Are you ready for some football (snacks)?

It's no secret that I'm a huge sports fan - baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, you name it, I like it. And, I really like enjoying some good food and drinks while watching said games.

So yesterday was the perfect opportunity to do just that. Our alma matter, University of Missouri, was playing the number one team in the country, Oklahoma, at home on Homecoming day. It was going to be a huge game and the hubby, somehow, miraculously, was off the entire day to enjoy it with me.

I planned a day full of food to enjoy while the Tigers were marching to victory.

• I started off the day with blueberry muffins. I'll be perfectly honest with you, I see nothing wrong with making them from a box. You can hardly mess them up, unless you burn them, and they're always consistently good. What else can you ask for while cooking, especially at an hour of the day when you have hardly woken up and had your coffee?

• Then, once the coffee kicked in, I was feeling inspired, so I whipped up a batch of brownies to sweeten the victory at the end of the day. Again, I'm a big fan of boxed mixes for brownies. Really, actually, for anything that has to do with baking. I'm all for cooking from scratch, but there's something about baking that gets to me and I like it as easy and error-proof as possible.I took a break from the kitchen for a while to hang out and carve the massive pumpkins I'd bought earlier this week. It was a beautiful, sunny day outside and it was great to be outdoors with my two boys (I'm including the dog). I really wanted to carve the Missouri "M" logo in my pumpkin, but seeing as my artistic talents start and stop with the ability to (poorly) draw stick people, I figured it would be best to stick with traditional jack o' lantern designs. (The guy's is on the left, mine is on the right)
  

We headed back inside to start the food prep for the game, and I roasted the pumpkin seeds for a snack. I was looking forward all week to enjoying those salty, crunchy seeds and, to my utter dismay, I burned the daylights out of them. There were a few spared the fires of the oven, but overall they're pretty burned and, therefore, inedible. Oh well, I have a whole year to perfect my cooking techniques :)

• I made a quick appetizer of bacon-wrapped water chestnuts that I'm pretty sure I could live on if the need arose. If you're looking for a quick app that travels well and is a hit with anyone, I highly recommend this recipe. You take canned water chestnuts (halve them if they're too big to pop in your mouth in one bite), wrap them in a piece (or half-piece) of bacon, secure with a toothpick, line up in a baking dish, cover with your choice of BBQ sauce, and bake until the sauce is nice and thick and the bacon is cooked, usually about 30 mins or so at 400 degrees. Bacon-wrapped anything is a hit in my book, and when you add BBQ sauce to it, it just ups the delicious factor.

• The hubs chipped in too and made his famous chicken wings. Incredibly easy to make and even easier to eat because they're so good. Season flour with whatever spices you want, coat chicken wings in flour, drop in boiling oil (a dutch oven works well for this if you don't have a fryer and, really, who does in a standard apartment kitchen?!) and toss fried wings in your choice of sauce. Yum!

After all that food, we were stuffed, but got to enjoy a victory over the top-ranked team in the country to bring an end to a fabulous day. And the best part? All the leftovers for me to enjoy today :)

M-I-Z! Z-O-U! GO TIGERS!


Cheers!

Cheers to You! (and a great party dip)

Hello all,

First off, I have to say THANK YOU to everyone - family, friends, colleagues and others - who have all expressed your interest in this blog. It's so nice to hear your thoughts on what I'm writing and, frankly, it's good to know someone or sometwo are reading this!



Secondly, a few of you have asked me how you "follow" this blog. The easiest, and best, way to do this is to click the "Follow" button on the right-hand side of the blog. If you have a Google or Yahoo address, or a Twitter account, you can use that log-in info to become an official follower, and receive a notification when I post something new. If you don't have any of those log-ins, you can create a new one, through Google, though by no means do I want you to do that just for this blog. If you don't want to/can't follow the blog, you can still comment on a specific post by clicking in the "comment" box below each post and sharing your thoughts. You can also email me at cookingncocktails@gmail.com. I would love to hear your comments, thoughts, questions, suggestions for recipes or other food blogs, etc.

I'm sorry I've been quiet the past few days, especially in light of the great feedback you all have been giving me!, but I was out of town, visiting my family back home and spending a few days back in the office with my colleagues. The trip was wonderful and I learned a fabulous recipe from my mom that would be great for any party. And, with all the holidays/celebration gatherings sure to take place over the next few months, I think you'll all really like it.

Bacon-Tomato Party Dip
- Equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream (bonus - you can make as much or as little as you need, based on the size of the group you want to serve!)
- Cooked, chopped bacon
- Quartered cherry tomatoes
- Dill (for flavoring)
- Crackers or veggies of your choice to serve with the dip (I'd also recommend a spoon, to eat the dip straight from the bowl. It's that good!)

Combine equal parts mayo and sour cream, mix in tomatoes and dill and let sit overnight. Stir in chopped bacon and serve with your choice of crackers and/or veggies.

