what's for dinner tonight

so after several weeks of crazy/busy/travel/fast food/take out/etc, i've had a hankerin' to cook. there is something so soothing about frantically buzzing around the kitchen, cooking and chopping and stirring and checking and all. while nathan grilled us some dinner last night, i had been thinking all day about coming home and getting to work. while at publix yesterday, i saw some flank steak on sale, which made me think of this awesome aprons simple meal that i made a few months back, so i wanted to make that. then, today, while sitting with ash, we were watching some of my all time fav- food network, and, while i don't know who it was that was cooking, she made these awesome looking cheesy jalapeno grits. i wasn't thinking grits of course, i was thinking of making the same thing with quinoa! then, i decided that since it seemed to be a tex mex flair, i'd go with some safe black beans as a side. all of this turned out so yummy, i just had to share! i also made my yummy peanut butter bars for dessert, to share with the ladies at agnes and then for nathan and i to enjoy while we caught up on up all night & modern family.

needless to say, it was all a success. dinner was yummy, the time in the kitchen was soothing and refreshing, and the dessert was a perfect finish. now, we sit on the couch, ready to reply our shows, while anxiously listening to the end of the braves game.

here's the recipes, in case you were wanting!

spicy steak:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 big tbsp spicy montreal steak seasoning
a good dash of lawrys
1 piece of meat (i used a little less than a pound of flank steak)

combine first 4 ingredients in a medium size bowl, then smush the steak in, coating both sides in the goodness. allow to sit for 10-30 minutes. i grilled this in my le creuset cast iron grill for about 15 minutes. perfectly juicy and a nice little crunch. VERY spicy though.

cheesy jalapeno quinoa:

1 jalapeno, chopped in chunks
1/4 c. butter, divided
1 c. quinoa
2 c. water
shredded cheddar cheese

saute chopped jalapeno in 1/8 c. butter. add quinoa and stir until coated, so flavor gets on each little piece of quinoa. add in about 1 c water and cook 20-25 minutes, checking and adding water when dry. right before serving, add in cheese to taste, and rest of butter, stirring well. this was a great companion for the spicy steak, as it added some relief from the heat.

peanut butter bars:

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. flour (i use 1/2 c. whole wheat & 1/2 c. all purpose)
1/2 c. oats
1 tsp. baking soda
dash of salt
1 c. chocolate chips (i used white choc. because that's all i had)

combine butters & sugars, then add egg & vanilla until fluffy. combine dry ingredients, then add in. put chocolate chips in last, or you can sprinkle them on top. bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes in a greased 9x13 pan. let cool 10 minutes then add icing:

2 tbsp peanut butter
good dash of milk
1-2 c. powdered sugar

combine until good consistency & color & taste. i know, real helpful, but you'll get the idea. pour over bars. if you let it sit & cool for a little while, it will firm up and you can cut them to put them on a platter.


enjoy! what do you like to cook?

Update: You asked for some pics, so here you go! I don't have a finished shot of the meat because we had to hurry out the door, but trust me, it was SUPER yummy!

britt's shower

last sunday, we had brittany's baby shower! it was such a sweet celebration of anticipation for little ella. we can't wait to meet her. 

we had the shower at ashley's house, and enjoyed an array of appetizer type foods and our cupcakes- which were quite a hit!

chillin' in the fridge

ash and i team-efforted the corsage- ash made the roses out of baby washcloths, then i arranged them together in this. and we taped it, yes, like scotch tape, together. ha!

ash and jamie made these awesome cookies, which we topped with our leftover candy ellas. beautiful!

the awesome cupcakes!!

our little girl punch- complete with teething rings :)

our food table- yummy, huh?

little lincoln- he was the last one we celebrated!!

the glowing mom and i- congrates britt!

me and ash with our creation

yes, we matched :)

it was a great shower and we can't wait to meet little ella!

strawberry cupcakes

so this weekend, in the midst of packing for my trip and watching my awesome husband play baseball, we helped host a baby shower! and what a cute one it was! while i plan on blogging on all the little details tomorrow, i thought i should start with the cupcakes ash and i made. they were pretty much awesome, i’m not going to lie!! while we are all about cake pops, based on the logisitics of the weekend we recognized that we wouldn’t have time to assemble something to our level of perfection. plus, with all the showers we do for our lifegroup, we like to mix it up- the first shower we did a three-tiered cake, then the cake pops, so we opted for cupcakes. inspired by none other than pinterest, we went for some fun cupcakes with a sugar cookie on top. we divided to conquer and ash made the cookies and i made the cupcakes, then we helped each other assemble.

so saturday night, after a long day at the baseball field, i got to work. and i lost the site i got the recipe from, but if you want it, i have it saved.  i liked this recipe because it had 1 1/3 cup of fresh strawberries- yum! and an interesting addition- strawberry milk! of course, most nesquick and what not versions of strawberry milk have HCFS in it, so i found the cute little horizon milks that are all organic!

