5 on Friday

Hey y'all, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Now that the girls are back in school I figured it would be a good time for me to breathe some life back into my poor neglected blog. Instagram has pretty much eliminated my blog posting and blog reading these days. If you are on IG, my username is Tenniskat if you’d like to follow.  I figured joining this fun 5 on Friday link up would be a great place to start!

one

   

For those of you who know me, you know I love to cook and I really love reading and collecting cookbooks. The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook is a fabulous book to add to your collection. Check it out from your local library and test drive some recipes. You won’t be disappointed. The “salted brown butter crispy treats” are life changing. LIFE CHANGING, y’all! Two other recipes worth trying are   “baked ranchero eggs with blistered jack cheese and lime crema” and  “tomato-glazed meatloaves with brown butter mashed potatoes”.

two

I’ve had my eye on the this fun and fabulous Kate Spade tote for quite some time. I planned to snag it if it ever went on sale. Well it showed up in the Kate Spade Surprise Sale for a great price! It’s super cute in person, has a gold pinstriped lining and is quite large. Raise your hand if you’ve ever eaten cake for breakfast!

three

I don’t wear much makeup. If you run into me at Publix or Target, chances are, I won’t be wearing any makeup at all. When I do wear it, I like it to look very natural, as I’m sure is the goal of most women. I asked a friend of mine who is a model and makeup artist what brand of mascara she would recommend. Without skipping a beat she said, “They’re Real, by Benefit”. Ladies, this is seriously the best mascara out there. It’s a bit pricey so you might want to save it for special occasions, but it definitely lives up to it’s name. It doesn’t clump, has great staying power and goes on easily. I love it!!!

four

Another product I love to wear, if I decide to put on makeup that day, is the Naked 2 palette by Urban Decay. It is super fun and natural and you can really play around with it. The lip gloss that is in included is beyond fabulous! There are tutorials on YouTube showing you how to create different looks. For someone who doesn’t wear a lot of makeup and really has no clue what to do when it comes to applying makeup for the most part, I have loved it!

five

I love Origins’ products for skincare. I use the Plantscription line and it feels absolutely wonderful on my face. I think it’s important to take care of your skin and use a product that has an SPF25 to protect your face from the sun. Being fair-skinned and freckle-faced I have to be really careful when I’m outside and this line has been fabulous for my sensitive skin.

Happy Friday, y’all! I hope you have a super fun weekend planned!

Crunchy Granola Bars

  It has been almost a year since my last post. Shameful. I’ve been spending my time on Instagram lately and my username is tenniskat in case you want to follow.

Last night I made homemade granola bars for the first time. I’ve always wanted to try them but never have until now. This recipe is super simple and you'll likely have most of the ingredients already on hand. I found the recipe in The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook. For the record, all of the ATK family cookbooks are fabulous. You won’t be disappointed and they would make a great addition to your cookbook collection.

Crunchy Granola Bars

(Don’t substitute quick-cooking or instant rolled oats as it will greatly affect the texture of the bars)

3/4 cup almonds, chopped coarse **

3 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup honey

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and adjust the rack to the middle. Line a 13 x 9 baking pan with a foil sling and spray it with vegetable oil spray.

2. Toast the almonds in a 12 inch skillet over medium heat until fragrant and golden brown, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the oats and oil to the skillet and toast until golden and fragrant, about 4-6. Transfer oats to the mixing bowl with the almonds.

3. In a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar and honey and simmer gently over medium-low heat until the sugar is disolved, about five minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla and cinnamon.

4 Quickly stir the hot honey mixture into the almond-oat mixture until fully combined. Transfer mixture to prepared baking dish and press firmly into the pan. Bake granola until golden, 20-25 minutes rotating the pan halfway.

5. Let the granola cool for 1o minutes then remove the foil sling from the baking pan. Cut it into 16 bars  and cool completely before storing in an airtight container. Place waxed paper between the layers in the storage container to prevent them from sticking to each other. The bars will last up to one week.

**I used roasted and lightly salted almonds that I purchased at Whole Foods so it saved me a step and I also cut back on the salt the recipe called for since they were already salted.

