Recipe Thursday: Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip

Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip
From Paula Deen on Food Network

Ingredients

10 oz package frozen chopped spinach
2 13 3/4 oz canned artichoke hearts
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Head spinach to thaw and squeeze dry. Drain artichoke hearts and coursely chop in food processor.
3. Combine all ingredients except jack cheese in large bowl. Stir well. Scrape into casserole dish and sprinkle jack cheese on top.
4. Bake 30 minutes. Serve warm with bagel chips or crackers.

I took this to a party a couple of weeks ago and people really liked it. I thought it was pretty decent too. I will definitely make it again.

Sorry for the Recipes

I had a day a couple weeks ago that I had a ton of time on my hands so I was typing in a bunch of recipes that would auto-post. Unfortunately, I didn't put anything else on the blog during this time, so it's just a bunch of Good Eats that this crappy blog has been spewing out at you. Oops!

As my Facebook friends know, Mircea asked me to marry him on July 3rd. It was a sweet proposal, a huge surprise, and I couldn't be happier to be marrying the man of my dreams. I do worry that everyone in the world is like "are you actually going to get married or freak out like a crazy biotch?" and I'll answer you that "yes, I'm going to get married and I'm putting a lot of effort into not freaking out". I'm not going to have someone else's wedding, which I was essentially going to do a couple years back. Mircea and I are doing what we want and including our friends and family when we return. Our current plan is to get married around the March timeframe at the Sandals resort in St. Lucia. We haven't booked anything, but that's what we're thinking. We're pretty excited and this is MUCH more our style. Dad wasn't too happy about the lack of church wedding at first, but I think he understands that the level of pressure I felt for something like that makes a crazy out of a Katey Pooh. Our intent is to throw a shindig when we get home, a casual sort of reception where we can share our happiness with friends and family. So that's that.

Our old house is almost done, which is great. Can't wait for it to be completely finished and hopefully we'll be able to sell it shortly. I have to laugh, our original planned completion date was DECEMBER 2008. Well, August 1, 2009 will have to suffice! Pray that we sell it quickly and for a decent price.

I hope everyone is having a great summer. We've got something big every weekend (except for two) between now and our Romania trip in mid-September, so it's an eventful summer-which is great. Usually we just park in front of the tv all weekend so this is a much enjoyed change.

Recipe Thursday: Dump Cake

Dump Cake
My Grandma Reed

This cake would be nice to take to a 4th of July picnic, or pretty much anytime. This was one of my favorites as a kid, only I called it "garbage cake" and it sort of stuck with our family.

Ingredients
1 lg can cherries
1 lg can crushed pineapple
1 box yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter (I actually cringed when I typed this. Challenge: Reduce this fat!)
1 cup pecans

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend cherries and pineapple in baking dish.
3. Sprinkle with cake mix.
4. Slice butter over mixture and add nuts.
5. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

This was really simply, and maybe a little "poor people food", but it was so good and I loved this as a kid. I loved it AND I hated cherries when I was young, so it must be awesome. Probably all that butter.

Recipe Thursday: Banana Sour Cream Cake

Banana Sour Cream Cake
Kraft Foods.com and Jenny Lorentzon

I'll post a picture after my birthday, as my plan is to make this as my birthday cake. Either that, or beg Jenny to make it since she asked what she could do for my birthday party. ;-)

Ingredients

1 pkg yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil (I used applesauce)
8 oz pkg cream cheese; softened (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup softened butter
16 oz pkg powdered sugar, about 4 cups
1 cup chopped walnut pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat cake mix, eggs, banana, sour cream and oil (applesauce) with mixer on low speed. Then beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 13x9 pan (I used two 9" round pans). Bake 35 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Beat cream cheese and butter w/mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.
3. Remove cake from pan. Cut in half crossways (this is if you use the big pan, why would you do this?) Spread top w/frosting, top with other cake, frost top and sides. Press nuts into sides.
4. Refridgerate leftovers if you somehow haven't pigged out and eaten the whole thing.

Seriously folks, this cake is freakin' incredible, and I know bananas, and this is banana-riffic!
I also think this would work really well as cupcakes with nuts on top. Yummy yum yummy!

So Many Things...

Usually my life seems boring, even to me. But lately, Mircea and I have been keeping busy with friends, time on the boat, the kitties, and a little Star Trek. We're also planning our first party, which is hilarious. I'm a nervous nelly over the whole thing (or as my friend Ben says "panicky jane") and I'm panicking about the layout of the food, drink, house, games, etc. I just want to get the flow right. "where does the keg go?" "where does the ping (beer) pong table go?" "is everyone going to want to hang out in our unfinished basement?" I've finally got the menu figured out, and I've selected some fantastic jello shot recipes. Does this party sound really immature? Well, that's the point. It's a "Return to College" Party to celebrate my 29th birthday this Saturday. I thought it would be kind of fun to do all the goofy stuff we did in college (or didn't b/c we were too busy studying or dating non-drinking guys who judged every sip of alcohol you ever took) so Mircea and I are donning Togas and having our friends over for a night of immature fun. A menu that includes a Ramen noodle salad, pizza rolls, and Doritos just can't go wrong right?

On a disappointing note, I'm still waiting to get test results back on Little Fernie. My baby has been losing weight lately and I sort of thought she was just thinning out in her old age. She's 10 this year, but as she is my baby, I expected her to live...forever. Lily is also sick, with her little back legs letting her down and not affording her much mobility. Yukon is suprisingly doing really well right now, and we have a daily argument over his plan of the day. He wants to spend the day in the garage, making a mess and peeing on Daddy's tools. We want him in our upstairs bathroom, on linoleum, peeing in his litter box and sleeping in his little blue bed. Every morning he gets carried up the stairs, swishing his tail and whining. It's actually quite adorable, and his little grumbles are so darned cute too. Why is torturing him fun? Really, I don't feel bad b/c as soon as we get up the stairs he sees his little feather toy and gets so happy so he just has a bad memory.

