What's Cookin

I had a very nice day off, even though it was cold and rainy outside. I'm not complaining. This morning I spent some time with a dear friend and her sweet kids. Then, I headed to the mall to meet my Nana for some shopping and lunch. After that, I went and worked with my friend who owns a lovely business that makes custom bow ties, ties, kids accessories, etc. Check out her shop at The Belle and The Beau.

As I was driving home and thinking about dinner, I remembered that I was missing the key ingredient for the dinner I had planned. My bad. The original plan was to use some ground venison I am trying to get rid of use up and make scalloped potatoes. That recipe is here. I have made that before and it is wonderful. When I went grocery shopping yesterday I decided to get sweet potatoes instead, forgetting that I had planned to make scalloped potatoes. Booo. 

What's a girl to do? When I was at the store, I had randomly bought jalapenos. Why? No reason. So, tonight's dinner consisted of left over olive bread from St. Patrick's Day, quinoa made with chicken stock, stuffed jalapenos, roasted sweet potatoes with onions and a kale salad. Random, but generally pretty healthy. 

This was our kale salad. It has feta cheese crumbles, croutons, cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds and balsamic dressing.

 Yummy.

The recipe for the stuffed jalapenos is from Pinterest. If you're not on, you should be. It's awesome. The recipe is from here. Your welcome :) I just roast the sweet potatoes with some garlic flavored olive oil, salt and pepper at 400 for 30 minutes or so. 

I don't know why I felt the need to share my dinner with you, but I did. If you are looking to make some sweet napkins, check out my tutorial. 

I will also show you my new toy! 

Sorry that its blurry for some reason. But it is bamboo, and very thin so I can store it easily.

A kitchen scale! I've been wanting one and finally used a BB&B coupon, making it only $35. It is digital and touch screen. YAY! I am so excited. I believe my bread making skills will improve even more once I am properly weighing my ingredients. For example, a recipe that calls for 8 ounces of water and 8 ounces of flour?? Water weighs more than flour, so that won't be accurate if you don't weigh them and just use a measuring cup. 

That is all folks. 

P.s. My first scale initiation is bagels. I am making the dough tonight and will be baking them tomorrow. We shall see how they turn out :)