Seriously, it's that easy and even more delicious. Now that I'm back home, I'm planning a few meals this week so I'll be posting more thoughts, ideas and recipes in the coming days. Enjoy!

Cheers!
Maureen

Thankful Thursday - Slow Cooker Edition

Since I started this blog, just a few days ago, I can't help but think of topics I want to write about and one of the consistent themes that kept popping up was what I'm so happy to have when I cook - whether it be a specific ingredient, overall meal, cooking accessory or cocktail. So, the PR girl in me came up with "Thankful Thursdays," when I'll take each Thursday post to highlight one of these things I'm thankful for.

To kick-off Thankful Thursdays, I'd like to discuss my thankfulness for slow cookers. Growing up, my mom always made pot roast and stews in the Crock Pot - and I LOVED them. Nothing was better than coming home to that smell wafting throughout the entire house, then tasting the tender meat and vegetables with a side of bread.

I got a Crock Pot from our sister-in-law (thanks Megan!) and I'm so thankful for having it - there are a number of benefits:

• As mentioned, the smell wafting through the house. Since I work from home, it's very dangerous to use a Crock Pot, as I make frequent stops into the kitchen to taste the food cooking
• Crock Pots usually mean lots of food, which means leftovers. And, for days when I don't want to cook (like tonight!) we've still got a comforting, delicious meal to enjoy for dinner, and I didn't have to lift a finger (just the lid of the Tupperware!)
• Chopping and peeling all those vegetables - carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and anything else you put into your pots - can be therapeutic. Seriously, nothing battles aggression or stress better than a big knife and a bunch of crunchy vegetables :)

So tonight is leftover slow cooker beef and vegetable stew night - I'm off to enjoy with a glass of cold sauvignon blanc, or two, to relax with my husband and puppy. Cheers to you all!

Cheers,
Maureen

Pizza Pizza!

There is one meal that is always great to have the ingredients on-hand for, and that's homemade pizza. I don't think I've made homemade pizza since I was probably in grade school and we all got to make our own at someone's birthday party, likely on a bagel.

However, we both like pizza, and it's a lot cheaper and healthier (at least, in my mind!) to make it from scratch than order it in from somewhere, so that's what I started doing. There are numerous benefits of this pizza too - you can control the toppings, the amount of grease, the kind of crust, how soft/crispy the crust is and so on. Not to mention, you likely have the ingredients for the toppings in some way, shape or form already in your kitchen.

Tonight, hence this post, is homemade pizza night. The hubs is working late, and not feeling well to boot, and I had a late lunch, meaning neither of us will be in the mood for a big dinner, if at all for him. However, that's another beauty of pizza. You can eat as much or as little as you want, and there's (usually!) leftovers for lunch the next day. And who doesn't like cold pizza for lunch (or breakfast, in my opinion, on occasion!)

So, here's my newly developed "recipe" for pizza - it's not really a recipe, since it's customizeable to your taste and available ingredients, so consider it more of a general guide to follow:

• Whole wheat crust - has a light flavor and is better for you than regular dough. I like Mama Mary's, which is available in the refridgerated section of the grocery store


• Shredded mozzerella cheese - up to a package, depending on how much cheese you like


• Sliced pepperoni - you can buy the whole stick and cut to your desired thickness, or the prepackaged version that comes already-sliced.


• Chopped onion, green pepper and black olives (olives only on my slices!)


• Sauce - any kind of pasta sauce will do. Red, white, whatever will complement your toppings


• Minced garlic - this little touch, sprinkled over the sauce, under the toppings makes all the difference
  
  

Assemble, bake and enjoy. And save the leftovers for tomorrow - I know I will!

Cheers!
Maureen

A Toast!

Welcome friends!

I'm excited to start a new adventure in blogging, which complements the other adventures I've recently embarked on - getting married, moving to a new city 1,700 miles away, getting a puppy and learning how to cook for two!



I've always had a bit of an interest in cooking - like other people have an interest in going to the dentist. I want it to be quick, as painless as possible and not leave a bad taste in my mouth. Before I got married, I subsisted on instant mashed potatoes and pasta. I love my carbs! Oh, and white wine. That's my go-to cocktail, which goes with both mashed potatoes and pasta beautifully!



Now that I'm married though, I have this new-found desire to cook good meals for the two of us. I fancy myself a decent cook, haven't burned the house down (yet!) and am exploring new recipes, cooking techniques and flavors. I have all the fun new cooking accessories from Crate & Barrel and Bed, Bath & Beyond that I never thought I'd use (hello meat tenderizer?), but now I am and plan to blog about the creations, both good and bad, as well as the questions that come up along the way.



So, I hope you'll pour yourself the cocktail of your choice, and sit back, relax and enjoy a good read. If you've got something to say, I'd love to hear it. Got a recipe you think I'd like? Send it my way. And, especially, feel free to share this site with anyone else you think might like it.



I don't promise to post something every day, and I don't promise each post will always change your life, but I do promise to share my adventures when they're worth sharing and would love to hear your feedback in return. See you all soon!



Cheers!

Maureen