We cook: Lemon Blueberry Bread

Since I for some reason have 3 bottles of lemon juice in the fridge and have been making blueberry everything, I tried a new recipe: Lemon Blueberry Bread.  I didn't make the glaze because I don't like my breads super sweet and I didn't add the nuts because I didn't have any.  Also, I didn't have any actual lemons, so I added extra lemon juice in place of the lemon zest.  I was hoping for something similar to banana bread or pumpkin bread that I could eat for breakfast or lunch, but the result was much more similar to pound cake.  It is quite tasty but it is much denser than I expected and does taste more like a dessert than a breakfast.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 4.5 tbsp lemon juice
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. F
2. Beat butter, sugar, lemon juice, and eggs together.
3. Separately, combine flour, baking powder, and salt
4. Alternate adding dry mixture and milk to the egg mixture while stirring
5. Fold in blueberries
6. Pour into greased 8" x 4" loaf pan
7. Bake for 60-70 minutes at 350 deg. F.

Bread is done when a toothpick or knife comes out clean.

We cook: Ricotta Cheese Appetizer with Blueberries

The first time we made this appitizer, it was on fancy ciabatta bread when we had guests over and I forgot to take a picture.  Later that weekend we made it a second time on toasted sourdough bread (in picture).  DH went a little OCD with the blueberries this time : ) While the sourdough didn't look nearly as nice, the flavors worked fine!  This easy appetizer was tasty and looked quite fancy on nice bread.

Simply spread ricotta cheese on the bread, top with blueberries, and drizzle honey over the top.




















I tried to find a recipe to link but each one I can find right now (link) has extra steps like making a lemon ricotta spread and roasting the blueberries.  I'm sure that that would be good, but honestly, I thought it was delicious in its simple version too!  I think it's ridiculous how hard it is to find a bare bones recipe sometimes. I like experimenting, but sometimes just want to know if I can whip something together without buying more than 1 or 2 extra things (See Quiche Recipe).

The ricotta cheese that I bought didn't have any preservatives and specifically said to eat right away once opened, so after we finished with the appetizer I put the left over ricotta cheese into the blender with frozen blueberries and some sugar (amounts to taste) and poured the blended concoction into Pyrex bowls to freeze.  I got the idea from here and I quite like the result for a late night snack.

We cook: Baked Peaches

Another super quick and easy recipe that I have decided to love is baked peaches!  We made these for dessert when we had friends over because the peaches were not quite ripe enough to be sweet and delicious on their own.  The result is basically peach cobbler without the cobbler.

 

Ingredients

• Peaches
• 1/2 tsp Butter / peach half
• 1 tsp Brown Sugar / peach half

Instructions

1. Preheat oven the oven to 375 deg. F
2. Wash and half the peaches.  Remove the pit.
3. Place each peach half on a cookie sheet skin-side-down
4. Add butter and brown sugar to peach halves
5. Bake for 30 minutes at 375 deg. F

We cook: Breakfast Quiche

This is one of my favorites.  I made a quiche on Saturday and have been eating it for breakfast all week.  I don't understand why some people are afraid of cooking these.  It can be SUPER easy to make a basic quiche.  The only thing to be careful of is that if you use too many ingredients that release water (like spinach and tomatoes) the quiche may not set as well.  

Ingredients

• Pie Crust (I use the pie crusts that come in the metal tinfoil pan in the freezer section of the grocery store, but I really need to upgrade to an actual pie pan)
• 5-8 Eggs (my pie plate holds 5 eggs.  If you aren't sure how many you need, start low and then add extras later if needed)
• Milk (optional)
• Salt & Pepper (optional)
• Extras (in this quiche I put 1 diced tomato and some slices of Emmentaler Swiss Cheese)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. F
2. Crack eggs into a bowl; add a small amount of milk, salt, and pepper; and mix as if you were going to pour them into a frying pan for scrambled eggs 
3. Cut up Extras (tomato and cheese) and place them in the bottom of the pie crust
4. Pour scrambled eggs over the top.  The pie crust should be filled up to the top (it doesn't rise much at all)
5. Bake for 35-45 minutes at 350 deg. F.

Done!  I have found the timing to be variable depending on how big the pie plate is and what extras I've added.  Just check the quiche occasionally.  It is done when you can stab it with a knife and the knife comes out clean.

Warning:  The hardest part of the entire process (especially if you're using a flimsy tinfoil pie pan) is transferring the quiche to the oven.  It is very easy to spill and eggs are obnoxious to clean up from an oven.

We cook: Chicken Parmesan

It may be embarrassing to admit, but I have never cooked chicken before.  I find raw chicken gross.  DH, however, showed me recently how easy it is to fry chicken at home and I may have to get over my aversion because it was delicious.  For dinner a few weeks ago we made spaghetti with a normal jar of tomato sauce and then fried chicken to make chicken parmesan as well.  We didn't happen to have many ingredients in the kitchen at the time so this was a very bare bones recipe, but it turned out pretty well all the same...really if you cover something fried in cheese, how bad can it be??

Ingredients

• Chicken breasts
• Flour
• Spices
• Vegetable Oil
• Spaghetti Sauce
• Cheese

Instructions

1. Butterfly the chicken breasts. Directions
2. Mix flour with seasoned salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste (this can pretty much be any seasonings that you have on hand.  You want to flavor it a little bit more strongly than you think is necessary)
3. Heat about half an inch of oil in a frying pan until it sizzles when you throw in a drop of water 
4. Dip the chicken in the flour to coat both sides and then put it in the pan
5. When chicken is mostly cooked, flip to the second side
6. Carefully re-dip the chicken in the flour to coat both sides a second time 
7. Re-cook chicken in the oil on both sides briefly

When you take the chicken out, you can pat some of the oil off with paper towels and cut into the thickest part of the chicken breast to check that it is fully cooked.  Then dump some tomato sauce and cheese on top.  We used Parmesan cheese because it was all we had at the time.   You can then throw them in the oven or toaster oven on broil to melt the cheese if you want to.

Update

It has been a while since I posted because there has been a ton going on!  DH is mostly moved in and is spending the majority of his time here.  Most of his time during the last two weeks has been spent applying to MED SCHOOL, which means a lot of my time has been spent proofing resumes and essays.  Now we wait for letters of recommendation and scores to come in.  Fingers crossed.  

In other news:  I finished the thank you letters!  It was a process and I hate my handwriting, but it feels awesome to be done : )  I have already heard from several people that they have received the letters...apparently my mom cried.  So I count that as a win.

My sister-in-law had a baby shower this past weekend and says she loved the blanket and stuffed animal.

I officially have a license and social security card for my new name, I've mailed the paperwork for my other major name change forms, and we got our wedding pictures back! 

I love them!  They turned out better than I hoped.

I am working on publishing my first "first author" paper at work...oh and it was my birthday last week.  DH came back to town early, picked me up from work, and cooked me dinner.  It was very low key and wonderful.  I don't think that I could have handled a big party with everything else going on this summer : )

We have tried out a TON of recipes recently playing with all of our new kitchen gear.  I will post updates with some of the recipes.

Baby Blanket Update

With life so busy, it took me longer than expected to finish but the baby blanket is done with about 3 weeks to spare.

Final Product: