The Eggs-perimet

Joe had a party last week and he made quiche so he had A LOT of egg whites in the fridge.  So I decided to go on a meringue cookie experimentation.  A shout out to the Bucher’s for being our “test dummies” (Isaac’s term!); I guess there are worse things to have to test, huh?  What we and the Bucher’s don’t eat, the remainder will go up to church to offer as dessert at the fish fry tonight.

Our first batch was Chocolate Meringue Cookies; I doubled the cocoa and didn’t use cream of tartar.  Have you seen the price of that in the store?  Joe says it’s just to stabilize the whites and you could leave it out so I did in all the recipes.  I free formed these when I put them on the cookie sheet.  I read some suggestions to leave the cookies in the oven to cool so after the baking time, I turned off the oven and waited (hard for me...I like instant gratification!).  This resulted in a light and crunchy cookie all the way through.  My one suggestion would be to add more chips.  Unfortunately, these were all eaten up before I decided to conduct The Eggs-periment so no photo…

Our second batch were actually  Coconut Macaroons but it also came out more like a meringue.  I followed this recipe exactly except for the baking temp and time.  The 20-25 minutes at 300 degrees seemed to work for the Chocolate Chip Meringues so I decided to use that combo for all the meringues.  I used an ice cream scoop for these.  These meringues were crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and looked awesome!

Third batch was Lemon Meringue cookies.  The texture turned out a little disappointing…too chewy.  I substituted 1/3 cup Countrytime Lemonade Drink Mix for some of the sugar called for in the recipe, I don’t know if that led to the disappointment.  I put the meringue in a Ziploc bag and cut out the end and piped them on the cookie sheet.  They came out too flat.  I guess that’s why I’m calling this an experiment…you win some you lose some.  But I did have high hopes for these since I love lemon.  Maybe next time I’ll follow the recipe exactly.

For the forth batch, Isaac wanted something with peanut butter.  I don’t have any peanut butter chips and I don’t think I can add peanut butter into the meringue, I would think that would weigh it down.  I had some Butterfinger pieces in the pantry so I decided to reuse the Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe except substitute the pieces for the chips.  I did not double the cocoa this time but doubled the pieces to 2/3 cup.  I scooped these as well since the Macaroon turned out so nice.  These turned out more chocolate than anything else; I really couldn’t taste the Butterfinger.

Isabelle wanted to go rogue for the fifth batch; Thin Mint Meringue.  Again, we took the basic Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe, omitted the chocolate and added 2/3 cups crushed Thin Mints.   Yummy!  

One more batch (the last!), and I went even more rogue this time; Wicked Meringue Cookies!  I followed the Chocolate Chip Meringue recipe and added a ½ teaspoon of cayenne and doubled the chips.  Just a nice little warmth after the second bite…I think going rouge paid off.

Coconut Macaroon, Lemon, Butterfinger, Thin Mint, Wicked



Goodwill adventures have not been successful of late.  So I have nothing exciting to report there.

I ran the Heart Mini Marathon with my friend Deb last Sunday.  Every year I say I’m not going to run that race and every year I’m at the starting line and it’s always rainy and cold.  Out and back Columbia Parkway sucks, the hills are plentiful.  So why do I run it every year?  My work sponsors it every year and they pay our entry fee so I’ve been running it for free so that’s incentive.  I changed brands at work so I no longer get the free registration so I thought I was done with it (and very happy about it!).  Then Deb calls me and tells me she’s doing her first half at the Heart…now I have to run for support!  Just like the marathon I’m running in April…I said I’d never run another one but here I am, training again to support my sister, who is running her first full.  The things we do for the ones we love!  All in all, the Heart was good and it was great that Michelle, Jan, Sara and Lauren came out to cheer us on!  And Anchor Grill afterwards…its tradition!

The night before the race we went out with friends in the Nipple Mobile.  I don’t know if that’s the official name for Kevin’s "new" car but look at the color…what does it remind you of?  We had a great time piling into that and heading to Knotty Pine for dinner.  I had to watch my beer and food consumption due to 13.1 miles the next day, but I made sure I stayed hydrated.  We had a great time and after, we went to Bobby Macke’s.  I’ve never been there before and I wasn’t extremely impressed.  The bull was $6 to ride and a ghost tour was $10…really?  I had to pay $5 to get in to listen to the band sing 1 song and be done, hear a DJ and then listen to karaoke.  No thanks, I’ll just hang out at Peecox for free.

