1.30.2012

Okay I really have no excuse this time for only posting once last week but I have plans for this week and I have already done enough I can say for sure I will be posting more than once this week! Yesterday was my day to cook dinner, I have no idea when it became Brittany cook day = Sunday but I really don’t mind it makes for a productive day with a yummy finish! Bonus when you cook you don’t have to clean up!

This Sunday I decided to make Loaded Chicken and Potato Skillet! This is another recipe coming from the blog Pearls, Handcuffs and Happy Hour. She honestly has some of the best recipes I have ever come across! And the best part she doesn’t add any fancy cooking language! Just give it to me straight and that is what she does! For those who cook and bake well, the fancy language just comes naturally to them and they do not even realize half the time they are reading the fanciness! My mother and sister both claim if you can read you can cook! Yes, if you can read you should be able to cook but there are often hiccups on your road to being a cook or baker! This makes it hard for those of us who ruin many recipes! Come on lets face it if you ruin a bunch of recipes you’re gonna declare yourself a non-cook/baker! I was this person! One of the first recipes I made when trying to make myself into a domestic lady came from Cara’s blog and she just seemed to make everything sound even more simple then it was! I have to say thank you to Cara because her easy recipes have created this novice cook and baker! But back to Sunday dinner! You know my favorite word is coming! This is a super easy and relatively quick meal! Everything is made in the one skillet (minus the boiling of the potatoes and cooking of the bacon) so there isn’t a lot of mess to clean up! Which luckily I didn’t have to deal with! You start with your potatoes and bacon and cook them up! Then you cook your chicken in your skillet before removing it and setting it aside for later when you add it back in. Then it is time for your veggies to be added into the same skillet your chicken was cooked in, then back in with the chicken, add your bacon and cheese then cover until cheese is melted and here is what you get!

Click here for recipe

Super yummy! We added sour cream on the top and it was really good! Mom added ketchup and she said that was really good too! Yup super yummy!

I also wanted to have a little dessert for us so I made a chocolate cake from scratch basically to see if I could make one and have it taste good and what do you know I can do it! My cake was amazingly moist and tasty! I didn’t overly care for the frosting I made for it but the rest of the family loved it! Another awesome success in the kitchen!

click here for recipe

I have more plans for the week so expect something from me again soon!

Hope you like my new layout too J

xo

1.23.2012

Happy Monday everyone! I’m so sorry I only posted once last week but I only made the muffins I already done and honestly I was really busy last week and I just didn’t get the chance! I had an excellent weekend away with my cousin Amy! We shopped, had a lovely dinner and went to a good concert! I was lucky enough to also get to see my friends Danielle and Tiana on Saturday for brunch J Always makes me happy to see them! Bonus got an amazing scarf from Danielle, which she knit herself and she is pretty awesome!  I will post a picture in my next blog since I don’t have a picture right now and I’m not looking good enough at the moment to just throw one out there!

Since I haven’t posted in almost a week yesterday I decided I should probably cook and bake something so we have a good post for today! I also wanted to use my new apron that I got for Christmas that I hadn’t broken out yet J it is super cute! Cherries and ruffles what could be un-cute about that? Anyways, so I went through Pinterest and got my recipes! Once I threw on my music and apron I was ready to take on my most challenging baking recipe to date! Triple Chocolate pound cake! I had thought about making it a few times but always backed out because I just didn’t know if I was ready for such a challenge but I looked over the recipe again and decided it really wasn’t as hard as I was making it out to be it just seems like something I wasn’t ready for. Let me tell you again I only like recipes that look simple! This recipe did not disappoint! Easy and simple! Only thing that was kind of a pain was how long it took to bake! 70-75 minutes! That is long time since most of my baking so far has taken tops of 17 minutes! There is an icing for this cake but I didn’t think it was going to need it and we had strawberries for it! So I cannot comment on the ease of making the icing but looked easy so I would say if you can make the cake you can probably easily make the icing! And after 74 minutes this is what I got!! Okay not really this was after it cooled and I took it from the pan! Pretty darn yummy looking is it not? I can tell you it tasted amazing! Yummy in your belly!