the strawberry milk

yum fresh strawberries going in the food processor to make puree!

so sometimes my baking is all about improvising. while i went to the store the day before to get everything i needed, somehow i forgot that i needed more sugar?! so, i combined what i had- i'm sure this is a baking nono, but i mixed some organic cane sugar, some demerera sugar, and some brown sugar. it works, right?

the color was almost perfect, but i added a few drops of red food coloring because i wanted to ensure that the cupcakes turned out bright pink.

i tried out a new buttercream recipe, and we loved it!

this turned out awesome- and super fluffy!

my perfectly pink strawberry cupcakes.

i colored my frosting gray by using black coloring, but just a bit. then, using a star tip, i piped on the swirl.

then, sunday morning, once i got to ash's, i melted down some white candy melts and put them in a zip loc bag with a small tip and piped "ella" the sweet baby girl's name. now even though i only made 30 cupcakes, i made about 60 ellas, because, since they were made of chocolate, they were super fragile. i wanted to make sure i had enough in case some broke, and i thought we could definitely use some elsewhere.

the finished product!

look forward to tomorrow's post on the shower!

cake POPs! :)

as promised, here's our much awaited cake pops post!!

so this weekend, ash & i teamed up to get to work on some cake pops for a fellow teacher who was going to pay us to make them for her child's birthday party. our first payin' gig! big deal to us, as it is a joke dream of ours to run a bakery or something like that someday. for now, cake-pops on demand will do!

so friday night, ash & i got out the mixer and all our tools, and got to work. to start, we baked a box cake in a 9x13 pan and let it cool

can you see the baby bump?! yay!! ok its not much, but its enough to leave a best friend exctied!! baby's first cake pop baking adventure....we're starting this kid out right! well, i suppose technically this would be their 2nd.... were they in the womb yet? tmi?  anywho, we had a lot of convos about the baby whlie we were doing these. fun times!

we used this kitchenaid piece i gave ash for christmas- its a bottom scrapper, so it scrapes while it mixes. pretty cool huh?

once the cake was cooled, we cut it out of the pan, and started crumbling.

here was our inspiration - from the cake pop book

once the cake was cooled & crumbled, we added in about 3/4 can of premade icing. bakerella suggests using boxed cake mix & canned icing because of its consistency.  we agree.

then, we started molding. for these cake pops, we needed 35 rectangles and then the rest just balls. we molded these with our hands, and its a squishy yucky mess. kind of fun though. the cake mix feels- well, kind of like, you know when you were a kid at the beach and you would pour water on the sand and mold it into stuff or let it drip and build up like spires on your sand castle? kinda like that.

attractive pic, huh? this was after running 5 miles and before showering. sorry guys. hands were clean though!

once everything was molded, we put them in the fridge to set, and made sure we had everything we would need for the next day. then, we went to bed- eager to rise and shine bright and early the next day.

our supplies

these pens did NOT work. terrible. 

saturday morning, we were up with the sun ready to dip, doodle, & decorate. after melting our candy melts and getting together a game plan, we were good to go!

styrofoam block to sit the resting cake pops to cool

candy melts

dipping

made me wish for snow!

bare pops with nothing but their popcorn on top

charlie helped us (while nathan was still sleeping) cut the marshmallows to look like popcorn. it was crazy how much it looked just like popcorn! i ended up having to eat some real popcorn saturday night after starring at this stuff all morning

i mean, for reals, looks like popcorn, huh? or teeth...one of the two.

we found the scissors worked better & faster than a knife

then we dipped the "popcorn" in candy, and stuck it on top

ta-da!

once all the popcorn was stuck on, we took a quick breakfast break, allowing the candy to fully harden, then we got back to work. while i was working on painting the pop and stripes, ash dipped the rest of the balls in green candy melts & multicolored sprinkles. she made this display to put them in- how cute and festive!

so we had originally planned on using the wilton candy markers on these, but they were an EPIC fail. we rushed to michaels to see what else we might could use, and we came across these "matte candy writers" by duff, the ace of cakes, guy. these ended up being pretty good- they were fine for the stripes, but it was hard to write with, so i ended up squirting it in a bowl and hand painting it on. not quite what i was hoping for in terms of finished product, but they were still pretty good. i'm a little bit of a perfectionist (as is ash) so i was a little let down, but i've learned for next time!

we bagged them in treat bags & tied them up, and they were ready to go!

notice, of course, the pink glittery nails :)

so there you have it. ash & i are in the process of starting a cake pops business, so be looking for more info on that soon!!! let me know your thoughts- and want cake pops at your party? get in touch, and we'll give you a quote!!