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Showing results 1 - 35 of 55 for the author: Joe.
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When I asked Jeff if there was anything he would like made to take with for the long drive ahead of us, his first reply was peanut butter cookies. He quickly followed that up with "Wait, nevermind... how about some sort of bar cookie? Maybe brownies, or how about some sort of blondie - it's been awhile since we've had those!".Ding ding ding! Sounded perfect to me! Nothing seemed to catch my eye though when I was going through saved recipes I have on the computer, but flipping through a favorite cookie book led ...
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You know how well we keep our freezer(s) stocked and with this impending move coming up, I've been trying to be diligent on whittling down on all those ingredients. A week or so before we left for this two week stint in North Carolina, I pulled out a beefy chuck roast to make a smaller batch of Chili con Carne.This is a take on traditional Texas chili, meaning it's all meat ...
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Several states later with no internet access, and a four day layover in PA to work on estate dealings after Jeff's Mom's passing, we arrived in Charlotte late last night! We'll be in the area for roughly two weeks so Jeff can meet his new co-workers and we can get a feel for the area, then work our way back home for two or three weeks before we do it all over again. Hopefully with the recent price drop on our house (we're practically giving it away! Ok, maybe not, but it feels like it!), we can ...
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Have you tried these golden little nuggets before?That would be farro! I hadn't, but I've seen many recipes that call for the grain and I've kept my eye out in the markets around here to find it. I did finally notice a bag at Whole Foods a few months ago and was tempted to pick it up, but it was a bit spendy for such a little amount. However, while browsing ...
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We were going to be having a few guests over tonight and we wanted a dessert that was all set to serve without having to pay much fuss to it when it was time. Bars or cookies would have been good, except for the fact I have made plenty of those lately. Cheesecake was the next sweet that came to mind, though I wanted it to be a bit more tailored and personable. Miniature, yet substantial... and I found that in these Individual Peanut Butter Cheesecakes!...
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Not only is it a time to party because it's finally Friday, but I'm also back with another "stuffed" dough as we continue with our weekly Pizza Night tradition. I'm not certain yet what we're going to do with this when we travel down to Charlotte (we'll be heading down that way the middle of next week!) as I'm probably not going to have access to a kitchen, let alone an oven, but maybe we'll get a chance to shop around the local pizza haunts and see what they have to offer? Any suggestions from those around that area?...
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I would have normally waited for the weekend to make tonight's dinner, Jamaican Beef Patties, because of the total time needed to prepare the dish from start to finish. Luckily enough, I knew I was going to have extra time early this morning, which gave me the ability get the dough combined and chilled.The turmeric-stained dough for the pastry was interesting - it used cold butter, which isn't all that unusual, ...
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We've come to what may be the last Wednesday Treat Day for Jeff's current (soon former!) co-workers. I say "may" because we haven't nailed down all of the details about what happens when we are not in North Carolina. If the current plans work out, he may be working in the same building two weeks out of the month until we are officially moved down there, but you never know. If that does happen, I will have to convince him to sneak treats over!To go out with a bang, we decided to try our hands ...
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Before we jump into tonight's post, I thought we'd post a sneak peek for this week's special Wednesday Treat Day. It has turned into a two-day job to get these done, but I'm excited to see how they turn out. I won't give too much away, but suffice to say that all one and a half pounds of this bad boy will be used!Back to the original programming... I'm not one who ...
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You could look at this week's Friday Night Pizza two ways - dessert or, as we did, dinner! When I first thought about making this Apple Cheddar Pizza, I figured Jeff would rather have a slice after dinner, but when I mentioned the idea to him, he said "if you want to call it a dessert, then let's just have dessert for dinner!". Good enough for me!Because the toppings where ...
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Usually when I prepare homemade ravioli or other stuffed wonton dishes like these Pork-and-Chive Pot Stickers I made this evening, I tend to not set aside enough time and end up feeling rushed to get them finished. I don't know if I fell into a solid rhythm tonight or what, but it felt like I was able to crank these out in no time!Since you don't get much more than a ...
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Even though Valentine's Day falls on Sunday this year, I thought it would be a nice surprise to tie it into this week's Wednesday Treat Day. I was very tempted to make those fancy sugar cookies we made last year because they were fun to make, but we decided to delve into the cake department this time and make these Fresh Raspberry Cupcakes with Pink Buttercream.With several steps to get ...