click here for recipe

For dinner I was less than prepared to make something amazing so I decided on a casserole in hopes it would be great! I was thinking crock-pot chicken or pork but then didn’t have the time for that so pizza casserole was going to be on deck for Sunday’s dinner. I feel like I use the word easy too much in my blog but honestly this was another easy recipe! Your prep is cooking the pasta (which egg noodles was called for but I used penne and really enjoyed that change), browning your ground beef and getting out the casserole dish. You layer your sauce, noodles, beef and cheese and then for your top layer you cover it with sliced pepperoni and I added another layer of cheese because I only had one layer of everything since my casserole dish wasn’t very deep. Also the top layer of a pizza is suppose to be cheese! So, did my prep work and popped that baby in the oven for 35 minutes and this is what I got! So yummy and totally tasted like pizza!

click here for recipe

All in all we had a wonderful Sunday dinner! Tonight, I’m off to the movies with Erica (sister) and my momma to see the Iron Lady because we love Meryl! Kids pack of popcorn here I come J

01.17.2012

Non-food post sorry I haven’t cooked yet this week and it is looking like I won’t be! Again sorry I have a busy week (baking on Thursday but I’m making the muffins I already made again)!

Anyways, I decided I would read at least one book a month for 2012 because I never leave myself time for the books I want to read. Yesterday, I finished book number one! It is called Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart. This book is a memoir of Marjorie’s summer when she and her friend Marty lived in New York City and got to work at Tiffany’s. The year was 1945 and the war was on, which had Tiffany’s short of employees since until that time only men worked on the floor. Marjorie and Marty were the first two females to work on the floor as pages (the runners if you will). For me it was a page-turner because I’m enthralled with everything New York, fashion and glamour which this book had a lot of! It is for sure chick lit! And for those who enjoy it you will love this book! Friendship, love, glamour, Tiffany’s and NYC how could you go wrong!

Summer at Tiffany gets the Brittany stamp of approval!

01.15.2012

On Thursday I went to try and get my flu shot again because the first time I had an ear and throat infection (side note I HATE needles). Well, I thought I just had water in my ear which was making it just a tad sore but since I was going to the doctor I was going to get him to check it out! Guess who has another ear infection? You got it ME! Honestly, I have had 3 ear infections since the end of August and I know that doesn’t sound like a lot but I hardly had any in the past few years! Boo so anyways I didn’t get my flu shot again!

Friday, I woke up and my ear was super sore so I was happy I had my antibiotics to take (finally so much better today)!  I was planning on making Chicken Noodle Soup in the crock -pot and since it was just my ear sore I decided to get up and do it! Cooked my chicken, chopped up all my veggies and then threw in all the goodness into my crock pot and went to lay down for bit since my chicken needed to cool before I pulled it all part and the soup was going to be 5 hours before I needed to add the chicken and noodles. Three hours into the cooking process the house smelled great! Amazing how some veggies and chicken broth can smell so good! Finally it was time to add the noodles and chicken and I totes added more then they called for but you really can’t have too many noodles or chicken in chicken noodle soup! One more hour and bam this is what I had! It was super tasty and really hearty!

This is a soup that is more a dinner soup then lunch unless you’re looking for your main meal of the day to be lunch. Another success in the kitchen for me!

Later that evening I decided to make Apple Dip and Cinnamon Sugar Chips! This recipe is quick and very delish! It is like apple pie without having to make apple pie! And the last time I tried making apple pie it didn’t turn out so well! This is simple and tasty treat for a lazy afternoon, which is when we had it (the second batch)!

Hope everyone had a good weekend! I know I did!

