Cooking Club #16

*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 other posts) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!

November: Ingredient Chocolate

The Menu:

              Main Course
Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes
              Desserts
Raspberry Fondue with Pound Cake
Easy Pudding Cookies
Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Chocolate-Dipped Marshmallows

Jenny's Easy Pudding Cookies

[Because of everybody's crazy-busy schedules, we had to forgo last month's Cooking Club. We decided to start scheduling our meetings every other month.]


It's time for this month's Cooking Club! Someone decided they wanted chocolate. So, chocolate it is. It didn't have to be all chocolate, just as long as your recipe had chocolate or cocoa as an ingredient.

Of course I went to my heavenly cookbook, The Chocolate and Coffee Bible, to find this month's dish. There were so many mouth-watering options that I couldn't choose. I looked through the whole book and wanted to make 80% of it! I needed more time to decide.

But then I realized, if everyone was bringing chocolate, more likely than not, everyone would have a sweet recipe. And a table full of sweets....hello, sugar coma. And I'm a big supporter of "everything in moderation."

Whoopie Pies

Marshmallows

So, I decided to make a less-sweet dish for our chocolate menu:


Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes.

This can be made as a dessert or a weekend brunch. And the pancakes are small enough that it's not too heavy. And the recipe only calls for 1 Tbsp of chocolate chips for the entire batter!

The banana really hits the palate because the chocolate isn't overwhelming, allowing that lovely taste to shine through. And you can't even taste the almonds in the batter.

I would definitely have to say that this month's meeting was my least favorite....only because we were all starving and there were only sweets to munch on. We wanted real food!

This is something we have to start thinking about when we plan our future themes.

Or we're going to leave our meetings hangry.

Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes
* adapted from The Chocolate and Coffee Bible recipe

Makes 16 pancakes


2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
scant 1 c milk
1 1/4 c flour, or whole wheat flour
1/3 c ground almonds + 2/3 c sliced almonds
1 Tbsp Stevia, or other sugar
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp semisweet chocolate chips
butter, for frying (or cooking spray)
2/3 c heavy cream (or Sugar-Free Cool Whip, or whipped cream of choice)

Mash bananas in a bowl. Beat in eggs and half the milk. Mix in the flour, ground almonds, sugar and salt. Add remaining milk and chocolate chips.

Stir mixture well until it makes a thick batter. Heat a pat of butter in frying pan. Spoon pancake mixture into heaps, allowing room to spread. When cakes are lightly browned underneath, flip and cook other side. Slide on to plate and keep hot while making the next batch.

For topping, whip cream to soft peaks in a bowl. Spoon cream on to the pancakes and decorate with sliced almonds. Serve immediately.

*The cream on top is perfection.


Everyone's dish turned out well, but we were so hungry for food that everyone ended up taking home the leftovers of what they made only. haha

The cream cheese-pumpkin filling tasted amazing, and I think it would be perfect on toast in the morning. Yum-O. I didn't know Jenny had used mint M&Ms, so when I bit into her cookie I got a surprise. They were good, I'm just not a fan of mint. And Jessica's fondue, raspberry and white chocolate...delicious, but it didn't thicken.

The Fondue before it melted.

[Now I need to go search for some real food before I gnaw my arm off.]


**I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. 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!]

Until next time....

Check out our previous meetings!
Cooking Club #1-4
Cooking Club #5-8
Cooking Club #9-12
Cooking Club #13-15


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Cooking Club #13 {Updated}

[Updated 11/3/14: 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 other posts) is what we've been up to. Enjoy!


#13 July: Red, White and Blue

The Menu:
         Appetizers
Turkey Brie Bundles
Stromboli Minis
        Main Course
Roasted Chicken Breasts with Red and Blue Salsa
        Desserts
Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Red Velvet Crepe Cake
Cherry and Blueberry Pie

Cooking Club Turns 1!

Happy Birthday!

It was my turn to choose the theme for this month's Cooking Club. The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love the colorful fireworks at night, family barbecues, and the colors. I was feeling a little red, white and blue, and there are tons of recipes that can fit this theme. My recipe for this month was Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake, which showed up in my email one morning. Oh, Taste of Homes, how your eye-googling recipes continue to fill my SAVED inbox.

Coffee cake, yum.

Cream cheese, heaven.

Isn't it beautiful? Don't you want to take a swim in that pan? I do. This cake is moist and full of flavor. The raspberries jump out as you cut into the perfect slice. I can't help smiling and drooling every time I look at this picture. I.Cannot.Help.It.

I have no words. Check out the recipe and make it today! (And invite me over for a slice, and some coffee. Black, please!)

Kelly's Turkey Brie Bundles were my second favorite on this month's menu. So good and the brie melted perfectly.

