I put together this little video of our camping trip that you might enjoy watching.

I wanted to share with you a little more about the deep pit cooking we do one night.

Before we left home, we took chuck roast and seasoned it with salt, pepper and garlic powder, placed some sliced onion along with rosemary from our garden on top, wrapped it in parchment paper and then in 3 layers of foil. I like the parchment paper because I don’t want my meat to be in contact with the foil for all those hours of cooking.

Normally, I would have frozen it ahead of time, but I forgot to do it this time around.

The day before we were to have roast for supper, I had the boys dig me a pit.

I have an enamel roaster pan that I use just for this purpose. It’s been hit a few times with a shovel when we’re taking the roast from the ground but it still works for our purposes.

I started a fire in the pit and kept it burning all afternoon. I don’t know how necessary it is to start the day before but my thinking is it’s heating the earth and then when I put the roast in, the energy of the heat goes just to the roast. But that’s all an unproved and untested theory since I’ve never done it any other way.

I even threw some rocks into the pit so we could have some hot stones.

On Day 2 we set the roaster insert on top of the coals and then set our roasts on top of that. Keep in mind that we are using pine wood. It’ really hard to get a pile of coals because it burns to nothing. I don’t know how it would work if you were using a hard wood.

You can see the roaster insert in this picture.

Set the roaster over the top of the roasts.

Heap coals around the roast.

Russell wanted to put some foil on top of the roaster to help retain heat. It’s probably not a  necessary step but it was something we did.

Then you just completely cover your hole with the dirt you took out. If you see a lot of steam escaping from the ground, put more dirt on it and you can even step on it to compress the earth. Small wisps of smoke is fine but the more smoke coming out of the hole means the more heat you are losing.

We put the roast in around noon and left it all day until 6 that night. Then we dug it out of the ground and let it set for 30 minutes as we waited on the hunters to return from the evening hunt. It was still piping hot (because of the 3 layers of foil we had wrapped it in) and falling apart tender. In short, it was fabulous! The flavor was superb, too with the rosemary. Mmmm, yummy!

And with some other delicious sides including our Dutch Oven baked potatoes…

…we had a fantastic meal in the woods.

Has anyone ever tried deep pit cooking? I’d love to hear about it.

I think one of my dreads is breakfast and wouldn’t you know it(!) – it’s my husband’s favorite meal of the day! He can skip almost any other meal, but don’t miss making him breakfast. Even some of my boys says it’s their favorite meal. What’s a mother to do in this situation?

Since we married 27 years ago, it has always been a practice of mine to make a hot morning meal. I wanted to have that family time together and I feel like it’s an important meal too, but man oh, man I’m sure tired of making it.

I’ve been trying to think of things I could do to make it less of a chore. If you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments. I’m thinking I need to go back to menu planning. When you know what you have to get up and make in the morning, when it’s all written down, you don’t have to waste valuable energy or time trying to decide what you want to cook. If I have a breakfast plan made ahead, I can go directly into the kitchen and get to it.

If I had a menu plan, I would also be sure I had purchased all necessary items. Do you ever walk into the kitchen and find out you don’t have everything you need for that meal you thought sounded perfect for right then?

(artisan bread made by my daughter)

So we have two pluses now for planning a menu ahead of time.

1. make a menu – save yourself energy and time by not having to think about what you’re going to make every morning
2. with a menu I would be sure I had purchased all items needed for the week at the grocery store

What about having some things in the freezer ready to go? Have you practiced this? Some ideas of food that could be made ahead and placed in the freezer are:

• quiches (half-way cooked)
• muffins (freeze in the muffin tins and then they can be removed and put in zip-loc bags)
• loaves of homemade bread (great for toast)

Other ideas?

You may remember the magnetic chalkboard menu planner I made 3 years ago. It’s such an easy system to use and worked really well, but then I got out of the habit.

This chalkboard that we placed on the inside of the cabinet door was specifically for my breakfast menu.

I listed out every breakfast I make and then in the squares that have the days of the week, I put the number of the meal that I want to make for that day. It works really nice. I have a lot of breakfast choices because after making breakfast for so many years, you need some variety. Saturday and Sunday are my days off and so the kids help themselves to cereal.

What breakfast will you be making tomorrow morning?

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Lots of fun times were shared with this lovely group of young people this last week and we enjoyed hosting them.

So I wanted to tell you all about the Bruschetta Bar that we put together for our Christmas Eve meal. It was a lot of fun to do and I think a lot of the impressiveness of the meal was due to how it was set up – entirely due to my sister. She’s pretty amazing that way. I showed her some pictures on Pinterest that I liked and mentioned that we had some scrap wood I was thinking of using and in just a short while she had the whole table arranged.

To host your own Bruschetta Bar party here are some of the items you may want to purchase.

