Spinach Dip

While I have my recipes out, I figured I would add another one really quick. I make this for my husband and for family gatherings.

Spinach Dip

1 can drained or 1 pkg of frozen spinach (thawed and drained)
16 oz sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 pkg Knorr Vegetable recipe mix
1 8 oz can water chestnuts (drained and chopped)


Mix well and refrigerate at least 2 hours to let the vegetables in the mix rehydrate.

Serve with pretzels, chip, crackers, veggies, etc. Dean's favorite is King's Sweet Hawaiian Rolls!!

Spinach Artichoke Dip

I found this recipe in a Kraft Kitchens magazine, but I changed a few things to make it taste better. I love making this and I try to keep all of the ingredients around for when I have company and I need a great appetizer or snack. I remember Adriane calling me last summer as she was desperately trying to figure out what to make to bring to a party. I have no idea if she made it, but she was super excited to get the recipe! I hope it becomes a favorite of yours too!


1-1/4 cups grated parmesan cheese
1 can (3 oz) asparagus spears, drained, chopped
1 10 oz. pkg of frozen, chopped spinach
1 can (8-1/2 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained, chopped
1 8 oz. container chive and onion cream cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix all of the ingredients together and place into a 2 qt baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve hot with crackers, italian bread or veggies.

Thanks, Ashley!

Thanks to Ashley for sending me a fun birthday present! Appropriately, she sent me a cookbook and it is entitled "Bon Appetit, Y'all"! I am so excited to try a new recipe from the book. Southern ladies rock, and this includes Ashley :)

Baked French Toast Casserole

WOW!!! I made this hoping it would be good and it came out even better than I imagined. I actually got the original recipe from Paula Deen, but I tweaked it to make it lower fat. As most of us know, Adriane was a young version of Paula Deen. I can barely watch her cooking shows without thinking of Adriane and how much she adored her and her cooking. Many days I would call Adriane to chat and she was almost always watching Paula cook something with a ton of bacon or butter (or both)!!! Instead of using 1/2 and 1/2, I used fat free 1/2 and 1/2 from Land 'O Lakes. You do not even miss the fat. I will write the original recipe rom www.foodnetwork.com, but I will comment where I adjusted the recipe. I made 2 pans of this recipe and I froze half for Easter breakfast.

1 loaf french bread
8 large eggs
2 cups half and half (I used fat free half and half)
1 cup milk (I used skim)
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg (grind it fresh!!)
dash salt
praline topping (recipe follows)

Slice bread 1 inch thick
Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9x13 flat baking dish and overlap the slices. In a large bowl combine all of the other ingredients. Beat until blended, but not bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread and spoon some of the mixture between the slices. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, spread the praline topping over the bread and bake at 350 for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.

Praline topping

2 sticks butter
1 c packed brown sugar
1 c chopped pecans
2 tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Combine all ingredients and mix well. I ended up using my hands to make it easier.

Work

Work and life always catches up with me. I promise to add another recipe soon. I decided I am doing too much on the computer. I work on our company website, my immediate family website, my kids' website, Twitter, Facebook, email at home, email at work, and this blog. In between I am also scanning photos and slides and then I update those websites. Oh yeah, I am also usually struggling with raising my twins during the terrible two's and I work from home. I love/hate technology, but I just can't seem to rip myself away from the computer. For the record, Twitter is not all that exciting. I think Facebook is more fun and interactive :) Have a great day and I promise a recipe soon. I am going to make an (hopefully) awesome baked french toast casserole over the weekend. If I think it is worthy to share, I will post it in time for Easter brunches! Have a great day!

The picture is my hopeful reminder that spring is here and my flowers will bloom soon. Irises are slowly becoming a fascination for me. This was my iris last spring and I look forward to seeing it bloom. I also have 8 new additions I can't wait to see bloom this year. I am hoping my gold and black irises bloom at the same time. My Alma Mater (Hail Purdue!) would be proud of the black and gold display!!

Irish Soda Bread

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It is hard to believe it has been 4 years since I last drank with my buddies down in Gainesville! I never could drink very much, but the camraderie could not be beat! I miss you all!! Here is my recipe for Irish Soda Bread

4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp soft butter

Mix all together and blend the butter in with your hands.

