I just love Halloween!  I’ve got all kinds of movies lined up, candy ready to go, cookies ready to bake, pumpkins ready to be carved.  Oh my, this is going to be tiring, but oh so fun!

I hope your day is as exciting as ours…complete with glittery, spider-filled hair and bags filled with treats!

How cute is this idea? Use cookie cutters when making French Toast!  Just cut your bread before you cook.  Yeah, you’ll have wasted bread around the edges, but who cares.  It’s Halloween!  And you could do it for other holidays as well.  Cate’s gonna love it.  (Idea and photo from Parents.com)

Looking for a SCARY movie?  Try The Skeleton Key.  Nate and I had never heard of it when we saw it and had zero expectations.  We ended up really liking it and were definitely scared in the process!  BOO!

If our Halloween cookies come out, I’ll be sure to share them with you later today…as if you won’t already have enough treats!

I love raspberries.  They were on sale this week, so I couldn’t resist grabbing a couple little containers.  They were still kind of expensive, but worth every penny!

I made some sauce/syrup out of them and it was mighty tasty.  Here’s my recipe!

Raspberry -OR- Blueberry Sauce/Syrup
- 1 1/2 C raspberries (one of those 5-6 oz containers) -OR- 1 C blueberries (I’ve only ever used fresh fruit for this recipe)
- 3/4 C sugar
- 1/3 C water
- 2 t. lemon juice

Bring to a boil. Lower heat. Simmer for a bit. That’s it! Refrigerate leftovers.

NOTE: If you want to thicken it up (which you probably do, the raspberry syrup was a little thin, but it still tasted awesome)…you can sub some of the sugar for karo syrup and/or add a little cornstarch to the water. I’ve always just sort of done this off the cuff. If I ever actually pay attention, I’ll provide measurements for you.

One thing we really miss in San Diego is Leucadia Pizza.  And one of our favorites at Leucadia is the Thai Chicken Pizza.  If you live in San Diego and you are NOT eating this pizza, it’s a crime.

I’ve begun my quest to recreate it.  And I think I’m almost there!

THAI CHICKEN PIZZA
- Pizza crust (homemade, TJ’s $1 crust, whatever)
- Shredded carrots (about 1/2 – 3/4 of a carrot…1 full carrot was a little much)
- Bean sprouts
- Chopped green onion
- Chicken breast, cut into small cubes or strips and sauteed in olive oil (season with s&p)
- Peanuts (I went with roasted unsalted…you don’t need the salt on the peanuts)
- Peanut Sauce
- Chopped Cilantro
- Mozzarella Cheese

A few notes:
Leucadia’s peanut sauce really makes the pizza.  A perfect blend of sweet and spicy.  I tried the Trader Joe’s Satay Peanut Sauce. It was definitely not sweet enough and the texture wasn’t right.

I just bought Organic Peanut Sauce at Whole Foods. I think this just might do it. I haven’t used it on the pizza yet, but I added some brown sugar to the sauce and it tastes awesome. And the texture is better for pizza. Next time I make the pizza, I’ll let you know how this sauce goes.  I think it will be a winner!

Whenever I make homemade pizza, I always put all the toppings on top of the sauce and add the mozzarella cheese last. Especially with fresh herbs. It’s the way to go.

If anyone has a recipe for a great peanut sauce, please share!

I am a pear junkie right now. I’m eating them every day. My new favorite variety is Comice. Not sure I had heard of it before, but it is a great pear. The skins are a little thick, but the fruit itself is oustanding. Bartlett is my second fave. And I hate D’Anjou. Blech. Anyway, grab yourself some Comice pears. Mmmmm.

On to the menu!

MONDAY:
- Quiche
- Whole Wheat French Bread
- Fruit

TUESDAY:
- Pat’s Oriental Chicken Salad

WEDNESDAY:
- Chili
- Corn Cake Toppers

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- Happy Halloween!
- Pizza
- Halloween Cookies & Candy!

SATURDAY:
- Leftovers (between chili and pizza, I think we’ll have two nights’ worth of leftovers this week)

SUNDAY:
- Bertucci’s Tortellini (Cheese tortellini, red sauce with a little cream added, mushrooms quartered, italian sausage)
- Salad

Please share your menus!

(Oh, and I’ll be sharing the Thai Chicken Pizza recipe this week…I know several of you are waiting for that!)

Here’s an easy-peasy recipe for you on a Friday night.  Trust me, it’s easy. And delicious.

