Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

          Lately I have seen recipes for skillet cookies everywhere, so I've been dying to try my hand at one.  I absolutely love my cast iron skillets.  They will be a work horse for you in the kitchen.  I adore the fact that they can do double duty for you—meaning you can use them on your stovetop as well as in your oven.  For years I have used my cast iron skillets for baking cornbread, but never something sweet.  So here is my experience baking a cookie in my skillet:

          The recipe I used gave the suggestion of using chocolate chips and toffee chips, which I loved, but if you’re not a toffee person, you can just use more chocolate chips in place of the toffee chips.

          First step is melting the butter in your skillet. 

          Add the sugars and vanilla extract, and let it rest for about 5 minutes.

          Add your egg and stir well.

          Add dry ingredients. 

          Here is where I began to have a problem.  This recipe suggests doing everything right in your skillet, which I think is great—in theory.  However, I am apparently a messy cook who doesn’t have the time or patience required to mix all of this in a skillet without making a huge mess.

          Once the dry ingredients are combined, stir in your chips and/or toffee pieces (insert more messiness on my part here).

          I made sure the dough was spread evenly throughout the skillet, then placed it in the oven. 

          Recipe said to bake for 15-20 minutes.  That’s when I snapped this picture:

         

          However, when I cut into it, I felt like it was just way too gooey for my preferences, so I put in back in the oven for five minutes.  It was still pretty soft in the center when I pulled it out but I didn't want my edges too dark so I went with it.

          I served it up warm with vanilla ice cream, and it was delicious!  It is so much better than a plain, ordinary cookie.  I was a little disappointed when I saw this recipe was for an 8” skillet because I didn’t think that would be enough, but a little slice goes a long way.  This is very rich. 
          The one thing I would change is mixing everything in the skillet.  I don’t know if that is supposed to have some special effect, or if its just to save you from having a bowl to clean up—but I’d rather clean the bowl than to try to neatly mix everything in the skillet again.  It wasn’t good.  Next time, I’ll whip this up in a bowl, and spread it out in my skillet.  I see many more skillet cookies in my future.  Enjoy!

The Comfort of Banana Bread

          So, if any of you have been checking back to my blog regularly and have noticed my incredibly long absence, I apologize.  To say life has been busy is an understatement, and I just haven’t been able to get myself back in the swing of writing.  Summer has come, and almost gone now, in a flash it seems, and we have been busy soaking up the glorious weather we’ve had.  This is one of the mildest summers, temperature wise, that I can recall.  We have thoroughly enjoyed it, especially after the long, long winter we had.  On to deliciousness: 

One of my favorite go-to foods for quick comfort, is Banana Bread.  Although, not just any banana bread.  The recipe I use is from a great-aunt of mine who passed away, and I have to admit that every time I make it, there is a quiet satisfaction in my heart, knowing that her hands went through the same motions in her kitchen.  Do you have family recipes like that?  Plus, it’s literally the best banana bread I’ve put in my mouth!  It could be the addition of a simple glaze over top when the bread is still hot, that puts it over the top for me.

          Whatever recipe you choose, quick breads, such as banana bread, are a great addition to your recipe rolodex.  If you don’t have several to choose from in your recipe box, I suggest you remedy that quickly.  They will serve you well.  I use them constantly—for breakfast, snacks and gifts.  A loaf of bread comes in handy for a house warming gift, or get-well wishes, especially since you can throw them together in a jiffy.  Or if you want to be super organized, make a few loaves and freeze them to be ready at a moment’s notice.  I make my own baking mix that I keep on hand, and if you do that, you can whip up a loaf with even greater ease.

          Anyone will tell you though, the secret to GREAT banana bread, is ripe, and I mean RIPE bananas.  You want them to look black, or pretty close thereto, without being rotten, of course.  If you don't have ripe bananas on hand, there is a pin floating around on Pinterest about how to ripen them.  Let me add a side-note here…my husband loves this recipe.  As in—when I make a loaf, all four of us almost take it down in one sitting.  We “fight” over who is going to get the last piece.  He loves it, and it’s one of the things I make that I know blesses his belly, which blesses my heart.  I encourage you to find what does this for your husband as well.  So, whenever bananas in our house are approaching the desired ripeness, he knows banana bread is to come, and on this day, I came into the kitchen and found this:

          His cute way of hinting, and helping all at the same time.

