Finally

I got to DC :)

Mulligayummy

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2010/08/slow-cooker-mulligatawny-soup-recipe.html

I had no idea what mulligatawny was before I made this...I'm glad I did.

Easy Cookies That Make People Go "OMG"

These were made in fulfillment of a contract...my friend let me borrow his citation book, and as consideration I promised to make him cookies. I asked him what he liked and he said "chocolate." So I was like, okay, way to be specific, and then I remembered this recipe that I made a long time ago that was the basic Nestle cookie recipe with some vanilla pudding in it. I thought "What if I put chocolate pudding in it instead?"

This was a good choice.

So here you go, the recipe for my chocolate chip "omg" cookies:

Ingredients

• • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 (12 ounce) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 package instant chocolate pudding mix (you can use any flavor really, but I used chocolate)
  
  

  Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda, set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets (or just make your best guess with your fingers).
  3. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown...if you use vanilla pudding. With the chocolate pudding, the cookies were brown the whole time. I just used my best judgment.

  
  

  They looked like this (these are ones that I made!):

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  Okay, good night!

Beans? What Beans?

So today I decided to contribute a vegetable to the dinner my roommate was making. I sautéed some green beans in some vegetable oil, put rosemary, dill, black pepper and lemon juice on them, thinking it would make an interesting flavor...and it did..........aaaaaand I may have eaten all of them before my roommates even knew what was going on. Oops.

In any case, they were pretty good.

Blackberry Pork Tenderloin

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooker-Blackberry-Pork-Tenderloin/Detail.aspx

THIS WAS AMAZING. I had a few people over for an outlining party (read: study group), and everyone was in charge of a dish. Since I was hosting, I made the main course, and the link above is what I made. I didn't make the sauce though, since the jam/honey/wine mixture on the pork left plenty of sauce. Comments of note:

"This is the best pork I've ever had"

"I got a knife for this but I don't know why."

(my favorite) "Erica is a good cook."

I'm guessing you could do this with pork chops to save money...it was SO GOOD. SOOOOOOO good.

And just to reiterate. Amazing.

Food that Tastes Like Happy

Okay, so last night I had some friends over for dinner (well, really I had one friend over and then my two housemates, but y'know..). I made breaded chicken, chicken rice, lemon chive brussels sprouts, and peach cobbler. These are some of my favorite things, and oddly, I'd never made any of them before. In any case, they turned out pretty well, although the casserole dish I used for the rice wasn't the right shape, so it got a little crunchy. The rice I made, by the way, is really easy and REALLY delicious. Recommend a double recipe for more than 3 people:

Chicken Rice

Ingredients:

-1 cup rice (uncooked)

-2 tbsp butter/margarine (cut up in little cubes)

-2 tsp instant chicken bouillon (2 cubes)

-2 1/4 cups boiling water

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-Put all of the ingredients in an oven safe casserole dish and mix together.

-Put in oven for 1 hour.

(Bonus: You can also cook breaded chicken in the oven at 375 for one hour. Sweet!)

Awesome! Now the brussels sprouts recipe I made was one I'd never tried before, and it was soooooooooooo good. I thought I was going to botch it though, because halfway through I realized I didn't have as many brussels sprouts as the recipe called for...so there might have been a little too much butter in mine, but they were still delicious. This recipe comes from the Land O Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes:

Lemon Chive Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:

-1 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed

-1/4 cup butter or margarine

-2 tbsp chopped fresh chives

-2 tsp grated lemon peel

-1 1/2 tsp fresh dill weed (1/2 tsp dried dill weed can substitute for 1 1/2 tsp fresh)

-1/4 tsp salt

-1/4 tsp pepper

In 2 qt saucepan place brussels sprouts; add enough water to cover. Bring to a full boil. Cook over med. heat until brussels sprouts are crisply tender (12 to 15 min.); drain. Return to pan; add remaining ingredients. Cook over med. heat, stirring occasionally,, until heated through (4 to 6 min.)

Microwave Directions: (this is what I did) In 2-qt. casserole place brussels sprouts and 1/4 cup water. Cover; microwave on HIGH until crisply tender (3 to 4 min.). Add remaining ingredients. Cover; microwave on HIGH, stirring after half the time, until heated through (2.5 to 4 min.).

I hope you get a chance to try these recipes!

Why I Love Home

Last night I went to the high school football game with my dad and had hot dogs for dinner. Awesome.

Then we went to Swenson's and got milkshakes, also awesome.

Today I went to watch my brother run a cross-country race and I had nachos and cheese for breakfast. Awesome again.

Now I will spend all day reading about torts and criminal law, which is less awesome, but there are kittens :D