New Food

I thought I would give you an update on cooking this week since I tried 2 new dinners (1 including a homemade pie crust) and cookies. 2 of the recipes I got were from the ladies at Happy to be at Home. If you haven't checked out there website it is a must. They are the whole reason I even got interested in cooking this summer. Before them, I was more than happy to let my hubby do the cooking or order out.

Not to sound full of my self but----YUMMY!!!! They were a hit with everyone. Now that is not to say that there weren't some bumps in the road.

We had Chicken Potato Pie on Tuesday (switched the day due to grocery shopping). I tried and tried to get the homemade crust to come out right, but it was....
a mess. No matter what I did the dough kept falling apart. If it didn't break when rolling it it would when I tried to lift it up. I did flour the counter top. It didn't help a bit. Honestly, I think the probably was the counter itself. It is not very smooth feeling, kind of bumpy. I am going to pick up a pastry mat before trying this again. I had to pick up each piece and lay it on the plate and then the pie.
I guess not that bad for my first try. I am hoping this will becoming easier. This is me at the beginning of making the crust....
And this is me after.......

Friday night Chris brought the middle kids to play practice for the children's church musical. They had cereal before they left. While they were gone I made Chicken and Bean Burritos. Talk about an easy recipe to put together. And it taste FANTASTIC!!! Chris, CJ and I ate it Friday night for dinner. It was so good that I served the leftovers to the whole family Saturday night with rice and topped with shredded cheese. This is going in the MUST-HAVE-AGAIN pile. I plan on making some and sticking it in the freezer for a simple lunch for me and CJ.

Saturday night the 3 middle children were in the church play. I volunteered to make cookies. I am planning on making our neighbors cookies next weekend so I have been going to Food Network daily and looking up the 12 Days of Cookies. Not only are their recipes but video's on how to prepare each. I am a visual learner so the videos were a HUGE help. I decided to make Candy Cane Cookies.

Since I was making a cookies for a larger crowd I made 2 batches of dough. The first one I did red and the second in green. On the video they mixed the food coloring in by hand. I did my whole recipe in my kitchen aide, including the food coloring. After I got done with the first dough I put it in a seperate bowl while working on the second.

I did things in steps. I made 10 balls of each color, then rolled out each color, then finally put them together. I wasn't sure if the food coloring would get on my hands and in turn get on the opposite colors dough. Also, I figured assemble style was faster.
Twisting the two colors together
This was the first set I did. I figured out a few things from this set. First, ditch the parchment paper of the counter!! It was easier to roll them out on the smooth kitchen table (maybe I should have tried the pie crust there). Also, when I twits them together, I could put a roll action to it.
Finished product..........
I impressed myself with them : ) Who would ever think I could be so talented.