Canyon Ranch Caesar salad dressing

I used to work at Canyon Ranch as a server in the dining room when I was a teenager. We got to taste all the food that was served and I was surprised at how healthy and yummy most of the food was. There are several recipes that I still prepare to this day that I got from the Ranch nearly 12 years ago.

I don't make my own salad dressings, but I love Caesar dressing and I LOVE this recipe. It is so easy, very flavorful and lasts a long time since you don't need to add a lot to the actual salad. If you are a Caesar fan you will like this healthier option.

Ingredients:
1 T. mined garlic
1/4 C. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 C. lemon juice (*I used lime juice and it was good as well)
2 T. Dijon mustard
1/2 C. Parmesan cheese
1/2 T. anchovy paste
1 t. black pepper
1/2 C. mayo
2 t. white miso

* Don't be intimidated with the anchovy paste and white miso. I was able to get both of these items at Basha's so you shouldn't have to go to a specialty store to find them. I would, however, go to a store that has a "healthy" section like Basha's, Trader Joe's or Sunflower Market. I also used light mayo.*

Just mix them all together and that's it. I added bell peppers and cucumbers to my salad and called it good. Enjoy!

Chicken Pot pie

I LOVED chicken pot pies growing up and fell in love with this easy recipe. I also love using puff pastry since that means I don't have to make my own and I know it will turn out light, fluffy and make this "meat and potatoes" dish taste a little more fancy. I was out of marjoram (and I forgot to get some at the store, duh!), but I used rosemary and I think I liked it better that way anyway.

Ingredients:
5 applewood-smoked bacon slices
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
12 ounces peeled whole baby carrots (about 2 1/2 cups)
1 8-ounce package trimmed haricots verts or other slender green beans, halved crosswise
4 teaspoons chopped fresh marjoram
1 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon crème fraîche (*I used heavy cream and it's fine)
3 cups coarsely shredded chicken from 1 small purchased roasted chicken (skin removed)
*I also added potatoes. What kind of pot pie would this be without potatoes?!?! Sometimes I also add corn and peas.*

1 sheet frozen puff pastry (half of 17.3-ounce package), thawed

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 450F. Cook bacon in heavy large skillet over medium heat until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Chop bacon. Add onion to drippings in skillet; sauté until tender and golden, about 8 minutes. Add next 3 ingredients; stir 1 minute. Add broth; bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to mediumhigh and boil until vegetables are almost tender and some liquid is reduced, about 8 minutes. Stir in 2/3 cup crème fraîche, chicken, and bacon. Bring to simmer. Season with pepper. Divide among four 2-cup soufflé dishes.

Unfold puff pastry onto work surface; roll out to 12-inch square. Cut into 4 equal squares. Top filling in soufflé dishes with pastry; fold edges down onto rims of dish. Brush top of crusts (not edges) with remaining 1 tablespoon crème fraîche. Cut small X in center of crusts; pierce all over with fork. Bake until crusts are golden brown and filling is heated through, about 22 minutes.

*I used 1 big casserole dish and cut the puff pastry into as many pieces as it took to cover the surface before baking. That way each serving gets it's own crust and it doesn't turn the whole thing into a mess when it's cut. I baked it for 20 minutes and even then the pastry started to burn so keep an eye on it. Enjoy!


www.epicurious.com

Savers President's 50% off clothing sale

I was bored yesterday and was in desperate need of something to get us out of the house for about an hour. I settled on Savers since A) I haven't bought Devon ANY clothes since Savers had the 50% off sale on Veteran's Day and B) every other day I find he has outgrown another shirt or pair of pants. I didn't know about the sale until I got there so I was SUPER excited to save 50% on exactly what I was there to buy.

for $47.56 I got:
13 shirts

4 pairs of pants

4 BRAND NEW white newborn onesies
7 pairs of shorts

2 very strange baby night gowns

1 "big kid onesie"
1 pair of shoes

If I would have paid full price it would have cost me nearly $100 smackers .... so I wouldn't have been able to get as much. Now I won't have to get him new clothes for a long time. Yeah for Savers!

I was really excited to get the onesies since I will be needing some of those soon enough and I actually went looking for plain white ones. I want to customize a few with some ideas I got from another blog. I'll post them when they're done.

What's for dinner: Prosccuito wrapped Tilapia

I am always looking for yummy, nutritious and quickly prepared recipes. I don't eat seafood (I have a slight allergy to it that makes me throw up) so I don't usually cook fish. I did, however, start cooking it lately because Joe loves fish, I'm trying to get Devon to like it and from the time the fish hits the skillet to when it slides onto the plate is about 20 minutes or less and that has been extremely helpful to be able to cook an entire meal while Devon is eating and occupied.

OK, so I changed this recipe A LOT and it still turned out super yummy. I don't grill .... so I pan fried the fish in a little bit of butter and it was perfectly fine. They didn't have any "whole fish" with the skin on at the store I went to and I am not about to drive all over looking for it so I got Tilapia fillets. I'm sure any fish would work. The same LAME store(cough-cough Fry's) also didn't have prosciutto so I got pancetta instead. It did work out fine, but I think prosciutto would have stuck to the fish better during cooking, it has a more delicate flavor,but it wasn't a big deal. Since I ended up using filets and not whole fish, I put the herbs on top of the fish then wrapped them in pancetta instead of stuffing the herbs in the fish. The fillets are just too thin unless you get thick pieces. Anyway, those are the changes I made, but here is the recipe as written.

