Lunch on a Saturday

Since my sister has been super busy with life, I thought I make a guest post here today.  Lest you decide you would like to try either of these recipes, I feel it is my obligation to give you my honest opinion:

Butternut Squash Soup with Apple and Bacon

Banana Muffins with Brown Sugar Topping

First, the soup.  I've been searching for good butternut squash soup recipe ever since I had it for lunch at a friend's house last Fall.  She served it with bacon and these fabulous cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice croutons.  This recipe was not the same and, I didn't have any bread to make the croutons..  It's a wonderful recipe if you like bacon.  Also, I don't particularly like sage so I used onion in the recipe.  Okay, so I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  Like I said, I didn't use sage, I added onion and I used a braeburn apple instead of a granny smith.  Also, after pureeing the soup, I added another can of chicken broth.  The puree was a little too thick for me.  Overall, I give this recipe 3.5 stars.  Believe it or not, it was a bit too bacon-y.  Maybe I should go out and get some bread and make the croutons.  It will probably cut the bacon flavor.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to have to get the recipe from my friend.

Moving on to the muffins...WONDERFUL!!!  They were easy to put together.  Despite the fact that I'm not very good at cutting butter and sugar together and I only had two bananas (instead of 3 as the recipe called for).  Oh, and I didn't have allspice so I used a 1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.  Maybe next time I will do 1/4 t. of pumpkin pie spice and a 1/4 t. cinnamon.  I loved these muffins and will make them again.   They were perfect for my cold Saturday afternoon.

I might as well close up shop and go home.

It's not looking good folks. 

This whole blogging everyday thing is a lot of pressure. Wait, I take that back. It's not the blogging that gives me stress it's the COOKING everyday!  Desserts is stressed spelled backwards. Coincidence? I think not.
Speaking of dessert... I  We ate all the pop tarts already. The kids were not pleased with hubby and I. Ok, confession, there was only 4 left and well...that's not enough to split between 6 people! You understand my dilemma?? Of course you do...you're an understanding bunch.

What did we have for dinner the last two days you ask?? Well... I went out with some friends from the school I worked at and the hubs and the kids went to McDonalds. Gourmet around here you guys! I had Super Salad! or is it Souper Salad...I can never remember. Anyway, I was totally going to make Crock Pot Pulled Pork for dinner today, but yeah, got a little caught up with my list of things to do and dinner didn't make it on there. And dinner tonight? Well...Chipotle was called in as a pinch hitter and scored a home run for the team!! Go Chip!

I really need to cook that chicken that's in the fridge or freeze it before it goes bad. That's another thing I am working on this year, not wasting meat thinking I'm going to cook it and do all these wonderful things with it and then having to throw it away. I know, I know!! (shaking my head in shame)

Anywhoo...that's what I've been up to. Just keeping it real! Wow...that's so real it's scary. Ok, make you a deal. I'll keep it semi-real. How's that? Ok...I'll work on that.

JUST KEEPIN' IT REAL FOLKS

 **How my kitchen looks on any given day.
If yours doesn't, then I suspect you are in fact a

ROBOT. **

 

So, yesterday I said it was a Pop Tart kind of day...a homemade pop tart. I got a lot of flack for NOT making those pop tarts yesterday. I didn't say I would actually MAKE them, I just said it felt like a Pop Tarty kind of day.

Fast forward to this evening. The kids asked what was for dinner....

**DISCLAIMER**
I'm not the most organized person on the planet. I try, Lord knows I try!! I make a plan and have it on hand. That plan may or may not actually come to fruition. I'm comfortable with the fact that I can at any given moment be flexible lazy enough to decide to make pop tarts and sandwiches for dinner. Just thought you should know so you didn't get your hopes up that I'll be a perfect blogger/Mom/Human!
**END DISCLAIMER**

So...as I was saying, the kids asked what was for dinner, and as I planned, Mandarin Orange Chicken was on the menu. That pesky nap got in the way of thawing the chicken, and hubby had a meeting, so I got a wild hair and made some pop tarts. For dinner....no...just kidding.

Sort of.

Here is what I learned about this incredibly easy recipe.

Go easy on the jelly. If you put too much in the middle it will ooze out all over the pan and infect the other pop tarts and they will bathe.  Not the best option if you want the bottom to be crispy. 

Don't use parchment paper to line your baking sheet. Seriously. Parchment paper has its place, but this application isn't one of them. The second batch got a dose of Reynolds Non-Stick Foil and they browned up perfectly in about 15-18 min. depending on the size of the tart. They take WAY longer to bake that 10-12 minutes unless UNLESS you roll out the pie crusts a little thinner and use less filling. They taste wonderful, but take a lot longer to brown up. 

** Edited to add** One reason it took longer for mine to cook was that I didn't read the recipe before starting the recipe. VERY IMPORTANT- read the recipe once thru again right before you start...I baked mine at 350* and the recipe calls for baking it at 450*. Duh. That would be why it took so long. Just keepin' it real people!! LOL!

The Verdict- ***** 4 out of 5 stars
(unscientific voting here, just one kid was asked)


The kids thought it was the BOMB! I thought it was sweet and gooey and delish. I wouldn't exactly put this in
the breakfast category though. It's more dessert-y. It wasn't hard to make, just messy. Would I make them again? Oh yeah. I didn't say they didn't taste good. Almost too good. The kids wanted to eat them all!

So go on...tease your family like I did and tell 'em you'll make them some homemade pop tarts and then don't! Won't that be fun?? You know you wanna....

Here's the recipe again:

Author/Source:Tricia @ Onceamonthmom.com
Homemade Pop Tarts 
 

 

 

What should I cook first?

I think today will be a Pop Tart kind of day. You know, warm, crusty, and gooey in the middle? *Edited* I didn't really make them today, I just said it was a Pop Tart Kind of day...such pressure!

I stumbled upon this recipe while exploring Once A Month Mom's website. Um....yes please! I bought two boxes of pie crusts at Wal-Martz and about 4 cans of pie filling in case I want to make fried pies. Ahem.

So, what brought me to blogger you ask? You didn't ask, but I'mma gonna tell you anyways!

My Sister, my sweet sweet Sister, (you know the sweet runs in the family, her life and my bippy) has a blog. I got a leetle jealous about how cute hers was and how come she can change her template more often than mine because she uses blogger and well....I got a little carried away. I ended up using the SAME EXACT TEMPLATE she was going to use, except I didn't know it and when she saw it, OMGEEE LOL!! She was gracious enough to let me keep mine and go and get her own stinkin' cute one.
She said on Facebook that I we should make a blog about all the fun recipes and cooking tips we have collected over the years. I post almost daily what my family is having for dinner and everyone is always telling me how yummy everything sounds! I kept threatening to make a cookbook, but since I can't really focus long enough to do that, you know with the 4 kids and doing nothing all day but playing on my computer, I figured this was the next best thing!

Viola! Sweetbippy Cooks! was born. I hope you enjoy the recipes and stories. I hope to use this as a way to preserve all the wonderful memories our family has shared around the dinner table, because that's where we all congregate to laugh, eat, and share the love.

 
In the immortal words of Julia Child, "Bon Appetit!"

Sneak Peek: Tomorrow's Recipe-
Mandarin Orange Chicken
Steamed Rice

Oriental Green Beans