Merry Christmas!

Or belated Christmas that is.  Can you believe it's come and gone so quickly? Sad.  And while I intended to take a slight break from blogging over Christmas, I didn't mean for it to be so long.  I woke up sick on Christmas morning like I haven't been in years and spent a few days tucked under some blankets on my mom's couch. Kind of nice to have a few lazy days really. Apologies to the nice gent who got to sit next to me on the short flight that took me from my mom's couch to my own.  Yes, I was one of those people you glare at at the airport but what do you do?

Funny thing about being single and being sick?  I didn't realize I had laryngitis immediately because as it turns out, I don't talk much at home when I'm by myself.  Not sure why that would be a surprise but it really had me thinking that I could actually be silent for the entire day if not for Brooklyn.    

Other than a little sickness, Christmas was phenomenal.  Colorado gave us some beautiful white snow.  I do love snow. 

I was remarkably restrained when it came to taking photos but I did capture the requisite Christmas eve shots of Peanut and Chipmunk...together again.

A one year old and a four year old so enthralled with their new Christmas "laptops." Still cracks me up. 

And Christmas baking was a perfect time to try out some of the Pinterest pins that have just been sitting on my boards. Way too many pins, way too little time.  

Loved the peppermint bark in the shape of snowflakes idea.  Super easy way to crank out treats for all 18 of Brooklyn's Doggie Daycare caregivers.  

Homemade Samoas cookies...these were awesome!  My Girl Scout favs are actually the Tagalongs but Christmas is already a peanut butter treats overload in our house.  If one can really overload on peanut butter.  

And a couple of child friendly treats to make... Rolo Pretzel Turtles and Melted Snowman Cookies.  Love Pinterest.

Hope your Christmas was as blessed and merry!

Greek Strata Frittata

A strata is a breakfast casserole type dish that involves layering the ingredients and pouring an egg and milk mixture over and letting sit overnight before baking.  A frittata is more like an open faced omelet with some extra hearty fillings thrown in. This dish is somewhere in between.

I had my sister, BIL and Chipmunk over for a "Las Vegas Christmas Eve" breakfast...yep, that's what we called it.  We are all flying back to Denver this week for Christmas with the family but transporting gifts back there to open and then carry back to Las Vegas was obviously a bit ridiculous so we planned a brekkie and opened some gifts a bit early. 

Most traditional stratas have 2-3 times the amount of bread crumbs but  I liked the reduced amount of breads that left this in limbo between a strata and frittata.  Less bread also meant more room to consume the most important breakfast carb of all--hashbrowns.

Greek Strata

drizzle of olive oil

1/2 large onion, diced

1 lb fresh spinach, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 cups cubed day old bread

1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes

1/4 cup feta, crubmbled

1/4 cup roasted red peppers, chopped

4 large eggs

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1/2 cup ricotta

1/2 cup milk

3 tbsp olive tapenade

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 cup shredded mozarella

1. In a large pan, sautee diced onion in olive oil over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes

2. Add garlic and stir, cook for 1 minute

3. Add chopped spinach and cook until spinach has reduced substantially and lost most of its water.  Add oregano, stir and set aside to cool slightly.

4.  Cover bottom of buttered casserole with bread cubes. (I used an 8x10 dish)

5. Sprinkle chopped sundried tomatoes and crumbled feta over bread.

6. Add spinach to casserole dish, spreading evenly.  Sprinkle roasted red peppers on top.

7. Beat eggs in medium bowl.  Add cottage cheese, ricotta, milk, tapenade, salt and pepper and beat well. Pour over casserole and top with cheese

8. Remove strata from fridge 30 minutes prior to baking.  Preheat oven to 325.

9.  Bake strata for 40-45 minutes or until filling is set.  Remove from oven and serve hot.

Orange Slush

Amanda over at KevinandAmanda.com posted a pretty fantastic post today on choosing lenses and she covers a lot of the topics people ask when beginning to look at lenses for their DSLRs.  If you are ever wondering what all of those numbers on the lens actually means, she explains that too...she even tells you how to say the lens name.  Awesome. 

The one thing she didn't mention about aperture was that the other reason for purchasing a lens with a lower number (like an f/ 2.8, 1.8, 1.4  or 1.2) is that it lets in more light. Bokeh is good stuff, but getting more light is pretty sensational too. Going from an f/4 to an f/2.8 (one whole f/stop) doesn't sound all that impressive until you also hear that this one additional full f/stop lets in twice as much light.  Same from going from f/2.8 to f/2, and f/2 to f/1.4.  

Melissa Jill also did a pretty great lens review series too if you are wondering what kind of images particular L series lenses produce.   Her site is also great for just reading about how cool some peeps are.  She has one of those sites that makes you wish you were friends with her--if I were a photographer I'd stalk attend each and every workshop she gives even if they contain the same material because, yep, she's that cool.

