Potato Dumpling Soup

It was my senior year of high school. I desperately needed a job. I started waitressing out at the golf course restaurant. That's where I met Kevin and fell in love.... with his soup.... seriously... you've seen Seinfeld right??? well the Soup Nazi... he doesn't have anything on Kevin... this guy takes soup to a whole new level. he's been making it since he was like 8 or something like that. I can't even describe the amazing deliciousness.. there was clam chowder every friday, french onion, cream of mushroom, PIZZA! he would just make stuff up too like beer cheese and they made some italian sausage with mushrooms and potatoes with a yummy creamy base. but my very favorite days were the days when Kevin made his potato dumpling soup... yup you heard me... it's like baked potato soup PLUS dumplings. well needless to say since I left Arrowhead I have been dreaming of and longing after this soup. Luckily I finally got the hookup. My friend Lexi went back to work at Arrowhead this summer and asked Kevin if he could write down the recipe for me. he basically just gave her a list of ingredients buuut it turned out better than expected. not exactly Kevin's but hey it was my first time!


start out by melting about 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pot and saute some chopped onions, carrots, and celery for a few minutes
add 8 cups of water and 4 tablespoons of chicken base
add 4 oven baked potatoes cut into bite size pieces
season with garlic salt, sea salt, celery salt, pepper, and lawrys
bring to a simmer and let cook while you make the dumplings

for the dumplings start out with 3 eggs, some chopped chives or green onions, salt, pepper, lawrys, and garlic salt, and about 2 tablespoons of milk
add in flour until it is a super thick batter but do not over stir or you will end up with super stiff, hard dumplings!
add the dumplings into soup by the spoonful and cook for about 20 more minutes
milk to soup until it's a creamy consistency (probably 1-2 cups)
melt in 4 slices of american cheese and some chopped bacon if you're into that sort of thing
and you are good to go!! serve with some yummy bread and you're in heaven



and here are some pictures of my little love buglet for a week or two ago that I have been slacking on putting up



I have some fun family shoots planned for this weekend so make sure to stop back and check them out!
Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Fall Food!

yesss! fall is in full swing! which means lots of yummy food! I'm gonna share with you one of my all time favorite recipes! I got this recipe my freshman year from my foods teacher. we had a unit on chili and while I have never been a huge fan of chili she had me try this stuff and it is honestly UH-mazing! go make it right away!

what you need-
4 chicken breasts (cut into bite size pieces) cooked with a little bit of butter, cayenne pepper, and black pepper
1 diced onion sauteed for a few minutes until it starts to brown (go ahead and cook it in the pan you cooked the chicken in!)
2 tablespoons garlic
5 cups chicken broth
1 can green chilies
2 small cans northern beans drained and rinsed
1 pint whipping cream
1 cup sour cream
cayenne pepper
chili powder
salt
black pepper
cumin

what you do-
bring chicken broth to boil reduce to simmer throw all the ingredients in (spices to taste) and let simmer for 15 minutes. then serve! yum yum yum! we like to serve ours with shredded pepper jack cheese and sliced black olives. it's pretty much amazing.


and because I love ya I'm gonna go ahead and give you another recipe right away
stephen brought me home some lovely pears from his coworkers farm

now while I find pears delicious I knew the fam wasn't going to want to eat a thousand plain pears so I found a recipe for pear tarts tweeked it a little bit and they turned out delicious!

what you need-
2 pears peeled cored and sliced into 8 sections each
1 sheet frozen puff pastry thawed over night in the fridge
cinnamon sugar
almond paste
sour cream
brown sugar
melted butter

what you do-
preheat oven to 425
cut the puff pastry into four equal sections
roll about 1 tablespoon of the almond paste into a ball then flatten and place in the center of one of the squares of the pastry put a little more than 1 tablespoon of sour cream on top of the paste then sprinkle a tablespoon of cinnamon sugar on top of that. arrange 3 or 4 slices of pear in the center of the pastry sprinkle about a tablespoon of brown sugar over pears fold corners in to center over the pears use tooth picks to hold in place. brush a little melted butter on top of tart then sprinkle some more cinnamon sugar on top of the tart. repeat with remaining ingredients. bake until golden brown (15-20 min)


I think I like this recipe because it's sooo easy. you really don't have to measure anything which is very rare in baking. and it was pretty darn tasty too!

Hey Moon, Please Forget To Fall Down...

