Pie season

Since Tina came to get the house ready for the baby shower she gets a homemade chicken pot pie.



I had to make them season-appropriate with fall leaves!

Fave fall supper

Simple fall supper - butternut squash soup from scratch.

Meatloaf, beatloaf, I love meatloaf

When the weather turns cool and you don't mind having the oven on it's time for a meatloaf. The pugs agree.

Shish Kebabs

It's still a wee bit chilly but that isn't stopping us from grilling.

I put these shish kebabs together and Aaron grilled them to perfection. I used kielbasa, shallots, mushrooms, squash, eggplant and bell peppers... sprinkled with Wegmans basting oils and steak seasoning.

So good! Note to self! Make this again!

French bread pizza secret

I have been on a french bread pizza kick lately. It's a fun, fast way to satisfy a pizza craving.

I found the key to great french bread pizza is to butter and toast the bread before you add the toppings. I added a little crushed garlic to the butter too. It makes the pizza extra crispy after you bake it with the sauce, cheese and toppings.

Quiche for breakfast

I wanted to make something that Aaron and I could have for breakfast quickly each morning, so I decided to make a quiche. Can you believe I've never made one before? It was so easy to make and it turned out delicious! All we had to do was cut a slice each morning and heat it up in the microwave.

A lot of people asked what recipe I used and it's the quiche lorraine recipe out of my tried and true classic Betty Crocker cook book.

10 minutes. Waiting. Waiting.

A video posted by Jenny Cisney (@ljc) on Apr 10, 2016 at 8:22am PDT

The hardest part of the recipe was waiting 10 minutes before digging in! (weird mini hands courtesty of Aaron)

Put an egg on it

Boy have I been hungry for eggs lately. I must be protein deficient! Any meal I wanted to add an egg. So one night we had Moco Loco, a Hawaiian dish. It's really simple, just rice, a hamburger patty, gravy and an egg on top.

Then Aaron made us a huge batch of cheese polenta that he topped with beans and... you guess it, a fried egg. Yum.

Hamloaf, the darling of Pennsylvania

One of Aaron's favorite foods is hamloaf. I remember having it often at his house when his mom made it when we were first dating.

Like so many dishes I was familiar with back in PA, no one in Rochester had ever heard of hamloaf. When we got married Aaron would mention it occasionally, but I couldn't find ground ham at Wegmans to make it.

This year when my mom sent us home from Easter with some leftover ham, I decided I wasn't going to let the lack of ground ham stand in my way anymore. I chopped it up as best as I could with the food processor and made a hamloaf.

It really is tasty, hence it being "the darling of Pennsylvania". That cracks me up.

Turns out there is a place that will ship a hamloaf to you in a pinch.

Aaron was pretty happy about his hamloaf by the way.

Homemade kimchee

After seeing all the Korean food at The Cubroom yesterday, I had a hankering for some kimchee. Aaron and I picked up a few supplies and make a batch at home.

Actually we made a lot. I need a bunch of recipe ideas for using up kimchee.

Here is the recipe from when my mom first taught me how to make kimchee.

Bad photos, good food

I dread this time of year because of the hit I take on my blog photos. The sun has completely set by the time I get home from work so there is no chance of getting a nice picture of our cooking adventures with natural light.

These two are too good not to share however. We combined pizza sauce with sausage, mushrooms and mozzerella cheese between two slice of cibatta to make Pizza Panini. I don't know why we didn't think of this before. Pizza in a sandwich!

We also threw together a simple batch of lasagna, but first I made a batch of homemade ricotta for it. What a difference! It was divine. The pictures might not look that great but it tasted divine.

Country Cupboard Chex Mix

I needed supplies for our traditional batch of New Year's Chex Mix. We stopped in at a local Amish country market that carries all sorts of things for making tasty treats.

I love going to the market to see all the products I can't find in New York. These marshmallows were right next to this peanut butter. I think it's on purpose to show off their great packaging. It makes me want to eat them together too.

This all looks good. Hats off the the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Aaron nearly fell over when he saw this shelf.

We got some of these wafers to make our own ice cream sandwiches. Actually Aaron added quite a few things to our basket.

Along with ingredients for a massive batch of Chex Mix. Every year there are standby items - Chex, peanuts, pretzels, bagel chips and wheat sticks. Then I add in something new. This year it was cashews and corn nuts. Pretty good additions - they might become mainstays.

Oh and I used this alternative Merry Mix recipe.

Christmas Brunch 2015

Today was our annual Christmas Brunch and I got to set up something I have always wanted to try. A crepe station!

