Cinnamon Rolls

Lately I've been having some of the local mamas over weekly and it's been wonderful. Wonderful to hang with them and for Ollie to hang with his friends (/learn to share) and also wonderful that I GET TO BAKE and they can eat it so I don't eat all of it! YAY!

Having local mama friends is wonderful. Great to chat with during the day in our group texting thread, great to have over and have some adult conversation and great to get us out of the house for group play dates!

If you are a mama, I encourage you to try and meet friends around your neighborhood! It's especially nice as a stay-at-home mom to have neighborhood friends!

This week, I made cinnamon rolls for the mama's. I delivered a few to a couple mamas who were stuck at home with sick babes. :( It's been a rough week over here for all the babies and mamas getting sick. Oliver and I have avoided it pretty well this far. Fingers cross that that continues!

I use Food Network's "Almost Famous Cinnamon Rolls" recipe and it never disappoints and it's really easy. Ok, that's a lie, it disappointed once but that was my fault, not the recipes. My yeast/milk combo didn't foam up and I used it anyway - I ended up with cinnamon rocks. Make sure your yeast gets foamy!

This recipe also calls for cutting the dough into 6 portions - those would be HUGE so I do double that and end up with 12 cinnamon rolls. 12 cinnamon rolls that aren't the size of your face.

Look at that big beautiful blob of dough ready to be rolled out. MMM. It was even more big and pillowy before I took it out of the bowl.

These pictures are kind of not awesome because I took them at night and the lighting in our kitchen is awful.

After rolling out the dough you slather it with lots of butter then sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture over it.  (I decrease the original cinnamon amount and do 1 TB + 1 heaping TB.) That spot on the far left is butter & sugar-less b/c it's going to be the "tape" that holds the roll together. You wet it just slightly so it'll stick to your rolled up dough.

To get 12 cinnamon rolls - Cut the rolled up log of dough in half, then cut each half in half. Now cut each segment into thirds. Wa-la, 12 cinnamon rolls. 12 regular-sized cinnamon rolls. If you want ginormous ones, go for the 6. :)

Place them in a greased 9x13" baking dish, cover it with saran wrap and let them rise for 45 minutes. After they've risen you can bake them or pop them in the fridge to bake in the morning.

In the morning, I pull the pan out of the fridge and put it on the stove while the oven is warming up. Typically I bake these at 325 for about 40 minutes. That's a little over what the recipe states but they weren't quite golden enough for me. This morning I pulled off a little piece at the bottom of a cinnamon roll to make sure they were done because I wasn't positive. Do that if you aren't sure. No one wants undercooked dough. Bleck.

Then drown them in the icing & enjoy with friends! YUM!

Go make yourself some cinnamon rolls! They are delicious and easy peasy. Well, easy peasy if you have a mixer, just easy if you have to do the kneading by hand. ;)

Click here for my printable with my adaptations!

BBQ Chicken & Pineapple Quesadillas

It's grillin' time! So ready for it. I love our grill. I love my daddy for gifting us with it for our wedding. Such a perfect gift from him, too. :)

Super happy for weather that brings our grill back out. I feel like it's so much easier to eat healthier with a grill by your side... or maybe it's just the wonderful weather that makes me feel like eating healthy, fresh foods rather than heavy dishes...? Eh. I'm just glad winter is OV-ER. Bleck. Give me the sun, please and thank you.

Grillin' weather. Grillin' chicken. Grillin' with Sweet Baby Ray's. Grillin' pineapple. Sigh.

First of all - If you don't use Sweet Baby Ray's, you should. Or let me know what you use that is better because I'm not sure what can top it. Well, maybe. My dad's barbecue chicken with his homemade beer barbecue sauce is pretty freakin' good. But I can't make that. So I'll say this I guess - Sweet Baby Ray's is the best for plain ol' out of the bottle barbecue sauce. Yes.

Anywho. Tonight we had some delish barbecue chicken & pineapple quesadillas. I love these things. This is maybe our third or fourth time having them... I'm not huge on repeating dinner yet because I love trying new recipes. Only the faves get repeated. I'll wait until kid time to play the repeat often game.

These things are so easy, too. First, I pounded my chicken and seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic powder and cumin - just a light sprinkle of each. You don't have to do the pounding thing - my hubs is just all about the pounding of the chicken. always. I guess it makes for even cooking though. I let mine sit in the fridge for about 2-3 hours but that's not really necessary either. Again, seasoning. Hubs is big on the seasoning and the "marinating." So I let it sit. I'm sure it did something. :)

Right before putting it on the grill I added some barbecue sauce to each side. Chopped the pineapple up into sticks/wedges.  I cut the pineapple ends off. Then cut the pineapple in half. Then I cut each half into 8 pieces, wedges. (Layed... Laid... ?? Why do both of those look weird...?) I put the wedges down on their sides then cut the skin off and the rind off. Does that make sense? I'll have to cut up another pineapple and take some pictures. It's a pretty great cutting technique that I learned from some blog or cooking book or cooking show or something at some point.

