thecooldays

Wow, okay so talking about this one is going to make me hungry. This was oh so very delicious. The recipe had only a few ingredients, so nothing too scary. Hayden and I teamed together again to make this recipe. Yet again, another pinterest dinner. Seriously, if you’re not on pinterest, you should be!! Okay, getting back to the pasta. Here’s what it looked like:

Ohhh yeah, das good!

Here are the ingredients:

• 2 cups (8 oz.) dry penne pasta
• 8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (about 1/3 cup)
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) NESTLÉ® CARNATION® Evaporated Lowfat 2% Milk
• 2 cups (8-oz. pkg.) shredded Italian-style four-cheese blend
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

And here are the directions:

PREPARE pasta according to package directions, adding sun-dried tomatoes to boiling pasta water for last two minutes of cooking time; drain.
MEANWHILE, COMBINE evaporated milk, cheese, basil, garlic powder and pepper in medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until cheese is melted. Remove from heat.

ADD pasta and sun-dried tomatoes to cheese sauce; stir until combined.

Here there you have it!!

Mmmm cheese!

There’s Jacob, Hayden and me with our pastas : )

So, I’m going to do another happiness post today. I always like to spread around the happiness when I can!

{10 things I am happy about}

1. Seeing my family last week for thanksgiving
2. The delicious food that I got to eat last week at thanksgiving
3. My pea coat
4. Getting all of my stuff done for finals
5. My friend Julia getting married next weekend!
6. Only 2 days of school left (Thank goodness)
7. The sun coming out again (it’s been so rainy these last couple of days)
8. All the time I get to spend with my beautiful friends
9. Sleeping in today (which was well needed!)
10. My snugly kitty

Be happy today : )

So this week, Hayden and I made while chicken enchiladas. Yes yes, this is another pinterest dinner. Let me tell you, these enchiladas tasted better then restaurant enchiladas! They were soooo good. I’m defiantly going to be making them again. They were super easy too; nothing way too complicated involved. Anyway, so here’s what they look like (be careful looking if you’re hungry):

Oh yeah, this is some seriously cheesy goodness. Okay, so here are the ingredients:

So, like the title, these are literally heaven in a square. I found this recipe on pinterest, and my friend Hayden and I had to make them. These are brownie and cookie dough square. Yes, that’s right. BROWNIE AND COOKIE DOUGH. It’s delightful. Also, the cookie dough doesn’t have any eggs in it, so you can eat as much as you want! Here we go:

Ingredients:

• Boxed brownie mix and those ingredients that follow (My semi-homemade way of making everything)
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup semisweet chips + 1 teaspoon shortening for drizzle, optional

There ya go!

I did this project spring of last year, so I don’t have pictures of the whole process but I’ll do my best to explain it. It very easy (like all my projects) and has a great result! I got this idea from another craft blog that I found. Gotta give credit where credit’s due. Okay so here’s the mysterious floating bookshelf:

Materials:

• An old fancy book (I got mine from Goodwill for $2. I chose one that was a little more fancy (but really it’s just an old cook book) )
• “L” shape hardware that you can get at any hardware store
• Drill
• Screws that have anchors with them

Okay so, I’ve decided that I want to expand this blog a little bit. I was talking to my roommate and she suggested that I post all of the art projects that I do, so I can have document all of them and keep up with them so I thought, why not on this blog?? So, I will be posting both cooking and crafts. Yay!

Here is my first craft. I got this idea from, of course, pinterest. If you don’t know what pinterest is, you are seriously missing out! Pinterest is a website where you can tag pictures on websites, and it saves them onto ‘boards’. You can categorize different boards and keep all your pictures/links organized. Some examples of my boards are: Lets Get Crafty (for DIY projects), Yumm! (for recipes), Organization, and So Sweet (for dessert recipes). The catch is that you have to be invited to join the website but have no fear! If you comment on this post, I will gladly invite you : ). Just send me your email address and you can get started!

