Quote of the Week

In honor of Lil Wayne's arrival and (first!) concert at Penn State tomorrow...

Goat Cheese Love

Don't judge me, but one of my favorite foods is goat cheese. I dream about it. Therefore this is a salad I make pretty often...

Ingredients:
Goat Cheese
Spinach
Strawberries
Chicken
Raspberry Vinaigrette

The exact proportions depend on your taste. Here's how I build mine (I'll let the pictures do the talking, its 1st grade math at its tastiest).

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Goat cheese love.

Super Bowl XLV Champ...Usher.

So as I'm sitting here, third quarter, super bowl sunday loving the fact that the Steelers are loosing (I live in PA, but on the better side of the state), hoping they give the win to Usher for dropping from...the sky (?) and eating some of this -

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

 and a little of that -


Chili, Cream Cheese and Rice Dip

 I remember my favorite most recent orignial recipe that I would like to share with yinz (heh...pittsburgh). No, this is not your typical football recipe, however...its the perfect morning after the super bowl food. I have yet to see any of those, so here it is!

"Pucker Up" Cake






You will need:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup apple sauce
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 stick butter
squeeze of lemon juice

Glaze:
1/4 cup cranberries (mashed)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon apple sauce
squeeze of lemon

Oh and the good news is it's healthy (ish). The apple sauce replaces the need for oil and well, whole wheat flour is better than white flour (even when covered with pounds of powdered sugar).

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients for cake.
3. Bake for 35 minutes in a loaf pan.
4. To make icing, combine sugar, apple sauce, lemon and cranberries.
5. Pour over cake after cool.

The icing is all the yum, and so pretty. Even my sous-chef, rupert, agreed...

Ok, so maybe he didn't try it, buuuut...he would have liked it (he likes everything, even tube socks).

See... I told you it went well with breakfast. Oh and to the super bowl, you've officiall lost to a Criminal Minds marathon. Peace out.

Smile :)

"We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do." - Mother Teresa

50 years...bow chicka

This past weekend, we celebrated my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary out in freezing cold, snow boots required....erie, pa. My brother has a swim meet almost every weekend so we brought the celebration to him so he wouldn't miss out. Here are some pictures...



From left: My Uncle Greg and Aunt Tammy, Dad and Mom, Brother,
Gpa, Camille, Gma and Me!



An Irish Dinner @ Molly Brannigans! - I had a boxty which is basically a potato pancake sandwich. Sooo good.







My Brother and his girlfriend Annie -
aka: my new favorite person.

The weekend was full of 50 years of stories, good food, belly busting laughter and lots of wine. Yay family!



Pittsburgh "Power" Bars

So I recently went to Pittsburgh (and yes, I hate the Steelers) to celebrate a few of my best friend's birthdays! Since I'm trying to save some money, I decided to make a healthy and filling oatmeal bar for the trip. I used this recipe from cdkitchen, but I added dried pomegranates, walnuts and chocolate.

They were easy, inexpensive and healthy-ish.



They powered us through a weekend of birthday shenanigans! Here's a picture of myself with the two birthday girls - who just happen to be some of the best friends in the world :)

Quote of the Week

"When it is darkest, men see the stars" - Ralph Waldo Emerson