Don’t miss your chance to enter to win four 5x7 fine art photography prints courtesy of Marianne LoMonaco. Marianne can turn any of the prints in her Etsy shop into a 5x7 so you have dozens of gorgeous prints to choose from!
The contest ends soon and entering is incredibly easy so click over to the original post and enter today!
Recently we were given a bunch of peaches and I needed to come up with a way to use them. I’m not really much for fruit (I know, it’s weird – I’m told that fruit is delicious) but Chris loves fruity desserts so I thought I’d try my hand at cobbler. This recipe from Sing For Your Supper was intriguing because it calls for a biscuit topping instead of the traditional pie crust topping I’m used to so I thought I’d give it a try. And you know, it was so good that even I loved it!
Ingredients
4 cups peaches, peeled and sliced
1 cup sugar
squirt fresh lemon juice
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup boiling water
For Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture:
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the sliced peaches in a large pot and add just enough water to cover. Stir in the 1 cup sugar and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until peaches are soft and most of the water has cooked down; about 20 minutes. Remove peaches with a slotted spoon and reserve 1/2 cup juice. Place peaches and reserved juice in a greased 9×9 baking dish.
To make the topping: In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until texture resembles oatmeal or small peas. Stir in water until just combined.
Drop spoonfuls of topping over the peaches and sprinkle with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes. Serves 6.
According to Sarah
I didn’t even think I was going to try this dessert but the peaches smelled so good while they were cooking that I thought I’d taste it just in case and it was delicious! Best eaten fresh from the oven, the biscuit crust was crisp on top but soft and buttery underneath. The peaches cooked down with just the sugar and lemon juice were sweet and fresh tasting.
One word of caution, I thought this recipe looked quite simple but it actually took me almost two hours to make. Nothing was too complicated but there were a lot of steps when you factor in preparing the peaches. Blanching them for 60 seconds made taking the skins off much easier but it was still a time consuming process to peel and slice 6 peaches. Though that’s not to say it wasn’t worth the effort!
Hope you weekend is off to a great start! If you’re meal planning for the next couple of days consider including some garlic bread courtesy of One Hungry Dude. And don’t forget to enter my giveaway for four 5x7 prints before it’s too late! Happy Saturday!
There's really no 'absolute' way to make garlic bread. I've ordered the classic appetizer at countless restaurants, and whether topped with gooey blends of cheese, sprinkled with diced tomatoes and green onions, or simply placed aside an entree using crusty wedges of bread, there are so many delicious renditions. I've been tinkering with this recipe for quite awhile. It can be put together in less than 10 minutes, and can be modified to suite your taste buds. Give it a try, then explore!
Ingredients
• 3 Tbsp Margarine
• 1/4 Tsp Garlic Powder
• Italian Blend seasoning
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• Four slices of your favourite thinly-sliced bread (I typically use Rye)
Place the rack in the middle of the oven, then set to broil. Meanwhile, put the margarine, garlic, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper in a large frying pan on the stovetop, and heat over medium. Once the margarine begins to melt, stir to ensure all the ingredients blend together, and the mixture covers the entire base of the pan. When the margarine begins to bubble, place the bread on the pan. Press down lightly using your fingers, allowing the bread to soak up the mixture. After a few seconds, take the bread out of the pan, and place it in the oven. Broil until the bread begins to brown, then take it out of the oven and serve.
For a treat, try sprinkling Mozzarella, Cheddar, Parmesan — or any combination of those cheeses — on top of the bread, just before placing it in the oven. In that variation, once the cheese begins to bubble and brown, remove the bread from the oven and serve.
Before Nathan was born my friends and family spoiled the both of us at an awesome baby shower. There was food, presents and, of course, a lot of cards . Then after Nathan’s birth we were spoiled again with more presents and even more cards. I’m a sentimental girl so I saved all the cards but I knew that it probably wouldn’t be too often that I’d take them out of the box and reread them - there had to be some other way of preserving them. I was so excited when I saw this idea and I used it as a jumping off point to create my very own shadowbox art to display the cards.
I started by using my trusty heart punch (seriously that thing gets a lot of use!) to cut hearts out of each of the cards. I tried to mix it up so that I had patterns, pictures and some words too. The size of the punch meant I ended up with only pieces of pictures which lent the whole thing a neat collage feel. The next step was to line all the hearts up and glue them to a piece of scrapbook paper. Because I’m really bad at math I went with paper that had a lined pattern and that helped me place the hearts without having to do any measurements.
