Joey Jo-Jo

So, as I mentioned previously, I used to dog-sit, a lot. And while Moe and Curly were the only ones to get a calendar, my friends Jane and John’s french bulldog Joey, definitely was the most photogenic. I mean look at this guy:

His handsomeness knows no bounds. This little guy made me fall in love with the bulldog. Weighing in around like, 20 pounds? Who knows, I just know that he’s a little wee tyke. He also has the prettiest eyes, he’s a little ball of energy for a solid 15 minutes before he passes out and begins his familiar snores, and finally, he’s a fantastic snuggler. What’s not to love about this guy? The answer is nothing. He also likes to be held, which I’m a big fan of because my dogs, are kind of impossible to hold in the same way, since they weigh in at a whopping 60+ pounds a piece.

Look how happy this baby is? It’s probably because he lives with an awesome family on the beach in Delaware, which is why we don’t get to see him like we used to. Luckily, he has a little sister Clara now who’s even smaller than he is, to keep him company. She’s adorable too but you’ll just have to take my word for it since I don’t have any pictures, because we haven’t met her in person… yet! Some day soon I’m sure though. Until then, we’ll just marvel at the adorableness that is Joey Jo-Jo. That’s just what I call him. I think his parents prefer Joey Dog. Who knows. All I know is that I love this little guy so much. How can you not with a face like that?

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Elvis Style Egg Rolls

Zack and I were both home early tonight. We ate dinner early and thusly, we were ready for dessert, EARLY!

We both have a voracious sweet tooth. So trying to delay making our dessert, we decided to peruse Pinterest for the perfect dessert for us to make on this cold and rainy night. I’d been pining over this Cookie Dough Egg Roll via this blog called Pennies on a Platter. Here was a picture of Pinspiration:

Hers looked pretty amazing but we were craving something a little different and wanted to use these bananas that were gonna go bad any minute. Seriously, look at these things:

After successfully attempt at making regular egg rolls, I figured we could throw caution to the wind and experiment a little, and in the spirit of “waste not, want not” we knew we had to use something with banana rather than the chocolate chip cookie dough. And what cookie dough goes better with banana, than peanut butter? Nothing, in case you were wondering. Have you ever heard of “Elvis Style“?  I’m pretty sure that guy was a culinary visionary. The next step was finding a peanut butter cookie dough recipe that didn’t contain egg (since we’d be eating the batter, in a relatively raw state). It was harder to find a good one than I thought it would be but eventually we ended up on this one, and it fit the bill quite nicely. We still modified the recipe a bit to make it fit our liking.

So without further adieu, here’s how we made our Elvis Style Egg Rolls!

Ingredients:

½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup crunchy peanut butter
½ cup butter or ½ cup margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup 60% cocoa (we used the Ghirardelli chips)
2 bananas, cut up into small pieces
10 egg roll wrappers
1 egg white mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, for the egg wash
Confectioners sugar, and either honey, maple syrup or chocolate sauce make excellent garnish (we tried a few of everything).
And ice cream. Vanilla preferably.

Directions:

1. First we make the cookie dough. It’s your standard recipe. Cream the butter, sugars, vanilla, and peanut butter in the mixer. Then add the flour, baking soda and baking powder. The dough is going to be a little on the dry side but that’s how you want it. Then fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.

2. You then want to place the dough on a good sized piece of parchment paper and flatten it with a rolling pin, or your hand. We just used our hands. Then lay the banana pieces on one end and roll, wrap the dough around the banana and trim off the excess dough. We were able to do this three times. It looks a little something like this:

3. You want to cut the roll into thirds or quarters. We ended up with 10 pieces of cookie dough rolls, once everything was chopped. Each cut should be around 2-3 inches long.

