Catching Up

Today has been wonderful. I slept in, got up and played with the kitties, made some bread, watched some tv, and caught up with some old friends!

It is always so nice to talk to someone and see how their life is going, to share little things that you like, things you don't...conversation..its a good thing, people need to do that more.

On a separate note, anyone that has good baking skills needs to email me or comment...My bread hates me and it doesn't rise as good as it does in the original recipes. OOh well, Practice makes perfect I guess.

This is by far the best tasting bread that I have made thus far. It makes one loaf, which for 2 people is perfect!


Honey Wheat Bread

1 and 1/4 cup warm water

2 Tbsp. honey

2 tsp. active dry yeast

3 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 Tbsp. salt

1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2-3 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the warm water, yeast, and honey in a large bowl. Stir with a spoon to dissolve the yeast and allow the mixture to sit until the top becomes foamy. Takes about 10 minutes or so.

Mix in the oil, and salt and stir. 

Add in the whole wheat flour and mix it up. 

1/2 a cup at a time add in the all-purpose flour. Mixing until dough becomes lumpy and you can't stir it with a spoon. Toss it out onto a lightly floured surface or clean surface and start kneading in the remaining flour. A note on this: Depending on the moisture content of your environment and your flour, you may not need to use all 3 cups of the all-purpose flour. I only used about 2 cups. Just add flour and keep kneading until you have soft, elastic dough that is not sticky. Knead the ball of dough for about 3-5 minutes by applying pressure with the heel of your palm and rotating the dough in 1/4 turns.

Form the dough into a ball and put in lightly oiled bowl and set in a warm place to let rise until doubled in size. This will take 45 minutes to an hour. 

After it has risen, take it and shape it into a log shape that fits your loaf pan. Coat your loaf pan in non stick spray or with oil then place dough in the loaf pan, cover with a dish cloth or something similar and let rise again for about 45 minutes till an hour. 

Heat the oven to 425 deg F. and cut a slit down the center of the bread (the long ways) and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

remove from the pan immediately and let cool on a rack before slicing. 

Do you Believe in Magic?

Today I want to talk about music. They say that it can tame the savage beast, soothe your nerves, and just overall put you in a better mood. I completely agree with all of that. You can be having a piss poor day and you hear a good song come on the radio and you jsut crank it up and dance in your car and sing to the top of your lungs... Its better than therapy. (I've never been in therapy...so I0 am just guessing).

There are just some songs that you can't not be moved by or let me rephrase, there are just some songs that you can't stay still through. Just off the top of my head Phil Collins "In the Air Tonight"...you can not tell me that, when the awesome drum part comes up that you don't pretend you are sitting at a drum set...and if you do tell me that I won't believe you. Journey "Don't Stop Believing" you know that you just sing to the top of your lungs on the powerful parts. It doesn't even have to be those songs that get to you. Those are just some examples that get to me during the day.

One of my favorite songs of all time is "Do You Believe in Magic" by the Lovin Spoonful. Such a happy little song that sums up the feelings I have for music, Its magic, doesn't matter what kind as long as it gets to you.

The main reason that I bring this up is because I had physical therapy and it is kicking my butt as usual. I have discovered that if I listen to some "power up" music that it helps me trudge through and make it without dying. All about the motivation!!!

Also, today my sister (super-woman) as usual took me to therapy and then we came home and rested and watched some television. Then afterwords I decided to make some Mini Lemon Tarts!! Yay baking!!

They turned out pretty good I am very surprised, During the making of them I had my doubts. The crust of them is made from a sugar cookie and then the filling is easy. Couple of helpful hints that I could add:
1) Don't freak out if your cookie crust dough is crumbly as all get out. Once it comes out of the refrigerator and you squish it in your hands it will be fine. Don't panic.

2) It helps to not have long fingernails when you are pressing the dough into the mini muffin tin thing. I know there is some cool tools out there that would make the indent into the middle for you, alas, I do not have one of those handy things. :-)

3) I would want the middle to be a little more sweet, and they are more delicious cold than warm. I am impatient lol and couldn't wait to try one!

I got this recipe from another blog and wanted to try it. If you want to visit the original blog here is the link. Her pictures are Wayyyyy better than mine let me tell ya!

