2014 resolutions

Posted in 2014 Resolutions, Food by mszerwo

Here we are already: 2014. Man, that went fast. It seems like just yesterday that I was furiously pinning ideas for my “2013 Pinterest Lifestyle” resolution. Officially, that didn’t last long, but unofficially, I’m still on Pinterest all the time looking for craft ideas, recipes and workouts, I’ve just done a bad job at pinning them to my 2013 Pinterest Lifestyle board.

After much internal debate and out loud conversations with Brandon, I’ve landed on a few resolutions that I think are pretty attainable and maintainable:

Eat the rainbow. You all know that I’m a Brussels sprouts fanatic and I’ve also become pretty obsessed with kale. While “green” is good for your diet, I’m hoping to expand our color and recipe palates and start incorporating more colorful veggies into our diets. Which segues nicely to…

Theme eating. Back in 2012 we chose an ingredient of the week to plan our meals around. It was a lot of fun and we were able to discover some really fun and delicious ingredients and recipes. (This opened our eyes to kale and inspired my love affair.) We’ve been in a bit of a meal-planning rut lately so we decided to incorporate theme eating, expanding on the ingredient of the week to include ingredients, colors and cultures of food. We’ll plan as we go, so if you’re coming over for dinner, make sure it’s a good “theme.” I’ll also be taking ideas, so be sure to send them my way or post them in comments section.

Live in the present. Enough about food. This year flew by – I felt like it was just the summer and now the days are already getting longer again. We spent a lot of weekends working on the yard and the house last year and this year I hope to really enjoy the finished product. Finishing the pizza oven is on the top of our to-do list and once it’s done, I plan to spend all sunny (ok, not rainy) afternoons and evenings on the patio, enjoying the lights, fire pit and company. I’m always going to be planning the next big holiday party and pinning ideas months in advance, but I will actively spend the next year enjoying the present.

Learn how to knit. I’ve got two friends who are going to teach me and I’m really looking forward to it! I’m going to start small (scarves) and work into hats. If all goes well, get ready for some knitted presents next Christmas!

Of course there are always the typical lose weight, eat healthier, save money and get more sleep resolutions, which are on the list, but you know, they always are.

Do any of these resolutions look familiar? Are you going to steal any of our resolutions for yourself?

Cheers to 2014! And happy Wine Wednesday!

28Nov2013

Happy Thanksgiving from Megan’s Island

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by mszerwo

I cut, whittled and delicately placed vegetables to create this Thanksgiving masterpiece that we’ll devour later today. I hope you have a wonderful day with your friends and family! And, don’t forget to eat your vegetables!

Here’s the full tray. Looks pretty awesome, if I don’t say so myself.

26Nov2013

The best rice krispie treats ever

Posted in Food by mszerwo

Seriously. Ever. And they’d make an amazing Thanksgiving dessert (or breakfast, for that matter).

Brandon and I were cleaning out the pantry over the weekend, which meant we had a half of a bag of rice krispies and a bag of marshmallows that were “going bad” and “needed” to be re-purposed into something delicious. That means rice krispie treats! And I had just gotten a new recipe!

I was recently at a Social Media Lunch event at Allrecipes.com where I had the best rice krispie treats ever. VoraciousGirl was kind enough to share her recipe with me. The following recipe is predominantly hers, with some Megan’s Island adjustments. I’d recommend you run to the store immediately and pick up the following ingredients.

Why are they so good? I blame it on the whole stick of browned butter. Delish.

Brown butter rice krispie treats | Megan's Island Blog

Brown Butter Salted Rice Krispie Treats

Yield: one pan

1 stick unsalted butter
1-16oz bag of mini marshmallows
8 cups Rice Krispies
1 tablespoon vanilla (the original recipe calls for Bourbon)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Melt and brown butter until its a golden brown and smells nutty over medium heat. It’s ok if there are some dark brown-black speckles.
Grease all edges of the 9″ x 9″ pan.
Add mini marshmallows and reduce heat to medium low. Stir until marshmallows are completely melted.
Add vanilla and sea salt to mixture. Stir mixture.
Remove pan from heat.
Add Rice Krispies and mix well to combine.
Spoon Rice Krispie mixture into pan.
Use waxed paper and press mixture to evenly disperse.
Clean the pan by eating what’s left. Careful: It’ll be hot and gooey!

Now, get up and head to the store to pick up some butter, marshmallows and Rice Krispies!! Enjoy!

My friend Emily claims that this Smitten Kitchen recipe is the best rice krispie treats, We’re going to have a rice krispie treat-off soon to crown the champion recipe. In the meantime, try out this one. It’s a winner.

