You Want Me to Cook?

Thursday, June 28, 2012

What I'm Making/Made this Week - June 25 through July 1, 2012

I have been cooking. It's just that I'm doing it a little at a time. One thing for sure is that our mourning process for one of our pug clean-up crew requires a lot of comfort food and sweets.

Here's what I've made so far:

Monday is Vegan Day and I found another recipe out of Vegan Diner by Julie Hasson that I wanted to make. Then I added it to one of my favorites from the book that I already made. I present to you Home-Style Loaf with Garlic Mashers...

Be Back Soon... I Promise!

I've had a rough week.

First, I was working a town fair (having a blast by the way) with the salon I do freelance make-up. Check out the pictures I posed on my sister blog, Day Spa Central, Facebook page.

Then my beloved pug (part of the pug clean-up crew) passed away suddenly on Friday.

Needless to say, I have been pretty worthless for several days now.

I am getting back on schedule and did make some amazing vegan food yesterday, so hopefully I'll get those pictures up soon, as well as my menu for the rest of the week.

Thanks for being patient and until I post again... happy cooking!!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Sample: Quaker Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares

I love samples. I really love samples. I am a sample junkie.

There, I’ve said it and I feel much better.

I get a lot of links to free hair and skin care samples, but occasionally there will be one for food. Like this one I got from Quaker. It was a sample for their new Honey Nut Oatmeal Squares. I happily gave my shipping information and waited patiently for it to arrive.

Now, I’ll admit I’m kind of a pessimist. I didn’t expect anything more than a few squares. Just enough to give me a taste leaving me wanting more and sending me to the grocery store in search of a full box. Imagine my surprise – and try my best to admit when I’m wrong – when this box arrived in the mail.

Box from Quaker
Bowl, Spoon & Milk from my kitchen

Advanced Gum Paste Flowers – Class #4: Final Project

I finished this class several weeks ago and just realized that I never wrote this post! It’s a shame too because all of my flowers pulled together nicely. The last class is always final project day and I decided to pull together all the flowers I made (including some more I made during the last week) into bouquets.

We still had a couple of things to learn. Here is lesson plan for this course. The red, bold text is what we covered in the final class:

Blossoms
Gerber Daisies
Sweet Peas
Ivy Leaves
Lily Leaves
Briar Rose
Stargazer Lily
Stephanotis
Assemble Blossoms, Leaves and Bouquets
Using Flower Spikes

I was excited to get my Stargazer Lily put together. It is one of the most grown flowers today and if I ever want to take myself seriously decorating cakes, I’m going to need to be able to make this one.

What I Made: June 18, 2012

You know what today is? It's VEGAN DAY! All dishes came from "Vegan Diner" by Julie Hasson. I'm about at the end of what I want to make in this book, so if anyone has any suggestions for a vegan cookbook, please let me know. I want recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Back to the cooking...

I was supposed to make breakfast, but didn't get up early enough to do so. Not feeling quite myself this week. No matter, this dish is called Blueberry Loaf Cake and worked well for a late afternoon snack and dessert.

What I Made: June 16 & 17, 2012

Ah, the weekend. I often try to take it a little easy on the weekends since I cook a lot during the week. For some reason this weekend, I was incredibly motivated to cook and bake.

Okay, well I wasn't motivated ALL weekend. Saturday morning was spent running errands and I wasn't in the mood to make lunch, so we picked something up. I kicked it into high gear for dinner.


© You Want Me to Cook? Portobello Mushroom Burgers

I got the recipe for Portobello Mushroom Burgers from All You. Initially, I was looking for a Mushroom-Quinoa Burger I found in January's issue, but for some reason it was nowhere to be found on their website. Since I recycle my magazines as soon as I've read them, the recipe has been lost (to me at least) forever.

What I Made: June 15, 2012

Friday was one of those days that as I was running errands, I wanted to stop at every fast food place I could find. I'm trying to recollect every place I squealed at when I passed, but here's a tentative list:

Columbia Gyros
Potbelly's
Starbucks (which I did stop at and get a iced latte)
Cold Stone Creamery
Culvers
Five Guys
La Caretta (Mexican deliciousness)
Subway
Potbelly's
Arby's
The Bread Basket (some of the best homemade bread in the area)

Somehow, I managed to get home without over-indulging in anything other than a soy latte (with whip), but then my lunch seemed lacking. I had planned a salad from the April 2012 issue of Food Network.