The Sweet & The Savory

Yesterday, I was lucky enough  to spent my morning and early afternoon with Libby and Mia at the Cider Mill. It was the perfect day - Not a cloud in the sky! I had such a nice time with them. We went a tractor ride and Mia was able to pick a couple apples. She is so adorable! 

When we got back to my house, I took the banana-chocolate chip bread out of the refrigerator and cut it into slices. 

Mia decided to taste - test it for Uncle Josh to make sure it was okay for him to eat.

It was Mia approved!

It was cooked perfectly - with a light golden brown crust around a moist, creamy inside. It is sweet and practically melts in your mouth.

This morning, after Josh left for work, I opened the fridge, and half of the loaf was gone! Maybe he is planning on sharing with some of his co-workers? Or maybe, he plans to have a chocolatey lunch all to himself! 

Either way, I'm happy to see he likes it. :)

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 For dinner last night, I made Chicken Fajitas and Garlic Fries. Josh always says he likes anything that is wrapped in a tortilla shell. {When I make him breakfast before he leaves for work, he prefers when I put whatever it is in a tortilla shell.}

I love making Garlic Fries. They are finger licking good! {No condiments needed, in my opinion}

I sliced the potatoes into matchsticks and infused canola oil with chopped garlic. After heating the oil with the garlic, I separated the garlic from the oil, and tossed the fries with the oil and s&p and baked for about 30 minutes. Straight out of the oven, I tossed the fries with the reserved garlic and salt to taste. These fries are easy and the best fries I have ever had!

Heavenly! 

For the fajitas, I put the chicken and veggies: onion, red & green peppers, thinly sliced, on a platter so Josh and I could build our own. {To make it even more 'Josh themed' - A Michigan State platter, of course!} Josh loves things spicy, but I can't handle too much heat! This way, he can slather his fajitas with as much hot sauce as his heart desires. 

Josh came home from work, we chatted about our days for a bit while I prepped things for dinner. I finished up dinner while Josh put his feet up. When I brought him the platter and fries, he was pretty happy.  

I made some more cookies for dessert.

Mmmmm, they are so scrumptious! 

Comfort Food

While I was making a grocery list Sunday, I asked Josh if he had any requests and the three things that he stressed where spinach, broccoli & bananas. When we first started dating, he would have never asked me for these! It's nice to see I'm a healthy influence.

Last night I wanted to make one of his favorite dishes: Chicken Tortellini. This is a dish that originally came from my Aunt Peg, then tweaked by my Mom. I love this recipe, it is always delicious! It is the definition of comfort food to me: Cheese, Butter, Cheese-Filled Pasta, Butter...comfort, right? My Aunt Peg has been on my mind lately. She and I had such a nice talk when she was in town about a week ago. And so, last night, I made a new version of her dish. So thank you all for the inspiration. :)

Right out of the oven

Usually, this dish is all about butter and cheese; and I wasn't about to change that! It is definitely a splurge. I decided to make it a little bit more healthy by adding broccoli. So here is my version of Chicken & Broccoli Tortellini. It's not much different from my Mom's version. In a buttered dish, I layered the cooked cheese tortellini, then broccoli, mozzarella cheese, chicken, and then two bunches of chopped green onions sautéed and simmered with chicken broth and more cheese. So simple.

Dinner is served

As I poured the chicken broth mixture over the dish, Josh was standing over me, saying, "mmmm, Looks Gooooood." He seemed pretty pleased with what I was doing. So with his nod of approval, I popped it in the oven. When it came out of the oven, it smelled and looked absolutely delicious! A perfect meal for a fall evening.

While we ate dinner, I had the oven preheating for the cookies. Josh didn't know he was getting 'fresh out of the oven' cookies, so he was pretty excited.

What an easy and 

delicious way to do dessert! 

What My Baby Wants, My Baby Gets

Well, I'm back... finally! Did you miss me? :) While I was continuing to cook after my computer died, my cooking slowly died with it. With a new computer and with the new fall season upon me, I'm eager to get back in the kitchen.

This week is dedicated to my amazing husband. 
He is such a wonderful man and to show my appreciation, 
I will be putting together meals and treats specially designed for him. 

Yesterday I spent my morning baking Banana & Chocolate Chip Bread and Fabulous Cookies as a thank you gift for a friend. {Bread is a risky thing to give as a gift, because you can't really taste test it, so fingers crossed it turned out okay}

Josh looked a little disappointed as I walked out the door with the goodies. Do you honestly think I didn't buy extra ingredients to make some for my honey? Of course I did! Whenever I make cookie dough, I never cook all of it at once. I either keep it in the fridge or freezer (depending on how soon I think I will be cooking it). This way, we can have warm cookies right out of the oven for dessert. {also, it keeps you from eating two dozen cookies in one sitting} So, I already have a delicious, chocolatey dessert ready for Josh for tonight... and the next.

I made Banana & Walnut Bread one weekend for the family at the Birches and Josh loved it and asked why I didn't make it more often. Then Vince started talking about putting chocolate chips in it and Josh's eyebrows raised and his eyes got big with delight! I have been meaning to make it for him, but never did. So, this afternoon, I whipped up a loaf of Banana & Chocolate Chip Bread.

