These balls are famous or infamous. Whatever.

So far this week, I haven't cooked anything in bulk to freeze. Last week I was really on a roll but this week, not so much. Our CSA starts this weekend so that should inspire me to get cooking again. I guess my version of nesting is cooking in bulk. Good thing we got that freezer! I totally recommend the recipes that I shared in that post too.

It only took me asking about 7 million times but I finally got the recipe for those famous balls that everyone loves so much. Normally I am a the crockpot wizard around the house but this one is all Jeff. He got this recipe from his mom and is apparently handed down from a lady named Marian Gertman, who I believe was their neighbor when Jeff was little. Is that right, MIL?
*I have just been informed that this is not the neighbor that I was thinking of. That is a famous split pea soup recipe. I have never been a big fan of the split pea soup but this is really good. Would anyone like that recipe?

If you have enjoyed these delicious meatballs and wondered how to make them yourself, so that you don't have to wait for Jeff to do it, here you go....

Marian Gertman’s Meatballs

These are delicious!!!! Key is to cook them raw in the sauce.

Meatballs cooked in sauce:

1 pound ground beef

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. oregano

1 Tbl. fresh parsley

1/2 tsp.garlic powder

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

shape balls and cook in sauce for 3 hours

Any marinara sauce will do, store bought or homemade

These are great over pasta or you can make a fabulous meatball sub. I had my heart set on having the last 3 meatballs on the last sub roll for lunch yesterday and was devastated when I came home to find that the dude had taken it for himself for lunch. I went to Chipotle and inhale 3 tacos on their patio, then all was right with the world. When you make this, don't forget to invite this chick over to enjoy them with you:)

wet + dry ingredients just before baking..

And now for that amazing strawberry nut bread. This is my mom's recipe and it is amazing. Be prepared that you will pretty much immediately eat the entire loaf. This is great for breakfast. This recipe makes 2 loaves. I try to only make it when I can send one over for someone else to enjoy. I have made it for 2 friends who have had babies and it is a real big hit. I wouldn't suggest having me over if you have recently made this because I will inhale the entire thing before you can pour a cup of coffee. You have been warned. 

STRAWBERRY NUT BREAD

3 cups flour 4 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. soda 1 ¼ cups cooking oil

1 tsp. salt 2 cups frozen, sliced strawberries, thawed 

1 Tbsp. cinnamon 1 ¼ cups chopped pecans

2 cups sugar

Sift flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.  Combine eggs, oil, berries and pecans.  Make well in center of dry ingredients.  Add liquid mixture, stirring just enough to moisten dry ingredients.  Pour into two greased 9x5x3 inch pans.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.  

This bird is making her nest... IN BULK

From what I understand, this whole nesting thing is different for everyone. People get the urge to do all kinds of crazy things. Luckily for me, I am doing what I usually do, just in a more extreme version than ever. Think cooking, cleaning, preparing in bulk. Yep, Ive been to Costco twice this week.

Trip #1

Trip #2

In case you are new here or today is your first day (what I like to say to the dude if he is asking something utterly ridiculous), first understand that I spend a large portion of my energies cooking and cleaning up after myself (& Jasmine). The cleaning is usually just generally maintenance, cleaning up my cooking mess or organizing then reorganizing. When asked where Jeff thought I would be when I go into labor he answered, "the gym, TJ Maxx or the grocery store because that is where she is every day". I wanted to argue but sadly, it is true. He knows my every move based on the daily credit card transactions.

*Yes, I have made an arrangement with a dear friend to drag my laboring body to Nordstrom (at the very least!) instead of having my baby up in the TJ Maxx or something. 

We have both spent this entire pregnancy in prep mode. We have been reading and staying on top of what we need to do and be ready for. I am 100% aware that something will catch us off guard so make no mistake that I am not also prepared for that. Yes, I am preparing to be caught unprepared, even after all of this. Otherwise, what would we laugh about when we retell this years later?

So, since we moved into this house (that my freezer selling and above dealing making friend, who happens to be a real estate agent sold me in the fall)  and have the room for one now (and our freezer/refrigerator basically just sucks), I have been saying that I wanted a small deep freeze for the side storage room. I have kind of looked around, ok one day I saw one at Costco and that is about the extent of my "looking".  Last week I posted on Facebook that I was looking for one either new or used and one of my favorite friend/clients informed me that she had one to sell.

