Jalapeno Pesto, My Gym, Cooking for Daycare Teachers, Brisket, and Friends

On the plate:  Jalapeno pesto, ultimate coffee cake, vegetable pasta, Becca's bedtime mints, and brisket

Soundtrack to cook to:  *NSync's Home for Christmas - for those of you who don't know, I was OBSESSED with the boy band *NSync when I was in college...scary stalker obsessed and had the hugest crush on Lance Bass.  Every time I hear this album, I become nostalgic and remember my sister and I blasting this throughout my parent's home as we skipped and bounced and sang loudly to Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday.  Needless to say, I played this music when Joseph was gone so that he wouldn't get annoyed by it...he heard it enough when we were in college. :)

As soon as I thought Alexander's cold and fever were winding down - he was immediately hit with another whammy...a double ear infection (the poor dear).  Thankfully, he doesn't have a fever and the only symptom he has is that he's leaking icky stuff out of his ears.  Thus, I toted him to the doctor's office and got him some ear drops and antibiotics.  I can already see that they're working, so hopefully he'll be all set for our upcoming trip.  

Here's a few pictures from playing around the house and his MyGym experience:

Happy little guy - even with a double ear infection
he can still smile and show off those gorgeous dimples. :)

Just hanging around at the gym and holding himself up
like a big boy!

Playing around with hula hoops

Flying high at the gym!

After the gym and hanging out at home, I threw together a quick dinner (really, it didn't take long at all!) from an inspiration that I saw on the Rachael Ray show.  She had chef Mario Batali over and he cooked up a jalapeno pesto.  Right away, my eyes lit up and I began to salivate.  I looooove, love, love spicy food.  Love it.  I love it when I eat a spicy dish and it's so spicy that my eyes water and my nose starts running - I love it!  However, this dish is not an incredibly spicy dish by any means, and it's really simple to make.  The hardest work is done by a food processor.  Here's how it played out:

Your hardest work right here - chop up half of an onion, cut
in half and core six jalapenos and five serrano peppers. 

Throw all three ingredients in a food processor, sliced almonds,
and olive oil.  It's done!!  See?  I told you it was simple!

To have a little protein in this dish, I decided that shrimp would
be a nice addition.  I cooked garlic and seasoned the shrimp with salt and pepper.
You don't want to add too many spices so that the pesto will be the star of the show.

I chose some whole wheat spaghetti and tossed it in with the
shrimp and pesto.  Since there is no cheese in this pesto, I topped
it with a little bit of parmesan cheese to add a nice salty and nutty flavor.  

Report:  Absolutely delicious and remarkably mild in heat.  If you are a jalapeno lover, then you will love the pepper flavor that you experience in this dish.  There's just a hint of heat in the back of your mouth as you take each bite.  It's not overwhelming by any means.  It's a nice and easy dish to throw together if you're in a rush but still want to "wow" people.
During this time of year, I really get into the holiday spirit.  I had such an amazing experience as a child with my family and with all of our traditions that we had during the holidays.  Every year we would bake cookies and then drive around to our neighbors and friends, sing carols at their doorway, and give them our baked goods.  I love that warm and fuzzy feeling inside when you give someone something that you've made.  To me, food is love.  I put my all into my cooking and it is truly one of my passions.  Thus, I love sharing with others - especially during the holidays.  I'm also especially thankful for all of the wonderful people in my life.
I really burned the candle at both ends the past few days by baking around the clock and preparing goodies for my loved ones.  The daycare workers at my son's daycare work incredibly hard and I can see their love for the children and their passion for their profession.  Thus, I wanted to give them a little of my food love and prepared breakfast and lunch for them the other day.

Paula Deen's "Ultimate Coffee Cake."  This is what I bake for
my family every Christmas morning, and thought that the ladies
at the daycare would like it as well.  It's sooooo decadent, but incredibly
easy to make.  This is what it looked like after sitting on the counter
over night.  I thought it looked like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man
was trying to escape the bundt pan.  LOL! 

Look at this beauty after it baked in the oven for 35 minutes
and was flipped over.  I didn't get to taste it, but it smelled
absolutely amaaaaaazing!  Thinking about it now makes me drool.

My vegetable pasta for lunch.  I also gave them some red velvet cheesecake brownies
for dessert.  I hope the ladies liked it!

In preparation for my second food love drop off, I prepared my mother's bedtime mints.  They're called "bedtime mints" because you prepare these meringue treats in the evening and put them in a preheated oven at "bed time," turn off the oven, and wake up in the morning to a minty, chocolatey, delicious treat.

