Category Archives: Recipe

The Easter Feast

April 5, 2010

Hi bloggies :) I hope you all had a great Easter (or weekend, if you don’t celebrate)! Mine was filled with good food and family, which is all I could’ve asked for.

I spent the morning searching for eggs with the little ones in Mark’s family and then headed over to my own house for an early dinner with my fam.

Why am I so short!?

In my family, we always start with antipast on holidays, which is usually a mix of olives, roasted peppers, artichokes, mozzarella, chickpeas, and Italian bread. Unfortunately I came a little late so there wasn’t much left.

Next, pasta is served. We pretty much always have manigutz (manicotti), which is usually served in a meat sauce on Easter. I had missed a few Easters when I was in college so when I came home last year, forgetting about the meat sauce, I kinda freaked out that the only thing I thought I’d be eating was ruined. This year they went without it for me :)

Check out my Mom’s awesome Easter-exclusive gold “silver”ware ^

After the pasta you hope you aren’t stuffed already because the main meal is then served. I think there was ham, string bean casserole, salad, mashed potatoes, and corn pie but I totally forgot to photograph the table. I had some mashed potatoes, salad, and corn pie.

Finally, it’s time for my favorite part.. dessert! There are always tons of amazing things since I’m lucky to have the mastermind behind Kokopelli Cookies in my family :)

Berry lemon cake, carrot cake, banana creme trifle, red velvet cupcakes...

Assortment of Kokopelli Cookies

Store bought pizelles with homemade cannoli creme

My aunt made the cakes and the cookies and I made the banana creme trifle and the cannoli creme. I tried a little bit of the carrot cake, red velvet cupcakes, and cannoli creme.. and maybe a tiny cookie :) Good thing I had ran the 3.5 miles on my training plan that morning..

The cannoli creme is  ridiculously easy to make if you need a quick dessert. Just mix together 2 cups ricotta, 1/2 cup cool whip, 3/4 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla and you’re done! You could add in mini chocolate chips too if you wanna make it even better.

Questions:

  1. Does your family have any holiday traditions?
  2. What’s your favorite part of a big meal: appetizers, the main course, or dessert?
Also posted in Dinner, Food – 8 Comments

Kokopelli Cookies & Spaghetti Squash Bake

March 11, 2010

Ciao :)

I had SO much fun at the Kokopelli Cookie Company yesterday. It was sort of like living my dream of going to culinary school. First I got to scoop cookie dough onto cookie sheets to make the giant cookies she is known for. We did coconut walnut oatmeal raisin and peanut butter chocolate chip.

I also got to make brownies from scratch for the store. That’s a first for me!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them finished and out of the oven. I hope they came out good! And I got to do all this while watching the Food Network. Yeah, it was great :)

Lastly, I helped package up the cookies since she delivers them to stores all over the area.

After a day of baking, I had promised my Mom I’d cook dinner if she would help me pack for vacay.

Spaghetti Squash Bake

Ingredients:

  • One spaghetti squash
  • Tbsp olive oil
  • One bunch asparagus, cut into inch size pieces
  • One can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup diced onions
  • mozzarella cheese
  • Parmesan cheese
  • Sea salt, to taste
  • Garlic pepper, to taste

Directions:

  1. Cut spaghetti squash in half and scoop out seeds. Microwave cut side up in 1/4 cup water for 10-12 minutes or bake cut side up in 1/4 cup water for 1 hour.
  2. Heat up saucepan over medium heat and add tbsp of olive oil. Saute onion for 3 minutes. Add diced tomatoes and asparagus and cook for 15 minutes. Add in sea salt and garlic pepper to taste.
  3. Scoop out spaghetti squash with fork. Place in large bowl and mix together with tomatoes, onions, and asparagus.
  4. Put half of squash mixture in 13×9 baking dish. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Follow with other half of squash mixture and top with remaining cheeses.
  5. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

It was the first time my Mom tried spaghetti squash and she really liked it. I, myself, forgot how good it was too. Not that I’m surprised because I love all squash, from butternut to zucchini.

On the side we had garlic-oregano bread in a flower pot. Yeah, my Mom always comes home with weird stuff for me to make!

Question: What’s your favorite squash and how do you usually prepare it?

Also posted in Dinner, Food – 10 Comments

Super Sleuthing Peanut Cheese

March 10, 2010

Happy Hump Day!

This week is dragging on for me. That always happens when you’re looking forward to something on the weekend!

In honor of my upcoming foreign travel, I opened up a new jar of PB that my parents had brought back for me from the Caribbean island of St. Maarten.

With my super sleuthing skills, I discovered that Calve is a Dutch brand. St. Maarten/St. Martin is half Dutch and half French but I had also seen this brand on Aruba, which is all Dutch.

After trying it, I thought it’d be a good idea to know what is in it. I went to World Lingo – a free online translator – and typed in a whole bunch of stuff that was on the jar. I’m a little skeptical with this translator though. The front of the jar apparently says:

“PEANUT CHEESE, Smooth to on the floor.”

I’m gunna use my own Christina Translator and say it means “Smooth from top to bottom.”

I translated a whole bunch of other stuff but I think you really need to read Dutch to translate stuff like this. According to World Lingo, Calve peanut butter’s little slogan says:

“CALVE PEANUT CHEESE, There worries about more than you think.”

Hm. I hope I don’t have to worry when eating this stuff. The Dutch have some good peanut butter :)

For breakfast I made a “strawberry shortcake” by mixing 1/2 cup of heart smart bisquick with 2/3 of a tbsp of agave nectar and about 3 tbsp of almond milk.

I rolled the mix into two balls and put them in the toaster until cooked. When done, I took out one of the balls and cut it in half. I topped each half with mashed banana and then some Calve pb on top with flax.

Walah – the Banana PB (or PC?) Shortcake is born.

Today I’m spending the day helping my Aunt out at her bakery. She is known for the “feel good” cookie and I believe a lot of cookie making will be happening so it should be a feelin’ good kinda day, depending of course, on how many cookies I actually eat.

Have a great day!

Question: What’s your favorite thing to order at a bakery? Mine would have to be cupcakes!

Also posted in Breakfast, Food – 10 Comments
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