Happy Valentine's Day...And a New Blogging Venture!

Hey friends and happy Valentine's Day! I have a few recipes waiting in the wings to share with you, but I have been right out straight these past several days and literally haven't had any spare time to prepare the blog posts. But in the meantime, I wanted to wish you all a lovely Valentine's Day! Whether you have a significant other or not, I think Valentine's Day is a wonderful holiday to celebrate the people you love and let them know how much they mean to you. I feel so blessed to be celebrating Valentine's this year with my fiance, Mike. Next year on this holiday I will call him my husband. Wow!! ♥

I'm not going to bombard you with Valentine's ideas for sweet treats to make since it is the night before, after all...and if you're making a delectable dessert for the holiday, chances are you already have your recipe! But I bet there's a chance that some of you out there might be scrambling for last minute gift ideas, so I have a fun one for you.

Check out this link (which has several great ideas), and in particular, look at #10. That's my favorite! You can easily make up all sorts of cute phrases to tell someone how much you care about and love them using food! Candy, snacks, food, etc. etc., etc... I'm telling you, the possibilities are endless. You could...

1) Buy Riesen candies and tell the person all the riesens you love them.

2) Give them nuts because you're nuts about them.

3) Give them a pear and tell them that you make the perfect pear.

4) Or how about an orange...and say "orange you're glad you're my valentine?"

5) I'm bananas over you! (obviously give them a banana :))

These are just a few ideas. And they can work for significant others, family members, kids, coworkers, etc. Anyone would appreciate adorable (and edible!), cute little gifts like these! And I would imagine that if you go to the store and stand in front of any shelf of food or display of candy, you could come up with many more ideas than the few I've listed here. Plays on words like these are some of my favorite things!! Just ask anyone who knows me. I am constantly coming up with puns and plays on words. After writing about this cute gift idea, it's seeming so much fun to me. I am thinking that I may just have to put a last-minute basket of things like this together for Mike.... Hmmmm. Shhh, don't tell!!

And on a completely different note, I wanted to share with you my second blog I just started! It's a blog all about beer.

You likely know, if you're a regular reader, that I am a big fan of craft beer and that Mike and I homebrew together. Well, I thought it would be fun to chronicle our beer adventures together on a blog! So, last week I began "Craft Beer Loving Girl." I'd love for you to check it out! I will probably only post there once a week or so, but you should definitely head on over and let me know what you think. :) I just had a random thought, looking at this picture above. Should I name the blog "Will Run For Beer" instead of "Craft Beer Loving Girl"?? What do you think???

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day today! I'll be back soon with a delicious recipe for chocolate chunk toffee bars. ;)

Homemade Calzones

As you may know if you're a regular follower of the blog, I'm a big fan of homemade pizza. It's definitely one of my all-time favorite homemade meals to make. It's so versatile and soooo yummy!! 

I've posted a few times about pizza in the past, including:

Savory Pumpkin Pizza Dough

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Peppers, Onions, and Rosemary

Root Vegetable Pizza with Sweet Potato, Onion, Rutabaga, and Acorn Squash (pictured below)

And I've even posted about a Breakfast Pizza, as well as a dessert style Candy Pizza!

So, I think you get the gist. I love pizza. ;)

Last week, however, I wanted to change it up. I was craving those typical flavors, but I didn't feel like doing the "same old" thing and make traditional pizza. So, of course, making calzones was the next best alternative! I've never actually made homemade calzones before, but I assumed it would be somewhat easy, and I didn't really follow a recipe for this...

I used a Stop n' Shop brand whole wheat pizza dough, divided it into two halves, and rolled each half out like I would if I were making pizza.

I baked a couple chicken breasts in the oven, one with bbq sauce and one with a plain tomato sauce.

Next, I sauteed an assortment of veggies, pictured here below (red peppers, onions, broccoli, and mushrooms). I believe I sauteed them in olive oil, and seasoned them with salt, pepper, and rosemary.

