Sneak peek into the current project...

Here is a sneak peek into the project currently taking over our kitchen/sewing room/laundry room.  

I haven't had time to finish the project yet but definitely will tomorrow.  Tune in to see what is being created!

Saturday morning biscuits

Today I would like to share my new favorite breakfast item of the moment: an egg biscuit.  It is simple, classic, and full of protein.  (Okay, maybe not full of protein but I say that to justify my love for them.)

This morning when the craving hit me, I decided not to deny it but to embrace it!  I had nothing pressing to do so I thought I would actually try to make my own homemade biscuit for a change.  After looking through a couple biscuit recipes, I put together the little recipe below.  It was super easy to make and took less than 20 minutes from start to finish.  Because most of the biscuit recipes online make enough for twelve biscuits, my ingredients may look sparing.  This recipe only makes about four biscuits which was a perfect size for two people.  Two people, two biscuits each.

For my egg, I attempted to make it over medium with one full egg and one egg white.  After adding the egg to the pan, I left the room for a minute and cooked it a little long.  When cooking your egg, I would suggest you actually stay nearby as to not overcook it.  I guess I temporarily forgot that eggs cook in a flash of a second. Because the biscuits are small, I actually split the cooked egg in half, putting half on one biscuit and half on my second biscuit.  This little breakfast meal was a perfect way to start a Saturday!  I hope you enjoy.

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Simple Saturday Morning Biscuits

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

2 tablespoons butter, cut into 1/2 tablespoon sections

1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a bowl.  Mix well.  Add sectioned butter to the flour mixture.  Using a fork, cut the butter into the flour mixture until lumpy.  Add milk.  Stir until mixed but not too much more.  Cut dough into four sections and roll with hands into a biscuit shape.  Bake for 10 minutes. 

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Another day, another pepper

First things first.  I need to thank Mary again for letting me take so many peppers from her home this past weekend.  Without her generosity and kindness, I would not have gotten a 5 out of 5 chicken wings on last night's dinner.  Yes, you read correctly! I am proud to say that last night's dinner was reviewed as a 5 out of 5 chicken wings in Matt's book.  I have made it.  I just wanted you (and Mary especially) to know my appreciation before going on with today's recipe.

And now that I have peaked your interest, here is what we ate.  Last night's dinner was pepper jelly pork chops with goat cheese mashed potatoes and broccoli.  As I was trying to brainstorm what I could do with all my peppers, I googled "habanero recipes."  While many ideas came up, I was most intrigued by the idea of making some sort of sauce out of the peppers.  Finally I found a habanero pepper jelly recipe on allrecipes.com and decided to tweek it to create a sauce.  

Although I don't eat meat, I have such a love for pork because I grew up in Ohio.  In Ohio we literally have billboards that state "The Other White Meat" with huge pictures of cooked pork on them.  I have grown up (aka been brainwashed) thinking this was the most superior meat out there. Therefore, anytime I want to make a meat dish, I still naturally gravitate to pork.  When I was considering making a pepper jelly sauce, I thought "How could it not be wonderful on pork, the other more delicious white meat?"

So that is where this recipe journey began!  Below are photos of the process as well as the recipe for the meal.  I hope you enjoy.

          

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Pepper Jelly Pork Chops with Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

1 lb golden potatoes

1 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

1/2 cup chicken broth

4oz log of goat cheese

Pepper jelly pork chops

2 pork chops

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1 medium carrot, grated

3/4 cup of chopped peppers, seeded and minced (I used 2 hot peppers, 1 banana pepper, and 3 habanero)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Begin by cutting up the potatoes into small cubes.  Place potatoes into a big pot of salted water.  Bring pot to a boil, checking the potatoes until they are cooked through and split when poked with a fork. 

In a sauce pan, add the apple cider vinegar and the sugar.  Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the carrots and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, stirring frequently during this process.  Simmer mixture for 3-5 minutes.  Add peppers and simmer for another 3 minutes.  Turn off heat and set to the side.  

Pour about a tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven and heat over medium high heat.  While the dutch oven is getting hot, sprinkle all sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper.  When the dutch oven is hot, take pork chops and sear all sides, about 5 minutes on each side.  Once all sides are seared, take the pepper jelly mixture and pour over the pork chops that are sitting in the dutch oven.  Add the lid to the dutch oven and place in oven.  Bake for 20 minutes. 

When the potatoes are cooked through, drain out the water and put into a big bowl.  Add butter, chicken broth, and salt.  Mash.  Add more salt and chicken broth if needed.  Cut log of goat cheese into four parts.  Add one part at a time, stirring into the mashed potatoes.  Mix well.

Add a side of steamed broccoli or another green if you desire.  

Potato, Leek, and Feta Tart

I love cooking.  I really, really do.  I love getting to experiment with new ingredients and combine flavors I never knew would go together.  Although this experimentation is a part of who I am now, it hasn't always been.