4. Then comes the egg roll wrapping. Don’t forget the egg wash to seal up the wrappers, either. The method goes a little something like this:

5. Then the frying beings! Similar to the previous egg roll recipe,  heat up the oil in a skillet (we used our small skillet this time just so we weren’t wasting too much oil). They cook for about a minute on each side but watch the oil heat and turn down the temp if necessary. We started with the oil on medium high heat but knocked it down to about medium heat halfway through so it doesn’t burn, and as always if you start to smell the burning, turn down the stove. Cook each side until it’s a slightly brown color. You know, egg roll color. You know it when you see it.

6. The second to last finishing touch was to add a little bit of powdered sugar

7. And the final touch, was the sauces, which we drizzled generously, in different combinations, over the egg rolls:

And we were left with a slideshow of these beauties

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Mrs. Coachs Mom

Big news here on my small little blog. I’ve got a guest writer today! I’m hoping she’ll write more because well, after you read this, you’ll wanna read more. I promise. I’ve tried to get her to start her own but maybe posting on mine (and at her other blog gig), she’ll realize she’s awesome enough to have her own. Until then, I will pass off her thoughts as my own. Or at least, on my own blog. Here’s what I have to say about her, and what she has to say”

My friend Stephanie and I may quite possibly, share parts of our respective brains.

She asked me the other day why there wasn’t a Princess Bride musical?
“Yeah,” I thought, “why isn’t there one? It would be perfect. Spam-a-lot was great, why wouldn’t this be”.
Her response “That’s exactly what I was thinking! I even wrote a blog about it”

See how we share a brain?

So without further adieu, here’s her idea. Maybe this will be like Smash and we’ll collectively come up with the next brilliant musical. I’m sure rights wouldn’t bethat hard to acquire, right?

Princess Bride: The Musical

So I can’t sleep. And when I can’t sleep my mind wanders into these realms of who knows what. Last night it was “how can we live in a world where The Princess Bride hasn’t been made into a Broadway musical”. Let me explain. No, that will take too long, let me sum up. TPB is in everyone’s top 5 favorite movies and if it isn’t then clearly he/she should be banished to Gilder. It’s celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a wine release, quote alongs where MLT’s and ROUS’s are served and a spoken version was recently performed in L.A. Spamalot was hugely successful and people who love to to quote Monty Python love it when the mutton is nice and lean. So clearly there’s an audience.

Alas, I’m not a musician, or a lyricist by any means. But here to get started is The Princess Bride as sung to Steve Miller’s Take the Money and Run. Not sure why this song came to mind, probably because it tells a story about two young lovers. Guess what! It took me a little less than half a hour to write this. Wow I need Ambien.
The Princess Bride as sung to Steve Miller’s Take the Money and Run

Grampa brought over a story ’bout buttercup and Westley too.
Two young lovers separated by Humperdink and his crew
Death cannot stop true love, that they both knew.
Inconceivable! But the man in black knew what he had to do

Defeat the giant, serve Iocane powder as Vizzini’s death dish.
Best the Spaniard in swords with a strategically placed swish
Find the princess, hide identity while waiting for a kiss.
Safe in the fire swamp! My love, as you wish

 

 

Go on, storm the castle and have some fun
Go on, storm the castle and have some fun

6 fingered man is the prince’s main guy.
With the albino torture is his passion, science is the ‘why’
Dread Pirate Roberts got the gate key on the second try.
The last thing Rugen heard was my name is Inigo Montoya prepare to die

Miracle Max’s pill worked and Westley saved Buttercups breasts.
The mawwiage was stopped, in the pain Humperdink was vomitous
On 4 white horses the crew rode off into the sunset.
Of perfect kisses this one ranked as the best

Go on, storm the castle and have some fun
Go on, storm the castle and have some fun

Ok I’ll stop this rhyming now I mean it.

My First Egg Roll

I really wanted to try making egg rolls. They always seemed so difficult and magical though, so I never tried it. Then Zack and I saw a person make an egg roll on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that made me think, maybe these things aren’t so hard after all.

