Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

We are in the middle of a snowstorm or (blizzard) if you want to call it that. Last night it started and I am sort of glad that Ryan requested some scalloped potatoes this week because they were the perfect comfort food for this blustery weather. I was blown away by how easy it really is to make these and I for sure will make it again. I am warning you they are not healthy and are super addicting. I would recommend making them for when people are over so you are not tempted like us to eat the entire pan in one sitting.

What you need~
4 cups thinly sliced potatoes
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (mild)
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
Dash of paprika

I started with using my food processor to slice up the potatoes needed. Man I love my food processor. If you do not have one a mandolin works great or use a knife to cut them as thin as possible.

Melt your butter down and get it boiling. Add in your flour and let that all thicken for a minute or two. It should get thick rather quickly. Add all of your cold milk to this mix and whisk together. Season with your salt and cayenne pepper. Let this cook on low until smooth and boiling. Make sure to whisk it frequently.

Reduce heat and add in 1 cup of the shredded cheese. Mix with the whisk until it thickens and is smooth.

Place a half of the sliced potatoes in a lightly greased one quart casserole dish.

Pour half of cheese sauce over potatoes.

Repeat with second layer of potatoes and cheese sauce. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Top with some paprika for color.

Bake uncovered for about 1 hour at 350°F.

Make sure to let it rest for about 5 minutes so you do not burn your mouth.

 This was so cheesy, creamy and good. I do not have enough descriptive words to talk about how good this turned out. It was a struggle to not eat the whole pan.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Chocolate Cherry Cookies

 Sometimes you get a craving to bake cookies. So you go through all your really old cook books to find a new receipt. This one I altered a lot because it had crazy ingredients I did not own nor did I want to buy. The receipt was from the 70's so times were for sure different back then. Anyway the final product after all the changes was fantastic. We had friends over for a game/movie night and they were a huge hit. I kinda think I need to work cherries into more receipts because they make these cookies really special.

What you need~
2 cups (4 sticks of butter) softened
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups of  all purpose flour
1 12 oz package of mini semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
1 cup maraschino cherries (chopped) (HINT: Use a clean scissors to cut up the cherries saves on time and mess)

Using your mixer (stand or hand) cream butter (slice up sticks of butter to go faster).  

Chop up those nuts and cherries!

 Mix in powdered sugar and beat in vanilla/salt. Gradually add flour mixing until well blended (this gets really hard because the dough is stiff). Using your hands for the next part mix in the chocolate chips, walnuts and cherries.

Dough is going to be extremely stiff. Drop by the tablespoon onto parchment paper covered (or greased) cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. It make about 2-3 dozen cookies. They were small and did not spread much on the pan.

I mean look at these tiny little beauties. I bet you cannot eat just one. I mean I cannot that is for sure.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

20 Minute Miracle Pasta

You have to work late and when you get home you have like zero time to make dinner before you need to be at a neighborhood association meeting what do you do for dinner!?

You get creative and you make this. No one said you cannot make a semi-healthy and tasty meal in 20 minutes. I felt like Rachel Ray making a 30 minute meal but better because I managed to use up leftover's too.

What you need~
1 pound of meat (I had 1 pound of left over vension taco meat)
2 cups of tortellinis
1 can of pasta sauce
1 tablespoon of garlic paste
Some frozen basil (or fresh if you have it)
Seasonings

 Here is the left over taco meat that was chilling in the fridge from tacos the other night. It added a nice heat to the sauce.

Please notice my addiction to Trader Joe's.

The seasonings you need. Garlic, onion powder, oregano, fennel, thyme, Mrs. Dash and salt. 

Once again notice the Trader Joe's addiction.

1. Preheat you oven to 400 degrees. Cut up broccoli, lightly coat in olive oil and season. Throw in the oven on a cookie sheet.

2. While your oven is preheating put about 5 quarts of water in a stock pot and bring to a boil. Add torellini when it is boiling. The pasta will take about 15-18 minutes.














3. While your noodles/broccoli is cooking get a sauce pan on the stove set to medium heat. Add a little olive oil to the pan. Add your tablespoon of garlic paste. Let this heat up until you can really smell the garlic. Add your frozen basil or whatever you have to the pan. Slowly add in the meat mixture.

