Quick Garlic Bread

I’ve never made garlic bread before. I was always the…buy some from the freezer aisle and throw it in the oven type. It’s so good, I just felt like it would be more complicated that it really is. And honestly…I didn’t even look up a recipe for this. I was like, lets use my cooking instinct.

I bought a block of KerryGold butter and a baguette from Society Fair the day before and when it was decided I was making fancy spaghetti for dinner, I decided to use my left over baguette to finish off the meal. Garlic bread literally tastes like, butter, garlic and Italian herbs. So that is what I did. I cubed up some room temperature butter, a couple cloves of garlic, and sprinkled in some dried Italian herb mix. Stir.

I cut the baguette in half, then I generously rubbed my butter mixture on it. In every nook and cranny.

Then I baked it in a preheated oven at 375F and watched it until browned. I like mine extra garlicky, and the Kerrygold was salted, so it was deeelicious.

Posted on December 3, 2014 by miemo 0

December Already?!

My, my, my. Where has the time gone. It is already December 2014. Things have been slow around the blog, I know. But no apologies. Never any apologies. I am thankful that you guys come by and read, and share, definitely. But life is worth living! That being said, I will try to be much better about blogging.

Its been a hectic couple of months but I will try my hardest to be back. Now that I’m not as sickly, and back at cooking. YAY more things to write about. But really, December, where has the time gone? I am super excited to put up a tree this year. We skipped last year, because we were worried Bawse was too young and would destroy it when we left. But he is almost 2, so lets hope he’s better about it.

That being said, here is a couple of my old holiday drink posts to help you get into the spirit!

Mulled Wine

Hot Vanilla Bourbon Cider

Posted on December 1, 2014 by miemo 0

Succotash

This is one of my favorite side dishes. In the summer I like to use fresh corn, but since that’s not in season anymore sweet frozen corn and lima beans will do!

Chop onions, and squash, don’t forget to smash and mince the garlic.

Melt down butter and olive oil.

Toss in garlic and onions.

Add the squash, and cook until a little bit clear. Then add the corn and lima beans, and season it with salt and pepper! So easy, yet so tasty. I can’t even write a recipe for this because you can make it your own way, to taste! Enjoy.

Posted on November 26, 2014 by miemo 0

Fancy Mac N Cheese

Caramelized onions, cheese, bacon, macaroni. All delicious, even better together. One of the favorite sides I make is this glorious dish. I got the recipe from The Pioneer woman herself, but made it with my own favorite cheeses. So definitely make it your own way, after reading her instructions.

First you gotta prep all your ingredients, so you aren’t scrambling around for them later. I like an organized kitchen. Bacon takes the longest, so it goes first. After its mostly cooked, but not too cooked, I set it aside. Save about 2 tablespoons of bacon fat too.

Then in the hot bacon fat, I sautee the onions. Your house should smell fabulous at this point.

Then set everything aside.

Boil your macaroni for half the time they tell you to on the box. Drain and set that aside. Now for the fun part.

Take the bacon fat you reserved, and melt it down with some butter.

Measure out your cheese and your flour while the butter melts.

Don’t forget to whisk it real good. Then slowly add the flour and keep whisking so it is smooth.

Then add your dairy…

And your seasoning.

While that cooks, whisk together the egg yolks. Then grab a quarter cup of that hot milky, buttery, fatty liquid…

And slowly whisk it into the eggs. Then add it back to the pot!

Stir in the cheese until melted. Turn off heat.

Add in the bacon and onions.

Stir in the macaroni.

Lay it out on a baking dish and then top with more cheese and some bacon. Then watch it disappear at dinner. You can find this recipe at The Pioneer Woman’s Website. My changes were just the kinds of cheese I used. I used cheddar, gruyere, and an italian mix. Enjoy!

Posted on November 24, 2014 by miemo 0

Turkey Day Turkey

I don’t know about you, but roasting a turkey for Thanksgiving is super intimidating. I can roast chickens all day, but something about the turkey that makes my cooking confidence zero. No matter how much I read on how to do it. It just makes me nervous. My older brother is always in charge of roasting/deep frying the turkey, even if it’s my year to host.

Well this year, we are headed to my husband’s family’s home for Thanksgiving. He so boldly volunteered to cook the turkey. To my disbelief. To prepare for it, I made a trial turkey to brine. For some reason, they didn’t put out whole turkeys yet, so I had to work with a turkey breast with wings…no dark meat. Weird right?

I usually would measure out salt, herbs, etc for the brine. But we found this jar of stuff, and decided to try it out. It’s also got dried fruit in it. I approve.

If you don’t already have one, and you cook a turkey every year, I suggest you get one. It’s just a big multipurpose bucket from home depot. With a lid. This is where I’m brining the turkey overnight.

Instead of a whole gallon of water, I dissolved the salt mixture in half a gallon of water, and then half a gallon of apple cider.

Dunk your turkey in there, I like to put the hole at the top so it can fill up and sink to the bottom. Cover and set outside (if it’s cold enough) and let it brine overnight.

The next day I opened up and saw that the turkey was completely submerged. YAY!

After I took out the turkey, I stuffed it with these goodies to make it fragrant.

Then I rubbed it down with butter, lemon zest and herbs.

My over is a little uneven. But pretty successful for the first try. The meat was cooked all the way through and it was surprisingly moist! It took me a few hours to cook it. I preheated the oven to 450F, then when the turkey went in I turned it down to 350, then basted every 30 minutes or so. If it gets brown too quickly, you can loosely cover with foil.

