Beef and Broccoli with Fried Rice

Mike sampled this at our grocery store, Publix, and came home with the recipe card for me because it thought it was so good. So, I decided to give it a shot. It turned out really well and I will definitely be making this again soon.

Beef and Broccoli

12 oz fresh broccoli florets, rinsed

1 1/2 lb beef skirt steak

1 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp ginger spice blend paste

1/2 cup oyster sauce

1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp lite soy sauce

2 tbsp dry sherry (I omitted)

1) Cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces; place in microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave on high for 4-5 minutes or until almost desired tenderness. Meanwhile, slice steak thinly.

2) Preheat large saute pan on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Place oil in pan; stir to coat. Add steak, garlic and ginger paste; cook 3-4 minutes or until meat is lightly browned, stirring occasionally. While steak cooks, combine remaining ingredients (except broccoli) in a small bowl until well blended.

3) Stir broccoli and sauce mixture into beef. Bring to a boil; cook 2-3 minutes or until sauce thickens and broccoli is desired tenderness.

Fried Rice

1 3/4 cups of reduced-sodium chicken broth

3 tbsp lite soy sauce

1 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 green onions, rinsed and sliced thinly

1 medium red bell pepper, rinsed and cut into 1/4" pieces

2 cups instant brown rice

1 cup of frozen green peas and carrots

1) Combine broth, soy sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes in a large saute pan. Bring to a boil.

2) Stir rice into boiling broth mixture and return to boil. Reduce heat to low; cover and cook for 5 minutes.

3) Remove from heat; stir in onions, peppers, peas and carrots. Cover and let stand for 5-7 minutes or until water is absorbed. Fluff with fork and serve.

Halloween Treats!

Ok, it's been way too long since my last post but I really do want to get back in the habit of updating so I'll start with my 2 recent Halloween treats that I made to take over to a friend's house for a get together. I saw both of these in my Taste of Home magazine and couldn't resist.



Strawberry Ghosts


30 fresh strawberries, washed and dried
8 oz white baking chocolate, chopped
1 tsp shortening
1/8 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

1) Melt white chocolate and shortening; stir until smooth; stir in almond extract.
2) Dip strawberries in chocolate mixture; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheet, allowing excess chocolate to form ghosts' tails. Immediately press chocolate chips into coating for eyes. Freeze for 5 minutes.
3) Melt remaining chocolate chips; stir until smooth. Dip a toothpick into melted chocolate and draw a mouth on each face. Refrigerate until needed.



Source: Taste of Home



Next up, a Pumpkin Torte. This got rave reviews and is so easy to make. Delicious! I made it again for Thanksgiving because it is so good. The frosting part is my favorite because it is so light and fluffy.

Pumpkin Torte
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup milk
4 eggs
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 80z package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
16 oz frozen cool whip/whipped topping, thawed
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted (I omitted this time)

1) In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, eggs, oil and 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice; beat on low for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9" round baking pans.
2) Bake on 350 for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
3) In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar, remaining pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice; beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
4) Cut each cake horizontally into two layers. Place bottom layer on a serving plate; spread with fourth of the filling. Repeat layers 3 times. Drizzle with caramel topping; sprinkle with pecans. Store in refrigerator.


Source: Taste of Home

Awesome pumpkin cookies

So, I've already made these 3 times now. They are awesome and Mike loves them. Most recently, he entered us into his work's Christmas cookie bake-off and he wanted me to make these. I found the recipe on Picky Palate's blog. The first time I made them, I followed her recipe exactly but it made a ton of cookies so this time I basically halved the recipe. Here is what I did.

Pumpkin Cookies

Source: Picky Palate

1 box spice cake mix

1 15oz can pumpkin

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla (I added)

Preheat oven to 350. Place cake mix, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla in a mixer and mix until well combined. With a cookie scoop, scoop onto a parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet. Bake @ 350 degrees F. for 11-13 minutes or until cooked through (9-11 mins works best for me). Let cool completely.

For the frosting, here is what I did:

1 jar of vanilla frosting

4 oz softened cream cheese (light)

1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon

Mix all together and spread on cookies. Yum!

My first pecan pie!

Since we were hosting Thanksgiving, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at pecan pie. I had thought about using a Cooking Light recipe or some other 'light' recipe, but then I said what the heck and chose to just go all out. Afterall, I didn't want to ruin my first pecan pie...so I turned to someone who I knew would be spot on....the Pioneer Woman. Are you wondering how mine turned out? Ridiculously good!!! I got so many compliments on it...Mike's mom and grandma were really wowed that I made it from scratch. Go me! Do yourself a favor...make a real pecan pie one day. So. Worth. It.

