Rewinding to Mother's Day 2011

 Pregnancy is an interesting experience.

I spent the entire first trimester saying "it's early."

I think I was trying to prevent myself from connecting with the growing being inside of me...'just in case something happened.'

Still today I consider myself more a Mom-to-Be rather than Mother at this stage...after all making it through 9 months and the birthing process are the actual rite of passage into motherhood right? 

(This pic was our first doc appt to confirm there was in fact something there...you know, in case the 7 at home pregnancy tests I took were wrong haha!)

At just 6 weeks pregnant fell the 2011 Mother's Day. 

My Mother and Sister in Law are both excited about the coming addition and decided to share their day of glory with me, a wide-eyed soon to be.

Now if you have not picked up on it by now, my Sister in Law (aka Mama Sox) is one heck of a cook and party planner.  For this year's celebration we came together for brunch. 

My contribution was something new...

Boston Cream Cupcakes (recipe courtesy of Martha).

My cake was too dense and a bit dry.  The custard was over thickened.  However the chocolate ganache was great (and the same recipe I had used on the Mexican Chocolate Cake.)!

I am not sure I would say these suckers texturally tasted as great as they looked, but the recipe has got some potential and is worth another shot.

Not to mention Boston Cream Pie is my Sister in Law's favorite...so it was the thought that really counted on this Mother's Day :)

The rest of our meal was AMAZING!

Bagels, Smoked Salmon Spread (sadly I had to skip this stuff), Steamed Fiddleheads, Pasta Salad, Quiche, Salad, Soup and an Oatmeal Rhubarb Bread (from my Mother in Law).

Mini Sox was so appropriately decked out in his Stormtrooper costume from the previous Halloween...guess this is what happens when 5 year olds start dressing themselves haha!

 My plate was big and scrumptious! 

Note that delicious bagel was a fennel and salt bagel...first time I'd ever tried it and SO GOSH DARN DELICIOUS!!!

Oh and so was the Carrot Ginger Soup!!
 

Now bringing us back to the present...here is a side by side comparison of the last week. 

Not too much has changed in the bump area, but I am beginning to feel more pregnant and even catch myself touching my own belly from time to time :)

When You're In a Pickle for Pickles...

Let there be pickles!

No that's not the crazy pregnancy hormones talking...at least not when I made this batch of quick pickles.

Early on this summer we had dinner with the Sox Family on their Patio.

That morning at Mini Sox's tee ball game I asked him what I should bring for dinner that night.  His response (of course accompanied by a big smile) was pickles!

Now I could have taken the easy way out and bought a jar of those delicious, crisp, mouthwatering, briny pieces of heaven from Claussen...ok, ok, now that might be the pregnancy hormones talking now haha!

But instead I decided to make some pickles myself...

I sliced up some small cucumbers and cherry peppers, then packed them into a jar with lots of dill. 

Over medium heat, I simmered some white vinegar, sugar, salt and water, then poured it over the contents of the packed jar.

I allowed the jar to sit in the sun for an hour or so, shaking from time to time.

As a predinner snack, these pickles were awesome! 

Fresh, crisp, briny, slightly spicy, and quick.

The Little Ms. Homemaker Part of Things

When I first began this blog I was on a quest...

This was my journey to learn, as a 20-something, how to make delicious food and try new things. 

My motivation?   Practice makes perfect. 

In my mind, if I practiced recipes and cooking techniques now, I would be able to produce delicious meals in a snap for my 'family' later

Now I present to you, The Cheese Sandwich.

Yup, it's as simple as it looks and sounds - 12 Grain Bread, VT Cheddar Cheese, Pickle, Lettuce, Tomato, Sweet Onion and Mayo.

I'd also like to share this beautiful fruit salad.

Which is representative of my recent fruit mania.

Why the flash back to my purpose?  And why the heck am I sharing of these two meals...or rather cravings??

That's right folks, we have a 'bun in the oven' and I am on verge of becoming a bona fide Little Ms. Homemaker!

We're 16 weeks along now, with 24 to go  :o)

Are you READY?!?! Return of Grilled Pizzas :)

Believe it or not, Hubs still had not tried Grilled Pizzas!

Hubs' April deployment last year meant he missed a number of things...