I did my due diligence and scoured pinterest/my favorite websites for recipes and got this one, this one, and this one. They were all good but they all had things I would change about them. Firstly, they all used chicken, and I wanted to use pork because my favorite egg rolls at our local chinese food place, use ground pork. Second, I hate celery, and didn’t have bean sprouts, minced ginger, or sesame seeds (although if and when I make this again, I’ll definitely use the bean sprouts). Finally, whenever anything calls for shredded cabbage and carrots, I just buy cole slaw mix. It’s a great short cut for sooo many things. I easily use it once a week.

So without further adieu, I give you my my own personal egg roll recipe.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork
1 bunch of green onion (4 stalks worth)
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, smashed/minced
1 tsp ground ginger
1 bag cole slaw mix (cabbage and carrots)
1 package of bean sprouts
1 egg
Egg roll wrappers (wonton wrappers would also work, I’m pretty sure they’re the same thing)
1 skillet half filled with canola/vegetable/whatever kind you like except olive, oil. Or use a fryer.

Also, for the record, I didn’t think my grocery store had egg roll wrappers after looking for them in just about every place I thought they’d be – the refrigerated section, the freezer section, the asian food aisle. It wasn’t in any of these places. It was by the bean sprouts, in the produce section. It was a total fluke that I saw them. Thanks butternut squash! I would’ve never have found them if I weren’t buying you!

Directions:

First you want to marinade your meat. Get a gallon sized bags and pour into it the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger, garlic, sesame oil and the meat. I let it marinade for about an hour in the refrigerator.

Then you want to warm up an empty skillet on medium high heat and chop up your green onion. Place the meat, the chopped green onion and all the contents of the gallon bag, into the skillet. Saute until the meat is mostly cooked. Then you want to add the cole slaw mixture and bean sprouts, stir it in and set your stove setting to low. Put a lid on it and give it about 15 minutes until the cabbage is nice and soft.

This is when you can get your egg rolls ready (it’s also when I started my rice because you need to eat something with the egg rolls. To prep your wrappers, lay out some aluminum foil to prepare the egg rolls before you put them in the fryer. Take that single egg, crack it into a bowl and add a little bit of water and stir it up. Then get your finest kitchen brush and get ready to get the party started.

Lay out your first wrapper and brush the edges with your egg mixture, very lightly. Fill the middle of the egg rolls with about 2-3 tablespoons of the meat/coleslaw/sprout mixture, and wrap like you’re wrapping a burrito. You’re basically just folding in one corner at a time and after every other fold, brush it with your egg mixture lightly, to make it stick together. I tried it a few different ways, they all worked. I even accidentally made a few egg rolls with a double wrapper because I didn’t realize how thin they were. While I was worried, those turned out just as good if not better, than the single wrapper egg rolls. When you’re done it should look a little something like this:

At this point you want to heat up the oil in another skillet (or your fryer, if you’re so lucky to have one, which we do). I kept the oil at medium high (350 degrees) heat but ended up turning it down to medium low after my first batch, just to make sure the oil didn’t burn, because that is a party pooper. I’ve done it many times and it sucks every time!

They take around 2-3 minutes, a minute or so on each side. And when you’re done they look like this:

You may notice at the bottom of the picture, is my leftover filling mixed with the rice, with a little more soy sauce. I was only cooking for two so we had a lot of extra filling even after filling up 6 egg rolls. In retrospect I should’ve made 8 egg rolls so we had some leftover egg rolls instead of just leftover filling. If you kept making egg rolls, I’m guessing this recipe could’ve easily yielded 10-12 egg rolls.

The only changes I’m going to make next time is to add the bean sprouts, make more, and do my best to fill them up a little better. I was worried the wrapping would tear so I didn’t fill them up as much as I could’ve but now that I’m a little more comfortable, I think I’ll be able to fill them up a little more without any disasters.

