St. Patrick's Day Dinner

Corned Beef and Cabbage is our favorite

St. Patrick's Day dinner.

This year, however, I added fried cabbage to the menu and we loved it. 

I really wanted to make a festive dessert to complete our holiday meal but we still had some leftover chocolate cake and a few more lemon bars to finish. That's OK, because I plan on baking something sweet and yummy for Sunday Supper tomorrow anyway.

🍀 Happy St. Patrick's Day! 🍀

Happy Pi Day!

Today is

National Pi Day

and to celebrate I made...

a

PIE

of course!

Instead of making a dessert pie I decided to make a Taco Pie for dinner.  The crust for this pie is actually a delicious yeast bread. Onions and crushed corn chips are mixed in the dough for added flavor. 

Homemade taco seasoning and onions are stirred in the hamburger while it cooks. 

When the meat has browned it is spooned into the pie crust once the dough has doubled.

After the taco pie was baked I cut it in wedges and served it with cheese, avocado, salsa and sour cream.  

This Taco Pie was fun to serve for Pi Day however it tastes great on any day.

Have a wonderful Pi Day!

DIY master bathroom cabinets

The updated bathroom cabinets are almost finished!

All the DIY cabinet doors and drawer fronts are now on. Just as a reminder, here is a photo of the old cabinets.

We decided to keep the cabinet base for now and just update it with a reface and new paint until we start phase 2 which will be a complete bathroom remodel. 

I also asked for slide~outs behind the cabinet doors and Mr. Wonderful has delivered.

The slide~outs are great and give the old cabinets a clean, fresh look and make the space much more accessible. Next up, new fixtures. I still need to make a final decision on those and once they are installed I will post another update.

Have a super Saturday!

Babka x's 2

I can't believe I made a BABKA! 

Actually TWO babka's!!

I did not plan on making two however I was not sure the dough was rising the way I thought it should so I decided instead of taking a chance of wasting the wonderful apricots on failed bread I would start another loaf. Since I have made quite a bit of bread over the years I was pretty sure the dough would actually turn out just fine so instead of throwing it out I elected to go ahead and make it into a cinnamon babka. I also knew there was a better chance the guys would try it if it was cinnamon.  

Babka takes about 4 hours to make so I made it Friday evening while I had the house to myself for a few hours and that way it would be ready for breakfast first thing on Saturday morning.

While the dough was raising I worked on the apricots. They had to simmer in a mixture of lemon and orange juice for about 15 minutes. Once they were soft I pureed them into a smooth sweet filling.

I spread a layer of cream cheese filling over the apricot puree and then... 

...rolled, folded and twisted the dough, placed it in a pan and let it raise a second time.

Next I baked the cinnamon babka and while it was in the oven...

prepared the crumb topping for the apricot babka and...

sprinkled on top once it was ready for the oven. 

Once they finish baking they have to rest in the pan for almost another 30 minutes and then cool on a rack for a few more hours. By this time it was getting late so I let them cool overnight.

Both Babka's turned out beautiful and tasted great. I think I might try chocolate babka next time.

Happy Saturday!

new recipe night

Miss E and I had fun trying new recipes for Sunday Supper. She wanted to try Spaghetti and meatballs from her new cookbook and I wanted to try making a Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie. I started on my pie crust and she started on the meatballs.

While the pie crust baked we made thirty meatballs to go with our spaghetti sauce. 

She continued working on the sauce and I started some homemade french bread.

There was a lot going on in the kitchen so I did not get many meal prep photos but I did get one picture of our dinner which was a hit with the family.

And so was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie!

A friend brought a peanut butter chocolate pie she had picked up at a Shari's restaurant to our Thursday night ladies dinner. I had never had one before and loved it so decided to try making one.

I think our new recipes are keepers! 

Have a happy day!

DIY Master Bathroom Makeover ~ update

Progress is being made on our master bathroom project ~ phase 1. The wood floor and the old oak cabinet doors and drawers have all been removed.

The tile floor is now finished except for the sealer and the cabinet frame has been painted.

Since the oak grain is difficult to cover with paint Mr. Wonderful went ahead and made brand new doors and drawer fronts. While he was at it we decide to change the style too. 

All the doors are now raised panel and painting is currently in progress. 

Since they are almost ready to hang we will need to make a decision on hardware soon

as well as coordinating fixtures for the sinks, tub and lights. I have also asked for sliding drawers in the cabinets to make things easier to access. He now has those supplies on hand and that should be finished this week as well. I should have more updates to post later next week.

Have a super Saturday!

Grilled Shrimp ~ two ways!

Last Sunday our supper menu included some tasty shrimp.

We marinated about 2 pounds of jumbo shrimp and then skewered and grilled them. 

They were wonderful and so was the rest of the meal so needless to say we had some leftovers.

So a few days later

Papa Bear decided to make fried rice with Shrimp.

It was very quick and easy  

and so delicious! A great way to use the leftover Shrimp.

Happy Friday!