O.K. this is my first attempt at a PDF recipe. Hope it worked.... It's just a quick Macaroni & Cheese recipe for those chilly fall nights. Hmm maybe click on the recipe to print it, cuz I have no idea how to do the print recipe "here" thing. Sorry. Amateur.
If you love a soft, chewy cookie, then these are perfect:)
I took these pictures at weird hours with hardly any light so I apologize for them ahead of time.
In a medium bowl beat eggs for a min., add sugar, and then canola or vegetable oil. Cream all together til it's light yellow. Probably a minute. Now mix the molasses in. It will be a runny consistency before you add the flour.
Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and ginger. Mix everything well until it's a thick and shiny. It will stay together in a clump as well. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Take a small amount and roll into a ball.
Now roll it in some sugar.
Do that for all of them. Now bake them at 350 F for 8-12 mins, they should be cracked on top. My stove cooks things longer so I do 12 mins. You can look on the bottom and see if its a little brown.
Now let them cool for a minute before taking them off the pan. Or they might fall apart.
GINGER SNAPS Bake at 350 F for 8-12 mins. *Remember the dough needs to be refrigerated for an hour.
Turn on your oven to 350 F.
2 eggs
2 cups sugar, plus more for rolling
1 1/2 cups canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups flour
4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
Beat eggs in medium bowl. Add sugar, beat 30 seconds. Add oil, beat 30 seconds more. And then add the molasses and beat one more time for about a minute. Next all at once add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and the ginger. Mix everything well until it's an even consistent colour and texture. A couple minutes. It will be shiny, and greasy, but will stick together. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. Take out and roll into small balls. Bake at 350 F for 8-12 minutes, they should be cracked on top. Then let sit for a minute before removing from the pan. Now get a large glass of milk and enjoy!
*SIDE NOTE: I HAVE MADE THESE WITH WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR FOR A HEALTHIER VERSION. JUST COOK A MIN OR TWO LONGER.
If you're wondering what to make for breakfast, whip these up before your family even wakes up. They'll love you for it!
BANANA MUFFINS Bake 375 F for 18 mins. Makes 20-24 muffins
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
2 cups flour (white or whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
VARIATIONS: add 1 cup nuts or chocolate chips or both
Turn you oven on to 375 F. In a med. mixing bowl cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Then put in your banana's and blend until all mixed in. You can mash them up first if you want. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Then add any nuts or chocolate chips, but they're great as is too. Scoop into greased muffin tins. Fill cup 3/4 way full or they'll overflow. I use paper muffin cups because there's less mess. Bake at 375 F for 18 mins. Can check at 15 then add a few more mins. until they're golden brown on top. Enjoy!
Super yummy banana muffins!
So my son had boughten a jar of spinach dip and had just warmed it up. We both smelt it and seriously wanted to vomit. Eek is that bad to say? But it was so horrible. I said let's just make our own. I've made it plenty of times before and it just so happened we already had everything we needed. So that inspired me to write a little post for our go-to Spinach dip. It's super easy and quick. In under an hour you should be munching on some delicious spinach artichoke dip cozied up on your couch watching a favourite movie. Or invite some friends over to help you polish it off.
First turn on your oven to 350 F. Then all you do is take a frozen box of spinach and only use 1/2. Unthaw it in the microwave. Chop it into smaller pieces. Also if your cream cheese if too hard put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. I hate to say that. Ideally let it thaw out naturally, but if you're a last-minuter like me, a microwave works great. Chop up one clove of garlic and chop up artichokes from one can. That's really all the prep. And yes this is my son making it, so he could see how easy it is.
Grab medium mixing bowl. Put altogether the spinach, artichokes, chopped garlic, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese ( i never have the Romano so I substitute Mozza), parmesan cheese, and mayonaise. Then add the garlic salt, dried basil (or 1 TB freshly chopped basil), and salt & pepper to taste. ( A few shakes of salt & pepper).
Mix everything with a wooden spoon until incorporated and transfer it into a baking dish. Smooth it out and then put some mozzarella on top. Bake @ 350 F for 30 mins. It should be a little golden brown on top and the cheese should be melted. Enjoy!
SPINACH ARTICHOKE DIP Bake 350 F for 30 mins.
1/2 box frozen spinach (unthawed) and chopped
1 can artichokes chopped
1 8oz pkg. cream cheese
1/4 cup romano or mozzarella cheese, plus more for the top
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mayonaise
1 clove garlic chopped
1/2 tsp dry basil or 1 TB freshly chopped
1/4 tsp garlic salt
salt & pepper to taste ( or a few shakes of each)
Turn on your oven to 350 F. Unthaw the spinach and cream cheese if needed. Then chop up the spinach, artichokes and garlic. Put everything together into a medium size mixing bowl. Stir until everything's incorporated and its sort of creamy. Transfer into a baking dish and smooth it out evenly. Bake for 30 mins and voila, homemade spinach dip. You'll never get store boughten dip again. Enjoy!
