Nutella, where have you been all my life?!!! If you know that Rihanna song, I am signing it in my head right now, the “Where have you been all my li-ii-ii-ife.”   

Mr. E and I have been talking about Nutella for about 5 to 6 months.  I have been seeing recipes for it and asking if I should try them and he has been ‘poo pooing’ the idea.  I quote…”it’s alright, not as good as peanut butter but it’s not bad.”  While at Target this weekend I had a coupon that was about to expire and finally bought some Nutella.  As soon as dessert time came around that evening I decide to give it a taste.  Oh my gosh!!!! It is literally heaven on a spoon!  As soon as the deliciousness touched my tongue I looked at Mr. E and stated with more convection than I’ve had in a while that he is certifiably the craziest person I know for not thinking Nutella is amazing.

Since Mr. E is not one to be left out when it comes to eating something amazing, he snatched the spoon from my hand with a…”gimmie.”  To say he liked it is an understatement! He quickly agreed that he was crazy before and that Nutella is awesome. We dipped pretzels and cherries in it while we searched though all the delicious sounding recipes out there and tried to decide what to make. 

Do we make  Nutella Chip Cookies with Homemade Nutella Chips courtesy of The Ivory Hut 

Nutella Chip Cookies via The Ivory Hut

or do I try and make Nutella cinnamon rolls topped with bananas foster or Nutella and Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Fudge  by Doughmesstic which looks like a Nutella snickers bar with marshmallow cream in the center instead of nougat? There are so many recipes that sound good I’m not sure where to start.

For now we will just continue to eat it right out of the jar. 🙂 I mean we don’t want it to go bad right???  I believe Mr. E summed it up perfectly at the end of the night by saying, “Welcome back 15 lbs i lost.” ha ha. 

On other thing I’ve learned while doing all this ‘research’ is that February 5^th was World Nutella Day – it even has its own Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/WorldNutellaDay Did anyone else know this? I really can’t believe I’ve been missing out!

I love breakfast!  And, I love, love, love going out for breakfast!  One of my Besties (best friends) came in to town to visit her family for the weekend and was able to ‘escape’ long enough to meet us for breakfast. Yea! She and I used to work together, with Mr. E, and so when we all get together it is like one big reunion! 

We met at this breakfast place called Crackers & Co. Café.  I’d never been there before or even heard about the place.  I HAVE BEEN MISSING OUT!!  I, of course, did some research prior to going and every site I went to had great things to say – I couldn’t agree more!  Plus, the menu had lots of different omelets and skillets to choose from. 

One of the ways I measure a great breakfast joint is by their coffee because, really, eggs, pancakes, waffles… they’re pretty much the same at any diner.  Now if you’re going somewhere fancy or upscale, that’s a different story… but this was just a diner/café type place.

Their coffee was perfect diner coffee right down to the carafe they set on the table after bringing out the heavy, thick rimmed mugs.  Bonus: they had vanilla and hazelnut creamers – yes I did have a little (or as Mr. E said “OMG that’s a lot of creamer”) hazelnut creamer in my coffee. 🙂

It’s so hard for me to make a decision when it comes to breakfast because if I could have my way, I’d have a couple bites of pancake or waffle (I love maple syrup), a biscuit smothered in sausage gravy (not a bite, but the whole thing), a few bites of an egg thing, a couple slices of bacon and a bite or two of sourdough toast with orange marmalade. (Yes, this is what goes through my head every time I go out to breakfast LOL!  Yes, I know I’m a freak LOL).  So of course I try and sway Mr. E to something that contains one or two of these items so that I can steal bites.  How do I do this?  Well, I start before we even leave the house, talking about what I hope they have.  (Of course, I already know what they have because I’ve read the menu online. He he he).  Then when we get there I start reading the menu out loud, pointing out specific items of course. LOL. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.  This was one of those times it didn’t work.  He zeroed in on the Huevos Rancheros with the carnitas and salsa.  I knew by the intense look in his eye, that no other item on the menu stood a chance.  Oh well.

I ended up ordering a skillet (after much internal debate and conflict) …

and my Bestie ordered beautiful looking eggs Floretine.

We were all super pleased!  By the way, I did get my maple syrup because I subbed a pancake for the toast (they didn’t have orange marmalade…). 