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Do you shy away from certain ingredients because you think they are too much trouble to bother with? I used to be that way a few years ago with one... phyllo dough! I always seemed to stress out, thinking it would dry out, crumble or just be a pain to control when working with it. I got over that pretty quick once I gave it a few tries and realized it wasn't going to destroy the dish if a sheet here or there tore or if it didn't look perfectly layered.It comes frozen and ...
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I have yet another biscotti to add to the ever-growing list we've made, thanks to the batch I was able to bake this morning. I wish I had a good back story to share on why we made these Honey-Sesame Biscotti, but all I did was open up our favorite cookie companion, flip through the biscotti section and land on this one.I think what drew my attention right away was ...
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I asked Jeff a few times if he thought the dish we choose for our weekly Friday Pizza Night really qualifies for "pizza". He suggested we could try to wedge it into Stromboli land, but that might even be a stretch. I did use our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough to wrap this Hot Ricotta Spinach Loaf up, which hopefully makes this more legal!We used frozen spinach for the filling, which ...
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If you took a look in our pantry, you may think "just how many people live here with all that pasta on the shelf?". I tend to keep a variety in stock, with various sizes, shapes and kinds on hand, be it regular, whole-wheat or multi-grain. It takes any stress away on those busy days knowing we can pull a meal together with pantry staples in a snap, but it's also nice to not have to shop when plans change and you have a little extra time to get dinner together. Which, conveniently enough, was the case ...
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I guess it's time to let the proverbial cat out of the bag - Jeff was officially offered, and has subsequently accepted, a new position within the company and we will be relocating to... North Carolina!Yeah, I heard those gasps - talk about criss-crossing the states! Back to the East Coast once again. While we still have to get our house sold (*grumble* to the housing market!), our plan is to be transitioned down into the Charlotte area no later than June. Crazy, but what's life without some adventure? At least that's what I'll ...
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Bold, a little spicy and most definitely hit the spot - that's one of the best ways we thought to label the dish we made for dinner tonight. This Mongolian Beef recipe did not only hit the mark on taste, but it was exceptionally easy and a snap to prepare.Saying that, I did make some modifications to the original recipe... when I was going over the ingredient list for the sauce, ...
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I used to have a habit of routinely baking different batches of muffins, keeping the freezer well supplied for portion-controlled on-the-go snacking. Muffins tend to freeze quite well and thaw in a hurry and if you want to refresh them to an almost just-baked state, a quick stint in a toaster oven does the trick. Jeff made a passing comment last week that it had been some time since he's been able to pull any from the freezer, which got me in gear to get a pan in the oven.I would normally gravitate to chocolate or ...
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I know it seems like we just did an egg-y pizza, but I just had to try out this Jalapeño, Sausage and Egg Breakfast Braid when I came across it in a recent magazine. It's a pretty lengthy title, even though I shortened it slightly with some nominal changes to the ingredients, but it certainly lets you know what's all inside this wrapped package!It originally called for a can of ...
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Last Tuesday, I thought about stashing the few unused chicken thighs that we were left after making that Chipotle Chicken and Rice in the freezer. I asked Jeff if he wouldn't mind another chicken dish that evening and he agreed, especially after hearing the title of what we would be making last - Black Pepper and Molasses Pulled Chicken Sandwiches!If you've never made your own barbecue sauce, you'll soon see how quick and effortless it can be. Getting us started were a few squirts from our handy bottle of ketchup, followed up with ...
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For this week's Wednesday Treat Day, we delved into one of the holiday magazines and picked out a cookie I had planned on making over Christmas, but time got away from us and it was put on the back burner. I have quite a few still marked off that looked interesting and hope to work through them over the next few months!To get these Chai Shortbread Cookies going, it required taking a basic batch of shortbread dough and adding a variety of spices to burrow in flavors reminiscent of the tea. We used a ...
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We prepared a dinner recently that was pretty much hands off, leaving the oven to do most of the work. Well, there was a little prep work before hand, but this Chicken, Lemon and Dill with Orzo dish would be great for those nights where you need to get dinner on the table, but can't afford the extra time to tend to it.Mixed in the same baking vessel the meal was ...
