Moving to NZ has forced me to pay a lot more attention to what we eat. Food is more expensive here, and things that are readily available in the States aren’t on the shelves of our local grocery. While I wouldn’t mind if the food prices came down a bit, overall, this increased attention to… Read More Easy, Unsweetened, Homemade: Granola Bars
It has been a long time since I’ve posted a “Menu Monday”. Time to resurrect that tradition. Lately, I’ve been making a lot of recipes from Eating Well. I’ve subscribed to their email service and have been pleasantly surprised with the suggestions that they send. I’m trying to do a better job of using fresh… Read More Menu Monday!
Warning – reading this post could cause you to drool directly on your keyboard. I saw the recipe for the Pioneer Woman’s Milky Way Cake a few weeks back. It looked so yummy that I posted a link to it on Facebook and thought seriously about making it. My only worry? I wasn’t sure that… Read More Candy Bar Cake
I finally did it – I made The Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls! I have to admit that I was intimidated by the recipe. It makes so many and it looks so involved. I’ve never been good with dough and yeast and rolling pins. But I had volunteered to bring something for morning tea at church… Read More Oh, yes I did
Lately, my desire to grocery shop has gone out the door, down the stairs, into the elevator, and landed in the basement. Then, it’s been crushed by one of the cars backing out of the car-park and rolled like a tumbleweed onto the sidewalk, where it’s been further kicked around by passing pedestrians. Can you… Read More Grocery Shopping + Cooking
Poor Chris has been putting up with a lot on my end lately. He’s such a sweetheart about it, but the fact is that I haven’t been as active around the house as usual. Dinners aren’t always made, laundry has been a bear to tackle, and he puts up with it and doesn’t complain. So… Read More Cheesecake
First up – the giveaway! I’m probably decreasing my odds of winning by doing this, but you should head on over to Miller’s blog and check out her giveaway {it’s for a great book}. She’s a sweet Southern transplant who’s moved to the Midwest and takes amazing pictures. I love reading her posts and hearing… Read More Menu Monday… and a giveaway!
Shortly after coming to New Zealand, I noticed something. There seemed to be a lot of carrot cake – in coffee shops, at restaurants, served at get-togethers, at the hospital cafeteria… you get the idea. Not surprisingly, I found myself dreaming about cream cheese frosting and nutty, delicious baked goods. When I mentioned this to… Read More When Good Carrot Cake Goes Green {It’s the Baking Soda, Stupid!}
Chris has made a request for more veggie casseroles, as we seem to have been eating a lot of pasta lately. I agree. Unfortunately, he told me this after I’d already planned on making a yummy-looking recipe that I’d heard about via The Farmer and the Southern Belle, so he’ll have to wait just a… Read More Menu Monday
Hey everyone – hope you had a great weekend. Mine was fun on Friday but went downhill from there: sore throat, runny nose, cough, bloodshot eyes… the works. I slept cradling a Kleenex box instead of my husband, and each morning, the floor looked like it had snowed 2 ply lotion tissues. Yuck. I loaded… Read More Menu Monday
I’ve mentioned before that since moving to New Zealand, I’ve started branching out in some of our recipes. One particular ingredient that I’ve been using a lot of is squash {or pumpkin, as it’s called over here}. I’ve turned to Cooking Light many times for meal ideas and recipes, and they were the source for… Read More Cheesy Pasta with Roasted Squash and Bacon
Hey everyone – hope you had a great weekend. Ours was busy. I went to a cute cafe in Ponsonby called “Agnes Curran”, stopped in at Milly’s Kitchen Shop, checked out a store called “The Mad Butcher”, went to Mitre 10 for some things {the equivalent of a Lowe’s in NZ}, and looked at furniture. … Read More Menu Monday!
Hey everyone – hope you had a great weekend and that you’re week ahead doesn’t look too stressful. Last week, I mentioned that I would be making Paula Deen’s Corn Chive Pudding. Here’s a photo of the finished product… It was good, but we both agreed that it wasn’t great. I think that I’ll stick… Read More Menu Monday
Hello, my lovely readers 🙂 I hope that you all had a great weekend! Here’s what’s on our plates this week… Monday Paula Deen’s Broccoli Casserole – I like many of Paula Deen’s recipes {Perfectly Imperfect, don’t hate me!}. And I was feeling the need for some Southern Cooking this week, so this menu relies… Read More Menu Monday!
New Zealand, believe it or not, isn’t exactly known for it’s Mexican food. I know, I know – hard to believe! Tortilla chips here taste a bit differently, and for the most part, we’ve seen only 1 – 2 brands of salsa on the store shelves. There are smaller specialty stores, but gone are the… Read More Homemade Salsa in New Zealand
I had my first online grocery shopping experience this weekend, and I’m hooked! It was so cool to shop in my pajamas while watching “Friends” on Friday night. That’s right – I just admitted that I was watching re-runs in my PJs on a Friday night. In my defense, it was rainy, I was tired,… Read More Menu Monday
Since I started work this week, the menu is a lot of easy, quick-prep meals. Anything that can be made in advance is good! Chris is so funny – when I told him that I was going back to work on Monday {this was last week}, he was excited… at first. Then a few hours… Read More Menu Monday
A word of caution: this dessert could lead to declarations of love and/or spontaneous marriage proposals. Use wisely! I decided to make Chocolate Death for a church get-together. Once a month our church has an open discussion on Sunday nights. It’s jokingly referred to as “stump the pastor”, because it’s a time when anyone can… Read More Chocolate Death
I haven’t done a Menu Monday in awhile. I was working a crazy schedule prior to our move: I worked, slept, and that was it. I ate once a day, if you can believe that {no, that wasn’t a diet plan – I was too tired to eat and too busy at work to take… Read More Menu Monday
These are Dutch Kiss Cookies. They are delicious. Why are these cookies Dutch? Two reasons: (1) this recipe is from my mom, and her grandparents were Dutch, and (2) the “secret ingredient”, almond paste, is used in several traditionally Dutch desserts and pastries. So I started calling them “Dutch Kiss Cookies”. Seemed to make sense… Read More Dutch Kisses Are Always Sweeter