He missed the rainy mud season indicative of a New England Spring.  He missed the beautiful shades of green and blossoming flowers of June.  He missed the family BBQs and beach time with friends in July.  He missed the sunsets and s'mores of August.  He missed the VT fall, returning to cool November and making it home just in time for the snow.

Although he was in 100+ degree weather in the middle of a desert, those 7 months away from the beautiful changing seasons must have felt like hibernation.

With the official start of summer just around the corner, Hubs has already begun to take in and indulge in all that he missed last year while overseas.  He has taken back the duty of mowing our lawn, trimming our trees, working on the garden, etc...it's pretty great to have a man around the house again :)

Can you believe I've been so absent minded to forget Hubs had not experienced the ease, versatility and tastiness of the grilled pizza?!?!

Pizza 1:  Tomato, Basil, Olive Oil

 

Big Pizza 2:  Spinach and Garlic Chicken Sausage, Mushrooms, Bell Peppers and Red Onion

Pizza 3:  Leftovers from Pizza 1 and Big Pizza 2 with Turkey Pepperoni...'The Supreme'

(btw did you know Turkey Pepperoni has 70% less fat than the regular stuff and still tastes pretty darn good?!?!)

 

Fresh Mozzarella for all 3 Grilled Pizza Creations

Homemade pizza sauce for Big Pizza 2 and Pizza 3.

The sauce was a simmered combo of Canned Roma Tomatoes (2010 garden), tomato paste, fresh thyme (2011 garden), garlic, red pepper flake and salt/pepper. 

This sauce was super concentrated flavor with a spicy bite!

 

Over by the Naan in our grocery store, I noticed this new round Flatbread Pizza Crust, so thought we'd give it a whirl!

All the toppings were piled on and they hit the grill.

(In case you need a quick refresher...before piling on, I brush the bottoms of the crust with a bit of canola oil, and then the tops with some olive oil.  The goodies are piled on and the pizzas are grilled over indirect heat)

 

Big Pizza 2 on top of the new Flatbread Crust (which I will buy again).

 

Pizza 1 and Pizza 3 on Garlic Naan, yum!

Fresh Basil was added to finish off Pizza 1 and...

 

and Pizza 3

 

Big Pizza 2 all melty and done

After spending years in search of a good pizza joint for us, we thought we had found 'The One' just a couple months ago.  Let me tell you...these grilled beauties tasted so good, Hubs said they were the best pizzas we'd had in a long time...and better than pizza from 'The One'!

While it's nice to hear such positive remarks on the grilled pizza creations...'The One' is still going to be our go-to when even grilled pizzas are too much and I simply need a night off from the kitchen  ;)

Spring Veg-e-ta-bles

I finally made it to the Farmers Market!

I knew there wouldn't be much outside of garden starters this early in the season, but I was hopeful I'd at least be able to pick up salad greens for the week...and well, to be honest - the Tibetan Lady's Dumplings and Hot Sauce :)

Luckily for me my pal Blue Light agreed to accompany me!!

Once there I was delightfully reminded of spring vegetables...there was an abundance of fresh cut asparagus.

I payed $5.50 lb for this stuff...seems pretty outrageous to me, yet so Btown  :P

So much for Farm Prices at the farmer's market this trip! 

This is once again another reminder that I really need to commit to a CSA next year.

So as not to ruin or cover up the bare flavors of the asparagus, I used just a touch of oil, salt and pepper and then hit the grill.

Rotating every so often until softened.

I also whipped up some great turkey burgers.

I used fresh parsley (from our garden!), garlic, salt and pepper. 

For grilling I used a brush of canola oil on the burgs to prevent them from sticking to the grates.

Bunless grilled turkey burgers and grilled farmers market asparagus.

We did have some store bought Taziki Dip leftover from the weekend, so used that as a condiment for our burgers.

Easy, fresh and healthy dinner  :)

Incidentally, I was reminded of this post due to some awful asparagus I picked up at the grocery store for dinner last night.  Now that I've been treated to the farm fresh bundles of this stuff...it's hard to go back.

My Memorial Day

We had a busy, productive, relaxing day...

Pups was chillin' and blowing bubbles.

Pretty good one eh?

I am not sure what it was, but this Memorial Day was one of the most satisfying days I've had off from work in a long time. 