Chicken Parmesan
- 1 or 2 boneless/skinless chicken breasts
- 1 beaten egg (with up to 3 T milk if want)
- 1/2 C grated FRESH parmesan cheese (if you don’t have this, just do more breadcrumbs)
- 1/4 C dry bread crumbs (plain flavor – the italian flavored isn’t that good)
- Some garlic powder
- Some dried oregano and/or basil
- 1/2 t paprika
- 1/8 t pepper
- 2 T butter melted
- Mozzarella cheese (regular or fresh – optional)

Beat the egg. Mix the dry ingredients together. Slice your chicken in half width-ways (picture your chicken breast lying on your cutting board and you slice through the whole thing so that your knife is parallel to the cutting board). Pound the chicken. Dip in egg, cover in breading, place on buttered baking sheet or silpat (I butter the silpat, as well, for flavor). Drizzle melted butter on top. Bake at 325 until done…doesn’t take long because the chicken is so thin.

If you have some mozzarella cheese, put some on at the very end of baking so it can melt. A nice addition!

Serve with pasta and red sauce, or as a sub sandwich!

We went to a pumpkin patch yesterday (oh so fun!) and it got me thinking…I haven’t done a Call for Recipes in a while, and I think a pumpkin call would be perfect for this beautiful season we’re in!

Please share your favorite pumpkin recipes…sweet, savory, anything! Bring it on! Show us what you got!

I’ll start with Pumpkin Rocks. Don’t be fooled by the name. They are moist and cakey, despite their physical likeness to a rock.

OH!  And you MUST try the Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe on the Recipes-Sweet Things page.  It is to DIE for.

PUMPKIN ROCKS
From Tassie Earnest
- 2 1/2 C flour
- 2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1/2 t salt
- 1 t cinnamon
- 1/2 t ginger
- 1/4 t ground cloves
- 1/4 t allspice
- 3/4 t nutmeg
******
- 1 stick butter
- 1 C sugar
- 1/2 C dark brown sugar
- 1 small can pumpkin
- Mini chocolate chips
- 2 eggs

Mix together ingredients up to *****. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs. Add pumpkin. Add dry ingredients. Add mini chocolate chips. Bake 375 for ~18 mins.

I’m in love. With King Arthur. And his White Whole Wheat Flour.

I made these cookies tonight. They were awesome.

I also made my whole wheat pancakes yesterday using the white whole wheat flour instead of traditional whole wheat flour, and they were even better than the first time I made them. This flour is awesome.

And my cookie recipe is pretty awesome, too…if I do say so myself. (I’m a little obsessed with making the perfect cookie. This is what I did tonight and it worked. This doesn’t mean next time it will work, but one can hope!)

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 1 C butter
- 1 C white sugar
- 1 C packed light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- >1 tsp. vanilla
- <1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 C white whole wheat flour
- 3 1/2 C oats
- 1 package chocolate chips

Mix butter and sugars. Add eggs & vanilla – mix. Add soda, powder and salt – mix. Add flour and oats – mix. Add chocolate chips and, you guessed it, mix. Bake at 325 degrees for appx 15 minutes (pull them out a LITTLE before you think they’re supposed to come out).

PS – I apologize for the indiscriminate use of the word “awesome” in this post. I plan to use a thesaurus next time, or maybe just write when I’m not so sleepy.

Have you had these new Quaker protein granola bars?  Basically they’re peanut butter granola bars (hence the extra protein) and I’m addicted.  Just another “shouldn’t buy it ’cause I’ll eat it uncontrollably” item to add to the shopping list. They have lots of protein, not too much sugar and there’s fiber in there too, so I’m good if I eat a few boxes, right?

If you are relatively new to the blog I want to make sure you know that it is awesome when you comment and leave menus, recipes, whatever!  Please post your menus!  They don’t have to be fancy.  They don’t have to be detailed. You never know what might inspire someone else in their planning, so please share!

I have two repeats from last week because I forgot about a couple parties we had last week at dinner time.  I love it when that happens!

MONDAY:
- Spinach & Prosciutto Lasagna
- Salad & whole wheat french bread

TUESDAY:
- Thai Chicken Pizza (recipe feature to come!)

WEDNESDAY:
- Chicken Piccata (I have a recipe on the main dishes recipes page, but I might be modifying it this week…will fill you all in if I do)
- Mashed Potatoes
- Broccolini

THURSDAY:
- Leftovers

FRIDAY:
- A warm salad dish that my friend Natalee was telling me about…I’ll get the recipe and share it with you soon!

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Quiche
- Whole wheat french bread
- Salad

Your turn!

First off, thank you to ProFlowers for such a fabulous giveaway! Don’t forget, click on ProFlowers in this post and receive 15% off your order! And if you want these Scary Berries, click here!

And the lucky winners are…

PAM, who said, “Those pumpkins are so cute, Happy Halloween!”

-and-

KERRI, who said, “So cute! This is a great prize, Jane!”

