Crying?! There's no crying in baking!

Biscuits. I was terrified to make them and I think they knew. I pulled out my Alton Brown cookbook to find the perfect scientifically based biscuit recipe. I found it. He promised me I would have award winning biscuits. He has yet to fail me, so I jumped in. I froze the butter. I grated it into the dry ingredients. I rubbed in the butter instead of cut. I bought an enormous tub of plain yogurt because he said it makes them fluffier. I mixed. I turned it out onto floured waxed paper. And this is what I got:

Which turned into this:

And finally this:

I was incredibly frustrated in the kitchen and my husband had to yell from our dining room in progress that they were only biscuits. He just has no idea. I hate kitchen failures! Once I decided to just throw the mess away, I looked in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook for another biscuit recipe. Turns out I didn't have enough flour to try again because I had wasted two cups on this disaster. Sigh. I ended up walking to Aldi's to buy buttermilk biscuits in a tube and a bag of flour. I'm not seeing another biscuit attempt in my near future, but at least now I have the flour.

While the biscuits may have been my greatest cooking disaster to date, my sausage gravy and eggs turned out quite yummy. I used a recipe I got off the Nest a long time ago, I think from nestie TexasSmith (It was Krashed24, from this blog. Sorry Amber!). It turned out much better then the darn biscuits. The eggs were nothing special, but I did snip in some chives and I always whisk in water, not milk, to make the eggs super fluffy. While my "breakfast" wasn't actually finished until 1:15 in the afternoon, I at least got to eat some pretty tasty gravy. It was even made with fresh from the hog sausage. My mother-in-law sent us home with a few pounds of a friend's pig, so I figured gravy was the way to go. Very tasty.

Sausage Gravy

from Amber

1 lb pork sausage

2 T chopped onion

6 T flour (I used more since I used skim milk)

4 c milk

1/2 t sage (I used poultry seasoning because some caterpillar decided to eat my fresh herbs)

1/4 t salt

black pepper

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage and onion until sausage is no longer pink. Drain, reserving 2 T drippings (my sausage didn't get any drippings, so I melted in some butter). Stir flour into sausage and drippings until blended. Cook and stir until light golden brown. Add seasonings, then gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir until desired consistency.

Guacamole and Homemade Chips

We needed a late snack one night (see post below!) so we went to the grocery store and got what we needed for guacamole. This I can actually claim as my own recipe, though there doesn't seem to be a lot of variation among guacamole recipes. This one, however, is mine. I also made the chips myself because we had some corn tortillas we needed to get out of the fridge. Matt loved them so much he told me we will never need to buy tortilla chips again. I always like to get raves from him, though I think I will still buy tortilla chips!

Guacamole

from me!

2 ripe avocados

1 jalapeno, chopped

1 lime

1/2 c chopped cilantro

1 tomato, chopped

salt

pepper

Smash the avocado in a small bowl. I like it chunky, but mash it to your desired consistency. Stir in jalapeno, juice from the lime, cilantro, and tomato. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with chips.

Tortilla Chips

from me

corn tortillas

salt

Cut tortillas into wedges and place on baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt. Bake in 350 degree F oven for 10 minutes or until brown and crisp. Serve warm.

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

That's right. All those delicious words come together in one cookie. I've been wanting to bake, despite the heat, so I browsed some starred posts I had in my Google Reader. I ultimately decided on these cookies that I found in Annie's blog (you should check it out- she has so many baked goods!).

They were absolutely delicious! I loved them. Matt tried one that was cooling from the first batch and came into the kitchen and said, "These cookies are the worst ever. You better not eat any. I'll go ahead and them all for you so you don't have to suffer." That's when I knew they were good! We gave some away, but I think Matt put down 2 dozen of these cookies over the course of the weekend. Such a cookie monster!

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

source Annie's Eats

3 eggs, well beaten

1 cup dried cranberries

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 ½ cup flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups oatmeal

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine eggs, dried cranberries and vanilla and let stand for 1 hour, covered with plastic wrap.Cream together butter and sugars. Add flour, salt, cinnamon and soda to sugar mixture. Mix well. Blend in egg-cranberry mixture and oatmeal. Dough will be stiff. Fold in the white chocolate chips. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheet or roll in small balls and flatten slightly on cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Pasta Salad with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Spinach

Since it has been so gosh darn hot around here lately, I'm trying to come up with meals that won't heat up the kitchen. This one seemed to fit the bill. The original recipe called for arugula, but I wanted to use up the baby spinach in the refrigerator so I used that instead.

The recipe says it serves 4, but my husband actually laughed when I told him that. Maybe as a side dish, but not as a main dish. We were still hungry after we ate the whole pot so I had to make an evening snack. If I make this again, I would definitely serve it as a side dish to grilled chicken or something. It was not very filling at all! But it was really tasty.

Pasta Salad with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Spinach

(I don't remember the source- maybe CookingLight.com?)

2 T chopped walnuts

1/2 t salt

6 oz uncooked farfalle

2 c baby arugula (I used spinach)

2 T fresh chives, minced

1 c grape tomatoes, halved

1 T white wine vinegar

1 T olive oil

1/4 t salt

1/4 t black pepper

3 T blue cheese

Place walnuts in a small, heavy-bottomed skillet. Toast nuts over medium high heat until lightly browned, shaking skillet frequently, about 1-2 minutes; remove from skillet and set aside. Bring 3 quarts water and 1/2 t salt to a boil in a large pot. Stir in pasta and cook until tender; remove 1 T of pasta cooking water and reserve for later. Drain pasta and place in a large serving bowl; immediately add arugula and toss well. Cover bowl with a lid or tight fitting plastic wrap; set aside until arugula is limp, about 5 minutes. Stir in chives and tomatoes. Stir together vinegar, oil, reserved pasta water, remaining 1/4 t salt and pepper in a cup. Pour dressing over pasta salad and toss well; sprinkle with blue cheese and walnuts.

