What turning 33 looks like at our house

We went all our for Husband's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  Seriously, you only turn 33 once.  The kids love making big deals about birthdays.  They suggested balloons, a banner, flowers, birthday hats, Husband's favorite dinner, a cake and, of course, snakes and dinosaurs.  Yes,  last year they gave him a toy dinosaur and spider and this year it was a toy dinosaur and toy snake.  So, since they lack the ability to drive a car, cook a meal, bake a cake, and purchasing power for such things, I made it happen.

I'm not a baker (I have never made a cake except from a box and that does not count) so I always make a non-cake dessert for Husband's birthday cake.  This year I decided on a cheesecake.  I've never actually make a cheesecake either but Husband always says it's easy so I thought I'd give it ago.  I made a Hazelnut Cheesecake but used almonds instead of hazelnuts - for the main reason that we already had almonds. It was pretty fantastic.  And we used the leftover amaretto whipped cream in our coffee the next morning. That was a wonderful treat!

Phineas and Ferb also joined the party.  Notice Son and Daughter picked out pink and green candles.

CHEESE.  taking a break between dessert and dinner.  We should always have dessert first!

"Look, I made a Daddy tower."

He was so excited.

Eating their bread and ignoring the Eggplant Parmesan.

It's always fun celebrating Husband.

Happy Birthday, love.

Celebrating 31

The night before my birthday I was exiled to my bedroom while Husband, Daughter and Son worked hard in the kitchen making cupcakes.  Little did I know, they were making Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting. (um, I just went up a dress size TYPING the name)

I never got caught up in the cupcake frenzy of late.  I don't watch cupcake television shows.  I don't go to cupcake bakeries and indulge in whatever the newest flavor is.  I just don't.  I'm not a big fan of desserts as a general rule so Husband always has to give a little more effort than I would assume he'd have to if married to a dessert lover.

This year he hit the jackpot and unless he's making a cheesecake, I want him to make these cupcakes for every birthday I have until I'm dead.   Seriously, click the recipe.  Make these cupcakes.  Fall in love too.  They are incredible.

So anyway, I knew they were making a birthday dessert and it was a surprise, but that's all I knew.  Except what I could get Son to tell me when he'd come in to see every once in awhile.  And I'd stand in the doorway of the kitchen and say things like, "What is going on in this room?" and "What smells so good in here."   

Daughter was such a champ.  She'd quickly shoo me away and tell me to go back to my room and read a book or take a rest.  It was pretty stinking cute.  She was a good surprise keeper and did her best to act like there was no reason in particular that she and her brother were wearing their aprons and huddled in the kitchen with Husband for over 2 hours.

Soon it was time to sing and blow out the candles.  and taste.  WOW.  Taste.  Fantastic.  

After eating our cupcake.  Don't be fooled, Daughter was just as messy as Son, but she washed her mouth and hands before the picture.

She's so silly

Our Homemade Christmas gifts

For the past two (or three, I don't even remember) Husband and I have made "goodie bags" for our families for Christmas.  This year, since I actually know how to sew, I decided to make a reusable tote for the goodies to go in.  We were giving 6 bags total. One for my parents, my sister's family unit, my bothers's family unit, Husband's parents, his sister's family unit and "Cousin Jessie" as Son loves to call her now, got her own.  That's right, no sharing for her.  Unless she takes pity on her parents. :-)

This might have been my favorite bag.  But really, I liked all the fabric a lot. So, it was hard to pick.  All six bags were different.  Since "tacky sweaters" were all the rage this year, I think there's a bit of tongue and cheek irony to this one.  I think the name of the pattern was "tree and rabbit sweater"  I also got it in blue.

inside the bag: homemade chex mix, homemade fudge, homemade butterfinger bars and homemade gingerbread men

Chex mix:  I mostly follow the directions on the box.  More pretzels, more nuts, more spices ... but mostly the same.

