Back from a haitus

I've been on a hiatus, that's not even a question. I have about 40 blog posts in drafts just waiting to be published, but most of them are food related, and since Mike doesn't follow recipes, we kept saying we needed to fine-tune the recipe ourselves before posting it. Needless to say, we kept cooking, and those recipes never got finished. Then, for whatever reason, the amount we cooked started decreasing. I think it's because we made a mess each.and.every.time we cooked. Good dishes take a lot of love and pots, pans, and cleaning! We also started getting settled into our life here and wanted to just enjoy more time hanging out.

And then, our lives shifted. A lot. We welcomed our daughter in November, so the nine+ months leading up to her arrival were, well, all about her. There was so much emotion and preparation both mentally and in our house/life. I have so much going on in my mind these days, and I thought what better way to express those feelings than to write them down, and continue on with the blog. Even if no one reads this, it's at least a way to keep tabs on everything going on!

So here's to writing about feelings, family, life as a parent, and other extremely vulnerable topics.

See you soon,

Krista 

Time moves slowly but passes quickly

Said the wise Alice Walker. And my how that's true. Something made me look through my Facebook profile today and I found some old quotes and a link to an old blog I started writing back in college. It wasn't for a class assignment, but rather a way for me to write. I've always loved writing, ask my friends or family. My family's nickname for me is "Hallmark" and I covet that name dearly. 

So much time has passed since I last wrote on this blog. Life got busy I have no excuse, really. When we first started building the house, and then when we moved in, I was super motivated to write, chronicling our house transformations and our cooking adventures in our beloved kitchen. And then the blog posts started piling up in drafts and I didn't take the time to go through each recipe, each night of cooking and clean it up before posting. And then I Instagram became my outlet for everything cooking. 

 

After reading through my first blog I started to relive those feelings of excitement about writing. The topics were drastically different in those days, but true to me nonetheless. What really struck me was the amount of quotes that I used in that blog, and I quickly remembered how important quotes used to be to me "growing up." Remember AIM? I used to think long and hard about "away messages." I must have had about 200 away message options - quotes - to choose from. I always seemed to find one that summed up my feelings perfectly. 

"Ones destination is never a place, 

But a new way of seeing things" 

- Henry Miller

I used this quote in a post about our two week trip to Panama a few years ago. I love traveling, anywhere, near or far. We haven't don't much traveling in a few years - adulthood means needing to take vacation days, going to a million weddings, and taking care of cats.  But hopefully in the near future that's in the cards for us.

Until then, I'm jazzed about restarting this blog. I have no clue what I'll focus on, but we've done so much to our house since the last time I updated, so maybe I'll start there...

Healthy Banana Bread

I've been hooked on bananas recently. I feel like I go through phases, and since I've been working out a lot, having joined OrangeTheory, I am consistently eating bananas. I was a little too ambitious at the store the other day and bought more than my fair share of them, so I needed to do something else with them. Naturally, banana bread was what I chose to make, but I wanted to keep it healthy. I was drawn to this recipe from Cookie and Kate, and didn't adapt too much, but wanted to share it here too. 

Ingredients: 

• ⅓ cup grapeseed oil*
• ½ cup maple syrup*
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 2½ medium or 2 large bananas)
• ¼ cup milk of choice or water (I used 1% milk)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more to swirl on top
• 1¾ cups regular whole wheat flour*
• Totally optional: ½ cup mix-ins like chopped walnuts or pecans, chocolate chips, raisins, chopped dried fruit, fresh banana slices... (I obviously used chocolate chips)

* or melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil or high quality vegetable oil

* or honey 

* or white whole wheat flour 

Baking Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius) and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat the oil and syrup together together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then whisk in the mashed bananas and milk. (If your coconut oil solidifies on contact with cold ingredients, simply let the bowl rest in a warm place for a few minutes, like on top of your stove, or warm it for about 10 seconds in the microwave.)
3. Add the baking soda, vanilla, salt and cinnamon, and whisk to blend. Lastly, switch to a big spoon and stir in the flour, just until combined. Some lumps are ok! If you're adding any additional mix-ins, gently fold them in now.
4. Pour the batter into your greased loaf pan and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. If you'd like a pretty swirled effect, run the tip of a knife across the batter in a zig-zag pattern.
5. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before slicing.

These are a few of my favorite things....

What's better than cookies and bread?

Here, I made my own.

My mom has an annual Cookie Exchange, and I think this year we realized she had been doing it for 23 or 24 years. How cool is that?! We're thinking of what we'll have to do for the big 2-5. I've been on a baking kick recently (whether that's a good or bad thing, you can decide), so I wanted to try something different. I saw these yummy Turtle Cookies and decided to give them a shot. I honestly thought it was going to be a lot harder than it actually was, so I ended up making them twice this Christmas for two different parties. Definitely give them a try!