Baguette Loaves

Roasted Red Peppers

Cherry Tomatoes

Artichoke Hearts

Charred Corn (Trader Joe’s freezer section)

Spinach

Caramelized Onions

Sauteed Mushrooms

Jalapeno Stuffed Green Olives

Arugula

Eggplant Garlic Spread w/ Sweet Red Peppers (Trader Joe’s)

Olive Tapenade Spread (Trader Joe’s)

Pesto Sauce

Marinara Sauce

Red Grapes

Salami

Smoked BBQ Shredded Meat (meat I had in the freezer from my daughter’s graduation)

Variety of cheeses – we used Brie, Extra Sharp Cheddar, P’tit Basque, Asiago, Jalepeno Cheddar (I think it was a cheddar), goat cheese with cranberries, Paradiso (Italian Style)

Chicken Wings (I purchased these in case there were some heartier eaters that wanted more meat.)

You certainly do not need to purchase everything that I did. I had no idea how much we would use since our family tends to eat quite a bit and there were 34 of us. With all the variety I had, it was almost too difficult to choose what combinations to put together. So whether you choose to have as much variety as I did or less, it all works.

To prepare your baguettes slices for the bar, brush olive oil on each slice and then grill for just a few minutes or until you have some black marks. While it’s grilling, sprinkle granulated garlic on each slice.

I found some really tasty recipes on Olivia’s Cuisine for our Bruschetta Bar.

• 2 pints red grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
• 4 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 16 fresh basil leaves, plus more as needed, chiffonade
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

• 2 cans (15oz) cannelloni beans
• 1 large tomato, diced
• Juice one lemon
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• Olive oil to taste
• Chopped parsley to taste

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.
2. Refrigerate until needed. Drizzle with more olive oil when ready to serve.

It’s a Do-Ahead Kind of Meal

Everything can be done ahead which is a big plus when you’re putting on a party. The only thing you wouldn’t want to do too far in advance is the grilling of the baguette slices since they can get dried out and too hard.

The magic of candles… they always add so much.

The presentation is a big part of the fun!

A bruschetta bar usually has a rustic look to it. Pull out your wooden cutting boards for this. I only had 2 wooden cutting boards so we used the leftover scraps of wood we had around here and covered a few with foil so they would be food safe.

Labels are necessary so everyone knows the various types of cheeses being offered.

Use boxes for stacking. Make your food presentation different levels. It gives much interest and a sophisticated touch. We had a bunch of Amazon boxes we used and if you look closely you will be able to catch part of the markings on the box. Optimally, you would want these to be hidden but to be honest I never even noticed until after the party when I was looking at pictures.

And that’s how our Bruschetta Bar was put together. It really was a lot of fun and a big hit with the family.

And just like on Christmas Eve, snow is supposed to be coming our way once again the next few days. Lots of it! We’ll see if the weatherman is right.

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Here’s the recipe.

Peppermint Bark

1. Break the peppermint candy into small pieces. (rolling pins work great for this) Melt the chocolate over low heat, stirring often. Once the chocolate has melted, add the peppermint extract and stir.
2. line a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment paper and pour the melted chocolate onto it. Spread with a spatula. Sprinkle the crushed peppermint candies on to the chocolate and gently press it in.
3. Place in the freezer for 5 minutes or until hardened. Remove and break into pieces. To store: cover and place in refrigerator.

Have you ever made Peppermint Bark?

What’s a traditional candy or sweet you make each year for the holidays?

(recipe was found at Simply Recipes)

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And then, if there were guests to visit with, things got worse. No longer did he stand ready to put out any fires but had his back to the grill while he had a nice chat and our meat was consumed by the hungry flames.

Although I am exaggerating the situation, it was true enough that he eventually was retired from the grill and I became the one responsible. I wasn’t much better. When I finished, the meat would be charred and dried out.

Grill masters we were not and anytime meat was needed to be grilled for a crowd, others were asked to step in.

But I’m very pleased to say I have learned a few things over the years and just this past week grilled 130 pounds of chicken and every single piece turned out beautifully!

I think I’ve earned the badge now of Grill Boss! (at least with chicken!)

So I am here to share my tips with you that I learned from others and if you would like to serve the most delicious and moist chicken ever, I will also share my recipe with you. It’s sooo good and received rave reviews from my 230 guests this week.I made a Chipotle copycat burrito with this recipe.

I first made this chicken almost a year ago and found the recipe on Gimme Delicious. (Layla Atik, the author of the blog has beautiful pictures of her chicken that will have you drooling.)

So there you have the recipe but let me give you the tips that were passed on to me.

1. Pound all your chicken breasts evenly to about 1/2″ thickness. (Having different thicknesses on the same chicken breast will cause parts of it to be dried out while the thick part will still be needing cooked.)

2.  If making a day or two ahead (which I did), reduce cooking time to 3 minutes on each side. You want to leave it a little pink so that when you reheat the chicken it doesn’t dry out.