Next, Mike and I each built our own calzone. In mine, on one half of the dough, I first layered some of the already fully-cooked chicken breast, and I topped it with some more tomato sauce. I decided to cook both the chicken and veggies ahead of time because I wasn't sure how well they'd cook inside the dough.

Then I threw in some veggies; I just used the peppers, onions, and mushrooms in mine. Oh, and I added some chopped tomato too (which I did not saute ahead of time).

What's next? Cheese of course! I sprinkled some shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan on mine. When my fillings were all ready to go, I simply folded the other half of the dough over top of them.

(that looks like a lot of cheese, but it's not, I promise)

My and Mike's calzone's were a bit different in size. Oops! But who needs perfection when you're making calzones? Not me!

To seal the calzones, I just pressed the outside edges together with a fork.

How cute is my handsome fiance? ♥

I baked the calzones on my awesome pizza stone at 425 degrees for about 12 - 15 minutes, until they were lightly browned.

Apparently the dough of Mike's calzone was a bit thinner? That's my guess why his was more browned after baking.

Here's an inside shot of Mike's calzone. So good! In his, he put the bbq chicken, extra bbq sauce, all the different veggies, and an assortment of three cheeses (mozzarella, parm, and pepper jack!!).

And this was mine. Loved them both! We shared. I ate about 1/3 of mine and 1/3 of Mike's. I had intended to serve these with a side salad, but on this particular weekday I had already been busy in the kitchen for 2 hours before starting on the calzones, and to be honest, I just got too lazy and tired to prep all the veggies for a salad too. But that would have been the perfect accompaniment to these calzones!

The only thing I wish had happened was that the dough had risen more and was a bit thicker. It remained pretty thin, but that's ultimately okay. I'm not sure if I rolled it out too thin or if it maybe had something to do with the fact that this dough had been frozen and I had thawed it before using it? Not sure.

Either way, bottom line = I'd totally make calzones like this again! I'd also be excited to make an entirely veggie calzone without meat. Looove my veggies!

Trail Mix Cookies

If you read my last post, you know that I recently made some homemade trail mix. Yummm! I've been enjoying it as a snack these last few days. This weekend I needed to make a dessert to bring and enjoy with friends while we watched the Super Bowl. That's when I remembered that my friend Jeanne from Adirondack Baker recently made trail mix cookies. Voila! I decided I'd make some too. 

Jeanne's recipe calls for trail mix, as well as coconut and almonds. I chose not to add the coconut and almonds to my cookies, but you definitely can. That's the beauty of this recipe. The extra ingredients you can add are totally flexible! I also cut the original recipe in half here. So the proportions below are what I used when I made these. This recipe made 20 cookies for me that were about 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter.

Ingredients:

-1 stick butter, melted

-2/3 cup packed light brown sugar

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 egg

-1 and 1/8 cups all-purpose flour

-1/2 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-3/4 cup trail mix*

-1/3 cup mini pretzels, crushed

-1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

*I used my own homemade trail mix that was my previous recipe on the blog, but you can use any homemade or store bought mix that you like. Also of note, with mine, I removed the pretzels from the mix and crushed them separately before adding them to the cookie dough. The trail mix itself had whole mini pretzels in it, and I didn't want pretzels of that size in the cookies. :) You can go back to my trail mix post to get other ideas for ingredients you can add to your own trail mix and/or to these cookies!

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Melt butter and pour into a large bowl. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla. Mix completely and let cool for 15 minutes (you add the egg next and don't want to cook the egg!). To the cooled mixture, add the egg and mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the sugar mixture, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the trail mix and chocolate chips until everything's well combined.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, and bake for 10 - 12 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned (I baked mine slightly longer than I wanted to, but they still turned out great).

I love the texture of these cookies. Although I cooked them a little longer than I intended, they were still very chewy with only the slightest crisp on the outer edges. Perfection!

Thanks to the Adirondack Baker for such a delicious, unique cookie recipe!