When Matt and I were beginning to date/cook together, I found a recipe in Real Simple called "Potato, Leek, and Feta Tart."  This recipe included dill (delicious), a pie crust (also delicious), and zucchini (a new favorite). However, I was still hesitant to try this dish.  I would like to say at this point in my cooking experience, I literally had no idea what a leek was.   I was intimated to make a recipe in which I was clueless on the flavor of the ingredient and how it might turn out.

After some encouragement from a friend, I decided to take the plunge and try it.  Luckily for me, Matt was totally up for trying this recipe on a date night.  We worked together for more than an hour chopping, cooking, and baking this little delightful tart.  And oh my goodness, the end result was more than worth the time, anxiety, and ingredient questioning.  It is that good. Seriously, that good! Since that first time we made the tart, we have made it for friends, family, and ourselves on many, many occasions.  We love it so I hope you enjoy!

The Real Simple recipe can be found here:  http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/potato-leek-feta-tart-recipe-00000000019589/index.html

Hot Pepper Hummus

While in Nashville, I raided my sweet friend Mary's pepper plants.  I brought home quite a few varieties and to be honest, I had no idea what any of them were called.  After doing some research, I found out I had a couple habanero peppers, some hot red peppers, and two banana peppers.  What a wonderful mix!

So this week, most of my recipes will involve some sort of pepper.  Today's recipe is Hot Pepper Hummus.   Don't be fooled!  It actually isn't that spicy at all.  I just am calling it Hot Pepper Hummus based on the name of the actual pepper.  The hummus has just a little bit of heat which comes primarily from the cayanne pepper in the recipe.  If you wanted to avoid spice entirely, feel free to leave it out.  I hope you enjoy!

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Hot Pepper Hummus

5 hot pepper, halved and seeded
1 clove garlic
2 15oz can of chickpeas
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
pinch of cayanne pepper
8 tablespoons olive oil, added one tablespoon at a time

Add halved and seeded peppers to a food processor.  Process peppers until they are minced.  Add the garlic and pulse until mixed with the peppers.  Add chickpeas, salt, cayanne pepper.  Process this, adding one tablespoon of olive oil at a time until the desired consistency is reached.  Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Good times with good friends

It is such a blessing to spend time with good friends.  This weekend was just that to me.  A huge, huge blessing.  It did my soul well to be around people who are kind, thoughtful, and just so much fun.  

Below is a brief description of weekend through pictures.  It was wonderful to be outside, eat good food, and have uplifting conversations.  Until we get to be together again, my love is with you all.

first night in nashville

This weekend we are visiting with friends in Nashville, Tennessee.  We had been planned this weekend about 2 1/2 months ago right after our friends Zach and Holly left Atlanta.  We have been looking forward to it since these weekend dates were identified as "the ones."  Sweet Mary said she was willing to host us in her house in Nashville which is a mid-point between all the homes.

Since we don't normally get to spend birthdays together (and strangely 5 out of the 9 people here have birthdays between September 22nd and December 3rd), we had a cupcake birthday celebration to celebrate all the birthdays we will miss! I got the cupcakes from Sweet Auburn Bakery (www.sweetauburnbakery.com) before heading to Nashville.  This cute little bakery is located in downtown Atlanta at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market.  I had never been to this bakery before this encounter but I will most definitely go back.  The owner was a super kind and helpful guy who spent about 20 minutes talking over dessert options with me that would travel well to Nashville.  And the cupcakes were a success!  They traveled well and were quite tasty.  In a direct quote from Steve, "These cupcakes quite my lust for food."  Who can say more than that?

Cupcakes!

Zach being funny.

Relaxing with good friends.

Mary sharing the weekend options.

Just a small detail in Mary's beautiful home.

Secret Ingredient Fajitas!

Last night for dinner we had veggie fajitas which were inspired by a little Mexican place in Atlanta called "Across the Street."  I have only actually been to this restaurant twice but both times the vegetables fajitas were amazing.  

When trying to come up with the recipe for our fajitas, I was thinking about why this restaurant's dish was so good.  I have concluded it revolves around their two secret fajita ingredients: sweet potato and corn.  What unique vegetables to add to a fajitas! 

This dish was a lot of fun to make because so many vegetables were involved.  I felt like my kitchen turned into a tiny little farmer's market with corn, multiple types of peppers, onions, and sweet potatoes.  It was also super easy, cheap, and fast to make this meal.  I actually began it at 5:15pm, thinking it would take at least an hour.  At 5:45pm, I checked the vegetables and realized they were ready to be served.  What a nice blessing to be ahead of schedule when cooking dinner!

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Not Quite Your Traditional Vegetable Fajitas
(makes 4 tacos in 30 minutes)

1 medium sweet potato, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/2 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 poblano pepper, chopped
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
salt
pepper
4 corn or flour tortillas

Begin by heating vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet or pan.  Place just enough vegetable oil in pan so there is a very thin covering.  Cut sweet potato and onion.  Add to pan.  Stir.  Cut red pepper. Add to pan. Stir. Cut poblano pepper. Add to pan. Stir.  Cut corn off cob.  Add to pan. Stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring every 3-5 minutes, for about 25 minutes or until vegetables are soft and beginning to darken.  Add vegetables to a warmed tortilla and enjoy!

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