Slow Cooker Honey Parmesan Pork Roast

As I have said before, I like using the slow cooker at least once a week. It makes meal planning easy for me, and it so nice to come home to a meal that's basically done. I pinned this one awhile ago, and finally got around to making it a couple weeks ago.

Slow Cooker Honey Parmesan Pork Roast

Source: Six Sisters Stuff

It was super easy: just mix the ingredients, pour over the meat, and turn on the cooker. Our current nighttime routine is for me to feed JJ when I get home, then we go for a family walk and some playtime after. Then Joe gives him a bath and when I am getting him in his pj's and feeding/reading him to sleep, Joe finishes up what needs to be done for dinner. In this case, he had to make the sauce and boil/mash the potatoes (I had them washed, peeled, cubed, and sitting in a bowl of water in the fridge the night before). On Sunday's I try to plan out/organize as much of the week as I can, it really helps keep me sane and not freaking out at 8pm about what to cook. This routine is sure to change soon - JJ is starting solids and we want to eat as a family, but for now we try to get in as much baby time as possible without trying to shove food down our throats.

Anyway, here are my (few) pics:

Meat in cooker

Mixing up sauce

Pour sauce over meat and set cooker! Super easy!

It's hard to make slow cooker food look appetizing, but I swear it was good.

The Verdict: It was tasty. I think I overdid it a little (is it supposed to look black?) but it was still pretty moist. Like I said, it was super easy and I usually have most of the ingredients so for those reasons alone it might make it into the crockpot rotation more.

Things to Consider: Since we are out of the house all day and the meal is usually cooked by mid afternoon, I think I should start cutting the cooking times back by 30 minutes. I mean it's sitting in the "keep warm" setting for hours so its still getting cooked, right? This might help the black appearance. Also, I would probably cut back on the cheese a little. But as I said above, it was good and will most likely be repeated.

Slow Cooker Honey Parmesan Pork Roast
Ingredients:1 (2-3 pound) boneless pork roast
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup honey
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp dried basil
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water

Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Place roast in slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the cheese, honey, soy sauce, basil, garlic, oil and salt; pour over pork. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 160°.

Remove meat to a serving platter; keep warm. Skim fat from cooking juices; transfer to a small saucepan. Bring liquid to a boil. Combine cornstarch and water until smooth. Gradually stir into pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Slice roast; serve with gravy (I also made mashed potatoes and the gravy was delicious on them!).

PS - I am looking for some spring/summer slow cooker recipes. I feel like most of what I put in there is a hearty, winter type meal (stew, pot roast, etc). Anyone have any lighter suggestions?

Embroidery Hoop Nursery Art

Hope everyone had a great Easter and Passover! We had a great weekend with our little bunny!

So I still haven't had a chance to catch up yet. Stay tuned for posts on this (delish!), this (pretty good), this (failure), this (pretty good), and more at some point in the future.

Today I am finally going to post on a project I started while still on maternity leave. I pinned this photo a long time ago - I thought it would be a cute way to add some color into our very chocolate and vanilla nursery:

Source: Aedriel Originals

So I set out to find some cream, blue, and brown fabrics and some embroidery hoops. Apparently, AC Moore and Michaels don't carry embroidery hoops (or not very many). When I went to Joann's Fabric, I looked around for some. All I could find were these plastic ones. Although they were colored (and some brightly), I thought I would just spray paint them and make them all white, so I picked up a bunch.

My laziness and lack of patience led to the failure of this idea. I just bought regular old spray paint and thought that would work. After one coat, I knew there was no way it was going to cover. Then, after the second coat, I knew there was no way it was going to stick. It was flaking off before I even got them in the house.

Paint chipping = Fail.

Clearly I should have bought the paint made to stick to plastic and/or primed them first. Oh well, on to Plan B: order some hoops online. Not only were they cheaper, they arrived in just a couple days!

Amazon ordered hoops

Fabric collection

So I started cutting the fabric and sticking it in the hoops.