Things have been crazy around here lately! My sister and best friend in the whole world is getting married in two months!! so needless to say we have been scrambling to get things ready for the shower, the bach party (whoop whoop), and finally the big day. also stephen's little brother is getting married this saturday! madness! so Lena (stephen's soon to be sister-in-law) had her shower on friday and i made these delicious lemon raspberry bars.




here's the link to the recipe if you want to make them. they are super easy! Lemon Raspberry Bars

last night we had a farewell dinner for one of my best friends Lexi. She is leaving for Africa tomorrow! i am so jealous. and happy for her. and sad for myself. i'm going to go insane without her! so me, lexi, and three of our other close girl friends all went out to dinner.
here's me and my little lexi





after dinner we went back to lauren's house and sat on her deck and enjoyed some wine and a fire.


Lauren's house is right on the river. it's so pretty!! i could sit on her deck probably every night and not get tired of it.



shortly after our relaxing evening on the deck started lauren's dad thought it was time to light off some fireworks. and we were almost killed. i'm not even joking. the fireworks went haywire and started shooting off in every direction. including the direction of the table we were sitting at. luckily we all made it out alive. lexi almost lost her arm (again, not even joking!) but we got inside the house in time to avoid getting lit on fire or seriously injured. i kind of wish that firework had hit lexi in the head, given her amnesia, and kept her from going to south africa.... ok that time i was joking. but i am going to miss her dearly! i love you Leximus! if you want to read all about lexi's adventures in Cape Town she started a blog and i expect her to keep up with it since i am a blog addict and i pretty much won't have any idea what is going on in her life without it.

Best Dinner Ever...

i can't believe it's almost been a month since i last posted! awful i know. the other week i made steak with whiskey sauce, roasted potatoes, and green beans for dinner. it was amazing to say the least.

it starts out like this
saute some baby bella mushrooms in 1 tablespoon butter adding a few spoon fulls of beef broth whenever the pan looks a little "dry" remove the mushrooms and set aside. now take some nice big steaks sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and garlic salt on both sides. and in the same pan you cooked the mushrooms melt another couple tablespoons of butter and cook the steaks on both sides for about 2 minutes then stick them into the oven at 240 until they're done to your liking. now go back to that pan and cook the whiskey sauce in it. (that recipe is in an older post) serve the steak with the mushrooms and the sauce.

for the potatoes it's super easy! use baby reds or yukon golds, cut them up into bite size pieces, throw into a 9 x 13 baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and season salt, and bake at 350 for about an hour.
the green beans are really easy too. melt a ton of butter in a pan then add a bag of frozen whole green beans. sprinkle generously with season salt and add some chopped purple onion. cook until green beans are soft and the onions are very very brown.

Stuffed Cranberry French Toast

I got this recipe from my mom. It's probably the most amazing breakfast I have ever had. I wish I had a regular brunch date thing with friends so I could make this and impress them. but I don't. oh well more for me.

Cranberry sauce:
12 oz bag of cranberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Place all ingredients except marmalade in saucepan and bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer until cranberries pop. remove from heat add marmalade, mix, set aside.

French toast:
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
8 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 lb loaf italian or french bread
8 oz cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 eggs
1 1/2 cup half & half
2 tablespoons orange juice

In saucepan melt together butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup over low heat. add 1 1/2 cups of the cranberry sauce, mix, and set aside.
slice bread thickly spread cream cheese on one piece of bread and make a sandwich. continue with the rest of the bread.
beat eggs and add half & half, orange juice, and vanilla. stir together
spread the cranberry/brown sugar mixture in a greased 9x13 baking dish. layer the cream cheese sandwiches on top. and pour the egg mixture over the bread. refrigerate overnight or cook immediately for 50-60 minutes in a 350 degree oven. cover with tinfoil for the first 30 minutes then remove. serve with the remaining cranberry sauce.



trust me, you will not regret making this.

I love breakfast-dinner-food!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks saved my life! I just love all of Ree's recipes.
Especially these sour cream pancakes. yum yum yum!!!

What You'll Need:
1 cup sour cream
7 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


What You Do:
gently mix sour cream, flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. don't over stir them though. whisk eggs in separate bowl. add vanilla and stir. pour egg mixture into sour cream/flour mixture. stir together but again don't over stir. kinda like if you were making muffins, it's ok for the batter to be lumpy. melt a tablespoon of butter (or use cooking spray) in a hot pan or on a griddle. pour batter about 1/4 cup at a time. cook for 1-1 1/2 minutes then flip and cook for another 45 seconds. top with butter and syrup.



perfection

Pork Tenderloin With Whiskey Cream Sauce

this sauce is amaaaazing
I got it out of my new P-Dub cook book that I got for christmas

I made my with pork tenderloin but the recipe said use steaks.

