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Showing posts from 2010

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

As  we all know, Halloween is this Sunday and as a result, many schools are having parties and my daughter's preschool was no exception.  I had tons of ideas of what I wanted to make, but in the end, me being me, I decided on cupcakes.  I went back and forth, from red velvet, to cream filled, until I finally decided to go with some of my all time favorites and make the pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes from Love and Olive Oil .  I made these last year in October and brought them to my best friend's house and she fell in love with them, so much so that I made a cake version of them for her party. I had one problem though this time, the frosting listed with the recipe just never turned to frosting.  I have made it before and it is delicious and has turned out well both times, but this time I just couldn't get it to work.  I don't know if it was because I tried to double the recipe, if I over-heated the egg whites or if I didn't have the mixer speed up enough or what b

Add a Little Spice to Your Spaghetti!

Let me start this post by saying that I LOVE pasta...pretty much all pasta.  I would eat pasta for every meal if I could, truly.  Sometimes however, plain old spaghetti is just not enough to do the trick.  I first saw this recipe for Cowboy Spaghetti on the Rachael Ray show a couple of years ago.  It looked pretty good so I decided to try it that night and it was an instant hit.  I love the fact that it is quick and easy and that it is pretty family friendly in that it is close enough to regular spaghetti that it will please pretty much anyone but it also adds a new kick. Now for those of you up in good old North Bay, you will probably not be able to find the fire-roasted tomatoes the recipe calls for, don't worry I have used plain old diced tomatoes for years and just added a bit of extra hot sauce and it still came out super yummy. Cowboy Spaghetti from Rachael Ray's website 1 lb spaghetti Salt & pepper  3 slices smoky bacon, chopped (I used the thick cut stuff)

May the Grilled Cheese Be With You!

So as some of you may have noticed, I have been on an unanticipated hiatus for the last month and a half.  What can I say, life got busy for a bit and I got lazy.  Not to worry, I have still been taking pics and experimenting with tons of recipes so I have lots of meals saved up and ready to go, all I have to do is get off my butt and write them! With that thought in mind, I figured it was only fitting that I chose these very special grilled cheese sandwiches to make my triumphant return from the dark side!  (Haha, I know, that was bad...stay with me!!)  I have been eying these Star Wars sandwich cutters from Williams-Sonoma for a long time and I finally gave in and bought them a few weeks ago.  And then they sat still in the bag unused, until this afternoon that is.  When we began debating what was for lunch it hit me, make grilled cheese Tie Fighters and Millennium Falcons!  So here they are people ...basic plain old grilled cheese sandwiches with whatever bread we had on hand and

The gooiest brownies of all time

The other day I had a craving for something oober chocolatey and began my search by going to a few of my favorite food blogs and searching for brownie recipes.  There were tons of yummy looking ones, but the all time best came from the  Big Red Kitchen .  I love this blog as there are so many yummy, quick recipes including her recipe for the following Knock You Naked brownies. Knock You Naked Brownies 1 devil's food cake mix 2/3 cup condensed milk 3/4 cup melted butter 14 ounce bag of caramels 1 cup chocolate chips 1 cup pecan pieces, or other type of nuts (optional) Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together the cake mix, 1/3 cup of condensed milk and melted butter in a large mixing bowl.  The mixture will be on the thick side, in fact mine seemed super thick so I added another 1/4 cup melted butter.  Spread half of this mixture in the baking pan and place in the oven for 7 minutes. Next melt the caramels and other 1/3 c

Late Night Pasta

The other night, after getting off of work unexpectedly early, I received a text message from my hubby asking me to stop off at the store for some ice cream for my sister-in-law who just got her wisdom teeth removed.  Being the wonderfully nice sister-in-law that I am, I agreed (of course this has a lot to do with working right next to the dang grocery store).  I was also quite hungry myself and figured it would probably be better to grab something there than pick up something at a fast food place, so I aimlessly wondered for maybe 5 minutes before inspiration struck.  I wanted pasta!!  I always want pasta, but I figured I was going to be home an hour and a half early so I might as well cook something yummy.  However, I was bad...I did a big no no...please everyone forgive me...but I BOUGHT pesto!!!   I can see it now...you are all frozen in horror as you reread that last sentence over and over.  I know, I know, bad Rheannon!!  Bad!!  But I was hungry and figured at $5 for a teen

Buffalo Chicken Chili, revealed!

Okay, so many of you know that I have a handful of recipes that I never ever share and this one is one of them.  I have negotiated with my husband a chance for someone to get the recipe though.  There are some conditions however, I will post pictures of the recipe as I made it the other night for dinner.  I will then ask whoever is interested in getting the recipe to list all of the ingredients they can identify in the comment section, whoever has the most correct ingredients will get an email containing my recipe.  I ask though that whoever gets it not go straight ahead and post it online, that would kind of ruin the fun... Okay so here we go... There they are everyone, post your guesses below and good luck!

Yummy-ness on the grill!!

So I was standing at work yesterday, enjoying the fact that is was not too hot outside, when the desire to grill hit me.  From then on, all I could think of was running out the door, hitting the grocery store for some great veggies to grill and opening a beer as I waited for the grill to warm up...too bad I still had like 4 hours till I went home!  So instead, I spent my breaks and most of my lunch pouring through the recipes I had saved on my Epicurious and AllRecipes apps on my iPhone.  I finally found what I was looking for on my last break, a recipe for pecan-crusted pork tenderloin pinwheels with carolina mustard sauce.  The picture looked amazing and the recipe did not seem too time consuming or difficult, perfect for a shift that ended at 5pm.  As soon as I clocked out, I drove straight over to the grocery store, grabbed everything I needed and was home in record time.    Now, I must admit that I did not exactly follow the recipe last night for two reasons.  One, I kind of d

Welcome! Let's Eat!

Let me start out, on my first first blog entry ever, by saying that I do not claim by any means to be an expert or an all-knowing cook.  I don't always know what I am doing, and as my husband can most definitely confirm, not everything I make tastes very good or even a little good for that matter.  ( Yes honey, I remember the darn meatloaf, let it go already!!!)  What I can say is that I LOVE to cook and bake.  I am pretty much willing to try any recipe or new cooking techniques.  This blog is going to be a record of sorts of my culinary adventures, the good, the bad and the frustrating! For our very first meal together, I chose an old favorite of mine, potato soup.  I think I chose it because it was simple and pretty to photograph, but mostly cause I want it to be Fall already!  I know it is on its way, you could feel it in the breeze here the other day and combine that with preseason football games and I decided to at least pretend that it was cool enough for soup!  I also w