The Fudge: I promised my mom I wouldn't give out this recipe until after the died.

The homemade butterfinger bars:  oh. my.  Mandy told me about these last year and I've been thinking about them ever since.  I used this "recipe"   She recommends waiting a day or two to let the bars "set" before you dip them in chocolate.  I left mine uncut for a day.  Cut them and then let them set for another day.  seriously fabulous and really easy ... except for the whole waiting two days thing.

The gingerbread men:  Husband and the kids made these (gingerbread isn't really my thing).  I'm pretty sure he just used a recipe he found online.  The kids decorated the cookies with milk chocolate.

I wanted to add buttered pecans as a 5th container, but our pecan tree was pitiful this year.  We barely collected enough pecans for 1 pie!  eh, maybe next year.

my favorite Thanksgiving leftover

Friday, Husband and I cooked our family Thanksgiving meal.  We stuck to simple and ended up not even making dessert (gasp.  I'm still surprised at the no dessert thing.)    Husband brined and cooked a turkey and made these FANTASTIC sweet potato rolls that he's been making for about 4 years now.  I made mashed potatoes and green beans with olive oil and garlic and, of course, the canned cranberry sauce (jelled, please.)

We went around the table and said what we were thankful for.  Daughter said, "two big teammates and two little teammates who work together and play together."  I love that she understands that this family is a team who does work together and play together and stick together.

Son was thankful for "HAPPY BIRTHDAY THANKSGIVING."   yes.  :-)

Anyway, to the actual point of the post: my favorite leftover.

a split sweet potato roll with cranberry sauce and turkey.   fantastic.

I told Husband that later this winter we need to pick up a turkey breast and just make a meal out of this Thanksgiving leftover favorite!  It's too good to only have once a year.

Food Day Friday: Easy "Greek" Chicken Soup

Last Saturday, Husband and I whipped up this super fast, super easy, super delicious soup.

We used:

4 chicken breasts

12 cups of water

3 vegetable bullion cubes

4 carrots, diced

onion, diced

small pasta

(the second time we made it we added spinach. celery or fennel would also be fantastic in it)

Husband coated the raw chicken LIBERALLY with Greek seasoning and then browned them in the skillet. 

WHILE, I was dicing the vegetables.  I added the water and bullion cubes in a big pot and once boiling added the vegetables and pasta (I used a half a bag of the small divinci pasta). 

When the chicken was cooked, Husband diced it and threw it in the pot.  Stirred to get all the Greek flavor distributed and it was ready to eat.

Really easy.  You could use chicken or vegetable stock.  We used cubes bc that's what we had.  (And I also used less cubes than the directed 2 cups of water per one cube ... there's a lot of sodium in those cubes!  3 was enough for us.)

The second time we made it, I hand tore 3 big handfuls of baby spinach in.  There wasn't really any taste difference, but Husband and I hypothesized that we at least got some vitamins out of it.

I wanted to add celery but we didn't have it either time we made it.  I think 3 stalks finely diced would go great with the carrots.   Husband disagreed (because he doesn't really like celery and he suggested fennel).

However you make it, it's great. And easy.  

This recipe was enough for Husband and I to eat our fills for dinner and then lunch the next day.

super close up of all the deliciousness, I should have stirred it more so you could see more of the chicken

Food Day Friday: Roasted Chickpeas

I've enjoyed Roasted Chickpeas since Megan shared her recipe for them over a year and a half ago!   And I follow it, except for one little change: when I add my seasoning.  I found that adding the seasoning AFTER the chickpeas have roasted help retain the flavor of the seasoning and prevents the seasoning from burning.

my copy, straight out of my recipe book (ie a 3 ring binder with page protectors for the recipes)

When I'm only using one can of chickpeas, the time on this is right on.  But when I use a 1lb bag of dry beans, I have to add more time.  I usually do 27 minutes at 350 and 17 minutes at 400.  And because the kids and I are all big fans of this snack, I usually end up either using more than one can or a whole bag of dried beans (which is a more time consuming process but SO SO SO much cheaper).  

the result. a nice golden brown.