Ok, crappy update, but I'll let you know how the party goes!

Recipe Thursday: Mashed Cheese Potatoes

Mashed Cheese Potatoes

Ingredients

4-5 large potatoes
1-2 green onions, chopped (whites and some greens)
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Butter, salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 300

1. Peel and cook potatoes
2. Drain and add the 3 cheese (cream, parmesan, cheddar) and mash
3. Add butter salt and pepper to taste
4. Add green onion
5. Place potato mixture in a greased casserole dish and sprinkle with paprika
6. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour, covered

This was my favorite way to eat mashed potatoes as a kid. My friend's mom made these and my family fell in love. I usually make these at Easter.

Recipe Thursday: Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad

Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad
Gluten Free Goddess

Ingredients

2-2 1/2 lbs small red potatoes
sea salt
1/4 C fruit tasting olive oil
4-6 T apple cider or rice vinegar
1 small red onion, finely diced,
2 T prepared horseradish
2 T fresh chopped parsley
1-2 t dill
1 t caraway seeds

Ingredients

1. Boil skin on cubed potatoes until fork tender. Drain wel.
2. Pour in large bowl. While pototoes are still warm, add the ingredients and toss to coat. Serve warm.

This was really really good. I've made it a couple of times and I think I added a lot more horseradish. Yummy Yummy!

Tiny Little Update

I've been so busy at work this week that I want to scream. I'm that level of busy where you actually aren't getting anything done because you're just trying to chip away at little things and then something else gets placed on your desk. To top it off, everyone else in management is on leave, and since I'm third in line, well, I just went to the front of the class, so I'm attending all the b.s. meetings etc, while I try to catch up from a week out in training and plan for two additional weeks in training to get my logistics certification. Oh joy of joys. I totally phoned in my pre-work assignment for that and I feel a little guilty, but between every other deadline at the office something had to suffer and it certainly wasn't going to be my every day responsibility to the Fleet. So pllllfttt stupid training class.

I started the P90X system this week. Yes, it seems I'm always starting some sort of new exercise or challenge and rarely finishing it. I think the important thing to takeaway is that I keep starting. :-) P90x is definitely one of the most challenging things I have ever done and it often reminds me how out of shape I am, but there are a lot of modifications that I can make and as I grow stronger I can build into the more difficult work. The only downside to this thing is that you have to work for it. Har har. It's at least an hour a day, with the yoga class clocking in at 90 minutes. I was trying to do it when I got home, but I was just too darned hungry, tired, busy on the other house, [insert excuse here] to be motivated, so I started getting up at 5 to get it done. I will not, however, get up at 4:30 to get the yoga done so I am going to save that one for the evenings and just go to work early that day, which is what I did today and it was great to get there at 6 and get my work done.

Man my life is boring. The most exciting thing I've done all week is have banana flavored yogurt when I went to Bruster's ice cream for the first time today. I was proud of myself because everyone else got this really decadent stuff, but my heart belongs to bananas and my waistline needs the yogurt. I saved about 20 grams of fat according to the nutritional information and my thighs thank me.

Oh, I did get a haircut and I will not be sharing pictures because I HATE IT. HATE IT. It's just not working at all for me, but it has proven my point that I do actually have fairly curly hair and the thickness of my hair sort of weighs it down, making it look straight. Not now boys and girls. I have crazy curl everywhich way on my head (every way but adorable spirals) and yet the front of my hair is really straight...in one word TERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE! I've got a time line...6 months: mullet, 1 year, back where I started. Next time, remind me that I went in there for a trim and only decided to go for a new style because I was paying so much.

Wow, tiny turned into jumbo, but oh well, I needed an outlet so I don't actually scream out loud.

Movie Review: Changeling

Rating: ***** (5 stars, baby!)

When I saw the previews for this movie I was intrigued. The basic premise of this movie is that a single mother (Angelina Jolie) goes to work, leaving her young son home alone, and returns to an empty home. She waits for weeks to hear any news about her missing child, and suddenly is contacted that her boy has been found. Of course she is elated, but she shows up at the train station only to be greeted by a young boy who is not her child. She vehemently denied that this was her son, but was told she had to take him as he had no where else to go. The LAPD basically coherced her into keeping the child, giving her a million reasons why she was crazy and that the boy was really hers. She continued to deny it and was placed in a sanitarium until she would agree that the child was hers. She wouldn't, and she stayed put until a pastor that she was aquainted with got her out of jail. I won't go into further details because I definitely recommend this movie and don't want to completely spoil it for those that are interested. The movie was based on a true story, and also stars sexy as hell Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice (which I've never seen, but would totally watch b/c he's so good looking). For more information on the true story, click here.

My Little Buddy

Lindsay's son Draigan is, well, the love of my life. I love that little boy so much, from holding him when he was 6 days old, to still insisting on good-bye kisses when he's 6. He'll be 7 this year, and that is just crazy to me. He is the reason I've always wanted boy children (until very recently) and he's also the reason I'm terrified of children as they are definitely different as they get older. The best part about Draigan is that he is a wonderful child, way better than many other kids I know...and yet, he still annoys the crud out of me which cracks me up. I'm totally in love with him, but also wish there was some sort of kennel you could pop kids in for a few minutes to let them settle down. (Sound familiar? Poor Peyton)

I just wanted to share some pictures of my little cutie pie as I miss him like crazy and although I'm lucky I get to see him as much as I do, I just want to kidnap him sometimes...but then give him back when I'm ready :-)