Cooking

I like trying new recipes, but I have kept life simpler since Sariah was born and instead of investing time in the kitchen trying new things, I have stuck to the recipes I am already familiar with.

This week, I felt inspired and made breadcrumbs and Cauliflower Cheese Bites! The final result was excellent.

Breadcrumbs: I bought two loaves of garlic bread and waited for them to become hard in the fridge. I then cut the bread and blended it. When I make this again, I will cut the bread before it hardens!

Here is the recipe I followed from http://www.food.com/

Ingredients:

• 2 loaves firm-textured white bread
• 1 cup butter
• salt & freshly ground black pepper

 

Directions:

1. Use a food processor or blender to crumb the bread evenly.
2. Crumbs should not be like sand.
3. Leave some texture-don't over process.
4. Melt butter in a large pan and add crumbs and salt and pepper.
5. Stir until evenly coated.
6. Continue stirring over medium heat until the crumbs sound like sand when they hit the bottom of the pan.
7. Cool thoroughly.
8. Then store in heavy duty plastic bags with zipper seals.
9. Don't put them in the refrigerator-they won't keep.
10. Store them in a cabinet for up to six months.

 

 

Cauliflower Cheese Bites: This recipe is actually calls for broccoli, but I only had cauliflower and John hates broccoli.

 

Here is the recipe I followed from http://www.staceysnacksonline.com/

Ingredients:
 

• 16 oz. package of frozen chopped broccoli, thawed and drained of liquid (I used fresh steamed broccoli)
• 1 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
• 3 eggs
• salt & pepper
• 1 cup of seasoned Italian breadcrumbs

 

Directions:

 

• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
• With your hands, form small patties and lay on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Thankful for our Daily Bread

Before John and I were even married, we talked a lot about being good stewards of the financial resources God has entrusted us with. Over the years life has changed and we have tweaked our budget here and there, but we have tried to live a simple life in order to have the freedom to give back to God as He calls us.

This past month, we made some necessary purchases and some unwise purchases that lead to a lack of money in the grocery/household account when we were only two weeks into the month! I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to stick to the budget, but I tried to be optimistic. We had quite a few things in the freezer and our pantry was well stocked. I had to be a bit more creative with meal planning and we had simpler dinners...but here we are at the end of the month and our budget will be reset tomorrow!

While I am extremely thankful that we will soon be able to go shopping again, I have to admit that the past few days has given me a new appreciation to the Lord's prayer - specifically the part about how God gives us our daily bread. I realized as I read Sariah's baby bible this week that it is so much harder to be thankful when we have plenty. Actually, I am not sure if it is harder to be thankful or if it is just easier to forget to be thankful. I have always been thankful for the food we are blessed with because I have seen true hunger. I praise God every time I come home from a trip to Costco with a box full of milk, cheese, bananas, beans, etc. However, I felt more thankful this week than I have in a long time. This week I was also able to be very specific in my prayers: "Thank you, God, for this package of smoked salmon and the four tomatoes I will use to make pasta sauce." As the end of the month approached we had less and less meal options and I became more and more thankful for every meal.

From here on, I want to live a more thankful life! I don't want to only think about the blessings God has showered upon us during Thanksgiving. I want to be thankful when we have plenty and when we don't. Praise God for his provision!

Afternoon Snack Gone Wrong

I had been wanting to eat Greek yogurt with homemade strawberry jam and honey...so I made myself this perfect snack. Unfortunately, right after I got it ready, I dropped a glass container from the cupboard above the counter and my yummy snack became the home to MANY pieces of glass. As a matter of fact, the whole kitchen was filled with tiny pieces of glass and instead of snacking, I had to spend a long time cleaning it all up. Sometimes our plans just don't go as we plan!

So Thankful!

I wrote here that I was going to share a little bit about how the Lord has been our provider this past year.  Well, the more I think about it, the more thankful I become. Are you ready to be thankful with me?

·         I am thankful for another year of life: 25 happened to come and go really fast…26, here I come in a few weeks!

·         I am thankful for John’s new job which he loves and has lots of opportunities to grow.

·         I am thankful for the friends who housed John for a few months before we moved to a new city.

·         I am thankful for a patient husband who loves me despite my many breakdowns this past year.

·         I am thankful for three years of marriage: this was a hard year full of changes and challenges yet it was wonderful to stand with the one I love in the hard moments.

