A Bag Full

I love grocery shopping.  I just really do.

I love driving to the grocery, I love walking in to the grocery with my cloth bags.  I love going isle by isle and picking each thing out. I love checking out.  I really love that John and I are big kids now and can pay for all of our own stuff.  I love carrying all of my groceries to the car.  One of my favorite sights of all is looking in my backseat with a car full goodies.  It makes me smile to see bags full of yummy things coming home to my kitchen.

Yesterday I went to the grocery and came home with these...

(we are cooking vegetarian for some friends Wednesday night, hence the tofu)

and made this...

Homemade bread and jam (for this recipe go here)

Bacon Wrapped Chicken in a Creme Sauce (here)

and

Broccoli Salad

The Hubs loved it dearly.  He has been asking for broccoli salad basically since we got married.  The moment finally came and he acted like it was Christmas.  That always makes me feel like I am the bomb wife.  So right before we got ready to eat Johns phone butt dialed our Pops.  He heard the prayer and he heard us both squeal with excitement as we started to eat.  Oops.

Anyway, it was a...

(FHE)

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ATTENTION: THE BEST CORN YOU WILL EVER HAVE

Before we begin this post, we need to have a chat.
A serious chat.
If you try to make this Jalapeño Lime Butter it may become extremely addicting. Extremely. So, approach with caution.

"Hi, my name is Rachel Murphy and I'm addicted to Jalapeno Lime Butter."

"Hi, Rachel."

Ingredients:

1 sick butter
1 lime, juiced and zested
1 small jalapeno
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
6 ears corn on the cob, husked
1 slice of bread, any kind
coarse salt

Directions:

Combine butter, lime, jalapeno, garlic, and paprika in food processor and pulse process until smooth
Place on waxed paper or plastic and roll.
Place in freezer until ready to serve.
Cook corn by boiling, steaming, or grilling.
Cut disks of butter and rub onto corn, nesting the butter in a slice of bread to apply it to the hot corn.
Season ears with salt (and fight over the hot buttered bread slice!)

* I don't get where Rachael Ray is going with this bread thing. I didn't do it.

We coupled this incredible corn with Blood Orange Italian Soda and pasta with Vodka Sauce and fresh grated Parm.. You would think it a weird combo to do a mexicany thing with Italian stuff, but it was delish. Plus, it was another one of those, "whip something up fast" nights. John's blood sugar was rapidly dropping, and he gets fussy when that happens. I may have to start sending him bags of cheerios for a snack during the day.

Next up in our Jalapeño obsession are...

Jalapeño poppers!

We are going to try them very soon! Our cheddar cheese molded so I have to go get some new cheese...

I'll be sure to let you know how these go!

Bananas Two-ways

We are going to start a series of posts called "Two-ways".

We are going to be making two completely different dishes out of one common ingredient.

Bananas

Today we are

doing:

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

AND

Sour Cream Banana Pancakes

(compliments of the Flying Biscuit Cookbook)

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup mashed ripe bananas

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, bananas, and buttermilk. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in separate bowl; add to banana mixture.

2. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

3. Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

3 tbsp milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

(for the butter I do a half and half mixture of cream cheese and butter, it really makes the difference, and thats what makes it cream cheese frosting!)

Add all ingredients and mix well together. (make sure you taste some for yourself before it goes on the cupcakes, I always like to eat as I bake!)

We had the cupcakes for a dessert for a jam sesh night.

I have made these cupcakes for John to take to work for his coworkers and it was a big hit. He said there was a discussion as to the true nature of the cupcake. The men said it is the perfect cross between a cupcake, banana bread, and a muffin. You decide!

NEXT UP....

Sour Cream Banana Pancakes

Yes, please! I got this cookbook from a family who I babysit for. She said she hadn't used it in over two years! So, she let me "borrow" it, but I'm going to see what I can do about making this a permanent arrangement.

(If you can't see this recipe very well and you want the specifics, please message me!)

The batter is tres tres tres thick! Beware.

John made some fried bananas to go on top and then garnished with a sprinkle of powdered sugar! The recipe didn't call for that but he is a genius.

We think Jack Johnson had it right...

And these definitely don't have to wait until the weekend.