April 8, 2015
by Ashley
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Ham Wrapped Chicken

I watch my niece and two nephews during the week and need quick dinner options on the days they are here. I was trying to come up with something I could make one night, when I thought of this. I had raw chicken tenders and ham and decided to just try it out. The kids and Paul actually all liked it. Basically…I won! So try it out, an incredibly simple and easy entree that can go well with many side dishes. If you want to get really fancy, use prosciutto instead of the ham.

Ham Wrapped Chicken

6 – 8 chicken tenders, or splits of chicken breast
6 – 8 slices of ham
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil for cooking

Simply wrap the ham around the chicken tender. Salt & Pepper to taste. Heat up a nonstick skillet on medium heat and pour in about 2 tsp olive oil. Put in ham wrapped chicken seal side down and cook for about 4 minutes. Flip to cook on the other side. Add about a tablespoon of water to the pan and cover to finish cooking, another 4 minutes. Check to see if the chicken is cooked through and serve.

April 7, 2015
by Ashley
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Tofu Balti

Paul and I tried our first balti dish in London, England when we found ourselves on a road with a large number of Balti Houses. I am fairly new to Indian cuisine and we were told to try out a Balti place during our stay. Paul ordered a balti that was incredible, yet so hot it was almost impossible to eat. He managed somehow (I think the side of yogurt helped), and we left feeling satisfied but in need of some antacid.

Since trying this incredible dish, we have tried to come up with our own version. We liked this version enough, that I started making and canning my own Mango Chutney with this recipe in mind. Chicken could easily replace the tofu and you could finish off the dish with a little cream if you were worried about the spice.

Tofu Balti

1 block of tofu
1 tsp chili powder
1 1⁄2 tsp garam masala
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp yogurt
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 tbsp mango chutney
1 tsp salt
1⁄2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp oil
2 hot peppers, chopped

Blend together the tomato puree, yogurt, garam masala, chili powder, garlic, mango chutney, salt and sugar. Heat oil in a high sided saute pan and add the tofu. Cook for two minutes. Add in the tomato mixture and cook for another 2 minutes. Add in hot peppers and cook another 2 – 3 minutes until the sauce has thickened. You can add water if the consistancy is too thick. Serve with basmati rice and pappadoums.

Based off of this Chicken Balti Recipe

April 6, 2015
by Ashley
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Little Hippo

Recently our good friends announced they were expecting their second baby in March. Since they didn’t find out what they were having, I decided to stay with neutral colors for this toy. Turns out, they had a girl…Nadia. She is adorable and her older sister loves her. Hopefully, she loves the knit hippo when she gets old enough to play with it.

I have been giving knit toys as baby gifts in the past couple of years. It seems to me that people get a lot of baby blankets as gifts. I do love making blankets, but since that is such a popular gift, I started to make toys to give something very different. So Paul, being such a supportive husband, bought me Susan B. Anderson toy knitting book and I have made many of the toys for family and friends. Bunnies, pigs, bears, dolls, hippos, a giraffe and even a reversable toy. I love knitting and having someone in mind when I am making something is pretty special.

Paul gave me personalized tags that I sew on the bottom of each of my toys. My kids usually love up the toys just a little…so most of my gifts have been preloved.

April 4, 2015
by Ashley
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Garlic Red Potatoes

Spring and summer are finally on the horizon. We have hope that we can finally sit on the deck and eat! To be able to go outside and not freeze is a wonderful feeling when you live someplace that is cold half the year. Sadly…we even think that 40°F is warm.

Paul and I had a three seasons deck built onto the house a few years ago, and look forward to warmer weather to be able to sit out there and read (or knit) on the deck. We usually have our meals out there as well. With the warmer weather arriving, we started to pull out some of our more “summery” dishes. This is one I have made quite a few times, and made just last week to celebrate the warmer weather.

Garlic Red Potatoes

9 red potatoes
1/4 cup butter
4 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tsp salt
1/2 lemon, juiced

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut potatoes into eighths. Put in a large casserole dish. Melt butter and add in the garlic, salt and lemon juice. Pour butter mixture over the potatoes. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Adapted from a recipe from allrecipes.com.

April 2, 2015
by Ashley
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Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza

Leftovers sometimes make the best pizzas.

