Happy Valentine's Day - Easy Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day today! Here is a quick and easy treat to make for that special someone if you don't have a lot of time or money. I found strawberries on sale at my grocery store and dipped them in some chocolate. Once they dried (about 15 minutes in the fridge), I put some melted white chocolate into a ziploc bag and snipped the corner off. Instant piping bag!

To melt the chocolate without taking a lot of time or using a lot of dishes, simply place the chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl and melt on the defrost setting in 30-second increments, stirring in between. Once it is melted, dip the fruit! Keep the fruit on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper in the fridge until they harden and enjoy!

Sorry for the gratuitous instagram photo, but I'm too sleep-deprived and exhausted from my son's teething shenanigans (yes, I said shenanigans) to break out the actual camera, get the lighting just right, etc. Thanks for understanding! :)

A sign of things to come

I apologize sincerely that I haven't updated this blog (or my other one for that matter) in a very long time. I'm still in the midst of trying to balance baby, sleep, chores, and cooking on a daily basis. It's been quite the learning process for me.

Some of the upcoming recipes include:

Pumpkin Cheesecake (pictured above)

M&M cookies

Chewy, soft chocolate chip cookies (Brad's favorite)

Green beans

Steel cut oatmeal

Baby food puree (so excited to start this!)

If you would like the link to them, I can send that out to you should you need it before I happen to post the recipe. Just email me!! There should be a link on this blog somewhere.. ;) .. but I'm too tired to check.

Our little man is here

Because of this little guy:

.. my mom has been cooking for us this past week.

We had Camden Ryan on June 30th and he weighed 8lbs 7oz and was 20.5 inches long. A healthy, beautiful baby boy!

A huge thank you goes out to my wonderful mother for helping out this past week with dishes, cleaning, cooking, yard work and watching Cam. :) We love you mom!

Simply Suppers - New Cookbook

Someone got a new cookbook c/o Confections of a Foodie Bride. A huge thank you goes out to their blog for helping to remotivate me! I have already several recipes tabbed and one I've already made! Comfort food is my favorite!

My 2011

So far my 2011 hasn't been all that much to brag about. Unfortunately I'm still job hunting for the most part. So much so that I've gotten all my material together to apply to grad school. It's probably my best option. In Kitch news, I've not had much motivation or energy to cook as much as I used to being pregnant and all; 16 weeks this past Friday. So to cheer myself up, I've been making mostly summer items: ice creams, sorbets, shakes, etc. Here is a little preview of what I've been doing in the kitchen and I'll start to post again next week at the latest:

Strawberry Smoothie

Mango Ice Cream

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

Thank you all for staying loyal Kelly's Kitch readers for so long and especially without a post for a couple of weeks. I really, really appreciate it!

Wedding Cake Preservation

Earlier this week my husband and I celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary!! Well first, we celebrated by taking a cruise. It's a paper anniversary so our plane and cruise tickets were on paper. That counts, right?! Also in the name of tradition I decided to dig out our one-year-old cake top. I have to say I was pretty nervous.

We both agreed that it tasted amazing! For as long as I can remember this has been a tradition and some people do it, some don't. I have heard both sides of the story: it tasted just like it was fresh, and that it was disgusting. This one was amazing!!

I am not sure if it was the cake itself or the preservation method but I wanted to share this success with everyone. First, our cake was a buttercream cake with buttercream frosting from a local bakery called Heavenly Sweets. It is also where I got the birthday cake for my moms boyfriend. Second, I do believe that preservation is key to making this a success. This cake never was thawed, never met any liquid and it was immediately frozen the very next day it was eaten at our wedding. My mom kept it until about a month ago and we transported it (in a cooler I might add) to our house.

Upon taking the package apart, this is what I found had been done to preserve this oh-so-delicious cake.

~The cake top itself was sitting on top of a piece of cardboard (probably provided by the bakery).

~The cake top was then set inside of a large paper/cardboard box (shown above).

~The box was then wrapped in 2 layers of plastic wrap allowing no frost to get inside.

To thaw, I simply let it sit, still wrapped, out on the counter all day and we ate it around 4pm on the day of our anniversary. We got married 1 year prior at 6:00pm!

Here is a look at the beautiful cake (that I .. um .. had two pieces of). None of my friends were around so the rest went to waste. I didn't want to ruin a good thing and assume it would stay in the fridge another day. No need to jinx it.

So if you are looking for a do-it-yourself cake preservation method, this one is tried and true!!

Sugar Cookies, revisited

I made sugar cookies with royal icing quite some time ago (around Christmas) and the icing just didn't set hard enough and the cookies all stuck to each other. This time I was determined to make perfect royal icing cookies .. and it was a complete success!! I updated the link to the recipe and the recipe for the icing. These really turned out fantastic!

Everyone raved about them and thought they were really cute. I made them for my mom's boyfriend, Phil obviously, who was turning 60 years old. I made cookies that said "That's what she said", "60 = sexy", "Phil", and "Got beer?" He really loves to golf so I made them green and white (also to match the golf-themed cake that we got from Heavenly Sweets). If you ever want a birthday cake or even a wedding cake, I highly recommend them if you can get to the Noblesville, Indiana area!! Some cakes aren't always the best looking cakes, but what is most important, to me, is the taste. NOBODY beats their buttercream icing .. nobody.

Pampered Chef

I love cooking but truly used to believe that you could make anything even if you didn't have the right tools. While that may be true, I think it's easier and less stress on the cook when you actually do have the right tools.

Last weekend I hosted my very first Pampered Chef party! It was such a success I decided that I probably will host another in the winter time. Unfortunately for our bank account (as my husband sees it), I have fallen in love with Pampered Chef products.

Here is the consultant, Rachel, with the pineapple wedger.

