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TEA LOVES HONEY

 

Get ready to bookmark lovelies, just click any of the above images to take you to your new favorite foodie blog!  Sarah from Truly Smitten has done it again and crafted a completely original and visually delightful blog that will inspire the heck out of your inner Martha. I love Sarah if she wasn't married I would marry her (totally platonically of course), she's perfect!

GRANOLA-GATE

I am in LOVE with the library. I go about once a week even though I could never go through my giant, leaning tower of random books I checked out just the week before.  I am especially partial to cook books. I like to try before I buy.  I checked out Ina Garten's (the Barefoot Contessa) , 'Back to Basics', and Martha Stewart's Cooking School.  Both I believe I will be adding to my own library very soon. I am very bad at following any sort of direction thus I love a pretty picture to accompany my recipe to help me visualize the end result.  I saw the homemade granola bar recipe in Miss Ina's tome and knew that I was going to be whipping up some of those bad boys.  I don't like commercial granola bars they are always so teethe chipping hard, or too soft, too sweet, too blah, you get the picture. I of course didn't follow Ina's recipe perfectly. I omitted a lot and added my own take. I am pretty good at the ol' cooking improv but this is where I went awry---Listening to a BOY, not just any boy my Fancy!  I was all ready to spread these beauties out on my cookie sheet and had visions of how I would package them, dole them out at the office and to complete strangers, they were to look like this:

{not a photo of my granola bars by sf appeal}

Humph, well I listened to the Fancy who stopped me and suggested I put the granola mix in our square casserole thus creating a thicker granola bar.  I considered this and then shrugged, 'why not?'.  I will tell you why not!  The casserole is too deep to cut these suckers out.  They weren't coming out for nada. After trying for 15 minutes of sawing at the bars, the Fancy asked "Should I put them in the microwave?"   "Do whatever you want!" I pouted.  I went to work and about 2 hours later got this text, "the granola bars are FREAKIN' AWESOME!"  I knew they would be if we could only get them out of the casserole thing. I didn't even want to know what he had to do to get them out but hoped that the damage wasn't too bad when I got home.

These bars are super easy to make and when you figure out the cost to make them it is soooo much more cost effective than buying those yucky commercial versions.  They could change your life, people will be in awe of your cooking prowess and you will be in awe of your prowess because it is very, very difficult to mess up this recipe, unless you are me and thank your lucky stars you are not...

I WISH I HAD ONE MORE DAY OFF...

I wish I had one more day off to finish reading this book...And you?  Any great books for me when I finish this one?

SMITTEN...

{get smitten here}

One of the things that the Fancy and I have been doing to conserve in this bleak economic climate is put a moratorium on take-out.  It was very hard for us to ween ourselves from the near instant gratification of hot chicken fried rice or cheesy pizza.  We looked at our financial situation and decided that we could and would make this concession right now.  It hasn't been that bad, we take turns cooking and we are both pretty good at it.  The problem we have now is our personalities.  I am a type 'A' perfectionist, eager to succeed, get straight A's and do everything better than the next. The Fancy is an athlete (read jock), use to being the very best.  We are in a word competitive.  The kitchen has become our playing field and iron chef beware as we have pulled out all the stops trying to Johnny-one-up each other. Our question we pose to each other as the first bite enters our mouths, "Restaurant quality?"  Sometimes we have to admit, "Much better than any restaurant." 

Last night the Fancy knocked it right out of the park, he made fish tacos that were better than any I've had on any street corner in a coastal Mexican fishing village or even in the City of Angels, renowned for it's Mexican cuisine.  I don't even like fish tacos and I devoured them and got seconds, unheard of in this household; I usually save seconds for dessert so I can have thirds and fourths.  "Where in the world did you figure out how to make these?" I asked.  I was afraid he wouldn't divulge his secret, but he sheepishly shrugged his shoulders and said he found it on "Smitten'.  I don't know if you have seen or heard of this site but if you are trying to come up with some quick, creative meals they have plenty, along with some amazing photographs and the author has a keen sense of humor.  I hope you enjoy poking around there and for those of you wanting to out iron chef your loved one or impress your family to pieces here's the recipe that Ace used to bowl me over...

