Kitchen

Last night I was struck by the pastel beauty of the dinner table. So I took a picture 😀

We had carrots, green peppers, and tomatoes dipped in ranch, and pizza rolls dipped in pizza sauce.

Derek brought home bananas for dessert which morphed into this…. yummy.

Did I mention that these babies have turned me into a total ice cream fanatic? Usually poor Derek has to beg me to buy ice cream and grovel to get me to make it. We’ve made it every week for a month now…

We all scream for ice cream!

Did you know that for a multiple pregnancy 1 cup of ice cream is considered a valid serving of dairy?
When you need 8 servings of dairy a day and you’re pregnant in the summer this is FANTASTIC news. Did I mention I’ve never really cared for ice cream prior to the twins?

It’s the beginning of stone fruit season. And the first stone fruit to become available at the grocery stores is my favorite: Cherries! We buy two or three bags to pit and freeze when they are 2.99 a pound. Cherry pie on demand… mmm. So in honor of these two momentous occasions I had a creative celebration.

Cherry Amaretto Ice Cream!

• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1-2 cups pitted cherries
• 1 pint whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon real almond extract
• 3 drops red food coloring (if desired)
• 1 drop blue food coloring (if desired)
• some sliced almonds might be nice too!

1. Run the sugar milk and pitted cherries through the blender to combine (nuts if you added them too!).
2. Add almond extract and whipping cream, and food coloring (if using). Put through the blender on stir setting for no more than a few seconds.
3. Freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.
4. Enjoy in your favorite teacups (so it lasts longer than a day!)

Recipe adapted from Pleasant View Schoolhouse’s basic vanilla recipe.

P.S. My husband started a hysterical blog today for your kicks and giggles. Hope you enjoy.

My sister visited last week and we had so much fun playing cards, altering a dress, painting rooms, and getting high off of paint (we sure had a serious case of the giggles!). She decided to make us dinner on Wednesday and this is what she made:

We froze the leftovers to eat when we came back from our trip because this macaroni and cheese was so good! I went shopping with her so I sort of know what went in and what order it was cooked in, but since her Mac and Cheese uses our Creative Genes, it may not turn out perfectly for me (or you) again!

Ingredients to Have on Hand

• box of pasta (she used the swirly kind)
• yellow cheddar (shredded or cut in thin slices)
• sharp white cheddar (shredded or cut in thin slices)
• 2 can Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup
• Worcestershire sauce
• Dijon type mustard
• McCormick GrillMates Montreal Chicken Seasoning (this is our family’s signature spice)
• 4 eggs

Unscientific Instructions

1. Put on the pot for the pasta. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Warm 2 cans soup in a saucepan. Add 2/3 of your shredded/sliced cheese. Stir to melt cheese.
3. Cook pasta now that your water is boiling.
4. Continue to melt the cheese. Add Worcestershire sauce, dijion mustard, and Montreal Chicken Seasoning to taste.
5. Remove now melted sauce from the burner. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously as you add them.
6. Put the pasta in a casserole dish. Pour cheese sauce over. Place the remaining 1/3 of your cheese on top of the casserole.
7. Bake for 45 minutes to thicken. Turn on the broiler at the end to melt the cheeses a little better if you would like.
8. Enjoy while wearing a cute apron.

My sister and I mostly inherited our creative genes from our Dad. We have priceless memories of paper mache Humpty Dumpty, a huge hand built greenhouse, a hand engineered waterslide into our pool, carrots and bell peppers turned into palm trees at my wedding, duct-taped Giant Waffle Block Cars, and sweetly doodled Heart Birds.

Dad was also the one who taught us how to cook. Mom cooked most of our meals as kids: she’s a master at following a recipe, or back of the box instructions and we always teased her about her “Homemade” mashed potatoes and gravy. Her cooking is precise, scientific and done out of necessity. But Dad can walk into the kitchen and suddenly he’s transformed into a magician. A little smoke, some spices here, an onion chopped there, and sometimes a pretty good grease fire later, and something magical would emerge to be set on our plates. My sister and I were enthralled; luckily Dad involved us in his magic as soon as we were old enough to demand happy or sad faces on our pancakes.