Add 1-3/4 cup buttermilk and blend with a fork until it comes together. Do not overwork the dough!!! Pour bread out of the bowl and press together in a sprayed cast iron skillet or a pie pan. Mark an "X" on the top with a knife.

Bake at 400 for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and butter top with 2 tbsp(or more)of butter. You are supposed to let it cool for 30 minutes, but I can never wait long enough to do that!!

Pirate's Booty

I have no idea if y'all have heard this called by this name or not. I originally tried it when Erin came to visit me in December of 2007. I completely blame her for gaining weight while I was breast-feeding twins! This stuff is so addictive that I would wake up at odd times through the night to eat some. I eventually passed it on to my diabetic parents, who then got addicted. I tried convincing Adriane to try it and she thought I was gross. She really needed to take that up with Erin!! This is the perfect blend of sweet and salty that PMS usually induces :)


Puffcorn Delights
White chocolate chips

Place the bag of puffcorn in a bowl. Melt the chocolate chips in a microwave or in a double boiler. Once melted, pour over the puffcorn and mix with a large spoon. I usually keep it in the bowl until it cools off and then I put it in a Ziploc bag.

Betty's Pound Cake

My dear, sweet Adriane came to visit me one weekend and brought this delicious pound cake as a hostess gift; it was definitely the BEST pound cake I had ever had! Of course, I immediately had to have this recipe, so she emailed it to me as soon as she made it home. I have included her comments in the recipe below so that you can get the feeling of what a fun person she was all of the time, even when copying recipes. B.B.P.C. (Before Betty's Pound Cake) I thought that you had to put fruit or sauce on pound cake to make it edible, but this cake doesn't need any kind of acoutrement- it is heavnenly all by itself! (But since it was the height of strawberry season when she came to visit, we covered it with strawberries and whipped cream and that made it even more delish!) But there are also some other options for the pound cake at the bottom of the recipe.

Adriane told me that she had absolutely no idea who Betty was, but was pretty sure that the recipe was written in her grandmother's handwriting, so this recipe has made it through at least three generations of Bell women and has now been imparted to other ladies who love to bake/eat. This recipe is meant to be shared with friends, so in true Adriane style, please enjoy a slice (or 5) with people you care about!

Betty's Pound Cake

Ingredients:
3 sticks of butter (only real butter will do)
3 cups white sugar
3 cups plain flour (in parentheses it says Red Band brand, lol... Publix will probably do it)
6 eggs
1 cup evaporated milk
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Directions:
Cream softened butter and sugar together. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well. Mix evap milk and vanilla, set aside. Sift flour and set aside. Gradually add flour, alternating with milk mixture, beating well as you alternate.

Butter and flour pan(s) really well. Pour batter in pan(s). Place pan(s) on a cookie sheet (sometimes if you don't eat enough of the batter before you put it in the pans, it overflows as it cooks ;-) j/k). Place in a cold oven (not preheated) set a 275 for 1 hour. After 1 hour, turn oven up to 300 for 30 more minutes. Remove from oven and let cool about 50% before you try to take it out of the pan. Finish cooling on a rack.

If you use a loaf pan, it makes 2 loaves. If you use a tube pan (the same kind you use to make angel food cake), it makes 1 cake.


I love it with almond icing:

1 stick of softened butter
1 box of confectioners sugar, sifted
Almond flavoring to taste (or vanilla)
Evaporated milk or cream or half-and-half if needed

Cream the butter and sugar and add flavoring. If it is too thick, add milk until you get the right consistency. (This is enough icing to frost the entire tube pan cake... might be overkill if you halve the recipe. Or you can just eat the extra as you see fit. ;-) Seeing a theme?)

My cousin pokes holes in it and brushes it with amaretto. Good, but not as good as the icing.

As you know, it is maybe best with strawberries and whipped cream!

