the start of fall baking

I haven't shared any pictures of food that I've been making in quite a while because I just haven't been documenting food making lately. When it's 70 and sunny, I don't always feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen with the camera. Of course as we get further into fall, the natural indoor lighting gets trickier, but I do what I can. Anyway, I got motivated to document some of my first fall baking this month.

Believe it or not, this is the first time that I've ever made zucchini bread. My in-laws grow it and gave us one of several baseball bat sized zucchinis that they had left at the end of the season. I only used a third of it in this bread. I shredded and froze the rest for future loaves this fall.

I saw this recipe on Instagram within days of picking a wealth of apples at Apple Holler, immediately clicked over to the blog post, couldn't believe that it was such an easy recipe (six ingredients and you don't mess up a bowl!), and made it within a week.

 As we have this wealth of apples, I also made apple pie. I refuse to use store bought pie crust and always forget that pie crust from scratch is so much work but so good. I'm hoping that I stay motivated to make a few more pies this fall.

I used the zucchini bread and apple pie recipes in How to Cook Everything. The apple tart recipe is from Jenny at Picky Palate and available online right here.

What have you been baking lately? Has anyone else been slacking on the food pictures in recent months?

in my kitchen

One of my goals over the next couple years is to document more of my recipes.  Many of the meals that I prepare on a regular basis are my own creations or heavily modified recipes.  I want to be able to pass these on to others someday.  I also simply enjoying sharing them.

HubPages is having a recipe contest next month so I'm saving up a couple new ideas to turn into great articles.  For now, I'm sharing a few of my older standards.  Enjoy!

What's In the Fridge Cobb Salad

I make salads for lunch on a fairly regular basis.  Most of them are a variation of a Cobb salad with what we have on hand and whatever dressing I'm currently loving.  This is what I included in the pictured salad above.

Handful of lettuce, torn (spinach leaves work well, too)

3-4 slices cucumber, diced

3-4 cherry or grape tomatoes, diced

1/2 avocado, diced (or if you're like me and don't live with anyone who enjoys avocados, the whole avocado)

2 slices deli meat, shredded (I used sliced ham and chicken)

small handful of shredded cheese (I used Colby Jack)

small handful of croutons (we bought these, but you can make them)

I did not include hard boiled eggs, but this is another great option that I sometimes use.

Sloppy Joes

This is a modified Rachael Ray recipe.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2-2.5 tablespoons steak seasoning (I use McCormicks)

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 8 oz. can tomato sauce

Pour the olive oil in a large frying pan.  Brown the ground beef.  About halfway through cooking, mix the brown sugar and steak seasoning.  Add the mixture to the beef.  Finish cooking the beef.  Drain the grease.  Add the red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato sauce.  Mix well.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  I like to serve it on toasted buns with cheese.

I chose to pair my sandwich with some simple raw veggies and Ranch dressing and chips.  There are many great side options for sloppy joes.

Pork Chops

I did document this recipe on HubPages a while back.  You can check it out here.

Garlic Parmesan Pork Chops

Cheesy Orzo

This is another recipe from Rachael Ray.  I don't use a lot of her recipes, but this pasta and the sloppy joes are two of her best.  I cut this recipe in half, but otherwise I didn't make any modifications.  If you're cooking for a larger group, you can easily make a double batch.

1 cup orzo pasta, uncooked

2 tablespoons olive oil

1-2 cloves garlic, diced

1 small yellow onion, diced

1 14-16 oz. can chicken broth

3/4 cup shredded cheese of your choice (I usually use a mix of Colby Jack and Parmesan)

Coat the bottom of a large saucepan with the olive oil.  Cook the garlic and onion for 4-5 minutes or until the garlic has browned slightly.  Add the chicken broth.  Cover the pan and bring to a boil.  Add the pasta.  Turn the heat to low and cover.  Stir the mixture every 3-4 minutes until the pasta has absorbed all of the chicken broth.  Add the cheese and stir until it's melted.  Serve.

The broccoli that we ate with this meal is simple steamed broccoli.  Delicious and healthy but nothing too exciting.

What are some of your standard recipes?  Feel free to share recipe links!

I included this post in Michelle's Delicately Constructed Friday 5/11/12.

some usual happenings

Here are just a few of the things that have been going on with me the past couple weeks.

food

One of my personal goals when we moved to Milwaukee was to continue to try new recipes on a regular basis.  I've been doing pretty well with that.  Does anyone else sometimes find a recipe that you feel a need make right away?  That happened to me last week when I came across the recipe for baked avocado fries.