Jessica's Red Velvet Crepe Cake took center stage for our one-year birthday celebration. It turned out beautifully, and she earned bonus points for incorporating all of the colors, but it was a little.too.rich for my liking. Double bonus points because she had the patience actually to create this multi-layer crepe cake, turning it into two cakes instead of one towering dessert.

The frosting = Amazing.

Check out all of those crepe layers! (Yes, you need patience for this kind of cake. Something I seriously lack. I definitely won't be making this any time soon.)

*I hope you enjoyed these Cooking Club snippets. I've finally caught up! 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 #9-12

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Luckies and I, We're LikeThis.

What I Had For Breakfast Today: Lucky Charms. I know, nothing homemade and filled with oats. You're probably disappointed. But ever since I was shafted on Black Friday and didn't get my 99-cent cereal, I've been craving my Luckies. Yesterday, while Christmas shopping at Target, I broke down and bought a box.

Now, me and Lucky Charms, we go way back. I've loved this cereal since I was a wee one, but we didn't have it in the house much (which is a good thing, because I probably would have grew tired of it...just like me and tuna). One, it wasn't the healthiest cereal. And two, it was on the more expensive side. Mama tried to buy me the knock-off brand. It tastes nothing like my Luckies, and I'd rather go without than have that sad excuse for a "Charm."

When I went off to college and got my own little plastic card, (you know, the one you use to buy groceries at the school's ridiculously high prices, and don't really think about it until you graduate, and six months later your loan bill shows up in your mail box, and you cry out "Why did I choose a food plan?!" and shake your fist and cry, and then drastically decide to get a Master's so you can put off your loan payments for a few years. Yeah, that card.) I was in heaven with my endless supply of Lucky Charms, which cost me almost $5 a box. (!)

Mama would call often to see how my first year at school was going, and most of our conversations started off like this:

Mama: Hi, how's everything going?

Me: Great, I'm eating dinner.

Mama: Oh, what are you having?

Me: A bowl of Lucky Charms.

Mama: Didn't you have that for dinner last night?

Me: Yep. And I had it for breakfast. And I'll probably have it for breakfast tomorrow.

Mama: Brindi! You're eating so much you're going to turn into a Lucky Charm.

I don't think being a Lucky Charm would be so bad. I'd want to be the purple horseshoe or the red balloon.

Daddy and I always joke about how the Amish rip off General Mills. Whenever we go to an Amish store, they're always selling Lucky's "charms" in a big bag. It looks exactly like the marshmallows, as if a bunch of Amish kids are sitting out back picking out all of the marshmallows from the cereal. And then they sell them to customers, like me, who are obsessed with Luckies. Well, when I was little my parents let me buy a bag to put in my plain, boring cereal at home. These so called "charms" look like the real thing, but TASTE nothing like the real thing. It was an awful, traumatic experience. Don't buy those bags. Don't do it.

So, needless to say, yesterday I was so excited to get my Lucky Charms! (And I had a bowl as a late night snack last night.) I will maybe purchase this cereal once or twice a year (everything in moderation), and by the time I reach the bottom of the box, I'm usually so sick of Lucky Charms I don't want to eat another bite. I'm certain it's due to the fact that a box doesn't last longer than 24 hours in my house. Maybe if I rationed it out....

Mr. B got home late last night, and after working out he was starved like always. I suggested he eat some cereal because the milk was going bad in a few days, and I hate wasting. It wasn't until he was on his last few bites that I happened to look over and see he was eating my Luckies. "Hey! I meant your cereal!" He laughed and replied, "Oh, but these are so good. I even made sure I got extra marshmallows in my bowl." What?! "You're not supposed to do that! You only get the charms that come out as you pour." I had a mini panic attack as I explained, while he listened with a huge smirk on his face. Ugh, married life. That was definitely "for worse."

So that, my friends, is why my bowl (cough, mug, cough) this morning looks so empty of Charms.

And why my Luckies don't last very long. Because if I don't eat them right away, Mr. B will. And you should see the size of his cereal bowls!

Pinterest

And to keep up with my challenge...

*December-60 Challenge
What this past week looked like:

Monday: 60 minutes vinyasa yoga
Tuesday: 60 minutes vinyasa yoga
Wednesday: 30 minutes vinyasa yoga
                     30 minutes weight training, arms
Thursday: 30 minutes vinyasa yoga
                  30 minutes cardio routine
Friday: 30 minutes vinyasa yoga
             30 minutes cardio routine
Saturday: 60 minutes vinyasa yoga
Sunday: 30 minutes vinyasa yoga
              30 minutes cardio routine
             


With love and God Bless,
Brindi


What's your favorite cereal?

