Weekly Photo Challenge – Lunch

There’s nothing quite like an original Philly Cheese Steak from Geno’s!

Creamy Tomato-Basil Soup

Creamy Tomato-Basil Soup

I have been seeing all sorts of yummy recipe ideas on Pinterest, and I have tried a couple of them – some good, some I won’t try again.  When this recipe popped up, though, I couldn’t wait to try it!  Who doesn’t love tomato soup, especially creamy?  The recipe came from Random Thoughts and Thrills Blog, where she called it Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup.  I made a couple small changes to her recipe.  I did not include carrots (just because I completely forgot them) and I used half parmesan cheese and half romano cheese.  We were expecting company, so I also doubled the recipe, and it worked well.  The best part about the recipe, other than it’s ease, is that I can throw it in the crock pot and forget about it until about half an hour to and hour before we want to eat.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Indulge

My super-rich, decadent, and delicious indulgence today

My Year – 2011 In Review

Amy January 2011

I’ve been working on writing this post in my head for a while now, and I decided the only way to actually get it done was to sit down and start typing.  If a stranger looked at my life during the year 2011, they would probably think it was a horrible year that I am happy to leave behind.  They would be a little bit accurate – there were specific events and activities in 2011 that I would just as soon forget and leave behind.  With a quick glance, all the focus would be on the negative events because they were the biggest; however, on further investigation there were far more positive activities, events, and blessings that happened and outweigh all the negativity.  I’m going to re-cap my year by month, and hopefully I’ll be able to link to a previous post for each subject I talk about.

January

One of the first major things that happened in 2011 was Emma getting her Driver’s License.  

Gimme the Vices!

I’m feeling a bit lazy these days because I seem to mostly be posting a single picture with a caption, or a cartoon, or something similar, but I just haven’t had the time or energy to do much else lately.

To say this has been a rough week is a complete understatement.

Coffee (and/or Diet coke) and chocolate are in high demand with me right now.

CaRRRRRRRRRRRRRRot Cake

Reagan goes to speech therapy at school for the letter “R”.  Recently, the group she works with has had two therapists – a new one and the original therapist who is leaving.  Today is her last day with the group, so they’re having a little party.  The instructions were to bring a treat that contained the letter the kids work on, and Reagan wanted to bring carrot cake.  Originally, I was just going to make and frost the cake, but I decided embelishing it a little bit would be fun.

Reagan’s Carrrrrrrrrrrrrot Cake!

Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day

But the Coliseum was . . .

Harley’s class has been divided into small groups studying ancient cultures.  Harley’s group was studying ancient Rome.  Now that the study portion of the project is over, each student has to bring a 3D project to work depicting some element from the culture they studied. 

Harley wanted to build the Coliseum out of cake.

**Cringe**

I make cakes all the time – cakes for girls birthdays, just to eat around the house, all sorts of stuff; however, I have never used fondant before.  I was pretty intimidated about it, but I did a little research and decided to “wing it”.

Harley made three boxes of pound cake which translated into six 9″ round cakes.  I stacked them and put the fondant on for her, and she did all the decorating by crumbling some of the fondant and coloring on it with edible markers.  She did a fabulous job!  There is an additional panel of cardboard that will be attached that shows the night sky because she wanted to duplicate the picture we printed out that showed the Coliseum at night.

Harley & the Coliseum

Harley even took the time to draw “bleachers” and little people in them watching the fights.

These are the pictures we printed off the Internet for her to use as inspiration.

Harley was determined to make this Coliseum exactly how she wanted it and would not take much input or advice from me.  I am so proud of her for sticking to her guns.

As far as my first experience with fondant – it wasn’t bad.  I certainly won’t win any cake decorating award with it, but it serves it’s purpose.

The Fate of the World

hangs in the balance based on this decision . . .  

Post-A-Day 2011:  Chocolate or Vanilla?  Why?  Give an example

Well, that truly is a life altering decision.  I mean, chocolate or vanilla?  Are we talking about scented lotion, ice cream, or candy?  Coffee flavoring or cocoa?  Ahhhh, such a quandary it is.

I think I made it pretty clear when I talked about having will power, that I have a little problem with chocolate.  Okay, okay, I have more than a little problem with chocolate, I have a whole freaking conundrum.  However, I would like to clarify, that as far as chocolate goes, it is generally on the solid mil-chocolate candy I can’t resist.  You know, the Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Plain Chocolate Bars, or (gasp!) the Lindor Lindt Milk Chocolate Truffle Balls?  I like them so much, my parents even brought some authentic ones home from Europe for me last Christmas.  I savored those for a long time – maybe three days?   Kidding, it was at least a week!

Oh, have you ever tried them, they’re absolute heaven . . .  If you ever wanted to bribe me, they would be a good way to start.  Oh, and look, they have a dress just for me – it’s even in my favorite color!  I’m not completely sure the skirt would make it through a whole wearing, though.

Wait, what was I talking about?

Oh yeah, chocolate.

So, anyway, my whole point is that yes, I love chocolate, and I have a very hard time resisting it; however, it is not my first choice of flavors in other confectionary treats.

For example, given a choice between chocolate or vanilla ice cream, I’d choose vanilla just about every day.  Vanilla ice cream is just pure.  It’s fresh, clean, and can be embellished with as much CHOCOLATE syrup as you want.  Of course, most of the time, I actually eat mine plain just because that is the way I prefer it.  Ice cream is the one place (other than cheesecake) that I like to add fruit syrups.  I frequently make my own strawberry or raspberry sauces at home for our ice cream, and that is why I prefer vanilla.

