Thursday, July 29, 2010

Pancake Breakfast

My husband has been traveling a lot recently for work. The best way that I can think of to welcome him home is with his favorite foods. I made him risotto for dinner the night he came back and decided to surprise him with a pancake breakfast. I don’t use any type of pancake mixes I like to try and make everything from scratch because this allows me to control what type of ingredients I use. My husband is a fan of bananas, and whatever I can do to make him eat his fruits makes me happy. So I proceeded to make him bananas pancakes and blueberry for myself. While I try to make the pancakes as healthy as possible (adding wheat germ and flax feeds) the syrup on the other hand is the complete opposite. I place the syrup in a pot and heat it up slowly on the stove (don’t heat it too quickly because the syrup will begin to boil and become hard)and add a couple of tablespoon of butter. The butter melts into the syrup and makes a salty sweet liquid. It is so good over hot pancakes but not healthy at all.


The banana pancakes for my husband.


The blueberry pancakes for me.


The butter syrup concoction.


YUM YUM YUM my mouth is watering just thinking about them so good.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Stuffed French Toast

My husband and I met at College in New York; it was a small college but had some of the best restaurants around. One restaurant in particular, was Spragues Maple House. They make their own maple syrup that they use in the restaurant. One of our favorite dishes is there Stuffed French Toast. Of course we can’t drive 7 hours out to New York to go to the restaurant so I tried to replicate the recipe for our Sunday morning breakfast. I made sure the cream cheese was at room temperature and put it in the Kitchen-Aid mixer. Then I added maple syrup and chopped walnuts. Once the French Toast was done I gave each piece a healthy dollop of cream cheese and sandwiched it between the two pieces. Because this is a very high calorie and high sugar breakfast we decided to forgo the butter and syrup concoction and just went with a little maple syrup. While my husband humored me and told me it was better than Sprague’s we both knew it was a poor substitute for the real thing. I guess we will just have to wait until the next time we can visit school.


The cream cheese mixture

The finished product, it was so good!!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies

I love to try new baking recipes and making my husband cookies every weekend definitely lets me experiment with new and interesting recipes. This weekend I made peanut butter surprise cookies, the surprise is chocolate in the center. One mistake I did make with these cookies is using natural peanut butter. I didn’t have any regular peanut butter in the pantry so I decided to use my natural peanut butter. The cookies took a lot longer to bake and I had to keep stirring the batter to make sure that it did not separate. So the cookies were a little more time intensive than I like. Instead of putting peanuts on the top I used chopped walnuts. The cookies are also nice and big; and will be perfect to use to make ice cream sandwiches. A nice summer treat. I definitely recommend these cookies.

They are very yummy cookies and I don’t think we are going to have any problems eating them all.

Friday, July 23, 2010

S'mores Cookies

So like I said before, I try and bake my husband cookies every weekend. Regular cookies at the store are too expensive. Plus, this way I can control what ingredients I use. I try to use all organic ingredients when I can. It was extremely hot here last week and the heat really reminded me of the summers when me and my parents would go camping. We would always make S'mores. I always liked my marshmallows extra crispy and burnt. So I was really excited when I found a recipe for S’mores cookies, and was even more excited when the finished product tasted so much like the real thing. The husband also gave them two thumbs up.



The cookies look hard but they were really easy to make and made the kitchen smell like S'mores. I love the summer

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Movie Night

So it was movie night on Saturday. It is a time for my husband and I to cuddle in the basement and watch a movie on his much too big television......except with my husband being away last week I totally forgot to slip the Netflix into the mail. So instead of watching When in Rome we watched the DVR. We had a week of Top Chef, Anthony Bourdain and Real Housewives of New Jersey to catch up on. Of course I felt bad that my husband was now going to have suffer for my reality TV addiction. So I decided to make him some carmel popcorn with almonds for being such a good sport.


I always pop my own popcorn. I don’t trust the microwave stuff, I am unsure about that fake butter. I use a large sauce pot, this allows the kernels to move around so they are less likely to burn.

The popcorn with the sugar sauce poured on it, before placing it in the oven to allow the sugar to carmalize and the popcorn to get the glossy shine.

The finished product. It looks so much like Cracker Jack and tastes 50 times better. Instead of adding peanuts we used almonds (they are my favorite). The recipe called for 40 minutes in the oven, I will definitely put it in for less next time some of the pieces got a little burned. Overall it was a huge success and will be returning for a second viewing on our next movie night ;)

Monday, July 19, 2010

Welcome Home Dinner

My husband was away on business all last week. I dropped him off at the airport and once we finished our hugs and kisses in one last attempt to steal some extra moments with him I asked what he would like for dinner when he returns from his trip. Without hesitation he said Risotto. A word that would have sent shivers down my spine a year ago. Risotto was an intimidating dish, requiring constant stirring and measuring of chicken broth but is worth it all in the end.

The asparagus before I roasted it. I love how green and fresh it looks!!



The final product. It was soooo good. Worth all the stirring, plus my husband loved it.

I learned to use chicken broth that I have made, this way I can control the salt content better, and to roast any additional ingredients that I place in the Risotto to give it the most flavor. Along with making a special dinner for my husband I also found out that I was promoted. Hence the flutes of champagne. It was a great start to a weekend my husband was home and I received a promotion.



The champagne flutes from our promotion celebration ;)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Summer To-Do List

I am a summer baby born in July, so I love the summer. I love the hot nights, swimming, flowers and how it stays light out for longer. Along with loving summer I also love to make lists! They help me to organize my thoughts and I feel so accomplished when I am able to cross something off my list. My husband is not a fan of my lists he ignores them and pretends they are not there, so I usually end up doing his list. I am still breaking him in. I hope by Christmas he will start to take my list making more seriously ;) With the start of each new season I like to make a “Season To-Do List”. I figured if I posted it on my blog I would be more driven to complete my list by Labor Day. My husband is going to die when he sees what I have planned.

Summer To-Do List:

· Have front room painted
· Have storm door Installed
· Figure out what to do with antique mirrors
· Figure out what to do with shelf over bed
· Buy furniture for front room
· Order wedding photos and fill frames
· Sew curtains for front room
· Hang lighting fixtures

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The Name Game

I wanted to give an explanation of the reason why I named my Blog “Love and Cookies”. I am a newlywed and am so excited to experience everything that comes with being a newlywed. I have found out that I have a passion for cooking and especially baking. I try to bake my husband cookies every weekend. He enjoys brining them in his lunch and I enjoy trying new and interesting recipes.While I am going to talk a lot about the experiences that I have baking and cooking, I also want to reflect upon my new experiences about being a newlywed, redecorating our home and use this blog as a way to stay in touch with friends and family and for them to receive updates on what is new in the DiMario home.Everyone is so busy these days, and with all the different technology it seems hard to believe that I have trouble keeping in touch with people… but I do. So I hope that with this blog will allow me to stay in touch with more friends and family and be able to hear from them. Below is a picture of my husband and I on our wedding day June 12, 2010. How cute is he to help me fix my dress so it looks good for the pictures.