Recipe: Sweetheart Fruit Salsa

Happy Valentine's Day! Valentine's Day has put me in such a good mood that I decided to post something. I know a lot of people hate this holiday for a lot of boring reasons, but I've always liked it. It's a good excuse to be a little flirtier than usual, and even during the years where I didn't have a valentine, I always liked pampering myself.

And I still do.

Poncho isn't big on Valentine's Day, which is fine so long as he's not being an absolute turd about it (which he isn't), so I always get myself a treat for the holiday. This year I made myself fruit salsa, with cuteness as an extra ingredient. Bonus: It's almost healthy! Almost.

Sweetheart Fruit Salsa
Tools

• knife
• cutting board
• bowl
• measuring devices
• heart-shaped bento or fondant cutter

Ingredients

• 2 crunchy red apples
• 12-16 oz strawberries
• 8 oz raspberries
• 4 oz blackberries
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tbs white sugar
• 3 tbs any fruit preserves (I used blackberry)
• cinnamon and sugar pita chips

Instructions

1. Slice the apples and strawberries so that you can press lots of heart shapes. Toss the hearts into the bowl. Chop the leftover apples and strawberries smaller than the hearts (big chunks will distract from the cute shapes) and toss that in the bowl.
2. Roughly chop up the raspberries and blackberries (and any other fruit you want; kiwi and crushes pineapple are popular additions) into kind of a mushy consistency and toss those in the bowl too.
3. Add the preserves and sugars. Mix it all up. Serve cold with the pita chips for dipping.

Housewife Tales, Part 2: Baking

Last week I made an entry about all the foods I've been cooking. They've been delicious, but decidedly uncute. To balance this, I have also taken to baking.

Now this is a hobby. It works out reasonably well because I don't actually like to eat most of this stuff, so I get to pawn them off on other people. In fact, the only thing pictured that I've actually eaten is the shortbread cookies, which I confess I didn't make. I did fall in love with them though and made thumbprint cookies during our next baking-themed get-together.
Dispite the glory that is all of the above, I am not a super creative person, and it takes a lot of browsing for me to get an idea of what I'm going to bake. My inspiration comes from several main places...

Cake Pops by Bakerella
The first time anyone sees a cakepop, they are instantly amazed. Cakepops are brilliant and adorable, and I only know how to make them through the guidance of Bakerella. I've made cakepops several times and have been getting requests for more. The rainbow "cakeball cake" above is just a bunch of cakeballs stacked (much easier than putting them on a stick I think). The instructions for the Hello Kitty cake pops can be found on Bakerella's website right here.

All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray

This book is so cute and filled with so many kinds of cake. It also educated me on the differences between the different kinds of flour, and each recipe comes with an interesting little anecdote. There's a kind of cake here for all tastes, and all skill levels.

A word of caution: You need a mixer for most of these recipes. Or at least you probably need one, unless you're insane enough to beat eggs and whip cream by hand. I'm not.

Fairy Cooking by Rebecca Gilpin and Catherine Atkinson
Yes, this is a cookbook for little kids. I don't care; it's cute and the recipes are great. Not all of them are baked goods, but all of them are cute. For my oldest friend's bridal shower I made four things, all of which I found in this book. They were super adorable.

And, being that it's a kids' cookbook, all of the recipes are easy. Cute, easy, and tasty. Win, win, and win.

Hello Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson
I feel like you should have to pass some kind of psychological evaluation before being allowed to own this book. Attempting these creations is not for the feint of heart. Totally worth it though--every single idea in here is endlessly cute. You will not find baking recipes in here, just dozens of adorable decorating ideas for every occasion.

These are best accomplished with the help of friends. The chocolate owls above took three people three hours to decorate. But look at how cute they are! There's also a second book out, which I must soon get my hands on.

Perfect Cupcakes
This book reminds me very much of All Cakes Considered, except on a smaller cup-sized scale. Same concept though: a wide variety of flavors, mostly with simple but cute decorating ideas. You won't see any decorating tips like those from Hello Cupcake, but sometimes simple is perfect. And you can never go wrong with pink frosting.





I also invested in two dozen silicone cupcake cups, which I love. People keep getting confused and throwing them away though, which leads to a scolding from me. I picked up a dozen round cups, six flower cups, and six butterfly cups (pictured above) all four $4 at Target. Seeing as they're often ten times that price, I was quite thrilled. The best part is that the cup, being that it's not paper, remains a bright color, which compliments the decoration on top. Finding baking stuff in the dollar section of Target is almost my favorite part of any holiday.

Housewife Tales, Part 1: Cooking

In spite of the fact that I have been unemployed for the better part of a year, I have been trying not to be too much of a lop. Okay, I was pretty loppy when Poncho and I were unemployed together. Those were some pretty sweet months, actually. Stress of dipping into savings for bills and job hunting aside, we had a lot of fun.