Mini Lemon Tarts

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 and ½ cup all-purpose flour
• scant ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• pinch salt

For the lemon filling:

• 2 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• ¼ cup whipping cream
• juice from 1 large lemon
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

For topping

• 4 Tablespoons powdered sugar, divided
• ½ cup whipping cream

To make the sugar cookie crust start by taking the butter and granulated sugar and whipping them together in a stand  mixer or by hand. Whip until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add in your egg and mix together until fully combined. Add the Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt all at one time and mix together until there are no clumps of flour. It will be crumbly and look fairly dry (or at least mine did). Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 Deg. F. Lightly grease your mini muffin tin with spray or with butter.

while the oven is preheating make the filling by combining eggs, egg yolks, whipping cream, lemon juice and sugar. Whisking together until smooth.

remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut unto quarters (4 pieces) then cut each piece into 6 individual pieces (giving you 24 chunks). You will need to squish them into balls, then using your thumbs or whichever finger works the best for you, press it into the muffin cup covering the bottom and the sides evenly. don't freak out if it is thinner or thicker in some spots, It isn't that big of a deal.

Pour in the filling till it is just below the crust.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes, don't overcook these, just when you see the crust start to slightly brown up take em out! Once they are out let them cool completely at room temperature then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the powdered sugar, take the other 2 remaining tablespoons and the whipping cream and blend together until stiff peaks form. Put a dollop on top of your tarts...YUMMY!

Ready for the close up!

With the glare on the plate it looks like a smiley face!

Once they are out of the oven I put them on a cutting board with tin foil to put in the refrigerator

Fresh out of the oven!

Lemon Pepper Chicken

SNOW!!!! I haven't seen this much snow in forever! It makes me happy and angry all at the same time. It's beautiful..until people go out scraping it and messing up the beauty that is newly fallen snow. Sadly though, I had to cancel my physical therapy today because wed can't get out of the driveway. 10+ inches and it's still coming down!!! Ahh!! This make me want to sit with coffee loaded down with creamer and watch "The Day After Tomorrow"!

But anyways....last night while we were all snuggled down in our cozy little home I made Lemon Pepper Chicken. This was super moist, super flavorful and just darn good. It's sort of a sweet tangy and it goes great with rice and veggies.


Lemon pepper Chicken

Ingredients

4 boneless skinless chicken breast (thawed and trimmed of fat)
1/4 C flour
1 tsp pepper
1/2 C lemon juice
1/2 C chicken broth
1 Italian dressing mix packet
4 tsp Butter


Take the butter and melt it in a medium skillet on medium heat. Mix together flour and pepper in a shallow dish.
Take the chicken breasts that has been thawed, rinsed, and trimmed of  fat and dip and coat it in the flour mixture and put the skillet. You are not wanting to cook the chicken all the way through, you are just wanting to get a nice golden brown coating.

Take the browned chicken and place in the crock pot that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
Sprinkle the packet of italian dressing directly onto the chicken.
Cover with lemon juice and chicken broth.
Cook on low for 3-4 hours.

Serve it up!
This was one of my beloved's favorites. He loves all things lemon! We served this with white rice, and some steamed veggies. It was awesome, tasted light and wonderful! this would be great in the summer time!

I hope you enjoy!

Igloo Time

Well looks like we are going to have a blizzard. We have battened down the hatches, gotten extra water and food, as well as toilet paper. We are prepared...unless the power goes out then we are going to have to find someone with a wood stove or something...but I am confident that it won't come to that.

So in other important news, we have kitties! My beloved, David, has adopted the 2 cutest little critters in the world...well except for the other critters that we had, like Cleo, My moms cat, Isis, and Ashes. We have one that is solid black, not even a few white hairs, she has hazel/green eyes, they sort of change each day. We named her Luna, She is a feisty little lover girl, about 8 or 9 weeks old. She loves to cuddle and loves to be in your face and the center of attention...until you stand up, then she runs. The second little lover girl that he has adopted is a white and gray little bundle of joy. She is the most social of the two, she enjoys cuddling, running and playing with her sister and the little monster man. She enjoys also being under blankets for warmth. She is the smaller of the two of them.

Aren't they adorable!  And yes... I/We are turning into a cat lady. hehe!

Simply The Best

So last night I made the beset chicken ever. I got this recipe from my Mama and she would make this when I was younger and still living at home. It is soooo moist but crunchy at the same time.

Bread Crumb Chicken

1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 to 2 lbs. of boneless skinless chicken breasts trimmed of fat
1/2-1 cup Italian bread crumbs
 grated Parmesan cheese


Take the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese and mix together. Add just enough of the parm cheese that it makes the bread crumbs a  little whiter.

it should look like this

Take the chicken Breast and coat in the mayo then roll in the bread crumb mixture.

Place on a non stick baking sheet and bake at 350 F. for about 20-25 minutes.

Death Warmed over...

