Pesto Pasta

Last night I made Cory a filling Italian pasta dish. Spaghetti tossed with pesto, pan fried prosciutto, freshly chopped basil and roma tomatoes. As an appetizer, I served him baked/sliced scali rolls brushed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, topped with fresh basil from our garden and finished with a slice of roma tomato and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

A very quick and easy dinner plus, it was a great way to use up ingredients in our refrigerator!

Crock Pot Lasagna

Y'all, this is the easiest and most healthy lasagna recipe I have ever made. Just give the lasagna about 4 hours to cook on low and you'll have a delicious meal ready to eat as you walk into your door at home from a long day at work. Pair with a freshly tossed salad and french bread and you're good to go!

Link to recipe.

Tip for leftovers:  it's best to eat this item fresh the night it is made, as the noodles can become gummy when reheated.

Hooray for Nashville!

I'm so very excited. I found out this morning that I get to go on a day trip to Nashville (my hometown) for a work tomorrow. It will be so fun to see what is going on in the grocery/bakery scene. There will be plenty of inspiration pics to follow.

The best part though: getting to have lunch with my parents, woohoo!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today has been a lovely Saturday in Bentonville, AR. We got to sleep in until 11am and we woke up to gorgeous spring weather. The sun was shining but not too warm, there was a nice breeze blowing all day and so we headed out first thing for a casual bike ride.

Now, we are outside enjoying the party lights on our back porch, the chirping of the crickets and smelling the delicious corned beef that is slowly cooking on the stove. Tonight, we are trying our hands at a traditional Irish dinner, for the first time.

The Irish Soda Bread just came out of the oven and I think it was a good first attempt! It's a very dense bread, and I might try another recipe next year (link).

We are also in the process of making corned beef and cabbage. I am using the allrecipes.com recommended recipe (link).

I'll be sure to post pics later tonight of our creations!

Inspiration Domination!

Maybe it's the wonderful spring weather or all of the fun stuff going on in our lives but I'm getting fully inspired! Pinterest, Food & Wine magazine and more have really gotten my creative juices going! I cannot wait to be off of this diet and while learning how to properly manage my food intake and excercise, experimenting with more recipes!

Right now, I am looking at decadent dessert ideas (no, not part of a balanced food menu, but still, you know at heart I'm in love with baking):

Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes: recipe to inspire

This website is awesome! I have already gotten so much inspiration from it: link to inspiration

Cake Batter Bars (recipe)

Ultimate Overnight Waffles (same link as the kids banana bread below)

Kids Banana Bread in fun shapes - love this idea (recipe)

Lemon blueberry cupcakes from theregoesthecupcake.com (link)

Make your own custom water bottle labels: (link)

Beautiful flower cupcake bouquet (link). 

Fresh strawberry souffles: link

Such a cute Happy Birthday cupcake set-up: link

Spaghetti Meatball bites: link

That's all for now folks, I'm searching for accessories now! :)

Watching the Bachelor Finale!

I tried so hard to resist watching this season but just couldn't. I rooted for Ben on the last season of the Bachelorette and of course, had to be clued into the drama surrounding all of his potential mates.

Although I am really hoping he picks Lindsey because she's so authentic and engaging. Ufortunately, I just have this bad feeling he's going to end up picking Courtney. Bummer but we'll see.

Who are you rooting for?

A Baby Shower for Presley Belle

One of my dear friends, Brittany, is expecting her first baby...it's a girl! Taylor, Julie and I hosted a baby shower for her this morning to celebrate the soon to be new mom and her bundle of joy.

(I bet you can't guess who the mom to be as she's still so tiny but now has a bump). BTW, I don't know what was going on with my hair but ugh, oh well!

Taylor is decorator extraordinaire, all of the adorable decorations you see are her brain child. She also ordered the cutest waterbottle labels from etsy...they were a huge hit!

I crafted the simple brunch menu for the day. We noshed on chicken salad in phyllo pastry cups, parmesan pepper shortbread, fruit kabobs with freshly whipped cream, blueberry and banana nut muffins.

Our sweet treats were handmade and decorated sugar cookies (my special recipe), salted brown butter crispy squares and french vanilla cupcakes.

Photos and recipe links:
Chicken Salad - from epicurious, I tailored it some and had an "oops" moment and  learned something new!
Chicken Salad Recipe - I bought store rotisserie chicken to make my salad which meant the chicken was pretty fresh but not too moist. I omitted the nuts, as I do not like them but the combination of mayonnaise, plain yogurt and dijon mustard was delicious. These were one of the first bites to go! My oops moment came when Cory taste tested this and said it was too salty. Oh no, what to do! I didn't have more chicken and I didn't want to add more white to the salad. After researching, I found out you can add a little bit of brown sugar and it will help alleviate the saltiness without adding a sweet taste. I tried this and it worked; oops averted!
Mini Phyllo Cups Recipe - who better to learn from than Paula Deen? I didn't follow her recipe exactly because I left out the garlic and herbs but the execution was spot on. I did almost burn the cups though as the recipe said 10 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees but at 8 minutes, they were golden brown. Just make sure to watch them, as they will bake/burn quickly.