:)

Homemade Trail Mix

Trail mix is one of those foods, at least for me, that I could eat and eat and eat and eat... Handful after handful. Can you relate? Fortunately, I have pretty good awareness and self control so I don't actually eat and eat and eat and eat treats such as trail mix. But I know that if I were to let my cravings get the best of me, I would keep eating tasty snacks like this homemade trail mix I made last week!

I actually made this batch of trail mix to give to Mike's brother, Dave (my future brother-in-law!), as part of his birthday gift. Dave is an avid bird watcher (it's an intense hobby if you don't know much about it!), and I thought it would be nice to give him a snack he could bring along with him on his birding trips that sometimes are hours and hours long.

Below I've listed the ingredients and proportions I used for this batch of trail mix, but obviously you can add whatever your favorite ingredients are in whatever proportions you'd like! That's the beauty of a treat like this. Trail mix doesn't require a very precise recipe since there's no baking involved, of course!

Ingredients:

-2 cups mini pretzels

-1 and 1/2 cups Quaker "whole hearts" cereal

-1 cup dried cranberries 

-3/4 cup dark chocolate m & m's

-3/4 cup pretzel m & m's

-2/3 cup whole almonds

-2/3 cup dry roasted peanuts

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. That's it. ;-)

Store in airtight containers or ziploc baggies!

I went a little crazy with the m & m's in this batch. Feel free to tone down the chocolate if you want a healthier version!

This made about 7 cups of trail mix for me. I don't know the nutritional information for this mix, but I'd guess that eating no more than 1/2 cup of it at one time is a safe bet. If you're afraid of overeating a snack such as trail mix, simply proportion the snack ahead of time into appropriate serving sizes. For me, when I take a snack like this to work, I only bring enough for one serving a day. That way there's no temptation for me to keep eating since after I finish that one serving, there's no more!

I had jury duty today, and I brought some of the mix with me to snack on when we got a break. It was perfect! I haven't made trail mix in so long. Making it this time around and remembering how much I love it will hopefully remind me to make it more often...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I got out of jury duty, thank goodness! There was potential I'd be on a case for 3 weeks... Yikes! 

Some other ideas of ingredients you could interchange or add in addition to the above ingredients include: raisins, dried fruits (apricots, banana chips, etc.), other nuts, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, soy nuts, and coconut. Oh, and Teddy Grahams! I love Teddy Grahams in trail mix. I didn't happen to add any to this batch because they weren't on sale at the store this week, but they are such a fun addition to trail mix...especially when it's a mix for kids! Or, for adults who are kids at heart. :)

What other ingredients do you enjoy in your trail mix? I'd love to hear about your favorites!

Oh, and stay tuned... I made a second batch of trail mix, and I ended up using some of it to make some pretty darn tasty trail mix cookies. That recipe's up next!!

Bean and Butternut Squash Chili (Crock Pot Recipe)

Helloooo! I've been meaning to write this post since Tuesday, but alas, time has slipped away from me. What a busy week!

Speaking of busy weeks, this recipe for bean and butternut squash chili is perfect for a busy week. There's nothing quite like coming home from work, walking in the door, and smelling the delicious aromas of dinner that's been cooking slowly in the crock pot all day long. Mmmmm. It's one of my favorite food "experiences"! Sadly though, I don't cook enough with my crock pot. I really need to make more tasty meals with it!

I was a big fan of this chili when I made it last week. But you know what? I became even more of a big fan of it when I ate it as leftovers. This was one of those dishes (in my opinion) that's better the day after! I made this last Thursday, I believe, and I just finished up the leftovers this week. Soooo good! This hearty, flavorful chili, paired with a delicious slice of When Pigs Fly bread (their best-selling baby spinach, onion, and garlic ciabatta), was my lunch on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week. And nope, I didn't get sick of it. That's the sign of a good recipe. :)

The original recipe was posted on the blog Perry's Plate, and the recipe was actually a guest post by another great blog, Budget Gourmet Mom. The ingredients posted below are what I used (slightly different than the original). I ended up adding some chopped green pepper that wasn't in the original recipe. Otherwise, I followed it almost exactly with just a couple other slight changes!