I hope you like the recipe. We definitely did! Oh and if I could offer one big tip, I would highly recommend breaking out those extra packets of duck sauce you’ve been hoarding, like we were. Nothing is better on an egg roll than some delicious duck sauce 🙂

Molly loves puppies

As I mentioned previously, of my two dogs, Molly is the more outgoing one. Scrapple is pretty tame. He likes to sleep on the couch, maybe go for a short walk, and then more sleeping… but he isn’t really as easy to amuse as Molly is. So with Scrapple, you get adorable pictures like this:

But videos that make you laugh out loud are few and far between. Molly on the other hand, well she makes us laugh on the reg. Here’s her most recent example of being adorable. I found a video on the Huffington Post of a bunch of Labrador puppies. Molly was obsessed.

Larry, Moe and Curly

Back before I had my own dogs, I was an avid dog-sitter. It was the only way I could hang out with puppies all the time, I could help dogs not have to be boarded, and it was good money. I’ve dog sat many many of my friends dogs but the dogs I sat for the most, were Moe and Curly. For Christmas one year, shortly before Moe passed (rip baby boy), I had the idea to make a calendar for their parents, Larry and Kathy. I had some spare time at work and I was trying to teach myself photoshop and thought, lets see what happens. Plus his dogs are super photogenic! So without further adieu, I present:

While the owners away, the dogs will play!
Moe and Curly on Vacation

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Stuffed Peppers

I tried this new recipe tonight in an attempt to rectify a previous recipe I tried that just didn’t live up to expectation. I most definitely think I was successful. The problem is that this wasn’t a recipe in the traditional sense. It was more one of those “dash of this” “pinch of that” kind of recipes. It was delicious though, so if you’re inclined to attempt a recipe that isn’t completely a recipe, I say go for it!

The first time I made this, I used a very traditional recipe. I used ground beef, rice, mostly a mix of Mexican spices, and some cheese on top. This time I chose a more Italian spin on things. I used a mix of ground pork and beef, I used orzo instead of rice and, as you probably predicted, Italian spices! The only thing that stayed the same was the cheese. And it ended up looking a little something like this:

So if you want to know how to make it, here’s the breakdown

Ingredients:

4 red bell peppers
2 cups orzo
1.5 lbs meatloaf mix (it’s a mix of pork and beef)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic (or 2 full teaspoons of minced garlic)
3 cups Italian blend shredded cheese (or mozzarella)
1 can of petite diced tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons olive oil

Spices:

Oregano
Basil
Crushed red pepper
Salt
Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 350, throw a large skillet on the stove to get warm on medium-high heat, and get a pot of water boiling. Line a baking sheet with some aluminum foil and then get to your peppers. Cut off the tops and take out the innards. I use a grapefruit spoon which is seriously the greatest thing for this because it has a nice pointy edge. If you don’t have one, they’re really cheap. You should probably just buy one. If you don’t want to do that, I’d use a knife to cut out the inside and  then a spoon to scoop everything out. Then you want to lightly rub the peppers in some olive oil, place them on the baking sheet and put them in the oven. Keep an eye on them and if they start to look brown, take them out. You just want them to be soft.

While the peppers are in the oven, you want to cook the pasta in that now boiling pot of water (directions are on the box), and then start your meat mixture. You first want to add the onions, garlic and get those cooked until they are translucent.  Then add the meat in and let it brown. Next is a KEY STEP – TAKE THE MEAT OUT AND DRAIN IT. Grease is your enemy here so try to get as much of it out of the pan as possible. This was one of my big mistakes the last time and I definitely paid for it.

After the meat mixture is drained, you want to put it back in the skillet, and season with the oregano, basil and red pepper to taste. If I was guessing, I’d say 2 teaspoons of oregano, 1 teaspoon of basil and 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper. If nothing else the ratio is definitely 2:1:1. And a dash of salt and pepper for good measure. When the meat and pasta are cooked you want to combine them, and add the drained tomatoes and 2 cups of cheese.

At this point, take out the peppers and get ready to stuff those suckers. I just use a big soup spoon and I hold the peppers with a pot holder because they’ll be warm. If they aren’t too hot a paper towel might work. Once the peppers are stuffed, cover the tops of the peppers with cheese. They should look a little something like this:

At this point, they go back into the oven for about 30 minutes.