Then I played around with placement:

Once I decided I liked which fabrics were in which sized hoop, I trimmed them up. They sort of look unfinished, and because of the fabric in the back, they wouldn't lay flat on the wall. So I trimmed as much as I could, then hot-glued the fabric to the frame - the instructions in the pin said to do this, I was just hoping to not have to so I could swap out the fabric or maybe use them again for something else.

Then they sat, in a pile, on JJ's dresser for weeks.

Finally I recruited Joe to help me hang them over the crib. I tried to replicate the layout I liked on the floor, but we sort of just started throwing them up there. I used super strong 3M Velcro hanging strips for the J's, and just regular picture hanging hooks for the hoops.

We took a step back and checked them out. Not loving the placement. We spaced them way too far apart (I hadn't looked at the pin in awhile), and I think I need some more. But, at least they are off the dresser and hung. And this nursery finally has something else hanging on the wall besides these counting cards. I have a couple spare small hoops, so I may venture out and hunt down a couple more fabrics.

"Finished" product

JJ's view from the crib

Side note, this little guy is my favorite:

I know it is a bit girly, but its special to me. I read a million blogs and websites while I was pregnant about what to bring to the hospital. I think it as on Ashley's that I read to buy a cute pillow case. Since so many pics are taken with you laying on it, its more fun to have something you like than just a plain white one back there. So while I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting for me to go into labor, I did a lot of shopping. I found these cute pillow cases from Walmart of all places, and fell in love. Blue and brown were our wedding colors, and I knew I would use these cases again. Of course I have only a couple pics with this pillow behind me, but you can see a little of it here, while we were getting JJ in his too-big bear suit on discharge day! 

Because we had a boy, I thought the blue would fit nice in his room. The cases actually came in a little pouch that was the same pattern, so I used the pouch for this hoop.

Anyway, there is my super long post on the nursery art that I am still not happy with. Once I get some more stuff on the walls and paint the closet doorknobs, I will do a full nursery post. Expect it sometime after JJ is in a real bed!

So what do you think? Any ideas on how to make it look a little better? Do you think I should paint the J's? Leave your suggestions in the comments!

Double Fudge Oreo Crunch Cookies

My apologizes for the lack of posts! Work has been crazy lately and it’s been tough finding the time to load my pictures. Anyway, let’s just dive back in! Recently I tried these Double Fudge Oreo Crunch Cookies from Brandy’s Baking.

Brandy's Baking

I decided this would be a good time to try out this food processor my mom gave me for Christmas. So, I used it to chop of the Oreos.

I think it chopped up the Oreos too finely. Although, it would be perfect for the Oreo Truffles.

Then I whipped up the batter.

The dough then needs to chill in the fridge for 2-4 hours. Good thing I started to make these in the morning because I didn’t read the recipe ahead of time - rookie mistake!

Anyway, once the dough was chilled, I rolled it into balls and placed it on the cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Let cool, then enjoy!

The Verdict: These were delicious! I brought them to work the next day and people just loved them! I will say that they are very chocolately. They would taste great with milk (if I actually liked milk). The cookies with the bigger Oreo chunks in them were the best ones.

Things to note/consider: The dough was very sticky/tacky and a bit hard to work with. I used the whisk attachment and if I were to do it again, I would use the beater attachment with the flex edge.  

The only other thing I would change if I were to make these again, is that I wouldn’t use the food processor to crush up the Oreos. I would do it the regular old rolling pin & zip lock bag way. The Oreos were crushed up too fine and it lost the “crunch” factor of the cookies.  

Double Fudge Oreo Crunch Cookies
adapted from Brandy’s Baking

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

½ cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup crushed Oreo cookies

• Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy
• Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined.
• Fold in chocolate chips and crushed Oreos.
• Chill dough for 2-4 hours.
• Roll into balls and place on baking sheet.
• Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

St Patrick's Day Recap

Hi there - its me, Grace. I am still alive. And I won't go saying "I will be posting more regularly", because obviously that's not working. I have this huge backlog of things to share, I just don't seem to get the time to type them up. Being a working mom is time consuming (and exhausting)!