*** I added chocolate chips and golden raisins to the recipe for added texture and flavor. The chocolate chips melted but the bars still tasted very good.

Easy Homemade Pizza

Every now and then, I’ll make homemade pizza. I use my bread maker to make a whole wheat pizza dough that is just delicious.

  

Bread Maker recipe for Whole Wheat Pizza Dough: (Makes 1 pound of dough, 2 thin crusts)

(Ingredients are listed in the order you add them to the bread maker.)

Water (80 Degrees F/27 Degrees C)   1 Cup

2 Tbsp Oil

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 cups Bread Flour

1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

Select Pizza Dough Course on your bread machine, (Mine takes 55 minutes to prepare the pizza dough)

Once the dough is ready, place it on a lightly floured surface and divide the dough in half. Press the dough onto two 12 inch pizza pans (I use pizza stones) Generously prick the dough with a fork.  Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes or until edges begin to turn light golden brown. Remove from oven, add your toppings and return to oven to bake for  12-15 minutes. (Check them around the ten minute mark to make sure they aren’t getting too brown. You may need to bake them longer or take them out)

This crust is a cinch to prepare since the break maker does all the work. It is absolutely delicious!

Recipe for Quick Pizza Sauce (courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen)

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

2 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

salt and pepper

Heat the oil and garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat, about 1.5 minutes. Don’t let the garlic burn. Add the canned tomatoes and simmer the sauce until thickened, about 15 minutes.

Are you ready for a super delicious pizza recipe that will quickly become a family favorite?

After you’ve prebaked the crusts, build your pizzas in the following order.

• Add the sauce
• cover with thinly sliced prosciutto (1/4 pound will be more than enough for two pizzas)
• cooked, crumbled and drained Italian Sausage (1/2 –3/4 of a pound will be more than enough)
• thinly sliced fresh mozzarella (this makes all the difference. It is so creamy and delicious and it melts beautifully.)
• shaved parmesan (sprinkle over each pizza)
• Bake for 10-15  minutes
• Remove from oven and add a handful of peppery arugula to each pizza
• Freshly ground black pepper
• a thin drizzle of honey over each pizza. (my honey has a pump so I can get it as thin as a piece of thread. A tiny bit goes a long way.)

Slice and try not to eat the entire pizza all by yourself.

 

I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as my family does!

Design, cookbooks, a hot dog and toothless grins

I love reading design magazines, blogs and cookbooks. I recently received this design book in the mail, I love her style and to have an entire book of inspiration photos and fabulous advice just makes me giddy. I have been waiting for this book to be released for months and it was well worth the wait   

On the cookbook front, my latest obsession is the Barefoot Contessa. I love watching her show and her recipes are absolutely delicious and relatively easy to prepare. I really enjoy reading through her cookbooks not only for inspiration but also for advice on entertaining. All of her books are well written. Check them out of the library and you’ll see why they have earned a place of honor in my cookbook collection.

One super simple and delicious recipe is for Herbal Iced Tea.

You’ll need 4 Red Zinger tea bags, 4 Lemon Zinger tea bags and 4 cups of pure Apple Juice.

Steep the tea bags in 4 cups of boiling water for ten minutes.

Remove the tea bags, add the 4 cups of pure apple juice and chill.

Serve over ice.

This is soooooooooo delicious and refreshing and it doesn’t have any added sugar. It is sweetened by the apple juice! Your family will love it!!!!

All this warm weather has this hot dog too pooped to party.

Here is a picture of Livie’s toothless grin. Her teeth hang on for dear life when they are loose and I was convinced one of her front teeth was never going to come out. After several weeks of it just dangling there, we tried and tried to pull it out and it wouldn’t budge, I finally told her she needed to get it out! She was able to pull it out herself and was so proud of herself. We no longer had to look at that gross tooth that would migrate from one side of her mouth to the other and even survived the string being tied to a slamming door. That was one stubborn tooth!

  Her new teeth are growing in fast and furious and I was afraid if I didn’t get a picture of her toothless grin soon, the opportunity would have been lost. She loves the big space between her teeth!

