Philly cheesesteak stuffed bell peppers

I had a bunch of peppers in my fridge that I didn't want to go bad so I decided to try a new stuffed bell pepper recipe. I found this one on Pinterest and it looked so yummy. The recipe is from Quick 'n easy recipes. My husband absolutely loved it. I will definitely make it again. It looks really complicated but the preparation is actually quite simple. I hope you all enjoy!

 

Ingredients: 

8 oz. Thinly Sliced Roast Beef

8 Slices Provolone Cheese

2 Large Green Bell Peppers (I used red)

1 Medium Sweet Onion

6 oz. Baby Bella Mushrooms

2 Tbs. Butter

2 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Garlic – Minced

Salt and Pepper – to taste

Directions:

Slice peppers in half lengthwise, remove ribs and seeds.

Slice onions and mushrooms.  Saute over medium heat with butter, olive oil, minced garlic and a little salt and pepper.  Saute until onions and mushroom are nice and caramelized.  About 25-30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400*

Slice roast beef into thin strips and add to the onion/mushroom mixture.  Allow to cook 5-10 minutes

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese. 

Fill each pepper with meat mixture until they are nearly overflowing.

Top each pepper with another slice of provolone cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese on top is golden brown. 

Raspberry vinegarette salad

Easy Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad

I usually make the same salad every night with dinner. Lettuce, avocados and ranch dressing. I love avocados and that's all I need to be satisfied but it drives my husband nuts. So lately I have been trying to branch out. Here is what I came up with. 

This first salad includes: 

Lettuce (your choice)

craisins

apples

feta cheese

almond slices

raspberry vinaigrette dressing

This second salad includes:
lettuce (your choice)
pomegranate
pecans (you can also use candied pecans)
feta cheese
raspberry vinaigrette dressing


They are both very simple. The best way to serve this salad is to add the dressing into the salad and toss it. I just have to make sure not to make too much though because the leftovers aren't very good. The dressing soaks into the lettuce and makes it to soggy to eat later. Hope you guys enjoy.

Potato Wedges

I have been making these potato wedges for the last two nights and they are delicious! I don't know why I haven't made them before. They are so simple. I have been trying to use up the rest of my potatoes because I bought way too many. I am finally on my last bag. I have to say this is probably one of the best ways I have prepared them thus far.

 

I got the recipe from Oh So Delicioso 

Ingredients: 

Fries: 

4-6 Potatoes

1/4 cup olive oil

Sea Salt, Fresh ground pepper, your favorite seasoning salt

Sour Cream/Ranch Sauce:

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup ranch dressing 

1/4 cup milk

 

Toppings: 

1 cup (or as much as you like) Shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup real bacon bits

1/4 cup green onions

 

Instructions

Cut potatoes into "steak french fries" size. 

Place on foiled baking sheet. 

Drizzle with olive oil and lightly toss with tongs. 

Sprinkle salts and pepper over the potatoes. (I used garlic salt and pepper the second time and my husband loved it.)

 Bake 400 for 40 minutes or until fork tender

 

In a seperate bowl mix:

 sour cream, Ranch dressing and milk.

On a separate platter smooth out 3/4 of the sour cream sauce.

place hot potatoes on sour cream sauce. (I did this the first time I made then, but I didn't really like it. There was just too much sauce on the bottom fries. The second time, I just put them on a platter, melted the cheese and drizzled the ranch sauce on top. It was much better and I didn't feel like they were drowning.)

drizzle remaining sour cream sauce on potatoes

Sprinkle toppings. 

Place under broiler for a few seconds to re-melt cheese.

The fries taste really good without the cheese and ranch sauce on them as well. I had a few right out of the oven with nothing on it and I was impressed. They would be a great side to make for summer barbecues.

Pumpkin roll

I know it's January and I probably shouldn't be making pumpkin rolls anymore, but I am still in love with them. I tried to make them once in college and the whole rolling the dough up with the cream cheese didn't work out very well and it was more like a destroyed sheet cake than anything. It looked pretty gross actually so, I tossed it out.