Clemson Colors

I changed the blog around to represent Adriane's Clemson Tigers. She had a very long and confusing story about how the colors are really supposed to be orange and blue, but the athletics department uses orange and purple? Something like that. Please correct me if I am wrong!! Anyway, I changed the colors to orange and purple for her favorite team. I always try to use those 2 colors to think of her. I did it before she passed away, so I just continue with it now. I purchased orange and purple sippy cups to remember her. She always got a kick out of what weird things I could buy in orange and purple. I know I am lame, but I have to keep myself amused somehow!

UF Dairy Science Club

I saw this on Facebook and I immediately thought of Adriane. She would be so proud!!

"Congratulations to the UF Dairy Science Club on having the first place display at the recent Southern Regional American Dairy Science Association Student Affiliate Division Meeting in Huntsville, Alabama. Also, congratulations to Stephanie Croyle on being selected as the Outstanding Southern Regional ADSA Student Affiliate Member!"

I miss her everyday :( The flower bulbs I planted the last time I talked to her are starting to come up in my yard. Just another way I will always remember our beautiful friend. She brought me as much joy as seeing the first flowers of spring.

Romanian Chicken Stew

My husband is Romanian, which means I am essentially married to the Romanian mob. Just a joke, but I am not exactly as Eastern-European as they would prefer. I have no idea what that matters since I am German, Yugoslavian and Austrian. Anyway, this is my husband's grandmother's recipe. Everytime I make it I want to shove it in their face and say "See, I can cook!". I am sure his grandmother would be all weepy-eyed knowing I can actually cook as well as her.

This is an easy 1-hour home-cooked meal that is scrumptious! I always cook some rice because the gravy you make needs something to make it a bit lighter. I always take the skin off my chicken so I can reduce the fat content. It helps a ton! You can try it with chicken breasts, but it just does not taste the same. Using chicken legs is dangerous because of all the bones. So, use chicken thighs or a mixture of chicken thighs and breasts. It is amazing what a simple recipe this is! I hope you like it. FYI...in Romanian it is called tocana du pui.

1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 diced onion
1 lb skinned chicken thighs
paprika
salt
pepper
fresh mushrooms (not necessary, but good addition)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp flour
fresh parsley

Warm the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the diced onion and cook until the onion is clear. Add the chicken to the skillet and place a hefty coating of paprika, salt and pepper on the chicken. Add the fresh mushrooms and about a cup of water. Place a lid on top of the skillet and let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. You seriously do not have to do anything that whole time! Just make sure there is enough water in the skillet.

Mix the flour and sour cream together in a bowl until it is smooth. When the chicken is done cooking, add the sour cream mixture to the center of the pan and try to stir it into the pan juices. Let it boil so it gets thick. Add the freshly chopped parsley, mix it in and you are done.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Melamakarona Cookies

These are some of my new favorite cookies. They are essentially a dry shortbread, but the wonder of honey turns them into a delightfully soft cookie. They are easy to make, but messy when you have to dip them. I doubled the orginal recipe so I could share more of them with friends and family. I made them last Wednesday and they are almost all gone.

2/3 cup cooking oil
1 cup softened butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp baking soda
3-1/2 to 4 cups flour

1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Beat the cooking oil and the butter together for 30 seconds. Add 2/3 cup of sugar and beat until fluffy. Add orange juice, baking soda and baking powder. Beat well. Gradually add the flour to make a medium-soft dough. You want to be able to work with the dough. I usually use closer to 4 cups of flour. Shape dough into ovals about 2 inches long. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20-25 minutes until they are lightly browned. Let cool.

Meanwhile, combine the rest of the sugar, honey and water in a pan. Bring to a boil (watch out! It boils fast and then it will want to bubble over). Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Lay down some parchment paper and place a wire rack over the paper. Dip each cookie in the honey mixture while it is still warm. Place on the wire rack and immediately sprinkle the cookies with the nuts.

The cookies like to crumble and stick together, so separate them between layers of parchment paper or wax paper.

Hi, I'm Ashley!