Gravy SO Good

Check this out. Nothing takes me back to my childhood quicker than a plate piled high of biscuits and gravy (except Grandma Bays' fried pork chops...so good, and my arteries are clogging as I think of them). My family loooooves biscuits and gravy. Being from the south, Grandma Bays was no stranger to eating this meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When I was little I looked forward to weekends, summer and breaks because my cousins and I would stay at my grandparents house. I remember sleeping in and waking up to the smell of gravy coming from the kitchen. My cousins and I would strive to be the first one in the kitchen. We'd sit with pride and a huge smirk on our face, with a full plate, as we watched the "sleepy heads" finally make their way to the kitchen.

I loved being the first one because Grandma would let me taste the gravy and judge if it needed any more seasoning. That's definitely where my love for food began. In the kitchen with Grandma. My grandma passed away almost four years ago from breast cancer, and even though I don't get to spend my weekends with her in the kitchen, smells like this take me back instantly.

Mama would also make me sausage gravy and biscuits, and it was delicious. And I love Cracker Barrel's gravy recipe...it's sooo rich and creamy. So when I found Bobby Flay's Biscuits with Cream Gravy, I jumped on that gravy train. Figuratively speaking, sort of.

These Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits were the perfect pillows for my gravy. They were extremely easy to make, and I didn't mind getting my hands wrist-deep in flour, butter, buttermilk and cream.

But the gravy was the best part. It was all I could do to not jump inside this pot of creamy heaven. I mean I already licked the spoon...multiple times. Ohemmgeee. I could drink this. It's that good.

Gravy. So. Good.

A small warning, definitely not figure-friendly. But everything in moderation, right?

Cream Gravy
* adapted from Bobby Flay's recipe

Makes about 2 cups
2 c whole milk (but I was out, so I used 1 3/4 c 1% milk + 1/4 c heavy cream)
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 Tbsp flour
1 tsp Kosher salt and 1/4 freshly ground pepper
Put milk in small saucepan and bring to simmer over medium heat. Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute without browning. Slowly whisk in warm milk. Raise heat to high and continue whisking until sauce begins to thicken and the raw taste of flour has been cooked out, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (And try your hardest to leave some to actually top the biscuits.)


**Make this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch. Whenever. Whatever. Just make it!


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Sunday Sweets

Every other Sunday I post a blog sharing my favorite finds from around the Internet and my current obsessions.

Enjoy!


What I Had For Breakfast Today: Baked Oatmeal. You can find the recipe here. I used blueberries, and added a splash of milk on top. It's very filling, so a little goes a long way. Yum. [Oh, and I suggest a lot of berries.]

Best Entertaining Idea: This would be a great idea for guest favors. I love it!

Daily Smile: I just had to share.

Favorite Must-Make-Soon Dessert: Salted Caramel and Brownie Cheesecake Bars.

I'm actually making these later tonight to share with my co-workers tomorrow. [I'm definitely going to need all of my self-control to make sure they actually make it into work and not my belly.]


Favorite Hair Style: Cute, feminine and delicate.
Favorite Mouth-Watering Dish Beverage: Ever since I saw this photo I can't stop thinking about this beautiful North Pole Strawberry Smoothie.

Favorite Fashion Find: I love everything about this outfit. The shoes, the skirt, the hair!!! LOVE.

Favorite Craft Idea: I want to do this!!!! Loving this idea, and can't wait to try it out this season. How creative.....and if you know me, you know I occasionally have these containers lying around....

Favorite Dish I Want Right Now: Hasselback Garlic Cheesy Bread. I'm not a huge bread person, but this looks D-lish.

Current Quick Fitness Routine Obsession: Try this. Repeat 3x. Let me know how you feel tomorrow.

Favorite Place: I'd love to be sipping hot cocoa while looking out the window at this.

Don't You Just Hate That Fact: #64 When the brief thrill of making the yellow light ends and you're bored again.


Love For My Future Home: I'm in love with this purple room. (Although, Mr. B might disagree.) I love anything and everything purple. My parents used to have an eggplant color on their living room walls.

Current CD Obsession: *NSYNC's Home For Christmas. I could listen to this CD any day of the year! I definitely wear it out during the holidays.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Best Day Brightener: Something deep in all of us yearns for God's beauty, and we can find it no matter where we are. 
--Sue Monk Kidd


I hope you enjoyed this Sunday's favorite finds.

Was there something you came across this week and just have to share?


Check out my other Sunday Sweets!
Sunday Sweets #1



*December-60 Challenge
What this past week looked like:

Thursday: 60 minutes vinyasa yoga
Friday: 30 minutes cardio routine (see above fitness obsession)
             30 minutes vinyasa yoga
Saturday: 60 minutes vinyasa yoga
Sunday: 30 minutes cardio routine
              30 minutes vinyasa yoga


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi

Inside My Life

Every once in a while I plan to share little tidbits of my beautiful, blessed life with all of you. And I'm kicking it off today!


