Sweet potato shepherd's pie

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This was adapted from my favorite recipe website www.skinnytaste.com which means it’s the perfect combination of warm comfort food and low calories. I actually don’t like sweet potatoes but the chicken broth, garlic and sour cream gave the potato topping a creamy savory flavor that was simply delicious.

Sweet potato topping
1-1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled, diced
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fat free chicken broth
3 Tbsp reduced fat sour cream
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Boil sweet potatoes until soft. Drain then return to pan and mash with chicken broth, garlic, sour cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Meat filling
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 parsnip, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
10 oz frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup fat-free low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper
paprika

Sauté ground turkey until brown seasoning with salt and pepper. Add onion, celery, and parsnip. Cook about 10 minutes, until onions are clear and celery is soft. Next add garlic and mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes. Finally add frozen vegetables, chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce. Simmer on low about 15 minutes.

In a 9x13 oven safe dish spread the meat filling evening across the bottom. Add a heaping spoonful of the potato topping over each section and spread smooth to cover the meat filling. Use a fork to scrape the top of the potatoes to make a grid pattern across the top (it just makes it feel fancy). Sprinkle the potatoes with paprika. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool 10 minutes before serving.

Pecan pie

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Continuing with the dessert theme; I made a Pecan Pie for Thanksgiving dinner for my dad and I. Now, I wasn't always a big Thanksgiving dessert fan. Throughout the years, my families dessert menu consisted of Pumpkin pie (yuck), Apple pie,(double-yuck), and Pecan Pie. Growing up, I'm not sure I even ate dessert after our dinner. I've never been a fan of cooked apples, didn't care for the taste of pumpkin pie, and I don't think I even tried pecan pie. Eventually, I came around, and even though I still don't like cooked apples; I'm definitely a fan of Pecan and Pumpkin pies. This recipe is similar to the one my mother baked for our traditional Thanksgiving dinners. The recipe is from Joy of Cooking and the crust is from Cook's Illustrated. Unfortunately, I tad over-cooked the pie, but it still tasted great! If you want a traditional pie for Thanksgiving then I definitely recommend this Pecan Pie recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients for Crust:
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2 inch pieces and chilled
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 pieces and chilled
4-6 tbsp ice water


Ingredients for Pie filling:
1/4 c butter (room temperature)
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c light corn syrup or molasses
1 to 1 1/2 c  broken peanuts or walnuts
1 tsp vanilla or 1 tbsp rum
1/2 tsp salt

For the Pie Crust
To make the pie crust, process the flour, sugar, and salt together in a food processor until combined. Scatter shortening on top and process until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about 10 seconds. Scatter butter over top and pulse mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses.
Transfer the mixture into a medium bowl and sprinkle 4 tbsp of the ice water over the mixture.  Stir and press the dough together until it sticks together. If dough doesn't come together then add more water a tablespoon at a time until it does.
Get out a plastic sheet, and turn the dough unto the plastic sheet and flatten into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly and then refrigerate for about an hour. Before rolling out the dough, let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes. (Dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month. If frozen, let dough thaw completely on counter before rolling it out.)
Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough into 12-inch circle on lightly floured surface. Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and gently unroll it onto 9-inch pie plate, letting excess dough hang over the edge. Ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into the bottom with the other hand. Leave any dough that overhangs plate in place. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond the lip of the pie plate. Tuck overhang under itself; folded edge should be flush with edge of pie plate. Crimp dough evenly around edge of pie using your fingers. Wrap dough-lined pie plate loosely in plastic and place in your freezer until the dough is fully chilled and firm, about 30 minutes, before using. Once pie is fully chilled, remove from the freezer and poke some holes into the dough using a fork. This will help it to not bubble up while cooking. Cook the pie for about 5 to 8 minutes. It will be fully cooked once the filling is poured into it. Remove pie from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes. Then, we'll add in the filling and cook for an additional 45 minutes.

