Re-Visited: Cooking Club #12

[Original post date Nov. 2011. --Updated 10/29/14: original, but separate content, with updated photos and/or more details, if available.]


---> Cooking Club is coming up soon, and now that I'm blogging, I want to share these moments but I thought I should play catch-up first. So without further ado, here (and in more posts to come) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

#12 June: Finger Food

The Menu:
        Appetizers
Tomato, Watermelon and Basil Skewers
Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts
Savory Parmesan Bites
        Dessert
Vegan Raspberry Scones

This month Kelly finally got to pick the theme. She got a bunch of cookbooks over the Christmas holiday and wanted to do an appetizer theme....which became a finger food theme...and then Kelly and her girls couldn't make it. But we thoroughly enjoyed her theme for her.

I came across this fun skewer recipe--actually I have no idea where I got this dish--I just know I've had it for a while. And it includes all of the things I love:

Cherry tomatoes (I eat these like they're candy, God's candy they are), check.
Watermelon (one of the reasons I love summer), check.
Basil (my favorite herb), check.
Balsamic vinegar (love and will put it on almost anything), check.

Even in bad lighting, these ingredients look delicious. I can smell the basil and taste the vinegar syrup as I type. I'd make these today if I didn't have to sell my right arm for the ingredients.

Trust me, you won't stop at just one, or two.....or five.

So, soooo good.

Tomato, Watermelon and Basil Skewers

Serves 8

1/4 c balsamic vinegar
scant 1/4 c sugar
1 (4-5 lb) watermelon, cut into 1 1/2" cubes
32 small basil leaves
16 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Tbsp olive oil
kosher salt
16 wooden skewers (about 16" each)

Combine vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat and set aside to cool. Starting with watermelon squares, push a square to very tip of skewer. Then skewer a basil leaf, then a tomato half. Continue layers until skewer is full. Continue with remaining skewers. Drizzle skewers with balsamic syrup and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and serve. (I even like mine with a little freshly ground black pepper.)


Even though there were only three of us this month, we have one, two, three, four...yes, four recipes. Jessica and I stumbled upon this Vegan Raspberry Scones recipe while killing time at work one day, and decided immediately that these qualified as finger food. We split the cost of ingredients and made these tasty little things as a combined effort.

(However, ours didn't turn out as dark as theirs...)

I was able to score some beautiful raspberries.

Jessica and Jenny might have consumed more than went into the batter. I, however, am not of the fresh-raspberry-liking crowd.

These were so flavorful with a different texture than your average scone. Great for breakfast, warmed with a tiny drizzle of honey, and cup of hot tea.

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. There are more to come as I try to play catch-up before this month's meeting. I hope these themes, and even Cooking Club itself, inspire you to gather with your friends and family in the kitchen, and make sweet moments (and delicious food) of your own.

**I've only included the recipes to the dishes I made. Only because I'm unsure of where everyone got theirs...and hey, we gotta give credit where credit is due. If you have any questions about the other dishes, I'll ask the other members where they got their recipes and pass it along!

Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8
Cooking Club #9
Cooking Club #10
Cooking Club #11

[Update: Just the previous Cooking Club links!]

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Autumn Apple & Almond Breakfast Parfait

Have an abundance of apples on hand? Have you made this? Or this? Or even my most recent yummy apple recipe? One can never have too many apples around the house. Trust me. Mr. B and I are known to devour about two each a day. He likes them one way and one way only: fresh, raw, and in its original form. He even likes to put salt on them....? (Ick.)  I, on the other hand, will eat them raw, cooked, sauteed, chopped up in stew, shredded in muffins, sliced and slathered with almond butter <--- my personal favorite. However, I have yet to try them sprinkled with salt. I think I'll leave that one to Mr. B.

