comfort food...

A toasted cheese sandwich with the melting cheese oozing out just says "comfort food" to me on a day like today. Why? Because here in central MN 7 inches of heavy, wet snow fell overnight and this morning.

Add in some fresh fruit...

and a pretty plate and it's the perfect lunch.


Did I "fool" you? Yes, it really did snow 7 inches today...but my friend, Carol at There's Always Thyme to Cook, is hosting an April Fool's event at her blog. Click on this LINK to see the others participating. There are some pretty cute cocktails, sushi, spaghetti, hamburgers, more grilled cheese and a real fool already posted and more will be joining in tomorrow.

My "grilled cheese" is actually toasted pieces of pound cake with lemon frosting (tinted with a little orange coloring) and gummi fruit. I got the idea from this website, FamilyFun.com. I see Barb & Kathleen had the same idea :-)

I did eat half of the sandwich...it was quite good with a hot cup of coffee.

I am not one that ever wants to miss a party. Today, Marsha's Kitchen is actually coming to you from Marsha's hotel room. I just couldn't miss an opportunity to share in a good time while out of town so on my shopping excursion, I picked up the ingredients and actually toasted my cake in the hotel's continental breakfast room toaster. I looked a little "foolish" I'm sure carrying my toasted cake through the hallways...but this party was a great reason to tell Jeff why I just had to buy a couple of these cute strawberry plates and the initial mug at TJMaxx.

Except for slick roads and having to brush snow off the car everytime I came out of a store it was perfect shopping weather...no crowds. I just had to show this shot...there were only 3 cars at TJM!

Wishing you a fun...and a little bit foolish...April Fools Day tomorrow.

a Madison YUMMY!

Yesterday as I was checking out the other posts in Foodie Friday, I came across this post from The Bloom Girls. It featured a video segement a la "cooking show" with the lovely Madison Grace, a 4 year old baker. Let me just say, it was the most entertaining 4 minutes and 42 seconds of video, I have watched in a long time. It brought back such wonderful memories of the late 80's when my sister lived in Japan and we would send her home videos to keep in touch. My daughter, Jayme, and niece, Ashley, who were just a little older than Madison would make cooking videos to send. Yesterday, Madison showed us how to make carrot muffins with cream cheese filling...even without Madison's recommendation that with a glass of milk they were YUMMY, I knew would have to try them.

Let me just say...these are the BEST!

I opted for coffee with milk rather than a glass of milk but it was a perfect breakfast. Oh, what a beautiful morning...

oops, as my cup says...Oh, what a birdiful morning...
he does have a carrot colored background ;)

Recipe from Karyn at the Bloom Girls

Carrot Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling - Makes 12 Muffins

Batter:
1/3 cup softened butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (compressed down into the cup)
2 eggs
1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 1/2 tablespoons orange juice
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (you can subsitute, whole wheat or organic)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Filling:
4 ounces softened cream cheese
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

Directions:

Mix together filling ingredients (cream cheese, sugar and orange peel) until well blended, set aside

In a different bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy with mixer. Add milk, orange juice and eggs until well mixed. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnomen and stir into creamed mixture until moist. Stir in carrots, dried cranberries and walnuts (if including)

Using paper lined cupcake pan, fill each liner 1/3 full of carrot batter mixture, then add about 2 tablespoons of cream cheese filling and then another 1/3 of carrot batter mixture. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Test with a wooden toothpick to ensure they are done. (the toothpick should come out with tiny crumbs or no uncooked batter) Cool for 5 minutes then remove from pan to wire rack to continue cooling. Store these in the fridge!

My Notes: I didn't have dried cranberries in the house so I omitted them and we love pecans so I used pecans instead of walnuts. We'll be making these again and again!

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

Peaches and Cream French Toast...

For the first time, I have decided to join the "Foodie Friday" party over at Gollum's beautiful blog. Click on the link to see the other's joining in.
Since I made this brunch dish back in early January and posted in a now defunct group blog, I am reposting it here as a "flashback" for Suzy's Flashback Friday party too.

For a January brunch I freshened up my Christmas centerpiece with some beautiful peach roses...
and baked a peaches and cream french toast bake.
Flip it upside down to serve so the beautiful peaches are on top and serve with a syrup made from the peach juice and orange juice....Yum!
Served with fresh fruit, scones and ham, it made a wonderful, no fuss brunch.
If only "flashbacks" had scent as well, I remember the warm cinnamon smells in the kitchen and sitting down to the fresh scent of roses...sigh...I need to make this again soon.

This dish will become a family favorite...I combined several recipes I found on the net and came up with this one based on the ingredients I had in the house.

