Valentine Hearts

Happy Valentine's Day! We had a fun day celebrating with hearts. We got our heart pizza from Papa Murphy's.

I made chocolate cupcakes with blushing cream cheese frosting. I got the idea of the brownie hearts on top from Martha Stewart.

I didn't forget about baby. For his first Valentine's Day, I cut out graham cracker hearts, which he stuffed all the way into his mouth. So cute!

We also have an assortment of chocolates to eat. Plus, chocolate covered strawberries. Yummy!

Pavlova

I did not forget to mention that we had pavlova for dessert at the dinner group I attended. It was not included in my previous post because it was not a recipe from the cookbook for that dinner. The pavlova we ate at the dinner group was topped with black berries, where as I used strawberries.

I couldn't wait to make my own when I got the chance, which happened to be today. I used the recipe from allrecipes.com. It was a nice surprise that they aren't as difficult to make as I thought they would. I think that the dinner group was much better, but I still enjoyed making and eating mine.

Zuppa Toscana

I'm not the biggest fan of soup. However, there are a few soups out there that are quite exceptional for me. One of those is Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. After the dinner party I ended up with left over kale that I wanted to use. The only other time I've ever had kale is in the Zuppa Toscana. I used the recipe found here: copycat zuppa. I think it turned out amazing!

A word of warning though, I found the instructions for the soup to be a little confusing. I felt like something was missing and had to muddle my way through it. The instructions indicate to cook the sausage in the pot. I would then remove the sausage and drain the grease. Then saute the garlic and onions add the potatoes and cook them for a while before adding the broth and water. After that you should be able to follow the rest of the instructions. However, there may other recipes out there with better instructions. I'll have to experiment a bit next time to make sure I can get it to an order I like.

My First Dinner Group

I attended my first dinner group last month and was really happy that I pulled off the recipe I chose. All the recipes were taken from Gweneth Paltrow's book My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness. We had a lots of food to try. We had soup, salad, potato and sweet potato fries, maple roasted sweet potatoes, fish tacos and I know I'm missing some other items that were made.

The side dish I made, pictured above, Fried Rice with Kale and Scallions. It was a simple recipe, but something different I've never tried.

I will have to take better notes next time so I can give ya'll a better report. I'm so glad for the opportunity I had to try something new and meet new friends!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken Tenders

This was a quick an easy meal. I usually don't consider any meal that involves chicken quick and easy. I found this recipe for Parmesan crusted chicken tenders with homemade honey mustard dipping sauce out of my Joy of Cooking recipe book.

The ingredients consisted of bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, parsley and paprika, with salt and pepper to taste. The chicken was soaked in an egg mixture and then breaded. I then fried the chicken for about 4 minutes on each side. The honey mustard sauce was simply grainy mustard, honey and a dash of cayenne pepper.

I tagged this page on my recipe book for future use.

Cheerio January

Baby ate Cheerios for the first time this month (January). He very much enjoys them. He has them on his tray, in both hands and who knows how many stuffed in his mouth! 

Tired boy is hanging out with his dad after a long day.