Garbage Bowl....what an attractive name!

Do you have a favorite mixing bowl?  One that you immediately reach for and that is near perfect for everything? Or is it just me?  Am I alone?  Anyway, I have a favorite bowl.  And it is THIS one:

It's a Rachel Ray Garbage Bowl.  Have you seen her use this on her shows?  Her 'garbage bowl' idea of having a bowl on your work space so you can throw your trash away while cooking (instead of running back and forth to the trashcan) is pretty brilliant in it's simplicity.  I even have used this principle at work.

But aside from the garbage idea, it is just a fantastic bowl.  Perfect size for almost everything and it is super duper durable.  I highly recommend this bowl.  I promise you will like it.  Promise.

Talking about mixing bowls, does anyone remember these:

My grandmother and I were very close.  I simply adored her.  When I was old enough to drive, I was forever inviting myself to her house for dinner.  She made a fresh pitcher of sweet tea every night for dinner.  She almost always had dinner rolls.  And if she knew I was coming, she would be sure to make her frozen white corn in butter sauce for a side dish as it was my favorite!  Yes, I still treasure that corn and think of her every single time I make it.  After she passed away, I was helping my grandfather pack up the house as he was moving.  My aunt & I were packing away and my grandfather was giving us whatever kitchen items he wasn't taking.  Well I wanted this bowl.  It holds such special memories for me and makes me feel like my Mom-Mom is right there in the kitchen with me.

Ok.....enough sappiness!!  :)

Honestly, I can't believe I just did a single whole post about a mixing bowl.  I mean, seriously???   Boy Stephanie, aren't you the captivating writer!

Enjoy your garbage bowl along with all of your special kitchen memories!

Until next time!
~ Stephanie

Stephanie's Pasta

 The ingredients pictured above are what you need to make a super quick & delicious pasta type dinner.  The thing I love about this is that you can really change this recipe up to suit your personal taste.  It is such a quick & adaptable meal.  It is basically an aglio olio pasta sauce of garlic and oil.  You can seriously add anything to this.  I usually do broccoli, cauliflower and shrimp but I did not defrost the shrimp in time.

I used a double batch of fresh pasta because we had company (my daughter's friend Kayla) over for dinner and I figured I could use them up and have left overs for lunch (more about this later).

One or two packages of fresh pasta
One package of frozen vegetables of your choice (I used a blend of broccoli & cauliflower)
1/2 c Olive Oil
6 garlic cloves diced (for times sake I used jar garlic in this instance)
salt & pepper to taste
a light sprinkling of my fav Nature's Seasons
1 - 2 Tbsp butter

Cook vegetables according to package directions (I have also used fresh veggies in the past).
Boil your water for the pasta.
As you are doing this, I heated the olive oil and then added the garlic until it sizzled.  Then I removed it from the heat as not to burn the garlic while waiting for the water to boil.  This also allows the oil to be infused with the garlic.

I mean look at this!  My two absolute favorite things:  olive oil and garlic.  It is like a marriage made in heaven!!  Not to mention the fact that at this point my house smelled good enough to eat.

Then add your veggies to the oil and garlic.

Pasta's done!

I then added two tablespoons of butter.  I think it adds a nice flavor and consistency to the sauce.  And who doesn't like some butter?  If they didn't, I don't think I could be their friend.  Same thing applies to bacon.  It's a deal breaker.

I was so glad I made extra pasta.  Tip:  make extra.   Even a double batch of whatever you are cooking.  You can freeze the extra meal.  It is such a timesaver especially if you are working.  I just put the pasta in a container with a little splash of olive oil so it didn't stick too much.  This enables you to make a completely different type of pasta dish without having to wait for water to boil again.

Introduce the veggies to the pasta so they can get acquainted.

Serve with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese or whatever type of cheese you have on hand.

My original plan was to make a completely different type of sauce the next day for dinner.  However, we ended up having a late dinner the next night.  So I just repeated the same sauce with just using cauliflower this time.

Ta da.  This took me about a total of ten minutes to whip up.
I apologize for the quality of pictures and that I did not take the time to wipe the rim of the plate, etc. etc. etc.  But it was late and I was tired.  So this is what we got!