As for the recipe, I can't take credit for any of it because I didn't change anything, but here it is:

Cookie:

1 c. all-purpose flour

1/3 c. cocoa powder

1/4 tsp. salt

8 T. (1 stick) butter, softened

2/3 c. sugar

1 large egg, separated, plus 1 additional egg white

2 T. milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/4 c. pecans, finely chopped

Caramel Filling:

14 soft caramel candies

3 T. heavy cream

Prepare the Cookies:  
1.  Combine flour, cocoa, and salt; set aside.

2.  With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla; mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture until just combined.

3.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour.

4.  Whisk egg whites in a bowl until frothy.  Place chopped pecans in another bowl.  Roll chilled dough into 1-inch balls, dip in egg whites, and then roll in pecans.  Place balls about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Using a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon, make an indentation in the center of each dough ball.

5.  Bake at 350 degrees until set, about 12 minutes.

Prepare the Caramel Filling:  
6.  Microwave caramels and cream together in a small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes.

7.  Once cookies are removed from the oven, gently re-press the indentations.  Fill each indentation with about 1/2 teaspoon of the caramel mixture. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

DUCK, DUCK....

A continuation from one of our other dinners when we focused on duck. I'll come back with some recipes, but for now I just had to get these pictures out there. They're mouthwatering even months later and I can't wait to make this again.

Main dish: Pan-Fried Duck Breast w/ Parsnip Puree
I loved this dish. We're turning into really big fans of parsnips. It's basically a sweeter potato if you haven't tried it yet. I definitely recommend it. The parsnip puree and the duck are a beautiful pairing. Again, the recipe we followed called for either veal ju or demi-glace, neither of which we had or made. So we picked another sauce we found and it ended up being a great combination.

Welcome Home to us: Seafood & Duck

(I'll admit, I wrote this in mid-November...)
Welcome home to us! We've been traveling and have been busy for the last few weekends. In bigger news though, I have new sister-in-law! Mr. K's brother got married last weekend during what was a miracle and sign from God when it comes to Mother Nature. If you're on the east coast, you know how much rain we were predicted to get over the weekend. Between my friend Ryan's wedding in Maryland, and our family wedding in NC, I was a bit nervous for Saturday. We set up the chairs for the outdoor ceremony on Saturday morning in the pouring rain, hoping that the clouds would clear for the 3:30 ceremony. Low and behold, the rain stopped around 11, and held off literally the rest of the day and evening, even for clean up after the reception. We couldn't believe it. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, the bride was stunning, groom grinning from ear to ear, guests dancing all night, and an awesome bubble send-off. I can't wait to see the pictures, they are bound to be nothing short of gorgeous. Congratulations John & Mandy!

Now on to our weekend at HOME.... We spent our Saturday morning at Home Depot, finally getting blinds!! Yes, we put in our order for blinds. We've been living with paper shades for about 18 months since we moved into our house. So we can't wait for those to come in and finally get installed. One step closer to feeling completely settled. A weekend home wouldn't  be complete without a trip to Home Goods, of course. We surprisingly didn't get much, but I am definitely making a trip back there soon to get my holiday fix. The store was officially taken over by Christmas stuff. It was crazy.

Let's move on to the yummy part of this post...
A tasting of seafood and duck. That pretty much sums it up.

First up: Oysters Rockefeller 
Heat oven to 375 degrees, throw oysters on cookie sheet, 3-4 minutes until they open. Pull out, shuck 'em, dress them with whatever you're feeling. In our case, we took our own spin on oysters rockefeller, with stuffing! Put them back in the oven for about 10 minutes. Watch closely. You're looking for the breading to brown, turn into a crust.

Prepping for parsnip puree - base of the main dish...coming later

Second up: Clams w/a parsley, garlic sauce

• Handful of parsley, one pinch of garlic, half glass of wine of olive oil (aka 2 tbs). Blend until smooth. add what you need until you like it :) Consistency lighter than pesto. 
• Put wine (enough to coat the bottom of the pan) and another good pinch of garlic in a medium pan. Bring it to a boil, then put clams in (we had a bag of 12 from Harris Teeter), cover for about 10 minutes. Start paying attention though at about 8 or 9 minutes. You're looking for them to open by themselves. After 7 minutes, add half of green sauce. This is your first opportunity to see if the clams are opening. Mix everything up with the sauce. Cover that baby back up. 
• 3 minutes later (10 min total cooking time), take out the open clams and put them aside. 
• Wait another 30 seconds for the other guys to open. If they haven't opened, take them out. Don't wait for them to open. Throw 'em away. (this is our opinion, feel free to wait longer if you wish)
• Plate the clams, spoon remainder of sauce over the plate.
• Enjoy!