Okay moving onto my actually art project:

Materials:

• Canvas (I got mine from Walmart)
• 64 box of crayons + 12 box of crayons (so you can pick and choose different colors that you like)
• Hair dryer
• Hot glue gun

Okay, so occasionally I want to do a, back-to-the-basics post. This is my first how-to post. Here we go!

So, I’m never quite sure when my noodles are properly cooked and how to tell when they’re fully done. I know the whole ‘throw the noodle on the ceiling’ trick, but quite frankly, I can never remember if, when it sticks it’s done or when it doesn’t stick it’s done? It’s all just too confusing for me. Okay so an obvious solution would be to read the box (duh Angela?), so here’s what the box says:

• Bring 4 quarts of water to a rapid boil. Add salt to taste  (optional). Add 1 box (16oz) of spaghetti into water and return to a boil. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 9 to 11 minuets; drain.

Okay, so I’m going to be absolutely honest, this dish… WAS DELICIOUS. Seriously, SO good! I would recommend it to anyone out there who likes the combination of chicken, cheese and broccoli. I’m not sure if you would call it a casserole, but I think it could be considered one. Okay anyway, the ingredients I was afraid of in this dish were, broccoli florets and Philadelphia savory garlic cooking creme (which seems silly to me now!) I got  this recipe from a friend’s mom after having it for dinner one night over at their house. I’m so happy I tried it!

{Ingredients}

• 1 1/2 lb – boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 pkg (14 oz) – frozen broccoli florets, thawed and drained
• 1 1/2 cups – Kraft shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tub (10 oz) - Philadelphia savory garlic cooking creme
• 1/2 cup – milk
• 1 – sleeve Ritz cracker crushed
• 3 tbsp. – butter, melted

Here's the big bad scary ingredient

And here are some other fun ingredients

{Now to cook}

1. Heat oven to 400ºF
2. Combine first 5 ingredients in 13×9 inch. baking dish and bake for 25 minuets
3. While chicken mixture is cooking, mix cracker crumbs and butter
4. Once out of the oven, stir chicken mixture and sprinkle with crumbs
5. Bake for 10 minuets or until topping is golden brown

This is the chicken mixture in the oven, cooking away!

And this is the result: Creamy delicious goodness!

Okay, so I was reading one of my friend’s blogs and she had a list of 10 things that make her happy, and even though my blog is about cooking I thought, hey, why not share some happiness? So here is my list:

{10 things that make me happy}

1. The weather cooling down
2. The leaves changing
3. My warm cup of coffee sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon to add that spicy feel
4. My beautiful family
5. Roommates that I get along with and love
6.  M. Ward
7. Phone calls from my little brothers
8. My job
9. The sun peaking through the clouds this morning (it’s been rainy for the last couple of days)
10. Relaxing mornings

Last night, a few friends and I had taco night! I didn’t 100% make the tacos by myself, but I did help. It was more-so semi-homemade tacos because we used a seasoning packet (Uaa, is that cheating?). Anyway, they turned out great! No burnt meat, no crispy rice. I must say that it probably didn’t mess up because I wasn’t the only one cooking it. My friend Nathan helped me cook the meat. I’m not really too much of a meat eater. In fact, I used to be a vegetarian so the majority of my dishes will probably be meatless. Obviously, tacos are a little difficult to make meatless. Here is my experience with cooking meat.

Eww, that looks gross (but it was so very yummy)

This is Nathan and I making the tacos!

Yours truly!

We added some rice and had our selves a fiesta!

Over all, my journey so far hasn’t been way too scary. My biggest fear has not quite been conquered though. This is the fear of using ingredients that I have never heard of. I will tackle that in the next couple of blogs, so keep posted! Hopefully I won’t burn the apartment down; my roommates probably wouldn’t appreciate that. In the mean time, please take a look at this public service announcement brought to you by the Harvard Sailing Team, that has absolutely NOTHING to do with cooking! Happy day!