Friday (Monday) Favorites: Cupcake Merlot

Since I missed last week....

How cutesy and pretty is this? Wine + Cupcakes but not at the same time, rather name the wine Cupcake Vineyards and then slap on a super cute label and ta da! Happiness!

NYC Pizza? Umm, YES PLEASE!

This is what I want to do for my 30th birthday. Scott's Pizza Tours Let's start planning!!!!

A Feast for Kings

This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple so I wanted to go all out and show Steve my domestic skills. It was just him and I for dinner, but I didn't want to skimp. I wanted to make a feast with all of our favorites.

Instead of an entire turkey, I made a turkey breast. I bought one of those freezer-to-oven bagged breasts which turned out delicious, tender, and juicy. The bagged turkeys have NEVER let me down. The turkey came with a gravy packet too which was equally delectable. 

We looove mashed potatoes but I came across a recipe for turnip mashed potatoes. I don't think I've ever eaten a turnip and Steve wasn't too sure he had either. But the description said it tastes like a really mild radish. We love radishes so I decided to make two batches of mash - one regular and one turnip style. The turnip potatoes were AMAZING. The difference between the two were subtle, but the turnip mash had a slight bite to it and if you didn't know there was turnip in there, you'd be licking your lips trying to figure out why your mashed potatoes tasted kind of spicy. 

I made my own stuffing, using a simple recipe that my mom gave me. But, instead of white bread I used whole wheat bread just because it was what I already had on hand. I sauteed a yellow onion and three stalks of celery in a cube of butter and poured it over stale bread cubes. I added 2 tablespoons of poultry seasoning and a can of chicken broth. Since I didn't have a whole turkey to stuff, I baked the stuffing in the oven for about 40 minutes. YUM. Sometimes I add apples to the stuffing but we had some home-made applesauce frozen from a stash Steve's mom gave us earlier this year and I figured that would satisfy our appletite (ha!).

Instead of a traditional Thanksgiving veggie dish like green bean casserole or carrots or broccoli, or cauliflower, or ANY OTHER VEGETABLE, I had to come up with something creative so that Steve would get his vitamins. So, I made a tomato, red bell pepper, and radish salad. I cut the veggies up in big pieces and tossed them in a home-made vinagrette (olive oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, walnuts, thyme, salt, pepper, and a weird herb Steve planted for me outside) and added some crumbled feta cheese on top. This was a hit. Steve couldn't get enough!

I usually make the Pilsbury croissant rolls for Thanksgiving, but this year since I was on a domestic binge, I decided to make some semi-homemade biscuits. I used my go-to Bisquick recipe that I posted about before. 

Last, but certainly not least. The pumpkin pie. I really wanted to try out a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Tirimisu. Steve wasn't really into the idea, and requested pumpkin pie instead. So, I attempted my very first pumpkin pie of all time and found a Paula Dean recipe for pumpkin pie using cream cheese. It came out so good that pretty much all I could think about all day today was getting my paws on another piece of that pie!!!

Now, we have so many leftovers we'll have lunch and dinner for the rest of the weekend and I am planning on making a turkey and mushroom soup next week. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and gorged yourselves like we did. Cheers to good food, family, and friends!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Some things I am thankful for:

1. I have a good job that I enjoy.
2. My wonderful husband treats me like gold.
3. I have a warm, cozy house where I am able to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
4. My mom is the best mom in the world and even though she isn't physically here on T-day, she is here in spirit. My kitchen smells like my mom's cooking and I love that I always resort to the way she does things.

Read about my Thanksgiving meal on Dwight Delight!

Hoarder

While taking a shower tonight, I looked down and saw 9 various bottles of shampoo and conditioner. For TWO people. Why do I keep so many bottles of shampoo around? Well, at that moment in the shower, I realized I am a shampoo hoarder. I buy a certain shampoos because of their lovely smell, color-protective qualities, special feature like Volume! or Shine! or based on a recommendation from my hair stylist. I usually use about 3/4 of these bottles, and then I decide to buy a new shampoo. I make up some reason why I don't like the shampoo anymore, like the smell has gone bad, or I found one that smells better. Or, that last bottle reaaally made my hair color fade. Really, I think I just enjoy breaking up with my shampoo only to replace it with something newer, better, and yummier. But, no, I never throw those mostly-finished bottles away. I keep them in the shower, just in case I change my mind later. And look in my bathroom cabinets...you'll see more old shampoos. What's with me?! Does anyone else do this too?

Mini Deep-Dish Pizzas

Recipe from my new favorite cookbook magazine, Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart magazine. This recipe is perfect for appetizers at a party or a fun night with kids. You can add different toppings to each "muffin" for a variety of pizzas! Here's how it works:

Ingredients:

• Olive oil for muffin pan
• all-purpose flour, for rolling
• 1/2 pound homemade or store-bought pizza dough in 12 pieces (I made my own dough with my breadmaker!! and it worked!!)
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
• pizza sauce (I made my own)
• desired toppings (I used pineapple, artichoke hearts, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and mushrooms)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Lightly brush muffin pan with oil. On a lightly floured workspace, roll out dough pieces to rounds that fit the muffin cups. Fill each cup with 1 round, gently pressing dough into bottom and sides of cup. Season with salt and pepper.

Add about a tablespoon of sauce to bottom of each dough cup. Add cheese, and then toppings. Bake until dough is golden brown and crisp, 12 minutes. Let cool 2 minutes before removing from cups. Serve and enjoy!

Friday Favorites: Four Loko

To those of you who have been watching the news lately...this is Steve's last chance.