grown ups, 40s and a cotton candy machine

Michelle and Jamie brought their Cotton Candy Machine over a week or so ago.

That’s right. Their COTTON CANDY MACHINE.

Basically, you add 2 pieces of your favorite hard candy and wait for the magic to happen… while drinking your 40 of Bud Light.

When the candy melts, you swoop the cotton candy holder thing round and round to catch the sugary strings of goodness.

The look of pure cotton candy happiness…

or you just stick your face directly into the machine… Be careful though.. there’s a spinning, hot, metal disk thing in there. It’s dangerous!

side note… 2 pieces of hard candy will not make a beautiful-fluffy-perfect-cotton-candy-cloud as shown on the box.

There were no kids involved in the making of this cotton candy. Just 4 adults, laughing hysterically at the novelty of making cotton candy at home! It was absolutely the most fun you can have for an hour or so on a Saturday! Untill we made our selves sick eating so much cotton candy…

-m

Chewy Bars

I was digging through my cook book last weekend to try to plan a few meals. I adore thumbing through it and reading (and re-reading) the recipes from my granny, mom, grandmother, etc.

I wanted to mark another one from the list that I had “cooked”, so when I spotted Chewy Bars I knew it would be easy. It was so easy that I forgot to take pictures til step 3 or so! I love my granny’s handwriting and her circle-y dots on her “i’s”. Plus I always want to type “Grannie” because that’s how she always signed cards to me!

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Chewy Bars

Melt 1/2 Cup Butter and pour into 9 x 13 pan*

Sprinkle in order:

1 Cup crushed graham crackers

1 Cup Coconut

1 Cup butterscotch chips*

1 Cup chocolate chips

1 Cup chopped nuts

1 Cup Eagle Brand condensed milk*

Bake for 30 minutes at 350

Cut while warm, Cool and serve.*

*I used a glass pan and melted the butter right in it in the microwave. One less thing to have to wash!

*next time I make it I am using peanut butter chips!

*I used the whole can of condensed milk because I didn’t pay attention to the directions! I don’t know if that’s more than a cup? Well, except for the extra that I ate with a spoon!

*Your eyes and your nose are going to tell you to cut these like brownies. Don’t. Cut them in 1-2 inch squares. They are SO rich that you will die trying to eat a brownie size one. Plus you can always go back for more.

definitely an easy dessert. And one that won’t be sitting around long at home or at work. I took some to work the next day and they were gone within an hour!

-m

Pajama Days Tomato-Cheese Tortellini Soup

As I have mentioned numerous times in the course of my blogging, I have become a stalker. Not like, creepy-peeping-through-the-windows-at- midnight-stalker… but close! I am really loving the blogs I have come across here in the wide world of the web. Pajamadays is one of the 1st few I came across and loved…
Recently she posted this recipe and I knew I had to try it!
So I did…
I made one adjustment by boiling a chicken breast and adding the shredded meat to the soup… It was fantastic! I can’t wait to try it again… maybe with rice (or tortellini ) instead of the ravioli. The Ravioli is just too big to eat with a spoon.

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Tomato-Cheese Tortellini Soup
total time: 13 minutes

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
3 cups frozen cheese tortellini (about 12 ounces)
1 small zucchini, sliced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Combine first 3 ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes. Add tortellini, zucchini, and pepper; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 7 to 8 minutes or until pasta and zucchini are tender.

Yield: 4 (1 1/4-cup) servings

*I added on boiled, shredded chicken breast to the soup plus 1 cup of water.

*I also made Cheesy Parmesan bread to go with it!

-m

things I cook, sometimes come out bad

I love to cook. I am learning to bake more and more. Sometimes I find a recipe that looks good and easy. Several weeks ago I tried a low-calorie cherry jello cake recipe. I am pretty sure it’s not the recipes fault that it was gross. I tried to improvise on a few things, (like size of the pan) and it just turned out ick.

FAIL. Usually it happens when I am in a hurry and trying to do too many things at once. (which, if you asked Wayne, is 24/7!). I end up dropping eggs on the floor and making gross cakes.

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I wish I could find the link , so you could see the pretty picture that www.Kraftfoods.com shows!

I am pretty sure this would have been ok, if I hadn’t been in such a hurry…

-m

Easy peach cobbler

I spent so much time and energy trying to post a blog every day for 30 days in April, that I pretty much gave up on my other goals!

Now that I have accomplished that one I am going to try my best to get back to some others. #73 involves me cooking every recipe in my family cookbook. It has sorta evolved from “family” into “any recipe I find” cookbook! I have definitely put forth an effort to pick a recipe and try it each month… but I would like to try them more often.

I broke out the recipe books yesterday and made a grocery list. I had a handful of recipes from near and far I wanted to try! Some aren’t even “family”… more like “I found it on the internet” but if they are good, they will be included in the Melissa cookbook binder!

Through blog hopping and comment reading I found this Homemade Mac & Cheese here. Wayne cooked pork chops and I made the mac & cheese. Paired with some baked beans it was a yummy Saturday dinner! This was the 1st time I made homemade Mac & cheese and I was pretty impressed with myself. (It was really easy!)

After we ate dinner, I broke out the stuff to make peach cobbler. This one came from my sweet Grandmother’s cookbooks. While it was cooking I told Wayne “that was too easy, it might not be any good!” But it was. Wayne wasn’t a fan of the nutmeg and I like cobblers with fresh peaches… but for quick and simple it was yummy!

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I think I am going to eat the left overs now!

-m

Baked salmon with tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms

I stepped a little out of my element when i decided this is what I was going to cook for dinner one night. I have been trying to watch the calories I put in my mouth each day, so I was browsing the Kraft Foods site for some low-calorie recipes.