Taco Salad

To be honest, the recipe inspiration came from a kraft recipe, but I made so many modifications I'm going to go ahead and call it my own. However, in an effort to credit sources (however slight the similarities), the original recipe was Taco Salad Made Over. Matt gave it two thumbs up and the best part was that it took less than 20 minutes to get the dinner to the table.

I should also add the tomatoes were grown fresh by my hubby. They were so good and way better than the last few I bought at the grocery store. Yay for fresh produce!

Taco Salad

4 flour tortillas

1/2 lb ground beef

1/2 T cumin

1/2 T chili powder

1/2 c salsa

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

shredded romaine

shredded cheddar

sour cream (I used reduced fat)

chopped tomatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Crumple 4 sheets of foil into a ball and place on baking sheet. Place tortillas over the balls, spray with cooking spray and bake for 6 min or until light browned. Meanwhile, brown ground beef with spices. When browned, stir in salsa and black beans.

In each tortilla bowl, pile up salad greens and top with the beef mixture. Sprinkle with cheese and tomatoes and top with a dollop of sour cream.

I served with rice. This time I used beef broth instead of chicken broth and I liked the interesting flavor. It worked well with the mexican vibe of the dinner.

Spicy Garlic Lime Pasta

So it's been raved about and questioned on the What's Cooking? board, so I figured I would go ahead and try it this week. I didn't want to buy any chicken, which is what the original recipe called for, so I added a can of tuna instead. I also made a few other minor modifications to suit my tastes and pantry, but the recipe is definitely courtesy of Amber.

My husband and I both liked it, but I think I'd add more lime the next time I make it. I love lime, though, so not everyone might like it the same way. The tuna substitution worked fine, but to be honest, the one can didn't add a whole lot of tuna and I couldn't really taste it. It just added some protein.

Spicy Garlic Lime Pasta (with Tuna)
Recipe from Amber, my changes in italics

8 oz rotini
2 c broccoli florets
1 c chicken broth
Juice of 2 limes (original recipe called for 1 1/2 T)
Zest of 1 lime
1 T corn starch
3 cloves garlic, minced (I used 5 since they were kind of small)
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
1/8 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t garlic powder
1/4 t dried thyme
2 t red pepper flakes
1 T butter
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1 can tuna, drained
Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to pkg directions. Add broccoli the last 2 min. Combine first 13 ingredients (through butter) in small saucepan and cook until thick. Stir in tuna. When pasta is done, add to sauce and toss. Add parsley and combine. Serve with cheese.

I'm back!

I am finally done with one of the craziest month of my life (second only to the month I got married) and can come back to the blogging world! Because I've been gone so long, I'm throwing in a few non-cooking tidbits, but don't worry, all my vacations involve food in some way, shape or form!



Right after the bar, we went to Clearwater, Florida for a week where it rained all but the first day and the day Matt and I left. My parents and my aunt and uncle rented a house, so we tagged along. As a thank you, I made them all dinner one night. No pictures because I didn't want them to think I was too weird, but I will recommend the dishes. The two main dishes came from Giada's new cookbook. They were so good! I made Rotini with Salmon and Roasted Garlic (which is not available on the foodnetwork website, so I won't post it here) and Prosciutto Ravioli. Both received rave reviews.



One day my uncle rented a pontoon boat and we spent the day on the water. Despite being nearly killed by a lightening storm, we had a pretty good time. We saw so many dolphins and one came right up to our boat and even waved at us! He totally mimicked what we were doing to him. It was awesome. Here are a few pictures, but it's hard to tell. The white spot in the pictures are most likely his nose or fin.



The water splash is air coming from our buddy's blow hole.



This is when he waved at us. It was so cute!




After Florida, my husband and I headed to the Smoky Mountains for a 5 day backpacking trip. It was so hard but so fun! It was my longest camping trip and longest period of time without a shower. I gotta tell you, we were ripe. Here are some pictures from the trip, some of them even cooking related!



First day on the trail.



This was our second campsite. It was so pretty! It was right on the creek and was by far our favorite site.



Dinner our second night was spaghetti with canned sauce. Not a huge fan of the canned sauce, and it was a little bit of a disaster since our cheapo Wal-Mart can opener crapped out on us.



This was the biggest hole I could get in the can. It took some coaxing to get the sauce out.



Matt trying to boil our drinking water. Everything was so wet ("smoky" means "humid", apparently), we were only able to get a small flame with lots of smoke. We had a camp stove Matt made from pop cans, but weren't sure we had enough fuel, so we tried a small fire. The water tasted smoky, so that batch was dubbed "the smoky water".



Day 3 hike was 3.3 miles STRAIGHT UP. It was a super challenging hike and I was not sure I was going to make it. But we did! Here's the proof, standing at the divide.



Beginning of our Day 4 hike. This time, we got to go downhill (after 1 mile climbing back up the divide). Much better, though I did fall in the stream 3 times that day.



Our last breakfast on the trail. This is Matt's attempt at pancakes in a pot on top of a pop can stove. Not easy.



After the first disaster of a pancake, Matt decided to make what he called a pancake biscuit. We just ate it out of the pot with a spoon.



Our last hike was about 6 miles and ended at the Indian River Falls. Super pretty, but I was ready to sit in a dry car with air conditioning!



We made it! Smelly, but in one piece. Woohoo! Now we're ready for our next backpacking adventure.