Pioneer Woman's Pecan Pie

Source: Pioneer Woman Cooks
1 unbaked pie crust
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup corn syrup
1/3 cup melted butter (regular, salted)

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 heaping cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Mix sugar, brown sugar, salt, corn syrup, butter, eggs, and vanilla together in a bowl. Pour chopped pecans in the bottom of the pie shell. Pour syrup mixture over the top. Bake pie at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, being careful not to burn pecans and crust.
Allow to cool for several hours or overnight.

My new favorite dip!

This dip is just too easy...and so delicious. Lani made it for a halloween party and made me try it, even though I was hesitant simply because of the word 'artichoke'. Well, silly me, because it was so good. I decided to make it for a Thanksgiving appetizer and I served it with crostini. So, let's just get right to it...shall we?

Lani's Artichoke Dip

1 can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

8 oz of cream cheese (light)

1/2 cup of mayo (light)

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

1 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 or 375. Mix all ingredients. Spread into 8x8 dish and bake for 20-25 minutes until heated through and bubbling on top. Serve with crostini or crackers. Enjoy!

Meet our Pumpkin!

We are not cat people...never have been and were sure we would never be. Things change, I guess. Last week, we happened upon a stray little kitty late one night on the road that runs behind our house. We brought her home and kept her through the night (we called her Pumpkin because she was white, orange and black). The next morning we called the local animal services about bringing her there since they have an adoption center on site. We knew that she had a cold (or Upper Respiratory Infection as they told us)... because of that they said she would be euthanized because they can't risk getting the rest of their population sick. Also, she had scratched us when playing and because she was a stray there was the risk of rabies. I was heartbroken and we didn't know what to do. We left her there thinking we were doing what was best for her and for us. By Sunday, 2 days later, we missed her and wished we would have made the decision to at least take her to a vet, get her well, and then give her up. We drove to animal services that night at 9 p.m. and left 2 notes on the various office doors saying that if they still had her, by chance, we would love to have her back and give her a good home. They called me Monday morning and apologized saying it was too late. Again, crushed! We thought long and hard and decided we would look into adopting a kitty.

So, here's how Pumpkin (v.2) came along. That same day, Monday, I started looking at adoption website and decided to look at Craigslist. I came across a tiny little orange and white kitten that someone else found as a stray and were giving away for free. I emailed and they wrote me back saying he was still available. So, last night, we went to see him and we left with our little Pumpkin. He's a doll...the sweetest little guy. However, he was infested with fleas...which we noticed when we got home. We had asked the lady and she said she hadn't seen any. Anyways, we spent 2-3 hours cleaning him and picking 80-100 fleas off the poor little guy. I took him to the vet first thing this morning and they said we did a great job as they didn't seen any fleas at all. They gave him a vaccination, a little amount of flea treatment just in case, a checkup, etc....we have a healthy little kitty...weighing in at a whopping 1 lb 4 oz!! We picked his birthday to be September 20th so he's 7 weeks old!

We can't wait to get home and play with him since we're pretty sure he thinks we were torturing him last night...he was drenched, freezing, being picked and pulled at... but it was all worth it and he loves us today!

**next to my foot (size 7) to show you how small he is!

1 Year of Wedded Bliss

We recently returned from a 1 week roadtrip to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. What a great trip. On Friday, Oct 10th, we drove from Tampa to Atlanta where we would spend our first two nights at the downtown Atlanta Marriot Marquis in a room with a great view.

The first night we had an amazing dinner at Chin Chin - a chinese restaurant that I had found online and saw that it had good reviews. Well, it was absolutely delish. The location we went to was deceiving from the outside, but was a charming little modern place on the inside. And the food was to die for. Here's what we had: appetizer - crab angels (rangoon); dinner - Mike had Hunan Chicken - a light dish that was very hot but so good; I had the combo Tangerine shrimp/chicken which was served over roasted peppers and orange peels - unbelievable how good it was.

On Saturday, we drove to Stone Mountain Park and did a morning hike to the top. Great workout to start the day then walked around the little village. Cute place!

Saturday night was dinner at Legal Sea Foods. Another fabulous meal. Appetizer - Hot Crab Dip; dinner - Mike had the Grilled Swordfish with seaweed salad and broccoli with cheese; I had the Tortilla, Apple & Goat Cheese Salad with orange chipotle dressing (topped with grilled scallops). Dessert - personal pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream, whipped cream and caramel bourbon sauce. Oh my...what a meal!

On Sunday morning, we got up and hit the Georgia Aquarium where we spent about 2 hours. Then, it was back in the car and on the road...next up, Charleston!