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