We had some leftover BBQ Chicken that needed to be used and a half of a pear left from lunch. This is what we came up with.

Grilled BBQ Chicken Pizza

1 cup left over bbq chicken
1/4 cup bbq sauce (your favorite type)
1/2 onion, sliced
2 – 3 tbsp blue cheese (We used Carr Valley Cheese’s Penta Cream, which is wonderful on its own)
1/2 sliced and peeled pear
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 pizza crust

We decided to grill these pizzas, but they would be just as good in the oven as well.

Put charcoal on half of the grill leaving the other half empty. Place rolled out dough with a little olive oil over charcoal and cook about 2 – 4 minutes. Check to make sure it doesn’t burn. Transfer back to pizza peel and cover cooked side with bbq sauce. Then add the rest of the toppings ending with the pears. Put back on the charcoal side of the grill to cook another 2 minutes, and move to the cool side of the charcoal to finish and cover. This should take about 10 minutes. Transfer to serving dish and let cool. If you are making more than one pizza, then you can put the first pizza in a warm oven while cooking the next one.

March 31, 2015
by Ashley
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Venison Neck Roast

This one is for you Dad – Happy Birthday!

My dad loves to go hunting. Deer hunting, pheasant hunting, duck hunting…you name it. When I was young, he went moose and elk hunting and came back with large amounts of meat. My youngest brother and I still joke about how we had to sit at dinner one night, while eating moose rump roast. We were a little tired and talked a lot about the rump. Honestly, I am not really a game person. I like venison sausage, ground venison chili and even venison tenderloins once in a while. But for some reason, sometimes I just can’t stomach it.

This year my dad came back from hunting this year and gifted a couple different cuts to us. This time we got a venison tenderloin and a neck roast. Not knowing what to expect with the neck roast, Paul thought he could just jerky it. Turns out, when he defrosted it and looked at the cut of meat, he decided that would be impossible. So we starting hunting for a good recipe to make this gamey meat taste delicious. Which lead me to this recipe.

Venison Neck Roast Slow Cooked

3 – 4 lb Neck Roast
2 tbsp olive oil
2 slices thick cut farm bacon
2 cups red wine (I used Merlot)
1 8oz container of mushrooms
1 large onion
1 lemon, zest only
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
2 stalks of celery
3 garlic cloves
2 rosemary stalks
6 small sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp fresh sage – 10 leaves
8 sprigs fresh parsley
salt & pepper

Heat up olive oil in a highsided saute pan. Salt & pepper the roast and brown on all sides. While browning, cut up onion, mushrooms & celery. Zest lemon (I used the entire peel) and cut up bacon into small bits. Transfer browned roast into your slow cooker. Cook bacon next. Once bacon is browned, add to slow cooker. In leftover fat, cook onion, celery and mushrooms for 3 minutes. Add in zest, cinnamon, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage leaves & parsley sprigs. Cook for another 2 minutes and add to slow cooker. Pour wine over everything and put the lid on. Cook on low for 4 – 6 hours. Take the meat out to a seperate plate and cover. Remove the lemon peel, herbs (that you can find) and bay leaves. Pour everything else into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour back into a sauce pan and bring to a boil…this will thicken right up. Take meat and add back to sauce. Serve.

I served this with homemade gnocchi and Paul loved it.

Adapted from a recipe found here.

March 30, 2015
by Ashley
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Banana Bread

These might be famous by now. Finnegan loves these little bread balls and has even requested them to be served as his birthday treat at school. They are peanut free and perfectly sized for any snack. We usually have them as a breakfast, but I have sent them as a lunch as well. Use bananas that are past their prime for eating. When the bananas start turning brown, I peel them and toss them in a bag and put in the freezer.

This recipe is just a banana bread recipe, but I make them in my cakeball maker. This could easily be made as a loaf or muffins as well. The baking directions for the loaf is below.

Edit – December 2024 – I make this all of the time still. We don’t make them into cakeballs anymore, as the kids are teenagers. However we usually have a large bag of muffins in the freezer for breakfasts.

Banana Bread (Lowfat)

2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1 cup smashed ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/3 cup milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Bet eggs & sugar in a bowl for about 5 minutes. Mix mashed bananas, milk, oil and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt over mixture. Beat until blended.

