What to do with leftover pepperoni

It all started because I had pepperoni left over from making pizza the week before last. I could have made more pizza, but I thought about making pizza muffins. My first thought was to use refrigerated biscuit dough, but then I started googling and found a recipe for these muffins. Actually, I found a couple that were very similar, which was good because the recipe I printed off didn't say how much baking powder or spices, and I didn't think I should just guess at the baking powder.

Then, since the oven was on, I figured I'd mix up the Trader Joe's Pumpkin bread mix. I'm looking forward to my breakfast tomorrow! Since I've got one more work trip coming up before I leave my job, I don't think I'll be able to eat the whole loaf. So, I put half of it into freezer bags and put them away for when I get back into town.

Then, I baked cookies. I actually had to go back to the grocery store for sugar. I should have gotten more butter and brown sugar as I only had 1 3/4 sticks of butter and the recipe calls for 2 and my brown sugar was dried out. The cookies taste okay, but don't look quite as pretty as normal. I hope my coworkers like the, since I plan to take the cookies into the office to celebrate my last full day there.

I am a little shocked at myself. I did all this and cleaned up. It's been a while since I was around during the week and not at work and not exhausted to the point that I jut ate dinner, watched TV and went to bed. I'm hoping this resurgence of evening energy keeps up, as I'm going to need all the energy that I can muster to get my apartment all packed up.

Recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Muffins
Slightly modified from http://www.fatsecret.com/recipes/pepperoni-pizza-muffins/Default.aspx

Ingredients

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/5 tsp baking powder
(some) Italian seasonings
(some) red pepper flakes
1 oz pepperoni (14 slices)
1/2 cup pizza sauce
1 large egg
2 cups (ish) shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup reduced fat milk
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 dash salt
Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375° F. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, salt and red pepper flakes; whisk in the milk and egg.
Stir in the mozzarella, parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
Stir the batter and divide among the muffin cups.
Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through.
Serve the muffins with the pizza sauce for dipping.

Location:Verona,WI United States

Banana Jelly

I made this stove top banana jelly over the summer, and it was Yummy. It was easy to make, too, and uses up your very ripe bananas. The ingredients all goes in a pot on the stove, and you just keep an eye on color and clarity. I remember that it had lime juice and granulated and brown sugars. I just wish that I could remember the rest of the recipe. Or, which of the myriad of magazines it might have been in. I checked out Health, Cooking Light, and BHG online without any luck. Did anyone else remember seeing this recipe?

Grownup ice cream float

Megs sent me this link the other day, Cherry Lambic Ice Cream Float, and recommended I try it with the Belgian Red from New Glarus Brewery. The brewery is just down the road from where I live, and when Megs came to visit me last fall, we visited the brewery and drank Belgian Red with dinner at a couple of places. The beer is made with Door County cherries, which have changed my opinion of cherries. I've always been more partial to their Raspberry Tart, which is a little sweeter, but the post definitely recommended the cherry beer.

At Megs behest, I stopped at my cute little grocery store on the way home and bought ice cream and Belgian Red. I went with the Schoep's homemade vanilla. Doesn't compare to Bluebell, but I figured it would be a better complement to the beer than vanilla bean.

Probably wouldn't have mattered. I tried it, but I don't think I'll be combining those two again. Instead of working together to make a new flavor, the sweet ice cream just made the Belgian Red seem more tart. I ended up drinking the beer and then eating the ice cream. Don't take my word for it, though, because even the website above for the beer recommends putting it with ice cream to create a float.

I'm not giving up, though, on the thought of a beer float. I'm a big fan of root beer floats, so I'm sure there is a beer float out there that I will fall in love with. I still have ice cream in the freezer, so I just need to try a few more beers. Wisconsin is a good place to try this. And, I'm also willing to try the Belgian Red again with Bluebell, so I'll take a bottle with me the next time I travel down to Texas.

(Sorry about the picture quality. I usually try to take my pictures in the morning to take advantage of all the natural light that comes in, but I didn't think that a beer float would taste so good for breakfast. Even worse, we had a lot of rain and tornado-producing storms which made it darker than normal)

Malai Nepali khanna man parcha

That means "I like Nepali food". This is a general statement, and generally, I've liked all of the Nepali food that I've tried. I did have some Curry Lamb yesterday that almost negated this general statement, but the rest of the good food at the first annual Madison, WI Bhutanese Picnic more than made up for this one dish.

More than a year ago, my lifegroup at Church decided to host a family of Bhutanese refugees that have lived for almost two decades in a camp in Nepal. More families have come to join our community with the help of other host groups and families. Here is a recent news story of the resettlement activities that involve seven countries around the world.

In addition to celebrating the addition to our community, we also had the chance to celebrate Abraham and Kamala Khan, Christian missionaries from Nepal and the Fishers of Men ministry. This meant more Nepali food and hearing Abraham's message of spreading the word through Bible distribution, street ministries, Christmas and Easter services, and riding his motorcycle from one village to another.

Thank you to everyone who came to hear the message, eat the food, and give to the Fishers of Men ministry and the Bhutanese resettlement.

Now, I'm going to eat my leftover Aloo Gobi. This was probably my favorite dish of the day. When that's done, I think I'm going to have to make my own. I think I'll try this recipe, Easy Indian Aloo Gobi. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Pheri bhetaunla.

Brats and iPhone Photo of the Week

Happy Memorial Day! I hope that everyone had a chance to relax and enjoy the freedom that so many have fought to protect.

I made my contribution to the World's Largest Brat Fest today. Other than that, the weekend was full of sun and relaxation.

The iPhone photo of the week is actually the picture of the capitol and State Street. I went the farmers' market Saturday morning. Let's see, I got some flowers, bread, scones, rhubarb and lettuce.

With the rhubarb, I made made my first rhubarb and strawberry pie. I used the recipe from the back of the tapioca box. This is one case where you should measure. I didn't; well, I did, but then I poured what was left in the box into the bowl as well. I ended up with a yummy rhubarb-strawberry-gel pie.

iPhone photo of the week

Yummy. French toast with berries and whipped cream was on the menu for breakfast, thanks to Jenny Craig. I've been going to Jenny Craig for about a year and half now. Not only has it helped me lose weight, but it makes grocery shopping simple and food prep very easy. All I had to do was microwave the french toast, cut up some strawberries, and add a dollop of lite Cool Whip to have this yummy looking breakfast.


Now, the iPhone alone  didn't make the food look this yummy. I used the Camera Bag app for iPhone to apply a Helga effect to the picture. This is one of my favorite iPhone photo apps to play with because you can change the look of the picture by scrolling through the possible views. It recreates the look of different cameras and film. 


When I searched for a link to include above for more information about the app, I found that it is also available for desktops. I am going to have to think about getting this for quick photo editing.

Tasty Treats

I decided this week to put my favorite wedding gift to good use - my beautiful red KitchenAid pro.  And boy, have I put it to work; I've been a baking madman!  Baking is a craft, right?

I stumbed across a fantastic recipe for Pizza Rolls.


These were an instant hit in our house, I made a double batch and froze them in mealsize portions for Huz to take for lunch.  He loved them so much, I made another batch a few days later, only instead of mozzarella and pepperoni filling, we filled them with sausage and pepperjack. 

Then, I found a recipe for Lemon Breakast Rolls with lemony filling and lemony cream cheese icing.




I made these the night before so I could just wake up to pull them out of the fridge to rise, then pop them in the oven without all the prep and mess.  They didn't turn out quite as good as I was hoping they would, but they were still pretty tasty and the fam loved them.