best iced coffee, ever...

I'm not an iced coffee drinker, I think it's gross.  I want my coffee piping hot and no other way.  In fact, I order my latte extra-hot, because I want it steaming hot until the very last sip.  The husband, though, loves iced coffee.  Not sure what is wrong with him?  tee hee!  He's been making iced coffee a few mornings a week to take to work and uses our Keurig, which he thinks is good, but I think he likes Starbucks a bit better, they use a brewed coffee that has been refrigerated, so the strength or boldness of the coffee isn't diluting immediately when poured onto the ice.  The Keurig just brews the coffee directly on top of a cup filled with ice.  The husband loves a good, strong coffee, so I think he's losing the boldness of the coffee w/the dilution.  He doesn't use the iced coffee specific K-cup, so that could be part of the problem, but now it doesn't matter, because I've found the solution. (it's cheaper then a K-cup, too...double bonus!)

So, the other day, while I was browsing one of my favorite sites The Pioneer Woman, I found her recipe for the perfect cup of iced coffee.  It looked awfully simple and I happened to have some spare coffee grounds in the freezer because I've been using K-cups mostly.  Why not try it and see what the husband thinks.  Well, he loved it!

Here is what I did:

• in covered baking dish combine 1/2 pound of coffee grounds with 1 1/2 quarts of cold, filtered water
• cover dish and let sit on the counter for 12 hours
• after twelve hours of "brewing," pour mixture through strainer into a container that can be sealed.  I lined my strainer with two layers of paper towels just in case their was a grind small enough to get through the mesh strainer
• the sealed container can be stored in the fridge for a good amount of time 

Now, when the husband wants an iced coffee, he can just pour some chilled coffee concentrate into a glass of ice, add some sugar and a little half & half and he has his perfect cup! 

Vegetarian White Bean Chili

Thanks to my friend, Amanda, for showing me this recipe. It's delicious! It goes together very quickly, great for a last minute dinner.

The recipe calls for mushrooms but I didn't have any on hand and my family isn't thrilled with them, so I left them out. I did add in some sliced baby spinach, probably 1 1/2 cups in place of the mushrooms. GQ is eating the soup up!

Scones

Stumbled upon this pumpkin chocolate chip scone recipe and decided to give them a try. So simple. So delicious!

Yum!

We're on snow day #3. Being housebound is getting a little old at this point. I love staying home and relaxing, but after three days w/out much option to go out, I'm ready to get out. Thinking we'll head out for dinner tonight, just for a change of scenery.

GQ usually eats breakfast at school. His choice. Knowing that he'll be eating with his classmates motivates him to get up, get dressed and out the door on time, so I don't argue. Since we've been trapped in the house and I have to feed him breakfast, thought I'd try this Everything Breakfast Bar recipe a friend passed on to me.

The recipe is really simple and delicious. At the suggestion of my friend, I ran the oats in my food processor to make them into more a flour. I think w/out that the bars might have needed a plate and fork to eat neatly. I did change out the raisins for 1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. We're not really a raisin family.

I thought for certain GQ would love these; he seems to love all things pumpkin, but I was wrong. I even heard him offer this up to his little friend when I offered her one "you don't want one, trust me, they're gross." STINKER! The husband thought they were tasty. They reminded us of Quaker Oatmeal To Go bars, except we knew what was in these bars and cheaper than the Quaker bars. I might experiment w/some different add-ins and maybe get fancy and put some icing on for a treat. Hopefully they'll freeze alright, I'll let you know if they don't.

Bread & Soup

Perfect meal for a chilly day! I made a vegetable and tortellini soup and a no knead bread. Both recipes were given to me by my father-in-law. He had made us the soup while we were visiting last month and he just passed the bread recipe on to me the other day.

The bread: No Knead Bread

The bread was really simple to make. Steamy Kitchen says that it's so easy a 4 y/o can do it. I'm not so sure about that statement, my 6 y/o and I seemed to have a few issues, but it was our first time making a yeast bread from scratch and we didn't ruin it, just could have done some things better. GQ helped me flour the counter and towel that the dough rests in and you can see we had a touch too much flour, but over all it was good. I thought it could use a bit less salt, next time I'll probably cut that amount in half. Warning: the crust is really crunchy, so if you don't enjoy a crusty, crunchy outer to your bread, don't make this or just pull off the crust like my husband did.

The soup: Vegetable Soup with Cheese Tortellini

I should have taken a picture in the bowl, much prettier, but in getting everybody's food ready, I forgot. So simple to put together, it's a great vegetarian soup that has a heartiness to it; fills you up! I'm sure you could also make this with some chicken stock and toss in some shredded chicken, too. Bonus is I got my husband to eat some vegetables! He said the flavor of the broth was so good that he was able to tolerate the zucchini, squash, carrots and celery. Baby steps...one day he'll eat these and love them and five years ago, he never would have even tried a spoonful of this soup and I got him to eat a bowl of it. Woo hoo!

In the kitchen...

I'm really trying to stick to my plan of cooking more each week. Part of that plan is to try new recipes. I've never been great about trying new recipes because a certain member of my family, not the 6 y/o, is picky. I can usually get the little guy to try a new vegetable, but the husband isn't always so easily convinced. This year, I'm vowing to not let that stop me from trying new dishes and I might find out that I can sneak stuff in and he won't be the wiser.

The other night, I made a super-simple and super-tasty stir-fry. I found the recipe in my Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine. I did tweak here and there to make it so my family would eat it, basically substituting vegetables. I used onions, yellow and orange peppers, zucchini, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. I also used mozzarella cheese instead of parmesan because I prefer the milder taste. Here is the actual recipe for you to try if you're interested. It really does go together very quickly, perfect for a busy night!

Stir-Fried Pasta Primavera
serves: 4 prep: 15 mins cook: 15 mins

Ingredients:
3 cups broccoli florets
12 oz fettuccine pasta
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red onion, halved lengthwise and sliced 1/4 inch thick
4 carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

Directions:
1. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the broccoli until bright green, about 30 seconds. Transfer to colander, reserving water in the pot. Add the pasta to the pot and cook until al dente; drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking water.

2. Heat a 14-inch, flat-bottomed wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes upon contact. Swirl in 1 tbsp of oil. Add the onion and, using a metal spatula, stir-fry until it is fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Swirl in remaining 1 tbsp oil. Add the broccoli and carrots and stir-fry until the carrots begin to wilt, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and pepper and stir-fry for 1 minute. Swirl in the cream, bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Sir in the parmesan and basil.

4. Add the pasta and the reserved cooking water to the wok and toss to coat; season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!