Glazed Walnuts...and I finally feel like spring has arrived!!!

Reasons Why I Feel Like Spring Has Finally Arrived

1. 

I've been able to open my windows for two days in a row--here's the key--and the temperature inside my house didn't drop.

As opposed to those days when I'm just so desperate for fresh air that I open the windows and the heat kicks on.

2.  

My front yard is blooming.

3.  

The dry, dead winter grass has suddenly become a lush, green lawn.

4.  

I don't mind sitting outside at 6:30 a.m., with no need for a jacket, mindlessly watching Clyde while he amuses himself by pouncing on a tennis ball.  

Okay, enough with the small talk.  Let's get to the recipe of the day.  Glazed walnuts.  Or any kind of nut, whichever nut you prefer.  Or, as you are about to see, split the recipe and make several different types of glazed nuts at the same time.

Why buy the prepackaged glazed nuts when they are so very easy to make yourself?

Cooking Show--Poppy Seed Recipes, Inspired by Big Papi

This is the picture that inspired the theme for my most recent cooking show:

It was Big Papi bobblehead night at Fenway, so I posted a picture from the game.  My producer, Donna, commented that we should make a "Papi"-seed cake and use the bobblehead as the topper.

The show morphed into a mixture of poppy seed recipes with a healthy dose of "Let's Go Red Sox!" thrown in.

Because we sure do love our Red Sox around here.  (Photo of Gracie, c. 2009.)

What did we cook?

Lemon-Poppyseed Scones

 Strawberry/Spinach Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

Click on the above links to be taken to the recipes.

We also made Chicken with Lemon-Poppyseed Muffin Stuffing.

Kitchen Failures

As a tribute to all of my recent, unsuccessful attempts to come up with new recipes, I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to "Hey, Mom, What's NOT For Dinner?"

Fluffy White Cake.  It was as dry as sawdust.

With Fluffy White Frosting.  It was very similar to a certain brand of "frozen non-dairy whipped topping" (you know, the one that is loaded with chemicals, and ingredients that you can't pronounce).  The difference is that the "frozen non-dairy whipped topping" (you know what I'm referring to, right?) actually tastes pretty good, whereas this fluffy white frosting that I made from scratch tasted like chemicals.

If you can figure that one out, clue me in.

I actually took 105 step-by-step photos as I was making this cake.  I kid you, not.  105.

And then I took a bite and wished that I hadn't spent all that time taking photos of a recipe that I'm not going to blog about.

Boneless Country-Style beef ribs.

They look good, right?

They tasted like an old army boot.  Okay, I've never tasted an old army boot.  But I imagine it wouldn't taste very good.  At least an army boot would be made out of somewhat-flexible leather.

These ribs were not flexible.  They were dry, rigid and impossible to chew.

Sticky Lemon Rolls.

Which were really good.  But from start to finish they took FIVE, yes 5, hours to make.  

I don't know why I didn't figure that out in advance.

The only way I will ever spend five hours on any recipe ever again is if eating the end result gives me some sort of superpower.  I would like the power to know in advance whether or not the recipe is worth making.  Or at least that it is not worth spending five hours taking 138 step-by-step photos while I make 10 rolls which--when all is said and done-- only make your clothes fit a bit tighter.

I'd even settle for a superpower that would help me resist Clyde's pleading gaze.

Sea Salt Caramel Cocoa Crispy Treats

I can't tell you how excited I was this morning when I found a tiny little patch of flowers blooming in my backyard.

Yeah!  The flowers are finally blooming!

I may have said that out loud.  

I whipped out my phone to take a picture and just as I snapped it Gus stepped into the shot and dropped a tennis ball.

"What's a dog gotta do to get a little attention around here?  Seeing that you're in such a good mood, maybe if I drop this filthy, dirty ball on your flowers you'll play catch with me."

Flowers for me, a dirty tennis ball for Gus.  That's all it took to make us happy on a drizzly morning.

Okay, let's get to today's recipe.  It's a slight twist on the Sea Salt Caramel Rice Krispy Treats

that I posted last summer.

Click on the link above to be taken to the recipe.  Yes, it is still the same recipe that you see in this picture.  The difference is that I didn't scorch the caramel on the treats in this picture.

To make the cocoa treats, you simply follow the same recipe with two substitutions: chocolate extract instead of vanilla extract, and cocoa rice crispy cereal instead of Rice Krispy cereal.

And this is what you'll have.  Oh. MY.

Happy Things!

I feel like spring is finally here!  Three days in a row with 50+ temps!

The only fun thing about the rainy weather this past weekend was watching Clyde sashay through the house.  He wears the towels we dry him with as if they're a fancy cloak.

Sometimes he carries the end of the towel in his mouth like it's the royal train.  And he looks at me as if he's saying, "Cue The King's March.  I have arrived."

Plopping himself down to take a nap.  I think he keeps the towel wrapped around him so that he will have royal dreams...dreams where he waves a perfect royal wave to his subjects.

Or maybe he just wears the towel because it's comforting on a rainy day.

Thank you to all who commented about their favorite comfort food to enter the giveaway for the Whole Foods gift card last week.  The winner was Carly G., whose favorite comfort food is "a toss up between baked mac and cheese and biscuits with gravy!"

"Biscuits?  Did somebody say BISCUITS?!

Hope you are all enjoying some glorious spring weather wherever you happen to be!

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Every day, every walk we take, Clyde picks up a stick or a branch along the way.

