Christmas Recap & Goals for 2012

My Christmas

Cranberry Banana Bread

cookies!

source

a little bubbly

my mother's beautiful tree

a worn out weeny in her new bed

xmas eve- insert little sister ^ here

Christmas this year was just about my family. There were a few gifts, but no pictures were taken of those- it wasn't what was important. What was important was that we were all together. 2012 already looks like it is bringing a lot of changes for me and my family- some anticipated with joy and hope and some with anxiety. 

I'm not a new year's resolution person, but I have been thinking about goals.

In 2011 I started this blog, ran my first race (Capital 10k) loved it and signed up for more. I ran for the water and I completed, however painfully, my first half marathon. 

SO, 2012....bring it. I will definitely do more races, both street and adventure. I'd like to do the San Antonio Rock N Roll half marathon without wanting to die this time, and be training for Disney's Princess Half Marathon in Feb, 2013. I want to try more food, do a few cooking classes, and grow in the blogging community even more. Thank you to all of my lovely readers who have shown me love and comments this year. :-) I am looking forward to all of your blog posts and comments in 2012!

Happy New Year!

Homemade Gifts- Gingerbread Playdough

I have some pretty awesome kids in my life, for reals. There is of course all of the kids I get paid to see every day, and then there's a few that I keep around just because ;-)

Two of these little darlings are my very good friend's kids- I have known Michelle since we were in 6th grade and we became super close friends in high school when we were both on drill team. She now has one beautiful little girl who is six (sometimes my brain cannot wrap itself around the fact that my little chicken is six!) and she also has one handsome little man who will be one in March.

I also am lucky enough to have been the regular babysitter/nanny-type-person for one particular family from the daycare that I used to work at while I was in college. When I started with this family, Lily (monster) was 18mos old and I helped them through seems like everything from potty training to her "independence" stage. Then her sister came along and I spent a week with them getting Lily settled with the baby and helping everyone in general with the adjustment. Charlotte (monkey) will now be 3 in June- I have no idea where the time has gone!

Obviously I do something for these kids every year, but this year (like it is for many, I'm sure) things are tight. So when I found a recipe for homemade Gingerbread Playdough on another blog I knew that this would be perfect. Who doesn't like playdough!? (plus I had everything in my pantry already, how often does that happen?)

Gingerbread Playdough

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbs ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves- I actually omitted this
2 tbs vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 tsp orange extract- optional

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a medium saucepan and whisk together (this felt so wrong to me).

2. Mix in the water, oil and extract and stir until it's a thick batter.

3. Cook on medium/low heat, stirring occasionally until a thick dough forms.

4. Turn out onto parchment paper and knead until smooth- this feels good when you have cold hands!

5. Let cool before packing!

Makes about 2 cups of dough.

high five, job well done!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Babaganoush & Pita Chips

Baba-ganoush. Ba-ba-ga-noosh. Babaganoush.

It's so much fun to say! Turns out it's pretty tasty, too.

I've been cleaning and wrapping some stray presents all afternoon so I needed something that I could snack on while dinner was cooking in the crockpot. I bought an eggplant last weekend at Sprouts (super cheap and local produce, love it) and had this dip in mind when it went into the cart. I've seen it made and I've read recipes for it before- so in true Susan fashion I took the basis of the other recipes and changed almost everything else. :-)

Babaganoush

Adapted from Ellie Kreiger's

1 large eggplant

1 clove garlic (or 1/2 tsp powder)

2 tbs plain greek yogurt

1-2 tbs lemon juice

Siracha- because it's yummy

Roast eggplant on a baking sheet in a 450* oven for about 20mins. Remove and allow to cool. Slice in half lengthwise and drain liquid (seriously, give it a squeeze, otherwise your dip will be too liquidy)

Scoop out the eggplant guts into a food processor or blender - discard skins. Add the garlic, yogurt, & lemon juice and puree until smooth. Pour into a serving dish and top with Siracha sauce.

Pita Chips

Adapted from Allrecipes

12 pita bread pockets- sliced into triangles

1/3 cup EVOO

salt

Preheat oven to 400*. Lay pita flat on a lined cookie sheet. Brush each triangle with EVOO and then sprinkle with salt. Bake for ~7mins, watch carefully they'll burn easily!

I probably shouldn't eat the entire bowl of babaganoush tonight.....no promises though.

Ghosts of recipes past....

I don't really have anything new to share tonight, honestly, I just ate chips and hummus/cranberry salsa for dinner... So I thought that I would re-share some oldies but goodies. Enjoy!

Remember my cheese-stuffed meatballs. Oh, so delish and so simple!

How about my mom's birthday surprise that I had been planning for  for.ev.er? Rootbeer Float Cupcakes

Or, one of my favorites, the recipe that I took only 1 picture of because I was sure that I was screwing it all up and they wouldn't turn out tasty at all, whatsoever- Coconut Donuts

And who could forget this crowd pleaser? Apple Cinnamon Muffin Cake

And now for the ghosts of recipes yet to come.... or something...

oh, yes, that is cranberry salsa on my sandwich. best. idea. ever.

Chilly outside, chili in the crockpot

this tastes even better when it's eaten from this cup

Apricot Sugar Cookies

I've been in the kitchen all day. Except for the grocery store run I had to make when I realized I had run out of an ingredient I was going to need, and of course my union mandated lunch break. Other than that, the kitchen and I have been one.

