...and I'm Back!

Well, it looks as if it's been just over a year since my last post. Apologies. I will be making better efforts going forward.

Timeout - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMZ! :) What a wonderful lady, I'm so thankful/lucky/grateful to be blessed with such a great mom who loves me for who I am and supports me in what I do. I wish I were able to celebrate with her, alas, I am here...in Texas. But I love her dearly and hope this is her best birthday yet.

Seester, me and mom! (Yes I got hitched!)

Ok. Time in.

This may be a lengthy post - don't say I didn't warn you. I haven't baked in a while, as you may have noticed. Though a couple months ago, I made these cute thannngs. Thank you Instagram for making my pictures look 'cool' while the fancy schmancy camera is on hiatus, guess we all need a break sometimes.

Whipped up some Strawberry, Reese's, Cookies 'n Cream, and Pink Lemonade cupcakes for an order. Felt good to get back to baking. I've been getting the itch as of late, I'm sure I'll be making a post of some baked goods shortly! Fall needs to hurry on up cause I have a craving for all things pumpkin.

In the mean time, I've been cooking up a storm! My kitchen hates me cause I'm always in there making a mess of it, cleaning it, and going right back in and messing it up. But I say a messy kitchen is a happy kitchen! I'm not the only one who thinks that, I have proof via this sign that I saw at the Dallas Farmer's Market...

Such wisdom

I try to cook our dinners at home a majority of the days in the week. This allows us to save money and I can control sodium/sugar/fat and all that. What I make may not be the healthiest thing, but at the same time, it's not unhealthy either. I feel I find the happy medium and gear towards healthy 90% of the time I'm cooking. I watch the amount of salt I put in - I use other things for flavor, such as spices and other aromatics. I feel like I've become good at making healthy meals for Spencer and I without going to the extreme. Portion control? That's a work in progress and another story.

So I feel that this blog will slowly become a hybrid of my baking and cooking adventures. :)

When I plan out our menu for the week, I like to go off of leftovers from previous nights or whatever I know I have on hand. I feel like this week has been one of my most successful uses of leftovers.

What's been cooked this week?

Enchiladas Verde filled with carnitas

Brisket melts with potato patties

Pineapple fried rice

Curried sweet potato/potato soup with brisket and rib meat

What did it all come from?

• Sunday we stuffed ourselves silly at Spencer's parents' house. His mom sent us home with a bag of ribs, cheesy-garlic-mashed-potatoes, corn off the cob
• Brisket from a trip to Hard Eight BBQ in Coppell to see my cousin off before she flew back home to the Bay
• Brown rice and quinoa that I had in the freezer from the week prior. Also on hand in the freezer - carnitas, grilled chicken, and mashed sweet potatoes.

I freeze whatever leftovers I think are worth saving if we're not going to finish it in the next day or two - veggies, meat, broth - anything. Heck, I've even thrown chicken bones from a rotisserie chicken I bought and celery leaves, onion skins/scrap, and carrot scraps in the freezer to save for when I make a stock.

I'll make posts about each of the above in the near future. But I'll share the quick recipe for the potato patties. They're great to make and use up any leftover mashed potatoes (hello Thanksgiving leftovers!).

Potato Patties

Ingredients:

• Leftover mashed potatoes
• Shredded cheese/parmesan
• 1 egg, lightly beaten (if you plan to make a lot, may want to use two eggs or just add some milk or water to the egg wash)
• Panko bread crumbs
• Flour
• Salt
• Whatever seasoning you'd like to put in the panko/flour mixture (spices, herbs, etc)

If there's no cheese in your taters, go ahead and add some shredded cheese. The mashed potatoes I had made had a good creamy, garlic, cheesy flavor to it so I didn't feel the need to add anything else to it.

Combine the panko and flour - season as you wish.

I used approximately heaping tablespoonfuls of the potatoes and formed them into patties. Make them as thin as you can without them falling apart.

Then I brushed one side with the egg wash, put that side down into the panko mixture. Bushed the other side and kinda pushed the coating onto the other side. Patted it down to make sure it really sticks to to the patty.

Then pan fry them in a heated skillet (med to med-high) til they're golden and crispy! 

Serve as a side or as a snack or app! 

Note:

I was thinking about baking these but decided not to. If I do, I'll use regular bread crumbs because I feel those bake better than panko does.

That's about all I've got for now - happy eating everyone!