Monday, November 30, 2009

Menu Week 103



Monday - Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables
Tuesday - Tortilla Soup & Quesadillas
Wednesday - Southwest Wraps
Thursday - Beef Stroganoff, Rice & Buttery Lemon Broccolini
Friday - eat out
Saturday - yet to be decided
Sunday - French Toast & Buttermilk Syrup


Need more menu ideas? Check out Menu Plan Monday over at orgjunkie.com

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving Sides

Thanksgiving is upon us!  Are you still deciding which side dishes to serve this year?  Maybe these will help!

 

Cranberry Chutney

(recipe here)

cranberry chutney 2

 

 

Sauteed Green Beans and Garlic

(recipe here)

greenbeans

 

 

If you’re having guests that are not big pie eaters, try this for dessert:

Cranberry Upside-Downer

(original post here)

dinners on me cranberry upside downer

 

 

I found a great new Crescent Roll recipe recently too.  It’s from a great blog that I subscribe to called Little Birdie Secrets.  I think I’ll be trying this roll recipe out tonight – don’t they look yummy?  I’ve never really attempted crescent rolls before.  They have always seemed too fussy of a thing to make.  I love this recipe’s step-by-step instructions though, and I am definitely going to try out that garbage bag trick.  

(photo courtesy of Little Birdie Secrets – used with permission)

P1140533

 

I also recently added this recipe for Maple-Pecan Sweet Potatoes to my favorites list.  I discovered the recipe in this month’s Cooking Light Magazine.  We tested this recipe last week and it is ah-mazing.  There’s just enough maple syrup to add flavor without being too overpowering, there’s a hint of cinnamon, the lovely crunch of pecans, and of course the ubiquitous marshmallows!  I’m making a small dish of these tonight – I’ll try to remember to take a photo. 

 

Happy feast-planning everyone!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Pecan Tassies

The other day I was waiting in the eternally-long line at JoAnns and (of course) my toddler became impatient and quite loud. I grabbed the nearest colorful item and handed it to him. It happened to be this magazine.

I had no intention of buying it, and I really just thought he would want to look at the fun cover and then would soon become bored with it. Silly me. The first thing he did was to scrunch the cover right up and rip the edge. Great. So then into the cart it went. Twelve minutes later, I was the proud new owner of a cookie magazine.

As I flipped through it that afternoon, I found several (okay, about a dozen) recipes that I want to try. The first one on the list was Pecan Tassies.

When a recipe starts off with cream cheese and butter being whisked smooth, you know it’s got to be good!

To evenly scoop the crust dough into the mini muffin cups, I used my small scoop. It worked perfectly! I love this tool and use it all the time! Mine is the OXO Small Cookie Scoop. I highly recommend it, in fact I’m hoping Santa brings me the Medium & Large Cookie Scoops.

After scooping the dough in to the cups, I smooshed them down with my fingers. Here’s a tip I discovered (that the recipe does not mention): See the rough edges on the crusts below? Well, if you scoop out the dough and roll it into a ball and THEN press it into the mini muffin cup, the edges will be nice and smooth.

I used the same small scoop to fill the cups with the pecan filling.

Easy. Yummy. Made exactly 24 little tassies. They’re gone already.

You can find the recipe here!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Menu Week 102

Sooo...... I've been absent for a few weeks. Every couple of months this little blog of mine has to take a back seat to real life. Hope no one minds. That's just how it is though, right?

Here's our menu for this week. (I'm going easy on myself - we have a lot going on.)



Monday - Tacos, Chips & Salsa
Tuesday - BBQ Chicken over rice
Wednesday - Potato Soup, wheat rolls
Thursday - Sweet & Sour Chicken, rice, Egg Drop Soup
Friday - eat out
Saturday - Baked Rigatoni with Roasted Vegetables