New Post!

If any one could give me tips on making the pictures work on my blog I would be much appreciated...

Happy Tuesday!

Lone Sock

I feel and hope that I will get better at posting, but making sure my camera is ready and conveniently waiting when I have an idea is almost impossible! I find myself thinking that I should stop and capture my progress but then I want to continue my progress while I can…Hence I have mostly pictures of completed projects or no pictures at all.

I can only laugh about this because it was intended to be a present. I completed one whole sock, of my own design, and just could not convince myself to do the other one. The punch line is that I then got inspired by a cowl pattern from Lionbrand Yarns (an after Christmas post) and used up almost all of the yarn I had for that sock project. So I have my lone sock :). 

This is not the first time that I have started and then taken a break in the middle but this will be the first time that I am choosing to not finish. At this point I can't really decide what I should do next, take it apart and do something else with the yarn or keep it as a pattern and example. 

So my lone sock sits in the bottom of my yarn bag, swimming around with the rest of stuff; candy, spare change and pocket knife.  I do have to say, my knitting bag is much more organized as of late because of my incredibly talented sister-in-law. She made me a small bag “to place things” which is perfect for my scissors, measuring tape, stitch markers and holders and other yarn what-not. Thank you for an already functional Christmas Gift!

 See you all in the New Year!

My love of Jiffy mix

I wanted to talk about some other recipe that I love that does not seem to involve cheese somehow...so Jiffy Mix it is.


I discovered Jiffy Mix at the grocery store because Jiffy offers those great, one recipe size boxes of the best corn bread mix. I am something of a brand follower so I tried the Jiffy mix, also the box has a ton of recipes on it, anything from waffles to cinnamon buns and chicken casserole. The product is much like Bisquik but I find Bisquik has a very distinct flavor that I am not so fond of.


I have made the pancakes and cinnamon buns with great success  and decided to try the sugar cookies. The thing is I really don't like sugar cookies- I think they are boring and can be ruined easily but there is no shortage of chocolate chips in my house! Here is what I did:

2 cups Jiffy mix

1/3 cup milk

1egg, beaten

½-1 ½ cups of chocolate chips

2/3 cup sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp of nutmeg

Bake at 350 on a greased cookie sheet for over 8 minutes…they take  longer than I expect so I start checking at 8 and take out when ready.

The trick is to let the dough sit out for 15 to 20 minutes before baking. It will rise a bit and so the cookies end up being little golden brown mountains instead of flat cookies, see difference in pic... And because of the mix they are not crunchy but cakey which I love.

You can also add an extra cup of mix and a half cup of peanut butter for a twist.

I was thinking of experimenting with other things like adding cranberries and nuts or white chocolate chips and candied orange peel but I haven’t gotten there yet. 

Fish

I wanted to write a quick post on the weird but good fish i made last night!

It has .74lbs of Trout, which I have never had before. Its flesh is very similar to salmon but the taste is perhaps a bit lighter. I bought it because it was a good price and something different from the standard Haddock, Halibut and Flounder.

I left the fillet whole with skin on and baked it in my toaster oven on a piece of tin foil, temperature between 425 and 475.
The fish was dressed with:

A splash of lemon juice (about 1 tsp)
An even sprinkling of Morton Season All *Low Sodium* Seasoned Salt (about 1/4 tsp)
An even but light coat of ground ginger (about 1/2 tsp)
An even but light coat of ground cumin (about 1/2 tsp)
...This is where the weird starts....
A liberal amount of Asiago shredded cheese (about 1/4 cup)
2 to 3 dollops of butter or spread

It was good. I have no idea what inspired this either but it was really good. The cheese didn't burn and crust up but got nicely golden. The spices added a nice warmth (if that is possible), the fish was moist and it all still tasted like fish! Which was a good thing last night, though sometimes it is not.

My Best Fish Recipe

I made the most amazing Fish last night. I was inspired by a less than exciting “Halibut au Gratin” dish that I had at one of our local restaurants. To me the “-au gratin” brings up thoughts of cheesy potatoes so perhaps my expectations were incorrect in hoping for cheesy baked halibut. What I got was a drenched in butter and not so much flavor halibut.

