I’ve missed cooking.

I mean, i have cooked in the past few months.  But not something new.  And that has made all the difference.

But today, I decided to try out a new recipe (from my fav, Iowa Girl Eats). And it was well worth it.  The man & I curled up onto our couch, watched a new movie (that neither of us had seen before!) and enjoyed a new recipe and a delish bottle of vino.

It felt ah.may.zing to feel normal.

IGE Spinach and Sausage Pinwheels 

So here’s what i used (per Iowa Girl Eats … it’s 100% her recipe):

1 pkg frozen spinach (10 oz, defrosted and squeezed dry)

1/2 cup Ricotta

2 oz Crumbled Feta

1 tsp Italian Seasoning

1/2 tsp Salt

Pepper

1 pkg Pillsbury Crescent Rolls

Marinara

Here’s What I did: 

1.  I took two sweet Italian sausages (I am not a fan of hot sausage but I deeply believe that it would -having now had the meal – be delicious), decased them, and cooked the meat up in a sauce pan.  Then, I let it cool.

Meanwhile …

2.  I combined the ricotta, feta, squeeze-dried spinach, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and made a nice big bowl of goop.  (I happen to love that word.  And ricotta.  I might have had a spoonful  … maybe….).

3.  I took the Pillsbury crescent roll dough and rolled it out.  Then I cut it in half.  And evenly spread the spinach ricotta mixture on both halves of dough.

4.  On top of the spinach and ricotta I added the sausage.  Then I attempted to tightly roll the dough and toppings.  And then I cut them (with a sharp, serrated knife …) into eight pieces.

5.  I placed the pieces on a cookie sheet and cooked them for about 15 minutes (they were, indeed, golden brown).

6.  The man warmed up and doctored some marinara and we completely enjoyed our dinner snack.

~~~

All of the things we are dealing with are difficult … I know that in general, what most people deal with on a daily basis can be difficult.  And we all soldier on, because that’s the nature of life.

And yet sometimes, when your house is clean, and you enjoyed a good (and new) dinner and the wine rocked (the man found an out-of-this-world Italian Zinfandel that I will dream about) and work isn’t actually killing you … and you’re snuggled with your amazing husband and puppy  … life feels a little normal and a little okay.  And that is a true blessing.

A few years ago, I worked at an apartment complex, and the very first person I ever showed an apartment to was a single mother.  Her adorable young son was with her, and I loved that she treated him like a grown up person, asking for his thoughts, and if he felt that the rooms they were exploring could be home.  He was a little over three years old when I met him, and still qualifies as the cutest kid I’ve ever seen.

I didn’t work for the apartment complex for long ~ the call of the restaurant industry lured me back, and I left my mind-numbingly boring desk job behind to go back to the intensity of food service.  But for the time I worked there (and lived on site) that single mother and her son were my next door neighbors.

Today, his school picture is on my fridge, and even though we only live about twenty minutes apart, we don’t see each other often.  Earlier this week, I received an unexpected text message and the heads up that there would be an imminent delivery of banana chocolate chip muffins.

I have to tell you, no one bakes like Angie.  No one.  I mean, her cookies and brownies are like crack, but those banana chocolate chip muffins … nothing has ever come close to winning my affections away. They are sublime.

While Angie was delivering said muffins last Tuesday, I told her about my humbling attempt to make homemade brownies.  She immediately nodded and said, “Yeah, brownies are tricky.”  (PS.  Did everyone know this, and I’m just late to the party?  Or is it because I’ve only ever made box brownies?  Either way … I was not aware that brownies were such a finicky baked good to produce!)

So we tentatively made a baking-day date.  And that day was today.

Ange had the terrific idea of making sangria, so the first thing we did when she arrived was make a nice batch of fruit-filled wine.  Her recipe (it was delish!) ~

1 bottle red wine (we used what I had ~ Pinot Noir)

1/2 cup Alize

1/4 cup Blue Agave syrup

1 cup Club Soda

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (** I don’t have a juicer, so Angie just squeezed one full, large orange into the concoction)

1 medium sliced orange

2 sliced lemons

1 peach, cored & diced

The remnants of my Sangria

While we sipped our Sangria, we had ‘Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone’ on in the background (blasphemy of all blasphemies, Angie had never seen one or read a single HP book! Eegads!)

Because she’s a baking goddess, Angie brought her recipe books for me to thumb through. She asked if I wanted to make cookies or brownies.

“Both?” I replied sheepishly.  She smiled as if to say, “Of course you do.”

We made cookies first.  Having never actually made chocolate chip cookies before, I kind of stood awkwardly to the side as Angie began confidently dumping ingredients here and there, chatting the whole time.  She’d also assumed that I had no ingredients at my house (a correct assumption by someone who hasn’t really spent a ton of time with me since 2007 when I could barely scramble eggs).  I surprised her by being more than a little prepared.  What we used:

*** We cut the recipe in half, because really, does a person home alone missing her man need 6-7 dozen cookies?  No, I didn’t think so!

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

What to do:

1.  Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

2.  Cream together butter, sugars (brown & white!) and vanilla extract until light.  Add egg.  Mix ’til well-blended.  Add sifted ingredients and mix until well combined.

3.  Fold in chocolate chips. 

4.  Roll into tablespoon-sized balls, and place on well greased cookie tray.  Three across, four down.  

5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Let stand for one minute on cookie sheet, and then place onto cooling racks.  ** Don’t forget, if they look almost done, and you like your cookies chewy, remember that once you pull them out, they’ll keep cooking for a little bit!  I learned this the hard way with my first batch of brownies last week.

Yummers.

On a roll, we moved to brownies next.  Couple pearls of wisdom Angie shared as we assembled ingredients.

1.  If the recipe says softened butter, that’s what it means.  The same goes for melted butter, etc.  There is a reason that the recipe calls for butter a certain way.  Respect it.  Your brownies will thank you.

2.  When making the finicky brownies, don’t over mix.  Just stir the ingredients until they are combined, and then leave them alone.  Over-mixing is not a good thing.

Once I had noted these very important rules, we commenced the making of brownies.

What we used:

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 Tbsp water
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels
Sifted powdered sugar

What to do:

1.  Stir together granulated sugar, melted butter & water in a bowl.  Stir in eggs and vanilla.  

2.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.  Once combined, stir into sugar & butter mixture.  *** Remember!! Only stir til it’s combined!!! No more than necessary! 

3.  Stir in chocolate morsels.

4.  Pour into greased 13 x 9 pan (I never thought that the size of the pan mattered much … fyi peeps, it totally does!).  

5.  Bake at 350 for 18-25 minutes.  (My easy-bake oven isn’t calibrated properly, so it was an exercise in patience on Angie’s part but the 18-25 minutes is the time quoted in the recipe we used).

Enjoy with a big ole glass of milk!

We also had Plum, Asiago & Pesto sandwiches on sun-dried tomato bread.  It was a deliciously satisfying day.
And yes, that’s a Steelers pint glass.  It’s almost football season, peeps!!