For the filling:
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-5 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the light corn syrup, vanilla, and salt. Fill the partially baked pie shell. Cover the edge of the pie plate with foil, so that the outer pie crust doesn't burn. I wish I had done this because my crust burned. The Joy of Cooking cookbook says to turn the oven up to 450 degrees, but I felt that was a bit too warm. I would set it to 425, instead. Let bake for 40 minutes until a knife comes out clean when inserted into the filling. Enjoy!

Tacos al Pastor

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There’s a great little Mexican place in Richmond called TioPablo. It’s relatively new and since it’s tucked away down in Shockoe Bottom,it’s somewhat unknown. I ate there with a friend for lunch recently and judgingby the really delicious flavors, it won’t be unknown for long. One of the tacosI had was the al Pastor, which is basically spicy pork with pineapples. Pairingthe spiciness of the pork marinade with the sweetness of the pineapple was atruly wonderful combination, so I decided to try it at home.
I found the recipe on this beautiful site called I Am A FoodBlog. It’s a very simple recipe but one of the ingredients, the achiote paste,was difficult to find. I expect you could get it at a Hispanic focused grocery.We found a (completely inauthentic) substitute recipe made from things youprobably already have at home, and it turned out fantastic. It had tons of flavor,it’s bright and colorful, and pretty easy to make, considering. The only thingthat we felt was missing was a little bit of Mexican Crema to cool it down alittle. If you don’t like very spicy food, I would cut down on the chipotlechiles.  

3 1/2 ounce package achiote paste (or the substitute below)3 canned chipotle chiles en adobo, plus 4 tablespoonscanning sauce1/4 cup vegetable oil1.5 pounds thinly sliced pork shoulder1 cup pineapple chunks, draineddiced onionchopped cilantrotaco tortillas
Combine your achiote paste, chipotles, adobo sauce, andvegetable oil in a food processor or blender. As I’m re-reading the recipe Irealize that they also added ¾ cup of water, but I missed that. It turned outgreat without the water, so I personally would just leave it out. Maybe if youwant to dilute the spiciness a little it would help, though. Blend this all upand pour over your sliced pork in a bowl or a baggie to marinate for at leastan hour. We let it marinate for about 3 hours.
If you can’t find the achiote paste this is the substitutewe used. Like I said above, I’m positive that this is not authentic because itdoesn’t use annatto seeds. However, if you can’t find the paste, I thinkfinding annatto seeds will also be a challenge. This substitute usesingredients you already have around the house. Just blend these ingredientstogether first, then follow the directions above.
Achiote Substitute3 cloves garlic 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil2 Tbsps. white vinegar3 Tbsps. paprika 1 ½ Tsps. dried oregano½ Tsp. ground cumin
To cook the pork, heat up a little oil in a cast ironskillet over medium high heat. You want it to be hot, but not so hot that itsmokes up your entire kitchen. Believe me, we did that and this spicy marinadeis not so pleasant to breath into your lungs so be careful. Grill the meat insmall batches until they are cooked and have a nice char on them. If you’vesliced them thinly enough it shouldn’t take much more than a minute per side.Set them aside while you grill the pineapple in the same pan. They’ll get someof the marinade flavor on them from the pan. Just brown them up; it should onlytake a few minutes. Spoon pork and pineapple into your warm tortillas and topwith the chopped red onions and cilantro. I also added about a tablespoon ofthe pineapple juice into the onion and cilantro to make more of a fresh salsa. Ithink some sour cream or Mexican crema would be a great added flavor as well.Try these, and then hit up Tio Pablo and try some of their other wonderfultacos as well! 

Grandma Spencer's Strawberry Spinach Salad

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Yesterday was my dad, the "Big Man's", birthday.  In our family we don't go all out or anything for birthdays, but we did all head over to Mom and Dad's house to have a nice family dinner.  Mom had to work late yesterday and my offer of making dinner was turned down because it would've apparently taken too much time so we ended up ordering pizza for dinner.  As a nice little side to go along with our pizza I decided to make this strawberry spinach salad.