Ingredients:

-1 20-oz. package butternut squash

-1 medium onion, diced

-1 medium green pepper, diced

-2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped

-olive oil

-1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

-1 15-oz. can white beans, rinsed and drained

-1 14.5-oz. vegetable or chicken broth (low sodium, if desired)

-1 16-oz. bag frozen corn

-2 Tbsp. chili powder

-salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion, pepper, and jalapeno pepper for a few minutes. Add the butternut squash and saute until slightly tender.

Pour the sauteed vegetables into your crock pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until well-mixed. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Serves 6 to 8.

I cooked mine on low for closer to 9 to 10 hours, and it turned out just fine. I also sauteed the veggies the night before, let them cool, and kept them in the fridge overnight before putting them in the crock pot early the next morning. As I mentioned, the addition of the green pepper was not in the original recipe, and I also added two jalapeno peppers instead of one. Also of note, in my opinion, this chili was a little heavy on the corn. When I make it again, I think I might only add 8 or 10 ounces of a bag of frozen corn instead of the entire 16 ounces. I also think you could easily add other veggies too like other types of squash or peppers.

As I mentioned above, for some reason, this chili tasted better to me the next day (and on subsequent days when I continued to enjoy the leftovers). I'm not really sure why! Sometimes I guess it just seems that a recipe benefits from "sitting" longer and letting the flavors meld together better.

As you can see, there are two "sets" of pictures of this chili. The ones of the chili in the green bowl I took the night I made this chili. And the other ones in the white mug are of when I ate the chili at work for lunch. I'm obviously not an experienced photographer, nor do I have great camera equipment or any special lighting, so I do apologize for the less-than-perfect pictures! But trust me, despite how this chili looks in the photos, it's quite a tasty recipe!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl! Did you know that the average American consumes four chicken wings on Super Bowl Sunday? I did not until I heard that on the radio today (if it is, in fact, true). Mike and some friends and I plan to munch on various goodies during the game, including homemade pizza. I am thinking that one of the pizzas we make has to be shaped like this one. How fun is that?? And if you're not a pepperoni person, you could easily do sliced tomatoes or something in place of the pepperoni. I found some great Super Bowl appetizer ideas on Pinterest this week!

(photo source)

Gooo Giants! And yes, I live in Boston now, but the first 22 years of my life were spent in New York State so I'm rooting for the Giants. :)

Enjoy your celebrations, friends!

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great weekend and a good start to your week today. Mondays are always tough! You know what might help you get up on a weekday morning? Having some delicious pumpkin cranberry bread waiting for you when you wake up. ;) 

(photo source)

No, that's not my own lovely photo, unfortunately! I didn't end up taking many pictures of this bread, sadly. I made it late at night and just didn't feel like taking the time to take many photos, especially since I was wrapping all of it up to give away and I was somewhat in a rush when I was doing it. My apologies!

I made this bread toward the end of last week, as I wanted to bake something yummy to take home to my family members when I traveled back to NY for the weekend. I hadn't baked with pumpkin for quite some time (not since my pumpkin gingerbread muffins in December!), but that doesn't mean I haven't stopped thinking about my beloved pumpkin. It was high time I paid it the attention it deserves though! This moist, delicious, flavorful pumpkin cranberry bread was the result.

The recipe is from Very Best Baking, but I altered the original recipe slightly. My exact measurements are below, and the original recipe can be found here. I reduced the amount of sugar from 3 cups to 2, added a combination of all-purpose and white whole wheat flour, and reduced the amount of vegetable oil and replaced some of that with a light vanilla yogurt. Oh, and lastly, the original recipe calls for orange juice or water, but instead, I used some cranberry pomegranate juice!

Of note, this recipe does make two loaves, so you can halve the recipe if you'd like. With the ingredients below, I ended up making one 8 x 4 loaf, 8 mini loaves, and two muffins (I made the muffins for Mike and me - someone had to taste test the recipe to be sure it was okay to give away!).

