Mother's Day Giveaway

In celebration of Mother's Day next Sunday I am having a giveaway! What am I giving away, you ask?

A purse from my mom's Etsy shop!!

This is such a cute purse and I love that it has pockets inside. Now all you have to decide is if you are going to keep it or give it away to a mom.

Here is the simple way to enter:

1) Visit Flying Needles
2) Leave a comment here telling me your favorite item from her shop
3) Last, if you blog about this giveaway on your blog I will give you an extra entry

I will do the drawing on Saturday, May 9th and announce the winner on Mother's Day next Sunday.

Good luck!

Spaghetti - CEiMB

Turkey Meatballs, Whole Wheat Pasta and Spicy Spaghetti Sauce....

The turkey meatballs and whole wheat pasta were excellent. I will not say the same for the sauce.

I thought that this was an expensive, time consuming recipe. I had to buy large quantities (OK, not large, just way more than I actually needed) of the fresh spices (oregano, thyme, basil and rosemary) because I couldn't buy it in a smaller package. I really have no need for all the extra, leftover spices. I don't think that I liked the smokiness of the sauce that most likely came for the canned chipolte en adobo sauce. It just didn't taste right.


This recipe would have been much better if I had just made the meatballs, whole wheat angel hair pasta and used Prego spaghetti sauce. These really are some tasty meatballs. Especially if you prepare them like Sara suggested by broiling them. I will be making those again. The whole wheat angel hair pasta was really good too. We couldn't even tell the difference between the whole wheat and regular pasta.

This recipe was chosen by Odd Ball Oven Mitt. You can find the original recipe HERE and be sure to check out how all the other CEiMB participants fared as well.

Coming next week: Garden Risotto

Chocolate Cream Tart - TWD

I am going to make this short and sweet. This recipe was chosen by Kim at Scrumptious Photography.

We thought it was good. Not spectacular or a TWD favorite though.

I decided at the last minute to add strawberries because I thought that it needed some color or something to offset all the chocolate.

Kim has the recipe posted on her blog HERE. Or you can find it on pages 352-353 in Dorie's cookbook. You really should check out Kim's blog though. She has some amazing pictures and is an awesome photographer. You will be impressed, I promise.

Elegant Farmer's Meatloaf with Mushroom Sauce

I found this recipe in the newspaper awhile back. The Hubster loves meatloaf so I thought that I would make it for him. I can either take meatloaf or leave it. But I think that I will take this one. It was delicious. Maybe it was the mushroom sauce that did me in? Whatever it was I hightly recommend making it if you like meatloaf and mushrooms. Even if the mushroom sauce was skipped it would still be terrific!

The Elegant Farmer's Meatloaf

Makes 4 servings

1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (made from day-old bread)
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 cup diced onion
1/3 cup sour cream
Mushroom sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients, mix well. Pack into a loaf pan and bake in a preheated oven 1 hour or until done. Remove from oven and cool just slightly - then serve topped with mushroom sauce.

Mushroom sauce:
5 tablespoons butter (divided)
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
4 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups beef stock or consomme
1 tablespoon Kitchen Bouquet

Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a small saute pan. Add mushrooms and cook over medium heat until soft. Remove mushrooms from pan and set aside. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter to pan and melt. Add onion and saute until softened. Add flour, salt and pepper and stir until mixture is smooth. Blend in stock and simmer until smooth and thick. Add Kitchen Boquet and reserved mushrooms and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over meatloaf before serving.

I did not use any Kitchen Bouquet. I had no idea what it was so I googled it. It is basically just a food coloring. I didn't care what color my gravy turned out to be. It may not be the prettiest but it sure was tasty.

Next time I make this I may try to use fat free sour cream and a reduced fat cheddar cheese.

Balsamic Chicken with Baby Spinach and Couscous - CEiMB

Tasty! This dinner was a hit for The Hubster and myself. Not only was it satisfying but it was healthy and delicious as well.