The funny thing is that when everything is said and done, while the peppers look nice and pretty, I always end up cutting them to bits, to eat them, and then end up looking like this:

I’m Learning to Sew!

Ok so last Christmas, er, technically it was Christmas of ’10… but anyway, I got this bad boy from my very thoughtful Mother-in-Law… I haven’t decided what her name is yet. The sewing machine, not my MIL. I’m leaning towards Peggy. That was my grammas name and she was an expert sewer.

I’m definitely into most things crafty. I like to crochet, I have a scrapbook or two, and I love making Christmas ANYTHING, so this is really the next logical step. Unfortunately, my MIL doesn’t really live close to me, and a lot of my friends recently got sewing machines but aren’t to the point where they can teach me anything. I gave it a few shots but all those buttons were just  a touch intimidating. I pretty much just made a bunch of straight lines through an old pillowcase.

Luckily, that MIL of mine was pretty smart, and this Christmas, she got me sewing lessons at the local Joann Fabrics! Like I said, she’s nothing if not thoughtful! So I’ve gone through 2 classes now and my third is scheduled for next week! I’m moving on up the ranks. You may ask, what do you learn in sewing class? Well, not how to make anything, YET.

This first class I took was “Getting to Know Your Sewing Machine” where I learned things like:

1. How to thread the thing (the correct way)

2. What the different types of presser feet are, and what they do

3. And finally, what happens when you sew things at different stitch lengths

Then in my second class, we graduated to more difficult techniques, and sewing some real things. Well, more specifically, parts of real things:

1. Sewing on a curve

2. The different ways to stitch a collar (top stitching/under stitching)

3. Sewing on a pi-vot and making a pocket (disregard the non-matching thread, it’s just so you can see what you’re doing better, an excellent learning tool to say the least)

Oh also, I splurged a little on a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ because as soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be mine. What is it you ask? Oh, just a pin cushion slap bracelet! Yeah! Disregard my pale-ish arm, but do notice the awesomeness of the slap bracelet.

So that’s it. Hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day! I’m cooking dinner with my hubs and it’s gonna be good.

Forkn’ Knife Pizza

One of my favorite things to experiment with, is pizza. A nice crust is a vehicle for delicious toppings. I’ve had a lot of different varieties but my favorite crust to work with is always the refrigerated Pillsbury Thin Crust.  It’s the perfect level of thickness. It’s definitely not a true thin crust but it is truly delicious.

So tonight, I made a pizza that was a touch heavier on the toppings than usual. A lot of times, a topping heavy pizza is a pet peeve of mine because when I’m eating pizza I just want something I can kind of grab and go. No plate necessary, just a hand and a napkin. This was no such pizza, this was a fork and knife pizza. Luckily, its level of deliciousness completely won me over. So without further adieu, I give you the Butternut Squash and Chorizo Pizza.

Ingredients:

1 Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough
1 bag Italian Blend shredded cheese (2 cups)
1 large red onion, chopped into large chunks
1 cup bacon, chopped in 1 inch pieces (6 pieces of cooked bacon)
1.5 cups chorizo sausage, cut lengthwise and chop in 1/4 inch slices (2 medium sausages should do the trick)
2 cups butternut squash, cut into quarter inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons balsamic vinaigrette (I use the Kraft fat free version)

Spices needed:

Dash of Salt
Dash of Pepper
1/2 tablespoon Paprika
1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
1 teaspoon Powdered garlic

You can mix all the spices together right away because you’re going to use them, first thing.

Directions:

The first thing you want to do is cook the squash and onion.