You can cut it however you want. It'll still be delicious before AND after you grill it.

After the grilling just chop it all up. Oh, hey, I actually took a picture of that part.

Then we use our griddle to make the quesadilla. Place large flour tortilla on the griddle then sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on it - maybe 1/8-1/4 cup. Then place your chopped chicken and pineapple on the tortilla. Do a little extra squirt of barbecue sauce to your liking. Maybe add some chopped cilantro or fresh jalapeños (seeds removed unless you wanna burn). Sprinkle another 1/8-1/4 cup of cheese then top it with the another tortilla. We didn't do cilantro or jale's this time and it was still excellent.

Let it cook there until it starts to get golden and then very very very carefully flip it over to cook the other side a bit. I put my griddle on 300 degrees and let it cook on each side for about 4 minutes. While you wait you can snack on the grilled pineapple and maybe throw a piece or two of chicken bits to your dog. That's what we did anyway.

For us - one large quesadilla was plenty along with our salad. We made two though - with 2 1/2 chicken breasts and a little over half of the pineapple. + the extra bits of pineapple and chicken breast that we ate or treated Billy to.

And that was dinner tonight. I'll add some pictures when we make this again... which will hopefully be soon because this is just blah without many pictures. Fail, Kem. It's hard to take pictures and cook at the same time... how do all those professional food bloggers do it? I shall learn.

Here's the "recipe" which is more like a how-to.

What's going to be YOUR first "spring is here, it's time to grill" meal? 

xo - Kem

chocolate puddin' cake

I'm enjoying a little bit of a lazy morning while it's storming outside. Well, more like raining a little with a lot of wind. Our grill has made it's way to the other side of the deck and my mother-in-laws grill has face planted.

This weather makes me happy. Thoughts of time spent sitting on porches with family watching, listening and smelling the rain... good stuff. I'm reading "Ferris' Bluff" by Fred Limberg on my Kindle right now and it's set in Arkansas where it storms a lot and where I used to live... there are quite a few scenes in the book that talk about sitting on the porch during the early morning or during a storm and it makes me smile every time.

P.S. If you have a Kindle you should subscribe to BookBub and they'll send you an email a day with four or five books that are discounted (usually below $4) or free (usually at least two) on Amazon. I'm not super picky so it works for me... I just check out the reviews and if they aren't terrible, which they usually aren't, then I get the free ones.
... Can you have a "p.s." before the end? It's a "p.s." at the end of this section only. yup.

So, let's get to the point. CHOCOLATE PUDDING CAKE. But since we were chatting about Arkansas let's call it Chocolate Puddin' Cake. Doesn't that sound more down home and delicious? Yup.

I can't recall how I came across this recipe... maybe on a Food Network show...? Either way - I googled and went along with this recipe to try it out. It's a pretty strange recipe and I had some serious doubts when I got to the end but I went with it after re-reading the directions at least 10x to make sure I was reading it correctly.

First, we have what the batter should NOT look like. Whoops. Here we have all the cocoa in the recipe mixed into the batter whereas only 2 TB was supposed to be mixed in. I'm not even sure how I managed that. Rewind. Restart.

Restarted. Dropped the sugar canister on the floor. Good thing that baby is thick... not sure how it didn't break. I'm such a klutz.

That looks more like it. After the batter is combined in there lookin' all normal you're going to throw some dry ingredients on top of it and then pour boiling water on top. Makes perfect sense. How do people come up with these things??

So now you sprinkle 3/4 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa power on top of the batter. Then pour 1 1/2 cups boiling water on top of it. No stirring allowed.

Now pop it in the oven at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes. Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving. Now devour it. With ice cream, preferably. So yummy. It's like a melty brownie with built in sauce. Mmmm.

Enjoy, dearies.

xo - Kem

that old french bread

Market Basket. oh, Market Basket. It's a killer of a place. Our go to grocery store... It has the best prices and pretty much everything I need. And despite it always being a mad house, it's super clean and everything is in order.

That's Market Basket on a typical Saturday morning. All 35 check out lanes open. All full. The later it gets in the day, the longer those lines get until they are being controlled by the store employees and going back into the aisles. Sunday, it's even worse. I would go during the week but we have limited usage of a car right now since ours was stolen in September shortly after moving to Boston... Welcome to Boston! :) I was more upset about the fact that my brand new iPod mini was in the car than about the actual car since we have my mother-in-law's car to use and public transportation. We were planning on getting a new one anyway. haha Anywho!