P.S. I made the font even BIGGER at the request of a few.  I hope this is okay now, I don't want you all going blind on my account or developing terrible headaches or gosh forbid wrinkles from squinting at the screen.  Let me know your thoughts too big now? Just right?

SAVORY TOOTH...

I don't have much of a sweet tooth, my tooth is definitely more salty than sweet.  Give me french fries, chips with gauc, bread with butter, blocks of cheese and I am one happy lil' toother.  My Fancy on the other hand lives and dies by the sweet, the chocolately, the sugar induced anything.  I do try to indulge him as much as possible, I keep cookies around the casa and I have been known to bake like a champ on special occasions, which brings me to this little delightful shop.  It's brand new to me and instead of always thinking, 'ah, they already must know 'bout it', I figured I would share my find, because what a sweet one it is..

Bake it pretty by Amanda Krueger



{visit Bake it pretty}

Do you like that font I used for the post image?  I like it too, 'cept there isn't any puncuation available besides the period (hey, it's free) but if you don't mind that or aren't intending to use punctuation than go on and download it here.

I CHEAT...DO YOU?

Well, it has been three years and it's just become a chore, the same ol' thing everyday.  I don't cheat all the time, just some of the times...It's okay, my Fancy knows I cheat (I think), though he hasn't confronted me about it.  So why am I confessing this now?  I need help, a lot of help!  Do you cheat as well?  I mean one can't cook from scratch all the time, right?  I am guilty of doctoring bottled pasta sauce here and there, making rice pilaf from a box (throwing in some mushrooms to make it 'seem' like the real deal), etc.  He had the audacity to agree with me the other day when I mentioned that I needed to expand my cooking repertoire.  Boys!  Don't they know by now we just want them to listen?  Anyways, I need a call of arms here!  I need your best (and easiest) cheaters recipes, where it's less than 10 ingredients and doesn't take forever to make.  I figured that this request wouldn't be good without incentive and this is it:

No, I will not be sending you a pound of jumbo shrimp!  This my lovely is a 'Blurb' book, what is a Blurb book?  It's your very own book, written and designed by you!  Hardcover and in print!  I will send a gift certificate to the winner and they can make any 7" x 7", 40 page book they like!  Ever dreamed of having your very own cook book?  Or children's book, or a book that features your children, drawings, photo's or fave shoes? You can even make a book from your blog!   Mosey on over to Blurb and get the 411 here...

So how will you win?  Well, you will leave your recipe in the comments section and then your placement will be your "number" of course you can leave more than one comment BUT it has to include a recipe or it won't be counted.  The recipe has to have less than 10 ingredients and can't take longer than 1 hour to make.  I will pick the winner at the end of March via the random number picker .  I do hope you join in as my impending marriage may hinge on your recipes (no pressure or anything...)

MARTHA, MARTHA, MARTHA...

My complete and utter adoration of Martha Stewart is legendary.  I get teased incessantly with unabashed abandon, but being the die hard fan I am, I stand by Martha now and always.  My Fancy once asked me when Martha had her daughter Alex on her  show if I wished Martha was my mom, duh...(sorry mom, I love you--like a friend) (just kidding)  Anyway, I made this recipe the other day and it was easy as it comes and boy did My Fancy think I took some sort of creative pills (he's currently sick of my cooking repetoire. I keep telling him Italians eat Italian food, no really go to any first generation Italian home at dinner time they 'aint eating burgers and fries)

 

So the image above is not corresponding to the recipe, I did that on purpose because I thought the image that corresponded wasn't as pretty, but follow this link and you'll not only get the recipe but the video.  You will be amazed how easy this is and even though I didn't really sway too far from the Italian tree, it was a little jazzier than pasta.  At least I didn't tell him to make his own dinner which is about to happen if he doesn't stop complaining...