Get Your Popcorn Ready

Like T.O. infamously said, "Get your popcorn ready."

Homemade popcorn is like homemade marshmallows — you had no clue that making it fresh would be so much more delicious from the store-bought version. Make that popcorn kettle corn, and be prepared to eat the whole bowl. "What popcorn? No, I didn't make any popcorn..."

One of my favorite recent purchases is the West Bend Stir Crazy popcorn maker — we got ours for $20 at Target around Christmas even though we had registered for it. We didn't want to wait any longer!

S'mores Birthday Brownies

Oh yeah. You read that right.

These chocolaty, homemade brownies with graham crackers and a toasted marshmallow top are pretty fantastic.

Now, I'm not necessarily a die-hard chocolate lover, but I had one in mind when I made the brownies. January 14th was the 2nd birthday of Tyler James, my soon-to-be nephew, son of my best friend since high school, and cutest little boy I know. And his momma is one of the biggest chocolate lovers I know, so I'm sure she has him in training!

Not-To-Be-Forgotta Veggie Frittata

Thanks to the unusual amounts of snow we've had so far this winter, I've had a few weekdays spent at home. My favorite part about breakfast at home is that you have an opportunity to make something really delicious, easy, and — most importantly — healthful!

I just don't find packets of oatmeal, yogurts, and other portable breakfast items to be nearly as satisfying. But with this frittata, I often just snack on some fruit mid-day and don't eat again until dinner!

This easy frittata is another great and simple idea for breakfast for one. It's especially great for when you're flying solo and want something filling, healthy, and full of veg! It can also be made for two or more — just double the ingredients and use a medium pan instead.

Doughnut Muffins

So the last post was the "nice" recipe that I made for our breakfast meeting at work. This one for doughnut muffins is clearly the naughty one. That's right — I'm living on the edge.

These muffins were very tasty and nice to satisfy a sweet tooth in the morning. I'm not a big doughnut person, but I was told that they had a similar taste and texture as a cake doughnut. And you don't even need fry anything. Score.

A pair of doughnut muffins enjoying the view.

These muffins also transported well, so they were pretty easy for me to lug into work on my city commute.

Lowfat Banana Oatmeal Bread

I don't know about you, but I can't eat a banana once any spots have made their appearance — it's just too sweet for my taste. Bananas in such a state, however, are perfect for baking and don't necessarily need to end up in the trash!

They have a lot more character with their spots too, don't they?

For our last monthly staff meeting (which turned into a breakfast meeting), I wanted to bake up a couple of things to add to the spread. I decided to make something naughty and something nice — the bananas were used for the nice recipe, of course.

Steal Your Face

One of the managers in my department (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) accepted a position in another division of the company. For his special surprise farewell lunch, I wanted to make sugar cookies so we wouldn't have to buy dessert at the restaurant (and so they would have a personal touch of course).

I asked around for some of his favorite things to figure out what shape cookies to make — turns out the guy is a Dead Head. So I used the artwork from the Steal Your Face album as my inspiration.

I baked up dozens of circles using my favorite sugar cookie recipe, and then I sketched out a plan to decorate them. I used four colors — black, white, red, and blue, and piped each color on in stages.

Chilly Charlie's Chili

Year after year, my (very awesome) dad (whose birthday happens to be today — happy birthday Dad!) would throw together a ginormous batch of chili and cornbread before Christmas to bring into work as his holiday gesture to his co-workers.

I can still picture the huge white stock pot on the stove with delicious splatters everywhere. And we had dinner out of the pot the night before the rest of the chili made its way to his office.

Over the years I've modified his base recipe to make my own version. It's surprisingly healthy, very tasty, and simple to boot — a perfect recipe to put together on a Sunday morning. Just throw everything in the slow cooker, let it all percolate for a few hours, and it'll be ready in time for the Playoff games Sunday afternoon!

The line-up of ingredients is pretty long, but everything is flexible depending on your personal preferences and the audience that you're feeding.

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Before I go any further, please learn this one thing from my blog: It's a good sign when recipes for cakes/cookies have sour cream in the ingredients list. It just really is! Moving on...

I told you I like cranberries — and I suspect that this won't be the last cranberry post of the season! Once again I found myself with a couple bags of Jersey cranberries and thought I might use them to try a new recipe. I also thought that the folks in my department would appreciate it at the staff meeting the next morning.

A lovely cup of tea — thanks for the mugs, Ash!

How would I describe the end result? Well, as Brad and his two brothers might have said when they were little boys, it was a big, hurkin' cake! It looked huge as it puffed up well beyond the side of my 9x13" pan, and this thing was heavy to carry too! But somehow the cake was still light, moist, and delicious! 

Restaurant Review: Pru Thai

Last weekend my mom and I went shopping for bridesmaid and mother-of-the-bride dresses in Clinton, New Jersey on a cold and windy fall day. After walking around the cute little town along the Delaware River, we needed some sustenance and warmth! 

We stumbled across Pru Thai (6 East Main Street, Clinton, NJ), and we were happy to see their menu of tea that you could buy by the cup or pot. We ordered a pot of Orange Spice tea and decided on a few menu items to share for lunch.
 

We started with a combo appetizer that included one serving on beef and chicken satay, steamed dumplings, vegetable spring rolls, and a delicious pickled salad for garnish (and yummy dipping sauces!).

The Best Sugar Cookies (Ever)

I always thought of sugar cookies as a fun way to make cookies into shapes, but I was rarely impressed by their taste. They can be dry and flavorless — just nothing to write home about in general. This recipe, however, makes delicious cookies and has served me well for many years! If you're willing to spend the time to roll the dough out and cut the shapes, I think you'll be very pleased with the results!

I recently made these cookies for the dessert table at my cousin's baby shower (they are expecting baby Joey in February — congrats Kate and John!).

The cookies have a nice citrus flavor, but you could also experiment and use other flavors if you'd like.