The next day, I set out to go check it out and it was more wonderful than I imagined. For the low price of $75, I loaded up this baby into my new mom car (then I went to brunch) and then I hauled it home where it fits perfectly in the storage room. All day (all week really) I was just bursting with happiness about my new freezer. You would have sworn I had just gotten myself a unicorn.  That's how excited I am.

Why? Mostly because, as I mentioned before, I have a super sucky freezer. One of those side by side ones that is supposed to be nice and fancy but is really pointless. But also because I am willing myself to be a breast milk producing machine. I know that breast feeding is really hard work, especially at first, and that not everyone is successful with it (so you can spare me that "lesson" if you are going to send me an email of Facebook message telling me how it really is, I don't really care for that anyway). In sticking with my obsession with being uber-prepared, I have this freezer that I am visualizing being so full of breast milk that I am basically handing it out like candy to trick or treaters or something. If my neighbors read this, I will probably not have any trick or treaters this year, but thats ok.

Since I am 37 weeks pregnant as I am writing this, I am not pumping and storing yet. I have a pump but I don't know how to use it yet. What I am doing is cooking so much food for myself that you would swear that I am preparing for the zombie apocalypse, if I were planning to have the zombies over for a dinner party? In the spirit of being proactive, along with my constant fretting over what will we eat next and will we have enough for guests, I have started cooking for an army. I am freezing dinners for Jeff and I for once he goes back to work, our family is gone and people stop dropping by with casseroles. I know that I wont die if I have to eat peanut butter & jelly or cereal for weeks at a time but I would really rather not. Im quite spoiled that way.

Last week I started thinking of what kinds of delicious dinners that I would miss when I no longer have this kind of time/energy, because I will be a tending to the child. I got some great recipes from my friend Beatrix Bell, I made some of my favorites and I am requesting things this weekend from Jeff. I will include the recipes when I can but know that anything that is my usual special I probably made up, sorry!

Monday I made several pounds of meat sauce, which will be fabulous over pasta in a pinch! Tuesday I made chicken and dumplings in the crockpot and I have to tell you it was amazing! Recipe for that is here and so easy! Wednesday I made 3 turkey quinoa meat loafs, I know 3 was a little nuts but I doubled this recipe thinking it would be 2 and turns out it I had more. Thanks Bea for both of those amazing recipes. Thursday I made this chicken crockpot goodness that I make all of the time. I kind of tripled the recipe so that we would have dinner and then 2 freezer meals.

Now Jeff is making several pounds of meatballs and I am really looking forward to meatball subs. I will be taking some to our friends who just had a baby a few weeks ago, I think they will enjoy! I am also making my mom's strawberry bread recipe. It makes 2 loaves so that will be one for us and one to take to our new friends who have a new baby.

If anyone is interested, I am happy to share the recipe for both that chicken crock pot dish (it has olive and prunes in it, so think sweet/savory) and the strawberry bread. I can easily put them into a pdf to link here, I just have the written down so I won't bother doing that unless you ask. Just leave me a comment and Im happy to share.

this will soon be strawberry nut bread!

Who knows what I will be cooking next week. I haven't gotten that far yet. I will keep you posted. I want to do that whole freezer crockpot thing where you put everything that you would crockpot into a bag and freeze it so you just have to dump in the crockpot and cook. I am having trouble finding recipes I like.

Last week I made 2 trips to Costco, yes 2. I told you I was kind of out of control. Tonight I am making pulled pork (one of my favorites). I am reigning myself in a bit and only making half or a third of the 14 lb pork butt I got last night from Costco. I am convinced that I will be so damn happy that I have all this food a few months after we have this baby. Maybe people will still come hang out with us because we will still have good food, like we usually do. It will just be precooked instead of the last few years where Chef Jeff made everything cooked to order. Times they are a changing but I still plan to eat well.

If anyone has any crockpot recipes that I might like, please share!  We eat relatively healthy so think basic veggies and protein and nothing covered in Velveeta cheese, I just threw up a little when I typed that. I am also looking for more good options of things to cook in large quantities that freeze well. Any suggestions?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!

We are spending this Christmas in Virginia, snuggled up and settling into our new house. It has just been wonderful, to take much needed time to rest and relax. With 84 days until our wedding, I could use a moment of silence.

You know (or should be now), that we do love to hang out at home and eat really well. We have eaten really well this Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Let me share some recipes with you.

Christmas Eve dinner: Braised Veal Shanks and Wild Mushroom Risotto.  I highly recommend this! Super delicious.

