I should be editing the photos I took of Multnomah Falls,

Or getting the cheesy-minty recipes I promised on this here blog,

Or doing laundry,

Or cleaning my room,

Or organizing the storage so that I can get two boxes that have been camped in our entry way down into the storage room,

Or working on school stuff,

Or applying for the two jobs in Wyoming I want to apply for,

Or maybe, getting out of my pajamas and going out (I do love spring break),

Or going on a date if I can find anyone.

But no.  Instead I thought I wanted to get a little bit more fruit in my diet.  But who can just eat a regular old strawberry when you could have these . . .

Hello ladies! I decided to whip out my chocolatierre skills just for me.

But plain old chocolate just doesn’t do it for me any more . . .

Come here scrumptious!

Yeah, you. I’m looking at you.

And nothing says decadence than serving yourself on a fancy plate.

Gotta make Friday nights a little exciting around here for a single gal.

I think that speaks for itself. But I must say that I’m glad I haven’t completely damaged my camera just yet.

Two new, yummy cheesy and minty recipes to come this week. That doesn’t sound right. One is cheesy and the other minty!

Recently a friend of mine emailed me to ask how to do a recipe I posted. I felt like a famous chef! Here is a pic she sent me of her husband.

He is making my Spicy Beef Enchiladas.  And they made them for a dinner party they were having – pretty brave to try a new recipe with guests.  They turned out nice (or so they tell me).  I love Jeff’s expression on his face.  Jeff – I too hate touching the messy sauce, but it is so worth it!

Also a student asked me to take get senior portraits. I feel almost like a professional photographer.  We are going to shoot her photos at Gardiner Village.  I can’t charge her because that would be unethical to do since I am her teacher, but I don’t really care.  She will pay the sitting fee for taking pictures at Gardner Village.  I just hope they turn out nice.

One of the best things about having roommates is that you can learn from them and this recipe is one that I learned as a Freshman in college from my roommate Jenni. Jen and I had been friends for 8 years, but it wasn’t until we lived together that I got to eat her family’s version of beef enchiladas. Now, this recipe has evolved and changed over time, but it is still based on what Jen taught me. Now, I have requests for these enchiladas. But I do have to warn you that they are spicy and have some kick. I don’t think they are too hot, but others have told me that they are.

Start by dicing up some onions and jalapeno.

Do you like how I played with the focus there – just wanted to keep it a little interesting.

Then saute them in some oil.

The steam coming off of them made it a little bit harder to get it all in focus. But oh well. This isn’t like a professional cooking blog or anything like that.

Next, set aside the onions and jalapenos. Brown the meat. When cooked add back in the onion and jalapenos. And also add a can of diced green chilies. Mix together.

Prepare your baking dish by putting some of the enchilada sauce in the bottom. This helps the tortillas from sticking. Then prepare a dish with some sauce in it for dipping.

Then you will want to create an “assembling area” where everything is at an easy reach. Dish with enchilada sauce to dip in, cheese, meat mixture, tortillas, and baking dish. This is how I do it, but whatever works for you. Just know that your hands will be messy, so you want everything close by and opened up so that you don’t get enchilada sauce all over everything.

Now assemble your enchilada.

1. Coat both sides of tortilla in enchilada sauce.

2. Fill with large spoonful of meat mixture.

3. Sprinkle cheese on the inside.

4. Roll up. I don’t tuck in the ends, but many people do. Your choice.

5. Place in baking dish, seam side down. Make sure as you do this you are tucking them up close to the side of the dish and to each other.

When you have all of your enchiladas done, pour some more enchilada sauce over the top.

You may be wondering why I only have 4. The recipe does make 8, but I was only making this for me and Mandy and I didn’t want a whole pan. I don’t like leftovers. I used the meat mixture to make taco’s the next day. I just reheated it and added some taco flavoring and voila – different (well a little bit different) meal.

Top with more cheese. Gotta love cheese!

Then put in oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes to heat through.

While that is baking, cut up some tomatoes and green onion for garnish.

Look at how yummy that is right out of the oven!

Top with sour cream, tomatoes, and green onions!

