Reading, Writing and Recipes

Had to post a pic of this darling centerpiece from my shower- cute socks made into rose buds. My friend has some other pics of me at the shower, so those may come later : )
Stephen's work threw him a surprise "shower" this last week and asked me and girls to come down and be part of the surprise- that was a lot of fun. He came into "staff meeting" with a notepad and items on his agenda and instead there was food and gifts and his family! Too funny.

Odessa has taken a huge interest lately in trying to write words and books. She loves looking at a bird book we have and is very fascinated with parrots, so she has made a couple parrot books. The above is her first attempts at spelling "parrot", then each time we talked her through what letters made what sounds and she finally figured it out. The double r we just had to tell her about.

Pictures of the parrots

She really likes looking at other books and articles from the Friend Magazine and copying sentences from them.

These are the first and second pages of the book, copied

And then there are her homemade cards for us . . .
Recently she has branched out into writing words she sounds out herself. This card was made for the new baby- she saw a couple cards from my shower and wanted to make one too. See if you can figure out what she said.

Here is another card she made- this one for her Dad

And Recipes . . . I got tired of the quick tacos and spaghetti meals I was making almost weekly, so I went back to my Everyday Food and we have really enjoyed eating more healthy, creative dinners.
But I forgot or was too lazy to ever take pictures, so I just took pictures of the magazine photos! LOL

Chicken Sandwiches with White Onions and Peppers

2 tsp olive oil
1/2 small white onion, cut into wedges
1/2 green pepper, cored and cut into 1/2 inch strips
1 cup mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
2 tsp fresh oregano leaves
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 tsp red-wine vinegar
2 chicken cutlets
cayenne pepper
1 Tbs mayonnaise
1/2 baguette, halved lengthwise and insides scooped out, toasted
lettuce leaves

In a large skillet, heat 1 tsp oil over medium. Add onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until pepper and onion are tender, about 12 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in vinegar; tent with foil to keep warm.

Add 1 tsp oil to skillet. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper and pinch of cayenne. Cook until golden brown on one side- about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until chicken is cooked through, about 1-2 minutes more.

Spread mayo on inside of bread. Assemble sandwich with vegetables, chicken and lettuce. Cut in half lengthwise to serve.
Serves 2

So, I changed a few things here. Obviously, I needed it to make more than 2 servings. I bought some hoagies that were slightly crunchy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. I doubled everything- except I left out the mushrooms. I felt the onion/pepper mix was sufficient without the distraction of the mushrooms and I think I was right- it was a really good sandwich. I happened to have cutlets because they were on sale, but if you don't have them, you can carefully slice a chicken breast lengthwise so that it's half the thickness it was before- may want to pound on it with the side of a small skillet a little too to flatten it. I used dried oregano instead of fresh and one step I WOULD NOT omit is the vinegar- it really adds to the sandwich. I did not use cayenne on the girls' chicken, but found it added a lot to Stephen and I's with the cayenne pepper and mayo combo- YUM. We all loved these although the girls mostly pulled the pieces apart and ate them separately.)


Mini Mocha Cheesecakes

2 cups nonfat cottage cheese
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbs + 1 and 1/2 tsp flour
1 and 1/2 tsp espresso powder
1 and 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
9 chocolate wafers (such as Famous)
whipped cream

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line 9 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners. In a food processor, combine cottage cheese, eggs, confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, flour, espresso powder and vanilla. Process until smooth, 4 minutes, scraping down sides as needed. Divide mixture among cups and place 1 cookie on top of each. Bake until fillings are set and cookies soften, 25-30 minutes. Let cool to room temp in pan on a wire rack, then refrigerate at least 1 1/2 hours (or covered, up to 3 days). To serve, invert cheesecake onto plates and peel off liners. Top with a dollop of whipped cream if desired (makes 9).

We LOVED these and they are super easy. I made them for a little dinner party with our neighbors after we had fish tacos- yum! They don't taste "light" at all. I left out the espresso powder and because espresso enhances cocoa flavor, it's important that you use high quality cocoa powder and vanilla- vanilla also enhances cocoa flavor. I used a little extra cocoa to make up for the espresso. You can also add just a dash of salt- it can also enhance cocoa flavor I think. My recipe made about 11 little cakes. They will rise just a little when baked and then sink back down when cooling, so I served 2 of these little cakes to each person. I made a cooked raspberry sauce with some of my raspberry freezer jam and served the sauce warm over the cakes with a dollop of whipped cream. Famous wafers are one of my favorite things to bake with- they make the best chocolate crumbs because they are like Oreos without the creme filling.


Parmesan Chicken with Mushrooms and Brussel Sprouts

1/3 panko or plain dried breadcrumbs
1/3 cup grated parmesan
1 1/2 lbs chicken tenders
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
coarse salt and ground pepper
3/4 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)
3/4 pound mushrooms, trimmed and halved (quartered if large)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a small bowl, mix together panko and Parmesan. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, toss chicken with 1 tsp oil and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Arrange chicken in a single layer and sprinkle with panko mixture. Drizzle with 1 Tbs oil and bake on upper rack until topping is golden brown and chicken is cooked through, 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, on a rimmed baking sheet, toss mushrooms and brussel sprouts with 2 tsp oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast on lower rack until golden brown and tender when pierced with a knife, 20 minutes. Serve vegetables with chicken.

We really liked this too. Brussel sprouts are out of season and expensive, so I opted for a cauliflower instead since it roasts up nicely. The girls like it a lot.

This week ended up nicely- I had a girls night out with Hillary where we promptly acted like we were in high school and everything was hilarious. People out for the evening on Queen Anne probably assumed we had been visiting the bar scene there and not the self-serve frozen yogurt bar. That's why it's always fun to be with Hillary. Saturday night was games with friends Mike and Julia.
More fun to come this week with "April Babies" get-together and other outings- guess I am backing it in before the baby arrives!