Depending on how heavy handed I drizzled on the olive oil, I usually have to drain the chickpeas in a colander before I season them.

My favorite way to season them is salt, cumin and chili powder (sometimes garlic powder).  I just use all the seasonings I would use to make hummus.  It's fabulous and healthy.

Food Day Friday: Our Strawberries

So we had 2 big buckets of strawberries ... what to do, what to do?

It just so happens that Husband's favorite jam is strawberry. It is also a nice coincidence that Husband has been wanting to make a strawberry pie for awhile. BINGO. I made the jam, Husband made the pie and the four of us devoured the remaining strawberries before the pie even had time to cool.

Husband getting to work, while I ran to the store for jar lids and pectin.

My first ever batch of strawberry jam.

I've been wanting to try jamming for awhile. Mandy has been making jam for years and so far she's shared a strawberry jar and blueberry jar with us. And both jars have just left me wanting more and more and more. Easy and fun, Mandy promises. And she's right. Especially because Husband chipped in and we worked together.

(Mandy, I appreciate that all my jars are the same height but I wish I had two more jars)

close up of my label. high class.

I used a recipe I found on pickyourown.org and it WAS really easy.

strawberries, sugar and pectin. (they have more than just that recipe, including sugarless options)

This was the prize of the day. I was going through all my jars to take an inventory of what I had and how many lids I needed to buy for tomato canning later this season. And I found this jar. It was my Nanny's. And on the bottom of the jar, a little reminder label she wrote in a handwriting that is so familiar to me. "will not seal" Instead of crying, I laughed. a lot. Then I called my mom and told her. She laughed too. We both figured that this was probably the jar she always used as her "first jar" that went straight to the fridge. sweet memories. I miss her.

Husband's strawberry pie. fab-u-lous.

He used his typical flour/butter crust and for the filling he used a recipe of The Neely's on Food Network. It's fabulous. But we both agreed next time it should be a graham cracker crust.

We've had a couple of breakfasts of homemade biscuits and strawberry jam (and turkey bacon) and it really is so good. And I love the BRIGHT VIBRANT red.

Spirits Sunday: Skinny Girl Margarita

Oh, Bethenny Frankel, I love you.

I didn't start watching any the shows she's been on until the last couple of episodes of Bethenny Getting Married? And I've watched most of the episodes of Bethenny Ever After. It's not because I dislike Bravo reality tv. It's because I don't have a DVR and I can never remember when certain shows come on and I never seem to find it on replay! I think I may have to start doing what my dad does. He has a list by the remote of his programs and when they come on.

So, I love Bethenny and I love tequila. Or more specifically, margaritas. I decided to give it a try.

We don't buy typical margarita mix anymore and have two standard margarita recipes we use depending on what we have in the house.

RECIPE ONE:

one can of frozen lime juice concentrate

one can of water

one can of tequila

one can of beer (I use Red Stripe)

add salt as needed.

(it doesn't taste beer-y. I promise)

RECIPE TWO:

1.5oz of fresh lime juice (sometimes I use the from the bottle stuff)

1oz triple sec

2oz of tequila.

add salt (and sometimes sugar) as needed

So, I was interested in trying a lower calorie version - enter Skinny Girl.

I tried it minutes after having a small glass of RECIPE TWO and I'll be honest, on the heels of that, Skinny Girl tasted wastered down and bitter.

ugh, aren't most low calorie/fat free things that way? Just not as good as the things that make you into a big girl.

I ate couple of bites of dinner and had a drink of water and tried it again on its own, it definitely faired better. It isn't as "full bodied" but it still is pretty good. I guess it's kind of like the difference between a Coca-Cola and a Diet Coke.

My second glass (days later) I added pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Much better, but definitely helps to negative the "healthier" factor!

