Cheese Curds...

The hubs now makes cheese...

So for my birthday, I got cheese curds....

And unless you're either a Midwesterner or avid fair-goer you can't possibly understand the glory, deliciousness and love that are cheese curds.

And yes, I married the best man on the face of the earth. I mean any man that makes you fried cheese for your birthday is worth keeping around!

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

Well they say it's your birthday - well happy birthday to ya!!

I love my birthday - I really do. And this year was no exception. I started the morning off bright and early by spinning with a bunch of friends and we dominated the class. Then I came home to a fully decorated house courtesy of the best husband on the face of the earth - complete with a Cinderella theme and crown for me to wear.

That's right babe - I'm always the princess - never forget it!

The only issue with my birthday is I'm typically tasked with making my own dinner and dessert.

Not because the hubs doesn't offer to do those things or take me out, but because I like to make crazy things for my birthday.

This year, I opted for a unique dessert instead of dinner - don't get me wrong, the ribs from our local farmer were divine, but this dessert far outshined the main course!

I found this recipe on Pintrest and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted it for my birthday! It comes from Cast Sugar and it's a recipe for Jean's Cream Puff Cake. I don't know who you are Jean but GOD BLESS YOU!!! Because this is heavenly!

I made this as is, but subbed in reduced fat pudding, cream cheese and cool whip - just to lighten things up a bit. I also only topped the portion of the cake we were going to eat that night and then topped the rest the next morning and took it in to work to share with everyone else. And it was a hit there too! Best part about this was it was the cross between cream puffs and eclairs - two of my favorite treats. And it was technically chocolate free so the hubs thought it was a winner!

The base of something wonderful to come!!

Happy Birthday To Me Cake!

Ingredients:

1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter

1 c. water

1 c. flour

4 large eggs

4 c. milk - I used 1%

8 oz. cream cheese, softened - I used low fat

3 (3.5 oz) pkgs. instant vanilla pudding - I used fat free

1 container Cool Whip - I used low fat

Chocolate syrup

Preheat oven to 400 F.

In a large heavy saucepan, heat butter and water to boiling over medium-high heat. Add flour and reduce heat to low. Cook and stir until it forms a ball and pulls away from the pan. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg.

Spread in bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 35 minutes. Cool completely.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and milk and beat until smooth. Here's the trick, to keep things smooth: start with the cream cheese, give it a good beating until fluffy. Slowly but surely (while still beating), add the milk. Voila! Once these are well combined, add pudding mix and beat until thickened. Spread over cooled shell.

Top with whipped topping, and drizzle chocolate syrup over the top. Keep refrigerated until serving.

Quick and Easy Pizza Crust

We do have a great homemade pizza crust recipe that we use - but it does take quite a while to rise. On New Years Weekend I wanted to make us a quick pizza, so I searched for a quick rise crust recipe and came across this one on All Recipes.

The hubs doubted it would rise or make a descent crust but lo-and-behold it was WONDERFUL and will be made again.

I did tweak (of course!) but followed pretty true to how it was posted on all recipes.

I then topped the pizza with a little light sauce, some spinach leaves, olives and some of the hub's homemade ricotta cheese. (For those of you who are regular readers and keeping count, the hubs is now making Bread, Cheese, Yogurt and Sausages).

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 teaspoon white sugar

1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C) - I did have to add some extra water

2 1/2 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

Italian seasoning

garlic powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

Stir in flour, salt, garlic powder and Italian seasoning and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes. * Note - I let mine rest for 30 minutes, just a bit longer *

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Ode to the Zoku

For Chribirthday, I got the hubs a Zoku. I didn't really need another gift for him but my reasoning for buying it was twofold.

1. He loves popsicles and frozen treats that are fruity, not chocolaty.

2. I get sick and tired of random boxes of popsicles, fruit pops, and ice pops hanging out in my freezer.

3. The hubs likes to buy boxes of treats, eat a couple and then the box sits for, oh say a year, meantime purchasing new boxes of treats.

I had seen the Zoku on some blogs and on Pintrest and thought it would just be another useless kitchen appliance. But it wasn't that pricey and I thought it would solve all of those problems I mentioned above, so I got it - just the two pop one.

We tried it out during the holidays and it was SO FUN! We are fortunate that we keep a stash of frozen fruit in the freezer year round, and the hubs makes his own yogurt, so we were good to go for some healthy, low fat/cal treats.

The results have been so tasty! We've been primarily using frozen fruit we chop up in the mini-chopper, a T or so of OJ, a T or so of plain yogurt, some milk, a little honey and that's about it. And for fun, I like to drop some mini chocolate chips in to mine for an extra special treat!

To be honest though, we haven't been using it all that much - mostly because, well it's winter. But we do keep the Zoku on the door in the freezer so it's there anytime we want to use it - and I think we will use it more come summer time. Now we do have an ice cream maker, but I have to say, this takes up a lot less space in my freezer, can make much lower fat options, and fulfills that immediate need without leaving a quart of ice cream to deal with later!