I started the day with cookies. These were the boyfriends favorite cookies last year. They are SO easy- both to assemble and on the wallet! Are they healthy? Well.....they have dried fruit....? Okay, no Christmas cookie is going to be healthy- 'Tis the Season, you know!

See? Easy.

These cookies wont actually be given away, I don't know if bf would allow that...

Last year I had drizzled them with dark chocolate which was a really nice touch, but they are still super delicious naked. The orange extract really adds a lot, if you're thinking about making these with plain old vanilla extract don't do it! The orange flavor and the apricot are best friends and your cookie will be a little sad without the orange extract, promise.

Apricot Sugar Cookies

2 cups dried apricots, chopped
1 pkg sugar cookie mix (I used Krusteaz)
1 stick of butter- softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon orange extract


Cream together the egg, extract & butter. Add the sugar cookie mix. Mine was pretty crumbly, I had to use my hands (lightly greased) and press it together. I rolled my cookies into 24 balls which made 2.5" cookies. Bake at 375* for about 8 mins, remove from oven, let cool on the pan for a couple mins and then transfer to a cooking rack (if you try and move them immediately they will fall apart)
 Enjoy!!

Banana Bread

It's cold and rainy today. That means I've been in the kitchen for most of the afternoon. I've been making a mental list of recipes that I'd like to make anyway, so what better day than today?

My mom makes the most fabulous banana bread- for real life. Maybe it's her magical mom-ness, but it's the bomb.com.

This recipe is not my mom's, but is pretty flipp'n tasty. It was adapted from my Joy of Cooking book- while the recipes for squirrel were really interesting and sounded utterly scrumptious I thought for blog-purposes I might post something a little less.....road-kill....
(Joy of Cooking was first privately printed in 1931 by authors Irma Rombauer & Marion Rombauer Becker. I have the 1975 edition. Be jealous)

Banana Bread
Hardware:
oven heated to 350*, bread pan lightly greased and sprinkled with sugar, 1 large bowl, 1 medium bowl, hand mixer.
I have Lenox Temper-Ware dishes that my Aunt Jenny handed down to me and they have been such a blessing! They can go in the microwave, oven, fridge & freezer. Gotta love that! I used 4 small bowls, about 4.5"diameter, 1.5" deep.

Software:
1-3/4 cups APF (all purpose flour)
2-1/4 teasp baking powder
1/2 teasp salt
1/3 cup butter softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teasp cinnamon
1 egg
1.5 smashed ripe bananas

The fun part:
Combine flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in large bowl. Then cream butter and sugar on low speed with hand mixer in medium bowl. Add in egg and banana. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients, mixing with hand mixer- be sure to scrape the sides and bottom on the bowl.
Fill your greased/sugared bowls/pan and pop in the oven. 30 mins for the bowls, 55-60mins for the bread pan. Insert a toothpick/slim knife, the bread is done when it comes out clean (we all know that trick, right?)
Cool for 5-10 mins and then drizzle with honey and dig in, my friend.

sugar crust- mmmmmm

side note: my Joy cookbook also contains such recipes as sauteed, baked, & broiled brains, as well as directions on the proper cooking of muskrat, woodchuck, beaver, beaver tail, and armadillo. :-)

Food for Fuel- Cauliflower edition.

Hands up, who loves Cauliflower? Me too. Cooked, raw, dipped, naked, doesn't matter. Love it.

 I was reading a blog the other day and the author asked her audience if anyone knew the difference in the different colored cauliflowers. I did know, so I answered, and was then called a "veggie genius" LOL While I'm far from a veggie genius, I was very flattered. It did get me thinking, however, about doing a post just on cauliflower...and then maybe spotlighting some other vegetables and how nutritious they are!

So here's the first post of what may become a regular thing here, let me know if you learn anything new!

CAULIFLOWER

Cauliflower is part of the cabbage family. It's name is latin for "cabbage" and "flower". Though most people don't, the entire head of cauliflower can be ingested. Yep, stalks and all. Most people, however, only eat the "flower" part of the cabbage and use the leafy green part for vegetable broth or toss it away with the thick white stalk of the cauliflower. There are four major groups of Cauliflower, the most common that we see is the Italian- this type is the ancestral form from which the others were derived. 

*history geek moment*- Cauliflower was first made a common dish on the royal tables of King Louis XIV. That's right, the same King that gave us the high heeled shoes... no one can be taller than the King afterall...okay, that's another post. Back to Cauliflower...

White cauliflower is the most commonly seen, though it does grow in many shades. So what's the difference? Vitamins, my friend. Orange cauliflower contains 25times more Vitamin A than white varieties (like pumpkin!). Purple cauliflower is purple because of the presence of antioxidents- the same antioxidants found in red cabbage and wine (word). Green cauliflower, or broccoflower, is higher in protein than other varieties. 

picture courtesy of Google image search

So here's the really good stuff:

Cauliflower is low in fat, calories and carbs. It is also high in dietary fiber, folate and Vitamin K & Vitamin C. (77% of your dv of Vitamin C, people!) Cauliflower is an excellent choice for people following  a low carb diet but still want the taste and feel of a potato dish- they have a similar texture without all the starches!

As an excellent source of Vitamin K and a good source of omega-3 fatty acids in the form of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) cauliflower gives us significant anti-inflammatory nutrients which are being studied in the fight against cancer and chronic diseases.

So go! Eat your cauliflower!

Just please don't boil it, it begins to lose all those wonderful nutrients!

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