But, I decided to try and brave it again this year because I remember how good they taste. Let me tell you, if you follow the instructions correctly, it's actually a piece of cake. (literally). It only takes 15 minutes for the dough to bake and it takes just a few seconds to whip up the cream cheese filling. It is so simple. The only thing to remember is that you have to wait for the dough to coo in the fridge. It has been my go to recipe lately for desserts. But, since it is January I guess I'll have to stop soon. 

Here is the step by step process in pictures (It always helps me when I can see it)

I got this recipe from Mels kitchen cafe

INGREDIENTS:
Cake:
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 eggs
2/3 cup mashed (canned) pumpkin
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 15 X 10-inch jelly roll pan. Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of the pan and leave an inch overhang on each of the short ends of the pan. Then, Lightly grease the wax paper and sides of the jelly roll pan.

 

Mix the sugar, flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, eggs and pumpkin in a large bowl. Once mixed, pour mixture over the waxed paper. Sprinkle the walnuts, if using, on top of the mixture. Bake for 14-15 minutes until edges pull away from the sides of the pan and center is done.

Lay a large dishtowel on the counter top (it is best to use a dishtowel without any texture – a tea towel or similar towel works best). Spread a thick dusting of powdered sugar all over the towel.

 

When the cake comes out of the oven, turn the pan upside down on the powdered sugar-laden towel so the wax paper is on the top. Gently peel off the wax paper, being careful not to tear the roll.

 

Starting at one of the short ends, roll the pumpkin cake up with the towel to cool. While the roll is cooling, mix the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar together until it is light and creamy. Once the roll is cool, unroll and with an offset spatula, carefully spread filling in an even layer over the cake. Roll it up without the towel and place in the refrigerator (covered with plastic wrap or wax paper) for about an hour before serving.

I usually like to cut off the ends as well to make a nice clean edge. If you guys can get the hang of it, you'll probably love making them as much as I have. 

Blankets

This year for Christmas I decided to make Tyrone's family homemade blankets. I thought of this around April of this year and started on the first one in July. But, by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I only had two of them done. So, I was a little scared. I am not a procrastinator and I usually have all of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving. Since I had felt so behind I decided to do one a week up until Christmas and I was finished a week before we left for home. whew!! But they all turned out so unique and cute. This is the first one I made for my 7 year old nephew. I also made one for my 4 year old nephew but I forgot to take a picture of it.

I followed the tutorial from Pink Suede Shoes

These are the blankets I decided to make for the older niece and my in-laws. I got the tutorial for these blankets from This mamma makes stuff. Mine were on a larger scale but they turned out really cute and they are so soft. I think everyone liked their personalized blankets. I sure had a lot of fun making them and Tyrone had fun picking out all of the fabric for his family.

I have a good story about going to get the soft fabric for the back of the blankets. I thought that it would be a good idea to take a day trip to LA to get the fabric for a little bit cheaper. So, I planned out my work schedule so that I could have a day to drive up there, go shopping for the fabric and get back in time before I hit rush hour. So, I parked up in LA a little bit further away from the fabric district than I usually do. But, I figured I had a lot of time. So, I put enough change into the meter so that I could be there for an hour. Then, after I had looked around and got all the fabric that I needed, I headed back to my car. As soon as I could see my car I realized that the parking police were at my car writing me a ticket!! So, I ran over there while yelling, "That's my car!!" Needless to say, the guy just claimed that since it was already in the computer, he had to give me the ticket. I looked at the time and I was honestly a minute late! I was really angry and upset! I got in my car, looked at the ticket and it said $68!!!!! For that price, I could have just gotten the fabric locally and saved a bunch of time on the trip to LA. But, oh well. Sometimes things like that happen. It makes for a good story later.