Once I decided to put the whole thing in a shadowbox I knew I needed some elements with dimension. I used some pieces from the Lime Twist collection from My Mind’s Eye like this diecut train and made them stand out by cutting up a Styrofoam cup, gluing together the pieces and then attaching them to the backs of my elements. There’s probably a better way of doing this but I went digging through my craft supplies and came up with a Styrofoam cup! The flag in the train window is just a sticker and a toothpick.
In the top corner I used stickers and more Styrofoam cup – I wrote Nathan’s birthday on the “Date” sticker and his name on the “Property Of” one. I also included a cute little cat safety pin that my Mom had attached to one of her gifts for Nathan.
Once it was complete I just popped the whole thing into a shadowbox and it was done. I love the way this turned out – it’s so personal and it reminds me how many people care about us. As Nathan gets older we can talk about how each heart in the frame represents someone who loves him!
P.P.S. Linking up with
Last week, in the middle of yet another heatwave and with a with a fussy baby by my side, I took an impromptu break from the blog. Now it’s time to get back into the swing of things with another recipe from One Hungry Dude. He made this delicious dish for us last night for dinner and I can’t wait to eat the leftovers tonight!
Whenever I'm in the grocery store, I always keep my eye out for the latest Food Network Magazine. The magazine's timely, season-appropriate recipes always manage to inspire. It has a variety of recipes in every edition, and really does a good job of presenting both easy and more complex meal ideas, along with tasty desserts, simple drinks and chef secrets. This recipe was inspired by the dish on the cover of the magazine's July/August 2012 edition. It has a fresh taste, and is incredibly delicious — perfect for summer!
Ingredients
• 2 Large Zucchini, coarsely grated
• 12 ounces Lasagna noodles, broken into bite-size pieces
• 3 Tbsp Margarine
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
• One small Onion, quartered and thinly sliced
• 2 cups Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 Tsp finely grated Lemon zest
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping
• A pinch of Parsley, for topping
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, toss the zucchini with 1/2 tsp of salt in a colander, set over a large bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes, then gently squeeze out the excess moisture. Add the pasta to the boiling water, stirring vigorously to prevent from sticking. Cook until tender, about 12 to 15 minutes. Reserve 1/2 Cup of the cooking water, then drain pasta.
Heat the margarine in a large frying pan, over medium-high. Add the garlic, onions, salt and pepper, and cook until the onions begin to soften and caramelize, about five to six minutes. Add the tomatoes, and cook until blistering and softened, about four minutes. Stir in the zucchini and lemon zest and cook, slightly crushing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon, until the zucchini becomes crisp-tender, about four minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Transfer the zucchini-tomato mixture to a large bowl. Add the pasta and cheese and toss. Stir in about 1/4 cup of the cooking water, adding more to loosen, if needed. Season with salt and pepper. Divide among bowls, and top with more cheese and the parsley.
This recipe serves four people.
It’s the weekend and it’s a beautiful day out there! If you’re planning to do some grilling over the next couple of days be sure to check out this recipe from One Hungry Dude!
My father-in-law introduced me and Sarah to Traeger brand barbecues about two years ago, when he gave us one for Christmas. We love it, because the barbecue is wood pellet fired, and uses indirect heat to cook food like a convection oven. It's also great for smoking. But for this recipe, the Traeger is actually perfect for cooking a chicken breast that ends up tasting like a hybrid of roasting and barbecuing techniques. Since a majority of people still use gas or charcoal grills, I've adapted the recipe to suit all barbecues.
For the Chicken
• 2 Tbsp Flour
• 2 Tbp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp Dried Thyme
• 2 Tsp Black Pepper
• 1 Tsp Salt
• Six Chicken Breasts, Bone-In and Skin Left On
• Rustic Barbecue Sauce
Bring the barbecue to high heat. While the barbeque is warming up, combine the flour, sugar, thyme, pepper and salt in a small bowl, whisking until thoroughly mixed. Dredge each chicken breast in the mixture. Place each breast on the barbecue, bone side up, over indirect heat. Cook for about 20 minutes, until some clear grill marks have formed on the skin, then flip. Cook for another 20 minutes, then add a coating of my Rustic Barbecue Sauce. Cook for another 10 minutes, then remove from the barbecue and serve.