Ingredients:

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 cup white whole wheat flour

-2 tsp. cinnamon

-1 tsp. nutmeg

-1/2 tsp. cloves

-2 tsp. baking soda

-1 and 1/2 tsp. salt

-2 cups sugar

-1 can (15 oz). pumpkin

-4 eggs

-1/3 cup vegetable oil

-6 oz. light yogurt (I used vanilla)

-1/2 cup cranberry pomegranate juice

-1 cup dried cranberries (I used pomegranate flavored craisins)

(Apparently, with this recipe I was really into supporting Ocean Spray, and in particular, their cranberry pomegranate flavored products! Too funny.)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the pans you're planning to use, or place liners in muffin pan. Combine flours, spices, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, yogurt, and juice in a large mixing bowl, and beat until well blended. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture, and beat until well-incorporated. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaf pans for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife or cake tester comes out clean. Bake muffins for 15 to 20 minutes. Let loaves cool in pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on wire rack. Let muffins cool in pan for 3 or 4 minutes before removing to cool completely on wire rack.

Such cute lil' mini loaves!

I enjoyed my muffin served warm. Sooo good! One thing I might try differently the next time I make this recipe is to toss the dried cranberries in some flour before adding them to the batter. They did not all sink to the bottom of the loaves or muffins, but they also didn't seem to be distributed evenly from top to bottom in the loaves. In the end, no big deal though! But perhaps tossing the cranberries lightly in flour would help with that. Also, I think this recipe could be made without an electric mixer. It seemed easy enough to mix by hand, I think!

Be back again soon. :) Next time, I will have a crock pot dinner recipe to share involving another favorite orange ingredient of mine - butternut squash!

A Review of "Winter Warmer Thursday" at Jamaica Plain's Ten Tables

I love food. As soon as I'm done with one meal, I'm thinking about the next. Although, in all seriousness, I must confess; I actually think about several meals ahead, not just the next one... Sometimes I wonder if the amount of time I spend thinking about food might be a problem... :)

Homemade meals are usually my preference. Creating and cooking in the kitchen is very enjoyable for me, and I love cooking for and eating with loved ones. However, every now and then it's nice to have someone else do the cooking for you, and I'm sure many of you would agree! Once in a while I just really want to go out to eat. Fortunately, on one of those recent occasions when I "craved' going out to eat, Mike and I could just take a 10-minute walk down the street and head to Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain (or "JP" as we residents and locals call it!). Last spring I wrote a blog post about our 3-year anniversary dinner that we had at Ten Tables, so it may sound familiar to you! And for all you locals in and around Boston, I'm going to go ahead and assume you definitely know Ten Tables. In addition to the JP location, there are restaurants in Cambridge and Provincetown.

I believe it was the last Thursday in December that Mike and I went to Ten Tables for their Thursday special "Winter Warmer" night. This consists of their mac n' cheese and a glass of wine for $14. You can rarely get dinner and a drink for $14 anywhere around here! It's definitely a steal. We arrived shortly before 6:00 and were seated quickly on the bar side of the restaurant; the Winter Warmer night is only on the bar side, and the other side is the main restaurant (and yes, it has only ten tables, as you may have guessed!). Our service was prompt and friendly, and we each started with a glass of wine. I had the house white on tap (you read that right - on tap!), which was a local wine from Westport Rivers Vineyard in Westport, MA. I have to apologize because I don't actually remember which specific Westport wine it was. Mike enjoyed a red, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. Within 15 or 20 minutes of our arrival, the place was full! We had arrived just in time to snag a table before there was a wait.

