Cranberry Orange Butter

That's right people.....butter.

Don't worry, there will be no churning involved. 

I made this butter a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving and it was a hit.

Recipes like this are a great way to bring something unique to a very traditional holiday....or any other day.

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup of unsalted butter

1/4 cup of finely chopped dried cranberries

1/2 teaspoon of orange zest 

Let the butter soften so that you can easily mix in the other ingredients. 

Finely chop the dried cranberries and zest the orange. 

In a bowl, thoroughly mix the butter, cranberries, and orange. 

You can leave the butter in a small bowl and be finished, but I wanted mine to still look like a stick of butter so there were a few more steps. 

Use a piece of foil, and spread the butter into the shape of a rectangle.

Don't worry to much on making it look perfect...it's homemade!!

Fold the foil over and put into the refrigerator to harden. 

Once it has set, place on a pretty dish to make a new Thanksgiving table addition. 

Simple Home Fries

So as I've mentioned before, I'm not much of a breakfast person.

I have my cereal and that makes me happy, but on the weekends I try to make at least one hearty breakfast to fill us up until dinner. 

There is one little problem....I DESPISE EGGS, which happen to be a main breakfast ingredient. 

They smell gross and have a horrible texture and I will only eat them two ways;

1. Extremely runny and mixed into hash browns

2. Eggs benedict....because everything tastes good smothered in hollandaise sauce

These are my favorite hash browns, but I must admit my mom always gets them a lot crispier!!

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes 

1/4 of diced onion 

1/4 cup of diced red bell pepper

1/4 cup of milk

1 1/2 Tablespoons of flour

1 Tablespoon of butter

*Makes 3 servings

Cut the potatoes into bite sized cubes

                                

Place in a pot, cover with water and bring to a boil.

Boil for about 5 minutes or until tender when poked with a fork.

Meanwhile chop the bell pepper and onion and place in a bowl.

Drain potatoes and add to the bell pepper and onion. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk and flour (called a slurry). 

Gradually pour over the potatoes just until it has coated all of them (this might mean that you don't use all of the slurry). 

In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

Once melted, add in the potatoes. 

Season with salt and pepper, and occasionally flip them. 

Remember that the potatoes are already cooked, so this is just to brown them. 

Once browned, you are ready to eat. 

Fall Photos

So it's always pretty difficult to get Kevin into pictures but because it's fall and he knows what makes me happy, he agreed to having a photo session...and the results were pretty darn adorable! :)

Photo credit and hair credit go to my good friend Kera!

You can find out more about her on The Simple Things Blog or if you live near the Palm Beach county area and have inquiries about her photography services you can email her at kpellett13@gmail.com

Soft Baked Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Raise your hand if you like cookies...now raise your hand if you like pumpkin pie. 

Ok, now that we have confirmed that everyone on Earth likes both of these things, lets put them together!

Not only do these cookies taste just like pumpkin pie but they are soft baked, which are the best kind of cookies. I never have understood people who like "crispy" cookies. I think I was the only child on this planet that thought that the cereal Cookie Crisps sounded gross because they seemed like they would be hard as rocks. 

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup of butter, softened 

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cups of firmly packed brown sugar

1 (15 oz.) can of pumpkin puree 

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder 

2 teaspoons of cinnamon 

2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice

1/4 teaspoon of salt 

*Makes 36 cookies 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy. 

Blend in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla extract. 

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, and salt. 

Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until thoroughly blended. 

Drop by rounded tablespoons, about 3 inches apart, onto an ungreased baking sheet or stone. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges start to brown and they are firm to the touch. 

Remove from the oven and let sit on the pan for five minutes at the most. 

Remove from pan, and place onto a cooling rack. 

It's as easy as that!!!

A cream cheese frosting could be a good addition to these cookies, but I like them just the way they are!

Inside The Little Fish Livin' Kitchen

So I've been a busy little bee in the kitchen today, and while doing the dishes for about the third time it dawned on me that I've never showed you guys around!

Although there isn't much to "show around" (apartment living), I feel like for as many posts that come from my kitchen you should know what it looks like.

You can tell a lot about a cook from whats in their kitchen and how they operate so....

Welcome to my kitchen, lets take a tour...

Yes my stove/oven is the only non-matching major appliance. I call it the Oreo stove. 

First things first, I need music. I love to cook with music on, I think it helps you get in the rhythm of things. Most of the time I'm listening to Pandora, on the Miranda Lambert channel...which brings me to the headphones. Kevin hates country, and I love it haha. Every time I'm tired and don't feel like making dinner, I try and put on one of my favorite songs to get me going. 

