Sealed with a cupcake!

This week started out awful! It was bad for both my husband and I - worse for him :(
But, we're pushing it all aside, moving on and hoping that we win the $50 million lottery tonight.

I think one of the worse things of the week was dinner the other night. I'm all about trying new recipes, the one I chose the other day.....major fail! It was this creamy lemon pasta casserole thing that looked and sounded delicious. I actually followed the recipe too - well I changed it a little I omitted some of the lemon. I can't even explain what was so gross about it, but it was too lemony and creamy and yuck! Normally we like the new recipes I make, but this one, no amount of hot sauce, pasta sauce or ketchup could fix it.
That reminds me, I better take it off of pinterest!

To make up for that, tonight I was checking out some of my favorite baking blogs and started drooling over some mighty fine looking cupcakes. Maybe it was the pregnancy talking or who knows what, but I decided that I needed to make some. They are divine - vanilla cupcakes with green buttercream. Yum!
I also tried a new buttercream recipe. I actually like it better than my tried and true Wilton recipe. At least one new recipe this week was a success!!
Here's the recipe:
http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2011/08/american-buttercream-frosting-recipe.html

Enjoy!

New obsession....

One word....

A friend of mine introduced me to Pinterest a few months ago. I didn't really understand it. I thought why do I need a website that saves my favorite things when I can just bookmark them?? Well, when you like as much stuff as I do,  your "Bookmarks" drop down thing (I can't think of what it's actually called - pregnancy brain strikes again!) fills up fast! And really, it's a pain to go through a huge list to find the link to something you think you like.
So when my amazing husband bought me a new Mac Book for Christmas I decided that I didn't want my bookmark list filled up so I figured I would try out Pinterest. Smart move!!
I don't think at this point of the night I can describe what it is in it's full glory,  if you don't know what it is, check it out http://pinterest.com/

Finally a full meal with dessert!!

Today is probably the third, maybe fourth time in almost 15 weeks that I have cooked a full dinner and made dessert to go with it!
That is in big part to the fact that I'm almost 17 weeks pregnant!!! So needless to say, I have had no appetite and no energy. For the most part if I ate, I ate like a 6 year old - chicken strips and mac & cheese. The last week or so I've had a bit of an appetite. It's odd how I now love certain things that I didn't care about before (oranges, chocolate and pork) and don't like the things I once loved (chicken and cheese). It's weird, but so awesome. We are so thankful, grateful and excited to be having a baby!!!

Anyways, all my cravings lead me to tonight's dinner!!

• Pork tenderloin with a cranberry glaze
• Scalloped potatoes
• cream corn

And then for dessert, I manged to combine my 2 (current) favorite things, chocolate and oranges....

• Homemade Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes
• Orange Whipped Cream

Deeeeelightful!!! Recipes are below.


Molten Chocolate Lave Cakes from foodnetwork.ca

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter plus 2 tablespoons for greasing ramekins (125 ml plus 25 ml)
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (175 grams)
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar (50mL)
• Pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons for dusting ramekins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C).
2. Butter and lightly flour 6 -6oz (175mL) ramekins.
3. Tap out the excess flour. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.
4. In a double boiler, over simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
5. In a medium heatproof bowl, beat eggs and egg yolks with sugar, and salt until pale yellow and light.
6. Quickly fold the melted chocolate mixture into the eggs.
7. Fold in flour.
8. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter into each ramekin. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes are set and the centers are still soft.
9. Let the cakes cool in the ramekins for 1 minute and then invert them onto dessert plates.
10. Let ramekins stand for 10 seconds before lifting them off the cakes. Serve immediately

 Orange Whipped Cream from sunkist.com
(I changed it slightly and used pink oranges - they are sooo good!)

Ingredients:

• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed Sunkist® orange juice
• 1 Tbsp. fresh Sunkist® orange zest, chopped
• ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 Tbsp. powdered sugar

Instructions: (Makes 4 servings)

• Whip cream until soft peaks form.
• Stir in freshly squeezed Sunkist orange juice, fresh Sunkist orange zest and powdered sugar.
• Continue whipping until peaks are firm.
• Refrigerate until needed.

Enjoy!!!

This week was a tough one!
As far as work goes, it was short - Monday was a stat holiday thanks to New Years Day!
I always find that the week drags when Monday is a day off.  Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but I just wasn't meant to be there this week! Maybe it's because this was my first week back after being on holidays for almost 3 weeks. Or maybe I'm just whiny and lazy....Either way, here's to hoping that next week will be easier!