We can thank Marthe from Culinary Delights for this one. It was a great choice for us. My husband has been anti Ellie for quite some time now. However, I have only been making the recipes that I am fairly confident that we will enjoy. He loves tomatoes and I love balsamic vinegar so I was in for this one. Good thing too. We both enjoyed it. I have never eaten couscous before and enjoyed this whole wheat stuff. Who knew?! The dish was simple to prepare. And it only took about 30 minutes to cook! Bonus. I added the chicken back to the tomatoes, chicken broth and balsamic vinegar to boil for awhile because I am always a freak when it comes to ensuring that my chicken is fully cooked!


The recipe can be found HERE. And make sure to check out Marthe's blog for her post as she was the picker this week. Also Sara and Nick are doing an awesome job with Craving Ellie In My Belly. I love all the new stuff that they are doing. Especially the photos and posts of the week. What a fun idea and I love checking the next day to see the 'winners'. Even though everyone is a winner for participating.

4 Star Bread Chocolate Pudding - TWD

What is there not to love about this dessert? Two of my FAVORITE things....Bread and chocolate. This. Dessert. Was. So. Unbelievably. Incredible. I absolutely loved it. It ranked up there as a favorite Dorie recipe and may even tie with the Granola Grabbers.

The recipe was chosen by Lauren from A Baking Blog. She will have the recipe posted on her blog. I highly recommend trying this one out. It is simple to make and even better to eat. Who knew that I would enjoy bread pudding so much. I have never baked it, but I can recall the first time I ate it. We were in Vegas at New York-New York Hotel in the Nine Fine Irishman Restaurant. It was a humongous dessert with caramel that was so delicious. I had all but forgot about it until I was baking this chocolate goodness for TWD. OK...enough longing to go back to Vegas for a mini vacation. Back to the dessert at hand.

I skipped the raisins in this recipe. Just wasn't in the mood for them. I also used bread sticks that I found in the bakery of the grocery store. They worked perfectly and I just sliced them into mini pieces and let them "stale" in the oven for about 10 minutes. I also halved the recipe and baked it in an 8x8 inch square pan. Good thing too. I seriously could eat this entire pan myself. And it tastes just as delicious cold! I sprinkled powdered sugar on top and didn't bother with any whip cream. I personally don't think that it needs any sprucing up.

Thanks Lauren for such a great pick!

Spicy Crab Chowder - Taste and Create

I decided to participate in another cooking/blogging activity this month. This event intrigued me because after you get paired up with another blogger, you pick something from their blog to cook/bake. And vice versa....How fun!

I was paired up with LK from Healthy Delicious. She has numerous healthy food recipes on her blog. I did have a hard time deciding between the crab chowder and the Thai Noodles with Shrimp.

In the end I decided on the chowder. I love soups and unfortunately last week it was still a bit chilly....I thought that it would make a good dinner. It was!

Spicy Crab Chowder

INGREDIENTS:
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1 large potato, cubed
1 onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
bay leaf
old bay
cayanne
3 T. flour
1/4 c. sherry
3 c. chicken broth (I used fat free, reduced sodium)
1 can lump crab (I used a package, not sure of the oz. I don't think that it matters though. The more crab the better, in my opinion)
1 can shredded crab (Again, I used a package (actually 2), the more the better)
1 bag frozen sweet corn
3 c. FF half and half

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat oil and butter in a large pot.
2. Add vegetables, bay leaf and spices to taste. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
3. Add flour, and stir to coat. Cook about 1 minute.
4. Add sherry. Cook about 2 minutes.
5. Add chicken broth, crab, and corn. Bring to a boil. Reduce and let simmer about 5 minutes.
6. Add half and half, and cook another minute or two to thicken.
7. Season with more old bay and cayanne.

YIELD:
Makes 10 bowls full.

Thanks LK for the delicious chowder. I think that I am really going to have to try those thai noodles some day too. I can't wait to see what you choose to make from my blog. I certainly do not cook as healthy as you!