FALAFEL...you know you want it.

Seriously one of my best finds yet. Falafel can be found at one of my favorite little spots here in Fayetteville, Petra. So, I found this recipe and am in LOVE. A seriously easy easy easy way to make this falafel in a crock pot. That's right....crock pot.  I got the recipe from this girl who does all her meals on the crock pot.  Here's her blog with the falafel recipe.  Here is the printable recipe.  

The falafel ingredients

MY AWESOME NEW CAN OPENER. I'm so easily amused.  

Smash the garbanzo beans like mashed potatoes. 

All of the spices, egg, onion, lemon---blended together.  

Ingredients:

- 1 15oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas)

- 1/2 onion, chopped

-1 T dried parsley

- 2 cloves minced garlic

- 1 egg

- 1 t kosher salt

- 1/4 t black pepper

- 2 t ground cumin

- 1 t ground coriander

- 1/4 t cayenne pepper

- juice from 1 lemon

- 1/2 to 3/4 cup bread crumbs 

- 2 T olive oil (for the bottom of your crock)

Directions: Set your crock pot on high. Pour about 2 Tablespoons of oil in the crockpot.  Drain garbanzo beans into a bowl.  I used my potato masher ---mashed the beans  until all the beans are completely mashed.  Set those aside. Then put all those spices, onions, egg and onion into the blender.  Blend that all up. Pout that mixture onto the beans.  Add in the bread crumbs.   Make little patties and place them into crockpot.  Let the patties turn to perfect falafel babies in your crock pot on high for about 3.5- 4 hours. 

And in other news........

Natalie's niece, Elynn. How stinking cute. I had to share this.   

Zeus and our new dog, Ella.  She's a hoot. 

Cream Corn Potato Soup...low cal!

One word: easy and delicious. Okay, that was two.  This soup was easy for a couple reasons.  I actually took my moms advice and had all the ingredients ready before hand so I just had to throw 'em all in the pan. Why didn't I do this before? I chopped the onion and potato and measured out the rest of the ingredients, too. I have a ton of this soup left over, but I figure it will get better with time seeing as it has a ton of spices that will soak into the potatoes and such.  Here is the printable version.  It is also called corn chowder.  


1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
2 large onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced- I added yellow and orange for color.  I would add more spice, possibly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
1 bay leaf
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 potato, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 12-ounce can nonfat evaporated milk
Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
Pinch cayenne pepper
You can add some 


 Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan over low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add celery, bell pepper, garlic and cumin; cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add broth, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add corn and potatoes, return to a simmer and cook until all the vegetables are tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Place cornstarch in a small bowl, slowly add evaporated milk, stirring until smooth. Stir into the soup and return to a simmer. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne.

Let's be honest. I didn't follow any of the directions for boiling, covering, etc. I like spice, so I added cayenne and pepper to the end soup.  It will be really good, though, for cold nights to come! If you are a fan of the corn cream soup at Chili's (I FREAKING LOVE THAT SOUP), it  has more calories but I do hope to make it soon and post! 

A knock off of Emeril Lagasse Pasta

Mom's best friend, Melissa Beatty, is the best cook. And the best acupuncturist.  If you've never tried acupuncture and you have headaches, terrible migraines or just endless pain, you should really look into it.  It does NOT hurt. In other news....Melissa made this great pasta one night for a dinner party. IT IS NOM NOM. We had a little dinner get together on Saturday with the Katie's. Or as Mom likes to call them...Katie 1 and Katie 2.  This is labeled an "easy" recipe...which it isn't difficult, it's just not easy. Here it goes...

This is the printable version :) Pasta Recipe!

The recipe is pretty much like Emeril Lagasse's Crawfish and Cream over pasta dish. But with some changes- like chicken instead of crawfish. Don't get me wrong, shrimp or crawfish would be excellent with this.  The biggest ingredient in this whole thing is Emeril's essence which you can probably buy pre-made, but I made it with the below spices.  The seasoning mix is also referred to as bayou blast.  

Emeril's essence recipe:

• 2.5 T paprika
•  2 T salt
• 2 T garlic powder
• 1 T black pepper
• 1 T onion powder
•  1 T cayenne pepper
• 1 T dried oregano 
• 1 T dried thyme 

For the dish, you will need: 

• 1 lb chicken
• 1 lb fettuccine
• 2 T olive oil
• 6 T butter
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion- I highly recommend getting the already chopped onions- saves time and tears. :) 
• 2 T minced garline
• 2 t emeril essence- recipe above
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t cayenne 
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream 
• 1 T lemon juice

First, put about two T butter 2 T oil in a pan and put stove on medium.   Put about 1/4 cup or more (just a heaping amount) into a bowl and layer the chicken with the emeril's essence seasoning.  Then put the chicken breasts into the pan, cook until done.  It's a personal decision for how you want the chicken to look- I like mine a medium brown. Put the chicken aside.  Cook pasta in large pot of boiling water until al dente for about 8 minutes. Drain and reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Return pasta to the pot and toss the olive oil and the cooking liquid into the pot.  Cover to keep warm and set aside.  In a large pan- I used my cast iron skillet and it worked perfectly.  Melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add onions, and cook for about 6 minutes.  Add the 2 t of emeril essence, garlic, salt and cayenne, cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until the wine is evaporated.  Add the cream and lemon juice and cook for about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low and let sit for another 5 mintes, stirring occasionally.  Add the sauce to the pasta. Stir so sauce is covering noodles.  Now, add chicken.  I just cut my cooked chicken into thin strips.  Toss it and you're good to go! 