McIntosh are his favorite. I can handle those as long as they're cooked or in something. Granny Smith's are mine, but I really haven't met an apple I wouldn't eat except for those nasty Red Delicious ones. Who first said those were delicious?! Not even close. I also really, really enjoy Pink Lady, Paula, Molly, Cortland, Honeycrisp, Jonathan....Oh, hi. Brindi here and I love apples.

Apples are versatile and cheap, making them easy targets for a variety of recipes, and because of this I happen to feature them a lot here on Sweet B's. Oh, and they're healthy, too. BONUS. (<--- read in a sing-songy voice.) And they're an excellent breakfast option. I love chopping them up and throwing them in my oatmeal or on yogurt. In fact, just combine any leftover oatmeal, yogurt, and apples and you have one FANCY breakfast parfait. One fancy FALL breakfast parfait. One fancy fall breakfast parfait which seems ALMOST too indulgent for a simple brisk morning.

Autumn Apple & Almond Breakfast Parfait

Serves 1

Spiced Apple Stir-Fry <--- find this recipe here
cooked oatmeal
plain Greek yogurt
almond butter
homemade apple butter <--- find this recipe here
Optional: sliced almonds, unsweetened almond milk (I like to re-heat my oatmeal with some milk to soften it up a bit.)

In a bowl, fancy glass, or whatever you desire, start with a layer of Greek yogurt. Next add a spoonful of oatmeal (I like mine warmed) with a drizzle of almond milk, a spoonful of almond butter, and a sprinkle of sliced almonds. Add a few stir-fried apples, another spoonful of oatmeal with a drizzle of almond milk, a spoonful of almond butter, and a spoonful of yogurt. Top with a dollop of apple butter, a couple stir-fried apples slices, and a sprinkle of sliced almonds. Admire your beautiful parfait that looks almost too good to eat, and a little extravagant for your weekday. Then devour...slowly...with your morning coffee.

The perfect FANCY leftover fall breakfast.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Grandma's Green Beans

When I think about my daddy's mother, Grandma Bays, and I think about the food I remember her for, I think about her homemade southern green beans probably the most. About how she had a huge pot going on the stove almost every day during green bean season. The whole house smelling of fresh, bacon-y goodness. I think about her sitting out on the back deck, surrounded by family, while she snapped off the ends of each bean, employing us grandkids to help. Gospel music coming from the stereo beside the back room's open window, her bare feet tapping along to the music, and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth while she was singing the Lord's praises or telling us hilarious stories involving our parents or her childhood in Kentucky.

Over seven years ago, breast cancer took my grandmother away from my family all too early. With October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, I think about her even more than I normally do. Instead of a couple of times a day, it's with every TV ad hoping for a cure, with every pink shirt I spot, with every little ribbon pinned to a shirt collar, with every heart-wrenching survivor's story, with every commercial reminding women to get annual mammograms. Seeing all this pink gives me hope and enrages me all at once.

Oh, Grandma, how I miss you more than I can find the words. More than words can explain the emptiness in my broken heart.

There are no words, so I'm just going to fix a big ol' pot of green beans and wrap up in the blanket you made me, while I seek out comfort in Jesus.

Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in suffering. --Isaiah 49:13 (NLT)

Grandma's Green Beans

Adjust to serve however many mouths you need to feed

1 lb fresh green beans, ends snapped off and washed
water (sometimes I add some chicken broth to give it added flavor)
1/2 c uncooked bacon, cut into chunks (lately, I've been using pre-cooked bacon so there's not as much grease)
salt and pepper, to taste
[Note: for every 1 lb of green beans, I use 1/2 c chopped bacon]

Grab whatever size pot you need, and toss in the washed green beans and bacon chunks (if using uncooked). Add in a couple dashes of salt and pepper, then add enough water to cover the beans and bacon by about 2-3" and place on the stove over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed, until beans are tender, about 1 hour. After this hour mark, check the green beans until desired texture is reached. (If using pre-cooked bacon, add in with about 10-15 minutes left, and cook until heated through.) Add more salt and pepper, if needed. ---> I like mine with quite a bit of pepper.