I don't have all that much to say today, but I figured that if I at least make the effort to write something every few days then I will be able to get back into the swing of things in no time.
My goal is to be blogging about my Top 5 weekly faves and cooking/baking in the next few weeks. After all I did get a new laptop and camera for Christmas (thanks husband!!) so I have no real reason to not blog!!

And like I said in my last post, I have a really good reason for neglecting Amanda Ever After ;)

Goodbye 2011 - Hello 2012

Happy New Year!!
I can't believe that it's January 1, 2012. It's crazy/awesome!!

I think in my last couple of posts I mentioned that I was on a cooking mission. I was going to make 2-3 new recipes each week. Well that was amazingly successful for about 2 weeks. But I have a really good excuse why it ended so quickly. It's really good - honest. But, more on that later....as in another day ;-)



Now that the madness of the holidays is over, I'm hoping to get back on track and blog/write more. We'll see how it goes.

That being said, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and all the best for 2012 :)

Mission accomplished!!

My husband is a general contractor - right now he is working like a mad man to complete a 3 month job in 3 weeks. He's been working loooong days and getting home anywhere from 8:30pm - 11:30pm. Not my idea (or his) of awesome. I should be used to it because this happens during the last week of every job he does and really it's not that big of a deal, I'm just way too needy and have too short of an attention span to be home by myself all night, every night!
But, he's done it again...tomorrow is opening night. Woo Hoo!!!

Why am I telling you this? Because I've found the silver lining of being a lonely housewife.....I get to spend hours and hours cooking and baking and use all of our fun wedding gifts!!
Oh and I'm totally kidding about being a lonely housewife ;)

I think in my last post I mentioned that I had a new goal - to cook 2 -3 new dishes every week. And so far week one has been a great success!! I've tried 6 or so new things and it's only Wednesday!

Monday:

• Pasta night. I have dance class and my husband is supposed to make dinner...

Tuesday: 

• Dinner - Chicken caesar wraps, nothing new
• Dessert - I made 3 new recipes. Warm chocolate pudding cakes (in our new Gordon Ramsey ramekins a wedding gift), caramel sauce and mint flavored whip cream

Wednesday:

• Thai food!! I have never eaten or made Thai food thanks to a peanut and seafood allergy. But tonight I'm making chicken satay (with fake peanut butter!!) and pad thai. I haven't tried it yet, but my fingers are crossed! 
• Dessert - I got a super cool cake pan the other day. It's a giant donut cake pan!! So I tried a new cake recipe :)

Thursday:

• I pre-made dinner tonight to save some time tomorrow. Shepherd's Pie!! A favorite around our house. I usually top it off with garlic mashed potatoes, but tonight instead of roasting the garlic by itself I made roasted garlic with rosemary (thanks for the idea Haylie Duff  http://realgirlskitchen.com/everyone-should-know/ side note: check out her website, it's pretty cool!). I have a feeling it's going to be delicious!!

What are your favorite recipes?

Domestic Daydreaming

I haven't checked yet, but I could be a millionaire!
Well that is if we won the lottery tonight....Chances are slim, but someone has to win right so why not me and my husband?
The reason I'm thinking about it is because I have a plan should for when we win.
I have decided that when we win the lottery, I am going to work part time at my current job and spend the rest of my time cooking and blogging about it. My super successful cooking blog/website will naturally lead to me having a cooking show.....Yeah...
There are many things in my life that bring me great joy. My kitchen and cooking/baking are near the top of that list. So why not go with it!

So since I'm still working full time at my job, I will start small - my new goal is to make 2-3 new meals per week. I told my husband this and he looked so sad. He's a tried and true, go with what you know kinda fella. He likes his comfort food - pasta, shepherd's pie, meatloaf etc. Don't get me wrong, those are some of my faves too, but I'm all about trying new things.
It's not so much the eating new things part I enjoy, it's the cooking part - the creating, learning something new and of course the finished product. If it sucks then I try to figure out how to fix it for next time (if it gets a next time!) and it's good, then that's a bonus and we decide if it's worthy to be put in the keeper pile.

All of that being said, I need to go plan our menu for next week.
I hope to have some yummy pictures for you next week :)
Keep in ind, I am not a chef. I am totally self taught and just have a total love for food, my kitchen and being a domestic housewife.
xoxo