Ultimate Samosa Pie

My husbands Man sized portion of Samosas. My cooked lentils with garlic, onions and raisins.

The Spicy filling! I loved adding cinnamon to this.

I was looking for a good recipe to try for dinner using what I had on hand. I found this recipe by Tyler Florence for Ultimate Samosas (little handheld pies). These were wonderful for dinner. I made the pie crust into 1 large pie instead of the 8 minis. We enjoyed with lentils instead of the chickpeas and spinach. Here is the recipe if you would like to try this Curry flavored meal! I don't think I have tried anything from Tyler's recipes that has tasted anything but great. You can check out what my other Tyler Florence Fridays friends made this week too.

Outrageous Brownies

These are my favorite rich and gooey brownie. Since it calls for 1 pound of butter and over 2 pounds of chocolate I would call these my decadence brownies. I have made this recipe a handful of times and each time it turns out different. I halved the batter and made mini brownie bites one day and then used the rest of the batter for a dessert for my Bible Study Brunch. I made breakfast brownies and added a cup of chopped chocolate covered coffee beans to my batter. Goodness Gracious! These were very good. Here is the recipe and you can check out what my other Barefoot Bloggers did as well. Thanks Eva for indulging us with this great brownie!

Mackinac Island

Tulips in front of the Grand Hotel

What a view!

biking around the Island

We drove to Mackinac Island this weekend for Memorial Day. This was our first time in Michigan. The drive was a little over 450 miles. We parked in Mackinaw City and took the ferry to the island. We decided to take our bikes along and I am so glad we did. We biked all over the Island. It is a car free Island with only bikes and horses for transportation. We enjoyed allot of exploring, biking, swimming, running and great food. The fudge was so good and we ate more then our share while there. We had really good weather with the high being around 70. What a beautiful place to visit.

Shrimp Scampi Tyler Style

My husband has been asking for Shrimp Scampi for the last week. I found a recipe for Shrimp Scampi from Tyler Florence. It looked easy and I had all the ingredients on hand. This took minutes to make and tasted great for a quick dinner. I used whole wheat pasta noodles from Trader Joe's. I also grated a little Parmesan on top and served with a green salad.

Shrimp Scampi with Linguine
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence
Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
10 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
1 pound linguine
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 large shallot, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
Pinch red pepper flakes, optional
20 large shrimp, about 1 pound, peeled and deveined, tail on
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves
Directions
For the pasta, put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. When it has come to the boil, add a couple of tablespoons of salt and the linguine. Stir to make sure the pasta separates; cover. When the water returns to a boil, cook for about 6 to 8 minutes or until the pasta is not quite done. Drain the pasta reserving 1 cup of water.
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter in 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if using) until the shallots are translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper; add them to the pan and cook until they have turned pink, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the pan; set aside and keep warm. Add wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons oil. When the butter has melted, return the shrimp to the pan along with the parsley and cooked pasta and reserved pasta water. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over a bit more olive oil and serve immediately. Enjoy! Check TFF to see what everyone else made!

Mango Bread

I have never heard of Mango bread before this week. I wasn't sure what to expect. Would it taste good? Was is a moist, tropical bread or more of a coffee cake? It had lots of cinnamon, ginger and lime zest in addition to the mangoes. I think it would have tasted better with out the cinnamon. I had a hard time getting the center of the bread completely cooked. It took over the 1 1/4 hours mentioned in the recipe. I also found it needed a lime glaze for a little extra flavour. I shared it with my Bible Study. I don't think I will try this recipe again. It wasn't great and a little on the dry side. I think I should have measured my mangoes a little better instead of guessing how many cups I added. I don't think I had quite enough. Thanks to Kelly of Baking with the Boys for choosing this recipe. Don't forget to visit the TWD Blogroll to see what everyone else did!

Popovers and going back in time

My Mom would make popovers for us growing up. I have tried in the past to make them and they never would get very big. I was at Target the other day and found a popover pan on clearance for $3.00. I snatched it up and have made two batches of these yummy delights. I love them right out of the oven while they are piping hot. They start to deflate when cooling. I found this recipe and love the results. I used the special pan and only got 5 out of my batch.

