Thanks!! – Jennie

Valentines Day was huge for The UnKichen Diva.  That day she not only tackled lasagna but also in a fit of madness decided to make homemade marshmallows!  I kid you not.

I saw homemade heart shaped marshmallows somewhere on etsy in the weeks leading up to Valentines Day and I KNEW that I wanted to use something similar for my “Love Is…” project over on Strawberry Road.  I thought how hard can this be?  I was sure I could do it and went off to hunt through my mother’s cookie cutters looking for heart shapes.  Actually, it really isn’t that hard at all but very, very messy and sticky!!  Here’s the link to the recipe – recipe I used. They explain it far better than I can – plus they have photos for each step – gotta love that!  I made mine vanilla flavored and used red and blue food coloring to get the pink color I liked.  Then I cut the marshmallow slab into all different size hearts and odd shaped square bits…

So now I have two containers of homemade marshmallows – what do you do with that?!?  Make hot chocolate of course.  Not just any hot chocolate but Ghirardelli Cocoa hot chocolate!  I have to admit I’ve never made this before – I am traditionally a Swiss Miss girl through and through.  But pink homemade marshmallows deserve something a little higher class.  I just followed the  recipe on the container and WOW this was some mighty yummy hot chocolate!!  Between the hot chocolate and marshmallows I think I put myself into a sugar coma that lasted several hours!!  As for the rest of the marshmallows – I packaged them up and sent them to the two ladies I knew would most appreciate them – my 2 and 4 year old nieces.  And to think, this all started because I had this fabulous idea for a photo….

Normally during the winter months I settle in, hibernate and plan the up coming year.  Usually I’m alone during this time and in fact it can be days before I have any contact with the outside.  This winter, however, I have an entire crew hanging with me and keeping me on my toes!  Meet Sadie, Fred and Zoe – they are my new constant companions.

First up – Sadie.  Sadie and I have a true love.  It started over a decade ago when my parents brought her home – this white fluffy butterball of a thing.  She is a complete sweetheart.  She is however also a poser – she was posing for this image in fact – I have yet to ever be able to sneak up on her and get a non posed image!!

Fred – well I honestly don’t know where to begin…  He came into my parents home a year after Sadie – 2 days before Christmas.  He was the last Shitzu in the state and in fact they almost didn’t take him home because he was not a she!  Fred has an energy and verve for life like no other creature I have ever met!  He expects everyone to be on his wavelength and to love him and some how you do.  I do take exception to the 6:30 morning wake up barks however – I swear I can set my clock by it…

Zoe – this sweet thing is the family hot potato.  She originally was my sister’s cat in college and then she went on to live with my Gram.  When I became the caretaker to my Gram’s house Zoe came with it.  She love loves loves late night antics and I’ll often wake up and find her literally bouncing around the bed – it so does not amuse me!!  But then she curls up next to me becomes a little heating purring engine and how can you not love that?!?

So here it is – I’m outing myself – I am a single women in her 30’s who has absolutely no idea how to cook.  I have all sorts of excuses – I’m single, cooking for one is no fun, have you ever tried eating beef stroganoff 6 days in a row (seriously – no fun!) and the list goes on.  My dinners are often eggs (scrambled and sunny side down), hamburgers and baked chicken breast.

Lately I find myself thinking unthinkable thoughts – I actually want to learn a thing or two in the kitchen.  Now don’t get me wrong – I can’t see me ever aspiring to be a Kitchen Diva of the highest order.  I’m fairly sure that the Unkitchen Diva in me is healthy and strong but I’m feeling a pull to try something new.

Take today for instance – I made individual puff pastry frittatas – well sort of.  I tried making individual frittatas a few weeks ago – I would not term it a success.  They stuck to the muffin pan, deflated like a pricked soufflé and generally did not look pretty at all.  They were however edible, which is a vast improvement over some of my past experiments.  I decided to tackle them again but this time with a pastry type shell.  When I whipped open the oven door, as the timer was going off, I was very pleasantly surprised.  They looked pretty even!!