 4. Once the meat is added to the pan let that heat up for about 5 minutes and then add in the pasta sauce.
5. Season with you spices. Let this simmer down and taste your pasta.













I promise that you can do this in under 20 minutes I did it and honestly it turned out great. We had plenty of time to eat and go to our meeting after cleaning up a bit.

Yum!

It was really really good.

I hope when you are strapped for time you get creative and make something instead of giving into the temptation of fast food. You can do it!

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Venison

Disclaimer: I do not hunt but everyone I know does so I am spoiled and get a ton of free meat each year.

Venison, the meat everyone should be eating. I am not joking at all when I say this. It is the best lean meat and honestly I like it better than chicken flavor wise. Some people dislike the game flavor of the meat (Mom if you read this you are wrong it is fantastic!)

What is it exactly?
Per Wikipedia the land of knowledge-
Venison is a general term pertaining to the meat of a deer. It can be used to refer to any part of the deer, so long as it can be consumed, including the flesh and internal organs. Venison, much like beef, is categorized into specific cuts, including roast, sirloin, and ribs.



Now that we know what it is you have to figure out what to do with it right. Like I stated before it is super lean since a deer is a wild animal and gets a ton of good exercise in the forest. The last batch of meat I was given was from my brother (Erik) and he had his meat processed. Here are some quick ideas for how to use this healthy/tasty meat.

1. Ground-- This is an easy way to use less desirable cuts of the meat. I used 2 pounds of this yesterday to make tacos. You can sub in venison for most meat you use regularly. The only recommendation I have is if you use this for burgers you may need to add a little more fat to the burgers (mix in some beef) to get a good patty.
2. Roast-- Man there is nothing more tasty than throwing a venison roast in the crock pot with some veggies and a can of coke. Sometimes I will smear a good jalapeno jelly on the roast after it is seared off before I leave it cook all day. Make sure you cook on low and no more than 8 hours or the meat will dry out and be gross.
3. Tenderloins-- I mean how can you go wrong with a lean delicious cut of meat like this. I will sear this cut of meat and throw it in the oven until it reaches the best level of done. 350 degrees and check the temperature till it is to your liking. Treat it like beef for the level of done you want.
4. Hot sticks-- I mean who does not love a good beef stick? Now imagine it is made if deer instead and packs more deep flavor.
5. Jerky-- Most people have had some sort of jerky in their lives. This is another way to use up scraps of meat that are not fit for roasts etc. It really is fantastic and I like to take some with me hiking as a snack.
6. Sausage--This is a really popular thing to make scraps with. Most of the time you mix in some beef for added fat. Ringed bologna style and hot dogs are a good way to have venison.

If you are a hunter or know someone that hunts I am sure you know of all these things already. Most hunters will get their meat processed  at a location that charges a fee to do this. Some people I know do it themselves which is rare but impressive.

I hope you give venison or game meat in general a try. It is healthy and a good substitute for beef/chicken and even pork.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Tree/Elephant Mural

Yesterday I spent some time painting a mural for a friend's nursery. My mom painted the cute little elephants and I painted the tree. I think it really turned out good. As you know I have a love of painting so it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

Word to the wise, don't use oil based paint it is a pain in the butt to clean up!

Mom doing some final touches.

It took us about 3-ish hours and we were lucky to have all the paint already so it cost us nothing to do this besides our time. It really turned out fantastic and we cannot wait to see it when the babies room is all done.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Minestrone Soup

I am so glad I made this soup this week. With Ryan being sick something packed with this many veggies is good for him. This soup has a ton of vegetables in it. I was rather happy with how it turned out in the end and we have lunches all week now.


What you will need~
Cannellii beans drained & rinsed, 1 can     

Carrots diced, 2 cups
Celery diced, 1.5 cups
Garlic diced, 4 cloves
Green beans drained & rinsed, 1 can
Kidney beans drained & rinsed, 1 can
Potatoes diced, 2
White onion diced, 1
Zucchini diced, 2
Veg stock, 4 cups
Seasoning (Mrs. Dash), 1 tbsp
Pepper, 1/2 tsp
Salt, 1 tsp
Water, 2 cups
Pasta ,1 cup
V8, 1 can
Tomato juice, 3 cups
Bay leaf, 2












Once you have prepped all your ingredients add the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery, white onion, garlic, seasoning, pepper, salt and bay leaves into the crock pot. Add in your veggie stock, water, V8 and tomato juice. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

15 minutes before you want to eat add in the kidney beans, cannellii beans, zucchini, green beans and pasta. Turn to high and cook for 10-15 minutes until your pasta is tender.