But cooking like Dad taught us has one huge disadvantage: when we totally rock a dish, the odds are not one of the three of us know how to replicate it again. We may be able to remember the ingredients and even the order of cooking, but the dish will never live up to the original. We’re not scientific. We don’t measure…. we don’t even write down what was used!

For instance, shortly after Easter I glazed a half ham with a delicious honey mustard combination. It was wonderful! Derek practically licked the plate. I’m cooking another ham tomorrow and for the life of me cannot remember what all I put in that glaze! I know it had honey, yellow mustard (Dad would be ashamed that I didn’t have any dijion mustard in the house) and cloves in it. I’m sure the glaze won’t be the same this time; I’m sure I’m forgeting something…

However, the other night I was engrossed in creating a pot of homemade stroganoff. I took careful mental notes to share with you the process of creative cooking. I love stroganoff and the occasion of having hamburger to use up gave me an excuse to make it. I made the hamburger into meatballs separately, but if you’d like to make this you could also use any cut of beef you like. I usually use beef stew or chuck and let it cook separately before adding it to the onions.

Creative Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients to have on hand:

• Thmye
• Garlic Powder
• Black Pepper
• Large Onion
• Stick of Butter (yes REAL butter nothing else will do!)
• Mushrooms (mixed exotic are really yummy… but any will do)
• Flour (I used wheat b/c that’s what I had. White works too)
• Box of beef broth
• White wine (optional)
• Sour Cream (yogurt works too)
• Corn Strarch or Arrowroot starch (for thickening emergencies)
• Meatballs, beef stew meat, or chuck steak meat cooked seperately
• Cooked rice or noodles
• Frozen peas if desired.

Highly Unscientific Directions

1. In a medium stock pot, melt half a stick of butter over medium heat.
2. Add thinly sliced onion, thyme, garlic, and pepper (I used at least a teaspoon of each except for the pepper).
3. Carmelize the onion. To do this cook it on no higher than medium heat in the butter. Onions will be transluecent and oh so sweet when you are finished. Carmelizing can take awhile, like 10-20 minutes. So walk the dog, or put away the dishes to keep yourself from stopping such a yummy process.
4. Once the onion is carmelized, add the sliced mushrooms. Let them cook until they start exuding their yummy juices.
5. If the mushrooms sucked up all the butter (they are prone to do so) add some more butter to the pan and melt it.
6. Slowly add flour to the butter-veggie mixture until everything is coated well but still looks sort of wet. (I imagine this is about a 1/4 cup of flour). Let flour cook (still on no higher than medium heat!) for 2-3 minutes.
7. Slowly add a 1/2 cup of white wine (if using) while stirring frequently. The mixture should still look puffy and floury. Cook off the alcohol for 2-3 minutes. (if you’re using stew or chuck meat add it to the sauce now fully cooked).
8. Start pouring beef broth out of the container while stirring frequently. The mixture will be very thick and first and thin out some as you go. Stop pouring somewhere before it gets too liquidy.
9. Bring to a slow boil and it should thicken nicely.
10. If (like me) you add too much broth and it does not thicken after boiling a little while, mix together some cold broth or water with a bunch of corn or arrowroot starch and slowly pour and stir this into your sauce. It should thicken for sure then!
11. Turn off the head, add about a cup of sour cream. Serve with meatballs and noodles or rice. Adding frozen peas to the sauce with the sour cream is also yummy.
12. Remember to feel free to add as much thyme (or rosemary), garlic, and pepper to the sauce as you’d like during cooking it!

Hope you enjoy!

Yesterday, we enjoyed supper on the porch. We had Rubens, Italian 3 Bean Soup with Parmesan, and Fruit Salad with the lime dressing from Anna’s blog. I loved the lime and honey dressing since I have absolutely NO desire for anything sweet! That tiny touch of tartness was delicious.

And oh, yeah, that’s me barefoot and pregnant in the glorious sunshine. Really, it’s not so bad.