Followed by Toll House cookies for Santa. We always use the recipe on the bag o chips. Successful everytime!

Christmas Brunch:  French Toast Casserole and Potato Latkes.
* after 3 failed trips to Whole Foods for a challah bread, I gave up and we went with the back up option (cinnamon swirl) and it was really good.  Clearly I didnt get enough latkes at our hanukkah party. I had Jeff make sweet potato latkes last week, which were not good. I needed a little more latke in my life.

Our plan was to go to the movies and get Chinese food, a tradition of Jeff's people. Since we have a little winter storm brewing and I am really enjoying lounging, we went for Chinese take out and an on demand movie.

Just as an FYI, we LOVE chowhound and highly recommend it. That is where we found this chinese place to get our take out from. Any place that has an American Chinese food menu AND an actual Chinese food menu has to be awesome. Just so you know, when ordering you, must specify that you want the actual Chinese food. If you are white they just give you the American, unless you specifically ask for it. But anyway.

Here is an update on the weather, the snow is really coming down and starting to build.

We (Jasmine and I) dont hate this snow, maybe because it is super sparkly Christmas snow? Its probably because I got some warning and I do not have to leave the house since we are on "stay-cation". 

If you are looking for us, we will be at home in our footed, fleece snow flake jammies. Thanks Jill for sending such an awesome holiday treat! How ever have I made it this long without owning multiple pairs of these!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Nell's Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits

This weekend was our first weekend to actually lounge about and catch up on things around the house. Ah, what a glorious thing.  I decided that Saturday I would not leave the house, not even to go outside and check the mail. I did do the mandatory p90X workout that day, then showered and resumed lounging.

We really needed to go to the grocery store but I decided we would make do that do with whatever we had and we could go on Sunday. I remembered that Nell had sent me a couple of recipes for my KitchenAid mixer. The mixer still has not been named so feel free to make suggestions. Im thinking something fancy and French, Julia? Nell named hers Tiffany, which is awesome but taken.

I grabbed my trusty laptop and found the email where Nell had sent over her recipe for Buttermilk Cheese Biscuits. Luck be a lady, we had everything we needed. Except buttermilk. Not a problem, if you are a handy chick like me. Just google "substitute for buttermilk" and you will find this little gem. I decided that I would use half Greek yogurt (for the tang) and 1/4 milk, 1/4 cream.  We only have 1% so I made the executive decision to fatten them up a bit by adding the cream.

Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup cold buttermilk, shaken
1 cold extra-large egg
1 1/2 cups grated extra-sharp Cheddar
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water or milk

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Place 2 cups of flour, the baking powder, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, add the butter and mix until the butter is the size of peas.

Combine the buttermilk and egg in a small measuring cup and beat lightly with a fork. With the mixer still on low, quickly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and mix only until moistened. In a small bowl, mix the Cheddar with small handful of flour and, with the mixer still on low, add the cheese to the dough. Mix only until roughly combined.

Dump out onto a well-floured board and knead lightly about 6 times. Roll the dough out to a rectangle 10 by 5 inches. With a sharp, floured knife, cut the dough lengthwise in half and then across in quarters, making 8 rough rectangles.

Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. ( I used the Oneida Pizza Stone Aunt Sandy got us. That thing rocks!)  Brush the tops with the egg wash, sprinkle with salt, if using, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops are browned and the biscuits are cooked through. Serve hot or warm.
 

As you can see one is already missing and they have only been out of the oven about 30 seconds!

Next I need to try that recipe she sent for Mississippi Mud Cake! Thanks Nell!

Eight Crazy Nights!

Here we are again. The season of celebration.

This year we decided to shake things up a bit. Since we are a interfaith family, this year we decided that our holiday celebration would represent each of our cultures.  Then a Cajun Hanukkah was born.

What is on the menu? Gumbo, red beans and rice, corn bread (jalepeno-cheese), and latkes. Delicious! Our signature cocktail was Jeff's fabulous Bloody Ceasar.

To be completely honest, I have never made a gumbo (even though I am a Louisiana girl). My fabulous friend, Rose, has been feeding me her gumbo and red beans weekly for the last year in Dallas. So I turn to her for recipes and guidance. Rose swears by Savoie's  already prepared roux. If I could have gotten my hands on some, I would have used it. However, we didnt have enough time to order any, nowhere in Virginia sells it and even though Rose said she could, it seemed insane to have her over night it to me.

