{pretty, happy, funny, real} - The Kitchen Edition

It's been a while since I linked here, but since I've actually taken some pictures this week, I thought I'd jump in.

{pretty}

I scrubbed up my kitchen on Monday. It's needed it for WAY too long and it's amazing how much more counter space I have and how much easier dinner prep is now that I cleared up all the junk.

{happy}

We celebrated Pi Day yesterday (more on that here) with a very tasty chocolate cream pie.

{funny}

I made a salad on Sunday night with lettuce from our little garden. It's funny in that I'm waaay to proud of my 3 handfuls or so of lettuce.

Although if you consider that the view from my garden is this:

 gravel and a 6 foot tall cactus, the fact that anything grows at all is really pretty amazing!

{real}

I scrubbed up my kitchen in part because of this.

My toaster oven picked Monday morning while I was changing the Princess's dirty diaper to not shut off, catch fire, and scare me half to death.  Thank God, the flames were contained within the toaster oven and I was able to unplug it and then throw some water on it.  Scary, though, and a good moment to talk to the boys about what to do if they ever see that much smoke again.

We're enjoying our two weeks of spring here, with temperatures in the 70s and 80s, so maybe I'll get some outide pictures taken before it gets into the 90s and I can't bring myself to go outside much.  I hope you are all having a great week!

Happy Pi Day!

No, that is not a typo.  Geeks everywhere (or at least in the US where we write our dates the right way around) celebrate March 14 as Pi Day, a celebration of all things Pi, circular, and tasty!  What's better for Pi Day than pie in a Pi plate?  Many thanks to my dad for this genius gift.

We chose to celebrate the circle (which the ancients thought was the perfect shape) with chocolate (the perfect food) in the form of a chocolate cream pie.  First, we mixed a simple graham cracker crust and my trusty sidekick, ChefPatrick, pressed it into the plate.

Then we took a break for strawberry milk with whipped cream.  ChefPatrick had an accident last night while I was cooking dinner (I didn't see what happened) and has a big cut inside his lip/cheek and a little but deep cut outside, so Mama is sort of a softie today.

After WordWorld, lunch, and putting the Princess down for a nap, we mixed up chocolate cream.  In keeping with my plan to try more "heirloom" type recipes (more on that soon), I used a recipe from my Mennonite Community Cookbook.  Once the cream cools, we will top it with homemade whipped cream and our homage to all things pi/pie will be complete!

Happy Pi Day everyone!

Sour Cream Cookies

These are my great-grandmother's recipe and they are fabulous!  They are quite possibly the world's best cookie dunked in milk or especially coffee :-)  I decided to make them the other day since we had large quantities of sour cream in our fridge, but not much butter.  Why - who knows?  I suggested to the kids that it would be fun to color the frosting orange and put chocolate sprinkles on them to make them look "fall".  They told me that their favorite colors were blue and pink (yes, my 3 year old son loves pink) and in no way was it acceptable to make the frosting any other color :-)  They taste just as good either way!

Sour Cream Cookies

3 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c shortening
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 c sour cream

Preheat oven to 375 deg.

Sift flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together.  (Note that I measure the flour first and then sift, unlike many other recipes).  Mix shortening, vanilla, and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time.  Add sifted ingredients alternately with sour cream.

Drop by rounded teaspoon (silverware spoon, not actual teaspoon) about 2 inches apart onto greased pan (shortening, nonstick spray, parchment paper - it all works).

Bake 10-12  minutes until they just begin to brown around the edges.

Cool and frost with your favorite buttercream frosting.

Linked up at Around My Family Table.  Hope you enjoy!

Hamburger Sour Cream Casserole

I thought I'd post a recipe to enter in this week's Turning the Tables over at Around My Family Table.  Most of my cooking is from cookbooks - I'm not really that creative - but this is one of the recipes from my box of oldies we used to eat when I was a kid.  Both of my kids with teeth love it and it's really easy.   As you may notice, my food photography skills could use some improvement, but then all my photography skills could use some improvement :-)

Sour Cream Hamburger Casserole

2 lb. ground beef

1 onion, chopped

30 oz. tomato sauce (2 small cans or one large one)

2 tsp chili powder

2 bay leaves

2-3 tbsp brown sugar

16 oz box shell noodles (you could also use penne, wagon wheels, etc)

8 oz. cream cheese

2 c sour cream

1/4 c milk

1/2-1 c shredded cheese

1. Brown ground beef with onions.  Drain fat if desired.  Add tomato sauce, chili powder, bay leaves, and brown sugar.  Simmer at least 10 minutes or until ready to assemble.

2.  Cook noodles in boiling water to 1 minute shy of time on box (so that as they heat in the oven they won't get mushy).  Drain noodles and combine with cream cheese, sour cream, and milk.

3.  Layer noodle mixture, then hamburger mixture, then top with shredded cheese to taste.  Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until casserole is bubbly and cheese is melted.

Serves at least 8

This recipe will fill one 9x13 pan or, like I usually make it, 2 8x8-ish pans.  We are not big eaters around here, so I usually make one square casserole and one foil pan for the freezer (as seen below).  Each will feed us about twice. 

Also, you can adjust the chili powder and brown sugar amounts to your taste.  The original recipe I have calls for 1 tsp chili powder and 4-5 tbsp brown sugar, but we think that's too sweet.