My 28th Birthday

I can't believe I turned 28 this past week!  Tom really did a great job making me feel special and I loved every moment of my birthday weekend.  I woke up to a balloon and flowers from Tom, then headed off to school.  I had a nice day at school, filled with so much Kindergarten love.  The kids made me enough birthday cards to wallpaper our whole new house with and all day they kept hugging me and wishing me a happy birthday.  My grade level partner and classroom aide made cupcakes for the two kindergarten classes and they gave me an kitchen herb garden and a pretty indoor plant of yellow daisies.  My dad surprised me and stopped by school with a a pretty little purple planter filled with purple flowers.  But the best part was letting the kids meet him.  I asked if they had any guesses who my special guest was.  The first student I called on excitedly said, "Mr. Stidd!", which I replied "No, he's a lot younger" but my next student guessed, "Your father!"  They introduced themselves and I think it was really cool for them to see I am a real person with a real family and I think it was fun for my dad to see the 19 five year-olds that I spend my weekdays with.  Another funny moment from my birthday is one of my students must have told her mother it was my birthday.  So she proudly handed me a gift bag from Victoria's Secret.  It was only filled with a perfume set, but it was still an awkward thing to open with a group of kindergartners.  On top of that, she kept insisting I pull the gift cards out of the bag.  Apparently they had earned rewards money for their purchase and had included them in my bag, but these "cards" were covered with women advertising what we all know you typically buy at Victoria's Secrets.  Most five year-olds don't want to feel like they are missing out on anything, so they were all yelling at me once that they "didn't get a chance to see" the gift cards, that I quickly shoved back in the bag upon realizing the images on the outside.  Overall though, it was a great birthday in kindergarten.


After school, I tutored two students and then it was time for my dinner with Tom.  When we first pulled up, we appeared to be in a less than desirable section of Riverhead.  However, buried in this industrial area was a little country farm house.  "Farm Country Kitchen" is a little restaurant on the Peconic River from the 1800's.  The whole restaurant was filled with pretty fireplaces and candlelit dinner tables.  We sat in the section of the house that overlooked the river and it was so pretty to find this little gem in what initially looked like nothing special. I unfortunately was fighting off a sore throat and a cold (another gift from my kindergartners), but Tom and I both enjoyed two gigantic salads, followed by filet mignon and garlic mashed potatoes.  It was all delicious!  For those of you who like the wineries, I would suggest this place for sure!  You can either bring your own wine and dine inside or outside, or purchase some of their box lunches to go to take with you to the wineries.  Here is the website for further info: Farm Country Kitchen.

After dinner, we headed back to our new house for cake and presents (the house with Tom is really my greatest gift of all).  He made all of my "Pioneer Woman" dreams come true, complete with a dutch oven (a cast-iron pot that can be used on top of or inside the stove) and it is bright blue just like the one she uses!  He also got me some clothes, an Easter table runner, tickets to "Stars on Ice", and a beautiful glass cake stand.  We ended the night with rainbow cookie cake, my absolute favorite!













                                                      

The next day we celebrated with my family (I consider Stevi's clan my family, they are honorary Stidd's at our functions).  We went to JR's Steakhouse for dinner (prime rib=deliciousness) and then came back to our house for presents and cake.  Everyone was so kind and generous!  I loved all my presents which included a gift card for I-tunes, Ann Taylor, and Bed Bath and Beyond, a crepe maker, baking sheet liners, crochet stitch markers, and a Michael Kors bag (I've never owned such a fancy bag, I filled it right away!)  We had another delicious chocolate cake, this time from Junda's Pastry Crust & Crumbs from Jamesport.  Tom and I loved showing our guests the new painting we've done so far and the new carpet up in the loft.  The best part of all though was spending time with everyone!  Not to mention my four favorite little ones were with me to celebrate the whole night, my two nephews and Stevi & Joe's kids Leo and Juliet.  Notice Juliet's crocheted cupcake dress (so glad she wore one of my creations for my special day!)























Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend.  A few additional things about the weekend included:

1) I made these egg in a holes like I saw the Pioneer Woman make on TV.  I had actually made these before as a kid when I took a cooking class at one of the high schools a long time ago.  I am glad she reminded me about these, Tom and I both really enjoyed them!