In Louisiana, you can pick up necessities like gumbo file' on every corner. Here in Virginia this is not the case so you will understand my joy when I found a seafood market around the corner that had file'! I took that as a sign that a Cajun Hanukkah would be super successful.

I decided that the only option was to be a big girl and make the roux the old fashion way. I was nervous but confident in my skills in the kitchen. I decided to start the feast on Thursday night so I could slow cook everything over night and make sure it was going to be fantastic.

You know how the story goes: On the second night of Hanukkah, she sauteed the holy trinity (onions, peppers and celery), boiled the beans and started the roux. And so it begins.

This is a time consuming process. To insure peace and quite you will need to send the man folk outside to play with their fancy grilling machines. This will buy you a little time to peacefully sip your cocktail and stir your roux.

 After about an hour,  we have ourselves a roux, not too dark and not too light, just right. I am very pleased with myself to pulling this off. First you make a roux, that is how you start off any special occasion, at least thats what they say. I was a little intimidated because from what I had heard, making a roux is not hard. It is time consuming and takes patience, not my strong point. Since the roux is the base for our main entree, there is alot of pressure to make sure it is perfect. I have to say I am pleased with my first attempt.

I put alot of love into it:)

Around 11pm, we have all the prep work done. Since I have 3 slow cookers ( I told that dude I needed all 3), this was the perfect time to put them all to use simultaneously. Then the magic happens. We slow cooked all night Thursday and half the day Friday. Just as I had planned, it was delicious. Now the next step was to let her rest overnight, because everything is better the next day.

Good thing we started early because Friday night we had plans to enjoy Comfort for Drew's birthday dinner. Saturday morning I woke up and started phase 2. Baking. Cupcakes and corn muffins.

On the 4th day she bakes and makes latkes.

 I have to confess that I planned to blog this and post it on Friday or Saturday. Then follow up with pics from the party and full report of good times had by all.  I will work on that now. Happy Hanukkah to all! More to come.

Some Things to be Thankful for

This Thanksgiving was a big year for us for many reasons. We just moved into this super cute house in Richmond and we had informed family that we would NOT be traveling for the holidays, considering that we had recently survived this move and were counting down the days until this wedding. I am not going anywhere so you people need to come to me. I think those were my exact words.

Well, much to my surprise, they actually listened and made the trek. So, Jeff and I were hosting our first Thanksgiving! Not only that but both of our parents came into town and this was the first time they had met. We were super happy that we had the opportunity to introduce them before the wedding. People are always so shocked that our parents haven't met. News Flash!!! They live on opposite sides of the USA and we don't live in the same state as either of them. We've all been pretty busy so our paths just haven't crossed. Until now.

Wednesday night before Turkey day, the parents took us to dinner at the Jefferson Hotel in downtown Richmond, which was super nice. The next day Jeff's baby brother, who I kindly gave the official nickname "Baby G", joined us. Drew, a friend of Jeff's also joined us for dinner. It was really great to have the whole group here.

" Jeff Boy R D" (as his mother calls him), really wowed us with his culinary skills, as usual. We will get to my contributions later. For the main course, Jeff made a "deconstructed" Turkey. This was the decision was reached for a couple of reasons. It is MUCH faster. I'm not starting a turkey at 6 am and I am not having that big bird take up my oven all day! I'm also not cooking the bird so it isn't really up to me. With this method, you cook the white and dark meat separately to keep the white meat from drying out while it takes the dark meat a bit longer to cook. Very good. Try this next time you are making a big old bird.  As a side note, the gravy in this recipe is to die for!

I dont think the grill was part of the recipe but this guy loves any excuse to fire that baby up!

With the bird there must be stuffing (or dressing for G.R.I.T.S). The classic overachiever that I am marrying, made 2 stuffings. One has meat and one vegetarian. The meat one he made for his work potluck and we still had leftovers so it was enjoyed on Thursday. The first one was really good. But after having this one, (which happens to be vegetarian also), I have a new favorite. Unbelievable!

Do we have mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes? Well, for some reason there was a rumor started that Baby G didn't care for sweet potatoes, so this dude made both. Interestingly enough, this was false and we all, including Baby G, enjoyed both very much. ** as a side note, the chef would like for me to add that for the regular potatoes, you should add garlic cloves to the water when boiling--this is not in the recipe)**

Lucky for me, the man of the house takes every one's favs in consideration when menu planning. So this one was for the lady (aka, me). Mac and Cheese, please! I have a feeling this one will be on regular rotation for family dinners!