Open wide because these babies are delicious!

Beef Enchiladas

1 lb. hamburger
1/2 yellow onion
1 jalapeno
1 4 oz. can of diced green chilies
1 large can of enchilada sauce
8 flour tortillas
grated cheese
tomato
green onion
sour cream

Dice onion and jalapeno (remove seeds from jalapeno). Saute in oil. Set aside when done. Brown hamburger. When done, add onions and jalapeno and can of diced green chilies. Mix together.

To assemble each enchilada: Coat flour tortilla in enchilada sauce, put in spoonful of meat mixture and cheese. Roll up and place in baking dish that has enchilada sauce in the bottom.

Pour 1/2 – 3/4 cup of enchilada sauce over the top of finished enchiladas. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Garnish with diced tomatoes, green onions, and sour cream.

Printable Recipe Link

I made this Lemon Poppy Seed cake last week and it was wonderful, just wonderful!

Start with some easy ingredients – I do love mixes!  Lemon cake mix, vanilla pudding, eggs, poppy seeds, and oil.

Grease and flour your pan.

Can I just stop and say that I love doing this. As a small child, this was what I would do to help my mom in the kitchen. I became a master at this. I would see if I could flour the pan without having any left over. I got really dang good at it.

Then dump in all the ingredients and mix until creamy. Isn’t it beautiful?

I just have to say, you are supposed to fold in the poppy seeds, but I just mixed them right in with everything else.

Pour into your pan. (Hello Diet Pepsi!)

Yumm…..Shakes a bit to even it out. It is a little bit thick, just a little.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
My cake fell a little bit. I don’t know why?

Then as it is cooling, make the drizzle.

Mix together powdered sugar, water, and lemon juice.

Now, if I was Martha Stewart, I would juice the lemon. But I’m not Martha, so I just bought the lemon juice stuff.

Mix together until it is a bit drippy off your whisk. I like it pretty thick, but to each his own. If you like it a little thinner, then add more water or juice.

I make a little pastry bag by putting the drizzle in a sandwich bag and cutting the corner.

Drizzle on cake square. This way you can get as little or as much as you want.

Instead of drizzling it on each square, you could pour on the whole cake. If you do this when it is still warm, then it will seep into the warm cake. And that is just heavenly!

Isn’t it beautiful? And it is tasty too!

As a side note, Alina came over about a week after I made this, ate a little bit and said it still tasted good. She said it was like pudding in the middle. Probably because of the frosting that had seeped into it and was absorbed by the cake.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

1 lemon cake mix
1 (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup poppy seeds

In large bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water and oil.  Beat on low for 30 seconds, then on medium for 2 minutes.  Fold in poppy seeds.  Transfer to a greased and floured 13×9″ pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Drizzle
2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Mix together and drizzle over cooled cake -or- pour over cake while still warm.  It will absorb into cake and I love it that way!

Printable Recipe Link

I saw this little recipe in a magazine – called Taste of Home, some of you might have heard of it. Now, I don’t really like making bread (it scares me), but I thought I would try this on out. It turned out great, tasted wonderful, and made the whole house smell like, well, herbs. I made it on a snowy Saturday afternoon and it turned out to be a great day to make it.

The recipe is at the bottom, along with a printable version.

To start out, get out your active dry yeast, warm water, some oil, salt, sugar, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, and pepper.

Then dump it all in the bowl.

Then add 1 1/2 cup of your flour.

Mix, until blended.

Then add the remainder of the dough, but first I changed to my dough hook. Man I do love getting to use that thing.

It will form a soft dough, but be sticky.

While mixing, get your floured surface ready for some kneading! And then knead away for about 6-8 minutes or until your dough is elastic (I’m not quiet sure what that means. Oh well. It turned out okay.)

Then form it into a nice little ball and put in greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled.

This is the hardest part – waiting. Hoping, praying, worrying that your bread will raise. So, during this time you could do what I did to pass the time:

• Swept the floor – didn’t want my roomy mad about all that flour, oops!
• Watch Jersey Shore.  By this time the whole house smelled like herbs and they’re Italian, right?
• Watch America’s Next Top Model.  One girl fell in a swimming pool on her first runway show.  Big oops!
• I thought about painting my nails, but then remembered that I would still be touching the dough, so that wasn’t a good idea.