If you're looking for a great PANCAKE recipe then look no further. This recipe is super versatile or sooo yummy all by itself. For this I added some lemon zest and blueberries. Leave the berries a tiny bit frozen so the juice doesn't turn your whole batter blue. Unless you're doing some sweet super hero pancakes. Then definately turn it blue.
BLUEBERRY LEMON PANCAKES
Heat griddle while making the batter.
1 1/2 cups flour (opt. whole wheat for a healthier version)
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 TB sugar
3 TB melted butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
Variations: lemon blueberry, lemon, orange, plain blueberry.
Zest of lemon or orange
partially unthawed blueberries
Whisk all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add milk and egg then mix. Add melted butter. Then add your lemon zest and stir that in before adding blueberries. Gently stir blueberries into batter just til it has some blue swirls. Then cook on a griddle or frypan. Serve with your favourite syrup. Ours is Chokecherry or Maple. Enjoy!
The night was not looking good for any supper at all. Both of my youngest kids were crying at my feet and it was so hot outside (for Canada that is) that I couldn't bare to go back in. I was lounging in my front yard as I usually do on a hot or lazy day. I finally went inside and tried to settle the kids. This time sitting on my bed feeding ice cream to my 18 month old ( I may of had a bite or two) to keep us both sane and cooled off. But after an hour of procrastination and with a big sigh I headed back down to the war zone. I had taken all the kids and my sons girlfriend to Lethbridge for breakfast at McDonalds for one last hurrah before school started. I was smart and ran into Costco by myself but of course they all wanted to go into Walmart, 8 of us in total, mostly to look at toys. We made it out without any meltdowns or new toys for that matter. Wow how did that happen? Anyways so yes when I say war zone I'm referring to all the groceries not put away and I hate to admit it but part of yesterday's late night snack mess too. And whatever else had managed to make it's way onto the kitchen floor. I had just boughten a box of Costco chicken, which might give us about 3 meals if we're lucky. And my mom had called me to come pick some of her corn right away. With a quick thought of what I could possibly make for supper I decided on Chicken Fajita's. I had also grabbed a giant bag of tortilla's from Costco too. Now to rally the troops in a quick clean-up before making another dinner mess. The children were definitely not thrilled to have me call them to help, but I hate making a meal in the middle of a mess so I had to be the mean parent again.
As for the Fajita's, this is my go-to recipe. I'm supposed to marinade it but who has time for that? I'm certainly not that organized either. This recipe is huge and will probably feed about 12 people, with a mix of all ages and appetites. You start the chicken cooking and then chop up a heap full of onions and peppers. I also started my corn water boiling. My chicken was frozen so it took a bit longer to cook. I want to say this takes about 1- 1 1/2 hrs to make. After the chicken is cooked and chopped then I add the onions , and then peppers. You're probably supposed to take the chicken out and then add some oil to saute the onions and peppers but I never do that. The least amount of steps the better. Remember to start cooking your corn, for about 5 mins. If you like you can wrap your tortillas in tinfoil and warm in the oven on 300 F until you're ready to eat. While the chicken mixture is simmering I mix the little marinade and finally add it when the veggies are still a tiny bit crunchy. Simmer for about 5 mins and then turn off the heat. Meanwhile grate your cheese, and grab whatever toppings you like. Of course sour cream, and my husband likes salsa and a splash of hot sauce. If you're organized you could make some guacamole too. Yum!!
O.K now you're ready to chow down!!
If it's a hot day you may want to finish off with some Sorbet:)
Remember this recipe is for a large group so you may want to adjust the amounts.
CHICKEN FAJITA RECIPE Total time 1 1/2 hrs
9 chicken breasts
4 red peppers
4 green peppers
3 onions
Marinade:
4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 heaping tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
4 TB olive oil
2 1/2-3 limes juiced ( or lemon juice is ok)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (opt.)
Other items:
tortilla shells
sour cream
grated cheddar cheese
salsa
hot sauce
guacamole
HOPE YOUR FAMILY ENJOYS THIS RECIPE AS MUCH AS OURS.
So excited to announce the Grand Opening of blackbirdmodern.bigcartel.com YAY!
It's now after 12:40 am so I thought I'd write my post about making pies. Isn't that when all bloggers do their best work? You pretty much have to be delirious to blog anyways I think. So here it goes.