Overall, we do love it. I would highly recommend it for anyone who has a popsicle lover in your home. And a tip - there are a TON of recipes on the web for popsicle flavors and Zoku flavors - just search for those instead of getting the cookbook right off the bat. And you don't need all of the fancy accessories if you just want to use it for a quick treat - just a basic pop will do ya!

The Zoku in Action

Mmm Yummy Banana Pops!!

Best New Kitchen Item...

Hands down.

If you entertain a lot, this needs to be a must in your house. Additionally, if you don't love that crock pots just make a mush of food, this is so great to have a full meal but all things "not touching" or mushed together like a soup or stew.

The hubs got me this for Christmas as a surprise - since I had mentioned it a few times that it could be a fun thing to have. AND IT IS!!!

So far I've done a wonderful meatloaf, pasta and broccoli dinner in it; used it for an event at work for 3 different hot dips; and used it for a dinner party to re-heat everything I had cooked the night before for the event.

Seriously, if you entertain a lot this is for you!

The Hub's Birthday Treat!

When we were in upstate NY last fall, I found cans of Oregon Fruit Royal Ann Cherries - the hub's favorite. So on Christmas Day when I went to make his birthday pie, I had to turn the cherries in to pie filling - which really was easy - just the cherries, drained, sugar and cornstarch - pop in a pie crust and voila!

It was such a nice treat to have the golden cherry pie and not the regular pie I make him each year.

Such a delicious and tasty treat.

Hope you had a great birthday pie hubs!

All Things Delicious

Mushrooms

Bread

Cheese

All melty and gooey and delicious.

Yup. That's pretty perfect!

Add the hub's perfect homemade bread and this meal is spot on!!

Thanks to Closet Cooking for this fantastic recipe!

I did make a few slight changes which I posted here.

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, sliced

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon thyme, chopped

1/4 cup white wine or broth

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

1/2 teaspoon truffle oil * I omitted this

1 cup fontina or gruyere, shredded

1/4 cup parmigiano reggiano, grated - I skipped this added cheese

4 slices bread

2 tablespoon butter

Melt the butter and heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.

Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the garlic and thyme and saute until fragrant, about a minutes.

Add the cremini mushrooms and saute until the start to caramelized and turn golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.

Add the wine, deglaze the pan and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat and let cool a bit. * I omitted the salt - there's plenty of sodium with the cheese.

Mix the cheese into the mushrooms. * Instead of doing this, I layered the mushrooms and cheese on the bread and then did the grilled cheese portion.

Butter one side of each slice of bread and place 2 in the pan buttered side down.

Top each with 1/2 of the mushroom mixture and finally the remaining slices of bread with the buttered side up.

Grill until the cheese has melted and the bread is golden brown, about 2-4 minutes per side.

A Pintrest Review

Recently, the hubs and I tried a tip from pintrest, to soak your stove grates in ammonia to remove the built on grease and gook. It certainly worked well on the pieces of our stove. So well, the hubs decided to try it on caked on cookie sheets.

I'll let the pictures do the talking here.

Before - yes those were my cookie sheets! Clean, just baked on caked on gook!

After soaking in ammonia overnight and this is the scraping of the cookie sheets.

And Voila!

Here's my take on it - it did remove all of that gook and crap, but I also think it removed the non-stick coating - which I OK I don't really care too much about that. Just wash them really well with soap and water, maybe even running through the dishwasher when you're done!

Spaghetti & Meatball Soup

I found this incredible recipe on Gina's Skinny Recipes and wow it did not disappoint! And if you haven't visited this blog yet, you must - it's a great source for low fat/cal and healthy recipes. Truly, one of my favorite blogs!

This soup was so easy to throw together and for this spaghetti and meatball loving girl, it certainly hit the spot on a lighter note for me! I did alter a bit, just using pre-made turkey meatballs that I had made and put in the chest freezer - so I just had to have them heat in the soup. And the hubs is a huge fan of wagon wheel pasta, so I replaced the spaghetti noodles for the mini wagon wheels and it was so fun! Instead of using the boxed broth too, I used some of my frozen turkey stock from the freezer and water.

Great, quick, easy meal - great for a cold night this winter. Do make it!

See the recipe from Gina's site - I made it as is with those tweaks so I'll refer you there!

Uh-Oh - this is a Costly Dislike

So the hubs and I were on the waiting list for a while for Beekman Blaak Goat Cheese - and our number finally came up and a wonderful box of cheese arrived on our doorstep!

We were so excited to cut in to it and tried it on Thanksgiving day - and uh, oh - WE DO NOT LIKE IT!!! We just paid $45 for a wheel of cheese and it's way too strong for us.

HELP!

I'm contemplating shredding it up and making fondue with it, thinking once I add in the wine, herbs and such it may have a more subdued flavor and be good for dipping with bread and veggies?

If you love strong cheeses, this is for you. I do like a strong cheese, but not this strong!