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Superbowl Menu

February 8, 2010 By Laura 2 Comments

We had a nice little Superbowl Sunday. We kept it pretty low-key, for a couple of reasons:

1) Our own New England Patriot’s weren’t playing.

2) It was a school night.

Every year, I get all excited about Superbowl Sunday, no matter who is playing. And then I realize how late the game is starting! And then I remember, that I forget that that is the case, almost every year!

Still, we can’t let the opportunity for a little private family party, pass us by. But considering the circumstances this year, we kept the menu simple-simple.

Pastrami Sandwiches – we love them. We just put a pound 1/2 of pastrami in our steamer for 10-15 minutes, rearranging in the steamer basket about 1/2 way through for even heating of the meat, and then we pile it on a toasted wheat roll. The kids prefer no mustard, but Michael and I like a little French’s.

Here’s an item we were downright excited to try: Jalapeno Poppers!

Participating Ingredients:

18 fresh jalapeno peppers
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
3/4 shredded or grated cheddar cheese
1 green onion chopped
package of bacon, cut in half to shorten (18 slices, 36 halved)
brown-sugar BBQ sauce
toothpicks
RUBBER GLOVES!

(You will only chop jalapeno peppers without gloves once, but never again. I did, once, and my fingers spent the entire night in HELL. Literally, I’m quite sure. The throbbing pain of burn, was nearly unbearable. I was near tears. Just take my word for it, and use gloves when chopping these babies, and don’t touch any part of yourself after having touched the peppers! Especially your eyes!)

1) SO….once dressed in your gloves, slice the peppers in half, lengthwise. We keep the stems on, and try to cut those in half too. It gives you a little handle later, and keeps them cute! Clean out the inside of the peppers completely – free of seeds and white membrane. However, the real heat is in the seeds and the white membranes – so if you like more kick, leave a little. We left just a little seed in ONE pepper, and I got the Lucky Popper. ; )

2) In a bowl, combine softened cream cheese, chopped green onion, and cheddar cheese. Mix well.

3) Being sure your gloves are on again, or still, using a little old-style butter knife, or a cheese spreader, fill all of the peppers halves with the cheese filling. We filled it well, as a little heap.

4) Pre-heat the oven to 275 degrees. (I realize most cooks/bakers do this first, but I’m too slow to prep the food, so the oven is on for too long, for no reason. Plus, I feel pressure because the oven is waiting and ready, but I’m not done! lol)

5) Next, wrap each cheese-filled pepper, with a 1/2 piece of bacon. Do not pull it tight, as the bacon shrinks when it cooks. Secure each one with a toothpick through the side of the pepper as you go, and place on a cookie sheet. (We cover the cookie sheets with tin foil for stuff like this, to avoid having to wash the pan after. ; ) Call us lazy.

6) Generously brush each bacon-wrapped-cheese-filled-pepper, with brown sugar BBQ sauce.

7) Put in oven for about an hour, or until the bacon is crisp and sizzling.

*You can serve immediately, at the risk of burning mouths. But we found anyway, that letting them set & cool some for 10-15 minutes, really makes them all the better! They firm up a bit, and you can really enjoy the different elements of the Jalapeno Popper in your mouth, instead of it all being very soft and mushy in your mouth.

A friend asked us, “Will the kids eat those?”, and the answer was YES! Our little ones, especially, like hot stuff. {A} just thought they “were just o.k.”. But it’s not the recipe, it’s her. ; )

We’ll be adding these to our appetizer hit-list for future occasions. We put 1/2 f this batch, already cooked, in ziplock bag and into the freezer, to be able to just heat some up sometime soon. And trust me, soon it will be!

BTW – My friend Mary Beth, from Nothin’ But Country, made up a batch of the Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple Bites for her Superbowl party, and came by the blog here to leave a fantastic review of the recipe! Check it out! If her review doesn’t convince you to try them, nothing will! And check out her blog too! She and her husband LOVE to cook, and all kinds of great recipes.

We also snacked on tortilla chips and salsa through the game, in between hoots & hollers at the tv. As you can see, we already had been at them before I remembered to take a photo. lol.

Our ever-creative boy, {JM}, made a football for our party, as some festive decor. He made it out of gold and white tissue paper, and a little gold mylar. That boy is ALWAYS ‘making something’, and he never ceases to surprise us with his great ideas either. Get this……..

…..the football lights up!! In the dark, it really puts off quite a glow!

Since our New England Patriot’s weren’t playing in the Superbowl this year <boo-hiss!!>, we decided to cheer on the Saints! Why? No real significant reason, except maybe because their names is the Saints, and we like their logo the best. : ) We are really happy for New Orleans.