Back to the store. I do a circuit around the store and pray that I don't forget anything so I don't have to fight my way back through the crowds again. Usually, I am not successful. Dairy. Deli. Middle Aisles. Meats. Produce. Bakery.

At Market Basket they know how to get you... By the time I get to the produce, the absolute worst place in the store, I'm beat. Then I get to the Bakery. And they always have fresh and hot and super delicious smelling french bread. My defenses are down at this point so into my basket that french bread goes while I mentally re-arrange the weeks menu to fit french bread TONIGHT.

And french bread in the car on the way home. Since usually I shop on Saturday mornings and I can't be bothered to get up even earlier to have breakfast. Last week, the fresh fruit cups with fresh whipped cream lured me in, too.

This is why they tell you not to shop when you're hungry, Kem.

We are a little family. Three mouths to eat that french bread so it never gets finished. I hate wasting food so I decided to try a little bread crumb action last week. It couldn't be difficult, I figured. And it wasn't so go make some of your own!

Side Note: Little family = myself, Fab & my mother-in-law who we currently live with until we pay off some debts and get our own place.

I had pretty much an entire loaf of bread left. So I sliced it in half and had two of those babies. I heated up the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and popped them in there on a cookie sheet. Baked them for about 45 minutes until they were hard(er) and dry.

Grabbed my trusty Ninja blender and threw half in at a time and just blended until it was crumbs. Like bread crumbs, ya know.

I didn't add any seasonings - plain ol' bread crumbs will do. Then I stuck them in a plastic bag and sealed it up with the date. Next time I make meatloaf, I'll use these lovelies.

Gotta say, I was pretty excited not to throw this hunk of bread in the trash or to the animals.

Like, actually excited. Doesn't take much for me. It's the little things.

Do you have any ways of re-purposing ingredients to use them up?

Happy bread crumb making. It's time for date night over here. :)

xo - Kem

wait until cooled to lick the spoon

For Christmas I got my hubs Celtics tickets for last night's game - Celtics vs Bulls. Two tickets. And called up one of his bff's to see if he could go with him.

Fab and his Christmas Gifts. Happy Man.

So that's where they were last night. He was a happy man. Unfortunately, the Celtics lost.... in overtime... by 1 point... right at the buzzer... after a bad call by the refs. Suck. (Don't tell my mom I said "suck.") But it was a great game, nonetheless.

So - back to me. While he was at the game, I had my own girls night. I went to Marshall's and picked up some bath stuff to fulfill one of my New Years Goals (more on those in another post!). While there, I browsed the sale section... danger danger. But I kept it under control and only got a recipe book stand for $3! Holla. And some Essie Nail Polish for $3. Holla again. When Fab got home and I showed him what I got he said, "What else you got in your back of tricks there?" I love him and his silly humor.

Then to the grocery store for some crackers, chocolate and butter. Grabbed a Redbox movie, "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Picked up some Barefoot Sweet Red and headed home to make myself some treats, watch my movie and have a glass of wine.

Excellent.

A few weeks ago I recorded some shows on Food Network during their "Southern Belle Weekend." (I lived in the South up until 2003 and my mama cooks Southern. I hope you said that last part with a Southern accent... I did.) One of Trisha Yearwood's episodes featured this recipe and I added it to my "to make" list then. And then this week I saw it on Pinterest - it was calling my name. Obviously.

First, I tried for a while to get the cork out of my wine bottle. That took some serious elbow grease. And reminded me what a weakling I am. Then I poured myself a glass of red. (Note to self: buy a new wine bottle opener that does more of the work for you.)

Treat time.

Saltine Crackers. Butter. Brown Sugar. Chocolate. Easy breezy.

First things first - turn on that oven. 350 degrees F.

Grab a jelly roll pan... although, in my case, it was a baking pan because my jelly roll pan is in storage, so it was a tad larger than desired. I'd def recommend the jelly roll size, if you have it, because the crackers won't move around when you're trying to spread the chocolate on top.

Line it with tinfoil - this makes for incredibly easy clean-up. Spray it with a generous amount of cooking spray, butter flavored preferably. Then lay out 40 crackers, salty side down...yep, my pic is salty side up - whoops. That's one sleeve of crackers + like 4 from another. Geesh. Couldn't just put 40 in one sleeve?

Now get a medium sized pot and put it over medium heat. Throw in two sticks of butta. Two. Mmm.

And add some brown sugar. 1 cup packed.

