Knee Shock & a Good Book

When I started this blog, I also said I planned on including updates, so I suppose I'll consider this my first partial update.  In addition to mentioning a good book, of course.

Right before I left NC, my knee was being very irritable leaving my doctor worried that I had torn my meniscus gradually over the summer.  Fast forward a month, and it has been decided my meniscus is a-okay, meaning no surgery for me!  Yay!

Pina Colada Cupcakes

The weekend before my big move, I knew it was the last time that I would be able to bake for our friends so I wanted to go all out.  I baked the Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookies and the Lemon Crinkle Cookies too, but I wanted something to go on my cute cupcake stand and be the center of attention.  Pina Colada always sounds fun and summery to me, so I went with that.

I even scored cute little map cutouts in heart and star shapes from the etsy shop thePathLessTraveled!

A Day Downtown & Pumpkin Spice Granola

Yesterday I had an informal meeting/interview with a potential employer.  It was scheduled for late afternoon, downtown Chicago.  I decided to take the train rather than drive so I wouldn't have to worry about 5 o'clock rush hour traffic.

While planning my day mentally, I failed to think about the past times I've taken the train.  When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, he stopped working so I would use his parking pass & iPass to drive into the city rather than ride the train.  Suffice to say, it's been quite the hiatus between my other train days and now.  Let me just tell you, the second I climbed the stairs up to street level I saw 300 East Randolph, the Blue Cross Blue Shield building, staring at me from across the skyline.  And I remembered all the times I took the train into the city.  It would be to shop or walk around, but I would always stop to see my dad.  Whether it be to visit him at the office, eat a quick lunch at Qdoba or a sit down meal at Tavern on the Green, grab a strong coffee from Intelligentsia, or even just to catch a ride home with him to chat, he was always there after my train rides.  But yesterday, after my meeting, my dad wasn't there.  And when I got home last night, he wasn't there either.

After that, I'll admit I was in a bit of a funk.  I attempted to job search a bit this morning, but I really just needed to do something I enjoy - baking.  We have fresh fruit at the house and yogurt too, so I tried out a new granola recipe to mix in with everything for breakfast or a light snack.

Pumpkin Spice Granola
(adapted from this recipe)

1/2 cup Splend blend brown sugar - packed
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter - I used Peter Pan Whipped
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 Tbs molasses
1 Tbs vanilla extract
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups raisins
1 cup semi sweet mini chocolate chips

Football Sunday Side

I made this recipe a couple weeks ago.  After I tasted it, I kept thinking how it would be such a great side dish to bring to a football party or even a potluck.

Buffalo Chicken Pasta Salad
(adapted from this recipe)

Frank's Red Hot Sauce
1 jar blue cheese salad dressing
1 red onion
5 stalks celery
2-3 cans of Tyson's premium chunk chicken (I used 2 cans since I was serving it as a side.  If you wanted to use this recipe as a main dish, I would use 3 cans.)
1 box noodles of your choice

Tried & True - Breaking in New Shoes

Okay, so I've seen a pin floating around Pinterest about breaking in new shoes.  But I've never actually put it on one of my 'boards' ...

This morning I broke out a pair of new flats that I purchased back in June but hadn't worn yet.  After going to the dentist and being out for approximately an hour, the tops of my toes were a bit uncomfortable.  Not like "Oh my goodness, I should not have bought these!" uncomfortable; more like a tell-tale sign these puppies were going to need a good amount of wearing to make them comfortable.  This didn't gel well with the fact that I want to wear them later tonight, so I did the only sensible thing to do - looked up that pin and found the original idea here.  I tried it out and it worked!  So if you're ever in a pinch (literally) try this out.

Italian Meat Pie

I'm currently job searching.  And my mom of course works.  Therefore, I feel that dinner is my task.  So to mix up the online job hunt during the day, I've taken a break or two to look for some new recipes for us to try.  (We can even have seafood since Carl's not here yet, hah!)  The Italian Meat Pie is the first new recipe I tried and it turned out very well.  It tastes great and even looks nice presentation wise.

