Festive Cranberry Apple Tea Ring

 

I love baking from Red Star Yeast's collection of recipes. They are always clear, well tested recipes that have always turned out for me. They have so many great recipes to choose from too and I love finding things that I haven't tried before. I've definitely made tea rings before but this was a new combination that was perfect for Christmastime. It has a festive collection of apple, cranberries, orange and walnuts throughout the dough that creates a beautiful loaf that would be perfect for sharing with friends and family.

Glazed Yeast Doughnuts

After all these years, it's finally here. It's my early Christmas present to everyone; My doughnut recipe. It's not that it's necessarily been a secret or that I haven't shared it with others. Just not formally here. And of course I'm excited to be sharing this recipe through my partnership with Red Star Yeast.

Tart Cherry and Cream Cheese Buns with Lemon Zest

Today the Virtual Potluck team is celebrating the release of fellow team member Donna Currie's new cookbook. We're all making a recipe from her book and sharing them with all of you! As I went through the book there were so many recipes that I wanted to try right away but the one that stuck out the most was the Blueberry and Cream Cheese Buns with Lemon Zest.

Greek Yogurt Marinated Smoked Chicken Lollipops

I'll be the first to admit that I don't spend a lot of my time watching football but that definitely doesn't mean I can't eat all the food that's associated with traditional tail-gating and game days. I'm the type of person that can make an entire meal from appetizers and be perfectly happy.

I'll also admit right off the bat that I love the look of these chicken "lollipops" but they definitely take some work and I'd only do them for special occasions where people can actually admire my hard work. Yeah, I'm that vain. I love making food for my family but they don't fully appreciate the intricacies of creating these things and ate them all in about 10 seconds flat without even a second glance.

Tostadas with Smashed Orca Beans

I'm not sure how we got to November already but I don't think I'm quite ready for it yet. We cleaned out our gardens finally though except for the sweet onions and the rosemary which seem to be just fine. I like leaving the onions in as long as possible and then grab them as I need them, except there's no way I'm digging through the snow to get them now. There were only a few left though. We've had gardens on and off for the last few years but this has been the first year we really focused on it and we really enjoyed some great food from our own backyard this year.

Apple and Rosemary Stuffed Pork Chops

I was walking through Costco yesterday trying to decide what I wanted to make for our Sunday dinner this week when I came across these beautiful pork chops. We haven't had pork chops in a long time and I'm not usually a big fan because all I can typically find are the thin little pork chops in the grocery store. These ones were about two inches thick and even though they were boneless, which is usually another strike, they looked perfect.

Roast Beef, Blue Cheese and Onion Jam Panini

 

 

There's something so satisfying about a well made sandwich. Not a sandwich where you just throw on some deli meat and condiments and call it good, but one where you layer the flavors and combine ingredients and textures to create something that's more than its individual parts.  

Baked Apple Dumplings

Let's do Fall right this year. That means lots of apples and pumpkins. So let's start with apples this week and then I'm going to have an awesome pumpkin recipe coming up next.

We're going to take an apple and make it anything but healthy. As in, even though there's still some fruit in this, there's no way it can be described as anything but, hide in your closet and eat two of them and love every second of it, indulgence.

Homemade Hummus Flour Tortillas

Here's a fun and simple recipe that pretty much anyone can make; Flour tortillas! These are so simple and you'll end up with tortillas that taste so much better than anything you can get at the store. And by using Sabra hummus, you can essentially make them any flavor you want. I used their Chipotle variety in this batch but I can't think of any of their flavors that wouldn't make an excellent tortilla.

Dinner in the Garden 2014

For the last couple years, each summer we have hosted a dinner in the garden where we set up a formal dinner outside and celebrate the wonderful foods that we are growing in our own and local farmers gardens. We missed last year with all of our remodeling so we were excited to get back on our normal routine.  I love creating the menu and cooking some fun new foods and sharing them with our friends.

Mango and Peach Salsa Burgers

It's summer and for my birthday last month I treated myself to a new grill and smoker. I love smoking meat but I wasn't a huge fan of the electric smoker I purchased a few years ago so I didn't use it much except for a turkey at Thanksgiving. My new grill is a Traeger and it smokes as well as grills and I've been experimenting with it as much as I can. My favorite thing so far has been the huge pork butt I smoke a few weeks ago. We used it for over a week and had everything from sandwiches to tacos with the meat. My mouth waters even now when I think about it.

Lemon Coconut and Strawberry "Shortcake" Cupcakes

 We've redesigned our entire backyard this year and have been hard at work rearranging, creating new garden boxes and re-purposing our old patio. Part of all the movement included digging up hundreds of our old strawberry plants and replanting them in their new home. We've got a whole dedicated area for them now and hope they go crazy and produce tons of new berries. We figured with all the movement they wouldn't produce anything this year but after getting them back in the ground, they perked right up and are now in full blossom and ready to fruit! Our Minnesota winter puts us behind most of the country though so it will still be a few weeks before we get to pick the fruit.

Wild Rice and Hummus Burgers

I don't like the idea of veggie burgers more for the reason that people are typically trying to use them as a substitute for a real meat burger. And there is no substitute. Period. But if instead you just want to have a really good sandwich and it happens to not have any meat in it, I'm all for that. And honestly with these Wild Rice and Hummus "burgers" I'm OK with them not having any meat. I almost topped them with some bacon though. And that would have made them just that much better.

Salted Caramel "Ding Dong" Cake

Life just gets away from you sometimes. Things have just been so busy and unfortunately that meant that I didn't even post once in March. I've still been cooking and baking plenty but the drive to photograph and write up anything just wasn't there.

Mardi Gras King Cake

It's that time of year again to celebrate Mardi Gras! When we lived in New Orleans we loved going to the family friendly parades and watching the kids (and adults) gather as many beads and gifts as they possibly could. With the snow packed up higher than our cars here in Minnesota this year, it's hard to imagine that we were somewhere else this time of year enjoying the warmth of a late evening out at the parade.

Homemade Bread Bowls

We are surrounded by walls of snow that are taller than our cars which means it was a stay in the house and pretend the snow isn't there kind of weekend. Breanne's parents are also here this week as well as two new foster kids so to keep 10 people from going crazy we decided to re-finish my office. Yeah, cause we just weren't busy enough to start with. That project involved scraping and refinishing the ceiling, painting walls, trim and doors and redecorating. It's one of the last rooms in the house that we hadn't remodeled and it is nice to have it done. Still have a bit of decorating to finish up and then I'll post some pictures.

Pork Loin Braised in Milk

I honestly feel like it's been so long since I've made something worth blogging about. I'm still cooking but just haven't had the time to think of anything very creative and then the week just flies by.

I was in Wyoming last week for my Grandpa's funeral. It was one of those times where it's a horrible reason to be together but it's also a great thing to have almost everyone together in one place. I brought our youngest with me since she still flies for free and then we got to spend some time at our cabin in Star Valley with cousins and my brothers. Of course we also had to make some donuts for everyone so I did even get some cooking in out there.