Hearty Minestrone Soup

It is a bit of a colder Spring day today, so I thought what is better for a cold day then to a bowl of soup to warm you from the inside out.  And for me there is nothing better then a hearty bowl of Minestrone soup to not only warm up up but actually fill you up.  At times soup can leave you still feeling hungry so finding a soup that is not only tasty but also fills you up is a must.  I found this wonderful recipe on Allrecipes.com.  And the great thing about having soup for a meal is that it is so easy to do, it can be fixed ahead of time and heated up later on.  What is your favorite soup for a cold day?

Homemade Cadbury Creme Cupcakes

If you are reading this you are most probably like myself in that you love to read other people's blogs to try to find new recipes to try. It can be such an adventure trying a new dish, sometimes it turns out successful and others we learn lessons about what not to do next time.  For me reading blogs does two things, it teaches me new food recipes and it also teaches me how to better write my recipes.  Because when we are attempting new dishes sometimes we need more help then just the instructions on what to do.  We need more of an understanding about why we are doing this next step and kind of results we are needing from it.  Because without that knowledge that the author has we are often left with disappointing results because we didn't understand why we were meant to beat the cream for 5 minutes and we just quickly mixed up the cream in 1 minute.  So as I struggled some what with this recipe and the results didn't quite turn out how they were meant to, I felt this was a perfect time to show that I too mess up, more times then I would like to, and hopefully pass on the things that I learned so that your results will turn out better then mine.

You don't throw away your leftover change so why do away with your leftover food

For me there is nothing worse then good food going to waste. Imagine how you would feel if you had holes in your pockets so that when ever you got change from a purchase it fell out onto the floor.  That is pretty much what is happening when leftovers or even fresh food goes to waste.  So for me it is so important to learn to get creative with the ingredients that you have on hand, especially when it comes to leftovers.  Even a good meal sometimes makes dull leftovers and it is often more tempting to have a fresh menu the next day rather then just heating up old leftovers.  So finding a creative way to make the leftovers into a fresh dish is a must.  It can often be a challenge but thanks to the internet it doesn't have to be impossible.  If you have a particular ingredient that you have no idea what to do with do my favorite thing and Google it, 'what to do with leftover blank'.  I guarantee you that there has been someone else who has already confronted and conquered the challenge. 

For this particular dish I was left with a large quantity of mashed potatoes and boiled cabbage after a wonderful roast meal with all of the family over the weekend.  I do love boiled cabbage but something about reheated boiled cabbage just doesn't get my taste buds excited.  So before they went bad I challenged myself to come up with a tasty solution.  Here in the UK a traditional use of roast meal leftovers is a dish called Bubble and Squeak, being a new resident of this country I challenged myself to create my own version of this dish.  

Breakfast Sausage Kolache

I have to say it is going to be quite fun introducing family and friends in the UK to many of the delicious dishes that we have loved from the US.  This past weekend I introduced my family to a very Texan breakfast of Sausage Kolache.  And I must say they were a hit.

Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

In honor of my first week in the UK I felt that it was appropriate to blog about a very English dish.  When I got married it was a fun challenge to begin to learn a whole new style of cooking.  Up until then my dishes had been heavily influenced by Asian cuisine.  But wanting to impress me English husband I found I wanted to try my hand at adding more English dishes to my repertoire. So there was lots of roasting of vegetables and of course pie making.  Now generally if you say to an American that you are going to be having pie they would think that you are referring to a sweet pie.  But to a Brit pie can mean so much more.  As I am just a beginner I have relied heavily on my meat pie recipes from other sources, for this particular one I used About.com.

Beef and Broccoli Stir-fry

Don't ever tell yourself that making delicious homemade Chinese dishes at home is too hard.  If you give it a try you just might surprise yourself at what you can do.  So put away those frozen stir-fry bags or those expensive takeaways and give this a try.

Choosing to buy quality over discount stock

Now that I am starting over for the first time in over 10 years my mind my mind is focusing more an more on what I want for my new kitchen.  I am done with buying cheap things and just making due with them.  My parents invested in a very nice and pretty expensive set of pots about 15 years ago and they are still in fantastic condition.  It makes me think of my dinky set that I just got rid of that I had for only three years and it was already on its last leg.  So how much money did I really save by buying a cheap set only to have it need to be replaced in three years? It seems like such a common problem that we get ourselves into when we buy cheap on the front end but end up paying more on the back end because we are constantly needing to fix or buy replacements.  I know why it is, it is because when it comes time to need to buy those new pans or that knife set it is hardly ever during a time that we are sitting in an abundance of money.  But the thought has challenged me to try and think differently.  Can I make small sacrifices in other areas to save up the money?  Can I start off small and prioritize my purchases and fill my kitchen with nice things?  It is a challenge, especially with a new baby on the way.  But a challenge that I am going to be facing soon, whether I am ready or not.

What are tricks you have come up with to save up money to buy nicer things for your kitchen?

Creamy Pasta with Leeks, Lemon and Peas

I absolutely love cream sauces, but the heaviness in the dish means it doesn't show up too often in my house.  But after thumbing through a magazine I got inspired to try something different with a cream sauce and the result was a creamy yet light dinner that would be perfect even on a hot day.