When nobody is home...I dance around. 

Here are a couple of songs I love that I listened to today!!

Next, I grab an apron.

1. Because I'm a mess and don't want sauce all over my clothes

2. I put my phone that's playing music, in the pocket 

I bought this cast iron anchor from The Mint Mermaid that's perfect for holding my aprons! 

Every time I find a recipe that's a "keeper" I write it out on a piece of paper, put one of those plastic coverings on it, and put it in a binder. When I need it, I just pull it out of the binder and if I get anything on it I can just wipe it off. 

Yes, I write them out in cursive. It's going to be a lost art one of these days!!

On my stove I have a navy teapot that I made while taking a pottery class in high school...it was one of my color inspirations for some of the other things in my kitchen. 

I also kind of have a nautical theme going on (see anchor above) but I didn't want it to be obnoxious. These little towels are cute, and they go with my style. They are also from The Mint Mermaid. 

Next to the stove I have a leaf spoon holder....that space on the counter right next to the spoon holder....yeah, that's where Kevin likes to lay his sauce covered spoon....men. 

Right now I have a butter dish on my counter...just because I think it's too adorable to be put somewhere where it can't be seen. One day I'll actually put butter in it. 

This is the magical corner, because it holds my favorite things in the kitchen; my stand mixer and my Keurig. 

When it comes to coffee, the darker the roast the better in my opinion. My favorite brand is Gevalia! I try not to drink coffee every single day but...the struggle is real. 

My stand mixer is...well do I even have to explain why it's so wonderful??

My paper towels just sit on the counter. If anybody has found a paper towel holder that is neither ugly, or tacky let me know...I'm about 4 years into the search with nothing to show for it. 

I love my canisters, they are simple, white, and have a great seal on them. It's so great in fact, the man of the house always seems to struggle with getting them opened and closed....I've had no problems. 

This is "the booze corner". Because our kitchen is small, this makes us look like a bunch of lushes, and everyone likes to comment about it. Truth is, we barely drink...most of this is ancient. 

It sits above the dishwasher I never use. I am aware that sounds crazy, but I like my dishes clean and this particular model seems to only specialize in baking pieces of food onto the dishes instead of getting rid of them, soooo hand wash it is. (hey we're renting, there's not much I can do about it)

This is our fridge...it provides us with water. 

It's also where I like to stick things as reminders. 

It's actually pretty clear of things right now, but it's displaying a picture of my best friend that lives far away (frowny face), a card asking me to be a bridesmaid in her upcoming wedding, a dentist appointment reminder, magnets from my dads travels to Australia, a tire pressure gauge magnet (because everyone has one of those), and a Christmas themed pad of paper for list making.

The inside of our fridge looks like this....

The essentials include Greek yogurt (it's the only kind I'll eat), a lot of milk, black beans and corn because that gets put in just about everything I make, pickles, lunch meat for Kevin, opened bottles of wine that we never finished but are too lazy to throw away, coffee creamer, and a lot of condiments. 

When I say a lot of condiments, it may sound like we like variety....no. 

Someone in this household has an obsession with collecting mustard and barbecue sauce....and it's not me. My latest count is 5 types of mustard and 6 types of barbecue sauce. 

I also know that if I ever want to hide anything, I just have to put it at the bottom of either one of the vegetable or fruit drawers because he has never opened them. 

*By the way, did you know if you put your milk in the center of the fridge instead of on the door it stays super cold...I like it cold. 

Over here is the narrowest cabinet ever made, also known as our pantry. 

I'm not going to show you the inside, because no matter what you do it's always going to look like a chaotic mess. There is no way to organize a pantry that narrow, although I am grateful I have one at all. 

I also have pictures on either side of the window, which I never open because at that same moment someone will be walking by and awkward eye contact WILL be made. 

I didn't risk taking a photo of the window because I didn't want my neighbor, who would inevitably walk by right at that moment, think that I was taking a picture of them. 

My kitchen isn't perfect; one of the cabinets doesn't close all the way because my plates are too big, and my microwave door handle is about two uses away from falling off, but a lot of great things are made in it. 

By the way, if your thinking to yourself that it looks too clean to be true...your correct. Usually it is covered in ingredients and recipes, but I cleaned it up for you....which should last for about an hour, dinner needs to be made :)

Thanks for taking a look around, I hope you feel more at home!