Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Clever Crocking

My Mom, she's a clever one! She attached the Christmas light timer to the crock pot for an overnight breakfast. What a great idea! When your workday exceeds 8 hours or you need to cook something overnight, use the light timer. The timer can be set to start and stop. All you do it plug the timer in the wall and your crock pot into the timer! 

Monday, December 19, 2011

Party Time

We hosted a holiday party this past weekend! It was a lot of fun to get dressed up, clean, decorate, bake, and enjoy time with our friends. I took a lot of food pictures, but not so many friend pictures. Here's a few party pictures and recipes to follow!

Why yes, that is a cardboard deer in our condo! 



Cake Pops 
(Betty Crocker holiday cake mix, almond bark and sprinkles)


Friends 


Tortellini Pasta Salad

This is basically the same recipe as my summer pasta salad but with fewer ingredients (much easier) and festive too!


Tortellini Pasta Salad

Ingredients:
2 packages Barilla 3 Cheese Tortellini
1 green pepper chopped
1 red pepper chopped
1 packet of dry italian dressing
1/2 bottle of italian dressing
feta cheese

*NOTE- I made this for a party. If you are just making it for dinner, I would suggest cutting the recipe in half.

Directions:
Prepare pasta according to package. Drain pasta and let cool. Add a bit of italian dressing to keep pasta moist. Once cold, add dry italian packet, red and green peppers. Just prior to serving add remaining italian dressing and feta cheese.

Enjoy!

Jalapeno Deviled Eggs

I LOVE deviled eggs! I can't get enough of them. A deviled egg platter was a "must" on our wedding registry. They're easy to make and great for all occasions. Sometimes I pretend that they are good for you (after I've eaten a few) so I don't feel so guilty. They are eggs after all! To spice things up a bit I added some jalapenos to my recipe.


Jalapeno Deviled Eggs


Ingredients:
1 dozen large eggs
6 Tbsp Mayo
2-4 Tbsp sliced jalapenos peppers minced
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp salt


Directions:
Boil hot water. Add eggs for 12 minutes. Strain water and peel eggs using cold water. Cut eggs in half crosswise. Mash yolks and stir in ingredients. Garnish with jalapeno if desired. Sprinkle chili powder for an extra touch!

Enjoy!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Italian Soup


I got this recipe from my mom, as I do most of my better recipes. It's pretty easy and quick. As always I made it spicy by using Rotel (Hot) instead of tomatoes. I love that stuff!

Spicy Italian Soup
Ingredients:
1lb of Italian Sausage (I used turkey sausage)
1 medium green pepper
1/2 onion
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of Rotel (add another regular tomato, if you don't want it spicy)
2- 8oz cans of tomato sauce
3 cubes of chicken bouillon
2 cups of water
3/4 tsp of garlic powder or 1 garlic toe
3/4 cup pasta (shells or elbows work well)

Directions:
Chop onions and peppers, set aside. Remove casing from sausage. Brown sausage in a large soup pot. Add peppers, onions, and garlic. Cook until tender. Add tomatoes and water and bring to a boil. Add pasta (uncooked) Cook over medium heat until pasta is tender.

Enjoy!

Friday, December 9, 2011

Hoo Hoo Hoo

HOOSIERS!

Last night we went with some friends to an event at the City Market (in Indy) sponsored by Yelp. The event featured all local shops and had lots of free food and drink samples! It was a really fun and kind of inspiring as well. Maybe my minor in business entrepreneurship will come in handy some day! Hmm...

Anyway, Dan bought me this shirt designed by local shop Hayes and Taylor. I can't wait to wear it this weekend to cheer on the Hoosiers in their big game against Kentucky!



I didn't realize how many cool local shops and boutiques Indianapolis has to offer! After last night I am dying to go see a few. Here are some I thought looked fun and want to check out...





Thursday, December 8, 2011

IU Tutu

I had so much fun making this tutu that I wanted to make one for Anna as well so she can cheer on the Hoosiers this basketball season! Go IU!!






Pink Corduroy Baby Dress

Remember my little friend Anna? Anna is my sorority sister Julie's sweet baby girl! I started making her this dress a few months ago and then just kept putting it off. Originally, I was going to just make a jumper and then decided a dress with sleeves would be a piece of cake. Completely wrong on that cake! Sleeves are new to me and baby sleeves are so damn tiny! I made all the pieces and then just couldn't bring myself to attach the sleeves to the dress because I didn't really know how to do it. So the dress sat for a few weeks until my Mom was here this past weekend and showed me how to do the sleeves. Still difficult because they are so small! But I finished it, and fingers crossed it will fit her! Sorry for the delay Anna! I hope you like it.





**Bear with me on the photos here. We got a new camera this summer for our honeymoon and I am just now getting around to trying to figure it out. Not that great at it yet! 


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Chocolate Pretzel Pie

I made this pie for Thanksgiving with my family and it was quite tasty! The recipe came from the Food Network magazine.

Chocolate Pretzel Pie
Ingredients:
2 c milk
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
4 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp brewed coffee cooled
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Crust Ingredients:
14 Chocolate Gram cracker sheets or 1 cup chopped
1 cup finely chopped pretzels
3Tbsp sugar
7 Tbsp melted butter

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grind/chop gram crackers and pretzels. Add to a bowl with melted butter and sugar. Mix. Press into a 9 inch pie pan and bake until firm. 18-22 minutes. Let cool before adding filling.
Chocolate Pie Filling:
Heat Milk in a large saucepan until hot but not boiling. Whisk the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl, then whisk in the egg yolks, coffee and vanilla. Whisk half of the hot milk into the egg mixture until smooth, then gradually whisk the egg mixture into the pan with the remaining milk. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate chips until melted. Transfer to a bowl and cool slightly, stirring a few times to prevent skin from forming.

Pour the filling into the cooled crust, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and chill until set (at least 4 hours). Top with pretzel pieces.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

No LBD!

Say NO to your Little Black Dress this year for the holidays and kick it up a notch with something new! Step out of boring and into: Lace,Velvet, Plaid, Print, Sequins! Check out some of my favorites.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Gamma Phi Pie

I was am a Gamma Phi Beta! While living in the sorority at IU we occasionally had Gamma Phi Pie. The other day I remembered how amazing it was and decided to make it. I googled it and came up with this recipe (if you can even call it that). It tastes as good as I remember! You don't have to be a cool sorority sister to enjoy this dessert and I won't even make you give me the secret handshake! (you wish you knew it) :)




Gamma Phi Pie
Ingredients:
1 package of Oreos
2 qts of Peppermint Ice Cream (seasonal)
Hershey's syrup or Magic Shell Chocolate

Directions:
Crush Oreos into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Let ice cream soften and spread on top of Oreos. Use Magic shell or syrup on top for decoration. Freeze for 2 hours before serving.





Enjoy!!