Peaches & Cream French Toast

Total preparation time: 30 min.
Serves: 12
Ingredients:
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sweet Cream Butter
2 tablespoons Corn Syrup
1 Loaf Cinnamon Bread (I used Cub Foods chunky cinnamon)
1 - 8 OZ Pkg. Cream Cheese
1 29 oz can Peach Halves
1 dozen Large Eggs
1 1/2 cups Half-and-Half Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup orange juice
Steps:
Grease a 9X13" pan. Melt brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in small saucepan until bubbly. Pour the mixture into the cake pan.
Drain peaches, reserving the liquid. Slice the peach halves horizontally and spread the peach slices over the caramel syrup. Cube cinnamon bread and place on to top of the peach slices. Do not pat down bread cubes, keep loose. Cut the cream cheese into little pieces and scatter throughout the bread.
Mix together the eggs, milk and vanilla. Pour over the bread and cover. Refrigerate overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. (Place into a cold oven and set it to 350 degrees if you are using glass) You can cover the top if it gets too brown. When finish baking cut into 12 servings. Serve by turning upside down so the peaches and caramel sauce will be on top.
In a saucepan, mix the reserved peach liquid with cornstarch. Stir over low heat until thickened. Stir in the orange juice and cook until thickened. Serve warm over french toast.

Marsha - Thumbs UP
Jeff - Thumbs UP

mini pitas...

During a recent shopping trip to Trader Joe's I discovered these cute mini whole wheat pita breads. I stuck them in the freezer until I decided what to do with them. I had bookmarked this Martha Stewart recipe for egg and avocado salad sandwiches a while back and I had an overripe avocado to use up so it was a good day to try a small version of it. It was also a good day to get out some toys. First the egg slicer from Pampered Chef...
rotate the egg after the first slice to get...
this small dice.
Next up was my newest toy, an avocado slicer...
just use it as a scoop and it shells and slices the avocado in one motion.
I only have two hands so slicing and taking photos didn't work very well, a blurry shot above and crooked slices - usually I have perfect slices when finished.
A few swipes with a knife and the slices became dices sprinkled with a teaspoon of lemon juice and salt & pepper.
Mixed it all together with light mayo, dijon mustard and lots more pepper and I had...
lunch for one, Mini whole wheat pitas with avocado and egg salad and Lindt white chocolate truffles for dessert :)

Since Martha's recipe made a big batch I used two eggs, 1/2 avocado, 1 tsp lemon juice and guessed on the mayo & dijon to make the right consistency. I didn't read the recipe very well other than to see the list of ingredients since I wasn't making a whole batch. Looking back, I know I had over a teaspoon dijon in just my small serving so it was a little heavy on the mustard. I will definitely make this again but go a little lighter with the dijon...who knew eggs & avocado...a great combination or has Martha says..."a Good Thing".

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - not home, but hates egg salad :)

Birthday Wishes...

My friend, Susan, from Savoring Time in the Kitchen is celebrating a birthday today. Though we've never met in person but online about 4 years ago, an online friend can become a wonderful and close friend who is always there celebrating our good times and supporting each other through the bad spells. Through forums, blogs and emails Susan has inspired me to...

love RED
to try and take better photos
to always take the high road
to excercise more
realize that a salad can be a meal :)
try to be more graceful
and become a clematis lover! I have 10 more plants on order arriving in May, ordered on her recommendations.

I look forward to many more years of friendship and sharing!

I see Susan already started her day with a wonderful breakfast, but some of our core group of food loving friends have started the party too. Debbie, brought the cake and Carol, the cupcakes. Jayne, made a great salad so I'll bring the wine...Wisconsin wine in Susan's honor.

Chocolate Chip Bread

The recipe I'm sharing today has been one of our family favorites since 1994 when I got my bread machine for Christmas. We enjoy it for breakfast and snacks. Back in the day, I used to get requests from Jayme to have it ready when she came home from college for weekends.
There is no getting around the fact that loaves baked in a bread machine are not pretty but we don't care the taste is awesome.
I learned something else tonight. I have a hard time using manual focus on closeups...is that because I need bifocals? If I use manual focus I think they are in focus, take the shot...eat the bread and download the photos only to find out they are blurry.

Chocolate Chip Bread

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 teaspoons yeast
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons soft butter
1 egg
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup water
(use ingredients at room temperature)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips - add at beep

Put the first 10 ingredients into the pan and press start. Select white bread or mix bread whatever your brand of bread machine has for the feature to add ingredients at the end of the second mixing. In my Hitachi machine, I select Mix Bread and bread color - Light. At the beep add the chocolate chips.