Heat and stir occasionally until the butter has melted completely and the mixture comes to a boil. Stir, stir, stir or that butter won't get fully incorporated into the sugar. Boil it for about 1 minute then reduce temperature to low and simmer for 3-5 minutes. It's going to thicken up and get to be a caramel color.

Now pour it over your crackers, covering them evenly. After pouring you can move the caramel over a little to get to the edges and any spots it didn't make it to. Oooooo, yum. Resist the urge to do any licking of the spoon... at least until the mixture cools off... you'll burn your tongue like I did. Ouch.

Now stick it in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until it's just bubbly. Remove from oven and pour your 2 cups of chocolate chips on top, wait a bit for them to melt then spread, spread, spread. 

Now you gotta wait. Sorry. Just be patient, it'll be worth it. Since we didn't have room in our freezer, I just left them on the counter to cool off then broke them up and put them in a ziploc to put in the fridge. BUT if you have room then stick that tray in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes and then break them up and enjoy! 

They are delicious and so incredibly easy. Enjoy!

Download the recipe here.

xo - Kem

chili... now that it's not so chilly

This is Boston, right? Where it's supposed to be cold? Not 50 degrees in the winter. So strange.

So usually I cook up this chipotle turkey chili but I wanted to go the traditional route this time around. So I did a little research and found a recipe on my trusty All Recipes that I pulled spices from and then threw in the extras... beans, meat, tomatoes, corn, etc. 

One day, I'll be able to just throw all these things together like my mama. Until then, I rely on phone calls home and the internet. Unfortunately, my mom's big on "just a little of this" and "a dash of that" and "maybe a cup...or two, of this" and that's just hard to follow. One day. One day, I'll be there. 

So cornbread. It's taken me a while to find a recipe that I love and I think I've finally got it. The only thing I changed up was to add greek yogurt to my sour cream (b/c I didn't have enough) and I used about 1/2 cup sugar b/c we like our cornbread a little sweeter. 

Chili and cornbread perfection is found here. 

Download the cornbread recipe.

Download the chili recipe.

Like a dummy, I used what was left of my sour cream for this delish cornbread and didn't have any for chili toppings. If you've never had sour cream on your chili you should try that out. So all we had this time around was some shredded cheddar cheese.

Do you have a favorite chili and cornbread combo? Or a secret  ingredient that you want to share?

blog beginning & a yummy dinner

I've been wanting to start a blog for quite a while and semi-started one before I got married in July 2011.  It's 2013. WOAH. Time flies. I mean, I know it's only been a year and a half since we got married but it certainly seems like ... well, it seems like it was forever ago but at the same time yesterday. That makes sense....right? No. Ok.

Anywho. I've wanted to start a blog since then. Always felt like I wouldn't know what to say... wouldn't know how to say it... wouldn't have enough to say... wouldn't have any readers... etc, etc. Those still all ring true but who cares... I'll start and hope I have enough to say and maybe at least one person will read my blog... even if it's just my mom... or my best friend. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Tonight we had some absolutely deliciously moist Chicken Burgers from over at Cassie Craves. I've wanted to make these ever since I pinned them quite a while ago but the few times I've put them on our menu for the week, we ended up not making them for various reasons. So tonight, they've made it onto the grill pan.

How great do those look? And that Rosemary Garlic Mayo is so yum! And they are incredibly easy.

Rosemary Garlic Mayo
1c mayonnaise
1/4 c rosemary, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced

Mix half of that mayo in with 1lb ground chicken along with 1/4 tsp ground pepper & 1/2 tsp salt. Form into 4 patties. Cook on grill pan. Melt provolone on your burgers. Almost done!

Now make those buns crispy. Add a thin layer of that delicious mayo onto your buns (hamburger buns that is... although, it'll probably end up on your buns anyway) and grill them face down for a bit until they are nice and golden. Pop your burger and bun together, add a slice of tomato and some more mayo and chow. done. You will be one happy kid. Deliciousness.

Chicken Burgers with Rosemary Garlic Mayo & a salad with leftover mustard vinaigrette from Christmas. mmmm... so good.

And this salad and vinaigrette. Delicious, as well. Just some romaine, chopped green apples, raisins, feta cheese & candied pecans. Ate about half of those candied pecans off the top of the salad while I was waiting for the burgers to finish. The vinaigrette is really what makes this baby though.

I made the vinaigrette originally for Christmas then again the following week and ate the leftovers today. We kinda like it. Pulled it from my dear friend, allrecipes.com from Roquefort Pear Salad. I used regular mustard both times because that's what I had on hand though.

Oh deliciousness. 

That's all for now. All = a lot. Sorry bout that.

Kem