Grandma's green beans are that simple. Made with love, they're the best thing you'll ever eat.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Re-Visited: Cooking Club #11

[Original post date Nov. 2011. --Updated 10/14/14: original, but separate, content, with updated photos and/or more details, if available.]


---> Cooking Club is coming up soon, and now that I'm blogging, I want to share these moments but I thought I should play catch-up first. So without further ado, here (and in more posts to come) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

#11 May: Pizza

The Menu:
Cheddar-Apple Dessert Pizza
Berry Batch Brownie Pizza
Fruit Pizza


I apologize.

I failed.

I completely forgot to charge my camera, and it died during my first attempt at taking pictures during this month's Cooking Club.

But that won't stop me from telling you how ah-mazing this pizza is!

It's definitely my kind of dessert pizza...not too sweet, but just right. Apples and cheese always go together perfectly to create the most mouth-watering bite. (One of my go-to lunches is an apple and Munster grilled cheese....yum.) So this pizza did not disappoint. The cheddar made a delightful crust, and paired with the apple-sugar-and-spice topping.... Let's just say I love nutmeg.

You must make this ASAP!

I think this would be great for a brunch, or even more perfect as another the-day-after-Thanksgiving breakfast.

Update: With all of the above being said, I have made this dessert pizza quite a few times since that cooking club and have made many changes since, making it my own recipe. The biggest adaptation is turning the pizza into a rustic galette. For some reason I can't seem to get the pizza crust as sturdy as that first day, and have now just enjoyed making this dessert a tad rustic and crumbly. I changed up the cheese, replaced the butter with coconut oil, and have omitted half of the sugar.

Rustic Munster-Apple Galette

*adapted from Taste of Homes recipe

Serves 8

1 1/4 c flour + 1/3 c (mixture of all-purpose and whole wheat pastry flours)
1 tsp salt +1/4 tsp
1/2 c shortening
1 c shredded Munster cheese (I think any cheese would work here, so choose to your liking)
1/4 c ice water
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 c coconut oil
4 medium apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven 375 degrees. In a bowl, combine 1 1/4 c flour with 1 tsp salt. Cut in shortening until crumbly. Add cheese and toss lightly. Sprinkle ice water gradually over mixture, then shape into a ball with lightly floured hands. Place dough in center of large baking sheet (or round pizza pan) and roll outward from center to cover pan (or until big enough to your liking).

In a bowl, mix sugars with 1/3 c flour, spices and 1/4 tsp salt. Sprinkle half of sugar mixture over crust. Cut coconut oil into remaining sugar mix until crumbly and set aside. Arrange apple slices in overlapping rings on crust, leaving a 2" edge. Sprinkle with lemon juice, then with sugar-butter mix. Fold over the 2" edge of dough onto the galette topping, creating an overlap of crust along the edges of the galette and sealing in the apples.

Bake 35-40 minutes, or until apples are tender and crust is browned around edges. Serve warm cut into squares, slices, or whatever your heart desires. But be ready to eat more than one piece!

Add a steaming cup of Joe and this is brunch perfection, sweet friends.

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. There are more to come as I try to play catch-up before this month's meeting. I hope these themes, and even Cooking Club itself, inspire you to gather with your friends and family in the kitchen, and make sweet moments (and delicious food) of your own.

**I've only included the recipes to the dishes I made. Only because I'm unsure of where everyone got theirs...and hey, we gotta give credit where credit is due. If you have any questions about the other dishes, I'll ask the other members where they got their recipes and pass it along!

Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8
Cooking Club #9
Cooking Club #10


[Update: Recipe adaptations, along with mouth-watering pictures, and previous cooking club links.]