2)  We tried out a local movie theater in Mattituck. It is an old fashioned theater, no stadium seating, but so cute and local!  We saw "Divergent" and what we thought would be a "teen-flick" we actually found to be quite good!  We also tried the pizza place "Michelangelo's" which was a great spot that we are going to remember when we want to grab a quick bite before a show.  They also have a whole restaurant in the back that we want to try sometime.

3)  Today we went to Erik's Breakfast & Lunch in Southhold.  You order at the counter and then you can pick where to sit in their little screen room (which luckily it was heated today, but I bet it's just beautiful in the summer).  I had chicken salad on raisin almond bread, it was really tasty!  Here's the link for that too Erik's







I am sad that my birthday weekend is coming to a close but I am enjoying our new house and hometown so much!  I can't wait to continue with our house projects.  This weekend we got a new clock for the loft (pictures of the loft to come soon once it's furnished), my dad helped put our regular fish tank and the fish up in the loft, we got a TV for the loft, a fire pit for the back yard, and two cabinets for the garage to hold some of my additional appliances and larger kitchen gadgets.  This place is really shaping up!  Thanks for everyone who celebrated with me, wished me a happy birthday in person, on the phone, on Facebook, or for just reading about my fun now!

Macaroni Sauce...and a few more things

This past weekend, Tom and I had Tom's grandmother and great-Aunt over for dinner.  We were so excited to show these senior members of Tom's family our new house.  I went to my roots and made an Italian dinner.  I made my mom's homemade sauce and used it to make baked ziti and chicken with artichokes.  I have always loved homemade sauce as compared to the jar type.  Even though it is more time consuming, I always think it's worth it.  Growing up, we ate macaroni twice a week (Thursday nights and Sunday lunch/dinner).  So sauce was big in our house.  I am so glad my mom taught me her sauce recipe before she passed away.  I actually learned a lot of her recipes during that terrible time because she wasn't up to cooking.  In retrospect, I wonder if she was trying to teach me these special recipes before she left us.  I am so happy to have learned some of her special recipes and I really look forward to sharing them on my blog.  Here is my mom's sauce recipe that she learned from her grandmother, my great-grandma Vita (which is where my middle name comes from).

                                          

Macaroni Sauce

1 can of tomato puree (Redpack)

2 cans of paste (Rienzi)

1 onion

oil

salt

pepper

parsley

basil

sugar

1 garlic clove (this is the only ingredient I've added to the recipe I was taught)

Drizzle oil in the bottom of the pot.  Saute a chopped onion for a few minutes in the pot until the color turns golden.  Pour in the puree and two cans of paste.  Fill up the paste cans with water to rinse them out and add the water to the sauce.  Sprinkle the sauce with salt, pepper, parsley, and basil.  Use a garlic press to put one garlic clove into the sauce.  Add a scoop of sugar (I use the scoop I have in my sugar canister).  Mix it all together and turn up the heat to bring the sauce to a slow boil.  Once it reaches the boiling point, turn back the heat and simmer it for about an hour.  If you are making meatballs (a future recipe I will post), add them for the last half hour of cook time.

Baked Ziti

1 box of ziti (my mom always only cooked with Barilla pasta)

sauce

mozzarella

Ricotta cheese

Bake the ziti as directed on the box.  Mix the cooked ziit into a bowl with sauce until it is well coated.  In a separate bowl, mix ricotta cheese and mozzarella.  Add the ziti to the pan and create alternate layers with the macaroni and the cheese mixture.  Give it a gentle stir together in the pan.  Top with additional sauce and cook it at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until it is hot and bubbly (keep an eye on it though, so it doesn't dry out).  For the last minute or two, sprinkle the top with additional mozzarella cheese.

Chicken with Artichokes

Boneless skinless chicken breasts

Sauce

Canned artichokes (drained)

Mozzarella cheese

Oil

Drizzle oil in the bottom of a baking pan.  Lay the chicken in the bottom of the pan.  Coat generously with sauce, then spread the artichokes out across the chicken.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.  For the last minute or two, sprinkle the top with additional mozzarella cheese.