This salad is a family favorite.  When we were kids (well maybe not my brother who also wouldn't eat ketchup) we would always gobble it up even though it was full of spinach!  My Grandma Spencer used to always make it and it was a recipe that we made sure to get from our grandpa once she had passed away.  Now we make it for special dinners every once in a while or it's also great to take to pot lucks as well. 


And in case you were wondering, there was no cake for dessert, Dad is not a big cake person.  Instead we had brownies, his all time favorite.  My sister Avery made the brownies and added pecans to half of them because that's the way dad likes them.  (Well Dad would prefer the whole pan have nuts but some other people in the family are picky.)  
Ingredients

• 12 oz fresh baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons cider or raspberry vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced

Directions

1. Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, green onion, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours (or longer.)
2. Toast sesame seeds at 350 degrees for about ten minutes (150 for about 5 minutes in a toaster oven.)
3. Toss spinach, sesame seeds, dressing, and strawberries in a large bowl.  Enjoy!

Gumdrop Fudge

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Do you have a sweet tooth? Well this fudge is guaranteed to satisfy any sugar craving. Sugary gumdrops are suspended in an almond bark base - you might want to make an appointment at the dentist before you eat this. Well, not really, but it is sweet! This fudge is perfect for a Christmas cookie tray, and I like that it's different from many other candies at this time of year.

Start by combining the almond bark, salt and sweetened condensed milk in a medium saucepan.


Heat this mixture until it melts - use low heat, it won't take long. When it's melted, remove from the heat then add the vanilla


and stir until smooth. Stir in the gumdrops.


Line a 9-inch pan with waxed paper, then pour the fudge mixture in.


Refrigerate for at least four hours or until set. Remove the fudge from the pan using the waxed paper, then cut the candy into small pieces - first columns and then rows.


I love seeing those colorful little gumdrop pieces in there!


One year ago: Dulce de Leche Chocolate Bars
Two years ago: Oatmeal Spice Drop Cookies (another gumdrop recipe!)
Three years ago: Sara's Chili

Gumdrop Fudge

1 - 20 oz. package almond bark (or white chocolate candy coating)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups gumdrops, chopped

Coarsely chop the almond bark or white chocolate candy coating. Combine the bark, sweetened condensed milk and salt in a medium saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring often, until the mixture melts. Stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla and the gumdrops.

Pour the mixture into a wax-paper lined 9-inch pan. Refrigerate until set, about 4 hours. Remove the fudge using the wax paper, then cut into row and columns. Makes 36 pieces.

Recipe Source: Adapted from ValSoCal

Grandma Spencer's Strawberry Spinach Salad

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Yesterday was my dad, the "Big Man's", birthday.  In our family we don't go all out or anything for birthdays, but we did all head over to Mom and Dad's house to have a nice family dinner.  Mom had to work late yesterday and my offer of making dinner was turned down because it would've apparently taken too much time so we ended up ordering pizza for dinner.  As a nice little side to go along with our pizza I decided to make this strawberry spinach salad.

This salad is a family favorite.  When we were kids (well maybe not my brother who also wouldn't eat ketchup) we would always gobble it up even though it was full of spinach!  My Grandma Spencer used to always make it and it was a recipe that we made sure to get from our grandpa once she had passed away.  Now we make it for special dinners every once in a while or it's also great to take to pot lucks as well. 


And in case you were wondering, there was no cake for dessert, Dad is not a big cake person.  Instead we had brownies, his all time favorite.  My sister Avery made the brownies and added pecans to half of them because that's the way dad likes them.  (Well Dad would prefer the whole pan have nuts but some other people in the family are picky.)  
Ingredients

• 12 oz fresh baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons cider or raspberry vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced

Directions

1. Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, green onion, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours (or longer.)
2. Toast sesame seeds at 350 degrees for about ten minutes (150 for about 5 minutes in a toaster oven.)
3. Toss spinach, sesame seeds, dressing, and strawberries in a large bowl.  Enjoy!