I saw Baked salmon with tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms and thought… Hey! That’s easy…

I am not a big fish fan. I always say I don’t eat seafood unless I can see the sea. I know salmon is not “sea”food, but still fish. I didn’t know where to get fresh fish from on such short notice, so I had to settle for frozen salmon.

But let me tell you! This was EASY and yummy…

(please ignore the blurriness in my pictures. I was rushing and dropping stuff and trying to do to many things at once!)

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this stuff taste INCREDIBLE! I can’t wait to bake some chicken with it too!

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4 salmon fillets (1 lb.)
2 cups chopped fresh spinach leaves
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 tomato, chopped
1/3 cup KRAFT Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing

HEAT oven to 375°F.
PLACE fish fillets, skin-sides down, in 13×9-inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.
COMBINE remaining ingredients; spoon over fish.
BAKE 20 to 25 min. or until fish flakes easily with fork.

This is a must to try. If you aren’t a fish fan, I am positive it would be good with chicken! And only 190 calories! (Not counting the rice and the gigantic hunk of bread!)

-m

French fried (baked) potatoes

We grilled hamburgers on Saturday. They were pretty good… but my favorite part of dinner were the homemade french fries.

All you do is cut up as many potatoes as you need. (you can get about 8 fries from a medium size tater.) I just cut a potato in half long ways and then cut each half into 1/4ths.

Put the fries in a bowl and add a tablespoonful (or 2) of oil. I used Garlic infused oil from The Pampered Chef… but you can use vegetable oil. I then spread them out on the pan and added salt, Italian seasoning and Garlic and Peppercorn seasoning. (basically I was just grabbing stuff that smelled good from my spice cabinet and shaking it on the potatoes!)

Next, cook them in the oven at about 400 til they are brown and crispy. I don’t exactly know how long they really cooked. Maybe 30 minutes.

Perfect with burgers and better than frozen fries!

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Try it!

-m

shishkabob, such a fun word

Ok, so I did a lot this weekend. Or at least I took a lot of pictures of random things. In between the sidewalk chalk, and the kids photography session and the eggs… I cooked dinner.

It was such a beautiful day here that I asked Wayne to pull out the grill. I grabbed some chicken and veggies and asparagus. After chopping up tons of veggies and chicken and skewered a few fingers while preparing them, we grilled. Well, Wayne grilled. I took pictures!

Before the grilling:

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After the grilling:

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I just covered the meat and veggies with Dales. The asparagus was steamed on the stove top in a skillet with Jack Daniel’s Lemon Pepper marinade.

Yum!

-m

Homemade calzones

I came across a blog that had a simple recipe for homemade calzones. Now, I hate to admit it, but I have no idea what blog it was or how I found it. (It was one of those blog stalking days where I went to one, then another, then another. Then realized I had no idea how I got there!)

Wait…. wait, just a minute. As I typed out the above my brain started clicking and I remembered the trail I took and how I got there. My cousin’s twitter page referred me. I then blog stalked all the current blogs, then found this one! Katy Harper’s easy peezy recipe calzones! Yay!

Anywho…. All week I have planned on doing this. Every night I was going to run by walmart and grab the stuff. And EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF MY WEEK ended up with drama and things I had to do for other people. After a very very emotional week I decided that Friday was IT. I even told a friend that if the announcement was made that the world was ending Saturday…. I would say goodbye via telephone, because I WAS STAYING AT HOME Friday night!

I went to Walmart (after working late…of course) and grabbed what I thought would make awesome Calzones. honestly, I had half ass read the instructions that Ms Katy had written, so I was winging it. I knew I had some left over Alfredo at home, so I decided to make one chicken alfredo calzone and one marinara calzone.

My hodgepodge of ingredients

I then used refrigerated pizza dough cut in two. I added Alfredo to one and Wal-Mart spaghetti sauce to the other (Do not use Wal-Mart Spaghetti sauce. It was WAY to watery) Plus cheese, plus an assortment of the veggies and meats shown.

One had Alfredo, cheese, chicken, broccoli, tomatoes, more alfredo and more cheese.

The other had Spaghetti sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, bell peppers, more sauce and more cheese.

Alfredo on the left, Spaghetti sauce on the right

I piled the yumminess high… used WAY too much cheese and folded it all up! I then cooked it till the top was brown and the bottom wasn’t soggy. I don’t know how many minutes this was!

all wrapped up

I decided that this would not be enough food for Wayne and I (boy was I wrong, we ate it for lunch today too!), So I boiled some pasta and added the remaining spaghetti sauce, veggies, chicken, pepperoni, etc to it.

I can't imagine this was healthy! But oh so yummy!

Basically this consisted of the following

Refrigerated thin crust pizza dough
spaghetti sauce
alfredo sauce
pepperoni
precooked chicken
tomatoes
brocoli
bellpeppers
mushrooms
lots of cheese

The Alfredo one was much better than the spaghetti sauce one, but I think it’s only because the spaghetti sauce was watery. next time I will use another type. Plus you can always add anything you want to these. Ground beef, turkey, sausage, more veggies, etc! So yummy!

I want another right now!

-m

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

I found this recipe in my sweet grandmother’s recipe book. I went to Wal-Mart to buy the ingredients. While on the baking aisle looking for Bisquick, I found a “just add water”  Garlic Cheese Biscuit mix! I decided to spend a little extra and try my recipe instead! And of course, that means I used WAY more cheese!

Recipe

Great Value makes Great Biscuits!

They smelled so good!

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

2 Cups Bisquick Baking Mix

2/3 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 Cup butter, melted

1/4 tsp garlic powder

Preheat Oven to 450. Mix Baking mix, milk and cheese until a soft dough forms. beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Drop dough by spoonfuls onto an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Mix melted butter and Garlic powder. Brush over warm biscuits. Serve warm (or eat them all yourself!)

-m