Right then and there I made a decision.  I would try new recipes this year and share my triumphs and more than likely failures with you.  I don’t know where I’m going with this.  I have no cuisine picked out, nor do I know how often I’ll be doing this but I have decided there are some rules.  I need to be able to break the recipe down into individual servings.  I hate wasting food – but also hate eating the same thing every night until it’s gone – so individual servings that I can freeze is a must.  The second rule is  - it has to look pretty!  Hey I’m a visual girl!! Other than that I’m fairly open.  I would love if you all had any recipes to share and will post my attempts at them.  Hopeful at the end of this I’ll learn how to cook some new dishes (and become a better food photographer – wow, so much to learn there!!)!

So here’s how I made the frittatas – 5 in all:

1) Rolled out 1 sheet of store bought puff pastry and cut to fit into an extra large size muffin tin.  I had enough for 5.

2) Cut up 1/2 a green pepper and 1/2 an onion. I tossed handfuls of each into the bottom of each cup. Note: I have tons of leftover diced pepper and onion – not sure what I’m going to do with them yet…

2.5) Put handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese into each cup.  Yeah… I forgot to do this.

3) Stirred/scrambled(??) 9 eggs with some salt and pepper.  Poured into each cup until almost full.

4) Stick in 350˚ oven for 40 minutes.  During this time turn on the oven light 42 million times to see if anything is really happening.

5) At the end of 40 min take them out (or here’s were you melt the cheese on top if you forgot to put it in) and cool.

Viola!

May you be surrounded by Love, Laughter and Joy!!

I love the flavor of lemon! My birthday cake when I was a kid was a yellow cake with lemon curd filling, white icing and coconut – ohh the sweetness!! (If anybody can find me that cake now – I’ll be your new BFF!!)  As I got older my cake became a lemon meringue pie – oh the love!

These cookies offer the same lemony delight I got from the cake and pie and have become a favorite cookie of mine to give away at Christmas.

1 egg

1 package lemon cake mix

4 oz Cool Whip (1/2 of a regular container), thawed

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1) Mix cake mix, Cool Whip and egg until well blended. This makes a really really sticky biscuit like batter. I alway use a wooden spoon to mix it all together – no idea why!

2) Ok here’s where the powdered sugar plays a huge role! Did you ever take a gymnastics class? Remember when you went to use the bars you would chalk up you hands? This is what you want to do with the powdered sugar – chalk up! This batter is so sticky if you don’t it will be like having warm pull taffy in your hands!! (not that I’ve ever made taffy but I was involved with an ad campaign where we photographed salt water taffy being made – powdered sugar was every where!!)

3) Now that you’re chalked up you want to pull pieces of the batter off – like drop biscuits (not that I’ve ever made them either!!). I have a plate covered in powdered sugar I drop the pieces on to the plate and cover them in sugar. Then I roll them in my hands to make a dough meatball – about 1 inch in size.

4) Take your dough meatballs and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350˚ for about 10-12 minutes. These cookies can be easy to over cook – you want them to be slightly browned before you take them out

5) When you remove from sheet they will still be soft and a little squishy. They get firmer as they cool.

6) Enjoy the lemony goodness with a huge glass of milk!!

* If you are more a fan of chocolate than lemon – you can substitute the lemon cake mix for a chocolate one*

Jump back to now and I had a sudden flash of inspiration. My 94 year old Grandmother is now in assisted living. She has only recently agreed to let them do her laundry instead of sending it home with one of us. Gram has had huge misgivings about this and has spent countless hours worrying that they are going to mix her laundry up with someone else’s. Every year it’s a struggle to figure out what to get her for Christmas. This year it dawned on me – Mabel’s Labels!!

Now the only question is – do I get her the same ones as my four year old niece (who was named after her) so they can be twinses or her own style? This is the label I’m thinking of going with:

Check out my new MacBook Pro! The last few months not just one, but both of my computers died – so sad, so painful. For a variety of reason I decided to go with the MacBook. My old computers were 4+ years old so no matter what I went with it would be amazingly faster than what I had. The set up process was painful – only in that neither of the old computers turn on – so I had to manually transfer everything from the backup drive – thank goodness for the backup drive!! I’ve also got a swank new external monitor for the big retouching work. Only problem is I think my new computer is sexier than me!