you should eat this

I made this soup:

Acorn Squash & Sweet Potato Soup

And so should you.. it was fantastic..


i made only a slight change.. 


Omit the 1 tablespoon of oil
Instead chop up a couple pieces of bacon.  
Cook in pot.
Remove cooked bacon, drain on paper towels.
Then add onion and curry to the bacon grease and follow the rest of the directions.


After it was done I added a dollop of creme fraiche, a little extra salt and pepper and a small bit of the cooked bacon (which I crushed in my hand first)


Soooooo goooood!


Try it.. you won't be disappointed.
(or.. you know.. follow the recipe as it's written.. i'm sure it is delish even without bacon)

Go Big and Eat Doughnuts!

You've heard the saying "Go big or go home".. well that seems to be my motto for a few things..
Well mostly tattoos and baking/cooking.. and now frying.

Recently my good great most wonderful friend Terra (she has a blog.. ahoy!.. i like her and i like her blog.. you should check it out) had a birthday.  On this occasion a few of her close friends (what.. something like 20.. maybe 30 people.. maybe more.. she is a pretty awesome person to have that many close friends) threw her a birthday party.  It was my job to make her birthday dessert. With a quick chat with our mutual friend Nick it was decided that doughnuts would be a fantastic idea....

.. well i've never made doughnuts before...

But I HAD recently seen a post by Joy the Baker about them.. and i figured sure.. why not give it a go.

Next was deciding on what flavors and how many to make..

I came up with 4 different flavors..
Cinnamon doughnuts with a dark chocolate and cinnamon frosting
Caramel with sea salt
Classic Glazed
and a Baked Strawberry Doughnut with a Strawberry icing.

It was decided to make 1 dozen of each..  easy right!.. right?

So off i went.. looked up all my ingredients.. purchased what i didn't have at home and me and my friend Shaun got to making doughnuts the night before the party!!

Make dough, let it rise, roll out dough, cut out doughnuts, let them rise, fry, glaze or ice, done!
Easypeasey!.. well it really isn't too hard other than all the space making 4 dozen doughnuts takes up and the frying.. and well if you read the directions all the way through before starting that is..  <--  that last bit is crucial!

Look at me!  Making Doughnuts!


Me placing my freshly cut out doughnuts on my silpat lined baking sheet to rise...


or so i thought..  see here is where i made a crucial mistake.. If i had read the instructions fully.. I would have seen the part about placing the doughnuts on a lightly floured tray and to make sure i give the doughnuts plenty of space between each other cause they will spread when rising.  oops
You will notice that the tray above is neither lightly floured nor are the doughnuts spaced out enough..
I made 3 dozen doughnuts, let them rise.. and then failed miserably at trying to remove them from the tray.  They were completely stuck together and to the silpat.  I got 1 dozen off and into the fryer.. thankfully there are no pictures of those.. they turned out completely flat.. like really tasty frisbees.  I had to start over but it was so late in the night that i decided that i would make the dough and let it rise overnight in the fridge and start again in the morning.

The following morning i woke up bright and early thinking of the doughnuts.. must make doughnuts.  I believe i was up around 7 and pulled the dough out of the fridge to warm up a bit and turn on the oven and got the oil warming up.  I waited about an hour and a half before i started again.. very carefully cutting them out and placing them on a Lightly Floured baking tray letting them rise in a slightly warmed oven then my other good great wonderful friend Shaun showed back up at my house just in time to fry.

The next morning.. notice the now floured tray!


frying to a lovely golden brown


making the caramel sauce


The Cinnamon doughnuts with a dark chocolate & cinnamon frosting


The Caramel with Sea Salt..

You will notice they aren't perfect.. picking up soft dough is nearly impossible.

But the more i fried the better i got..

The beautiful.. and i must say my favorite doughnuts of them all..
Classic Glazed.. These were FANTASTIC.. if i do say so myself.