The spices to make Emeri's Essence 

The goods. 

Once you make the seasoning, you lightly coat the chicken with the seasoning then put it in a skillet.  

Seeing as how you only need 1/4 cup of white wine, this bota box of chardonnay works well. 

NOM! WINNER! 

Schuett gave it a thumbs up! Find her funny blog here!

EASY sweet and salty cookies.

If you're wanting to get a girl a good present for any occasion...get her a subscription to REAL SIMPLE.  Fact, it is the best thing ever.  I made one of the recipes from the December issue this week. Flourless Peanut butter cookies.  But! I added in toffee and pretzels.  YUM YUM!  This is the peanut butter cookies for dummies recipe. RS adds in instructions for parchment, to rotate the baking sheets....blah blah blah. That takes time, watching the cookies in the oven, which I am not up for this week. Or ever.  

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 cup brown sugar (I didn't add this in the first time I made the cookies)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons baking soda

a PINCH of salt.  

a couple of heath bars

pretzels, any kind will do. I used stick thin ones.

Heat oven to 350, butter those pans (pam will do).  Put all the heath bars and about a cup of pretzels in a bowl. Mash with a potato masher- wait- don't do that. That is what I used. But, hey, it worked! So yes, use a potato masher and mash the heath bar and pretzels together.  In small pieces - these will be placed n the cookie mix. Set aside. 

In another bowl, mix together the peanut butter, sugars, eggs, baking soda, and salt until smooth.  I used a mixer, much easier.  

You will then add the pretzel and heath bars in the peanut butter mix.  Mix with a spoon, or mixer, either way is fine just so heath bars and pretzels are evenly in the mix.  Roll the dough into small balls. Put onto the pans! Put in oven! I kept the cookies in for about 15 min, but I let the cookies cool out of the oven after about 10 min. Everyone loves a soft cookie. 

The sweet and salty ingredients

Heath Toffee bars crushed.

PB MIx with the toffee and pretzels added. Looks gross, I know.

Bun in the oven. More like cookies in the oven. 

yum yums 

When the cookies start to break like this is when I pull them out to cool. 

A messy kitchen is a good kitchen.  

Finished product. 

Don't make these for diabetics...too much salt and sugar. 

Enjoy! 

Great recipe turned bad, then good, then great.

Chex mix is the perfect snack for Christmas time. I've never actually made this dish, but I hear about people making it, then giving it as gifts. I found this recipe for Chex Mix in the crockpot.  (I love this woman's blog- she did a meal a day in the crock pot for a year.)  Yet, I forgot the whole timer aspect of the recipe.  Thus, I got burnt chex mix. Which, by the way, blows.  And makes your apartment smell heinous.  

Scary stuff in the making. 

But, I kept trucking.  I knew I wanted to make some Chex Mix for my cousin, Brandon, for Christmas. He is overseas serving in the military.  Here's when he was about to go on leave last Spring. He looks sooo much like a Barker.

Ain't we cute? Maddie's eyes are sooo blue here!

Back to the terrible turnout of the Chex mix. Welp, I made it again. The regular way- with the stove and some yum yum ingredients.  

Yummmyyy!

Definitely made the apartment smell delicious. 

Wishing I had two ovens today.  

The three boxes I sent Brandon!
Fudge, Toffee and pretzel Cookies and chex mix! 

I put in about...

3 cups of rice chex cereal, 1/2 cup of salted peanuts, 1/2 not salted nuts, 1 cup of classic pretzels, 1 cup of sticks pretzels, 6 T butter, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 t seasoned salt - I used Lawrys, 1.5 t onion powder.  

Heat oven to 250. In large bow, mix dry ingredients (nuts, cereal, peanuts). In ungreased pan, melt butter in oven.  Stir in seasonings.  Put dry mix into pan and stir all ingredients together until the pretzels, peanuts and cereal is coated.  Bake for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The chex mix recipe calls for corn and wheat chex...I chose only rice. Turned out great! 

 I will be posting the recipe for the toffe & pretzel peanut butter cookies soon.  I used the real simple recipe...

Santa House Fudge

This is a super easy and great recipe for fudge for the Christmas season! If you expect a gift from me on sweet baby Jesus' birthday...expect this along with a recipe card. You think I'm joking. Santa House was a Christmas market in Tulsa that I grew up going to as a little naked child. As we have discussed before, Mom did put clothes on me, I just didn't like them. I felt claustrophobic. Or something along those lines. Backkkkk to the original topic- Santa House was wonderful...any trinket, any ornament or food dealing with Christmas was there. It was this old house that Junior Philharmonic put up every year. Mom was part of Junior Phil and still has great friends from the group. One of which, Brooxie, gave us this picture of Madalyn, Mom and me from Santa House back in the day. Mom still has those Santa star earrings...they are great. And by great, I mean I wear them with my tacky Christmas sweater.

