I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately – especially at work. It keeps me sane.
So when K at Can’t Survive on Yarn Alone announced her Project Dancey Pants, I was all in – especially after she told me chair dancing (at work) counts! 
YEAH!
Goal is to find one song to dance to a day & get your groove on.
Are you IN?
My song today:
I love blogger swaps! Mostly because I like shopping for people and giving gifts. I like to think I’m pretty good at picking out things people will enjoy. (I should be a personal shopper! LOL)
This swap was put together by Nicole Flip Flops and Combat Boots and I was paired up with Amy at The Unfettered.
Amy did an awesome job! There’s a very cool collapsable basket, a beach towel (which is handy because somehow I have ZERO!), new sunglasses (I’m a total sunglass whore!) and a freezable cup with straw (perfect for iced tea!)
Thanks Amy! This totally brightened up my week!
First of all, the winner of a copy of “Grilled Cheese, Please!” is Morgan! Congrats!! Send your address to blackcatkitchen@gmail.com and I’ll get it to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.
Did you know it’s National Iced Tea day?
mojito mint iced tea
I’m usually a hot tea fan, but sometimes it’s too hot for hot tea. (Like 2 days ago when it was 96. Not so much today, when it’s 56.) I asked around and found the perfect way to make iced tea.
Brew twice as much tea as normal, then cool and pour over ice. This is Zhena’s Gypsy Tea Mojito Mint. Talk about a perfect summer drink!
I’m off to finish prepping for the Bellin Run 10k tomorrow. EEK!
Ohh, yeah. You read that right.
Pizza. Grilled. Cheese.
The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board e-mailed me a while back offering me a copy of Grilled Cheese, Please! to review and giveaway. Of course I jumped at the chance. I’m a sucker for a grilled cheese sandwich, and there are some in here that sound dee-lish. Like the Chips and Guacamole grilled cheese. And the double cheddar with tomato jam.
And, this pizza grilled cheese. I mean, it’s just genius. And it’s easy!!
ooey, gooey goodness
Pizza grilled cheese
From Grilled Cheese, Please!
Makes 4 sandwiches
3 tbsp. olive oil
8 oz white or brown mushrooms, stems removed and sliced 1/4 inch thick
salt
4 ciabatta rolls
1/2 cup pizza sauce
12 oz fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced (or if using vacuum-packed mozzarella, coarsely grated)
1/2 cup sliced black olives (I omitted since I don’t like olives)
4 oz. pepperoni, sliced thin
2 medium tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in large nonstick pan and cook mushrooms until soft, about 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and remove from pan.
2. Cut ciabatta roll horizontally, pinch out some of the soft centers of the bread to create a well. Turn bread slices, crust side up and brush with remaining oil. (Note: It is imperative that you use a GIGANTIC brush, otherwise your sandwich will not turn out.) (Just kidding.)
3. Flip bread pieces over and spread pizza sauce over bottom slices, then top with half the cheese, mushrooms, olives, pepperoni. Eat a few slices of pepperoni …
4. Top with more cheese, tomato slices (I skipped), and sprinkle with oregano, red pepper flakes and salt and pepper. Spread top slices of bread with pizza sauce and place on top of filling.
5. Cook on stovetop: Heat nonstick pan over med-low to medium heat for 2 minutes. Put sandwiches in the pan, cover and cook for 5-6 minutes, until the undersides begin to brown. Turn the sandwiches, pressing firmly on sandwiches to compress filling. Cover and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until the undersides are golden brown. Turn sandwiches once more, pressing firmly, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes until cheese is melted completely.
OR cook in panini press until cheese is melted.
And then, enjoy the ooey, gooey goodness.
cheesy deliciousness - SEXY!
Now, for the giveaway!! You know you want this book – so, here’s two ways to enter (be sure to leave separate comments for entries!)
1. Leave a comment below. (It can be about anything!)
2. Tweet about this giveaway. I want to win Grilled Cheese, Please! from @blackcatkitchen and @wisconsincheese
I’ll choose a winner on June 10!
So, I wanted to make this for National Chocolate Chip day, which was this past weekend. I even made it a day ahead so I could get the post ready. I got all the way through the recipe and realized I didn’t have chocolate chips. Talk about a big-time FAIL. I did have white chocolate chips, so I used those.
This is an awesome recipe. SO easy and quick. I love the banana flavor – it really comes through. I didn’t make the peanut butter glaze that Angela made, but I bet it would be awesome.
Oh She Glows banana oat cake
Banana oatmeal cake
From Oh She Glows
2 cups regular oats, processed into a flour
1/2 cup regular oats (not processed)
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed firmly
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8th tsp ground nutmeg
1/16th tsp ground cloves (optional)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted (or other light tasting oil)
2 medium very ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup applesauce
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Fold in: 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips; 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped; 1 ripe banana, cut into chunks
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and lightly grease a 8 inch pan. Take 2 cups of regular oats and process them in a food processor until flour like in consistency.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (processed oats, regular oats, sugars, spices, baking powder, and salt).
3. In another bowl, mix together the oil, applesauce, almond milk, and vanilla. Add in the two peeled bananas and smash into the wet ingredients until smooth.
4. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until just combined. Now fold in the chips, optional walnuts, and the chopped banana.
5. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 36 minutes at 350F or until a toothpick comes out clean. The cake must be cooled for at least 15-20 minutes before attempting to remove.
I had a bunch of veggies in my fridge and a real craving for pasta. I’m not sure there really is a ‘recipe’ for pasta primavera – it’s so versatile you could do pretty much anything with it.
Using the ‘perfect pasta’ technique from Bon Appetit, I threw a bunch of things together – roasted asparagus and cauliflower, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, and a few cherry tomatoes – and hoped for the best.
