Simply Scratch

I love a good food blog. Recently I stumbled upon Simply Scratch - and found myself lost... scrolling through pages and pages of the beautiful tasty recipes. I love the diverse selection - lots of creamy comfort foods and some great healthy options.

Image Source - Simply Scratch

This morning Barry awoke to the scent of these delicious pancakes - Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Swirled Pancake Muffins. They were delicious. I made them in muffin form as suggested with the recipe and they did not disappoint.

Image Source - Simply Scratch

For dinner we indulged in Baked Macaroni and Cheese also from Simply Scratch. I served the macaroni and cheese as the main dish with plenty of steamed broccoli and carrots to offset the insane creaminess. I did add some panko bread crumbs to the top along with shredded cheese to up the crunch.  Overall this recipe is a keeper and I will be pulling it out occasionally. I can't recommend it enough - Simply Scratch has oodles of tasty looking recipes. Check it out! 

Days like today are definitely ones to remember. Lots of good food - laziness on the couch and plenty of warm laundry to fold.

Loves!

Live & Eat

Sunday. Delicious Sundays.

Today was filled with good food and good living. 

I woke up early this morning to the sound of pouring rain. Rain, rain, rain. It rained solid and heavy here for at least a day. I spent the quiet of the morning baking a pie - using leftover phyllo pastry that I had needed in a recipe a few days ago. Barry woke to the smell of cinnamon and apples snuggled in warm pastry. We both enjoyed a slice early morning. I used this recipe.

In the afternoon we took to the yard to do some raking and organizing. The garden beds are now ready for the cold and the last of the winter crop seeds have been planted.

We roasted a lovely chicken for dinner with some potatoes and carrots. I currently have stock simmering on the stove (leftover chicken, the carcass, carrots, celery and spices).  I'm already dreaming of the wonderful soups it will yield.

Here is a sweet photograph of the pug. She lasted a few minutes outside before I scooped her up and brought her in. The cold of winter here is too rough for this pug.

We are now snuggled down for the night with a movie on and a warm blanket to keep us cozy.

Have a wonderful start to the week friends!

Loves!



 

P.S. I'm linking up to the Homestead Barn Hop here. 

A Lovely Stew

Last night we dined on homemade stew and corn muffins. It was delicious. It feels so good to make a meal that is nourishing and man pleasing. Do you ever feel proud when you make something delicious from scratch? Maybe proud isn't the right word, but it does certainly feel good.

Here's my man pleasing stew recipe. I started making this a few years ago when we first moved out. It is a wonderful crock pot recipe, however I have even made it in a dutch oven over an open fire. I am not a red meat person by any means so I always add extra potatoes and carrots to fill my bowl.

A Lovely Stew (with some measurements and some estimating)

stewing beef, the best stuff you can find
chicken stock, I used half of a carton of what I had left. Any stock would do nicely in this recipe, especially some homemade stuff.
handful of potatoes, quartered
2 tomatoes chopped roughly
carrots, sliced
1.5 cups of beer
1 pepper minced (you could also throw in an onion)
spices, thyme, dill, sage and parsley
celtic sea salt and pepper

I leave this on about 1o hours on low in my crock pot.

I start with the crock.


Then throw in the pepper. Everything cooks down so much I don't worry about making it pretty.


Now take some beautiful potatoes.


And quarter them.


And throw it all in the crock. Chop up some carrots too. Not sure where my carrot photo got to.


Dice up some tomatoes. They add a lot of goodness and depth to the soup.


Now for the spices. This is my wonderful dill that I dried in my dehydrator recently. I took pictures of the process to post but I have been using my beau's camera lately instead of our older one and I can't seem to get it to work with dill. It refuses to take pictures of dill. Odd, yes, and it is likely something I am doing wrong. So this is the blurry dill.


Beautiful organic Watkins spices.


Now throw some broth into the mix. I used about half a container.


Grab your stewing beef. Ethical beef makes for happy cows!



In goes the beer!


