MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
One of favorite gifts to give away at Christmas are goodies that we make ourselves. Our friends love them too, especially these awesome sugar cookies. Some of our family and friends have come to expect them now and are disappointed when we don't give them any.
These sugar cookies are really easy to make too and you get tons of it. Check them out:
Spritjes - the very best sugar cookies made with egg yolks
Katte Tongen - a delicate sugar cookie made with egg whites
Very convenient to make these two recipes at once as one uses up only egg yolks and the other only egg whites.
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Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
I am giving away the Mozaik prize package above on Cooked from the Heart and the giveaway ends tomorrow. I invite you to enter the giveaway and win this fabulous prize!
Click here to enter the Mozaik Prize Pack Giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment!
Visit our other blogs:Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
Because burned onions and moments of high frustration notwithstanding, our food is good and nourishing, and our kitchen is the heart of our home.
Nicole Montesano says in this article that cooking is always worthwhile whether it's fun or not. It pretty much sums up how I've been feeling about cooking lately.
We have fallen into a cooking routine that is not necessarily bad. It just gets boring after a while. I cook the same dishes on a regular basis: pork chops, roast beef, fried chicken, with the occasional stirfry and soup thrown in between. I realized, and my daughters have noticed it too, that I have just been too tired to be interested in food. I no longer try to search out different cuts of meat than the usual stuff at the grocery store. It's been a while since I shopped at a foodie market. I hardly even visited the farmer's market this year! No wonder my cooking has been in a rut!
This passage in the article says all that I have been feeling about cooking:
I like to cook. Some people have been known to interpret this to mean I would like to cook at every possible opportunity.
That interpretation is wrong.
Cooking when I'm tired, in a hurry and/or stressed doesn't have much appeal for me, either. Sometimes it's soothing and calming. Sometimes it isn't, and everything you heat burns, you keep tripping over the dog, you forget the salt and spill things, and you wind up highly frustrated.
Not long ago, we ate completely unseasoned spaghetti sauce. It wasn't bad, with salt sprinkled on top ... .
Some nights, I cook not for joy, but so that we can eat.
Lately, I've been preheating cast iron pans and then forgetting to use them, and letting the teakettle boil dry after forgetting I was intending to make tea. This may be a sign. Possibly that we should buy another fire extinguisher, at the rate I seem to be going.
All of which is meant to say, that just because I like to cook does not make every moment in the kitchen an eternity of bliss.
Occasionally, it's a glimpse through the gates of hell.
There are a lot of dirty dishes in hell.
And you can never find a potholder when you need one.
So if cooking is not your thing, take heart. Some days, it isn't anybody's thing.
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Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
Everyone loves receiving gourmet treats as gifts, don't they? I sure do! These Hickory Farms gift baskets are terrific for giving and receiving. The summer sausages and cheeses on these packs are truly delicious. My family and I enjoy them with hot chocolate especially now that the weather has turned cold again.
We had the opportunity to try out this Hickory Farms Party Planner Gift Box as part of a blog tour and for some reason they taste even better! Is it 'cause they're free? I wonder. lol!
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
One of the earliest posts, if not the first, on this blog is for a Cassave Cake Recipe (which I just realized we spelled with a K lol!). This is a more updated version of the same cake and with the added glutinous rice flour in the mix, it has a much lighter and 'cakey' texture.
This cake would be a perfect addition to any holiday party and it's so easy to put together, you can literally throw the ingredients together in the morning, bake it while youre dressing and garner the compliments when you get to the office :)
Click here for the recipe to Cassava Rice Cake otherwise known as Bibingkang Kamoteng Kahoy in Pilipino.
Visit our other blogs:Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
If you're a veteran or in active military service, Chili's will buy you lunch this Thursday, November 11 for Veterans Day. All you have to do is show proof of service like your military ID and you can choose from a selected menu and your meal is free.
Here is the Veteran's Day Menu of free meals.
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
You could win a $1,000 grand prize!