The real star here, was the pasta. I picked up fresh garlic pasta from The Olive Cellar a few weeks ago. I knew it would be good, but I wasn’t expecting amazing. I probably could have eaten the pasta alone all by myself in one sitting.
pasta primavera
Easy pasta primavera
2-3 cups chopped vegetables (I used mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, carrots and cherry tomatoes)
3-4 tbsp olive oil (I used mix of basil olive oil and a tuscan flavored oil)
1/4 cup vegetable broth
1/4-1/2 cup pasta water
pasta of your choice
Heat water for pasta. Cook according to directions, reserving about a cup of pasta water for the sauce and undercooking the pasta by about 2 minutes.
While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in large saute pan and saute vegetables. (I actually had leftover roasted cauliflower and asparagus and left the cherry tomatoes until the *very* end.)
Add broth and some of the pasta water and allow to thicken a bit. Add pasta and tomatoes (and roasted veggies) and mix. Cook for 2 minutes, tossing pasta to coat with sauce. You can add more pasta water if you need to.
That’s it! You can add some grated cheese if you’d like, or leave it off. Personally, I didn’t miss the cheese.
Best part – this came together in less than 20 minutes. This is one of those dishes that you can really make your own using whatever you have on hand. Be creative!
Loki woke me up this morning at about 5 a.m. – because he was chasing a real, live mouse.
In my bedroom.
*insert freakout*
I’m not big on mice. Or any other rodent really, so being awoken at an ungodly hour to find my cat chasing a mouse around my bed totally freaked me out.
Luckily, I was thinking (fairly) quickly and dumped the water out of the cats’ water bowl and trapped the little mousey.
But, MOM! He's my friend!
Don’t worry – He was safely released outside (amid much girlish squealing and squeaking).
Hopefully never to return.
And Loki got some dried chicken and lots of loving for his efforts.
I wanted to make something special for myself for Easter. Just because I was alone didn’t mean I couldn’t have something special. I had picked up some champagne and orange juice to treat myself to mimosas, then saw this recipe on the Adagio Tea Chef website and knew I had to make them to go with.
These were extremely simple to make. If you’re a tea lover like me, you probably have Chamomile tea in your cabinet. I used Celestial Seasonings brand since that was what I had and it worked great. I would suggest making sure your tea is VERY strong. Mine probably could have steeped longer but as is, it had a very mild flavor – great for those who think they don’t like chamomile tea.
Chamomile scones
From Adagio Tea’s TeaChef
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk (approx.) – I used about 1/4 cup
1/4 cup strong brewed chamomile tea
Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles course crumbs. Stir in the egg. (You may also add ‘extras’ at this time like a handful of nuts or dried fruit.)
Add the tea, then gradually add the milk until a thick dough is formed. (I used about 1/4 cup.) Turn out the mixture onto a floured board and knead lightly. Roll out the dough to 3/4′ thickness and cut into rounds with a 2′ cookie cutter or use a drinking glass of same proportion. Gather the trimmings and lightly knead, roll, and cut them as well. Place the rounds about 1′ apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush the tops with a little beaten egg or milk. (I used my scone pan – SO easy!)
Bake in a preheated 450° oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm. Makes 12 to 16 scones.
(For a sweet topping, drizzle with a mixture of 1/2 cup confectioners sugar and 2-3 Tablespoons of strong-brewed Chamomile tea)
I’ve been in a total funk lately. Uninspired to do much other than work and pay bills.
So, to get me back in the game, I give you this super easy recipe for pad thai. Pad thai is one of my favorite dishes to order out, and now I can whip it up at home when I get a craving!
Easy pad thai
From the Ultimate Peanut Butter book
8 oz dried rice noodles
1/3 cup chunky natural peanut butter
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp rice vingar
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp chili paste
2 tbsp peanut oil
4 medium scallions, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and devained
1/4 pound bean sprouts
1/4 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
2 tbsp lime juice
Cook noodles according to package directions. Set aside until ready to use.
In bowl, whisk together peanut butter, fish sauce, hoisin, rice vinegar, sugar and chili paste until creamy. Set aside.
Heat large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add oil, wait a few moments, then add the scallions. Stir-fry until slightly softened, about 1 minute. Add garlic and stir-fry until fragrant – about 15 seconds. Add shrimp and stir-fry until pink, then add bean sprouts and cook for 1 minute.
Pour in prepared peanut sauce then prepared, drained noodles. Toss and cook until bubbly, about 1 minute, then add cilantro and lime juice just before you dish.
My suggestions: You can use regular peanut butter – that was all I had – but you may want to cut back on the sugar. This seemed really sweet to me. I also left out the chili paste since I didn’t have any and I’m not big on heat/spice. Otherwise, this was awesome.
I’m definitely on a peanut butter kick right now. I’ve been living off this peanut sauce … and peanut butter toast … and just straight peanut butter. So, it only made sense to pick up The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book and make these peanut butter muffins.
These are good. But slather on some jam and they go from “Oh, my” to “OHMYGOD.” If you like peanut butter even half as much as I do, go make these now.
Peanut butter muffins with strawberry jam
Peanut butter muffins
from The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt, optional
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
2/3 cup sugar
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted & cooled
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg white, at room temp.
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp milk (I used coconut milk)
1. Lightly spray standard muffin tins or line with paper muffin cup. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt in medium bowl. Set aside.
3. Beat peanut butter, sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer until smooth.
4. Beat in eggs, then vanilla until smooth.
5. Scrape down sides of bowl and then beat in milk until creamy and light.
6. Remove beaters & stir in the flour mix with wooden spoon, until just moistened.
7. Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. (I got about 15 muffins)
8. Bake until toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in tin on wire rack for 5 minutes, then cool completely on wire rack.
Up next … Soba noodles with ginger peanut sauce. Cause you can never have enough peanut sauce.
