Cooking Bug

I have FINALLY been bitten after 3 1/2 years of marriage. It's about freaking time!!! I will post pics of my most recent endeavors and keep you updated on any awesome recipes I find.

I had a little OCD kick in today (though if you ask Mom she'll say it's a LOT of OCD that kicks in these days...) Anyway I have had a lot of recipe books that I only want a handful of recipes from. I always have wanted to go through them, rip out what I want and add it to my recipe binder/book. (It's that whole having too many things in the cupboard that I don't need and use that freaks me out.) So this morning I started this project. I now need page protectors and/or recipe sheets to put the various recipes into but I have the binder all organized finally. And I have the loose recipes in order of their category: Appetizer, salad, side dish and entree. That way when I get the sleeve protectors BOOM they just go on into the right place. I now need a bigger binder for my recipes...

Dessert - Well that's a whole other story. For the section on desserts I have it all divided into these 10 categories: cheesecakes, cakes, pies, pastries, misc. (sauces, random things that don't fit anywhere else), cookies, kid stuff, dessert breads, cold stuff and drinks. I now have to get a binder just for the desserts! :D It's only going to be a one inch binder though so don't go thinking we are heifers!!!

Pregnancy is going well. Crazy to think we have less than 14 weeks to go; we are under 100 days away from Tiernan's arrival. WOW time has flown. Tired sometimes, heartburn most of the time and happy/ecstatic/awed all the time that we get this bundle of joy. Hope all is well with you and yours!!!

Pictures of FOOD and the FOURTH!

Raspberry Pie!!!

Look at my creation

Look at my belly :D

I even had festive hair....

I did red, white and blue ink AND eyeliner

This is the layered cheesecake bowl of AWESOMENESS!!!

Side view of the bowl of creamy goodness

This is Jordan, who belongs to Lisa from work. Isn't he so cute???

Jordan and his mommy

The caption to this photo is "Now kids gather round...."

"...Let me teach you the proper way to handle fireworks."
This is the bulk of the fireworks that made up Mark's Fourth of July Firework Extravaganza!!!

This Fourth of July was FANTASTIC!!!

Touched by the Master's Hand - Finally!

Ok so we are totally still alive...it's just that there is not much to report. Just pregnant and finally feeling AWESOME. I am enjoying it because I know this feeling does not last as I head into the third trimester.

I have never felt very domesticated but that changed this morning. Fresh strawberries: $5. Fresh Raspberries: $6. A great morning in the kitchen making awesome desserts for 4th of July BBQ's with your Hubs: Priceless.

I must say that I finally feel like I have "the touch" with something: DESSERTS!! I took a no bake chiffon pie recipe and tweaked it to our tastes. Now Eric and Mom ask for it all the time and LOVE it! Plus it's healthier than a true chiffon pie and SO easy to make. Here's the link for the recipe, but we like to substitute other fruits: We've done a lemon one that was good, but we have done raspberry the last 3 times and like that the best. I garnish mine with fresh raspberry puree and cool whip. (You could make this extra creamy and thicker by using whipping cream but then the whole health factor goes out the window.)

I made one of those Raspberry pies for my first BBQ today and then I made another dessert for our 2nd BBQ. This dessert is called Layered Strawberry Cheesecake Bowl and it is awesome!! My sister made it for me and introduced me to the recipes at Kraft.com so I figured this would be great piece to take. I was so proud of myself because my sister warned me it was hard to get the cream cheese (we used Neufchâtel) really smooth but I did it! And we cut a few calories on this one by using the Neufchâtel, 1% milk and cool whip (my sister makes the best home made whipped cream so she used that in her recipe - I figured I better stick to cool whip and not try too many new things this time around). We also added an extra cup of strawberries because we LOVE the strawberries.

I am going to take pictures of these desserts once I have them garnished and ready to go. I will also make sure to take some pictures of my pregnant self today and I will post them all soon. Happy Fourth of July everyone!!!