When your dough has doubled and you are done watching Jersey Shore, then punch down, and let rest for 10 minutes. Hi-ya! Take that bread!

Shape into a rectangle, about 13×9 and place on greased baking sheet.  Let dough rise again for about 30 minutes.

Then make a series of dimples, using your fingers. (And try not to think of the dimples you might get other places if you eat too much of this bread.)

You will need two tomatoes, sliced really thin.

And some Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

Top dough with slices of tomatoes. Then Mozzarella and Parmesan.

At this point I thought I could make a Margarete Pizza – all I needed was the marinara sauce.

In 25 minutes, you will get this beauty. Yum!

Slice and serve – lets see how many pieces you eat at one time!

Tomato Herb Focaccia Bread

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp dried basil
dash of pepper
2 to 2 1/2 flour
2 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 cup shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add 1 Tbsp of oil and the salt, garlic powder, sugar, oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil, pepper, and 1 1/4 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

2. Turn onto floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 6-8 minutes). Form into ball. Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. Punch down dough. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Shape into 13 x 9″ rectangle. Place on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. With fingertips, make several dimples over top of dough.

4. Brush dough with remaining oil. Arrange tomatoes over the top. Sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Printable Recipe Link

This is a beautiful (I mean it – it is beautiful, isn’t it) garden pasta salad.  It was originally called Asparagus Ham Dinner, but I didn’t think that matched really well.  I got it out of my newest Taste of Home Cookbook.  I think it would be great with zucchini and purple onions.  So I renamed it because it would be good with whatever veggies you have on hand.  It doesn’t really have a “sauce” which helps it to taste and feel light with clean, fresh flavors.  Enjoy!

Here are your ingredients – scrumptious huh?

Start by boiling your water for your pasta and get it cooking.  Then prep all of your veggies.

Cut up your fresh asparagus into 1″ pieces.

I heart asparagus – thanks Mom and Dad!

Julienne your yellow peppers. I love how sweet they taste.

Saute your yellow peppers and asparagus for about 5-7 minutes. I like my veggies crispy, so if you need to cook them more, then go right on ahead.

While you are sauteing your veggies, cut up about 6 medium tomatoes. You want 3 cups total. I bought roma tomatoes because they were on sale, but . . . .

Then add your tomatoes and ham to your veggies. Heat through.

Grate your Parmesan cheese while that is heating up.

When it is all warm and bubbly, add parsley, basil, and organo. Then top with grated Parmesan cheese. I like lots, so I added a bit more.

Then serve, yummmmmmm.

Seriously, make this tonight.  You will love it!  Also, I think it would be good cold or hot.

Garden Pasta Salad

2 cups uncooked spiral pasta
3/4 pound fresh asparagus, cut into 1” pieces
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium yellow pepper, julienne
3 cups diced fresh tomatoes (about 6)
6 oz. cubed ham
1/4 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.  Meanwhile, in a nonstick skillet, saute asparagus and yellow pepper in oil until tender.  Add tomatoes and ham, heat through.

2. Drain pasta, add to the vegetable mixture.  Stir in seasonings.  Sprinkle with cheese.

Printable Recipe Link

Ruth and I went and had lunch in the North End of Boston.  It is a must!  There are over 100 restaurants on Hanover Street – mostly Italian.  So, I’m taking a break from my posts about Boston to show you this delicious dish.  Seriously one of the best things I have ever had and it is one of the most simple dishes I have ever had.  The only thing that I changed was adding cucumber and apple cider vinegar.  Try it.  I promise you will love it!

Here are the ingredients you will need:

A tomato, cucumber, fresh basil, blue cheese dressing, blue cheese crumbles, and apple cider vinegar.

Start with a fancy dish! Because this is a special dish to eat.

Cut the tomatoes and lay them your fancy dish.

Cut the cucumbers and layer. I keep part of the skins on because I like the color, texture, and flavor. But I know that lots of people don’t like that. That’s okay.