And voila!! Easy as pie!

She made a delicious and untraditional salsa with pineapple, cucumber, cilantro and tomatoes. It was fantastic! She also made homemade tortilla chips (that I will soon be posting the recipe for).

The best part of my show? THE MOJITOS!! Funny thing is, when I asked who wanted a non-alcoholic mojito, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop! So we all apparently like a little rum. ;)

Well the party went wonderfully without a hitch and there were much more products that I wanted to order but as a host, I can go to other shows for the next year and still get my 10% discount! I have a long list of wants:

Large cookie sheet

Pastry mat

Mix 'n scraper

Food chopper

And my big discount for hosting a show this month? I get the food chopper (above) for just $11.80 instead of $29.50!!!!

So if anyone out there doesn't have a Pampered Chef consultant and wants just a few things, feel free to order here and put in the host name: Kelly Jones (Indiana). Thanks for looking and be careful with the website.;) EDIT: My show will close Friday, July 30, 2010 but you can still order through the website at any time!

Kichen Tips: Prepping/Storage

I wanted to celebrate my 100th post (HOORAY!) by posting about some of the tips and tricks that help to keep my kitchen and household running smoothly. I think I have plenty of simple tips that I never shared with anyone before because I always thought they were so obvious. Looking back they weren't always obvious to me so I figured I would commemorate this special post by starting with my favorite kitchen secret: prepping!

One thing that I always make sure to do when coming home from the grocery store is to cut, wash and divide all of our fruits and vegetables into individual containers or Ziploc baggies. I also usually tend to do this with anything I am going to be making (i.e. chopping ingredients ahead of time) and other things like potato chips.  Measuring things is usually something I do if I have time but half a Ziploc baggie or one of the containers (shown above) is usually one serving of a fruit or vegetable. Sometimes I also cook the vegetables well ahead of time so I can just heat them up and eat! Broccoli is one of my absolute favorites but my husband will not eat it so I'm the lucky gal that gets the entire head of broccoli to myself!

Procedure:

When you get home from the grocery, put all your food away except those that need to be divvyed up. Get a large cutting board and knife to cut everything with. Start with the less potent items (like fruits) and work your way to the things like onion, which will probably leave a hint of it on the knife. Always rinse the knife in between items .. you don't want to have blueberry/strawberries (although that does sound wonderful). Once everything is in a baggie or tupperware then place in the fridge so that it's not hidden from sight. This way you remember what you have for snacks or side items with your lunches. Remember: out of sight, out of mind. Make sure it's visible!

Another tip that I have is to make your own seasonings with what you have. Part of this means saving the leftovers; let's not be wasteful when on a budget! I usually put seasonings in a Ziploc baggie or airtight container and place in the pantry for future use. As you can see above, I write on the baggie what the seasoning is and the date in which I put it together. Who knows how long it will be until you use it again so just to be safe, that is a good idea. I label what it is because .. well .. all the seasoning mixes look the same to me.

Hope these tips will be useful to you and I will have plenty more to share!

Thankful

Well if you aren't near the midwest you might not know of some storms that blew through this weekend. I am really, really thankful that the storms only damaged physical things and nobody was hurt. I am taking a break from food blogging "goals" but I will post here and there. I really need to help my dad clean up his yard and really focus more on my family and a little less on taking pictures of food. I just wanted to let everyone know that I was still alive, but that my priorities and goals have shifted a bit.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to food blog. I am just not making it a top priority right now. I am focusing on our house, my family and husband. For those of you that have (or make) time to food blog and focus on your loved ones .. how do you do it? ;) Kudos to all of us who try to make this world a healthier, tastier place!

What happened to Kelly?

Well I have been going through some personal things (I know none of you want to hear about it) but have been trying my best to keep up with house work, yard work, and finding a new job along with interviewing for grad schools. I actually am continuing to cook and make things .. some new, some old .. but never remember the camera.

Recently I made these and gave them to my pregnant friend Brittany who was craving cupcakes and loves chocolate. I'm pretty sure 5 minutes after I left her house I got a text from her saying that they were "divine" (her exact wording). I saved two and gave one to a friend and one to my husband. They both loved them too.

I think that is the only new thing I have made recently but I need to ramp up my cook book collection so that might be my next step .. a trip to Half Price Books. That just might be the motivation I need. I sincerely apologize and promise to have something posted soon!!

Notes From the Kitch

Just wanted to update! I got a Kitchen Aid mixer for Christmas because my mom is the best mom in the entire world!! Pardon my bed-hair too.

Also we will be moving in almost two weeks and so I won't be doing much new cooking, so my blogs might be few and far between. :( Although when I do get my new kitchen set up I will be taking some pictures around it and possibly making a new header with it. I have been waiting and waiting (on pins and needles) to move for just that reason!

Don't get me wrong, I love my header, but it just doesn't say "cooking blog". The next one is sure to do so.

If you haven't already noticed I have been taking a different, more fun-loving, approach to my cooking blog. Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I can't decide if I prefer to have step-by-step directions or just the one final picture with instructions and a little story. I'm sure I will decide after a few more blogs the new way to see what I like .. what others like .. and what looks good.

Thanks for being patient and sticking around!

Update - Been MIA

I have not posted and been MIA for a while and I sincerely apologize! First, my husband got sick for two weeks and had severe stomach pains and every test in the book, but finally just out of nowhere felt better. Thank goodness. During this time we decided to put our house up for sale and "upgrade" since there are so many good deals out on the market and we NEED a bigger place. That has been very time-consuming.

Also bigger place = bigger kitchen!!! I am going to be quite picky on my kitchen, especially since I got a promotion at work and can now work from home! YAY! =)

So all in all lots of good things happening but it's been busy. I have some recipes on stand-by I will post soon.