Aaron made fresh crepes on the fly right in the dining room.

And everyone could choose what they would like in their crepe. Scrambled egg, swiss cheese, mushrooms and dill? Brie with raspberries and maple syrup? Nutella with strawberries and brown sugar?

I think it was a hit!

I had one of each.

Then it was into the living room to exchange gifts. The pugs kept busy with bones Tina brought them.

While the cats had to inspect everyone's present.

Seriously. If you were opening a present there was a cat there getting poking his nose into it.

Just doing their job.

Handmade gnocchi

Whenever we go for our Christmas tree with the Clarks I like to make something special for dinner after. We have a running joke about gnocchi and some folks inability to pronounce it *ahem* (Charlie) so I thought it would be fun to make. I have never made gnocchi before so I did a good bit of research beforehand.

Luckily I had all the tools I needed. I had JUST bought the wood gnocchi board in Seattle so I was feeling pretty authentic.

I followed this recipe which had a lot of good tips. It kind of blows my mind that gnocchi is really made from potatoes. No wonder I love it so much.

Never thought my vintage ricer would get a work out like this.

There is a lot of discussion online over whether the ridges are necessary or not. They are supposed to make the sauce cling better.

Perfect little gnocchi.

We served the gnocchi with red sauce and a cheesy alfredo sauce. These did turn out incredibly light and fluffy. Maybe even too much so. If that is possible.

Party crackers

I spotted this "Original Savory Saltine Seasoning" party cracker seasoning at a farm market recently. I love trying new things and when I tasted a sample it sealed the deal. You make them with saltines!

I realize I could just buy crackers but isn't this more fun? My family was skeptical when they saw me vigorously yet gently shaking this bag of saltines.

I think next time I might use a little less oil, but they turned out pretty tasty. Party on!

#latenightbaking for Thanksgiving

We are in Thanksgiving production mode at my house. Lots of #latenightbaking.

I baked three loaves of bread for the stuffing. Aaron commented several times - we should have fresh baked bread other times of the year too... for eating!

It does seem a shame to bake that bread only to chop it up for stuffing. It's so worth it though, it makes the best stuffing.

The cranberry sauce is homemade too, from my grandmother's recipe. Can't wait to eat!

Connected Cooking

Last year my mom got me the coolest Crock Pot. It is wifi enabled! I connected it to our home wifi and then downloaded the wemo app which allows me to communicate with the Crock Pot remotely. I can schedule the cooking, check in on it, change the settings and get notifications.

Crock Pot season is here and Aaron was hungry for pot roast so I used a combination of a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook and the Crock Pot booklet. You can see how I was able to check in on the pot roast during the day. Aaron kept texting me - "How is the pot roast?!"

The pot roast was perfect when I got home. What you see here is the topping of spices and horseradish on top.

I am hooked! There are lots of recipes on the Crock Pot website that I can't wait to try.

Beef stew | Slow cooker lasagna | Cheesy Jalapeno Chicken Burritos | Easy Italian Sausage Scramble | Slow Cooker Apple Oatmeal | Cinnamon Swirl French Toast Casserole

Baked apple roses

We have lots of apples now and lucky for me, Aaron saw this video on Facebook and used some of our apples to make these cool baked apple roses. They were really neat looking AND they tasted just like apple pie!

Peanut Butter Birthday Pie

I just love birthdays and I always work to make them as special as possible for people. When I was planning Aaron's birthday, I worked out his birthday week gifts and a special dinner out. Picked up the cards and a balloon. But what to do for a cake? Then it hit me. He LOVES peanut butter pie. But it is the one thing I have not made for him. I've never made a peanut butter pie. The day had come. It was going outside the usual birthday cake but I didn't think he would mind.

I don't think I've seen him so delighted before. And it wasn't the dinosaur candle holder.

Peanut butter pie is way easier to make than I realized. I feel a little bad I haven't made one sooner than this. But that probably made it taste all the better right?

Here is how I made it:

Peanut Butter Pie

1 package of Nutter Butter cookies

5 tablespoons melted butter

1 and 1/4 cup peanut butter

1 softened 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 thawed 8 oz Cool Whip

Crust: Turn the cookies into crumbs in a food processor. Mix with melted butter and press into pie pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Filling: Whip peanut butter and cream cheese with a mixer. Add in sugar and continue to whip. Add in Cool Whip and beat until nice and smooth. Scrape filling into cooled pie crust and put in the fridge for at least one hour.

(actually I get the 12 oz Cool Whip and use the extra on top of each pie slice)