01.11.2012

Yesterday I was rather bored so I was pinteresting and came across these muffins that looked amazing! They were Glazed Donut Muffins! I went to the blog they were on because I had to see how hard these muffins were because the name gave me a sense of a challenge which I don't like yet! I want easy and simple! So to my surprise the recipe looked pretty easy and since I was bored I decided to try them out. Let me tell you wow, delicious!! They smell amazing from the start because there is nutmeg and cinnamon in them which gave them such a great flavor too! I do have some suggestions though, they are a tad dry so I think they would be better as mini muffins and maybe some holes so the glaze goes down into the muffin would make it even a tad better. All in all though these muffins are amazing and you won't have a problem eating them up with a nice cup of tea or glass of milk :)

You want one now I know! I think I may go and have one now :)

I know I said I was making pulled chicken this week but that has been put on the back burner for now and I will be making chicken noodle soup on Friday and Sunday I'm hoping to make crock pot french toast. Also, I'm hoping to post something crafty because I don't want this blog to be just about cooking even though that wouldn't make for a bad blog. I have plans for a wreath so if I get my act together and get to the craft store this might happen this weekend :)

xoxo

1.08.2012

Thanks to Pinterest I came across the blog Pearls, Handcuffs and Happy Hour! It is probably one of the favorite blogs because she has amazing recipes on her site and explains them in a way that even us novice cooks can understand! If you clicked on the link to Two Timin Pasta Bake you would have been taken to this blog and I’m sure you would have fallen in love like I have!

On Friday, I decided I was going to attempt another recipe from her blog. Yes it is another pasta bake but oh my it looked delicious and who doesn’t love a good cheesy pasta bake?

Caprese Pasta is the dish was taking on! Not many ingredients, simple instructions equal one happy Brittany (why? Less room for error!)

See that is all!

There wasn’t any fresh basil so I used some other basil in a tube. I know not that best but better then leaving it out! You can check out the easy directions over on Pearls, Handcuffs and Happy Hour! And 45 minutes (prep and cooking time) voila delish cheesy pasta!!

Honestly some of the best pasta I have ever eaten and I cannot get over the fact that I made it! My family was pretty amped on that fact too! Next week I’m trying a pulled chicken! Wish me luck!

01.04.2012

I Brittany Lea am not a cook nor baker nor really anyone who should be in the kitchen! Or so I thought! Due to a little obsession I have developed with Pinterest. I now think I can do almost anything in the kitchen (not really but I’m much more apt to try now!). Over my Christmas break I decided to try out some of the easier recipes I had found. The first one being Pecan puffs! These are not from Pinterest but from Sara Richardson (recipe found here). I was watching one of her holiday specials and she made these delicious looking cookies! They seemed easy enough so I looked up the recipe online and bam I made these! Don’t they look delish!? They are much like shortbread and little did I know I don’t care for shortbread nor did I care for my cookies! Sad I know but the texture was just completely throwing me off! Everyone else said they were delicious so SUCCESS!  I Brittany Lea am not a complete failure in the kitchen!

With my success, I had more confidence I might be a natural in the kitchen! (Not the case but again not a failure!) I decided okay I could bake now so lets see if I can cook! I found what looked to be a delightful pasta on Pinterest called Two Timin’ Pasta Bake.  Mix two pasta sauces, cook pasta, add cheese, throw in oven (okay a little more than that but not really) and BAM super yummy pasta! Look how good it looks!

See I’m just a whiz in the kitchen! But here is my cherry on top! I made homemade peppermint patties! Good old Pinterest never lets me down! These were uber easy to make and so tasty! My friend Mike had 3 in like a minute! He loved life at our potluck when I whipped these babies out! Now I’m a candy maker too! I know you’re drooling over your keyboard right now.

The only downside to this is that I now cannot tell people I can’t cook or bake; I’m the one that cleans up because clearly this is not the case anymore. Pinterest my mother thanks you for this cooking and baking revelation I had!

Thanks for Reading!

Britt

01.03.2012

"Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own." Carol Burnett

Well hello blogger world! I’m back and hopefully for more then two posts! I know I have started many blogs and many blogs have died but I’m hoping to keep this one up. I love writing so I should be keeping a blog if not for people to read but for me just to write and vent and whatever! Now, saying that I will be posting whatever I want on this blog, I won’t be having a set theme. So what to expect from this blog is crafts, opinions, maybe tutorials (if I remember to take photos as I go), pictures, and really just about anything.

I think I’m going to just wrap up right now because I know I’m probably the only one reading this and probably will be for the first little bit but I’m okay with that. But if someone is reading this thank you!

Love,

Britt