Not exactly a complaint, but it has not been cold so far this winter. I have the sliding glass door open today and the windows so it's not exactly warm, comfort food weather. We don't have any ice storms either though so it all balances out. There is still time for cold weather to come.

I decided to try to keep learning about quilting so I started an online class through Craftsy. So far, so good. I signed up for the block of the month club and I finished the January blocks in January! Very exciting. I watched the video for the February blocks yesterday.

I like the online class because I can stop, start, go back, over and over. I like to get an overview first and then start when I have time and don't have to do anything else. Tomorrow I start cutting, sewing and pressing. The blocks look much harder this month so we'll see. I'm trying to ignore the extra pressure of a short month.

I cooked for two new clients this week. One woman just had surgery for cancer and started chemo last week. She wants to eat well to take care of herself. She is very nice and I had a great time cooking Wednesday and talking with her. I also got to meet her husband and daughter. 

Thursday I cooked for a busy family. They need to eat healthy food but are busy with a 6 and 9 year old. Last night they got to sit down to Pork Fajitas with Mango and Yellow Rice,Black Beans and Corn. 

Looking forward to a wonderful February, can't wait to see what this month brings. 

If you don't get the magazine, go to Fine Cooking's website www.finecooking.com and look for create your own cheesecake. They give you a basic recipe, you add in what sounds good to you to get a custom cheesecake at home. What could be better?

I decided the cannoli was the best for me. A little ricotta, orange zest, chocolate chips, mix, bake, cool, chill. It was gorgeous. I made it Sunday but started late. Had to wait until last night to taste it. That was a long wait.

Perfect! 

Tonight is "whatever" night for dinner. Maybe tea and cheesecake?

Not enough time to cook? A pressure cooker can help. Looking for inexpensive meals that taste great? A pressure cooker can help. Afraid of pressure cookers? Don't be, they are wonderful, safe and fool proof. 

I tried out a new pressure cooker from Fagor last night. I have three other Fagor pressure cookers, I like them. I have an electric one and now 3 stove top models. I know, maybe too many, but I love them. 

So last night I prepped my ingredients ahead of time. That's my normal process, nothing new using a pressure cooker. 

Vegetables - celery, onion and garlic.

Chopped tomatoes and chicken broth. 

Rice, salt, pepper and oregano. Not too much pepper, it's just all on the top.

Okay, next saute the vegetables in a little olive oil. Still normal cooking, about 2 minutes.

Add the sausage and keep on browning for about 7 minutes.

Stir in the rice then add the tomatoes and broth. Still normal cooking so far. 

Now it changes. Not scary, just a little different. Put on the lid and raise the heat to high.

The lid looks a little different, it locks on, it will not explode. There is an indicator that steam is building, this is good. The numbers mean high pressure and low pressure, I am using high with 2. The circle thing behind the numbers is the pressure indicator. You see two lines, it is up to high pressure. Set the timer for 6 minutes. 

When 6 minutes are up, quick release the steam by moving from 2 to the dot with lines over it. Don't put your face over it, steam is going to come out, it is hot. You have to release the steam before you can take the lid off.

Dinner is ready! This is a very simple meal and it was very tasty. I added some hot sauce at the table. Some bell peppers sauteed with the vegetables would be good too. But not necessary, it's a good tasty dinner. 

To round out the meal I pulled some applesauce from the freezer and the other half of a spinach gratin made at Christmas. We had a great New Year's Eve meal and no, we were not awake to greet the New Year. 

Since the plan for dinner tonight was leftovers from last night, I decided to spend some time making a New Year's breakfast. I warned my husband that it would take some time and got to the kitchen about 8 am. I started with the Mushroom Braid. I had to make and cool the filling of leeks and mushrooms before placing it on puff pastry. Then some cutting and overlapping and we had a delicious savory pastry. 

While the filling was cooling and the filled pastry cooled I worked on the eggs. I made baked eggs set on top of spinach and proscuitto, topped with a little Parmesan once baked. Very, very good. 

The breakfast recipes are from Williams Sonoma Breakfast Comforts by Rick Rodgers and I love it. I've made several recipes from it and all have been great. Pick it up and think about breakfast for dinner more often.

Tomorrow it's back to the real world. I made my weekly menu today and will be going to the DeKalb Farmer's Market tomorrow to shop. I think fish on the grill for tomorrow. We need light and fresh. 

I taught at the new store on Tuesday this week. The class was open to students over the age of 10 and I'd guess that the majority of the 11 kids were in the 12 to 14 age range. I'm not very good at having any idea how old or young people are. We had a mix of girls and boys and had a great time. 

The class was titled New Year, New Breakfasts and we made four different recipes good for breakfast - Baked Oatmeal, Baked Eggs, California Gold Muffins and Sausage Sticky Buns. 

Part of cooking is a clean work space with everything ready to go. What a great job!

Muffins!

California Gold Muffins source unknown

makes 12

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon allspice

2/3 cup yellow squash, grated

1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/3 cup golden raisins

2/3 cup carrots, grated

2 large eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the dry ingredients.
3. Whisk together eggs, butter and vanilla.  Fold into the dry ingredients. 
4. Mix in the remaining ingredients. 
5. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. 

In addition to that job, I had a few personal chef cook dates, had time to make 18 batches of fudge one evening, and I even made some cookies this year. 

The fudge is something I make every year. I am self-employed and don't really have co-workers so I consider all the people who work at my regular Publix to be my co-workers. I shop there often and know that they'll help me with whatever I need. So, I take them fudge every year for Christmas. I make a pan for each department and deliver one morning. I have fun on fudge day. I delivered this year last Wednesday. 