I love a basic aglio olio sauce.  Garlic is one of my best friends.  It never lets me down!  :)  I also love when I have the time to use all fresh ingredients but also love the versatility of this.  It allows me to just add whatever we like and have on hand.  Some people may be timid about experimenting in the kitchen but just do it.  Don't be afraid.  You never know when you are going to whip up a masterpiece!!

So go experiment & enjoy your pasta!  Also be on the lookout for my bat adventure post coming soon!

Until next time
~Stephanie

ENOUGH TO DRIVE YOU BATTY!

The past 24 hours have simply been exhausting.  I apologize for not posting on Monday but early Monday morning, about 1:20AM, a bat got into my house.  It took me 24 hours to get rid of it.  Look for a long post coming soon about my batty adventures (I have lots of pics and even videos!).  But I am simply too tired right now for anything else other than sleep.

Until next time!

~ Batgirl

Weekend Wrap Up

Who doesn't love the weekends?

I wrote yesterday that on Friday night we were invited to my cousin's house for dinner.  What a great time we had!  We used to do these dinners a lot years ago when my daughter was young.  This dinner reminded us of how much we enjoyed them and we plan on doing this more frequently.  One of my daughter's friends, who lives close to my cousin and who is like a second daughter to me, even stopped by which just meant more laughs because the girl is hysterical! :)

On Saturday, we decided to go to the party store to get supplies for Myah's first birthday.  I can't tell you how much I LOVE a good party store!  LOL

Funny thing on the way to the party store, we were driving down a busy street and lo and behold, there goes a beach ball just rolling away looking for a party to join.

I mean look at this:

It just makes me want to throw a party a week!

Samantha (my daughter) and Myah (my granddaughter) being silly with some party props!

Outside, Myah was thrilled to see a picture of one of her favorite girls:

I think the moral of my post is this:  you can always make the most simple of things into an adventure.  Enjoy each moment for it's the little things that make life worth living.

Today is Sunday and I just plan on enjoying the day and my family.

I hope your weekend was a good one!

Until next time!

~Stephanie

Oreo Marshmallow Bars ... 'nuff said!

Last night, my cousin invited us over to dinner.  We had so much fun.  So many laughs....so much love!  The dinner she cooked was delicious (Caesar salad with homemade dressing & homemade rosemary garlic croutons, filet mignon, mac n cheese, garlic bread and corn on the cob.....simply scrumptious!).  I made a dessert.

Enter:  Oreo Marshmallow Bars (at least that's what I keep calling them).  I came across THIS recipe on Pinterest.  The recipe called for a bag of large marshmallows but I used what I had on hand which were the mini ones.  But hey, a marshmallow is a marshmallow right?

Go.  Run.  Right now. To the store.  Get three things:  oreos (Double Stuff of course!), butter and a bag of marshmallows.  That's it.  Seriously.  Go ahead....I'll wait.

Are you with me?

Place cookies in a ziploc bag and smash 'em up with a rolling pin.  (Could also use food processor)

 Line an 8X8 pan with aluminum foil

 Place marshmallows and 4 TBS of butter in a microwave safe bowl

 Microwave for 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.  I did mine for 1 1/2 mins and it was perfect.

 Then fold in your mashed up cookies.  Oh, it's starting to look sinful.

 Spread them in a pan and let them set up for 10-15 minutes.

 Should.

 Be.

 Illegal.

Everything about that recipe is just wrong.  Wrong.  Wrong.  Wrong.  But we sacrificed ourselves for the sake of the pure deliciousness of those three simple ingredients.  We enjoyed every single sinful bite!

Here is my daughter and granddaughter feeding the birds the leftover bread from dinner.  Myah (my granddaughter) had just changed into her PJ's and took out her little pigtails hence her little hair horns!

 This is Myah enjoying some of the bread for herself!

My cousin Ondrea (Onnie as we love to call her) and Myah who just wanted to get down & play!

So grab a cousin, sister, friend and make some time for some good food and fun!

Until next time!

~Stephanie

Stuffed Pepper Stoup

This is my adaptation of a Rachel Ray recipe for Stuffed Pepper Stoup originally given to me by one of my best friends, Colleen.  Colleen aka Shorty as I like to call her.  I say that with tons of love! :)

Stoup = kind of a soup & kind of a stew.  That Rachel Ray sure knows how to make up some words.  Any who.....  This is a great recipe.  It's especially good in the fall/winter but what the heck...we have the central air on so I got to cooking!

