Banana Bread

Low light photography should not be attempted while holding a baby. Camera shake ensues...

Shortbread and Whole Roast Chicken

I made shortbread this morning. I made shortbread this afternoon. This is the afternoon batch. It's slightly less toasted-looking. LV had said the pseudo-Ranger Cookies were the best cookies he had ever had. But these were bordering on insanity they were so good. I was like, "Really? Because they melt in your mouth?" And I was joking, but he was serious. "Yes!" Who knew shortbread could be such a hit?

I roasted a little chicken for dinner. Rather than serve it with more potatoes like I have been doing, I made more biscuits. Between the cookies and the biscuits and the chicken, the oven was on pretty much all day. Which was nice because I had decided 58 degrees was plenty warm enough for opening all the windows.

Oh, and those things that look like pickles in the background... I put green squash in the bottom of the roasting pan with the chicken. Luckily I didn't put them all in there. They turned really mushy. I tried to bake them like fries later (again, more with the oven), but that didn't work well. So I served raw squash to Scrappy. I didn't think she'd be down with squishy squash.

BBQ Pork Biscuit

We still had leftover pork in the fridge and I knew no one would be excited to eat it for lunch if I said, "Just microwave it," so I made a big production of lunch. Biscuits from scratch with homemade barbecue sauce and frozen vegetables. Who eats vegetables at home for lunch? Not us...

Cranberry Nut Bread

I'd been staring down the cupcakes for a few hours, looking for anything else to eat, when it hit me: I could make bread. LV and I were so excited for the bread (not just because it was something tasty from the oven but also because we needed it to finish baking so we could leave) that I completely forgot to take a picture until the next day (which seemed like two or three days later going on baby time). But here it is in all it's baked wonderfulness.

Roast Chicken, Muffins, Mini Quiche

My parents came to visit. I made a chicken.

I also made mini quiche (much better when I didn't haphazardly add salt) and...

muffins for Sunday morning. (I was up *real* early on Saturday.) The muffins are oatmeal-cranberry-pecan. Because that's what was around...

Baby Food and BBQ Biscuits

I made a dozen biscuits, thinking I'd eat those during the week. But then dinnertime rolled around and I realized that I could use them for dinner again tonight. I don't know why (I don't think I've seen any TV chefs pushing the idea lately), but I was inspired to take the leftover pork roast and mix it with a chopped onion, some bottled BBQ sauce, some homemade BBQ sauce (ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, dry mustard), and serve it hot over frozen vegetables. Yeah, frozen vegetables are my friend. Scrappy really liked it.

Meanwhile, I've decided the baby is ready to start learning to eat from a spoon. (The self-timer on this camera goes nuts flashing a red light on the subject, hence eye contact from baby.) I bought the rice cereal, but for now he's starting with milk on a spoon. It's not like he takes more than a few tastes.

Good Steak

When I picked up the London broil, I wasn't thinking, Mmm, this'll be good. I was looking more at the size. But oh my god it was so good compared to the beef we've been eating lately. So good. The biscuits, not so much. I thought I had left them in there long enough, but it wasn't the same as the last really good batch.

Chicken Dinner

The last of the gigantic chicken cutlets. This time with asparagus and really good homemade biscuits. (I thought the biscuits were going to be burnt because I waited too long to get back to the oven to pull them out. Nope. Turns out I probably never cooked them long enough before.)

Christmas Eve

We had a lot to do on Christmas Eve. I'm kind of surprised there were so many stores open... The main goal for me was to get two batches of chocolate cookies made for part of a gift set. LV was able to pick up a cookie dough scooper for me the day before. I *love* the scooper. Love it.

Scrappy would be with her mom on Christmas, so we tried to make a bigger deal about Christmas Eve dinner than we have in the past. This is another gigantic chicken cutlet with broccoli and homemade biscuits.

Then Scrappy and LV made sugar cookies using the Jiffy mix. LV and I had the same thought when we first tasted the finished product: This tasted like a corn muffin... I guess now we know that the fastest sugar cookies are definitely not the best sugar cookies.

And then we waited for Santa.

Coffee Cake

For some reason, there's one Thanksgiving that stands out in my memory as a really good Thanksgiving. (My guess is the economy was really good that year.) It was a Thanksgiving that started with the house smelling like cinnamon because my mom made the coffee cake that I think her mom used to make. I actually don't remember that coffee cake tasting so great, but it was a really great start to a fun day.

