Happiness: Home Cooked

Losing that (pre)Baby Weight

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Most new mothers, after having their babies, long to get back to their pre-baby figures. During my pregnancy, I gained 45 pounds, which is more than the recommended amount and, truthfully, less than I thought I'd gain over those long, eat-everything-in-sight months. When I got home from the hospital I refused to get on the scale. I didn't want confirmation that my 8 pound 5 ounce bundle of joy left a bundle of weight on my body. And as a breastfeeding mom, I wanted to focus on taking care of my little guy, and eating right for him,not worrying about how many calories I was consuming. So I stayed away from the scale.

At my six week check-in with the doctor, I begrudgingly stepped on the scale. And what to my wandering eyes did appear? I had lost 35 pounds! I was amazed. I was shocked. I was so happy I almost fell off the scale!

No longer afraid of what the scale would tell me, I started weighing myself weekly, and, within another month the whole 45 pounds had melted away. I'm going to credit it to the magic of breastfeeding - apparently, every ounce of milk I produce burns 20 calories. And, since Harrison eats like a teenage boy, he is literally eating his momma thin. Yay for breastfeeding!

But alas, the story is not all good. I forgot to mention one small detail - that I was about 40 pounds overweight before I got pregnant, 40 pounds that I gained after I entered into wedded bliss (which is a side effect of marriage that is often not discussed).

When Dan and I were engaged, I lost 50 pounds on Weight Watchers without feeling hungry or deprived. The program helped me learn to balance my caloric checkbook, making sure I wasn't wandering into bounced check territory and teaching me to eat more healthy, well rounded meals. Since I had such success on the program the first time around, by the end of my pregnancy I had committed myself to using Weight Watchers to lose my baby weight. And now, not having any baby weight to lose, I'm using it to help me shed my pre-baby pounds.

I've been attending meetings for a month, with three weigh-ins thus far, and I've already lost 7.4 pounds. Granted, I do get to eat more because I'm breastfeeding, but I'm also hungrier than I've ever been in my life and I need to eat healthy for my kiddo. For those who are interested, no, you don't get up in front of the room and say, "My name is Chelsea and I weigh 190 pounds." The only people who know your weight are you and the receptionist. If you do well and want to share you can and everyone will celebrate with you. Its a great feeling.

So, moving forward with the blog, I'll be putting a lot of waistline-friendly recipes up, and giving you the PointsPlus value so that if you want to join in on the weight-loss success you can. I'd love to hear from you about your own healthy lifestyle journeys and about whether you've tried (and hopefully liked) my recipes.

Until next time,
Love, hugs and lots of good (healthy) food!

Valentine's Day with a 7-Week Old

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:36:00 +0000

As parents of a newborn (is he still a newborn at 7 weeks? I'm not sure...) celebrating Valentine's Day is pretty far out of the picture for Dan and I. We had purchased a Groupon for Medditeraneo (on Federal Hill) awhile back, so we asked my mom and dad to watch Harrison on Saturday night so we could go out for dinner. It was a wonderful meal, but being on the Saturday before Valentine's Day, it didn't really feel like a big special occasion. So yesterday, I took a chance at surprising Dan with a Valentine's Day meal, not quite knowing how it would come out as I'd never spent a day cooking and taking care of Harrison at the same time.

The menu:

Filet of Beef with Horseradish Sauce
Roasted Asparagus
Baked Sweet Potato
Pineapple Upside-down Cake

My intent was to document the creation of the entire meal, but as I quickly learned, cooking is enough of a chore when you are trying to take care of an infant, never mind photographing each step in the process. I started with the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, since that isn't something that needs to be prepared right before serving, while the little one took his afternoon nap. When he woke up in the middle of cooking, I put him in his vibrating, music-playing chair in the kitchen and he was content.

And so, I have an entirely documented pineapple upside-down cake. I wanted to surprise Dan with dinner, so I tried to have it done for when he got home at 6:45, and Harrison just didn't want to cooperate with that schedule. Between 5:30pm and 6:45pm when I was supposed to be cooking and photographing, I had to change him twice and feed him, leaving little time to do anything extra. Since the meal wasn't that extravagant (or difficult), I don't feel so bad about not blogging it. Maybe next time.