          I use three bananas for my bread.  I mash them up with a fork until they look like this:

 

          You could leave bigger pieces if you wanted to, I guess, but this is what works for me, plus this is the way my mother used to do it.  When the bananas are ready, I place all my dry ingredients in my mixing bowl. 

 

 

          You won’t need a mixer unless you’re using butter or shortening.  I use vegetable oil.  Add in your prepared bananas and remaining ingredients and mix just until everything is moist. 

 

 

          Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake.  Since I use a glass loaf pan, I drop the oven temperature from 350F to 325F. 

 

 

 

          55-60 minutes creates the perfect loaf for me. 

 

 

          When still warm, mix up a simple glaze of powdered sugar and milk or water, with a little vanilla extract, and pour over your bread.  Once you take a bite, you'll have trouble stopping on it.  Its delicious!  Blessings!

Surviving the Stomach Flu

            I have been MIA from my blog for the past few weeks, for good reason.  My little family of four has been suffering through the stomach flu.  Yuck!  Believe me when I say “yuck” does not even cover the amount of grossness I have witnessed over the last few weeks; especially when my 2-year-old doesn’t understand (or rather is unwilling) to vomit into a bucket, rather than spraying it all over everything in a 10-foot radius.  She actually took off walking in most cases, leaving a trail as she went.

            It started with my son.  In the wee hours of the morning on 4/3, he woke us because he had vomited all over his bed.  Got him cleaned up and his bedding changed out, tucked him in, and not even 30 minutes later he vomited again.  That’s when we knew this was more than an isolated incident, and that we were in for a long road.  Cleaned him up again and all the commotion woke my daughter so I decided to bring him downstairs with me so I could take care of him without disturbing her.  I put him on the couch and I blew up our air mattress and camped out beside him. 

Have you ever tried to spring-into-action to get a bucket to your vomiting child from an air mattress?  It’s like trying to get off a blob that everyone else is jumping on.  You’re trying to get off, but it’s just not happening.  I’m not especially graceful on a normal day, so being in that place that is between awake and sleeping, then trying to shoot up like a rocket from said air mattress was a funny sight, I’m sure.  Sleep didn’t happen for either of us that night.  He vomited about every 30 minutes.  He finally dozed off about 6 a.m., just as the princess was waking up.  We were just dealing with vomiting until that afternoon, then it started coming out the other end as well.  He couldn’t even keep down liquids for a while…all he really wanted was milk but dairy is a no-no for a while with the stomach bug and he wasn’t happy about that.  The princess started her vomiting Friday afternoon, and my husband started his symptoms on Saturday. 

I thought for sure I would be next…but I wasn’t—not sure if my immune system is just that stellar, or if it was purely the grace of God, but I am thankful either way.  It is rough on a household when Momma’s down.  I felt sluggish and sickly a few days while taking care of everyone else, but maybe that is just because I was working around the clock with close to zero sleep.  Felt like I was back in the newborn-baby days for a while—where everything is just a haze and your days are running together.  In the middle of it, it felt like it would never end.  I’ve never washed so many loads of clothes and bedding that fell victim to vomit. 

Their stomachs were touchy until just a few days ago.  Last week—about 8 days after my son started with this, we decided to get out of the house for a bit and grab a bite in the drive thru.  It had been several days since he had vomited at this point, so we thought it was safe.  We were enjoying our meal, when he started screaming.  I thought he was hurt.  He was crying and trying to say something when I finally realized he was saying he was going to get sick.  He vomited everywhere before I could get a bag to him, which was useless because it ended up breaking under the weight of his stomach contents.  Hubby found an empty ice cream bucket (I keep those around and use them for all kind of random things) in the trunk and that helped with the rest of what came out. 

Have you ever tried to clean vomit out of your car, and your child’s car seat?  Believe me when I say it’s not a fun time.  Although I have to give credit to my hubby, he handled this gross job, once we got home, and I got the job of cleaning little man up, which was no joke.  Of course, I was not upset that he got sick, but it was a moment when you think ‘wow, parenting is hard.’  He was so upset about still being sick though—I know his poor little body had to be exhausted from the ordeal they went through. 

My house looked like a warzone.  I tried to keep up the best I could, but it was hard enough just keeping up with their needs, and the washing machine.  I’m finally digging my way out, just in time for Holy Week.  Many extra preparations go into Easter, for our sunrise and normal services, and this year, our church is doing a Maundy Thursday service, which is tonight.  I’m looking forward to the time of reflection.  Both our adult and children’s choir programs were last Sunday (I conducted the adult program and my kids were in the other one), so it has been a busy few weeks.  We’ll have/had something going on every night this week, so I’m hoping that next week, there will be some time with zero sickness, and a little bit of rest.

