It’s apple season!

You can already feel the crisp air of autumn in Upstate New York. That can only mean that apple season is upon us!!! What better way to enjoy apples than by making apple dumplings? Yeah, that was dinner last night! They are scrumptious! (Is scrumptious more delicious than delicious? That’s what I’m going for.)

I only took a picture of the final product because there are way better pictures with the recipe already.

 

Gotta love love love Cook’s Country, Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen! Their recipes are just a breeze to follow and they just work!

Sweet Cherries are the best!

This season, sweet cherries around here have been delicious… more like still are! So in a very spontaneous kitchen move, I made Skinnytaste’s Cherry Custard recipe. It is very fast and easy to put together. I didn’t have white flour and used whole wheat instead… I’m sure that changed the flavor a bit.

It took longer to bake than the 25-28 minutes suggested. I’ll be getting an oven thermometer to double check my temperature. It took my custard a good 40 minutes in the oven to set.

 

But it was delicious and worth the wait! It tastes like rich bread pudding but with cherries!

The Skinnytaste website has tons of delicious recipes… go visit it! I have made a good number of recipes with great results. Really, my go to website for delicious Weight Watchers friendly recipes.

Back from vacation!

So… I was on vacation and not crafting or cooking much or posting… did anybody miss me? No worries, I’m baaack!

Before going away on vacation I did finish and mailed out my 3rd quilt! This one is very special. I made it for Quilts for Kids (an awesome nonprofit that upon request will send you fabric so you can send a finished quilt in 4-6 weeks for a sick kid in need of comfort).

 

*L: Finished quilt (plus husband’s legs). As you can see, they use some really fun fabrics. R: Backing fabric. I really loved every aspect of this project. I’m planning on requesting another kit soon!*

Please, if you feel it in your heart to make a quilt, request a kit! Don’t wait like I did. I had only finished 2 quilts and wasn’t very confident. I guess the perfectionist in me doubted that I could make a decent-enough quilt for a very deserving kid. I can assure you, the quilt is not perfect. But you know what… kids need quilts! So go ahead! Request a kit! Make a quilt! Mail it back! It feels good.

Other than that quilt, not a whole lot happened on the crafting front. Will be back to it shortly though!

Just today I tried this Banana Oatmeal Muffin recipe (I found on Pinterest of course!). It is pretty good. It doesn’t taste like Banana Bread, but it is a healthy variation. A recipe was enough for 12 muffins. From my calculations, that makes each muffin be 3 WW plus points (sometime I’ll tell you my Weight Watchers story, I promise). Not too shabby… great for breakfast or a snack. And this is what they look like…

Speaking of Weight Watchers… I stopped the program while I was on vacation. Eek! I know… bad bad bad… but there was no way, I was going to go home and not eat my mom’s cooking… and tomorrow is back in the saddle, monitoring what I’m eating and exercising (do I see P90X on my future… well yes, I think I do). I’ll keep you posted. First time I tried P90X, I lasted a month… this time I’m shooting for the 90 days!

More sewing!

Hello There!!! I’ve been meaning to post some projects, but they’re not quite finished. I guess I’ll have to change my blog-finished-projects-only policy, so I can keep active around here.

Oh, I did finished something! But the picture is kind of sad and doesn’t show how cool it is. Anyhow… I found this apron tutorial and wanted to give it a try. My fabric stash is not big… it isn’t even medium sized… but I managed to get 4 fat quarters (3 different patterns) that coordinated well and put the apron together in no time. It was super easy and looks very cute when you wear it. Should take a picture of me wearing it…

I am currently working on machine quilting a quilt for my son. As soon as I finish it (hopefully in a day or two), I’ll post pictures. It’s looking super cute already.

Of course, since I’m almost done with my second quilt ever ;D, I had to start planning (meaning: buying more fabric) my next project. In fact, I already started it. I know… I should finish the one project first but I couldn’t help myself.

I’m doing Craftsy‘s Block of the Month (BOM). It’s a free class and includes videos, written instructions and forums! It started on January 2012, so I’m way behind. Every month, Amy Gibson shares 2 different blocks. At the end of the class, I’ll have a finished sampler quilt composed of 24-12.5″ blocks. Exciting!

I chose batiks (or look-alikes) as my main fabrics and Kona white for my background fabric. I bought 22 fat quarters of the batiks… hopefully that’ll be enough.

These are the 2 blocks for January (left: asterisk, right: wonky pound sign). They were super easy to make. Can’t wait to make the rest of the blocks.

And a non-sewing project… I finished and started using the Meal Planner. It is awesome! I just want to use it for a bit before sharing here so I can give you my opinion. I will share more details soon.

Until next time! Peace.

Lots of activity around the kitchen

I’m on a cooking kick. The hubster approves! Like I’ve mentioned before, I love trying new recipes. So far, this week I’ve made Betty Crocker’s Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff and SkinnyTaste’s Crock Pot Chicken a la Criolla. They were both delicious! These two will for sure be added to our dinner rotation. But there’s one little detail… I need to organize my recipes. I’m guilty of loving a new recipe to later not be able to find it online/in a magazine or cookbook. At first, I was using my Food & Drinks Pinterest board to organize recipes but quickly found that it’s better used to keep my “To try” recipes. I was doing some research and just yesterday found a system that I believe will work for my family. It was created by Megan from The Homes I Have Made and featured on iHeart Organizing. Go over and take a look! I think it is super cool. It uses a magnetic dry erase calendar to plan a whole month’s meals. This will work perfectly for me because I can plan the whole month in advance, but I can still change things around since I do groceries every Sunday. I already started a list with our go to recipes (although I’ll probably end up printing magnets with protein and sides categories only… we try new things often enough) and picked colors for the magnets. I will be printing and clipping recipes/putting them on a binder next. I gotta run to Target to get the board and hopefully I’ll find the magnetic paper there as well. This is the kind of project that makes me all giddy and happy inside. I’ll show pictures when I’m done (sorry for the lack of pictures on this post)!

