2nd Annual Michigan Lady Food Bloggers Soup Swap

Yesterday a few of us Michigan lady Bloggers got together to swap some soup. The soup swap was started last year and I was not able to go because I was in Mexico at the time so when the question came out a few months ago as to who was going to host this year I jumped at the chance.

Winter and very cold weather just screams soup and on the day of the swap it was all of that here in Michigan. Despite the very cold temperatures Sarah, Mary, Margot, Bee and Yvonne made it out with their crock pots full of soup.

Potato Dill with Sausage

Galician Winter Stew

Creamy Potato and Canadian Bacon

Vegetable Chowder

Spicy Peanut Ginger Stew

Indian Spiced Red Lentil

Thank you ladies for a nice afternoon of great company and soup.

2011 Spice Rack Challenge #1 - Rosemary

with only 3 days to get this posted I figure I better get a move on. My friend over at Mother's Kitchen just started this great new cooking blog challenge called The Spice Rack Challenge and for the first challenge she chose Rosemary.

After a visit to one of my favorite eateries (Marie Catrib's) I chose to make rosemary pita chips out of a naan recipe that I have been playing around with for the last month. I made the naan, rolled it out, covered it in herbs and fried it up into pita chips. they turned out nice, not like what we get at Marie's but good as their own entity.

Naan

1 packet yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons plain yogurt
1.5 cups flour
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried oregano
pepper
salt
oil for frying

In a measuring cup add 3/4 cup water yeast and sugar, stir to mix and let set for a few moments to bloom.

in a bowl add the flour and salt and mix together. then add in the water/yeast mixture, butter and yogurt. I use my kitchen aid to mix it all but you can knead it on the counter top until it is elastic, about 5 minutes.

place dough in an oiled bowl and let rise for about an hour.

mix the herbs and seasoning on a plate

punch the dough down and divide into small rounds (I divide into 8ths). Roll the rounds out into little disks and pat into the herbs and fry in a some oiled cast iron pan until crisp.

Playing With Paint on the Wall

Feeling so guilty here that I have not been keeping up on my blogging. Blogging, the way that I wanted to log a reference for my recipes, crafts, home decor and art. It has nothing to do with neglecting all of these things, because I sure have been doing them; however, now that I look back I do not have a story or reference for the things I did do. Guess what, I am shooting myself in the foot for not writing it down.

Yesterday, after many weeks of thinking it through, I took the leap and painted the half bath in our new house the color inspired by the movie The Bridge to Terabithia. Yes, I painted the bathroom gold with that simmer effect to it, Ralph Lauren Metallic paint called Golden Candlestick. While there is a little touch up that needs to be done to my less then perfect paint job, I love it.

See for yourself...

Sink Before

Wall Before

Toilet Before

After

The painting on the right I painted a few weeks ago

I am so excite. I still need to find a rug and I would like to place some kind of twigs or branches over the toilet but that will have to wait for the right ones to come along, until then this is what it is.

I want to do this in the bedroom with silver but the hubby is not excited with that idea.

As the Years Drift By

So my baby girl is not a baby any more she turned 7 at the beginning of the month and she is in 2nd grade. It is hard to believe that one of my first blog post was of her 3rd Birthday.

For her Birthday she wanted this beautiful cake that a friend of mine gave me a recipe for and we all enjoyed eating it very much but what was the best was making it with her.

Breaded Mushrooms

I saw this some where in cyberspace, can't remember where but it stuck in my head so I had to try it. Yep, breaded mushrooms. There were really great but one must be very careful not to end up with great balls of grease. I found fresh hot oil at about 1/4 inch worked well (next time I will try a spray of Pam). also the mushrooms should be about 1/8 to 1/4 inch too thick and it just does not cook right.

2 or 3 portobello mushrooms, sliced 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick

1 egg

1T milk

1 cup bread crumbs

oil for cooking

salt

beat eggs with milk in a shallow dish for dipping the mushrooms. in another shallow dish put bread crumbs to dip the mushrooms. heat a pan, add oil up to about 1/4 inch, wait for the oil to ripple and place in mushroom slices that have been first dipped in egg mixture and then bread crumbs. Fry mushroom slices on one side until golden and turn and fry other side until golden. remove from pan onto a paper towel and season with salt.

Squash Bread

This is just wonderful bread and it was my 6 year old's idea. One day we had some very ripe bananas and my 6 year old thought it would be a good idea to make banana bread with them. I got online and found a recipe that was simple and easy for a 6 year old to follow.

She did a good job, with a little coaching, and made a good batch of banana bread. As we were eating our fresh warm bread she looks up at me and said this would be so good made with pumpkin. What a great idea so we went to the kitchen the next day and steamed up some sweet potato (it was the closest thing I had to squash or pumpkin in the house that weekend). That sweet potato made some killer bread too.

Since that day, a few months back now, we have worked out our squash break recipe to be something that we find outstanding.

1 to 3 butternut squashes, enough to make 6 cups of puree.

cut the squash into chunks, with skin on, and steam until tender. let cool and the remove the skin from the meat and mush up the squash meat to use in bread.

• 6 cups squash or pumpkin puree (do not used canned stuff, I could tell you stories that would make you want to wash out your mouth with a toilet brush, yes that bad)


• 2/3rd cup butter, melted (I will try to replace half of this with apple butter next time)


• 2 cups brown sugar


• 2 teaspoons vanilla


• 2 eggs


• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon


• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg


• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger


• 1/8 teaspoon cardamom


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• 2 teaspoons baking soda


• 3 cups flour.


• 1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350F

mix flour, spices,baking soda and nuts in a bowl and set aside.

mix the squash, butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla until well blended. pour in the flour mixture and mix until all the white flour is just combined. pour into 2 oiled (I use cooking spray) loaf pans and bake for 1 hour.