Mexican/Indian Night

I was on a hunt for a really good rice pudding recipe. I started to look through one of my older cookbooks, one that's as old as me and was my mom's, and found a recipe that I might try soon. Across the page from it was a recipe for Baked Indian Pudding. Hmm...it looked interesting and you know I just had to try it! It is made of cornmeal, milk, butter, light-brown sugar, dark molasses, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and light cream. It smelled good baking. Steve thought it tasted like ginger snap cookies. I thought that was a pretty good description. All but one of the kids tried it (she didn't get to try because she didn't finish her dinner) and liked it, even said it was blog worthy!

Since I was making Baked Indian Pudding for dessert, I had to have something close to complimentary for dinner. I decided on Taco Casserole. That was a hit with four out of the five kids too! After they finished, I informed them that they had enjoyed mild taco sauce and diced green chilies! What a mean mom, sneaking spicy food into them! They said it deserved a spot on our favorite meals board!

I like a night that ends with happy tummies - at least a majority!

San Marzano Sauce with Linguine a la Nicholas Sparks

I finished reading True Believer by Nicholas Sparks on Sunday. I really enjoyed the book. In the story, the main characters eat an authentic San Marzano pasta sauce with linguine. It sounded so simple and yet divine, that I just had to try it. All it is, is two large cans of San Marzano tomatoes, 1 stick of butter and 2 onions cut in half. Bring to a boil and then turn down to low and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. I cut the onions in half across the width. It smelled insane!

The San Marzano tomatoes were whole, so I thought that over the 1 1/2 hours of simmering that they would breakdown a bit and they did. I thought it was interesting to put the onions in the sauce in the large halves. I used Vidalia onions. I thought that the onions would soften up and maybe separate during the simmering. Pretty good guess! Not all of the onion separated, but enough did. I would have never put onions in like that, except that the character of the book stated that dicing the onions would ruin the sauce that she learned to make from her restaurant owning grandmother. The onions had a texture that no store bought sauce could match! It was so good! Apparently, I was raving about it through dinner...at least that what my daughter said!

I served the pasta with a salad and biscuits. I will definitely be making this again!

Another Birthday Celebrated

We recently celebrated another birthday here! We have a tradition that the birthday person gets to pick the meals for the day. So, my dear son decided that we were going to have Cinnamon Blintzes for breakfast, Jambalaya for lunch and Papa John's for dinner! Definitely some favorites around here. He said that he chose those meals because we haven't had them in while. He also wanted a Bakugon Cake. That was going to be a challenge for me since I couldn't order one from the bakery.



Cinnamon Blintzes are really, really good and really easy to make. But, they do take time. I didn't think about taking any pictures of them, mostly because I was busy making them.



Jambalaya is wonderful! A friend of ours who happens to have a Creole background introduced us to it. I haven't looked for a recipe to make it, but have use the mix by Zatarain's. I did two pots. One mild, (picture on the top) made with smoked beef sausage and the other, (picture on the bottom) spicy Creole style with Andouille sausage! The kids absolutely love the mild version, except for my youngest with the severe food allergies. The birthday boy tried the spicy version and really liked it, but the second serving ended up being a little too much for him.










I don't need to say much about Papa John's except for the fact that the order got a little mixed up. But, after I called to let them know of the mix up, they sent the correct pizza, so we got 3 for the price of 2! Can't really complain about that!



Now the Bakugon cake had me a little baffled! I go to the local Party City store to get the specialty items that I can't get at Target, Walmart, or the grocery store. Nobody had any cake topper type stuff for Bakugon. So I got an idea while I was standing in the isle at Party City. There was a large Bakugon key chain. I figured, well, I could use that as a topper and put it on a doilie so as to not contaminate the cake. Yes, I actually have to think of that. I think it worked pretty good! At least he was pleased with it! He specified a triple chocolate cake, and that was what he got!



All in all, a fun day!

A Movie I Watched and an Old TV Show I Want to Share With the Kids

I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic the other day. It was a pretty good movie! I think it is based on a book, so now I want to read it.

I also recently discovered that our local library has copies of the old tv series, The Land of the Lost! Anxious to see what the kids think of that! Then, maybe we'll consider watching the remake.

Neeley's Cookies and Cream Cake

I made the Neeley's Cookies and Cream Cake the other day for the most recent birthday and it was really good! It was so good, that it lasted the night of the birthday and one more day. It is now gone! I served it with a bit of cookies and cream ice cream on the side. Empty plates! Worth making again! I think it was the first birthday cake I've made from scratch. I've always used the convenience of the cake mixes or the bakery. It was easy to make. After icing the bottom layer, it looked a bit like an Oreo!

I decided to pour the icing over the top of the cake. I had several people talking to me while I was counting the cups of powdered sugar, so I was either right on or just under. The icing turned out to be pourable. I need some practice on writing freehand on cakes though.

I need to make those Oreo truffles again. I thought I took some pictures, but haven't been able to find them.

I've done some cookies and cream brownies recently too that I'll have to make again.