You could also sub red wine for the beer and that would be amazing.

Stir it all together and pop the lid on!


Now wait, awhile..

Mmm..


I scooped some of the carrots, tomatoes and peppers out and pureed them to add a bit more depth to the broth. I think this is why the soup does have almost an orang-y tinge.


Wholesome goodness.

Would you like a corn muffin to go with yours?


Perhaps 3?


Have a wonderful Thursday.

Loves!

Seeding and Baking

Happy long weekend and Victoria Day Canadians!

We had a lovely weekend filled with gardening, baking, barbecuing and sleeping in. It was rejuvenating getting to relax and get lots of things done around the house.

I made this blueberry crisp that was inspired by Nourishing Traditions/WAPF.


Blueberry Crisp

Topping,
3/4 c whole almonds
1 c oats
1/4 c butter
2tbl maple syrup
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla

In a food processor pulverize the almonds into a coarse meal - then add oats and pulse a few times. Add butter and remaining ingredients and pulse until coarse (I did have to break apart some of the butter lumps by hand)

Filling,
Blueberries
Zest of one lemon
Maple Syrup
Vanilla Extract

In my baking dish I just dumped some blueberries - as many as I could fit. Then sprinkled on lemon zest, vanilla extract and cinnamon. I poured a small amount of maple syrup and stirred everything around. Top your filling with the yummy oat/almond mixture - and bake for an hour. I baked at 375* - half uncovered and half covered.

I spent several hours today in my garden weeding planting some beautiful tomato plants and strawberries. I also seeded cucumber, peas, broccoli, cherry tomato, pumpkin, squash and corn.

These are the strawberry plants in a planter on my lovely wooden benches. I really need to stain the benches, this last winter was hard on them!



This is one of my garden beds. The green plants to the left of the bed are some lovely tomatoes I picked up today at a local nursery. I use rocks as markers in the garden.




I seeded some tomato plants in the plastic garden boxes.

This empty bed will be filled with some potatoes I'm going to plant this week sometime.


I'm also happy to report that my flower garden is looking lovely and full.


I hope you had a lovely weekend! Happy gardening!



P.S.
I'm linking up here


&

Traditional Tuesdays at Cooking Traditional Foods

Sunday Easter Love

Here are a few quick pictures from our Saturday Easter dinner. I completely forgot to take a picture of everything completed and all of the side dishes!

40th post! And cheesecake!

Very excited to say this is my 40th post!

I also have a recipe to share, which makes me happy as I haven't shared one in awhile. Today is my darling beau's birthday. I made him homemade macaroni and cheese and cast iron blackened chicken for dinner, needless to say he was happy. I also tracked down this recipe for a no bake cheesecake that his mom makes every time we go over to visit for dinner. I love how nostalgic he is for this recipe, and it made me happy to surprise him with it after a long day at work.

A side note this recipe is more assembling then baking.

Ingredients,
1 dream pouch of dream whip (it has to be dream whip, don't ask me why)
1 brick of cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup of icing sugar
1 pre made graham cracker crust (if you want to get all fancy you can make one)

I like to whisk my icing sugar prior to using it in a recipe to get out lumps.

Step 1
Make dream whip using packet instructions. (I used a wire wisk attachment for the dream whip portion, and a paddle attachment for the cream cheese part of the recipe).

When you get fluffy peaks transfer mixture into another bowl. Or if you have two mixing bowls just rotate and use a new bowl.

Drop in your cream cheese and whip until it gets a little fluffy. Add icing sugar and whip some more until combined.

Once your cream cheese mixture has come together (no lumps!) gently fold in your fluffy dream whip.

Pour into your crust. I love the way packaged crusts look, so perfect.

Now this next part is optional, but I took a little of my beau's favorite chocolate,

and grated a bit for on top! Chill the cheesecake for a few hours before serving. This cheesecake will be quite fluffy and not as firm as a regular cheesecake.


He was excited to see the cheesecake when he got home from work, and perhaps more excited to dive in after dinner!