Pretzel Dogs

I know I'm posting more food recipes than anything else, but right now life is: food, school, throw the ball for Olive and pray she brings it back/doesn't eat it.

 This is a half recipe, sort of, it's missing a mini-dog that I was snacking on at the time.*

Joy the Baker's pretzel dogs

(More after the Jump)

PA Dutch Chicken Pot Pie (Bot Boi)

I realized I have an awful lot of desserts on here. In an effort to at least make it seem like we eat healthy, I thought I'd post my version of a staple in the area where I grew up. I say my version as it seems to have as many versions as the chocolate chip cookie but without a default like Tollhouse. Like most good recipes, Chicken Pot Pie recipes are often passed down through the generations. My family, being relatively new to the region, doesn't have their own version so I've cobbled together several I've found online into something  I remember having all over the area (even at Chocolate World) . Because this is my own recipe, I felt like including the actual directions as opposed to a link.

Now before we get into the directions, I should probably describe what I mean by Chicken Pot Pie. According to a couple links here and there (and Wikipedia) it derives from the older Germanic word "bot(t) boi" which references a type of soup using a protein, starch(es), vegetables, and a vegetable/meat stock. And like so many words, it's become a more recognizable phrase "Pot Pie". In most "you know you're from ______ when...." lists that relate in some way to region you'll see something along the lines of "You think of pot pie as a soup". This is why. It's filling, and relatively easy. And you can stretch is a pretty long ways (as is this recipe can last me for more than a week, I made a pot a week and a half ago when it was just Olive and me at home and there's still several containers in the freezer.)

You *will* need a large soup pot for this recipe, my 5qt dutch oven is insufficient to hold all of this at once, so I usually use too little water and then reserve ~1.5 C of stock in a bowl until the soup is being scooped out and then add it back in.

Olive's a Better Fan

Just a short little update to say: Olive is such a better Baylor fan than we are

Art Briles (Head Coach of the Bears) is notorious for wearing a baseball cap and long sleeves. I would sometimes pass him on my way to my job senior year when he was heading out for a run and he was wearing, of course, long sleeves and a baseball cap. He also says pithy sayings like "That dog'll hunt" (which I gather to mean, "That'll work"). Of course, Olive's a Sheltie so she doesn't hunt, she herds. Well, she does hunt squirrels but she's not supposed to.

She was remarkably tolerant, though I do have outtakes of her doing a Dune Cat impersonation since the shirt is DH-size (the neck is tied to be close to her's). Of course, she got a few training treats afterwards.

Today, Baylor is playing K-State (and ESPN favors us?! but Westboro apparently hates us both...*) but neither DH nor I are in Baylor Gear (DH is in a waco-based organization shirt and says that's close enough, I disagree). Therefore, Olive is a better fan than us.


* Supposedly, we're as Baptist as our "bear mascots" - I asked my friend why no one told me Lady and Joy go to church.

**edit** We did end up tuning in for the second half. There was a lot of "I can't watch!"- so a lot like last year, except I was in jeans and tee shirt instead of poly-wool blend uniform. In the end we got several congratulations at church this morning- DH wore his BU sweater and there are a number of almuns at the church.

Cinnamon Rolls

 Pioneer Woman’s much celebrated recipe

There’s not much to say about this one. Everyone who has had one loves them. Pioneer Woman gives awesome directions. Yeast isn’t that scary. The recipe makes close to 8-9 tin pans worth. That's about it. 

Kaylee Costume: Planning

Here's the tie-in I promised! I'm kind of running ragged with year-end work and filling out paperwork for a really awesome volunteer position. It's been a couple month process so I'm really excited to get it all completed. Anywho, here's the tie-in to Olive's potential Serenity costume.

Ms. Kaywinnit Lee Frye aka Kaylee

Photo courtesy of Serenify Costumes 

(other reference shots as well)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

(I promise the Serenity tie-in post is coming!)

A SK recipe

So, my dad had three of these cakes in a week. A big landmark birthday coincided with my graduation from undergrad so my mom said they could either pick up a cake from our wedding bakers (they’re awesome but over an hour drive away in unseemingly hot weather) or I could make one. I had a little over a week between my last final and everyone coming in, and we had already scrubbed the apartment so I had plenty of time for a cake. Well, I sent the recipe to my mom for approval. What she didn’t tell me until the evening they got into town is that she made two of them for the parties they had in my hometown. So my dad had three of these. I then made another for DH's birthday a couple weeks ago (it did not turn out as pretty).

Replaced the ugly old picture with one of DH's birthday in 2014. Much much better.

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies

I've made these twice. The first time... I'm not sure what recipe I used, probably the Whoopie Pie Book (same as the Dr Pepper Float ones). For the second I used the pumpkin recipe from the Whoopie Pie Book and the filling recipe from Amish Cooking: Deluxe Edition which was put out by Herald Press in the 90s.

Itty Bitty Whoopie Pies. That's a teacup saucer for reference.

Olive's First Halloween: Olive Joins the Golden Wave (in spirit)

Unless we decide to take more pictures for Homecoming (first time DH hasn't been, in almost a decade) Olive is finished with her role as the Furriest Member of the Golden Wave! (Fluffiest? Certainly not Hairiest... and I've seen babies dressed up so not Smallest either).