Ingredients:
4 whole fish, about 1 pound each, cleaned, such as trout, snapper, whitefish, flounder, or bluefish
1 cup fresh herbs such as tarragon, thyme, marjoram, etc.
Olive oil (*I used Rosemary and Tarragon)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 pound thinly cut pancetta or center-cut bacon

Preparation:
Grilling Method: Indirect/Medium Heat

Rinse fish and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper inside and out. Place fresh herbs inside cavity of fish. Lightly oil both sides of fish. Wrap seasoned, oiled fish with pancetta or bacon that is thinly sliced and unrolled. Wrap fish loosely, mummy-style, with the pancetta, leaving head and tail exposed.

Place fish in center of cooking grate. Cook until opaque, but still moist in thickest part (10 to 15 minutes). Remove from grill.

Place fish onto platter and serve immediately.



www.epicurious.com

Happy Birthday Elizabeth

My little sister's name is Elizabeth. I call her Buff Puff.

She is 4 years younger than me.

When we were kids, I always wanted her to think that I was her cool-older-sister, but I always wanted to do what she was doing. She had quite the imagination.

We did almost everything together. We shared clothes, toys and a bedroom.

I remember writing "contracts" that she would sign and swear to clean my room and bring me snacks, but I wrote them in cursive so she couldn't really read them. I thought I was being so sneaky, but she did nice things for me anyway.

We used to take turns giving each other back rubs to pass the time in church .... 5 minutes at a time. I wish we still did that .... the back rub part not the church part ;)

I always thought she was so much cuter than me .... I mean look at that cute red head!

I am so proud of her and all that she has accomplished. She plays the harp beautifully.

She is happily married to a great guy.

She is absolutely hysterical.

She surrounds herself with amazing friends who adore her and despite being the youngest child, she has her own sense of style.

Buff Puff, you are amazing and I love you.

Baby gate

I hoped that I would be able to forgo the whole need for a baby gate, but the older and more mobile Devon got the more I realized that I couldn't get a baby gate fast enough. From the main level of the house there is one flight of stairs going up and one flight going down. This means that I needed 3 .... yes 3 baby gates. I had a really hard time finding a gate that would A) fit the extra wide openings between the banister and the wall and B) find a gate that wasn't insanely expensive C) find one that wasn't offensive to look at and D) could be "hidden" away as much as possible.

I had such a hard time finding something that would work that I used to turn the coffee table on it's side to block the stairs .... ghetto fabulous I assure you. I did TONS of research and I think I found the perfect baby gate. It's called Retract-a-gate. It mounts to the wall and railing .... ANY railing. They sell adaptor kits if you don't want to or can't drill into the banister for whatever reason. We have an iron banister so that was not an option for us. It comes in different lengths, it rolls away, can be operated with one hand, is reasonably priced .... and on and on and on. If you need a gate I recommend this one. This is how they looked rolled up.


They unroll from the base, hook around the brackets then you turn a dial from "unlocked" to "lock" and it stays in place. The good part is it keeps Devon in, but the cats can still climb underneath so they aren't trapped. I can also climb over it if I need to. Bonus to this gate is I only had to buy 2 gates. I need a third one, but I can just unsnap it and move it to the railing attachment at the top of the stairs when we are up there playing. Here is the info if you want to ch-ch-ch-check it out.
http://www.retract-a-gate.com/index.html

P.S. No .... I don't own stock in this company ;) I know what a hard time I had finding a good product so I am just passing along the info if you or someone you know needs it.

Flea market

I have been trying to find activities for Devon and I to do in the mornings and after his nap to keep him occupied and happy. Saturdays we usually chill at home, but there was a flea market going on so I thought that sounded fun. I don't know what the difference is between a flea market and "huge yard sale" or "rummage sale", but they called it a flea market and we went.

I put Devon in the Ergo carrier and I was happy to see that he still enjoyed it. One of my absolute FAVORITE things about being a Mom is babywearing. I think it's beacuse I loved being pregnant so much (and had such an easy pregnancy)and wearing them is as close as you can get to that feeling. The time for you to wear them is so short so I made sure to wear him as much as possible. However, I haven't been wearing him much lately since he is so big now and when I go to the store I just put him in the cart so he can play with all the food. I knew I couldn't carry him the whole time we were browsing and I have a HUGE disdain for strollers so the Ergo worked out great.

Here are my finds!
2 antique lighters $5 each. The guy had a whole box of them and it was hard for me to just get 2, but I love this kind of stuff. NO I don't have a collection, but I do have a bunch of antique serving ware that I love so I was adding to the set.

I also got this napkin holder for $2. It's REALLY heavy!

My Mom does this sort of thing at her house and of all her decorations (ie: creepy Anna Lees, etc) this one I would actually copy. So .... thanks for the idea Mom. This is my "toe dipping into the pool of reluctant holiday decorating" holder. I don't decorate for holidays. It just doesn't "go" with my house ;) I did put out Xmas stuff, but all my decorations can literally fit on one box. Anyway, I got this hanger and I thought it wouldn't be so terrible to put up a little something-or-other to mark the monthly holiday. Plus, it was only a quarter. Now I just need to find something to hang on it.

I also got a garage sale Xmas gift, but I'm not posting that one in case you are reading this and it goes to you in the near future!

$12.50 worth of fun, 45 minutes carrying Devon on my back .... worth it!