Stuff and Things!

I spent the day at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo in Madison with Sandi of Piecemeal Quilts, her mother and two of her aunts. Yes, as has been pointed out, I am the baby of the group :)  I wouldn't have it any other way, though. These ladies are a blast, as proven by Sandi's mom started our day with some risque comments! I call it a winner of a day when I can spend it looking at quilts and fabric and laughing with some good friends, then enjoying good and (wonderfully) simple foods.

Speaking of food, I made some awesome (!!!!) and super simple cookie/toffee bar things. The recipe was called "Popularity Cookies". I highly recommend them!

Ingredients:

35 soda crackers or club crackers (I used club crackers, and I have no idea how many I actually used. I simply covered a 13" X 18"  walled cookie sheet)

1 cup of non-salted butter

1 packed cup of light brown sugar

1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup of milk chocolate chips

1 cup of blanched, slivered almonds (a 4 oz package is exactly what you need, though I'd recommend giving them an additional rough chop or putting them through a quick whirl on a food processor after having made this recipe one. Additionally, you could really use whatever nuts you like. I'm thinking cashews would be heavenly on this! Regardless, I might also try toasting the nuts prior to putting them on the cookie bar thingies.)

Instructions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 400°F (or 205°C). Cover your walled cookie sheet with a layer of tin foil and line the crackers on the foil (I took the additional step of spraying the tin foil with non-stick spray).

2.) Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil and boil for about three minutes. Pour over crackers completely; spread with a spatula if necessary.

3.) Bake for 3-5 minutes; watch carefully. (That's verbatim from the recipe. I'm honestly not sure what I was watching for. I pulled the tray from the oven when it looked like the toffee layer had gone solid.) Remove cookie sheet from oven, place it on oven door and sprinkle chips over baked crackers. When chocolate gets soft, spread over crackers with back of a spoon. Sprinkle slivered almonds on melted chocolate. 

4.) Place in refrigerator for at least 8 hours. Break into cookie-size pieces. This recipe freezes well. 

And since the Wisconsin Quilt Expo is a quilt show with the prerequisite vendors, I came home with loot! I've been a very good girl with finances lately, paying off credit cards and school loans, and, in general, not buying much for myself. So yesterday was a bit of a splurge. 

Now, before I show off the loot... I did go home with money left in my wallet, so I was a very good girl, and very restrained. Really.

Nancy's Notions got the lion's share of my money, and mostly in fabric. From left to right, a one yard cut of Iron Quick Fabric, 2 yards of Rocket Scientist by Kari Beyer, Daydream in the green colorway by Bernatex, #7914 Stripey Tiger by Maywood Studios, and two charm packs of Plume by Tula Pink. I was so excited to see the charm packs - I LOVE Tula Pink's fabrics, and I'm not normally comfortable buying a) designer fabric at designer prices and b) pre-cuts. However, the charm packs were $6 each, and I've not had a chance to pick up ANY of Tula Pink's fabric before, so I grabbed it.

Again, from left to right. Perl cotton in four colors and one yard of a Kaffe Fassett cross weave cotton in goldenrod. These are for the Urban Worm. I'm so glad I found what I was looking for at the Expo, rather than having to troll through websites and hope that on screen color would accurately reflect what would arrive in my package. One yard of Ellie's Emporium by Sue Penn. This will be the binding for the Test Your Skills Sampler. A new combination seam ripper and clipper. Needle grabbers for hand-quilting. Two packages each of universal and quilting needles - they were on sale for $2.39 a package! Embroidery needles. Pink and yellow leads for my Sewline Mechanical Pencil, and a new thimble.

Oh, and not pictured: the free tote I got from Nancy's Notions for spending enough money in one go with them. *facepalm*

By the way, after spending the whole day walking a concrete convention floor, guess what I did? Take my son for a two mile walk to downtown because he wanted to see the river.

Yeah, I'm insane.

I Must Be Insane...

...because it's 11:41 as I start this post, and I'm still not in bed.  I need to be up by 0600 in order to get myself and Zeb ready for the day.  Me?  I'm still going to the Madison Quilt Expo.  Zeb will be spending the day with Grandma again, as hubby has to work.

So, why am I still up?

I volunteered to bring chips and cookies for our tailgate lunch tomorrow at the Expo.  I went the easy route with the chips, and bought one of those assortment deals.  Done.  Easy.

The cookies?

I decided to bake them.  That's the part where I'm officially nuts.  I made peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies.  I even decided to experiment a bit, and used whole wheat flour to replace half of the white flour.  I tried the peanut butter.  Not bad.  It's been a long time since I had peanut butter cookies, though, so who knows if they're actually any good?  Same goes for the chocolate chip.  New recipe, with the whole wheat substitution.

Everyone gets to be my guinea pigs tomorrow.  If the cookies are a success, I'll share my recipes.  If not, I'll bury the cookies and hope no one finds them.

Oh, and just to balance out the fact that I'm falling off the diet wagon with the cookies and chips, I'm packing carrots and celery sticks.  Maybe I can balance out the guilt with some healthy snacks.

