Kitchen Koala

Veggie Ventures: Kohlrabi

2012-02-11T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpse at veggies my husband and I want to grow but have never really eaten! Ok. We are admittedly guilty of falling into the trap of growing something in our garden because "it looks so gosh darn cool." That's what happened with kohlrabi, a member of the Brassica family. The name "kohlrabi" comes from the German words for "

Veggie Ventures: Rutabaga

2012-02-09T12:51:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpse at veggies my husband and I want to grow but have never really eaten! Rutabaga. Are you a fan? While thumbing through seed catalogs last spring, we came across the rutabaga. It looked like an overgrown turnip--purple on top with a whitish bottom part, and in fact I've often seen them in stores right next to the

Crazy Cooking Challenge: Chocolate Cake

2012-02-07T11:00:00.000-06:00

I came across the Crazy Cooking Challenge group during my Interweb travels last month, and since February's theme was "Chocolate Cake" I decided it would be a mighty fine time to join in on the fun! The Crazy Cooking Challenge is headed up by Tina over at Moms Crazy Cooking. The premise is simple: every month a theme recipe is selected, and everyone who wants to participate must scour the

Kitchen Koala's Anniversary Cake

2012-01-26T00:00:00.000-06:00

Since our wedding anniversary and Mr. K's birthday are only a few days apart, my initial plan was to eat our anniversary tier on the 15th and prepare a birthday cake for him on the 18th. I planned on making his birthday cake similar to his groom's cake from our wedding since there wasn't any left over for us to take home. It was a (too small) chocolate cake with pecan praline filling (in

Candy Cane Ice Cream

2012-01-24T12:53:00.000-06:00

Looking for a way to get rid of all those leftover candy canes from Christmas? Give this peppermint ice cream a try; you'll need 12 candy canes (a full box) to make it, so it should put a nice dent in your candy cane stash! I found the recipe over at Amanda's Cookin' last month, and I have to agree with her statement that the amount of vanilla extract in the recipe really makes it special.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-06:00

After a previous try at a cheesy-butternut squashy dish, I decided to see how well butternut squash would do in my regular macaroni & cheese recipe. In 2009 I tried out pumpkin mac & cheese, with very tasty results. This experiment yielded pretty good reviews, and the Mr. and I have had this dish several times since I first tried it out this summer. I used jumbo macaroni in the picture

A Year Ago Today...

2012-01-15T00:00:00.000-06:00

...I married my husband, the half that makes me whole. We smiled. We cried. We wed. We stood pretty on top of our wedding cake. It was lemon confetti cake with lemon curd and French buttercream. It was such a fun cake, and guests were delighted. We saved the top tier, but ultimately lost it during a freezer breakdown that went undiscovered for a bit too long. :( He

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

2012-01-12T00:00:00.000-06:00

Edited 1/24/2012: Today is National Peanut Butter Day! I happened to notice today that I ALREADY have a peanut butter cup ice cream recipe posted on the blog! I knew I made one previously because I tried to improve upon it for this edition, but I completely forgot that I posted that recipe. If you're interested in the post from August 2010, please click HERE. How do the two recipes compare

Lofthouse Sugar Cookies

2012-01-09T08:40:00.000-06:00

You know those Lofthouse cookies that people go absolutely beserk over? You know which ones--the soft & cakey ones you see at the grocery store, covered in a half-inch thick layer of icing and sprinkles. Well now you can make them yourself any time you want them (maybe that's not such a good thing). Sure, the internet is chock full of kopy kat recipes for this cookie, but from what I've

Bacon Cheddar Cheese Ball

2012-01-04T18:56:00.000-06:00

Big fan of those almond-crusted processed cheeze balls/logs that show up during the holidays? Don't worry, I won't tell. I like them too (except the wine-flavored ones). But if you're looking for a more "natural" version you can make any time of the year, you've come to the right place. That's right...you can have cheese balls any time of the year! Bacon Cheddar Cheese Ball Adapted from

Cajun Firecrackers

2012-01-01T16:01:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! I certainly hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe New Year's celebration. Now that you've finished cleaning up the mess left behind from last night's festivities, why not whip up a batch of Cajun Firecrackers? These tasty crackers are perfect for satisfying your cravings, and they're equally tasty whether you enjoy them alone or alongside a cheese ball (recipe coming soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T10:31:00.001-06:00

I hope that all of you are having a blessed and joyful Christmas season! There is so much to be thankful for this year (getting married, buying a house), but that's nothing compared to the coming attraction next year: the arrival of our sweet baby girl in March 2012! We can't wait :) Despite my lengthy absence from this blog, good things have been coming out of the oven over the past few

