More to come...

I'm going to pause the posting process right now. I have a house to clean. But in the next couple days I'll post about the homemade bread I made and the delicious pumpkin scones.

Quaker Oat Square Mix

I actually don't know what the official name is for this one. Again it's a recipe from my mom and I don't know where she got it. With the amount of butter that's in it I doubt she came up with it herself. :) This is a snack that's probably good only once a year. haha. Ok you could probably make it more often. It's easy to make and it's even in my dad's repertoire of recipes! (this mix, breakfast sandwiches and enchiladas...love you dad!) Ryan had me make it for his car when he went with UA Navigators to Chinle, AZ (Navajo reservation) to build a house during spring break. They had it gone by the time they were halfway there. It must be good then :)

3/4c. butter - ouch, that's the killer. It doesn't sound too bad but when I realized it was a stick and a half of butter, I felt my arteries clogging already. I started getting chest pain, short of breath, heart racing, jaw pain and my arm hurt(s/s of heart attack). just joking :)

1/4c. grated Romano cheese - I've used Parmesan every time and it works well.

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp onion salt - again I used onion powder here because I don't have onion salt. I think it would be a good idea to invest in some.

1-16oz box Quaker Oat Squares cereal (8cups)

1 1/2c. Cheetos sticks

1 1/2c. pretzel sticks

Heat the oven to 325. Melt butter in oven in a 9x13 pan. Remove pan from oven; stir in cheese and seasonings. Add remaining ingredients, stirring until well coated. Bake 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool. Makes 11 cups.

I didn't really measure the cereal, Cheetos or pretzels. I dumped the whole box of cereal in, all of the Cheetos (that's Ryan's favorite part) and most of the pretzels. I made sure it "looked right." I know the directions say to melt the butter in the pan and then add the spices and then mix the cereal, Cheetos and pretzels in that mixture. It seemed like a 9x13 is not big enough and everything kept falling out of the pan. And I could never feel like I could coat everything well enough. This time I made some changes. I melted the butter and added the garlic, onion and cheese in with it. Then I put the cereal, Cheetos, and pretzels in a big bowl and poured the butter mixture over all of it. Then I mixed it with a spatula. That seemed to work much better. I was able to coat everything better. Then I stuck it in the 9x13. Also when I mixed it halfway through the baking period I took the pan out of the oven to mix it. That way if stuff fell out it didn't burn at the bottom of the oven. It just landed on the stove and I just put it in. :) Does that make sense?

It really tastes good. It's probably because of the butter. :) It's an interesting mixture of sweet (from the oat squares?) and salty. It's all crunchy and browned from the butter. mmmhm. I want to go eat some now but it's 9:40am and I had some yesterday. I'm practicing self control. Plus Kate and I just did this wicked hard workout (Burn it Up) and I don't want to eat all the calories I just burned. Kate, I love you for working out with me. It's the only way I'm continuing it. :) (I love you for other reasons too hehe)

Dill Vegetable Dip

this is before I mixed it

I first made this for an afternoon croquet staff party at Bryce and Susan's house to go with some raw veggies. It adds a fun spice to eating veggies. It was really quick and easy to make. This is one of my Mom's recipes and it reminds me of family parties growing up.

Here's the recipe:

2/3c. mayo

1/3c. sour cream

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp onion (fresh or flakes) All I had in my spice rack was onion powder. It seemed to work fine.

1 tsp dill weed

1 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp worchestershire sauce

Mix together in a small bowl. Wow I love directions that are contained in one sentence! I did put it in the fridge until we went to the party. It's a yummy one.

Cooking over the past 2 weeks

You can probably tell that I'm really good at starting something, but implementing and finishing it is a whole other story. So I'm trying again to cook one new recipe a week, starting this week. :) I think I really like the idea of having a blog but really bad at updating it. I actually want to try to keep up with this. Thanks for being patient. :)

So I was sick for the past two weeks with a combo of RSV (i once heard it called "really sucky virus". it's actually called respiratory syncytial virus - it's a very common virus that most adults and children get as the common cold, it's dangerous for small babies and kids with chronic diseases. Most children don't need hospitalization but those who do usually need fluids related to dehydration and oxygen. And their nose needs suctioned all the time...gross. anyways!) and a bad sinus infection; the joys of working in pediatrics. I was literally on the couch or in bed for two weeks. Day Quill didn't do anything for me. I spent my time drinking tea and watching episodes of Lost. (which now I'm caught up to the current season... please don't ask me how many hours I spent watching it!)

But yesterday I think I made up for not cooking for the past two weeks! At one point I was doing laundry, baking bread, making grilled sandwiches for Ryan and I for lunch, getting ingredients together for pumpkin scones and talking to my mom on the phone. Talk about multi-tasking. It was a little out of control.

I thought I'd post some pictures and recipes of food I've made in the past few days. Some are new but most are old favorites. I'm sitting here with one of my pumpkin scones, a protein shake and a sore body from working out with Kate early this morning (7am is early for me!). But I'm ready to share some good recipes.

still cooking

just wanted to say the blog is still alive, i've just been sick the past two weeks with not much energy to do anything. and then works been crazy. I'll be posting soon.