Pancakes!

Let me preface this post by confessing that in the two years since we've been married I have probably made breakfast twice, and they were both on Aubrey's birthday. So when I woke up last Monday, my day off for the week, and had the sudden urge to make breakfast, I'm sure Aubrey thought something was wrong with me. But he willingly played along!

I recently got a new griddle and had been wanting to break it in so, I decided to make pancakes. I wanted a homemade pancake recipe, but didn't have one so to allreciepes.com I went! The recipe was good and I will definitely use it again!

So, there I was, being a regular ol' housewife making my man breakfast, when I remembered something I saw on pinterest a while back, and that's when breakfast took a turn down fun street!

First, take some of your pancake batter (or all of it!) and put it in some type of squirt bottle, we had one laying around from Summer Snow, but I have also seen an old ketchup bottle used.

Next, use that squirt bottle to make whatever, you heard it, whatever shapes/designs you can imagine!

Let the fun begin! Needless to say, I had way to much of it!

Side note: this technique is also great even if all your after is perfectly round pancakes.

Aubrey did enjoy the fun shapes, but not as much a some way future kiddos probably would!

dressed up spaghetti

we eat pasta a lot around the Hogan household, mostly because it is quick and easy and because i LOVE all pasta! but tonight we ate it because my husband is running a 50K this Saturday (that is 31 miles...and yes he is crazy) and tonight was his night to "carb up" so PASTA!

but the plain ole' jane pasta sauce gets old quick! so i wanted to share an easy way to dress up your favorite jar of marinara! it's a nice pinch of sugar to your regular pasta routine!

brown your favorite kind of ground meat, i used beef, but others would be good too, whatever you like to use! then drain the meat and add 1 chopped green bell pepper, 1/2 chopped sweet onion, and one garlic clove, minced. let all that cook together for a few minutes, then add almost a whole can of diced tomatoes to the mix and let that goodness meld together for a few minutes.

then add 3/4 of a jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce.

let all that goodness simmer together while you cook your favorite pasta! we went with spaghetti for this "carbfest"

**tip for keeping the pasta from sticking all together: after your drain the water off of it, toss it in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil! adds a nice flavor that wont clash with the meal, and keeps it from becoming a giant glob of pasta!**

YUM!

piece of cake

just had to share this amazing recipe i found for a delicious chocolate cake. i am seriously in love.

i found the recipe here. i am now a HUGE fan of recipegirl. i will definitely be going back for more ideas and inspiration!!

this recipe is a piece of cake, pun intended! here is how it turned out!

YUM. this pinch of sugar will definitely be a new staple in our house!!

chocolate chip cookies....revisited

if you are like me, and i feel like most of the world, you are a fan of chocolate chip cookies. they are a classic cookie staple around our house! while just plain ol' chocolate chip cookies are good, i had heard whispers and rumors of a way to sweeten the deal on chocolate chip cookies... so i just had to try it out!

what is this twist on an old favorite?? candy bars! how you may ask? well i will show you!

you will need your favorite candy bars in bite sizes! i have made these with milky ways (my fav!) and recees (my boy's fav!) but i think whatever sounds good to you would work!!

then you can use your favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies and... well i will let the pictures do the talking!

the cookies will probably need to be a little bigger than normal to fit around the candy so you may need to lengthen your normal cooking time, and i would advise cooking them at no higher than 350 degrees!

look at those delicious, ooey-gooey, goodies. talk about adding a pinch of sugar to an old favorite!

polka dot dessert

last weekend our sweet friends John and Jill took us out to eat! we are so blessed by their friendship and we always have fun with them! after dinner we invited them back to our place for dessert!

i saw this a couple of weeks ago, here and had been dying to make it!

it was my first attempt at cheesecake and i think it turned out pretty well! i did not have an 8 inch spring-form pan only a 9 inch so it was a little thinner than i would have liked but it was super cute and super yummy!

i will definitely be making this little pinch of sugar again!

valentine inspiration

valentine inspiration...in the form of FOOD!

think strawberries are romantic enough already, how about heart shaped strawberries?!

a heartfelt breakfast!

spice up your spaghetti with some heart shaped meatballs!

hope your valentines day is filled with little pinches of sugar throughout the day!

souper bowl

In honor of the Super Bowl, my dad having pneumonia, and Aubrey having a sore throat, I decided to make soup!

I opened my trusty recipe box to see what goodies I could find!

I ended up deciding on this one!

From the kitchen of Steve, aka my dad!

This is a great soup recipe! Souper hearty and yummy! Tons of yummy veggies, but the soup has so much flavor that the vegetables don't really taste like vegetables! This is a great way to sneak some veggies by veggie haters! (like my husband!!)

The original recipe calls for beans, but the beans require a few extra steps that I didn't have time for! (rinse and soak for 2-3 hours!) To get started on the recipe (without the beans) Fill a large soup pot about 1/2 full of water, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, season salt, cumin, paprika, a little dash of cayenne pepper, and my favorite secret ingredient, a pinch of sugar! After all a little sugar never hurt anyone!

Start heating the water while you slice and quarter a pound of smoked sausage, and one small sweet onion. Add these to the water and cook on high for 30 minutes!

As the sweet aroma of that concoction fills your kitchen, you can start to chop and peel the other veggies! You want to add these in the order of how long they need to cook. Carrots, celery, green beans, and bell peppers. For amounts of each, half a small bag of baby carrots, little over half a pound of green beans, two bell peppers (I like to use yellow and orange, for more color!) You will also need two cans of diced tomatoes, I like to use diced because of the flavor that comes with them, and the juice which you need to flavor the broth!

I don't know about you, but I think that chopping and peeling is so relaxing!

I just love the yellow and orange peppers on my red ikea cutting board! It looks like fire, and they definitely add a nice flavor to the soup!

After you add those veggies to your soup, you may want to add a little water depending on how much broth you are working with! The veggies will soak up some of the water so beware of that!

You can let that yummy goodness simmer and fill your house with good smells for 1-3 hours depending on how much time you have till meal time! Be sure and taste the broth periodically and add seasonings as needed! Those veggies do soak up a good bit of flavor!!

I decided to serve it with my mom's spicy cornbread! I know it is just a box, but it is the best cornbread!!

one box of jiffy, a couple of sliced jalepenos (or just some juice) and half a can of cream style corn! YUM

I hope you enjoy this hearty, soul warming, delicious soup as much as we did!