First snowfall, Pumpkin Gingersnaps and Holiday Extravaganza

Hello! Happy Friday and TGIF! I am really excited because I have the weekend off! It’s been a few weeks and now I get to enjoy the weekend. I don’t have much planned just a little bit of cooking and relaxing as much as I can.

 Yesterday we also had our first snowfall! It was crazy seeing the stuff again, but I guess its that time. Did you guys have any snow by you?

So I have been talking about my holiday extravaganza for awhile now and I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Last year I made 16 different types of cookies/bars/treats for the holiday. I wish I had better pictures of all the cookies. I don’t know what came over me, but I started my normal holiday baking and I kept reading more food blogs and food magazines and I just went over the top. My biggest problem was I didn’t keep better track of the treats I made. The same goes for my Thanksgiving treats last year. I know I made Gingerbread cake balls, a Pumpkin Roll and a Jell-O pumpkin dessert but I can only find one picture of them.

Anyways this year is totally different. I am planning and  watching the paper for good sales and coupons. I’ve bought a TON of butter already and plan to buy just a few more. I found an amazing deal on butter so I have been stocking up (1.99 to be exact and if you know butter prices this is a steal). I use real butter so it’s a bit more expensive so I have to watch for sales on it. I also bought my sugar and would like to get two more bags but I really have to concentrate on my chocolate and flour now. 

I have dug out all my holiday baking books, have bookmarked a ton of different cookies and I starting the planning. So far I have the usually on the list, Fudge, Peanut Butter Balls (two batches), Rolo cookies and snicker cookies. These always fly off the dessert plate first. I will share more as the week goes on and I should have my list narrowed down by next Friday along with planning my side dishes I am bringing to my friends for Thanksgiving (more on that next week).

Since I have been talking about baking so much I wanted to share a cookie with you. This comes from one of the food blogs I visit Two Peas and their Pod. They have a ton of good recipes and I saw this one and really wanted to try it. I really love the taste of ginger and I saw these pumpkin gingersnap cookies. I had to try these because I thought the two flavors would be amazing. The result was a super moist cookie that was amazing. Mine didn’t have two much of a pumpkin taste to it, so if you are afraid of it, don’t be.  One thing about these cookies, don’t take them out of the oven too soon. My inflated and as soon as I took them out they flattened. Don’t be afraid to bake them an extra minute or two. Since these are from another blog here is the link to find their recipe. I hope you guys try these and enjoy!

Everything I go through, plus more!

mmmm cookies, Two Peas and there Pod had better pics, but mine were still good!

Pumpkin Gingersnap cookies recipes found here

Middle of the Week Chicken Dinner-Chicken Saltimbocca

Hello everyone! How is it going?  I'm hungry lol. I am always hungry to be honest. I LOVE food. I know I show you guys a lot of food (or try to), but I love talking about it, showing you guys and hoping you guys try and enjoy these foods. This is one reason why I wanted to blog. I can talk about food all I want and hopefully someone out there is enjoying reading or making this food. I also want to invite you guys to please comment if you want to start a conversation. I would love hearing from you. You can write on this page or on my Facebook page. 

Now to the food. First let me say I will talk more about my holiday extravaganza this Friday. I wanted to show you guys  a great and tasty chicken dinner. Its great to add more chicken recipes to your collection. Now first I know this recipe calls for prosciutto di Parma. It can be expensive, well seem like it is expensive. When I went to the store to get it, it was 7.99 a pound. I almost died.  I really wanted to make this dish so I decided to go with it. I asked for 12 slices cut extremely thin. My total only came to $1.12! So don’t be worried when you see the price of this. I also skipped on the sage leaves because the  price was a little higher than what I wanted to spend.  I served this up with my corn chowder pasta. It was very good, and I loved the flavor that the prosciutto gave to it. Its almost like having bacon wrapped chicken breast, but this is better. It did splatter a little bit so please be careful. 

Wrapped, dredged in flour and ready to go.

Please be careful, it does splatter

Serve with Pasta if you like

Chicken Saltimbocca

Recipe adapted from Rachael Rays Date Night-ChickenSaltimbocca

Chicken breast cutlets pounded to 1/8-inch thick

Salt and pepper

12 very thin slices prosciutto di Parma

Whole Wheat Flour, for dredging(you can use white flour no biggie)

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), divided

Season the chicken pieces very lightly with salt and evenly with finely ground pepper on both sides. Cover the chicken carefully with prosciutto.I wrapped one side. You don't have to do both depending on the size of your chicken. Mine were smaller pieces of chicken breast.

Lightly dredge the cutlets in flour, and then heat 2 tablespoons EVOO in a large pan over medium heat. Once the EVOO is hot, cook four cutlets a couple of minutes on each side to light golden. Place the cutlets on the warm platter and cover loosely with foil. Wipe the pan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons EVOO and and cook the remaining chicken.

Once all your chicken is done, serve up and enjoy!

Corn Chowder Pasta

Hello everyone! How is your Monday? I worked all weekend so it flew by and cannot wait until Tuesday because I have a day off to relax. I am super excited about my baking extravaganza that I mentioned a few days ago. In preparing to making everything I have planned I bought 5 packs of butter! Oh yes, 5 packs. I need more too.Thankfully a store had them on sale for dirt cheap which allowed me to get that many.  I go all out for my baking extravaganza, but I will talk about this more this week.

I overdosed on candy again this weekend, I even worked out and had a cupcake after lol. I love my sweets. I tried eating healthy most of the weekend though. I have a super healthy dinner even though it says Chowder in the title. I used whole wheat pasta and chicken broth instead of cream. This pasta tasted so fresh and had a nice cream to it due to the corn. This was really good and a great recipe if you are looking to get more whole grains and veggies in your diet. Rachael Ray made this a few times and I was so glad I tried it. I hope you guys try it it makes a ton!