I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t particularly care about those flavorings; however, at some of the gas stations around, they have these AWESOME syrup flavors you can add to your fountain sodas, so when I’m near one of them, I do add a little (okay, a lot) of vanilla to my Diet Coke.  It’s just yummy – though it’s definitely not helping me cut back much on my intake.

Cake – I prefer chocolate with vanilla frosting.  My dad is the exact opposite.  Actually, I’d prefer no frosting, but I don’t like dry cake, so I *tolerate* the vanilla frosting. 

Cookies – I definitely prefer vanilla over chocolate.  Unless it’s Oreos.  Definitely unless it’s Oreos mixed up in a Blizzard treat.

Lotion or body scent – I like vanilla, but my preferred lotion is Amber Romance from Victoria’s Secret.  It doesn’t have either flavor/scent.

Candles - Definitely vanilla.

So, there you have it, I’m kind of a mixed bag of vanilla vs. chocolate, as it just depends on the situation, the item in question, and my mood.

Just don’t mess with my Lindt Balls.

A Woman Sconed?

You read that right, I meant to say “sconed”, not “scorned”.

One of the worst things best aspects about me being home so much right now, is the amount of time I spend researching and learning wasting my day away playing new recipies to make for my family.  I have tried several new things out of sheer boredom the desire to utilize my cooking skills to make healthy food and to nearn new things.

I have read about scones, but I have never actually seen one, let alone taste one.  Yesterday, after being sick for so long, I was completely stir-crazy really needed to be active.  The scones were really easy to make, and tasted really good.  I made a very basic recipe, but I can see how one might alt3er it to bring out different tastes from savory to sweet.

I’m taking a page out of Pioneer Woman’s photo tips for this post, and I’m not ashamed of it – I’m a copy cat, and I don’t mind admitting it.  Oh yeah, the ridiculously ugly scars nasty burns on my hand are from my adventures in baking sugar cookies for Valentines Day and for Emma’s Basketball Team.  They are taking forever to heal!

The ingredients include flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, salt, egg, sour cream, and frozen (yes, frozen) butter.  Pretty simple and basic.  As you can see by the picture, I’m a cheapskate I’m economically responsible and purchase generic brands for quite a few things.  I refuse to purchase generic for some products – they’re just not the same.

The first two steps are very simple.  Add all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) to a large bowl and whisk them together.

The second step was to whisk together the egg and sour cream.

 The reason the butter has to be frozen is because once the first two steps are completed, the butter is then grated into the flour mixture.  That would not be possible with refrigerator temperature or room temperature butter.  And, quite frankly, the next step of incorporating the butter into the flour was much easier with the grated butter.

This is where I forgot to take pictures.  After the butter is incorporated (so the combination looks like little grains), stir the egg & sour cream misture into the flour with a fork until it forms chunks of dough.  Use your hand to press the doug around the bowl further until all dry ingredients have been incorporated.

Then, on a lightly floured surface, pat dough to a 10-12 inche circle that is about 3/4″ thick.  Cut into triangles with a butter knife.

The triangles should be placed about 1″ apart on a parchment paper lined tray.  They cook for 12 minutes at 400 degrees.
 

Mmmmmmmmmmm, yummy!  They’re very good with strawberry topping and whipped cream, and they are just as yummy plain.

So, while this time at home has been great for developing my cooking skills serving my sweet-tooth, it has not been any good on this whole getting in shape thing I’m trying to manage.

The recipe from allrecipes.com:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 8 Tbsp butter

I followed their recipe with the exception of the raisins.  I didn’t include them, and I still think the scones tasted great!

Salt of the Earth?

Not quite.

I am usually not a beer drinker – I don’t drink often at all, actually; however, when I do choose to have a drink or two, it is usually something sweeter, more girlie and frou-frou.  I do admit, though, that there are times that an ice cold beer tastes like Nirvana to me.  I am usually a light beer, gal – the lighter the better.  I do like to have a Moose Drool by Big Sky Brewery or a Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat every now and then, but give me an old fashioned Coors Light and I’m a happy girl.  

I don’t add stuff to my beer, I prefer to drink it straight; however, I do know that a lot of people do add stuff.  There are some who add Tabasco sauce and some add tomato juice.  Some people even add Clamato (clam & tomato) Juice – the jury is still out on their sanity. 

I have a friend named Jason.  Well, actually, he’s my friend, Yvette’s husband.  Anyway, Jason has this habit that, until recently, I thought belonged solely to him – especially since I have never seen anyone else do it, and I had never heard about it until I saw him do it.

You see, Jason likes to put salt in his beer.  I tease him about it, and I always just figured he was a little weird.

Apparently not.

A couple of weeks ago, I was filling our pick up with fuel in Pendleton, and a display near the counter caught my attention.  It was a display for BEER SALT!  Craziness.

So, Jason’s habit isn’t as odd as I originally thought.  Putting salt in beer is popular enough to have a market for specialty salts.  Of course, I had to buy one of each flavor for him, but before I gave them to him, I decided to snap a few shots.

So, Jason, apparently you’re not as odd as I thought – at least in your beer-drinking habits – and I have these lovely little jars of salt for you and your beer.