Apparently the random number generator likes the word cute!  Pam and Kerri will each receive a $100 gift card to ProFlowers to use as they choose. (I vote you ladies spend the moolah on yourselves…get some flowers AND some berries!)

Thank you to all who entered, and don’t worry, there are more giveaways in your future!  Big thanks to ProFlowers!

If you’re anything like me, you love Real Simple magazine OODLES.  So, I thought I would let you know there’s a new Real Simple show on TLC (which I also love…Stacy & Clinton, John & Kate, I’m addicted).  Real Simple sent me an advance copy of the Real Simple. Real Life. pilot episode, which airs TONIGHT at 8 pm.  It was cute and, no offense to the subject Emily, it made me feel pretty darn good about the state of my own house (wait til you see her garage!!).

You may be thinking, this is just another in a long line of makeover shows.  But I like this one for a few reasons. A) You get to see cool Real Simple ideas actually implemented in people’s real homes.  B) They makeover all aspects of a person’s life…organization, FOOD, clothes, make-up, money, etc. Nate said, it will be good as long as the hosts don’t get too annoying…hee hee…um, can we say, Extreme Makeover Home Edition?!?!  So, if you’re home on a Friday night (don’t worry, I always am)…check it out!

Don’t forget to enter the ProFlowers giveaway by Midnight PT tonight! Please click here and add a comment on the giveaway post to get yourself in the running for one of two $100 ProFlowers gift cards! Good luck!

Remember my experiment? And remember how I said I was going to eat healthier going forward? Today I’m going to tell you exactly how I’m doing that!

A group of friends and I have formed a Happy Eats Club. It’s AWESOME. And here’s how it works:
- Each member (there are 5 of us) makes one goal and then sets up a list of healthy eating rules that support their goal.
- Each week we check in with each other. If you cheated on your rules, you owe $5 to the pot. (Everyone gets to cheat on Halloween and Thanksgiving, by the way )
- On December 20, we will have a final check-in. Whoever cheated least gets the money pot. Whoever cheated most has to do something embarrassing that the group determines. Scary. If, by some miracle, none of us cheat…then we’re going to do something fun to celebrate!

My goal is simple: Eat healthier. I’m not trying to lose weight, I just want to eat better.

Here are my rules:
- 2+ servings of fruit each day
- 3+ servings of vegetables each day
- 6+ glasses of water each day
- 1 or less servings of white flour per day
- 1 or less dessert/treat per day
- As many whole grains as possible

Other members of the group have different goals and rules. Some want to lose weight. Some just want to eat healthier. Examples of rules: no sugar, no white flour, no fried foods, fruit juice must be fresh, etc.

We are 1 week into the Club and so far so good! I am eating WAY less sugar, WAY more veggies, drinking WAY more water. It’s fantastic. I’m already feeling better.

As the Happy Eats Club continues on this venture, we will share experiences, recipes, etc.  If you do something similar, let us know about it!

And, yes, I’ll fess up to ALL of you if I cheat!

I’m trying to cut white flour as much as possible (more on that tomorrow!). Normally when I make wheat pancakes, I do half white flour, half wheat flour. This time I took the dive and went ALL wheat flour. I looked through my recipes, found one I thought might work…and it worked GREAT!

I thought using all whole wheat flour would make the pancakes heavy, but with this recipe they were fluffy…and delicious! Without further ado, the recipe!

Whole Wheat Pancakes
Adapted from “The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook” (a MUST-HAVE for your kitchen library, by the way!)
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 TBSP. sugar (I think honey would be a great alternative…I’m going to try that next time)
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 large egg
- 3 TBSP. butter melted
- 2 C buttermilk (or 2 C regular milk with 1 T lemon juice added, let sit for a few minutes)

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and butter, then buttermilk. Make a well in dry ingredients, add wet into well, whisk very gently until incorporated (a few lumps should remain). Don’t overmix.

Cook pancakes over medium heat. Flip when bubbles start to appear. My batter was VERY thick, so I had to sort of “spread” the pancake a bit when I put the batter in the pan…and the little bubbles never popped by the time it was time to flip the pancakes, but I could see them forming when it was time to flip. (I wouldn’t thin out the batter with milk because I don’t think they’ll come out as fluffy.)

BOO!!!

Did my Scary Berries frighten you?  Or just make your mouth water?

Now’s your chance to get some of your very own mouth-watering, delicious, hand-dipped Scary Berries from ProFlowers!  ProFlowers is doing another fabulous giveaway here on TWFD.  TWO super lucky readers will each receive a $100 gift card to ProFlowers!!!

To enter the free, random giveaway, please add a comment to this post before Midnight PT, Friday, October 17.  Any comment will do!  Only one entry per person, please, but feel free to pass this on to your loved ones…after all, if they win, you can “ask” them to send you something lovely or tasty!   The winners will be announced Saturday, October 18.

