Stuffed Mushrooms

I didn't know what to cook for dinner, so I made stuffed mushrooms last night out of things I had on hand. It turned out really tasty.

Ingredients:
7 Large mushrooms (stems removed)
2 Spicy Italian turkey sausages (casings removed)
3 Baby Bell Pepe rs (+ other veggies if you like)
Some panko
Olive oil

Cook sausages and crumble as you cook them. Add the chopped bell peppers and mushroom stems. Cook. And panko.

Sprinkle olive oil on mushrooms. Top with turkey filling. Top with cheese. Bake 25 minutes. The cheese got hard when it was cooked, but it added some texture to the dish. I had leftover turkey filling, so I used it this morning to make an omelet.

Happy Independence Day: Flag Cake

I found this neat cake online at 17andbaking and decided to make it for the July 4th holiday. You can read the creator's blog here.

Start with any simple white cake recipe. Split into 3 parts and dye 2 parts of the batter with food coloring (red & blue). I used the gel kind of coloring since the color is really vibrant without having to use much.



Bake the 3 cakes. Once the cakes have cooled off, use a cake leveler to level off the top of the cakes and then split the red and white cakes in half (resulting in a total of 5 cakes).



Starting with a white cake, top with a thin layer of icing:



Place one of the red cakes on top of the iced white cake:



And top red cake with a layer of icing:



Here comes the trickiest part of assembling the flag cake. Cut a circle in the middle of the blue cake. Place the remaining red cake on top of the remaining white cake, and cut a circle in the middle. I used a ramekin as a stencil:





Place the outer ring of the blue cake on top of the assembled layers. Ice the inside ring and place the white and red inner circle in the middle of the blue cake.



Ice the top and sides.



And there you have a flag cake! The cake is plain on the outside because once you cut into it, you'll have a big impact!



Thanks to 17 and Baking's Elissa for sharing this with us on the food blogs out there. It was pretty fun making this cake. Though, I had to drive around to 4 different stores to get a cake leveler. Oh, and the left over cake parts are not waste. You can eat them plain, or make another cake out of them ;)

I had enough batter leftover to make 6 cupcakes (I didn't want to waste the batter).

Curious about Rhubarb

What do you say? Not too shabby or kinda crappy? Considering it was my first pie ever - from scratch - AND - my first time buying/cooking/tasting rhubarb, I'd say not too shabby. My bf would agree :)

I've been curious about this rhubarb for some time now. And hoping to be inspired to get back into the kitchen, I scoured the internet for some recipes for rhubarb. I decided on a strawberry-rhubarb pie because it seemed to be a hit. So, I ventured to the grocery store to buy my strawberry and rhubarb (+ flour, vegetable shortening) and to my local supply store for a pie pan and rolling pin. After I got all my ingredients and supplies together, I set out to make the crust. FYI - pie crust is harder to make/work with than you'd think. Well, harder than I thought it would be, at least. It took a lot of muscle to roll this bad boy out (2 of them - one for the pan and the other for the top), but I did it:





For those of you who don't know, rhubarb looks like a red celery:


Here are the strawberries:


Sliced:


Filling ingredients combined and into pan:


My first pie weave:




Brushed and sprinkled with sugar in the raw:


And of course, I have to throw in pictures of my cat. He's too cute:






This is blurry, but funny - the pie is in the oven, and he's licking his lips:


Time to pull the pie out of the oven:


There you go, my first pie:

Valentine's Day Dinner

The Menu

Shrimp Salad with Tarragon-Citrus Dressing
Filet Mignon with Herb-and-Cheese Potatoes
Rice Pilaf with Chicken & Pine Nuts
Grilled Asparagus
Molten Mocha Cakes















Recipes from Martha Stewart, I didn't have time to plan the meal because of work. But, I have to say, everything turned out perfect! It was delicious :)

Obligatory Heart Pancakes

(and toast)