Overall, our menu for the seniors went over well (except they both declined on the artichokes on the chicken!)  I also made a Pioneer Woman dessert, a flat apple pie.  It was so easy and really tasty!

Here are some photos of some other Pioneer Woman meals that Tom and I have been enjoying.

1) Cheeseburger sliders- these were so good with the onion and barbecue mixture that she has you fry them in.  Totally going to make these as appetizers at a future party! 

2) French Toast with berry butter and poached eggs: This was a great Friday night meal for Lent.  The berry butter was so easy to make but really added a special twist!

                                        

3) Tonight I made Penne a la Betty- It was a penne pasta with a red cream sauce and shrimp.  I have never cooked shrimp before but Tom is a big fan so I wanted to give it a try.  It came out really good!  Plus I got to make another North Fork stop for the blog!  We went to Braun Seafood in Cutchogue, a place we like to get flounder fillet sandwiches in the summer because you can sit outside.  They also have a great take-out fish counter.  We got 3/4 of a pound of shrimp and a quart of New England clam chowder.  Braun's opened in 1928 and it is definitely a great place to get fresh seafood.  Check it out!   30840 Main Road, Cutchogue NY 11935.    Here is the website link: Braun Seafood

It is amazing to me how the shrimp turn pink like that!

Chowder: YUM!

Penne a la Betty

I also wanted to mention that I googled how to properly cut an onion because I've always wanted to do it like the chefs on TV.  Check out this link, I found it to be very helpful!

    Try this link if you want:  How to Cut an Onion

Lastly, I know my blog is also called crafting in the country and I have been slacking on my crocheting because it is not all unpacked yet!  But I couldn't resist making a newborn sweater for one of the little girls in my class whose mom is having a little girl any day now!

North Fork Explorations & Some More Good Cooking

This past week and weekend Tom & I explored a lot of our new hometown.  Some spots we visited were old favorites and others were new to me.  I will share them with you here in case you are ever in our neck of the woods:

1) Snowflake Ice Cream Shoppe: 1148 West Main Street in Riverhead:

This awesome little ice cream shoppe opened in the late 1980's and they have been making homemade ice cream in unique flavors every since.  Tom used to bring me here all the time when we were dating and I am so happy to have this as our neighborhood ice cream shoppe.  All of their flavors are delicious!  On our latest visit, Tom had his usual mint chocolate chip and I had soft serve chocolate this time around.  But most times I go with a Snowflake original "Peconic Swamp Thing."  It is basically like a raspberry jelly ring candy but in ice cream form!  So delicious!

http://www.snowflakeicecream.com/index.html

Loved these seagulls in flight!

2) We also visited a beautiful beach at the Mattituck inlet yesterday!  Even though we still needed our winter coats, the sunshine gave us hope that warmer weather is to come!  If you have not visited the beaches out East, you must!  The water is so beautiful and clear compared to other beaches further west!

                                                                           

3) After our beach visit, we stopped at The Glass Greenhouse & Farm Market in Jamesport for a snack.  In the past, we have gone here to buy our flowers in the spring and summer and mums in the fall, but they recently added a huge building filled with all sorts of homemade treats and local delicacies.  They have fruits and vegetables, but also an amazing bakery and gelato counter.  We tried the gelato and it was so wonderfully creamy!  They are located on 1350 Route 25 in Jamesport.  This is by far the biggest most amazing greenhouse I have ever been to and their farm market was a great addition!

The greenhouse is just starting to get ready for spring!

http://theglassgreenhouse.com/

4)  Today we drove all the way to the tip of our fork and went to Orient State Park!  Another gorgeous beach, but today was a lot windier and colder.  We enjoyed it anyway, but want to go back and do their nature trail walk once the weather is milder.  They had really cool adult sized swings that overlook the ocean! Could you ask for anything more?

I could swing on this with Tom everyday!

5) Lastly, we went to The Country Corner Cafe, 55765 Main Road in Southold for lunch today.  We both had delicious sandwiches in this cute, country-decorated cafe.  They also have an amazing ice-cream counter that is on our list to try another day!  http://www.countrycornersouthold.com/index.php

And now for some of my own cooking:

A few days ago I made a country chicken with gravy. The gravy was so good!  I can see why so many recipes from the south come with gravy, it sure was good!