So, next time we go I’ll just have to feed him Mexican food the day before so that my power of persuasion can overcome the allure of Huevos Rancheros. 🙂

So remember in my Tuesday (6/12/12) post I mentioned that the other half of the quinoa not used in the stuffed Pasillas, could be turned into cilantro lime quinoa and that it was really yummy??  Well, I didn’t end up making tacos with it, but I did make a really great dinner using the leftovers from the Pasilla dinner and then adding a few fresh things to make a well-rounded meal.  AANNNDD…it was MEATLESS again!   I think I’m on a roll here. 🙂  (Mr. E is reading over my shoulder and shaking his head. Being a Wisconsin boy, he’s only going to go along with meatless meals so many nights in a row LOL). In addition to the leftover quinoa I also had some leftover Ranchero Sauce.

The Cilantro Lime Quinoa recipe is one I found online and is so good that I don’t make any changes.  Link to the recipe:Cilantro Lime Quinoa via wholefoodmommies.com.  One of the optional ingredients is Olive Oil.  I have found that it doesn’t need it, but then I usually am eating it with some type of salsa.

Part of the reason I didn’t make tacos is because when I went to the fridge we had, red and orange bell peppers, tomatoes, variety of hot peppers and Mexican squash, which is like zucchini, that were in dire need of being cooked before they went bad.  As I was yelling to Mr. E the veggies we had in the fridge, he started chanting “Fajitas, FAJItas,fajiTAS, FAJITAS!”  Excellent idea!! 

I sliced and sautéed some onion, red and orange peppers, squash and banana pepper in a skillet.  Added some cumin, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper; not a lot, but just to add a bit of flavor to the veggies. 

I made a quick sort of Pico, with chopped tomatoes (3), cilantro (1-2 teaspoons), 2 scallions thinly sliced and just using the white and pale green part, lime juice (~ 1 teaspoon), a bit of minced jalapeño and serrano peppers and salt.

We reheated the Ranchero Sauce and Cilantro Lime Quinoa (I had made it earlier while I was waiting for the Pasillas to bake), heated some corn tortillas and piled up our plates!!  Perfect dinner to make after work, minimal mess and super easy!

 A few weekends ago Mr. E and I had family in town and decided to check out the local wineries up north.  Now we don’t live in wine country, in fact we live in Arizona, but had heard that there were some wineries up in Jerome which is a few hours drive.  So we packed up the fam and headed up early Saturday morning. Being the over the top planner I am (and eating being a focus of most things I do), I had already looked up the different restaurants on the way there. While there were a few places that sounded good I knew I wouldn’t be eating until we reached our destination and even then only after having visited a winery.  When I realized this my first thought was “What 3 hours without eating????!!” This wasn’t going to do at all.  So I immediately started thinking about what would be a good snack, somewhat breakfast-y, a bit healthy and easy to eat.  While lots of things popped in mind I decided on homemade granola bars.

 Source: Foodnetwork.com, Barefoot Contessa, Homemade Granola Bars

The original recipe is from foodnetwork.  Of course I’ve made a few changes…Click here for my modified version.

    Jerome is an old mining town that died out and has been reborn as a sort of artsy community with 3 wineries, lots of cute shops, galleries and a great Mexican restaurant called quinces…the enchilada stack Christmas style (red and green chili sauce) is awesome so is the guacamole!

 We visited two of the wineries there, Jerome Winery and Bitter Creek and then one on our way home Alcantera Vineyards.

 In keeping with the wine theme, for dinner that night we shared a few bottles of Pinot Griogio and made our own meat and cheese platter served with warm French bread.  A delicious ending to a wonderful day!

This is my first entry on my first blog.  The first time I’m sharing my thoughts in an open forum and…it is somewhat intimidating.  I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while.  I follow (unofficially) quite a few blogs and I love reading about a new recipe, or the remake of a classic, the planning of a party and all of the great ideas people have.  I try many of the recipes and various craft ideas I see online – some work out and some not so much.  Sometimes I tweak things a little to make my own and suit my family’s tastes, as we all do 🙂 and sometimes they are so truly perfect the way they are I just sit in bliss and enjoy! 

 I also really like the idea of sharing recipes, ideas, tips, trade “secrets”, all that kind of stuff, with friends.  My friends are always teasing me because whenever they ask me for a recipe, I give them the recipe as I received it and then include all of my little notes on changes, suggestions, cautionary tips…lol.  They say they get 2 recipes from me – the original one and then the one for whatever it is they are eating. 

So, thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back and visit often.  Sometimes I’ll be writing about food, gardening (most likely asking for help and begging the bugs for mercy!), decorations, crafts and maybe trips if I saw or did something I think others might be interested in.