Springtime at Coffee Time

Deb at Creative Soul issued a spring challenge recently. She asked us to create something that reminds us of spring. There is one item in the world that says spring to me more than anything else - tulips! I adore tulips - purple ones, yellow ones, pink ones - if it's a tulip, I love it. I harbor a secret desire to live in a place where I can plant a tulip garden. My grandmother's sister had a tulip garden with many different kinds of tulips. I loved walking through that garden.

Every spring I wait impatiently for tulips to appear in the grocery stores. Last Friday my DH came home with my first bunch of purple tulips. Some of them were put into this vase and reside on my dinner table.
A few more were placed in a small vase and landed on my nightstand. They are sitting atop a small wood chest I bought a few years ago. Even the chest has tulips painted on it.
How does spring appear in your house?

Sweet P

Mmmmmm . . . Chocolate Cream Pie

Last Sunday I decided to make Chocolate Cream Pie using this recipe as the base. I eliminated the bananas and used chocolate pudding instead of banana pudding. I made the banana cream pie in January for DS's birthday and we loved it.

The chocolate cream pie was just as yummy as the banana cream pie. All of us loved it. I think I ate most of it!
Next time I'll try a different pudding flavor. I'm even thinking of making it in individual pie crusts or even serving it as a mousse. But first, I need a reason to make it. Anyone have a suggestion?

Sweet P

Everyone Makes Mistakes

Everyone makes a cooking mistake now and then. The one I made on Sunday was a doozy. I wanted to make a Chocolate Stout cake for DH. For some unexplainable reason I decided to use an 8" square pan instead of a larger one.

This is what happens to the oven when there is too much batter in the pan.
Trust me it looks better in the photo than it did in person.

This is what the cake looked like. There was a 2 inch dip in the middle of the cake. To top it off when we did cut it open it wasn't completely cooked. So it went into the trash.

I'm hoping the dessert, whatever I decide it will be, will turn out this weekend.

What cooking mistakes have you made?
Sweet P

Sports Fleece and Breakfast for Dinner

Not much has been happening around Coffee Time at Home. I've been spending time getting ready for the baby shower for DIL next week. That means a lot of cleaning and organizing and some painting.

In the first few months I was working at Jo-Ann I purchased three pieces of sports fleece: Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics. Until last Friday they were just floating around our bedroom. That's when I decided to sew them together. The final piece is longer than our comforter, but not quite as wide. It just fits across the top of the bed. It adds a nice touch of our sports life in the room.

Do you eat breakfast food at dinner? I like to eat quiche. My grocery store sells a half-sized quiche and when DH is traveling it's one of my favorite meals. Another breakfast meal I like is Jimmy Deans breakfast bowls. Tonight I'm thinking of making pancakes and bacon. What's your favorite breakfast food to eat for dinner?

Sweet P

And the Winner Is . . .

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I did. I worked an early shift. Got home early enough to take a nap and then DH and I made this wonderful dinner for ourselves: grilled porterhouse steak, loaded smashed potatoes and green beans. For dessert I made triple chocolate cupcakes. What a yummy dinner!
After I ate I went to Random.org and set it to choose a number between 1 and 7. Thanks to everyone who signed up for the drawing. I enjoyed reading your answers. The generator chose #3. That means Karen at Quilting with Grace is the winner. She loves her kitchen. I love my kitchen too. I love my whole condo. I would find it hard to choose my favorite room. I'm glad I didn't have to answer my own question. If I was really pressed to answer I think it would be my kitchen. I love to cook and our kitchen is the perfect size for DH and I to cook together.

Until next time, Happy Cooking!
Sweet P

Do You Fondue and a Give Away

DH and I had beef fondue for dinner tonight. You'll have to ignore the miscellaneous items on the table as we are in the middle of a home improvement project and have stuff everywhere. Anyway, we had Beef Fondue, crispy Cole Slaw and Squash with Gorgonzola and Maple Syrup, another wonderful recipe from Closet Cooking. The meal was wonderful and well deserved.
Here was the focus of our home improvement project this week - our living room. We hated the color it was. We called it something you would find in a baby's diaper. The gray swatch was one color we thought of using on it. The gray is going to be used on another accent wall and the stairwell going up the stairs.
This is the color of the room now - Warm Sienna #1203 from Benjamin Moore. My DH has a great eye for picking out paint colors. When this paint is wet is looks very girly dark rose and dries to this wonderful deep rusty red. This is the fourth and last room we have to paint, other than the stair well. The only other remaining painting is all the white trim and wainscotting in the house. We decided we wouldn't do any of that painting until all of the rooms were done.
And now, on to the Give Away. It will be one-year next Saturday, Valentine's Day, that we bought and moved into our condo. In honor of the big day, I'm having a Give Away. Leave me a comment about your most favorite room of your house is and why you like it. If your name is drawn I will put together a goodie package to help you enjoy that room even more. If you'd like an extra entry in the drawing, please link to this post. I will take names until Valentine's Day and announce the winner on Sunday morning.

I'm also doing a similar give away on my Coffee Time Stitches blog. You can feel free to enter in that drawing too.

Happy Cooking and Home Owning!
Sweet P

Thursday Night Pot Roast

I remember having pot roast nearly every Sunday after church. When my children were young they didn't like pot roast so I stopped cooking it.

Now with the children moved out I often crave pot roast. I've been searching for the perfect recipe for years. I've finally found it at Closet Cooking. The recipe is easy and the smell of the roast baking in the oven for 3 - 4 hours is enough to drive one insane! The roast was so tender I could scoop a serving out of the pan with a spoon. I also made his Peas and Pancetta and Shallots. I substituted bacon for the pancetta since I forgot to buy it at the store this past weekend.

Doesn't my plate look scrumptious? You can even see the steam rising from this wonderful meal. It was the perfect meal for a day when the temps didn't get above 20 degrees F.
Tomorrow I'll be trying his Roasted Squash with Gorgonzola and Maple Syrup as our side dish. Three of my favorite foods in one dish!

By the way, the Banana Cream Pie I made for DS #2 on Sunday was fantastic! The photo doesn't do it justice. It was even better the next day, but it didn't last any longer than that. I'm thinking of making a chocolate version of this pie for Valentine's Day. Should be yummy!
Happy cooking and eating!

Sweet P