A Fabulous Birthday Cake!

 

Do you know Melissa at The Joys of Home Educating?  She is probably the MOST enthusiastic homeschool mom I know.   I admire her creativity and zest for all things homeschooling (and life in general!).   She is hosting a Fall Friday link-up for our favorite Fall recipes.  I just had to share this wonderful Apple - Cream Cheese Bundt Cake I made for my hubby's 41st birthday last weekend.


Let me preface everything by telling you this: the cake is a lot of work, but it is WELL worth the effort.  I have decided it is only going to be made for my husband or blood relatives.  It's that good, but that time consuming!  :-)


The recipe is from the cover of this month's Southern Living, but you can also find it online here.


As you can see, it turned out beautifully -- almost as beautiful as the magazine!

The smiles on dad's birthday are priceless to me...

What's For Dinner Wednesday.... Link Up Your EASY Recipes!

I've been in a bit of a cooking funk lately... dinners have gotten less and less interesting and I'm needing some inspiration to step things up a bit!  Therefore, it's time for a What's For Dinner linky... who's in the mood to get some EASY recipes??   The plan is to link up a post with a quick, easy and delicious recipe.   Check back at this post often to find some new recipes. 

I'll start us off with a great recipe I made this week.   I make no claims that this recipe is my own.  Allrecipes is a lifesaver for me.  I love their recipe spinner app. on the iPad and iPhone, and I also love their daily emails.  The recipe I made is Beef Nacho Casserole.  This was yummy (tasted just like a Mexican restaurant) and very simple.  It has a little kick to it, but nothing the kids can't handle!  

What's a quick, easy recipe you have to share?  Link up below - the linky will stay open for a full week to give you time to link some recipes (link more than one if you wish).  Be sure to grab the What's For Dinner? graphic to use in your post and link back to this post so that others can visit and take advantage of the good recipes!

My New Favorite Item in the Kitchen

Cooking is something I don't blog about much.  I don't know why, because I do like to cook.... especially when I have great kitchen tools.

I have a new favorite item in my kitchen:  The  3 1/2 qt. Le Creuset Dutch Oven!  

 

This is one of those things that will last a lifetime and is just a quality piece for your kitchen.   I must say I love the bright blue - in fact I just leave it on my stove because I like to look at it... (oh, and Williams Sonoma has the smallest ones on sale, so they are more affordable!) 

I have never really cooked in a Dutch Oven (until last week), but I found a fabulous recipe I just had to share.   Of course, if it's from Emeril, you know it's good.  So here goes:  Emeril's Pot Roast!  

The recipe calls for a Goose Neck roast (HUH?!?!) or a simple beef roast.  Can you guess which I chose?  Right.  The beef roast.  We did learn, however, that the Goose Neck roast is quite a delicacy and can be purchased in specialty stores.  The flavor is wonderful because it is such a fatty cut of meat.  

I bought elephant garlic (a change from the recipe), cut it is pieces, and inserted it in 10 slits in the meat, then seared the roast on each side for about 5 minutes.    I did all of this around 1:00 in the afternoon, since the roast had to cook for 4 hours before I put the vegetables in for the final hour.   

I love a meal that I can get mostly prepared in the early afternoon! 

After this, I put the meat in the dutch oven and covered with beef stock.  

This baked at 325 degrees for four hours (in those four hours I went to the pool with my kids... we had to race home because "the roast was waiting!")

I added turnips, parsnips, red potatoes, baby carrots, and onions on top of the roast.   See how everything is cut crinkled?  That's because I love my crinkle cutter from the Pampered Chef.  It cuts everything wonderfully!  

After cooking for the additional hour the roast came out of the oven looking just beautiful.   My poor dog was out of his mind because the house smelled sooooo good!  There's also nothing better for your husband than to walk in the door after a long day and almost be knocked over with the smell of a fabulous dinner.  (It put him in such a good mood he ran out after dinner to pick up Italian Ice for dessert!)

The meat was literally falling apart, so the presentation left a little to be desired.   It was such a wonderful meal... truly the BEST pot roast we have ever eaten.   The recipe calls for a gravy to made at the end, but I just spooned the juices from the dutch oven over the meat and veggies and it was great.

The dutch oven washed up so nicely, so clean-up was a breeze.   This meal is definitely a keeper!

Linking up today with Living Well Wednesdays at Women Living Well!