If you have leftover Chicken dinner with gravy and vegetables then it's super easy because your filling's already made. For these pies I cooked a whole chicken at 350 F for 2 1/2 hrs. in a couple inches of water. Then I boiled some corn, and peas. You could do carrots or green beans. Just whatever you prefer. Let's face it nothing can really taste too bad in gravy and pie crust, right? Remove your cooked chicken, cut it up and make the gravy. I'm not sure if I have a set recipe for gravy. I just take a tupperware (or protein shake) shaker, fill with cold water just past 1/2 then add flour til just below the lip. Shake that up until the lumps are gone, pour it slowly into the chicken juices while whisking. I put the roaster right on the stovetop and turn it to med low. Bring to a low boil and let it thicken for a min., add bit of salt and pepper (not to much). Then take a couple tablespoons of chicken bouillon powder or other kind that you use and stir that in. Taste it and add more boullion if it needs more. Get a bowl and mix the gravy, vegetables and chicken together. Also you can make your peach filling now too.
Turn on your oven now or you may forget, and I hate waiting 10 mins. longer for the oven to heat up when your pies are all ready to go in. Set it for 425 F.
Let's make the crust for all the pies. Usually I put all the dough in the fridge for an hour if I have time, because it's easier to work with and stays together better. This time I didn't do that though. You may just have to add a little more flour or water depending on if the dough is too dry or too sticky. The pastry is really easy and has just a few ingredients. Get a large bowl and put in your flour, salt and lard. Take a pastry cutter or two knives and start to cut the ingredients together.
The dough should now look like crumbs. Add your water and cut it as much as you can again but if it's too sticky then mix it by hand until it looks like this and is sticking together. Next sprinkle some flour on the counter and just knead it a bit, only until its not as sticky. If it's been refrigerated I sometimes need to add a little water and I sprinkle a few drops on top then knead it in so it's not too dry and the dough stays together.
Sprinkle flour on your counter. Take a handful of dough and cover the rest with a dishtowel.
Roll the dough out so it's not quite see through but maybe 2-3mm thick.
It doesn't have to look all even and pretty so don't worry. Ok so gently take the top of the dough and fold it in half. Pick it up and you can shake it a tiny bit so the extra flour falls off. Now place it on one half of the pie plate and open it up carefully.
Now for the fun part. Scoop the filling into the pie shell. I did take a bite of the chicken filling. In my defense I was starving by then and my poor family was so patient while I was taking way longer than usual to make supper. I'm sure they snuck some chicken pieces while I wasn't looking too! Oh I scooped about 3 cups of filling into each shell. Also if you roll out all the bottoms at once then you can adjust the filling amount so all the pies are even. Then roll out the tops after they all have filling. But it's up to you.
The chicken might have some darker flecks or I may have let the gravy get a little browner (of course i would never burn it haha) than usual because of taking a thousand pictures for this blog. Cooking is never perfect, especially with a family needing you every second. Infact I've burnt hamburger so much that if my husband smells a tiny burnt smell at all he's like well kids we're having mom-burger again. Haha!
For the top of the crust you make a slightly smaller ball, roll it out, fold in half and place it on top of the pie.
If you don't know how big to make it that's fine, you can make it bigger and then just trim off more of the extra dough. Bigger is better than smaller. It's just that once you roll out dough it's tougher to work with the second time, like if you need to make a final top crust it just doesn't stick together or roll out as well. So I try to not have much waste to cut off for that reason.
And here's the peach filling. It should be a tiny bit liquidy. Is that a word? Probably not.
Pinch the dough around the sides. I used to cut it with a knife evenly around the edges and then pinch it but it shrinks when baked and won't be as thick. If you push your thumb against the pie plate the dough will be cut off and fall away at the same time that you pinch it, so that's one less step.
Take your knife and poke some slits so it doesn't bubble up while baking. You can make a "C" for chicken or "P" for peach. And in fact while I made these I for some reason was just thinking peach and I poked them all with a "P". Luckily they pretty much all got eaten that night, well at least both peach pies did. Or we might of been having chicken pie for dessert instead of peach. Haha!! See nothings ever perfect like I said. I've done a lot of trial and error (my poor husband), but now usually we have pretty good meals with not many problems. Unlike the first quite a few years when I didn't know you had to actually plug in and turn on the rice cooker. Or one of my best things was when my husband wanted me to buy tuna and I looked and looked everywhere then came home so distraught and told him all I could find was "chicken of the sea", no tuna. And he rolled his eyes a million times I'm sure, and said, that IS tuna. Haha oh so many memories of the early years! Ok where are we......
Some people do an egg wash on pies I think? But I just do milk, so take a brush and brush some milk over the whole thing. Just a bit, don't soak it. Also only do it right before you're going to put it in the oven or it just soaks into the crust and makes it soggy.