So, I was inspired (to say the least) to make the coffee cake I saw in Good Housekeeping. Of course, I changed it up a little, using almonds instead of pecans because that's what was in the cabinet, but the rest was all the same. Including sour cream, which I believe was the part of my mom's recipe that I thought was strange way back in the day.

Pumpkin Run-Through

At Thanksgiving time, I make pumpkin bread. And then use the leftover batter for muffins, more muffins, and (this year) squares (in the brownie tray). Basically, anything I can pour the batter into.

Baked Friday

Trying to get away from cookies, I made muffins today. Oatmeal, raisins, walnuts and some other stuff that sounded like it would make for a good breakfast treat...

Blueberry Muffins

I think I made these with the bag of frozen blueberries. They sounded like a really good idea for breakfast.

Banana Bread

More bananas ripened more quickly than I could eat them. Hence, more banana bread. This batch was really good considering I had so much more practice with when to cover the loaf with foil. Mmmm... Breakfast for the week.

Banana Bread, Chocolaty Treats, and Chicken Parm

Our bananas became ripe too quickly, so I stuck them in the refrigerator (having no idea this would stop the ripening process) and thought the only thing left to do with bananas that brown (on the outside) was to bake banana bread. Even though the bananas were not completely mushy, the bread turned out much better than the last round of nut bread I made.

LV wanted something with chocolate and nuts for around the house. I found Chocolate Revel Bars in the cookbook and decided that could work. The lumpy stuff on top is an oatmeal-based dough. Good stuff.

Then, because I hadn't baked enough that afternoon, I made chicken parmigiana. It was a welcome break from the usual grilled chicken.

I seem to have forgotten something...

Thursday night we went shopping and I saw a bottle of dressing I wanted to try. We never have dressing in the house, but raspberry vinaigrette sounded good. At lunch I decided to try it with all the green peppers, mushrooms, and cucumbers I had on hand. I diced them up, but thought they looked kind of sad. So I added the little bit of pasta left from earlier in the week.

I seem to have forgotten an ingredient in these muffins... I was so excited to make muffins with big frozen blueberries, and then I forgot to add the baking powder. They look like bricks, but they taste okay. A little solid. Like a weird scone.

Luckily the rest of dinner was better. (And the muffins did get eaten.) I thought this might be an overload of fresh vegetables for one day, but it actually didn't taste that way. (There is a lot of turkey hidden in there.) Yay for me...

Broiled Lamb

We went grocery shopping at a lager store this week, so they had lamb chops, and pears, and bags of frozen fruit. It was all kind of exciting. This is broiled lamb chop buried under peaches and pears that simmered in a concoction of apple cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, and I forget what else... That thing next to it is a biscuit. (I didn't feel like rolling them out and cutting shapes, but, after eating the dropped variety, I remember why sometimes it's worth it to make the extra effort.)

Nut Bread

I needed something new to eat for breakfast, so I made a loaf of nut bread. It seemed a bit bland (there weren't very many dried cranberries left to add to the dough), so I added some chocolate chips. Still a bit bland, but at the same time still good.

Cranberry Pecan Scones and Chicken Salad

After compiling a list of my favorite 2008 food pictures, I was motivated to make scones again. The last time I made them they were so perfect. This time they were not. The dough is supposed to be shaped into an 8-inch round and then sliced into wedges. This is not a wedge. My ingredients (and then my dough) grew too warm because I was distracted while baking. So I ended up making lumps of dough. (It was way too stick to handle.) They taste good. And they make a much better breakfast than the cookies I've been eating.

For dinner, I topped baby spinach with loads of red ingredients--red onions, strawberries, grape tomatoes,...--and freshly grilled chicken. Because I'd already spent the morning baking scones, I didn't feel like baking any biscuits to go with the salad. That was okay, though. It left Scrappy plenty of room for her "favorite" chocolate cookies.

Yum Salad in a Bag

None of the salad at the store looked good, so I bought a bag of ready-to-serve "more creative" salad. "More creative" because it includes toasted almonds and dried cranberries and some vinaigrette. (LV has forgotten more things than most people will ever know, but he dug out the correct spelling of vinaigrette. That one "stood" in his brain.) I added the strawberries and turkey. Done.

I almost forgot! I made corn muffins to go with this. That made it see more filling.