Avalanche Bark

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'Tis the season for making holiday treats! This is a great one to start with - a sweet peanut buttery candy filled with krispy rice, chocolate chips and marshmallows. I suppose a person could call this a Rocky Road bark of sorts - with the added crunch of the cereal. It's super yummy, and super addictive. And since it takes less than an hour from start to finish, it's great to whip up for a last minute party. It's also great to whip up to just have in the fridge - after all, it's the season for celebrations - even if your celebration is just eating this delicious candy!

Start by combining the almond bark (it will melt better if you chop it slightly first) and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl.


Melt it in the microwave, at about 50% power, for 30 second intervals, stirring between each heating time.


When the mixture is melted, stir well to incorporate it all together, then add in the rice krispies,


marshmallows,


and chocolate chips.


Turn the mixture out into a 9-inch pan that is lined with parchment paper. Slightly press it down into an even layer.


Place the pan in the fridge and let set up, about 30 minutes. When it is set, remove the candy from the pan using the paper, then cut into rows


and then into chunks.


One year ago: Dulce de Leche Chocolate Bars
Two years ago: Sweet Potato Pound Cake
Three years ago: Sara's chili

Find more great ideas at Mangia Monday, Mop it up Monday, Mix it up Monday, Melt in your Mouth Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, What's on the Menu Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesday at the Table, Tasty Tuesday (#2), Tempt my Tummy Tuesday, Totally Tasty Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday (#3), Crazy Sweet Tuesdays, Clever Chicks.

Avalanche Bark

12 ounces almond bark, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips

Place the miniature chocolate chips on a plate and place in the freezer until ready to use.

Combine the almond bark and peanut butter in a medium bowl and microwave on 50% power in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted. Remove from microwave and stir in Rice Krispies. Gently stir in the miniature marshmallows, then the miniature chocolate chips.

Turn the mixture into a 9" square pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Press into an even layer. Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes. Remove from the pan and cut into squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Recipe Source: Adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

Grandma's Beef Stew

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Last month, I made a post about how to plan a soup party. This evening, as I was making beef stew for dinner, I realized I forgot to include that recipe in my list of favorites for a soup party. I decided I’d post this recipe now.

Stew is wonderful any time of the year, but especially when it’s cold outside. Okay…here in Dallas, it’s not exactly cold…at least by Midwest standards..but it’s still somewhat chilly. So tonight the stew really hit the spot.

I got this recipe from my grandmother when I was a teenager, and have fond memories eating it at her house when I was growing up. I’ve made it for my own family a lot over the years, and it’s one of my husband’s and sons’ favorite meals. You may enjoy this recipe too.

GRANDMA’S BEEF STEW

4 lbs. beef chuck roast, cut into 1-inch cubes (cube when beef is semi-frozen, for easy cutting!)
4 T. oil
5 cups water
2 large yellow onions, sliced thinly
3 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 ½ tsp. garlic powder
3 bay leaves
1 T. salt
2 tsp. granulated sugar
2 tsp. paprika
½ tsp. black pepper
¼ tsp. ground cloves
2 lb. bag carrots, peeled and sliced in ¼-inch slices
3 lbs. potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ to ¾ inch cubes
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup all purpose flour

Brown beef cubes in oil in large Dutch oven. Then add 5 cups of water and the onions, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, bay leaves, salt, sugar, paprika, pepper and cloves. Let simmer over stove, uncovered, for an hour. Remove bay leaves. Add carrots and potatoes. Cover pot and cook for another 30-40 minutes, or until vegetables are tender. At the end of the cooking time, blend 2/3 cup water and flour together in a small bowl. Pour into stew and blend in and stir another 2-3 minutes—until stew is thickened. Makes about 10 to 12 large servings.

Enjoy!
~Becky

Hot 'n Spicy Crock Pot Chili

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I said it before...and I'll say it again: I love my crock pots! (I say "crock pots" plural, because I have seven of them, in varying sizes. I use them all, often multiple crock pots for one meal. The main entree might go in a large 6 1/2- or 7-quart crock pot, and then I may have several side dishes cooking in the smaller or medium-sized crock pots. If I've got a large crowd coming over, I might have both of my two 7-quart crock pots cooking the same main entree such as roast beef.)