Italian Meat Pie
(adapted from this recipe)

1lb ground turkey, cooked and drained
1 cup garlic pasta sauce - I used Prego's Tomato, Basil, & Garlic sauce.
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 can Pillsbury® reduced fat refrigerated crescent rolls
3/4 cup shredded Italian cheese blend (divided use)
3/4 cup shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese (divided use)
1/4 tsp dried basil

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

The weather only got into the 60's yesterday and barely touched a breezy 70 degrees today.  That can only mean one thing: fall is near and it's time to start baking all things pumpkin.  This works well; pumpkin is one of my all time favorite flavors.  Normally I like to bake everything from scratch, but today was the first day I got back into the kitchen after moving.  And it's my mom's kitchen.  So since I haven't really lived here in quite some time, I chose to do any easier recipe in case I couldn't locate a necessary item or utensil.  And that's how I stumbled upon this recipe and tweaked it for the taste I had in mind.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake
(inspired by this  recipe)

1 15oz can pumpkin puree
1 12oz can fat free evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups Splenda sugar blend
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 box white or yellow cake mix
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter - melted

If These Walls Could Talk

Well, I am officially in Indiana.  Once Carl is here for good as well, we can start looking for a nice place in the city (crossing our fingers for Wrigleyville area) that works for us and our two crazy dogs.

I'm pretty sure I had the best last week in North Carolina possible!  Carl and I grilled, cooked, and baked for our friends and I got to see everyone several times.  I even stopped in at work to say bye one last time.  After all that, I thought I was very prepared to pull out of our driveway early Thursday morning.

I was not.  I stood in the driveway for a few minutes and when we finally drove away I definitely teared up.  Growing up I always heard my aunts and uncles refer to significant events in their lives based on what house they were living in at that point in time.  Like "Oh, he was born when we lived at [insert address here.]"  And now I totally get it.

The Big Hit Sandwiches!

I always think you can never go wrong with a sandwich.  Maybe my mom instilled that in me when I was young; she always made the freshest sandwiches for our lunch bags.  So every now and then I get on a sandwich kick.  Of course I like to make my own, but I don't discriminate among sub shops either; I like them all - Jimmy John's, Subway, Firehouse, Jersey Mike's, etc.  You get the point.  I came across this recipe on Pinterest, which linked me to a blog, which credited the recipe to King's Hawaiian.  With King's rolls being absolutely delicious, I should've known they know how to make a good sandwich!

Hawaiian Baked Ham & Swiss Sandwiches
(adapted from original)

1 12 pack King's Hawaiian Original Rolls
1 lb deli ham - shaved
1 lb Swiss cheese - thinly sliced
1 1/2 sticks butter (I used the butter with olive oil & sea salt flavorings)
3 Tbsps Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsps Worcestershire sauce
1/2 of an onion - chopped

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Lemon is one of my favorite flavors.  I know it's an acquired taste for some, but I'm a big fan.  It was actually in my top three flavors for our wedding cake, but Carl liked raspberry better.  During our vacation to Italy we learned they love lemon, so I ate lemon desserts at least every other day for a week and washed them down with shots of limoncello - amazing.  Because of this affinity I have for anything lemon, I'm always game to try a new lemon dessert recipe.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
(adapted from original recipe found here)

1/2 cup butter - softened
1 cup Splenda sugar blend
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Crackers & Dip

A few weeks ago, I ran across a pin for 'secretly healthy' spinach dip on Pinterest.  I love cold spinach dip.  I'm talking like every time I would visit home from college, the deli-made spinach dip from our local grocery store was on the list of things I just had to have.  Naturally, I wanted to try this healthy version out.

Now, I typically eat my spinach dip with pretzels, but I do like how it looks when served in a bread bowl, and I like it on Wheat Thins as well.  So when I found a recipe for homemade Wheat Thins, I new it was meant to be - I just had to try the healthy spinach dip with these from scratch crackers!

Homemade Wheat Thins
(Originally found on this blog)

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Tbsp Splenda sugar blend
1/2 tsp salt (& however much you would like to sprinkle on top)
1/4 tsp paprika
4 Tbsp butter (or butter substitute of your choice)
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla

Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookies

The title of this post should speak for itself.  Yum!  I found this recipe six weeks ago and I've already made it on three separate occasions.  Instead of going on and on about the scrumptious cookies, I'll just cut to the chase and post the recipe.

Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookies
(original recipe found here)

 Ingredients:
7 Tbsp butter - softened
1/2 cup Splenda sugar blend 
1/2 cup Splenda brown sugar blend - packed
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I used Peter Pan Whipped)
1 egg
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup Cap'n Crunch - crushed 

(I just want to note that I always bake with Splenda sugar blends.  If you do not, you will of course use sugar and brown sugar.)

DIY Citronella Wine Bottles

It's no secret that I love sweet muscadine wine.  One of our favorite things to do in the area is go to wine festivals, wine tastings, and winery tours.  We've acquired a decent amount of wine this way, so I wanted to find something neat to do with either our wine bottles or the corks.  I still haven't experimented with all the cork ideas I've found on Pinterest, but I found a winner for leftover wine bottles.

DIY Citronella Torches
(adapted from this tutorial)

What You Need:

Wine bottles (as many as you please; we only used colored bottles)
Thread Seal Tape (1/2 inch wide)
1/2" x 3/8" Copper Coupling (1 for each bottle)
1/2" Copper Cap (1 for each bottle)
Tiki Replacement Wicks
Tiki Torch Fluid

Our First Anniversary!

Yesterday, September 3rd, was our first anniversary!  Yay!

Originally, we had planned on taking a weekend trip to Asheville, NC, but after surveying how much stuff we have accumulated over the past several years and how much packing we still needed to finish, we decided to skip the trip.  Instead we packed all weekend and made reservations for dinner on Monday night.  We ate at the Island Grille in Atlantic Beach; it was delicious!  Seriously, I highly recommend it!  Carl had a stuffed filet mignon and I chose the shrimp & scallop grits.  Normally I would not chose an entree with grits, but I have seen (insert type of seafood here) & grits on menus all over North Carolina and vowed to try it before we left.  By yesterday, my time to try this infamous dish was dwindling.  So I did.  And it was amazing!  Of course, that may be because they use gouda grits and serve it with shitake mushrooms, spinach, and bacon as well; but hey, it was great, can't argue with that.

Since it was our first anniversary, we indulged in the top layer of our cake!  (Note: I did not actually get a chance to eat any of my wedding cake last year besides the cake cutting, so the next morning I cut into the top layer and helped myself to a piece.  Therefore, I was a bit more nervous than I normally would have been about freezer burn since part of the layer had been sliced into.)

Our cake was from the Chesterton Cake Shoppe and we had two flavors - pink champagne (my choice) and raspberry (Carl's choice.)  Rather than fondant or regular buttercream frosting, we went with a French buttercream, as that has a bit more sugar and we both have a serious sweet tooth.

To get the best flavor a year later, we took it out of the freezer at least 24 hours before we wanted to eat it, unwrapped all the foil, wax paper, cling wrap, etc. and tossed it.  Then we re-wrapped the cake in parchment paper (I didn't have wax paper on hand,) placed foil over that, and put it in the refrigerator.  About 4 hours before we were going to eat the cake, we took it out and let it sit at room temperature.  There you have it!  It was completely edible and just as tasty as we remember!

Is It Fall Yet?!

Even though it's just now Labor Day weekend, I'm already craving fall.  Fall is my absolute favorite time to bake; I love all the typically fall flavors like pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, etc.  And since college football has started, that's signal enough for me that fall is just around the corner.  With that said, this morning I opened a can of pumpkin and tried a recipe for a low-fat imitation of a Starbucks pumpkin frappucino.  Um, I did not think it was as similar to Starbucks as it claimed so my search continues.  Anyhow, then I was left with all that pumpkin.  Normally, I would freeze it into 2 Tbsp cubes so that I could preserve it & it would come in handy  for those recipes that only call for a dab of pumpkin flavor.  However, with us moving, freezing would just end up getting tossed.  It was too early for dessert (not for me, but Carl probably wouldn't appreciate dessert for breakfast) so I settled on pumpkin pancakes - yum!