Experiments...

I am so tired of feeding my family the same old thing every week, but with an 11 week old and a 2 year old around, kitchen time is limited. That said, I am ready for a little more adventure in my life (and Mitch wants me to unpack the cookbooks so that he can get them out of the garage), so I've decided to try one new entree/side dish and one new dessert every week. I started out by cutting recipes out of some old Food & Family and Taste of Home magazines that I have been meaning to go through for years. So, at least I got rid of some clutter! Anyway, I sorted all of the recipes that sounded good (and easy!) and put them into a little cardfile so that we can pick a couple each week. This week our two recipes to try were "Holy Cannoli Cake" and Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie - both from Food & Family. Here they are, although I'm not sure how well the scan came out...We had the Cannoli Cake for FHE treats last night (and it is already gone!). It was SOOO yummy!!! Here is a picture of how it came out.I am not a fan of recipes in general, and I got really believe in measuring ingredients in the strictest sense, so I did alter this recipe, but only slightly. I used chocolate chips instead of the chopped chocolate bar, mostly because I'm too lazy to chop up chocolate. Mitch liked it, but I think the texture would have been better with the chopped chocolate. Next time. This one is definitely a keeper! It only took about 15 minutes to put together, although I suppose you could bake your own pound cake if you really wanted to. I let Sara Lee do that part.

The Chicken pot pie was also really good. Again, store bought crust, as I have never managed to even come close to my sister at pie crust making, so I don't even try. I actually never even thought of making a pot pie until our friend Emily brought one for dinner when I was recovering from having Myra. We both loved it so much, I've been trying to find a recipe that we like. Mitch doesn't like cream sauces and I do, so the compromise has been a challenge, but I think this one might have it! We both liked it, so I'll be making it again, too.

So far, my search for more variety in the kitchen has been a success, and I haven't yet made myself any crazier than usual, so we'll drive on and see what else we can discover!