Did YOU watch the Superbowl? Which team did you cheer on?
And more importantly, what was on your Superbowl Menu, if you had one? Do share!

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Hot Cheesy Spinach Dip – Recipe

September 24, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

Recently I made a cheesy spinach dip that was delicious, and it would make a nice appetizer or snack. The kids enjoyed it, of course. But my father, who was visiting at the time, also enjoyed it, and he is the family food critic. lol. So I thought I would share the recipe here, since this is a nice warm dish for the cold season that is about to come stay with some of us, for awhile.

Ingredients:

2 TBS butter
1/4 C. chopped onion
2 cloves garlic; minced (1 tsp.)
1 Tbs. all-purpose flour
1-3/4 C. half-and-half
2 Lg. Pkgs. fresh baby spinach
(or 2 9oz. frozen pkgs, thawed & chopped)
1 C. shredded cheddar cheese
1 Pkg. dry vegetable soup mix
1/4 C. shredded Parmesan cheese

1) Rinse spinach is strainer, if desired, and drain. On a chopping board, chop up spinach with large knife into smaller pieces. In a large saucepan, add a little water to the bottom of pan, and add spinach. Cook down spinach over medium heat, until leaves are barely wilted down, because it’ll cook more later through the rest of the process.

2) Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On stove top, melt butter in separate large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until onion is crisp-tender and garlic is fragrant, usually about 2-3 minutes.

3) Stir in flour: cook and stir for additional minute. Add half-and-half, stirring constantly, until mixture boils and thickens; about 2 minutes.

4) Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in chopped fresh spinach, cheddar cheese, and dry vegetable soup mix. Mix well.

5) Spoon mixture into a 1 quart casserole or gratin dish. Sprinkle top with Parmesan.

6) Bake until it is bubbly and cheese is melted; 10-15 minutes. Serve warm with dipping chips or hard crackers.

As you may recall, I received a large gift basket not too long ago, that had all kinds of goodies in it. 2 of those items were some little Italian Toasts, and Pita Chips. So we dipped and scooped with the chips, and spooned onto the hard toasts.

If you try this recipe, come back and tell us if you enjoyed it as well!

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How to Make Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

January 21, 2009 By Laura 8 Comments

We thought you all deserved some nice treat ideas. So we’d like to share some steps on how to make chocolate dipped pretzels!
It’s a fun treat to make and eat!

Last year for our Christmas gathering with some family, we made these pretty pretzel rods drizzled with chocolate. Our visiting family even wanted to get in on the fun, and make their own! We simply melted chocolate, and drizzled it over the rod, slowly turning it as we did so. Then we sprinkled on some of our favorite decorative sprinkle balls!

This year, we’ve done something similar (a few times!), but with a TWIST!! : )

Participating Ingredients.

Get it?? With a TWIST?? (ROFL…..perhaps by myself. I should probably get up now.)

3 Ingredients!:

Mini Pretzel Twists
Hershey’s Chocolate Chips
Decorative Sprinkle Balls

These are SO easy to make, and your kids will have SO-MUCH-FUN helping!! Our kids sure do! Here we go……

Get some water in the bottom portion of a double boiler pan. You want to put the burner on MEDIUM, and wait for the water to be ‘just about ready’ to boil. Once it’s to that point, it’s good enough to turn it down to LOW, and put the top portion of the double boiler pan on.

Now pour in the top pan, a small amount (maybe equivalent to a couple of handfuls…but exactness is not that important) of chocolate chips into ONE SIDE of the pan. You kind of want them in a small pile, so that it makes dipping easier.

Use a spoon, and keep stirring the chips, letting them slowly melt, until the chocolate is really melty and smooth. Once it is, you’re ready for ……..

….some dipping!!

Bring the just dipped pretzel (or 2, if you can do 2 at once) over to a counter space, and sprinkle your sprinkles onto the wet hot chocolate.

We suggest doing this over an empty container. They are very bouncy……so otherwise you’d be finding them all over the place until Easter 2012. You can also re-use what you catch in the container for other pretzels, over another container.

Simply place them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet – spaced nicely so they don’t touch each other.

Just another photo, because I had to take it.

Repeat this process of dipping, sprinkling and laying, adding more chips to your pan as needed, and giving it little stirs to keep it melty and smooth as you go.

Once a tray is full………

….pop it into the refrigerator. (And begin a new tray, of course!) Putting them in the fridge will help the chocolate harden. Generally speaking, they need to be KEPT cool, until they are popped into your mouth, or the chocolate on the pretzels will get melty on your hands. (unlike m&m’s….and we know why. They do not have that hard candy shell. lol) (These don’t talk either. Sorry.)