I made several kinds of cookies last week too. I made red Velvet Blossoms, German Chocolate Macaroons, Chai Shortbread, Peppermint Bark, and Snickerdoodles. We may have too many sweets at our house right now. And yes, the Crumb Cake for Christmas Eve morning. Also delicious for afternoon tea. 

Usually our Christmas Eve meal is something revolving around seafood. We then have beef on Christmas Day. This year we went to my step-daughter's house for Christmas so I made beef for Christmas Eve. 

Not very traditional but perfect for the two of us. Honestly I decided to make french fries and needed to have the meal revolve around that choice. So, bison rib eyes on The Big Green Egg, no picture of this. 

I also made oven roasted mushrooms with garlic and parsley. 

Sauteed spinach. 

And yes, French Fries with home made mayonnaise. 

And then off to church for the 11:00 pm service. We have learned that it's not a bad idea to set an alarm for 10:00 even if we don't think we're sleepy. 

Christmas dinner was a low country boil made by my son-in-law and it was wonderful. Today was pretty relaxing, did my grocery shopping for the week. Dinner tonight is Shrimp Pad Thai. 

Back to work tomorrow with a kid's cooking class -  New Year, New Breakfasts. Life is good! 

I was very excited to cook Thanksgiving this year. Last year was the first eye surgery, the week before Thanksgiving and I had to be face down while on Percocet. Much better this year! 

I took Wednesday off this year and did some baking for us. I made a pumpkin pie, a pecan pie, an apple cake and a sausage mushroom quiche. The quiche was a bonus using some ingredients left from a personal chef cook day. Never bad to have a spare quiche in the house. 

I was going to make an apple pie, I had spare apples from the cook day also, but decided I had enough pie things happening and looked for a cake recipe. 

I found this from Taste of Home and it was wonderful. No, not light, but delicious.

Chunky Apple Cake from Taste of Home August/September 2006

serves 12

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

6 cups chopped, peeled, tart apples

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
2. Combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well (batter will be stiff). Stir in apples until well combined. 
3. Spread into a greased 13 x 9 baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until top is lightly browned and springs back when lightly touched. Cool 30 minutes before serving. 
4. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the brown sugar and butter. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted. Gradually add cream. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Serve with the cake. 

We had dinner Thursday, leftovers Friday, went to my grand daughter's first birthday on Saturday, leftovers on Sunday and then put the rest of the turkey roulade slices in the freezer. 

Monday night I roasted some salmon for a change from turkey. Last night was an easy egg sandwich for me. I now need to find something to do with shrimp and pasta for dinner tonight. Using the freezer for this week's meals!

Sunday I made a chicken potato casserole to be sure I had leftovers for Monday night.  Monday night I was teaching a class at the Y so I had an early dinner and my husband had dinner when he got home from work. 

Tuesday is always forage for myself night so that was fine.  My husband has a meeting Tuesday nights. 

I roasted some chicken breasts and thighs on Wednesday and served them with fresh green beans and stuffing from the freezer.  I planned for cold roast chicken for Thursday night since I was working a bridal event for KitchenAid in the evening.  I made a chicken sandwich before I left for the event and my husband had chicken and stuffing when he got home.  At least I'm pretty sure he did, he's been having a busy week at work and is on call so we didn't chat much when I got home last night. 

Today is an easy pasta dinner because I am teaching an in home class for an individual from 4 until about 6.  She wants to start eating some meat but because she's been a vegetarian for 20 years does not know how to choose meat or cook it.  We're going to meet, shop and then do some basic cooking techniques.  So when I get home I'm pretty sure I can boil some pasta, saute some sausage and spinach and mix it all together.  We can't go out since my husband is on call.  Also before he left this morning he said he might be working really late.  So this dinner might migrate to tomorrow and I'll forage.  It will work out. 

The only way I can have dinner at home every night is to menu plan.  And as part of that plan use leftovers and quick things that are in the freezer.  I enjoy dinner at home though and it's worth it to me to take 30 minutes or so to plan a menu while looking at my calendar.  No stress, good food!

I did some desk work and then decided to do some knitting.  When I knit I like to have something on the tv.  It doesn't have to be anything that I need to concentrate on since I have to follow a knitting pattern, but I like some talking. 

I have no idea what I was watching, but the commercials really bothered me.  They've actually been bothering me for a while now, I just had overload yesterday. 

I do not have children.  I do have pets. I love my pets, I take care of them, I feed them, they go to the vet.  I work with children a lot. I teach cooking classes for ages 3 and up and have for about 12 years. 

This is what advertisers want your pet to eat, it's a refrigerated pet food and here are the ingredients:

It was raining when we got up and showed no signs of stopping.  It slowed or got heavy, luckily no tornadoes or wind, but the rain never stopped.  

No problem.  I pulled out my heavy, cast iron, Lodge skillet and grilled indoors.  A simple meal of tuna and zucchini with Penzey's Greek seasoning and smashed, tiny, Yukon Gold potatoes.  

I did the zucchini first, it's good at room temperature.  I brushed the grill with oil, let it get hot and on went the zucchini.  I do have a down draft and had that on high in case of smoke. 

The zucchini looks great and tasted great also. 

Once the zucchini slices were cooked, I put the tuna on.  I like my tuna pretty rare, my husband likes medium, so his went on first. 

The potatoes were smashed and dinner was excellent. 

I've been at my desk now for several hours and it's time to move.  I am ready for two potential client meetings this evening.  One for a cooking class, one for a family service.  Life is great!