1 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 can of sliced pineapples
1 jar of maraschino cherries
1 box of yellow cake mix (and the ingredients listed to make the cake, whatever they may be)

1. Preheat the oven according to the yellow cake mix directions and prepare your pans with cooking spray. I used two 8 inch round cake pans, but you could use square pans or a large rectangle pan as well.

2. Divide the stick of butter into two separate microwave-safe containers. Melt the butter in the microwave. I used 50% power for 60 seconds. I find that if you use 100% power, the outside gets hot so you get some melted some not, and it spatters all over the microwave.

3. Pour the melted butter into the pans and sprinkle them evenly with brown sugar.

4. Arrange the pineapples in the pans and add the cherries wherever they fit. I like lots of cherries, so I stick them in everywhere.

5. Prepare the cake according to the package directions. My cake mix called for water, oil and eggs. I substituted the oil with applesauce because it works just as well and is way less calories. For extra pineapple flavor, I substituted half of the water with pineapple juice from the canned pineapples.

6. Pour the prepared cake mix over the pineapples and cherries in the cake pans. Bake according to the cake package directions.

I thought that since I had two round cakes, I would make a double-layer pineapple upside-down cake. But, there is a reason that you never see a double-layer pineapple upside-down cake - the top is too heavy and it causes the top layer of cake to split apart! Since this was only for Dan and I, I wasn't too concerned so I left it how it was. If you were making it for a party or very special occasion, I would advise against it.

You can see the cracks on the left and right sides...

I hope your Valentine's Day was as wonderful as mine and that every day is a celebration of how much you love the people in your life.

Until next time,

Back in the Saddle

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:52:00 +0000

As many of you know, my beautiful bundle of joy was born on December 26, 2010. After letting us have a really great Christmas with our friends and family, Harrison Alden Siefert made his debut in the middle of the season's first blizzard.

Harrison - 3 weeks old (look at all that hair!)

He is an adorable, amazing and aware little boy, who has been taking up all of my time since he was born (which has left no time for my favorite past time - cooking). It is an under statement to say that we have been eating poorly - if it weren't for the generosity of some great people who have brought us home made food and take out, we may not have eaten at all over these past seven weeks!

Today, Harrison slept until a wonderous 9am and after I fed him, he was completely content playing with daddy on his activity mat. So I took the opportunity to make something delicious. This is traditionally a fall recipe, but I had some pumpkin left over from the holidays. I think everyone forgets that canned pumpkin is available all year long and that it is a great treat pretty much anytime. For your eating pleasure - I present to you my Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. Yum.

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

I realized after I took the picture that I forgot to pull out the pumpkin! (Also, notice my new apprentice. He is going to be a really good cook!)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray three 9 x 5 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside. (I didn't have any 9 x 5 inch pans - my loaf pans are 8.5 inches and 10 inches, respectively. I used 2 of the 8.5 inch pans and 1, 10 inch pan).

2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, water, vanilla and eggs. Mix until smooth.

This is what it looks like after mixing.

4. Slowly bled in the flour mixture.

With the flour mixture added.

5. Fold in the chocolate chips.

I used mini chocolate chips because that is what I had in the cupboard.

With the chocolate chips folded in.

6. Bake for approximately 60 minutes, or until browned and a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the center. My two smaller pans were done in about 50 minutes while the larger pan needed an additional 5 minutes (for a total of 65 minutes).

7. Remove loaves from oven and cool in pans for 15 minutes. With a knife, go around the bread and loosen the loaves. Remove from the pan and cool completely before slicing. (I personally never wait for it to cool completely before slicing because I love it when the chocolate chips are melty. Mmmm.)

That's it! So simple even the mom of a 7 week old infant can fit it in! Hopefully it won't be so long before my next blog entry, but until then,

Labor Inducing Frittata??

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Well, its Wednesday, December 22nd and by all rational predictions we should have a newborn baby boy in our arms - but we don't. As of the last ultrasound, on Friday, he was already 8lbs 8 oz and more than ready to make his appearance in the world. Almost a week later, we can assume he has gained almost a half pound more, which means we no longer have a big baby but a REALLY big baby.