Today, this one stopped him in his tracks.  He turned around and looked at me as if to say, "Yikes!"  Then he did an about-face and dragged me home.

We came home and he promptly took a nap so he could sleep off his trauma.

While he slept, I baked a batch of muffins.

  I wanted to take a picture of the muffins, and the best place for natural light is on this bench in my dining room.

Gus understands the meaning of "look but don't touch."  Clyde--not so much.  Good thing he was sleeping.

If you haven't yet entered the giveaway for the Whole Foods gift card, head on over to this post and leave a comment telling me what your favorite comfort food is.  The winner will be announced on March 31.  Good luck!

Comfort Food Cooking Show...and Whole Foods Giveaway!

  I'm so ready for the snow to be gone!

Even though it is fun to throw snowballs for Gus.

Got it!  Clyde usually looks on in admiration, he simply doesn't have the desire to catch snowballs. 

 We filmed another episode of the cooking show this week.  With the freezing temperatures outside, it only seemed fitting that the theme of this show should be comfort food!

What did we make?

 Chicken Pot Pie

A large, family-sized chicken pot pie and cute li'l individual ones.

Lentil Soup.

Puff Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce

Click on the links to be taken to the recipes.

Chicken Pesto Pizza (with mushrooms)

Caitie:     We should bake something today!

Erin (smirking, sarcastic):    uh, WE?

Caitie:    Well, YOU should bake something, and I'll sit here and keep you company!


That was a recent conversation between the two of them.

If you read my blog regularly, you may have seen the brownies and cupcakes and creative cakes that Erin regularly bakes.

Caitie does her best to avoid the kitchen.   Just imagine my surprise when I walked in the door one day last week and was greeted by this:

Caitie got busy baking blondies.  They were still warm!

And then she requested that I make Chicken Pesto Pizza.  She's hard to resist when she plies me with warm blondies.

I feel the need to warn you that this is going to be a long recipe.  Three recipes, actually.   I made the crust from scratch.  I made the pesto from scratch.  And THEN  I made the pizza.

But before I made the crust, pesto and pizza, I roasted the garlic (for the pesto), roasted the chicken (for the pizza), sautéed some mushrooms (because NO pizza-o-mine is complete without 'shrooms).  It turned into a two-hour ordeal.  Two hours!!!  For two pizzas.  But it was soooooo good.

Make that sooooooooooooooo good.

To save time, make it easy on yourself.  It's the pesto & chicken combo that's important,  and nobody's going to judge you if you don't prepare all of your ingredients from scratch.  Buy ready-made pizza dough.  Buy ready-made pesto.  Buy pre-cooked (or rotisserie) chicken.

Breakfast is My Favorite Kind of Dinner--Cooking Show #6

When Erin was about 3 years old, she declared, "Turkey is my favorite kind of chicken."

I have subscribed to her logic ever since. 

 Hence, breakfast is my favorite kind of dinner.

We filmed another cooking show this week, with a breakfast theme.  Or breakfast for dinner.  Or, as my friend (a.k.a. Superwoman) Maureen's daughter calls it, "Brinner."

Puff Pastry Omelette Torte

Really, really, really good.  Really.

Buttermilk Coffeecake

If you're into coffeecake with a lot of crispy, crunchy topping, this is the one for you.

Berries with Vanilla Glaze

Perfect.

(Click on the above links to be taken to the recipes)

Here's the view from the opposite end of the table.  We made lots of fruity drinks.  Dinner drinks!

Madras

• 1 shot vodka
• 4 oz. cranberry juice
• 1 oz. orange juice

Fill an 8-oz glass with ice.  Add ingredients.  Stir.  Garnish with an orange slice, lime wedge and maraschino cherry.

Fuzzy Navel

• Peach Schnapps
• Orange Juice

Fill an 8-oz glass with ice cubes.  Add a generous shot of Peach Schnapps.  Fill with orange juice.  Stir.  Garnish with an orange slice and maraschino cherry.

Tequila Sunrise

• 1 shot Tequila
• 3 oz. Orange Juice
• 1 tablespoon grenadine

Fill an 8-oz glass with ice cubes.  Add tequila, then orange juice.  Slowly pour grenadine along the side of the glass.  Do not stir!  The grenadine should settle in the bottom of the glass.  Garnish with an orange slice and maraschino cherry.

Almond Cookies

Here's the view from my driveway.  I'm not a snow person, but I'll be the first to admit that it sure is pretty.

Gus will tell you that it's fun to play in.

I'd almost say that Clyde and Gus have more fun playing in our backyard full of snow than they do playing in our sunny backyard in the summer.

Almost.  I myself prefer the sun to the snow, and I don't want to say anything that might tempt the fates to favor my dogs' wishes over mine.

Heaven knows, their wishes very rarely get denied around here.

It's hard to ignore the stare of persuasion.  Especially when it's accompanied with the harder-to-ignore whine of imploration.

 Hey, Clyde, help me out here.  I'm being ignored.

Happy to oblige, Gus!  I'll melt her with my pleading puppy face.

Mission accomplished.  No whine necessary.

I tell myself...look away, Fran, look away.  If I don't look away, I'll be baking dog cookies instead of almond cookies!

Okay, today's recipe is my go-to cookie recipe.   The drawback is that you have to mix them up in advance because they need time to chill before you bake them.

Let's be optimistic instead, and say that it's a PLUS that you have to mix the dough and scoop the cookies in advance.  The dough will keep for a few days, so it's like having ready-to-bake cookies in your fridge!