I don't have any pictures of the Strawberry doughnuts.. but the recipe that i used can be found at a lovely site called Salad-in-a-Jar.  Just picture my doughnuts looking like those.. or close to it anyway.

All the doughnut holes we tossed in cinnamon and sugar and i packaged it all up in boxes..  which i couldn't resist stamping with an "H".. the initial of my last name.  I think it turned out pretty awesome.


We ended up with 5 dozen doughnuts and LOTS of doughnut holes..


They were a hit at the party.  I put a candle in one and presented it to Terra as we all sang happy birthday to her.  Then i stood back and smiled as i saw everyone eating my doughnuts with big smiles and them all telling me how great they were..   It was totally worth it.. to stay up till the wee hours of the morning after messing up 3 batches of dough and then to get up early in the morning and try all over again.  Great Success!  I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.. but this time I will lightly flour all the trays!

I think Odin is upset he didn't get a doughnut..


Oh.. and a HUGE, GREAT BIG THANKS to Shaun. She was on icing/frosting duty and if it wasn't for her my kitchen would have been in ruins..  You are the best!

I cooked!

Today I cooked! I haven't actually cooked for a while unless you call throwing a frozen pizza in the oven or a frozen burrito in the microwave. We haven't been eating out quite as often but still I haven't had the cooking bug. (i hate my kitchen.. but that's a story for another day)

So Eric and I had gone to one of our favorite restaurants, The Vineyards Restaurant, in Weston a few weeks ago and had this most wonderful appetizer that I still can't get over. It was a rice & sausage stuffed acorn squash. It was savory and sweet and absolutely to die for. The last time I ate there was this weekend for Valentines day.. and I exclaimed how I would totally make out with the cook (Love you Becky!!), the food is that good. I had duck for the first time and damn.. that is pretty much all i can say.. Oh-Ma-Gah! Go there, Eat! Anyway.. back to the acorn squash.

So I completely fell head over heals for this squash. So I talked to Becky/cook/co-owner/sweet friend about a few of the ingredients.. so I only remember a few but I had a basic idea because I really wanted to try and make it.. So tonight I winged it!

She used wild rice.. i used jasmine rice.
She used cranberry compote... i used crasins (dried cranberries) I'm lazy what can i say!
She also mentioned something about molasses.. i have that!
and maple syrup... i have some fat free stuff.. works for me but pure maple syrup is heaven but currently not in my pantry!
and sausage.. so I picked up some sage sausage.. thought it sounded good.

Here is an absolutely awful picture of my end result.

This is half of the squash as eric and i shared it for dinner..
It was GOOD! I did GOOD! Damn Look at me GO!!

So this is what I did.. and mind you I didn't measure anything..

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Cut a small portion of the bottom of the acorn off so that it stands up straight on a pan.
Cut the cap off the top of the squash(keep) and spoon out all the seeds and stuff.. (I had to make eric smell the inside of the squash.. i love freshly cut squash.. smells delish!) Set aside.
In skillet brown a small portion of sausage.. i think i used about 1/4lb.. I was only making one squash and there was enough stuffing for two.. like i said i didn't measure anything.
Remove sausage from skillet into a bowl.
In same skillet i added just a bit of chicken broth to deglaze (you can use white wine but i didn't have any on me)
Add diced onions.. about 1/4 c. or however much you want. Cook till softened.
Add a handful of crazins or however many you want.
Add a some chopped walnuts.. yummy
Add rice.. i had steamed 1 cup dry rice.. about 3 cups after cooked while i was browning the sausage. ADD IT!
Then I added rosemary, thyme, more sage.. cause you really can never have enough sage! salt and pepper.
THEN.. i drizzled some molasses on top and then some of the syrup.
Mix'er up!
This is when you taste away.. check it out.. i had to add a bit more syrup and some salt. you want to get the sweet and savory at just the right level. YUM.
Take off heat. Grab a pan to cook your squash on. put a piece of parchment down, so it's easy cleanup!
Set your pretty squash on tray and drop a dollop of butter in the bottom of that sucker.
Fill up that squash with your rice mixture. Don't stuff it in there though.. just fill'er up and place that cute little top back on. Don't go for perfection or anything.. a little extra won't kill anyone! my cap did not fit back on perfectly..
Stick it in the oven for about 45 minutes or until you can stick it with a fork and it goes in easily.
I checked at 45 minutes and it was ready to come out.. but i burnt my hand like an idiot so it cooked about 5 minutes longer because I had to stick my hand under cold running water for a minute... anyway!
I pulled the squash out.. and it smelled sooo good.