Do you enjoy cooking with fresh, local ingredients? Share your market inspirations by entering your favorite original farm-fresh recipe in Epicurius' contest. In addition to awarding the grand prize, they will feature recipes from ten finalists in a special-edition TasteBook.
Read More http://www.epicurious.com/community/events/contest/?intcid=epi_supernav
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
We had one of those meals that you just can't stop talking about yesterday. Yesterday, I had what I call the leftover brunch which means cleaning out the refrigerator of leftovers and eating them for brunch or throw them out.
This plate has sausage, liver pudding, eggs over easy, and rice topped with sausage gravy. Yummy, right? Also on the plate are sliced tomatoes (the last from our garden) and some leftover greens. Yes! The greens were really delicious with breakfast. Some people thought we were weird for having them with breakfast.
What put this breakfast over the top for my husband is the sausage gravy. I don't make gravy all the time so when I do, he just about looses his mind from happiness :)
Click here if you'd like to learn HOW TO MAKE SAUSAGE GRAVY.
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Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
Since we're on a roll with reusing leftovers, here's another way. If you don't like fried rice, then you can always re-hash your leftovers in eggs.
That's what we did with this fritata/omelet, whatever you want to call it. Just take whatever leftover you have in the refrigerator and cook it in egg and you'll have something delicious to call brunch!
What we had here was some leftover lumpia filling consisting of ground beef, carrots, greenbeans, and celery. I simply cooked them in a couple of scrambled eggs and you'd think I actually went through the trouble of chopping all these vegetables for breakfast!
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Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
Fried Rice is what we make when leftovers are starting to pile up in the refrigerator. For our weekend brunch, it's common for me to make fried rice out of whatever leftover is still in the refrigerator. See, I end up accomplishing two things at the same time. I recycle leftovers while cooking a good weekend brunch for my family and I clean out the refrigerator of leftovers, readying it for another week!
This version (photo above) is made of leftover pork adobo. I had less than a cup of meat, not enough for five people, and I didn't want to simply toss it out. The gravy was so flavorful, it would have been a shame to throw it out! So I used the small amount of meat and gravy left to flavor some leftover rice by making the fried rice above. I threw in some peas for color and you'd never know it was made of unwanted bits and pieces!
If you need a recipe, try out this one for Leftover Fried Rice.
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Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
My husband and I love turkey but our daughters are not so crazy about it. What to do just to make their Thanksgiving pleasurable instead of torture? This year they have requested that we make individual cornish hens instead. It's actually a great idea! So if you're looking for another meat for Thanksgiving, gives these hens a try.
Click here for the recipe for Cornish Hens with Blueberry Citrus Glaze.
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
We call this the Chocolate LOVE Cake because when you make it, people just can't help but love you for it. This was my daughter's choice when I asked her what she wants for her birthday cake.
I wish I had a recipe for you, but sorry to say that I don't. This is my husband's specialty and he guards his recipe with his life! Yeah, so he wants to keep all the love for himself. lol!
But seriously, if you have a good chocolate fudge recipe and can make a decent ganache, that's all what this cake is. Don't you want to just jump in and swim in this?
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Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
“Photo credit: One Fork, One Spoon”
It's that time of year again, the summer garden is on it's way out and the fall and winter veggies are slowly taking hold. One of the vegetables that always hangs around longer than any in our garden is the swiss chard. The plant we have has actually rooted a substantial trunk and now comes back every year after the last frost is gone! We don't even have to replant it and we have chard almost all year long!
This Swiss Chard Tart recipe has quickly become a favorite at our house. The girls and I love making a vegetarian brunch out of this tart on weekends. Paired with some fresh fruit and a good hearty toast, it's perfect to get the weekend started!
The great thing about this tart too is that it's flexible. You can make it the night before or even longer and freeze it. When you're ready to cook it, just pop it in the oven and you have something delicious!
Click here for the recipe for this Swiss Chard Tart.
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
By the way, with the holidays coming up, I think these picnic baskets would make great presents. Don't you? I certainly would love receiving one of these baskets for Christmas.