To cook the squash, I used the forgotten potato method. I chopped up the squash and onion, coated it in olive oil and sprinkled about 3/4 of the spice mixture over the squash and onion and layed them out on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (this will be key later so remember this part), and threw them in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Unlike forgotten potatoes, you do want to watch these and make sure that they stay just a little undercooked because they will continue cooking when you bake it with the pizza. Squash never really gets as crispy as potatoes do anyway. They tend to kind of get a little mushy, and then burn. Mushy is ok though, I promise. It really works with the texture of the pizza. When the squash is done, it’ll look a little something like this –

While the squash is cooking, you can cook the chorizo, and the bacon if you haven’t already (There is a rule in the Baccala household that bacon is always cooked in the toaster oven on 400 degrees for 15 minutes – it has to be crispy. For me that’s the only way to eat bacon). You can also use the pre-cooked bacon, which isn’t terrible but I like the crispiness and thickness of the real deal. Pre-cooked works if you’re in a rush, but you have to wait for the squash anyway, so why not just make the good bacon? I promise it will be worth it!

As for the chorizo, that’s cooked on the stovetop over a medium-high heat in a greased skillet, until its got a slightly crispy look to it also. It’ll take around 5 -10 minutes, if that. Just make sure your skillet is warm before you put the chorizo in or it can tend to get extra greasy.  Here’s what it should look like when it’s ready

Once all of the above is cooked and ready to go, it’s time to pre-bake the crust. The good thing is that the crust and the squash cook at the same temp, and if you remembered to line your baking sheet with aluminum foil for the squash, you can just lift up the potatoes, put down a new piece of foil (spray with a little cooking spray so it doesn’t stick) and put it in the oven. For the thin crust dough, you pre-cook it for 5 minutes. Once it’s in the oven, it’s a good time to kind of line up all your ingredients to start layering up the pizza!

Once the dough is out, the layering begins. And it goes as follows:

1. First brush on the balsamic vinaigrette. If you have a little extra that’s ok. You don’t want it to be too heavy, just enough to coat the crust.
2. Then you want to sprinkle half the cheese evenly over the dough
3. Next goes the squash and onion mixture
4. Then the choirzo
5. Then the bacon
6. Then the rest of the cheese.
7. And just as a finisher, I like to put the rest of the spice mixture over the top of the cheese. It gives it just that extra little kick of flavor.

Then it goes back in the oven for 6-10 minutes. I usually give it about 8 minutes. Just until the edges of the crust start to brown. And that’s it. I know it seems like a lot for a pizza, but it’s fancy pizza. Get over it!

Here’s a visual of the layers for you to enjoy!

And then, the TaDa moment of completion! I hope you enjoy it!

Grampa Scrapple and Mrs. Butterworth

My husband and I have two dogs. Molly and Scrapple. They’re also known as Black dog and Brown dog. Or Grampa Scrapple and Mrs. Butterworth. They also have bad dog names. Rick and Ruth. But that’s only when we’re yelling at them which thankfully isn’t that often, because they’re awesome. Here’s a better picture of them.

Little known fact, Molly threw up in the car mere seconds after this picture was taken.

Scrapple is older and set in his ways, so he doesn’t really do hilarious things on the reg. That’s how he got the nickname of Grampa Scrapple. Hopefully when he’s older and senile he’ll start doing funny things again but for the time being he mostly sleeps, and barks when you’re holding ice cream until he gets some. He even knows the word ice cream. He’s a smart cookie.

Molly however, is right around that prime age where every day we have a solid 50% chance of seeing her do something adorable/hilarious. I don’t have the ability (aka – the money to upgrade this site) to post videos right here in the blog, but I’ve got a few in my back log so I might post some of the funnier ones when I’m bored, like tonight.

Here’s my first example, and it makes me miss warm weather. This past summer whenever the hose came out she went into attack mode. It wasn’t that she was scared of the hose. Nope… not so much. It was more that she wanted to get that vicious water! Thusly, I present to you, our dear dog Molly Mrs.Butterworth Baccala, attacking the water. There’s also a brief appearance in the video of our dogs favorite pal and OG chocolate lab in my life, Coach. His technical owner is my friend Stephanie but I like to think that he’s like my little doggy nephew or something. Enjoy!