Holiday Time :)

I just love the holidays! I mean really, twinkle lights, glitter everywhere, cheery Christmas music playing in every store, hot chocolate, beautiful Christmas trees everywhere you look, cozy nights watching old movies or reading a book... the list goes on and on and I mean really if you can't find just one single thing you don't like about the holidays, there has got to be something wrong with you.

So, in the spirit of the holidays, here are a few things I've done recently to get into (or spread) some Christmas cheer!

I made these little numbers to give out as treats for the peeps at work.

I don't really know what call them, I just saw a picture of them online and decided to make them. Super simple! Just take the waffle pretzels (small square ones) and spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Then you just place a Hershey Kiss in the center of each pretzel and bake them for about 4-6 minutes at 170 degrees. As soon you remove them, press Christmas M&M's on top. You can let them stand for a while to cool or place the tray in the fridge for about 20 minutes and they'll firm up instantly. I packaged them in clear plastic party bags and tied them with Christmas ribbon and an ornament. I didn't take a picture of any, sorry. I thought they were pretty good, not near as great as the puppy chow I usually make, but good none the less.

That same weekend my mom and I made Christmas cookies! :)

Well, she makes the cookies and I do the decorating. This year I wanted to have more colors, so I played artist and mixed some food coloring up and made purple icing too, it turned out to be my fav! Making Christmas cookies is one of my favorite things to do every year, for those of you who aren't big bakers, you can always buy frozen sugar cookie dough or one of the mixes where you add water/eggs etc. I've used both methods before in college and we still had a blast and they tasted just fine ;)

My friend Candy had been a busy little elf these days making all kinds of garlands and wreaths for her house, friends, and coworkers! She surprised me with a wreath last week as a gift for my mom, it's super cute! She decorated it with ornaments, lights, and this beautiful material that reflects the lights. 

Last week I also made a gingerbread house. I LOVE making gingerbread houses! Usually there's a group of us making them together but this year I did mine on my own, I think it still turned out ok. It's just a kit from Target - I don't go too crazy and have to make my own gingerbread or anything that's insane! 

Thursday was our department Christmas party. This year instead of renting one of the buildings from campus, the party was held at one of our faculty member's houses. Rather than having a caterer, we did it potluck style and it turned out pretty well. I made pasta salad, which of course I forgot to take a picture of. It was pretty yummy and super easy to make! 

Ingredients:

1 box Rotini Pasta (I used plain, colored are fine too, bowtie also work great too)

1/4 lb deli pepperoni

1/4 lb deli hard salami

2 containers olives

shredded parmesan cheese

italian dressing

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried rosemary

3 tbsp EVOO

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 minced garlic cloves

The first thing I did was make a marinade for the olives. The olives I purchased came in a resealable container (not a jar) but a tupperware would work fine too. Drain the olives and then sprinkle them with the thyme, rosemary, black pepper, garlic, and EVOO. Seal the container and shake. Shake some more. And then when you think you're done, give it another shake just to make sure the olives are good and coated. Let the olives sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour or up to 5 days. I let mine sit over night and they tasted delish!  The next step is obvs to cook the pasta. Since this was for work and I didn't want to be running behind, I cooked my pasta the night before and did a light cover of Italian dressing (so the noodles didn't stick) and kept it in the fridge overnight. When you're ready assemble the entire pasta, cut the pepperoni and salami into strips and toss into the pasta with the olives and sprinkle with a handful of cheese. Using a large spoon, mix that baby up! Give it a taste, if you think it needs it, add more Italian dressing. I usually add a lot of extra dressing to mine, however since I marinated the olives this time I didn't want to over power their flavor, so I didn't add to much extra - that's all in your hands ;) The pasta salad was a big hit at the party, and it's so easy!

I also made these little appetizers for the party. I just used store bought toasties and pipped some herb cream cheese onto them and sprinkled bacon on top. The herb cream cheese is a secret recipe, sorry ;) But you can experiment with your own variations, the possibilities are endless!

Please excuse the "in the refrigerator" picture hehe ;)

Also, this weekend the Bearkats clinched their first ever FCS National Championship birth! I'm so proud of them! I went to the tailgate Friday and then came home to watch the game, it was just too cold for me, guess that means I'm getting old... I'm super pumped for the game January 7th! Get ready Candy, I'm already planning all kinds of stuff to make for our viewing party hahaha!

Homemade Pinwheels

Here's the recipe for the appetizer (if you want to call it that) that I made for Candy's Labor Day BBQ.

I decided to try something new, rather than just buy the yummy frozen pinwheels at the lovely Walmart. I found a recipe online for homemade pinwheels using Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and I modified it a little. I decided to make bacon, cheddar, and jalapeno pinwheels and then also went for plain cheddar and bacon ones too. So, I did half and half basically.

I bought 4 tubes (cans, whatever you want to call them) of the Pillsbury Creations Dough, rather than Crescent Rolls since the sheets aren't perforated. Each tube makes 8-12 pinwheels depending on how you slice them.

I chopped up 2 fresh jalapenos. Make sure they're seeded, or deseeded. I can never remember which way it is.