Chocolate Croissants

Trader Joe’s scores again. For those of you who have ever traveled to France and have experienced the pure bliss of eating a real “pain au chocolat” you know that they are one of the most delicious and decadent bakery delights. Well, let me tell you, you don’t have to travel to Paris to get your hands on one. If you live close to a Trader Joe’s they have frozen chocolate croissants that are utterly sinful. For only $3.99 for a box of four, it’s a bargain.

  Take them out of the box and let them rise overnight on a lightly buttered cookie sheet. (You can also use parchment paper but I had just run out.)

They look pretty small at first, but you will be astounded by the size of them the next morning. Astounded, I say!

When you roll out of bed the next morning and stumble down to the kitchen, you will find these puffed up beauties waiting for you and begging to be baked.

       Brush the tops of them with egg wash and bake them for 20 minutes. This will make the tops of them flaky and golden brown.

Don’t you just want to reach through the screen and grab it? Yum!

Brew a cup of tea in your favorite mug, sit down and enjoy.

Seriously, your family will LOVE you for making these! They are incredibly delicious. Don’t just buy one box, stock up! You’ll kick yourself if you don’t.

Many thanks to my friend, Norma for telling me about these! What a wonderful discovery indeed!

Don’t fear the Cinnamon Rolls

Hey. Remember me? It’s been forever and a day since I last posted. The weather has been unseasonably warm and I have been spending most of my time on the tennis court every chance I get.  Loving every minute of it. That  being said, I haven’t been blogging or reading as many blogs on a regular basis as I usually do. Hoping to get back on track!

How many of you have wanted to try Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls but have been too scared to try? Well, I have been wanting to make them for about two years and finally, after watching her Christmas special, figured it was finally time to try. What did I have to loose? I bought several disposable pie plates, the ingredients I needed and got to work.

The dough is very easy to make and rises beautifully. When it came time to divide the dough and roll the first batch, well, that is where things got a little dicey. There was flour and butter and cinnamon everywhere! I had a hard time rolling the first batch and had to enlist the help of a bench scraper to help me lift and fold the dough. It wasn’t pretty, but I managed to make it work. I cut the dough and flopped it in the pans to rise.  At this point, I was seriously questioning what I had gotten myself into. You should have seen my kitchen. I think it was the messiest it’s ever been and that is saying a lot!

The pan on the right was the first batch and the pan on the left was the second. You can see how much better the second batch looked but they all tasted just as good. Once the frosting was on them, you couldn’t tell the difference.

I added a lot more flour to my work surface for the second batch and used less butter. These rolled up beautifully. I sliced them and put them in the pans and we were back in business. Once the rolls were ready go in the over, it was anyone’s guess as to how they would turn out. Well, they turned out AMAZING! Even the crazy first batch that were misshapen balls of of goo turned out great.

I think what really sends this recipe over the top is the icing. It’s divine! As in, sit with the bowl and a spoon and eat the whole thing by yourself, delicious. Luckily, I didn’t do that, but I wanted to! The rolls absorb the icing so they are super moist and utterly sinful.

The recipe made six pans with seven cinnamon rolls in each pan. I kept three and gave three away. My three immediately went into the freezer for Christmas brunch. It was so hard not to eat them, but I knew they would be worth the wait.

Let me tell you, after everyone took their first bite, there was complete silence followed by a collective sigh.

BEST. CINNAMON. ROLLS. EVER!!!

Don’t wait to try them. Swallow that fear and just make them. You’ll be glad you did!

Christmas Card Outtakes

The whole Christmas card idea was totally stressing me out. I didn’t have a picture in mind, I had no idea when we would find the time to have pictures taken as a family. In a perfect world, I would have my friend, Paige, take our family portrait, hopefully we can still do that some time in the new year. So one day last week, when Olivia arrived home from school, I told them we needed to take some picture to use for our cards. The girls were less than thrilled with this idea. We threw some outfits together, brushed the ice cream out of Olivia’s hair and ventured outside to the front step with Fergus.

Even though it was late afternoon, the lighting wasn’t cooperative.

