My husband rocks. This Christmas, unlike Christmas’, past he knew exactly what he wanted to buy me. A full week before Christmas he took off work early to go shopping and spent three hours looking for the perfect incarnation of his ideal gift. Once he got it home, he wrapped it and then reminded me at every possible moment that he’d already bought my gift (he’s the king of Christmas Eve shopping) and then wanted to know when I was going to buy his. It was annoying and cute at the same time. The gift was so good in fact that I had NO CLUE what it was.

When I finally opened it I was in shock at how well my husband actually knows me. He bought me a 5-quart Le Cresuet Dutch oven. My reaction: Oh dear Lord! It’s a Dutch oven! But not just a Dutch oven; it’s the king of Dutch ovens!  My hubby rocks!

I have wanted a Le Cresuet for YEARS stalking them in each and every gourmet kitchen store I came across, yet the responsible person inside me said, “No, Joni. You don’t need to spend $300 on a pot.”

I would have NEVER bought this for myself which makes it the PERFECT gift. Thanks honey!

In 2009, Jason and I went on a camping trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area in the Texas hill country. The drive from Dallas to Lost Maples was a LONG one – 8 hours. We made a point to stay off I-35 so we could enjoy the small towns of North and West Texas. One of the towns we drove through was Dublin where we stopped at a gas station and bought two Dublin Dr. Peppers. It was in the parking lot of that gas station where we snapped this picture. We rolled the windows down and sipped our Dublins as we drove through Texas one small town at a time. 

Those Dublins were the last I had;  I’ll remember those Dublin Dr. Peppers forever. RIP.

Who was making the rolls? After we determined that somehow we’d overlooked the rolls my mom suggested we just make frozen store-bought ones. NO WAY! I wasn’t going to let that stand! So, I volunteered to make the rolls.

“Joni, those are so much work! Just let me do the frozen ones, after all, you’ve got a baby. You don’t have time to make rolls!”

After making it clear that I’d rather sacrifice a couple hours of sleep to make them from scratch than to eat frozen ones I think she got the point. I began searching the internet for a roll recipe that would work. I came across this Sweet Dinner Rolls recipe on Allrecipes and decided it was a good place to start. Unfortunately, it was written for use in a bread machine which I do not have (mine was part of the kitchen purging that happened when we moved). Knowing full well that people made bread long before bread machines I looked up the procedure for dinner rolls in the internet and came up with this:

SWEET DINNER ROLLS

1/2 cup warm water (between 110 and 115 degrees F)
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/4 tsp sugar (for blooming the yeast)
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, divided
1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup warm milk
1 tsp salt

Pour yeast and sugar into cup of warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes. You should notice a foam on top of the water after a few minutes and a pleasant bread smell. This indicates your yeast is alive and ready to help your bread rise.

While yeast is blooming put flour, sugar, one egg, butter, milk and salt in a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. If using stand mixer attach dough hook. Add yeast into the bowl and knead on medium slow or with your hands or sturdy spoon until the dough comes together. Dough should be slightly sticky. Turn out onto a clean countertop dusted with flour and knead with hands adding flour as needed for 6-8 minutes or until dough becomes slightly stiff and is no longer sticky.

Spray the mixing bowl with non-stick spray and place the dough ball in the bottom. Spray more non-stick spray on top of the dough, cover with a tea towel and place in a warm place to rise for one hour or until dough doubles in size.

Punch down dough and turn out onto counter. Knead lightly to redistribute bubbles. Divide into 16 equal pieces and roll into balls. Place into a greased 9” x 11” baking plan and spray with non-stick spray. Place in a warm place and allow to rise for a half hour.

Make an egg wash by beating the remaining egg with one tablespoon of water and brush on the rolls. Heat oven to 375 degrees F and bake rolls for 30 minutes or until tops are golden brown.

They turned out great. My family raved about them and I became the official holiday roll baker. And I’m totally okay with that! My roll success has led me on several other baking adventures.

Yesterday, I turned this recipe into a loaf by substituting half the all-purpose flour for bread flour. Once the dough finished its first rise I put it in a square cake pan and let it complete its second rise.

I brushed it with an egg wash and baked it until it was golden.

It makes a very nice and tender white bread perfect for sandwiches. Yum!

STORAGE

For long-term bread storage I wrap my bread in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator, straight in the crisper drawer. Yes, I know everyone says putting bread in the fridge makes it stale faster BUT with the drawer set on high humidity I’ve had good luck keeping the bread soft and mold-free. I’ve kept bread relatively fresh for 10 days using this method. Just a slight toast and it’s ready to go!