Thumbs UP - Marsha
Thumbs UP - Jeff

Blueberry Roly-Poly

A few years ago my son bought a house and all of it's belongings from an estate. The former owner was 96 years old when she passed away and from what I hear, she was an excellent cook. As we sorted through the home and it's belongings, Nathan did not want lots of stuff so I brought home her collection of recipe books. This one was full of "clipped" recipes...
and I am sure it had a lot of use as evidenced by the burn mark on the cover.
After buying fresh blueberries on sale this week, I decided to try the following recipe from the above book for Blueberry Roly-Poly as submitted by a Mrs. Lempi Siermala, from MN. Click on the photo below to read the recipe.
The only change I made to the recipe was to use lemon rind, instead of orange rind in the filling. I just like lemon & blueberry together but I am sure the orange is good as well. I rolled out the dough...
and spread it with the cinnamon/sugar/lemon rind mixture and rolled it up like a cinnamon roll.
Then it was baked in a loaf pan...
and came out looking like this.
I didn't know what to expect from the recipe as I have never heard of blueberry roly-poly before. I think I was expecting a coffee cake. Instead, it tastes like a blueberry filled cinammon biscuit.
Sure tasted great with some tea and lemon!
Thumbs up from Marsha
Thumbs up from Jeff

Happy St. Patrick's Day...

It is a beautiful spring morning...the blackbirds are singing, the air smells fresh and clean...oh wait...that's me after my Irish Spring shower :) I hope you are all taking time to live, love and laugh this St. Patrick's Day as I join my Irish friend, Kathleen in a food & fun event. Click HERE to Hop on over to her blog to see all the others joining in.

There's a dear little plant that grows in our isle,
'Twas St. Patrick himself, sure, that sets it;
And the sun of his labor with pleasure did smile,
And with dew from his eye often wet it.
It grows through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,
And they call it the dear little Shamrock of Ireland

Today is not only St. Patrick's Day but our son-in-law, Scott's birthday. In our family it is tradition that I make cinnamon rolls to celebrate birthdays, so even though Scott wasn't here...Jeff & I had shamrock cinnamon buns for breakfast.

When, Kathleen announced the blog party, she said anything goes...even Lucky Charms! Lo and behold, I "won" a box of LC in church on Sunday so I couldn't resist bringing it to her party. Our pastor had shamrocks taped on the church pews and whoever sat at the pew with a number 3 written on the back of the shamrock won a prize and it was a magically delicious box of cereal. Actually it will be going back to church next week along with other non-perishable foods as March is food share month in MN and our congregation is collecting bags of food. Are you asking "Why" we had shamrocks in church yet. Our pastor gave a children's sermon on St. Patrick and then told the children what a wonderful reminder of God a shamrock is. When you look at a shamrock it has three leaves...like God's presence in our lives...Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From now on I'll always think a little more of all the shamrocks around at this time of year now.
Is it just me or is the leprechaun looking a lot more scary these days?
Soon it was time to think of lunch and for Kathleen's party, I bought some "pasta with personality" and...
I set our table with black, white & GREEN.
We started our meal with a simple spinach salad.
The main course needed light sour cream and I always enjoy the advice inside the lid on each fresh container (though it didn't mention using Irish Spring).
Our main course was Cabbage and Potatoes with Noodles because it sounded Irish to me. Of course, I substituted shamrock pasta for the noodles...after all it is an Irish party.

Time is precious these days as we are spending all of our time building a garden barn (you can read about that on my main blog, listed on the sidebar), so dessert was spring green wrapped Lindt truffles in my shamrock bowl.
You can't say "Irish Spring" any better than this photo does...


This recipe was published in my local paper by Sue Doeden, a MN food writer who writes a weekly column. She also has a food blog that you can check out here.

Cabbage and Potatoes with Noodles
2 medium-sized red potatoes (about 14 to 16 ounces), skins on, chopped into small chunks
1 1/2 cups uncooked medium egg noodles
4 slices of bacon
3 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon, at least, of freshly ground black pepper
Reduced-fat sour cream for garnish

Boil chopped potatoes in a pot of salted water until just tender. Drain and set aside. In a separate pot, boil noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Arrange bacon slices flat in a large, heavy skillet. Fry until crispy. Transfer bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.

Add cabbage to hot bacon drippings in pan. Sauté for a couple of minutes. Add sugar and continue to cook and stir until cabbage begins to caramelize and turn golden. Cover pan. Continue to cook the cabbage over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it is tender. It will take about 5 minutes.

Remove cover from pan. Stir in potatoes and cook until heated through. Add salt and lots of ground black pepper. Stir in cooked noodles and heat through. Crumble bacon and sprinkle over the top.

Serve immediately, offering sour cream on the side. Makes 4 to 6 side servings.

Thumbs Up - Marsha
Thumbs Down - Jeff