Cooking & Crafting Thursday: Beef Stroganoff & Artsy Update

 

Hi Friends!

It's a gorgeous day here in the northwoods. Low 70's, a little sun and light breeze. It feels like summer hanging on today. However, the last couple of days felt more like this:

The days were in the low 60's with a little chill to the breeze or it was rainy. The nights have been in the 40's. For all of my poor friends in the sweltering warmth - I am sending you cool thoughts from the north winds. We have had some leaf changing happening, butterflies migrating and geese still doing their practice runs over the bay. I hope you get the Autumn vibes soon too!! 🍁🧡

But today, since it definitely feels like summer yet - I made a cucumber salsa/salad situation with fresh cukes, tomatoes, red onion, some cucumber balsamic I have, cilantro, jalapeno, lime etc. It's marinating in the fridge...along with some chicken breasts I put a marinade over this morning and threw in the fridge. Matt will cook them on the grill for dinner and we will top them with this cucumber salsa. Fresh and summery. I will share the full recipe soon. Along with a recipe for a wonderful sheet pan chicken fried rice I made a week or so ago that I have been meaning to share. 

But don't worry, for today I'm bringing the cozy vibes with this recipe to share. This is a beef stroganoff recipe that I grew up on. The recipe card is in my Dad's handwriting. Both of my folks made this different times during my childhood and it was often the dish they made if we had company over. It's so easy, yet rich and comforting. I thought I had shared it long ago here... but I looked back and couldn't find it. So I thought I'd finally share it today! 

My Dad used to go deer hunting when I was a kid - and I even remember he sometimes made it with venison. I definitely recommend it and to make it just as it's written. The key is not to cook the steak too long at the start - just brown it because it slow cooks the rest of the way through in the pot with the gravy. So so good!! Perfect dish for Fall. 

Speaking of my PapaBear, I went out to lunch with him recently to catch up. He and my step Mom have had a busy summer up here. But they head back to AZ next month...as well as Matt's folks too. So it's almost time for the snowbirds to fly - just another sign of Autumn in the air. 🌻🧡

And for the crafting update - here is the progress on the embroidery project I've been doing. I only have a few more small details and then I fill in that hat with black embroidery and it's done! I think it's turning out so sweet and I'm excited to get to work on the next one -which I will share next week. As well as a little side crafty I've decided to work on. 

And I also wanted to share that I found this lovely painting in my closet. My Mom had made it for my last birthday and I forgot to get it framed. She painted it from a kit. It's nice sized and the colors are so beautiful! I just love it and since it's special because she put in all the time for me - I want it framed nicely to preserve it. So I'm bringing it in soon and will share it again when it's all matted and framed. :) 

Blessings to you all for a great weekend ahead! 

xoxo

Cooking Thursday: Grill Time

 

Hello and happy Thursday lovely Friends!

It's a cool, but nice and sunny day in the northwoods. 

While I was doing my workout on the treadmill, I saw this adorable baby bunny eating dandelions out the window. I love how when he was finishing the dandelion stalk it would look like he was blowing a yellow bubble. Lol 

And I need to share my pretty Ruby all done at the groomers. And I picked the wild daffs in the woods by the house because they were starting to fade and I wanted to enjoy them a bit more. 💛

But for today I wanted to share that I dug out this grilling cookbook and was looking through it for some future inspiration. It has a lot of yummy recipes for the grill and is divided by different meats (hamburger, steak, chicken etc) and even has a section of desserts. Here are a few examples of what's in the cookbook:

It's one of my favorite things about summer - is to grill out on the deck and have a meal out in the sunshine. 

Do you like to grill? Do you have any favorites you make in the summer?

I think we're actually going to go to our local meat market soon...to pick up some things to grill for the holiday weekend. 😋 (Memorial weekend in the U.S.)

I hope you have a blessed weekend ahead Friends! 

💗💗💗

Best Cinnamon Toast and Spring Grilling

Hello Dear Friends and happy weekend to you! 

I know I haven't done much extra posting other than HHM and I thought I would share a favorite recipe and some fun ideas for some grilling. Even though today it's cold and rainy - and 15 minutes away from me they got snow today (yikes!)...I know beautiful weather is due again. And Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner. So time to think those almost summer thoughts for cooking outside again. Yay!! 

First up I'm sharing yet another PW recipe. What can I say? I love the lady's stuff. Lol The other day I had some cranberry wild rice bread and some whole wheat bread to use up. So I made up a batch of this oven cinnamon toast. 

When you think of french toast you probably think of what I always did - spread some butter on some toast and sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture on the top and shake off. For quick and easy that still wins sometimes at our house. But this Pioneer Woman recipe for a more elevated cinnamon toast is SO good and worth the extra time and effort. 

Take the bread (not toasted) and slather the pieces with a butter mixture that has the cinnamon, sugar and vanilla in it. Smear it all the way to the edges. 

Then toast in the oven (& broil at the end) until it becomes the most heavenly caramelized crispy, yet soft and chewy tasty toast around. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

• 16 slices Bread (whole Wheat Is Great!)
• 2 sticks Salted Butter, Softened
• 1 cup Sugar (more To Taste)
• 3 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract (more To Taste)
• 1/8 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Smush softened butter with a fork. Dump in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg, if using. Stir to completely combine.

Spread on slices of bread, completely covering the surface all the way to the edges.

Place toast on a cookie sheet. Place cookies sheet into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Turn on the broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbling. Watch so it won't burn!

Remove from oven and cut slices into halves diagonally.

Now on to some grilling recipes. I have a pinterest board devoted to grilling you can find here here.

I know cilantro is a kind of polarizing herb. But I love it and this just screams flavors of summer to me! You can find the recipe here.

Now that we have our protein it's now time for some potatoes, right? And rosemary and potatoes go together like pb&j in my book. You can find this recipe here.

Okay, protein ✅ potatoes ✅ so how's about some veggies? These zucchini foil boats look like just the thing. With some parmesan on them I think they sound wonderful! You can find that recipe here.

And you didn't think I'd leave ya hanging without some dessert, did you? I think I may have shared these before but grilled fruit is just so delish I thought I'd share again.  And especially if you throw in some ice cream. Yum! 😋  You can find this recipe here.

I'm planning to start posting at least once more a week besides HHM. Either recipes or projects or about my northwoods. I love when you stop by friends and hope to give you more reason to do so. 

Blessings to you xo 💜 

Raspberry Pie & Potato Bundles

I love this raspberry cream pie from the Pioneer Woman. I have made it several times and it's always a winner!  It's so yummy, yet refreshing for Spring and Summer as it's a freezer pie. It's got creamy and sweet, yet a little tart filling from the raspberries, and chocolate crunch from the crust. Just so good in every way!! 

If you click on the link above it will show the full recipe and how to make it. But I'll show you the basics:

First you get your oreo chocolate crust going. You can buy either already finely crushed crust already done. You can crush up oreos yourself in your food processor. Or you can go the rustic route like I did and just crush them up a bit with your rolling pin.

Then get your raspberries going by mashing them up with some sugar and letting them hang out.

Finish getting your crust ready by adding some melted butter and pushing it all down in your pie plate. Bake for a few minutes. I love that it looks like dirt from a garden. Lol

Then take some raspberry yogurt and vanilla pudding mix and mix it together in your mixer. Once blended add some heavy whipping cream and whip it together for several minutes.

Then fold in your berries gently.

Spread raspberry cream into your crust. Then put in freezer for about 10-15 minutes or so to get hard enough so you can then take it out and cover it without wrap sticking and put back in freezer for at least 30 minutes or until you're ready to serve it. If it's not a hot day you'll want to let it sit on counter and thaw a good 20-30 mins before serving. If it's a hot day and you serve outside it will start thawing much faster! I like to serve it like Ree shows it with some whipped topping, more crushed cookie crumbs and fresh raspberries over the top.

The other night I brought this dessert to my in-laws to go with dinner that I had made which included burgers off the grill and these potato bundles i did on the grill:

I love throwing these on the grill with whatever meat I'm serving because they're so versatile. One tip for any veggie bundle is to spray the aluminum foil with a little cooking spray first. Then add veggies of choice, a little olive oil or butter (or both) and seasonings of choice. In this case I had used thin sliced carrots and red potatoes also sliced thin. I also had sliced onion on top but added it last, as I almost forgot it, so didn't get photo with it on top.  A couple of pats of butter and some seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika, thyme and dried parsley (I didn't have fresh). But I love shaking it up and using other veggies: zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, squash - any vegetable you'd like to roast in the oven you can throw on the grill too. 

I usually use a double thickness of foil, pull the 2 big sides together and roll up together and then roll in the sides. Place on medium grill and put cover down and grill for 20 -30 minutes depending on thickness of veggies. So I made a bundle for each person. It's so nice because everyone can then have their own little bundle of veggie goodness. Yum!!

This was a lovely Spring meal but this the kind of food I LOVE for summer!!