For good measure, the responsible Jeff had a good veggie too. Roasted (with EVOO/Salt/Pepper), brussel sprouts, broccoli and sugar snap peas.

Yay for Jeff for doing everything! He went to the store and cooked all the food (with some minor soux cheffing for me and clean up along the way by FIL). The only thing I wanted to do was set the tables,( as seen here) and make the dessert. Drew was bringing Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies so I was going to make cinnamon ice cream  (via the ice cream maker). 

Drew's cookies!

At some point, I discover that Jeff is planning to also make this pie. Now that is real nice and all but you can see that this is clearly over stepping his call to duty. I wanted make dessert and he was to make everything else, what is so hard about that! Why the hostile take over?


Clearly, I had to take over pie making. Good thing I did because my ice cream was a FLOP!  I don't want to point any fingers or place any blame....BUT.....that morning I realized that bucket that I always keep in the freezer so I'm ready to make ice cream at a moments notice, was not in the freezer. This dude, had washed it last time I used it and did not put it back in the freezer. So even though I put it in the freezer at 9 am, it wasn't frozen enough to make the ice cream at 4pm. It turned out more like "cinnamon gazpacho" according to Baby G.

Its ok, the creamy base was still good so I returned the bucket in the freezer and made it the next day, after the bucket had a good 18 hours to freeze.  Speaking of, there is still some left, I will go have some now.

So, we consider this Thanksgiving, our first to host, a success. Everyone was very well behaved and the food was tremendous. After 12 years of traveling for the holiday, it was nice to be at home. 

after a long day of hosting



Pretty Grown-up Lady Tablescape

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Just an update. We are at the halfway point in the day. So far, all is going well. First thing this morning, I kicked Jeff out of the house. Nicely. By suggesting that he could go for a run before he started the full day of cooking.  That gave me about an hour of uninterupted time to get some stuff done. See, there is a common theme of too many chiefs and not enough Indians around here.

The first thing I wanted to do before any of our guests arrived (Mom, Walter, MIL, FIL, & baby Greenwald & Drew, + 4 dogs), was start my Cinnamon Ice Cream and set the tables. I wanted start the ice cream before the dude took over the kitchen. I wanted to do the tables while the house was empty to make sure my vision was carried out. There was only 1 chief that could pull this off: ME!

this is the adult table

These beautiful linens came from Classic Party Rentals. Angela totally hooked me up with the table clothes, napkins and chair sashes. I really wanted to go all out and make it special since this is our first opportunity to host.  I got the idea from CPR to add these nice little silk flowers to fancy it up a bit. My mom bought me these pretty napkin rings.  You like?

 Bruce and Rona (FIL + MIL) sent this beautiful centerpiece. I love it! It is the perfect finishing touch to the tables. Thanks!

 Since we only have 5 plates and 4 forks for everyday(hint for those of you who cant think of what to buy off the registry), Bruce and Rona were so nice to bring these fancy ones. They were kind enough to pass down their wedding china to Jeff and I. It is beautiful, blue and gold accents on white. The silver was Jeffs Great Grandmothers. It is so nice to be able to set our first Thanksgiving table with family heirlooms.

view from above

The Kids Table
The parents will sit at the adult table and the kids (me, the dude, baby brother + Drew) will be at the round table. Normally it is our patio table but we brought it in and fancied it up a bit.

from above

chabby chic centerpiece

The other table had such a nice center piece that I threw this together out of some stuff lying around the house.

The sashes on these chairs arent as fancy but you use what you've got. At least I do.  Let me get back to that cinnamon ice cream. Last I checked, it wasnt freezing so well.

Ruth Reichel: Garlic and Sapphires

When Sugarbaby (pet name for my dude) turned the big 25, I got him the newest Gourmet cookbook and the new Ruth Reichl book: Garlic and Sapphires.

Ruth Reichl was a writer and the editor in chief of (Jeff's favorite) Gourmet Magazine for 10 years, until its shocking closing in 2009. It was a sad, sad day in my house.

I am so glad that I (for selfish reasons) got Jeff a subscription to the magazine as a gift for something. I benefit alot from these gifts, which is why I keep on giving.  It is true what they say, "It is better to (strategically give than to receive).

He really enjoyed the read and I am happy to report that it also brought some new recipes into our life. I was reminded of this today when Jeff read the post about him making cookies and me not remembering what we had for dinner before that. He reminded me that it was the Sort of Thai Noodles, which came from this book.