Third up: Stuffed Mushrooms
Stuffed mushrooms are, shall I say a staple in our house? This time, the stuffing was stuffing... typically it would be breadcrumbs. Tis the Thanksgiving season, right?

• Carve out the center mushrooms with a pairing knife (white button mushrooms... find the largest ones you can)
• Make stuffing according to package (we used the same stuffing mix for the clams and mushrooms), about a cup. 
• Mix half a cup of stuffing mixture with half handful of parsley, 2 tbs or green onions or chives (your choice), salt, pepper, 2 tbs of BACON. We found some Boarshead slab bacon on sale at Teeter, so we diced that and used it. 
• Put mushrooms on aluminum foil-lined baking sheet, spray mushrooms with olive oil, stuff mushrooms with filling. 
• Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. Then really start paying attention. You're looking for is it to start browning and bubbling ("Bubbling is always a good sign" -Mr. K). Could be up to 15 minutes. 

*Chef's note: pour glass of wine, then enjoy Mushrooms.

Fourth up: Seared Duck on Top of My Two Favorite Foods 
Mr. K knows how much I love mashed potatoes and ramen noodles, so this was a surefire way to my heart (and stomach). This dish can also be called: Hoisin Duck & Sweet Potato Mash on Crispy Noodles

• Cook ramen noodles per package directions. Only cook the noodles though. After noodles are done, drain, then toss the noodles in the seasoning. 
• Divide noodles up into mini-muffin pan. We tried different levels of filling. 
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. 
• If you don't have mini muffin pan (we didn't until two days ago), you can use a regular muffin pan and make 6 bites, or just use an oven-proof skillet and make one big crispy pan-sized noodle (that actually sounds awesome). 

• For the potatoes, peel them, boil 'em, drain. Mash with 2 tbs of coconut milk for sweetness (or butter if you don't have coconut milk), and salt to taste. 
• Duck: The recipe we started to follow for this called for marinating the duck for 4-8 hours. We didn't do that. We marinated it for about an hour, and it still turned out flavorful. Either way though, this is what you should do: 
• Marinate duck in hoisin sauce, garlic and ginger for "some time." 
• heat oven to 400 degrees (yes, same as the ramen noodles) 
• use a medium or large pan, sear duck breast fat side down for about 1-2 minutes. Then sear the other side for 1-2 minutes. Place duck breast fat side up in a baking dish and roast int he oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the internal temp reaches between 140 (rare) and 150 degrees (medium rare). Fun tip from the recipe we were following: Roasting the duck breast fat side up allows the fat to melt down into the meat while roasting, keeping the meat succulent and juicy. 
• Allow duck to rest on a cutting board for about 10 minutes before slicing, so as to keep the juices in. Slice into 12 bite-sized pieces for serving (or however many ramen noodle crispies you have). 
• Put it all together now! Crispy noodle bite on the bottom, then spoon a bit of potato mash on top, then top with a piece of sliced duck. Garnish with whatever you like - scallions, peanut or sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds. 

Note: To be honest, we were really excited for this dish, but it looks a lot better on camera than it actually tastes. Give it a shot, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. The noodles aren't all that flavorful, but the combination of purple potatoes and the duck are pretty great, so try that together.

Happy (VERY belated) birthday, America!

We love July 4th over here in our house! Something about the holiday just screams summer. We're so fortunate to have met a great group of friends when Mr. K first moved to DC after he graduated from Elon (I still had a year left). Mr. K lived with a group of the guys for three years in a row home close to the National Zoo, and they threw some of the best parties. July 4th was one of the biggest, if not the party of the year! As everyone grew up and out of the house, we thought we should carry on the tradition. We decided to cut out bobbing for airplane bottles and setting off fireworks in trash cans, and instead went for chalkboard signs and corn hole. A "1665" party can never be complete without a singing of 'Happy Birthday, America.' Oh, and red, white and blue jello shots, of course ;) (Hey Nicole!)

Happy Birthday, America!

So, this year, we gathered with some family and friends from all walks of life, and it was a blast! I was able to tap into some creativity/Pinterest-love, and turned our tablescape into something fun.Oh, and yes, we built a patio at the beginning of the summer! I'm a little late on showing that part of the house transformation ;)

My dad saw me taking pictures of the house and said he had to take one of me in front of it. Here you go!

Hey Dev!

Pre-Ada!

Thanks, Pinterest.

I think he was enjoying the So Icey Boys cake from the wedding!