Cooking at our casa

I wanted to share some of the food that's being made over here in Casa Chappell.

When we first settled in and i started cooking, I was really interested in trying a bunch of new recipes--both from the new cook books I'd received and from a few of my favorite blogs.  Having my own kitchen, being the grocery shopper again was a really fun experience, so I continued to experiment with different foods almost every evening.

Now over 7 months into our marriage, I've realized I've been 'experimenting' for quite some time.  Other than our busy nights (when we have 30-45 minutes to make dinner and eat it) and Eric's favorite...stir fry, I haven't made a single meal twice! (and even with stir fry and 'quick meals' I do some sort of variation)

So i decided to continue to challenge...for one whole year I'm not going to make the same meal twice.  After the first year, I'm going to take our favorites from year 1, but still try to make new meals once or twice a week.  I love the flexibility of trying new things, and adding things to our 'regulars' that we never would have guessed we liked!

For whoever's interested, here's a little taste of what's been on our menu the last few months, with recipes linked.
(sorry I got lazy and didn't edit these pictures)

Pasta Primavera





Hearty Beef Stew
(it almost got cold enough for this!)



Creamy Mushroom Risotto




Chicken Broccoli stir fry ( a variation from what I normally make)



The Mushroom Soup
photo by The Pioneer Woman

Dinner Rolls (from scratch!)

Pasta Carbonara
Photo and Recipe from The Pioneer Woman & Pastor Ryan, respectively:

Other meals I've made but haven't photographed:

Mandarin Beef Stir Fry
Ginger Peanut Pork
Salmon with Spinach Sauce
Chicken Parmigiana
Fried Zucchini
Chicken Scallopine
Cranberry Chicken Salad
Garlic Chicken stir fry
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Rosemary Roasted Pork Tenderloin
Party Pinwheels
Blackberry Cobbler

I promise to do a better job at taking pictures of our food!  And then making the pictures look nice.

How to make an apple pie:

Peel 4 apples

and chop

until you get this:

slice each wedge into 3-4 pieces:

pour 1 tbsp of lemon juice over and set aside:

In a separate bowl mix 1 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 c sugar, 2 tbls flour, and a dash of salt

toss with apples

press pie crust into pie pan and flute the edges by pinching a little bit of dough on the outside and pressing your finger in the pinch from the inside

(*secret confession: this is actually my cherry pie crust)

Then blend 1/3 c butter, 1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar, and 2/3 c flour until crumbly.

Pour apple mixture into crust

Followed by crumble topping

Bake at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes

Enjoy!

For best results, serve warm with a huge scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving from bright and sunny California!

Farmer's market

Last weekend Eric's mom and I visited the local farmer's market. 
We got adventurous and tried a cactus quesadilla.  It wasn't bad...the cactus strips tasted like slimy green beans.  Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of it, but it looked something like this:

 photo source

I spent less than $10 and got peaches, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, & zucchini....enough veggies to last us a couple weeks!

Thankfully, this was a couple days before the tragic camera incident, so I have some photos to share:

Prickly pears (Jungle Book anyone?)



Bitter Melon. The lady at the booth said people cut it into strips and put it on salads.



I miss the family's garden mucho.


Crazy and yummy flavors of juices!  (plus horchata)


Peaches galore


and some lovely orchids



I wish I had a photo to share as well of the pretty autumn bouquet Eric's mom bought me...but our camera broke before I got one of it arranged in a vase.  It included sunflowers and dahlias in yellows and reds.

It finally cooled down this week (in the mid 60's) which was a welcome surprise. I'm craving pumpkin everything and hope to pick some up in the next week or two :-)

First thing on the menu: homemade pumpkin spice lattes.  Take that, Starbucks!

Several weeks ago we hosted our church's young peoples at the house.  About 30 kids came over and 5 leaders (plus us) squeezed into rows of chairs around the bonfire.

Eric remembered the famous Gesch nacho dip (I was previously unfamiliar with it), so we took the opportunity to make it for this night.  4 ingredients + a few minutes in the microwave = some very happy kids (Eric included)

So here's the recipe:
half a block of velveeta cheese cut into cubes
1 package of cream cheese cut into cubes

place them in a 9 x 9 pan or casserole dish





pour 1 can of hormal chili with no beans over the cheese cubes
pour 3/4 bottle of picante over cheese and chili
(forgot to take a picture of this step)

Microwave for 3 minutes, stir, and microwave 2 more minutes, until all cheese is melted.



dip and enjoy :-)

Here's a blurry picture of some of the kids over sitting around our fire pit.



and standing over on the back patio by the food.


the end result of the dip?



yum, yum.

new Knife--FAIL

Last night I excitedly opened the knife set we purchased off our registry with wedding money.

We've been cutting everything from veggies to raw meat with butter knives for the last 3 weeks so I was pretty excited to have some sharp metal in my kitchen!

Unfortunately, I was a little over-zealous...and chopped off a nice chunk of my thumb whilst chopping the cabbage!

I made Eric run to CVS for neosporin and band aids, and he was happy to oblige to avoid the wound! (he and blood don't do well together)
I cleaned it, bandaged up and managed to successfully finish (a very sanitary) dinner!

Baked tilapia, roasted potatoes, and cabbage!




I won't share with you the grossness that is my open wound, but here's what it look like today at work:


I still cannot prove to Eric that I am a capable grown-up :-)