Our Non-Traditional Christmas Dinner

So we have Turkey and dressing at Thanksgiving and Christmas at all our family dinners... but when Brent and I cook for our parents we like to fix a dinner that is good but slightly less traditional.  The past two years we had made a stuffed tenderloin and this year we decided to carry on with that tradition.  I hunted for months for a new reciepe that I liked... never finding one that really jumped out at me.  Until my December issue of Better Homes and Gardens came and I spotted this recipe in the Prize Tested Reciepes, it was the $500 winner and the name literally shouted... "cook me at Christmas!!!"  So we did.  This Christmas we made Blackberry-Stuffed Pork from the Better Homes and Gardens magazine and added some Paula Deen specilities of green bean bundles and scalloped potatoes.  So yummy, even my picky sister-in-law thought is was wonderful, and my nephew ate it like crazy at lunch the next day.  Anyhow, since it was such a hit I thought I would share it.  I have been unable to locate an actual link to it on the Better Homes and Gardens magazine website so I will just type out the recipe here and will link the sides below. 

Blackberry-Stuffed Pork

BHG-PTR winner Anne Galindo of Fostoria, OH

1 recipe Balckberry Sauce (below)

1 2lb. boneless pork top loin roast

1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1.Preheat oven to 325°F.  Prepare Blackberry Sauce.
   Line roasting pan with foil; place rack in pan
   (we do not actually own a roasting pan so we substitued a broiler pan bottom with
    a cookie cooling rack in the bottom; worked wonderfully)
2.To butterfly roast, turn roast fat side down.  Make a lengthwise cut down the 
   center, cutting to within 1/2 inch of opposite side.  Place knife in the V. Cut
   perpendicular to the first cut to within 1/2 inch of side. Repeat on opposite side. 
   Open flat.  Spinkle with 1/4 tsp. each salt and pepper.  Spread with half of the
   sauce; sprinkle with half the nuts.

3. Starting from a short side, roll up meat (some sauce may leak out).  Place roast

   on rack in pan.  Roast, uncovered, for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until thermometer

   inserted into meat registers 145°F.  Tent with foil; let stand for 15 minutes.

4. Reheat remaining Blackberry Sauce; spoon over roast. Sprinkle with remaining nuts.  If desired, top
    with fresh blackberries and snipped fresh rosemary.

Makes 8 servings.

Blackberry Sauce
Coat medium saucepan with nonstick cooking spray; cook 1/2 cup chopped onion in pan over medium heat for 5 minutes or just until tender.  In a bowl combine onion, 1/2 cup blackberry spreadable fruit, 1/4 cup green jalapeno jelly, 1/2 tsp. finely shredded lemon peel, and 1/2 tsp. reduced sodium soy sauce.  Stir in 1 cup of fresh blackberries.

Thanks to Aunt Brandy planting her garden early we had jalapeno jelly from this summer in the pantry. 

My husband is an awesome cook.  Sometimes I can find great recipes, but he is really the best cook in the house.

For sides we enjoyed a nice green salad and green bean bundles from  here and scalloped potaoes from here both from Paula Deen.  I just love her recipes!

I have tried to make scalloped potatoes before, with not very good results.  My mother-in-law makes the best ones ever!  At least in my opinion.  However, both her and my husband told me these I made were awesome.  Way to go me!  Finally I have a scalloped potatoe recipe I can keep and actually use again.  Of course the green bundles with bacon were almost too pretty to eat but so yummy. 

So those of you who think this was just a crazy amount of work for Christmas dinner... well yes is was lots of work, but the result was a wonderful meal that we can be proud to say we made. All the while we were together and that is really counts on Christmas.  Now for our Christmas with my mom this weekend.... Lazy Sunday foods!!!  Pulled Pork sandwhiches from a recipe from Aunt Brandy and homemade potatoe chips.

Well Merry Christmas... a couple of day late and HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Watermelon- Baby Food

Watermelon Baby Food

Of course we had watermelon on July 4th. Doesn’t everyone? Well, we had some guests bring us ours and we only managed to slice up one.  The second one I decided to make use of before it went bad.  First I made combo of watermelon and pears, I added peaches to the second batch and then the rest I just used for toddler popsicles and juice.  Recipe for this is soooo easy anyone can do it and I spent a total of 1 hour working on all this and that includes slicing and deseeding the watermelon.
Suggestion for future:  DO NOT get the Seedless.  It is MUCH easier to pick out the large black seeds than the tiny white ones that seem to be intergrated into every spoonful of a seedless.

Begin with a bowl full of watermelon.  Remove seeds.  There are no hints to this I have found yet.  Like I mentioned above, the large black seeds will be easier than tiny white seeds of a seedless.  That is what I had and it was a pain but well worth it to remove them and make use of this whole watermelon for baby food and toddler snacks.
Watermelon with Pears
2 to 3 cups of chunked watermelon; deseeded                                
1 can (15oz) pears, drained;  you could very easily use 2 cups of fresh pears also, I just happened to have the canned in the pantry

Puree in blender or food processor to desired consistancy
I used our NINJA for this and it worked great!

