Wednesday, February 29, 2012

FAIL...SUCCESS.....

So I have posted most of my successful recipe, mostly because they came out great. Well I do FAIL at recipes, I mean a lot. I love my husband for be so patient through some rough meals. He is my critique and I love hearing what he thinks. Speaking of my husband, last night he got a sweet tooth and I didn't have anything baked....opps! He knew what he wanted for his fix, it something called a chocolate yummy. He explained that it was a graham cracker crust a chocolate layer with a whipped topping layered. Of course I didn't have everything we needed for a pudding filling. We dug through Pinterest and found a mouse recipe for the chocolate layer and I had marshmallow creme I could use for a topping. I will come back and tag where I got the mouse recipe. I printed it out and forgot to pin it. It tasted great!


Everything was turning out great until I we got to the marshmallow layer. 
I think I must have done something wrong or this was the wrong topping for this kind of pie....OOOPS!!! I used this post..... http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811517707/. It didn't peak! We thought we would let it chill over night and everthing would turn out okay....(sorry for the tilted pic that uploaded wrong...rrrr)

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FAIL!


Me and Chad thought it was WAY to sweet, but our daughter Aliana LOVED it. I was kind of bummed, but thought I could redeem myself on dinner....SUCCESS.  

Chad helped me with dinner and it turned out YUMMY! We baked a whole chicken in our Nuwave oven. We have only cooked in this thing once before...it was a gift. Well in the spirit of trying something new and I had to change it up. We baked a rosemary chicken with potatoes and carrots. We used the recipe that came with the Nuwave. The recipe was Whole Chicken based with rosemary, olive oil and garlic. YUMMY!! So practice, practice, practice for me!! Tomorrow I'm trying the Balsamic Green Beans again with all the right FRESH ingredients. I'm making lunch for my old office pals and I'm going with things I know will be a success....lol! 

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Cooking my way through the web (Pinterest, Foodgawker, Blogs, and Good Ole Cook Books)

Haven't created a new post in sometime! I've been busy at home for the last couple of months with all the holidays. I guess I really do vacation when I'm traveling although it doesn't feel like that. We've been home since December 23 and it has been non stop! I decided for my 2012 resolution I would stop looking for a career and not feel guilty for not pursing one. I figure being a stay at home mom is busy enough and if I focus all my energy here I might actually get some personal goals accomplished! So as of today I am a stay at home mom of 2 little girls. I have put all my years of experience of working in the corporate world into managing our home. Since taking on this new "job title" our home has been cleaner, more organized and full of FUN!! My addiction to goggling , pinterest, and research as paid of with some great sweets, yummy meals and lots of fun activities! Even though I am a Traveler's wife and I'm not always in my kitchen or home I still can plan out our weeks! We will probably be leaving at the end of this Month, just me and the girls, to visit my parents in Peru for 2 months. This all while Chad is in Algeria. Anyways back to my point of cooking through the web. I started every Sunday night plan out a 7 day week menu. I didn't realize how much this HELPS! When I get up in the morning I don't have scrounge around thinking of what to make for breakfast. Instead everything is purchased or prepared for every meal. I love the look on the older kids face when they check out the menu and sometime make little changes. I love how everyone wants to be involved. Me and Chad go over our schedule and be realistic if we will be cooking something that day, making something in a crock pot, or make something ahead of time. We have saved so much money and have gone through everything in our pantry that has been there for awhile. We are all eating healthy and I make sure we get a well balanced diet all day. After living in Morocco for 3 months and eating out every single day it was a LIFE CHANGING experience to come and want to cook for my family every day! I'm sure many other mom's would say "DUH", but my light bulb just went off! Now planning my meals I've enjoyed finding new recipes and trying new dishes. So far we haven't repeated any meals, well except for the occasional mac and cheese and that I've done a few twist on. I decided to share that some of these meals are doable and edible! I find it more confident in someones pinterest post if there pics were taking from a camera phone or not so perfect picture. While I liked to practice on my camera taking skills most of my pics will be from my camera on my phone or my point and shoot camera. Feel free to comment. I will continue to cook while in Peru and looking forward to some new ingredients there!!! I will also be MORE dedicated to taking pics, even the ones that FLOP! I AM NO CHEIF by any means, I'm just a mom and travelers wife who left the corporate world and is trying to learn how to cook for her EVER CHANGING FAMILY!!

Here are a few that I was actually able to get pics of....

PERSONALIZED BRIDAL CUPCAKES~
I learned how to rose cupcakes last year for Alisia birthday. I did a rose bouquet. This time I wanted to add something. I found this idea on pinterest and changed it up a bit. http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811141934/ 
It was for a friends bridal shower. I did a few tops with the letter H. Talk about trial and error on those. I melted vanilla waffer candies onto wax paper let them cool and harden. Out of 20 I think I got 6 that didn't break. I used a wilton2 and should have used a 3. If I didn't go with cursive it would have been easier.

SOFT SUGAR COOKIES~


This was the FIRST time I had ever baked something from scratch!! I seem to always cheat and use something premade. I decided to give these a try for Valentines Day and the girls could help me with them. They LOVE to be in the kitchen. I used this post for the sugar cookie...... http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811509926/ and because I still don't have my pantry stocked with EVERY item I need I used this frosting recipe.....http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811509913/

TRADITIONAL BUTTER YELLOW WITH MILK CHOCOLATE FROSTING (my dad's favorite)
This is NOT from scratch....lol! Here I was practicing on how to make a box cake and tub icing look homemade. I read in a blog and forgot to pin it to give credit but it said to mix the tub icing with a mixer to make it go farther and spread better! THAT TRICK WORKED! I mixed in a tablespoon of stick butter and and added a half a cup of powder sugar to make it a little stiffer. I watched a video on how to icing a cake and this is with the spoon technique. Smooth the sides and using a spoon swirl the top. 

PARMESAN KNOTS~
with HOMEMADE PIZZA~
Every Friday is Pizza night. I don't always go with take out or delivery sometimes we make our own. I wanted something to go with the pan size pizzas and made the Parmesan Knots from this post.... http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811425873/. As far as the homemade pizza I was brave enough to make my own dough yet, but we did make our own pizza sauce from this post.....http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811425689/. The sauce was a big hit and will be using it now on even in my homemade pizza pockets! Also this sauce was enough for about 2 large pizza and dip for the knots!

PARMESAN CRUSTED TALAPIA~ (Rachel Ray's)
Made this tonight when I came across this post...http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811349715/. I put all the Parmesan mix on top I like my with lots of flavor. They came out GREAT and the kids ate them up!! I trying to figure out what side I was going to make with it. On my menu I had planned on making pasta salad, but I was missing a few things. 

BALSAMIC VINEGAR GREEN BEANS~
I decided on the Balsamic Vinegar Green Beans from this post.... http://pinterest.com/pin/207376757811508975/. Although my doesn't look anything like theirs it did come out good! I didn't have fresh green beans but did have some canned. I decided to follow the recipe anyways. I didn't add the tomatoes either....didn't have any. I do want to try it again with all the right ingredients. This tasted good but oh how GREAT it would have been with FRESH green beans!