Recipe of the week: Cranberry Rosemary Muffins

Several months ago I had breakfast at a restaurant called The Curious Palate in Mar Vista (Venice).  If you're even in that area I highly recommend you check them out, they're all about farm to table, and you know how much I love that!  Anyway, we had breakfast, everything was delicious.  They had these muffins and I've been looking for a recipe but I haven't been able to find one, so after experimenting a little bit, this is what I came up with.  Let me know what you think.  A Votre Sante!

Cranberry Rosemary Muffins

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 unbleached flour
1 egg
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp orange rind
3/4 tsp salt
2-3 tsp fresh rosemary
3/4 fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup chopped cranberries

Topping:
2 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp fresh rosemary
1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin pan with muffin liners.

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients and the orange rind.  In a separate large bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat in the egg and then the orange juice.  Add the dry ingredients one cup at a time until just incorporated.  Fold in the chopped cranberries.  Scoop into muffin cups.  In a small bowl mix the brown sugar, flour and rosemary, cut in the butter until mixture is crumbly.  Sprinkle tops with brown sugar mixture.

Bake at for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Things I'm thankful for...

It's November 10th and I realized I haven't posted since last month.  I can hardly believe the Holidays are upon us.  I love fall, as you already know and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  At our house I like to go around the table and have each person say what they are thankful for.  This month I see a lot of people on Facebook saying each day what they're grateful for, I'm late coming into it so I thought I'd just list a few things here.

1. A God who loves me no matter what!
2. My health
3. A loving husband
4. Three smart, healthy, talented children that are growing up to be amazing people
5. Having a loving family (parents, sister, cousins)
6. Being able to live in a free country
7. Dear friends that love and support me
8. My job and getting to work with great people
9. Opportunities to grow and change
10. My talents/skills 

I encourage you to take a little time this month and reflect on what you're grateful for.  Even in hard seasons we have a lot to be thankful for (trust me, on this one!). 

Ciao!

Recipe of the week: Candy Bar Cookies

What are you going to do with all that leftover Halloween candy?  Make cookies of course!  This recipe calls for mini Snickers bars but I'm sure the snack size cut into 3 pieces would work.  You can also use Milky Way, Reeses, Baby Ruth, Twix....whatever you like.  I don't make these very often because they're not very healthy, but once in a while won't hurt.  Enjoy!


Candy Bar Cookies
1 cup softened butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
3 cups flour
1 tsp.baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
60 snickers miniature candy bars
chocolate glaze (recipe below)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.  In large bowl beat together margarine or butter, peanut butter, sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda then add to peanut butter mixture, beat until combined.  For each cookie shape a rounded Tbsp of dough around a candy piece, forming a ball. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake @ 350 for 15 mins, cool on rack.  After they're cool drizzle with glaze.


Chocolate glaze:
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp milk
add additional milk 1 tsp. at a time
mix all ingredients together

DIY foot scrub

Last year for Christmas my mom asked for family pictures, we didn't end up getting them done because my step-dad hasn't been well enough.  So tomorrow is finally the day we're going to get them done.  We're all wearing jeans and black shirts, I found the cutest shirt at work last week, yay.  I'd like a picture of the five of us barefoot, this week has been busy with back to back football games so I didn't have time for a pedicure like I'd wanted.  I made a scrub for my feet out of stuff in my pantry and refrigerator and it came out well.  My feet are super soft!  (Just make sure you rinse the tub out well after you wash your feet, you don't want to slip the next time you take a shower. )  After a couple of coats of coral nail polish, I think my feet are ready for their close up : )  


In a bowl mix:
2 Tbsp raw sugar
1 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp oatmeal ground into a fine powder in the blender
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh grapefruit juice (or other citrus)
It's going to be a thick paste.  Smear on your feet, wait about 15 minutes and wash off.  I wrapped my feet in plastic grocery bags after I put the scrub on so I could still walk around and not make a mess.  Enjoy your beautiful feet!
Ciao.

The Golden Box

Some time ago a man punished his 5-year-old daughter for wasting
a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and
he became even more upset when the child pasted the gold paper
so as to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her father
the next morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy."
The father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his
anger flared again when he found the box was empty.

He spoke to her in a harsh manner, "Don't you know, young lady,
when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something
inside the package?"

The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and
said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until
it was full."

The father was crushed.

He fell on his knees and put his arms around his little girl,
and he begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.

An accident took the life of the child only a short time later
and it is told that the father kept that gold box by his bed for
all the years of his life. And whenever he was discouraged or
faced difficult problems he would open the box and take out an
imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it
there.

In a very real sense, each of us as human beings has been given
a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our
children, family, friends and God. There is no more precious
possession anyone could hold.

~Author Unknown~

Recipe of the week: Stuffed Spaghetti Squash

I love spaghetti squash, until my kids were older they didn't even know what pasta was.  We like it with marinara sauce or with sauce and meatballs.  I've recently made it and stuffed it with onions, mushrooms, zucchini and spinach, topped with some parmesan cheese and basil.  It goes well with marinara sauce (for the vegetarians in my house), it also goes nicely with a ribeye, like the one I just had or red sauce with meatballs.  If you try it let me know what you think.  A Votre Sante!

Ingredients:
One spaghetti squash, about 4 lbs cut in half and cleaned out
2Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion sliced
1 glove garlic diced
1-2 cups sliced mushrooms
1-2 sliced zucchini
3-4 cups spinach
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp basil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375.  Slice spaghetti squash in half and discard seeds.  (I use an ice cream scoop to clean mine out).  Put the halves in a 9x13 pan with 1/2 inch of water, cover with foil and bake for 40-45 minutes.

While the squash is in the oven, put 2 tbsp olive oil in a skillet (I always use cast iron), saute the onion, mushrooms, zucchini.  When those vegis are almost done toss in the spinach, you want the spinach barely cooked.  Take the squash out the oven and spoon the mixture into one of the halves.  I like to leave one of the halves plain and stuff the other.  Top with the parmesan, basil, salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with marinara sauce, meat sauce or just eat it like it is....enjoy!

What Mom Taught Me

MOM taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE:
"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside.
I just finished cleaning!"

MOM taught me RELIGION:
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

MOM taught me about TIME TRAVEL:
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the
middle of next week!"

MOM taught me LOGIC:
"Because I said so, that's why."

MOM taught me FORESIGHT:
"Make sure you wear clean underwear in case you're in an
accident."

MOM taught me IRONY:
"Keep laughing and I'll give you something to cry about."

MOM taught me about the science of OSMOSIS:
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"

MOM taught me about CONTORTIONISM:
"Will you look at the dirt on the back of your neck!"

MOM taught me about STAMINA:
"You'll sit there until all that spinach is finished."

MOM taught me about WEATHER:
"It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."

MOM taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS:
"If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you,
would you listen then?"

MOM taught me about HYPOCRISY:
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times,
Don't exaggerate!!!"

MOM taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION:
"Stop acting like your father!"

MOM taught me about ENVY:
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who
don't have wonderful parents like you do!"

And most of all ..... MOM taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE:
"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

Author Unknown