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When Jeff was off from work over the holidays, I asked if he wanted me to make anything specific before I started pulling out recipe ideas. He jumped quickly with a response of "rye bread and homemade pretzels please!". Of course he also asked for the obligatory sweets, but those were all repeat recipes (he had his fill of Gingerbread Popcorn and Cinnamon Fudge!). I obliged with the breads and we're here today to talk about the Home-Style Caraway Rye Bread first....
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This week's Friday Night Pizza didn't come out shaped quite as intended, but thankfully that didn't interfere with just how tasty they ended up! These ridiculously easy Stuffed Pizza Sticks were actually supposed to be turned into pretzels, but they ended up being stuffed so full (a good thing!) that shaping them in one piece wasn't going to fly.Working with the pound version of our whole-wheat pizza dough (yeah, ...
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I had ideas for the head of broccoli I bought this weekend, but apparently they never came to fruition and I had to figure out what to do with it or in the compost it went. I originally had a repeat pasta dish on the menu for tonight, but since I didn't want to waste the broccoli, I sifted through our to-try pile and found this no-fuss Creamy Pasta with Ham and Broccoli dish to make instead....
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When I asked Jeff on Saturday what sounded good for this week's Wednesday Treat Day, he said he's really had a craving for your basic, everyday chocolate chip cookie (because you know it's all about him anyway... right? I'm sure his co-workers would tell you the same thing!). But actually, that sounded darn good since it had been awhile since we've done that. Instead of doing them in individual drop form though, I thought we'd try these Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars....
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We've been making a lot of one-pot dishes lately and I'm diggin' this less pots and pans to wash stuff. Continuing with that theme, I made another tonight, Chipotle Chicken and Rice, that we think will stay near the top of list of recipes to repeat (which I'm sure doesn't get tapped nearly as often as Jeff would like!).We gave a range on the meaty chicken thighs called for - I ...
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I usually try to bake Saturday mornings so we have a sweet good to talk about on the weekend, but we had a bunch of errands to run since we were gone most of the week and I just couldn't carve out time today. We do, however, have a savory dish we made a couple weeks ago that I need to talk about!Have some pent up aggression you need to work out and also have to get dinner on the table in a flash? Then I implore you to think about about making this elegant ...
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We left on Tuesday for a short trip to the East coast (more on this soon), but we're back home tonight! It may take a day or two to get life back in order, but in the mean time, we thought it would be a good time to work on getting a F.A.Q. post together.Have a question you've always wanted to ask or have to know something specific about us or the site? We'll gather up what we can from the comment section or e-mails (you'll find an e-mail link on the right hand side of ...
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When we made those pot pies a few weeks ago, I was left with a sheet of puff pastry that I tucked away in the freezer as I didn't have a plan for it at the time. I needed an appetizer recently, one that was either especially speedy or that I could get the work done ahead of time, and when I saw these Herb-Cheese Palmiers called for that lone puff pastry sheet in the freezer, I knew it was fate!...
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Jeff had been dropping hints left and right over the past few days that a soup or stew, preferably of the beefy variety, would really hit the spot. I had the weeks' worth of recipes laid out on the counter in the kitchen and when I had left the room for a moment, he decided to stop and gander at my selection to see if I had catered to his request. I did, in fact, have one in mind and I knew he found it when even from the other room I heard his sad groans when he ...
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There are a couple recipes that we made over the holidays that we just didn't get a chance to share and before I completely forget about them, I figured I better get on the ball! Today we'll get to one of the cookies we made, these dainty Browned Butter Cardamom Cookies.Don't be scared of the "browned butter" part if you've never had the chance to do that before - it's very ...
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We are finally getting back into the groove of new Friday Pizza Nights (well, we actually did make pizzas on a couple of those Fridays that we missed, but they were requested repeats from Jeff) and the one we made this evening, Egg and Pepperoni Breakfast Pizza, will make for a rockin' meal tomorrow morning with the leftovers!The eggs will be going onto the pizza pretty much completely cooked, which means we ...
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You would think that with us living in Minnesota, we would prepare more dishes that included wild rice as an ingredient. In fact, the last time we used it was in that wicked good Chicken and Ham Wild Rice Soup back in '08. It's not that I don't keep it handy in the pantry, but for whatever reason, I just don't come across many recipes that call for it.That bag we have caught my eye before I sat down to menu plan for the week and after giving myself a small guilt trip for not giving ...
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