Cold Oven Popovers

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. Chill muffin cups in refrigerator while mixing batter.
Break eggs into bowl and beat well. Add milk, flour and salt. Beat with a wire whisk or spoon, disregarding lumps. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each cup three quarters full.
Place popovers in cold oven. Set oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Turn oven on and bake for 30 minutes, until golden and puffed. Serve immediately. If you must hold them, pierce, and keep warm in a 170 degree F (75 degrees C) oven.

Fossil Hunting...

Fossil hunting!




Jonathan and his buddy!

The boys on the nature hike.

Jonathan and his sweet teacher

Mrs. Carf!

My group of students hunting through

the pond muck to find tadpoles, eggs

and dragon flies.

I am so glad that I am able to go with my kids on there field Trips. Today Jonathan's class went to the Fossil Beds. We had the Ranger take the kids on a nature hike, searching through swamp muck to find tadpoles and dig for fossils. The fossil hunting was Jonathan's favorite part. He came home with a small bag full of treasures. We had great weather and lots of fun. I am ready for some caffeine after the busy day.... Anna's class is going to the dairy at the end of the month. I can't wait to go with her class full of darling First-graders.

I don't know if I can ever go back to regular canned tuna again!

This week for Barefoot Bloggers, Kate of Warm Olives and Cool Cocktails chose Tuna Salad. This was amazing! I found tuna at Trader Joe's ( I know that I buy everything at Trader Joe's but it is my favorite store : ). The combination of Asian Soy dressing and lime was a hit! I served this with a salad of cucumbers and carrots. We loved it! I found Wasabi powder in the grocery store. I also added a little ginger since we love the flavour of ginger with Wasabi. I forgot to take a picture before we ate it and there was no leftovers with this meal. I wasn't sure how my family would like the tuna seared and then added to the dressing. This was a mouth tingling meal that we will be enjoying again in the near future!

Our day in Colombus

I am so proud!

The kids are looking a little grumpy

by this time!


My husband is really against

wearing a shirt while running.

HAHA!

We drove up early to Colombus on Saturday for Marks first half marathon. He did amazing and the kids and I were so proud of him. He really lucked out with perfect running weather and the last mile being all down hill! I found out there is a big difference in our preparation for races. I follow all the rules about drinking plenty of water, making sure to get all the long runs in and lots of sleep before the race. Mark on the other had is so casual about his training and schedule. He was not a bit nervous this morning for his first race. Being the good wife I am, I decided to get nervous for him! Did he drink enough water, eat enough carbs last night and was he truly prepared for this race??? He did amazingly well. We found a good spot to wait for the guys. When Jonathan saw Mark he jumped in and ran the last half mile with them! His buddy Dan is a pro at races and they ran together. He enjoyed it and wasn't even tired afterwards. The official time hasn't come in yet but he thinks it was around 1:56. This was my first race as a spectator. I really missed being out there with all of the runners. We did manage to hit Easton on the way home and find a HUGE Trader Joe's. All my favorite things in one day : ) I even got to have Starbucks while waiting for Mark. When we arrived home I spent the rest of the afternoon looking up races online and finding many to choose from in our area!

Does it count if I forgot to take the picture?

I realized on Tuesday night that I needed to make dessert for my Wednesday night Small Group. So I turned to my favorite cooking man, Tyler Florence. I chose to make his incredible Vanilla Bean frosting for my cake. I went on a search for Vanilla Beans since that is an important part of the recipe. My Grocery store was out and so I settled on a good Vanilla extract. I did restock my pantry with Vanilla Bean paste from Williams-Sonoma yesterday. I made the boxed Vanilla Bean cake from Trader Joe's and added fresh strawberries and ice-cream. This was a simple dessert but turned out fine. I realized afterwards that I had forgotten to take a picture of my cake. I hope it still counts for my TFF group : )
Vanilla Bean Butter cream Frosting
(Adapted from this recipe)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup milk
4 cups confectioner's sugar (1 pound box), plus more if necessary
Cream the butter in a medium-size bowl until very smooth. Stir in the vanilla-bean seeds until they're evenly distributed. Add the salt, milk and vanilla extract, and stir until combined. Sift the sugar over the butter mixture and stir the mixture until it's perfectly smooth. If the frosting is too loose, add a few more tablespoons of confectioner's sugar, and stir until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap until you're ready to use; mix well just before using.