Thanks Debi!

While working the other day, one of my co-workers, Debi, mentioned that she likes to cook... so I instantly got excited to swap recipes!  She sent me her mom's sweet and hot mustard recipe which I will now call "Debi's Sweet & Hot Mustard" ;) 

I made it yesterday and it was so easy and yummy!  I hope she doesn't mind me posting the recipe here... I halved the recipe mostly because I had exactly enough ingredients on hand to make half.  This is the halved recipe.
 
2oz Coleman's dry mustard (one box)
1/2 c vinegar

I should pass along that she told me you HAVE to use Coleman's dry mustard....no other brand will do.
Mix mustard and vinegar together and let sit for 2 hours.  Debi told me that the longer you let it sit the hotter it gets.... I went and ran errands which ended up being 3 hours.

Whisk in 3 eggs, one at a time.  Add 1/2 c sugar.  Set over double boiler (I improvised!) and cook on medium high until thickened. 
Let cool and jar.

Mine is really spicy!  I think next time I might stick with the 2 hours.... but it is very good!  I dipped chips in it all afternoon. 

Hope everyone gives this a try for 4th of July barbecues! 

pickle crazed....

Sorry I haven't been online in a while--things have been so hectic!  Last week Dano and I celebrated our six year anniversary and the week before that his cousins came to visit.  But I have a lot to update on so stay tuned!

Last week I came home to find that we got our first cucumber of the season from the CSA so I got right to pickling!  Since it was only one I decided to also pickle our salad turnips even though I had never tried that or heard of it before.... but I figured anything crispy would make a good pickle ;) 

The general recipe I follow is this... although sometimes I halve it/just eyeball it/etc
You want to start out with two 1-quart sterilized jars which you can do either running them through the dishwasher or boiling in water.

1 small onion, sliced
2 lbs cucumbers, sliced
1 T mustard seeds
2 t whole peppercorns
1 T dill seed
2 peeled cloves of garlic, halved
1 1/2 c vinegar
1 c water
3 T kosher salt
1 t sugar

Boil the vinegar and water with salt and sugar until dissolved, about 5 minutes.  Add in spices.  Divide slices of onion, cucumber, and garlic into jars.  Pour spice-vinegar mixture into jars over vegetables.  Let sit open until room temperature.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Enjoy!

You should really try to eat the pickles within a couple weeks and do NOT use old cucumbers--pickling cucumbers need to be totally firm and crisp.  And feel free to experiment with the recipe.... I have added and removed sugar, added red pepper flakes, added green pepper, etc.  Make it your own!

Also here is a quick photo update on our patio garden...

 I ended up buying starts for a lot of the plants... I think I attempted growing from seeds too early and there just wasn't enough sun.  I replanted some lettuce seeds again later in the spring and look how gorgeous they are now!  Now we have: lettuce, parsley, lavender, container tomatoes, oregano, and rosemary.  It's great!

Blog number 20!

I came home for my "weekend," which is now Tuesdays and Wednesdays to find that Dan had picked up our first CSA!  We had a ton of carrots and I instantly thought of making carrot cake!

I discovered a website called SparkRecipes that lets you analyze the nutritional information of your recipe so I decided to see how some substitutions on the carrot cake recipe I usually use would affect the nutritional value.  So instead of all that oil, I used 3/4 c applesauce and 1/2 c oil.  I also omitted one egg yolk and reduced the sugar to 3/4 c. white sugar and 3/4 c brown sugar.  I also left out the pecans because we didn't have any.  Then instead of tons of frosting I made a cream cheese icing.  I used 3 oz of cream cheese, a couple tablespoons of softened butter, and then just added powdered sugar and milk until it was a good consistency.  Overall I think I saved myself about 228 calories and 15 grams of fat per serving!  I made one loaf and about 9 cupcakes that Dan took to work and he came home with rave reviews.... I don't think anyone missed the extra oil!

Then for dinner I wanted to try to use a decent amount of spinach and we had some portobello mushrooms that were getting old so I decided on..... whole wheat pasta with spinach pesto and chickpeas, topped with roasted portobello mushrooms.

The spinach pesto is pretty easy and I used chickpeas since we didn't have tomatoes.   

Then for the mushrooms I just sprayed a pan with cooking spray and topped the mushrooms with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and cooked for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  I topped the pasta with the mushrooms and sprinkled some cheese on top!  Yum!