I also made a simple green bean recipe that my mom used to make a lot.  All you do is take a can of green beans and dump them in a bowl.  Coat them generously with oil and red wine vinegar.  Add a clove of garlic that's been pressed through a garlic press, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and mix it all together.  Chill it in the refrigerator and you have a really easy, tasty green bean salad!

Green Bean Salad

Last night I made a beef stew for Tom and my father-in-law.  It was a recipe from one of my Pioneer Woman cookbooks.  I don't want to risk copyright infringement but Google it!  It was by far the best stew I ever had.  The meat was so tender and the gravy dipped in crusty bread was wonderful!  We topped our meal off with another Pioneer Woman recipe, "Knock you Naked Brownies."  They were brownies with a layer of caramel and chocolate chips in the center!  It was a great meal enjoyed with a viewing of Captain America.  I think Tom and his dad had a great night and I did too!

Cut up veggies

Yummy stew

THE Brownies!

So good!

New recipes...including one I created!

Here are my next 3 recipes...2 Dinners and a Dessert!  Tom gives them all 5 stars lol!

Tomato Basil Rigatoni (from Family Circle):  This pasta was made with sun dried tomatoes and a cream sauce, it was delicious!

1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 box Rigatoni
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup Italian flavored cooking cream cheese
4 oz shredded provolone
1 cup shredded mozzarella
2 teaspoons of cornstarch mixed with 1 Tablespoon of water
basil
Parmesan cheese

1.  Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil.  Take out a cup of boiling water and pour it on the sun-dried tomatoes (let sit for 5 minutes).
2.  Cook the rigatoni as directed on the box.
3.  Heat milk over medium heat until bubbly.  Remove from heat and whisk in cheeses and cream cheese.  Return to heat, add cornstarch mixture, and simmer until smooth.
4.  Drain and chop the tomatoes.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl until well mixed.

This pasta was so good!  It made a ton of dirty dishes, but it was worth it.  And I love grating my own cheese.  The Pioneer Woman never buys the bagged kind and seems to really enjoy grating her own.  I have to say, I felt more like a real cook grating my own too!

Jerk-Rubbed London Broil

I have been intimated to use a broiler, since my dad almost set our kitchen on fire making steaks soon after my mom passed away.  This was my second meal with the broiler, and I have to say it really is great.  The food cooks quickly and I am glad I have re-discovered this part of the oven!

Jerk Rub
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of onion powder
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of thyme
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2  teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 pounds top round London broil



Potato Salad

1 1/2 pounds of fingerling potatoes
1 green pepper (thinly sliced)
1 yellow pepper (thinly sliced)
1/2 cup mayo
1 red onion (thinly sliced)
1/4 sour cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Mix together all the ingredient for the jerk rub.  Press rub evenly into both sides of the broil and place in a plastic Ziploc bag.  Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
2.  Heat broiler and coat pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Broil about 6 minutes on each side (for medium-rare) or 8 minutes a side (for medium, I cooked ours this way).
3.  Potato salad: Cover with water in a medium sauce pan and lightly salt the water.  Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes until tender.  Drain and cut into bite-size pieces.
4. Place peppers, onion, and potatoes in a large bowl and cool for about 15 to 30 minutes.
5.  Whisk together mayo, sour cream, milk and salt.  Fold into potatoes and refrigerate for 4 hours.


And... my very own recipe creation!  I realized if I want to be a true cook, I can't just make everyone else's recipes.  Family recipes from my mom I consider copy-righted to me, but I also want to be able to come up with my own ideas.  So that is where the idea to make these cookies came from.  I hope to continue to experiment and make my own ideas from time to time.

Sweet & Salty Banana Cookies

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
3 bananas (ripe and mashed)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 cup crushed Ritz crackers (the salty part)
1 cup chocolate chips (the sweet part)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix sugar, oil, mashed banana, egg, and vanilla.  Then, slowly beat in all dry ingredients.  Gently mix in Ritz crackers and chocolate chips so they don't get too crushed.
3.  Drop by medium cookie scoop onto baking sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes or until golden.

These cookies came out huge and tasted like yummy banana bread in cookie form!  Let me know if you try to make them, it would make my day!