Cooking in a crock pot is an easy and stree-free way to entertain. You start the food cooking in the morning (You can even do all your advance food prep the night before and put the filled crock pot in the fridge until cooking time), and have very little, if any, food prep to do before your guests arrive (which means you can be relaxing beforehand!). And if it's a chilly day outside, you have the added plus of taking in all those wonderful smells coming from the kitchen all day.

I took advantage of my crock pot this past weekend. As I mentioned in previous posts, we had a Super Bowl party this past Sunday. We also had overnight, out-of-town guests coming over Saturday evening. I already had a lot to do Saturday night, with getting ready for the Super Bowl party. There wasn't going to be a lot of "free" time Saturday evening for fixing a big dinner. So my crock pot came to the rescue....again! I used my large crock pot, and made crock pot chili...which was enough for about 12 people. On the side we served sour cream, shredded cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, diced onions, and Fritoes. Our guests brought corn bread and tossed salad. It was a very yummy...and filling meal. I made up the chili the day before--on Friday--and kept it in the fridge until Saturday morning. It cooked all day Saturday, and about 6 pm when our guests arrived, dinner was ready!

The recipe I use for chili is one that I adapted and tweaked from the small recipe booklet that came with my West Bend crockery cooker. Here it is:

3 lbs. lean ground beef
2 ½ cups chopped yellow onions (3-4 large onions)
2 ½ cups chopped green bell pepper (3-4 large bell peppers)
3 tsp. crushed garlic
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies, drained
4 (28-oz.) cans whole tomatoes (undrained), cut up
2 (15 oz.) cans dark red kidney beans, drained
2 (15 oz.) cans light red kidney beans, drained
4 T. chili powder
1 T. ground cumin
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. cayenne pepper

Brown ground beef with onion, green pepper and garlic in large skillet over medium heat. Drain excess grease. Transfer mixture to crock pot. Add remaining ingredients; stir to blend. Cook on low heat setting for 8 to 10 hours.

Enjoy!

~Becky

Ombre St. Patrick's Day Garland

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I have a little last minute St. Patrick's day project to share with you. I wasn’t planning to decorate for St. Patrick’s Day. The last two days I have been sitting on the couch next to a sick little boy. I wasn’t allowed to leave his side except to get him more juice. I think I have seen Toy Story at least 20 times over the last two days. As much as I love my son, a woman can only watch toys come to life so many times. So on one of my juice runs, I checked out my felt stash. I found four different shades of green and a cream that I thought would be cute for a some St. Patrick's day décor. I set out to make an ombre garland. The perfect project for those sitting on the couch days.
I used this as the stencil to help cut out my shamrocks. I cut out 8 of each color. I cut 40 shamrocks. I would have loved to run over to my sewing machine to sew this together quickly. Since I wasn’t allowed to leave the couch. I just used embroidery thread to connect all of the shamrocks. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would. This project may be coming a little late this year. I will definitely be keeping it for next year too!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Muffins

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I generally am not a muffin person. I don’t know why. I justprefer cookies. Or the occasional cake. Or, mmmm… ice cream. Or cheesecake…yum!Okay getting side tracked. Anyway, during my recent vacation I had an extrazucchini lying around (who doesn’t) and decided that zucchini muffins were theway to go. And not just plain old zucchini, but chocolate chocolate chipzucchini. I found the recipe on From Ketchup to Chutney and they turned outpretty good. I may have overbaked them just slightly because they weren’t asmoist as I would like, but still very tasty. And for anyone worried, you don’ttaste the zucchini at all.
I did make a few tiny adjustments. The original recipecalled for half wheat flour and half all-purpose flour and I just used AP flourfor the whole thing. It also called for plain yogurt and I used plain Greekyogurt since I had some. One little thing that threw me was the orange zest. Inthe future, I might leave it out. I’m not a big fan of chocolate and citrus,and the orange smell was definitely prevalent the first day. However it diddissipate after that first day, so maybe it’s fine. If you do like thecitrus-chocolate combination, by all means, leave it in. The recipe also saidthat it only made 24 mini-muffins but it made almost three times that.

