A Cook's Quest

Hooray!  It is Secret Recipe Club time again.  This is such a fun group to be a part of.  My blogging has slowed down significantly over the last year, but I wouldn't miss one of these reveals! This month I was assigned to Cooking Whims by Megan.  She not only shares recipes, but fun food finds, and her life experiences.  I really enjoyed getting to know her and her family through her blog.  She says, "I am no chef, but I do love to cook and bake and photograph everything under the sun."  She likes to try new recipes and document them on the blog. When it came time to choose a recipe, I struggled to make just one for my post.  I pondered these  Homemade Oatmeal Granola Bars  because I have struggled to find a granola bar that I really, truly loved.  I also considered  Rosemary Roasted Chicken  and  Mozzarella Stuffed Turkey Burgers .  But, I finally settled on these  Strawberry Cupcakes with Cream ...

About a month ago my mother in law called me out of the blue and asked, "Do you want a tread-mill?"  to which I replied, "ummm, yes?"  And within the hour I had a treadmill in my garage just waiting to burn all those unwanted calories off of my ever growing hips. Fast forward a  few weeks to when my mother in law was cleaning out her cabinets and stumbled upon a smoothie maker still in the box and never used.  She asked me if I wanted it or not, and, after considering what I had planned for dinner that night (NOTHING), I quickly snatched it up and became a hero when I made fruit smoothies and peanut butter sandwiches for dinner.  Thus, our love of fresh fruit smoothies was born in my kitchen.   There are millions of ways to make smoothies both healthy and un-healthy.  So far ours have been relatively healthy.  We have been making them by tossing in fruit, ice, and milk or yogurt and blending away.  But, now I feel an obligation to crea...

Oh what can be better than a BBQ with great friends and family for the 4th of July?  Not much in book!  This year I decided to make stained glass jello for the 4th of July.  SO MUCH FUN!  My kiddos loved the look and it was really easy.  Also don't forget to try out some of the other recipes below that I found while I was looking through other sites! I'm linking this post, go check out all the other cool recipes! Stained Glass Jello Recipe Source: I have no idea, this stuff is all over the Internet! 4 small boxes (3 oz. each) of Jell-O or store brand "gelatin dessert" in different colors. (I used two boxes of raspberry and two boxes of blue berry flavor) 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk 2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (that Knox stuff) For each flavor, dissolve one box of jello in one cup of boiling water. Pour into a container and chill until firm.  Don't do anything with the sweetened condensed milk and unflavored g...

Last year, for the first time ever, I grew a vegetable garden. Now it wasn't a great big elaborate garden, just the basic home vegetable garden chock full of red tomatoes, spicy peppers, cool cucumbers and sweet strawberries. I decided to utilize the space that shrubs and flowers are normally planted for vegetables because after moving into our home, putting in the fence and doing some basic landscaping in the front yard we were out of money to finish the rest. I didn't want dirt, and I couldn't afford the landscaping I wanted, so I decided to try something new and the garden was a complete success. We repeated the process again this year, adding some new things including herbs, not because there was a lack of funds but for the enjoyment of growing our own food. Everyone loved watching the garden grow last year and tasting all the fresh vegetables. We all check the garden at least once a day to see if there is something ready to bring in, and it was during my little ins...

Let me just start this post off with two simple statements: I Love where I live because of the amazing fruits and vegetables that grow in the area. The bank I work at has amazing customers who bring us the fabulous fruits and vegetables grown locally.  Just look at these cherries, they are huge and there was no way everyone in the office could eat them all so Friday, after everyone had been snacking on them for a few days and after everyone had taken huge bags full home to their families, I took what was left wanting to try some new things with cherries. My first round of inspiration came when my children repeatedly asked me to make pancakes for breakfast. I thought that a cherry syrup would be perfect with the Oatmeal Pancakes we eat in this house all the time .  I wasn't sure if the best pancakes in the world could be any tastier, but I quickly discovered that this homemade cherry syrup elevated my favorite pancakes in the world to the "bestest pancak...

The title of this recipe is a bit deceiving because it isn't really for a whole cobbler, just the crust.  You see, I have no interest in cooked fruit, unless the said fruit is an apple.  When served cobblers, my method is to eat a corner piece that is likely to have more crust than fruit and even then I'm not happy because most of the cobblers I have consumed didn't posses a crust worth remembering...now enter my friend Anisha's cobbler. The peach cobbler she brought to work shortly after starting in my office was amazing, phenomenal, superb, simply put, like everything else she cooks, Anisha's cobbler is legendary.  It is simple and straight forward, nothing fancy or overly hard to prepare.  I am told it works beautifully with any fruit filling you might want to put under it for the simple reason that the crust is so marvelous.  So go to the local market and buy whatever fruit you want (my kids wanted peaches), mix it with some sugar and cornstarch f...