If you look closely, you’ll see that Big Kitty decided he too should be in the picture.

We ventured to the backyard to see if we could get better lighting.

       

Fergus decided to strike a super serious pose.

and finally, after what seemed like an eternity, we ended up with these two favorites.

Merry Christmas, from our home to yours!

Cozy Comfort Food

One of the things I love most about Fall is cooking yummy, soul satisfying, comfort food for my family. One of our new favorites comes from Ellie Krieger’s new cookbook, Comfort Food Fix. If you have been reading my blog for some time time now, you already know that I am a huge Ellie Krieger fan. Her cookbooks, The Food You Crave (a James Beard Award Winner), So Easy and her latest one, Comfort Food Fix are nothing short of spectacular.

This is a hearty, meatless main dish that comes together in a snap! Great for a busy weeknight meal!

  

Smoky Black Bean Chili

1 TBSP Olive Oil

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Two 15 ounce cans of low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed

Two 15 ounce cans of crushed fire roasted tomatoes with their juices (I use Muir Glen Organic)

3 large roasted red peppers, drained, rinsed and chopped

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ancho chili powder (I use regular chili powder)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and sauté the onions for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve in individual bowls and top with a dollop of low fat sour cream and a sprinkling of reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese and a wedge of cornbread.

Easy Corn Bread

*recipe found on the back of the Quaker Yellow Corn Meal Canister*

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup Quaker Enriched Corn Meal

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup skim milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease a 8 or 9 inch pan (I use a round cake pan). Combine the dry ingredients then stir in the milk, oil and egg. Do not over stir. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. (Mine bakes perfectly in 20 minutes)

Serve warm.

Enjoy!

A Day with Poppy

Since I haven’t posted in what seems like an eternity and these pictures are a special reminder of a wonderful day spent with their Poppy, I figured this was the best post for today. Also, as we speak. the area in the pictures in getting hit by a huge snowstorm at the moment, so it will also serve as a reminder of the forgotten days of summer.

All buckled up and ready to go. Apparently, Olivia is anticipating a wild ride. Judging by the picture, Lauren is wondering if maybe she too should hold on...
We headed down to the waterfront to take the ferry across to Halifax.

It was so incredibly foggy, you could hardly see your hand at the end of your arm. Seriously. It was that thick. Just as the ferry was leaving the dock, it sounded its horn which was extremely loud, then it made a right angle and  traveled parallel to the shore instead of taking its usual diagonal trip across the harbor. Immediately following came a deafening horn sound from another ship, obviously one that was much larger. We couldn’t see it because the fog was so thick, but soon enough, an enormous container ship emerged from the fog and then quickly disappeared. It was really amazing so see how something so large was literally invisible one minute, appeared briefly, and then disappeared the next. Thank goodness for fog horns.

Theodore Tugboat amidst the fog.

   I bet you’ve never seen a tugboat wearing a red baseball cap before. Not unless you are a Nova Scotia native.

I love how the ships seem to be floating in the middle of nowhere.

I love this picture of my niece, Drea, Lauren and Olivia. That is the fog behind them, you can’t see a thing beyond the bench they are on. Normally you would see the harbor and the Dartmouth waterfront behind them if it were a clear day.

  

Walking along the Halifax waterfront on the boardwalk is one of my favorite things to do, no matter what time of the year. Being away from the water is one of things I miss most about not living in Nova Scotia anymore.

 

There is a concrete wave that all the kids love to climb up and slide down. What usually begins with laughter ultimately ends in tears because someone always gets hurt.

   We only get to see Drea once every two years when we go home for a visit so this day was extra special for the girls to be able to spend it with her.

Even on a cloudy, foggy day, it’s still beautiful.  It’s sad how much you take something for granted until you no longer get to look out your window and see it every day.

These girls sure love their Poppy!

Checking out the construction site.

  Kaboom!

So peaceful.  

After a long stroll on the waterfront, we grabbed lunch and then headed further down the boardwalk for some Cows’ ice cream before catching the ferry back home. I think I had just as much fun as the girls did and I know my Dad did too!