1 ½ cups sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 ¼ cups shredded zucchini
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of ½ orange
2 ½ cups white flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon8 oz chocolate chips
Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. Either lineyour muffin tins or spray them with Pam. In a large bowl, beat or whisktogether the sugar, oil and vanilla, then beat in one egg at a time untilsmooth, followed by the yogurt. Stir in the citrus zest and the gratedzucchini.
I usually don’t advocate separate bowls for wet and dryingredients, but for this recipe I would make an exception. So in a separatebowl stir together your dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt andcinnamon. Make sure they are mixed thoroughly. Add half the dry mixture to thewet mixture and stir (by hand, not mixer!) until it’s just mixed, before addingthe rest. You don’t want to overmix, so just make sure that it’s allincorporated and that’s it. Add in your chocolate chips and stir briefly.
Fill your muffin cups three quarters full and bake. I mademini muffins so I baked each batch about 13 minutes. If I did it again I mighttry a batch at 11 minutes and see if they are any more moist. Full size muffinscook for 15-20 minutes.
I think my favorite part of making these was giving some toa couple male friends (mostly for them to take to their families). I didn’tthink zucchini was such a weird ingredient but they both balked and said, “Chocolatechip—what?” Later one of them referred to the muffins as “Rutabaga-asparagus orsomething.” So I guess as long as your guests or kids aren’t as picky as thosetwo, you’ll be set. 

Grandma Spencer's Strawberry Spinach Salad

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Yesterday was my dad, the "Big Man's", birthday.  In our family we don't go all out or anything for birthdays, but we did all head over to Mom and Dad's house to have a nice family dinner.  Mom had to work late yesterday and my offer of making dinner was turned down because it would've apparently taken too much time so we ended up ordering pizza for dinner.  As a nice little side to go along with our pizza I decided to make this strawberry spinach salad.

This salad is a family favorite.  When we were kids (well maybe not my brother who also wouldn't eat ketchup) we would always gobble it up even though it was full of spinach!  My Grandma Spencer used to always make it and it was a recipe that we made sure to get from our grandpa once she had passed away.  Now we make it for special dinners every once in a while or it's also great to take to pot lucks as well. 


And in case you were wondering, there was no cake for dessert, Dad is not a big cake person.  Instead we had brownies, his all time favorite.  My sister Avery made the brownies and added pecans to half of them because that's the way dad likes them.  (Well Dad would prefer the whole pan have nuts but some other people in the family are picky.)  
Ingredients

• 12 oz fresh baby spinach
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons cider or raspberry vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons minced green onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of pepper
• 1 pint strawberries, sliced

Directions

1. Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, green onion, salt, and pepper in a small bowl.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours (or longer.)
2. Toast sesame seeds at 350 degrees for about ten minutes (150 for about 5 minutes in a toaster oven.)
3. Toss spinach, sesame seeds, dressing, and strawberries in a large bowl.  Enjoy!

Ombre St. Patrick's Day Garland

To contact us Click HERE
I have a little last minute St. Patrick's day project to share with you. I wasn’t planning to decorate for St. Patrick’s Day. The last two days I have been sitting on the couch next to a sick little boy. I wasn’t allowed to leave his side except to get him more juice. I think I have seen Toy Story at least 20 times over the last two days. As much as I love my son, a woman can only watch toys come to life so many times. So on one of my juice runs, I checked out my felt stash. I found four different shades of green and a cream that I thought would be cute for a some St. Patrick's day décor. I set out to make an ombre garland. The perfect project for those sitting on the couch days.
I used this as the stencil to help cut out my shamrocks. I cut out 8 of each color. I cut 40 shamrocks. I would have loved to run over to my sewing machine to sew this together quickly. Since I wasn’t allowed to leave the couch. I just used embroidery thread to connect all of the shamrocks. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would. This project may be coming a little late this year. I will definitely be keeping it for next year too!