I cut it down the center and split it with my husb... but not before I heated up more of the left over rice mixture and added it on top! Also.. scrap all that squashy goodness out of the cap because YUM!

and enjoy!

I sure did!

(sorry i don't have more pictures.. i took that ugly one with my phone. plus i wasn't sure how this would turn out. when i make again i'll post better pictures!)

Yogurt... bust.

So recently I went to Whole Foods to buy a few groceries. I saw this yogurt and loved the design of the label and thought I'd give it a try. I really like the consistency. Its very thick like a custard and it is very pretty. You can see the specks of the vanilla bean and can smell the vanilla also. However this yogurt is too bitter for me. I'm kinda sad that it was a bust. It's so pretty and I wanted to like it so much. I might try one of their fruit yogurts in hopes it is sweeter. I think I'm going to keep the label.

I must have the ability to eat the cheese!!

So I’m trying to be good and start working out.. ugg..

I got on the scale yesterday and I weigh 131 pounds.. Oh My.. While it isn’t really bad it is still not comfortable. So my friend Jen asked me to start working out with her at her house. Yesterday I showed up at her home with my big workout ball (or what the heck ever you call them) and a change of clothes. I also brought over a workout DVD which was only 20 minutes long.. We thought Good! We will start slow and work our way into longer workouts.. OMG!!!!! I’m soooo sore today. Swear I’m walking around like I rode a horse all day yesterday.. who knew that 20 minutes could do so much damage to my poor sweet muscles.. My freaking arm pits hurt also! What the heck is that all about!? I haven’t worked out in over a year and I thought I missed it.. well think again stupid!! This stuff hurts!!

This is going to be my sad attempt to try and lose a few pounds and not feel so mushy around my mid-section. I used to not have to work at this.. I could eat 6 glazed doughnuts and not gain a pound! I don’t do that anymore but I can’t give up my cheese.. so in order to keep myself from becoming fat I am going to start working out. We are going to try and meet on Tuesdays and Fridays.. Wish me luck.. I’m going to need it!

bad addiction

My boyfriend and I have this new horrible addiction.. Vintage Stock is now my drug of choice. We go there every time we drive by. We are on the hunt for movies.. Cd's.. I've even looked at records and comic books. That place is the devil. We just got back from there and bought 6 DVDs and a CD. Just Like Heaven (totally mine), The Butterfly Effect, From Hell, Identity, Hell Boy & Land of the Dead, I also got the CD, Alien Ant Farm - Anthology. We also just bought all of the Stargate SG1 series on DVD.. and are currently awaiting season 5 & 6 in the mail of Gilmore Girls. I no longer watch TV.. no news or current events. I'm stuck in bed on this laptop watching a new movie that I just bought or my Gilmore Girl series. FYI.. Some of the series stuff you can get cheaper on Amazon.com brand new rather than buy it at Vintage Stock, even after paying shipping! So be careful what you do..

We also hit Planet Sub today for lunch. I haven't been there for years and he had never been there. I think we might have just found a new favorite place to munch. Anyplace that puts cream cheese on a sandwich is a friend of mine!

Oh.. and if you are looking for a good romantic movie with a twist you have to see The Lake House. Just watched it last night and it was amazing! We now have Long Way Round to watch on DVD.. Its a documentary style series with Ewan McGregor and a 20,000+ mile road trip on a motorcycle with a friend of his. I'm pretty excited to watch it.