Sweet, Sweet Valentine's Day

Be Mine, Valentine?

Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays!

Even when I was a single lady I loved it.

I just *love* feeling all of the LOVE in the air...love for significant others, family, friends, and most importantly the love relationship with our Savior.  After all, God is LOVE!

No matter who you are, you have some love to celebrate!

Now I know a lot of people just think it is a commercialized holiday that companies use to make excessive amounts of money for people to take a day and celebrate their love, but I’m just not one of those people.  I’m a sucker for all of the red, pink, purple lovey-dovey hearts and teddy bears everywhere.

I like it.  :)

So I guess I’ll just get on with things and tell you what I’m making my honey for Valentine’s Day.  I’m making my Preacher Man some yummy food because that is what he likes.  And I kinda like it, too.  And also, let me just say that if our families lived closer to us I would invite them all over for dinner as well!

On the menu:

Pioneer Woman’s Lasagna

Garlic Cheese Bread

Valentine’s Day Heart Cake (made every year at V-Day)

Chocolate Covered Strawberries (even though P.M. doesn’t like them)

I’ve already whipped up the cake and strawberries today, so here’s a peek and the recipes at how everything turned out.

First, Valentine’s Day Heart Cake.

Why, yes!  That is a boxed cake mix!  These are two of Preacher Man's favorite things!

Boxed cake mixes are my friend.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!  I think that if you use a box cake mix and put a homemade frosting on the cake it tastes like a million bucks! 

For my Heart cake, I used a Funfetti cake mix and Homemade Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting.

EXCEPT….I sort of added pink food coloring to the cake mix.  Isn’t it lovely? 

Just make the box cake mix according to the instructions and if you’re up for adding a color, go for it!

I ended up making 4 heart cakes total and stacking each cake on top of one another to make a gigantic heart cake. Each cake was pretty thin, but it made for an amazing stack cake.  Here is the pan that I used.

I got this pan at Target the first year that Preacher Man and I started dating.

The frosting I used was fabulous on top!  Such fluffy, creamy, sugary divineness. 

Here’s the line-up for the Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 package cream cheese (8 oz.)

1/2 stick margarine, butter, or oleo (whatever you have on hand or prefer to call it)

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1.      Let cream cheese and butter come to room temperature before you begin to combine the ingredients.

2.     Once they are both soft, go ahead and cream them together in a large mixer on medium-high speed.

3.    Slowly add in your powdered sugar one cup at a time, stopping to scrape the bowl for flying powdered sugar.

4.    Once the sugar is incorporated, add in your vanilla.

5.    Whip the frosting on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes.  This makes the frosting so fluffy and glorious!  Just look at it below:

Who wants to stick their face in there with me?  YUM!!!

Here is the finished product of the cake…..

 

I really like how it turned out.  And if you’re intrigued at how I got all of those hearts on there with the sprinkles….here is the trick to that:

I just used a Heart shaped cookie cutter and a wooden skewer to help spread the sprinkles around the cookie cutter.

Take a look at the inside of this baby:

It was so moist and wonderful!

And can I just say one mushy thing?

There are seven hearts on my cake.  Please count….

Seven hearts for seven months of marriage to my hubby!  :)  Love!

Ok, on to the Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

All you need is Strawberries and well, CHOCOLATE! 

I like to use the Almond Bark Chocolate that you can melt in the microwave because it is very user friendly.

Start out by washing your gorgeous strawberries that were Buy One, Get One FREE at the grocery store! 

I think the best way to wash strawberries is to use a damp kitchen towel and rub each one individually.  It really helps in getting some of the fuzz off and you avoid watering them down if you put them under the faucet.

Next, melt your chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments.

Note:  You definitely want to use a smaller, deeper bowl so that the strawberry will have plenty of chocolate to go for a swim in.

Getting ready to go dunking……

The finished product…..

And then on a pretty plate.

These were delicious!  So fancy, rich, and delightful!  AND not to mention, MUCH cheaper to make yourself than buying them and way more thoughtful too.

  You should try these yummy sweets today!

Happy Valentine’s Day to my Preacher Man—I love you so much  and am so blessed to have you as my Valentine!

Go enjoy your Valentine’s Day and tell someone you LOVE them!  :)

Love, The Preacher’s Wife

PB Cookies with a little CHOCOLATE! :)

Preacher Man's Mom makes some of the best Peanut Butter Cookies I've ever had!  They aren't your typical PB cookies either.  They are PB cookies rolled in sugar with a Hershey Kiss on top of them.  I've been in the family long enough now to figure out that this is her Christmas cookie recipe.   They are super tasty, too.  So tasty that you could easily eat ten of them and think you only ate two....they are just little drops of goodness. Ahhhhh....hurry up Christmas!

Since it isn't Christmas and I just can't wait another 10.5 months to eat those cookies again, I decided to make a similar cookie with the stuff that I had on hand.  I used a Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from a family cookbook I had and pieces of a Hershey bar.  These cookies definitely hit the spot!

Peanut Butter Cookies from our Family Cookbook:

1 large egg

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup margarine

1/2 cup peanut butter

Combine all of these ingredients together until well incorporated.

Then add the following to the mixture:

1 & 1/4 cup All-Purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

This is what your dough should look like when it is all mixed together:

The dough wasn't dry at all...after looking and maybe taste testing the dough I knew that me and Preacher Man were going to be in for a real treat.

(Note:  Please check out my personalized spatulas from Santa! I *heart* them SO much!  And don't even think about coming in my kitchen and trying to steal them...I'll know if you do!)

I chose to play around with the cookies and see what kind of cookie is the best.  I tried the traditional way of making peanut butter cookies:

The 'ol criss-cross method of smashing down the cookies with a fork EXCEPT I didn't use the flour that most people use.  I just used my trusty cooking spray instead.  It was so much easier to do and it only took one squirt to the back of the fork and I was able to criss cross the entire pan without any sticky problems!

And then I tried this method:

Just leaving the dough in the balls as they baked.

I baked each set of cookies at 350 degrees for 5 minutes*.  Once the five minutes passed I grabbed them out of the oven and shoved a piece of Hershey bar on them a.f.a.p. (as fast as possible) and put them back in the oven for exactly 1 minute.  Trust me on this...no longer than a minute or the chocolate will be a mess.

*Now I have to say that my oven is quite strange.  Your cookies could take longer to bake, but probably not much longer.  I pretty much can't bake anything over 350 degrees in my oven or the fire alarm goes off.  I think it's a little crazy, but why should I complain?!  I have a working oven...at least I'm not baking these babies over coals!

Once your little beauties are out of the oven let them sit on the pan for a few minutes and then remove to a cooling rack or your mouth.  (If you try and get them off the pan and into your mouth immediately, the cookie will fall apart and you will probably burn your mouth.  I'm not speaking from experience...pinky promise...I'm just warning you.)

After Preacher Man and I were able to taste test both cookies, we both cast our vote for the best.

Preacher Man = flat criss cross cookie

Preacher's Wife = the poofy cookie

Both cookies were good, but I just liked the poofy, melt in your mouth cookies as opposed to the crisper cookie.

Lastly, this recipe makes about 3-4 dozen cookies.  I ended up freezing part of the dough because that many cookies is just dangerous in our house.  I plan on saving the frozen dough for a rainy day or maybe visitors if someone comes to see me unexpectedly.

We're going to the Circus this weekend!!!

I'll be sure to take my camera!

Everyone have a blessed weekend!

Love, The Preacher's Wife :)

 

General Tso

General Tso has some MIGHTY fine chicken!

I was first introduced to General Tso at our awesome Super Bowl party this past Sunday.  It was a frozen package of Tyson chicken labeled General Tso as the flavor.  At first I wasn't sure what it would taste like, but one bite and I was in love.  It was subtly spicy, sweet, and juicy all at the same time.  It kept me wanting more.

You...Must...Try...This!!

While grocery shopping this week, I decided that I had to get me some of that General Tso chicken!  Unfortunately, the frozen foods section didn't have what I was looking for, BUT the deli did.  They already had General Tso's chicken cooked and ready for me so I proceeded to buy the largest container they had!  :)

YUM!

And then I grabbed this to go along with it:

I cooked the Rice A Roni (The Sanfrancisco Treat!) according to the directions.

And then I put some of General Tso's chicken on top to complete the meal.

Yummy goodness on a plate.

And with all of the rice that I cooked and the largest container of chicken, it was definitely enough to feed 3-4 people!  Let's just say leftovers the next day are even better than the first!

Please look for General Tso in your grocery store today!  He has some glorious chicken you should try!

Happy Eating with G.T.!  :)

Love, The Preacher's Wife

WoRdY WeDnEsDaYs

WoRdY WeDnEsDaYs

The First 10 things that pop into my head:

1.     Red Box is quite possibly the best thing ever that has been invented.  Since Jon and I have decided to not get cable until one of us has a full time job, Red Box has become our new BFF.  Today we rented and watched “You Again“.  Great movie.  Cute, clean, and funny!  Go grab a Red Box today!

2.    Praying without ceasing has brought new meaning to my life.  Not only do I pray when things pop into my head randomly throughout the day, but I have now made it a conscious effort to set my alarm for three times throughout the day to pray.  So far, so good.  We serve a Mighty God!

3.    Man are you going to love my blog post for tomorrow.  Your life may never be the same after reading it.  J  (Hint:  it definitely involves food)

4.    We are going to the circus this weekend thanks to our buddy Andrew!  J  Thanks, Andrew!  We are sooooo excited and we’re all going to act like little kids again!!!  It’s going to be fun!

5.    Hubby is at the gym shooting basketball right now…I kinda wish I would have gone with him.  It’s been a while since I have shot some ball.

6.    I really wish I could UPS my sister some chicken noodle soup right now.  She’s not feeling so good.  You better believe that if I lived closer I would have already done it!  J  Feel better, sister!

7.    Dear Family, I’m ready for you to come and visit ASAP.  Just take a week off from work!  I walked by a woman in Wal-Mart today who was wearing the same perfume that my Mom does and I just wanted to give her a hug.  Please come soooooooon!  I don’t need to hug strangers….they might look at me funny.

8.    I have the coolest, cutest, most awesome hubby in the world!  I couldn’t imagine my life without him.  He’s just grand.  I kinda like him just a little.  J  You complete me, Preacher Man.  Quick, what movie is that from?  Ha!

9.    I need a job…anyone out there know someone in North Carolina that is hiring?

10.  Sonic ice is the best.  The end.

Thanks for reading/listening.

Go Duke!!!!!  They play North Carolina tonight!

Love, The Preacher’s Wife

panloafs

I LOVE pancakes....they are quite delish!

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I don't make pancakes though. 

I make panloafs.

Please see picture below:

(sorry it's sideways...I am experiencing technical difficuties today.)

You see, I think small, silver dollar pancakes are dainty and annoying to make.  You have to eat 10 of them to feel like you have eaten a real pancake.  That's why I make panloafs.  A panloaf is one humongous pancake the size of your plate.  The name was inspired by my sister and I when we made pancakes in her new apartment one night.  We made pancakes that were the size of Texas and decided that it was just no ordinary pancake.  It was something bigger and better...it was a panloaf!

 The thing about panloafs is that you don't have to eat 10 pancakes or go back for seconds.  One panloaf is enough for one or even two people.

  Sometimes it even takes two spatualas to flip them...but if I'm having a really good flipping day, I can do it with just one.

  One of my favorite parts about my panloafs is what you can put in them.  I'm not one to just eat plain panloafs.  I like some substance to them.

Here are some of the things that I have put in my panloafs:

Chocolate chips

Bananas

Cinnamon

Blueberries

Cooked apples and cinnamon

Blackberries

That is all I have tried so far.  One day I hope to make the list longer.

Another thing about panloafs...I like them thick.  I don't like paper thin pancakes/loafs.

If you make them thick...you really get into the whole cake and loaf texture thing which  makes them quite dreamy and fluffy and just plain wonderful.

This is a picture of my chocolate chip panloaf from this morning.  The thicker the better.  Mmmmmmm!

I hope that you will try my panloaf idea.  It is quite fun to make and scrumptious to eat.

And maybe one day, we can add the word panloaf to the dictionary. :)

Happy Panloaf eating everyone and Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mom! :)

Love, The Preacher's Wife

a little piece of home

I was excited we were moving to North Carolina.

Honest.

Maybe I was a tiny, tish-bit, okay maybe really sad about not living close to our family, but this was going to be a new adventure, right?!

Right.

A new adventure it has been.

We are here.

We like it a lot.  :)

Missing family isn’t so bad because of Skype (thank you Dad for thinking of that), but air hugs just aren’t the same as the real ones. :(

And I would still probably give my left kidney to live closer to them right now, but it's just a "season"....I get it.

North Carolina is real pretty…almost prettier than Tennessee.

BUT….they don’t have Mayfield’s products!

That’s right.  No yellow refrigerated/frozen dairy products!  L

I was very disappointed at first…I mean REALLY disappointed.  Mayfield’s is more than just my favorite milk and ice cream to me.  It’s a little piece of home and maybe a little bit of heaven too.  It’s what I grew up drinking and eating.  It reminds me of home.  It's the most awesome dreamy ice cream, silky smooth milk, the best French Onion dip, buttermilk, chocolate milk, tea...I could go on and on.  I was even the Mayfield's Moose one time for a big Food Show I got to attend with Mayfield's.  For crying out loud, the manufacturing plant was close to my house!

Well....

You wouldn’t believe the surprise I found this week while walking through the grocery store….

That’s right!!!!  I finally found it!!  Mayfield’s Ice Cream in North Carolina.  I was beyond ecstatic. 

Unfortunately they didn’t have any milk.  I can deal with that for now.

I’m just happy to look in my freezer now and see what’s in there:

Just reminds me of a little piece of home…and it’s so tasty too!  J

Happy Monday!

Love, The Preacher’s Wife

"nanner bread"

Banana Bread

From

The Pioneer Woman

www.thepioneerwoman.com

Pioneer Woman is without a doubt my favorite blogger.  She cracks me up and man does she know how to cook.  Everything that I have ever tried of hers has been delicious…well, aside from her biscuits.  Sorry P-Dub….My Momma makes better biscuits than you.  My apologies.  Today I made P.W.’s banana bread and whoa baby is it good!

I used my cruddy looking bananas from yesterday as the shining star of the bread.

This recipe is super simple.  I actually halved the recipe from Pioneer Woman’s Bundt style banana bread to a loaf style banana bread.  Since there are only two people that live in my house I figured this would be smart to do.

Here’s the line-up for ingredients for a loaf style “nanner bread”:

1 stick butter

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp. sugar

1.5 eggs

 (I know this sounds crazy, but how can you halve three eggs any other way?!  Here ya go....just add your one egg to the mixture as always, but for the 1/2 egg, break it into a bowl, mix together as if you were going to scramble the egg and then pour it into a 1/4 cup measuring cup…then pour half of it into the mixture…it really is just 1/8 cup of egg.  Simple enough!)

3/4 cup mashed, ripe bananas

2 cups + 1 tbsp. all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup sour cream

Get your oven ready by preheating it to 350 degrees and grease your loaf pan with anything that will keep the mixture from sticking.  I am partial to non-stick cooking spray.

First, cream your butter and sugar together. 

Next, add your egg and 1/2 an egg in one at a time.

Then add in the mashed bananas.  Tutorial for this….

Here are my bananas today:

After peeling them you definitely want to get your banana veins off! Be-gone banana veins!  I find you to be very gross!

I think the best way to get these babies mashed up is with a mashed potato masher!  This is probably my favorite kitchen gadget aside from my monogrammed spatulas.

Commercial Break:

These are my cute measuring spoons that I adore!  Roosters and sunflowers…how much more country can you get?!  I used these to measure out my soda and powder  I just love 'em!

Back to the program…..

Once you add your bananas to the mixture you will want to combine your dry ingredients together and alternate adding it to the batter with your sour cream.

After everything is incorporated together, it’s time to put it in the pan.

Now after I got all of this in the pan, I just had the biggest urge to put some pecans in the bread because well, I really like pecans in my “nanner bread”.  So that’s what I did!  BUT…I only pu pecans in half of the banana bread because hubby doesn’t like them.

Bake your banana bread for about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is a superb banana bread recipe.  You should go take your rotten bananas and make one today!

Have a relaxing weekend!  I know I will…I’m going to eat my banana bread!

Love, The Preacher’s Wife!