While I will never be able to thank my darling friend, Adriane, for "introducing" me to such an amazing woman, I know she is right here with us and our blossoming friendship. To add to Amber's description, I met Adriane in graduate school through the UF Dairy Science club, where the two of us were the most unadvised graduate "advisors". After a trip to LSU in Baton Rouge, we became the nearest and dearest friends. Adriane and I shared a love of animals (mainly cows), food/cooking/eating, Jimmy Buffett, the ocean, the state of South Carolina and listening to silly music while driving with the windows down.

I will never forget the day that she moved into my house and proclaimed, "We are going to be the best house EVER because we have all of the ridiculous kitchen gadgets you can buy!" Between ramekins and cracker cutters, zesters and cheese slicers, we had the most amazing kitchen equipment! (But sadly, our graduate student incomes didn't support our foodie habits.)

After graduating and starting my new job, Adriane was still looking for her place to shine, so she was able to send me all kinds of yummy recipes to try since now I had the money to buy the fun ingredients once so far from our reach! I will completely agree with Amber's list of recipes to post because I know I like the easy ones, but I also like yummy ones that may take a little more finesse! :)

To those of you who never knew Adriane, she was sunshine bottled in an adorable, friendly, happy person. She never met a stranger and if for some reason you could get her to talk about animals or food, she would have you captivated for hours. (I know! There were way too many nights we stayed up playing with her puppy and talking about all of the yummy concoctions we were going to try as soon as we got our "big girl jobs" and could afford to cook more than ramen noodles!)

I hope you enjoy our blog as much as we are going to enjoy writing it. If Adriane was still here with us, I know she would just LOVE this idea and would have gladly incorporated all three of us into this culinary journey.

Adriane's Awesome Icing

Ok, so here is the first recipe for the blog from me. It is one of my favorite recipes that Adriane could whip out at the blinking of an eye. One morning she had to drag a few of us to the dairy farm at an ungodly hour of the morning. Out of guilt for making us wake up at 4:30 am, she had these awesome cupcakes. They originally sounded gross until the lid came off and I caught a whiff of the icing. YUMMY!!! I figured one was good before we had to work, then around 9 am when we left the dairy covered in crap we decided to eat more. It is truly amazing what you will actually eat when your hands and clothes and body are covered in cow manure, blood and sweat. It did not matter, the cupcakes were awesome and our digestive systems were getting a challenge due to the new microflora we introduced that morning. So, I got the recipe and it is always on my fridge labelled "Adriane Bell's Awesome Icing". So, without further ado, here it is. Enjoy it on cookies, cake, or cupcakes. Or heck, just make a batch and eat the icing from the bowl!


1 stick softened butter
1 box (lb) confectioner's sugar
rind of 1 orange (1-1/2 tsp)
juice of 1 orange

We actually did it!

Well, here is our first post. I thought I would give a little background....without taking 5 hours to write it!

Ashley and I both shared an AMAZING friend who was tragically killed in a car accident on September 14, 2009. It was a day of horror we will both never forget. Through our pain and loss we have become great friends and we try to fill the void where Adriane used to be. We have never actually met, but Adriane painted a picture of us both to each other. I hope it was beautiful :)

I knew Adriane as a graduate student at the University of Florida where I was a lab technician. We became instant friends and spent HOURS together. I moved to Indiana in late November of 2006. Soon after that Ashley and Adriane became inseparable friends and then became roommates.

Some of my great memories of Adriane involved food and calling her to hear about the crazy tales of their cooking mishaps. My favorite night was when I called and she and Ashley were making crackers. I had never heard of anyone making crackers (except for Keebler elves). So, I imagined Ashley and Adriane in the tree house dressed as elves baking crackers. Crazy, I know!

When I knew I was moving I baked and cooked all the time. I wanted to get rid of my food because I did not want to move it all! Adriane would always come over and eat my creations with me and my husband. Food was definitely something that was celebrated in our friendship. They did not have to be complicated or expensive to taste great.

Now Ashley and I make some creative food and we share the recipes via email. I love to eat, which really undermines my attempts to lose weight. Ashley came up with the idea to blog about some of our recipes. I plan on sharing some fun recipes that fall under the following categories:

1) Super easy to make
2) Super yummy and easy to make
3) Super yummy, slightly hard to make, but totally worth the time!
4) Fun recipes that remind me of Adriane