food

Alright, simple as this....I love food. I really do. I love cooking and baking, and I love to eat. (surprise, right?!) Anyway, I would probably cook/bake more often if I had more people to try my random creations. I force my PE co-workers to try a lot of what I make, and then, of course, there is Kristi and Jeff, who try everything too. I suppose that's enough people to cook for, but sometimes, like these past few days, I was hesitant to try a few new recipes, because I thought by the time I could take them to work, they'd be a little stale, or old tasting, and I want people to think I'm a decent cook, not someone who is feeding them stale left-overs.
So, when time permits, I love trying new recipes. Of course, I always go with the old standby's as well, like pizzelles, which I have made several times over the past two weeks. But, I discovered this new website through a, well...I guess you could call her facebook friend. We went to high school together, and I feel kind of bad just saying she's a facebook friend, because I know she's a pretty incredible person, who kind of inspires me to be better, just by reading her blog, but nevertheless, on her blog, (which is far more well-written and entertaining than mine) she wrote about this website, annies-eats.com. Oh. My. Word. So, long story short, this lady, Annie, is a doctor. A doctor people! A wife and a mother, and a doctor, did I say that? Ok, so she maintains this site with all the wonderful foods she makes. It's easy to navigate, pretty to look at, and it really inspires you to be a better cook. While also reading my high school, facebook friend's blog, I noticed she was making Candy Cane Biscotti, courtesy of annies-eats, so I thought I'd give it a try on Thursday, which was our first snow day. Wow. Delicious. It's a perfect Christmastime treat. Jeff loved it. He doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, and he's a pretty honest critic, so I was surprised to hear how much he liked it. Here is a picture from her site- (my photos are SO amateur compared to this, but oh well...I'm a PE teacher, with no practice of taking decent pictures- maybe someday.) I also didn't take a picture, so that's another reason I'm cheating and showing you hers.
If you've got a little time on your hands, try this biscotti. It's very easy, and not that time consuming. Click here for the recipe.

Ok, moving along. Have you made these:

These are quite yummy too, and can be made year-round with the various colors of M&M's they have out there. Now, people, I don't really consider this cooking or baking. It's actually more like, ummm, let's say exercise. (ha, who am I kidding?!) But really, it would be fun to do with kids, if you're very careful, since obviously the pan gets hot. Back to the exercising thing- you have to unwrap all the hershey kisses, unless you're clever and buy the ones already unwrapped, then you place a kiss on whatever shape small pretzel suits your fancy, you put them carefully in the oven, wait about 3 minutes, take them out, and quickly, before the kisses harden, place an M&M in the center of each kiss. Let them harden, and viola...a sweet and salty festive treat. Really, you should try them!
Jeff's been out of town at a wrestling tournament, so I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the kitchen doing odd things to prepare for the cookie exchange party I'm helping Jordan with. That's today. I got all the veggies and cheese cut up, and placed on tray's, you know, stuff like that. Well, randomly right in the middle of that, I made hot pretzels. I did some with salt, and some with cinnamon & sugar. These were good too! (You're probably thinking that I never make anything that doesn't taste good, since I've only told you positive remarks about my cooking, but I can assure you that I could most definitely create more blog posts about my cooking disasters than the good things, so just hang with me, since I'm having a rare moment where things were good!) The pretzels, ok...I had 2 for dinner. Is that bad? Jeff's not home, so I didn't feel like cooking, and Kristi said it was ok, (does is matter that I asked her after I already ate them?!) The cinnamon & sugar ones got a little well-done on the bottom, because I put them in the upper oven that I have, and I think the rack was too close to the bottom. Making the pretzel shape is actually not that easy- I got better the more I did, but you can tell, some are a pretty awkward looking.



Since I have the cookie exchange party today, I'm going to try a new football watching dish for Jeff before I go. Of course, this one is from Annie too. It's Jalapeno Popper Dip. I'll let you know how that turns out, sounds quite simple, so I hope Jeff likes it. Here is the recipe for that one.
One more thing about food- today, at this cookie exchange, there will be so much yummy food. I can't wait! I've never been to a cookie exchange before, so I have no idea what the etiquette is. Am I allowed to eat any of the cookies? I know I'm bringing 6 dozen cookies, so I get to take 6 dozen home, but can I eat a few here and there while I'm boxing up my takings? Hmmmm, I sure hope so!
I hope you had a great weekend. Only 3 school days left until break! It will no doubt be a hectic week, espcially with the snow days we had...I have some shifting around to do in health, but let's face it, there's only 3 days until break, so I think I can handle it.
xxoo