Fruit Skewers and freshly whipped cream

I had the most difficult time finding skewers in any stores (Walmrat, craft stores, etc.), I finally settled on some clear acetate, short skewers from Hobby Lobby and they worked perfectly with my fruit tray. 

Sweetened Whipped Cream - if you don't want to go to the trouble to make a fruit dip, freshly sweetened whipped cream works great.

Parmesan Pepper Shortbread

My aunt recommended this delicious recipe for me to make. I should have put a better description on the card, as I believe the appearance didn't entice enough peope to try these but trust me, they are delicious! They are made with a traditional shortbread recipe but you add freshly grated parnesan cheese, pepper and lemon zest to create a small bite that will treat your taste buds. They were very easy to make and you can either roll and cut them out like I did (don't over roll the dough, as it can be quite flaky) or follow the recipe and roll into little balls.

Parmesan Pepper Recipe

Here are some photos of the sweet treats I made from scratch and my own special recipes :)

More photos of the decorations:

All in all, it was such a fun and wonderful way to shower our friend and her baby with love!

The Wooden Spoon: A Restaurant Review

Today, as we ventured out to Gentry to visit the Wilderness Safari, we thought we would stop into a local restaurant called The Wooden Spoon. A few of our friends had recently visited and said it was well worth the drive. After we visited it, we agreed.

The Atmosphere:

The restaurant itself was quite huge and reminds you of a cross between a rustic lodge and a very nice barn. Inside is quite welcoming and the front of the restaurant is filled with adorable kitchen wares and knickknacks. We also learned you can preorder desserts, rolls, casseroles to go and there is a large room available to use for any type of gathering.

Our Meal:

Wes, our future brother-in-law, had the BLAT: bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato. A perfect combo of sandwich ingredients: carbs, protein and fat with delightful textures ranging from crunchy to creamy and of course, flavorful. As Wes said: "it was made even more special by your special someone siting next to you."

 

Cory ordered the ranch turkey sandwich and noted that the French bread roll was fresh and fantastic. The poppyseed spread was a nice compliment to the sandwich pieces. 

 

Margaret ordered a salad and soup combo which according to her was the perfect portion size for lunch. The baked potato soup was filling and comfort-homey. The fresh yeast roll was delish, as was the Caesar salad which was tossed with freshly made slightly sweet Caesar dressing. The homemade croutons on top were a nice touch as well. 

 

Since The Wooden Spoon declares dessert is their specialty, we had to indulge in a few sweet treats. We ordered the bumblebee pie (freshly baked with a combination of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries) and the 6-layer key lime pie. Our server brought out the wrong dessert the first time, so we also got to try the delicious bread pudding. While it was our preferred dessert of choice, we were glad we were able to try it as it was a yummy version drizzled with (a drinkable) sweet butter sauce. The key lime cake was very good and we think they layered in crushed graham crackers in between cake layers and icing. Each dessert came with whipped topping. 

   

The home-run dessert hit though, was the bumblebee pie - there wasn't a crumb left!

All in all: it was a great combo of great atmosphere, service and food. Just make sure to bring good company too! 

Pizza Night at Our House!

It's a pizza party tonight! Cory and I are teaching my sister and future son-in-law how to make homemade pizzas, what a fun way to spend time together.

Cory has a family recipe that is always a success and a source of pride for him to make and share with others.

We typically start with a pesto appetizer pizza: pesto base, thin slices of red onion, fresh mozzarella pearls with crumbles of feta. If you like mushrooms, sometimes we add sliced mushrooms to the top as well.

Wes (her fiance) created a delicious red sauce, mozzarella pearls, prosciutto, sliced tomatoes and freshly grated Parmesan which was a tasty delight.

Next, Cory thought he would try his hand at a thick crust mini pizza - one was made with pesto and the other a classic red sauce, pepperoni and fresh tomato slices. The photo is below, Wes and Margaret are making hilarious faces :) After trying the pizza, the group decided it was delicious but that it was a little too thick for this type of crust. We should probably stick with the thin crust style pizza with this recipe.

Mushroom Risotto Results Are In...

...and it was delish! This is the best risotto recipe we have ever tried or made. We liked it so much, we made it again for our family dinner. Yum!

Here is the link to the recipe: Tyler Florence's Mushroom Risotto