Archive for February, 2011
Photograph 365 – Week 7
Feb 18th
This week I was able to take many photographs. For some reason I was in a photograph taking mood. Maybe it was because as the week went on it got warmer out. Maybe it’s the Work-cation I am on. Who knows. At any rate I am enjoying it and didn’t miss one day!
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Day 43 – February 12, 2011
My youngest daughter made this cake. There is actually a funny story that goes with this cake.
I had a box of Halloween cake I got on clearance after Halloween. It doesn’t look Halloweeny does it? Read on.
It started out with me reminding her to follow the directions on the box. Are you sure you can do it by yourself?
My 11 year old can make pancakes, eggs, grilled cheese and has made cake before. I was posative she would be fine.
Do you think it occurred to me to question her when she though it was odd that the box said 6 eggs? Nope.
About 15 minutes after that comment she yelled, “Mom, you better come in here.”
It’s not as thick as a cake batter should be. I thought for a minute and then asked her, what did you do?
You could see she was ready to cry and said she didn’t know. She insisted she followed the directions.
Problem was she followed the directions for TWO cake boxes for a Halloween pumpkin cake. So good thing I had a fix and had another box to just add to it for valentines.
The plus is that it was more moist than any box cake we had ever made!
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Day 44 – February 13, 2011
This day my youngest and I went Ice Skating at the South Park Ice Rink with my sister and her kids. This is my newphew and my daughter. He is a skating pro! It’s amazing what little kids can do. It does help that he is on a hockey team.
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Day 45 – February 14, 2011
Happy Valentines Day. These were some goodies I got my kiddo’s.
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Day 46 – February 15, 2011
This was the day the one boss sent me downtown to file some cases for work. No one wanted to go down with me nor drive to downtown so I got to leave work early and go home when I was done.
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Day 47 – February 16, 2011
I ride this accordian bus everyday. They do have some interesting sayings on them.
This one says, “Parking too much? Don’t make faces Hop on the bus plenty of spaces”
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Day 48 – February 17, 2011
This was the day I had to take 6 buses. I started with two first thing in the morning to get to the doctors. Two to get to work and two to get home. Hubby and I both had a doctor appointment so we stopped at Subway and got something to eat and I took a few pictures before I went off to work and he went home.
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Day 49 – February 18, 2011
This is my “Baby”. She was soaking up the sun when I got home from work in the front window.
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All photo’s taken with Sony Cyber-shot.
The only editing was resizing and adding my name.
Photograph 365 – Week 6
Feb 12th
The weekend was a crazy one. I was focused on making recipes for the Tomato Bowl so they are the only pictures I have for those two days. While Pittsburgh didn’t win the Superbowl nor the Tomato Bowl it was fun making new recipes as well as ones I already had and loved. The first two are photo’s of recipes that were new to me and both turned out great.
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It was a busy week in general and I didn’t take as many photo’s as I would have liked. It was also extremely cold outside so I didn’t pull out my camera while at bus stops even when I wanted to.
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Day 36 – February 5, 2011
This day I made salsa.
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Day 37 – February 6, 2011
Super Bowl Day I made home made pizza rolls! They turned out very yummy.
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Day 38 – February 7, 2011
My oldest daughter, Autumn, had a school performance this night. All my photos are from the performance. I had to leave work early, take two buses home, get ready, and take another bus to her school. It was nice though.
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Day 39 – February 8, 2011
HAHA Autumn’s feet.
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Day 40 – February 9, 2011
My dog is crazy. When she plays with toys, tortures the cat or tortures humans she gets pretty psycho. Sometimes I wonder about her.
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Day 41 – February 10, 2011
I used the sports setting on my camera to get a shot of the lights in the Squirrel Hill Tunnel to actually show the lights instead of a ray of light.
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Day 42 – February 11, 2011
My mom came into work this day so I was showing her how close my camera zooms. We were in the showroom on the other side of the room. She loves it but I couldn’t convince her to take it on vacation with her. Electronics intimidate her.
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All photo’s taken with Sony Cyber-shot.
The only editing was resizing and adding my name and the cropping of the photo of Autumn’s performance.
Worst Cooks in America – Week 6
Feb 10th
This week for the field trip they visited a place called The Meat Hook.
The Skill Drill was to show confidence and fearlessness. The task was to make a dish from scratch using their own hand made sausage.
Chef Robert showed them how to make Herb Sausage and Chef Anne showed them how to make a Fennel Sausage.
It occurred to me that I had a meat grinder and could make my own sausage too but alas I don’t have the other attachment to put the sausage in the casings. Did you know that the casings are hog intestines? Gross! They had 30 minutes to re-create the sausage their Chef showed them how to make.
Some of the recruits had a little trouble. Ty didn’t measure as he didn’t want to over think it and Kat’s machine kept coming apart. But most did well and didn’t seem intimidated by the task.
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Next they had to incorporate the sausage into a meal. This was the Technique Challenge.
For Chef Roberts team they made Red Pepper Spaetzle in Mustard Cream Sauce with Sausage.
Chef Anne’s team made Polenta Cakes with Quick Sausage Sauce.
They were allowed 45 minutes to create this dish.
Pepperoni Rolls
Feb 6th
Forget frozen pizza rolls! Make your own!
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Ingredients:
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1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup warm water
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup pizza sauce (recipe follows)
1/3 cup finely shredded mozzarella cheese
pepperoni cut into pieces
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Directions:
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In a large bowl, whisk flour and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in water, yeast and sugar. Let sit about 5 minutes.
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Then, add olive oil and mix ingredients together until a dough forms. You may need to add up to 1/2 cup more water.
Pour dough onto counter and knead about 8-10 minutes.
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Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let rise in warm dark place until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
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Place risen dough on countertop and, using a rolling pin, roll into a thin square.
Using a pizza cutter cut into squares.
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Put about 1/2 tsp pizza sauce on half the squares, and top with the same amount of cheese. Take the plain squares and place them on top of the squares with sauce, cheese and pepperoni and pinch the seams closed. Press fork tines around the edges of the squares to close the seams completely.
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Place each pocket on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown on the edges. Serve immediately.
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Pizza Sauce
Ingredients:
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1 (15 ounce) can Red Pack tomato sauce
1 (6 ounce) can Red Pack tomato paste
2 tsp oregano
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp basil
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Directions:
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In a medium bowl, Mix together tomato sauce and tomato paste until smooth. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
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Simple Salsa
Feb 6th
Today for the game I made a simple salsa. It doesn’t include any peppers.
I had my daughter and husband taste this while I was creating it since I don’t like salsa and it was a big hit with both of them!
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Ingredients:
1 can RedPack Diced Tomatoes with Roasted Garlic and Onion
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp parsley
Pinch of salt
1 tsp garlic powder
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Directions:
Stir all ingredients together and enjoy with your favorite chips!
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