5 Favorite Recipes

When I first found Pinterest I really wanted to use it in the sense that I’m not just pinning things.  I’m actually doing, buying, and acting on what I pin.  In that regard, my most used boards are my food boards.  I went from meal planning with cookbooks to sitting with my laptop and finding meals.  In the past couple of years I have found MANY recipes that we continue to repeat.  Here are my top five recipes from around the internet (in no particular order).

1. Pizza Braid by For the Love of Cooking

 

Pam has posted several different variations on the pizza braid.  We have mainly used this as a starting point.  I get the Pillsbury Thin Crust pizza dough, and then we just vary the toppings each time.  However, I seem to forget the cheese 70% of the time!  This recipe is really great when I can’t think of what to have for dinner.

 

2. Bourbon Chicken by Big Oven

 

This Asian dish is fantastic!!  Serve over rice, and it’s very impressive flavor.  I do typically reduce the red pepper flakes (I’m a wuss when it comes to heat).  This recipe I have to save to make less often.  If I could, I would be completely happy having this several nights a week.

 

3. Slow Cooked Sweet Barbacoa Pork by Skinny Taste

 

Without a doubt, this is Tony’s favorite recipe of anything that I’ve ever made him.  The pork has a sweetness that isn’t too sweet, and then you mix it with anything you would typically put in a burrito bowl.  Amazing flavors AND low calorie?  This is WONDERFUL!  In fact, this recipe is so good, Tony made it for a bunch of his friends when they were over.  It was devoured quickly.  I cannot say enough about Skinny Taste either.  Gina is a master at finding healthy ways to make low calorie meals delicious.  When I was tracking my calories, I made a lot of recipes from this site.  I’ve yet to find one that I didn’t like.

 

4. Chicken Stuffing Bake by Chef in Training

 

This recipe is just so simple, it’s dummy proof.  I usually skip the celery because Tony doesn’t like it.  Otherwise, just keep everything the same.  You can cook the chicken ahead of time, and quickly steam the broccoli.  That’s the extent of active cooking.  Other than that it just sits in the oven until chow time!  Again, it’s lower in calories which makes me happy.

 

5. Garlic Rubbed Steak with Blue Cheese by Lauren’s Latest

 

Let the drooling begin!  If you are a steak lover, a garlic lover, a blue cheese lover, OR a french fried onion lover make this now!  I just happen to love all four of those things.  Mouthwatering AH-MAZINGNESS!  Do not stray from the recipe.  In fact, go and make this for dinner tonight!

 

There you have it!  My top five favorite recipes from across the internet.  Now, there are so many other wonderful dishes out there, and we have a lot of other repeats on my Pinterest board.  Although if I had to live with just these 5, I would be perfectly happy.

Minnesota State Fair 2012

I had a mission at the Minnesota State Fair this year.  That mission was FOOD!  I didn’t care if we did much else (although I had a couple of requests), mainly I wanted to try as many different foods as I could handle.

This is mostly going to be a photo post, but I’ll do a little bit of talking too I guess.  For the first time, I think ever, I went to the fair twice in one season.  Tony and I had a lot of food we wanted to try, and we just couldn’t get it all done in one day.

So, on the first day…

We rode the free park and ride and Tony was oh so happy to be face to arm pit with the wonderful citizens of Minnesota.

We started with bacon ice cream!  It was hot, near the entrance, and on my list.  I had heard ahead of time that this was more of a maple ice cream with bacon in it.  I thought it was good, but have heard mixed reviews from others.

Gooseberry Falls – Day 1

As you know, last week we headed out for a camping trip.  We went to Gooseberry Falls State Park which is the same place we went last year.  This year when we went to reserve our campsite we were surprised to not be able to find a SINGLE weekend available.  Dead set on going to Gooseberry, we decided to take a look at weekdays.  That is how we ended up with a Wed-Fri weekend trip (and the campgrounds were even full then!).

Gooseberry is about a 4 hour drive and even though we couldn’t check in until 4:00, I wanted to leave early.  Around 10:00 we left our house with the car packed to the brim and Chewie doing some minor complaining about being in his crate.  The reason for leaving early was so that we could make a pit stop in Duluth for lunch.

If you remember my post right before we left, there was a 90% chance of rain near the park.  This sight on our way to Duluth did not ease my concern at all.

 

Delicious Cookies

Perhaps they are not stars,

but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.

~ Eskimo Saying

Whenever I think of my Grandma Ann, I ALWAYS think of her Delicious Cookies.  That’s not just a description; it is the name of the cookies.  I grew up near the Twin Cities in Minnesota and my dad’s parents lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  When I was little we would take the 4 hour drive to visit them and would inevitably return with a gallon ice cream bucket full of Delicious Cookies.

I’ve been asked before, but there is no normal comparison to these cookies.  I can’t describe them as a perfect chocolate chip, because they have no chocolate.  (Let that rest in your head for a moment that a cookie with the name Delicious does not contain chocolate)  They have raisins, but are nothing like an oatmeal raisin cookie.  They contain cinnamon and all spice, but again, are nothing like a gingerbread cookie.  Delicious Cookies are in a class all their own.

My Grandma Ann passed away last week after 98 wonderful years.  In the week prior, as I was getting updates on her health, I kept thinking about these Delicious Cookies.  I just had to make some.  Luckily I’ve taken on this recipe before, so I knew somewhat what I was doing.  Although they will never be just like Grandma made, I’ll share the recipe here with you.

These cookies are great for those of you that want to have a treat, but don’t have the biggest sweet tooth.  My dad enjoys plain cake donuts over a chocolate iced version.  Delicious Cookies are the perfect dessert for him.

Chicken with Lots of Garlic

Back in March, this intriguing recipe showed up on my Google Reader from For the Love of Cooking.  The title is Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic.  Doesn’t that sound tasty?  Alright, let me tell you this small tidbit of information about my family.  WE. LOVE. GARLIC.  Like, a lot.  I knew that this recipe was going to be perfect to make for my family.

This chance arose a couple of weekends ago when we took a family trip to a cabin in Wisconsin.  (read more about the trip on my sister in laws blog here)  Since the kids (adult kids, not the 3 babies) were in charge of food for the 11 adults, I actually needed to double this recipe.  You know what that means?  EIGHTY CLOVES OF GARLIC!! 🙂 yummmm!

I think we actually ended up using closer to 5 heads of garlic.

The huge pile of garlic.  This is how they actually went into the dish, no minced up pieces here.

After browning the chicken and sauteing the garlic, they went into baking dishes to bake for 30 mins.  The chicken also has sea salt, pepper and thyme.

After baking, the chicken and garlic were set aside while we made a gravy with the sauce.  Doesn’t it look good?  Those garlic pieces are so soft that biting into them wasn’t strong at all.  Just delicious.

Finished with the gravy and side of salad and homemade biscuits (thanks mom!).

These were very good, everyone loved them!  I definitely recommend these if you have a garlic lovin’ crew.