Things I make when my husband goes out of town...yup, he's gonna be jealous.

So, when my husband goes out of town, I veer between a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and items that I definitely know he doesn't like. I tend to bring out the big guns when he is gone, much to his displeasure.
I have a great fish store in town, that I buy a whole slab of salmon, (just for myself) and he cuts off the bottom and slices into five or six pieces for me. Most I freeze for either when my husband goes out of town or for when I have company that enjoys salmon like I do.
 Many years ago I visited a wonderful restaurant in Grand Rapids, MI.  http://www.amwaygrand.com/cygnus27.html
It is called Cygnus 27 inside the Amway Plaza. They had a wonderful salmon in a puff pastry, that 6 years ago, I still think about.
I have to pat myself on the back with this recipe I found/made this evening.
I started with a pretty large filet of salmon, about 8 oz. I would suggest cutting it in half. I made a wonderful topping of walnuts, oil, garlic, salt and pepper, lime juice and parmesan cheese. I have a small food processor that I blended all these ingredients. I placed atop the salmon.
I then made a single crust pie recipe. Here is the recipe below. I then placed the salmon atop the pie crust and  folded to completely cover the salmon.
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/pies/pastry-for-single-crust-pie/

I baked the salmon for 30 minutes at 375. It took longer since it was such a large piece of salmon. I paired it with a Bearnaise sauce and a side salad. Here is the wonderful finished product:

Now, if this just makes you all think I always have fancy food, please think again after you see this photo of the wonderful Halloween cake the girls and I made. My daughter Grace, definitely knows how to sell a cake.

 That's how my girls roll with cake.

Another Mac 'n' Cheese

My goal in life is to find the absolute perfect mac 'n' cheese that all of us can enjoy.
I think I found it. I love crispy on the outside but gooey on the inside. This is the best way to get both.

It needs to be spread out on a cookie sheet with raised sides. Bake at 500 degrees for 15 minutes.
I could include my recipe, but there are so many good ones out there, that any cheese that you like can be added. Just so long as it is on this type of pan will you get both crispy and gooey.

A great pair, is a fast and easy recipe for rolls. I am always a last minute dinner planner. The faster the better!
This recipe was very good. Here is the website: http://abcnews.go.com/US/organizations-seek-donations-improve-life-pine-ridge/story?id=14729358



Enjoy! If you want my recipe for the mac 'n' cheese, just send me a message.

The best tortillas ever..your kids won't be able to put them down!

A few months ago, I was out of tortillas and wanted to make some quesadillas.  I am known to just get on the Internet and look up a recipe, so I did. They turned out pretty good, but were time consuming. Tonight, I had the same idea, except I wanted to make a family favorite, Creamy Chicken Enchiladas.
I found this awesome recipe for flour tortillas, that took no time to make, and my kids couldn't stop gobbling them down. I wish I had taken pictures of my own, but will share the website I got this idea from.
http://cooklikeyourgrandmother.com/2009/06/how-to-make-flour-tortillas/

I took this from the above website, and yes, mine looked exactly like this.
The one different ingredient, that I have fallen in love with, is bacon fat. Think back to when your grandma cooked. Everyone these days are sick of preservatives and are wanting to go all natural. All the experts agree, the best natural, preservative free diet is how your grandma cooked. I know, bacon fat? I have to tell you, for special dishes, this is my all time favorite liquid seasoning. I did do half butter and half bacon fat. Which, by the way, will keep in your fridge for a few weeks. It is all natural, and if used in limitation, just as fattening as butter. You are not going to be frying your eggs or steaks in bacon fat.

Now, for our favorite recipe, Creamy Chicken Enchiladas. You may use any type of chicken, tonight I used chicken from the grocery store already cut up, meant for stir fry. The nice fact about this recipe, is the chicken doesn't have to be the best since it will be mixed with other ingredients. My recipe is pretty simple:

1lb Chicken, cooked and diced
8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 can of enchilada sauce (I use mild, but any level of spice can be used)
four tortillas
1 cup sour cream
The other half of the enchilada sauce
1 cup Mexican cheese

Once the chicken is cooked, shred it in a bowl, stir in half a can of the enchilada sauce and the 8 oz package of cream cheese.
Warm up your homemade tortillas, place chicken mixture in the center of the tortilla and fold up starting at the bottom, then both sides, and finally the top.
Repeat with the other three tortillas.
Place tortillas in a dish.
Mix the sour cream and the rest of the enchilada sauce together. Spread mixture over the tortillas and sprinkle with the cheese.
Now, there are many different variations that can be used. You may add diced tomatoes, green onions, or chile's to the cream cheese mixture if you like. We like it simple here.
Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until warmed through. Serve with re fried beans or rice.

Kid friendly mac 'n' cheese

I recently became the norm and now cook one meal for all of us. It definitely has been tricky, but have found a few websites that I love, one of which is Weelilcious. (http://weelicious.com/ ) They have kid and adult friendly meals, though the few recipes I have looked up, don't cater to the picky eaters. The parent needs to do a little tweaking, especially if you have a child that doesn't like vegetables or fruit, i.e., picky eaters. Once recipe that worked really well with my girls is this one.

http://weelicious.com/?s=mac+n+cheese+bites

What made it such a hit is that I called them mac 'n' cheese cupcakes since my girls love cupcakes and I cooked them in a cupcake pan. Two suggestions, I used whole wheat pasta, which yes is healthy, but to me was really dry. The other, is they fell apart if you took the bites out of the cupcake pan too soon. Let them cool off first, then remove.

Halloween fun

The girls and I decided to do a fun, new (to us) Halloween craft one afternoon after school. It never occurred to me that we would be doing this amid homework, dinner, my squeezing in a workout, and gymnastics. But never mind that, a CRAFT is coming our way. My girls, especially Grace will absolutely never say no to one of those.  In fact, she will create a fantastic new idea, i.e. cutting paper, putting it on paper, and viola! this has to go to her teacher or else.


I actually got this idea from my mom, a retired kindergarten teacher. I altered a few things and of course, the way my life runs, it isn't completely finished, but you can imagine the finishing touches.  Here is a few pictures of our adventure for Halloween this year:

We grabbed two bags of white rice, a couple boxes of dye and big ziploc bags. Though I wish that were the case, we were out of the big bags and had to use sandwich bags, 4 total. Please put your pets away since squeezing and shaking of said bags will erupt with uncooked rice.
My ongoing preparedness continuing, to get the actual black and orange, you actually need EVERY color in the dye box. No problem, my specialty is getting things done, even if that means calling my neighbor and asking for ingredients, which I did not do in this case. I love spontaneity.

We actually needed one color I didn't have, blue, but I had the neon colors, which kind of substituted. In the end, it worked out. Check out the back of your dye boxes for orange (or sunset in our case) and black. Put the white rice in LARGE bags, I promise, it will work better, shake or press with your fingers. Pour into mason jars. There are many different ways to decorate. I plan on going to our backyard and snipping some mum flowers and putting in jars. We shall see how that works.

Updated photo with mums, a little sunny, but you get the idea. Obviously, since there is no water, they won't last long. You can always substitute fake flowers.