It's been a while...

I know it has been quite some time since my last post... but hectic life and eating schedules have hardly permitted even pictures of our food! Gasp! Then my computer was acting up till my wonderful brother just came and fixed it in about 15 minutes. Oh to have the gift of computers- you're pretty much everyones best friend. Scrolling through my phone I really haven't been taking pictures of some of the most recent creations... I will get back on that. So here are some of the things from the past months that I never got a chance to post...

One amazing find this fall was PUMPKIN SPICE BUTTER! We put that stuff on pancakes, muffins, toast, sandwiches, and of course sweet potatoes. So awesome.

This fall we happened to come across these ridiculously awesome Almonds... I was like a kid in a candy store. We happened to be in Ohio when we found them and if I could've fit 10 cans in my bag... you bet I would've.

These are turkey cranberry wraps. Turkey and cranberry sauce in perfect harmony all rolled up

A fall favorite: crock pot chili - Ohio style! They like to put chili over spaghetti noodles. Its like a new version of spaghetti, give it a try!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Blackberry Almond Spinach Salad - we eat salad about 4 times a week so I try to switch up the lettuce and toppings so that we don't get bored of the same things.

A dessert from thanksgiving... pumpkin bars with a gingerbread crust. I found the recipe here

I also made two rustic pies. I was super busy with work around the holidays so I bought pie crusts, a ton of apples, a bag of cranberries, and just went for it. Peeled and sliced the apples then tossed them with cinnamon sugar, made a cranberry sauce with the cranberries and sugar, then piled it all on the crust folding up the edges around it and dotting with butter. I egg washed the crust and sprinkled with sugar then baked them on cookie sheets till the apples were soft. Tart and sweet and they make a pretty picture!

The picture says it all- we LOVE pierogies... if you've never had them go buy a box of Mrs. T's Pierogies in the frozen food section. This is the only boxed/frozen meal I will buy and its because I did try making them from scratch one time and it was an all day-back breaking affair. We stock up on 3 boxes when they're on sale for those "I'm too tired and lazy to cook" nights except for we look forward to those nights because we get to eat pierogies - which are delicious.

Basically a ravioli but with mashed potatoes and cheese or mashed potatoes and onion inside...

Here we have a simple weeknight meal: BLT's with fresh bread/lettuce/tomato/bacon and a bowl of chowder

For our fish fix- here is a really simple dinner. Thaw out some frozen fish, salt and pepper the fillets, sear it in a pan with a little oil, then put it in a baking dish. Smother it with some pineapple relish (my mom gave us a jar of harry and david relish but you can find some unique relish/chutney type of toppings at trader joes or the grocery store). Put it in the oven at 350 for 10-20 minutes depending on how thick your fillets are. Just keep checking them so they don't dry out. I finished them off with a squirt of lime juice- absolutely amazing!

My mother in law was kind enough to give me her mothers cast iron skillet because I have been searching and wishing and hoping for one for months now. I've been having a lot of fun cooking in it although it is seriously heavy and I FRIED two of my fingers on it trying to get the 20 pound bread out of the oven. She also gave me her Irish Soda Bread recipe with the pan that you bake in the skillet! This was a really fun recipe that makes a huge loaf of bread - as you can see.

Cheap dinner! I went to Sprouts looking for some meat to make and found two giant turkey legs for under 3 bucks. Awesome! Smothered them in BBQ sauce (Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce is really good when you don't have time to make your own) and threw them on our awesome little grill. Unfortunately our awesome little grill doesnt give enough flame to actually char the outside like you want on a turkey leg... I had to throw them under the broiler at the end but don't tell my little grill- he works so hard.

Stuffed mushroom caps! Tommy loves these so I made them for his birthday dinner. I just stuffed them with some spicy italian sausage, onion, parmesan, and topped with muenster cheese!

My friend gave me cute heart shaped cookie cutters and a delicious pumpkin pecan pancake mix for christmas. It was breakfast for dinner... which is really wonderful because who has time to make this in the morning??

The other day Tommy and I had a hankering for Sauerkraut. Granted, I have only had sauerkraut maybe once when I was younger and don't remember what it tastes like. So I emailed my grandma in Oregon who is a sauerkraut pro and learned how to prepare it. Boil the stuff with a sprinkling of sugar, add your polish sausage... pretty easy!

Then, being who I am, I took Grama's awesome sauerkraut and made it my own... by putting it on a sandwich! Please excuse this horrible picture I was too excited to get a bite that I didn't bother to take a good picture. I got fresh sandwich rolls from the bakery at the grocery store, mashed some avocados up and spread that on the bottom, put a piece of havarti cheese on the top and loaded the sauerkraut and sausages in the middle. The flavors blended SO WELL and the fact that I slightly toasted the sandwich roll so it had a beautiful crunch but stayed soft in the middle made a big difference. MMmmm... will be repeating this one.

WOW! Please try this drink... I had lemons and cucumber and decided to make a concoction. Little did I know this concoction would go down in the books. SO refreshing. We will be drinking this all next summer. Here's what I did. You can make this with or without alcohol and its amazing both ways. Juice your lemons, add your cooled simple syrup (sugar dissolved in boiling water), slice half a cucumber and throw those in the mix, add a can of sprite/7up, add ice cubes, if desired add some Citron or vodka or something similar. The flavors instantly take you poolside at a day spa in the middle of summer. HAPPINESS.

And now... for the Pièce de résistance! I am so pleased to share this creation with you. The funny story behind this is that I have no idea if I thought this up myself or saw it somewhere. I don't remember seeing it ever in my life... but I woke up one day with a picture of it in my head and began searching the internet to see if it existed... apparently it did. I bought fresh ready to use pizza dough from the deli at the grocery store (I randomly saw this one day and thought it was amazing, and its cheap too!). I painstakingly pealed and sliced as thin as humanly possible a couple of potatoes and some onion. I made garlic oil in the morning to marinate all day to spread on the dough... POTATO PIZZA my friends!

Here's how I made mine: roll out the dough, spread garlic oil all over dough (I made a crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, chili pepper flake mixture and let it sit all day to combine the flavors), spread a very thin layer of havarti cheese slices (you want a mild white cheese or you won't be able to taste all the subtle flavors), layered on potato slices, sprinkled thin slices of onion, topped with cracked black pepper... baked it on a pizza stone at 450 for about 10-12 minutes till the top potatoes get curled up and crispy.

It's truly amazing how the bottom layer of potatoes get soft similar to scalloped potatoes, and the top get kind of crispy. There wouldnt be a lot of flavor without the oil mixture so that step is really important.

I made two pizzas to try out two kinds of crust. I used a white wheat, and just a regular crust. The wheat was much more chewy and substantial... I think I would roll the wheat crust thinner in the future or else your jaw gets tired. To the wheat pizza one I added some prosciutto on top for a little added something. Both were excellent and the prosciutto was definitely not "needed".

Hope you enjoyed... leave a comment if you have any questions!