·         I am thankful for the photography opportunities that have just landed on my lap (or in my inbox).

·         I am thankful for the opportunities to see dear friends get married.

·         I am thankful for friends who were willing to help us pack all our belongings and magically make it all fit in a UHaul.

·         I am thankful for the friends who helped us unpack the UHaul.

·         I am thankful for beautiful waterfalls and many amazing hiking trails in the Pacific Northwest.

·         I am thankful for the opportunity to photograph my first wedding with my lovely husband. We are a great team!

·         I am thankful for the time John and I have had to read together.

·         I am thankful for Gluten-Free recipes.

·         I am thankful for friends who have reached out to us during our lonely days in a new city.

·         I am thankful for skype and the way I can chat with friends who are far away geographically but very close to my heart!

·         I am thankful for the way God has provided financially so that John and I could pay off all our debt. Praise God for a debt free time of life!

·         I am thankful for a husband that spent hours after work helping me create a new photography website.

·         I am thankful for my new photography website. Go check it out and feel free to leave some love: daniellynobile.com

·         I am thankful for family and wish we lived closer to all our relatives.

·         I am thankful for sermons that speak to my heart!

Above all,  I am thankful for a loving and compassionate God who calls me his own! He continues to shower me with gifts and love when I do not deserve it and I will forever be thankful for His faithfulness.

Click here to see my thanksgiving list from last year!

Gluten Free Cooking

John and I made yummy gluten-free ginger cookies this weekend!

Find recipe here.

We also made gluten-free cinnamon/raisin bread that tastes wonderful!

Yup, we had a very productive weekend in the kitchen.

Making Dinner Together

This is what John and I made to celebrate our 5th dating anniversary!

(Salad, Scalloped Potatoes, Steak)

Flourless Chocolate Cake

As I write this I am enjoying a very yummy chocolate cake! It is almost as good as my favorite dessert ever: the lava cake

Since I stopped eating products that have gluten back in May (have I mentioned that I have become gluten intolerant?) I have had to stay away from some of my favorite things like bread, pasta, lava cake, bread, oats, soy sauce, bread. Can you tell that I miss bread?

Back to the cake...

Over the past three years, John has been the baker in our household. I cook yummy meals and he bakes yummy desserts. However, we both have very little experience baking gluten-free desserts.

When we were invited to a dinner/game night at some friend's home, I started looking at different gluten-free desserts that we could take with us.  I stumbled upon this great recipe ... showed it to John who totally wanted to give it a try and we still cannot believe how yummy it turned out to be!

Folks, this is NOT a fat-free dessert! It includes 18 ounces of chocolate. Can you believe it?

We cooked it a day ahead and let it cool in the fridge over night. Our home smelled so good John and I kept going back to the kitchen to 'take a look' at the cake. We had to control ourselves to not eat the cake in the middle of the night, but the wait was worth it!

The next day, we served it cold with frozen raspberries, raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. It was wonderful and all my gluten-friendly friends loved it too!

If you are ever craving a ridiculously dense and yummy chocolate cake, make sure to check out this recipe! By the way, allrecipes.com is one of my favorites websites. I would probably not know how to cook if it wasn't for the great recipes and reviews I find here.

***I don't have a photo of the cake because I was too excited about eating it and totally forgot to take a photo of the final result. Maybe next time!

Dried Apples

What to do when you still have lots of apples at home?

Dry them!

Got Apple?

This weekend was all about apples. Since we brought back more than 350 pounds of apples from our trip to the farming land, we had to be creative and make everything we know how to make with apples. So we headed south, to the country side to make:

Apple Crisp

Apple Sauce

Apple Butter

This was quite the task! We had people assigned to cutting apples, people assigned to stirring the cooking apples, people assigned to making apple sauce with two kitchen aid mixers, people assigned to making apple butter...you get my point.

The kitchen was a mess, we were hot and tired and the house smelled 100% apple!

Pesto Making

Last year I did my best to grow as many herbs as possible in a few pots right outside my kitchen door. This year, I planted mint everywhere and decided I am going to let it grow wild. John really enjoys mint ice tea - and we will probably never need to buy mint ever again. However, I missed having basil - better yet, I missed making pesto. Remember this post from my first pesto making experience?

This year I made a trip to Cash & Carry and bought a giant bag of basil! The smell of basil filled my car and I headed home excited to make pesto. That is just what I did all afternoon on Friday.