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Photo an Hour

8 AM

9 AM

10 AM

11 AM

12 PM

1 PM

2 PM

3 PM

4 PM

5 PM

6 PM

7 PM

8 PM

9 PM

10 PM

Yesterday was my first (and last for awhile) day off without plans in quite some time, and I spent it at home with Mr. Darcy. I was busy cleaning, organizing, and packing for our upcoming vacation to Maine. I was supposed to have book club later that evening, but it was pushed back a week, so Mr. B and I enjoyed a dinner of Slow Cooker Jerk Chicken and a movie. The chicken was tasty, the movie, Noah, was awful. Love me some lazy, me-time days, which are few and far between but readily welcomed.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

What I'm Reading

Finally, I have put aside the yoga research and the cookbook oogling in order to bring you a good reads review post sans postures and recipes. However, on that note, Daphne Oz's recent book Relish was a decent read. It's definitely NOT a cookbook, but includes a few recipes throughout which is not quite what I expected. The book includes fashion style tips, health and beauty solutions, ideas for throwing a great party, and suggestions on arranging your living space. It's kind of a hodgepodge. I did feel it was targeted to a wealthier population...not quite my cup of tea. I'm definitely more of a down-home-back-woods-simple-is-better kind of girl. But some tips I'll hold onto, especially some DIY beauty remedies.


This past month's book club read was Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger. This was my first experience with the Steampunk genre. I discovered I'm not very fond of it. While, I found it sort of interesting, I was put-off by the somewhat silliness of the plot of Etiquette and Espionage. I thought this book, if not for the Steampunk genre which could prove to be quite confusing to tweens, would be better suited for a juvenile audience rather than YA. Often, I was confused about all the "mechanics" going on and the terms.... I'm sure this is because I'm unfamiliar with this genre. I found myself not wanting to put it down for fear I'd never pick it up again. It's any easy read, and a weekend will have it finished. However, I did a lot of skimming the last half of the book. I was still interested enough to want to know how it ended. But I know I won't pick up the other books in the series. Not sure if I'll give the Steampunk genre another go; if so, possibly with an adult title.


I've been flying through audio books over here as of late. Some good, some bad, some awful, some worth mentioning. One of John Green's earlier books I've been meaning to read for quite sometime was An Abundance of Katherines. I pulled it off the shelf a few weeks ago when I was leaving work and needed an audio book right.this.minute. because there was no way I was turning on the radio. Ugh...I loathe public radio at five o'clock. The audio I requested hadn't come in yet, so I quickly grabbed a title I knew was on my TBR list and rushed out the door. It wasn't bad, per say. It was definitely boring. This Green book is about a child prodigy, Colin Singleton, who has been dumped by every Katherine he knows. His most recent break-up leaves him numb, and high-school graduation finds him with nothing left to do but analyze his short brilliant, but dramatic life. I was thoroughly annoyed with everything Colin before I was even half way through this audio book. (I'm thinking the audio, when the main character is a whiny, woe-is-me teenager, is not the way to go.) The only thing I enjoyed was the audio book was tracked by the minute, which led to easy skipping and still an understanding of what was going on. My least favorite John Green book to date.


And another one. Although Max Lucado's God Will Carry You Through is a short (only three hours) listen, it packs a heavy load. This Lucado book breaks down the story of Joseph, the biggest Biblical story in which you can easily see God carrying someone through his troubles, a few verses at a time and modernizes it while incorporating other people's testimonies. Yes, I cried. Yes, I became emotional. And quite often, too. It was one where I found myself nodding my head, and wishing I could stop the car and jot down that scripture and passage for future reference/reflection. So much so, when I finished the audio I placed the actual book on hold to peruse later. (Maybe not the best book to listen to on my way to work, where co-workers began to question my red and puffy eyes...but just an opening to tell them about Jesus, I guess!) This beautiful story is a great gift for someone going through a rough season, or stuck in God's waiting room.