I died today. I went to physical therapy and died. Dead, Death warmed over etc. They upped my bike time to 17 minutes, I enjoy the bike, they upped my weights for my leg exercises, I did step-ups, worked on my balance (for those of you that know me...I didn't/don't have any balance at all so anything would be an improvement haha), wall squats that I held for 10 seconds each, the leg press also with upped weight to 60 lbs, AND I did 5 minutes on an elliptical. DEAD!! I also did all of this, after making baked pumpkin doughnut holes this morning for breakfast.

These cake like doughnut holes are awesome. My amazing mother has donated her mini muffin pan to the Rachel Kitchen Tool Usage Fund so I had to make something.


Baked Pumpkin Doughnut Holes

For the Doughnuts:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned plain pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup milk

For the Coating:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray no stick mini muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Mix together your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves) in a bowl and set aside. (I used ginger in place of the ground cloves because I didn't have that)

put canola oil (I used veggie oil because I didn't have canola) brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin, and milk in a bowl and mix well.

Add your dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among muffin tin.

bake 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick or knife come out clean.

While they bake melt butter. In a separate bowl mix together sugar cinnamon mixture.

Pull the doughnut holes out of the oven and let cool for 2 minutes. Take them and roll them in the butter, then roll around in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Repeat until all doughnuts are done.

they are best if you eat them warm, or room temperature. These things went like lightening in our house, and as always I gave some away to my pt crew!


Thanks for reading! Enjoy!

a little happy, a little sad

Well, first off let me say I'm sorry it's been a while since I have posted. We have had a bit of sadness in our house. Isis our beautiful tabby lover girl has gone to stay at my parents house on the farm. Our apartment was too cramped for her and she just wasn't happy at all. She kept urinating on everything because she wanted to keep her territory from Ashes. She so far is very happy at my folks place. She is downstairs in the living room and socializing which is great! She is usually very antisocial. So big shout out to my parents for giving her a loving warm and wonderful place to stay.  I'm sure in a couple weeks she will be cuddling with you on the couch.  I love all of you.

The recipe tokay is some thing Super easy...and yes again with the crock pot. I'm sorry...Hello my name is Rachel and I am a crock pot addict. If there were a 12 step program I would not join because crock pots are awesome.  End of story lol. Anyways ....

Crock pot Chicken Ranch Tacos


2 lbs of chicken breast
1 packet taco seasoning
1 packed ranch dressing mix
1 cup chicken broth


Place all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours. Take chicken and shred it. Place back in the crock pot and let cook an additional 30 minutes. Enjoy with your favorite taco fixings, we did lettuce soft taco shells, tomatoes,  cheese, and ranch dressing. They were amazing!! Hope you enjoy.

Happy 1 Month Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the blog! Today makes 1 month since I have been writing. Today I made crock pot potato soup (this is a repeat so I won't put the recipe on here. It's also SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!! Whoop Whoop! Out of my beloved and myself I am more of a football fan, as a girl I have a very healthy big love for football. I wish I had made some snack foods for today but we are having a couple day, where we do things together and I didn't want to spend all day in the kitchen.


Anyways I hope everyone stays safe tonight...who are you rooting for?

Adorable

I don't really have much to talk about today. So here is a couple pictures of my kitty lovers. :-)

Just Fake It

Any of you that know me, know that I am a carb-a-holic. This is not good for my figure or anything else for that matter, but because the world so amazing and has great things that grow I can fake pasta without it being horrible for me. Spaghetti squash!!! Whoop Whoop! It is the best thing to come out of the garden since tomatoes, green beans, and corn...and well anything else that comes from the garden (if we are being honest). I love to get spaghetti squash just because just like pasta you can do many many things with it! Yesterday, when I made this, of course I had to nibble a little bit of it to see how it was, quality control and all that jazz haha! It is soooo easy that anyone with an oven can make it.


Spaghetti Squash

Spaghetti squasg
fork
sharp knife


Preheat your oven to 350.

Take your knife and just prick little holes all over the outside of the spaghetti squash.This step is VERY IMPORTANT so that the squash doesn't have a lot of pressure build up..built up pressure = exploding squash = BAD! No exploding!

place on  a nonstick baking sheet and bake for about an hour (I baked mine for about an hr and 10-15 minutes just because I like mine very done.

Let it cool down to where you can handle it with your hands.

Take your sharp knife and cut the squash hamburger bun style (short ways, not long ways like a hot dog bun)

Take the fork and scrape out the seeds and gooey stuff from the middle. Don't worry if some of the squash strands come out also.

Take your fork and just start to peel out the strands, Scraping the sides etc. until all of the squash is out.

See, told ya it was easy!

Top this off with your favorite sauce, or just butter and Parmesan cheese (my lunch yesterday).


As always, I hope you enjoy this awesome squash. Please feel free to comment or send me an email at landoffoodandkitties@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!