Alphabet Soup

Growing up, my dad would often cook breakfast on Sundays. It certainly wasn't gourmet. Often, he just made pancakes from a mix, or he'd fry up some eggs and make some toast. Whatever it was, I loved it when my dad made breakfast on the weekends. When the Munchkin was little, I started cooking breakfast on Sundays, and I loved it just as much. It was usually either pancakes or waffles, as he loves both of those. I had moved past the pancake mix stage of life, but will readily admit that my fallback recipes come from an old Betty Crocker cookbook that my grandmother gave me. One Sunday while I was pregnant with Sprout, I just didn't feel like cooking breakfast. My mom picked Munchkin up a little early (he usually spends part of Sunday at my parents' house) and they stopped by McDonald's to pick up breakfast. It was all over after that. He only wanted McD's for his Sunday breakfast. At the time, I didn't have the energy to protest, so I let it go. And it...

Well, here it is. I finally just decided to throw one picture up and at least post my review. Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle chose Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding. I was excited about it -- it sounded very good. It was...interesting. All of my testers agreed that it was good, but they've enjoyed some of the other things I've made more. I concurred. It was good, very rich, but probably not something I'll be rushing to make again anytime soon. I will say that I used challah and it wasn't quite stale, so it didn't soak up as much of the liquid as perhaps it should have. Also, I left the raisins (or cherries) out. I don't know...it wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite either!! At any rate, be sure to check out what the other TWD bakers did with this week's recipe (and hopefully I'll be more on time next time!!)

LOL! It's coming, I promise! I did actually bake this week, but I had a pounding headache that just kept getting worse yesterday, and by the evening I could barely see straight. I still need to edit my pictures and get my post up...hopefully I can get that done by tonight. Hang in there with me, lol!! :)

Finally, I baked a cake for The Cake Slice group!! :) And boy was it a good one. I'll admit, I wondered how this cake would turn out. I mean, chai tea in a cake?? Oh yeah, it was worth it! I even baked the cake last week, if you can believe it. I took it to my mom's office. She works at a CPA firm, and as you can imagine, it was crazy there last week with the tax deadline. They are always happy to see food heading their way, especially during tax season. It was quite the hit, and I had several requests for the recipe. I really enjoyed it as well. The cake was moist and fluffy, and the frosting was perfect! The only change I made to the cake was leaving the ginger out of the honey-ginger cream (the frosting) because, um, I didn't have any fresh ginger. I thought I did, but alas, did not! It was perfectly fine without it, although I did add some cinnamon in just in case. :) Here is a link to a printable version of the recipe (thanks to Gigi Cakes ), which come...

Yes, it's Wednesday. Not Tuesday. But I'm sure you knew that already! This week, Holly of Phe/MOM/enon chose 15-Minute Magic: Chocolate Amaretti Torte to bake. Here's my problem. Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until, oh, yesterday to even read the recipe. Shocker, but I didn't have all the ingredients needed to make the torte. Well, I was missing one...the amaretti cookies. A quick trip to the closest grocery store did not help me with my problem. Upon further investigation at the TWD site, you can apparently come across these cookies at Starbucks and World Market as well, neither of which I thought to visit yesterday. You can also make your own, which I did not have time for. So, while I had totally planned on baking with the TWD bakers this week, it was not meant to be. However, I am drooling over next week's selection so I will try to plan better, lol! Check out what the other TWD bakers did with this week's recipe -- it looks gre...

So it seems I've been neglecting my blog lately. I've been neglecting the internet, in general, just getting on here and there to check email! I haven't been cooking much. Well, at least nothing exciting. Plus a sick baby and an exhausted mommy doesn't leave much room for exciting cooking! However, a night "off" on Thursday and a mommy margarita night with a good friend (thank you Christi!!) on Friday helped a lot! :) So, tonight I worked on a new recipe - stuffed bell peppers. It was something Derek had mentioned a week or so ago, and so I thought tonight would be a good night for it. I started with this recipe as a base, and worked from there. And this is what I wound up with. Stuffed Bell Peppers 8 bell peppers, any color 1 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper 2 celery ribs, chopped 1 carrot, peeled and chopped 2 cloves garlic 1 Tbsp olive oil 2 pounds lean ground beef 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained 2 tsp Italian herb mix 1/2 ts...