So, I had thought I would take some pictures of the little party we had for my daughter's birthday.
NOPE.
{At least there werre still a few left.}
I got some of the important stuff: my daughter, her cousins, unwrapping presents, etc. But so far as decorations and craftiness and whatnot, the picture above is the only one.
And that's why this isn't a party blog.
Here's where I learned to frost the cupcakes- it was faster than spreading it with a knife.
A little late for a Halloween-type post, but whatever.
Two years ago I was watching Rachael Ray and she did a black bean soup with sour cream that looked awesome. The thing that really caught my eye was how she did the sour cream- she had it in a squeezy bottle and did a swirl on top of the soup, then used a toothpick to pull from the center to the outside edge in a bunch of places, like the spokes on a wheel. Then and there (two years ago) I decided that I wanted that to be my family's traditional Halloween meal. I also decided right then that I would call it "Spiderweb Soup" and be the coolest mom in the world.
I finally made it this year, although I'm not certain the recipe I found here is the same as the one I saw on her show. I seem to remember that one being darker than the one that resulted from this recipe. I made it on Wednesday but next year I am DETERMINED (all caps-it must be true) to actually have it on Halloween. I will also make the sour cream lines thicker, so you can the "web" better.
Freezing food is great, especially if you didn't get around to canning anything this year. Like maybe you had a baby right around the time the whole canning season rolled around...or something. It was always my plan to go big on canning once we had a garden, but it didn't happen for me this year. However, our garden was still kind of planned around canning in future years. We had 6 tomato plants. And I don't even like tomatoes (in their unaltered form- I love salsa, red sauce, ketchup, etc.).
My mom totally saved the day when she told me you can freeze whole uncooked tomatoes. You just wash the tomatoes, cut off the top, and stick them in a freezer bag. Awesome, right? I had no idea. They're great for using in sauces and soups, apparently. You can even use them in fresh salsa in the winter, but you need to make sure that those frozen tomatoes are blemish free, since you're not cooking out any possible germs.
{These will be sauce.}
Another of my recent favorites when it comes to freezing food: pesto. I know you can freeze fresh herbs (though I've never done it), so it made sense that you could freeze the finished pesto. I especially love it when I'm making a creamy pesto sauce, because it removes half the process. I should have done this with more of my basil before it all flowered.
{I freeze it flat, breast milk style. It makes thawing it so fast.}
Your own pie crust. The pie crust recipe I use makes 5 single crusts. I don't often need that much at once, so I freeze it like they do in the store- I roll it out on top of wax paper, then roll it up. I wrap that in saran wrap, then aluminum foil. Another way to freeze it- if you have any of those disposable pie plates, you can lay the dough in those, trim the edges, and seal it up with saran wrap. They don't take as long to defrost as the rolled up ones.
{They remind me of Christmas crackers.}
As well as freezing this stuff, I also froze broccoli and cauliflower. We planted more than we could eat fresh, so I just blanched the excess and stuck it in freezer bags.
That's most of my new freezer-ing. I need to go check out the frozen foods aisle for more ideas.
Hello, all. I would like to introduce you to the best breadsticks EVER:
Their hobbies include being buttery and delicious, as well as being easy to make.
I've only ever posted one other recipe on this blog, so this is definitely something special. Here's where it starts:
Defrosting Rhodes Rolls in the fridge the night before. You need 22 per pan. I made 3 pans yesterday, so I defrosted 66 of them- pretty much an entire big bag.
And now, here's where the delicious begins:
Melt an entire stick of butter, then pour it in a pan:
Then cover all that butter with parmesan cheese:
Mmmm-hmmm. We're off to a great start. Take your 22 balls of dough and roll them out and put them in the pan on top of all that butter and parmesan:
More appetizing/artistic angle:
Then, let them raise until they look like this (or maybe slightly smaller- these ones raised a little too long):
About this time you want to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. And now it is time for the most delicious part. I actually tried this 3 different ways on Sunday, but then never got to do my planned side by side taste because right after the last batch got out of the oven we had to get to my in-laws, and then not long after we got there Mim burned her fingers on the glass fireplace front (blisters on 4 of her fingers- it was so sad). Anyway, I'll tell you all about my variations so you can have a taste test of your own. The way my mom does it and how I usually do it starts out with squeezy butter. Then you cover generously with more parmesan cheese (either the powdery stuff or fresh grated, it doesn't matter), feta, and just a sprinkle of Salad Supreme (sounds weird, but you should still do it). Here's how it looks once that's all done:
Like a delicious breadstick party. I used to do a single line of squeezy butter down the middle of each roll, but I got lazy. My method I made up the other day was the same, except instead of using squeezy butter, I melted real butter and put it in a spray bottle:
That's a whole stick of butter in there. I found out you only need a half stick per pan. Without the squeezy butter, the pan looks a little less festive:
For the third variety, I used squeezy butter and real butter from the spray bottle (I know, I live on the wild side). Maybe it was overkill, but I had already squeezy buttered two of the pans, and I didn't want to waste the rest of the butter I had already melted.
Bake them at 350 degrees on a middle rack for about 15 minutes. They're still pretty soft at that point- if you like crustier breadsticks, you'd probably only need to add a couple minutes.
Take them out of the oven, let them cool down enough to pull apart, and have at it.
They really are the best ever.
***UPDATE 1/12/12***
A few weeks ago for a baby shower I used home made roll dough instead of Rhodes for these (the Lion House roll recipe, if you're curious), and I have to say, I don't think it made a real difference. They were softer, but they still just tasted like butter and parm and feta (which is how it should be). And the softness wasn't necessarily desirable for a breadstick. From now on I'm just going to stick to Rhodes- so easy.
For everyone at my house to not be sick. To get back in the swing of things at school. For the leaves to turn. To make these for Halloween again:
{Owl cookies!}
Mike's grandma (in whose house we now live) passed away about 8 years ago, but she always made these every Halloween before that. I decided last year that it would be a tradition I would like to carry on, so those in the picture above were my first attempt. They're adorable and really yummy, too. In case anyone else wants to give them a shot, here's the recipe:
Owl Cookies:
2 1/2 C flour 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp baking powder 3/4 C butter 1 C brown sugar 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled 1/4 tsp baking soda
Sift together flour, salt and soda. Set aside. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla to creamed mixture and then add dry ingredients gradually. Add baking soda to melted chocolate. Remove 3/4 of the dough to a floured surface and knead in chocolate.
Roll out 1/2 remaining light dough into a 10" x 4 1/4" rectangle. Shape 1/2 chocolate dough into a roll 10" long and place it on the light dough rectangle. Roll the light dough around the chocolate dough and mold them together. Repeat with the second halves of the dark and light dough. Wrap both rolls in foil and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove foil, cut the dough into slices about 1/4" thick. Join two slices side by side on the cookie sheet. Place a cashew by the joint for the beak and chocolate chips in the center of the chocolate for the eyes. Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes.
And that's it. You have to plan a little ahead, what with the chill time, but they're so worth it. Maybe later this week I'll get something new up. It's hard to say. I teach at a local university- just a few classes a week, very part time- and I'm always amazed at how much of my time it eats up. It's fun, though. Geology is awesome.
{the ones with almonds and the caramel filled ones}
{for those who prefer the classics}
and then finish is all off with some of this:
??????
A SMORE-GASBORD!!!
Oh man. Pretty good, right? I am a pun champion. Mike and I and the Mim were away this weekend with some of our friends and we put this together for dessert the night we were in charge of dinner. The possibilities were endless. I don't have any pictures of our actual set up because it was dark and our camera's just not up to a challenge like firelight, but we did have all these things. I will never go back to plain ol' smores again.
