cooking up a storm!

i have been one busy little kitchen bee the last couple days! sunday i made pot roast with carrots, onions, and fresh herbs in my new dutch oven, mashed potatoes, and baking soda drop biscuits for dinner. all the new recipes i tried were very easy to follow...the pot roast was from the pioneer woman cooks and the biscuits were from the good houskeeping baking book. side note: i will freely admit that i have marked several recipes in both books and look forward to trying them all out very soon! but, back to the dinner...it was my first attempt at real, in the oven, pot roast so i was a bit anxious as to how it would turn out. in the end i had nothing to be anxious about...it cooked up nicely and everyone loved it! i think next time i make it though i'll add more carrots since we all like the carrots and there didn't seem to be enough for all of us to have a good serving of. 

sunday dinner!

and since this recipe was so super easy...brown the veggies and then the meat in the pot on the stove before popping it all into the oven with the added spices for a few hours...i'll be making it way more often! the drop biscuits were a last minute addition that i thought of about 20 minutes before we sat down to eat. i used the scooper for making the biscuits, that way they would all be the same size, but didn't realize they would be so small! oh well, i'll rename them 2-bite biscuits when i make them again...stephen loved them and i think he ate about a half dozen of 'em before the night was over!

everyone seemed to love everything so that made me happy and naturally more willing to make the recipe again!

bolognese sauce

back to the kitchen on monday where i attempted to make zucchini bread using a weight watchers recipe...it didn't turn out at all, and i threw the whole thing out. i think i might have added too much zucchini or used the wrong kind of pan...or any number of other things! oh well, i'll try another recipe at some point since i bought more zucchini than i would need, becuase i didn't use a list like i should have! yet more evidence of why i should never go to the store without a list! ah, well, i'll learn one of these days!

next up was bolognese sauce in the dutch oven. turns out, bolognese is just a fancy name for meat sauce! but it also turns out to be so very yummy! i used a recipe from a slow cooking book that i got from the library...i made a couple alterations to it by adding some minced garlic and italian seasonings (i have to have garlic in anything remotely italian, it's just not the same without it). i again stunk up the house with the minced onions, and again realized that we  need a bigger house where hubby's "office" is far from the kitchen since he hates when i cut/cook onions! aside from that, it was great...cooked nice and slow on the stove top for about 4 hours total, it created a very lovely smell while simmering and made me very hungry! 

the sauce was used to cover angel hair pasta for dinner and i picked up some fazoli's breadsticks to go along with it as well. we all like fazoli's breadsticks (especially the kids) so i figured i could let them cook those for us! it was a very yummy dinner with enough left for lunch one day for me!

and still more baking on monday when i decided to bake brownies for the hubby and kids...using a box mix this time since i can't possibly screw those up and everyone loves them! then after making those i made up some lemon bars using the good housekeeping book. this was my first attempt at lemon bars so i was naturally hoping for a good outcome...especially since i was the only one who would eat them!

fresh lemon bars

i followed the recipe as written...realizing that i'd really like to have a food processor for cutting the butter and flour mixture together for the dough, the pastry cutter works fine but it's quite a workout for my arms and hands! on second thought, maybe the pastry cutter is better since it gives me more of a workout than a food processor would! anyway, back to the lemon bars...i got everything assembled, baked the dough first then added the lemon topping before baking it some more. once that was out and cooled a bit, i added the powdered sugar to the top and created a lovely pale yellow, sugar covered treat that, to my surprise, i am completely addicted to! the real surprise is that they aren't even that great and yet i still can't seem to stop eating them! the cookie bottom is not as crispy as i think it should be, but the lemon topping isn't super tart so maybe that's why i'm so into them!

and so monday was my super busy in the kitchen day...i ended up running the dishwasher twice and that nearly never happens! 

sweet muffins

tuesday was to be a sewing/crafting day since i cooked/baked so much the 2 previous days, but alas i was compelled to bake something! so that morning i made up some sweet muffins from a weight watchers cookbook that i've got. the recipe is super easy, with several variations to a basic muffin recipe, and i've made them in the past so i knew what to expect. no surprises and they came out well...a little crusty on the outside, but yummy still the same!

i'm thinking of taking the day off from the kitchen today and concentrate more on making clothes for jordan or working on the quilt that is waiting to be quilted! i've already started on a skirt and dress for her, so i really should follow through and finish them! i also have high hopes for making myself a skirt or dress this week as well...so i better get to it!

once i get back into the kitchen i'll be making up a chocolate torte again, jordan wants fried pickles so i'm gonna try my hand at making those, too. and i still need to get that monkey bread made up!

come on back soon and many thanks!