Vegetable Christmas Tree

This Christmas tree was so fun to make and it turned out excellent! I always have the hardest time trying to figure out what to get my grandma for Christmas. Last year, I made a fruit Christmas tree so this year I decided to make a vegetable one. What else am I supposed to get my awesome 89 year old grandma??

So, to start, I got a 12 inch foam cone and I  hot glued it to a square piece of wood. I did this because the fruit and cheese are heavy and if it doesn't have a stable bottom it will topple over. Then, my sister cut out small square pieces of felt and glued them to the base of the cone so that it looked somewhat like a tree skirt and it covered up the ugly piece of wood. Then, the last thing you need to do is to wrap tin foil around the foam. Last year when I made the fruit tree I didn't do this but I think its a good idea so that the vegetables aren't coming in contact with the foam.

Supplies:
Cheese- use whatever type you'd like
broccoli
cauliflower
cherry tomatoes
Christmas cookie cutters
12'' foam cone, or smaller if you'd like to make a smaller one
wooden block
hot glue gun
felt- optional
candy (to look like gifts under the tree)
toothpicks

Then, you can put the fruit on with toothpicks however you would like. We were planning on doing all broccoli and cauliflower as the main part of the tree and then using the cherry tomatoes and cheese as the ornaments but we realized we didn't have enough, so this is what we came up with.

Now, just something  to think about, with the cheese star on top, and the block of wood on the bottom our tree was about 17 inches high. Luckily my mom had a shelf that was adjustable so we could fit it in the fridge overnight. We then put a plastic bag over the tree and tied it so that the cheese and vegetables wouldn't dry up.

On the bottom of the paper plate, we put candy bells to make it look like ornaments and to hold down the pieces of felt hiding our block of wood. 

Now, I officially out of ideas on what to get my grandma for Christmas. Maybe I'll find another edible Christmas tree idea. 

Turkey

I cooked a turkey this week!!! It's probably not that big of a deal but I was  really proud of myself. And, it tasted absolutely delicious! I couldn't stop eating it and I'm not a huge fan of turkey so that's saying something.

I told a friend of mine last Sunday that I was having some people over for dinner and I was cooking a turkey and so she asked me how I was doing it. Well, I had no idea. I had never cooked one before. So, needless to say, she lent me her roasting pan, which was perfect, I don't know what I would have done without it. She also gave me a Reynold's oven bag. This was awesome because it held all of the juices in the bag instead of in the bottom of the  pan, so after the turkey was done cooking we just dumped the juice from the bag into a pan to make the turkey gravy. I am so grateful for my friend's help or it never would have turned out this good.


Here is the turkey defrosted and out of the bag. I took out the neck of the turkey but I couldn't find the innards, you know, the heart, liver, etc. So, I just assumed my turkey didn't come with that. But, after my turkey was fully cooked, I found them, under the neck cavity. So, make sure to check the body AND the neck cavitiy for giblets. In the last picture of the turkey, there is a hole in top, which shouldn't be there, this is why. the giblets were in the neck cavity and as it cooked it ripped open the skin, so that part of the turkey was a little dry, unfortunately.

Ingredients:
1- 10-18lb turkey
1 reynolds oven bag
olive oil
fresh rosemary
fresh tyhme
salt and pepper
lemon, sliced in half

After I got it rinsed and dried, I salt and peppered the inside of the body cavity and placed half of a lemon and some fresh rosemary inside. Then, I lathered up the outside of the turkey in olive oil. I then put salt and pepper and fresh thyme on the outside of the bird and placed it into the oven bag without letting the top of the bird touch the bag. Then I tied the bag closed, put 6 slits with a knife in the top of the bag and put it in the oven which was preheated to 350 degrees. I let it cook for about 3.5 hours and when I took it out of the bag, the turkey was so tender it was falling off the bone. I tried to get a pretty picture of the turkey right out of the bag but it was so tender that it is falling apart. So, its bad for the picture part, but when you are getting ready to cut it up and serve it, you couldn't ask for anything else.