Look how HUGE this was!

chopped veggies

a few things you will need

brown up the bacon, careful it liked to splatter a bit

No milk here, corn and chicken stock

Its such a beauty, serve right out of the pan

Corn Chowder Pasta

Adapted from Rachael Ray-Summer Corn Fettuccine

Ingridents;

1 pound Lingine
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
12 slices Canadian bacon,(if using the smaller size)  chopped (you can omit this)
6 ears corn on the cob, shucked
1 Onion finely chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to a 1 cup chicken stock, depends on how thick you want it
2 ts Dried Thyme leaves
A few dashes of hot sauce or 1-2 pinches cayenne pepper
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Bring a large pot of water to boil over medium heat. Salt the water, add the pasta and cook to al dente.
While the pasta is coming up to a boil, scrape your corn kernels off the cob, making sure you are getting the juices from the ears of corn.

Add about three-quarters of the scraped corn and any corn liquid to the pan with the bacon. Add the onion and bell pepper and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook until the vegetables are tender, 5-6 minutes.

Add the remaining corn and chicken stock to a food processor (or blender) and puree until smooth.
Pour mixture into the veggies and simmer over low heat. . Stir in the thyme and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently, to thicken. Add the hot sauce or cayenne and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Drain the pasta and add it to your veggie mixture, stir, top with Parmigiano Reggiano.

I actually served this as a side dish to chicken or it can be your main dish. Hope you guys try this.

Enjoy!

Recovering from Halloween…Still

How was everyone’s Halloween this year? I know I have talked about getting trick or treaters and I actually had some! I had about 20 trick or treaters. My first one was Darth Vader.  Something that happened that was interesting was a few kids asked me for more candy! I never had that happened. I was giving out about two pieces per kid. I had some princesses, Harry Potter, Jack Sparrow, a ladybug, and a few dead doctors and princesses.

Over the past few days I have eaten way too much. I always say everything in moderation, but I went overboard. I normally like to be careful and watch what I eat, but not this week.

I also started planning my Holiday Baking Extravaganza. More on this to come, but I am excited because Walgreens is have a good sale on baking goods this Sunday so I am excited, but more on this next week.

I have a really easy recipe and it is pretty light. This is also a great one for the summer on those hot days but easy enough to make when your low on time or need a light meal.  Its BLT Pasta salad. This is a really light salad that is good and good for you.

Here is what you need

1 Pound Whole Wheat Pasta

2 bags of lettuce or to taste

1 pint of Cherry tomatoes or 4 tomatoes diced

1 bag of Bacon or 6 pieces of Bacon cooked

Evoo

Salt and Pepper to taste

Parmesan Cheese to taste

Bring your pasta water to a boil, add salt and pasta cook to al dente. While the pasta is cooking, put your two bags of lettuce in a large bowl. Chop your Cherry tomatoes in half or add your diced tomatoes. Sprinkle in your bacon. Add your cooked pasta to the bowl and mix. Toss with a little EVOO, salt and pepper, Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

I hope you guys enjoy this and I can’t wait to share more with you guys!

Enjoy

Happy Halloween!!! Pictures from Halloween pasts

How is everyone on this wonderful holiday? I haven cooking and baking and putting the final touches on the house before trick or treaters come (at least I hope they come). I just want everyone to be safe and have fun! That is what it is all about having fun and eating lots of sweets and treats.


This was me back in either kindergarten or first grade I don't remember

This is how I decorated the house I grew up in

Pictures from some Halloween party I had

My first apartment decorated for Halloween

Yummy Punch

Dressed up for Halloween

This was at my second apartment another Halloween party (last year to be exact)

Food!

Homemade Pizza!!

Decorations

Yummy Pizza

Pumpkins my friend and I carved for his house

Yummy cupcakes, from a box lol

My friends spooky display

the Pumpkins lighted and ready to go!

I hope everyone has a safe Halloween this year and enjoy!!!

Halloween Food Fun!!!

Hey guys whats cooking? I hope everyone has fun this weekend and just relax, enjoy and be safe. You should also get in that kitchen and make some fun treats!!! here are a few to get you started. English Muffins Mummies, Worms in a cup, Ants on a Log, and a Candy Corn mixture!! These are easy, fun and tasty!

English Muffins Mummies

Split English Muffins, put on tomato sauce or pizza sauce, add mozzarella cheese and olives. Bake at 375 until cheese is melted about 15 minutes.

My faces didn't turn out great, but its still fun!

Worms in a cup


Make any pudding mixture you want, add to cups. Add some crushed Oreo's. Top with cool whip then finish with more crushed Oreos and gummy worms.

Ants on a Log


Wipe and cut celery. Add peanut butter to top and place raisins on top of Peanut Butter

The Ants on the Log are next to the pumpkin and the Candy Corn Mixture is next to those.

Candy Corn Mixture

Mix Candy Corn with Peanuts--yum!----See picture above.

More Fall Fall Food Finds

Hello everyone! I wanted to put up more fall food finds. These ones are fun and I hope you can find some of these still.

Is anyone throwing a party this weekend, or going to a party? I’m still working on my dinner for Halloween which I can’t wait to show you. It will have something to do with pumpkin I am sure but anyways I hope you guys like these finds!!

White Chocolate M&Ms These are really good, and a few people said the first bite reminded them of skittles. You can find these at Wal-Mart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are delish, check out yesterdays blog for a great recipe

Pumpkin spice Eggo's! I found these at target, these are really good, and has a great taste

I topped mine with pumpkin butter! YUM

Another Coffee-mate creamer-Warm Cinnamon Sugar Cookie-it smells amazing and has a nice sweet taste