Like good parents-to-be, we have been trying everything we can think of to get labor moving. My wish would be to not ~~evict~~ induce him out of my womb and to not have a c-section, which means that he can't get that much bigger. So, bring on the walking, sitting on the yoga ball, sex and spicy foods!

Dan and I have another appointment today to discuss our options moving forward. So, this morning, I thought I'd try my hand at a spicy frittata to see if we could convince baby Siefert to ~~evacuate~~ come on out on his own. I had a recipe for a frittata something like this, but I couldn't find it this morning, so I decided to improvise my own. Hopefully this will speed up the process, so that next time I blog I'll have not just one adorable observer, but two.

Meet Luna, our lovable tortoiseshell cat.

This is more of a weekend or brunch dish. All of the preparation and cooking took about an hour (including photo breaks). But, if you plan ahead (like we sort of did) you can prepare enough bacon and vegetables for a couple more rounds of frittata throughout the week - then all you would have to do is the cooking, which would be about 15 minutes.

(aka - Kick Him Out Frittata)

4 slices of turkey bacon

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/3 to a 1/2 of a green pepper

1/3 to a 1/2 of a red pepper

1/3 to a 1/2 of a yellow pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

salt to taste (I used two pinches)

4 eggs

2 tablespoons milk (or soy milk)

1/4 to a 1/2 cup shredded mexican blend cheese

1. Chop bacon into small pieces and cook over medium-high heat until crispy.

2. While bacon is cooking, begin chopping peppers and garlic. I find that the best way to get the flesh off a pepper is to hold it by its stem and slice in a downward motion around the ribs of the pepper.

Once all the flesh of the peppers has been removed, dice. For me, it is easiest to slice each segment the long way and then to turn them about 90 degrees and chop.

My photographer (Dan) thought it necessary to show you the side effects of blogging about food - he often says that we should put a sticker over the MacBook label on my Mac to replace it with "Cookbook".

I chopped all of the peppers, but because they were so big, we decided we only needed about 1/3 of each pepper. So, as I chopped, I placed the extras in tupperware containers to save for another meal. Earlier I said that I "sort of" prepared for making this meal again - while I did chop enough peppers for two more frittatas, I didn't cook enough bacon or chop enough garlic...

I struggled for a long time with peeling garlic until I heard this unbelievably useful tip on Food Network. (I watch a lot of Food Network.) Once you have your clove removed from the garlic head, chop off a little bit of the top end (where it is hard and flat). Then, set the broad side of your knife on the garlic head and smash it with the heel of your hand. The peel will come off easily and in one piece.

I also like to die my garlic into pretty small pieces. This can be challenging as well. I slice it the long way, then just let my knife go all over until the pieces are a good size. Probably not the best way to chop garlic, but it works for me.

(As an aside - has anyone else noticed how incredibly swollen my fingers look in these photos?! )

3. When the bacon has finished cooking, remove from the pan. I like to set it on a plate covered with a paper towel so that some of the grease will drain off. Also, if you have an assistant in the kitchen with you, make sure that they don't steal too much of your ingredients.

4. Add the olive oil to the pan and let it heat slightly, then add vegetables and spices and stir thoroughly to combine.

5. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for approximately 5 minutes, or until tender.

6. While peppers and garlic are cooking, combine eggs and milk in a small bowl.

7. When vegetables are done, add egg mixture to the pan. Stir slightly to cover the vegetables evenly with egg.

8. Sprinkle cheese on top of eggs and vegetables.

9. Cover and cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes, or until the eggs have set.

To serve the frittata, run a hard spatula around the edge of the pan. It shouldn't stick to the pan as the grease from the bacon and the olive oil should have made a nice nonstick coating.

And thats it - enjoy! It may not look like much, but it was really tasty. We'll see if it does the trick. Dan gave this one a 3 on the HRS.