That's all really just a side note but wanted to share Amanda's post today for anyone that hadn't seen it--she does a great job of explaining the differences if lenses and aperture are new to you. Plus she has Bostons so that makes her pretty cool peeps too. 

So, Orange Slush. 

Yum. 

When we were growing up, this was an adult drink at family holidays but it was so good that we'd beg for sips.  Then we'd sneak drinks.  We thought we were quite stealth actually. Now that we're old enough to drink this at will, we still just save it for the holidays.  I've adjusted it quite a bit by removing 2 cups of sugar because I think the lemonade, OJ and Sprite add more than enough sweetness but if you like your drinks super sugary sweet, after making the tea, boil the remaining 6 cups of water, add 2 cups of sugar and stir until dissolved and then cool along before proceeding. I removed that step from the recipe below. 

Along with Orange Slush at the holidays comes lights of course.  This place has looked like Christmas for quite a few weeks now.  I fear I'll be wrapping gifts in red and white paper forever because of the sheer abundance of it sitting in my closet. I added a bit of aqua to the mix this year. 

Have you seen these cute little wine scarves and hats?  Kitschy?  Yes.  Awesome?  Oh yeah.  I'd thought to knit a set myself at one point but Cost Plus World Market sells them for $3.99.  You can't beat that and pretty cute way to gift wine I'd say. 

Have you tried Saltines Toffee?  Versions of the recipe are all over the web--I  used a super duper easy recipe found at Make Life Delicious.  So seriously easy that I thought it couldn't possibly work.  It took me less than 15 mins to prepare and the entire tin was empty at the end of one work day. 

What Christmas is complete without cutouts?

Or  Christmas lights?  In true Las Vegas style, the lights here are pretty spectacular.  I'd liken it to  Denver Zoolights back home, if they took all the lights in the zoo exhibit and then smushed them all together into just a small one block area.  Is it any surprise that Vegas is over the top with lights?  Me likey.

And Her Rotteness's Christmas photos.  I take so many pictures of this dog that when she sees the camera she just comes over and sits in front of me.  She'll do anything for treats, even wear this Christmas collar. 

Orange Slush

1 1/2 c. whiskey
1 lg. can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 lg. can frozen lemonade concentrate
8 c. water
3 tea bags 

2 liters of Sprite

1. Heat 2 cups of the water and brew 3 tea bags for 4 minutes.  Cool completely. 
2. Combine tea, water, whiskey, OJ and lemonade concentrates and stir. Pour into large plastic bowl with lid or gallon ziplocs and freeze.
3. Stir occasionally to break up ice crystals. Freeze for at least 24 hours
4. When ready to serve add frozen contents to punch bowl or large pitcher, add Sprite and stir

Peppermint Cheesecake Cups

I've been wanting to try out Martha Stewarts oreo cheesecake cups for quite awhile.  It's kind of funny to call it "Martha Stewart's recipe" when people have been adding oreos to various cheesecake recipes for ages, but this particular recipe is in her cookbook Cupcakes.  

One box of Trader Joe's holiday peppermint Joe Joe's and and a package of Ande's mints peppermint crunch baking chips is all it takes to turn regular 'ole cheesecake into holiday peppermint cheesecake.

I topped these with a sprinkling of these Andes peppermint crunch chips I'd found.  I'm not sure why they are called  crunch since they are similar in texture to any other chocolate or white chocolate chip.   They are pretty high on the peppermint flavor scale--just a little sprinkle on top along with the peppermint in the Joe Joe's and there is absolutely no need to add any peppermint extract to the cheesecake itself.  Of course, if you can't find the Andes chips you can always omit and just add a few drops of peppermint oil directly to the batter.

It's chocolate, peppermint and cheesecake.  What else is there to say? 

Peppermint Cheesecake Cups

from Martha Stewart Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 22 peppermint Joe Joe's or peppermint Oreos-- 16 left whole, and 6 coarsely chopped
• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Pinch of salt
• Andes Peppermint crunch or Andes peppermint mints chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 275 F.
2. Line 16 standard muffin tins with paper liners.
3. Place 1 whole Joe Joe in the bottom of each lined cup.
4. Beat the cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
5. Pour in the beaten eggs, a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
6. Beat in the sour cream and salt.
7. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared tins, filling each almost to the top.
9. Fill empty muffin tins cups halfway with water
10. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until filling is set, 22-25 minutes.
11. Cool in the pans for about 15 minutes, on a wire rack, then transfer to a plate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Orange Pumpkin Clovers

Happy December..can you believe it's December?!?! Vegas weather has finally turned truly chilly all day instead of just in the mornings, Brooklyn has become a desert princess and absolutely refused to step even an inch outside into the cold damp today and I wept tears of joy knowing that it absolutely had to be snowing somewhere within 30 miles of here.  And I was right...I saw some snow blanketed mountains off in the distance as I drove to work.  Magical snow covered mountains.  Yes indeedy.