We *heart* homemade baby food!

Today I’ll show you how easy it is to make baby food. Pure goodness, no additives. And it is sooo tasty… I know because I taste everything.

1. Prep the vegetables/fruit. In this instance I was making sweet potato puree. I peeled the sweet potato and cut it in small cubes (to shorten cooking time).

2. Set up the steamer. I got a silicone steaming tray at the grocery store and it works perfectly. Steam the vegetables/fruit.

3. Using a food processor (adding water to obtain your preferred consistency) puree your vegetable/fruit.

4. Freeze the puree. I use these silicone ice cube trays and I love how well they work. Each cube is 1 ounce, so it’s really easy to tell how much baby is eating.

5. Pop frozen puree cubes out of silicone trays and store in freezer bags (remember to label your bags with content and date). They stack really well, so they don’t take a lot of freezer space.

See? Easy! I do the same for butternut squash, carrots, peas, green beans, apples and pears. Soon, we’ll be introducing new foods and mixed foods. So exciting!

Out and About – Easter Sunday

We were treated to a beautiful Easter Sunday. It was just a gorgeous sunny day. So, out we went! First, we wanted to take some pictures of Antonio in his Easter outfit (tweedy pants, long sleeve shirt, suspenders, bowtie and hat… he looked so super handsome thanks to the best godparents ever!). But, when we got to the place he was napping. Taking him out of the car woke him up, but he was not happy and not in the mood for pictures either. It was a good thing that I took a few pictures at home. In any case, the photo shoot outing was not very successful.

By then, it was time for lunch. We tried 4 restaurants before we found Piranha Sushi Bar open. It was our first time there, the staff was friendly and the sushi delicious! Our favorite (from what we tasted) was the Maui Wowie (tuna, mango, avocado, topped with eel sauce, as described on their menu). This sushi roll deserves an OMG! The combination of flavors is oh, so good! Sorry, no food pictures… I forgot.

We also went to Target (forgot that it was closed)… I should have known better (after all, I worked there for a while). But saw one of the funniest things ever. There are no cars on the parking lot. This girl parks, gets out of her car, walks to the door, it doesn’t move, she looks inside, looks at the store schedule, and walks back to her car very confused. To top it all off, this guy drives by her and asks if the store is closed! HA! Watching that was worth the unsuccessful trip to Target.

Hope you had a happy Easter!

I’m not afraid of gluten-free products!

Like I said yesterday, I love to cook and try new recipes. I love entertaining and use my friends as guinea pigs (sorry guys!) . Don’t worry, I’ll never serve something that doesn’t pass the hubster’s taste test. I try to make something new every time we get together or have our game-get-togethers/potlucks. We have a couple of friends that are gluten intolerant and I feel strongly about accommodating for them (because they’re not trying to be picky eaters… they get really sick when they consume gluten… I take it seriously). Sooo, I had found a Gluten-free asparagus quiche recipe (from Joy the Baker) on Pinterest and wanted to make it for my friend and knew that we would enjoy it too.

I couldn’t find the brand of gluten-free flour Joy the Baker used on her recipe, but I did find Bob’s Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour on my local grocery store (which I love, by the way). I saw people commented how GF flours vary from brand to brand. I’m not going to lie… I was a little worried. When I made my dough, it didn’t look like Joy the Baker’s dough. It was a little on the dry side. I decided to proceed. It was a little difficult to roll out because it was crumbly but I manage to put it on the pie plate on one piece. The quiche baked beautifully. Wanna see?

Love those golden edges. I didn’t get enough dough to make a fancy edge but I’m ok with that. Then, the moment of truth… I called my “official” taste tester over and I guess he approved because he ate the whole piece I served him. The quiche filling was delicious and very creamy. Oh, but that crust won us over. It was crisp, flavorful, so very delicious and it didn’t taste any different than “regular” pie crust. The kind of crust that you can eat by itself. We got a winner… we’re definitely adding this recipe to our rotation… maybe changing the filling a bit and we have some ideas already.

To round up my gluten-free offerings, I made cream cheese flan (someday I’ll share my mom’s recipe) and almojabanas. Delicious food to share with awesome friends.

In the kitchen

Most people that know me know that I love to cook and I love to try different recipes. I also have a husband that loves to eat what I make (*gotta love that*)! He had mentioned a while back that he loved almojabanas and how he would love to have some because there was this place where he would get them and it was only at this place that he had seen them before and… and… and… You get the idea. So being the *awesome wife* that I am (at least I think so!) I found a recipe on Saveur magazine (this was years after the long sad story was told) and got the ingredients. If you don’t know, almojabanas are fritters (popular in Puerto Rico) with a rice flour-based dough and some cheese. They look like this after frying…

Well, let me tell you that they were easy to make and so super delicious! They are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside… and they have melty cheese! What’s not to like?! The recipe made a ton, so I spooned the leftover dough onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper (the dough is a bit sticky) and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. I’m assuming that they will keep well for a day. Fingers crossed… I guess we’ll know tomorrow.

They would be great for a party; the almojabanas fry super fast because all the ingredients are cooked while you make the dough. I will definitely be making these again!