Sidelined

2011-09-09T10:20:00.001-05:00

It came and went without incident. Without notice, even. Two weeks ago, Kitchen Koala reached its 4th birthday, and had it not been for Teena in Toronto and Mary of One Perfect Bite wishing me a Happy Blogoversary the thought would've never crossed my mind! Thanks for being loyal readers, ladies! Special thanks also to all of you've stuck with me during my blogging hiatus and sporadic posting

Veggie Ventures: Swiss Chard

2011-07-19T00:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpseat veggies my husband and I want to grow but have never really eaten!"Bright Lights" variety of Swiss Chard (ooh, pretty colors!) Okay, so I'll admit we wanted to grow this variety of Swiss Chard based on looks alone. My love of all things rainbow pretty much guaranteed this one as a shoe-in for our fall vegetable garden! My

Veggie Ventures: Beets

2011-07-15T12:03:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpse at veggies my husband and I want to grow but have never really eaten! There doesn't seem to be much middle ground when it comes to beets--it seems people either love 'em or hate 'em, end of story. I wanted to be in the "love 'em" camp, but since I've only ever eaten salad bar beets I couldn't say for sure I'd enjoy them any other

Veggie Ventures: Radish

2011-06-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpseat veggies my husband and I want to grow but have never really eaten! 22 days from seed to table. That's how quickly radishes grow. Radishes are often suggested for first time gardeners and children because of their quick growth habits. Nearly instant gratifcation, and all in a cute and tidy package too. (There's no denying

Veggie Ventures: Spaghetti Squash

2011-06-28T13:12:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpseat veggies my husband and I would like to grow but have never really eaten! My husband ♥s carbs. Pasta, rice, potatoes, bread--you name it, he'll eat it (but only if the bread is white!) If he could get away with eating a spaghetti sandwich with a side of garlic bread, he probably would. Don't get me wrong--I love carbs too, but

Veggie Ventures: Butternut Squash

2011-06-24T00:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpseat veggies my husband and I would like to grow but have never really eaten! Butternut Squash. This was one I knew we'd both like, even though my only experience with it has been in this form: I know. Shameful, isn't it? When I was trying out vegetarianism, this Lean Cuisine meal was a lunchtime mainstay. So I knew that I at

Veggie Ventures: Acorn Squash

2011-06-21T13:39:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the Veggie Ventures series, where we'll take a glimpse at veggies my husband and I would like to grow but have never really eaten! If anybody could be accused of growing things in their garden simply because they look "fun", we'd be guilty, guilty, guilty. Acorn squash is one of those fun looking vegetables that made it onto our fall gardening list by looks alone. But how would it

Veggie Ventures: Winter Squash

2011-06-16T11:42:00.005-05:00

With our summer garden in full swing, our thoughts are turning to what vegetables we'll be planting in our fall garden. We haven't planned out how we're going to arrange furniture when we move into our first house, but we sure have the backyard mapped out! It was a difficult decision, but we're going to start 'small' and only build three 4x4 Square Foot Garden boxes. Only three. Sigh. When

Baked Jalapeno Poppers

2011-06-14T22:22:00.001-05:00

It's been hit or miss with our pepper plants. The bell peppers were producing fruit and looking great, but it seems they've caught something that's causing them to rot instead of ripen :( We are still investigating what's going on with them. The jalapeños on the other hand, are a whole other story. Each of the four plants is steadily churning out peppers for us! What to do with all those

Chunky Garden Salsa

2011-06-10T14:50:00.001-05:00

Once we collected enough tomatoes from the garden to make the project worthwhile, we set out on our salsa project. Who knew making your own salsa would be so labor intensive? We sure didn't. To be fair, it probably had to do with the dozens upon dozens of tiny tomatoes we had to blanch and peel. Most of the tomatoes in our salsa are from our 'Juliet' tomato plant, which produces grape

Hobbies: Part II

2011-06-08T00:00:00.006-05:00

My (our, really) other new hobby is gardening! Right now all of our plants are in pots so they'll be easy to pick up and transport when we move. The only exception is the cantaloupe, which started out as a teeny tiny 3-inch transplant that quickly outgrew the pot we planted it in. Take a look: There are three cantaloupe currently growing on that sprawling monster of a vine, and we can't wait

Hobbies: Part I

2011-06-06T15:40:00.001-05:00

With very little baking getting accomplished during my post-work hours, one might wonder just what in the world I've been up to. Well for starters, Mr. Koala and I have been burning through our Netflix list to catch up on television series that recently piqued our interest: Fringe, The Mentalist, Heroes, and Lost. (Honorable Mention goes to Criminal Minds, which we've been catching on A&E and

Five Months

2011-06-03T18:20:00.002-05:00

Q: "So...how's married life?" (asked by pretty much EVERYONE I've crossed paths with since the wedding) A: "Fantastic! Things are going along swimmingly!" The past five months have been filled with nothing but wonderful, busy, joy-filled days. Our Disney World honeymoon was better than I could have ever imagined. It was quite a sight to see how quickly the two of us reverted back to giddy,