I may or may not buy another bottle. At the very least, I'll buy a bottle for one of Husband's cousins who is itching to try it and hasn't found it in her area yet. She's a big Bethenny fan too.

FIRST fresh pesto of the season

Hurray, hurray. Sunday, I gave the basil it's first major picking of the season. And the result? PESTO.

ready to freeze. And the freezer stash of pesto begins.

For Lent, Husband gave up red meat, alcohol and pasta. So for Easter dinner we had steak, pasta/pesto and margaritas. (plus garlic green beans because I thought it went better with the steak than pasta/pesto)

I'm 30.

That's me. Or how old I am, at least. I had plans to draw a huge sidewalk chalk "30" for this blog post, but the daughter who never gets sick is. So, I settled for a fuchsia "30" on a steno pad while coloring with Son.

Last night Husband made these fabulous Chocolate Olive Oil and Blood Orange Cupcakes. um, wow. that's a long name. That taste really great. Especially if you like oranges and chocolate together. Anyway, here's 10 of the 12. That's right. I had one last night when they were still warm and one this morning for breakfast. The kids iced them. And they loved helping.

After the icing fun was over, Husband gave Son a small bowl of the leftover icing to eat. He takes it to the living room, sits in his little chair and watches Yo Gabba Gabba! The episode about personal hygiene. There's a song about magic shampoo or something of the sort. And my precious little daisy of a child uses his icing as a magic shampoo. seriously.

I wish we got a better picture. He really lathered that pink magic icing shampoo in there good.

Never in my life did I ever think I'd use the phrase, "That's a no-no. Icing is to eat. Not for shampoo. Come on, let's go wash your hair." sigh. It's hard to get mad at well intentioned toddlers who think they are doing the right thing.

p.s. Son has discovered the art of urinating standing up. Which means he's not using the toilet anymore but is back to his little potty. At least he's excited about the potty.

Food Day Friday:The Cream Cheese Spinach stuff

seriously, we have no name for this. We usually call it the cream cheese spinach stuff. It is loosely based of this recipe of Giada's.

What we use:

one block of cream cheese

one bag of spinach (sometimes we use it raw, sometimes Husband blanches and drains it)

feta, as much or as little as you like (Husband likes A LOT, probably a cup)

5 or 6 garlic cloves (you can leave them raw, but when we do I can taste garlic in my mouth for days. I usually roast them.)

blend in a food processor, serve with wheat penne pasta or as a spread for crusty bread.

Son's second helping.

A little goes a long way and there's always leftovers. For me, a bowl of pasta needs about two tablespoons of spread. (If your spread is too thick you can melt it a little in the microwave. Husband usually adds some of the feta brine to thin ours out.)

Food Day Friday: sushi

Over a month ago, we made sushi. It was fabulously easy, a wonderful creative process and incredibly tasty. And I'm finally getting around to telling you about it.

We started out at about.com in the Traditional Japanese food section.

From there we went shopping. The main basic have to have stables are nori (seaweed wraps), sushi rice, and the bamboo mat to make the rolls with. Plus all the fillings (and condiments). We used (cooked) shrimp, raw salmon and raw crab as our meats. and avocado, cucumber, green apple, toasted sesame seeds and cream cheese as the other fillings. Our condiments were spicy mustard, plum sauce, wasabi paste, pickled ginger and soy sauce. We got everything at Whole Foods, Publix and World Market.

The only actual recipe in this post is the sushi rice recipe:

I cooked the rice (2 cups) per the instructions on the bag and then added

1/3 cup of rice vinegar with 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt dissolved in it.

This is the rolling mat, the seaweed wrap, rice, crab, cream cheese and green apple.

I LOVED the way the cream cheese and apple complimented the crab. and the crunch of the apple was fabulous.

rolling the roll. I won the roller of the night award. Making a tight and securely sealed roll was pretty easy for me. Husband won the creativity award. As He came up with most of the tasty combinations. Husband also was the one who cut the rolls into pieces and he did great at that.

This was actually the first one I made. (notice the almost too much rice).

It's cucumber and spicy shrimp. Husband used a chili sauce we use on egg rolls to cook the shrimp in and it was perfect. Plus the coolness of the cucumber was a good balance to the spice.

I also added sesame seeds to this one before I rolled it.

Not pictured is a salmon/cucumber/pickled ginger roll Husband made and one other that I can't really remember. We each did two different kinds. (and I made a duplicate shrimp/cucumber roll because I liked it so much)

I bought those chop sticks from World Market specifically because they matched the dishes.

Husband chose to use his beige sticks he's had for years and years.

The was the whole spread.

we've since bought a divided sampler dish at World Market so all the condiments are in one place and not in various dishes all over the table. It makes for a less cluttered table.

We seriously loved this so much that we made rolls the NEXT night too. (well, that AND we had enough left overs for more) The rolls looked neater on night two!

It really is incredibly easy. Deciding combinations and waiting on the rice to cook took the longest!

Soon we'll try the inside out rolls, where the rice is on the outside. That will be a good learning experience.

Food Day Friday: artichoke pesto pizza

The basil is at it again. well, pesto actually. but pesto made from the garden basil.

I've been making this pizza for awhile using jarred pesto. We really like it. I'd also been using JIFFY mix to make the crust. I'm not going to lie ... I loved this box mix. it's easy and produces a great crust. Suddenly our Wal-mart stopped selling it (yes, they still sell the JIFFY muffin mix, sigh.)

This is the Alton Brown pizza crust recipe that Husband uses (that I now use) It's really just as simple and also produces a great crust (and the dough is actually easier to work with than the JIFFY mix) (we don't actually refrigerate the dough for 18-24 hours. we just mix it well by hand and use. sometimes we do let the dough rise (for more crust)

preheat the oven to 550 degrees

I prepare the crust (I guess it's still a dough at this point bc it's not cooked)

use pesto as the sauce

then top with shredded mozzarella

1 can of quartered artichokes (rinsed)

as much (or as little) white onion as you like

I also rub olive oil on the crust part of the pizza so it gets golden brown

Pre-cooked

Cooked (for about 12 minutes)

If you don't want your onions that brown around the edges, you can put them on the bottom under the cheese. Daughter loves this pizza!

food day friday: "sun dried" (oven actually) tomatoes

There's a sun dried tomato pesto recipe in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I've been interested in trying since I first read the book. I just haven't wanted to buy sun dried tomatoes. But now I can make them.

These are the Juliets. They very closely resemble the Roma (which is the most common tomato used for pastes and sun drying ... I did not know this until I started googling how to sun dry tomatoes)

I only did 3 because this was my first attempt and I didn't want to mess up a dozen or so tomatoes.

preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

slice tomatoes length wise

place on a elevated cookie sheet (I used the grate thing on top so the tomatoes wouldn't be touching the cookie sheet (better air flow)

sprinkle with salt

at about hour 3 I had to turn the tomatoes so they wouldn't fall through the cracks. (no, I didn't think of that ahead of time).

total cooking time: 6 hours.

It might have been less if I wasn't opening the oven every hour to check on them.

they were pretty fabulous. This was definitely NOT enough to make the dried tomato pesto, but it was enough for me to want to eat about a dozen more.

My Dinner Date

We have place mats. We have napkins. Let's have a family dinner.

Sure, Son is asleep.

Sure, Husband won't be home for hours.

Daughter and I are home and we're hungry.

I put some ABC pasta (from Publix) on to boil.

Then whipped up a super simple marinara sauce.

1 15oz can of tomato sauce

6oz can of tomato paste (and then two little cans of water)

some balsamic vinegar

4 basil leaves from the garden

some fresh cracked pepper

by the time the water boiled and the pasta was cooked, the sauce was boiling like crazy and ready to eat.

topped with one of Daughter's favorite foods (Parmesan cheese) and presto.