Next pour into your BabyCubes or ice trays and pop into the freezer overnight.  Once the cubes are frozen you can remove from the cubes or trays and place into a BPA free freezer storage container and place in freezer.  Make sure you label with contents and the date prepared.

Watermelon and Peaches
2 to 3 cups of chunked watermelon; deseeded                                      1 can (15oz) peaches, drained;  you could very easily use 2 cups of fresh peaches also, I just happened to have the canned in the pantry

Puree in blender or food processor to desired consistancy
I used our NINJA for this and it worked great!
Next pour into your BabyCubes or ice trays and pop into the freezer overnight.  Once the cubes are frozen you can remove from the cubes or trays and place into a BPA free freezer storage container and place in freezer.  Make sure you label with contents and the date prepared.
Toddler Watermelon Combo Popsicles
Prepare your watermelon as above with your fruit choice.  Personally Bailey and I liked the Watermelon with Peaches best but others might love the pear combo better.

Once you have pureed to soupy consistancy then pour into your popsicle containers and place tops on and pop into the freezer.  These are super yummy for the little ones and even the moms and dads can enjoy!
You can also make
Watermelon Juice with this same mixture or just with watermelon alone; just pour into a sealable container and place in the fridge.  Since there are no perservatives and this is not being frozen you should consume this within 3 to 5 days.

White Chicken Pizza... mmmmmmm

White Chicken Pizza… mmmmmm

A post from this past summer, but could just as easily be a winner in the winter.

We tried out something new at our house the other day.  White Chicken Pizza from the recipe found here on http://www.mommiecooks.com/.  It was really AWESOME!  We actually did make some modifications as we only had enough chicken for one and usually we make two pizzas so for the second we used italian sausage.  For the chicken we had three grilled chicken tenderloins leftover from the night before.  Loved this since it tasted great and cut down on time and used the leftovers for something new.  I also cheated since I had to run to the store and to the daycare before getting home to make this so we used premade pizza crusts.  Next time I intend to try her recipe for crusts.  Both pizzas were great and I love that we did not have all the sometimes overwhelming pizza sauce to cover all the flavors.  We had my mother-in-law over for dinner that evening and just made it a patio dinner.
Ingredients needed:
2 Small Chicken Breasts, Chopped Small or 1/2 package of italian sausage
2 Shallots, Chopped
5 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
1 Large Bunch of Basil, Chopped
1 Large Handful (~ 1 Cup) of Fresh Spinach, Chopped
A Few Good Shakes of Salt and Pepper
6-8 Oz. of the Pizza Cheese of your Choice (I used a fontina, parmesan, asiago, provolone mix)
1 ball of homemade pizza dough (or a pkg. of store bought dough or pre-cooked crust)
Throw your chicken, shallots, garlic and the salt/pepper in a skillet and cook them up on medium heat.
Once they’re cooked through, remove them from the heat.  Roll out your dough and brush the olive oil across the top of your crust.
After putting on the oil, grab your chicken mixture and spread it evenly across the top of the pizza.  Pop the basil on top of that.
Next up, the spinach.  (Even frozen works great)
Finally you’ll sprinkle your cheese across the top.  Add as much or as little suits your fancy.  That’s part of the beauty of a pizza; it’s totally the way you like it.  Me?  I like A LOT of cheese.
Pop your finished pie into the oven set at 475 for about 9 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown around the edges.

Pull it out and give it a minute or two to set up (if you can wait that long).  Serve it up with a little parmesan, oregano, and red pepper for sprinkling.

We enjoyed these pizzas with a fresh ceasar salad.  Our family loves the Briannas Asiago Caesar dressing, its the best store bought ceasar dressing we have found.  You can find this at your local supermarket (see here for stores outside of Texas) and its a GO TEXAN product which I think is awesome.

Hope you all try this one out and check out http://www.mommiecooks.com/ cause she has some awesome recipes for families to enjoy.

Reindeer Food- every kid needs to make Rudolph a treat!

Magic Reindeer Food

Sprinkle this Magic Reindeer Food on your lawn.  The smell of oats and the sparkling glittter will guide Rudolph to your house on Christmas Eve.
Bailey made this in her preschool class yesterday and I thought it was so cute I HAD to blog about it.