What I ate for breakfast today: Oats in a Jar!!!! I love my oatmeal and peanut butter, and combining the two is a great way to get the last scrapings out of that jar.

I love breakfast. It's like my favorite meal besides dessert.


Since I love to try new recipes, which is one of the reasons for starting Sweet B's, I constantly peruse my cookbook collection (and I have a lot on my Christmas list this year) and decided to give you a tour.

These are my go-to favorites. When I moved into my first apartment with my friend Jessica, I pretty much made almost every recipe in the Taste of Home's Fast Fixes with Mixes. And when my husband decided to toss The 1,000 Best Recipes aside, I dog-eared almost every page. The pictures in this book are mouth-watering. Mr. B's favorite is Everyday Cooking, which his mom gave him when he moved out on his own. The Chocolate and Coffee Bible is a must. (But I'm more excited about the coffee part.)

Next up, my second favorites. The Sunday Night Football Cookbook has some hidden gems that are amazing, which is where I found my classic Cornbread Casserole recipe that I must make for every Thanksgiving. Cookies, Bars, and Brownies come in handy around the holidays, and I wish I used Smoothies and Juices every day.

These usually get shoved to the back and over-looked, but occasionally I'll discover a dish worth making. (Mr. B dislikes any cookbook that doesn't display pictures...he likes to see his end result.)

However, this is my cookbook. It has family recipes, family favorites and recipes I find around the web and drool over while watching Food Network. This is what I would grab if my house caught on fire and I had to grab one thing...and Squirrely, and my jewelry box, and my quilt rack, and my scrapbooks, and my FRIENDS collection, and my cast iron skillet.....ummm, never mind.

Circa 2007. Go Kent State Flashes (Black squirrels are our un-official mascots.)

This is Squirrely. My husband bought him for me along with a dozen peach and pink roses for our very first Valentine's Day together (over 6 years ago). Squirrely stills sleeps in bed with me, and Mr. B can't believe he allows it.

This is our cat, Siamese. Mr. B has had her since before he was driving (and he won't be naming our children; he likes to point out the obvious).

She's 14 and my husband and I are beginning to think she'll live forever which means I'll never get my Chihuahua. Don't be fooled by her beautiful appearance...she'll hiss and claw ya as sure as I'm sittin' here.

We don't need children, we have this lovely feline that wakes Mr. B up every morning because her bowl is empty, meows complains like crazy when no one is paying attention to her, sleeps in our bed when we're not home, walks all over our dining room table while we're sleeping (which just so happens to be glass, so her little paw prints greet us in the morning), tries to steal Mr. B's pizza bread and Kool-Aid (yes, he's five lol), puts her little paws in my cake while it's cooling on the counter, stares us down until we open the blinds so she can put her feet up and look out the window to see what's happening in the parking lot, waits until we go to bed so she can run around the house like crazy to keep her figure (I'm positive our neighbors think we're hiding a Retriever in the apartment), and kneads her blanket until she drives us insane.

I just wanted to show you her darling face because I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot about her.

When my husband and I found this video a few weeks ago, we thought it was just perfect.

And this one, too.

 

She so silly.

With Love and God Bless,

Brindi

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Last week, the day before Thanksgiving, Mr. B and I put up our Christmas tree and filled our house with other holiday decorations. We put on Christmas carols and got to it. Six hours later, and two trips to Target for more lights, we had a beautiful tree!

So without further ado, here are a few snap shots of our home for the holidays.....

Love these salt and pepper shakers.

I love snowmen. LOVE.

Isn't it B-E-A-utiful? 1,400 lights on its 6 1/2-foot frame.

[Cough, we so could have put on more, cough.)

There's a tradition in my family. Each year Mama buys my brother and I ornaments for the tree. Sadly, this tradition stopped once we turned 18 and moved out of the house, but there are so many ornaments on that tree I don't know how she could fit one more. But it's the most beautiful tree in the world.

So, naturally, I had to continue this tradition with my own family.

This was the ornament I bought for my husband and I last year. Our very first Christmas as husband and wife.

And this is this year's ornament. I love these Willow figurines, and was thrilled when I found the ornament.

We finally had to get Siamese her own ornament. (All of our pets are still represented on my parents' tree. Hey, they're family too.)

I always have my manger scene.

And, of course, Phoebo. He stays quite full throughout the holidays.

*Once Mr. B's holiday M&M's are gone, I'm filling it with my favorite: Holiday Kisses!

With Love and God Bless,
Brindi