15 minute meal turned into an intimate dinner with Daughter.

Daughter eating (before she stirred her dinner to combine)

Daughter drinking her ice water with extra lemon ... that glass glass is a privilege. She only gets it when we're eating family dinner at the table.

Daughter taking full advantage of her new black napkin.

My amazing dinner date.

btw, the dinner conversation was fabulous. It was mostly about all the letters she could pick out from her dinner and identify and how excited she was that Husband would be home before she went to bed.

UPDATE: I just roasted a head of garlic and sauteed two onions and added another can of paste (and two of water) for a heartier sauce when Husband gets home.

Food Day Friday: [EASY] raspberry sorbet

Last Saturday we has a HUGE day of yard work planned. I thought raspberry sorbet would be a great treat after a hot day outside. And it was. The entire family ate and ate and ate --- due partly because I quadrupled the recipe!

I started searching online for recipes. and was grossed out when SO many of them contained corn syrup. Ya know ... feed your family whatever you want, that's your business. but there's something so unnatural to me about corn syrup (esp HFC) seriously, picture corn on the cob -- eating it and such, then picture corn syrup. now image what has to happen to that corn to turn it into corn syrup. yuck. I avoid it whenever possible. another reason whole foods are better than processed. (I digress)

Anyway, I compared/contrasted 3 recipes I found that DIDN'T include corn syrup and this is what I came up with:

5 cups of raspberries (fresh or frozen -- we used both because I found a great deal on fresh and already had frozen in the freezer. frozen is great too and much cheaper.)

4 cups of water

3 cups of sugar (or sugar substitute, if that's your thing)

6 teaspoons of lime juice (you could substitute lemon juice if you'd like)

heat the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved and blend the raspberries and lime juice in the blender.

it took more liquid than just the lime juice to get my blender blending, so I added a cup of the sugar water. blend until smooth.

strain the raspberries to remove as many of the seeds as you can (or not, if you like seedy sorbet)

after strained combine the sugar water with raspberry puree. If you have an ice cream maker, SCORE ... you win the easy contest.

If you don't, follow me:

I put the mixture in a covered freezer safe bowl. Every hour to hour and a half I got it out of the freezer and stirred it. in about 5 hours I had made raspberry sorbet.

This was after we'd eaten about half!

loved it. We all did. I especially loved that it didn't have a syrupy texture like the kind I get at the store. It had such a fresh, light, clean taste.

Food Day Friday: Dump Cake

I'm not a sweets person. I hardly ever eat chocolate. and I don't like [gasp] cake. it's true. But I love comfort food. And I define comfort food as things that make me feel good when I eat them. Maybe it's because I love the way they taste or maybe it's because it's something I used to eat when I was a kid and love the memories of it [and it tastes good].

Enter Dump Cake. My mom definitely didn't make this often, but when she did, we 3 kids loved it. and it's so easy. 5 ingredients. {4 if you're allergic to nuts}

I use my "big" casserole dish[I wish I had 3 more of them], courtesy of Brooke. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

dump one can of cherry pie filling (I use 21oz can) and one can of crushed pineapples (I use 21oz can) into dish. stir until mixed.

dump on box of yellow cake mix (18.25oz) evenly on top of the fruit mix.

dump 1 cup of chopped nuts evenly on the cake mix. I use pecans because I always seen to have those in my freezer, but I seriously have no idea if I used a cup. If you need more or less than a cup to coat the top evenly, take that liberty.

slice one stick of butter [no, this isn't a Paula Deen recipe, but I bet she'd love it] and distribute the slices so it'll melt evenly in the oven.

cook for 30-45 minutes, depending on how brown you want the top.

and make sure you try some while it's still warm -- but not too warm or those crazy cherries will become exploding bombs of fire in your mouth. :-)

Spirits Sunday: Ghost Pines Cabernet Savignon 2007

We're celebrating. Why you ask? Valentine's Day? nah, we're not big on V-Day. A new season of The Amazing Race starts tonight. yea, that's right. And we celebrated with a great meal and wine.