I just had to delete my Blogroll for this site at it was causing the site to be identified as 'dangerous'. If you were on my blogrolling list, I am now rebuilding that list based on what I have on Cooked From the Heart Foodies List. While I'm doing that, I will be cleaning out dead links and adding new food blog finds. Just give me some time to build it up again :)
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
These were corn fritters that we paired up with some homemade salsa. Everything in the salsa and the corn in the fritters were from our garden. Can you believe it?
Check out more recipes that utilize this salsa blend.
Visit our other blogs:
Amoores.com
Cooked from the Heart - our new food blog
Our New Backyard - garden & photo blog
Found Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
Tomorrow is the last day to enter! Make sure you visit Cooked From the Heart to enter the Nakano Prize Package Giveaway! You can win a $25 gift certificate, a full sized bottle of Nakano Seasoned Vinegar, and a recipe booklet which also has a $1 coupon in it.
The giveaway will close tomorrow, September 10 at midnight, so hurry on over there to enter!
Visit our other blogs:Amoores.comCooked from the Heart - our new food blogOur New Backyard - garden & photo blogFound Not Lost - about all the things we 'find' worth talking about
I am a big coffee and tea drinker. I don't drink too much soda or juice but give me coffee or tea and I'm a happy camper. I used to drink coffee all day long but I'm trying to be good so I've switched to drinking more tea during the day. I have my morning cup of coffee (well maybe a couple of cups) then switch to green tea the rest of the day. This is what I do at work where green tea is plentiful and free. At home though, the story changes a bit.
At home, I have a husband who is also a coffee addict and does love his home brewed, self ground coffee. I do believe if he could roast coffee himself, he would do that too! But what he does instead is buy good quality beans, stores them in the freezer and grinds a fresh batch every time he brews a pot. This is a treat we relish every morning when we wake up. During the warmer months, we normally take our morning coffee out in the garden and commune with the early breezes and early morning sounds. Nothing could be more perfect!
Simplicity is something that I adhere to in most things in life and we take our coffee in the purest and simplest way possible. Freshly brewed, strong, and black. No adornments required. No sweeteners and definitely no creamers. Although when the girls and I are out and about at the mall I do submit to an occasional cappuccino coffee from those overpriced coffee retailers. You know which ones I'm talking about, the ones who will even make pretty designs on your foam. It's a good treat once in a while, but I always revert to my usual cup of java for my daily indulgence.
How about you, how do you like your coffee?
If you're a regular reader, you've noticed I haven't been cooking much lately. It could be the increased work load at the office or the general malaise of winter or both. Whatever it is, there are just days when I don't feel like cooking so I end up picking up some fast food on the way home or have it delivered. This is fine and well, but I have to admit, it's not very healthy and I am frankly getting bored with the limited selection of deliverable fast food.
Busy moms like me, I just realized, could benefit from a meal delivery service like Healthy Chef Creations. Many of these custom meal services have cropped up lately and this Healthy Chef Creations brand stands out from the rest because it not only provides home cooked type meals, they are also designed to be healthy for you. The menu at Healthy Chef Creations are prepared from wholesome and organic foods that are low in fat and calories but are full of the other things that are good for you like lean proteins, fiber, vitamins and minerals and also anti-oxidants. Their dishes are not full of preservatives and chemicals like most fast foods and best of all, these chef created marvels can be delivered right at your door. You can get a home delivery meal easily by checking out their website and placing your order online or calling it in.
Check out the Healthy Chef Creations and you'll realize that for the restaurant quality dishes and the personal chef delivery service, you are really getting a lot for your money. Some of my favorites are on the dinner menu: Osso Bucco Braised Lamb, Mediterranean Chicken Scallopini, Lemon Basil Shrimp Pasta, and more! They also have an old fashioned pot roast if you're yearning for something homemade and filling. Keep in mind also that their menu is fully customizable if you have any dietary restrictions or just don't like certain ingredients like mushrooms or black pepper. Their portions and packages vary so make sure you read through the website. They deliver nationwide and the shipping fee is already included in the menu price.