If any of you ever find yourself juggling a 2-year-old and 4-year-old who have bodily fluids coming out of both ends, let me encourage you with this phrase that my mother has said to me often (and continues to say): “this too shall pass.”  Meaning…this trying time will soon be gone from you.  It will not last forever.  God provides us grace to get through those tough moments.  I am not normally a person who can handle seeing others vomit without doing so myself, and yet I was able to hold it together over the past few weeks.  I’m also thankful for a husband who understands my trouble with this, and who helped clean some of these messes, but more times than not, you are capable of more than you think Momma’s…it will rise up when you need it.  Blessings!

Crock Pot Stuffed Peppers

            Have you ever tried a recipe that didn’t turn out very well the first time, but you felt like it had potential so you gave it another go?  That is what this recipe has been for me.  I love the idea of doing stuffed peppers in the crock pot, however, I have good and not-so-good things to share about this recipe.  My first experience with this recipe didn’t go as planned.  All of the ingredients were in the crock—I started my timer and about one hour into the 8-hour cooking time, our power went out.  There was no storm or terrible weather—it just randomly went out.  The power stayed off for about an hour before it came back on so I wasn’t sure if my results were accurate and felt like I needed to give this recipe another chance.  I found it here: Recipe

            Although as it turns out, the power outage had nothing to do with some of the problems I had the first time, because they were still an issue this time.  Before I continue, some of you might be thinking, ‘if this wasn’t a complete success why are you sharing it?’ and to that I would say—first because I’m just honest like that, and secondly because I think this could be even better with a little tweaking.  Lastly, because I’ve seen this all over Pinterest and thought some folks might appreciate an honest opinion.  Back to the review:

            First, how to put your peppers together:  Prep your peppers by washing them, then cutting off the tops, and removing the seeds/ribs.  You’ll need a 5-6 quart crock pot for this recipe. 
            You can use whatever color bell peppers you prefer.  I already had three red ones on hand, and bought a three pack that had a red, yellow, and orange, but green or any combination will work.  You'll want at least 6 peppers.

Prepare your filling:

I used my stand mixer for this—makes it a breeze to put together.  Mix until well incorporated, but not too long.  Stuff your prepared peppers with filling and place in crock pot:

Now, we come to one of my problems with the recipe.  It makes WAY too much filling for 6 peppers.  Not all of my peppers were huge this time, but the first time I did it, they were all very large, and I still had too much filling.  Here is how much filling I had left over:

I didn't know if it would stick together well enough to form meatballs, so off the top of my head, I decided to form some masses of filling that would hold up my peppers and keep them from floating around when I put in the liquid.  I put one large chunk in the center, and one on each side:

          The recipe says to cook these for 8 hours on low.  The first time I did these, one of my issues was that the peppers seemed to be mush... they completely fell apart when I tried to get them out and I had filling swimming around in liquid.  I thought it might be due to the one hour delay during my power outage the first time.  Turns out, I think they just cook too long or maybe this is just the texture you get when you do them in the crock pot.  Personally, I like my peppers to have a little bite, so I would like to try not cooking them as long (as long as the filling is done of course).  The recipe calls for vegetable stock, which I used the first time.  It was okay, but I used beef stock this time, and liked it better.  Back to the filling issue--the recipe calls for 1.5 lbs of ground beef--I think 1 lb is probably the better choice because it appears that I had about a half pound left over.  Or, if I had two or three extra peppers, I may have been able to stuff them all in my crock (the one I used was either 6 or 6.5 quarts, FYI).

Over all, I did enjoy the filling.  It was a little bland for me, so I plan to add some more seasoning next time as well.  The recipe needs to be adjusted a little for my taste, but I still think its a great recipe and plan to continue to use it in my rotation.  Hope you enjoy!  Blessings!

Shell Purse with Flower

            I really need to get back to finishing my daughter’s sweater that I shared (WIP Sweater) a few weeks ago, but I find that sometimes when I’ve been working a while on a bigger project, I have the need to work on something else.  For a change of pace, I put the finishing touches on this purse I started a few months ago (yes, me getting bored with a project in the middle of it and picking up something else is a common thing around here haha). 