Adding in the extras at the end!

Done and it looks so tasty.

Passed the taste test!

This made an almost overflowing crockpot full of soup and it warms up really well for leftovers. I picked up some lovely bread to eat with it from Breadsmith. I will be making this again in the future for sure.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily

Travel Adventures: The Lebrewski Cruise

I have been MIA for over little a week due to going to the Bahama's on a music cruise. I am going to try to piece together some of my favorite things and moments for you each day to give you an idea about our fun filled trip. This was one of my favorite vacations we have ever taken and I have traveled a lot.

FYI-- I was sick this entire trip with a pretty crappy cold.  

Day 1 Chicago to Miami--Norwegian Pearl ship
We started this day off early having drove to Chicago the night before after work. Our hotel the Loews Hotel Chicago offers parking there if you stay with them plus a really fancy shuttle service to the airport. Highly recommend staying there. Chicago O'Hare International Airport was extremely well organized and we were able to breeze through check-in and security with enough time to grab a yummy breakfast sandwich before boarding our flight. The flight was good overall because I always take dramamine while flying. With my head cold my ears where not so happy though and continued to pop all night. Arriving at the Miami airport we found our bags and headed over to the ship via another shuttle service Norwegian has. Ryan and I have cruised on the Norwegian Pearl before he actually proposed to me on this ship so it was fun to come back to the ship. They have renovated it in 2013 so a lot has changed in the layout of the ship.

Here is the ship out a sea. Pretty big ship. We decided as soon as we were on the ship we would only take the stairs the whole time on the ship. The ship is 13 floors. Needless to say we got a good workout in on the ship. 



Once on the ship we ate lunch and roamed the ship to figure out where everything was. We caught our first show of the night and managed to eat dinner too. 

Food hightlights-
Lunch I had this watermelon salad with basil and olive oil. It was simple but so refreshing. I had my first drink of the trip a Miami vice (half daiquiri/half pina colanda) it was yummy but at $28 for two we limited our intake for the rest of the trip. 

Music highlights-

Kyle Hollingsworth (The String Cheese Incident) sailed us from port with some good ole funk music. 

Later after dinner we rocked out with Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown. 








Day 2 New Providence (Nassau)
We forgot that everything in the Bahama's runs on island time so we had to wait for the tourist office to open at 9 even though we disembarked at 8. Once we had our trip to the Clifton Heritage National Park  all sorted out with the wonderful Kathleen, Joey and Vernita. Joey was our driver and car guide explaining how the island and Bahamas work. Vernita was our guide at the park showing us amazing rock formations and art along the way. The trip was $60 a person and included a 45 minute drive to the park, guided tour of the park and lunch. We paid extra for snorkeling but that was worth it to see the sculptures.

When we got out of the water I noticed giant globs of crude oil all over Ryan. I had some all over the bottom of my suit. Come to find out they had an oil spill and the ropes around the statues were covered. Getting back to the ship we rushed to change out of our beach wear and get to our first concert of the night. I scrubbed those suits clean of oil for a long time first. I got them clean and now we can laugh about our brush with a oil spill.

Food Highlights-
The chicken at lunch supplied on the beach had the most delicious seasoning on it with steamed veggies. It was perfection. Grabbing an ice cream from one of the many soft serve machines on the way to see O.A.R. Yum!
We went to the first beer tasting and there was some really outrageous flavors such as pineapple in beer. Our favorites that night were from Cigar City Brewery.  

Music Highlights-
O.A.R did not disappoint. They were fantastic live and the theater was hopping.
Stolen Rhodes was fun surprise on this cruise. These guys are seriously talented and sound just like their records.

Hollis Brown oh how I love this band. There was a light breeze and I danced my tail off. The lyrics in their music are so deep and they sure know how to make you dance with their songs.