So here, without further adieu are photos of my new kitchen.

It’s not bad, I know, but it’s nowhere near what I left behind. For starters, it’s about half the size. The cabinets are original and beneath that fresh(ish) white paint they need some work. The lack of storage space has left me answering the question: how many whisks do I really need? BUT, the countertops are Corian, it has a gas range and a cool black splash. I never really thought I’d use a double oven but now that I have one I really like it and am not sure I could go back.

But, HANDS DOWN this is the BEST part of my new kitchen:

So, there you go! Welcome to my new kitchen!

This is the cake she made for Jason’s birthday. See what I mean??? Crazy! She has amazing talent…and patience!

Her birthday was in December. I knew someone would make her a birthday cake but I was pretty sure no one was going to make her a CAKE… the kind she makes for everyone else. Knowing how much she enjoys caking for her family and friends I was sure she would appreciate a special birthday cake of her own.

Thus, I started my second fancy-cake baking adventure. (The first was a pumpkin shaped cake for Halloween I made with Dirty Kitchen Adventures about 10 years ago which we pulled an all-nighter to complete. I don’t have any pictures of said pumpkin cake, as this was looong before the digital photo.) I decided early on that the cake needed to be a depitction of Meg making a cake. Several trips to HEB and Hobby Lobby later I was ready to get started.

I started with two cakes one chocolate and one vanilla.

After cutting off the tops so they were flat I stacked them with buttercream as the frosting. Then took a piece of paper and drew out my cake layout.  I then placed the paper on top of the cake and used a pairing knife to trace the cake design. Then I cut out the pieces careful not to break them.

The cake is a recreation of Meg’s kitchen. The island is in the lower right, fridge upper right and oven on the left side. I stuck several bamboo skewers into the stacks to keep them from falling over, covered the whole thing in a buttercream crumb coat and then put it in the fridge to let it set overnight.

The next day I made two batches of marshmallow fondant and started the covering process.

By that point I was becoming impressed with my own level of creativity so I decided to add a sink at the last minute! Go me! Finally it was time for the finishing touches…and Meg! Don’t forget Meg! Unfortunately, I am not as good as making fondant people as I am kitchen appliances which means Meg came out looking like a gumby giant. I’m sorry, Meg.

All in all, the cake making experience was a good one. I might make another one later but not anytime soon…they’re a lot of work! Maybe for Meg’s birthday next year. Happy brithday, Meg!

Confused much? Let me clarify.

I had a head of lettuce in the fridge that needed to be eaten so I decided to make a ceasar salad for dinner. I have never made ceasar dressing before and looked at at least a half dozen recipes online before beginning my ceasar dressing adventure.  I had every intention of making this dressing from scratch and our dinner depended on it. After carefully reading directions and re-reading directions I figured I had a handle on this whole dressing thing and was ready to go. Boy, was I wrong.

Two, yes, two FAILed dressing attempts later I had an epiphany. It’s not dressing, it’s mayonnaise! 3 tablespoons of mayo, 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 1 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste and bingo! Ceasar dressing!

I wish someone had told me that before I started. It would have saved me a whole half hour of work.

This analogy translates well into grocery store purchases. I wish I could find it deep within my soul to pay $7 for magic dishwashing detergent that promises to leave your dishes squeaky clean each and every time but honestly for $7 I’d expect it to magically clean the rest of my kitchen as well. Maybe it could do the laundry too?

I didn’t think so.

The same goes for the rinse aid. $5 really? Isn’t that what water is for? Remember water? The universal solvent? No?

Instead I buy the cheapest dishwasher detergent on the shelf. And rinse aid? Um no. Not at all.

So, as a punishment for my dishwasher negligence sometimes my dishes are graced with this not-so-beautiful white detergent residue that seems impossible to remove – especially on black utensils.

Enter white vinegar and a scrubby sponge! Pour vinegar over sponge. Give scum a good scrubby, scrub, scrub and presto chango!

You go from this…

…to this…

…in a little under 30 seconds. Ta da!

My cooking philosphy has gone through drastic changes lately. Evie’s allergic to dairy, so that’s out. I can’t make anything that requires a lot of effort because that requires time – which I don’t have much of – so anything that’s a lot of work is out. And recently we’ve decided that for the betterment of our health that I’d start cooking vegetarian and meat-as-a-seasoning dinners only. Steak and hamburgers, you’re out too. What does that leave? Vegetables, rice and beans. Lots and lots of beans.