But anyway, I found a couple minutes to recap my St. Patrick's Day (even if it was days ago). First up: my usual holiday themed printable:

source

It's another one from the ladies at Eighteen25. A quick trip out of the printer and popped into a frame and here it is:





Next up, we had a St. Patrick's Day Party to go to, so I scoured Pinterest and found some cute options. I wanted to try these Bailey's Irish Cream Cookies, but I don't have a shamrock cookie cutter. So I settled on these:

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting



The original pin came from Nook & Pantry - a site I will have to add to my google reader - lots of good stuff in there! Anyway, here's how mine came out:

Mixing up the batter

All baked up - they came out a little flat!

Knowing that there would be kids at the party, once I made the frosting I pulled out half before adding the Baileys. I colored this half green, so the kid's version would be easy to spot. I realize that the couple tablespoons of Bailey's would probably be fine, but I wasn't sure kids would like the taste.

The yummy adult frosting

Final product!

The Verdict on the Cupcakes: I thought they were delicious! I usually don't like how my cupcakes or cakes come out when I make them from scratch (I think I have the tendency to overmix, creating lead sinkers), but these came out great. I guess maybe the beer helps them stay light. They did come out a bit flat, but that didn't really bother me. I was told they were even great for breakfast the next day - hair of the dog?

Things to Consider: The original recipe says to make sure you bake them right away, so the beer still has some fizz. I did this and like I said above, I think that helps keep them light. I think I could have filled them a little less and gotten a couple more cupcakes (I think they might have risen a bit more), but I didn't have another pan or space in my oven.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

From Nook & Pantry2 C unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 C Dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 C granulated sugar
1/2 C light or dark brown sugar
4 oz./1/2 C unsalted softened butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg
1/2 C sour cream
1 12 fl. oz. bottle/1 1/2 C Guinness or stout beer

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter or line with paper cups 2 12 count muffin tins.

In a large bowl briefly whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Add one egg and beat until evenly mixed and fluffy, make sure to scrape down the mixer bowl once in a while. Add the second egg and vanilla extract and beat again until light and fluffy.

Add the sour cream and beat in, then with the mixer running, slowly pour in the Guinness.

Sift the dry ingredients into the batter and slowly stir the batter until it is evenly mixed and there are no streaks of flour. Make sure to stop the mixer frequently to scrape down the sides and make sure to mix up any flour pockets hidden on the bottom of the bowl.

Divide 1/4 C of batter into each muffin cup, you’ll get about 20 – 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 degrees F on the middle rack for 20 – 25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake in the middle of the pan should come out clean. Make sure to rotate the pans halfway through baking. Set on a rack to cool to room temperature before frosting.

For layer cakes: baking 25 – 30 minutes, rotate the pans around halfway, a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes should come out clean.

Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8oz. bar of cream cheese, softened
1 4oz. stick of unsalted butter, softened
2 C confectioner’s sugar
4 – 6 Tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish Cream

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, add the cream cheese, butter, and confectioner’s sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the Bailey’s, more or less depending on how boozey you want the frosting, and beat until completely incorporated into the frosting.

Lastly, on Sunday, I tried making corned beef for the first time. I have a love/hate relationship with it. It is sometimes slimy and too fatty, and I don't like it, but if cooked just right, I love it. I pinned this recipe:

Source



from Food Network and gave it a whirl. I didn't take any pics, but it came out pretty good. Joe loved it and I loved the non-fatty parts. The potatoes and veggies were super flavorful too. I will definitely use the same recipe next year.

So there's my recap on all things St. Patrick's Day in our house. Hopefully I get a couple more minutes this week to type up some more posts. I have a project from JJ's room that I can't wait to share!