Last but not least, here's an audio bonus that I have been meaning to share with you. Roald Dahl's Matilda, read by Kate Winslet is fan-freaking-tastic, I tell you! The listening experience was right up there with classics like The BFG and The Phantom Tollbooth. A spectacular audio book! (My only complaint, with the various voices, some were so low I had to crank up the volume and then hurry and turn it down when the booming, loud voices came on.) I wish Winslet would do more children's/Ya audio books. It's definitely a perfect title for a day trip with the kids. Or sans kids. A perfect throwback to when you were a kid, maybe? I read the book years ago as a little girl, and my cousins and I wore out the VCR with this movie.

Have you come across any good reads lately?

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Re-Visited: Cooking Club #10

[Original post date Nov. 2011. --Updated 10/6/14: original, but separate, content, with updated photos and/or more details, if available.]


---> Cooking Club is coming up soon, and now that I'm blogging, I want to share these moments but I thought I should play catch-up first. So without further ado, here (and in more posts to come) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

#10 April: Secret Ingredient

The Menu:
        Main Course
Oven-Lime Pork Fajitas (Lime)
         Side
Green Tea Couscous (Tea)
         Dessert
Blondies with Maple Syrup (Maple)

Jenny and Jessica decided it would be fun to do secret ingredients this month, sort of Iron Chef style.

So we all chose an ingredient, wrote it on a piece of paper and threw it in a hat.

Enter mass confusion.

After everyone drew, they started sharing what ingredient they had. Hello? I thought it was a secret!
 
Apparently the "secret" part already happened. The "secret" was we didn't know what ingredients were in the hat. Huh? Everyone was confused, there were questions if we should come up with new ingredients and redraw.....ai yi yi. We finally decided on just finding a recipe to go with our assigned ingredients.

I put in maple and drew tea. (Actually, I put both maple and espresso on my slip, allowing the receiver to decide. I thought I'd be sneaky like that.) So I went home and skimmed through my cookbooks. When nothing caught my eye, I headed online and found two recipes, a dessert and a side. I was craving couscous, and decided to go with the side, Rachael Ray's Green Tea Couscous.

Tea is definitely a favorite. As I was steeping my green tea, I was sooooo excited for my dish. After adding in honey and a hint of fresh mint (not a huge mint fan), I couldn't wait to taste this couscous! And then there were pieces of cucumber and lemon and lime.....and oh.my.goodness.

Giada's is still my favorite. But this was light, refreshing, and delicious. I realized I do actually like mint, but fresh mint only.

The nutritional information, via My Fitness Pal, per serving (this recipe, I feel, makes a good 6 side dish servings): 101 calories, 2 fat, 2 protein, 1 fiber, 8 sugar

Actually, this was a fantastic Cooking Club meal (even though we were quite small this month). Everything was perfect and just the right amount. Jenny's Oven-Lime Pork Fajitas were mouth-watering, and I have made them for Mr. B multiple times since. So good. I'm not a blondie fan, but Jessica's maple dessert was pretty tasty as well.

Definitely a success!

[Oh, and it seems that if you can make it to Cooking Club, great. If not, we'll see you next month. So we never know how many people are going to be there!]

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. There are more to come as I try to play catch-up before this month's meeting. I hope these themes, and even Cooking Club itself, inspire you to gather with your friends and family in the kitchen, and make sweet moments (and delicious food) of your own.

**I've only included the recipes to the dishes I made. Only because I'm unsure of where everyone got theirs...and hey, we gotta give credit where credit is due. If you have any questions about the other dishes, I'll ask the other members where they got their recipes and pass it along!

Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8
Cooking Club #9

[Update: Just previous Cooking Club links!]

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

My Beautiful Month

In case you aren't on Instagram, or don't follow me, here's a peek at my Insta-Life lately.
[*All photos are taken from my Instagram account.]

Some of my favorite things: Target, Starbucks, Vera Bradley, and plaid.

Breakfast parfait. So good I almost feel guilty!

First batch of apple butter of the season.

Mr. B let his birthday balloon go...into a beautiful sky.

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi