Wonderling

Too many eggs!

Through the workings of fate I have acquired two more chickens. This brings my flock to 5. Which means, of course, I will be expanding the coop once it stops snowing here. Along with the loud and sometimes scary implementation of the new "pecking order" came two more eggs a day. I thought this would be no problem since everyone wants fresh eggs right?? Unfortunately 2 dozen eggs a week is a lot more than I can even give away right now (not to mention my shortage of egg cartons). 

So what's an urban farmer to do? Make frittatas!

picture via Dani Spies

It's amazing how wonderful eggs and 'stuff' can be (stuff meaning whatever I have in my fridge and pantry, which lately isn't much). Dani uses quinoa in the above frittata and I am kicking myself for not adding any to the frittata I just put in the oven. Some recipes even use cooked spaghetti. 

So here's the basic recipe:

4-6 eggs (depends on the size of your pan/appetite)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheese (whatever kind you like, parmesean is my favorite so far)

1/2 cup diced veggies (again, whatever you have/want)

one cooked and diced potato (optional)

1 tbsp italian seasoning mix

dash of salt

enough olive oil to coat the bottom and sides of your pan

pre-heat oven to 325. whip eggs and milk. Add the rest of the ingredients (unless you're using potatoes, you will want to pan fry them in the olive oil separately). pour mixture into pan. you will need to 'pull back' the sides of the frittata occasionally to allow the uncooked bits to drizzle down to the bottom and get cooked. Once frittata is solid enough flip out onto plate and slide upside down back into the pan, just long enough to cook the top part that will still be a bit mushy. Place frittata in a greased baking dish, sprinkle a little more cheese on the top and bake for about 20 mins. 

It seems a lot more complicated than it is. The whole process only took me about 35 mins, most of that time was the 20 mins in the oven. 

Mug of Cake!

I've seen several posts about making chocolate cake in a mug in the microwave and every time I tell myself to try it out, but just keep forgetting. I finally remembered tonight. It smelled SO good....but the texture was certainly not expected...sort of a spongy/rubbery texture. I wasn't sure if I liked it, but when I got past the top I realized that it was pretty spectacular! So here's how I did it.....

Mix 4 tbsp each of flour and sugar, 2 tbsp cocoa

Add one egg (double yolk!! Good job Pinto!), 3 tbsp milk and 3 tbsp oil

Add chocolate chips (optional)...looks gooey and good! Put it in the microwave for 2:30 on high. Don't worry if you see a column of cake rising from the cup while it cooks...that's normal :)

Let it cool and enjoy! 

Apple and Berry Crumble

It's much too easy to make sweet, lovely crumble. Sometimes I just can't resist the urge. I had a huge bag of frozen strawberries and some fresh, crisp apples and thought.....hmmmmm, I could make something really tasty with these...

it was good!

why I love the internet.....

Some days I get online, read my favorite blogs and don't find anything inspiring. Today is NOT one of those days. Not only are there dozens of news stories challenging the ill-presented lies of the McCain/Palin (it pains me to even type her name) campaign, but my blog reading has also led me on a lovely trip 'round ye ole web filled with flights of fancy. Here's what I found......

Some (yes only some) of the e-politic lovelies:
McCain - John McCain continues his "obvious irritation with the media" campaign strategy.
Palin - it's a bit surprising that this actually made it into the arena of what is usually serious political information...but who can take the McCain campaign seriously at this point?
Palin - CNN shows just exactly what kind of foreign policy experience Gov. Palin has with Russia (you know, since she can't seem to clearly answer that question herself....)
Palin - refers to the general population as "Joe Six-Pack". Surely that phrase is going to help mend the reputation of the US in the eyes of the world.
VP debates - how both VP candidates are prepping for the debate tomorrow night (oh how I love when non-candidates debate on the news!)

My desk wants these:

This adorable ferris wheel will spin at the speed you type. Just think, if you and your cube-mate had one you could type-race! ha!

want to make goodies for your office? Or maybe bribe your boss with sweets? now you can use company property to complete these tasks! On a serious note, I'm wondering how safety codes would allow any office to have an easy bake oven attached to a computer....it has to be a fire hazard.

I want these:
I can't keep looking at Lillyella's etsy. I've already mentally bought half of the merchandise there....it's just so lovely and ridiculously affordable.

If I didn't have two cats who alternately jumped on me once they heard my alarm go off I would totally get this tantrum throwing alarm clock. It starts by glowing 5 mins before your alarm is set to go off you then have one minute to hit snooze before it explodes into a full on, arm waving tantrum.

ktjean makes some seriously gorgeous skirts. I'm kicking myself for throwing away my fabric scraps now!

Spinach Rolls

Yesterday my foot was killing me. I had planned on doing all sorts of wonderful things like cleaning, sewing, playing with the kitties, etc. But, instead I had to sit on my couch with an icepack on my foot most of the day. At least I got to do some knitting. 

I decided around 5pm that I had to get up and do something, even if it hurt a bit. I needed to make something for lunch this week, so I made some spinach rolls! It was really really easy and they are SO good. I'm thinking I may make them again only calzone sized....below is the recipe

Spinach Rolls:

2 packages cresent rolls (8 in each package)

1 package frozen, shredded, cooked spinach

ground turkey (use as much as you'd like)

1/2 cup ricotta 

1/2 cup shredded mozzerella

 Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook the ground turkey. Combine the ground turkey with the spinach (thawed of course!), ricotta and mozzerella:

Place one triangle of cresent roll dough on a flat surface. Spread dough as much as possible without making it so thin that it will rip. Spoon spinach mixture onto the largest area of the traingle. Fold dough around mixture as pictured:

Place rolls on a cookie sheet or clear baking dish.

Bake for 11-15 mins or until tops of rolls are slightly brown

A blunt cake

Either this teen was being encouraged to get pregnant or the decorator decided that sugary sarcasm was appropriate for the situation. I'm assuming this cake was a joke because I don't want to believe it could be real. [via Cake Wrecks]

What a girl wants!

Emma is one lucky girl! Who wouldn't want a mustache and chest hair on their birthday cake. Now I'm sad that my birthday has already passed. Made by Alicia

Tiny Pies

Not Martha found a tutorial at LloydAndLauren for these tiny pies baked in tiny glass jars. I'm thinking this is a good way to have a healthy/diet-savvy sized piece of pie. The same jars can be used to bake tiny cakes or any other kind of tiny food you'd like to try (quiche!)

My next baking project?

Not only does it look deelish, but how cute! via Craftzine

Calzone

Last night I made Calzone. I didn't make the one in the picture, I thought it was best to show you a good example of calzone. I've only made calzone once before and it was a looooong time ago. So I called my mom for some last minute instructions. It's nice that I have a mom instead of a cookbook, much more personal. My goal was to make a few regular sized calzones and a bunch of little mini calzones. I found out right away that I am not a good dough roller. Maybe there's a trick to rolling out pizza dough without it reverting back to it's pre-rolled state in 5 seconds. But I was fine with lopsided and imperfect calzones. They actually turned out very nice. A hair undercooked, but when your oven burns the bottom of everything you have to make some sacrifices.

I did not take pictures of the calzone making. It was late, I was on the phone with my mom for half of it and I wasn't sure if my camera would tolerate flour and dough in it's crevasses. So in lieu of photos showing how messy and lopsided my calzones are, I will give you a link to a wonderful step by step (in pictures!) tutorial on making calzone. How to make calzones