The good things in IC

Last week I started to get my booty off the couch and do some more eventful things in my life. Well…kinda, I still love having a night in with some vino and great movies. 

My first eventful night in Iowa City, I went with some Bstoners to my first wrestling meet! It was actually really fun, I didn't know the lingo or why everyone kept yelling "twooooo", but after many pestering questions I started to get the hang of it. I also experienced my first fall on the ice…so that wasn't fun. After the wrestling meet we headed to Baroncini's for a nice dinner. 

The nice little set up

The cute little rolls…that I ate way too many of 

Bottle of wine we had

My glass of wine, with a glimpse of our bruschetta 

My amazing Salmon…seriously unreal. It had creamy mashed potatoes and white beans among the Salmon. 

Then we proceeded to go out, and I shockingly did not get any pizza. I went home and at a bowl of cereal, if you know me at all then you understand how big of a miracle that is.

Just a glance of my post working brunch shift at Bstone

My night in. Full of homemade teriyaki chicken, veggies, and rice noodles, a glass of White Zin, and two red box movies. 

Even though this break has has its ups and downs in so many ways, it was a great time. I am excited and ready for school to get started this week. Although I do love staying in, it can get pretty boring so I am ready to have a schedule again! 

My favorite food

So here's the thing, I in no way can keep track of all the different foods that I state are my favorite, I mean let's be honest there are way too many yummy treats to keep track of which we like more than the others. But, I am not exaggerating at all when I say pizza is my true love child.

Now I am not talking about Dominos or Pizza Hut (cue vom faces), I am talking brick stone oven thin thin bubbly crispy crust…seriously there is nothing better. Since I am lacking the key factor of a brick stone oven pizza, the closest place to heaven I can get is in my oven with homemade pizza.

It was always my favorite day in the Bedell house when we were having Dave's homemade pizzas for dinner, then Erin started to join too and she made this breakfast pizza one time…I have no words. Although I am no where near a pro, you can't really mess up bread and cheese with some ingredients on it, am I right?!

Homemade Veggie Pizza
Dough- I bought mine at our local Bread Garden, but if you call ahead some pizza places will let you buy their dough off of them. If buying frozen dough lightly cover the dough in EVOO and place on a bowl and cover with a towel and let it rise throughout the day.
Really any ingredients that you want to toss on a pizza…really any.

For MY pizza
pre work: roast garlic, roast bell pepper, sauté onions and mushroom, preheat oven to 425
Simply roll out the dough and place on parchment paper or greased pan. (if you have cornmeal put some on the bottom side of the crust).
Mash up the roasted garlic with EVOO until smooth and spread across the dough for crust
Slice up veggies and sprinkle amongst the dough
Lastly but NOT least the cheese, but as little or as much as you would like…I put a lot.
Pop in the oven for 10-15 minutes and viola! A delicious pizza that is doughy and gooey-licious.

Other pizza ideas I've done in the past:
-pesto chicken
-margarita
-pepperoni (duh)
-breakfast…with an over easy egg (yum!)

the good things in tejas part 2

As I am sitting in the frigid 5 degree weather here in Iowa City, I thought it would be perfect timing to hash over the latter part of my winter break at home. I started to slack on foodtography, so bare with me as I throw in some more personal ish. 

Christmas Day mimosas 

The greatest meal of the whole entire year. Dad's famous Christmas morning breaky: egg, ham and cheese croissant 

Dad's legendary drinks from his new juicer he got. This was blood orange something deliciousness

Apple eggnog brown sugar cinnamon donuts, hot cocoa donuts, and orange Grand Marnier donuts. Seriously though, these were amazing and I got to use my new donut hole pan :)

We took a trip to "Dad's" Brewery at the lake

One of the brews 

Nothing classier than a set of Duck Dynasty cards in Gun Barrel City

Birthday Dinner at Cafe Izmir for Mehreen's Birthday (on Ida's Birthday)

Amazing birthday cake that had Nutella creme filling

Traditional picture of the browns 

Sister time on NYE 

NYE on Mehreen's actual bday

One of the first nights back in Iowa City full of nachos, chips and salsa, and puppy chow 

…puppy chow made my Lindsay who mixed it up in a garbage bag, shockingly it went over very well.