Eggplant Ziti - Or Not So Much

The plan for dinner tonight was supposed to be an attempt at this recipe.  Unfortunately, my sole remaining eggplant decided to go spectacularly bad.

Considering that it was already after nine (I worked the closing shift today), and I had a mess of fresh and canned vegetables waiting to be turned into something yummy, I winged it again, and came up with a chunky, meatless pasta 'sauce'.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/2 large onion, chopped (I would have happily increased this to a full onion, but I only had half a lonely onion left)
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (13.75 oz) artichoke hearts, (not marinated), rough chopped
1/4 cup roasted red bell pepper, rough chopped
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 cup carrot slices
1/4 cup cooking sherry
1/2 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons olive oil

First, I took the onion, garlic, and carrot slices and dumped them in the bottom of my pot, along with the olive oil.  I cooked these until the onion started to soften.  Then I dumped the rest of the ingredients in, and let the whole works simmer for about twenty minutes.  Then I realized that I'd forgotten to start the water boiling for the whole wheat penne, and had to add about 1/2 cup of water to the sauce to keep it moist, while the noodles cooked.

For an off-the-cuff, nearly one pot meal, this was actually pretty good!  I keep looking at my now empty plate, thinking, 'I could really eat more of that'.  But really, I'm full.  It was just damned tasty!  I'm going to be a good, not-overstuffed eater, and save the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.  The rest of the sauce will just have to get frozen, because this recipe makes a lot for one person!

In retrospect, I would probably use fresh basil as part of my seasoning, and maybe increase the amount of cooking sherry.  Oh, and I would dearly love to switch in portabella mushrooms for the white mushrooms used tonight.

Anyway, I topped the meal tonight with ordinary grated Parmesan cheese, but I think this would do better with freshly grated Parmesan.  Oh, and despite the dieting world's hatred for carbs, I would totally throw in a loaf of crusty French bread, for cleaning all of the sauce off my plate. Mmm!!  Still, for a meal that left absolutely edible leftovers, I'm pretty happy.

Experimenting With Eggplant - Roasted Eggplant with Tomato

Did you all know that eggplant is a berry?  I didn't, until I started surfing the web for things to do with the eggplant I picked up at the farmer's market on Saturday.

I wanted the eggplant as a side dish, and most of the recipes were for main dishes or appetizers and involved a lot more prep than I was willing to put in with a two year old demanding mommy time.  However, I wasn't willing to give up, so I decided to wing it.  The challenge was to prepare something with the ingredients I had on hand.

Roasted Eggplant with Tomato

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 eggplant
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 ounces Parmesan cheese.

1.) Slice eggplant into 1/4" thick rounds and place onto a cookie sheet in a single layer.  I sprayed the cookie sheet with no stick spray, or you can brush olive oil onto the sheet to prepare it.  Brush each eggplant round with olive oil.

2.) Sprinkle the rounds with sea salt and black pepper and place into a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees.  Bake for 5 minutes.

3.) Slice the tomatoes into thin rounds and coarse chop the 2 ounces of Parmesan cheese.  You can also choose to grate it... I couldn't find my grater.

4.) After taking the eggplant out of the oven, lay one tomato slice on each eggplant, then sprinkle the Italian seasoning and dried basil on top of the tomato.  Follow this with Parmesan cheese on top of the tomato.

5.)  Set the oven to broil, and slid the prepared eggplant rounds back into the oven on the top rack.  Broil for five minutes, until cheese is browned on top.

6.)  Serve warm.

Okay, I just have to say that before trying the eggplant this way, I had not been eggplant-friendly.  However, in the name of better eating I figured I'd pick some up and give it a try.  I am so glad that I did.  It tasted great, and was very filling.  I'll be taking the leftovers to work tomorrow for a light lunch.

In the name of full disclosure, I will say that I'll probably be switching out cheeses next time I prepare this.  The Parmesan tasted great toasted, but Provolone or feta cheese would probably work just as well.  I'd even be tempted to try something with a smokey flavor.  One could probably eliminate the sea salt entirely.  I'm not even sure I could tell that it was there, and I will probably use fresh ground pepper next time.

A Wonderful Summer Salad!

Last summer, I would never have thought to eat zucchini raw.  It just never occurred to me.

I know.  Weird, right?  I think it is anyway ;)

This summer, thanks to my determination to find healthful recipes that actually have flavor, I'm rediscovering my love of raw vegetables, which includes zucchini, now.

smitten kitchen put up a recipe for Zucchini and Almond Pasta Salad, and it induced yet another taste party in my mouth!  I love that it's a cold salad.  It's even better that it's a pasta salad without mayo!  Check out smitten kitchen for the original recipe.  Below is what I did to make it more my own.

Zucchini and Almond Pasta Salad
1 pound zucchini, halved lengthwise and then very thinly sliced (think carpaccio)
1 teaspoon salt
3 ounces Parmesan cheese, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sliced, toasted almonds
2 cups small cauliflower florets (I mean small, like micro, tip of the finger sized florets)
1/2 pound of whole wheat rotini, cooked, drained and cooled
10 tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of 4 lemons
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of garlic powder
1 can white beans, drained and rinsed

First, take the zucchini slices and toss them with the salt in a large colander.  Allow the zucchini slices to drain over a bowl or in the sink for approximately 20 minutes.  I rinsed and then allowed them to drain again, to get rid of excess salt taste.

