Creamy Cheesy Potatoes

I found this recipe on Pinterest and decided that I needed to try it out (Click here for the original site).  I love potatoes au gratin, especially more than just a plain baked potato or mashed potatoes.  You just can't beat cheesy, creamy deliciousness.  And this recipe was so easy to make--I even made it for Thanksgiving!!

Now, this recipe differs from regular, joe-schmoe  potatoes au gratin; instead of slicing the pots, you cut them up french fry style.  I don't know why, but I think they taste better this way (my theory is the cheese and cream get to each fry).  And they are less messy to eat...no prying the slices apart or trying to politely stuff a hot slice in your mouth. 

All you need are 5-6 medium sized potatoes, 9-13 Pyrex dish, 2 cups whipping cream (not ideal for the calorie counter...), 2 cups sharp chedder cheese, sprinkle of parmesan, and S&P.  I also add a little ham, but you don't have to.  That's it!

Skin and cut potatoes french fry style and place in dish.  Pour cream and evenly sprinkle cheeses and add small amount of S&P (you can add more after it's done to taste).  Cover with foil and bake at 400 for 1 hour--you can lower the rack for the last bit to let the bottom get a little crispier. 

And done!  It's unbelievably delicious and I always save a bit for leftovers the next day (if I can wait that long)!

Brussel sprouts aren't that disgusting, turns out

Lucky you!  Two posts in one day!!  (More like two posts in two months...sorry I've been ever so lazy).  Anyway, here is a fantastic recipe for brussel sprouts (and they don't stink as much while cooking as I thought they would):

Not your mama's brussel sprouts!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups brussel sprouts
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp H2O
• 1/2 lemon (the real kind...don't get slack on me here with the squeezy lemon bottle!)

Cut brussel sprouts in half.  Pour 2 tbsp. olive oil in saucepan over medium heat and place halved b. sprouts (half-side down) in pan.  Pour remaining olive oil over sprouts.  Cover and cook for 3 minutes.  Remove cover, pour H2O over sprouts and cook 2 minutes (they should be carmalizing by now).  Stir and squeeze lemon half in pan over sprouts.  Stir again.  

They should be ready by now!  That's it!!  And they are actually very refreshing and delicious and you needn't be concerned over calories since all you're eating is mini-cabbage, olive oil, and lemon.  Yay! 

Thanksgiving

I had a splendid Thanksgiving with my family.  And I am so, so, so grateful for each and every one of them.  My brother, mom, grandmother, and I took a few pictures on our last day together :)

 

 

 Thanks for a wonderful holiday :) :) :)

Mangos

The Bear!!

So there have been several instances where I have seen evidence of "the bear" that notoriously roams about our yard...tearing open the trash and distributing it throughout the yard, bending the fence, footsteps in the night...you know, the usual.

But this time I saw him.

Let me lay it out for you.  My mom and I just got back from brunch and we drove back up to the cabin so that my mom could get Bailey, our chocolate lab.  So I'm sitting in the passenger seat of the car (windows down) with a plate full of meatballs on my lap.  Obviously I'm not paying attention and starting aimlessly out the passenger-side window when I hear a small noise on the other side of the car.

The bear is literally 10 feet away sniffing at the air.  I froze in place and quickly decided that if I were to try to run to the cabin, I would become dessert.  (Not really--I think this bear is friendly, but I don't want to press my luck).  Because of my adrenaline rush, I yell out "BEAR" (I couldn't think of what else to say), and he looks my way.  Then I grab my camera.

Design my kitchen around these

Have you ever seen that commercial...you know, the one where the couple brings in a regular looking sink faucet to this fancy-schmancy designer man and tells him to design their kitchen around it?  Well, I don't have a faucet, but yesterday I was out to tea with my godmother and mom and found these spectacular dish towels that are cute, yet extremely sophisticated and functional at the same time.  It's like they're saying, "Yes, you can wipe your hands on me and you can also learn about variations of tomatoes".  Fabulous.

I just couldn't resist showing what really caught my eye before I purchased my fabulous dishtowels...for reference, Handsome T is the Beefsteak.  :)

Beaches!