Well that is all for Texas time, I am now stuck in Iowa City where yesterday the windchill was -34. As nobody is here I look forward to making many delicious meals of one. 

The good things in Texas

Being home is great for many things, but its amazing for all the great eats in Dallas and from the rents and of course seeing all the friends and family. 

First meal at home: an amaze burger

The crew for Gorman Christmas Tea

Dave chowing down at The Common Table

The brew search for dad 

The Rustic for a good catch-up sesh

My brisket burger from the Rustic (it was unreal)

Dad and I's staying in pork dinner

Salad that Erin made me for a quick lunch

The dreamy night of chocolate

Baking day: pecan bars

Baking day: orange chocolate sandwiches

Im sure there will be more to come, especially Christmas morning breakfast (my favorite meal of the year).

Cacao and Prosecco

As Christmas time is coming in hot, the holiday parties are in full force. After all the cakes, dips, and punches they all blend together, but this one was way better than the rest. My sister's friend Jessica decided to have a chocolate and wine party…definitely the best idea ever. I am not the usual chocolate lover, I'm more of a white chocolate fan but I've started to migrate and really love a good dark chocolate.

Don't be alarmed by the bleu cheese, I am not a fan of that funky cheese but it just adds major saltiness to the chocolate. Now the fungus amongus was probably my favorite, it legit taste like Texas sheet cake…and if you don't know what that is please go find some and eat it now. Both of these can be found at Dude, Sweet Chocolate. Oh and those little gems in the back are mint oreo balls that Jess made.

The favorite here was the red velvet milk chocolate, which tasted like you were biting into a piece of red velvet cake…yumm. (found at World Market)

Yummy set up for decadent hot cocoa.

Obviously with all the sweetness, a taste of salty was necessary. Sister made these little swirls that had goat cheese (my love), sun dried tomatoes, and olives.

There was plenty of wine that night but my favorite was this Prosecco and these darn napkins. I love me a good mustache anything…except on a man.

So everyone, take note. Because this night was such a success and y'all should try to do it too…and then invite me :)  

the good things

Just a little update of the past week. 

Grace and Jules on wine and homemade donut night.

They were even more amazing than they looked. 

The preview to Jules proving to us that she can cook. 

She proved us right: Orange chicken, lo mein, and asian green beans. (click for recipes)

Wife her up gents. 

My unreal carrot cake, that finally filled the craving. 

My first home cooked meal of this break. 

Christmas Treats

For the end of the season, I wanted to make my team some treats for the end of the year party. Now I'm gonna tell you, I got up and started baking right away. I literally went from 8:30-3, I was exhausted and could not be happier to get out of the kitchen-but I would say it was all worth it, and so would my team.

The line up: peppermint candied oreos, candied nuts, and biscoff puppy chow. Yeah..so I'm not gonna act like I came up with all of these recipes on my own…I mean I did search specifically on interest, does that count for anything? 

OREOS

Okay so I tried to be smarter than the directions and just push the lollipop in the the oreos…that does not work. They either crack the oreo or just fall apart once you dip them in the candy melts.  I just decided to nix the lollipop ideas, I mean they still taste the same right? 

CANDIED NUTS 

I this candied nuts its a great little gift during the holidays, they taste amazing and make your house/apt smell amazing! I've made candied nuts multiple times and have used many different recipes, and they have all turned out great!

BISCOFF PUPPY CHOW

So I don't know if I have expressed my love for biscoff…but its unreal. I was introduced by my sister, she first got in it Europe where it is called Speculos. There are no words to describe its amazingness, you just have to go out and try it yourself. (For the baking you need creamy, but just for eating get the crunchy, its so much better).



They turned out really pretty and festive, and everyone loved them! The puppy chow was the biggest crowd pleaser, so I will probably give that another try.