Pink for Valentines day!!

The McDaniel household weekly date night is spaghetti and cheap red wine Friday. So with Valentine's day falling on a Friday, we found no need to brave the crowds, but wanted to do something a little different. So the hubby said he had it 'handled' when I asked about dinner. And did he ever! 

Fresh Market was selling pre-packaged meals. This included a dozen pink roses(that are just now in full gorgeous bloom), Caeser salad, asparagus, 2 chateaubriand cuts of steak, and chocolate covered strawberries! 

We roasted the asparagus and I seared up the meat with salt and pepper. 

Even used our 'fancy china' and had a set table(albeit in front of the tv). And our other valentines(our fur babes), also got some steak.

That Saturday, we attended a lovely Vday party with friends where I made red beans and rice(will NOT make again) as I found it tasted like Mexican refried beans and also some red velvet whoopie pies. I mixed a few recipes but the mix was boxed and there was marshmallow fluff in the filing. 

My valentines nails...

Pink pink and more pink...

I have discovered this quick dry top coat.

 Tho my nails chip quickly(thinking or trying a no chip coat before this), it's worth it to have instantly dry nails. 

What did you do on valentines day? What nail combos have you been rocking? 

A Pinterestastic weekend!!!!!

Pinterest is my friend(most of the time), this weekend was a Pinterest success as far as recipes, even though mine weren't as pretty. That's probably why I have no original pics. Read on! 

This past week was apparently taco week. We had tacos on Monday night, I had taco salad for lunch one day, not to mention 2 nights out for Mexican food. So keeping in theme we had R over for Tacos Friday night except this time I switched it up and made Korean tacos. I have used this recipe twice and it's a favorite of everyone's. 

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2011/11/slow-cooker-shredded-korean-beef-tacos.html?m=1

I made rice and the hubs picked up some banchan(side dishes) up for us all to share. After all, what is a Korean dinner without some spicy cabbage Kimchi? 

Sidebar** watched Last Vegas. It was pretty funny! 

Part of the reason the BIL came over was to discuss the upcoming BBQ fest. We had decided last minute(Fri morn) to have people over for ribs on Sat. In my opinion, one of the best things about BBQ fest is the time leading up to it. The 'practices' where we gather and talk about all the good times ahead. Almost better than the competition itself. 

So, as the years have passed, I've really worked at becoming a more efficient hostess since many of these parties are at our place. Mainly this involves placing limitations on the things I make(cook, make or mix). I narrowed it down to 2 items, a dessert and an appetizer. After watching Diners Drive-ins and Dives Fri eve, I got the idea of Mac and cheese muffins(see clip below)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/ringside-mac-n-cheese-muffins-0208289.html 

So I got on Pinterest looking for one of the many m&c recipes I knew I stored. I found the below buffalo mac and cheese and was sold. I thought I could modify it to make 'muffin bites' but it ended up being too time consuming and only 80% successful the first batch(meaning some fell apart). I don't think there was enough glue when I baked them to stay together, so plan B became a casserole that was gone within 15 minutes. A definite make again! 

http://lentzedlife.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/freezer-for-matt-buffalo-chicken-pasta-bake/

For dessert, I went with a classic combo of peanut butter and chocolate. And they ended up tasting exactly like my FAVE treat-Buckeyes(you Ohioans know what I'm talking about). I lined the pan with foil and cut them into slices and it was seriously one of the easiest desserts I've made. And those of you who have gone thru the process of making Buckeye candy, will know how difficult that can be.  Another make again!

http://www.heatovento350.com/2011/01/reeses-peanut-butter-cups-only-better.html?m=1

I don't count this as an item I made, but wanted to mention it bc apparently Snickerdoodles are M's favorite? Or at least he couldn't stop eating them. I keep a pkg in my fridge if I know kids are coming over so we have something to do if they get restless. I promised little Ms.B we'd 'bake' the next time she was over so I got these-and will definitely be purchasing again.

My baking buddy! 

Sunday night was our first hosting of a HS Bible study. I didn't have any girls show up, but we had a few guys who raved about this buffalo garbage bread I made. I figured it was the perfect thing to make since it was easy, inexpensive, but mostly bc I had many of the ingredients already from the buffalo mac. 

http://emmalinaviolet.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/buffalo-chicken-garbage-bread/

This recipe provides so many options! Pizza bread and other flavors will definitely be in the future. A crowd pleaser and perfect for hungry High schoolers. 

In other news, I'm slowly working on my closet re-org. This involves getting new(matching) non-slip hangers, doesn't it look so nice already? 

Just need to either get rid of some(and by some I mean a LOT) clothes and/or get more hangers....more hangers it is! :)

Super Bowl(s full of cookies) weekend

Aren't these cookies pretty cute? I googled super bowl cookies and football cookies and came up with these 2 ideas. Football field sugar cookies & gluten free chocolate cookie sandwiches. 

Disclaimer* I used store bought sugar cookie dough since I was baking another kind of cookie from scratch. I would probably do scratch made dough next time but look for a recipe that doesn't expand quite so much. Needless to say, after baking, I had to recut these into the right shape since they spread in the oven. 

Royal icing recipe used. I used orange extract and green food coloring was added for the field. 

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/230296/glossy-royal-icing

Using Wilton decorating bags, I piped lines where the 'crowd' would meet the field.

I tried two methods, dipping the cookies in thinned out frosting and dipping into sprinkles AND spooning the icing onto the edges and shaking the sprinkles onto the cookie. I recommend the second. 

I made a fresh batch of frosting bc I had sprinkles everywhere, and dyed this batch 'grass' green. I piped a rectangle for the field, squeezed out some extra, and spread it out(using the back of a spoon) to create the field. 

After allowing the field to completely dry, I piped on white field lines and yard numbers. 

This icing set really well, so after it dried there wasn't a lot of breakage which is great. I'll definitely use that royal icing recipe again. Good if you need to transport cookies to a different location. 

Nobody at the party was gluten free but this recipe looked so simple, I thought I'd give it a try.

http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2010/10/sandwich-cookies-gluten-grain-and-sugar-free.html

 A few notes, almond flour is expensive. Like I could only find one kind at FM and it was 13 bucks a bag. 

I have been told that gluten free cookie flour works pretty a well, so if I do something else gluten free, I may go that route. 

The dough came together so easy. It was working with it that was a nightmare. This dough gets soft really fast, like in a minute or two kind of fast. So rolling it out, using a cookie cutter and trying to get them onto trays without a misshapen football didn't work. I did find that cutting it and placing it back in the freezer before trying to place the shapes on the cookie sheet was the trick. Once I did this, it was smooth sailing. 

I used leftover royal frosting to pipe on the football lines. (Every other one since they were sandwiches)

Then I made the filling which was very sweet. 

http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2010/10/simple-meringue-frosting-refined-sugar-free.html

(Recipe link for filling is included in post)

Using a Wilton decorating bag, I piped the meringue onto the underside of the cookies and put them together.

Easy Peezy once I figured out how to work with the dough. These actually tasted pretty good as well. The cookie has a very salty/sweet flavor so it paired well with the very sweet filling. 

Both cookies seemed to be a hit. And a good time was had by all at the party. Except the Denver fans, what a bummer game for them. 

We got chairs for our desk, been looking for lamps now. Can't decide if we should get one or two. 

Hope everyone had a great time this weekend. Counting down the days until football season begins again!!!