 Day 3 Day at Sea
We started out the morning having some fruit because I almost always did that on this ship. Then we found a quiet little spot to read the morning away. So relaxing. We went and had a light lunch then decided to go to a beer and food tasting with Chef Terry French. Terry was a special chef who was plastered drunk and talked more about himself than the actual food that he was making. It was like a train wreck you could  not stop watching. We started our concert watching for the evening after a beer tasting and dinner.

Food Highlights-
For Breakfast I had these little figs and they were amazing. I proceeded to eat them at every meal if I could. I also had a really interesting beer at the beer tasting it was a belgium wheat. Lastly, even though I learned nothing that the beer/food demo the food that came out for the tasting was amazing. The little buns the sliders came on were divine.

Music Highlights-
Had to catch some more O.A.R and do some dancing!
Young Dubliners brought some fun energy to their set and had all the people dancing the "stick person dance".
Alpha Rev was one of my favorite bands on this cruise. Their music is fun yet has some intense lyrics. They really loved pulling other artists onto the stage to do little cameo appearances which was a blast.

Day 4 Great Stirrup Cay 
We ate a quick breakfast and got onto a tender boat to go to shore. I am pleasantly surprised I did not get sick on the boat to the island. It was a rather overcast day and windy. We decided to take a little trolley to the lagoon on the other side of the island for some reading in the AM. Later in the morning we walked over to the main beach for a tasty cook out and some music. The sun was out full force at this time in the PM. After this fun beach day we got some dinner and watched more music into the AM. I finally managed to locate a mojito after a day long hunt for one!

Food Highlights-
Star fruit and passion fruit on the island with lunch and all the little salads they had where fantastic. I had a ton of beer at the tasting. One of them tasted like straight up coffee. We decided to get some dessert this night and I loved these little fudge balls they had.



Music Highlights-

See the guy in the red shades? That is Ryan!!!

Andy Frasco. O.M.G. I would fly to one of his shows, swim, run or crawl. Ryan and I agree our favorite concert of all time and we have seen some damn good shows. I mean I was dancing HARD and so was everyone else. Band members would jump down into the sand with saxophones and rock out with us. "Superman" the bass player climbed on the speakers and rocked out. Andy danced and sang with us in the crowd. At the end of the set we crowd surfed him into the ocean!

We used this day to make sure we saw all our favorites one last time. Alpha Rev, Hollis Brown and Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown were amazing. We ended the night watching some really fun karaoke.

Day 5 Norwegian Pearl- Miami


We disembarked around 10ish and took an interesting taxi ride to our hotel. Once checked in we decided to walk 3 miles to Little Havana. This was a perfect overcast day for walking and there was a slight breeze as well. Miami is such and interesting mix of cultures and I found a lot of the signs in spanish which was strange when trying to find your way around when you speak broken spanish. When we arrived we ate at a little cafe and had the best cuban sandwiches. We then roamed around for a bit and started our long walk back to the hotel. We took a different way back that was a better route and we stopped at a little cuban bakery too. We had an early night after dinner due to our early flight.




Food Highlights-
So many on this day. Between the cuban sandwiches, fresh squeezed lemonade and OJ, guava filled puff, croquettes and three types of guacamole (corn, bacon and pineapple) with dinner it was fantastic. 

Guac with dinner.

Croquettes, guava puff and fresh OJ.

Day 6 Miami- HOME
I have never in my life slept through an alarm. Until this day when I was supposed to get up for 4:30am for a 5am shuttle and slept till 5:30am. It was a bit of a mess and we had to take a taxi but we made our flight okay. I even got a kale smoothie from an angry lady at the java place before we  took off. Ryan caught my cold and was feeling icky the rest of the way home which was a bummer. We did stop in Milwaukee at Trader Joes my favorite and I managed to get  home to watch the very last episode of Downton Abbey ever.

Food Highlights-
Chicago popcorn is where it is at. I got some in the airport and munched on it all day. It is a mix of cheese and kettle corn and it is fantastic!
Five guys-- Their fries are my favorite and they always give you a ton of leftovers.
Pasty's-- Ryan's step mom makes the best and we stopped to get some for dinner. So good.

In closing. We had the best trip. It really was something that I would do again in a heart beat. I wanted to get this post out in the world before I forgot all the details. I took some pictures on the trip as you can see (my phone) or I snagged them off of the cruise site. When I upload my camera pictures I may add some more here as well.

Until next time~
XoXo Emily