Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Arugula and Green Pepper Calzone



 What you will need:
Pizza dough- You can find the recipe that I used HERE
2-4 cups of arugula (depending on how many you want to make. I used 2 cups for 4 calzones)
1 green pepper-chopped
2 TBL minced garlic
2 TBL olive oil
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1-2 TBL Italian seasoning
1-2 tsp chili powder
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 
2 TBL wheat flour
1 TBL garlic powder

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.


In a sauté pan add olive oil. Warm on medium heat for at least a minute.
Then add minced garlic and green pepper.
Cook this for 2 minutes.
Then add arugula.
Cook this for 2 minutes or until arugula is wilted.
Remove from heat and add mozzarella cheese.
Add in 1 TBL Italian seasoning and 1 tsp red pepper.

Divide the dough into as many sections as you are making. (half the bread stick recipe makes 4 calzones)

Take each section and form into 6 inch circles by flattening them.

Put filling in the centers of each one.

Fold dough over so that they are now half circles. Use a fork to crimp the edges.

Brush both top and bottom of calzone with olive oil.

Place calzones on a baking sheet with corn meal. I used wheat flour, garlic powder and parmesan cheese instead of corn meal (worked great!)

Sprinkle the tops of the calzones with parmesan cheese, garlic powder, Italian seasoning and a little red pepper.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Lemon Curd Filled Cupcake


What you will need:

Cupcake

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk


Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs in one at a time, mixing the batter until it is completely blended every time.

Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.

In another bowl add flour, baking powder and salt. 

Alternate adding in flour mixture and milk. Mix at a slow speed.

Pour the batter into cupcake tins/ liners.

Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Lemon Curd

3 eggs
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 TBL lemon zest
3/4 cup sugar
4 TBL butter- at room temperature

In a double broiler, whisk eggs, sugar and lemon juice together until thick.
This should take about 10 minutes. 
Make sure you keep stirring, if you stop it will burn or curdle. 
After it is thick, pour the mixture through a strainer. 
Cut the butter into several pieces and fold the butter into the mixture. 
Add zest and stir slightly.
Refrigerate for several hours. 


After the cupcakes have cooled completely and the lemon curd has been refrigerated for several hours, you can then cut out the centers of the cupcakes.
Use a small spoon or a large piping head to remove the centers. 
Add 1-2 TBL of lemon curd to each cupcake.

Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter
2 TBL milk
2 TBL lemon juice
Dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients except powdered sugar together until fully blended.
Then add the powdered sugar. 
To make the frosting thicker, add even more powdered sugar.

Place frosting in a frosting bag or a zip lock bag (which is what I use because it's so much easier to clean up!)
Zip the bag shut (or roll it down if you are using a frosting bag).
If using a zip lock bag cut a hole in one of the corners. 
(The bigger the hole, the bigger the frosting will be on top of the cupcake.)
Squeeze the bag at the top and press the frosting out of the bag on to the cupcake.
Move the bag in a circular motion to form the round shape.
You can also use different frosting tips in the zip lock bags as well as the frosting bags if you'd like.

Candied Lemons

What you will need:

1 lemon
2 1/2 cups sugar
Dash of salt
Water

In a pan filled with water add 2 cups sugar and salt. Bring this water to a simmer.
(Make sure all of the sugar is dissolved)
Turn the heat off.

Cut the lemons into thin pieces. 
Place lemon pieces into the water.
Turn the heat back on to medium and leave lemons in the water until the water starts to simmer again.
This should take about 5 minutes. 
Remove the lemons with a slotted spoon and place on a flat surface. (I use a cutting board)
Let dry for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle with sugar, turn lemons over and sprinkle other side of lemon with sugar as well.
Let dry. 
This could take several hours for the lemons to actually dry.
Place the candied lemons on top of the cupcakes as decoration!!

Taco Soup

What you will need:

1 LBS lean ground turkey
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can green chilies
1 can of corn (I use the frozen corn and use half the bag!)
1 1/2 cups of water
1 packet taco seasoning mix
1 packet ranch seasoning mix

Sour cream
Cheese
Tortilla chips

Begin by browning the ground turkey.

Add the taco mix packet and the water to the ground turkey after it is completely browned.


Add in all of the other ingredients. 


Simmer on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. 


Serve in individual bowls.
Top with cheese and sour cream.
Use tortilla chips to eat the soup.


Enjoy!

Chewy Lemon Bars


What you will need:

1 1/8 cup flour
1/2 cup plus 2 TBL powdered sugar
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)-melted
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup lemon juice
cooking spray
tin foil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Spray an 8x8 inch pan with cooking spray.
Cover pan with tin foil.
Spray tin foil again with cooking spray.
(The lemon bars are very gooey, and the tin foil helps you to get them out!)

Stir together 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, salt and the butter with a fork until crumbly.

Press all along the bottom of the 8x8 inch pan.

Bake in oven for 15 minutes.

In a bowl whisk together 1/8 cup flour, eggs, sugar, baking powder and lemon juice.

Pour this mixture over the crust (after the 15 minutes is up)

Bake in oven for 30 minutes.
Cool for 30 minutes.
Refrigerate for 2 hours.
(It's really important to refrigerate them other wise you will have a really sticky mess)

After they have been in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours,
Dust the tops with powder sugar.

Use the tin foil to remove the lemon bars from the pan. 
Cut into squares and serve!

Key Holder


I found this wood board with large nails in it at Goodwill for $3!
It looked like a chore chart when I got it, but I didn't want to use it for that,
so I painted it black!


I got these picture frames from the Dollar Store. 
I only ended up using 3 of them for a total of $3!


I printed out pictures that I had taken in Seattle of a couple different types of flowers.


I painted the picture frames the same black as the board.


I put one picture into each frame.


This is the key holder so far, 
I want to get wooden letters that say "Tenney" to hang above!

Bathroom Old/ Bathroom New!

I recently decided that I was sick of my bathroom.
We have had the same shower curtain since we got married almost 3 years ago-
Um, yes, definitely time for a new one!

When we got married I thought I wanted a blue and brown bathroom. 
Here is what we had. 

But I wanted something different.

So when I found this shower curtain: 


at Target for $18 I knew I had to have it!
I love it!

So of course, I had to paint everything to match and get new towels and everything!

Here is what it looks like now.


I got that shelf at Goodwill for $3 and then painted it black!


I got this vase at Big Lots for $12!


I used the frames that I already had, I just painted them black.
I kept Joe's art in the frames since they matched even better than before!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Birthday Cakes



 My son recently had his 1st birthday.
I tried a couple different types of cake for his party.
This cake is a white cake with a white dirty frosting.
I used blue coloring for the top.
And both sizes of M&M's for the decorations.




He really enjoyed eating it!




This was the second cake that I made
and the one that we used for his party!
It is a chocolate cake, with dirty white frosting to keep the layers together.
I dirty frosted the whole cake with chocolate frosting.
Then put Kit Kat bars all the way around both layers of cake.
The flat sections were both filled with M&M's.