RED BEANS & RICE

1 lb dried red beans, sorted, rinsed and quick soaked in 6 cups water
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2″ slices
1 whole yellow onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme
1 ham hock
1 recipe, for fool-proof brown rice (see below)
1 lb smoked sausage, cut into bite sized pieces, browned in a skillet, for garnish
1 bunch green onions, chopped, for garnish
1 avocado chopped, for garnish

Quick soak the beans (I can never remember to soak them the night before so I always quick soak). Put them in hot water, bring it to a boil for 2 minutes then cover, turn off the heat and let them sit for an hour.

While the beans are soaking, place the bacon in a large pot or dutch oven and cook over medium low heat until the fat renders out and the edges are brown. Add onions, celery and bell pepper – cook until translucent.  Add garlic and cook for 1 minute then add salt, pepper, cayenne, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, ham hock, beans and soaking water. Bring beans to a boil then reduce and simmer uncovered for about 2 hours or until beans start to thicken and are tender. If you like your beans thick you can smash some of them with a potato masher or break them up with a stick blender. Serve over brown rice.

FOOL-PROOF BROWN RICE

2.5 cups brown rice
5 cups of boiling water
1 tbsp butter (optional)
1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place brown rice in a casserole dish along with butter and salt (if you choose to use them). Carefully pour boiling water over rice and TIGHTLY cover with two layers of aluminum foil. Place in oven. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven and fluff with a fork.

I know what you’re thinking. Sure, out to eat, no problem….until you think about the consquences of a mishap. Since casien can linger in the body for up to four weeks that means that even a bite of cheese can give little Evelyn an upset stomach for the better part of a month.  A month!

When we go out to dinner I try to choose wisely, asking for the chef to substitute oil instead of butter and avoiding any dish containing dairy at all costs. But how much do you trust them?

Well, I trusted them. Until this last week. On Friday my husband and I went out to a little Italian place in the Rice Village where we both saw the Italian Sub on the menu and decided it’s trifecta of italian meats was too yummy to pass up. He orders his with no tomatoes and I order mine sans cheese, very specifically telling the server that I could not eat cheese. When lunch arrived the server said, “no tomatoes”. My husband indicated that sandwich was his and the second one went to me. Since my hunger level was bordering on starvation I dove right into my sandwich but after three bites realized an error had been made. Two massive slices of provolone cheese sat on top of my meat trifecta. To any normal person they’d be thrilled but to me my sandwich had been infected. Though the solution was easy – open sandwich, take off cheese - the damage had been done. I had trusted them and they let me down.

You’d think I learned from this experience and I have but just barely. Tonight while vising a local Tex-Mex place I ask the server if the shrimp tacos have cheese on them and his answer was no. After being very specific that I could not eat cheese he reassured me that the shrimp tacos had no cheese on them. But lo and behold when the tacos arrive there it is. Shredded dairy goodness piled high on my tacos.  Argh! This leaves me thinking….what is wrong with people?!?!

1 in 8 children have food allergies. Lemme state the obvious…that’s a lot of kiddos with dietary restrictions. Some of which have much more devistating consquences than my little Evelyn’s tummy ache. Who or what holds establishments accountable (aside from the threat of a lawsuit)? We trust restaurants with our health with every visit. We trust there are no dead roaches or rat droppings in our food. We trust their ice machine to be slime free (RIP Marvin Zindler). Since I can trust them with my health, why can I not trust them with the health of my daughter?

How sad is it that I now feel safer visiting a fast food chain than my local mom and pop. For me, its an inconvenience; for Evelyn it’s a disaster.

What about you? Do you or your children have an allergy? How do you handle it when you go out? Or, do you not go out at all? I’d love to know.

I realize its been over a year since I posted anything. I know all 5 of you that read this blog are wondering if I’m still alive. Yes. I am. It’s been a busy year. Since I last posted I got pregnant with and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Her name is Evelyn and she is now 3 months old.

My husband got a new job and just three weeks after Evelyn’s birth we moved from Dallas to Houston.

Needless to say blogging hasn’t been on the top of my “to do” list. Until recently I haven’t been doing much cooking so even if I did have time to blog, I’ve really had nothing to write about.

Now life is settling down and I just discovered I could blog on my phone (technology WIN!).

Hopefully you’ll be hearing more from me in the near future!