I did not do anything special. 

Actually, my day was rather uneventful...

Early AM walk with Pups, breakfast, nap in the sun, grocery shopping, a bit of gardening, the dreaded hosing (aka bath) for Pups, washed the car, lounged, took another nap in the sun and then made dinner.

It was the first day that it really felt like summer was almost here :)

To finish off the most perfect weekend, I made a summer inspired dinner.

A Refreshing Salad

(Tomato, Mozzarella, Basil, Balsamic, Olive Oil, and Salt/Pepper.)

and Grilled Steak Tips.

It was honestly and truly the most relaxed of times...as I sit here now recounting the experience, I think I'm already due for another!

Vermont City Marathon

Each Memorial Day Weekend thousands of runners gather in btown to run the Vermont City Marathon.

I was told there were some crazy 8,000 folks participating in the event!
 

Nope I was not even close to being one of the runners...

but we were asked to help out at the Mile 20 Water Station!

Did you know there is a special table for 'Elite Runners'?!?

It was a fantastic experience and hope to do it again!  I was able to catch family, hockey players, and SoVT Gals running their hearts out...some for causes and others simply for their own personal achievement.

While I am sure most of the runners carbo-loaded, hydrated and got a good night's rest...here is what we did the evening before to gear up for the big race:

Oh yes, homemade Fish and Chips!

A sort of last minute decision, this dinner turned into a quite enjoyable date night with Hubs. 

We'd never made beer batter before...but holy heck was it easy and DELICIOUS!!!

We used Cod (it was on sale), a couple of Sweet Potatoes we had lying around the kitchen and a lone IPA from the fridge.

Everything was fried...yup, deep fried in 100% oil :)

The beer batter was super simple...

1 bottle of Microbrew

2 cups Flour

Garlic Powder

Cayenne

Salt/Pepper

Mix it all together and you have a thick and fantastic beer batter to dip in.

Simply dip the fish pieces into the batter, then into some dry flour and plop right into the hot oil.

  

The beer does make the difference, we could really taste the hops of the IPA.  I think that is something we'll play with again and test out some new brews to see what they offer :)

Recipes for Mexican Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting & Chocolate Ganache

THE MEXICAN CHOCOLATE CAKE PART
(recipe from bakedbree.com, only differences are (1) I increased/eyeballed the cayenne from her 1/2 tsp (2) I used Hershey's cocoa powder, which seems lighter than what the original author used and (3) I did not use her recommended Cinnamon Mascarpone Frosting.)

Dry Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 tbls balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tbls vanilla extract

• Begin by preheating oven to 350 degrees. 
• Spray two - 8" cake pans with Pam. Place a parchment paper disc in the bottom of each pan and spray again. 
• Combine all dry ingredients and whisk. 
• Add the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth and glossy. 
• Pour into cake pans and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool completely.

Since I made the cake the night before, I wrapped each cooled layer in plastic wrap to keep them moist.


THE CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING PART
(recipe from bridezillabakes.com.  I doubled her recipe for this cake, which is indicated by the larger measurements below)

Ingredients
2x 8oz packages of cream cheese, softened
6 tbls unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cup confectioners sugar, plus more for mixing
2 tsp cinnamon

• Beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy. 
• Sift in confectioners sugar and cinnamon, then beat at medium speed until incorporated. 

If frosting is too thick, add warm water a tbls at a time.  If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time.

I also made this frosting the night before and just covered with plastic wrap and stored it in the fridge.  An hour or so before I was going to use it, I pulled the frosting out and brought it to room temperature.


THE CHOCOLATE-GANACHE GLAZE PART
(recipe from martastewart.com  I doubled her recipe for this cake, which is indicated by the larger measurements below)

Ingredients
1 1/3 cup heavy cream
12 oz chopped semisweet chocolate
2 tbls light corn syrup

• Bring cream to a boil in a medium sauce pan.
• Remove from heat, and add chocolate and corn syrup.
• Let stand for 5 minutes.
• Whisk until smooth.
• Transfer to a bowl, and let cool, stirring often.
• Use Immediately.

I did wait to make this once the cake and cream cheese part of the cake was assembled.

To read about my assembly methods for this gorgeous cake, please visit this post here.


GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN!!!