Do you have any turkey tips?

Posted on November 19, 2014 by miemo 0

Lao Food: Sour Fruit Dipping Sauce

I have been craving sour stuff lately. I follow some Lao women on instagram, and I saw that they made some green mangoes with a dipping sauce that my mom used to make. It definitely brought me back. I remember Maman would make those and I would end up eating fist fulls of mangoes and then giving myself a tummy ache after. Sad to say, I still haven’t learned my lesson. The last time I had this was when my mom was still alive. It was definitely nostalgic, biting into that sour mango with the salty, spicy, sweet sauce.

Ingredients, Fish Sauce, Shallot, Red Thai Chili Pepper, sugar and toasted rice powder.

Mince the peppers and shallots.

Stir sugar into the fish sauce to taste.

Mix in the fresh ingredients.

Add the toasted sticky rice powder.

Stir, stir, stir.

Let it chill in the fridge while you wash, peel and cut your mangoes. Everything is to taste, so no measurements. You got this. It definitely hit the spot. I was a little sad because one of my mangoes was a little bit sweet.

Posted on November 12, 2014 by miemo 0

Pumpkin Carving with the Kiddies

Since our neighborhood rarely has any trick or treaters. We went to our friend's house and did Halloween stuff with their kids.

The adults carved out the tops and kiddos gutted them.

Then we had them trace their patterns onto the pumpkin. The the adults cut out the shapes and the kids pulled them out.

She's super proud of her work. Great team!

I of course took the seeds, cleaned them, then seasoned and baked them. That's my favorite part of carving pumpkins!

Posted on October 31, 2014 by miemo 0

Calvert Rejuvenations

Located past some winding road through trees (just kidding it wasn’t that dramatic) my sis Ashley and Tu went to have a spa day. We got Herbology Retexturizing Body Treatment. Which is basically an herbal scrub. The outside looked like a small medical office building, but inside was a lavendar little fairy land.

We were moved to a nice oasis room, where we were given tea and forms to fill out while our therapists were getting ready. Each of us were ushered into our own rooms. Here you can pick out your own aromatherapy scent. I chose peppermint.

Most of my body scrubs have been done on vacation as a treat yourself, but this place is really nice, and did a great job, so I might get another one at the start of spring! She was very good, and I love that the crystallized herbs soak into your skin so you don’t have to shower off the scrub before the moisturizing massage. It was a much needed “treat yo self” place.

Calvert Rejuvenations
485 CARLISLE DR.
HERNDON, VA 20170

Posted on October 22, 2014 by miemo 0

Life with Bawse: Hiking

Okay, lets be honest. I don’t feel like what we did was really hiking, more like taking a stroll on rugged terrain. We were planning on going to the Shenandoahs this weekend but it was scheduled to rain. We still wanted to get out so we too the pup to Great Falls, VA.

Bawse got a new backpack and we wanted to test it out. It’s perfect. He can carry his own water, bowl, treats, food, and poop bags now yay! And he walks pretty normal with it. We got him the Kurgo Wander Dog Pack and it’s perfect for our pitbull.

Bawse was so excited, he basically pulled the whole time. Not fun for his daddy. For the most part he was good at ignoring the other dogs, unless he was allowed to meet them. He met a girl pitbull and he was totally smitten he didn’t wanna leave her to continue our walk.

There was one weird guy with a labradoodle that kind of annoyed me though. We saw them coming, so we stepped off trail, and had Bawse sit and focus on me. He was doing really well, and all would have been fine if they guy kept walking past. But no, he just stopped in front of us with his dog.

Like. Really bro, wtf. Keep it moving. He didn’t say anything he just stood in front of us. Bawse must have felt uncomfortable because after sitting for a little while and them not moving on Bawse went towards the other dog, who then tensed up and they lunged at each other. We decided to just start walking. That was weird. And annoying.

Other than that he did pretty good, he just needs practice and desensitize from all the excitement of the sights (which I doubt will ever happen because nature is too exciting)!

The best part is a worn out puppy afterwards!

Posted on October 20, 2014 by miemo 0

Thunder Beast Root Beer

I don’t drink anymore, so when I found out there was a brewery, that focuses on ROOT BEER, I was intrigued to know more. At the recent Yelp event, I got to meet Stephen Norborg and taste Thunder Beast root beer. Oh. My. Goodness. It was like nothing I’ve tasted before. Its smooth, with a hint of maple to start, sweet but not cloyingly so, and ends with a note of butterscotch. I’m not talking yellow wrapped grandma butterscotch candy, but like a smooth buttery one like a Werthers.

It’s a small, locally operated company, which is fine by me, because I think that’s what makes it so great. After talking to him you can tell he’s got a great passion for his craft, and you can taste the love he puts into his product. Currently they only have their root beer by the bottle, but I hear there’s a delicious ginger beer that shows up at farmers markets and trade shows. I gotta figure out how to get my hands on one!

According to their site:

Our root brewskis of freedom are:

Caffeine Free
Corn Syrup Free
Gluten Free
Crafted With Passion and Care
Drank Heavily by Us
A Suspected Love Potion
Made With real American Thunder

I’m going to definitely need a keg of this in the near future. Maybe Mardi Gras!

Posted on October 17, 2014 by miemo 0

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