Until next time,

Banana Blackberry Almond Bread

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:04:00 +0000

I am officially 39 weeks pregnant today. The countdown clock says that baby Siefert will arrive in 6 days. Friday was my last day of work, so now I wait. I've determined that waiting for labor to start is sort of like waiting for Christmas morning and watching a car wreck in slow motion. I am both extremely excited to see the little one, to give him kisses and hold his little fingers and toes in my hands, and also nervous and anxious and worried what labor will be like and if I'll be able to do it. And then I think, of course I'll be able to do it! As one of my favorite people on the planet says, "I am an all powerful Amazon warrior, not just some sniveling girl!" (That's Ani DiFranco, for everyone who doesn't know.) I will be able to do it - like the many many women who have come before me! I am woman - here me roar (and most likely scream and curse and cry).

Today, since I still have some semblance of energy, I thought I'd wait and cook. We've had a couple of bananas in our fruit bowl for much too long, and what is it that we do with over-ripe bananas? Make banana bread of course!

This morning I found a recipe on Food Network that sounded delicious, so I used that as my base. Banana bread usually has walnuts in it, but Dan doesn't really care for walnuts, so my first substitution was slivered almonds instead of walnuts. While pulling out the rest of the ingredients, I saw some blackberries in the fridge that I had bought on sale a couple of days ago, with the intent of having them in my cereal in the morning. I had them once - unbelievably sweet, sweeter than I remembered blackberries being - but I haven't been much in the mood for breakfasts lately (perhaps due to the impending arrival). So, for fear that I would go into labor soon and the blackberries would go to waste, I decided to add them in too. Wah-lah: Banana Blackberry Almond Bread was born.

(adapted from Momma Callie's Banana Nut Bread from Down Home with the Neely's)

1 stick of butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 large very ripe bananas

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup blackberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put a rack on the middle shelf. Spray a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. (May loaf pan was 8.5x5x4 - anything close will do.)

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In a separate small bowl, mash the bananas, leaving a bit of texture. My bananas were so ripe that this was extremely easy. I used a dinner fork and it seemed to do the trick perfectly.

4. In a separate bowl, or a stand-mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Cream until light and fluffy.

I had a discussion with my mother last night about when to use which of the stand-mixer attachments. I always just used the whisk-type attachment, not really knowing what the other ones were for. She said that for creaming things and making cookie doughs, she likes to use the flat beater, and leaves the whisk for things that are supposed to be fluffy - like meringues. So I tried the flat beater on this and it worked perfectly. See mom - sometimes I do listen to your advice!

5. Add the eggs. Stir in the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla and beat just until combined.

6. Add the dry ingredients. My stand-mixer came with a great no-splatter attachment that I like to use when adding flour so that the flour dust doesn't end up everywhere. I pour the dry mix through the spout, little by little.

The batter should look something like this after the dry ingredients are added.

7. Stir in the almonds.

8. Coarsely chop the blackberries using a sharp knife. They are too big to put in the bread whole, but you don't want to mash them too much so that they loose all of their texture.

Fold the chopped blackberries into the batter.

9. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

10. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

I don't know about you, but I like bread when it is still warm. I cut off a slice almost immediately and it held together perfectly. Mmmm.

Dan hasn't tried this one yet, so I'll have to give you an update later on the Husband's Rating Scale. Smells pretty good though, so I'd imagine it'll get at least a 3.

If I go into labor within the next couple of days, I most likely won't be back on the blog until after Christmas, so let me take the opportunity now to wish you all a very merry, joyous and reflective Christmas. A prayer for us all - that we don't lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas behind all the hustle and bustle of the day. May we all know the joy of family, friends and giving of ourselves for the people we love.

Until next time,

My Favorite Christmas Cookie

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:00:00 +0000

I'm not sure why, but it seems that Christmas is the perfect season for making cookies. My family has always made cookies at Christmas, giving them to family and friends as gifts or just enjoying them at a family gathering. The traditional cookie of my family's Christmas is a raspberry almond thumbprint cookie with a drizzle of almond icing - if I weren't so pregnant, I'd probably have made both those and these as they truly remind me of home. But, a couple of years ago, when Dan and I were living in Florida, far away from our families, I started making these cookies. With their perfect combination of flavors, they were immediately a favorite of everyone who I made them for. With all the fanfare, I decided to take on this cookie as my classic Christmas cookie - the one cookie that people will remember as my specialty at Christmastime. Pretty easy and unbelievably delicious, this may just be one of your family's new favorites too.

