Snowy Sick Day

Yeah I’m lounging at home today.  Felt like crap last night, not exactly sure what but I thought it best to take today off to fully recover. 

And I picked a great day to stay inside!!!

I also took this opportunity for a lazy morning to make stovetop oats and a yummy cappuccino.

Let me introduce you to the newest member of the family

Yay for a new wedding present!!!

 

It’s definitely an art/science to making a good cappuccino and I’m still working on it!  I finally have been able to make some foam though!!

Mmmmm

My oats were a simple mix:

• 1/3 c. oats, 1/3 c. water, 1/3 c. milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 banana
• vanilla

Toppings:
A crumbled piece of an Oats ‘N Honey bar

A little dollop of these guys…

A few piece from this bag…a couple chocolate chips, PB chips, dried cherries, and nuts

Sliced strawberries.

  

Perfect cold weather breakfast

  

Definitely feeling better, and good thing too because I still have to go to a class tonight for work and I didn’t want to miss it. 

Winter Wonderland Weekend

This weekend had so many fun Christmas-y moments to it!

It helps waking up to this outside today :)

This is pretty much one of the few times of the year I actually enjoy snow…the time leading up to Christmas.  Once mid January hits I’m usually done with it but for now we can just enjoy the beauty. 

Yesterday Brian and I went out and searched for the perfect first Christmas tree!

First I started with a warm bowl of steel cut oats!

For 2 servings

• 1/2 c. oats
• 3/4 c. milk
• 3/4 c. water
• pinch salt
  towards the end add
• approx. 1T apricot preserves
• sprinkle of walnuts
• golden raisins
• chopped dried cherries
• chopped dried apricots
• drizzle with a little maple syrup before eating

After heading out into the elements (unfortunately it was raining Saturday), we found it!

Here it is ready to be netted up to take home

We set it up in the stand to let it gradually open more during the day

Later that night I had to head into the city for my Dance Repertory show!  This is the same one I did last year which you can read about here and here.  Both Friday and Saturday shows went great!  We did an old Anita Baker song this year…hopefully someone will send me a picture :).  I am still so grateful I have this opportunity to perform still!

Today was more errands, including a search for a Christmas Tree star!!  Did not find one unfortunately :(  Anyone know where to find a nice star!?

I was excited to get home to make Chili with Thanksgiving leftover turkey that I had frozen!

Key ingredients:

      

First I sautéed some garlic and 1 jalapeño:

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then added onion, bell peppers and a poblano pepper

Then there was tomato paste, beans (dark kidney, black, and garbanzo), crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes,

and some of this:
 

While I was cooking, Brian was busy working on some outdoor lights!!!  SO EXCITED to have a house to decorate :)  we also bought a beautiful wreath with the tree which you can sort of see on the front door.  I’ll have to get a better pic of the wreath.

you can also sort of see our tree in the window on the left.

Back to the Chili

Lots of spices/seasoning…basically I just add them until I like how it tastes:  chili powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, oregano, paprika, salt, pepper, some garlic powder, and little bit of cocoa powder.

 

Garnishes/toppings included fresh cilantro and scallions, along with cheese and sour cream.

of course corn bread…LOVE corn bread!  I made two mini loaves.  This is 1 mini cut up for us to share.  I had 2 slices, he had 3.

Table with soup tureen.  So if we were having any guests for said Chili I would had used my lovely soup tureen which matches my bowls but for tonight I just added it for looks haha!

The table decor is still in progress but here’s what I have going right now:

 

I still need a runner, and possibly this awesome little gold Christmas tree I saw at Crate and barrel :)

After dinner we decorated the tree and watched A Christmas Story!

Now it just needs the star…and presents ;)

The Sweet Stuff

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family :)  I know I did!

Back to my friends-Thanksgiving!

Let’s get to the goods…the desserts!  Because I don’t like to change up my classic Thanksgiving side dishes, the desserts are where I can get creative each year. 

I may have disappointed a few with the lack of a chocolate pecan pie…BUT I had other plans :)

I’ll just start with my favorite this year…this recipe came from the wonderful Giada!

Profiteroles with Ricotta Mascarpone

Thank you Giada!

I started with wanting to make a cream puff but when I read this recipe I knew it was a winner. 

Puff pastry always sounded like it would be hard to make but I’ve heard it was easy and easy it was!!

I made the filling Saturday:

Ricotta+Mascarpone+sugar+vanilla:

The next morning I baked the pastry puffs before the Turkey needed to go in.  Profiteroles/Cream Puffs are actually very easy to make.

Basic Ingredients:  Water, butter, flour, sugar, salt, eggs

All ingredients except the eggs are cooked together on the stove.

Then each egg is added 1 at a time and beat in until the dough is smooth and sticky.

Spoon onto sheet pan, lined with sil pat or parchment

 

I smoothed out the tops with a finger dipped in water, then gave each an egg wash for shine

Puffs (in sunlight)

.

Later on I got out the filling, sliced the top off each puff, and filled the profiteroles

The recipe called for a topping of Nutella + cream, heated together.  For me, the cream and Nutella were just NOT getting along well, so I heated up straight Nutella for my topping.  Just as good or better in my opinion!

YUMMMM the filling tasted just like a cannoli!!!

 

With my extra Ricotta, I was reminded of another simple Giada recipe I wanted to try…

The Ricotta Cappuccino

I had all the ingredients on hand:

The process couldn’t of been simpler…

And I finally got to use my cute set of espresso cups!

Delicious…I am so making these again in the summer!

My final dessert was Mini Pies!!  I love all miniature desserts :) 

Basic pie crust recipe my fam always uses:  flour, shortening, water, salt.

I chilled, and was ready to roll it out Saturday:

Rolled out discs, placed into muffin tin, lined each with foil and filled with dry beans to use for weight so the crust doesn’t puff up!

Brian requested banana cream and I was thinking coconut cream since I’ve never made it before.  Luckily they are VERY similar and I was able to make 1 filling for both pies. 

I ended up with an Emeril recipe for Coconut Cream Pie

Basic vanilla custardy pie filling…

Just before I added any coconut, I filled half of the pie crusts with a little filling, topped with some sliced banana, and filled to the top.

Then added some sweetened coconut as well as some I had toasted earlier.  P.S. Toasted coconut is AWESOME in yogurt!!!!

Then I filled the remaining shells with the coconut filling.

Later on, these got topped with meringue and toasted with my torch!

I dusted the tops of the coconut creams with more toasted coconut

Others brought apple crisp and pumpkin pie!

Hope everyone is having a great little vacation :)  Now we’re off to the in-laws for Thanksgiving #3 tomorrow!