A Midsummer Night's Salad

Memorial Day is tomorrow and I decided to bring a salad to our family BBQ. Fresh veggies have been sounding fantastic so I hit the store. This salad is the result of a hungry woman craving veggies with a creative mind....Keep in mind that I am making this for a large group of people. By the time I finished I was able to fill an 8qt bowl. :)


1 red bell pepper diced (into bite sized pieces)
1 orange bell pepper diced
1 cucumber peeled and diced
2 tomatoes diced 3 green onions thinly sliced
2 1/2 c. frozen green peas (thawed)
1 6 oz can of olives sliced
2 pkg frozen cheese tortellini cooked according to package directions,
2 pkg Italian dressing mix ( I mixed Zesty Italian and Cheese & Garlic)
Parmesan cheese (as topping if desired)

1. Wash and slice/dice all vegetables and put into large bowl while cooking tortellini. 2. Drain tortellini (DO NOT RINSE) and coat with a little olive oil to prevent them from sticking allow to cool)
3. prepare Italian dressing according to package directions in a separate bowl
4. Toss tortellini in with vegetables and coat with dressing.

Mix thoroughly. You can either serve this immediately or refrigerate overnight and allow the flavors to marry. NUMMY!! You can add any other veggies that you really like. I think that broccoli would be a wonderful addition (simply blanch, cut and add). Asparagus would also add a lot of flavor.

Another birthday banana treat

It would seem that May & June are popular birthday months for my co-workers. Tonight I am making banana bread for a friend. Yes, yes banana bread woohoo so basic....but I do "spice" it up a little :) It all starts with my good friend Betty Crocker
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter softened
2 large eggs ( room temp)
1 1/2 c mashed very ripe bananas ( 3 medium) -- I had 4 so I used 4 ;)
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1c. chopped nuts ( if desired...I left them out this time usually I add pecans)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice ---I usually add a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg but I decided this time to go with the pumpkin pie spice.

Move oven rack to middle of oven, preheat to 350- (1) 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan or (2) 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.5 mix sugar and butter until fluffy. add eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, butter milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add flour slowly mixing until incorporated, add soda, salt and spice, stir in nuts (if adding) Bake 1hr 15 min if 1 large loaf. 1 hour if 2 small loaves. cool ten min in pans on wire rack. Then remove from pan and let cool completely. Wrap tightly and store at room temp up to 4 days. Refrigerate up to 10 days.
***Sidenote, the smell of banana bread is so wonderful. My son sleeping down the hall makes me think " I hope that one of his fond childhood memories is how wonderful the house smelled when his mom was cooking/baking things"

Just a quick little dinner ditty

I had a girlfriend over for dinner last night and it was a last minute switch from our previously decided Friday date. I didn't have time to defrost the roast to make french dip so I had to think quickly.

I decided on a classic in my household growing up. I think it is simply named potato and sausage dinner and I'm quite happy with that title. I made it a little lower in fat and added a few extras, but overall it's the same tasty dish.

Enjoy

3 medium size red potatoes - thinly sliced
1 package Kielbasa sausage (I used hillshire farms turkey kielbasa sausage)
3 white mushrooms - thinly sliced
1 clove minced garlic (or more depending upon your feelings on garlic)
1/4 cup minced onion ( or dried chopped onion - a few shakes of the jar)

heat up a skillet and pour 1-2 tbs olive oil in the bottom. Put in potatoes. Cook until potatoes are almost completely done. About halfway through add the onions and garlic. When your potatoes are nearly finished add the kielbasa and the mushrooms. Cook until kielbasa is heated through and starting to brown. Serve immediately. (although it is quite tasty cold as well :)

Sorry no pictures this time....we ate it before I could blog about it ha ha ha.

Keeping the Peanut Butter love rollin....

I watch a LOT of Food Network television as you may notice throughout reading this blog.

This next recipe that I made for the first time today comes from one of my all time favorites, Giada De Laurentiis. She is beautiful and seems very down to earth and her recipes are delicious!

Today's adventure was Peanut Butter Oatmeal Squares (I have no idea if this is what she named them but this is what I'm calling mine)

1/2 c. unsalted butter (melted)

1 egg white

1/3 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. chunky peanut butter

1/4 c. honey

2 c. oats (old fashioned or quick cooking )

1/4 c. toasted slivered almonds (I used sliced)

1/3 c. mini chocolate chips

I added 1/4 c. dried cranberries

mix together all ingredients except chocolate chips and stir until well mixed. After butter has cooled slightly pour the chocolate chips into the mixture. (you don't want to melt the chocolate chips)

Spray 9 x 13 baking pan with non stick oil then line with parchment paper. (you can skip the paper if you don't have it but it makes clean up and removal so much easier) Spread mixture into pan.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until edges golden. Let rest an hour then cut.

**Okay so I am impatient and really wanted to cut it right away....you actually do have to let it rest or you might as well just spoon the mix into a bowl and eat it with a spoon (which isn't a half bad idea...this would also be amazing over ice cream :)

Peanut Butter & Chocolate...a little piece of Heaven

To celebrate a co-worker's birthday I volunteered to make cookies. At 9:15 p.m. I realized I had completely forgotten my promise when another co-worker sent me a (completely unrelated) text.

I hopped into the kitchen and pulled out a few of my good ol' standby recipe books. I settled on the timeless Betty Crocker and pulled from her pages one of my all time favorites : Chocolate Oatmeal Chewies. Of course, I cannot just leave well enough alone and I added a few of my own touches. Below is the recipe. Enjoy!!

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1 1/2 c. sugar

1 c. butter or stick margarine softened (butter really is better :)

1/4 c. milk

1 large egg

2 2/3 c. quick cooking or old fashioned oats

1 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. baking cocoa (I added about a Tbs more)

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

---------------------- this is where Betty stops and I add a couple more things-------

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 pkg peanut butter chips

(that's right...I did it I added peanut butter to the chocolate...really what girl can resist??)

Bake at 350 for 10-12 min

quick spray of non stick oil on the cookie sheet and you're good to go.

( now either my oven is not at all what temp the dial says or Betty isn't quite correct. I cooked mine for approximately 8 min then let rest on the cookie sheet for another minute or two)

Helpful little trick of the trade is a small ice cream scoop, makes perfectly portioned cookies and much easier to scoop out onto the cookie sheet.

Welcome to my Kitchen

I post a lot of recipes and pictures of food that I am making onto my Facebook page. A lovely friend suggested that I start a blog about my baking. I thought this was a lovely idea and so here we are: At Home in the Kitchen.

I love to bake. I enjoy making something that I can share with other people. I also love baking as a tool for relaxation. I find a sense of satisfaction and pride in being able to tweak a recipe and make something delicious.

In this blog I will be sharing recipes that I try. These aren't generally recipes that I have made up myself, rather mostly recipes I find online or via FoodNetwork. I generally make small changes which I will of course include. I mean, who doesn't love a good recipe and what better than to share those recipes?

Most recipes will probably be baked goods of some sort as I have an affinity for the sweets :) I also do put together other recipes for breakfasts or lunches.

I hope you all enjoy trying out a little something new in your kitchen. Feel free to provide feedback or any tweaks you make to the recipes.

Happy Kitchen Time