The mint chocolate meringues before bedtime... 

and after bed time!  My mom tops them with cinnamon red hots,
thus, I couldn't mess with the recipe.  These are my favorites because
they remind me of my childhood with each bite.

I dropped off these goodies, plus the other ones highlighted in my previous post at the school in which I used to work.  It was so nice to stop by and see everyone, to give them something a little sweet to nosh on, and for Alexander to meet and greet everyone as well.  I miss all of my co-workers so much and wished that I could have seen everyone today.  However, unfortunately I had a cranky little guy with me and wasn't able to stop by to see everyone so that I could avoid having a toddler meltdown.
On top of old traditions, we're going to be developing new traditions with our own little family.  Since we'll be on the road during Hanukkah, we're going to have our own Hanukkah dinner this weekend.  I'm really excited!  Today, I started preparing the brisket, and I cannot tell you how incredibly EASY this brisket is and how DELICIOUS it is.  Watch out, because if you blink, you might just miss it:

Take the brisket out of the packaging... 

and mix together one bottle of ketchup and two packets of
Lipton's onion soup mix.  Throw them together in a ziploc
bag and stick them in the refrigerator for 24 hours.  

WHOA!  See?!  That's how you prepare the most delicious, moist, and tasty brisket.  In 24 hours, I'm going to put this in a casserole dish and cook it low and slow for three hours.  That prep work was exhausting!  Ha ha ha.

On that note, I'm going to catch up on my DVR'd shows and enjoy this quiet time as Alexander is napping.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki

Clean Finger Painting, Larz Anderson Park, Lentil Soup, and Holiday Baking!

On the plate:  Lentil Soup (seen previously, same recipe), marzipan stuffed dates, red velvet creamcheese brownies, Linda's Kahlua roasted nuts, and Becca's bedtime mints

Soundtrack to cook to:  Elton John's Rocket Man:  Number 1s (we've been watching a lot of Gnomeo and Juliet at home and their entire soundtrack is Elton John - hence the inspiration) and Michael Buble's Christmas (for the holiday baking, of course!)

We're finally at the end of Alexander's two week long stint of teething and being sick (HALLELUJAH!!). Thankfully this is just in time for our travels, so we're very happy about that.  When Alexander gets this way, I feel the need to cook a big batch of something, because whenever he's sick, he only wants to be hold...and only by mommy (no matter how well meaning daddy is).  Thus, I made lentil soup and it lasted us for about three dinner meals (perfect!).

In an effort to try to keep this little guy entertained indoors, I thought we could take a shot at *clean* finger painting!  (My kind of finger painting, if you ask me.)  I got the idea from pinterest and thought it was a pretty cool idea for the neat freak mother in me.  All that you do is squeeze some finger paints (whatever colors you wish - Alexander chose blue and yellow) into a ziploc bag and tape it to a glass door or window.

Alexander rolling his car's tires across the paint and
seeing the track marks.  Pretty cool!

Hesitant to touch the squishy paint, but he got into it shortly after.

After that, he chose to "read" a book.  I thought he was too precious.
Please don't mind the dog in the background with his demon eyes -
he was chewing on a rawhide dental treat. :)

In an effort to get the family out into the fresh, but cold, air, Joseph suggested that we take a family walk to Larz Anderson park.  It's an absolutely gorgeous park with a huge field, walking trail along a gorgeous wheeping willow-lined pond, and a fun playground as well.  Thankfully this place is dog friendly (except for the playground) so we made it a whole family field trip!

This little guy loves slides!

Playing with daddy

OK - who's having more fun with this toy?  Alexander or daddy?

Alexander playing with the chimes.

Daddy and Alexander checking out the geese.

The geese are quickly retreating - Alexander kept saying, "DUH!!"  (duck)

The geese taking flight.

Pretty majestic

The park's gazebo - it's much more beautiful when the trees have leaves.

I thought the duck butts were hilarious!  I was determined to get
a picture of a duck butt.  Check and check!

During this time of year, I get a little surge of energy and get into holiday baking.  Here are a few things that I put together, but my next blog post will feature a little bit more:

My mother-in-law's Kahlua roasted nuts - they're absolutely DELICIOUS
and make for the perfect gift! 

This is the beginning of my red velvet cheesecake brownies -
yes, the batter was the exact color of my mixing bowls.  Too funny!