Gia got a hold of my camera and took some lovely shots of her toys.  And she wanted me to photograph the outfit she picked out.  She's just like her mother...always ready to smile for the camera and be the center of attention!

That’s it for now folks…catch you later.

Lent means brown bread...

So, it's Lenten season and that only means one thing...brown bread.  Since I can remember, my mom would make brown bread during Lent and we'd eat it with cream cheese for lunch on Friday's since we couldn't eat meat.  I've carried on the tradition in my house but right now, Izzy is the only kid that will eat it.  The other two don't know what they're missing!

Brown Bread:
1 cup All Bran cereal
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1 tsp dark Karo
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk (instead of buying I take 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and add enough milk to make a cup, let sit 10 minutes)

Mix all ingredients then add buttermilk.  Bake in loaf pan 325 degrees fro 50-60 minutes.  Let cool 30 minutes.  Mom always made hers in cans filled 2/3 full.

Isaac had a birthday last week, he turned 11. He was happy as can be when Izzy made him cupcakes and made the "11" out of bacon!

I've been doing a lot of running lately, we're really getting up in miles.  I did 14 today and I'm a little nervous because my knees are killing me!  I've never had a running injury before so I hope they aren't shot!

The weekends have been fun, two weeks ago I went to the Stagette at my kids school.  I bid on a silent auction item and got 16 free 1 hour personal training sessions for $60!  Can you believe that!  Joe did the food and it was delicious and he was down some workers so Isaac went to help him...he's a hard worker.

3 Hot Cougars!

My table with Mom, Martha and Karen's backs

Last weekend was Night at the Races at church.  I started out with $6 in betting money and came home with $12 so I won a couple races, but I would have loved to win split-the-pot! 

Well, I'm off to rest...as much as you can rest with ten 11 year old boys I have spending the night!



Amazing Race, what a day!

Well, I FINALLY got to audition for AR.  As many of you know, I've been wanting to do this forever but it seems the "window of opportunity" to put in an application is very small.  I'll check, check, check the website, the deadline will be for the last AR, I won't check for 2 weeks then BAM, I check and I've missed the deadline by like 1 day!

So off to Turfway today to wait in line.  The website says you can't line up before 11:00, they'll kick you off the premises if you try.  I thought I'd get there a little earlier, just to check it out.  I get there at 9:30...I'm like pretty far back in the line!  Well, so much for sticking to the rules!  I was not prepared because I didn't think I would be waiting outside for 1.5 hours, but I had a heavy coat and gloves so I managed.  I met the few people ahead and behind me in line and we collectively bitched about the situation.  When the guy came around to count teams, we were in the 150's so we're feeling secure.  I was not with my teammate, my sister Karen, because she was 3 hours away working the school cafeteria.  That's OK, they don't start taping until 4:00.

We finally make it inside around 11:15 and we have to sit around in our line until 4:00.  I brought stuff to do but it's still boring and exhausting. 

My line mates were nice enough to let me go in and out of line without a team mate to hold my place.  At 3:30, I still have no team mate and they start the registration.  I get up to the registration line, was going to get the number 158 I think, go up to the window...was told I couldn't check in without a team mate. 

Starting registration and Karen is missing

Oh! So close, I was at the window but denied!

Karen is in Dry Ridge and they are only guaranteeing 200 auditions.  Luckily, they let me stay at the front of the line until she got there.  Well, after a frantic phone call to tell her to get her ass in gear, I sit and wait as I watch the 200 number grow closer and closer.  All the sudden I get a call from Karen, she's rushing into Turfway on her phone, talking to me and we are frantically trying to find one another (I wasn't hard to find at the front of the line).  I swear it was like the Amazing Race right there.  She was running, I'm calling out, people in line are helping her get to the front of the line with me...we end up with number 208...we're out of the guarantee zone...

Getting pretty for the camera

 So, more waiting with my fellow line mates, some skit practicing with Karen and then my line mates leave to audition...it should be me...we better get to audition!  In come some new people wanting to sit at our table.  Great group of 20 somethings (and a real looker in the group too!) but their number was like 350 so I think they pretty much knew they weren't getting in

First line mates

Second line mates

They FINALLY call our number, we go up to the room, sign in giving our name and contact info, and before you know it, we're in front of the camera with 1 minute to shine!

