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Amy found this recipe and tried it for our United Way bake sale at work. It is the first chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever seen with pudding in the mix.
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I couldn’t pass up this fruit when I saw it at Meijer. I didn’t know anything about it, other than the fact that with a good chain, it could be a mace.

The fruit is called a Kiwano Horned Melon. I wonder how much the spines are toned down after picking. They are still seriously sharp as I picked this up.

I dropped it into a plastic bag and the spines poked through the bag until the bag hit the main body. This fruit isn’t cheap, but I’m always up for an experience.

I lopped off a little of the top, easily enough. The outer skin was fairly soft, where spikes were not present. Inside, the fruit contains green transparent sacks, each holding a seed. The fruit looks so moist that I punctured the opposite side and turned the fruit upside down to drain out some of the juice. Nothing came out. But it looked so moist.
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For New York Style pizzas, you really need a stone. I have heard for people using unglazed tiles from a hardware store, but I am concerned with impurities that may come out of those tiles if I pick the incorrect one. I have purchased a thick stone, but it eventually cracked after some use , but no mis-use from me. I’m currently using a large round stone from Pampered Chef.
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This weekend I messed around with making pizza again. My last few pizzas have been Chicago Style deep dish, but Amy wanted some New York Style thin crust pizza. I decided to try my own sauce this time. I’ve tried to use spaghetti sauce in the past and had to spice it like crazy to get it close to a passable runny pizza sauce. It seemed like it would be easier to just start with tomatoes and go from there.
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I’ve had to trim the Cilantro quite a bit to allow everything to catch up. The Basil has grown with a vengeance during the last week. I’ve had to cut down the chives two as well. The only herb not growing strong yet is the Oregano. It looks like it will be another week before it really starts going. It is interesting watching the herbs during all the stages of growth. I’ve never looked at Thyme much and just noticed the purple color on the underside of the leaves and bright green on top. Can’t wait until these are ready for continuous harvest. They would have helped my pizza sauce that I made today.

We had over a friend and her daughter this evening, so I was given the job of entertaining this young whirlwind. I decided to make Beef Stroganoff with homemade Egg Noodles. The noodles are easy, just flour and egg in a food processor, as described in this post. She really enjoyed watching the entire process from food processor through the pasta cutters. I made very thin fettuccine style noodles.
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Amy really surprised me with this gift at Christmas. She was not sure if I would like it, so she only purchased 1 AeroGarden. I recently ordered 3 more, because it is a blast.

“What is the AeroGarden?” you say. An AeroGarden is a cool little inside Aeroponic Garden (similar to Hydroponic, but the roots are in 100% humidity air rather than water) made by AeroGrow. You have 7 seed pods per unit and just put in the pods, fill up the water to the line, add the two starter nutrient tablets and plug it in. The water automatically pumps into the sponges holding the seeds and the clear plastic “bio-dome” cups keep moisture in until the seed sprouts. Once the leaves form, you remove the clear plastic cover and let it grow. And grow they do, up into the compact fluorescent grow lamps.
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This Christmas, my family decided to do something we had not done for nearly 20 years: paint cookies. Instead of using our traditional recipe for painted sugar cookies, one of my sisters purchased ready made dough. They tasted a little better, but were harder to paint than I remember.
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I always loved when Mom made this Sour Cream Pound Cake. The crust is delightful. I finally made my first try of this earlier this year. I used a stoneware bundt pan and that was a mistake. The cake came out, sans crust. So I had to scrape it out to eat it. So was it really a mistake?

I’ve had my best luck making this in a standard loaf pan.

Serves: 12
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I remember when my mom got her first advanced microwave, when I was a kid. It had a meat and candy thermometer that allowed us to make some fun things. One recipe we used to make often during the holidays were these red hots. While you don’t have to use a microwave, it sure was easy with the temperature probe. Be careful though, the red hots stick to you and really can make a bad burn.
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