So to make the pork tenderloin I just put it in a baking dish, slabbed some butter on it, sprinkled it with pepper and garlic salt and popped it in the oven at 425 for 15-20 minutes. about half way through I did pour a few tablespoons of beef broth over the tenderloin.

while the tenderloin is baking it's time to make the sauce!

first melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a medium pan
add some finely chopped onion (about 2 tablespoons) and let them get nice and golden brown
then turn off your burner for a second so you don't catch on fire and add 1/4 cup whiskey
when all the whiskey is almost evaporated turn your burner back up to medium and add 1/4 cup beef broth
sprinkle in some salt and pepper
add 2 more tablespoons of butter
then add 1/4 cup milk

that's how the recipe goes I added a little bit more butter and a little more milk and then about 1 tablespoon of flour but you do your own thing

it smells so goooood


it draws people in :)

once your tenderloin is done spoon the sauce over it



now don't be shy
take a big ol' bite

Lots To Blog And Be Happy About

I feel like I haven't done this in forever! I have been so busy working, taking pictures, and getting ready for christmas that this little thing was put on the back burner. so now I have lots to blog about.
last week I took pictures of Eden's cousins. These kids are seriously gorgeous! and they have the most insane eyes!


see what I mean?



I just love kids feet

anyways.. on to something I love

food

mmmmmmm



these little babies are soooo amazingly delicious! I have never met someone who didn't love them

so first you melt two sticks butter
add 1/2 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar

bring that to a boil and add 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
reduce heat to low and cook for 5-6 minutes

then put a layer of club crackers on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan then pour half of the graham cracker mixture over the crackers repeat that and put another layer of crackers on top of the second half of the mixture

then melt 1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup peanut butter
use to frost bars
chill
cut
enjoy :)

yesterday I also tackled the home made meatball
and surprisingly I would say I succeeded!



take 1 lb ground meat (I used venison because it was all I had but ground chuck would be really good)
1/3 cup crushed club crackers
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt, pepper, garlic salt, and italian seasoning to taste
mix it all together
roll into balls
then roll them around in a pan over medium heat just to brown the outside a little bit (don't worry about getting it completely brown)
put them on a baking sheet and finish them off in the oven at 350 degrees

serve with pasta and sauce or on italian bread with marinara sauce and provolone cheese yummmm


so as I said in the title- I have lots to be happy about
yummy food
an awesome baby-daddy that went out and cut down a christmas tree for me in the cold with his gimpy shoulder
an awesome 8 month old who is my bestest friend
super cool siblings (ugh could I have gotten more lucky? no)
amazingly selfless and loving parents and grandparents
a nice cozy home
not having to work on any of the upcoming holidays :)

probably not in that order seeing as though food was first haha

but that's all for today
:)

The Best Roast You'll Ever Eat

Three posts in one day???
man I need a life... but I just had to post this after having a bowl of my famous roast... mmmMMMMmmm


anyway...
I don't usually like to share my recipes. (because I'm weird like that) buuuut since I really don't think anyone reads this thing I will share this one (especially since if you do read this silly ol' thing you deserve to get something out of it right?) my grandma (aren't grandmothers always the best cooks?) gave me this recipe. I played with it a few times until I got it just the way I wanted it. And wouldn't you know everyone that tries it says it's the best they've ever had.

Alright first thing you need to do is melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat
sprinkle both sides of roast (I like the chuck roast) with salt, pepper, and a little garlic salt
sear both sides of roast in frying pan (this locks in all the juices and keeps it nice and moist) then transfer the roast and all those yummy juices from the bottom of the pan into your crock pot.
next add two cans cream of mushroom soup and about 1 1/2 cans full of water to the crock pot
add some chopped carrots, red potatoes, yellow onion, and celery
cook on low for 8-12 hours the longer you cook it the more tender that roast gets! and the more delicious!

about half way through cooking I like to add some fresh sliced baby bella mushrooms because I put mushrooms in just about everything :)

so there you have it! soooo easy and seriously the best roast you'll ever eat!