The result was fantastic and I am already excited for dinner. I don't even know what we are having yet - but pesto will definitely be a part of it!

Special Dessert

This is what John and I enjoyed after a special anniversary dinner! I can hardly believe we can make something this yummy. The best part is that we still have some in the fridge waiting to be eaten later tonight :)

Here is the recipe - in case you want to have some as well.

Yummy!

Remember this post?

Well, lets just say that I got to have one of my favorite things again! But this time I got to make it with John on our date night.

Molten Lava Cake

(Notice the double boiler. We are resourceful with what we have)

(I don't recommend mixing the eggs for 5 minutes - full speed - by hand)

The results were fantastic and I can't wait to make these again!

It's Pizza Time

John and I had a couple of friends over for dinner this past Friday and we made pizza!

I am not a fan of greasy pizza...so I like to make my own - with the help of Trader Joe's $1.29 pizza dough.

We made this same pizza about a month ago and I have been wanting more ever since.

John is usually too kind and rolls out the dough for me - I don't like doing that part. But John is VERY good at it!

We put the dough on a cooking sheet with oats instead of flour and let the dough cook for about 7 minutes (without the toppings). John discovered that when we put all the topping on the pizza and put it in the oven, the dough does not cook thoroughly...instead there are some gooey parts in the middle.

After the 7 minutes, we took out the dough from the oven and added the toppings. When it comes to the ingredients, I use what I have.

Instead of using red sauce, I decided to use a brush to spread olive oil, garlic and sea salt all over the dough. The sea salt makes a big difference!

Next I added some Italian Seasoning for taste (because I was out of oregano).

I cut a bunch of cilantro and green onions into small pieces and spread around the dough. I added Monterey Jack cheese and chicken pieces on the top, as well as a sliced onion and green pepper.

**This time, we had some chicken already fried with olive oil, salt, peeper, Italian seasoning and a little bit of ginger.

The pizza goes back in the oven and we cook for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the cheese is all melted and golden!

I do not have a picture of the final result - because I was too hungry and forgot to take a picture when the pizza came out of the oven. However, I guarantee that it looked and smelled delicious.

The final results was also mouth watering! What I like most about this pizza is that I can taste each ingredient, and the pizza itself is not covered in grease or fat.

Bon Appetit!!

In the Kitchen

Since I tried my mother-in-law's fabulous dinner rolls, I have been wanting to make some really bad.

What stopped me?

The fear that they were not going to turn out to be as good as the ones I tried.

Thanks to John's encouragement, I decided to make some and see what would happen. The first time was a failure. I put the rolls in the oven and thought I had enough time to take a shower.

I was wrong.

The rolls were clearly overcooked and I got so sad I almost cried. I know this may sound dramatic, but I had built up this excitement and expectation - only to to find out that what I had made was far from the delicious, melt in your mouth rolls.

John, being the wonderful husband that he is, encouraged me to just try it again. I hesitantly agreed to give it another try - just one more time.

The results?

Splendid!!!

I ended up making 24 rolls that were rapidly consumed at our family vacation.

rolls after rising for an hour

butter and garlic glaze

overcooked rolls

try number 2 - perfect and ready to be eaten

I thought these were so good that I want to try baking different kinds of breads. We'll see what happens.

Pesto Sauce

I am a big fan of pesto sauce!

If I could choose between red sauce, white sauce or pesto - I would choose pesto for sure. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure that I could just eat pesto by itself. Is that gross?

Oh well.

When my friend Camille gave me a bite of her pasta with REAL ITALIAN pesto a couple of months ago, I just wanted to keep eating and eating. But seriously. I cannot afford to buy pesto at a grocery store when a little jar costs $10.

So, I have been on a roll to create my own pesto sauce - with the help of my mother in law who makes wonderful meals!

About two months ago, I headed to Home Depot and bought myself a basil plant. I have taken care of that plant with special attention to make sure it would grow into a healthy 'pesto bush'! Well, today I got the chance to use its enormous leaves plus a couple of other ingredients to make a beautiful container of pesto!!!!
I am sooo excited to eat it with pasta and chicken tonight :)
Maybe I'll make a pesto sauce pizza for tomorrow...

**Lessons Learned**
-use a food processor, not a blender
-buy little containers to be able to freeze the pesto in small amounts
-don't make such a big mess in the kitchen!