WE NAILED IT!  Our shirts, our props and our kissing each other grabbed their attention I think!

I REALLY want to do this but if it isn't meant to be, at least I can say I tried!

Indian Summer

Well, Indian food and somewhat "summer" weather anyway!

I was at the library the other day and picked up one of the few books by the man I would marry if I wasn't married to Joe that I don't have, Jamie's Food Revolution.  I love his books not only for the recipes but for the pictures as well.  I love a cookbook with lots of pictures, if a cookbook doesn't have pictures, I don't want it.  I was inspired to do Indian and decided on Tikka Masala, bahjins and naan.

I started off by making the naan, I looked through all of my old Jamie books and couldn't find a naan recipe so I went to trusty allrecipes.com and found this recipe for naan.  For an appetizer with had vegetable bhajis and so I don't have to type the recipe out, here is the recipe already typed that I found on the internet.  Very good and all they really did need was a little squeeze of lime, no dipping sauce required.  Last came the Chicken Tikka Masala which was yummy.  The thing about Jamie's recipes is if you follow them, they will turn out great.  They always do.

Warning:  watch out for the chili you use.  I purchased a fresh red chili and thought "I better bite into this a see how hot it is".  I swear my mouth was on fire and I had a blister on my lip!  Needless to say I did not use the chili's and had to settle for red pepper flakes for heat.


The naan making process



Thank you Dan - you can be a hand model.




Tikka Masala with all the fixin's and naan












The Davis and Flanagan families joined us for dinner.  I saw Katy at church, told her I was doing Indian, she mentioned she loved it so we said come on over.  We put a call into the Flanagans and they joined us too.  However, Kevin is not an adventurous eater but he did try everything but I think I made a deal with the devil because I said I would eat possum if he ate Indian.  When Kim told her son they were having Indian food at the Schultz's he asked "You mean like corn and stuff?"...the other type of Indian!

Breaking bread with friends

The aftermath

I did make something from The Stack this week that was not a keeper; Tex-Mex Meat Loaves.  I'm finding that I may have cut these recipes out of magazines or the paper years ago but 9 times out of 10 I can find the recipes on the internet, which saves me a lot of typing.  Anyway, back to meatloaf,   I have a meatloaf recipe that is my go-to that the whole family loves but this was in The Stack and I said I would try everything!


A perfectly balanced meal with so-so meatloaf

GW produced another cute Hollister shirt for Isabelle.  I haven't had much luck lately so nothing to share.

Now I'm off to organize my picutes I have stored on the computer.  I'm not looking forward to it!

Roses are red, vodka bottle is blue…

After being married for almost 15 years, my husband knows the way to my heart!  This was my Valentine’s present…

He catered a party on Superbowl Sunday and they were serving a drink with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur and Wild Berry Schnapps with fresh blueberries.  Joe couldn’t find the Godiva in the small town of Independence so he went with Chocolate Whipped Cream vodka and Raspberry Schnapps and fresh raspberries…isn’t he the best?  Oh, and as you can see I got red roses too.  He loves me!  I’m a lucky woman, he cooks, he cleans, he does laundry, he doesn’t drink so I always have a DD and he buys me nice gifts!  Love you Joe!

The day before Valentine’s Day, I had my parents over for dinner.  They had just gotten back from a cruise and I knew they wouldn’t have anything to make for dinner so I reached into The Stack to make dinner.  I made a  chicken dish in the crock pot but I won't keep the recipe.  It wasn’t bad, it just isn’t our family’s style of cooking.  Let me remind you that I vowed at the announcement of The Stack project that cream of mushroom soup be damned, I was making it if it was in The Stack!  My kids liked it and as I said it wasn’t bad, just not our thing.  I did however make a yummy dessert from the man I would marry if I wasn't married to Joe.  Joe had a bunch of lemons and limes left over from a party so I decided to make a  Lemon Lime Cream Tart.  You can make the entire pastry recipe and freeze one.  I found the filling recipe could fill two tarts so I half the filling recipe.



The weather is warming up and I'm looking forward to more warm days.  I think like everyone else, I've just had ENOUGH of winter!