16Nov2013

{Gone Pinning} Gluten-free Thanksgiving… with all the fixins’

Posted in Food, Holidays by mszerwo

I kid. I like feasts full of gluten but I also like gluten-free feasts!

I’m coming more around to the idea that Thanksgiving is almost here — in less than a fortnight (thank you, Heather), nonetheless.

As I mentioned last week, Brandon and I won’t do much cooking for the holiday, so this post is really targeted at my parents (thank you for reading) who will hopefully be considering some of these ideas for our holiday feast. This post is also for a dear friend of mine who is throwing her first gluten-free Thanksgiving (hi, Megan!), so hopefully this provides inspiration for her too. (Man, that’s a lot of pressure on this post!)

So, here we go. First things first: gluten-free appetizers:

A cute, holiday-inspired veggie display

Bacon-wrapped dates? Yes please.

Sweet potato crostini

And some ideas for gluten-free side dishes:

Lemony Brussels sprouts

Wild rice and mushroom stuffing

Honey-roasted butternut squash

Spuds!

I’m going to assume that you gluten-free’ers have the main dish covered. Mom & Dad: I hope it’s turkey!

Which leaves us with some gluten free desserts!

Gluten-free pie crusts

Pumpkin-ginger cupcakes

Gluten-free fig frangipane tart

If you do use any of these recipes or re-pin these, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! And if you’d like to see all of my Thanksgiving pins, visit my board. Please note: not all pins on my Thanksgiving board are gluten free.

Happy menu planning and have a great rest of the weekend!

8Nov2013

{Gone Pinning} Thanksgiving appetizers

Posted in Food, Gone Pinning, Uncategorized by mszerwo

Holy crap. It’s November. And not just the beginning of November. We’re already 1/3 done with November! I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by.

Since it is mid-November, its time to be thinking about Thanksgiving. (I still can’t believe it…)

Brandon and I love to cook, but we don’t really get the opportunity to showcase our skillz at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Both of our parents are really good cooks and typically take care of most of the big dinner. Brandon and I each have siblings and we get to either bring appetizers or desserts to the big event. We haven’t been assigned a dish yet, but I thought I’d get a jump start on our options. Today, I’ll share some of the front runners for appetizers for the Thanksgiving holiday.

First, we’ll start with the baked brie recipes. I can’t get enough brie and baked brie is even more decadent. I do have a favorite recipe, but it’s a mish-mash of a few recipes and it’s not online. Come to think of it, I should probably make that dish soon, share the recipe with you and then pin it for everyone else to see and share.

Brie + jam on sticks: YUM!

Baked brie bites with pecans

Brie bites with cranberry jam

A cheese plate would be a great idea… I mean, how good does that look!?

Garlic cheesy bread . Yes. Yes. Yes.

More cheese: marinated fresh mozzerella balls

Caramelized Onion, Mushroom, Apple & Gruyere Bites

And for the cheese haters (like Brandon):

Shrimp lime cups

Now I’m hungry. I hope you’ve enjoyed the fruits of my pinning. Please share some of your favorite holiday appetizer recipes in the comments below!

3Nov2013

{Gone pinning} Soup season is here!

Posted in Food, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Good morning! What’d you do with your extra hour today? I woke up at my normal time and spent the hour in bed, quietly playing on Pinterest, pinning all sorts of handmade Christmas present ideas and seasonal eats, like soups. Find all of my favorite fall recipes on my “Falling into Fall” Pinterest board.

Growing up we would often have soups and stews at least once a week, usually on Tuesdays, my Mom’s day off at the time. We playfully — and appropriately — dubbed Tuesdays “Stew-sday” in our house. Take a look at these recipes I found and add them to your meal plan this week… Maybe you can celebrate Stew-sday!

This is one of our favorites, it’s so easy and so delicious.

Tomato soup + grilled cheese sandwiches = the perfect Sunday lunch!

Brandon loves chicken pot pie and I’d bet he’d love this too! YUM!

Healthy French onion soup, from Krissie Lee, one of my dear friends and favorite food bloggers.

10 more recipes for soups, in one location

Happy eating! Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and that extra hour you get today.

31Oct2013

Halloween dinner

Posted in Food, Holidays by mszerwo

We celebrated Halloween a bit early this year, so I could share this delicious post with you in honor of “the big day.”

This recipe doesn’t have a spooky name (although I’m open to suggestions!) but it looks pretty eerie.

We love making pasta from scratch and used our favorite pasta recipe with a packet of squid ink that we purchased from Big John’s PFI awhile back, two packets for $2.50. There was a 2011 date on the package and Brandon was able to read (in Spanish) that the ink was good for four years beyond that date. So, we tried it.