It's not the best picture,
because I was taking a picture of the picture....
I'll scan later.

Katie and I made this fudge along with an AWESOME red velvet brownie recipe that you can find HERE. Obviously this was post wedding....or wait. We both have weddings coming up in the spring so...I guess we start up the wedding diet once again. I feel like this will be a constant in my life for the next five years...oh, to be in your early twenties and living in the South. Santa House Fudge recipe can be found at the bottom. Much easier to print that way.

We did so much Christmas this day...which she LOVES.

Red Velvet Mix. Scrumptious.

Cream cheese icing....only thing I would change about the recipe.
Put the cream cheese in layers...
like put half the red velvet mix,
then add cream cheese,
then layer more red velvet,
then put on more cream cheese.

If you didn't notice from above...I kind of love cream cheese.
This swirling effect was super easy--and gosh darnit, I am proud of the final product.
Super easy with the tip of a knife.

Meag's little friend, Dax who she was sitting that day, helped up out in the kitchen.
Dax is precious. Quite the gentleman, too. His manners are phenomenal.

This is the sugar, butter and evaporated milk. Definitely use a big pot- a sauce pan won't do.

Something we figured out...
Not necessary to zap and melt chocolate before you add in the sugar mix.
The boiling mixture will probably melt the chocolate...

Put on a pan and freeze! It makes a TON!

I'm really proud of this wreath that I made....SO EASY. I went into Hobby Lobby with the intention of making a burlap wreath. Welp, that didn't happen. So, I just got a branch wreath, added gold wrapping, then some pinecones, and those red berries from the fake flower department. All you need is a glue gun.
Who knew that the real simple magazine would be part of my decoration? These gold stars are old old old hand me downs from my dad and stepmoms Christmas decorations.

So...we had a ton of leftover pinecones from the wedding. Thus, pinecone vases galore!

Here is the recipe for the fudge!

Mix together:

1 16 oz chocolate bar- broken into small pieces

1 pint marshmallow cream

3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (it's your preference)

We melted the chocolate all together in the microwave. It really doesn't matter if you do that, but it is much easier to mix if all the chocolate is melted before you mix. The mix you put on the stove will probably melt all the chocolate...either way is good.

In a big pot over medium heat, bring the following ingredients to a boil for 6 minutes.

4.5 cups of sugar (wowza)

1/3 stick of butter

1 12 oz can of evaporated milk.

Mix in with the chocolate..then put on pan. Freeze and enjoy!

Cooking, my new passion

Living alone has so many perks. It also has its downs. One of which occurs in the kitchen.  It is so hard to cook for one person! All the single ladies living alone out there hear me. For instance, this weekend at the farmers market I only wanted one cucumber & one tomato because if I get a whole basket full, the veggies go bad- and go bad quick.  The sweet farmers took pity on the single girl living alone and gave them to me for free, but I couldn't do that so I gave them the change I did have.   


Although I definitely have the junk in the trunk to prove I never go hungry, it is hard to consume a gallon of milk, a whole bag of potatoes, an entire salad mix...the list goes on and on.  I'm not complaining, I love love love   living on my own.  I especially love cooking in my sweet little kitchen.  I made some nutella cookies the other day from this blog.  So stinkin' yummy.  I took them to UATV and was critical of my dessert, but soon realized the cookies were delicious.  However, I ate the leftovers on top of ice cream (sinful) and stepped on the scale.  Cringed. I would choose chocolate over a run any day. 

*For those that don't know what nutella is...run to the peanut butter aisle and shove your head in a jar

I used a knife to mix in the nutella, but you can use any sharp object: toothpick, husk teeth.  

First two rows are batter mixed with nutella.

Licked it clean!

Vanilla: I've started adding it to pancakes.
 It is a totally essential ingredient to have in your spice cabinet.  

In other news....Madalyn's wedding is a month away.  Pictures from her bachelorette party are soon to come in the next post! 

Homemade dinner-two nights in a row!

Veggie and mushroom pasta with chicken! Just added chicken and oregano seasoning. Oh, and a white balsamic vinegar with olive oil. That's my new basic ingredient- which is sort of a bad thing.




Well it was so beautiful to look at, now...



Well that was a yummy dinner.

Lobstah love

This was an amazing lunch. A lobster roll from the lobster food truck. Definitely worth the wait in the blistery heat and the line that circled around the block.

My obsession

I am totally and completely in love with Greek salads. I had another one this weekend and just decided that "hey, I can probably make that!" So-I did!

Here's the final product!



I'm having it for lunch tomorrow, too!! Yummy!

A television show about cupcakes?

Do you watch D.C. Cupcakes on TLC? I went to the infamous Georgetown cupcakes on Thursday!

There was so much to choose from...







But it came down to Red Velvet and Milk Chocolate birthday cake
Cupcake. Because, it's still the Gemini time frame, right? Therefore, I still celebrate!