Melt a stick of butter and 2 oz. coarsely chopped chocolate over a
double boiler and pour it into the batter.

Mix the cream cheese batter and pour it over the cake batter.
Swirl it with a spatula and put it into buttered parchment paper.
They are SINFULLY delicious, rich, and decadent.  The perfect
combination of red velvet (my favorite) and cheesecake.

Marzipan stuffed dates that have been rolled in sugar.  Another sinful treat!

I absolutely love baking during the holidays and sharing my goodies with others.  Until next time!

Love and kisses,

Nikki

Curry, Under the Weather Baby, Homemade Gak, and Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Muffies

On the plate:  Joseph's Curry and Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Muffies

Soundtrack to cook to:  Ray LaMontagne's "You are the Best Thing" on repeat...LOVE this song!

From teething to a low-grade fever this week, this poor baby has had a rough few weeks (and these parents for that matter).  We haven't ventured out that much, as poor Alexander has been under the weather.  I took him to see the doctor and all they told me was that it looked like he had a cold coming on...and to deal with it.  Needless to say, we've been existing on Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and lots of interrupted sleep.
Thankfully, Joseph was being the very helpful husband that he is, and decided to cook his delicious curry.  Unfortunately, I only took a picture of him doing the prep and spaced out on taking a picture of the finished product.  It's an incredibly simple dish to make and you can tailor it to your liking.

The hubby, chopping up a bunch of vegetables.

"Hey Joseph!  Smile for the camera!"

We've got an assortment here, plus some potatoes, chicken and shrimp as well.

Once the shrimp, chicken and vegetables are cooked, you just add the pre-made sauce mix to it (be cautious as this makes a lot!) and then serve it over a bed of brown rice.  It's absolutely delicious and even Alexander enjoyed it.  The brand of sauce that we like is the "Golden Curry" sauce mix.  They have various ranges of heat, but we like the hottest.

It was also my sister's birthday.  She came over and partook in her birthday cake that we got from one of our favorite places (or at least it's one of MY favorite places) Formaggio in Cambridge.  They have an INCREDIBLE variety of delicious cheeses.  I LOOOOVE cheese.  I always say that the stinkier it is, the better it is.  If I could eat cheese and bread for the rest of my life, I would.  Here's a shot of my sister Kristen and Alexander blowing out her birthday candle.

The rest of the week, as I said, was pretty humdrum, as we were restricted to the comfort of our home because of a sick little baby.  Here's a few shots of our little men throughout the week:

Oscar, hanging out in the kitchen, and sad because he has to wear his sweater.
He gets cold pretty easily because he has short hair.

Alexander checking out the Christmas tree.

Playing around the house.

I found a fun thing to do with toddlers at home from a really cool website.  They had a recipe to make your own "flubber."  However, when I was a kid, we called it "Gak."  Therefore, we made our own homemade Gak.  Here's the website and here's how it played out:

Alexander was helping by putting the entire glue
bottle into the bowl.  The recipe calls for 2 cups of Elmer's glue
mixed with water.  Then, in a separate bowl, mix 3 teaspoons of Borax
with water.  Combine the two with some food coloring and you've
made your own Gak!

When Alexander was helping with the glue, he managed
to get it all over his socks and pants.  That's why he's just in a shirt
and diaper.  He's checking out the glue and water mixture.
Alexander chose red food coloring, but it ended up being a
pink color.

Alexander, hesitant of touching the Gak.

He decided that it would be safe enough to put his foot in it.

He finally was brave enough to poke it with his fingers. :)

Alexander playing around with the Gak and Oscar
was resting in the background.

Alexander playing with our new Nook Tablet.  This thing

will definitely be handy on long road trips and airplane flights. :)

After getting a little more sleep one night, I managed to muster up enough energy to make some lemon blueberry muffies.  I found this recipe from my favorite food blog:  Smitten Kitchen.  However, instead of making a sauce with the lemon juice, I went ahead and put the juice of two lemons inside the muffie mix.  The result was absolutely fantastic!  The muffies are incredibly moist, tart from the lemons, and then there's a delightful, juicy pop of blueberry in each bite.  Delish and so easy to make!  

I prefer to make muffies because they're perfectly portioned and Joseph can just grab one in the morning with his coffee and shoot out the door.  Also, it takes 12 minutes to bake all of them rather than 1 hour for a loaf.  My delicious muffies come to me faster...perfection!

Lemon blueberry muffies....mmmmm!

Here's to hoping that the little monkmonk feels better soon.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,

Nikki