pan :) So I put them in the oven for 20 minutes and they came out beautiful :)
Ah yes I almost forgot. The "yummyness sauce" for the top! Yes…that is what I decided to call it :) It took a buuuunch of powdered sugar, like I said earlier. Then I put milk, vanilla and some creamer and mixed it all up (with my wonderful electric hand mixer) till it was all wonderful and smooth and PRESTO! You have the "yummyness sauce"…and when I say yummyness…I mean YUMMYNESS! It was so hard not to just try eating the sauce while waiting for the rolls to get done. I assure you Sara can attest to that :)
So after the rolls had gotten out of the oven and cooled to where there were just warm…I drowned them in the "yummyness sauce" and let is melt into the little crevices and such and then let the topping kinda crystallize a bit but then I cut them apart and ate one and it was at that moment :) alllllll the frustration and heart ache that the yeast gave me the night before were gone :) It all became worth it. It was a warm yummy sweet cinnamony cinnamon roll that I made and I was soooo proud :D It was really good! It was hard to make but so worth the time. I definitely won't be making them very often that is for sure but not because they weren't good :) Just because of the effort it took to make them :)
Now for my rating…I give it a perfect 6! Like I mentioned in my previous post I am going by a 1-5 (and occasional 6) scale. The 6…yeah that is "FANTABULOUS!" :D
My next dish shall be a bit scary for me cause I am not sure how it shall work but stay tuned for the next round :)

Fresh out of the oven :)

Finished product! :D The sauce hadn't seeped down all the way yet :P

Happy Eating!

Change in Recipe list for the Week :D

So I mentioned in my post about shopping that I didn't get all the ingredients for my list this week.Well one of those said ingredients just so happened to be for my Carmel Rolls recipe. So I have decided on just plain ole Cinnamon Rolls :D Yay :D We shall see how they turn out :) Also! My dear sweet mother gave me a wonderful idea. I am going to start rating my "attempts" in the blog posts for each one :) I shall rate them as follows:
1-EWWWWWW! Never will I EVER try that again
2-Yucky! you would have to pay me to make that again
3-Eh, could be better. I would consider making it again
4-Its ok. Sure I could make it again
5-Yummy! Oooo! Definitely going to make that again!
and the occasional 6-FANTABULOUS :D I gotta make this once a week!
My first attempt, Cheeseburger soup, would be between a 4 and 5 :) I would like to make a variation of it with either noodles ooooor potatoes :D But it was still really good :) Anyway, tonight I am going to make the Cinnamon Rolls so check back tomorrow to see how it went :)
Happy eating! :D

Cheeseburger Soup!

Okie dokie I have done the first recipe :D SOUP! :)
Alright so what this wonderful soup has in it is as follows :)
Celery, Onions, Green Bell Pepper, Ground Beef, Beef Bouillon Cubes, Flour,  Milk, annnnd of course it wouldn't be Cheeseburger Soup without the CHEESE! :D
Ok so here is how it works. You chop up the Celery, Green Bell peppers, and onions. So I cut up the Celery...No problem :) Cut up the Bell Peppers...also noooo problem. Then I cut up the Onions...biiig problem. Me and onions..are not friends, never have been and probably never will be :P. I started cutting them and though, "piece of cake", and then it happened...the burning started and the tears began to flow! lol. Anyway, after washing my eyes out about 4 times and wiping away the smeared mascara that I put on earlier in the day. I FIIIINALLY got them all chopped up and in the pan I put the peppers and the celery :) The I got to use something I honestly thought I would never use :) OLIVE OIL! :D I put the oil in with the veggies and sauteed them :) Then I added the meat and browned it. Then I added the bouillon cube and the flour :) I thought it was pretty cool how much thicker it got after the flour was added :) I then added the milk :)  4 cuuups of milk :) hehe insane. Anyway then I grated cheese :) Cheddar to be exact and looots of it :) Ok then I stirred and stirred and stirred annnnd stirred :) then it was done :P 30 minutes! Whoop for quick meals. It was interesting when I was stirring it though. It was like stirring pudding but different lol. :P Ok so I dipped it up and my victims were, drum roll please! *dum dum dum dum duuuum* Sara and Ronnie :D And according to them it was pretty good :D  So that was definitely a successful first try :D hehe :) Yay! I am so very excited :) My next try shall be Chicken Ala King :D Yay! Stay tuned :D

Shopping :)

Alright so today right before I left the office to get the groceries for this week I sat down with both the cookbooks and had a short talk...yes I was talking to them...or rather reading them out loud :D Anyway, I was reading them out loud and writing down alllll the ingredients that I needed to get. It turned out to be a rather long list of groceries so I thought to myself , "ooooh Joy this shall be an interesting little adventure carrying all these groceries home by myself". It was just about that time that my wonderful cousin Ronnie asked if he could go with me :) Definitely a blessing to have wonderful helpful family members. Well we left and got straight to it. Before the grocery I had a couple other things to get but that didn't take that long to do. We got to the FIRST grocery store (yes I had to go to two, thankfully the mall I was in just so happened to have two :D) and I pulled out my list and got started. When I made my list I made the mistake of not organizing it to where the veggies were all together and the meats were together. Mistake just FYI :P I made many trips back to aisles that I had already gone to :P When I had finally gone through the store and found all the items I could I quickly made my way to the lines and was surprised how fast it went. Hardly anyone was there. Thankfully I was out of there quickly because I didn't have a bunch of time considering the mall closes at 9. So I flew (and by flew I mean I speed walked) my way down to the other grocery and found the rest...or should I say most of the rest of the items on my list :P I once again made several trips back and forth in that grocery store. I definitely learned that I need to kinda organize a bit better next trip to the grocery :P I had a lot of fun though :)

Week 1!!!!

Alrighty,

So before I reveal what 3 recipes I am going to do this week I am going to let you know what cookbook(s) I am going to use. I am going to be using 2 cookbooks:) The main one is by Diane Roupe called "The Blue Ribbon Country Cookbook."(TBRCC)

I get tickled when I read the front cover and it says "Timeless Recipes and Foolproof Cooking Basics" . When I see the foolproof part I laugh to myself and say "We shall see". :D

Anyway this week I am taking 2 of the 3 recipes out of this one and the second cookbook is called  "The Everything Quick Meals Cookbook" (TEQMC) by Barbara Doyen. 

I decided to add this one into the "mix", so to speak, because it had sooo many yummy sounding recipes in it that I couldn't resist :) 

Okay down to business :D I decided on a soup, a main course, and a desert.

I am going to start with a recipe out of "TEQMC". It is the soup dish called "Cheeseburger Soup". Right off the bat it sounds AMAZING so I just had to put that on my list for this week. 

The way I picked the next one is very unorganized :D I chose "Chicken Ala King". I decided it was going to be chicken but there were so many choices so I read out several choices to my 2 sisters (Rachael and Sara) and the both chimed in at the same time saying "Ooooo Chicken Ala King!" Thus I chose Chicken Ala King :D 

Then for the last one, the desert, is called Carmel Rolls. It sounds, annnnd looks, so fabulously delicious. 

So I hope that I can find a way to make all this interesting and fun! 

I look forward to what this foodblog could turn out to be!