To make the loaf of bread – Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a loaf pan. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake bread until golden brown – about an hour.

To make muffins – Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease and pour in batter. Bake until golden about 25 minutes

If making cakeballs – Heat cakeball maker and spray with cooking spray. Add about 1 tbsp of batter to each hole and allow to cook for 4 minutes per batch.

These freeze really well. I freeze in a plastic bag and heat up desired amount of muffins in the microwave.

March 29, 2015
by Ashley
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Monster Pants

My little Finnegan is really hard on his pants. He loves cars and trucks…and running on his knees full speed along the carpet. Almost every pair of his jeans now have holes in them. I almost hate to go and buy yet another pair, because I know they will end up like all of the rest. I was thinking about throwing them all out, when I came across a post on a blog I read. It had one picture of a knee patched with a monster face…and I knew this was exactly what I needed to do to solve my problem.

I went through Finn’s drawers and came downstairs with 5 pairs of jeans. FIVE! So I pulled all of my felt out from my secret stash I use for my random projects, and started putting together these little faces. I think they turned out pretty well. I had to hand sew them, as I knew I wasn’t good enough with my sewing machine to even attempt.

He loves them!

To be a little different, since we have a lot of monster pants now, I created a crab & shark patch for this this pair.

Isla started to feel left out. She had a hole in one of her pairs of pants and so this is how I patched it. She is very excited!

If you do try out a patch or two…post a picture! I would love to see what your little monster knees look like!

March 28, 2015
by Ashley
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Prune & Apricot Bites

We have a need for fiber in this house. Actually…my daughter has a need for fiber, everyone else seems to eat enough. But for some reason my three year old has a different digestive system than the rest of us. It is a real challenge. I have tried adding flax to everything, eating raisins, prunes and we need to keep miralax in her diet frequently. What she seems to love are these lovely treats. She thinks that they are candy, and I am just happy she is eating something that is good for her.

Prune & Apricot Bites

1 1/2 cups dried, pitted prunes
1/2 cup dried apricots
1 cup almonds
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

In a food processor, blend almonds for about 1 minute. The almonds need to be broken down into tiny pieces, not left too large. Then add in everything else. Puree until mixture sticks together like a dough. Turn out onto a silpat or parchment paper, and flatten out. I usually use my hands, or fold the silpat over the mixture to create a large block. See above. Then cut small squares out of the mixture.

Store in an airtight container.

March 27, 2015
by Ashley
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Cheese Platter and Happy Hour

Cheese. I love cheese. My family has been in the cheese making business for over 130 years, and it is in my blood. My great-uncles were cheesemakers, my grandfather was a cheesemaker and my uncle is a cheesemaker still. There are even patrons still with my uncle that would send their milk to my grandfather all those many years ago. I didn’t realize my absolute love for cheese until I started working for my uncle in 2007. I was ready for a change in my career and was excited to start something brand new. I helped my uncle open a new store and run an existing store in Sauk City. I even had the chance to run his cooking school for two years before I was even luckier to have a beautiful baby boy. Finnegan changed everything for us. I didn’t stop working completely, but was able to bring him with me to work and meet of the people who love cheese as well. Surprisingly, Finnegan doesn’t love cheese. But his sister does…and she has expensive taste. After Isla was born, my cheese selling days basically ended except for December…when cheese is sent everywhere as gifts from Wisconsin. Who wouldn’t want cheese as a gift, right?

So this leads me to my favorite appetizer…the cheese platter. I choose the cheeses to compliment our meals and the other items served. It is my conversation piece, as well as my family history. I always have something from Carr Valley Cheese and sometimes other cheeses found around that Carr Valley doesn’t make.

On this particular day, we had Carr Valley Cheeses 4 year old cheddar, Penta Cream Glacier Blue, Big Mutton Button and Bessie’s Blend. We had made a family trip over to the Mustard Museum in Middleton and served two of our new mustards as well. Boetje’s Stone Ground Mustard made in Illinios is Paul’s new favorite and a Hot & Smokey Mustard from Shemps Food Works. We also had a Dijon mustard as well. All of these mustards with the pretzals and sausages were a great accompaniment to the cheese.

What is your favorite Wisconsin Cheese?