We think they are pretty enough (and tasty enough) to give as little gifts too! We used these nice little clear bags, found in the stores where they sell chocolate melts, and supplies to make chocolate lollipops, etc. (In our case, our local Michael’s Arts & Crafts) We tied them off with silver twist ties. Who doesn’t love chocolate? Warning though: the sweet then salty thing going on, may keep you popping more in your mouth than you meant to!

Sweet, huh??

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HALLOWTIDE; All Hallows’ Eve – Part I

November 4, 2008 By Laura 4 Comments

As many of you know, Hallowtide is the 3 days of All Hallows’ Eve (better known as Halloween), All Saints Day, and All Souls Day, carrying us all from the month of October into November. These last few days have been full of festivities, fun, and more education for all us! I’ve mentioned to you all before, just how much our kids love to plan any festivities. I think you’ll truly get the gist of just how much they ‘get into it’, as you visit our blog over the next couple of days. For any celebration we have coming up, our oldest always loves to plan the menu items (as well as do a lot of the cooking and baking), and the little ones might have a say in that menu, lol, make decorations, plan the games, and stuff like that. They are all, always, never short on ideas. They are very enthusiastic party planners, even if it is just for us. But we sure do have a good time!! Suffice it to say, I took loads, and loads, of photos. I have been splitting my computer time between processing them all for family history and blogging, and working! I’ll only be sharing a fraction of them here, but still out of necessity (and sanity), this Hallowtide theme will be split into multiple posts. I hope you all enjoy our ‘little ways’.

The children woke up on All Hallows’ Eve to Daddy’s artwork on the fridge chalkboard (that still makes me smile,) seen below. If you can imagine him, he sat on the floor, drawing and coloring like a child, and having as much fun as one. Just when I thought he was done, he’d pick up another piece of chalk for a little finishing touch here, and then there. Then adding this and that. Truth was, he didn’t WANT to be done. He’s just so cute about these things, and I’m sure you’ll agree he’s quite the sketch artist. It didn’t go unappreciated by the kids in the morning either. No one erased it to do their own thing.

But as excited as the kids were to get to all they had worked so hard on planning, it was still a school day, first. Devotion was dedicated to another more thorough and deeper study of the meaningful and interesting ties of ‘Halloween’ to our Catholic faith. As committed Catholics raising our children in our faith, it’s our obligation to teach how our faith relates to everything, and there is very interesting history to be learned here. We learn more every year! In addition to this, as we follow the Liturgical Year, we acknowledge all of these holy days, with ‘Halloween’ meaning “Holy Eve’ in reference to the eve of All Saints Day, which in turn leads to the observance of All Souls Day. (Just talking, in case anyone doesn’t know these things yet. )

At any rate (as my mother would say), All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints Day was pretty much rolled into one broo-ha-ha for us. We stayed up LATE, carrying on with our antics. Having spent a good amount of time discussing the important meaning of all of the aspects of this seemingly crazy holiday, and how it ALL came about over the course of history, and why,….we then dove right into the silliness of it all.

So here come just some of the photos for Part I of our All Hallows Eve festivities. As we sat gathered at our table, schooling as the morning turned to afternoon, we started paying more and more attention to this menu {A} had set on the window sill beside us,…..

as our bellies began to grumble for lunch:

A bit after lunch and awhile of working for me, I had to run out to a client consult. But when I got home, the kids were all geared up to get the celebration rolling!! They got out shirts/sweatshirts, as did Michael and I, and we all decided what designs we wanted for them. Daddy cut our choices out of vinyl and put them on for us. They were ready to ….

…..eat again of course!

{A}’s Salty Bones! These were so good with jalapeno cheese dip!

Bat Wings!

{S} couldn’t get enough of these things!

And then they made their own ‘Monster Pizzas’.

Here’s {O} just sitting there looking cute, waiting for her pizza to come out of the toaster oven.

Finally, they were cooled down enough to bite into! {J} was happy about that!

It wasn’t long after we ate our ‘main course’ that {A} was in the kitchen again, making us some candy apples. (Here she’s at the stove, melting chocolate in a double boiler.)

She wanted me to take ‘how-to’ photos for you all. So go ahead and make some, and enjoy them yourself!

Michael/Daddy started cutting out cookies, too.Take note of the pumpkin on his shirt, which he was all excited about wearing. (No, I am not being sarcastic. )

That’s FAR from all. The party just got crazier from there, late into the night.

So stay tuned, if you dare……………
Check out the crazy-fun antics in Part II HERE!

Sweet, huh??

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