That was all dashed to hell when Poncho got a job at the beginning of this year. Good for him, good for us, blah blah. Since then I've been trying to make sure I treat homemaking like a job, and have been doing all of the chores and the cooking and all of that fun stuff. I've always wanted a career as a stay-at-home mom anyway, so I really don't have any complaints about it.

One thing I'm super happy about is that I am now able to really cook. I mean like with the stove and oven and everything. As such, I now have what I think is a reasonable cookbook collection, and would like to share five of them. I will spare you my review of the cookbook my grandma's historic waitress reenactment club made as a fundraiser.

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld
I guess the author got a lot of grief for this book, and I hear the one she supposedly ripped off is better. I guess I was just a sucker for the artwork. What can I say? I like cute cookbooks.

I like the recipes just fine. We like to eat like ten-year-olds so it works out. Heck yes chicken nuggets.

The little commentary in it bugs me though. I don't know what it is. It's like a spoiled housewife who thinks she's sooo clever. It rubs me the wrong way while I'm making my turkey chili. Good concept, but I would probably recommend The Sneaky Chef by Missy Chase Levine instead.

Easy by Marie Claire
I think I got this book as a wedding present. It's cute and small. Yes, that matters for some reason. It has lots of pictures of delicious-looking foods and they are, in fact, quite easy to make.

Yes, the cooking part is easy. The shopping part, however, is frequently not so easy. Some of the ingredients I'm just like "Wha...?" I mean, not all the time, but I definitely need to carefully browse the ingredients before I settle on something to be sure I actually know what section of the grocery store I'm supposed to be digging though.

Good stuff though.

The Complete Book of Sushi by Hideo Dekura, Brigid Treloar, and Ryuichi Yoshii
This book is so pretty. I am a huge sushi fan. I have a couple of smaller sushi recipe books lying around somewhere, but this one is precious.

The problem with most sushi books is that you feel like you have to be a fish monger just to get your ingredients. Most grocery stores don't carry sushi grade fish. This book, however, has a lot of recipes that use basic ingredients you can find at a regular grocery store. A lot of it doesn't even have fish. And the presentation is extra pretty.

There's also a lot of good tips for how to roll, cut, and lay out your sushi. There's a whole section on how to prepare your rice. It has recipes great for avid sushi lovers as well as people who say "Eww, raw fish!" as soon as they hear the word.

A Treasury of Cooking Healthy
I'm just gonna say it: this stuff is bland. Some of it's good, but for such a big book it should have more decent recipes in it. I don't know why it says "Quick & Easy" on it either.

It's not entirely awful or anything, but there's got to be better healthy cookbooks out there. For the sake of my sanity (AKA pant size) there has to be. I made a spinach linguine casserole from here once and it sounded so good and I was so excited and then Poncho and I tasted it and it tasted like wet carpet. And I was sad.

It holds up my other cookbooks though.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond
This woman is the devil. She wants me to spend all of my time in the kitchen and be fat. I know she does. I mean, that must be her goal to have written this book.

I have yet to cook any recipe written by The Pioneer Woman that wasn't amazing. I mean it. She also has a photo of each step so everything is super easy to follow.

And her anecdotes amuse me. Now if I could just find a way to add cream cheese to my mashed potatoes without adding a million calories...

Not that I always need a book to create something yummy though. It's the little things that are important. Like mushing your hard boiled eggs into squares.

Twice as tasty!

It's Nice to Have Someone to Cook for Again

Now that Poncho is home again, it's time to get my ass back in the kitchen. Or something.

I don't go out of my way to try new recipes very often, but I watched Julie & Julia the other day and it inspired me. I'm a sucker for Amy Adams, what can I say.

Today's dishes:

• Coq au vin - Relatively easy, reasonably time consuming, omg delicious
• Blueberry risotto - Easy-ish, demanding of attention, not as flavorful as I had hoped
• Honey roasted red potatoes - Super easy, super quick, magical

I love doing most of my shopping in the produce aisle. Except for that giant chicken. I'd never worked with a whole chicken before; those things need to come with disassembly instructions. There were parts I didn't recognize. Do they sell male chickens for food?


Anyway, I massacred that beast and tossed the liver and heart in 'cause I'm like that. No knife required; the meat fell off the bone. Husband gives it two thumbs up as well.

I was served blueberry risotto as a side dish for a rack of lamb some years ago and have been craving it ever since. I like fruity dishes. This, while delicious, wasn't quite as delicious or sweet as I had hoped. Still loved it though! In fact, I'm having a bowl as a midnight snack right now.


These were awesome. I substituted the powdered mustered for a squirt of regular yellow mustered in the potato recipe. Tasted good to me! Next time I think I will cut the potatoes into smaller chunks and make more sauce in order to increase the flavor 'cause I loved the sauce. I am a total sauce person.

The coq au vin recipe and the potato recipe have been added to my recipe box. Better luck next time, risotto. See you in the morning, leftover potatoes.