Is December too late to post another pumpkin recipe?  Hopefully not, because I really thought these rolls were kind of fun.  I'd cut this recipe out of Gourmet magazine a few years ago but like all recipes that are cut out, they go into a lovely binder to looked at when new recipes are added, but never utilized for making anything.  This recipe is a rare exception...just took me 2 years to get to it.  

These rolls are a basic soft dinner roll with the addition of some orange zest and some canned pumpkin.  Truthfully, they were more pumpkin and orange in scent than in flavor, but there was a slight mellow zesty flavor to them and the pumpkin made them super soft and moist. 

The original recipe called for making these rolls into clovers and I left those directions in place in the recipe below.  While there's nothing quite like a nice chewy ciabatta crust, I prefer dinner rolls to be squishy soft.  If I wasn't afraid of being deemed selfish, I'd steal the middle roll each time. And while clovers are much cuter than regular ole rolls, they have a lot more crust which isn't all that squishy and soft. 

I used the last egg for a pie instead of a wash so no shiny tops here, but still a fun and different type of roll recipe.

Formerly fierce snow dog

Sun worshipping desert princess.  

Orange Pumpkin Clovers
Gourmet Magazine February 2009

3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 pkg active dry yeast (approx 2 tsp)
1/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)
1 tablespoon honey
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup canned pure pumpkin
2 large eggs, divided, plus 1 yolk
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon water

1. Butter muffin cups with 1 Tbsp melted butter.
2. Stir together yeast, warm milk, and honey in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn’t foam, start over with new yeast.)
3. Mix flour, salt, pumpkin, 1 whole egg, yolk, orange zest and juice, and remaining 5 Tbsp butter into yeast mixture with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until a soft dough forms. Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead, dusting surface and your hands with just enough flour to keep dough from sticking, until dough is elastic and smooth, 6 to 8 minutes. Form dough into a ball.
4. Put dough in an oiled large bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
5. Punch down dough (do not knead), then halve. Roll half of dough on a lightly floured surface with lightly floured hands into a 12-inch-long log (keep remaining half covered with plastic wrap).
6. Cut log into 6 equal pieces, then cut each piece into thirds. Roll each piece into a 1-inch ball by cupping your hand and pushing dough against work surface as you roll in a circular motion. Put 3 balls side by side in each of 6 muffin cups.
7. Make more rolls with remaining dough in same manner. Cover rolls with a kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough is about 1 inch above rim of muffin cups, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
8. Preheat oven to 375°F with rack in middle.
9. Whisk together remaining egg and water and brush on tops of rolls. (You will have leftover egg wash.)
10. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes.

Lime Meltaways

I think I confessed last year right around Christmas baking season that my Type A personality shines like rock star. I love to premake as many of the cookie doughs as possible and refrigerate them all because it's just so happy to bake cookies on a day when there aren't mixers and dishes cluttering the sink and dishwasher.  Starting an early morning baking session with clean countertops, an empty dishwasher and refrigerated dough is happiness indeed.   These lime meltaways are an ultra easy and perfect dough to make ahead and stash in the fridge or even the freezer and they bake up in almost no time at all.  There's something about powdered sugar covered treats that can take you right back to childhood.

The recipe is mostly unaltered from Martha Stewart's original--I only added a second toss in powdered sugar because I found that coating the cookies while still warm was essential for the powdered sugar to stick, but also moistened it a bit so they cookies didn't look so white and powdery.  The second coating just adds a dry layer of white powdered sugar.

Lime Meltaways
from Martha Stewart Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

Directions

1. Put butter and 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy. Add lime zest and juice and vanilla, and mix until fluffy.
2. Whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Add to butter mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined.
3. Divide dough in half. Place each half on an 8-by-12-inch sheet of parchment paper. Roll in parchment to form a log 1 1/4 inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Refrigerate logs until cold and firm, at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove parchment from logs; cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Space rounds 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 13 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, toss cookies with 2/3 cup powdered sugar in a resealable plastic bag. 
5. When completely cooled, add remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar to bag and toss cookies again. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

After the Coma

Hard to believe another Thanksgiving has come and gone already.  A few pics for the family....

Sis did a phenomenal job on the bird--eighteen pounds is a lot of turkey.  Sis also made an artichoke, brie and spinach dressing with a parmesan topping.  Think spinach artichoke dip in dressing form.  Recipe can be found on the Food Network Site. 

I made a pecan(lost the pecans somewhere in this kitchen) macadamia pie and a pumpkin swirl cheesecake with caramel topping.  And while we are all too stuffed to grab dessert for a bit, someone else wasn't...

Dinner, schminner.  Sometimes a girl just needs cheesecake. 

Atta girl....as long as it's mommy's camera. :)