Midnight Snack

The Best Dip for Granny Smith Apples in the World 

Ingredients

8oz Cream Cheese 

7oz Marshmallow Creme

Directions:

mash it all together and dip away

Friday Night's New Recipe

Dear Martha thanks so much for the recipe! Apparently Brian has got a little weary of the 15 or so old standbys in the recipe box and now that i have a kitchen to cook in, i guess its time to get to it! I don't cook a lot with pork... its just not my favorite thing in the world... wait, unless its drowned in bbq sauce, smoked, made into sausage or hotdogs... do pork rinds count? ok so well i do like pork but chops are hard for me... what do you do with those? mine are always tough and bland :( dearest Martha spiced these chops right up! and Brian gave them 2 thumbs up and with his mouth full gave me permission to cook them anytime i want ;) i was a little overwhelmed by the coriander, myself... i was surprised to find that cilantro and coriander come from the same plant, i don't like cilantro either- ha! coriander is too sweet maybe? or floral? its edible but just not my cup of tea (unless its in masala chai and then i definitely don't mind the coriander)

Pork Chops with Herb Stuffing

     

Prep: 15 minutes
Total: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4

• 1 cup cubed (3/8 inch) rustic bread, without crusts
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, and 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, and 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon mixed chopped parsley and thyme
• 2 1/4 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons chicken stock
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 bone-in pork chops (9 ounces each), cut horizontally to the bone
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup dry sherry

          Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toast bread cubes on a baking sheet until golden, about 7 minutes. Heat butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Cook onion, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add celery; cook 1 minute. Transfer to a bowl. Reserve skillet. Toss bread, herbs, 1/4 teaspoon coriander, and 3 tablespoons stock with onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Stuff chops. Using a fork, mix and mash garlic, 2 teaspoons coriander, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon oil; rub onto pork. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork until golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes; flip, and transfer skillet to oven. Cook until pork registers 155 degrees, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a plate; cover.
3. Add sherry and 1/2 cup stock to skillet. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until reduced by half. Serve with pork

First Real Meal Cooked in my New KItchen

Brian has been begging me for quite awhile to cook him stuffed bell peppers for dinner and I've had to put it off for over year because i just haven't had a place to cook. Now i am in my new apartment with a lovely kitchen that practically begs to be used. So tonight we made stuffed bell peppers and lemme tell you it turned out to be quite an undertaking, I used almost every pot and every pan i own not to mention the fact that I over looked the part about the 1.5cups of rice being cooked rice and not dry rice... I ended up with 4 cups of rice I didn't need! oh well, left over rice is great for fried rice, looks like I will have to find a chinese recipe for tomorrow!

• 6 green bell peppers
• 1 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
• 2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, divided
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef or chuck
• 1 1/2 cups cooked long-grain rice
• shredded mild Cheddar cheese, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup, optional

Preparation:

Cut tops off peppers; remove seeds and membranes. Chop edible part of tops and set aside. Rinse peppers under cold water. Place peppers in a large pot; cover with salted water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain peppers and set aside.

Heat olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat until hot. Sauté chopped green pepper (from tops), chopped onion, and chopped celery for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, crushed garlic, oregano, basil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, combine egg with remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Gently stir to blend; add ground beef, cooked rice, and 1 cup of the tomato mixture. Mix well. Stuff peppers with meat mixture and place in a 3-quart baking dish. Pour remaining tomato mixture over the stuffed peppers. Bake at 350° for 55 to 65 minutes. If desired, top stuffed peppers with a little shredded Cheddar cheese just before peppers are done; bake until cheese is melted.

Recipe for stuffed peppers serves 6.

next time i may look for a recipe with sausage instead of ground chuck, i think i prefer something with a little more kick!

My New Love: Knitting

he's gonna kill me for posting this picture on my blog but i think its cute... 

     this weekend i got out all my books that i already own about knitting, and my knitting needles and finally got to work. i definitely dont consider myself a knitter, as a matter of fact i have avoided it for a long time because it just seems to much more difficult than crocheting. ive been crocheting for a long time and i remember how long it took me to understand exactly how it all worked. i thot that knitting would be the same but i think it actually maybe easier to understand. ive never finished anything besides a few scarves and ive never used circular needles before but i figured i give it a try... i turned out this hat on saturday. its alpaca and it sheds... he seems to like it tho :) and im glad.

     i also decide to tackle cable knitting and i thot that was gonna be the most difficult thing ive ever done but it wasnt! i was so surprised that it only took me one try to turn out a perfect 4 stitch left cross cable, i think its beautiful!
     i obsessed over this 3x4" piece of knitting all night long. i think that brian got a little annoyed with my incessant giggling after awhile but i understand. he says he likes the fact the i crochet and knit. once he said it seemed more like magic to him than a hobby or a craft. he likes to know how things work and i think it annoys him that he doesnt understand yarn craft...
     i catch him peeking over my shoulder alot...

     i found a pattern that i adore set to work on it immediately... its from a book from lion brand yarns and yes it is the picture on the front

im frustrated.

     i didn't figure out until half way thru my 3rd try that "make 1" and "increase 1" DO NOT mean the same thing ... i decided to go on anyway and start making stitches instead of increasing stitches. so we will see how it turns out im sure that once i finish im going to start on another and make sure i do it perfectly and then make it again in every color...

its a start.......

getting inspired

ive spent my weekend snowed in, recovering and searching for inspiration for... something... anything... ive been skimming over crochet blogs, sewing patterns, online art galleries and as of yet im still only mildly motivated to start work on anything... i havent even been able to put pencil to paper and do a little doodling. i spent a small fortune on assorted colors of a cotton/acrylic blend yarn (that i love for amigurumi) which someday will be repurposed into softies of some sort, i hoped that would give me a jumping off point and i do now have an idea for a doll in the likeness of a friend (keep in mind that i rarely follow thru with any of my project ideas)

what i need is a place, a room set up specifically for me to focus on, what i consider, my hobbies. im in the process of apartment hunting and its turned out to be more challenging than i had anticipated (i need an apartment with a parking lot that i can get out of when it snows... ugh) and im hoping that when i get out of my current apartment, which is 3/4 of the the way empty (or 1/4 of the way full, which ever way you prefer to look at it... ... ...) and in a chaotic mess right now (and for the past year...) ill be able to get back in the kitchen, im dying to get back to baking bread and hand dipping bon bons... my current kitchen is miserable, its dark and little and has no dish washer ...ugh...