April 11, 2015
by Ashley
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Knit Cowl and Fingerless Gloves

After my family and cooking, my favorite hobby has to be knitting. I started knitting about 5 years ago. I really wanted to make our Christmas stockings after Finnegan was born, with our names knitted into the cuff. I was taught how to knit as a young child from my Grandma Grace, and then in college I learned how to crochet. I spent hours crocheting, usually at the front desk. My friends probably all remember me sitting there, crocheting into the night, working at the front desk and greeting them all as they got back from their nights out. I crocheted blankets…really, big blankets. I crocheted these large blankets until Finnegan was born. But I was getting a little tired of crocheting the blankets because I didn’t know anything other than a double crochet stitch and I was running out of people to gift the blankets to. Plus, lugging around a huge project when I wanted to work on it was getting a little much. So, I started to look to knitting. I had totally forgotten how to knit, and only had my grandma’s old knitting needles to start with. So I turned to youtube, and retaught myself. Thus starting my knitting journey.

It came back to my quicker than I thought it would. I drew out a pattern for a stocking that I wanted to make, with multiple colors and designs, found a stocking pattern on a basic stocking and made one. I did have to pull the first stocking apart about 3 times, but I finally caught on and finished it.

This is one of my newer projects, a gift for my sister-in-laws birthday. I started out making a cowl and realized I had enough yarn to also make fingerless gloves. I gave them to her a little earlier than her birthday, because I was worried she wouldn’t have enough winter left to wear them. Turns out I was wrong since we got 7 inches of snow soon after.

I will try to get a picture of her wearing these and post them soon.

April 10, 2015
by Ashley
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Avocado Soup with Adobo Shrimp

This is a fantastic soup. That is the best way to introduce this. It is pretty awesome. We love to eat this in the summer, for a nice light dinner. We also really like to eat this in the winter, and dream of the summer. Try this, you won’t be disappointed.

Avocado Soup with Adobo Shrimp (serves 2)

Soup
1 avocado, diced & peeled
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp cilantro
1 tbsp lime juice
1 pinch kosher salt
1 pinch pepper

Sour Cream Garnish
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tbsp cilantro
1 tsp lime zest
1/2 tsp pepper

Shrimp & Corn Garnish
14 raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp pepper
1 pinch kosher salt
1/2 (7oz) can chiles in adobo with sauce, chiles chopped (about 3 tbsp)
1 cup corn
1/4 cup onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp lime juice

I usually start with making the soup. In a blender, combine all soup ingredients. Blend until pureed and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Mix sour cream with cilantro, zest and pepper and place in the refrigerator until ready to serve the soup.

Defrost shrimp if frozen, and mix with cumin, pepper and salt. Heat up a saute pan with a little drizzle of olive oil. Saute shrimp until opaque, about 4 minutes. Add in corn, onion and garlic and saute for about 3 minutes longer. We like things spicy, so we use the whole can of chiles, but if you like things a little milder, use only one chile. Put the chiles into the saute pan along with the lime juice and saute 1 more minute.

In serving dishes, split the cold soup between the two soup bowls. Split the shrimp mixture between the two bowls, making sure each dish gets the same amount of shrimp. Split the sour cream garnish between the two dishes and serve.

I use this recipe almost exactly.

5 points

April 9, 2015
by Ashley
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Easter Morning

Holidays are really fun. I really like to try to do something special for my kids, so they remember the holidays and have fun. This Easter I tried to make it fun. I was reading an Easter book to the kids the night before and Finnegan announced he knows that the Easter Bunny is fake. My reply was this…

Me – “Ooohh, are you going to ruin the holiday?”
Finn – Looks at me like I am crazy.
Me – “You know what I was always told? If you don’t believe in the Easter bunny, you won’t get a basket on Easter.”
Finn – Looks at me for a long moment…and says ” I do believe.”

Ha! I know he still doesn’t but at least his sister thinks he does.

We colored eggs that night as well. Here is a picture of my sweet babies, coloring eggs.

As a child, our baskets were always hidden. We got to do a long scavenger hunt through the house to try to find those sneaky baskets. I knew that the kids were going to do an Easter Egg hunt the next day during our Easter/Birthday Party bash, so I didn’t want to do it again. Each clue was hidden with two to four eggs filled with one piece of candy.

Easter basket hunt…clues and eggs.

Our first clue was found on the kitchen island.

Notice how Isla really doesn’t care much about the clues, but more for the chocolate in the eggs? Yep, that is my girl.

Our sneeky baskets…found in the kids bathtub.

It was a fun basket hunt, and even more of a fun day. More pictures of our Easter/Birthday to follow.

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.