Ready for baking!! Finally YAY! It's only been 2 hours, I mean the blogging part. Your pie making should be much shorter. Ok I guess an actual recipe would be nice, huh? Unfortunately I do not remember my GR. 7 computer skills and have no idea how to underline a word. Also my last child awake just went to bed so we won't have an underlined recipe heading. Sorry.
Bake at 425 F 15 mins and then 350 F for 45 mins. Let cool 20-30 mins after or it will be too liquidy to cut. My family can never wait so we always have a runny first piece of pie. ENJOY!!
PIE CRUST
Makes 5 double crust pies
6 cups white flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups Tenderflake lard (or other brand)
1 cup cold water
Blend all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add lard on top. Cut with a pastry cutter or 2 knives, until resembles a crumbly mixture. Pour water overtop and mix with hands. Best if refrigerated for an hour, but not absolutely necessary. Add a few sprinkles of water if refrigerated. Knead on a floured surface to pull dough together and add enough flour so it stays together but isn't sticky.
Bake double crust pies at 425 F 15 mins and then turn down to 350 F for 45 mins. ENJOY!
PEACH PIE FILLING - for one pie.
4-5 small peaches washed and sliced
or 29 oz can sliced peaches
Discard 1/2 the juice if using canned peaches.
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2T cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
Pour peaches and 1/2 the juice into a bowl. Mix remaining ingredients in another bowl. Pour dry ingredients over the peaches. Stir a bit. There may be some small clumps and that's ok. Pour into pie shell, cover with top crust. Cut slits, brush with milk.
Bake at 425 F 15 mins and then turn to 350 F and bake 45 mins longer. Should be golden brown. Let sit 20-30 mins so it has time to set and won't be watery. Enjoy!
Hope it all works out and your family likes it as much as mine!
Well that only took 3 hours to blog and edit. Shhh don't tell my family what time it is:) How do people do this? I'm thinking they probably don't have 8 kids.
The other day I bought two cases of peaches. Of course I had to make pie! Since my mothers pie shell recipe makes 6 pies I also had to make chicken pot pies too. A person can't live on peach pie alone. I finally got all the pies made and a million pictures of all the steps, when my sis-in-law texted to see if I remembered a bridal shower I was supposed to be at thirty mins. prior. Of course I had not remembered or I wouldn't of started making pies. I had to quickly leave before the pies were out and prayed there would be some left when I returned. Thank goodness there was a couple untouched pies that I was able to take a picture of. By then the sun had gone down and the light was horrible for the finished product. I went camping two days later and haven't had time to do the awesome blog post I had dreamed of. I just imported my pictures to begin editing and see there are 97 pie-making photos. Who are these bloggers that have time to not only create new content, take and edit 97 photos and then actually write a lovely post about the whole thing? I'm hoping sometime soon to put down all the steps and edit my photos, but for now I'll just say I made 6 yummy pies and they were eaten in 24 hours by my starving (after waiting for me to photograph every step) family.
Who am I? That's a good question, not just for you but for myself, too. I think with this blog I hope to discover a little (a lot) more about who I am. Although I do have a lot of titles already. I am married to the boy I had a crush on in gr.7, dated in high school and after a few years apart, eventually married. We now have 8 awesome kids and actually live back in our small, Canadian hometown. We've moved around to a few places in the U.S. and Canada, but after quite a few years away ended up (by default) settling here. While most of the time I feel like I have no time to myself, I do try to do some things to keep my sanity. I like to bake, take pictures, dabble in various crafts, and read books about business, real estate, and many other topics my kids find quite boring. Haha! I'm really into spur of the moment trips, especially when my kids think I'm not really going to go through with my crazy ideas. My biggest passion in life is DESIGN. I have been known to stare at anything with amazing colors, fonts, texts, designs, or any other cool elements. I do regret not going to school for some sort of design related career. i.e. graphic, interior, architecture, etc. My previous career was a dental assistant, mostly because it was easy schooling. Let's just say I grew up in the 80's and school wasn't my biggest priority. Also I have to add that I was and am not great with computers, and had previously tried to avoid using them if at all possible. But, now that I see the amazing things people do in all of the design fields that I love, I've tried to make an attempt at becoming more proficient, hence this blog. This is really a serious post and that's not my real personality at all. I actually just needed to write something on here to see if it was actually working. Haha! If you want to see more of my personality it's in my instagram. Although I do intend to bring all those same aspects to life here as well. Oh and I also love looking at magazines for fashion, photography,food, design,the latest trends and whatever else interests me at the time. Sadly I don't really read the articles unless it's about someone I really love. Ok well there you have it, a snippet of my life. Now how do i post this silly thing.......
Amid the chaos of being a mother of 8, I find my happy place in beautifully designed things.