Double Digits and Tickled Pink

Today was the first day of marathon training where we ran double digits.  So, I woke up at 7:00, put on my running gear, had a bowl of Crispex with Craisans, helped Joe with his breakfast party and I was at the store by 8:00 for a 10 miler.  I ran a lot of it by myself because I am not a particularly fast runner, I just enjoy the journey.  The last 4 or so miles I ran it with Craig, who manages Tri-State Running Company (where I train…free…you should check it out); I always like running along side someone I don’t know well because by the end, you know them!  That's how I met my running friend Earl!  So you meet a new person and exercise at the same time!

So, I mentioned my breakfast, why?  Well, when I start getting mileage under my belt I have to be mindful of what I eat in the days prior to and the morning of my long run.  If I eat like shit, quite frankly, I’ll run like shit.  So last night I tried to carb load and made chicken, veggies and orzo.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough pasta and I don’t think the Crispex was the right choice because I just didn’t feel energized.  I’ll have to play around with it a little bit and find the right combo.  I do know that I will begin to get a bit depressed when Lent starts because I will not be able to enjoy the fish fry’s…I ate fried fish one time the night before a 16 miler…let’s not talk about it.

So I’m tickled pink too…look at these cute recent GW finds.  First, for Isabelle, a .99 cent Hollister shirt (shhh…don’t tell anyone…what would people think if they knew her shirt came from GW!).  I also found this cute shirt dress, new with tags, from Target.  I can’t understand why no one bought it but it was hanging in the store one night while I was there but I won’t pay full price at GW and dresses weren’t on special that night (I'm cheap, I'm aware of it!).  If I’m not sold on the piece, I’ll chance it until the weekend, where it will be 50% off.  Went in on a Saturday and viola, there it was, half off.  So I picked it up, styled it with pink tights to bring the pink out in the dress and brown belt and shoes.  The cuff bracelet was a find for $2.98 at Francesca’s, love that place!

Isabelle in her new shirt and cupcakes she made!

Isn't this cuff cute!  I love it!

No recipes today, we had a Superbowl party and I made a few things.  Fried Pickles (Isabelle’s request) and barbeque beef brisket.  I had never made either before.  The sauce for the pickles wasn’t my favorite; it just seemed to taste like ranch dressing no matter how much other stuff we put in it.  The brisket was pretty good but I think a bit time consuming.  You had to bake it in the oven, rest it, slice it, put it back in a pan and cover with a homemade sauce and cook again.  I’d rather just throw it in a crock pot and be done with it.  Isabelle tried a new recipe with her dessert!



Isabelle's Cookies and Cream cupcakes!



That’s it for now…happy days to all.

Are you a lover or a hater?

So, I have this orange sweater, I think people either love it or hate it.  I personally love it or I wouldn't have bought it!  I think it's striking and you can see me coming a mile away.  It's funny to see people's reactions and listen to comments they make, all in good fun.  So are you a lover or a hater?

I reached into "The Stack" Sunday and I must have been feeling like a baker because both things I made required me to make a pastry dough!  And you won't believe how hard it was for me to find someone to come eat dinner with us, even my parents had other plans.  But alas, the next door neighbors were happy to be pick number 4 (yes, I had to ask 4 different people before I got a yes!).  And dinner was good.  The first thing I made was Pizza Rustica and I printed the recipe off the net in 2004.  It was really good and a beautiful presentation.  Side note: sometimes it kinda gets on your nerves to be married to a chef.  He thought the filling didn't have a direction, so before I put it in the pan he thought he should doctor it up.  I'm not sure what he added but just to appease him, I said it tasted better but really, it tasted the same.  Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot from Joe and most of the time, his alterations do make a dish better, just not this one!

For dessert, I made a Free Form Apple Harvest Tart.  I'm not sure from where I printed this recipe but I know it wasn't the internet but it must have come from Kraft because the exact recipe is on their site.  Joe loved it, it's his kind of dessert.  The lemon gelatin was a nice surprise in the cream cheese.  Becky brought over an insanely luscious home made chocolate cake with homemade chocolate icing.  Straight off the Hershey's Cocoa Powder box I think!  This may be the recipe.


All in all, it was a good night with good friends and the Atwood Hill Reserve wine we bought at the wine tasting in November was especially delicious.  I think they are maturing as wine makers.  If you've never been there, make sure you check it out when the weather gets warmer.

By the way, Spring is only 6 weeks away!