[Husband has filled out applications for us at least twice a year for the last 3 years. but we [I] never get around to making the video tape and sending it in. Maybe when the kids are older. I'd love to be on that show]

We picked up this bottle at Publix yesterday for close to $20. To Husband's excitement it was a "real" cork cork.

It's a California wine. 59% of the grapes came from Napa County and 41% came from Sonoma County. A winemaker's blend.

Cabernet Savignons have quickly become my favorite wine [behind Rieslings] and this one didn't disappoint. It's got a nice warm cherry/blackberry taste to it. It's 13.9% alcohol.

We had it with THE Bread, Asparagus Pesto, {I got the recipe from March Southern Living. When it's posted on their website, I'll link it} a great big salad {with red leaf lettuce and lots of vegetables} and grilled steak. pretty stinking good by itself but better with the wine. It was a late lunch and I'll get more just in time for The Amazing Race.

If there's leftover pesto, I'll have it with penne tomorrow for lunch.

Christmas Dinner: the update

wow. We had a great meal.

Since the goose dinner turned out so fabulous, I decided to post the recipes Husband used from roastgoose.com.

Christmas Goose, Dickens Style -- cooked per directions except we brined it overnight and used fresh roasted chestnuts because we couldn't find canned ones. the stuffing was seriously amazing. I think if we ever use it again, we'll add more bacon and onion. The goose was so moist and had a really great flavor. It was all dark meat though ... that was sort of weird - looks wise. taste wise, it was great.

Goose Liver Toast -- I tried it and will probably never eat it again. My mom thought it was fabulous. she also loves to eat liver.

Fried Potatoes -- this recipe is exactly how I make fried potatoes normally except I use olive oil, instead of goose fat (of course) the taste difference was amazing. goose fat is where it's at.

I forgot to roast the asparagus until it was time to sit down to eat and there were no vegetables! luckily, those cook fast!

We drank Beaujolais Nouveau 2009 -- say it out loud -- it's a fun name. It's a great red wine from France that's released once a year right before Thanksgiving and is meant to be drink/drank/{drunk} immediately instead of sitting around for months or years. It's 12.5% alcohol and we really enjoyed it. It was definitely better than the 2008. (I'm already thinking about 2010) :-) definitely check out the website. there's a neat facts and tips section.

Food Day Friday - roasted garlic and parmesan compund butter

If you watch The Food Network enough, you learn a thing or two about a thing or two. and I definitely watch The Food Network. Since I've been making THE Bread a couple of times a week, I've been mixing it up a little. lately, I've been sprinkling kosher salt and sicilian seasoning on the top before popping it in the over. fabulous.

I've also been mixing up the toppings.
bruscetta: amazing.
butter: still great.
garlic bread: yes.
nutella: oh, yea.

next try: compound butter. basically just adding things to butter. I decided to try a roasted garlic parmesan compound butter. I figured it'd take a few times to figure out how much of what it needed, but really, the first time was the charm.

what I did/used:

two sticks of butter, softened at room temperature. (I only had salted, so that's what I used.)

one head of garlic (roasted)

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese. (I'm sure fresh grated would be infinitly better, but I used what I had)
and lastly, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt.

I combined the 4 ingredients using a potato masher.

Most of the methods I've seen suggest wrapping your compound butter in wax paper, but I didn't have any. I used a zip lock bag. and then wrapped it in foil and put in the freezer to set.

When I was ready to use it, I cut the butter out of the bag.

and then stored it in the fridge in the foil.

seriously, it was fabulous. I told Husband it would change his life. But all he would admit to was it changing his dinner and then lunch the next day ... but I know the truth. :-)