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup dried tart cherries

1/2 cup slivered almonds

1. Position two racks in the center and top third of the oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl.

I don't have a traditional "sifter" so I use a strainer and push the dry ingredients through it using a spoon. It seems to do the trick and I end up with a nice, light mixture. The bowl I used was WAY bigger then it needed to be. This is all you use this bowl for. (I should have read through the recipe like a good girl before I chose my tools.)

4. Using an electric mixer, beat butter (at room temperature), sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl until well blended.

Don't they look cozy.

This is the consistency you are looking for. It takes a bit of time, but you want to make sure that it is very well mixed, almost creamy.

5. Mix in egg and both extracts.

I always break my eggs into a separate glass because I don't trust myself to not get any shell into the mixture. For this, I added the extracts right to the glass, then poured the whole thing into the mixing bowl.

The mixed ingredients should look about like this - creamy but thick enough to form peaks.

6. Beat flour mixture into sugar mixture.

It is important that you mix in all of the last four (larger) ingredients separately so that they are well distributed throughout the dough. You can stir them in by hand, but I like to use the "stir" setting on my mixer. After integrating the oats, chocolate chips, cherries and almonds, the dough becomes very thick and can be difficult to stir by hand.

7. Mix in oats.

8. Mix in chocolate chips.

9. Mix in cherries.

10. Mix in almonds.

After the almonds are mixed in, your dough will be incredibly thick, which is good for the cookies but bad for your mixer, so make sure you keep it on a low speed.

11. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets (that have been previously lined with parchment), spacing them about 2" apart.

12. Bake cookies 12 minutes, then switch and rotate baking sheets and bake an additional 6 minutes, or until golden.

13. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets. Cookies will firm as they cool.

If you are going to a party and want to bring these cookies, they maintain their texture for about a week when stored in an airtight container. Of course, if I made them 1 week in advance, they would never make it to the party!

And yes, they taste as good (if not better) than they look!

Until next time,

Cream Cheese Bars

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:36:00 +0000

It is holiday party season - a time of year I always love and that is often over too quickly. This year, though, I am a little less in the holiday spirit and much more in the can't-wait-for-baby-to-be-here frame of mind. At 37 weeks pregnant (and with a sinus infection that has suddenly overtaken my body), cooking for, attending and overall enjoying holiday parties isn't as easy as it should be.

This Friday is my work holiday party - an informal gathering for food and fun. About a month ago, I signed up to make a dessert for the party. Originally I was thinking of making something that everyone would ooo-and-aahh over, but as my pregnancy progressed I realized that an imaginative and luscious creation would be no small endeavor. And so, with little energy and a belly full of baby, I decided to go with a family favorite - Auntie Donna's cream cheese bars.

Cream cheese bars have been a Christmas staple for my family for as long as I can remember. Every Christmas Eve, Auntie Donna hosts a party with some of my favorite foods - Portuguese cacoila and crockpot chicken wings come immediately to mind. The star of the show, though, is the cream cheese bars. Knowing how much my mom, my sister and I love these bars, Auntie Donna always keeps a tupperware of them in the fridge, that no one else knows about, for us to take home. Then, on Christmas morning, once we've opened our presents, we indulge with a little bite of cookie and cream cheese happiness.

These little gems are incredibly easy to make and literally everyone who has tasted them has fallen in love. Simply two layers of cookie with a cream cheese-based center with only 5 ingredients. A delectable, super easy to make, melt in your mouth treat.

2 packages (rolls) of Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough

2, 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

A couple of notes:

You could use any brand of refrigerated cookie dough, I suppose you could even make your own. However, I have tried it with the Nestle brand of cookie dough and I just don't think it comes out as good.

I always buy a third roll of cookie dough just in case. If you don't cut the cookie dough rolls thin enough, or your pan is a little big, you may run out of dough. This time I actually used only the two rolls, but this was the first time that has happened and I've made these bars a lot.