So mom's run and get the kids to make up some Reindeer Food for tonight and sprinkle it in the yard so Rudolph can help Santa find his way tonight.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Shrimp and Feta Vermicelli- From Southern Living: 30 Years of Our Best Recipes

On Sunday we had wonderful fresh boiled shrimp made by my mother-in-law and of course she fixed enough for an army so we had leftovers.  Monday night looking for something different and new for dinner Brent came upon this recipe in the Southern Living: 30 Years of Our Best Recipes cookbook.  He of course added his own twist (I love it when he does that) and it turned out to be an awesome dinner that we added a ceasar salad to.
Brent’s Twist:
1. He used precooked boiled shrimp with the Zatarian’s Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil in a Bag; they were also prepeeled as the shells would have come off as soon as he began searing them.
2. He added a topping of Pizza Cheese mix on top of the shrimp and tomatoes before popping in the oven.  (Soooo glad he did that!)
He used a Yellowtail White Wine but you could use any favorite white wine.

Please enjoy and feel free to try your own variations and post some comments to let us know what you think.

Shrimp and Feta Vermicelli
3 servings
1 pound peeled medium-sized fresh shrimp
1/8 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/4 cup olive oil, divided use
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 teaspoons chopped fresh basil or 3/4 teaspoon dry basil
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
8 ounces dried vermicelli, cooked
Garnish: fresh basil
Saute shrimp and red pepper in 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimp turn slightly pink. Arrange shrimp in a greased 11×7-inch baking dish; sprinkle with feta cheese, and set aside.
Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil to skillet; cook garlic over medium heat 1 minute. Add tomatoes and juice; cook 1 minute. Stir in wine and next 4 ingredients; simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Spoon tomato mixture over shrimp. Bake uncovered, at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Serve over cooked vermicelli. Garnish with basil, if desired.

Homemade Granola

Well we eat lots of granola bars are our house.  Can you imagine how many of those a 2 year old can ask for in one day?  8 at least!  LOL.  Well since I continously buy different varieties and we go through them like there is no tomorrow I decided to try out some homemade.
The first reciepe I tried out I found here and kept it very simple.  I used on the first set of ingredients and substitued the extras with cranberries (cause I don’t love rasins) and walnut (cause we were out of peanuts) and I threw in a handful of white chocolate chips for something special.  It turned out good but was not clusters or bars.  It was cereal pretty much and Brent actually ate it like cereal several days and loved it.  I, however was wanting something more like a granola bar.  So I went back to the web and found many more reciepes.  Only one mentioned “Don’t Crumble”.  That was my bingo sound.  I wanted to make real granola bars!  So I tried this reciepe out from here and it is awesome.  I personally love it and prefer it to the other, cereal like version but Brent likes both.  I have found that Bailey prefers this one too, mainly I think because its a bar she can hold not crumbles in a bowl.  Either way, I went to the store and got all the ingredients for this one and did the extras I wanted and we already went thru the first pan.  I made another pan Tuesday night for our trip to the beach this weekend.  It won’t melt and is full of yummy protein so I think it will be great!

Why You Should Make Your Own Baby Food

Why? Why should you make your own baby food?

Its so much better for your precious baby.  Did you know these facts about jarred store bought baby food:

• It has to be cooked as such a high temp to make it safe to sit on a shelf for 2 years that most of the nutrients are cooked out.
• Studies have found lead in the jars that this food is package in.
• Its expensive and a lot of it gets wasted in the end.

Example: one mom buys jarred baby food and spends up to $3 per day, the other mom makes her own baby food and spends and average of $3 per week to feed her baby
Think about that one!
I don’t have the time…
YES you do.  You always have the time to do what is best for you little one.  You spent 9 months taking the best possible care of your body to give him a healthly environment to grow in.  You can find the time to make the best food for him so he continues to grow in a healthly environment.
Did you know you can make a weeks worth of homemade baby food in just an hour a week.  How many of you can’t find one hour to do this for you child, and yourself.
Think about it this way, after your little one hits the hay for the night, DVR that episode of CSI, Dancing with the Stars or Deadilest Catch and watch it later in the week when nothing else is on.  Or on a rainy Saturday afternoon get Dad to have some one on one time with the baby and you take an hour for making baby food.  When Bailey was eating baby food, I made all hers on Sunday evenings.  We would have either an early dinner, or I would make something that could be popped in the oven and cook while I cooked her food on the stove. Brent loved his special time with her and I am hoping he will do so with both girls when Jozie gets to baby food.
I don’t have the right supplies…
You really don’t need much but in case your actually are missing some supplies here is a short list of the items I use:

• Stock pot and saucepan
• Steamer pan or metal colander
• Blender/Food processor or hand powered food mill
• Vegetable masher
• Cubed trays (ice cubes trays work great but make sure you buy the BPA free ones)
• Good sharp knife
• Cutting board
• Creative mind for stage 2 mixing of veggies and fruits

There are lots of products on the market and I will being doing reviews on some of them but the most basic kitchen utensils work wonders.  I will say that a food processor is better than the blender only because most blenders are just not made for that much use.  We went thru two while Bailey was eating baby food.  A old cheap one we had before and then better quality one we got later.  Its still usuable but I will be trying out our Ninja for when Jozie arrives.