I have never made this recipe, and probably never will, but I heard it is super easy. I can report from my own personal hands on experience, that it is delicious. You can find the recipe here, complete with nutritional info, which I didnt bother actually reading, but you are welcome to it.

Marriage Material

Look at this dude! He is handsome. He is tan. He is baking. He is the total package. So I agreed to marry him.

Throughout our courtship, Jeff made cookies from scratch pretty regularly. He always seemed to have the ingredients lying around and could just whip up a batch at any moment. This is a good skill/quality to have in a man if you ask me.

The first weekend that we were in the new house, I think it was Halloween and I was pouting a bit since we didnt have friends, or plans or parties to go on my favorite freaking holiday. It was just very bad timing. We had just moved in things were really unsettled. I cant remember what we had for dinner that night, something easy and not that memorable I guess.

As I sat on the couch, exhausted, Jeff and Andy decided to bake some cookies. How cute of them, I think they were trying to lift my spirits. Spirit lifting can usually be accomplished with chocolate, in my experience.  This was the (yet to be named KitchenAid) mixer's first undertaking. Instead of the usual way of mixing them by hand with a spoon, even though we have always had a hand mixer, we pulled out the big guns.

Now, Jeff's signature move is one that he and Andy say they learned from Jeff's mom. Halfway thru the bake time, you take out the cookie sheet and slam it on the counter. Apparently this creates some kind of heavenly cookie magic. Since we decided to break out the Oneida Pizza Stone (thanks Aunty Sandy) to bake these cookies on.  

Im not sure if it was the pizza stone or the mixer or the combo of both, but these were the BEST COOKIES EVER. Words cannot describe. They were perfect. Just follow the recipe on the Toll House chips bag. But Im convinced the grown up mixer and pizza stone took it to the next level. And Im never going back.

Four Cheeses are Better than One

We had a handful of visitors swing by our place in Dallas. Just a handful (Andy, Bea, Jill, Eric, Bruce, Rona, am I forgetting anyone else?) in a whole year.  When we moved to Richmond I thought we would never see anyone. Boy was I wrong (and glad to be). Andy -the best man- came the day after we moved in. We werent the slightest bit settled but he helped us get a little closer to getting there.

Kristen- maid of honor- came down from D.C. last weekend. We already had it on the books for her to visit but luckily we had a holiday and she took 1 day off so we got to visit for 4.5 days! Since I am nesting, I am all about comfort food. And what is better than tomato soup and grilled cheese.....I cant think of a thing.

You can probably guess what tools where used in the making of this magical goodness; the crockpot, the griddler and the ice cream maker!

Here is the recipe for the the soup. Kristen and I went out to grab our ingredients. I wasnt fully committed to what kind of cheese I wanted to use so I chatted up the cheese lady at Kroger. Not my friend from Whole Food but the lady at Kroger is totally cool in my book too. She said her favorite grilled cheese was mozzarella, provolone, cheddar and goat cheese. YUM! I already had goat cheese so I grabbed the other 3 and headed home.

Since I had been slaving over the soup all day. I left it to Jeff to make the sandwiches: grilled cheese on rye. I figured he would have a good time with the Griddler since that was more of a man thing, like a grill you get to use inside? (thanks shower hostesses!)

Maybe I was just tired after I had whipped up this soup and this unbelievable ice cream!  I mentioned before that Kristen had bought me that great book for ice cream and other frozen treats.

It was a really hard decision since I plan to eat everything in this book eventually. Here is how it goes:

2 cups half and half

1/4 cocoa powder

1/2 sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 smooth peanut butter

Whisk the half and half, cocoa powder, sugar and salt in a large sauce pan. Heat, whisking frequently until it comes to a full rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from heat and whisk  in the peanut butter stirring until completely blended. Chill thoroughly, then finish the process in your ice cream maker.

In the last 5 minutes, I added broken up pieces of Reese's peanut butter cups and topped it all off with hot fudge goodness. Ah, this is the good life.

I decided it would be best to keep the ice cream maker bowl in the freezer at all times so that I can just grab it when I need it for emergencies. Seriously, who has the time to wait for it to freeze every time you want to use it. Keep it ready for immediate use is the only way to go. 

Next we will have my Mom + stepdad followed by MIL+FIL, a one day drive by featuring BIL. Its going to be a packed house for T-giving. 8 people + 4 dogs. I accidentally watched Meet the Fockers (again) last week, not a good idea since our parents are meeting for the first time. Say a little prayer for me, Ill let you know how it goes.