Next, cut and layer purple onions. Yum!

Next drizzle some apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper.

Next, cut up four fresh basil leaves and garnish on top. I never knew what an amazing little herb this was, but I have fallen in love. Love!

At this point, you could dig in and eat. But why do that when you could add some blue cheese? Who doesn’t like blue cheese? It is wonderful, beautiful, amazing, rich, ah sigh!

And you are done! Isn’t it beautiful, simple, and I promise you – delicious!

Now, when you take a bite try to get some of everything.

Heaven!

I ate that entire plate and loved every bit of it. Go ahead girls. Try it.

Tomorrow I’m going to make the same thing, but cut everything up into small pieces and eat it like a salad. I can’t wait!

For a long, long time now I have wanted one of these beauties.  I just have.  But, I never bought one because I thought I should wait until I was married, had more money, bought my own house, moved, etc.  But you know what?  I am done waiting!  So I went out and bought myself a beautiful new KitchenAid Stand Mixer.

You may drool as you look at these photos – I know I did.

The box was a little dirty – but that didn’t matter because this beauty was inside of it.

It came with accessories:

(By the way, I tried to buy cookie paddles like the one on the left for my mom for mother’s day and the Bosch store has been out for a month.)

And it came with a cookbook so I can cook and mix things with my new baby.

I was tempted to make this:

But didn’t have anything to frost.

Oh it is an Artisan!

Sigh!

Look at it go! I can’t wait to whip egg whites into stiff peaks! (That sound a tad dirty – sorry.)

But there is one problem:

I don’t do too well with this. I won’t buy anything that isn’t dishwasher safe. Well, I guess you could say I didn’t used to buy anything that wasn’t dishwasher safe.

But the best part – look at that shiney stainless steel bowl! And that is me in the reflection!

Self-portrait ala KitchenAid!

If you’re wondering why I went with red – read this post.

The first thing I’m going to make are these Oreo Balls.  They were such a big hit at work that I’ve had requests for more.  I’m making them for the staff on the last day of school.  I’m also going to try all mint Oreo Balls made with the mint Oreos and Andes mints for the drizzle on top.

My mother made these Oreo Balls for the “Neighbor Christmas” plates this last Christmas.  I LOVED them!  I would only let her put a few on the plate so that I could eat the rest.  They are divine and here they are.  Below the pictures is a recipe you can copy and paste.

Start with my favorite cookie – Oreos. You will use the entire package for this recipe.  I usually like the double stuff, but for these treats, you need more cookie than the yummy cream center.

You need to crush the Oreos. I’ve found that doing it in the blender is the easiest.

Tip – only crush 6-7 Oreos at a time and then dump into the bowl.

You’ll get a little bit at a time, but you get a bowl-full pretty soon.

Add 8 oz. of softened cream cheese.

Blend together until you get a thick paste.

I use a scooper to get a nice amount of the mixture.

This is the size ball you would get. It is quite large and so I usually divide this into 2 and roll into balls.

This is the hardest part for me because my hands get messy!

Ick! But it is so worth it!

I put the balls on a cookie sheet and then put them in the fridge. This helps them to set up a bit and easier to dip in the chocolate.

While the balls are setting up, I melt the chocolate. I use melting chocolate or almond bark.

Dip the Oreo Balls in the chocolate and place on cookie sheet to set up.

You could stop here and have a bunch of yummy Oreo Balls, but why would you?

I like to decorate the Oreo Balls with either white chocolate or mint chocolate chips.

Yumm . . . . Minty goodness!

Ahhh . . . . White chocolate!

Mandy describes these as “Gooey Deliciousness!” Enjoy!

Oreo Balls

1 pkg. Oreos
1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese
Almond Bark or melting chocolate
white chocolate chips, mint chips, or candy melts

Crush Oreos. Mix in softened cream cheese. Form into balls, place on cookie sheet, and refrigerate for about 20 minutes. Start melting Almond Bark in a double boiler. Dip balls into chocolate. Once the chocolate is set, drizzle white chocolate, mint chips, or candy melts over top.  Makes about 32.