Ingredients:
(my changes are in bold)

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef sirloin  **I used ground sweet Italian sausage.  I think it adds a lot more flavor**
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice  **I chose to omit this**
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 large onion, cut into bite-size dice
• 3 green bell peppers, seeded and cut into bite-size dice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 can crushed tomatoes (28 ounces)
• 1 cup orzo pasta
• 12-15 basil leaves, shredded or torn
• Grated Parmigiano Reggiano to garnish 

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat with the oil. When the oil is hot, add beef/sausage (I as usual, sprinkled the sausage with Morton's Nature's Seasons) and season with salt, black pepper and allspice. Brown the meat for 5 minutes then add garlic, onion, peppers and bay leaf and cook for 7-8 minutes, until tender. 

Stir in stock and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook to al dente, 7-8 minutes. Turn off heat. Fold in basil.

Serve in shallow bowls with grated cheese.

They did not have any packs of ground sausage at the store so I just took them out of the casings.  Does anyone else find it annoying browning ground meats?  The part that annoys me is that you just have to stand there and constantly poke at the stuff to break it apart.  Ugh.  I know it's strange but I can't help it.  It annoys me!  So much so that I had to take pictures of each stage of the poking process.  Yup.  I'm going to make you look at them.

Poke.

 Poke.

 Poke.

See.  Exhausting.  

Don't forget to sprinkle that meat with my favorite stuff!

The way that I got my daughter to eat green peppers and onions when she was little was to make sure that they were sautéed until very, very soft.  Because of that, I always tend to sauté them sooner than the recipe states to make sure they are soft.  I find sometimes that the times given in recipes are always a lot shorter than what it takes me in reality.  Don't get me wrong, both my daughter and I now love raw peppers and onions.  So I guess my trick worked! But I still, out of habit, start them separately in some recipes.  Starting with the green peppers because they tend to take a smidge longer than the onions.

In a few minutes, add the onions.  It was starting to smell SO good in the kitchen!

 Toss them in with the sausage, along with the garlic.  Now if you were paying attention, the recipe calls for a bay leaf.  Which I forgot.  Shocker.  It also calls for torn basil leaves.  Again, I forgot.  Even with the new potted basil plant I bought THE DAY BEFORE sitting RIGHT there on the counter!  There's that 'Stephanie's Law' again.

 Add the broth and crushed tomatoes (the olive oil is in the picture simply because it's pretty and I love me some EVOO!).

 Stir and bring to a boil then add the lovely orzo pasta.

 Here's where I added some Italian Seasoning.  I'm guessing it was between 1/2 to 1 teaspoon.  Yup, I'm one of those cooks who just adds a pinch of this or a pinch of that without measuring.  So I took a picture because it's worth a thousand words.

 *A tip from me:  Although in my head I live in a huge, beautiful chef's kitchen with more storage and work space than anyone could possibly need.....the reality is that I do not. *sigh* So to save space, when I only partially use a box of pasta, I place the rest of the box in a baggie which I then put into a organizer type container in my cabinet.  The container takes up less space than all of those half used boxes.  Oh, and I should've used a smaller baggie.  Next time.

 Ciabatta bread.  Oh how I love thee.  Ciabatta garlic bread.  I feel faint.  Just look at that beautiful bread.

 No seriously.  Look closer at all of that loveliness.

 Now smother it with butter.  *I never said this was a healthy blog*  I should probably work on that.

 Now sprinkle on some awesome Tastefully Simple Italian Garlic Bread Seasoning and because we are garlic & garlic salt junkies in my house, just a super small sprinkling of the glorious Lawry's Garlic Salt.  Just a smidge.

 Told ya we love this stuff.  Normal people could probably do with half the butter and seasonings.  But oh was it super delicious!  My hips can attest to this fact.

 Meanwhile, back on the stoup front, this is what was cooking.  Yum.

 Ta da!  This is the end result!  My daughter's two friends, who were eating dinner with us, protested their love for this.  So that is all anyone needs who cooks.  Someone to enjoy it!

 Here it is again.  Just for good measure.  I apologize for the quality of the photos (not to mention the amount of them in this post) as they were all taken on my cell phone.  I do have a pretty decent camera but since I have not yet told anyone of this blog, I was a little apprehensive to start snapping away like some professional photographer.  I'll get there.  I promise.  Soon.  Baby steps.

Enjoy your stoup!

Until next time!

~Stephanie