The cream cheese really needs to be room temperature to create the desired consistency for the filling. I took my cream cheese out about an hour before I intended to start the bars, but it still wasn't ready by the time I wanted to begin. To hasten the process, I set the oven to preheat and rested the cream cheese on the oven so that the heat would soften the cream cheese while I started the bars. It seemed to do the trick.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Our first step is to create a layer of cookie on the bottom of the pan. Open one roll of cookie dough and lay on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut the long into pieces that are about a 1/4" thick.

If your cookie dough is really cold, it may stay as a nice circle of dough which you can easily place into the bottom of the pan. If it isn't that cold, like mine was today, it'll crumble into pieces as you cut it. Either way, the end product will come out looking (and tasting) about the same.

Next, lay the cookie dough in the pan. Don't worry about filling all the gaps between the cookie pieces. When the bars bake, all the holes will fill in, and the cream cheese filling will be too thick to leak into the gaps.

3. For the filing, combine the cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla in a mixer bowl.

Cream the ingredients until somewhat smooth. How long it takes will depend on how soft your cream cheese is when you begin. The goal is to get a thick, creamy mixture that will spread easily onto the cookie dough layer. After the first minute of mixing, especially if your cream cheese isn't soft enough (as mine usually is), you'll have to scrape the cream cheese from the mixer.

The creamed filling can be a little lumpy, as long as the lumps are small. If the lumps are too large, some bites will taste like plain cream cheese, not like the sweetened, delicious mixture you intended. It should look something like the image below.

4. Spread the mixture over the cookie dough layer in the pan.

When spreading, be as gentle as possible so that you don't pull up the cookie pieces as you move the mixture around. There should be plenty of mixture to cover the whole pan.

5. Cut up the second roll of cookie dough and spread over the cream cheese mixture.

6. Bake the bars in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the top cookie layer is golden brown. Cool completely in the pan.

Once cooled, the bars can be cut into any size you'd like. To cut, use a sharp knife. The first one you take out usually falls apart (that is the one I eat). Once cut, the rest should come out easily with a fork.

The bars are very rich, so small, bite size bars are usually enough (and of course, people can go back for seconds). One pan can yield a whole lot of delicious goodness. I cut mine pretty small - this one pan yielded all of these (plus the couple that I ate as I was taking them out of the pan). The platter will come with me to the party on Friday night and I'm sure the plate will be gone well before then!

Cream cheese bars are best served room temperature or even cold. The colder the bar, the more rich the filling feels in the mouth. What adorable little beauties.

This one is yet another 5 on the Husband's Rating Scale. I promise, everyone is going to love these.

Husband's Rating Scale

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:41:00 +0000

I have a program for my Mac that I absolutely couldn't live without - MacGourmet. In fact, don't tell the Mac junkies this, but it is probably the thing I love the most about my Mac. Basically, MacGourmet is a program for storing, organizing, rating, creating and generally enjoying your recipes. It is a wonderful, incredibly useful program. It even lets you import recipes directly from popular recipe websites, like Food Network.

Now, I bring up MacGourmet because it was the impetus of adopting the Husband's Rating Scale. MacGourmet has a feature that lets you rate your recipes, on a scale of 1 to 5. However, when I would make something and ask the husband what rating he would give it, he pretty much always said 3 (except for really delicious desserts, which always get a 5). Dan is a middle of the road kind of guy, even tempered, generally calm and pleasant and will eat anything I put in front of him. But, as someone who loves him and wants to make him great food that he loves, I really wanted to know what he likes, or better yet, what he loves.

I stumbled upon the Husband's Rating Scale on another food blog, unfortunately I don't remember the name. As soon as I read it, I knew it would help with my dilemma. I think it is the perfect summary for guys like mine, who don't want to hurt your feelings and who deserve to eat what they love.

From now on, I'l label my recipes and posts with HRS # so that it is easy to find the best of the best. Hopefully, if Dan rates something a 1 or 2, I won't feel the need to share it with you all (unless I happen to think it is a 4 or a 5).

Until next time,

A Great Big Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (MrsSiefert) — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 23:43:00 +0000

Welcome all and thanks for coming!

