Red Potato and Corn Chowder More soup!  For this chowder you cut the corn from the cobs then add the cobs to the water to boil the potatoes for your stock.  I actually used half water, half chicken broth for my stock and it was delicious.  Boiling the cobs in the stock gave it a huge amount of flavor.  As a matter of fact I added extra heat and spices to balance the corn flavor.  The only thing I would do differently is add more potatoes to add to the heartiness of the soup since there is no meat in it and I am a serious carnivore.  This didn’t take a lot of time to put together and everyone enjoyed it. Adapted from Gourmet: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Potato-Corn-Chowder-242862 View high resolution

Red Potato and Corn Chowder

More soup!  For this chowder you cut the corn from the cobs then add the cobs to the water to boil the potatoes for your stock.  I actually used half water, half chicken broth for my stock and it was delicious.  Boiling the cobs in the stock gave it a huge amount of flavor.  As a matter of fact I added extra heat and spices to balance the corn flavor.  The only thing I would do differently is add more potatoes to add to the heartiness of the soup since there is no meat in it and I am a serious carnivore.  This didn’t take a lot of time to put together and everyone enjoyed it.

Adapted from Gourmet: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Potato-Corn-Chowder-242862

View high resolution
View high resolution
Christmas Cookies! The title of this recipe is “The Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies”.  I haven’t made a ton of these before but I did make them a few times when the kids were younger and I have to say I agree that this is definitely the best tasting cut-out cookie I’ve ever made or eaten!  They have lemon extract and lemon zest in them and it really evens out the sugary icing.  They have a great buttery, lemony flavor and they cut out clean and don’t spread much while they cook.  I think the trick may be to pick 3 or 4 different shapes and icing/sprinkle colors to help save time.  The first night I made the small batch recipe and used 7 or 8 different cookie cutters only to realize it would take forever to make all the colors I needed to decorate the different shapes.  They were disappearing as fast as I could get them iced and by the end of the night I only had a handful of cookies left.  The second night I made the huge batch and only used a few cutters with 3 different icing colors and had much better results, not to mention tons of cookies.  Win! You can find the recipe here: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-best-cutout-sugar-cookies-038629 View high resolution

Christmas Cookies!

The title of this recipe is “The Best Cut-Out Sugar Cookies”.  I haven’t made a ton of these before but I did make them a few times when the kids were younger and I have to say I agree that this is definitely the best tasting cut-out cookie I’ve ever made or eaten!  They have lemon extract and lemon zest in them and it really evens out the sugary icing.  They have a great buttery, lemony flavor and they cut out clean and don’t spread much while they cook.  I think the trick may be to pick 3 or 4 different shapes and icing/sprinkle colors to help save time.  The first night I made the small batch recipe and used 7 or 8 different cookie cutters only to realize it would take forever to make all the colors I needed to decorate the different shapes.  They were disappearing as fast as I could get them iced and by the end of the night I only had a handful of cookies left.  The second night I made the huge batch and only used a few cutters with 3 different icing colors and had much better results, not to mention tons of cookies.  Win!

You can find the recipe here:

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert/recipe-best-cutout-sugar-cookies-038629

“
The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.” ~george carlin
My sweet princess! View high resolution

My sweet princess!

View high resolution
Italian Chicken Soup We’ve been having lots of soups and stews lately, trying some new ones and remaking lots of the old favorites.  This one is fairly new to us, I found it on Pioneer Woman’s website.  It is quickly becoming one of the repeats as everyone loves it.  To make it even better we have parmesan on 12 seed bread buttered and toasted.  Make sure to garnish the soup with really good quality parmesan and you will love it too! Link to the recipe:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/italian-chicken-soup/ View high resolution

Italian Chicken Soup

We’ve been having lots of soups and stews lately, trying some new ones and remaking lots of the old favorites.  This one is fairly new to us, I found it on Pioneer Woman’s website.  It is quickly becoming one of the repeats as everyone loves it.  To make it even better we have parmesan on 12 seed bread buttered and toasted.  Make sure to garnish the soup with really good quality parmesan and you will love it too!

Link to the recipe:  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/italian-chicken-soup/

Banana Pudding 1 up’d 1 Box Vanilla Wafers - crushed in food processor 1 Lg box Vanilla Pudding 3 cups milk 1 Container Cheesecake Filling Fruit - Mix it up (I used strawberries, blueberries and bananas, but the possibilities are endless) Mix together pudding mix with cold milk and the cheesecake filling until smooth. In a trifle bowl, layer wafer crumbs with pudding mixture and fruit ending with fruit.  So good and so 1970.  It almost made me want to put the vintage action to the photo, but that didn’t do well for the fruit.  Enjoy! View high resolution

Banana Pudding 1 up’d

1 Box Vanilla Wafers - crushed in food processor

1 Lg box Vanilla Pudding

3 cups milk

1 Container Cheesecake Filling

Fruit - Mix it up (I used strawberries, blueberries and bananas, but the possibilities are endless)

Mix together pudding mix with cold milk and the cheesecake filling until smooth.

In a trifle bowl, layer wafer crumbs with pudding mixture and fruit ending with fruit.  So good and so 1970.  It almost made me want to put the vintage action to the photo, but that didn’t do well for the fruit.  Enjoy!

Comic Relief By far the funniest journal entry I have found in my quest to find one particular cat story.  This entry was on the back of the very last page of the Weekend News Journal from 3rd grade.  I don’t know if he meant for anyone to see it or not, but just as funny as what he wrote is how the teacher responded.  I laughed until I cried when I found this, I had never noticed it before. *Disclaimer: Grandpa Greg wanted me to state that he does not own a boat…not to worry, I know which Grandpa does ;) View high resolution

Comic Relief

By far the funniest journal entry I have found in my quest to find one particular cat story.  This entry was on the back of the very last page of the Weekend News Journal from 3rd grade.  I don’t know if he meant for anyone to see it or not, but just as funny as what he wrote is how the teacher responded.  I laughed until I cried when I found this, I had never noticed it before.

*Disclaimer: Grandpa Greg wanted me to state that he does not own a boat…not to worry, I know which Grandpa does ;)