I baked some mushrooms, too, because I figured it couldn't go too wrong.  It didn't.  I paired them with a simple lettuce salad with honey mustard dressing and sliced ham and chicken.  I know that it doesn't look like a huge plate of food, but it was very filling.  If I make this again, I'll spice up the breading mix a bit.  Some garlic powder, salt, and pepper would go a long way.  Otherwise I was happy with it.

I printed out Natalie's Sesame Soy Tahini Sauce recipe a couple weeks ago with no specific plan for what I was going to make with it.  Jake got tired of what I normally put in stir fry so I've been switching it up lately and decided to give this a try.

I substituted a couple ingredients for what we had on hand.  I marinated shrimp in this sauce and then paired it with sugar snap peas, water chestnuts, sweet orange pepper, onions, mushrooms, and egg noodles.  So good!  Jake liked it, too.  If you like any kind of sesame and/or nut marinade/dressing, you will really enjoy this.

Angel

Those of you who have cats know that what did not cross their minds one day suddenly becomes an obsession the next day.  That's how going outside has been with Angel.  She never expressed an interest until last month and now she asks to go out in the back yard at least a few times a week.  She only likes to step out a couple feet so we normally let her (unless it's really early or late).

buttons

Also as I mentioned on Monday, I've been working on a new button tree, this time with a fall theme.  I have all of the buttons on now.  I'm going to add some felt leaves and then attach a felt base.  I have a spiky gold ornament as the topper for my Christmas tree.  Any good ideas on a topper for a fall tree?  It's not essential that it has one, but it would be a neat touch.

cards

I have been going crazy with the mini cards lately (they're about an A2 size).  There are over 20 birthday cards here as well as a handful of spring and Mother's Day cards.  I have a bunch more of both, as well as some graduation cards, in the works, too.

More on that soon.

I also made a new birthday card design for one of Jake's fellow interns/will be fellow PM&R residents.  He and his wife got Jake a birthday present last summer when we'd only known them for a month so we really wanted to do something for his birthday.  When his wife sent out the invite e-mail, she said something about how he had just celebrated his ?? birthday and that they were having a party that weekend in honor of it.  I may flesh this design out to an A7 size card and include an inside message about how birthdays are always worth celebrating, regardless of age.

coasters

I had a lot of fun making my coasters last month that I was fired up to make another set already.  I decided to make some for the previously mentioned birthday.  It was kind of a random present choice for a guy, but I figured it would be something practical that he and his wife could use, which it definitely was.  We put them to good use before the party was over.  I am really happy with this geometric design and will be making more similar to this in the future.

Stay tuned next week for an update on some unusual happenings, including getting new living room furniture and doing some major organization overhaul.

What have you been up to lately?  Any interesting cooking or crafting endeavors?

what else I've been making lately

As many of you know, I enjoy cooking and especially enjoy baking.  I have always done most of our cooking from scratch and am doing more than ever now that I'm not working full time.  One thing that I'm also more conscientious about now is what I make for lunch at home.  During the school year, I packed healthy lunches and that's what I would eat.  Usually in summer, I'm a little more lax at home because I know that it's temporary.  Not anymore.  So I'm attempting to put the same effort into my lunches at home that I did into the ones I packed.  I know that sounds funny, but it's easy to wait until you're hungry and then grab something quickly at home. I'm trying to avoid that.

With that being said, here are just a few of the tasty things that I've made at home this summer.

My salads don't have names because I almost always use what I have at home.  This is more or less a Cobb salad.  It consists of lettuce, avocado, shredded Colby jack, tomato, ham, sliced chicken, and honey mustard dressing.

Remember the cream biscuit recipe that I posted a few weeks ago?  I've made it twice this summer.  Sometimes I get up when Jake does and make breakfast for him.  I also do bigger breakfasts on the weekends sometimes.  These are perfect for either.

Also, as promised here are my version of this layer bar recipe.  This is one of the first dessert recipes that I ever found and made on my own in college.  Again, I use a mix of semi-sweet chocolate and peanut butter chips and walnuts.  In general, Jake doesn't like any nuts in cookies ever, but he allows it in these.

With only two people, we often have leftovers.  One night this month I made pork chops to go with our leftover couscous and broccoli, served with raw orange pepper slices and red grapes.