I decided at the first bite that I would make the best cheesy baked fish I could. I accomplished my goal last night. I used two enameled cast iron ramekins that my mother had passed down to me in an effort to de-clutter some of her life. I also think I used Haddock not Halibut, it was a white fish and over an inch thick but of the flounder consistency (light and flaky) not the swordfish consistency (more dense and meaty).

I split 3/4lb of the fish into two equal amounts and tried to make a relatively even layer of fish on the bottom of each greased ramekin. The below amounts are per serving and are in the order that I layered.

½ tsp lemon juice

1 ½ tsp mayo

1/8 tsp of garlic powder

¼ tsp of onion flakes

1/8 tsp of parsley

1 pat of cream cheese broken up into pea sized pieces and spread evenly

1/8 cup of shredded sharp cheddar

1/8 to ¼ cup of breadcrumbs depending on how thick a crust you want

Light drizzle of olive oil or help the breadcrumbs brown.

I put a dash of cayenne pepper on top because I think heat and creaminess go well together.

I cooked them in my toaster oven which is not the most accurate of temperature keepers but at least it runs hot. So on average it was probably 425 or 450 for 30 to 45 minutes. I waited until the temperature was 145 and happily counting as I never have enough patience to wait until the thermometer slows to a stop.

I served it with a side of rice and veggies just in case it ended up being more juicy than I expected.

I knew it was a hit because my husband turned to me and said “Honey, write this one down- it is so good”

I hope you all enjoy!

Halloween

Where did October go!!?!?! I cannot believe that Halloween is this weekend! I am a huge Halloween believer, though my husband is not, I think he was hoping that if he didn't bring it up I would forget. HA!

Though we do not have a pumpkin at this moment I am holding out hope for tomorrow, or at least take advantage of some good culinary pumpkins on sale this weekend. 

So, you know that dance that everyone has that goes something along the lines of “it’s freaking awesome and I did it cuz I am the greatest?" Well... wait until I figure out how to post pictures! My costume is incredible. On Monday when I realized that I had to dress up on Friday (obviously) with no costume ideas I had an idea to be the White Witch from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe movie.  Easy right? Wear all white and find some fake icicles to glue to a headband- done! Well, there are no icicles to be found on the Thursday before this year’s Halloween.

So there I am bumbling around JoAnn Fabrics trying desperately to think of something to be. Let me tell you how inspiring fake flowers can be when you are Mother Nature! Got a few yard of fabric and a bunch of fake flowers and voila! 

The CFO at work bursts out laughing as she caught me going to my office- thats right, it was a work day :D

My cooking super secret

I love spice mixes, I find they are extremely handy. I have a bunch and I use them all the time, either together, alone or as an accent.

When I was looking for information for this post I found that I have my terms confused. The brand that I have most of is the McCormick brand and they have spice mixes for meatloaf, chili and such and they have the Grill Mates line. The Grill Mates line is what I actually use. I have the Low Sodium Montreal Chicken, Lemon Pepper w/ herbs, Mesquite and Roasted Garlic and herb but I have never actually used them for grilling.

If I am making a chicken and beans dish I will add the Montreal Chicken seasoning or the Roasted Garlic herb seasoning as well as garlic and onions to add depth of flavor.

When I make chili or baked beans I add the Mesquite, it adds smokiness as well as some spice.

If I am doing fish, I will use the lemon pepper mix. But I like to change it up, my standard fish thing it to bake it at about 400, I use my totally awesome toaster oven so the temp isn’t exact. Anyways, standard fish is a bit of lemon juice and some butter or margarine. Then I either do the lemon pepper seasoning, low sodium seasoning salt or a sprinkle of both curry powder and ground ginger. Bake for 12 to 20 minutes depending on how thick the fish is. 

Blog Virgin

Though I have never had a blog I have always considered it and have often composed posts in my head about random things. My sister-in-law has a great blog, On My Mind, that I love to follow and my husband has one as well, so why not?

I am unsure as to what I will manage to talk about and if it will be about one topic or all over the place. I love many things and love talking about many things; our cats, my attempts at gardening, cooking and crafts, the weather.. it's snowing by the way. Forty something degrees in the middle of October in Vermont and lightly snowing. I was and continue to be not ready for snow. However I do live in the Vermont mountains, what do I expect for weather?

Well it should be fun and I can already tell that I have a few things to talk about, I just hope that I will last more than a few months.