Bacon Some Cookies

I don't bake. Really. I have, I've tried many times, I've failed many times. For example, I made cupcakes once with my friend Katie and when we put the frosting on them it melted right off... yes we should have let them cool... not the point, I failed. I made a cake for my dad's birthday. I thought I'd make it from scratch, by myself, it called for shortening, I didn't know what that was (in my defense I was maybe 10) so I didn't put any in... yeah it couldn't have been more dry. I made a cake for my mom's birthday... you'd think I'd learn my lesson by now... it was a layered cake with chocolate frosting. When I made it, it was about 90 degrees in our apartment, I had to transport it to my parents, by the time I got there...

Yeah... don't talk about it. (In my defense it tasted really good).

So, I don't bake, except for last week when I decided it was baking something or keeling over from the stench of bacon. Which is where the story starts, with bacon.

Last Saturday morning, Jeff and I decided that we needed a decent breakfast because we had a big day ahead of us. We were going to register at two stores for all the baby stuff we need. We thought it might be fun and tasty to make a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on a bagel. Well I thought it all sounded good minus the bacon, I've never really been a fan. So Jeff fried up some bacon on a skillet, charred it a little, filled the kitchen with the aroma of semi-burnt bacon, and slapped some on his bagel. I made the eggs and have to say for not being a big fan of eggs either (it's the texture) it was actually really good.

Now our house smelled a tad like bacon... well really bacon was overtaking the entire house and felt like it was seeping into my pores, so we opened some windows and left to do our registries. We got back home pretty late, hoping the smell would be gone, but, alas, it was not. We tried to ignore it, lit a candle, opened more windows, changed our clothes, turned on a fan. It was all in vain, we still had a bacon-scented home. So our solution... cook something to cancel out the smell. Well it was late and so cooking was out which leaves baking. So we decided to bake some sugar cookies. I bit the bullet, swallowed my fears, and thought the end product was well worth my inevitable failure.

Everything was going well. All the ingredients were mixing together well and it wasn't too hot to melt anything. But this time melting something wasn't the problem... and there's always something that can go wrong with me and baking.

I kinda burned the bottoms, not awful, but still. Maybe I'm too hard on myself, it's not like I caught them on fire or anything.

We thought we'd try baking the next batch for less time...

Much better. We even got crazy and added M&Ms to some of them.

But not too crazy, only one M&M per cookie. I don't want to get all creative and start to like baking now or anything.

You may be thinking this was the end, we baked, we ate some cookies, move along. Oh no, you can't have warm cookies without ice cream.

Let's drool at, uh, I mean look at some more pictures of this marriage between warm cookies and ice cream, shall we?

Yes, I believe two similar pictures are needed to show this true beauty.

So there you have it. I baked, I failed a little, but I redeemed myself with adding ice cream to make it appear flawless. It tasted flawless... and that's really all that matters.

Blue Baby or Pink Baby?

Since I shared the news that I am  having a little bundle of joy, I figured I would share what that little bundle is... yes a baby of course, but is it a boy or girl. Oh the suspense!

We had our ultrasound in February and decided that we wanted to find out whether the baby was a boy or girl, but not right away. We asked the nurse to write down the gender on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. She also printed two ultrasound pictures, the ones we couldn't look at or it would give it away, and typed on them what the baby was. We gave the envelope to a baker and she was going to make a cake with blue or pink frosting on the inside to be cut at our gender reveal party... What's that? It's a party to reveal the gender of our baby, clever right? I saw a bunch of ideas on different sites and thought it would be fun to have family and friends share with us in finding out the gender. And that's what I'm sharing with you, all about our gender reveal party and what our baby is... is the suspense killing you?

We had the party at our friend's, Stephenie and Bryan's, house. It was fun decorating with blue and pink and thinking of cute little details to make it festive.

 We had little activities for our family and friends to do during the party. They voted what they thought the gender was and they wore the color of ribbon on their shirts.

I was very sure it was a boy

We also played a game where Stephenie asked me a bunch of old wives tales related to my pregnancy and charted the results.

Like I said, I was pretty convinced the baby was a boy. Not that I believe old wives tales... I just had this feeling.
Olivia, Stephenie and Bryan's daughter, predicted that I was going to have a "pink baby"

So, who am I to believe, old wives or a two year old? Good question.

Let's get on with the cake cutting then. Everyone was pretty anxious to cut into it and see.

Boy?

Girl?

Blue baby?

Pink baby?

A GIRL!!!

Not to burst anyone's bubble but we have a little secret... we shared it before we cut the cake... Jeff and I peeked at the ultrasound pictures the night before... gasp... I know. But we really wanted to have the moment we found out what our baby was to be between the two of us. It felt so much more special that way. And we are so glad we did, it's a great memory for us. Plus, we were really able to focus on everyone else and their excitement since we already knew. So... gotcha... we knew the whole time!

The rest of the time we enjoyed cake and cupcakes... so yummy, and talked about how exciting it is to think we're having a little girl.

A daughter... we are so thrilled!

Chicken Bundle of Joy!

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats in my absence from this blog. Since my riveting food diary has been on hiatus for so long I feel there are a few things to catch up on... but on with the food.

So, the dinner featured in this post is probably one of the tastiest, comfort food-like, fills your belly till you're satisfied, eat it every night if you could meals I've learned how to make. Before we got married, Jeff's mom had me over and showed me how to make Chicken Bundles... which happens to be one of Jeff's favorite dinners. And now I have the pleasure of introducing this salivating-inducing meal to you... it had to be a good one to make up for lost time.

Chicken Bundles are exactly that, bundled up chicken. There are a few steps to it so I'll do my best to go through them as detailed as possible because believe me you'll want to try them for yourselves.

First two different crackers are thrown in the food processor to make a bread crumb mixture. I chose these two. They're pretty much the equivalent to Ritz and Saltines.

This mixture is what the bundles get rolled into... but I'm getting ahead of myself. The chicken mixture has to be made first, to put in the bundle, to then be rolled into the crumbs... yeah if you really want to make these you're better off getting the recipe from me, I'm all over the place.

So, once the chicken mixture is made (chicken boiled, cooled, cut up, added to sour cream, and some other things, and chopped up in the food processor) it goes into these...

Mmmmm.... two crescents pinched together to make a buttery, tasty home for the chicken to be rolled up into and dipped in butter, yes butter, and rolled all around in the crumbs.

oh, my, butter

And there they are. Really anything rolled up in crescent rolls and drenched in butter is ah-ma-zing. They get baked in the oven and come out all golden brown. I never said this was the healthiest meal you could eat... just one of the tastiest!

To go with these I made mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. Oh man, roasted carrots, this post may never end.

In a nut shell the carrots are peeled and sliced

and slathered in olive oil, salt, pepper, and parsley, then roasted in the oven.

This is by far my favorite way to eat carrots.

And, the finale, the whole dish on a dish.

Pour some gravy over it all and oh my good night, it is a good thing, a very good thing.

Now these bundles give me that feeling in my belly that comes pretty close to joy but not as much as a different kind of bundle in my belly.

The other thing to catch up on other than food... Our little bun in the oven has been cookin for 24 weeks now. That's about 6 months. We feel so blessed and excited to meet our baby in July!

 Very excited!