Mix zucchini slices, almonds, Parmesan cheese, noodles, cauliflower together.  Whisk olive oil and lemon juice together, seasoning with black pepper and garlic powder to taste.  Toss dressing with salad.  Voila!  Nummers.

I'd share a photo, but kiddo has absconded with the camera.  Maybe if I find it...

But for the next time I make this, I think I'll include broccoli florets.  I bet they'd taste amazing with the dressing.  And I might consider switching out the Parmesan cheese for feta, but that's a tough call.  Maybe I'll just buy both and do a side-by-side tasting.

OMG! So Good!

I've recently discovered an awesome food blog, Smitten Kitchen.  And, I'm totally in love.  There's an emphasis on vegetable-based dishes, which is totally awesome, considering my re-affirmed dedication to eating better.


Well, a bit of poking around led me to a recipe for a Zucchini and Ricotta Galette.  "What the heck is a galette?" you might ask.  (I know I did!)  Well, apparently, galette is a general term used in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes.  


Sounds yummy already, doesn't it?


Good.


'Cause it IS!  


Now, I know: crust and ricotta cheese don't exactly make for a super healthy meal. But, DAMN, is it delicious!  Particularly when combined with a deliciously leafy salad.  And, yes, I ate the salad first, thus limiting myself to ONE small slice of this galette.  I was even super good with the dressing, and used only one tablespoon of Sasha's Sweet & Dill-icious on the leafy green yumminess.  (Which is a whole 'nother taste party in my mouth, particularly on chunks of cucumber.)


Anyway, the galette was so good, my son Zebediah kept asking for more.  I call that a 'win' in my book.  This is going onto regular meal rotations.  The zucchini and ricotta balance each other nicely, totally melting in your mouth.  And the crust...  Oh, the crust!  Truly an experience, and so, so easy!  (I'm baking challenged, so if I can do it, anyone can!)


And now, just to tantalize you into making this meal, this is what my plate looked like before I demolished it:

A Break From the Usual...

I made the mistake of getting on a scale about a week or so ago.  It wasn't pretty.

I mean, it wasn't bad...

I just have never lost the weight I gained in my last trimester.  Zeb is now two and half...  That's how long I've been carrying extra weight around.

So, I'm now on a mission to change my eating habits.  For all of my quilting, I'm actually pretty active.  The problem is the fact that I like food, a lot.  And, it likes me right back.

Anyway, I'm going to start making better food choices.  I can still like food - I just have to be better about what I eat.  And you, my lucky blog readers, are along for the ride.

Last night, I decided on stuffed bell peppers, based on my trip to the farmer's market Sunday morning.  I totally winged this, based on my previous experiences with stuffed bell pepppers.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground turkey
1 medium onion
1 zucchini
3 tomatoes (or 1 - 16 oz can of petite diced tomatoes) - I actually used half of one small can of diced tomatoes, two fresh tomatoes, and several yellow cherry tomatoes
two cups cooked white or brown rice - I used brown
3 tablespoons minced garlic - I like garlic, okay?  I'd have garlic babies if I could.
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon black ground pepper
Several green peppers - I had six on hand, but there was enough filling for 8, easily.  
Shredded mozzarella cheese

First of all, brown the ground turkey.  While that's cooking, dice all of your vegetables, starting with the onion and throw them in according to cooking time length.  So, onion, zucchini, and tomatoes.  Toss in the seasonings.  You could add salt at this point if you wanted to.  However, I felt that the mozzarella cheese would take care of that, and it did.  Cook everything together until flavors marry.  Turn off heat and let cool.

Take your green peppers and slice the tops off.  This will allow you to remove the seed core easily.  Rinse out to get rid of all loose seeds.  Stuff with the turkey/vegetable mixture and bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes.  (I used a roasting pan sprayed with no-stick stuff.)  Pull peppers out, top with mozzarella cheese, and pop back in the oven for 10 minutes.

The peppers themselves will come out with some of their fresh crisp to them.  I don't like my green peppers thoroughly cooked.  I find that they take on a sharp flavor.  If you prefer your peppers to be more cooked, lengthen the cooking time, OR boil the peppers for 7-10 minutes before cooling and stuffing.

The bonus to this recipe is that it's easily alterable to include whatever vegetables are currently in season, or even eliminating the turkey to make it entirely vegetarian.  I think I might put eggplant and fresh mushrooms in the next time I make this.   I'm even playing with the idea of substituting tofu for the turkey.  If you don't want to make a ton of peppers for one meal, you could even freeze these.  Your peppers will go a little mushier after freezing and re-heating, so I'd recommend not precooking the peppers you'll be freezing.

Even better?  This is a really cheap meal.  I'd estimate that it cost about $10 to prepare eight servings.  That's $1.25 per serving!  I fed myself, my mother-in-law, Zeb, a friend of JohnPaul's and had enough to put up for lunch the next couple of days.