Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Buttermilk Ice Cream

One thing I need to work on is taking better ice cream pictures. Half the time I forget until I go to blog about a recipe. And at that point I usually am not in the mood for scooping out ice cream just for a picture. It’s not that I don’t care for you guys. I do. I am sure you want to see a yummy scoop of ice cream. I’m sure it would help sell you on the recipe. But….it’s not my favorite part of blogging. Some blogs have tons of finished pictures. For me, I enjoy the cooking part, and I enjoy the tasting part. Sharing pictures of the steps is fun because I generally remember to do it as I go. If I don’t remember, I can usually count on K to remind me, too. When it comes to the end, I just want to eat the food! Haha. The other part with ice cream is it is generally late at night when I eat it, and I am not in picture-taking mode. So, maybe I will get better with it. But maybe not. Just trust me that this cookie dough stuff is pretty good, especially in the buttermilk ice cream.

Healthier Twice-Baked Potato

On Monday, I mentioned that I made chicken with a side dish. Well, here it is! I used to make a version of these potatoes back when I was a single cooker. It started in college when I would use Ranch seasoning with some sour cream and broccoli mixed in with the potatoes. They were an easy meatless dinner. I would eat one half for dinner, then save the other half for lunch the next day. When I had my own house, I would make them for myself, too. I don’t think I could convince K to eat these as a meal, and I didn’t have any of the ingredients I normally used. But, I decided to try something new. This filling was so good, that I didn’t care I couldn’t fit all of the filling in the potato halves–I just ate it with a spoon!

Cornflake Oven-Fried Chicken

This reminded me of my chip chicken. I’ve heard of using cornflakes before, but hadn’t tried it until now. Next time, I will add a bit of seasoning to the cornflakes because otherwise they can get a bit too breakfasty and not as savory. Feel free to spice this up and make it as hot as you like. We actually liked the leftovers a bit better than fresh. When I reheated the chicken, I warmed it in the oven and it helped make it extra crunchy. K wasn’t as crazy about the topping as the chip chicken, but we did like the brining. It really kept the chicken tender and tasty.

Homemade Wontons for Wonton Soup

For some time I had wanted to make wontons from scratch. I still haven’t done it fully since I used premade wrappers this time. I figured, if I can do it with store wrappers and get in practice, then I will move to making the wrappers from scratch as well. You can hold me to that goal, too! Many wontons are made with pork and shrimp, but while I am able to eat pork in this kind of dish (I normally don’t care for it), I am supposed to limit my shrimp intake (hello baby inside of me!). I decided to make these with pork and mushroom instead. You could even make them vegetarian with just mushrooms because shiitake mushrooms have great flavor on their own. Maybe add tofu for some protein? Anyway…my idea met with approval from the mother-in-law, so I knew I was good to go.

 

Molasses Spice Cookies

My dear friend Lisa left for New York City to explore the culinary worlds out there. We knew for a while, but it didn’t quite hit home until a few days before she left. We made different plans for last get-togethers: a potluck at her house, a Sunday brunch, and finally a dinner at one of her favorite places. The dinner was a group event with many of her former coworkers from two jobs ago. That’s the group my husband falls into, and how we first met! Well, I made a series of collages for her to remember us. I picked out the pictures I wanted to use, had K print them, then I cut them and layed them out. As I did the final step I really started crying. She asked me if it was hard leaving different friends when I moved here from Maryland, and I said that it was different. Basically, I was just one big sad mess because I was leaving all of my friends at once. There wasn’t time to think about each friend individually and what I would miss for each one. (That would have been really hard, so I’m glad my brain didn’t process that fully.) Of course, there was also the whole “I chose to come here for my husband” idea. That helped!

 

Cardamom Chicken

I hope the author doesn’t find this recipe. I changed a bunch from the original. Partly because I don’t have many of the ingredients in their original form, and I wanted to make it work for us. There was a topping I just opted out of entirely because it involved raw onion which gives K headaches. If you are at all interested in Middle Eastern cuisine, I would recommend this cookbook. It had some really interesting and tasty-sounding recipes. And maybe you could make this the way it was intended! I was just looking for a weeknight meal, and this worked for me.

 

Topic-Changing Thursdays: Shh! It’s a Surprise!

For those of you not in the know, there is a blogger who talks about many topics. Food, kids, parties, having chickens in her yard, painting, crafts…you name it! I started following her blog because of a Foodie Penpals program we were both in. No, we were never each other’s penpals in the program, but we still managed to send each other food. I’ve gotten to know her a bit better as time as passed, and I still love reading her blog. She has a great sense of humor, loves her family, and I find her hobbies interesting.