Handsome Taylor and I just got back from a trip to the beach.  And it was awesome.  The first couple of days we stayed with T's wonderful twin brother (Garrett) and his wife (Emily) at their townhouse in Wilmington, NC.  


Oh, and the new addition to their family, Walter; the amazingly cute and deer-like weimaraner that hasn't yet grown into his legs yet...and the poor thing had to wear a cone to keep from nipping at his stitches where his "man-parts" used to have been.  He destroyed the cone, though...while he was wearing it (we haven't figured how he managed to do that).  

We went to Carolina Beach (and this time we were stocked up on important necessities).  And yes, the beach was fantastic.  I didn't melt into my chair like I did a few years ago and not once did I get burned!  I give thanks to my Neutrogena sheer SPF 55 sunscreen.

The pickles were the highlight!

Taylor, Garrett, and Walter...Emily and I were scratching our heads as to why they were so tired, but at least they didn't mind the photo op :)  

Thanks Em and Garrett!!  We will come again soonly!!

We left Wilmington and drove up the coast to Emerald Isle, and let me just say that there will never be a shortage of rent-able beach houses.  It was a ghost town beach, but our hotel was right on the water and in prime location to the pool and hot tub.

Tee-hee!

Oh, and there was a crabshack down the road...and we took full advantage of 3 lbs of crablegs.   And in case you were wondering just what 3 lbs. of crab legs look like...

And for your reference, this is what 3 lbs of crablegs look like once two hungry people stuff themselves.

Our next stop up the coast was the quaint, little town of  New Bern.  And I successfully persuaded Handsome Taylor to stay in a B&B, the Hanna House, whichI highly recommend it to everyone.  We had by far the most amazing breakfast I think I've ever had--I'll indulge you for a minute: stuffed sourdough french toast with cream cheese, walnuts and blueberries, herbed eggs in croute with red pepper sauce, fresh squeezed orange juice and fresh fruit.  Drool.  

We did take a ghost tour of New Bern, but I'll save that for a later blog since there is a lot of pictures--and feel free to look for ghosts!  Here are the rest of the pictures of quaint, little New Bern: 

I knew I liked New Bern whose city "animal" is the bear :)

Even though I am a Coka-cola person, Pepsi-cola was founded in this store!!  We had to have a Pepsi to celebrate the rich history of the town.

Frazier is what they meant.

The most delicious martini I have ever had...key lime pie, complete with graham cracker! 

I took a picture of the ducks because the duck on the left is a monster duck!  It was HUGE!!

Happy Easter!

I spent Easter with my grandparents in Asheville.  The weather could not have been more perfect!  I went to church with my grandmother, and then went to grab a quick lunch at one of my favorite spots, GreenLife (similar to Whole Foods, Earth Fare, or Trader Joes).  It was delicious!  When we got home, I proceeded to plant my tomatoes and beans (yay!) and enjoyed the warm weather.  Bam, my grandmother, cooked us the most wonderful turkey I have ever yet to feast upon with homemade mashed potatoes, sesame green beans and orange cheesecake!  Stuffed beyond capacity, I was.  I didn't get pictures of the food--sorry, scarfed it down too fast!  Hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter!

My beautiful church 

Codilicious!!

My choco Easter bunny that Handsome Taylor's mom got for me...Tay left it in the sun on his ride over and, well, it deflated.  Chocolate is still yummy!

A bear scare

Last night I awoke to footsteps outside our bedroom window on the porch.  This is not something I like to wake up to.  Over the years, I've become a pretty light sleeper...and Taylor will not wake to a bomb going off.  When I heard the footsteps, I pictured in my mind a giant, grizzly-sized, man-hungry, angry bear.  I forgot temporarily that our trash has been collecting on our porch waiting for Taylor to take to the dumpster.  Bears love trash.

I tried to go back to sleep and I think I actually succeeded for a few minutes until the second set of footsteps came across my acute hearing.  I didn't wake Taylor up.  I didn't grab for his gun...just in case I had to scare the bear off--I have to really say that I would never, ever shoot a bear unless it were literally eating me or someone I love.  I didn't grab for my phone.  I didn't grab for a knife, or a pot, or something to block me with.  No, in my delirium, I grabbed for my camera.  My mom would be so proud.