You are probably wondering why, at 36 weeks and 7 days pregnant, I would choose to start my blog today. Well, the answer is simple - if I don't get it going now, I definitely won't feel the drive to start it once my little one is here! During my second trimester I got so much joy out of cooking new things and trying new recipes, that I began posting those recipes on my family website. Everyone seemed to love them so much that I began to think that I could support a fully cooking (and eating) related blog! So, a little over a month ago, I created the domain and template for the blog. Since then, every time I look at its empty frames, I can't help but think about how sad and pathetic it looks! So, today, since I am making one of my favorite things for a cold winter's day, and inspired by an old friend's launch of her own cooking blog, I figured, what the hay.

My first recipe:

I find it easiest to make chicken and wild rice soup with a pre-cooked chicken. Sometimes, I will buy a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store and use the meat for the soup. Today, since whole chickens were on sale, I decided to cook a whole chicken in the crockpot in preparation for the soup. With a bigger chicken, such as this 8 pounder, you can use some of the chicken in the soup and save some for other meals later in the week. This morning, however, I wasn't exactly in the mood to prepare the chicken, so I had Dan (the husband) open it up and drop it in for me. We cooked the chicken on high for 6 hours - you could cook it for less or more time, as long as it is cooked all the way through before adding it to the soup. (When I use a frozen chicken, I usually have to cook it on high for closer to 10 hours, but then I don't have to go through all the trouble of defrosting.)

You can start the soup when the chicken is almost finished cooking or, if you are like us, when you get back from Christmas shopping and the chicken is done (another reason to love a slow cooker!). You'll want to pull the chicken apart into big chunks and then coarsely chop it. I usually make Dan take over the task of pulling the chicken off the bones; I think that is a manly task that he seems to enjoy. This part is easiest to do with your hands.

This is an incredibly easy meal and it is so satisfying. Below are my instructions for this hearty and heart warming dish.

3-4 medium to large carrots
3-4 celery stalks
1/2 an onion
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups of chicken broth
1 package of Uncle Ben's Long Grain and Wild Rice
4 cups of water (or more if necessary)
2 chicken bouillon cubes
the meat of one chicken, roughly chopped or shredded (about 4 cups)

1. Peel, wash and slice the carrots. Wash and slice the celery. Peel and slice the onion. Put all of the vegetables into a large stock pot. Salt and pepper to taste. (I hate when recipes say "to taste" - can't you just give me a measurement?! However, we love pepper, don't use a lot of salt. We have mini salt and pepper grinders - I like 4 grinds of pepper and 2 grinds of salt. This soup doesn't need much seasoning because it uses the seasoning packet that comes with the rice.)

Peeled, washed and sliced

Everyone in the pool.

2. Add the chicken broth and everything that comes in the rice box (rice and seasoning). Give the entire mixture a good stir. Cook over medium high heat until boiling.

I love these big containers of broth. If you don't use it all, you can save it in the fridge.

Rice and seasoning.

3. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until most of broth has been absorbed into the rice and vegetables, about 20 minutes. Vegetables should be tender but not mushy (except the onions, which should be almost translucent).

4. Add water, bouillon cubes and chicken. If you like a really thick soup, 4 cups should be plenty of water. If you like your soup a little more brothy, you may need to add more. We like this soup to be nice and thick, almost like a stew. Return to a boil (over medium high heat) one more time, then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes more. This will make sure all of the flavors are integrated in the soup. Cool slightly and enjoy!

With the chicken and extra water.

As an extra Sunday treat, I made some Grands biscuits to go along with the soup. To me, there is nothing better than bread and soup (or biscuits and soup), especially on a cold night. Even if you aren't a seasoned chef (which trust me, I am not), this soup is so good and easy that you'll make it again and again (and your friends and family will ask for it again and again). Next post I'll tell you about my "Husband's Rating Scale" - for now, just know that Dan gives this one a 5 (out of 5), which is hard to achieve.

Looks good, right?

When I split the leftovers into tupperware for this week's lunches, I got 6 additional servings (for a total of 8 servings).

Until next time,