If you can’t wait to win the $100 gift card and must start shopping now, click on ‘ProFlowers’ anywhere in this post or the logo below to get a 15% discount!

Good luck with the giveaway, and big thanks to ProFlowers!!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU!

It’s a busy blog day for me! If you are interested, I did a little guest spot over on Cafe Johnsonia. Thanks, Lindsey, for the opportunity!  Cafe Johnsonia is a great food blog if you haven’t been, so hop to it!

If you’ve lived in New England, you know most of the eggs up there are brown.  Everywhere else I’ve lived they are generally white, but after living in Boston for four years, I really came to appreciate brown eggs.

Are they better, you may be wondering?  An egg’s an egg, right?  WRONG.  The brown shells seem stronger to me, so they make for a cleaner CRACK!  Plus, they’re beautiful, and I like it when my food is beautiful. The other day I picked up a dozen brown eggs and (this will sound cheesy!) I really enjoyed having them this week!

MONDAY:
- Chicken parmesan (recipe feature to come!)
- Whole wheat penne
- Spinach salad with pears

TUESDAY:
- Some kind of meat on the grill (probably pork chops)
- Broccoli
- Wild rice

WEDNESDAY:
- Leftovers

THURSDAY:
- Spinach & Prosciutto Lasagna
- Salad & whole wheat french bread

FRIDAY:
- Thai Chicken Pizza (recipe feature to come!)

SATURDAY:
- Eat out

SUNDAY:
- Green Noodles
- Whole wheat french bread
- Salad

Okay, I’ve fessed up…now it’s your turn!  What’s on your menu this week?

I’ve decided to start a new category here at This Week for Dinner – Simple Side Dishes. I don’t always put much thought into side dishes, and I would guess that I’m not alone.  Sometimes all it takes is for someone to remind me of a side or point out an easy way to prepare a vegetable and I’m good to go.  So, whenever I discover or re-discover a simple (e.g. fast, minimal ingredients, easy prep) side, I’ll be sure to share it with you!

How about a nice salad today?

Spinach Salad a la Lindsay
From Lindsay Rutman
- Spinach
- Candied pecans (yes, candy-ing them is pretty easy, but to keep it really simple, jut buy them!)
- Feta cheese
- Strawberries, sliced
- Poppyseed Dressing (or Brianna’s Blush Wine Vinaigrette)

Mix together!

Poppyseed Dressing
From Lindsay Rutman
Feel free to just buy poppyseed dressing (Brianna’s is AWESOME, by the way)…but if you WANT to make your own, this is some dang good dressing
- 3/4 T. poppy seeds
- 1/3 c. vinegar
- 1/3 c. sugar
- 3/4 c. vegetable oil
- 3/4 T. grated red onion
- 3/4 t. salt
- 1/3 t. dry mustard

Mix all the ingredients, and preferably let it sit a few hours before serving so the flavors can combine.

I’ve got a Lindsay post for you, and you know what that means – it’s gonna be Gourmet and Yummy. Today it’s a baking tip.

Ever wonder how to get your ganache all smooth and shiny-like?  It’s simple.  Get out your blow dryer!  Turn the heat up, bump the speed down and blow dry your cake, while simultaneously smoothing it out with that there cake spreader tool.

I tried to get a good action shot of Lindsay blow drying the cake, but I they didn’t come out the way I wanted.  Hopefully you can get a good idea of how to smooth out your ganache from the pictures!

Thanks, Lindsay!  The ganache cakes of the world just got prettier, thanks to you!

And for those of you would like to make the amazingly delectable Chocolate Ganache Cake with Raspberry Coulis that was featured in this post, click ‘more’ for the recipe (and more pics)!

(more…)

How could I forget? Why do I always fall into the same old pattern? Sure, those baby carrots are convenient. No peeling, no washing, no cutting. But don’t get sucked in, Jane! They don’t taste good!

These freshly cut carrot sticks were so delicious today. I think I need to make a vow to never buy baby carrots again.

Remember that way cool sample sale I went to in San Francisco last spring? Remember how, if you didn’t live in the Bay Area, you were totally jealous you couldn’t go? It’s time to set your envy aside because I have great news! The Modern Economy Home & Lifestyle Sample Sale is going online! While I’ll miss wandering through aisles of beautiful things, I AM excited I get to shop from home.  And I’m even more excited you all get to shop with me!

Doors open TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 8 at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT. The sale will last for 48 hours, so log-on early to nab your goodies!  Visit the Modern Economy site for more information, including a list of participating designers (which is fabulous, by the way) and a link to the sale.

You will find wonderful things for even more wonderful prices.  You don’t want to miss it!  Happy Shopping!