2012

In 2012 I want to...

Laugh more, worry less.
Smile hourly, regret nothing.
Try new things, give up bad habits.
Live in the moment, remember the past.
Keep in touch with old friends, believe that one can never have too many new friends.




http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4Yx9Nt/www.moinid.com/ideas/2010/06/home-surfing.jpg/

 
Blog more often. Period.

Humor

"Humor is a reminder that no matter how high the throne one sits on, one sits on one's bottom."  -Taki

Source.

Still cooking...still baking

Ok, so despite the lack of recent posts, I HAVE still been cooking and baking. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons...the recipes failed to make it to this blog.

The butternut squash stew (?) just did not turn out...err...

good? yum? worthy of this blog or...even my stove? yea - no to all the above.

then, there were the halloween cupcakes....oh the cupcakes...

Well folks, problem here is...hallween is over. Sorry to burst your bubble, but nobody really cares about the black and orange for another year. So that was kind of a fail, on the part of father time...and myself. Oh well, they tasted good.



And finally, there was the mimosas and bagels with pumpkin cream cheese. WINNING. Except, oh that I gobbled it down so fast I didn't have time to take pictures.




I promise....pinky promise....November will hold real, timely recipes that taste good and make it (pictures and all) to his blog.

FALLing for comfort food...

Fall is HERE! What does that mean in my book? Besides warm sweaters, hayrides, football, Halloween, and fall tv...it means a shakeup in the kitchen. Hello comfort food.

Exhibit A:

I've been all about the one pot meals lately because they are quick, delicious and usually last for days.

 I started out by cooking frozen spinach and corn.

In a separate pot (ok, so maybe it wasn't exactly one pot) I boiled the pasta - Barille whole grain medium shells. Then added a basic red sauce.

Finally, the "secret" ingredient. Garden vegetable PHILADELPHIA (shameless shout out) cream cheese...yum :)

Topped off with red wine and a warm Maryland evening on my porch - goodbye summer,

hello fall.

No Bakes

No bake cookies were by far my FAVORITE dessert in the dining commons at Penn State during my freshman and sophmore year. Recently, we had an open house at work and I thought I would bring back this yumlicious dessert.


Unfortunately I discovered they contained a lot of butter and a LOT of sugar (which is probably why they were always my favorite). My advice: Don't think about it, and just enjoy...

Recipes (I doubled):


Chocolate -
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter


Peanut Butter-
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
3/4 cup peanut butter


Combine sugar, (cocoa), butter and milk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil for one minute on medium heat.


Remove from stove and stir in peanut butter, (vanilla) and oatmeal.


Drop by spoonful on wax paper and let cool for a minimum of 30 minutes.

I'm Baaaaack!

Whoa...was April really the last time I posted? My apologies on being a terrible food blogie.


Here is what happened since then:


I graduated...

Celebrated 5 years and 2 degrees from Penn State at my graduation party thrown for me by my parents...

Bought a new car...

Moved to DC and started a new job...

Made some new friends...

Reconnected with old ones...

Helped my brother turn 21 in style...

Spent the weekends on the Chesapeake Bay...

And turned 24...

So needless to say i've been busy...but I'm back and armed with recipes :)



Last week of class...ever (maybe)

(Please take note of the half eaten egg cake that snuck into this picture.  I believe there was also a tall glass of red wine, but it must have been a bit camera shy...Happy Easter!)

So I'm sitting (false - laying) here watching Julie & Julia (again) with all the windows in my apartment open because its nearing 80 degrees, eating a walnut, banana and nutella muffin ...or cupcake  (recipe coming soon), contemplating what I'll wear out tonight, and waiting for the supposed severe storms to roll over the valley. Lets time stamp this at approximately 3:06 in the afternoon. Why am I telling you all this? Because in 18 days I will be graduating, becoming a real person, and saying goodbye to the ability to have this kind of afternoon an any given Wednesday.

My labor economics professor, who is awesome, hands me her credit card every monday night and lets me order dinner for the entire class. Soooo...for the last class of the year, we all brought something in to munch on for the three hour discussion on...mmm, I can't even remember because I was too busy eating.

My contribution? Fruit and the most delish dip, ever.

We ended up with quite a collection of food. Chinese food, cheese and crackers, cupcakes, hot wings, poppy seed bread, etc. Yum-my.

Besides cutting the fruit, this recipe is super easy and healthy, if you don't drown every morsel in the creamy, goodness of this...

Fruit Dip:

1 cup honey nut cream cheese
1 cup whipped cream
1 cup vanilla yogurt

Whip together with a hand mixer until fluffy and smooth.