I like getting everything ready before assembling. What if you start mixing everything together and realize you are out of an ingredient, don't have enough, or can't seem to locate it. I'm sure it has happened to you... cupboard doors slamming, walking frantically from one end of the kitchen to the next, "asking" whoever is in the line of fire "Where's the vanilla extract?" pause "WHERE'S the vanilla extract" um.. "Where The F* Is The F*ing Vanilla Extract?!!?" Yikes. You don't want to be that person and no one wants you to be either. Same goes for measuring things - make sure you have all the measuring tools you need before you start. Baking should be an enjoyable experience, not a time when everyone clears out of the house...

I preheated the oven, measured the butter and sugar together, cracked the eggs into a small bowl {while it doesn't happen often,  you don't want to run the risk of cracking a bad egg into your mixture}, cut up the bananas, measured and mixed the remaining dry ingredients together and prepped the bread pan. It is so nice to have each ingredient ready to go. With the bowl of dry ingredients, each teaspoon and 1/4 of teaspoon has been mixed together with the flour. I like to do this when I'm baking so that everything can be mixed evenly. Now, all I have to do is add the dry mixture a scoopful at a time.

Everything is ready... set. bake at 350 for 70 minutes. When it is done cooking I let it cool completely on a cooling rack {in the pan}. When it is cool, I pop it out of the pan, wrap it up and place it in the refrigerator. We'll see how it tastes tomorrow. That is... if Josh can wait that long.

Just out of the oven... smells delicious!

Computer Busted

I have been making delicious meals, but I can't upload the photos... I will update as soon as I can. :)

It's All Good

Thursday Night Dinner:
Josh's Review: "It's Good"

Another kind of taco... A warm tortilla shell with Chicken (marinated in chili powder, cumin and s&p), Cabbage, Diced Tomatoes & Goat Cheese. The chicken had a nice flavor, but I liked the seasoning for the other tacos I made. The cabbage had a hard bite, the tomatoes were fresh and light and the goat cheese was delicious and creamy. I was going to use light sour cream, but we didn't have any, so I substituted with goat cheese. Goat cheese is good on anything, right? Yes! But for this dish, I would prefer the cool sour cream.

Saturday Night's Dinner:
Josh's Review: "It's Good"
We grilled a steak, potatoes and onions on the outside grill. I didn't take a picture, but the meal was delicious! I mentioned to Josh, "Do you realize that for everything I'm making your only review is "It's Good"?" His response, "Well, that's because everything is good. I like everything. That's a good thing." Well I'm not going to argue with that.

Josh's Breakfast & Lunch To-Go

 This morning I made Josh two Bacon, Egg and Cheese wraps. For his lunch I made him an egg salad sandwich - with toasted wheat bread, chopped lettuce and cilantro and two hard boiled eggs (that I cooked yesterday) mixed with light mayo and s&p.

Use What You Have

Josh's Review: "It's Good" Did you expect anything else? ;)

Last Night's Dinner

I had more ground turkey that needed to be used, so I decided on another version of turkey burgers. I mixed the turkey with salt and ground red pepper. I also had two more ciabatta buns, goat cheese, an avocado, tomatoes, cilantro and a lime. 

I mixed together diced tomato and avocado, chopped cilantro and lime juice & zest. After cooking the burger, I topped it off with crumbled goat cheese. The turkey was very spicy, which Josh really liked. I loved how the goat cheese and tomato/avocado cooled down the spice. 

I had a few potatoes on hand, so I cut them and tossed them with s&p, italian seasoning and olive oil. I grilled them for a bit and finished them in the oven.


Making dinner with things you already have on hand isn't difficult. I feel as though, if you like all the ingredients you are using, chances are, you can make a meal that you will enjoy. It saves time, not having to run out to the grocery store to get ingredients for a recipe, and it saves money!

Guilt Free & Delicious!

Josh's Review: "It's Good"

Grilled Pineapple and Avocado Salad

Josh has never been a big fan of pineapple. He also said this about bananas. One night I made him Bananas Foster and ever since then he has been hooked; and plain bananas - not just sugary bananas! So, I guess the trick is to lather things he says he doesn't like in sugar and butter in order for him to change his mind. I decided to try this same technique with pineapple. I took pineapple slices, sprinkled them with a combination of sugar and ground red peppers and grilled them.

The ground red pepper was so strong while being grilled. When Josh walked in the door, immediately after the pineapple was done grilling, and smelled the pepper in the air, he said, "That really tickles your throat." ...and then I started sneezing! But the end result is worth it!!

While the pineapple cooled completely, I chopped the other ingredients for the salad: Lettuce, Cilantro, Avocado, Cucumber and Red Onion. Adding a little black pepper, salt, lemon juice and olive oil, the salad is complete!

Shrimp & Mango Kebabs

The salad is ready and the kebabs are prepped. On skewers I put shrimp, seasoned with s&p, red onion, mango and red pepper. Looks pretty even before it's cooked!

It is always nice to be able to have dinner ready to go, so I'm not busy in the kitchen when Josh gets home. This way we have more time to talk before he falls asleep in three hours! haha

I grilled the kebabs until the shrimp was cooked through. 

The onions, red peppers and sweet mango were an incredible combination! I loved the flavors together. The salad was so flippin' amazing. There is no other way to describe it. The pineapple was sweet, yet had a spicy bite to it. The cilantro brought a freshness to the lettuce. The avocado brought creaminess and the onions and cucumbers brought a crunch to round out the entire dish. 

The Complete Meal !