Take the seeds out. Yeah, that's it.

Fry up some bacon, I essentially used a whole package - but I was making extra so you could get by with less. For the cheese, I went with Sargento's Mild Cheddar annnnd I totally cheated and bought the already shredded kind.

Eh, it's faster, cleaner, and basically much easier.

So, you take one roll of the dough (if you're using multiple tubes, keep the others in the fridge until you're ready - it'll help keep the dough from sticking to your fingers or the counter) and lay it out on the counter, pushing the edges out to make sure it's a rectangle and not some sort of space man circle.

Sprinkle your cheese, jalapenos, and bacon. I added a little extra cheese on top - who doesn't like cheese?!

Roll up the dough, cinnamon roll style, and slice off the wheels. I cut mine at about 1 inch. That's a pretty good size for keeping the contents of the wheel from falling out while in transport to the baking sheet. It will also make biscuit size pinwheels.

Place them on a baking sheet you've sprayed down with Pam (or the cooking spray of your choice) and bake them at 350* for about 10-13 minutes depending on your oven and the pan you're using. Mine were done at 12.5 minutes flat.

After tasting the first batch, I realized the Pillsbury Creations dough didn't taste exactly the same as the Crescent Roll dough. It wasn't a buttery, flaky crust! So, I improvised and drizzled a teensy tiny bit of melted butter over the top of each one as they came out of the oven. This step is essential, as it makes them taste SO MUCH better and who doesn't love a little unhealthy butter added to their holiday weekend treat? ;)

In true fashion of my non picture taking self lately, I forgot to take some good pics of the pinwheel making process. I have two from George (my iphone). So yeah, don't judge the pics.

I thought they were pretty darn tasty! I also think they would be excellent with eggs for breakfast. Or with sausage and cheese rather than bacon. The possibilities are endless! If you try your own version, let me know what ingredients you use and how they turn out!

xoxo,
kris

I Love Veggies!

There are a lot of people out there who will not eat their veggies, for reasons beyond me. Veggies are so yummy! There are so many ways to go about obtaining your daily requirments, I actually think it's fun! ;)
Since I've been on a huge vegetable kick lately, some might think I've tried the vegetarian angle again, I'm going to post the first ever food/recipe section on this here blog.

The pills I've been taking for my eye make me SUPER hungry, as in I imagine my hunger is exactly how a preggo woman feels just before meal time. In the hopes of not becoming a cow with these meds, I've been trying to eat extremely healthy the past few weeks. This entails cooking up a ton of veggies at the beginning of each week and using them for lunch/dinner throughout the rest of the week. This typically involves roasting some of my fav veggies in the oven, after tossing them with olive oil and select seasoning. I then eat them over steamed brown rice and sometimes add a dash of Salt Lick BBQ Sauce (if you haven't tried SL BBQ, you are most definitely missing out!).

Last night I had a hankering to try something different, here's what I did:

I took a good amount of broccoli, carrots, asparagus, and onion and cut it all into bite size (about 1" pieces) and placed them in a large mixing bowl. Then, take a bottle of olive oil (evoo, whichever) and do a couple of passes over the veggies, and then add your seasoning - I used only cracked pepper last night. Lay the veggies out on a jelly roll pan that's been sprayed with cooking spray and back at 425* for about 25 minutes, stirring them halfway through.

Next, I decided on a whim to make homemade salsa for a topping. After rummaging through the cabinets I decided there were some ingredients that could possibly make an OK salsa. I used a can of tomatoes that had green chilis in it, along with a can of Rotel. (Pour all juice from cans!) I added a small handfull of chopped onion, about a tablespoon of cilantro, and 3 garlic cloves. All this went into my trusty mini-prep mixer and was all blended together. I then added a little lime zest and lime juice and did a quick spin of the mixer again. I was pleansantly surprised that my little "made-up" salsa actually had some spice and was pretty darn tasty! Some of you know, I'm definitely not a chunky salsa kind of girl so if you are, this version is not for you.

The third and basically final step in the process was the black beans. Over the last few weeks I've been on a huge edimame kick, but wanted to try black beans this week - hence the salsa idea. I've never made black beans before and my favorite ones to eat are from Chipotle so I decided to go with a cilantro/lime black bean mix. I just used a can of black beans (I hear cooking the real thing takes forever). In order to add my extra flavor to the canned beans, I sauteed half a large onion in some EVOO with a little cracked pepper and then added the beans, 1 cup of cilantro, zest and juice from 1 lime. I brought the mixture to a good simmer and then turned the fire off and let it sit while the veggies finished roasting.

I use frozen brown rice that comes in microwavable bags, that way I can heat it up easily and then divide the leftovers into single serving containers for future use. Once everything is ready, just scoop the rice onto a plate, top with veggies, and then cover with salsa.

I know what you're thinking.

Salsa on broccoli, carrots, and asparagus?!

Trust me though, it's really good!

I have one picture, next time I'll try to take pics throughout the process, but it's not a super nice picture. In fact, it's rather bad and doesn't really do the meal any justice. Also, please excuse the paper plate and platsic fork - I was tired from working out and ready to eat my food so I just grabbed the first thing available ;)