3. After removing the chicken from the grill, immediately put the lid on the container, keeping all the steam in. You want all that moisture. If you’re wanting to preslice it before your event, let it first cool down completely.

4. When reheating, heat it at a high temperature and for no longer than an hour.

I used mesquite charcoal (purchased from Costco) and the chicken had the most delectable, smoked flavor. I would definitely recommend doing this.

What has been your experience with grilling?

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If you’ve never made them before I’ll share how I did it.

This is the pan of kale before it was placed in the oven.

The only time I use kale is when I’m making Toscana Soup. So I had an extra bunch in my refrigerator that was just starting to yellow and I decided I’d better do something about it before it went completely bad.

Here’s how I made my chips.

That’s it. Very easy and it takes almost no time at all! Note: The kale does shrink while baking.

These are the kale chips after they finished baking.

Do you eat kale or have you ever made kale chips?

So I have quite a bit of chicken I need to use in some other way besides as single serving pieces. So I decided to try a Chicken Alfredo Pizza. Then I could disguise the chicken that was added. I used my food processor to make the chicken into small pieces – which it made it really little (like hamburger) but that worked quite well anyways.  My pizza crust was homemade using whole wheat flour.

I know. I know.  The picture is not the best. But you can go to Cooking Classy and see her beautiful pizza.

I love when I find a new recipe that everyone enjoys and this pizza is one of them. Not your traditional red sauce pizza but one that I (a lover of red sauce) thoroughly enjoyed.  The chicken I had made originally was quite garlicky so I think that made the pizza even better then it would have been.

Tip:  When cooking a pizza use a pizza stone or cast iron skillet to achieve a crispy crust.

Jaclyn of Cooking Classy created this recipe and it is a keeper!

Chicken Alfredo Pizza

• 1 lb pizza dough, store-bought or homemade
• 1 1/2 cups cooked or grilled, shredded chicken
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/8 tsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp whole milk
• 2 oz finely shredded Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup)
• Salt and freshly ground black or white pepper, to taste
• cornmeal, for dusting
• 4 oz shredded Mozzarella cheese (1 cup)
• 6 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp chopped green onions

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a pizza stone in center of oven to heat while preparing toppings for pizza (for at least 30 minutes).
• Melt butter along with garlic powder and onion powder in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. While whisking vigorously, slowly pour in cream and milk. Bring mixture just to a gentle bubble stirring constantly. Allow mixture to gently boil for 20 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add in Parmesan cheese, season with salt and pepper to taste then return to warm heat and stir occasionally until ready to use.
• To assemble pizza:
• On a floured work surface, flatten, stretch and shape pizza dough into a 13 to 14-inch round, while creating a thicker outer crust. Sprinkle a wooden pizza peel with flour and cornmeal and transfer shaped dough to pizza peel, reshaping dough as need. Remove pizza stone from oven, sprinkle lightly with cornmeal then carefully slide shaped pizza dough from pizza peel onto hot pizza stone. Pour half of the Alfredo sauce over dough round, then use the back of a spoon to spread into an even layer coming within about 1-inch of the edge. Sprinkle shredded chicken over sauce layer, then pour remaining sauce evenly over chicken. Sprinkle top evenly with Mozzarella cheese then sprinkle with chopped bacon. Brush outer crust with olive oil and season crust lightly with a pinch of garlic powder and salt. Bake in preheated oven 14 – 16 minutes until crust is nicely golden. Remove from oven, garnish top evenly with green onions, cut into slices and serve warm.

Growing up we would actually dig into the pomegranate half with a spoon.  Now that was supper messy!

After I was married I did it differently. We would actually deseed the entire thing before eating.

But now…

                     Oh, you are going to love this…

Now, I have learned a new way. My firefighter brother-in-law, who has to do some cooking when he’s on shift, learned a new way that is so amazing and totally makes deseeding a pomegranate a breeze.

Watch the video and if you don’t believe it, TRY IT!

                    It works!

I’ve not tried it with a wooden spoon but I see a lot of people using them. My thoughts would be the heavier the object used to strike the pomegranate, the quicker the job.

                         Now go try it on a pomegranate and tell me you didn’t love it!

Everything seems to be going quite well.  Whew!

Serenity made all the bread for the rehearsal dinner the other day.  Rosemary bread to go along with the lasagna we’ll be having.  I’m having so much fun getting together things for the rehearsal.  I’ve used my Silhouette machine quite a bit.  Still loving it.

I was so proud of Serenity.  She had a long day making all the loaves!

Justus’s birthday decorations were still up.  But I finally took the time to remove them after this picture.  Aren’t you proud of me? It was only a week after his birthday.

Brushing on the egg glaze

Beautiful finished loaves

Sliced, buttered and in the freezer.

Thank you, Serenity!!

A daughter is a day brightener and a heart warmer.