Divine Garlic Bread & Faux Cherry Cobbler

My in-laws have a monthly family dinner. Each month my husband's grandparents, aunts/uncles, and parents rotate whose house it's at, and my husband, son, and I get to visit with them, my husband's two cousins who also live within driving distance (there's a third but he lives more than 8 hours away), and the other two local great-grandchildren. This month it was my in-laws' turn to host. The menu my Dad B chose was bread, salad, lasagna, and cherry cobbler.

For the lasagna- this was the first time they'd made it from scratch- Dad and Mom B chose to make Pioneer Woman's recipe. I had to laugh when I learned a good friend had the same lasagna recipe last weekend for *their* first time making lasagna- just like Mom B! Looking at the quantity of spices they decided to cut back for fear they'd be "overwhelmingly strong" in flavor. Result: if you make Pioneer Woman's lasagna: don't cut back on the seasonings!  It turns a good recipe into an "ok" recipe. Not bad, just needs the full quantity of basil etc.  In the end the family decided the recipe is a keeper (esp if it's followed more precisely). No objections here- I'll eat it again, gladly! As for me making it in my own kitchen-so far it's not in the running to replace what I view as the ultimate lasagna (which is also a lot of work).

Dessert was cobbler. Cherry Cobbler. Or Faux Cherry Cobbler as we called it!

Cobblers are great to bake because they're quick, easy, and down-homey, right? Just coat berries in sugar, place it in a dish, and cover it in a batter made from butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and salt, and dot it with butter. Very simple. Yet, still, apparently there's a short-cut to create a faux cobbler.

Use canned cherry pie filling, a box of Jiffy yellow cake mix, and butter! It's as simple as that. Pour your can of pie filling, sprinkle on Jiffy mix, dot with butter, and bake at 350 until bubbling, a little more than half an hour!

The difference though is amazing. For your typical cobbler comes out with a crispy topping that you sort of push your fork down into, and the fresh or frozen cherries give it that tart-sweet contrast that makes a cherry cobbler so satisfying. This cobbler doesn't give you the fullness of the cobbler experience. It's fine, but why make such a shortcut on such a simple dessert-- unless you just happen to have those ingredients on hand and have surprise company or something? It's a one-pot recipe, so maybe that's the allure (only one dish to wash). I'm afraid I just can't wrap my mind around this one.

Garlic Bread

But the garlic bread. Ahh, oh, joy! Now it really was the best garlic bread I've ever made. Not that I've ever had- growing up and to this day I enjoy the garlic bread my Aunt E has served more than any someone has served to me, in a restaurant or in someone's home. Perhaps I should have called her to ask for her recipe, but instead I turned to google. The result was magnificent. 

Getting the garlic bulb ready to roast. Oh, don't be afraid of the entire head of garlic. It doesn't taste overwhelming. Once the bread is assembled it's about perfect.

Freshly roasted garlic. It smelled terrific.

Roasting garlic is truly the easiest way to get cloves out of their skins. Pop, pop, pop! "You find the fun and snap! the job's a game!" is true here. Pop! 

Using real butter makes another big difference in the recipe I'm sure.  I should have finely minced my roasted garlic before mashing it with butter. Not everyone liked the really large chunks of garlic you get, even when you it breaks up a bit from mashing and stirring.

Personally I've learned I like whipping the butter. It spreads like a dream.  

This is now my go-to garlic bread. I know some people like to slice their bread diagonally and spread butter between slices, wrap in foil, and bake, but speaking from experience this particular garlic bread really should be broiled. The crispness of the buttery side of bread is definitely superior in this particular recipe. Even the family agreed. It was excellent. Truely, that was divine garlic bread. 

Want to make it yourself? Head on over to A Foodie's Thoughts yourself for the recipe!

Off we go again! Cooking Food from Round the World in a Year

I've decided to do another "cooking around the world in a year" adventure. S and I managed to achieve it our first year of marriage. It'd be fun to do again. If I managed once, I'll be able to a second time, right? We'll see! Now, what continent and country should I start out "visiting"?

Wordless Wednesday: The Road Goes Ever On

Taken at John James Audubon State Park

3 Favorite Books from our Farm Theme

We did a lot of "farm" themed reading the first couple weeks of August.

I love Margaret Wise Brown's books, and "Big Red Barn" is no exception. 
It was one of the books I was loath to return to the library this morning. I love the way Margaret Wise Brown writes. Her style is like no other author I've read. This book has the same charm of "Goodnight Moon" with a very different mood. It's a beautiful, age-appropriate book that decidedly captures a busy toddler's attention. In it we follow a cow, a duck, a horse, sheep, geese, and other farm animals as they go through an entire day without a single human around. Instead of seeing farm life through the eyes of children or the farmer, we see a barnyard day through the eyes of the animals themselves. I also love how at the end of the day the animals all curl up or roost or whatever each animal does for the night. The other thing that makes this particular book stand out is how unlike many age-appropriate preschool books it does not talk down to them. If you are looking for a farm-themed book that is different from most on the market, "Big Red Barn" is the book for you.

Many children, given the opportunity, naturally imitate. They imitate Mommy, Daddy, the child next door, the baby squeeling accross the grocery store aisle, their dog, the goat at the petting zoo- they just love to imitate. Marie Hall Ets captures this preschool tendency beautifully in her award-winning picture book "Just Me". "Just Me" is the story of a child on a farm. The child explores the barnyard and the nearby woods, imitating the animals he meets. I thought it rather beautiful how it captured childhood. T found himself imitating the pages sometimes himself!

Now this is hardly a book you'd expect a 2 year old to devour. Or is it? It's all about cows and milk after all. What gets Sean and me is the book can be fairly exact at times. Talking about the 4 stomachs, naming them, discussing the various breeds of milk cows. Yet T loves it!
                                         

Perhaps it's the whole journey he enjoys so much. "The Milk Makers" by Gail Gibbons takes you on the journey your milk takes before it reaches your cereal bowl (and yes, that's where the story ends). The book begins with a stop at a dairy farm where we see some cows grazing in a meadow. The various kinds of milk producing animals are mentioned (from cows to reindeer!), as well as the various breeds of milk-producing cows and which breed produces the most milk. From there the author explains what starts a cow producing milk, how she's able to maintain her supply, what she eats during the summer and winter, how it's digested, and the various ways the farmer milks her.

Then we follow the milk on a road trip, through the pipeline to a cooling tank, into a truck, and to the dairy plant. At the plant we continue to follow our milk as it passes from the storage tank to the clarifier, eventually is packaged into cartons.  Sealed the milk's then driven off to the stores where a family buys it off the shelf and enjoys it for breakfast.

I know my son would recommend you read the book- and you might find him climbing on your lap to listen as well!

Home Decorating: Living Room Before & After

Living Room Before (this pic is from when I moved in, 3 years ago)



















You can see in the first picture how the colors were very muted. I felt like it had a cold look to the room. While I loved that it had a faux finish (something that helped me decide on the place) I didn't like the color or tone. Only morning light would make the room bright. Cloud cover, afternoon sun, the room felt dark.

Finally I did something about it. After playing around with paint colors, buying several sample size paints (100% sold on doing that, over picking a paint chip & ordering a gallon without trying), I found just the right colors.


















Living Room After. Behr's Honeysuckle White is on most walls and Valspar's Fresh Bread is on the far wall. It adds depth and dimension to the room. A very pleasant tan color, and the name very aptly describes the look. Now I just need to figure out what to put on the wall behind the sofa.