I snuck out as best I could to the living room area--stealth mode.  I thought that they could see me in the dark much better than I could them.  I dove for the outside light switch.  NO BEAR!  WTF?!  I don't know if I was breathing a sigh of relief or cussing under my breath more, but what did catch my eye was the complete lack of trash in our trash can.  Gone.

I left the outside lights on (you know, just in case...and because I'm scared of the dark), and quietly crawled back into bed.  I don't know how long it took me for my heart rate to go down, but it was sometime after that when I fell back asleep...only to have really scary nightmares about human/bear hybrids sneaking into my house.  Yes, the rest of the night was awful.

When the morning finally came, I showed Handsome Taylor the damage.  And by the way, he was so pissed that I didn't wake him up.  We carefully looked around the yard and found the trash bags scattered throughout.  One however, was missing.  There is a certain spot that the bears like to come into our yard--that is the first picture.  And my guess is that the second picture is where they left.  The rest is garbage.  Ha!

The proposed entrance

The proposed escape

A few littered pieces of trash leading off our deck..

The feast!

The trash is gone, but my camera and Taylor are at the ready when I need to see if there is another bear outside...which I'm sure there will be.  Crossing my fingers for a small, nice, non man-hungry bear this time :)

It lives!!!

I have life in my garden!!  I was so worried that my anti-green thumb would destroy all evidence of life, but my plants persevered!  I have to boast...I am so proud of myself that my plants are growing...even if they aren't exactly in the spot that I thought I planted them in.  My carrots are turning out to be spinach.  That's okay.  I will still love them.

I'm pretty sure that is a spinach...in my carrot section.  

My beautiful garden that is finally done!!  The far right side is the only side as of now that has plants.  The left side will be planted in late April to mid-May!  More pictures to come!!

A garden is hard work...

So I've done a bit of work since I last showed you pictures of my garden!  When my grandmother and every other gardening person told me that a garden is hard work, I said (to myself) "garden schmarden".

Right.  As in they were right.

Luckily for me, my garden plot is only about 12 ft.x 15 ft. or so, so I don't have this mondo area of land to till, fertilize, and well, garden.  That being said, a garden, no matter what size, is HARD work!

There is also a degree of planning involved--you can't just plant whatever you want and expect it to grow.  I was supposed to do a soil test to see what nutrients were lacking in my soil (i.e. Phosphorus, Potassium, and Nitrogen)...that takes about two weeks since you have to send it off to the Agriculture Center in Raleigh.  I didn't have two weeks, so I just bought Blood Meal, a Nitrogen-rich compound fertilizer because, basically, all plants could use a teensy bit more N.  This Blood Meal is also said to repel deer because apparently is smells like a massacre to them.

So after fertilizing I had to section my garden off to make raised beds which allows for better drainage, not to mention it looks so much better than planting it on the flat ground.  I divided my garden up into two large sections with several beds in each section.
Section # 1:
Bed #:

1. Onions (red), Beets (sugar)
2. Carrots, Spinach, Collard Greens
3. Herbs: Lavender, Echinacea, Rosemary, Lemon Thyme, Purple Sage

Section # 2:

Bed #:

1. Tomatoes (various types)
2. Green beans
3. Okra
4. Something else...but I forgot

Section # 1 can be planted now (except for the herbs) which will be planted in mid-April after the last frost date.  Section # 2 will be planted in late April to mid-May.  I haven't quite designed my layout for Section # 2, but I do have the design in mind...so I just have to get out there and finish it!

Sow True Seeds: Local seeds from Asheville!  :)

My AWESOME gloves that I purchased (they have an ultra sticky side so no more blisters or dirty fingernails)!!

Section # 1: Far left bed: herbs, far right bed: onions, etc., bottom bed: carrots, etc.

Whilst working on Section # 2, a welcome distraction headed my way!

See how cute he is!!