(image source)

As we enjoyed conversation, in the back of my mind I thought our mac n' cheese was taking a little longer than I would expect it to, but I didn't think much of it since Mike and I were chatting, sipping our wine, and enjoying a delicious, soft dinner roll dipped in olive oil (the roll is one of my favorite aspects of eating at Ten Tables!). After a time, our server came over to let us know that they were very sorry that our mac n' cheese was taking longer than usual and that they'd "take care of it" for us. We honestly didn't  think it was taking too long, but we thanked our server and continued to chat. A few more minutes later, a manager (I believe) came to the table, and he also apologized for the longer than usual wait we were having for our food. The manager offered to give us a second glass of wine on the house because of the wait. Mike and I weren't quite ready for a second glass yet, so we thanked him and he went away. At this point we were a little confused about what "deal" we might get due to the contradicting messages; would they comp our mac n' cheese or would we get an extra glass of wine? Either way, it didn't matter to us! Anyway, very shortly thereafter, our mac n' cheese was served, piping hot and each one in its own adorable little cast iron skillet. The portion size was perfect. It was definitely filling, but not too much so, like pasta dishes often can be. We each finished the entire dish, as it was delicious! I can't remember what types of cheese were used in it (sorry!), but it was very tasty. Part way through our meal, the manager returned to offer us that second glass of wine, and we both took him up on the offer. :) I enjoyed a second glass of the same white I began with, and Mike switched over to white for his second glass. I'm not a wine connoisseur by any means (as you may know if you're a regular blog follower, I'm much more of a craft beer gal!!), but I do enjoy most kinds of wine even if I might not be able to critique them like an expert would. This white from Westport was very crisp and refreshing. It was very easy to drink two glasses. :)

Once we finished our meal and the bill came, we were both curious as to what it would say. As it turns out, we were only charged for the mac n' cheese ($12 for each) and our total of four glasses of wine was free. Yummy, comforting mac n' cheese and two glasses of wine for $12 each. Not bad at all, I'd say! The night we went was definitely a cold winter night too, so the "winter warmer" theme was quite appropriate. Ten Tables was the perfect place to be for us on that night! So warm and cozy. If you live in JP or in and around Boston and have not yet been to Ten Tables, you must go. Soon! 

And you know what else you should check out at Ten Tables? If you're not a vegetarian, you should absolutely go to their "Beerger" night on Mondays (also on the bar side like Winter Warmer Thursdays). We've been to Beerger night about 5 or 6 times, I'd say, and it's deeelicious! The deal on Mondays is the signature Ten Tables burger and a beer for $15. And the burger? One of the best burgers around, we think. You can catch a glimpse of this awesome burger on the "bar bites" page of their website.

(image source)

Ironically, on one of the nights we enjoyed our burgers, we had another slight mishap in service. When Mike took the first bite of his burger, he bit into plastic! Oops. It turns out that each burger bun is individually wrapped, and the plastic from the bottom of his bun wasn't fully removed. Our server quickly fixed the error by having a new burger freshly made for him, and his meal was comped that night, as was the right thing to do in our minds. 

I don't mean to mention these two errors in a negative light; these things certainly happen from time to time in the food industry! I wanted to mention them though because I think that both times, the ways in which Ten Tables handled the situations were appropriate. And that's another reason why we love Ten Tables. Not only do they have delicious food and a warm, cozy, friendly atmosphere, they also have wonderful customer service. 

Now, after reading this, don't you want to go to Ten Tables? I hope so! I didn't really intend this to be a "review" of Ten Tables, but I suppose it turned out that way. Well, it's a review of their Monday and Thursday night specials anyway. :) Since I've been trying to reduce the amount of cooking and baking I do because of my wrist tendonitis, I thought I'd change it up and share my thoughts on a recent dining experience. As a JP resident who loves eating and drinking locally, I wanted to give this top-notch restaurant a positive nod. If you love a good deal like we do, I'd highly recommend the Beerger night on Mondays or Winter Warmer night on Thursdays. You won't be disappointed! And if you're thinking about having a more elaborate meal, definitely look into eating on the restaurant side (the side with the signature ten tables). You can review my blog post from last April about our great experience sitting at the chef's table. We've only eaten on the bar side since that meal, but perhaps it's time for us to return for a special occasion dinner there!

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures for you in this post! When we went to Ten Tables that night, I wasn't planning on writing a blog post about our experience, so I didn't take any pictures. But you can rest assured that the mac n' cheese both looked and tasted great. :)

Happy almost weekend, friends!