We mixed the ink into the eggs and then mixed that in with the flour and salt. Then we mixed and mixed and mixed with the Kitchen Aid. We didn’t get the look we were hoping for (solid black) and instead ended up with a speckled/cookies ‘n cream coloring. Don’t get me wrong, it looked plenty spooky.

Being the students that we are, we wanted to know what we did wrong, so we did some Google-ing to find some answers. It turns out that we were totally on the right track, but we skimped on the ink. Most of the recipes we found used at least three tablespoons of ink. We used the equivalent of 1/2 teaspoon.

While we [Brandon] were making the pasta, we [Me] made the sauce. It’s my favorite spaghetti sauce, which is totally easy. Here it is, in a nutshell: one onion, chopped, sauteed with one package of Italian sausage flavored ground turkey, one tablespoon of minced garlic, a few sliced mushrooms, two cans of diced tomatoes with their juice, some balsamic vinegar and dried herbs. Voila! Delicious sauce.

Don’t worry. We also had my favorite kale salad and the Ghost Pines wine I mentioned in yesterday’s post. Combined? Everything was amazing. Happy Halloween to us! And to you, of course.

19Oct2013

{Gone Pinning} Crocktober

Posted in Food, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Did you know it was “Crocktober”? Neither did I…until I arrived at QFC and saw the signs in the meat section! And here we were celebrating without even knowing about it! We’ve had several great crock pot meals this month (pot roast x2, corned beef x2) and “Crocktober” is a reason to get even more crock pot meals on the menu. We’re still eating leftovers from last weekend’s big party (think hot turkey sandwiches and French dip sandwiches…we didn’t even touch a whole Costco-sized package of meat!) but come next week, we’re hittin’ up the crock pot.

What will we be enjoying? Let’s go to Pinterest and see what looks tasty! Check out all of the potentially-delicious recipes that would apply for “Crocktober” on my “Crock Pottin'” board on Pinterest.

Cashew Chicken. So good lookin’ that I pinned it twice… Ooops.

French onion soup. LOVE!

Desserts!?

Pork tenderloin in the crock pot… delicious looking!!

Happy Crocktober… at least the last 12 days of Crocktober that’s left…

4Oct2013

{Gone Pinning} Falling into fall

Posted in 2013 Pinterest Lifestyle, Food, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Fall is officially here — it seems like it hasn’t stopped raining since the actual official start of fall — and it gets me in the mood for some down-home, crock pot-style comfort food. And wine tasting. And a weekend day that consists of both, hopefully sometime in the near future.

Brussels sprout mac ‘n cheese. Thanks for the pin recommendation, Liz!

Lasagna!

Risotto

Butternut squash soup

Adorable apple pies

And fall isn’t complete without CANDY CORN!

Check out all of my fall-related pins on my “falling into fall” board. I hope you have a great weekend and I’d love to hear what seasonal deliciousness you’re pinning and enjoying!

2Oct2013

{Wine Wednesday} Red wine chocolate fudge brownies

Posted in Food, Wine Wednesdays by mszerwo

Yes, you read that right: red wine chocolate fudge brownies. Don’t those sound great? YUM! I haven’t made these yet, but they’re for sure on my ‘to make’ list.

This recipes comes from a friend of mine named Lillie who writes Butter Me Up Brooklyn, an award-winning baking blog out of Brooklyn.

Butter Me Up Brooklyn’s Red Wine Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Red Wine Chocolate Fudge Brownies

Makes one 8×8 pan

For the brownies:

4 ounces (120 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (113 grams) butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup (60 ml) red wine
2 eggs
1/2 cup (100 grams) brown sugar
1/4 cup (53 grams) sugar
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla
1/2 cup (62 grams) flour
1/4 cup (25 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

For the glaze:

2 ounces (60 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon (21 grams) butter
2 tablespoons (30 ml) red wine
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Butter an 8×8 pan and line with two sheets of parchment paper, then butter the parchment. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugars and vanilla. Whisk in the chocolate mixture and then the wine. Add the flour, cocoa powder and salt and stir until the batter is smooth and has thickened slightly. Fold in the chocolate chips, if using.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a tester comes out mostly clean with just a few crumbs attached. You may need to bake the brownies for a few minutes more, but set your timer for 15 minutes and then hang out in your kitchen for the last few minutes of baking time just to make sure they don’t over bake. An underbaked brownie is better than an overbaked one.

While the brownies are baking make the glaze. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over simmering water until melted. Add the butter, wine and salt and whisk until smooth. Pour the glaze over the warm brownies and spread it to the corners so the top is evenly coated.

Cool completely and cut into squares.

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