Archives for 2015 | There's Always Moore Cookin'

December 2, 2015Vanessa 1 Comment

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

Fresh cranberries! Ahh…I love cranberry season. I miss being able to drive through cranberry country when we lived in Boston. I grabbed several bags of cranberries right before Thanksgiving when they went on sale and have had fun dreaming up all of the cranberry-filled dishes that I might make with them.

I decided it would be fun to kick off December with these bad boys — cranberry chocolate chip muffins. It doesn’t get much better than these. They offer the perfect balance of tart and sweet. Whip up a batch of these to enjoy this week, or maybe make a couple dozen for when family comes into town for the holidays.

What to make next? Hmm…I’m thinking cranberry orange bread. Yes…

Ingredients:

2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
¾ cup milk
5 1/3 Tbs. unsalted butter (melted)
1 tsp. almond extract
1½ cups coarsely chopped cranberries
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
In a mixing bowl, stir flour, baking powder and salt to combine.
In another mixing bowl, mix 1 cup of the sugar, eggs, milk, melted butter and almond extract. Stir until well blended.
Mix in the dry ingredients.
Toss the chopped cranberries and mini chocolate chips in and fold into the batter.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin liners, filling them about two thirds of the way full.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until they are slightly golden and pass the toothpick test.

November 6, 2015Vanessa No Comments

Roasted Butternut & Spinach Pizza

We started a family tradition a few years ago of making homemade pizza every Friday night. We look forward to it all week long and talk about what toppings we should throw on each time…and I’m kind of in love with our Pizza Fridays. They give me the warm fuzzy feelings and how could I not be on board with cheesy, pizza goodness?

Thankfully, Baby D seems to love pizza as much as his parents. We used to just cut a slice into a few smaller pieces for him to enjoy in his highchair while we devoured the rest of the pie, but the last few weeks he’s become super picky. He will now only eat the pizza if he gets to take a bite off a grown-up sized slice after mommy or daddy has taken a bite. Silly kid. Anyway…it’s adorable and I can’t wait for the day that he can help make our Friday pizza.

Last Friday we improvised with what we had on hand and came up with this ah-mazing roasted butternut squash and spinach pizza creation. As a rule, I don’t ever take the time to set up the equipment for a real food photo shoot on our pizza nights. I want to enjoy the time with family and eat our pizza while it’s fresh out of the oven with cheese that is still bubbling. Mmm… I have, however, decided to try to start posting our Friday pizza creations on Instagram. After posting the pic above last week, I had so many people reach out asking for the recipe that I decided to share it here.

Full disclosure: We were pressed for time and used a store-bought pizza dough. Don’t judge us.

Ingredients:

pizza dough (store-bought or your favorite recipe)
olive oil
garlic salt
oregano
basil
alfredo sauce (homemade or from a jar)
shredded mozzarella
ricotta cheese
butternut squash, cubed
fresh spinach

Directions:

To prepare butternut squash: Peel and cut butternut into cubes. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place butternut in a baking dish, cover with tin foil and roast in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes, stirring ever 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Spray baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Roll out pizza dough and lay on prepared baking sheet.
Brush dough with olive oil.
Lightly sprinkle dough with garlic salt, oregano, and basil. Tip: I like to sprinkle a little extra garlic salt on the crust.
Spread a couple of spoonfuls of alfredo sauce on dough to make a thin sauce layer.
Top sauce with shredded mozzarella cheese, fresh spinach (stems removed), and roasted butternut squash.
Dollop ricotta cheese on tip and bake 10-14 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is golden.
Devour!

Moore Cookin’ Original

October 26, 2015Vanessa No Comments

The Quarantined Life

spiced cider and cookies Sickness has moved in with us for the better part of the past 2+ months. We just can’t seem to shake it no matter how hard we try. Our poor immune systems can’t even get decent recovery time in before they get hit all over again.

We’ve had:

4 ear infections
1 ear tube surgery
2 pinkeye infections for Baby D
1 pinkeye each for Mom & Dad
1 case of hand foot and mouth disease each for Mom & Baby D
sinus infections all around
too many fevers to count

We’ve had a few bouts of 3-4 days of health here and there that were such a tease, but at least they allowed us the chance cross a few things off our Fall Bucket List.

I was so thankful for the Saturday a couple of weeks ago when the stars aligned and we all felt semi-well at the same time (on a weekend!) and were able to visit a local farm’s pumpkin patch and enjoy all of the Fall festivities. They had a corn maze, a barn full of animals that Baby D instantly fell in love with (especially the little ducklings), and a mule-pulled wagon ride out to a true pumpkin patch to pick out our very own pumpkin straight from the vine.

This past weekend we had planned to host a pumpkin carving party with friends, but you guessed it, sickness struck again. This time the hubby came down with a nasty case of viral pinkeye. So instead of being party people, we stayed home, continued our Harry Potter marathon (we’re determined to get through all of them before Halloween), and finally put up this year’s monster window creation.

Happy Halloween Week!