            The purse is in Red Heart yarn, color Burgundy, and the flower is in Red Heart, color Aran.  I used the same flower pattern that I used here: Daughter's Crochet Poncho.  For the flower, you will need to know these stitches:

            Single crochet

            Double crochet

            Half double crochet

            Half Treble crochet    

            Treble crochet

            Picot

This adorable purse pattern came from: Tangled Happy.  The purse portion is worked in a double crochet shell pattern, and the handle is in single crochet, so this is a great project if you are just beginning.

This purse, I’m planning to give to my niece, who is 5-years-old.  I think it is a great size for her!  It ended up being about 6.5” in height:

…and around 8” in width.

           

            I’m planning to make one for my daughter, but will try making it a little smaller.  This wouldn’t be huge for my 2-year-old, but I’d just prefer something a little more compact for her.  

            

           Hope this has inspired you to create something special for those little girls in your life.  I look forward to playing with color combinations with this pattern.  

Sipping Chocolate

            Have you ever indulged in this decadent drink?  I had heard of sipping chocolate, but never experienced it until recently.  I made a run to Trader Joe’s this week to replenish my stock of Cookie Butter, among other things, and saw this product:

            Chocolate was pretty much the only word I needed to suck me in, but sipping chocolate?  Oh, yes.  The name alone suggests something you get to spend time with and enjoy slowly.  My family is aware of my passion for hot chocolate.  I enjoy a cup of cocoa no matter what the weather—rain or shine, whether it is cold or hot out, it is one of my loves; therefore, it wasn’t a hard sell for me to pick up a container of this.

            After viewing some photos online, it seems sipping chocolate from scratch is probably a lot thicker than this mix turns out, although some photos did appear to look more like hot chocolate.  Maybe this is simply about preference.  No matter what is “standard” for sipping chocolate, this mix from Trader Joe’s is delicious. 

I used 1/3 cup whole milk, and the 3 Tablespoons of mix the directions call for to make Sipping Chocolate.  It also gives instructions for hot chocolate. Doesn't it look delicious?

           

            It has inspired me to make it from scratch in the near future.  Until then, I’ll be enjoying a cup of this every once in a while.  Today I am linking up with Time Warp Wife.  

Give it a look.  Blessings!

Fruit Punch Afghan

            I’m still working on my daughter’s sweater (you can view my progress here: WIP Crochet Sweater), so since I can’t share that with you today, I thought I would share something I’ve made in the past.

            A cousin of mine got married in 2012, and I made this afghan for him and his bride.  I think traditionally, a Bridal afghan is created in white, off-white/cream, etc., but I wanted this to be more personal for them.  Since I wanted it to be a surprise, I did a little recon a few months before their wedding and learned that his bride planned to use a different color dress for each of her attendants, and that they were bright, beautiful colors.  I just so happened to notice this variegated yarn soon after I began my search for yarn colors, which matches some of her bridesmaid’s dress almost perfectly!  It is Red Heart With Love, color: Fruit Punch, and I believe this required 8 full skeins of yarn, and most of a 9^th one.  I think it may have been discontinued though, because I could not find it on the Red Heart website. 

            Here is a close up of the stitches:

The pattern is very simple and flexible.  This is the one I used: The Afghan Squared

It is made holding two strands of yarn together, so even though it is a somewhat open design, it is thicker and very warm.  This pattern is usually completed in several different colors, or a minimum of 2-3 colors, which creates a wonderful affect.  It would be an excellent afghan for your yarn scraps.  However, I was going for colors that would be special to them, and I was pressed for time, so I stayed with one yarn color.  Another thing I love about this pattern—you can continue to crochet until you’ve achieved the size afghan you’d like.  The pattern begins in the center, and you continue to work the sets of 3 dc’s all the way around, increasing in each row.

            I did a simple border around the afghan to finish.  The photos truly do not do justice to the beauty of the afghan.  I had a hard time getting a photo that looked okay for some reason, but you can get an idea here:

            The Fruit Punch yarn is one you just have to see in person.  I hope you enjoyed a view of this afghan and it has inspired you to go create something special as well.  That is one of the things that I find so beautiful about crocheting, or making anything by hand—it’s the ability to create something that is sentimental to the recipient in a number of ways.  When my cousin’s bride opened the afghan, she said it gave her chills because her grandmother had made something for her with similar colors when she was a little girl.  It was a wonderful reward for all the many hours of work that I put forth. 

            If you would like to see more of the crochet ideas I like, view my Crochet board on Pinterest.  Blessings to each of you!